The Takeaway

More than two years after the WHO declared a global pandemic, things are starting to look pretty normal here in the U.S. In many places, mask mandates have been lifted — and physical distancing is all but gone. 

This comes after a winter marked by COVID surges across the U.S. due largely to the highly contagious omicron variant. The number of cases has since steadied here, but that’s not the situation elsewhere in the world.

In China, part of the country has been put into lockdown after a fourfold jump in cases in a week. The U.K., Germany, Switzerland, and Italy also all saw surges in cases over the past week — fueling concerns that another global wave could be on the way.  

For more on this, The Takeaway spoke with Rebecca Weintraub, an assistant professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. 

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has made clear — in Vladimir Putin’s Russia dissent is not welcome. Still, thousands of Russians have protested the invasion, risking fines, detention, and imprisonment.

The rare sources of independent radio and TV news in the country have gone silent, including Echo of Moscow and TV Rain. 

Earlier this week, a producer for a government-run television station interrupted a live broadcast holding a sign that read: “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.” She was subsequently arrested and detained for nearly 24 hours, before being fined several hundred dollars.

Russian lawmakers passed a new law at the beginning of March, making it a crime to spread what they deemed “fake news,” which includes calling the conflict in Ukraine a “war.”  The law includes penalties of up to 15 years in prison.

Because of this, several Western media organizations decided to pull their journalists out of Russia. Bloomberg News, CNN and the New York Times have moved their journalists out of the country because of concerns over the new law and their staff’s safety. 

Even before the invasion began, Russia was ranked 150 out of 180 countries in the Reporters without Borders World Press Freedom Index.

We spoke with Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times about his staff's move out of Russia and Clayton Weimers, Deputy Director of the DC Bureau of Reporters without Borders.

Juvenile detention centers were established a hundred years ago to provide rehabilitation for minors who had committed crimes, providing support and services to help them navigate the world upon reentry.

Unfortunately, many centers mirror the punitive practices of adult prisons. Reports of shackling, solitary confinement, and the denial of services and education were reported from the Acadiana Detention Center in St. Martinville, Louisiana.

We speak with Beth Schwartzapfel at The Marshall Project about her joint investigation with ProPublica and NBC News into The St. Martinville Detention Center.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced it would be closing the Red Hill fuel facility in Hawai’i amid a contamination crisis affecting thousands of people in Oahu. 

The facility — which consists of 20 massive tanks — is located just 100 feet above the primary drinking aquifer in Oahu — and for years, petroleum has been found in Oahu’s water supply. 

Native Hawaiians have demanded the dismantling of the World War II era facility with months of protesting— including a demonstration outside the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in December. 

To better understand the contamination crisis, The Takeaway spoke with an expert. Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer is a professor at the University of Hawaiʻi and a member of O’ahu Water Protectors and Kaohewai.  

At more than 1,500 pages in length Gunnar Myrdal’s  “An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy,” remains a foundational text on issues of race, politics, and power in the US. Published in 1944 by Swedish  economist, Gunnar Myrdal, the study was commissioned and supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York who believed that the European outsider could produce a more “unbiased” analysis. This choice by Carnegie philanthropists has shaped the study of race in America for more than 7 decades. A new book from Maribel Morey, “White Philanthropy: Carnegie Corporation’sAn American Dilemma and the Making of a White World Order” examines this influential text and the powerful monied interests behind it. Morey is also the Founding Executive director of the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences.

One year ago today, a gunman killed eight people at multiple spas in Atlanta. Six of the victims were women of Asian descent: Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng. Delaina Ashley Yaun and Paul Andre Michels were also killed in the shootings.

Anti-Asian and Pacific Island hate crimes have continued to increase since Covid-19, and perpetrators often target the most vulnerable such as women and the elderly.

The Takeaway speaks with Phi Nguyen, Executive Director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, about the work her organization is doing to mobilize AAPI communities in Georgia.

Sonal Shah, Interim Executive Vice President of Worldwide Network Advancement and board member of the Asian American Foundation, also joins to discuss the policies and initiatives necessary to end anti-AAPI hate.

And Congresswoman Grace Meng, who represents New York’s 6th Congressional District, joins to discuss her work on legislation to protect AAPI communities.

It’s been nearly a month now since WNBA star Brittney Griner was detained in Russia. Russian authorities only announced Griner’s detention earlier this month, two weeks after arresting her, after allegedly finding hash oil in one of her bags at an airport in Moscow. She could face ten to twenty years in prison under Russian law.

Griner has been playing in Russia since 2014 in order to supplement her WNBA income. Financial opportunities in the U.S. for WNBA players are often much less lucrative than those available to their NBA counterparts. 

Relatively scarce details have emerged since news of Griner’s detention became public, in part due to her family’s desire to maintain privacy for the sake of her protection. But her detention is concerning for several reasons. Amid Russia’s violent invasion of Ukraine, and the United States’ subsequent sanctions, diplomatic relations between the two nations are particularly fraught. 

But while Brittney Griner is the most high profile American citizen currently detained in Russia, the state department has been working for several years on the release of two other Americans being held in Russian prisons. And in addition to the complications that come with the detention of any American in an autocratic nation, there’s also the fact that Griner is a Black, openly queer woman in a country that is hostile to LGBTQ rights.

The Takeaway turns to someone who knows firsthand what it’s like being unjustly detained abroad. Jason Rezaian is a global opinions writer at the Washington Post, host of the Spotify Original Podcast 544 Days, and executive producer of the documentary Bring Them Home. 

The first amendment allows citizens of the United States freedom of speech and the right to peacefully assemble and protest. Georgia Senate Bill 171 threatens these constitutional rights by imposing permit requirements, encouraging increased policing, and criminalizing protests. Nora Benavidez, Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice & Civil Rights at Free Press, joins us to discuss the anti-protest legislation in Georgia as part of our series, Georgia 2022: At the Intersections. 

Emilia Sykes was first elected to her Akron district in 2014 and became the first Black female lawmaker under the age of 30 to serve in the legislature. Her mother, Barbara Sykes, served in the Ohio House and ran for state auditor, and her father, Vernon Sykes, is a state senator.

We spoke with Emilia Sykes about her path to leadership and the power of Black women's representation in politics and governance for the third installment of Women Leading Locally, a Women’s History Month special focused on highlighting women breaking barriers, holding office, and making change. 

A growing number of state-level laws restricting abortion access have already had real effects on the health of women and raised alarms about the future of reproductive justice and women’s capacity for self-determination.

These issues are central to a new play entitled “The Billboard.” We speak with Natalie Moore, reporter for WBEZ and author of The Billboard.