Halting progress and happy accidents: How mRNA vaccines were made
The mRNA vaccines protecting hundreds of millions of people from COVID-19 remain a marvel: Even as the omicron variant fuels a new wave of the pandemic, the vaccines have proved remarkably resilient at defending against severe illness and death. And the manufacturers, Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna, say that mRNA technology will allow them to adapt the vaccines quickly, to fend off whatever dangerous new version of the virus that evolution brings next. The breakthroughs behind the vaccines unfolded over decades as scientists across the world pursued research in disparate areas, never imagining their work would one day come together to tame the pandemic of the century.
With voting bills dead, Dems face costly fight to overcome Republican restrictions
With the door slammed shut this past week on federal legislation to create protections for access to voting, Democrats face an electoral landscape in which they will need to spend heavily to register and mobilize voters if they are to overcome the hodgepodge of new voting restrictions enacted by Republicans across the country. Democrats’ best chance for counteracting the new state laws is gone after Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., declared her opposition Thursday to President Joe Biden’s push to lift the filibuster to pass the party’s two voting-access bills. That failure infuriated Democrats and left them contemplating a long and arduous year of organizing for the midterm elections.
One America News will be dropped by DirecTV
Right-wing cable channel One America News Network — which has spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the safety of coronavirus vaccines — will be dropped by one of its largest television distributors later this year. The decision by the distributor, DirecTV, a satellite and streaming network with about 15 million subscribers, is a significant setback for One America News and its owners, the Herring family. Losing its slot on the DirecTV lineup will almost certainly diminish the network’s overall audience and cut into its annual revenue. DirecTV on Saturday did not elaborate on the reasons behind its decision.
Census memo cites ‘unprecedented’ meddling by Trump administration
A newly disclosed memorandum citing “unprecedented” meddling by the Trump administration in the 2020 census and circulated among top Census Bureau officials indicates how strongly they sought to resist efforts by the administration to manipulate the count for Republican political gain. It was written in September 2020 as the administration was pressing the bureau to end the count weeks early so if former President Donald Trump lost the election in November, he could receive population estimates used to reapportion the House of Representatives before leaving office. In particular, the administration was adamant that the bureau separately tally the number of unauthorized immigrants in each state.
Woman dies after being pushed onto subway tracks in Times Square
A woman was killed Saturday in New York after she was pushed in front of an oncoming subway train at the Times Square station, police said. The woman was on the platform around 9:30 a.m. waiting for the train at the station at 42nd Street in Manhattan, police said. As a Brooklyn-bound R train pulled into the station, she was pushed onto the tracks and struck by it. The woman, whose name was not immediately released, died at the scene, police said. Officers took a man who they said may be homeless into custody shortly afterward, police said. A second man was also being interviewed, they said.
Pay your power bill, Myanmar] soldiers say, or pay with your life
After the Myanmar military seized power in a Feb. 1 coup, millions of people walked off their jobs in protest. Millions also began refusing to pay for electricity, an act of civil disobedience aimed at depriving the junta of a crucial source of revenue. Experts doubt that these efforts alone can bring down the regime. But eleven months after the coup, the military appears so desperate for cash that its soldiers have begun acting as debt collectors. For weeks, residents say, troops have been going door to door alongside power company workers to extract payments.
Towers rise over london’s brick lane, clouding its future
The future of the Brick Lane neighborhood of East London is looking uncertain, said Jamal Khalique, standing inside a supermarket opened in 1936 by his great-uncle and now run by Khalique and his two brothers. New coffee shops, restaurants, food markets and hotels appear in the neighborhood each year. According to one study, the borough of Tower Hamlets, which contains Brick Lane, had the most gentrification in London from 2010 to 2016. Initially, he was not opposed. But now he worries that the new shopping center will undermine the area’s architectural character and will siphon customers from long-established stores. “It will really kill small, independent businesses,” he said.
Cambodia’s internet may soon be like China’s: State-controlled
In a crackdown by Cambodia authorities, dozens of residents have been sent to jail for posting jokes, pictures, private messages and songs on the internet. The ramped-up scrutiny reflects an increasingly restrictive digital environment in Cambodia, where a new law will allow authorities to monitor all web traffic in the country. Critics say that the decree puts Cambodia on a growing list of countries embracing China’s authoritarian model of internet surveillance, from Vietnam to Turkey, and that it will deepen the clash over the future of the web. Cambodia’s National Internet Gateway, set to begin operating Feb. 16, will send all internet traffic — including from abroad — through a government-run portal.
By wire sources