Virus emergency continues for 90 more days
The Biden administration extended the U.S. coronavirus public health emergency, now more than two years old, for another 90 days on Wednesday. The move will maintain a range of health benefits received by some of the most vulnerable Americans during the pandemic, including access to coronavirus tests and telehealth services. The decision to extend the emergency was expected, public health experts said, even though top federal health officials have said the nation is now in a favorable position, with fewer people hospitalized for COVID-19 lately than at any time since the early weeks of the pandemic.
NYC subway attack arrest brings relief but leaves questions
The man accused of opening fire on a subway train in the Brooklyn borough of New York and injuring at least 23 people was arrested near a McDonald’s in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan on Wednesday, officials said. The suspect, Frank R. James, 62, was taken into custody about 5 miles from the station where he is accused of committing one of the worst attacks on New York’s subway system. Federal officials charged James with carrying out a terrorist attack on a mass transit system, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Videos show Michigan police officer fatally shooting black man
The police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, released videos Wednesday showing a white officer fatally shooting Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man, after a struggle during a traffic stop last week. The officer, who has not been named, was lying on the back of Lyoya before he appeared to shoot him in the head. In the seconds before the shooting, Lyoya and the officer seemed to be fighting for control of the officer’s Taser. Even before the release of the footage, the case exposed long-standing tensions in Grand Rapids, a city of about 200,000 people where 18% of residents are Black.
Justice Dept. moves to curb police abuses
The Justice Department took steps on Wednesday to overhaul policing practices in Washington, D.C., and Springfield, Massachusetts, such as how and when to use force, as President Joe Biden works to fulfill his campaign promise to curb police abuses. The department said it had reached an agreement with the city of Springfield, after an investigation into its Police Department’s narcotics bureau found a pattern of excessive force. Separately, the Justice Department said the U.S. Park Police and the Secret Service had changed policies related to how they police demonstrations.
California woman pleads guilty to faking abduction
A California woman whose disappearance in 2016 prompted a weekslong search has accepted a plea bargain, admitting that she made up the story she gave the authorities about being abducted, beaten and leashed to a pole in a closet, prosecutors said. Sherri Papini, 39, of Redding, California, will plead guilty to one count of making false statements to FBI agents and one count of mail fraud based on her account of being a kidnapping victim. Investigators found Papini was really staying with a former boyfriend in Southern California. They said she had inflicted bruises on herself to support her story.
World surpasses a half-billion known coronavirus cases
The coronavirus is continuing to stalk the world, racing past a grim succession of pandemic milestones in 2022: totals of 300 million known cases around the world by early January, 400 million by early February and, as of Tuesday, a half-billion. There have almost certainly been far more infections than that among the global population of 7.9 billion, with many going undetected or unreported, and the reporting gap may only grow wider as some countries scale back testing. The head of the World Health Organization recently said that the world remains in the acute phase of the pandemic.
Dozens dead or missing after tropical storm hits the Philippines
Rescue workers battled intermittent heavy rain to reach many people still missing Wednesday, three days after Tropical Storm Megi pummeled the country, causing widespread landslides and flooding in the central Philippines. Hardest hit was the city of Baybay in central Leyte province, where landslides buried a remote community and left 48 people dead as of Wednesday, according to police. Fifteen others were swept away by floods in five other central and southern provinces and are still missing, officials said. While the storm has moved out of the Philippines, intermittent rains have continued, hampering search and rescue efforts.
Death toll in South Africa floods passes 250
The death toll from several days of rain that drenched the South African city of Durban and the surrounding areas rose to more than 250 on Wednesday, prompting criticism from residents that the government had failed to prepare for what are now increasingly frequent storms. Officials were still trying to assess the human and infrastructure toll as crews rummaged through muddy hillsides in search of the missing. Residents and community leaders recalled promises made by local officials to improve drainage systems, strengthen roadways, and move shack settlers away from flood-prone areas. But those pledges were not fulfilled, they said.
Texas governor offers deal to end snarled traffic
Ratcheting up the stakes in a clash over immigration that has tangled trade routes into Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said he would end new safety inspections at one entry point — the bridge between Laredo and the Mexican city of Colombia, Nuevo León — and only because the governor of that state had agreed to increase security on the Mexican side. Abbott said on Wednesday that days of snarled traffic, caused by the inspections he ordered last week, were part of an effort to force Mexican officials to do more to stop the flow of migrants into the United States.
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