News Wrap: Overdose deaths hit record high during the pandemic

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Also today, new numbers showed that COVID is pushing drug overdose deaths to record highs. The CDC estimates there were more than 100,000 in the 12 months ending last April. Health officials say the pandemic cut off drug users from treatment. They also blame fentanyl, a highly lethal opioid.

  Two men convicted of assassinating civil rights activist Malcolm X in New York in 1965 will have their names cleared. The district attorney for Manhattan said today that he wants a court to void the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam. A new investigation has found that authorities withheld evidence in their cases. The men were released from prison in the 1980s. One has since died.

  State officials in Louisiana today granted parole to 75-year-old Henry Montgomery, who was convicted of murder when he was 17. His case was pivotal to U.S. Supreme Court decisions that said mandatory life sentences for juveniles were cruel and unusual punishment. But he had failed to win parole until now.

  An Arizona man at the center of the U.S. Capitol assault now faces 41 months in federal prison. Jacob Chansley was wearing a horned fur hat and face paint during the January riot. He was sentenced today in Washington for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress. He told the judge he had no excuse.

  Former President Trump's longtime ally Steve Bannon has pleaded not guilty to charges of contempt of Congress. He defied a subpoena related to the Capitol attack. The charges are misdemeanors, punishable by up to a year in prison.

  In India, severe air pollution forced schools in New Delhi to close today indefinitely. Several coal-based power plants were also shuttered. As smog blanketed the capital city, India's highest court weighed imposing a lockdown to reduce pollution. but business owners said that could damage the economy.

• Suresh Chand Jain, Shopkeeper (through translator):

  We are already suffering losses for the past one to two years because of the pandemic lockdown, and now shutting work and businesses in the name of pollution. As it is, there is hardly any work.

• Judy Woodruff:

  The pollution emergency comes days after India successfully lobbied the U.N. climate summit to water down language on ending coal usage.

  Back in this country, rap star Young Dolph was shot and killed today in Memphis, his hometown. Police said it happened at a cookie store. They were searching for the shooter. Young Dolph, born Adolph Thornton Jr., had had three albums reach the top 10. He was 36 years old.

  And a down day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 211 points to close at 35931. The Nasdaq fell 52 points. The S&P 500 slipped 12.