Trump digs in during CNN town hall; Santos pleads not guilty, won’t resign; Harris postpones MTV event | Hot off the Wire podcast

On this version of Hot off the Wire:

» Former President Donald Trump dug in on his lies about the 2020 election during a tense CNN town hall. He also downplayed the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, and repeatedly insulted the woman whom a civil jury this week found him liable of sexually abusing and defaming.

» U.S. Rep. George Santos pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges alleging a financial fraud at the heart of a political campaign built on dubious boasts about his personal wealth and business success. Santos said he won’t resign.

» Migrants are rushing across the border hours before pandemic-related asylum restrictions are to expire, fearing that policies will make it far more difficult to gain entry into the United States.

» German authorities say a man opened fire at a Mercedes-Benz factory in southwestern Germany leaving two people dead.

» Police say two dozen people, many of them children, were injured when a temporary pedestrian bridge collapsed in the southern Finnish city of Espoo.

» The British government has announced it is giving long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine to help drive out Russia’s occupying forces. Thursday’s announcement came as Kyiv is poised to launch a possible counteroffensive more than 14 months after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion.

» In sports, the Knicks and Warriors avoided elimination in the NBA, the Maple Leafs and Oilers won on the ice, an MLB closer hit a milestone and West Virginia announced discipline for Bob Huggins.

» President Joe Biden is launching a new phase of his pressure campaign against House Republicans as he makes his case lawmakers should lift the nation’s borrowing authority without any strings attached.

» A U.S. Army sergeant has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for fatally shooting an armed protester during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Texas in July 2020.

» Federal health advisers are recommending that a decades-old birth control pill be sold without a prescription.

» Bob Huggins has agreed to a three-game suspension and a $1 million pay cut after he used a homophobic slur during a radio show.

» Refugees from Sudan continue to flee to Egypt as fighting continues between rival generals. 

» An MTV special on mental health that was expected to feature Vice President Kamala Harris next week has been postponed. A person familiar with the decision says Harris chose not to travel to the Los Angeles-area event because that would have been seen as crossing the picket line for striking Hollywood writers.

» Denny Crum, who won two NCAA basketball championships and built Louisville into one of the 1980s’ dominant programs during a Hall of Fame coaching career, has died. He was 86.

» Former Minnesota Vikings and Cal quarterback Joe Kapp has died at the age of 85. He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

» A lesser-known form of solar power that has several advantages over the traditional kind is gaining traction. The solar panels float on water, so they don’t take up land; the water keeps the panels cooler, which makes them produce more electricity, plus the arrays prevent the loss of water through evaporation.