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Virologist, Shi Zhengli, at center of a pandemic storm, speaks out

Virologist, Shi Zhengli, at center of a pandemic storm, speaks out

The New York Times reports: To a growing chorus of American politicians and scientists, she is the key to whether the world will ever learn if the virus behind the devastating Covid-19 pandemic escaped from a Chinese lab. To the Chinese government and public, she is a hero of the country’s success in curbing the epidemic and a victim of malicious conspiracy theories. Shi Zhengli, a top Chinese virologist, is once again at the center of clashing narratives about her…

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Reports of severe Covid or death after vaccination are rare, but not unexpected

Reports of severe Covid or death after vaccination are rare, but not unexpected

The New York Times reports: Over the last few months, a steady drumbeat of headlines has highlighted the astounding real-world effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccines, especially the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. The vaccines, study after study has shown, are more than 90 percent effective at preventing the worst outcomes, including hospitalization and death. But alongside this good news have been rare reports of severe Covid in people who had been fully vaccinated. On June 3, for instance,…

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2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades. So far, 2021 is even worse

2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades. So far, 2021 is even worse

The Washington Post reports: The shootings have come at a relentless pace. Gun violence this year has cut through celebrations and funerals, places of work and houses of worship. It has taken lives at a grocery store and in a fast-food drive-through lane. And most of all, it has unfolded on city streets and in family homes, away from the cameras and far from the national spotlight. By almost every measure, 2021 has already been a terrible year for gun…

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Tumult disrupts Israeli parliament as Netanyahu era ends

Tumult disrupts Israeli parliament as Netanyahu era ends

The New York Times reports: Heckling and mayhem in the Knesset, an intimate parliamentary chamber transformed by anger, marked the end of Benjamin Netanyahu’s divisive 12-year rule over Israel and the start of Naftali Bennett’s term as prime minister. Mr. Bennett, a hard-right politician whose decision to join an eight-party coalition including left-wing parties has enraged Mr. Netanyahu’s center-right Likud party, struggled for 43 minutes to make himself heard as his opponents hurled abuse and held up posters saying, “Shame…

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The narrative that nonwhite people will soon outnumber white people in the U.S. is both divisive and false

The narrative that nonwhite people will soon outnumber white people in the U.S. is both divisive and false

Richard Alba, Morris Levy, and Dowell Myers write: In recent years, demographers and pundits have latched on to the idea that, within a generation, the United States will inevitably become a majority-minority nation, with nonwhite people outnumbering white people. In the minds of many Americans, this ethno-racial transition betokens political, cultural, and social upheaval, because a white majority has dominated the nation since its founding. But our research on immigration, public opinion, and racial demography reveals something quite different: By…

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Warren Buffett and the myth of the ‘good billionaire’

Warren Buffett and the myth of the ‘good billionaire’

Anand Giridharadas writes: Warren Buffett appears to be the safest kind of billionaire: the good kind. Mr. Buffett is neither Zuckerbergian messiah nor Musky provocateur, neither Bezosist space cadet nor Sacklerian undertaker. He is, or seems to be, quiet, humble, indifferent to money, philanthropic and critical of the system that allowed him to rise. Years ago, a proposed tax increase was named after him. It’s easy for people to think: If only members of the Sackler family were more like…

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Republicans are attacking the foundations of American democracy

Republicans are attacking the foundations of American democracy

Fred Hiatt writes: Like termites, destructive but largely unseen, anti-democracy forces around the country are gnawing at the foundations of America’s free and fair elections. State by state, the termites are trying to change the rules to allow Donald Trump or someone like him to succeed in 2024 where Trump tried and failed in 2020: to steal an election that he lost. In April, a report by three nonprofit organizations documented how Republicans in dozens of state legislatures were pursuing…

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How Republicans came to embrace the big lie of a stolen election

How Republicans came to embrace the big lie of a stolen election

The Guardian reports: Just a few days after the polls closed in Florida’s 2018 general election, Rick Scott, then the state’s governor, held a press conference outside the governor’s mansion and made a stunning accusation. Scott was running for a US Senate seat, and as more votes were counted, his lead was dwindling. Targeting two of the state’s most Democratic-leaning counties, Scott said there was “rampant fraud”. “Every person in Florida knows exactly what is happening. Their goal is to…

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The decades-long radicalization of the Republican Party

The decades-long radicalization of the Republican Party

Jackie Calmes writes: Since before he became president, Joe Biden has told crowds, “Folks, this is not your father’s Republican Party.” As a political reporter, I’d been hearing that lament since the late 1990s, from far better sources — those Republican fathers’ sons and daughters. The radicalization of the Republican Party has been the biggest story of my career. I’ve been watching it from the start, from the time I arrived in then-Democratic Texas just out of college in 1978…

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Why are women more prone to long Covid?

Why are women more prone to long Covid?

The Observer reports: In June 2020, as the first reports of long Covid began to filter through the medical community, doctors attempting to grapple with this mysterious malaise began to notice an unusual trend. While acute cases of Covid-19 – particularly those hospitalised with the disease – tended to be mostly male and over 50, long Covid sufferers were, by contrast, both relatively young and overwhelmingly female. Early reports of long Covid at a Paris hospital between May and July…

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Why it matters that seven U.S. states still have bans on atheists holding office

Why it matters that seven U.S. states still have bans on atheists holding office

Above the Tennessee State Capitol, only skies. In it, any atheists? AP Photo/Mark Humphrey By Kristina M. Lee, Colorado State University Tennessee’s Constitution includes a provision that bars three groups from holding office: atheists, ministers and those engaging in duels. Efforts are under way in the state legislature to remove this exclusion for ministers, but not for duelists – or atheists. In January 2021, Republican Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody proposed Senate Joint Resolution 55 to amend Article IX of…

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Garland declares voting rights expansion ‘central’ to democracy

Garland declares voting rights expansion ‘central’ to democracy

Politico reports: Attorney General Merrick Garland affirmed Friday the expansion of voting rights as a “central pillar” to American democracy, building upon the Biden administration’s commitment as the issue has gained prominence in the aftermath of the 2020 elections. “We know that expanding the ability of all eligible citizens to vote is a central pillar,” Garland said. “That means ensuring that all eligible voters can cast a vote; that all lawful votes are counted; and that every voter has access…

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New Trump scandal shows the depth of his assault on American democracy

New Trump scandal shows the depth of his assault on American democracy

Stephen Collinson writes: New revelations suggesting that the Trump administration abused Justice Department powers to target his political enemies underscore just how far the ex-President went to destroy cherished principles of American republican government. They show that the true extent of assaults on democracy by Donald Trump are still coming to light and are probably even now not fully known. But this is not just a drama about the alleged misbehavior of a former President. Taken together with the Republican…

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After the Keystone XL pipeline, the next target is Line 3

After the Keystone XL pipeline, the next target is Line 3

Bill McKibben writes: The announcement this week from the Canadian company TC Energy that it was pulling the plug on the Keystone XL pipeline project was greeted with jubilation by Indigenous groups, farmers and ranchers, climate scientists and other activists who have spent the last decade fighting its construction. The question now is whether it will be a one-off victory or a template for action going forward — as it must, if we’re serious about either climate change or human…

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