Philadelphia to end mask mandate, days after reinstating it
Philadelphia health officials say they’re ending the city’s indoor mask mandate, abruptly reversing course just days after people in the city had to start wearing masks again amid a sharp increase in infections. The Board of Health voted Thursday to rescind the mandate. That’s according to the Philadelphia health department, which released a statement that cited “decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts.” The health department did not release data to back up its reversal on masking, saying more information would be provided Friday. Philadelphia became the first major U.S. city to reinstate its indoor mask mandate, but faced fierce blowback as well as a legal effort to get the mandate thrown out.
Satellite photos show possible mass graves near Mariupol
New satellite images show what appear to be mass graves near Mariupol. Local officials are accusing Russia of burying up to 9,000 Ukrainian civilians there in an effort to conceal the slaughter taking place in the siege of the port city. The images emerged hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday claimed victory in the battle for the Mariupol, despite the presence of an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters who were still holed up at a giant steel mill. Putin ordered his troops not to storm the stronghold but to seal it off so that “not even a fly comes through.”
CDC issues alert over hepatitis cases in children
A cluster of severe hepatitis cases in Alabama children prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a health alert Wednesday, urging doctors and health officials to keep an eye out for, and report, similar cases. Officials are investigating the possibility that an adenovirus, one of a group of common viruses that can cause coldlike symptoms, may be responsible. Alabama has recorded nine unexplained cases of hepatitis in otherwise healthy children younger than 10 that occurred between October and February. None of the children died, but several developed liver failure and two required liver transplants.
Donald Trump Jr. plans to meet with Jan. 6 committee
Donald Trump Jr., former President Donald Trump’s eldest son, has agreed to meet soon with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to a person familiar with matter. He would be the latest family member of the former president to meet with the committee, which is investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that injured 150 police officers as a pro-Trump mob, believing the former president’s lie of a stolen election, stormed the building. Already, Donald Trump Jr.’s sister Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have testified.
Calling off steel plant assault, Putin prematurely claims victory in Mariupol
President Vladimir Putin of Russia claimed victory in Mariupol on Thursday despite persistent fighting there, publicly calling off an assault on the final Ukrainian stronghold in the devastated city in a stark display of the Kremlin’s desire to present a success to the Russian public. Putin ordered his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, in a choreographed meeting shown on Russian television, not to storm the sprawling, fortresslike Azovstal steel mill complex where 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were said to be holed up, and instead to blockade the plant “so that a fly can’t get through.” That avoids, for now, a bloody battle in the strategic port city.
Explosion at Afghan mosque kills at least 10
An explosion at a Shiite mosque in northern Afghanistan on Thursday killed at least 10 people and wounded more than two dozen others, local officials said, adding to the toll of a bloody week for one of the country’s religious minorities. The attack, at the Seh Dokan mosque in the center of Mazar-e-Sharif, came two days after explosions ripped through a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Kabul. While the details of the attack at the mosque were murky, and there were fears that the death toll would climb higher, unverified videos shot inside the building showed an amount of carnage that has become all too familiar in Afghanistan.
South Korea’s Supreme Court issues landmark ruling on gay sex
The Supreme Court of South Korea issued a landmark ruling against the military’s decades-old ban on homosexual activities Thursday, striking down guilty verdicts for two male soldiers who were indicted on a charge of having consensual sex while off their base. South Korea’s Military Criminal Act calls for up to two years in prison for “anal intercourse or other indecent acts.” Until now, soldiers engaged in such activities had been punished under that law regardless of whether there was mutual consent or where the conduct took place. In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that the law should not apply to consensual sex away from a military setting.
Honduras ex-president Hernández extradited to US
Honduras has extradited former President Juan Orlando Hernández to the United States to face drug trafficking and weapons charges. It was a dramatic reversal for a leader once touted by U.S. authorities as a key ally in the war on the drugs. An airplane departed Honduras on Thursday with Hernández and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration bound for the United States, where he faces charges in the Southern District of New York. Hernández was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa in February at the request of U.S. authorities. U.S. prosecutors have accused Hernández of fueling his political rise with money from drug traffickers. Hernández strongly denies any wrongdoing.
By wire sources