US regulators find the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine to be safe and effective, paving the way for it to be authorized within days. / BBC News

A sweeping new Covid-19 data platform offers access to more than 5 million anonymized records from 160 countries. / STAT

Helen Lewis: The scarcity of memorable pandemic photographs says something about this crisis. / The Atlantic

Stories from community healthcare facilities in rural Mississippi with deep ties to the civil rights movement. / The Bitter Southerner

An investigation finds that recent high-profile crimes with Asian American victims in Oakland were more likely about opportunity than racism. / Oaklandside

See also: A deep dive into the Nashville bomber. / The New York Times

Congressional leaders are divided over a commission that would investigate the Capitol attack. / Punchbowl News

An intelligence report expected today finds that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. / Reuters

A photographic tribute to Tehran's rugged Alborz mountains. / Manuel Diestro

Mark Bittman: Small-scale farmers are bearing the most acute consequences of climate change. / The Bittman Project

No coal was burned this summer to generate any portion of the UK’s energy supply, something that hasn’t happened since 1882. / The Economist

A heroin-using neuroscientist argues that science and the media pathologize drug use far beyond the evidence. / Nautilus

"TikTok begins reading your soul like some sort of divine digital oracle." When algorithms know you're queer before you do. / Mashable

Why the next wave of boxers are social media influencers: everyone loves a sideshow, and boxing's always been about money. / Sports Illustrated

Front offices across baseball swear by a book about cognitive psychology written by a winner of the Nobel Prize in economics. / The New York Times

White paper of the week: Duke University goes to absurd lengths to block other people’s trademark applications. / Marginal Revolution

A French student and his father found a secret message inside the Perseverance rover’s parachute. / The Morning News

Expect to see a new kind of mail truck prowling your neighborhood in the next couple years. / Jalopnik