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| Happy Thursday, Daily Briefing readers! It's double duty for President Biden, who's sending medical teams to six states to help hospitals overburdened by COVID-19. He'll also meet privately with Senate Democrats about a path forward for voting rights legislation. And, kids ages 5 and up hoping to set sail on a Disney cruise will have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. |
| It's Jane and Steve, with Thursday's news. |
| ✈️ Too nervous to buy a plane ticket? Delta Air Lines just sweetened the pot amid COVID surge. |
| 🔴 The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot asked House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy for information about his communications with former President Donald Trump. But McCarthy said he wouldn't cooperate. |
| 🐖 "My dad's a fighter": The recovery of a man who received a heart from a genetically modified pig is exceeding expectations. |
 | | Dave Bennett Sr., left, and David Bennett Jr., right, are photographed on Jan. 12, 2022. Dave Bennett, 57, agreed to be the first to risk experimental surgery, the first time a gene-edited pig has been used as an organ donor. | | University of Maryland School of Medicine photo; USA TODAY graphic | |
| 😷 The coronavirus pandemic is ever-evolving. N95 masks are your best mask option — here's where to buy them online. |
| 💔 "The love between us carries on": Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet are splitting up after four years of marriage and 16 years together. |
| 💉 No longer allowed to practice medicine: A British surgeon who branded his initials on patients' livers, has been struck off the medical register, according to a report. |
| 🎤 Ronnie Spector, the voice of The Ronettes, has died after a brief battle with cancer. She was 78. |
 | | Spector's family said that she "lived her life with a twinkle in her eye, a spunky attitude, a wicked sense of humor and a smile on her face." | | USA TODAY | |
| ✒️ "She used her voice in every way she could to fight for freedom, justice and equality": Journalist and activist Ida B. Wells will be the next signature Barbie doll. |
| 🎧 On today's 5 Things podcast, economic opportunity reporter Charisse Jones talks about how Latinos in the U.S. are often concentrated in areas lacking consumer services. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker. |
| Here's what's happening today: |
Biden to announce deployment of medical teams to 6 states |
| President Joe Biden is expected to announce Thursday that the federal government is sending medical teams to New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan and New Mexico in an effort help hospitals overburdened by COVID-19 , USA TODAY has learned. The announcement will be made while Biden discusses steps the administration is taking to address a surge in infections driven by the omicron variant, according to a White House official. His remarks come as hospitalizations for COVID-19 are setting records. Some hospitals are delaying elective surgeries as states are deploying National Guard members to health care facilities. |
Biden to meet with senators in bid to push voting rights legislation forward |
| President Joe Biden is to meet with Democratic senators at the Capitol on Thursday in a bid to move federal voting rights legislation forward. It comes two days after Biden gave a fiery speech in Atlanta , where he told senators they would each be "judged by history" if they failed to act. Democrats have vowed to counteract a wave of new state laws, inspired by former President Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election, that have made it harder to vote. But after an initial flurry of activity, the Democrats' efforts have stalled in the narrowly divided Senate, where they lack the 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster, leading to their calls for a rule change. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., gave a scathing rebuttal to Biden's speech Wednesday, objecting to his comparison of opponents of the voting legislation to racist historical figures. |
| ⚖ "No power whatsoever": Romney warns Dems of 2022 consequences if they change filibuster. |
Newsmakers in their own words: Obama pens a column on voting rights for USA TODAY |
 | | Former President Barack Obama speaks during a memorial service for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Las Vegas on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022. | | Associated Press photo; USA TODAY graphic | |
| When he spoke at Rep. John Lewis' memorial in 2020, former President Barack Obama noted "various state legislators across the country had already passed a variety of laws designed to make voting harder." He also said, "it was an attack on everything John Lewis fought for, and a challenge to our most fundamental democratic freedoms." |
| "Since then, things have only gotten worse," Obama said. |
| In his first opinion piece since leaving the White House, Obama also urged Americans everywhere to fight restrictive voting laws and called on the Senate to "do the right thing" and pass legislation to protect voting rights. |
Just for subscribers: |
| 🔵 Destination USA: A single mom is "finally free" after fleeing a Mexican cartel, but her journey's not over. Now she's seeking asylum in the U.S., a process that could take years. |
| 🗣 Biden, Democrats call for sanctions on Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials if the Kremlin invades Ukraine. |
| 🚌 Opinion: Schools are open despite the omicron surge. They should stay that way. |
| 🏈 See how every college football coach on the USA TODAY Sports AFCA panel voted in the final poll. |
| These articles are for USA TODAY subscribers. You can sign up here. Here is all of our subscriber content. |
Djokovic added to Australian Open draw as visa saga continues |
| Novak Djokovic remained in limbo even after he was included in the draw for the Australian Open on Thursday, with the No. 1 player in the world still awaiting a government decision on whether to deport him for not being vaccinated for COVID-19. Complicating matters further, Djokovic, 34, acknowledged his Australian travel declaration form contained incorrect information. Despite the cloud hanging over Djokovic's ability to compete, organizers slotted the tournament's defending champion in the draw as the top seed. He is scheduled to play fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic. Djokovic, who held his fourth practice session of the week at Rod Laver Arena Thursday, had his visa canceled on arrival in Melbourne last week when his vaccination exemption was rejected. But he won a legal battle on procedural grounds that allowed him to stay in the country. |
Also yet to come: |
| 💉 The omicron outbreak may have peaked, but the fallout is still coming: The COVID-19 variant hit the U.S. hard and fast, but recent data shows the wave of infections may have peaked. A nationwide tally of new cases ticked down slightly for the first time since Christmas , a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. Still, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are expected to increase, as hospitalizations tend to lag infections by about two weeks. |
| ⚾ A month into lockout, MLB and players will hold talks: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association will meet in a video conference Thursday, their first meeting since Dec. 1 – when players were locked out by the owners. MLB hopes to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement that would not delay the start of spring training in February. |
| 🔵 "We all suffer from PTSD": Ten years have passed since the Costa Concordia cruise ship slammed into a reef and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio. Italy on Thursday is marking the anniversary of the disaster with a daylong commemoration that will end with a candlelit vigil near the moment the ship hit the reef: 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2012. The events will honor the 32 people who died that night, the 4,200 survivors and the residents of Giglio. |
 | | Salvage operations at sunset at the wreck of the cruise ship Costa Concordia near Giglio Island, Italy. | | Andreas Solaro, AFP/Getty Images | |
Disney Cruise Line to require children to show vaccination proof |
| Disney Cruise Line will require children ages 5 and up to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 for sailings starting Thursday. The requirement is a continuation of the company's policy that all vaccine-eligible passengers be vaccinated. "Guests who are not vaccine-eligible because of age must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result," Disney Cruise Line said on its website in November. Disney Cruise Lines says it will accept vaccines approved by the CDC and World Health Organization, including Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Covishield, Novavax, Sinopharm and Sinovac. The test – which must be a NAAT test, lab-based PCR test or rapid PCR test – must be taken between three days and 24 hours before the passenger's sail date and will be paid for by the passenger. |
| 🛳 CDC guidance to become optional for cruise lines as COVID continues to spread. |
ICYMI: Some of our top stories yesterday |
| 🛒 Food shortages 2022: Grocery stores still have empty shelves amid supply chain disruptions, omicron and winter storms. |
| 🏈 NFL mock draft: Predicting the first round of the NFL draft more than three months before it's scheduled tends to be an exercise based more in impressionism than exactitude. |
| 🐖 The first-ever pig-to-human heart transplant offers hope for thousands in need of organs. |
| 🐟 World record catch: Nicholas Fano, 12, of Palm City, Florida is part of a family that loves fishing. However, one recent catch by the seventh grader stands out above the rest. |
DC's 'Peacemaker' premieres on HBO Max |
| DC Comics gets its first high-profile live action HBO Max outing Thursday with James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" spinoff, "Peacemaker." Patriotic super-jerk Peacemaker (John Cena) and rookie agent Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) are assigned to a black-ops government team tasked with saving the world from a mysterious threat in an action-packed workplace comedy that weaves in hair metal, eagle sidekicks, bad dads – and many four-letter curse words. Over the summer, Gunn said the HBO Max series has a '70s TV-show vibe, an "All in the Family" element and even some politics, "which is really something that I scratched the surface of in 'Suicide Squad' but get to deal with a little bit more fully in the 'Peacemaker' show." |
 | | Peacemaker (John Cena, far right) has a rough first night out with his new team (including Steve Agee, Jennifer Holland, Chukwudi Iwuji and Danielle Brooks) in HBO Max's "Peacemaker." | | HBO MAX | |
📸 Photo of the day: The late Sen. Harry Reid honored in Washington 📸 |
 | | The casket of former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., arrives in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. | | Andrew Harnik, Pool | |
| The late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid departed the U.S. Capitol – a building he served in for nearly 35 years – for the last time Wednesday evening after Congress celebrated his life. |
| Reid lay in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda as congressional leaders paid tribute to the former Nevada senator who died Dec. 28 at age 82. |
| Head here to see more photos of Sen. Harry Reid in state at the U.S. Capitol. |
| Contributing: The Associated Press |
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