JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: Stark new numbers put the human toll of COVID-19
in vivid relief. The total number of lives lost to the coronavirus in the United States
passed 492,000. And the CDC reported that average U.S. life expectancy dropped by a
full year during the first half of 2020 due to the pandemic. That's the biggest decline
since World War II.
We will get details after the news summary.
NASA's rover Perseverance is on the surface of the planet Mars tonight, after a journey
of seven months. It streaked across the Martian sky today, as depicted in this animation,
slowing from 12,000 miles an hour. Then the robot craft deployed parachutes, and a rocket-powered
crane lowered it to the surface.
That triggered the all-important signal to mission control.
WOMAN: Touchdown confirmed.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
WOMAN: Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking the signs
of past life.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
JUDY WOODRUFF: Within minutes, the rover sent back this first image of its landing site,
a crater in an ancient river delta. We will return to this mission to Mars a little later
in the program.
Congressional Democrats formally introduced President Biden's immigration bill today.
It lays out paths to citizenship for some 11 million migrants in the U.S. who are without
legal status. Republicans have signaled opposition, partly because they want new border security
measures.
Also today, the Biden administration laid out guidelines for more targeted immigration
enforcement than during the Trump era.
The U.S. State Department has announced that the U.S. will agree to talk with Iran if the
European Union invites all parties to the 2015 nuclear deal. The Biden administration
previously had said that Iran must first return to compliance with the deal. President Trump
withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2018.
Crowds were back out in cities across Myanmar today, protesting a military coup. They defied
police who assaulted striking rail workers in Mandalay overnight. Thousands of people
in Yangon carried flags and blocked roads. Their goal was to obstruct military movements
and prevent government employees from getting to work.
In northern India, thousands of farmers staged sit-ins at railroad stations, escalating a
months-long campaign against new agricultural laws. Demonstrators blocked trains for hours
by sitting and chanting on tracks, as thousands of security officers turned out. The protesters
insisted they won't stop.
HARI PRAKASH, Farmer have decided that the struggle to get these three laws repealed
is connected to our lives, connected to our future, connected to our children, and connected
to our daily bread.
Either we will survive and our assets will survive, or the country won't be able to get
by, as they will not get anything to eat.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Farmers say the new laws will drastically cut their incomes. The Indian
government says the measures are essential to modernize the country's agriculture system.
Back in this country, the Labor Department reported new claims for unemployment benefits
shot back over 860,000 last week, as COVID-19 disruptions escalated.
And Vice President Kamala Harris warned that women leaving the work force during the pandemic
has become a national emergency. Some 2.5 million women have stopped looking for work,
far more than the number of men. And the percentage of women in the labor force is the lowest
since 1988.
The war over GameStop headlined a U.S. congressional hearing today. Last month, small investors
and hedge funds battled for days over the video game retailer and roiled the broader
market. Today, the head of the trading platform Robinhood apologized for stopping trading
in GameStop at one point, but he denied that hedge funds influenced the decision.
And on Wall Street today, a combination of lower energy prices and higher rates on bonds
sent stocks down. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 119 points to close at 31493.
The Nasdaq fell 100 points, and the S&P 500 shed 17 points.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": the pandemic causes a sharp decrease in life expectancy
for communities of color; a deadly South African COVID variant strikes fear around the world;
several states put forward new restrictive abortion legislation; and much more.