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<title>26 February, 2022</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>Putin Launches His Invasion of Ukraine</strong> - Biden imposes sanctions in response to what the U.S. calls the “greatest threat to Europe” since the Second World War. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/putin-launches-his-invasion-of-ukraine">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Sleepless Night of Russian Air Strikes in Ukraine</strong> - The attacks confirmed that a real war is coming, one that will result in a horrific and bloody toll. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/a-sleepless-night-of-russian-air-strikes-in-ukraine">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inside the American Medical Association’s Fight Over Single-Payer Health Care</strong> - A long-standing battle highlights a profession’s political transformation. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/the-fight-within-the-american-medical-association">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Historic Nomination to the Supreme Court</strong> - The fact that Jackson is eminently qualified doesn’t mean that her confirmation hearing won’t be a bonfire of bad faith—far from it. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/judge-ketanji-brown-jacksons-historic-nomination-to-the-supreme-%20court">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Cyrano,” Reviewed: A Musical Adaptation Plagued by Niceness</strong> - Peter Dinklage, in the title role, tries valiantly to invigorate Joe Wright’s watered-down take on the classic play. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/cyrano-reviewed-a-musical-adaptation-plagued-by-niceness">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>Your 9 biggest questions about the 2022 Oscars, answered</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="Several Oscar statuettes on a table." src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/DY02o0xFN9fH3YCg3MiOXuLCkL0=/226x0:1841x1211/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70553582/3105512.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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The Oscars are coming once again. | Dean Treml/AFP via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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How do you get an Oscar? Who’s going to win Best Picture? Why wasn’t Spider-Man nominated?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Un1nFk">
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After a strange, strange movie year, the 2022 Oscars are nearly upon us. And when nominations were announced on February 8, the usual round of hollering about snubs and outrages and records and surprises commenced.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bhavAE">
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But in the midst of trivia trading and fist-pumping, those who don’t watch the Oscars for a living — <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/1/29/21060179/oscars-academy-
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awards-season">and even some of us who do</a> — can sometimes get lost. What are these Oscars anyhow? Why didn’t my favorite song from <em>Encanto</em> get nominated? Hasn’t Steven Spielberg been nominated for, like, forever?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dw4XVP">
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The Oscars are in a state of rapid change, just like the industry to which they give awards. So it’s worth knowing some of the stranger facts about the awards, as well as what they really mean. Here are nine questions you might be mulling about this year’s Oscars, and my best attempt to answer them in plain, non-film-nerd language.
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</p>
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<h3 id="JcHBp8">
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What’s the difference between the Oscars and the Academy Awards?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x8RKFq">
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They’re the same thing. Where the “Oscars” name comes from is <a href="https://www.goldderby.com/feature/oscar-name-academy-
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awards-1202207531/">a hotly debated topic among awards watchers</a> — Academy librarian Margaret Herrick said the statue looked like her uncle Oscar, or maybe Bette Davis named it because its butt reminded her of her second husband’s — but it’s commonly used to refer to both the awards and the actual gold statuette that the winners get.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yGEkJD">
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The awards are given out by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, a group of around 10,000 film industry professionals (but not journalists or critics) who are invited to join after attaining significant achievement in their field.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="Davis And Warner Hold Davis’ Best Actress Oscar" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hYeSCrcjmf-Vn2zjpcnKFX_7evE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23263739/51887855.jpg"/> <cite>Hulton Archive/Getty Images</cite></figure></li>
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</ul>
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<figcaption>
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Bette Davis and Jack Warner with Davis’s Oscar in 1936.
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</figcaption>
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<h3 id="41kERu">
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What will win Best Picture this year?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G9lXkB">
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Nobody ever knows for sure. But the best guess I have is: Netflix.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="atnW5u">
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Twenty years ago, few imagined that the company that mailed people DVDs of movies would someday be gunning for the biggest prize in American cinema. But Netflix is an empire, one of the “big six” movie studios (along with Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., Sony, and Universal) in Hollywood, and they’ve been trying to get a Best Picture Oscar for years now, with films like <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18102734/roma-review-netflix-
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cuaron"><em>Roma</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/9/27/20887589/irishman-review-netflix-
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scorsese-deniro-pacino"><em>The Irishman</em></a><em>, </em>and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/9/13/20864335/marriage-story-review-baumbach-driver-johansson"><em>Marriage Story</em></a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="okCux0">
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None has yet nabbed the top prize, but the streamer has two dogs in this year’s fight: Adam McKay’s end-of-the-world comedy <a href="https://www.vox.com/22820557/dont-look-up-netflix-silent-night-
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review-apocalypse"><em>Don’t Look Up</em></a> and Jane Campion’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/22791220/power-of-dog-
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review-cumberbatch-dunst-campion"><em>The Power of the Dog</em></a>. One is a relatively conventional Hollywood blockbuster-style movie populated with a bevy of A-listers — Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Timothee Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, that’s just a handful — and the other is the kind of arty drama-thriller that Campion is known for, starring its own list of stunners, all four of whom (Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee) are nominated for their own prizes.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="A
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director behind a camera with an assistant nearby against a mountainous landscape." src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/CEsfpeAt9D_W6xMEPRV90UqOh4Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22869408/powerofdog.jpeg"/> <cite>Kirsty Griffin/Netflix</cite></p>
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<figcaption>
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Jane Campion on the set of <em>The Power of the Dog.</em>
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g4nN6v">
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<em>The Power of the Dog</em> feels like a favorite for the prize; it raked in 10 nominations, the most of any film this year, and has the right balance of artfulness, accessibility, and big names attached to it. (Campion is, among other things, the first female director to ever be nominated twice for an Oscar; the first time, in 1994, was for <em>The Piano</em>.) In that way (and perhaps only that way), it’s not unlike recent winners such as <em>Spotlight </em>or <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/9/12/16288080/shape-of-water-del-toro-review-best-picture"><em>The Shape of Water</em></a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2qEtmR">
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But <em>Don’t Look Up</em> <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/02/dont-get-mad-at-
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me-when-dont-look-up-wins-best-picture.html">seems just as likely to win</a> — a hugely popular film about a current topic (in this case, climate change) with loads of big names. Most importantly, <em>Don’t Look Up</em> has been presented by its filmmakers as the most “timely” film, a movie that aims to make a difference in the world, and it’s a comedy, which moves it into roughly the same category as, say, 2019 winner <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/16/18069756/green-book-review-racism-schomburg-segregation-golden-globes"><em>Green Book</em></a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="egSHpB">
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Either way, Netflix wins.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0CoS2F">
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But could something else win? Absolutely. These two seem to make the most sense, but each of the nominees has something going for it. One truth about the last six or seven years of the awards, roughly since <em>Spotlight</em>’s 2016 win, is that the Oscars have grown more and more unpredictable. There’s little similarity between, say, <em>Moonlight</em> and <em>Green Book</em>; in 2020, the Academy anointed Korean-language super-dark comedy-drama <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/9/13/20864365/parasite-review-bong-joon-ho"><em>Parasite</em></a> as the winner, a thing few people expected to happen.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FgYhZa">
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The reasons have to do with the shifting makeup of the Academy, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22332389/oscars-academy-diversity-membership-2021">as we chronicled last year</a> — and that makes the contest just a bit more chaotic and thus more exciting.
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</p>
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<h3 id="EwhLXa">
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How can a movie be nominated for both Best International Film and Best Picture?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eSsOph">
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This is a question about the Japanese film <em>Drive My Car — </em>and it’s worth noting that <em>Parasite</em> won in both these categories in 2020 — but I’m going to expand it to explain a little about “niche” films and the Oscars.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vblGPB">
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A few Oscars categories silo films into specific slots — notably Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature, and Best Documentary Feature, added in 2002, 1956, and 1941, respectively. The aim here is a noble one: to make sure that movies in categories that aren’t typically nominated for the big one (a.k.a. Best Picture) still get recognized.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ysDHB9">
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But no good deed goes unpunished, and the unfortunate result of this siloing is that international features, animated movies, and documentaries rarely actually show up in the Best Picture category. Technically, any film that’s eligible for an Oscar is eligible to be nominated. (There are also categories for short films, which arguably might be worth bringing into this discussion.)
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AsfHX1">
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But in nearly all cases, the nominees are English-language live-action fiction films. In more than nine decades, 12 non-English films have been nominated for Best Picture, including <em>Drive My Car</em>; only one, <em>Parasite</em>, has won thus far. Only three animated films have been nominated for Best Picture (<em>Beauty and the Beast</em>, before the Animated category was created, plus <em>Up</em> and <em>Toy Story 3</em>). No documentary has ever been nominated for Best Picture.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="A young man looks around in a dark club." src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/ehMNavOsGvfBkZni9uAgojql8Fg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23053545/flee5.jpg"/> <cite>Neon</cite>
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<figcaption>
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A scene from <em>Flee</em>, nominated for Oscars in three categories: Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature, and Best International Feature.
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</figcaption>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8iVLjw">
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Some of that is due to simple and perhaps even understandable bias: The Oscars are based in Hollywood, the center of American filmmaking, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is largely made up of American film industry professionals: actors, writers, producers, directors, editors, sound and art designers, animators, publicists, studio heads, and so on. The bread and butter of Hollywood — English language fiction movies with actors performing live and in living color — is precisely the kind of film they are inclined to nominate. (Notably, critics and journalists are not allowed to be members of the Academy.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JfxIlB">
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But one might make the argument (and I certainly would) that the Academy needs to broaden its horizons a bit. The nominations this year for international films that go outside the international category — like <em>Drive My Car </em>(up for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay)<em>, </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/22810588/flee-review-documentary-animated"><em>Flee</em></a><em> </em>(Best Animated Feature and Best Documentary Feature), and <a href="https://www.vox.com/22911380/worst-person-in-world-review"><em>The Worst Person in the World</em></a><em> </em>(Best Original Screenplay) — indicate a small creep toward change. And yet none of those films’ stars are nominated in acting categories. We’re still waiting for a nonfiction movie to be considered in categories outside the niches (though <em>Flee</em> was nominated in all three). And animation is often relegated to the “children’s entertainment” land.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wdU7LG">
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If winning Oscars at least partly helps determine the directions in which Hollywood’s money flows, then an expanded definition of what can be a “Best Picture” can only lead to more variety and creativity in film.
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</p>
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<h3 id="SMGo3v">
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Why isn’t <em>Spider-Man: No Way Home</em> nominated?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dqR53A">
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The easiest way to explain this is that not enough people voted for it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="npyVOZ">
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Of course, it’s slightly more complicated because this is the Oscars. The first reason has to do with ranked-choice voting, which means that even if a lot of people did put it on their ballots, it likely wasn’t on enough ballots to make the final cut. Ranked-choice voting is strange and byzantine and<a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/2/22/8084239/oscars-2015-ballot"> if you want to read about it</a>, you can, but you could also go out and live your life and nobody would blame you.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RdRIl9">
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The real reason this question comes up is that some have posited that the film, which got pretty decent reviews from critics and was a massive, record-breaking success even during a pandemic where most movies have faltered, should be a shoo-in for at least a nomination. But mass-market superhero films (and mass-market films generally) have often had a harder shot at the Oscars, presumably because voters don’t consider them “serious” enough. Or, if you want to get a little more facile about it, because Oscar nominees have to be “serious” and arty films for snobs with monocles.
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="Two actors in suits and two scientists walk down a hallway." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QGbzruzrcK1kRlpAn3xQQloKgBs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23075861/dontlookup1.jpeg"/> <cite>Netflix</cite>
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<figcaption>
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According to Netflix, <em>Don’t Look Up</em> was its most popular film … ever.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fhu9DY">
|
|||
|
|
A glance at the nominees quickly puts that notion to rest. <a href="https://www.vox.com/22629441/dune-review-villeneuve-lynch-
|
|||
|
|
jodorowsky-herbert"><em>Dune</em></a> is a mega-budget blockbuster based on an enormously popular novel that did brisk box office business (and features a lot of big stars, including <em>Spider-Man</em>’s Zendaya). <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/01/dont-look-up-officially-breaks-netflix-weekly-viewing-record-1234905173/">According to Netflix</a>, <em>Don’t Look Up</em>, populated by a whole bevy of Oscar winners, was hugely popular. <a href="https://www.vox.com/22820439/west-side-story-review-elgort"><em>West Side Story</em></a> is a remake of one of the most popular films of all time by one of the most popular directors of all time; <a href="https://www.vox.com/22617235/coda-review-deaf-captions"><em>CODA</em></a> is a feel-good family comedy pitched straight at the average moviegoer; <em>Nightmare Alley</em> is a big, scary, and kind of goofy melodrama that’s more at home in a multiplex than an art house, and the feel-good accessibility of a classic sports drama like <a href="https://www.vox.com/22790093/king-richard-venus-serena-williams-sisters-racism"><em>King Richard</em></a> (starring one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, Will Smith) is hardly snooty fare.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BON3OG">
|
|||
|
|
In the end, the answer to this question is that not enough of the 10,000-ish film industry professionals who decide the Oscars thought it was worthy of a Best Picture slot. And no matter how you feel about that, it’s far from unusual.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="5nrQjI">
|
|||
|
|
What happened to <em>Passing</em>/Lady Gaga/<em>Parallel Mothers</em>/<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22894837/we-dont-talk-about-bruno-billboard-tik-tok-structure-music">that Bruno song from <em>Encanto</em></a>/the other thing I really love that didn’t even get nominated?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hLpc49">
|
|||
|
|
Here’s the thing: The limited number of slots in any category, combined with the large number of voters, means that things get left out or, in the preferred parlance of the entertainment industry, “snubbed.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dmftdr">
|
|||
|
|
Sometimes that just feels like a fluke. (Remember when the Mister Rogers documentary failed to even get a nomination in its category?) But in most cases there are very real, if not totally satisfactory, reasons that your favorite movie or star or song didn’t make the list.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li id="w23zBq">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Passing </em>was <a href="https://www.vox.com/22770529/passing-netflix-
|
|||
|
|
tessa-thompson-ruth-negga-nella-larsen-rebecca-hall">well-reviewed</a> and beautifully crafted, but Netflix threw its awards season budget behind what it perceives to be its two best bets: <em>Don’t Look Up</em> and <em>The Power of the Dog</em>. (Maggie Gyllenhaal’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/22869285/lost-daughter-netflix-review-explained"><em>The Lost Daughter</em></a>, which did garner a handful of nominations, probably fell prey to the bigger movies too.)
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li id="Jpfb0Y">
|
|||
|
|
Lady Gaga campaigned long and hard for <em>House of Gucci</em>, but I suspect a lot of people hated that movie — <a href="https://www.vox.com/22775518/house-gucci-review-gaga">which is, admittedly, not good</a> — and simply refused to vote for her in it. (It’s also possible that some members, perhaps particularly the vast older group that still makes up the membership, still don’t perceive her as a serious actress.)
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<pre><code> <img alt="A woman in giant dark sunglasses and a fur coat tips her glasses down to look at something." </code></pre>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">src=“https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nEFC8PWnWVkoN07CWO_S_I7bfY0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23025391/house_of_gucci_HoG_TP_00170_R_rgb.jpg” /> <cite>MGM</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Lady Gaga in <em>House of Gucci.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xiJJuY">
|
|||
|
|
Pedro Almodovar is a celebrated filmmaker and Penelope Cruz has earned one Oscar (for the Woody Allen movie <em>Vicky Christina Barcelona</em>), but <em>Parallel Mothers — </em>a great but very melodramatic movie that’s at least partly about the Spanish Civil War — likely didn’t land on enough radars to garner votes.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li id="zv2vJd">
|
|||
|
|
There’s a very specific reason that “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the breakout hit tune from <em>Encanto</em>, wasn’t nominated, and it’s that Disney submitted a different song from the film for consideration. Why? <a href="https://variety.com/2022/awards/news/we-dont-talk-about-bruno-encanto-oscars-1235147940/">There are a few factors</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li id="xTcQju">
|
|||
|
|
Also, movies are only eligible if they were released in the previous calendar year. But because, thanks to the pandemic, the Academy extended last year’s Oscars eligibility window by two months — movies released between January 1, 2020, and February 28, 2021, could be nominated for the 2021 Oscars — the eligibility window for <em>these</em> Oscars is only 10 months long, starting March 1 and ending December 31, 2021. That means that, for instance, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22272309/judas-black-messiah-review-black-panthers-kaluuya-stanfield"><em>Judas and the Black Messiah</em></a> was in last year’s Oscars, not this year’s. Yes, it’s weird.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gE6HNv">
|
|||
|
|
In any given year, there will be some things that never get nominated, and that can be a shame for the filmmakers, actors, and producers. But that’s the nature of the beast, and if a film is great, often history will reclaim it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="NUNM8v">
|
|||
|
|
Okay. So did anything cool happen with these Oscar nominations? Any firsts? Anything I can tell my friends about?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OnHXhs">
|
|||
|
|
Given the changing shape of the Academy and of the film industry more broadly, every year’s nominees come with their own set of records or cool facts. So if you’re looking for some trivia on Oscar night, here are some of the highlights:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li id="Cved0y">
|
|||
|
|
Jane Campion became the first female director to ever be nominated twice for Best Director. If she wins, she’ll become only the third woman in 94 years to attain that honor, along with Kathryn Bigelow (<em>The Hurt Locker</em>) and Chloe Zhao (<a href="https://www.vox.com/22289457/nomadland-review-zhao-
|
|||
|
|
mcdormand-streaming-hulu"><em>Nomadland</em></a>).
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ICWJP3">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Drive My Car, </em>with its four Oscar nominations (including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best International Feature, and Best Picture), is the first Japanese film to be nominated in more than one category.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eS7QzQ">
|
|||
|
|
<em>Flee, </em>an animated documentary that’s in a variety of languages (including Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, and Dari), is nominated in three categories at the same time: Best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature, and Best Animated Feature. It’s the first film to pull that off.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9FvHil">
|
|||
|
|
Troy Kotsur, nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his work in <em>CODA</em>, is only the second deaf performer to be nominated for an Oscar (along with his <em>CODA</em> castmate Marlee Matlin, who won Best Actress in 1987 for <em>Children of a Lesser God</em>).
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UpY3Sz">
|
|||
|
|
For <em>West Side Story</em>, Steven Spielberg earned his eighth Best Director nomination — one of only four directors in history to do so — and perhaps more impressively, he’s the only director with nominations that span six decades. (His first was in 1977, for <em>Close Encounters of the Third Kind</em>.)
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YALFpR">
|
|||
|
|
Will Smith is nominated for Best Actor in <em>King Richard</em>, but he also produced the film, which means he shares its Best Picture nomination with the other producers. That makes him only the second Black man (and ninth person overall) to be nominated for acting in a film and also producing it.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="Smith wears a tracksuit and the actresses
|
|||
|
|
playing his daughters stand nearby." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/0Q24pcqggpGHIib0O5225zFsKHk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23255202/richard.jpeg"/> <cite>Anne Marie Fox / Warner Bros</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Will Smith as Richard Williams in <em>King Richard</em>. If the film wins Best Picture, he’ll share the award with the film’s other producers.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HFAE5k">
|
|||
|
|
Denzel Washington’s nomination for Best Actor in <em>The Tragedy of Macbeth</em> is his 10th overall; he’s the most-nominated Black actor in Oscars history.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li id="hTTxtj">
|
|||
|
|
Kenneth Branagh, whose <a href="https://www.vox.com/22772816/belfast-review-branagh-
|
|||
|
|
troubles-dornan"><em>Belfast</em></a> earned seven nominations, is the first person in Oscars history to be nominated in seven different categories: Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Live Action Short Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rRy2Z1">
|
|||
|
|
Kristen Stewart and Ariana DeBose both landed nominations (for Best Actress in <em>Spencer</em> and Best Supporting Actress in <em>West Side Story</em>, respectively), which means it’s the first year that two openly queer performers have been nominated in the same year. If either win, they’ll be the first openly queer women to do so in history.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r4lQ5I">
|
|||
|
|
For the first time, not one but two couples are nominated at the same time. Javier Bardem (Best Actor for <em>Being the Ricardos</em>) and Penelope Cruz (Best Actress for <em>Parallel Mothers</em>), and Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons (Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, for <em>The Power of the Dog</em>).
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
<li id="QathGY">
|
|||
|
|
The Oscars have long rewarded historical dramas, but it happens that this year, eight of the 20 acting nominees are up for their portrayals of real people. For more on why that might be, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22940904/oscars-2022-real-people-acting-
|
|||
|
|
spencer-ricardos">here’s my interview with the author of <em>The Method</em></a>, Isaac Butler.
|
|||
|
|
</li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="Rpnaei">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="uzTiJK">
|
|||
|
|
So what happens now? How do you win an Oscar?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TpyNmn">
|
|||
|
|
Winning an Oscar is a lot like running a political campaign, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/2/21/18229512/oscar-
|
|||
|
|
campaigns-for-your-consideration-events-narratives-weinstein">I’ve written about the process at length</a>. The playbook is so similar that political campaign experts are sometimes hired to consult during Oscar season. You have to tell a good story (about your film’s “importance,” or <a href="https://www.vox.com/22940904/oscars-2022-real-people-acting-
|
|||
|
|
spencer-ricardos">the great lengths an actor went to in order to craft their performance</a>); you have to meet and greet the voters; you have to make myriad media and event appearances to stay in people’s minds.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RnMJQR">
|
|||
|
|
Opposition research is also a big part of the Oscars, due largely to Harvey Weinstein, who managed to eke out a win for <em>Shakespeare in Love</em> over the heavily favored <em>Saving Private Ryan</em> in 1999 by running what’s been called a “<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/shakespeare-in-love-and-harvey-weinsteins-
|
|||
|
|
dark-oscar-victory">bully campaign</a>” — starting negative whisper campaigns against the opposition and pestering members to vote for his film. Winning an Oscar is expensive and time-consuming, but studios and artists often engage in it because of the glory of winning the award and the career boost it provides.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="mt4NyL">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d77Sy4">
|
|||
|
|
In practical terms, the various Academy branches are now engaged in the process of deciding which films to vote for in their particular categories (everyone votes for Best Picture). Starting March 17, they can cast their ballots, and the nail-biting begins.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="KKIRvC">
|
|||
|
|
What does winning an Oscar really mean?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5wnhSt">
|
|||
|
|
Let’s start with what it doesn’t mean. You don’t get money. Depending on your category, you may not get fame, either. You don’t get a trip to Disneyland or something. You don’t get the guarantee of everlasting glory and success forevermore.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RGMAiP">
|
|||
|
|
But you do get the respect of at least some of your peers. You (and all your fellow nominees) get the opportunity to join the Academy, if you aren’t already a member. You’ll be in the history books, and it’s more likely that people will return your calls. You might have an easier time securing funding for your next project or landing a juicy acting role. Your movie might get a box office bump.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G6PX1P">
|
|||
|
|
And you get a gold statue to put on your mantelpiece.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="H6Tu2v">
|
|||
|
|
When are the Oscars?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nuxd0c">
|
|||
|
|
Glad you asked. The Oscars are on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at 8 pm ET. Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, and Regina Hall are the hosts, and the show will air on ABC. Get hype.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>The war in Ukraine could portend the end of the “long peace”</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Photo of soldiers in Kyiv outside a building damaged by a missile" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/xcR3DkVITdrAjkTwIpkDawCUq7o=/0x0:5120x3840/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70553500/GettyImages_1238745675.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Ukrainian police officers outside a building in Kyiv damaged by a Russian missile, on February 25, 2022. | Pierre Crom/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The decline of major conflict helped support decades of prosperity, but that future is now in doubt.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W00Bvb">
|
|||
|
|
As I walk my 4-year-old son to day care each morning, we often pass by one of Brooklyn’s many old apartment buildings. Just visible near the stairs leading to the basement is a sign, faded with age, of three yellow triangles against a black circle, poised above two words: “fallout shelter.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E529zG">
|
|||
|
|
Such signs used to adorn tens of thousands of buildings around the US, a legacy of President John F. Kennedy’s effort during the height of the Cold War to identify structures that could plausibly provide some protection from the radioactive fallout of a nuclear strike.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o6WHkC">
|
|||
|
|
These spaces were eventually meant to be equipped with essentials like water and medical kits designed to last two weeks, by which time it was hoped that the worst of the radioactivity would have dispersed and survivors could emerge to whatever was left.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7Mzxo0">
|
|||
|
|
But most of the equipment was never moved into place, and by the early 1970s <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/2018/01/23/local-
|
|||
|
|
news/what-do-those-fallout-shelter-signs-actually-mean">funding for the program had dried up</a>, leaving little more than the signs as a reminder of a period when the threat of nuclear holocaust was real enough to prepare for — however futile those preparations would have been.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="9Eem75">
|
|||
|
|
The end of the long peace
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dAnahO">
|
|||
|
|
Those abandoned fallout shelters were on my mind on Wednesday night as I watched Russia overturn decades of seemingly settled international policy with an invasion of Ukraine that was as premeditated as it was shocking. What sets this action apart from the countless conflicts, large and small, that have unfolded over recent decades, is the specter of nuclear weapons.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HhD4jw">
|
|||
|
|
That was implicit in Russia’s decision to exercise its strategic nuclear forces in the leadup to the invasion, in Putin’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/60477712">absurd casus belli claim</a> that Ukraine was going to develop its own nuclear weapons, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/russia/595608-putin-
|
|||
|
|
countries-that-interfere-with-russia-will-face-consequences">in his threat</a> that countries that interfered with Russian actions would face “consequences you have never seen.” As Roger Cohen <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/world/europe/us-putin-nuclear-war-nato.html">pointed out in the New York Times</a>, Putin’s speech “seemed to come closer to threatening nuclear war than any statement from a major world leader in recent decades.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FliKjB">
|
|||
|
|
The irony is that one of the reasons Ukraine was vulnerable to a Russian invasion is that it does not possess nuclear weapons. It agreed in 1994 to give up Soviet nukes that had been left in its territory after the USSR’s breakup <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/21/1082124528/ukraine-russia-putin-
|
|||
|
|
invasion">in exchange for an agreement</a> that the US, the UK, and Russia would guarantee its security. And one of the reasons that Putin could invade knowing that international opposition would be largely limited to diplomatic and financial tools was that Russia still <a href="https://thebulletin.org/premium/2022-02/nuclear-notebook-how-many-
|
|||
|
|
nuclear-weapons-does-russia-have-in-2022/">possesses the world’s largest nuclear arsenal</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="titZgl">
|
|||
|
|
It has also <a href="https://thebulletin.org/premium/2022-02/nuclear-notebook-how-many-nuclear-weapons-does-russia-have-
|
|||
|
|
in-2022/">retained strategic ambiguity</a> about just when and why it would use those weapons, including the possibility it would threaten a nuclear strike if it were on the losing side of a conventional conflict with NATO.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UG8I2m">
|
|||
|
|
As Vox’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/2/25/22949351/ukraine-russia-us-troops-no-
|
|||
|
|
fly-zone-nuclear-weapons">Zack Beauchamp writes</a>, what we’re seeing is an illustration of the “<a href="https://nps.edu/documents/105858948/106279825/Kapur_Sage+Encyclopedia_Stability-
|
|||
|
|
Instability_OCt17/c7952c37-2f5d-4462-9630-5bff04f6cd8f">stability-instability paradox</a>” of nuclear weapons. As the chance of nuclear conflict declines, the theory holds, the risk of conventional war increases, and as the likelihood of nuclear conflict increases, the risk of conventional war declines. That in turn helps explain another paradox: why the decades following the introduction of nuclear weapons — weapons that, in their most maximalist effect, could conceivably bring an end to human civilization — also saw a historic fall in the number of war-related deaths around the world.
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
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|
<figure class="e-image">
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|||
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|
<img alt="Chart of battle deaths 1945-2016" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
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|
cdn.com/thumbor/qJW3mS2GRatT9qzhwWMKoQ6dq4A=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23271308/battle_related_deaths_in_state_based_conflicts_since_1946_by_world_region.png"/> <cite>Our World in Data</cite>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E44Iyt">
|
|||
|
|
These decades go by another name: “<a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/pinker-explains-the-long-peace/">the long peace</a>.” The name can be a bit misleading — for much of the world, these years have been anything but peaceful, with the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace#a-greater-number-of-increasingly-less-deadly-conflicts">number of discrete conflicts</a> beginning to rise in the 1960s and staying high ever since.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JYYL36">
|
|||
|
|
These ranged from large conflicts like America’s decade in Vietnam and the 1980s Iran-Iraq war to countless small skirmishes, often conflicts within countries, that barely penetrated the international media. But compared to the blood-stained decades that marked the first half of the 20th century — which saw more than 100 million deaths in World Wars I and II combined — let alone humanity’s <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace#the-past-was-not-peaceful">tremendously violent past</a>, these years have indeed been a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2003/02/14/holiday-
|
|||
|
|
from-history/05dd0d16-b653-47bd-baab-06794e7291ec/">holiday from history</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bb8ndS">
|
|||
|
|
And if the invasion of Ukraine marks a decisive end to that holiday, as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/02/us-europe-russia-putin-new-world/622917/">some experts have suggested</a>, we risk losing far more than peace.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="mzRDsL">
|
|||
|
|
The wages of peace
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oYnCrK">
|
|||
|
|
When Future Perfect was launched in 2018, Vox’s Dylan Matthews <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-
|
|||
|
|
perfect/2018/10/15/17924288/future-perfect-explained">laid out a founding question</a>: “What topics would we write about if our only instruction was to write about the most important stuff in the world?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ss9MTy">
|
|||
|
|
The years that followed provided some of the answers: the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21492321/global-extreme-
|
|||
|
|
poverty-getting-worse-hunger-death-covid-19">battle against global poverty</a> and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/9/10/20857132/malaria-eradication-2050-gene-drive-lancet-study">common diseases</a> that still kill too many of the world’s poorest; the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-
|
|||
|
|
perfect/2018/12/14/18088514/effective-altruism-poverty-philanthropy-william-macaskill">growth of effective altruism</a> and the rigorous movement to <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/3/20/21186007/coronavirus-pandemic-donate-
|
|||
|
|
help-cash-benefits">do the most good per dollar</a>; the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-
|
|||
|
|
perfect/2020/1/24/21078196/morality-ethics-culture-universal-subjective">expansion of moral concern</a> from tribe and nation to all of humanity and <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22301931/fish-animal-welfare-plant-based">even non-human species</a>; and yes, occasionally, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/12/21/18126576/ai-
|
|||
|
|
artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-safety-alignment">existential threat of superintelligent AI</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qC2ED7">
|
|||
|
|
What these topics have in common is that they all flourish best in peace.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="osAMHQ">
|
|||
|
|
The last half- century or more hasn’t just seen a historic reduction in the casualties of war. It’s also <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/human-development-index#long-run-perspective-from-the-historical-index-of-human-
|
|||
|
|
development">witnessed an unprecedented expansion in human prosperity</a>, as measured in health, wealth, and education. It’s an expansion that is far from perfect and far from complete, but one that has opened the door, even just a crack, to a future that truly could be perfect.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S6e2hU">
|
|||
|
|
That progress, I would argue, depends on peace. Unchecked war is the great destroyer of human value. One <a href="https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-
|
|||
|
|
content/uploads/2021/01/EVP-2021-web-1.pdf#:~:text=This%20is%20the%20equivalent%20to,increased%20by%204.5%20per%20cent.">estimate</a> from 2019 put the economic impact of violence and conflict at $14.4 trillion that year, equivalent to more than 10 percent of gross global GDP.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q1hena">
|
|||
|
|
But dollar figures are only one way of counting the destruction. A world where borders can once again be remade with force, where countries and their citizens no longer feel secure from better-armed neighbors, is one where the broader goals Future Perfect covers (and values) will be harder to achieve, where the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/4/18285986/robot-animal-nature-expanding-moral-circle-
|
|||
|
|
peter-singer">circle of moral concern</a> could shrink rather than grow. It is a return to barbarity.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="gQtW3i">
|
|||
|
|
Fighting back
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nvlIzv">
|
|||
|
|
Understanding the value of peace doesn’t mean the world should do nothing as Russian troops and arms pour into Ukraine — far from it. A Russian takeover of Ukraine at the point of a gun doesn’t merely destabilize its European neighbors; it potentially opens the door for other increasingly authoritarian countries to take what they can by force. Today Kyiv, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/today-ukraine-tomorrow-taiwan-americans-
|
|||
|
|
fear-china-will-copy-russia-1682128">tomorrow Taipei</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L9q2iT">
|
|||
|
|
Even if the chain of events doesn’t end in World War III — and as Dylan Matthews <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/2/16/22935927/russia-ukraine-
|
|||
|
|
great-power-conflict">wrote recently</a>, we have far too little data about great-power conflicts to know when major wars will begin or how to stop them — the political and even psychological foundations of the long peace would begin to erode.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VgN1g9">
|
|||
|
|
Just what can be done to stop this is far from clear. The effective altruism community has <a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/tag/great-power-conflict">recently become more interested</a> in the goal of preventing great-power conflict, but promoting direct cash giving or distributing malaria bed nets looks a lot more tractable than preventing a major war, thanks in part to the stability-instability paradox. How hard can we push back before we risk solving that paradox <a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/aSzxoj7irC5jNHceB/how-likely-is-
|
|||
|
|
world-war-iii">in the worst possible way</a>, a solution that ends in those dusty fallout shelters?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lJvMoj">
|
|||
|
|
At Future Perfect, we pride ourselves on covering the issues that will truly matter for humanity’s long term, not just the news of the day. But this is a rare moment when the news of the day may well prove decisive for just what shape that long term will take.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ady5zH">
|
|||
|
|
<em>A version of this story was initially published in the </em>Future Perfect<em> newsletter. </em><a href="https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/A2BA26698741513A"><em><strong>Sign up here to subscribe!</strong></em></a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P0TMgU">
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, explained</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/4XzdU0c_lRrcDaXSwG8aqSD99Fg=/556x0:5000x3333/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70543719/AP22055420277144.16.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Police officers inspect an area after an apparent Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, February 24. Overnight, Russia began a large-scale attack on Ukraine. | Emilio Morenatti/AP
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Putin declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Now, Europe is witnessing its first major war in decades.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KD1PmR">
|
|||
|
|
Another night of <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1497311131450417155?s=20&t=gRgcgE0lHqL-JB6p6f708g">airstrikes in Kyiv</a> has started. Russian soldiers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/25/ukraine-civilians-
|
|||
|
|
weapons-molotov/">are reportedly advancing on the capital</a>, as the <a href="https://www.axios.com/russian-troops-
|
|||
|
|
invade-ukraine-encircle-kyiv-9b4acc6a-1bb1-4862-8280-11b09471608e.html">Ukrainian government is urging its citizens to fight</a> and warning that Russia was seeking to take Kyiv overnight.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VtjWxn">
|
|||
|
|
“This night they will launch an assault,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “The enemy will use all of their power on all fronts to break our defense.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nUlxNb">
|
|||
|
|
“This night we have to stand [our] ground,” he continued. “The fate of Ukraine is being decided now.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9OSw4R">
|
|||
|
|
This is Russia’s war against Ukraine, as it enters its third day.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TSgMLW">
|
|||
|
|
In the early morning hours Thursday local time, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a “special military operation” into the country of about 40 million, with attacks coming from multiple fronts (from the north, east, and south), and targeted toward multiple cities. As of Friday, Russian troops had reportedly closed in on Kyiv. The Biden administration had warned Congress that the capital could fall quickly, but, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/25/ukraine-invasion-russia-news/#link-
|
|||
|
|
AZZQA2VO2ZHXZDAWXSTQ6PP65U">according to the Washington Post</a>, a senior Biden administration official said Friday that Russia had “not achieved the progress that we believe they thought they would.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<pre><code> <img alt="A map of Ukraine and surrounding countries, including areas already annexed by Russia." </code></pre>
|
|||
|
|
src=“https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Qf_cFpIgn8D4vvgM4HtjLIUnVyk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268561/russia_map_feb24.jpg” /> <cite>Christina Animashaun/Vox</cite></figure></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d8fpMr">
|
|||
|
|
In 48 hours of fighting, the Russian military has not subdued Ukraine, though that could change at any moment. As experts have noted, Russia has only committed <a href="https://twitter.com/KofmanMichael/status/1497319031862448129?s=20&t=f_nS3qmCufGrE1RtW2JIjQ">about a third to half</a> of the tens of thousands of forces amassed at the border so far, and battles are continuing across Ukraine Friday into Saturday morning. Experts warned that the possibility of a severe escalation was possible in the coming days.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yeGxbZ">
|
|||
|
|
Putin’s attempt to redraw the map of Europe may still lead to the most devastating conflict on the continent since World War II. It could cost thousands of civilian lives and create hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the violence in Ukraine.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid">
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image- grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/7GSPd_HZ8uECn0do4rY5AeTj6b8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268404/AP22055415418705.jpg"/> <cite>Emilio Morenatti/AP</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A woman sits in the middle of a crowd as she waits for a train to leave Kyiv on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/DEeZs6ROJukBnLWuKWymzmEb2Xs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268419/AP22055567815036.jpg"/> <cite>Emilio Morenatti/AP</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A woman holds her baby inside a bus as they leave Kyiv on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/jJpifC9wV4jowY7KtifQxXmYHII=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268424/AP22055296438061.jpg"/> <cite>Emilio Morenatti/AP</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
People rush through a subway to get a train to leave Kyiv on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/1lp6vc9DNNBFE99etqpVMmjRpLo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268426/AP22055579406038.jpg"/> <cite>Emilio Morenatti/AP</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A crowd of people struggles to get on a bus as they try to leave Kyiv on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U9XqZG">
|
|||
|
|
The United States <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/24/22949324/russia-
|
|||
|
|
ukraine-war-sanctions-sberbank-oligarchs">imposed the toughest financial sanctions ever on Russia</a>, and other allies joined them in putting harsh penalties on Russia. On Friday, the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-25/eu-set-to-freeze-assets-of-russia-s-putin-lavrov-over-
|
|||
|
|
ukraine">United States and the European Union</a> announced sanctions on Vladimir Putin himself.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nccA4o">
|
|||
|
|
But this is all unlikely to stop Russia from waging its campaign in Ukraine, leaving Ukraine — and the world — in a perilous and unpredictable moment.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="xF3Y8g">
|
|||
|
|
Ukraine is under siege
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ELuw1Q">
|
|||
|
|
After months of building up troops on Ukraine’s borders and failed diplomatic talks, Russia is now waging a full-out war on Ukraine.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6LkRzm">
|
|||
|
|
Tensions escalated quickly this week when, on Monday, Putin delivered an hour-long combative speech <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/2/23/22945781/russia-ukraine-putin-speech-transcript-
|
|||
|
|
february-22">that essentially denied Ukrainian statehood</a>. He recognized the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine where Moscow has backed a separatist rebellion since 2014 and sent so-called peacekeeping forces into the region. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/22/22945610/russia-sanctions-ukraine-nord-stream">As experts said</a>, that was likely just the beginning, setting the stage for a much larger conflict.
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kWpY68">
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|
Days later, that larger conflict materialized. Putin on Thursday announced he was launching an assault “to defend people who for eight years are suffering persecution and genocide by the Kyiv regime,” a reference to a false claim about the government in Ukraine. Putin claimed that the Russian military seeks “demilitarization and denazification” but not occupation. He demanded Ukraine lay down its weapons or be “<a href="https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1496686129667612676?s=20&t=VH3UuivelfhLdzUOBZf8zQ">responsible for bloodshed</a>.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7tKSrb">
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|
Soon after Putin’s speech,<strong> </strong>reports emerged of explosions around cities, <a href="https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer/status/1496684179962187777?s=20&t=Zi61WAOJAXE4Wfg-13DmyA">including Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and the capital Kyiv</a>. The Ukrainian foreign minister <a href="https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1496695889401896964">called it</a> “a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”
|
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</p>
|
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<div id="fCl1qk">
|
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
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Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes. This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.
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</p>
|
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">— Dmytro Kuleba (<span class="citation" data-cites="DmytroKuleba">@DmytroKuleba</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1496695889401896964?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2022</a></p>
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</blockquote>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bdB9Ef">
|
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|
By the afternoon in Ukraine, Russian troops and tanks had entered the country on <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/07bbc5c7-e620-4734-83b5-7bb261363c35">three fronts</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/DanLamothe/status/1496881754317234178?s=20&t=ZlREYbTboYXETLvFCdzXkg">According to the Pentagon</a>, Russia launched more than 100 missiles into Ukraine, an opening salvo that defense officials said may be leading up to a full-on effort to take the capital of Kyiv.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PvOesu">
|
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|
Russians have targeted critical infrastructure, like airports, with airstrikes, and have launched ground operations from different directions, including from Belarus, from the north, from the east of Ukraine, and from the south. On Thursday, Russia <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-chernobyl-russia-invasion-6f4b2da3c9623b7f1bf8f250a73a1bb5">seized</a> the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant 80 miles north of the Ukrainian capital, the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. The International Atomic Energy Agency is <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/iaea-director-general-
|
|||
|
|
statement-on-the-situation-in-ukraine">monitoring</a> developments there “with grave concern.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gWjsc7">
|
|||
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|
Fighting continued across Ukraine into Saturday morning. Kyiv looks to be the target, and there are continued reports of explosions and gunfire in the capital. “They had maximal war aims,” Michael Kofman, research director in the Russia studies program at CNA, <a href="https://twitter.com/WCWohlforth/status/1497307133653700616?s=20&t=_LcdFTNeTwaNGmvlD_lK5A">said in an interview posted on Twitter</a>. “They had a military operation that’s now in progress, first to try to achieve regime change, encircle the capital, and try to overthrow the Ukrainian government, and then a much larger set of pincer movements to encircle and envelope Ukrainian forces. Try to do this quickly and force surrender of isolated pockets.”
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tKWYKY">
|
|||
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|
The Russian army, however, has not been able to completely roll over Ukrainian forces, and some analysts have suggested Moscow may have been surprised at the resistance. “It’s not apparent to us that Russians have been able to execute their plans as they deemed that they would,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said Friday during a briefing. “But it’s a dynamic, fluid situation.”
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iY3biC">
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|||
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|
Margarita Konaev, associate director of analysis and research fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), said she agreed with the assessment that Russia has been surprised by the early successes of the Ukrainian forces — but added that nobody chooses to start a war thinking they’ll face overwhelming resistance.
|
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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="rVxdu4">
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|||
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|
Putin himself has called on the Ukrainian army to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putin-ukraine-zelensky-army-russia-speech-b2023350.html">“take power into their own hands and overthrow”</a> Zelensky, a sign that Putin remains focused on regime change. “According to the available intelligence, the enemy marked me as a target No. 1 and my family as the target No. 2,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/24/world/russia-attacks-ukraine/zelensky-says-russian-saboteurs-are-in-kyiv-
|
|||
|
|
and-he-is-moscows-prime-target">said</a> Zelensky, speaking in a T-shirt on Thursday night.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fKeLXN">
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|
Russia has gone back-and-forth as to whether they are willing to negotiate, but Zelensky indicated on Friday that they are in the process of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-
|
|||
|
|
news-02-25-22/h_309d5dd81a3fcbb3b27886f13b2e3c5e">figuring out where possible negotiations could take place.</a> But, across conflicts, there is usually a severe escalation in fighting before ceasefires, as everyone attempts to maximize their leverage. “I think that they want to inflict maximum damage to pressure the Ukrainian government to seek some sort of ceasefire that is effectively a surrender,” Konaev said.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gHuuJC">
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|
At least <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-latest-updates-0224-303b0bfdc6148c8738d6ac0ca78142fd">137 Ukrainians have been killed</a> so far, Zelensky said Friday. He also said that more than 1,000 Russian troops were killed in one day. That would be an unprecedented number, though experts said all these statistics should be treated with extreme caution because of the fog of war and the incentives both Russia and Ukraine have to push a particular narrative.
|
|||
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="dntNWJ">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
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|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
|||
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|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TCFuYqOosccBRCdNsNx6ULPRsV4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268456/GettyImages_1238719428.jpg"/> <cite>Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="any4tP">
|
|||
|
|
Ukrainian officials have also accused Russia of war crimes after reports of a <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/world/russia-war-crimes-ukraine-invasion-kindergarten-orphange-
|
|||
|
|
shelled-1484074">shelling of an orphanage and kindergarten outside of Kyiv</a>. Across Ukraine, thousands of civilians, of all ages, are <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/25/1083130131/thousands-rush-to-enlist-in-ukraines-army-to-fight-
|
|||
|
|
the-russian-invasion">enlisting to fight</a>. Ukrainian officials called on residents to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kyiv-residents-clear-away-rubble-await-russian-assault-2022-02-25/">“make Molotov cocktails”</a> to defend against the invasion. About 18,000 weapons have been distributed across the country, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/25/ukraine-civilians-weapons-molotov/">according to Ukrainian officials</a>. Meanwhile, more than <a href="https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-
|
|||
|
|
news-02-25-22/h_9ba410be9fa7e694e88df978f8ebbb99">50,000 Ukrainians have fled</a> in the past 48 hours, mostly to neighboring Moldova and Poland, according to the United Nations. Huge crowds have rushed to board <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/guards-fire-shots-ukrainians-try-cram-onto-evacuation-
|
|||
|
|
trains-2022-02-25/">trains in Kyiv</a> to cities in the west, such as Lviv, while some of those staying put have sought shelter in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/25/ukraine-russia-video-photos-shelter-subway-
|
|||
|
|
stations/">subway stations</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="Z9JMCR">
|
|||
|
|
The roots of the current crisis grew from the breakup of the Soviet Union
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vZchCq">
|
|||
|
|
Over the last few months, Putin had amassed close to 190,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, a force that military analysts said was clearly prepared and ready to launch an invasion.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mu6bhC">
|
|||
|
|
Such an invasion would — and does — contravene security agreements the Soviet Union made upon its breakup in the early ’90s. At the time, Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, had the third-largest atomic arsenal in the world. The US and Russia worked with Ukraine to denuclearize the country, and in a <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Ukraine-Nuclear-Weapons">series of diplomatic agreements</a>, Kyiv gave its hundreds of nuclear warheads back to Russia in exchange for security assurances that protected it from a potential Russian attack.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zkYquN">
|
|||
|
|
But the very premise of a post-Soviet Europe is also helping to fuel today’s conflict. Putin has been fixated on reclaiming some semblance of empire, lost with the fall of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is central to this vision. Putin has said Ukrainians and Russians “<a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181">were one people — a single whole</a>,” or at least would be if not for the meddling from outside forces (as in, the West) that has created a “wall” between the two.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="NOhQYw">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TBTdQn">
|
|||
|
|
Last year, Russia <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/17/russia-issues-list-demands-tensions-europe-ukraine-nato">presented the US with a list of demands</a>, some of which were nonstarters for the United States and its allies in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22900113/nato-ukraine-russia-crisis-clinton-expansion">North Atlantic Treaty Organization</a> (NATO). Putin demanded that NATO stop its eastward expansion and deny membership to Ukraine, and also made other demands for “security guarantees” around NATO.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PsCv24">
|
|||
|
|
The prospect of Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO has antagonized Putin at least since President George W. Bush expressed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/01/nato.georgia">support</a> for the idea in 2008. “That was a real mistake,” Steven Pifer, who from 1998 to 2000 was ambassador to Ukraine under President Bill Clinton, told Vox in January. “It drove the Russians nuts. It created expectations in Ukraine and Georgia, which then were never met. And so that just made that whole issue of enlargement a complicated one.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="p-fullbleed-block">
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid">
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tCH3qBpnF0DI05ogozfsm7QA_pM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268491/AP22055348925814.jpg"/> <cite>Sergei Grits/AP</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Damaged radar and a destroyed vehicle are seen at a Ukrainian military facility outside Mariupol on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/clr8nyomXyOwl_LxZcI7iqrjZl0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268495/GettyImages_1238719532.jpg"/> <cite>Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Ukrainian firefighters arrive to rescue civilians after an airstrike hit an apartment complex in Chuhuiv, Ukraine, on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W38GNd">
|
|||
|
|
Ukraine is the fourth-largest recipient of military funding from the US, and the <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/as-the-russian-threat-grew-us-intelligence-ties-to-ukraine-
|
|||
|
|
deepened-225919359.html">intelligence cooperation</a> between the two countries has deepened in response to threats from Russia. But Ukraine isn’t joining NATO in the near future, and Biden has <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/biden-says-it-remains-be-seen-if-ukraine-will-be-n1270807">said</a> as much. Still, Moscow’s demand was largely seen as a nonstarter by the West, as NATO’s open-door policy says sovereign countries can choose their own security alliances.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NFAIWe">
|
|||
|
|
Though Putin has continued to tout the threat of NATO, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/2/23/22945781/russia-ukraine-putin-speech-transcript-
|
|||
|
|
february-22">his speech on Monday</a> showed that his obsession with Ukraine goes far beyond that. He does not see the government in Ukraine as legitimate.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LpXh6Z">
|
|||
|
|
“Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space,” he said, per <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/67828#sel=8:9:vX6,8:24:UFE;19:1:b6m,19:26:Xov;34:1:H38,35:35:2rw;52:72:Wl6,53:55:l2j;60:20:Xr6,60:56:Xry;68:19:WNj,68:80:22Z;69:57:Lj2,70:24:ksw">the Kremlin’s official translation</a>. “Since time immemorial, the people living in the south-west of what has historically been Russian land have called themselves Russians.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w5l7rB">
|
|||
|
|
The two countries do have historical and cultural ties, but as Vox’s Zack Beauchamp <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
|
|||
|
|
politics/2022/2/23/22945781/russia-ukraine-putin-speech-transcript-february-22">explained</a>, Putin’s “basic claim — that there is no historical Ukrainian nation worthy of present-day sovereignty — is <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/22/putin-speech-ukraine-war-history-russia/">demonstrably false</a>.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p2YuKU">
|
|||
|
|
As experts noted, it is difficult to square Putin’s speech — plus a <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181">2021 essay</a> he penned and <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/22931#sel=9:10:3VX,9:43:3Ux">other statements</a> he’s made — with any sort of realistic diplomatic outcome to avert conflict. It was, essentially, a confession that this wasn’t really about NATO, said Dan Baer, the acting director of the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “It was about that he doesn’t think Ukraine has a right to exist as a free country,” he said before Putin’s escalation Wednesday night.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/tkHS16T8H1ZfTP_oUnMbUHjxw3Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268555/AP22055583580010.jpg"/> <cite>Evgeniy Maloletka/AP</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A woman looks at her a damaged house in the aftermath of Russian shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="o7BmE5">
|
|||
|
|
This is the culmination of eight years of tensions
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kXF58y">
|
|||
|
|
This isn’t the first time Russia has attacked Ukraine. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and invaded eastern Ukraine and backed Russian separatists in the eastern Donbas region. <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/content/conflict-ukraines-donbas-visual-explainer">That<strong> </strong>conflict has killed more than 14,000 people to date</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N9fAg6">
|
|||
|
|
Russia’s assault grew out of mass protests in Ukraine that toppled the country’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, which began over his abandonment of a trade agreement with the European Union. US diplomats visited the demonstrations, in symbolic gestures that further agitated Putin.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zPa4Qs">
|
|||
|
|
President Barack Obama, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/7/22916942/biden-lessons-
|
|||
|
|
russia-2014-invasion-ukraine-crimea">hesitant</a> to escalate tensions with Russia any further, was slow to mobilize a diplomatic response in Europe and did not immediately provide Ukrainians with offensive weapons.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1LOhJz">
|
|||
|
|
“A lot of us were really appalled that not more was done for the violation of that [post-Soviet] agreement,” said Ian Kelly, a career diplomat who served as ambassador to Georgia from 2015 to 2018. “It just basically showed that if you have nuclear weapons” — as Russia does — “you’re inoculated against strong measures by the international community.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N6t7Hx">
|
|||
|
|
Since then, corruption has persisted in the Ukrainian government, and the country ranks in the bottom third of the watchdog group <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/ukraine">Transparency International</a>’s index.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JYgyX0">
|
|||
|
|
Ukraine’s <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/neo-nazis-far-right-
|
|||
|
|
ukraine/">far-right presence</a> has grown and become somewhat normalized, and there are <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ab7dw/azov-battalion-ukraine-far-right">government-aligned fascist militias</a> in the country. But Moscow has drawn out those issues to advance false claims about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/feb/17/russia-ukraine-news-troops-border-latest-live-putin-biden-kyiv-
|
|||
|
|
russian-invasion-threat?page=with:block-620e7dc98f0866a40a9d7c6c#block-620e7dc98f0866a40a9d7c6c">genocide and other attacks on civilians</a> as a way to legitimize the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine and to create a pretext for invasion. In his prerecorded speech shared on the eve of the bombardment of Ukraine, Putin said he sought the “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-attacking-ukraine-putin-calls-for-denazification-of-country-with-jewish-
|
|||
|
|
leader/">denazification</a>” of Ukraine.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QstGNh">
|
|||
|
|
To be clear: <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/ukraine/nations-transit/2021">The Ukrainian government is not a Nazi regime</a> and has not been co-opted by the far right. Zelensky is Jewish; he speaks proudly of how his <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/in-israel-zelensky-tells-own-familys-holocaust-
|
|||
|
|
story.html?__cf_chl_tk=v1_GQLtGWLJw39Rnr3rH2370ApoeIIvoiDxF7QBbf_4-1645712713-0-gaNycGzNCL0">Jewish grandfather fought against Hitler’s army</a>.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7idi13vH90l_cb9cCTuPyQzRUC0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268571/GettyImages_1238724008.jpg"/> <cite>Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
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|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Ukrainian servicemen get ready to repel an attack in Ukraine’s Luhansk region on February 24.
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|
</figcaption>
|
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|
</figure>
|
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</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JqZIhK">
|
|||
|
|
Yet, days earlier, Putin used these sorts of claims as part of his explanation for recognizing as independent the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic, the two territories in eastern Ukraine where he has backed separatists since 2014. “Announcing the decisions taken today, I am confident in the support of the citizens of Russia. Of all the patriotic forces of the country,” <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/extracts-putins-speech-ukraine-2022-02-21/">Putin said</a> before moving troops into the regions for “peacekeeping” purposes.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pL641h">
|
|||
|
|
At the time, most experts Vox spoke to said that looked like the beginning, not the end, of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eTBOV4">
|
|||
|
|
“In Russia, [it] provides the political-legal basis for the formal introduction of Russian forces, which they’ve already decided to do,” Kofman, of CNA, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/21/22944995/russia-vladimir-putin-orders-troops-ukraine-east-
|
|||
|
|
donbas">told Vox earlier this week</a>. “Secondarily, it provides the legal local basis for Russian use force in defense of these independent Republic’s Russians citizens there. It’s basically political theater.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7CPdLq">
|
|||
|
|
It set “the stage for the next steps,” he added. Those next steps are now clear.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="zrupD6">
|
|||
|
|
How the rest of the world is responding
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GIFqV3">
|
|||
|
|
The United States and its allies around the world <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/24/leaders-of-us-uk-eu-and-canada-condemn-russian-invasion-on-ukraine.html">have condemned</a> Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it a “dark day for Europe.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/zYQuk82McyCddW-RgQaLeb4YLyg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268596/GettyImages_1238729314.jpg"/> <cite>Michal Cizek/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Demonstrators rally in support of Ukraine at Venceslas square in Prague, Czech Republic, on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c61cOQ">
|
|||
|
|
“The events of last night mark a turning point in the history of Europe,” French President Emmanuel Macron said after Russia launched its attack.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NegcFX">
|
|||
|
|
Biden announced Thursday afternoon that the United States will impose sanctions on Russian financial institutions, <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USTREAS/bulletins/30c2a69?reqfrom=share">including cutting off Russia’s largest banks</a> from the US financial system, and on Russian elites in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. America will also implement <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/24/world/russia-attacks-ukraine">export controls on certain technologies</a>. Along with penalties from the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/west-will-
|
|||
|
|
slap-unprecedented-sanctions-russia-britain-says-2022-02-24/">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-24/eu-sanctions-plan-to-limit-russia-s-access-to-financial-
|
|||
|
|
markets">Europe</a>, these are the “<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/russia/593975-blinken-warns-
|
|||
|
|
russian-official-of-resolute-massive-response-if-it">massive</a>” penalties the West had been warning Putin about. On Friday, the EU and US imposed <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/25/us-to-impose-sanctions-on-vladimir-putin-and-top-
|
|||
|
|
aide-white-house-says.html">sanctions on Putin himself</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J0BjTx">
|
|||
|
|
The United States has said it will not involve troops in any Ukrainian conflict, though the US has shored up its presence on NATO’s eastern flank. On Thursday, the Pentagon said it would send <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/24/russian-invasion-decapitating-
|
|||
|
|
ukraine-government-00011404">7,000 additional troops to Germany</a>. Biden had previously said that the US will continue to provide defensive support for Ukraine, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/24/conservative-mps-
|
|||
|
|
urge-increase-uk-military-aid-ukraine-russia">some</a> are calling for the US and its partners to provide more lethal aid to the largely outmatched Ukrainian army.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="WBJgal">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a2Cilz">
|
|||
|
|
Russia knows that the US and its partners do not want to commit themselves militarily, and, early Thursday as Putin launched his invasion, he offered an ominous warning <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/24/world/russia-attacks-
|
|||
|
|
ukraine#putin-nuclear-war-ukraine">as he touted Russia’s nuclear arsena</a>l: “There should be no doubt that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences should it directly attack our country.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CA6KE0ofkX-Ql-
|
|||
|
|
loBBc7Jf213Tw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23268623/GettyImages_1238730794.jpg"/> <cite>Maciej Luczniewski/NurPhoto via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
American soldiers at the Polish- Ukrainian border near Arlamow, Poland, on February 24.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UxG53w">
|
|||
|
|
NATO <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_192338.htm">has vowed</a> to protect its members from any Russian aggression. On Friday, NATO announced that it was activating part of its <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_49755.htm">NATO Response Force</a> — a 40,000-troop unit modernized after the 2014 Crimea invasion — to protect allies on NATO’s eastern flank. “We are now deploying the NATO Response Force for the first time in a collective defense context. We speak about thousands of troops. We speak about air and maritime capabilities,” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-volodymyr-zelenskyy-joe-biden-bulgaria-black-
|
|||
|
|
sea-c72038503cc6eba5a5d5d22b6cdc9e0b">NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2a4N7r">
|
|||
|
|
Yet these are largely defensive measures, which means most of the punishment against Russia will come in the form of sanctions. Thursday’s announcements didn’t include some of the most dramatic options, like cutting Russia off from Swift, the electronic messaging service that allows entities to communicate about global financial transactions, and targeting Russia’s energy sector. But the penalties are still some of the harshest sanctions ever directed at Russia or a major power like it. That will come with <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22949683/russia-ukraine-gas-prices-oil-
|
|||
|
|
inflation-stock-market">potential costs to the global economy</a>, and especially to Europe and the United States. The price of oil spiked to more than $100 per barrel on Thursday before coming back down.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BEJlCp">
|
|||
|
|
“This is going to impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time,” Biden said while announcing the sanctions. “We have purposefully designed these sanctions to maximize a long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="yF5UAV">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YG9IoK">
|
|||
|
|
The prospects of a settlement with Russia are impossible to contemplate as bombs are falling on Ukraine, but the US and its allies are going to have to do careful diplomacy to isolate and put pressure on Russia in the long term. The US and its allies are also likely going to have to decide how much they want, or can, support Ukraine as it tries to battle Russia.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WT5Q1O">
|
|||
|
|
“The real question, I think, is going to come down to what extent the West can and will try to support and supply a long-term insurgency against Russia,” said Paul D’Anieri, an expert on Eastern European and post-Soviet politics at the University of California Riverside. “And what level of success does Russia have in fighting back against? Unfortunately, it seems like the best strategy for peace right now is when enough Russians die, that the Russians decide it’s not worth it anymore.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<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>AFI kickstarts new season with Open Throws meet</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>India plans to host Chess Olympiad that's been moved out of Moscow</strong> - On Friday, FIDE decided to move the Chess Olympiad and all other official competitions planned in Russia in the wake of the country's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.</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>Virat Kohli's 100th Test match will be behind closed doors: Punjab Cricket Association</strong> - First Test against Sri Lanka in Mohali will be Virat Kohli’s 100th appearance in red-ball cricket for India</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia-Ukraine crisis | Poland refuses to play 2022 World Cup play-off against Russia</strong> - Polish star Robert Lewandowski had tweeted on Friday that he would consult his team-mates about the match and his rejection of war.</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>NZ vs SA 2nd Test | New Zealand 157-5 in reply to South Africa's 364</strong> - Colin de Grandhomme struck an unbeaten half century from 36 balls</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>DMK MP appeals to Jaishankar to make arrangements for the safe return of 5,000 Tamil Nadu students from Ukraine</strong> - In his letter, R.S. Bharathi tells the Union Minister that Chief Minister Stalin has been extremely concerned about the students’ safety</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>Uttar Pradesh polls for saving democracy, Constitution: Akhilesh Yadav</strong> - Akhilesh Yadav said though the BJP talks about sabka saath, sabka vikas, its people are backward only in documents and not by birth</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>Futurescapes painting contest calls upon students to showcase their artistic skills</strong> - JSW PAINTS, in association with The Hindu Young World, has announced the Futurescapes Painting Competition 2022, where students of Classes III to XII can showcase their artistic abilities across a range of themes.</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>Minister reviews construction of Beypore police station</strong> - Direction issued to speed up work</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>Andhra Pradesh: job mela evokes good response from pharmacy, engineering students</strong> - Around 200 youngsters selected in the interviews</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 invasion: Russians close in on Kyiv but meet strong resistance</strong> - Ukraine’s defiant president says the country’s army “broke” Russia’s plan to block the capital.</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 conflict: Kyiv braces for Russian assault</strong> - The Ministry of Defence made the call as Russian forces reached the northern outskirts of Kyiv.</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: The mother putting on a smile despite fears for her family</strong> - Residents take to sheltering in basements for fear of Russian attacks in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.</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 invasion: Russia restricts access to Facebook</strong> - The platform was limited after it refused to stop fact-checking content from some Russian media outlets.</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: Where does it go from here?</strong> - The gloves are off - so what might happen next? What can the West do to deter Vladimir Putin?</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>Do birds have language? It depends on how you define it</strong> - Scientists find some parallels with human speech in cheeps and trills of birdsong. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1836678">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Webb Telescope reaches major milestone: All its light is in one place</strong> - A single dot means we’re nearly halfway through focusing the telescope. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1836859">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Haunted house study sheds light on how human body responds to threats</strong> - Caltech study recruited participants from SoCal’s 17th Door haunted house experience. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1835563">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CDC issues new guidance on mask use</strong> - Most of the country falls into categories where face mask use is considered optional. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1836801">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reddit’s iOS and Android app gets its biggest update in years</strong> - There’s no web version yet, though. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1836695">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>As a butcher is shooing away a dog from his shop, he sees a $10 bill and a note in his mouth, reading: “5 lamb chops, please.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
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|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Amazed, he takes the money, puts a bag of chops in the dog’s mouth, and quickly closes the shop.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He follows the dog and watches him wait for a green light, look both ways, and trot across the road to a bus- stop. The dog checks the timetable and sits on the bench. When a bus arrives, he walks around to the front and looks at the number, then boards the bus. The butcher follows, dumbstruck. As the bus travels out into the suburbs, the dog takes in the scenery. After awhile he stands on his back paws to push the “stop” bell, then the butcher follows him off. The dog runs up to a house and drops his bag on the step. He goes back down the path, takes a big run, and throws himself -Whap!- against the door. He does this again and again. No answer. So he jumps on a wall, walks around the garden, beats his head against a window, jumps off, and waits at the front door. A big guy opens it and starts cursing and shouting at the dog.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The butcher runs up and screams at the guy: “What the hell are you doing? This dog’s a genius!” The owner responds, “Genius, my ass… It’s the second time this week he’s forgotten his keys!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!--
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Rabbit__King"> /u/Rabbit__King </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/t1e5pg/as_a_butcher_is_shooing_away_a_dog_from_his_shop/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/t1e5pg/as_a_butcher_is_shooing_away_a_dog_from_his_shop/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>and we saw dogs mating. She said: “How does the male know when the female is ready for sex?” I replied: “He can smell she is ready . That’s how nature works.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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We then walked past a sheep field and the ram was mating the ewe.
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</p>
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Again my girlfriend asked: “How does the ram knew when the ewe is ready for sex?”
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I replied: “It’s nature. He can smell she is ready.”
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We then went past a cow-field and the bull was mating with the cow.
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My girlfriend said: “This is odd. They are really going at it. Surely the bull can’t smell when she is ready?”
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I said: “Oh, yes; it’s nature . All animals can smell when the female is ready for sex.”
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Anyway, after the walk, I dropped her home and kissed her goodbye.
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She said: “Take care and get yourself checked out for Covid-19.”
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Surprised, “Why do you say that?” I asked her.
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She replied: “You seem to have lost your sense of smell.”
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<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/t1gwbc/and_we_saw_dogs_mating_she_said_how_does_the_male/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/t1gwbc/and_we_saw_dogs_mating_she_said_how_does_the_male/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird’s chest.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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After a moment or two, the vet shook his head and sadly said, “I’m sorry, your duck, Cuddles, has passed away.”
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The distressed woman wailed, “Are you sure?” “Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead,” replied the vet..
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“How can you be so sure?” she protested. “I mean you haven’t done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something.”
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</p>
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The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a black Labrador Retriever. As the duck’s owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.
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</p>
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The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room. A few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.
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</p>
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The vet looked at the woman and said, “I’m sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck.”
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</p>
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The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman..
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</p>
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The duck’s owner, still in shock, took the bill. “$150!” she cried, “$150 just to tell me my duck is dead!”
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</p>
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The vet shrugged, “I’m sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been $20, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it’s now $150.”
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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/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/t1gahb/a_woman_brought_a_very_limp_duck_into_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/t1gahb/a_woman_brought_a_very_limp_duck_into_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Why is president Zelensky still in Kiev?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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His humongous balls keep getting stuck in the doorway.
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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/chr1su"> /u/chr1su </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/t1p2bj/why_is_president_zelensky_still_in_kiev/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/t1p2bj/why_is_president_zelensky_still_in_kiev/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>How many Irishmen does it take to change a lightbulb?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Two.
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</p>
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One to hold the bulb, and one to drink until the room starts spinning.
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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/No-Low-8597"> /u/No-Low-8597 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/t1accr/how_many_irishmen_does_it_take_to_change_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/t1accr/how_many_irishmen_does_it_take_to_change_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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</ul>
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