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423 lines
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>20 January, 2024</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>The Anxious Precision of Jacqueline Novak’s Comedy</strong> - “Get on Your Knees,” her new Netflix special, is a ninety-minute reflection on the blow job. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/jacqueline-novak-profile">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Drug-Decriminalization Fight Erupts in Oregon</strong> - An ambitious law set forth a more humane way to address addiction. Then came the backlash. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/a-new-drug-war-in-oregon">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Birth of My Daughter, the Death of My Marriage</strong> - Now that I was doing little besides keeping this tiny creature alive, it was impossible to ignore my desire to wander the streets with our baby, in ever-widening loops away from home. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/the-birth-of-my-daughter-the-death-of-my-marriage">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Price of Netanyahu’s Ambition</strong> - Amid war with Hamas, a hostage crisis, the devastation of Gaza, and Israel’s splintering identity, the Prime Minister seems unable to distinguish between his own interests and his country’s. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/benjamin-netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-war-hostages">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Ten Middle East Conflicts Are Converging Into One Big War</strong> - The U.S. is enmeshed in wars among disparate players in Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-ten-middle-east-conflicts-are-converging-into-one-big-war">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 to be alone with your thoughts</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="An illustration of a woman with brown hair wearing a red shirt and gray pants sitting on the floor in front of a window with her dog curled next to her. They sit on a green striped rug. Sun pours in from the window." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3x9f2ujfvooUUtG7whJrZGlixdU=/164x0:4733x3427/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73071091/GettyImages_1264127389.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Getty Images/fStop
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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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Spend some time with your inner monologue (and actually enjoy it).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DeAy2U">
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Sitting in silence is, for some, an experience more dreadful than physical pain. One <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1250830">oft-cited study</a> from 2014 found that many people would rather give themselves electric shocks than spend just a few minutes alone with their thoughts. So don’t be ashamed if you’d rather listen to a podcast while you shower than bathe with nothing but the dull thrum of water on tile — when so much entertainment is readily available at all times, why wouldn’t you take advantage? With few moments of silence in your routine, you become less practiced at sitting with your thoughts.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qENQBY">
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One reason people find spending spending quality time with their inner monologue so wildly unpleasant is that, left to your own devices, every embarrassing memory, every argument, every sad recollection can come flooding back, effectively derailing what was supposed to be a moment of peace. But while people often dread, and therefore avoid, mining their minds, they can find the actual experience enjoyable in practice, says <a href="https://www.thuyvytnguyen.com/">Thuy-vy Nguyen</a>, an associate professor at Durham University and principal investigator of the <a href="https://www.solitude-lab.com/">Solitude Lab</a>, where researchers study the effects and experiences of both lifelong and spontaneous alone time. Thinking about people and memories that are meaningful to us is more enjoyable than other pursuits we regularly engage in during downtime, like playing video games, checking social media, or texting, according to a <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/emo-emo0001029.pdf">2022 study</a>.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<div id="VjydQG">
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MAgJk4">
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Harnessing the power of silence can have profound benefits. Left to work without distractions, our minds can dream up imaginative musings, solve problems, and create — as well as allow us to savor pleasant memories, set goals, reflect on our lives, and build excitement for the future, says <a href="https://www.ethankross.com/">Ethan Kross</a>, a professor at the University of Michigan and author of <a href="https://www.ethankross.com/chatter/"><em>Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It</em></a>. “You’ve got to give yourself space to have those kinds of insights,” he says.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rCqzhR">
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So how can we disconnect from the noise and tap into positive and inspired thinking? In short, structure your time strategically, avoid tempting distractions, and know how to cope when troubling thoughts arise.
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</p>
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<h3 id="DEPivg">
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Make a plan for your thinking time
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R4sPgd">
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<a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/emo-emo0001029.pdf">People often grab their phones</a> during unstructured downtime, a habit that neither enriches our lives nor is too detrimental — it simply cures boredom, Nguyen says. Being intentional with how you’ll spend your free time alone with your thoughts can help make the process easier and more enjoyable. Researchers refer to this practice as “<a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/emo-emo0001029.pdf">intentional thinking for pleasure</a>,” as opposed to daydreaming or mind wandering, which often occurs unintentionally when you’re attempting other tasks.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z39w0Z">
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Turn off notifications on your phone or stow it in another room for 15 to 20 minutes to create space for thinking, Kross suggests. <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/105112">Apple</a> and <a href="https://support.google.com/android/answer/9069335?hl=en">Android</a> offer Do Not Disturb modes that easily make your phone distraction-free. Maintain a list of topics you want to explore, like your upcoming wedding day or what your life would be like if you lived in Paris; this helps keep your thinking on track, <a href="https://www.erinwestgate.com/uploads/7/6/4/1/7641726/westgatewilsongilbert.emotion.pdf">according to research</a>, and gives you something to return to should your mind wander toward less pleasant thoughts. For example, <a href="https://gloriamark.com/">Gloria Mark</a>, a professor emerita in the department of informatics at the University of California Irvine and author of <a href="https://gloriamark.com/attention-span/"><em>Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity</em></a>, reflects on three positive things from the day before bed each night. When the topics of thought are more personally meaningful and positive, people find the practice more enjoyable, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33661664/">studies show</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xGXWt0">
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Kross is a proponent of using time he already allots in his schedule to specific activities, like running or cycling, to think of creative solutions to research or writing blocks. “I’ll just activate what the issue is that I want to work through, and then I go on the treadmill,” he says, “and inevitably, my mind starts working, coming up with all sorts of solutions. I have lots of insights that way.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5iOLaP">
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Other activities conducive to thinking include a walk outside (research has found <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2014/04/24/walking-vs-sitting-042414/">walking to improve creativity</a>) and other undertakings that don’t involve much attention, like bathing, driving a familiar route, or folding laundry, Mark says.
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</p>
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<h3 id="SR8Vaj">
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Embrace negative thoughts as they come
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ETlwMe">
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Now for the unfortunate truth: A product of sitting with your thoughts is facing negative ones head-on. No one is immune to worry or embarrassment. Some negative thoughts may be fleeting, like a memory of a joke that didn’t land in a meeting. This is where a list of thinking topics can come in handy, Mark says, so you can return to the items you want to mull over. “It’s pretty easy [for me] to manage getting rid of that negative thought,” she says, “because I had this goal of moving on to get to these three positive things.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Olwxjo">
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But some negative thoughts are more persistent and require assessment, Kross says. For these more profound instances, try to think objectively about the issue at hand — say, improving communication with your partner if you keep circling back to a recent fight — to determine why you encountered the issue and to find a meaningful way forward. Or take the conversation out of your head and into the real world with an adviser, like a therapist or impartial friend. Mark uses negative thoughts as a learning opportunity: How can you grow from the negative experience you’re thinking about?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jNplFv">
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Keep in mind that if you’re constantly mulling over the same issues, getting stuck in the emotions of the experience without finding solutions, you may be <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/rumination-a-cycle-of-negative-thinking">ruminating</a>. Rumination is repetitive thinking of negative emotions or experiences. Those who ruminate may not be able to process emotions effectively and may have increased anxiety and depression.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gCbH2h">
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“Rather than coming up with a solution, you instead start spinning, rehearsing the emotional elements of those experiences over and over again in ways that can be really debilitating,” Kross says. “Rumination can lead to problems in your ability to think and perform, problems in your relationships, and it can also undermine your physical and <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health">mental health</a>.” Try to look at the memory from an outsider’s perspective so you’re less likely to become immersed in the emotions, he suggests.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8xRz4F">
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You don’t have to sit with negative feelings, either, Nguyen says. You want your solo time to be one of enjoyment and not despair. Switch to an activity you enjoy doing, like listening to music, reading, exercise, or gardening, to shift gears.
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</p>
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<h3 id="5nxGj2">
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Start small and keep practicing alone time with your thoughts
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w4K6jN">
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As with any skill, the more time you dedicate to solitary thinking, the easier it becomes, Nguyen says. Begin with a few minutes alone with your thoughts each day and build up as you feel comfortable. Maybe you’ll come to an epiphany in the shower or while on a walk. These aha moments don’t simply materialize out of thin air — we have to give our minds space to wander.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c4Izt7">
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If your goal is to maximize your thinking power, you have to be intentional with your time. Instead of reflexively reaching for your phone during a break at work, see what happens when your mind is left to its own devices. Try thinking through ways out of an interpersonal conundrum or imagining the perfect vacation. It can be just as entertaining as whatever’s happening on TikTok today.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VZAlEB">
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“You can be more deliberate,” Kross says, “about giving yourself opportunities to have those experiences more regularly.”
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>The GOP is moderating — and coming unhinged</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="House Speaker Mike Johnson Holds News Conference On Capitol Hill" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MLv-zroo_VjyvOa0BNcKLYQNQaY=/334x0:5667x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73071027/1932863230.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Photo by Kent Nishimura/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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While a far-right movement sows chaos in the House, a seemingly normal pro-business party is cutting deals in the Senate.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zD5RL8">
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Last week, House Republicans once again struggled to meet the most basic obligation of a governing party as roughly half its members effectively voted to force a government shutdown.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XHVkkd">
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This was only the latest chapter in <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a>’s long, strange quest to pass a budget for 2024.<strong> </strong>Eight months ago, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/debt-ceiling-deal-explained.html">cut a deal</a> with <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a> over this year’s spending bill. Before that agreement, McCarthy and his caucus had held the nation’s economic health hostage, threatening to force the United States into a debt default — a course of action that could trigger a global financial crisis — unless the Democratic president <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/debt-ceiling-extortion-historical-republican-congress-hostage-default-threat-kevin-mccarthy.html">acquiesced to conservative policy goals</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="txmTtB">
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Nevertheless, when Biden made it clear that he would not be coerced into repealing his own climate and student debt policies, McCarthy accepted a relatively ordinary fiscal compromise.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lfTs1I">
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This cost McCarthy his job. In order to secure election as speaker in the first place, McCarthy had needed to appease the far-right flank of his party’s narrow House majority. He did this by, among other things, giving conservative hardliners the power to vote him out of his leadership position at any time. Still smarting over McCarthy’s traitorous openness to legislative compromise, the hardliners <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/4/23903781/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-house-chaos-questions-answered">ousted the speaker in October</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dquzGi">
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The party’s new leader, <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/29/23935362/mike-johnson-house-speaker-ukraine-israel-immigration">Mike Johnson</a>, himself extremely right-wing, is a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus. Unfortunately for his right-wing comrades, however, Johnson is also capable of understanding that his party does not control the White House or Senate and must therefore compromise with Democrats in order to pass legislation. Thus, earlier this month, Johnson <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/12/politics/speaker-mike-johnson-topline-spending-deal/index.html">reached a budget deal </a>with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that closely resembled McCarthy’s agreement with Biden from last year. Yet Johnson’s House allies in the Freedom Caucus still feel entitled to dictate terms to Democrats, so they have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/us/politics/house-republicans-johnson-deal-shutdown.html">denounced</a> the new agreement for its excessive social spending and lack of <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/18/disappointed-and-upset-conservatives-bemoan-lack-of-anti-abortion-win-in-funding-fight-00136235">anti-abortion provisions</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1Vi4fw">
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Now, nearly one year after the initial deal between House Republicans and the president, McCarthy is out of Congress, and Congress still hasn’t passed a budget for 2024.
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Instead, lawmakers have been keeping the government running through a series of temporary emergency spending bills, the latest of which was set to expire on January 19. This week, Congress scrambled to extend temporary funding through March and finally got a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-government-shutdown-stopgap-bill/">continuing resolution</a> to Biden’s desk on Thursday night, January 18. But the House’s GOP majority proved incapable of keeping the government open on its own. While 107 House Republicans voted to pass the continuing resolution, 106 voted against it. If House Democrats had not been largely unified behind the legislation, Johnson’s caucus could have forced a government shutdown.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VvTWft">
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And yet, even as the House GOP was struggling to execute the rudimentary task of keeping Uncle Sam’s lights on, their co-partisans in the Senate spent the week crafting <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/1/16/24035922/child-tax-credit-wyden-smith-deal#:~:text=How%20big%20a%20deal%20is,a%20year%20out%20of%20poverty.">a bipartisan plan</a> for reducing child poverty in the United States.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bZhKwY">
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This jarring split screen — in which Republicans look like anarchic extremists in one picture and constructive partners for important legislative reforms in the other — is actually quite typical of today’s GOP. Senate Republicans have been far more open to bipartisan cooperation in the Biden era than they were in the Obama years, even as their party’s presidential frontrunner and House hardliners remain as radical and reckless as they’ve ever been.
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In the Biden era, the Senate GOP has been doing its best impression of a normal center-right party
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On Tuesday, Republican Senator Jason Smith <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/1/16/24035922/child-tax-credit-wyden-smith-deal">announced</a> that he and his Democratic colleague Ron Wyden had struck a deal on tax policy: Democrats had agreed to support more favorable tax treatment for corporate spending on research and development, among other business tax breaks, in exchange for the GOP’s backing of an expansion in the child tax credit for poor and working-class families.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="meL4lA">
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The details of these policies are deeply technical. But the upshot is that the changes to the child tax credit will primarily benefit families earning between $10,000 and $50,000 a year, with the average benefiting household securing $1,130 in additional annual income from the change, according to the <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/model-estimates/options-modify-refundability-child-tax-credit-november-2023/t23-0095-increase-ctc">Tax Policy Center</a>. Altogether, the expanded benefits are sizable enough to pull 400,000 children above the poverty line and increase the household incomes of 3 million more, according to the <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/about-16-million-children-in-low-income-families-would-gain-in-first-year-of-0">Center on Budget and Policy Priorities</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GMG9z1">
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What’s more, some of the business tax breaks are defensible on the merits. For instance, the bill would enable firms to immediately deduct from their taxable income any investments they make into research and development. Before <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> took office, businesses already enjoyed such a deduction. But the Trump tax cuts scrapped that benefit in order to generate revenue for across-the-board corporate tax breaks. Giving companies a financial incentive to invest in R&D for new technologies — instead of merely accumulating cash or paying it out to shareholders — may be socially beneficial, especially at a time when innovation in the energy sector <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/climate-biden-green-tech-innovation.html">is an environmental imperative</a>. The bill pays for these changes by rolling back the now-obsolete Employee Retention Credit, which encouraged businesses to keep their workers on staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xpak8H">
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In other words: Republicans agitated for one of corporate America’s more reasonable requests while acquiescing to an expansion in pro-family social welfare policies.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v6DcOB">
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This is the sort of thing that one would expect from a healthy center-right party. And the tax deal is not wholly an aberration for the Biden-era GOP.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8FGD2i">
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In marked contrast to his <a href="https://swampland.time.com/2012/08/23/the-party-of-no-new-details-on-the-gop-plot-to-obstruct-obama/">conduct</a> during Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House, Mitch McConnell has not reflexively obstructed Biden’s every legislative ambition. Instead, the Senate minority leader has facilitated the passage of bipartisan bills increasing federal investment in <a href="https://www.vox.com/22770447/infrastructure-bill-democrats-biden-water-broadband-roads-buses">infrastructure</a>, <a href="https://new.nsf.gov/chips#:~:text=About%20the%20%22CHIPS%20and%20Science%20Act%22&text=On%20August%209%2C%202022%2C%20President,use%2Dinspired%2C%20translational%20research.">scientific research</a>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/7/27/23277664/chips-act-solve-chip-shortage-biden-manufacturing'">domestic semiconductor production</a>. He also <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/2/23488517/same-sex-marriage-bill-respect-for-marriage">allowed the enactment</a> of federal legislation effectively codifying equal <a href="https://www.vox.com/marriage-equality">marriage rights</a> for same-sex couples.
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6TI4Y">
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The Biden-era GOP therefore has two distinct faces. Seen from the Senate, it can look like a relatively ordinary (if unusually conservative) pro-business party in a Western democracy. This GOP has sheepishly retreated from its Obama-era contempt for the necessity of compromise under divided government, having decided that forcing government shutdowns is bad politics and that securing incremental legislative gains through bipartisan horse-trading is good policy.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3pYQJY">
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This wing of the Republican Party still offends the moral sensibilities of any liberal. Its members are still committed to redistributing income and power away from workers and toward bosses. And their brand of social conservatism remains exceptionally reactionary, while their approach to <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a> would only accelerate ecological decline. But the party nevertheless evinces an interest in sustaining democratic governance through its upholding of election results and sharing of power with co-equal branches of government controlled by its rivals.
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BPN2XT">
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Of course, if you look to the GOP’s caucus in the House or the candidate winning its presidential primary, the party will seem like an authoritarian personality cult too suffused with rage and nihilism to fulfill its most basic civic obligations.
|
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|
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</p>
|
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<h3 id="2VS9f2">
|
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|
|
Why today’s Republican Party looks reckless in one moment and weirdly responsible in the next<strong> </strong>
|
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</h3>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ed9SE0">
|
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The causes of this duality aren’t mysterious: Different factions of the GOP serve different interests. McConnell’s wing is aligned with both big and small business. The Chamber of Commerce’s agenda is focused on the short term and often cruel, favoring tax breaks for the rich <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/health-care/us-chamber-supports-american-health-care-act">over maintaining health insurance for working poor Americans</a>. But it is nevertheless an agenda. The nation’s business owners and shareholders have things they want to get out of public policy, and they have an interest in political stability. They are therefore served by pragmatic legislative compromise and the upholding of liberal democratic norms.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OKGBmk">
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|
But many in the House Freedom Caucus are either too reactionary or too nihilistic to have use for such things. These Republicans’ first loyalty is to either their own radical ideology, the conservative infotainment complex, or both. Such right-wingers often believe — or pretend to believe — that the Democratic Party has no legitimate claim to power (due to its reliance on the votes of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-worst-attack-our-democracy-160-years-how-about-immigration-act-1965">immigrants</a> and/or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/upshot/wisconsin-republicans-rural-urban-voters.html">city slickers</a>), that the nation’s culture and moral character are in catastrophic decline, that true patriots are at risk of irrevocably losing their country, and that the Republican leadership has enabled red America’s dispossession through its perennial refusal to truly fight.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ioiUoc">
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|
Conservative media reflects and cultivates this paranoid and protoauthoritarian worldview. Right-wing entertainers have long recognized that fear and outrage drive viewership. They also long ago ascertained the appeal of morality plays in which a small band of true conservatives struggles against a Republican leadership too craven or cowardly to stick up for “real” Americans. Encouraging brinksmanship and legislative dysfunction may not be a sound way of obtaining conservative reforms, but the primary aim of <a href="https://www.vox.com/media">Fox News</a> et al is generating ratings, not achieving policy goals.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fEsxNi">
|
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|
|
Some Republican lawmakers, reared on right-wing agitprop, sincerely believe themselves to be in an epochal struggle with an essentially evil adversary. But it’s likely that others simply see more to gain from performing for the Fox News faithful than from carrying water for the GOP leadership. Why seek coveted committee assignments through quiet service to the party when you can earn a national following through anti-establishment theatrics?
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a6rAOb">
|
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|
|
Giving yourself a starring role in a headline-generating legislative fiasco can bring attention to your social media feeds, which can then be monetized via appeals to small-dollar donors or else a future career hawking paranoid rage, gold bars, and supplements. Matt Gaetz boasts little affection from his party’s congressional leadership (indeed, at least one of his colleagues has tried to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/matt-gaetz-is-miraculously-more-hated-than-ever-in-congress">physically attack</a> him in recent months, while others decry him as “diabolical”). But his <a href="https://twitter.com/mattgaetz">2.4 million-strong X following</a> may ultimately be more valuable than the admiration of his peers.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CfOd58">
|
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|
|
Donald Trump did not need to pander to conservative media devotees to gain fame and fortune. But his insatiable appetite for attention and adoration (combined with his own Fox News obsession) gave him many of the same incentives as far-right House backbenchers. Throughout his 2016 campaign and ensuing presidency, Trump often concerned himself less with advancing policy than with giving voice to right-wing America’s id.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Ig1lU">
|
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|
|
The GOP’s more staid wing is complicit in the extremism and nihilism of its more radical faction. To build a majority coalition for their plutocratic agenda, business Republicans <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/07/republican-party-uses-populist-politics-advance-plutocratic-policy/">cultivated</a> the resentments and anxieties of white conservative Christians and abetted the rise of conservative media. The latter’s propaganda was supposed to be a means to the ends of legislative action. Now, many Republicans — including the party’s likely 2024 standard-bearer — see legislative action as a means to the ends of propaganda.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2xeFC4">
|
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|
|
Whether due to the shock of January 6 or personal affection for their former Senate colleague in the White House, Senate Republicans have proven more amenable to compromise during the Biden era than they were under Barack Obama. Yet almost all of the party’s senators are nevertheless prepared to support Trump over Biden this November. So long as the GOP’s most functional faction remains more enamored of power than alarmed by its co-partisans’ illiberal extremism, the party’s truest face will be its ugliest.
|
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|
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</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>The Iran-Pakistan strikes aren’t about Gaza. They’re still alarming.</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Protesters with banners and signs stand in the street, surrounded by smoke and with fire on the road in the foreground." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4bAPHrlvN8ff-1v1tnWwM8PRWb4=/336x0:5701x4024/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73070076/1936881658.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadees Pakistan activists protest in Lahore on January 19, 2024, after Iran launched an airstrike in Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province. | Arif Ali/AFP via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Iran’s complicated calculus in attacking Pakistan.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DYoWff">
|
|||
|
|
Iran and Pakistan traded missile attacks over the past week, supposedly as part of each nation’s efforts to disrupt violence by ethnic separatist groups. The strikes arrived against a backdrop of spiraling conflict in the Middle East, meaning any further violence could risk expanding that fighting.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x3yWS8">
|
|||
|
|
To be clear, there’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/world/middleeast/iran-missile-program.html">no specific, concrete tie</a> between Iran’s conflict with Pakistan and the wider conflicts in the Middle East, which include <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a>’s war in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a> as well as a tit-for-tat exchange between the US and Yemeni rebels in the Red Sea. And <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/19/pakistan-to-conduct-national-security-review-amid-standoff-with-iran">both Iran and Pakistan on Friday promised to de-escalate</a>. But it’s hard to ignore this week’s attacks, given the ongoing instability and gradual escalations in conflicts involving Iranian proxy groups.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="emHn4x">
|
|||
|
|
That’s in large part because Iran plays at least some role in all of the conflicts currently underway in the Middle East. Iran has links to <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/10/28/23935157/hezbollah-lebanon-israel-hamas-palestine-gaza-iran-militia-group">Hezbollah in Lebanon</a> as well as <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas in Gaza</a>, both groups fighting Israel. The country has also offered past support to the Houthis in Yemen, the rebels currently <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/1/12/24036205/yemen-houthis-us-airstrikes-red-sea-gaza">disrupting shipping and sparring with the US</a> and its Western allies in the Red Sea. And Iran’s provided backing to smaller militia groups based in Iraq and Syria currently attacking US anti-ISIS coalition positions in those countries.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="38h3cv">
|
|||
|
|
Ultimately, this week’s exchange between Iran and Pakistan has more to do with each country’s internal politics than with Israel’s war in Gaza. It is the continuation of a long-running struggle against an ethnic insurgency that has troubled them both for decades. And Iran’s involvement — particularly its decision to strike Pakistani territory, as well as targets in Iraq and Syria earlier in the week — telegraphs both its battlefield capabilities as well as its anxiety about recent attacks on its own people.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="QiPTX8">
|
|||
|
|
What exactly happened between Pakistan and Iran?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n4P0xY">
|
|||
|
|
Pakistan carried out what the country’s foreign office called “highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes” against Baloch separatists in Saravan, a city in Iran’s southeast about 70 miles from the Iran-Pakistan border. Thursday’s strikes were in apparent retaliation for a surprise Iranian attack on Tuesday in Pakistani territory, against the anti-Iranian Baloch militant group <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-iran-jaish-aladl-group-baluchistan-96a38d02523b508aa24aec11b0425828?user_email=d0ae70922af541a4cf45e48d2575200542345a2aa90b689d43e7a2924e4e3869&utm_medium=Morning_Wire&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_campaign=Morning%20Wire_18%20Jan_2024&utm_term=Morning%20Wire%20Subscribers">Jaish al-Adl</a>, or Army of Justice.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xJckGv">
|
|||
|
|
Pakistan and Iran share a border that cuts through the traditional homeland of the Baloch ethnic minority, a region known as Balochistan. All three of the groups targeted in this week’s strikes — Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan, as well as the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in Iran — are known to carry out violent campaigns against both governments in an effort to secure Baloch autonomy and improved rights and living conditions for the Baloch minority. But there are some important differences between the three groups, as Riccardo Valle, director of research at the Khorasan Diary, told Vox.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W0iVOW">
|
|||
|
|
“BLA and BLF are part of the broader nationalist Baloch insurgency, while Jaish ul Adl is a jihadist organization with a territorial scope limited to Iran in terms of attacks,” he said, using an alternative spelling for Jaish al-Adl. That group is not only nationalistic, but also Sunni — a threat to Iran’s Shia Muslim revolutionary government. While the BLA and BLF wish only to secede from Pakistan and establish an independent Balochistan, “Jaish ul Adl is a Sunni jihadist militant group with a territorial focus which aims at not only gaining independence for Balochistan, but also toppling the Iranian government.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e5x4pS">
|
|||
|
|
Each country has been trying to manage Baloch separatism for decades, but this week’s blow-for-blow strikes are an escalation of past tactics, which occasionally saw cross-border operations — but never something on this scale.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="FLQkXE">
|
|||
|
|
Who are the Baloch people, and why are Iran and Pakistan targeting them?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1ZpBte">
|
|||
|
|
This is <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/iran-warns-islamabad-it-could-strike-militants-inside-pakistan">not the first time</a> that Iran and Pakistan — which typically have fairly friendly relations — <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29752647">have come into conflict over Baloch separatist groups</a>. But it is the most significant and violent clash Iran and Pakistan have had in their efforts to try and contain these groups.
|
|||
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tfr3oN">
|
|||
|
|
The Baloch people are a Sunni Muslim ethnic minority living in a region called Balochistan that encompasses parts of Iran, Pakistan, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>. It’s sparsely populated, largely arid, and because of the comparative lack of development there, it’s also a fairly poor region. And both <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2013/04/11/balochistan-state-versus-nation-pub-51488">Pakistan</a> and <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1083772">Iran</a> have severely <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/iran-hangs-11-baluch-minority-members-in-2-days-rights-group-says/7209118.html">oppressed</a> their Baloch populations, fuelling protests and separatist movements over the decades.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wSJVYj">
|
|||
|
|
Baloch society is organized along tribal lines, and infighting among the Baloch population has contributed somewhat to the group’s lack of political power, as has its <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2016/02/a-brief-history-of-balochistan/">subordination to various empires over the centuries</a>. Baloch <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2013/04/11/balochistan-state-versus-nation-pub-51488">separatist movements have been part of the political fabric of the region for decades</a>, extant in both Pakistan and Iran where about 20 percent of the Baloch population lives (about 70 percent are in Pakistani territory). The increasingly porous and poorly policed border between the two nations has meant that drug trafficking and several different insurgent groups have had the chance to flourish, with Valle particularly noting collaboration between Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which seeks to overthrow the Pakistani government and has launched several deadly attacks there, and Baloch militants.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NA8Mgm">
|
|||
|
|
Jaish al-Adl, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/30/iran-protests-baluchistan-sunni-shiite-sectarian-tensions/">the anti-Iranian Baloch group</a> that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted in Pakistan, is thought to have <a href="https://www.dni.gov/nctc/ftos/jaa_fto.html">emerged from a previous Baloch group, Jundullah,</a> which staged violent attacks on the Iranian government including an assassination attempt against former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in 2003.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xL5HnX">
|
|||
|
|
Iran claims to have killed nine members of the group using drone and missile strikes in Pakistan, close to the Iranian border, where “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/18/which-are-the-armed-groups-iran-and-pakistan-have-bombed-and">the group [had] taken shelter</a>,” according to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. Jaish al-Adl has operated out of Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Balochestan province as well as Pakistan’s border areas over the years in an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/militant-group-pakistan-targeted-by-iranian-strikes-2024-01-17/">attempt to secure better rights and living conditions for Balochs in Iran</a>, as well as ultimately overthrow Iran’s government. Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for an attack at a police station last month in the Iranian city of Rask, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/19/credibility-at-stake-why-did-iran-bomb-pakistan-amid-gaza-war">which killed 11 people</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W0OBt8">
|
|||
|
|
In return, Pakistan targeted the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Balochistan Liberation Front, two groups that attack targets within Pakistan as part of their demands for a separate Baloch state, as well as in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/who-are-pakistan-separatists-behind-attack-chinese-citizens-2022-04-26/">retaliation for what they see as the government’s exploitation</a> of their territory’s mineral wealth and <a href="https://www.vox.com/fossil-fuels">natural gas</a>. Both the BLA and the BLF have attacked <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/who-are-separatists-targeted-by-pakistans-strikes-iran-2024-01-18/">Chinese targets within Pakistan and Balochistan</a>, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a> has invested heavily in projects that run through the province of Balochistan, and that include mining interests, as well as a port and international airport.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="jrclXl">
|
|||
|
|
What political purposes do the military strikes really serve?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KmyASb">
|
|||
|
|
Though concern about the regional implications of the attacks is understandable, they are perhaps more about conditions within Pakistan and Iran than they are about regional tensions. Iran and Pakistan are dealing with internal instability; both countries are facing serious economic challenges, as well as political crises of legitimacy in their respective governments.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GEsNc7">
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In Pakistan, where the upcoming national elections have triggered division and unrest, Iran’s strikes “united an otherwise politically polarized country in anger,” <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/people/madiha-afzal/">Madiha Afzal</a>, a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution who studies Pakistani politics and extremism in South Asia, told Vox. And, given that Pakistan’s foreign ministry “also provided an off-ramp for de-escalation” — critical given Pakistan’s many internal crises — “seems to have satisfied the Pakistani political class and public,” Afzal said.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wZjBdK">
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Though Pakistan had <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-pakistan-baluchistan-strike-tensions-israel-hamas-3eb1bf5c7fd2de54aeec9fadecbc78b6">recalled its ambassador to Tehran</a> — and told Iran’s representative to Pakistan not to return — <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/pakistans-civil-military-leaders-review-iran-standoff-minister-2024-01-19/#:~:text=%22Foreign%20Minister%20Jilani%20expressed%20Pakistan's,closer%20cooperation%20on%20security%20issues.%22">both sides have since signaled a desire to avoid further escalation</a>. Within Pakistan, such measures are ”likely to receive wide approval from a politically divided Pakistan if it succeeds in de-escalation,” Afzal said.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zzNB0D">
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|
Iran’s Tuesday attack seems to have caught Pakistan by surprise, and its reasoning continues to be opaque. Given that, it’s hard to draw hard conclusions about what this week’s attacks mean, or what could come next. But there are a few useful strains of thought around why Iran would attack targets within not just Pakistan, but Iraq and Syria.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FLYZIG">
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Iran’s strikes on Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan, as well as recent attacks on what it said are ISIS-aligned targets in Syria and what it called “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-revolutionary-guards-say-they-have-attacked-espionage-centers-iraqs-erbil-2024-01-15/">one of the main Mossad espionage headquarters</a>” in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil, relate to “Iran’s overall threat perception in the region rising. And at the same time, feeling the need — as a result of domestic and external pressure — to respond,” Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at SWP Berlin, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/19/credibility-at-stake-why-did-iran-bomb-pakistan-amid-ga">told Al Jazeera</a>. Iraqi and Kurdish authorities denied that the building in Erbil had any ties to Iran, and it’s not clear that Iran’s strikes in Syria did any major damage to ISIS targets, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68021483">according to the BBC</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rAbCPc">
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While <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/world/middleeast/iran-conflict-gaza-pakistan-hezbollah.html">Iran typically projects power through its proxies,</a> insurgent groups and Iran’s adversaries have struck crucial blows against the country over the past month. ISIS Khorasan Province (ISIS-K or ISKP) claimed responsibility for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-vows-revenge-after-biggest-attack-since-1979-revolution-2024-01-04/">an attack on a ceremony</a> commemorating the assassination of former Islamic Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, which killed nearly 100 people in the Iranian city of Kerman. Israel’s Mossad also killed another top IRGC military adviser, Sayyed Razi Mousavi, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/25/israeli-air-strike-in-syria-kills-top-iranian-general">near Damascus in December</a>, likely contributing to <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/experts-react-whats-really-going-on-with-pakistan-and-iran-exchanging-attacks/#brodsky-iran-pakistan">Iran’s internal sense of threat</a>.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GfY88y">
|
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Essentially, this week’s attacks could be interpreted as a message to its own people — <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68021483">particularly the government’s hardline base</a> — that the Islamic Republic will not be bullied, even as it must take care to avoid direct confrontation with the United States and its allies.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H0mV3v">
|
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|
Tuesday’s missile strikes in Pakistan could also be an attempt to “force regional countries, including Pakistan, to rethink their preexisting alignment with the United States and to not offer further help that might allow the United States to counter Iran or its proxies in the region,” Asfandyar Mir, senior expert on South Asia at the US Institute of Peace, <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/01/making-sense-iran-pakistan-cross-border-strikes">wrote Friday</a>.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pSaoyE">
|
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And while there might not be a direct link between Israel’s war in Gaza and Iran’s attacks on targets in Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan this week, it could be that Iran believes now is the time to signal its own military capabilities — rather than using proxy groups to do so. But in attacking countries with which it has fairly friendly ties, Iran was able to display its firepower in a limited capacity, without significant risk of escalation, though both Iraq and Pakistan have expressed their fury at Iran’s attacks.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KSabyX">
|
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Iran could retaliate against Pakistan’s strikes, Mir wrote, but for now, it seems more likely that attacks will be suspended. Further strikes would be very risky given Pakistan’s superior military and Iran’s already-stretched military and proxy forces. “A tit-for-tat cycle with Pakistan in which Pakistan regularly violates Iran’s sovereignty will erode Iran’s ability to deter other adversaries,” Mir wrote, “including the United States and Israel.”
|
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</p></li>
|
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</ul>
|
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
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<ul>
|
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ranji Trophy | Jagadeesan races away to his maiden double ton; puts Tamil Nadu in the driver’s seat</strong> - The home side gets bowled out for 489 before Railways reaches 126 for two at the end of day two</p></li>
|
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>MOTORSPORTS | New karting track at Sriperumbudur to be opened later this year</strong> - Winners of the MRF MMSC FMSCI National motorcycle and car racing championships honoured at awards function</p></li>
|
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|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ICC Under-19 World Cup | Adarsh, Uday hit sedate fifties as India post 251 for 7 against Bangladesh</strong> - Bangladesh bowlers bowled 156 dot balls, which is 26 overs of the Indian innings.</p></li>
|
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|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pitch full length, attack stumps and setting up straighter field placement should be mantra, Donald advises English pacers</strong> - Donald believes that setting negative fields like stationing a deep square leg or sweeper is actually a negative strategy in India.</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>Australian Open | Teenager Noskova stuns World No. 1 Swiatek in 3rd round</strong> - Four-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek took the first set, but lost the next two to the 19-year-old Noskova.</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>PMK, AMMK call for caste survey in Tamil Nadu</strong> -</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>Will protect Myanmar border like that of Bangladesh: Amit Shah</strong> - Addressing the passing out parade of the first batch of the five newly-constituted Assam Police Commando battalions, he said the Centre is rethinking the free-movement facility with Myanmar.</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>In a first, Army couple set to march down Kartavya Path in R-Day parade</strong> - The couple, who got married in June 2023, said it was a sheer coincidence that they were getting to march together on the occasion.</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>We will be vocal about failures of YSRCP in AP, says new Congress chief Y.S. Sharmila</strong> - The party seniors see Ms. Sharmila’s entry as a catalyst for Congress revival in the State.</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>INDIA bloc certain to disintegrate in Bihar; good development to follow for NDA: Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras</strong> - Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party leader Pashupati Kumar Paras said differences between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav have deepened.</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>AfD: Germans float ban on elected far-right party after scandal</strong> - Germans are angered by reports that AfD figures joined a meeting that discussed mass deportations.</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>Théo Luhaka: French police officers given suspended sentences for brutal assault</strong> - Théo Luhaka suffered severe injuries from a police baton in a case which triggered days of protests.</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>How London hotel sting caught Swiss museum heist thieves</strong> - A vase stolen from Geneva was carried around London in a JD Sports bag as the gang looked to sell it on.</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 war: Russian oil depot hit in Ukrainian drone attack</strong> - Fire breaks out over a large area in the Bryansk region, a day after another oil facility is targeted.</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>Bashkortostan protests against jail term reach regional capital Ufa</strong> - At least 10 people are detained as hundreds of people in Ufa defy warnings not to protest.</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>What happens when you trigger a car’s automated emergency stopping?</strong> - Experiencing the sequence of events in a car programmed for automated emergency stopping. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1995333">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft network breached through password-spraying by Russian-state hackers</strong> - Senior execs’ emails accessed in network breach that wasn’t caught for 2 months. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997633">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Elizabeth Holmes barred from federal health programs for 90 years</strong> - The former Theranos CEO is barred from receiving payments from federal health program. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997609">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>WordPad out; 80Gbps USB support and other Win 11 features in testing this month</strong> - Microsoft’s next batch of Windows 11 feature updates is taking shape. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997547">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Big Pharma hiked the price of 775 drugs this year so far: Report</strong> - Meanwhile, Senate to consider subpoenas to force pharma CEOs testify on prices. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997565">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“And what might that be?” said Mother, seeing the obvious excitement in her eldest daughter’s eyes. “Well,” replied the daughter, with a proud but sheepish grin, “I’m getting married!”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The other daughters squealed with surprise as Mother Potato exclaimed, “Married! That’s wonderful! And who are you marrying, Eldest daughter?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“I’m marrying a Russet!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“A Russet!” replied Mother Potato with pride. “Oh, a Russet is a fine tater, a fine tater indeed!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
As the family shared in the eldest daughter’s joy, the middle daughter spoke up. “Mother, I too, have an announcement.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“And what might that be?” asked Mother Potato. Not knowing quite how to begin, the middle daughter paused, then said with conviction, “I, too, am getting married!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“You, too!” Mother Potato said with joy. “That’s wonderful! Twice the good news in one evening! And who are you marrying, Middle Daughter?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“I’m marrying an Idaho,” beamed the middle daughter. “An Idaho!” said Mother Potato with joy. “Oh, an Idaho is a fine tater, a fine tater indeed!” Once again, the room came alive with laughter and excited plans for the future, when the youngest Potato daughter interrupted.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Mother? Mother Potato? Um, I, too, have an announcement to make.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Yes?” said Mother Potato with great anticipation.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Well,” began the youngest Potato daughter with the same sheepish grin as her eldest sister before her, “I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to you, but I am getting married, as well!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Really?” said Mother Potato with sincere excitement. “All of my lovely daughters married! What wonderful news! And who, pray tell, are you marrying, Youngest Daughter?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“I’m marrying Joe Rogan!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“ Joe Rogan?!” Mother Potato scowled suddenly. “But he’s just a common tater!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b07fd/and_what_might_that_be_said_mother_seeing_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b07fd/and_what_might_that_be_said_mother_seeing_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A ship sinks in the South Pacific, and the only survivors are a man, a dog, and a sheep.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
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<div class="md">
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
They manage to find a piece of wreckage to hang onto, and after a day or two, they wash up on a deserted island. The man looks around, and there’s plenty of fruit and fish and fresh water, but he’s all alone, just him and the dog and the sheep.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
A couple of months pass. The man is surviving and thriving, but he’s getting lonely, and that sheep’s starting to look awful seductive. Eventually he gives into temptation, but as soon as he gets near the sheep, the dog starts barking and biting and chasing him off. This continues for the next three months, the dog chasing off the man every time he tries to make a move on the sheep.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
One day, the man is walking along the beach to take a cold bath in the ocean, when he sees a beautiful woman on the sand, unconscious. He runs over and resuscitates her, and spends the next week tending to her injuries and learning about her. She was a pilot, and her plane crashed into the sea in a gale, and just happened to wash up on this deserted island, a thousand miles away from the nearest land.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The two of them grow close, and one night, she asks him, “I know you’re awful lonely here. Is there something I can do for you to repay you for helping me?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The man says, “Yeah, can you take the dog for a walk for a couple hours?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TheThalmorEmbassy"> /u/TheThalmorEmbassy </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19axvh7/a_ship_sinks_in_the_south_pacific_and_the_only/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19axvh7/a_ship_sinks_in_the_south_pacific_and_the_only/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Morse code</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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I’ve been learning Morse code recently. The other day I was talking to someone using Morse code on ham radio and I accidentally said something he found offensive but I couldn’t apologize to him because I haven’t learned remorse code yet.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/jimdagem"> /u/jimdagem </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b45z6/morse_code/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b45z6/morse_code/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It was a dark and stormy night…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
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<div class="md">
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Outside a little town in Mexico, this guy was on the side of the road hitchhiking on a very dark night and in the middle of a storm.<br/> As the night descended and no cars passed by, the storm became stronger so he could hardly see a few feet in front of him. Suddenly, he saw a car coming towards him and stop.<br/> The guy without thinking, got in the car, closes the door, and just realizes there’s nobody behind the wheel. The car starts slowly, the guy looks at the road and sees a curve coming his way, scared he starts to pray, begging for his life. Then, just before he hits the curve, a hand appears through the window and steers the wheel into the curve. The guy, paralyzed with fear, watched how the hand appears every time they are coming to a curve. The guy, gathering strength, jumps out of the car and runs to the nearest town.<br/> Wet and in shock, he goes to a cantina and asks for two shots of tequila, and starts telling everybody about the horrible experience he endured. A silence enveloped everybody when they realize the guy was crying and wasn’t drunk.<br/> About half an hour later two guys walked inside the same cantina and one said to the other. “Look Paco, that’s the gringo that got in the car when we were pushing it.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/GANDORF57"> /u/GANDORF57 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19aqquk/it_was_a_dark_and_stormy_night/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19aqquk/it_was_a_dark_and_stormy_night/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How do you make your girlfriend yell during sex?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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You call her and tell her about it.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/solemnoak"> /u/solemnoak </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b7iih/how_do_you_make_your_girlfriend_yell_during_sex/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b7iih/how_do_you_make_your_girlfriend_yell_during_sex/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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