Friday morning news - September 3, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Biden blasts Texas pro-life law, Supreme Court decision » President Biden on Thursday blasted the Supreme Court's decision not to block a new Texas law that bars abortions after a heartbeat is detected.

In a statement, he said his administration will launch a—quote—“whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision” and look at “what steps the federal government can take to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions.”

And Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters …

PSAKI: This extreme Texas law blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v Wade and upheld as precedent for nearly half a century. It will significantly impair womens’ access to the healthcare they need.

But supporters of the law say healthcare saves lives and abortion does not fit that description.

The court voted 5-4 to deny an emergency appeal from abortion rights groups, ruling that they did not provide sufficient justification for blocking the law.

Jim Graham of Texas Right to Life celebrated the law’s legal survival. He said “Today marks a new era in the Pro-Life world,” adding “Texas can protect preborn babies from abortion who have detectable heartbeats! No other state has accomplished this.”

At least 45 dead in northeast after heavy rain, flooding » The remnants of Hurricane Ida killed at least 45 people in northeastern states Wednesday and Thursday.

The storm has now carved a path of destruction from the Louisiana coast—all the way to the Big Apple.

CURRAN: We actually did get an unprecedented amount of rain. We had three inches in one hour.

Nassau County, New York’s County Executive Laura Curran heard there.

The rain submerged subway tracks in the city. And floodwaters ravaged homes throughout the region.

In Pennsylvania, EMS director Jason Bobst described high water rescues in suburban Philadelphia.

BOBST: Because the river waters were coming up so high, the first floor of livable spaces was getting taken over by water, so we were taking people out of the second floor and even attics of their homes.

At least 23 people died in New Jersey. Thirteen people perished in New York City, 11 of them in flooded basement apartments.

And at least five people in Pennsylvania, one of them killed by a falling tree.

Although Ida had lost most of its powerful wind force, the storm kept its strong rainy core. Then it merged with a wet and strengthening non-tropical storm front, triggering an extreme rain event in the northeast.

British government signals willingness to work with Taliban » A day after the top American military commander said U.S. forces might coordinate with the Taliban on strikes against ISIS, the British government has signaled a willingness to work with the Taliban.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab...

RAAB: We will not be recognizing the Taliban, but we do see the need to be able to have direct engagement. Otherwise we can’t provide messages. We can’t listen to the response.

Raab heard there in a press conference in Qatar. Officials there are playing a key role in facilitating communications between the Taliban and the West.

Qatari Forign Minister Sheikh Mohammed said Thursday that "There is no clear indication” when the Kabul airport will again be fully operational.

The Taliban has said it will allow any remaining American citizens to depart. Whether the extremist group will keep its word and whether Americans in Afghanistan will trust it to do so remains to be seen.

But the United States is now heavily dependent on the Taliban to evacuate the U.S. citizens left behind.

Jobless claims reach pandemic low as ‘enhanced unemployment’ ends » Jobless claims have fallen to another pandemic low as enhanced unemployment benefits end. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: The Labor Dept. says unemployment claims fell last week by 14,000 to 340,000. That’s the best mark since the pandemic took hold.

But employers say they’re still having a tough time filling open positions, though not as tough as in recent months when job openings set new records.

Many experts say so-called enhanced unemployment played a big role in the worker shortage. With the extra weekly federal checks, some unemployed workers found that they took in just as much or more from jobless aid than they would have if they were working.

Twenty-five states ended those extra benefits early, but they are now ending in the other half of the nation as well. The enhanced unemployment program will expire nationwide on Monday.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Police, medics indicted in Colorado man’s death » A Colorado grand jury this week criminally charged three police officers and two fire department responders in the death of a black man in 2019.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the charges.

WEISER: Each of the five defendants face one count of manslaughter and one count of criminally negligent homicide.

Two of the officers also face assault charges.

Twenty-three-year-old Elijah McClain died after officers put him in a chokehold and paramedics injected him with a sedative.

According to the indictment, police responding to a 911 call about a suspicious person confronted McClain in August of 2019, in Aurora, Colo., as he walked home from a grocery store.

The encounter escalated, with officers stating McClain reached for one of their guns and three of them restrained him. The indictment said the paramedics who arrived miscalculated the appropriate dose of a powerful sedative and gave him too much. He soon lost consciousness and later died at the hospital.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org.

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