


August 5, 2021: COVID-19 cases, California wildfire, Texas van crash, U.S. landlord groups, Sydney
1. The United States hit a six-month high for new COVID cases with over 100,000 infections reported, according to a Reuters tally.
2. A rapidly spreading wildfire burned homes and forced thousands to evacuate in two heavily wooded counties northeast of Sacramento in Northern California.
3. A van overloaded with 30 people, many of them believed to be illegal immigrants, crashed in southern Texas, killing 10 occupants and critically injuring many of the others, police said.
4. Landlord groups asked a U.S. judge in Washington to immediately lift a new eviction moratorium that was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying the new order was “unlawful”.
5. Sydney reported a record daily number of new coronavirus cases and the state of Victoria announced a one-week lockdown as Australia tried to contain the highly infectious Delta variant.
India has put vaccine distribution to other countries on hold as the country battles the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 surge. The delay in distribution is hampering the global vaccination effort. Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann
Mass gatherings and in-person voting continue, even as new case numbers smash records and fatalities spiral in public view. We ask how a seeming pandemic success has turned so suddenly tragic.
Chad’s president of three decades has been killed; that has implications for regional violence far beyond the country’s borders. And a deep dive on the international sea-cucumber trade.
An aggressive Covid-19 variant called P.1 has spread from the Amazon to other parts of Brazil and has now been identified in U.S. cases. WSJ’s Paulo Trevisani reports from Porto Alegre’s overwhelmed hospitals, where doctors say young people are getting ill. Photo: Tommaso Protti for The Wall Street Journal
As highly transmissible coronavirus variants sweep across the world, scientists are racing to understand why these new versions of the virus are spreading faster, and what this could mean for vaccine efforts. New research says the key may be the spike protein, which gives the coronavirus its unmistakable shape. Illustration: Nick Collingwood/WSJ
With impeachment finished, Congress now returns to focusing on President Biden’s economic stimulus plan. But why do some economists say it could be too much?
Also, daily coronavirus cases are falling across the U.S. and the pace of vaccinations is increasing. And, in a change from the massive demonstrations last month, Russians in multiple cities used their cellphone flashlights to show their support for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump begins this week as Republicans and his legal team argue the impeachment is unconstitutional.
And, South Africa has paused a planned deployment of a coronavirus vaccine from AstraZeneca after a study there showed it may be less effective against a new strain of the virus detected there. Also, how worried are U.S. health officials about variant strains of the virus in the U.S.?

NPR News Now reports: President Trump pardons and rejects new Stimulus Bill, California Covid-19 cases surge, and other top news.