AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EDT

Biden to the nation: We’re ‘turning peril into possibility’

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will use his first address to a joint session of Congress to declare the nation is “turning peril into possibility,” celebrating progress against the coronavirus and urging a $1.8 trillion investment in children, families and education that would fundamentally transform roles the government plays in American life.

Biden is marking his first 100 days in office as the nation emerges from a confluence of crises, making his case Wednesday night before a pared-down gathering of mask-wearing legislators because of pandemic restrictions. The speech is taking place in a U.S. Capitol still surrounded by fencing after insurrectionists in January protesting his election stormed to the doors of the House chamber where he will speak.

The nationally televised ritual of a president standing before Congress for the first time will be one of the most watched moments of Biden’s presidency, raising the stakes for his ability to sell his plans to voters of both parties, even if Republican lawmakers prove resistant. He is laying out a sweeping proposal for universal preschool, two years of free community college, $225 billion for child care and monthly payments of at least $250 to parents. His ideas target frailties that were uncovered by the pandemic, and he will make the case that economic growth would best come from taxing the rich to help the middle class and the poor.

“I can report to the nation: America is on the move again,” Biden was to say, according to excerpts released by the White House ahead of the speech. “Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength.”

For Biden, whose moment has been nearly a half century in the making, his speech will also provide an update on combating the COVID-19 crisis he was elected to tame, showcasing hundreds of millions of vaccinations and relief checks delivered to help offset the devastation wrought by a virus that has killed more than 573,000 people in the United States. He will also champion his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, a staggering figure to be financed by higher taxes on corporations.

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The Latest: Harris, Pelosi make presidential address history

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Joe Biden’s first joint address to Congress (all times local):

8:55 p.m.

Vice-President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are making history as the first women to share centre stage in Congress during a presidential address.

Harris and Pelosi will be seated behind President Joe Biden on Wednesday night for his joint address to Congress. When they greeted each other before Biden’s arrival, Harris and Pelosi clasped hands before giving each other a COVID-19-friendlier elbow bump.

Pelosi has sat at the rostrum in the House chamber before but always next to a male vice-president: Dick Cheney, Biden and Mike Pence. Harris is the first female vice-president in U.S. history.

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Feds raid Giuliani’s home, office, escalating criminal probe

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal agents raided Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan home and office Wednesday, seizing computers and cellphones in a major escalation of the Justice Department’s investigation into the business dealings of former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.

Giuliani, the 76-year-old former New York City mayor once celebrated for his leadership after 9-11, has been under federal scrutiny for several years over his ties to Ukraine. The dual searches sent the strongest signal yet that he could eventually face federal charges.

Agents searched Giuliani’s Madison Avenue apartment and Park Avenue office, people familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. The warrants, which required approval from the top levels of the Justice Department, signify that prosecutors believe they have probable cause that Giuliani committed a federal crime — though they do not guarantee that charges will materialize.

A third search warrant was served on a phone belonging to Washington lawyer Victoria Toensing, a former federal prosecutor and close ally of Giuliani and Trump. Her law firm issued a statement saying she was informed that she is not a target of the investigation.

The full scope of the investigation is unclear, but it at least partly involves Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, law enforcement officials have told the AP.

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US indicts 3 on hate crime charges in death of Ahmaud Arbery

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department brought federal hate crimes charges Wednesday in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, charging a father and son who armed themselves, chased and fatally shot the 25-year-old Black man after spotting him running in their Georgia neighbourhood.

Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory, were charged along with a third man, William “Roddie” Bryan, with one count of interference with civil rights and attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels are also charged with using, carrying and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.

The case is the most significant civil rights prosecution undertaken to date by the Biden administration Justice Department and comes as federal officials have moved quickly to open sweeping investigations into troubled police departments as civil rights takes centre stage among the department’s priorities.

The indictment charges that the McMichaels “armed themselves with firearms, got into a truck and chased Arbery through the public streets of the neighbourhood while yelling at Arbery, using their truck to cut off his route and threatening him with firearms.” It also alleges that Bryan got into a truck and then chased Arbery, using the vehicle to block his path.

Arbery, 25, was killed on Feb. 23, 2020, by three close-range shotgun blasts after the McMichaels pursued him in a pickup truck as he was running through their neighbourhood. Arbery had been dead for more than two months when a cellphone video of the shooting was leaked online and a national outcry erupted.

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Judge won’t release videos of deputies shooting Black man

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — A judge refused Wednesday to release body camera video showing North Carolina deputies shooting and killing a Black man, ruling that making the video public at this stage could jeopardize the investigation into Andrew Brown Jr.’s death.

However, the judge did order authorities to allow Brown’s family to privately view five videos from body cameras and one from a dashboard camera within 10 days, with some portions blurred or redacted. Family members had previously been allowed to view only a 20-second clip from a single body camera.

Judge Jeffery Foster said he believed the videos contained information that could harm the ongoing investigation or threaten the safety of people seen in the footage. He said the video must remain out of public view for at least 30 days, but he would consider releasing it after that point if investigations are complete.

“The release at this time would create a serious threat to the fair, impartial and orderly administration of justice,” Foster said.

While one attorney for Brown’s family, Wayne Kendall, initially said it was a “partial victory” for the family to view more video, the legal team later issued a statement condemning the decision not to make the video public.

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Harris, Pelosi to make history seated behind Biden at speech

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice-President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are set to make history Wednesday as the first women — one of them Black and Indian American — to share the stage in Congress during a presidential address.

The two began the night with another historic moment: An elbow-bump hello, a pandemic spin on the traditional handshake. Both stood side by side behind the dais in the House chamber, chatting with each other and occasionally waving to lawmakers as the group waited for President Joe Biden to arrive.

Biden is set to deliver his first prime-time speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night flanked by Pelosi and Harris, two California Democrats.

“It’s pretty exciting. And it’s wonderful to make history. It’s about time,” Pelosi said hours before the speech during an interview on MSNBC.

Pelosi already knows what it feels like to sit on the rostrum in the House chamber and introduce a president for their speeches. She has sat there for several addresses by Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

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India grieves 200,000 dead with many more probably uncounted

NEW DELHI (AP) — Three days after his coronavirus symptoms appeared, Rajendra Karan struggled to breathe. Instead of waiting for an ambulance, his son drove him to a government hospital in Lucknow, the capital of India’s largest state.

But the hospital wouldn’t let him in without a registration slip from the district’s chief medical officer. By the time the son got it, his father had died in the car, just outside the hospital doors.

“My father would have been alive today if the hospital had just admitted him instead of waiting for a piece of paper,” Rohitas Karan said.

Stories of deaths tangled in bureaucracy and breakdowns have become dismally common in India, where deaths on Wednesday officially surged past 200,000. But the true death toll is believed to be far higher.

In India, mortality data was poor even before the pandemic, with most people dying at home and their deaths often going unregistered. The practice is particularly prevalent in rural areas, where the virus is now spreading fast.

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Senate votes to reinstate methane rules loosened by Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats are moving to reinstate regulations designed to limit climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas fields, as part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to tackle climate change.

The Senate approved a resolution Wednesday that would undo an environmental rollback by President Donald Trump that relaxed requirements of a 2016 Obama administration rule targeting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.

The resolution was approved, 52-42. Three Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio — joined 49 Democrats to approve the measure, which only needed a simple majority under Senate rules. Five Republicans and one Democrat did not vote.

The legislation now goes to the Democratic-controlled House, where it is expected to win approval.

The Environmental Protection Agency approved the looser methane rule last year. The agency’s former administrator, Andrew Wheeler, declared the change would “strengthen and promote American energy” while saving companies tens of millions of dollars a year in compliance requirements.

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In new Electoral College map, shifting battleground dynamics

ATLANTA (AP) — The 2020 census is shifting states’ clout in presidential politics. And while the changes won’t upend the parties’ basic strategies for securing the votes needed to win the White House, they do hint at new paths emerging.

The 2020 census population counts announced this week will result in 13 states seeing a change in their number of votes in the Electoral College, the body that formally elects the president. The overall pattern was clear: Rust Belt and upper Midwestern states will hand some of their votes to Sun Belt and Western states in 2024 and 2028.

Democratic bastions California and New York also lost electoral votes along with a swath of the Great Lakes region. Beneficiaries include Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, Colorado and Montana.

The changes wouldn’t have done much to President Joe Biden’s Electoral College majority in 2020. If Biden ran under the new count he’d have defeated then-President Donald Trump by 68 electoral votes, rather than a 74-vote margin.

But the new numbers show a clear transition afoot. Gone are the days when Republicans held a near-absolute advantage across the southern half of the United States, forcing Democrats to secure victories in the “Blue Wall” throughout the industrial north.

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EXPLAINER: Capital gains tax hike targets wealthy investors

NEW YORK (AP) — After massive U.S. government spending helped send the stock market back to record heights, with even more potentially on the way, the bill may be coming due for the nation’s wealthiest investors.

President Joe Biden is proposing to nearly double the tax rate the highest-earning Americans pay on profits made from stocks and other investments. It would force millionaires to pay similar tax rates on their investment gains as upper-middle class households pay on their salaries, after years of enjoying lower rates.

It’s part of Biden’s efforts to tax wealthy people and corporations to pay for infrastructure investments and programs aimed at helping the broader economy. The most recent proposals, which Biden will detail in a speech before Congress later on Wednesday, focus on lower-income families and children. They include universal preschool for 3 year olds, two years of free community college and the extension of tax cuts for lower- and middle-income families.

Even though the possibility of higher capital-gains tax rates has been telegraphed for a long time, reports of its pending unveiling shook up the stock market, with the S&P 500 falling to a nearly 1% loss on Thursday. Stocks have since set more records, but the kneejerk reaction shows how much investors care about potential changes in tax rates.

WHAT IS THE CAPITAL GAINS TAX?