WHAT'S BREWING
RUBIO TO HEAD SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE AMID PROBE INTO BURR Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will temporarily become chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican leaders announced, taking charge of the panel at a time of turnover and tension in the nation’s intelligence community. Rubio will replace North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, who said last week that he would step aside after federal agents examining his recent stock sales showed up at his home with a warrant to search his cellphone. Rubio will now have access to some of the highest-level secrets in Congress. [AP]
REPORTS TRUMP MAY EXTEND WHO FUNDING FREEZE Trump may extend a temporary freeze on payments to the World Health Organization amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Axios first reported the president was “leaning” toward keeping the freeze in place, and The Wall Street Journal noted Trump had grown skeptical of an internal plan to restore limited funding to the agency. Trump could make a decision as early as this week. [HuffPost]
LAWMAKERS CALL OUT HIGHER RISK TO PEOPLE OF COLOR AS STATES REOPEN Democratic Reps. Karen Bass (Calif.) and Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) are joining activists and journalists of color drawing attention to how states reopening businesses too soon amid the coronavirus pandemic are likely placing workers of color at disproportionate risk. During a virtual town hall on the need for more federal funding during the coronavirus crisis, Bass noted the disproportionately high death rates from COVID-19 among Black and Latinx people. [HuffPost]
GOVERNORS SAY THEY'RE OPEN TO LIVE SPORTS WITHOUT FANS As states continue to relax social distancing guidelines, governors have announced their openness to live sports events, with some offering their states as test sites. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said he has pitched sports teams on broadcasting games without spectators from facilities in his state. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced professional sports in the state will be allowed to resume without spectators starting May 31. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said his state may be prepared to restart live sports without spectators in June. [HuffPost]
BARR SAYS BIDEN PROBE UNLIKELY Attorney General William Barr, who has intervened in criminal cases against allies of Trump and helped shield the president from the consequences of the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, said “the criminal justice system will not be used for partisan political ends” as long as he is attorney general. “We live in a very divided country right now, and I think that it is critical that we have an election where the American people are allowed to make a decision, a choice, between President Trump and Vice President [Joe] Biden based on a robust debate of policy issues,” Barr said. [HuffPost]
CHINA ANNOUNCES $2 BILLION IN VIRUS AID AT WHO ASSEMBLY China will provide $2 billion over two years to fight the coronavirus pandemic, President Xi Jinping said, rallying around the World Health Organization and its efforts even as the Trump administration has slashed funding for the U.N. health agency. The European Union’s 27-member bloc and other countries, meanwhile, called for an independent evaluation of WHO’s initial response to the coronavirus pandemic “to review experience gained and lessons learned.” [AP] | 
