Author: Michelle Korhonen
Infectious disease doctor Abraar Karan says it’s the question he’s asked most often about SARS-CoV-2. So how does that happen? Here’s his answer.
—after Evie Shockley & Wille Cole i bring to the new place, with sapsucker red door, your broad pockmarked face. what calls me to your wear, your daily broke-down breakdown, your burn-blue backside—i cannot articulate, but i lean you toward me, i do the carrying over the threshold, the jumping of the broom. truthfully i have never been against making a home …
Medicare Advantage is government health insurance managed by private companies. Some find it lets them down after a serious diagnosis. (Story first aired on All Things Considered on January 3, 2023.)
On Monday, Israel’s Supreme Court issued arguably the most momentous ruling in its history: A slim one-vote majority of the justices struck down an attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to curb their power. And yet, the country largely shrugged. After months of mass protest and talk of constitutional crisis, an event that was supposed to be seismic turned out to be a sideshow. External war had eclipsed internal war.It’s hard to remember at this point, but before the Hamas slaughter on October 7, Israel was embroiled in the worst civic unrest since its founding. The cause was the…
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized this week, and apparently, the president of the United States didn’t know about it—for days.Austin was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital following complications from an “elective procedure” on New Year’s Day, according to a statement from the Pentagon. “Elective” could mean almost anything that is not serious or urgent, but something went wrong, and Austin ended up in the Intensive Care Unit for four days, NBC News reported. In itself, the secretary’s incapacity is not a crisis; the Pentagon’s chain of command has multiple people who can take over for him. And there…
The illusion persists, despite all evidence. Americans are pessimistic about the economic future. They feel worse off than their parents were. Poll after poll shows that at best, only 20 percent of Americans say the economy is doing better than it was a year ago. More than 20 percent of Americans are doing better than they were a year ago, by many measures: Unemployment is lower. Wages are growing. Inflation is declining. This is true for Americans across ages and classes. These are tangible improvements in household income that should be cheering people up. And still, they are not. Why?…
The sixth of January is the date prescribed in United States law for Congress to count the electoral votes in the presidential election. It is an occasion of high drama with specific requirements: the security of the mahogany boxes containing the states’ Electoral College certificates; the timing of the joint session of Congress, called to order at 1 p.m.; the precise rules that spell out that the debate on objections to the count shall proceed “clearly and concisely.”On January 6, 2021, my daughter Alexandra brought her two sons to the Capitol to witness this historic occasion of a peaceful transfer…
The greatest paradox of modern politics is that there are more elections than ever before in human history, and yet the world is becoming less democratic.Voting will take place in more than 60 countries this year—an unprecedented number—containing roughly half of the global population. But even with all this voting, democracy is under severe threat, endangered by predatory politicians who rig elections and disgruntled voters willing to hand over power to autocratic leaders. The most pivotal election will take place in November, when the world’s most powerful democracy decides whether to turn itself over to an avowedly authoritarian demagogue.To make…
For most of us, the first week of the year is not a transcendent evolution into the life we’ve been longing to lead but a clash between expectations and reality.Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Lodewijk Duijvesteijn / GalleryStockJanuary 6, 2024, 7:30 AM ETEvery new year, as the fireworks and midnight makeouts turn into resolutions to journal consistently or bury your cigarettes in the trash, as you stride into the first week of the year full of good intentions, you may notice a sinking sensation: The vibes are just … off. Perhaps you were impatient with colleagues back in the office,…
Hundreds of thousands of displaced women in Gaza are not only struggling to survive Israeli bombardment, but also have to contend with private struggles trying to find washrooms and pads. MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: Death, hunger, disease. These are some of the visible consequences of Israel’s war in Gaza. But for more than half a million women and girls there, there is a less visible kind of suffering, one that recurs every few weeks, war or not. NPR’s Aya Batrawy has this report.AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Women in Gaza are struggling in ways that are difficult to openly talk about in…