Biden news - live: GOP senator claims ‘fake’ Trump supporters caused riot as distracted Ted Cruz taps on phone

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live blog with the latest up-to-the-minute coverage of everything in US politics today.

America yesterday hit the grim milestone of 500,000 coronavirus deaths from the pandemic as President Biden led a memorial at the White House to those who have lost their lives so far.

The country’s top virologist Dr Anthony Fauci said the political divisiveness in the country and the Trump administration’s “mixed signals” on health guidelines were detrimental to efforts to curb the pandemic.

Mayank Aggarwal has all the details

Congress is set to hear from former Capitol security officials for the first time about the massive law enforcement failures on January 6, the day a violent mob laid siege to the building and interrupted the presidential electoral count.

Three of the four people scheduled to testify on Tuesday before two Senate committees resigned under pressure immediately after the deadly attack, including the former head of the Capitol Police.

Five people died as a result of the violence, including a Capitol Police officer and a woman who was shot by police as she tried to break through the doors of the House chamber with lawmakers still inside.

Former Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger and former House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving will speak publicly for the first time since their resignations at the hearing, which is part of a joint investigation by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Rules Committee.

They will be joined by former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and Robert Contee, the acting chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department, who sent additional officers to the scene after the rioting began.

AP

Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jason Miller has dismissed reports of the former president refusing to share a stage with Mike Pence at the conservative annual political conference in Florida and played down suggestions of a feud between the pair, writes The Independent’s Shweta Sharma.

“This story is patently false, and these ‘anonymously sourced’ attacks designed to create division are why people distrust the media,” Mr Miller said.

“No such demand or request was ever made by President Trump, and in fact, President Trump and Vice President Pence had a great call last week!” he added.

Joe Biden will hold a virtual meeting with Justin Trudeau this afternoon where a range of issues are expected to be discussed, including the president’s decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline.

“The meeting will be an opportunity for the two leaders to review joint efforts in areas of mutual interest such as the COVID-19 response, climate change, and the economic ties that bind our countries, as well as the deep people-to-people bonds we share,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Saturday.

While Mr Biden has had at-times lengthy calls with several foreign leaders, the meeting with Trudeau will also extend to lower-level meetings between Cabinet ministers.

On his first day in office, Mr Biden signed an executive order revoking the permit for Keystone XL - a pipeline that would carry some 830,000 barrels of heavy crude oil each day from fields in Alberta, Canada to the US.

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has said it was time for Mr Trump to “take responsibility for his own dirty deeds” after the Supreme Court ordered the ex-president to hand over his tax returns to prosecutors in New York.

Namita Singh has all the details

President Joe Biden led Americans in a moment of silence to mourn 500,000 COVID-19 deaths from the White House on Monday.

“Today we mark a truly grim, heartbreaking milestone - 500,071 dead. That’s more Americans who have died in one year in this pandemic than in World War One, World War Two and the Vietnam War combined,” Mr Biden said in emotional remarks.

“But as we acknowledge the scale of this mass death in America, we remember each person and the life they lived. They are people we knew.”

Mr Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff marked a moment of silence around 6:15 p.m (2315 GMT) outdoors at the White House after the president’s comments.

Read the full speech below

President Biden is reportedly planning sanctions on Russia in response to the poisoning and imprisonment of Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny.

The move would be in conjunction with European allies in the coming weeks, but the exact parameters of the response have not yet been revealed.

A senior official told Politico that the Biden administration is “considering available policy options.”

“Suffice it to say, we won’t stand by idly in the face of these human rights abuses,” they added.

Parts of Niagara Falls froze over on Monday as brutal winter storms continued to batter areas of the US.

After temperatures fell to -2F (-18C) in Niagara, New York State, last week, tourists gathered to witness the ice which had formed at the top of the famous waterfall over the weekend and on Monday, writes The Independent’s James Crump.

It comes after multiple states have suffered from freezing temperatures and storms over the last few weeks, with Texans particularly badly affected by mass power and water outages.

The Supreme Court said it will take up challenges to controversial Trump administration policies affecting family-planning clinics and immigrants.

The justices agreed to hear appeals over the Trump policy that keeps taxpayer-funded clinics from referring women for abortions and the “public charge” rule that could deny permanent residency status to immigrants because of their use of food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers or other public benefits.

Adam Liptak has the latest