'What Americans really need is access to safer products'

'Is vaping really as bad as smoking?'

Maia Szalavitz at The New York Times

"Slashing nicotine levels in cigarettes could save millions of lives," but it "creates a conundrum for regulators," says Maia Szalavitz. They "fear that the very products that help smokers quit — such as vapes or oral nicotine pouches — also attract young people." This means "aggressively communicating to the public that what kills smokers is primarily smoking itself, not nicotine." If "vaping continues to displace smoking rather than fuel it, that trade-off could ultimately be a public health win."

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'US politics has a post-Covid hangover'

Nia-Malika Henderson at Bloomberg

Covid-19's "social divides enforced and widened our political divides," says Nia-Malika Henderson. Covid "wasn't a collective experience; there is no collective memory." Some "came away with a renewed appreciation for science and an increased ability to work from home," yet "others came away feeling suckered by the elites." Americans "seem like they'd prefer to memory-hole those traumatic years," and the "pandemic's hangover is still a powerful social force, fueling the backlash to science, data, and expertise."

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'Why we need a trillion-dollar defense budget'

Seth Cropsey at the National Review

If President Donald Trump is "serious about shoring up the U.S.' international position and restoring its credibility, he must work with Congress to raise the defense budget well past the $1 trillion mark," says Seth Cropsey Deterring "major-power war requires preparing to fight it." This "demands resourcing a capable American military, one with sufficient air-naval power to dominate the maritime highways between the United States and America's Eurasian rivals" and a "nuclear arsenal that can maintain strategic superiority."

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'Why do people in Philly wreck things after a Super Bowl win?'

Ala Stanford at The Philadelphia Inquirer

Why "do people act the way they do after a major sports victory?" says Ala Stanford. The "larger the crowd, the less personal responsibility people feel." Society is "built on rules — don't touch, don't climb, don't scream, don't break stuff." But "when the Eagles win the Super Bowl? That all goes out the window." For "some, it's a release — a moment to do something they'd never do." The "bigger the crowd, the smaller the consequences feel."

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