A hundred days. That’s how long it took Xiao Meili to walk from Beijing, in the arid north, to the humid, central city of Changsha. Since September, the 24-year-old has been trekking south and west across the Chinese heartland, along rumbling highways, around construction sites, down dusty streets. She stops along the way to send letters to local officials. Her plea: China must change the way it handles sex abuse.
Despite frigid temperatures, community members gathered Sunday afternoon outside the Governor’s Mansion in St. Paul to express solidarity with the family of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died three days after being beaten during a January 7 traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee. Authorities released video of Nichols’s arrest and beating Friday evening.