A few weeks ago, Donald Trump decried politicians who did not share their Covid-19 vaccine booster status as “gutless”—a seeming swipe at other Republicans with presidential ambitions, mainly Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who were keeping mum on the matter.

Days later, Trump took the stage in Arizona and didn’t mention his vaccination status or encourage others to get it, as he had at past rallies. He has not talked about booster shots since.

The silence from the former president is not coincidental. Within Trump’s circles, there is a growing sense that encouraging vaccines too aggressively could carry political risks. Like much of the rest of the GOP, the current calculation has been to rail against vaccine mandates but keep quiet on the push for the vaccines themselves.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/31/vaccine-skeptics-gop-politics-trump-00003759

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday moved to restore a federal determination that allowed it to regulate mercury, lead and other toxic metals from coal-fired and oil-fired power plants.

Under the Obama administration, the EPA said it had the authority to regulate emissions of mercury and other toxic metals from power plant emissions under the Clean Air Act as long as EPA officials determined it was “appropriate and necessary.”

In 2020, the Trump administration withdrew that determination, saying that regulators made errors when calculating the costs and benefits of the rules. That revocation led a coal producer to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit to eliminate the regulations that Obama-era officials had relied on to regulate air pollutants.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-moves-to-restore-obama-era-rules-on-power-plants-11643664569

A star of Afghanistan's national women's basketball team thought she would be in Canada by now, building a new life with her family after they were forced to flee their old one.

Instead, they're stuck living in a northern Albania hotel, mired in uncertainty.

Dozens of female Afghan athletes who bravely represented their country at home and abroad are at the same hotel and in the same predicament — anxious for any news about their futures as they grow increasingly concerned for the family members they left behind.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/afghanistan-women-athletes-canada-1.6333338

None of those things are likely to happen, most agree. But if nothing else, the convoy has succeeded in organizing and mobilizing a large number of people. And that means the movement likely will not end once the trucks pull out of the nation’s capital.

“I think they go back home and continue their anti-government — especially anti-Trudeau — agitation, but now they have hundreds of thousands of people listening,” says Amarnath Amarasingam, assistant professor in the department of political studies at Queen’s University.

“Several of the organizers of the convoy are now basically influencers and have massive followings. They’ve shown they can mobilize; they’ve shown they can fundraise; and they’ve shown they can garner a large social media presence.

“This is basically the maturing of a kind of Tea Party movement in Canada. They will be with us for some time.”

“To the extent it’s a piece of theatre that can actually help to raise consciousness, then it will have served a purpose, I think, for the movement.”

An anti-Trudeau sentiment plus a large group of people angry enough to do something about it? That’s enough to make an opposition politician’s ears prick up.

https://www.thestar.com/news/analysis/2022/01/31/what-happens-after-the-freedom-convoy-leaves-are-we-seeing-the-emergence-of-canadas-tea-party.html