Nation & world news – at a glance – for Thursday, April 20, 2023

Separate Shootings Follow Wrong Turns

Hundreds of miles apart, the two men stood in courtrooms, accused of shooting at someone who had made a wrong turn. In a courthouse in Fort Edward, New York, Kevin Monahan, 65, was denied bail on Wednesday in a case where prosecutors say he fatally shot Kaylin Gillis, 20, after she and a group of friends drove up his driveway while looking for another friend’s house. In a small courtroom in Liberty, Missouri, Andrew D. Lester, 84, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, 16, who had come to Lester’s door mistakenly thinking it was the address where his younger siblings were waiting to be picked up.

U.S. Authorizes a New Round of COVID Boosters

In a nod to the ongoing risk the coronavirus poses to millions of Americans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on Wednesday that adults 65 and older and those with weakened immune systems receive another dose of the reformulated booster that debuted last fall. Eligible Americans will be able to receive booster doses immediately. Federal health officials are also phasing out the original vaccine formulas created by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, revoking their authorizations in the United States. And instead of needing an initial series of two shots, unvaccinated people will now require just a single dose of the reformulated, or “bivalent,” COVID shot to be considered vaccinated.

Supreme Court Delays Decision on Abortion Pill, Preserving Access for Now

The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended for two days a pause on a lower-court ruling that had sought to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone, ensuring that the drug would continue to remain widely available for now. In a brief order, Justice Samuel Alito announced that the pause would lapse Friday at midnight, giving the court more time to consider the case, though it could act before then. That the court did not meet an earlier deadline suggests there may be disagreement among the justices in its first major case about abortion access since a conservative majority in June upended the constitutional right to an abortion.

Garage That Collapsed, Killing One, Was Due for Inspection This Year

The fatal collapse of a parking garage in lower Manhattan on Tuesday came less than nine months before New York City’s first deadline for such structures to be inspected for hazardous conditions. Until last year, the city’s parking garages had been exempt from the requirements for periodic inspections that apply to most other buildings. Structural engineers have only recently begun filing reports with the city’s Buildings Department on the conditions they find at free-standing garages like the one at 57 Ann St., which collapsed, killing one person and injuring five others. The office of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, opened an investigation into the collapse, a spokesperson said.

Judge Rules That Lawmakers Can Ask Ex-Prosecutor About Trump Inquiry

A federal judge on Wednesday gave congressional Republicans limited permission to scrutinize the investigation that led to criminal charges against Donald Trump, declining to stop them from questioning a former prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The former prosecutor, Mark F. Pomerantz, wrote a book about his experience on the Trump investigation. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the Judiciary Committee chair and a close ally of the former president, subpoenaed Pomerantz after the district attorney’s office unsealed 34 felony charges against Trump this month. The district attorney, Alvin Bragg, then sued Jordan in federal court in Manhattan in an attempt to stop the interview.

SpaceX’s Starship Rocket Will Try to Launch Again

SpaceX’s first attempt on Monday to launch Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, was called off. But the company says it’s ready to try again. SpaceX has scheduled the flight for as early as 9:28 a.m. Eastern time Thursday, and it could launch any time between then and 10:30 a.m. from the company’s launch site in South Texas. SpaceX said it would begin a livestream on its YouTube channel approximately 45 minutes before the rocket is ready to lift off. “If we do make an attempt tomorrow, the chances of scrubs are high,” said Jessie Anderson, a SpaceX engineer who also hosts some of the company’s webcasts.

Death Toll in Beijing Hospital Fire Soars to 29

A dozen people have been detained in connection with a hospital fire in Beijing that has claimed the lives of at least 29 victims, Chinese authorities said Wednesday. At a news conference, officials said most of the deceased were patients at Changfeng Hospital, where the fire erupted midday Tuesday. A nurse, a medical worker and a relative of a patient also died in the fire. Another 21 people were hospitalized in critical or serious condition. The fire appeared to be the deadliest in the Chinese capital in more than two decades. The detainees were being investigated for possible violations of safety management regulations, an official said.

Uneven Cease-Fire in Sudan Makes Escape Hard for Desperate Civilians

A cease-fire between Sudan’s two rival generals held in parts of the capital Wednesday night, as desperate residents looked for ways to escape the city. Evacuation from Khartoum has proved intensely dangerous since conflict erupted over the weekend between Sudan’s military and a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces. Nearly 300 people have been killed and over 3,000 wounded since fighting erupted Saturday, the World Health Organization said. Many residents of Khartoum’s outlying neighborhoods, where there is less fighting, have already fled the city. The U.S. State Department has said that it has no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation, and has urged Americans in Sudan to shelter in place.

India Is Passing China in Population. Can Its Economy Ever Do the Same?

India will soon pass China in population, knocking it from its perch for the first time in at least three centuries, data released by the United Nations on Wednesday shows. With size — a population that now exceeds 1.4 billion people — comes geopolitical, economic and cultural power that India has long sought. But India’s immense size and growth also lay bare its challenges. Its economy must somehow produce 90 million new jobs before 2030 to keep employment rates steady. While the proportion of Indians living in extreme poverty has plummeted, most Indians remain poor by global standards. These economic shortfalls increase the risk of instability.

U.S. Defense Secretary Urges Swift NATO Membership for Sweden

With Finland officially in the fold of NATO, the Biden administration turned its attention Wednesday to Sweden, another nation that now wants to join the alliance. During the first visit to Sweden by a U.S. defense secretary in 23 years, Lloyd Austin promised to work for Stockholm’s “swift accession” to NATO and said he hoped that objections to the country’s NATO membership would be ironed out by midsummer. Like Finland, Sweden decided to abandon its neutrality after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before it can join the alliance, it must first win over two holdouts, Turkey and Hungary, since all NATO members have to agree to a nation’s inclusion.

Bear That Killed Jogger Is Captured in Italy

Italian authorities on Tuesday announced that they had captured a brown bear after it had killed a jogger earlier this month. The fate of the 17-year-old bear, known as JJ4, is now in the hands of an Italian court, which will determine if the bear should be euthanized. The debate has inflamed tensions over a successful effort to reintroduce brown bears to the region after they nearly went extinct in the 1990s. The president of Trento province said authorities in Italy had focused too much on the well-being of the bears, and not enough on the safety of people living in the same areas.

Contest for Children to Hunt Feral Cats Is Scrapped in New Zealand

A hunting contest in rural New Zealand where children were to compete to kill the greatest number of feral cats for a cash prize has been canceled after a backlash from animal rights organizations. New Zealand, an island nation, has aggressively tried to control invasive species. But culling feral cats remains divisive, and the planned hunt inflamed debate about the morality of the practice and how children should be taught about invasive species management. An organizer said that the event was not about deliberately encouraging children to kill cats, but instead about teaching them about the broader issue of invasive species.

By wire sources