The world surpasses half a billion known cases of the novel coronavirus, but it's most likely an undercount. / Axios

According to Merriam-Webster, "Covid-19" was the fastest term ever to be accepted in the dictionary. / The Los Angeles Review of Books

Millions of people in Shanghai are confined to their homes, struggling to get daily supplies, as the city's tally of new Covid cases rebounds to more than 25,000. / Fortune, Reuters

China's Omicron outbreak, inflation in the United States, and Europe's energy crisis and portend a downturn in the world economy. / The Economist

Unrelated: Japan's Princess Mako, having given up her title to marry a non-royal, becomes an unpaid intern in New York City. / The Cut

What we know about Tuesday's subway shooting in Brooklyn's Sunset Park: 29 people injured, 10 people injured, and yet again, gun violence is a public safety issue. / Gothamist

Road rage shootings are on the rise in Texas. In Austin last year, cops noted 160 episodes of drivers pointing or firing a gun. / The New York Times

Vermont struggles to absorb newcomers from Northern California and Colorado looking for safe haven from climate change. / Yale Environment 360

Elizabeth Kolbert chronicles the case of a lake suing a developer in Florida to protect itself. / The New Yorker

A pair of small studies on psilocybin therapy find rapid and sustained improvement in participants with severe depression. / BBC News

Related/unrelated: What happens to your body if you eat poisonous mushrooms. (Cell death and vomiting.) / ScienceNordic

A raunchy, new Netflix cartoon offers a surprisingly persuasive episode on how to process grief. / The Daily Beast

From December: Philosophy students in Kentucky learn ethics through circus classes. "By most accounts, it is amazing." / Aesthetics for Birds

Who knew? The roots of the word "algorithm" go back to the ninth century in modern-day Iran. / The Morning News