Madeline Marshall | Vox

What Russia’s war means for the International Space Station

2022-04-13T17:30:42-04:00

The International Space Station has been orbiting above us for the last 20 years. It’s an international partnership of five space agencies and it’s been home to astronauts from more than a dozen different countries — but mostly, Americans and Russians. The two former “Space Race” countries control the main parts of the station. And because the science done there has required close collaboration, it’s been largely insulated from politics on Earth.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may change that. The two countries have agreed to cooperate through 2024… but after that, the future of the space station is uncertain.

This video is part of our ongoing, broader coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For more videos that provide historical context to the headlines in the news today, watch our playlist here.

You can find this video, our playlist, and the entire library of Vox’s videos on our YouTube channel.

Why the US doesn’t have universal child care (anymore)

2022-02-18T15:10:22-05:00

Every high-income country in the world has a paid maternity leave policy — except the US. Most have a paternity leave policy, too. And, usually, some form of universal or subsidized child care for all families. The United States has … none of these policies.

It did have federally funded child care once. And Congress even passed a universal child care policy in the ’70s. But today, the US is stuck on a policy path of welfare and tax credits. So why hasn’t the US been able to establish these common family policies?

Big questions about Covid-19 booster shots, answered

2021-12-10T14:26:34-05:00

Much of the messaging from authorities around Covid-19 booster shots has been confusing — partly because scientists themselves haven’t always agreed on who needs them. When many countries began to recommend boosters not just for the older and high-risk, but for all adults, they were essentially taking sides in a still-unresolved debate around that question. Why give an extra boost to healthy adults who are still very protected against severe Covid-19 cases from their original dose?

But since the omicron variant has emerged, many have changed their minds. To understand why, we talked to one formerly skeptical expert who scheduled her own booster shot based on what she learned about omicron. We asked her about what happens in your immune system when you get that third (or second) shot, and why it could be especially useful in stopping the spread of omicron.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube.

Why the US government is always shutting down

2023-09-28T11:41:04-04:00

Toward the end of every year, the countdown until the United States government goes into a shutdown begins. Congress and the president usually avoid it in the final hour, but sometimes they don’t manage to agree on a spending bill and the government actually shuts down. The US is really the only country that does this.

The longest shutdown in history, in 2019, lasted 35 days. Federal workers — and many contractors — didn’t get a paycheck for 35 days. Some of those employees were furloughed, meaning they didn’t have to go to work, but more than half of them still had to go into the office unpaid.

So … why? It goes back to the Constitution and how the federal government funds its agencies. We talk to a law professor and workers who have been through a shutdown to explain.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube.

Why the US is always hitting a “debt ceiling”

2021-10-27T12:17:07-04:00

Nearly every year since 2011, America seems to teeter on the edge of a crisis as the national debt comes dangerously close to hitting the “debt ceiling,” and the president and Congress fight over raising it. The “debt ceiling” is really just a limit on how much debt the country can take on. While the US isn’t the only country to have one, it is the only country to have legislation that regularly puts it on the brink of economic disaster.

The current US debt is nearing $29 trillion. That’s a trillion with a T. Is that too much? And who does it affect?

Want to know what the US national debt is as of right now? The Treasury keeps a daily record.

Americans and American companies own 35.6 percent of US debt while foreign investors own 25 percent. Chinese investors used to have the largest share, but Japanese investors actually own more now. The Treasury also updates the foreign investor totals every month for public viewing.

You can find this video and the entire library of Vox’s videos on YouTube.

Why the US isn’t ready for clean energy

2021-09-21T12:00:51-04:00

In the near future, the energy made in the US is going to be much greener. The country’s current goal is for solar plants alone to make nearly half of US electricity by 2050. But we can’t just build solar plants where coal and gas plants used to be. They have to be built where it’s … sunny. And wind turbines have to be built where it’s windy. But that’s not always where the people who need the power are.

The distance from energy source to energy need is about to get a lot bigger. And the US is going to need more high-voltage transmission lines. A lot more. As soon as possible. While solar plants can be built relatively fast, high-voltage transmission projects can take up to 10 years. So experts say we need to start proactively building them, right now.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube.

The law that broke US immigration

2021-08-09T10:39:07-04:00

Immigration looked very different before 1996, when President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). The law was supposed to stop undocumented immigration by increasing enforcement and punishing people for being in the US undocumented. Instead, it did the opposite.

Before 1996, Mexican immigrants who came to the US unlawfully were about 50 percent likely to return to Mexico within a year. But in the years that followed, more people started staying in the US, according to data from the Mexican Migration Project. There were around 5 million undocumented immigrants living in the US before IIRIRA. Today, it’s at least double that.

Laws like IIRIRA shaped the way the US focuses on immigration enforcement as a deterrent. But really it proved that stronger enforcement doesn’t actually stop undocumented immigration.

Check out past Vox reporting by Dara Lind on the law and Nicole Narea’s story on the false promises of immigration enforcement.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube.

How the rich avoid paying taxes

2021-07-08T18:42:29-04:00

In the US, most people make their money from a regular job; they get a paycheck and pay income taxes. But the richest Americans, the top 1 percent, make most of their money from things like investments in real estate or the stock market. Those investments are taxed as capital gains. While federal income tax has a maximum tax rate of 37 percent, the tax rate for capital gains tops out at just 20 percent.

It’s why Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in America, has often said that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

President Biden has a plan to raise that maximum tax rate from 20 percent to 39.6 percent, and proponents see that as one way to tax the rich.

But Buffett and other billionaires still won’t have most of their wealth taxed. Watch the video above to learn about how the richest people in the US avoid paying taxes.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube.

Why the US wants inflation

2021-05-12T16:50:45-04:00

The US government has sent checks to millions of Americans during the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, but some economists are concerned that all that government spending could lead to inflation. If everyone suddenly has $1,400 more to spend, what will that do to the economy? Will it lead to prices going up and money losing its value?

The consensus among most economists, including those in charge of steering the US economy, is that we actually want some inflation. Even seeing 4.2 percent inflation in April of 2021 isn’t scaring them. And to understand why, it helps to think of the US economy as a fish tank.

Watch the video above to learn more about how stimulus checks help the economy and why US economists actually want inflation. And read more from Vox’s Emily Stewart on what we should and shouldn’t worry about when it comes to inflation.

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Why you can’t compare Covid-19 vaccines

2021-04-01T17:34:32-04:00

In the US, the first two available Covid-19 vaccines were those from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Both vaccines have very high “efficacy rates” of around 95 percent. But the third vaccine introduced in the US, from Johnson & Johnson, has a much lower efficacy rate: just 66 percent.

Look at those numbers next to each other, and it’s natural to conclude that one of them is considerably worse. Why settle for 66 percent when you can have 95 percent? But that isn’t the right way to understand a vaccine’s efficacy rate, or to even understand what a vaccine does. And public health experts say that if you really want to know which vaccine is the best one, efficacy isn’t actually the most important number at all.

Watch the video above to learn more about how these numbers were calculated and why the “best” vaccine is the first one you can get. And read more from Vox’s Umair Irfan on why these efficacy numbers can be misleading.

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