vox--2020-07-30--On Mars, an autonomous rover and helicopter will roam free

NASA ’ s Perseverance rover launched at 7:50 am ET on July 30 , the first day of a flight that will take the fifth NASA rover to Mars .
During its mission , the boxy , car-sized vehicle and its extendable arm will be charged with looking for signs of ancient life and gathering data about Mars ’ s geology and climate .
It will even lay the groundwork for eventual human exploration of the planet .
To make all that possible , the rover carries a stunning display of technology designed especially for Perseverance ’ s historic mission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to an autonomous helicopter , the first aircraft ever sent to another planet .
Those tools will help the rover gather data about the planet ’ s atmosphere , which it can then send back to NASA .
There ’ s also an excavation system that can collect high-quality samples of Martian soil to be stashed and later analyzed by a future mission to Mars .
In the years the new rover is expected to operate , these machines will battle challenges that terrestrial technology never has to deal with , including the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ limited resources , incredibly cold temperatures , and delayed communication with human overlords on Earth .
To give you an idea of how all this will happen , we ’ ve outlined some of the coolest features that will be on display when Perseverance finally arrives on Mars in February .
Key to its mission ’ s success is the ability for Perseverance to self-drive .
The vehicle has a computer devoted to its autonomous capabilities , and as Wired explains , it was designed and built specifically for this mission .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is simply too far away for humans to give the vehicle constant , real-time instructions .
So the rover needs to fend for itself .
“ One of the fundamental constraints of any kind of space exploration — whether you ’ re going to Mars or Europa or the moon — is that you have limited bandwidth , which means a limit on the amount of information you can send back and forth , ” David Wettergreen , research professor at Carnegie Mellon ’ s Robotics Institute , told Recode .
“ During @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can ’ t communicate , autonomy is important for it to enable it to keep doing tasks , to explore on its own , to make progress , rather than just sitting there waiting for the next time it hears from us.
” But building an autonomous vehicle for Mars is not necessarily as easy as building a self-driving car here on Earth ( and that ’ s not easy , either ) .
For one thing , the vehicle needs to be primarily concerned with safety , not with speed or the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ basic instructions from humans about where it needs to go , Perseverance has to figure out the least-dangerous route on its own .
If it crashes , the rover might render itself useless .
“ Mars is not a fixed , flat , nice , paved road .
Mars is really challenging terrain .
There is dirt , rocks , sand , slopes , cliffs — all these things that the rover is going to have to avoid , ” explained Philip Twu , robotics system engineer at NASA .
“ In addition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to need computers , algorithms , and software to be able to process all that imagery data into essentially a 3D picture that it ’ s then going to go ahead and use to plan.
” Fortunately for Perseverance , Mars is not a place where a self-driving rover needs to worry about crashing into another car or hitting a pedestrian .
“ On Mars , there ’ s nothing moving around , ” said Wettergreen .
“ They ’ re moving slowly , so they can take the time to build @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of analysis on that model , and then decide what to do next.
” A robotic arm will take samples of Mars that will be studied back on Earth The vehicle is also armed with a 7-foot-long arm equipped with a drill that ’ s designed to collect rock and soil samples from beneath Mars ’ s surface .
Those samples will then be stored in as many as 43 containers that the rover carries around on the planet .
Once those samples are collected , they ’ ll be left in tubes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surface for a future mission to pick up .
The arm alone isn ’ t all that impressive as a piece of space technology .
Instead , its virtue is all the stuff that it comes , well , armed with .
“ It ’ s like a Swiss Army knife of scientific instruments , ” said Wettergreen .
“ What ’ s so amazing about it is all of these different functionalities and capabilities that they ’ ve been able to pack into such a small package.
” For instance , on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a laser and other tools , including a camera called Watson that NASA compares to “ a geologist ’ s hand-lens , magnifying and recording textures of rock and soil targets , ” which is part of a tool — fittingly named Sherloc — that comes with special spectrometers and a laser .
There ’ s also a tool called PIXL that can analyze incredibly tiny chemical elements and , in NASA ’ s words , take “ super close-up pictures of rock and soil textures ” to help scientists figure out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ microbial life in the past .
High-tech cameras and microphones will give the rover “ senses ” Integrated into the rover are a slew of extremely high-quality cameras — 23 in total — that will help the vehicle survey the planet .
The cameras won ’ t just help Perseverance get around Mars , but they ’ ll also take images of samples collected on the planet and record the vehicle ’ s arrival on the surface in full color .
Meanwhile , NASA says that so-called “ engineering ” cameras will take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ potentially treacherous areas , like sand dunes and trenches , while others will help the system navigate without human intervention .
At the same time , the rover will pick up sound data through its two microphones .
Those devices will listen to the rover as it arrives and travels on the planet .
There ’ s a special microphone that works in conjunction with a laser to study the chemistry of the planet ’ s geology by zapping it and recording the sound of the zapping .
As NASA explains , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pop ” made by the laser turning the rock into plasma , which “ reveals the relative hardness of the rocks , which can tell us more about their geological context.
” A self-driving helicopter will fly on another planet .
That ’ s a first .
Also aboard the rover is Ingenuity , which will — if all goes as planned — be the first helicopter to fly on Mars as well as the “ first aircraft to attempt controlled flight on another planet , ” according to NASA .
That makes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one that has undergone extensive testing on Earth .
Its mission is to demonstrate that flight on Mars , where it will conduct up to five test flights , is possible , and that flights can be conducted autonomously on the planet .
While the device is essentially a drone , it ’ s specially crafted for Mars , which has less gravity than Earth .
This makes ascent easier , but due to the planet ’ s comparatively thin atmosphere , flight itself is more challenging .
As The Verge reports , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than 2,000 revolutions a minute , several times the speed of helicopter blades whipping around in Earth ’ s atmosphere .
Ingenuity is incredibly light , weighing in at around 4 pounds .
But the tiny vehicle ’ s autonomy is not just designed to help with navigation ; it ’ s also build to keep Ingenuity alive .
“ Mars is very , very cold .
It gets to about negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit at night .
That ’ s pretty cold , ” explained Twu .
“ So the autonomy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ finding a way to keep the helicopter warm enough to survive all the Martian nights.
” If the helicopter is ultimately successful , it will help NASA make decisions about where flight could lend assistance during future missions to the planet .
Similar drones could serve as scouts that survey the terrain of Mars — especially places that rovers can ’ t easily get to — or , as NASA says , become “ full standalone science craft carrying instrument payloads.
” Will we be seeing any of this tech on Earth one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say right now , but Twu notes that NASA is famous for its spinoffs .
“ Time and time again , we ’ ve seen that technology developed for NASA missions — a lot of them for space missions — end up having terrestrial applications here on Earth , ” he said .
“ All technology development can cross-pollinate and advances in one area inevitably result in advances in other areas.
” Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network .
All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

On Monday morning, a small helicopter named Ingenuity became the first aircraft to fly on another planet. The autonomous bot flew for less than a minute on Mars before landing, according to NASA.
Ingenuity’s short but successful flight comes about two months after NASA’s Perseverance rover, which carried the tiny helicopter, first landed on the planet, completing a journey through space that began last July. Perseverance is the fifth rover to arrive on the red planet; this boxy, car-sized vehicle with an extendable arm is now charged with looking for signs of ancient life and gathering data about Mars’s geology and climate. It will even lay the groundwork for eventual human exploration of the planet.
You wouldn’t believe what I just saw.
More images and video to come...#MarsHelicopterhttps://t.co/PLapgbHeZU pic.twitter.com/mbiOGx4tJZ — NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) April 19, 2021
To make all that possible, the rover carries a stunning display of technology designed especially for Perseverance’s historic mission. Those tools will help the rover gather data about the planet and its atmosphere, which it can then send back to NASA. There’s also an excavation system that can collect high-quality samples of Martian soil to be stashed and later analyzed by a future mission to Mars.
In the years the new rover is expected to operate, these machines will battle challenges that terrestrial technology never has to deal with, including Mars’s super-thin atmosphere, limited resources, incredibly cold temperatures, and delayed communication with human overlords on Earth.
To give you an idea of how all this will happen, we’ve outlined some of the coolest features that will be on display now that Perseverance’s mission on Mars is fully underway.
Perseverance is armed with advanced self-driving tech
Key to its mission’s success is the ability for Perseverance to self-drive. The vehicle has a computer devoted to its autonomous capabilities, and as Wired explains, it was designed and built specifically for this mission. The autonomous driving feature is essential because Mars is simply too far away for humans to give the vehicle constant, real-time instructions. So the rover needs to fend for itself.
“One of the fundamental constraints of any kind of space exploration — whether you’re going to Mars or Europa or the moon — is that you have limited bandwidth, which means a limit on the amount of information you can send back and forth,” David Wettergreen, research professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, told Recode. “During the periods of time when the robot can’t communicate, autonomy is important for it to enable it to keep doing tasks, to explore on its own, to make progress, rather than just sitting there waiting for the next time it hears from us.”
But building an autonomous vehicle for Mars is not necessarily as easy as building a self-driving car here on Earth (and that’s not easy, either). For one thing, the vehicle needs to be primarily concerned with safety, not with speed or the comfort of its passengers. After receiving basic instructions from humans about where it needs to go, Perseverance has to figure out the least-dangerous route on its own. If it crashes, the rover might render itself useless.
“Mars is not a fixed, flat, nice, paved road. Mars is really challenging terrain. There is dirt, rocks, sand, slopes, cliffs — all these things that the rover is going to have to avoid,” explained Philip Twu, robotics system engineer at NASA. “In addition to cameras, the rover is also going to need computers, algorithms, and software to be able to process all that imagery data into essentially a 3D picture that it’s then going to go ahead and use to plan.”
Fortunately for Perseverance, Mars is not a place where a self-driving rover needs to worry about crashing into another car or hitting a pedestrian.
“On Mars, there’s nothing moving around,” said Wettergreen. “They’re moving slowly, so they can take the time to build a detailed model, do a lot of analysis on that model, and then decide what to do next.”
A self-driving helicopter has flown on another planet. That’s a first.
Also aboard the rover is Ingenuity, which is now both the first helicopter to fly on Mars and the “first aircraft to attempt controlled flight on another planet,” according to NASA. That makes Ingenuity an experiment on its own, one that has undergone extensive testing on Earth. Its mission is to demonstrate that flight on Mars, where it will conduct up to five test flights, is possible, and that flights can be conducted autonomously on the planet.
While the device is essentially a drone, it’s specially crafted for Mars, which has less gravity than Earth. This makes ascent easier, but due to the planet’s comparatively thin atmosphere, flight itself is more challenging. The blades of the helicopter can make more than 2,000 revolutions a minute, several times the speed of helicopter blades whipping around in Earth’s atmosphere. Ingenuity is incredibly light, weighing in at around 4 pounds.
But the tiny vehicle’s autonomy is not just designed to help with navigation; it’s also built to keep Ingenuity alive.
“Mars is very, very cold. It gets to about negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit at night. That’s pretty cold,” explained Twu. “So the autonomy onboard the helicopter is also involved with finding a way to keep the helicopter warm enough to survive all the Martian nights.”
One purpose of the helicopter is to help NASA make decisions about where flight could lend assistance during future missions to the planet. Similar drones could serve as scouts that survey the terrain of Mars — especially places that rovers can’t easily get to — or, as NASA says, become “full standalone science craft carrying instrument payloads.”
Will we be seeing any of this tech on Earth one day? It’s hard to say right now, but Twu notes that NASA is famous for its spinoffs.
“Time and time again, we’ve seen that technology developed for NASA missions — a lot of them for space missions — end up having terrestrial applications here on Earth,” he said. “All technology development can cross-pollinate and advances in one area inevitably result in advances in other areas.”
A robotic arm will take samples of Mars that will be studied back on Earth
The rover is armed with a 7-foot-long arm equipped with a drill that’s designed to collect rock and soil samples from beneath Mars’s surface. Those samples will then be stored in as many as 43 containers that the rover carries around on the planet. Once those samples are collected, they’ll be left in tubes that will sit on Mars’s surface for a future mission to pick up.
The arm alone isn’t all that impressive as a piece of space technology. Instead, its virtue is all the stuff that it comes, well, armed with.
“It’s like a Swiss Army knife of scientific instruments,” said Wettergreen. “What’s so amazing about it is all of these different functionalities and capabilities that they’ve been able to pack into such a small package.”
For instance, on the arm is a robotic claw equipped with a laser and other tools, including a camera called Watson that NASA compares to “a geologist’s hand-lens, magnifying and recording textures of rock and soil targets,” which is part of a tool — fittingly named Sherloc — that comes with special spectrometers and a laser. There’s also a tool called PIXL that can analyze incredibly tiny chemical elements and, in NASA’s words, take “super close-up pictures of rock and soil textures” to help scientists figure out whether Mars could have been home to microbial life in the past.
High-tech cameras and microphones will give the rover “senses”
Integrated into the rover are a slew of extremely high-quality cameras — 23 in total — that will help the vehicle survey the planet. The cameras won’t just help Perseverance get around Mars, but they’ll also take images of samples collected on the planet and record the vehicle’s arrival on the surface in full color. Meanwhile, NASA says that so-called “engineering” cameras will take on tasks like helping the vehicle avoid potentially treacherous areas, like sand dunes and trenches, while others will help the system navigate without human intervention.
At the same time, the rover will pick up sound data through its two microphones. Those devices will listen to the rover as it arrives and travels on the planet. There’s a special microphone that works in conjunction with a laser to study the chemistry of the planet’s geology by zapping it and recording the sound of the zapping. As NASA explains, the microphone hears the intensity of the “pop” made by the laser turning the rock into plasma, which “reveals the relative hardness of the rocks, which can tell us more about their geological context.”
Update, April 19, 2021, 12:50 pm ET: This piece was updated to include details of Ingenuity’s first successful flight.
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.


vox--2020-07-30--Amazon just posted record sales and profit in the middle of a pandemic

Amazon registered nearly $ 89 billion in sales and $ 5 billion in profit over the last three months , setting company records on both figures and blowing away Wall Street expectations as Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns pushed more shoppers online and into Amazon ’ s arms .
CEO Jeff Bezos had said last quarter that the company planned to spend around $ 4 billion on pandemic-related health and safety efforts for its workers throughout April , May , and June , and that those expenses might wipe out all of the company ’ s profit over the quarter .
Instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expanding their pandemic-driven purchases beyond low-profit goods like groceries — sales of which still tripled year over year in the quarter — into more profitable “ hardline ” categories like electronics and “ softline ” goods like clothing .
That ’ s what helped the company set a record profit , eclipsing the previous record of $ 3.6 billion in profit in the first quarter of 2019 .
“ Prime members ... were shopping more often and with larger baskets , ” Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky told reporters on a media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Prime membership sales have risen significantly since the crisis began .
For months , the pandemic has transformed Amazon from a popular convenience shopping destination into an essential service as stay-at-home orders pushed more shopping online and as non-grocery brick-and-mortar chains have suffered from temporary store closures .
But it also posed challenges for the tech giant .
The company suffered from long delivery times as it reworked its warehouse policies to keep up with demand ; along the way , it hired 175,000 warehouse and delivery workers to help with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers who got sick or chose to stay home .
But the company also faced a labor crisis as some workers said the company ’ s warehouse safety measures were not adequate or consistent enough , and decried the company ’ s move to end bonus hourly and overtime pay at the end of May .
Amazon ended up announcing another one-time bonus in June , declining to label the bonus as hazard pay , describing it instead as an appreciation for workers dealing with increased demand during an unprecedented time .
An @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whether the company might reinstate the extra hourly or bonus pay even though increased orders and sales show no signs of abating for the company and its workers .
The record quarterly profit and sales figures , which eclipsed Wall Street analyst expectations by a staggering $ 8 billion , highlight Amazon ’ s growing power in the US economy .
And it comes a day after a committee of US lawmakers grilled Bezos , the world ’ s richest man , on the business practices that Amazon has used to ascend to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the lawmakers ’ questioning on Wednesday focused on how the company treats and competes with the third-party sellers that account for more than half of the items Amazon sells in its online stores .
Amazon revenue from these sellers grew 53 percent in the last quarter , up from growth of just 25 percent in the same quarter last year .
Amazon CFO Olsavsky told Recode on the media call that growth in Amazon ’ s Fulfillment by Amazon ( FBA ) service — which lets sellers qualify their goods for Prime shipping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shipment of goods — was a main driver in seller fees .
Some critics have argued that Amazon coerces sellers into using FBA by giving better placement to goods that ship with Prime and by penalizing them for late deliveries if they ship on their own .
One seller told federal regulators in a letter last year that the practice forces him to charge consumers higher prices than he otherwise would .
Amazon , including Bezos in his congressional testimony , has defended FBA as a service that saves sellers considerable hassle .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ benefit from the pandemic , some other mass retailers are also seeing a boost .
Both Walmart and Target have posted standout earnings reports in recent months , and their market share in US online commerce has increased , according to shopping data research firm Rakuten Intelligence , though Amazon ’ s share is still around seven times larger than Walmart ’ s .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Amazon registered nearly $89 billion in sales and $5 billion in profit over the last three months, setting company records on both figures and blowing away Wall Street expectations as Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns pushed more shoppers online and into Amazon’s arms.
CEO Jeff Bezos had said last quarter that the company planned to spend around $4 billion on pandemic-related health and safety efforts for its workers throughout April, May, and June, and that those expenses might wipe out all of the company’s profit over the quarter. Instead, Amazon customers surprised company executives by expanding their pandemic-driven purchases beyond low-profit goods like groceries — sales of which still tripled year over year in the quarter — into more profitable “hardline” categories like electronics and “softline” goods like clothing. That’s what helped the company set a record profit, eclipsing the previous record of $3.6 billion in profit in the first quarter of 2019.
“Prime members ... were shopping more often and with larger baskets,” Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky told reporters on a media call Thursday afternoon. Recode previously reported that Prime membership sales have risen significantly since the crisis began.
For months, the pandemic has transformed Amazon from a popular convenience shopping destination into an essential service as stay-at-home orders pushed more shopping online and as non-grocery brick-and-mortar chains have suffered from temporary store closures. But it also posed challenges for the tech giant. The company suffered from long delivery times as it reworked its warehouse policies to keep up with demand; along the way, it hired 175,000 warehouse and delivery workers to help with the sales boom and to fill in for workers who got sick or chose to stay home.
But the company also faced a labor crisis as some workers said the company’s warehouse safety measures were not adequate or consistent enough, and decried the company’s move to end bonus hourly and overtime pay at the end of May. Amazon ended up announcing another one-time bonus in June, declining to label the bonus as hazard pay, describing it instead as an appreciation for workers dealing with increased demand during an unprecedented time. An Amazon spokesperson on Thursday refused to say whether the company might reinstate the extra hourly or bonus pay even though increased orders and sales show no signs of abating for the company and its workers.
The record quarterly profit and sales figures, which eclipsed Wall Street analyst expectations by a staggering $8 billion, highlight Amazon’s growing power in the US economy. And it comes a day after a committee of US lawmakers grilled Bezos, the world’s richest man, on the business practices that Amazon has used to ascend to its increasingly dominant position.
Much of the lawmakers’ questioning on Wednesday focused on how the company treats and competes with the third-party sellers that account for more than half of the items Amazon sells in its online stores. Amazon revenue from these sellers grew 53 percent in the last quarter, up from growth of just 25 percent in the same quarter last year. Amazon CFO Olsavsky told Recode on the media call that growth in Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service — which lets sellers qualify their goods for Prime shipping by paying Amazon to handle warehousing and shipment of goods — was a main driver in seller fees.
Some critics have argued that Amazon coerces sellers into using FBA by giving better placement to goods that ship with Prime and by penalizing them for late deliveries if they ship on their own. One seller told federal regulators in a letter last year that the practice forces him to charge consumers higher prices than he otherwise would. Amazon, including Bezos in his congressional testimony, has defended FBA as a service that saves sellers considerable hassle.
While Amazon’s business continues to benefit from the pandemic, some other mass retailers are also seeing a boost. Both Walmart and Target have posted standout earnings reports in recent months, and their market share in US online commerce has increased, according to shopping data research firm Rakuten Intelligence, though Amazon’s share is still around seven times larger than Walmart’s.


vox--2020-07-30--Why Facebook and Twitter won’t fact-check Trump’s latest false claims about voting

Twitter and Facebook are not fact-checking factually unsupported claims about mail-in voting in the 2020 election posted by President Trump on both platforms Wednesday .
The inaction has angered some critics , who say these companies allow the spread of dangerous misinformation to go unchecked online , harming the integrity of the election as a whole .
Trump ’ s posts made the completely unsubstantiated assertion that universal vote-by-mail , a practice in which states automatically mail a ballot to all registered voters , will lead to the most “ inaccurate ” and “ fraudulent ” election in history , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the election “ until people can properly , securely , and safely vote.
” Top Republican and Democrat legislators quickly shut down Trump ’ s suggestion that the US should delay the election , something the president would need the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives ’ approval for .
It would be illegal if he tried to delay the election using his own authority .
Meanwhile , as my Vox colleague Ian Millhiser has explained , there is no substantial evidence that voting by mail will lead to inaccurate or fraudulent results .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a dozen cases of fraud out of 100 million mail-in ballots in the past two decades .
Trump has nevertheless made a habit of casting doubt on the legitimacy of mail-in voting .
The president ’ s latest comments are part of a larger pattern of him attacking the integrity of the 2020 election by making untrue statements on the matter .
So why aren ’ t Facebook and Twitter doing anything about the misinformation in Trump ’ s latest post ?
A spokesperson for Facebook told Recode that the company won ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy of not fact-checking politicians .
( The company did place a link to voter registration information underneath Trump ’ s post , something it does for all posts about voting in the election . )
The hands-off policy toward moderating politicians is in line with CEO Mark Zuckerberg ’ s philosophy of making Facebook an open platform for discussion and not being an “ arbiter of truth ” on political matters .
This is something civil rights organizations , advertisers , and even some of Zuckerberg ’ s own employees have increasingly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reserve the right to fact-check politicians under its misinformation policies .
In May , the company placed a warning label over a pair of Trump posts falsely claiming that mail-in voting in California would lead to fraud .
When Recode asked Twitter why the company fact-checked Trump on his earlier post containing false claims about mail-in voting but failed to do so this time around , a spokesperson for the company told Recode that , under the company ’ s policies , Twitter does not take down “ broad , non-specific statements ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ processes .
Social media companies ’ inaction on the posts was swiftly met by resistance from civil liberties groups such as Color of Change and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund .
Similarly , Jesse Lehrich , the co-founder of the nonprofit Accountable Tech , which is pushing Facebook to tighten its rules on harmful speech , warned that by doing nothing social media companies could exacerbate the problem of misinformation online .
“ Platforms should immediately remove — or clearly label and limit the reach of — this morning ’ s post and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the threats we face , ” Lehrich said in a statement .
It ’ s understandable why tech companies like Facebook and Twitter don ’ t want to be seen as overly meddling in political issues , as this could invite complaints that they ’ re favoring one side over the other .
In a congressional hearing on antitrust on Wednesday , Republicans hammered Zuckerberg as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai for alleged “ anti-conservative bias.
” To support these accusations , the lawmakers offered shaky evidence , including the removal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and his family related to the coronavirus .
Trump ’ s recent statements also come at a time when his administration is facing accusations of hindering the United States Postal Service .
While the USPS has long been struggling , particularly during the pandemic , it ’ s faced new reports of financial strain under a new , Trump-appointed postmaster general , Louis DeJoy .
Under DeJoy ’ s leadership , the USPS has reportedly been planning to delay mail delivery and slash post office hours to save money .
One thing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump is escalating his attacks on the legitimacy of the US election process via social media — which , if it translates to real-world action , could send the country into what many have argued is dangerous and potentially constitutional-crisis territory .
The question for Facebook and Twitter is to what extent they will continue to be hands-off .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Twitter and Facebook are not fact-checking factually unsupported claims about mail-in voting in the 2020 election posted by President Trump on both platforms Wednesday. The inaction has angered some critics, who say these companies allow the spread of dangerous misinformation to go unchecked online, harming the integrity of the election as a whole.
Trump’s posts made the completely unsubstantiated assertion that universal vote-by-mail, a practice in which states automatically mail a ballot to all registered voters, will lead to the most “inaccurate” and “fraudulent” election in history, and then went on to suggest delaying the election “until people can properly, securely, and safely vote.”
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote??? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
Top Republican and Democrat legislators quickly shut down Trump’s suggestion that the US should delay the election, something the president would need the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives’ approval for. It would be illegal if he tried to delay the election using his own authority.
Meanwhile, as my Vox colleague Ian Millhiser has explained, there is no substantial evidence that voting by mail will lead to inaccurate or fraudulent results. In fact, Oregon has only seen about a dozen cases of fraud out of 100 million mail-in ballots in the past two decades. Trump has nevertheless made a habit of casting doubt on the legitimacy of mail-in voting. The president’s latest comments are part of a larger pattern of him attacking the integrity of the 2020 election by making untrue statements on the matter.
So why aren’t Facebook and Twitter doing anything about the misinformation in Trump’s latest post?
A spokesperson for Facebook told Recode that the company won’t take action because of its long-standing policy of not fact-checking politicians. (The company did place a link to voter registration information underneath Trump’s post, something it does for all posts about voting in the election.) The hands-off policy toward moderating politicians is in line with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s philosophy of making Facebook an open platform for discussion and not being an “arbiter of truth” on political matters. This is something civil rights organizations, advertisers, and even some of Zuckerberg’s own employees have increasingly decried.
Twitter, however, does reserve the right to fact-check politicians under its misinformation policies. In May, the company placed a warning label over a pair of Trump posts falsely claiming that mail-in voting in California would lead to fraud. When Recode asked Twitter why the company fact-checked Trump on his earlier post containing false claims about mail-in voting but failed to do so this time around, a spokesperson for the company told Recode that, under the company’s policies, Twitter does not take down “broad, non-specific statements” about the integrity of elections or civic processes.
Social media companies’ inaction on the posts was swiftly met by resistance from civil liberties groups such as Color of Change and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
.@Twitter: Trump’s latest tweet should be removed. He needs to be removed from your platform. Elections in many states will rely on the very mail-in ballots he’s falsely tweeting about & his ability to spread mass voter misinformation here only aids his plans of being re-elected — ColorOfChange (@ColorOfChange) July 30, 2020
Similarly, Jesse Lehrich, the co-founder of the nonprofit Accountable Tech, which is pushing Facebook to tighten its rules on harmful speech, warned that by doing nothing social media companies could exacerbate the problem of misinformation online. “Platforms should immediately remove — or clearly label and limit the reach of — this morning’s post and implement election misinformation policies that are responsive to the threats we face,” Lehrich said in a statement.
It’s understandable why tech companies like Facebook and Twitter don’t want to be seen as overly meddling in political issues, as this could invite complaints that they’re favoring one side over the other. In a congressional hearing on antitrust on Wednesday, Republicans hammered Zuckerberg as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai for alleged “anti-conservative bias.” To support these accusations, the lawmakers offered shaky evidence, including the removal of harmful conspiracy theories promoted by Trump and his family related to the coronavirus.
Trump’s recent statements also come at a time when his administration is facing accusations of hindering the United States Postal Service. While the USPS has long been struggling, particularly during the pandemic, it’s faced new reports of financial strain under a new, Trump-appointed postmaster general, Louis DeJoy. Under DeJoy’s leadership, the USPS has reportedly been planning to delay mail delivery and slash post office hours to save money.
One thing that his latest posts made clear is that Trump is escalating his attacks on the legitimacy of the US election process via social media — which, if it translates to real-world action, could send the country into what many have argued is dangerous and potentially constitutional-crisis territory. The question for Facebook and Twitter is to what extent they will continue to be hands-off.


vox--2020-07-30--Australia just had its worst day of coronavirus. Yet health experts remain optimistic.

In a once-in-a-century move ( literally , the last time was 1919 ) , Australia completely sealed off a popular state border to help curb a second wave of Covid-19 and instituted a six-week lockdown in the Melbourne area .
That was a few weeks ago .
Since then , cases have continued to climb , and leading politicians have suggested that the lockdowns could be extended .
But despite the national anxiety , several public health experts told me they ’ re optimistic that the government ’ s policies will cause cases to fall in the coming days .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ quite as bad as it may seem , and would have been much worse without government intervention .
Australia , without question , crushed its first coronavirus outbreak .
From April through June , the number of new cases per day rarely exceeded 20 , down from the 300 to 400 cases seen per day in March .
But in July , cases began to spike again , causing an outbreak that has quickly outpaced the first .
To help control the current outbreak , the government closed down the border between the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and New South Wales on July 8 , and imposed a six-week lockdown in Melbourne .
But on Thursday , three weeks into lockdown , Victoria reported an all-time high of 723 new cases and 13 deaths .
The BBC reports that the high is a 36 percent increase from the previous peak — which was reported on Monday .
Before Thursday ’ s huge spike , the case numbers had dipped on Tuesday and Wednesday .
To be clear , experts told me it could be much worse , and it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ haven ’ t risen exponentially , which could have been possible with a highly infectious disease like Covid-19 .
And to put it in some global perspective , even Australia ’ s second wave is almost nothing compared to many other countries , most notably the United States and its more than 4.4 million cases .
Or even to most of the individual US states .
States with flattened curves — New Jersey , for example — are seeing case numbers comparable to Australia ’ s , lingering within the realm of about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So the “ highs ” Australia is seeing right now are basically what some of America ’ s more well-off states are seeing on a good day .
Despite the promising signs , though , there are still hundreds of people contracting Covid-19 every day in Australia , and the second major outbreak of infections has , in terms of numbers , quickly surpassed the first .
Masks have been mandatory in Melbourne since last week , and they will be mandatory everywhere in Victoria on August 2 , so the effects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not be known for weeks .
Mandatory masking could be crucial for controlling the virus .
To defeat the outbreak , some health experts told me they think the country should employ a more forceful , New Zealand-type approach , but some told me they are optimistic that cases will begin to fall soon anyway .
Three weeks ago , I talked to some epidemiologists about how Australia managed to control its first coronavirus outbreak .
There were a few key reasons — most importantly , the government took the pandemic seriously from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of health officials .
Australia first tackled the virus with a ban on travelers from high-risk areas in February , as most cases from the first outbreak were travelers returning to Australia .
That , and Australia ’ s lack of land borders with other countries , made it easier to identify who was infected or at risk .
Australia ’ s borders were closed to non-citizens on March 19 , and later that month , public gathering places like movie theaters , bars , and schools were closed and social distancing rules @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biggest misstep with the first outbreak , University of South Australia biostatistics professor Adrian Esterman told me , was the docking of a cruise ship in March with infected passengers on board .
Hundreds of cases could be traced back to the Ruby Princess cruise ship , where passengers that were clearly sick left the ship without being tested , dispersing around the country .
The government ’ s proactive policies largely worked , and the numbers of new cases plunged to around 10 to 20 cases per day in April .
Reopening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of safely reopening the economy fully by July .
To date , Australia has recorded 16,303 confirmed coronavirus cases and 190 deaths .
Why Australia ’ s second outbreak is different The big difference between this current outbreak and the March outbreak is that the current spread of the virus is driven mainly by community transmission , Hassan Vally , a professor of public health at La Trobe University in Melbourne , told me .
Community transmission occurs when people who haven ’ t been overseas recently or who haven ’ t been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are infected , so the cause of infection is unclear .
It ’ s suspected that this outbreak began because of management failures at quarantine hotels , where people who fly into Australia must stay for two weeks under mandatory quarantine .
The BBC reports that improperly trained private security forces are facing the blame , including allegations of rule-breaking — like sharing cigarette lighters and having sex with quarantined travelers .
From the hotels , the virus spread to low-income communities with large immigrant populations in Melbourne , Esterman told me .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ t spend enough time communicating with these non-English-speaking communities about the importance of mask-wearing and social distancing , leaving them vulnerable .
Community transmission is also having a devastating impact on nursing homes .
The Guardian reports that as of Tuesday , 80 of Victoria ’ s 400 private nursing homes are facing outbreaks , with a total of 764 active cases among residents and staff .
“ This second surge is totally different , ” Vally said .
“ This is mainly true community transmission , and this is a much more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s going to take a lot more work to bring it under control , which is why we ’ re back in lockdown.
” What can be done , and why the rising case numbers aren ’ t cause for alarm At first glance , the fact that new infections just hit an all-time high for Australia may be unsettling .
And , of course , hundreds of people contracting Covid-19 every day is not a good thing .
But experts told me the border closure and lockdowns have been effective @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ If we go back to the very earliest conversations about Covid , the discussion was all about flattening the curve .
And that ’ s kind of what we ’ re seeing , is that the curve has gone flat , ” Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz , an epidemiologist at the University of Wollongong , told me .
“ It ’ s not increasing or decreasing .
It ’ s just the same number of cases every day.
” “ Flattening the curve ” refers to slowing the rate of infection so health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become overwhelmed .
Meyerowitz-Katz also told me that daily case counts are a misleading metric because of delays in recording test results and the random variation of who gets tested and when .
So although Australia ’ s cases spiked Thursday , that doesn ’ t mean it ’ s an accurate picture of the extent of the outbreak .
In fact , the days between Monday ’ s spike — which was , at the time , a national record — and Thursday ’ s peak saw a marked decrease in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported 295 new coronavirus diagnoses on Wednesday .
Vally told me he is optimistic that cases will continue to come down over the next few days and weeks as the lockdowns continue and the effects of the mask mandates become known .
Esterman told me that if the government wants to bring the case numbers in Victoria down to the numbers seen in other Australian states , which are largely unaffected by the current outbreak , more restrictions on businesses should be implemented .
“ I ’ m optimistic that the situation in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can ’ t see going back down to where all the other states and territories are , unless they go into what we call stage four restrictions , which is basically what New Zealand did , and that is all places of employment are shut , apart from essential services like supermarkets , health services , etc.
, ” Esterman told me .
Stage four restrictions would likely involve compulsory mask-wearing ( which is already in place in the Melbourne area and will soon be implemented across Victoria ) and a stricter definition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ If they did that for just a couple of weeks , it would really control it , ” Esterman said .
He also said that mask-wearing should be encouraged in the Sydney area to prevent a major outbreak there , since cases in New South Wales — the state Sydney is in — are lingering in the teens and could , he said , easily explode .
The resurgence in Melbourne shows that the coronavirus is relentless , and , as Vally told me , it can exploit any opportunity it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again .
And until there is a vaccine , controlling it will continue to be a worldwide challenge .
“ What ’ s happening in Melbourne could equally happen in any other place in Australia , and obviously it can happen and it is happening in other places around the world where they ’ ve pretty much felt they ’ ve got things under control , ” Vally said .
“ This is going to be the world we live in for the next many months , until , hopefully , we find @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

In a once-in-a-century move (literally, the last time was 1919), Australia completely sealed off a popular state border to help curb a second wave of Covid-19 and instituted a six-week lockdown in the Melbourne area.
That was a few weeks ago. Since then, cases have continued to climb, and leading politicians have suggested that the lockdowns could be extended.
But despite the national anxiety, several public health experts told me they’re optimistic that the government’s policies will cause cases to fall in the coming days. They told me the situation is not quite as bad as it may seem, and would have been much worse without government intervention.
Australia, without question, crushed its first coronavirus outbreak. From April through June, the number of new cases per day rarely exceeded 20, down from the 300 to 400 cases seen per day in March. But in July, cases began to spike again, causing an outbreak that has quickly outpaced the first.
To help control the current outbreak, the government closed down the border between the states of Victoria, the hardest-hit area, and New South Wales on July 8, and imposed a six-week lockdown in Melbourne. But on Thursday, three weeks into lockdown, Victoria reported an all-time high of 723 new cases and 13 deaths.
The BBC reports that the high is a 36 percent increase from the previous peak — which was reported on Monday. Before Thursday’s huge spike, the case numbers had dipped on Tuesday and Wednesday.
To be clear, experts told me it could be much worse, and it’s a promising sign that cases haven’t risen exponentially, which could have been possible with a highly infectious disease like Covid-19.
And to put it in some global perspective, even Australia’s second wave is almost nothing compared to many other countries, most notably the United States and its more than 4.4 million cases. Or even to most of the individual US states. States with flattened curves — New Jersey, for example — are seeing case numbers comparable to Australia’s, lingering within the realm of about 300 to 500 new cases every day. So the “highs” Australia is seeing right now are basically what some of America’s more well-off states are seeing on a good day.
Despite the promising signs, though, there are still hundreds of people contracting Covid-19 every day in Australia, and the second major outbreak of infections has, in terms of numbers, quickly surpassed the first.
Masks have been mandatory in Melbourne since last week, and they will be mandatory everywhere in Victoria on August 2, so the effects of that policy on case numbers may not be known for weeks. Mandatory masking could be crucial for controlling the virus.
To defeat the outbreak, some health experts told me they think the country should employ a more forceful, New Zealand-type approach, but some told me they are optimistic that cases will begin to fall soon anyway.
A brief history of Australia’s initial coronavirus success
Three weeks ago, I talked to some epidemiologists about how Australia managed to control its first coronavirus outbreak. There were a few key reasons — most importantly, the government took the pandemic seriously from the beginning and listened to the advice of health officials.
Australia first tackled the virus with a ban on travelers from high-risk areas in February, as most cases from the first outbreak were travelers returning to Australia. That, and Australia’s lack of land borders with other countries, made it easier to identify who was infected or at risk.
Australia’s borders were closed to non-citizens on March 19, and later that month, public gathering places like movie theaters, bars, and schools were closed and social distancing rules were imposed.
The country’s biggest misstep with the first outbreak, University of South Australia biostatistics professor Adrian Esterman told me, was the docking of a cruise ship in March with infected passengers on board. Hundreds of cases could be traced back to the Ruby Princess cruise ship, where passengers that were clearly sick left the ship without being tested, dispersing around the country.
The government’s proactive policies largely worked, and the numbers of new cases plunged to around 10 to 20 cases per day in April. Reopening began in May, with the intent of safely reopening the economy fully by July.
To date, Australia has recorded 16,303 confirmed coronavirus cases and 190 deaths.
Why Australia’s second outbreak is different
The big difference between this current outbreak and the March outbreak is that the current spread of the virus is driven mainly by community transmission, Hassan Vally, a professor of public health at La Trobe University in Melbourne, told me.
Community transmission occurs when people who haven’t been overseas recently or who haven’t been in close contact with confirmed positive cases are infected, so the cause of infection is unclear.
It’s suspected that this outbreak began because of management failures at quarantine hotels, where people who fly into Australia must stay for two weeks under mandatory quarantine. The BBC reports that improperly trained private security forces are facing the blame, including allegations of rule-breaking — like sharing cigarette lighters and having sex with quarantined travelers.
From the hotels, the virus spread to low-income communities with large immigrant populations in Melbourne, Esterman told me. He said the government also didn’t spend enough time communicating with these non-English-speaking communities about the importance of mask-wearing and social distancing, leaving them vulnerable.
Community transmission is also having a devastating impact on nursing homes. The Guardian reports that as of Tuesday, 80 of Victoria’s 400 private nursing homes are facing outbreaks, with a total of 764 active cases among residents and staff.
“This second surge is totally different,” Vally said. “This is mainly true community transmission, and this is a much more difficult and serious and challenging situation. It’s going to take a lot more work to bring it under control, which is why we’re back in lockdown.”
What can be done, and why the rising case numbers aren’t cause for alarm
At first glance, the fact that new infections just hit an all-time high for Australia may be unsettling. And, of course, hundreds of people contracting Covid-19 every day is not a good thing. But experts told me the border closure and lockdowns have been effective in stabilizing Australia’s case numbers.
“If we go back to the very earliest conversations about Covid, the discussion was all about flattening the curve. And that’s kind of what we’re seeing, is that the curve has gone flat,” Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, an epidemiologist at the University of Wollongong, told me. “It’s not increasing or decreasing. It’s just the same number of cases every day.”
“Flattening the curve” refers to slowing the rate of infection so health care systems’ capacity doesn’t become overwhelmed.
Meyerowitz-Katz also told me that daily case counts are a misleading metric because of delays in recording test results and the random variation of who gets tested and when. So although Australia’s cases spiked Thursday, that doesn’t mean it’s an accurate picture of the extent of the outbreak.
In fact, the days between Monday’s spike — which was, at the time, a national record — and Thursday’s peak saw a marked decrease in the number of new cases, as Victoria reported 295 new coronavirus diagnoses on Wednesday. Vally told me he is optimistic that cases will continue to come down over the next few days and weeks as the lockdowns continue and the effects of the mask mandates become known.
Esterman told me that if the government wants to bring the case numbers in Victoria down to the numbers seen in other Australian states, which are largely unaffected by the current outbreak, more restrictions on businesses should be implemented.
“I’m optimistic that the situation in Melbourne will improve slightly, but I can’t see going back down to where all the other states and territories are, unless they go into what we call stage four restrictions, which is basically what New Zealand did, and that is all places of employment are shut, apart from essential services like supermarkets, health services, etc.,” Esterman told me.
Stage four restrictions would likely involve compulsory mask-wearing (which is already in place in the Melbourne area and will soon be implemented across Victoria) and a stricter definition of which businesses are allowed to open.
“If they did that for just a couple of weeks, it would really control it,” Esterman said.
He also said that mask-wearing should be encouraged in the Sydney area to prevent a major outbreak there, since cases in New South Wales — the state Sydney is in — are lingering in the teens and could, he said, easily explode.
The resurgence in Melbourne shows that the coronavirus is relentless, and, as Vally told me, it can exploit any opportunity it can get ahold of to start spreading again. And until there is a vaccine, controlling it will continue to be a worldwide challenge.
“What’s happening in Melbourne could equally happen in any other place in Australia, and obviously it can happen and it is happening in other places around the world where they’ve pretty much felt they’ve got things under control,” Vally said. “This is going to be the world we live in for the next many months, until, hopefully, we find a vaccine.”


vox--2020-07-30--A federal judge blocked Trump’s rule creating a wealth test for immigrants

A federal judge in New York blocked the Trump administration Wednesday night from continuing to enforce a rule that has created barriers to low-income immigrants seeking to enter the US .
The so-called “ public charge ” rule , published last August by the Department of Homeland Security , established a test to determine whether an immigrant applying to enter the US , extend their visa , or convert their temporary immigration status into a green card is likely to end up relying on public benefits in the future .
The rule gave immigration officials more leeway to turn away @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a public charge ” based on an evaluation of 20 factors , ranging from the use of certain public benefits programs — including food stamps , Section 8 housing vouchers , and Medicaid — to English-language proficiency .
It represents one of President Trump ’ s biggest blows to legal immigration so far .
In two separate decisions , US District Judge George Daniels prohibited both the State Department and DHS from applying the rule for as long as the US remains in a state of national emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intends to terminate the national emergency , which he announced in March , anytime soon , but he has been pushing American life to resume even as the coronavirus continues to spread and the death toll mounts .
Daniels said that the public charge rule has had a documented chilling effect on immigrants seeking Covid-19 testing , which could undermine the US ’ s efforts to slow the spread of the virus .
The agency had announced in March that seeking “ testing , treatment , [ or ] preventative care ( including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) ” would not count against immigrants under the public charge rule , even if those services were obtained using public benefits , but that had only created more “ chaos and confusion , ” he said .
“ As a direct result of the rule , immigrants are forced to make an impossible choice between jeopardizing public health and personal safety or their immigration status , ” he wrote .
As a result of Wednesday ’ s ruling , US Citizenship and Immigration Services instructed its officers to hold immigrants ’ applications @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it issues further guidance , according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News ’ s Hamed Aleaziz .
A USCIS spokesperson said Thursday that the agency was still reviewing the decision but confirmed that it will “ fully comply with the court ’ s order and will be providing additional guidance.
” The rule has affected immigrants applying for green cards nationwide and at consulates abroad , as well as those applying for temporary visas overseas such as tourists , business travelers , students , and skilled workers .
The administration hasn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people have been affected by the rule so far since it went into effect in February .
But Julia Gelatt , a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute , a nonpartisan think tank , told Vox that 69 percent of the roughly 5.5 million people who were granted green cards over the past five years would have had at least one negative factor under the rule — which officials could have used as justification to reject their applications for immigration benefits .
Trump has justified the rule as a means of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” and has argued it will “ protect benefits for American citizens.
” “ I am tired of seeing our taxpayer paying for people to come into the country and immediately go onto welfare and various other things , ” Trump said when announcing the rule .
“ So I think we ’ re doing it right.
” The rule had a chilling effect even before the pandemic : Noncitizens were needlessly dropping their public benefits out of fear that they would face immigration consequences .
It ’ s difficult to quantify just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ result of the rule , but one survey suggested that about one in seven had done so as of 2018 .
Many immigrants aren ’ t eligible for public benefits unless they have green cards or certain humanitarian protections — and not all public benefits are available to noncitizens .
Even if the rule is allowed to go into effect once more , the best advice for most immigrants is to keep using the programs to which they ’ re entitled because they won ’ t be penalized for doing so , Doug @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who worked on immigration policy in the Obama administration , said .
But the confusion around the rule has helped accomplish what the Trump administration wanted : Immigrants have been driven away from public benefits .
Even though the rule can no longer be enforced due to Wednesday ’ s ruling , it has , in that sense , already succeeded .
“ Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet ” The rule fits in with one of the broader ideas guiding Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of public assistance without offering the US anything in return .
It enacts the philosophy that then-acting US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli once described , amending Emma Lazarus ’ s famous poem on the Statue of Liberty : “ Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet.
” It also makes getting into the US much harder for immigrants sponsored by family members , the phenomenon Trump has excoriated as “ chain migration.
” The rule is only one of several policies the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which immigrants are legally able to come to the United States .
Under Trump , the legal immigration system increasingly rewards skills and wealth over family ties to the US , while shutting out a growing number of people from low-income backgrounds .
( Though he has even imposed restrictions on skilled immigrants amid the pandemic . )
Heeding calls from 31 states to end refugee admissions from Syria , Trump has slashed the total number of refugees the US accepts annually to just 18,000 this year , the fewest in history and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two years ago .
He ’ s placed restrictions on the citizens of many Muslim-majority and African countries .
His travel ban prevents citizens of Iran , Libya , Somalia , Syria , Yemen , Venezuela , and North Korea from obtaining any kind of visa allowing them to enter the US .
He also added restrictions on immigrants from six additional countries : Myanmar , Eritrea , Kyrgyzstan , Nigeria , Sudan , and Tanzania .
Critics have called it an “ African ban ” since about four in five of those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump has reportedly previously derided as “ shithole countries.
” Trump has also sought to crack down on foreigners giving birth to children in the US , who automatically become American citizens , particularly if they can ’ t prove they can pay for their medical treatment .
With the public charge regulation , Trump is painting immigrants as abusing public benefits .
But they are actually “ less likely to consume welfare benefits and , when they do , they generally consume a lower dollar value of benefits than native-born Americans , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a libertarian think tank .
In 2016 , the average per capita value of public benefits consumed by immigrants was $ 3,718 , as compared to $ 6,081 among native-born Americans .
Noncitizens were slightly more likely to get cash assistance , SNAP benefits , and Medicaid , but far less likely to use Medicare and Social Security .
“ The rhetoric around the use of public benefits programs is largely smoke and mirrors , ” Erin Quinn , a senior staff attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center , told Vox .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that immigrants are draining our public services when in fact these immigrants don ’ t even have access to those services and also galvanizing fear in immigrant communities.
” The US has been able to reject prospective immigrants who are likely to become a “ public charge ” — dependent on the government for support — since 1882 , but since World War II , few immigrants were turned away using that criteria .
In 1999 , the Clinton administration issued guidance that said only cash benefits , which very few immigrants use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ determination .
The Trump administration is defining “ public charge ” much more broadly , giving immigration officials at US Citizenship and Immigration Services and US Customs and Border Protection a laundry list of factors to consider .
And the new rule allows individual immigration officials to implement this complicated , 217-page regulation as they see fit .
The rule gives individual , low-level officials much more vetting power than they have had previously , and injects a lot of uncertainty into the green card process , impacting who is allowed to enter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lawful permanent resident .
Lower court rulings had argued that the public charge rule conflicts with how federal immigration law has been interpreted for two decades and appears to ignore the tens of thousands of public comments that opposed it .
For about four months , federal judges prevented the rule from being implemented while lawsuits challenging it made their way through the courts .
Opponents of the rule , including the state of New York and immigrant advocacy groups , had argued that the rule flouts the narrow definition of what it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” under federal immigration law .
“ Defendants do not articulate why they are changing the public charge definition , why this new definition is needed now , or why the definition set forth in the Rule — which has absolutely no support in the history of U.S. immigration law — is reasonable , ” Judge Daniels wrote in his previous decision in October .
But rather than waiting for those courts to issue final rulings , Trump asked the Supreme Court in January to intervene — a once-rare occurrence that has become @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to allow the rule to go into effect .
The US Supreme Court ’ s conservative majority gave it the green light later that month without explaining their reasoning .
The final version of the regulation is much less stringent than earlier versions that were leaked to the public ( including one to Vox ) .
Those drafts would have allowed immigration officials to consider immigrants ’ use of a long list of federal public benefits programs , including the Children ’ s Health Insurance Program ( CHIP ) and Head Start , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It also would have looked at any programs used by an immigrant ’ s household — meaning that immigrants could be penalized if they sought benefits for their children instead of themselves .
Early reports raised the alarm about how the rule targeted immigrants on public benefits .
The Trump administration got hundreds of thousands of comments about it .
And immigrants started dropping out of those programs , worried that their chances of getting a green card or citizenship would be affected .
An Urban Institute study found that , based on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immigrant families , 13.7 percent of them said that they or one of their relatives chose not to use non-cash benefits programs in 2018 as a result of reports about the rule .
A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation projected that the rule could have led up to 4.7 million people to withdraw from Medicaid and CHIP alone .
The Los Angeles Times reported that some immigrants with children enrolled in special education programs withdrew them from school and that refugees and asylum seekers dropped out of food assistance programs .
Quinn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are also avoiding applying for asylum and citizenship , even though the final version of the rule does not affect either process .
“ The rule has falsely created an impression that undocumented immigrants and temporary residents are gobbling up public benefits , which they ’ re not because they ’ re generally not eligible , ” Rand said .
“ And it has scared those who are eligible , who are primarily permanent residents with green cards , legal immigrants , into unenrolling from programs they are perfectly eligible to take advantage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rule has already been done Some federal programs are open to all immigrants regardless of status , including the National School Lunch Program ; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women , Infants , and Children ( WIC ) ; and Head Start .
Some immigrants can also become eligible for Social Security benefits and Medicare once they reach a certain age .
But “ means-tested welfare programs ” — federal public benefits for those in poverty including Medicaid , CHIP , the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ( SNAP ) , Temporary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Security Income ( SSI ) — are primarily reserved for naturalized and US-born citizens , green card holders , refugees , and asylees .
Unauthorized immigrants and most people with temporary immigration status , such as employment-based visas , are ineligible , and green card holders have to wait five years before becoming eligible ( although some states give them access earlier ) .
Notably , former Vice President Joe Biden , the presumptive Democratic nominee for president , has proposed eliminating the five-year waiting period for green card holders .
All of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end up being penalized , under the final version of the rule , for using public assistance .
But the rule has already been effective in dissuading many immigrants from continuing to access the public benefits they need .
Early reporting about the potentially drastic effects of the rule , and advocacy groups ’ decision to condemn it , helped spread the word .
Most immigrants face no consequences for keeping their benefits , Rand said .
But advocates and attorneys were reluctant to make any such blanket statements for fear of being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Unfortunately , I think a lot of the damage has already been done through the rhetoric and the media cycles around the various proposals , ” Quinn said .
DHS ’ s cost-benefit analysis of the rule is premised on the fact that many people will unnecessarily unenroll from public benefits or refrain from enrolling from such programs in the future , Rand said .
The economic gains the department cited in its analysis are almost entirely attributable to the anticipated reduction in “ transfer payments , ” or government payments to public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the ‘ chilling effect ’ isn ’ t a second-order consequence of the rule ; according to DHS , it ’ s practically the only thing that makes the rule economically beneficial , ” Rand said .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

A federal judge in New York blocked the Trump administration Wednesday night from continuing to enforce a rule that has created barriers to low-income immigrants seeking to enter the US.
The so-called “public charge” rule, published last August by the Department of Homeland Security, established a test to determine whether an immigrant applying to enter the US, extend their visa, or convert their temporary immigration status into a green card is likely to end up relying on public benefits in the future.
The rule gave immigration officials more leeway to turn away those who are “likely to be a public charge” based on an evaluation of 20 factors, ranging from the use of certain public benefits programs — including food stamps, Section 8 housing vouchers, and Medicaid — to English-language proficiency. It represents one of President Trump’s biggest blows to legal immigration so far.
In two separate decisions, US District Judge George Daniels prohibited both the State Department and DHS from applying the rule for as long as the US remains in a state of national emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has not indicated that he intends to terminate the national emergency, which he announced in March, anytime soon, but he has been pushing American life to resume even as the coronavirus continues to spread and the death toll mounts.
Daniels said that the public charge rule has had a documented chilling effect on immigrants seeking Covid-19 testing, which could undermine the US’s efforts to slow the spread of the virus. The agency had announced in March that seeking “testing, treatment, [or] preventative care (including vaccines, if a vaccine becomes available)” would not count against immigrants under the public charge rule, even if those services were obtained using public benefits, but that had only created more “chaos and confusion,” he said.
“As a direct result of the rule, immigrants are forced to make an impossible choice between jeopardizing public health and personal safety or their immigration status,” he wrote.
As a result of Wednesday’s ruling, US Citizenship and Immigration Services instructed its officers to hold immigrants’ applications where the rule would have applied until it issues further guidance, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News’s Hamed Aleaziz. A USCIS spokesperson said Thursday that the agency was still reviewing the decision but confirmed that it will “fully comply with the court’s order and will be providing additional guidance.”
The rule has affected immigrants applying for green cards nationwide and at consulates abroad, as well as those applying for temporary visas overseas such as tourists, business travelers, students, and skilled workers.
The administration hasn’t released detailed data on how many people have been affected by the rule so far since it went into effect in February. But Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, told Vox that 69 percent of the roughly 5.5 million people who were granted green cards over the past five years would have had at least one negative factor under the rule — which officials could have used as justification to reject their applications for immigration benefits.
Trump has justified the rule as a means of ensuring that immigrants are “financially self-sufficient” and has argued it will “protect benefits for American citizens.”
“I am tired of seeing our taxpayer paying for people to come into the country and immediately go onto welfare and various other things,” Trump said when announcing the rule. “So I think we’re doing it right.”
The rule had a chilling effect even before the pandemic: Noncitizens were needlessly dropping their public benefits out of fear that they would face immigration consequences. It’s difficult to quantify just how many immigrants have unenrolled as a result of the rule, but one survey suggested that about one in seven had done so as of 2018.
Many immigrants aren’t eligible for public benefits unless they have green cards or certain humanitarian protections — and not all public benefits are available to noncitizens. Even if the rule is allowed to go into effect once more, the best advice for most immigrants is to keep using the programs to which they’re entitled because they won’t be penalized for doing so, Doug Rand, a former White House official who worked on immigration policy in the Obama administration, said.
But the confusion around the rule has helped accomplish what the Trump administration wanted: Immigrants have been driven away from public benefits. Even though the rule can no longer be enforced due to Wednesday’s ruling, it has, in that sense, already succeeded.
“Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet”
The rule fits in with one of the broader ideas guiding Trump’s immigration policy: that immigrants take advantage of public assistance without offering the US anything in return. It enacts the philosophy that then-acting US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli once described, amending Emma Lazarus’s famous poem on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet.”
It also makes getting into the US much harder for immigrants sponsored by family members, the phenomenon Trump has excoriated as “chain migration.”
The rule is only one of several policies the Trump administration has pursued to dramatically shift which immigrants are legally able to come to the United States. Under Trump, the legal immigration system increasingly rewards skills and wealth over family ties to the US, while shutting out a growing number of people from low-income backgrounds. (Though he has even imposed restrictions on skilled immigrants amid the pandemic.)
Heeding calls from 31 states to end refugee admissions from Syria, Trump has slashed the total number of refugees the US accepts annually to just 18,000 this year, the fewest in history and down from a cap of 110,000 just two years ago.
He’s placed restrictions on the citizens of many Muslim-majority and African countries. His travel ban prevents citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, and North Korea from obtaining any kind of visa allowing them to enter the US. He also added restrictions on immigrants from six additional countries: Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania. Critics have called it an “African ban” since about four in five of those affected are from African nations, places Trump has reportedly previously derided as “shithole countries.”
Trump has also sought to crack down on foreigners giving birth to children in the US, who automatically become American citizens, particularly if they can’t prove they can pay for their medical treatment.
With the public charge regulation, Trump is painting immigrants as abusing public benefits. But they are actually “less likely to consume welfare benefits and, when they do, they generally consume a lower dollar value of benefits than native-born Americans,” according to the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
In 2016, the average per capita value of public benefits consumed by immigrants was $3,718, as compared to $6,081 among native-born Americans. Noncitizens were slightly more likely to get cash assistance, SNAP benefits, and Medicaid, but far less likely to use Medicare and Social Security.
“The rhetoric around the use of public benefits programs is largely smoke and mirrors,” Erin Quinn, a senior staff attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, told Vox. “It’s feeding a rhetoric that immigrants are draining our public services when in fact these immigrants don’t even have access to those services and also galvanizing fear in immigrant communities.”
The “public charge” rule, explained
The US has been able to reject prospective immigrants who are likely to become a “public charge” — dependent on the government for support — since 1882, but since World War II, few immigrants were turned away using that criteria. In 1999, the Clinton administration issued guidance that said only cash benefits, which very few immigrants use, would be considered in making the determination.
The Trump administration is defining “public charge” much more broadly, giving immigration officials at US Citizenship and Immigration Services and US Customs and Border Protection a laundry list of factors to consider. And the new rule allows individual immigration officials to implement this complicated, 217-page regulation as they see fit.
The rule gives individual, low-level officials much more vetting power than they have had previously, and injects a lot of uncertainty into the green card process, impacting who is allowed to enter and remain in the US as a lawful permanent resident.
Lower court rulings had argued that the public charge rule conflicts with how federal immigration law has been interpreted for two decades and appears to ignore the tens of thousands of public comments that opposed it.
For about four months, federal judges prevented the rule from being implemented while lawsuits challenging it made their way through the courts. Opponents of the rule, including the state of New York and immigrant advocacy groups, had argued that the rule flouts the narrow definition of what it means to be a “public charge” under federal immigration law.
“Defendants do not articulate why they are changing the public charge definition, why this new definition is needed now, or why the definition set forth in the Rule — which has absolutely no support in the history of U.S. immigration law — is reasonable,” Judge Daniels wrote in his previous decision in October.
But rather than waiting for those courts to issue final rulings, Trump asked the Supreme Court in January to intervene — a once-rare occurrence that has become standard practice under this administration — and to allow the rule to go into effect. The US Supreme Court’s conservative majority gave it the green light later that month without explaining their reasoning.
The final version of the regulation is much less stringent than earlier versions that were leaked to the public (including one to Vox). Those drafts would have allowed immigration officials to consider immigrants’ use of a long list of federal public benefits programs, including the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Head Start, the federal early childhood education program. It also would have looked at any programs used by an immigrant’s household — meaning that immigrants could be penalized if they sought benefits for their children instead of themselves.
Early reports raised the alarm about how the rule targeted immigrants on public benefits. The Trump administration got hundreds of thousands of comments about it. And immigrants started dropping out of those programs, worried that their chances of getting a green card or citizenship would be affected.
An Urban Institute study found that, based on a survey of about 2,000 adults in immigrant families, 13.7 percent of them said that they or one of their relatives chose not to use non-cash benefits programs in 2018 as a result of reports about the rule. A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation projected that the rule could have led up to 4.7 million people to withdraw from Medicaid and CHIP alone.
The Los Angeles Times reported that some immigrants with children enrolled in special education programs withdrew them from school and that refugees and asylum seekers dropped out of food assistance programs.
Quinn said her organization has found that immigrants are also avoiding applying for asylum and citizenship, even though the final version of the rule does not affect either process.
“The rule has falsely created an impression that undocumented immigrants and temporary residents are gobbling up public benefits, which they’re not because they’re generally not eligible,” Rand said. “And it has scared those who are eligible, who are primarily permanent residents with green cards, legal immigrants, into unenrolling from programs they are perfectly eligible to take advantage of under the law.”
Damage from the rule has already been done
Some federal programs are open to all immigrants regardless of status, including the National School Lunch Program; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and Head Start. Some immigrants can also become eligible for Social Security benefits and Medicare once they reach a certain age.
But “means-tested welfare programs” — federal public benefits for those in poverty including Medicaid, CHIP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) — are primarily reserved for naturalized and US-born citizens, green card holders, refugees, and asylees.
Unauthorized immigrants and most people with temporary immigration status, such as employment-based visas, are ineligible, and green card holders have to wait five years before becoming eligible (although some states give them access earlier). Notably, former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has proposed eliminating the five-year waiting period for green card holders.
All of this means that relatively few immigrants would end up being penalized, under the final version of the rule, for using public assistance. But the rule has already been effective in dissuading many immigrants from continuing to access the public benefits they need.
Early reporting about the potentially drastic effects of the rule, and advocacy groups’ decision to condemn it, helped spread the word. Most immigrants face no consequences for keeping their benefits, Rand said. But advocates and attorneys were reluctant to make any such blanket statements for fear of being responsible for giving bad advice.
“Unfortunately, I think a lot of the damage has already been done through the rhetoric and the media cycles around the various proposals,” Quinn said.
DHS’s cost-benefit analysis of the rule is premised on the fact that many people will unnecessarily unenroll from public benefits or refrain from enrolling from such programs in the future, Rand said. The economic gains the department cited in its analysis are almost entirely attributable to the anticipated reduction in “transfer payments,” or government payments to public benefits recipients.
“In other words, the ‘chilling effect’ isn’t a second-order consequence of the rule; according to DHS, it’s practically the only thing that makes the rule economically beneficial,” Rand said.