Uganda’s president signed into law a wide-ranging anti-LGBTQ bill on Monday that imposes life imprisonment for same-sex activity and the death penalty in some cases, signaling an intensification of the East African nation’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ people despite widespread international condemnation of the law.

The Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 punishes with death those found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality,” a category broadly defined by legislators to include offenses that range from having gay sex with a minor to seducing someone through “misrepresentation” or “undue influence.”

The law also imposes life imprisonment for anyone found to have performed a sexual act with a person of the same gender, and up to seven years in prison for “an attempt to commit the offense of homosexuality.”

“The people of Uganda have spoken,” tweeted parliamentary speaker Anita Annet Among, announcing that President Yoweri Museveni had signed the legislation. “I now encourage the duty bearers under the law to execute the mandate bestowed upon them in the Anti-Homosexuality Act.”

The past winter was a heavy one for respiratory viruses, dominated by surges of RSV, influenza and Covid-19. But just as it was winding down, a little-known virus that causes many of the same symptoms – a lower lung infection, hacking cough, runny nose, sore throat and fever – was just picking up steam.

Cases of human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, spiked this spring, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s respiratory virus surveillance systems. It filled hospital intensive care units with young children and seniors who are the most vulnerable to these infections. At its peak in mid-March, nearly 11% of tested specimens were positive for HMPV, a number that’s about 36% higher than the average, pre-pandemic seasonal peak of 7% test positivity.

Most people who caught it probably didn’t even know they had it, however. Sick people aren’t usually tested for it outside of a hospital or ER. Unlike Covid-19 and the flu, there’s no vaccine for HMPV or antiviral drugs to treat it. Instead, doctors care for seriously ill people by tending to their symptoms.

Studies show that HMPV causes as much misery in the US each year as the flu and a closely related virus, RSV. One study of patient samples collected over 25 years found that it was the second most common cause of respiratory infections in kids behind RSV. A study in New York conducted over four winters found that it was as common in hospitalized seniors as RSV and the flu. Like those infections, HMPV can lead to intensive care and fatal cases of pneumonia in older adults.

Mayor Adams denounced left-wing ideologies in an ultra-patriotic Monday speech in which he also lamented a perceived lack of national pride among young Americans.

Speaking at the USS Intrepid Museum’s annual Memorial Day ceremony, the mayor made the critical comments after referencing a Thomas Jefferson quote about the “tree of liberty,” which is commonly interpreted as being about military struggle.

“You water the tree of freedom with your blood,” Adams said. “We sit under the shade of that tree of freedom protected from the hot rays of socialism and communism and destruction that’s playing out across the globe.”

It was not clear from the mayor’s remarks if his anti-left-wing broadside referenced any particular country’s government or leader.

The full legislative text of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s agreement in principle with President Biden to suspend the nation’s borrowing limit revealed new and important details about the deal, which House lawmakers are expected to vote on this week.

The centerpiece of the agreement remains a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling, which caps the total amount of money the government is allowed to borrow. Suspending that cap, which is now set at $31.4 trillion, would allow the government to keep borrowing money and pay its bills on time — as long as Congress passes the agreement before June 5, when Treasury has said the United States will run out of cash.

In exchange for suspending the limit, Republicans demanded a range of policy concessions from Mr. Biden. Chief among them are limits on the growth of federal discretionary spending over the next two years. Mr. Biden also agreed to some new work requirements for certain recipients of food stamps and the Temporary Aid for Needy Families program.

Both sides agreed to modest efforts meant to accelerate the permitting of some energy projects — and, in a surprise move, a fast track to construction for a new natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia that has been championed by Republican lawmakers and a key centrist Democrat.

A spate of shootings across the United States left at least 16 people dead and dozens injured over Memorial Day weekend.

The gun violence occurred at beaches, high schools and motorcycle rallies, among other locations, across at least eight states. The victims ranged in age from teenagers to those in their 60s.

Among the first reports of gun violence over the holiday weekend happened on Friday afternoon when Telemundo Chicago cameras caught a confrontation between two groups of people on Chicago's North Avenue Beach, NBC Chicago reported. The altercation led to gunshots but no injuries.

Although Friday's shooting resulted in no injuries, more than eight people were killed and at least 32 others injured in Chicago shootings over the long weekend, according to NBC Chicago.

A bus driver and passenger opened fire on each other on a moving Charlotte transit bus earlier this month, leaving both injured, transit authorities said.

The incident started when a passenger, who authorities identified as Omarri Shariff Tobias, got up while the bus was in motion and asked the driver to let him off between designated bus stops, according to a news release from Charlotte Area Transit System.

The driver, David Fullard, told Tobias he would have to wait until the next approved stop. After about a two-minute exchange, Tobias pulled out a gun and pointed it at Fullard, the transit system said.

At this time, Fullard also pulled out a firearm, the transit system said. Both men fired their guns “in rapid succession,” although it is unclear who shot first, company spokesperson Brandon Hunter told CNN by phone Saturday.