How Much of a Threat Is the Omicron Variant to the Economy? - Joe Biden and Jerome Powell will be watching developments anxiously. - link
More Tree Canopy Can Stop Climate Change from Killing Vulnerable Americans - A small, willfully misunderstood earmark in the Build Back Better Act is in fact a response to a mortal threat. - link
Biden’s Global Democracy Summit Raises an Awkward Question: Can Ours Endure? - In the past year, the prospects for improving American democracy have dimmed considerably. - link
The Uncertainties of the Omicron Variant - The new coronavirus strain is worrisome—but its effect won’t be the same everywhere. - link
How South African Researchers Identified the Omicron Variant of COVID - Tulio de Oliveira talks about discovering the new variant and his opposition to travel bans. - link
From Vox
Congress is getting ready to do what it does best: Procrastinate -
Congress has until Friday to avert a government shutdown. | Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Lawmakers are scrambling to pass a continuing resolution that will keep the government open — and push a funding fight to next year.
Congress is getting ready to procrastinate on government spending bills yet again.
As a Friday deadline fast approaches, lawmakers are scrambling to approve another continuing resolution (CR), or short-term spending bill, that will give them a new January deadline for passing full-year funding bills. If the CR passes by Friday, lawmakers will narrowly avert a government shutdown, and postpone a larger fight over this legislation.
Delaying approval of these bills has become a habit of Congress’s in recent years. Every year, a set of 12 appropriations bills funds federal agencies through the end of September, meaning lawmakers need to pass new legislation by October in order to make sure the government doesn’t run out of money. (If the government runs out of money, agencies are forced to furlough employees and reduce their services.)
This year, as in years past, Congress passed a CR in September that funds the government at existing spending levels until early December. Passing this measure gave lawmakers more time to work on the annual bills, though they still haven’t finished these negotiations and now need another CR to keep them going.
Passing a CR is helpful in the near term because it averts a government shutdown, which can have major consequences for the salaries of federal employees, services like immigration courts and food inspections, and institutions including national parks and the Smithsonian museums. The Biden administration has previously set up a contingency plan, for instance, that will ensure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can continue to track coronavirus cases even if the government shuts down.
The CR, however, doesn’t resolve the deeper differences that Republicans and Democrats have over the bills, which they’ll likely have to revisit again in January. While Democrats can pass the full- year funding bills by themselves in the House, they need the support of at least 10 GOP lawmakers in the Senate. And that support has been elusive.
“It just kicks the can down the road,” Senate Appropriations Committee vice chair Richard Shelby (R-AL) told reporters.
Members of the two parties still have many disagreements on the larger bills. Republicans have pushed for stripping spending on programs like the Clean Technology and Green Climate Funds out of a full-year bill, while Democrats have prioritized giving a boost to provisions including public health infrastructure and affordable housing. Republicans have also pushed back against policy changes Democrats would make that take out provisions like the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal funds for many abortions and has been hitched to appropriations bills in the past.
If lawmakers aren’t able to work out their differences on the 12 appropriations bills between now and January, it’s possible they could find themselves in the same place in less than two months. Congress’s likely passage of the CR this week only gives them a new deadline.
The debate over the spending bills, briefly explained
Democratic and Republican disagreements over the funding bills are about substance and timing.
Republicans have a swath of demands related to the contents of the spending bills, including removal of funding for programs like the Civilian Climate Corps and the reinstatement of money for a border wall, which Democrats are reallocating. Democrats, meanwhile, are eager to keep many of their priorities and have proposed using the appropriations bills to give a 13 percent boost to domestic and foreign aid spending.
Despite the Democratic majority in both chambers, Republicans still have major sway. Because Democrats need 60 votes to pass the funding bills in the Senate, they need 10 Republicans to sign on to the proposal, giving members of the minority leverage over what they’d like to see included.
One way certain Republicans have suggested gutting Democratic priorities is by passing a longer-term CR, which would freeze spending levels for different programs at those set by the Trump administration.
In the past, Congress has typically passed a short-term spending bill to keep the government running for a few weeks (or months) until lawmakers are able to agree on the full-year legislation. In 2020, lawmakers passed a CR in early December that expired at the middle of the month. In 2019, they passed a similar CR in mid-November that lasted until December. Both years, Congress went on to pass full-year spending bills in December.
This time around, however, some Republicans signaled they’d be open to extending a future continuing resolution for as long as a year.
“If there’s no progress [after December 3], we could be headed for a yearly CR. A lot of people would like that. One, that keeps all the riders off, you know? Think of that from our standpoint,” Shelby told reporters in early November.
Today I made an offer to negotiate on numbers & substance if we return to the Shelby-Leahy agreement (retain legacy riders & jettison poison pills). Pelosi & Schumer supported this model when Dems were in the minority. It is what worked then and what will work for FY22 bills. https://t.co/8nJzwDmpVBpic.twitter.com/uynDaLfLde
By pushing for appropriations to stay at the same level, Republicans hope to curb any spending changes Democrats have proposed, and restrict their ability to boost appropriations to implement their agenda. Democrats, meanwhile, have argued that funding the government at existing levels for the whole year would have detrimental consequences for many programs.
“An endless cycle of continuing resolutions is not a responsible way to govern,” Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy said in a statement earlier this year. “It means cuts to veterans, cuts to national security and defense, handcuffing our response to the pandemic, and not meeting the challenges of climate change.”
As Leahy alluded to, keeping funding levels the same as last year would mean that the government is less responsive to new needs that have emerged as the pandemic has continued, and that services that combat violence against women and support child care would have less funding than Democrats would like.
What’s next for funding the government
Congress has a massive to-do list to check off before the end of the year, including approving government funding, addressing the debt ceiling, passing legislation to authorize annual defense spending, and approving Democrats’ $1.85 trillion social spending bill.
Because of the impending December 3 deadline, lawmakers must tackle government funding first.
If lawmakers don’t approve a CR by the end of Friday, the government would shut down, much like it did in 2019, 2018, 2013, 1996 and 1995. When the government shuts down, workers across many agencies are furloughed and services including immigration case processing, food inspections, and tax preparations are slowed.
Often, the parties controlling Congress have gotten the blame for a government shutdown, making it advantageous for members of the minority to withhold support for funding and cause one. This year, certain House Republicans including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Chip Roy have pushed Senate lawmakers to shut down the government, though other Republicans seem to be less receptive.
Avoiding a shutdown this week doesn’t mean the conflict over the spending bills is done, however. Because the new short-term spending bill is expected to expire in January, lawmakers will have to decide if they want to pass another short-term bill at that point, or if they’ll be ready to pass the full-year bills by then.
In the past, a December CR has led to a full-year bill. Whether that will happen again this time is still up for debate.
Noel King Joins Vox’s Today, Explained as Co-Host and Editorial Director -
Noel King. | Stephen Voss for Vox
Vox’s flagship daily news podcast will also air on local public radio stations nationwide, in partnership with WNYC Studios.
Vox VPs Allison Rockey and Liz Kelly Nelson today announced that broadcast journalist Noel King is joining Today, Explained, the network’s flagship daily news podcast, as co-host and editorial director. In addition to hosting the show that tackles domestic policy, the Fyre Festival of vaccine rollouts, falling in love with a bot, and everything in between, with Vox’s singular approach to explanatory journalism (and an original song from time to time), King will help set its direction on a new chapter of growth, developing special series, reporting ambitious stories, and more. King will partner with Today, Explained co-host and Vox Audio creative director Sean Rameswaram; the two will share hosting duties, allowing each to continue pursuing longer-term projects and growing Today, Explained’s ability to reach audiences across platforms. King starts at Vox on January 3, 2022, and will begin appearing on the podcast early next year.
Vox Media also announced a partnership with WNYC Studios to distribute Today, Explained to public radio stations nationwide beginning in
This partnership marks the first major terrestrial radio distribution partnership for Vox Media, following an hour-long special edition of the Vox podcast Unexplainable distributed by American Public Media this fall.
King joins Vox from NPR, where she was a co-host of Morning Edition and Up First. A restless journalist, she reported from around the US even while occupying the host chair. She was part of a team of NPR journalists who won an Edward R. Murrow Award, and were finalists for the duPont-Columbia Award, for reporting on the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. King’s reporting from Minneapolis after George Floyd’s murder won a Gracie Award for best feature interview. King also conducted live coverage of national elections, an inauguration, and an impeachment or two.
In 2020, the Radio Hall of Fame honored her with its “One to Watch” award.
Before King joined Morning Edition, her career spanned a range of roles in radio, including stints as a correspondent at Planet Money, a producer at The Takeaway, and a reporter at Marketplace. She began her career as an independent producer abroad. Over five years, she covered the Arab Spring and conflicts in Darfur, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for Voice of America and PRI’s The World.
“I have been listening to Today, Explained since the show first launched, and I’ve always admired its intellectual sharpness, sonic creativity, and dry sense of humor. I’m thrilled to be joining the talented journalists who make the show. Sean’s ambitions, and those of this team, are clearly boundless, and I can’t wait to add my own to the mix,” said King.
Stephen Voss for Vox
Noel King and Sean Rameswaram will co-host Today, Explained beginning in early 2022.
“I guess this makes me the queen of Today, Explained?” said Sean Rameswaram. “In all seriousness, I am thrilled to welcome Noel King to the show as a co-host and an editorial lead. I’m already used to listening to her every day on the radio. Now I get to learn from her, make great stuff with her, and dream up even more ambitious projects with her and the rest of the phenomenal team at Today, Explained.”
WNYC Studios, which will begin distributing Today, Explained in 2022, currently manages radio distribution of popular programs including Radiolab,Freakonomics,On Being, On the Media, and Science Friday. Further, WNYC Studios will collaborate with the Vox Media Podcast Network to identify additional shows in its portfolio to bring to a national radio audience.
“We’re excited to partner with Vox to bring Today, Explained to public radio stations across the United States,” said Armando Gutierrez, Chief Financial Officer at New York Public Radio. “Its intelligent and irreverent daily half hour look at the news and personalities driving our world is critical at this moment.”
“Today, Explained has always been about bringing context and understanding to the news and our world. A big part of that has been a belief that elevating voices of local journalists and subject matter experts where the stories are unfolding is key. Now we look forward to working with our partners at WNYC to bring our show to communities and listeners across the country,” said Liz Kelly Nelson.
Today, Explained launched in 2018 with Rameswaram as host, and has released nearly 1,000 episodes. It was named Best News Podcast in the Podcast Academy’s inaugural Ambie Awards and the 2021 Webby Awards. The podcast has launched special series, including Today, Explained to Kids, Infrastructure Week, and The Future of Work. It has also helped incubate new shows from Vox Audio, including Unexplainable, a science podcast about everything we don’t know.
About Vox Media Podcast Network:
Named by Adweek as 2021’s “Hottest in Podcasts,” Vox Media Podcast Network has over 150 active shows featuring industry-leading editorial voices and storytellers from Vox Media’s networks and beyond. From daily news and tech to culture and sports, from talk and interview shows to news and rich narrative storytelling, the Vox Media Podcast Network is one of the largest, fastest- growing, and most topically diverse collections of premium podcasts. Learn more about the Vox Media Podcast Network here.
Netflix’s cute, whimsical “City of Ghosts” has layers for both parents and kids to enjoy -
The ghost club hangs out with an actual ghost who is haunting a Japanese restaurant. | Netflix
This kids’ show about hidden urban histories and child paranormal investigators is a delight.
Small, grave children are having a moment. In HBO Max’s upcoming Station Eleven, actor Matilda Lawler plays an 8-year-old who survives an apocalypse that only deepens the concerned frown she already had to begin with, and Netflix’s Baby-sitter’s Club features a scene-stealing little girl who ominously warns people about ghosts and seems to be heading into her goth phase early.
But a whole show of small, grave children? For that, you’ll have to turn to Netflix’s City of Ghosts, a lovely animated kids show about ghosts, reality television, and the history all around us. The series came out all the way back in March. That I, someone who follows TV closely, am only just now finding out about it suggests it is yet another program Netflix isn’t sure what to do with.
They should figure out what to do with it! City of Ghosts is a real treat, one that even I, a childless cynic, can enjoy with an open heart. I thank my Vulture colleague Kathryn VanArendonk, a known mom, for turning me on to this show, because I think there’s plenty there for non-parents to enjoy.
Set in Los Angeles, City of Ghosts follows the four-member “ghost club,” a group of kids who take on ghostly mysteries around the city. Their adventures are presented as a faux-reality show, with ghost club leader Zelda (the smallest, gravest child of them all) roping her older brother into filming their exploits. (In a very fun touch, we sometimes hear said brother but don’t see him.) Talking head interviews and establishing shots of locations are accompanied by titles written in marker on cardboard, which tiny hands hold up in front of the camera. The kids conduct surprisingly professional interviews. It’s all very handmade and cute.
Every episode follows a similar format. The kids find out about a nearby haunting, they travel to that location, they gather evidence, they compare notes, and then they go talk to the ghost. The ghosts are presented not as terrifying entities but, instead, as cute, puffy clouds who are really just looking for someone to tell their life stories to. Usually, the kids, the ghosts, and the people being haunted come to some sort of rapprochement, and everybody goes home happy.
Adventure Time writer Elizabeth Ito created City of Ghosts, and its particular blend of elements is unlike anything else out there right now. The animation focuses on characters who look rather like Funko Pop figurines, with too-large heads and stick-thin bodies, but the backgrounds are real photographs of Los Angeles locations that have been given a digital filter that makes them almost appear to be watercolor paintings. The animation style took me about half an episode to get used to, but once I was into it, I could appreciate just how gorgeous it is and how well it works for the stories the show tells.
Those stories are also a unique blend of elements. Though the series is a mockumentary — believe it or not, Los Angeles is not filled with cute, cloudlike ghosts that you can call forth by figuring out what they most want — much of the dialogue has the feeling of real interviews. The show is also deeply researched. The ghosts the kids meet all act as windows into different parts of Los Angeles’s history, and their stories are very real glimpses of a world that predates the births of the ghost club members.
(Sidebar: There is a whole episode where the kids get interested in skateboard and zine culture while visiting the neighborhood of Venice, and their evident bewilderment at seeing state-of-the-art-for-the-1990s VHS tapes, cassettes, and photocopiers made me feel more ancient than I ever have before.)
The kids are a big part of the show’s almost- documentary feel. Ito has cast real kids to play the ghost club’s members, and their slightly halting delivery offers a feeling akin to the Peanuts specials. The series is also cast with an eye toward diverse representation that doesn’t really call attention to itself. The four members of the ghost club capture the racial diversity of LA, and one ghost club member, Thomas, uses they/them pronouns. Rather than belabor Thomas’s identity, the show simply has various characters refer to them with the right pronouns several times before Thomas points it out themselves in an introduction.
At its core, City of Ghosts succeeds because it’s a show about the histories that hide within the places we live. The ghost club travels all over Los Angeles in the series’ first six episodes, and they dig into the messy intersections of personal identity and history. The premiere, for instance, considers the history of LA’s Boyle Heights neighborhood, which was home to many Japanese Americans for decades, before becoming home to a predominantly Latino population. It’s now a neighborhood fighting back against gentrification, and City of Ghosts nods to all of this without over-emphasizingany points.
Other episodes talk about the historically Black neighborhood of Leimert Park and the Indigenous populations who lived on the land that became Los Angeles before European colonizers arrived. The show is interested in the ways buildings shift and change depending on who’s occupying them, even though the building structurally remains the same. Kids who just want to watch a show with a cute ghost will find that in the text; parents (especially Angeleno parents) who want to dig into the history will find plenty to talk about in the subtext.
And look: I live in Los Angeles. I love this city. I love its history, and I love the ways its buildings and neighborhoods reflect the vast, ever-shifting picture of what it means to be American. Yet even if you don’t live here, I think City of Ghosts offers a chance to start a conversation about the ways urban landscapes grow and change over time and the tiny part all of us play in making them vibrant.
Netflix has yet to announce a renewal for City of Ghosts, and I dearly hope we get more than the six episodes that exist. This is a winning, whimsical look at complicated topics that never becomes too self-serious or forgets that it has a message to impart. Kids’ TV has too few shows that hit that benchmark, and it would be sad to see one of the few that does go away.
City of Ghosts’ six-episode first seasonis streaming on Netflix. For more recommendations from the world of culture, check out the One Good Thing archives.
From The Hindu: Sports
Andy Flower steps down from coaching role at Punjab Kings - There is a good possibility that the former Zimbabwe captain will be given a bigger role in his next IPL assignment.
Omicron threat | South Africa players express full confidence in bio-secure measures ahead of India series - Temba Bavuma said playing in bio-bubbles has been tough and the Cricket South Africa needs to be commended for its work.
Six-time champions Germany, Argentina enter Junior Hockey World Cup semifinals - In the first quarterfinal of the day, Germany eked out a narrow 3-1 win over Spain in the shoot-out after both the teams were locked at 2-2 in regulation time, before Argentina beat Netherlands 2-1
Injury-plagued Saina Nehwal pulls out of World Championships, expects to resume training mid-December - Saina Nehwal, who has won a silver and bronze besides eight quarterfinal finishes in the World Championships over the years, is recovering from a groin pull and knee injury
PKL season 8 from December 22 in Bengaluru - PKL season 8 will begin with U Mumba facing Bengaluru Bulls
From The Hindu: National News
On CM’s agenda for Delhi: COVID-19 booster dose for health workers - Basavaraj Bommai will be in the national capital on December 2
Inform court about plans to conduct elections to all civic bodies: Calcutta HC to Bengal government, poll panel - Elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation are scheduled to be held on December 19.
Those opposed to BJP should come together, says Sharad Pawar after meeting Mamata Banerjee - Ms Banerjee made a cryptic remark that there was ‘no UPA’ now.
Omicron: No cause for panic, says Maharashtra Minister - International Passengers who tested positive are either ‘asymptomatic’ or ‘mildly symptomatic’
Kunal Kamra’s shows in Bengaluru cancelled - Stand-up comic was scheduled to perform from December 1-19
From BBC: Europe
Multi-billion EU bid to challenge Chinese influence - The “Global Gateway” plan is seen as an attempt to counter Chinese influence in Africa and beyond.
How Magdalena Andersson became Sweden’s first female PM twice - Magdalena Andersson’s rise to power has been high political drama, but the finale may be yet to come.
Survivor: I’m haunted by deadliest Channel crossing - Mohamed Isa Omar, one of two survivors of last week’s disaster, tells the BBC he saw people drown.
Italian football fan banned for ‘slapping’ journalist live on TV - Greta Beccaglia reported the man to the police after the incident outside a stadium in Florence.
Covid: Greece to fine over-60s who refuse Covid-19 vaccine - Fines of €100 (£85) will be imposed from mid-January, with the money going towards healthcare.
From Ars Technica
Planetary scientists are starting to get stirred up by Starship’s potential - “It could provide a revolutionary new way of exploring these worlds.” - link
Stare into the abyss of a swirling black hole with this LED monolith installation - The universal laws of flow and a recurring dream inspired Jesse Woolston’s latest work. - link
Microsoft shareholders back protest vote over sexual harassment claims - Company called on to reveal more about handling of claims in wake of pervasive cases. - link
Womp, womp: Efficacy of Merck’s Thor-inspired COVID pill crumbles, vexing experts - FDA advisors voted 13-to-10 in favor of authorization given risks and modest benefits. - link
Why hundreds of thousands of bots descended on one Steam arcade collection - Trading card snafu let players essentially mint money from a free download. - link
From Jokes Subreddit
Pope Francis, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and a little boy are crossing the Atlantic on an airplane when the engines fail. -
They find three parachutes.
Donald Trump grabs the first parachute and jumps out of the plane saying, “The world needs a great person like me!”
Joe Biden grabs a parachute and says, “I need to help make choices for our world”, so he jumps off the plane.
At this point, the Pope and the little boy are on the plane.
The Pope says to the boy, “take the last parachute, I am too old and I’m going to die soon one day.”
“Actually there are two left. Donald Trump took my backpack.”
For this joke, I’ll be using the word “bitch” but first, I want to make it cear that I would never disrespect a woman by calling her that. So no one needs to get offended, as I am simply, in fact, talking about a female dog, ok? -
All right, so last night I was fuckin’ this bitch and…
Dear Women,When a guy calls you hot,he’s looking at your body,When a guy calls you pretty,he’s looking at your face, When a guy calls you Beautiful,he’s looking at your heart -
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Stephen Voss for Vox