Shootings at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, have left at least 18 people dead and 13 injured in the deadliest mass shooting of 2023 thus far.

The big picture: Mass shootings are becoming deadlier and far more common. There were a total of eleven shootings in which at least 12 people died between 1949 and 2011. There have been 14 since then — more than one per year — including the 2017 shooting at a Las Vegas hotel that left 60 dead.

America's deadliest modern mass shootings

1. Route 91 Harvest music festival, Las Vegas, October 2, 2017: 60 killed, more than 850 injured.
2. Pulse, Orlando, Fla., June 2016: 49 killed and 53 injured.
3. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va., April 2007: 32 killed and 17 injured on campus.
4. Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn., December 2012: 26 killed.
5. First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas, November 2017: 26 killed and 20 injured.
6. Luby's Cafeteria, Killeen, Texas, October 1991: 23 killed.
7. Walmart, El Paso, Texas, August 3, 2019: 23 killed, 26 injured.
8. McDonald's, San Ysdiro, Calif., July 1984: 21 killed.
9. Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022: 21 killed.
10. Schemengees Bar and Sparetime Recreation, Lewiston, Maine, October 2023: 18 killed and at least 13 injured.
11. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Fla., February 2018: 17 killed.
12. University of Texas Tower, Austin, Texas, August 1966: 16 killed around campus.
13. Inland Regional Center, San Bernardino, Calif., December 2015: 14 killed.
14. Edmond post office, Edmond, Okla., August 1986: 14 killed.
15. Fort Hood, Fort Hood, Texas, November 2009: 13 killed.
16. Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo., April 1999: 13 killed.
17. Binghamton Civic Association, Binghamton, N.Y., April 2009: 13 killed.
18. New Jersey neighborhood and local shops, Camden, N.J, September 1949: 13 killed.
19. Schoolhouse Lane neighborhood and Heather Highlands Mobile Home Village, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., September 1982: 13 killed.
20. Wah Mee club in the Louisa hotel, Seattle, Wash., February 1983: 13 killed.
21. Century 16 movie theater, Aurora, Colo., July 2012: 12 killed, 58 wounded.
22. Star Ballroom Dance Studio, Monterey Park, Calif., January, 2023: 12 killed, 9 injured.
23. Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., September 2013: 12 killed, 8 wounded.
24. The Borderline Bar & Grill, Thousand Oaks, Calif., November 2018: 12 killed, several wounded.
25. Virginia Beach Municipal Center, Virginia Beach, Va., May 2019: 12 killed.

This article was first published in October 2017 and has been updated several times after more recent shootings. The Vegas and El Paso tolls were updated in November 2019 and April 2020, respectively, after the victims died of injuries sustained in the attacks.

1. Health: New analysis supports Paxlovid use — WHO official: "Blood on your hands" if world stops tackling COVID.
2. Vaccines: Experts alarmed by COVID vaccination rates among America's youngest kids — Why we need to be talking about vaccines that offer "mucosal immunity".
3. States: New York City ends its vaccine mandate for private businesses.
4. Economy: Rural hospitals face funding cliff with $600 million on the line.
5. World: Pfizer to supply 6 million Paxlovid treatments to Global Fund.
6. Deep dive: The Long COVID crisis.
7. Variant tracker

Cases:

1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 8:30 p.m. ET on Monday: 618,520,614 — Total deaths: 6,548,484 — Total vaccine doses administered: 9,056,617,870
2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 8:30 p.m. ET on Monday: 96,437,940 — Total deaths: 1,059,862

What should I do? Axios asked the experts:

• When you can be around others after contracting the coronavirus
• Traveling, asthma, dishes, disinfectants and being contagious
• Masks, lending books and self-isolating
• Exercise, laundry, what counts as soap
• Pets, moving and personal health
• Answers about the virus from Axios experts
• What to know about social distancing
• How to minimize your risk

Other resources:

• What to do if you get it
• The right mask to wear

Download our app and follow the Coronavirus channel to get the latest news.

Editor's note: Johns Hopkins University stopped reporting U.S. COVID-19 recoveries on its dashboard on Dec. 15, citing a Coronavirus Tracking Project post that explained the national data is incomplete since several states do not keep records of recovered patients. It stopped reporting global recoveries and began reporting doses administered in May.

Justice Samuel Alito narrowly overtook Justice Clarence Thomas as the Supreme Court's most conservative member this term, according to preliminary data that measures judicial ideology.

How to read the chart: An analysis by political scientists Andrew Martin and Kevin Quinn, known as the Martin-Quinn Score, places judges on an ideological spectrum. A lower score indicates a more liberal justice, whereas a higher score indicates a more conservative justice.

In her first full term on the court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the most moderate member of the court's liberal wing (-1.704), with Justice Sonia Sotomayor being the most liberal (-4.09), per preliminary measurements of a score that judges on a liberal-conservative spectrum.

• Most liberal: Sonia Sotomayor (-4.09)
• Elena Kagan (-2.067)
• Ketanji Brown Jackson (-1.704)
• John Roberts (0.42)
• Brett Kavanaugh (0.446)
• Amy Coney Barrett (0.821)
• Neil Gorsuch (1.077)
• Clarence Thomas (2.358)
• Most conservative: Samuel Alito (2.568)

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include new preliminary scores for the 2022 term.

The Supreme Court Thursday morning tossed aside conservatives' latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act, rejecting the Trump administration’s bid to get the entire health care law thrown out.

Why it matters: The 7-2 ruling will allow the ACA, which covers some 20 million people and has been the law of the land for 11 years, to continue operating. It also shows there are some limits to how much of the Republican agenda can be accomplished through the courts, even with a solid conservative majority.

Details: The court said Republican attorneys general did not have the legal standing to bring their lawsuit, which aimed to get the entire ACA struck down. It's the third time the Supreme Court has saved the law.

How we got here: The ACA required most Americans to either purchase health insurance or pay a tax penalty. When the law first passed, that mandate was seen as essential to making the law’s other provisions work, particularly its protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

• In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the mandate as an exercise of Congress' taxing power. The federal government couldn't simply require people to buy insurance, the court said, but it could tax their decision not to do so.
• In 2017, as part of the GOP's tax cut package, Congress zeroed out the penalty for being uninsured, nullifying the individual mandate.
• A group of Republican attorneys general then sued. The tax penalty was now gone, and all that remained was the part that said Americans had to buy insurance. So, they argued, the mandate had become unconstitutional — and the rest of the law had to fall along with it.

But the court ruled on Thursday that the states that brought the suit could not show that they'll suffer any injury from the fact that some form of the mandate is still in effect, and threw out the lawsuit as a result.

• Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority decision. Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
• The states' lawsuit should have been able to proceed, Alito argued. The shell of the mandate is "clearly unconstitutional, and to the extent that the provisions of the ACA that burden the States are inextricably linked to the individual mandate, they too are unenforceable," he wrote.

What they’re saying: "A big win for the American people," President Biden tweeted. "There’s no better day than today to sign up for quality, affordable health care at HealthCare.gov. With millions of people relying on the Affordable Care Act for coverage, it remains, as ever, a BFD. And it’s here to stay."

Read the full opinions.

The first line of the Axios Manifesto is "Audience First." That's why we created our unique Smart Brevity style to get you smarter, faster, on topics that matter. But it also means we won't shy away from important stories that are worthy of more detail and more of your time, like our Deep Dives, Axios Investigates and now this deeply reported series, "Off the Rails.” 

Beginning on election night 2020 and continuing through his final days in office, Donald Trump unraveled and dragged America with him, to the point that his followers sacked the U.S. Capitol with two weeks left in his term. This Axios special series takes you inside the collapse of a president.

• Our podcast on the series is called "How it happened: Trump's last stand." Episodes will be released each Monday, beginning on Jan. 18.

Episode 1: A premeditated lie lit the fire

Trump’s refusal to believe the election results was premeditated. He had heard about the “red mirage” — the likelihood that early vote counts would tip more Republican than the final tallies — and he decided to exploit it.

• Read the full story.

Episode 2: Barbarians at the Oval

Trump stops buying what his professional staff are telling him, and increasingly turns to radical voices telling him what he wants to hear.

• Read the full story.

Episode 3: Descent into madness

The conspiracy goes too far. Trump's outside lawyers plot to seize voting machines and spin theories about communists, spies and computer software.

• Read the full story.

Episode 4: Trump turns on Barr

Trump torches what is arguably the most consequential relationship in his Cabinet.

• Read the full story.

Episode 5: The secret CIA plan

Trump vs. Gina — The president becomes increasingly rash and devises a plan to tamper with the nation's intelligence command.

• Read the full story.

Episode 6: Last stand in Georgia

Georgia had not backed a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992 and Trump's defeat in this Deep South stronghold, and his reaction to that loss, would help cost Republicans the U.S. Senate as well. Georgia was Trump's last stand.

• Read the full story.

Episode 7: Trump turns on Pence

Trump believes the vice president can solve all his problems by simply refusing to certify the Electoral College results. It's a simple test of loyalty: Trump or the U.S. Constitution.

• Read the full story.

Episode 8: The siege

An inside account of the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 that ultimately failed to block the certification of the Electoral College. And, finally, Trump's concession.

• Read the full story.

Bonus episode: Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump era

In this bonus edition, we take you back into the final weeks of the Trump presidency — to one long, unhinged night a week before Christmas, when an epic, profanity-soaked standoff played out with profound implications for the nation.

• Read the full story.

Episode 9: Trump's war with his generals

Months after he left office, an important piece about Trump's final days as president began to emerge: His last-minute bid to pull U.S. forces from Afghanistan and swaths of the Middle East, Africa and even Europe ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration — and why he blinked.

• Read the full story.

If you're in a hurry, check out the abbreviated versions of each episode:

• Episode 1: A premeditated lie lit the fire
• Episode 2: Barbarians at the Oval
• Episode 3: Descent into madness
• Episode 4: Trump turns on Barr
• Episode 5: The secret CIA plan
• Episode 6: Last stand in Georgia
• Episode 7: Trump turns on Pence
• Episode 8: The siege
• Bonus episode: The craziest meeting of the Trump presidency

About the series

Our reporting is based on interviews with current and former White House, campaign, government and congressional officials as well as eyewitnesses and people close to the president. Sources have been granted anonymity to share sensitive observations or details they would not be authorized to disclose. President Trump and other officials to whom quotes and actions have been attributed by others were provided the opportunity to confirm, deny or respond to reporting elements prior to publication.

"Off the Rails" is reported by White House reporter Jonathan Swan, with writing, reporting and research assistance by Zach Basu. It was edited by Margaret Talev and Mike Allen and copy edited by Eileen O'Reilly. Illustrations by Sarah Grillo, Aïda Amer and Eniola Odetunde.

All of President Biden's Cabinet nominees have now been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

The big picture: Biden now has known, trusted people around him, many from the Obama administration, to help implement his policies and turn away from the tumultuous Trump years.

Confirmed Cabinet members

• Avril Haines, confirmed as director of national intelligence on Jan. 21.
• Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, confirmed as defense secretary on Jan. 22.
• Janet Yellen, confirmed as treasury secretary on Jan. 25.
• Antony Blinken, confirmed as secretary of state on Jan. 26.
• Pete Buttigieg, confirmed as transportation secretary on Feb. 2.
• Alejandro Mayorkas, confirmed as secretary of homeland security on Feb. 2.
• Denis McDonough, confirmed as veterans affairs secretary on Feb. 8.
• Tom Vilsack, confirmed as agriculture secretary on Feb. 23.
• Linda Thomas-Greenfield, confirmed as UN ambassador on Feb. 23.
• Jennifer Granholm, confirmed as energy secretary on Feb. 25.
• Miguel Cardona, confirmed as education secretary on March 1.
• Gina Raimondo, confirmed as commerce secretary on March 2.
• Cecilia Rouse, confirmed to lead Council of Economic Advisers on March 3.
• Merrick Garland, confirmed as attorney general on March 10.
• Marcia Fudge, confirmed as secretary for housing and urban development on March 10.
• Michael Regan, confirmed as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency on March 10.
• Deb Haaland, confirmed as interior secretary on March 15.
• Isabel Guzman, confirmed as small business administrator on March 16.
• Katherine Tai, confirmed as U.S. trade representative on March 17.
• Xavier Becerra, confirmed as health and human services secretary on March 18.
• William Burns, confirmed as CIA director on March 18.
• Marty Walsh, confirmed as labor secretary on March 22.

Nominees pending confirmation vote

• There are no nominations pending a vote. Biden has yet to announce his nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget after Neera Tanden withdrew from consideration earlier this month.

Go deeper: Biden finalizes full slate of Cabinet secretaries

The Senate voted 84-15 on Tuesday to confirm Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo to lead the Commerce Department.

Why it matters: The agency promotes U.S. industry, oversees the Census Bureau, plays a key role in the government's study of climate change through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and evaluates emerging technology through the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Between the lines: Republican objections to her nomination included her non-committal stance about keeping Huawei on the Commerce Department's "entity list," which blocks U.S. companies from providing the Chinese telecom giant with chips, software, and other components due to national security concerns.

• Raimondo told the Senate Commerce Committee during her confirmation hearing that she would consult Congress and "review the policy."
• She later said in written answers to the committee: "I currently have no reason to believe that entities on those lists should not be there."

Background: Raimondo, 49, is a former chair of the Democratic Governor’s Association and Rhodes scholar who co-founded a venture capital firm in Rhode Island earlier in her career.

• She clashed with unions as she worked to reform Rhode Island’s public employee pension plans and served as a national co-chair for Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign before endorsing Biden, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.
• Raimondo is Biden's 12th Cabinet nominee to be confirmed by the Senate. She will resign as Rhode Island governor this week, paving the way for Lt. Gov. Daniel J. McKee to replace her for the remaining two years of the term.

District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, a Haitian immigrant, is leading one of the most diverse sets of attorneys general in the nation's history on a campaign against hate crimes while they face hateful rhetoric and threats themselves.

Why it matters: The country's electorate is becoming more diverse, yet hate crimes jumped to record levels last year. And the problem may even be worse. Most police departments don't bother reporting hate crimes.

The intrigue: Racine is the first immigrant president of the National Association of Attorneys General and one of the group's first Black presidents to lead the nonpartisan organization of 56 states and territories.

• He takes over the group following months of legal fighting with the Trump administration over the separating of immigrant children from their families, as well as his business dealings.

During his public fights with Trump, Racine has been bombarded with racist and hateful messages. And he's not the only attorney general who has experienced this.

• Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who is Chinese American and a Democrat, was called "Kim Jong Tong" by a Republican opponent who compared him to the North Korean dictator.
• New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, the first Sikh attorney general in U.S. history, was called "turban man" in 2018 by two conservative talk radio hosts.
• Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, the first openly LGBTQ person elected statewide in that state, has been slammed with hateful messages as she seeks to prosecute suspects in an alleged plot to kidnap the state's governor.
• New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, the son of a Mexican immigrant, increased security around his office after receiving hateful messages.

Where it stands: Racine is urging all attorneys general to use their influence to draw attention to the spike in hate crimes and advocate for changing laws locally and nationally.

• "Chief law enforcement officers of every state have to reckon with (this) and help provide solutions. It's a big ass problem. We need to put a big ass light on it."

What they're saying: "All of us have experienced hate personally, and as an Asian American, the targets been on my back for a long time," said Tong, who supported strong hate crime proposals as a state legislator.

• "Over the last four years, we've seen an unprecedented rise in incidents of bias and hate, including graffiti, and ranging from school bullying to the deadliest terror attack in our state's history," Grewal said.

Some attorneys general can issue directives to their state law enforcement agencies to change, as Grewal did on bias reporting. Others, like Tong, have less authority and have to advocate for transformation.

By the numbers: Hate crime murders hit a record high in 2019, while overall hate crime incidents rose by nearly 3% last year, according to the FBI's annual hate crime report released in November.

• The jump came as the Southern Poverty Law Center said white nationalist hate groups rose by 55% between 2017 and 2019.
• Violence and discrimination against Asian Americans also have risen dramatically since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Asian American advocacy groups say.
• Some participants in the Capitol riot last month wore anti-Semitic and racist clothing and waved Confederate flags.

Between the lines: The full problem on hate crimes isn't known, since 88% of law enforcement agencies reported no hate crimes or ignored requests to submit data, Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, California State University, told Axios.

• "There's a uniform method of counting them. It's just not being adequately applied across the country. We had Alabama report zero hate crimes last year."
• Levin said advocates would like to see a law or policy that connects federal aid with improved hate crime reporting.
• Some district attorneys or agencies also aren't knowledgeable about militia laws or classify something like the 2019 El Paso shooting as a mass shooting instead of a hate crime, said Balderas.

The bottom line: "There still needs to be increased education, awareness, and there needs to be a culture shift in how communities and law enforcement work together," said Balderas.

• Just as technology and banking laws have been used to fight international terrorism, he said, "I think we need to look at those for domestic terrorism."

Musicians, artists, and fans are racing to save the nation's jazz history as historic clubs face closure and master tapes of crucial recordings by African American artists sit collecting dust.

Why it matters: The pandemic has wrecked an already vulnerable jazz industry by forcing live music shows to halt. Musicians and club owners have turned to online fundraisers for survival, and point to the music's connection to civil rights as a need to keep its legacy alive. 

Driving the news: Owners of the historic Washington, D.C. jazz club Blues Alley, a venue that once hosted the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz, announced this month that the club is up for sale and likely won't reopen at its original Georgetown site.

• Birdland Jazz Club, located in the heart of Manhattan and modeled after the original club named after bebop legend Charlie "Bird" Parker, recently held an online fundraiser to keep it from closing permanently.
• New York's Jazz Standard and the Blue Whale in Los Angeles announced they were permanently closing because of the loss of business from COVID-19.
• Other well-known jazz venues from Baltimore to Seattle have been closed since the pandemic began, placing their futures in peril.

The details: Jazz nonprofits have shut down many of their educational programs for children because of the pandemic.

• The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program ended last year without Congress reauthorizing more funding, ending hopes that some historic sites linked to jazz could be saved along the Mother Road.
• In recent years, rising rents and gentrification closed iconic jazz clubs like Harlem's Lenox Lounge — a place Malcolm X and Billie Holiday once hung out.

What they're saying: "There is so much weight that these places carry and so much history that happened between the walls of these places. To see them at risk and disappearing ... it just shakes you to your core," Matt Block, co-founder of la reserve records, told Axios.

• "We’re talking about living in a world (where) my great-nieces and nephews (know) less or nothing about saxophonist Ben Webster or bassist Esperanza Spalding," said poet Rodney Leonard, whose new book "Sweetgum and Lightning" fuses jazz and autobiography.
• "Jazz is African American genius. And in a world that wants us to believe that we in contributed nothing, jazz music is something that we can hold up and say, 'we made this,'" Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks told Axios. She wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Hulu film, "The United States vs. Billie Holiday."

La reserve records and Canada-based Cellar Music Group’s imprint Reel to Real are doing their part to save jazz history by releasing previously forgotten live recordings by notable artists.

• The labels recently released a performance by the George Coleman Quintet recorded at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore on May 23, 1971.
• Another upcoming project involves saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin performing at Seattle’s Penthouse jazz club in 1962.

Flashback: "It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by jazz musicians," Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in the opening address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival.

• "Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls."

The intrigue: Hip hop artists, poets, and filmmakers are working to keep jazz alive through their own art.

• Hulu on Feb. 26, will release Lee Daniels' biopic, "The United States vs. Billie Holiday," starring R&B artist Andra Day as the jazz icon who battled addiction and FBI harassment.
• Parks said it was important for audiences to know what Holiday faced for performing "Strange Fruit" — a gripping song about the lynching of Black men.
• "If we weren't so dismissive of the powers and achievements of women, we would have given her a little more space to tell her story a long time ago," Parks said. "We're just getting around to it now."

The next round of congressional redistricting is shaping up to be a mess, beset by even more complications and lawsuits than usual.

Why it matters: This process will likely help Republicans pick up seats in the House in 2022. Beyond that, though, the pandemic and the Trump administration's handling of the Census have made this round of redistricting especially fraught — and states will be locked into the results for a decade.

• Huge states with diversifying and expanding populations — including Texas, Florida and North Carolina — will likely feel some of the most significant impacts.

Census delays are a big part of the problem this year. The Census Bureau announced last week that it will not release the data states use to draw their legislative maps until the end of September — months later than the usual springtime release.

• That gives states less time to draw maps, get feedback, resolve the ensuing lawsuits and enact their new plans in time for elections.
• In Ohio, for example, two deadlines for the state's brand-new process will already have passed by the time Census data is available. California and Oregon have already moved to change state deadlines because of the expected delays.

Some maps won't be finalized until close to the drop-dead deadlines for political candidates, who need to know where their districts are in order to qualify for the ballot, said Nate Persily, a top redistricting expert and Stanford law professor.

• Both political parties are struggling to prepare for campaigns in still-unknown districts, as Politico reported. This may be especially problematic for incumbents and candidates in states gaining or losing Congressional seats.
• "Redistricting litigation is usually a bit of a rushed job by everybody anyway. This time, I think it's going to be even more so," said Jason Torchinsky, a top Republican redistricting attorney with Fair Lines America Foundation.

There's also concern about the Census Bureau's new data-security policies, designed to protect the identity of people who might otherwise be easily identifiable.

• Some experts say data manipulation may lead to inaccurate counts, especially in less populated areas.
• If the Census isn't transparent about what's happening and why, there is a real risk of sowing distrust in the process, Fair Lines America Foundation executive director and top Republican redistricting expert Adam Kincaid told reporters on Thursday.

The Supreme Court is also a factor.

• This will be the first round of redistricting after the Supreme Court invalidated a key part of the Voting Rights Act. Jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination, largely in the South, will not have to get pre-clearance for their maps from the Justice Department.

What's next: The Supreme Court, with its newly expanded conservative majority, is slated to hear another case next month that could further chip away at the Voting Rights Act.

• Brnovich vs. DNC, is a dispute over voting rules in Arizona, but could also give the justices an avenue to curb legal challenges to gerrymandering.

President Biden will deliver a robust defense of America’s own democracy, and the broader power of democracies to face autocratic threats from China and Russia, during a virtual address Friday to the Munich Security Conference.

Why it matters: Biden is seeking to repair the transatlantic alliance after four years of President Trump, who harangued allies about their defense spending and questioned America’s commitment to NATO.

An administration official who briefed reporters said the new U.S. president is trying to reassure allies and adversaries America is committed to global alliances. Using a signature line, he'll also say it’s never safe to “bet against America,” the official said.

• Biden will be making his case after America’s democracy was shaken at home by the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, with many in his audience wondering if Trump was a populist, nationalist aberration or sign of things to come in the U.S.

The big picture: The conference convenes a national security who's who. Biden made numerous appearances as a senator and three as vice president.

• During another amid Trump’s presidency, he vowed, “We’ll be back. We’ll be back.”
• He received a standing ovation for that promise two years ago, speaking after then-Vice President Mike Pence articulated Trump’s "America-First" vision for the country and world.

Go deeper: During his speech, to be delivered late Friday morning from the East Room, Biden also will address Iran’s nuclear program, the economic and national security challenges posed by China and the nearly two-decade war in Afghanistan, the official said.

• Biden won’t get into a specific timetable for negotiations with Iran but generally express an openness to reengaging in diplomacy to bring Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
• He will specifically single out Russia for its efforts to attempt to discredit and destabilize democracies.

Between the lines: Biden will participate earlier Friday morning in a virtual G-7 summit, where countries are expected to pledge to work together to combat COVID.

• They also are expected to agree to pursue expansionary fiscal policies that will help the global economy avoid a prolonged contraction.
• As of Friday, the U.S. will officially be a party to the Paris climate accord again, the administration official said. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2017.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) flew to Cancún, Mexico, on Wednesday with plans to "stay through the weekend," as hundreds of thousands of his constituents went without power and heat in Texas after a winter storm caused deadly outages.

The latest: Addressing reporters outside his Houston home on Thursday, Cruz admitted his original intentions, but claimed he started having second thoughts "almost the moment I sat down on the plane."

What he's saying: Travel plans were made after his daughters wanted to go somewhere "not so cold" amid the outages, Cruz said.

• "As parents, we have a responsibility to take care of our family ... but I also have a responsibility that I take very seriously of fighting for the state of Texas," he added.
• "Frankly, leaving when so many Texans were hurting didn't feel right and so I ... flew back on the first available flight I could take."
• “It was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it."
• He said he understood why people were upset, but suggested the "venom and vitriol" of Twitter and the media fed into it.
• It's "unfortunate" his trip became a "distraction" from Texans' suffering, he added.
• Earlier on Thursday, Cruz said in statement that in "wanting to be a good dad," he accompanied his daughters on the flight to Mexico for a vacation they wanted to take.

The big picture: While Cruz has no direct control over the power situation in Texas as a federal lawmaker, outraged critics argued the senator should be stateside trying to find solutions for his constituents.

• More than 30 people have died as a result of the extreme weather sweeping across the South this week.
• The Texas Democratic Party has called on Cruz to resign. Cruz's former Senate opponent Beto O'Rourke is coordinating volunteer efforts to check in on senior citizens in Texas.

Between the lines: The CDC has advised that individuals "should avoid all travel to Mexico" due to the coronavirus pandemic and that "[a]ll air passengers coming to the United States, including U.S. citizens, are required to have a negative COVID-19 test" before boarding a U.S.-bound flight.

Just confirmed @SenTedCruz and his family flew to Cancun tonight for a few days at a resort they've visited before. Cruz seems to believe there isn't much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing. pic.twitter.com/6nPiVWtdxe

— David Shuster (@DavidShuster) February 18, 2021

Editor's note: This story has been updated with Cruz's comments to reporters on Thursday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday to reaffirm the "strategic defense partnership" between the two nations and discuss recent changes to U.S. policy on Yemen, the Pentagon said.

Why it matters: The call comes just days after the White House said it would "recalibrate" its relationship with Saudi Arabia, and return to "counterpart to counterpart" engagement, with President Biden's counterpart being King Salman, not MBS.

• White House press secretary Jen Psaki's comments were widely seen as a snub to the crown prince, who is considered by many as the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia.

The big picture: Since taking office, the Biden administration has announced the end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition's offensive operations in Yemen, reversed the Trump administration's decision to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terror group, and paused an arms deal with the kingdom.

• The Biden administration is also set to release a U.S. intelligence report that concluded that MBS ordered the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, per the Washington Post.
• Yes, but: Axios' Barak Ravid reported last week that "the Saudi government was sending signals that it's ready to cooperate on Yemen and make improvements on human rights in an effort to avoid a crisis with Biden."

What they're saying: "The Secretary condemned the recent Houthi cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and expressed his commitment to assisting Saudi Arabia in the defense of its borders," the Pentagon said in a readout of the call between Austin and MBS.

• "Secretary Austin reiterated recent changes in U.S. policy toward the Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen, discussed the importance of ending the war, and thanked the Crown Prince for Saudi Arabia’s commitment to a political settlement," it added.
• Austin "underscored Saudi Arabia’s role as a pillar of the regional security architecture in the Middle East and the importance of sharing the responsibility of regional security and stability. "
• "Secretary Austin noted US and Saudi shared commitment to countering Iran’s destabilizing activities and defeating violent extremist organizations in the region."

Go deeper: Saudi Arabia moves to ease tensions with Biden on Yemen, human rights

Lawmakers who represent Iowa are already making the case to keep the state's first-in-the-nation caucus status ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Why it matters: The renewed examination of Iowa's early status stems from Democratic party members' calls to have a more diverse state caucus ahead of the state — given the make up of the party electorate — and after a disastrous Democratic caucus in 2020.

What he's saying: "Iowa will be first in the nation with the caucus, and I assure you that that's going to be the case because both the Democratic Party of Iowa and the Republican Party of Iowa want it there," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) said at an Axios event Thursday.

State lawmakers trumpeted Iowa as having a "critical" role in the presidential nomination process.

• "Iowa plays a critical piece in terms of preparing our Democratic candidates for the national stage," State Representative Ross Wilburn, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, also said at an Axios event on Thursday.
• "We are prepared to do whatever it takes to retain first in the nation status."

Background: Grassley and Wilburn's comments come after the former Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez told The New York Times a diverse state needs to lead the nominating process and maintaining Iowa's status because it's been the status quo is "clearly unacceptable."

• "The world has changed a lot since 1972 to 2020 and 2024," Perez told Times. "And so the notion that we need to do it because this is how we’ve always done it is a woefully insufficient justification for going first again."

Troy Price, Iowa's former Democratic Party chairman, rebutted Perez claims during an interview with Axios claiming the state's first-in-the-nation status has long been a target.

• “Everything could have gone swimmingly in the 2020 caucuses and we’d still be having this fight," Price said.

Of note: Wilburn told Axios DNC Chair Jamie Harrison said committees aren't discussing the next presidential selection process until late summer, early fall.

Watch the full event here.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev apologized at a House hearing Thursday for the confusion caused by his platform's decision to restrict trading of certain "meme stocks," while admitting he did not handle the situation perfectly.

Yes, but: Tenev later admitted the company made mistakes, but could not spell out what those mistakes were — before Congress moved on to the next question.

Key exchange:

• Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.): "You admitted to making mistakes. Specifically what mistakes, did you make?"
• Tenev: "I admit to always improving. And certainly ... we're not going to be perfect. And we want to improve and make sure that we don't make the same mistakes twice."
• Dean: "But what are those mistakes? That's what we're here to learn about."

Why it matters: The wild stretch of Reddit-fueled trading last month has resulted in intense scrutiny of the power of platforms like Robinhood, short-selling hedge funds and the stock market's plumbing.

• Citadel's Ken Griffin said the firm was "absolutely not" in contact with Robinhood over its decision to limit users' ability to buy those meme stocks.
• Keith Gill (aka "Roaring Kitty"), hedge fund manager Gabe Plotkin and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman received considerably less attention from lawmakers.

The big picture: Regulators are scrutinizing what happened during the GameStop saga and whether there was wrongdoing.

• But there was no SEC representation at Thursday's hearing because Biden's pick to lead the agency has yet to be confirmed, said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).

Between the lines: Jennifer Schulp, director of Financial Regulation Studies at the Cato Institute, said she's seen "very little that would meet a test for [market] manipulation," but that doesn't mean the SEC shouldn't take a deeper look.

What to watch: Waters, who chairs the committee, says there will be "probably two more" hearings related to the GameStop saga.

The bottom line: The highly anticipated hearing revealed few new details about last month's "meme stock" phenomenon that shocked the world.

• There's still no definitive clue whether there will be any regulatory changes in response.

Congress on Thursday announced two tech-related hearings — one featuring major tech CEOs and another meant to kick off new antitrust legislation.

What's happening: On March 25, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hear from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai during a hearing about misinformation on online platforms.

• On Feb. 25, the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee will kick off the first in a series of hearings meant to explore competition for the digital economy.

The big picture: After a busy start of the new Congress with a deadly riot and impeachment proceedings, Congress is setting its sights back to reeling in Big Tech.

• Congress has been looking to legislate tech policy for years now, but calls for action on misinformation intensified after the deadly Capitol riot. At the same time, Big Tech companies are under multiple antitrust investigations in the U.S. and abroad, and the Senate has already started considering new tech antitrust bills.

What they're saying: "Whether it be falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine or debunked claims of election fraud, these online platforms have allowed misinformation to spread, intensifying national crises with real-life, grim consequences for public health and safety,” Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a release.

• The Judiciary Committee hearing kicks off a major legislative series and the start of the committee preparing to roll out new antitrust bills, a committee aide said.
• Witnesses will include former FTC lawyers, advocates, economists and at least one executive from an affected third party who claims to have been negatively impacted by a Big Tech company.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his counterparts from the E3 — France, Germany and the U.K. — in a video conference on Thursday that the U.S. is prepared to engage in discussions with Iran in an attempt to reach an agreement on returning to full compliance of the 2015 nuclear deal, according to a joint readout of the call.

Why it matters: The U.S. and Iran still haven't engaged in direct talks since President Biden assumed office. Both sides are exchanging public messages demanding the other take the first step to move forward with the nuclear deal.

• This was the second video conference call between Blinken and his counterparts in recent weeks. The goal of the consultations is to coordinate positions on Iran and discuss ways to reengage on the nuclear deal.

What they're saying: According to the joint statement, the U.S. and the E3 stressed that Iran must return to full compliance with its commitments under the nuclear deal. Blinken reiterated that if Iran resumes strict compliance with its commitments, the U.S. will do the same.

• Blinken and his counterparts called on Iran not to move forward with its plan to stop implementing the “additional protocol” of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty starting Feb. 23, that would see Iran curtail its cooperation with UN inspectors, suspending their ability to conduct unannounced visits to nuclear sites.
• "The E3 and the United States are united in underlining the dangerous nature of a decision to limit IAEA access, and urge Iran to consider the consequences of such grave action, particularly at this time of renewed diplomatic opportunity," the statement read.
• In their statement, Blinken and his counterparts also expressed concern over Iran's production of both 20% enriched uranium and uranium metal — both violations of the nuclear deal and steps toward the development of nuclear weapons.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif pushed back on the joint statement by the U.S. and the E3, saying, "Instead of putting onus on Iran, they must abide by own commitments and demand an end to Trump's legacy of economic terrorism against Iran."

What’s next: During the call, Blinken and the European leadership agreed to hold future consultations on Iran with the foreign ministers of Russia and China.

• They recognize the role of the High Representative of the European Union Josep Borrell as coordinator of the nuclear deal joint commission.  

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed a bill into law on Thursday banning most abortions in the state.

Driving the news: Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in response, effectively blocking the measure from going into effect.

• The House passed the bill by a 79-35 vote on Wednesday, and gave final approval in a second vote Thursday.
• South Carolina joins about a dozen other states that have passed similar legislation in recent years.

Details: The"South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act" requires physicians to check for a heartbeat in the fetus.

• If a heartbeat is detected — which typically occurs between six and eight weeks after conception — an abortion can be pursued only if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, or if the pregnant person's life is in danger.
• In cases of rape or incest, doctors who offer the procedure are required to report the crime to local law enforcement.
• A pregnant person would not be punished for having an illegal abortion, but anyone who performs the operation may be charged with a felony, sentenced up to two years in jail and fined $10,000 if found guilty.

Yes, but: Opponents say many people don't know they are pregnant even after the six- to eight-week mark.

The big picture, via AP: "All of the bans passed by other states are tied up in court challenges."

• Advocates of prohibitive abortion measures are working to get the issue to the Supreme Court in hopes that the justices would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
• The Supreme Court previously ruled that abortions are legal until a fetus is viable outside the womb — months after a heartbeat may be observed.

Go deeper: Life after Roe v. Wade

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will now focus on arresting unauthorized immigrants who pose a national security threat — a shift from the Trump era, when agents had broad discretion over which immigrants were targeted.

Why it matters: The new interim guidance is in effect starting Thursday, and comes as the Biden administration tries to rein in the wide latitude given to ICE under the Trump administration. The rule is in line with an executive order that President Biden signed shortly after taking office.

• The agency will prioritize arrests and deportations for people who either engaged in, or are suspected to have engaged in, activities like terrorism or espionage.
• The priorities also include people who are a threat to public safety and have convictions for violent crimes or gang-related crimes.
• People apprehended trying to cross the U.S. border or at a port of entry on or after November 1, 2020 also fall under the new priorities.

The agency will be "asking officers and agents to proceed deliberately" when arresting people who fall outside the three priorities, a DHS official said.

• The official said the new rule will help ICE "accomplish its mission in the most efficient way. Not by reducing enforcement, but by focusing it on the most pressing parts."

What's next: The final rule, which will supersede the interim guidance, is expected in about 3 months, per a DHS official.