Headlines Edition

Wednesday headlines: The gateway to French tacos

The United States, European Union, and South Africa pause the Johnson & Johnson rollout—a relatively common event in the world of vaccines. / ABC News, Quartz

Joan Walsh: Anyone worried that the pause may sow vaccine hesitancy should be more concerned about how ignoring medical issues provides grist for the conspiracy mill. / The Nation

Moderna says its vaccine is still 90% effective after six months. / The Washington Post

Covid-related transplants are surging as hospitals grapple with patients whose organs are “basically destroyed by the virus.” / KHN

With 100 days until the Tokyo Olympics, Japan has vaccinated less than 1% of its population. / CNN

See also: “‘Authorization’ status is a red herring when it comes to mandating Covid-19 vaccination.” / STAT

President Biden intends to withdraw American combat troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. The move got immediate blowback. / TIME, The New York Times

The NCAA Board of Governors says it "firmly and unequivocally supports" transgender student-athletes competing. / NBC News

“I didn’t expect this to happen so soon.” A profile of the teenager advising President Biden on climate issues. / The Guardian

Noah Smith: Economists could have helped in the fight against climate change. So far, they haven't. / Noahpinion

Yosemite rock climbers discover their skills are in demand as wind turbine technicians. / Patagonia

Publicly traded companies aren’t families, but they—and society more broadly—want us to think otherwise. / The New York Times

Tacos don’t really exist in France, but “French tacos” are trending, “drizzling bewilderment onto a base of insult.” / The New Yorker

Genetically modified mosquitoes have been approved to be released in Florida, with the aim to reduce the overall population. / Undark

A new study says Australia's "fairy circles" may be caused by microbes that render dirt within the ring hostile to new seedlings. / The New York Times

See also: TMN’s Rosecrans Baldwin discovers fairy rings in Northern California for his weekly newsletter on beautiful things. / Meditations in an Emergency

A coveted missing page from the CIA’s formerly classified “Gateway Report” on astral projection becomes an NFT. / VICE, ExoGenesis

Related: A map of Reddit. / Github

Here is a photograph (albeit a "false-color image") of a sea of dunes on Mars that's as big as Texas. Also: some legends and science behind bottomless pits, bogs, and lakes. / NASA, Spooky Geology