Jan 6 panel to focus on ‘lies’ that led Trump supporters to attack US Capitol

Bennie Thompson says second hearing will tell story of how ‘Trump decided to wage an attack on our democracy’

The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection in 2021 reconvened on Monday to scrutinize the conspiracy theories that led a group of Donald Trump’s supporters to attack the US Capitol.

The Democratic chair of the committee, Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson, has said the second hearing would focus on “the lies that convinced those men and others to storm the Capitol to try to stop the transfer of power”.

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Sarah Palin leads in special primary for Alaska’s House seat in comeback bid

Run by former Republican vice-presidential candidate marks first bid since resigning as governor partway through her term in 2009

Former Alaska governor and Republican ex-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin leads in early results from Saturday’s special primary for the state’s only US House seat in what could be a remarkable political re-emergence.

Voters in the far north-western state are whittling down the list of 48 candidates running for the position that was held for 49 years by the late US Representative Don Young.

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‘Enough is enough’: thousands rally across US in gun control protests

The March for Our Lives rallies come after mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York

Rallies for gun reform were held in Washington, New York, other US cities and around the world on Saturday, seeking to increase pressure on Congress to act following a spate of mass shootings.

In Washington, the son of an 86-year-old victim in the Buffalo supermarket shooting said: “Enough is enough. We will not go quietly into the night.”

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Biden says forces behind January 6 attack ‘remain at work today’ – as it happened

Did the January 6 committee really cut through the “thick fog of propaganda” around the attack? Not if you watched Fox News, which didn’t broadcast the hearing. My colleague Adam Gabbatt took a look at what they showed in its place:

The millions of people who tuned into America’s main television channels on Thursday heard how the January 6 insurrection was “the culmination of an attempted coup”, a “siege” where violent Trump supporters mercilessly attacked police, causing politicians and staffers to run for their lives.

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January 6 hearing: five key takeaways from the first primetime Capitol attack inquiry

The House select committee presented their findings that the US Capitol attack was the ‘culmination of an attempted coup’

The first primetime hearing from the House select committee investigating January 6 presented gut-wrenching footage of the insurrection, and a range of testimony to build a case that the attack on the Capitol was a planned coup fomented by Donald Trump.

After a year and half investigation, the committee sought to emphasize the horror of the attack and hold the former president and his allies accountable.

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US braces for House committee’s primetime January 6 hearings – live

The US Department of Justice has announced a federal civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police following a raft of brutality cases and the fatal beating of a Black motorist, Ronald Greene, in 2019.

Greene, an unarmed 49-year-old, was arrested by six white officers with body camera footage of the incident, obtained years later by the Associated Press, revealing he had been punched, tasered and placed in a chokehold and later dragged face down in handcuffs and left prone for over nine minutes.

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Pressure mounts on Senate to act on gun safety amid Republican resistance

Relatives of victims urge action while group of over 220 CEOS send joint letter pushing Senate to address gun violence

Pressure is mounting on the US Senate to act on gun safety in the wake of the Uvalde and Buffalo massacres, as Republican intransigence continues to stand in the way of all but modest reforms.

On Wednesday the House of Representatives passed a package of gun safety measures designed to staunch the disaster of mass shootings. The extent of Republican resistance was underlined by the fact that only five out of 208 House Republicans voted for the legislation.

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Uvalde survivor, 11, tells House hearing she smeared herself with friend’s blood

Miah Cerrillo recounts at gun violence hearing how she watched as her teacher and friends were shot and acted quickly to save herself

An 11-year-old survivor of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas testified before the House oversight committee on Wednesday, as lawmakers continued to try to reach a compromise on gun control legislation after a series of devastating mass shootings.

The House hearing came two weeks after an 18-year-old opened fire at Robb elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers, and three weeks after 10 people were killed at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

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Democrats and Republicans at an impasse over US gun control as Biden demands action – as it happened

Peter Navarro, a top former White House adviser to Donald Trump, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.

The justice department said in a news release that Navarro was indicted with one count for refusing to appear at a deposition and another for refusing to turn over documents as required by the panel’s subpoena.

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House panel considers gun control bill after Texas school shooting – US politics live

Republican Dan Bishop challenged David Cicilline’s argument that Democrats’ gun-control bill is fully compliant with the constitution, instead insisting that the proposals would infringe on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

“And let me be clear, you are not going to bully your way into stripping Americans of fundamental rights,” Bishop said.

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Nancy Pelosi: supreme court ‘dangerous to families and to freedoms’

House speaker rails against conservative judges appointed by Trump as justices prepare to finalize draft abortion ruling

The supreme court is “dangerous to families and to freedoms in our country”, Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday, as justices prepare to finalize a draft ruling stripping almost have a century of abortion rights in the US.

The House speaker railed against conservative judges appointed by former president Donald Trump in an interview Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, in which she urged Democrats to keep their “eye on the ball” to protect other freedoms she sees under threat.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for re-election, Georgia official says

Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger accepts judge’s findings and says far-right congresswoman, a Trump ally, is eligible to run

The Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has accepted a judge’s findings and said the far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for re-election.

A group of voters filed a challenge saying Greene should be barred under a seldom-invoked provision of the 14th amendment concerning insurrection, over her links to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.

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January 6 committee set to subpoena Trump allies, Republican Kinzinger says

Members of Congress involved in attempt to overturn election have refused to testify voluntarily before June public hearings

The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol will decide “in the next week or two” whether to issue subpoenas trying to force Republican lawmakers to testify about Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, one of two Republicans on the panel said on Sunday.

“If that takes a subpoena, it takes a subpoena,” Adam Kinzinger said.

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Ukraine hopes to evacuate more civilians from besieged Mariupol steelworks

Zelenskiy said about 100 civilians evacuated after weeks sheltering in the Azovstal complex would arrive in Zaporizhzhia on Monday

Ukrainian authorities are planning to evacuate more civilians from Mariupol on Monday, after dozens were finally brought to safety following weeks trapped under heavy fire in the strategic port city’s Azovstal steel complex.

The civilians had been sheltering in bunkers beneath the steelworks that is the last redoubt for Ukrainian forces in Mariupol.

Two explosions were reported in the early hours of Monday in Belgorod, the southern Russian region bordering Ukraine. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the region’s governor, said in a social media post there were no casualties or damage. On Sunday Gladkov had said one person was injured in a fire at a Russian defence ministry facility in Belgorod, while seven homes had been damaged.

Russia’s top uniformed officer, General Valery Gerasimov, visited dangerous frontline positions in eastern Ukraine last week in a bid to reinvigorate the Russian offensive there, the New York Times has reported citing Ukrainian and US officials. The Guardian could not immediately confirm the report.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that the county is working to prevent nuclear war, Reuters reported. In an interview with Italian TV, Lavrov said: “Western media misrepresent Russian threats. Russia has never interrupted efforts to reach agreements that guarantee that a nuclear war never develops”.

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Democratic senator Joe Manchin cuts ad for West Virginia Republican

Manchin cites Biden Build Back Better spending plan he sank in ad for David McKinley, challenger to Trump-backed incumbent

Joe Manchin has recorded an ad for a Republican in a West Virginia US House election, in which the Democratic senator trumpets his opposition to Joe Biden’s Build Back Better domestic spending plan.

“David McKinley has always opposed reckless spending because it doesn’t make sense for West Virginia,” Manchin said.

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Republicans in Congress give McCarthy standing ovation for defense of leaked audio – live

Joe Biden has delivered a moving eulogy to Madeleine Albright, telling mourners at her funeral in Washington DC that the former secretary of state “turned the tide of history”.

The president was among about 1,400 masked attendees at Washington National Cathedral service honouring the top diplomat from the Bill Clinton administration who died last month at the age of 84.

With her humanity and her intellect, she turned the tide of history.

Her story was America’s story. She loved to speak about America as the indispensable nation. To her, the phrase was never a statement of arrogance, it was about gratitude.

That’s why there was nothing she loved more than swearing in new citizens to this great nation of ours. She’d light up reminding them that she once stood where they stood. Having gained the blessings of liberty she wanted nothing more than the share them around the globe.

To Madeleine, from my perspective, there was no higher mission, no greater honor, than to serve this great experiment of freedom known as the United States of America.

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Biden announces another $800m in military aid for Ukraine: ‘We’re in a critical window’ – as it happened

Here are some more details from the defense department on the new $800m military assistance package to Ukraine:

For those keeping track on how much the US has provided Ukraine so far in military assistance:

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Ex-Trump aide Stephen Miller testifies to House January 6 panel for eight hours

Subpoenaed former White House adviser gives virtual deposition on whether Trump encouraged supporters to march on Capitol

Former White House aide Stephen Miller testified on Thursday to the House select committee investigating January 6 about whether Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The virtual deposition, which lasted for roughly eight hours and was earlier reported by the New York Times, also touched on Miller’s role in the former president’s schemes to overturn the results of the 2020 election and return him to office, the source said.

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House votes to hold Trump duo Navarro and Scavino in contempt of Congress

Approval of contempt resolution over months-long defiance of subpoenas sets pair on path towards criminal prosecution by DoJ

The House voted on Wednesday to hold two of Donald Trump’s top advisers – Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino – in criminal contempt of Congress for their months-long refusal to comply with subpoenas issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.

The approval of the contempt resolution, by a vote of 220 to 203, sets the two Trump aides on the path toward criminal prosecution by the justice department as the panel escalates its inquiry into whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.

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Trump lawyer discussed plans to block Biden victory, emails reveal

January 6 panel receives 101 emails belonging John Eastman, concerning plans to obstruct certification of 2020 election result

The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol has received a cache of emails belonging to Donald Trump’s lawyer, John Eastman, federal court documents filed on Tuesday show.

The 101 emails were released to the committee after Judge David Carter ruled in federal court in California last week that Eastman, a hard-right supporter of the former US president, had not made a sufficient claim to attorney-client privilege.

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