Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Trump administration had no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan: White House There was no distribution plan for the coronavirus vaccine set up by the Trump administration as the virus raged in its last months in office, new President Joe Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, said on Sunday.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. CDC reports 416,010 deaths from the coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 24,876,261 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 171,844 from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 3,414 to 416,010. The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states. Biden administration to unveil more climate policies, urges China to toughen emissions target

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration next week will release more policies it believes are needed to tackle climate change and is urging China to toughen one of its targets on greenhouse gas emissions, his top climate advisers said on Saturday. Gina McCarthy, the White House's national climate adviser, did not say what policies would be released. A memo seen by Reuters on Thursday showed Biden will unveil a second round of executive orders as soon as Jan. 27 that include an omnibus order to combat climate change domestically and elevate the issue as a national security priority. Republican congressman played a role in Trump's campaign to fight election loss: NYT

A Republican U.S. congressman played a role in ex-President Donald Trump's efforts to oust the top Justice Department official and replace him with a loyalist willing to support efforts to overturn his election defeat, the New York Times reported on Sunday. Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania arranged for Trump to meet Jeffrey Bossert Clark, a Justice Department official who Trump considered naming to replace Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen earlier this month, the newspaper reported. 'We can't wait:' Biden pushes U.S. Congress for $1.9 trillion in COVID-19 relief

The Biden administration and Democratic and Republican lawmakers discussing a new $1.9 trillion in coronavirus relief agreed on Sunday that the most important priority should be producing and efficiently distributing a vaccine. An aide to a Democrat who was on the call with Brian Deese, one of President Joe Biden's top economic aides, said the discussion had been "robust" and that the two sides would continue to work together. U.S. CDC says 21.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 21,848,655 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Sunday morning. The tally of vaccine doses is for both Moderna Inc's vaccine and one by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech as of 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) on Sunday, the agency said. Biden to repeal Trump's ban on transgender people joining military

President Joe Biden is poised to repeal his predecessor Donald Trump's ban on transgender people enlisting in the U.S. military, a person familiar with the matter said. The source, who spoke to Reuters anonymously because the action is not yet public, said Biden could lift the ban as soon as Monday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump's coming impeachment trial aggravates rift among Republicans

The coming second impeachment trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump on a charge of inciting the deadly storming of the Capitol has aggravated a rift among his fellow Republicans that was on full display on Sunday. At least one Republican, Senator Mitt Romney, said he believed the trial, which could lead to a vote banning Trump from future office, was a necessary response to the former president's inflammatory call to his supporters to "fight" his election defeat before the Jan. 6 attack. Trump administration had no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan: White House

There was no distribution plan for the coronavirus vaccine set up by the Trump administration as the virus raged in its last months in office, new President Joe Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, said on Sunday. "The process to distribute the vaccine, particularly outside of nursing homes and hospitals out into the community as a whole, did not really exist when we came into the White House," Klain said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Church and bagels to go: Biden's first White House Sunday

President Joe Biden attended a church service in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood and stopped for bagels at a hot pink shop named "Call Your Mother" on his first Sunday in office. Biden waved at a crowd of cheering supporters near the shop, while his son Hunter waited at the takeout window before returning with a bag of bagels and some beverages. Chicago teachers vote for remote classes only, claim schools are unsafe amid COVID-19

Chicago teachers have voted in favor of a resolution to stay out of their classrooms in the third-largest school system in the United States, claiming the district has not done enough to keep them and their students safe amid the pandemic. A total of 71% of teachers who cast a vote on the measure were in favor of not returning to their classrooms and to continue to teach remotely, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) said in a statement announcing the results on Sunday.