News Wrap: Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Kevin McCarthy and four other Republicans | PBS NewsHour

2022-05-29 00:19:50 By : Mr. Jason Guo

In our news wrap Thursday, the Jan. 6 committee in Congress subpoenaed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other Republicans, North Korea acknowledged its first COVID outbreak, Palestinians mourn journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was shot dead during an Israeli raid in the West Bank, and astronomers captured the first image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

In the day's other news: A congressional report charged that the meat-packing industry and the Trump administration put production over workers' health in the first year of the pandemic.

The head of a select subcommittee, Democrat James Clyburn, said plants were kept open while 269 workers died. The industry said the report ignored company efforts to retool plants and purchase protective gear.

North Korea has acknowledged its first COVID outbreak since the start of the pandemic and imposed a nationwide lockdown. State media report 350,000 cases and one death. Meanwhile, the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, appeared on state television wearing a mask in public for the first time. He removed it to speak at a meeting.

Hours after announcing the COVID outbreak, North Korea fired three short range ballistic missiles. They landed in the Sea of Japan in the 16th missile test this year and the first test since South Korea's new president took office on Tuesday. There have also been signs that the North is preparing its first nuclear test in nearly five years.

Palestinians turned out today to mourn Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American reporter who was shot dead on Wednesday. Journalists who were with her say Israeli troops fired on the group, killing Abu Akleh. Today, an honor guard laid a wreath on her coffin in Ramallah.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's call for a joint investigation.

Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority President (through translator):

We hold the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for killing her, and this crime should not go unpunished.

We have refused and rejected the joint investigation with the Israeli authorities, because they are the ones who committed the crime and because we do not trust them.

Later, thousands of Palestinians marched, and some in the crowd fired into the air as an ambulance carried Abu Akleh's remains to Jerusalem for burial.

Israel is also moving to build more than 4,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank. A watchdog group reported that a military planning body approved the project. The Biden administration has opposed new settlements as an obstacle to any peace with the Palestinians.

Back in this country, the January 6 Committee in Congress subpoenaed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other Republicans. The focus is on McCarthy's conversations with then-President Trump on the day that the U.S. Capitol was attacked and on lawmakers meetings with White House aides. McCarthy said today it's not a legitimate investigation. He did not say if he will comply with the subpoena.

Some 200,000 customers in southern Minnesota spent the day waiting for the lights to come back on after a night of severe storms. Extreme winds and possible tornadoes blew down trees and power lines and smashed homes.

Dawn Lange's house just outside of Minneapolis was narrowly spared.

We heard crack — I heard it cracking, and then the next thing I knew, the tree topped.

It did lean the right way. It could've been much worse. It could've fell on the house. It could've fallen on the fence. It could've fallen on the power lines that are strictly straight across. It just went in a diagonal, and it just fell perfectly.

One person, a storm-chasing weather specialist, was killed in a car wreck during the storms.

A nationwide shortage of baby formula moved high on the agenda in Washington today. President Biden spoke with formula makers and retailers, and aides said they're considering using the Defense Production Act to boost supply. Republicans charged that the president has waited too long to take action. The shortage stems from supply chain disruptions and a safety recall.

In economic news, the Labor Department reported wholesale prices rose 11 percent in April from a year earlier. The U.S. Senate easily confirmed Jerome Powell to a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

And, on Wall Street, worries about inflation and the Fed's response kept stocks off balance. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 103 points to close at 31730. The Nasdaq rose six points. And the S&P 500 slipped five.

And astronomers have captured the first image of the gigantic Black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Radio telescopes showed an orange-red ring surrounding total emptiness. The Black hole consumes all light and matter and is four million times larger than the sun.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": how religion is being used in Russia's war against Ukraine; New Mexico and Arizona struggle against raging wildfires, as evacuations continue; a new exhibit portrays the controversial and confrontational paintings of Philip Guston; plus much more.

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