Extra, Extra
Breaking Up is Hard to Do: In normal times, the fact that Google may be on the brink of a breakup would be a lot bigger news. There’s more than a little irony to the fact that Google’s dominance over search and advertising is being addressed at a moment when the whole way we interact with the internet is being upended by AI.
+ Cold, Hard Truth: Harvard sues Trump administration to stop a freeze of more than $2 billion in grants. I’m sure a lot of folks hear about federal grants to Harvard and wonder why the country’s richest university needs government money at all. But it’s not quite that simple. In The New Yorker: Atul Gawande follows the money (all the way to your internal organs). The Cost of Defunding Harvard.
+ All That Glitters is Gold: IMF cuts growth forecasts for most countries in wake of century-high US tariffs. And Trump’s not the only one with an obsession for the color gold. Gold is surging and it’s freaking out the markets. “Big moves in gold have historically signaled deeper instability just beneath the surface. The price of gold often rallies as confidence falters — be it during the inflation crisis of the 1970s, the global meltdown of 2008, or the pandemic panic of 2020.”
+ Disappearing, Inc: “In late January, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan immigrant working in a delivery job in Detroit, picked up an order at a McDonald’s. He was heading to the address when he erroneously turned onto the Ambassador Bridge, which leads to Canada. It is a common mistake even for those who live in the Michigan border city. But for Mr. Prada, 32, it proved fateful.” NYT (Gift Article): An Immigrant Held in U.S. Custody ‘Has Simply Disappeared.’
+ Driven Beyond the Brink: “The California Department of Motor Vehicles routinely allows drivers like these — with horrifying histories of dangerous driving, including DUIs, crashes and numerous tickets — to continue to operate on our roadways, a CalMatters investigation has found. Too often they go on to kill. Many keep driving even after they kill. Some go on to kill again.” Cal Matters: License to Kill.
