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Pandemics, like revolution, war and economic crises, are key determinants of historic change. We look at the history of epidemics, from Black Death to smallpox to COVID-19, and discuss how the coronavirus will reshape the world with leading medical historian Frank Snowden, author of “Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present.” He is a professor emeritus at Yale University who has been in Italy since the pandemic began, and himself survived a COVID-19 infection.
As more than a dozen states are seeing an uptick in cases, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns the U.S. death toll will pass 100,000 by the beginning of June. Last week, ousted U.S. vaccine chief Rick Bright testified that if the U.S. fails to improve its response to the virus, COVID-19 could resurge after summer and lead to the “darkest winter in modern history.” Coronavirus hot spots Italy and United Kingdom are both also slowly reopening businesses.
This comes as the World Health Organization will meet virtually today with all 194 member states, and the global coronavirus death count passes 315,000 with more than 4.7 million confirmed infections. This is Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization’s Emergencies Programme, speaking at a recent briefing.
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What Are We Cheering For?
Every holiday, every weekend, every so-called American ritual came with a side of football. The game would be on, and we were supposed to care. I didn’t. Not really. Not until I almost did. For a brief stretch, when my dad worked with the Clippers during the Lob City era, I started to believe. Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan — it felt like swagger, like culture, like something to belong to. Then the trades came, the team got gutted, and the curtain dropped. It wasn’t family. It wasn’t culture. It was business. That moment stuck. The more I watched, the more the wires showed: how ritual gets packaged, sold, and weaponized. How meaning becomes merchandise. How attention becomes empire.
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When AI Replaced Our Comics
When AI replaced hand-drawn comics in our newsroom, I saw more than ugly art — I saw the erosion of what makes journalism worth doing.
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Farewell to Sister Assumpta Oturu, Champion of African Voices
Celebrating the life and legacy of Sister Assumpta Oturu, who amplified African stories and built bridges across continents through decades of fearless broadcasting.
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Cary Harrison Explains The Truth Behind The Mar-a-Lago Raid
What would George Washington say? Secretly flying 35 filing cabinet drawers-worth of Pentagon secrets to your private hotel for favor-swaps was the straw to make all Presidents now raidable. Will this affect a future Trump 2024 run? What about Hunter and Hillary?
