10 Items from the week | 2 Mar 25
News from the past week, and a few other things.
👋 Hello Reader, I hope you had a great week.
Of the items that crossed my desk this week, here are a few that stood out.
1. Fair or Not, Zelensky Is Angering Trump. Is His Style Hurting Ukraine? (NYT)
Through the crucible of three years of wartime leadership, Mr. Zelensky has mostly played weak hands wisely, like when he popped out of a bunker while his capital was bombed early in the war to film selfie videos rallying his nation and the world to resist. His showmanship also paid off in talks that kept billions of dollars worth of weapons and ammunition coming to his military. But his approach to the Trump administration has fallen flat with the White House, engendering not empathy but hostility from the American president. His request for a presidential meeting flopped, becoming the latest example of a dramatic personal style that was once integral to his nation’s struggle but now looks more like a monkey wrench in dealing with the Trump administration. It is hotly debated in Ukraine whether Mr. Zelensky erred in his messaging by responding to insults from Mr. Trump with a few snipes of his own, rather than diplomatically navigating the U.S. president’s attacks. Though Mr. Trump’s claim that Ukraine started the war with Russia was clearly false, Mr. Zelensky infuriated him by publicly correcting the record and claiming the American president was trapped in a “web of disinformation” peddled by the Kremlin. Was his response a necessary defense of national interests? Or a misstep in dealing with an empowered leader who broaches no criticism and essentially holds Ukraine’s fate in his hands?
2. Europe Aims to Forge a Peace Plan for Ukraine (WSJ)
The U.K. and France said they would lead a European effort to forge a Ukraine peace plan to present to President Trump, as they sought to patch up differences between Kyiv and Washington following Friday’s White House clash. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted nearly 20 allies in London on Sunday and said that progress had been made in building a “coalition of the willing,” which would commit military assets, including troops on the ground, to secure any eventual peace. He said more countries would need to come on board if Europe is to build a force that would deter Russian aggression in Ukraine. One of the disagreements in the argument in the Oval Office was Ukraine’s insistence that any peace deal has strong security guarantees from its Western allies to deter Russia from trying to invade Ukraine again in the future. Zelensky’s recounting of how Russian President Vladimir Putin had violated previous cease-fire deals triggered a sharp response from Vice President JD Vance and President Trump. While European allies are working to create tangible guarantees, Trump has so far shown reluctance for the U.S. playing any kind of military role in securing the peace. France and the U.K. have been discussing plans for weeks to place a military force in Ukraine if a stable cease-fire or peace deal is done. Diplomats briefed on the discussions say there is growing consensus on the type of assets and the number of troops that would need to be deployed. But there is still work to be done on where this force would be deployed and what its mandate would be. Starmer has said publicly that to deploy forces to Ukraine in a peace agreement, there must be some form of U.S. “backstop” for a European deployment. Diplomats said they are seeking clarity on how the U.S. would respond if European forces came under attack from Russia. Zelensky sounded more conciliatory to the U.S. saying Sunday he was “ready” to sign an agreement that would give the U.S. access to critical minerals in Ukraine. That deal was supposed to be ratified in the White House on Friday. Macron and Starmer are seeking to get a mineral-rights deal back on track, according to European diplomats briefed on the discussions. Zelensky expressed a desire to repair the relationship with the U.S. in meetings with European officials. The coming weeks will show whether Europe can back up its rhetoric by stepping up support for Ukraine if Washington walks away. The U.S. has sent nearly $70 billion in military aid—dwarfing contributions from any of Kyiv’s other allies—since the start of the war, according to Zelensky. But European nations have been steadily stepping up their support throughout the war. The EU and its member states have given over $50 billion in military assistance. The U.K. is giving $3.8 billion annually.
3. In an Age of Right-Wing Populism, Why Are Denmark’s Liberals Winning? (NYT)
Over the past several years, there is arguably not a single high-income country where a center-left party has managed to enact progressive policies and win re-election — with the exception of Denmark. Since the Social Democrats took power in 2019, they have compiled a record that resembles the wish list of a liberal American think tank. They changed pension rules to enable blue-collar workers to retire earlier than professionals. On housing, the party fought speculation by the private-equity industry by enacting the so-called Blackstone law, a reference to the giant New York-based firm that had bought beloved Copenhagen apartment buildings; the law restricts landlords from raising rents for five years after buying a property. To fight climate change, Frederiksen’s government created the world’s first carbon tax on livestock and passed a law that requires 15 percent of farmland to become natural habitat. On reproductive rights, Denmark last year expanded access to abortion through the first 18 weeks of pregnancy, up from 12 weeks, and allowed girls starting at age 15 to get an abortion without parental consent. All the while, the country continues to provide its famous welfare state, which includes free education through college (including a monthly stipend of about $900 for living expenses), free medical care and substantial unemployment insurance, while nonetheless being home to globally competitive companies like Novo Nordisk, the maker of the anti-obesity drug Ozempic. In 2022, Frederiksen won a second term, defying the anti-incumbent mood that has ousted incumbent parties elsewhere since the Covid pandemic. As part of her success, she has marginalized the far right in her country. But there is one issue on which Frederiksen and her party take a very different approach from most of the global left: immigration. Nearly a decade ago, after a surge in migration caused by wars in Libya and Syria, she and her allies changed the Social Democrats’ position to be much more restrictive. They called for lower levels of immigration, more aggressive efforts to integrate immigrants and the rapid deportation of people who enter illegally. While in power, the party has enacted these policies. Denmark continues to admit immigrants, and its population grows more diverse every year. But the changes are happening more slowly than elsewhere. Today 12.6 percent of the population is foreign-born, up from 10.5 percent when Frederiksen took office. In Germany, just to Denmark’s south, the share is almost 20 percent. In Sweden, it is even higher. These policies made Denmark an object of scorn among many progressives elsewhere. Critics described the Social Democrats as monstrous, racist and reactionary, arguing that they had effectively become a right-wing party on this issue. To Frederiksen and her aides, however, a tough immigration policy is not a violation of progressivism; to the contrary, they see the two as intertwined.
4. The Countries Fueling America’s $1.2 Trillion Goods Trade Deficit, in Charts (WSJ)
The U.S. imported $1.2 trillion more in goods in 2024 than it exported, a record annual deficit and a major economic irritant for President Trump. On Feb. 13, the president announced that his administration would evaluate tariffs and other trade barriers imposed on U.S. exports by other nations and match them with “reciprocal” tariffs. The president said last week that 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico would go into effect Tuesday. Part of the president’s goal is to shrink that trillion-dollar gulf between imports and exports by getting other countries to buy more goods from the U.S. and by spurring domestic manufacturing. The nation’s biggest trading partners—Mexico, Canada and China—contribute a sizable share of the gap. But the U.S. last year ran a trade deficit with more than 100 countries, according to Census Bureau data. Gaps with some of those nations, including Vietnam and India, have grown as businesses shifted supply chains away from China.
5. The U.S. Economy Depends More Than Ever on Rich People (WSJ)
Many Americans are pinching pennies, exhausted by high prices and stubborn inflation. The well-off are spending with abandon. The top 10% of earners—households making about $250,000 a year or more—are splurging on everything from vacations to designer handbags, buoyed by big gains in stocks, real estate and other assets. Those consumers now account for 49.7% of all spending, a record in data going back to 1989, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Three decades ago, they accounted for about 36%. All this means that economic growth is unusually reliant on rich Americans continuing to shell out. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated that spending by the top 10% alone accounted for almost one-third of gross domestic product.
6. Gov. Whitmer’s 2025 State of the State Address as Prepared for Delivery (Michigan.gov)
“Our young people are suffering the most… but I want to call attention to the fact that this crisis disproportionately impacts young, single men. They buy just 8% of homes sold today, compared to single women, who buy 20%...My message tonight goes out to all young people, but especially our young men. I know it’s hard to get ahead right now. But I promise you, no matter how hard life might get, there is always a way out and a way up. The last thing any of us wants is a generation of young men falling behind their fathers and grandfathers. I’ve heard most about this issue from moms, who love their sons and are worried about them. And to the women out there who are succeeding after decades of having the deck stacked against them, I see your resilience and I want you to know that I will never abandon my commitment to equal opportunity and dignity for everyone.”
NOTE: Yet another Governor (this one of Michigan, the previous one of Maryland) noting the crisis facing young men.
7. Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off (Pew Research)
After many years of steady decline, the share of Americans who identify as Christians shows signs of leveling off – at least temporarily – at slightly above six-in-ten, according to a massive new Pew Research Center survey of 36,908 U.S. adults. The latest RLS, fielded over seven months in 2023-24, finds that 62% of U.S. adults identify as Christians. That is a decline of 9 percentage points since 2014 and a 16-point drop since 2007. But for the last five years, between 2019 and 2024, the Christian share of the adult population has been relatively stable, hovering between 60% and 64%.
8. Why has the flu been so bad this year? (Economist)
Experts cannot say with certainty why this season has been so severe. Some cyclical variation is to be expected: a bad season often follows a few milder ones. Covid-era lockdowns and mask-wearing have meant that fewer people have been exposed to the virus in recent years. Falling vaccination rates don’t help. By this point in the 2019-20 season roughly 69% of American children between the ages of six months and four years had been vaccinated. This season only around 54% have been. For pregnant women the vaccination rate has dropped from 55% to 37% in the same period; for those aged 65 and over, from 51% to 43%. At the same time, early data from those who have been vaccinated suggest that this year’s flu shots may have been less effective than usual.
9. The Schools Reviving Shop Class Offer a Hedge Against the AI Future (WSJ)
School districts around the U.S. are spending tens of millions of dollars to expand and revamp high-school shop classes for the 21st century. They are betting on the future of manual skills overlooked in the digital age, offering vocational-education classes that school officials say give students a broader view of career prospects with or without college. With higher-education costs soaring and white-collar workers under threat by generative AI, the timing couldn’t be better. American high schools began jettisoning shop class following the 1983 publication of “A Nation at Risk,” a federal report that urged high schools to raise academic standards. The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act emphasized standardized test results to measure student achievement. Many schools, under pressure to show academic improvement, spent less on art and music classes, as well as cut back on auto repair and other shop courses. For decades, shop programs were dogged by allegations that schools shunted students from low-income families into blue-collar careers, while well-off students headed to college. If there is a stigma to taking shop classes, Andres Mendoza Alcala, a Middleton High senior, isn’t seeing it. “I haven’t met a single person that looks down on someone else, just because they’re doing the trades instead of college,” the 18-year-old aspiring carpenter said. “They just say it’s a good choice. These are secure jobs.” As white-collar hiring slows, more younger workers are finding blue-collar careers. The share of workers ages 20 to 24 in blue-collar jobs was 18% last May, two points higher than it was at the start of 2019, according to an analysis by payroll provider ADP. Enrollment in vocation-focused, two-year community colleges jumped 14% in fall 2024 compared with a year earlier. Enrollment at public four-year colleges rose 3% during that period.
10. Escaping the Simulation (Liberal Patriot)
Perhaps more than anything else, addiction is a defining feature of contemporary American life. This is the conclusion of a growing chorus of psychiatrists and public intellectuals. Americans are addicted to all kinds of substances and activities, from the minor and seemingly mundane to the vast and life-wrecking. Whether gorging on processed foods, gambling on cryptocurrencies and sporting events, or scrolling through short videos and political screeds, many of us find ourselves fighting—and often losing—a never-ending battle to rein in our compulsions. The path we’re on now is the path of least resistance: a slow slide into deepening digital dependency, where we continue to cede control of our attention and our autonomy to the Simulation and the mysterious algorithms that power it. Especially for younger Americans raised entirely within this environment, our feeds—and our minds—become flooded with propaganda and AI-generated sludge, crippling our capacity for independent thought, siloing us in isolated and warring tribes, and making it impossible to tell fact from fiction. The phenomenon of “enshittification” (in which online platforms become overrun with sensational junk) metastasizes from the internet to every corner of life—corroding our schools, our workplaces, and even our families at times….The moment is ripe for a new cultural movement to reclaim our humanity from the clutches of the Simulation—one that addresses the individual, societal, and spiritual dimensions of this crisis. Such a movement demands new leadership at every level of society. Cultural figures and influencers must use their platforms to raise awareness of this crisis, exposing the harms of excessive social media use and empowering us with solutions and norms we can adopt in our own lives. Entrepreneurs and community leaders can help build new technologies, business models, and “third places” where we can spend our time free from exploitation and addiction-driven incentive structures. Political leaders should enact regulatory standards that give Americans more control over their data and autonomy while online. Finally, and most importantly, each of us must embrace the personal discipline needed to put ourselves back in control of our lives….The choice is clear: reclaim our individual agency and dignity from the Simulation or watch society get hollowed out by it.
And a Few More
A few other items that crossed my desk.
North America
As Poverty Rises in New York City, 1 in 4 Can’t Afford Essentials
A quarter of New York City residents don’t have enough money for staples like housing and food, and many say they cannot afford to go to the doctor, according to a report that underscores the urgency of an affordability crisis elected officials are struggling to confront. The report, by a research group at Columbia University and Robin Hood, an anti-poverty group, found that the share of New Yorkers in poverty was nearly double the national average in 2023 and had increased by seven percentage points in just two years.
Trump Proposes $5 Million ‘Gold Card’ That Would Grant U.S. Residency
President Trump said Tuesday that he would allow wealthy individuals to pay $5 million for a “gold card” that would grant them permanent U.S. residency, ending an existing program that offers green cards to people who invest in the country. Trump said the new program, which he hopes to roll out in the coming weeks, would eventually provide a pathway for full citizenship. Companies such as Apple could pay $5 million to get approval for highly skilled workers to reside in the U.S., Trump said. The new “gold card” system would replace the EB-5 program, which was launched in the 1990s to channel foreign investment into economically marginalized areas and create local jobs. It offers green cards to people who invest at least $900,000 or $1.8 million—depending on the area—into qualified U.S. projects and show that they have created at least 10 jobs. Spouses of investors and their children under 21 also get green cards. The program has been plagued by cases of fraud, though it also enjoys strong bipartisan support from states, such as New York, that have benefited from the program. Under EB-5, each country gets no more than 7% of the program’s 10,000-visa annual quota, which creates long backlogs for countries with large numbers of applicants, especially China. Congress reauthorized the program for five years in 2022, tightening the criteria for the program.
Trump Signs Order to Designate English as Official Language of the U.S.
President Trump signed an order designating English as the official language of the United States, the White House said on Saturday. The order did not require any changes to federal programs and appeared to be largely symbolic. But the pronouncement was the biggest victory yet for the country’s English-only movement, which has long been tied to efforts to restrict bilingual education and immigration to the United States. More than 30 states have already designated English as their official language. “Establishing English as the official language will not only streamline communication but also reinforce shared national values, and create a more cohesive and efficient society,” the order said. The executive order rescinds a Clinton-era mandate that required agencies and recipients of federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, but allows agencies to keep current policies and provide documents and services in other languages.
Latin America
Trump Reverses Course on Venezuela, Revoking Chevron Oil License
President Trump said Wednesday he was revoking a Biden-era license allowing Chevron to produce oil in Venezuela over what he said was strongman Nicolás Maduro’s failure to assist in deporting migrants. The move is a reversal of the administration’s monthlong rapprochement with Maduro and appears to be a setback for Chevron, the U.S. oil company that former President Joe Biden granted an exception to American sanctions to pump in Venezuela in 2022. Trump didn’t mention Chevron but said on his social-media platform, Truth Social, that he was canceling a Nov. 26, 2022, license, which is when the company got its concession. Trump said Chevron’s license will be terminated as of March 1, requiring the company to wind down its Venezuelan operations within months. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said in a post on X that in light of the president’s directive, he was issuing “foreign policy guidance to terminate all Biden-era oil and gas licenses that have shamefully bankrolled the illegitimate Maduro regime.”
Government
FAA Aims to Boost Hiring of Air-Traffic Controllers and Update Its Technology
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the federal government would take steps to hire more air-traffic controllers and spend billions of dollars to upgrade the nation’s aviation system. As part of plans to increase staffing, Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration would boost pay for students at its air-traffic control academy in Oklahoma City by 30% to $22.84 an hour in the coming days. Duffy said Thursday the FAA would streamline hiring and shave more than four months from the process of training new air-traffic controllers. “We have to pay young people more to stay in the academy,” Duffy said, after touring the FAA’s academy and meeting with students and staff. “If we have the best and brightest and we pay people more, we’re going to address one of the problems we have, which is the washout rate.” The secretary touted what graduates can earn: an average of $160,000. Pay varies by location, and the FAA said the figure didn’t include overtime. The FAA has struggled with low staffing at its air-traffic facilities in recent years. The shortages have strained controllers, who often work long weeks, and at times have led to flight delays as the agency eases controllers’ workloads. As of late 2023, the FAA had about 81% of the fully certified controllers it needed then, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
Defense
DOD: Gender Dysphoria Incompatible With Military, Service Members Must Serve in Accordance With Sex
Service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria will soon be processed for separation by their respective services, according to a new policy memorandum from the Defense Department's Office of Personnel and Readiness.
Business
Apple Vows to Build A.I. Servers in Houston and Spend $500 Billion in U.S.
Days after Apple’s chief executive met with President Trump, the company said on Monday that it planned to spend $500 billion and hire 20,000 people in the United States over the next four years and open a factory in Texas to make the machines that power the company’s push into artificial intelligence.
In Shipbuilding, the U.S. Is Tiny and Rusty
Asian shipyards churn out hundreds of big boxships and oil tankers a year. The U.S. is lucky if it can finish more than one each year. It has been that way for decades. Few major American shipyards remain and they now mostly build or repair vessels for the U.S. Navy. Those that do produce new commercial ships mostly make small vessels for U.S. companies operating on domestic routes, not the giant containerships and ocean vessels that underpin global trade. The Trump administration has floated a proposal that would seek to reverse the trend by imposing port fees on Chinese-built ships and requiring some U.S. exports to move on U.S.-built ships. The idea faces both labor and financial challenges. American shipyards employed more than one million people during World War II, but in the decades that followed the U.S. ceded much of the market to other countries. The number of welders, engineers and other people building boats and ships hasn’t reached 200,000 since the early 1980s, though the numbers have ticked up in recent years thanks to military contracts.
Walmart finally fell behind Amazon in revenue
Well, it finally happened: Amazon’s top-line numbers beat Walmart’s. Amazon brought in a record $187.8 billion in sales last quarter, surpassing the $180.6 billion Walmart reported today.
Technology
It’s Like Virtual Reality Goggles for Your Mouth
Imagine you are video chatting with a distant friend who is eating lunch, and your pal’s sandwich looks delicious. What if you could ask your friend to dip a sensor into the meal, and give you a taste? Remote snacking has moved a bit closer to virtual reality. In a paper on Friday in the journal Science Advances, Yizhen Jia, a graduate student in materials engineering at Ohio State University, his adviser Jinghua Li and their colleagues report that they helped volunteers taste flavors meant to represent distant samples of coffee, lemonade, fried eggs, cake and fish soup.
Have a great weekend!
The Curator
Two resources to help you be a more discerning reader:
AllSides - https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news
Media Bias Chart - https://www.adfontesmedia.com/
Caveat: Even these resources/charts are biased. Who says that the system they use to describe news sources is accurate? Still, hopefully you find them useful as a basic guide or for comparison.