candidate took down the incumbent. what does it mean for palin's political future? we're right here in the fox newsroom, breaking news coming in from across the country, our domestic desk, watching local news, our world desk watching events around the globe and our media deck, bringing you event sos we can watch it immediately. jen earl is prompting evacuation orders, folks up and down the east coast making preparations as the category three storm moves north, hurricane-force gust the and torrential rain from the carolinas to maine. he is writtenning through with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour. janice dean live in the fox news extreme weather center. hey j.d. >> reporter: brand new information as of 11:00, i haven't even seen the new track but you will see it with me in moments. but i just want to go over it. we now have hurricane warnings posted for the mid-atlantic region, here's what it said, large hurricane earl threatening portions of the mid atlantic now, hurricane warning issued, it was a watch, for the east coast of the u.s., from north carolina to the north carolina-virginia border, also, the watch, hurricane watch, now extending from the north carolina-versus border northward to cape henlepin, hope i said that right, i apologize if i haven't, 125 miles per hour sustained winds, a category three storm, moving northwest at 17 miles per hour. we're going to start to feel hurricane-force winds, possibly, along the mid atlantic coast within the next 36 hours. the other piece of information we have here, see this right here? yep, tropical depression number nine, and it will probably become gaton. still watching fiona as well, right on the heels of this storm, earl, hurricane earl. you can see we're starting to see that well defined eye. still a possibility this could become a category four within the next several hours, it still has a lot of warm -- a lot of warm water to travel on. you know what, this is not the latest path, because the winds have not been upgraded yet but we will get that to you. category three storm, as we head through thursday and friday, coming very close to the outer banks. very close to long island. very close to cape cod and the islands and perhaps maybe a direct landfall over atlantic canada, you guys, but i keep stressing a wonel to the left could mean the difference between a bad storm and a very dangerous storm. that could still make landfall somewhere along the east coast. water, still very warm, up until you get towards the east coast, and the water temperatures drop off and that's going to help weaken the storm, along with the trough that should kick the storm out to sea. but the timing of this trough is going to be essential, and there is some of the you have advisories that are out, which i just mentioned to you. so now, the latest right now from the national hurricane center, hurricane warnings in effect for parts of the mid atlantic region and, of course, watches extending all the way up now towards delaware. so this storm is getting stronger by the minute, and, of course, we are watching the track very carefully. i'll have all that updated information. i apologize, it really just came in before i came to air. so everything is fluid, jenna! jen no need to apologize. we know you're working hard there. let's hope for a wonel to the right. >> absolutely. jenna: as opposed to the left. >> reporter: glad you said that, we're talking about the worst case scenario, want to make sure people are prepared but the best case scenario is if it wonels to the right and doesn't warm anyone. maybe just a rough surface and maybe a few raindrops. jenna: for up to the minute weather updates, go to foxnews.com, click on the full coverage, earl, on the home page and we'll be covering this story for you for the rest of the hour and also for the next couple of days. jon: and janice's husband is hoping for big surf. he's a big surfer. at this hour the u.s. is in a new phase of the war in iraq. a change of command ceremony this morning, marking the end of operation iraqi freedom and the start of operation new dawn. the mission now focuses on advising and training iraqi forces as they assume responsibility for the nation's security. dominic dinatali is streaming live from kirkuk. dominic. >> reporter: yes indeed, now general lloyd austin iii takes over from general ray id -- odierno in terms of commanding the troops in iraq. major sam hall has served under general austin. thank you very much for joining us. give us a sense of the flavor, the style of general austin's style. >> i was one of his soldiers, he was very dope mental, exudes a lot of confidence and character for our soldiers, and so his style is very -- it's very charismatic. very charismatic. he can inspire and will inspire the soldiers to continue their assist. >> he follows ray odierno and there's a lot of affection for ray odierno but you say he has developed -- this is appropriate considering the mission going forward. >> as a brigade commander he did an awesome job in developing lieutenants and captains. i think he knows how to teach, coach and mentor and as we advise and assist, it's going to fit hand in hand. >> reporter: he's been commander here before. do you think it will be a very different mission from 2008, because we still were in combat operations then. >> this is true, but what i've seen from general austin, he's a man that understands the mission ahead of him and i'm fully confident that he's able to do what we need to do here. >> reporter: major hall, thank you very much. thank you very much for your service to your country, we do predict that. >> thank you. >> reporter: indeed, jon, general austin will be commanding a third of troops he did in 2008. it is by no means a soft mission, advising and assisting the iraqi troops going forward. the americans have to train iraqi troops, still, in combat, although the official american combat operation is over, u.s. soldiers will still be in the line of fire as they go out and show iraqis how to do the job and how to secure the country and maintain its own sovereign country and nation going forward. back to you in new york. jon: we all hope and pray that mission goes well. dominic, thank you. jenna: another story on iraq now, iraq is spending billions of dollars to transform its military into a state of the art fighting force, and guess who they're spending that money with? they're turning to us, the united states, to make that happen. there are new reports the iraqi government is planning to send up -- spend $13 billion on american-made weapons and equipment. the top u.s. officer in charge of advising iraqi forces says this will help build a lasting u.s.-iraqi partnership. jon: former british prime minister tony blair said he cried for iraq war victims, blair makes those comments in his memoir title p-pd a journey" hitting store shelves today. he aligned himself with george w. bush and while he says he cried for soldier and civilians who died he also says he still believes it was right to remove saddam hussein from power. jenna: right now, president obama is meeting inside the oval office with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, later this after that, he'll meet with palestinian leader mahmoud abbas in a new effort to jump start stalled peace talks. we're live to molly henneberg live at the white house. what is the president doing to prod these two into talks? >> reporter: top israeli and palestinian leaders haven't met face to face since december 2008 and last night in his speech on iraq from the oval office president obama mentioned briefly his efforts to try to get both sides back together again. here's more: >> today, both adversaries are at peace and emerging democracies are potential partners. it stretches from asia to the america, a new push for peace in the middle east will begin here, tomorrow. >> reporter: the president who has said he wants a peace deal within a year is meeting with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and will meet later today with mahmoud abbas. all of them will have a dinner at the white house later tonight, and direct talks are expected to begin tomorrow at the state department. jenna: as both sides approach the meetings, molly, what are they saying? >> reporter: similar to what we've heard previously. israel is saying if there's going to be a two-state solution, meaning israel and a palestinian state, side by side, there has to be accommodations provisions for israeli security. here's more: >> a deal is possible, and that's what we're looking for, an historic peace agreement between israelis and palestinians and agreement that protects israel's most vital national and security interests. >> reporter: palestinian president abbas told reporters traveling with him, quote, if there is good will, then it is more than enough. if they, the israelis, refuse to extend the halt of settlement activity, talking about the west bank, then it will be difficult for us to continue these negotiations, and these negotiations are taking place in the shadow of a hamas attack in the west bank on an israeli vehicle earlier this week that killed four israelis. jenna, back to you. jenna: abbas, netanyahu, you have obama, you have a lot of -- a lot of names! >> reporter: jenna is the most important. that's the one i want to get right. jenna: thank you molly, molly henneberg for us at the white house today. jon: a south korean newspaper report details lengths north korea has gone to to dodge sanction, saying the north changed names of some of its black listed trading companies and forged invoices on weapons shipments, for example, calling torpedoes fish processing equipment or antitank rockets oil boring machinery. south korean intelligence conforms reports but declines to give extra details. jenna: more evidence of the power of sarah palin at the polls, she backed joe miller of alaska and he took the gop nomination away from a well-known incumbent senator. what does this major upset mean for palin's political future and the mid terms? a fair and balanced debate ahead. the national hurricane center issuing a hurricane warning for the coast of north carolina, and a hurricane watch for delaware. we're tracking this powerful storm's new path, all ahead on "happening now". jon: "happening now" around the word, in the top box, pakistan's prime minister says the catastrophic floods will ravage his country's economy and lead to massive job losses. in the middle box the indonesia volcano sending plumes of white smoke into the air, scientists fear another eruption is possible. thousands of villagers, forced out of their homes, are now returning even though officials warn they could be putting their lives at risk. bottom box, the swedish prosecutor reopens the rape investigation against w*bg i leaks founder jewel an a -- justan assange, it was dropped last week but one alleged victim appealed the decision and won. jon: a foxnews.com exclusive for you, detailing shocking spending at the department of veterans affairs, the v.a. is shelling out tens of millions of taxpayer dollars each year but it's not to go and help our wounded warriors, it's to maintain hundreds of empty and often run-down buildings. joining us with this exclusive story, giana winters from foxnews.com. why is this happening? >> reporter: there's a whole bunch of reasons but basically it comes down to money and the v.a. would rather spend $175 million on paying for these buildings than for spending billions of dollars, basically, to either tear them down or renovate. it's really expensive to just knock something down, even though he don't want to use it. skwr*ep jen that's the reason, to actually tkpwhoe and flatten a house or to flatten an office building, that would be may more -- way more expensive than keeping it up. >> right. jenna: even if no one is using it. >> it's not even that that simple. the health what's aerdz are huge, there's asbestos and lead paint in many of buildings and they're located in basically a hospital center so you can't just put asbestos into the air when there's patients walking around, so that's what ups the cost so much. jenna: what are they going to do with these buildings? >> they're going to wait and see and look for money and they've stress that's they're certainly trying to reduce the number of vacant buildings, but at a certain point, you decide are you going to spend money on this or this, and there you go. jenna: we have 40,000 troops coming back from iraq and afghanistan that are wounded is there anything in your research that suggests that the money going to these buildings, to just keeping them up, is taking away from those soldiers? >> reporter: well, i think that -- i for one would certainly like an extra $175 million. there are a lot of veterans' advocates groups, groups for homelessness or other aspects that say yeah, that money is taking away any money not being spent directly on services, or providing housing, or something like that is taking away. jenna: it's an interesting story, giana, thank you very much for telling us about t we want to tell our viewers to reach out directly to veterans affairs to see if they would come on and talk about this story and they declined but they issued this statement, v.a. places its highest priority on the delivery of quality health care services and benefits to veterans and their families. the department is also called to ensure the safety and security for our veterans employees and those who visit our facilities. that's why the v.a. continues to work on meeting the president's directive to reduce inventory of unneeded buildings or convert their use to meet our key mission objection, like ending veterans' homelessness. over the past three years v.a. has disposed of 256 vacant or underused buildings, consisting of 2.6 million square feet and 200 acres of land and plans to dispose of 6.9 ground square feet over the next five years. but apparently, still 314 buildings are vacant. so we're going to leave it there. if you want more on this story, an exclusive one, we should mention, to foxnews.com, great investigative work by giana and her team, fox news., check it out, right there on your screen, a full article is there for you, go to the home page and click the link under latest news. jon. jon: jenna, the national hurricane center, moments ago, upgrading a hurricane watch to a hurricane warning for the entire state of north carolina. our next guest is on the ground where earl could make its first landfall. just hours after watching the u.s. military mark the end of operation iraqi freedom and the start of operation new dawn, secretary gates sits down with our james rosen, the exclusive interview from the defense secretary, next. jenna: "happening now" in business, in the top box, take a look at stocks, surging on wall street after some positive news on manufacturing. you can see the dow is up more than 200 points on this very first day of september trading. in the middle box, oil prices rose above $72 a barrel today, after a steep drop yesterday, keeping a close eye on that, and our gas prices, of course. in the bottom box, hole loan and refinancing applications jumped last week as mortgage interest rates hit yet another new record low. jon. jon: are you sure it's september? jenna: it is. jon: what did that -- when did that happen? >> new hurricane warnings for north carolina as earl bears down on the east coast, the emergency management agency planning people to -- advising people to prepare there. on the phone, bobby auten, it's my understanding visitors have been told to get off the island. >> that's a mandatory evacuation as of 8:00. jon: just for visitors or resident? >> just for visitors at this point. jon: i'm sure it takes a pretty serious situation for you to have to order an evacuation at the close of tourist season. businesses aren't going to be happy, but people have to be safe, huh? >> hello? >> bobby? >> it appears we've lost our connection with bobby outten, county manager in dare county, joining us from manteo. you can see tropical storm earl is downgraded to a three but it's no slouch at a 36789 it is generally expected to skirt up the east coast and possibly make landfall there in the outer banks of north carolina. but again as janice dean has been saying, this thing could go anywhere, a littleel left, right, and millions of people quite literally along the east coast could be affected by it. we'll continue to keep a very close eye on tropical storm earl and give you the latest coordinates and expected track. jenna: definitely a storm we're watching closely. also keeping a close eye on politics as well. a major win some say for sarah palin in the political arena, the virtual unknown she backed in the alaska primary, joe miller, unseating the incumbent hours ago. so what does this mean for her political ambitions? also a new report released just hours ago finds the private sector shed 10,000 jobs last month but there's a silver lining. what it is when it comes to the job market. we have that, just ahead. jenna: bottom of the hours and here's what's happening light -- right now. we have our eye on earl, hurricane warnings issued for north carolina's coast as that category three storm approaches. we also have a hurricane watch in effect for delaware, keeping a close eye on that storm. live at the white house where the president is trying to jump start middle east peace talks, meeting separately with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and palestinian lead mahmoud abbasa. jon: another incumbent bites the dust in a huge political upset in alaska, tea party favorite joe miller meets sit be senator lisa murkowski in the primary. miller was the underdog under sarah palin threw her support behind him. mur cow see become the third senator to lose a primary race following bob bennett and pennsylvania's arlen specter. in the house of representatives, four sitting congressmen and women have lost recent primary battles. on is miller's win a big victory for the tea party and a testament to the power of sarah palin at the polls? let's get into that argument with kevin madden, former press secretary for mitt romney's campaign and bob beckel from george washington university and a fox news contributor. bob, you say that sarah palin has lost more than she's won here. how can you mean that? >> first of all, i'm going to try to get through this as a political analyst myself with a straight face. but the fact that sarah palin's endorsement won a republican nomination in alaska is not a big surprise, one, and in republican primaries where she has endorsed people, they're mostly conservative republicans vote in those primaries and it's not unusual to see somebody who she endorses win. in terms of what the impact is for the general election -- what i said, everybody she's helped who has won has all of the sudden brought our people back into the race, and they shouldn't have won if a moderate democrat had been nominated. jon: kevin, do you agree? >> no. we tend to overanalyze endorsements but i think this is a case clearly where sarah palin's name i.d. and the enthusiasm she brings for a lot of conservatives brought somebody who was essentially mired in obscurity to the forefront to help win a campaign. so i think that there's transactional support that sarah palin has in alaska that clearly made a difference here for mr. miller. but i do think that to bob's point, that general elections, they can't be about endorsements, they can't be about surrogates, they have to be about making the case for your vision, what you're going to do, should you be in office. so general election candidates, you know, they don't need to focus on endorsement, they need to focus on messaging to the voters about what they will do in office. jon: bob, you say she's bringing up the right wing. isn't it