Reuters US Domestic News Summary

During a news briefing marking the one-year anniversary of his presidency, Biden said he did not overpromise on his agenda, but did underestimate Republican opposition. U.S. Supreme Court leans toward Senator Cruz over campaign finance challenge Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday appeared sympathetic toward Republican Senator Ted Cruz's challenge to a provision of a major campaign finance law that caps the amount of money political candidates can be reimbursed after an election for personal loans to their own campaign organizations.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Coronavirus spreading like never before in Americas, health agency says

COVID-19 infections are reaching new peaks in the Americas with 7.2 million new cases and more than 15,000 COVID-related deaths in the last week, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday. "The virus is spreading more actively than ever before," PAHO Director Carissa Etienne told a briefing.

U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor, Gorsuch deny rift over masks

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday issued an unusual joint statement from liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch denying a rift between them over wearing a face mask during oral arguments to protect against COVID-19. "Reporting that Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask surprised us. It is false," Sotomayor and Gorsuch said in the statement, which was provided by a court spokesperson. "While we may sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends."

Teddy Roosevelt statue removed from outside New York museum

Workers on Wednesday dismantled a towering statue of President Theodore Roosevelt from outside New York City's American Museum of Natural History. The "Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt," commissioned in 1925 and unveiled to the public in 1940, depicts Roosevelt on a horse, with a Native American man and an African man on foot at his side. It has been criticized by some as a symbol of colonialism and racism.

'Our work's not done,' Biden says, addressing skeptics at one-year mark

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he had underestimated the extent of Republican opposition to his programs and acknowledged Americans' frustration at the slow pace of COVID-19 testing, but said the United States was on track to meet considerable challenges from the pandemic and inflation. Marking the near one-year anniversary of his presidency, Biden, a Democrat, faced a flurry questions on the country's bumpy COVID-19 response, relations with Russia and the future of American democracy during a rare formal news conference.

Biden blasts Republicans, asks party to name what it stands for

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday accused Republicans of blocking his legislative agenda for political purposes, saying the party is more interested in defeating his presidency than doing things for the American people. During a news briefing marking the one-year anniversary of his presidency, Biden said he did not overpromise on his agenda, but did underestimate Republican opposition.

U.S. Supreme Court leans toward Senator Cruz over campaign finance challenge

Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday appeared sympathetic toward Republican Senator Ted Cruz's challenge to a provision of a major campaign finance law that caps the amount of money political candidates can be reimbursed after an election for personal loans to their own campaign organizations. Cruz, backed by fellow Republicans, has argued that the $250,000 loan repayment cap violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech by unjustifiably burdening political expression. The federal agency that enforces election laws has called the cap an anti-corruption measure.

Analysis-Biden must tighten focus on economy, pandemic before midterms, Democrats say

With his party splintered and Democrats across the coalition that elected him in 2020 unhappy, President Joe Biden has just a few months to try to chart a path out of the malaise or risk getting swamped in the looming midterm elections in which Republicans are seeking to regain control of Congress. A year into Biden's presidency, suburban, college-educated and women voters who helped make him president are exhausted after almost two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite robust economic indicators, many Americans are frustrated by regular school disruptions, high prices at the gasoline pump and barren grocery store shelves.

U.S. Supreme Court spurns Trump bid to keep Capitol attack records secret

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected former President Donald Trump's request to block the release of White House records sought by the Democratic-led congressional panel investigating last year's deadly attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. The decision means the documents, held by a federal agency that stores government and historical records, can be disclosed even as litigation over the matter continues in lower courts.

U.S. Democrats' voting rights bill appears doomed as Manchin rejects rules change

An effort by U.S. Senate Democrats to pass a voting-rights bill that faces rock-solid Republican opposition looked set to fail on Wednesday after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said he would block a move to change the chamber's filibuster rule. Despite President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urging fellow Democrats to support suspending or easing the filibuster rule to circumvent the Republican blockade, Manchin took to the Senate floor to proclaim that he would not vote for such a rule change.

University of Michigan agrees to $490 million sexual-abuse settlement

The University of Michigan said it would pay $490 million to 1,050 people to resolve claims of sexual assault against a former sports doctor, in a settlement spanning decades and involving mostly male athletes as victims. The university said the deal, the culmination of two years of negotiations with attorneys for the victims, would settle all claims of abuse by the late Dr. Robert Anderson, pending approval by the school's Board of Regents and the courts.