Getting Pretty Dam Tired Of This
January 30, 2020
“It’s called civilization. Women invented it, and every time you men blow it all to bits, we just invent it again.”
“Perhaps it’s impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.”
– Orson Scott Card
The Big Trump (North) American Trade Deal By America For America
President Trump signed into law his updated NAFTA trade deal, now called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. This new version of the twenty-six-year-old trade deal, reached by President Bush and signed into law by President Clinton, has stronger protections for workers and the digital economy, expanded markets for farmers and new rules to encourage manufacturing in North America.
Wednesday morning at a White House signing ceremony the president, with his usual understatement, called the new deal a “colossal victory” for farmers and factory workers and the “largest, fairest, most balanced and modern trade agreement ever achieved.”
The Trump administration reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico over a year ago, after months of tense negotiations. But the agreement needed approval by congressional Democrats, who believed it didn’t include strong enough provisions for labor, the environment and access to pharmaceuticals. After more months of tough negotiations Trump’s trade advisers had made enough significant concessions to win over congressional Democrats, and the AFL-CIO. Prior to the ceremony Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pointed out: “What the president will be signing is quite different from what the president sent us.”
Trump is a long-time critic of NAFTA and came into office ready to rip up the agreement. But more moderate advisers and business contacts repeatedly dissuaded him from scrapping it. Finalizing this new version is an important political victory for the president, and his second trade win this month. Two weeks ago Trump signed an initial trade pact with China; he will now be able to claim he has renegotiated trade terms with countries responsible for more than half of American trade.
Peter Summers via Getty Images
Take A Moment To Identify All The Brexits Around, Keep In Mind The Closest Brexit May Be In Front Of You
- On Friday Britain will officially withdraw from the European Union. The EU’s momentum and its diplomatic weight will be weakened with the loss of such a rich, sizeable, powerful member state; Britain’s departure will be felt for years to come.
- A former American diplomat described it as “a defeat for everyone — for the European project, for Britain’s position in the world and for American interests, since the US was the beneficiary of Britain in the E.U.” And much to London’s disappointment, the shock of Brexit has cemented the unity of the remaining 27 nations.
- The three year process has been so chaotic and painful for Britain that even Europe’s populists have stopped talking about the likes of “Frexit,” “Nexit,” or “Italexit,” referencing France, the Netherlands and Italy. Little will actually change during the transition period, which lasts only until the end of 2020.
- EU leaders have pledged to work night and day to forge a close future relationship with the UK, but time is limited and negotiations will be complicated. (NYT)
They’re Getting Pretty Dam Tired Of This
- Mining dams, also called tailings dams, are earthen embankments holding back sprawling reservoirs of mine waste — mud, finely ground rock, water, anything that is left after a mill separates the metals from the ore. Toxic chemicals used in extraction remain in the tailings at the end of the process, and may leach out into groundwater.
- Mining dams can also collapse, releasing tremendous mud slides, as happened in 2019 in the town of Brumadinho, Brazil; 270 people were killed. There are 816 mine-waste dams across the country.
- A 280-foot tall one looms over the town of Congonhas in southeast Brazil, just a half mile from Marta Maia’s house. It is owned by the same giant company that owned the dam in Brumadinho. The 2,500 residents who live below the Congonhas dam live in fear, afraid that neither industry nor the government will protect them. But there is some good news. Last week prosecutors charged the mine company’s former CEO and 15 others with homicide and collusion to falsify safety audits in connection with the 2019 dam collapse. (WSJ)
Additional World News
- Despite Coronavirus Alert, Flu’s Risk To US Is Much More Immediate : Shots – Health News (NPR)
- China virus toll rises to 170 as countries isolate citizens to stop global spread (Reuters)
- Investigation begins into alleged abuse of more than 500 boys in Afghanistan (Guardian)
- Asylum Seekers Find a New Route to Europe, Flowing Into a Divided Cyprus (NYT, $)
- Syrian Government Captures Strategic Town in Last Opposition Stronghold (WSJ, $)
- France moves to ban mass live-shredding of male chicks (Guardian)
- Israeli President Warns of Mounting Anti-Semitism in Europe (WSJ, $)
- Supreme Ruler Putin? Kremlin non-committal on proposed new job description (Reuters)
Next Stop, Your Last Stop
- A privately owned rail service that operates passenger trains over a 70-mile stretch between Miami and West Palm Beach in South Florida has been designated the nation’s deadliest railroad. In the first two years of Brightline’s operation, it’s been responsible for the deaths of more than 40 people who were killed on the tracks, in a car, on a bike or on foot.
- Brightline is not high-speed rail, but at speeds of up to 79 miles per hour, its trains travel much faster than the trains people have been used to seeing on the tracks. Brightline has responded with a public education campaign, warning people to stay off the tracks.
- At a recent news conference, a company spokesperson focused on a group he said makes up the majority of fatalities. “Seventy-five percent of the incidents that we’ve seen are the results of suicide or drugs. It’s an industry-wide concern. It just doesn’t affect Brightline. It affects every railroad across the country.”
- A US Department of Transportation study shows that suicides account for about 30 percent of all rail fatalities. (NPR)
Water, Water, Everywhere…No Wait That’s Raw Sewage
- The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency is rolling back almost 95 environmental rules it says are too costly for industry or taxpayers. The latest rollback was last week, when the EPA stripped clean-water protections from wetlands, streams and other waterways, making it easier for cities to continue dumping raw sewage into rivers.
- Municipalities can now delay or otherwise change federally imposed requirements to upgrade their aging sewer systems, many of which release untreated waste directly into waterways during heavy rains.
- While many city officials are praising the administration’s flexibility, environmentalists argue the changes threaten public health and safety by allowing pathogens and chemicals to keep flowing into rivers and along beaches, and to back up into streets or basements during storms. (NYT)
Additional USA News
- ‘Danger! Danger! Danger!’ Is Trump’s team alarmed about their own case? (Guardian) & ‘Kind of pointless’: In battleground Michigan, impeachment takes back seat to everyday issues (Reuters)
- https://www.vox.com/2020/1/29/21113918/john-bolton-trump-impeachment-trial
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/29/trump-john-bolton-twitter-impeachment-testify
- https://www.npr.org/2020/01/29/800890201/interior-department-grounds-all-of-its-drones-citing-cybersecurity-other-concern
- As Other Democrats Feud, Bloomberg Hammers Trump on Health Care (NYT, $) & 9 things I learned traveling to countries with universal health care (Vox)
- https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/30/801016600/life-expectancy-rose-slightly-in-2018-as-drug-overdose-deaths-fell
- One year into ‘Remain in Mexico,’ migrants confront danger and instability (NBC)
- One year inside Trump’s monumental Facebook campaign (Guardian)
- Why America’s Political Divisions Will Only Get Worse (NYT, $) & ‘Why We’re Polarized,’ by Ezra Klein: An Excerpt (NYT, $)
- 1 Simple Step Could Help Election Security. Governments Aren’t Doing It (NPR)
- Mississippi: 13th inmate dies in less than a month amid crisis in prison system (Guardian)
Literal Space Jam
- Space is getting very crowded, and with all that space traffic, many critics worry we’re not light years from a crash. The commercial company SpaceX has launched dozens of satellites as part of its Starlink project to bring high-speed Internet to every point on the planet.
- Wednesday morning a SpaceX rocket carrying some 60 satellites lifted off. Once it reached low Earth orbit, the satellites were released and began to fan out like a deck of cards. The paths the satellites follow around the Earth are predictable, but along the way those paths can cross with other things in orbit — like satellites from other companies, old rocket stages, loose bits of metal — and cause a catastrophic crash.
- All too often only one thing stands in the way of disaster: an automated email alert sent to the inboxes of operators on the ground. Experts say it’s high time for a hard look at the system for managing space traffic, which is ill-prepared for what’s coming. “And I think a major cataclysm of some form will happen in space that will have very long-term consequences,” one said. (NPR)
- 2 old satellites will buzz each other over Pittsburgh tonight. Here’s how to see the space junk. (Space)
Bruce Wayne Needs A Flu Shot
- People in many parts of the world eat bats, and sell them in live animal markets, which was the source of SARS, and possibly the latest coronavirus outbreak that began in Wuhan. Bats, the only flying mammal species, have been found to host the largest number of zoonoses – diseases that are transferable to humans from animals.
- Learning how they carry and survive so many viruses has been a deep question for science, and though no solid evidence has been found thus far, it’s clear that the handling of bats around the world has led to major problems.
- Some scientists have warned that stopping the sale of wildlife in markets is essential to preventing future outbreaks. While the bats must be studied and the viruses they harbor monitored for the sake of public health, that does not mean that the bats are to blame for the outbreak. (NYT, $)
- Researchers Are Racing to Make a Coronavirus Vaccine. Will It Help? (NYT, $)
- South Africa: wild animals at risk of ‘genetic pollution’ (Guardian)
Additional Reads
- Friendship Is Crucial to the Adolescent Brain (Atlantic, $)
- Bitcoin Has Lost Steam. But Criminals Still Love It. (NYT, $)
- The Rainfall Map That Can Tell You If Your Home Is Doomed (Bloomberg)
- Will You Be My #Content? (NYT, $)
- Kobe Bryant’s Helicopter and Other Private Aircraft Have Different Rules (Vanity Fair)
- Study of YouTube comments finds evidence of radicalization effect (Techcrunch)
- ‘Antiques Roadshow’ guest collapsed when he learned the real value of his $345 watch (WaPo, $)
- Almonds are out. Dairy is a disaster. So what milk should we drink? (Guardian)
- Boeing reports its first loss in two decades (BBC)
- Privacy scandals take toll on Facebook profits (BBC)
- Can my boss read my Slack messages? (Vox)
LAST MORSELS
“The wise are not wise because they make no mistakes. They are wise because they correct their mistakes as soon as they recognize them.” – Orson Scott Card