News Wrap: World Health Organization declares end to COVID-19 global emergency

GEOFF BENNETT:

In the day's other headlines: The World Health Organization declared an end to COVID-19 as a global emergency.

The announcement marked a symbolic end to an era. Officially, COVID is blamed for some seven million deaths worldwide, including more than one million in the U.S. The actual toll is estimated to be at least 20 million, with thousands more dying every week.

In Geneva today, the WHO's director general noted, most countries have already lifted restrictions, but he warned against complacency.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organization:

The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that COVID-19 is nothing to worry about.

Geoff Bennett:

In the U.S., the public health emergency for COVID is set to expire next Thursday.

Meantime, Dr. Rochelle Walensky is stepping down as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control after two years. In a letter to President Biden today, she indicated it's a good time to go as the COVID pandemic wanes. Walensky's last day at the CDC will be June 30.

The head of Russia's Wagner Group mercenaries threatened today to pull out of Bakhmut in Eastern Ukraine. He said they'd been starved of ammunition. The Wagner Group has poured men and arms into the front-line city for months, making it the war's bloodiest battle.

In a video message, Yevgeny Prigozhin charged, Russia's military had failed to help seize the city by next week's holiday marking victory in World War II.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner Group Chief (through translator):

We were going to capture Bakhmut by May 9, but the pseudo-military bureaucrats stopped the supply of ammunitions and prevented us from doing this. They're sitting there shaking their fat bellies and thinking that they will make it into history as winners, when they have already made it as cowards.

Geoff Bennett:

It's unclear if Prigozhin will make good on his threat. He has long made fiery accusations against Russia's military that he often retracts.

The people of Serbia were plunged deeper into mourning today after the nation's second mass shooting in two days. A gunman killed eight people and wounded 14 others in two villages late Thursday in apparently random attacks. Police arrested the suspect in a village south of Belgrade today, after an all-night manhunt.

Serbia's president condemned the attack in a nationwide address.

Aleksandar Vucic, President of Serbia (through translator): This new mass criminal attack, after an attack on our children, targeted randomly anyone who happened to be outside a hunter's hut, around a campfire, or outside their gate, going about their own business. This is an attack on our whole country, and each citizen feels it.

Geoff Bennett:

A day earlier, a teenage gunman had killed eight students and a guard at a Belgrade school.

Flash floods in a province in Eastern Congo have claimed the lives of at least 176 people. Torrential rains this week sent rivers into two villages in the Central African nation, destroying buildings and triggering landslides. The rain also caused flooding in neighboring Rwanda that killed 130 people.

The two warring sides in Sudan sent envoys to Saudi Arabia today for talks on trying to enforce a cease-fire. That word came as fierce fighting continued without letup all across Khartoum. The capital city has been ravaged by three weeks of intense combat. The talks between Sudan's army and paramilitary rebels will take place in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

Back in this country, the U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked Oklahoma from executing a death row inmate. Richard Glossip was involved in a murder-for-hire plot back in 1997 and scheduled to be put to death on May 18. The state's attorney general had called for his life to be spared, arguing that he didn't receive a fair trial. The High Court now put his execution on hold while it reviews the case.

Wall Street rallied as bank stocks recovered some and Apple's earnings beat expectations. It's the single most valuable stock on the market. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 546 points, or 1.6 percent, to close at 33674. The Nasdaq rose 2.25 percent. The S&P 500 was up 1.8 percent.

And a New Orleans teenager is headed for Cornell University after receiving a record $10 million in scholarship offers. Dennis Barnes announced his choice today and said he will study computer science. He's 16 years old and is graduating from high school two years early. Barnes applied to nearly 200 schools and had scholarship offers from 149 of them.

Congratulations to him.

And still to come on the "NewsHour": Idaho criminalizes helping minors travel out of state to get an abortion; David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart weigh in on the week's political headlines; and Brits express mixed feelings ahead of the coronation of King Charles.