Good morning.
Donald Trump refused for hours to call off the deadly attack perpetrated by a group of his supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, the House select committee investigating the insurrection said last night.
The January 6 committee returned to primetime, as the House panel investigating the Capitol insurrection held its eighth and final – for now, at least – public hearing, which set out to detail the 187 minutes that passed from the end of Trump’s speech to supporters on January 6 until he finally told insurrectionists to “go home”.
The committee shared testimony from former White House aides indicating that Trump repeatedly rejected pleas from his senior advisers and even his own family members – including his eldest daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump – to immediately issue a statement calling off the mob swarming the Capitol.
As Trump watched news coverage of the Capitol attack from the comfort of the White House dining room, the mob carried out violence that ultimately left several people dead, the committee said.
What did the panel say about Trump? The committee member Adam Kinzinger said: “President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act.”
What else was discussed? In chilling new testimony, the committee showed that members of the Secret Service detail for the vice-president, Mike Pence, so feared for his and their safety that they made “calls to say goodbye to family members”.
Extreme heat warnings in effect in 28 states across US
The National Weather Service has warned that extreme heat will affect more than 100 million people in the US this week, with triple-digit temperatures in some states and broken temperature records in many areas across the country.
“Above-normal temperatures will continue to prevail across much of the US through the end of the week, with a significant portion of the population remaining under heat-related advisories and warnings,” the agency said.
Heat warnings and advisories have been put in place for 28 states, with central and southern states facing the brunt of the scorching heat.
Some parts of Oklahoma reached 115F (46C) this week, while the Dallas area hit 109F (42C).
Has Biden declared a national emergency? Speaking in Somerset, Massachusetts, about the climate crisis on Wednesday, the president said that global heating is an emergency but failed to declare a national emergency, as activists hoped he would.
Are these heatwaves here to stay? It looks like heatwaves – which have spread throughout Europe and Asia this summer – will be a regular fixture. Climate scientists have warned that they will be more intense and prolonged if the climate emergency is not addressed.
Joe Biden tests positive for Covid and has mild symptoms, White House says
Joe Biden tested positive for Covid yesterday, underscoring the persistence of the highly contagious virus as new variants challenge the nation’s efforts to resume normalcy after two and a half years of pandemic disruptions.
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said that Biden was experiencing mild symptoms and had begun taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the disease.
She said Biden “will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time”.
“He has been in contact with members of the White House staff by phone this morning, and will participate in his planned meetings at the White House this morning via phone and Zoom from the residence.”
What are his symptoms? “Mostly rhinorrhea (or runny nose) and fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which started yesterday evening,” his doctor said.
Is the president vaccinated? Yes, he is fully vaccinated, after getting two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office, a first booster shot in September and an additional dose on 30 March.
In other news …
Sri Lankan security forces have carried out a violent early morning raid on the main anti-government protest camp in Colombo, beating protesters, destroying tents and arresting nine people. The crackdown came a day after Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is unpopular, was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s new president.
An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently contracted polio, the first US case in nearly a decade, health officials said yesterday, adding that the patient had developed paralysis. The person developed symptoms a month ago and did not recently travel outside the country, county health officials said.
Ukraine has said it wants to establish a one-off international tribunal to try Russia’s top regime members for the act of aggression, which could see it issuing an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. Ukraine believes trying Russia separately, with international participation, would speed up accountability.
The actor Shonka Dukureh, who recently made her big screen debut as Big Mama Thornton in Baz Luhrmann’s new film Elvis, had died at the age of 44. Dukureh was found dead on Thursday in a bedroom at her home in Nashville, which she shared with her two young children, police said.
Don’t miss this: How a California bookshop became a safe space for Black readers
Asha Grant sits on a church pew near a table covered in vintage magazines. In the months leading up to the opening of the Salt Eaters Bookshop, she sourced the pew online from a soon-to-be shuttered church and the coffee table belonged to her grandmother, writes Eva Recinos. Every element of the Salt Eaters Bookshop comes back to Black culture and community. On its shelves, visitors can find books that center on “Black women, girls, femmes and gender expansive people”, Grant explains. It has quickly becoming a literary haven for its patrons.
Climate check: No Republican senator supported a climate plan – where is the party on the issue?
When Joe Manchin announced an abrupt end to Senate negotiations over major climate legislation last week, he was attacked as a “modern-day villain” who had delivered “nothing short of a death sentence” to a rapidly heating planet. Some Democratic leaders, however, including Joe Biden, have since attempted to redirect that anger toward congressional Republicans instead. While the party has largely abandoned its past climate denialism, experts and activists say the ideas Republicans have proposed are insufficient or misguided.
Last Thing: Republican Josh Hawley fled January 6 rioters – and Twitter ran with it
The House January 6 committee played Capitol security footage showing the Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley, who famously raised a fist to protesters outside, running for his safety once those protesters breached the building. In the room, the clips were greeted with laughter. Online, some took a similarly lighthearted view, one user scoring the footage of Hawley running to a soundtracks including Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and the Benny Hill theme.
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