Spain imposes a state of emergency on Madrid to bring down COVID-19 infection rates. Cases are inching up in New England. / BBC News, The New York Times

Wearing masks doesn’t harm your health, but the idea has lived on through multiple debunkings. / The Atlantic

See also: See if you can pass a “Spot the Troll” quiz (it’s hard!). / Spot the Troll

Dr. Fauci confirms the White House gathering for Amy Coney Barrett was a superspreader event. / BBC News

A timelapse video shows how the virus has torn across the United States since March. / STAT

Related: “Say Goodbye to Your Local Coffee Shop in America's Cafe Shakeup.” / Bloomberg

The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica has grown to near-record size. / CNN

In Alaska, the Yup’ik people are still trying to recover a culture that was devastated by 1919's so-called Spanish Flu. / Atlas Obscura

Geneva introduces a minimum wage of $25 an hour, the highest in the world. / Business Insider

A British Columbia research project gave homeless people $7,500 each, and “the results were beautifully surprising.” / CBC

For a reset in US relations with Africa: new policies centered on economic justice and “the democratic aspirations of the continent’s youth.” / Dissent

Every wonder why the Earth of Google Earth is so sunny, so smooth, never snowy? It's called "Universal Texture." / Real Life

"Planner World" encompasses the online masses who enjoy organizing their lives with paper planners. / WIRED

Ina Garten, “the long tail of comfort cookery,” is famous and famously happy, and even she doesn’t have a problem with that. / The Cut

We’re glad to see some of the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen cooks moving on with their own projects after the blowup, like when Sohla El-Waylly makes Revolutionary-War-era mac and cheese. / The Morning News

Novelist and Super Rooster judge Rumaan Alam says he wrote his new book using a secret Twitter account. / Shondaland

Incidentally, and thanks to Jason for the reminder, “It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers.” / Kottke, McSweeney’s