News Wrap: Man arrested near Justice Kavanaugh’s home is charged with attempted murder

Judy Woodruff:

In the day's other news: A California man was charged with attempted murder after being arrested near the Maryland home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. A criminal complaint said Nicholas Roske had a gun and a knife, and threatened to kill Kavanaugh, partly over an impending abortion decision.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed a tough response.

Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General:

This kind of behavior, obviously, is behavior that we will not tolerate. Threats of violence and actual violence against the justices, of course, strike at the heart of our democracy. And we will do everything to can to prevent them and to hold people who do them accountable.

Judy Woodruff:

The justices have increased round-the-clock security since a draft abortion rights opinion leaked. It indicated the court could reverse the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision.

Olympic champion Simone Biles and dozens of other gymnasts are suing the FBI for more than $1 billion. They say they were sexually assaulted by Larry Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics team doctor. The suit alleges that the FBI knew about him in 2015, but did nothing for another year. Nassar is now serving decades in prison for child pornography and sex crimes.

Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein will face indecent assault charges in Britain. Police say it happened in London in 1996 and involved a woman who's now in her 50s. Weinstein is 70 and is already serving a 23-year sentence in the U.S. for sex crime convictions in New York.

In Ukraine, government forces retreated today in a key eastern city, driven back by a Russian onslaught. Ukrainian officials said heavy shelling forced their fighters in Severodonetsk to pull back to the city outskirts. Meanwhile, Russia's foreign minister visited Turkey, and promised safe passage for Ukrainian grain shipments through the Black Sea.

Ukraine's ambassador to Ankara dismissed the pledge.

Vasyl Bodnar, Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey (through translator): The Russian side, as usual, is playing its stupid games. They are trying to get involved in the process of checking vessels. They are trying to keep blocking them. I am very certain they will not succeed. Russians must push back and unblock the ports.

Judy Woodruff:

Ukrainian grain exports have fallen to around a sixth of what they were before Russia's invasion.

Back in this country, Moderna reported it has developed an experimental COVID vaccine that works better against the Omicron variant. It combines the original shot with new protection that increases antibodies specific to Omicron. Today's announcement follows a CDC estimate that two new variants now make up 13 percent of U.S. cases. That's nearly double last week's estimate.

And on Wall Street, major stock indexes fell as much as 1 percent, as fresh data showed inflation is hurting retailers. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 269 points to close at 32910. The Nasdaq fell 89 points. The S&P 500 dropped 45.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": low public uptake causes a glut of unused COVID vaccines in India; Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reflect on the parallels between the Watergate scandal and the Capitol insurrection; plus much more.