Vox Sentences: Donald Trump rallies have a violence problem

The geopolitical significance of your crush on Justin Trudeau; an odd financial experiment in Europe; what's wrong with Trump Culture(™)?

TOP NEWS

Obama's Canadian boyfriend

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is conducting his first state visit to the White House since his inauguration last year.

  [The Star / Daniel Dale]

• During a joint press conference Thursday, Trudeau and President Obama announced a new joint initiative to reduce methane emissions.

  [NYT / Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear]

• The announcement is the sort of thing that never could have happened under Trudeau's Conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper. It's a sign that now that the two countries' heads of state are politically aligned, the US and Canada are reinvigorating their relationship.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• It does not hurt that Justin Trudeau is super, super charming — a trait that has raised his international visibility, but apparently ticked off some traditionalists in Canada (whom we can only assume are fuddle duddles).

  [The Guardian / Calum Marsh]

• But Obama is risking the whole relationship, in my (Dara's) view, by serving poutine — which is a regional Canadian food but is also super gross — at the formal state dinner being held for Trudeau tonight.

  [Washington Post / Tom Sietsema]

Less than less than zero

Hannelore Foerster/Getty Images

• The European Central Bank announced Thursday that it's cutting its interest rates — which were already negative — even lower.

  [FT / Claire Jones]

• Negative interest rates basically mean the government is charging banks to hold money overnight. This is an explanation even non-wonks can understand (as long as you read slowly).

  [Econbrowser / James Hamilton]

• They're supposed to stimulate the economy, in the same way any interest rate cut does. But it hasn't worked — the reason the rate cuts were announced today is that the eurozone is failing to meet its targets for inflation.

  [Reuters ]

• Some critics argue that keeping interest rates at or near zero (let alone below zero) isn't a long-term strategy or could even strangle a country's growth. (This is arguably what's happened in Japan.)

  [Business Insider / James Bullard]

• The long-term solution, according to Vox's Tim Lee, is to try to speed up inflation in the future to compensate for the inflation targets the bank is missing now — which could restore investor confidence.

  [Vox / Tim Lee]

Maybe Donald Trump supporters should stop beating people up

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

• Michelle Fields, a reporter for Breitbart, was allegedly grabbed and thrown to the ground by Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, after a campaign event on Tuesday.

  [Washington Post / Ben Terris]

• If true, this is super not okay. And a newly released transcript (from an audio recording that captured the incident) seems to indicate it very much is true.

  [Politico / Hadas Gold]

• Donald Trump and his campaign are known to dislike the press. But Breitbart is the exception — the site's coverage of the Trump campaign has been so favorable that some staffers speculate Trump has given money to the site.

  [BuzzFeed / McKay Coppins]

• That might explain why Breitbart's reaction to the allegations (in a statement issued before the transcript was made public) is, shall we say, less aggressive in championing the rights of its reporter than one might like.

  [Daily Beast / Lloyd Grove]

• This isn't just a big deal because it's a journalist. It's a big deal because Trump has a rally violence problem. On Wednesday, a man at a Fayetteville, North Carolina, rally punched a protester in the face — as the protester was being led out by security.

  [WNCN / Nate Rodgers]

• The puncher, 78-year-old John McGraw, has been charged. But he's unrepentant: "The next time we see him, we might have to kill him."

  [Inside Edition]

• McGraw is not affiliated with the Trump campaign. But Trump did tell supporters last week during a scuffle at a rally: "Try not to hurt him. If you do I'll defend you in court." That is an unacceptably mixed message.

  [CBS/AP]

MISCELLANEOUS

Two years ago, Dr. Sandra Lee was just a normal dermatologist in Southern California. But her Instagram and YouTube videos of her popping pimples and removing blackheads have earned her a following of millions. [NY Mag / Robert Moor]

• Tens of thousands of people waiting for kidney transplants have immune systems that could reject kidneys from just about anybody. But there's a new technique to change their immune systems so they can take kidneys from basically anyone.

  [NYT / Gina Kolata]

• A Marine instructor at the Naval Academy, convicted of five counts relating to an alleged threesome with two academy students, went to Washington Post reporter John Woodrow Cox to clear his name. Big mistake.

  [Washington Post / John Woodrow Cox]

• How to talk to children about Donald Trump, if you must.

  [NYT / Sarah Lyall]

• The first casualty of the 2016 general election: Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton's friendship.

  [Politico / Annie Karni]

VERBATIM

"The preservation of credibility, he says, led to Vietnam. Within the White House, Obama would argue that 'dropping bombs on someone to prove that you’re willing to drop bombs on someone is just about the worst reason to use force.'" [The Atlantic / Jeffrey Goldberg]

• "A spelling mistake in an online bank transfer instruction helped prevent a nearly $1 billion heist last month involving the Bangladesh central bank and the New York Fed, banking officials said."

  [Reuters / Serajul Quadir]

• "Syrian refugees in Canada got housed in same hotel as VancouFur furry convention and the children loved it."

  [The Independent / Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith]

• "It was like someone who beats you every day and hangs you from a chain and then comes in and gives you a piece of bread. Luke would say, 'You look nice today' and send [Kesha] into ­hysterics of happiness because she was programmed to expect nothing but abuse."

  [Kesha's mother, Pebe Sebert, to Billboard / Danielle Bacher]

• "In it, I see Dylan’s bloody bones scattered across a forest floor. I collect them, one by one in my arms, afraid to put them down lest they be stolen or lost, but there is no safe place for them, so I am left helplessly clutching the sticky, blood-soaked bones to my chest."

  [Sue Klebold via Slate / Matthew Lysiak]

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