President Trump's Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, maintains a lead in Wisconsin, plus Trump's three most likely pick-up opportunities — Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Nevada — a New York Times/Siena College poll shows. Biden was able to stay on top, the Times' Nate Cohn notes, despite the Trump campaign's renewed focus on law and order amid the sometimes-violent nationwide protests against police brutality that have taken place throughout the summer.

Cohn says that voters in the four swing states are now split on whether the protests or the coronavirus pandemic are more important factors in determining their vote, and that Biden's response to the demonstrations is lacking, which suggests Trump's attacks on his competitor are registering.

But Trump and Biden are still neck-and-neck when it comes to who voters trust more on law and order. Cohn writes that's probably because even if voters want more from Biden they think he's got the edge on race relations, protest handling, and unifying the country, while Trump is viewed as more likely to encourage violence.

The New York Times/Siena College poll was conducted between Sept. 8-11 via telephone. In Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Wisconsin, 814, 445, 462, and 760 voters were surveyed, respectively. The margins of error were 3.9, 5.5, 5.3, and 4.7 percentage points, respectively. Read more at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell

To make room for all of the COVID-19 patients at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, staffers have found a way to get more people inside for treatment: they are placing their gurneys inside the gift shop, chapel, and conference room.

Already, there are five tents outside of the hospital to help with overflow. Dr. Elaine Batchlor, the hospital's CEO, told CNN workers have been "incredibly adept and flexible in accommodating increasing numbers of patients," but if the pace keeps up, they will have to start contemplating whether to ration care. This, she said, is something "we really just loathe having to even think about."

In the past seven days, Los Angeles County has reported 100,000 new coronavirus cases, and L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer on Monday said the "sad reality is that all indicators show us that our situation may only get worse as we begin 2021." Batchlor told CNN that while patients won't be turned away from her hospital, it might soon get to the point where "we use what in the battlefield is called triage techniques, which is doing an assessment of each person's needs and prognosis and using scarce resources with patients that are most likely to benefit from them."

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States reached a record high on Monday, with 121,235 patients in the hospital, the Covid Tracking Project said. Looking at data published Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services, CNN found that over the last week, about 40 percent of all intensive care unit patients in the country had COVID-19, up from 16 percent in late September, 22 percent in late October, and 35 percent in late November. Catherine Garcia

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday another ban on alcohol sales in the country, saying that "reckless behavior due to alcohol intoxication has contributed to increased transmission" of the coronavirus.

South Africa has recorded more than 1 million coronavirus cases, with nearly 27,000 deaths. The South African Medical Association said the country's hospital system could soon be overwhelmed due to COVID-19 cases and patients needing treatment for alcohol-related injuries. Earlier in the pandemic, there was a total ban on liquor sales in South Africa, and alcohol-related trauma cases dropped by 60 percent, The Guardian reports.

In addition to a ban on alcohol sales, Ramaphosa also announced that for at least the next few weeks, bars and certain beaches will be closed and masks will be mandatory in public; anyone who doesn't follow this order will have to pay a fine or face criminal charges. If the number of new cases and hospitalizations starts to drop, Ramaphosa said he will consider relaxing the restrictions.

South Africa has seen a surge in cases, with more than 50,000 reported since Christmas Eve. Experts believe a new variant of the virus thought to be more infectious is making its way through some parts of the country. Over the past two weeks, the seven-day rolling average of confirmed daily cases in South Africa has increased from 11.18 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 13 to 19.87 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 27. Catherine Garcia

The FBI is still trying to determine a motive behind the Christmas Day explosion in downtown Nashville that injured at least eight people and damaged 40 buildings.

Police have identified Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, as the bomber, and say he died Friday morning when the RV he was in exploded. FBI agent Doug Korneski told CNN on Monday investigators are interviewing people who knew Warner in an attempt to find a motive, and so far, there is no indication that anyone else was involved in the bombing.

Warner lived in Antioch, Tennessee, and neighbor Rick Laude told CNN on Monday that four days before Christmas, he asked Warner, "Is Santa going to bring you something good for Christmas?" Laude said Warner responded, "Yes, I'm going to be more famous. I'm going to be so famous Nashville will never forget me."

Laude did not suspect that Warner was going to achieve fame due to an act of terrorism, and stressed to CNN that no one in the neighborhood would "claim to be a friend of his. He was just a legitimate recluse." Other neighbors agreed, with one telling CNN Warner was "kind of a hermit," and they usually only waved at each other over their shared fence. Catherine Garcia

Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist who went to Wuhan in February to report about the emerging coronavirus outbreak, was sentenced on Monday by a Chinese court to four years in prison after being charged with "picking fights and provoking trouble," The Associated Press reports.

Zhang, 37, is a former lawyer, and while in Wuhan she posted online about what she was learning about the coronavirus in the region. She was arrested in May in Shanghai, accused of spreading false information and disrupting public orders. Zhang reportedly went on a hunger strike during her detention, and is now in poor health, AP says. Her lawyer, Zhang Keke, told AP it was "inconvenient" to share details on the case, a typical response when a court has issued a partial gag order.

The Chinese government has been accused of covering up the initial outbreak in the country, and officials have cracked down on criticism, censoring reporters and health-care workers; early in the pandemic, several doctors who shared information on the virus with colleagues and friends were reprimanded for "rumor mongering." One of those doctors, Li Wenliang, later died of COVID-19. Catherine Garcia

More than 1.28 million passengers were screened by Transportation Security Administration workers at U.S. airports on Sunday, the highest daily number since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March.

The TSA said 1,284,599 people were screened, down about 50 percent from the number of travelers who passed through security on Dec. 27, 2019, Reuters reports. Public health officials urged people to stay home for the holidays in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but airports have been recording a surge in passengers — over six of the last 10 days, the TSA screened more than 1 million people daily.

As of Sunday, there have been more than 19 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, with the death toll topping 334,000. Catherine Garcia

The House voted 322-87 on Monday evening to override President Trump's veto of the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act, with the measure now heading to the Senate.

If the Senate votes the same way, Congress will deliver Trump the first veto override of his presidency.

The defense bill, originally passed by Congress last week, authorizes pay raises for service members. Trump first said he objected to the bill because it calls for dropping the names of Confederate figures from military installations, later adding that he wanted it to include a repeal of liability protections for tech companies that he claims are anti-conservative. Catherine Garcia