In today’s newsletter: Ethical concerns surround a senator’s alleged relationships with military officials; estimated casualties from planned cuts to foreign aid; the financial burden of climate change; and more.
Ernst, an Iowa Republican, is one of the most influential voices in Congress on military topics. Ethics and military experts say her relationships with top Air Force and Navy officials created potential conflicts of interest.
An estimate of how many people might die from malaria following the Trump administration’s planned cuts to foreign aid, according to internal memos ProPublica obtained from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
One of President Donald Trump’s most damaging strikes against U.S. climate policy is buried in an executive order that would obliterate the critically important “social cost of carbon” calculation, which the government uses to gauge the real-world costs that climate change imposes on the economy.
The calculation essentially establishes a price for each ton of carbon emitted based on the long-term damages it is expected to cause. It was the government’s primary tool for weighing the economic costs of climate change — such as disaster cleanup or health impacts from warming — against the burden of regulations.
Getting rid of the measure could effectively transfer financial responsibility away from oil drillers, auto manufacturers and others, leaving Americans to face greater direct costs as warming continues.
