Biden news: Tanden drops out over Twitter row, as president says vaccines for all adults by May

Christopher Wray told today’s Senate judiciary committee hearing that the attack at the Capitol on 6 January was considered by the FBI as “domestic terrorism”.

“That attack, that siege, was criminal behaviour, plain and simple, and it’s behaviour that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism,” Wray said.

He added that it was not an isolated incident, and the issue of domestic terrorism has been “metastasizing across the country for a number of years now, and it’s not going away any time soon”.

The director of the FBI considers racially motivated domestic extremists such as white supremacists the “top threat” facing Americans, as the nation continues to learn more about such people who perpetrated the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol last month.

“The top threat we face from [domestic violent extremists] continues to be those we identify as Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs), specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race,” FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

The FBI has formally elevated the threat from white supremacist groups to its top priority level, alongside ISIS and its network of homegrown terrorists, Mr Wray said.

The Independent’s Griffin Connolly has more from the director’s opening statement.

The US has concluded that Russian intelligence agencies were behind the poisoning of Alexey Navalny and will impose sanctions on multiple senior government officials.

Names of seven members of the Russian government to be sanctioned will be revealed later today by the treasury department. They will be blocked from accessing financial assets in the US.

In addition, the commerce department will add 14 parties to a list of entities engaged in “activities that are contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests”, CNN reports an official as saying.

These parties were involved in aspects of the production of biological and chemical agents. Export restrictions will also be expanded on items that could be used in the manufacturing process of chemical weapons under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Act.

Oliver O’Connell reports.

Christopher Wray says the FBI is still not able to "disclose or confirm a cause of death."

"As soon as there are information that we could appropriately share, we want to be able to do that, but at the moment the investigation is still ongoing," Wray says.

Here is the latest on the investigation into Sicknick’s death.

Kayleigh McEnany, formerly Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, will officially join Fox News.

The announcement came during an on-air interview with Fox — Ms McEnany’s first since the end of the Trump administration — when host Harris Faulkner welcomed her to the network.

“It is my distinct pleasure to welcome Kayleigh McEnany to the Fox family,” Ms Faulkner said. “We will be seeing much more of her.”

Oliver O’Connell is breaking the story.

Press secretary Jen Psaki is expected to kick of her daily briefing in a few minutes.

Follow live with The Independent.

Jen Psaki says the president’s priority is vaccinating America first.

“That’s diplomacy in action, he’s been at this a long time,” Psaki says.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the act had been invoked to increase production of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

She said it was needed to speed parts of production that had been delaying the company meeting its commitments.

Asked why Joe Biden or Kamala Harris have not publicly supported the women that have accused the New York governor, press secretary Jen Psaki said she speaks for both of them.

“They both believe every woman coming forward should be heard, should be treated with dignity, should be treated with respect, as you all know the New York attorney general will oversee an independent investigation with subpoena power,” Psaki said.

Psaki was pressed during the daily briefing that it’s different to hear from a spokesperson, especially when the first female vice president has been so vocal previously on believing woman that come forward, notably in the case of Al Franken.

“I’m speaking on their behalf, that’s how they feel, they both feel this is a situation where all of the women coming forward should be treated with dignity and respect and have their voices heard, and that’s a representation of their points of view,” Psaki says.

Asked why the president did not mention Dr Seuss during his Read Across America Day remarks on the author’s birthday, White House press secretary said while the day is to celebrate reading, it is also “a chance to celebrate diverse authors whose work and lived experience reflects the diversity of our country”.

“That’s certainly what they attempted to do or hoped to do this year, and as we celebrate the love of reading and uplift diverse and representative authors it is especially important that we ensure that all children can see themselves represented and celebrated in the books that they read,” she said.

Pressed if it had anything to do with the lack of diverse characters in his books, Psaki said it is important that children of all backgrounds see themselves in the books that they read.

“But I would point you to the Department of Education for any more details on the writing of the proclamation,” she said.