Links for you. Science:

The worst virus variant just arrived. The pandemic is not over. (1. We need a new Greek letter; 2. Most editorial boards can’t write about biology to save their lives)
COVID State of Affairs: July 7
Wastewater sequencing reveals early cryptic SARS-CoV-2 variant transmission
The Corpse Flower At The U.S. Botanic Garden Is Very Much Alive…And Blooming
Got COVID? Doctors warn powering through it — even from home — can worsen health toll
A Whale Feeding Frenzy in Antarctica Signals a Conservation Success. Once hunted to the brink of extinction, fin whales in the Southern Ocean have rebounded and returned to their historic feeding grounds, according to a new survey.

Other:

Will No One Defend the American Republic? (excellent, must-read)
These Are the Stakes (also must-read)
A food bank opened on a swank block. It’s about to be shut down.
American Massacre: Leah Sottile’s ‘When the Moon Turns to Blood’ highlights America’s apocalyptic now
A Chinese farmhouse in West Virginia bridges politics and a pandemic
Winklevoss Twins Team Up With Peter Thiel To Support Arizona Senate Candidate Blake Masters (Masters is an anti-Semitism)
McConnell’s bizarre threats show the danger of a GOP-controlled Congress
Erin Palmer Gave Phil Mendelson His Closest Race in Many Years. What Does That Mean for the Future?
American Cartel: Inside the battle to bring down the opioid industry
On July 4, the New York Times published an essay by the president of the Ford Foundation. It’s an interesting window into the mindset of America’s ostensibly liberal elite: a superficially compelling, yet utterly unconvincing, inadequate, and severely misleading diagnosis.
Ballot drop boxes not allowed in Wisconsin, state Supreme Court rules
Does Anyone Actually Show Up To Work
Brett Kavanaugh’s Right to Dine Shall Not Be Infringed. Never mind that it wasn’t, and that Americans have no recourse to hold members of their unelected SuperCongress accountable.
Do Not Bother Important People
You may not have noticed yet, but inflation has started to come down
Radical Is Now Rational. When reality changes, only fools don’t change with it.
Layer of bloodthirsty online aesthetics obscures how far-right forces fueled Highland Park terrorist
Biden Team Weighed Emergency Declaration Over Roe Decision
Ohio lawmaker wants to teach the Holocaust ‘from the perspective of the Nazis’
Corporate America Is Helping to Elect Anti-Abortion Attorneys General
Notes on the Culture of Hate. How do we fight a movement that spreads as irresistibly as a story?
Why is no one talking about Doug Mastriano’s plan to destroy public education in Pa.?
He used to edit political stories at the Chicago Tribune. Now he says the press is failing our democracy.