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Beginning in 1973, when he was a United States Senator from Delaware, Joe Biden had a ritual: nearly every evening he would hop a train back to Wilmington after his work day on Capitol Hill, spending most nights and weekends at the place he considered home, 100 miles from Washington. Doing so earned him the nickname "Amtrak Joe," and in 2011, the Wilmington depot was renamed the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station.

And as all Americans can agree, it's important for leaders to avoid becoming ensconced in Washington, DC."

"He thinks of (the White House) more like a Monday-through-Friday kind of place," said one of several people familiar with Biden's thinking who spoke to CNN for this story and were granted anonymity in order to preserve relationships.

A major winter storm system is expected to wallop parts of the United States with heavy snow and rain over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, meteorologists have warned.

The upper and the middle Mississippi Valley could get heavy snow Friday, with potentially freezing rain set to fall over parts of the Carolinas and the southern Appalachians this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

“The snow will result in reduced visibility and hazardous driving conditions,” it said. The system is already prod

Packing beaches, pool parties and outdoor gatherings all over the US, many Americans used the holiday weekend to mark the unofficial beginning of summer -- ditching the face masks and social distancing urged by health officials.

The holiday weekend push for a return to normal life comes as health officials continue to warn that the US has not contained the virus. So far, more than 1.6 million Americans have been infected and at least 98,223 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

But in 18 states -- including Georgia, Arkansas, California and Alabama -- the number of new cases is rising.

The NY Times Magazine has a special issue this weekend on climate change. The main article is “Losing the Earth” by Nathaniel Rich, is premised on the idea that in the period 1979 to 1989 when we basically knew everything we needed to know that climate change was a risk, and the politics had not yet been polarized, we missed our opportunity to act

207 Responses to “Musing about Losing Earth”

Japan had so far dodged the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, but last weekend the capital was proof of what many experts have long warned: people might put up with social distancing for a few weeks, but eventually tire of remaining indoors, and seize on the smallest piece of good news as an excuse to venture out again

So much for the “obedient” Japanese of some crude stereotypes. It also does not bode well for the idea that Europe and the United States will be able to maintain social distancing for months on end.

“I am very concerned about complacency and fatigue,” said Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease expert at Kobe University. “People cannot stand remaining in a restricted lifestyle for a long, long time.”

Public spaces were filled with visitors over the weekend as some states began loosening lockdown measures, and experts now warn the easing could drive up the country's coronavirus death toll -- by nearly double, according to one prediction.

But easing restrictions now may come with a heavy price.

"How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back to what you want to be some form of normality, sooner rather than later?

By now, we all realize that long-range weather forecasting -- models that forecast beyond the next 3 days -- can be as useful as a gas tank in a Tesla, but there is increasing confidence that a major snowstorm is taking shape over parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska this coming weekend.

The models have been consistently showing for the last few days areas of snow accumulation over 40 inches in some places up and down the front range along Interstate 25.Early this week, forecast models were hinting at possibly even 5 feet of snow. The National Weather Service in Boulder was quick to point out it wasn't forecasting these totals. After a lengthy discussion on the possibilities in the forecast this morning "the messaging of 1 to 3 feet of snow for much of our forecast area is still on track," the NWS Boulder said.

Is it time to panic? No.Is it time to prepare for a possible 3-foot snowstorm? Yes.

Federal and local authorities across the country pressed their hunt this weekend for the members of the angry mob that stormed the Capitol building last Wednesday, as Washington’s mayor issued an urgent appeal to start preparing immediately for more potential violence before, during and after the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The Capitol complex, typically a hive of activity, remained cut off from its surroundings Sunday night by troop deployments and an imposing scrim of seven-foot-tall, unscalable fencing

As of Sunday, nearly 400 people had joined a private group online dedicated to what is being billed as the “Million Militia March,” an event scheduled to take place in Washington on Jan. 20. On Parler, a social media site popular on the far right that is in danger of being taken offline because of rampant talk of violence, commenters were debating what tools they should bring to the march, mentioning everything from baseball bats to body armor to assault rifles.

Slovakia undertook a massive effort over the weekend: to test nearly all adults in the country for the coronavirus.

Amid a steep spike in cases, more than 3.6 million Slovaks were tested for the virus, according to Prime Minister Igor Matovic – that's about two-thirds of the population.

For all others, the test is optional – but a strict 10-day quarantine is required for those who choose to not get tested, The Lancet reports.

To make the situation concrete, let’s consider the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. With cases growing rapidly around the country, especially in the northern Midwest, indoor social gatherings are more dangerous than at any point since the spring. Thanksgiving dinners are ideal settings for “superspreader” events: They crowd people from all over around a table to talk, laugh and drink, often in poorly ventilated rooms. Many families stuff themselves into houses for an entire long weekend.

To make the situation concrete, let’s consider the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. With cases growing rapidly around the country, especially in the northern Midwest, indoor social gatherings are more dangerous than at any point since the spring. Thanksgiving dinners are ideal settings for “superspreader” events: They crowd people from all over around a table to talk, laugh and drink, often in poorly ventilated rooms. Many families stuff themselves into houses for an entire long weekend.

The announcement that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is more than 90 percent effective at preventing Covid-19 infections — much better than many anticipated — is cause for celebration. With a vaccine of this efficacy, suppression of the disease is entirely realistic.

Beyond appointing eight cardinals as outside advisers, Francis has not yet begun making concrete changes or set forth an ambitious policy agenda

He has chosen to live not in the papal apartments but rather in the Casa Santa Marta residence inside the Vatican, where he eats dinner in the company of lower-ranking priests and visitors.

n his speeches, “his style is simple and direct. It’s not elaborately constructed and complex,

Donald Trump Denounces Meryl Streep and News Media After Tough Weekend

■ Donald J. Trump, after an intelligence report concluded that Russia tried to help him get elected, is going after ... Meryl Streep.

“It became very clear to me that I could use Uber and have the kind of life I wanted,” he said. “I feel like I found a way to take the best parts of my New York lifestyle, and incorporate them in L.A.”

Mr. O’Connell is part of a growing contingent of urbanites who have made Ubering (it’s as much a verb as “Googling”) an indispensable part of their day and especially their night life. Untethered from their vehicles, Angelenos are suddenly free to drink, party and walk places.

If you’re going to go to a party, you either don’t drink or you Uber there and Uber back, and problem solved.”

A state government in India promised to introduce a bill to grant coveted “backward” status to a relatively prosperous caste group, officials said Monday, in an effort to quell protests that have raged for the past four days.

The protesters, members of the Jat caste group, had blocked roads around the capital, set fire to railway stations and cars, and temporarily shut down a crucial canal that is a major source of the city’s water. Nineteen people were killed in the violence in surrounding Haryana State, and fears of water shortages led New Delhi to close its schools to conserve its supply.

The main thoroughfare in the area, Grand Trunk Road, which had been reopened on Sunday, was blocked again by fighting on Monday morning, the police said. Still, a state official said, 80 percent of the roads that had been closed were open again on Monday morning.

these are just data points. But taken together with so many indicators of an altered atmosphere and rising temperatures, they blend into the unmistakable portrait of human-induced climate change.

Near the entrance to the Arctic Ocean in northwest Russia, the temperature surged to 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 Celsius). Meanwhile, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eclipsed 415 parts per million for the first time in human history.

In Koynas, a rural area to the east of Arkhangelsk, it was even hotter on Sunday, soaring to 87 degrees (31 Celsius). Many locations in Russia, from the Kazakhstan border to the White Sea, set record-high temperatures over the weekend, some 30 to 40 degrees (around 20 Celsius) above average.

The Rise of the Violent Left Antifa’s activists say they’re battling burgeoning authoritarianism on the American right. Are they fueling it instead?

“Nazis will not march through Portland unopposed.” The alliance said it didn’t object to the Multnomah GOP itself, but to “fascists” who planned to infiltrate its ranks. Yet it also denounced marchers with “Trump flags” and “red maga hats” who could “normalize support for an orange man who bragged about sexually harassing women and who is waging a war of hate, racism and prejudice.”

For progressives, Donald Trump is not just another Republican president. Seventy-six percent of Democrats, according to a Suffolk poll from last September, consider him a racist. Last March, according to a YouGov survey, 71 percent of Democrats agreed that his campaign contained “fascist undertones.”

On the day that article 50 was triggered, Nigel Farage was filmed with a pint of beer thanking them both. “Well done Bannon. Well done Breitbart. You helped with this. Hugely

Alison Klayman, the film-maker, said that Bannon had been “unequivocal” about his communications with Johnson. She also said that Bannon had met Farage, a close associate, several times during the same visit.

Klayman asks him if they’ve been speaking on the phone and he says: “Talked to him initially over the phone then it’s just easier to go back and forth on text. It’s just easier. I’ve been telling him one of my recommendations is that he gave one of the most important political speeches of 2016. Was his closing speech, a three-to-five-minute speech in June 2016, his closing argument on national TV for the Leave campaign ... And it was magnificent. “And all I was telling him all weekend was just to incorporate those themes. Those same themes. Basically, he was saying that June 23 was independence day for Great Britain. Their independence day being like our July 4.” Bannon adds: “This is the tee up, right. He’s back.” He then describes Johnson’s career, saying: “He wrote a really great book on Churchill. That’s one of the things I told him over the weekend.” Bannon says he got to know Johnson after the US presidential election when he was working as Donald Trump’s chief strategist. “Right after we won, Boris flew over. Because their victory was as unexpected as ours. I got to know him quite well in the transition period,” he said.

Three more members of Congress, including President Donald Trump's future chief of staff, have announced that they would self-quarantine after coming into contact with an individual who has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference.

"Rep. Meadows was advised this weekend that he may have come in contact with the CPAC attendee who tested positive for COVID-19, now 12 days ago. Out of an abundance of caution, Meadows received testing which came back negative," Williamson said in a statement. "While he's experiencing zero symptoms, under doctors' standard precautionary recommendations, he'll remain at home until the 14 day period expires this Wednesday."

Two other Republican lawmakers announced earlier in the day that they too would be in self-quarantine out of an abundance of caution after being in contact with the individual who tested positive for coronavirus at CPAC.