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By Dan Donahue, NBC Nightly News

Good Friday afternoon. President Biden is in Saudi Arabia for a controversial meeting with the country’s crown prince, the January 6th committee has been briefed on text messages erased by the Secret Service, and an autopsy revealed Jayland Walker had 46 gunshots wounds from police.

Here is what’s in our Nightly Rundown.

Biden fist bumps Saudi crown prince at high-stakes meeting

President Joe Biden shared a fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman today, after arriving in Saudi Arabia for a critical meeting with the country’s de facto leader.

Biden is on a mission to repair relations with Saudi Arabia, a country he once vowed to make a “pariah” on the world stage, as gas prices remain sky-high in the United States.

The president said on Thursday that he would not avoid discussing human rights with the Saudis, but avoided saying whether he would bring up the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that the crown prince approved the killing of Khashoggi, who was critical of the Saudi regime. Bin Salman denies any involvement in the journalist’s slaying.

Before flying to Saudi Arabia, Biden met with Palestianian leaders in the West Bank, and reaffirmed his support for a two-state solution.

Biden fist bumps Saudi crown prince as he arrives for meetings

While President Biden is overseas, his domestic agenda was dealt another major blow by Sen. Joe Manchin.

The West Virginia Democrat said he would not support spending on climate and energy programs, or raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, as part of Biden’s agenda bill, according to a Democrat briefed on the conversations.

Manchin, a critical vote in the evenly-divided Senate, said he would only back an economic bill with drug pricing and a two-year extension of funding under the Affordable Care Act, that could overcome a GOP filibuster, the source said.

Democrats were hoping to pass a bill before September, when Americans could see major insurance premium hikes under the ACA.

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general briefed the January 6th committee today about text messages erased by the Secret Service from both the day of the attack, and the day before, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said in a letter to Congress that the Secret Service deleted the texts from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, after the agency was asked to hand over records of electronic communications tied to the insurrection.

Cuffari said he was told that many of the messages had been erased “as part of a device-replacement program.”

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency has fully cooperated with the watchdog’s review, and that the texts were deleted before they were requested.

“The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false,” Guglielmi said.

Jayland Walker, the 25-year-old Black motorist killed by Ohio police last month, had 46 gunshot wounds or grazes on his body, according to a preliminary autopsy report released today.

Walker died of blood loss from internal injuries and the cause was gunshot wounds, Summit County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler said.

Akron Police attempted to pull over Walker on June 27 for an unspecified traffic violation, then a car and foot chase ensued.

Graphic bodycam video showed officers unleashing a hail of bullets on Walker as he ran.

Authorities said Walker had fired a gunshot from his car during the pursuit. No firearm was found on Walker’s body, but a gun was found in his car, police said.

New York’s attorney general has agreed to postpone depositions for former President Donald Trump as well as Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, as part of her civil investigation into the Trump Organization, after the death of Ivana Trump.
Brittney Griner’s attorneys told a Russian court she was prescribed medical cannabis for a chronic injury. The WNBA star pleaded guilty last week to drug charges, after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage at a Moscow airport.
Los Angeles appears likely to reinstate its indoor mask mandate, health officials say, as Covid cases continue to rise in that city and nationally.
Jim Thorpe has been reinstated as the sole winner of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon in Stockholm, more than a century after he was stripped of his gold medals for violating strict rules on amateurism at that time.
The U.S. will launch 988, a three-digit number to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, on Saturday.

Watch us this evening at 6:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. CT on NBC, or check your local NBC station listing. After the broadcast, access Nightly News video on NBCNightlyNews.com or the NBC News app.

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