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<title>22 March, 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 G.O.P. and the Ghosts of Iraq</strong> - Ukraine shows that Republicans have moved a long way from the Party of George W. Bush. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-gop-and-the-ghosts-of-iraq">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hip-Hop at Fifty: An Elegy</strong> - A generation is still dying younger than it should—this time, of “natural causes.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/hip-hop-at-fifty-an-elegy">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Allure of Exotic Animals in Strange Places</strong> - Thefts from the Dallas Zoo made headlines. But Texas is a hotbed for ownership of all kinds of rare species. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-allure-of-exotic-animals-in-strange-places">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Ukrainian Philosopher’s Reluctant Departure from Kharkiv</strong> - Irina Zherebkina, who spent the first year of the war under bombardment in Kharkiv, still believes that peace must be imagined into being. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/a-ukrainian-philosophers-reluctant-departure-from-kharkiv">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Racial Politics of the N.B.A. Have Always Been Ugly</strong> - A new book argues that the real history of the league is one of strife between Black labor and white ownership. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-racial-politics-of-the-nba-have-always-been-ugly">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>The Supreme Court ponders a surprisingly difficult case about poop jokes</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="Macarons shaped like the poop emoji with smiley faces on them. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CT6zHKah-Qt5nrMSl1O5IXb-KdY=/288x0:4896x3456/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72101524/907114442.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Chocolate banana poo emoji macaroons. | Steve Russell/Toronto Star 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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A case about a silly, poop-themed dog toy is also a case about free speech and judicial humility.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cZ3UAm">
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The Supreme Court will take a break on Wednesday from the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/9/26/23343192/supreme-court-voting-rights-abortion-affirmative-action-race-medicaid-clean-water">unusually political mix of cases</a> it decided to hear during its current term, to consider a case about poop jokes.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RjZZ8w">
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<a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/jack-daniels-properties-inc-v-vip-products-llc-2/"><em>Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products</em></a> asks whether VIP Products, the nation’s second-largest maker of dog toys, infringed upon the whiskey maker’s trademarked bottle shape and label when it sold dog toys that resemble a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. The dog toy, named “Bad Spaniels,” juxtaposes imagery drawn from the whiskey maker’s trademarks with a gag about a dog dropping “the old No. 2 on your Tennessee carpet.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r3WcNZ">
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Jack Daniel’s seeks a court order prohibiting VIP from continuing to sell this toy.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="A side-by-side photo of a Jack Daniels whiskey bottle and a dog toy in the shape of the bottle, featuring similar design elements." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bTWfi42-79kgpLCKSiCoQ2qCuzs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24525939/temp.png"/> <cite>Petitioner’s brief in <em>Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products</em></cite>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q4Qn4r">
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<em>Jack Daniel’s </em>is, on the surface, a very silly case, which prompted some very silly attempts by the whiskey maker’s lawyers to explain why their client is so offended by this dog toy. Sample quote <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-148/252030/20230111151701242_Jack%20Daniels%20petitioners%20brief_1.11.23.pdf">from their brief</a>: “Jack Daniel’s loves dogs and appreciates a good joke as much as anyone. But Jack Daniel’s likes its customers even more, and doesn’t want them confused or associating its fine whiskey with dog poop.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MHxdac">
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Lurking below the surface, however, are very serious questions about the First Amendment. And about how far courts should go in second-guessing Congress’s decisions about how to balance the needs of the marketplace with the demands of free speech. VIP has strong legal arguments that it should prevail in this case, but Jack Daniel’s also raises strong claims that the lower courts did too much to undermine federal trademark law.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r9F9ka">
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Trademark law — that is, the body of law giving companies an exclusive right to use the imagery associated with their brand to market their products — necessarily limits free speech. Only McDonald’s, for example, may use its trademarked golden arches to sell hamburgers, and only Nike may use its trademarked swoosh simply to sell shoes — which creates a risk that companies may sometimes go overboard in filing lawsuits seeking to protect their trademarks.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0qUt5v">
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And yet, we give companies like McDonald’s or Nike a monopoly over such commercial uses of their trademarks because the marketplace would function less reliably if consumers cannot readily identify which products are genuine Big Macs or Air Jordans, and which ones are knockoffs.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NYvFWe">
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Additionally, the Court explained in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/469/189"><em>Park ’N Fly v. Dollar Park and Fly</em></a><em> </em>(1985) that “trademarks foster competition and the maintenance of quality by securing to the producer the benefits of good reputation.” Because Pepsi, and only Pepsi, can use <a href="https://www.pepsi.com/#!products/pepsi">its distinctive labeling</a> to market its products, Pepsi has a clear incentive to ensure that any beverage that uses that labeling will be high quality — because, if the quality suffers, consumers will know not to buy anything that uses Pepsi’s trademarked red, white, and blue label.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qf21Qe">
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The specific legal questions that arise out of the <em>Jack Daniel’s</em> case are difficult, in part because federal trademark law sometimes permits companies to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1125">sell products that parody a famous trademark</a>. But the federal appeals court that heard this case largely bypassed the hard questions that arise under federal statutes, and instead held that <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-148/233482/20220815135352778_Petn%20Appx_Jack%20Daniels%20Petition%20for%20Writ%20of%20Certiorari_8.5.22_as%20refiled%208.15.22.pdf">the First Amendment places strict limits</a> on a company’s ability to protect its own trademarks.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oLj9Mf">
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Federal trademark law, however, already strikes a careful balance between the demands of the First Amendment and the benefits all of society gains from allowing companies to clearly and consistently brand their products. And it is far from clear why the appeals court should be allowed to upset that balance.
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</p>
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<h3 id="2Sz4sU">
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The Lanham Act, briefly explained
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0f7DpH">
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Jack Daniel’s argues that the Bad Spaniels dog toy <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-148/252030/20230111151701242_Jack%20Daniels%20petitioners%20brief_1.11.23.pdf">violates the Lanham Act</a>, the primary federal law governing trademarks, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-148/252030/20230111151701242_Jack%20Daniels%20petitioners%20brief_1.11.23.pdf">in two ways</a>. The dog toy allegedly “infringed” Jack Daniel’s trademarks by using imagery that consumers would associate with the whiskey maker and not with pet products. And it allegedly “diluted” Jack Daniel’s trademarks by “associating them with dog poop” and other imagery that the whiskey maker does not want consumers to think about when they see a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r0nNEl">
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A trademark owner will prevail in an infringement claim if they can show that some other party used their trademarked imagery in a way that “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1125">is likely to cause confusion</a>” about whether a particular product is being sold by the trademark owner. Imagine, for example, a soda manufacturer that sells “Popsi” cola, and that markets it in red, white, and blue cans similar to Pepsi’s branding. Pepsi would almost certainly prevail in a trademark infringement suit against the makers of Popsi because consumers could very easily mistake this newcomer cola for the more venerable brand.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qehyEe">
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Similarly, the classic Eddie Murphy comedy <em>Coming to America</em> features a straightforward case of trademark infringement.
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</p>
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<div id="4HyXuj">
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<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
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</div>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yy4DDJ">
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Dilution suits, by contrast, allow the owners of a “famous” trademark to prevent its imagery from being used in ways that might cause “tarnishment” of their brand. This is the core of Jack Daniel’s complaint that it does not want consumers “associating its fine whiskey with dog poop.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gLjy2J">
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These twin protections against infringement and dilution exist to protect the benefits trademarks provide to all consumers. If a trademark can be too easily infringed, then consumers may have no way of knowing which products are actually made by Jack Daniel’s (or any other company), and which ones are potentially inferior knockoffs. And, if trademarks can be too easily diluted, then companies may lose their incentive to ensure that their branding is only associated with high-quality products.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nTQSGv">
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After all, why go to the trouble and expense of making a tasty and consistent product if consumers are just going to associate your product with dog poop?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="88iOtn">
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Yet, while the Lanham Act provides robust protections for trademark owners, it also recognizes that there will be some instances where the First Amendment should trump a company’s desire to control its branding and keep it free of negative associations. A leftist political organization, for example, may want to incorporate several famous corporate logos into a pamphlet criticizing capitalism. Or a journalist may want to use an image of McDonald’s golden arches in a hypothetical newspaper article that reveals embarrassing information about McDonald’s labor practices.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yJQGpB">
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This kind of political speech is at the heart of the First Amendment, and has historically been given the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5288934990281514823&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr">highest level of constitutional protection</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q9UDPG">
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Accordingly, the Lanham Act contains several provisions ensuring that companies <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1125">cannot wield their trademarks as weapons to cut down essential speech</a>. The law, for example, explicitly forbids companies from bringing dilution suits against “all forms of news reporting and news commentary” and against “any noncommercial” use of a trademark — thus protecting journalists and anti-corporate activists. In some cases, the Lanham Act also protects speech “parodying” a company or its products from dilution suits.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eAmeMs">
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Similarly, courts have long understood that parodies of famous trademarks enjoy some protection against infringement suits because most consumers are smart enough to tell the difference between an authentic product and a joke seeking to mock or ridicule that product. As one consumer said in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9859603025216136987&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr"><em>Louis Vuitton Malletier SA v. Haute Diggity Dog</em></a><em> </em>(2006), a lower court case that is strikingly similar to <em>Jack Daniel’s</em> and which involved dog toys made to look like handbags, “if I really thought that a $10 dog toy made out of fluff and stuff was an actual Louis Vuitton product, [then] I would be stupid.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NzyHZK">
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The makers of Bad Spaniels, in other words, have strong legal arguments that they did not violate the Lanham Act. The dog toy is clearly a parody. And is anyone really going to confuse a poop-themed dog toy with an actual bottle of whiskey?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G5usXP">
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That said, Jack Daniel’s does have a stronger trademark dilution claim than Louis Vuitton did in its case, which involved dog toys marked with the words “Chewy Vuiton” and which didn’t associate Louis Vuitton’s brand with feces.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UckvWV">
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Unfortunately, however, the lower court that decided the <em>Jack Daniel’s</em> case bypassed these legal arguments, instead ruling that the First Amendment provides such extraordinary protections to companies like VIP Products that trademark law could cease to function effectively.
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</p>
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<h3 id="QJbF0L">
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The lower court made it “nearly impossible” for trademark owners to enforce their trademarks
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UApgZA">
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The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which heard the <em>Jack Daniel’s</em> case before it reached the Supreme Court, applied an unusually expansive reading of the First Amendment. Under the Ninth Circuit’s decision, when a work that infringes upon a trademark engages in “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-148/233482/20220815135352778_Petn%20Appx_Jack%20Daniels%20Petition%20for%20Writ%20of%20Certiorari_8.5.22_as%20refiled%208.15.22.pdf">artistic expression</a>,” then a trademark owner’s attempt to enforce the Lanham Act will nearly always fail.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Va5yHg">
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As one federal judge explained, this approach is so protective of the free speech rights of trademark infringers that “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-148/233482/20220815135352778_Petn%20Appx_Jack%20Daniels%20Petition%20for%20Writ%20of%20Certiorari_8.5.22_as%20refiled%208.15.22.pdf">it appears nearly impossible for any trademark holder to prevail</a>.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CS5Fnv">
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One reason why is, as Jack Daniel’s argues in its brief, “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-148/252030/20230111151701242_Jack%20Daniels%20petitioners%20brief_1.11.23.pdf">all trademark uses are expressive, by owners and infringers alike</a>.” The whole point of a trademark is to associate a particular product with the company’s efforts to market that product, and with whatever reputation that product has earned in the marketplace. Similarly, the whole point of infringing a trademark is to try to falsely convey to consumers that the infringing product is just like the properly trademarked product.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fuhcyy">
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In any event, Congress struck a perfectly sensible balance between the advantages society as a whole gains from protecting trademarks and the demands of free speech when it wrote the Lanham Act. As explained above, the law protects the very sort of political and other noncommercial speech that enjoys special protection under the First Amendment.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dPUDSh">
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There’s also one other reason to prefer the balance struck in the Lanham Act to the one struck by the Ninth Circuit. The Lanham Act was enacted by the people’s representatives in Congress assembled. The Ninth Circuit’s decision, by contrast, is the product of a few lawyers in black robes.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0KsCsC">
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Again, under the legal rules laid out in the Lanham Act, VIP Products has strong arguments that it sells innocent, obvious parodies that do not violate federal trademark law. They can potentially win this case without having to upend decades of law establishing that free speech and trademarks can coexist. The Ninth Circuit’s rule, by contrast, could eviscerate the very real benefits that society derives from trademark law.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rEWCCV">
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As the <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/100/82/">Supreme Court said nearly 150 years ago</a>, “the right to adopt and use a symbol or a device to distinguish the goods or property made or sold by the person whose mark it is, to the exclusion of use by all other persons, has been long recognized by the common law and the chancery courts of England and of this country.” The United States has a long history of protecting both trademark rights and free speech. It’s unlikely that a bunch of unelected judges will come up with a better way of protecting both of these important interests than the Lanham Act.
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>Why the news is so negative — and what we can do about it</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zAWhW65io32IRIL6Q94lP2OEkug=/900x0:6300x4050/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72068463/Vox_Doomerism_Media_Final_2.0.jpg"/>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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We can break the cycle of negativity bias in the media and get a more balanced view of the world.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6XDH9a">
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oi5MpN">
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In <em>Broadcast News</em>, the movie that made me want to be a journalist, the protagonist Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) has a routine every morning. At an appointed time, she sits and weeps profusely for a minute. When the minute’s done, she wipes her face and goes about her day without showing outward signs of sadness.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IOeaNs">
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Journalists have always been a <a href="https://journalistsresource.org/environment/job-stress-journalists-health-research/">fairly morose bunch</a>, and the news they produce reflects that. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1464884911427800">Communications scholars</a> have found that across many years and countries, coverage of political topics tends to more often be conveyed in a negative or cynical tone rather than a positive one; <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1464884911427800">one study</a> in the mid-2000s found that about half of US, German, Italian, and Austrian campaign coverage conveyed bad news, while as little as 6 percent conveyed good news. By some measures, the situation is deteriorating; a<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276367"> recent study</a> found that the “proportion of headlines denoting anger, fear, disgust and sadness” grew markedly in the US between 2000 and 2019.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rBCI6k">
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Some news consumers have surrendered to the phenomenon and find themselves hooked on <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21547961/doomscrolling-meaning-definition-what-is-meme">“doomscrolling,”</a> in journalist Karen Ho’s memorable term, proceeding between articles asking if the war in Ukraine could be <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/what-if-were-already-fighting-the-third-world-war-with-russia">World War III</a>, or whether another <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/fc36363f-3991-45e1-8c23-a52db31bf045">world-destabilizing pandemic</a> could be on the way, or if we’ve already passed key <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/08/world-on-brink-five-climate-tipping-points-study-finds">climate tipping points</a>. At least some news consumers aren’t too happy about the situation. An<a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022/dnr-executive-summary"> international survey from Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism</a> last year found that in almost every country surveyed, trust in media is falling, and more people are saying they’re avoiding news. Why? Because, respondents say, it “has a negative effect on their mood.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LrT4HV">
|
||
So … why are we like this? Are we journalists just a miserable lot who insist on spreading our neuroses to the rest of the world? Are readers, despite their protestations to the contrary, likelier to click on news that’s negative or dire?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vzHdcM">
|
||
It’s, of course, both, and the supply- and demand-side reasons might come from the same source. Humans, it turns out, have what social psychologists call a “negativity bias”: We tend to pay more attention to bad-seeming information than good-seeming information. That could be a root factor for why the news is so goddamned depressing. That’s what we’re looking for.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="YccVDO">
|
||
Negativity bias, explained
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VQGtdB">
|
||
One of social psychologists’ greatest passions is scouring human behavior for its many failures of rationality and perception, the systematic biases that push us off track. “Negativity bias,” the tendency for negative information and experiences to overwhelm the positive, kept coming up. As early as 1967, psychologist <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1967-11833-001">Marjorie Richey and co-authors</a> concluded that university students, given paragraphs describing a stranger’s personality, were influenced more by negative descriptions than positive ones. In 1982, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0022103182900786">Teresa Amabile and Ann Glazebrook</a> proposed that there might be a general “bias toward negativity in evaluations of persons or their work,” noting that already by that point, a number of other studies had found the same.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iF3pQT">
|
||
A 2001 review paper put it bluntly:<a href="https://assets.csom.umn.edu/assets/71516.pdf"> “bad is stronger than good.”</a> And all this research was conducted before the dawn of the doomscrolling Instagram era. It points to something deep in human cognition, rather than the effects of social media.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bqMRrD">
|
||
Now, in the year of our Lord 2023, your first reaction to someone telling you “social psychologists say X” should be “<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23489211/replication-crisis-project-meta-science-psychology">why in the world</a> would I believe <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/3/14/11219446/psychology-replication-crisis">social psychologists</a>, given <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/8/27/17761466/psychology-replication-crisis-nature-social-science">that so many of</a> their <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21504366/science-replication-crisis-peer-review-statistics">fanciest results</a> keep <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22360363/replication-crisis-psychological-science-accelerator">getting overturned</a>?” It’s true: This field was ground zero for the “replication crisis,” and many social psych concepts that were once widely touted (like <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story/2016/03/ego_depletion_an_influential_theory_in_psychology_may_have_just_been_debunked.html">“ego depletion,”</a> devised by the <a href="https://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/345%20Articles/Baumeister%20et%20al.%20%281998%29.pdf">main authors</a> of the “bad is stronger than good” paper) have crumbled when subjected to repeated tests.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XVvZxV">
|
||
Researchers I spoke with, however, said that the general existence of a negativity bias is so widely validated that it has thus far survived the replication crisis unscathed. A huge “diversity of labs and traditions and backgrounds have found evidence for negativity bias, in memory and attention across all kinds of stimuli,” Carey Morewedge, professor of marketing and Everett W. Lord Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Boston University, explained. <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-19929-006">Morewedge’s work</a> has found a negativity bias in “external agency”: When something bad happens, people are likelier to blame another person for a bad event than give them credit for a good one. Subsequent work on infants <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0096112&type=printable">replicated that finding</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uwDWA6">
|
||
“This is probably one of the most robust findings in the psychology literature,” Stuart Soroka, a professor in the communications and political science departments at UCLA, agreed. Soroka specifically studies what this bias means for news. With Patrick Fournier and Lilach Nir, he conducted a massive <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1908369116">17-country study</a> with over 1,100 participants measuring how consumers reacted to positive- or negative-seeming news. “Respondents watched 7 randomly ordered BBC World News stories on a laptop computer while wearing noise-cancelling headphones and sensors on their fingers to capture skin conductance and blood volume pulse,” Soroka et al wrote.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LiYRdJ">
|
||
Examples of positive news included a ballet company in Brazil that employs blind dancers, a young child recovering from a liver disease, and a Swedish news story about “the ongoing popularity of ABBA.” Examples of negative news included the Peruvian town of Chimbote burning down, UN investigations into war crimes in Sri Lanka, and ultra-Orthodox activists in Israel blocking girls from going to school. By looking at physiological responses like “skin conductance,” or how easily electricity passes through the skin, a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anne-Schell/publication/232543769_The_Skin_Conductance_Response_Anticipation_and_Decision-Making/links/5629534008ae518e347cb0f5/The-Skin-Conductance-Response-Anticipation-and-Decision-Making.pdf?_sg%5B0%5D=started_experiment_milestone&origin=journalDetail&_rtd=e30%3D">measure widely viewed as reliable</a> that has been in use in various forms since the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1926-00790-001">turn of the 20th century</a>, the authors attempted to get around the limits of self-reporting and identify readers’ immediate, sometimes subconscious reactions. Given that people sometimes <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1940161214524832">say they prefer good news even when their behavior suggests the opposite</a>, relying on something other than self-reports makes sense.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I9lFTU">
|
||
Across their sample, they found that negative news provoked stronger physiological reactions and garnered more attention than positive or neutral news on average — though individual people’s reactions varied quite a bit, with a minority of people responding more to positive news.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XZvtKe">
|
||
This speaks to the demand side of the bad news dilemma. People who watch and consume news seem to be drawn to negative, dour stories more than positive ones. But it speaks to the supply side too. Journalists have some leeway in deciding what stories to cover, and if we, too, have a negativity bias, we could be facing the same impulses pushing us toward more negative stories that our readers do.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="g6csEI">
|
||
Good news for people who like good news
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o6AhM6">
|
||
Soroka is not a doomer. He thinks the conditions for good-vibes journalism are actually improving. For one thing, he doesn’t think the overall mood of reporting is getting worse.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vp3LId">
|
||
About a decade ago, he and colleague Lori Young developed a “sentiment analysis” tool meant to assess how positive or negative different political messages are, known as the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584609.2012.671234">Lexicoder Sentiment Dictionary</a>. The LSD is simple: It contains a list of positively coded words (“decency,” “priceless”), and negatively coded words (“brazen,” “psychotic”), and counts how often each occurs in the test, adjusting for the use of negations (so “not good” codes, accurately, as negative and “not bad” codes as positive). Soroka argues that the dictionary’s classifications of texts into “positive” versus “negative” tend on average to line up with how humans classify them, and by automating the process, the LSD enables researchers to analyze much vaster texts.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="A chart showing the positivity or negativity of network news from 1990-2018" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/S9zECCB9LIn7OE2np06A5lqUhvk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24435882/Screenshot_2023_02_15_at_3.35.33_PM.png"/> <cite>Stuart Soroka and Yanna Krupnikov, <a class="ql-link" href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/politics-general-interest/increasing-viability-good-news?format=PB&isbn=9781108987080" target="_blank">The Increasing Viability of Good News</a>, 2021.</cite>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fFzAZ0">
|
||
He and another co-author, University of Michigan’s Yanna Krupnikov, used the LSD to analyze the sentiment of nightly news segments on NBC, ABC, and CBS from 1990 to 2018. They found no downward trend — but a lot of variability. Sometimes (after terrorist attacks, notably) coverage is unusually negative; sometimes (like after Barack Obama’s election) it’s glowing. But, on average, there’s not much of a trend line.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NQnSgL">
|
||
More importantly, Soroka and Krupnikov argue, people vary in their receptiveness to good versus bad news. Good news that seems “novel” or like an “outlier” tends to get more coverage, as people separately have attention biases toward novelty that can mitigate their negativity bias. (Bad may be stronger than good, but new may be stronger than everything.) They note that on nightly TV news, the final segment is almost always “good news.” “You don’t want to leave the audience on a total downer before you say good night,” Frederica Freyberg, a Wisconsin anchor for PBS, told the authors. In other words, people crave something different from the dour news that came before; they desire novelty.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="isgUVM">
|
||
Some people are also just overall more interested in good news than others. With his colleague Marc Trussler, Soroka once conducted a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1940161214524832">lab study to see if consumers who say they prefer good news stories actually click more on them</a> in practice. They didn’t; whether you say you want to read good news doesn’t predict your actual consumption habits. But they nonetheless found heterogeneity: There was a substantial minority of people, both those who said they preferred good news and those who didn’t, who really did click more on good news.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j22xGK">
|
||
In a world of media monopolies, where most people were dependent on one or two local newspapers and three national news networks, this happy-go-lucky minority was … out of luck. The majority preference prevailed, and the majority was biased toward the negative.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oo9jhQ">
|
||
<a href="https://www.slowboring.com/p/why-you-cant-trust-the-media">We don’t live in that world anymore</a>. The nightly news has collapsed in popularity, newspapers from halfway around the world are as easy to access as local ones, and just about everyone has access to thousands of rival news outlets. For Soroka and Krupnikov, that suggests that the market for good news is getting stronger. Outlets can carve out niches offering less negatively valenced articles in a way they couldn’t 30 or 40 years ago.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wJuAPh">
|
||
“The end result is probably that people are better able to find their ideal balance of content now than they ever were before,” Soroka told me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uGupxp">
|
||
And they find evidence that this is happening, or at least happened for a brief moment. They document that some highly successful news posters on Facebook — specifically Upworthy and Occupy Democrats on the left, and the “Barracuda Brigade” on the right — posted more positive than negative news on average. Diehard partisans are open to positive news if it’s mobilizing, affirms their beliefs, etc. That said, because access to more recent data is lacking, their data here all comes before 2017 and the Trump era. Stuff … got dark then.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5qoKUz">
|
||
As any reporter can tell you, though, the new media landscape is hardly all roses. For one thing, the algorithmic structure of platforms like Facebook can magnify our own negativity biases. From 2016 to 2019, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/26/facebook-angry-emoji-algorithm/">Facebook gave “anger” emoji reactions to posts</a> five times as much weight as “likes” in deciding which posts to show other users because their machine learning algorithms found posts that angered people fueled more engagement than posts that pleased them. That partly reflected that humans do, in fact, prefer to share news that enrages them, but it also magnified that tendency, which has costs for both the site and its users.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WJVc4I">
|
||
News consumers, then, are caught between two competing forces. On the one hand, they enjoy a vastly larger and more diverse news ecosystem than has ever existed before in history, as well as social media networks that serve them up exactly the news they demonstrate they want through their posts, likes, and other interactions. This should in principle make it easier for people who want good news to access it. But it also places consumers at the mercy of their own impulses. While at a higher level they may want to want<em> </em>news that makes them less miserable, in the moment they might prefer doomy news — and the media and the platforms they depend on are only too happy to serve up the bad.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TQGic3">
|
||
“We may, right now, be more motivated to attend to a negative story,” Morewedge explains. “If there’s enough negative information, that may reduce my incentive to come back to that site. It may have a negative effect on my well-being. In the long-term, these sites may be better suited by providing more of a mix of positive info. Just thinking about what people do in the present may not capture their full preferences.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q9KNOS">
|
||
He analogizes the current situation to an algorithmically run airline, which decides to only serve the meals people most want in the moment. That airline would start by offering people either, say, potato chips or baby carrots; when almost everyone chose the potato chips, maybe they’d move on to asking “potato chips or brownies,” then “brownies or ice cream,” and before long the whole menu is sugar. That satisfies people’s immediate preferences, but in the long run it makes them miserable.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bi2Ae2">
|
||
That’s the tricky task, for news outlets as well as social networks, in thinking about negativity bias. We can give the people what they want right now. But in doing so, we might be feeding them empty calories that will only make them sick in the future.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>What Israel’s political crisis tells us about the dangers of indicting Trump</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="A protester in a crowd holds a sign above her head that reads, “Stop trying to make dictatorship happen. It’s not gonna happen.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xvOJXAcViKs5eunA_PqNH8E5WTI=/516x0:5380x3648/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72101389/1248546533.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A March 18 protest in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu’s proposed judicial overhaul. | Ilia Yefimovich/Picture Alliance/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Benjamin Netanyahu’s radical response to his indictment — and what it might portend for a potential Trump arrest.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yksIoi">
|
||
If the Manhattan district attorney does file charges against Donald Trump this week, as has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/3/18/23646106/trump-indictment-arrest-january-6-manhattan-stormy-daniels">widely reported</a>, it will be an American first: No president, sitting or former, has ever been indicted on criminal charges.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JI4fXP">
|
||
But in peer democracies, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/20/trump-ny-indictment-foreign-countries/">it’s far from unheard of</a>. France, Portugal, South Korea, Croatia, and Israel have all indicted former presidents and prime ministers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XKSX7W">
|
||
Of these countries, the closest parallels — and the most disturbing — come from contemporary Israel, a country in the midst of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64929563">gravest domestic political crisis</a> since its founding. And it is a crisis that was set off in no small part by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/28/21111500/israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-corruption-trump-peace-plan">indictment</a> on a series of corruption-related charges.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TJiyhs">
|
||
After winning <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/11/2/23437462/israel-elections-benjamin-netanyahu-coalition-explained">Israel’s election</a> in November 2022, Netanyahu — who had previously been in office in 1996-1999 and 2009-2021 — swiftly set about pushing a series of new laws imposing tighter political control on the legal system.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="klwDZE">
|
||
The proposals, unveiled earlier this year, would deliver Netanyahu’s coalition partners on the far right a long-desired leash to rein in the (relatively) liberal Supreme Court. It also gives Netanyahu powers that he could use to nullify the case against him.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6UB9o4">
|
||
The reaction has been a national uprising: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israelis-protest-against-planned-judicial-overhaul-11th-week-2023-03-18/">11 straight weeks of massive and disruptive street protests</a>. On March 12 alone, about <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/12/middleeast/israel-protests-benjamin-netanyahu-intl/index.html">500,000 Israelis took to the streets</a> across the country — roughly the same number of Americans who attended protests on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html">the biggest day of 2020’s Black Lives Matter demonstration</a>, in a country with about 1/35th of America’s population.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s70A9Q">
|
||
Being indicted pushed Netanyahu to radical lengths: a willingness to partner with extremists and pursue anti-democratic policies that he had previously decried, all in the name of staying out of prison.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lu2ZMP">
|
||
We should expect no less from Trump and his supporters.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TtZRKe">
|
||
Politically, Trump and Netanyahu are very much alike: charismatic populists who have transformed established center-right parties into cults of personality. Netanyahu was prime minister for Trump’s entire presidency and emerged as one of his closest allies on the global stage, even <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-uses-trump-in-election-campaign-posters/">putting Trump on one of his campaign posters</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="General Elections In Israel" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/96bvHT0fUcLVWRSSG3ZgMQ3gPMc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24526565/1134989383.jpg"/> <cite>Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A Trump/Netanyahu campaign poster in Tel Aviv during the 2019 campaign.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rEQVIF">
|
||
Both men stand accused of serious anti-democratic abuses while in office. Both have responded with nearly identical campaigns against legal authorities, accusing investigators of engaging in a “<a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110051893237764471">witch</a> <a href="https://www.axios.com/2019/11/22/netanyahu-indicted-likud-election-corruption">hunt</a>” at the behest of liberal elites.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="da5gyL">
|
||
Trump has already called for his supporters to take to the streets to protest his indictment. So far, these calls have <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/20/pro-trump-protest-turnout-arrest-design-00088015">amounted to little</a>, but if an indictment indeed comes down, the energy level among the MAGA faithful could change in a hurry. We saw where such a dynamic could lead on <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/6/22217657/us-capitol-breach-trump-rally-presidential-election">January 6, 2021</a>. And there’s an entire presidential election cycle left to go.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qx02bv">
|
||
None of this is to say that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg should not prosecute Trump if he truly believes the evidence warrants it. Influential people cannot be above the law in a democracy; in Israel, the case against Netanyahu is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/world/middleeast/netanyahu-corruption-charges-israel.html">serious</a> and speaks to the heart of his anti-democratic behavior during his last tenure in office. It was right to prosecute Netanyahu, and it could very well be right to prosecute Trump. We’ll likely <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/1/31/23579526/donald-trump-stormy-daniels-investigation">find out soon enough</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DJCdY6">
|
||
But the ongoing chaos in Israel should serve as a warning: Under political conditions like those in the US, going after the country’s most influential and polarizing political figure can lead to unpredictable and potentially devastating consequences. Americans should once again be preparing for things to get worse.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="CfrrzR">
|
||
How Netanyahu’s indictment led to chaos
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EjODOl">
|
||
Before we can talk about what Israel tells us about Trump, it’s important to understand just what exactly is happening in Israel.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H3qWN2">
|
||
During his long stretch in office between 2009 and 2021, Netanyahu engaged in a series of ethically and legally questionable behaviors. The Israeli police began quietly investigating him in 2016 and eventually recommended charges in three investigations known as Case 1000, Case 2000, and Case 4000.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sc4fub">
|
||
Of these, Case 4000 is the most explosive. Israeli prosecutors allege that, while in office, Netanyahu struck a corrupt deal with <a href="https://www.cjr.org/special_report/netanyahu-israeli-press.php">the parent company of Walla</a>, a major online news outlet. The prime minister allegedly approved a lucrative merger for the company in exchange for more favorable coverage in Walla — corruptly using the powers of his office to undermine the free press and strengthen his own political position.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C9NPei">
|
||
Netanyahu responded to the charges by embracing a longstanding cause on the extreme right, one that he had previously shunned: waging all-out war on Israel’s independent judiciary.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gkGLc4">
|
||
Israel’s far right, made up of radical settlers and religious extremists, had long seen the court as one of the major impediments to their efforts to seize control of Palestinian land and increase Judaism’s role in Israeli public life. Its politicians and think tanks had developed a series of proposals — like a bill allowing the Knesset to override Supreme Court rulings with a simple majority vote — designed to bring the court’s allegedly liberal justices to heel.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fUpgeW">
|
||
In the past, Netanyahu had vocally opposed such ideas. Israel’s judiciary is “what enables the existence of all other democratic institutions,” <a href="https://tcf.org/content/report/assault-israels-judiciary/">he said in 2012</a>, during a round of debates about court reform. “In the last few months, I buried every law that threatens the independence of the [judicial] system … I will continue to do so.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TUjYwH">
|
||
Then the indictments happened.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iAzlIA">
|
||
The onetime defender of Israel’s court system changed his tune, declaring (in one <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2020-04-05/ty-article/netanyahu-deep-state-israel-no-democracy-here-lieberman/0000017f-e06e-d804-ad7f-f1fecd800000">representative 2020 outburst</a>) that the country was “no democracy” but rather “a government of bureaucrats and jurists.” He and his allies began floating legislative remedies for his prosecution, like the so-called “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-dodges-question-on-law-that-could-stop-his-prosecution/">French law</a>” immunizing incumbent prime ministers from prosecution.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="73lVJ7">
|
||
Netanyahu purged his Likud party of the remaining critics of his behavior, turning it into a far-right vehicle for his all-encompassing quest to avoid jail time. Israeli politics polarized around whether or not Netanyahu was fit for office — with some right-wing parties even briefly joining a coalition with the anti-Netanyahu center and left on grounds that he was threatening democracy and the rule of law.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ae1Ycd">
|
||
In 2022, after five narrow elections in three and a half years, Netanyahu finally emerged with a solid majority. This majority depended on an alliance with the most extreme of extreme factions, Israel’s Religious Zionist party: a militantly anti-Palestinian faction committed to waging war on the judiciary.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TVvrW0">
|
||
As a result, the new government’s first major legislative push was a comprehensive “court reform” package that would <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/current-state-play-israels-constitutional-showdown">impose significant political controls on the judiciary</a>. This includes not only the previously discussed “override clause,” but also provisions politicizing the process for appointing judges, weakening the independence of the attorney general’s office, and limiting court power to review actions taken by the executive.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ATtI6G">
|
||
If passed, this legislation would allow the far-right coalition to control the legal system and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-ag-netanyahu-seeking-to-use-judicial-reform-to-bring-trial-to-improper-end/">give Netanyahu tools he could use to end the case against him</a>. Some of these proposals could become law <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-19/ty-article/.premium/judicial-overhaul-architect-proposes-naming-two-justices-before-balancing-appointments/00000186-faff-df21-a9df-fbff7a060000">before the Knesset breaks for the Passover holiday in early April</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B7dSdm">
|
||
Netanyahu’s agenda is, understandably, widely unpopular. A late February poll from the nonpartisan Israel Democracy Institute found that <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/articles/47968">large majorities</a> oppose many of the package’s key planks (roughly two-thirds of Israelis oppose the override clause, for example). The opposition has been so intense, with many seeing the bills as an attack on the foundations of Israeli democracy, that it has galvanized what appears to be the largest protest movement in Israeli history: nearly three months of nonstop street demonstrations, joined by some of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/3/16/23639947/palestine-netanyahu-israel-protests-ehud-olmert">country’s most influential and prominent figures</a>, demanding that the government change course.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="Protesters in a crowd carry signs reading, “Bibihazard,” Saving democracy,” and “Risk ahead.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pxKvx-UtHHoxRbA-j1rs7L7wPGM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24526328/1248591304.jpg"/> <cite>Gili Yaari/NurPhoto/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Protesters against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul bills in Tel Aviv on March 18, 2023.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kPx2Hz">
|
||
So far, however, there’s no indication that it<strong> </strong>will. Netanyahu has <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/15/herzog-warns-israel-on-brink-of-abyss-as-he-lays-out-judicial-compromise-proposal">rejected a compromise reform package</a> authored by Israeli President Isaac Herzog and seems intent on barreling through some version of his initial idea. If the bills do pass, litigation is inevitable — and there is a reasonable chance that <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/tel-aviv-police-crisis-presages-potential-constitutional-showdown/">Israel’s Supreme Court will strike them down</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UxTdnv">
|
||
Such a ruling would lead to a constitutional crisis, where different elements of the government disagree on what the law is and who gets to decide on it. In such situations, other institutions — like the police and military — may have to decide whom to obey.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f4GPU3">
|
||
It is about the most severe crisis that a democracy can face, and Israel is rapidly heading toward it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fw9LIA">
|
||
“Now, when we are reaching Israel’s 75th anniversary, the country is on the brink of the abyss,” President Herzog warned in a speech last week. “A civil war is a red line — and I will not let that happen.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="50Q19d">
|
||
The big lesson for America: Indictments raise the stakes
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B2uwoZ">
|
||
One key point of the Israeli story, from an American view, is that an indictment radically changes a politician’s incentives.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZFnfON">
|
||
For most of his career, Netanyahu had a reputation as a calculating and cautious politician. True, he was relatively right wing, but he always seemed to have a sense of what was too far and the attendant danger of political chaos.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="11kTh8">
|
||
But since his indictment, he has changed: willing to embrace autocratic policies that he had previously rejected and to align himself with forces in Israeli politics that had long been consigned to the country’s margins.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WDyXIr">
|
||
Netanyahu’s shift<strong> </strong>speaks to the way the threat of a felony conviction changes one’s incentives. If you think you’re going to prison, you have nothing to lose by fighting with every tool available. When you’re the nation’s leading politician, with a Trump-like fervent following built up over decades, that means trying to turn the government into your personal get-out-of-jail-free card.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EDybgJ">
|
||
What exactly this looks like in Trump’s case is hard to predict. His <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/3/18/23646106/trump-indictment-arrest-january-6-manhattan-stormy-daniels">call for protests</a> provides a clue, but only that: The potential avenues for extra-legal incitement on Trump’s part are legion.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2h0rT8">
|
||
The only thing we can be almost certain of is that he won’t drop out of the presidential race. Returning to the presidency would be his best chance at getting immunity from prosecution, thanks to the longstanding legal practice of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/us/politics/a-constitutional-puzzle-can-the-president-be-indicted.html">not prosecuting incumbent presidents</a>. And there are good reasons to believe an indictment could help him in the GOP primary rather than hurt him.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w2OJ9z">
|
||
One important difference between Trump and Netanyahu is that the former has always been willing to court chaos.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iePOBV">
|
||
There was never a “cautious” Trump bounded by legal norms and niceties. Historically, his pattern has always been greater escalation when pressed — as we saw during the Mueller investigation, the first impeachment, and the 2020 election. If someone as calculating as Netanyahu can be pushed into anti-system radicalism by an indictment, what could happen with someone like Trump who is already willing to go to extremes?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gpAyNQ">
|
||
The threat of political instability — even a constitutional crisis like the one looming in Israel — should not be used as a rationale to protect powerful politicians who engage in criminal wrongdoing. An Israeli refusal to indict Netanyahu would have sent a dangerous signal about what prime ministers can get away with in Israel — a green light for future leaders to attempt to engage in undemocratic behavior while in office.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hCyV7E">
|
||
If Alvin Bragg (or other <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23518814/trump-investigations-jack-smith-january-6-classified">prosecutors in Georgia and the Justice Department</a>) sincerely believes that Trump engaged in prosecutable offenses, letting him slide because of who he is would send a similarly dangerous message about the state of the rule of law in America.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AZXA3j">
|
||
Malfeasance at the highest levels, then, puts highly polarized democracies in a lose-lose situation. Either legal authorities prosecute and risk a system-shaking political crisis, or ignore the offense and risk setting a precedent that encourages more subtle and gradual democratic erosion.
|
||
</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>‘Important to understand that there’s no one way to get medals’</strong> - NEW DELHI</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>Ind vs Aus 3rd ODI | Australia post 269 despite fine bowling efforts from Hardik, Kuldeep</strong> - While Pandya (3/44 in 8 overs) shaved off the top half, Kuldeep’s (3/56 in 10 overs) rhythm and guile on a helpful Chennai track was the biggest takeaway</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>‘2023 ODI World Cup in India likely to start on October 5, final in Ahmedabad’</strong> - The list of 12 cities, however, does not include Mohali and Nagpur, which had hosted a Test match against visiting Australia recently.</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>Djokovic has ‘no regrets’ about missing U.S. events over COVID-19 vaccine status</strong> - Novak Djokovic unsuccessfully applied to the U.S. government for special permission to play at Indian Wells and Miami.</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>Morning Digest | 6.6 magnitude quake in Afghanistan rocks Delhi-NCR; Pakistan court grants Imran Khan bail in terrorism cases, and more</strong> - Here’s a select list of stories to read before you start your day</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>Doting parents place QR code on son’s tomb at St. Joseph Church, Kuriyachira, to keep his memories alive</strong> - They wanted his life to be a motivation for everyone</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>Kureepuzha Sreekumar wins Kadammanitta poetry award</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>K.C. Tyagi relieved of organisational responsibilities upon his repeated requests: JD(U)</strong> - Tyagi has been active in politics for close to five decades</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>A lyrical voice lost: poet Anna Sujatha Mathai passes away</strong> - Mathai’s verses often had a familial and down-to-earth touch, and she responded to situations with sensitivity and compassion</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>Nod for 11 water supply projects under AMRUT scheme in Kerala</strong> - KWA, respective urban local bodies will issue technical sanction</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>French reforms: Macron refuses to give way as pension protests escalate</strong> - The French leader says he has no regrets about unpopular pension reforms but tries to calm tensions.</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>Ukraine war: Zelensky visits ruined frontline city of Bakhmut</strong> - Zelensky’s visit to the frontline comes after Russian forces targeted Ukrainian cities overnight.</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>Ukraine to clinch first IMF loan to nation at war</strong> - The $15.6bn financing package is expected to be approved in the coming weeks.</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>Conspiracy theorists led family to death in Switzerland</strong> - Swiss investigators say adults in the family were obsessed with conspiracy theories.</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>Badger tunnels halt traffic on Dutch railways</strong> - Trains in the north and south of the Netherlands are affected, with some services stopping for a week.</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>Three legacy Battlefield games will be removed from online stores in April</strong> - It’s your last chance to purchase <em>Bad Company</em>’s single-player campaign. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1925783">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here’s the full analysis of newly uncovered genetic data on COVID’s origins</strong> - The genetic data paints a picture of spillover in one zone of the market. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1925722">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Newegg’s unique NAS configurator is a handy, but limited, shopping tool</strong> - You can only shop Newegg inventory, but it gets the ball rolling. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1925650">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hackers drain bitcoin ATMs of $1.5 million by exploiting 0-day bug</strong> - Don’t store digital coins in hot wallets! It’s great advice but can’t always be followed. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1925695">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Judge dismisses gamers’ claims that Microsoft-Activision merger will spoil gaming</strong> - Gamers have 20 days to supply more evidence showing the merger would harm them. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1925676">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>Why do depressed people give the best head?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Because they don’t care about breathing anymore.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
EDIt: Sheesh. Tough crowd.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Verothyn"> /u/Verothyn </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xw9e2/why_do_depressed_people_give_the_best_head/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xw9e2/why_do_depressed_people_give_the_best_head/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When I was young, there were only 25 letters in the alphabet.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Nobody knew why.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Meguinn"> /u/Meguinn </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xjroj/when_i_was_young_there_were_only_25_letters_in/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xjroj/when_i_was_young_there_were_only_25_letters_in/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy is driving through Nevada and sees a sign along the road with a large cross and the words “Sisters of Mercy House of Prostitution, 5 miles ahead.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He shakes his head and thinks “I must have read that wrong.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He continues on and a few minutes later see another sign, this one with a praying nun on it and the words “Sisters of Mercy House of Prostitution, Next Exit. So Good It’s Miraculous!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He decides he has to see this so he pulls off, and following more signs soon pulls up in front of a large church. He knocks on the door and is greeted by an elderly nun. Very embarrassed, he mutters, “Um..I saw a sign by the highway … am I in the right place?” The nun smiles and says “Of course! Right this way!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
She leads him inside and down many twisting hallways, up stairs and down until he is thoroughly lost. Eventually they come to a large door and she says, “Give me $200 and go through this door and you will find exactly what you came for.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He can’t believe this kindly old nun would lie to him, so he hands over the cash and opens the door. The nun pushes him through and the door slams and locks behind him.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He finds himself standing outside at the back of the church in front of another large sign that reads: “Thank you, you have just been fucked by the Sisters of Mercy.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MYMILKISMUCHBETTER"> /u/MYMILKISMUCHBETTER </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xw33h/a_guy_is_driving_through_nevada_and_sees_a_sign/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xw33h/a_guy_is_driving_through_nevada_and_sees_a_sign/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My friend just gave me a presentation on why I should invest in his sword making business.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He made some excellent points.
|
||
</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/porichoygupto"> /u/porichoygupto </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xed92/my_friend_just_gave_me_a_presentation_on_why_i/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xed92/my_friend_just_gave_me_a_presentation_on_why_i/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why do engineers mix up Halloween and Christmas?</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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Because Oct 31 = Dec 25
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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/Star-Lord-123"> /u/Star-Lord-123 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xhdh1/why_do_engineers_mix_up_halloween_and_christmas/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11xhdh1/why_do_engineers_mix_up_halloween_and_christmas/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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</ul>
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