THE BIG STORY

She left QAnon. Now she doesn’t know what to believe.

The day after Joe Biden’s inauguration, 27-year-old Ashley Vanderbilt posted a tearful TikTok. “Well, I was wrong. And it sucks. I have spent the better part of the day crying,” she told her audience.

What she believed would happen did not come to pass. She told reporter Scaachi Koul, “I thought the emergency broadcast system would go across our TV and everything would go black. I thought everyone would be arrested and then Trump would be back.”

Vanderbilt isn’t alone in this. For droves of QAnon believers, Biden’s inauguration was an inflection point. It was supposed to be a significant day, the culmination of a process that would end with martial law and a second Donald Trump term.

We spoke with QAnon believers. We found the people who believe in Q are wrestling with whether to keep on believing or to abandon a cause that, for some, became core to their identities. Some might be deprogramming themselves, while others are cherry-picking the parts of the movement they want to hold on to.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Georgia’s governor signed voting restrictions into law in front of a slave plantation picture

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp just signed a law that imposes new ID requirements for absentee ballots, criminalizes giving voters food and water while they stand in lines, hands over control of county election boards to the state’s Republican-led legislature, and limits the use of ballot drop boxes.

Voting rights advocates said the law will suppress turnout among Black and brown voters, who showed up in record numbers to lead Democrats to victory — in the presidential and Senate elections.

Why does criminalizing giving food and water in line matter? Well, in largely Black precincts, the voting lines are already hours-long, sometimes as long as 6 or 7 hours. Local organizers often hand out water and food to help those who want to vote stay in line.

Kemp signed the law decried by Democrats as “Jim Crow 2.0” alongside a group of white men, and in front of a painting of a plantation where Black people were once enslaved.

SNAPSHOTS

Severe flooding in Nashville has left at least four people dead. After more than 7 inches of rain hit the city over the weekend, the Nashville Fire Department said that it had rescued 130 people from cars and homes, and swift-water rescue crews were continuing to respond to emergency calls. In all, 71 people were taken to hospitals.

A noose was found outside a church in Washington, DC. A vocal ensemble had been renting the church’s space to practice for a performance that tells the crucifixion story through a lens of systemic racism when the noose appeared. Police say the incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Olympic officials dismissed Beijing Games human rights concerns, documents show. In a call with the Olympic Committee, activists said the Beijing Games would legitimize the Chinese government’s human rights abuses. According to notes seen by BuzzFeed News, a senior Olympics official replied, “You, ladies and gentlemen, have your own responsibilities. We have ours.”

The estranged wife of the leader of the Oath Keepers just launched a GoFundMe to pay for her divorce. Tasha Adams joins a growing group attempting to raise money off publicity surrounding the armed right-wing organization in the wake of the Capitol insurgency.

"WE HAVE TO TAKE THAT RISK"

One night at the border shows how immigrants are hoping Biden will treat them differently

Right now, there is a sharp increase in immigrants making a gamble that the confusing and disparate enforcement of policies at the US Southern border will mean they will be lucky enough to slip through and stay, rather than be sent back to dangerous Mexican border cities, or separated from their loved ones.

The higher number of immigrants being met by Border Patrol agents after crossing into the US have led to bipartisan calls for President Joe Biden to do more to dissuade them from making the journey in the first place.

Read this report from Adolfo Flores on a night at the border.

A Central American mother and her son are being processed by a Border Patrol agent after having crossed the Rio Grande in Roma, Texas, on March 25, 2021. Verónica G. Cárdenas for BuzzFeed News

THICC BOAT

The ship is stuck but the memes are good

For much of the last week, the internet has been fixated on the plight of the Ever Given, a thicc boat that ran aground, partially blocking the Suez Canal, one of the world’s biggest trading routes.

The boat is reportedly close to getting moving again, and while we all cheer for the Absolute Unit of a boat, the memes… the memes have been GOOD.

I hope today is generous to you,

Elamin