Gwen’s picks for Friday, October 8 include: An explosion killed at least 46 people and wounded dozens more at a mosque in Afghanistan. The explosion happened as Shiite Muslim worshippers were gathering for the weekly Friday prayer service President Joe Biden said the U.S. economy remains strong after a “disappointing” September jobs report with the United States adding…

President Joe Biden said the U.S. economy remains strong after a “disappointing” September jobs report with the United States adding only 194,000 jobs. He blamed the low number on companies slowing new hires because of the spread of the delta variant of coronavirus. “What we’re seeing is an economic recovery that’s durable and strong,” he…

The White House released a report Thursday morning showing the effect recent vaccine requirements have had on the country’s vaccination rate as a whole. According to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just under 78 percent of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Among the findings in…

Update (10/8/21): The Senate approved a debt ceiling deal in a late Thursday night vote. The 50-48 vote paves the way for Congress to raise the government’s debt ceiling by nearly a half-trillion dollars. The bill’s expected passing in the House would only hold off a potential default until December, setting up another showdown before the…

As both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and President Joe Biden’s larger economic bill are on hold in Washington, Biden hit the road to pitch his “Build Back Better” agenda Tuesday. The video above shows clips from the trip. Joined by Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Biden talked about his economic agenda at…

President Joe Biden addressed the debt ceiling Monday, two weeks ahead of an important deadline to either raise or not. The video above shows clips from President Biden’s address. That deadline is Oct. 18. Last week, the Treasury Department said that is the date the department “will likely exhaust its extraordinary measures”, leaving it “with…

Should you get the COVID-19 vaccine? What about the booster? And how effective are those masks anyway? We hear a lot of opinions and official recommendations based on the science. It’s hard to consider all of this without thinking about how it impacts the economy and the labor market. When faced with a choice between…

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — On Wednesday, North Korea said it successfully tested a new hypersonic missile. They implied it was being developed for nuclear capability. The missile test early Tuesday was North Korea’s third round of launches this month and took place shortly before North Korea’s U.N. envoy accused the United States of hostility…

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands (AP) — A bright red river of lava from the volcano on Spain’s La Palma island finally tumbled over a cliff and into the Atlantic Ocean, setting off huge plumes of steam and possibly toxic gases that forced local residents outside the evacuation zone to remain indoors on Wednesday.…

The Federal Reserve’s policymaking committee indicated Wednesday the Fed may start raising its benchmark interest rate at some point next year. The new projection is earlier than members of the Fed envisioned earlier this year. In its updated quarterly projections, Fed officials now expect to raise the interest rate once in 2022, three times in…