WEBVTT 00:00.060 --> 00:03.790 JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: The short-term debt ceiling deal triggered a rally 00:03.790 --> 00:05.190 on Wall Street. 00:05.190 --> 00:10.190 The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 338 points to close at 34755. The Nasdaq rose 00:13.370 --> 00:18.370 152 points, and the S&P 500 added 36. 00:18.490 --> 00:23.490 Pfizer has officially asked the FDA to authorize its COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use for 00:24.859 --> 00:29.859 children ages 5 to 11. That amounts to roughly 28 million American children. The FDA's advisers 00:32.660 --> 00:37.030 will meet to debate the evidence behind the request later this month. 00:37.030 --> 00:42.030 Meanwhile, President Biden traveled to a construction site outside Chicago today to tout the importance 00:43.500 --> 00:45.110 of vaccination requirements. 00:45.110 --> 00:49.030 JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: My message is: Require your employees to get 00:49.030 --> 00:52.530 vaccinated. With vaccinations, we're going to beat this pandemic finally. 00:52.530 --> 00:57.530 Without them, we face endless months of chaos in our hospitals, damage to our economy, and 00:58.890 --> 01:03.610 anxiety in our schools, and empty restaurants, and much less commerce. 01:03.610 --> 01:08.610 JUDY WOODRUFF: Also today, a new study published in the medical journal "Pediatrics" found 01:09.060 --> 01:14.060 that more than 120,000 American children have so far lost a primary caregiver during the 01:15.869 --> 01:20.820 pandemic. More than half of those children were either Black or Hispanic American. 01:20.820 --> 01:25.820 We will take a closer look at the COVID surge in Alaska later in the program. 01:26.549 --> 01:31.549 There were more signs today that the U.S. job market is improving, even as the pandemic 01:31.649 --> 01:36.649 lingers on. The U.S. Labor Department reported that the number of new jobless claims fell 01:37.110 --> 01:42.110 last week, for the first time in a month to 326,000. That's down 38,000 from the previous 01:45.140 --> 01:49.650 week, and the biggest drop in claims since late June. 01:49.650 --> 01:54.650 Flash flood warnings are in effect for much of the Southeastern U.S., after a slow-moving 01:54.819 --> 01:59.819 storm dumped as much as 13 inches of rain across Alabama. At least four people died 02:01.049 --> 02:06.049 when their vehicles were swept away. Roads near a grocery store in East Brewton were 02:06.920 --> 02:11.920 inundated with water. And overnight, in Hoover, rescue crews helped stranded drivers escape 02:13.739 --> 02:15.260 the floods. 02:15.260 --> 02:20.260 In Southern California, U.S. Coast Guard investigators boarded a massive German cargo ship today 02:21.239 --> 02:26.239 to determine whether its anchor may have ruptured an oil pipeline nearly a week ago. Officials 02:26.959 --> 02:31.959 are focusing on the ship's GPS tracking data prior to the spill off of Huntington Beach. 02:33.110 --> 02:37.510 They're looking into whether its anchor snagged and bent the pipeline. 02:37.510 --> 02:42.510 The governors of four Northeastern states agreed today to share data on firearms purchases 02:43.739 --> 02:48.739 in order to help curb gun crime. The Democratic governors from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 02:49.760 --> 02:54.760 and Connecticut said that the data will only be used by law enforcement. Current federal 02:54.870 --> 02:59.870 law prohibits the U.S. government from collecting gun sales records into a national registry. 03:02.370 --> 03:07.370 In Pakistan, a 5.9-magnitude earthquake killed at least 23 people before dawn and injured 03:09.390 --> 03:14.390 200 more. It shook a remote district in the southwest province of Balochistan. As many 03:15.829 --> 03:20.829 as 100 mud homes in the mountainous region collapsed, leaving behind piles of rubble 03:22.049 --> 03:24.450 and burying residents in their sleep. 03:24.450 --> 03:28.170 GHULAM KHAN, Pakistan (through translator): Everyone, including women and children, were 03:28.170 --> 03:32.640 running here and there. We were scared and didn't know what to do. Later, the ambulances 03:32.640 --> 03:33.880 arrived and took the injured to the hospital. 03:33.880 --> 03:38.799 JUDY WOODRUFF: The area is also home to a number of coal mines, one of which collapsed 03:38.799 --> 03:42.829 during the quake, killing at least four miners. 03:42.829 --> 03:47.799 And this year's Nobel Prize for literature honored a Tanzanian novelist whose writing 03:47.799 --> 03:52.799 has explored the effects of colonialism. Abdulrazak Gurnah, who is based in the U.K., has penned 03:54.530 --> 03:59.530 10 novels. Most examined the plight of refugees. Gurnah is the first African to win this award 04:01.579 --> 04:03.840 in nearly two decades. 04:03.840 --> 04:08.840 Still to come on the "NewsHour": why Alaska's doctors are forced to ration care amid an 04:09.030 --> 04:14.030 overwhelming COVID surge; Haitian migrants face an uncertain future, as thousands more 04:15.390 --> 04:20.390 are expected to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border; Lake Charles, Louisiana, emerges as 04:21.330 --> 04:26.330 a case study in the unequal effects of climate change; plus much more.