Voice of America’s immigration news

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

WASHINGTON — Seventy years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled separating children in schools by race was unconstitutional. On paper, that decision — the fabled Brown v. Board of Education, taught in most every American classroom — still stands. But for decades, American schools have been re-segregating. The country is more diverse than it ever has been, with students more exposed to classmates from different backgrounds. Still, around 4 out of 10 Black and Hispanic students attend schools where almost every one of their classmates is another student of color. The intense segregation by race is linked to socioeconomic conditions: Schools where students of color compose more than 90% of the student body are five times more likely to be located in low-income areas. That in turn has resounding academic consequences: Students who attend high-poverty schools, regardless of their family's finances, have worse educational outcomes. Efforts to slow or reverse the increasing separation of American schools have stalled. Court cases slowly have chipped away at the dream outlined in the case of Brown v. Board, leaving fewer and fewer tools in the hands of districts to integrate schools by the early 2000s. The arc of the moral universe, in this case, does not seem to be bending toward justice. "School integration exists as little more than an idea in America right now, a little more than a memory," said Derek Black, a law professor at the University of Southern California. "It's actually an idea that a pretty good majority of Americans think is a good idea. But that's all." More than just diverse schools The dream of Brown was never as simple as diversity. It was about equality, and the opportunity that came with it. From the beginning, funding and integration have been inseparable. "Whiter schools and districts have more resources, and that is wrong," said Ary Amerikaner, a former Obama administration official and the founder of Brown's Promise. "But it is a reality. And that undermines opportunity for students of color, and it undermines our future democracy." We remember Brown v. Board as the end of segregated schools in the United States. But stating values does not, alone, change reality. Though the case was decided in 1954, it was followed by more than a decade of delay and avoidance before school districts began to meaningfully allow Black students to enter white schools. It took further court rulings, monitoring and enforcement to bring a short-lived era of integration to hundreds of school districts. For the students who took part in those desegregation programs, their life trajectory changed — the more years spent in integrated schools, the better Black children fared on measures like educational attainment, graduation rates, health, and earning potential, with no adverse effects on white children. For a brief period, it seemed the country recognized the deeper remedies required. "All things being equal, with no history of discrimination, it might well be desirable to assign pupils to schools nearest their homes," Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote in Swann v. Mecklenburg, a 1971 decision that upheld the use of busing to integrate schools in North Carolina. "But all things are not equal in a system that has been deliberately constructed and maintained to enforce racial segregation." But not long after, another series of court decisions would unwind those outcomes. Fifty years ago, in Milliken v. Bradley, the court struck down a plan for integrating Detroit public schools across school district lines. The ruling undermined desegregation efforts in the north and Midwest, where small districts allowed white families to escape integration. Other decisions followed. In Freeman v. Pitts, the court ruled resegregation from private choice and demographic shifts could not be monitored by the court. More than 200 districts were released from court-monitored desegregation plans. By 2007, when the court ruled in Parents Involved v. Seattle Public Schools, even voluntary integration plans could no longer consider assigning students on the basis of race. "If you have the tools taken away from you ... by the Supreme Court, then you really don't have a whole lot of tools," said Stephan Blanford, a former Seattle Public Schools board member. One district as a microcosm The arc of history is clear in the city where the landmark Swann busing case originated. At its peak, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools was considered such a success at integrating classrooms and closing the gap between Black and white students that educators around the country came to tour the district. Today, more than 20 years after a court ruling overturned busing students on the basis of race, CMS is the most segregated district in North Carolina. While there are no laws that keep kids siloed by race and income, in so many schools that is the reality. Charlotte's sprawling, complex busing plan brought Black and white students into the same schools — and by extension, made white children's resources available to Black students for the first time. The district's integration program ended when white families sued after their children did not get their top choice of school placement in a lottery that considered race. Instead, the district created a school assignment process that said diversity "will be based on the family's decisions." It left the families of Mecklenburg County, some of whom have always had better choices than others, on their own. In the first year of the district's choice program, Black families were more likely to try to use the choice plan to pick an alternative school. They were also more likely to get none of the magnet schools they wanted. In the decades that followed, the district re-segregated. Years of busing had unwound the segregated makeup of the schools, but the underlying disparities and residential segregation had been left untouched. Charlotte is a place where the divide between affluence and poverty, and the clear racial lines that mirror it, are so stark that people who live there refer to the city in two parts — the well-off "wedge" and the poorer "crescent." How could anything other than an explicit consideration of those conditions ever hope to ameliorate them? Solutions to segregated schools exist in this context, often relying on individual families to make choices that are limited by their circumstances. Magnet schools and inter-district transfers — two common policies that may create great individual opportunities — are limited and will always leave some students behind. Wherever you look, families are divided in how they view integration. For white and affluent families, it can exist as a noble idea, one filled with self-reflection. But for families of color or poor families — those with less of a safety net — the point of integration often is to place their children somewhere better. Efforts to integrate schools can take two paths, Stefan Lallinger, executive director of Next100, a public policy think tank, says. They either fight around the margins, creating slightly less segregated spaces, or they address the problem head on, which in many parts of the country would mean tackling boundaries deliberately drawn to separate rich from poor. How to move forward in a system that resists? Amerikaner and Saba Bireda founded Brown's Promise on the idea of bridging the divide between funding and integration, leveraging state courts to obtain the tools the Supreme Court has taken away from districts.  Their strategy has some precedence. In Connecticut, a 1989 lawsuit in state court resulted in the creation of an inter-district transfer program, which allows students in Hartford to transfer into suburban schools and magnet programs, breaking up concentrations of poverty and racially isolated schools. "This country had to be moved to integration," Bireda said. "And unfortunately, 70 years later, we feel like we still need litigation. We need the push of the courts." More recent lawsuits have taken place in New Jersey and in Minnesota. In 2015, Alex Cruz-Guzman became a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging segregation in Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools. Cruz-Guzman immigrated to the United States from Mexico as a teenager. As a parent, he noticed his children's schools consisted almost entirely of other Latino students. When he tried to place them in more integrated schools, the family faced long waitlists. The case wound its way through court for nearly a decade, almost reaching a settlement in the legislature before that bill failed to pass. Cruz-Guzman recalls people asking why he would join a case that likely would not resolve in time to benefit his own children, who struggled with learning English for a time in predominantly Latino schools. To him, the arc of the case is about the kids whose lives could change in the future. "It's not only my kids. My grandkids will benefit from it," he says. "People for generations will benefit." How far those legal cases can reach remains to be seen. Actual solutions are imperfect. But integration is something this country has tried before, and while it lasted, by many measures, it worked. Anniversaries are moments to stop and contemplate. Seventy years after Brown, the work towards achieving its vision remains unfinished. Where there are no perfect, easy answers, what other choice is there besides trying imperfect pathways that bring about an increasingly diverse country somewhere closer to the promise of Brown? "What's the alternative?" Bireda said. "We are headed towards a country that is going to be majority people of color. ... We can be a strong multiracial democracy, but we cannot be that if we continue to allow most children in the United States not to go to school with children who are from different backgrounds."

MEXICO CITY — Newly minted Michelin-starred chef Arturo Rivera Martínez stood over an insanely hot grill Wednesday at the first Mexican taco stand ever to get a coveted star from the French dining guide and did exactly the same thing he's been doing for 20 years: searing meat. Though Michelin representatives came by Wednesday to present him with one of the company's heavy, full-sleeved, pristine white chef's jackets, he didn't put it on: In this tiny business, which measures 3 meters by 3 meters, the heat is intense. At Mexico City's Tacos El Califa de León, in the scruffy-bohemian San Rafael neighborhood, there are only four things on the menu, all tacos, and all of which came from some area around a cow's rib, loin or fore shank. "The secret is the simplicity of our taco. It has only a tortilla, red or green sauce, and that's it. That, and the quality of the meat," said Rivera Martínez. He's also probably the only Michelin-starred chef who, when asked what beverage should accompany his food, answers "I like a Coke." It's actually more complicated than that. El Califa de León is the only taco stand among the 16 Mexican restaurants given one star, as well as two eateries that got two stars. Almost all the rest are pretty darn posh eateries. In fact, other than perhaps one street food stand in Bangkok, El Califa de León is probably the smallest restaurant ever to get a Michelin star: Half of the 9.29 square-meter space is taken up by a solid steel plate grill that's hotter than the salsa. The other half is packed with standing customers clutching plastic plates and ladling salsa, and the female assistant who rolls out the rounds of tortilla dough constantly. In a way, El Califa de León is a tribute to resistance to change. It has been doing the same four things since 1968. Thousands of times a day, Rivera Martínez grabs a fresh, thinly sliced fillet of beef from a stack and slaps it on the super-hot steel grill; it sizzles. He tosses a pinch of salt over it, squeezes half a lime on top, and places a soft round of freshly rolled tortilla dough onto the solid metal slab to puff up. After less than a minute — he won't say exactly how long because "that's a secret" — he flips the beef over with a spatula, flips the tortilla, and very quickly scoops the cooked, fresh tortilla onto a plastic plate, places the beef on top and calls out the customer's name who ordered it. Any sauces — fiery red or equally atomic green — are added by the customer. There is no place to sit and at some times of day, no place to stand because the sidewalk in front of the business was taken over by street vendors hawking socks and batteries and cell phone accessories years ago. Not that you really would want to eat inside the tiny taco restaurant. The heat on a spring day is overwhelming. The heat is one of the few secrets Rivera Martínez would share. The steel grill must be heated to 360 Celsius. Asked how it felt to get a Michelin star, he said in classic Mexico City slang, "está chido ... está padre," or "it's neat, it's cool."  The prices are quite high by Mexican standards. A single, generous but not huge taco costs nearly $5. But many customers are convinced it's the best, if not the cheapest, in the city. "It's the quality of the meat," said Alberto Muñoz, who has been coming here for about eight years. "I have never been disappointed. And now I'll recommend it with even more reason, now that it has a star." Muñoz's son, Alan, who was waiting for a beef taco alongside his father, noted "this is a historic day for Mexican cuisine, and we're witnesses to it." It really is about not changing anything — the freshness of the tortillas, the menu, the layout of the restaurant. Owner Mario Hernández Alonso won't even reveal where he buys his meat. Times have changed, though. The most loyal customer base for El Califa de León originally came from politicians of the old ruling PRI party, whose headquarters is about five blocks away. But the party lost the presidency in 2018 and has gone into a steady decline, and now it's rare to see anyone in a suit here. And Hernández Alonso noted that his father Juan, who founded the business, never bothered to trademark the Califa name and so a well-funded, sleek taco chain has opened about 15 airy restaurants in upscale neighborhoods under a similar name. Hernández Alonso has been toying with the idea of getting the business on social media, but that's up to his grandkids.

Boston, Massachusetts — A Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge on social media died from eating a large quantity of chile pepper extract and also had a congenital heart defect, according to autopsy results obtained by The Associated Press.  Harris Wolobah, a 10th-grader from the city of Worcester, died on September 1, 2023, after eating the Paqui chip as part of the manufacturer's "One Chip Challenge."  "We were and remain deeply saddened by the death of Harris Wolobah and extend our condolences to his family and friends," Paqui, a Texas-based subsidiary of the Hershey Co., said in a statement Thursday. A phone number listed for Harris' family was disconnected. The Associated Press left messages seeking comment with friends of the family.  Harris died of cardiopulmonary arrest "in the setting of recent ingestion of food substance with high capsaicin concentration," according to the autopsy from the Chief Office of the Medical Examiner. Capsaicin is the component that gives chile peppers their heat.  The autopsy also said that Harris had cardiomegaly, meaning an enlarged heart, and a congenital defect described as "myocardial bridging of the left anterior descending coronary artery."  A myocardial bridge occurs when a segment of a major artery of the heart runs within the heart muscle instead of on its surface, according to Dr. James Udelson, chief of cardiology at Tufts Medical Center.  "It is possible that with significant stimulation of the heart, the muscle beyond the bridge suddenly had abnormal blood flow ('ischemia') and could have been a cause of a severe arrhythmia," Udelson told the AP in an email. "There have been reports of acute toxicity with capsaicin causing ischemia of the heart muscle."  Large doses of capsaicin can increase how the heart squeezes, putting extra pressure on the artery, noted Dr. Syed Haider, a cardiologist at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.  But while the autopsy results suggest that a heart defect probably made Harris more vulnerable to the negative effects of the chile pepper extract, people without underlying risk factors can also experience serious heart problems from ingesting large amounts of capsaicin, Haider said.  Udelson and Haider both spoke in general terms; neither was involved in Harris' case.  The cause of Harris' death was determined on February 27, and a death certificate was released to the Worcester city clerk's office on March 5, according to Elaine Driscoll, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The state released only the cause and manner of death. Officials will not release a full report, which is not considered part of the public record, she said.  The Paqui chip, sold individually for about $10, came wrapped in foil in a coffin-shaped box containing the warning that it was intended for the "vengeful pleasure of intense heat and pain." The warning noted that the chip was for adult consumption only, and should be kept out of the reach of children.  Despite the warning, children had no problem buying the chips, and there had been reports from around the country of teens who got sick after taking part in the chip-eating challenge. Among them were three California high school students who were taken to a hospital and seven students in Minnesota who were treated by paramedics after taking part in the challenge in 2022.  In its statement Thursday, Paqui cited the chip's "clear and prominent labeling highlighting that the product was not for children or anyone sensitive to spicy foods or with underlying health conditions."  "We saw increased reports of teens and other individuals not heeding these warnings," the statement read. "As a result, while the product adhered to food safety standards, out of an abundance of caution, we worked with retailers to voluntarily remove the product from shelves in September 2023, and the One Chip Challenge has been discontinued."  The challenge called for participants to eat the Paqui chip and then see how long they could go without consuming other food and water. Sales of the chip seemed largely driven by people posting videos on social media of them or their friends taking the challenge. They showed people, including children, unwrapping the packaging, eating the chips and then reacting to the heat. Some videos showed people gagging, coughing and begging for water.  Spicy food challenges have been around for years. From local chile pepper eating contests to restaurant walls of fame for those who finished extra hot dishes, people around the world have been daring each other to eat especially fiery foods, with some experts pointing to the internal rush of competition and risk-taking.  A YouTube series called "Hot Ones" rose to internet fame several years ago with videos of celebrities' reactions to eating spicy wings. Meanwhile, restaurants nationwide have offered in-person challenges — from Buffalo Wild Wings' "Blazin' Challenge" to the "Hell Challenge" of Wing King in Las Vegas. In both challenges, patrons over 18 can attempt to eat a certain amount of wings doused in extra hot sauce in limited time without drinking or eating other food. Chile pepper eating contests are also regularly hosted around the world.  Extremely spicy products created and marketed solely for the challenges — and possible internet fame — represent a more recent phenomenon exacerbated by social media.  Harris' death spurred warnings from Massachusetts authorities and physicians, who cautioned that eating such spicy foods can have unintended consequences. Since the chip fad emerged, poison control centers have warned that the concentrated amount could cause allergic reactions, trouble breathing, irregular heartbeats and even heart attacks or strokes. 

washington — A U.S.-built pier is in place to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, but no one will know if the new route will work until a steady stream of deliveries begins reaching starving Palestinians.  The trucks that will roll off the pier project installed Thursday will face intensified fighting, Hamas threats to target any foreign forces and uncertainty about whether the Israeli military will ensure that aid convoys have access and safety from attack by Israeli forces.  Even if the sea route performs as hoped, U.S, U.N. and aid officials caution, it will bring in a small fraction of the aid that the embattled enclave needs.  Here's a look at what's ahead for aid arriving by sea:  Will the sea route end the crisis in Gaza?  No, not even if everything with the sea route works perfectly, American and international officials say.  U.S. military officials hope to start with about 90 truckloads of aid a day through the sea route, growing quickly to about 150 trucks a day.  Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other aid officials have consistently said Gaza needs deliveries of more than 500 truckloads a day — the prewar average — to help a population struggling without adequate food or clean water during seven months of war between Israel and Hamas.  Israel has hindered deliveries of food, fuel and other supplies through land crossings since Hamas' deadly attack on Israel launched the conflict in October. The restrictions on border crossings and fighting have brought on a growing humanitarian catastrophe for civilians.  International experts say all 2.3 million of Gaza's people are experiencing acute levels of food insecurity, 1.1 million of them at "catastrophic" levels. Power and U.N. World Food Program Director Cindy McCain say north Gaza is in famine.  At that stage, saving the lives of children and others most affected requires steady treatment in clinical settings, making a cease-fire critical, USAID officials say.  At full operation, international officials have said, aid from the sea route is expected to reach a half-million people. That's just over one-fifth of the population.  What are the challenges for the sea route now? The U.S. plan is for the U.N. to take charge of the aid once it's brought in. The U.N. World Food Program will then turn it over to aid groups for delivery.  U.N. officials have expressed concern about preserving their neutrality despite the involvement in the sea route by the Israeli military — one of the combatants in the conflict — and say they are negotiating that.  There are still questions about how aid groups will safely operate in Gaza to distribute food to those who need it most, said Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator for USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which is helping with logistics.  U.S. and international organizations, including the U.S. government's USAID and the Oxfam, Save the Children and International Rescue Committee nonprofits, say Israeli officials haven't meaningfully improved protections of aid workers since the military's April 1 attack that killed seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen organization.  Talks with the Israeli military "need to get to a place where humanitarian aid workers feel safe and secure and able to operate safely. And I don't think we're there yet," Korde told reporters Thursday.  Meanwhile, fighting is surging in Gaza. It isn't threatening the new shoreline aid distribution area, Pentagon officials say, but they have made it clear that security conditions could prompt a shutdown of the maritime route, even just temporarily.  The U.S. and Israel have developed a security plan for humanitarian groups coming to a "marshaling yard" next to the pier to pick up the aid, said U.S. Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of the U.S. military's Central Command. USAID Response Director Dan Dieckhaus said aid groups would follow their own security procedures in distributing the supplies.  Meanwhile, Israeli forces have moved into the border crossing in the southern city of Rafah as part of their offensive, preventing aid from moving through, including fuel.  U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that without fuel, delivery of all aid in Gaza can't happen.  What's needed?  U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, the U.N. and aid groups have pressed Israel to allow more aid through land crossings, saying that's the only way to ease the suffering of Gaza's civilians. They've also urged Israel's military to actively coordinate with aid groups to stop Israeli attacks on humanitarian workers.  "Getting aid to people in need into and across Gaza cannot and should not depend on a floating dock far from where needs are most acute," Haq told reporters Thursday.  "To stave off the horrors of famine, we must use the fastest and most obvious route to reach the people of Gaza — and for that, we need access by land now," Haq said.  U.S. officials agree that the pier is only a partial solution at best, and say they are pressing Israel for more.  What does Israel say?  Israel says it places no limits on the entry of humanitarian aid and blames the U.N. for delays in distributing goods entering Gaza. The U.N. says ongoing fighting, Israeli fire and chaotic security conditions have hindered delivery.  Under pressure from the U.S., Israel has in recent weeks opened a pair of crossings to deliver aid into hard-hit northern Gaza. It said a series of Hamas attacks on the main crossing, Kerem Shalom, have disrupted the flow of goods.

Ramallah, WEST BANK — The Israeli military said on Saturday it killed a senior Palestinian militant during an air strike on an "operations center" in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. "A number of significant terrorists were inside the compound," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement posted to Telegram. It said the strike by a fighter jet and helicopter killed Islam Khamayseh, a "senior terrorist operative in the Jenin Camp" who was responsible for a series of attacks in the area. The al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, confirmed in a statement that Khamayseh was killed and several others wounded during an Israeli raid Friday night. It said Khamayseh was a leader of the Jenin Battalion, which is affiliated with Islamic Jihad. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said one person was killed and eight were wounded and receiving hospital treatment as a result of Israel's operation in Jenin on Friday night. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and its troops routinely carry out incursions into areas such as Jenin, which are nominally under the Palestinian Authority's security control. The West Bank has seen a recent surge in violence, particularly since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since October 7, according to Palestinian officials, and at least 20 Israelis have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The Gaza Strip has been at war since Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has killed at least 35,303 people, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

new york — Your wallet may soon be getting thinner. Visa on Wednesday announced major changes to how credit and debit cards will operate in the U.S. in the coming months and years. The new features could mean Americans will be carrying fewer physical cards in their wallets, and will make the 16-digit credit or debit card number printed on every card increasingly irrelevant. They will be some of the biggest changes to how payments operate in the U.S. since the U.S. rolled out chip-embedded cards several years ago. They also come as Americans have many more options to pay for purchases beyond "credit or debit," including buy now, pay later companies, peer-to-peer payment options, paying directly with a bank, or digital payment systems such as Apple Pay. "I think (with these features) we're getting past the point where consumers may never need to manually enter an account number ever again," said Mark Nelsen, Visa's global head of consumer payments. The biggest change coming for Americans will be the ability for banks to issue one physical payment card that will be connected to multiple bank accounts. That means no more carrying, for example, a Bank of America or Chase debit card as well as their respective credit cards in a physical wallet. Americans will be able to set criteria with their bank — such as having all purchases below $100 or with a certain merchant applied to the debit card, while other purchases go on the credit card. The feature, already being used in Asia, will be available this summer. Buy now, pay later company Affirm is the first of Visa's customers to roll out the feature in the U.S. Fraud prompts changes Some of Visa's new features are in response to online-payments fraud, which continues to increase as more countries adopt digital payments. The company based in San Francisco, California, estimates that payment fraud happens roughly seven times more often online than it does in person, and there are now billions of stolen credit and debit card numbers available to criminals. Other new elements are also in response to features that non-payments companies have rolled out in recent years. The Apple Card, which uses Mastercard as its payment network, does not come with a printed 16-digit account number and Apple Card users can request a fresh credit card number at any time without having to dispose of the physical card. Visa executives see a future where banks will issue cards where the 16-digit account number, if the new cards come with them, is largely symbolic. Soon, fingerprints can approve transactions Among the other updates unveiled by Visa are changes to tap-to-pay features. Americans will be able to tap their credit or debit cards to their smartphones to add the card to mobile wallets, instead of using a smartphone's camera to scan in a card's information, or tap the card to their smartphones to approve a transaction online. Visa will also start implementing biometrics to approve transactions, similar to how Apple devices use a fingerprint or face scan to approve transactions. The features will take time to filter down to the banks, which will decide when or what to implement for their customers. But because the banks and credit card companies are Visa's customers, and issue cards with the Visa label, these are features that the financial institutions have been asking for.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The young man who attacked a Malaysian police station and killed two officers was a recluse and believed to have acted on his own, despite suspected links to the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, the country's home minister said Saturday. The man stormed a police station in southern Johor state near Singapore in the early hours of Friday with a machete. He hacked a police constable to death and then used the dead officer's weapon to kill another. He injured a third officer before being shot dead. Police initially said the man could have been attempting to take firearms from the station. Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution called it a "lone wolf attack," based on the initial investigation, and said there was no threat to the wider public. "We have established that the attacker acted on his own ... a lone wolf driven by certain motivation and his own understanding," Saifuddin said. "His action is not linked to any larger mission." Police have said the man's father was a known member of the Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terror network linked to al-Qaida, and that they found materials linked to the group in their home. Seven people including the man's parents and three siblings were detained and police were searching for some 20 Jemaah Islamiyah members in the state. The incident sparked concerns over a possible wider terror threat, prompting Singapore to issue a warning to its citizens to be vigilant when traveling to Johor. Police initially said the attacker was 34, but Saifudin said he was 21 years old, with no criminal record. He said the man did not interact much with his neighbors, and nor does his family. Investigations are ongoing to determine what the man's motive was, he added. Jemaah Islamiyah, designated a terror group by the U.S and banned in Indonesia, is widely blamed for attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia including the 2002 bombings in the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. The group has been considerably weakened by security crackdowns in the region.

JACUMBA HOT SPRINGS, California — On many nights, hundreds of migrants squeeze through poles in a border wall or climb over on metal ladders. They gather in a buffer zone between two walls with views of the night lights of Tijuana, Mexico, waiting hours for Border Patrol agents while volunteers deliver hot coffee, instant ramen and bandages for busted knees and swollen ankles.  About an hour drive east, where the moon offers the only light, up to hundreds more navigate a boulder-strewn desert looking for always-shifting areas where migrants congregate. Groups of just a few to dozens walk dirt trails and paved roads searching for agents.  The scenes are a daily reminder that San Diego became the busiest corridor for illegal crossings in April, according to U.S. figures, the fifth region to hold that distinction in two years in a sign of how quickly migration routes are changing.  Routes were remarkably stable a short time ago. San Diego was the busiest Border Patrol sector for decades until more enforcement pushed migrants to the desert area near Tucson, Arizona, which became the top spot by 1998. The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas saw the most activity from 2013 to June 2022 as Central Americans became a greater presence.  Migrants were arrested nearly 128,900 times on the Mexican border in April, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Wednesday, down 6.3% from March and barely half of a record-high 250,000 in December. While still historically high, April bucked a typical spring increase.  The drop is largely due to heightened Mexican enforcement, which includes blocking migrants from boarding freight trains, according to U.S. officials. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott touts his multibillion-dollar border crackdown, while others highlight violence in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas as a deterrent on the path to the Rio Grande Valley.  Mexico pledged it won't allow more than 4,000 illegal crossings a day to the U.S., Alicia Bárcena, Mexico's foreign relations secretary, told reporters Tuesday. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 10,000 on some days in December.  Despite the overall decline, arrests in the San Diego sector reached 37,370 in April, up 10.6% from March to replace Tucson as the busiest of nine sectors bordering Mexico. Troy Miller, CBP's acting commissioner, said more enforcement, including with other countries, led to overall declines from March, while acknowledging "continually shifting migration patterns."  Many migrants say San Diego is the easiest and least dangerous place to cross. They constantly check their phones for messages, social media posts and voice calls that help them plan their route and crossing.  "One hears many things on the way," Oscar Palacios, 42, said one April morning after being driven by an agent to wait in a dirt patch where more than 100 migrants shivered near campfires. After Mexican immigration agents returned him three times to southern Mexico, the Ecuadorian man said, he gave someone he didn't know $500 for a document that allowed him to fly to Tijuana. He then paid a smuggler to guide him to California.  San Diego's draw lies in part because Tijuana is the largest city on the Mexican side of the border, U.S. officials say. People of nearly 100 nationalities have arrived at Tijuana's airport this year, including 12,000 each from Colombia and Cuba, about 6,000 each from Haiti and Venezuela and thousands more from Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, China and Mauritania.  "It's the prevalence of social media," said Paul Beeson, whose 33-year Border Patrol career included stints as chief agent in the San Diego, Tucson and Yuma, Arizona, sectors. "There's a lot more information out there about getting across. Air transportation has picked up and people are able to move around."  Migration in San Diego presents a challenge because people come from a wider variety of countries — including India, Georgia, Egypt, Jamaica and Vietnam — where deportation flights can be costly and difficult to arrange, U.S. officials say. Mexicans, who are deported nearby over land, and Guatemalans and Hondurans, whose governments have long accepted frequent deportation flights, are a smaller presence there than elsewhere on the border.  The Border Patrol has been busing and flying some migrants from San Diego to other border cities for processing, a role reversal from even last year, when migrants were sent to San Diego to deal with overflow.  Migrants wait hours for agents to pick them up for processing instead of dayslong delays that were common when makeshift camps started popping up in the San Diego area about a year ago. Last month a federal judge said children in the camps were subject to custody standards guaranteeing their health and safety.  One night last week, about 70 people gathered between two walls near an upscale outlet mall. Two Honduran women were no longer able to walk after being injured while scaling the border wall; one accepted a Border Patrol ride to the hospital.  "Almost every night we have injuries from people jumping," said Clint Carney, 58, who volunteers many nights answering migrants' questions and serving snacks.  Near Jacumba Hot Springs, a town of less than 1,000 people, about a dozen people from Latin American countries arrived at a fork in a dirt road around 10 p.m. About 100 Chinese migrants came just before sunrise, many neatly dressed and playfully taking pictures on their phones.  Some of the Latin Americans grumbled quietly when the Chinese lined up ahead of them as Border Patrol vehicles arrived. Previously agents issued colored wristbands that were used to keep track of how long people had been waiting and who was next in line, but that practice was stopped in December.  Such staging areas have popped up in remote areas after migrants cross the border where mountainous terrain has prevented barrier construction. Mexican authorities' increased presence in some areas pushed traffic elsewhere in the sparsely populated desert, creating new camps. One new site is a short distance from a gun club, without tents, bathrooms or other services.  San Diego shelters have been unable to house everyone who is released by the Border Patrol with notices to appear in immigration court. San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond said more than 143,000 migrants have been released on the streets since September 13, citing Border Patrol data.  From a bus and trolley station where agents leave migrants, it is a short ride to the airport, where they can charge phones and use restrooms before boarding flights to destinations elsewhere in the U.S. 

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Friday overhauled its process for evaluating alleged visions of the Virgin Mary, weeping statues and other seemingly supernatural phenomena that have marked church history, putting the brakes on making definitive declarations unless the event is obviously fabricated. The Vatican's doctrine office revised norms first issued in 1978, arguing that they were no longer useful or viable in the internet age. Nowadays, word about apparitions or weeping Madonnas travels quickly and can harm the faithful if hoaxers are trying to make money off people's beliefs or manipulate them, the Vatican said. The new norms make clear that such an abuse of people's faith can be punishable canonically, saying, "The use of purported supernatural experiences or recognized mystical elements as a means of or a pretext for exerting control over people or carrying out abuses is to be considered of particular moral gravity." The Catholic Church has had a long and controversial history of the faithful claiming to have had visions of the Virgin Mary, of statues purportedly weeping tears of blood and stigmata erupting on hands and feet evoking the wounds of Christ. When confirmed as authentic by church authorities, these otherwise inexplicable signs have led to a flourishing of the faith, with new religious vocations and conversions. That has been the case for the purported apparitions of Mary that turned Fatima, Portugal, and Lourdes, France, into enormously popular pilgrimage destinations. Church figures who claimed to have experienced the stigmata wounds, including Padre Pio and Pope Francis' namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, have inspired millions of Catholics even if decisions about their authenticity have been elusive. Francis himself has weighed in on the phenomenon, making clear that he is devoted to the main church-approved Marian apparitions, such as Our Lady of Guadalupe, who believers say appeared to an Indigenous man in Mexico in 1531. But Francis has expressed skepticism about more recent events, including claims of repeated messages from Mary to "seers" at the shrine of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, even while allowing pilgrimages to take place there. "I prefer the Madonna as mother, our mother, and not a woman who's the head of a telegraphic office, who sends a message every day at a certain time," Francis told reporters in 2017. The new norms reframe the Catholic Church's evaluation process by essentially taking off the table whether church authorities will declare a particular vision, stigmata or other seemingly divinely inspired event supernatural. Instead, the new criteria envisages six main outcomes, with the most favorable being that the church issues a noncommittal doctrinal green light, a so-called "nihil obstat." Such a declaration means there is nothing about the event that is contrary to the faith, and therefore Catholics can express devotion to it. The bishop can take more cautious approaches if there are doctrinal red flags about the reported event. The most serious envisages a declaration that the event isn't supernatural or that there are enough red flags to warrant a public statement "that adherence to this phenomenon is not allowed." The aim is to avoid scandal, manipulation and confusion, and the Vatican fully acknowledged the hierarchy's own guilt in confusing the faithful with the way it evaluated and authenticated alleged visions over the centuries. The most egregious case was the flip-flopping determinations of authenticity by a succession of bishops over 70 years in Amsterdam about the purported visions of the Madonna at the Our Lady of All Nations shrine. Another similar case prompted the Vatican in 2007 to excommunicate the members of a Quebec-based group, the Army of Mary, after its founder claimed to have had Marian visions and declared herself the reincarnation of the mother of Christ. The revised norms acknowledge the real potential for such abuses and warn that hoaxers will be held accountable, including with canonical penalties. The norms also allow that an event might at some point be declared "supernatural," and that the pope can intervene in the process. But "as a rule," the church is no longer in the business of authenticating inexplicable events or making definitive decisions about their supernatural origin. And at no point are the faithful ever obliged to believe in the particular events, said Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the head of the Vatican doctrine office. "The church gives the faithful the freedom to pay attention" or not, he said at a news conference. Despite the new criteria, he said the church's past decision-making on alleged supernatural events — such as at Fatima, Guadalupe or Lourdes — remains valid. "What was decided in the past has its value," he said. "What was done remains." To date, fewer than 20 apparitions have been approved by the Vatican over its 2,000-year history, according to Michael O'Neill, who runs the online apparition resource The Miracle Hunter. Neomi De Anda, executive director of the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton, said the new guidelines represent a significant and welcome change to the current practice, while restating important principles. "The faithful are able to engage with these phenomena as members of the faithful in popular practices of religion, while not feeling the need to believe everything offered to them as supernatural as well as the caution against being deceived and beguiled," she said in an email. Whereas in the past the bishop often had the last word unless Vatican help was requested, now the Vatican must sign off on every recommendation proposed by a bishop. Robert Fastiggi, who teaches Marian theology at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan and is an expert on apparitions, said at first glance that requirement might seem to take authority away from the local bishop. "But I think it's intended to avoid cases in which the Holy See might feel prompted to overrule a decision of the local bishop," he said. "What is positive in the new document is the recognition that the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Mother are present and active in human history," he said. "We must appreciate these supernatural interventions but realize that they must be discerned properly." He cited the biblical phrase that best applies: "Test everything, retain what is good."

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with AFP on Friday warned Russia could intensify its offensive and said Kyiv would only accept a "fair peace" despite the West's calls for a quick solution. Zelenskyy also repeated pleas for allies to send more air defense and fighter jets and said the "biggest advantage" for Russia was a ban on Ukraine using Western-donated weapons to strike Russian territory. With a mobilization law coming into force Saturday, he admitted issues with staffing and "morale" in Ukrainian ranks, which have been often outgunned and outmanned as the third year of the war grinds on. While Russian troops have made gradual advances in recent months, it has seen larger gains along the northeastern border in an offensive that began on May 10 in Kharkiv region. But Zelenskyy said on Friday that Ukraine would hold its defensive lines and stop any major Russian breakthrough. "No one is going to give up," said Zelenskyy, who has been the face of Ukraine's resistance against Russia since the invasion began in February 2022. 'Nonsense situation' Zelenskyy also rejected French President Emmanuel Macron's call for an Olympic truce during the Paris Games, saying it would hand an "advantage" to Moscow by giving it time to move around troops and artillery. He said Ukraine and its Western allies had the "same values" but often "different views," particularly on what the end of the conflict might look like. "We are in a nonsense situation where the West is afraid that Russia will lose the war. And it does not want Ukraine to lose it," Zelenskyy said. "Everyone wants to find some model for the war to end faster," he said, when asked about the possibility of a scenario for ending hostilities like the one that established a dividing line on the Korean peninsula. The president urged China and countries from the developing world to attend a peace summit with dozens of leaders being hosted by neutral Switzerland next month to which Russia has not been invited. He said global players like China "have influence on Russia. And the more such countries we have on our side, on the side of the end of the war, I would say, the more Russia will have to move and reckon with." The 46-year-old former comedian wore one of his trademark khaki outfits for the interview in Kyiv -- his first with foreign media since the start of Russia's Kharkiv region offensive. "We want the war to end with a fair peace for us," while "the West wants the war to end. Period. As soon as possible. And for them, this is a fair peace," he said. 'First wave' of Russian offensive Zelenskyy said the situation in the Kharkiv region, where thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes, was "controlled" but "not stabilized." An AFP estimate based on data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed Russian forces have advanced more than 278 square kilometers in their offensive -- their biggest gains in a year and a half. Zelenskyy said Russian troops had penetrated between five to 10 kilometers along the northeastern border before being stopped by Ukrainian forces. Russia's offensive "could consist of several waves. There was the first wave" in Kharkiv region, he said. Zelenskyy played down Russia's gains in the offensive so far but added: "We have to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory. Not vice versa. And that's still their advantage." 'They are like a beast' Speaking about the offensive during a visit to China on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was a response to Ukraine shelling border regions. "I said publicly that if this continues, we will be forced to create a security zone," he said. When asked whether Russia planned to capture the city of Kharkiv, which has more than a million inhabitants, Putin said: "As for Kharkiv, there are no such plans as of today." But Zelenskyy said that Russian forces "want to attack" the city although they realize it would be "very difficult." "They understand that we have forces that will fight for a long time," he said. He also said Russia did not have enough forces for "a full-scale offensive on the capital like the one they had at the beginning of the offensive." But he emphasized that Ukraine and its Western allies should not show weakness and called for the deployment of two Patriot batteries to defend the skies over the Kharkiv region and show Ukraine's resilience. "They are like a beast... If they feel a weakness somewhere in this direction, they will press on," he said. 'Biggest advantage' for Russia In the interview, he said Ukraine only had "about 25% of what we need" to defend the country in terms of air defense. He also said "120 to 130" F-16 fighter jets or other advanced aircraft were needed "in order to have parity" with Russia. He was highly critical of restrictions on striking Russian territory with Western arms, although Britain and the United States have hinted in recent days that these bans could be eased. "They can fire any weapons from their territory at ours. This is the biggest advantage that Russia has. We can't do anything to their systems, which are located on the territory of Russia, with Western weapons," he said. When asked about the issue during a visit to Ukraine this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that "ultimately Ukraine has to make decisions for itself about how it's going to conduct this war." On a more personal note, Zelenskyy said his sense of professional pride and duty helped him keep going. "I'm just a very responsible person. I was just raised to be such a person... I know that what I do, I have to do better than anyone else," he said. But he said his comedy days were behind him: "I don't make anyone laugh. It seems to me that today it's the opposite." 

LONDON — A scenic fishing village in southwestern England was under instructions to boil its tap water for a third day on Friday after a parasite sickened more than 45 people in the latest example of Britain's troubled water system. Around 16,000 homes and businesses in the Brixham area of Devon were told to boil water after cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite that causes diarrhea, was found in the water. At least 46 cases of cryptosporidiosis have been confirmed and more than 100 other people have reported similar symptoms, the U.K. Health Security Agency said. Symptoms can last more than two weeks. Sally Dart, who runs a housewares shop near Brixham Harbor, said people in town first began feeling ill two weeks ago during a pirate festival. "No one was checking the quality of the water, and we've all got sick and it's stupid," she said.  South West Water's Chief Executive Susan Davy apologized for the outbreak and said technicians were working around the clock to identify and fix the problem that may have come from a pipe in a cattle pasture. "I am truly sorry for the disruption and wider anxiety this has caused," Davy said. "I know on this occasion we have fallen significantly short of what you expect of us." The crisis is unrelated to Britain's larger ongoing water woes but emblematic of an aging system in distress. Water companies have been under fire for more than a year to stop frequent sewage overflows into rivers and oceans that have literally caused a stink, sickened swimmers, polluted fishing streams and led to an outcry from the public to clean up their act. An environmental group this week reported that 70,000 sewage releases spilled for a total of 400,000 hours along England's coast last year. More than a quarter were within 3.2 kilometers of a swimming spot, Friends of the Earth said in its analysis of government data. Clean water advocates have blamed the problems on Britain's privatization of the water system in 1989. They say that companies have put shareholders ahead of customers and not spent enough to update outdated plumbing systems. Thames Water, the largest of the companies, is on the brink of insolvency and its leaders have said it faces the risk of being nationalized after shareholders refused to inject more cash. Earlier this week, in another sign of problems, millions of gallons of raw sewage were pumped into England's largest lake. After a fault caused pumps to fail, backup systems then pumped human waste into Lake Windermere, a UNESCO World Heritage site, for 10 hours, the BBC reported. The cryptosporidiosis outbreak is hardly the first time South West Water has encountered problems, according to authorities. The company is facing charges in Plymouth Magistrates' Court alleging 30 offenses for illegal water discharges or breaches of environmental permits between 2015 and 2021, the Environment Agency said. The recent outbreak appears to come from a damaged air valve in a pipe that runs through a field where cows graze that is close to a reservoir, said Laura Flowerdew, a spokesperson for South West. With word out about the outbreak, Dart said her business is down by about a third and other merchants complained about a loss of income as warmer weather arrives and a holiday weekend is just a week away. "I would say it's quiet and it shouldn't be at this time of year," Dart said. A primary school was forced to close Thursday because it didn't have clean drinking water. The water company is providing free bottled water at three locations and has increased compensation to customers from 15 pounds ($19) to 115 ($145). Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said it's likely more people will become ill with cryptosporidiosis in coming days or weeks because of a lag in the incubation period. "Even if they have stopped all new infections by now, you would expect to see further cases for at least 10 days to two weeks," he told the BBC. Anthony Mangnall, a Conservative member of Parliament from the area, said residents are likely to have to boil water for another week. He said he was concerned with the water company's response to the outbreak and vowed to hold it accountable. "They have been slow to act and communication with customers has been very poor," Mangnall said. "This has certainly undermined trust in our water network."

SANTIAGO, Chile — Chileans are bundling up for their coldest autumn in more than 70 years mere days after sunning in T-shirts — a dramatic change of wardrobe brought on this week by a sudden cold front gripping portions of South America unaccustomed to bitter wind chills this time of year. Temperatures broke records along the coast of Chile and in Santiago, the capital, dipping near freezing and making this month the coldest May that the country has seen since 1950, the Chilean meteorological agency reported. An unusual succession of polar air masses has moved over southern swaths of the continent, meteorological experts say, pushing the mercury below zero Celsius in some places. It's the latest example of extreme weather in the region — a heat wave now baking Mexico, for instance — which scientists link to climate change. "The past few days have been one of the longest (cold fronts) ever recorded and one of the earliest ever recorded" before the onset of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, said Raul Cordero, a climatologist at Santiago University. "Typically the incursions of cold air from the Antarctic that drive temperatures below zero occur from June onwards, not so much in May." The cold front sweeping in from Antartica has collided with warm air pushing in from the northwestern Amazon, helping fuel heavy rainstorms battering Brazil, according to that country's National Meteorological system. Chile's government issued frosty weather alerts for most of the country and ramped up assistance for homeless people struggling to endure the frigid temperatures on the streets. Snow cloaked the peaks of the Andes and fell in parts of Santiago, leading to power outages in many areas this week. "Winter came early," said Mercedes Aguayo, a street vendor hawking gloves and hats in Santiago. She said she was glad for a boost in business after Chile's record winter heat wave last year, which experts pinned on climate change as well as the cyclical El Niño weather pattern. "We had stored these goods (hats and gloves) for four years because winters were always more sporadic, one day hot, one day cold," Aguayo said. This week's cold snap also took parts of Argentina and Paraguay by surprise. Energy demand soared across many parts of Argentina. Distributors cut supplies to dozens of gas stations and industries in several provinces to avoid outages in households, the country's main hydrocarbon company, CECHA, said Thursday.

HOUSTON — Power outages could last weeks in parts of Houston, an official warned Friday, after thunderstorms with hurricane-force winds tore through the city, knocking out electricity to nearly 1 million homes and businesses in the region, blowing out windows on downtown high rises and flipping vehicles. The National Weather Service said it confirmed a tornado with peak winds of 177 kph touched down near the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress in Harris County. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county's top elected official, said crews were still trying to determine the extent of the damage and the number of casualties from Thursday's storms. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said four people, and possibly five, had died. "It was fierce. It was intense. It was quick, and most Houstonians didn't have time to place themselves out of harm's way," Whitmire said at a news conference. With multiple transmission towers down, Hidalgo urged patience. Thousands of utility workers were headed to the area, where power had already been restored to roughly 200,000 customers. Another 100,000 customers were without power in Louisiana, down from a peak of 215,000. "We are going to have to talk about this disaster in weeks, not days," Hidalgo said. She said she had heard "horror stories of just terror and powerlessness" as the storm came through. The weather service also reported straight-line winds of up to 161 kph in downtown Houston and the suburbs of Baytown and Galena Park. Noelle Delgado's heart sank as she pulled up Thursday night to Houston Pets Alive, the animal rescue organization where she is executive director. The dogs and cats — more than 30 in all — were uninjured, but the awning had been ripped off, the sign was mangled and water was leaking inside. With power expected to be out for some time and temperatures forecast to climb into past 32 degrees Celsius on Saturday, she hoped to find foster homes for the animals. "I could definitely tell that this storm was a little different," she said. "It felt terrifying." Yesenia Guzmán, 52, worried whether she would get paid with the power still out at the restaurant where she works in the Houston suburb of Katy. "We don't really know what's going to happen," she said. The widespread destruction brought much of Houston to a standstill. Trees, debris and shattered glass littered the streets. One building's wall was ripped off. School districts in the Houston area canceled classes for more than 400,000 students and government offices were closed. City officials urged people avoid downtown and stay off roads, many of which were flooded or lined with downed power lines and malfunctioning traffic lights. Whitmire said at least 2,500 traffic lights were out. He also warned would-be looters that "police are out in force, including 50 state troopers sent to the area to prevent looting." At least two of the deaths were caused by falling trees and another happened when a crane blew over in strong winds, officials said. Whitmire's office posted a photo Friday on the social platform X showing the mayor signing a disaster declaration, which paves the way for state and federal storm recovery assistance. President Joe Biden later issued a disaster declaration for seven counties in Texas, including Harris, due to severe weather since April 26. His action makes federal funding available to people affected by the storms. The problems from Thursday's storms extended to the Houston suburbs, with emergency officials in neighboring Montgomery County describing the damage to transmission lines as "catastrophic." High-voltage transmission towers that were torn apart and downed power lines pose a twofold challenge for the utility company because the damage affected transmission and distribution systems, according to Alexandria von Meier, a power and energy expert who called that a rare thing. "It's more typical that the damage is just at the distribution system, which is, you know, just not as strong," von Meier said, referring to power lines that tend to be more susceptible to wind damage. How quickly repairs are made will depend on a variety of factors, including the time it takes to assess the damage, equipment replacement, roadwork access issues and workforce availability. Centerpoint Energy deployed 1,000 employees on Friday and had a pending request for 5,000 more line workers and vegetation professionals. One silver lining, von Meier said, is that the damage was localized, unlike what happened in the 2021 statewide freeze, which could allow for other jurisdictions to send resources more readily. Although customers might want an aggressive repair timeline, she cautioned that it must proceed carefully and methodically. "Because if you try to fix this kind of thing in a hurry and you try to restore power in a hurry, you might injure people. You would be putting the workers at risk. You could be putting other people at risk. You could be blowing up equipment that then is going to take longer to replace," von Meier said. The storms also weren't over Friday. Gulf Coast states could experience scattered, severe thunderstorms with tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds. Heavy to excessive rainfall is possible for eastern Louisiana into central Alabama, the National Weather Service said. Flood watches and warnings remained Friday for Houston and areas to the east. The Storm Prediction Center's website showed a report of a tornado in Convent, Louisiana, about 89 kilometers from New Orleans, with multiple reports of trees and power poles down. A suspected tornado hit the Romeville area of St. James Parish on Thursday night with some homes impacted and trees down, but no injuries or fatalities had been reported, parish officials said in a social media post on Friday morning. There were wind gusts of 135 kph at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and 132 kph at New Orleans Lakefront Airport, according to Tim Erickson, a meteorologist at the weather service's office for New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The office for New Orleans and Baton Rouge issued a flash flood warning through Saturday. Heavy storms slammed the Houston area during the first week of May, leading to numerous high-water rescues, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes.