First Thing: Congress plans commission into Capitol attack

Good morning.

The House speaker has announced plans to create an independent commission to examine the “facts and causes” around the deadly siege on the Capitol on 6 January, modelled on the commission convened after the 9/11 terror attacks. Announcing the move in a letter to members of Congress, Nancy Pelosi said the commission would also examine wider “interference with the peaceful transfer of power” and look at the “preparedness and response” of law enforcement.

The announcement follows calls from politicians on both sides of the aisle for a bipartisan commission to investigate how the rioters were able to breach the Capitol. The attack left five dead, including a police officer, and two other officers committed suicide in the following days. More than a month later, 5,000 national guard troops still guard the building, which is surrounded by 8ft fences.

Donald Trump was acquitted of his role in inciting the violence this weekend, but the lead impeachment manager, Jamie Raskin, said yesterday that Trump won his case only through the “explosive and deranged tactics” of his lawyers. Judging from speeches such as that of the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, some Republicans were convinced of Trump’s role in the violence but decided to acquit anyway. Raskin said it was revealing that many of the Republicans who voted to acquit Trump based their argument on the idea that the trial was unconstitutional – despite that argument being rejected by constitutional scholars and the Senate.

• Facebook is to announce whether it will allow Trump back to the platform, after banning him in the aftermath of the Capitol attack. The decision will be made by the social media site’s oversight board, with members ranging from humanitarian activists to a former prime minister. Meanwhile, the rightwing social network Parler is back online after it was cut off by service providers over accusations it facilitated plans for the Capitol attack.

• The Wall Street Journal said Trump would not win another national election and that moves such as a “revenge campaign tour” or third-party run from Trump would only “divide the centre-right and elect Democrats”. However, according to a CNBC poll, half of Republicans want him to continue to lead their party, while half of American voters want Trump banished from politics altogether.

A civilian contractor has died in a rocket attack on a US airbase in Iraq

A rocket attack on an American airbase in the Kurdish region of Iraq has killed one civilian contractor and injured eight other people, making it the most deadly attack in almost a year against US-led coalition forces fighting Islamic State in the country.

Approximately 14 rockets were launched at the base, three landing inside while others fell on residential areas. They killed one person, who was identified by a US military spokesperson as a foreign national but not a US citizen, and injured a US service member. This is likely to be a serious test for Joe Biden’s policy towards Iran, after tensions soared between the two countries under Trump.

Law enforcement in LA are being investigated over a Valentine’s Card mocking the death of George Floyd

The Los Angeles district attorney and police department are investigating a report that an image of George Floyd was made into a mock-Valentine’s Day card featuring the words “you take my breath away” and circulated among officers. An officer reported the card. Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis last spring when an officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. His death reinvigorated the global Black Lives Matter movement.

The LA district attorney, George Gascón, said that the card showed “a profound absence of humanity” while the police chief, Michel Moore, said if the investigation confirmed LAPD officers were circulating Floyd’s image, “people will find my wrath”.

The New York governor has denied the state covered up coronavirus deaths

The New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, said yesterday the state did not cover up deaths from coronavirus in nursing homes, but acknowledged that officials should have released information about the losses more quickly. His remarks came weeks after the state was forced to acknowledge that its record of using home deaths had excluded thousands of residents who died after being taken to hospital.

All the deaths in the nursing homes and hospitals were always fully, publicly and accurately reported,” Cuomo said, adding that the controversy over reporting was down to a difference in “categorisation”.

“We should have done a better job of providing as much information as we could as quickly as we could. No excuses. I accept responsibility for that.”

• Dr Anthony Fauci was worried about getting Covid in Trump’s White House, he revealed, because of the high numbers of people contracting the virus there. Fauci, 80, said he was acutely aware he was at high risk of a “serious outcome” if he became infected with coronavirus.

In other news…

• At least 60 people have died and hundreds are missing on the Congo River after an overloaded whaling boat sank at night. More than 700 people were on board the vessel, but so far only 300 survivors have been found.

• Simone Biles said she would not allow her daughter to join USA gymnastics over its handling over the sexual abuse scandal in which she was a victim. The former USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was jailed for abusing dozens of athletes, including Biles, but she said the organisation had not held itself accountable for its role in the scandal and “hadn’t ensured us that it’s never going to happen again”.

• Two people have died in Texas during winter storms, probably caused by below-freezing temperatures and power outages, according to officials. The bodies of two men were discovered along roads in Houston. Most of the state capital of Austin had no power, leading some people to sleep in their cars while running the engine for warmth.

Stat of the day: 84% of shares held by US households are owned by the wealthiest 10%

For a brief moment in the midst of the GameStop drama, where small investors battered Wall Street heavyweights who had bet against the video game chain, it looked like the system of financial power in the US could have been upended. So who really owns Wall Street? One study found that 84% of shares held by American households are owned by the wealthiest 10%. Mona Chalabi explores.

Don’t miss this: how heat is harming American children

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Degrees of racism: how heat is radically altering Americans’ lives before they’re even born – video

Global heating is disproportionately affecting black and Latino children before they are even born, and in their early years, with mothers exposed to heat and air pollution at higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes and developmental problems for their children. Researchers have found that poorer areas of US cities, with more residents of colour, can be up to 20F hotter in summer than wealthier, whiter districts, impacting children as they grow.

Last thing: A man fakes murder to get police to clear snow

Heavy snow has caused disruption around the world but no one is more committed to getting rid of it than the man in Ukraine who confessed to a fictitious murder in the hope that police would clear his snow-covered road when they came to arrest him. When reporting his made-up crime, the man “immediately warned the police that they should come with a snowplough, because there is no other way to get to him”, said a police spokesperson. Officers successfully arrived without one and discovered no one had been harmed.

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