that includes 18 more howitzers on top of what the u.s. has sent in. more than 36,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, and ammunition for the himars system, approved earlier this month. four of those weapons systems, multiple launch rocket systems that can strike at a far greater range. that s about a third of the billion dollars. the other two-thirds is known as the ukraine security assistance initiative and that will go to purchase through direct contracts with weapons manufacturers more weapons for ukraine. that includes two harpoon coastal defense systems, thousands of night vision goggles, thousands of radios so that won t be as fast, but the u.s. s position is the fight in eastern ukraine is an incremental fight. russia, yes, is making gains, but there is still time to get the critical systems in. how will we find out and when will we see this? the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said the training on that advanced himars system for the first group wrapped up today.
the president s visit comes as his administration is facing mounting pressure following this, you know, 41-year inflation high that we re seeing and a huge surge in gas prices. the nation s national average for gas, $5.02 a gallon now. all of this as a key inflation measure slowed slightly last month. also this morning, the white house is now confirming that the president will be traveling to the middle east, specifically to israel and saudi arabia, in july. we re also learning his visit will include a meeting with the saudi crown prince, mohammed bin salman. remember, president biden had previously called the kingdom a pariah for its role in the killing of washington post journalist jamal khashoggi. that was before he became president. we ll have much more on that in a moment. plus, the january 6th committee is postponing now a hearing that was scheduled for tomorrow. a member of the committee saying this was due to technical issues. we ll be live on capitol hill with
declare victory. they needed time for the votes to come in. disregards what they say. and then just continue with a big lie. even when his attorney general told him it was bs. when other senior members of the justice department said there was no merit to the fraud allegations. the u.s. attorney in georgia looked into other allegations and said they were without merit. he s told over and over again this is just not true. but he continues with it. and they raise money off the big lie. anger and motivate people to show up on the 6th around the big lie. and those people he insights to attack the capitol. and it s a pretty clear linear progress of that big lie from beginning to end. i think there s a question here about accountability that you and i have talked about before. the idea of clearly drying a line between the former president and what happened on this day. you don t have the ability to bring criminal proceedings, but you could make criminal referrals. what s your mess
jeff,je wit yeah, tammy, a very frustrated community and this v all goes back to a video that s been making its rounds for about the last 12 hours or so showing parents, you know, understandably frustrated standing outside the school at some point during the mass shootingng sutsi being held bacy police officers and then any parents wanting to go inside and do something and check on their kids and now texas dps is responding. they tell us really d righton nw they don t have too many i details, but they started filling in some of the blanks, m especially when it comes tot this timeline. now the one thing that stuck out is that it only took the shooter 12 minutes and the time he crashed his truck to get inside his school. and investigators sayey they believe the door on the west sidee where he entered was unlocked. investigators also say that it was att this point during the first few minutes that he was inside the school where most of the shots were fired. now texas dps also cl