Around the same time President Biden said former President Donald J. Trump encouraged the violence that took place at the Capitol on Jan. 6, some of Mr. Trump’s most prominent supporters deflected blame for the attack during an appearance on a live online show.

On the show, hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, one of Mr. Trump’s top former advisers, Representatives Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene laid responsibility on Democrats, the Capitol Police, the federal government and others.

The idea that people other than Mr. Trump’s own supporters were responsible for the violence that day has become a popular conspiracy theory among the far right. There is no evidence that undercover agents or other outsiders played a role in the attack and fact checkers have worked to debunk similar claims aired on Fox News. The pair of lawmakers offered little evidence for their claims during the show.

Mr. Gaetz, a Florida Republican, repeated some of the unfounded claims on Thursday, including that the government and police tried to set up the protesters.

Former vice president Richard B. Cheney was greeted warmly by Democrats on Thursday afternoon as the House opened for a moment of silence and brief remarks by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Ahead of the chamber’s noon session, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) huddled with Cheney and his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of the few Republicans who has condemned Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Liz Cheney is one of two Republicans serving on the select committee investigating the attack.

Schiff told the former vice president and onetime Wyoming congressman, “It’s good to see you again.”

The elder Cheney, who rose through the ranks at the Capitol to be House Republican whip, told reporters he attended Thursday’s session to support his daughter. Asked about the current GOP leadership and Jan. 6, Cheney said, “It’s not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years.”

Traditionalist Republicans breathed a sigh of relief when Donald Trump canceled his Thursday news conference, then another when the GOP in Georgia’s Cobb County called off its planned vigil for people charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

But every indication is that the reprieve will be fleeting.

Exactly one year after one of the darkest days in American democracy, the image the party will convey is not an exemplary one. Across the country, Republican activists are still planning rallies and vigils in more than a dozen states for Jan. 6 participants they depict as “patriots” or “political prisoners.” Stars of the party’s right-wing are lining up to appear on conservative media in a day of counter programming designed to downplay the seriousness of the attack on the Capitol. Trump himself will be back behind a microphone next week in Arizona, where he will repeat his lie that the election was rigged.

Trump’s baseless claims about the outcome — and the idea that the Jan. 6 riot was something other than a violent assault on the halls of government — are no longer fringe elements of the GOP, but part of its DNA.

Pope Francis lamented Wednesday that many couples are choosing to have more pets than more children, saying that a trend of forgoing child-rearing “takes some of our humanity away.”

The pontiff started his weekly address at the Vatican by praising the paternal virtues of the biblical Joseph. But his reflection on the importance of parenthood shifted to a warning about dwindling birthrates, encouraging people to “take the risk of welcoming children,” biological or adopted.

“Today … we see a form of selfishness,” the pope said, according to translations in multiple reports. “We see that some people do not want to have a child.”

Or, he said, they may have one or two kids — “but they have dogs and cats that take the place of children.”

In a searing speech, Biden marked the first anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by painting in vivid detail the violence of that day — and, without naming Trump, by squarely blaming the former president for spreading “a web of lies” about the 2020 election.

“One year ago today, in this sacred place, democracy was attacked, simply attacked,” Biden said. “The will of the people was under assault. The Constitution, our Constitution, faced the gravest of threats.”

Throughout the speech, Biden did not mention Trump by name but constantly referred to him as the former president.

“For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election: He tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol,” Biden said. “But they failed.”

Some Georgia Republicans planned to spend the anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol praying — not just for those killed or hurt during the Jan. 6 riot, but for the “‘J6’ Prisoners” and “J6 Patriots” who stormed the building in a futile attempt to keep President Donald Trump in power.

But after bipartisan blowback, the Cobb County GOP on Wednesday canceled what it had been calling a “prayer vigil,” citing “mischaracterization of the event.”

“The intent of the Cobb GOP January 6th Candlelight Prayer Vigil is to acknowledge Americans who lost their lives and to pray for those who have been denied justice,” Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs wrote in a statement before the event was canceled.

Democratic state Rep. Teri Anulewicz called the plan an “homage to treason.”

Governor Hochul Announces Plans to Move Forward with Major New Expansion of Transit Service in Brooklyn and Queens: The Interborough Express

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced plans to move forward with the Interborough Express as part of her 2022 State of the State. Governor Hochul is directing the MTA to immediately begin the environmental review process for this transformative project, the first step in building this major infrastructure investment that would connect communities in Brooklyn and Queens to as many as 17 subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road.

"It's time to invest in the bold, cutting-edge infrastructure projects that will make a real difference in the lives of everyday New Yorkers," Governor Hochul said. "New Yorkers deserve reliable public transit that connects them from work to home and everywhere in between. The Interborough Express would be a transformational addition to Brooklyn and Queens, cutting down on travel time and helping neighborhoods and communities become cleaner, greener and more equitable."

"This project would smartly repurpose existing infrastructure to add mass transit and create access to jobs, education, and opportunity for so many residents of Queens and Brooklyn," said MTA Acting Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. "I applaud Governor Hochul's leadership, and we are enthusiastic to work with her, and Federal and State partners to advance the Interborough concept."

Governor Hochul will direct the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to begin the environmental review process for the Interborough Express. This historic project would use the existing right of way of the Bay Ridge Branch, which is a freight rail line that runs through Brooklyn and Queens, connecting the ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods of: Sunset Park, Borough Park, Kensington, Midwood, Flatbush, Flatlands, New Lots, Brownsville, East New York, Bushwick, Ridgewood, Middle Village, Maspeth, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights with several new stations in communities not currently served by rail transit.

If adopted, this new service would improve transit and job access to underserved communities along this corridor that is currently home to about 900,000 residents and 260,000 jobs, and with growth expected by at least 41,000 people and 15,000 jobs in the next 25 years. For many residents along this corridor, crossing from neighborhood to neighborhood is slow and tedious because existing subway lines are oriented towards Manhattan, even as many new work opportunities, schools, and services are located in the outer boroughs. The project would provide critical mobility, creating better links for travel to and from Manhattan as well as key connections among neighborhoods, across boroughs, and opening up new opportunities for reverse commuting into Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Each day, more than 100,000 commuters make daily trips within or across Brooklyn and Queens, often relying on buses that get caught in traffic along a tangled and crowded street network. Results from this historic and necessary step could lead to a new service that would provide end-to-end travel time of less than 40 minutes, although most trips would be along shorter segments of the line. This would provide significant time savings for interborough Brooklyn and Queens trips compared with existing transit options.

In addition to transit service, the existing Bay Ridge Branch corridor can service cross harbor rail freight and would dramatically reduce truck congestion regionally and expand goods movement facilities, thereby fortifying supply chains still struggling to recover from the pandemic. Transportation planners believe that cross harbor rail freight and passenger service on the Interborough Express can work together in concert, which could be a game-changer for the region. To that end Governor Hochul is also directing the Port Authority to complete environmental review for the Cross Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel.