504 lines
76 KiB
HTML
504 lines
76 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>28 August, 2023</title>
|
||
<style>
|
||
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%;}
|
||
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
|
||
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
|
||
</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>Trump’s Mug Shot Is His True Presidential Portrait</strong> - He might be angry in the mug shot; he might even be scared. But he damn sure doesn’t look surprised. Nobody is. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-appearances/trumps-mug-shot-is-his-true-presidential-portrait">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What a Heat Wave Does to Your Body</strong> - The human body is a remarkably effective cooling machine—but it has a limit. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/what-a-heat-wave-does-to-your-body">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vivek Ramaswamy Is Not the Next Trump</strong> - Many in the press have declared the entrepreneur and political novice “Trump’s heir.” The comparison sells the former President short. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/vivek-ramaswamy-is-not-the-next-trump">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How a Man in Prison Stole Millions from Billionaires</strong> - With smuggled cell phones and a handful of accomplices, Arthur Lee Cofield, Jr., took money from large bank accounts and bought houses, cars, clothes, and gold. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/how-a-man-in-prison-stole-millions-from-billionaires">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Braiding Sweetgrass,” and a Lesson in Extreme Heat</strong> - Parul Sehgal visits Robin Wall Kimmerer, who set out to bridge the gap between Western science and Indigenous teaching. Plus, Dhruv Khullar looks at extreme heat and the body. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/braiding-sweetgrass-and-a-lesson-in-extreme-heat">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>Zimbabwe’s elections herald more of the same</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="Four people walk across dusty, sandy earth. One woman carries a package of bottled water on her head. Behind them, a large yellow sign bears the word VOTE printed in green." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eijlzLRH4AabjkEdlfazxXmXwMk=/0x0:7285x5464/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72584027/1610636185.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
ZANU-PF supporters arriving at a school where President Emmerson Mnangagwa held his last campaign rally ahead of the polls on August 19, 2023, in Shurugwi, Zimbabwe. | Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Emmerson Mnangagwa declared victory despite claims of fraud and voter intimidation.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jysHhQ">
|
||
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been declared victor in the country’s second competitive election, though multiple reports of intimidation and fraud are calling the result of this week’s contest into doubt.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zdx1CF">
|
||
The potential impacts of a fraught election could mean lower turn out in the future and bigger challenges for a country already struggling with poverty, crushing debt, inflation, and a lack of access to education and nutrition.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oU9627">
|
||
Mnangagwa, the head of the ZANU-PF party, declared victory on Saturday night with just over 52 percent of the vote, <a href="https://twitter.com/edmnangagwa/status/1695739178544255079">posting on the platform X Sunday that he was</a>, “Grateful for the trust you’ve placed in me through the election.” Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), garnered only 44 percent and quickly alleged “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/zimbabwe-election-mnangagwa-3a6b92a3a586d136928a7878b916d9fe">blatant and gigantic fraud</a>” in the elections, which were called two days ahead of schedule.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="977iF3">
|
||
“The months and weeks leading up to the elections have been marred by widespread intimidation, arrests, and violence by the ZANU-PF against the CCC, as well as bans on opposition rallies,” <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/article/zimbabwe-exclusion-researchers-and-observers-may-undermine-election-integrity">according to a recent report from the advocacy organization Freedom House</a>. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the government body overseeing elections, refused accreditation to local election observers and those from the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network, barred some international journalists from covering the elections, and deported four observers from Good Governance Africa sent to monitor conditions before the elections.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qy45Z6">
|
||
Prior to this week’s contest, Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court also barred presidential candidate Saviour Kasukuwere from running in the election, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/zimbabwe-court-disqualifies-ex-ruling-party-official-from-august-polls/7202410.html">Voice of America reported in July</a>. A lower court also dismissed 12 of the CCC’s parliamentary candidates, though the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.voazimbabwe.com/a/7209767.html">later reinstated them</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sb0CBR">
|
||
International observers at the African Union, Freedom House, the Carter Center, and elsewhere also noted incidents of intimidation against Chamisa’s supporters as well as the arrest of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/zimbabwe-election-mnangagwa-3c354f2928902de8e91fb907c6fb7d40">41 election monitors on Thursday</a> and confiscation of materials including computers. Voting was delayed in urban areas, which tend to be opposition strongholds — paper ballots were still being printed and delivered on Wednesday night, hours after the polls were supposed to have closed, including in the capital Harare. Some polling stations reportedly turned voters away, opened late, or closed early, as well.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zWoL8M">
|
||
Zimbabwe’s electoral history has not particularly inspired confidence within its population; according to an Afrobarometer poll held before this week’s contest, about half of those surveyed believed that the announced results of the election wouldn’t reflect the actual outcome, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/zimbabwe-election-mnangagwa-3c354f2928902de8e91fb907c6fb7d40">the Associated Press</a> reported.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pKIxeo">
|
||
Elections under autocratic former President<strong> </strong>Robert Mugabe were often violent and never fair or competitive contests; the last two have been competitive, but this week’s contest casts doubt that Mnangagwa is leading his country to a true democratic transition.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="V7iLe8">
|
||
Zimbabwe’s challenges are deep-seated — and so is ZANU-PF’s rule
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VJTg8K">
|
||
Mnangagwa — nicknamed “the crocodile” — took power following the 2017 coup and ran in the country’s 2018 elections, narrowly beating Chamisa, a 45-year-old lawyer. Those elections, while an improvement from those held under Mugabe, were still marked by violence and allegations of fraud, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/world/africa/zimbabwe-election.html">New York Times</a> reported at the time.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qIobZ0">
|
||
Mnangagwa is limited to two five-year terms, but his party has been in power for decades. ZANU-PF — which stands for Zimbabwe African National Union—Patriotic Front — was formed by Mugabe and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joshua-Nkomo">Joshua Nkomo</a>, another Zimbabwean nationalist leader; Mnangagwa himself was a longtime associate of Mugabe, whom he deposed in a 2017 coup. Mugabe, once championed as Zimbabwe’s liberator from minority-white rule, became known for a style of governance marked by repression, corruption, mismanagement, and economic decline causing one of the highest inflation rates in the world for years.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IjHdLY">
|
||
Zimbabwe still suffers from around 100 percent inflation, as well as high rates of unemployment and significant economic precariousness for much of the population. Though it is <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/zimbabwe-mining-and-minerals">rich in natural resources</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lithium-processing-plant-chinese-92ccd10bd4ba028bc38fdadcdffc06da">including lithium</a>, the combination of <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/zimbabwe/overview">decades of economic and resource mismanagement</a>, as well as <a href="https://theconversation.com/zimbabwe-health-system-is-in-intensive-care-how-it-got-there-189670">poor public health resource</a>s and a faltering <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/01/19/why-zimbabwes-schools-have-taken-to-selling-chickens">education system</a>, have brought <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/zimbabwe-post-mugabe-economic-revival-remains-elusive-ahead-vote-2023-08-02/">high rates of poverty and little formal employment</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ACBsrB">
|
||
<a href="https://www.unicef.org/zimbabwe/zimbabwe-goes-back-school-2023#:~:text=Half%20of%20the%20adolescents%20in,school%20fees%2C%20leading%20to%20absenteeism.">According to UNICEF</a>, only 60 percent of young children ages 3 to 5 are enrolled in preschool, and only about half of adolescents are enrolled in high school, with poverty and disability the main roadblocks to enrollment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VPKhRV">
|
||
Quality of life in Zimbabwe did improve by many measures — including lower infant mortality rates, increased adult literacy, lower childhood malnourishment, and improved access to basic infrastructure like clean drinking water, electricity, and sanitation — through the 2010s, according to a 2022 report from <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/contradictory-trends-zimbabwe-human-development-indicators-improve-poverty-rises-and">the World Bank</a>. But that same report indicates high rates of food poverty, especially in rural, agrarian areas, as well as increasing inequality.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YZjkMf">
|
||
Many of Zimbabwe’s governance and economic challenges are due to <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-02-09-zimbabwe-explosive-cartel-report-uncovers-the-anatomy-of-a-captured-state/">government corruption</a> and <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2022/05/14/zimbabwes-president-orders-banks-to-stop-lending">mismanagement</a>, not a lack of talent or resources — though many Zimbabweans have elected to leave the country in search of better economic prospects. Multiple reports, including <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/14/is-zimbabwes-president-mnangagwa-behind-gold-smuggling">a recent one by Al Jazeera</a>, link Mnangagwa to illicit economic activity including massive gold smuggling operations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="Z333Nd">
|
||
These elections will hamper Zimbabwe’s development efforts
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MT0wFF">
|
||
Chamisa has declared himself the winner of the election, but has not yet filed an official challenge with the constitutional court — something his party must do within seven days of the election results, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/27/zimbabwe-election-nelson-chamisa-emmerson-mnangagwa/">the Washington Post.</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BpcbWo">
|
||
But the independence of Zimbabwe’s judicial system has been questionable, especially since Mugabe signed a constitutional amendment in 2017 giving the president the power to appoint high-level members of the judiciary. Mnangagwa has continued in this vein, pursuing changes to the constitution which allow him to appoint and promote judicial officials, and to extend their terms past retirement age, as outlined in <a href="https://rfkhumanrights.org/assets/documents/Joint-Advocacy-Letter-on-Judicial-Independence-in-Zimbabwe.pdf">a 2021 letter from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6zOtMQ">
|
||
Similarly, Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission (ZEC) cannot be considered independent, since the president appoints its members. During this round of elections, the ZEC engaged in blatantly politicized behavior, including <a href="https://www.newzimbabwe.com/it-is-risky-to-release-voters-roll-argues-zec-as-high-court-dismisses-markham-application/">preventing voter rolls from being made public</a> for inspection, according to the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/zimbabwe-limps-toward-elections">Council on Foreign Relations</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PDPgpG">
|
||
Distrust in the <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/publication/pp52-bounded-autonomy-what-limits-zimbabweans-trust-their-courts-and-electoral/">ZEC and Zimbabwe’s institutions</a>, as well as challenges with voter registration, could make it less likely that Zimbabweans will want to vote in the future. Furthermore, a <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/articles/zimbabweans-favour-peaceful-election-over-free-and-fair-election-new-afrobarometer-survey-indicates/">recent Afrobarometer poll</a> indicates that people care more about having peaceful elections than conducting free and fair ones — so even those that choose to vote may not be as invested in the democratic process.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RWNzJp">
|
||
Zimbabweans won’t be able to move out of poverty until their <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a> changes — and that also depends on the electoral process. Zimbabwe is about $14 billion in debt to lenders like the World Bank and African Development Bank, limiting its access to international capital. According to the Economist, the European Union and the African Development Bank have agreed to <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/08/27/zimbabwes-flawed-election-will-ensure-its-pariah-status-endures">clear some of the debt arrears if the government can make economic and political changes </a>— including holding free and fair elections.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jnB8d7">
|
||
Those economic limitations could push Zimbabwe closer toward authoritarian nations like like <a href="https://www.vox.com/russia">Russia</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a>, and Belarus; as Reuters reports, China has already financed a $1 billion expansion to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/zimbabwes-new-300-mw-coal-fired-plant-starts-feeding-into-grid-2023-03-21/">Zimbabwe’s Hwange thermal power station</a>, potentially easing the power cuts that have been plaguing the country.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>The Wagner chief’s fate was decided when he crossed Putin</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="Yevgeny Prigozhin wearing camouflage and holding a rifle." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sJhYvarQvT6mcfBaSFXccpkPeTY=/0x0:1141x856/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72572012/1615749057.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A screengrab captured from a video shared online shows Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russian private security company the Wagner Group, holding a rifle in a desert area while wearing camouflage in an undated video released on August 21, 2023. | Wagner Telegram account/Handout/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The paramilitary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin may have been killed in a fatal plane crash.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XicXAC">
|
||
<em><strong>Update, August 27, 1:15 pm: </strong></em><em>Russian authorities </em><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/08/27/world/russia-ukraine-war-news"><em>said</em></a><em> Sunday that genetic tests confirm that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was among those who died in a plane crash earlier this week. The original story, last updated Thursday, August 24, is below.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RU6myJ">
|
||
Two months ago, <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/3/21/23622615/ukraine-war-bakhmut-wagner-group-russia">Wagner Group</a> chief Yevgeny Prigozhin led <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/6/23/23771853/wagner-group-russia-prigozhin-feud">his militia in a mutiny against the Russian regime</a>. Now, Prigozhin is believed to have been involved in a fatal plane crash, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/23/russia-ukraine-war-news/">Russian state media has reported</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pAH27F">
|
||
Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private plane that crashed north of Moscow Wednesday, killing all 10 passengers aboard, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/08/23/world/prigozhin-russia-ukraine-war-news">according to media reports</a>. Russian authorities have not officially confirmed the paramilitary leader’s death, but some Telegram channels linked to the Wagner Group have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-mercenary-chief-prigozhin-dead-channel-affiliated-with-wagner-says-2023-08-23/">said</a> that he was killed. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered condolences to victims of the plane crash, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/24/europe/putin-prigozhin-comments-intl/index.html">describing Prigozhin</a> as a man with a “difficult fate.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1VSJIS">
|
||
If Prigozhin is officially confirmed among the crash fatalities, it would be a dramatic — <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/3/21/23622615/ukraine-war-bakhmut-wagner-group-russia">but not altogether surprising</a> — development. In June, Prigozhin led his militia on a rapid march toward Moscow, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/6/26/23774184/putin-wagner-group-mutiny-prigozhin">a brazen challenge to Putin’s regime</a>. Prigozhin abruptly halted his revolt before reaching the capital, and the Kremlin later said Prigozhin had accepted a deal — <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/6/26/23774497/lukashenko-russia-wagner-belarus-mutiny-prigozhin">apparently brokered by Belarus</a> — to go into exile in Belarus.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mvMGqf">
|
||
Few thought Prigozhin was about to enjoy <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/07/01/wagner-prigozhin-reported-assassination-plot-ebof-vpx.cnn">a relaxing retirement in Minsk</a> — or anywhere else, for that matter.<strong> </strong>As one <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/3/21/23622615/ukraine-war-bakhmut-wagner-group-russia">Wagner watcher told Vox</a> months before Prigozhin’s short-lived coup: “He knows that if the current regime or if his Wagner Group goes down, he goes down with them.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="olzYwj">
|
||
What we know about Prigozhin and the plane crash
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s1k8BJ">
|
||
An Embraer jet<strong> </strong>en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg went down near the city of Tver on Wednesday. Videos circulating on social media <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/23/europe/russia-wagner-prigozhin-plane-crash-intl/index.html#:~:text=Yevgeny%20Prigozhin%2C%20the%20chief%20of,Federal%20Air%20Transport%20Agency%20said.">showed an image of a plane plummeting from the sky</a>; another appeared to show <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/wagner-releases-video-plane-crash-that-reportedly-killed-yevgeny-prigozhin-1822020">the wreckage ablaze</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HVFluN">
|
||
Russian media has reported that all 10 bodies have now been recovered from the crash and that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/08/23/world/prigozhin-russia-ukraine-war-news">the plane carried three pilots and seven passengers</a>. <a href="https://www.vox.com/russia">Russia</a>’s aviation authorities have said they are “investigating the circumstances and causes of the accident,” according to the New York Times, and are currently testing the passengers’ remains.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f49sTe">
|
||
Prigozhin was on the passenger manifest, though it’s still unconfirmed whether he was actually on the flight. Some Telegram channels, including those <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/08/23/world/prigozhin-russia-ukraine-war-news">tied to Wagner Group</a>, have begun to post that Prigozhin has died. The Wagner-affiliated account, <a href="https://t.me/s/grey_zone">Grey Zone, indicated</a> Wednesday that Prigozhin, a “true patriot of the Motherland,” had “died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xRQ7zU">
|
||
“But even in Hell he will be the best! Glory to Russia!” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/23/prigozhin-russian-plane-crash-wagner-passenger/">the Telegram post read, according to reports</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QkRXf1">
|
||
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/24/who-was-dmitry-utkin-wagner-commander-plane-crash-yevgeny-prigozhin">Other individuals with Wagner ties</a> were also reportedly listed on the flight manifest, but their deaths are also not yet officially confirmed. <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/wagner-group-commander-dmitry-utkin-was-on-plane-that-crashed-near-moscow-russian-civil-aviation-authority-says-12946176">Among them is Dmitry Utkin</a>, who is sometimes cited as the operational leader or co-founder of the Wagner Group, although the evidence of that is a bit murky.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Uu1lHD">
|
||
Utkin is reportedly <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-paramilitary-mercenaries-emerge-from-the-shadows-syria-ukraine/28180321.html">a former commander for the special forces of the GRU</a>, Russia’s military intelligence service. As the story goes, he <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/08/14/pmc-structure-exposed/">had a thing for the Third Reich</a> and used “Wagner” as a nom de guerre. However, <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/08/14/pmc-structure-exposed/">some researchers</a> believe that Utkin is more likely a straw man, helping to disguise some of the paramilitary’s more direct ties to the Russian state. Somebody who may be <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/08/14/pmc-structure-exposed/">Utkin appears to have worked for Wagner</a>, but he may not have actually been in charge, or a founding figure.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9CYWoa">
|
||
Utkin’s name on the passenger list, alongside Prigozhin’s, hints at the possibility that this was an effort to purge known Wagner associates in the wake of the mutiny.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YwsX9T">
|
||
A lot remains unknown. Russian authorities and state media remain the primary sources on this crash right now — entities not exactly known for their transparency. Putin finally addressed the crash late Thursday, offering condolences to the victims, whom he indicated were Wagner Group employees. Putin called Prigozhin a talented businessman who “made serious mistakes in life.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="em9Txs">
|
||
“He achieved the results needed both for himself and when I asked him about it — for a common cause, as in these last months,” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/24/europe/putin-prigozhin-comments-intl/index.html">Putin reportedly said</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LI68AH">
|
||
At least one Western intelligence official <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/08/24/world/prigozhin-russia-ukraine-news">confirmed</a> Prigozhin’s death to the New York Times on Thursday. Some US and Western intelligence officials have now said they believe an explosion likely took down the plane, but that is not a firm conclusion just yet.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OYLMor">
|
||
White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/alexbward/status/1694414242957730036?s=20">statement</a> Wednesday that the administration had seen the reports. “If confirmed, no one should be surprised. The disastrous <a href="https://www.vox.com/russia-invasion-ukraine">war in Ukraine</a> led to a private army marching on Moscow, and now — it would seem — to this.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="Ms4x7q">
|
||
Prigozhin’s rebellion challenged Putin, and Putin doesn’t typically let his enemies stick around
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O8xi7P">
|
||
Known as “Putin’s chef,” Prigozhin had long been something of a fixer for Putin’s regime. He rose from the criminal underworld in post-Soviet Russia, and that always made him a bit of an outsider among Russia’s elites. He wasn’t exactly in Putin’s inner circle, but he had the skills and connections to make himself useful and needed.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="67ac4X">
|
||
The same was true in his role as the head of the Wagner Group, a sort-of-private army that <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/3/21/23622615/ukraine-war-bakhmut-wagner-group-russia">carried out the geopolitical aims of the Russian state</a>, especially in places like Africa and the Middle East. In the past year, Wagner had been some of the more effective Russian fighters in Ukraine, eventually taking the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/5/22/23732453/bakhmut-ukraine-war-russia-wagner-zelenskyy-counteroffensive">eastern city of Bakhmut</a> in a bloody, grinding, months-long battle. It was one of Russia’s rare victories from its winter counteroffensive, and Prigozhin had used his clout to intensify his criticism of Russia’s top military brass, posting scathing videos accusing generals of denying Wagner the ammunition and support needed to fight effectively.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7r4j0S">
|
||
Prigozhin’s attacks were so bold that Putin finally seemed to lose patience, and Russia put out a directive that the Russian military would <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65871232">formally integrate Wagner fighters</a> by July. Prigozhin claimed he wanted to avoid that, and that at least partially motivated his rebellion.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F8xZ6H">
|
||
That revolt lasted about 24 hours, with Wagner fighters <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/6/23/23771853/wagner-group-russia-prigozhin-feud">seizing military installations in Russia’s south and marching on Moscow</a>. Then, just as abruptly, Prigozhin halted that movement,<a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/7/1/23779941/wagner-group-revolt-ukraine-counteroffensive-putin-war"> saying he did not wish to shed Russian blood.</a> The Kremlin later said a deal had been reached whereby Prigozhin would avoid prosecution in exchange for going into exile in Belarus, and Wagner fighters could either join him or enlist with the Russian army.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PWqfV9">
|
||
Putin pretty much tried to go back to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/6/26/23774184/putin-wagner-group-mutiny-prigozhin">business as usual</a> in the wake of Prigozhin’s mutiny, albeit with a lot more <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/08/22/putin-behavior-post-wagner-mutiny-lon-orig.cnn">public appearances</a>. Prigozhin has not been widely seen<strong> </strong>in public since his June rebellion, with only vague or sketchy <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wagner-fighters-appear-to-relocate-to-belarus-prigozhin-says-they-could-return-to-ukraine-bc68d0c1">reports of his whereabouts</a>. That includes a statement from the Kremlin in July that claimed that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66154909">Putin met with Prigozhin</a> shortly after the rebellion, at least one <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/19/europe/prigozhin-wagner-belarus-appears-intl/index.html">video</a> that sounded like Prigozhin’s voice greeting Wagner recruits in Belarus, and a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66333403">photo</a> posted in July apparently taken in St. Petersburg with an official from the Central African Republic.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8lnvFZ">
|
||
But he did seem to be getting around, and just <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wagner-group-yevgeny-prigozhin-first-video-short-lived-mutiny-russia/">this week</a>, a person who appeared to be Prigozhin spoke in a short video clip about Wagner’s operations in Africa — though the date and exact location of the video were <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/prigozhin-video-africa-wagner-russia-rcna101130">unconfirmed</a>. It was his first video since his rebellion, posted about two days before Wednesday’s plane crash.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xF4rig">
|
||
That adds to the somewhat auspicious timing for this plane crash, as does the reported <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/08/23/world/prigozhin-russia-ukraine-war-news">removal</a> of Gen. Sergei Surovikin from his position as Russian aerospace commander. Surovikin, a top Russian military leader, was seen as a Prigozhin ally, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/us/politics/russian-general-prigozhin-rebellion.html">US intelligence reportedly had evidence</a> that Surovikin might have had advance knowledge of the Wagner rebellion. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/23/russia-removes-sergei-surovikin-as-head-of-aerospace-forces">Surovikin hadn’t been seen since the mutiny,</a> and some reports had suggested he had been detained in the rebellion’s aftermath.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ahEmhc">
|
||
Surovikin’s apparent removal and Prigozhin’s potential demise all seem to suggest that Putin may be purging what he sees as potential threats to his power. Prigozhin’s position was always dependent to a degree on Putin’s largesse, and staging a mutiny against the president put him, pretty unequivocally, in an extraordinarily precarious state. Prigozhin has always maintained that his revolt was not a coup attempt, but his rebellion made it look at least possible that Putin could be overthrown, undermining his image as an infallible strongman.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XJwg5F">
|
||
Which always meant the idea that Putin would let Prigozhin — or any of his Wagner fighters — casually reconstitute in Belarus was<strong> </strong>very, very unlikely. Putin has been known to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/19/us/politics/russia-spy-assassination.html">pursue his perceived enemies</a> at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/23/here-are-ten-critics-of-vladimir-putin-who-died-violently-or-in-suspicious-ways/">home</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/dec/26/skripal-poisonings-bungled-assassination-kremlin-putin-salisbury">abroad</a> for far less than an armed rebellion. Putin’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/22254292/alexei-navalny-prison-hunger-strike-end-russia-protests-vladimir-putin">critics have been poisoned</a>, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Opponents have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-critic-pavel-antov-dies-falling-out-hotel-window-2022-12">fallen out of windows</a>. Russia has also been suspected in plane crash assassination plots: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-antoni-macierewicz-lech-kaczynski-poland-f3f5a2fddb028ffdb4bc12f369aeafd5">Polish authorities allege</a> the Kremlin was responsible for the crash that killed Poland’s president in 2010. And it’s probably also worth mentioning <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/08/1155401602/malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17-putin-missiles-investigation">Russia’s role in downing a civilian jet over Ukraine in 2014</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3kXLf3">
|
||
Even if Prigozhin suffered the same fate as other Putin foes, it’s still uncertain what it means for the Russian regime. Putin can’t fully undo the conditions that led to Prigozhin’s mutiny. Russia is still facing setbacks in Ukraine, and Prigozhin’s criticisms of the Russian military <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/07/11/russian-nationalists-grudge-intact-following-prigozhin-s-failed-mutiny_6049708_4.html">have found continued purchase</a> among the nationalistic right in Russia. Russian authorities have quietly begun to <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-blogger-prison-online-comments-ukraine/32482184.html">crack down on some right-wing military bloggers</a> in recent weeks, a signal that a post-rebellion purge of Putin’s perceived enemies was already underway.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TgAjBW">
|
||
The world has seen <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62634359">more than a few twists in the various plots</a> that have emerged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Prigozhin’s possible demise may yet be another one. Prigozhin <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/06/26/priogzhin-wagner-africa-disinformation/">himself was a master of misinformation</a>, using propaganda as part of <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-cybersecurity/2023/06/26/wagner-the-troll-factories-00103598">Wagner’s portfolio</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/14/europe/russia-yevgeny-prigozhin-internet-research-agency-intl/index.html">beyond</a>. He has some incentives to make himself disappear, too.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5EPScs">
|
||
But whatever happened with this crash — and whether or not Prigozhin really was on the jet and died in it — Prigozhin was likely never going to be the exception to the rule in Putin’s Russia.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kdFssz">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vloR8j">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wqMDEv">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2uuMnK">
|
||
<em><strong>Update, August 24, 1:30 pm ET: </strong></em><em>This post was originally published on August 23 and has been updated multiple times, most recently to include Putin’s comments on the crash and information from Western intelligence officials.</em>
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>America’s unique, enduring gun problem, explained</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="An American flag flying beside a rack of rifles for sale." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/I-C1vIFjgYVYWmj9Zgs0oWjHTCk=/0x0:5504x4128/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70913181/GettyImages_1234133462.80.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Jon Cherry/Bloomberg via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The factors that lead to tragedies like the Jacksonville shooting are deeply ingrained in US politics, culture, and law.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="09FWBi">
|
||
A shooter opened fire at a Florida Dollar General store on Saturday, killing three people in what Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters described as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/27/us/jacksonville-shooting-dollar-general.html">racially motivated crime</a>. All three victims are Black Americans. The shooter — a white male in his early 20s armed with a handgun and an AR-style rifle with swastikas painted on it — killed himself before authorities could apprehend him. The incident occurred after the shooter attempted to enter the campus of Edward Waters University, a historically Black university, but was refused entry.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NKileg">
|
||
Sheriff Waters described writings left by the shooter outlining a “disgusting ideology of hate,” and the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/27/us/jacksonville-florida-shooting-sunday/index.html#:~:text=The%20FBI%20has%20launched%20a%20federal%20civil%20rights%20investigation%20into%20the%20shooting%20and%20%E2%80%9Cwill%20pursue%20this%20incident%20as%20a%20hate%20crime%2C%E2%80%9D%20said%20Sherri%20Onks%2C%20special%20agent%20in%20charge%20of%20the%20FBI%E2%80%99s%20Jacksonville%20office.">FBI is investigating</a> the incident as a hate crime.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KBSsmP">
|
||
Technically, this event doesn’t qualify as a mass shooting; the <a href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting">Gun Violence Archive</a> defines that as an incident during which four or more people are shot.<strong> </strong>But it is noteworthy because it’s part of a trend of racially motivated attacks that have recently occurred in places like <a href="https://www.vox.com/23189892/buffalo-mass-shooting-sentencing-tops-supermarket">Buffalo</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22335666/asian-spa-shooting-atlanta">Atlanta</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8802547/mass-shooting-emmanuel-charleston-sc">Charleston</a>, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/17/1157788933/la-jewish-shootings-arrest-hate-crimes">Los Angeles</a> among many others.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3DqA9l">
|
||
The Jacksonville incident occurred on the same day as a mass shooting which injured at <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/least-7-people-injured-shooting-boston-parade-rcna101952">least eight people</a> near Boston’s J’ouvert Parade, part of the city’s Caribbean Carnival. Two suspects were arrested. There have been <a href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting">473 mass shootings</a> in the US in 2023 as of publication time.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jyTPem">
|
||
No other high-income country has suffered such a high death toll from <a href="https://www.vox.com/22382180/supreme-court-uvalde-guns-violence-second-amendment-heller-scalia">gun violence</a>. Every day, <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-in-america/">120</a> Americans die at the end of a gun, including suicides and homicides, an average of 43,375 per year. Since 2009, there has been an annual average of <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/maps/mass-shootings-in-america/">19 shootings</a> in which at least four people are killed. The US gun homicide rate is as much as <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-in-america/">26 times</a> that of other high-income countries; its gun suicide rate is nearly <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-in-america/">12 times higher</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HenahQ">
|
||
<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/27/17029680/gun-owner-nra-mass-shooting-political-identity-political-science">Gun control opponents</a> have typically framed the gun violence epidemic in the US as a symptom of a broader mental health crisis. But every country has people with mental health issues and extremists; those problems aren’t unique. What is unique is the US’s expansive view of civilian gun ownership, ingrained in politics, in culture, and in the law since the nation’s founding, and a national political process that has so far proved incapable of changing that norm.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3i7Vh4">
|
||
“America is unique in that guns have always been present, there is wide civilian ownership, and the government hasn’t claimed more of a monopoly on them,” said David Yamane, a professor at Wake Forest University who studies American gun culture.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DqqRM9">
|
||
Last year,<strong> </strong>Congress reached a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/6/23/23180893/senate-gun-control-bipartisan-bill-2022-pass">deal on limited gun reforms</a> for the first time in nearly 30 years. But the recent shootings underscore why narrow reform won’t stop mass shootings — and<strong> </strong>just how embedded gun violence is in the US.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="r8kFVU">
|
||
The US has a lot of guns, and more guns mean more gun deaths
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fsyzjk">
|
||
It’s hard to estimate the number of <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23141964/america-gun-violence-epidemic-chart">privately owned guns in America</a> since there is no countrywide database where people register whether they own guns, and there is a <a href="https://www.everytown.org/issues/gun-trafficking/">thriving black market</a> for them in the absence of strong federal gun trafficking laws.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wKr0e_jSfA8X1_7WP0GUeDGfZ0U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24196225/3PzPV_the_us_has_more_guns_than_its_peers_it_also_has_more_gun_violence_.png"/>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3LYzOy">
|
||
One estimate from the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based research project, found that there were approximately <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081">390 million guns</a> in circulation in the US in 2018, or about 120.5 firearms per 100 residents. That number has likely climbed in the years since, given that <a href="https://www.norc.org/NewsEventsPublications/PressReleases/Pages/one-in-five-american-households-purchased-a-gun-during-the-pandemic.aspx">one in five households</a> purchased a gun during the pandemic. But even without accounting for that increase, US gun ownership is still well above any other country: Yemen, which has the world’s second-highest level of gun ownership, has only 52.8 guns per 100 residents; in Iceland, it’s 31.7.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7JSFpM">
|
||
American guns are concentrated in a tiny minority of households: just 3 percent own about half the nation’s guns, according to a 2016 Harvard and Northeastern University <a href="https://news.northeastern.edu/2016/09/study-70m-more-firearms-added-to-us-gun-stock-over-past-20-years/">study</a>. They’re called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/19/us-gun-ownership-survey">super owners</a>” who have an average of 17 guns each. Gallup, using a different methodology, found that <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1645/guns.aspx">42 percent of American households</a> overall owned guns in 2021.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="msivY6">
|
||
Researchers have found a clear link between gun ownership in the US and gun violence, and some argue that it’s causal. One 2013 Boston University-led study, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3828709/">for instance</a>, found that for each percentage point increase in gun ownership at the household level, the state firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9 percent. And states with weaker gun laws have higher rates of gun-related homicides and suicides, according to a <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/">study</a> by the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hu5sDi">
|
||
The link between gun deaths and gun ownership is much stronger than the link between violence and mental health issues. If it were possible to cure all schizophrenia, bipolar, and depressive disorders, violent crime in the US would <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/myth-vs-fact-violence-and-mental-health">fall by only 4 percent</a>, according to a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=v4oSb2Na4nQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA101#v=onepage&q=swanson&f=false">study</a> from Duke University professor Jeffrey Swanson, who examines policies to reduce gun violence.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8WRO9O">
|
||
There’s still a pervasive idea, pushed by gun manufacturers and gun rights organizations like the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/25/23140519/uvalde-school-shooting-nra-texas-good-guy-gun">National Rifle Association</a>, that further arming America is the answer to preventing gun violence — <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/25/23140519/uvalde-school-shooting-nra-texas-good-guy-gun">the “good guy with a gun” theory</a>. But a 2021 <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2776515">study</a> from Hamline University and Metropolitan State University found that the rate of deaths in 133 mass school shootings between 1980 and 2019 was 2.83 times greater in cases where there was an armed guard present.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JYJVAl">
|
||
“The idea that the solution to mass shootings is that we need more guns in the hands of more people in more places so that we’ll be able to protect ourselves — there’s no evidence that that’s true,” Swanson said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="At Least 5 Dead And 18 Injured In Colorado Springs Gay Nightclub Shooting" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/537Vh4HU65iknCFBhNJXafDkgJQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24876824/1443590414.jpg"/> <cite>Scott Olson/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A makeshift memorial set up for the victims of the Club Q nightclub shooting in Colorado Springs that happened on November 19, 2022.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a2KyR0">
|
||
The prevalence of the self-defense narrative is part of what sets apart the gun rights movement in the US from similar movements in places like Canada and Australia, according to Robert Spitzer, a professor at SUNY Cortland who studies the politics of gun control.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r72eri">
|
||
Self-defense has become by far the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/">most prominent reason</a> for gun ownership in the US today, eclipsing hunting, recreation, or owning guns because they’re antiques, heirlooms, or work-related. That’s also reflected in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/us/politics/gun-manufacturing-atf.html">ballooning handgun sales</a>, since the primary purpose of those guns isn’t recreational, but self-defense.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jrdsFg">
|
||
American gun culture “brings together the hunting-sporting tradition with the militia-frontier tradition, but in modern times the hunting element has been eclipsed by a heavily politicized notion that gun carrying is an expression of freedom, individuality, hostility to government, and personal self-protection,” Spitzer said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9qcyXn">
|
||
That <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/6/20/11975850/ar-15-owner-orlando">culture of gun ownership in the US</a> has made it all the more difficult to explore serious policy solutions to gun violence after mass shootings. In high-income countries lacking that culture, mass shootings have historically galvanized public support behind gun control measures that would seem extreme by US standards.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VIl5kp">
|
||
Canada <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/03/23/mass-shootings-response-other-countries-gun-laws/">banned military-style assault weapons</a> two weeks after a 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia. In 2019, less than a month after the Christchurch massacre, New Zealand lawmakers passed a gun buyback scheme, as well as restrictions on AR-15s and other semiautomatic weapons, and they later established a firearms registry. The 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Australia spurred the government to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9212725/australia-buyback">buy back 650,000 firearms</a> within a year, and murders and suicides plummeted as a result.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5mL5s2">
|
||
By contrast, nearly a decade went by after the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before Congress passed a new gun control law. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/6/23/23180893/senate-gun-control-bipartisan-bill-2022-pass">Bipartisan Safer Communities Act</a>, the law passed in June 2022, was relatively limited: it did not ban any types of weapons, instead incentivizing states to enact new measures meant to limit who can access guns.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lWo0KpSDuPpD5l_xQ_b9EYOexL0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23589886/GettyImages_1240907270.jpg"/> <cite>Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
People gather at Sacred Heart Catholic Church to pray for the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rNgOhz">
|
||
“Other countries look at this problem and say, ‘People walking around in the community with handguns is just way too dangerous, so we’re going to broadly limit legal access to that and make exceptions on the margins for people who might have a good reason to have a gun,’” Swanson said. “Here we do just the opposite: We say that, because of the way that the Supreme Court interpreted the Second Amendment, everybody has the right to a gun for personal protection, and then we tried to make exceptions for really dangerous people, but we can’t figure out who they are.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="irgpOC">
|
||
<a href="https://iop.harvard.edu/get-involved/harvard-political-review/vast-majority-americans-support-universal-background-checks">While the majority of Americans</a> support more gun control restrictions, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/">including universal background checks</a>, a vocal Republican minority unequivocally opposes such laws — and is willing to put pressure on GOP lawmakers to do the same. Alongside the NRA, and a well-funded gun lobby, this contingent of voters sees gun control as a deciding issue, and one that could warrant a primary challenge for a lawmaker who votes for it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8wKCli">
|
||
The gun lobby has the advantage of enthusiasm. “Despite being outnumbered, Americans who oppose gun control are more likely to contact public officials about it and to base their votes on it,” Barnard College’s Matthew Lacombe <a href="https://barnard.edu/news/break-down-gun-politics-america">explained in 2020</a>. “As a result, many politicians believe that supporting gun regulation is more likely to lose them votes than to gain them votes.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="Monterey Park Mass Shooting" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nOzeDGIDRyUQcunIBFKGLACA4ZY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24876847/1246706108.jpg"/> <cite>Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Mourners honor the victims of the January 27, 2023 Monterey Park, California mass shooting.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9iSGMJ">
|
||
Congress in June passed a bipartisan gun safety bill for the first time since the 1990s. But the new law — which incentivized states to pass red flag laws, enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21, and closed the “boyfriend loophole” which allowed some people with domestic violence convictions to purchase guns — is not sufficient to fully address the causes of mass shootings. Certain studies suggest that even truly universal background checks <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/27/18224727/house-universal-background-checks-gun-violence-congress">may have limited effects on gun violence</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="x5gwWU">
|
||
The Supreme Court has made it impossible to cure America’s gun violence epidemic
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ykbshx">
|
||
In 2008, the Supreme Court effectively wrote NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre’s “good guy with a gun” theory into the Constitution. The Court’s 5-4 decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZO.html"><em>District of Columbia v. Heller</em></a> (2008) was the first Supreme Court decision in American history to hold that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm. But it also went much further than that.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WX1KE9">
|
||
<em>Heller</em> held that one of the primary purposes of the Second Amendment is to protect the right of individuals — good guys with a gun, in LaPierre’s framework — to use firearms to stop bad guys with guns. As Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in <em>Heller</em>, an “inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="opuCPY">
|
||
As a matter of textual interpretation, this holding makes no sense. The Second Amendment provides that “<a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-ii">a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State</a>, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UYD0Q1">
|
||
We don’t need to guess why the Second Amendment protects a right to firearms because it is right there in the Constitution. The Second Amendment’s purpose is to preserve “a well-regulated Militia,” not to allow individuals to use their weapons for personal self-defense.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BN4EwY">
|
||
For many years, the Supreme Court took the first 13 words of the Second Amendment seriously. As the Court said in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/307/174"><em>United States v. Miller</em></a><em> </em>(1939), the “obvious purpose” of the Second Amendment was to “render possible the effectiveness” of militias. And thus the amendment must be “interpreted and applied with that end in view.” <em>Heller</em> abandoned that approach.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iVvOgG">
|
||
<em>Heller</em> also reached another important policy conclusion. Handguns, according to Scalia, are “overwhelmingly chosen” by gun owners who wish to carry a firearm for self-defense. For this reason, he wrote, handguns enjoy a kind of super-legal status. Lawmakers are not allowed to ban what Scalia described as “the most preferred firearm in the nation to ‘keep’ and use for protection of one’s home and family.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zbm2Hq">
|
||
This declaration regarding handguns matters because this easily concealed weapon is responsible for far more deaths than any other weapon in the United States — and it isn’t close. In 2019, for example, a <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls">total of 13,927 people were murdered in the US</a>, according to the FBI. Of these murder victims, at least 6,368 — just over 45 percent — were killed by handguns.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zuxWanJjGt4IpihFJwuTpvTv6cA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23589874/GettyImages_1240908247.jpg"/> <cite>Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A woman holds a photo of Nevaeh Bravo, who was killed in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, during a vigil for the victims in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cBczrr">
|
||
Last year, the Supreme Court made it even harder for federal and state lawmakers to combat gun violence. In its decision in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf"><em>New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen</em></a><em>,</em><em><strong> </strong></em>it massively expands the scope of the Second Amendment, abandons more than a decade of case law governing which gun laws are permitted by the Constitution, and replaces this case law with a new legal framework that, as Justice Stephen Breyer writes in dissent, “imposes a task on the lower courts that judges cannot easily accomplish.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3q3oKS">
|
||
The immediate impact of <em>Bruen</em> is that handguns — which are responsible for the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22382180/supreme-court-uvalde-guns-violence-second-amendment-heller-scalia">overwhelming majority of gun murders</a> in the United States — could proliferate on many American streets. That’s because <em>Bruen</em> strikes the types of laws that limit who can legally carry handguns in public, holding that “the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FMtyxN">
|
||
One silver lining for proponents of gun regulation is that the majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, embraces language that first appeared in <em>Heller</em>, which permits some gun laws such as prohibitions on “dangerous and unusual weapons.” Nevertheless, it placed an emphasis on historical analogies that could endanger many laws that enjoy broad bipartisan support. The future of firearm regulation looks grim for anyone who believes that the government should help protect us from gun violence.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iCVN66">
|
||
<em><strong>Update, August 27, 10:55 am: </strong></em><em>This story was originally published on May 26, 2022, and has been updated multiple times, most recently with details from the August 26 shooting in Jacksonville, Florida.</em>
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dangerous shows out</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Was in pressure for the first time, says Javelin world champion Neeraj Chopra</strong> - Last year, after winning silver at the 2022 edition of the World Championships, he was asked what was left and he had mentioned ‘gold at the worlds, maybe’</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>Neeraj Chopra exemplifies excellence, says PM Modi</strong> - Prime Minister hailed the Indian javelin great Neeraj Chopra for winning gold medal at World Athletics Championships</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>World Athletics Championships: ‘Golden Boy’ Neeraj Chopra’s father brims with pride, says proud moment for country</strong> - Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur also took to his social media platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) and congratulated the young athlete saying that the moment will be remembered forever in Indian sporting history</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>U.S. Open 2023: With Serena and Federer retired, Alcaraz-Djokovic symbolizes a transition in tennis</strong> - It seems everyone in the world of tennis was riveted by Novak Djokovic’s victory over Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the last tournament for both ahead of the U.S. Open</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>PIL filed before Bombay HC challenges a paragraph in anti-defection law</strong> - ‘Split and merger’ defections further alienate the public from the process of elections; taxpayers’ money is spent without any accountability, plea says, citing split in the Shiv Sena to explain the consequences of group defections</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>Maharashtra: 3 more held for attack on Scheduled Caste persons in Ahmednagar</strong> - The police have now apprehended three more men, including the main accused Yuvraj Galande (35), for their involvement in the crime, while a search is on for two other accused</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>BJP demands NIA probe into blast at Bengal’s illegal firecracker unit</strong> - Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari demanded the resignation from the CM, claiming that Mamata Banerjee “remained silent for hours after the blast”</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>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated by Nalme Nachiyar.</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>Global shipping and logistics firm UPS intends to hire 1,000 people in India by 2025</strong> - The company set up its first Indian technology centre in Chennai; it aims to nurture local talent, focusing on women and people from rural areas and has already selected youngsters from under T.N.’s ‘Naan Mudhalvan’ scheme for internships</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>Wagner boss Prigozhin confirmed dead in plane crash - Moscow</strong> - Genetic analysis of the bodies was carried out following Wednesday’s crash, Russian officials say.</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>France to ban female students from wearing abayas in state schools</strong> - The education minister says female Muslim students will not be allowed to wear the loose-fitting robe.</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>Luis Rubiales: Spanish FA activates ‘sexual violence protocol’ after Jenni Hermoso kiss</strong> - An internal investigation is launched at Spain’s football federation after its sexual violence protocol is activated.</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>Jenni Hermoso: Players and fans support Spain World Cup star in kiss row</strong> - The furore over the Spanish football chief’s kiss on the lips generates protests at matches.</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>P&O Britannia cruise ship crashes during Mallorca storms</strong> - A small number of people are being cared for onboard after sustaining minor injuries, P&O says.</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 sports fan’s guide to streaming services</strong> - We compare five streaming services to see which one offers the most for sportsball fans. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963313">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Four people from four different nations ride SpaceX rocket into orbit</strong> - A new Falcon 9 booster also joins SpaceX’s fleet with Saturday’s launch. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963575">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study: Carbon offsets aren’t doing their job, overstate impact</strong> - Cambridge study says carbon offsets are not nearly as effective as they claim to be. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963543">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Renegade certificate removed from Windows. Then it returns. Microsoft stays silent.</strong> - The certificate, originally spawned by Symantec, was scheduled to be banished years ago. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963549">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hands-on with Cherry MX2A switches: A lot less wobble, a little more confusion</strong> - Cherry fights mechanical switch copycats with a new, yet familiar, lineup. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1963225">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Alone at the table…….</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
This guy is dining alone in a fancy restaurant and there’s a beautiful redhead sitting at the next table. He’s been sneakily checking her out ever since he arrived, but doesn’t have the courage to start talking to her.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Suddenly she sneezes, and her glass eye comes flying out of its socket toward the man. His reflexes kick in and he reaches out, plucks it out of the air, and hands it back to her.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The redhead is mortified. “Oh my, I am so sorry,” she says as she pops her eye back into place. “Let me buy your dinner to make it up to you.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
So he joins her table and they enjoy a wonderful meal together. Afterwards they go to the theatre followed by drinks at a bar. They talk, they laugh, she shares her deepest dreams and he shares his. She listens.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
After paying for everything, she asks him if he would like to come to her place for a nightcap. He says yes and they return to her place.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He ends up staying the night. The next morning, she cooks a gourmet meal with all the trimmings. The guy is amazed at how everything has been so perfect and how incredible this woman is. He can’t believe his luck. “You know,” he said, “you are the perfect woman, are you this nice to every guy you meet?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“No,” she replies, “You just happened to catch my eye.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MercyReign"> /u/MercyReign </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/163a89a/alone_at_the_table/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/163a89a/alone_at_the_table/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A small town lawyer called his first witness to the stand in a trial, a 80 year old woman. He approached her and asked, “Mrs. Singh, do you know me?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
She responded, “Why, yes, I do know you Mr. Kulkarni. I’ve known you since you were a young boy. And frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. Yes, I know you.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do he pointed across the room and asked, “Mrs. Singh, do you know the defense lawyer?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
She again replied, “Why, yes I do. I’ve known Mr. Gupta since he was a youngster too. I used to baby-sit him for his parents. And he too, has been a real disappointment to me. He’s lazy, bigoted, he has a drinking problem. The man can’t build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the entire state. Yes, I know him.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
At this point, the judge called both lawyers to the bench. In a very quiet voice, he said with menace, “If either of you asks her if she knows me, you’ll be jailed for contempt!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/rest_in_war"> /u/rest_in_war </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/162ras0/a_small_town_lawyer_called_his_first_witness_to/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/162ras0/a_small_town_lawyer_called_his_first_witness_to/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dear Audrey Advice…..</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
My son is a strapping 265lb star linebacker at our local university and a leader in our church youth group. We couldn’t be more proud of him! However….I returned from grocery shopping today and found him prancing around the house in one of my dresses. What should I do??! Sincerely, Confused in Texas
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Dear Confused,
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
This is really a delicate situation , but I’d have to say that you should start a diet immediately….
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Smarterthaniwas"> /u/Smarterthaniwas </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16354cy/dear_audrey_advice/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16354cy/dear_audrey_advice/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A robber held up a well-dressed man, pointing his gun and yelling, “Give me all your money!”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The man replied, “Don’t you know who I am? I’m a U.S. congressman!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The robber retorted, “In that case, give me all my money!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Major_Independence82"> /u/Major_Independence82 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/163j6l7/a_robber_held_up_a_welldressed_man_pointing_his/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/163j6l7/a_robber_held_up_a_welldressed_man_pointing_his/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A high-society debutant is engaged to a low-born Greek guy…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Before the wedding, her mother takes her aside and says, “I’ve tried to talk you out of marrying this man, but you seem determined to go through with it, so just promise me one thing”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
"Greeks have unnatural desires in the bedroom that are perverse, nasty, and disgusting. Just promise me now, if he ever asks you to ‘roll over’ you will refuse.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The girl agrees and goes through with the marriage. Everything proceeds fine until about 5 years into the marriage. One fateful night in bed, the Greek says,"Honey, tonight let’s try something different, I want you to roll over.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
She is shocked by the suggestion! “My mother warned me about you! That is sick and disgusting! How dare you ask such a thing of me?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“But”, says her husband, “don’t you want to have children?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/JonnyRottensTeeth"> /u/JonnyRottensTeeth </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/162ya0j/a_highsociety_debutant_is_engaged_to_a_lowborn/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/162ya0j/a_highsociety_debutant_is_engaged_to_a_lowborn/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html> |