Press Reader

Compiled by Ana Ramic

Gold medals, cars in space, military parades…we are definitely not in Kansas anymore! In the two weeks since you heard from us last, the world has kept turning. North Korea’s charm offensive in Pyeongchang caused some eye-rolling, including by Vice President Pence who took a stand—despite his previous dislike of sports-related disobedience—and refused to applaud the unified Korean team. [Olympic fun fact: the most famous former “army of beauties” cheerleader is none other than Ri-Sol-ju, Kim-Jong-un’s wife.]

In life-apart-from-Biathlon news, President Trump unveiled the second budget proposal of his presidency, which is not so different from the first, and calls for cutting back on basically everything except for defense spending, plus a military parade à la française. Also on Monday, the White House proposed a new infrastructure plan without specifying where the funding would come from. Roughly eight months before election day, it is unlikely to make any actual headway. Additionally, immigration remains an intractable problem as ever in Congress. The Senate began debating this week, but on Tuesday a second judge blocked President Trump’s decision to end a program that protects immigrants brought illegally as children from deportation, making the March 5 deadline for Congressional action more or less moot. Nancy Pelosi delivered the longest speech in House history, defending Dreamers’ rights—or vying for support of the party base?

And lest we forget, the Obamas presented their official portraits at the National Portrait Gallery this week, and Elon Musk sent a Tesla into space because…why not?

Happy reading!

POLICY & SECURITY

• America once had a European strategy.
Link to the article on warontherocks.com
• America First – global engagement once fueled the American middle class.
Link to the article on cnas.org
• Alantik-Bruecke Young Leaders Alumna Constanze Stelzenmueller’s take on coming to terms with the stark decline in transatlantic relations.
Link to the analysis on brookings.edu
• Can a big military parade unite Americans?
Link to the opinion piece on theatlantic.com
• The Democratic response to the Nunes memo.
Link to the article on ft.com
• A brief analysis of America’s two-party system.
Link to the analysis on newrepublic.com
• The view from Brussels – are the Jusos changing the German political party landscape?
Link to the article on theatlantic.com

TECH

• What does Amazon’s experience in San Bernandino tell us about the future of work?
Link to the article on theatlantic.com
• Local news has been a dying business in America and Facebook and Google are trying to revive it.
Link to the article on newrepublic.com
• The crypto-currency bubble crashes all the time – so how necessary is regulation?
Link to the article on economist.com
• The German Military forges ahead with its Cyber Innovation Hub, inviting startups to this week’s MSC.
Link to the article on gruenderszene.com

BUSINESS

• It’s been a rollercoaster two weeks for the US stockmarket, but the losses seem to be recovering this week.
Link to the analysis on cnbc.com
• The rumor is the White House is considering Loretta Mester, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, for the Fed’s number 2 job.
Link to the article on wsj.com
• The Reno-Tahoe Industrial center, created by a cowboy brothel owner, is on the front lines of the demand for industrial property, hosting Tesla, Google, and others.
Link to the article on economist.com
• Only for the non-faint of heart, the full budget proposal on the White House website.
Link to the proposal on whitehouse.gov
•The US deficit is soaring and neither party cares enough to fix it.
Link to the article on fivethirtyeight.com

CULTURE & MEDIA

• In his Valentine’s Day message, George Soros warns against the growing power of US internet companies in our daily lives.
Link to the message on project-syndicate.org
• Last week, a judge in Florida announced that the Florida state system of felon voter right disenfranchisement violates the Constitution.
Link to the article on theatlantic.com
• In today’s networked world, free speech should be flourishing. But how do you really believe that anything is real?
Link to the story on wired.com

PODCASTS

For your plane flights, long drives, or lazy Sundays, below are some great political podcasts coming out of the US these days:
• Pod Save America
• Congressional Dish: weekly podcast highlighting corporate influence in the bills passed by Congress
• Politico Nerdcast
• With Friends Like These: Ana Marie Cox, political columnist and culture critic, sits down with liberals and conservatives, pastors, writers, activists, and others
• Intercepted: Founded by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill