The Fitness Magazine: Your Presidential Daily Brief: Immigration Ban Blocked Bigly

IMPORTANT

February 4, 2017

Muslim men pray amid a protest Friday at New York's Kennedy Airport against President Trump's immigration ban. Source: Getty

In Week Two, America Adjusts to the New Normal

Everything's up for grabs. Another tumultuous week of executive orders has turned the nation on its ear, ending, on Friday, with an order to blunt Wall Street curbs enacted after the 2008 financial crisis. The week began with a retreat: allowing green-card holders to re-enter the country despite a legally precarious immigration ban. Then Donald Trump managed to alienate one of the staunchest U.S. allies by insulting Australia's leader on the phone while chiding Israel for its settlement-building activities, showing that the unpredictable is to be expected.

Sources: Washington Post, BBC, The Atlantic, TIME

Can the Super Bowl Unite America?

He'd like to make the Patriots great again. Not Donald Trump, but his pal Tom Brady, who some think needs to nab a fifth Super Bowl ring Sunday to redeem his Deflategate-tarnished image and replace 49er Joe Montana as history's best QB. Brady's New England Patriots must first defeat the Atlanta Falcons, a team averaging nearly 34 points per game and boasting seven crack receivers behind likely MVP Matt Ryan. With TV commercials like Budweiser's celebrating an immigrant founder who was "not wanted here," America might be seeing division reflected both on and off the field.

Sources: Washington Post, USA Today, ESPN, LA Times

Seattle Judge Halts Trump Travel Ban Nationwide

The order has been benched. U.S. District Judge James Robart, a George W. Bush appointee, granted a temporary nationwide injunction Friday against the executive action that blocks visitors from seven majority-Muslim countries. Amid protests across the country, the administration says the measure is necessary to prevent terrorism. The State Department also said it had canceled visas for 60,000 people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen. The legal battle is expected to reach the Supreme Court, but for now, airlines will allow Trump-banned passengers onto U.S.-bound flights.

Sources: Washington Post, The Hill, CNN

As Ukraine's War Heats Up, Trump Picks a Side

Has the game changed? As America's new leader spoke warmly of Vladimir Putin, pro-Russian eastern Ukrainian rebels took heart, engaging in fresh artillery duels with deadly effect. Both sides wonder how far Donald Trump's apparent détente will go, with Congress and European allies wary of Moscow while Kiev fields U.S.-trained troops. But on Thursday, in her first appearance as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley seemed to answer the question, condemning Russia's "aggressive actions," while promising Western sanctions would remain in place until Crimea is returned to Ukraine's control.

Sources: CNN, WSJ (sub), AP

Briefly

Know This: President Trump has imposed new sanctions on Iran after its ballistic missile test. Billionaire Vincent Viola withdrew as the nominee for Army secretary, because of difficulties unwinding his business interests. And French police are conducting raids in connection with the investigation of an Egyptian man shot Friday in an attempted terror attack at the Louvre Museum.

Sanction This: "A lot of that toothpaste is already out of the tube. ... I thought it was a huge mistake, but the multilateral sanctions are done." - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, explaining why he thinks the Iran nuclear deal will not be canceled.

Talk to Us: We want your feedback on the Presidential Daily Brief - what you think we're doing right and what we should be doing differently. Send us an email at pdbrief@ozy.com.

High School, Disrupted

Where High Schools Are Demolishing the Classroom

School's in session - and these classrooms don't look anything like your ol' alma mater. Meet the designers, architects and educators who are bravely demolishing the stodgy, four-walled schoolhouse of yesteryear. They're letting high school students learn inside caves in China, aboard boats on the Mississippi River, within museums in Michigan, and - most importantly - out in the world, where the lessons can't be found in dusty textbooks.

Sources: OZY

INTRIGUING

Black History According to Donald Trump

"Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job." That's how the president praised the 19th century slave, orator and abolitionist, stoking suspicions he might not know who Douglass was or that he's been dead since 1895. Trump's speech marking Black History Month, which devolved into insults directed at CNN, has sparked commentary on his consistently shallow rhetoric about African-Americans. But the president is optimistic, and even though his campaign admittedly discouraged Black Americans from voting in 2016, he's bragged he'll get 95 percent of their vote in 2020.

Sources: The Atlantic

Meet the Teenagers Who Fomented Pipeline Protests

And children shall lead them. The tremendous international impact of the Standing Rock demonstrations has a group of teenagers to thank. Responding to endemic teen suicides in Native American communities, a group of young Sioux founded a movement in 2015 to support one another and reconnect with their culture. This meant getting political, prompting the One Mind Youth Movement to establish a "prayer camp" on the Dakota Access Pipeline route that started out as a safe haven but morphed into a base for protesters - giving members a powerful reason to face life head-on.

Sources: NYT Magazine

Is Elon Musk Aiming for the Wrong Planet?

Earth to Elon. Musk's SpaceX has vowed a Mars mission to make humans a "multiplanetary species," possibly escaping the artificially intelligent overlords the billionaire fears. The cosmic cost of interplanetary colonization could arguably be lavished on terrestrial problems - a debate that goes back to the Apollo program - but now NASA has delegated much of the work to Musk, the Silicon Valley innovator who, despite the lofty rhetoric, mostly makes toys for rich people. And his vision of 1 million people on Mars ignores the 7 billion earthlings stuck with the robots.

Sources: Aeon

Lesotho Schools: Where Girls Are First

These books aren't balanced. Among developing countries, Lesotho boasts the world's highest proportion of females across its education system, with 16 of them for every 10 males. It's more pragmatic than feminist, though. For generations, the country's boys disappeared into remote mountain pastures to herd cattle, then worked South African gold mines, while their sisters got an education. Though Lesotho's economy has changed, a strong cultural ethos remains - boys belong at work, girls in school. But now it's up to the nation to find these women jobs, or risk losing its better halves.

Sources: OZY

Taylor Swift: Victim or Race-Baiter?

Now she's got bad blood. Taylor Swift's media tussles have people questioning her rise to the top. Her dispute with Kanye West over his song "Famous" - with lyrics saying he made "that bitch famous" and might have sex with her - may not be as clear-cut as fans believe. Months after Swift called the lyrics misogynistic, Kim Kardashian released audio recordings of Swift approving the sex reference. It's a familiar pattern of victimhood for Swift, whom writer Ellie Woodward suggests is capitalizing on being the "innocent" white woman beset by the "angry" Black man.

Sources: Buzzfeed