Biden news: President meets with GOP on Covid bill as Democrats move to oust Marjorie Taylor Greene

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s up-to-the minute coverage of all the latest news from the White House and beyond in US politics today.

Two of the leading lawyers tapped to defend Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial abruptly parted ways with the former president on Saturday

Reuters reports that Butch Bowers and Deborah Barberi, two South Carolina lawyers, are no longer on Mr Trump's team, according to a source familiar with the situation who said their exit was a mutual decision.

A further source said that an additional three lawyers associated with the defence, Josh Howard of North Carolina, and Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris of South Carolina, are also off the team.

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Queen Elizabeth will host new US president Joe Biden and other world leaders at Buckingham Palace before a summit of the G7 big economies in June, the Sunday Times reported.

Describing it as a "soft power" reception, the newspaper said the Queen would be joined by the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The palace declined to comment on the report.

Britain has announced plans to hold the first in-person summit of the G7 for nearly two years in June in Cornwall, southwest England. 

Prime minister Boris Johnson hopes the meeting will forge a consensus that the global economy must recover from the Covid-19 pandemic in a pro-free trade and sustainable way.

Brian Klaas, a professor in global politics at University College London, has said the coup in Myanmar was led by generals “likely emboldened” by Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in the US presidential election.

Myanmar’s military alleged election fraud after the party it backed lost in a landslide to the NLD, which is led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Joe Biden’s secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, issued a statement expressing "grave concern and alarm" over the reported detentions.

"We call on Burmese military leaders to release all government officials and civil society leaders and respect the will of the people of Burma as expressed in democratic elections," he wrote, using Myanmar's former name. "The US stands with the people of Burma in their aspirations for democracy, freedom, peace, and development."

Texas governor Greg Abbott pledged to fight climate crisis executive orders signed by Joe Biden that he claims will undercut his state’s oil and gas production.

Through his own executive order, the governor authorised state agencies to bring legal challenges to policies implemented by the new president and his administration.

“When it comes to threats to your jobs, you have a governor who has your back,” Mr Abbott told workers at an oilfield service firm where he signed his order. “Texas is going to protect the oil and gas industry from any type of hostile attack from Washington.”

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Democratic congressman Ted Lieu has attacked a “wrong and stupid” former Trump official who is accused of pushing for states to receive less funding than they needed for the mass coronavirus vaccine rollout. 

Paul Mango, the former deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services, reportedly lobbied against additional funding because many states had failed to spend the $200 million given to them in September, according to STAT News. 

States said much of the lack of spending was due to the fact there was no vaccine to actually ship in September. 

“Trump official Paul Mango was so wrong & stupid,” Mr Lieu tweeted overnight. “He lobbied against providing funding to states for vaccine distribution because they hadn’t spent $200 million previously allocated by Oct. Why hadn’t they spent it? Well, because no vaccines were available in Oct to distribute.”

Longtime South Dakota Republican voter Jim Thompson is ready to leave the GOP, hoping that an exodus of Donald Trump supporters like him will punish the state's preeminent politician, Senator John Thune, for defying Mr Trump.

Mr Thompson, a retired rodeo announcer and broadcaster, watched Mr Trump’s calls for supporters to come to Washington to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election victory and he saw the ensuing assault on the US Capitol on January 6. 

But as Congress tries to hold Mr Trump accountable for his actions, Mr Thompson sees an agenda to banish the former president from politics and return the party to establishment figures such as Mr Thune, the second-ranking GOP leader in the Senate.

“We were tired of the way things were going, we were tired of political answers and spin,” Mr Thompson said.

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Though this clip was published over the weekend, it’s still worth highlighting to illustrate just how far down the rabbit hole QAnon believers - who are almost universally Trump supporters - have gone in recent years. 

In this extraordinary clip published by CNN, a former QAnon believer apologises to Anderson Cooper for “thinking that you ate babies”, before adding that many people still believe the news presenter does so. 

With his impeachment trial looming in just nine days, former president Donald Trump announced he had a new team of lawyers on Sunday, including David Schoen, who met with disgraced businessman and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein about representing him before his death.

“It is an honour to represent the 45th President, Donald J Trump, and the United States constitution,” Mr Schoen, who was already helping Mr Trump prepare for the Senate trial, said in a statement

The move comes the day after it was reported five members of the president’s impeachment team had left. 

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The US embassy in New Zealand has come up with an alternative to its new president actually visiting the Pacific island nation during the coronavirus pandemic - having a Joe Biden cardboard cutout tour the country instead. 

“We’ll be #RidinwithBiden to mark the new administration’s first 100 days. President Biden will be hitting spots across [New Zealand], so if you see him feel free to take a pic,” the embassy’s Twitter account posted. 

Unlike the US - and the UK for that matter - New Zealand has received global praise for how it has dealt with the Covid crisis. The country currently has no known cases of the virus, and has suffered just 25 deaths since the pandemic’s start a year ago.