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