The Jan. 6 committee's legacy

+ advances in male birth control US Edition - Today's top story: What the Jan. 6 committee could learn from the failures of truth commissions to bring justice and accountability [View in browser]( US Edition | 12 October 2022 [The Conversation]( The U.S. Congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack led gripping, and often devastating, public hearings earlier this year that kept many viewers – including myself – glued to their screens. But I also kept circling back to one tricky question. The Congressional committee lacks legal authority to charge former president Donald Trump or others for their alleged involvement in the riots. So, what could this all ultimately lead to? These sorts of committees are uncommon in the U.S., but groups often known as truth commissions [have carried out high-profile work in other countries]( following political controversies and conflict, from Guatemala to South Africa. After a monthslong break, the Jan. 6 Congressional committee will hold new hearings on Thursday. Rachel Bowen, a political science scholar at the Ohio State University, explores the committee’s potential legacy. “The Jan. 6 committee is not investigating a military dictatorship, as has happened in Latin America. But it is creating a historical record that will shape how Americans think about their own democracy for years to come,” she writes. Also today: - [Anthony Bourdain’s family lambastes a new biography about the deceased chef]( - [The voters who challenge other citizens’ right to vote]( - [How everyday Russians feel about the draft]( Amy Lieberman Politics + Society Editor The U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol resumes on Sept. 28, 2022. Win McNamee/Getty Images [What the Jan. 6 committee could learn from the failures of truth commissions to bring justice and accountability]( Rachel E. Bowen, The Ohio State University While the Jan. 6 committee investigating the US Capitol attacks has limited legal powers, it can help craft an accurate narrative of American democracy and history. Politics + Society - [Russia is enlisting hundreds of thousands of men to fight against Ukraine, but public support for Putin is falling]( Arik Burakovsky, Tufts University While Russian public opinion polls show continued support for the war, there are questions about the polls’ reliability and indications that public approval of Putin is declining. - [Challenges to voters are growing before the midterms – and have a long history as a way of keeping down the Black vote]( Austin Sarat, Amherst College On Nov. 8, the US may experience a surge of voters intimidated by Election Day challenges to their right to cast a ballot. Science + Technology - [NASA successfully shifted an asteroid’s orbit – DART spacecraft crashed into and moved Dimorphos]( David Barnhart, University of Southern California The Double Asteroid Redirection Test successfully showed that it is possible to crash a spacecraft into a small asteroid and change its orbit. This technique could save Earth from asteroids in the future. - [Male birth control options are in development, but a number of barriers still stand in the way]( Christina Chung-Lun Wang, University of California, Los Angeles There hasn’t been a new form of male birth control since the 1980s. More contraception options for all partners could help reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies. Arts + Culture - [Anthony Bourdain and the farce of the ‘unauthorized’ biography]( Nigel Hamilton, UMass Boston Bourdain’s brother, Christopher, has called for the publisher, Simon & Schuster, to halt publication until the book’s ‘many errors were corrected.’ Economy + Business - [Putting King Charles III on British currency bucks a global trend to honor diverse national heroes on coins and bills]( Harcourt Fuller, Georgia State University The new money – featuring the visage of King Charles III – will start rolling out by December 2022. 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