News Wrap: BA.2 variant drives new wave of COVID cases in the U.S.

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• Judy Woodruff:

  In the day's other news: New numbers on COVID-19 are providing fresh evidence of another wave in the United States fueled by the BA.2 variant.

  The New York Times reported that average daily cases are up more than 30 percent in two weeks, with the biggest increases in the Northeast. Ultimately, public health experts are saying that the new wave will be smaller than Omicron was.

  Palestinian youth battled Israeli police in Jerusalem today after days of growing violence. More than 150 Palestinians were injured.

  Martha Fairlie of Independent Television News has our report.

• Martha Fairlie:

  From the early hours, Palestinians gathered at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. At the site sacred to both Muslims and juice Jews, they began throwing fireworks and stones.

  After weeks of growing violence, they had been urged to defend both the mosque and their country by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry. As Israeli police moved in, they came under a hail of rocks and rubble. More than 150 people were injured, some carried away on stretchers, while the violence continued.

  Rioters used screens and folded chairs as makeshift shields, as the police fired tear gas and stun grenades. In a week where Ramadan, Passover and Easter all coincide, tensions have been running high.

• Sheikh Omar Al-Kiswani, Director, Al-Aqsa Mosque (through translator):

  This oppression and this barbarism emptied the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound while the world was watching. This barbarism is used by the occupation to suppress the safe worshipers who came to attend morning prayer.

• Martha Fairlie:

  Police say they have made hundreds of arrests. And Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has ordered crossings into the West Bank and Gaza to be closed from this afternoon for at least the first two nights of the Jewish festival Passover.

• Naftali Bennett, Israeli Prime Minister (through translator):

  We are working to calm things on Temple Mount and throughout Israel. At the same time, we are prepared for any scenario.

• Martha Fairlie:

  By midday, the site had been cleared and reopened with 60,000 people attending the main Friday prayers, but Israeli authorities remained prepared. Similar clashes during Ramadan last year led to an 11-day war with Gaza's rulers, Hamas.

• Judy Woodruff:

  That report from Martha Fairlie of Independent Television News.

  In South Africa, crews spent another day searching for survivors after floods killed nearly 400 people. Heavy rain and mudslides around the eastern city of Durban destroyed homes and washed away major roads. Thousands of people were left without electricity or access to clean water. Britain is taking criticism over government plans to fly migrants who were seeking asylum there to Rwanda, 4,000 miles away.

  Officials said today the flights to East Africa will begin within weeks. They argue that it will deter migrants from crossing the English Channel. Refugee and humanitarian groups condemned the idea as impractical, costly, and cruel.

  Back in this country, Texas reached a security agreement with a fourth Mexican border state. With that, Republican Governor Greg Abbott rescinded the last mandatory incoming truck inspections that caused long backups in Mexico. His nine-old-policy provoked complaint from businesses and other Texas officials.

  But Abbott said today it was forced by federal inaction.

• Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX):

  Now, listen, I understand the concern that businesses have about trying to move products across the bridge, but I also know the anger that Texans face and have that is caused by Joe Biden not securing the border.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Abbott had imposed the truck inspections to retaliate for the Biden administration's ending pandemic limits on migrants seeking asylum.

  The U.S. Interior Department announced today that it is resuming sales of oil and gas leases on federal lands in nine states, but it will sharply limit the available acreage and will charge higher royalties. President Biden campaigned on ending drilling on federal land to fight climate change. Now he's under pressure to ease soaring energy prices.

  Twitter's board of directors moved today to block billionaire Elon Musk from buying the company and taking it private. The company's so-called poison pill defense will let shareholders buy stock at a discounted price, diluting Musk's stake. That could make it harder for him to win over a majority of shareholders. Musk is offering $54 a share, $9 over Twitter's closing price on Thursday.

  President and Mrs. Biden have released tax returns for their first year in the White House. They report earning $610,000 and paying $150,000 in federal income taxes. That is a rate of just under 25 percent, compared with the U.S. average of 14 percent. The Bidens also paid a little over $33,000 in state income taxes.

  And Christians around the world marked this Good Friday with centuries old traditions. In Paris, worshipers held prayers outside Notre Dame Cathedral exactly three years after a fire destroyed the medieval church's roof. And, in the Czech Republic, marchers in masks rolled wooden rattles along cobbled streets in a revival of an old Easter custom.