The Morning News

Closing the Door

The Year That Was and Wasn’t

We asked some of our favorite journalists, writers, and thinkers: What were the most important events of 2020, and what were the least?

by The Morning News

"The stomachache lasts into the next day." Exploring the current crop of functional beverages that promote relaxation.

↩︎ The Verge 46m

↩︎ Reddit 48m

With digital enclosure, counter-hegemony can only thrive in the "dark forest," beyond Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.

↩︎ Document 57m

In case you've also been documenting your lockdown Zooms with family and friends: an ode to the screenshot.

↩︎ Real Life 3d

No one seemed quite sure how to proceed. “While we’re here, we might as well set up a government,” somebody suggested.

Luke Mogelson reports on his day with the insurrectionists inside and around the Capitol.

↩︎ The New Yorker

A recent study found that self-reported symptoms of “body-focused repetitive behaviors,” such as skin-picking, nail-biting, and hair-plucking, have increased during the pandemic. When people are suffering inside, those struggles often make their way to the surface.

For many people, the physical ramifications of a year-plus of isolation will be temporary. For some, the toll will be deadly.

↩︎ The Atlantic

One of the pandemics inside the pandemic: cruiseline employees tumbling into depression during their extreme version of lockdown.

↩︎ Bloomberg 3d

Since April, police in the US are three times more likely to use force against leftwing protesters than rightwing protesters.

↩︎ The Guardian 3d

Our founding aspirations were just that: aspirations. It’s been the work of generations—from Frederick Douglass and Fannie Lou Hamer to Harriet Tubman and Bayard Rustin—to realize these aspirations.

Darren Walker: The ideal of democracy is the greatest threat to the ideology of white supremacy.

↩︎ Ford Foundation for Social Justice

"Our current state of affairs is a paradox." Balancing the need to talk about 1/6 with the worry of inspiring other wrongdoers.

↩︎ Bloomberg 3d

Hedgehogs have become popular pets in Japan. A miniature mobile home doubles as a handbag.

↩︎ Solcion 3d

Photographers flock to Japan's Lake Nukabira to capture the layers of "ice bubbles."

↩︎ Spoon & Tamago 3d

Los Angeles hospitals, already treating patients in gift shops, are on the verge of shifting to "crisis care" with triage teams.

↩︎ The Los Angeles Times 3d

Why Covid is so bad in LA: a huge population, a high rate of poverty, and the nation’s highest rate of severe overcrowding.

↩︎ STAT 3d

Fanone suffered a mild heart attack and drifted in and out of consciousness. All the while, the mob was chanting “U.S.A.” over and over and over again. “We got one! We got one!” Fanone said he heard rioters shout. “Kill him with his own gun!”

Stories of the 1/6 attack from police officers who defended the Capitol.

↩︎ The Washington Post

To understand sea shanty TikTok, you must start at the beginning.

↩︎ Polygon 3d

Maria Bustillos lost not only her mother, but a year of time with her because of Republicans' reckless politicizing of Covid.

↩︎ Popula 3d

A timeline of how Trump's actions and claims of fraud over the past few months led to the insurrection.

↩︎ The Washington Post 4d

"The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase...of any US presidential administration."

↩︎ ProPublica 4d