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| Happy Hump Day, Daily Briefing readers! Americans will be able to pick up free N95 masks at "tens of thousands" of locations across the country, beginning late next week, the White House says. Former President Donald Trump is back in the headlines, and not for good reasons. And, AT&T and Verizon will launch 5G networks nationwide – but why is it concerning the airline industry? |
| It's Steve and Jane, with Wednesday's news. |
| 😷 The Biden administration will start shipping 400 million free non-surgical N95 face masks to distribution sites nationwide as part of efforts to fight omicron, according to a White House official. |
| 🤒 Free COVID tests: So many Americans flocked to the new federal website offering free testing kits that experts think they could go fast. Here's how to get one. |
| 🚒 A wildfire in a Central Texas state park forced the evacuation of dozens of homes in the city of Bastrop — the site of a deadly blaze more than a decade ago — and officials said a prescribed burn may be to blame. |
| ⚖️ President Joe Biden intends to nominate a Muslim woman for a federal judgeship for the first time in U.S. history. Nusrat Jahan Choudhury is Biden's nominee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. |
| 🧵 André Leon Talley, the fashion icon and former creative director of Vogue, has died. He was 73. |
 | | Andre Leon Talley attends an event in New York City on December 2015. | | Getty Images photo for Town & Country; USA TODAY Life graphic | |
| ⚖ Supreme Court justices are divided over masks: According to a report, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch refuses to wear a mask in the courtroom, despite a request from Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. |
| 🚨 Three teens were found dead Tuesday in a home northeast of Houston, and it appears one of the teens killed themself after killing the other two, authorities said. |
| 🥤 A man was served a cleaning liquid at Cracker Barrel. Now, the restaurant has to pay millions. |
| 🎧 On today's 5 Things podcast, hear the latest on Russia and Ukraine tensions. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker. |
| Here's what's happening today: |
Trump documents set for release in Washington, evidence found in New York |
| The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack could get access to a small portion of former President Donald Trump's White House documents as soon as Wednesday, according to a court filing late Tuesday. The National Archives was scheduled to release about a half-dozen pages of records that had not been blocked from release as Trump pursues a Supreme Court challenge to the House committee's demand for a swath of his White House records, officials said. Trump's attorneys had "not raised any arguments about those six pages in this appeal." |
| Also late Tuesday, the New York attorney general's office told a court its investigators uncovered evidence Trump's company used "fraudulent or misleading" asset valuations to get loans and tax benefits. Letitia James' office said state authorities haven't yet decided whether to bring a civil lawsuit in connection with the allegations, but Trump and his two eldest children - Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump - need to be questioned. Trump and his lawyers say the probe is politically motivated. |
Biden to hold first formal news conference of 2022 |
| President Joe Biden will hold his first formal news conference of 2022 on Wednesday, after facing months of criticism about lack of media access. It will be Biden's first solo press conference at the White House since March 2021 and his first since November, when he traveled to Glasgow for the United Nations climate summit. The president will also face reporters a day before he's due to mark his first year in office and after a bruising week in which his political standing took a hit amid record inflation, failed efforts to push through voting rights legislation and a Supreme Court ruling against a key component of his vaccine campaign. Biden will field questions from reporters on Wednesday at 4 p.m. E.T. |
Just for subscribers: |
| 🗣 Five things to expect from Biden's news conference Wednesday: Inflation, COVID-19, voting rights and more. |
| ✈️ Why your 5G phone concerns the airline industry: What we know about the impact on travel, flights and more. |
| 🔵 Opinion: As Democrats lurch to defeat on voting, it's up to Biden to get his party off the ropes. |
| 🌊 Turning tides: They settled on a Georgia island while enslaved. Now they fight rising seas and land loss to preserve their culture. |
| 📢 Opinion: You can't say that in America. Bullies on the left and right shut down "divisive" ideas. |
| These articles are for USA TODAY subscribers. You can sign up here. Here is all of our subscriber content. |
Blinken to visit Ukraine amid Russian invasion threat |
| With a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine looming, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Ukrainian leaders Wednesday as the Biden administration ramps up its diplomatic efforts. Blinken is scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, then with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba "to reinforce the United States' commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," according to a senior State Department official. Blinken's trip comes after lower-level talks with Russian and European officials last week failed to produce a breakthrough. Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine and threatened to escalate conflict with its neighbor unless the U.S. and its European allies make a series of security guarantees to Moscow. |
Newsmakers in their own words: ESPN's Smith details his COVID battle |
 | | Stephen A. Smith speaks during a live taping of ESPN's "First Take" at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. | | Tallahassee Democrat photo; USA TODAY Sports graphic | |
| Stephen A. Smith returned to ESPN's "First Take" this week after battling COVID-19, which the commentator said, "I wouldn't be here" if he wasn't vaccinated. |
| Smith, 54, announced on the show that he tested positive for the virus on Dec. 21, but said at the time he was only experiencing mild symptoms. When Smith, who also advocated for people to continue wearing masks amid the omicron variant surge, returned to the show, he said "for me personally, it hit me differently." |
Supreme Court to hear Cruz challenge to campaign finance law |
| The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a case that has bitterly divided Republicans and Democrats over how candidates fund their campaigns . The case, brought by Texas Republican Ted Cruz, centers on the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which set new limits on political donations, tried to quash "soft money" that skirted those limits and required federal candidates to include the "I approve this message" tag line on TV ads. On the surface, Cruz wants the court to strike down part of the law that restricts a campaign's ability to raise money after an election to repay a candidate's personal loan. The Biden administration says the provision helps prevent corruption, but critics say it's a perk that benefits incumbents. |
ICYMI: Some of our top stories yesterday |
| ⛄️ Green Bay Packers fans breaking out their Cheesehead hats for the team's playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday should also bundle up. |
| 🔴 "They've covered it up": Backlash swells over Peace Corps worker's involvement in woman's death in Africa. |
| 📺 "Knocked on doors and found them closed": Alex Trebek's "Jeopardy!" pick CNN's Laura Coates says she was told "no" after asking to host. |
 | | Laura Coates says she was told 'no' after asking to host 'Jeopardy!' | | Getty | |
AT&T and Verizon to launch 5G service nationwide — with one exception |
| Wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon will launch 5G networks nationwide, except in areas within two miles of airports. Both companies decided to voluntarily limit their launches after industry group Airlines for America warned the frequency could interfere with devices that measure airplane altitude and impact safety. At issue is 5G's C-Band, which wireless carriers invested billions on last year. "Airplane manufacturers have informed us that there are huge swaths of the operating fleet that may need to be indefinitely grounded," Airlines for America wrote Monday in a letter signed by the CEOs of Delta, American, United, Southwest, FedEx, UPS and more. The FAA is studying the potential impacts of 5G on flights and has preemptively ordered some Boeing 787 operators to take extra precautions when landing. |
Fact check: Let's get some things clear |
| ✔ The claim: An image shows actor Sylvester Stallone wearing a T-shirt with a message against COVID-19 vaccines, President Joe Biden and Dr. Fauci. Our rating: Altered. |
| ✔ The claim: Avicii, Chester Bennington, Anthony Bourdain and Chris Cornell all died by suicide while working on the film "Silent Children." Our rating: False ❌ The celebrities had no connection to the documentary, a spokesperson said. At least two of their deaths occurred after the project was already shelved. |
| 🔵 The claim: USA TODAY's experts will check subscribers' facts. All they need to do is to send us a text. Our rating: True. Head here to see what you can do to get your facts checked. |
| ✔ The claim: Mark McGowan, premier of the state of Western Australia, faked his booster shot. Our rating: False ❌ Images and video footage show an uncovered needle going into McGowan's arm. |
| ✔ The claim: A video shows what a Walmart shopping experience will look like in the metaverse. Our rating: False ❌ The concept was created in 2017 and Walmart says the video does not reflect its current research and plans. |
| 🔵 Did you know we have a whole newsletter devoted only to fact checks? Sign up here to get the real story! |
📸 Before and after: The devastating impact of undersea volcano eruption and tsunami in Tonga 📸 |
 | | This satellite image provided by Planet Labs PBC, shows Kanokupolu in Tongatapu, Tonga on Jan. 16, 2022, after a huge undersea volcanic eruption. | | Planet Labs PBC via AP | |
| A thick layer of volcanic ash blanketed Tonga after new images showed the aftermath of Saturday's massive undersea volcanic eruption and tsunami that sparked fears of widespread disaster. |
| Aerial and satellite photos released by New Zealand, Australia and UNOSAT, the United Nations satellite center, show once green, lush islands smothered in dark ash. |
| The eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano propelled a 3-mile-wide plume of ash and gas resembling a giant mushroom to about 12 miles above the water. Tsunami waves resulting from the explosion sent people rushing to higher ground. |
| Scroll through our gallery to see stark pictures of the landscape before and after the eruption. |
| Contributing: The Associated Press |
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