The Daily: What Comes Next

January 15, 2021

By Lauren Jackson

Hey everyone, happy Friday.

Our week was packed with shows addressing the fallout from last week’s insurrection at the Capitol. Everything has felt extra crazy lately, and we hope you’re doing OK.

In The Daily’s planning meeting each morning, our team gathers to pitch stories, discuss the news and create a plan for the next day’s episode. When determining which story to pursue, editors often ask: What do you want to hear tomorrow? This week, there was a consistent answer: We were craving clarity amid multiple escalating crises.

Whether it was the skyrocketing rates of coronavirus infection or the second presidential impeachment, in each story line, our team wondered: What comes next? While we’ve spent most of this decade living in uncertainty, it’s been particularly chaotic lately. And because you might have finished this week with more questions than answers, we wanted to leave you with three takeaways from our shows to help you make sense of what’s ahead for some big stories.

Three takeaways from this week

The virus is getting smarter — and measures to combat it might get stricter

A new coronavirus variant, circulating rapidly in Britain, is up to 56 percent more contagious than the virus we faced in 2020. The new variant doesn’t appear to be common in the United States, most likely making up less than “0.5 percent of the viruses circulating,” the science writer Carl Zimmer said. Still, we can’t be sure of how fast it’s spreading, as the United States has no large-scale, nationwide system for checking coronavirus genomes for new mutations.

Officials in the incoming Biden administration told Carl they were “in favor of much more aggressive genome sequencing of viruses.” This data is essential for tracking the variant. But while we wait for widespread vaccination, Carl said, “we may have to look for more drastic measures to slow this thing down.”

Britain has entered one of its strictest lockdowns since the pandemic began, shutting most pubs, retail stores and schools. The question for the Biden administration is to what extent it will follow suit. “State and federal officials can take actions that individuals cannot,” Carl said. “For example, providing high-quality masks to everyone, providing at-home tests, and much more contact tracing to block the spread.”

LISTEN TO THESE EPISODES:

A Pandemic Update: The Variant and the Vaccine Rollout

With the coronavirus at a peak in the United States, we look at the latest in the fight against the disease.

The Beginning of the End of the Pandemic

Britain has become the first country to start administering a fully tested coronavirus shot. We were on the ground as the vaccination effort got underway.

Continue reading the main story

President Trump was impeached for a second time. So now what?

The last few days of the Trump presidency have been eventful, to say the least. Within a week of the storming of the Capitol building, President Trump has been impeached for a second time, a historic — and notably more bipartisan — move by the House.

But for the impeachment to bar Mr. Trump from seeking the presidency in 2024, he would next need to be convicted by the Senate. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has made clear that he will not bring members back for a speedy trial in the coming days, but has privately expressed openness to Democrats’ efforts to convict Mr. Trump after he has left office, in the interest of purging him from the Republican Party.

Now Democrats will have to decide, as Nicholas Fandos explains, how to avoid an all-consuming impeachment trial that “stomps all over” Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and his political message of bringing the country together in his first days in office. One Biden ally, Representative Jim Clyburn, has suggested waiting 100 days before commencing proceedings, while the president-elect himself has floated the idea of splitting the Senate workdays between his agenda and the trial.

Though there is no precedent for a president being tried after his term is over, other government officials who were impeached have been tried after they departed. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to address reporters in the Capitol about when she planned to send the charge to the Senate later today. You can follow the live updates here.

Continue reading the main story

LISTEN TO THESE EPISODES:

The View From a Republican Who Voted to Impeach

Representative Peter Meijer of Michigan explains why he joined nine colleagues in breaking from his party.

Impeached, Again

The House of Representatives has voted for President Trump to be tried for a second time. How did it happen and what comes next?

Tracking far-right extremism is becoming more time intensive

After the occupation of the Capitol by pro-Trump loyalists, social media companies like Facebook and Twitter moved to block conspiracy theorists, far-right groups and even President Trump from their platforms. So we wondered: Where will these groups go next?

Sheera Frenkel, a cybersecurity reporter, told us on Wednesday that the answer is private messaging platforms — where their movements are harder to track. “I am currently in close to 50 different groups on Telegram and Signal,” she said. “The only way to actively monitor these groups is to closely follow their conversations.”

But knowing about the formation of new groups, and identifying the shifting boundaries of existing ones, can be difficult. Under the Trump administration, “there have been few federal guidelines on how to define far-right movements, or money dedicated to organizations which provide best practices on how to stop the far right from radicalizing Americans,” she said. Moving forward, the Biden administration has choices about how best to combat this extremism, and how to “work with tech companies to identify fringe groups that they think should be monitored,” Sheera added.

Continue reading the main story

LISTEN TO THESE EPISODES:

Is More Violence Coming?

Social media platforms have raced to bar organizers of the attack on the Capitol. Will that make a repeat less likely, or just harder to prevent?

How They Stormed Congress

An exploration of the online planning and on-the-ground failures that contributed to the attack on the Capitol.

For when you need a break from the news

Erica Futterman, our deputy director of audience and operations, captured this sunset in Central Park. We hope you’re all getting outside as much as you can these days, too.Erica Futterman

We know all of these headlines can feel overwhelming. Our team often shares with one another ways we are trying to create moments of brightness and levity amid a heavy and hectic news cycle. So, this week, we wanted to share some of those recommendations with you from one of the zaniest and loveliest producers on our team, Hans Buetow.

Hans always has a good listening recommendation to offer. He often plays elevator music in that dead, silent, awkward time while 50 people are waiting to start a virtual team meeting, and it’s this sense of fun he brings to his work on the Modern Love Podcast and Still Processing.

So we asked Hans what he’s been listening to. Hopefully his recommendations will help usher you into the new year and beat the bleakness of the ninth (hundredth?) month of the pandemic:

Dimension 20: This is my escapist binge. It features a group of people playing the most delightful game of “Dungeons and Dragons.” It’s edited and produced, serialized (so start at the beginning), and has drama, swashbuckling, tenderness, humor and fun voices. It’s a great way to sink into the story side of games like D&D. The 90-minute episodes are, frankly, too short for my taste.
Off Menu: In this podcast, two British comedians — Ed Gamble and James Acaster — ask comedians and public figures about their dream meal. Not their final meal, or their favorite meal … but their dream meal. Guests are asked to build a fantasy menu featuring a drink, bread, starter, main course, side dish and dessert. The best part? It’s a game that you can play with the people in your life. Can’t think of what to talk about on your next Zoom call with the in-laws? Play a round of Off Menu with them. It’s guaranteed to get people smiling, sharing, remembering meals they have had and dreaming about ones they’ve always wanted to eat. I’ve done it several times with family and it is always memorable, bonding and fun. I suggest starting with the episode featuring the television presenter Claudia Winkleman.

This newsletter is produced and edited by Lauren Jackson, Desiree Ibekwe, Mahima Chablani and Laura Kim. Special thanks to Erica Futterman, Hans Buetow, Carl Zimmer and Sheera Frenkel.