Monday, March 1

· Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans to take any of the three available COVID-19 vaccines including the newly approved Johnson & Johnson shot.

· Federal health officials warned that new cases and deaths due to COVID-19 are on the rise again in the United States with over 67,200 new cases and 2,000 deaths per day on average as concerns over even more dangerous variants rise and vaccination efforts continue to struggle to keep pace.

· The Department of Homeland Security announced it would look for legal ways to allow migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under former President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy to be reunited and stay in the U.S. if they choose.

· The State Department defended its decision not to sanction Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi because it is “working to put the U.S.-Saudi relationship on the right footing,” according to spokesperson Ned Price.

· A trio of lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced a new tax proposition dubbed the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act with a 2% annual tax on households and trusts valued between $50 million and $1 billion, with all net worth over $1 billion taxed at 3%. The bill, if it passed, would be expected to generate at least $3 trillion in revenue for the federal government over 10 years.

· The media revealed Trump and former first lady Melania Trump received the coronavirus vaccine in January despite publicly downplaying the significance of the pandemic and questioning precautions while in office.

Tuesday, March 2

· President Joe Biden promised that the U.S. will have enough coronavirus vaccine doses for every adult in the country by the end of May.

· Biden held a virtual meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with the goal of overturning Trump’s hardline attitude toward Mexico. The leaders discussed immigration, the coronavirus pandemic and climate issues. “We look at Mexico as an equal … what you do in Mexico and how you succeed impacts dramatically on what the rest of the hemisphere will look like,” Biden said.

· The Senate confirmed Cecilia Rouse to become the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, the first Black person to serve in the role since it was established 74 years ago.

· Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) introduced a bill to sanction Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, at odds with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Biden and the State Department.

· FBI Director Christopher Wray labeled the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 as domestic terrorists. “The siege was criminal behavior, pure and simple,” Wray said.

· The U.S. sanctioned two Houthi rebel leaders in Yemen for alleged procurement of weapons from Iran used in attacks on Saudi Arabia and shipping vessels in the Red Sea. The Houthis said the sanctions would only prolong the war in Yemen.

· The U.S. sanctioned 14 Russian entities associated with biological and chemical agent production and seven senior Russian officials for Moscow’s alleged attempt to poison opposition leader Alexey Navalny with a nerve agent. A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said Russia would react with “reciprocity and not necessarily symmetrically.”

· Biden’s pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget Neera Tanden withdrew her name from consideration following bipartisan criticism for a 2016 tweet in which Tanden criticized a pharmaceutical CEO — Heather Bresch, the daughter of one of Tanden’s critics, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV).

Wednesday, March 3

· Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who the U.S. recognizes as interim president, in which a spokesperson said Blinken “stressed the importance of a return to democracy in Venezuela through free and fair elections.”

· Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened an investigation into whether human smuggling was involved in an accident in which a tractor-trailer slammed into an SUV at the U.S.-Mexico border, killing at least 13 people, 10 of whom were Mexican nationals.

· Federal authorities and Capitol police confirmed they gathered intelligence suggesting that an “identified militia group” known as the Three Percenters — a reference to the dubious claim that only 3% of colonial subjects were actively fighting the British during the Revolutionary War — planned to breach the Capitol the following day. The Capitol received extra security and no attack occurred.

· White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. is “assessing the impact” of a rocket attack at a U.S. airbase in western Iraq in which a U.S. contractor died.

· The House passed a package of election and government reforms that include revamping ballot access, campaign finance and ethics and would require states to provide same-day voter registration and at least two weeks of early voting.

Thursday, March 4

· The House passed a sweeping police reform package that bans chokeholds and aims to combat racial profiling in a bill named in honor of George Floyd, an unarmed Minnesota Black man who was killed by police in May last year.

· The State Department announced that it “firmly opposes” the International Criminal Court’s war crimes investigation in occupied Palestinian territories, claiming that the ICC has “no jurisdiction over this matter.” Vice President Kamala Harris informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the U.S.’s stance the next day.

· The U.S. agreed to suspend millions of dollars in tariffs on exports from the United Kingdom for four months as part of an effort to resolve a trade dispute over aerospace subsidies, over which the Trump administration slapped tariffs on European goods worth $7.5 billion.

Friday, March 5

· The U.S. and the European Union also agreed to suspend tariffs first placed in the aerospace subsidy dispute for four months in the first steps toward normalizing trade in the post-Trump era.

· Reuters reported that the U.S. government is considering whether to house unaccompanied migrant children at a military base in Virginia called Fort Lee following a sharp rise in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Saturday, March 6

· The Senate narrowly passed a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package, with amendments to be returned to the House, that includes $1,400 in direct payments to most Americans, $300 a week in unemployment, tax breaks for low-income households and more, but tossed out the House’s proposed $15 minimum wage by 2025.

Sunday, March 7

· The U.S. and South Korea released a statement that they would begin a nine-day war games event that is “strictly defensive” in nature, an annual joint drill that will be smaller than usual because of the pandemic. North Korean officials refer to the exercises as a “rehearsal for war.”

· Secretary of State Blinken wrote to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to suggest ways to accelerate Afghanistan’s stalled peace process and to achieve a lasting ceasefire.

· Biden signed an executive order aimed to make it easier for Americans to vote by directing federal agencies to “consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.”