The CDC defends its latest mask guidance, and says the decision wasn't influenced by political pressure. / PBS

Related: Scientists say you're going to want to hold onto your masks for when cold and flu season rolls around. / STAT

Australia could reopen its international border by the middle of 2022, which is bad news for tens of thousands of Australians who still can't get home. / ABC

"There are endless articles on why America has failed to curb the pandemic. The truth is simple. People profit from our death." / The Paris Review

See also: "One of America's largest hospital chains [has] filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against their patients over allegedly unpaid medical bills since March 2020." / CNN

The problem with inserting trees into unnatural settings as an environmental statement is that doing so means expending precious resources. / The Guardian

NYC Pride has banned police from participating in its events, and says law enforcement must acknowledge the violence it's caused against the community's marginalized groups. / BuzzFeed News

"Apparently the Brontës all died so early because they spent their lives drinking graveyard water." / Literary Hub

For years, Richard Montañez has claimed he invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Now that his story is the subject of a new book and biopic, Frito-Lay says there's no evidence he worked on the product. / MSN

An explainer on the semiconductor shortage, which we can expect will last for at least a couple more years. / Slate

How space junk and climate change could converge: Our current atmosphere burns up most debris, but it may not stay that way. / The New York Times

Russia's Defense Minister says he wants to use the 3,000-year-old DNA of Scythian warriors to clone an army. / Popular Mechanics

A new genetic study suggests Polynesians and Native Americans met around 800 years ago, prior to the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. / Smithsonian Magazine

In its criticisms of Biden's handling of the coronavirus recovery, the GOP's racist, mythical "Welfare Queen" has been notably absent. / CNN

How the end of the pandemic is also a chance to change what you didn't like about your life before all this. / The Atlantic

Calculating how America's "places to be" have changed over the past century—in general, people are fleeing the Northeast and Midwest. / The Washington Post

Blake Bailey's previously canceled Philip Roth biography has a new home at the publisher who released Woody Allen's memoir after it was dropped. / The Guardian

Roblox has become a music platform, spawning robloxcore: "chaotic, profanity-laden rap that's overloaded with frantic sound effects." / The New York Times