Booster Shots, Climate Change, NASA: Your Weekend Briefing
A key F.D.A. advisory panel has concluded a series of votes for all three coronavirus vaccines used in the U.S. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. The F.D.A. and the C.D.C. have already authorized . Moderna and J.&J. are expected to be authorized next. On Friday, the panel recommended boosters for all recipients of the J.&J. vaccine, a reflection of its lower efficacy. Many panel members made clear that they believed J.&J. recipients might benefit from , something a top F.D.A. official said the agency was considering. . Many Americans have yet to get a single dose. Ten New Yorkers told The Times why they resisted and . In an Opinion essay, Zeynep Tufecki explored . A program to rapidly replace the nations coal- and gas-fired power plants with renewables is likely to be cut from the Democrats $3.5 trillion social and climate package . has to the coal industry and his state is one of the nations top producers of coal and gas. Some House and Senate Democrats : a tax on carbon dioxide pollution. That faces its own set of political challenges, given the current rise in inflation and energy prices. Republicans and Democrats have . Democrats facing tough re-elections are trying to sell the partys social and climate bill without knowing . . Amid a flash of violence, seven men stood out. Although strangers to one another, while grappling with police officers barring entry to the building. One used an American flag to beat an officer being dragged down the Capitol steps. The group was part of an angry pro-Trump mob roiling outside even as the violence inside the building was winding down. They are now co-defendants facing myriad felonies. We never should have come here, one thought to himself on the evening of Jan. 6. as they were leaving an orphanage, Haitian officials said. Details of the kidnapping remained unclear, but local officials said the from a bus in Port-au-Prince that was heading to the airport on Saturday. Haiti has been in a state of political upheaval for years, and kidnappings of the rich and poor alike are alarmingly common. But the abduction of such a large group of Americans shocked officials for its brazenness. Violence is rampant across the capital, especially in the wake of the assassination of in July. By some estimates, gangs now control roughly half of the city. They operate at will, kidnapping children on their way to school and pastors in the middle of delivering their services. This is Asmas. Asma, an 8-year-old Afghan girl, while she and her family were trying to reach the airport in Kabul. Soon after, a remarkable intervention involving secret American military commandos, a C.I.A. base and three strangers in the U.S. took shape. Now, as one of those strangers said, this girl is family to us. the Pentagon offered killed in a mistaken U.S. drone strike in Kabul. The Pentagon also agreed to help relocate those surviving family members who want to move to the U.S. Internal documents . Starting in 2018, it earmarked almost its entire global annual marketing budget slated at $390 million this year to targeting teenagers, which it relies on to use the app three to four hours a day. It particularly emphasized a category called early high school, which it classified as 13- to 15-year-olds. Facebook hoped Instagram would entice more young people to all of its apps, replenishing the social networks aging user base, according to the documents. But they also show that Facebook has since abandoned aspirations of becoming a teen destination. The disclosures underscore how much is at stake as the social media giant seeks to address over Instagrams effects on users mental health. A diocese in Sicily has imposed a three-year prohibition on naming godparents. Church officials argue that the once-essential figure in a childs Catholic education has lost all spiritual significance, . Italian prosecutors have tracked baptisms to map out how underworld bosses spread influence. a crime boss and his gang are part of an unusual social reintegration project that has brought relative calm and success to the town of Sabaneta: go from bankruptcy to exporting an award-winning vintage. that may help scientists better understand how life emerged on Earth. A robotic explorer named Lucy (a nod to the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton that revealed secrets of human evolution) to find new clues about the creation of our solar system. Over 12 years, Lucys four-billion-mile path across Jupiters orbit will bring her close to clusters of asteroids known as Trojan swarms some of the solar systems . Back on terra firma, hyperlocal researchers, armed with nets and notebooks, are helping to shed light on . That was Genevieve Kos experience trying to capture wok hei without a wok. The term, which translates to the breath of a wok, describes the taste of singed smokiness. , she used a sizzling hot skillet to make caramelized and tender vegetables in under 10 minutes. For Yotam Ottolenghi, no dish is so ubiquitous and comes in so many variations as fried chicken. He offers . And , Tejal Rao writes about the flexibility of roasted squash. And in case you missed it: . Murder, power and mystery in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The passion of Questlove. John le Carres last completed spy novel. . Our editors also suggest , , and . The Book Review also needs your help picking . Did you follow the news this week? . And heres the front page of , from Opinion and and . If youre in the mood to play more, . Have a page-turning week. David Poller compiled photos for this briefing.