Aug. 28: We’re Shifting Into a New COVID Era. Here’s What That Means.

There’s a new wave of COVID going around—but this one isn’t quite like all the ones before. Shannon Palus considers whether the coronavirus is finally becoming more like the flu, and what that means about how we should treat COVID, and other illnesses, going forward.

Plus: A new long COVID study’s findings sound scary—but when you dig into the data, it’s actually kind of reassuring. Epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz helps us make sense of it.

There’s one case against Trump that could actually sway Republican voters—and Nikki Haley is the only one making it, David Faris argues. He lays out that case, and why it’s the only one that makes sense.

Plus: Trump is set to go on trial on March 4, 2024, the day before Super Tuesday. Robert Katzberg explains why the former president’s attempts to delay the trial aren’t going to work.

On the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, a darker aspect of that day is coming to light. The FBI wasn’t the only one spying on the marchers—police forces from as far away as Alabama were also conducting their own surveillance. Joshua Clark Davis delves into the little-known history.

The worst state in the country for voting rights just got even worse. “Tennessee, with the most convoluted voting rights restoration process and, by extension, the highest rate of Black disenfranchisement of any state in the nation, has been the poster child for the ruinous consequences of these laws,” Blair Bowie and Dawn Harrington write. “Then, last month, the state Elections Division brought its voter suppression to another level.” They explain why this is “this is a five-alarm fire for democracy” in the state.

In the ’80s, an unlikely man went to Russia and enraged America. No one knew what he was really up to—until now. Josh Levin tells his story.

Julie McSorley is one of the few people on Earth who have been inside a humpback whale’s mouth and lived to tell the tale. Heather Schwedel spoke to her about what it was like, and why she … liked it?

… much like Mark Meadows seems to have been right before his mug shot was taken. Or is that pinkeye? “Perhaps it’s just that Fulton County golden-hour light, blazing in to accentuate every bulge and crevice on the defendants’ faces,” Christina Cauterucci writes in her in-depth review of the 19 mug shots in the Georgia RICO case.

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