• ‘We can’t surrender’ says Nancy Pelosi on stimulus impasse
  
• Black Americans receiving Covid vaccines at lower rates than whites
• Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy
  
• Listen: Biden’s pandemic problem – Politics Weekly Extra podcast
• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
  

11.59am GMT

The prospect that former president Donald Trump was ready to strike up on his own and split off from the Republican party appears to be receding, at least according to this report from Newsweek’s Jacob Jarvis. He writes:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump met in Florida yesterday, and it was discussed that Trump would back Republican candidates for 2022.

“President Trump committed to helping elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022,” McCarthy said in a statement.

11.49am GMT

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has told CNN he does not having any regrets over voting not to certify all of November’s election results, but also claimed that he was not attempting to overturn the election result – a statement that appears to contradict his earlier position. Manu Raju, CNN’s Chief Congressional correspondent, writes:

In the aftermath of pro-Trump rioters storming the Capitol seeking to stop the January 6 certification of Biden’s win, the first-term Missouri Republican senator has faced a barrage of criticism over his decision to contest the results of Pennsylvania. But Hawley has said he has “no” regrets, telling CNN: “I was very clear from the beginning that I was never attempting to overturn the election.”

Yet before 6 January 6, Hawley didn’t rule out the possibility that Congress could throw out the electoral results and keep Trump in office.

• Cases of variant detected in South Carolina
• US economy shrank by 3.5% in 2020
• House members ask for more security amid fears they’re targets
  
• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email
  

9.51pm GMT

In addition to rescinding the ‘global gag rule’ on Thursday, Joe Biden ordered funding restored to the UN population fund, UNFPA, which Trump stopped.

UNFPA said the US decision to restore funding will have an “enormous” impact on the agency’s work, particularly coming as the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.

Related: Joe Biden axes 'global gag rule' but health groups call on him to go further

9.37pm GMT

It was a big day for the country’s first second gentleman, or as he is also known, the SGOTUS (yes).

Today, Kamala Harris’s husband, Douglas Emhoff, tweeted that the title “second gentleman” has been officially recognized by Merriam Webster’s dictionary and wrote: “I might be the first, but I won’t be the last.”