The news that the Biden administration will scrap the controversial Title 42 policy blocking asylum claims at the US border has not gone down well with all Democrats. CNN’s Manu Raju reports that Joe Manchin, one of the biggest thorns in Mr Biden’s side, is already dug in against the move...

Donald Trump has begun his day with a statement claiming credit for filling up the US’s oil reserves and criticising Joe Biden for reportedly planning to release a vast quantity of the stored oil to help tackle fuel prices. Mr Trump laments that Mr Biden is considering touching “what we so carefully and magically built” – despite the fact that this is exactly what the reserve is intended for.

Per his usual method of dissemination, here’s the screenshot shared by his spokeswoman Liz Harrington on Twitter, from which the sometime president and Mar-a-Lago president is banned.

Along with asking Congress for more emergency funding and getting his second booster shot on camera, Joe Biden yesterday announced a new website, Covid.gov, that provides Americans with “everything you need to deal with Covid”. Here’s his announcement:

Read more on his remarks about the pandemic below.

The Department of Health and Human Services will today be marking the national day of trans visibility declared by Joe Biden with a display of solidarity from its DC flagpole.

Among the department’s senior staff is Assistand Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, the most senior openly trans person appointed to a Senate-confirmed government position to date.

Also flying the flag is the Department of Homeland Security, led by Xavier Becerra.

Stephen Miller, the nationalist anti-immigration hardliner who crafted much of Donald Trump’s border policy, has hit out at the Biden administration’s move to scrap the provision known as Title 42 that blocked most asylum claims at the point of entry to the US.

Warning on Twitter that the move could unleash “one of history’s most spectaular travesties” and “open the floodgates on a biblical scale”, Mr Miller was soon upbraided by those on the other side of the argument. Among his critics was Congressman Brendan Boyle, who recalled his own family’s debt to a more accepting immigration policy.

Joe Biden has declared 31 March the Transgender Day of Visibility, an effort to “honor transgender people who are fighting for freedom, equality, dignity, and respect” and “celebrate the parents, teachers, coaches, doctors, and other allies who affirm the identities of their transgender children and help these young people reach their potential”.

This he has done as trans people across the US face an escalating legal effort to exclude trans women from women and girls’ sport, restrict the therapies available to gender non-conforming children, and limit what schoolchildren can be taught about gender identity and sexuality.

The Biden administration is reportedly planning to scrap Title 42, a contentious Trump-era border control policy invoked by the CDC at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The policy effectively suspended asylum claims at the point of entry to the US on the grounds of controlling Covid-19 transmission; the result was that as many as 1.7 million people seeking asylum were immediately expelled from the US without being able to present their cases.

Mr Biden’s tenure has so far seen him decline to move fast on easing the Trump administration’s sometimes draconian border policies and a surge of arrivals at the US’s southern border is expected in the coming weeks and months.

Read more below.

Congress recently declined to provide billions of dollars in new funding for the government’s Covid-19 response effort, and Joe Biden yesterday warned that if the money isn’t forthcoming soon, the consequences could be severe.

Andrew Feinberg has the story.

Deborah Lipstadt, the historian whose work challenging Holocaust denial made her internationally famous, has been confirmed as the Biden administration’s special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism. The vote to confirm her was introduced by a speech from Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, himself the descendant of Jewish refugees who fled antisemitism in Eastern Europe for a new life in the US.

Ms Lipstadt was nominated eight months ago, during which time various Republicans obstructed her because of her past remarks about them. Particularly angry was Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who took exception to a tweet in which Ms Lipstadt accused him of “white supremacy/nationalism” over the 6 January insurrection.

Republican Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry recently resigned his seat after being found guilty of lying on numerous counts of lying about an illegal foreign campaign donation. Below is the moment his resignation was formally read out on the House floor.