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The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection yesterday scrutinized the conspiracy theories that led a group of Donald Trump’s supporters to attack the US Capitol, and produced testimony damning of the former US president.
During the two-hour hearing, committee members meticulously documented how several of Trump’s senior advisers urged him not to declare victory on election night, as votes were being counted.
When Trump began spreading lies about widespread fraud in the election, some of his top aides, including the ex-attorney general and former Trump loyalist William Barr, repeatedly told him the claims were baseless.
“We will tell the story of how Donald Trump lost an election and knew he lost an election, and as a result of his loss decided to wage an attack on our democracy,” said the Democratic chair of the committee, the Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson.
What did they find out about Trump claiming victory on election night? Trump rejected several advisers’ guidance to wait for more votes to be counted. Trump instead followed the advice of an “apparently inebriated” Rudy Giuliani to falsely declare victory before a winner was known, Liz Cheney said at the hearing.
What has Trump said in response? After yesterday’s hearing, Trump issued a 12-page statement calling the investigation a “kangaroo court” and a distraction, and repeating false claims of voter fraud.
‘This is not hopeless’: the progressive prosecutors who vow not to enforce abortion bans
Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, never thought she would have an abortion. But after finding herself pregnant with triplets in 2002, she faced an unenviable choice: abort one, or miscarry all three. “I took my doctor’s advice, which I should have been able to do,” she says in a phone interview.
Nessel plans to protect that same right for residents of her state if Roe v Wade is overturned this summer, as a leaked supreme court draft opinion indicates is all but certain, Poppy Noor writes.
If the draft opinion stands, 26 states are likely or certain to ban abortion. In Michigan, a 1931 law would be triggered, making abortion illegal in almost all cases except to save the life of the pregnant person.
Nessel says she will not enforce the ban in Michigan, along with at least a dozen law enforcement officials across the country – a bold statement that sets the US up for a complex legal landscape with different enforcement regimes in different states, and even within them.
Steve Descano was thinking about his 10-year-old daughter when he pledged not to enforce abortion bans in his home county of Fairfax, Virginia. The district attorney of Bexar county in Texas, Joe Gonzales, has also pledged non-enforcement.
Will there be a backlash? Yes. These officials are likely to face swift backlash from the right, including, in some cases, retaliation from state authorities who will demand they enforce the law as written. But they are determined to press ahead.
Ukraine asks the west for huge rise in heavy artillery supply
Ukraine has called on the west to supply 300 rocket launchers, 500 tanks and 1,000 howitzers, amid concern in some quarters it is pushing its demands for Nato-standard weapons to the limit.
The maximalist request was made publicly by Mykhailo Podolyak, a key presidential adviser, on Twitter yesterday where he argued that Ukraine needed “heavy weapons parity” to defeat Russia and end the war.
He said that would require 300 multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) – vastly more than seven or so committed thus far by the US and UK – and greater than the 60 or more that other advisers have previously said would meet its needs.
A special meeting of defence ministers takes place tomorrow in Brussels, which will be chaired by Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, to discuss future weapons donations, the third such meeting since the war began.
What’s happening in Donbas? The intense battle for Sievierodonetsk will be remembered as one of the most brutal Europe has ever seen and is taking a “terrifying” toll on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last night.
What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 111 of the invasion.
In other news …
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said he believes “something wicked” was done to the missing British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, amid unconfirmed claims their bodies had been found in the Amazon.
A growing number of prominent Christian leaders are sounding alarms about threats to democracy posed by ReAwaken America rallies where Donald Trump loyalists Michael Flynn and Roger Stone and rightwing pastors have spread misinformation about the 2020 elections and Covid-19 vaccines, and distorted Christian teachings.
Record flooding and rockslides after a burst of heavy rain prompted the rare closure last night of all five entrances to Yellowstone national park at the start of the summer tourist season, the park superintendent said. The entire park will remain closed to visitors.
A self-described “incel” who killed 11 people when he drove a rented van into a busy Toronto sidewalk in 2018 has been sentenced to life in prison. Alek Minassian – who was motivated by a hatred of women – was convicted in March of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
Stat of the day: Search for clues as bodies of hundreds of little blue penguins wash ashore in New Zealand
The penguins lie in orderly, evenly spaced rows, wings splayed, their trademark glossy blue plumage dulled by sand. There are 183 in all, carefully collected by local people, laid out for later investigation. The birds were found at Ninety Mile Beach last week, just the latest in a phenomenon of dead penguins washing up on New Zealand’s beaches in huge numbers. Conservation officials believe mass die-offs are becoming more frequent as climate crisis disrupts food chains.
Don’t miss this: ‘I noticed she was transgender, and remember thinking she seemed sweet and shy’
In 2015, Raya had sworn off relationships, writes Lizzie Cernik. “I was in a kind of self-imposed celibacy,” she says. “I’m a cisgender lesbian, but I’d made too many mistakes in love because I hadn’t come to terms with my sexuality.” Towards the end of summer, she was invited to watch a women’s roller derby match. “I’d never had any interest in it before, but I’d been told it was a very LGBTQ-inclusive sport, so I thought I’d check it out.” As she walked in, she spotted a woman on the door. “I noticed she was transgender,” says Raya. “And I remember thinking she seemed sweet and shy.” The couple now live together in Melbourne with Kate’s children.
… or this: The Bourne Identity at 20
In the early 2000s, the action movie was in mortal danger. The reliable heroes of the 80s and 90s – Sly, Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson – were getting old and out of touch. The director Michael Bay was the new guy on the block, with hits such as The Rock and Armageddon that repurposed the slick style of Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer into high-concept outings. But he seemed content to burn out the genre; once you have saved the world from an asteroid the size of Texas, there’s really nowhere else to go. And then came The Bourne Identity, writes Noah Gittell.
Climate check: The 1977 White House climate memo that should have changed the world
In 1977 Star Wars hit movie theaters, New York City had a blackout that lasted 25 hours, and the Apple II personal computer went up for sale. It was also the year that a remarkable one-page memo was circulated at the very highest levels of US government, writes Emma Pattee. Years before climate change was part of national discourse, this memo outlined what was known – and feared – about climate change at the time. It was prescient in many ways. Did anyone listen?
Last Thing: The cartoon where it happens. Lin-Manuel Miranda guest stars as horse in new Bluey episode
Photograph: ABC/ YouTube
The creator of the smash-hit musicals Hamilton and In the Heights, and winner of multiple Tonys, Grammys and Emmys, has finally fulfilled another of his dreams: to guest star in the Australian animated series Bluey. Lin-Manuel Miranda appears as a friendly horse named Major Tom in a new episode. In an interview with Collider last year, he was asked what show he would most like to guest star in. “The show we watched the most during the pandemic was Bluey – because it is the only kids show that the whole family can be hysterically laughing at,” he said.
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