The big picture: The lawsuit aims to reinstate two measures included in the 2019 legislation that required federally funded family planning clinics to be "financially independent of abortion clinics," and refrain from referring patients for abortions.
The House on Monday unanimously approved a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal for the 13 U.S. service members killed in an August bombing at the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul.
Why it matters: The resolution, which passed by voice vote and was co-sponsored by more than 300 House members in both parties, is a rare show of bipartisanship in a Congress that has often been bitterly divided on a range of issues, including Afghanistan.
Why it matters: The laws would place new limits on medication-induced abortions and require doctors who perform abortions to attain board certification in obstetrics and gynecology.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday signed a bill that will force public school students to play on sports teams based on their assigned sex at birth.
Why it matters: Though Texas has proposed over 40 bills targeting transgender youth, this is the first to become law, the 19th News reports.
Context: The FBI said a technical submission error had excluded some data from Ohio in the agency's previous count, which was published in August. The error has since been addressed, with the updated data including over 500 previously excluded hate crime incidents.
Senator Raphael Warnock, whose dramatic runoff win in Georgia helped flip the Senate to Democrats, will be out in June with a memoir called "A Way Out of No Way," Penguin Press announces.
Driving the news: Warnock, 52, Georgia's first Black senator, promises to "call out the uncomfortable truths that shape contemporary American life and summon us all to a higher moral ground."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday walked back threats to expel 10 Western ambassadors from the country, according to the New York Times.
Driving the news: Last Saturday, Erdoğan threatened to declare 10 ambassadors persona non grata after they called for the release of jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala.
Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.) announced on Monday that he will not seek re-election in the House and instead run for attorney general in Maryland.
Why it matters: Brown is the 13th House Democrat to announce he won't seek reelection in 2022. The party is already facing an uphill battle in the midterm because of redistricting, and the difficulty of retaining the majority when the party in power also controls the White House.
Customs and Border Protection agents who posted violent and explicit messages in private Facebook groups faced disciplinary actions that were significantly more lenient than the recommendations made by the agency's discipline review board, according to a House Oversight and Reform Committee report released Monday.
Why it matters: The report noted that the committee's investigation found "significant shortcomings" in how CBP handled discipline and training for agents guilty of social media misconduct.
Americans wanting to help vulnerable Afghan refugees now have a new way to get involved through a new U.S. private refugee sponsorship program announced Monday.
Groups of at least five adults can apply, complete background checks and start fundraising the $2,275 per refugee required.
Why it matters: It’s a big shift in the U.S. refugee process, which has long relied on nonprofits.
This is shaping up as a critical week for climate policy in the U.S. and worldwide.
Driving the news: Democrats are in the final stages of trying to craft the big social spending and climate package they're trying to move on a thread-the-needle party-line vote.
Microsoft said Monday that the Russian-backed hackers behind the sprawling SolarWinds breach have targeted at least 140 companies "integral to the global IT supply chain" in a new effort to gain access to their customers' networks.
Why it matters: Despite warnings of retaliation from President Biden, Nobelium, which has been identified by the U.S. government as being part of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, has continued major cyber espionage campaigns even after the attention it garnered from the SolarWinds hack.
Sudan's civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was put under house arrest and several other ministers were detained Monday in what appears to be a military coup in the country, per local reports.
The latest: The head of the military faction of the Sudanese government, Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, said in a statement that he is announcing a state of emergency, suspending several parts of the interim constitution and dissolving the civilian government and interim sovereignty council — the highest governing body in the country.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans Sunday to "hopefully sign" legislation to provide a $5,000 bonus to police officers who relocate to Florida in order to avoid COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
A former senior Saudi intelligence official who worked with the U.S. on counterterrorism alleged to "60 Minutes" in an interview broadcast Sunday that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed in 2014 killing the kingdom's then-monarch.
Why it matters: The claim by the exiled Saad al-Jabri, whom Saudi authorities describe as "a discredited former government official," that the crown prince, known as "MBS," allegedly said he could obtain a "ring from Russia" to carry out the attack, is one of several serious but unproven allegations he made on the CBS show.
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