Yes, America Is Europe’s Enemy Now | The Crisis of Democracy Is Here | Censored Science Can’t Save Lives, and more

No doubt, extreme partisans of the MAGA cause will view this essay as purely partisan. I hope more open-minded and objective readers will see it for what I believe it is: an articulation of urgent concern for the future of American democracy, shaped by my study over the last half-century of how democracies rise and fall, and my last two decades of tracking and unpacking the global democratic recession. Having won the presidency fair and square, Donald Trump has earned the right to propose, and in many cases to implement, radical new policy directions. But he does not have the right to violate the law, the Constitution, and the civil liberties of Americans in doing so.

Trump Cuts Target Next Generation of Scientists and Public Health Leaders  (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times)
A core group of so-called disease detectives, who track outbreaks, was apparently spared. But other young researchers are out of jobs.

How the Trump Administration Could End a Century of American Scientific Dominance  (Adam Sobel, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
When the Trump administration issued its federal funding freeze in its first days, it was immediately felt as an enormous shock to scientists across the country. And it still is; while the freeze was officially blocked by court order, functionally, it still appears to be in place to some extent, in that the processes by which federal funds are disbursed to universities, government, and industry laboratories are not operating normally. Communication with most federal science agencies is currently difficult if not impossible.
At the same time, Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has been trying to convince employees of the science agencies to quit, through a buyout offer of questionable legality combined with threats that they may be fired in any case.
Project 2025, the playbook behind the administration’s actions, calls for drastic and unprecedented reductions in agency budgets. The National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have both been reportedly threatened with cuts of 30 to 50 percent or more. A new directive on Friday orders overhead on grants from the National Institute of Health to be cut to 15 percent. At this level, universities will lose money for research, such that many will have to do less of it or none at all.
The damage won’t be limited to the universities themselves: According to United for Medical Research, a coalition of university and private industry research institutions, the $37.81 billion awarded in NIH research grants in 2023 generated $92.89 billion in economic activity. Even that statistic doesn’t account for more diffuse benefits, or the way those benefits compound in subsequent years. One recent economic study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, for example, found that non-defense R&D spending overall paid returns of 150 to 300 percent, and was responsible for a quarter of the United States’ productivity growth since World War II.
These actions have shattered scientists’ trust in systems that have been in place since World War II. If the administration continues down this path, and neither Congress nor the courts are able or willing to stop it, the damage will be catastrophic and long-lasting and will extend far beyond the laboratories where government research funds are spent.

Censored Science Can’t Save Lives  (Jehan AlladinaC. Corey Hardin and Alexander Rabin, New York Times)
Shockingly, 10 people die of asthma daily in the United States.
Why? Specifically, why do some patients with severe asthma get prescribed the newer drugs more than others? And what is the influence of race or gender on respiratory health?
In recent weeks, studies that would help us answer these and other health equity questions have come under attack from the federal government for their purported shameful agenda and wokeness. They have, in a word, been censored.
Censoring research on how to deliver treatments to those most in need isn’t just nonsensical; it puts lives at risk and undermines America’s leadership in medical innovation. Progress cannot occur if scientists are barred from asking certain questions. This is not how science works.
This kind of research into health disparities might now be deemed illegal by the federal government. And it appears that scientific censorship will not end there: The administration is sending a warning directed at all kinds of other medical research, too. Work related to the effects of climate change on human health may also soon be on the chopping block, just as infectious diseases expand their global reach.

Should We Worry About DOGE Controlling the U.S. Payment System?  (Cameron Abadi and Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy)
The payments that it processes amount to a quarter of U.S. GDP.

Trump Begins Firings of FAA Air Traffic Control Staff Just Weeks After Fatal DC Plane Crash  (AP / VOA News)
The Trump administration began firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told The Associated Press. The air traffic controller was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Social Security Head Steps Down Over DOGE Access of Recipient Information: AP Sources  (AP / VOA News)
The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests to access Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Acting Commissioner Michelle King’s departure from the agency over the weekend —after more than 30 years of service —was initiated after King refused to provide DOGE staffers at the SSA with access to sensitive information, the people said Monday.