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HTML
586 lines
69 KiB
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>19 October, 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>Can Organized Labor Win Back Wisconsin?</strong> - The Senate race between Ron Johnson and Mandela Barnes is a battle between two visions of how jobs are made and kept. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/campaign-chronicles/can-organized-labor-win-back-wisconsin">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Oakland Parents Are Flocking to a Chinese-Immersion School</strong> - The success of Yu Ming Charter School shows how our usual ways of thinking about diversity and equity in American schools are becoming outmoded. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-oakland-parents-are-flocking-to-a-chinese-immersion-school">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia Bombards Kyiv with a Crude New Weapon</strong> - Kamikaze drones struck the Ukrainian capital just after sunrise. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/russia-bombards-kyiv-with-a-crude-new-weapon">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Supreme Court’s Self-Conscious Take on Andy Warhol</strong> - In a copyright case, the Justices revealed their own anxieties about interpreting precedents. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-supreme-courts-self-conscious-take-on-andy-warhol">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Humiliating End to Trussonomics</strong> - The British government’s dramatic U-turn shows how policy mistakes can be rapidly punished in times of global economic uncertainty. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/a-humiliating-end-to-trussonomics">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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<li><strong>Let’s go down the rabbit hole of Taylor Swift conspiracy theories</strong> -
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6LPRI2rVAfioK0CoANja4svJ1U4=/573x0:5146x3430/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71515050/1243395808.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Nashville Songwriter Awards on September 20, in Nashville, Tennessee. | Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The theories surrounding Taylor Swift’s forthcoming album, Midnights, explained.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PwUAr0">
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This Friday, Taylor Swift will be dropping her 10th studio album, <em>Midnights</em>. A number of fans looking forward to the release are convinced that Swift is going to take the opportunity of the album drop to make some big reveal, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/photos/2016/10/conspiracy-theories-taylor-swift">as always seems to be the case with Swifties</a>. What’s more, they believe that she’s seeded Easter eggs for said reveal going back years. Because is it really a Taylor Swift album release if we’re not close-reading offhand comments she said to Jimmy Fallon three years ago?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uhqYDl">
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There are two major fan theories at play in the lead-up to <em>Midnights</em>. The first we’re going to call the Karma theory. The second is the Gaylor theory. One of them has been nearly confirmed, and the other nearly dashed.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QPPh96">
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Break out your decoder rings. Find a comically oversized magnifying glass. We’re about to go sleuthing.
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</p>
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<h3 id="VliRwE">
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Is there a secret lost Taylor Swift album?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OWHuX3">
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Swift recently announced that track 11 on <em>Midnights</em> would be titled “Karma.” This title fits neatly into the Karma theory, which runs as follows: There is a secret unreleased Taylor Swift album titled <em>Karma</em> that was supposed to come out in 2016. This hypothetical album, fans believe, was scrapped following the infamous <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/3/21/21189239/taylor-swift-kanye-west-famous-leaked-phone-call-kanye-west-is-over-party">#KimExposedTaylorParty</a>, when Kim Kardashian released excerpts of tapes that appeared to catch Swift in a messy public lie, and the public rapidly turned on her. (The full tape, released four years later in 2020, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/3/21/21189239/taylor-swift-kanye-west-famous-leaked-phone-call-kanye-west-is-over-party">would exonerate Swift</a>.) The “Karma” song on <em>Midnights</em>, fans believe, will be an unreleased track from the secret scrapped <em>Karma</em> album, and likely a diss track aimed directly at Kanye West <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23398795/kanye-west-ye-antisemitic-bigot-white-lives-matter-tucker-carlson-art-vs-artist">as his reputation continues to plummet</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cVP7qt">
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Here’s the evidence for the Karma theory. For the first part of her career, Swift dropped a new album every two years precisely. If she were following established patterns, then her sixth album, the followup to 2014’s <em>1989</em>, should have come out in 2016. But after her feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West made her a public pariah, Swift skipped a year, releasing <em>Reputation</em> in 2017 instead. Was there, fans demand to know, another album that was supposed to come out in 2016 instead, preempted for <em>Reputation</em> after Swift’s fall from grace?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HTJ0qr">
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Yes there was, many of those fans decided after Swift dropped the video for the first single of the <em>Reputation</em> era, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tmd-ClpJxA">Look What You Made Me Do</a>.” There, Swift can be seen cutting off the wings to an airplane labeled “TS6” — or, perhaps, Taylor Swift’s sixth album — and scrawling the word “reputation” over it: perhaps an allusion to the idea that her planned sixth album was scrapped and rebuilt into <em>Reputation</em>. “The world moves on, another day, another drama drama,” she sings. “But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uDRmKV">
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Two years later, Swift once again appeared to drop a few hints about the mysterious and lost TS6. In the music video for “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqAJLh9wuZ0">The Man</a>,” the camera pans over a graffitied wall tagged with the titles of Taylor Swift albums — and the word <em>karma</em>, which appears twice on the wall. Next to one of the <em>karma</em> tags is a sign that says, “MISSING / IF FOUND RETURN TO TAYLOR SWIFT.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RCTbVe">
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Once fans had the word <em>karma</em>, they were off to scour Swift’s old interviews and talk show appearances for more clues. Soon enough, they hit paydirt. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnbCSboujF4">a 2016 interview with Vogue</a>, asked for her favorite life lesson, Swift replied enigmatically, “Karma is real.” It would have been just like Swift, fans concluded, for her to have begun hiding promotional Easter eggs for what she thought would be her next album as she brought her <em>1989</em> era to a close.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I6o02j">
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So far, so Swiftian. But if <em>Karma</em> was written before Taylor’s feud with Kanye went red hot, why do so many of her fans think it’s a Kanye diss track? Here we have to delve into Taylor Swift numerology. You will recall that “Karma” is track 11 on <em>Midnight</em>. Well! The first time Swift wrote a song about Kanye, back in 2010 <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/26/20828559/taylor-swift-kanye-west-2009-mtv-vmas-explained">after he charged the stage during her VMAs acceptance speech</a>, <em>that song was also track 11</em>. Coincidence?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C03qr3">
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The Karma theory actually has gotten confirmation of a sort from Swift herself. After Swift announced that a track titled “Karma” would be appearing on <em>Midnights</em>, <a href="https://twitter.com/taylornation13/status/1577882756159348736">her management team triumphantly tweeted out</a> a gif from the “Man” video showing the karma-tagged wall. No one on Swift’s team has confirmed that a secret <em>Karma</em> album exists or that the new “Karma” song is about Kanye, but the tweet appeared to confirm that at the very least, there was an intentional connection between the karma graffiti in “The Man” and the “Karma” track on <em>Midnights</em>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8mngyC">
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Along with the gif, the tweet read, “Like how far is too far in advance? Can we hint at something three years in advance?” The quote is an allusion to <a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/taylor-swift-releases-new-red-taylor-s-version-album-t238762">Swift’s 2021 interview with Jimmy Fallon</a>, in which she talks about how she began planting Easter eggs for her fans in her very first album.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZifP7D">
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“All I started thinking of was, ‘How do I hint at things, like how far is too far in advance? Can I hint at something three years in advance? Can I even plan things out that far? I think I’m going to try to do it,’” Swift said at the time. “I think that it is perfectly reasonable for people to be normal music fans and to have a normal relationship to music. But if you want to go down a rabbit hole with us, come along, the water’s great.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7RpmRE">
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We’re about to dive a little deeper down into the rabbit hole as we turn to the Gaylor theory.
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</p>
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<h3 id="ZstNwm">
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Is Taylor Swift secretly gay?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X6C4eY">
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The most expansive definition of a Gaylor would be, “<a href="https://www.vox.com/21337354/folklore-taylor-swift-kaylor-betty-gay-lesbian-subtext">Someone who is interested in bringing a queer reading to Swift’s songbook</a>.” A person who is very certain that Swift is straight and that her longterm partnership with Joe Alwyn is for real, but also feels “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TAPqXkZW_I">Betty</a>” is a deeply queer song, might identify as a Gaylor. The category also includes people who believe strongly that Swift is either gay or bisexual and in the closet but has had secret relationships with women. That’s the crowd we’re dealing with next. In the lead-up to <em>Midnights</em>’ release, their theory has not been hyped up so much as smashed.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6P4yBH">
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As with the Karma theory, we’ll begin with a track title reveal. “Lavender Haze” is the title of the first track on <em>Midnights</em>, and since lavender is frequently used as a symbol of the queer community, Gaylors came to the conclusion that “Lavender Haze” would probably be a pretty gay song.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CTdjdG">
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Then Swift clarified. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CjZfqKnrKHk/">In a video posted to Instagram</a>, she explained that she happened upon the phrase in an episode of <em>Mad Men</em> and liked it, and that she took it to describe the feeling of being in the early stages of love or infatuation. Queerness never entered into her definition.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QHFYnQ">
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Then Swift took her reasoning, for many Gaylors, a bridge too far. When you’re in the lavender haze, she explained, you want to stay there despite the obstacles, including other people’s opinions about your relationship. “Like my relationship for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it,” she went on.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zWDgWu">
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So Swift was not only going to make “Lavender Haze” a song about straight people, but she was also going to call Gaylor theories “<em>weird</em>”?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eSGox0">
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“Us Gaylors, we are Ukraine,” <a href="https://www.gawker.com/celebrity/gaylors-turning-on-taylor-swift-lavender-haze-explained">one Gaylor said in a now-deleted TikTok in response</a>. “Taylor, you just handed Russia nuclear bombs.” Some accused Swift of “queer-baiting.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uRYuN0">
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The “Lavender Haze” debacle isn’t the first time Swift has gotten Gaylors’ hopes up only to dash them at the last minute. In the lead-up to announcing her 2019 album <em>Lover</em>, Swift took to dressing in rainbows (the symbol of gay pride!) and declared she had a big announcement to come on April 26 (Lesbian Visibility Day!). She announced the album in an interview with Robin Roberts (known lesbian!). In the music video for the album’s second single, “<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/17/18682588/taylor-swift-you-need-to-calm-down-gay-anthem">You Need to Calm Down</a>,” she donned a wig in the colors of the bisexual flag and sang about gay pride.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gwlnYU">
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Then <em>Lover</em> dropped, and it turned out to be full of straight-people wedding songs. A new round of conspiracy theories cropped up regarding whether Swift and Alwyn had secretly gotten engaged or perhaps even married. The whole thing was in many ways a classic Taylor Swift queer rumor cycle: it all seems almost plausible until it becomes emphatically heterosexual.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p70tCE">
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The Gaylor response to “Lavender Haze” might feel hyperbolic or needlessly aggressive, especially since Swift has never made any public statements about being queer and has been in multiple extremely public relationships with men. But it is in its way a counterpart to the kind of silly and harmless fan speculation behind the Karma theory.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GzrHde">
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Swift laces her music with Easter eggs, and then she invites her fans to go hunting for them. That’s part of how she creates the potent best-friend intimacy she shares with her fan base, this sense that she understands them and they understand her on some magical, distant level. Part of Swift’s genius is that her songs depict emotions that feel at once universal and deeply specific, so that it’s possible for her fans to feel deeply seen by her work. When they go off looking for the Easter eggs she’s told them she’s hidden, they get to feel that they are seeing her back. They, and they alone, understand Swift’s hidden pain, her secret loves, because she’s the only one who understands theirs.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yZt25A">
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But now that she’s sent that invitation out, everyone who heard it feels entitled to go on the hunt.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fjz3Op">
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Down in the rabbit hole, the water’s great.
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>“Dirty” cows are destroying the Amazon rainforest</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A drawing of cattle on the edge of a forest." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jfKONWPwTW46kmpxRV2rUQ60bNs=/127x0:2794x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71514949/darkcow__final.0.png"/>
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<figcaption>
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Major beef companies signed zero-deforestation agreements more than a decade ago, yet the Amazon rainforest continues to fall. | Amanda Northrop/Vox
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The beef industry is flattening the Amazon, even when companies tell you it’s not.
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On paper, the Brazilian Amazon is one of the most protected ecosystems on the planet. There are <a href="https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-320">thousands</a> of protected areas, in addition to rules that safeguard forests on private lands.
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More importantly, big meatpacking companies that buy cattle — the <a href="https://research.wri.org/gfr/forest-extent-indicators/deforestation-agriculture">largest driver</a> of deforestation, by far, in the Amazon — committed more than a decade ago to only buy cattle from land without forest loss. This commitment was supposed to prevent any additional losses.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ao9q5q">
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Yet year after year, satellites that monitor changes in forest cover find the same thing: The Amazon is shrinking. Between August 1, 2018, and July 31, 2021, <a href="http://www.obt.inpe.br/OBT/assuntos/programas/amazonia/prodes">more than 34,000 square km</a> (8.4 million acres) disappeared from the Brazilian Amazon. That’s an area larger than the entire nation of Belgium, and a 52 percent increase compared to the previous three years.
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It doesn’t add up. Assuming satellites don’t lie, someone is hiding deforestation.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<div id="smaruF">
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<div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Qsf85">
|
|||
|
|
Over the last decade, scientists and environmental advocates have begun to uncover those missing hectares, and their research points to a concerning practice in the beef industry: “cattle laundering.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g2e3wj">
|
|||
|
|
In a cattle laundering scheme, ranchers move cattle from “dirty” ranches, which contribute to deforestation, to ranches that are “clean,” with no recent forest loss. By the time those cattle arrive at slaughterhouses, the path they’ve taken is obscured, as is the damage they’ve caused.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="An aerial view of hundreds of cows in a field." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yvQrzM2eSKGFjqlfNTs8hyrHHOc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24120162/GettyImages_1237510731.jpg"/> <cite>Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite>
|
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|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Cattle on a farm in Xinguara, Para state, Brazil, one of the most deforested regions of the Brazilian Amazon.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="To1RcB">
|
|||
|
|
This deforestation is often invisible to meat companies, but increasingly, researchers can see it. Just this week, a <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12916">new study</a> found that millions of cattle purchased by slaughterhouses were at least partially raised in protected areas in the Amazon — arguably, some of the most important natural regions on Earth, many of which are home to Indigenous communities.
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SozZNa">
|
|||
|
|
What’s astonishing is that much of this laundering is happening out in the open; investigations largely rely on public records in Brazil, and their findings have circulated for years. Meat from laundered cows is almost certainly now sold around the world. And like that, the Amazon continues to fall.
|
|||
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0syu0K">
|
|||
|
|
But there is a way to clean up the industry, to salvage the remaining Amazon forest. It starts with understanding the journey of a cow.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="AFrTu7">
|
|||
|
|
Beef is eating up the Amazon
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7Z3jyj">
|
|||
|
|
All sorts of products we rely on have helped erode tropical forests, such as oil palm and timber. But the main cause of global deforestation is, without question, <a href="https://research.wri.org/gfr/forest-extent-indicators/deforestation-agriculture">cattle ranching</a>. This is especially true in Brazil, the <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/sector-at-a-glance/#:~:text=Canada%2C%20the%20largest%20beef%20supplier,of%20U.S.%20beef%20imports%2C%20respectively.">world’s largest</a> exporter of beef. As much as <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/how-illegal-land-grabs-in-brazils-amazon-feed-the-global-beef-industry">90 percent</a> of all forest that’s been cleared in the Brazilian Amazon is now covered in pasture, most of which is for cattle.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SZmPMZ">
|
|||
|
|
There’s nothing inherent about the Amazon that makes it a good place to raise cows, though it’s an easy way to make money, said Amintas Brandão Jr., a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Often, farmers or companies will first cut down high-value trees and sell them as timber and then clear the remaining vegetation with fire. Then, they bring cattle in and sell the property, or raise the cows for slaughter.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WPBbeY">
|
|||
|
|
This pathway of deforestation has existed for decades, but in 2009, Greenpeace published a <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/research/slaughtering-the-amazon/">blockbuster investigation</a> exposing how ranching was eating up the Amazon. It seemed like a turning point. Following the exposé, some of the world’s largest meatpacking companies including JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva signed legally binding agreements with authorities — and a separate voluntary agreement with Greenpeace — that prohibited them from buying cattle in land with recent deforestation.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="An aerial view of a factory complex surrounded by forest." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LOOjRTZ09bX0jcdTvnVKP5C-yfk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24120176/GettyImages_1237510461.jpg"/> <cite>Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A facility owned by the meat giant JBS in Tucuma, Para state, Brazil.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m6qCxB">
|
|||
|
|
On the surface, those agreements appear to be working: Most major meatpackers and slaughterhouses — which influence the entire beef supply chain — screen the cattle they buy for deforestation. Ranchers that sell to them, known as direct suppliers, provide the location of their farms. And the meatpacking companies hire consultants to check those locations for any recent forest loss, using data collected by satellites.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pARhrM">
|
|||
|
|
But this screening process misses a lot — perhaps even the majority of deforestation in the beef supply chain — undermining the integrity of their zero-deforestation pledges.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="MVkECs">
|
|||
|
|
How to launder a cow
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="alE9y7">
|
|||
|
|
So, according to decade-old agreements, major meatpackers in Brazil can only buy clean cattle: cows that come from land without any recent deforestation. The problem is, there are several ways to make cattle look clean, even when they’re not.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LMlQKF">
|
|||
|
|
The most common way is pretty simple and takes advantage of the complex beef supply chain. A single cow could travel through as many as 10 farms before it’s ultimately killed; it might be born on one, reared on another, and fattened on a third, all before reaching a slaughterhouse.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v1VyXi">
|
|||
|
|
Deforestation could happen in any of those steps, yet slaughterhouses only tend to assess their direct suppliers, the last stop on the cow’s journey. That means ranchers can illegally cut down a swath of Amazon forest to raise cattle and, as long as those animals are transferred to a farm without deforestation before slaughter, they’ll appear clean and the meatpackers will appear to be honoring their commitments.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A flow chart showing the journey a “laundered” cow takes from birth to hamburger." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/D8qAGfHiL4oFSTZUpA379z2fDkM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24122352/1019__01.png"/> <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ETspGC">
|
|||
|
|
Some cattle owners go to greater lengths to launder their animals. Investigations <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/beef-banks-and-brazilian-amazon/">have found</a> that some farmers appear to have edited the boundaries of their ranch — which are recorded in a government database — so that they appear free of any destruction.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L0dCpq">
|
|||
|
|
“Those are the boundaries they will send to the slaughterhouse,” said Chris Moye, a forest investigator at Global Witness. And because the slaughterhouse or meatpacker won’t see any forest loss in the farm, he said, they’ll buy the animals.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="LdLbHw">
|
|||
|
|
Laundered cattle have cleared large chunks of Amazon forest — even in protected areas
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4A7yaT">
|
|||
|
|
This isn’t just about a few dirty cows in what is otherwise a clean supply chain. Cattle laundering is pervasive, and<strong> </strong>it<strong> </strong>helps explain why corporate pledges have done so little to protect the Amazon rainforest.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e1gK5B">
|
|||
|
|
One <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/how-illegal-land-grabs-in-brazils-amazon-feed-the-global-beef-industry">recent report</a> found that in just one state in the Brazilian Amazon, more than 90,000 head of cattle were raised on land acquired illegally, or “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-amazon-land-grab-how-brazils-government-is-clearing-the-way-for-deforestation-173416">grabbed</a>,” between 2018 and 2021. Land grabbing often results in deforestation.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SStv5d">
|
|||
|
|
Importantly, the report revealed, most of those cattle were then sent to legal farms before they made it to slaughterhouses, suggesting that they may have been laundered, according to the investigation, which was published by the investigative reporting agency <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/?_gl=1*x4id3g*_ga*MTkxOTU4ODczMS4xNjY0NTQ3NDg2*_ga_NHCZV5EYYY*MTY2NjExMTIzNC4xOS4xLjE2NjYxMTE0MzkuNTcuMC4w">OCCRP</a> and the Brazilian magazine Piauí.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LVtbh4">
|
|||
|
|
At least some of those slaughterhouses were owned by JBS and Marfrig, two of the world’s largest meat companies, according to the investigation. Both companies, which took in billions of dollars in revenue last year, have committed to only sourcing clean cattle. JBS and Marfrig both said in a statement to Vox that they have zero tolerance for illegal deforestation and immediately stop sourcing from any farms that violate their policies. (JBS provided Vox with a more in-depth response to the OCCRP investigation, which can find <a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24119454/20220520__Resposta_para_Revista_Piaui__Maio_2022_vf_ENG.pdf">here</a>.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="om4MUW">
|
|||
|
|
The OCCRP investigators relied on public data showing the movement of cattle between ranches. Farmers in Brazil are required to record the location of their properties and the movement of cattle, albeit in separate government databases. Several years ago, researchers at the University of Wisconsin Madison (who are not affiliated with the OCCRP investigation) figured out how to connect those two pieces of information to untangle supply chains. Since then, their method has been used by scientists and groups like the OCCRP to expose deforestation at various stages of the beef supply chain.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JCJ6vt5Og99PCu-KwH1A2acR6V4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24120189/GettyImages_1243656418.jpg"/> <cite>Pedro Vilela/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
An aerial view of rivers in Igarapé Miri, in the Amazon state of Pará, on October 1, 2022.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LMpHx0">
|
|||
|
|
Cattle laundering is not only driving deforestation in the Amazon forest but also within its formally protected areas — public lands set aside explicitly for the conservation of natural resources and, in many cases, Indigenous people. (Some protected areas permit the sustainable use of resources.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="37NexY">
|
|||
|
|
Between 2013 and 2018, meatpackers slaughtered 60.5 million cattle in the Amazon states of Mato Grosso, Pará, and Rondônia. More than 3 million of them, or roughly 5 percent, were likely at least partially raised in protected areas, according to <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12916">a study</a> published this week in the journal <em>Conservation Letters.</em> More than half of the ranches that produced those cattle had recent deforestation, per the study, which also relied on public data.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IYndc1">
|
|||
|
|
Critically, of those cattle raised in protected land, 2.2 million of them traveled through ranches <em>outside of </em>protected areas before reaching slaughterhouses, which could, again, indicate laundering. (In some rare cases, ranchers can raise cattle legally in protected areas. It’s also hard to declare, definitively, that a ranch laundered its cattle, as it implies an intent to defraud slaughterhouses or the government.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9JE6FP">
|
|||
|
|
For the most part, it’s illegal for those slaughterhouses to purchase cattle from protected areas, especially if there’s any deforestation on those lands. Remarkably, many slaughterhouses also appear to have bought cattle directly from ranches in protected areas, which their standard screening processes, inadequate as they are, should flag.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4XPifuzHync14NaeABcUkbtwtII=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24122354/1019__02.png"/> <cite>Amanda Northrop/Vox</cite>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m7bcX8">
|
|||
|
|
What’s even more alarming is that these numbers are likely underestimates, according to Holly Gibbs, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison and one of the study’s authors. Again, this research is based on publicly available information provided by ranchers, meaning they’re registering the location of illegal farms in government databases. “There’s a whole bunch of other properties that we’re not seeing,” Gibbs said, suggesting that not all ranchers are documenting their illegal activity.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PKT0Fr">
|
|||
|
|
At Vox’s request, Brandão, a researcher in Gibbs’s lab, shared other data (that was not included in the study above) that hints at cattle laundering on a large scale. Between June 2020 and January 2022, for example, 350 properties registered by ranchers in the state of Pará sold cattle, yet they had no visible pasture, according to satellite imagery. This could indicate that ranchers are doctoring paperwork to make it seem like cattle are coming from a different farm — presumably, one that hasn’t chopped down forest.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qg4OE6">
|
|||
|
|
Other data Brandão shared indicates that many “dirty” and “clean” farms are owned by the same person. Gibbs suspects that in some cases these ranchers could be laundering cows through their own properties. “It’s really easy for them to keep that one property clean while they continue deforestation on the other properties,” Gibbs said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fhbgze">
|
|||
|
|
One key takeaway from Gibbs’s research is that the majority of deforestation in the beef supply chain occurs before cows reach their last stop on their journey, and therefore, slaughterhouses have a hard time seeing it. “Meatpackers are currently missing about 60 percent of the deforestation within their supply chains by not considering indirect suppliers,” Gibbs said. “They’re really missing what’s going on.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="NdYdBR">
|
|||
|
|
Where your cheeseburger comes in
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="trvTGq">
|
|||
|
|
It’s hard to overstate the consequences of cutting down the Amazon in the name of beef. Deforestation not only puts wildlife at risk — the Amazon is home to the <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/#:~:text=What%20animals%20live%20in%20the,world's%20species%20are%20found%20there.">most diverse</a> assemblage of plants and animals on the planet — but it also fuels climate change.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DZtTzY">
|
|||
|
|
Burning trees produces greenhouse gas emissions, while, at the same time, undermines the forest’s ability to suck up carbon. That pushes the forest toward a dangerous tipping point, whereby parts of the Amazon could dry out, causing more forest to die without any fire or chainsaws. Meanwhile, grazing cattle <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/33/which-is-a-bigger-methane-source-cow-belching-or-cow-flatulence/">belch</a> methane, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/22613532/climate-change-methane-emissions">potent greenhouse gas</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TIqHT-yL7KemzCKxu3njDZavCug=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24120222/GettyImages_144861957.jpg"/> <cite>Hoberman Collection/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Woolly monkeys in the Brazilian Amazon.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PQCPAw">
|
|||
|
|
More worrying still is that a lot of beef consumed around the world might actually come from cattle that replaced Amazon forest. That’s because many of the large meatpacking companies have truly global footprints: Once cattle enter their supply chains, it’s hard to know where the beef ends up.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aCRUmU">
|
|||
|
|
The US, for one, is <a href="https://ahdb.org.uk/news/brazilian-beef-production-increases-as-exports-continue-to-flourish#:~:text=China%20is%20the%20main%20market,over%20half%20its%20total%20exports.">among the largest buyers of Brazilian beef</a>, and the meatpacking giant JBS is its biggest supplier, according to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/amazon-beef-deforestation-brazil/">recent report</a> by the Washington Post. JBS’s brands have sold meat to a number of large American grocery chains, including Kroger and the company that owns Safeway, Jewel-Osco, and Vons, the report revealed. (Several reports have implicated JBS in deforestation, including the Post story and a <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/cash-cow/">2022 Global Witness investigation</a>. You can read the company’s full statement to Vox <a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24119539/20221018_JBS_Response_for_Vox.pdf">here</a>.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9LjufR">
|
|||
|
|
Major meatpacking companies including JBS and Marfrig also have a long history of supplying beef to fast food chains like McDonald’s and Burger King, <a href="https://reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/220309-Monitor-McDonalds-EN-13.pdf">according to</a> the research and journalism organization Repórter Brasil.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oZvQEX">
|
|||
|
|
For consumers, it’s not easy to trace the origin of the beef they buy. But they shouldn’t have to, said Moye of Global Witness. “The ultimate responsibility lies on the actors in the supply chain and the governments that regulate them,” he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q0oawa">
|
|||
|
|
Which leads us to a very big question: How are those actors, including the big meatpacking plants, still getting away with this?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="70oM7h">
|
|||
|
|
Meatpacking companies are getting cleaner, but they have work ahead
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gvm5KI">
|
|||
|
|
If small teams of outside researchers can pinpoint the source of forest loss along supply chains, it seems as though giant corporations should be able to as well. Remember, it has been more than 10 years since they committed to source clean cattle.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bFwOb7">
|
|||
|
|
While some experts fault meatpackers for not doing more, rooting out forest loss among indirect suppliers is actually quite challenging. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, who first figured out how to do this, spent years developing computer programs to download records stored in clunky government systems. They then have to clean them up, link key bits of data together, and run the analysis.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G55yVk">
|
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|
|
These records are not designed to make cattle supply chains traceable, they just happen to serve that function if you know what you’re doing. “It requires a lot of computational expertise,” Brandão said. It’s not like meatpacking companies are just ignoring deforestation right in front of their eyes.
|
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|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZzCiyTAcC7-ko6YcwlBcDm1S2Js=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24120232/GettyImages_1237510521.jpg"/> <cite>Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Cattle on a farm in Para state, Brazil, on October 6, 2021.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4AO6ZR">
|
|||
|
|
The Brazilian government has also made accessing data for these analyses harder in recent years. In 2019, when right-wing president <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/9/29/23373427/amazon-rainforest-brazil-jair-bolsonaro-lula-deforestation">Jair Bolsonaro</a> came into power, the government restricted public access to ranch and cattle records throughout much of the Amazon. These documents needed for the analysis are now locked away on government websites.
|
|||
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</p>
|
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<aside id="yjf7rD">
|
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<div>
|
|||
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</div>
|
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</aside>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y1wY3F">
|
|||
|
|
Meanwhile, there isn’t a huge incentive for meatpacking companies to solve this problem in the first place, some experts say. If they choose not to buy from any ranches linked to deforestation, they’ll have a much smaller supply, Moye said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r5bP50">
|
|||
|
|
“There’s so much deforestation and problems in the indirect suppliers that if they were to effectively monitor them, the volumes of cattle they receive would dramatically diminish,” Moye said. “They wouldn’t be able to slaughter the volumes they need.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xYFrgw">
|
|||
|
|
JBS disputed this claim. It’s in the meatpacker’s best interest, the company said, to have a transparent, sustainable supply chain, in part because it helps maintain the market for Brazilian beef. Inaccessible government data is “not beneficial to JBS or to the sector as a whole,” the company added.
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AzGOOx">
|
|||
|
|
Marfrig also disagreed with the notion that there’s value in obscuring transactions in the beef supply chain, reiterating its “non-negotiable commitment to the total traceability of its supply chain.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="3fE58J">
|
|||
|
|
Solving the cattle problem
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Uqh9iE">
|
|||
|
|
Yes, things look bleak. Amazon deforestation is still rampant in the beef supply chain, and there are roadblocks to getting companies to root it out. So what now?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r6G0v4">
|
|||
|
|
Consumers have some power; they can swap out beef for plant-based alternatives. Obviously, not all beef comes from the Amazon rainforest or is linked to deforestation, but it has a <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/6-pressing-questions-about-beef-and-climate-change-answered">big environmental footprint regardless</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E8i5ac">
|
|||
|
|
But the more immediate solutions lie in the hands of meat companies, starting with untangling their own supply chains.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bI48Cg">
|
|||
|
|
Researchers and environmental advocates are trying to help. A few years ago, Gibbs’s lab at the University of Wisconsin and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) released software called <a href="https://www.visipec.com/">Visipec</a>, which is designed to help meatpackers monitor their indirect suppliers. Using the same source of government data as the research mentioned in this story, Visipec is essentially an add-on to existing corporate monitoring systems.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eGodos">
|
|||
|
|
“It doesn’t provide a perfect picture of everything that’s happening — it’s still possible to launder,” Gibbs said. “But it goes a long way toward closing some of those loopholes and creating more pressure for the whole sector.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gbSWrr">
|
|||
|
|
Visipec runs into the same issues around data accessibility, as any tool would, but it’s a big step above what most companies currently do. Plus, those companies have a lot of power in Brazil and could push the government to make cattle data more accessible, experts say.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YBzvHB">
|
|||
|
|
Marfrig and Minerva, another large meatpacker in Brazil, have started using Visipec, the companies confirmed to Vox. Some large companies including JBS also use other systems to monitor indirect suppliers, but they’re typically based on voluntary information provided by the farms that sell directly to them. (Marfrig also has its own voluntary monitoring system, in addition to Visipec.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/U3ak_WieTcsugI-uhW4g1iHvhvc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24120182/GettyImages_1243413978__1_.jpg"/> <cite>Michael Dantas/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Smoke from forest fires in southern Amazonas state, Brazil, on September 21, 2022.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VCi8mgNVr3Yf-LkBo4hPE0mJTn0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24120184/GettyImages_1243478567__1_.jpg"/> <cite>Michael Dantas/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A cow grazes in Manicoré, Amazonas state, Brazil, on September 22, 2022, with smoke from fires visible in the background.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k72Zf6">
|
|||
|
|
For several years now, NWF has also been working with meat companies to establish “<a href="https://gtfi.org.br/good-practices/">good practices</a>” for monitoring indirect suppliers. The idea is to make this level of monitoring feasible for companies while also eliminating more than 90 percent of the deforestation in their supply chains, according to Nathalie Walker, senior director of tropical forest and agriculture at NWF.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DAkbW2">
|
|||
|
|
There’s also legislation working its way through the <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/pt/press-room/20220909IPR40140/climate-change-new-rules-for-companies-to-help-limit-global-deforestation">European Union</a> and the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/forest-act-bill-would-hold-global-suppliers-accountable-for-illegal-deforestation/">US</a> that would prohibit companies from importing agricultural products, including beef, that are linked to deforestation. These bills won’t necessarily provide the tools to increase transparency, but rather a greater incentive to do so. “If these regulations come into force, they can support and incentivize monitoring and traceability of indirect suppliers,” Walker said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CYtH6j">
|
|||
|
|
Ultimately, to put an end to cattle laundering, meat companies would need to monitor the movement of individual cows, Gibbs said. “If we wanted to end laundering, we would need animal-level traceability,” Gibbs said. “Until we keep track of the individual animals, some level of laundering will keep happening.”
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Alex Jones lost a $1 billion trial. Why is Infowars still streaming?</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bArEVjv4zKGKr4aJshH41HzU6kk=/371x0:8103x5799/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71514815/1425979532.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Alex Jones outside the Sandy Hook trial in Connecticut, September 2022. | Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Jones says his enemies want him off the air. US bankruptcy law is on his side, for now.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5QQzwi">
|
|||
|
|
Last week, a Connecticut jury ruled that <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23292298/alex-jones-sandy-hook-defamation-trial-heslin-lewis-infowars">Alex Jones and his Infowars media company must pay nearly $1 billion</a> in damages to the families of the Sandy Hook victims — punishment for lying, over and over, about the 2012 mass shooting.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4GoL55">
|
|||
|
|
“Their mission is to shut me up and take me off the air,” Jones told his followers via video after the verdict.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RnFoeN">
|
|||
|
|
That’s not going to happen in the near future. And it’s possible it may never happen.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7UjLhF">
|
|||
|
|
In recent days, Jones has interviewed Republican <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/the-dirty-trickster">dirty trickster</a> <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jan-6-hearing-roger-stone-voting-violence-1234610680/">Roger Stone</a>, who suggested that Donald Trump should add Kanye West to his 2024 presidential ticket; he’s called the Anti-Defamation League “the closest thing to a Nazi organization that America has”; and he has continued to rail against Covid-19 vaccines, which he says are a plot engineered by “transhumanist globalists.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J0o3ot">
|
|||
|
|
In between his rants, Jones encourages his audience to support him by buying supplements like Brain Force Plus, which he promises will “supercharge your state of mind” and is on sale for $20 for a bottle of 36 tablets.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="BT9K99">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ltDGCL">
|
|||
|
|
Jones claims that he won’t have to pay anything because he’ll win this case, and a similar one he has lost in Texas, in appeals court, which could take years. Bankruptcy experts I’ve talked to told me this isn’t true — that the families who’ve won the judgment can immediately pursue their claims against Jones by trying to seize Jones’s personal property without waiting for the appeals process.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ja5hEe">
|
|||
|
|
But Free Speech Systems LLC, which runs Jones’s Infowars site — an operation that Jones says has 80 employees and reaches millions of people — will be shielded from any judgments for <a href="https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/chapter-11-bankruptcy-overview.html">months or years</a>, courtesy of US bankruptcy law.<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22123849-free-speech-systems-bankruptcy-july-29-2022"> </a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QPnC1T">
|
|||
|
|
<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22123849-free-speech-systems-bankruptcy-july-29-2022">Free Speech Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July</a>, and that means that the families of the Sandy Hook victims won’t be able to receive any cash from the company until its bankruptcy reorganization is complete. Meanwhile, Jones can run the company the way he always has and is free to use the verdict as a promotional tool, urging his followers to buy his powders and extracts to help him fight the “new world order.” He’s currently running a “<a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/specials-clearance/save-infowars-1776">1776 Super Sale</a>” promotion.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zbFpvc">
|
|||
|
|
“If Infowars chooses to continue to operate, it is within its power to do so, at least in the near term,” says Chris Mattei, an attorney for the victims. (A rep for Jones’s attorney Norm Pattis declined to field an interview request: “He doesn’t want to talk to anybody right now. He’s very, very, very busy and he feels like he has nothing else to say.”)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FNj7Oz">
|
|||
|
|
Jones hasn’t filed for personal bankruptcy, which experts tell me wouldn’t allow him to escape the judgments filed against him anyway. But it gets fuzzier when it comes to Free Speech Systems: <a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/services-forms/bankruptcy/bankruptcy-basics/chapter-11-bankruptcy-basics">Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection</a> is designed to let the company that files it stay alive while it negotiates deals with its creditors, and then to keep operating after it emerges from Chapter 11.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z7SHW5">
|
|||
|
|
Which means the Sandy Hook families, who are now creditors for both Jones and Free Speech Systems, could find themselves in a very odd position: Trying to get their hands on all of Jones’s personal assets while also working within a legal system that is designed to keep Free Speech Systems and Infowars — which only really works if Jones works there — up and running.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SP2kG2">
|
|||
|
|
It will take some time before we get there, no matter what happens. For starters, there’s another judgment coming in the same Connecticut case that will add to Jones’s total bill. And the state of Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy proceedings is already contentious — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/us/politics/alex-jones-bankruptcy-judge.html">a federal bankruptcy judge in Houston has chided Free Speech for a “lack of candor”</a> in the proceedings and has brought in new help to wrangle that case.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T5OtcQ">
|
|||
|
|
And it’s very unlikely that Jones will ever pay anything close to $1 billion to the Sandy Hook families. While Jones has made a lot of money peddling supplements, a forensic economist has estimated his total net worth was between <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/us/alex-jones-finances.html">$135 million and $270 million</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZqXwvP">
|
|||
|
|
I asked Mattei if he and his clients actually do want Alex Jones to stop speaking on Infowars or anywhere else. He paused. “I think it is in our clients’ interest that Free Speech Systems not continue to make money by lying,” he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xTEem0">
|
|||
|
|
<em>If you’re reading this on the web, thank you! But if you want more Kafka on Media, we’re happy to oblige: Subscribers to my weekly newsletter can read about Netflix’s big week and a big basketball bill that’s coming due soon. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/peter-kafka-media-newsletter-sign-up"><em>You can get it all for free by signing up here</em></a><em>.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PCB says Jay Shah's statement can “split” cricketing communities, requests ACC to call emergency meeting</strong> - BCCI says no to playing 2023 Asia Cup in Pakistan</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>Sale of tickets for HFC-BFC ISL match starts</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>Philosophy, Disruptor, Golden Oaks, Baba Voss, Aguila and Wild Emperor excel</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>One Wish and Great Guns impress</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 beat Kuwait 2-1 win but could not qualify for next year's AFC U-20 Asian Cup</strong> - India had lost 2-4 and 1-4 to Iraq and Australia respectively in their previous group matches</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>GTD continues to be absent, but HDK claims row resolved</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>Fitch revises Kerala’s outlook to ‘negative’</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>TDP activist done to death in Kodumuru</strong> - Siddappa was a prominent follower of former Union Minister Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy</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>Fintech start-ups to showcase products, services before investors</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>MKK Nayar Prize for Kathakali exponent Kalamandalam Gopi</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Russians start leaving Ukraine’s Kherson city</strong> - Russian-appointed officials say staff and civilians will leave Kherson city because of Ukraine’s offensive.</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>Sweden ditches ‘feminist foreign policy’</strong> - The new foreign minister said the label had become more important than its content.</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>Silvio Berlusconi boasts of closeness to Vladimir Putin</strong> - A leaked audio recording of the former PM threatens to cause another headache for Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.</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>Germany fires cybersecurity chief ‘over Russia ties’</strong> - Arne Schönbohm is accused of being too close to Russia through an association he helped set up.</p></li>
|
|||
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Paris murder: Killing of Lola, 12, sparks immigration row in France</strong> - Grief and outrage over the killing of 12-year-old Lola turns to debate over the suspect’s migrant status.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What do you get when you cross an e-bike with a supercar?</strong> - The Vintage Roadster offers a load of performance in a gorgeous package. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1890307">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Filthy floodwaters from Hurricane Ian drove wave of flesh-eating infections</strong> - Health officials warn those in floodwaters to cover open wounds. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1891019">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Another casualty of the pandemic: Our ability to worry about anything else</strong> - Mid-pandemic tweeting suggests we have what’s called a “finite pool of worry.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1891002">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>USB-C can hit 120Gbps with newly published USB4 Version 2.0 spec</strong> - USB-IF’s new USB-C spec supports up to 120Gbps across three lanes. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1890901">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reform Section 230, punish users spreading online hate: New York AG</strong> - Recommendations come after an investigation into the Buffalo mass shooting. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1890927">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>A boy excitedly reports to his miserly father…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Papa!” the boy exclaims. “Instead of buying a bus ticket, I ran home behind the bus and saved a dollar!”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The father immediately slaps the child. “Spendthrift!” he screams. “You could have run home behind a taxi and saved twenty!”
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/2CNK"> /u/2CNK </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7iq7n/a_boy_excitedly_reports_to_his_miserly_father/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7iq7n/a_boy_excitedly_reports_to_his_miserly_father/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>‘Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose girl.’</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The priest asks, ‘Is that you, little Joey Pagano?’ ‘Yes, Father, it is.’ ‘And who was the girl you were with?’ ‘I can’t tell you, Father, I don’t want to ruin her reputation.’ “Well, Joey, I’m sure to find out her name sooner or later so you may as well tell me now. Was it Tina Minetti?” ‘I cannot say.’ ‘Was it Teresa Mazzarelli?’ ‘I’ll never tell.’ ‘Was it Nina Capelli?’ ‘I’m sorry, but I cannot name her.’ ‘Was it Cathy Piriano?’ ‘My lips are sealed Father.’ ‘Well then, was it Rosa DiAngelo?’ ‘Please, Father, I cannot tell you.’
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The priest sighs in frustration. ‘You’re very tight lipped, and I admire that. But you’ve sinned and have to atone. You cannot be an altar boy now for 4 months. Now you go and behave yourself.’ Joey walks back to his pew, and his friend Franco slides over and whispers, ‘What’d you get?’ ‘Four month’s vacation and five excellent Leads.’
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RTMSner"> /u/RTMSner </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7q7zu/bless_me_father_for_i_have_sinned_i_have_been/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7q7zu/bless_me_father_for_i_have_sinned_i_have_been/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li>**A married couple with kid gets h*rny…** - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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on a Sunday morning and thinks about how they can have some time to “cuddle”. So they tell their son to go stand on the balcony and look if he can see something new going on in the neighbourhood.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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So their son stands on the balcony and they get going. After a few minutes he yells: “Dad, dad! The Myers got a new car!” Dad dutifully but a little out of breath answers: “Fine, fine, that’s nice son. Keep looking if you see something else.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Their son keeps looking and after a while he reports back to his dad again. “Dad, dad! The Smiths have a lawn mower robot now!” His dad, pantingly shouts back: “Well, that’s wonderful! Keep looking, keep looking.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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So he keeps looking and another few minutes he shouts: "Dad, dad! The Wilsons are having s*x!" Dad stops totally confused and after a few seconds he asks: “How would you know?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Their son has been standing on the balcony looking around for 10 minutes now!”
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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/jensalik"> /u/jensalik </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7ul2i/a_married_couple_with_kid_gets_hrny/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7ul2i/a_married_couple_with_kid_gets_hrny/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Is this winter gonna be cold?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The Indians on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation reservation in Grand Bend asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Since he was a chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the winter was going to be like.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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But, being a practical leader, after several days, he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the Canadian Weather Service and asked, ‘Is the coming winter going to be cold?’
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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‘It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,’ the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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A week later, he called the Canadian Weather Service again. ‘Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?’
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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‘Yes,’ the man at Weather Service again replied, ‘it’s going to be a very cold winter.’
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Two weeks later, the chief called the Canadian Weather Service again. ‘Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?’
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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‘Absolutely,’ the man replied. ‘It’s looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters we’ve ever seen.’
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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‘How can you be so sure?’ the chief asked.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The weatherman replied, ‘The Indians are collecting an astounding amount of firewood !’
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/cocofolio"> /u/cocofolio </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7mabv/is_this_winter_gonna_be_cold/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7mabv/is_this_winter_gonna_be_cold/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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<li><strong>A guy goes to Africa to teach a Native tribe how to speak English</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The guy said to the chief “lion” and the chief would say Lion. The guy said “Tiger” and the chief said tiger. After a couple weeks the chief was understanding English fairly well.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The man and the chief are having a stroll down a pathway when they see a man a woman having sex in the bushes. The man was a little embarrassed so he said to the chief “man ride bicycle.” The chief took out his spear and killed both of them. The guy said “Why would you do that”.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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The chief said “That’s my bicycle he riding!”
|
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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/Traditional-Bad-2627"> /u/Traditional-Bad-2627 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7wojy/a_guy_goes_to_africa_to_teach_a_native_tribe_how/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/y7wojy/a_guy_goes_to_africa_to_teach_a_native_tribe_how/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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</ul>
|
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