September Jobs Report Badly Misses Expectations – The U.S. economy created jobs at a much slower than expected pace in September, a pessimistic sign about the state of the economy though the total was held back substantially by a sharp drop in government employment. Nonfarm payrolls rose by just 194,000 in the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate of 500,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 4.8%, better than the expectation for 5.1% and the lowest since February 2020.
Senate Raises Debt Limit Until December – Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said on Thursday that he had reached an agreement with Republicans to extend the debt ceiling into December. “We have reached an agreement to extend the debt ceiling through early December,” Schumer said. Senators voted to approve the deal on Thursday. The agreement increases the debt ceiling by $480 billion, which based on Treasury Department estimates would extend the debt ceiling until Dec. 3.
US Quietly Training Taiwanese Troops – Small units of Taiwan’s military ground forces have been trained by a U.S. special operations unit and a contingent of Marines, who have been secretly operating in that country, The Wall Street Journal is reporting. Some two dozen members of U.S. special-operations and support troops have been conducting the training in an effort to strengthen Taiwan’s defenses in light of concerns about potential aggression by China. Officials tell the paper that American forces have been conducting the training for at least a year. White House and Pentagon officials would not comment on the U.S. deployment. China’s Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. to cease military aid to Taiwan.
Pfizer Seeks FDA Authorization for Vaccine for Children – Pfizer and BioNTech said Thursday they are seeking US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization from for their Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. If authorized, this would be the first Covid-19 vaccine for younger children. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is approved for people age 16 and older and has an EUA for people ages 12 to 15. Last month, Pfizer released details of a Phase 2/3 trial that showed its Covid-19 vaccine was safe and generated a “robust” antibody response in children ages 5 to 11. The trial included 2,268 participants ages 5 to 11 and used a two-dose regimen of the vaccine administered 21 days apart. This trial used a 10-microgram dose — smaller than the 30-microgram dose that has been used for those 12 and older.
Oil Spill in California Kills Birds, Marine Life – Crews raced Sunday to contain the damage from a major oil spill off the Orange County coast that left crude spoiling beaches, killing fish and birds and threatening local wetlands. The spill originated from a pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach connected to an offshore oil platform known as Elly. The failure caused at least 126,000 gallons of crude to spill into coastal waters creating a slick that spanned about 8,320 acres— larger than the size of Santa Monica—and sent oil to the shores of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach early Sunday. Oil from the spill also infiltrated Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre ecological reserve in Huntington Beach that is home to dozens of species of birds.
Tesla Moving to Texas – Tesla HQ is getting a new home. “I’m excited to announce that we’re moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas,” CEO Elon Musk said Thursday during a Tesla shareholders meeting. The electric car company is currently based in Palo Alto, California, near its original headquarters in San Carlos, and its first factory, in Fremont. Musk said Thursday that there is a “limit to how big you can scale in the Bay area.” He cited housing affordability and the long commutes it can create as hurdles for its current location, and said the Austin factory is five minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from downtown. The median home price in Palo Alto is $3.3 million, according to Realtor.com, whereas the median home price in Austin is $588,000.
Iran Intercepts US Navy Vessel – Iran’s state TV reported on Thursday that speedboats belonging to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard have intercepted a United States vessel in the Persian Gulf. A US Navy spokesman said that he was not aware of any such encounter at sea over the past few days. The region remains on edge over Iran’s escalating nuclear program. Talks in Vienna to revive Tehran’s now-tattered 2015 accord with world powers have stalled since June, with no date set for their resumption. Thursday’s Iranian report aired footage that the TV station said was filmed from one of the Guard speedboats. It shows a vessel with the US flag and several personnel on board as the speedboat appears to be chasing it. A voice is heard in Farsi, saying: “Keep chasing them.” The report did not say when the encounter took place.