President Biden has invited Senate Republicans to the White House to hear their response to his proposed $1.9 trillion relief package. Also, in Myanmar the military has staged a coup and taken control of the civilian government.
And, protests in Russia continued for a second weekend over the jailing of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: who will go nuclear next?, new leadership is needed in the West Bank and Gaza (9:45) and can Boeing fly without government help? (15:35)
The weekend’s biggest discussion topics covered by Monocle’s Tyler Brûlé, Juliet Linley, Eemeli Isoaho and Marcus Schögel, with commentary from our editors in London and Bangkok.
Plus: what’s on the pages of Iceland’s Morgunblaðið newspaper.
The weekend’s biggest discussion topics: Simon Brooke on the day’s newspapers, Monocle’s editor in chief Andrew Tuck’s column and a look at ‘Alexander’, a new digital storytelling platform.
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including President Biden’s use of executive actions, Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package, and the state of the Republican Party after former President Trump.
Another vaccine has shown its effectiveness against the coronavirus. There’s one caveat though, it’s not as effective against the South African variant, which has now made its way to the U.S.
Also, how unified is the GOP around Donald Trump these days? After the insurrection at the Capitol, some Republican Congress members tried to distance themselves from the former president. But others never left his side. And President Biden says he’ll take on environmental justice issues. But other presidents have made similar promises.
On its first day, the new Biden administration announced plans to recalculate the social cost of carbon—a way of estimating the economic toll of greenhouse gases. Staff Writer Paul Voosen and host Sarah Crespi discuss why this value is so important and how it will be determined.
Next up, Alison Barker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, talks with Sarah about the sounds of naked mole-rats. You may already know naked mole-rats are pain and cancer resistant—but did you know these eusocial mammals make little chirps to identify themselves as colony members? Can these learned local dialects make naked mole-rats a new research model for language learning?
Yesterday, President Joe Biden signaled a new direction for the country when it comes to climate change. He said it should be considered an essential part of foreign policy and national security.
He signed an extremely wide ranging executive order that includes a number of new measures that could kick off the battle between the White House and the oil industry.
Guests: Axios’ Ben Geman, Courtenay Brown, Sara Fischer and Joann Muller
A neuroprosthetic device restores blood-pressure control after spinal-cord injury, and identifying the neurons that help us understand others’ beliefs.
In this episode:
00:47 A neuroprosthetic restores the body’s baroreflex
A common problem for people who have experienced spinal-cord injury is the inability to maintain their blood pressure, which can have serious, long-term health consequences. Now, however, researchers have developed a device that may restore this ability, by stimulating the neural circuits involved in the so-called baroreflex.
Research Article: Squair et al.
News and Views: Neuroprosthetic device maintains blood pressure after spinal cord injury
08:27 Research Highlights
How gesticulating changes the way that speech is perceived, and a new theory of how Saturn got its tilt.
Research Highlight: Hands speak: how casual gestures shape what we hear
Research Highlight: The moon that made Saturn a pushover
10:58 A neuronal map of understanding others
Humans are very good at understanding that other people have thoughts, feelings and beliefs that are different to our own. But the neuronal underpinnings of this ability have been hard to unpick. Now, researchers have identified a subset of neurons that they think gives us this ability.
Research Article: Jamali et al.
18:04 Briefing Chat
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the science of why cats love catnip, and the struggle to identify what the mysterious celestial object StDr 56 actually is.
Science: Why cats are crazy for catnip
Syfy Wire: So what the heck is StDr 56?
A new variant of the coronavirus has scientists worried about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has lifted regional stay-at home orders.
But 54 counties in the state are still classified as having “widespread” coronavirus risk. So why did the state loosen the restrictions? And the CDC is reporting the highest number of overdoses in a 12-month period.
