In the day's other news: Stocks rallied on Wall Street over optimism about progress
on a COVID-19 vaccine. The Dow Jones industrial average soared 399 points
to close at nearly 29480. The Nasdaq rose 120 points, and the S&P 500
closed at a record high for the first time since September, adding 48 points.
At least seven people have died in North Carolina in flash flooding triggered by Tropical Storm
Eta. Roads and bridges were swept away after some places were inundated with as much as 10
inches of rain. One person also died in Florida. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Iota has formed in the
Caribbean. It is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday as it barrels toward Central America.
The death toll from the catastrophic typhoon in the Philippines has now risen to at least
42 people. Twenty others are still missing. More than 400,000 people were evacuated.
Cleanup efforts are under way now that floodwaters have started to recede.
Residents who were able to return to their homes found virtually everything coated in mud.
In Ethiopia, the United Nations is warning of war crimes amid conflict between the central
government and regional rebel leaders. Hundreds of civilians have been killed
in the northern Tigray state this week, in what Amnesty International has called
a massacre. The U.N. estimates more than 14,500 refugees have fled to nearby Sudan.
They spoke of the heartbreak of leaving their homeland.
BARHAT, Ethiopian Refugee (through translator):
I left my mother in the church. She is an elderly woman.
My brother is blind. We left him there as well. There is no food or water. Everyone ran away.
And on the way, we found murdered people with weapons and axes
and knives. That's why we ran. What were we to do? We want to save ourselves.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Heartbreaking.
Refugees said that they witnessed
bombings by government warplanes and civilian deaths in Tigray.
But the Ethiopian government insisted they are only striking military targets of Tigrayan forces.
Seven pharmaceutical companies leading the worldwide search for a COVID-19 vaccine
have been targeted by cyberattacks. Microsoft said today that it detected intrusions from
state-backed Russian and North Korean hackers. Most attempted to steal login credentials.
Microsoft was able to block a majority of the attacks, but acknowledged some of the
break-in efforts were successful. The targeted companies weren't identified.
A historic first in Major League Baseball and the entire U.S. sporting world.
Kim Ng has become the first female general manager of an MLB franchise after being tapped
to lead the Miami Marlins. She is also believed to be the first female G.M. of a men's team
in any of the major American sports leagues. The 51-year-old has spent
her entire professional career with the MLB, and has won three World Series.
And a passing to note. Football legend Paul Hornung died in Louisville, Kentucky,
after a battle with dementia. Dubbed Golden Boy, the halfback led the Green Bay Packers to four NFL
championships in the early '60s. He also won the 1956 Heisman Trophy in college at Notre Dame. And,
in 1986, he was inducted into the pro football Hall of Fame. Paul Hornung was 84 years old.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": the coronavirus complicates efforts
to counteract alarming infant mortality rates in Pakistan;
Mark Shields and David Brooks analyze the impact of the president's refusal to concede;
we remember some of the many remarkable lives lost to COVID-19; plus, much more.