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<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>The Three Biggest Lessons of the Coronavirus Economy</strong> - Nearly a year into the pandemic, solving the economic crisis means defeating the virus. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-three-biggest-lessons-of-the-coronavirus-economy">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Biden Administration’s Landmark Day in the Fight for the Climate</strong> - The newly announced actions may well mark the beginning of the end of the fossil-fuel era. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-biden-administrations-landmark-day-in-the-fight-for-the-climate">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Coronavirus Vaccine Presents a Dilemma for Pregnant Women</strong> - Vaccine trials have excluded the pregnant population, even though women of reproductive age make up a majority of frontline workers. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/the-coronavirus-vaccine-presents-a-dilemma-for-pregnant-women">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Pennsylvania Mother’s Path to Insurrection</strong> - How claims from Rudy Giuliani and Alex Jones spurred a parent of eight to become one of the Capitol riot’s biggest mysteries and a fugitive from the F.B.I. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-pennsylvania-mothers-path-to-insurrection-capitol-riot">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Black Lives Matter Came to the Academy</strong> - The #BlackInTheIvory hashtag helped to surface decades of bias at universities. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/how-black-lives-matter-came-to-the-academy">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s next executive actions address family separations, legal immigration and asylum</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/T-e5Oaqajw4uarbmEQEH1HNA1Ew=/627x0:5894x3950/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68755654/1230841226.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
US President Joe Biden speaks before signing executive orders on health care, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 28, 2021 | MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Biden is continuing to prioritize immigration during his first weeks in office.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h6MrBm">
President Joe Biden will announce three executive orders on Tuesday that are aimed at reuniting families separated by the Trump administration, improving access to the asylum system, and removing barriers to legal immigration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lHXXw4">
It’s the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/20/22240549/biden-executive-actions-immigration">second batch</a> of executive actions on immigration that the president will have issued since taking office, signaling his continued commitment to the issue as a key priority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="moVRq1">
The first <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/20/22240549/biden-executive-actions-immigration">seven executive actions </a>that Biden issued concerned a number of former President Donald Trump’s most controversial immigration policies: the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/20/22235986/biden-trump-travel-muslim-ban"><strong>travel ban</strong></a>, construction of the southern border wall, and his attempt to end protections for young undocumented immigrants through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In some ways, these early actions represented the low-hanging fruit; Biden could walk back Trump’s policies quickly and with immediate, visible effect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lvdmW3">
According to a <a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22274891/Feb.2_Immigration_EOs_Fact_Sheet.pdf">memo</a> shared with reporters, Tuesday’s actions are instead directed at undoing Trump’s complex web of regulations and policy changes and laying out some of Biden’s priorities to reform the immigration system administratively. While immigrant advocates were hoping that he might end pandemic-related restrictions on visas and at the border or a program that has trapped asylum seekers in Mexico, it’s now clear that those policy changes won’t happen immediately.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l8QbDU">
Here’s what Biden is expected to announce:
</p>
<h3 id="C9opcj">
Biden is creating a task force to reunite families separated under Trump
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3Zm8WY">
Biden will announce the creation of a task force to reunite separated immigrant families — the first step in making amends for one of the Trump administration’s cruelest immigration policies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GJwiQe">
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop the separations in 2018 after more than 5,000 families were separated. Attorneys still can’t find the parents of more than 600 children who were identified as part of a court settlement; many of the parents were deported back to their home countries, while others are believed to be in the US. But there may be many more affected children who have yet to be identified.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0B25q8">
The task force, which will be chaired by the Secretary of Homeland Security (Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s nominee, is expected to be confirmed on Tuesday) would aim to identify any remaining separated children, reunite them with their parents and make recommendations as to how to ensure that the federal government does not repeat the policies and practices that led to the separations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5MaRxJ">
A senior administration official said that the task force will examine each case on an individual basis, taking into account the preferences of the parents and the well-being of the children. They might consider offering visas or immigration parole, a kind of temporary permission to enter the US, to affected families, the official said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tKxNAp">
Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing separated families, has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/22173396/biden-immigrant-family-separations">calling on the administration</a> to also facilitate congressional hearings investigating the policy, offering the families legal status in the US and setting up a victims fund, among other provisions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wd8LWb">
“All the families must be immediately reunited in the United States, and then given permanent legal status and restitution for the abuse they suffered under the Trump administration,” he <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/27/22252294/biden-zero-tolerance-family-separation-trump">told Vox</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d0Whl3">
There also remains a question at to what should happen to families that have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/family-separations-biden-trump-honduras/2021/01/31/f6b815cc-6198-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html">separated again after being reunited</a>, usually in cases where the parents are deported while the children have pending applications for protection in the US.
</p>
<h3 id="guj2fO">
Biden is laying out a framework to reform asylum policy
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pubxH9">
Biden will issue an executive order implementing a broad, three-part plan to improve access to the asylum system and address the root causes of migration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zZoMnX">
According to the memo, the administration will address the “instability, violence and economic insecurity” that is driving Central American migrants out of the their home countries. It will work with foreign governments, international organizations and nonprofits to ensure that people can seek asylum and economic opportunities in Central America as an alternative to traveling to the US. And it will develop policies to ensure that migrants arriving on the southern border can seek protections to which they are legally entitled, as well as eliminate or review ones promulgated by the Trump administration that all but shut the door on asylum seekers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hTf5td">
Among the policies that the Biden administration will be required to review under the executive order is the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, under which Trump sent tens of thousands of migrants back to Mexico to wait for their court hearings in the US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TJCN64">
More than 67,000 migrants are currently enrolled, or were previously subject to the program, a number of whom continue to wait in encampments along the US-Mexico border to be called in for their court dates in the US. Before the pandemic, asylum seekers would often have to wait months for a hearing. But in March, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.aila.org/advo-media/issues/all/covid-19/eoir-operational-status"><strong>suspended all their hearings</strong></a> indefinitely on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BzRym9">
Biden has started winding down the policy, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/20/22241651/biden-remain-mexico-mpp-migrant-protection-protocols">ceasing to newly enroll migrants</a> in the program as of January 21. But he has so far stopped short of ending it entirely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SnQWLI">
A senior administration official said that people who are currently enrolled in the program will be offered a new pathway to pursue their petitions for protection once Biden develops broader policies to process asylum seekers. The administration does not have a timeline for implementing those policies yet, but the official said that people subject to MPP will be prioritized, given how long they have been waiting and the conditions in which they have been waiting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ailUJF">
The administration will have to consider who among the migrants subject to MPP are the most vulnerable and how they can process them while maintaining safeguards for public health amid the pandemic.
</p>
<h3 id="cqs85Z">
Biden is trying to eliminate obstacles to legal immigration
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qmQCO1">
Biden will issue an executive order reviewing Trump-era regulations, policies, and guidance that have made it harder for people to legally immigrate to the US, including the controversial “public charge” rule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JO3hiB">
The complex, 217-page rule imposes a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/11/20899253/trump-public-charge-rule-immigrants-welfare-benefits"><strong>wealth test </strong></a>on immigrants applying to enter the US, extend their visa, or convert their temporary immigration status into a green card. The rule represents one of Trump’s harshest blows to legal immigration yet and has had the effect of deterring immigrants from seeking out much-needed public services amid the pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2fjnEl">
Though the administration isn’t rescinding that rule just yet, it will, as part of the executive order, rescind a Trump memorandum that required people who were sponsoring their family members for immigration benefits to repay the government if their relatives received public benefits.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tmorq5">
The executive order also establishes a Task Force on New Americans aimed to facilitate immigrant integration and aims to streamline the naturalization process for the more than 9 million people who are eligible to become US citizens. As part of that, the administration will address the substantial backlog of citizenship applications, assist members of the military stationed abroad with applying for citizenship, and coordinate with state and local governments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ePMQaM">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zNuofS">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JXTDDr">
</p>
<h3 id="yzSgAG">
</h3>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why 10 Republican senators are negotiating with Biden on Covid-19 relief</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TQOWqtYLaGBXkIwJPPH0YmbXOFY=/461x0:4440x2984/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68753947/1193898788.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Sens. Susan Collins, left, and Lisa Murkowski are leading Republican negotiations with Biden on Covid-19 relief. | Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Biden and a group of Senate Republicans want two very different Covid-19 relief bills.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0kpMTR">
On Monday, President Joe Biden is getting his first crack at bipartisan negotiations, and met with a group of 10 Senate Republicans on Monday night to see if there is a compromise to be made on the president’s $1.9 trillion <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">Covid-19</a> relief plan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EekVRy">
Biden’s White House has repeatedly said that getting a bipartisan deal done is a top priority. But prolonged negotiations with Republicans, and trying to get to an acceptable middle ground, could complicate both the speed and the boldness of Biden’s first big legislative proposal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l4SWHT">
There’s a lot of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22260255/senate-republicans-stimulus-plan">daylight between Biden’s plan and the $618 billion proposal</a> from the Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). The GOP proposal is less than half of Biden’s proposed price tag, and pares down or doesn’t include many Democratic priorities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BCDGlp">
“I am hopeful that we can once again pass a sixth bipartisan Covid relief package,” Collins told reporters following a two-hour meeting at the White House on Monday night. Collins added that while “I wouldn’t say that we came together on a package tonight,” Republicans planned to continue talking with Biden’s team going forward in hopes of reaching an agreement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RaueSL">
The fact that there are 10 Republicans behind the plan is significant; with Democrats controlling a Senate split 50-50, these 10 Republican votes could get the proposal past the 60-vote threshold needed to skirt the Senate filibuster in the unlikely situation that the entire Democratic caucus also gets behind it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KZTy3M">
There are two big questions here. One is whether this group of Republican senators sees their $618 billion figure as the starting point for negotiations with Biden and are willing to go higher, or if it’s where they plan to draw a red line. The other question is whether Biden will bite on what they’re proposing. So far, the White House is indicating the president’s not terribly interested.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IyqJXU">
“There’s obviously a big gap between $600 billion and $1.9 trillion,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday. “Clearly, he thinks the package size needs to be closer to what he proposed than smaller.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RZBSFj">
Biden and Democrats don’t actually need any Republican support to pass his package. They technically can get it through the Senate alone via a process called budget reconciliation. While Biden prepared to meet with the Republicans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Monday they had filed a joint budget resolution — essentially the first step in the reconciliation process.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8HVsMp">
Biden made bipartisanship one of the hallmarks of his campaign and emphasized it again in his inauguration speech. Republicans argue working with them on a stimulus package would be a good way to prove Biden’s focus on bipartisanship was more than rhetoric.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RfmhTU">
“If they want to get it moving fast, work with us on a bipartisan solution,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), one of the 10 Republicans, told Vox in a recent interview. “And then use your political muscle with reconciliation later on, but at least show evidence of the value of working together.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mBIYnr">
The White House, however, had repeatedly emphasized that their proposal has broad public support and argued for fast passage of a bold relief bill — which could be delayed by prolonged negotiations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fOM1TA">
Congressional Democrats believe Republicans are vastly underestimating the amount of money needed to ensure a strong economic recovery — and they point out the GOP has used the reconciliation process before to quickly advance its priorities, including attempting to unravel the Affordable Care Act.
</p>
<h3 id="Zav18c">
Who are the Republicans negotiating with Biden?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ud6u8h">
The group of 10 Republicans who came up with the $618 billion Covid-19 proposal are led by a few moderates who have seemed eager to negotiate with Biden. But the entire group of senators runs the ideological gamut from moderate to conservative, and includes:
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sXC58b">
Susan Collins (R-ME)
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Rg2aM">
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8RDQe7">
Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oGvA9W">
Mitt Romney (R-UT)
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gdvkeb">
Rob Portman (R-OH)
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hhIJ3p">
Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bsTREn">
Todd Young (R-IN)
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nqL20P">
Jerry Moran (R-KS)
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KtkGhp">
Mike Rounds (R-SD)
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nDhr7C">
Thom Tillis (R-NC)
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OjwoIm">
It’s important to distinguish this group of Republicans from the bipartisan group of Senate Republicans and Democrats who worked together to propose the framework for a $900 billion Covid-19 relief bill passed back in December. There’s even a newer iteration of that bipartisan group, featuring 16 senators, who have been meeting together to talk about more Covid-19 relief. It’s this 16-senator bipartisan group that has had numerous phone calls with top White House officials, but no face-to-face meetings with Biden himself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qxsRBJ">
Now, some of the Republican members of that group — namely, Collins, Murkowski, Romney, and Cassidy — are forging their own path. And while this new $618 billion Republican counteroffer doesn’t necessarily spell the end of the bipartisan working group in the Senate, it was entirely a GOP-led effort, a Senate Democratic aide told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GFBKJ0">
Psaki told reporters Biden was pleased that there was a Republican group eager to meet with him, but reiterated Biden wouldn’t be making any final decisions about their proposal on Monday.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lvzUBC">
“It’s an exchange of ideas,” Psaki said. “This group sent a letter with some outlines and toplines with their concerns and priorities. What this meeting is not is a forum for the president to make or accept an offer.”
</p>
<h3 id="T0vcT4">
What type of coronavirus stimulus do the 10 GOP senators want?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vU4bmx">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/ella_nilsen/status/1356244923150970882/photo/1">GOP proposal</a> is focused largely on speeding up vaccine distribution, allocating $160 billion to that effort. This largely mirrors <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22232082/joe-biden-economic-stimulus-plan-covid-19-coronavirus">Biden’s plan</a>, although the president’s overall vaccine plan is closer to $400 billion, including much more money for school reopenings and building up a health care workforce.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IHzHr6">
Things diverge even more from there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LY0weu">
The Republican plan would fund $300 weekly supplemental unemployment insurance through June (Biden’s plan includes $400 weekly unemployment payments through September). The Republican plan has $1,000 stimulus checks, but only for people making a maximum of $50,000 per year as a single person and $100,000 per year as a couple. (Biden’s plan would send $1,400 stimulus checks to everyone making less than $75,000 at an individual level, and $150,000 as a couple —<strong> </strong>Democrats, who campaigned on this amount, have been adamant it be included in any final bill).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="61I73L">
A lot of Democrats are wondering whether these Republicans see their $618 billion number as the floor or the ceiling for talks with Biden. Vox reached out to five Republican offices asking whether senators viewed the number as a starting point in negotiations, or if they were going to hold firm to the number. As of press time, no office had responded;<strong> </strong>in a Friday interview with Vox, however, Murkowski appeared to suggest an openness to going higher.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n1KrwE">
“I want to find a way to be helpful there,” Murkowski told Vox on Friday. “You’ve got a lot of folks that say it’s $1.9 trillion or nothing. Can we agree 80 percent is better than 100 percent? For some, it’s not, and I think that’s some of what we’re seeing right now.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eUHl1Y">
It’s not yet clear how willing Democrats are to take 80 percent in the name of bipartisanship when they could have 100 percent if they push forward alone. But Democratic leaders will still have a chance to weigh in on the matter, the White House said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8CtLyG">
Biden is meeting with this group of Republican senators at the White House before he has a face-to-face meeting with senior Democratic members of congressional leadership like Pelosi and Schumer, though Psaki noted Biden is in regular communication with those two.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HK1mm9">
“They have been in very close touch with the president directly and members of the senior team,” Psaki told reporters. “There will definitely be Democrats who will be part of conversations here at the White House.”
</p>
<h3 id="26xCgE">
The GOP is testing whether Biden wants bipartisanship more than a bold bill
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PIx2CC">
President Biden will either be able to have his $1.9 trillion relief bill passed on a party-line vote, or have bipartisanship. He probably can’t have both.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g4xwbP">
Biden’s White House has repeatedly said he’s open to having a “conversation” about his proposal and is willing to hear “tweaks” and recommendations to improve the bill. What’s less clear is whether the president is willing to lower the scope and ambition of his proposal — especially the $1.9 trillion price tag.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KHSoxf">
“I’m sure they’d be very happy to work with us if we agreed with everything they proposed,” Sen. Mitt Romney told Vox last week. “How willing they are to work with us if we have ideas about taking this apart and having perhaps two pieces of legislation, or perhaps adjusting certain elements, that’s something they would have to respond to.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2cbvxF">
Already, Biden’s White House has unequivocally said they’re not splitting Biden’s package into multiple pieces. And while Biden may be open to lowering the overall number of his plan, Psaki poured cold water on the idea that he’d lower it all the way to $600 billion — repeatedly saying the president believes there’s more danger in Congress doing too little than too much.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EKNoBJ">
There may be room for Biden to meet with Republicans in the middle, but it remains to be seen if both sides are digging in their heels or are ready for some give and take. Republicans<strong> </strong>have warned that if there’s no room for compromise on Biden’s very first legislative priority, it could spell trouble for negotiations down the line on the president’s upcoming recovery package — which is likely to contain an infrastructure component.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RSn62E">
“If we move towards reconciliation next week, I wonder what signal that sends to those of us who want to try to advance solutions that might not be 100 percent solutions but are 80 percent solutions,” Murkowski told Vox.
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How to spot the tricks Big Oil uses to subvert action on climate change</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/68Cpd7bGpiScxuM3lvYAJAW39BM=/243x0:4832x3442/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68754505/1225711980.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Exxon-Mobil oil refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on February 28, 2020. | Barry Lewis/InPictures via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Three ways fossil fuel companies try to trick the public.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NCNJFu">
In his first week in office, President Joe Biden committed to an all-of-government approach to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22242572/biden-climate-change-plan-explained">tackle climate change</a>, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/">signing executive orders</a> recommitting the US to the Paris climate agreement, pausing new leases for oil and gas companies on federal land, and stating his intention to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22251851/joe-biden-executive-orders-climate-change-conservation-30-by-2030">conserve 30 percent of federal lands by 2030</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="niolPn">
Yet while Biden’s climate actions have been lauded by many, there are some, often with connections to the fossil fuel industry, who strongly oppose taking stronger action on climate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t6jmxa">
Many such detractors use common oil-industry talking points in their arguments — talking points that have been developed in collaboration with PR firms and lobbyists to undercut clean energy policies and prolong dependence on fossil fuels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yLxviT">
A <a href="https://www.climatechangecommunication.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/America_Misled.pdf">2019 report</a> by researchers at George Mason, Harvard University, and the University of Bristol describes how the fossil fuel industry deliberately misled the public by funding climate denial research and campaigns all while knowing for decades that human-induced climate change exists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XQ7Qpv">
Aware of the science but afraid of the impacts it might have on their returns, oil executives funded opposition research that “attacked consensus and exaggerated the uncertainties” on the science of climate change for many years with the goal of undermining support for climate action.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ujpk8q">
Their messaging has worked for so long because Big Oil has become really good at stretching the truth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Umoxss">
“What’s really important to keep in mind is that part of the reason that oil and gas propaganda is so effective is that there is always a grain of truth to it,” said Genevieve Guenther, the founder of <a href="https://www.endclimatesilence.org/">End Climate Silence</a>,<strong> </strong>an organization that works to promote accurate media coverage of the climate crisis.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8s0Qpv">
“I call it ‘sort of true,’ where there’s something about the messaging that’s true, but that grain of truth gets developed into a whole tangle of lies that obscure the real story,” Guenther said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9cLg27">
Guenther, originally a professor of Renaissance literature, is also working on a book titled <em>The Language of Climate Change. </em>I spoke with her to get a better understanding of how to recognize — and counter — Big Oil propaganda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4kPzzm">
As the Biden administration takes important steps to address the climate emergency, the fossil fuel industry and its allies in the media will be ramping up the misinformation campaign to skew public opinion and get in the way of climate policy. <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-news/united-states-rejoins-paris-climate-accord-fox-news-ramps-its-climate-misinformation">Fox News has already started</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fl5Pn4">
Which is why it’s more important than ever to be aware of the tools oil and gas companies use to cloud the issue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="92CKnY">
My conversation with Guenther, edited for length and clarity, is below.
</p>
<h4 id="x4jflf">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fdq9N4">
I’d like to start with your thoughts on how the Biden administration is handling climate change so far.
</p>
<h4 id="HkdLex">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xChs8l">
I think that the Biden administration has come a really long way since the beginning of the [2020] primaries. I think that the Sunrise Movement and Evergreen Action folks, and other activists connected to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jay Inslee, have done an amazing job, basically schooling Biden on climate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x84hq2">
So far, Biden’s the best president on climate that we have had. But I’m not quite ready to do a backflip and wave my pom-poms yet, though, because I know that his major plan, which is to<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.vox.com/22242572/biden-climate-change-plan-explained">decarbonize the power grid by 2035</a>, will need to be routed in some way through Congress.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NPnRBq">
I am anticipating that’s not going to be easy and expect a massive PR blitz [from the fossil fuel industry], which is going to be timed for the attempt to pass this plan, whether directly or through <a href="https://www.vox.com/22242476/senate-filibuster-budget-reconciliation-process">budget reconciliation</a>. And I worry that the Biden administration, and the climate movement more broadly, might not be ready,
</p>
<h4 id="1YY61x">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UEPwQW">
So what are the talking points the oil industry uses to try to convince the public in these PR blitzes?
</p>
<h4 id="mZyNN0">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LfGWxd">
People can recognize fossil fuel industry talking points by thinking about what they’re designed to do. In general, fossil fuel talking points are designed to do three things: make people believe that climate action will hurt them, and hurt their pocketbooks in particular; make people think we need fossil fuels; and try to convince us that climate change isn’t such a big deal.
</p>
<h4 id="RJaTbW">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RW2bAi">
How do they make people believe that taking climate action is going to hurt them financially?
</p>
<h4 id="Ph0pox">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cfnl3z">
Right now, they’re really hammering the point that climate action is going to hurt jobs and the economy. So, for instance, Sen. <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1352040800646029312?s=20">Ted Cruz released a press statement</a> saying that by rejoining the Paris climate accords, Biden is showing that “he’s more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh.”
</p>
<h4 id="mDjaF2">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T9q9kH">
Yeah, and we also saw <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/lauren-boebert-echoes-ted-cruz-paris-agreement-comments-1563699">Rep. Lauren Boebert make a similar statement</a> saying she works for “the people of Pueblo, not the people of Paris” and that the Paris agreement would put “blue-collar jobs at risk.”
</p>
<h4 id="owMbyu">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UFksTf">
Yeah, exactly. So Cruz is arguing that Democrats plan to destroy the jobs they don’t like, including thousands of manufacturing jobs. This is completely false, because building out clean energy infrastructure is going to <a href="https://www.vox.com/podcasts/2020/8/27/21403184/saul-griffith-ezra-klein-show-solve-climate-change-green-new-deal-rewiring-america">create millions of manufacturing jobs</a> in this country which can’t be outsourced.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OuaQgX">
And whatever fossil fuel jobs have been lost in the past year happened <a href="https://energynews.us/2020/06/25/southeast/thousands-of-coal-workers-lost-jobs-where-will-they-go/">a) on Trump’s watch, and b) due to market forces</a> that have absolutely nothing to do with any explicit climate policy passed by any administration.
</p>
<h4 id="aeZEH1">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rE8lpO">
So if the claim is untrue, how has the idea that taking action on climate change will cause millions of job losses become so pervasive?
</p>
<h4 id="6570IJ">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hnHQME">
There’s a mythology in this country of the coal miner and the oil and gas worker, as the kind of exemplary masculine figure who acts as the <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/2/21/14671932/donald-trump-coal-mining-jobs">backbone of America</a>.
</p>
<h4 id="anwh12">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k9T31h">
Do you think there’s any truth to that?
</p>
<h4 id="oCSFQb">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3rMX6t">
It is true that if we phase out the fossil fuel industry there are going to be people, and indeed whole communities, <a href="https://prospect.org/environment/just-transition-u.s.-fossil-fuel-industry-workers/">that will need to find their livelihood in different industries</a>. That is absolutely true.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xRhAzP">
But two things about that: Number one, you can <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/08/covid-19-bailouts-US-oil-and-gas-workers-communities">design policies so that those people don’t suffer</a>, and number two, you can put incentives in place so that the new jobs are created in the geographical regions that are already depopulated and suffering economically, because the fossil fuel industry is not actually prosperous enough anymore to sustain a vibrant economy in those regions to begin with.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QCIXMm">
So, you can set up both: policies to ease the transition and policies to incentivize new investment so that the economy ends up more vibrant in these locations than it was before. Nothing is inevitable. The transition can be managed.
</p>
<h4 id="U8s8Nq">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bque1q">
Okay, so what’s the second talking point oil and gas uses?
</p>
<h4 id="hSTdPx">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VHR25C">
The second thing oil and gas companies will do is try to make people believe that we need fossil fuels, and that oil and gas companies should stay in business.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lwobxa">
One I’ve seen a lot lately raises people’s national security fears with the message that <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/energy/us-energy-independence-on-way-out">we need to extract oil to maintain our “energy independence,</a>” as if domestically produced fossil energy alone were powering America’s homes and businesses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i0Wm2c">
The truth is that, according to the US Energy Information Agency, in 2019 (the latest year for which full data is available) <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=727&amp;t=6#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20the%20United%20States,(including%20ethanol%20and%20biodiesel)">the US imported 9.14 million barrels of petroleum a day</a> — half a million more than we exported. It’s clean, safe energy sources like wind and solar that are sure to be domestically produced, not oil and methane gas.
</p>
<h4 id="Drj0A0">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hvyD3A">
So they act as if US independence will be lost without fossil fuels, while in reality America still depends on other countries to get its oil and gas. Got it. What else?
</p>
<h4 id="3pM1oy">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9dF7uX">
Another talking point designed to make us believe that we need fossil fuels is the message that <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/1/4/18166400/republicans-climate-change-innovation-policy">we cannot halt global warming without “innovation.”</a> This is a tricky one, because you’ll often hear energy researchers talk about the innovations we’ll want to develop in order to enable continued aviation and industrial shipping.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mrlYBH">
But saying that new technologies will help us is different from saying that we <em>need</em> them, which implies that the world cannot stop using fossil fuels now. So politicians in the pockets of the oil and gas producers will proclaim that they support “innovation,” and fossil fuel companies will <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/shell-targets-power-trading-hydrogen-103108097.html">place ads touting the money they’re spending on research and development</a>— but <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/08/oil-companies-climate-crisis-pr-spending">the money they actually do spend</a> is orders of magnitude smaller than their PR budgets, not to mention their budgets for exploring and developing new fossil fuel reserves.
</p>
<h4 id="ZpHReE">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VWDaxw">
What’s the third big talking point?
</p>
<h4 id="fbVC3g">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LU58w8">
The third thing Big Oil will try to do is to make people believe that climate change is not such a big deal. Either they call people trying to communicate the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/10/vested-interests-public-against-climate-science-fossil-fuel-lobby">dangers of global warming “alarmists,”</a> or they<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/956005206/supreme-court-considers-baltimore-suit-against-oil-companies"> simply don’t talk about the climate crisis at all</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v23ze2">
In their campaign of silence they’re aided by the vast majority of the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/special_report/climate-change-media.php">broadcast news media</a>, which mostly proceeds as if the crisis didn’t exist and won’t even mention the words “climate change” when they report on floods, fires, and hurricanes in which there are scientifically established links to global warming.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Wztc1">
It’s weird to think of silence as messaging, but sometimes what you don’t say is as important as what you do.
</p>
<h4 id="o0d1lD">
Jariel Arvin
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Die3TN">
Okay, so we now have the three points the fossil fuel industry often uses: Convince people climate action will hurt their pocketbooks, suggest that we need fossil fuels, and downplay the climate emergency. How do climate scientists, activists, and the media counter that narrative?
</p>
<h4 id="eZFqsk">
Genevieve Guenther
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cdTYtZ">
We’ve got to keep climate change in the foreground of people’s attention. We’ve got to be clear about why we’re making this energy transition — it’s not just because it’s a new way to create jobs, and it’s not just because we like clean air and water.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pmz0Nx">
It’s because if we don’t do it, we might actually destroy civilization.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HEZpMh">
We’re not going to change up everything unless we have to, and guess what? We have to. This is what an existential threat means.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="luqjno">
I worry that the Biden administration isn’t bringing that message to the foreground, because you need that to be part of the understanding of why we’re doing this work.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hNMpRQ">
The motivation here is that we’re trying to save our world. We’re trying to save the lives of our children. I think activists do a pretty good job of keeping that messaging in the foreground, but I really wish that politicians would do it too. I think they’re still running scared, and I don’t think they have to be.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i9sW46">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3h9Jv6">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QJGsJA">
</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>Australia’s tour of South Africa postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic</strong> - "We look forward to playing the series against CSA at a date to be confirmed in due course," Cricket Australia's interim Chief Executive Nick Hockley 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>Olympics will go ahead regardless of COVID-19 situation: Tokyo 2020 president</strong> - “We must consider new ways of hosting the Olympics” as a part of that, says Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori</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>Rafael Nadal sidelined, team Novak Djokovic wins to open ATP Cup defence</strong> - Rafael Nadal issued a statement before his scheduled match against Australia’s Alex De Minaur on Feb. 2 saying he had a stiff lower back and “hopefully I’ll be better for Thursday”</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>Power to relax provisions of Sports Code will be with government: Ministry circular</strong> - The Sports Ministry will have the power to relax provisions of the National Sports Development Code while deciding on grant of recognition to federat</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>Liverpool fills injury-hit defense with deadline day deals</strong> - Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak were identified by the English champion as stop-gap measures for the second half of the season.</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>Intach alarm over damage to Odisha heritage amid ‘beautification’ drive</strong> - Act on preservation of ancient monuments violated, structures damaged around Lingaraj temple</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>Conserving a glimpse of State’s political history</strong> - Nearly 3,000 cartographs in the possession of Archives dept. to be digitised by Keralam Museum</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>Directive to private temples</strong> - Chikkamagaluru Assistant Commissioner H.L. Nagaraj has said all temples, other than those under the Muzrai Department, have to register with the admin</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>Tamil Nadu Governor's address hopeful of economic recovery</strong> - Mr. Purohit's announcement was in line with the recommendations made by a high-level expert committee led by former Reserve Bank of India Governor C. Rangarajan</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>Gauhati HC to decide fate of 7 Nagaland MLAs on February 8</strong> - The NPF legislators defied party decision to back Congress candidate in 2019 Lok Sabha elections</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>Navalny: More than 200 held as court considers jailing Putin critic</strong> - A Moscow court is deciding whether Putin critic Alexei Navalny will go to jail for years.</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>Turkey's Erdogan denounces LGBT youth as police arrest students</strong> - President Erdogan denounces the LGBT movement as police arrest students demonstrating in Istanbul.</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>Spain's vaccine delays hamper fight against pandemic</strong> - Officials fear the delays mean the impact of vaccines will not be felt till the end of 2021.</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>Is Russia targeting CIA spies with secret weapons?</strong> - Ex-CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos believes he was targeted while on a visit to Moscow.</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>Brexit: Animal-based food checks at ports suspended</strong> - Arlene Foster denounces "threats" against staff checking on animal and food products at Larne and Belfast.</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>Flash is dead—but South Africa didn’t get the memo</strong> - Adobe: you can't use Flash in 2021. South Africa: watch me! - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1738771">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hackers are exploiting a critical zero-day in devices from SonicWall</strong> - "Highly sophisticated threat actors" exploit flaws in coordinated attack on SonicWall. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1738904">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Media frenzy, skepticism engulf virus origin probe—and WHO is over it</strong> - It's "time for people who say and think they have information to start providing it.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1738881">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>We’re getting a Wakanda spinoff series from Ryan Coogler on Disney+</strong> - It's part of a 5-year exclusive TV development deal for the <em>Black Panther</em> director. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1738802">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple rolls out macOS Big Sur 11.2 with bug fixes and Bluetooth tweaks</strong> - macOS update comes a week after updates to iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1738725">link</a></p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<li><strong>A joke from my 8 year old......Did you know that 10+10 and 11+11 are the same?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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10+10=twenty 11+11=twenty too
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/sweetsformysweets"> /u/sweetsformysweets </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/laofz9/a_joke_from_my_8_year_olddid_you_know_that_1010/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/laofz9/a_joke_from_my_8_year_olddid_you_know_that_1010/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>The school phoned me today and said, "Your son's has been telling lies."</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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I said, "Tell him, he's bloody good. I don't have any kids”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/KeybladeMaster1994"> /u/KeybladeMaster1994 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lageav/the_school_phoned_me_today_and_said_your_sons_has/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/lageav/the_school_phoned_me_today_and_said_your_sons_has/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A sadist, a masochist, a murderer, a necrophile, a zoophile and a pyromaniac</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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They were all sitting on a bench in a mental institution. "Let's have sex with a cat?" asked the zoophile. "Let's have sex with the cat and then torture it," says the sadist. "Let's have sex with the cat, torture it and then kill it," shouted the murderer. "Let's have sex with the cat, torture it, kill it and then have sex with it again," said the necrophile. "Let's have sex with the cat, torture it, kill it, have sex with it again and then burn it," said the pyromaniac. There was silence, and then the masochist said: "Meow."
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/SoulSp34r"> /u/SoulSp34r </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/laeai2/a_sadist_a_masochist_a_murderer_a_necrophile_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/laeai2/a_sadist_a_masochist_a_murderer_a_necrophile_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Four guys are playing golf together and talking about how successful their sons are.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The first says, "My son is so successful, he's VP of his company and just gave his best friend a car. "
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The second says, " That's nothing, my son is CEO of his company and just gave his best friend a house."
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The third says, "Well, my son owns 3 highly profitable companies and just gave his best friend a jet."
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They look expectantly at the last guy who says, "My son is a gay escort who gets showered with love and admiration. He just got a car, a house, and a jet from three of his clients."
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/chdfbjffgkk"> /u/chdfbjffgkk </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/la2jqv/four_guys_are_playing_golf_together_and_talking/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/la2jqv/four_guys_are_playing_golf_together_and_talking/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Girls, if a guy remembers your birthday, saves your pictures knows what you enjoy and understands your family and friends,</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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This guy is not your man.<br/> This guy is Mark Zuckerberg.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/aquarianfin"> /u/aquarianfin </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/laszgq/girls_if_a_guy_remembers_your_birthday_saves_your/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/laszgq/girls_if_a_guy_remembers_your_birthday_saves_your/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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