US Domestic News Roundup: Biden's dilemma: What about a photo with Saudi Crown Prince MbS?; Links between Trump associates, militants in focus at Jan 6 hearings this week and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Biden's dilemma: What about a photo with Saudi Crown Prince MbS?

Joe Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia this week is a diplomatic challenge that comes with a thorny logistics question: Should the U.S. president be photographed meeting, or even shaking hands with, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman? U.S. presidential visits, even with the closest of allies, are often highly choreographed affairs involving weeks of planning around seating arrangements, camera positions and how officials plan to walk into rooms to set up or avoid a handshake.

Some U.S. students re-think college plans in states with abortion bans

With its excellent academic and music programs, Oberlin College in Ohio seemed like a perfect fit for Nina Huang, a California high school student who plays flute and piano and hopes to eventually study medicine or law. But Huang, 16, said she crossed the college off her application list after Ohio enacted a near-total ban on abortion last month. She now plans to cast a wider net for schools in states with less restrictive laws.

Mexican president heads to Washington, migration resurgence in focus

U.S. President Joe Biden will meet his Mexican counterpart on Tuesday to discuss ways to stem Mexican migrant crossings as arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border reached their highest levels in over a decade, with both sides hoping to address jobs and investment. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced the meeting in Washington last month just ahead of the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, which he shunned because it excluded some left-leaning Latin American countries.

U.S. orders 3.2 million doses of Novavax COVID vaccine

The U.S. government will get 3.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax Inc once the shot has been authorized by the regulators, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the company said on Monday. The shot will be made available for free in the country after it gets authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) recommendation.

Yosemite wildfire smoke chokes national park's views and air quality

A wildfire threatening some of the world's oldest giant sequoia trees in California's Yosemite National Park expanded five-fold over the weekend as smoke prompted air quality alerts throughout the park and obscured views of its famed scenery. As of Sunday, the blaze had scorched nearly 1,600 acres (648 hectares) of timber and brush at the southern end of the park, up from 250 acres on Friday, a day after fire was first reported by visitors on the Washburn Trail of the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.

Biden will host White House event to celebrate gun safety law

President Joe Biden will host an event at the White House on Monday to tout the first major federal gun safety bill in three decades, which he signed into law in June. The bipartisan bill came together just weeks after mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo that killed more than 30 people, including 19 children at an elementary school.

Ex-Trump aide Steve Bannon offers to testify in U.S. probe of Jan. 6 riot

Donald Trump's former close adviser Steve Bannon has told the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that he is ready to testify, a change of heart days before he is due to be tried for contempt of Congress. In a letter to the committee seen by Reuters, Bannon's lawyer Robert Costello, wrote to say the former president would waive the claim of executive privilege which Bannon had cited in refusing to appear before the committee.

Texas grid operator asks users to conserve energy amid scorching heat

The operator of Texas's power grid on Sunday called on state residents for the second time this year to conserve energy, warning of potential rolling blackouts amid predictions for record-high temperatures on Monday. The state faces a "potential reserve capacity shortage with no market solution available," the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said in an operating notice on its website, adding that it was issuing an energy emergency alert that advised of the potential for rolling blackouts.

Exclusive: U.S. weighs possible resumption of offensive arms sales to Saudis - sources

The Biden administration is discussing the possible lifting of its ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, but any final decision is expected to hinge on whether Riyadh makes progress toward ending the war in neighboring Yemen, according to four people familiar with the matter. Senior Saudi officials pressed their U.S. counterparts to scrap a policy of selling only defensive arms to its top Gulf partner in several meetings in Riyadh and Washington in recent months, three of the sources said ahead of President Joe Biden's visit to the kingdom this week.

Links between Trump associates, militants in focus at Jan 6 hearings this week

Congressional investigators into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol expect this week to draw connections between militant groups that took part and government officials, possibly including then-President Donald Trump, a member of the committee conducting the investigation said on Sunday. "We are going to be connecting the dots during these hearings between these groups and those who were trying in government circles to overturn the election," Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren said on CNN's "State of the Union."