The House of Representatives voted on Monday to override President Donald Trump’s veto of the defense bill Congress passed earlier this month, with 322 votes to override and only 87 no votes. The $740 billion bill would fund the military and grant a 3 percent pay raise for troops. Both chambers passed the National Defense Authorization Act with more than a two-thirds majority.

The Department of Justice said the country’s largest retailer pressured its pharmacies to fill potentially suspicious prescriptions for painkillers that fueled an epidemic of addiction. A civil suit filed against Walmart on Tuesday alleges it used an inadequate system for detecting and reporting possibly fraudulent orders of opioids. Walmart operates more than 5,000 pharmacies in its stores around the country.

Most Americans will receive $600 checks, with an additional $600 per child, under a COVID-19 economic relief plan lawmakers agreed to on Sunday. The year-end catchall bill combines $900 billion in COVID-19 aid with a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill and other unfinished legislation. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the legislation today, likely sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk for a signature.

Several countries in the European Union banned flights from the United Kingdom on Sunday in a bid to stop a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus from sweeping across the continent. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the cancellation of Christmas shopping and gatherings in southern England.

Cyberhackers may have broken into systems at the National Nuclear Security Administration—the agency that manages the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal—according to federal officials. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also sounded alarms on Thursday warning of a “grave” threat to both government and private networks across the country. 

Many Iranian lawmakers chanted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” during a vote on whether to discuss a bill to suspend United Nations inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities. The country’s parliament passed the bill on Tuesday, likely in retaliation for the assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on Friday. On Wednesday, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said he opposed the bill as harmful to his efforts to restore the 2015 nuclear deal.

Spending over the holidays could increase by roughly 3.5 percent over last year, according to the National Retail Federation—despite an economy still limping from COVID-19 lockdowns. Last month’s consumer spending increased by 0.5 percent—the weakest rise since April, according to the Commerce Department.