CNN Breaking News Alert

The Americans closed out Tokyo 2020's swimming competitions by winning gold and setting a world record in the men's 4x100 meter medley relay.

Team USA finished the race in 3:26.78, 0.73 seconds ahead of second-place Great Britain. Italy took home the bronze with a time of 3:29.17. The Americans have won this race in all 15 Olympics they've raced it.

The win gives Caeleb Dressel, who swam butterfly in the race, his fifth gold medal of these Olympics.

Simone Biles will not compete in the event finals for two of the four individual women's gymnastics events, vault and the uneven bars, USA Gymnastics said. 

Biles, arguably the world's greatest gymnast, has pulled back from Olympic competition in Tokyo to focus on her mental health. She explained in a series of Instagram posts that she has the twisties, a mental block in gymnastics where competitors lose track of their positioning midair. 

USA Gymnastics said Biles will be evaluated daily to determine whether she can compete in the final two individual disciplines, floor and balance beam.

The Delta coronavirus variant surging across the US appears to cause more severe illness and spreads as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal document from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The document -- a slide presentation -- outlines unpublished data that shows fully vaccinated people might spread the Delta variant at the same rate as unvaccinated people.

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a number of new steps his administration will take to try to get more Americans vaccinated and slow the spread of coronavirus, including requiring that all federal employees must attest to being vaccinated against Covid-19 or face strict protocols.

The new measures come amid a rise in Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the US. The vast majority of those individuals with severe cases of Covid-19 are unvaccinated.

Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked by The Vatican in 2019 over sex abuse allegations, is now facing criminal charges in Massachusetts for alleged sex abuse of a minor nearly 50 years ago, according to a court filing.

Sunisa Lee of Team USA has won the gold medal in the women's individual all-around gymnastics final.

She is the fifth American woman in a row to win the event.

American swimmer Robert Finke won gold in the men's 800-meter freestyle event on Thursday morning in Japan with a time of 7:41.87.

This is the first time the event has been held at the Olympics.

The Senate voted on Wednesday to advance a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill after weeks of negotiating, advancing a critical part of President Joe Biden's agenda in Congress. The vote was 67-32.

The White House claimed that the bill's investments in various areas of US infrastructure were either the largest ever or in several decades.

Dusty Hill, the bearded bassist with American blues-rock band ZZ Top, has died, according to the band's official website. He was 72.

"We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX," the statement, from surviving members Frank Beard and Billy Gibbons, said. "We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the 'Top'."

A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can "strongly" boost protection against the Delta variant -- beyond the protection afforded by the standard two doses, suggests new data released by Pfizer on Wednesday.