A selection of the FT’s biggest stories and best reads every Friday

Hello, LSS readers! I’m coming at you from snowy Brooklyn, days after one of the biggest snowstorms in New York City’s history. Pre-Covid, a 17-inch blizzard would have been the talk of the office. Mid-Covid, working alone in my apartment, I found a way to miss the memo. I woke up to an opaque white scene outside my window, a closed-down city, a pathetic offering in my fridge and no milk. The next day, my local park was covered in a swath of new residents: snowmen. One had a mask on. One had legs. One had two heads. You got me, New York. You always do.

Despite the storm, the news doesn’t sleep, and neither do my colleagues, who put out some amazing journalism this week. Please enjoy my top FT stories, plus a few from elsewhere that you shouldn’t miss. Click here to receive Long Story Short by email every Friday.

1. ‘Showing how fast we have moved and far’

Finally, some good pandemic news: according to the FT’s vaccine tracker, the number of recorded Covid-19 vaccinations globally has surpassed the total number of confirmed cases. It’ll still take quite a while for the world to be immunised, but we’re on the path. And after months of nightmarish graphs, this one is a true relief. According to Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh:

“A year ago I couldn’t have imagined that we would have so many effective vaccines. This is a real testament to human ingenuity.”

2. ‘Let them trade’

It’s always fascinating when the internet realises it can do something. That’s what happened last week, when Reddit users caused GameStop’s share price to soar, squeezing the hedge funds that bet against it. The GameStop story has it all: internet culture, day traders, flash mobs, populism. A week after online brokerage Robinhood put curbs on trading in GameStop, James Politi digs into the big picture questions we’re left with: How will Washington respond? Will this change how we regulate Wall Street longer term or will it be a blip? According to Ian Katz, an analyst at Capital Alpha Partners:

“If this sort of craziness continues . . . there’s going to be a real clamouring for something to be done.”

3. ‘China is a far more potent adversary than the Soviet Union’

Martin Wolf is not only one of the premier economists in the world, he’s also one of the FT’s clearest writers and explainers, as well as — fun fact — an extremely kind person. In his column this week, Martin answers an important foreign policy question with a single word:

“Many Americans argue that a form of containment [of China] is feasible…But is this really a feasible policy? I believe the answer is: no.”

4. ‘In 15 years, the world energy scene will look nothing like what it does now’

Exciting news: the FT has just launched Climate Capital, a hub for our global climate business journalism. After watching the behind-the-scenes prep for this launch, I can say with certainty that you are in for some world-class reporting. It kicks off with a great magazine cover from Leslie Hook and Henry Sanderson on how the race for renewable energy is reshaping global politics. I found this story extremely heartening, especially this decisive quote from billionaire mining magnate Andrew Forrest:

“Any country which does not take green energy very seriously, but clings to polluting energy, will eventually get left behind.”

5. ‘Open, fresh and free. A salve for my cramped reality’

I wrote something this week as well: an ode to the wild wonderland that is Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. As part of Globetrotter’s series of park portraits, we take a tour. Designed by Central Park creators, architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the greenspace is known to many as Brooklyn’s Backyard. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous waking up the morning this was published; the park means something very personal to everyone who visits it. Here is a bowl of adjectives about my favourite place:

“The forest is just one of several worlds that exist in the grand, mysterious, elegant, witchy, whimsical 526-acre green space.”

Quick hits

OTHER FT STORIES THAT HAVE CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK

• Jeff Bezos announced this week that he’s stepping down as chief executive of Amazon. Our tech correspondent in San Francisco, Dave Lee, looks into what comes next for the company. One thing’s for sure: Bezos gets to avoid a year of possible grillings from Congress for its size, its treatment of workers and concerns over privacy.

• This exclusive revealed that McKinsey has fired its investment bank researchers after policy breaches. The management consultancy halted work at the CIB Insights division pending a review of “personnel matters”, representing a setback to its strategy of adding more data analytics to the group’s core offering.

• One of President Biden’s most memorable campaign lines was to black voters: “You’ve always had my back, and I’ll have yours.” Black Americans turned out in record numbers to vote Biden into office, but can he deliver? I found this extremely useful context, from Lauren Fedor and Taylor Nicole Rogers.

• Myanmar police have pressed charges against deposed leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, the first since the military seized power in a coup on Monday. The arrests came amid signs of an early public resistance campaign against the coup. I’d follow John Reed’s reporting anywhere.

• One of my favourite recent pieces comes from a former top magazine editor, Deborah Needleman, who started a tiny herbal tea business upstate. She grows the herbs in her garden. It takes months. She does it because it makes her happy.

Best of the rest

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING ELSEWHERE

1. He wants to save classics from whiteness. Can the field survive? An interesting piece about Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a leading historian of Rome who is speaking out within the classical studies community against the harmful justification of slavery, colonialism, Nazism, and other historic wrongs. (New York Times)

2. Reintroducing Sonia Sotomayor A profile of my favourite Supreme Court Justice, who is expected to fill the shoes of the late, great Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (New York Magazine)

3. ICYMI The Doctor vs #MeToo A respected HIV specialist in Germany, has been using domestic media law to force media outlets such as BuzzFeed, Vice and Der Spiegel to erase reporting about sexual abuse allegations made against him. The article asks, “In an era of #MeToo reckoning, how is it possible that the voices of so many people have been silenced?”. (Columbia Journalism Review)

Before you go

A light one: the New Yorker’s Daily Shout contains a collection of cartoons entitled “Leaked plot lines from the ‘Sex and the City’ Reunion”. In it, the character Samantha goes alt-right and Carrie identifies as a “Cuomosexual”, but my favourite alternate plotline is this: “Mr Big’s last name is revealed — it is also John.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, favourite TV shows, deep dark secrets . . . keep in touch with me at @lilahrap on Instagram or Twitter. You can also email us at longstoryshort@ft.com! Have a cozy weekend.

Lilah
US head of audience and host of FT Life & Arts podcast Culture Call