The New York Times on Friday said it would return its 2018 Peabody Award for its "Caliphate" podcast, hours after the paper conceded that large parts of the audio series didn't meet its editorial standards.
Why it matters: It's an embarrassing error for The Times, which invested significant resources in the project since 2018. It's also a grim reminder to the journalism industry that even big, well-funded institutions can make costly mistakes.
A perfect storm of quarantines, layoffs, retirements and resignations has public schools scrambling to get enough bodies to keep school afloat next semester.
Why it matters: Districts are desperate to keep classes going and are stretched thin by the sometimes competing needs of in-person and distance learning.
Pornhub is one of America's most-visited websites, but a recent investigation by the New York Times' Nicholas Kristof found many videos of minors and nonconsensual sexual violence. The blowback was swift, with Visa, Discover and Mastercard cutting some ties to the site, which has now removed the vast majority of its content.
Axios Re:Cap speaks with Kristof about the aftermath of his story and what comes next.
There was $33.1 trillion tucked away in U.S. retirement assets at the end of the third quarter, accounting for 34% of all Americans' household financial assets, the Investment Company Institute reported this week.
Why it matters: Individual Retirement Accounts now make up more than one-third of all retirement accounts, as millions of Americans have rolled over their 401(k)s and other so-called defined contribution accounts into IRAs, ICI tells Axios.
The Bank of Japan extended its special support programs for businesses by six months and said it would “conduct an assessment for further effective and sustainable monetary easing” after Japan’s core consumer prices fell at the fastest pace in 10 years in November.
Driving the news: November's core consumer price index decline beat out October's historic decline when consumer prices fell by what was then the fastest pace in 10 years.
The dollar fell sharply on Thursday against almost all of the world's major currencies, and the dollar index dropped to its lowest since April 2018.
The big picture: The index, which measures the dollar against major currencies like the euro, yen and British pound, fell 0.7%, its fourth daily decline in a row and the fifth time in six sessions it has closed lower.
In an exclusive for Axios readers, here are this year's five most downloaded episodes of the N.Y. Times' Michael Barbaro's four-year-old "The Daily" podcast, which in September crossed two billion total downloads:
A little more than a week before the programs expire on Dec. 26, claims for pandemic-specific unemployment benefits are spiking with nearly 1 million new people receiving unemployment assistance via the temporary programs, the latest data from the Labor Department show.
What's happening: As of Nov. 28, there were 14 million people receiving unemployment benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) programs, an increase of 958,000 from the previous week.
The new normal for air travel in 2021 could include two, three or even more COVID-19 tests per trip until vaccines are widely available.
The big picture: Global travel could begin to see a comeback later in 2021 as people get vaccinated and international borders reopen. But the healthiest people — those most likely to travel — will be vaccinated last. In a partially vaccinated world, passengers will still need to wear masks and get tested before, during and after their journey.
