Post Reports

A recall election in California ends Tuesday night. After pandemic-related shutdowns and mandates, can Gov. Gavin Newsom survive the challenge to his liberal policies? 

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Forty-six candidates on the recall ballot. One governor with his first term on the line. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is fighting to hold on to his seat, with the recall election that could replace him set to end Tuesday night. Newsom needs more than 50 percent of the vote to maintain his governorship.

Senior correspondent Scott Wilson says recall elections are baked into California life. Every governor for the past 60 years has been challenged with a recall, but only one attempt has been successful.

This recall election could flip leadership of the country’s most populous state to a vastly different candidate — and have far-reaching implications for national politics and the makeup of the U.S. Senate. 

Watching the chaotic end of America’s longest war, we’ve been thinking a lot about the terrorist attack that set it in motion. We interviewed colleagues who covered 9/11 to try to make sense of how that day changed the country and the world.

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“Where were you on September 11th?” Most Americans over a certain age have a 9/11 story — of the moment they heard the news of the terrorist attacks, or of anxiously calling family members to make sure they were okay. 

In the 20 years since the attacks, that day for some may feel like a slowly fading memory. But the direct consequences of that Tuesday in 2001 are still playing out in the news in front of us every day.

Today on Post Reports, we’re telling the story of 9/11 through the eyes of our newsroom. We spoke with Post colleagues who covered it — from senior editors, to reporters at the Pentagon, to an intern.

“It changed everyone's lives,” says Post reporter Juliet Eilperin, who was covering Congress that day, “not only in terms of those who lost people that they cared about that day, but what it meant for the commitment of our military and what it meant for people living in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Middle East.”

As the Afghanistan war comes to a harrowing close, we look at how the 9/11 terrorist attacks shaped our world and how the consequences of that day are still with us. 

This story was produced by Ariel Plotnick and Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Maggie Penman, Renita Jablonski and Martine Powers.

It was scored and mixed by Ted Muldoon, who wrote original music for this show. 

Reena Flores and Rennie Svirnovskiy were also a huge help with this story.

In this story, you’ll hear the voices of Leonard Downie, Arthur Santana, Juliet Eilperin, Valerie Strauss, Amy Goldstein, Amy Argetsinger, Marc Fisher, Katie Shaver, Karen DeYoung, Mike Allen, Rosalind S. Helderman, Chuck Lane, Debbi Wilgoren and Matt Vita. 

Thank you to WTOP News for sharing its 9/11 archive.

We talked to so many people for this story who helped shape our understanding of that day, including Tracy Grant, Freddy Kunkle, Dana Milbank, Ellen Nakashima, Ann Gerhart and Dudley Brooks. 

And a big thank-you to Joe Heim, who pitched this idea to our show.

The Post has many other stories reflecting on the anniversary of 9/11 and how our country has changed 20 years later.

Listen to “America’s Song,” a special podcast series from The Post about how a singing police officer comforted a grieving nation after 9/11 — and why the moment couldn’t last.

9/11 was a test. Carlos Lozada writes that the books of the past two decades show how America failed.

What we know about the Thursday bombing near the Kabul airport. Plus, an Afghan journalist who left Kabul just before its collapse tells us why she fears for the family and friends she left behind. 

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A bombing outside the Kabul airport Thursday left more than a hundred people dead, including civilians and U.S. service members. Military reporter Dan Lamothe says the attack was “a nightmare scenario” for the United States, making the mission to evacuate Afghans and U.S. personnel much more difficult. 

Journalist and Fulbright scholar Nasrin Nawa’s flight left Kabul right before the capital fell to the Taliban. In an op-ed she wrote for The Post, Nawa says her parents and sister tried to follow her but didn’t make it out.

The future of a federal ban on evictions is in the Supreme Court’s hands. But in many cases, whether a person gets evicted is up to a judge’s discretion, as our reporter found in Mississippi. 

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A federal ban on evictions has been in place in one form or another since the beginning of the pandemic. But after spending a day in an eviction court in Mississippi, reporter Marissa Lang found it’s often left up to individual judges whether to enforce it. 

“So many of these cases are judge dependent, the outcome really varies, not just county by county, but judge by judge,” Lang said. She followed a woman facing eviction — and spoke to the judge who decided her fate. 

What the FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine means. Plus, big business pledged nearly $50 billion for racial justice after George Floyd’s killing. Where did the money go?

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Goodbye, “emergency use authorization.” Hello, “full approval.” On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, commercially called Comirnaty. The four-month evaluation process was fast by the FDA’s usual standards, but regulators have emphasized that they did not sacrifice any kind of rigor in the process. Health and science writer Ben Guarino reports on the effect that full approval could have on vaccine mandates –– and whether it will change the hearts and minds of the vaccine-hesitant. 

After the murder of George Floyd ignited nationwide protests, corporate America promised to take an active role in confronting systemic racism. Now, more than a year after leading businesses pledged money toward racial-justice causes, reporter Tracy Jan analyzes where that money actually went. 

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court said the Biden administration must comply with a ruling from a lower court to restart President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers. This was the program that forced people seeking asylum in the United States to wait on the other side of the southern border, in Mexico. It’s unclear what this new mandate will mean for the controversial program, but last month our podcast aired a two-part story about what living under this program is actually like for an asylum seeker. To better understand what it means to “remain in Mexico,” you can find those episodes — “Marooned in Matamoros,” Parts 1 and 2 — at this link.