DATA POINTS
- $9.00: The cost of a new “congestion tax” to be paid by most drivers entering Manhattan’s Congestion Relief Zone
- 22%: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s approval rating before his resignation
- 54%: The percentage of Americans of legal drinking age who are ‘somewhat likely‘ to participate in dry January
- 10,000+: The approximate number of structures that have been destroyed by the L.A. wildfires
- 29,000: The approximate number of acres burned in the L.A. wildfires
- $49 B: The estimated value of unpaid medical bills that will be removed from credit reports by banning lenders from using certain medical information in loan decisions
Expansion Pack
In ten days, President Donald Trump will be sworn into office for his second term. In true Trumpian fashion, he has made some interesting commitments about what he plans to do once he reclaims his seat at the Resolute Desk. He recently told reporters that he will rename the internationally recognized Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” amid his longstanding grievances with the Mexican government’s handling of immigration, drug trafficking, and trade. The body of water has had many names across history, but it has been known by its current moniker for the past 400 years.
Geography seems to be at the top of his mind, as he also said that he would not rule out leveraging the U.S. military to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland. The Panama Canal is an essential waterway for international travel, so President Trump would like to have it back under U.S. control (which it has not been since 1979 when the United States returned sole ownership to its namesake country). Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said, “The sovereignty of our canal is not negotiable and is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest.” Trump also sees immense national security value in assuming control of Greenland, which is fully owned by Denmark (a founding NATO member and longtime U.S. ally). The world’s largest non-continent island already has a prominent U.S. military base.
Trump has put pressure on Canada by threatening a tariff of up to 25% on Canadian goods entering the United States. Canada is a natural resource-rich country that provides its southern neighbor with commodities like crude oil and petroleum.
It’s too early to tell what will come from a second Trump presidency. And if we learned anything from his first term, it’s difficult to discern between statements to stir media engagement and realistic policy platforms.
Read More at The Associated Press
Free Speech, Free Influence
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced that it is suspending its longstanding fact-checking program. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, released a video in which he stated it was time to “get back to our roots around free expression.” He admitted that although there would be more “bad stuff” on the platforms, the company found that too many innocent users were harmed by the fact-checking system. In lieu of professional fact-checkers, Meta platforms will instead rely on community notes derived from users adding context to others’ posts.
The announcement comes just weeks before President Donald Trump is sworn in for his second term. Trump has not shied from attacking mainstream social networking sites for censoring conservative voices and has praised Meta for making this decision. Meta may be following in the footsteps of Elon Musk, who, after buying Twitter-turned-X, sharply reduced the platform’s restrictions on online speech.
Read More at the New York Times
Be in Shape, Regardless of Shape
For those still in need of a New Year’s resolution, the most common one is likely the best. The largest, most comprehensive study on the relationship between longevity, aerobic fitness, and body mass index recently released its results. The key takeaway? Being out of shape doubled or tripled the risk of premature death, regardless of body mass index, gender, age, or race. Interestingly enough, if an obese person is aerobically fit, they are half as likely to die young as someone with normal weight living a sedentary lifestyle. This means that for those looking to live as many years as they can, working out in their preferred format is more important than being slim.
While overweight individuals are at a higher risk of diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, being fit, regardless of weight, changes those outcomes. Exercise alone will reduce the risk of premature death by 30% – woah. For most, taking a daily brisk walk is enough to have those percentages work in your favor. Go put on those running kicks and hit the sidewalk!
Read More at The Washington Post
Amber Waves of Snow
From the heartland to the Boston Harbor, much of the United States is being battered by a snowstorm. The weather is causing troubles for all industries, but few as much as it is hitting Midwest farmers. If they weren’t so tied up in the fields, most farmers would make for fantastic meteorologists and climatologists. They understand that the timing and amount of winter moisture affect production for the remainder of the year. With more volatile snowfall, rainfall, and droughts stirring the pot, farmers are forced to overcome increasingly shifty obstacles. This time of the year should be spent planning for the year’s plantings, but instead, it’s being spent digging out from the drifts.
Snowfall nearly equivalent to the yearly average is being dropped onto Kansas in a single storm. It’s affecting livestock management as animals, especially calves, can die when temperatures fall below zero. Blistering cold can kill their herd, and immense snow buildup can prevent farmers from providing their animals with the care they need. Farming is already an intense industry to plan and execute. With increasingly variable weather, a difficult task quickly turns into a stressful one.
Read More at the Associated Press
The Great White North Chills on Trudeau
A decade after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau entered office with a 65% approval rating, he is stepping down with a 22% approval rating. It’s not just Trudeau – his entire Liberal Party lost special elections in leftist strongholds, signaling that voters are ready for a change in leadership.
The cost-of-living crisis is one of the largest nails in his political coffin. The combination of limited housing supply, population growth, heightened immigration and divestment in housing social welfare have created a perfect storm harming Canadian residents across the country. If people can no longer afford to live in their homes, they will vote out the person who has been in office during the decade when the problem started. Heightened levels of immigration following his party’s welcoming approach to external countries have caused concern for voters as well.
Trudeau will continue to serve as the leader of the country until the Liberal Party selects its new leader through a process expected to take two months. In October, voters will head to the polls to elect a new government, so his successor may have a short-lived tenure. Whomever the party chooses to lead them, and whoever wins the general election in the fall, will need to be prepared to take on U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs up to 25% on Canadian imports.
See you next week!
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