Italian PM Draghi resigns, Biden to talk with Xi Jinping, final Jan. 6 hearing

Headlines for July 21, 2022:

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigns – Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned Wednesday morning. He had offered to resign after one party boycotted a confidence vote last week. That offer was rejected.

Another offer was accepted after three different parties boycotted a confidence vote yesterday. Italian President Sergio Mattarella “took note” of the new one and asked Draghi’s government to remain on in a caretaker capacity, the president’s office said.

President Biden to speak with China’s leader – President Joe Biden told reporters Wednesday he plans on speaking with Chinese leader Xi Jinping within the next 10 days. President Biden made the comments upon returning from his trip to Massachusetts, where he announced modest new steps to combat climate change.

Biden also cast doubt on the trip House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was reportedly set to take to Taiwan.

“Well, I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now, but I don’t know what the status of it is,” Biden said.

Final Jan. 6 committee hearing – The final Jan. 6 committee hearing is set to take place Thursday evening. The hearing will focus on the 187 minutes between when the riots began and when former President Trump released a video telling his supporters to disperse. Former White House aides Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews are expected to provide live testimony.

This is the last scheduled hearing. However, given the latest controversy over the Secret Service’s deleted text messages the day before and day of Jan. 6, some committee members say there is still much more to come.

“We have concerns about a system migration that we have been told resulted in the erasure of Secret Service cell phone data… just three weeks after the attack on the Capitol in which the Vice President of the United States while under the protection of the Secret Service, was steps from a violent mob hunting for him,” committee chair and vice chair Reps. Bernie Thompson (D-MS) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) said in a joint statement Wednesday. “Four House committees had already sought these critical records from the Department of Homeland Security before the records were apparently lost.”