CNN
—

The NFL season has just begun and the Super Bowl is already in the spotlight – but not the game itself. Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar announced on Sunday that he will headline the Super Bowl LIX halftime show.

Here’s what else you need to know to Get up to date and start your day.

As Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump prepare for their first — and possibly only — presidential debate, Trump over the weekend threatened prosecution and “long-term prison sentences” for election officials and political operatives he says could cheat in the 2024 election if he wins the presidency again in November. Trump’s threats of prosecution — part of his repeated, baseless attempts to sow doubt about the integrity of the 2024 election — come as early voting soon begins in a number of states. Tuesday’s debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia will be the first in-person meeting between Harris and Trump, who are going head-to-head.

In California and Nevada, fierce wildfires have prompted the evacuation of thousands of homes as forecasters warn of record heat in the West over the next few days. In California, the Line Fire has burned more than 20,000 acres of land since it broke out in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains on Thursday. The fire has more than quadrupled in size since Saturday morning, and more than 1,800 firefighters are battling the blaze, which was zero percent contained as of Sunday evening, according to Cal Fire. And in Nevada, the Davis Fire — a dangerous, wind-driven blaze south of Reno — has burned about 6,500 acres of land and is still zero percent contained as of late Sunday.

Schools in parts of central Kentucky were canceled today and residents were urged to remain on high alert as the search for a man suspected of opening fire on I-75 enters its third day. Joseph Couch, 32, evaded capture since Saturday afternoon, when authorities said he fired an AR-15 from a ledge on the side of the interstate about nine miles north of London, Kentucky, hitting 12 cars and wounding five people. Although his motive is still unknown, the attack appeared to be a “random act” of violence, Laurel County Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said, according to the Associated Press.

Pope Francis arrived in the small Southeast Asian nation of East Timor today, the penultimate stop on the 87-year-old pontiff’s marathon tour of Asia and the South Pacific. East Timor is one of the world’s youngest countries and has close ties to the Catholic Church, which played a key role in the struggle for independence from Indonesia. The country of just 1.3 million people is the second most Catholic in the world, with 97% of the population identifying as Catholic – the highest proportion outside the Vatican. But the issue of clerical sexual abuse also looms over this leg of the papal visit, as revelations have emerged in recent years about abuses of senior East Timor clergy. Two years ago, the Vatican admitted it had secretly disciplined East Timorese bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Carlos Ximenes Belo after he was accused of sexually abusing boys decades earlier.

Apple will unveil its first iPhone lineup equipped with generative artificial intelligence — which allows users to create text and images — at its annual hardware event later today. The reveal was teased with the cryptic tagline “It’s Glow Time,” and the company has remained tight-lipped about what it means. Apple has already hinted at a few things the new AI features can do, like enabling more natural conversations with Siri, helping with email composing, making it easier to find specific moments in your photo albums, and incorporating users’ personal information into their responses. Apple could also announce updates to the Apple Watch and AirPods during the event at 1 p.m. ET.

Sinner is the winner
World No. 1 tennis player Jannik Sinner won the US Open on Sunday by defeating American Taylor Fritz in straight sets. Fritz became the first American to reach a Grand Slam singles final since 2009.

Only billionaire in the building
Formerly a Disney Channel star, now starring in the hit Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, Selena Gomez can now add self-made billionaire status to her long list of accomplishments.

Mystery of missing shark solved
When scientists tagged a pregnant porbeagle shark in October 2020 to learn more about the animal’s habitat, they didn’t expect their tracker to provide evidence of how large sharks hunt each other.

Next stop: space
With so much interest in space tourism, why not develop an aircraft that can take people to the outer limits of the Earth’s atmosphere? Taking a rocket vertically is a difficult task – but one company believes it has the solution.

Employee tracking
A large accounting firm has informed its employees that their locations will soon be mapped to limit the home office culture and enforce the “back to the office” rule.

240 million US dollars
That’s how much Dallas Cowboys star quarterback Dak Prescott will earn in a record-breaking four-year contract extension, his agent told CNN. This makes 31-year-old Prescott the highest-paid NFL player and the first to earn $60 million a year. The Cowboys opened their season on Sunday with a win against the Cleveland Browns.

“I would never have opened up my relationship and my marriage. I feel like this was a disaster waiting to happen.”

Taylor Frankie PaulStar of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which premiered last week on Hulu. The series follows current and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who become embroiled in dramas involving drinking, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, male strip shows and partner swapping.

Check your local weather forecast here>>>

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST…

A 12-year-old’s first cell phone receives mysterious text messages intended for an NFL player

12-year-old receives text messages to NFL players
An Arizona boy was randomly assigned the same phone number that San Francisco 49ers’ Ricky Pearsall once had, and now he’s receiving messages he wants to pass on to the NFL rookie who was recently injured in a shooting. Watch the video here.