Brief News
Coronavirus – Summer surge
The US should prepare for a predictable summer surge of Covid-19 cases across Southern states, former White House Coronavirus Response Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told CBS.
Birx’s warning comes as US cases are again rising with the spread of another Omicron strain, the BA.2 subvariant. The seven-day average of US cases was almost 54,000 on Saturday, up from about 49,000 a week earlier, and around 31,000 a month ago.
The latest data from the CDC also shows nearly 60% of adults and 75% of children have antibodies indicating that they’ve been infected with Covid-19, but it is unclear what that means for protection against future infections.
Immigration – “Do not come”
“Do not come.” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued that stern warning to migrants on Monday, urging them not to attempt to enter the US through its southern border.
Border officials have been preparing for multiple scenarios when a Trump-era pandemic restriction, known as Title 42, lifts on the US-Mexico border.
The authority, invoked at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, allows officials to turn away migrants at the border because of the public health crisis. Mayorkas emphasized that if a record-breaking 18,000 migrants are encountered at border daily, as anticipated by the department, it would put a “strain on the system.”
Ukraine – Evacuation from Azovstal
The long-awaited evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, is underway. Hundreds of people, dozens of whom are injured, are thought to be inside the complex, the last Ukrainian holdout in the city following weeks of heavy Russian bombardment.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called the situation a “humanitarian catastrophe,” as people are running out of water, food and medicine. Nearly every building in the plant has been destroyed, new satellite images show.
Alabama – Officer and inmate missing
Authorities in Alabama are searching for a corrections officer and an inmate charged with murder after they went missing on Friday.
The pair vanished after Vicky White, assistant director of corrections for the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office, said she was taking inmate Casey White for a mental health evaluation at the county courthouse. But the officer and inmate, who officials say are not related, never arrived at the courthouse and authorities later discovered there was no evaluation or hearing scheduled for Casey White that day.
On Friday afternoon, concerned officers at the jail tried to call Vicky White but her phone went straight to voicemail. Authorities were considering multiple scenarios over the weekend, including whether Vicky White was overpowered and kidnapped by the 6-foot-9 inmate or whether she assisted him in escaping, through either coercion or her own willingness.
