Good morning.
The House select committee investigating the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol has placed Donald Trump at the heart of a vast plot to overrule the results of the 2020 presidential election that culminated in an “attempted coup”.
The panel made its case during a primetime broadcast on Thursday night that featured witnesses and clips of Trump aides and family members. The committee chair, Bennie Thompson, and Liz Cheney, its vice-chair, said Trump continued to spread the lie that Joe Biden’s election victory was stolen, arguing that he knew it to be a falsehood.
In new evidence, Cheney, a Republican of Wyoming, said of Trump: “Aware of the rioters’ chants to ‘hang Mike Pence’ [his vice-president], the president responded with this sentiment: ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence ‘deserves’ it.”
Trump was furious that Pence, presiding over a joint session of Congress in what is typically a ceremonial role, refused to reject the certification of Biden’s victory, as Trump publicly and privately pressured him to do.
In a further blow to the former president, Trump’s daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump told the panel that she did not believe her father’s false claims that the election was stolen from him due to voting fraud. She said her mind was changed after learning that William Barr, Trump’s attorney general for most of 2020, had repeatedly told her father he had lost the election.
How much evidence has the panel compiled? In its nearly year-long investigation, the committee’s research has included 100 subpoenas, 1,000 interviews and 100,000 documents.
Who makes up the committee? Seven Democrats and two Republicans.
For a more complete rundown, check out the five key takeaways of last night’s hearing here.
Ukraine says it is almost out of ammunition and relying on western arms
Ukraine is close to running out of ammunition and almost entirely dependent on western arms to continue its fight against Russia, the army’s deputy head of military intelligence has told the Guardian.
Vadym Skibitsky described the fight as being “an artillery war now”, where the future would be decided on the frontlines, adding: “And we are losing in terms of artillery.”
“Everything now depends on what [the west] gives us,” said Skibitsky. “Ukraine has one artillery piece to 10 to 15 Russian artillery pieces. Our western partners have given us about 10% of what they have.”
How much ammunition is being used? Ukraine is using 5,000 to 6,000 artillery rounds each day.
What is Ukraine asking for? The Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said this week that Ukraine needed 60 multiple-rocket launchers – many more than the west has promised. It will request a list of weapons and defensive equipment at a meeting with Nato on 15 June.
Two Britons and a Moroccan national who fought Russian forces have been sentenced to death at a court in the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk. The British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has called it a “sham judgment”.
Three workers killed and one injured in shooting at Maryland business, police say
An employee at a manufacturing business in western Maryland killed three co-workers and critically injured one after opening fire on Thursday, police said.
Sheriff Doug Mullendore of Washington county said that three victims were found dead at Columbia Machine Inc in Smithsburg. He identified those killed in the shooting as Mark Alan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr, 31; and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30. Mullendore said the wounded victim was Brandon Chase Michael, 42.
A state trooper and the suspect, a 42-year-old man who was not named as charges are being prepared, were injured in a shootout.
Is the motive known? Authorities declined to give one. The sheriff said the victims and suspect were all employees at the facility. The sheriff said the suspect used a semi-automatic handgun, but did not specify the caliber or model.
In other news …
Shanghai and Beijing have been hit with fresh lockdowns, shutdowns, and mass testing drives just a week after restrictions were eased, as President Xi Jinping continues to pursue a policy of zero Covid. The return to restrictions has frustrated residents.
Nasa is launching an independent team to research UFOs this fall, with the study lasting nine months and costs capped at $100,000. Nasa’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, acknowledged that some may disagree with the direction, but said the biggest challenge was that it was a “data-poor field”.
A goodie bag handed out by the US Chamber of Commerce to promote American industry included items bearing the phrase “made in China”. Delegates and attenders at the international Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles included the Google boss, Sundar Pichai, and the US president, Joe Biden.
Stat of the day: Average summer temperatures have increased in 235 out of 246 US locations since 1970
You’re not imagining it: American summers really are hotter than ever, research has shown, with summer average temperatures rising in a staggering 235 out of 246 US locations since 1970. More than half of these locations have warmed by 2F (1C) or more, according to the non-profit Climate Central, which said dangerously rising temperatures were affecting low-income areas and neighborhoods of color more severely.
Don’t miss this: How Mexican feminists are helping Americans get abortions
In January, Mexican abortion rights activists from across the country met in a city along the US-Mexico border, video-chatting to US activists and strategizing, as restrictions on the procedure spread across America. Over three days, members of 30 different groups in both countries formed the Red Transfronteriza, modeled on Latin American feminist work of the last two decades. With days probably numbered for the constitutional right to abortion in the US, read about how the Red Transfronteriza are working to support safe abortions.
Last Thing: Experience: I have collected more than 8,000 teapots
It all began in 1983, when newly married couple Sue and Keith Blazye were given a teapot as a gift by Sue’s grandmother to put in their kitchen glass display cabinet. Fast-forward four decades and the pair have set up a museum to showcase their 8,450-strong teapot collection. Sue says: “We must be mad to have dedicated our lives to teapots, but what else is there?”
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