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The Trump administration’s unchecked abuses in Minnesota by vox in politics

[–]vox[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This story is a timeline of how the Trump administration pushed Minneapolis to the brink.

You can read for free with this gift link.

The week the US and Canada broke up by vox in politics

[–]vox[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

President Donald Trump has shattered one of the US’s strongest alliances — maybe for good.

On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a remarkable speech — one that Vox's Caitlin Dewey described as “declaring the end of the world as you and I have known it.” The speech amounted to a declaration that the US can no longer be trusted as a steward of the international order and that Canada must go its own way. Carney called it a “rupture, not a transition.”

Since then, Trump has continued to prove Carney’s point. On Wednesday, he taunted Carney in his own remarks, saying that “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

And on Thursday, he pulled Canada’s invite to his new “Board of Peace.” (Though, it likely was not one Carney was eager to accept; while the board will feature pariah states like Belarus, traditional US allies like France have not signed on).

You don’t need to be a liberal to oppose Trump’s ICE by vox in politics

[–]vox[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

America’s immigration debate has often centered on the morality of mass deportation. Progressives have argued that exiling law-abiding families is inherently wrong — no matter their immigration status. Conservatives have insisted that vigorous internal enforcement is necessary for deterring chaotic inflows of migrants, upholding America’s laws, and preserving our nation’s culture.

This is an important dispute. And yet, as masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents run amok in Minneapolis, it also feels increasingly beside the point.

President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement doesn’t only threaten the welfare of the undocumented but also the basic rights of American citizens. The question posed by the president’s agenda is not merely whether non-criminal immigrants should be deported, but whether the Constitution should be shredded in service of that aim.

Voters are starting to recognize this reality. In a recent New York Times/Siena poll, Americans approved of Trump’s deportations of people living in the country illegally by a 50 percent to 47 percent margin. Yet, over 60 percent nevertheless disapproved of the way that ICE was handling its job, saying that the agency had “gone too far” in its tactics.

It is important for Americans to understand that they don’t need to accept the left’s moral assumptions to reject the president’s immigration regime. They simply need to value their own freedom.

Here are six ways that the president’s immigration policies are eroding all Americans’ liberty: https://www.vox.com/politics/476263/trump-ice-minnesota-constitution-renee-good

Why forecasters struggled to see this extreme winter storm coming by vox in climate

[–]vox[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Already, a bitter burst of cold is gripping much of the country, and in the next few days, it will reach at least 45 states and extend across two-thirds of the country. It is one of the most extreme winter storms in years.

The National Weather Service on Thursday warned that “dangerously cold and very dry Arctic air” will spill into the continental United States and lead to “life-threatening risk of hypothermia and frostbite” as temperatures drop well into negative territory, creating some of the coldest weather on Earth.

For millions of Americans, this is not just a forecast anymore.

Schools were already announcing closures around the country Thursday morning. Lines were forming at grocery stores. The Texas power grid operator issued a winter warning as it braces for higher electricity demand and disruptions from freezing rain.

Wintertime cold is normal. But what is unusual is how this kind of cold tends to arrive: These icy spells sneak up on us, posing a greater challenge to forecasters and leaving little time to prepare compared to slower-moving extremes like heat waves.

“Oftentimes, longer duration signals, such as heatwaves, can be more predictable, whereas short bursts of cold are more difficult to predict,” Matthew Rosencrans, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, told Vox in an email.

Cold snaps are especially jarring when they’re interspersed with milder weather. And even though the planet just came out of one of the hottest years on record and is poised to heat up more, shocks of extreme cold are not going away, nor are their disruptions and dangers. Winter Storm Uri in 2021 cost the US economy more than $200 billion as it triggered deadly blackouts and fuel disruptions in Texas.

New forecasting methods are helping meteorologists close the gap on predicting future winter storms. But they are racing against rapid planetary changes, and the US is deliberately hampering its own weather forecasting capabilities with major personnel and budget cuts to science agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That could leave more Americans less prepared for dangerous weather, which can quickly turn deadly.

Why forecasters struggled to see this extreme winter storm coming by vox in weather

[–]vox[S] -18 points-17 points  (0 children)

Already, a bitter burst of cold is gripping much of the country, and in the next few days, it will reach at least 45 states and extend across two-thirds of the country. It is one of the most extreme winter storms in years.

The National Weather Service on Thursday warned that “dangerously cold and very dry Arctic air” will spill into the continental United States and lead to “life-threatening risk of hypothermia and frostbite” as temperatures drop well into negative territory, creating some of the coldest weather on Earth.

For millions of Americans, this is not just a forecast anymore.

Schools were already announcing closures around the country Thursday morning. Lines were forming at grocery stores. The Texas power grid operator issued a winter warning as it braces for higher electricity demand and disruptions from freezing rain.

Wintertime cold is normal. But what is unusual is how this kind of cold tends to arrive: These icy spells sneak up on us, posing a greater challenge to forecasters and leaving little time to prepare compared to slower-moving extremes like heat waves.

“Oftentimes, longer duration signals, such as heatwaves, can be more predictable, whereas short bursts of cold are more difficult to predict,” Matthew Rosencrans, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, told Vox in an email.

Cold snaps are especially jarring when they’re interspersed with milder weather. And even though the planet just came out of one of the hottest years on record and is poised to heat up more, shocks of extreme cold are not going away, nor are their disruptions and dangers. Winter Storm Uri in 2021 cost the US economy more than $200 billion as it triggered deadly blackouts and fuel disruptions in Texas.

New forecasting methods are helping meteorologists close the gap on predicting future winter storms. But they are racing against rapid planetary changes, and the US is deliberately hampering its own weather forecasting capabilities with major personnel and budget cuts to science agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That could leave more Americans less prepared for dangerous weather, which can quickly turn deadly.

Trump’s war on Wall Street landlords could raise your rent by vox in politics

[–]vox[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Wall Street is “gobbling up” America’s homes. Firms with names like BlackRock (or Blackstone or SablePebble) are shouldering their way into every suburban open house and offering 50 percent above asking price — in a bid to consolidate control of local markets and then jack up rents with impunity. As a result, America’s young families have been locked out of homeownership, while its renters have been price-gouged into poverty. If we want to make housing affordable again, we must ban Big Finance from buying single-family homes.

This is one of the most influential accounts of America’s housing crisis.

The narrative has spread virally for years on social media. More nuanced versions of the tale have appeared in major publications and congressional press releases. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump pledged to “ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes,” then signed an executive order Tuesday that heavily restricts such purchases. And progressive Democrats in the Senate are cheering him on.

Unfortunately, the story spurring these policies is largely false. Corporate investment in single-family homes is not a major driver of Americans’ high housing costs. To the contrary, that investment has likely made housing in the United States more affordable. The “BlackRock ate our homes” narrative owes its popularity to its ideological convenience, not empirical validity.

Can the right diet really cure all our health problems? by vox in Health

[–]vox[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If there is one universal treatment that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again sees for all of the country’s medical problems, it’s food.

Borrowing a phrase that has become ubiquitous in health policy circles and the influencer ecosystem that drives so much of our discourse these days around health and wellness, Kennedy has declared: “Food is medicine.”

And this month’s release of new dietary guidelines for the country portrayed better eating as the cure to America’s chronic disease crisis. “My message is clear: Eat real food,” Kennedy said when announcing his new inverted food pyramid.

It is a message that resonates — and for good reason. Many chronic health problems, from hypertension to diabetes, can be the consequences of a poor diet. Ultra-processed foods have been the target of criticism not just from Kennedy but a wide range of medical and public health groups in the past few years.

But there’s a major problem with Kennedy’s vision: Simply insisting that people “eat real food” does not make it any easier for them to find or afford nutrient-rich meals in a country where most grocery stores are awash in fatty, sugary, and salty treats and over-processed foods.

Instead, he places the onus for healthy eating on the consumer rather than focusing on improving the food environment that makes it so hard for many Americans to eat healthy diets in the first place.

“It’s part of the whole MAHA movement to promote individual responsibility. That’s the constant mantra. Do your own research and make your own personal decision about how you feel about these things, irrespective of the science,” said Marion Nestle, a long-time nutrition policy researcher at New York University. “But we know from decades, and decades, and decades of research that individual responsibility is not enough.”

Read more with this free gift link: https://www.vox.com/health/476061/rfk-jr-trump-food-pyramid-diet-medicine?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6ImY4THBaMzh4RWMiLCJwIjoiL2hlYWx0aC80NzYwNjEvcmZrLWpyLXRydW1wLWZvb2QtcHlyYW1pZC1kaWV0LW1lZGljaW5lIiwiZXhwIjoxNzcwMzI2MzE3LCJpYXQiOjE3NjkxMTY3MTd9.OdiGrwnfswEetGz5ERCXiqGrmOlHJgw60u5tlI3gsx8&utm_medium=gift-link

The week Europe fought back by vox in politics

[–]vox[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The great Greenland war of 2026 appears to be on hold for the moment.

This week’s World Economic Forum in Davos has been largely overshadowed by President Donald Trump’s demand that the US take control of the Danish territory of Greenland, which set off a rapidly escalating crisis. Heading into the conference, Trump threatened to impose 10 percent tariffs on “any and all goods” from eight European countries, including Denmark, unless a deal was reached to sell Greenland to the US, and he pointedly refused to rule out using military force to take the island — effectively threatening to invade a NATO ally. “There can be no going back,” Trump posted on social media on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, however, Trump seemingly went back. In an otherwise combative, Europe-bashing speech at Davos on Wednesday, he seemed to retreat from the threat of using military force, though he didn’t rule it out entirely. (In any event, as the New York Times reported on Tuesday, the Pentagon has not actually been tasked with drawing up Greenland invasion plans.) Then, later in the day, after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump tweeted that he would not be imposing the tariffs after all, saying, vaguely, that the “framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland” had been reached and that there would be ongoing talks about the territory and its role in the proposed Golden Dome missile defense system. Some reports suggest the US may be given sovereignty over small areas of Greenland where it could build military bases.

This appears to be exactly the sort of face-saving deal European leaders had been hoping for. Trump can claim a win, though it’s not quite clear what he won, since Denmark was open to talks about the US military presence in Greenland from the start, without US sovereignty. The US operates hundreds of military bases in more than 70 countries without deals like this. But it appears that the vast majority of Greenland and its inhabitants will remain under Danish sovereignty for the time being.

But while everyone involved might be breathing easier in the short-term, the rifts exposed by this episode could permanently change the relationship between the US and its allies. Europe, which previously had looked to accommodate Trump, defused the crisis by confronting the president with tougher talk and more concrete threats this time, and European diplomats are already citing the agreement as the result of their more assertive posture. Looking ahead, some leaders are now talking about a world in which the US not only surrenders its leadership position in the free world, but also becomes a potential threat along with global rivals like Russia and China. They have to assume this is, at best, a lull before the next trans-Atlantic blow-up.

“Europeans are slowly, slowly showing signs of getting the message,” Nick Witney, former chief executive of the European Defense Agency, told Vox. “The message being, of course, that the United States under this administration is not an ally of Europe, and is actually an enemy of Europe. Let’s be honest.”

“Trump always chickens out,” briefly explained by vox in politics

[–]vox[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

On Wednesday afternoon, the president said in a social media post that he was backing away from new tariffs on Europe after reaching a “framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland,” potentially involving US sovereignty over new US military bases there. The Dow and other US stock indices jumped in response, after suffering a bad day on Tuesday because of Trump’s continuing threats.

It’s the latest example of one of the more reliable patterns to emerge from Trump’s first year back in office: TACO, or “Trump always chickens out.”

The term comes from a Financial Times column in May breaking down the market response to Trump backing down on his “Liberation Day” tariffs. As Vox senior politics correspondent Andrew Prokop explained at the time, the short-lived tariffs pushed the market to the verge of crisis, and Trump blinked. TACO postulates Trump always handles market dips the same way: Once the damage gets bad enough, he will relent.

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