US Domestic News Roundup: Oracle’s Ellison joined Nov 2020 call about contesting Trump's defeat; Biden says first shipments of baby formula flying in from Europe this weekend and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Oracle's Ellison joined Nov 2020 call about contesting Trump's defeat

Larry Ellison, the billionaire chairman and co-founder of Oracle Corp, participated shortly after the November 2020 U.S. presidential election in a phone call focused on strategies for contesting former President Donald Trump's defeat, according to an email revealed in a court document. The Nov. 14, 2020 phone call, first reported by the Washington Post, is the first known instance of a technology industry leader joining Trump allies to strategize about how to contest the election result.

Biden says first shipments of baby formula flying in from Europe this weekend

The first shipments of infant formula from Europe to address a critical shortage in the United States should begin arriving this weekend, President Joe Biden said on Friday amid criticism of his administration's handling of the issue. Biden said on Twitter the initial military cargo plane flights under "Operation Fly Formula" meant that "up to 1.5 million bottles of safe Nestlé infant formula will be coming to U.S. shelves as soon as possible."

At first funeral after Buffalo shooting, a 'God-given' man is mourned

Nearly a week after an avowed white supremacist killed 10 Black people at a western New York supermarket, friends and family of Heyward Patterson gathered on Friday to mourn a "God-given" man who was considered family to many in the Buffalo neighborhood where he lived and died helping others. The private memorial service for Patterson, a community deacon, was the first funeral for one of the people killed in Saturday's attack. It took place at Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church, less than a mile from the Tops Friendly Markets store where 13 people - 11 of them Black - were shot Saturday by the gunman firing a semi-automatic, assault-style rifle.

Biden says 'everybody' should be concerned about the monkeypox outbreak

The monkeypox outbreak is something "everybody should be concerned about," U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday, adding that U.S. health officials are looking into possible treatments and vaccines. "We're working on it hard to figure out what we do," Biden told reporters at an airbase in South Korea before departing on Air Force One for Japan.

COVID restrictions for migrants at the U.S. border cannot end yet, judge rules

U.S. authorities were blocked by a federal judge on Friday from lifting COVID-19 restrictions that empower agents at the U.S.-Mexico border to turn back migrants without giving them a chance to seek asylum. The nationwide injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays in Louisiana means the restrictions, which were set to end on May 23, will remain in place across the border as the litigation proceeds unless a higher court overturns the ruling. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it intends to appeal.

Shooting in Chicago's downtown leaves at least two dead

Chicago police arrested a suspect in a fatal shooting that escalated from a fight outside a fast-food restaurant and spilled onto a nearby train line, authorities and local media said on Friday. At least two people died and 10 were wounded after gunfire erupted on Thursday night outside a McDonald's near the city's Magnificent Mile shopping section, authorities said. A gun was recovered at the crime scene, according to Chicago police spokesperson Tom Ahern.

Giuliani meets with U.S. House Jan. 6 panel, CNN reports

Rudy Giuliani, who served as former U.S. President Donald Trump's personal attorney, met for more than nine hours on Friday with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, CNN reported, citing two sources. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City, had previously refused to appear before the panel unless his testimony was videotaped, his attorney Robert Costello said earlier this month. The committee said at the time that Giuliani had agreed to a transcribed interview.

U.S. stops controlled burns nationwide after New Mexico disaster

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) on Friday called a temporary nationwide halt to controlled burns meant to reduce fire risk after the agency accidentally started part of New Mexico's largest-ever wildfire. The Hermits Peak Calf Canyon fire has burned over 300,000 acres (123,000 hectares), destroyed up to 1,500 properties and displaced tens of thousands of people, and is still out of control.

New York judge approves congressional map, throwing Democrats into disarray

A New York judge approved a new congressional map that pits two veteran Democratic incumbents against one another and boosts Republican odds of capturing more seats in November's midterm elections, further endangering Democrats' fragile U.S. House majority. Justice Patrick McAllister, a judge in rural Steuben County, signed off on the map just before midnight on Friday, weeks after New York's top court ruled that the redistricting plan passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature was unconstitutionally manipulated to benefit the party.

Analysis-Harangued by Trump, Georgia's governor poised to rebuke him in midterm vote

There may be no politician that Donald Trump wants to see ousted more than Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, who defied the then-president's demand to overturn the state's 2020 U.S. presidential election results that narrowly helped Joe Biden win the White House. Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates in this year's U.S. congressional elections, seeking to deepen his imprint on the Republican Party and remove any adversaries from its ranks.

(With inputs from agencies.)