U.S. and world news for July 11

Hearing to focus on ties to extremists: Tomorrows 1 p.m. televised hearing by the House Jan. 6 committee is expected to deal with Donald Trump”™s ties to the right-wing extremist groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who spearheaded the attack on the Capitol. Over the weekend, attorney”™s for Steve Bannon, architect of a lot of what went on while Trump was in the White House, said Bannon would be willing to testify before the committee in a public session.

Twitter ready for court fight with Musk: The chairman of Twitter, Bret Taylor, says that Twitter will fight billionaire Elon Musk in court over Musk”™s attempts to get out of his deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. The price of Twitter”™s stock has gone down since the deal was announced, from the roughly $54 a share that Musk agreed to pay to approximately $33 a share in premarket trading today.

Giant Sequoias threatened: The forest fire threatening some of the giant Sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park continues growing. A sprinkler system has been set up in an effort to keep at least some tree trunks damp, in addition to traditional firefighting methods of air drops of water, fire retardant, and bulldozing fire breaks.

Meth seized: More than 5,000 pounds of methamphetamines have been seized by law enforcement in San Diego, California. The illegal drugs were in a truck that entered the U.S. from Mexico. Four men were taken into custody.

Uber”™s foothold in Russia: The Washington Post reports that Uber, while trying to get a foothold in Russia, sold a stake worth in the company worth more than $200 million to Russian oligarchs in order to curry favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Post also reports that Uber worked with politicians in Moscow to change a regulation that required all cars used as taxis to be painted yellow.

Biden weak in poll of Democrats: A New York Times/Siena College poll today shows that 64% of Democrat voters say they would prefer someone other than Joe Biden as the party”™s presidential candidate in 2024. More than 75% said the economy was the most important issue. Biden”™s age was cited by 33% as the main reason they”™d like to see the party choose someone else to run.