Reuters US Domestic News Summary

The law, which dates to 1931, was challenged by Josh Stein, now the state's attorney general, who in 2020 was accused of making derogatory statements in a campaign advertisement about Jim O'Neill, then Stein's rival candidate for the office. Romney tells embattled Republican George Santos he 'shouldn't be in Congress' U.S. Senator Mitt Romney told embattled fellow Republican Representative George Santos on Tuesday that he should not be in Congress and shouldn't have taken a central seat at President Joe Biden's State of the Union address.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Here's how many watched Biden's State of the Union on major TV networks

An estimated 23.4 million people watched U.S. President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech on the biggest TV networks Tuesday, according to early ratings figures from Nielsen and shared with Reuters by Fox News and NBCUniversal, down from total viewership last year. The early figure includes viewership on the biggest U.S. broadcast and cable networks, including Fox News, CNN, ABC News and NBC News.

U.S. House votes to end foreign air traveler COVID vaccine requirement

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to end a requirement that most foreign air travelers be vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the few remaining pandemic travel restrictions still in place. The vote was 227 to 201 with seven Democrats joining Republicans. No Republicans voted against the bill.

Former Twitter execs tell Republicans they erred on Hunter Biden laptop story

Former Twitter executives told a Republican-led U.S. House committee on Wednesday that they made a mistake by blocking tweets about a laptop said to belong to President Joe Biden's son Hunter but said government officials were not involved. At a combative day-long hearing before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, Republicans claimed that Twitter cooperated with government officials and the news media to suppress a New York Post article on the laptop's contents, two weeks ahead of Biden's 2020 election victory over former President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Texas Walmart massacre suspect pleads guilty to U.S. hate crimes

A Texas man accused of targeting Latinos during a 2019 massacre of 23 people at an El Paso Walmart store pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal hate crimes, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office that prosecuted the case. Patrick Crusius changed his plea to guilty during a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas after federal prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty.

U.S. sites of interest visited by past Chinese balloons, Pentagon says

Four previous Chinese spy balloon flights over the United States passed over sites that would be of interest to Beijing, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, without elaborating on whether they passed over military bases. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was gaining more information "almost by the hour" on the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the U.S. East Coast on Saturday. He said the United States will share relevant findings with Congress and allies around the world.

In State of the Union speech, Biden challenges Republicans on debt and economy

President Joe Biden challenged Republicans to lift the U.S. debt ceiling and support tax policies that were friendlier to middle class Americans on Tuesday in a State of the Union speech that served as a blueprint for his 2024 re-election campaign. Assailing oil companies for making high profits and corporate America for taking advantage of consumers, Biden used his prime time speech to outline progressive priorities of his Democratic Party that are anathema to many Republican lawmakers.

In Wisconsin, Biden touts 'deal' with Republicans on Social Security

Fresh off a State of the Union speech to Congress that challenged opposition Republicans to help unite the country, President Joe Biden embarked on a tour of U.S. states crucial to his expected 2024 re-election bid. In Wisconsin, the Democratic president told workers at a union training facility "it looks like we negotiated a deal last night" on Social Security.

North Carolina ban on false campaign statements likely unconstitutional, court rules

A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that a decades-old North Carolina law making it a crime to publish false derogatory statements about a candidate in an election was likely to be unconstitutional. The law, which dates to 1931, was challenged by Josh Stein, now the state's attorney general, who in 2020 was accused of making derogatory statements in a campaign advertisement about Jim O'Neill, then Stein's rival candidate for the office.

Romney tells embattled Republican George Santos he 'shouldn't be in Congress'

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney told embattled fellow Republican Representative George Santos on Tuesday that he should not be in Congress and shouldn't have taken a central seat at President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. Romney, an elder statesman of the party and former Republican presidential candidate, was seen having a brief exchange with Santos, who has made multiple false claims about his past on his way into the House of Representatives chamber before the address.

Jeffrey Epstein's banks seek to end accusers' lawsuits

JPMorgan Chase & Co and Deutsche Bank AG called on a U.S. judge to dismiss lawsuits by victims of Jeffrey Epstein who accused the banks of enabling the late financier's sexual abuses. Both requests were filed on Tuesday night in Manhattan federal court, in proposed class action lawsuits by unnamed victims seeking financial damages.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)