AFP

Lawmakers investigating the 2021 attack on the US Capitol plan to journey inside the mind of Donald Trump on Thursday during the final public presentation on their sprawling probe before crucial midterm elections.

The House of Representatives panel has already unveiled reams of evidence on the former president’s involvement in a labyrinthine series of connected schemes to overturn the 2020 election.

In what could be its last public session before it issues a report on its findings, the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans has promised fresh damning evidence on the insurrection.

“And we’re going to bring a particular focus on the former president’s state of mind and his involvement in these events as they unfolded,” a select committee aide said.

Blockbuster witness testimony across eight hearings in the summer provided stunning examples of Trump and his allies pressuring election officials and trying to get lawfully-cast votes nullified in swing states, and of Trump’s inertia amid the mob uprising on January 6, 2021.

The aide said that while each previous hearing had dug into separate aspects of the plan to overturn the election and block the transfer of power, Thursday’s session would reach back before January 6 to tell the broader story.

“So what you’re going to see is a synthesis of some evidence we’ve already presented with that new, never-before-seen information to illustrate Donald Trump’s centrality to the scheme from the time prior to the election,” he added.

– ‘Right to the violence’ –

The panel plans to release its final report by the end of the year, but after the November 8 elections that decide which party controls Congress. A preliminary report may come out beforehand.

It will be the first hearing without live witnesses — instead featuring new video evidence, including footage from a Danish film crew shot for a documentary about longtime Trump ally Roger Stone.

In one clip from the day before the 2020 election, the notorious self-styled “dirty trickster” is seen telling the filmmakers he has no interest in waiting to contest the vote tally.

“Let’s get right to the violence,” says the 70-year-old Republican operative.

Stone, who has not been charged in connection with the riot, has challenged the authenticity of the clips.

Committee aides said there would also be new video footage showing “efforts to respond in real time to the violence… as that violence was unfolding.”

The panel also plans to unveil evidence developed from “hundreds of thousands” of pages of documents surrendered by the Secret Service, the aides said, as lawmakers seek to understand why certain agents’ text messages from the eve of the insurrection and the day itself went missing.

The records are expected to confirm evidence from earlier hearings that Trump riled up his supporters despite being repeatedly warned of looming violence on January 6.

– Criminal referrals? –

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified in June that Trump was briefed that some of his supporters had turned up armed, and demanded they be permitted into his rally and that he be allowed to lead them at the Capitol.

Trump, who urged his supporters in a fiery speech near the White House to “fight like hell,” was impeached for inciting the mob to storm Congress to halt the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden.

The defeated president’s election fraud falsehoods inspired a welter of restrictive voting laws in conservative states as he endorsed a crop of Republican candidates running to oversee future elections who have tried to undermine faith in the last one.

The hearing comes with the former president’s legal woes mounting, as the Justice Department probes the mishandling of government secrets found at his Florida beach club, Mar-a-Lago.

Individual panelists have publicly suggested Attorney General Merrick Garland should charge Trump over the Capitol attack, although the committee has not announced a formal decision on whether it will make criminal referrals.

It is looking increasingly unlikely that members will subpoena Trump and his vice president Mike Pence, who was threatened by the president’s supporters during the insurrection.

A divided G20 holds talks on Thursday under the shadow of multiple crises, from Russia’s war in Ukraine to a global economic slowdown, on top of soaring inflation and climate change.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 major economies are gathering in Washington during annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank this week that have underscored the multiple challenges the world is facing.

The list of threats ranges from rising interest rates to soaring food prices, along with growing poverty and natural disasters blamed on climate change.

The IMF lowered its growth forecast for the world economy for next year earlier this week, warning that the “worst is yet to come.”

But the G20, which includes Russia, is expected to close its meeting without a joint communique, as in its previous gatherings presided by Indonesia this year.

“It may be difficult to have a joint communique,” said a source in the French economy ministry.

While Western nations have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, other countries have maintained economic ties with Moscow, with India and China stepping up their purchases of Russian oil.

The Group of Seven wealthy democracies is now looking to cap the prices of Russian crude exports, a move aimed at stripping the country of a major source of funding for its war effort.

The G7 — which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — said Wednesday it had made “significant progress” in key parts of its proposal, noting that it had added Australia to its coalition.

Gaining broad global approval for a price cap is a key challenge for the proposal.

The Saudi-led OPEC group of oil exporters has angered the United States by agreeing on a drastic production cut with Russia and other allies, which could send energy prices soaring even higher.

US President Joe Biden warned of “consequences” for Saudi Arabia in an interview with CNN this week.

– ‘We’re cooked’ –

Tensions within the G20 come as leaders are due to meet at a summit in Bali, Indonesia, next month that could see Biden share the same venue as Russian President Vladimir Putin and another rival, Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The lack of consensus within the group also comes ahead of the United Nations’ COP27 climate summit in Egypt in November.

Climate change has been among the central topics of the IMF and World Bank meetings this week.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that the world has to invest up to $6 trillion per year if it is to meet the Paris agreement goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in order to limit the increase in global temperatures.

“If we do not shift our trajectory this decade, we’re cooked. If we don’t want to be cooked, then we should speed up,” Georgieva said Wednesday in talks on climate change.

Ukraine said Wednesday it had reclaimed more territory in the south and welcomed a Western pledge to deliver air defence systems to Kyiv “as fast as we can” after days of intense Russian missile strikes. 

A US-led group of around 50 countries held talks at the NATO headquarters in Brussels and vowed to deliver new anti-missile systems to Kyiv.

Ukraine is reeling from Russian attacks that have left scores dead and wounded as well as villages and towns without power and hot water across the country.

“The systems will be provided, as fast as we can physically get them there,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after the meeting, without giving details.

In a further show of Western solidarity, the G7 vowed to “stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes”, while International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva pledged financial help for the sake of “moving with you in the direction of a strong Ukraine”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has described the Russian missile attacks as an act of terrorism and has pressed the West for an “air shield”, welcomed the promised anti-missile systems.

“The more audacious and cruel Russian terror becomes, the more obvious it is to the world that helping Ukraine to protect the sky is one of the most important humanitarian tasks for Europe today,” Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation.

– ‘Come back to the table’ –

As Ukraine faces a barrage of Russian aerial assaults, Britain on Thursday said it would supply drones and, for the first time, rockets capable of shooting down cruise missiles.

“The AMRAAM rockets… will be provided in the coming weeks for use with the NASAMS air defence systems pledged by the US,” the British defence ministry said in a statement.

In an interview, French President Emmanuel Macron also promised air defences.

“We’re going to deliver… radars, systems and missiles to protect them from these attacks,” Macron said, adding that France was also negotiating to send another six Caesar mobile artillery units.

It was not immediately clear whether the weapons promised by Macron were part of the commitment made in Brussels or separate.

Macron also called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to resume diplomatic negotiations with Kyiv.

“Today, first of all, Vladimir Putin must stop this war, respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and come back to the table for talks,” Macron told broadcaster France 2.

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine, sending what US President Joe Biden said was a “clear message” that Moscow could not erase a sovereign state.

– ‘Under the rubble’ –

Since Monday, Russia has pummelled Ukraine with missiles, damaging energy facilities nationwide in attacks that Putin said were retaliation for last week’s deadly explosion at a Crimean bridge. 

That blast ripped through a road and rail link Moscow uses to transport its military equipment.

Just after 1:00 am Thursday (22:00 GMT), the bombing blitz targeted the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv, obliterating the top floors of a five-storey residential building, according to the mayor.

“(The) rest is under the rubble. Rescuers are working on the spot,” Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram.

And in the town of Avdiivka, Russian strikes killed at least eight people at a market, according to the Ukraine-appointed chief of the region.

The Russian military meanwhile said it has fended off Ukrainian attacks in the eastern Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkiv regions.

But in the latest setback for Putin, Kyiv said Wednesday that it has retaken five more settlements in the southern region of Kherson — one of the four territories Moscow said it annexed in September.

For Ukrainians trapped on the frontline, fears over the relentless exchange of fire are now compounded by the prospect of a winter without power or water.

“Firewood… how can I get it?” said Oleksandra Pylypenko from the eastern town of Bakhmut.

“I don’t know how we’ll survive.”

– ‘Need more artillery’ –

Some of the anti-aircraft defence systems pledged by Western allies began arriving in Ukraine this week.

On the frontline in Donetsk, Western weapons have helped boost Ukrainian morale and the abilities of Kyiv’s forces.

“We definitely need more artillery,” said an officer who gave his name as “Sergiy” with Ukraine’s 5th Regiment on a hill overlooking Russian-held Gorlivka in Donetsk.

“When it comes to artillery, they still have an advantage so we can’t return fire equally,” he added. 

“We are firing more precisely now, but with fewer strikes.”

With Russia’s bombing blitz escalating nuclear fears, UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi arrived in Kyiv for talks on setting up a nuclear safety and protection zone around Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia plant.

Recent unionization drives at Starbucks and Amazon have lifted morale in the US labor movement, but organizers have yet to transform election victories into material change.

Moreover, some union backers such as Will Westlake have paid a price for their activism.

Formerly a Starbucks barista in Buffalo, New York, where the initial union votes took place in December 2021, Westlake was fired earlier this month — ostensibly for not removing a suicide prevention badge from his apron, which he has viewed as an expression of his solidarity with the movement.

But Westlake thinks his firing was payback for his union activism.

“I was number 123” on the list of Starbucks employees to lose their jobs as the campaign has spread to some 250 cafes nationwide, said Westlake.

Starbucks declined to comment on allegations from Starbucks Workers United that the company fired workers for union activism.

But such reprisals at US companies are “pretty routine in this country,” said Ruth Milkman, a sociologist at CUNY in New York.

– Young activists –

Milkman counts herself among the experts in labor relations who have been surprised at the spread of the union drives to a growing slate of corporations, including Apple, REI, Chipotle and Trader Joe’s — companies that union organizers have not in the past viewed as fertile to their efforts.

“This was kind of a different moment,” said Milkman of a period defined by a labor shortage, the pandemic and “a young labor force frustrated by their limited labor market options.” 

US officials have seen a 53 percent jump in the number of union elections over the last year, according to the National Labor Relations Board.

But that increase takes place against the backdrop of a longtime decline in organized labor since the 1980s, with fewer than 10 percent of private-sector employees now unionized.

While union backers have won some high-profile election victories over the last year, in many cases, the successful votes have taken place at small establishments, such as an individual Starbucks cafe.

What’s more, “winning the election is actually the easy part,” said Cedric de Leon, a sociologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

“The hard part is to negotiate the contract,” he said. “And there is nothing the government can really do to force the employers to negotiate in good faith.”

While two Starbucks cafes in Buffalo voted to unionize last December, the first meeting with management on the contract will take place only this month.

The outlook is even murkier at the Staten Island, New York warehouse that in April became the first Amazon site in the United States to unionize.

But Amazon is contesting the vote, alleging improprieties. 

Commenting on a union election now taking place at an upstate New York warehouse, an Amazon spokesman said this week that the company will continue to fight the Staten Island election outcome because “we don’t believe it represents what the majority of our team wants.”

– Culture of intimidation –

Under the Biden administration, the NLRB has for its part cracked down on some anti-union conduct by big corporations, as with a complaint earlier this month against Apple after the company prevented the distribution of union fliers in a break room.

In August, a US judge ordered Starbucks to reinstate seven employees that the NLRB found were unlawfully fired by the coffee giant.

Such moves by companies represent an effort to instill in workers “a culture of fear and intimidation,” said de Leon, noting that support from President Joe Biden and other political leaders will not be enough to make real change.

But “250 Starbucks going out on a nationwide strike, that could be decisive,” he said.

The recent wave of union campaigns has come amid a tight labor market in a period of elevated consumer demand. A recession would alter some of those dynamics, although de Leon notes that previous economically weak periods such as the 1930s and 1970s have boosted unions.

Westlake said he is determined to hold companies like Starbucks to account.

“They are hoping that the public won’t care enough and that in two or three years, they will be able to fire all the union leaders and crush the union,” said Westlake, who has filed a complaint with the NLRB over his dismissal.