A Data Visualization Newsletter

As vaccines continue to be distributed across the globe, the pandemic’s disparities have never been so stark. Many of the world’s largest, wealthiest cities have successfully vaccinated a large portion of their population and curbed coronavirus cases. In parts of India and South America, however, vaccines have been hard to come by and outbreaks continue to devastate the population.

Italy took first prize in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest last week, as the show returned from a one year hiatus due to the pandemic. This piece from Reuters provides an in-depth overview of the contest’s long history, including how the tone of the songs have shifted over the years from happy to sad.

Global warming has heated up across the globe, and will inevitably impact you and the people you care about. The Kontinentalist uses the situation in Southeast Asia, which has been hit hard by climate change, to show how quickly shifting temperatures will impact all generations of its citizens over the next few decades.

At the height of the pandemic, as public transportation ridership plummeted across the country, some major cities decided to temporarily halt fare collection on public buses and light rail. Now some transit leaders are asking whether free public transportation should simply become the norm. Places like Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. are already exploring it, and there’s a proposal in Congress that could fund the concept nationwide.