Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Republican candidate Donald Trump won Florida in both the 2016 and 2020 elections but Biden's team said it believes that opposition to tight abortion restrictions have put the Southeastern state back in play. Trump again seeks recusal of judge in hush money criminal trial Donald Trump is again seeking to get the judge overseeing his April 15 New York criminal trial off the case, arguing the judge's daughter's work for a political consultancy with Democratic clients poses a conflict of interest.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Biden, Xi call navigates Philippines and Taiwan tensions

U.S. President Joe Biden sought to manage tensions over the South China Sea and Taiwan's May presidential inauguration in a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, their first direct talks since meeting in November. Biden used the call to emphasize "the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea," the White House said in a statement.

Trump posts $175 million bond in civil fraud case, averting asset seizures

Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond in his New York civil fraud case on Monday, averting asset seizures by state authorities that could have hobbled the former U.S. president's business empire. The Republican Trump, set to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the November U.S. election, was found liable on Feb. 16 for fraudulently inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to secure better loan and insurance terms.

Trapped vessels start moving out of Baltimore after bridge collapse

The Port of Baltimore opened a temporary channel on Monday, freeing some tugs and barges that had been trapped by last week's bridge collapse, but officials said wider restoration of commercial shipping remained frustrated by unyielding conditions. Baltimore's shipping channel has been blocked since a fully loaded container ship lost power and collided with a support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last Tuesday, killing six road workers and causing the highway bridge to tumble into the Patapsco River.

Trump ally files complaint about judge who criticized Trump attacks on judiciary

A conservative ally of Donald Trump filed a complaint on Tuesday against a U.S. federal judge who in a rare television interview criticized the former president's verbal attacks on the New York judge overseeing Trump's upcoming criminal trial. Mike Davis, founder of conservative legal advocacy group the Article III Project, said he feared that U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton's criticism of Trump on CNN last week could taint the jury pools for the Republican presidential candidate's four criminal cases in New York, Washington, D.C., Florida and Georgia.

Second channel opens around collapsed Baltimore bridge, but not for shipping

Recovery teams opened a second channel enabling smaller vessels to navigate the Port of Baltimore on Tuesday but most commercial shipping remains blocked by the collapsed bridge and stranded container ship that brought the structure down a week ago. A team including the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Maryland announced crews had cleared a channel with a depth of 14 feet (4.3 meters), similar to the 11-foot channel opened on the opposite side of the wreckage on Monday.

Wisconsin governor vetoes school sports restrictions for trans students

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed a bill on Tuesday that would ban transgender and some intersex children from playing on sex-segregated school sports teams, saying that he has repeatedly warned he would veto any "anti-LGBTQ" legislation sent to his desk. The bill, which was passed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature in late March, would have required all public schools and some private schools to designate sports teams as male, female or mixed, part of a wave of laws in recent years by Republican politicians across the U.S. to regulate transgender people's conduct.

Republicans hope to win Black voters for Trump. It won't be easy

Orlando Owens, a rare Republican activist in a majority-Black district of Milwaukee, had hoped this election season would be different. With national polls showing waning enthusiasm for Democratic President Joe Biden, especially among Black voters who say they are frustrated with his performance on the economy and other issues, state Republican party officials and activists saw an opening.

FCC to vote to restore net neutrality rules, reversing Trump

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules and assume new regulatory oversight of broadband internet that was rescinded under former President Donald Trump, the agency's chair said. The FCC told advocates on Tuesday of the plan to vote on the final rule at its April 25 meeting.

Biden's campaign says he can win Florida, after abortion ruling

President Joe Biden's reelection campaign team said it believes he can win in Florida this year after the state Supreme Court cleared the way for a Republican-backed law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Republican candidate Donald Trump won Florida in both the 2016 and 2020 elections but Biden's team said it believes that opposition to tight abortion restrictions have put the Southeastern state back in play.

Trump again seeks recusal of judge in hush money criminal trial

Donald Trump is again seeking to get the judge overseeing his April 15 New York criminal trial off the case, arguing the judge's daughter's work for a political consultancy with Democratic clients poses a conflict of interest. The Republican presidential candidate last year made a similar request for Justice Juan Merchan to recuse himself, but the judge denied the bid after an ethics panel found that his daughter's work did not pose reasonable questions about his impartiality.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)