Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna pledged Tuesday to boost their current distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

As it stands, Pfizer and Moderna are distributing 4-5 million vaccine doses each week. Pfizer plans to up that to 13 million doses weekly by mid-March, and Moderna is working to distribute 40 million doses per month, the companies told the House Energy and Commerce Committee during a Tuesday hearing. Moderna plans to ship at least 100 million doses by the end of May.

The increased production promises come amid a sluggish coronavirus vaccine rollout. President Biden originally set the U.S. on a goal of distributing 100 million vaccine doses during his first 100 days in office, but increased it to 150 million as it became clear the original plan wouldn't allow the U.S. to achieve herd immunity for months. The U.S. gave out an average of 1.45 million vaccines each day in the week of Feb. 10-17, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Both Moderna and Pfizer are currently testing booster shots that may work better against more transmissible COVID-19 variants. Moderna is testing its vaccine's efficacy on adolescents and hopes to distribute it to them by the fall. Kathryn Krawczyk

This week, with 2.8 million doses of the newly-authorized Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in tow, 17.6 million coronavirus vaccine doses in total will be shipped out across the United States, a marked improvement from the 10 million doses the country was averaging just a month ago.

States are also getting those shots into people's arms more quickly now. On both Saturday and Sunday, more than 2.3 million received a vaccine dose, suggesting that at least 3 million people could be getting a shot daily by the end of March, The New York Times reports.

Now, there's cautious optimism among experts that herd immunity could be on the horizon, and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot appears to be a major reason why. Per Vox, if one-third of vaccines are one-shot and the U.S. is administering 3 million doses per day, the U.S. could reach 80 percent immunity by mid-summer.

The Mayo Clinic's Vincent Rajkumar estimates that, at this point, around 140 million people will need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity, a goal he predicts could be achievable within three to four months. Rajkumar said his estimate is likely conservative since the actual number of people who have already been infected is probably much higher than what's been recorded.

There are several caveats, including lingering vaccine hesitancy and uncertainty over variants' ability to resist immunity, but the U.S.'s much-maligned vaccine rollout looks to be on the upswing. Tim O'Donnell

A court found former French President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of forming a "corruption pact" with his lawyer and a senior magistrate, handing him a three-year prison sentence after the verdict was announced. But Sarkozy, the first president to be sentenced to jail in France's modern history, likely won't spend any time behind bars, The Guardian reports.

Two of the three years are suspended, and Sarkozy will likely be able to serve the one remaining year by wearing an electronic bracelet or in home confinement. Per France 24, that's pretty much par for the course for whenever a French politician is sentenced.

While he'll remain out of prison for now, Sarkozy still faces more legal hurdles. In just over two weeks, he'll again be on trial in relation to allegations that he violated campaign financing rules during his failed 2012 re-election bid, and he's still being investigated for allegedly receiving millions of euros in campaign funds from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi in 2007. Read more at The Guardian and CNN. Tim O'Donnell

Following his first post-presidency speech, former President Donald Trump described the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the deadly Capitol riot as "beautiful" a "love fest."

Trump spoke with Fox News on Sunday after delivering a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, in which he continued to falsely claim he won the 2020 presidential election. In the Fox interview, Trump was asked if there's anything he would have in retrospect done differently prior to a crowd of his supporters storming the Capitol building on Jan. 6, but the former president instead spoke favorably about the rally he delivered remarks at before the deadly riot.

"That rally was massive," Trump said. "...It was tremendous numbers of people. Not the Capitol, I'm talking about the rally itself. And it was a love fest. It was a beautiful thing."

Trump spoke at a rally in Washington, D.C., on the day Congress was meeting to certify the election results, urging his supporters to march down to the Capitol building and "show strength" before a deadly riot ultimately occurred. The House of Representatives subsequently impeached Trump for "incitement of insurrection" for his actions surrounding the riot, though he was acquitted by the Senate. In reference to the violence that occurred at the Capitol following the rally, Trump told Fox he "hated to see" it.

Trump during his CPAC speech didn't back down from his false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent, and "Republicans in Washington let out a collective groan," Politico writes, as this "puts them right back in the position of rebuking Trump or looking spineless." Brendan Morrow

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said it is "clear" that Iran was behind an attack in the Gulf of Oman last week that targeted an Israeli-owned cargo ship.

"Iran is the greatest enemy of Israel," Netanyahu told the Israeli public broadcaster Kan. "I am determined to halt it. We are hitting it in the entire region."

An explosion rocked the Helios Ray on Friday, as the cargo ship was on its way to Singapore. No one on the crew was injured in the blast, but U.S. defense officials told The Associated Press the ship did sustain damage above the waterline. The ship was carrying cars, and prior to the explosion had stopped in multiple ports in the Persian Gulf to drop off vehicles. The Helios Ray arrived in Dubai on Sunday for repairs and an inspection, and it remains unclear what caused the blast.

On Sunday night, Syrian state media reported several airstrikes took place near Damascus, with air defense systems intercepting most of the missiles. Israeli media says the airstrikes were against Iranian targets and carried out in response to the ship attack. The Israeli military declined to comment to AP.

Iran has pinned several recent attacks inside the country on Israel, including an explosion last summer at a nuclear facility and the killing of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the founder of Iran's military nuclear program. Catherine Garcia

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) sees a way Republicans can win back the House, Senate, and White House: Ditch former President Donald Trump.

During an appearance Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, Cassidy warned his party that if it does not shift its focus to the issues, GOP candidates will lose in upcoming elections. "Political campaigns are about winning," Cassidy said. "Our agenda does not move forward unless we win. We need a candidate who can not only win himself or herself, but we also have to have someone who lifts all boats. And that's clearly not happened over the last four years."

Cassidy — one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol — does not think Trump will be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee. He said Republicans need to connect with voters on "those issues that are important to the American people" if they want to win the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential election, not worry about "putting one person on a pedestal and making that one person our focal point. If we idolize one person, we will lose. And that's kind of clear from the last election." Catherine Garcia

When his surfboard drifted away from him during a November surfing session, Lee Brogan thought it was gone forever. Instead, it was found more than 400 miles away by a woman intent on getting the surfboard back to its owner.

Brogan lost the surfboard while at Runswick Bay in northeastern England. It ended up traveling across the North Sea, washing up in the village of Skeld in the Shetland Islands. On Dec. 28, Stephanie Riise and her partner Jake Anderson found the surfboard on the beach, and Riise immediately posted photos of it on a Facebook page called Shetland Seashore Discoveries.

Riise told The Scotsman she was hoping the owner would quickly claim it, and within an hour she received a message that the board belonged to Brogan. It was "unbelievable" how fast it all came together, Riise said, and once a "shocked" Brogan contacted her the next morning with proof that it was his surfboard, they worked on a plan to get it back to him.

Joel Friedlander, a local courier, ended up packing the surfboard in the back of his truck, and dropping it off at Brogan's house — the trip took 18 hours, including a 12-hour ferry crossing. Brogan was so excited to see the surfboard that it "was like a child at Christmas," Friedlander told The Scotsman. The surfboard has a few dings and needs to be painted in some spots, but considering the long journey, it's in good shape. Everyone is content now that the surfboard is back where it belongs, and Riise said that seeing Brogan "so thankful and appreciative has really made it worthwhile." Catherine Garcia