Ukrainian children are being separated from caregivers at US border
Dozens of Ukrainian children have been separated from relatives, friends or older siblings with whom they have traveled to the southern border under a law designed to prevent migrant children from being trafficked. The law requires U.S. border authorities to place “unaccompanied minors” in government shelters, where they must remain until their guardians have been screened and approved. For Ukrainian children, the separations have been an unexpected, shocking twist in their escape from a war zone. U.S. authorities have not released figures on how many Ukrainian children have been separated from caregivers, but volunteers working with the refugees said they have counted at least 50.
Trial results suggest redesigned vaccines can better protect against variants
Moderna announced preliminary results Tuesday from its study of a coronavirus vaccine intended to protect against variants, saying the findings show it can design a vaccine that offers better, longer-lasting protection than its initial product. But the company said it was also testing another version of the vaccine that it expected would do even better. Researchers at Moderna, other pharmaceutical companies and the National Institutes of Health have been racing to figure out how to redesign the existing vaccines in time for new booster doses to be manufactured over the summer. Moderna’s results are the first of their kind to be released.
Biden restores climate to landmark environmental law, reversing Trump
The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is restoring parts of a bedrock environmental law, once again requiring that climate impacts be considered and local communities have input before federal agencies approve highways, pipelines and other major projects. The administration has resurrected requirements of the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act that had been removed by President Donald Trump, who complained that they slowed down the development of mines, road expansions and similar projects. Administration officials said the new rule would force future administrations to abide by the process or undertake a lengthy regulatory process and possibly legal challenges to again undo it.
Fearing a Trump repeat, Jan. 6 panel considers changes to Insurrection Act
In the days before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, some of President Donald Trump’s most extreme allies and members of right-wing militia groups urged him to use his power as commander in chief to unleash the military to help keep him in office. As the House committee investigating last year’s riot uncovers new evidence about the lengths to which Trump was willing to go to cling to power, some lawmakers on the panel have quietly begun discussions about rewriting the Insurrection Act, the 1807 law that gives presidents wide authority to deploy the military within the United States to respond to a rebellion.
Blasts at schools in Shiite area of Kabul kill at Least 6
Several explosions outside an education center and a public high school in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul on Tuesday killed at least six people and wounded at least a dozen more — many of them students, including one as young as 7. The attacks, whose final casualty figures could be much higher based on reports from the area hospitals treating the victims, were a gruesome reminder of the dangers that persist in Afghanistan despite the Taliban’s promise to establish security across the country after 20 years of war. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kabul on Tuesday.
China’s COVID shutdowns go far beyond Shanghai
All it took was one confirmed COVID-19 case among the 2.4 million residents of Wuhu, a city in eastern China, for the government there to lock down residents without warning. Inhabitants of Wuhu in Anhui province awoke Sunday to official orders to stay at home and get tested until the government decides that it has stamped out cases of the omicron variant. While attention has fallen on Shanghai, where millions have been cooped up for weeks in China’s largest lockdown, there are more than 20 other cities under lockdowns or heavy restrictions on movement, according to Caixin, a Chinese magazine.
By wire sources
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