Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including the murder trial over the death of George Floyd began in Minneapolis; The Suez Canal was reopened to shipping after a gigantic container ship was freed; The first Covid-19 data from the general population shows only a slight decrease from astounding effectiveness observed in clinical trials, and more.

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National

1.) As more states open up Covid-19 vaccine eligibility, the first data from the general population shows only a slight decrease from astounding effectiveness observed in clinical trials.

In this March 19, 2021, photo, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leads President Joe Biden into the room for a COVID-19 briefing at the headquarters for the CDC Atlanta. Walensky is making an impassioned plea to Americans not to let their guard down in the fight against COVID-19. She warned on March 29 of a potential “fourth wave” of the virus. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

2.) In a bid to revive so-called fetal demise abortion procedures that courts ruled unconstitutional, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron will fight at the U.S. Supreme Court for the chance to intervene.

The U.S. Supreme Court. (Jack Rodgers/Courthouse News)

3.) Sued by investors over its inflated stock price, Goldman Sachs urged the Supreme Court on Monday to raise the class-certification bar for an increasingly popular theory of fraud.

The logo for Goldman Sachs appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (Richard Drew/AP)

Regional

4.) The murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd began in earnest Monday morning.

From foreground left, attorney Ben Crump, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Brandon Williams, nephew of George Floyd, take a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds during a news conference at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on the first day of the Derek Chauvin murder trial Monday, March 29, 2021. (Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via AP)

5.) New England states eased their Covid lockdowns after the number of new cases dropped dramatically at the start of the year, but the decline has now plateaued and started to reverse — and experts say they’re afraid that there could be another major spike.

With chairs stacked against the wall of their hall space, Craig DeOld, commander at Veterans of Foreign War Post #1018, poses at the empty bar rail at the post’s rental space, Monday, March 15, 2021, in Boston. Local bars and halls run by Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts have fallen on hard times during the pandemic. Organizers say many risk permanent closure after states ordered them, like other bars and halls, indefinitely shuttered last spring. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

6.) Michigan’s ballot access laws for statewide offices impose a heavy burden on independent candidates and are unconstitutional, a Sixth Circuit panel ruled on Monday.

FILE- In a Nov. 6, 2018 file photo voters wait in line on election day in Southfield, Mich. A three-judge panel has ruled that Michigan's congressional and legislative maps are unconstitutionally gerrymandered, ordering the state Legislature to redraw at least 34 districts for the 2020 election. The decision issued Thursday, April 25, 2019, also requires special state Senate elections to be held in 2020, instead of 2022 as scheduled. The judges say the maps drawn by Republicans in 2011 violate Democratic voters' constitutional rights.(Clarence Tabb, Jr /Detroit News via AP, File)

International

7.) The Suez Canal was reopened to shipping on Monday afternoon after a gigantic container ship was refloated earlier in the day, nearly a week after it got stuck and blocked one of the world’s busiest trading routes.

In this photo released by Suez Canal Authority, the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship, is pulled by one of the Suez Canal tugboats, in the Suez Canal, Egypt, Monday, March 29, 2021. Engineers on Monday "partially refloated " the colossal container ship that continues to block traffic through the Suez Canal, authorities said, without providing further details about when the vessel would be set free. (Suez Canal Authority via AP)

8.) U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced Monday that her office is immediately suspending a 2013 trade agreement with Myanmar until the return of a democratically elected government.

Security forces stand by on Hledan road in Kamayut township of Yangon in Myanmar on March 29, 2021. A day earlier, Myanmar aircraft carried out three strikes overnight along the country's border, according to a member of the Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian relief agency that delivers medical and other assistance to villagers. Two days earlier, security forces across the country killed over 100 people, including several children. (AP Photo)

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