The tug of war over spending bills has delayed Congressional action on securing the nation's pandemic infrastructure. / STAT

The Biden administration says that after months of legal reviews, it doesn't have the authority to share Moderna's mRNA vaccine process. / The Washington Post

Rather than continuing to wait for the West to send its Covid shots, African scientists are working to reverse engineer mRNA vaccines. / Associated Press

See also: Moderna announces it will sell 110 million doses of its Covid vaccine to the African Union. All of the doses should arrive by the middle of 2021. / Reuters

The biggest stories from the thousands of newly available leaked documents that show Facebook is somehow worse than you imagined. / Nieman Journalism Lab

How bad is it? Facebook programmed its "angry" emoji reaction to push more provocative content into users' feeds. / The Washington Post

See also: A running list of all the stories coming out on the Facebook documents. / Protocol

Because of course: Facebook's third-quarter earnings surpassed expectations, and shares rose in extended trading yesterday. / CNBC

How a homegrown disinformation campaign in small-town Montana put a proposed heritage area's future in doubt. / The New York Times

The evangelical Liberty University threatens disciplinary action against rape victims who come forward. / ProPublica

Please take five minutes to find out why TMN and the Tournament of Books need your support. / TMN Membership

"Our defenses are limited, especially if a government decides it wants our data." Journalist Ben Hubbard explains how his phone was compromised in a zero-click exploit. / The New York Times

For now, atmospheric microplastics may be slightly cooling the Earth, but could eventually begin to trap the planet's radiation. / Ars Technica

Despite a drop in emissions during lockdowns, greenhouse gases reached a record high in 2020, according to a new UN report. / Reuters

Micrometeorites—most under 0.05 centimeters—found on the tops of buildings and photographed by Jon Larsen. / Colossal

On the prevalence of the sci-fi trope of an alien invasion that solves racism—Reagan even invoked it in a UN address. / Slate

"They expect you to know better by now, even if you feel like you don't." The moment the world no longer cuts you any slack. / constellations

It seems like this fall, homecoming mums in South Texas have exploded in dimensions. / Texas Monthly

Like the McDonald's hot-coffee lawsuit, "left-wing illiberalism" is the latest in a long line of moral-panic journalism. / Confirm My Choices

A trip to Salem's Ouija board museum. / The Boston Globe