This week in the news | 2 Feb 25
News from the past week, and a few other things.
👋 Hello Reader, I hope you had a great week. Of the things that crossed my desk this week, here are a few that stood out.
1. How a Plane and a Helicopter Collided in a Crowded Airspace Around Reagan Airport (WSJ)
Shortly before 9 p.m. on Wednesday evening, American Airlines Flight 5342 approached the runway at Reagan Washington National Airport. Moments later the passenger jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a routine training mission, leaving no survivors and claiming 67 lives. Investigators are zeroing in on the altitude of the helicopter at the time of the crash and the communications between air-traffic control and the helicopter, according to U.S. defense officials.
NOTE: Article contains good info-graphics.
2. Mapped: Birthright citizenship around the world (Axios)
Though a core part of American citizenship, unrestricted birthright citizenship is mostly a facet of the Western Hemisphere. Many other nations make citizenship conditional on the legal status of the parents or a person's length of residency in the country, per the Library of Congress. In Africa, Asia and Europe, most countries either don't offer birthright citizenship or offer it conditionally, some through an application process.
3. Charted: Trump's unprecedented executive order blitz (Axios)
In his first nine days in office, President Trump unleashed a flurry of executive orders unlike anything in modern presidential history, according to an analysis by Axios' Erin Davis. Only President Biden and President Truman have issued more than 40 executive orders in their first 100 days in office.
4. Trump offering federal workers buyouts with about 8 months’ pay in effort to shrink government (AP)
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it is offering buyouts to all federal employees who opt to leave their jobs by next week — an unprecedented move to shrink the U.S. government at breakneck speed. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources agency, also said it would begin subjecting all federal employees to “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct” and ominously warned of future downsizing. The email sent to millions of employees said those who leave their posts voluntarily will receive about eight months of salary, but they have to choose to do so by Feb. 6.
5. Before Trump, government efficiency panels saw room to cut billions. DOGE envisions trillions (Federal News Network)
Government efficiency commissions created under previous administrations may serve as a blueprint for the Trump administration. But the scope and scale of its proposed cuts to the federal workforce and government spending are far beyond what previous administrations envisioned. However, experts familiar with previous government efficiency task forces warn that DOGE may run into many of the same challenges as its predecessors when it comes to making its recommendations a reality.
NOTE: A good, brief overview of the Reagan and Clinton administrations efforts to cut back the size of the government. Also, here’s is the 1993 Congressional Budget Office study focused on reducing the size of the federal civilian workforce under the Clinton administration.
6. Trump Slaps Tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China in Opening Salvo of Trade War (WSJ)
The White House on Saturday announced a wave of tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, marking the first major levies of President Trump’s second term and laying the groundwork for a continental trade war. Effective Tuesday, the U.S. will impose a 25% levy on imports from Canada and Mexico, a 10% tariff on energy products from Canada, and an additional 10% tariff on China. The tariffs will be imposed under emergency economic authority never before used for tariffs “because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
7. Trump’s trade war among allies triggers retaliation from Canada and Mexico (AP)
Canada and Mexico ordered retaliatory tariffs on American goods in response to sweeping tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, and businesses and consumers in both countries questioned Sunday how the new trade war might affect them. Canada initially ordered tariffs of 25% on American imports starting Feb. 4, including beverages, cosmetics and paper products worth 30 billion Canadian dollars ($20 billion). A second list of goods was to be released soon, including passenger vehicles, trucks, steel and aluminum products, certain fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, dairy products and more. Those goods were estimated to be worth 125 billion Canadian dollars ($85 billion). Mexico has so far said only that it will impose retaliatory tariffs, without mentioning any rate or products.
8. American Kids Are Getting Even Worse at Reading (WSJ)
The reading skills of American students are deteriorating further, according to new national test scores that show no improvement in a yearslong slide. The 67% of eighth-graders who scored at a basic or better reading level in 2024 was the lowest share since testing began in 1992, results from a closely watched federal exam show. Only 60% of fourth-graders hit that benchmark, nearing record lows. The declines started before the pandemic, continued during it and have persisted since. While the lowest-achieving students fell further behind everyone else, the slides were broad, affecting students across different states, school types, races and economic backgrounds. Worsening reading skills have potentially wide-ranging consequences. Test scores have been linked to the economic success of both the nation and individuals. Students with limited reading skills are less likely to graduate from high school; as adults, they are less likely to vote and more likely to be incarcerated.
9. What to Know About China’s DeepSeek AI (WSJ)
DeepSeek has Silicon Valley in awe and investors in a frenzy. The Chinese artificial-intelligence upstart has shot to prominence after saying it had trained high-performing AI models cheaply, without the most advanced chips. Tech stocks sank Monday as investors fretted about the implications, wiping some $1 trillion from the stock market’s value. Nvidia, which makes the chips at the heart of the AI boom, closed down 17%. Nvidia and other stocks that swooned recovered some ground Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know about DeepSeek: What is DeepSeek and why am I hearing about it now?DeepSeek is a Chinese AI company, which just over a week ago launched its latest AI model, which it calls R1. The company said the model was particularly good at problem solving, performing on par with OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model—but at a fraction of the cost per use. A DeepSeek app is currently top in iPhone download rankings for the U.S. Why are investors worried about DeepSeek? The conventional thinking was that AI companies needed expensive, leading-edge computer chips—such as those made by Nvidia—to train the best systems. That has justified huge spending by the biggest U.S. tech companies, such as Alphabet and Meta Platforms. Just last week, companies including SoftBank, Oracle and OpenAI pledged to spend $500 billion to build new AI infrastructure in a venture they call Stargate. DeepSeek’s use of less advanced chips—combined with innovative model-training techniques—is now raising questions about the investment case for stocks seen as big winners from AI. In addition, DeepSeek released its R1 model as open source. That means other companies can pick up and adapt the model for their own use, potentially opening the door for other cheap AI alternatives.
10. Twice As Many Stores In The U.S. Are Expected To Close In 2025 (Forbes)
Retailers will close up to 15,000 stores this year, more than double the 7,325 closures in 2024 and breaking the closure record set in 2020 during the pandemic. Retailers are projected to open only 5,800 stores, slightly less than the 5,970 opened last year, but representing a widening gap favoring closings over openings. Retailers have announced three-times more store closures this year compared to the same time last year and about 30% fewer openings.
And a few more…
A few other items that crossed my desk.
World
Milei, Modi, Trump: an anti-red-tape revolution is under way (Economist)
In his own inimitable style, President Donald Trump has identified something he dislikes and approached it with a wrecking-ball. Deprived of American funding by an executive order, aid programmes around the world are on the brink of collapse. But for the intervention of a judge at the 11th hour on January 28th, large parts of America’s federal government might have suffered a similar fate. However, when it comes to another kind of cutting—of rules, rather than spending—Mr Trump is part of a global trend. From Buenos Aires and Delhi to Brussels and London, politicians have pledged to slash the red tape that entangles the economy. Javier Milei has wielded a chainsaw against Argentine regulations. Narendra Modi’s advisers are quietly confronting India’s triplicate-loving babus. Rachel Reeves, Britain’s chancellor, plans to overhaul planning rules and expand London’s Heathrow Airport. Even Vietnam’s Communists have a plan to shrink the bureaucracy. Done right, the anti-red-tape revolution could usher in greater freedom, faster economic growth, lower prices and new technology. For years excessive rules have choked housebuilding, investment and innovation. But Mr Trump risks giving deregulation a bad name. His impulse to start by demolishing essential functions of government before reinstating the ones he likes is a formula for human misery and economic harm. The question is how to make reform bold enough to count, but coherent enough to succeed.
Africa
ECOWAS pledges to ‘keep door open’ after 3 coup-hit West African nations exit regional bloc (AP)
The junta-led West African nations of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have formally withdrawn from the regional bloc known as ECOWAS, the body said Wednesday. The previously announced withdrawal, which marks the culmination of a yearlong process during which the group tried to avert an unprecedented disintegration, “has become effective today,” ECOWAS said in a statement.
Rebels Backed by Rwanda Announce Capture of Key City in Eastern Congo (NYT)
A rebel militia backed by Rwanda on Monday announced the capture of the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a major victory for the group and one of the most significant escalations in the conflict between the two countries in years. The militia, known as M23, briefly occupied Goma once before, in 2012, then was defeated and lay dormant for almost a decade. Now it has come roaring back, aiming to occupy the region for the long term and exploit its valuable rare minerals, with the backing of several thousand Rwandan troops who are in Congo, according to United Nations experts. This time, M23 appears to be in a stronger position to keep hold of Goma, a city made up mainly of people who left their homes in terror and will now have to live under the rule of one of the armed groups they fled.
NOTE: Location of Goma:
Economy
Fed Stands Pat on Rates, Entering New Wait-and-See Phase (WSJ)
The Federal Reserve hit the pause button on recent interest rate cuts, entering a new wait-and-see phase and drawing a rebuke from President Trump, as it tries to determine whether and how much more to lower rates from a recent two-decade high. The decision on Wednesday to leave the benchmark federal-funds rate at its current range around 4.3% followed three consecutive rate cuts beginning in September, when the rate stood around 5.3%. With interest rates now “significantly less restrictive” than they were before last year’s cuts, “we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance,” said Fed Chair Jerome Powell at a news conference after the meeting.
Our Big Mac index shows how burger prices differ across borders (Economist)
The Big Mac index was invented by The Economist in 1986 as a lighthearted guide to whether currencies are at their “correct” level. It is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), the notion that in the long run exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalise the prices of an identical basket of goods and services (in this case, a burger) in any two countries. Burgernomics was never intended as a precise gauge of currency misalignment, merely a tool to make exchange-rate theory more digestible. Yet the Big Mac index has become a global standard, included in several economic textbooks and the subject of dozens of academic studies. For those who take their fast food more seriously, we also calculate a gourmet version of the index.
NOTE: The always classic Big Mac index.
Business
Texas Stock Exchange Startup Asks SEC to Clear 2026 Launch (WSJ)
The Texas Stock Exchange, or TXSE (pronounced “tex-ee”), has been courting investors and pitching its business for months, and asked the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday to approve its creation. The group has raised $160 million, according to Chief Executive Officer James Lee, from the likes of the Wall Street heavyweights BlackRock, Citadel Securities and Charles Schwab. If all goes smoothly with the SEC, the exchange hopes to start listing companies in early 2026. The company has nearly completed building an order-matching engine that would power the exchange.
Technology
The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test (NPR)
A private company aiming to build the first supersonic airliner since the Concorde retired more than two decades ago achieved its first sound-barrier-busting flight over California's Mojave desert on Tuesday. Denver-based Boom Supersonic's XB-1 demonstrator plane, with Chief Test Pilot Tristan "Geppetto" Brandenburg at the controls, hit Mach 1.122, or 750 mph, at an altitude of about 35,000 feet. Brandenburg brought the plane to a successful landing at the end of the approximately 34-minute flight. Boom says it expects Overture to be ready for commercial flights by 2030. The plane is expected to be capable of transoceanic flights at altitudes up to 60,000 feet — much higher than conventional jet airlines, "high enough to see the curvature of the earth below," according to the company.
Cyber
Sweden seizes vessel suspected of ‘sabotage’ after undersea data cable rupture in Baltic Sea (AP)
Swedish prosecutors announced Sunday night that they have opened a preliminary investigation into suspected aggravated “sabotage” and ordered the detention of a vessel in the Baltic Sea suspected of damaging an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland earlier that day.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI Is Probing Whether DeepSeek Used Its Models to Train New Chatbot (WSJ)
OpenAI is investigating whether Chinese artificial-intelligence startup DeepSeek trained its new chatbot by repeatedly querying the U.S. company’s AI models. A spokesperson said the ChatGPT maker is reviewing indications that DeepSeek extricated large volumes of data from OpenAI’s tools to help develop its technology, using a process called distillation. OpenAI’s terms of service forbid customers from using the outputs of its AI models to help develop their own competitive ones.
Health
Are You Struggling With Your Own Screen Time? (After Babel)
In the seven years since the first edition of How to Break Up With Your Phone was published, I’ve heard from thousands of people around the world, from teenagers up to septuagenarians, that “breaking up” with their phones has helped them feel like they’ve regained control—not just of their screen time, but of their lives. I recently had the opportunity to fully revise and update the original edition of the book, and in celebration of the release of the new edition, Jon and Zach have invited me to share with you some highlights from the book’s 30-day plan. Here are some of my top suggestions for how to build a healthier relationship with your smartphone, support others who may be struggling with their phone use, set a positive example for your kids, and be kind to yourself along the way. Step 1: Define What You Want. Step 2: Reconnect With Real Life. Step 3: Make Your Phone Boring. Step 4: Create Phone-Free Spaces. Step 5: Start and End the Day on Your Own Terms
Entertainment
82,150 Gallons of Paint Later, a Blue Man Group Farewell (NYT)
After 17,800 shows and 82,150 gallons of paint, Blue Man Group is hanging up its bald caps at the Astor Place Theater for good on Sunday. It arrived there in 1991, when George H.W. Bush was president, cellphones were rare and the World Wide Web was two years away. (The group’s first profile in The New York Times existed only on paper.) In the generation since, the trio of hairless, earless, silent, blue-and-black clad performers, who spit paint and sculpt marshmallows, gobble Twinkies and drum in primary colors, unexpectedly became a culture-infiltrating sensation. They achieved this — along with shows in more than a dozen cities across the globe, multiple concert tours, three studio albums, a Grammy nomination, many TV appearances, a book and one indelible sitcom story line — without changing much about their approach. Throughout one of the longest runs in Off Broadway history, they remained proudly on the silly side of performance art. Even without a narrative, they also connected viscerally with audiences, earning a legion of megafans. “We love the idea of a show that is sublime and ridiculous,” said Chris Wink, one of the founding performers.
Moonlighting (IMDB)
NOTE: I realized this weekend that Hulu has episodes of the 80’s TV show Moonlighting, starring Cybill Sheppard and Bruce Willis. Moonlighting was a very unique TV show; the pace of the dialogue in a typical 50-minute episode was so fast, that the word count was the same as that found in a feature-length movie. Some argue that its downfall stemmed from the two protagonists getting together, ultimately dissolving the tension that made their relationship compelling. This, in turn, led to the Moonlighting Rule (i.e. don’t let the two leads get hook up). Others say its downfall was due to the actors’ focusing on differing opportunities (for Bruce Willis it was Die Hard) and not being in episodes together.
I particularly enjoyed season 2, episode 4, “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice,” that featured an intro by Orson Welles (his last appearance in front of a camera before he died). It’s ranked as one of the best episodes of the series. The episode features some great word play, and the pace of dialogue makes it that much more funny; here are some examples:
“That night was the beginning. We would see more of each other. Then all of each other. But this is television, so we won't get into that.”
“I always play my horn with my shirt off late at night, by an open window next to a flashing neon light. I know I look good that way.”
And a little back and forth between Willis and Sheppard:
“Does your husband know where you are?”
“He doesn't know and doesn't care.”
“Maybe he'd care if he knew.”
“Maybe.”
“I don't know. I don't care.”
For Fun
16 YouTube Videos I'm Watching This Week (Honest Broker)
Here’s my latest round-up of YouTube videos. Some are scary, and some are scary good. I cover a lot of ground, but there should be something here for everybody.
NOTE: As usual, Ted Goia brings an eclectic mix of videos. I especially liked “How to remember everything you read.” And, having just recently watched Casablanca, I appreciated “The Longest 25 seconds in Cinema History.” Also notable: “How Social Media is Changing How We Talk.”
A photographer visited McDonald’s in more than 55 countries. Here’s what he found (CNN)
“Everyone has a relationship with McDonald’s,” says Gary He. Including him. He didn’t set out to write a book about McDonald’s. And, even now, the James Beard Award-winning photographer still says that “McAtlas” — his book about McDonald’s — is not a book about McDonald’s. Rather, it’s “a visual social anthropology of the world's largest restaurant chain,” says He, a native New Yorker who spent years traveling to hundreds of outlets of the world’s biggest fast-food chain.
NOTE: Just one of many photos:
Have a great week!
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.