9 AM ET: Direct negotiations, NYC can’t ship migrants, plastic plan & more – CNN 5 Things – Podcast on CNN Audio

From CNN, I’m Faiz Jamil with the 5 Things You Need to Know for Wednesday, May 17th.

As time is running out to reach a deal on the debt ceiling, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to meet with bank CEOs tomorrow in D.C.. That’s what sources tell CNN. Among the likely participants are the head of Citigroup and Bank of America, as well as JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, who’s been outspoken on the debt ceiling. Dimon said last week a default would be, quote, potentially catastrophic and risk setting off panic in the financial markets. Meanwhile, talks are now getting more direct between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s team and the White House after President Joe Biden appointed two aides to lead the discussions. But they’re still far from a deal. As CNN’s Arlette Saenz tells us/

They still need to figure out what exactly the line for a debt ceiling raise would be, how long they would agree to when it comes to spending caps. And one of the key sticking points is that issue regarding work requirements for some social safety net programs, McCarthy says, including those will be a red line for him. But the White House pushed back in a new statement last night saying that President Biden will be fighting against any type of restrictions that would eliminate health care or push people into poverty.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams can’t send any more asylum seekers to nearby Orange County. That’s after the state Supreme Court granted a temporary restraining order yesterday. The pushback comes as New York City scrambles to house the people arriving, some bussed in by Republican governors and local officials from southern states. Adams’ office says they’re disappointed in the ruling and that the city was out of space with officials around the state needing to do their part. Meanwhile, the mayor is facing backlash from some parents who oppose migrants being housed in school gyms in the city.

I think they tried to sort of just slip this through without giving people a chance to really respond.

I would like other places to be considered. Our school is tiny. We can barely fit in it as it is.

A source tells CNN about 300 migrants have been placed in current and former school gyms not connected to the main school buildings. Adams says New York City has opened more than 140 emergency shelters and eight large scale humanitarian relief centers to manage the crisis.

A hippo attack on a ferry carrying 37 passengers in Malawi left a one year old baby dead and 23 other people missing. Police in the southeastern African country say bystanders managed to rescue 13 people. A search began for the others. But given the waters are infested with crocodiles and more hippos, there’s not much hope they’ll be found alive.

Excess deaths among black people in the U.S. jumped in 2020, reversing decades of slow progress in reducing the mortality gap between black and white people. That’s according to a new study that shows COVID 19 was a contributing factor with, quote, rates of excess mortality for black people and years of life lost not seen since 1999. The study also shows disparities in deaths from heart disease were the largest driver of differences in excess deaths between black and white people. The doctor who led the study says there’s no biological reason why black people should have a higher mortality rate than white people, blaming the persistence of, quote, “structural racism in society.”

Coming up, a plan to cut most plastic waste in the world in less than 20 years.

Countries could slash plastic pollution by 80% in less than two decades. That’s what a new U.N. report says, offering a road map to governments and businesses to dramatically cut plastic pollution by reusing, recycling and using other materials. The report also recommends discontinuing the fossil fuel subsidies that help make new plastic products cheaper. The world created 139 million metric tons of single use plastic waste in 2021. The report estimates that cutting plastics by 80% would save half a billion tons of carbon pollution a year. Warning that without action, global plastic production was set to triple by 2060.

That’s all for now. Our next episode drops at noon Eastern.