News Wrap: White House says U.S. will not build more nuclear weapons to counter Russia

Geoff Bennett:

Now to the day's other headlines, starting in Eastern India.

A train disaster there has killed at least 120 people and injured 850 others tonight. Two passenger trains collided about 130 miles Southwest of Kolkata, and at least 15 cars derailed. A chaotic scene unfolded in the dark, with hundreds of police, rescue workers and others trying to free an estimated 200 people trapped in the wreckage.

The Biden White House says the U.S. will not build more nuclear weapons for now to counter Russia. Instead, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said today the U.S. will adhere to limits under the 2010 New START Treaty, so long as Moscow does.

Jake Sullivan, U.S. National Security Adviser:

The United States does not need to increase our nuclear forces to outnumber the combined total of our competitors in order to successfully deter them. We have been there. We have learned that lesson, nor does the United States need to deploy ever more dangerous nuclear weapons to maintain deterrence.

Geoff Bennett:

Russia has suspended participation in New START, but it's still abiding by limits in the treaty, which expire in 2026.

Extreme weather plagued much of Asia today. Southern and Eastern China sweltered in nearly 100-degree temperatures as heat waves arrived early. Meantime, Japan was hit with heavy downpours and flooding from the same storm that lashed Guam days earlier. More than 100 million people were under alerts.

Back in this country, former Vice President Mike Pence will not face charges over classified material found at his home in Indiana. It's widely reported that the Justice Department informed him Thursday, days before he announced his presidential bid. Mr. Pence's lawyers searched his home back in January at his request and found about a dozen documents. The FBI found another one later.

An internal review has found that a Border Patrol nurse practitioner declined to review a migrant child's medical history before she died last month. The 8-year-old had heart problems and sickle-cell anemia and contracted the flu. Officials previously said the girl's family did not share her medical records until after she died.

One of the nation's best-known military installations shed its Confederate name today and became Fort Liberty. It had been Fort Bragg since 1918. Soldiers gathered for the ceremony at the North Carolina base. The commanding general said there was no shortage of ideas about disposing of the old symbols and signs.

Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, Commander General, Fort Liberty:

This is the United States Army. We received a lot of specificity of what to do with that. Everything was collected up, every monument and everything, and that will go to the Center of Military History.

Geoff Bennett:

Fort Liberty will still be home to the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. It's name change is the most prominent yet in a Pentagon initiative to drop Confederate titles.

On Wall Street, stocks jumped after the strong jobs report eased worries about a recession. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 700 points, or 2 percent, to close at 33726. The Nasdaq rose 1 percent. The S&P 500 was up nearly 1.5 percent.

And this year's National Spelling Bee champion is Dev Shah, an eighth grader from Florida. The 14-year-old took the title at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington last night. His winning word was psammophile, an organism that thrives in sandy areas.

Man:

Psammophile.

Dev Shah, Scripps National Spelling Bee Winner:

P-S-A-M-M-O-P-H-I-L-E, psammophile.

Woman:

That is correct.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Geoff Bennett:

The title comes with $50,000 in cash and prizes.

Congratulations to him.

And still to come on the "NewsHour": multiple attacks inside Russia raise questions about the next phase of the war in Ukraine; Jonathan Capehart and Gary Abernathy weigh in on the week's political headlines; and we break down the major takeaways from the first game of the NBA Finals.