U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Monday evening that U.S. Border Patrol agents "will be conducting a crowd control exercise" in El Paso on Tuesday, Election Day. El Paso is Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Beto O'Rourke's home and political base — he held his final rally there Monday night — and the "mobile field force demonstration" will start at 10 a.m. between El Paso's primarily Latino Chihuahuita neighborhood and that neighborhood's designated polling location, about half a mile away, Texas Monthly reports.

CPB spokesman Roger Maier declined to comment on the exercises but pointed to an earlier statement about preparations for the Central American migrant caravan hundreds of miles south of the U.S. border, walking north. "No walls, no CBP exercises (are) going to keep us from honoring our laws, our commitments," O'Rourke said when informed of the Border Patrol drill Monday night. "Why this is happening now, why the president is stirring these issues up at this moment with 24 hours before we decide this election, I'll leave that to you to conclude."

Other Texas Democrats were similarly confounded by the Border Patrol exercises, as was the ACLU. "The location, next to a totally Hispanic neighborhood, is suspicious," said ACLU Texas head Terri Burke. "The timing of this — Election Day — is suspicious. This administration, and by extension the (Gov. Greg) Abbott administration, have done quite enough to intimidate voters without staging military rehearsals on the day our nation exercises our most important democratic obligation: voting."

Border Patrol agents now carry semi-automatic rifles on the bridge separating El Paso and Mexico, citing the caravan. Trump's deployment of up to 15,000 troops to the border will cost $220 million, and a Pentagon risk assessment found the migrant caravan poses no risk to the U.S., CNBC reports, citing U.S. defense officials and intelligence sources. Peter Weber

Update 1:21 p.m.: This exercise was postponed Tuesday. Border Patrol did not provide additional details.

India on Monday reported 352,991 new COVID-19 infections, its fifth consecutive day of setting a new global record for infections over a 24-hour period. India has now recorded more than 17 million cases and, with Sunday's 2,812 new COVID-19 deaths, 195,123 official fatalities from the pandemic. Based partly on the nonstop fires at overwhelmed crematoriums, India's actual death toll is believed to be several times higher than the official count. Hospitals are full and supplies, notably oxygen, are dangerously low.

On Sunday, the U.S. became the latest country to offer help to India as it struggles to tame its devastating second wave of infections. The National Security Council said the U.S. will provide key materials for India to produce vaccines, plus drugs, test kits, ventilators, and personal protective equipment; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Pentagon will help deliver supplies, including "oxygen-related equipment," to India in coming days. "Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, the United States is determined to help India in its time of need," President Biden tweeted Sunday.

Britain, the European Union, China, Russia, and Pakistan were among the other countries that offered oxygen, medicine, and other supplies to India, and Singapore and Germany have already sent oxygen and mobile oxygen generation plants. In his monthly radio address Sunday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to get vaccinated and said everyone 18 and older will be eligible starting May 1. In Delhi, the capital, 1 in 3 people tested for COVID-19 is positive, and that rate rises to 1 in 2 in Kolkata. Every death is a blow to India's self-assurance, BBC News reports.

Meanwhile, Modi's government "has moved to silence critics on social media, according to documents published by the Lumen Database, a transparency initiative run by Harvard University," The Washington Post reports. Among the tweets no longer visible in India, after officials filed complaints with Twitter, is one from West Bengal State Minister Moloy Ghatak. "When death bodies were burning, Nero was busy doing election rallies," he tweeted over twin images of a mass cremation and a Modi rally. This tweet, however, is still live. Peter Weber

On Brett Wittwer's last day at work before retiring, the tables were turned.

Wittwer, 69, spent 35 years as a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier, and was used to handing people packages. But on March 26, residents along his mail route were giving him gift bags and boxes filled with goodies. "It was crazy," Wittwer told Good Morning America. "It kind of brings a tear to your eye."

Most of his career was spent delivering mail in the Cincinnati area, and when word spread he was going to retire, people along his route used a neighborhood Facebook page to plan a surprise sendoff. They decorated their mailboxes with balloons, and filled them with presents and notes of appreciation. Waiting for him at the end of his route were several neighbors, standing under a "Happy Retirement" banner.

One person there was Glenna Weber Stricklett, who told GMA she appreciated Wittwer's work ethic and how he was "always friendly." He was careful with packages, she said, making sure they were safely placed on front porches during all weather conditions. That's why when it was time to say goodbye to Wittwer, so many residents wanted to be involved. "It just kind of came together," Stricklett said. "And it's a nice thing to do for people." Catherine Garcia

Even after a year when a global pandemic sent audiences flocking to streaming, Netflix has again come up short for Best Picture at the Oscars. But that's not to say the streamer walked away empty-handed.

At Sunday's Academy Awards, Netflix scored seven Oscars, more than any other studio, according to Variety. Among its wins were for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which took home the Oscars for Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Costume Design, and for Mank, which won Best Production Design and Best Cinematography.

Netflix's haul was a big improvement on its showing last year, when it won only two Oscars. Still, the streamer's Best Picture contenders, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Mank, lost to Nomadland, which was released by Disney's Searchlight Pictures. Disney had the second-highest haul with five wins, per Variety.

This was the third Oscars in a row in which Netflix had at least one major film in contention for Best Picture — this year, The Trial of the Chicago 7 was thought to have some slight chance at an upset over Nomadland — only to fail to win the top prize. Famously, Netflix's Roma was the frontrunner to win Best Picture in 2019 but shockingly lost to Green Book. A streaming service could potentially have more of an advantage in an awards season where some major films were postponed as theaters closed due to COVID-19, but in the end, Best Picture went to a movie released by a traditional studio.

Netflix's head of original films, Scott Stuber, acknowledged in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal that Oscar nominations are "hugely beneficial" partially because they help with "recruiting artists" to work for the streamer. On that front, Netflix is surely satisfied as it adds another seven trophies to its pile. But when it comes to actually taking home Best Picture, well, there's always next year. Brendan Morrow

The COVID-19 pandemic has been tamed in much of the U.S., but not in Michigan. Hospitals are full or filling up across the state, and "unlike previous surges, it now is younger and middle-aged adults — not their parents and grandparents — who are taking up many of Michigan's hospital beds," The New York Times reports. "Michigan hospitals are now admitting about twice as many coronavirus patients in their 30s and 40s as they were during the fall peak, according to the Michigan Health & Hospital Association."

Michigan has recorded 91,000 new COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks, more than California and Texas combined, The Associated Press reports. "Doctors, medical professionals, and public health officials point to a number of factors that explain how the situation has gotten so bad in Michigan," from the high prevalence of the more contagious and deadly B.1.1.7 variant first found in Britain, to widespread abandonment of masks and social distancing — especially in the rural, northern part of the state — after extended lockdowns.

A majority of Michigan residents 65 and older are fully vaccinated, "but the vaccinations of older people do not explain rising hospitalizations among people younger than 60, including those in their 20s and 30s," or the worrisome trend of younger patients "coming in more often with serious cases of COVID-19," the Times reports. "Younger people are among those most likely to be out and about socializing and in the work force," for one thing, and they are just now getting access to the vaccine.

The new influx of younger patients is taking a toll on hospital workers after a year of brief ebbs and tragic flows. "This third wave has just been very overwhelming, a lot of sick people and a lot of younger sick people," Andrew Chandler, an emergency room tech, tells the Port Huron Times Herald. "We're getting to the point where we're just so beat down," Alexandra Budnik, an intensive care nurse in Royal Oaks, tells The New York Times. "Every time we get a call or every time we hear that there's another 40-year-old that we don't have a circuit for — it's just like, you know, we can't save them all." Peter Weber

It wasn't long into the 2021 Oscars before a major criticism began to emerge: Where were all the clips of the movies?

Producers of Sunday's Academy Awards made some fairly surprising presentation decisions during a show already altered by COVID-19, not least of which was the shock move not to give out Best Picture as the last award and instead end with Chadwick Boseman's posthumous loss to Anthony Hopkins.

But the lack of clips at the show was one of the top criticisms of the Oscars all throughout. Indeed, with numerous major categories including acting awards, the broadcast didn't actually cut to footage of the work that was in contention, with presenters in some cases instead praising the nominees' work or telling viewers more about them. Clips were used in certain cases, including for the nominees for Best Picture, but they were far more sparse than in past broadcasts.

In "a year where awareness of the movies is so low, it's tough not to have clips around for context," wrote critic Scott Tobias. NPR said in its Oscars wrap-up that "walking away with no idea what any of a lot of the honored work even looks like seems like a failure."

Perhaps producers simply felt that the frequent use of clips would detract from their effort to create a more intimate and personal feeling experience this year. Regardless, those who came into the show knowing little about the nominated films and not understanding why the winning performances were so impressive may have left it with roughly the same level of unawareness. Brendan Morrow

Alber Elbaz, the designer who elevated the fashion house Lanvin during his tenure as creative director, died Saturday in Paris of COVID-19. He was 59.

His death was confirmed on Sunday by Johann Rupert, chairman of the luxury goods company Richemont, who said Elbaz "had a richly deserved reputation as one of the industry's brightest and most beloved figures. I was always taken by his intelligence, sensitivity, generosity, and unbridled creativity."

Elbaz got his start working with Geoffrey Beene in 1985, and served as the creative director at Lanvin from 2001 to 2015. In 2019, he co-founded with Richemont a company called AZ Factory, which makes "smart women's fashion by blending traditional craftsmanship with technology," Reuters says.

Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Kate Moss were among Elbaz's fans, and Meryl Streep donned one of his original designs to the 2012 Academy Awards, where she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Iron Lady. Catherine Garcia