Five stories to know for July 22: Pelosi blocks GOP, infrastructure debate, Oregon wildfire, China floods, Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots

1. The top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives withdrew his five nominees to serve on the special committee probing the Capitol attack after Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of them.

2. Senate Republicans blocked a move to open debate on a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure measure that is a top priority for Democratic President Joe Biden, but the chamber was poised to take it up again as early as Monday.

3. A destructive Oregon wildfire that ranks as the largest among dozens raging across the drought-parched Western United States in recent weeks was ignited by lightning.

4. Tens of thousands of people were being evacuated from flood-hit regions of central China as officials raised the death toll from heavy rain that has deluged Henan province for almost a week to 33 people.

5. Two doses of Pfizer or AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine are nearly as effective against the highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant as they are against the previously dominant Alpha variant, a study showed.