Author: News Polite

With new coronavirus cases low but rising sharply in recent days, the city of Philadelphia announced on Monday that it will reinstate an indoor mask mandate a little more than a month after lifting it, becoming the first major U.S. city to do so.

“This is our chance to get ahead of the pandemic,” said Cheryl Bettigole, the city’s health commissioner, in a news conference. She acknowledged that the average number of daily new cases, currently at 142, is still nowhere near what it was at the beginning of the year, when the Omicron variant was pushing the seven-day average to nearly 4,000.

But she said that if the city failed to require masks now, “knowing that every previous wave of infections has been followed by a wave of hospitalizations, and then a wave of deaths, then it will be too late for many of our residents.” Over the past week, the city reported that the number of residents who had died of Covid-19 passed 5,000.

The mandate will go into effect next week. A spokesman for the city’s health department said it would end when case numbers and rates go beneath a certain threshold.

The decision comes as cases are ticking up across the country, fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant, known as BA.2. While the national increase is so far relatively small — about 3 percent over the last two weeks — the growth in cases in Northeastern cities like New York City and Washington, D.C., has been significantly steeper. Some colleges in the Northeast, including Columbia, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins, have reinstated indoor mask mandates in recent days.

Speaking at a virtual news conference on Monday afternoon, Mayor Eric Adams of New York City said that he would follow the advice of his health team in making any determination on reinstating mask mandates in spite of his positive test result on Sunday, rising virus cases in the city and Philadelphia’s decision.

“I am not special as being the mayor. What happens to me personally should not determine how I make policies,” Mr. Adams said. “It should be what happens to the City of New York.”

“I feel fine, no fever, no running nose, no aches and pains,” the mayor said, adding that with his health history of diabetes, “I would probably have had different outcomes if I was not vaccinated and boosted.”

Under Philadelphia’s Covid response plan, mitigation measures are triggered when caseloads or case trajectories pass certain thresholds. Since early March, as Omicron swiftly receded, the city had been at Level 1, or “all clear,” meaning most mandatory measures — including indoor mask mandates as well as proof-of-vaccine requirements in restaurants — had been lifted. Masks have no longer been required at city schools, though people visiting hospitals or riding public transportation still have had to wear them.

The indoor mask mandate is reinstated automatically when the city rises to Level 2, in which average new daily case counts and hospitalizations are still low but “cases have increased by more than 50 percent in the previous 10 days.” The health departments spokesman said over the last 10 days case the average number of news cases had risen nearly 70 percent.

Philadelphia’s system “allow us to be clear, transparent and predictable in our response to local Covid-19 conditions,” said Mayor Jim Kenney in a statement after the announcement was made. “I’m optimistic that this step will help us control the case rate,” he added.

The city’s decision is at odds with the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Basing its designation on hospital admissions among other benchmarks, the C.D.C. considers Philadelphia to have a “low” community level, and thus does not advise required masking.

Asked about the difference, Dr. Bettigole emphasized that “local conditions do matter” in making these decisions, and brought up the inequities in the virus’s impact. “We’ve all seen here in Philadelphia, how much our history of redlining, history of disparities has impacted, particularly our Black and brown communities in the city,” she said. “And so it does make sense to be more careful in Philadelphia, than, you know, perhaps in an affluent suburb.”

Jeffery C. Mays contributed reporting.

A California woman who tackled a Black teenager at a SoHo hotel after falsely accusing him of stealing her cellphone pleaded guilty on Monday to a felony hate crime charge stemming from the altercation. Parts of it were captured in a widely seen video.

Under the terms of her plea, the woman, Miya Ponsetto, 23, avoided jail time and can enter a new plea to a lesser, misdemeanor charge without a hate crime element if she completes her probation in a case of driving while intoxicated in California. She must also continue counseling and have no encounters with the criminal justice system for the next two years, officials said.

The hotel episode was a high-profile example of the kind of false accusation Black people routinely confront in New York and elsewhere. It came several months after a white woman called 911 to falsely claim that a Black bird-watcher in Central Park was threatening her life. (Last year, a lawyer for Ms. Ponsetto said that she is of Puerto Rican and Vietnamese descent.)

In a statement announcing Ms. Ponsetto’s plea, Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, highlighted what he said was her “outrageous behavior” in tackling Keyon Harrold Jr., the 14-year-old son of a prominent jazz musician, in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in December 2020.

“As a Black man, I have personally experienced racial profiling countless times in my life, and I sympathize with the young man victimized in this incident,” Mr. Bragg said in the statement. “This plea ensures appropriate accountability for Ms. Ponsetto by addressing underlying causes for her behavior and ensuring this conduct does not reoccur.”

Ms. Ponsetto’s lawyer, Paul D’Emilia, said in a statement that he and his client “were pleased that today’s proceeding brought this unfortunate misunderstanding closer to a final resolution.”

“We are appreciative of the district attorney’s thoughtful and empathetic approach to finding an acceptable conclusion,” Mr. D’Emilia added in the statement, “especially in light of the unreasonable pressure brought to bear by many voices not familiar with the more granular details of what occurred that evening.”

The “many voices” comment was an apparent reference to the angry public outcry the episode touched off when the video capturing parts of it began to ricochet across social media shortly after the altercation occurred on Dec. 26, 2020.

The video was filmed by the jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold, who was staying at the Arlo with his son. The two had just come down to the hotel’s lobby for brunch when Ms. Ponsetto, whom they did not know, accosted them.

The video shows tensions escalating quickly, with Ms. Ponsetto insisting that the teenager has the phone and yelling at father and son, as Mr. Harrold insists that she is in the wrong.

“No,” she can be heard yelling. “I’m not letting him walk away with my phone!”

The video also shows a man who identifies himself as a hotel manager saying he is “trying to help” while appearing to confront the teenager about the phone.

Separate footage captured by a hotel security camera shows Ms. Ponsetto tackling the teenager. The phone was later found and returned by an Uber driver.

Ms. Ponsetto, who fled from the hotel, was arrested in California about 10 days later, but not before participating in a nationally televised interview that quickly turned from an opportunity to apologize into an exercise in making excuses.

In an interview with The New York Times shortly after the hotel episode, Mr. Harrold said the events had left him “shellshocked.”

“I wonder what would happen if it were different, if it were a Black woman and there was a white 14-year-old,” he added in the interview. He also condemned the way the hotel manager had confronted his son: “They assumed he was guilty.”

The hotel subsequently issued a statement in which it apologized to Mr. Harrold and his son, saying it was “deeply disheartened about the recent incident of baseless accusation, prejudice and assault against an innocent guest.”

The original charges in the case did not include hate crimes, but the district attorney’s office added two counts of second-degree unlawful imprisonment as a hate crime last year. Ms. Ponsetto pleaded not guilty at the time.

On Monday, she pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree unlawful imprisonment as a hate crime. If she adheres to the plea’s terms, she will be allowed to plead guilty to second-degree aggravated harassment in two years.

In his statement, Mr. D’Emilia said that it was “Ms. Ponsetto’s wish that Keyon Harrold accepts her regrets and apology for her behavior that evening, and that all involved can move forward with added insight and compassion.”

Reached on Monday, Mr. Harrold said that such an apology was inadequate for his son having been “wrongfully and aggressively attacked in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel” in an “unprovoked assault,” and that it “minimizes the trauma that Keyon, Jr. continues to feel.”

“However,” he added, “we not only blame Ms. Ponsetto for the attack but the Arlo Hotel for allowing it to escalate and to go on unabated.”

Mr. Harrold has sued Ms. Ponsetto; the hotel; the company that owns it, Quadrum Global; and the manager over the episode, which Mr. Harrold describes in court papers as “yet another instance of African Americans being harmed by baseless accusations while going about their daily life.”

Quadrum’s media department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jonah E. Bromwich contributed reporting.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in his latest address seized on an apparent Russian threat to use chemical weapons against the remaining defenders of Mariupol, as they prepare for what he called a “new stage of terror against Ukraine.”

Mr. Zelensky’s comments came after Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the Kremlin-backed, separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, said on Russian television that Russia should bring in “chemical forces” to use in Mariupol, the besieged southern city. He said the remaining Ukrainian forces in Mariupol were dug in at a steel plant and that Russia should encircle it and “smoke out the moles.”

Referring to those remarks, Mr. Zelensky said in his latest video address, “We take this as seriously as possible.” The video was posted online Monday in the United States, and shortly after midnight on Tuesday in Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, a Ukrainian unit in Mariupol claimed on social media that Russian invaders had used chemical weapons there. Lesia Vasylenko, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament, made a similar charge. But those reports could not be independently confirmed.

“We are aware of social media reports which claim Russian forces deployed a potential chemical munition in Mariupol, Ukraine,” John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said. “We cannot confirm at this time and will continue to monitor the situation closely. These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine.”

The British Defense Ministry said on Monday that prior use of phosphorous munitions by Russian forces in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine “raises in the possibility of their future employment in Mariupol as fighting for the city intensifies.”

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday night.

The Ukrainian Parliament said on Monday that it had learned of local reports from the police that Russian forces had fired on nitric acid tanks in the Donetsk region.

In his address, Mr. Zelensky called on Ukrainian allies to help supply “necessary weapons.”

“Unfortunately, we are not getting as much as we need to end this war sooner,” Mr. Zelensky said in a translation of his address shared by his office. “I am sure that we will get almost everything we need, but not only time is being lost. The lives of Ukrainians are being lost — lives that can no longer be returned.”

An Alaska man who pleaded guilty to threatening to murder two U.S. senators has been sentenced to 32 months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

The man, Jay Allen Johnson, 65, of Delta Junction, left a total of 17 voicemails laden with threats for Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Alaska Republicans, federal prosecutors said. The voicemails, placed from April to September 2021, were “intended to retaliate” against the two senators for doing their work, prosecutors said.

John E. Kuhn Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District of Alaska, said in a statement after the sentencing on Friday that nothing excused Mr. Johnson’s conduct and that threatening elected officials was “an act that attacks our very system of governance.”

“The erosion of civility in our political discourse will never justify threats or acts of violence,” he said.

Jason Weiner, a lawyer for Mr. Johnson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

In a sentencing memorandum, Mr. Weiner said that Mr. Johnson’s health problems after decades spent performing manual labor, along with pandemic-related “heightened turmoil” and isolation, had contributed to his behavior.

“Between the prescribed narcotics, pain, and self-medicating, Mr. Johnson was not himself,” Mr. Weiner wrote in the memorandum, dated April 1, adding that his client had learned from this experience. “His actions did not take place in a vacuum.”

Senators Murkowski and Sullivan did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

In September 2021, Mr. Johnson called Ms. Murkowski at least two times, according to court documents. In one message, he said: “I will find out everything, where you’re at. I will find out all your properties and I will burn everything you hope to have, and I will burn everything you hope to own.” He also asked her if she’d ever seen what a .50-caliber shell does to a human head.

He left Mr. Sullivan 13 voicemails, stating in one that he would get his “.50 caliber out” and then hold an online fund-raiser for the shells.

An investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation traced the calls to Mr. Johnson, and he was arrested on Oct. 4, 2021. While executing a search warrant, F.B.I. agents also seized seven unsecured firearms illegally owned by Mr. Johnson, who has a prior felony conviction in 2016 barring him from possessing guns, prosecutors said.

In January, Mr. Johnson pleaded guilty to two counts of threatening to murder a U.S. official. In addition to his prison time and fine, he has agreed to a three-year federal protective order forbidding him to contact Ms. Murkowski and Mr. Sullivan, their families, and staff members after he is released. Mr. Johnson will also forfeit his guns.

After former President Donald J. Trump was elected in 2016, threats of violence against lawmakers surged. A Times review found clear increases of threats around Mr. Trump’s first impeachment and then after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol last year.

There were 9,600 threats against members of Congress last year, a record that was double the previous year’s total, according to the Capitol Police. Callers have left messages detailing various methods to kill lawmakers, from hanging them to shooting them in the head.

LVIV, Ukraine — When war came to Ukraine in February, Helen Polishchuk made some adjustments in the six-story bar she manages in central Lviv.

The Mad Bars House in Lviv’s historic central square stayed open, but served coffee and hot food instead of alcoholic drinks. They turned off the rock music. And as displaced Ukrainians began pouring into the city from places devastated by Russian attacks hundreds of miles away, she had instructions for the wait staff.

“When guests leave the restaurant we normally say, ‘Have a nice day,’” she said. Instead she told them they could say something else, like “Glory to Ukraine,” or “We wish you blue skies.”

“Because to say ‘have a nice day’ in this period is stupid,” said Ms. Polishchuk, 33.

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, Lviv, a historic city just 40 miles from Poland, was a popular European tourist destination, with 2.5 million visitors a year and the biggest jazz festival in Eastern Europe.

Now, instead of tourists, there are displaced Ukrainians fleeing the war-torn east of the country. Lviv and its residents are learning to live with what most now believe will be many months of conflict, if not years.

Several Russian airstrikes have targeted infrastructure here, including a rocket attack on a military training base last month that killed more than 30 people. Air-raid sirens warning of Russian fighter jets breaching the airspace sound several times a day. This small city, though, is still far from the active fighting that has devastated entire cities in the east of Ukraine.

The main challenge for Lviv has been to survive a wartime economy and manage the flood of displaced, traumatized people who are swelling the city’s population.

“We have learned to live in wartime,” said the city’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, who has recently lifted some municipal restrictions, including allowing bars and restaurants to sell wine and beer, although not hard alcohol.

Mr. Sadovyi, a former businessman, said that six months before the Russian invasion, he tasked city officials with finding a way to keep water supplies flowing if the electricity failed. They started buying diesel generators, as well as stockpiling medical supplies, and topping up blood banks.

“If I had not been bracing my city for this situation, we would be in a catastrophe right now,” Mr. Sadovyi, dressed in a black hoodie and black sneakers, said in an interview in the 19th-century Viennese-style City Hall. His office’s expansive stone balcony overlooked the market square, where displaced children shrieked with laughter and chased giant soap bubbles blown by a street performer.

Mr. Sadovyi said that civilians fleeing the fighting started coming into Lviv within hours of the invasion — 60,000 of them per day for the first three weeks. Now, with a new Russian advance expected, about 10,000 a day are arriving.

While many are heading across the border to Poland and other European countries, about 200,000 have remained, double the number the city administration was expecting and almost one third the city’s prewar population of 700,000.

Those with money are renting apartments or staying in hotels. But tens of thousands more are in shelters, dependent on aid. The Polish government has donated container homes for 1,000 people that are being set up in a city park. Others are being channeled from Lviv to other communities in Western Ukraine.

“This is a huge strain on our city,” said Mr. Sadovyi, 53. “Basically we have another city within our city.”

The war has sparked remarkable patriotism, and if some local residents note that they can no longer find tables at their favorite cafes or restaurants because they are filled with displaced people, they tend not to complain. Guides lead displaced families on free tours of the city. Passengers on the tourist trolley leaving City Hall are not foreigners these days but Ukrainians.

It makes for an odd juxtaposition. A significant number of the soldiers dying at the front are from Western Ukraine, and there are regular funerals in churches in the city center. On a recent day, the sobbing relatives of a steelworker and his factory colleagues stood outside a cathedral with wreathes of flowers.

Around the edges, longtime residents are trying to preserve some semblance of prewar life.

The Lviv National Opera recently resumed limited events, with snippets of ballet and choir performances. The number of tickets sold is limited to the capacity of the building’s bomb shelter, about 250 people. At the first performance, an air-raid siren sounded, sending audience members and dancers down to the shelter before resuming the show.

“We reopened because we received so many calls and emails from people,” said Ostap Hromysh, the opera’s international relations manager. The messages were apologetic, saying “of course we understand there is a war,” but asking if they had performances anyway.

“If people day by day are faced with sad news about death, about blood, about bombs, they need to feel other emotions,” he said.

At the Mad Bars House, Ms. Polishchuk said they planned to open a rooftop terrace next week, perhaps with nonalcoholic cocktails as well as wine and beer. They are bringing back more of their original 111-person staff.

She said the bar, which in normal times has a dance floor and serves increasingly potent drinks as patrons ascend its six stories, is losing money, but is committed to remaining open. On Sunday afternoon, the first and second floors of the bar were full.

The management has replaced the classic rock entertaining beer drinkers at the ground-floor bar before the war with Ukrainian songs, though on the floor serving wine to customers at tables, Frank Sinatra croons.

“We don’t want to pretend that nothing has happened, we understand that it’s a war,” Ms. Polishchuk said. “But we want to create an atmosphere of somewhere safe.”

On the menu, borscht, the beet soup that had few takers before the war, is now the biggest seller. Ms. Polishchuk said it was patriotism and stress. “We understand that people want comfort foods,” she said.

“Have a nice day” is not the only thing that feels off these days.

“This is not the time for carrot juice and green salads,” Ms. Polishchuk said.