biden will sign an executive order today requiring the vaccination for all executive branch employees and federal contractors. the move comes as the delta variant surges and threatens to overwhelm hospitals in parts of the u.s. the president will speak from the white house at 5:00 wall street time today. congress is working on mr. biden's economic agenda. at the center will be the tax ways and means committee. members will debate expanding medicare, paid family leave, and funds for eldercare workers. some votes are expected on pieces of the plan. there is a blue-collar wage boom in the u.k. experts say covid-19 and brexit played a major factor. a combination of the pandemic and do immigration rules after the country left the eu have resulted in a worker shortage fueling a rapid escalation of

wages while company scrambled to fill vacancies left by immigrants from the eu. hosted salaries for construction jobs are up almost 7% this year. global news 24 hours a day, on-air, and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> it is 1:00 in new york, 7:00 in berlin, 1:00 in hong kong. i am matt miller. welcome to bloomberg markets. here are the top stories we are following on the bloomberg and from around the world. the ecb slows bond purchases but the central bank insists it is not tapering. we will break down the news from the september policy meeting with sylvia are diagnosed, the

head of the european economics research at barclays. later this hour, an exclusive conversation with jimmy pitaro, chairman of espn and sports content at walt disney, as the nfl season kicks off tonight, and we will cover the return of in person new york fashion week for the first time since the start of the pandemic with designer dennis basso. let's take a look at what is going on in markets. the s&p has turned to slight losses, not even one point, but we were looking at gains earlier. 4513. the u.s. 10 year coming down as the price goes up. 1.53201 is the level of return you get for lending your money to the u.s. government for 10 years. the bloomberg dollar index down 3.25 points.

nymex crude is down $.55 a barrel, 68.75. not big moves in the markets today but we do see different asset classes moving a little more than others. european central bank upgraded the outlook for growth here in europe. moderately lowered its pace of bond purchases. but president christine lagarde insists the central bank is not tapering. >> we are not tapering. what we are doing is recalibrating pepp, which is the pandemic emergency purchase program. matt: for more on the ecb, let's bring in silvia ardagna, head of european economics research at barclays. tapering their bond purchases but not tapering. what are we to make of this?

silvia: this is just a tweak until december until we have more news. we agree with the president, not tightening in the sense to reduce the absent purchases program that the ecb is conducting. we know there are two programs, this pandemic emergency program, recalibrating the pace, but most likely they will use the full envelope until the end of march. then there is the normal program which we expect to continue for a long period of time. in that sense, we are not going to see the ecb stopping purchases. that is why we call it a tweak and not a taper. matt: we didn't see much reaction in terms of asset prices. the euro still trading at 1.1 834, bunds getting a little more

negative, but only 36 basis points. has the market largely ignored this, is this good? silvia: in general, you can look at the european bond market and see that the meeting was effective in tightening spreads more. if you look at the markets, the rally has been stronger. the market, the bond market took these as a " dovish" meeting, reassurance that more qed could come. the stimulus will continue for long. that is what the european government bond markets have focused on. matt: what do you expect in terms of inflation, growth? is the ecb going to get close to its targets? silvia: our own forecast is very

close to what the ecb put down today in terms of growth for the next couple years. whether the ecb gets closer to the target or not, we may have a clear picture in 2024. clearly, the fact that that recovery is proceeding, at the fastest pace that we anticipated a few months ago, bodes well for them. it will take a long time before we see inflation in the euro area to reach persistently the 2% target. we forecasted, in 2022, after this temporary acceleration in inflation declines again, but then again over time, we also think there will be upward pressure on inflation. matt: where do you see the euro? does it make a difference to the ecb? it has been relatively tame as

of late, but there were periods, certainly under draghi, when it became a concern. silvia: i think for the ecb, this is not a concern at the moment. one focuses on inflation. supply bottlenecks will be there for the next few months, but what is key is what happens to wage growth. so far, we have not seen any second-round effects from the acceleration of inflation. euro area is about to start to wear the end of the year, according to our forecast. but wages have remained pretty lackluster in terms of growth rate. we need to watch what happens with wage negotiations next year. our view remains that the slack in the labor market continues to be absorbed, but at a pace

that will not imply a strong increasing wage growth. matt: thank you for joining us, silvia ardagna, talking about today's ecb decision, her expectations for the economy. employers divided over whether to require vaccinations for employees. we will discuss who is in who is not mandating the jab, nexen never bloomberg big take. as we await president biden, as he tells us he is joining one of those camps. this is bloomberg. ♪ mberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller.

breaking news from washington right now, at least from nbc. they are reporting president biden will seek a vaccine or testing rule for some employers. this is interesting because we also expect the federal government to require vaccines, will mandate covid vaccines for employees and not allow a testing alternative. we are waiting for president biden to speak. we think about 5:00 p.m. east coast time. stay tuned for that. we got a big take story on the company side of this today, the bloomberg big take, where we take a deep dive into stories looking at the policies of over 100 major companies to see if we can spot a trend in terms of mandates. it turns out they are all over the place in terms of their requirement. let's bring in the reporter who

looked at the data for us, matthew boyle. we will talk about the federal side, but the corporate side, you really could not see a trend. there was not a majority of companies going with the same policy. >> you are right, it is all over the place. what spurred us to do this, we keep hearing these announcements from companies, some putting out press releases, others internal memos to their employees. we wanted to make sense of this, so we started compiling all the examples of companies who have said something. when we put it all together, over 100 big companies, really big employers, like cvs, johnson & johnson, walmart, but no rhyme or reason in terms of their policies. about half had some sort of vaccine mandate for some staff, half did not.

even the ones that have a mandate, those policies are across the board as well. it is rare that it is for all employees. usually just for the white collar or office employees, walmart being a perfect example, where you have the nations biggest private employer but there vaccine mandate only applies to their headquarters and regional staff. not all the people that you see in stores and distribution centers. matt: to my mind, this is the opposite of how you would think they would do it. your warehouse staff, factory staff, in-store staff, they have to be there, whereas your executives, management staff, they can decide possibly to work remotely if they don't want to come into the office. you would think they would require vaccines or those that have to be on site and come to work every day. >> there is a complicated

calculus and how they make the decisions and what would pulling the trigger on a companywide mandate do for a place like walmart. would they see mass defections? what is interesting is we have data coming in from delta airlines, which doesn't have a vaccine mandate but which took an interesting intermediate step a few weeks ago where they said if you are not vaccinated by november 1, we will slap a $200 monthly surcharge on to your health care to no jew strongly into that direction. delta today said once they announced that, their vaccination rate internally went from 74% to 78%. on top of that, they have not seen a lot of employee turnover. people are not quitting because of this. that was the big concern for companies. we are starting to see some policies take into effect, but

we are also very interested in knowing what companies will fire people if they do not get the jab. there we have about nine companies. matt: we are seeing reports from nbc -- we expect the president to come out with a vaccine mandate or federal employees later on today. i want to clarify, something different. nbc reported that the president will ask the labor department to make a rule for other employers, anyone with more than 100 people working in the company, to have a requirement for either vaccine or testing. does that make sense to you? >> the key there is "or testing." a lot of companies have not done a full on mandate, but they are saying that if you don't want to get the vaccine, you will be tested every week or every other week. the devil is in the details with

a lot of these policies. even on wall street, where you think all companies want everyone back into the offices immediately, there you don't have full cohesion in terms of their policies with j.p. morgan chase being a holdout, not doing a mandate yet. matt: excellent story. highly recommend that you check it out on the bloomberg terminal or bloomberg.com. there is a lot of great data in there, as well as a table that shows all the company that matthew went through, whether or not they have vaccine requirements, and the couple other details. i want to get to something that caught my eye out of tesla. reportedly obtaining a patent to use laser beams as winchell wipers. the application describes a technology as a cleaning system that removes debris from the windshield, solar panels.

it would use a pulsating laser beam to do that. the cyber truck prototype didn't have any windshield wipers, when tesla file for this patent. companies often seek patents on technologies that often never end up in consumer products, but still, it is always cool to use laser beams. still ahead, a read on what the in person returns a new york faction week looks like, with -- fashion week looks like with designer dennis basso. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: new york fashion week is underway in manhattan, the first in person return for the industry since the start of the pandemic read joining us to

discuss what it will look like is designer dennis basso, who is holding his show on the final day of fashion week at rockefeller center. let's start with what the return looks like in general. it seems like people have been wearing yoga pants for the past 18 months. all of a sudden, they are going to put on their outside clothes. what are you seeing? dennis: i think it has been a careful, watched, focused return. we took some time off, not by choice, but because of what happened to the world, and now we have come back. everyone is coming back this year with a little bit of a different situation. normally i have 1400 people at a fashion show. we have now trimmed that down.

rockefeller center is the iconic heart of new york city, fantastic restaurants, and the presentation. people will stop in, look at the collection, have a pellegrino, glass of champagne, look around, and we have beautiful outside spaces near the restaurant as well. once they see the collection, they can walk outside and mingle. we are requiring everyone and will be checking that everyone is following the protocol and vaccinated. if they are not vaccinated, it is mandatory for them to wear a mask. this is important and this is going on all throughout new york city. matt: has the pandemic, have any of the issues -- clearly, we have seen supply chain problems, shipping issues, massive spikes

in commodity prices. has any of that influence what we will see on the runway, what you are putting on these women to wear? dennis: the madison avenue collection that is in harrods, major fine shops around the world are all made here in new york city. we were not dependent on things being made and shipped from foreign countries. that was an advantage and we are proud to be made in america. there were some issues with some fabrics, but we may do. this is my 38th year in business, come this week. matt: you don't look a day over 40. dennis: i am 42, i started

young. [laughter] we are self sufficient, a vertical operation. we do everything from the beginning to the end. as you can see in the background, we are working, putting the final touches on this collection. that is what is so exciting. i have another collection for qvc. that is a little more challenging because more things are shipped from abroad but we have also been able to work through that. we are very resourceful. matt: how was that business? i can imagine qvc was absolutely booming over the lockdown. people didn't have anywhere to go to wear the clothes but they were certainly in front of the tv. will you be ordering a new yacht? how is that going? dennis: i don't know about ordering a new yacht. [laughter] but we are all working from home, so we are doing the skype and zoom, which has made it

easy. we have all creative studios within our home. it was ok. she was buying from us before the pandemic, so during the pandemic, things clearly took a booth because they were in their homes, not necessarily going out. matt: let me get one more question about new york. i just went to the munich auto show, the first car show since the beginning of 2019, and i noticed a big difference. normally we are in one huge hall looking over everyone's collection. this one was spread out all over the city. audi was here, porsche there, and i hear the new york fashion show will be similar. what do you think of the format? dennis: it is ok.

they talked about during the pandemic,, home, wash your hands, don't be on top of one another in the store. i grew up in a household where my mother operated like that. we couldn't walk into the house without taking off our shoes and washing our hands immediately. through all of that trauma and disaster, some good has come from it. we don't need to be 12 people in an elevator. we should be four in general. some good has come from that. being more selective, not having overabundance. i think we can all take heed and try to take some good from all the bad and suffering that happened during that period. we can move forward as a better world, better country. i truly believe that. i am very happy to have 400

people come. the other 800 people can watch online. during a presentation, having to sit people shoulder to shoulder. this is better. they will arrive, they will go. another group will arrive. i think this is sort of the way of the future in general. matt: dennis, great to get your take. thank you for joining us and best of luck at your show. dennis basso, famed fashion, and i almost forgot, he has a huge qvc business as well. the nfl season kicks off tonight. a conversation with espn sports content chairman jimmy pitaro. this is bloomberg. ♪

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amanda: i'm amanda lang. welcome to bloomberg markets. matt: i'm matt miller. we welcome our bloomberg and bnn bloomberg audiences. here are the top stories we are following for you from around the world. the nfl season kicks off tonight. we will speak exclusively with jimmy pitaro, chairman of espn and sports content at walt disney about the return of the most important sport in the history of the world. and we discussed the outlook for middle-market m&a going into year end after a robust first half of the year with karen davies, huntington national bank executive director for commercial banking. and i will go out on a limb here, big time buckeyes fan. amanda: [laughter] you keep doubling down on how important football is. we are watching stock markets today -- somewhat quiet -- but pretty flat tone over all.

you have the groups that make up the things -- fangs getting more negative. weakness out there today in the health care space as some of the biggest names, biogen leading the way. all around, some disappointment. overall, financials are good. we are watching energy, middle of the pack. we did see a reaction in the oil markets to the news that china, for the first time, would intervene with a release from its strategic reserves. we know that it can be a political issue, especially when prices rise for those consumer related products. this may set a new tone and how oil prices are managed. matt: absolutely. we will keep a close eye on that, especially as we see the

amount that we have in stock drawn down and countries like china opening up their strategic reserve. a lot of moves around oil that could have an impact on the pricing. that said, we don't see much movement in prices today -- at least we didn't see. brent crude down $1.56. pretty much stuck in a range. amanda: we should also note, it is a pretty high level for producers globally, still pretty happy with the profitability of producing a barrel of oil. pretty elevated related to the pre-pandemic price. matt: let's go over to bloomberg technology's emily chang. i have been talking about this for the entire hour. we are excited about her

interview with the head of espn, as well as sports content at walt disney. jimmy pitaro joins us on television and radio. this is simulcast. emily, we are all psyched about football. please, take it away. emily: i want to bring in jimmy pitaro, chair of espn and sports content at disney, and welcome our bloomberg television and radio audiences. huge day. got to start with football. you are kicking off monday night with another mega cast. eli and peyton manning are joining the group. what will be different this year for espn? jimmy: you touched on it, the mega cast is something that we want to have success with. out of the gate, we are coming on pretty strong. we have the ravens-raiders, las

vegas' first regular-season game with fans in the stadium. as a part of that we will have multiple broadcasts. the main broadcast on espn, simulcast on abc. we will have a spanish-language version on deportes. monday night football with peyton and eli manning. that debuts on espn2 and espn+. we will also carry a bedding-themed broadcast that we are calling between the lines, on espn plus. a pretty nice suite of offerings. emily: we will be talking about bedding in a moment. you have been out there locking up rights agreements with the

nhl, wimbledon, pga, la liga. what does all of this add up to in terms of a strategy or espn? jimmy: our mission is to serve the sports fan anytime and anywhere. each of those deals that you mention is an important component. this has been a busy 18-month period, maybe our busiest ever in terms of rights acquisitions. we are pretty proud of what we have accomplished in terms of these acquisitions. it is representative of years of strategic planning at espn, going back to three years ago, where the senior leadership team and i got together and really started to map out the future. we knew what was coming up, started to look at what it was we were going to go after. fast forward to today, these deals are templates for things to come. i would also say, they represent

the value that we can bring to the table, the value we can create for of course our enterprise, but the value we create for fans, but also our league partners. if you were to ask our league partners, they would say they see the value not just with espn but with the walt disney company. what we call the megaphone that is espn, that we bring. our production expertise, the synergy value we can provide from the various divisions at the walt disney company. in the aggregate, these deals put the power of disney and espn on display. we are pretty excited about each of them. emily: what about espn+? when will we start to see live nfl games on espn+? jimmy: as part of the deal that we recently closed, we now have the rights to stream games on espn+.

that deal kicks in with the 2023 season, secure the ability to simulcast those games on espn+. this coming monday, we will have two different nfl broadcasts made available on espn+, a bedding-themed broadcast, and then monday night football. we are already getting going here. emily: just reminding our audiences, we are here with jimmy pitaro, head of sports content at disney. everyone wants to know about the next deal. the wall street journal is reporting you are exploring a a deal to work with a bedding -- betting company. jimmy: this could yield

substantial returns for us. at the same time, this space, category can really help us expand our audience, our reach especially among highly engaged sports fans. our league partners are really embracing sports betting. more and more americans are able to participate now. from our perspective, it is natural for espn to do the same. our mission is to serve the sports fan anytime and anywhere. that includes the sports betting fan. two backup, -- to backup, sports betting has been a strong part of our offerings for a while. we have had sportscenter themed segments, dedicated areas to our website, podcasts, recurring shows like daily wager, a

branded betting studio in las vegas. we recently struck an odds partnership. we have deals with caesar's and draftkings. we are doing alternative broadcasts, betting-themed alternative broadcasts. we also had an nba betting-themed broadcast last season. 28 states plus washington, d.c. allow sports betting. 15 of them allow sports betting. -- mobile sports betting. we see nothing but opportunity to expand our brand and audience, increase fan engagement. really just address the fact that sports betting has become endemic to the overall experience of the sports fan.

emily: when it comes to a bigger potential deal that everyone is speculating about, draftkings, fan duel, caesar's, more than one? jimmy: we are exploring the now. i cannot comment on the wall street journal report or what conversation we are having. the bottom line is it has to be the right fit from a brand perspective, the right partner for us. right now, we are in exploratory mode. emily: is there any hesitancy at disney about getting involved in gambling more directly? jimmy: we have done the research. our sports fans are not just ok with it, they are expecting it. we are constantly focused on expanding our audience, growing engagement across our properties, especially digital. what we are hearing loud and clear from our fans is they

expect espn to deliver a fiction list sports betting experience, which is why we did those deals before with caesar's and draftkings. jimmy: you have said you are interested in the nfl sunday ticket package. what about that as an added subscription package for espn customers? jimmy: incredibly valuable product. as a sports fan, putting a fact that i may sports executive, as a fan i see the value of that product. i am from new york, a giants fan, but i lived in l.a. for years, so i can see the value of that. we had exploratory conversations with the league. they understand that we appreciate that product, but i cannot go beyond that. emily: verizon is letting go of its mobile rights to nfl games.

what about those? jimmy: not something that we have talked about. our focus right now is on our direct to consumer product espn+ , which has really good momentum, especially as we head into the nfl season. our product is fantastic, clean, easy to navigate, personalized, architecturally sound. on the last earnings call, we had 14.9 million subscribers. that is about 75% growth year-over-year. our research shows that brand affinity for espn+ continues to grow. last weekend, it was fantastic for us in every way in terms of college football on espn+. we streamed as many minutes of college football on plus, as we did all last season. opening week, we streamed as

many minutes total for college football as we did all of last season. we continue to see great momentum on the espn+ side, and that is our digital priority, that and espn app. emily: there have been a few high-profile departures, some more controversial than others. you are bringing in people like peyton and eli. is there a changing of the guard, what is the strategy when it comes to the next generation of talent? jimmy: i wouldn't say there is a changing of the guard. we are navigating through incredibly complex, challenging times. we spent the past 18 months in a pandemic, our business is transitioning more to direct to consumer. we are navigating through these various waters. we would love to renew every single talent contract that

comes across my desk. that is unrealistic, it really is. our focus is on doing the best we can to deliver for our sports fans. i think we are doing a good job there. yes, peyton and eli is an example of us bringing on new talent. i would tell you, we already had a close relationship with peyton through a series that we did on espn+. over the years, i have had several conversations about peyton about getting more involved in our nfl coverage. the team just rallied around this idea of trying something new and different, continuing our investment in those alternative broadcasts that i mentioned before, which has been successful for us over the years. the idea that we came up also worked with peyton and eli,

giving them the flux ability they needed. we are pretty excited about it. it is a casual, nontraditional telecast. it will g4 the majority of the monday night season. nine regular-season games, plus the wildcard game that they will call. i do want to highlight the fact that that is our alternative broadcast. we still have our primary broadcast on espn. we had a new booth last year, and they did an extra ordinary job in a challenging time. i'm excited to have them all return and what we hope is a more normal season, more normal experience for the fans. emily: we all hope. how we watch everything is changing, but sports is the one thing that we still have to see live. paint the picture for us in five years, how will we be watching

sports differently, how will espn have evolved? jimmy: we are running parallel paths here. i hate to keep repeating myself, but serve the sports fan anywhere, anytime. i will emphasize the anywhere. if you want to access through directv or your traditional cable provider, you will be able to. if you want to access espn through espn+, our current direct to consumer offering, that is great as well. we have every intention of continuing to run these parallel paths. of course, we are following the fan. bob chapek has been pretty clear on this point. we will be there for the fans. as they turn more to digital and direct to consumer platforms, we will evolve as well. whatever the case, our northstar is being therefore the fan, and

at the same time, creating shareholder value. right now, we will continue to run these parallel paths. emily: i know that you are a yankees fan. i am an a's fan. jeter recently entered the hall of fame but a tough loss against the blue jays. if you are a betting man, will the yankees make it to the wildcard? jimmy: yes. no hesitation there. this whole season has been a roller coaster. 13-game winning streak. the last couple of weeks have been rough. personally for me, yesterday was a great day to see derek in the hall of fame, just fantastic. you probably know this but our original films team at espn is world-class. we have a film coming out on derek and the yankees dynasty,

called "the captain." we are pretty happy about that but couldn't be happier for derek and the yankees. emily: hopefully, the a's see you in the wildcard. jimmy pitaro, thanks for joining us. back to you. matt: thank you so much, emily chang, talking exclusively to jimmy pitaro, the head of espn as well as the chairman of walt disney's sports content, important as we wait for the kickoff of the nfl season tonight. coming up, we discuss the outlook for m&a after a robust deal activity in the first half of the year. karen davies joins us. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets.

i am matt miller with amanda lang. time to look at the biggest business stories in the news right now, starting with microsoft pulling back on its plans to fully reopen its headquarters. they will not set a new date because of the uncertainty around covid-19. microsoft will instead move to a 30-day transition approach and notify staff with lead time when it is ready to reopen its offices. last month, the company said it would require all employees to be vaccinated against covid-19. amazon is unveiling its first line of televisions today. the company will offer two lines of tv's starting at about $370. they go on sale next month, stepping up the fight with roku and google to control in-home entertainment. amazon has sold more than 100 million fire television devices.

and sidenote, amazon also pledged today to pay for employee's college tuition. facebook has teamed up with iconic sunglasses maker ray-ban for its long-awaited smart glasses. the shades are called ray-ban stories, using the classicwayfarer frame and allows users to take pictures and videos, answer phone calls. eventually, they will include augmented reality technology. they cost $299 to start. that is your bloomberg business flash. amanda: we have been watching m&a deal flow. it has been robust and many think it will continue to be so given the amount of dry powder out there. we are talking to karen davies, executive managing director at huntington national bank. appreciate your time. i want to start with what you are seeing, in terms of what lies ahead, in the context of

how competitive it has been. does the deal flow remain as strong as it has been? karen: frankly, it is stronger than we have seen in many years. it started after the first wave of covid. what we are seeing is just a surge that has taken off across all sectors. first half of the year was globally $3.5 trillion. it has been on a tear since. it could hit the $4 trillion mark. just in the u.s., m&a, for the first six months of the year, about $2 trillion across all sectors. our backlog, but we see in our clients who are actively selling and buying, whether it be in industries or the private equity side of the house, the backlog is full. the end of the year is full in terms of deal activity. matt: first of all, i have to

welcome anyone from the great state of ohio on the program. let me ask how much it matters to you if your people are working from home or back in the office? how have you been dealing with so much activity throughout the pandemic, what are your expectations going forward? karen: we have the opportunity to work from home during the pandemic. it was an incredible experience just going through our own m&a, the acquisition of tcf. we did that basically digitally. it is an interesting experience to be able to do that. you really see the utilization of technology. that is why you see companies investing in digital, because they have to find a different way to deliver their products to customers, serve employees. we are starting to come back, do a bit of travel, getting in front of our clients.

regionally, a couple areas that if we cannot get to them quickly, we are online with them, digitally connecting. the pace of the m&a activity that you are seeing is new to the sector. all of our investment bankers, banking organizations providing the debt, capital markets activity is being done digitally. but we missed seeing our clients, so we are back in front of them wherever possible, especially in the midwest. amanda: there is a lot of capital out there, including in private credit, that will continue to fund deals. where does the path of the pandemic, economic slow down hit, if at all? karen: what we are watching closely right now is auto. ford and gm, we are concerned that they could be closing some plants. we will be watching jobs, on appointment. some businesses may have temporary slowdowns that we have

seen over the past year. we are watching for variables in some of the industrials. we will probably see a resurgence, but that is fortunately and unfortunately an opportunistic time. companies that will be weighted down because of this, you'll see consolidation and m&a in the market. matt: thank you for joining us. appreciate you coming into the studio. karen davies of huntington bank joining us after a slew of deals. we will walk to see how this develops. for amanda lang, i'm matt miller. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> so far it seems to be holding up. mark: i am mark crumpton with bloomberg's first word news. all federal employees in the united states will have to be

vaccinated against covid-19. bloomberg has learned that president biden will sign an executive order today requiring vaccinations for all employees and federal contractors. the move comes as the delta variant surges and threatens to overwhelm hospitals in parts of the united states. the president will speak from the white house tonight. there are growing calls for congress to do more to help communities hit by hurricane ida . the biden administration is asking congress to include $10 billion more in ida relief in stopgap spending legislation. the category four hurricane hit louisiana and many were left without power for days. there are still scattered outages in at least 18 parishes. the abortion battle continues in

texa