The House has approved fines for members who don’t comply with a mask-wearing mandate, voting along party lines. There will be a $500 fine for a first offense and $2,500 for a second offense. The fines are part of the rules of the resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. Three members have tested positive for Covid-19 after the riot last week. While representatives were on lockdown amid the attack on the US Capitol, several Republicans refused to wear masks. Supreme Court grants Trump administration"s request to reinstate restrictions to abortion pill access This is the first abortion case to be decided with anti-abortion Trump-appointee Amy Coney Barrett on the court. The ruling today reinstates a Food and Drug Administration rule that Mifeprex, a drug used for abortion early in pregnancy, must be administered by medical professionals at clinics or hospitals. Doctors led by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists fought to relax the rule during the pandemic when access to clinics and hospitals became restricted, winning a case in a US district court. Today’s Supreme Court ruling reinstates the FDA rule. The three liberals on the court dissented. “Because the FDA’s policy imposes an unnecessary, unjustifiable, irrational, and undue burden on women seeking an abortion during the current pandemic, and because the Government has not demonstrated irreparable harm from the injunction, I dissent,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Pelosi names impeachment managers Representative Jamie Raskin will be taking lead, working with Diana DeGette, David Cicilline, Joaquin Castro, Eric Swalwell, Ted Lieu, Stacey Plaskett, Joe Neguse and Madeleine Dean. “Tonight, I have the solemn privilege of naming the managers of the impeachment trial of Donald Trump,” said Pelosi in a statement. “It is their constitutional and patriotic duty to present the case for the president’s impeachment and removal. They will do so guided by their great love of country, determination to protect our democracy and loyalty to our oath to the constitution. Our managers will honor their duty to defend democracy for the people with great solemnity, prayerfulness and urgency.” Debbie Lesko, a Republican congresswoman of Arizona has complained about the metal detectors that representatives have to go through to enter the floor, describing them as an additional measure “on top of the security we already go through”. But lawmakers do not have to go through additional metal detectors to access the Capitol. “We now live in Pelosi’s communist America!” Lesko complained. Several Republicans have taken exception to the new metal detectors and safety measures implemented following the deadly attack on the US Capitol last week. Representative Lauren Boebert refused to comply with a bag check, and Markwayne Mullin and Steve Womack have also reportedly yelled at Capitol police officers enforcing the new protocols. CNN’s Manu Raju reports: In the letter to Nancy Pelosi, Pence said he is not willing to declare Trump unfit for office. “I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution,” he writes. Invoking the 25th would “set a terrible precedent” he said. Members of Congress are still doing a procedural vote on the resolution asking Pence to invoke the 25th. Ahead of House vote on resolution, Mike Pence said he won"t invoke 25th Amendment Even as the House works on passing a resolution compelling Pence to do so, the vice president has said he won’t invoke the 25th Amendment or consider removing Trump from office. Pence has sent a letter to House speaker Nancy Pelosi... Lauren Boebert, a Republican representative of Colorado who subscribes to the QAnon conspiracy, has reportedly held up the line after setting of newly installed metal detectors at Congress. Boebert, who has expressed enthusiasm about carrying weapons to Capitol Hill, is reportedly refusing to comply with a bag search. Representatives are currently partaking in a procedural vote on the resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. Republicans introduce resolution to censure Trump Republicans have introduced a resolution to formally censure Donald Trump for trying to overturn the election and encouraging “lawless action”. The resolution, from representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, overlaps significantly with Democrats’ impeachment resolution – but rather than impeaching the president, the Republicans backing the resolution say they want to formally tell him off. Unlike an impeachment, which will compel the Senate to vote on whether to convict and remove Trump from office, a censure is more symbolic. Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, has signaled support for GOP representatives who said they’ll vote to impeach Trump. Hogan has blamed Trump and some Republican leaders for inciting the attack on the Capitol last week. He told CNN that he is “embarrassed and ashamed” by party members who have amplified false claims of election fraud. House debates resolution calling on vice-president to invoke 25th amendment The House is now debating a resolution calling on Mike Pence to strip Trump of his powers by invoking the 25th amendment. Congress is expected to vote on the measure at around 7.30 local time, and it’s expected to pass. It calls on Pence to “immediately” call on the cabinet to declare Trump unfit for office. But Pence is unlikely to do so, having given no signal that he will. If Pence does not respond to Congress within 24 hours, representatives will start impeachment proceedings tomorrow. The report details testimonials from representatives, including from Jamie Raskin of Maryland, whose daughter and son-in-law were visiting him at the Capitol on the day of the attack: Representative Jamie Raskin asked his chief of staff to “protect [two of his visiting family members] with her life,” as she stood guard at the door clutching a fire iron. Representative Jason Crow, said that he had not been in a similar situation since serving in Afghanistan and described the chaos on the House floor: “[T]he police weren’t able to get us out so they actually closed and locked the doors and started to take furniture and barricade the doors and the windows with furniture as the mob tried to ram them down and was breaking through the windows.” Representative Susan Wild, described hearing gun shots at approximately 3pm and then Capitol police screaming “Get down! Get down!” as she crawled on her hands and knees through the gallery, witnessing her colleagues making phone calls to loved ones. Democrats on the House judiciary committee have released a 76-page staff on the impeachment of Donald Trump, in anticipation of Wednesday’s debate and vote on articles of impeachment. In it, Democrats point to Trump’s continued shirking of responsibility. “The President publicly denied responsibility for the attack, claiming his words were ‘totally appropriate’,” the report reads. Another Republican representative, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, has joined GOP members in support of impeachment. “There is no doubt in my mind that the President of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection,” he said. “He used his position in the Executive to attack the Legislative.” Canada has already implemented requirements for negative Covid-19 tests from incoming air passengers, as have other countries. Right now, only air travelers coming from Britain are required to show negative test results – in order to slow the transmission of a new variant of the coronavirus first discovered in the UK, and found to be circulating in many countries, including the US. CDC will require all air travelers to US to show negative Covid-19 test The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have expanded restrictions for air travelers coming into the US, requiring negative Covid-19 test results from all passengers. “Variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continue to emerge in countries around the world, and there is evidence of increased transmissibility of some of these variants,” the CDC said in a statement. “With the US already in surge status, the testing requirement for air passengers will help slow the spread of the virus as we work to vaccinate the American public.” The new requirement will become effective on 26 January. Sam Levine Political appointees at the US census bureau reportedly made it a “number one priority” to produce data on documented and undocumented immigrants, the Commerce Department’s Inspector General said on Tuesday. “Career employees informed us that they are under significant pressure to produce this technical report,” Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson wrote in the letter to Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham, a Trump appointee. “Bureau employees informed OIG that this data is not ready for publication with these unsettled issues, and resolution is not possible by your recently issued deadline. Bureau whistleblowers believe this report is being rushed without legitimate reason and will result in an inferior Bureau product.” The request is related to a July 2019 executive order that instructed federal agencies to compile existing government administrative data on citizenship. Donald Trump issued the order after the supreme court blocked his attempt to add a citizenship question to the census. The effort is part of the Trump administration’s maneuvering to try and exclude undocumented immigrants from the census apportionment counts used to determine how many seats in congress each state gets. The Trump administration’s push will likely fail because the census bureau has said it is still verifying census data and will be unable to produce apportionment counts until later this year, after Joe Biden takes office. But the apparent last-minute push by Dillingham, and other political appointees, suggests the administration may be trying to make one final push. Citing whistleblowers, the Commerce Department inspector general said Dillingham had given employees a 15 January deadline to produce the data, though it said that deadline may no longer be in effect. It also said Dillingham had inquired about financial incentives to produce the data. The inspector general sought more information from Dillingham and gave him until Thursday to respond. Cheney, a staunch conservative of Wyoming and a ranking Republican in Congress, could give cover to other Republicans who want to vote to impeach. While House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana – who voted to object to the Electoral College results last week even after the attack on the US Capitol, Cheney has opposed the president and questioned his undermining of the elections. She has fallen into the president’s crosshairs after opposing his efforts to invalidate the election results. At his rally in Washington, ahead of Congress’ vote to certify the election results, Trump told supporters: “The Liz Cheneys of the world. We have to get rid of them,” for this failure to back him.