US Domestic News Roundup: Biden and Senator Sanders to highlight efforts lower cost of asthma inhalers; US senator urges Biden to review alleged Nippon Steel ties to China and more

"As you examine this deal, I urge you to thoroughly investigate the allegations raised in this report and examine Nippon's ties to the Chinese government and the danger this merger poses to American national and economic security," Sherrod Brown said in a letter to Biden citing an April report by consultancy Horizon Advisory. Republicans hope to win Black voters for Trump.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

White House hosts muted Ramadan event as Biden's Israel policy draws anger

The White House held a scaled-down iftar dinner on Tuesday to celebrate Islam's holy month of Ramadan, after some invitees turned the president down over frustrations in the Muslim community over his policy toward the Israel-Gaza war. President Joe Biden met with Muslim leaders before having a small dinner with senior Muslim officials in his administration, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband.

Cool $1 billion Powerball jackpot up for grabs

Lottery players across the United States will be scurrying to purchase their Powerball tickets on Wednesday with hopes of striking it rich by winning the whopping $1.09 billion jackpot, the fourth largest in the game's history. The drawing, set for 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT on Wednesday), is the 40th since the last Powerball winner hit the jackpot on New Year's Day.

Biden and Senator Sanders to highlight efforts lower cost of asthma inhalers

U.S. President Joe Biden will host a White House event with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to highlight their efforts to cut the cost of inhalers for asthma suffers. Sanders and other lawmakers in January criticized four manufacturers of inhalers sold in the U.S. — AstraZeneca, Boehringer, Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA.TA), and GSK (GSK.L), — over prices that were much higher in the U.S. than in other countries.

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.

US senator urges Biden to review alleged Nippon Steel ties to China

The head of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday urged the White House to scrutinize the relationship between Nippon Steel and the Chinese steel industry, citing national security concerns amid bipartisan opposition in Congress to the Japanese company's $14.9 billion deal to acquire U.S. Steel Corp. "As you examine this deal, I urge you to thoroughly investigate the allegations raised in this report and examine Nippon's ties to the Chinese government and the danger this merger poses to American national and economic security," Sherrod Brown said in a letter to Biden citing an April report by consultancy Horizon Advisory.

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.

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.

Bird flu hits Texas dairy cows, hens, human as ducks migrate

Migratory waterfowl are to blame for widening avian-flu outbreaks in Texas cows and poultry, and wild birds carrying the virus should be heading north soon, state Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said on Tuesday. The U.S. government since last week has reported cases of the disease in seven dairy herds in Texas and one person who had contact with cows, making it the state most affected by the country's first-ever outbreaks in cattle. Texas is the biggest U.S. cattle producer.

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.

Trump calls migrants 'animals,' intensifying focus on illegal immigration

Donald Trump called immigrants illegally in the United States "animals" and "not human" in a speech in Michigan on Tuesday, resorting to the degrading rhetoric he has employed time and again on the campaign trail. The Republican presidential candidate, appearing with several law enforcement officers, described in detail several criminal cases involving suspects in the country illegally and warned that violence and chaos would consume America if he did not win the Nov. 5 election.

(With inputs from agencies.)