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496 lines
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>27 November, 2021</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andrew Cuomo’s Downfall Began with a Book Deal</strong> - A new report details how the former New York governor forced aides to work on his lucrative pandemic memoir, and how that scandal connects to the others that brought him down. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/andrew-cuomos-downfall-began-with-a-book-deal">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Russia Hasn’t Cracked Down on COVID-19</strong> - The country’s fragile political climate has repeatedly undermined its response to the pandemic. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/why-russia-hasnt-cracked-down-on-covid-19">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reëxamining the Legacy of Race and Robert E. Lee</strong> - The historian Allen C. Guelzo believes that the Confederate general deserves a more compassionate reading. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/reexamining-the-legacy-of-race-and-robert-e-lee">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Best Music of 2021</strong> - I found myself pulled toward albums that were elemental, tender, free. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2021-in-review/the-best-music-of-2021">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kurt Gödel’s Loophole and Donald Trump’s Defiance</strong> - Enforcing the law is harder than it might seem when those having the law enforced against them have contempt for it. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/kurt-godels-loophole-and-donald-trumps-defiance">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>How Puerto Rico became the most vaccinated place in America</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/JSBCkoOv1K6EO8O8JY4sfd_sxc0=/763x126:5351x3567/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70194864/GettyImages_1231633240.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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A man waits in line to be inoculated with the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at a Puerto Rico National Guard vaccination center in Vieques, Puerto Rico, on March 10. | Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Politics — or the lack thereof — was a key factor.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fGY0dB">
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Florida shares deep connections with Puerto Rico as home to the territory’s largest diaspora community on the US mainland. But when it comes to Covid-19, the two places have little in common.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S9VM2r">
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While Florida, like many states in the South, has seen high infection rates and troubling death counts, Puerto Rico has been something of a coronavirus success story. As of November 22, Puerto Rico had fully vaccinated <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-people-fully-percent-total">74 percent</a> of its population — a higher proportion than any other US state or territory — and had among the lowest Covid-19 death rates since the start of the pandemic, with <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-
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tracker/#cases_deathsper100k">102 in 100,000</a> people dying from the virus.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dvsrbb">
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By comparison, Florida’s vaccination rate is far more typical for the US; it has administered two shots to <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-people-fully-percent-total">60.9 percent</a> of its population, slightly above the national average of 59.2 percent. That’s after Florida <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/08/florida-and-texas-lead-us-covid-19-surge">led the country in total caseloads</a> for months, and after significant loss of life: Florida residents have died of the virus at <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_deathsper100k">nearly triple the rate</a> of Puerto Rico residents.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YA3Kby">
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Throughout the US, politics has been a key factor in determining how states have fared during the Covid-19 pandemic. States that embraced the individualistic approach of the Trump administration, sometimes ignoring scientific guidelines and avoiding mandates, have seen worse outcomes than states that took more comprehensive actions to stop the spread of Covid-19.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bpioqs">
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Florida Republican Gov. Ron De Santis has been threatening government agencies with <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/desantis-florida-fines-covid-vaccine-mandates/">millions in fines</a> if they mandate vaccines for employees and has <a href="https://www.wftv.com/news/local/space-coast-
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federal-employees-protest-vaccine-mandates/ZGGUJ7ERHRAQPMWMZAMNNBM6RI/">boosted the voices of anti-vaxxers</a>. At the same time, Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro R. Pierluisi, a member of the Partido Nuevo Progresista who caucused with Democrats while a commissioner in Congress,<em> </em>has quietly implemented some of the broadest vaccine mandates in the country across the private and public sectors.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D0CCQL">
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And while Floridians have taken to the streets with signs reading “<a href="https://www.wftv.com/news/local/space-coast-federal-employees-protest-vaccine-
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mandates/ZGGUJ7ERHRAQPMWMZAMNNBM6RI/">No jab, no job, no way</a>,” Puerto Ricans have largely embraced the mandates without protest. Though <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/11/16/1056232480/u-s-covid-cases-rising-
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holidays">coronavirus cases have risen</a> across the mainland in recent weeks, Puerto Rico has avoided a spike, with cases and hospitalizations even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/puerto-rico-covid-
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cases.html">trending downward</a>.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/SWUuo411up0kc0ZCzA4BD59UUaA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23041008/AP21121616030115.jpg"/> <cite>Carlos Giusti/AP</cite></figure></li>
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</ul>
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<figcaption>
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Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, center, attends a mass vaccination campaign against Covid-19 at the Maria Simmons elementary school in Vieques, Puerto Rico, on March 10.
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</figcaption>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ed6lHn">
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So, how was Puerto Rico able to insulate itself from political polarization around the virus and outpace the rest of the country on vaccinations? Officials and NGOs had already built public trust and infrastructure in the aftermath of other recent crises, including Hurricane Maria in 2017. And importantly, scientists and physicians — not politicians — led Puerto Rico’s response to the pandemic.
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</p>
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<h3 id="vML79h">
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Puerto Rico had already weathered several public health crises in recent years
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n6qAiT">
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A series of crises over the last few years made Puerto Rico’s public health system more resilient in the face of disaster than those in other states and territories, and its residents more receptive to the scientists leading the response.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dMz6Zi">
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This process began when Hurricane Maria made landfall in 2017. The category 4 storm left more than 5,000 dead and wreaked $90 billion in damage, destroying homes, roads, and bridges, and causing island-wide power outages.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="paqOdv">
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The public health consequences were <a href="https://www.kff.org/other/issue-brief/public-health-in-puerto-rico-after-hurricane-maria/">disastrous</a>. Many Puerto Ricans had limited access to food and safe drinking water. Without adequate hygiene and sanitation, they faced increased risk from infectious diseases. Nearly every hospital was closed for days after the hurricane hit, and when they reopened, many had to rely on generators for power for months thereafter, causing disruptions to services. For many people with chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes, that meant <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/photos/darkroom/bs-dk-puerto-rico-maria-ap-20180919-htmlstory.html">traveling far for lifesaving treatments</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tbdssX">
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Then, in late 2019, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
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politics/2020/2/24/21148670/puerto-rico-earthquake-disaster-aid-crisis-congress">6.4 magnitude earthquake</a> hit the island, followed by dozens of significant aftershocks and a second quake, this one at magnitude 5.9. That caused additional damage to critical infrastructure and hampered the island’s rebuilding efforts. Tens of thousands of people were relegated to emergency tent shelters with limited access to medical care.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YsHEij">
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The federal and Puerto Rican governments <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/09/12/feature/residents-see-a-
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failure-at-all-levels-of-government/">failed to adequately respond</a> to the hurricane and the quakes, with the Trump administration deliberately <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/22/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-trump-
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delayed-aid">delaying more than $20 billion in relief</a>. The Puerto Rican government <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/20/797996503/political-unrest-in-puerto-rico-after-discovery-of-unused-hurricane-
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aid">mismanaged the funds</a> that were delivered.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7bJADc">
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NGOs and community leaders picked up the pieces, which built trust with the people they served. In the immediate aftermath, they helped assess the damage, mobilized volunteers, set up emergency support centers, helped clear routes to water sources and medical facilities, and distributed basic supplies including non-perishable food, medicine, water purifiers, hygiene kits, and tents.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DccAgQ">
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“It was the NGOs that put together everything because the government, locally and federally, couldn’t deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria,” said José Rodríguez-Orengo, executive director of the Puerto Rico Public Health Trust (PRPHI), a public health institution that partners with the Puerto Rican government and community groups.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1dC3oq">
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Data gathered after Hurricane Maria was crucial. PRPHI captured data on individuals whose homes had been damaged or destroyed and who were staying in camps in the southwest of the island. It provided that information to the local Department of Health to ensure that victims received the services they needed.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SqMZR8">
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And Voces, a coalition of Puerto Rican community groups and health care providers focused on immunization, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/resource-center/partners/success-stories/voces-flu-vaccines.htm">provided flu vaccines</a> in the wake of both disasters to people who could not otherwise access a vaccination site. That was important because the lack of clean drinking water and overpopulation at emergency shelters was creating the ideal conditions for the flu to spread and become a serious public health issue.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gnEr6Y">
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By the time the coronavirus pandemic hit, such organizations had already established the infrastructure and community relationships necessary for effective Covid-19 prevention and vaccination campaigns under difficult circumstances — an advantage that Puerto Rico might have had over other states and territories. Voces alone, for example, has administered close to a quarter of a million vaccine shots.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/TTszULeUZUqlF2SK_KKSBU7BaW8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23041138/GettyImages_1231048747__1_.jpg"/> <cite>Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Senior citizens receive Moderna Covid-19 vaccines during a priority Covid-19 vaccination program for the elderly at a Puerto Rico National Guard vaccination center in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on February 8.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ptz3bC">
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“The island has developed an expertise around addressing public health emergencies,” said María Fernanda Levis-Peralta, a consultant in Puerto Rico working on improving systems for public health delivery. “These organizations were already set up and deployed to do community outreach.”
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</p>
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<h3 id="P10ASK">
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From scientists to community leaders, the message was the same: Mask up and get vaccinated
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ilavpE">
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Puerto Rico wasn’t untouched by the kind of vaccine misinformation that remains prevalent in the mainland US. Rodríguez-Orengo said his organization encountered Puerto Ricans who had heard conspiracy theories that they were being <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/10/01/why-theres-no-5g-tracking-microchip-in-the-covid-
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vaccine.html">injected with a microchip</a> that would allow the government to track them or that the first-of-its-kind mRNA vaccine could <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-vaccines/fact-check-controversial-mit-
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study-does-not-show-that-mrna-vaccines-alter-dna-idUSL1N2PK1DC">permanently alter their DNA</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NACQUw">
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But those conspiracy theories simply weren’t allowed to take hold in Puerto Rico, in part because the local political parties did not tolerate them.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dbZjcn">
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“Our main sport in Puerto Rico is politics. We are a very political society,” Rodríguez-Orengo said. “What helped us out from the beginning was that the main political parties in Puerto Rico were saying the same message: ‘Let’s start with the scientists. They will lead us in public policymaking.’”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JlsLRK">
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Initially, Puerto Ricans were somewhat skeptical of the vaccine. In November 2020, before the vaccines were available to the public, the Puerto Rico Public Health Trust conducted a study in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Puerto Rico Department of Health that found that only 57 percent of Puerto Ricans wanted the jab, Rodríguez-Orengo said.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ky9YLZ">
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But government officials, scientists, physicians, pharmacists, the National Guard, and religious and community leaders rallied in a unified campaign around the vaccine and Covid-19 prevention.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TX3yzU">
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The science always came first: Even when the CDC <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996617490/cdc-loosens-mask-guidance-for-vaccinated-people-a-major-shift-in-
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pandemic-life">loosened its guidance on masking</a> in May, the Puerto Rican government heeded the advice of local public health officials to <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/these-are-the-states-with-mask-
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mandates#pr">maintain universal mask mandates</a> in all indoor spaces regardless of vaccination status. That decision was later vindicated by the resurgence in cases due to the delta variant.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9mHTKw">
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Public messaging also focused on how the vaccine could help protect families, a sentiment that resonated with the island’s “strong communitarian ethic that values helping and supporting one’s neighbors,” said Krista Perreira, a health economist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has studied health care access in Puerto Rico. “When we get vaccines, we protect each other, protect our communities, and protect our futures.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9YDH1p">
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Unlike on the mainland, there wasn’t a singular figure like Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the White House’s chief medical adviser, who became the face of the vaccine campaign. This allowed for a multitude of trusted voices to advocate for vaccination, including the US’s first <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/first-hispanic-surgeon-general-covid-use-common-sense-family-
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rcna1742">Hispanic surgeon general, Antonia Coello Novello</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="42P2EW">
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“People trusted their physicians to provide them with health information,” Levis-Peralta said. “And one of the things that Puerto Rico has had is a very vocal physician community and consistent communication from folks on both sides of the aisle.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2JCuFL">
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As a result, the share of Puerto Ricans who wanted the vaccine had grown to 85 percent by February 2021, according to Rodríguez-Orengo. At that point, <a href="https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/kff-covid-19-vaccine-
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monitor-february-2021/">only 55 percent</a> of US adults overall indicated that they wanted to get the vaccine or had already received it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LjURAq">
|
|||
|
|
That public support laid the groundwork for a successful vaccine drive and compliance with later vaccine mandates.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/mLtXOTnM-1dZ8RkywiCxwMhoIKE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23041150/GettyImages_1231633084.jpg"/> <cite>Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
People wait in line to be inoculated with the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at a Puerto Rico National Guard vaccination center in Vieques, Puerto Rico, on March 10.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="wvPyTp">
|
|||
|
|
Puerto Rico made it easy — and for many, mandatory — to get the vaccine
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CdHpPP">
|
|||
|
|
Importantly, Puerto Rico made it simple to get the vaccine for free, even for people who face mobility challenges or are in medically underserved areas.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="862lmu">
|
|||
|
|
According to the federal government, 72 of the island’s 78 municipalities are <a href="https://data.hrsa.gov/topics/health-workforce/shortage-areas">medically underserved</a> and have “<a href="http://www.salud.gov.pr/Estadisticas-Registros-y-
|
|||
|
|
Publicaciones/Publicaciones/2015%20Puerto%20Rico%20Primary%20Care%20Needs%20Assesment.pdf">unmet health care needs</a>.” <a href="https://www.medicaid.gov/state-overviews/puerto-rico.html">Nearly half of Puerto Ricans are on Medicaid</a> and <a href="https://publichealth.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/downloads/GGRCHN/GG%3ARCHN%20Policy%20Issue%20Brief%20%2350%20FV.pdf">350,000 people</a> rely on Medicaid-funded community health centers to access primary care services, especially in rural areas.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XuMI8L">
|
|||
|
|
The National Guard and Puerto Rico Department of Health <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/11/03/mandates-a-well-organized-campaign-no-politics-how-puerto-ricos-vaccine-drive-
|
|||
|
|
turned-into-a-success/">operated at least a dozen mass vaccination sites</a> across the island for months. The island’s <a href="https://periodismoinvestigativo.com/2014/05/puerto-rico-first-in-the-world-with-walgreens-and-walmart-per-
|
|||
|
|
square-mile/">high concentration of pharmacies</a> and community health centers also helped in administering vaccines. And NGOs have led large-scale vaccination events and even gone door-to-door to vaccinate bedridden people in their homes and improve vaccination rates in communities with low uptake.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jph34D">
|
|||
|
|
Voces, for example, has been able to give out nearly 250,000 shots by holding as many as 25 events daily across the island, meeting people where they live and work.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ymGPz1">
|
|||
|
|
“Creating access directly in the community is very important because not everybody has a car to go to the pharmacy or the hospital or the clinic,” said Lilliam Rodríguez Capó, president of Voces’s board of directors. “There was no excuse not to get the vaccine.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pdjLbr">
|
|||
|
|
For many, there was also no choice but to get the vaccine. Puerto Rico adopted far-reaching vaccine mandates well before any of the 50 states or the federal government had implemented anything similar. And it did so with relatively little fanfare — a testament to the success of collective messaging efforts to build public support.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kIew7P">
|
|||
|
|
In July, Puerto Rico’s governor required all students to <a href="https://www.littler.com/files/ao-2021-509.pdf">show proof of receiving at least one dose of the vaccine</a> in order to return to school after the summer break. And in August, he extended the mandate to all employees in the public sector and at salons, spas, gyms, child care centers, grocery stores, casinos, gas stations, restaurants, and theaters, as well as on visitors to any establishment where food and drink is provided. In November, he expanded that mandate even further to <a href="https://www.jacksonlewis.com/publication/puerto-rico-expands-mandatory-
|
|||
|
|
covid-19-vaccination-private-employers-least-50-employees">all private businesses</a> with at least 50 employees.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jXfCwu">
|
|||
|
|
By comparison, it wasn’t until September — just as delta cases were at their peak on the mainland — that President Joe Biden issued an executive order requiring that all <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-
|
|||
|
|
room/presidential-actions/2021/09/09/executive-order-on-requiring-coronavirus-disease-2019-vaccination-for-federal-
|
|||
|
|
employees/">federal employees</a> get vaccinated. Also that month, his administration pushed out a policy that would require employees of private companies with 100 or more workers to get vaccinated or undergo regular testing and wear masks. But the move immediately drew <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/582778-biden-administration-
|
|||
|
|
asks-court-to-revive-workplace-vaccine-mandate">legal challenges</a> that could prevent the policy from going into effect. Having used politics, culture, and public health infrastructure to get buy-in from Puerto Rico’s population, the island’s government has faced no such challenges.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uiluyI">
|
|||
|
|
Getting three-fourths of its population vaccinated took time and groundwork, meaning other states and territories may not be able to directly emulate its strategy. The previous presidential administration didn’t prioritize science over politics, and it is too late to go back and change that. Had the Trump administration made choices as those in Puerto Rico did, there might not have been such resistance to vaccination. It’s not too late to apply lessons to the future, however: States and the federal government can make greater investments in public health infrastructure and can continue to work to make it easy to access vaccines.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JXqHyS">
|
|||
|
|
“Let the scientists lead public health policy. And once this is over, we can continue discussing politics,” Rodríguez-Orengo said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Licorice Pizza proves Paul Thomas Anderson is a master of unexpected romance</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A young woman stands in the foreground wearing a T-shirt that reads “You’ve Come a Long Way,
|
|||
|
|
Baby.” In the background a teenage boy watches her." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/rhQdSv6HTegtkPGChhVNtYb5Vcg=/0x0:3332x2499/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70194741/licorice2.0.jpeg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman in <em>Licorice Pizza.</em> | Courtesy of MGM
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
There’s more to it than swoony love in his films — including this one.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sRfCUe">
|
|||
|
|
Memorable images abound in Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies — frogs dropping from the sky in <em>Magnolia</em>, Adam Sandler stockpiling pudding cups in <em>Punch-Drunk Love</em>, Bradley Cooper yelling in his latest, <em>Licorice Pizza</em> — but the scenes that stick with me most crackle with electric connection between two weirdos who’ve spotted, at last, their match.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2fOX23">
|
|||
|
|
Like Emily Watson telling Sandler, ecstatically, that “I want to chew your face, and I want to scoop out your eyes and I want to eat them and chew them and suck on them.” John C. Reilly and Melora Walters in <em>Magnolia </em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0JIohn0pfU">confessing to one another</a> that they’re afraid if the other knows them, they won’t like them. Joaquin Phoenix intently listening as Philip Seymour Hoffman, the leader of a cult in <em>The Master</em>, tells the group that “when we’re in love we experience pleasure, and extreme pain.” A much younger, sweatier Hoffman eyeing new adult film star Mark Wahlberg in <em>Boogie Nights</em> and struggling to contain his desire. Clean-shaven Daniel Day-Lewis watching with hungry eyes as Vicky Krieps makes him a poisonous mushroom omelet in <em>Phantom Thread</em>. Even mustachioed Daniel Day-Lewis in <em>There Will Be Blood </em>hurling bowling balls at his nemesis, Paul Dano, in his absurd private bowling alley, hollering about drinking his milkshake.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SYO65N">
|
|||
|
|
You could cut the tension with a hacksaw in every scene, and dozens of others, and yet you couldn’t easily describe what’s going on. Hate? Lust? Yearning? Envy? Love? The characters don’t know either, but they’ll spend the whole movie trying to figure it out, and so will we.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ghc8OV">
|
|||
|
|
Anderson makes romances, even when they’re not exactly romantic; he’s always looking for what connects two people with a bond that seems etched by fate. There’s always something wild and untamable and unnerving in his pairings. They’re never quite what you expect. They explode the narrow borders we draw around the definition of romance.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YZcy78">
|
|||
|
|
It’s why <em>Licorice Pizza</em>, his latest, feels so assured and confident, so perfectly notched into his filmography. This time the pair at its center is young, though not exactly carefree. Alana Kane (Alana Haim, of the band Haim, who is perfect) is a photo assistant in her mid-20s living in the San Fernando Valley with her parents and older sisters, all of whom have experienced failure to launch. (They’re played by the whole Haim family.) It’s 1971, and everything from the Vietnam War to mounting gasoline shortages looms in the background, but mostly Alana’s just bored.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Young woman side-eyes the
|
|||
|
|
camera from the front seat of a car; there’s a teenager and a kid in her car." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/VxxY2LYSrRYXzjb7iVSfq2JKygc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23040555/licorice6.jpeg"/> <cite>Courtesy of MGM</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Just so bored.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ewwJmj">
|
|||
|
|
Disaffected and having no idea what she wants from life, Alana is drawn into a strange friendship — a romance, kind of — with Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour Hoffman), a teenager who has the world by the tail. Or, at least, he acts like it. He’s an actor who’s booked some mid- level gigs; he talks like he’s 40; he’s always coming up with some new business to run. He, of course, lives with his mother (Mary Elizabeth Ellis).
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w1yjlC">
|
|||
|
|
Gary spots Alana in line on school picture day and asks her out. When she scoffs at the notion — she is, after all, technically an adult, 10 years older than him, and he’s technically a child — he doesn’t give up. Through some conniving on Gary’s part, and surrender to the inevitable and a growing curiosity on Alana’s, they become not a couple, but friends. Gary’s constantly asking Alana for more, with the eagerness only a teenage boy can muster. A master of the devastating eye roll, she looks like she wants to punch him all the time, but she does like his company. Something about hanging out with him and his friends invigorates her and reminds her of … what? She doesn’t even know. But it’s been a long time since she’s smiled.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TXlwX4">
|
|||
|
|
That push and pull between them leads them on all kinds of adventures, backed by the kind of soundtrack you’ve got to dance to and shot with the shaggy, grainy looseness that richly demonstrates Anderson’s ease with films of the era. Gary starts a waterbed company and gets Alana on board (after all, she has a driver’s license). They have a wild night on the town with director Jack Holden (Sean Penn) and daredevil Rex Blau (Tom Waits) in which they realize they’ve got to protect one another. The greatest and most memorable scene happens when they have to bring a waterbed to the home of Jon Peters (a gonzo Bradley Cooper) — who <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Peters">in real life</a> was a film producer, Barbra Streisand’s boyfriend, and the inspiration for the movie <em>Shampoo</em> — and run into hilarious trouble with, well, everything.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zA5h5g">
|
|||
|
|
Strife and frustration with one another drive them apart. But when Alana brushes up against the reality of adulthood while working on the mayoral campaign of the idealistic Joel Wachs (Benny Safdie), it’s clarifying, for both Alana and for the movie. <em>Licorice Pizza</em> (named for a series of record shops in LA at the time) is about a couple of young people who may or may not be <em>in</em> love but certainly love one another. It’s also about how much adulthood sucks, and about a girl who can’t quite bring herself to wade into those waters, not yet.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="In a white tuxedo, Bradley Cooper crouches between two cars,
|
|||
|
|
screaming." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GHe_uRBw1hycez11x55UjXINAmU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23040577/licorice4.jpeg"/> <cite>Courtesy of MGM</cite></figure></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Bradley Cooper as Jon Peters in <em>Licorice Pizza.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d1zAvE">
|
|||
|
|
And it’s all set in a Los Angeles that’s sitting right on a fault line, just a few years after <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/8/20707915/joan-didion-sharon-tate-manson-white-album">the Manson murders famously rocked the city’s glitterati</a> and in the midst of an upheaval in the movie business, which was getting busted open by independent filmmakers. Everything was changing, and not everyone was ready.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VEMdRB">
|
|||
|
|
Anderson has said he based the film on his own memories (though he’s younger than his characters, born in 1970) and on the experiences of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Goetzman">real-life actor Gary Goetzman</a>, who among other things co-founded Playtone with Tom Hanks. You can tell; the film, which is structured as a series of set pieces that Alana and Gary stumble into and out of, is far too strange and specific and sometimes cringey to simply be made up, even by someone with as fertile an imagination as Anderson.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GzWgz7">
|
|||
|
|
But, of course, he’s treading familiar ground. This is a romance. The key ingredients are all there. We’re used to thinking of romance in terms of moony lovey- dovey smooches, longing sighs, stolen glances, maybe passionate romps in the hay. But in Anderson’s vocabulary, the word is more capacious. In his worlds, a romance springs up between two people who cross one another’s eyeline and instantly recognize that something they’re missing, something they need to survive — a comforter, a cheerleader, a lover, a nemesis — is right in front of them.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dfKQs5">
|
|||
|
|
Those are never uncomplicated romances, and they’re always backed, not (always) by sex, but by the desire to keep the thread that ties one to the other intact. In his past films, some manifest as outright antagonism — you’re never quite sure if Daniel and Eli or Freddie and Dodd will kiss or kill one another. Others come in terms that are sweeter, but always laced with danger; a mushroom omelet is never just a mushroom omelet.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u28jUF">
|
|||
|
|
In the case of <em>Licorice Pizza</em>, the central (and fundamentally goofily chaste) romance is about feeling safe in the middle of a world that seems to be barreling downhill backward into madness. It’s about knowing someone really sees you and likes you, even loves you, anyhow.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wLhEG3">
|
|||
|
|
Licorice Pizza <em>opens in limited theaters on November 26 and widely on December 22.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>In Sondheim’s Assassins, cornball Americana can’t cover a seething mass of violent rage</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A man in a suit is dancing in front of a trio of musicians. The musicians are wearing prison-
|
|||
|
|
style jumpsuits in red, white, and blue. The dancing man in the suit is smiling hugely but his eyes are panicked." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1cHLEscMBaaLXU6fhEr6OcWk0M0=/414x0:5578x3873/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70194660/211111_CSC_Assasins_563.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Will Swenson (center) as Charles Guiteau in Classic Stage Company’s <em>Assassins</em>, with Brad Giovanine, Rob Morrison, and Katrina Yaukey. | Courtesy of Julieta Cervantes
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
A new revival from John Doyle lays bare the country’s dark fairground heart.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="38h6Ij">
|
|||
|
|
“What a wonder is a gun,” a character muses early on in <em>Assassins</em>, now revived in an excellent production at Classic Stage Company. And the second you see a gun point across the stars- and-stripes-painted set, you’re going to think of the last American mass shooting you heard about.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3BPLTh">
|
|||
|
|
Yet despite the repeated image of guns leering out of posters and programs in this show, <em>Assassins</em> is not just about weapons. It’s about what we’ve all been living through over the past year, the past two years, the past five years, and what it’s brought out in the country. It’s about why America seems to love her weapons so.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JlHGcu">
|
|||
|
|
The characters of <em>Assassins</em>, each of whom will eventually attempt to kill a US president, all feel betrayed, forgotten, left behind by those who matter. The Proprietor (Eddie Cooper) of the nightmarish fairground where they meet tells them he has a cure for their problems, and that it is a gun. He also sells the assassins the promise that they are right to feel betrayed. “Everybody’s got the right to be happy,” he sings, counting his cash with a flourish as his customers take turns aiming their new guns. “Everybody’s got the right to their dreams.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TTVwiz">
|
|||
|
|
It’s this dark echo of the Declaration of Independence that keeps winding its way through <em>Assassins</em>’s deceptively cheerful score, before it finally resolves into “Another National Anthem.” We’ve all got the right to the pursuit of happiness. If yours doesn’t succeed, well — who pays?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ekXFV">
|
|||
|
|
Everyone does, answer the assassins. Everyone else in the country.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KMjbgt">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Assassins</em>, with a score by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, has a long and troubled history. It first premiered off-Broadway in 1990 to decidedly mixed reviews, perhaps due in part, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/28/theater/review-theater-
|
|||
|
|
sondheim-and-those-who-would-kill.html?scp=1&sq=&pagewanted=1">the New York Times theorized at the time</a>, to the “relatively jingoistic” Gulf War era, which did not care to see a series of US presidents be shot in effigy. A revival planned for 2001 was rapidly postponed (guess why), and so the show wouldn’t end up making its way to Broadway until 2004, in a production directed by Joe Mantello with Neil Patrick Harris playing the Proprietor’s counterpoint character, the Balladeer.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CkcImT">
|
|||
|
|
The 2004 <em>Assassins</em>, safely distanced from either a popular war or a national tragedy, was a massive critical success, winning five Tonys. The production effectively rehabilitated the show’s reputation from a problem show to one of Sondheim’s most darkly funny and ironic works. (Sondheim <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/look-i-made-a-hat-collected-lyrics-1981-2011-with-attendant-comments-amplifications-
|
|||
|
|
dogmas-harangues-digressions-anecdotes-and-mi/9780307593412">has said</a> he considers it to be “perfect.”)
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G4JFp3">
|
|||
|
|
In our own moment, which seems to offer up another national tragedy every month, <em>Assassins</em> feels less funny and more like a dark confirmation of what you already feared might be true. It’s like an insight into the worst part of our national character that wouldn’t become unavoidably clear until 30 years after it was written.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SaoLyf">
|
|||
|
|
If ever there was a director who should be a perfect match for <em>Assassins</em>, it’s Sondheim vet John Doyle, who takes the reins at Classic Stage Company. Starting with his <a href="https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/theater/reviews/14970/"><em>Sweeney Todd</em> revival in 2004</a>, Doyle popularized the stripped-down approach to musical theater: small casts, minimal sets, actors playing their own instruments. And <em>Assassins</em>, whose chronology spans John Wilkes Booth shooting Lincoln in 1865 and Samuel Byck stalking Nixon in 1974, with all of the main players mingling across the centuries on that nightmarish fairground, benefits from an approach so stark you can see its bones.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qKd6WN">
|
|||
|
|
With Doyle’s sparse arrangements, we can hear more strongly than ever how false the countermelody to the other national anthem rings. That countermelody is provided by the folksy Balladeer (Ethan Slater), who strums his guitar with an unnervingly placid smile and serves as a narrator of sorts for long stretches of the show. He’s selling us the twangy, jingoistic legend of America. “I just heard, on the news, how the mailman won the lottery!” he sings. “Goes to show, when you lose, what you do is try again.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uGaWER">
|
|||
|
|
While the Balladeer allows to the audience that “every now and then the country goes a little wrong” and that a madman or two, or nine, might happen to come along with a gun, he assures us that we have nothing to worry about in the long run. “Doesn’t stop the story,” he croons. “Story’s pretty strong.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AZANk8">
|
|||
|
|
Which story do you think is stronger, <em>Assassins</em> asks, the Balladeer’s song or the Proprietor’s? The story that tells you this is a country where dreams come true or the story that tells you if your dream has failed, you are owed retribution? Is there really a difference?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bjb9Ch">
|
|||
|
|
Still, there are times when Doyle’s strategy is sometimes more stark than is helpful. On the long barren stage, jutting into the audience and exposed on three sides, the actors seem adrift in time and space. In the dialogue scenes they struggle to land Weidman’s spiky, jagged-toothed jokes: there’s nowhere to ground the punchlines.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1DBnYr">
|
|||
|
|
Sondheim’s score is so sleek and insinuating that it by and large protects the songs from a similar fate, but even there, at certain moments, the tone is distorted. Giuseppe Zangara, the hapless Italian immigrant who tried and failed to assassinate FDR, gets a comic number in jokey stage dialect about how he was driven to assassination by stomach pains. It’s a funny song, it traditionally gets a laugh, and then Zangara traditionally interrupts the audience’s laughter with a chilling, vengeful howl: “<em>No laugh</em>! No funny.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z8kOcl">
|
|||
|
|
The idea is that the joke and its destabilization together teach the audience how to watch this pitch-black show and its rage and its irony; how we will rarely sympathize with the assassins, but we must always take them seriously. But when I saw Doyle’s production, when Zangara (Wesley Taylor, nicely put-upon) shouted, “No laugh!,” he shouted into dead silence. The whole thing felt so solemn that the audience would never have dreamed of laughing in the first place.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yfp9fM">
|
|||
|
|
Still, that empty stage does give the performers space to shoot out pulses of discordant, malevolent energy into the audience. Making the most of it, Adam Chanler-Berat resists the urge to be charming and goes inward, and incel, instead as John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot Reagan because he was obsessed with Jodie Foster. Will Swenson jolts the whole audience upright as oily, aggrandizing Charles Guiteau (who killed James Garfield), with a fake smug smile fixed permanently below his wide and frantic eyes.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4uBWRb">
|
|||
|
|
Most unsettling of all is Steven Pasquale’s John Wilkes Booth, the first American presidential assassin, who sweeps onto the stage in a rustle of silk and menace, with unmistakable intent. The other assassins sometimes seem to lash out at random, but Booth knows exactly what he’s doing, and he leads the rest of them along by his example. So strong is his conviction that he even gets the Balladeer to strum along to his sweet-toned ode to the Old South — right up to the point that it devolves into a snarl of racial slurs.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3SAB5Z">
|
|||
|
|
Doyle’s somberness helps suit this <em>Assassins</em> to our own dark days. He rarely stoops to hokey literalism, but it is still impossible to watch this production and not think about the anti-lockdown rallies, the anti-mask rallies, the anti-vax rallies, the election rallies; how they can become riots.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N3NiCA">
|
|||
|
|
As the assassins form their final tableau, they strap Covid-19 masks across their noses and mouths, printed with the American flag. In the background, on the same screen where we just saw Jackie Kennedy fling herself away from a just-shot JFK, footage of the January 6 Capitol riot flickers. One last final scream of rage from the part of the country we try to drown out with our ballads.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ni1xyh">
|
|||
|
|
“They may not want to hear it,” the assassins tell us, “but they listen, once they think it’s gonna stop the game.” Walk out of the theater and try to stop listening.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Wankhede Stadium to have spectators for 2nd India-NZ Test but at limited capacity</strong> - A Mumbai Cricket Association official said they would try to get the limit increased from 25% to 50%</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>P.V. Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag lose in semifinals of Indonesia Open</strong> - Indian campaign ends at $850,000 Indonesia Open</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ICC calls off Women’s World Cup Qualifier after new COVID-19 variant emerges</strong> - Travel restrictions have been introduced from a number of African countries after detection of the new variant in South Africa</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vaughan says he is sorry for pain felt by former team-mate Azeem Rafiq</strong> - The BBC on Wednesday said Vaughan will play no part in their coverage of the upcoming Ashes series after being named in the racism controversy involving Rafiq</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rahul Dravid: The silent fulcrum around which Indian cricket is set to pivot</strong> - Rahul Dravid brings valuable qualities to the coach’s job — rigour, adaptability, an eye for the big picture, an appetite for the small details, and a complete lack of bombast. He will need them, for the challenge he faces is stiff — add to the country’s trophy cabinet while navigating a transition</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>JD(S) leader to join Cong.</strong> - Janata Dal (Secular) State vice-president H.H. Devaraj has announced that he would quit the party and join the Congress. “I am quitting the JD(S), una</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>BSY appeal to party workers</strong> - Former Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa has appealed to BJP workers to make use of the MLC polls as an occasion to strengthen the party for the coming T</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Land acquisition issue threatens to derail rail terminal project</strong> - State Govt. yet to act despite reminders from rly. authorities</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>State to move SC against RBI</strong> - Regulations imposed on cooperative bodies by the central bank</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Supplyco mobile outlets to tour districts</strong> - As part of market intervention programmes to arrest price rise</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid: Dozens test positive on SA-Netherlands flights</strong> - The results are being examined for cases of the new Omicron variant emerging in southern Africa.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid: Swiss vote on ending restrictions while cases surge</strong> - Sunday’s referendum is held in a country with one of the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Channel migrants: Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson clash over crisis</strong> - The French president accuses the UK prime minister of not being serious as diplomatic row escalates.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine-Russia conflict: Zelensky alleges coup plan involving Russians</strong> - He says an alleged plan to overthrow his government comes amid threats of a Russian invasion.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russian coal mine: Dozens killed in Siberia accident</strong> - Fifty-one deaths have been confirmed in Russia’s worst mining disaster in a decade.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It’s time to fear the fungi</strong> - Humans have long been protected from fungal infections. Climate change could ruin that. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1815664">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>All the best Black Friday 2021 deals we can find [Updated]</strong> - We’ve cut through the Black Friday noise to find the deals worth your time. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1815967">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>David Tennant makes a dashing Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days preview</strong> - It’s the latest adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic 1873 adventure novel - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1816190">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>All the best Black Friday 2021 video game deals we can find, in one place [Updated]</strong> - Truckloads of Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC games are on sale today. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1814874">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The best smartwatches and fitness tracker deals for Black Friday [Updated]</strong> - Many of our top wearable picks are seeing strong discounts this week. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1815101">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Donald Trump is in Berlin for his first state visit with Angela Merkel. Trump quickly asks what the secret of her great success is.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Merkel tells him you just have to have a lot of intelligent people around you.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“How do you know so quickly if someone is intelligent?” asks Trump.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Let me demonstrate.” She picks up the phone, calls Wolfgang Schäuble and asks him a question, “Mr. Schäuble, it’s your father’s son, but is not your brother. Who is it?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Without hesitation, Schäuble answers, “Quite simply, it’s me!” “You see,” Merkel tells Trump, “this is how I test people’s intelligence.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Thrilled, Trump flies home, immediately calling his running mate, Mike Pence, to ask him the same question. “It’s your father’s son, but is not your brother. Who is it?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
After much back and forth, Pence says, “I have no idea, but I will try to find out the answer by tomorrow!” Pence just can’t figure it out and decides to seek advice from former President Obama. He calls him, “Mr. Obama, it’s your father’s son, but is not your brother. Who is it?” he asks Obama. “Easy, it’s me!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Happy to have found the answer, Pence calls Trump and says triumphantly, “I have the answer, it’s Barack Obama!” Trump rages and says, “No you jackass, it’s Wolfgang Schäuble!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TonyLeung82"> /u/TonyLeung82 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r2yly1/donald_trump_is_in_berlin_for_his_first_state/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r2yly1/donald_trump_is_in_berlin_for_his_first_state/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>An Englishman, a Frenchman, a ravishing blonde and a homely brunette…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
..are sharing a compartment on a train as it winds its way through the Alps. Every now and then the train passes through a tunnel, during which time the compartment is plunged into complete darkness. On one such occasion, a ringing slap is heard and as the train passes back into daylight, the Frenchman is rubbing his sore, red cheek.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The brunette thinks ‘I bet that dirty Frenchman fondled the blonde and she struck the pervert.’
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The blonde thinks ‘I bet that filthy Frenchman was looking to grope me in the dark, mistook the dowdy brunette for me and she slapped the beast.’
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The Frenchman thinks ‘I bet that perfidious Englishman touched up the blonde in the dark and she slapped me by mistake.’
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The Englishman thinks ‘I can’t wait for another tunnel so I can slap that French twat again.’
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/revolut1onname"> /u/revolut1onname </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r3apd0/an_englishman_a_frenchman_a_ravishing_blonde_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r3apd0/an_englishman_a_frenchman_a_ravishing_blonde_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A group of engineering professors were invited to fly a plane</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Right after they were comfortably seated, they were informed the plane was built by their students.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
All but one got off their seats and headed frantically to the exits in maniacal panic.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The one lone professor that stayed put, calmly in his seat, was asked: “Why did you stay put?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“I have plenty of confidence in my students. Knowing them, I for a fact can assure you this piece of shit plane will never even start”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/daydreaming17"> /u/daydreaming17 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r2rp91/a_group_of_engineering_professors_were_invited_to/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r2rp91/a_group_of_engineering_professors_were_invited_to/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A man wants to deposit money at a Swiss bank.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“How much do you want to deposit?” asks the bank employee.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Whispers the man, “Three million.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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“You can speak up,” says the bank clerk. “In Switzerland, poverty is not a disgrace.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TonyLeung82"> /u/TonyLeung82 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r2uagb/a_man_wants_to_deposit_money_at_a_swiss_bank/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r2uagb/a_man_wants_to_deposit_money_at_a_swiss_bank/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>My wife asked me to go get 6 cans of Sprite from the grocery store. I realized when I got home that…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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I had picked 7 up!
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Fairwaydivots"> /u/Fairwaydivots </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r3bo54/my_wife_asked_me_to_go_get_6_cans_of_sprite_from/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/r3bo54/my_wife_asked_me_to_go_get_6_cans_of_sprite_from/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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