PBS Newshour

Ahead of the first Fourth of July since an attack on the Capitol, fueled by baseless claims of voter fraud, and as several GOP-led states work now to enact stricter voting rules, majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents express worry about the health of democracy.

Some infrastructure concerns go far less discussed than others including, notably, the issue of wastewater and sanitation. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the country’s wastewater treatment plants are functioning at an average of “81 percent of their design capacities,” and 15 percent have “reached or exceeded” that capacity. Drinking water service disruptions and flooding from sewer backups and other infrastructure failures cost U.S. households $2 billion in 2019.

The January pick for our “Now Read This” book club was a book of essays exploring many aspects of American culture through the prism of the internet and social media. At age 32, author Jia Tolentino has gained acclaim as one of its most astute observers. She’s a also a staff writer for The New Yorker and “Trick Mirror” is her first book. Jeffrey Brown spoke to Tolentino to learn more.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans place a good deal of the blame on President Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but the country is evenly split over whether he should be removed from office before his term ends on Jan. 20, according to the latest PBS NewsHour-Marist poll.

As 2020 came to a close, we asked artists and authors about the songs that helped them survive a strange and devastating year. We also posed that question to you, and compiled a playlist of 101 songs that you played over and over again this year. Some songs offered an escape. Some infused joy and despair.

The way loneliness skulks in one of Elizabeth Acevedo’s poems probably would have felt familiar even before the pandemic forced us into more isolating situations.

PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist conducted a survey June 22-24 that polled 1,640 U.S. adults with a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points and 1,515 registered voters with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

A former vaccine expert with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) alleges in a whistleblower complaint that he was ousted because his efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic conflicted with those of President Donald Trump and other administration officials.

During historic telephonic arguments this week and next, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up major challenges involving access to President Donald Trump’s financial records, birth control health insurance, “faithless electors” in presidential elections and the constitutionality of the federal ban on robocalls, among others.

As scientists rush to find a vaccine that could end the global pandemic, some cities and states in the U.S. are relying on antibody testing to get a better picture of how the virus has spread and how many people it has infected.