COVID returns to the forefront of this week’s Extra! Extra! as we look at the outbreak of COVID in India and the threats posed by variants across the globe. We look at the one thing that’s proving stronger than COVID: capitalism and how that’s impacting our recovery. The team also examines new developments on the immigration and criminal justice fronts and ponder what it means to hear the president tell transgender Americans he’s got their backs.

So much has happened, and in many ways it feels impossible for me to not look at everything through the lens of the insurrection in the U.S. Capitol. This is just one of those times where it’s as much as I can do to look at all the many ways America is, quite simply, falling apart right now. So this week’s Extra! Extra! is pretty much limited to American news: several angles of breaking down everything that’s horrifying about the insurrection, the Trump administration’s parting shots and how COVID continues to rage amid American incompetence.

This week’s Extra! Extra! reports another bit of news that flew under the radar, this time regarding gun control (it’s not good, you guys). We also cover the heinous violence against three trans women in LA this week, USAID’s erasure of LGBTQ+ people and an update on what’s going on around the US regarding police violence and the protests. And then we turn to the elections – by which I mean Russia, Belarus and the US.

This week’s Extra! Extra! honors all the victims – past, present and future. Oh it needs to stop – there must be an end to the long list of names we memorialize. But I’m not naive enough to think more lives won’t be lost before we reach that point.