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The House Jan. 6 committee has heard chilling, tearful testimony that Donald Trump’s relentless pressure to overturn the 2020 presidential election led to widespread threats against local workers and state officials. The panel focused Tuesday on the “heroes” of democracy — election workers and officials who fended off the defeated president’s demands. The committee is focused on Trump’s schemes to reject state tallies and electors, all fueled by his false claims of election fraud. It heard from Arizona’s Republican state House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about pressure from Trump, including Trump’s call asking the Georgia official to “find 11,780” votes to prevent Joe Biden’s victory.

After bruising defeats in last month’s Georgia primaries, former President Donald Trump’s losing streak in the state continued Tuesday as two of his endorsed congressional candidates faltered. In the 6th District in Atlanta’s northern suburbs, emergency room physician Rich McCormick beat Trump-backed lawyer Jake Evans in the Republican primary runoff. And in the 10th District east of Atlanta, trucking company owner Mike Collins bested Trump-backed Vernon Jones. Meanwhile, in Alabama, Rep. Mo Brooks, who ran his race for Senate embracing Trump’s election lies, is facing Trump-backed rival Katie Britt in a Republican runoff for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Britt’s former boss, retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby.

President Joe Biden says he’s considering pressing for a holiday on the federal gasoline tax. That could possibly save U.S. consumers as much as 18.4 cents a gallon. Biden told reporters Monday that his decision could come by the end of the week. The administration is increasingly looking for ways to spare the public from higher prices at the pump, which began to climb last year and surged after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Gas prices nationwide are averaging just under $5 a gallon, according to AAA. Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel help pay for highways.

President Joe Biden has signed off on giving federal wildland firefighters a hefty raise for the next two fiscal years. The move announced Tuesday affects more than 16,000 firefighters and comes as much of the West braces for a difficult wildfire season. Pay raises for the federal firefighters had been included in last year’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill, but they had been held up as administration officials studied recruitment and retention data to decide where to deliver them. Agencies are authorized to increase the base salary of federal wildland firefighters by $20,000 per year or 50% of their current base salary, whichever is lower.

Ukraine’s leader has told the African Union that the continent has been “taken hostage” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid catastrophically rising food prices. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s closed-door speech Monday followed weeks of requests for him to address African nations. Many of them retain close ties to Russia and failed to support a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning the invasion. Ukraine and the West hope to weaken those ties by emphasizing that Russia’s actions are to blame for dramatic shortages of wheat and edible oils and skyrocketing food and fuel prices across Africa.

An Israeli Cabinet minister says the country’s outgoing coalition government will fast-track a bill this week to dissolve parliament, setting up the country for its fifth elections in three years. Welfare Minister Meir Cohen told Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Tuesday that the coalition would bring the bill to a preliminary vote the following day. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday that he would disband his alliance of eight diverse parties and send the country to the polls. New elections — the country’s fifth in just over three years — are likely to be scheduled for October and raise the possibility that longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu, now opposition leader, will be able to stage a comeback.