” is a weekly column by Arthur Brooks, tackling questions of meaning and happiness. A t the end of January, I went back to teaching my students in person for the first time in 10 months. It was only t

See more from our live coverage The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are very effective in real-world conditions at preventing infections, the C.D.C. reported. Consistent with clinical trial data,

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines being deployed to fight the coronavirus pandemic are robustly effective in preventing infections in real-life conditions, according to a federal study released

California is dramatically expanding the eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines, offering the shots to virtually all residents 16 and older beginning next month, the state announced Thursday. Residents who

If I close my eyes, I can picture the classic Mac OS laid out before me. I can imagine every menu, every mouse gesture, the sound of the Mac SE chime, even depressing the reset switch after a hard cra

A space capsule reenters the earths atmosphere causing the heat shield to glow from the friction of tremendous speed. (Marc Ward/Shutterstock with elements courtesy of NASA) I’ve said, here and elsewh

As workers set up a COVID-19 vaccine clinic under tents in a vast park, volunteers in South Gate hit the streets, knocking on doors and chatting up street vendors to spread the word. In Chinatown, out

It’s official: America’s vaccine-supply crunch is over. The U.S. has ordered, optioned, or procured enough doses to immunize every single member of the population more than five times over , and all a

A Biden administration initiative expected to pour up to $3 trillion into repairing America’s decrepit infrastructure and funding other programs has sparked a scramble across the nation for the federa

The growing roster of Warren protégés in the government illustrates the leftward shift underway in the Democratic Party’s approach to policymaking. There is a growing list of people in President Joe B

It’s been an emotional roller coaster for those who believe the country's fate depends on the Senate ditching an arcane procedural relic. Senator Joe Manchin — preeminent filibuster devotee — shocked

Bamboo rats are among the wild animals farmed for food in China and other parts of Asia. A member of the World Health Organization team investigating the coronavirus pandemic says its report will conc

Photo illustrations by Oliver Munday and Arsh Raziuddin; renderings by Justin Metz This article was published online on March 11, 2021. Updated at 7:42 p.m. ET on March 26, 2021. Dalton is one of the

Maybe someday there will be a tell-all book written by someone inside Apple during the 2010s. Maybe we will eventually know exactly what happened that led to a bit of a lost decade for the Mac, one th

Mindy Kaling has gone missing from the library. I was looking forward to reading the comedian’s new story collection, “ Nothing Like I Imagined .” So I typed Kaling’s name into the Libby app used by m

Amtrak Wants to Expand Across the Nation. Local Politics Might Intervene. Extending nationwide service has been an elusive goal for Amtrak. Since 1971 — when the publicly funded, privately operated ra

Los Angeles Schools Remain Closed and Families Wonder: How Much Longer? Even amid signs of a deal with the teachers’ union, the district is still probably a month or more from resuming in-person learn

I f you think the U.S. housing market is behaving very, very strangely these days, that probably means you’re paying attention. In almost any other year, a weak economy would cripple housing. But the

Public-health officials are enthusiastic about the new , single-shot COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, despite its having a somewhat lower efficacy at preventing symptomatic illness than other

This week, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, formally introduced a wealth-tax proposal that has made grown billionaires cry. I interviewed her by phone on Tuesday, right after she s

The spread of more contagious Covid-19 variants has renewed questions about outdoor transmission risk. Getty Images Sigal Samuel is a senior reporter for Vox’s Future Perfect and co-host of the Future

The Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, while less effective at preventing mild illness than Pfizer’s or Moderna’s, is still more effective than the average flu shot. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Ima

W hen the polio vaccine was declared safe and effective, the news was met with jubilant celebration . Church bells rang across the nation, and factories blew their whistles . “Polio routed!” newspaper

Warren Revives Wealth Tax, Citing Pandemic Inequalities A tax on the net worth of America’s wealthiest individuals remains popular with voters, but has yet to be embraced by President Biden. Senator E

Former President Obama went to bat for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during the 2020 Democratic primary at a private meeting with donors, according to a new excerpt from "Lucky" provided exclusively

On December 2nd, Mukul Ganguly, an eighty-three-year-old retired civil engineer in Kolkata, India, went to the Salt Lake Market to buy fish. The pandemic was surging around much of the world, and he w

SACRAMENTO — Californians who qualify for a $600 state stimulus payment could see the money arrive as soon as a month after filing their tax returns under a $7.6-billion COVID-19 economic relief packa

Shelly Ortiz, who quit her job as a server in Phoenix after the summer. Credit... Caitlin O'Hara for The New York Times The Great Read Is This the End of Tipping? The restaurant industry is in crisis.

With the US trapped in a historic lockdown, everyone agrees that enormous federal spending is necessary to keep the economy going over the next year and beyond — and everyone has their own ideas about

Donald Trump’s relentless campaign to overturn the election he lost culminated in the mob that invaded the Capitol. His abuse of power and dereliction of duty clearly merited impeachment and convictio

Under the cover of night on June 1, 1863, Harriet Tubman led Union troops from the Sea Islands up the black waters of South Carolina’s Combahee River, with a plan to destroy bridges, raid Confederate

Even in a year of horrendous suffering, what is unfolding in Brazil stands out. In the rainforest city of Manaus, home to 2 million people, bodies are reportedly being dropped into mass graves as quic

Troy Hudson didn’t want to think about Mars. It was Christmas, he had taken some time off, and this planet had enough going on at the end of 2020. But Mars was difficult to escape, he told me. It twir

Biden, Emphasizing Job Creation, Signs Sweeping Climate Actions The array of directives — touching on international relations, drilling policy, employment and national security, among other things — e

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) (R) listens as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on October 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. Stefani Reynolds | G

Amanda Gorman Captures the Moment, in Verse The youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history read “The Hill We Climb,” which she finished after the riot at the Capitol. “I’m not going to in any way gloss o

Biden Seeks Quick Start With Executive Actions and Aggressive Legislation In an effort to mark a clean break from the Trump era, the president-elect plans to roll out dozens of executive orders in his

Updated at 11:13 a.m. on April 21, 2021. They were business owners , CEOs , state legislators , police officers , active and retired service members, real-estate brokers , stay-at-home dads , and, I a

Despite hospitals overflowing with patients, heartbreaking numbers of deaths and COVID-19 infection rates hovering at dangerous levels, there are some signs that the daily increase in the number of co

Pall bearers with the coffin of Jesse Taken Alive, a Lakota member of the Standing Rock Tribe, who died from Covid-19, at Kesling Funeral Home in Mobridge, S.D., last month. Tribal Elders Are Dying Fr