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US

Abortion: Some big-city district attorneys vow not to prosecute providers, setting up legal clashes in red states

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More than a third of the district attorneys representing the 25 most populous counties in states that have banned or are set to ban abortion have publicly vowed not to prosecute abortion cases, according to a CNN review, potentially limiting the impact of the new restrictions.

Their declarations could set up legal clashes between more liberal prosecutors in urban centers and red-state attorneys general and legislators, some of whom are already planning to wrest control of abortion cases from local authorities.

“A prosecutor really does have a lot of discretion to decide their priorities and cases,” said Rachel Barkow, a New York University law school professor who has studied prosecutors’ role in the criminal justice system. “But they could get voted out of office, or states could give the authority to prosecute to someone else.”

While assurances from prosecutors were helpful, abortion providers would likely be “concerned that that’s not sufficiently concrete and permanent,” she added.

The district attorneys speaking out — whose jurisdictions are home to more than 10 million people — argue that they have the authority to prioritize other crimes instead of bringing cases against abortion providers.

“A prosecutor’s job is to protect public safety, and to enforce this law will not only fail to promote or protect public safety but will also lead to more harm,” José Garza, the district attorney of Travis County, Texas, which includes Austin, declared in a statement.
Other district attorneys who have vowed not to prosecute abortion represent Dallas, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Nashville, and Birmingham, among other cities. CNN’s review included the 13 states with trigger laws that ban abortion following the Supreme Court decision, as well as two other states where abortion bans have gone into effect, Wisconsin and Alabama. Courts are reviewing some of those bans.
Many of the district attorneys signed a joint statement released Friday in which they committed to “refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions.”

“They don’t all agree on the issue of abortion, but what they agree on is that this is not a smart or efficient or wise use of limited prosecutorial resources,” said Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, a criminal justice reform group that organized the statement. “They are going to become the last line of defense.”

Abortion opponents have blasted the district attorneys who joined the effort. James Bopp, Jr., the general counsel of the National Right to Life Committee, called their stance “anti-democratic.” His group has proposed a model law for legislators that would allow state attorneys general to take over prosecution of abortion when local prosecutors decline to do so.

“They were not elected to decide what the law was,” Bopp said of the district attorneys. “If they don’t want to enforce these laws, then we’ll have somebody else do it.”

Other district attorneys in states with abortion bans told CNN that they would evaluate abortion prosecutions on a case-by-case basis.



“It is a dangerous path for a DA to make broad and hypothetical statements without an actual charge or case before them,” Amy Weirich, the head prosecutor in Shelby County, Tennessee, which includes Memphis, said in an email. Tennessee’s trigger law banning abortion is set to go into effect within the next two months, while a more limited ban on abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy went into effect Tuesday.

The impact of district attorneys declining to prosecute will likely vary from state to state. In Texas, even if local district attorneys don’t charge abortion providers criminally, state Attorney General Ken Paxton — who has applauded the Supreme Court decision — can still file civil suits against providers, potentially making them liable for huge fines.
That means abortion clinics in the state would “still have a lot of legal jeopardy,” said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a University of Houston law professor. (A judge has temporarily blocked Texas’ total ban, allowing some clinics to reopen and resume abortions up to around six weeks of pregnancy, but the reprieve is likely to only last a few weeks.)
In addition, a Texas state representative has said he plans to introduce a bill during the state’s legislative session next year to allow district attorneys in neighboring counties to file charges if a local DA declines to prosecute an abortion case. Abortion opponents have also suggested that district attorneys who vow not to prosecute abortion could be removed from office under a state law targeting local officials who “neglect” to “perform a duty imposed on the officer by law” — although Thompson said she thought that was unlikely.

Still, the uncertainty has encouraged some prosecutors to tread more carefully. Even as district attorneys in Texas’ other biggest cities signed the letter vowing not to prosecute abortion, Harris County DA Kim Ogg, who represents Houston, has been more circumspect. She decried the high court ruling and joined a demonstration in support of abortion rights, but said in a statement that she would evaluate abortion prosecutions on a case-by-case basis because she does “not want to take the chance of being found to be in dereliction of our duty.”

A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Federation of America said that her group wasn’t aware of any provider that would continue providing abortion based on prosecutors’ statements alone. In Nashville, for example, while DA Glenn Funk vowed not to prosecute abortion providers and compared the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling to the pro-slavery Dred Scott case, the local Planned Parenthood chapter said his statement wouldn’t let them ignore state restrictions.

“While we appreciate the support of Nashville’s DA for our reproductive freedom,” said Savannah Bearden, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, the group plans to “continue to abide by the law” in order to protect its patients and providers and make sure its clinic can continue providing other health care services.

Some providers are also worried that statutes of limitation for state abortion laws could outlast district attorneys’ terms in office, leaving open the possibility of future prosecutors charging cases that their predecessors declined to charge.

Promises not to prosecute could be more impactful in purple states where local district attorneys are backed up by state officials. In Wisconsin, for example, district attorneys in the two largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison, have said they won’t prosecute cases under the state’s century-old abortion ban that went into effect last week. Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, has also promised to grant clemency to any medical provider convicted of abortion, and State Attorney General Josh Kaul has argued against the ban in court.

“If the voters want a district attorney who prosecutes women for seeking an abortion or licensed providers who are acting in the best interest of their patients, they will need to elect someone else,” said Dane County DA Ismael Ozanne, who represents Madison.

Meanwhile, abortion is likely to become a driving issue in high-stakes elections for DA positions. In Maricopa County, Arizona, one of the most populous counties in the US, the Republican DA who has said she would prosecute some abortion cases is facing a special election later this year. The only Democratic candidate in the race has said she won’t prosecute abortions.

Rachel Mitchell, the Maricopa DA, told local news outlets that she would decline to prosecute providers who perform abortions on victims of rape or incest, but enforce Arizona’s other abortion laws. A ban on abortion after 15 weeks is set to go into effect in Arizona in September, and state officials are debating whether another pre-Roe ban is in effect.

Similar battle lines over abortion have been drawn between candidates for district attorney in elections later this year in Tennessee.

“We’re going to see elections framed around this issue,” Barkow, the NYU professor, predicted. “A lot of voters will be mobilized on both sides,” she said, and in what are typically low-turnout local races, “it could be the kind of thing that makes a difference.”

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Business

Union, officials vow to fight closure of Granite City steel plant | Local Business

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Katie Kull
, 

Austin Huguelet

GRANITE CITY — Union officials and regional leaders on Wednesday promised to fight the closure of a century-old steel plant here, in the crosshairs of a company shifting gears.

The plant’s owner, Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp., said this week it is working on plans to sell key parts of Granite City Works to Chicago-based SunCoke Energy and end steelmaking in late 2024. Nearly 1,000 jobs would be eliminated.

U.S. Steel said it would continue finishing steel at the plant, and SunCoke plans to convert the facility’s blast furnaces into a 2-million-ton “pig iron” operation producing the building blocks for steelmaking at other company facilities. But that will only sustain about a third of the current workforce.

Dan Simmons, president of the local chapter of the United Steelworkers, called the decision a betrayal.

“Today Granite City Works is a viable and profitable steel operation,” Simmons said in a statement. “However, in pursuit of financial greed, USS plans to turn its back on both the skilled, hard-working steelworkers who have made this company successful and the community that has sustained it.”

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Officials vowed to fight the loss of the jobs. “Granite City’s a town of fighters, and we’re getting our ducks in a row to battle this,” Mayor Mike Parkinson said.

But for the company, it fits with a strategy of building “better, not bigger.” U.S. Steel, one of the largest steel companies in the country, presented the news to investors as repurposing an older, coal-fired plant to fuel its growing fleet of newer, more efficient electric-powered operations. It’s a step competitors have already taken. “It’s safer, it’s cleaner and it’s cheaper,” said steel industry analyst Gordon Johnson, founder of GLJ Research in New York.

There has been a Granite City steel plant longer than there has been a Granite City.

St. Louis industrialists looking to make steel on cheap land across the river opened the plant that would become Granite City Works in 1895, a year before the city was incorporated. It supplied rolled sheets to a sister stamping plant.

By the end of the next decade, it employed more than 1,000 people and had taken its place as a cornerstone of a town boasting connections with 10 rail lines and calling itself “The City of Great Industries.”

But when foreign competition and a collapse in demand brought the industry crashing down in the 1970s and 1980s, Granite City went with it. The plant’s workforce dropped from a peak of 5,000 in the mid-1970s to 2,800 by late 1982.

U.S. Steel bought the operation in 2003 from a bankrupt National Steel, and, five years later, shuttered the plant, sending the town reeling. Cafés saw their lunch orders dry up. Trucks that once buzzed in and out of the mill disappeared. Thousands of workers flooded the unemployment line. They came back the next year, but in 2015, it happened again.

When former President Donald Trump announced new taxes on imports in 2018 and U.S. Steel reopened once more, there was hope the good times were back. Trump himself came to Granite City and delivered that very message.

“We’re watching this one closely, and it’s going up, Dave, only up,” Trump told U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt, who joined the president on stage during his speech.

But the next year, U.S. Steel spent $700 million to buy a stake in northeast Arkansas’ Big River Steel mill and its cleaner, cheaper electric furnaces, taking a step it once resisted.

Analysts asked Burritt then if the Big River buy meant a shutdown was coming in Granite City. He called their suggestions premature.

But on Tuesday, the call came down and the worries began anew.

“These guys make a good wage,” said Mayor Parkinson. 

Craig McKey, a vice president at the union local, said the last time the place closed down, people lost their cars and their houses.

Parkinson said he’s doing all he can to stave that off. He spent the morning going from phone call to phone call reaching out to the company, state officials and the state’s congressional delegation for help.

The company has tried to pull out of Granite City before, he said, and they haven’t succeeded yet.

But McKey, who has worked at the plant for more than 25 years, worried that this time might be the one that does it.

“I fear for the worst,” he said.

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Business

Union, officials vow to fight job losses at Granite City steel plant | Local Business

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Katie Kull
, 

Austin Huguelet

GRANITE CITY — Union officials and regional leaders on Wednesday promised to fight deep cuts at a century-old steel plant here, in the crosshairs of a company shifting gears.

The plant’s owner, Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp., said this week it is working on plans to sell key parts of Granite City Works to Chicago-based SunCoke Energy and end steelmaking in late 2024. Nearly 1,000 jobs would be eliminated.

U.S. Steel said it would continue finishing steel at the plant, and SunCoke plans to convert the facility’s blast furnaces into a 2-million-ton “pig iron” operation producing the building blocks for steelmaking at other company facilities. But that will only sustain about a third of the current workforce.

Dan Simmons, president of the local chapter of the United Steelworkers, called the decision a betrayal.

“Today Granite City Works is a viable and profitable steel operation,” Simmons said in a statement. “However, in pursuit of financial greed, USS plans to turn its back on both the skilled, hard-working steelworkers who have made this company successful and the community that has sustained it.”

People are also reading…

Officials vowed to fight the loss of the jobs. “Granite City’s a town of fighters, and we’re getting our ducks in a row to battle this,” Mayor Mike Parkinson said.

But for the company, it fits with a strategy of building “better, not bigger.” U.S. Steel, one of the largest steel companies in the country, presented the news to investors as repurposing an older, coal-fired plant to fuel its growing fleet of newer, more efficient electric-powered operations. It’s a step competitors have already taken. “It’s safer, it’s cleaner and it’s cheaper,” said steel industry analyst Gordon Johnson, founder of GLJ Research in New York.

There has been a Granite City steel plant longer than there has been a Granite City.

St. Louis industrialists looking to make steel on cheap land across the river opened the plant that would become Granite City Works in 1895, a year before the city was incorporated. It supplied rolled sheets to a sister stamping plant.

By the end of the next decade, it employed more than 1,000 people and had taken its place as a cornerstone of a town boasting connections with 10 rail lines and calling itself “The City of Great Industries.”

But when foreign competition and a collapse in demand brought the industry crashing down in the 1970s and 1980s, Granite City went with it. The plant’s workforce dropped from a peak of 5,000 in the mid-1970s to 2,800 by late 1982.

U.S. Steel bought the operation in 2003 from a bankrupt National Steel, and, five years later, shuttered the plant, sending the town reeling. Cafés saw their lunch orders dry up. Trucks that once buzzed in and out of the mill disappeared. Thousands of workers flooded the unemployment line. They came back the next year, but in 2015, it happened again.

When former President Donald Trump announced new taxes on imports in 2018 and U.S. Steel reopened once more, there was hope the good times were back. Trump himself came to Granite City and delivered that very message.

“We’re watching this one closely, and it’s going up, Dave, only up,” Trump told U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt, who joined the president on stage during his speech.

But the next year, U.S. Steel spent $700 million to buy a stake in northeast Arkansas’ Big River Steel mill and its cleaner, cheaper electric furnaces, taking a step it once resisted.

Analysts asked Burritt then if the Big River buy meant a shutdown was coming in Granite City. He called their suggestions premature.

But on Tuesday, the call came down and the worries began anew.

“These guys make a good wage,” said Mayor Parkinson. 

Craig McKey, a vice president at the union local, said the last time the place closed down, people lost their cars and their houses.

Parkinson said he’s doing all he can to stave that off. He spent the morning going from phone call to phone call reaching out to the company, state officials and the state’s congressional delegation for help.

The company has tried to pull out of Granite City before, he said, and they haven’t succeeded yet.

But McKey, who has worked at the plant for more than 25 years, worried that this time might be the one that does it.

“I fear for the worst,” he said.

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US

Disney worker rips company over vow to pay abortion costs

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A Florida Disney employee ripped the company’s campaign to cover abortion travel costs for workers, telling The Post on Saturday it’ll be bad for business and would “alienate” customers.

Jose Castillo, who works in resort management in Orlando, accused the Walt Disney Co. of trying to influence politics after wading into the fraught abortion issue in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Disney was among the big American names to speak out after the landmark abortion case was struck down Friday, vowing in an internal memo that they would reimburse employees who have to travel out-of-state to have the procedure carried out.

“Disney knew full well that this memo would be leaked and make national news,” Castillo, who is also a GOP FL-9 Congressional candidate, told The Post.

Get The Post’s latest updates following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“They sent it anyway because Disney wants to make a political statement and attempt, once more, to influence our country’s political process.”

Disney resort management worker Jose Castillo believes the company is alienating “potential customers.”
AP Photo/John Raoux, File

Disney is also embroiled in an ongoing battle with Republican-dominated Florida and its Gov. Ron DeSantis over the company’s opposition to the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

“This is yet another attempt by Disney to take a political stance that will inevitably alienate potential customers,” Castillo said.

Jose Castillo is running for Florida’s 9th Congressional District.
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“As we have seen in recent months Disney’s political activism has hurt the company financially and it is my belief that the Board of Directors is violating it’s fiduciary duty to shareholders by continuing to comment on divisive political matters.”

Disney joined the likes of Facebook parent Meta, American Express, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Apple, Starbucks and Lyft in taking similar action after Friday’s ruling.

While some of the wokest companies in the US took a stance, a number of others opted to remain silent.

McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Tyson and Marriott chose not to comment.

And Arkansas-based Walmart — the nation’s largest employer with a number of stores in states that will immediately trigger abortion bans — also stayed quiet.

Maurice Schweitzer, a University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business professor, said the handful of companies taking a stand on the court’s ruling are doing so because customers and employees are expecting them to speak out.

“We’re in this moment in time where we’re expecting corporate leaders to also be leaders in the political sphere,” he said. “A lot of employees expect to work in companies that not only pay them well, but whose values are aligned with theirs.”

Jose Castillo argues Disney is becoming too politically active.
James Keivom
Anti-abortion supporters celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
James Keivom

But the vast majority of big name executives will likely avoid the thorny topic altogether — which also poses its own risks, he added.

“They can either support travel for out-of-state care and risk lawsuits and the ire of local politicians, or they can not include this coverage and risk the ire of employees,” Schweitzer said.

With Post wires

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US

‘Trump will lose his mind’: The 6 Jan hearings vow to ‘change history’. Here’s what to expect

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When the House 6 January select committee convenes its first hearing to examine the worst attack on the US Capitol since 1814, the nine-member panel and the two witnesses who will testify Thursday will be the highest-profile occupants of the ornate Cannon House Office Building Caucus Room since the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee used it for hearings in the mid-20th century.

Seventy-four years after Hollywood luminaries like acclaimed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo were blacklisted after failing to answer that committee’s questions about whether they had “now or … ever been” members of the Communist Party, one of the film industry’s finest will once again be a star witness in the exact same room.

The select committee on Tuesday announced that one of the first two witnesses to testify in what is expected to be a series of at least eight hearings will be Nick Quested, the award-winning documentarian who earned an Oscar nomination for his film Restrepo in 2010. The other will be Caroline Edwards, a US Capitol Police officer who was one of the first to be on the receiving end of blows delivered by the pro-Trump mob who stormed the Capitol in hopes of preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Both witnesses will testify during the second hour of the two-hour hearing, following opening presentations by the select committee’s chairman – Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi – and Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair.

The Independent has learned that the panel’s aim in putting Ms Edwards and Mr Quested in the spotlight for the first prime time hearing on the 6 January insurrection is to highlight the role played by the pro-Trump extremist groups in starting and escalating the violence.

Mr Quested, who spent the days leading up to the riot embedded with leaders of the Proud Boys gang as part of a documentary project, has already provided US authorities with footage of a 5 January 2021 meeting between then-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Elmer Stewart Rhodes, founder and leader of the Oath Keepers.

The footage of Mr Tarrio and Mr Rhodes meeting on the eve of the insurrection appears to have figured prominently in grand jury proceedings which led to last week’s unsealing of an indictment against Mr Tarrio and four other Proud Boys members for seditious conspiracy.

Caught on film: Enrique Tarrio

(AP Photo/Allison Dinner)

Mr Rhodes, a Yale-educated attorney, was himself indicted on charges of seditious conspiracy in January by a District of Columbia grand jury. According to his attorney, Mr Rhodes has also met with members of the select committee, and has reportedly told them he still considers the 2020 election to have been “illegitimate”.

Both pro-Trump extremist groups are understood to have played major roles in the initial attacks on the Capitol. Members of the Proud Boys gang were among the first to assault police officers and breach outer barriers before ascending the Capitol steps and breaking windows. One Proud Boys member who also faces seditious conspiracy charges, Dominic Pezzola, was allegedly one of the first to enter the Capitol itself after using a stolen police shield to smash a window. Meanwhile, another group of Oath Keepers made their way through the melee on the Capitol’s West Front by moving up the steps in a “stack” formation before fighting their way past police into the building.

Sources familiar with the panel’s investigation who have spoken to The Independent have said the hearings will reveal that many of the events that transpired that day – events which have heretofore appeared spontaneous – were in fact part of a multi-pronged, multi-faceted effort by former president Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn results of the 2020 election, and to knowingly do so with the aid of a violent mob.

Jamie Raskin doesn’t say whether the Jan 6 Committee will get Mike Pence to testify

Specifically, the panel intends to use the hearings to make clear that it has not found any evidence to support Republican claims that what happened on 6 January 2021 was a peaceful protest gone bad or that other occurrences of violence that day were spontaneous or accidental. The committee will also use evidence it has gathered, including witness testimony and unreleased documents, to show connections between a violent extremist core group of Mr Trump’s supporters who responded to his call for a “wild” protest that day and Mr Trump’s expansive coterie of outside confidantes, sounding boards, and allies in the right-wing political and media ecosystems.

And unlike in previous congressional inquiries into Mr Trump’s conduct, committee members will not have to contend with grandstanding, filibustering, showboating, or interruptions from Mr Trump’s allies in Congress. That’s because House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has refused to allow the members he put forth to participate after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of his picks – Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks – on grounds that they might end up being called as witnesses.

Allies of Mr Trump who’ve questioned the panel’s legitimacy in lawsuits seeking to block the committee from obtaining documents have pointed to the lack of GOP members when arguing that the panel is improperly constituted, but multiple federal courts have rejected such arguments.

Insurrection day: pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol on 6 January 2021

(Getty Images)

Kurt Bardella, a former adviser to ex-GOP House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa, and who now advises the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told The Independent that Mr McCarthy’s decision to withdraw all his picks in a fit of pique was a “massive strategic error” that has left the former president without anyone to defend or run interference for him.

He also predicted the former president would “lose his mind” when he watches the select committee’s hearings and realises no one is there to interject with talking points representing his side of the argument.

For the most part, committee members have kept mum about what exactly viewers will see when they tune in Thursday night. It has been reported that the programme is being produced with the aid of a former top ABC News executive James Goldston, and will rely heavily on video evidence, including video taken during interviews of Mr Trump’s top advisers.

One of the seven Democrats on the panel, Representative Elaine Luria of Virginia, declined to answer questions from The Independent as she left the House floor late Wednesday, but told MSNBC host Ali Velshi the “ultimate work product” of the panel will not be the programming produced during the hearings, but the written report it will release later this year.

“The report from this committee, that information that we put out within hearings, I think will paint a very clear picture from beginning to end, to the present day, of all the things that happened that led up to this, [and] the dangers that still exist,” she said. “Some of that information will clearly be new to the public, and perhaps new to others who are also looking carefully at these events”.

Rep Jamie Raskin expressed hope people would learn ‘the truth’

(Getty Images)

Another select committee member, Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, told reporters the committee has obtained an abundance of evidence that it is ready to present.

When asked what he hoped people would learn from the hearings, he replied: “The truth”.

But it’s unclear whether the viewers who need the most convincing will even tune in to Thursday’s hearing – or any of the subsequent ones. Because the most-watched cable news channel in the US, Fox News, is declining to air the hearings live on its flagship network, the 3 million viewers who rely on the channel’s right-wing opinion programming for news will have no exposure to what is revealed on Thursday. Fox will stream the hearings online without authentication and will provide coverage on Fox Business Network.

“The Committee needs to make the case to the American people that what happened on January 6th was the culmination of a scheme that was in the works for months, choreographed by those closest to the President,” Mr Bardella said.

Mr Bardella also told The Independent that the panel must use the hearings to “underscore the ongoing threat posed by those same forces at this very moment”.

“These hearings need to be a call to action, not just a detailed recap of how we got here,” he said.

Another prominent Republican turned critic of the GOP, ex-Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, told The Independent the panel needs to captivate their audience on Thursday for the good of the country.

“This is one of those moments in our history, where everything needs to stop. Everything needs to take a pause. And people need to just sit down where they are. Turn on the television. And listen, because this is not partisan,” he said, adding later that in his opinion, the Democrats should not do much to coordinate messaging around the hearings and instead let the evidence speak for itself.

Rep Adam Kinzinger: optimistic about changing minds

(Getty Images)

“The members of the committee are going to have to carve out this moment for the American people in a way that grabs their attention and walks them through everything that led up to what occurred on January 6th and what came after that,” he said.

One of the panel’s two Republican members, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, appeared confident that the select committee’s presentation will have an impact when he spoke to reporters late Tuesday.

Asked whether he hoped the series of hearings will change anyone’s minds, he said he “hope[d] they would” before offering an even bolder prediction.

“It’ll change history,” he said.

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US

‘Trump will lose his mind’: The 6 Jan hearings vow to ‘change history’. Here’s what to expect

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When the House 6 January select committee convenes its first hearing to examine the worst attack on the US Capitol since 1814, the nine-member panel and the two witnesses who will testify Thursday will be the highest-profile occupants of the ornate Cannon House Office Building Caucus Room since the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee used it for hearings in the mid-20th century.

Seventy-four years after Hollywood luminaries like acclaimed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo were blacklisted after failing to answer that committee’s questions about whether they had “now or … ever been” members of the Communist Party, one of the film industry’s finest will once again be a star witness in the exact same room.

The select committee on Tuesday announced that one of the first two witnesses to testify in what is expected to be a series of at least eight hearings will be Nick Quested, the award-winning documentarian who earned an Oscar nomination for his film Restrepo in 2010. The other will be Caroline Edwards, a US Capitol Police officer who was one of the first to be on the receiving end of blows delivered by the pro-Trump mob who stormed the Capitol in hopes of preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Both witnesses will testify during the second hour of the two-hour hearing, following opening presentations by the select committee’s chairman – Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi – and Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair.

The Independent has learned that the panel’s aim in putting Ms Edwards and Mr Quested in the spotlight for the first prime time hearing on the 6 January insurrection is to highlight the role played by the pro-Trump extremist groups in starting and escalating the violence.

Mr Quested, who spent the days leading up to the riot embedded with leaders of the Proud Boys gang as part of a documentary project, has already provided US authorities with footage of a 5 January 2021 meeting between then-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Elmer Stewart Rhodes, founder and leader of the Oath Keepers.

The footage of Mr Tarrio and Mr Rhodes meeting on the eve of the insurrection appears to have figured prominently in grand jury proceedings which led to last week’s unsealing of an indictment against Mr Tarrio and four other Proud Boys members for seditious conspiracy.

Caught on film: Enrique Tarrio

(AP Photo/Allison Dinner)

Mr Rhodes, a Yale-educated attorney, was himself indicted on charges of seditious conspiracy in January by a District of Columbia grand jury. According to his attorney, Mr Rhodes has also met with members of the select committee, and has reportedly told them he still considers the 2020 election to have been “illegitimate”.

Both pro-Trump extremist groups are understood to have played major roles in the initial attacks on the Capitol. Members of the Proud Boys gang were among the first to assault police officers and breach outer barriers before ascending the Capitol steps and breaking windows. One Proud Boys member who also faces seditious conspiracy charges, Dominic Pezzola, was allegedly one of the first to enter the Capitol itself after using a stolen police shield to smash a window. Meanwhile, another group of Oath Keepers made their way through the melee on the Capitol’s West Front by moving up the steps in a “stack” formation before fighting their way past police into the building.

Sources familiar with the panel’s investigation who have spoken to The Independent have said the hearings will reveal that many of the events that transpired that day – events which have heretofore appeared spontaneous – were in fact part of a multi-pronged, multi-faceted effort by former president Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn results of the 2020 election, and to knowingly do so with the aid of a violent mob.

Jamie Raskin doesn’t say whether the Jan 6 Committee will get Mike Pence to testify

Specifically, the panel intends to use the hearings to make clear that it has not found any evidence to support Republican claims that what happened on 6 January 2021 was a peaceful protest gone bad or that other occurrences of violence that day were spontaneous or accidental. The committee will also use evidence it has gathered, including witness testimony and unreleased documents, to show connections between a violent extremist core group of Mr Trump’s supporters who responded to his call for a “wild” protest that day and Mr Trump’s expansive coterie of outside confidantes, sounding boards, and allies in the right-wing political and media ecosystems.

And unlike in previous congressional inquiries into Mr Trump’s conduct, committee members will not have to contend with grandstanding, filibustering, showboating, or interruptions from Mr Trump’s allies in Congress. That’s because House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has refused to allow the members he put forth to participate after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of his picks – Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks – on grounds that they might end up being called as witnesses.

Allies of Mr Trump who’ve questioned the panel’s legitimacy in lawsuits seeking to block the committee from obtaining documents have pointed to the lack of GOP members when arguing that the panel is improperly constituted, but multiple federal courts have rejected such arguments.

Insurrection day: pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol on 6 January

(Getty Images)

Kurt Bardella, a former adviser to ex-GOP House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa, and who now advises the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told The Independent that Mr McCarthy’s decision to withdraw all his picks in a fit of pique was a “massive strategic error” that has left the former president without anyone to defend or run interference for him.

He also predicted the former president would “lose his mind” when he watches the select committee’s hearings and realises no one is there to interject with talking points representing his side of the argument.

For the most part, committee members have kept mum about what exactly viewers will see when they tune in Thursday night. It has been reported that the programme is being produced with the aid of a former top ABC News executive James Goldston, and will rely heavily on video evidence, including video taken during interviews of Mr Trump’s top advisers.

One of the seven Democrats on the panel, Representative Elaine Luria of Virginia, declined to answer questions from The Independent as she left the House floor late Wednesday, but told MSNBC host Ali Velshi the “ultimate work product” of the panel will not be the programming produced during the hearings, but the written report it will release later this year.

“The report from this committee, that information that we put out within hearings, I think will paint a very clear picture from beginning to end, to the present day, of all the things that happened that led up to this, [and] the dangers that still exist,” she said. “Some of that information will clearly be new to the public, and perhaps new to others who are also looking carefully at these events”.

Rep Jamie Raskin expressed hope people would learn ‘the truth’

(Getty Images)

Another select committee member, Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, told reporters the committee has obtained an abundance of evidence that it is ready to present.

When asked what he hoped people would learn from the hearings, he replied: “The truth”.

But it’s unclear whether the viewers who need the most convincing will even tune in to Thursday’s hearing – or any of the subsequent ones. Because the most-watched cable news channel in the US, Fox News, is declining to air the hearings live on its flagship network, the 3 million viewers who rely on the channel’s right-wing opinion programming for news will have no exposure to what is revealed on Thursday. Fox will stream the hearings online without authentication and will provide coverage on Fox Business Network.

“The Committee needs to make the case to the American people that what happened on January 6th was the culmination of a scheme that was in the works for months, choreographed by those closest to the President,” Mr Bardella said.

Mr Bardella also told The Independent that the panel must use the hearings to “underscore the ongoing threat posed by those same forces at this very moment”.

“These hearings need to be a call to action, not just a detailed recap of how we got here,” he said.

Another prominent Republican turned critic of the GOP, ex-Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, told The Independent the panel needs to captivate their audience on Thursday for the good of the country.

“This is one of those moments in our history, where everything needs to stop. Everything needs to take a pause. And people need to just sit down where they are. Turn on the television. And listen, because this is not partisan,” he said, adding later that in his opinion, the Democrats should not do much to coordinate messaging around the hearings and instead let the evidence speak for itself.

Rep Adam Kinzinger: optimistic about change minds

(Getty Images)

“The members of the committee are going to have to carve out this moment for the American people in a way that grabs their attention and walks them through everything that led up to what occurred on January 6th and what came after that,” he said.

One of the panel’s two Republican members, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, appeared confident that the select committee’s presentation will have an impact when he spoke to reporters late Tuesday.

Asked whether he hoped the series of hearings will change anyone’s minds, he said he “hope[d] they would” before offering an even bolder prediction.

“It’ll change history,” he said.

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World

Biden, South Korea’s Yoon vow to deter North Korea while offering COVID aid

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SEOUL, May 21 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and his new South Korean counterpart agreed on Saturday to hold bigger military drills and deploy more U.S. weapons if necessary to deter North Korea, while offering to send COVID-19 vaccines and potentially meet Kim Jong Un.

Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol said their countries’ decades-old alliance needed to develop not only to face North Korean threats but to keep the Indo-Pacific region “free and open” and protect global supply chains.

The two leaders are meeting in Seoul for their first diplomatic engagement since the South Korean president’s inauguration 11 days ago. The encounter between allies was clouded by intelligence showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is prepared to conduct nuclear or missile tests.

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Yoon had sought more assurances that the United States would boost its deterrence against North Korean threats. In a joint statement, Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea with nuclear weapons if necessary.

The two sides agreed to consider expanding their combined military drills, which had been scaled back in recent years over COVID-19 and efforts to lower tensions with the North.

The United States also promised to deploy “strategic assets” – which typically include long-range bomber aircraft, missile submarines, or aircraft carriers – if necessary to deter North Korea, according to the statement.

Both leaders said they were committed to denuclearising North Korea and were open to diplomacy with Pyongyang.

“With regard to whether I would meet with the leader of North Korea, it would depend on whether he was sincere and whether he was serious,” Biden told a joint news conference.

He said Washington had offered COVID-19 vaccines to China and North Korea, which is combating its first acknowledged outbreak. “We’ve got no response,” Biden said.

North Korea reported more than 200,000 new patients suffering from fever for a fifth consecutive day on Saturday, but the country has little in the way of vaccines or modern treatment for the pandemic. read more

EXPANDING ALLIANCE

The U.S.-South Korea alliance, which dates to the 1950-1953 Korean War, must further develop to keep the Indo-Pacific “free and open”, Biden said.

U.S. President Joe Biden meets with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea May 21, 2022. Jung Yeon-je/Pool via REUTERS

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He said the alliance was built on opposition to changing borders by force – an apparent reference to Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s claims over Taiwan.

The joint statement called for preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

When asked by reporters about possible reactions from Beijing, Yoon’s national security advisor Kim Sung-han said those issues were directly linked with South Korea’s national interests, as its ships use the routes.

“So I think there would be little room for Chinese retaliation or misunderstandings about this,” he said.

Changes in international trade and supply chains gave new impetus for the United States and South Korea to deepen their relationship, Yoon said, calling for cooperation on electric batteries and semiconductors.

Biden used the visit to tout investments in the United States by Korean companies, including a move by South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group to invest about $5.5 billion to build its first dedicated fully electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in the United States. read more

The two leaders toured a Samsung semiconductor plant on Friday, where Biden said countries like the United States and South Korea that “share values” needed to cooperate more to protect economic and national security.

Yoon said the concept of economic security will include cooperating in case of shocks in the foreign exchange market.

The South Korean president, keen to play a bigger role in regional issues, said his country would join Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which will be announced during the trip to set standards on labour, the environment and supply chains.

China is South Korea’s top trading partner, and Yoon’s aides emphasized that neither the joint statement or the IPEF explicitly excluded any country.

While White House officials have sought to play down any explicit message of countering China, it is a theme of Biden’s trip and one that has caught the eye of Beijing.

“We hope that the U.S. will match its words with deeds and work with countries in the region to promote solidarity and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, instead of plotting division and confrontation,” Chinese envoy for Korean affairs Liu Xiaoming, said on Twitter.

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Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Hyonhee Shin, Jack Kim, Eric Beech and Josh Smith; Editing by William Mallard and Mike Harrison

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Technology

Vow of the Disciple raid guide – Destiny 2

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A complete walkthrough and guide for the Vow of the Disciple raid from The Witch Queen expansion in Destiny 2.

Vow of the Disciple is the raid that came with Destiny 2: The Witch Queen. This guide will cover the raid from every angle, including Power requirements, loadout recommendations, essential classes and subclasses, secret chests, and more. This guide will be built from the ground up at the launch of Vow of the Disciple on March 5, 2022, and will be updated frequently until it’s complete and covers every inch of the experience.

Last updated: March 5, 2022 at 5:42 p.m. EST. We will be collecting information from around the internet and adding it to this guide, then filling it out with our own information as our team completes each encounter.

Vow of the Disciple Contest Mode / World First

Contest mode in Vow of the Disciple will last from 10 a.m. PST / 1 p.m. EST on Saturday, March 5, 2022, until 10 a.m. PST / 1 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 6, 2022. This is a period of 24 hours where normal rules of the Destiny 2 raid will not apply. Players will see their Power limits capped at 20 points below the recommended Power for each encounter. This means if an encounter carries a recommended Power of 1350, players will be capped at 1330. This is done to ensure that everyone is on a level playing field, and that those with additional time to play can’t increase their Power leading up to the raid to give themselves an advantage.

World First applies to the six-person team that completes the Vow of the Disciple, loots the final chest, and returns to Orbit. Bungie detailed some of the unique parameters around Vow of the Disciple and World First completion, so check it out in the March 3, 2022, TWAB.

Vow of the Disciple raid preparation

Guardians should consider the following preparations if they want to attempt Vow of the Disciple during Contest Mode:

  • Reach at least 1350 Power prior to starting
  • Ensure you have ample Upgrade Modules for infusion
  • Ensure you have ample infusion materials
  • Have DIM ready to quickly move gear back and forth
  • Have a six-person team ready to go, and backup player
  • Food and water at the ready in case you decide to go the full 24 hours
  • Study the list of disabled Mods and gear from TWAB

First encounter: Apporach, Children

When you fly in, you’ll be met with a Projection of Savathûn. Kill the projection and any enemies around it. Once the projection is down, the main gate will open, and you can hop on your sparrow and move forward. Soon you’ll be met with more enemies and a barge that you need to move forward through the world. This is also where you’ll get your first debuff called Pervading Darkness. This will stack up over time, causing your screen to go black, and it will kill you if you get Pervading Darkness x 10. To remove the Pervading Darkness debuff, you must go stand near the barge and it will slowly reverse.

You’re going to be moving that barge by depositing a Knowledge buff that drops from Knowledge Bearer Abominations. The Pervading Darkness debuff is still in play here, as is this new Knowledge buff. This buff stacks, moving from Heightened Knowledge to Brimming Knowledge and then Overflowing Knowledge depending on how many stacks of it you collect from the ground when you kill Knowledge Bearer Abominations. Collect the Knowledge buff and deposit it into the barge to move it forward, all while you manage the Pervading Darkness debuff and clear Scorn enemies.

There is a secret chest in this area, but we are currently working out the details on how it can be obtained. It appears that Guardians will need to destroy three Cruxs that spawn during the escort, and that the secret chest will spawn in a building on the right side as you approach the pyramid.

You Search and Search and Search

This isn’t so much an encounter as a quick transition to the actual second encounter. Make your way through the pyramid until you reach the next area.

Second encounter: Truth. Symbolize. Is. Materialize. Everywhere.

Image credit. 

This encounter takes place in a location called Acquisition within Savathun’s Throne World. This encounter is a complex puzzle that will require tight callouts and teamwork. Our raid team is currently working through it, but the folks on the Raid Secrets subreddit have discovered the following:

Encounter three: Do Not Disrupt the Caretaker

This encounter takes place in the Collection part of Savathun’s Throne World. There is a Cartaker boss that needs to be defeated in order to progress, but that of course comes with a few conditions. Our team is currently working through this fight, but here’s what we’ve gathered so far:

The Caretaker is going to attempt to reach the middle obelisk and interact with it. If this happens your team will wipe. In order to prevent this from happening you’ll need to stun the boss. To do this, have one Guardian shoot the boss in the head, which will open its back. At that point, shoot the boss in the back to stun it. You can and should also shoot the projectiles that the Caretaker spews out.

There is a room that two Guardians will need to enter, and to open the door to that room Cruxes need to be shot. Once those Guardians enter the room each of them should collect three of the six symbols as quickly as possible to get the Overflowing Knowledge buff. While this is happening these Guardians will be getting the Pervading Darkness debuff. Once all six symbols are collected, these Guardians need to be let out of the room by the fireteam members on the outside shooting the Cruxes to open the door. The two Guardians just let out of the room must run to the obelisk and shoot the symbols they just collected as quickly as possible. Doing this will remove the Pervading Darkness debuff and and trigger a damage (DPS) phase. If the symbols are not shot quickly enough the obelisk will reject your offering.

Once the DPS phase begins, the boss will spawn wells around the area. You must be standing in one of the wells to damage the boss. When a well expires, move to a different well and continue the DPS phase. Continue this until the DPS phase ends, at which point you’ll need to head up some stairs to the next phase of the encounter, which is simply a repeat of what you just did. Two more Guardians will need to enter a room, collect symbols, be let out, shoot the obelisk symbols, and then another damage phase will kick off.

This guide is in progress.

We’re actively working through the raid as it goes live, and updating this guide as we go. You can keep this page open and refresh it throughout the day and we’ll continuously fill it out with more content. You can also visit our Destiny 2 strategy guide for everything else you need to accomplish as a Guardian.

Bill, who is also known as Rumpo, is a lifelong gamer and Toronto Maple Leafs fan. He is known for his guide writing and, unsettlingly enough, enjoys grinding out in-depth collectible articles. Tweet him @RumpoPlays if you have a question or comment about one of his guides.



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Technology

Bungie responds after errors sabotage Destiny 2 World First Vow of the Disciple raids

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Bungie responded to massive Destiny 2 connection errors ruining World First runs for the new Vow of the Disciple raid as the developers are looking into a rise of server instability.

Popular Twitch streamers and D2 raid teams have been getting hit with a flurry of ANTEATER, GUITAR, and BAT error codes that are stalling their attempt at clearing the latest raid.

Ahead of the Vow of the Disciple launch, Bungie took down Destiny 2’s servers for scheduled maintenance in preparation for the March 5 World First attempts. Hours into raid day, teams with popular streamers such as KingGothalion and Datto have run into their fair share of setbacks.

The number of errors caught Bungie’s attention and now the studio is moving to fix the issues as soon as possible.

Bungie investigating D2 server errors

Bungie are now exploring solutions for Destiny 2 server problems that are plaguing Vow of the Disciple attempts.

For the time being, the devs said they would have some players go through a sign-on queue, likely to prioritize those who are gunning for a World First clear.

“We’re currently investigating connection issues in the Vow of Disciple raid, including ANTEATER, GUITAR, and BAT error codes,” they said. “We are currently investigating a rise in error codes and server instability.

“Players who do not own a Destiny 2 Season or Expansion will begin to see a sign-on queue.”

The connection errors are producing unstable game connections that lag people out mid-raid. Even then, Destiny players are reportedly finding that some checkpoints aren’t registering how they should be, forcing them to restart from further back than expected.

“The ‘race’ is quite tainted now though regardless,” one fan said.

The issues have not deterred teams from attempting a world-first Vow of the Disciple clear, but all eyes are on Bungie to fix Destiny 2’s issues as teams progress further into the raid.



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Entertainment

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher vow to match $3 million in donations for Ukrainian refugees

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The Hollywood couple launched a “Stand With Ukraine” GoFundMe campaign on Thursday with the goal of raising $30 million for Flexport.org and Airbnb.org, which, they said, are “two organizations who are actively on the ground providing immediate help to those who need it most.”

Kunis was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine — then part of the Soviet Union — and moved with her family to the United States at the age of 7. While acknowledging all that America has done for her and her family, she said she couldn’t forget her roots.

“Today, I am a proud Ukrainian,” the “Black Swan” star said in a statement shared on the fundraising page. “Ukrainians are proud and brave people who deserve our help in their time of need.”

“Our family is starting this fund to help provide immediate support,” she wrote, “and we will be matching up to $3 million dollars.”

According to the fundraising page, the freight transporter Flexport is organizing shipments of relief supplies to refugee sites in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova. Nonprofit Airbnb.org is providing free, short-term housing to refugees fleeing Ukraine.

Kunis also appeared alongside her husband in a video shared to his Instagram account, where she spoke out about the “devastating” conflict in Ukraine.

“The events that have unfolded in Ukraine are devastating. There is no place in this world for this kind of unjust attack on humanity,” Kunis said.

In the clip, Kutcher, 44, applauded the “bravery of the people of the country that (Kunis) was born in” while emphasizing to his 4.4 million Instragram followers “the needs of those who have chosen safety.”

The couple are the latest stars to show their support for Ukrainians affected by the conflict. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are also fundraising to help the country’s refugees.

“In 48 hours, countless Ukrainians were forced to flee their homes to neighboring countries. They need protection. When you donate, we’ll match it up to $1,000,000, creating double the support,” Reynolds wrote Saturday on Twitter, promoting donations to the United Nations refugee agency.

According to the UN, one million refugees have fled Ukraine in just a week.



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