THE BIG STORY

One year, 500,000 deaths

On February 29th, 2020, the US confirmed its first official COVID-19 death. Just shy of a full year later, the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has reached 500,000.

It is a number that is almost impossible to process. Half a million Americans are dead. The number of people who died in World War II was eclipsed by the pandemic in January.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans were left alone to mourn their mothers, fathers, wives, and husbands. Many had to say their last farewells by FaceTime or Facebook — or not at all.

In its response to the pandemic, America faltered. Authorities bickered, descending into fights over “lockdowns” and “reopening”. A high-tech and wealthy nation that should have been well placed to limit the spread of a deadly virus was ultimately found lacking.

Meanwhile, the pandemic exposed the fault lines and rampant inequality in American society. It has disproportionately killed older adults, those already sick, people with low incomes, and people of color. Millions lost their jobs and were left with little means of support.

Through it all, the poor got poorer, the already fabulously rich got richer, and the bodies piled up.

Read Peter Aldhous on America’s 500,000 deaths, and the year in the pandemic.

Caskets at the Gerard J. Neufeld funeral home in Queens, New York, on April 26, 2020. Bryan R. Smith / Reuters

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STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Merrick Garland pledged to investigate the Capitol insurrection from the rioters on “up” as attorney general

Judge Merrick Garland testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the process of being confirmed as attorney general. Garland pledged that if he is confirmed to the role, he’ll give career prosecutors all resources “they could possibly require” and follow all leads “wherever they take us.”

You’ve heard Garland’s name before. The judge was former president Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in 2016. Top Republicans, who controlled the Senate at the time, refused to act on his nomination and argued that the vacancy should be kept open until after the presidential election that fall.

SNAPSHOTS

Police had no legal reason to stop or frisk Elijah McClain, an independent report found. The new independent review found it was the first in a series of unjustified and violent actions taken by officers that led to the 23-year-old Black man being placed in a chokehold and injected with ketamine before he died.

The Supreme Court says New York can get eight years of Trump’s tax returns. In a one-line order, the justices refused to pause a lower court decision that cleared the way for prosecutors to enforce a grand jury subpoena.

A father-to-be died while building a gender-reveal device that exploded. Authorities said the explosion killed Christopher Pekny, 28, and injured his brother. Authorities did not specify what kind of device Pekny was building for the party. The state police and its bomb disposal unit are investigating.

One year after Europe’s first confirmed COVID case, this town has completely changed. Photographer Matteo de Mayda captured an Italian town as it went from being a red zone to one of the healthiest places in Italy.

A class playing outside their school in August 2020. Matteo De Mayda

REWRITING THE NARRATIVE

The new Woody Allen documentary is a nuanced reckoning

This past Sunday, HBO premiered Allen v Farrow, a new documentary miniseries that revisits the sexual abuse allegations against Woody Allen and how those allegations were framed when they first emerged in the 1990s.

At the time, Alessa Dominguez points out, the allegations “were not the main story; they were a subplot in the contentious breakup narrative” in the aftermath of Allen’s split from Mia Farrow and his romantic relationship with her then-21-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.

Dominguez writes about how the new documentary series — one of a number of recent series critically revisiting the way ’90s media and the court system treated claims of sexual abuse — is “a reclamation of the stories from Mia and Dylan, an examination of the court cases against Allen, and a reckoning with the gendered biases of the judiciary and media.”

KATE SPEAKS OUT

Kate Winslet reflected on the public scrutiny of her body after Titanic was released

The actor looked back at the attention she received for her breakout role when she was just 22.

In a recent interview with the Guardian, Winslet said that after the smashing success of the movie, “In my twenties, people would talk about my weight a lot.” As a result, “I would be called to comment on my physical self.”

She added, “then I got this label of being ballsy and outspoken. No, I was just defending myself.” The interview is a part of a recent run of Winslet speaking out about the horrible scrutiny she endured.

Be intentional about finding time for little comforts today,

Elamin