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After years of jokes about unsuccessful Infrastructure Weeks, months of deliberation, and bouts of gridlock on the political left, a $1.2 trillion package made its way through Congress at long last. The president signed it into law earlier this month. Now, the challenge of actually getting the money where it needs to be remains.

NPR’s White House Correspondent Franco Ordonez followed President Biden around the country earlier this month to report on the changes to come, now that the bill is law.

And NPR’s National Desk Correspondent Nathan Rott reports on the portions of the infrastructure package that address resilience and protecting communities historically hit hardest by climate change.

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The World Health Organization is warning that the omicron variant of the coronavirus, which was first detected in South Africa, has a “very high” global risk because of the possibility that it spreads more easily and might resist vaccines and immunity in people who were infected with previous strains.

On Monday, President Joe Biden said this this variant is a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic.” He urged Americans to get fully vaccinated and get a booster dose if they qualify.

WHO spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris explains what more there is to learn about the severity and transmission of this new variant.

And Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) discusses why vaccine hesitation on a global scale could make this next phase of the pandemic more dangerous.

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This Thanksgiving week, we’re sharing a segment from our special series Play It Forward, in which artists tell us about their own music and the musicians who inspire them.

This episode, opera singer and funk keyboardist Constance Hauman speaks to Ari Shapiro about her new album, Tropical Thunderstorm, her experiences as a multi-genre musician and an artist she’s grateful for: Daf player Asal Malekzadeh.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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For Thanksgiving Day, we’re sharing a segment from our special series Play It Forward, in which artists tell us about their own music and the musicians who inspire them.

In this episode, funk legend George Clinton speaks to Ari Shapiro about the longevity and enduring influence of his band, Parliament-Funkadelic, being a hype man for other musicians, and an artist he’s grateful for: opera singer and funk keyboardist Constance Hauman.

On tomorrow’s episode: Constance Hauman plays it forward.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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The commonly-told version of the first Thanksgiving story leaves out a lot: The indigenous Wampanoag people who lived in a complex society long before the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth Rock; Squanto escaping bondage in Spain before becoming an emissary to the Pilgrims; and the long legacy of violent displacement that followed.

Paula Peters, a writer and a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, still lives near where the Pilgrims made landfall on her ancestral homeland. She talks about how the 1621 feast fits into history.

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CTE — chronic traumatic encephalopathy — is a degenerative brain disease found in many former professional football and hockey players, for whom blows to the head have long been part of the job.

But those injuries also occur outside the world of pro sports. And as awareness of CTE has grown, so has a thriving market of dubious remedies marketed to everyday people who believe they are suffering from CTE — a disease that can’t even be diagnosed until after death, through an autopsy of the brain.

In the second of two episodes, Sacha Pfeiffer of NPR’s Investigative Team reports on some of those desperate patients and their hope for a cure.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

CTE — chronic traumatic encephalopathy — is a degenerative brain disease found in many former professional football and hockey players, for whom blows to the head have long been part of the job.

But those injuries also occur outside the world of pro sports. And as awareness of CTE has grown, so has a thriving market of dubious remedies marketed to everyday people who believe they are suffering from CTE — a disease that can’t even be diagnosed until after death, through an autopsy of the brain.

In the first of two episodes, Sacha Pfeiffer of NPR’s Investigative Team reports on some of those desperate patients and their hope for a cure.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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For those living with long COVID, daily activities like going for a walk, washing the dishes, or being on a Zoom call can be incredibly draining.

These long-term effects of a COVID infection – called post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2, PASC, or more simply long COVID – have been a reality for many patients since the start of the pandemic.

While it is not known exactly how common long COVID is, it isn’t rare. One study found that some 30% of participants across multiple age ranges reported persistent symptoms. For some, symptoms fade after a few months, while for others, long COVID feels like their new reality.

NPR’s Mallory Yu has been reporting on long COVID and gathered the stories of patients who are desperate for answers.

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Migrants from faraway countries are stuck in Belarus, just across its border with Poland. They’ve traveled there to seek asylum in the EU. But Poland has refused to accept them.

How did they get there? They were invited — and in some cases, their travel facilitated — by the regime of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. EU leaders say Lukashenko and his backers in Russia are ‘weaponizing’ migration in retaliation for sanctions placed on Belarus last year. Those sanctions came after the EU accused Lukashenko of rigging his most recent election.

Now, many hundreds of migrants are stuck on the Belarus side of the border. There have been at least nine recorded deaths, but observers think there have been many more. Migrants were reportedly moved from makeshift camps outdoors to a government-run shelter on Thursday, though it’s unclear what Belarus plans to do with them next.

NPR international correspondent Rob Schmitz has seen the crisis up close. This episode is a collection of his reporting. Find more of it here, and see photos from the border on NPR’s Picture Show.

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Afghanistan is facing its worst drought in decades, but that’s not the only reason it is on the verge of a hunger crisis. After the Taliban took over, much of the country’s international development aid was suspended, and the United States froze $9.5 billion in Afghan government assets. The economy has plummeted.

Richard Trenchard, country director for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Afghanistan, explains what he’s heard from farmers and herders.

PBS NewsHour special correspondent Jane Ferguson recently returned from a reporting trip in the country, where she saw hospital wards filling up with malnourished babies and toddlers.

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