U.S. and world news for June 16

European leaders visit Kyiv: The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania traveled to Ukraine”™s capital city Kyiv today in a show of support for the embattled country and to meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. The visit came as Russian troops continued pounding the Eastern region of Ukraine. The European leaders were told that the Russians have destroyed an estimated 12,000 apartment buildings in Ukraine.

U.S. sending $1B additional aid to Ukraine: President Biden has announced that the U.S. is sending an additional $1 billion in new military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Biden pledged the U.S. would be providing additional aid to when he had a virtual conversation yesterday with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.

Abbott again shuts down baby formula plant: Abbott Nutrition says it has had to shut down production at its baby formula plant in Sturgis, Michigan, due to recent torrential rains. That”™s the plant that had been shut down for months because of contamination. Abbott said because of the recent bad weather it needs to again do a deep cleaning of the plant.

Pressure on Pence expected to be highlighted in hearing: This afternoon”™s televised hearing by the House committee investigating the January 6th attempted coup is expected to concentrate on the efforts by defeated former President Donald Trump and his enablers to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to illegally throw out legitimate electoral college votes and instead count fraudulent votes for Trump. It is expected that the committee will present evidence that Trump knew it would be illegal for Pence to do what the scheme was pushing.

Mrs. Thomas did more than previously thought: Efforts by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to overturn the 2020 election were more extensive than previously thought. Salon.com reports that Mrs. Thomas lobbied 29 members of the Arizona State Legislature to overturn the election results in that state. Other sources said today that newly uncovered emails show that Thomas was encouraging Trump Attorney John Eastman to step up his efforts to overturn the election.

Spacey goes to London court: Actor Kevin Spacey appeared in court in London today but was not asked to enter a plea to sexually assaulting three men.  Instead, Spacey was released pending another court appearance on July 14. A lawyer for the actor said Spacey strenuously denies the charges.