More than 3,700 residents have returned to their Malibu homes as weather conditions improved enough to help firefighters battling a Southern California blaze.

Weather conditions have improved enough in Southern California for forecasters to say that the worst of the high winds that drove a wildfire through part of Malibu have passed.

The quick spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus has stirred another reckoning about whether in-person schooling is worth the risk.