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<title>30 July, 2023</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Boss and His Botched Coverup</strong> - The latest charges against Donald Trump show him and his Mar-a-Lago band to be as lame as the Watergate plumbers. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/trump-indictment-the-boss-and-his-botched-coverup">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Did Economic Forecasters Get Their Recession Call Wrong?</strong> - Not only has the economy outperformed predictions but it’s growing at a faster rate than experts think is sustainable in the long run. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-did-economic-forecasters-get-their-recession-call-wrong">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How UPS and the Teamsters Staved Off a Strike—for Now</strong> - With work stoppages under way or looming in a variety of industries, is the U.S. in the midst of a “hot labor summer”? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-ups-and-the-teamsters-staved-off-a-strike-for-now">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Regina Spektor on “Home, Before and After,” and a Trip to the Boundary Waters</strong> - The singer talks to the music critic Amanda Petrusich about her most recent album, and the writer Alex Kotlowitz makes an annual pilgrimage to the northern woods of Minnesota. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/regina-spektor-on-home-before-and-after-and-a-trip-to-the-boundary-waters">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Heat Waves and the Sweep of History</strong> - This burning summer is taking us out of human time. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/heat-waves-and-the-sweep-of-history">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>How to set boundaries with grandparents</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="Illustration of grandparents and parents playing with children." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4rSTm_K6FFriVvx0_eF5geg8x_0=/536x0:4763x3170/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72497055/GettyImages_1195226128.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Grandparents are an important part of the lives of children. Here’s how to manage their involvement. | Getty Images/fStop
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Parenting is hard. Managing your own parents can be harder.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L8nJg8">
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Having children can be an exciting opportunity to do things differently than your own parents did. Even if you have a great relationship with your parents, you probably won’t see eye-to-eye on everything — just because we love them doesn’t mean it’s always easy to tolerate their approach, especially as it concerns your own kids. Some of the most loving grandparents may have difficulty remembering household rules and inadvertently needle into childhood wounds. “The hardest part of being a parent is that we were kids first, and we have a whole lifetime of baggage,” says <a href="https://www.raialbany.com/meet-the-team">Megan O’Meara</a>, a therapist I spoke to and the director of <a href="https://www.raialbany.com/">Rainbow Access Initiative</a> in Albany, New York.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EBFBcz">
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Grandparents might nag your kids to eat, and then tell them they are gaining too much weight. They might gender everything from colors to the play kitchens all kids love. They may have never allowed you ice cream as a child, and now they feed your children straight sugar. Or maybe your parents try hard to follow your guidance, but they just aren’t informed on current best practices.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="co3qGB">
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<a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2017/demo/p70br-147.pdf">There are more grandparents than ever</a>, and having them involved in our kids’ lives offers major benefits to everyone involved. They <a href="https://www.aarp.org/home-family/friends-family/info-2017/2017-grandkids-cost-how-much.html">help with child care</a> and <a href="https://www.aarp.org/research/topics/life/info-2019/aarp-grandparenting-study.html">chip in on expenses</a>. A 2019 <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/field/field_document/Grandparents_Contribute_to_Children%E2%80%99s_Well-being.pdf">Oxford University study</a> showed that kids have fewer behavioral and emotional problems when grandparents are involved in their lives. According to a 2013 <a href="https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/news-archive-2011-to-2015/chronicle/2013/news/study-boosts-grandparent-grandchild-ties.html">Boston University study</a>, both adult grandchildren and grandparents show fewer signs of depression when their relationship is tight. Babysitting even <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513816300721">helps grandparents live longer</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n9nONa">
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“Over the past couple of decades, grandparents have been alive longer, so they’re more able to take an active role in the families of their children and their grandchildren,” says <a href="https://suzannedegges.com/">Suzanne Degges-White</a>, counselor, professor, and co-author of <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442219311/Mothers-and-Daughters-Living-Loving-and-Learning-over-a-Lifetime"><em>Mothers and Daughters: Living, Loving, and Learning Over a Lifetime</em></a>.<em> </em>According to a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/03/24/the-demographics-of-multigenerational-households/">2021 Pew Research study</a>, since 1971, the number of Americans living in intergenerational households has quadrupled. “It’s really wonderful that we get that multigenerational transmission of values and child care resources,” says Degges-White.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3jTOz4">
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While it’s definitely beneficial to have grandparents in the picture — and many of us depend on them for child care — smoothly integrating your own parents into the lives of your children can be challenging, even if you have the best relationship with your parents. It can be triggering in different ways for both the parents and the grandparents, and it calls for important conversations and decisions about boundaries and <a href="https://www.vox.com/parenting">parenting</a> approaches. I spoke with four experts about how to sensitively include grandparents in the lives of their grandkids while making sure that everyone’s needs are met.
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</p>
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<h3 id="60jw7h">
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Be proactive
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YDAXo5">
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The best way to avoid future conflict with your parents is to “get in front of it” by having the tough discussions before problems even arise, says <a href="https://www.drebony.com/">Ebony Butler</a>, psychologist and creator of <a href="https://www.mytherapycards.com/?r_done=1">My Therapy Cards</a>. It’s important to have these conversations early in your parenting journey, even before babies come, because those first days are when you may need the most caretaking support.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WL8S1E">
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Before starting a conversation about expectations of what a visit with grandma or grandpa looks like, decide what is non-negotiable and what rules are flexible. Maybe you prefer your new baby wears cloth diapers, but you let your parents use disposables when they babysit because it’s easier for them. Maybe it’s not acceptable for your older kids to veg out in front of YouTube when Granny watches them, but they can stay up late.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wUAprT">
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Remember: While structure is necessary, being flexible and willing to negotiate are also skills that are essential to model for our kids. Whether your parents live with you or just stop in to babysit, negotiation skills will lead to greater peace in the home. This might mean the difference between not having a regular babysitter and being able to attend your job daily, sneak in a date night, or take a much-needed nap.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qB4pnU">
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Butler recommends saying to grandparents, “Here’s the way that we want to raise our children. Here’s the things that we’re teaching them. Do you think you can get on board with this? If not, what is the middle path here?”
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<aside id="V8jH4O">
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<q>Your child needs to see you advocating for them, so don’t hesitate to redirect your parent in the moment</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rb4yCV">
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It’s important to come to the conversation with curiosity, says O’Meara. If they insist on enforcing things you disagree with, such as gender norms, give them the chance to explain where they’re coming from and why they feel the need to give that input. “Oftentimes, it’s out of fear,” she said. “Our parents really want all of us to be safe.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aHfm4D">
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As a parent, you can likely empathize with their fears on a certain level. Having a son who dresses more stereotypically feminine might lead to him getting bullied, so let your parents know that you understand where they are coming from but are doing what you can to keep him safe. Explain the importance of teaching kids to take pride in their authentic selves, something you and your parents may not have been afforded. And remember, you had to do your own unlearning of problematic societal beliefs, too.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pFpWzJ">
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“Many of us automatically assume that our parents should know certain things,” Butler says. “But they don’t. We have to teach them. If my kid has ADHD or is on the spectrum, there’s going to be some education that I’m going to have to provide to the grandparents.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kPrl8S">
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One way to help make the learning curve easier is to tap into their friend circle. “If you know that they have a friend who has a grandkid who is <a href="https://www.vox.com/lgbtq">trans</a> or queer in some way, encourage them to reach out to that person,” says O’Meara. “If you have a relationship with that person, reach out to them yourself and say, ‘Hey, I was wondering if we could lean on you a little to help us because we want to involve this person in our life.’”
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</p>
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<h3 id="BHWVyf">
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Set your parents up to win
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HkME91">
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Making changes is tough, so ask your parents how you can make things easier for them. “You can offer support to the elder [by asking] how you can help them remember to do this stuff,” Butler says.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rj94m9">
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When you involve your parents in a visit or allow them to babysit, make sure everyone’s accommodations are met. If your child has a special diet, leave the correct snacks on the counter. If your mom can’t drive after sunset, don’t schedule family hangs past dusk. This goes for <a href="https://www.vox.com/religion">religion</a>, too. Serve dinners that follow your parents’ religious diets, and don’t schedule events when they’d normally attend their services.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<aside id="zONuT5">
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<q>If your parents go against a family belief or rule, it’s important to address it soon after so your frustration doesn’t fester</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BoMbaP">
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When it comes to finances, be sure to discuss who pays for what before it becomes a conflict. In some families, when a grandparent takes a grandchild out, the parent pays for the activity. In others, that would be unheard of. When a parent provides regular caretaking, it’s especially important to have these details hashed out. “A lot of stuff is unspoken that we need to be talking about,” says Butler.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lFIO5X">
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As your parents learn new ways of doing things and new perspectives, create activities both your parents and kids can take joy in, zeroing in on your parents’ strengths, O’Meara says. If your dad’s an artist and your son loves attending the Pride parade, have them craft posters together to march through town.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JHKPJc">
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“It’s human nature to immediately zero in on the negative,” says <a href="https://www.drnavasilton.com/">Nava Silton</a>, psychologist, professor, and author of <a href="https://www.igi-global.com/book/family-dynamics-romantic-relationships-changing/175396"><em>Family Dynamics and Romantic Relationships in a Changing Society</em></a>, so catch your parents being awesome and give them props.
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</p>
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<h3 id="9lYUtv">
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Understand that parents will make mistakes
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zcFS0G">
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Every generation does things differently and thinks they are right and that the previous generation is wrong. “Be tolerant of your parents and recognize that you turned out okay,” says Degges-White, “so you know they’re not going to do that much damage to your kid.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VvmIvu">
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If your parents go against a family belief or rule, it’s important to address it soon after so your frustration doesn’t fester.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CdXTbM">
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At the same time, your child needs to see you advocating for them, so don’t hesitate to redirect your parent in the moment. “There is a way to respect them and also protect your children,” says Butler. “You saying, ‘Oh, we don’t use that word in this house’ is not disrespectful.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kk9CEd">
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Use a sandwich approach when offering criticism. “Start off with a positive,” Silton says. Tell them you are grateful for their help, drop in your critique, and then end on a positive note, recognizing something they did well.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ch8gGQ">
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For those of us who approach parents for frequent caretaking, even if our parents get on our nerves, remember that they are there because they love our kids and are dedicated to them. Plus, they are probably more reliable and comfortable to leave your kids with than some random teen babysitter.
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</p>
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<h3 id="XTm1ne">
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Own your own mistakes, too
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KqScXl">
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If you find yourself dwelling on everything your parents do wrong, it’s important to analyze why. Your anger and frustration are likely related to unprocessed resentments from your upbringing.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wtkv3Z">
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“If your parent does something that we would consider relatively small, and you find yourself being extremely mad about it, that is probably a really good indicator that we are holding unfair expectations,” O’Meara says.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B8oBxT">
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The first step to working through the resentment is recognizing it’s there, Degges-White says, and accepting that it’s interfering with the relationship your parents have with your children. Ask yourself, if a friend told you that they were in a similar situation, what advice would you give them?
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</p>
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<h3 id="TU0l3Q">
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Work with what you got
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d9g9HZ">
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If your parents have addiction issues or are abusive, you may legitimately need to cut them out of your kids’ lives, says Degges-White, but it’s not a decision to take lightly. For some parents who depend on grandparents for caretaking, it’s not an option at all, Butler pointed out.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rUJ2GI">
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“If you’ve got a grandparent who just cannot or will not honor your child’s orientation or your child’s gender, that’s really hard,” O’Meara says, “but maybe this means we do dinner once a week and we just honor this relationship for what it is … We can’t change a person but we can find ways to love them and have relationships with them that doesn’t hurt us or hurt our kids.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RrzTtG">
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When grandparents have views you and your kids don’t agree with, teach your kids about historical context, says Silton. Explain that they grew up during a different era when people viewed things differently. Tell them, “As you get older, you’ll be able to decide how you feel about these conversations.”
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</p>
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<h3 id="v8oodZ">
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Be a model for your parents and kids
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wOIhx2">
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Model forgiveness for your parents, because <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23421467/parenting-good-influence-role-model-kids-mistakes">you too will make mistakes</a>. “Your parents messed you up in ways that are their own unique ways,” says Degges-White. “You’re gonna mess your own kids up in ways that are their own unique ways. We’re all going to make mistakes. And we have to recognize that it’s okay to be human.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ck072p">
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Your kids will notice the way you treat your parents, and it will serve as a blueprint for how they care for you down the line. Don’t bad mouth your parents behind their backs, and let your parents know you love them.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JN4oEh">
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Your parents will also learn caretaking from watching you and seeing the positive results it brings about, especially if they live with you or are frequently at the house. “The more they see our kids being authentically themselves and proud of that, the easier it becomes to not act out of fear,” says O’Meara.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p3fGdZ">
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Many of the rules that you set for your parents you will butcher yourself. “One of the things our parents didn’t learn or that wasn’t modeled for them is apologizing to your kids and simultaneously owning your mistakes with your grandparents,” says O’Meara. If you told your parents that it’s okay for kids to cry, and 10 minutes later you find yourself hushing your daughter throwing a tantrum, own up to it. Apologize to your kid, apologize to your parents, and let them know caretaking is hard.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4hKIfn">
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“Be easy on yourself,” says Degges-White. “Be easy on your parents. We’re all doing the best we can.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0tMS1R">
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<em>Jay Deitcher is a stay-at-home dad, writer, and former social worker living in Albany, New York.</em>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="shIuiO">
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<a href="http://www.vox.com/even-better"><em><strong>Even Better</strong></em></a><em> is here to offer deeply sourced, actionable advice for helping you live a better life. Do you have a question on money and work; friends, family, and community; or personal growth and health? Send us your question by filling out this </em><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiStGSlsWDBmglim7Dh1Y9Hy386rkeKGpfwF6BCjmgnZdqfQ/viewform"><em><strong>form</strong></em></a><em>. We might turn it into a story.</em>
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>What can caged lab monkeys tell us about free human beings?</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A macaque in a laboratory cage, surrounded by other cages with no visible occupants, looks through the bars." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/t95w0xJJ-4-joUHTIcNWFl9-IOU=/0x1526:3375x4057/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72497004/992170816.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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A macaque sits in a cage in a University of Muenster laboratory in Muenster, Germany, on November 24, 2017. | Friso Gentsch/picture alliance via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Where biomedicine gets it wrong about primate research.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Aj4Of">
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<em>A friend says they can always tell when you’re hungover. The way you close the cage latch. With so little to do, their attention can focus on those subtle differences in movement: the way it turns, whether it drops all or part of the way. </em>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LbeJen">
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<em>After easing the latch back open, the monkey climbs down to the concrete floor, past the rolling service station with its cotton swabs, boxes, bottles, and syringes. </em>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cA9crG">
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<em>Out in the hallway, two caretakers see him crouched against the cinderblock wall, hands pressed against the cream-colored paint, shoulders pulled up, head turned sideways and facing down the corridor, eyes toward them. </em>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NL1fFm">
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___
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8qeZqK">
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Over the past couple of years, experimentation on non-human primates has had a run of bad publicity. In 2020, media attention focused on a federal laboratory that studied the neurobiology of anxiety by scaring monkeys with <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/24/nih-research-involved-frightening-monkeys-cages/">toy snakes</a>. In November, the US Justice Department <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/cambodian-officials-and-six-co-conspirators-indicted-taking-part-primate-smuggling-0#:~:text=Primate%20Smuggling%20Scheme-,Cambodian%20Officials%20and%20Six%20Co%2Dconspirators%20Indicted%20for,Part%20in%20Primate%20Smuggling%20Scheme&text=MIAMI%20%E2%80%94%20Members%20of%20an%20international,macaques%20into%20the%20United%20States.">indicted</a> members of an alleged “primate smuggling ring” for trafficking and selling wild <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/fr/species/12551/221666136">long-tailed macaques</a>, an endangered species, to biomedical researchers in the US.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZKWoym">
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Around the same time, attention turned to the Livingstone Lab at Harvard University, where researchers sewed baby macaques’ eyelids shut to <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2018780117">investigate</a> how visual deprivation affects brain<em> </em>development. The controversy landed in <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/harvard-studies-infant-monkeys-draw-fire-split-scientists">Science magazine</a>, where scientists debated the ethics of blinding monkeys. I was asked to weigh in. But my questions were different — less about the blinded macaques, and more about the controls staring at their cage walls.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oK019M">
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For 16 years, I worked as a professor for medical schools in Wisconsin and Oregon. Both universities had primate centers. I knew about their operations, though I never experimented on primates. Instead, my laboratories mostly studied mice. Our goal was to identify the genetic and pollutant risk factors for autism, a disability that features challenges with social emotions. We never successfully identified any risk factors, but we did discover that mice enjoy one another’s company and have empathy for their pain.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WeFGaq">
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After publishing more than 40 scientific papers, I left academia. In part, I left on principle. I believed that if we experimented on animals, we were obligated not to waste them. I also believed that biomedical scientists were obliged to consider the implications of our own discoveries — like how our animals<em> </em>were responding to their cage environments — so we could do better science. Eventually, I lost faith in the process. I also lost the stomach to confine sentient creatures to tiny cages.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gsOkbu">
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Scientists know that the tight confinement of standard laboratory cages distorts the psychology and physiology of our animal subjects. Yet despite a half-century of evidence, we continue to cage them as if their biology is baked into their genetics. From decades of rodent studies, scientists know that an animal’s brain anatomy and physiology are highly vulnerable to even modest changes in their living environments. Mice housed in standard cages, rather than slightly larger ones furnished with blocks and tunnels for mental stimulation, are more <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35022024/">susceptible</a> to drug abuse, genetic modifications, and toxic chemicals. Monkeys, nearly our next of kin, can become so mentally deranged by their cage environments that they no longer resemble healthy humans. They might have more in common with <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/can-an-unloved-child-learn-to-love/612253/">children housed in Romanian orphanages</a> in the 1980s and 1990s, who were so deprived of human contact that they still struggle with lifelong physiological and psychological <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053811901909176">disabilities</a>.
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</p>
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<h3 id="kuspqb">
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Can we use mentally damaged animals to model mental health?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JSzrTB">
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Primate experiments have undeniably aided the discovery of treatments for human disease, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258205427_History_of_polio_vaccination">particularly</a> <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/817293/">vaccines</a> and surgical techniques. More than a century ago, for example, scientists collected extracts from the spinal cord of a boy who died of polio, injected them into monkeys, studied how the infection spread, and then developed a vaccine that nearly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC112492/">eradicated</a> polio. Much more recently, primate experiments were useful for developing a brain-spine interface that can restore the ability of people with paralysis to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06094-5">walk</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HDADkg">
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But these successes have been rare. Part of the problem lies in the question we now ask. Globally, scientists use <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/1/133">approximately 100,000 non-human primates</a> at any given time, often to explore highly nuanced questions, like finding risk factors and treatments for mental health challenges — autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, addiction, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder. And here, we mostly fail. Most drugs showing extreme promise in animal studies fall short in human trials. We <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.3003142">haven’t</a> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01887-y">developed</a> a new category of drugs for treating psychiatric illness in more than 50 years; new psychiatric drugs introduced over the same period have been modified versions of existing drugs.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1KlVHV">
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Scientists also use primates to understand how human-like immune systems respond to infectious diseases — but, like mental health, immunity is also highly sensitive to how the monkeys feel inside their cages.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8GbkrX">
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Housing for monkeys is tight. The standard cage for a rhesus macaque, a common laboratory primate, is about 2.5 feet across, narrow enough for its inhabitant to touch both walls at once. By contrast, their wild relatives can navigate home ranges averaging about 1.5 square miles. Macaques are built to navigate 740 American football fields’ worth of savannah grasslands and forest canopies. Yet inside biomedical labs, they typically get confined to the equivalent of a <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/garet_lahvis_the_inescapable_problem_of_lab_animal_restraint">telephone booth</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Uy4jJj">
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Housing situations vary. Some live “singly housed” — a situation that resembles solitary confinement, often for a few months, sometimes for life. Others get “protected contact” — two monkeys separated by a grate that permits fingertips to touch. Others live as “buddies in a cage” — sharing the space of a shower stall until one buddy gets pulled out, often leaving the remaining one stressed and with a depressed immune system for weeks to months depending on his temperament (and, perhaps, how close he felt to his buddy).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5g1e6i">
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In some respects, singly housed monkeys have it better than human inmates in solitary. For instance, they can more easily hear each other vocalize. Some have handheld mirrors to see their neighbors. Many have opportunities to rattle their squeeze bars, the metal poles fixed to the cage’s back walls, used to pull the monkeys forward for procedures like injections and blood draws. But while the United Nations <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/02/united-states-prolonged-solitary-confinement-amounts-psychological-torture">considers</a> more than 15 days of solitary confinement in humans to be torture, research monkeys often get a lifetime — especially if they lose it and assault their buddy in the cage. And although humans in solitary get time each day outside their cell, primates usually don’t get a break.
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mI6XWq">
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||
Studies <a href="https://unlocktheboxcampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Haney-ThePsychologicalEffectsofSolitaryConfinement-ASystematicCritique2018.pdf">show</a> that human solitary confinement in prisons can cause depression, anxiety, paranoia, violent fantasies, full-blown panic attacks, hallucinations, psychosis, and schizophrenia. Some <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30190-5/fulltext">incarcerated people</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3953781/">also</a> self-mutilate, cutting their wrists and arms, ingesting foreign objects, self-burning, and reopening stitches from prior injuries. <a href="https://www.unodc.org/lpomex/uploads/documents/Publicaciones/Prevencion-del-delito-y-justicia-penal/2014_WHO_UNODC_Prisons_and_Health_eng.pdf">Physical symptoms</a> include <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6342510/">cardiovascular disease</a>, migraine headaches, back pain, profound fatigue, and deterioration of eyesight.
|
||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DzQNqu">
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||
Likewise, lab monkeys express behaviors that suggest psychological trauma. Among 362 singly housed rhesus monkeys, a study found that 89 percent expressed abnormal behavior. Most were what we call <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4240438/">“stereotypies”</a> — repetitive behaviors that serve no purpose, save coping. Some monkeys pace in circles. Others rock or bounce for hours, like idling engines. Some methodically somersault. Others incessantly rattle their squeeze bars. A few spend time in “eye salute,” a euphemism for self-stimulation by sticking fingers into one’s own eye.
|
||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="exHYQw">
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||
___
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||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d7PLsI">
|
||
<em>My friend tells me he’s seen some monkeys cross the line of no return. Unresponsive to the caretakers interacting with them, they can’t stop rocking, twirling, circling, or twitching. They can’t pull away from the back of the cage. Their eyes no longer make contact.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BfpS7h">
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||
___
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||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DPJUak">
|
||
Up to 15 percent of laboratory monkeys <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12526035/">self-mutilate</a>. They might pluck single hairs from their backsides until they turn bright pink, or bang their heads repeatedly against their cage walls, or <a href="https://awionline.org/content/self-biting-caged-macaques-cause-effect-and-treatment">bite themselves</a> deep enough to require sutures. Unlike their wild brethren, caged macaques often <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/aalas/jaalas/2014/00000053/00000006/art00004?crawler=true&mimetype=application/pdf">paint the walls with their feces</a> — a substance they can manipulate.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n6eNrR">
|
||
Nearly one-quarter of caged macaques express <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20568078/">“floating limb”</a> behaviors. Watch one for long enough and you might see his leg writhe or kick. He might grab his leg as it slowly elevates, seemingly out of control. It might hover behind his back. Or his foot might relentlessly smack the back of his head. He might respond by attacking his leg, as if it were foreign.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="fkx7zC">
|
||
Scientists have normalized the idea that their caged primates are healthy
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kp0Vj7">
|
||
I suspect these behaviors are manifestations of an intolerable <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0893133X99001293?casa_token=IGfwh7btvVsAAAAA:ZeYr3lXhEvjkXPROFafsCAEQUIZMlvOJkXwYFq5PNHx0MHp7YTBKgkxrXlsOcUOQPCu_A6nu">allostatic load</a>: a “wear and tear on the body and brain resulting from chronic overactivity or inactivity of physiological systems that are normally involved in adaptation to environmental challenge.”<em> </em>Cramped living spaces deny primates the ability to act on their innate motivations: to seek pleasures, avoid discomforts, and explore complex and changing environments. Oysters don’t need these motivations because they can flourish cemented to a rock. For moving animals, motivations help us make decisions. An innate taste for sugar and salt prompts us to seek the calories and sodium we need to survive. When scientists remove the pleasure center of a rat brain, called the nucleus accumbens, they <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2519054/">no longer eat</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LBGJ5Y">
|
||
Curiosity is also an innate drive. In the wild, animals feel compelled to investigate their environments — where to go, what to eat, with whom to interact — to know their options when their situations change. Scientists leverage an animal’s <a href="https://www.cell.com/neuron/pdf/S0896-6273(15)00767-9.pdf">innate curiosity</a> to study how memory works: Introduce a laboratory mouse to a novel object and a familiar one, and if the rodent remembers the object they encountered before, they’ll spend more time sniffing the unfamiliar one. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24944470">Since the 1950s</a>, scientists have known that monkeys will solve complex puzzles simply for the challenge of solving the task.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ilFAqn">
|
||
I suspect that, deprived of varied and ongoing challenges to overcome, environments to explore, or a natural range of body movements, caged monkeys — studied because they resemble us — go insane with boredom. Still, I’ve heard scientists insist that these animals are happier in cages because they get food, water, and safety from predators. They’ll tell you laboratory primates get “environmental enrichment,” like a rubber ball stuffed with a treat, a toy dangling from a cage door, a mirror to play with, or snacks scattered on the cage floor. I suppose they get exercise, too. For glutes and biceps, they can rock back and forth or rattle their cage doors. For a cardio workout, they can pace in circles or slam themselves against the cage walls.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6LbhrC">
|
||
Here’s the rub. Scientists must believe that lab animals thrive physically and mentally — not for animal welfare reasons, but to justify our experiments. We need healthy controls, not psychologically broken ones, to benchmark our disease models. And we need the animals used as disease models to be otherwise healthy because we lack the scientific capacity to separate the biology of a nuanced disorder, like autism or ADHD, from confounding factors like the mental damage caused by incarceration.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RxMtiG">
|
||
My qualm with the Livingstone Lab’s experiment, the one that entailed sewing baby monkeys’ eyelids shut, is not primarily ethical but scientific. They <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2018780117">claimed</a> that by blinding monkeys, they could gain “insight into evolutionary changes in the functional organization of high-level visual cortex.” But they wrongly presumed that their “healthy” control monkeys, who were denied most visual stimulation save the depleted sensory environment of a steel-gray cage, had normal visual functioning.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AlBlcL">
|
||
By describing what they’re studying as “evolutionary changes,” the researchers lured us into believing the ridiculous — that brain development behind steel bars is not only normal but natural enough to be relevant to evolutionary changes occurring outside the lab. Yet their monkeys experienced no full spectrum of color, no natural movement like the rustling of leaves, and no passing landscape. Like most other primate experimenters, the lab normalized the idea that monkeys naturally live inside telephone booths, not in the vast, dynamic, and aesthetically complex expanses of nature.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C44W5e">
|
||
What bothers me most is that the scientific community expresses so little concern about whether we’re chasing artifacts of confinement. And for the few of us who ask, the answer is loud with silence.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="wgaeUC">
|
||
Can we do better?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tkdYZP">
|
||
Admittedly, scientists are in a fix. Our problem might have begun during the late Middle Ages, about 800 years ago, when Italian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas argued that because animals lacked “rational souls,” they were like machines. Centuries later, René Descartes, a father of modern science, called animals <em>automata</em>, robots driven by reflexes, without thoughts or feelings — like the mechanical men of his era, built to hammer the bells of village clock towers. Armed with this philosophy, scientists tacked dogs to walls and opened them up without anesthesia to learn that the heart, not the liver, pumped blood. Their shrieks and howls were thought of as if they were bells ringing on the hour.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IcoOiY">
|
||
The cruel irony is that the ethical justification for experimenting on animals — that they lack subjective experiences — allowed us to find cogent evidence that they do. Now we’re forced to ignore what we’ve learned from science — so that we can keep doing it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vIuR0E">
|
||
Rather than envision a new paradigm, scientists have devised arguments to keep things the same, claiming, for example, that we need small cages to control for confounding variables in an animal’s environment. But we routinely accept the inescapable variables inside their confines — sound, lighting, food quality, social situations — that are either impossible or too inconvenient to control. In truth, we use small cages because they afford the cheapest and most convenient way to generate scientific publications.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2WyXWB">
|
||
What could scientists do differently? We could pivot to more helpful alternatives. We could deploy spatially and temporally complex spaces to study smaller organisms under conditions where they might thrive like the free human beings they are meant to resemble. Mice and rats could live in small research barns with varied food and shelter options and penned-in outdoor access, where they could author their own experiences and meet ongoing and unpredictable <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/garet_lahvis_the_inescapable_problem_of_lab_animal_restraint?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare">challenges</a>. Zebrafish, snails, and fruit flies could also get environments complex enough to operate as they might in the wild. <a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/27438">Remote technologies</a> could help deliver various drugs and biomolecules to moving animals and help us monitor their responses.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qwdIxX">
|
||
Biomedical research institutions could double down on financially neglected health research programs, like disease prevention. We could expand monitoring of human and wildlife populations for elevated pockets of disease — like cancer, congenital disorders, and mental illness — arising from our exposures to thousands of pesticides and industrial contaminants.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HXWFM0">
|
||
Present-day concerns over <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/8/25/23318667/pfas-forever-chemicals-safety-drinking-water">“forever chemicals” in our food and drinking water</a>, and the enormous <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/poor-communities-await-first-epa-limits-on-forever-chemicals">price tag</a> we now face for cleanup, could have been predicted and more easily remediated decades ago, when epidemiologists and chemists found evidence of their presence in humans and wildlife. The elevated prevalence of congenital disorders, endocrine disruption, immune dysfunction, and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas-Erdman/publication/223771639_Reproductive_Outcomes_in_Colonial_Fish-Eating_Birds_A_Biomarker_for_Developmental_Toxicants_in_Great_Lakes_Food_Chains/links/61412793dabce51cf4520605/Reproductive-Outcomes-in-Colonial-Fish-Eating-Birds-A-Biomarker-for-Developmental-Toxicants-in-Great-Lakes-Food-Chains.pdf">mental illness</a> found in fish-eating wildlife in pollutant hot spots around the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020320201">Great Lakes</a> and along the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23212976/">US coasts</a> could be used to identify regional exposures to chemical mixtures that also threaten human health. <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/pdf/10.1289/ehp.01109s6853">Why not focus on these issues</a>? With advanced epidemiological computer modeling, and gene sequencing tools, along with <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/epdf/10.2105/AJPH.2017.303771">high-efficiency cell culture systems</a> that can test multiple chemicals at a time without the use of animals, we could identify harmful compounds, then remove them. The potential is far greater than whatever we might learn from using rubber snakes to scare mentally enfeebled monkeys.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NhpRZW">
|
||
Many people believe that science differs from blind faith. If that’s true, I wonder how many more rabbit holes we’ll plumb before we see that cage-deteriorated primates don’t resemble free human beings. Perhaps scientists collectively disregard animal subjectivity out of fear of the moral implications of experimenting on other sentient creatures. Or are we blinded by our ambitions for careers and legacies? No matter the cause, we have obligations to the societal trust placed in us. And if we’re 1,000 years overdue for a paradigm shift, let’s hope that today’s young scientists can find the unfettered clarity of sight to make it happen.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="alDqUo">
|
||
___
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wGQnya">
|
||
<em>The fugitive still cowers in the main hall, cheek and chest pressed against the cinderblock, eyes looking upward, seemingly fixed on the audible ballast of the fluorescent lights. Or the fly circling, then resting, beneath it. He might hear the buzz of both, one against the other, a two-tone that cannot calm the anxiety of being outside that room. Having known only metal walls and the fetid mire of idling bodies, he lacks familiarity with concrete surfaces, unfouled air, and the taking of risks. </em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MmIcY9">
|
||
<em>The protocol is straightforward. Face the escapee, chest out, shoulders straight, eyes toward his. Wedge open the colony room door. Use push brooms to coax him back into his cage. </em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pQ3pgc">
|
||
<em>The convict returns. They close his cage door. He pivots, then grabs the bars of the door as if he’s now the master, then shakes them violently like he’s trying to get out. He’ll be studied over and over again because he somehow represents us. Maybe he does.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yQAXoD">
|
||
<em>___ </em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jqqSbF">
|
||
<a href="https://www.garetlahvis.net/"><em>Garet Lahvis</em></a><em> was an associate professor and the graduate program director of behavioral neuroscience at Oregon Health and Science University. He is currently writing a book for the University of Chicago Press on his experiences with the limits of science, and of the scientific community, in addressing some of our most pressing biomedical issues. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at </em><a href="https://twitter.com/GLahvis"><em><span class="citation" data-cites="GLahvis">@GLahvis</span></em></a><em>.</em>
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Niger’s coup and the international community’s opposition, explained</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="TOPSHOT-NIGER-POLITICS-COUP-CONFLICT-ARMY" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/df5VKGeL604JkQPxJmOG86kc83U=/725x0:3700x2231/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72496187/1559603798.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
ORTN - Télé Sahel/AFP via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
President Mohamed Bazoum has refused to resign despite Wednesday’s military takeover.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qvz5vI">
|
||
Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, the head of Niger’s presidential guard, with other members of Niger’s armed forces,<strong> </strong>on Friday declared himself head of a transitional government he called “<a href="https://www.voaafrica.com/a/state-tv-niger-general-named-new-transitional-president-/7201838.html">the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland</a>,” while international leaders and organizations including the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) strongly condemned the coup.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dnUOsh">
|
||
President Mohamed Bazoum was democratically elected in 2021 in Niger’s first peaceful transfer of power, and “remains the only legitimate President of Niger,” as European Union High Representative Josep Borrell <a href="https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/niger-statement-high-representative-josep-borrell-latest-developments_en">said in a statement Saturday</a> calling on the coup leaders to release Bazoum. Members of the military involved in the coup meanwhile warned in a television address Friday that ”consequences that will flow” should any foreign forces intervene. The <a href="https://www.africom.mil/topic/nigerien-air-base-201">US built and helps run an air base in Niger</a>, and France has about 1,500 troops in the country, according to <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230728-niger-s-general-abdourahamane-tchiani-declared-new-leader-following-coup-state-tv">France24</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vsQLEY">
|
||
ECOWAS authorities will hold negotiations on Sunday to attempt to convince Tchiani to hand power back to Bazoum; the economic body is reportedly considering sanctions against Niger as a form of leverage, though it’s not yet clear what those measures would look like. The EU has already withdrawn funding and military support “with immediate effect” due to the “unacceptable attack on the integrity of Niger’s republican institutions.” The EU had reserved $554 million of its budget for 2021-2024 to support education, governance, sustainable economic growth, as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/29/blinken-offers-nigers-ousted-leader-bazoum-unflagging-support">Al Jazeera </a>reported.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EEWI1c">
|
||
It’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/27/timeline-a-history-of-coups-in-niger">the fifth successful military coup in Niger</a> since its independence from France in 1960. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/5/22919160/coup-guinea-bissau-africa-burkina-faso-sudan-why">A series of coups</a> has toppled the governments of several African countries over the past three years, but Niger is a bit of an outlier among its neighbors, particularly due to the vociferous support Bazoum’s government has enjoyed. Though Niger, like many other western African nations, had suffered from poor economic growth and stunted democratic and public institutions, Bazoum’s tenure produced improvements in education and public health, as well as the security and economic outlooks compared with neighbors like Mali and Burkina Faso.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tCIJ3Z">
|
||
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is referring to Tchiani’s takeover as an “attempted coup” because “we don’t consider things final, there is still a way out if those responsible listen to the international community,” she said <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/french-fm-says-niger-coup-not-final-solution-possible-bc8e94ca">Thursday.</a> On Saturday, she <a href="https://twitter.com/MinColonna/status/1685322869058764801">announced via Twitter</a> that France had immediately suspended “all its development aid and budget support actions from Niger” and called for Bazoum’s immediate release and reinstatement.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="3r960n">
|
||
Wednesday’s coup was tenuous — and the outcome remains uncertain
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DSSvNX">
|
||
Tchiani’s claim to power rests on the idea that Bazoum’s government had failed to deal with the violent Islamist extremism that has festered in the region over the past decade. That claim has driven coups elsewhere in the region, such as Mali. Military leaders can present themselves as a strong security alternative in unstable and violent nations, but in the case of Niger, the security situation was actually improving, especially in relation to its neighbors in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Sahel">the Sahel region</a> — the band of north-central Africa stretching from northern Senegal to Sudan.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8dx3tM">
|
||
According to <a href="https://africacenter.org/spotlight/fatalities-from-militant-islamist-violence-in-africa-surge-by-nearly-50-percent/#:~:text=While%2090%20percent%20of%20all%20violent%20events%20in%20the%20Sahel%20occurred%20in%20Burkina%20Faso%20and%20Mali%2C%20the%20past%20year%20was%20also%20notable%20for%20the%20significant%20increase%20in%20violent%20episodes%20in%20the%20littoral%20states.%20The%20number%20of%20events%20in%20Benin%20jumped%20from%205%20to%2037%20and%20in%20Togo%20from%201%20to%2017.">a February report from the Africa Center for Strategic Analysis</a>, the vast majority — 90 percent — of last year’s violent events related to Islamist extremism in the Sahel occurred in Mali and Burkina Faso. And while while the number of <a href="https://africacenter.org/spotlight/fatalities-from-militant-islamist-violence-in-africa-surge-by-nearly-50-percent/#:~:text=Niger%2C%20similarly%2C%20saw%20a%2043,more%20than%202.6%20million%20people.">violent events in Niger doubled</a> to 214, the number of deaths due to extremism declined by half.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sW3Vby">
|
||
Approximately 40 percent of all violent activity by Islamist groups in Africa occurs in the Sahel — more than any other African region. The terror — summary executions, kidnappings, rapes, and lootings — that groups like the <a href="https://africacenter.org/publication/puzzle-jnim-militant-islamist-groups-sahel/">Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin</a> (JNIM) coalition, Ansaroul Islam, Ansar Dine, and the <a href="https://africacenter.org/spotlight/islamic-state-in-the-greater-sahara-expanding-its-threat-and-reach-in-the-sahel/">Islamic State in the Greater Sahara</a> (ISGS) is real, and it is devastating. But if the situations in <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/7/2/23781794/wagner-group-africa-russia-uae-putin">Mali </a>and Burkina Faso are any example, military rule only exacerbates the violence.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E35l5f">
|
||
Tchiani told Nigeriens on a televised address Friday that he had taken over to stop “the gradual and inevitable demise” of the country because “the security approach today has not brought security to the country despite heavy sacrifices.” <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/28/niger-general-tchiani-named-head-of-transitional-government-after-coup">As Al Jazeera reported,</a> Tchiani told Nigeriens that Bazoum had duped them into thinking the situation was improving, while “the harsh reality [is] a pile of dead, displaced, humiliation and frustration.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6WN5So">
|
||
Bazoum had reportedly tried to force Tchiani into retirement, as Daniel Eizenga, a research fellow at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, points out. “The coup justifications have no foundation to stand on in Niger,” Eizenga said, adding that the power grab seems to be due to “the egotistical motivations of this individual.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="32MCJU">
|
||
Indeed, Tchiani did not initially have the full support of the armed forces, though he has since commandeered the endorsement of some of Niger’s military leaders. Civilian protests immediately after Tchiani’s takeover insisted that Bazoum be returned to office; however, as Eizenga told Vox, those protests were violently suppressed by the presidential guard, Tchiani’s unit — creating a “chilling effect” against further civilian protest.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="TQGWUa">
|
||
A tradition of military rule is proving hard to shake
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9wbrGf">
|
||
While coups around the world and in the Sahel region have both broad and specific commonalities, it’s critical to understand the differences between these events, Joseph Sany, the vice president of the US Institute of Peace’s Africa Center <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/5/22919160/coup-guinea-bissau-africa-burkina-faso-sudan-why">told Vox in an interview last year</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vgdLoe">
|
||
“I hate the term ‘contagion’ because it’s a blanket term,” Sany said at the time. “You can’t put Guinea in the same group as Mali and Burkina Faso.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GiwOmg">
|
||
Successful coups often have some common elements like weak democratic institutions, tension between the military and the civilian government, rampant and unpunished corruption, a history of coups, and governments unable or unwilling to provide necessary services.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u0uYVX">
|
||
Niger has a history of a politicized military, as do other nations which have undergone undemocratic changes in government over the past three years. “The recent changes in government, through the coup and counter-coups, is more or less a reflection of the past,” Bonnie Ayodele, a professor of political science at Ekiti State University in Ado Ekiti, Nigeria, told Vox in an interview.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DJpZsM">
|
||
“When you try to change that, there are going to be actors within the military that perceive that as their interests being negatively affected,” Eizenga said. The presidential guard, which Tchaini had headed since 2011, also have a degree of influence and autonomy from the regular military, which can create a sense of exceptionalism.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K0TkzN">
|
||
Though Russia’s Wagner Group has been linked to military regimes in Mali, the Central African Republic, and potentially to Sudan, there’s no evidence that the proxy force headed by Yevgeniy Prigozhin was part of Wednesday’s coup. Prigozhin did, however, issue a statement that appealed to the anti-colonialist sentiment Wagner has stoked in neighboring Mali. “What happened in Niger is nothing other than the struggle of the people of Niger with their colonizers,” Prigozhin posted on Telegram Thursday, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/exiled-russian-mercenary-boss-prigozhin-hails-niger-coup-touts-services-2023-07-28/#:~:text=%22What%20happened%20in%20Niger%20is,message%2C%20posted%20on%20Thursday%20evening.">according to Reuters</a>. “With colonizers who are trying to foist their rules of life on them and their conditions and keep them in the state that Africa was in hundreds of years ago.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SdaKTf">
|
||
As Ayodele told Vox, threats from France and the EU are unlikely to sway Tchiani and his fellow coup-plotters. “It has never deterred them — sanctions, banning them, slamming them with a lot of punishments, it doesn’t work. They did that against the Junta in Mali, they did that against the junta in Burkina Faso […] so I’m not sure this will work.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EKYV58">
|
||
The emergency ECOWAS summit needs to take forceful action to follow Nigerian president and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/10/nigerias-president-tinubu-chosen-as-new-west-africa-bloc-chief">ECOWAS Chairman Bola Tinubu’</a>s condemnation of the coup attempt, Ayodele said. Tinubu dispatched Benin’s President <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/soldiers-nigers-presidential-guard-blockade-presidents-office-security-sources-2023-07-26/">Patrice Talon</a> to Niger to assess the situation on the ground and said in a statement that, “I believe that all means will be used if necessary to restore constitutional order in Niger, but the ideal would be for everything to happen in peace and harmony.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Mh8Nvq">
|
||
As for what ECOWAS can actually do, “nothing is off the table,” Abdel Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs and Security told <a href="https://www.voaafrica.com/a/un-ecowas-seeks-release-of-niger-president/7201196.html">Daybreak Africa</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LNQ9d3">
|
||
“<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/28/ecowas-suspends-burkina-faso-after-coup#:~:text=The%20West%20African%20regional%20bloc,takeover%20in%20only%2018%20months.">There is a protocol</a> that many West African countries have signed to with regards to unconstitutional changes in government, that that particular country is no longer part of ECOWAS bloc,” Ayodele told Vox. “But we’ve seen some of these countries relapse into a military regime again, and ECOWAS is incapacitated to respond in a way that can bring about a democratic regime.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dsHDXk">
|
||
Ultimately a united international front and stronger action from ECOWAS, particularly Nigerian President Ahmed Bola Tinubu could prove decisive for Niger. President Bazoum has refused to resign and has broad and forceful support not only from Western nations but within ECOWAS and the African Union.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="48VfRA">
|
||
And it’s those blocs and African nations, particularly Nigeria, , that have a strong interest in returning civilian rule to Niger. Even deeply flawed civilian regimes are better than military rule, and garner more international support while also being more stable and less violent. If Niger’s can be overturned or reversed, it would send a strong signal of support for civilian government in Africa, and would help<strong> </strong>to reverse recent democratic backsliding.
|
||
</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>Rally of Coimbatore: Three wins in a row for Arjun Rao & Satish Rajagopal</strong> - There were four stages for the day in the FMSCI Blueband Sports Indian National Rally Championship for four-wheelers and Arjun came out the quickest in three of them</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>Stuart Broad: England’s master match-winner</strong> - Longstanding England new-ball colleague James Anderson (690) is the only paceman higher than him on the all-time list.</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>Compound mixed team of Pragati and Aman snares the gold medal</strong> - WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES | Indian archers collect a silver and two bronze medals to bag four medals in team events</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>Manchester United agree to sign Denmark’s Hojlund from Atalanta: reports</strong> - Hojlund joined Atalanta at the start of the 2022-23 Serie A season and scored nine league goals in a breakout campaign</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>Stuart Broad is a special cricketer, his partnership with Anderson will be remembered, says Rahul Dravid</strong> - The 37-year-old Broad announced that he will retire from international cricket after the conclusion of the ongoing final Ashes Test against Australia</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>Fadnavis condemns Hindutva leader’s remarks against Mahatma Gandhi</strong> - Maharashtra Home Minister says government will take all necessary action</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>Bill proposes graded age ratings for films, but censorship to stay</strong> - The CBFC will now have five ratings to classify films on the basis of age, but it will retain its censorship powers even for ‘A’ rated films; MPs note that censorship is diluted in an era of streaming</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>‘560 tonnes of tomatoes sold at subsidised rate in Delhi, U.P., Rajasthan in last 15 says’</strong> - NCCF is selling tomatoes through mobile vans, select retail outlets of Kendriya Bhandar and the government-backed ONDC in Delhi and NCR</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>13.13 lakh girls, women went missing between 2019 and 2021: Govt data</strong> - The data was compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).</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>Police book case against businessman for punishing his daughter brutally</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Putin says Russia does not reject peace talks</strong> - The Russian leader also sought to justify the arrest of critical voices, claiming they were harming the country from inside.</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>Moscow drone attack briefly shuts Vnukovo airport</strong> - Russian officials say one person has been injured after two drones crashed into offices</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>Europe fires: The Canadair water bombers battling Mediterranean blazes</strong> - The distinctive yellow planes and their pilots play a crucial role in rugged Mediterranean regions.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia storm: High winds kill 10 in central Volga region</strong> - Eight of the victims died when trees fell on their campsite near a lake in Mari El region.</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>Wagner could pose as migrants to enter EU, PM Morawiecki warns</strong> - Some Russian mercenaries are near the city of Grodno, close to Poland and Lithuania, Mr Morawiecki 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>Instead of obtaining a warrant, the NSA would like to keep buying your data</strong> - The agency opposes an amendment that prevents it from using data brokers. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957520">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The 2023 Porsche Cayman GT4 RS is the best sports car on sale today</strong> - Transplanting the 911 GT3’s flat-six engine created a remarkable car. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957399">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Communal stargazing using your phone: The Unistellar eQuinox 2, reviewed</strong> - Stargaze with up to 10 of your friends no matter how bad the light pollution is. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957544">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launches world’s most massive communications satellite [Updated]</strong> - SpaceX has again launched a competitor’s satellite, this time a 10-ton behemoth. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1956756">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>European satellite plunges back to Earth in first-of-its-kind assisted re-entry</strong> - “This is quite unique, what we are doing here.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957604">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>I’m the toughest.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Three mice are drinking at a bar talking about which one is the toughest. The first mouse takes a shot and says “I’m so tough the people living in my house put rat poison out, and I simply grab it, break it up, and put it in my morning coffee!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The second mouse takes a shot and says “That’s nothing. They try to get me with a mouse trap. I just grab the cheese and when the lever comes flying down I lay on my back catch it and bench press it 20 times.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The third one takes his shot, slams it down, and stands up. “I don’t have time for this. I’ve got to go home and fuck the cat.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AuditorOfTheNight"> /u/AuditorOfTheNight </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15d5od7/im_the_toughest/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15d5od7/im_the_toughest/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>While watching TV with his wife, a man tosses peanuts into the air and catches them in his mouth. Just as he throws another peanut into the air, the front door opens, causing him to turn his head. The peanut falls into his ear and gets stuck.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
His daughter comes in with her date. The man explains the situation, and the daughter’s date says, “I can get the peanut out.” He tells the father to sit down, shoves two fingers into the father’s nose, and tells him to blow hard. The father blows, and the peanut flies out of his ear. After the daughter takes her date to the kitchen for something to eat, the mother turns to the father and says, “Isn’t he smart? I wonder what he plans to be.” The father says, “From the smell of his fingers, I’d say our son-in-law.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15czzv2/while_watching_tv_with_his_wife_a_man_tosses/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15czzv2/while_watching_tv_with_his_wife_a_man_tosses/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Daddy to the rescue</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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At a religious school, a teacher asks her pre-school class which part of their body they think goes to Heaven first.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“I think it’s your hands!” a boy answers.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Why is that?” the teacher asks.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Because when you pray, you put your hands in front of you,” the boy explains.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Very good answer!” the teacher compliments. “Does anyone else have another answer?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“I think it’s your legs!” a girl replies.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Why is that?” the teacher asks.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Because,” the girl explains, “last night, when I walked into Mommy and Daddy’s room, Mommy had her legs high up in the air and was screaming, ‘Oh God, I’m coming! I’m coming!’ If Daddy wasn’t lying on top of her holding her down, God might’ve taken her.”
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ZhangtheGreat"> /u/ZhangtheGreat </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15dhcc9/daddy_to_the_rescue/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15dhcc9/daddy_to_the_rescue/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>3 priests are out fishing on a boat..</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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One of them says “We should confess our sins to one another.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The first one says "I have a gambling problem, I sneak out at night and gamble away all my money..
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The second one says “I have an addiction to porn and can’t stop looking at it.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The third one says “I am a gossip and can’t wait to get off this boat.”
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BlueMANAHat"> /u/BlueMANAHat </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15d0nus/3_priests_are_out_fishing_on_a_boat/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15d0nus/3_priests_are_out_fishing_on_a_boat/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man met this lady at a bar and they decided to go to her place to have sex after the bar closed…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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They’re in the bedroom and he takes off his shoes and socks.“My goodness what happened to you’re feet?”She asks.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“I had tolio,” He replied. “Dont you mean polio?” She asks.“No. This just affected my feet. It’s called toelio.”She thought nothing of it and continued to undress. He takes off his pants and immediately she screams,“What happened to your knees?”I had kneesles.“he said.”Don’t you mean measles,“she asked.”No.This type only effects the knees.Its called kneesles. When he took off his shorts she said,“Let me guess, Smallcox.”
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/shdchko"> /u/shdchko </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15cq705/a_man_met_this_lady_at_a_bar_and_they_decided_to/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15cq705/a_man_met_this_lady_at_a_bar_and_they_decided_to/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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||
</ul>
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