Jew World Order

The second attack on the US Capitol building in under three months was preceded by pressure from mostly Republican lawmakers to remove extra security measures put in place after the first, our senior US correspondent Richard Hall reports.

Following a review of the measures, the outer fencing was removed just over a week ago, with US Capitol Police saying on Twitter that it remained “ready to quickly ramp up security at a moment’s notice, if needed”.

It is unclear what led to the removal of the outer fencing, but originally Capitol police had requested that it stay for an additional 180 days beyond the deadline that expired in March, according to CNN.

My colleague Ian Johnston has this detailed piece on what we know so far about the suspect in yesterday’s attack at the Capitol.

The relative noise from corporations over Georgia’s new voting bill appears to be coming as campaigners heap pressure on large firms to shoulder their weight in protecting America’s democratic freedoms – something many have seemed previously reluctant to do.

Under threat of boycott and bad publicity from activists, some of whom reportedly allege business leaders should have used their billions-worth of financial clout and often cosy political relationships to block the bill, many executives appear to have shown a fresh willingness to enter the fray on an issue not directly related to their bottom line, even when it meant alienating Republican allies.

“We want to hold corporations accountable for how they show up when voting rights are under attack,” said Marc Banks, a spokesperson for civil rights group NAACP told AP. “Corporations have a part to play, because when they do show up and speak, people listen.”

A statement on Friday on the Georgia voting law from nearly 200 firms such as Uber and Snapchat – part of a group called Civic Alliance, whose claim to recognise “that a strong democracy is good for business” marries with campaigners’ calls – publicly urged politicians to fight against “hundreds of bills threatening to make voting more difficult in dozens of states nationwide”.

Read more here the history of corporate American campaigning and how local battles against these laws are shaping up – or not:

My colleague Louise Hall has the details of Donald Trump’s attack on Major League Baseball.

Donald Trump has delivered a written rant about “woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections”, in a statement published via the Save America PAC.

The former president is among Republicans to call for a boycott of Major League Baseball over its decision to move its All-Star Game out of Georgia in protest against a new state bill tightening voting restrictions.

Critics of the bill – who include the chief executives of Coca Cola and Delta Airlines – say it amounts to voter suppression, which targets ethnic minorities.

The new legislation, signed by Republican governor Brian Kemp, places new limitations on the number of ballot drop boxes, adds new photo ID requirements for mail-in ballots and shortens the period in which people can apply for them.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the decision to pull the game out of Georgia was “the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport”.

Yesterday’s deadly attack at the US Capitol’s perimeter could delay the gradual reopening of the building’s grounds to the public just as politicians were eyeing a return to more normal security measures following Trump supporters’ assault on the complex, AP reports.

As well as blocking major arteries across the city, the fencing around the Capitol – until recently partly covered in razor wire reportedly added in response to a perceived possible threat from QAnon followers – has served as a stark symbol of the fear felt by many who work there.

“It’s an eyesore, it sucks,” said the Democratic chair of the House spending committee Tim Ryan.

“Nobody wants that there. But the question is, is the environment safe enough to be able to take it down? In the meantime, maybe that fence can prevent some of these things from happening,” he said in the hours after yesterday’s attack.

Mr Ryan stressed that no decisions had been made, and that politicians would be “reviewing everything” after Friday’s breach. His committee, along with others, is looking at not only the fence but at the staffing, structure, and intelligence capabilities of the Capitol Police.

“The scab got ripped off again here today,” Mr Ryan said. “So we’ve got to figure this out.”

In an interview with The Independent about his new film The Mauritanian – which dramatises Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s experiences of being held in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years without charge – Benedict Cumberbatch has said he is “going to plead” with Joe Biden to close the US military detention camp.

“It’s an atrocious own goal, I think for the free world to be incarcerating people through extraordinary rendition, torturing them and extracting confessions they think are then usable in prosecution,” he said.

“It is a really dangerous, unnecessary and ineffectual place, I think, and enough people have suffered there.”

Read the full interview, including more of his comments on Guantanamo Bay, here:

With tensions continuing to rise between Russia and Ukraine, Joe Biden has spoken with the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since taking office more than two months ago.

The call with Mr Zelensky, who has asked for greater western support, came as US and Nato officials warned of a Russian military build-up near eastern Ukraine.

The White House said Mr Biden “affirmed the United States’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression”.

Read Graeme Massie’s full report here:

After the car attack suspect was named as Noah R Green, a 25-year-old from Indiana, The New York Times and other outlets reported that he had described himself as a supporter of Louis Farrakhan – leader of the so-called “Nation of Islam” group.

Mr Farrakhan is described by the Anti-Defamation League as “a notable extremist figure, railing against Jews, white people and the LGBT community”.

Citing Green’s now-deleted Facebook page, The Times reported that the suspect said he had been struggling through the last few months of the pandemic, had recently left his job and had been “faced with fear, hunger, loss of wealth and diminution of fruit”.

Speaking at yesterday’s press conference, Washington Metropolitan Police Department’s acting chief Robert J Contee, said investigators did not initially believe the attack was “terrorism-related”.

Here are some of the reactions from political leaders in Washington DC.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said those in the chamber “could not be more grateful” for the officers’ heroism:

And his Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer said “we will be forever indebted” to Officer Evans.