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<title>19 February, 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>Legal Weed in New York Was Going to Be a Revolution. What Happened?</strong> - Lawsuits. Unlicensed dispensaries. Corporations pushing to get in. The messy rollout of a law that has tried to deliver social justice with marijuana. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/legal-weed-in-new-york-was-going-to-be-just-and-fair-what-happened">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Snake with the Emoji-Patterned Skin</strong> - In the wild, ball pythons are usually brown and tan. In America, breeding them to produce eye-catching offspring has become a lucrative, frenetic, and—for some—troubling enterprise. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/inside-the-world-of-designer-ball-pythons">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Matt Gaetz’s Chaos Agenda</strong> - The Florida Republican is among the most brazen and controversial figures in Donald Trump’s G.O.P. He’s also among the most influential. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/matt-gaetz-profile">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Trials of Alejandro Mayorkas</strong> - The Secretary of Homeland Security has been forced to respond to an unprecedented flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. Why are Republicans in Congress impeaching him for it? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/the-trials-of-alejandro-mayorkas">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is the Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event?</strong> - Ads are scarce, search and social traffic is dying, and readers are burned out. The future will require fundamentally rethinking the press’s relationship to its audience. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/is-the-media-prepared-for-an-extinction-level-event">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>Jon Stewart is as funny as ever. But the world has changed around him.</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="Jon Stewart sits at a desk wearing a black suit jacket and light blue tie, smiling. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aQb88bvtq5s4G7qTy6SYxppqcw8=/405x0:4181x2832/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73149365/GettyImages_483217408.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Jon Stewart hosting <em>The Daily Show</em> last time around, on August 6, 2015. | Brad Barket/Getty Images for Comedy Central
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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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The host’s return to The Daily Show is a coda to a golden age.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PpKcEu">
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<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22715358/problem-with-jon-stewart-review-apple-tv-plus">Jon Stewart</a>’s return to <em>The</em> <em>Daily Show</em> has been, on the metrics, a success. According to Comedy Central, his first episode back on February 12 was watched by 1.85 million total viewers across premiere simulcasts and encores, up 110 percent from Trevor Noah’s final episode in 2022. It’s also a major improvement on Stewart’s last show. <em>The Problem with Jon Stewart</em>, which ran on Apple TV+ from 2021 to 2023, was routinely <a href="https://screenrant.com/problem-with-jon-stewart-show-ratings-decline/">drawing in audiences as low as 40,000 people</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y9FjO7">
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“Jon Stewart” and “<em>The Daily Show”</em> on their own are flawed brands. “Jon Stewart on <em>The Daily Show</em>,” on the other hand? That’s a combination of such heady nostalgia that the viewers pour in.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8BEmU2">
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Still, Stewart’s first episode proved that his appeal is not just pure nostalgia. There is some kind of alchemy that occurs when Jon Stewart gets behind that old <em>Daily Show</em> desk. He knows the format of the show so well; he plays it like a virtuoso.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tDWABf">
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He eases into his monologue with no rush, breaking out the same Borscht Belt voices and self-deprecating barbs he used to play with in 2015, talking in the same relaxed patter that builds to the same crescendo of righteousness. He is so delighted by the chance to play a gotcha reel (in this case, members of the Trump family repeating “I can’t recall” during depositions after a discussion of <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2024/2/8/24066529/biden-special-counsel-report-memory">Biden’s allegedly failing memory</a>) that he almost manages to make the old trick feel new again. He almost manages to make you think, “Wow, Jon Stewart could have done something with the Trump era.” Almost.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gHJm6a">
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Jon Stewart’s great satirical gift is his ability to puncture hypocrisy, which is why he became one of the most <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/arts/television/17kaku.html">trusted sources of news</a> in America during the 2000s. George W. Bush was Stewart’s perfect foil: a president who talked of compassionate conservatism and grand existential battles of good versus evil while <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/9/12123022/george-w-bush-lies-iraq-war">lying to the public</a> and embroiling America in dirty, vicious <a href="https://www.vox.com/22639548/911-anniversary-war-on-terror-liberal-interventionism">wars that dragged on for decades</a>. No one could puncture Bush’s pieties as well as Jon Stewart. Nothing was more satisfying to watch than Stewart’s mugging face, eyes wide with faux shock, next to a video montage that promised to expose, once and for all, that Bush administration doublespeak.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5pgH7a">
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Stewart’s version of <em>The Daily Show</em> lost some of its urgency during the Obama administration, as the brand of liberal centrism he championed ascended to cultural primacy and he lost his ability to position himself as the scrappy outsider unmasking a lying president. Still, most presidents have their hypocrisies, and Stewart found plenty to puncture during the Obama years: his initially tepid <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/oct/03/jon-stewart-barack-obama">support of gay marriage</a>, the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2014/02/jon-stewart-dissects-obamas-love-affair-drones/358305/">drone warfare</a>, the IRS targeting of <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/464289/watch-jon-stewart-finds-two-people-who-cant-criticize-obama">Tea Party groups</a>. He left <em>The Daily Show</em> in 2015, just before Trump became the Republican candidate and the liberal consensus worldview of <em>Daily Show</em> viewers shattered.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bPShKy">
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Stewart, by and large, sat out the Trump years, so we don’t know for sure what his comedy would have looked like in that troubled era. We did, however, watch all the comedians who came up on <em>The Daily Show</em> try and fail to grapple with Trump, a president who never bothered to veil his indiscretions, who was so straightforwardly villainous that he had no hypocrisy there to be exposed. Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Trevor Noah — the more they talked about Trump, the more they seemed to become less funny and more earnest. They could not make his actions more absurd by hyperbole. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/magazine/trump-liberal-comedy-tv.html">Sarcasm was no longer attractive to audiences</a>, who craved clear demarcations between the comedians who were on their side and those on Trump’s side. Robbed of their most effective weapons, liberal comics ended up spending the Trump years like much of the left did: alternating between rage and tears.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ih7hPk">
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“For the last 20 years we [the left] have owned the cultural terrain of comedy and irony, arguably to good effect,” <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23440579/comedy-wars-greg-gutfeld-jon-stewart-stephen-colbert-liberal-conservative">Nick Marx, a media scholar</a> who studies political humor, told me in 2022. “The Trump era made liberals forget that. It made our comedians want to act like paternal figures who would pat us on the head.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gO1EP9">
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As liberal comedy faltered, right-wing comedy rushed to fill the power vacuum. <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23440579/comedy-wars-greg-gutfeld-jon-stewart-stephen-colbert-liberal-conservative">Conservative comedians</a> now position themselves as the truly edgy and transgressive ones, the people speaking truth to the power of liberal elitists, the heirs apparent to the tradition begun by Jon Stewart.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bLqHGw">
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“There’s a rebelliousness in the way people think of this right-wing comedy, right?” Matt Sienkiewicz said in 2022. Sienkiewicz co-authored <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/that-s-not-funny-how-the-right-makes-comedy-work-for-them-nick-marx/17429690?ean=9780520382138"><em>That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them</em></a> alongside Marx. “Even if it really is regressive and pointing back to old dominant ideas. But it can be branded as being the opposite of Stephen Colbert crying about January 6 during his monologue, which is very much not cool to the teens.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8KLm5n">
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Stewart’s return comes not during the Trump era but during the Biden presidency, just as the country begins to stare down the possibility of a second Trump term. Biden is the sort of traditional president Stewart excels at handling; it’s not surprising that the sharpest moment of his first episode came when he criticized Biden’s administration for trying to shame the press out of covering criticism of Biden’s age. But Stewart has yet to prove his ability to cover a man like <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>, especially in a moment when the right has successfully positioned itself as the home of transgressive comedy.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VnnaFF">
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As good as Jon Stewart’s ratings were on his first night, <em>The Daily Show</em> wasn’t the most-watched show on late-night. Over on <a href="https://www.vox.com/media">Fox News</a>, <a href="https://radaronline.com/p/fox-news-gutfeld-jon-stewart-daily-show-return-ratings-2m-total-viewers/"><em>Gutfeld!</em> got 2.2 million views</a>. No matter how skillful Stewart’s performance has been, it’s hard to avoid the sense that he’s delivering a coda to a golden age that ended long ago.
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>The Supreme Court will decide whether to let civilians own automatic weapons</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A man wearing a brown jacket and jeans holds a bump stock on the left while fitting it onto an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle on the right. Behind him are shelves of ammunition." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dXMQHK7LyjoZXOi0EIaBVFLgCf0=/94x0:4315x3166/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73149335/857945106.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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A bump stock device, at left, which fits on a semi-automatic rifle to allow it to fire much like a fully automatic rifle, is installed on an AK-47 at a Utah gun store in 2017. | George Frey/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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Garland v. Cargill asks whether gun makers can evade the ban on machine guns with a device called a bump stock.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PSKKFq">
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On February 28, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a> will hear a case that could effectively make it legal for civilians to own automatic weapons <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/11/3/23943399/supreme-court-automatic-weapons-bump-stocks-gun-policy">capable of firing as many as nine bullets every second</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m7ncGT">
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The case, known as <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/garland-v-cargill/"><em>Garland v. Cargill</em></a>, involves bump stocks, devices that use a gun’s recoil to repeatedly fire the weapon. Bump stocks cause a semiautomatic firearm’s trigger to buck against the shooter’s finger, as the gun’s recoil causes it to jerk back and forth — repeatedly “bumping” the trigger and causing the gun to fire as if it were fully automatic.
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</div></div></li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t3Te4k">
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A “semiautomatic” weapon refers to a gun that loads a bullet into the chamber or otherwise prepares itself to fire again after discharging a bullet, but that will not fire a second bullet until the shooter pulls the trigger a second time. An “automatic” weapon, by contrast, will fire a continuous stream of bullets — though the shooter often must hold down the trigger to do so.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Aib9xP">
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The <a href="https://www.vox.com/trump-administration">Trump administration</a> issued a regulation banning bump stocks in 2018, after a gunman <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/11/3/23943399/supreme-court-automatic-weapons-bump-stocks-gun-policy">used one to kill 60 people and wound hundreds more</a> during a country music festival in Las Vegas. A 1986 law<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922"> makes it a crime to own a “machinegun,”</a> and the Trump administration determined that this law extends to bump stocks.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="31HcPA">
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But federal courts have divided on whether federal law<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/5845"> defines the term “machinegun”</a> broadly enough to include bump stocks, and the law does appear to be genuinely ambiguous on this point.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XuAp1j">
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If this case, which was brought by an individual gun owner who wants to own bump stocks, had arisen just a few years ago, it would have been a slam dunk victory for the government. The Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/467/837"><em>Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council</em></a><em> </em>(1984) generally calls for judges to defer to a federal agency’s reading of an ambiguous federal law, so <em>Chevron</em> calls for the courts to defer to the government’s interpretation of what constitutes a “machinegun.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2dAV42">
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But the Court is <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2024/1/10/24025127/supreme-court-chevron-deference-loper-bright-relentless-raimondo">likely to overrule <em>Chevron</em></a> in a pair of cases it heard in January, shifting final authority over a simply enormous array of policy questions away from the executive branch of government and to the Court itself. And that means that the fate of the current ban on bump stocks most likely rests entirely upon whether five justices want such a ban to exist.
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</p>
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<h3 id="Aj22XH">
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The federal ban on automatic weapons is genuinely ambiguous
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1isVcA">
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Federal law defines a “machinegun” to include “any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.” The plaintiff in <em>Cargill</em> makes two separate arguments that this definition doesn’t extend to bump stocks.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zttBOJ">
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One of these arguments is fairly plausible, while the other is not.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oFghrE">
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Starting with the plaintiff’s weaker argument, his lawyers claim that a gun equipped with a bump stock does not fire “automatically.” The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a far-right court that <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/27/23496264/supreme-court-fifth-circuit-trump-court-immigration-housing-sexual-harrassment">routinely issues dubiously reasoned decisions</a> implementing conservative policy goals, <a href="https://casetext.com/case/cargill-v-garland-3">agreed with this argument</a>, concluding that the bump stocks at issue in this case do not allow automatic fire because they only function if the shooter maintains “manual, forward pressure on the barrel and manual, backward pressure on the trigger ledge.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ndxT0I">
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The problem with this argument is that it proves far too much. If a gun cannot be an automatic weapon if it requires the shooter to maintain continuous pressure on some part of the gun, then virtually all automatic weapons do not qualify as “machineguns.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ObjCN0">
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As the Justice Department explains in its brief to the justices, most traditional machine guns “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-976/293668/20231218165513713_22-976tsUnitedStates.pdf">fire only by maintaining constant rearward pressure on the trigger</a>” — that is, the shooter must hold down the trigger or the gun stops firing. As the DOJ argues, there is “no meaningful difference” between a weapon that requires continuous pressure on the trigger and one that requires continuous pressure on some other part of the gun. Both types of guns should be considered automatic weapons because both kinds of guns continue firing until the shooter stops making the gun fire.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WRgy3e">
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The <em>Cargill</em> plaintiff’s stronger argument, meanwhile, turns on the federal law’s statement that a machine gun must engage in automatic fire “by a single function of the trigger.” Federal judges are quite divided on how to read this provision, which does appear to be genuinely ambiguous.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7fxp3j">
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|
|
Some courts, like the left-leaning DC Circuit, concluded that this reference to “a single function of the trigger” should be read to mean “a single pull of the trigger from the perspective of the shooter.” Thus, as that court said in <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/19-5042/19-5042-2019-04-01.html"><em>Guedes v. ATF</em></a> (2019), a semiautomatic weapon equipped with a bump stock counts as a machine gun because “the shooter engages in a single pull of the trigger with her trigger finger, and that action, via the operation of the bump stock, yields a continuous stream of fire as long she keeps her finger stationary and does not release it.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f1eCCz">
|
|||
|
|
Alternatively, much of the Fifth Circuit concluded that a bump stock-equipped gun does not count as a machine gun because the trigger itself moves back and forth while such a gun is being fired. Although these judges conceded that bump stocks allow semiautomatic weapons to be rapidly fired, they claimed that “the fact remains that only <a href="https://affordablecareactlitigation.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/20-51016-cv2.pdf">one bullet is fired each time the shooter pulls the trigger</a>.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="mS6Ire">
|
|||
|
|
So how should the Supreme Court resolve this ambiguity?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HbQzEe">
|
|||
|
|
Both sides of this case can point to competing rules guiding how statutes should be interpreted to support their preferred outcome.
|
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|
</p>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KiOKlf">
|
|||
|
|
Many judges who’ve ruled against the bump stock ban point to something called the “<a href="https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/23a0086p-06.pdf">rule of lenity</a>” to justify that decision. Generally speaking, this rule establishes that, when a criminal law is ambiguous, it should be construed in favor of defendants. As the Supreme Court said in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/401/808/"><em>Rewis v. United States</em></a> (1971), “ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity.”
|
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|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3MERMW">
|
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|
|
But the rule of lenity is also a very weak peg to hang any legal decision upon. That’s because, in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15392382174933080428&hl=en&as_sdt=6,47&as_vis=1"><em>Barber v. Thomas</em></a> (2010), the Supreme Court concluded that “the rule of lenity only applies if, after considering text, structure, history, and purpose, there remains a ‘grievous ambiguity or uncertainty in the statute,’ such that the Court must simply ‘guess as to what Congress intended.’”
|
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|
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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="Le59aZ">
|
|||
|
|
The Justice Department, meanwhile, points to a rule known as the “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-976/293668/20231218165513713_22-976tsUnitedStates.pdf">presumption against ineffectiveness</a>” to justify leaving the bump stock ban in place. This rule holds that statutes generally should not be construed in ways that aid in “evasion of the law.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8xDadz">
|
|||
|
|
It is also a very old rule. The DOJ’s brief cites a 200-year-old Supreme Court decision, known as <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/22/381/"><em>The Emily and the Caroline</em></a> (1824), which warns against reading laws in ways that would render “the law in a great measure nugatory and enable offenders to elude its provisions in the most easy manner.” (“Nugatory” means that the law is inoperative or unable to function.)
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XZ4UxZ">
|
|||
|
|
“In construing a statute, penal as well as others,” the Court explained in <em>The Emily</em>, “we must look to the object in view, and never adopt an interpretation that will defeat its own purpose if it will admit of any other reasonable construction.” Thus, if a law can fairly be read in more than one way, a court should avoid reading it in a way that renders the law ineffective.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="svcL0Z">
|
|||
|
|
There is some recent evidence, moreover, that a majority of the justices may be sympathetic to the DOJ’s argument that laws should not be read to make them ineffective — even though this very conservative Supreme Court <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/23/23180205/supreme-court-new-york-rifle-pistol-clarence-thomas-second-amendment-guns">tends to be sympathetic to arguments made by gun rights plaintiffs</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kjgEji">
|
|||
|
|
Last August, the Supreme Court temporarily <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/8/8/23824635/supreme-court-ghost-guns-garland-vanderstok-amy-coney-barrett-shadow-docket">blocked a lower court’s decision permitting the sale of “ghost guns,”</a> firearms that are sold in a dismantled state in order to evade certain federal gun laws.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pRwZDJ">
|
|||
|
|
Federal law typically requires gun purchasers to submit to a background check, and it also requires guns to be marked with a serial number to help track the weapon if it is used in a crime. These requirements apply to “any weapon … which will or is designed to or <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/921">may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive</a>.” To prevent gun sellers from evading this law by selling dismantled guns as individual parts, the same federal law also applies to “the frame or receiver of any such weapon,” the skeletal part of a firearm that houses other components, such as the barrel or trigger mechanism.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qlCS93">
|
|||
|
|
Ghost guns seek to evade these requirements because they are sold dismantled, and the frame or receiver is sold incomplete — although often they can be completed with minimal work, <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/8/8/23824635/supreme-court-ghost-guns-garland-vanderstok-amy-coney-barrett-shadow-docket">such as drilling a single hole in the frame</a>.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9C4TF9">
|
|||
|
|
In any event, a majority of the justices decided, in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/080823zr_dc8f.pdf"><em>Garland v. VanDerStok</em></a>, to block a lower court decision that would have allowed these ghost guns to be sold without background checks or serial numbers. <em>VanDerStok</em> was a 5-4 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/9/26/21457704/trump-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-nominee">Justice Amy Coney Barrett</a> crossing over to vote with the Court’s three Democratic appointees.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x3N7D8">
|
|||
|
|
So that’s, at least, some evidence that this Court will apply a presumption against ineffectiveness to gun laws like the one at issue in <em>Cargill</em>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aX3cnr">
|
|||
|
|
Regardless, the bump stocks case does turn on a genuinely ambiguous provision of federal law. That means that, in a world without <em>Chevron</em>, the question of whether gun manufacturers can sell devices that evade the ban on machine guns will turn on which outcome a majority of the justices prefer.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>An attempt to reckon with True Detective: Night Country’s bonkers season finale</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A woman holds a flashlight while kneeling, the light showing ice-covered water." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vFTPVU8ZgsMtZe0XSEmdyp9pEho=/133x0:1844x1283/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73148985/td_kali_reis_1.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Kali Reis explores the ice in <em>True Detective: Night Country.</em> | Michele K. Short/HBO
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
What True Detective’s fourth season gets wrong about True Detective.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m7tIA5">
|
|||
|
|
To be a <em>True Detective</em> fan is to wrestle with uncomfortable contradictions. The first season is both a masterpiece of cosmic horror noir and a piece of art that feels like it was created not just by, but for men. It was a gritty treatise against toxic masculinity that still dehumanized women and ultimately reified the very thing it attempted to deconstruct.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vmmsRH">
|
|||
|
|
For all its critical acclaim and influence on prestige drama in the years that followed, <em>True Detective</em> also generated a deeply toxic fanbase. These fans were men who missed the point but who saw themselves as a vital part of the show’s metatextuality, the real “true detectives” all along. Ever since, that first season has primarily been remembered, not for its incredible acting, its brilliant aesthetic touches, that legendary six-minute <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnRTITzYnXs">tracking shot</a>, nor even the now-ubiquitous line, “Time is a flat circle,” but for the misogyny. Its two subsequent seasons have mostly been forgotten altogether.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GOWL3r">
|
|||
|
|
All of these uneasy truths loom large over season four, <em>True Detective: Night Country</em>, 10 years after its progenitor. Every succeeding season of this anthology series has occupied a lose-lose position simply by not being season one. But season four, by virtue of being centered around two women — a local chief of police (Jodie Foster) and a state trooper (Kali Reis) trying to solve a mysterious set of murders in the unforgiving Alaskan north — has simultaneously raised the stakes for the series and revived all of <em>True Detective</em>’s messy paradoxes.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rAJXZP">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Night Country</em>’s new showrunner and writer/director Issa López needed to accomplish two risky, ambitious goals: The season had to justify itself as a creative follow-up to a work that’s very difficult to follow up, and rectify the notorious sexism of season one in a way that would hopefully allow the series to forge a new path. Its sixth episode, which aired Sunday on <a href="https://www.vox.com/hbo">HBO</a>, had to reconcile both goals in a satisfying finale.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ljb0Vc">
|
|||
|
|
To many among <em>True Detective</em>’s original fanbase, outrage at the second goal has precluded an objective view of how well it’s succeeding at the first. By the same token, many longtime fans are so eager to see the second project succeed that they’re quick to dismiss all critiques of season four’s creative aims as pure misogyny.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0TlJiC">
|
|||
|
|
These seem like unbridgeable positions. But there’s unfortunately a third view: that <em>Night Country</em>’s creative flaws ultimately torpedo its efforts at feminist reclamation, shifting the season finale away from a compelling cosmic mystery and toward a hamfisted Me Too revenge plot that leaves a comic number of plot points unresolved and arguably weakens the whole series.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dvl9wa">
|
|||
|
|
(Note: Spoilers for Sunday’s season four finale abound.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="KdLY8F">
|
|||
|
|
Season Four’s clunky writing and direction never got what made <em>True Detective</em> work
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fwVetw">
|
|||
|
|
To be fair to López, this isn’t the first season of <em>True Detective</em> to miss the mark by a mile. Season two, a hasty, shoddy 2015 follow-up from series creator and season one writer Nic Pizzolatto, featured all the worst parts of season one on speed — the tortured masculinity, the presentation of women as little more than sexy window-dressing, and a poor imitation of all of Matthew McConaughey’s famous existential monologues as Rust Cohle shoehorned into vapid machismo nonsense from Colin Farrell’s dysfunctional detective. Perhaps to shift himself and HBO away from <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/true-detective-weird-fiction-is-not-plagiarism/">misplaced</a> allegations of <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2014/08/true-detective-plagiarized-no-nic-pizzolatto-did-not-plagiarize-thomas-ligotti.html?pay=1708113002847&support_journalism=please">plagiarism</a>, Pizzolatto cut out most of season one’s mesmerizing <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21363945/hp-lovecraft-racism-examples-explained-what-is-lovecraftian-weird-fiction">Weird fiction</a> elements: murky occult figures, arcane Lovecraftian rituals, and worship of the “Yellow King.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iapbi8">
|
|||
|
|
If season two had too little of the supernatural, 2019’s third season was a true return to form, with Pizzolatto returning to the deep South and to a cold case tinged with occult horror, floating on a sense of nonlinear time, and backed by a soul-filled T Bone Burnett soundtrack. But by then, the world was a much different place, and <em>True Detective</em> had to compete with a field of its own descendants — shows as disparate as 2017’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/14/16474370/mindhunter-review-netflix-fincher"><em>Mindhunter</em></a> and 2018’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/3/26/17163368/the-terror-review-amc-dan-simmons-jared-harris"><em>The Terror</em></a>, each successful at cordoning off a sliver of <em>True Detective</em>’s genius for themselves.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UCHAUU">
|
|||
|
|
Still, anchored by Mahershala Ali’s pitch-perfect turn as an aging detective who spends decades trying to solve a cold case, season three really clarified the <em>True Detective </em>formula: A labyrinthine mystery driven by deep characterization, replete with hints of a dark otherworldly version of reality, filmed with an attention to aesthetics, and written with a certain literary flourish. Perhaps most of all, <em>True Detective</em> has to have a philosophy — a commitment to engaging with those eldritch horrors, if only to nod to them and be on your way.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mJVCT4">
|
|||
|
|
On paper, <em>Night Country</em> ticks a lot of those boxes. Inspired by the recently solved Dyatlov Pass incident (<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vwg8/the-dyatlov-pass-mystery-may-have-just-been-solved-by-new-video-evidence">an avalanche did it</a>), the season follows a quest to solve the gruesome deaths of a team of scientists. The group was found naked, frozen, and apparently terrified to death in the tundra near the small town of Ennis, Alaska. Populated mainly by Iñupiat residents whose water has turned black due to pollution from an evil mining plant, Ennis has plunged into its annual winter stretch of sunless <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/life-in-alaska-during-the-round-the-clock-darkness-of-polar-night">polar night</a>, and tensions are high as the local police begin their investigation. Sheriff Danvers (Foster) and Trooper Navarro (Reis) work to solve the murders while navigating their own rocky history. The brutal, still-unsolved murder of an Iñupiaq activist has unexpected connections to the current crime; the women quickly realize they have to bury their differences and work together to solve all the murders at once.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Two women in police uniforms and winter gear look out over a snowy landscape, a police SUV with its lights on illuminating the scene." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Y1bJFreAR1rDeSd3YYIAArIfMwY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25289871/td_jodie_foster_kali_reis.jpg"/> <cite>Michele K. Short/HBO</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Jodie Foster and Kali Reis explore the terror of the Arctic.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ho9AvN">
|
|||
|
|
Like season one, the finale brings us to a literal labyrinth, this time deep in the ice caves beneath Ennis. López has exchanged the Yellow King for an unnamed divine feminine spirit, perhaps <a href="https://guidetogreenland.com/travel-blogs/Christina-gamborg-holm/storytelling-up-north-the-inuit-legend-of-sedna/">Sedna</a> or Mother Nature. (There’s also a tongue-in-cheek reference to the “Blue King” crab company throughout.) The locals all seem to be aware of “her,” and as our story progresses it becomes clear that some of them view the spirit of the murdered activist as synonymous with this ancient entity. In the final episode, we finally meet her — or at least we come as close to “her” as we can get.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aSQoOM">
|
|||
|
|
But the similarities to that first season are all surface. López <a href="https://www.polygon.com/24033358/true-detective-night-country-issa-lopez-interview-spoiler-free">didn’t originally plan</a> to create <em>Night Country</em> as a part of the <em>True Detective</em> universe, and her efforts to incorporate callbacks to previous <em>True Detective</em> seasons make that painfully clear. Throughout season four, references to season one recur, but they usually lack context and aren’t justified by anything happening around them. We learn a season four character had a relationship with Rust Cohle’s father; but so what? We learn our evil mining corporation has ties to evil corporate overlords from previous seasons … and? There are spirals everywhere, but we gain no enhanced understanding of what this familiar motif means.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RWMNdG">
|
|||
|
|
López picks up on the well-known line, “You’re asking the wrong question.” She has characters repeat variants of this statement over and over again throughout season four until it becomes preposterous, an annoying substitute for meaningful writing. Each reference, from “flat circle” to Funyuns, is purely fan service, a distracting blip on the map that contributes nothing to our understanding of the <em>True Detective</em> universe.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pwfUFA">
|
|||
|
|
The same goes for <em>Night Country</em>’s over-the-top horror elements, which range from pointless jump scares to spectral phenomena that appear for no reason. Where season two was completely devoid of the supernatural, <em>Night Country</em> is so full of ghosts that they lose all significance.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2KhLVW">
|
|||
|
|
Other aesthetic choices are so baffling as to be unintentionally hilarious. <em>Night Country</em> utilizes a bizarrely off-kilter soundtrack of somber minor-key covers of famous pop songs that are absolutely incongruous with the mood of the show, from Eagle-Eye Cherry’s 1997 bop “Save Tonight” to eerie Christmas music. In the finale, we get a dark emo needle drop of “Twist and Shout,” and the gravely intoned “Shake it up, baby” lands with such unbelievable dissonance that I burst into laughter.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="pDAYrc">
|
|||
|
|
Night Country’s finale goes belly-up in the most frustrating way possible
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W1kSya">
|
|||
|
|
To be clear, both Foster and Reis are fantastic. Foster’s Sheriff Danvers keeps up a gruff loner hostility, pushing away her family, her partner, and her community, even as she works tirelessly to protect them all. When her exterior finally cracks open, it’s to reveal an unforgettable tapestry of grief and resilience. By contrast, Reis’s Navarro bleeds raw vulnerability throughout, running hot and then hotter as she gets closer to the truth in her long quest to find a killer, and perhaps an even more ancient quest to pursue the unknown spirit of the north.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EWs9Zg">
|
|||
|
|
As individual characters, they fully fit into the tradition of <em>True Detective</em>’s spiritually clashing sleuths who galvanize each other through a charged mix of loathing and shared desperation. Yet Danvers’ cynicism and Navarro’s spirituality never satisfyingly cohere — a fundamental flaw that <em>Night Country</em> doesn’t fully overcome. For all that Reis is excellent, when she and Foster are onscreen together she seems stifled, limited to churlishness and sarcasm. In episode six, Foster delivers an acting master class as her character finally reveals a little of her personal heartbreak, only to be met with a disconnected non-response from Navarro. It’s as if López didn’t know how to follow her own mic drop, so didn’t bother trying. It’s a hesitance that encapsulates a season full of baffling choices and inconsistent characterizations.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y0WXjH">
|
|||
|
|
Perhaps the most baffling choice of all comes in the finale, when we finally learn that the murders of the scientists were facilitated by the women of Ennis, as payback for the murder of the activist — who, it turns out, the scientists themselves murdered and covered up, years ago. The show fully glosses over the improbable way the women learn about this cover-up to barrel toward what’s meant to be a righteous showstopper: They break into the science lab, armed to the teeth, and enact their vengeance, forcing the scientists to undress and fend for themselves in the brutal Arctic night.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cRfISP">
|
|||
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This climax comes off as a ludicrous, unearned payoff, with undeveloped cardboard villagers standing in as mouthpieces for larger political stances, as they have throughout the season for environmental activism and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23559583/roe-abortion-dobbs-reproductive-rights">post-<em>Roe</em> medical care</a>. Here, though, it’s as if López was determined to reverse-engineer a feminist morality play, even if it meant superseding all attempts at coherent storytelling. To add insult to injury, the biggest unresolved “mystery” of the show — the one we’re left to assume was the work of the mysterious Arctic god — involves a human tongue being dropped on the floor. That’s right. We’re meant to believe “she” made her presence known by … spectrally drop-kicking a tongue under a lab table.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k8UvSf">
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(The season’s second-biggest mystery, Navarro’s fate at the end, gets left deliberately ambiguous in the finale’s closing shot. Did she walk into the tundra for good, following the siren song of the ice goddess a la <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/11/19/20966783/frozen-2-soundtrack-best-songs-into-the-unknown"><em>Frozen 2</em></a>, or did she come back alive? We can’t be certain, but the idea that she’s now a ghost herself would feel more satisfying if Navarro’s struggle and escalating mental breakdown had felt less like a casual aside every now and then.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PVSw7n">
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This absurd plot resolution comes well after Pizzolatto himself reportedly shaded this season, <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/true-detective-night-country-showrunner-responds-original-creators-criticisms">calling the writing “stupid,”</a> much to the delight of fanboys who couldn’t wait to bash the show purely on the basis of its female representation. Who do we root for? Of course we want to root for <em>Night Country</em> under these conditions, and the show has won a high score of “<a href="https://www.metacritic.com/tv/true-detective/season-4/">universal acclaim</a>” on Metacritic. And yet I’ve got a dirty tongue backed by the world’s worst Lana Del Rey album that begs to differ.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="28suep">
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What’s most frustrating about all of this is that this mess needn’t have happened. There are plenty of examples of better written, better directed female crime-solving duos in communities of sisters doing it for themselves. Last year’s criminally underrated Australian dramedy <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2023/07/deadloch-amazon-prime-video-crime-drama-murder-mystery-finale.html"><em>Deadloch</em></a>, for example, mined this formula for comedy gold <em>and</em> plenty of suspense alongside well-earned feminist proselytizing. But it did so by relying on whip-smart writing, a story that bears out the moral, and phenomenal acting and chemistry between its two leads — arguably the truest detectives of all in this farce.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VopdxL">
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The downgrade from Pizzolatto’s season one craft to the clunky sophomoric writing of season four was probably avoidable. If <em>Night Country</em> had just been allowed to be its own thing, without any pressure to either live up to season one or abide by its Weird parameters, it probably would have been a much better show. We can’t fault HBO for wanting to revive one of its best franchises. But <em>Night Country</em> may ultimately go down as a reminder that sometimes it’s best to let sleeping eldritch creations lie.
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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>Dash, Thalassa and The Panther impress</strong> -</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>Irish Rockstar, Macron, Positano and Armory impress</strong> -</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>Daily Quiz | On history of the World Championships</strong> - With the 75th edition of Formula 1 World Championship going to commence from February 29 in Bahrain, here’s a quiz on the history of the World Championships held so far</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>Bumrah likely to be rested, fit-again Rahul set to be back for Ranchi Test</strong> - The decision to rest Bumrah doesn’t come as a surprise considering he bowled 80.5 overs in the first three Tests</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>India’s show of bench strength eases transition concerns</strong> - With Shreyas Iyer struggling to meet the demands of test cricket and K.L. Rahul battling fitness issues, India have been left wondering how to plug the gaping hole in the middle order</p></li>
|
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</ul>
|
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</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>SC examines divorced Muslim women’s right to maintenance under Section 125 of the CrPC | Explained</strong> - The Supreme Court has decided to examine if a divorced Muslim woman can avail of maintenance under Section 125 CrPC despite existing personal laws — what is the case and what do judcial precedents stipulate?</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>Newborn kidnapped in Karimnagar rescued within 24 hours, two including a woman arrested</strong> - The baby was born to a couple from Bihar</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>Telangana | TSPSC cancels Group-I notification; new notification likely today or tomorrow</strong> -</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>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Nalme Nachiyar.</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>Probe underway into potential mid-air collision between two IndiGo aircrafts in November 2023, one bound for Hyderabad</strong> -</p></li>
|
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</ul>
|
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</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>Alexei Navalny’s widow vows to continue his work in fight for ‘free Russia’</strong> - Yulia Navalnya releases a video calling on supporters to stand with her, as she meets European ministers in Brussels.</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>Navalny’s ‘principled and fearless’ widow</strong> - Yulia Navalnaya kept a low profile in the past, but her husband’s death could see her take a more public role.</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>‘Lose-lose’ anxiety marks global security talks in Munich</strong> - The conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine underline deepening geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties.</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>Determination and despair in Ukraine front-line town</strong> - In Lyman, eastern Ukraine, some want peace on any terms, while others still hope for victory.</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>US and UK ambassadors to Russia lay Navalny tributes</strong> - Diplomats in Moscow pay their respects to the Russian opposition leader who died in prison on Friday.</p></li>
|
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</ul>
|
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
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<ul>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>That time the Morgan Motor Company designed a modern coupe, the Aeromax</strong> - Morgan is still best known for making throwback roadsters and for still using wood. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1995617">link</a></p></li>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SpaceX wants to take over a Florida launch pad from rival ULA</strong> - SpaceX now plans at least four Starship launch pads, two in Texas and two in Florida. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004247">link</a></p></li>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Flowers grown floating on polluted waterways can help clean up nutrient runoff</strong> - Cut-flower farms could be a sustainable option for mitigating water pollution. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004198">link</a></p></li>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New FDA-approved drug makes severe food allergies less life-threatening</strong> - Injections over several months allowed people to tolerate larger doses of trigger foods. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004231">link</a></p></li>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Elon Musk’s X allows China-based propaganda banned on other platforms</strong> - X accused of overlooking propaganda flagged by Meta and criminal prosecutors. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004185">link</a></p></li>
|
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</ul>
|
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
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<ul>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The phone rings at 1 a.m.</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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The husband picks it up and yells “how the hell do I know? I’m not a weatherman” and slams down the phone.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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“Who was that?” the wife says.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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The husband replies “some jerk who wants to know if the coast is clear.”
|
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</p>
|
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</div>
|
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<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AssociationSubject85"> /u/AssociationSubject85 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1auadkp/the_phone_rings_at_1_am/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1auadkp/the_phone_rings_at_1_am/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The bartender says “We don’t serve time travellers here”</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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A time traveller walks in a bar.
|
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</p>
|
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</div>
|
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<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Raggedy-Man"> /u/Raggedy-Man </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1auk4wn/the_bartender_says_we_dont_serve_time_travellers/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1auk4wn/the_bartender_says_we_dont_serve_time_travellers/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man is preparing to board a train…..</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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when he hears that the Pope is also going to be using that mode of transportation because he apparently wanted to try something different.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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“This is exciting,” the man thinks. “I’ve always been a big fan of the Pope. Perhaps I’ll be able to see him in person.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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Imagine his surprise when the Pope sits down in the seat next to him. But the gentleman was too shy to speak to the Pontiff.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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Shortly after taking his seat, the Pope began a crossword puzzle.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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“This is fantastic,” the man thinks. “I’m really good at crosswords. Perhaps, if the Pope gets stuck, he’ll ask me for assistance.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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Almost immediately, the Pope turns to the gentleman and says, “Excuse me, but do you know a four letter word referring to intercourse that ends in ‘k’?”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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Only one word leaps to mind. The man feels uncomfortable. “My goodness,” he thinks, “I can’t tell the Pope that. There must be another word.” He thinks for a while, then it hits him and he says, “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘talk’.”
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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“Of course,” replies the Pope. “Do you have an eraser?”
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
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</div>
|
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<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/vect77"> /u/vect77 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1au0ru8/a_man_is_preparing_to_board_a_train/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1au0ru8/a_man_is_preparing_to_board_a_train/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
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|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Few people remember Canada had two Prime-Ministers with the same surname.</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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It’s Trudeau
|
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</p>
|
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/trubol"> /u/trubol </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aubcud/few_people_remember_canada_had_two_primeministers/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aubcud/few_people_remember_canada_had_two_primeministers/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An ego and a superego walk into a bar.</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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The bartender says “I’m going to need to see some id”.
|
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</p>
|
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</div>
|
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<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Gil-Gandel"> /u/Gil-Gandel </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aukxdi/an_ego_and_a_superego_walk_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aukxdi/an_ego_and_a_superego_walk_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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</ul>
|
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