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President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion bill to bolster the social safety net and fight climate change passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday and headed to the Senate, where divided moderates and liberals still need to reach agreement.

Several thousand people took to Australia's streets on Saturday protesting COVID-19 vaccination mandates, while smaller crowds gathered to support the measures that have elevated the country to be one of the most inoculated in the world.

Brazil has had 8,833 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 217 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Saturday, as vaccination reduces contagion and fatalities to levels not seen since the first weeks of the pandemic last year.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes took the stand on Friday to defend herself against charges of defrauding investors and patients about the now-defunct blood-testing startup once valued at $9 billion.

Lithuania will donate 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, its government said on Tuesday, after angering China in March by saying it would open a trade representative office on the island this year.

Italy reported 49 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday against 48 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 11,555 from 10,544.

Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, said on Friday the couple's infant son Gus had been released from the hospital after being on a ventilator for a week.

Pfizer Inc and Merck & Co Inc have developed experimental antiviral pills that have shown promising efficacy in trials of adults with COVID-19 who are at high risk of serious illness. Both drugs also are being studied to see if they can prevent infection in people exposed to the virus.

With this week's election results in New Jersey and Virginia suggesting that voters are souring on Democrats, President Joe Biden badly needed a jolt of good news. And on Friday, he finally got a little.

Roche's $20.7 billion move to buy back nearly a third of its voting stock from fellow Swiss drugmaker Novartis will give it more strategic flexibility, Chairman Christoph Franz said in an interview published on Saturday.