Jan. 6 Capitol riot probe ready to go public

An anguished and angry President Joe Biden is calling for new restrictions on firearms after a gunman massacred at least 19 children at a Texas elementary school. “We have to act,” Biden told the nation Tuesday night from the White House, after years of failure to pass new laws. He spoke after arriving home from a five-day trip to Asia that was bookended by “horrific” mass tragedy. Just two days before he left on his trip, he met with victims’ families after a hate-motivated shooter killed 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has quickly set in motion a pair of firearms background check bills in response to the school massacre in Texas. But the Democrat acknowledged Wednesday the refusal for years of Congress to pass any legislation aiming to curb a national epidemic of gun violence. The failure of a firearms background check bill after 20 children were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School almost a decade ago signaled the end of gun violence legislation in Washington. If the new deaths don't convince Congress to act, Schumer said on the Senate floor, “what can we do?”

President Joe Biden says the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan. It was one of the most forceful presidential statements in support of Taiwan's self-governing in decades. Biden spoke at a news conference Monday in Tokyo and said the burden to protect Taiwan was “even stronger” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. traditionally has avoided making such an explicit security guarantee to Taiwan, with which it no longer has a mutual defense treaty. Biden’s comments drew strong criticism from the mainland, which has claimed Taiwan to be a rogue province.

One by one, speakers took the stage at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Houston and denounced the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school across the state. And one by one, they insisted that changing U.S. gun laws or further restricting access to firearms was not the answer. The gathering comes just three days after the shooting in Uvalde. Hundreds of protesters shouted their anger at the NRA outside the meeting. In remarks to the group, former President Donald Trump called for an overhaul of school security and the U.S. approach to mental health problems while dismissing calls to disarm gun owners.

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki has officially landed at MSNBC, where she is expected to make appearances on the network’s cable and streaming programs as well as host a new original show. Psaki will also appear on NBC and during MSNBC’s primetime special election programming throughout the midterms and 2024 presidential election. Psaki most recently served as White House spokesperson for the first 16 months of the Biden administration. She previously served as White House communications director under former President Barack Obama and as the spokeswoman for the Department of State.

Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia has easily dispatched Donald Trump's hand-picked challenger in a Republican primary that demonstrated the limits of the former president and his conspiracy-fueled politics in a critical swing state. The results, combined with the loss of the Trump-backed candidate for secretary of state, serve as a stinging rebuke in a race Trump prioritized above almost all others. Angered by Kemp's refusal to go along with his extraordinary effort to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, Trump recruited former Sen. David Perdue. But Kemp ultimately emerged as a powerful candidate. He will face Democrat Stacey Abrams this fall in one of the nation's most consequential governor's races.

An Iowa Supreme Court decision is holding back the state's solidly Republican Legislature and governor from banning abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Iowa is among GOP-controlled states that would be expected to ban abortion, except for state high court decisions recognizing the right under the state constitutions. The issue is most immediate in Iowa, where a court now dominated by Republican appointees is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to uphold the ruling, decided just four years ago. The Iowa case highlights the inevitable confrontation between new abortion bans being prepared in anticipation of Roe’s reversal and state constitutions.

Misinformation and conspiracy theories about Tuesday's deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, began to spread online only hours after the carnage. Some social media users falsely speculated that the gunman was an immigrant in the country illegally, even though Gov. Greg Abbott has confirmed he was a U.S. citizen. Others claimed the gunman was transgender and posted photos of innocent people that they claimed were him. Different conspiracy theories claimed the shooting didn't even happen. Similar waves of misinformation have erupted following past school shootings too, as social media users eager for information spread bogus rumors and wild theories. Tuesday's shooting left 19 children and two adults dead.

A bipartisan group of senators is trying to find a compromise on gun legislation. That's after Democrats’ first attempt at responding to the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, failed Thursday in the Senate. Republicans blocked debate on a domestic terrorism bill that would've opened debate on hate crimes and gun policy. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he'll give negotiations about two weeks while Congress is in recess. The bipartisan group of senators met after the vote and focused on background checks for guns purchased online or at gun shows, red-flag laws designed to keep guns away from those who could do harm and school security measures.

A Russian soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a Ukrainian civilian was sentenced to life in prison. The sentencing Monday comes amid signs the Kremlin may hold trials of its own, particularly against the captured Ukrainian fighters who held out at Mariupol’s steel plant. Meanwhile, in a rare public expression of opposition to the war from the ranks of the Russian elite, a veteran diplomat resigned and sent a letter to foreign colleagues in which he said he had never been so ashamed of his country as he was on the day Moscow invaded. On the battlefield, heavy fighting raged in the Donbas in the east, where Moscow’s forces have stepped up bombardments.