The Tara Reade allegations have finally reached their tipping point, with fresh evidence that the former Joe Biden staffer told friends and family about the alleged sexual assault as far back as 1993. “Senator Biden must cease his campaign immediately,” actress and prominent #MeToo activist Rose McGowan tells OZY in an interview published today, in which she calls the former vice president “toxic.” Still, Democratic leaders are largely avoiding the issue, which means they risk losing the suburban women-led momentum of the Trump years. Year of the Woman? Not so much.

Justin Amash has long been a darling in libertarian circles, and the Michigan congressman and outspoken Trump critic solidified his shift from the GOP by announcing a bid for the Libertarian Party nomination this week. It’s a big move for the 40-year-old iconoclast, who is the son of Palestinian and Syrian immigrants, and will elevate the Libertarian brand. But it might help hand reelection to his nemesis: Trump. A higher than usual third-party vote in 2016 helped put Trump over the top (a good breakdown here via The Bulwark), and compelling Libertarian or Green Party hopefuls could help do so again by giving non-Biden alternatives to anti-Trump voters.

Big Pharma is no longer everybody’s favorite Big Punching Bag. Four in 10 Americans say they now have a more favorable image of the pharmaceutical industry, and even more say they think it will lead the way in fighting COVID-19. And that was before the news that Gilead Sciences' remdesivir is shortening recovery times for the disease, and Dr. Anthony Fauci's statement that a vaccine could be mass-produced by January. While people are finding new appreciation for the work that goes into finding miracle cures, it's still a long road back to public approval, considering that pharma was the most disliked industry in America as recently as August — and still must reckon with its role in the opioid crisis.

It’s time we talked about the Kim Jong Un in the room. Or rather, not in it. There has been intense speculation that the 36-year-old Supreme Leader of the Hermit Kingdom is either gravely ill or dead. Given that there's a woeful lack of intelligence about the closed-off nation, anything short of Kim delivering the news himself will likely keep rumors afloat. So we ask you, dear readers: What do you believe? Is the North Korean dictator alive, dead, sipping mai tais on the beach? Trump says he knows but won’t tell, so send us your best bad answers at [email protected]. 

Last week we asked where you were from, and if you would go back to normal life if your governor told you to. Spencer H. in South Carolina says it’s time to reopen places that aren’t hot spots, but carefully: “By being hard on those who are infected and less restrictive on those that are not, we can get our economy moving at speed again.” Terry M. in Arkansas says there will be no “normal life” ... ever: “A lot of Americans will carry this scar with them like the memory of an old mugging. Big crowds, uh-uh, not going there. Enclosed spaces, subways, planes? Nope, nope, nope.”

Jerusalem hitting the gas pedal on its light rail reconstruction is an example of what the world can smartly get done while most people are sheltered at home. In the U.S., across Europe and in large parts of Asia, we’re being told we’re trapped in a zero-sum game where we must choose between our physical health and the economy. Yet one sector that economists and politicians alike recognize as central to rebuilding the economy — construction of public infrastructure — can actually gain from the lockdown period.

Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky has been a low-key star of the coronavirus response, but he had to apologize for calling out that someone was “being funny” by applying for unemployment benefits under the name Tupac Shakur. Turns out, there is a Tupac Shakur, 46, of Lexington, who needed an unemployment check and is very much not a murdered rapper. The New York Daily News delivered a Pulitzer-worthy pun, pointing out that Kentucky’s Shakur “forgave [Beshear], apparently figuring it’s no biggie.”