Top Stories this PM: Biden touts plan to tax rich after poor jobs report; Apple delays plan to scan iPhones
Good afternoon. Here are the top stories so far today.
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What happened today:
- August jobs report misses expectations - by far. The US added 235,000 nonfarm payrolls last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday, falling far short of the anticipated 733,000 payrolls. The report reflects a sharp slowdown in hiring from the month prior and the weakest month of job creation since January.
- Biden wants the rich to pay their "fair share." President Joe Biden said his economic agenda would help the nation meet the expectations it missed in the August jobs report - particularly, his plans to raise taxes on those making more than $400,000 a year. But "the superwealthy are still going to be able to have their three homes," he said.
- The FDA and CDC aren't so sure about booster shots. Top health officials have told the White House they need more time and data before authorizing COVID-19 booster shots, The New York Times reported Friday. The heads of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they may be able to recommend boosters for only some recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the next few weeks.
- Unvaccinated teens are 10 times as likely to be hospitalized. New data from the CDC showed the COVID-19 hospitalization rate among unvaccinated adolescents was about 10 times higher than fully vaccinated adolescents. This shows that the available vaccines in the US "were highly effective at preventing serious COVID-19 illness in this age group during a period" when the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus "predominated," the report said.
- Apple delays plan to scan phones for child sex abuse. Apple is delaying its much-criticized plan to scan users' iPhones for child sex abuse material, CNBC first reported. The proposed algorithm would scan a users' iCloud account for images and compare them with a database of known offensive material. The relevant information would then be flagged by a human reviewer and sent to authorities. "We have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features," Apple said.
That's all for now. See you Monday.