While you were sleeping, we compiled the biggest stories of the day in one place. Each story has a quick and easy summary, so you're prepared for whatever the day brings. Just click on the links if you want to know more!
1. Dates set for Florida special session on property insurance
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced that lawmakers will return to the Capitol in late May for a special session to deal with the state's rising property insurance rates.
The Republican governor on Tuesday set the session for May 23 to May 27.
He has tasked the GOP-controlled statehouse with considering legislation on property insurance, reinsurance and building code changes.
2. Florida bans ranked-choice voting in new elections law
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a billthat creates a police force dedicated to pursuing voter fraud and other election crimes, but that's not all it does.
The bill signed on Monday also eliminates ranked-choice voting for all elections in Florida. This means cities or counties can't pass their own laws on ranked-choice voting.
In a ranked-choice voting system, voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots rather than selecting just one.
3. European nations accuse Russia of natural gas 'blackmail'
Polish and Bulgarian leaders have accused Moscow of using natural gas to blackmail their countries after Russia’s state-controlled energy company said it would stop supplying the two European nations on Wednesday.
The gas cutoff came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “unfriendly” foreign customers would need to start paying for gas in rubles, Russia’s currency.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met one-on-one for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine and the U.N. says they agreed on arranging evacuations from a besieged steel plant in the battered Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
4. Most Americans have been infected with COVID-19, CDC finds
A surge of COVID-19 cases amid the omicron wave pushed the number of Americans with COVID-19 antibodies from infection to over 57%, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday.
From December 2021 to February 2022, the percentage of Americans with COVID-19 antibodies increased from 33.5% to 57.7%. During that time, reported cases of COVID-19 peaked at nearly 800,000 per day across the U.S., according to CDC data.
The CDC said last week that COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in the United States in 2021. Only heart disease and cancer resulted in more deaths than COVID-19 in 2021.
5. Pfizer requests emergency authorization for COVID-19 booster in children
Pfizer is seeking emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 booster vaccine shot for children ages 5 to 11 after it provided a "strong immune response" in children who took part in a clinical trial.
The company said it submitted its application to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday.
The FDA announced Monday that they have expanded approval of Remdesivir to treat COVID-19 positive patients to include pediatric patients 28 days old and older and weighing at least around 7 pounds.
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On This Day In History
On April 27, 4977 B.C., the universe is created, according to German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, considered a founder of modern science. Kepler is best known for his theories explaining the motion of planets. However, scientists in the 20th century developed the Big Bang theory, which showed that his calculations were off by about 13.7 billion years.
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