News Wrap: Russian warship ‘Moskva’ sinks in the Black Sea after explosion

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  COVID-19 booster shots may soon be available for children ages 5 to 11. Pfizer said today that an extra dose of its kid-size vaccine has shown a strong immune response. The company said it plans to seek FDA authorization soon.

  We will talk to the White House COVID response coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, after the news summary.

  Russia suffered a blow today in its war with Ukraine, when the flagship of its naval fleet in the Black Sea exploded and sank. Ukraine said it hit the ship with missiles. The Russians said the fire was accidental. The guided missile cruiser Moskva had 500 sailors on board, and most were evacuated.

  In Washington, the Pentagon assessed the ships loss.

• John Kirby, Pentagon Press Secretary:

  It's basically designed for air defense. That's what this ship is designed to do, not unlike our own cruisers. So, it's going to have an impact on their capabilities, certainly in the near term. Whether it has an impact on their naval capabilities in the long term is just unclear right now.

• Amna Nawaz:

  We will return to the war in Ukraine later in the program.

  A federal judge in New York ordered the suspect in Tuesday's subway shootings held without bail today. Frank James appeared in court in Brooklyn, but said little during the hearing. Prosecutors said he had terrified the entire city of New York. James is accused of shooting 10 people. The exact motive remains unclear.

  In the Middle East, Palestinians say Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinians in the West Bank in a new wave of violence. It happened in the city of Jenin. Israeli officials said soldiers returned fire after Palestinians shot at them. At least 24 Palestinians and 14 Israelis have been killed since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began.

  Officials in South Africa now say severe rain and flooding in recent days killed at least 340 people. Heavy rains and mudslides swept away roads and bridges, destroyed schools, and devastated entire neighborhoods around the eastern city of Durban. Hundreds of people were left homeless.

• Jomba Phiri, Durban Resident:

  I got nowhere to go now. I got no house. I got no nothing. There's my family there by my neighbors. We tried give a place to sleep last night. We never — we never sleep last night.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The death toll is expected to rise as scores of people are still missing, and more rainstorms are expected in the coming days.

  Back in this country, social media giant Twitter is mulling a takeover bid tonight by billionaire Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO has offered to buy the company and take it private in a deal valued at some $43 billion. Musk is already Twitter's largest shareholder. He says he wants to make its algorithm and coding openly available. Twitter's board met today to evaluate the offer.

  A former top aide to President Trump, Stephen Miller, answered questions today about the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. He is the latest from Trump's inner circle to go before a House select committee. The panel's chair says Miller spread false information about alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election.

  The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, has withdrawn from the Commission on Presidential Debates. Today's vote was unanimous. RNC members charged that the nonprofit commission was biased. The change means GOP candidates will appear only in debates sanctioned by the RNC.

  The International Monetary Fund warned today that the war in Ukraine has worsened inflation and endangered the global recovery. The agency's head, Kristalina Georgieva, said, already, 143 countries have had their economic outlooks downgraded. She spoke in Washington.

• Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund:

  In the past seven weeks, the world has experienced a second major crisis, a war, on top of a pandemic. The threat to our collective prosperity from a breakdown in global cooperation cannot be overstated.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Georgieva also said the war in Ukraine is disrupting grain prices and threatening widespread hunger in developing nations.

  A new White House initiative aims to make government services more easily available for all racial groups. More than 90 federal agencies offered action plans today. They include improved language access for non-native English speakers and more aid for low-income households to save on energy bills, among other things.

  And on Wall Street, tech stocks took a hit and led the market lower. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 113 points to close at 34451. The Nasdaq fell 292 points, 2 percent. The S&P 500 slipped 54, 1 percent.

Improved audio player available on our mobile page