‘After 10,000 years, let’s bury the plow’
Dana Milbank at The Washington Post
It is “nothing short of revolutionary that, in our time, the plow is heading toward extinction, or something close to it,” says Dana Milbank. The “demise of the plow and other tools that turn the soil is a rare good-news story in these depressing times for Planet Earth.” Modern “tillage had become an ecological disaster, killing all that was alive in the soil while worsening erosion and runoff.” This is a “boon to flora and fauna throughout the ecosystem.”
‘Family separation leaves lifelong scars’
Nahid Fattahi at The Progressive
Mass deportation is “framed as law and order, yet rarely do we discuss its profound human toll — not just on those deported, but on the children and communities they leave behind,” says Nahid Fattahi. Family separation is “not a momentary crisis; it is a trauma that lingers.” Undocumented immigrants “are often dehumanized, criminalized, and reduced to statistics.” We “rarely acknowledge them for who they truly are: parents seeking safety, families striving for a better future, individuals fleeing violence.”
‘Germany is in big trouble, and nobody knows what to do about it’
Konstantin Richter at The New York Times
Germany is “trapped in a vicious cycle of poor growth and low productivity, and nobody seems to know what to do about it,” says Konstantin Richter. The “threat of permanent decline is real,” as “businesses are burdened by high energy prices, excessive bureaucracy and increasing competition from China.” In a “looming global trade war, Germany’s export-oriented economy stands to lose more than others.” Whatever the “term for what’s happening, it’s clear that something has to give.”
‘Two and a half cheers for Trump’s new trade approach’
Alan Tonelson at The American Conservative
There is “so much to like about President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff blueprint, it’s hard to know where to begin,” says Alan Tonelson. But it “does raise some knotty issues that the new administration should address.” The “trade law system has always been too slow-moving, was too reactive, and worked in far too piecemeal a way.” On “paper, high enough American tariffs should be able to offset the major damage inflicted on U.S.-based producers by this foreign gimmickry.”