A sign at the entrance to the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, Calif., on Oct. 20, 2020. Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, conceived the idea of having an independent body that acted like a Supreme Court for Facebook in 2018. [Laura Morton for The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

What is the Facebook Oversight Board?

An independent panel called the Facebook Oversight Board on Wednesday upheld Facebook’s ban on former President Donald Trump, but said the company must review its decision to impose an indefinite suspension.

Tasting a red wine in New York on Sept. 26, 2019. Moderate drinking is unlikely to impair the immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine, but heavy drinking might. [Tony Cenicola/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Can you have alcohol after the Covid vaccine?

After a long year and a lot of anticipation, getting the COVID-19 vaccine can be cause for celebration, which for some might mean pouring a drink and toasting to their new immunity.

People on the National Mall in Washington, April 3. Daily vaccination rates are slipping and there is growing consensus among scientists and public health experts that while herd immunity may never be possible, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate, causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers. [Amr Alfiky/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Reaching ‘herd immunity’ is unlikely in the US, experts now believe

Early in the pandemic, when vaccines for the coronavirus were still just a glimmer on the horizon, the term “herd immunity” came to signify the endgame: the point when enough Americans would be protected from the virus so we could be rid of the pathogen and reclaim our lives. Now, more than half of adults […]

A vial of engineered E. coli cells used in the production of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in front of a flask of growth medium, at a Pfizer research and development facility in Chesterfield, Mo., March 30. Manufacturing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is a complex process that takes 60 days and involves Pfizer facilities in three states. [Whitney Curtis/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

How Pfizer makes its Covid-19 vaccine

Inside a facility in Chesterfield, Missouri, trillions of bacteria are producing tiny loops of DNA containing coronavirus genes – the raw material for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. It’s the start of a complex manufacturing and testing process that takes 60 days and involves Pfizer facilities in three states. The result will be millions of doses of […]

In an undated photo from Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching, whale-watchers off Dana Point, California. From a newly certified Whale Heritage Site to scenic byways for electric cars, five new initiatives suggest the travel industry may be envisioning a more responsible future. [Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching via The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

How to travel more sustainably

So you’re vaccinated and eager to – finally – plan a real summer vacation after a rough year, but you don’t want to add to the problems you might have read about: overcrowding, climate change, unfair working conditions in the tourism industry. What’s a thoughtful traveler to do?

The glass spheres outside Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, Sept. 25, 2019. [Grant Hindsley/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Court could consider whether Trump interfered in cloud computing contract

A federal court said on Wednesday that it did not dismiss the possibility that former President Donald Trump interfered in the awarding of a military cloud-computing contract worth $10 billion, a decision that could result in the overhaul of a long-running effort to modernize technology at the Defense Department.

Heidi Glosser, the owner of 247Removal.com, in Ohio, Nov. 16, 2020. Glosser charges $750 or more per post removal, which adds up to thousands of dollars for most of her clients. [The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

The slander industry

I wanted to slander someone. My colleague Kashmir Hill and I were trying to learn who is responsible for — and profiting from — the growing ecosystem of websites whose primary purpose is destroying reputations.

Bitcoin Frankie, a cryptocurrency influencer, in Austin, Texas, April 22. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gone from curiosity to punchline to viable investment, making them almost impossible to ignore – for better or worse. [Ilana Panich-Linsman/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

We’re all crypto people now

On Monday evening, a few days after a large cryptocurrency exchange listed its shares on the stock market, several hundred women gathered in a virtual conference room to talk about Bitcoin.

Christine Callahan buttons Kate Schnakenberg's wedding dress at Ella & Oak, a plus-size bridal company in New York, January 12, 2020. Designers are finding ways to stay alive after the economic tailspin caused by the pandemic. But optimism and determination have returned. [Brittainy Newman/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

A year later, so many adjustments in the dress industry

Before Covid hit, Christine Callahan and Samantha Brody, founders of Ella & Oak, a company that focuses on bridal fashion for plus-size women, opened their first pop-up showroom on West 29th Street in Manhattan.

Demonstrators raise their hands as police fire tear gas and concussion grenades during unrest over the killing of George Floyd, outside a Minneapolis Police Department precinct, May 30, 2020. Over the next 11 months after the death of George Floyd, calls for racial justice touched nearly every aspect of American life on a scale that historians say has not happened since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. [Victor J. Blue/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

The death of George Floyd reignited a movement. What happens now?

George Floyd had been dead only hours before the movement began. Driven by a terrifying video and word-of-mouth, people flooded the South Minneapolis intersection where he was killed shortly after Memorial Day, demanding an end to police violence against Black Americans. The moment of collective grief and anger swiftly gave way to a yearlong, nationwide […]

Ali Murai watches over his flock of sheep in the ruins of al-Kfeir, in Syria, March 24, 2021, where he and several hundred other displaced Syrians now live. So many people have fled to Syria’s crowded northwest during the country’s 10-year civil war that families have settled in important archaeological sites. [Ivor Prickett/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Fleeing a modern war, Syrians seek refuge in ancient ruins

As the sun set, children in dirty clothes and battered shoes herded sheep past the towering stone walls of a Byzantine settlement abandoned more than 1,000 years ago, leading them into a nearby ancient cave where the animals would spend the night.

Subscriptions may be the rage, but businesses of all sorts are pouring money into advertising – digital most of all. [Daniel Wenzel/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

In the roaring twenties, ads make a comeback

If you wanted to sound smart at a media business conference or sell your startup over the last couple of years, you’d talk about the rise of digital subscriptions.

A comparison of Covid-19 cases at federal and state prisons across the country.
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Incarcerated and infected: How the virus tore through the US prison system

America’s prisons, jails and detention centers have been among the nation’s most dangerous places when it comes to infections from the coronavirus. Each day over the past year, more than 1,400 new inmate infections and seven deaths, on average, have been reported inside those facilities. The cramped, often unsanitary settings of correctional institutions have been […]

Jason Dempsey, 49, sits for a portrait outside of his home in Arlington, Va., on Wednesday. He deployed as an Army officer to Afghanistan where he worked to train Afghan forces that are now fighting a losing battle against the Taliban. [Alyssa Schukar/The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘No victory dance’: Veterans of Afghan war feel torn over pullout

Was it worth it? After two decades of midnight watches and gut-twisting patrols down bomb-riddled roads, after all the deaths and bloodshed and lost years, that was the one inescapable question on Wednesday among many of the 800,000 Americans who have served in Afghanistan since 2001.

A photo provided by LaRovere et al., JAMA Neurolology 2021 shows CT scans of the brain of a previously healthy toddler with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, top; and those of a school-aged child with the condition, bottom, from a study published last month in JAMA Neurology. A new report shows that a significant number of young people with the Covid-related inflammatory syndrome also develop neurological symptoms, including hallucinations, confusion, speech impairments and problems with balance and coordination. [LaRovere et al., JAMA Neurolology 2021 via The New York Times]
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Some children with Covid-related syndrome develop neurological symptoms

Reports about the mysterious Covid-related inflammatory syndrome that afflicts some children and teenagers have mostly focused on physical symptoms: rash, abdominal pain, red eyes and, most seriously, heart problems like low blood pressure, shock and difficulty pumping.

More