Truck drivers, who have protested in Ottawa, Canada for more than five days, said Wednesday they won't vacate Canada's capitol until a COVID vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers is dropped, Reuters reports.
Driving the news: The protest began last week, and has been punctuated by reports of violence and unruly behavior. Ottawa police have declined to end the protests despite a mounting list of complaints from nearby residents, per Reuters.
The FBI tested Israeli technology firm NSO Group's Pegasus spyware for possible use in criminal investigations, the agency confirmed to Axios Wednesday.
Why it matters: The FBI and DOJ were at the time probing Pegasus to assess whether it was used to illegally hack into phones in the U.S., per Reuters. The software has come under fire for its role in hacking smartphones belonging to human rights activists, political dissidents and reporters around the world, per investigations by the international journalism consortium Forbidden Stories.
The FBI said Wednesday it is investigating the slew of bomb threats at historically Black colleges and universities earlier this week as "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism and hate crimes."
What they're saying: "This investigation is of the highest priority for the bureau and involves more than 20 FBI field offices across the country," the FBI said in an emailed statement.
Senate Democrats are grappling with the impact that Sen. Ben Ray Luján's absence will have on the party's agenda in their 50-50 chamber.
Why it matters: The New Mexico Democrat is doing well and expected to make a full recovery, his office says, but it's still unclear how long Luján will be out of work. A Luján aide said the senator can return to Washington in 4-6 weeks, barring any complications.
The National Archives said in a letter to former President Trump on Tuesday that it will release former Vice President Mike Pence's White House records to the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
The big picture: The letter came roughly two weeks after the Archives released Trump's White House records to the Jan. 6 select committee, documents that Trump attempted to keep hidden by suing the Archives.
An Ohio judge on Wednesday granted a preliminary injunction blocking a state law that would require embryonic and fetal tissue to be cremated or buried after an abortion.
The big picture: This is the second time Hamilton County Judge Alison Hatheway has temporarily blocked Senate Bill 27. She first did last April, days before it was scheduled to go into effect.
U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken raised concerns with Israel over the death of Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American who died after Israeli soldiers detained him in the occupied West Bank last month, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told me.
Why it matters: The fact the issue was raised on such a high level shows that the Biden administration takes Assad's death seriously and that it has become a point of potential political tension between the U.S. and Israel.
Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and Trump allies Julia Hahn and Daniel Scavino, alleging "intimidation and retaliation" for the attacks he faced in 2019 when he testified in the first impeachment hearing of former President Trump.
Flashback: In an op-ed last year for Lawfare, Vindman said he "should have sued those who amplified [Trump's] campaign of defamation."
Howard University president Wayne Frederick said Tuesday that bomb threats directed at several historically Black colleges and universities, including Howard, in recent days "are motivated by hate."
Driving the news: "We don't have an idea right now of who's behind this, we do know that it's motivated by hate, which is exactly the antithesis of why these institutions are here and certainly why Howard University was founded," Frederick said Tuesday in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
President Biden has formally approved the deployment of thousands of troops to shore up NATO defenses in Eastern Europe "in the coming days," the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
Why it matters: It's the first major U.S. troop movement directed by the commander in chief in response to Russia's massive military buildup on Ukraine's borders.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is calling on the Biden administration to drop longstanding U.S. support for Ukraine's eventual membership in NATO, arguing that a binding commitment to defend the country would undermine efforts to counter China.
Why it matters: Hawley is staking out a position increasingly supported by the Republican base but historically at odds with the mainstream GOP consensus still backed by his Senate colleagues.
President Biden on Wednesday announced the revival of the cancer "moonshot" he first spearheaded as vice president.
Driving the news: Biden announced a goal to reduce the age-adjusted death rate from cancer by 50% over 25 years, the naming of a cancer moonshot coordinator at the White House and a new "Cancer Cabinet to "end cancer as we know it."
Former President Trump "said the criminal part out loud" when he claimed in a statement this week that Mike Pence "could have overturned the election," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told CBS News Tuesday.
Details: "That makes it very clear what he was up to, but on the other hand, Donald Trump has been trying to sandbag and obstruct us by getting his greatest intimates in his entourage — like Roger Stone and Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows — not to testify," said Raskin, who's a member of the House panel investigating the Capitol riot.
More than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities on Tuesday closed campus or cancelled classes due to bomb threats on the first day of Black History Month.
The big picture: It was the second day this week and third in the past month that several HBCUs had received such threats. By Tuesday afternoon, most schools had been cleared and no bombs had been found.
The FBI is launching roughly two China-related counterintelligence investigations about every 12 hours, Bureau director Christopher Wray told NBC News in an interview published Tuesday.
Why it matters: Wray is increasingly sounding the alarm on the threat posed by China's government even as Russian troops amass at Ukraine's border, indicating that he believes the Chinese Communist Party is the biggest threat to the economic security of the U.S. in the long term.
Leaked notes from a White House Situation Room meeting the day before Kabul fell shed new light on just how unprepared the Biden administration was to evacuate Afghan nationals who'd helped the United States in its 20-year war against the Taliban.
Why it matters: Hours before the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan's capital on Aug. 15, 2021, senior Biden administration officials were still discussing and assigning basic actions involved in a mass civilian evacuation.
Nearly half of American adults say they approve of the U.S. diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics — although 45% admitted they hadn't heard anything about it, according to new polling by Pew Research Center.
One Senate Democrat — desperate to revive a cornerstone of President Biden's progressive agenda — is open to scaling back eligibility for the child tax credit to lure support from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) has been at the center of negotiations to revive the CTC, which expired Dec. 31. His openness to a concession signals to Manchin he's serious about coming to a compromise.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said on Tuesday "no one can guarantee" that there won't be power outages throughout the state as it braces for freezing weather.
Why it matters: The Republican governor's remarks come just over two months after he promised the lights would stay on during the winter season, touting that the state was better equipped to endure the inclement weather.
