Pizza delivery man saves 5 kids from house fire – **BREAKING** Biden tests positive for COVID – National & International News – THU 21Jul2022

Pizza delivery man saves 5 kids from house fire. Tonight’s Jan. 6 hearing to focus on Trump’s 187 minutes of inaction during riot. Italian PM’s resignation comes at a terrible time for Europe.

**BREAKING** Biden tests positive for COVID-19

President Biden, 79, has tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time. He’s reportedly experiencing mild symptoms and taking Paxlovid. Biden recently returned from a visit to the Middle East. There he met with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

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NATIONAL NEWS

Pizza delivery man saves 5 kids from house fire

Earlier this month, an Indiana pizza delivery man drove past a burning house. Seeing no emergency vehicles had yet arrived on scene, Nick Bostic, 25, got out of his car and rushed toward the house to alert the occupants.

“I slammed on the brakes, I turned the steering wheel, I did a 180. I ran into the back of the house and I was yelling for anybody. Four faces, three or four faces, came out the top,” Bostic said.

In the home was an 18-year-old babysitting her siblings, 1, 6, and 13 years old, along with a friend of the 13-year-old. The parents of the four siblings were out playing darts at the time.

After Bostic alerted her, the 18-year-old managed to get three of the children out herself, but she told Bostic the 6-year-old was still in the house. Bostic said he entered the house to search for the missing child and “I heard a faint whine, a faint crying noise and I went down there till I found that baby”. By then, the house was filled with smoke and flame, forcing Bostic to jump from a second floor window with the child in his arms.

By then, fire crews and other first responders had arrived. They attended to the child as Bostic collapsed, bleeding and coughing on the ground, asking for oxygen. A police body camera captured Bostic, still lying prone on the grass, asking the firemen about the child. “Is the baby OK? Please tell me the baby’s OK” he asks, before a voice assures him the child is fine.

A GoFundMe for Bostic’s medical bills far surpassed its $100,000 goal with donations totaling $470,000 as of yesterday afternoon.

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Tonight’s Jan. 6 hearing to focus on Trump’s 187 minutes of inaction during riot

The last in the current series of televised hearings of the Jan. 6 committee will air tonight at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT. The committee has said it plans to hold more hearings later this year. The committee’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) will not be present tonight as he has tested positive for COVID. Thompson is vaccinated and boosted and is said to be feeling OK.

Tonight’s hearing will examine the 3 hours during which President Trump refused to act as his supporters and bands of far-right militants stormed the Capitol. The committee will hear live testimony from former Trump White House aides Sarah Matthews and Matthew Pottinger.

Both Matthews and Pottinger resigned due to Trump’s actions on the 6th. In previously aired pre-recorded testimony, Pottinger said that the final straw for him was Trump’s 2:24 p.m. tweet saying, “(Vice President) Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution”. Trump and some of his allies had leaned on Pence to block the certification of the 2020 election, something Pence refused to do. At the time Trump posted that tweet, his supporters had already set up a makeshift gallows outside the Capitol and were chanting “Hang Mike Pence”.

Secret Service text saga continues

Last week, reports surfaced that members of the Secret Service had deleted texts from Jan. 5 and 6 following a subpoena from the committee. Those texts could have provided vital insight on the days in question. The Secret Service disputes the allegation that they deleted the texts to evade the subpoena, claiming instead that they were lost in a planned “system migration”. 

Earlier this week, Jan. 6 committee member Zoe Lofgren claimed that the Secret Service would in fact be turning over some texts. This turned out not to be the case. On Tuesday, the Secret Service handed the committee a 10,000-page document dump, containing only one relevant text. It has been reported that forensic investigators are attempting to recover the deleted texts, but it seems committee members aren’t holding their breath.

The committee’s members issued a scathing joint statement yesterday. According to the statement, the “procedure for preserving content prior to this purge appears to have been contrary to federal records retention requirements and may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act”. 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Italian PM’s resignation comes at a terrible time for Europe

Mario Draghi has officially ended his 17-month tenure as Italy’s Prime Minister, submitting his resignation to Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella this afternoon.

Mattarella had tapped Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, to step in as PM in February 2021. Since then, Draghi has led Italy’s COVID policy response and attempted to navigate his debt-laden homeland’s COVID-driven financial crisis. But last week, the unity government of right, left and populist parties showed signs of coming apart. Draghi finally lost a key confidence vote, prompting him to resign. 

The government’s collapse was met with outrage and concern in Italy and abroad. Draghi’s resignation comes at a particularly difficult moment for Europe. Prices are rising, wildfires are raging, COVID is surging, and the war in Ukraine is dragging on. Italy itself is experiencing a drought that is devastating much of its food crops. 

Mattarella has asked Draghi to stay on in a caretaker government for the time being. It’s likely that Mattarella will seek to dissolve Parliament and force elections as soon as September or October. Under normal circumstances, the current Parliamentary term would last into 2023.

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