Monday, Feb. 1

· A Democrat-led House panel on the coronavirus pandemic launched a probe into COVID-19 outbreaks at meatpacking plants to determine whether the Occupational Safety and Health Administration adequately enforced worker safety rules.

· Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the new chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, pledged to put sub-Saharan African “on the front burner” of United States foreign policy in an effort to prioritize U.S.-African relations.

· President Joe Biden threatened to re-impose sanctions on Myanmar following a military coup in the country that led to the detention of the country’s elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was once championed as a powerful voice for democracy in the region but has come under fire in the past few years for her muted response to a brutal military crackdown that led to the genocide of Rohingya Muslims.

Tuesday, Feb. 2

· In a move to ramp up security measures in Congress, the House voted to levy fines against colleagues who bypassed recently installed metal detectors surrounding the chamber: $5,000 for the first violation and $10,000 for any thereafter.

· House Democrats and former President Donald Trump’s legal team filed briefs outlining their arguments regarding the House’s article of impeachment against Trump, which charges him with inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

· The U.S. formally designated Myanmar’s military takeover as a coup, which triggered restrictions on U.S. support for the country.

· Biden signed three executive orders aimed at undoing Trump’s hardline immigration policies: the creation of a task force to reunite migrant families separated at the border by Trump’s 2018 “zero tolerance” strategy; a review of border security guidelines, and a review of Trump’s “public charge rule” that makes it more difficult for people who use government benefits to get green cards. “I’m not making new law,” Biden said. “I’m eliminating bad policy.”

· The Biden administration announced it will start providing COVID-19 vaccines to pharmacies across the country as part of its plan to ramp up vaccination efforts as more severe new strains of the virus begin to appear in the country.

· The Senate confirmed Biden’s nominee for Department of Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, the first cabinet pick to face Republican backlash that included a filibuster, which Democrats broke the previous Thursday. Mayorkas served as DHS deputy secretary and director of Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Barack Obama.

· Reuters reported on an FBI investigation of a 2020 hack into government computers. The law enforcement agency suspected Chinese hackers of exploiting a flaw in software made by SolarWinds Corp to break into the National Finance Center, a federal payroll agency inside the Department of Agriculture.

Wednesday, Feb. 3

· The House approved a budget measure directing committees to start drafting pieces of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which includes $1,400 stimulus checks and a strategy to increase the minimum wage to $15.

· Biden said he would not budge on delivering $1,400 in direct payments to Americans, clearing some confusion on whether the $2,000 direct payments he promised on the campaign trail included the $600 already given or was in addition to that amount.

· The White House said it couldn’t release visitor logs from the former administration, which have come under scrutiny following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. “Under the Presidential Records Act,” a White House spokesperson said, “all Trump White House visitor logs are under the control and legal custody of the National Archives and Records Administration, and cannot be unilaterally released by the Biden White House.”

· Biden issued a disaster declaration for the Navajo Nation over the coronavirus pandemic. The declaraation unlocks federal financial assistance to the tribe. Navajo leaders called the move “long-awaited.”

· The U.S. and Russia announced they extended the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty agreement for five years.

Thursday, Feb. 4

· A Trump spokesperson announced the former president will not testify in the Senate’s upcoming impeachment trial, calling it “unconstitutional.”

· The Senate overwhelmingly approved a proposal to bar “upper-income taxpayers” from eligibility for the next round of stimulus checks. The proposal has received criticism for phasing out checks to people who earn incomes as low as $50,000.

· Far-right conservative Rep. Marjorie Greene Taylor (R-Geo.) was stripped of her seats on the House Budget, Education and Labor panels in a bipartisan vote following incendiary, conspiracy-peddling comments. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress, even called her rhetoric a “cancer” on the party.

· The State Department urged India to hold a dialogue with the tens of thousands of farmers in the country currently holding one of the largest ongoing labor protests in history. The protests began in late November over agriculture laws that workers say will leave them poorer and at the mercy of corporations.

· Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.

Friday, Feb. 5

· The Senate approved a budget resolution to fast track Biden’s pandemic aid plan without Republican support.

· Turkey’s interior minister accused the U.S. of being behind the failed 2016 coup in the country. The State Department called the claim “wholly false.”

· Biden said Trump should not continue to receive the intelligence briefings typically available to former presidents due to his “erratic behavior,” finding that there is “no need for him to have intelligence.”

Saturday, Feb. 6

· A U.S. warship sailed near the China-controlled Paracel Islands in a disputed region of the South China Sea as part of a freedom of navigation operation. China condemned the maneuver.

· Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed accountability onto the Chinese government for its treatment of Uighur Muslims, Tibetans, Hong Kong and the coup in Myanmar, saying the U.S. will “hold Beijing accountable for its abuses of the international system.”

· Blinken released a statement saying the U.S. has moved to end agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras intended to send migrants and asylum seekers back to those countries, effective immediately.

Sunday, Feb. 7

· Biden announced that the U.S. will not lift sanctions on Iran until the country returns to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.