By David Shepardson

(Reuters) – U.S. health officials on Wednesday extended by 15 days a U.S. mandate requiring travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and in transit hubs, saying they needed time to assess the impact of a recent rise in COVID-19 cases.

Industry groups and Republican lawmakers want the administration to immediately end the 14-month-old mask mandate. The latest extension would keep the requirements, which had been set to expire April 18, in place through May 3 amid an increase in COVID cases.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first issued a public health order requiring masks in interstate transportation and at transit hubs, including airplanes, mass transit, taxis, ride-share vehicles and trains effective in February 2021. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued a security directive to enforce the CDC order.

The CDC said Wednesday the extension was prompted by a rise in cases and to “give it time to assess the potential impact of the rise of cases on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and healthcare system capacity.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki cited the case increase in explaining the extension.

“So what they’re trying to do is give a little bit more time to assess its potential impact the rise of the cases had on severe disease, including hospitalization and deaths and healthcare system capacity.” She added “at the end of that two weeks they can determine what’s next after that.”

The TSA said on Wednesday it would extend the order through May 3 after the CDC “continues to monitor the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, especially the BA.2 subvariant that now makes up more than 85% of U.S. cases.”

Both the CDC and TSA mask requirements have been repeatedly extended.

Airlines for America, a trade group, on Wednesday in a letter continued to urge Biden’s administration “to lean into science and research, which clearly support lifting the mask mandate. It makes no sense to require masks on a plane when masks are not recommended in places like restaurants, bars or crowded sports facilities.”

The group said airplane air is among the safest indoor environments “due to the superior ventilation and hospital grade filters.”

Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian told CNBC earlier Wednesday it was time to end the mask mandate and that people need to “make their own decisions and take personal accountability for their health onboard our planes.”

The group cited the CDC’s guidance that nearly all Americans live in counties where they can avoid wearing masks indoors. The CDC in February eased its guidance for face coverings.

The U.S. Senate voted 57-40 last month to overturn the public health order requiring masks on airplanes and other forms of public transportation, drawing a veto threat from Biden.

Republican Senator Roger Wicker said Wednesday the administration “continues to force unnecessary and contradictory mask mandates on the public,” while Democratic Senator Ed Markey applauded the extension “given the recent rise in COVID-19 cases.”

The mask requirements have resulted in friction sometimes on U.S. airplanes. The Federal Aviation Administration said that since January 2021, there have been a record 7,060 unruly passenger incidents reported – and 70% involved masking rules.

Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen, which represents 65,000 airline workers, said the union respects the CDC mask decision “but we cannot ignore that the mask mandate has driven an unprecedented rise in assaults by unruly passengers against airline workers.”

Separately, the Biden administration on Wednesday renewed the government’s COVID-19 public health emergency, allowing millions of Americans to keep getting free tests, vaccines and treatments for at least three more months.

The administration is also considering lifting requirements that international visitors get a negative COVID-19 test within a day of travel, as many countries have dropped testing requirements, but is not taking any immediate steps. The United States requires foreign air travelers to be vaccinated.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Berkeley, California; Editing by Will Dunham, Chizu Nomiyama and Bernard Orr)

By Christopher Bing and Raphael Satter

WASHINGTON -Advanced hackers have shown they can take control of an array of devices that help run power stations and manufacturing plants, the U.S. government said in an alert https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/alerts/aa22-103a on Wednesday, warning of the potential for cyber spies to harm critical infrastructure.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other government agencies issued a joint advisory saying the hackers’ malicious software could affect a type of device called programmable logic controllers made by Schneider Electric and OMRON Corp.

OMRON did not immediately return a message seeking comment. A Schneider spokesperson confirmed it had worked with U.S. officials to defend against the hackers, calling it “an instance of successful collaboration to deter threats on critical infrastructure before they occur.”

The controllers are common across a variety of industries – from gas to food production plants – but Robert Lee, chief executive of cybersecurity firm Dragos, which helped uncover the malware, said researchers believed the hackers’ intended targets were liquefied natural gas and electric facilities.

In its alert, the Cybersecurity Agency urged critical infrastructure organizations, “especially Energy Sector organizations,” to implement a series of recommendations aimed at blocking and detecting the cyber weapon, named Pipedream.

Although the government warning was vague – it did not say which hackers were behind the malware or if it had actually been used – it sent concern coursing across the industry.

In a sign of how seriously the discovery was being taken, CISA said it was making its announcement alongside the Energy Department, the National Security Agency and the FBI.

Programmable logic controllers, or PLCs, are embedded in a huge number of plants and factories and any interference with their operation has the potential to cause harm, from shutdowns to blackouts to chemical leaks, wrecked equipment or even explosions.

Lee said the tool developed by the mystery hackers was “highly capable” and had likely been in the works for several years.

“It is as dangerous as people are making it out to be,” Lee said in an interview.

Western cybersecurity officials are already on edge over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the deployment of malware aimed at causing electrical outages.

Sergio Caltagirone, Dragos’ vice president of threat intelligence, said Pipedream could be understood as a “toolbox” of different hacking tools. Each component offers a different way to subvert normal controls, giving the hackers a variety of options to launch attacks.

For example, Caltagirone said that one of the tools within Pipedream would have allowed the attackers to damage Schneider Electric’s PLC in such a way that it would need to be entirely replaced.

“Because of existing supply chain challenges it could take longer to get replacement controllers after such an attack,” Caltagirone said. “What this means is a liquefied natural gas facility might be out of commission for months.”

(Reporting by Christopher Bing and Raphael Satter in Washington and James Pearson in London; additional reporting by Matthieu Protard in Paris; Editing by Leslie Adler and Howard Goller)

By Pavel Polityuk and Oleksandr Kozhukhar

KYIV/LVIV, Ukraine – Ukraine warned on Wednesday that Russia was ramping up efforts in the South and East as it seeks full control of Mariupol, in what would be the first major city to fall, while Western governments committed more military help to bolster Kyiv.

The Kremlin’s nearly seven-week-long incursion, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, has not gone to plan.

Russia has been forced to pull back from some northern areas even as attacks across the country have turned Ukrainian cities to rubble and caused more than 4.6 million people to flee abroad.

Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday said 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had surrendered in Mariupol, which has been besieged for weeks, and that the port was fully under its control.

Capturing its Azovstal industrial district, where the marines have been holed up, would give the Russians full control of Ukraine’s main Sea of Azov port, reinforce a southern land corridor and expand its occupation of the country’s East.

Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces were attacking Azovstal and the port, but a defence ministry spokesman said he had no information about any surrender.

“Russian forces are increasing their activities on the southern and eastern fronts, attempting to avenge their defeats,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Wednesday night video address.

Reuters journalists accompanying Russian-backed separatists saw flames billowing from the Azovstal area on Tuesday, a day after Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade said its troops had run out of ammunition.

The United States announced on Wednesday an extra $800 million in military assistance including artillery systems, armoured personnel carriers and helicopters. This took total U.S. military aid to more than $2.5 billion. France and Germany also pledged more.

Russia will view U.S. and NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as legitimate military targets, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the TASS news agency.

It will impose tit-for-tat sanctions on 398 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 87 Canadian senators, Interfax cited the foreign ministry as saying, after Washington targeted 328 members of Russia’s lower house of parliament.

Britain announced new financial measures on separatists.

‘LIBERATE US FROM WHAT?’

Ukraine says tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in Mariupol and accuses Russia of blocking aid convoys to civilians marooned there.

Its mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said Russia had brought in mobile crematoria “to get rid of evidence of war crimes” – a statement that was not possible to verify.

Moscow has blamed Ukraine for civilian deaths and accused Kyiv of denigrating Russian armed forces.

In the village of Lubianka northwest of Kyiv, from where Russian forces had tried and failed to subdue the capital before being driven away, a message to Ukrainians had been written on the wall of a house that had been occupied by Russian troops.

“We did not want this … forgive us,” it said.

The Kremlin says it launched a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “liberate” Ukraine, a message villagers said had been repeated to them by the Russian troops.

“To liberate us from what? We’re peaceful… We’re Ukrainians,” Lubianka resident Viktor Shaposhnikov said.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said on a visit to Kyiv with his Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian counterparts that those who had committed and ordered crimes must be brought to justice.

Germany’s president did not join them as he had planned.

Zelenskiy said there had been no official approach and one of his officials denied a newspaper report he had rejected the visit due to Steinmeier’s recent good relations with Moscow.

BIDEN’S GENOCIDE COMMENTS

The Kremlin denounced President Joe Biden’s description of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine as amounting to genocide, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying this was unacceptable coming from the leader of a country he said had committed crimes of its own.

The White House said a legal process will be undertaken.

An initial report by a mission of experts set up by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe documents a “catalogue of inhumanity” by Russian troops in Ukraine, according to the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE.

“This includes evidence of direct targeting of civilians, attacks on medical facilities, rape, executions, looting and forced deportation of civilians to Russia,” Michael Carpenter said.

Russia has denied targeting civilians and has said Ukrainian and Western allegations of war crimes are fabricated.

The Kyiv district police chief said 720 bodies had been found in the region around the capital from where Russian forces had retreated, with more than 200 people missing.

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan said after visiting Bucha, a town where bound bodies of people apparently shot at close range were found, that Ukraine was a “crime scene” and this was within ICC jurisdiction.

“We have to pierce the fog of war to get to the truth,” Khan said on Twitter.

The mayor of the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, said bombing had increased significantly on Wednesday and satellite photos from Maxar Technologies showed long columns of armoured vehicles in the region.

At least seven people were killed, including a two-year-old boy, and 22 wounded in Kharkiv over the past 24 hours. Ukrainian forces shot down two Russian planes attacking towns in the region, regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said earlier.

Reuters could not immediately verify his statement but filmed people in Kharkiv quietly carrying bodies from an apartment block hit by shelling.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper in Kyiv, Max Hunder in London, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Reuters bureaus; Writing by Philippa Fletcher and Costas Pitas; Editing by Alex Richardson, Mark Heinrich and Cynthia Osterman)

By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday it will revise its COVID-19 travel recommendations for international destinations and shrink the number of countries the government recommends avoiding.

About 90 countries and regions https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html#travel-1, including most of Europe, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel and Australia are currently rated by CDC as “Level 4: Very High” and the CDC recommends Americans, even if vaccinated, to avoid travel to those countries.

“This new system will reserve Level 4 travel health notices for special circumstances, such as rapidly escalating case trajectory or extremely high case counts,” the CDC said in a statement, adding that it will be effective Monday.

Last month, industry group U.S. Travel urged the CDC to end “avoid travel” advisories for all vaccinated individuals and urged the Biden administration to avoid the future “use of travel bans from specific countries.”

The letter added that the “CDC should ensure that Americans are not dissuaded from traveling to any place with COVID-19 case rates that are equal to, or less than, the case rates prevailing in the U.S.”

The CDC in recent weeks has been dropping a number of countries from the “Level 4” rating including Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Bolivia, Botswana, and Haiti.

Airlines and other travel groups have been pressing the Biden administration to lift the pre-departure COVID negative test requirements for international air travelers — as many other countries have done.

Airline say the testing rules dissuade some Americans from international flights because of the cost of testing and the fear of being stranded abroad if they contract COVID. Administration officials say the issue has been under review in recent weeks but health officials have announced no changes.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Berkeley, California; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON -U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized the release of a new tranche of records from Donald Trump’s presidency to the congressional committee probing last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a government letter released on Wednesday.

In the letter, U.S. National Archivist David Ferriero said Biden had declined to use a presidential power known as executive privilege to keep the Trump records confidential.

The letter is consistent with Biden’s earlier statements that it is in the country’s best interests for Congress to obtain Trump White House records relating to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

Ferriero’s letter said the U.S. National Archives will deliver the latest batch of records to the committee on April 28. The letter did not say what types of records would be transmitted, but the committee has previously obtained speech drafts, call and visitor logs, handwritten notes and other files.

The National Archives, a federal agency that maintains presidential records, has already turned over hundreds of pages of documents to the House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

Trump and his allies have waged an ongoing legal battle seeking to block access to documents and witnesses. Trump has sought to invoke executive privilege, which protects the confidentially of some internal White House communications.

The U.S. Supreme Court in January rejected a request by Trump to block the release of a tranche of White House records sought by the congressional panel.

Only one of the court’s nine members, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, publicly noted disagreement with the decision.

The Select Committee has said it needs the records to understand any role Trump may have played in fomenting the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021. His supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; editing by Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)

LONDON -A senior British minister said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not set out to break COVID laws with malice and is mortified after he was fined by police for attending a gathering during lockdown, as calls mounted for Johnson to quit.

Johnson, his wife Carrie and finance minister Rishi Sunak were fined on Tuesday for breaching laws the government imposed to curb the coronavirus, drawing a wave of condemnation, including from the families of those who died alone during the pandemic.

Senior ministers have rallied round Johnson while a number of previous critics in his Conservative Party have said now was not the time for a change in leadership given the war in Ukraine.

However, David Wolfson, a junior justice minister, did resign on Wednesday, saying “recent disclosures lead to the inevitable conclusion that there was repeated rule-breaking, and breaches of the criminal law”.

The prime minister initially told parliament that no parties took place. But police are investigating 12 gatherings after an internal inquiry found his staff had enjoyed alcohol-fuelled parties when social mixing was all but banned in Britain.

Johnson, whose received the 50-pound fixed penalty notice over a gathering on his birthday in June 2020, has since said he attended some of the events, raising the prospect that he could face further fines.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported late on Wednesday that Johnson faced a second fine for attending a leaving party for his former director of communications, Lee Cain.

“The event that took place on Nov, 13, 2020, to mark the departure of Lee Cain is considered to be the most serious breach of the coronavirus regulations among the events that the prime minister attended,” an unnamed source close to the police investigation told the newspaper.

Johnson said on Tuesday that it had not occurred to him that he was in breach of the rules, rejecting calls for his resignation.

Transport minister Grant Shapps said Johnson had not meant to mislead.

“I’m not saying that the prime minister isn’t a flawed individual. We’re all flawed in different ways,” Shapps told Sky News. “The question is did somebody set out to do these things with malice?”

Johnson won a landslide election in 2019 on a promise to complete Britain’s exit from the European Union, but his premiership has been marked by a series of dramatic events, from suspending parliament over a Brexit impasse and his own experience of COVID.

His fine is believed to represent the first time a British leader has been found to have broken the law while in office.

Sunak, a former banker who became chancellor on the eve of the pandemic, took seven hours to release a statement in which he apologised, prompting a report in the Times newspaper that he had considered quitting.

Some Conservative lawmakers still said Johnson should go.

“I don’t think the PM can survive or should survive breaking the rules he put in place,” one, Nigel Mills, told the BBC. “He’s been fined, I don’t think his position is tenable.”

(Reporting by Kate Holton, Michael Holden and Muvija M; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Elaine Hardcastle and Grant McCool)