<em>The Atlantic Daily</em>: The Last Days of Trump

Further reading: “When the president of the United States calls up electoral officials to threaten them, he’s leveling a loaded gun at our democracy,” Zeynep Tufekci argues in her latest.

What to read while you wait for the results of today’s double Senate runoff in Georgia:

Donors put nearly half a billion dollars into the four campaigns. Our staff writer Emma Green argues that “there’s something appalling about Americans spending this much on a pair of Senate seats during a pandemic.”

One question, answered: It’s 2021. When will things return to normal?

Look to the summer as a barometer, our staff writer Ed Yong reports:

Many of the 30 epidemiologists, physicians, immunologists, sociologists, and historians whom I interviewed for this piece are cautiously optimistic that the U.S. is headed for a better summer. But they emphasized that such a world, though plausible, is not inevitable. Its realization hinges on successfully executing the most complicated vaccination program in U.S. history, on persuading a frayed and fractured nation to continue using masks and avoiding indoor crowds, on countering the growing quagmire of misinformation, and on successfully monitoring and countering changes in the virus itself.

Read his piece on what to expect from year two of the pandemic.

What to read if … you’re looking to better understand the current state of the outbreak:

1. The mutated virus is a ticking time bomb

2. America has not fixed its deadliest pandemic errors

3. The pandemic metric to trust right now

4. 4 numbers that make the pandemic’s massive death toll sink in

Tonight’s Atlantic-approved pandemic activity:

Put on one of the best podcasts of 2020, as selected by Laura Jane Standley and Eric McQuade.

Today’s break from the news:

Read about a different kind of virus: These giant ones seem to have an unusual ability.

Sign yourself up for The Daily here.

Caroline Mimbs Nyce is a senior associate editor at The Atlantic.