US news live: Japan will keep in close contact over Covid before Olympics, says White House

A southwest Ohio city became the first in the state Tuesday to enact a measure outlawing abortion and declaring itself "a sanctuary city for the unborn," setting itself up for a likely legal challenge by opponents who call the ban unconstitutional.The vote by Lebanon City Council was unanimous after one member quit in protest. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that that member, Krista Wyatt, said she could no longer associate her name with the body "as a respectable, decent human being."

A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University that tracks every mass killing over the last 15 years shows that San Jose is the 15th mass killing so far in 2021, all of the shootings. ​​Eighty-six people have died in the shootings, compared with 106 for all of 2020. The database defines mass killings as four or more people dead, not including the shooter, meaning the overall toll of gun violence is much higher when adding in smaller incidents.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day Mideast mission on Wednesday, winning valuable diplomatic support and hundreds of millions of dollars of pledges from Arab allies as he moved to shore up the cease-fire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and the Gaza Strip's militant Hamas rulers.

At least eight people were killed when a transit employee opened fire at his co-workers at a light rail yard in San Jose, California, on Wednesday morning, the county sheriff's office said, in the latest in a string of mass shootings this spring.The gunman, who like the victims was an employee of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), was also dead, Santa Clara County Sheriff's Deputy Russell Davis said at a news conference. He did not say how the gunman died or whether police officers fired their weapons at the scene. The name and age of the suspect were also not disclosed.

Back in early 2020, the President called for the CDC to get access to China to learn about the virus so we can fight it more effectively. Getting to the bottom of the origin of this pandemic will help us understand how to prepare for the next pandemic. As we have done throughout our Covid response, we have committed to a whole of government effort to ensure we are doing everything to both understand and end this pandemic, and to prevent future pandemics.