Cathy Young

2 weeks ago | newsday.com | Cathy Young

This week’s Supreme Court ruling on the deportations of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act created confusion. Some media coverage spoke of the court handing the administration a win, others of the court blocking the deportations. The administration celebrated it as a victory. But the reality is more complicated — and somewhat encouraging, suggesting the high court is willing to curb President Donald Trump’s authoritarian moves.

2 weeks ago | open.substack.com | Cathy Young

WHILE DONALD TRUMP IS WAGING A TRADE WAR on penguins and American pocketbooks, his Ukrainian peace-deal effort seems all but dead and forgotten.

4 weeks ago | newsday.com | Cathy Young

Even before Donald Trump took office at the end of January, there were concerns that his nominees to lead federal agencies in the field of public health — particularly Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known anti-vaccine crusader, at the Department Health and Human Services — would damage science and medicine, boost quackery, and ultimately endanger the health and lives of Americans. Now, it appears that his detractors’ warnings are coming true.

1 month ago | newsday.com | Cathy Young

As part of its crusade to upend and remake American institutions, the Trump administration is threatening to strip universities of federal research grants if they don’t comply with the government’s conditions, with Columbia University as the first target. It’s a troubling situation in which the administration points to real abuses — but proposes to correct them by gutting academic freedom.

1 month ago | quillette.com | Cathy Young

The escalating tension between the Trump administration and Ukraine in recent weeks has been accompanied by an alarming surge of extreme anti-Ukraine rhetoric in pro-Trump quarters. Some of this rhetoric has even implied that Ukraine is America’s enemy. On Monday, Trump administration official Elon Musk called Arizona’s Democratic senator Mark Kelly a “traitor” for travelling to Ukraine in support of that country’s defensive war effort.