CNN Breaking News Alert

China's economy grew more than expected last year, even as the rest of the world was upended by the coronavirus pandemic.

The world's second largest economy expanded 2.3% in 2020 compared to a year earlier, according to government statistics released Monday.

It's China's slowest annual growth rate in decades — not since 1976 has the country had a worse year, when GDP shrunk 1.6% during a time of social and economic tumult.

President Donald Trump is preparing to issue around 100 pardons and commutations on his final full day in office Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter, a major batch of clemency actions that includes white collar criminals, high-profile rappers and others but -- as of now -- is not expected to include Trump himself. 

The White House held a meeting on Sunday to finalize the list of pardons, two sources said.

Russia's leading opposition figure and chief Kremlin critic, Alexey Navalny, was detained by local police on Sunday, moments after his return to the country.

He was taken away "by police officers at the border" without explanation, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh tweeted. "The lawyer was not allowed to go with him, because just seconds ago 'he passed the border.'"

Music producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector died of natural causes on Saturday, according to a statement released by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

An official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner for the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office at a later date.

Justice Department prosecutors have formally walked back their assertion in a court filing that said Capitol rioters sought to "capture and assassinate elected officials."

A federal prosecutor in Arizona asked a magistrate judge in a hearing on Friday to strike the line in a recent court filing about defendant Jacob Anthony Chansley, a man who is alleged to have led some in the crowd in the first wave into the Capitol with a bullhorn while carrying a spear and wearing a fur headdress.

The entire line the prosecutors want to omit from their court filing is: "Strong evidence, including Chansley's own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States Government."

The stunning move comes a few hours after the Michael Sherwin, the acting US attorney in Washington, DC, said at a press conference there was "no direct evidence of kill and capture teams" at this time in the siege of the Capitol building.

The official global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 2 million on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The tragic milestone came just over a year after the first Covid-19 death was reported in Wuhan, China.

While the 2 million figure is horrifying, experts say the real death toll is likely much higher. Only confirmed Covid-19 deaths are included in the tally, which means that people who die without a firm diagnosis may not be included.

Federal prosecutors offered the most chilling description yet of rioters who seized the Capitol last week, writing in a new court filing that the intention was "to capture and assassinate elected officials."

The view was included in a memo seeking to keep Jacob Anthony Chansley, who rallied people inside the Capitol using a bullhorn, in detention. According to Capitol Police information included in the filing, Chansley was notable for his headdress, face paint and carrying of a six-foot spear.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing the New York City Police Department and its leadership over its "excessive, brutal and unlawful" handling of George Floyd protests, James said in a news release.

James also wants to install an external monitor to oversee the department's policing tactics.

The suit, filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, comes after a monthslong investigation into the NYPD's actions during protests over the killing of Floyd that found that officers allegedly used "indiscriminate, unjustified, and repeated use of batons, pepper spray, bicycles and a crowd control tactic known as 'kettling' against peaceful protestors," the release said.

The National Mall will be closed to the general public on Inauguration Day due to security concerns, according to an official familiar with discussions.

The official said there will be no big screens, no toilets, no panels were people stand, and that the public will not be able to get down to the mall.

The House voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time in a swift and bipartisan condemnation of the President's role inciting last week's riot at the US Capitol.