President Biden assured Israeli President Reuven Rivlin during talks at the White House Monday evening that he won't allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon during his time in office.
Why it matters: The United States' already struggling effort to resurrect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was made more complicated by last week's election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi to the Iranian presidency.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday introduced a resolution to establish a House select committee with 13 appointed members, five of whom will be chosen after consultation with the GOP, to probe the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Why it matters: Democrats and Republicans remain at odds over whether the Capitol insurrection warrants a 9/11-style independent commission. After the commission failed to pass the Senate, Pelosi said she would take the matter into her own hands.
California has banned state-funded travel to five more states because of laws that discriminate against the LGBTQ community, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday, bringing the total number of banned states to 17.
Why it matters: The move comes as Republicans in at least 25 states have introduced legislation targeting trans people this year.
A federal district judge on Monday dismissed the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust complaint alleging Facebook engaged in anticompetitive practices.
Driving the news: The judge described the FTC's complaint as "legally insufficient" in making the case that Facebook has monopoly power in the personal social network market.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote Monday that the federal prohibition on marijuana may no longer be needed because of the government's "mixed signals" on the issue.
Why it matters: Thomas, one of the court's conservative justices, wrote the opinion Monday as the court declined to hear the appeal of a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary that was denied certain federal tax breaks.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein announced a $40 million settlement agreement with e-cigarette giant Juul Labs on Monday, making it the first state to "hold Juul accountable," Stein said.
Why it matters: North Carolina was the first state to sue Juul in May 2019, alleging the company unlawfully marked and sold its products to youth. At least nine other states followed suit, opening cases against the company, the Raleigh News and Observer reported.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called on President Biden Monday to ensure Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) follow his lead on delinking the bipartisan infrastructure deal from plans to spend trillions more on Democratic priorities.
Why it matters: McConnell has not yet endorsed the $1 trillion bipartisan deal, which Biden struck with five Republican and five Democratic senators last week. His potential opposition could sway other Republican senators and prevent the legislation from winning the 60 votes it needs to pass the Senate.
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a Virginia school board's appeal of a lower-court ruling that allowed transgender students to use school bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity.
Why it matters: It brings an end to the years-long legal saga involving Gavin Grimm, a trans student who sued his Gloucester County high school in 2015 after being denied access to the boys' restroom.
The Biden administration will begin shipping 2 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine abroad Monday, with the first batch expected to arrive in Peru directly from the U.S. this week, CNN reports.
Why it matters: President Biden has pledged to make the U.S. "an arsenal of vaccines for the world," and reached a deal earlier this month to purchase 500 million doses from Pfizer to share with other countries.
In a landmark report released Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged countries to adopt “transformative agendas" to uproot systematic racism in the wake of the killing of George Floyd last year.
Why it matters: The report, mandated by the Human Rights Council in June 2020, "could not find a single example of a state that has fully reckoned with the past or comprehensively accounted for the impacts of the lives of people of African descent today," one investigator told a news conference Monday.
Key Republicans are warming to an idea that was once anathema to the party — leveling taxes on big American companies to pay for internet subsidy programs.
Why it matters: Republican interest in taxing Big Tech could help shore up a struggling subsidy fund that supports broadband in rural areas, schools, libraries and hospitals.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, repeatedly blew up at President Trump over how to handle last summer's racial-justice protests, The Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender writes in his forthcoming book, "Frankly, We Did Win This Election."
The backdrop: Trump wantedto invoke the Insurrection Act and put Milley in charge of a scorched-earth military campaign to suppress protests that had spiraled into riots in several cities.
The parties of President Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen failed to win any of France's 12 mainland regions in the country's second round of regional elections Sunday.
Why it matters: The regional polls are seen as a barometer for next year's presidential election. The results suggest that election may end up being wide open, rather than a duel between Macron and Le Pen.
President Biden directed airstrikes on Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region in response to unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement Sunday.
Details: U.S. military forces conducted the "defensive precision airstrikes" against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the region on Sunday evening, said Kirby, who stressed the U.S. strikes were legal and in self-defense.
The death toll from the Surfside, Florida, building collapse rose to nine, as rescue and recovery efforts continued amid the rubble of Champlain Towers South on Sunday.
The big picture: Four more bodies were found Sunday along with "additional human remains," Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference. Levine Cava stressed at a briefing later Sunday confirming 152 people were still missing that the count was "fluid and subject to change."
