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First Thing: Covid landmark for US as CDC says vaccinated no longer need masks

Good morning.

Joe Biden hailed “a great day” in America’s fight against coronavirus after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that those who have been fully vaccinated could take part in most indoor activities without wearing a mask or social distancing.

At an outdoor press conference on Thursday, the president said: “The CDC is saying, they have concluded, that fully vaccinated people are at a very, very low risk of getting Covid-19. Therefore, if you’ve been fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.”

His declaration came after the CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, announced the new guidance, saying: “We have all longed for this moment.”

She said anyone who is fully vaccinated can “participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing”.

But she said fully vaccinated people should continue to wear masks on public transit.

  • In more positive news for the country’s coronavirus recovery, the head of America’s second-largest teachers’ union said it was “all in” on returning to in-person teaching this fall.

  • How fast are cases falling? The US reportedly recorded fewer than 40,000 new confirmed cases in the last week – a 21% improvement on the week before. The daily peak was 250,000 daily cases in January.

  • To date, 583,779 people have died from Covid-19 in the US and there have been 32,819,878 confirmed cases.

Israel’s air and ground forces have hit targets in the Gaza Strip as the crisis continues to escalate

A Palestinian family flees with their belongings stacked on top of a car in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip
A Palestinian family flees with their belongings stacked on top of a car in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images

Israel’s military on Friday said its ground and air forces were carrying out strikes on the Gaza Strip – but not operating inside the territory – as the death toll continued to climb.

It came amid fears that Israel would launch an invasion into the blockaded territory.

In the early hours of this morning, red flames illuminated the skies above Gaza and residents reported a huge bombardment.

Gaza’s health ministry said 119 Palestinians, including 31 children, had died since the attacks started on Monday. Eight people have died in Israel, which has had a fourth night of communal violence.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, tweeted: “The last word was not said and this operation will continue as long as necessary.”

  • “This is more than a reaction to Hamas’s rockets,” Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli political analyst, tells the Guardian. “There’s something deeper going on under the surface.”

  • Violence and mayhem offer Netanyahu refuge, writes Harriet Sherwood.

  • Follow the situation as it unfolds on the Guardian’s live blog.

Philadelphia has admitted to incinerating the remains of Move bombing victims without telling their families

Move member Mike Africa speaks during a rally on Thursday for the 36th anniversary of the 1985 Move bombing in Philadelphia.
Move member Mike Africa speaks during a rally on Thursday for the 36th anniversary of the 1985 Move bombing in Philadelphia. Photograph: Yong Kim/AP

The remains of victims of the 1985 Move bombing were incinerated by the city of Philadelphia without the knowledge of their families, it was revealed on Thursday.

Speaking on the 36th anniversary of the police bombing of the Black liberation organization – which killed 11 people – the Philadelphia mayor, Jim Kenney, announced that the city’s health commissioner, Thomas Farley, had told him earlier this week that he had discovered the bones in 2017 and “made a decision to cremate and dispose of them”.

Kenney said yesterday that he had fired Farley, and the city’s medical examiner, Sam Gulino, had been put on administrative leave pending an investigation.

  • “This action lacked empathy for the victims, their family, and the deep pain that the Move bombing has brought to our city for nearly four decades,” said the mayor.

  • What was the Move bombing? In one of the worst atrocities in America’s history of racial violence, on 13 May 1985 a police helicopter dropped a bomb on the headquarters of Move, a Black liberation group in West Philadelphia, killing 11 people – including five children – and destroying more than 60 houses in the predominantly Black neighbourhood.

US officials have confirmed more than 130 incidents of mysterious Havana syndrome brain injury

The US embassy in Cuba, where cases of Havana syndrome were first reported
The US embassy in Cuba, where cases of Havana syndrome were first reported.
Photograph: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images

US officials have reportedly confirmed more than 130 incidents of Havana syndrome, an unexplained brain injury, among US diplomats, spies and defence officials – some within the past few weeks.

Three CIA officers have reported serious symptoms since December, according to the New York Times, after going on foreign assignments and required outpatient treatment at Walter Reed military hospital in Washington. One of the incidents was in the last two weeks.

US officials confirmed there were new cases being reviewed but warned that publicity given to previous cases had prompted some to reinterpret their symptoms.

  • What is Havana syndrome? Some people have suffered long-term brain injuries including severe headaches. According to the National Security Council, episodes include sensory phenomena such as sound, heat or pressure and symptoms including sudden vertigo, pain in the head or neck, or nausea.

  • Reports of episodes first started five years ago when diplomats and CIA officers working in Havana started experiencing vertigo, headaches and nausea. Similar incidents began happening the following year in Guangzhou, China. In December the National Academy of Sciences published a report saying the injuries were most likely to be the result of directed energy.

‘Bodies are being eaten by hyenas; girls of eight raped’

In this harrowing account, an Ethiopian nun working in war-torn Tigray describes the appalling conditions of the tens of thousands of people who have been displaced by fighting while humanitarian aid is blocked. “The bodies are being left to be eaten by the hyenas, not even having the dignity of burial,” she tells Tracy McVeigh. “Rape is happening to girls as young as eight and to women of 72. It is so widespread.”

In other news …

Prince Harry with Meghan and their son Archie in Cape Town in 2019
Prince Harry with Meghan and their son Archie in Cape Town in 2019. Photograph: Henk Kruger/AFP/Getty Images
  • Prince Harry appeared to criticize his upbringing by his father, Prince Charles, talking about the “genetic pain and suffering” of the royal family and how he wants to “break the cycle” for his own children. The Duke of Sussex, who is expecting his second child with his wife, Meghan, likened life in the royal family to a combination of being in The Truman Show and a zoo, in a wide-ranging interview with the Armchair Expert podcast.

  • Nine people were wounded in a shooting last night in Rhode Island. The incident in Providence, in which three people were critically wounded, is believed to be the largest shooting in the city’s history. Police said multiple guns had been used and that it was associated with an “ongoing feud”.

  • Spencer Silver, who helped invent the Post-it Note, has died aged 80. While working at 3M, the corporate scientist discovered the unique adhesive formula that enabled notes to be easily attached to surfaces and then removed.

  • The climate crisis is not a “partisan issue”, a young Republican has told his own party. Michigan congressman Peter Meijer, 33, told the Guardian that Republicans were in the middle of a “generational shift” but that progress on the critical issue was slow.

Stat of the day: 70% of observers of Arizona’s ongoing 2020 election ‘audit’ are Republicans

The remaining 30% are independents, libertarians and Democrats. Usually audits make sure that representatives from both parties inspect ballots, but it is not clear whether that is happening at the controversial effort in Phoenix, reports Sam Levine. The audit, which includes an examination of voting equipment and a hand recount of close to 2.1m ballots, comes despite multiple audits affirming the results of November’s election in the county in favour of Joe Biden.

Don’t miss this: Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton on achieving their ‘far-fetched dream’ of working together

In this interview, the director and actor discuss collaborating on Almodóvar’s first film in English, The Human Voice. They talk to Ryan Gilbey about, among other things, their mutual admiration and the negative impact falling in love has on sense of humour.

Last Thing: the one where they get back together – sort of

The cast of Friends, set to reunite for a new HBO Max show later this month, at the 2002 Emmy Awards.
The cast of Friends, set to reunite for a new HBO Max show later this month, at the 2002 Emmy Awards. Photograph: Lee Celano/AFP/Getty Images

“Could we BE any more excited?!” said Friends star Jennifer Aniston, referencing an early episode. Seventeen years since the final episode and after years of anticipation of a reunion, the cast of Friends is finally set to make a comeback later this month with a one-off special. But in a move that may disappoint and relieve fans in equal measure, Friends: The Reunion won’t return to their characters in middle age. Instead they will appear as themselves in the unscripted show, aired on HBO Max on 27 May, together with celebrity guests including Malala Yousafzai and David Beckham.

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