peril. announcer: live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with michael holmes. and we begin in ukraine which has just cleared the first hurdle on the path to join the european union. eu and ukrainian flags flew side by side in kyiv on friday after the european commission recommended that ukraine should be given candidate status. the move doesn t guarantee membership, which could be years away, but president zelenskyy says it still brings ukraine a step closer to winning the war. the commission s leader says ukraine deserves to be in. we all know that ukrainians are ready to die for the european perspective. we want them to live with us, the european dream. now, the british prime minister boris johnson made a surprise visit to kyiv on friday, his second since the war began. he offered ukraine a major military training program that he said would, quote, fundamentally change the equation of the war. new videos meanwhile appear to show two u.s. military volunteers wh
and with tourism roaring back to life across europe, italy seeing a two-wheeled invasion that many want curbed. what rome plans to do about the influx of e scooters. well, donald trump lashing out at the january 6th committee hearings, accusing them of doctoring video testimonies that cast him in a very negative light. yet both taped and live witnesses over three hearings have consistently shown trump illegally tried to overturn the 2020 election, culminating of course in the capitol riot. the next hearing on tuesday is expected to include two prominent georgia election officials who were pressured by trump to, quote, find nonexistent votes after he lost. and there are growing questions over the potential role of ginni thomas, wife of clarence thomas. the select committee has requested an interview with her which she has indicated she is willing to do. for the latest on trump s continued defiance and what lies ahead, here is cnn s jessica schneider. never called mike penc
the war. we re live in kyiv. plus, dangerous heat waves across the u.s. and western europe. we ll go to the cnn weather center on when people can see relief. announcer: live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with kim brunhuber. the new york times is reporting that the u.s. justice department could begin receiving interview transcripts from the january 6th committee as early as next month. earlier, federal prosecutors believed they would not get them until september and delay some trials of capitol rioters. former u.s. president donald trump remains defiant despite growing mountain of testimony and other evidence against him. he spoke out on friday for the first time since the hearings began calling former vice president mike pence weak now for not blocking the 2020 certification. several former officials everyone around trump told him repeatedly he lost the election and a scheme to stay in office was illegal. cnn s jessica schneider has more on trump s reactio
rioters. as trump pressured him to stop the vote certification of the 2020 election. it was a move trump knew was illegal as several witnesses revealed just yesterday. let s get to cnn s senior justice correspondent evan perez. what more are you learning about next week s hearing? well, the committee, the january 6th committee is trying to nail down the list of witnesses that they have from the former justice department, former justice department officials under former president trump. and right now we know that they have slated they were key in standing up to the president. he was trying to essentially use the justice department to endorse his claims that there was vote fraud, and in the end, to try to overturn the election results. one witness that we don t know we know the committee was looking for, and it appears will not be showing up is pat sip pat cipollone. it would have been unusual to see a former white house counsel sitting before this committee. it appears
and wife karen who s closing the curtains. according to abc the photo was taken after the attackers had already left the capitol chanting hang mike pence. this is set to focus on mr. pence a few hours after they weighed in on whether some in the january 6th crowd were aided by tours they got from republican house members. the information these were reconnaissance tours were not substantiated. today they released a video of a tour that barry loudermilk gave on the 5th of january. he was taking photos of staircases and hallways that are not typical of interests to tourists. this comes two days after the chief of capitol police said and i m quoting from the letter, we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious. congressman loud erloudermilk to it. there is nothing there. there is nothing suspicious. when visitors come, they take pictures. in just a moment we ll be joined by a former police officer who was badly injured in the january 6th attack. first off,