Crews battle Texas wildfires
Parts of western and central Texas remained under an elevated fire threat Saturday as crews worked to contain a wildfire that has killed one deputy officer, destroyed what was said to be dozens of homes and threatened hundreds of others. The Eastland Complex fire, consisting of four separate fires, had burned more than 45,000 acres and was 15% contained by Saturday morning, the Texas A&M Fire Service reported on Twitter. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott surveyed the damage in Eastland County on Friday and ordered disaster declarations in 11 counties as the wildfire threat widened.
Another COVID-19 surge may be coming. Are we ready for it?
Scarcely two months after the omicron variant drove coronavirus case numbers to frightening heights in the United States, scientists and health officials are bracing for another swell in the pandemic and, with it, the first major test of the country’s strategy of living with the virus while limiting its impact. Scientists are warning that the U.S. isn’t doing enough to prevent a new surge from endangering vulnerable Americans and potentially upending life again. The clearest warnings the period of quiet may soon be over have come from Western Europe. In a number of countries, case numbers are climbing as a more contagious subvariant of omicron, BA.2, takes hold.
Man posing as students convicted in $1.4M loan scheme
A Louisiana man was convicted Wednesday of defrauding the federal student loan system of over $1.4 million in an scheme that involved posing as students and hiring impersonators to get financial aid he then pocketed. Elliott Sterling obtained grants and loans intended for 180 students by using their personal information to fill out financial aid applications and enroll them in classes at Baton Rouge Community College from September 2017 to November 2019, prosecutors said. Sterling, who was 32 when he was charged in September 2020, took most of the financial aid money for himself and spent more than $253,000 of it at casinos in Louisiana, Nevada and Pennsylvania, prosecutors said.
Idaho House approves bill that prevents and fines vaccine requirements
The Idaho House approved the Coronavirus Pause Act, the latest legislation aimed at blocking vaccine requirements. The bill prevents businesses in the state from refusing “service, product, admission to a venue or transportation” to people who have not received the coronavirus vaccine. It also prohibits businesses from requiring “a coronavirus vaccination as a term of employment unless required by federal law.” The House voted 45-23 on Friday to approve the measure. It had already passed the state Senate. Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, has five days to sign it, veto it or let it become law on its own.
Ukrainians are trickling into the US amid uncertainty in D.C.
Of the more than 3 million Ukrainians who have fled their war-torn country, very few have come to the United States. The absence of a clear signal from Washington on how many it is willing to accept and questions about whether Europeans will get preferential treatment over refugees from Asia, Africa and the Middle East have created deep uncertainty, leaving displaced Ukrainians to make their way to the border and hope for help from private sponsors. But President Joe Biden said this month: “We’re going to welcome Ukrainian refugees with open arms if, in fact, they come all the way here.”
In a new constitution, the Pope sets out to overhaul the Vatican
Pope Francis on Saturday issued a new constitution, nearly a decade in the making, to govern the bureaucracy that runs the Roman Catholic Church. The constitution, running 54 pages, newly stipulates that baptized lay Catholics, including women, can lead departments traditionally headed by cardinals and increases institutional efforts to protect minors by incorporating the pope’s clergy abuse commission into the church’s government. The constitution, signed by Francis on Saturday and published immediately, and only in Italian, will go into force June 5, replacing the charter “Pastor bonus,” or “Good Shepherd,” introduced in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
4 US Marines killed in crash in Norway
Four U.S. Marines were killed in Norway during a NATO training exercise, Norwegian police said Saturday. The Marines had been taking part in an exercise Friday when their MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed, the Royal Norwegian Air Force said. The exercise is intended to teach troops survival skills in extreme weather conditions, and NATO said that it was not linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The crew members were assigned to II Marine Expeditionary Force, which in a statement said that they were listed as “duty status whereabouts unknown” — potentially indicating that the Marines had not yet recovered their remains.
Five African nations will begin mass polio vaccination campaigns
Five southeastern African countries are set to begin vaccination drives against polio after an outbreak was declared in Malawi last month, the World Health Organization said, highlighting the multiple health challenges facing countries on the continent as they grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. The polio immunization drive will begin in Malawi on Sunday and will be targeting more than 23 million children younger than 5 in that country, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and, later, Zimbabwe. The campaigns will continue until July, aiming to administer up to 80 million doses of oral polio vaccine, the WHO regional office for Africa said.
By wire sources