571 lines
72 KiB
HTML
571 lines
72 KiB
HTML
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
|||
|
|
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
|
|||
|
|
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
|
|||
|
|
<title>03 October, 2021</title>
|
|||
|
|
<style type="text/css">
|
|||
|
|
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
|
|||
|
|
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
|
|||
|
|
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
|
|||
|
|
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
|
|||
|
|
</style>
|
|||
|
|
<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>
|
|||
|
|
<body>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Bad Is Biden’s Slump?</strong> - Political consultants vary in their views of what caused it, and how the President can recover. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-bad-is-bidens-slump">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Instagram for Kids and What Facebook Knows About the Effects of Social Media</strong> - A Senate-committee hearing will address whether Facebook is following the example of Big Tobacco. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/instagram-for-kids-and-what-facebook-knows-about-the-effects-of-%20social-media">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Trump Still Faces a Reckoning in New York</strong> - Court documents and interviews indicate that the Manhattan District Attorney is accumulating evidence of pervasive tax fraud. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-still-faces-a-reckoning-in-new-york">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Fate of Afghanistan and the Measure of American Culpability</strong> - Watch highlights from the latest New Yorker Live, where writers and editors considered the chaotic U.S. withdrawal and the return of the Taliban. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-new-yorker-live-the-future-of-afghanistan">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Labour Party Is Britain’s Lost Opposition</strong> - Boris Johnson’s government has been a reckless failure, but Keir Starmer, Labour’s new leader, hasn’t offered a convincing alternative. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-labour-party-is-britains-lost-opposition">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>When the world actually solved an environmental crisis</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A view of planet Earth showing a purple blotch over the Antarctic representing a hole in the
|
|||
|
|
ozone layer of the atmosphere." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/R_V-
|
|||
|
|
UBivPYG7bpMrDXzs3w6CoNA=/0x20:3000x2270/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69944123/GettyImages_814989712_copy.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
In 2006, the Antarctic ozone hole was equal to the record single-day largest area of 11.4 million square miles reached on September 9, 2000. | Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
If you haven’t heard about the ozone hole in years, that’s because scientists did a pretty good job saving us from ourselves.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3XO93v">
|
|||
|
|
In 1985, atmospheric scientists in Antarctica noticed something troubling. For decades, they’d been measuring the thickness of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, the layer of gas that deflects much of the sun’s radiation. Starting in the 1970s, it had started plummeting. By the mid-1980s, they observed that it was on track to be wiped out in the next few decades.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SqjoQC">
|
|||
|
|
Their discovery was cause for worldwide alarm and unprecedented action. In short order, the international community marshaled its resources — scientific, economic, diplomatic — to mount a campaign to ban the chemical that caused the damage, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and to restore the ozone layer.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DDccSo">
|
|||
|
|
Fast-forward to today: The ozone is on the path to recovery, if<strong> </strong>not fully restored.<strong> </strong>That progress hasn’t been without setbacks. The ozone hole is shrinking on average, but some years are bad ones — the hole was notably larger in 2020, following a 2019 when it was unusually small. Researchers have also <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/it-seems-someone-is-producing-a-banned-
|
|||
|
|
ozone-depleting-chemical-again/">raised suspicions</a> that the rate at which atmospheric CFCs are falling suggests <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/09/mysterious-source-of-illegal-ozone-killing-emissions-revealed-
|
|||
|
|
say-investigators">not all signatories</a> to a treaty banning new production of CFCs are abiding by the agreement. And there have been unintended consequences in phasing out CFCs with a different chemical that has hurt our fight against climate change (more on this below).
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1xQrfp">
|
|||
|
|
But the damage we wrought last century has been reversed. Even with the complications<strong> </strong>and caveats, the world’s response to the ozone crisis should be seen as an instructive, even inspiring, success story — one that can perhaps inform our response to the climate crisis.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MBRgK7">
|
|||
|
|
That’s the thrust of this year’s Future of Life Award from the <a href="https://futureoflife.org/">Future of Life Institute</a>, a nonprofit that studies how to reduce risks to our world. The 2021 award<strong>, </strong>handed out last month, went to three people who played a significant role in our triumph over the depletion of the ozone layer: atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon, geophysicist Joseph Farman, and Environmental Protection Agency official Stephen Andersen.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="968jn2">
|
|||
|
|
The award, which comes with a $50,000 prize for each recipient, is given<strong> </strong>to unsung heroes who made our world safer from existential or global catastrophic risks. Last year, the institute gave its award to <a href="https://futureoflife.org/future-of-life-award-2020/">William Foege and Viktor Zhdanov</a>, who played key roles in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21493812/smallpox-eradication-
|
|||
|
|
vaccines-infectious-disease-covid-19">smallpox eradication fight</a>. The previous year, it went to <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/9/18301321/biological-weapons-xrisks-future-of-life-institute">Matthew Meselson for his work on the Biological Weapons Convention</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OHfoA1">
|
|||
|
|
This year’s award harks back to<strong> </strong>a crisis that unnerved — and galvanized — humanity in<strong> </strong>the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19920217,00.html">1980s and ’90s</a>. The ozone layer reduces how much radiation makes it to the surface of the Earth. Without it, sunshine would be significantly deadlier to life on the planet. The primary culprit for its thinning, researchers discovered, was CFCs, a chemical compound that was present in everything from aerosol cans to refrigerators to solvents. As CFCs degrade<strong> </strong>in the upper atmosphere, they<strong> </strong>can break down ozone.<strong> </strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Four
|
|||
|
|
panels from a commercial for Aqua Net hair mousse: two show a woman with lots of hair, one shows a hand holding foam,
|
|||
|
|
and one shows a can of Aqua Net mousse surrounded by foam." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/mAWiTn7Ba_xIKoGRM7l_1zpATNE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22875389/Screen_Shot_2021_09_24_at_12.53.28_copy.jpg"/> <cite><a class="ql- link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH11IfeVmU0" target="_blank">Aqua Net mousse Commercial</a></cite></figure></div></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Aqua Net, a beloved 1980s hairspray brand, was one of the products that was correlated to the ozone hole because of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, a chemical compound that was present in everything from aerosol cans to refrigerators.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EHCAfZ">
|
|||
|
|
“Projections suggested that the ozone layer would collapse by 2050,” the Future of Life Institute’s Georgiana Gilgallon told me. “We’d have collapsing ecosystems, agriculture, genetic defects.” The sudden plunge in atmospheric<strong> </strong>ozone heralded a coming disaster.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PKTUm7">
|
|||
|
|
But the world responded.<strong> </strong>With consumer boycotts, political action, a major international treaty called the Montreal Protocol, and a huge investment in new technologies to replace CFCs in all their commercial and industrial uses, new CFC production was <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ozone-depleting-substance-
|
|||
|
|
consumption?country=~OWID_WRL">brought effectively to a halt over the 1990s and early 2000s</a>. It took a while to phase out existing devices that used CFCs, but CFC emissions have been steadily falling since the protocol went into effect.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xNtecZ">
|
|||
|
|
“We see this as potentially the first instance in which humanity recognized and addressed a global catastrophic risk,” Gilgallon told me. There is still much to be done and some new problems to contend with, but measurements from the present day make it clear that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56014092">the process of healing the ozone layer is well underway</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="ghDst8">
|
|||
|
|
The ozone “hole,” explained
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X4FWal">
|
|||
|
|
Ozone is a molecule made up of three oxygen atoms. (The oxygen we breathe is made up of just two.) There’s not much ozone floating around in the layer of atmosphere that we breathe — a good thing, since it’s actually a lung irritant and linked with respiratory disease.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XhBow9">
|
|||
|
|
But there’s a lot of it in the <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/protection/ozone/publications/ozone-layer-factsheet">stratosphere </a>(comparatively speaking, at least; it’s still only a tiny fraction of the overall air). It’s that layer of ozone that absorbs ultraviolet (UV) radiation, especially the specific wavelengths called UV-B.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A79VTs">
|
|||
|
|
UV-B radiation is what causes sunburns, and in high concentrations it causes more problems than that. It<strong> </strong>can lead to many kinds of cancer by damaging our DNA; <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11567887">most plants</a> and animals also suffer when growing in a high-UV-radiation environment.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rJDJlb">
|
|||
|
|
In the 1970s, researchers noticed that the ozone layer had<strong> </strong>started thinning, especially around the poles. (With the ozone layer constituting only about three in a million atoms in the stratosphere in the first place, “hole” is technically a misnomer — the “ozone hole” was really just an area where ozone levels had dropped by more than 30 percent in a decade.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QTPIRq">
|
|||
|
|
By the time the thinning of<strong> </strong>the ozone layer was measured, researchers Mario Molina and Sherry Rowland had already established the probable cause: CFCs.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L8Go9T">
|
|||
|
|
CFCs were everywhere, and as far as everyone knew, they were the perfect chemical: nonreactive, cheap, and highly effective in a wide variety of manufacturing applications. They were building up in the atmosphere, but it was thought that since they were nonreactive, it couldn’t be a problem.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A graphic showing the relative
|
|||
|
|
size of the ozone hole in years from 1979 to 2019." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/j0HD8EBNT1RB2JGUElS2nSX1nHw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22875867/allyears_final.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e3tw1F">
|
|||
|
|
Molina and Rowland realized that that assumption was wrong<strong>.</strong> There’s a (possibly apocryphal) story of Rowland’s wife asking him how his work was going, and Rowland responding, <a href="https://futureoflife.org/2021/09/16/susan-solomon-and-stephen-
|
|||
|
|
andersen-on-saving-the-ozone-layer/?cn-reloaded=1">“Well, the work is fantastic, but I think the Earth is ending.”</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JRHGmM">
|
|||
|
|
The problem was that CFCs break down in the upper atmosphere. And the chlorine in CFCs was actually reactive, binding with ozone to make oxygen and chlorine monoxide.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bfWx8e">
|
|||
|
|
Molina and Rowland’s 1974 paper in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/249810a0"><em>Nature</em></a> laying out the problem prompted discussion and debate, and environmental activists started pushing for change. But it didn’t move governments to coordinated international action. At the time, the exact implications of Molina and Rowland’s<strong> </strong>theory were hotly contested. Many researchers believed that ozone depletion would be a problem only on a time scale of centuries. There were some early worrying measurements that were dismissed as flukes.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7z69MU">
|
|||
|
|
What the measurements in the Antarctic taken a decade later<strong> </strong>showed definitively is that it was happening much, much faster than that. “Sometime around the late ’70s, it started dropping like a rock — [there] was more ozone depletion than Molina and Rowland had ever imagined,” Solomon <a href="https://futureoflife.org/2021/09/16/susan-
|
|||
|
|
solomon-and-stephen-andersen-on-saving-the-ozone-layer/">said</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="8XUNvB">
|
|||
|
|
From diagnosis to global action
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IkVV7R">
|
|||
|
|
The fight in the 1980s against the depletion of the ozone layer had several stages that might seem familiar to those trying to unite the world to combat other problems.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PtsCtH">
|
|||
|
|
First, there was the challenge of determining that there was in fact a threat and that CFCs were the cause. The initial work there was done by Molina and Rowland. But from the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/246650409_Large_Losses_of_Total_Ozone_in_Antarctica_Reveal_Seasonal_ClOxNOx_Interaction">1985 measurements taken by Joseph Farman</a> — a geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey<strong> </strong>—<strong> </strong>and his colleagues, it looked like the ozone layer was vanishing much faster than their models predicted.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kzf2SX">
|
|||
|
|
Susan Solomon was the lead researcher on the team that figured out how the chlorine from CFCs was breaking down so much ozone.<strong> </strong>In 1986 and 1987, she led the National Ozone Expedition to Antarctica to collect <a href="https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/changing-views-on-climate">the evidence that would confirm her theory</a>. Scientists had originally thought that, while chlorine would interact with ozone, the process was naturally limited — after all, there weren’t that many atoms of chlorine loose.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UjULcT">
|
|||
|
|
Solomon and her team claimed that the process by which chlorine broke down ozone actually wasn’t as limited as initially thought and that the ozone breakdown could quickly spiral out of control: The chlorine monoxide that formed from chlorine’s interaction with ozone would then break down, releasing the chlorine atom to go break down more ozone.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ItrdyM">
|
|||
|
|
“You can destroy hundreds of thousands of ozone molecules with one chlorine atom from a CFC molecule in the timescale that this stuff is in the stratosphere,” Solomon <a href="https://futureoflife.org/2021/09/16/susan-solomon-
|
|||
|
|
and-stephen-andersen-on-saving-the-ozone-layer/">said</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="egwYSR">
|
|||
|
|
The next stage of the fight was then convincing the world to do something about the problem. In 1986, UN negotiations<strong> </strong>began on a treaty to ban substances that reacted with ozone in the upper atmosphere, mainly CFCs. Stephen Andersen, at the time an official in the US<strong> </strong>Environmental Protection Agency, was a major figure in the negotiations. “He really made it happen,” the Future of Life Institute program director David Nicholson says.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5CVWYIz6eLW7rbEAFcvlQW-H3zc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22875445/GettyImages_1228950745_copy.jpg"/> <cite>AFP via Getty Images</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
MIT Professor Mario Molina, left, with his wife, chemist Luisa Molina, after winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his research on the effects of man-made chemicals on the ozone layer. Molina was a co-recipient along with Frank “Sherry” Rowland.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yE1TXX">
|
|||
|
|
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was agreed upon and opened for signature in 1987. It went into force in 1989. Countries gradually began phasing out CFCs. Andersen’s team, Nicholson says, “systematically identified hundreds of solutions for phasing out CFCs from hundreds of industry sectors,” making it possible to shift manufacturing processes worldwide to chemicals that weren’t ozone-depleting.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FrbB9M">
|
|||
|
|
Those chemicals in some cases have presented their own problems. For refrigerants, the world shifted to hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which endanger the ozone layer much less. Like the CFCs they replaced, though, HFCs are potent greenhouse gases — thousands of times more effective<strong> </strong>than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in our atmosphere. Twenty years ago, HFCs were an environmental step forward, allowing us to phase out CFCs. Today, policymakers and scientists are trying to <a href="https://www.epa.gov/snap/reducing-
|
|||
|
|
hydrofluorocarbon-hfc-use-and-emissions-federal-sector-through-snap">phase out HFCs as well</a>. Human ingenuity can solve our problems, but it can also<strong> </strong>create new ones as it does.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VDUv4Q">
|
|||
|
|
But in terms of the primary goal — healing the ozone layer — the worldwide effort was a huge success. CFC consumption <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/ozone-layer#production-consumption-of-ozone-depleting-substances">declined from over 800,000 metric tons in the 1980s to an estimated 156 metric tons in 2014</a>. Experts estimate that <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ozone-layer-protection/frequently-asked-questions-about-ozone-layer">by 2050, the ozone layer will be back to the state it was in 1980</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/jgqQAb8kjyhJUFawDVpYmo7xE0E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22890893/Screen_Shot_2021_09_30_at_10.08.58_AM.png"/> <cite>Our World In Data</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Falling consumption of CFCs (blue) and other ozone-depleting substances, which were also restricted by the Montreal Protocol in a worldwide effort to save the ozone layer.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yce3Io">
|
|||
|
|
And <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/closing-the-ozone-hole-helped-slow-arctic-
|
|||
|
|
warming/">keeping the ozone intact buys us time in the fight against climate change</a>. Yes, HFCs are a potent greenhouse gas. But CFCs contributed to global warming as well: They were powerful greenhouse gases in their own right, and by destroying the ozone layer, they contributed to warming by allowing more energy to reach the planet’s surface. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0677-4.epdf">One study found</a> that ozone-depleting chemicals drove half of Arctic warming in the 20th century.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wfzeim">
|
|||
|
|
With that said, HFCs are still a big climate problem. In recent years, governments have been working to extend the hugely successful Montreal Protocol to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/10/15/13292878/montreal-protocol-cut-hfcs">phase them out too</a>. It’s fair to say that, in some ways, the global fight against the ozone crisis was a complicated story, one that <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2290435-the-ozone-hole-over-the-south-pole-is-now-bigger-than-
|
|||
|
|
antarctica/">continues to be written</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2hnKxv">
|
|||
|
|
But in other ways, it does offer some bracing clarity. The sheer speed with which the world went to work and enacted a global treaty to address a pressing environmental problem is, to contemporary eyes, downright bewildering.<strong> </strong>To a public<strong> </strong>accustomed to decades- long stalemates over climate policy, hearing how countries quickly lined up to sign an accord to save the planet may feel almost like a rebuke of our failures.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wtk3qT">
|
|||
|
|
In many ways, the international community of the 1980s<strong> </strong>had an easier problem. CFCs were industrially useful, but there were substitutes; cost-effective substitutes for fossil fuels are coming into production now, decades into the climate crisis, but they certainly didn’t exist when we first started addressing it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="joOvot">
|
|||
|
|
Politicians were more united in addressing the ozone layer than they’ve proven in addressing climate change.<strong> </strong>The Senate <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/15/science/treaty-on-ozone-is-backed-in-senate.html">ratified the Montreal Protocol 83–0</a>. Margaret Thatcher, not generally known for her friendliness to regulation, was a <a href="https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108133">leader in the push</a> for the Montreal Protocol and the effort to enable compliance by poor countries.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ornYww">
|
|||
|
|
By contrast, politicians today (especially in the US) are fiercely divided over the proper government role in ending climate change, and the <a href="https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/climateinsights2020-partisan-divide/">public is divided along partisan lines as well</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X3nOES">
|
|||
|
|
The picture we’re left with by the fight to heal the ozone layer<strong> </strong>is that specific individuals played a huge role in changing humanity’s trajectory but they did that mostly by enabling public activism, international diplomacy, and collective action. In the fight to improve the world, we can’t do without individuals and we can’t do without coordination mechanisms. But we should keep in mind how much we can do when we have both.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Why Ethiopia wants to expel UN officials sounding the alarm on famine</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="ETHIOPIA-CONFLICT-REFUGEE-AID" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/lZlNsYx8QWtolXustdkp5CmgYDY=/334x0:5667x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69942445/1233593797.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Refugees wait for their names to be called during a food distribution organized by the local NGO Relief Society of Tigray in Mekele, the capital of Tigray region of Ethiopia, on June 22, 2021. | YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Ethiopia’s federal government has blocked humanitarian aid for the embattled Tigray region.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QHRwrr">
|
|||
|
|
The Ethiopian government <a href="https://apnews.com/article/africa-united-nations-ethiopia-
|
|||
|
|
tigray-4dbbff1c6fa65da8d9d5c4b2c0029125">moved to expel seven United Nations officials</a> from the country on Thursday, in a dramatic move that threatens to exacerbate the region’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h2JvsV">
|
|||
|
|
A civil war between Ethiopia’s federal government and the country’s northern Tigray region, which began late last year, has led to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/africa/ethiopia-tigray-dengelat-massacre-intl/index.html">widespread</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-tigray-abuses-amhara-96fda9f5bd3b4d76fe8f728eb343424f">atrocities</a> and created <a href="https://www.vox.com/22545382/tigray-famine-ethiopia-abiy-war">famine conditions</a> in parts of the country. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s decision to expel UN officials from the country comes after they raised concerns about the worsening humanitarian situation.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1S20Ir">
|
|||
|
|
UN officials have repeatedly warned that Ethiopia’s government is blocking the movement of critical supplies — like medicine, food, and fuel — into the Tigray region, with as little as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/africa-health-united-nations-only-on-ap-
|
|||
|
|
famine-a2b1639797c2a31973ce12985d82b865">10 percent of the needed humanitarian supplies</a> being allowed in. Those accusations were echoed this week by the head of the UN’s humanitarian aid arm, as well as <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/ethiopia-northern-ethiopia-humanitarian-update-situation-
|
|||
|
|
report-30-sept-2021">a report finding the region on the brink of famine</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6zxsNU">
|
|||
|
|
Abiy’s Thursday announcement, which gave the officials just 72 hours to leave the country, is a rare departure from international norms. While it’s not completely unprecedented for a nation to kick UN officials out, it is unusual — and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/world/africa/ethiopia-expels-un-officials.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-
|
|||
|
|
share">according to the New York Times</a>, Abiy’s decision would be among the largest such expulsions of UN officials in history, outpacing Syria’s removal of three UN officials in 2015.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SVgrNR">
|
|||
|
|
As of Saturday, however, it’s unclear whether the seven officials have left the country — and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has already pushed back on the move, saying in a <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/node/259817">statement</a> Friday that the UN is “now engaging with the Government of Ethiopia in the expectation that the concerned UN staff will be allowed to continue their important work.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SFsMJE">
|
|||
|
|
US officials have also condemned Abiy’s push to expel UN officials.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o4m0cB">
|
|||
|
|
“The expulsion is counterproductive to international efforts to keep civilians safe, and deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance to the millions in dire need,” <a href="https://www.state.gov/condemning-ethiopias-plans-to-
|
|||
|
|
expel-un-officials/">Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Thursday statement</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="47cOlo">
|
|||
|
|
</div></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
|
At a time of looming, heartbreaking famine, the government in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ethiopia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ethiopia</a> shockingly just expelled a <a href="https://twitter.com/UNICEF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="UNICEF">@UNICEF</span></a> officer & 6 other <a href="https://twitter.com/UN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="UN">@UN</span></a> personnel. Millions of people face desperate need in northern Ethiopia, and the government keeps taking steps to ensure aid won’t reach them. <a href="https://t.co/C84pWfr5Dy">https://t.co/C84pWfr5Dy</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">— Samantha Power (<span class="citation" data-cites="PowerUSAID">@PowerUSAID</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/PowerUSAID/status/1443690457603641344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2021</a></p>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X36CXE">
|
|||
|
|
Abiy’s government has justified the expulsion order by accusing UN officials of “meddling” in Ethiopia’s affairs, but it comes just two days after the head of the UN’s Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, raised concerns about famine in Tigray, home to about 6 million people. The official directive from the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs came Thursday, the same day the OCHA <a href="https://reports.unocha.org/en/country/ethiopia">released a report</a> finding that 79 percent of pregnant or breastfeeding women in Tigray are malnourished, and that fuel and medicine haven’t reached the region since July.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="05IiaT">
|
|||
|
|
According to the UN, <a href="https://www.unocha.org/story/un-humanitarian-chief-visits-ethiopia">5.2 million people</a> in Tigray — about 90 percent of its population — are in need of humanitarian assistance in order to survive, necessitating a flow of about 100 supply-laden trucks into the region per day. Yet only 606 such vehicles have made it into the state since July 12, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/world/africa/ethiopia-expels-un-
|
|||
|
|
officials.html">the New York Times reports</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o86yWi">
|
|||
|
|
This is not the first time the government has forced a humanitarian group out of Tigray for opposing the official government narrative on conditions there.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vRdJqq">
|
|||
|
|
The Dutch arm of <a href="https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/news/ethiopia-msf-
|
|||
|
|
forced-suspend-majority-activities-amid-enormous-needs">Médecins Sans Frontières</a> — MSF, or Doctors Without Borders — suspended its activities in west and northwest Tigray for three months starting in early September after the Ethiopian Agency for Civil Society Organizations<em> </em>directed them to do so in late July. The<a href="https://www.nrc.no/news/2021/august/statement-on-the-suspension-of-programmes-in-ethiopia/"> Norwegian Refugee Council </a>was issued the same order July 30 and suspended its Ethiopia operations in early August; <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/4/claims-of-bias-against-aid-workers-in-tigray-is-dangerous-un">Ethiopian authorities</a> had accused the groups of backing the Tigrayan political cause, even claiming that aid workers armed members of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="S6vGIj">
|
|||
|
|
Ethiopia ended one war and started another
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VKfkAP">
|
|||
|
|
The dismissal of the UN officials is the latest development in the Ethiopian government’s ongoing war in the Tigray region. For the past 11 months, since <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/28/21724049/ethiopia-captured-tigray-capital-mekele-tplf">Abiy sent in the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, or ENDF, into Tigray to retaliate against a TPLF attack on a ENDF base there</a>, Tigray has slid further toward disaster.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="937iKM">
|
|||
|
|
That initial skirmish, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/22370629/ethiopia-tigray-eritrea-amhara-war-ethnic-cleansing">Vox’s Jen Kirby</a> explained in April, was widely seen as a pretext for the national government to invade the Tigray region.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bwCHg9">
|
|||
|
|
Conflict between the Tigray, which is an ethnic group as well as a region of the country, and the Abiy administration seemed inevitable almost since Abiy took power in 2018. Abiy’s rise to power ended nearly 30 years of domination by the Tigrayan wing of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dyfh05">
|
|||
|
|
Prior to Abiy, protests against government corruption and human rights abuses were mounting in Ethiopia; in particular, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22370629/ethiopia-tigray-eritrea-amhara-war-ethnic-cleansing">Kirby says</a>, the Omoro and Amhara ethnic groups were frustrated by the Tigray grip on positions of power in the government and military, even though only 6 percent of Ethiopians are Tigray.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DEGmAp">
|
|||
|
|
In 2018, Abiy — a member of the Omoro group and a relative political newcomer — was elected head of the EPRDF and assumed the role of prime minister. He came into the power promising democratic elections and the freeing of political prisoners, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/7/31/17595988/ethiopia-eritrea-peace-abiy-ahmed">even brokered peace with neighboring Eritrea</a>, ending a 20-year war. The following year, he was awarded the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/10/11/20909642/nobel-peace-prize-2019-abiy-ahmed-ethiopia-eritrea-peace">Nobel Peace Prize</a> for ending that conflict — only to precipitate a brutal civil war a year later.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="YwHyjs">
|
|||
|
|
<div class="volume-video" id="volume-placement-941">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="G6CfPd">
|
|||
|
|
“This is man-made, this can be remedied by the act of government”
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gFmgA2">
|
|||
|
|
Now, as Ethiopia’s civil war approaches the one-year mark, international aid groups say the Tigray state’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/20/1038858345/i-just-cry-dying-of-
|
|||
|
|
hunger-in-ethiopias-blockaded-tigray-region">deadly famine</a> is poised to get worse.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LEEbyl">
|
|||
|
|
“We predicted that there were 400,000 people in famine-like conditions, at risk of famine, and the supposition was that if no aid got to them adequately they would slip into famine,” Martin Griffiths, the OCHA head, told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/un-aid-chief-ethiopia-famine-tigray-get-those-trucks-
|
|||
|
|
moving-2021-09-28/">Reuters</a> this week, citing a June <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-
|
|||
|
|
some-350000-people-ethiopias-tigray-famine-un-document-2021-06-09/">UN assessment</a>. Since June, Abiy’s administration has imposed what Griffiths called a “de-facto blockade,” with only about 10 percent of the urgently needed supplies getting into Tigray.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qik7VM">
|
|||
|
|
The crisis has been made even worse by another factor: In addition to civil war, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/20/21158283/locust-plague-swarm-outbreak-africa-asia-2020">a plague of desert locusts</a> disrupted the region’s growing season over the last two years, with Ethiopia and neighboring Somalia and Kenya bearing the brunt of the invasion of the crop-eating pests. A 2019 report from the Food and <a href="http://www.fao.org/emergencies/fao-in-action/stories/stories-detail/en/c/1247226/">Agriculture Organization of the UN </a>specifically points to Ethiopia’s Tigray, Somali, Orowia, and Amhara states as suffering the worst of the swarm’s damage.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JSgXvc">
|
|||
|
|
But despite the swarms of locusts and consecutive seasons of <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/ethiopia-food-security-outlook-update-december-2020">low rainfall and crop yield</a>, the UN says the primary driver of Tigray’s looming famine is still Ethiopia’s federal government.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AZGkP4">
|
|||
|
|
“This is man-made, this can be remedied by the act of government,” Griffiths said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xCMxRW">
|
|||
|
|
It’s unclear, however, whether there is any end in sight to the conflict. The war in Tigray has already spilled over into neighboring states in Ethiopia and <a href="https://www.unrefugees.org/news/ethiopia-s-tigray-refugee-crisis-
|
|||
|
|
explained/">displaced more than 1.7 million people</a> from their homes; as the conflict wears on, those problems only stand to worsen.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tcU0U2">
|
|||
|
|
The UN Security Council discussed the situation in a Friday meeting, with some member nations expressing grave concerns over Ethiopia’s behavior, both present and future.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MIFJMh">
|
|||
|
|
“As a major new military offensive looms, this seems like Ethiopia’s attempt to test if the international community is prepared to respond with more than words to an unfolding famine,” an unnamed Western official <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/un-decries-ethiopia-expulsions-says-52-million-need-aid-
|
|||
|
|
tigray-2021-10-01/">told Reuters</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V7Poho">
|
|||
|
|
“We’re worried it may be a precursor to other activity,” Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland’s ambassador to the UN, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/un-decries-
|
|||
|
|
ethiopia-expulsions-says-52-million-need-aid-tigray-2021-10-01/">said Friday</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>The Sopranos vs. the end of history</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A scene from the Sopranos with James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano sitting at a table flanked by
|
|||
|
|
two men." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mSnFAYRekyP5cl0tHQV1uLc9Slc=/386x0:2827x1831/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69941029/sopranos2.0.jpeg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
<em>The Sopranos</em> is big again — and the new prequel movie isn’t the only reason. | HBO
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
A new prequel movie. A spike in new viewership. What explains the iconic TV show’s enduring appeal?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BRW6Bp">
|
|||
|
|
Since the summer of 2020 — for well over a year now — entertainment reporters have been probing what seems like the great question of our time: Why is everyone watching <em>The Sopranos</em>? And more specifically, why are most of those people so young?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nv72Ky">
|
|||
|
|
In May 2020, WarnerMedia, which owns HBO, the cable network on which <em>The Sopranos</em> premiered in 1999, <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/the-sopranos-is-the-hottest-show-of-2020">announced that</a> since the start of the pandemic a few months earlier, viewership of the show on its streaming service had risen by 179 percent, outpaced only by the considerably more recent <em>Westworld</em> and <em>Game of Thrones</em>. Meanwhile, many of those viewers, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/magazine/sopranos.html">at least anecdotally</a>, seemed to be on the younger side; after all, even the oldest millennials were Meadow Soprano’s age, just finishing high school when the show premiered.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eWIW4v">
|
|||
|
|
The reasons for that surge are, on their face, kind of obvious. One lies in simple economics. In April 2020, presumably as an attempt to direct eyeballs toward its streaming services (at the time called HBO Go and HBO Now), <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/02/free-hbo-tv-shows-movies-and-documentaries-coming-
|
|||
|
|
april-3.html">HBO announced</a> that it would make a few of its greatest hits — including <em>The Sopranos</em> — free to everyone, subscriber or not, for a limited time.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="11vKMQ">
|
|||
|
|
Simultaneously, a whole lot of people suddenly found themselves stuck at home. Faced with lockdowns of varying severity and unknown length, it was natural to take up a TV-watching project as a coping mechanism, to escape the feeling that time itself had ground to a halt. <em>The Sopranos</em>, widely recognized as one of the seminal works of TV’s so-called modern<strong> </strong>“golden age,” was a natural fit. The series is an 86-episode hour-long<strong> </strong>drama about mobsters, everyone has heard of it, and if you hadn’t already watched it, you probably intended to<strong> </strong>at some point. It is, in this regard, a bit like <em>Citizen Kane </em>or <em>Lawrence of Arabia.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="An image
|
|||
|
|
of Tony Soprano and his captains standing in a graveyard." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/EsIawdjgOOH8gMHJLcf4troirpA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22893489/sopranos.jpeg"/> <cite>HBO</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Even if you never watched <em>The Sopranos</em>, you know about it.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="THqt5P">
|
|||
|
|
I asked around a little, and that desire to “catch up” certainly matched people’s experiences. Yonah and his girlfriend Maya, both of whom are around 30, started to watch <em>The Sopranos</em> because there was “much more time to get into long-form television that we just never got around to watching before the creation of HBO Max,” Yonah told me, echoing the sentiments of many peers who responded via Twitter. “When people talk about the best TV shows, there are a few that are always mentioned <em>— Sopranos</em>, <em>The Wire</em>, <em>Mad Men</em>, <em>The Americans</em>. We’ve had so much more time to ourselves these last 18 months that we managed to get through all of those incredible series.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QJp4Xw">
|
|||
|
|
And despite their often dark themes and pessimistic view of the world — or perhaps because of them? — these shows amounted, in a sense, to “comfort” watches for many. “Watching these ‘classic’ shows has been a welcome escape from the chaos in the world,” Yonah said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MVBo1P">
|
|||
|
|
Adam, a recent college graduate, described a similar experience. “I was a server at the time, so I now didn’t have a job, due to the pandemic. My classes were all writing intensive so I found myself with a lot of free time,” he said. “There was never a better time to finally give <em>The Sopranos</em> the attention it deserved. I made my way through the series, and finished in about a month.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UF553T">
|
|||
|
|
This all makes perfect sense. But why, specifically, did young people seem to gravitate toward <em>The Sopranos</em> as a place to start? Why not binge other recent classics, like <em>Breaking Bad</em> or <em>Mad Men</em> or even <em>The Wire</em>, which is also on HBO?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gDvAOd">
|
|||
|
|
Various critics have offered their opinions on why Tony Soprano and his buddies (and enemies) were so attractive to viewers during a tough time. <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/the-sopranos-is-the-
|
|||
|
|
hottest-show-of-2020">Some have speculated</a> the reason was thwarted desire: It’s a “hands-on” show, with big Italian families constantly hugging and eating baked ziti together — something that might appeal in a time of social distancing.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eQIVBV">
|
|||
|
|
Others have pointed to a spate of new media being produced around the show. The podcast <a href="https://talkingsopranos.simplecast.com/episodes"><em>Talking Sopranos</em></a>, hosted by cast members Michael Imperioli (who played Christopher Moltisanti) and Steve Schirripa (who played Bobby Baccalieri), launched in April 2020, joining a bevy of other <em>Sopranos</em> fan podcasts and <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/michael-imperioli-talking-
|
|||
|
|
sopranos-podcast-host-and-instagram/#:~:text=Now%2C%20nine%20months%20and%2044,top%2010%20TV%2Ffilm%20podcasts.">racking up 9 million listeners</a> by early 2021. Memes from the show started popping up on Instagram and TikTok; the <a href="https://twitter.com/oocsopranos">“Sopranos Out of Context” Twitter account</a>, which posts captioned screenshots from the show, saw <a href="http://theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/dec/19/sopranos-hit-social-media-generation-mafia-
|
|||
|
|
series-emotional-struggles">a jump in followers</a> during summer 2020, and currently has more than 125,000 followers. However, it seems more likely that the newfound popularity of memes and podcasts about <em>The Sopranos</em> are more a result of the show’s spiking viewership than a cause for it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A
|
|||
|
|
teenager in a tie and his uncle stand in a doorway." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/Ds1Z0KtYBf2_3utRAn606YTay1c=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22893493/manysaintscover.jpeg"/> <cite>Warner Bros.</cite></figure></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Michael Gandolfini — son of the late James Gandolfini — as young Tony Soprano, and Alessandro Nivola as Dickie Moltisanti in <em>The Many Saints of Newark.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X7VfaK">
|
|||
|
|
Another clear possibility could be the looming release of <em>The Many Saints of Newark</em>, which after a long pandemic delay finally hit theaters and HBO Max simultaneously on October 1. The film follows in the footsteps of movies that revisit characters from golden age TV shows, like <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/10/11/20908346/el-camino-review-
|
|||
|
|
breaking-bad-netflix-jesse-pinkman-walter-white"><em>El Camino</em></a>, a sequel to <em>Breaking Bad</em>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/5/31/18646457/deadwood-the-movie-review-hbo"><em>Deadwood: The Movie</em></a>, both of which came out in 2019.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9BQz1I">
|
|||
|
|
Given that James Gandolfini, the star of <em>The Sopranos</em>, passed away in 2013, the film isn’t a sequel; it’s a prequel. And in truth, it leaves a lot to be desired. <em>The Many Saints of Newark</em> is unwieldy and marred by a number of performances that feel more like impressions of <em>Sopranos’</em> characters than actual acting. Series creator David Chase wrote the story, which centers on Dickie Moltisanti (played by an excellent Alessandro Nivola), who will one day be the father of <em>The Sopranos</em>’ Christopher. The film follows Dickie as he navigates the twisty connections of his many relatives and mentors his nephew, young Tony Soprano (played by Michael Gandolfini, son of James).
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="egxPzg">
|
|||
|
|
And for <em>Sopranos</em> fans yearning for more, it will undoubtedly hit the spot in spite of its flaws.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="fn19kE">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NAvzGw">
|
|||
|
|
Yet none of these factors definitively explain the surge. For one thing, until recently, many people seemed not to even know <em>The Many Saints of Newark</em> was coming out, or that it was connected to <em>The Sopranos</em>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sxEkoX">
|
|||
|
|
Furthermore, as Chase noted in an interview in 2020, the series had already started to gain new traction around the 20th anniversary of its debut,<strong> </strong>before anyone knew the pandemic was coming. “From last summer, fall of 2019, I kept hearing this — that young people were discovering the show and these podcasts started,” <a href="https://variety.com/2020/tv/features/sopranos-david-chase-prestige-tv-
|
|||
|
|
pandemic-interview-1234707842/">he told Variety</a>. “And that was sort of puzzling and wonderful to me.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MWdPAc">
|
|||
|
|
In 2019, <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/columns/sopranoscon-james-gandolfini-tracksuits-rabbit-
|
|||
|
|
maureen-van-zandt-1203415813/">the first-ever SopranosCon</a> — a fan convention — was held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey, not too far from the North Jersey locations where much of the show is set. It was an unofficial event that proceeded with blessings from HBO, attracting thousands of fans (some in costume) and featuring replicas of Dr. Melfi’s office (where Tony had therapy sessions) and the Bada Bing! strip club as well as memorials to the late Gandolfini and other cast members who have died since the show’s 2007 finale.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uRnWZG">
|
|||
|
|
Fans’ enduring love for the series is predictable. <em>The Sopranos </em>has, on the whole, aged quite well. The notion of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/8/7/16030036/antihero-drama-best-tv">an antihero as the protagonist of a TV drama</a> is no longer remarkable, and the notion of a mob boss going to therapy, while still inherently comical, isn’t quite as startling or weird. But the show’s explorations of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/10/10/17925740/tv-protagonists-sexual-misconduct-antiheroes">dangerous masculinity</a> (and, often, the kind of “femininity” that enables it) were ahead of their time, especially compared with sitcoms or many traditional dramas from the same era. Even though many great shows that have followed it, <em>The Sopranos</em> still stands out, with acting and writing that rival most anything you can watch on a screen.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Tony, Carmela, and AJ Soprano at a table in a diner." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/CJoT7o3YCEMVZk_Z1fe0-C820Jw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22893498/sopranos3.jpeg"/> <cite>HBO</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
It’s still hard to beat <em>The Sopranos</em>.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X0Laju">
|
|||
|
|
So it stands to reason that the show’s recent popularity isn’t really linked, or at least not solely, to pandemic-prompted binge-watching and malaise. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/magazine/sopranos.html">Many</a> <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/the-
|
|||
|
|
sopranos-is-the-hottest-show-of-2020">commentators</a> have <a href="http://theguardian.com/tv-and-
|
|||
|
|
radio/2020/dec/19/sopranos-hit-social-media-generation-mafia-series-emotional-struggles">suggested</a> that <em>The Sopranos</em>’ newest fans — many of whom are millennials or Gen Z, people under 40 who were mostly too young to watch the show when it was first airing — probably also<strong> </strong>relate to one of its main themes, which might be termed “the end of history.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n6WspC">
|
|||
|
|
You have to read that phrase with a little bit of self-conscious pretension in mind, because every generation kind of thinks it’s the last one. Apocalyptic thinking is by no means new. (It’s not like Gen X, who would have been just the right age for the show when it was on, is some fount of optimism.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PcVhmq">
|
|||
|
|
But there’s something to the idea that the Soprano family provides a proxy for viewers who feel like they were born too late to have experienced the “good life.” One of Tony’s most-quoted lines comes in Dr. Melfi’s office during a therapy session. “It’s good to be in something from the ground floor,” he says. “I came too late for that and I know. But lately, I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over.” He’s basically stating one of the show’s great recurring motifs, in which the mobsters lament the passing of their fathers’ generation, when things were better and the men, in their memory, were “saints.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ctgx0W">
|
|||
|
|
They’re remembering the past through <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vaseline-camera-trick-effect_n_7062900">Vaseline-rubbed lenses</a>, something <em>The Many Saints of Newark</em> makes clear. Times weren’t better back then; they were different, and for many, far more dangerous. The men weren’t saints, and they certainly didn’t treat their families any better. But the sentiment and its attendant ironies appealed to viewers at the turn of the millennium, and it rings true decades later too. The kind of overt nostalgia that’s surfaced in our political and cultural discourse — from yearning for a formerly “great” America to mythologizing the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/9/23/13003198/great-movies-early-2016">kinds of movies they don’t make anymore</a> — is exactly what the characters on the show often pine for.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="91iyk4">
|
|||
|
|
Yet<strong> </strong>I still find this explanation for <em>The Sopranos</em>’ resurgence<strong> </strong>unsatisfying. I was midway through high school when the show premiered, and I never watched it. And though I’ve watched, and loved, virtually every other prestige<strong> </strong>show that aired during the early 2000s “golden age,” I kept putting off <em>The Sopranos</em>. I thought it would be a tough sit, as dense and dark as its cousins.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bkxFLM">
|
|||
|
|
The impending launch of <em>The Many Saints of Newark</em> finally got me to start. To my delight, I quickly realized that <em>The Sopranos</em> is extremely funny, frequently feeling more like a family sitcom than a straightforward drama. I definitely noticed all the same things critics had pointed out about the show — its terrific characters, its innovative storytelling, its ability to tap into a pessimistic zeitgeist that hasn’t abated in the years since it aired.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A scene from “The Many Saints of Newark” showing a
|
|||
|
|
large family around a dinner table." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/UYgXtRFkqjG1MjMnmc4g2nFKmfA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22893495/manysaints3.jpeg"/> <cite>HBO</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
It’s about family.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ki0PFm">
|
|||
|
|
But there was something else, too — something I couldn’t put my finger on until recently. Several people, including some of my friends, told me that watching <em>The Sopranos</em> made them feel connected to their own families and hometowns. It was like coming home. Annabel, who’s 22, told me via Twitter that she’d started watching the show with her partner this year. “I really miss my heavily New York and New Jersey family, who I don’t get to see much because of the pandemic and distance,” she said. “I get a kick out of seeing them eat stuff like the sfogliatelle that we had at holidays, and making jokes about the college that my mom went to.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5NKQAy">
|
|||
|
|
“As the first person in my family who was born <em>not</em> in New Jersey or New York, it also felt like a little bit of a glimpse — not the mobsters, but the set dressing! — of a huge chapter of my family’s life before I was born that I’ve always heard about,” she said. “Our lore.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TU8O17">
|
|||
|
|
I get that. My family isn’t Italian at all, but I did grow up in New York state, and somehow northeastern foodways mean that Italian-American food was what we were always eating at family gatherings. The baked ziti and manicotti and huge piles of bread and charcuterie — excuse me, <a href="https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/a25837043/what-is-gabagool-sopranos/">gabagool</a> — were and still are fixtures on my family’s holiday tables. Watching the Soprano family’s holidays or the men eating in Artie Bucco’s restaurant, I felt a little homesick in a way TV never makes me feel.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ujwqmw">
|
|||
|
|
For me and<strong> </strong>many people like Annabel, <em>The Sopranos</em> provides a way to feel connected to history, whether or not we’re at the end of it. Actually, I suspect that’s true for most millennials and Gen Z viewers of the series<em>, </em>Italian-American or New Jersey natives or not. After all, <em>The Sopranos</em> represents, for us, the mythic starting point of something that has ruled our adult lives: an explosively crowded TV landscape telling stories that frequently focus on bad men wrestling with their demons. Even shows that do just the opposite often seem to be operating near the antiheroes’ spotlight, trying to innovate on or entirely subvert these larger-than-life figures.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="eecswX">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DjaVL6">
|
|||
|
|
Watching <em>The Sopranos</em> inducts us into that history, which represents for many our grander cultural history, for better or worse. As the entertainment world grows more niche and diverse, and fewer and fewer shows are capable of capturing mass attention and driving cultural dialogue, watching <em>The Sopranos</em> is a trip into another part of our past — one where a show like this could cause breathless next- day discussions and become a bona fide cultural event.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iFqdOK">
|
|||
|
|
While I think the death of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/17/21024439/monoculture-algorithm-netflix-spotify">the monoculture</a> has been greatly exaggerated, it’s easy to feel like we’re at the end of something, an age of mass art that we’ll never return to. The guys on <em>The Sopranos</em>, forever quoting <em>The Godfather</em> and reminiscing about the good old days, felt just the same. The more things change, the more they stay, ever and always, the same.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3d9X5X">
|
|||
|
|
The Many Saints of Newark <em>is playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.</em> The Sopranos <em>is streaming on HBO Max.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</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>Ravinder reaches bronze medal play-off, others bite dust in pre-quarters</strong> - He will now fight for bronze medal against Armenia’s Arsen Harutyunyan, the European champion bronze medallist, in the evening session</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>IPL 2021 | Royal Challengers Bangalore score 164 for 7 against Punjab Kings</strong> - This is the highest total this season in Sharjah.</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>Cricket-‘Work in progress’ Sri Lanka aim to improve batting, says coach Arthur</strong> - Sri Lanka will be without Danushka Gunathilaka, Niroshan Dickwella and Kusal Mendis at the World Cup after they were given one-year ban from international cricket for breaching bio-bubble protocols during the England tour</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>Aus W vs Ind W pink ball Test | Australia declare after Indian pacers reduce hosts to 241/9</strong> - Indian Women lead by 136 runs after Australia’s interesting declaration with one wicket in hand</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>IPL 2021 | This knock was much needed for me, my team, says Rajasthan’s Shivam Dube</strong> - Dube also lavished praise on his Mumbai team-mate and supremely-talented Jaiswal.</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>We are firm in our stand on Mekedatu Project: CM Basavaraj Bommai</strong> - The Chief Minister also said that as many as 10 big steel companies were given permissions to establish their plants in the State but they are yet to commence their operations</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>Kalaburagi youth rescued from ditch</strong> - The man tried to jump from one rock to another, while taking a selfie but fell into a 140-feet deep ditch</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>Two die of electrocution in Sankeshwar</strong> - An old woman and her grandson were electrocuted when they came into contact with a live wire in their backyard.</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>Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad meets TN CM</strong> - Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad called on Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Sunday. “He appreciated</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>Youngster killed in road accident</strong> - A youngster riding pillion on a sports bike died in accident, while his elder brother escaped with minor injuries, according to Madhapur police here o</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>Paris attacks: Haunting survivors’ memories shake terror trial</strong> - The harrowing, personal, stories of people caught up in the 2015 attacks take centre stage in Paris.</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>Kilogram of nails, screws and knives removed from man’s stomach</strong> - The man had begun swallowing metal objects after quitting alcohol, doctors in Lithuania said.</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>Climate change: Stop smoke and mirrors, rich nations told</strong> - Ministers meeting in Milan hear calls for sweeping carbon cuts ahead of the COP26 climate summit.</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>The American father and son building a Gothic folly in France</strong> - Donald Russell, 94, and his son Sam are building a Gothic-inspired edifice in the French countryside.</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>Atletico Madrid 2-0 Barcelona: Atletico increase pressure on Barca boss Ronald Koeman</strong> - Reigning champions Atletico Madrid go level with Real Madrid at the top of La Liga and inflict further damage on Ronald Koeman’s struggling Barcelona with a deserved win.</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>The controversial quest to make cow burps less noxious</strong> - It’s not so simple as just feeding them gas-busting seaweed. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1800108">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>YouTube TV keeps NBC, won’t have to bundle Peacock as companies strike new deal</strong> - Update: YouTube TV and NBC agree to multi-year contract and avoid blackout. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1799978">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Metal Gear, Silent Hill, and Castlevania could return in 2022, allegedly</strong> - Multiple new entries made in-and-out house could be long-awaited good news for fans. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1800174">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Google Pay’s disastrous year continues, promised bank account feature is dead</strong> - The rudderless Google Pay division cancels its biggest upcoming feature. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1800077">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>This software aims to make your flight smoother—and help the planet</strong> - Airplanes taxiing isn’t just annoying—it’s a big source of emissions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1800121">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A Mother had 3 virgin daughters</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
They were all getting married within a short time period. Because Mom was a bit worried about how their sex life would get started, she made them all promise to send a postcard from the honeymoon with a few words on how marital sex felt. The first girl sent a card from Hawaii two days after the wedding. The card said nothing but “Nescafe.” Mom was puzzled at first, but then went to the kitchen and got out the Nescafe jar. It said: “Good till the last drop.” Mom blushed, but was pleased for her daughter. The second girl sent the card from Vermont a week after the wedding, and the card read: “Benson&Hedges”. Mom now knew to go straight to her husband’s cigarettes, and she read from the Benson&Hedges pack: “Extra Long King Size.” She was again slightly embarrassed but still happy for her daughter. The third girl left for her honeymoon in the Caribbean. Mom waited for a week, nothing. Another week went by and still nothing. Then after a whole month, a card finally arrived. Written on it with shaky handwriting were the words: “British Airways”. Mom took out her latest Harper’s Bazaar magazine, flipped through the pages fearing the worst, and finally found the ad for the airline. The ad said: “Three times a day, seven days a week, both ways.” (Mom fainted)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/thenez68"> /u/thenez68 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q055x1/a_mother_had_3_virgin_daughters/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q055x1/a_mother_had_3_virgin_daughters/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Union Dues</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
A union boss at a convention in Las Vegas decides to visit a brothel. He asks the madam, “Is this a union house?” “No, I’m sorry, it isn’t,” she says. “Well, if I pay $100, what do the girls get?” he asks. “The house gets $80 and the girl gets $20.” Offended by such unfair dealings, the man stomps off in search of a more equitable shop.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Finally, he reaches a brothel where the madam says, “Why yes, this is a union house.” “And if I pay $100, what do the girls get?” he asks. “The girls get $80 and the house gets $20.” “That’s more like it!” the man says. He looks around the room and points to a gorgeous young redhead. “I’d like her for the night.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“I’m sure you would, sir,” says the madam, gesturing at a 70-year-old woman in the corner, “But Ethel here has seniority.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/luckprecludes"> /u/luckprecludes </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q06co7/union_dues/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q06co7/union_dues/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>My crush just sneezed and I accidentally replied “bless you !”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Now she’s staring at the bush, wondering who said that.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ExtraSure"> /u/ExtraSure </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q0e3p0/my_crush_just_sneezed_and_i_accidentally_replied/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q0e3p0/my_crush_just_sneezed_and_i_accidentally_replied/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>My wife calls me a sex machine.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
I mean her actual words are fucking tool but I know what she’s trying to say.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/3Vishal"> /u/3Vishal </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q07tif/my_wife_calls_me_a_sex_machine/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/q07tif/my_wife_calls_me_a_sex_machine/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>My girlfriend dressed up as a policewoman and told me I was under arrest for suspicion of being good in bed.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
After 2 minutes, all charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!--
|
|||
|
|
SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/yomommafool"> /u/yomommafool </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pzubbj/my_girlfriend_dressed_up_as_a_policewoman_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pzubbj/my_girlfriend_dressed_up_as_a_policewoman_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>
|