A bomb hits a vehicle guarding an anti-polio drive in Pakistan and wounds 9

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying officers assigned to protect health workers conducting a polio immunization drive in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, wounding six officers and three civilians, officials said.

No polio workers were hurt in the attack in South Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police official Tahrir Sarfraz said.

He said no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which apparently targeted police.

Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

The latest attack came hours after Pakistan launched a drive to vaccinate 30 million children against polio. Since January, Pakistan has reported 17 new cases, jeopardizing decades of efforts to eliminate polio in the country.

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only countries in which the spread of polio has never been stopped.

The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children under age 5 and typically spreads through contaminated water.

A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child in a downtown area of Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child in a market in downtown area of Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

A police officer stands guard as a health worker, right, administers a polio vaccine to a child in a neighbourhood of Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Emmys telecast on ABC reached nearly 7 million viewers, a jump of more than 50%from the record low of the last ceremony in January and the biggest audience since 2021, according to numbers released Monday by the network.

Sunday night's 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, in which “Shogun,” “Hacks” and “Baby Reindeer” won top awards, was back in its traditional mid-September spot after the rare January ceremony that was delayed four months by Hollywood's strikes.

That show, which aired on Fox, reached a record low audience of 4.3 million viewers.

ABC said Monday that the Sunday night show hosted by Eugene and Dan Levy reached 6.87 million viewers, a jump of 54% despite competition from NFL football.

The height-of-the-pandemic Emmys in 2020 on ABC, with no in-person audience and remote nominees, set a new low at the time with 6.1 million viewers. The show bounced back the following year with 7.4 million for CBS with help from an NFL game lead-in.

But NBC's 2022 telecast dropped to 5.9 million, followed by the further decline in January of this year.

The Emmys telecast rotates annually between the four broadcast networks.

The last time the Emmys reached more than 10 million viewers was 2018, when it drew in 10.2 million. The show had 21.8 million viewers in 2000, a level it's unlikely ever to reach again.

Dan Levy arrives at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Hosts Eugene Levy and Dan Levy speak during the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)