--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, June 7th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Ryan Riley: Members of the far-right group The Proud Boys face serious new charges related to the January 6th attack on the Capitol. These major new charges come as the committee investigating the insurrection prepares to hold long-awaited public hearings.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A federal grand jury indicted leader Enrique Tarrio and four other members of the Proud Boys on seditious conspiracy charges. NBC News justice reporter Ryan Riley is working on a book about January 6th. This is a big development, definitely a new group they're using these seditious conspiracy charges against. And it's especially interesting coming ahead of this primetime hearing on Thursday.
--:-- Ryan Riley: The indictment says Tario was aware of plans to storm the Capitol and involved in discussions about occupying buildings on the Hill. It also reveals exchanges in the aftermath of the insurrection. After the election certification was disrupted, someone writes to Tario, "dude, did we just influence history?" His reply, "let's first see how this plays out."
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tario's attorney says his client looks forward to his day in court. Tario previously pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy to obstruct Congress or impede police. This latest charge, seditious conspiracy, that's conspiring to overthrow the government or prevent the execution of U.S. law, it's a historically rare charge. This is the first time it's been used against Proud Boys members. Previously, several members of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, were indicted on seditious conspiracy charges related to January 6th.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Seven states go to the polls today and we're going to focus on California primary. Governor Gavin Newsom looks like he's going to cruise to a pretty easy victory and that's in spite of the recall vote that he faced last year. But let's zoom in on the other races in the state, where there's a different storyline that's worth pulling out.
--:-- Phil Willon: In many states so far, the question has been how much influence Trump has over GOP voters. In California, we're seeing interesting battles within the Democratic Party over progressive voters. And a lot of them are playing out in local races that are further down the ballot. I mean, not to steal a phrase from Stranger Things, but it's kind of an upside-down election.
--:-- Shamita Basu: L.A. Times political reporter Phil Willon says he's watching races in major cities. Take the L.A. mayor's race. The two frontrunners are Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass and Rick Caruso, a billionaire developer who switched from Republican to Democrat. Caruso has poured his fortune into the race, and he's gotten endorsements from celebrities including Snoop Dogg and Kim Kardashian.
--:-- Phil Willon: Caruso is arguing that a non-traditional politician like him is the right choice to fix the issues in L.A., from homelessness to crime. He's coming in as kind of an outsider, saying, "I'm going to clean up L.A." We had kind of the same message of the last kind of Republican mayor, which was Richard Reardon, back in the 90s. And so it's kind of the same playbook. So it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another big race to watch is in San Francisco. District Attorney Chesa Boudin was elected back in 2019 after campaigning on a different approach to criminal justice. He's not throwing the book at people. He's more of a has a new perspective on how to handle criminals now than a lot of like lock them up, throw away the key type of people.
--:-- Phil Willon: But San Francisco has been inundated. I mean, everyone has seen all the TV coverage of these smash and grab robberies. You have drug use that's rampant out in the open. You have a lot of homelessness. And so he's getting blamed for it. Concern over crime is why Boudin is now facing a recall It's a race that testing the limits of progressive criminal justice policy with national implications I mean this will be kind of a bellwether to find out just how Democrats will be affected by this and especially progressive prosecutors.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today's primaries also set the stage for California's congressional races in the general election, which could tilt the balance of power in the House.
--:-- Sarah Logason: In the past few years, doorbell cameras have really taken off. They let you capture and record what's going on near your front door, in theory to catch someone who's trespassing, vandalizing, or otherwise doing something bad on your property. They can definitely play into your paranoia as a homeowner.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But what about for the people being watched? There's definitely at least millions of home security devices out there. So, when you're walking down the street, there's a really good chance that you're showing up on somebody's device, which is just a totally new way for us to operate in the world.
--:-- Sarah Logason: That's Sarah Logason, a sociologist at Rutgers University Newark School of Criminal Justice. She recently wrote about this for Wired, how so many people are ending up in surveillance footage without even knowing it. And what she wanted to figure out was, do these unsuspecting, unconsenting people captured on doorbell cam footage have any rights?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, for the most part, this kind of footage won't end up anywhere publicly. But some people are putting clips up on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, either to get laughs or to shame people. It's a very tricky and slippery slope, I think, once it starts to make it onto social media. And then, of course, once it's out there, it's out there.
--:-- Sarah Logason: And there's been stories of people who have been accused of doing something wrong. Lagason said homeowners sometimes jump to unfair conclusions based entirely on a person's appearance. So often someone will see a black person in a predominantly white neighborhood and post a video and claim that this person is suspicious when they obviously aren't.
--:-- Shamita Basu: When it comes to legal recourse Lagason told us the law falls on the side of the person who owns the camera As she put it in the U.S., "we don't have very strong privacy rights." So instead, it boils down to ethics. We have the legal right to post it, but should we do it? And if we do do it, you know, what are the harms? And I think that some of the harms is this idea of the normalization of surveillance, that everywhere you go, you're currently at risk of having video content of yourself being posted online.
--:-- Sarah Logason: Lagason says people tend to want it both ways. We want to be able to watch the world because it makes us feel safe, but we don't want the cameras watching us because it makes us feel violated. That tension between security and privacy is why the ethics around doorbell cams are so murky.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We are getting close to the end of the NHL playoffs. And in recent months, something pretty weird's been going on in the stands. Just listen to this chant at a New Jersey Devils game. They're chanting, "let's go refs." And they're dressed as referees in black and white stripes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, refs are used to getting booed and cursed at by fans. But the Wall Street Journal looks into this growing group who show up to hockey games to cheer for the officials. It started as a joke, and for many, that's all that it is. But this fringe cheering section has gotten bigger and bigger. They cheer when the ref drops the puck. They'll yell encouraging things like, "wow, great call." It's also a celebration of sportsmanship. It's like the total opposite of trash talk. And maybe it comes in handy as the playoffs unfold. Even after your team is knocked out, you can always cheer for the referees.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And when you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
