watch. for more news, download the cbs app on your cell phone. cbs news, new york. it's wednesday, september 15th, 2021. this is the "cbs morning news." breaking overnight, california governor gavin newsom is projected to survive a recall effort. but the high-profile democrat is not in the clear yet. new launch for the second time this week. north korea reportedly fires off more missiles putting neighboring countries on alert. secret meetings and calls. a bombshell book details the chaotic moments and concerns about sparking a war in the final days of the trump final days of the trump administration. captioning funded by cbs good morning. good to be with you. i'm anne-marie green.

we begin with breaking developments out of california where it appears governor gavin newsom will keep his job for now. cbs news projects the effort to recall him has failed, but the democrat is still facing challenges down the road. anthony pura is in los angeles. good morning.thve have been considered an upset loss. can you tell us more about that? >> reporter: good morning, anne-marie. yes, it would have been considered an upset loss. roughly 65% of voters have said no to this recall, and that's with about 70% of the votes in this morning. california governor gavin newsom appears to have beaten back an effort to recall him from office. the outcome of the race was projected in his favor less than an hour after the polls closed. >> i'm humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of californians that exercised their fundamental right to vote. >> reporter: early returns

showed roughly two-thirds of voters opposed the recall effort. domcathailed in expected to ballots. >> no is not the only thing that was expressed tonight. i want to focus on what we said yes to as a state. we said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic. >> reporter: had the recall succeeded, newsom would probably have been replaced by republican talk radio host larry elder who has a commanding lead among the field of potential replacement candidates. >> when i become governor, if there are still state mandates for face masks and for vaccines, they're going to be repealed. >> reporter: one of the few democrats in the race said elder's campaign promises backfired. >> gavin newsom branded anyone other than him as willing to undo vaccine mandates, undo mask mandates, and folks had the fear of god put in them that gosh, covid's going to kill us all. that was a gift to gavin newsom.

>> reporter: after delivering his victory speech, governor newsom tweeted, quote, now let's get back to work. newsom is up for re-election next year, so he could be facing some oes anne-marie? >> anthony pura in los angeles. thank you so much. so breaking overnight, the justice department has asked a federal judge to block the new abortion law in texas. the request for temporary restraining order was filed last night. it argued texas adopted sb8 to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights. the controversial law bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. earlier the supreme court allowed the measure to stay in place in a separate legal challenge. last week the justice department filed a lawsuit against a federal judge to declare that law invalid. also breaking overnight, north korea fired two ballistic missiles. u.s. military officials say the launches do not pose an

immediate threat to the u.s. or its allies. south korea's military said the missiles were launched today from central north korea and flew off its east coast. shortly after, south korea announced it carried out its first test of a submarine launched ballistic missile. nicholas weakened to a tropical depression overnight but continues to drench parts of texas and louisiana. the storm made landfall on the texas coast early yesterday morning as a category-one hurricane. it knocked out power to a half million customers and dumped more than a foot of rain in some areas. nicholas caused an entire home to crumble into the gulf. other homes were also damaged. meantime, people in louisiana are stocking up on sandbags as they struggle to recover from hurricane ida. nicholas could dump up to 20 inches of rain in southern parts of the state. >> one of the most distressing parts of this is the heaviest

rain now is expected to fall in areas that were most devastated by hurricane ida. forecasters say parts of mississippi, alabama, and the florida panhandle could also see heavy rainfall from the storm. former president trump is responding to a bombshell book about the final days of his administration. it allegedly includes secret meetings and phone calls. even a top u.s. military leader was reportedly concerned mr. trump might start a war. david martin has details. >> reporter: last fall the nation's top military officer, joint chiefs chairman general mark milley, feared then-president trump might create a crisis that would allow him to declare a national emergency and stay in power despite losing the election. one item that sparked milley's concern was a letter from trump sent two days after he fired defense secretary mark esper, directing milley to pull all u.s. troops out of afghanistan in two months. even before then, according to a

new book by "washington post" reporters bob woodward and robert costa published by simon & schuster, a division of viacomcbs, milley was so worried trump might spark a war with china he placed a secret call to his chinese counterpart assuring him the u.s. had no intention of striking. "if we're going to attack, i'm going to call you ahead of time," the authors quote milley as saying. he made a second call to china after the storming of the capitol saying, "we are 100% steady, everything's fine." after the capitol riot, house speaker nancy pelosi called milley asking what safeguards were in place to prevent trump from starting a nuclear war. a transcript of the phone call obtained by woodward and costa quotes her as saying, "he's crazy." according to the transcript, milley replied, "i agree with you on everything." the book titled "peril" says milley told nuclear control officers they had to check with him first no matter what orders

they received from the president. the book also quotes trump as telling his always-loyal vice president mike pence that if he didn't refuse to certify the election results, quote, i don't want to be your friend anymore. trump later told pence, quote, you've betrayed us, i made you, you are nothing. david martin, cbs news, the pentagon. in a statement last night, former president trump called it treasonous if general milley called chinese officials behind his back and said he never thought of attacking china. so spacex is set to make history today when it launches an all-civilian crew into orbit with no professional astronauts on board. the company's first private flight will be led by jacob isaac man, a 38-year-old entrepreneur. the mission is called "inspiration 4," and will last for three days. the four passengers will circle around the earth every 90 minutes at low orbit.

>> we've said it right from the start, right from day one of "inspiration 4," that we aim to inspire people as to what's possible in space, sure, but what can be accomplished here on earth. >> i think there's a lot of points to our mission and a big one is to inspire people to push boundaries. and we're pushing boundaries in a lot of different ways. >> isaacman says he's taking two sweepstakes winners along with a health care worker who survived childhood cancer. so coming up, paying tribute to norm macdonald. what some of his friends are saying about the "snl" comedian. and surprise guest. we'll show you the big names who took the stage last night to celebrate the return of broadway in new york city. this is the "cbs morning news."

psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen, painful. tremfya® is approved to help reduce joint symptoms in adults with active psoriatic arthritis. some patients even felt less fatigued. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. janssen can help you explore cost support options.

(vo) at dog chow we believe helping dogs live their best life... should be simple. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. that's why dog chow is made with real chicken and no fillers. purina dog chow. keep life simple. look at these mighty quaker oats. small in size, epic in taste. heart-healthy a good source of fiber. and provides lasting energy. there's no denying delicious quaker oats are the grain of all time. quaker oats. a super-trusted superfood. we don't use just any wipe, we use dawn disinfecting wipes. they're tough enough to cut through greasy messes, yet gentle enough to clean the surfaces that matter most. all while killing 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. get the grease fighting power of dawn in a disinfecting wipe. the murder trial of real estate heir robert durst is now in the hands of a los angeles jury. prosecutors say durst shot and killed his friend, susan berman, in 2000.

they say berman had planned to talk to police about a phony alibi she gave durst when his wife vanished in new york in 1982. durst faces a life sentence if he's convicted. there were surprise guests for the reopening of some of the biggest shows on broadway, and friends pay tribute to comedian norm macdonald. those are some of the headlines on the "morning newsstand." the "los angeles times" reports on the death of former "saturday night live" star norm macdonald. macdonald's manager said he died after battling cancer privately for nine years. he was a standup comic and writer for "roseanne" when he joined the cast of "snl" in 1993. he rose to stardom as the anchor of "weekend update." friends and loved ones reacted on social media to his death. adam sandler said, "every one of us loved norm. some of the hardest laughs of my life with this man. the most fearless guy we knew." jim carrey said, "he was one of our most precious gems, an

honest comedy genius." and bob dole, impersonated by macdonald on "snl" said, "i loved laughing with him on "snl." bob dole will miss norm macdonald." he was 61 years old. "the new york times" says some of broadway's biggest shows reopened after being shut down for 18 months due to the pandemic. actress kristen chenoweth surprised the crowd at last night's reopening of "wicked." she made a speech and received a standing ovation on the same stage where she became a star years ago. the creator of "hamilton," lin-manuel miranda, also welcomed back an excited crowd. before the show started he said he never wants to take live theater for granted. >> we go to theater for catharsis, like literally that's what we go for, to be in communion with -- communion and each other, heard stories in the dark and experience catharsis. for a while it candid-- it wasne

to do that. it's safe to come back now with the protocols we have in place. >> at the "lion king," the opening song, "the circle of life," was nearly drowned out as the crowd cheered and applauded. everyone going to a broadway show must wear a mask and prove they've been vaccinated. ahead, a new way to get your daily taco fix. fast food chain taco bell has launched a new low-cost subscription service. in this ad pay attention to the actor's gums. gums? we don't think about them. but like skin, over time gums can get damaged. colgate gum renewal. reverses early gum damage for a beautiful, revitalized smile. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ irresistibly smooth chocolate. to put the world on pause.

lindor. made to melt you. by the lindt master chocolatier. dad, we got this. we got this. we got this. we got this. we got this. yay! we got this. we got this! life is for living. we got this! let's partner for all of it. edward jones pain hits fast. so get relief fast.

only tylenol rapid release gels have laser-drilled holes. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. tylenol rapid release gels. (vo) look closely at a wolf. they release medicine fast you've seen him before. he's your dog. wolves and dogs share many traits. like a desire for meat. that's why there's blue wilderness, made with... the protein-rich meat your dog loves. feed your dog's inner wolf with blue wilderness. here's a look at the forecast in some cities around the country. ♪ on the cbs "money watch," what officials knew about the toxic effects of instagram, and how you can enjoy taco bell for one low monthly cost. diane king hall's at the new york stock exchange with those stories and more. good morning, diane. >> reporter: good morning, anne-marie.

well, stock futures are pointing to a higher open after a drop during yesterday's session. the decline came even as the labor department's latest report showed inflation may be starting to cool. the dow ultimately skidded 292 points. the nasdaq dropped 67, and the s&p 500 lost 25. a new report finds top facebook officials knew its social media platform instagram can cause mental health and body image issues for teenagers, especially girls. the latest information according to the "wall street journal." in a study obtained in the u.s. and the uk, facebook found more than 40% of instagram users who reported feeling unattractive, said the feeling began on the app. research also found about 19% of teenagers in both countries who experienced suicidal thoughts traced it back to instagram. apple has pulled back the curtain on some of its latest products including its new iphone lineup. the iphone 13 has massive

storage capabilities, improved cameras, and a smaller front-facing sensor notch. it will be available for preorder this friday and starts around $700. apple gave its ipad mini a makeover. it resembles the ipad air and ipad pro, and the apple watch series 7 also debuted. it got the first major design since is launched in 2015. it has square edges, a flat screen, and stronger battery life. and taco bell is rolling out a subscription service. it's called the taco lover's pass. customers can get one free taco for 30 days after buying the pass on the app. seven different options to choose from. right now the service is only being tested in the tucson area of arizona. the pass costs between $5 to $10 per month. i guess every day is taco tuesday then. >> i guess so. that sounds like a great deal for taco bell because you know you can't go to taco bell and just walk away with one taco. you know you're going to buy a

bunch of other stuff, too. >> they know what they're doing. >> good idea. yeah. diane king hall at the new york stock exchange, thank you so much. >> thank you. you got it. up next, hollywood memorabilia is up for sale. an iconic action star is selling hundreds of personal items from his big-screen career. reen care. find your rhythm. your happy place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. what makes febreze air effects different? while cheaper aerosols rely on artificial propellants... febreze uses a 100% natural propellant. check it out! pressure created by what's in your air makes the bottle spray. which means freshness everyone will love. why new woolite? because it was specially formulated to protect synthetics and blends from damage in the wash. like fading, stretching, and pilling. new woolite has evercare, a first of its kind formula

that keeps today's fabrics looking like new. new woolite with evercare is now a good time for a flare-up? enough, crohn's! for adults with moderate to severe crohn's or ulcerative colitis... stelara® can provide relief and is the only approved medication to reduce inflammation on and below the surface of the intestine in uc. you, getting on that flight? back off, uc! stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection... flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. pres, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. lasting remission can start with stelara®. if you've been financially impacted by covid-19, janssen may be able to help.

here's a look at the forecast in some cities around the country. ♪

four u.s. gymnastics stars will testify on capitol hill today about the fbi's botched sexual abuse investigation of former usa gymnastics doctor larry nassar. simone biles, aly raisman among mckayla maroney and maggie nichols will appear before the senate judiciary committee. all four said they were abused by nassar. earlier this year a scathing report from the justice department's inspector general said the fbi made critical errors and failed to respond to allegations by -- about nassar properly. the mexican government is holding a lottery to give away a notorious house once belonged to el chapo. he fled the house when mexican marines surrounded it. he escaped in a hole under a tab

that was connected to a network of tunnels. the hole has been covered, and surveillance cameras that surrounded the house have been removed. if you are a sylvester stallone fan, listen up. nearly 500 items from the actor's storied career are being auctioned off. they include costumes, props, and other items from some of stallone's biggest films. among them, "rocky," "rocky" boxing boots and gloves, a rocky hat and rambo headbands. >> he's a sports guy. you know, that's what he represents, sports and hard times. people can regard to that. that's why he's so collectible. >> the auction takes place in december. it's expected to raise more than $1 million. the auction official says that stallone is selling his house and downsizing. coming up on "cbs mornings," award winning singer/songwriter cynthia erivo stops by with her debut album and children's book. i'm anne-marie green.

this is the "cbs morning news." this is the "cbs morning news." within this hallowed bowl is the grain of all time. heart-healthy no artificial flavors. and ready in minutes. it's epic apples and cinnamon by the spoonful. quaker oats. a super trusted superfood. [swords clashing] - had enough? - no... arthritis. here. new aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain with aspercreme. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! [sighs wearily] here, i'll take that! woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and now with two new flavors! hi. so you're the scientist here. does my aveeno® daily moisturizer

really make my dry skin healthier in one day? it's true jen. this prebiotic oat formula moisturizes to help prevent dry skin. impressive! aveeno® healthy. it's our nature.™ try the body wash, too.

our top stories this morning -- it appears california governor gavin newsom will keep his job. cbs news projects the effort to recall him has failed. early returns showed roughly two-thirds of voters oppose the recall effort. newsom thanked millions of california voters for rejecting division and negativity in politics. and the justice department has asked a federal judge to block the new abortion law in texas. the request for temporary restraining order was filed last night. it argued texas adopted the controversial law to prevent women from exercising their

constitutional rights. the texas law bans abortions and r the second dayn a roretaryattony the u.s. troop withdrawal from afghanistan. sker henry reptsro pitol hi >> reporter: senators arrived on capitol hill prepared to grill blinken about the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. >> i would like to hear the truth as opposed to the kind of excuses we've been getting from this administration. it's been disgraceful. >> reporter: most senators, though not all, agreed with the decision to withdraw. they disagreed with how it was done. >> doing the right thing in the wrong way can end up being the wrong thing. >> reporter: many of the questions focused on the 100 or so americans and thousands of afghan allies who haven't made it out. >> i'd like to focus more on the -- the moral stain of leaving people behind. >> abandoning essential honor and moral imperative by failing

to do more to evacuate american citizens and afghan allies. >> secretary blinken said consular officers are in constant contact with the americans still in afghanistan. he said the government did what it could to get everyone out. >> our consular team worked 24/7 to reach out to americans who could still be in country, maybe 55,000 phone calls, sending 33,000 emails by august 31st. and they're still at it. >> reporter: lawmakers on both sides disagreed with secretary blinken's comment that the afghan government fell much quicker than anticipated. >> even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that the government forces in kabul would collapse while u.s. forces remained. >> i don't think that's true. >> this wasn't a failure of intelligence, this was a failure of policy and planning. >> reporter: some questioned whether america is in more danger of a terrorist attack after leaving afghanistan. skyler henry, cbs news, capitol hill. coming up on "cbs mornings," an update on the ceo of a

seattle company who gave all of his worker a minimum salary of $70,000 a year. how his business is still thriving. plus, gayle king hangs out with fashion designer talfar clemons, behind the popular handbag nicknamed the bushwick birkin. and award winning singer/songwriter cynthia erivo stops by with her album and new children's book. that's the "cbs morning news" for this wednesday. thanks for watching. i'm anne-marie green. have a great day. ♪