Axios

Meta announced Wednesday it has removed over 600 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to a Chinese influence operation that claimed the U.S. was pressuring the World Health Organization (WHO) to blame COVID on China.

Why it matters: Though Meta said the network was unsuccessful, it marks yet another COVID disinformation campaign instigated by China in an effort to discredit the U.S.

Stacey Abrams, voting rights activist and former 2018 candidate for Georgia governor, is running for the position again in 2022. Abrams would be the first Black female governor in the country.

Why it matters: Abrams caught national attention in 2018 by narrowly losing an election to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in a state held firmly by the GOP for nearly two decades.

A 15-year old suspect in Tuesday's Michigan school shooting was charged Wednesday with numerous felony counts related to terrorism and murder.

The latest: Ethan Crumbley will be charged as an adult. The charges were announced shortly after officials said a fourth person died as a result of the shooting at Oxford High School in Oakland County, about 30 miles north of Detroit.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election to the House after 36 years in Congress.

Why it matters: The increasing number of Democratic retirements has caused concern that the party may not be able to hold on to its slim majority in the House after the midterms.

There needs to be more manufacturing and production of semiconductor chips in the United States to avoid a shortage in the future, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said at an Axios event on Wednesday.

Driving the news: The Department of Commerce is pushing Congress to pass the CHIPS act — a bill co-sponsored by Stabenow — to help combat the ongoing chip shortage and make sure it's not an issue again in the future.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed likely to weaken abortion rights and perhaps to let states ban the procedure altogether.

The intrigue: The court seemed likely to throw out the framework established in Roe v. Wade, but it wasn't clear whether a majority of the justices were inclined to overturn the court's precedents entirely.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R), a moderate who typically ranks as one of the nation's most popular governors, and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito (R) announced Wednesday that they will not seek third terms in 2022.

Why it matters: The decision leaves the gubernatorial race wide open and will likely affect multiple down-ballot races next year. Baker was expected to be the front-runner had he joined the race.

The COVID-19 pandemic has "radically altered mobility" worldwide, the United Nations migration agency said in its World Migration Report 2022 released Wednesday.

The big picture: The scale of international migration increased the last two years, though at a reduced rate because of the pandemic. At the same time, there was also an increase in displacement due to disasters, conflict and violence, according to the the International Organization for Migration.

Conservative Republicans in the House and Senate are planning to force a government shutdown Friday to deny funding needed to enforce the Biden administration's vaccine mandates on the private sector, according to Politico.

Why it matters: Congress has until the end of the week to pass a stopgap measure to extend funding into 2022, though objection from a small group of Republicans could shut down the government.

The Supreme Court will debate today whether to overturn Roe v. Wade, and neither side is trying to lower the stakes — or to make today’s case anything less than a referendum on Roe’s very survival.

The big picture: Conventional wisdom, on both the left and right, says the court is likely to chip away at abortion rights without overturning its precedents outright. But neither side has spent much time trying to help the justices thread that needle.

The Biden administration, House and Senate Democrats and even the German government have been engaged in a multi-pronged effort to stop Congress from imposing mandatory sanctions on a Kremlin-backed natural gas pipeline.

Why it matters: President Biden's decision to let Nord Stream 2 proceed has put his allies in an uncomfortable bind. Republicans have already blocked dozens of Biden's foreign-policy nominees, and the dispute threatened to derail an annual defense bill passed by Congress every year for six decades.

If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the average American could have to travel around 125 miles to reach the nearest abortion provider, compared to the current average of 25 miles, according to the Myers Abortion Facility Database.

State of play: 12 states will immediately restrict abortion if Roe disappears, and others would be likely to impose significant new restrictions.

The Biden administration announced an updated national strategy on HIV and AIDS Wednesday to provide a "whole-of-government" response to the virus and ultimately end the epidemic by 2030.

Why it matters: The updated strategy on HIV and AIDS, announced on World AIDS Day, comes 40 years since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially reported the first cases of the virus.

City Council member Andre Dickens won a runoff election Tuesday to become Atlanta's next mayor, soundly beating the council's president Felicia Moore.

The big picture: Dickens just a few months ago was considered to have an outside chance of replacing Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who announced in May that she wouldn't seek a second term.

The Biden administration was temporarily blocked from enforcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for millions of workers by federal judges in two states on Tuesday.

The big picture: The orders, by federal judges in Kentucky and Louisiana, come one day after a federal judge in Missouri halted the mandate, which has a Jan. 4 deadline, in 10 states.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has denied Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's (R) request to exempt the state's National Guard from the federal government's vaccine mandate.

Why it matters: The Army National Guard must be fully vaccinated by the end of next June while the Air National Guard faces a Dec. 2 deadline. Those who fail to comply will be barred from drills and other duties, and won't be paid even when they're under state control.

Donations to the Clinton Foundation plummeted to $16 million last year, down nearly 75% from the organization's peak when former secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was running for president, records reviewed by Axios show.

Why it matters: The foundation was a financial juggernaut in the years after Bill Clinton served as president and while his wife led her own political career. In the time since, COVID-19 shuttered the sort of public events that had driven millions to the group — although Clinton loyalists expect increased donations this year.

Both of the Democrats' vulnerable Arizona senators have been some of the most active lawmakers in hyping "infrastructure" in their press releases, newsletters, tweets and Facebook posts.

Why it matters: Democrats are hopeful their successes on roads, bridges — and, possibly, expanding the social safety net — will lessen losses they're expecting in the 2022 midterms. The social media activity has been tracked since President Biden signed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package into law.

While debate over this year's defense bill is dominated by topics like China, Afghanistan and a president's authority to declare war, a quieter experiment is also playing: Advocates are using the legislation to test expansions of protections for women in the military.

Why it matters: The Senate resumed consideration the National Defense Authorization Act this week. Democrats and Republicans continue to squabble over key amendments to the bill, threatening to delay the must-pass legislation.

Centrist Democrats are pushing President Biden to suspend the federal gas tax as a way of showing concern about inflation.

Why it matters: It's the strongest response yet from Democrats as Republicans make inflation a key part of their 2022 campaign messaging — but so far it's largely coming from candidates, not party leaders in Washington.

The political back-and-forth between Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) took a jarring turn Tuesday night, when Omar played a tape of a death threat she said she received after Boebert made anti-Muslim comments about her.

Driving the news: Omar alternately quavered and wore a stern expression as she stood in a House television gallery, held a phone and played a voicemail in which an unnamed caller called her a "Sand [n-word] bitch" and a "f-cking traitor."

Key Republicans are warning President Biden not to nominate Richard Cordray, a progressive and former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to be the top banking regulator on the Federal Reserve.

Driving the news: Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) is indicating the GOP will use a potential Cordray nomination to re-litigate his tenure at the CFBP, an agency devised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and fiercely opposed by most Republicans.