Contactless payment is probably more COVID-safe than MetroCards, and now it’s a better deal, too.

Happening in the World: The convoys of far-right truckers protesting Canada’s cross-border vaccine mandate continue to occupy major Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa. The latter city has declared a state of emergency, and many residents of these areas have reported that the truckers have been harassing them and blockading traffic. The most recent developments in this saga include a mandate that the truckers stop using their vehicles’ horns and the discovery that up to a quarter of the vehicles could be sheltering children. The Canadian authorities have arrested a few dozen demonstrators, but coordinated direct action from the Canadian government is yet to come. (BBC)

Happening in the US: In what appears to be a growing fracture between factions of the Republican Party, Republican minority leader Senator Mitch McConnell has publicly criticized the Republican National Committee’s censuring of Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. This condemnation of the two Representatives stemmed from their service as the only Republicans on the House of Representatives select committee assembled to investigate the January 6 Capitol uprising. McConnell stated in a press conference that the act of censuring Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger was divisive and needlessly distracting to the greater Republican cause. (Reuters)

Happening in NYC: If you’ve been looking for an excuse to retire your MetroCard and embrace OMNY, this great deal on subway fare might just be it. The MTA has announced that it will be expanding its fare-capping program to a four-month-long pilot starting February 28. The program operates as follows: If a subway or bus rider uses the OMNY contactless system to pay their fare more than 12 times in a week, they will be upgraded free of charge to an unlimited pass for that week. The move is meant to promote ridership as well as the OMNY payment system. (Gothamist)

Happening in our Community: From 10 am to 11:30 am today, director Jonas Poher Rasmussen will be conducting a panel alongside other noted scholars on his recent animated documentary “Flee.” The film is centered around the relationship between forced migration and trauma in Afghan communities. The event, sponsored by Columbia Global Centers with Undergraduate Global Engagement, is the second part of a three-part Afghanistan Collaboratory. Register here.

Image via Flickr