The House passed a $731 billion defense policy bill on Tuesday by a wide enough margin to repel a threatened presidential veto. The 335-78 vote in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is well above the two-thirds support required to overturn President Donald Trump’s intervention. Some 140 Republicans voted for the NDAA, which now heads to the Senate. Congress has passed the NDAA for nearly 60 years.

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington on Sunday after showing symptoms. Trump confirmed Giuliani tested positive for COVID-19 in a Twitter post and later told reporters on Monday that he’s “doing well.” The 76-year old former New York City mayor has traveled extensively in recent weeks to support Trump’s election fraud claims.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said the United States would not issue visas to Chinese nationals and members of the Chinese Communist Party who engage in overseas influence operations and other forms of intimidation. The measure would ensure that “those responsible for actions that contravene the rules-based international order are not welcome in the United States,” Pompeo said.

Bangladeshi authorities on Thursday transported the first group of Rohingya refugees to the remote island of Bhashan Char, or “floating island,” in the Bay of Bengal. The island, located 21 miles from the mainland, only emerged 20 years ago and has never been inhabited. Bangladesh received some 700,000 Rohingya in 2017 after a military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar, also known as Burma, targeted the minority population.

Walter Williams, who built a career as a professor and writer, died on Wednesday. He was 84. Williams taught his final class on Microeconomic Theory at George Mason University on Tuesday. He was raised in poverty by a single mother in Philadelphia and earned his doctorate in economics from the University of California–Los Angeles in 1972. Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James remembered him as “an incorrigible fighter for freedom.”

Kaavan, a five-ton Asian elephant, arrived at a Cambodian animal sanctuary on Monday after eight years of solitude. Sri Lanka gifted the 36-year-old elephant to Pakistan in 1985. Kaavan lived at a zoo in Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad with his partner Saheli, who died in 2012. The Pakistani government closed down the zoo in August due to poor conditions.

A mysterious metal monolith discovered in a remote area of southeastern Utah is the stuff of fiction. The tall, slim, three-sided metal pillar has baffled state officials, who don’t know who placed it on federal land, how it became embedded in the rock, or how long it has been there.