Good Thursday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.

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• The House waded into the debate over reparations for African-Americans on Wednesday, convening its first hearing on legislation introduced 30 years ago. The writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, testifying before the committee, called out Senator Mitch McConnell for saying he was opposed to compensation “for something that happened 150 years ago.”

• Joe Biden, under attack from fellow Democrats for fondly recalling his working relationships with two segregationist senators in the 1970s, lashed out at his rivals and declined to apologize. The angry exchange shattered the relative peace that had marked the Democratic presidential primary.

• Mayor Pete Buttigieg took a third day off from the campaign trail on Wednesday to confront a crisis over the fatal police shooting of a black resident of South Bend, Ind. Mr. Buttigieg said he was “extremely frustrated” that the white officer’s body camera was switched off at the time.