Good afternoon for the Daily Beast. I'm Barbie Nando in for Brooke Howard. It's Friday, April 30th, and here are the top five stories the Cheat Sheet Team is watching right now. More than 50,000 people have signed an online petition calling for First Lady Jill Biden to redo the Rose Garden at the White House to its, quote, former glory, which they say was undone by First Lady Melania Trump.
The petition urged Biden's second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, to, quote, take this on and restore the garden to the way First Lady Jackie Kennedy intended. The FBI warned Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, late 2019, that he was the target of a Russian influence operation aimed at circulating falsehoods about Joe Biden ahead of last year's election. Despite the warning, Giuliani went forward with a trip to Ukraine's capital, where he met with a Ukrainian lawmaker who the government later labeled a, quote, active Russian agent, and which led to this week's raid on his home. He planned to widen its inoculation drive.
India is the world's largest producer of vaccines, but only about 9% of the 1.4 billion residents have received even a single dose. The U.S. embassy in Moscow is to be pared back to a skeleton staff, eliminating almost all services except emergency assistance for Americans, following new Russian rules capping the number of Russians allowed to work in, quote, unfriendly countries' embassies. The decree comes amid a flurry of diplomatic expulsion and accusations against Russia.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 37 Republican senators are demanding the Department of Education stop a proposed new rule that mentions the New York Times' 1619 project, which was published on the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. The project places the consequences of slavery and contributions of black Americans at the center of the national narrative. That's all for today. Check back every Wednesday morning and afternoon for more of the news you need to know.
Find us wherever you listen to podcasts.