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.