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Biden news: Trump impeachment article delivered, as Brazil Covid variant reaches US

 (REUTERS)
(REUTERS)

The Senate has received Donald Trump’s impeachment article from the House, triggering a February trial.

The Democratic House impeachment managers delivered their ratified article against Donald Trump to the Senate, automatically triggering a process that will culminate with a dramatic trial for the ex-president on 8 February.

Joe Biden says the country should be on its way to achieving Covid herd immunity by the summer and that most Americans should get the vaccine by the spring.

But shortly after addressing his administration’s effort to end the pandemic, health officials in Minnesota announced they had found the country’s first case of the Brazil Covid variant.

Earlier Mr Biden signed an executive order that reverses a Trump-era military transgender ban in a widely expected move to overturn the ban on troops and military recruits from transitioning to another sex.

The president also signed an ordering directing the federal government to buy American made goods and expand the pool of communities and industries considered procurement sources. Taking questions from the press Mr Biden expressed cautious optimism regarding vaccinations saying the country will well on its way to herd immunity by summer.

It comes as Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani over his baseless about election fraud, and the Bidens brought their dogs Champ and Major to Washington DC.

Meanwhile, as the Senate moves toward the second impeachment of Donald Trump, Supreme Court's Chief Justice Roberts reportedly withdrew from overseeing proceedings.

Republicans in the Senate will have a harder time reclaiming the upper chamber of Commerce in 2022 after a Ohio's Robert Portman retired - leaving three open GOP seats during the midterms.

Watch: Former President Trump to face historic 2nd impeachment trial

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