India crossed a grim milestone Wednesday of 200,000 people lost to the coronavirus as a devastating surge of new infections tears through dense cities and rural areas alike and overwhelms health care systems on the brink of collapse.

The health ministry reported a single-day record 3,293 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing India’s total fatalities to 201,187, as the world’s second most populous country endures its darkest chapter of the pandemic yet.

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FBI agents executed search warrants at Rudy Giuliani‘s Manhattan apartment and his office to seize electronic devices Wednesday, multiple sources familiar with the matter said.

The searches are a sign that prosecutors are ramping up their investigation into Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s attorney.

Federal prosecutors had what they needed to seek a search warrant late last year, and it was just “a matter of timing,” a source familiar with the investigation said, a comment that suggests that the Justice Department might have wanted to wait until the administration changed hands.

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Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) painted President Joe Biden as having broken his promises to seek to unify the country and slammed Democratic policymaking in his response to Biden’s first address to Congress.

“Our president seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words,” Scott said. “But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership. He promised to unite a nation. To lower the temperature. To govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted.

“But three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further apart,” he said

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

You can ditch the mask walking your dog or dining outside with friends if you are fully vaccinated from COVID-19. But keep it on for any outdoor crowded events like concerts, parades and sporting events.

Wearing a mask in public spaces indoors also remains a must.

That’s according to new guidance released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for people considered fully immunized -– a milestone achieved two weeks after a person’s final vaccine shot.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to announce updated guidelines for fully vaccinated Americans as early as Tuesday, according to several administration officials.

A federal official tells CBS News that the Biden administration will release new “interim public health recommendations” that will provide guidelines for activities that vaccinated people may resume, including recommendations related to health care settings and whether to wear masks outdoors. The language of the new guidance is still being finalized, the official said.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

The Justice Department is opening a pattern and practice investigation into the Louisville Metro Police Department, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Monday. This is the second such investigation into policing practices unveiled by the department in less than a week. 

Last week, Garland announced a review of the Minneapolis Police Department the day after a jury in Hennepin County, Minnesota, found former MPD officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the death of George Floyd. 

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

The producers of the 93rd Academy Awards were handed an unenviable assignment.

They were tasked with putting on a lively show that resurrected both the rarefied glamor of vintage Hollywood and the comforting normalcy of life before the pandemic — all while abiding by a laundry list of Covid-19 safety protocols. If they succeeded, the thinking went, they just might be able to stave off a record-low ratings disaster and maybe even drive some Americans back to movie theaters.

It remains too early to say whether the crew behind the Oscars entirely succeeded in their head-spinning marching orders. But for viewers at home — spending the umpeenth night on their couches and perhaps only vaguely aware of the modestly scaled movies contending for best picture — the ceremony might have felt strangely half-formed, like an unfinished screenplay.

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Approaching one hundred days in the presidency, President Biden maintains fairly strong approval ratings for what look like fairly straightforward reasons: most Americans like the way he’s handling the country’s top priorities, with especially strong marks on the pandemic and vaccine rollout; his major legislative pieces are popular so far. And then, more stylistically perhaps, a majority of Americans pick words to describe him like “presidential,” “focused” and “competent.” 

At the same time they also say they’d generally like politics for the next four years to be “steady,” and “normal” (even though, we should note, they don’t expect it to be) more so than they want it “shaken up” or even “exciting.”

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A decades-long movement to reshape the American political map took a further step Thursday as the House of Representatives approved a bill to make the nation’s capital the 51st state.

Voting along party lines with minority Republicans in opposition, the House approved the bill 216-208. That’s likely the easy part, though. The proposal faces a far tougher fight in the Senate, where simple Democratic control of the chamber won’t be enough.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

The Senate voted 94-1 Thursday to approve anti-Asian hate crimes legislation aimed at expanding the federal government’s efforts to address the recent rise in these crimes.

The bill would identify a point person at the Justice Department who would quickly review hate crime incidents and provide more guidance to state and local entities to make it easier to report hate crimes. The legislation would also expand public education campaigns designed to increase awareness and outreach to victims.

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In a rare example of bipartisan momentum, members of Congress are moving forward with discussions over police reform legislation after negotiations stalled last summer.

Spurred by the guilty verdicts this week against Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers have convened talks this week on measures to address police violence, as the nation’s eyes shifted from the Minneapolis courtroom where Chauvin was tried to Capitol Hill.

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Lawmakers are looking to push forward with police reform after Derek Chauvin was convicted Tuesday of murdering George Floyd, with representatives and senators holding bipartisan discussions about next steps.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial does not mean that the problem of police misconduct and brutality has been solved.

“The Senate will continue to work — that work as we strive that George Floyd’s tragic death will not be in vain. We will not rest until the Senate passes strong legislation to end the systemic bias in law enforcement,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Police in Columbus, Ohio, released more body-camera video Wednesday showing an officer’s point of view as he pulled his weapon, opened fire and killed a 16-year-old girl while responding to a 911 call.

The body-worn camera of police Officer Nick Reardon recorded how he arrived at a reported disturbance late Tuesday afternoon.

Reardon drew his weapon as the altercation unfolded, the video showed. Police have said the video shows someone trying to stab a person on the ground, as well as a second person.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the guilty verdicts in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin were “a step forward,” but he also said the nation still has to reckon with systemic racism in all walks of life, including policing.

Biden said the guilty verdicts are “much too rare” and “not enough.”

Chauvin was convicted of second- and third-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in May. The video of Floyd pleading for help as Chauvin knelt on him for more than nine minutes was seen around the world last year, igniting a wave of protests over police brutality.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Former Vice President Walter Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter, has died at 93 years old, Axios reports.

He led an accomplished life in politics serving as Minnesota attorney general, a Minnesota senator, Clinton’s ambassador to Japan, and Jimmy Carter’s vice president.

Mondale also ran for president in 1984 and became the Democratic nominee. He made history when he nominated the first female vice presidential nominee in any major American political party, Geraldine Ferraro.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

The alleged gunman who killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis last week apparently browsed white supremacist websites a little over a year before the deadly shooting, police said.

On March 3, 2020, Brandon Hole’s mother went to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department seeking help after her son had purchased a shotgun with no bullets, according to new details in an incident report released Monday. The mother told police that her son became angry, struck her in the arm with a closed fist and told her to “shut up” when she had asked what he was going to do with the gun. The mother said her son told her that he was going to point the unloaded gun at police officers so they would shoot him, saying, “This is not the life I want to live, I’ll end it my way,” according to the report.

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The U.S. is looking into additional cases of severe side effects possibly linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

“These have been a handful of cases, not an overwhelming number of cases,” Walensky said at a White House briefing on Monday. “We are working through and adjudicating them, and verifying whether they do, in fact, reflect a true case.”

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Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he’s hopeful public health experts will provide a roadmap for the troubled Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the end of this week, saying he believes it will not be taken out of circulation altogether, although there may be new warnings attached.

Last week, officials recommended a temporary pause in the vaccine’s usage after a possible link to a handful of cases of rare blood clots. This Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee will examine further data about those concerns.

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Half of Americans over 18 have received at least one COVID-19 vaccination shot, according to data released Sunday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There were close to 130 million adults in the country who received one shot, roughly 50.4% of the over-18 population, the agency reported.

At least 83.9 million adults, roughly 32.5% of the adult population, was fully vaccinated as of Sunday, the CDC said.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Dr. Anthony Fauci, pressed by a Republican lawmaker Thursday over when Americans will “get their liberties back,” gave his clearest explanation yet as to when COVID-19 restrictions could be safely lifted, saying the U.S. must get its infection rate under 10,000 new cases a day.

When asked by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, at a congressional hearing to give an answer about when Americans can return to their pre-pandemic lives, Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, explained that the nation has a lot of work to do before it reaches that point.

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Congressional Democrats will introduce legislation Thursday to expand the Supreme Court from nine to 13 justices, joining progressive activists pushing to transform the court.

The move intensifies a high-stakes ideological fight over the future of the court after President Donald Trump and Republicans appointed three conservative justices in four years, including one who was confirmed days before the 2020 election.

The Democratic bill is led by Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. It is co-sponsored by Reps. Hank Johnson of Georgia and Mondaire Jones of New York.

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An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to make any new recommendations on the use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, which will remain paused as the investigation into rare reports of severe blood clots continues.

Many of the experts on the committee said they did not have enough information at this time to make a decision, particularly while the other two Covid-19 vaccines authorized in the U.S. are widely available and have no such safety concerns.

It will be at least a week until the panel is scheduled to reconvene.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A use-of-force expert testified Tuesday that former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was justified when he knelt on George Floyd’s neck as he tried to arrest him in May, contradicting testimony from other use-of-force experts and the police chief.

The defense witness, Barry Brodd, a former Santa Rosa, California, police officer, also said that he did not believe that the responding officers’ actions — pinning Floyd to the pavement while he was handcuffed facedown with Chauvin’s knee on his neck for what prosecutors have said was 9 minutes, 29 seconds — qualified as a use of force. He said that he believed it was a “control hold” and that he did not think Chauvin was inflicting any pain on Floyd.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients and Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday defended the decision by the FDA and the CDC to pause administering the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, saying the federal agencies are following the science.

“We want the agencies to lead with science,” Zients told reporters in the White House briefing room of the surprise “pause” of the vaccine recommended by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while they investigate a potential link to very rare blood clots.

Six women between the ages of 18 and 48 developed the clots after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccination. One person died, and another is in critical condition, the FDA said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The answer to Michigan’s COVID-19 surge is “to close things down,” according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, not an increase in vaccine supply that the state’s governor and other public health experts have called for.

“The answer is not necessarily to give vaccine because we know the vaccine will have a delayed response,” Walensky said. “The answer to that is really to close things down.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

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George Floyd’s younger brother cried on the witness stand Monday as he remembered his brother as a sports-loving “mama’s boy” who always wanted to be the best during the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing Floyd in May.

Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd was among three witnesses to take the stand Monday, the 11th day of the trial of Derek Chauvin, who is charged with second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The prosecution is expected to rest its case this week.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

As Michigan grapples with a spike in coronavirus cases, Governor Gretchen Whitmer continued to push the Biden administration to send more vaccine doses to the state to combat its ongoing crisis.

“We are seeing a surge in Michigan despite the fact that we have some of the strongest policies in place, mask mandates, capacity limits, working from home. We’ve asked our state for a two-week pause,” Whitmer said in an interview on “Face the Nation.” “So despite all of that, we are seeing a surge because of these variants. And that’s precisely why we’re really encouraging them to think about surging vaccines into the state of Michigan.”

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Several Republican leaders on Sunday expressed concern at incendiary comments made by former President Donald Trump during a speech Saturday night at a Republican National Committee donor retreat.

“Anything that’s divisive is a concern and is not helpful for us fighting the battles in Washington and at the state level,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “In some ways, it’s not a big deal, what he said, but, at the same time, whenever it draws attention, we don’t need that. We need unity.”

Read the rest of the story at Politico

President Biden unveiled his first attempts to curb gun violence on Thursday, announcing a set of modest moves designed to begin revamping federal gun policy by tweaking the government’s definition of a firearm and more aggressively responding to urban gun violence. 

“Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it’s an international embarrassment,” Mr. Biden said in his remarks announcing the actions. He called high rates of gun violence a “blemish on the character of our nation.”

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

George Floyd died from a low level of oxygen that damaged his brain and caused his heart to stop, a medical expert testified Thursday in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis officer charged in Floyd’s death. Dr. Martin Tobin, an expert who specializes in pulmonology and critical care, was the first witness called to the stand on the ninth day of the trial.

Tobin, a Chicago-based physician who is a renowned expert in medical issues involving the lungs and respiratory system, testified that Floyd’s “shallow breaths weren’t able to carry air through his lungs, down to the essential areas of the lungs that get oxygen into the blood and get rid of carbon dioxide.”

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Facing criticism from Republicans over his “American Jobs Plan,” President Joe Biden on Wednesday publicly challenged them to come to the table and hammer out a deal on infrastructure if they oppose what he’s laid out.

“We’ll be open to good ideas and good-faith negotiations,” Biden said in remarks following up on the rollout of his plan a week ago. “But here’s what we won’t be open to: We will not be open to doing nothing. Inaction simply is not an option.”

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Officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck — and was bearing down with most of his weight — the entire 9 1/2 minutes the Black man lay facedown with his hands cuffed behind his back, a use-of-force expert testified Wednesday at Chauvin’s murder trial.

Jody Stiger, a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant serving as a prosecution witness, said that based on his review of video evidence, Chauvin applied pressure to Floyd’s neck or neck area from the time officers put Floyd on the ground until paramedics arrived.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

Federal investigators are looking into Rep. Matt Gaetz’s travel to the Bahamas with women and specifically whether those women were paid to travel for sex, which could violate federal law, a law enforcement official and another person familiar with the matter said.

Investigators are also looking into whether Gaetz, R-Fla., and one of his associates used the internet to search for women they could pay for sex, the sources said.

Gaetz, who has not been charged with any crime, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Biden announced Tuesday that the deadline for adult eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines nationwide is being moved up to April 19. Mr. Biden had previously called for states and territories to make all adults eligible for shots by May 1. 

As of Tuesday, 36 states have opened eligibility for vaccinations to people ages 16 and older, while 12 more and the District Columbia are already set to do so by April 19. In other words, most states were already on track to match the president’s new April 19 deadline before he announced it. 

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

An expert witness testified in the trial of Derek Chauvin on Tuesday that officers used excessive force against George Floyd during his fatal May 2020 arrest. LAPD Sergeant Jody Stiger, an expert in tactics and de-escalation training, reviewed the case and testified for the prosecution.

“My opinion was the force was excessive,” Stiger said.

Stiger said Floyd initially actively resisted officers when officers were attempting to get him inside the police vehicle, and at that point, officers were justified in using force. However, once Floyd was placed in handcuffs on the ground and stopped his resistance, the former officers should have slowed down or stopped their force as well. 

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed a bill Monday that would have made Arkansas the first state to restrict gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers, for transgender minors.

Calling the bill “a vast government overreach,” Hutchinson, a Republican, said at a news conference that the law would create “new standards of legislative interference with physicians and parents as they deal with some of the most complex and sensitive matters involving young people.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Last June, nearly a month after the death of George Floyd, the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department issued a blistering statement about the officers involved in Floyd’s arrest.

Chief Medaria Arradondo, the first Black person to hold the position, described Floyd’s death as “tragic” and said it “was not due to a lack of training.”

“This was murder — it wasn’t a lack of training,” Arradondo said, adding that that was why he “took swift action” and fired the four officers involved in the incident a day after Floyd’s death.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The trial of a former Minneapolis police officer in George Floyd’s death is expected to turn toward the officer’s training on Monday after a first week that was dominated by emotional testimony from eyewitnesses and devastating video of Floyd’s arrest.

Derek Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in the May 25 death of Floyd. Chauvin, who is white, is accused of pinning his knee on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds as Floyd lay face-down in handcuffs outside of a corner market.

Read the rest of the story at KKCO-TV

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan would pay for itself while upgrading infrastructure from decades past.

“Right now, we’re still coasting off of infrastructure choices that were made in the 1950s,” Buttigieg said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Now’s our chance to make infrastructure choices for the future that are going to serve us well in the 2030s and on into the middle of the century.”

Read the rest of the story at Politico

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A former supervisor of the fired Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death testified Thursday that the officer violated police use-of-force policies in his restraint of Floyd last May.

The sergeant, David Pleoger, who recently retired from the Minneapolis Police Department after a 27-year career in law enforcement, was called to the witness stand by the prosecution in Derek Chauvin’s trial on charges of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

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A man who witnessed George Floyd’s arrest broke down on the stand as he watched composite footage from the encounter.

Charles McMillian, who lives near the Cup Foods, was driving by when he saw Floyd’s encounter with police, he said. McMillian can be heard talking to Floyd in the viral video taken by a bystander, telling him, “You can’t win, man.”

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge played new video in the courtroom — a composite of surveillance footage taken by a camera at Cup Foods and former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin’s body camera that showed McMillian confront former Chauvin after Floyd was taken away in the ambulance.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

As more older Americans get vaccinated an increasing number of new COVID-19 cases are impacting younger adults, prompting warnings that Americans remain vigilant in an effort to prevent more people from becoming sick.

The number of new COVID-19 cases increased more than 10% in 26 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico since last week, a possible signal that the country is on the cusp of a new surge.

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Nearly two years after Joe Biden began his presidential campaign at a union hall in Pittsburgh with the promise to “rebuild the backbone of the country,” the president will return to the Steel City to launch an effort to make good on that pledge.

In a speech Wednesday, Biden will to lay out the first part of a massive two-part, multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan that is expected to include projects as varied as highways and “human infrastructure,” like child care. The kitchen-sink approach is designed to push the economy in a greener and more equitable direction, paid for with higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

During his opening statement Monday, the attorney for the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in George Floyd’s death claimed that the crowd of onlookers who witnessed Floyd’s death last May had made the responding officers worry for their safety and diverted their attention from him.

On Tuesday, the defense attorney, Eric Nelson, doubled down. He asked four witnesses, including the teenager who recorded the widely seen video of Floyd being detained, whether they and others in the crowd were angry as they watched Floyd pinned on the pavement by the former officer, Derek Chauvin.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Congress is preparing for a heated battle over the way Americans vote, with the two parties set to clash over proposed federal election standards and Republican-led state restrictions.

At issue is the fate of the House-passed For the People Act that would remake American elections from start to finish. It would force states to offer at least 15 days of early voting, universal access to mail-in voting and same-day registration for federal races. It’d make Election Day a national holiday, too.

The divisions between the two parties are sharp. President Joe Biden and Democrats say federal intervention is needed to stop Republicans from reviving racist Jim Crow-style restrictions that make it harder for minorities to vote. Republicans say Democrats are executing a power grab to remove necessary protections on the voting process and usurp authority from states.

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The giant container ship that blocked traffic in the Suez Canal for the last week resumed its journey on Monday after being successfully refloated.

“The efforts to float the delinquent Panamanian container ship Ever Given are successful,” Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said in a statement.

The crucial waterway will now reopen after days of intense salvage efforts to free the ship.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

National civil rights leaders appeared alongside several family members of George Floyd at a prayer service Sunday night, hours before opening statements were set to begin in the murder trial of the former Minneapolis police officer charged in his death.

Several dozen attendees congregated in the benches at Greater Friendship Missionary Church, where preachers led worship and a choir sang.

The speakers called for justice in George Floyd’s death, mirroring the words spoken by leaders during a protest earlier Sunday in downtown Minneapolis.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The Senate will take up legislation as soon as next month on hate crimes against Asian Americans, as well as background checks for gun buyers and a massive voting rights package, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday.

The New York Democrat used a letter to colleagues and a floor speech to outline three broad areas the Senate will focus on when it returns from its forthcoming two-week recess: voting rights, economic growth and climate change, and guns.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

President Joe Biden said Wednesday he was tapping Vice President Kamala Harris to lead his administration’s effort to stem migration from Central America, as the United States deals with a surge of unaccompanied minors crossing its southern border.

The role will represent the first significant item in the vice president’s portfolio, and her involvement has the potential to elevate the issue within the White House and broader administration.

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Dr. Rachel Levine’s confirmation to the Department of Health and Human Services by the Senate on Wednesday made her the first openly transgender federal official in the nation’s history.

Levine, who previously served as Pennsylvania’s secretary of health, was confirmed in a 52-48 vote as the assistant secretary to the federal agency. She will serve under Xavier Becerra, who is the first Latino to serve as health and human services secretary.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Levine’s confirmation part of many “historic firsts” achieved under President Joe Biden’s administration.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service, describing his 10-year plan as necessary to stanch billions of dollars in losses and put the agency on the path to profitability. But critics are voicing concerns about key elements of the plan, including slower delivery standards and planned closures of some postal offices.

DeJoy said the plan will “erase” a projected $160 billion loss over the next decade by boosting revenue through expanded parcel delivery and potential postage hikes. Other savings would require action by Congress to change requirements for pre-funding retiree pension obligations and by integrating the postal service’s retiree health care coverage with Medicare.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

The Biden administration is extending a special Obamacare enrollment season it opened for the pandemic, giving Americans three more months to shop for health coverage after Congress recently boosted insurance subsidies in the Covid stimulus package.

President Joe Biden during his first weeks in office opened a new special enrollment period, citing increased need for coverage during the twin economic and health crises. Biden announced the sign-up extension Tuesday evening as he marked the health care law’s 11th anniversary and touted its biggest expansion yet during a speech in Ohio.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

President Joe Biden is dispatching top officials to Mexico and Central America as the crisis on the southern U.S. border persists with a surge of asylum-seeking migrants who are fleeing their countries.

The crisis at the border has created a difficult situation for Biden, who is caught between his promises to progressives to establish a more humane immigration system and pressure from conservatives to send a tougher message to deter migrants from traveling to the U.S. to seek asylum. The influx has overwhelmed border facilities and driven the national conversation on immigration.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Results from AstraZeneca’s recent Covid-19 vaccine trial “may have included outdated information” that “provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data,” a federal health institute said early Tuesday.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases issued the unusual statement after AstraZeneca announced Monday that the trial showed no serious side-effects, and that its vaccine was 100 percent effective in stopping severe and fatal cases.

The NIAID said that it had been notified late Monday about the “concern” by the the data and safety monitoring board, a panel of independent experts that reviews safety and efficacy data for vaccines in the United States.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., on Sunday apologized to the woman who accused him of sexual misconduct last week and said that he will not seek to get elected for any office once his term ends.

Nicolette Davis, who is currently an Army officer but was working as a lobbyist at the time of the alleged incident in 2017, accused Reed of rubbing her back and unhooking her bra without consent during a networking trip that year. The allegations were published by the Washington Post Friday.

Reed initially told the publication, “This account of my actions is not accurate,” but in another statement, published Twitter Sunday, he apologized.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

(CNN) — House Democrats pushed ahead to approve two separate bills on immigrationThursday, marking the first time Congress has voted on a pathway for citizenship for undocumented immigrants since Democrats won slim majorities in both chambers of Congress with President Joe Biden in the White House.

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The Georgia sheriff’s official who said the man accused of killing six Asian women and two others in shootings at spas in the Atlanta area had “a bad day” previously shared a photo of racist T-shirts on social media.

In a Facebook post from April 2020, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Capt. Jay Baker shared an image of T-shirts based off the Corona beer label that said “Covid 19 IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA.”

WASHINGTON — The fight over the filibuster escalated in the Senate on Tuesday as Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, threatened harsh reprisals if Democrats moved to weaken it, a prospect that appeared increasingly likely as President Biden’s allies on Capitol Hill began building a public case for its elimination.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses are traveling around the country this week to speak directly to Americans about the benefits of the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package.

In December and January, a long-planned effort to vaccinate essential federal workers was thrown into turmoil, breeding suspicion, infighting, and “shameless” attempts to crash the list.

(CNN) — More than 4,000 unaccompanied migrant children are in Border Patrol custody, CNN has learned, marking yet another increase in the number of children held up in border facilities until officials can accommodate them in shelters that are suited for them. 

The discovery of the call comes after state officials originally told CNN that they did not think audio of the call existed. The call added to the examples of Trump’s extraordinary efforts to push false claims of widespread voter fraud and influence Georgia election officials as they certified the state’s election results.

Business at the Trump International Hotel in Washington hasn’t exactly been booming, according to reports.

Military leaders, veterans and veterans groups are slamming Fox News host Tucker Carlson after he attacked the notion of pregnant women serving in the armed forces.

Carlson called women in “maternity flight suits” a mockery of the U.S. military, while also making a transphobic aside in his speech during a Tuesday night broadcast. His segment was in response to President Joe Biden’s acknowledgment that the military has tailored combat uniforms for women during his International Women’s Day remarks.

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The next batch of stimulus checks will be deposited into some bank accounts this weekend, the White House said Thursday.

“People can expect to start seeing direct deposits hit their bank accounts as early as this weekend,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a news briefing after President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law on Thursday afternoon.

Psaki said that the checks are “the first wave” and they will continue to flow over “the next several weeks.”

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House Democrats on Wednesday passed a massive $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill with the goal of having it on President Joe Biden’s desk by the end of the week, just days before key federal unemployment benefits start to expire for many workers on March 14.

By a 220-211 vote — with no Republicans voting in favor — Democrats handed Biden a crucial first legislative victory. The White House said he would sign the measure into law on Friday.

“For weeks now, an overwhelming percentage of Americans – Democrats, Independents, and Republicans – have made it clear they support the American Rescue Plan. Today, with final passage in the House of Representatives, their voice has been heard,” Biden said in a statement praising House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who spoke on the House floor just before the vote.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

House Democrats on Tuesday approved the most significant expansion of labor rights since the New Deal, advancing legislation that would neutralize right-to-work laws in 27 states and bolster workers’ ability to organize after years of eroding clout.

The bill — the Protecting the Right to Organize, or PRO, Act — would amend decades-old labor law to shield workers seeking to form a union from retribution or firing, strengthen the government’s power to punish employers who violate workers’ rights and outlaw mandatory meetings that employers often use to try to quash an organizing drive.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

The Republican National Committee is defending its right to use former President Donald Trump‘s name in fundraising appeals after he demanded they put an end to the practice.

In a Monday letter to Trump attorney Alex Cannon, RNC chief counsel J. Justin Riemer said the committee “has every right to refer to public figures as it engages in core, First Amendment-protected political speech” and said “it will continue to do so in pursuit of these common goals.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

The spear-wielding self-described shaman who stormed the Senate chamber on Jan. 6 will remain behind bars pending trial, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

The decision by Jacob Chansley, an adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, to speak to CBS’ “60 Minutes+” and other media outlets appears to have backfired, as U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth said Chansley’s statements underscored his ongoing dangerousness. Lamberth repeatedly cited Chansley’s comments to “60 Minutes+” — as well as his mother’s — as evidence that he shouldn’t be released.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

The pressure of being under the microscope drove Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, to thoughts of suicide, Prince Harry’s wife said Sunday in an explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey.

She said she had been the victim of “character assassination” and that the pressure drove her to the point of self-harm.

“Look, I was really ashamed to have to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, but I knew that if I didn’t say that, I would do it,” an emotional Meghan said. “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday addressed the sexual harassment scandal he’s facing and apologized for his actions.

“I want New Yorkers to hear from me directly on this: First, I fully support a woman’s right to come forward and I think it should be encouraged in every way,” Cuomo said. “I now understand that I acted in a way that made people feel uncomfortable. It was unintentional and I truly and deeply apologize for it. I feel awful about it and frankly I am embarrassed by it.”

He continued, “I never touched anyone inappropriately. I never meant to offend anyone or hurt anyone or cause anyone any pain.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

President Joe Biden criticized the decisions in Texas and Mississippi to roll back statewide mask mandates and other Covid-19 health guidelines as “Neanderthal thinking.”

“I think it’s a big mistake. Look, I hope everybody realizes by now that masks make a big difference. We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because the way in which we are able to get vaccines,” Biden told reporters.

“The last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking that, in the meantime, everything is fine, take off our mask, forget it,” he added.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Joe Biden said Tuesday the United States will have enough vaccines for every adult by the end of May, two months earlier than the administration had previously estimated.

He said the U.S. was able to speed up the timeline under a deal with Johnson & Johnson to accelerate production of its single-dose vaccine, including an agreement in which Merck will assist Johnson & Johnson with its production, and use of the Defense Production Act to secure necessary equipment and materials.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Joe Biden has lost his first Cabinet-level pick.

Neera Tanden, the embattled nominee for Biden’s Office of Management and Budget director, has officially withdrawn her nomination for the position after days of uncertainty over whether she had enough votes to be confirmed in the US Senate.

“Unfortunately, it now seems clear that there is no path forward to gain confirmation, and I do not want continued consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities,” Tanden, the president of the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress, said in a statement released Tuesday.

Read the rest of the story at Vox

Donald and Melania Trump received the coronavirus vaccine before leaving the White House, according to multiple news reports on Monday.

Citing unnamed advisers, the New York Times, CNN and other outlets reported that while other officials, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the former vice-president Mike Pence, chose to get their shots publicly to encourage confidence in the vaccines, the Trumps opted to quietly get vaccinated in January. There was no detail on which shot they received or how many doses they had been given.

Both Donald and Melania contracted and recovered from Covid-19 during the 2020 presidential campaign.

Read the rest of the story at The Guardian

A third woman has alleged unwanted advances by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Anna Ruch told the New York Times Monday that Cuomo placed his hands on her face during a wedding reception in New York City in September 2019 and “asked if he could kiss her.” A photo of the alleged incident was taken and shared with the paper.

The revelation came on the same day New York Attorney General Letitia James announced her investigation into previous allegations of sexual harassment.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is using his crucial vote to push Democrats into lowering the income threshold of the $1,400 stimulus checks in President Joe Biden‘s $1.9 trillion relief package.

Senator Jon Tester of Montana confirmed that a group of moderate Democrats met with Biden at the White House on Monday to discuss amendments to the coronavirus economic relief bill passed by the House of Representatives on Friday evening.

“We talked about the package and we talked about targeting dollars,” he said.

Read the rest of the story at Newsweek

In a speech here Sunday to close out the Conservative Political Action Conference, former President Donald Trump teased his political future and repeated the lie that he won the 2020 election.

“I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we began together four years ago is far from over,” the former president said in his first speech since leaving the White House last month. “We are gathered this afternoon to talk about the future — the future of our movement, the future of our party, and the future of our beloved country.”

The former president began his roughly 90-minute address by asking the crowd: “Do you miss me?” before reviving false claims that he beat President Joe Biden in November — lies that inspired the deadly pro-Trump riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine was endorsed on Friday by a panel of experts advising the Food and Drug Administration, clearing the last hurdle before a formal authorization expected on Saturday, according to two people familiar with the agency’s plans. The nation’s first shipments will go out in the days after that.

It will be the third shot made available to the United States in the year since the first surge of coronavirus cases began washing over the country, and it will be the first vaccine to require just one dose instead of two.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

U.S. Capitol Police plan to maintain their enhanced level of security around the Capitol at least through President Joe Biden’s first official address to Congress because intelligence suggests that extremists could be planning an attack, acting Chief Yogananda Pittman said Thursday.

“We know that members of the militia groups that were present on January 6th have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union, which we know that date has not been identified,” she told members of Congress, referring to Biden’s coming first address to a joint session of Congress.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The House will vote on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package Friday, just days after the U.S. crossed 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus.

The Democratic-controlled House is expected to pass the sweeping bill, which includes $1,400 direct payments, a $400-a-week federal unemployment bonus, a per-child allowance of up to $3,600 for one year and billions of dollars to distribute the coronavirus vaccines and to assist schools and local governments.

It would be the sixth round of aid from the federal government; the economy is still reeling from widespread shutdowns, and most Americans continue to wait their turns to be vaccinated.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The acting chief of the U.S. Capitol Police told members of Congress on Thursday that while they knew armed extremists could commit violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, intelligence collected in advance of the assault showed “no credible threat” of the size and scale of the riot that occurred.

Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said in her opening statement that her department prepared for that day’s events based on the information gathered by law enforcement, including the FBI and the intelligence community.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Joe Biden, while seeming to acknowledge it would take some effort, said Tuesday that he still sees a path forward for Neera Tanden to head up the Office of Management and Budget despite bipartisan pushback that has thrown her hopes for confirmation into question.

“We’re going to push. I still think there’s a shot — a good shot,” Biden told reporters Tuesday afternoon, echoing press secretary Jen Psaki, who said that it was the White House’s expectation that Tanden would be confirmed.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Tiger Woods was “awake, responsive and recovering in his hospital room,” after having a rod put into his leg during surgery following a rollover car crash in the Los Angeles area, his team said in a statement Tuesday night.

Woods, 45, “suffered significant orthopaedic injuries to his right lower extremity” that were treated in emergency surgery, Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer and interim CEO at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said in the statement, which was tweeted on Woods’ account.

The rod was inserted into his tibia to stabilize fractures, and screws and pins were used to stabilize injuries to the foot and ankle, according to the statement.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Johnson & Johnson can deliver 20 million doses of its single-shot coronavirus vaccine to the U.S. government by the end of March, an executive will testify tomorrow.

“Assuming necessary regulatory approvals relating to our manufacturing processes, our plan is to begin shipping immediately upon emergency use authorization, and deliver enough single-doses by the end of March to enable the vaccination of more than 20 million Americans,” Johnson & Johnson’s Richard Nettles, vice president of medical affairs for the company’s pharmaceutical unit Janssen, will tell a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee Tuesday.

Read the rest of the story at Politico

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected former President Donald Trump’s request to shield his taxes from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The ruling clears the way for DA Cyrus Vance to enforce a grand jury subpoena for the records.

At issue is whether the Trump Corporation artificially inflated the value of Trump’s properties to get the best possible loans. Investigators also want to know whether the company presented different values to tax authorities.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Judge Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, pledged Monday to make the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol his top priority if confirmed by the Senate.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing, Garland said in his opening statement that if confirmed, he would “supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Dominion Voting Systems are suing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for $1.3 billion in damages by the electronic voting company alleging defamatory accusations related to the 2020 presidential election.

Dominion had threatened legal action against Lindell as he continued to spread the baseless conspiracies that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 general election, a lie that Trump himself also promoted and appears to believe, and was largely the reason for the deadly capitol insurrection that occurred on January 6th by Trump supporters.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Eyewitnesses in the air and on the ground said they watched in horror and shock as parts of a jet engine exploded and broke apart shortly after takeoff from Denver, raining debris over homes.

Although there were no reported injuries or deaths during Saturday’s incident over Broomfield, Colorado, residents and passengers told ABC News they are still shaken up.

“It was more along the lines of, ‘Hey, is everything going to be OK?’ That’s not normal,” Brett Guy, who was a passenger aboard United Flight 328, told ABC News. “I didn’t know what to think.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Judge Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, is expected to face questions Monday about how he would navigate some daunting challenges, including investigations of Biden’s son and the actions of former President Donald Trump and his close advisers.

During a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Garland is likely to stress protecting the independence of the Justice Department from White House political interference in investigations after Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, was frequently accused by federal judges and others of putting Trump’s interests ahead of the department’s.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The recent winter weather slamming the U.S. has delayed COVID-19 vaccine deliveries and forced vaccination sites to close.

The unforeseen setbacks have impacted all 50 states and left a backlog of about 6 million doses of vaccine and 2,000 vaccination sites left without power, according to White House senior adviser Andy Slavitt.

“We anticipate that all the backlog doses will be delivered within the next week, with most being delivered within the next several days,” Slavitt said during a press briefing on Friday.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News