NEW THREATSRepeating All the Mistakes of Appeasement, Except It’s Worse This Time | How Trump Might Topple the Dollar | Administration’s Attacks on Universities, Science: Tug-of-War Begins for the Best Science Minds, and more

Trump Brain Drain Starts lobal Tug-of-War for the Best Science Minds  (Tom Whipple, The Times)
Some of America’s brightest are increasingly uncomfortable in a country where ideology threatens to constrain science.

Trump’s Attacks on Central Bank Threaten Its Independence − and That Isn’t Good News for Sound Economic Stewardship (or Battling Inflation)  (Cristina Bodea and Ana Carolina Garriga, The Conversation)
Nearly every country in the world has a central bank – a public institution that manages a country’s currency and its monetary policy. And these banks have an extraordinary amount of power. By controlling the flow of money and credit in a country, they can affect economic growth, inflation, employment and financial stability.
These are powers that many politicians – including, currently, U.S. President Donald Trump – would seemingly like to control or at least manipulate. That’s because monetary policy can provide governments with economic boosts at key times, such as around elections or during periods of falling popularity.
The problem is that short-lived, politically motivated moves may be detrimental to the long-term economic well-being of a nation. They may, in other words, saddle the economy with problems further down the line.
That is why central banks across the globe tend to receive significant leeway to set interest rates independently and free from the electoral wishes of politicians.

How Trump Might Topple the Dollar  (Economist)
For the first time in many decades, the greenback looks vulnerable.

Dollar Doubts Dominate Gathering of Global Economic Leaders  (Colby Smith, New York Times)
Participants at the I.M.F and World Bank meetings this week reckoned with the prospect that the U.S. safe haven could lose its luster.

Minnesota Legislators Propose Bill Classifying mRNA Vaccines as WMDs  (Pandora Report)
Republican members of the Minnesota House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would classify mRNA vaccines as weapons of mass destruction as well as criminalize their manufacture, distribution, and possession. The bill, which its authors are calling the “mRNA Bioweapons Prohibition Act,” states that it would require state and local officials to enforce the ban, which extends to “any product that uses or contains messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology.” State Rep. Walter Hudson, one of the bill’s authors, says the bill “would need significant amendment to become law,” further stating it is a “bold opening position” in an effort to “provoke productive conversation about these issue” and to eventually “arrive at a reasonable legislative response.”

Trump’s latest USDA cuts undermine his plan to ‘Make America Healthy Again’  (Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist)
The abrupt cancellation of a beloved farm-to-school grant program threatens food access, school gardens, and small farms nationwide.

Trump Is Repeating All the Mistakes of Appeasement, Except It’s Worse This Time  (Charles Moore, The Telegraph)
The US president is openly on Putin’s side, refusing to condemn the invasion and instead shifting all the blame onto Ukraine.