News Wrap: Congressional Budget Office offers bleak reassessment of U.S. economy

Read the Full Transcript

• Geoff Bennett:

  In the day's other headlines: The Congressional Budget Office offered a bleak reassessment of the U.S. economy. It projected that unemployment will jump to more than 5 percent later this year as growth stagnates.

  The forecast also warned the national debt will nearly double by 2033 to $46 trillion. Beyond that, the CBO is substantially more pessimistic than the Federal Reserve about bringing down inflation.

  A white supremacist was sentenced to life without parole today for killing 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York last May. Payton Gendron is now 19. He had pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate.

  Today's sentencing hearing was interrupted at one point as anger and grief boiled over. A man lunged at Gendron and had to be restrained, as victims relatives expressed their pain and rage.

  Simone Crawley, Granddaughter of Victim: You are a cowardly racist. Every single person that has been instrumental in molding you and supporting you and informing you, aiding and supplying weapons needs to be held accountable and not protected, as they have been.

  You are not a lone wolf, but a pawn of a larger organized network of domestic terrorists. And to that network, we say, we as a people are unbreakable.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Gendron still faces federal charges that could carry a death sentence if the Justice Department decides to pursue it.

  The DOJ has closed a sex trafficking probe into Congressman Matt Gaetz. The Florida Republican said today he's been informed he will not face charges. Prosecutors spent two years looking into allegations that Gaetz paid for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl. He denied any wrongdoing.

  Off the coast of Libya, at least 73 people are feared dead in a shipwreck on Tuesday. They had sailed from a village about 50 miles east of Tripoli, Libya's capital, in a rubber boat headed to Europe. So far this year, at least 130 migrants have died in the Central Mediterranean, that number reaching more than 1,400 last year.

  Scotland's leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has announced she will step down after more than eight years in office. She heads her country's semiautonomous government and is a leading advocate for Scottish independence. She'd been locked in a fight with the U.K. government over a law expanding transgender rights.

  But, today, she said her main concern is that she can no longer give the job her full energy.

• Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish First Minister:

  This decision is not a reaction to short-term pressures. Of course, there are difficult issues confronting the government. Just know that when is that ever not the case?

  Essentially, I have been trying to answer two questions. Is carrying on right for me and, more importantly, is me carrying on right for the country, for my party, and for the independence cause?

• Geoff Bennett:

  Sturgeon says she will remain a Scottish leader until a successor is chosen.

  Back in this country, the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration said today the agency is working to prevent a repeat of a major systems failure. The so-called NOTAM system used to communicate with pilots went down last month and briefly grounded thousands of flights.

  At a Senate hearing today, Republicans and Democrats alike pressed Billy Nolen about ensuring that can't happen again.

• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX):

  Is there redundancy being built into it? Or can a single screw-up ground air traffic nationwide?

• Billy Nolen, Acting Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration:

  Could I sit here today and tell you there will never be another issue on the NOTAM system? No, sir, I cannot.

  What I can say is that we are making every effort to modernize and look at our procedures.

• Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN):

  What do you see as some of the biggest challenges in strengthening the resiliency and reliability of the system right now?

• Billy Nolen:

  Our system is very safe. At the same time, we don't take that safety for granted. And we recognize we have to continue this journey of modernization.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Many senators also expressed concerns that the FAA has not had a permanent administrator for nearly a year.

  World Bank President David Malpass announced today he will step down by June amid criticism of his views on climate net. He came under fire last year for declining to say if he believes fossil fuels are warming the planet. Malpass was a Trump appointee and still had nearly a year to go in his term at the World Bank.

  On Wall Street, tech stocks led the way, as sectors lagged. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 38 points to close at 34128. The Nasdaq rose 110 points, or nearly 1 percent. The S&P 500 added 11 points.

  And actress Raquel Welch, who became an international sex symbol in the 1960s and '70s, died today in Los Angeles. She had an early role in "Fantastic Voyage," the 1966 sci-fi adventure film. Later that year came "One Million Years B.C." Welch hardly spoken that film, but this image of her became iconic.

  In all, her career spanned more than five decades in film and TV. Raquel Welch was 82 years old.

  And still to come on the "NewsHour": members of Congress seek ways to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.; India's government cracks down on press freedom after the BBC aired a documentary critical of the prime minister; plus, an award-winning poet works to bring new life to her community.