Supporters of the incoming president traditionally gather on the National Mall in Washington to welcome him on Inauguration Day before taking in a parade and attending parties throughout the city. But the National Mall will be closed for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration due to security concerns after riots at the U.S. Capitol last week. More than 26,000 National Guardsmen will secure the Capitol and surrounding areas, U.S. officials said.

For the first time in U.S. history, members of Congress voted to impeach a sitting president for a second time. By a vote of 232-197, with 10 Republicans aligning with the Democratic majority, the House on Wednesday charged President Donald Trump with “incitement of insurrection.” His critics blame him for inflaming a crowd of his supporters, some of whom marched to the U.S. Capitol and invaded it on Jan. 6 as Congress met to certify the results of the presidential election. Five people died during the riot.

Heavy spending on coronavirus relief coupled with lower tax revenue meant the United States spent a staggering $572.9 billion more than it made in the last quarter of 2020. That’s a nearly 61 percent increase from the same time period the previous year. For the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the U.S. government was in the red by a record $3.1 trillion

A 12-day state of emergency begins in Washington on Wednesday as rumors and threats of insurrection swirl around President-elect Joe Biden’s swearing-in. U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Penn., told CNN on Tuesday he had heard in an official briefing of one plot by 4,000 people to surround the Capitol and not let Democrats through on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day. The FBI says it is running down such threats across the country. On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago said it charged a 45-year-old Trump supporter with making a criminal threat.

As mobs of demonstrators marched to the seat of the U.S. government on Wednesday, the law enforcement agency defending it had the same number of officers on hand as a routine day. The Defense Department and Capitol Police had prepared for a crowd numbering in the low thousands and threats such as isolated stabbings and fist fights, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., said, citing Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. As rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, a police lieutenant ordered officers not to use deadly force.

The city of Pittsburgh can legally block pro-life activists from demonstrating within 15 feet of Planned Parenthood. The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a federal appellate court ruling that upheld the city’s buffer zone ordinance around abortion facilities.

After Twitter banned President Donald Trump for life on Friday, many of his supporters left the platform for the conservative-friendly social media site Parler. Google suspended Parler from its app store on Friday, and Apple threatened to do the same if the platform did not police posts that might incite violence. Amazon cut the site off from its web hosting service at midnight on Sunday. Parler CEO John Matze said in a post that the company “won’t cave to politically motivated companies and those authoritarians who hate free speech.”