WaPo:
Greg and Travis McMichael, William Bryan guilty of hate crimes in Ahmaud Arbery killing
Trial was the first connected to high-profile 2020 killings of Black Americans to focus squarely on race.
The verdict came after just over two hours of deliberations, following a trial in Brunswick, Ga., that focused on a history of racist and offensive statements from Gregory McMichael, 66, Travis McMichael, 36, and William “Roddie” Bryan, 52.
Jurors found the men guilty of all the federal charges they faced: using force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his race, and attempted kidnapping, for all three defendants; and a weapons violation for the McMichaels.
Paul McLeod/BuzzFeed:
How The Ottawa Anti-Vaccine Mandate Trucker Occupation Collapsed
Ottawa police are vowing to hold protesters accountable after the downtown core was occupied for three weeks.
Police succeeded Saturday in taking back control of downtown Ottawa from the "Freedom Convoy" truckers, methodically forcing out the anti-mandate protesters who occupied the city for three weeks.
Police formed lines and pushed forward a few feet at a time starting in the morning, shoving back protesters and then towing the cars and trucks that clogged city streets. No one was killed or seriously injured, police said. Protesters tried desperately to “hold the line” and push police back, but sapped by defections and freezing cold temperatures, they were overwhelmed. Several protesters were pepper-sprayed and 170 were arrested as of Saturday afternoon.
By midday Saturday, protest leaders had thrown up the white flag figuratively and literally — organizer Pat King told his followers, quite wrongly, that waving a white flag meant they could not be arrested under international law. Another organizer, Tom Marazzo, held a press conference where he accused the police of brutality and excessive force, but also said truckers were willingly leaving the city.
NY Times:
After Trucker Protest, Canada Grapples With a Question: Was It a Blip, or Something Bigger?
The demonstrators were passionate, organized and supported financially, but such spontaneous movements often have a tough time converting their energy into real change.
A cavalcade of big rigs rumbled into the Canadian capital, blocked major streets, drew thousands of supporters, enraged residents and captured the attention of a shocked nation for three weeks. Now they’re gone, leaving Canadians to grapple with some high-stakes questions about their country’s political future.
Was the occupation an aberration, or was it the beginning of a more fundamental shift in the country’s political landscape? Did their chaotic blockade alienate the public so much that the movement has no shot at a future, or did it form the base for a lasting political organization?
Charlie Angus/CIGIOnline:
Lessons from the Convoy: We Are Losing the War on Disinformation
The “freedom convoy” began as a squabble over border vaccination rules but quickly metastasized into a projection of all manner of social and political discontent. It has been hard to categorize because there are so many incoherent and seemingly contradictory elements. But this is the issue we must now confront: the unrest has revealed a fundamental fissure in how we, as citizens, perceive social reality in Canada.
I began to understand the seriousness of this disconnect as I struggled to engage with constituents about what was happening with the occupation of Ottawa. When I posted an article about how journalists were taking extra precautions because of the threats of potential violence, several people responded with ridicule. A grandmother summed it up, “If the media didn’t lie, they wouldn’t need to worry [about violence].” When I explained that I’ve witnessed harassment of local businesses in the occupied zone, some people accused me of lying, or said I deserved to be put on trial.
How do you discuss politics when you’re not arguing facts but reality itself? The convoy has been sustained within an information ecosystem in which people from across demographics, genders and life experiences have simply opted out of national media or other anchors of commonality. They have their own Facebook feeds, Reddit channels and Slack chat information buttressing an utterly alternate reality of science, medicine and politics.
National Post (Canada):
Motion to confirm Emergencies Act approved in House of Commons
The NDP voted in favour alongside the minority Liberals, with some expressing concerns a 'no' vote would have toppled the government
The motion to confirm the declaration of emergency passed 185-151, with the New Democrats voting in favour alongside the minority Liberal government.
The Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois opposed it.
The vote to approve the measures will keep them in place until mid-March at the latest and the Senate must also vote on the government’s request.
At any point, the Senate, House or government could pull support and the extraordinary powers stemming from the emergencies law would be torn up.
Speaking to reporters on Monday before the vote, Trudeau made it clear that there are still protesters and truckers awaiting an opportunity to come back to Ottawa, some of which are in the towns of Arnprior and Embrun, respectively 70 and 45 kilometres away from Ottawa.
This is a puzzler.
Eric Topol/LA Times:
The pandemic isn’t over. Omicron won’t be the last coronavirus variant to haunt us
Think back to late June 2021, when there was containment of the American COVID-19 pandemic with fewer than 12,000 new cases a day and a total of 15,000 patients in the hospital. There was a declaration of independence from the virus on July 4, just as the Delta variant was starting its exponential growth. A major surge ensued, which was followed by yet another one with the Omicron variant, peaking with nearly 160,000 people hospitalized and almost 2,700 deaths per day — the most deaths since vaccinations became widely available.
Even now, as we are descending from the Omicron wave, we still have more than 60,000 patients in the hospital and more than 2,000 deaths per day.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus is still with us and is adroit at finding new ways to infect us at scale. As it evolved from the original strain in late 2019, and progressed to the Alpha and Delta variants, it became more virulent and infectious, not less. There is a misconception that the virus is destined to evolve to a more benign form. If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that the virus has an extraordinary ability to adapt — and it is unpredictable.
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