another witness announced for tomorrow s primetime hearing. and new reporting on how donald trump had the secret service scrambling on the day of the attack. plus, we ve got the top headlines from last night s midterm election primaries that may serve as a warning to democrats. good morning and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, june 8th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. senators had hoped to reach a bipartisan deal on gun safety by the end of this week, but nbc news has learned that that timetable may slip. perhaps into next week. senators have hit a snag on how to expand background checks. two people close to the talks tell nbc news at issue is whether to add waiting periods for 18 to 21-year-olds and to enable the fbi to conduct background checks on their juvenile records. a spokesman for republican senator john cornyn of texas said he is not considering waiting periods but does support the provision on the juvenile records. democrats, howev
lus we re live in paris where french voters prepare to decide on their next president. and marjorie taylor greene becomes the first member of congress to testify under oath about the january 6th insurrection, but it turns out she doesn t remember much about that day. russia s military now confirms its objective in ukraine is to take full control of the black seacoast and establish a land bridge between russia and crimea. ukraine s president warns if that happens russia s aggression will spread to other countries. mariupol says evacuation will attempt to get under way today. an estimated 100,000 civilians still remain in the city. and we ve been telling you about ukrainian soldiers and civilians who have been holed up in mariupol s steel factory. translator: we all really want to return home. we want to return to our lives, to see our parents, relatives and so on. we really miss them. ukrainian troops in a small town outside of kyiv are being honored for halting russia s
Ivan Aivazovsky's painting Lunar Night is being auctioned in Russia. At the start of the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, it was illegally transferred to the Simferopol Art Museum alongside over fifty other paintings.
In a British publishing house, a book about Ukrainian artists will be released in the renowned World of Art series, focusing on the history of global art by Thames and Hudson.