The C.D.C. Waited ‘Its Entire Existence for This Moment.’ What Went Wrong?
An account (disputed in some quarters) of the Center for Disease Control & Prevention’s response to the covid-19 pandemic that is none too complimentary.
An account (disputed in some quarters) of the Center for Disease Control & Prevention’s response to the covid-19 pandemic that is none too complimentary.
The story of a hotel that was “comandeered” during protests in Minneapolis and turned into a sanctuary run by volunteers.
An opinion piece laying out the argument for moving from GDP to quality of life as a better metric against which to measure progress.
Hans Rosling was an academic who excelled in using data in visual and accessible ways to tell the story of humanity’s progress. This excerpt from his Joy of Stats programme tells a powerful story in just four minutes.
An interactive audiovisual guide to Rembrandt’s celebrated painting of Amsterdam’s city guard.
In Letter to my Son, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes of acts of violence against black people: “The destroyers will rarely be held accountable. Mostly they will receive pensions. There is nothing uniquely evil in these destroyers or even in this moment. The destroyers are merely men enforcing the whims of our country, correctly interpreting its heritage and legacy. This legacy aspires to the shackling of black bodies.”
Reni Eddo-Lodge writes in this piece on race and prejudice: “Not seeing race does little to dismantle racist structures or improve the lives of people of colour. In order to do so, we must see race. We must see who benefits from their race, who is affected by negative stereotyping of theirs, and on whom power and privilege is bestowed – not just because of their race, but also their class and gender. Seeing race is essential to changing the system.”
A profile of the United States Attorney General William Barr, in his second stint in the role, after first serving in George H.W. Bush’s administration in the early 1990s. His successor from his first incumbency had this to say on his influence in the Trump administration: “Those who think he’s a tool of Donald Trump are missing the point..If anything, it’s the other way around. Barr is vastly more intelligent than Donald Trump…Bill has longstanding views about how society should be organized, which can now be manifested and acted upon to a degree that they never could have before.”
Wherever there is political and economic uncertainty, it’s a fair bet that there are people somewhere trying to make money from it. This story looks into the companies in the market for goverment contracts to supply protective equipment, including VPL Medical LLC, a company that was awarded a $6.4m contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs four days after it was incorporated.
The story of MedMen, a buzzy US cannabis startup that ran into trouble.