Axios

The coronavirus pandemic has spotlighted the need for "broadband access for everyone," Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) said during an Axios at a virtual event that aired Thursday.

Why it matters: The shift to remote learning during the pandemic exposed a stark digital divide, disproportionately affecting students of color and those from low-income households.

California lawmakers on Thursday approved a state-funded guaranteed income plan to distribute $35 million in monthly cash payments to eligible pregnant people and young adults who recently left foster care.

Why it matters: California is the first state to approve such a program. It could serve as a template for other state governments as guaranteed income gains traction across the U.S.

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was arrested Thursday along with eight people in a voting rights demonstration in D.C.

Driving the news: Dozens of Black woman leaders marched to the Senate to demand passage of the federal For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, amid a slew of state-level legislation restricting voting access. Civil rights groups say the laws will disproportionately impact voters of color, especially Black Americans.

Sending U.S. troops to Haiti following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse is "not on the agenda at this moment" but Marines will be sent to bolster security at the U.S. Embassy in the country, President Biden said at a news conference Thursday.

Why it matters: Haitian authorities requested the Biden administration to send soldiers to help stabilize the country after Moïse was killed by a group of armed men who entered his home last week.

White flags will line the outside of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this September in memory of the more than 600,000 people who have died from COVID-19 in the United States, per a Thursday announcement.

The big picture: The project, titled "In America: Remember," initially began in 2020, when artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg planted 267,000 flags last fall to memorialize the death toll then.

About 40% of undocumented immigrants who died on their way to the U.S. and ended up in a Falfurrias, Texas, morgue had contracted COVID-19 prior to their deaths.

Details: A Noticias Telemundo Investiga report shows an increased incidence of coronavirus in the bodies of migrants recovered in border states, as the number of deceased John and Jane Does rises this summer.

The gunman who opened fire and killed five people in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, in June 2018 was found criminally responsible on Thursday, with a jury rejecting defense attorneys’ mental illness arguments.

Why it matters: Jarrod Ramos could be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison after a jury determined in less than 90 minutes that he was sane at the time of the shooting. It's deemed "one of the deadliest attacks on American journalists in the country’s history," the New York Times writes.

Venezuela opposition figure Freddy Guevara was detained and U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó was threatened at gunpoint this week, as President Nicolás Maduro tried tightening his grip on power.

Why it matters: The Chavista government has renewed roundups of the opposition despite scheduled negotiations between the two sides, set for August with Mexico as host and Norway as mediator.

The U.S. Forest Service announced sweeping protections for Alaska's Tongass National Forest on Thursday, including a proposal to bar road development on more than 9 million acres.

Why it matters: The Tongass is one of the world’s last relatively intact temperate rainforests, and it is the only national forest where old-growth logging takes place on an industrial scale, according to the Washington Post.

The State Department said Thursday it's offering up to a $10 million reward for information to help identify or locate anyone engaged in foreign state-sanctioned malicious cyber activities, including ransomware operations, against critical infrastructure in the United States.

Why it matters: The Biden administration is devising a collection strategies to get ahead of cyber criminals after several U.S. businesses have been ambushed by a flood of ransomware campaigns.

A Massachusetts school can continue using electric shock devices to enforce corrective behavior in students with intellectual disabilities, a federal court ruled this month.

Why it matters: Critics including the United Nations have described the controversial practice as "torture."

The Biden Administration has formed a multi-agency task force to address the growing threat posed by ransomware attacks, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

Driving the news: Several ransomware attacks have plagued U.S. companies in recent months.

The South African government started deploying 25,000 troops on Thursday to assist local police in curbing the widespread looting and violence that erupted after the incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma, AP reports.

Why it matters: The deployment marks one of the country's largest since 1994, when white-minority rule ended. The government said at least 10,000 soldiers had taken to the streets as of Thursday morning.

Speaking at the White House, President Biden described Thursday — when a majority of U.S. parents were first sent monthly payments as part of the expanded child tax credit — as "a historic day" for ending childhood poverty.

Why it matters: Families representing nearly 60 million eligible children were sent checks — amounting to some $15 billion dollars total — on Thursday, per the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service. The program is one of the largest anti-poverty measures in modern history.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Thursday signed an executive order significantly restricting the use of conversion therapy in the state.

Why it matters: There is no scientific evidence to support the use of conversion therapy, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which says the practice can instead lead to depression, anxiety and suicide.

House Majority Forward, a nonprofit group supporting House Democrats, announced on Thursday a $10 million ad campaign to support President Biden's agenda ahead of the 2022 midterms.

State of play: The campaign will release digital and television advertisements in 17 "key districts." Ads focused on the child tax credit will begin running today for two weeks.

What they're saying: "The House Democratic Majority and President Biden are working to pass the most ambitious economic recovery agenda in modern history, and we are announcing this $10 million campaign to help get it done," said Abby Curran Horrell, executive director of House Majority Forward.

The Biden administration plans to launch a massive campaign Thursday to get more Americans to sign up for the Affordable Care Act — 30 days before the Aug. 15 deadline to do so.

Driving the news: Administration officials announced Wednesday more than 2 million people have signed up for health insurance during the special enrollment period using both federal and state marketplaces.

Both parties have surreptitiously funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into local-sounding front groups designed to keep voters in the dark about the money's D.C. origins, a watchdog group alleged in a legal complaint on Thursday.

Why it matters: "Pop-up" super PACs are widely used by both Democrats and Republicans to steer cash from deep-pocketed national groups aligned with congressional leaders into key battleground contests. The practice has proliferated in recent years, and such groups are already popping up in competitive contests this year.

Justice Stephen Breyer told CNN Wednesday that he has not decided when he will retire and that he is satisfied with his status as the senior liberal on the Supreme Court.

Why it matters: Liberal advocates, professors and some Democratic members of Congress are urging the 82-year-old justice to leave the bench so President Biden can name a younger liberal while the Senate holds a thin Democratic majority.

Americans' trust in all big institutions has cratered, but look at the massive gap in who we do trust.

By the numbers: New Gallup polling finds a 45-point split in trust of police — 76% of Republicans vs. 31% of Democrats. Confidence in the church or organized religion — twice as many Rs as Ds, 51% to 26%.

World leaders are pondering unprecedented moves to combat global warming by speeding up the transition to clean tech — but they're also learning more about the potential downsides of those changes.

Why it matters: The changes will be needed to avoid the most dire climate scenarios. But there are potential environmental, human rights, and geopolitical risks to shifting how we get around, the way the electric grid operates, and how everything from cement is made to buildings are constructed.

Three in 10 immigrants in U.S. detention centers are saying no to the COVID-19 vaccine, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Vaccine hesitancy among detained immigrants has added an unlikely twist to the challenges of a pandemic-era increase in border migration.

Victoria, Australia's second-most populous state, will enter a five-day lockdown just before midnight to combat a growing COVID-19 outbreak, officials announced on Thursday.

Why it matters: It will be the fifth time such restrictions have been imposed on residents in Victoria's state capital, Melbourne — who last year endured one of the world's longest lockdowns (112 days), when the city was Australia's pandemic epicenter.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill on Wednesday that would ban the importation of all products from Xinjiang, China, due to the forced labor and genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities in the region.

Why it matters: Xinjiang products are deeply integrated into lucrative global supply chains, and Nike and Coca-Cola are among the major companies to have lobbied against the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, per Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian.

A Utah-based gun company announced Wednesday it will stop selling a product that encases Glock pistols in colored block pieces that resemble Lego bricks "after some communication" with the Danish toymaker.

Driving the news: Culper Precision was criticized by gun control groups after it made an announcement about the Block 19 product in June, which retailed for about $600.

Sen. Raphael Warnock tells Axios he won't let the Senate's fixation on passing a pair of infrastructure bills prevent it from also protecting the voting system that narrowly allowed him to win his new job.

What they're saying: "We can walk and chew gum at the same time," the Georgia Democrat said. "Voting rights is bigger than the filibuster. And shame on us if we're more committed to a Senate rule (preserving it) than we are to the principles of democracy."

Thirty-eight percent of the staff members for Senate Democrats identify as non-Caucasian — up from 35% in 2020, according to new data released by the caucus.

By the numbers: Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) have the least-white staff teams.

Rep. Katherine Clark's career-long habit of making friends has the Massachusetts Democrat in contention to be the next speaker of the House.

Why it matters: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has already suggested this is her final term in that job, but there's also continued speculation she'll accept an ambassadorial nomination to Italy or the Vatican that would spark an earlier succession vote.

Senate Democrats have a new pay-for to finance a "soft" infrastructure bill: renegotiating Medicare prescription drug prices to save $600 billion — setting up a battle between progressives and well-capitalized drug companies.

Why it matters: By targeting pharma, Democrats are opening up a funding stream President Biden didn't initially include in his $4 trillion Build Back Better agenda. It relied on hiking taxes on corporations and Americans earning over $400,000.