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470 lines
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>26 November, 2023</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>One Family’s Perilous Escape from Gaza City</strong> - When Israel invaded Kamal Al-Mashharawi’s neighborhood, he crowded into a basement with his extended family. “The world is closing in on us,” he wrote on WhatsApp. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/one-familys-perilous-escape-from-gaza-city">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Free-Market Fundamentalism of Argentina’s Javier Milei</strong> - The President-elect, a right-wing populist with authoritarian instincts, has been compared to Donald Trump, but his radical views on the economy set him apart. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-free-market-fundamentalism-of-argentinas-javier-milei">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Next Power Plant Is on the Roof and in the Basement</strong> - A Department of Energy report promotes a new system that could remake the energy grid. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-next-power-plant-is-on-the-roof-and-in-the-basement">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Death of a Relic Hunter</strong> - Bill Erquitt was an unforgettable character among Georgia’s many Civil War enthusiasts. After he died, his secrets came to light. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/the-death-of-a-relic-hunter">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Should People Have the Right to Say Awful Things Without Facing Legal Consequences?</strong> - Those who want to curtail freedom of speech do not log the debits and credits of censorship, nor do they care about the balance of norms—they act when they have power. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/should-people-have-the-right-to-say-awful-things-without-facing-legal-consequences">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>The US doesn’t have universal health care — but these states (almost) do</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="Stock photo illustration of prescription pill bottles and a stethoscope on top of a puzzle of the United States painted in the American flag." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qcHIKVJyX4wPE9ASvlRpA2t5WYU=/1334x0:6667x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72902556/GettyImages_942799586.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Getty Images/iStockphoto
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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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Ten states have uninsured rates below 5 percent. What are they doing right?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rFa71M">
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Universal <a href="https://www.vox.com/health-care">health care</a> remains an unrealized dream for the United States. But in some parts of the country, the dream has drawn closer to a reality in the 13 years since the <a href="https://www.vox.com/obamacare">Affordable Care Act</a> passed.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ps1XLY">
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Overall, the number of uninsured Americans has <a href="https://www.kff.org/uninsured/issue-brief/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/">fallen</a> from 46.5 million in 2010, the year President Barack Obama signed his signature <a href="https://www.vox.com/health-care">health care</a> law, to about 26 million today. The US health system still has plenty of flaws — beyond the 8 percent of the population who are uninsured, far higher than in peer countries, many of the people who technically have health insurance still <a href="https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/aug/looming-crisis-health-coverage-2020-biennial">find it difficult to cover their share of their medical bills</a>. Nevertheless, more people enjoy some financial protection against health care expenses than in any previous period in US history.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2hqvhJ">
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The country is inching toward universal coverage. If everybody who qualified for either the ACA’s financial assistance or its Medicaid expansion were successfully enrolled in the program, we would get closer still: <a href="https://www.kff.org/uninsured/issue-brief/a-closer-look-at-the-remaining-uninsured-population-eligible-for-medicaid-and-chip/">More than half of the uninsured</a> are technically eligible for government health care aid.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="flvoLw">
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Particularly in the last few years, it has been the states, using the tools made available by them by the ACA, that have been chipping away most aggressively at the number of uninsured.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pyg5kS">
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Today, <a href="https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/total-population/?dataView=0&currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Uninsured%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D">10 states</a> have an uninsured rate below 5 percent — not quite universal coverage, but getting close. Other states may be hovering around the national average, but that still represents a dramatic improvement from the pre-ACA reality: In <a href="https://ibis.doh.nm.gov/indicator/summary/HlthInsurCensus.html">New Mexico</a>, for instance, 23 percent of its population was uninsured in 2010; now just 8 percent is.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h0UOro">
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Their success indicates that, even without another major federal health care reform effort, it is possible to reduce the number of uninsured in the United States. If states are more aggressive about using all of the tools available to them under the ACA, the country could continue to bring down the number of uninsured people within its borders.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uDlLGd">
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The law gave states discretion to build upon its basic structure. Many received approval from the federal government to create programs that lower premiums; some also offer state subsidies in addition to the federal assistance to reduce the cost of coverage, including for people who are not eligible for federal aid, such as undocumented immigrants. A few states are even offering new state-run health plans that will compete with private offerings.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jJMtbb">
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I asked several leading health care experts which states stood out to them as having fully weaponized the ACA to reduce the number of uninsured. There was not a single answer.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KXqRF7">
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“I don’t think any state has taken advantage of everything,” said <a href="https://www.kff.org/person/larry-levitt/">Larry Levitt</a>, executive vice president at the KFF health policy think tank. “No state has put all the pieces together to the full extent available under the ACA.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mu3fMF">
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But a few stood out for the steps they have taken over the last decade to strive toward universal health care.
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</p>
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<h3 id="x0lr8H">
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Massachusetts (and New Mexico): Streamlined enrollment and state subsidies
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q8U3ya">
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Massachusetts has the lowest uninsured rate of any state: Just 2.4 percent of the population lacks coverage. It had a head start: The law provided the model for the ACA itself, with its system of government subsidies for private plans sold on a public marketplace that existed prior to 2010.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D1xDtz">
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But experts say it still deserves credit for the steps it has taken since the Massachusetts model was applied to the rest of the country. <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/people/matthew-fiedler/">Matt Fiedler</a>, a senior fellow with the Brookings Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy, said two <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> stood above any others in expanding coverage: integrating the enrollment process for both Medicaid and ACA marketplace plans and offering state-based assistance on top of the law’s federal subsidies.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ltdfF">
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Massachusetts was among the first states to do both.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dDwCQt">
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“The former can do a lot to reduce the risk that people lose their coverage when incomes change,” Fiedler told me, “while the latter directly improves affordability and thereby promotes take-up.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RiZL09">
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Integrated enrollment means that, for the consumer, they can be directed to either the ACA’s marketplace (where they can use government subsidies to buy private coverage) or to the state Medicaid program through one portal. They enter their information and the state tells them which program they should enroll in. Without that integration, people might have to first apply to Medicaid and then, if they don’t qualify, separately seek out marketplace coverage. The more steps that a person must take to successfully enroll in a health plan, the more likely it is people will fall through the cracks.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pIIsk7">
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The state assistance, meanwhile, both reduces premiums for people and makes it easier for them to afford more generous coverage, with lower out-of-pocket costs when they actually use medical services. Nine states including Massachusetts now have state assistance, with interest picking up in the past few years.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aywGfb">
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New Mexico, for example, only recently converted to a state-based ACA marketplace and started offering additional aid in 2023. Having already seen some dramatic improvements, it remains to be seen how much more progress the state can make toward universal coverage with that policy in place.
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</p>
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<h3 id="3HoWtF">
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Minnesota and New York: The Basic Health Plan states
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O61Jb4">
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The basic structure of the ACA was this: Medicaid expansion for people living in or near poverty and marketplace plans for people with incomes above that. But the law included an option for states to more seamlessly integrate those two populations — and so far, the two states that have taken advantage of it, Minnesota and New York, are also among those states with the lowest uninsured rates. Just 4.3 percent of Minnesotans and 4.9 percent of New Yorkers lack coverage today.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JGVvyZ">
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They have both created Basic Health Plans, the product of one of the more obscure provisions of the health care law. This is a state-regulated health insurance plan meant to cover people up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level (about $29,000 for an individual or $50,000 for a family of three). Those are people who may not technically qualify for Medicaid under the ACA but who can still struggle to afford their monthly premiums and out-of-pocket obligations with a marketplace plan.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RKQChG">
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In both states, the Basic Health Plans offered insurance options with lower premiums and reduced cost-sharing responsibilities than the marketplace coverage that they would otherwise have been left with. In New York, for example, people between 100 percent and 150 percent of the federal poverty level pay no premiums at all, while people between 150 percent and 200 percent pay just $20 per month.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="75bxIb">
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There is good evidence that the approach has increased coverage: In New York, for example, enrollment among people below 200 percent of the poverty level increased by 42 percent when the state adopted its BHP in 2016, compared to what it had been the year before when those people were relegated to conventional marketplace coverage.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pO4TK3">
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State interest in Basic Health Plans has been limited so far, but Minnesota and New York provide a model others could follow. Fiedler said part of the basic plans’ success in those states has been using Medicaid managed-care companies to administer the plan: Those insurers already pay providers lower rates than marketplace plans do and the savings give the states money to reduce premiums and cost-sharing.
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</p>
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<h3 id="PslxFS">
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Colorado and Washington: Public options and assistance for the undocumented
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1SL2Z3">
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These states have been inventive in myriad ways. They are both early adopters of a public option, a government health plan that competes with private plans on the marketplace, a policy also being tested in Nevada.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ik1S37">
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There is another policy that unites them, one that addresses a sizable part of the remaining uninsured nationwide: They both provide some state subsidies to undocumented immigrants.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pN9X3L">
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Most uninsured Americans are already technically eligible for some kind of government assistance, whether Medicaid or marketplace subsidies. But there is a large chunk of people who are not: <a href="https://www.kff.org/uninsured/issue-brief/a-closer-look-at-the-remaining-uninsured-population-eligible-for-medicaid-and-chip/">About 29 percent</a> of the US’s uninsured are ineligible for government aid, among them the people who are in the country undocumented. Those people bear the full cost of their medical bills and may avoid care for that reason (among others, of course).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YfDHeE">
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Starting this year, Washington is <a href="https://www.wsha.org/articles/health-insurance-expansions-and-alien-emergent-medical-aem-program/">allowing</a> undocumented people with incomes that would make them eligible for Medicaid expansion to enroll in that program, and making state subsidies available to people with higher incomes no matter their immigration status. Colorado has set aside a small pool of money annually to provide state aid to about 11,000 undocumented people. (After that threshold is hit, those folks can still enroll in a health plan but they must pay the full price.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NQNha8">
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Interest has been robust: Last year, Colorado hit the enrollment limit after about a month. This year, enrollment capped out <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/omnisalud-health-insurance-undocumented-coloradans/">in just two days</a>, suggesting the state may need to put more money behind the effort.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rUgZwx">
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It is difficult to imagine insurance subsidies for undocumented people nationwide any time soon, given the fraught <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics">national politics</a> of immigration. But states are finding ways to make inroads on their own: California has made undocumented people eligible for Medicaid.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7mNW4K">
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Through these and other means, they are helping the US inch toward universal health care.
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>How Myanmar’s resistance could topple its military government — for good</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="Second Anniversary Of The Myanmar Coup" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oRxG6C5g7SzQzDg_ismqZ05oUHE=/347x0:5894x4160/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72901583/1246736059.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Thomas De Cian/NurPhoto 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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A surprise offensive on October 27 stunned the junta. A revolution could build a new Myanmar.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aGnEat">
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A coalition of ethnic armed militias in Myanmar have launched what could be the best possible chance to overthrow the military government that has controlled the country since a 2021 coup ousted the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b6TXcB">
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If successful, this could be the groundwork for a more normalized democracy for a country that has historically been dominated by military juntas and dictators. Engagement from civil society has been high and is a key factor that can turn military victories into long term successes. Still, nothing is guaranteed and the fight is likely to be difficult.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vMjVQd">
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On October 27, the Three Brotherhood Alliance, a coalition of three ethnic armed groups launched a well-coordination offensive in the eastern Shan state, the largest of Myanmar’s seven states by land area. The surprise attack successfully captured several government military installations by the Chinese border and has also inspired other armed groups to launch their own successful campaigns against the repressive Tatmadaw or State Administration Council, as the junta is called in Myanmar.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fOSnvw">
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Myanmar has been under military rule for much of its history as an independent nation; as in many other Southeast Asian nations, democratic movements have struggled to gain traction against powerful and entrenched military interests. After a decade of democratic reforms driven by a series of popular uprisings against the military government Myanmar seemed to break from the past; in 2015 and 2020, the country held free elections, which the NLD won handily. But the Tatmadaw seized power in 2021, igniting nearly three years of brutal civil conflict in which the government has killed thousands of civilians.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yY3SCn">
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Though the Three Brotherhood Alliance and similar ethnic armed groups have not taken over the whole country and the Tatmadaw still has far more firepower than any of the armed groups, the October 27 offensive and ensuing military successes have kindled a cautious hope that the military dictatorship could be toppled.
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</p>
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So far the revolutionary forces have successfully cut off about 40 percent of the Tatmadaw’s land access to <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a>, taken over military installations, major border crossings, several towns, and transit routes — as well as forcing government troops to defect en masse.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PeGUIz">
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Though there is likely still a long, brutal war to be fought to dislodge the Tatmadaw from power, revolutionary forces — both armed groups and civil society resistance — are also tentatively working toward a new kind of democratic, grassroots governance model in hopes of preventing violent military governments in the future.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6c9FWd">
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<strong>The anti-government offensive is just beginning, but its success is galvanizing</strong>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RpDQbA">
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<a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/myanmar-history-coup-military-rule-ethnic-conflict-rohingya#chapter-title-0-5">Armed ethnic groups are nothing new in Myanmar</a> — it’s a highly ethnically diverse nation, but the majority Bamar group has always enjoyed a privileged position in society, including in the military and the government. Meanwhile smaller ethnic groups, such as the Shan, Karen, and Rakhine groups, have historically faced serious discrimination, both under British colonial rule and under military dictatorships.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="47jZBk">
|
|||
|
|
After the 2021 coup, ethnic militias like the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army which make up the Three Brotherhood Alliance have been leading the charge against the Tatmadaw. In many cases they have also allied with <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/11/understanding-peoples-defense-forces-myanmar">People’s Defense Forces</a> groups (PDFs), militia groups formed or supported by the shadow National Unity Government (NUG).
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A8k227">
|
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|
The October 27 offensive — which the Three Brotherhood Alliance calls “Operation 1027” — likely took months of planning and has shown impressive coordination between the alliance, other ethnic armed organizations, and PDFs. That’s a new dimension in the ongoing fight against military leadership, experts told Vox.
|
|||
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="26xgWf">
|
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|
|
“This level of cooperation is not exactly unprecedented, but I think the scale of the operation and what they’ve managed to pull off in the last month — I’ve never really seen anything to this extent,” David Mathieson, an independent analyst based in Thailand, told Vox. “I think it shows a combination of long-term cooperation between the three main groups,” or the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which have been collaborating in some fashion since 2009, and more recent collaboration with other ethnic armed organizations such as the Bamar People’s Liberation Army, Mathieson said.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0TRpk0">
|
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|
|
“Our primary objectives in launching this operation are multi-faceted and driven by the collective desire to safeguard the lives of civilians, assert our right to self-defense, maintain control over our territory and respond resolutely to ongoing artillery attacks and air strikes” perpetuated by the military government against civilians, the alliance said in a statement announcing Operation 1027. The statement also said the alliance is “dedicated to eradicating the oppressive military dictatorship, a shared aspiration of the entire Myanmar population.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LtykuS">
|
|||
|
|
That goal, to remove the Tatmadaw from power, has been the galvanizing force in the month-long uprising, uniting disparate groups with competing priorities toward a common goal. The Tatmadaw has, over the years, engaged in what Lucas Myers, Senior Associate for Southeast Asia at the Wilson Center, called a “divide and rule” strategy, with the military junta giving special concessions to certain groups, thereby encouraging competition between the different armed actors.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T7BdeP">
|
|||
|
|
But since 2021, the government’s brutal attacks against not only ethnic minorities but also Bamar civilians has encouraged a tentative trust and cooperation between various armed groups, as well as between those groups and the NUG.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MEpnRY">
|
|||
|
|
Another major aspect of the resistance’s success is the military’s weakness. Morale is low, and defections are high, meaning that even though the military has superior artillery and air dominance, it just doesn’t have the manpower to mount an effective defense in any of the areas that the resistance has taken over, nor does it have the strategy to put together an offensive of its own.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AI9X9H">
|
|||
|
|
“They’re essentially adopting a reprisal strategy — they’ve been just bombing civilian targets and striking the EAOs heavily,” Myers said. “It’s essentially a punishment strategy.” The government does have air superiority and can attack with fighter jets and attack helicopters, since the resistance forces don’t yet have effective anti-aircraft capabilities, Myers said. “But at the same time, I think the military is stretched to the point that they have limited capability, and they can’t strike everything all at once. Their pilots are overstretched, reportedly — that’s a high tempo.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="abSAkJ">
|
|||
|
|
<strong>Myanmar can’t go back to the days of Aung San Suu Kyi</strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LXJ3hH">
|
|||
|
|
More than just a military sea change, the 1027 and subsequent offensives are part of a potential political revolution and demonstrate a desire to break with the old, hierarchical, and exclusive governance structures — both under the Tatmadaw and the short-lived democratic transition.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3dv4c3">
|
|||
|
|
“The military maintained significant sway, even during the democratization period — they had 30 percent of the seats in parliament guaranteed to them, which essentially gave them a veto over anything constitutional, they maintained control over several key ministries,” Myers said. “It was very much not a democratic system.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0loXIy">
|
|||
|
|
There’s also a “sea change,” as Myers said, in the opinions of the Bamar majority about the need to incorporate ethnic minority voices into the larger government, particularly after the failure of Suu Kyi’s government and its defense of the horrific massacre and mass displacement of the majority-Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority in 2017. The NUG has adopted the idea of an intersectional revolution and the need to incorporate minorities into a future democratic federal state — but in order for that to happen, the NUG must actually commit to bringing those ethnic minority actors into any future government.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a6ycfP">
|
|||
|
|
Ethnic armed groups and their related political and civil society organizations are also demanding more autonomy over local affairs, which Mathieson and Myers both said would be critical for a political future. Over Myanmar’s post-colonial history and particularly since the 1962 military coup, the government has centralized power in the Bamar heartland and within the Bamar ethnic group, leading to autocratic governance.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cnUk21">
|
|||
|
|
“A lot of these groups are like, ‘Look, it’s not as if we’re going to go to the NUG with our hats in our hands and basically say, [autonomy] is what we want,’” Mathieson said. Rather, that autonomy and a federalized governance system are going to be requirements for most of these groups. “A lot of these groups are like, ‘Look, we’re building our form of federalism from the ground up, we’re seeing the local perspective, and what you — the NUG — and your largely Western supporters are trying to do is build a top-down federalism.’”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gwOEEX">
|
|||
|
|
Some of the ethnic armed groups, like the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Karen National Union (KNU), have broader community investments, as Htet Min Lwin and Thiha Wint Aung wrote for <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/11/operation-1027-the-end-of-the-beginning-of-myanmars-spring-revolution/">The Diplomat on Friday</a>. Since the 2021 coup, the KIA and KNU have been involved in political activities like “training young protesters and providing sanctuary to displaced members of parliament to getting involved in various consultative councils.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TnOI7H">
|
|||
|
|
Civil society groups and public support have also been a crucial part of the successful military operation — as the Lwin and Aung point out, medical professionals with the Civil Disobedience Movement have been caring for the wounded and coordinating other logistical activities. Widespread civil society engagement is a sign that the revolution has legitimacy among the people of Myanmar and that they, too, are committed to the end of military rule and a potential democratic future.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k5NhNl">
|
|||
|
|
But that future is far off — though the military’s advantage is waning, there is still likely a long and bloody fight ahead before the revolutionary forces gain control of the country. And even if that happens, the political work of building an inclusive democratic state from one that has been exploited and oppressed for decades will be its own struggle.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Mary Kay Letourneau, the grim inspiration for May December, explained</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A couple sitting on a sunny concrete wall and leaning back on a grassy verge." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WBgGKStWjHx02ikEaMKm3pHx7ug=/0x0:3000x2250/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72900469/57483631.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau during a photo shoot at her beachfront home April 27, 2006, in Normandy Park, | Ron Wurzer/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
We still don’t know how to talk about Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eR17Cw">
|
|||
|
|
In many ways, the country isn’t ready to revisit and reassess the story of Mary Kay Letourneau and her sexual-abuse-victim-turned-husband Vili Fualaau. In 1997, Letourneau, a beloved 35-year-old Seattle-area schoolteacher, shocked the nation when she was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/08/us/teacher-guilty-of-rape-for-sex-with-student.html">revealed</a> to be pregnant by Fualaau, her then-13-year-old<strong> </strong>student with whom she’d been having sex for nearly a year. The story fueled tabloid media for months, with Letourneau pleading guilty to two counts of secondary rape but insisting on reuniting with Fualaau — and giving birth to two of his children before he turned 15.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CMhnvN">
|
|||
|
|
Perhaps because it was difficult to look at too closely, however, the story of Letourneau and Fualaau fell out of the media spotlight just when it became really layered: after their 2005 wedding. Despite the circumstances of their relationship and the 22-year age gap between them, the couple stayed married for nearly 15 years. They divorced in 2019, with sources <a href="https://people.com/crime/mary-kay-letourneau-vili-fualaau-splitting-up-after-reconciliation/">claiming</a> the relationship had “run its course.” Letourneau <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/obituaries/mary-kay-letourneau-dead.html">died</a> a year later, of cancer.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="otapYs">
|
|||
|
|
The Letourneau-Fualaau saga now regains the media spotlight thanks to Todd Haynes’s star-studded drama <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VdAParM4h8"><em>May December</em></a>, arriving to <a href="https://www.vox.com/netflix">Netflix</a> on December 1. In this fictionalized version of the story, an actress (Natalie Portman) cast in a film about analogues Grace and Joe (Julianne Moore and Charles Melton) shadows the couple to witness their superficially happy relationship, only to realize things aren’t as they seem.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lqqoQk">
|
|||
|
|
What society wasn’t ready to confront at the time of the scandal — and what seems shockingly clear to us today — is that Letourneau meets the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedophilia">definition</a> of a pedophile: someone whose preferred sexual object is a child. She spent years grooming her target, then strengthened her ties to him through the legitimacy afforded her by motherhood and marriage. The way we talk about predatory behavior has evolved tremendously since then, but the way we understand what happened to Vili Fualaau hasn’t necessarily evolved with it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AHJfbH">
|
|||
|
|
While the film doesn’t purport to tell the real story — Grace and Joe were pet shop coworkers, not teacher and student, for one thing — what actually happened between Letourneau and Fualaau is something we’ve turned away from for too long.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="A1JZX1">
|
|||
|
|
The unsettling relationship between Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p class="p--has-dropcap" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f3kNir">
|
|||
|
|
Letourneau came from a large family — one of seven children born to white, wealthy, privileged, extremely conservative parents. Her father, an Orange County politician named John Schmitz, was <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/389028773/">notorious</a> for his antisemitic, homophobic, and misogynist public remarks; he was banned from the <a href="https://www.vox.com/23638608/john-birch-society-trump-gop-robert-welch">notably extremist John Birch Society</a> for being too extremist.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7SPWGe">
|
|||
|
|
Letourneau’s father was embroiled in a sex scandal with a student. In the late ’70s or early ’80s, Schmitz, who was then in his 50s, was teaching government at Santa Ana College when he began sleeping with one of his students, then in her 40s. The two had a multi-year affair that resulted in the birth of two children. In 1982, the affair came to light after a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-aug-12-me-21736-story.html">bizarre incident</a> in which one of Schmitz’s two children by his student was taken to the hospital because hair had become tightly wrapped around his penis — so tightly it was almost severed. The resulting investigation forced his mother to confess who the boy’s father was, a revelation that severely damaged Schmitz’s political career.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="odNrhO">
|
|||
|
|
Letourneau, who never professed her father’s politics, grew up pretty and popular. She married her college sweetheart, Steve Letourneau, after she became pregnant, and the two moved to the middle-class Seattle suburb of Normandy Park. As a teacher, Letourneau was described as having “<a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1998/feb/18/disorder-tied-to-former-teachers-affair-with-boy/">boundless energy</a>,” a fact later attributed in part to her diagnosis of bipolar disorder. She seemed to balance huge bursts of creativity with extreme recklessness. She gained a reputation as an “<a href="https://people.com/archive/cover-story-out-of-control-vol-49-no-12/">exceptionally gifted</a>” teacher and loving mother who was devoted to her four children by husband Steve.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="moOPGX">
|
|||
|
|
Because Fualaau, a Samoan American, was a minor, his identity was withheld for most of the ’90s, which meant the narrative of their relationship was entirely dominated by Letourneau’s version of it — and she portrayed them as star-crossed soul mates who just couldn’t help themselves. She ascribed impossible traits to Fualaau when she met him in second grade, <a href="https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19970725">gushing to the Seattle Times</a> that she somehow recognized in the child a mutual “respect, an insight, a spirit, an understanding between us that grew over time.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bzv9zb">
|
|||
|
|
Letourneau described lavishing Fualaau with attention, giving him special focus as a teacher, taking him on trips, and showering him with gifts. By the time Fualaau entered her class again as a sixth grader, “He was my best friend. We just walked together in the same rhythm.” Letourneau gave a similar narrative <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1998/feb/12/letourneau-hits-big-time-oprah/">to Oprah</a>, insisting that Fualaau had “called” to her and that he was “the love of my life.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vhn2OT">
|
|||
|
|
Today, most people would probably find this narrative horrifying, the frank confession of a pedophile who spent years grooming their target. The gifts and attention she heaped on him would doubtless raise numerous red flags as signs of a predator. But in 1997, these actions went largely unremarked upon, while Letourneau’s attorney, David Gehrke, <a href="https://seattletimes.newsbank.com/doc/news/0EB538E6D1F511E5?pdate=1997-08-07">defended</a> her in terms that read as jaw-dropping in 2023:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6psKxv">
|
|||
|
|
“This was a child she took an interest in, not unlike one of us might have taken an interest in one of our teachers,” he said. “She did a horrible thing … but we all make mistakes. She’s a very good person who did a very bad thing.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AqcaQZ">
|
|||
|
|
The idea that Letourneau did something understandable and that Fualaau was actually a lucky kid was <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/mary-kay-letourneau-vili-fualauu-relationship-media-child-rape-tryst-1025466/">bandied about</a> throughout the media of the time. Outlets gleefully reported Fualaau’s claim that he “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sexing_the_Teacher/Zl1bQAf0RLQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=bet%20a%20friend">bet a friend $20</a>” that he would have sex with Letourneau, allegedly long before they started sleeping together. The double standard that applied to Fualaau as a male victim is striking, even in the small details. For example, when Steve Letourneau learned about the abuse by discovering his wife’s letters to Fualaau (the tipping point that ultimately led a relative to notify authorities), his instinct was not to confront her about whether she had been sexually assaulting a student, but to go to Fualaau’s house and confront him, demanding whether he was sleeping with her — as if Fualaau were merely the other man in an illicit affair.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YVBI2W">
|
|||
|
|
Equally telling was the repeated insistence of Fualaau’s mother, Soona Vili, that her son was mature beyond his years — “an old soul trapped in a young body,” she <a href="https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19970725&slug=2551392">told</a> the Seattle Times. In court in August 1997, just two months after Letourneau gave birth to her son’s child, Vili said in a prepared statement, “I don’t feel that this is a crime. My son does not feel victimized.” She urged the court to be lenient in sentencing, and initially the court agreed: Although the standard sentence for two counts of second-degree rape was between five and seven years, the judge originally suspended most of Letourneau’s 89-month sentence, instead ordering her to serve <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-nov-15-mn-54046-story.html">just six months </a>and receive treatment for sexual offenders. Vili took custody of Letourneau’s newborn daughter during her brief prison stint.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8iqalk">
|
|||
|
|
A key condition of Letourneau’s parole, however, was that she eschew all contact with Fualaau. Letourneau, still claiming to be “in love” with her victim, violated this term immediately. A month after her release — after serving just three months of her original six-month order — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/02/07/parole-revoked-ex-teacher-sent-to-prison-in-teen-sex-case/ed36067d-b2b7-49f6-962e-241b15ff579b/">police discovered</a> Letourneau and Fualaau together in Letourneau’s parked car. Police found over $6,000 in cash in the car and noted that Letourneau appeared to be planning to flee the country with him. Instead, she was sent back to jail to serve out the remainder of her seven-year sentence — now six weeks pregnant with her second child by Fualaau.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gpzBLM">
|
|||
|
|
While serving out the remainder of her prison sentence for this offense, Letourneau <a href="https://people.com/archive/cover-story-out-of-control-vol-49-no-12/">appeared on the cover of People</a> in 1998 under the headline, “Their bizarre story of obsessive love: Pregnant again after trysting with her former pupil, Mary Kay Letourneau, 36, is back in prison — and still defiant.” The accompanying photo showed Letourneau holding her first child in her arms while fixing the camera with a pleading expression. The profile questioned if Letourneau’s psychological issues could be blamed on her conservative father. For all it portrayed her as unwieldy and obsessive, it also balanced every caution with a quote like a friend’s insistence that the pair were “drawn together like magnets.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VuUiv2">
|
|||
|
|
The friend’s prediction that the couple would likely marry as soon as Letourneau was released proved accurate: In 2005, they did just that, bringing what NBC called her “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7926717">notorious seduction</a>” to a relatively happy ending.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kzQlBJ">
|
|||
|
|
But was it? And was that really the end?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="fqQlqn">
|
|||
|
|
What happened to Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau after they left the spotlight
|
|||
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mmQ7ZJ">
|
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|
In <a href="https://seattletimes.newsbank.com/doc/news/0EB538E6D1F511E5?pdate=1997-08-07">a 1997 Seattle Times interview</a>, Fualaau, then 14, gave a quote that many people point to in order to justify his agency in the relationship:
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C3jBMg">
|
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|
The boy expressed frustration at being treated like a child. He said he realized that people were trying to protect him but that, as a result, he had not been given a voice in all that’s happened.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TzYiR6">
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|
“I want people to stop seeing me as a victim,” he said. “My life is going to be fine. Mary didn’t harm me in any way. Who are they to say I’m too young to know anything when they don’t even know me?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wNrX2H">
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Fualaau, even while under the cover of anonymity, stuck doggedly to Letourneau’s narrative that they were in love. In 2002, Soona Vili <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=91755&page=1">sued the school district</a> over what she was now calling Letourneau’s “abuse” of her son, and reportedly said she regretted allowing Fualaau to “sell his story to the media” — but still spoke of having forgiven Letourneau and trying her best to move forward. She and Fualaau raised the couple’s two children together until Letourneau’s release from prison and their subsequent marriage.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rYAvcH">
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|
But even at the time, not everyone had such a positive outlook. Sex offender therapist Florence Wolfe flatly called Letourneau’s behavior “exploitation,” <a href="https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19970725&slug=2551392">telling the Seattle Times</a> in 1997, “The proclamation of love — it is a rationalization. Did she care about his welfare, about what could happen to him by becoming a father at 13? … That’s not love — that’s a big emotional party.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EiDjpC">
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|
“The great disparity in age, position, and developmental level between the teacher and student make any true form of consensual relationship impossible,” wrote a reader named John Baker in a perceptive and perhaps prescient <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/547859735/">letter to the editor</a> of the Brattleboro Reformer. “Children invariably suffer the same kinds of side effects regardless of sex. In boys it can become more damaging due to an often more difficult time in accessing the emotional centers to resolve issues.”
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p5iwuQ">
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|
Although the couple were married for well over a decade, they first began to separate <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/857932/mary-kay-letourneau-and-former-student-vili-fualaau-separate-after-12-years-of-marriage">two years before</a> their actual divorce in 2019, at Fualaau’s behest. Still, when Letourneu entered her final battle with cancer just months later, Fualaau <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/vili-fualaau-was-by-mary-kay-letourneaus-side-as-she-died-according-to-attorney/281-011df406-e814-4569-bbed-ae37835f9d1a">reportedly returned</a> to help care for her until she died in July 2020. From the outside, even in the latter years of the marriage and beyond, family and friends seemed to be supportive of them. In September, the couple’s younger daughter <a href="https://people.com/mary-kay-letourneau-vili-fualaau-24-year-old-daughter-pregnant-exclusive-7966786">described</a> Letourneau to People as “an amazing mother” as she prepared for motherhood herself. Another family friend, speaking to People in 2017, <a href="https://people.com/crime/mary-kay-letourneau-vili-fualaau-living-together-still/">described</a> their relationship as “deep,” forged through the fire of a media scandal, adding, “I give them a lot of credit. They will always have a bond.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XhaoW6">
|
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|
But a closer look at the situation raises some questions. A <a href="https://people.com/celebrity/mary-kay-letourneau-vili-fualaau-one-year-later/">2006 profile</a> of the family in People after a full year of marriage found 22-year-old Fualaau struggling with alcoholism, driving under the influence, and depression, as well as with integrating himself into a family where he was only one year older than Letourneau’s oldest son. “I feel like I don’t really have a place except that I’m their mother’s husband,” he told the outlet. “I get so frustrated.” On their 10th anniversary, even as he celebrated their marriage, he reportedly <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Press_Release/barbara-walters-exclusive-walters-interviews-mary-kay-letourneau/story?id=30140635">told</a> Barbara Walters that he believed “the system had failed him” as a child.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AdFODX">
|
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|
As heartbreaking as this statement is in retrospect, Fualaau seems to be moving on with his life; last year, at age 39, he <a href="https://people.com/parents/vili-fualaau-married-to-mary-kay-letourneau-welcomes-baby/">welcomed</a> his third child into the world.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gT7nit">
|
|||
|
|
Still, even after Fualaau and Letourneu separated, he continued to grieve her loss. In a 2020 interview with Dr. Oz, he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEMo9o1aBRA">described her</a> as his “best friend,” and said that he felt she was “the only one who actually cared” given everything that had happened between them.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YhbWU1">
|
|||
|
|
“Is everything going to be okay?” Dr. Oz asked.
|
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</p>
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rQ9RIe">
|
|||
|
|
“I don’t know,” Fualaau replied. “I don’t know.”
|
|||
|
|
</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>Sunday’s Mumbai races postponed</strong> - MUMBAI</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>Satwik and Chirag go down fighting to world No 1 Liang-Wang in China Masters final</strong> - The Indian pair, gold medallists at the Hangzhou Asian Games, made their way back into the contest by taking the second game and take the final to the decider.</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>New wrestling selection policy has its pros and cons: Olympic medallist Yogeshwar</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>Compensate if India refuse to travel to Pakistan for CT 2025, sign hosting rights: PCB urges ICC</strong> - Zaka Ashraf said the PCB officials had told ICC that if India refuses to play in Pakistan on security grounds, the global body should appoint an independent security agency.</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>Mumbai Indians have struck gold: Ashwin on Pandya’s potential return to his old franchise</strong> - Hardik Pandya began his Indian Premier League career with MI in 2015 and was a part of the side until 2021. He won four titles with Mumbai Indians.</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>Real estate sector in Vizianagaram has a bright future, says Deputy Speaker</strong> - 80 stalls have been set up in the CREDAI’s property show in Vizianagaram</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 obtain exemption from NEET with people’s support; will oppose NExT too, says Stalin</strong> - NEET campaign has emerged into a people’s movement, says the Chief Minister</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>‘Modi gaari’ guarantee means the corrupt will be sent to jail, says PM Modi</strong> - Two ‘ailments’ like BRS and Congress Party can be treated by the BJP alone and cautioned the people not to choose between them.</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>On 15th anniversary of 26/11 attack, Moshe’s grandfather thanks Indians for treating his family’s pain as their own</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>National Tiger Conservation Authority recommends shifting temple fair outside Bandipur</strong> - The NTCA has recommended phasing out the Beladakuppe temple fair rituals to outside the core area of tiger reserve to reduce disturbance to wildlife, habitat loss, and spread of diseases.</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>Ukraine war: Fierce row erupts over 2024 election</strong> - Some right-wing US politicians want Ukraine to vote as scheduled next year. Ukrainians don’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>Ukraine war: Kyiv hit by biggest drone attack since war began</strong> - Thousands of homes are without power after Russia bombarded the capital over six hours.</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>Italy rallies to condemn violence against women draw huge crowds</strong> - Crowds gathered in major cities after the killing of a student sent shockwaves across the country.</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>What Geert Wilders’ victory means for Dutch society</strong> - After his Dutch election win. will the anti-Islam populist leader be able to effect any of his ideas?</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>Mikhail Kasyanov: Russia labels ex-PM and Putin critic ‘foreign agent’</strong> - A critic of the war in Ukraine, Mikhail Kasyanov was PM during President Putin’s first term.</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>Black Friday 2023: The latest tech deals on Apple, Lenovo, Dyson, Vitamix, and more</strong> - The best savings on tech from laptops to headphones, TVs, Herman Miller chairs, and more. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1979608">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Do the Black Friday e-bike deals change the price/performance equation?</strong> - Some of the bikes we’ve looked at over the last couple of years are now on sale. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1984741">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Ars guide to time travel in the movies</strong> - We picked 20 time-travel movies and rated them by scientific logic and entertainment value. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1970934">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Porsche’s third-gen Panamera plug-in hybrid pairs V8 with a big battery</strong> - We also test out the optional—and slightly odd—active ride system. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1986109">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>These newest vacuums from 2023 clean up well, and they’re on sale</strong> - The best vacuums from Dyson, Roborock, and iRobot are on sale for Black Friday - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1986166">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>An Englishman, Frenchman and Turk</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Were all in a train cabin. Feeling a little warm, the Frenchman opened the window and a little fly came buzzing in.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Wanting to impress the other two, the Frenchman takes out his sword and in one swoop sliced the fly in half. Feeling proud of himself, closes the window and hands out his business card to the other two in the cabin, reading “Best swordsman in France”.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The Englishman, not wanting to be outdone by the Frenchman opens the window, and another fly comes buzzing in. The Englishman then takes out his bow and arrow and pins the fly to the wall. Feeling proud, he hands out his business card to the other two, saying “Best archer in England” and closes the window.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The Turk, feeling a little jealous proceeds to open the window and a little fly comes in. The Turk proceeds to take out a little knife and cuts the fly. The fly falls to the ground, and after a minute he wakes up and flies off. The Englishman and Frenchman start laughing, that the Turk failed to kill the fly. After a minute, the Turk handed them his business card, it read
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Ramzi, professional circumciser”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Cavyar"> /u/Cavyar </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1846ewq/an_englishman_frenchman_and_turk/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1846ewq/an_englishman_frenchman_and_turk/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A woman, cranky because her husband was late coming home again, decided to leave a note</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
A woman, cranky because her husband was late coming home again, decided to leave a note, saying, “I’ve had enough and have left you. Don’t bother coming after me.” Then she hid under the bed to see his reaction.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
After a short while, the husband comes home and she could hear him in the kitchen before he comes into the bedroom.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She could see him walk towards the dresser and pick up the note.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
After a few minutes, he wrote something on it before picking up the phone and calling someone.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“She’s finally gone…yeah I know, about bloody time, I’m coming to see you, put on that sexy French nightie. I love you…can’t wait to see you…we’ll do all the naughty things you like.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He hung up, grabbed his keys and left.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
She heard the car drive off as she came out from under the bed.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Seething with rage and with tears in her eyes she grabbed the note to see what he wrote…
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“I can see your feet. We’re outta bread: be back in five minutes.”
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YoMomsHubby"> /u/YoMomsHubby </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1842xox/a_woman_cranky_because_her_husband_was_late/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1842xox/a_woman_cranky_because_her_husband_was_late/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A nun woke up one morning feeling great, she got out of bed and decided to go to the kitchen for some breakfast. On her way over there she runs into sister Jane and she says, “Hi sister Jane,” by which sister Jane says, "I see you got off on the wrong side of the bed sister.</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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|
She did not understand what sister Jane meant by that so she ignored it and went on. She was passing by the garden when she ran into sister Roberta and she says, “Good morning sister Roberta I am having a great day. Sister Roberta says,”I see you got off on the wrong side of the bed." The nun was wondering why everybody she met kept saying that when she felt great so she decides to go and see mother superior. She asks mother superior, “Everybody keeps telling me that I got off on the wrong side of the bed when I feel great and mother superior says,”That is because you have brother Johns shoes on."
|
|||
|
|
</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/183pf0f/a_nun_woke_up_one_morning_feeling_great_she_got/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/183pf0f/a_nun_woke_up_one_morning_feeling_great_she_got/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Necrophilia is such an ugly word. I don’t have sex with corpses, I make love to them.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
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|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
I’m a necromancer.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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|
</div>
|
|||
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|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ConfidentScale6832"> /u/ConfidentScale6832 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/183zxps/necrophilia_is_such_an_ugly_word_i_dont_have_sex/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/183zxps/necrophilia_is_such_an_ugly_word_i_dont_have_sex/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It was November 25th and the Indians on the reservation asked their new chief if it was going to be a cold winter.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Raised in the ways of the modern world, the chief had never been taught the old secrets and had no way of knowing whether the winter would be cold or mild.
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To be on the safe side, he advised the tribe to collect wood and be prepared for a cold winter. A few days later, as a practical afterthought, he called the National Weather Service and asked whether they were forecasting a cold winter. The meteorologist replied that, indeed, he thought the winter would be quite cold.
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The chief advised the tribe to stock even more wood.
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A couple of days later, the chief checked in again with the Weather Service. “Does it still look like a cold winter?” asked the chief.
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“It sure does,” replied the meteorologist. “It looks like a very cold winter.” The chief advised the tribe to gather up every scrap of wood they could find.
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A couple of days later, the chief called the Weather Service again and asked how the winter was looking at that point. The meteorologist said, “We’re now forecasting that it will be one of the coldest winters on record!” “Really?” said the chief. “How can you be so sure?”
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The meteorologist replied, “The Indians are collecting wood like crazy!”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Make_the_music_stop"> /u/Make_the_music_stop </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/183j4z7/it_was_november_25th_and_the_indians_on_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/183j4z7/it_was_november_25th_and_the_indians_on_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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