President Donald Trump’s $12 billion bailout of American farmers will provide at least temporary relief from their struggles. But critics say the underlying problems, including his tariffs, still have not been solved.

The president’s trade wars have “bludgeoned the already struggling U.S. agricultural sector,” said Axios. Farmers were already staggering under the weight of “falling commodity prices and rising production costs,” but the president’s tariffs did not help. China stopped buying American-grown soybeans as retaliation, “crushing the largest export market for American farmers.” Now more than half of U.S. farms are “losing money.” The newly announced bailout will “provide much-needed certainty” to the sector, said Trump. But a “one-time payment is not a long-term fix,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

What did the commentators say?
Aid to farmers is Trump’s solution to a “self-created trade mess,” said The Washington Post editorial board. It’s not just that the tariffs have cut off export markets for American-grown foodstuffs. They have also “driven up input costs for farmers,” who now must pay $100-per-ton more for fertilizer than they did a year ago. 

Trump’s aid package will only partly offset the $44 billion that U.S. farmers are expected to suffer this year. Americans get “higher food prices and fewer options” while the farmers who feed them are doing worse than if the president had “never imposed tariffs,” said the Post.

The bailout is proof tariffs do not work, but “don’t expect the White House to think too hard about it,” said Eric Boehm at Reason. Farmers need aid because Trump’s trade wars are “making American agricultural products less competitive” in worldwide markets. The president should have “learned this lesson already.” His first-term tariffs ended up forcing a $28 billion farming bailout. History is repeating itself with the “same predictable results.”

What next?
American farmers “aren’t out of the woods yet,” said Foreign Policy. After the bailout was announced, Trump threatened new tariffs on Canadian fertilizer. That would “risk further straining” the finances of American farmers who use the product. 

And the president shows no signs of abandoning his overall tariff-driven approach to trade. That will not come as good news to farmers who support Trump and who want to sell their products rather than live with uncertainty. They want “export market access,” said Cornell University economist Chris Barrett, “not handouts.”

Move over, tech bros. Swaths of younger Black men are reclaiming the preppy pullover sweater in a trend dubbed the quarter-zip movement. While some praise the young men for abandoning their Nike Tech sweatsuits for more professional attire, critics say the trend reeks of respectability politics and exposes racial biases in fashion.

How did the movement start?
The trend kicked off after a TikTok video of two young Black men “bespectacled and sporting navy blue quarter-zip pullovers” with iced matcha in hand went viral. “We don’t do Nike Tech, we don’t do coffee,” said Jason Gyamfi, one of the men in the video, proclaiming it’s “straight quarter-zips and matchas around here.”

The movement has inspired multiple large-scale meetups, where young men gather while wearing the versatile pullover. The movement is “bigger than just about what you are wearing,” Corey Dooley Johnson, who helped organize the Chicago meetup, said to the Chicago Sun-Times. It’s about “how you are living” and “community service and brotherhood.” What we want to do is “bring that holistic community feeling back.”

The movement signals a cultural shift, particularly among young Black men who have popularized it. Many associated Nike Techs with Black culture and, unfortunately, with corresponding negative stereotypes. The movement is fueled by a younger generation trying to leave those associations behind, TikToker Tamu Atemie said to Newsweek. 

Is it about conforming or does it symbolize more?
Critics online have dismissed the trend as a “form of respectability politics,” claiming participants are “making themselves more acceptable for white, mainstream society,” said the Chicago Sun-Times. But the quarter-zip enthusiasts “push back on that critique,” saying their intention is to be “fashionable, build self-confidence, foster community and show Black men doing positive things while having fun.” 

For all his “talk of personal reinvention,” it would be “unwise to read too much into any pivot,” said Gyamfi to The New York Times. There’s not necessarily a difference between “wearing a Nike Tech or a quarter-zip” because “clothes don’t make the man, the man makes the clothes.”

A devotee of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the atrium of the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Every Dec. 12, Mexicans celebrate the anniversary of the Virgin Mary’s apparition in 1531. About 13,500 people made the pilgrimage this year, said The Arizona Republic. The crowd sang the traditional Mexican birthday song “Las Mañanitas” at midnight.
Cristopher Rogel Blanquet / Getty Images

The new year is mere weeks away, and while the weather outside may be frightful, there’s plenty of new music that isn’t. Check out some fresh albums from your favorite artists this winter.

Orville Peck, ‘Appaloosa’ 
The artist is known for often wearing a mask in public, but his fans aren’t hiding their excitement about Peck’s new EP, “Appaloosa,” which comes a year after Peck released his third studio album, “Stampede.” The country rock singer, whose deep voice and booming vocals put him on the map, wants people to hear the “other side of country,” he said to Billboard. (out now)

Zach Bryan, ‘With Heaven on Top’
Country star Bryan released a live album one year ago, and now he’s following that up with a new EP, “With Heaven on Top.” The offering is “expected to include previously hinted-at tracks like ‘In Dreams’ and ‘Plastic Cigarette,’” said Country Central. The project’s eponymous single is out now. (Jan. 9)

Charlie XCX, ‘Wuthering Heights’
Ms. XCX helped everyone have a brat summer with her 2024 album, and now the pop superstar is getting ready to hit the music world again. The album is the official soundtrack for the upcoming film of the same name starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. The LP comes as Charlie XCX has been in a “state of overwhelming creativity of late, so much so that I feel like I’m running on the spot in a dream,” she said on Substack. (Feb. 13)