The State of Georgia will officially commemorate Ahmad Arbery on Wednesday, the second anniversary of his death.

This month, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution declaring February 23 Ahmaud Arbery Day forever. Legislators called Mr. Arbery one of the state’s “most distinguished citizens” and said he suffered “a senseless loss of life because of the color of his skin.”

The resolution noted two significant legislative changes in response to the 2020 murder of Mr. Arbery outside the Brunswick community of South Georgia: a new state hate crimes law and the repeal of the 19th-century Georgia Citizens Arrest Act, a law that was originally referred to as justification for the actions of Mr. Arbery’s persecutors.

Several events are planned in Brunswick to mark the anniversary, including a march, a 2.23-mile run in honor of Mr Arbery and a walk through the Satilla Shores neighborhood where he was killed.

In Atlanta, the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation, founded by Mr. Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, will hold an event in his memory. The Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the mental health and well-being of black men and boys.

And in Marietta, Georgia, on Wednesday, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office will hold a prayer vigil and celebration of the anniversary of Mr. Arbery’s death. They were attorneys from Cobb County who had successfully litigated Mr. Arbery’s murder in state court last fall.

“Eventually, the evidence in this case will prove that if Ahmad Arbery had been white, he would have gone for a run, checked out the house under construction, and returned home in time for Sunday dinner,” said Bobby Bernstein. the Justice Department lawyer told the jury. “Instead, he went for a run and ended up saving his life by running. Instead, he bled out, alone and scared, in the middle of the street.”

Gregory McMichael’s lawyer, A.J. Balbo, told the jury that Mr. McMichael was not tracking a black man that day, but was specifically stalking Mr. Arbery, after a police officer showed security camera images of Mr. Arbery entering a nearby house under construction.

Mr Arbery entered the house numerous times in the weeks leading up to the shooting, including minutes before the start of the chase, although there is no evidence that he stole or vandalized property inside. Twelve days before the shooting, Travis McMichael also saw Mr. Arbery outside the house and called 911, claiming to have seen Mr. Arbery reach for his belt. reaches for the gun.

Travis McMichael’s lawyer, Amy Lee Copeland, noted that her client was shocked rather than “delighted” after the shooting, which occurred after Mr. Arbery, pinned down by two trucks, collided with a younger Mr. McMichael, who at that moment came out of his truck with a shotgun in hand.

Mr. Theodokion noted that his client, Mr. Brian, knew nothing of Mr. Arbery’s history with the McMichaels or his home visits when he saw Mr. Arbery run past his home with the McMichaels chasing him. . Mr. Bryan joined the prosecution, suggesting that Mr. Arbery had done something wrong enough to justify the prosecution, Mr. Balbo said.

Mr. Arbery’s death was greeted with disgust by both conservative and liberal lawmakers in Georgia. This prompted state legislators to significantly loosen the citizens’ arrest law, which was cited by one local prosecutor shortly after the shooting, arguing that the three men should not be arrested. It also prompted them to pass the state’s hate crimes law.

The legislature also passed a resolution this month declaring Wednesday, the two-year anniversary of the assassination, “Ahmad Arbery Day.”

The Dec. 3 document was the first in a series of US and British attempts to declassify intelligence about Russia’s plans, which were supposed to include details of a Russian subversion campaign, a coup plot, an elaborate attempt to use a fake video. create a pretext for invasion and other false flag operations conspired by the Russian military intelligence, the GRU

Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin spoke via secure video link for an hour and 59 minutes on the morning of December 7, just three days after the declassified document was made public. According to US officials, the president offered Putin a choice: settle for diplomacy or risk serious economic and political repercussions from sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine.

In some ways, Mr. Biden was clearly ready for this moment. Having visited Ukraine half a dozen times over the past decade, he knows the country better than any other American president. His foreign policy team is made up of what are often called “Atlantists” who have been thinking about European security all their lives. (Anthony J. Blinken, Secretary of State, grew up in Paris.)

Aides also said Mr. Biden’s long association with Mr. Putin has made him less receptive to the Russian president’s tactics. In conversations about Ukraine, officials said Mr. Putin often liked to go on and on about the minutiae of the Minsk agreements, a complex multi-year diplomatic effort with Ukraine, in the hope of confusing the situation.

Mobilization of troops

Last Christmas, the Russian military publicly announced the withdrawal of 10,000 troops from the border with Ukraine, calling it proof that Mr. Putin was not going to invade the neighboring country anytime soon.

Inside the White House, the President and his team did not believe it.

Intelligence officials have witnessed repeated instances of the Russians moving a battalion tactical group close to the border, building up the infrastructure needed for a quick invasion, and then pulling the troops back, leaving a shell that other battalions could use. The Russian National Guard or other armed forces loyal to Mr. Putin.

California hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006, but Lanhee Chen thinks this could be the year one of the country’s bluest states shows red.

Chen, 43, aspires to be the state’s controller, de facto chief financial officer. He’s challenging incumbent Betty Yee, a Democrat.

The first round of voting in the California primary system will take place in June, and the general election, in which Chen and Yi will face off, will take place in November. The state has not elected a Republican Comptroller since the 1970s.

Although this is his first run for public office, Chen, a professor at Stanford University, is no stranger to political struggle. He was policy director for Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign and served in the administration of President George W. Bush.

In the interview, he spoke about why he is running, why he thinks he can win, and about his party’s last two presidential flag bearers. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

Why run for controller instead of going big and running for governor or starting a local job on the school board or city council?

It’s an extremely valuable platform for those who want to make a difference in the way the government runs its business – the ability to check any agency, you can really go in there and make things right. And I’m talking about diagnosing the problems our state is facing. And for me, the problems that the state faces are primarily of a fiscal nature. So this office for me is great for what I want to do and I think we can fix things even if it’s not the most glamorous office.

What are the biggest challenges California faces?

The cost of living is high – no one can afford a house. And if they can, they save up for it for decades. The problem of homelessness, which is related to the quality of life and the environment in general, has worsened even during the time that I have lived there since returning home in 2013. Public safety concerns are very real, and they have become much more public with the mass robberies of the summer.

California Republicans have historically won in moments of unrest. But can you still count on political backlash in these polarized times when people tend to stick to their party no matter the issue?

It was something that had been building for a long time. If you had asked me the same question two or four years ago, perhaps the answer would have been no. I think now the situation has become so acute. Look how many revocable elections we have, whether it’s for governor or the school board and district attorney in San Francisco. The level of reaction to what we see goes beyond the party, beyond the ideology – it’s about people’s experiences. I think the anger, this frustration is palpable. I hear it from the Democrats, I hear it from the Independents and from the Republicans. So that makes me think that, yes, it could transcend the partisan polarization that we’ve seen.

How do you diagnose your party’s problems in California? Why can’t Republicans even compete across the state?

Party leadership in California has generally been focused on winning targeted races to the state legislature and to Congress. You can’t blame them for that rationale, but the problem is that you don’t have a nationwide voter contact infrastructure. This is number 1.

#2: There were no candidates able to articulate and articulate the kind of message and vision that appeals to Californians in general.

Let’s say you’re campaigning at a farmers’ market in, say, Santa Barbara or Monterey, and a voter comes up to you and seems to like you. But they are wary of voting for Trump’s party. What will you tell them?

I think it’s very important to understand where I come from and why I think it’s important to have someone with a different party orientation than the rest of the people in the state government. So start with the notion that checks and balances are important. But then I move on to talking about the Republican Party that I know and the Republican Party that I think we can build again based on ideas like responsibility and accountability. At some point, we will have to move away from individuals, and I don’t know when that will come.

So why not just work as an independent?

From a practical point of view, if you are not worth several billion dollars, you will not be able to create the necessary base. But there is a more important point. I think sincerity matters a lot in politics, and I’ve been a Republican all my life. I’ve never been registered as someone else and I think it’s important to be yourself.

As liberal as it is, California has millions of dedicated Trump supporters. How do you balance appealing to the political center without alienating the people of MAGA?

What Governor Glenn Youngkin has done successfully in Virginia: You have focused on the issues of the state and solved the problems that are right in front of us. If you don’t focus on them, you risk not only not getting the job done, but also talking about things that are not relevant to the daily lives of people in your state.

Let’s say you get two phone calls: the first is from Mitt Romney and the second is from Donald Trump. Both want to come to California for your campaign. What will you tell them?

I’d just say I’m doing my thing. Now I have to say this: obviously I have a lot of respect and admiration for Mitt Romney. There are very few things I wouldn’t do for him.

Jonathan Martin is National Political Correspondent for The New York Times.

Other news

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

• Weather warning: Snow expected through Wednesday in highlands over large swathes of Central California, including Yosemite Valley as well as Vine.

• Camping deaths: The phone records of a family who died while walking along the Merced River last summer show texts and calls pleading for help. The Associated Press reports.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

• Neighborhood Trouble: A huge black bear known as Tank Hank has broken into at least 28 homes. looking for food in South Lake Tahoe.

• Missing Women: The Yurok tribe declared a state of emergency after several Indigenous women were killed or went missing on the coast of Northern California. It is reported by the Associated Press.

What you get

Homes worth $1.8 million in California, Maine and New Mexico.

Where are we going

Today’s travel tip comes from Al Evers, who recommends Reinhard Redwood Regional Park in the bay area:

“A hidden redwood forest lies off Redwood Road just a few miles from downtown Oakland along the ridge. The peaceful woodland groves offer little evidence of the park’s turbulent past—the area saw extensive logging in the mid-1800s to supply building materials for the San Francisco Bay Area. The era of logging is long gone, and the felled ones have been replaced by a majestic forest of 150-foot coastal redwoods.”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Send your suggestions to [email protected]. We will report more in future editions of the newsletter.

What do we read

A new book about the history of PayPal and the entrepreneurs who shaped Silicon Valley.

And before you leave, good news

The waterfall in Yosemite National Park is expected to turn into a ribbon of bright fiery orange for a few minutes at sunset this week.

With sufficient rainfall and clear skies, Horsetail Falls, which cascades down the east side of El Capitan, can become a “fire fall” for a few weeks each year in late February.

The angle of light during sunset can make a stream of water “glow and look like it’s on fire.” a spokesperson for the park said.

Two Louisiana sheriff’s deputies have been arrested on manslaughter charges and fired after police officials said they shot and killed an unarmed man in a parked car last week.

Sheriff Joseph P. Lopinto III of Jefferson County said the use of force by officers “was not justified” after they shot dead a man, Daniel Valle, during a confrontation with police early Wednesday morning in Marrero, Louisiana, south of New Orleans.

The shooting happened around 2 am when police, responding to a noise complaint in the area, found Mr. Valle in a car parked in front of a “known drug den,” the sheriff said. said during a press conference on Monday evening.

According to the sheriff, the police repeatedly ordered Valla, 34, to get out of the car, but he refused. During the standoff, which lasted about 12 minutes, Mr. Valle locked the doors and eventually started the car’s engine, according to Sheriff Lopinto.

“This, of course, aggravated the situation,” he said. “Many of my deputies drew their weapons at this point, expecting him to try to take off.”

According to Sheriff Lopinto, during the collision, Mr. Valle raised his hands, but at some point lowered them, hitting the car horn.

“My opinion is that this horn, whether it frightens my deputy or my deputy reacts to the shot of the horn, ends up firing his weapon,” the sheriff said. “The second deputy fired his weapon in response to this shot.”

According to Sheriff Lopinto, both officers fired several shots. Three other officers present at the scene did not fire their weapons.

sheriff identified fired officers like Isaac Hughes, 29, and Jonathan Louis, 35. Mr Hughes has been with the department since 2013 and Mr Louis since 2020. Each faces one charge of manslaughter.

“Unfortunately, the use of force in this situation was not justified,” Sheriff Lopinto said, adding that he believed the shooting was “definitely unintentional.”

The officers cooperated with the investigation, Sheriff Lopinto said, and the body-camera footage of the confrontation, which has not yet been released, “reinforces” what the officers told investigators about the shooting.

Sheriff Lopinto said the shooting was the first time police body cameras had been recorded since the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office began using them last year. The office adopted the technology after a video of one of its deputies attacking a woman. attracted national news Attention.

The Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union has filed several lawsuits over the past two years against the sheriff’s office in connection with what the ACLU calls incidents of violence. severe beatings as well as racial profiling.

Last week, Glenn McGovern, a civil rights lawyer hired by Mr. Vallee’s family, told a New Orleans news stationWWL-TV that Mr. Valle’s constitutional rights had been violated and asked why the police didn’t use other tactics to get him out of the car.

Mr. McGovern did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

IN interview last week with NOLA.comMr. Valle’s relatives said he had long struggled with drug addiction but was not a violent person.

“He is a struggling drug addict. That doesn’t mean he should have been shot the way he was,” his aunt Tara Phillips told the news outlet.

Derrick Bryson Taylor contributed reporting.

The mental health crisis in the country is “not a research problem, it’s an implementation problem,” he said. Good treatments for serious illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder already exist, he says, and service provision is not the responsibility of NIMH scientists.

“It has nothing to do with what they do,” he said. “He asks for French food from an Italian restaurant.”

However, his comments angered the agency he ran.

In an interview, Dr. Gordon, current director of NIMH, said that Dr. Insel did not acknowledge “some of the really great things that have been done at NIMH” during his tenure, or “the tremendous work that we continue to do in research that have short-term implications for mental health care.”

He gave examples of two new treatments developed from neurobiological research: ketamine treatment-resistant depression and brexanolone for postpartum depression. He said the NIMH also funded research that led to therapies being used today, such as a large-scale study that established the effectiveness of integrated services for people experiencing their first episode of psychosis.

As for major breakthroughs, he said, they take decades to materialize. Dr. Gordon was in graduate school when scientists cloned the Huntington’s disease gene, and it’s only now, three decades later, that work has led to effective new treatments. It would be “bravado” to envisage revolutionary treatments in the short term, he said.

Definitive treatments for autism, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia based on genetics “are unlikely to be successful in the next five or ten years,” he said. But researchers have identified hundreds of relevant genes and are “beginning to understand the function of these genes in the context of the brain,” which he says could provide a path to better treatments.

Maybe it’s the same bravado? he said. “I don’t use a date.”

As for Dr. Inzel, he now sees himself in a different role, not unlike Al Gore, who, after serving as a senator and vice president, reinvented himself as a climate change truth teller.

Democratic candidate for Congress in Oklahoma apologized in a TV interview on Friday after parents complained that she was drinking and verbally abusing children attending a sleepover at a friend’s house that month.

House candidate Abby Broyles, a former investigative television reporter who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2020, said she had no memory of what happened because she mixed alcohol and sleeping pills. About eight girls, aged 12 to 13, attended a sleepover on February 11 where they watched the movie Titanic. Nondok Mediajournalistic non-profit organization in Oklahoma.

When first contacting NonDoc Media for comment, Ms. Broyles appeared to deny she was at the party. After a TikTok video showed otherwise, she was interviewed by KFOR-TV, the Oklahoma City station where she once worked. She did not immediately respond to a message from The Times on Monday.

In an interview, Ms. Broyles said she passed out after drinking wine and taking sleeping pills. She said that the medicine had been given to her by a friend whose daughter was staying overnight when Miss Broyles arrived.

“I had an adverse reaction,” Ms Broyles said. “Instead of helping me sleep, I was hallucinating. And I don’t remember anything until I woke up or came to my senses and I was throwing up in a trash can.”

Ms. Broyles, 32, a lawyer, is seeking her party’s nomination in June to run against Rep. Stephanie Bice, a first-term Republican representing Oklahoma’s Fifth Congressional District. The Democrat has only held the seat once in recent history, and for only two years. The area includes most of Oklahoma City.

In 2020 Miss Broyles ran unsuccessfully to throw off Senator James Inhofe, Republican from Oklahoma.

Citing information from some parents and children present at the party, NonDoc Media reported that Ms. Broyles scolded one girl, also mentioned that she was Hispanic, and mentioned another girl’s acne among other offensive remarks. They said she not only vomited in the laundry basket, but also in the shoes of one of the girls.

On Wednesday, ahead of Ms. Broyles’ televised apology, Sarah Matthews, whose daughter was at the party, blasted the candidate on Twitter. for not being able to contact the girls or apologize.

“For someone who preaches that you should always be for a woman, I am outraged by your behavior and find it terrible that you cannot understand why their parents are angry,” Ms Matthews wrote. “Your vile, cruel and bigoted behavior cannot be justified.”

In an interview that aired Friday, Ms Broyles told the network she had struggled with stress, anxiety and insomnia for years, but had never experienced anything like what happened at the party.

“I remember when I started hallucinating and the rest is just blurry,” she said. “I remember how I opened my eyes, and I felt bad in this basket, and I didn’t know where I was. It was the most horrible experience I’ve ever had.”

Ms. Broyles stated that the actions and words attributed to her were completely out of character.

“First of all, I want to once again apologize to the families. And for the people who say I just passed out and making it up, you don’t know me,” she said. “I would never, ever say something hurtful like that, and so I know I was out of my mind.”

Asked if she had a substance abuse problem, Ms. Broyles replied, “No.”

J. Pete Theodokion, Mr. Brian’s attorney, said his client would help stalk any person who was stalked down his street, regardless of race. “His instincts told him that people aren’t chased like that, people aren’t chased like that, unless they did something wrong,” he said.

AJ Balbo, Greg McMichael’s attorney, noted that police had previously shown Mr. McMichael security footage of Mr. Arbery inside a house under construction next to the McMichael home. This meant that Mr. McMichael recognized Mr. Arbery on the afternoon of February 23, 2020, when Mr. Arbery ran past him.

“When he stands in the driveway and looks up, he may not know Mr. Arbery’s name, but he knows who he is,” Mr. Balbo said of Mr. McMichael.

Mr. Balbo offered jurors a hypothetical: what if a black man who didn’t look like Mr. Arbery, say, a 350-pound man with a tall Mohawk, had run down the street that day? Mr. Balbo argued that Mr. McMichael would not go after such a person.

Mr. Balbo also noted that no evidence was presented in court that his client used racist slurs, although he did make racist provocative statements. At trial, investigators noted that they were unable to fully search Mr. McMichael’s encrypted mobile phone for digital evidence of past behavior.

Notably, the jury in the case was not informed that Mr Bryan had told investigators that Travis McMichael used racist slurs in the moment after he shot Mr Arbery. This important detail, denied by Mr. McMichael’s lawyers, was probably not presented because Mr. Bryan exercised his Fifth Amendment right not to testify.

This, in turn, would deprive Mr. McMichael of his Sixth Amendment right to confront his accuser.