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<title>07 April, 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>Donald Trump’s Unhinged Reality Show Gets Another Season</strong> - “Seems so SURREAL,” the former President wrote before his arraignment, with a curious self-alienation, as if he were not actually experiencing the event but watching it on TV (which he probably was). - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/donald-trumps-unhinged-reality-show-gets-another-season">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Architect’s Dream of Rebuilding a Battered City in Ukraine</strong> - Max Rozenfeld has spent much of the war imagining how the destruction of Kharkiv presents opportunities for reinventing its future. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/an-architects-dream-of-rebuilding-a-battered-city-in-ukraine">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The People v. Donald J. Trump</strong> - Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is effectively accusing the former President of defrauding voters in 2016. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-people-versus-donald-j-trump">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Putin Criminalized Journalism in Russia</strong> - The case of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter being held in Moscow on espionage charges, is only the most recent example of the Kremlin’s crackdown on reporters. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-putin-criminalized-journalism-in-russia">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inside the Hush-Money Payments That May Decide Trump’s Legal Fate</strong> - Years of interviews with potential witnesses provide insights into the Manhattan D.A.’s case. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-hush-money-payments-that-may-decide-trumps-legal-fate">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>Hollywood is in its business-guy era</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="Ben Affleck, in a shirt and tie, sits with his bare feet propped up on a desk" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1i9xAdOTVjuJcdomkNQ-P4oZZT8=/284x0:2560x1707/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72157234/affleck_cover.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Ben Affleck as Nike founder Phil Knight in <em>Air</em>. | Prime Video
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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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Scammers are over. It’s time to make some deals.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FKczjs">
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Only Hollywood could make me cheer for a sneaker. Or a pocket-size email terminal. Or the legal rights to a video game landing in the hands of a slightly hapless, doggedly determined, bespectacled and genial guy. I rarely think about these things and barely care, but the job of a movie is to make me care, and for whatever reason, this spring they’re trying remarkably hard.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zDWmg8">
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And sometimes it even works.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nHkUjE">
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There’s a crop of movies about enterprising businessmen out this spring, all at once, which is both a coincidence — studios don’t tend to collude — and probably not a coincidence at all. Like last year’s crop of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22979866/bad-vegan-netflix-inventing-anna-dropout-scammer">scammer and scammer-adjacent docuseries</a>, these are all about real-life wheeling and dealing, the things that happen in conference rooms and panicky stairwells while the rest of us are just walking around living our lives. And, importantly, they’re ripped from the headlines, some more recent than others.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h6537A">
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It is not actually easy to make a lot of yelling about terms and agreements and capitalization and other businessy things very fun to watch, which I suspect is why the con artist form took off first. There’s an inherent dramatic irony to the con artist story, since its existence is predicated on at least a vague knowledge among the audience that this person is in the act of hoodwinking. We know. They don’t. That’s where the fun, and the drama, comes from.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vaDFSV">
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Harder, then, when the movie is — as in the case of <em>Air</em> — about some guys managing to get Michael Jordan to sign a licensing deal with Nike. Like, writing that sentence almost put me to sleep. Can I just watch <em>The Last Dance</em> again?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IdWWqk">
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But lo, a miracle: <em>Air</em> is great. Pitch-perfect, deeply entertaining, in the vein of <em>Moneyball</em> but with the addition of Viola Davis as Jordan’s mother Deloris, who injects a sense of the stakes beyond profits. Ben Affleck, who might be a better director than actor (though he’s very good at both), figured out — with the help of debut screenwriter Alex Convery — where the drama is located in a story where we already totally know the ending. We have, after all, been living in an Air Jordan world for decades.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="Matt Damon sits at his desk, feet up, phone pressed to his ear." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9KtCLJbdKgtROpqd9f9-Szt8ei4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24566491/air.jpg"/> <cite>Ana Carballosa/Prime Video</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Matt Damon in <em>Air</em>.
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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" id="YPYxTB">
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And where is that drama? In a carefully crafted cocktail of ingredients, each as important as the last. The base element is the lead, Matt Damon, playing a paunchy, middle-aged Sonny Vaccaro, whose job at the upstart athletic shoe brand Nike is to connect with fresh talent in an attempt to get the swoop onto the feet, and thus the courts, of the NBA. What’s important about Vaccaro is that he’s an underdog, clearly on the downward trajectory of his career, struggling to stay in the good graces of CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) and marketing head Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), yelling on the phone at agent David Falk (an absolutely glorious, foul-mouthed Chris Messina). What he’s got is a feeling, and a willingness to risk it all on some 18-year-old kid from North Carolina. And if he fails, his career ends, and maybe the whole company with it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BZtZfN">
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You need that element in an entrepreneur story, because it gives you somebody to root for. It shows up again in, for instance, <em>Tetris</em>, centering on the very plucky Taron Egerton playing Henk Rogers, a man in a desperate race to secure the rights to the video game Tetris. The movie is bafflingly limp and weirdly paced, but the risk-it-all underdog is what holds it together. You might want the movie to be over, but you still want this guy to win. Or take <em>BlackBerry</em>, sort of a Canadian <em>Social Network</em> (down to, at times, the camerawork), which sticks <em>two</em> plucky long-shots in the main position. Jay Baruchel is Mike Lazaridis, the nerd who has the idea and starts the company; Glenn Howerton is Jim Balsillie, who spots an opportunity and swoops in, entering on the ground floor as co-CEO.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZynAdY">
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<em>BlackBerry</em> also exemplifies an important ingredient in the corporate entrepreneur movie, which is that you can’t just have the charismatic deal-striker. You need your nerds, the guys who actually make the product and make it better than anyone else. Lazaridis is the nerd, but so is his buddy Doug (played by <em>BlackBerry</em> writer and director Matt Johnson), who manages the engineers. They’ve figured out how to make a tiny email terminal you can throw in your pocket, and we get the pleasure of seeing “email on your phone” doubted by others, then the pair triumphant for having solved a puzzle others couldn’t. There’s a nerd in <em>Air</em> — Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), designer of the Air Jordan shoe — and one in <em>Tetris</em>, Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov), who made Tetris. The nerd gives us a second underdog to love. He’s secondary to the plot, but he reminds us that real competence is involved here, not just smooth talk. These aren’t con artists; they’ve got the real thing.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UjUTOC">
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And there’s another element, one that differs from the con artist genre, which seems to deal with very recent stories — <em>Inventing Anna, Tiger King, Bad Vegan, LuLaRich</em>, I could go on. Maybe that’s because cons are so common that we’ve forgotten the big ones from a decade ago, let alone the 1980s.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="A man with silvery hair and glasses stands in a room looking at a small device, with a group of cheering engineers behind him." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FWOgw7_1v0ZWSkarkJoaAqsiFEk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24566494/blackberry.jpg"/> <cite>IFC Films</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Jay Baruchel in <em>BlackBerry</em>.
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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" id="PvhXow">
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But the entrepreneur movie deals with the guys who won, and who imprinted themselves onto the world we’re still living in. Gen Z may never know the satisfying tap of typing on a BlackBerry, but at one point in my career I had <em>two</em>, and I’m just one generation older. After my <em>Air</em> screening, I spotted six people of varying ages on the subway platform wearing their Air Jordans. (Most of them, I presume, had gone to see the movie.) And when I got on the subway, I absolutely whipped out my phone — my iPhone, sorry to the BlackBerry guys — and played Tetris.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IHl0DX">
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Yet the corporate entrepreneur genre presents the perfect opportunity to indulge in some fun period design, a little cherry on top of the whole concoction. <em>Tetris</em> is set in the 1980s, on the verge of the end of the Soviet Union, and we get lots of Soviet-era interior design (if you can call it that) and ill-fitting suits. <em>BlackBerry</em> starts in 1996 — though it’s shot with the sensibility of a 1970 paranoid thriller — and reminds us of a time when it was still shocking to encounter a room full of people typing away on their devices. And <em>Air</em>’s main, almost comical interest, is in ’80s hair, with Affleck in some kind of curly Roman-emperor ’do and Bateman in a truly glorious mop.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AAphMl">
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And, of course, you need all the things a movie always needs: a good script, stakes, music, solid pacing, maybe a few jokes. It’s got to be <em>fun</em> to watch these guys yell and think and decide in a split second to try something that might fail utterly; you generate dramatic tension not through wondering what will happen — we know the ending already — but through letting us into their thought processes, letting us watch them convince rooms of skeptics that they’re right.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UUeZLU">
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Interestingly, these movies don’t bother doing what they might have done, had they been made in the era in which they’re set: insist on some romance subplot, or spend the whole movie trying to convince us our main characters are doing this because they’re estranged fathers. (There are whiffs of that here and there — <em>Tetris</em>’s Rogers is married and has kids, Bateman talks about spending time with his daughter on the weekend — but it’s never the main plot.) Instead, the stakes are all about the deal, and the movie makes you care. Its closest cousin is the sports movie, underdog against Goliath. Nobody’s truly a villain; “winning” means your company gets what it wants, which is less like saving the human race and more like being able to buy a really nice car. We’re rooting for them to make a lot of money.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tqxaoo">
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Which, admittedly, makes me feel a little weird. <em>Tetris</em> and <em>Air</em> operate essentially as extended commercials for their brands; <em>BlackBerry</em> doesn’t, but only because it can’t since the BlackBerry functionally doesn’t exist anymore. (Of the three, it’s the only rise-and-fall narrative, which feels a little more traditional.) But why am I sitting here just rooting for some guys to make cash?
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="A man with a moustache looks intense; Tetris blocks are seen falling behind him." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WVCJYbwH-BUOdzH76tjU5fV0Xs0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24566500/tetris.jpg"/> <cite>Apple TV+</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Taron Egerton in <em>Tetris.</em>
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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" id="TrPqpU">
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In a sense, I guess, it’s a product of the American bootstrap narrative, tapping into the broader cultural sense that millionaires and billionaires are to be admired and respected. But even if you side-eye that sentiment, these movies suggest that if <em>they</em> could pull it off — guys down on their luck, risking their last dollar on a huge bet — then maybe we can, too. Never mind that for every one of these stories there are probably hundreds where the main player ended up declaring bankruptcy. History is projected onto the big screen by the winners.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ALqgEV">
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There’s also just something deeply wholesome-feeling about these stories. If the con artist movie is a way to admire cunning operators in spite of our better judgment, then these are guys we can admire, fair and square. They didn’t hurt anybody. They just made a good product and figured out how to sell it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wWrRyP">
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I get all that but am still uneasy over the fact that the highest good being sold in these movies is the acquisition of cash, and the highest character quality to praise is being willing to take a wild risk. Maybe it’s just that we’ve run out of admirable figures from history to emulate, leaders of movements and humanitarians and scientists and artists who go unrecognized in their lifetimes. But it’s a little deflating to think that we’re now manufacturing heroes out of guys who basically just managed to combine good business sense with luck.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bQtVhb">
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But let’s be real: It’s absurd to imagine Hollywood would do otherwise. Hollywood is a land of wheeling and dealing, of taking huge risks on uncertainties and sinking millions of dollars into what’s never a sure thing. And as Hollywood has grown exponentially more risk-averse over the past 15 years, their product has suffered, leaning on the familiar and the safe instead of the original and the untested. Hollywood is about capitalism, and the essential gambling nature of it all, which means not everybody gets to win.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eXtBmd">
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And so, maybe, is <em>Air.</em> (Affleck’s choice to end the movie with “Born in the USA,” particularly after a character tells the story of actually listening to the lyrics of it, seems telling.) Watching <em>Air</em>, I found myself thinking that maybe what Hollywood needs is a movie like this: fresh, fun, full of movie stars doing their movie star thing without the aid of capes or pre-chewed IP, opening only in theaters. A story about risk-taking that could prove the reward was worth it. A weird, wild sneaker of a movie, if you will.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YBZUiB">
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Tetris<em> is streaming on Apple TV+. </em>Air<em> opens in theaters on April 7. </em>BlackBerry<em> opens in theaters on May 12.</em>
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>A renter’s guide to the Inflation Reduction Act</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="For rent sign in apartment" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RyapGQuTfDxOwjG6tjFOKTI0OoE=/272x0:2807x1901/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72157037/GettyImages_88900792.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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The Inflation Reduction Act can help renters afford plug-ins like window unit heat pumps through rebates. Otherwise, success of the law will depend on landlords and property managers taking up incentives. | Justin Sullivan/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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Time to approach your landlord or consider a window unit heat pump.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bl2LSL">
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In theory, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/7/28/23282217/climate-bill-health-care-drugs-inflation-reduction-act">Inflation Reduction Act</a> could do a lot for renters.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6XM4X8">
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People who rent their homes often deal with older buildings, leaky piping, and poor ventilation. The IRA’s attempt to get fossil fuels out of the home would benefit them significantly. But renters could be the last to see the benefits.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h9Rq47">
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The new law passed last August authorizes $369 billion in investments for utilities, transmission lines, and greener manufacturing over the next decade, including <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/the-inflation-reduction-act-heres-whats-in-it">$43 billion</a> in tax breaks and rebates that bring down the cost of products like solar panels, electric appliances, and electric vehicles.
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</p>
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<aside id="qudxOM">
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<div>
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</div>
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</aside>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ExC8TB">
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Those <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/23498215/ev-tax-credit-2023-heat-pumps-solar">tax credits and rebates</a> will be the most immediate effect the law has for most people. But these incentives go much further for homeowners than renters. Renters have less control over their energy consumption and over the permanent fixtures of their home, and they face a unique set of problems that the IRA wasn’t built to tackle.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JZWwQa">
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“A lot of these incentives are geared to single-family homes,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, a group that focuses on policies that help low-income families.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rBHmtS">
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Renters are a huge category, but still a minority in the US. Roughly<a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/20-million-renters-are-at-risk-of-eviction/"> 110 million people</a> in the US live in a rental household, and rental homes and apartments make up about <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/02/as-national-eviction-ban-expires-a-look-at-who-rents-and-who-owns-in-the-u-s/">36 percent</a> of the nation’s housing. According to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/02/as-national-eviction-ban-expires-a-look-at-who-rents-and-who-owns-in-the-u-s/">2019 Census data</a>, 58 percent of households headed by Black Americans rent, as do 52 percent of Hispanic- or Latino-led households. Younger people are also more likely to rent: Almost two-thirds of people under age 35 lived in rentals.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="07n7Ee">
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But the IRA doesn’t fully ignore the rental economy. Parts of the law can help multifamily residences and landlords make upgrades to energy efficiency, switch to more modern appliances, and create more comfortable homes — which means both the renter and the landlord have options.
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</p>
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<h3 id="BvzxgS">
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The problems with forgetting renters
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qw5XHn">
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Even though renters have no financial stake in their building, they have plenty of reason to want energy-efficient, modern homes. “When you switch out your fossil fuel appliances, you’re making the home healthier, reducing pollution, as well as improving efficiency, which ultimately reduces energy consumption,” said Jamal Lewis, director of policy partnerships and equitable electrification at the advocacy group Rewiring America.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wC66yG">
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Besides energy bills, there can be other benefits to changes like swapping out a gas stove for induction or a gas furnace for an electric heat pump. Extreme heat, after all, impacts the effectiveness of medications and can worsen underlying illnesses, so a cooler, efficient home is a public health concern. It can also just make for a better quality of life. “Heat pumps offer more consistent temperature and manage humidity better,” Lewis said. “Some people are really motivated by the better regulation of air temperature, and other people are much more motivated by lower energy costs.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IYa016">
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||
The basic problem with the IRA’s setup is the different incentives that landlords and renters face when it comes to building upgrades. A renter wants a comfortable, healthy environment and may be stuck paying the energy bill for an inefficient home. But they have no investment in the building beyond the months or years they will be there.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zuGXlN">
|
||
The landlord, meanwhile, may want improvement that could increase the value of the property, but otherwise doesn’t have a strong reason to invest in invisible changes that would directly benefit their tenants. The split incentive is especially stark when it’s the renter who pays the electric bill.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8taJ91">
|
||
For renters who have a choice about where to live, this split incentive can still work out in their favor. Higher-income renters have more options to choose a building with rooftop solar or electric heat pumps. Low-income renters are far more limited in what housing stock is affordable and available to them, and more likely to be forced to put up with worse quality and health hazards.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I1qAWo">
|
||
The IRA doesn’t impose bans or requirements for builders and manufacturers, and it depends on economic incentives (tax breaks and rebates) to persuade people and businesses to buy clean technologies. So whether it successfully helps renters live in fossil fuel-free homes depends on whether it can convince property owners that upgrades make business sense.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FAJ7wq">
|
||
It can be a tough sell. Potential tenants can appreciate new windows or a fresh coat of paint, but insulation and heat pumps are mostly invisible.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XhVmRq">
|
||
“What we don’t know is how much incentive is needed for building owners who don’t pay energy bills to make these improvements,” Wolfe said. The hope is the IRA is a start.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="k3wRQk">
|
||
There are ways renters can still benefit
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Kikx9">
|
||
The list of what renters can do is short, especially compared to what a landlord has power over. The nation’s housing supply is diverse, and the IRA sets income limits for who qualifies for tax credits and rebates, so some exceptions do apply.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IJi1cV">
|
||
The good news is the IRS says that tax credits could also apply to renters and multi-family residences, as long as they meet the income limits spelled out in the law.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U4vGel">
|
||
Instead of a full home renovation to accommodate a new heat pump or a major purchase like a new stove, a renter is going to want something that can be plugged in, like a window unit heat pump or a ductless heat pump clothes dryer. A cheap option is an induction burner that can plug into a regular 120-volt outlet; these can be purchased for as little as $50.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wAzXuE">
|
||
Tax credits only matter for people with enough tax liability to benefit from the offset. Many renters don’t fall into this category. So the IRA’s rebates are generally more helpful to renters because they lower the cost of buying an appliance or a home upgrade.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z7NMdK">
|
||
The most relevant are the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/scep/home-energy-rebate-programs">home electrification <strong>and appliance </strong>rebates and home efficiency rebates</a>. The home electrification rebate particularly benefits low- and moderate-income individuals, by providing upfront discounts for heat pump water heaters and HVAC systems and electric stoves and cooktops. It will cover 100 percent of electrification project costs (up to $14,000) for low-income households and 50 percent of costs (up to $14,000) for moderate-income households. Importantly, these are point-of-sale discounts. The rebate is administered by states and will be rolled out later this year.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2ieGSa">
|
||
Manufacturers are likely to start coming out with many more of these renter-friendly models in the coming years. <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/heat-pumps/10-questions-to-ask-if-you-want-to-get-a-heat-pump">Canary Media</a> describes a “sleek forthcoming model from <a href="https://www.gradientcomfort.com/">Gradient</a> [that] slides over the window frame, delivering electric heating and cooling without permanently altering the building (that product ships this spring, starting at $2,000).” This is portable, so if the renter moves, they just take it with them.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="570rLs">
|
||
It’s not really on the renter to change their home
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QMfBol">
|
||
There’s much more that falls to the landlord, state, and federal regulators than to the renter. Since a renter’s tenure in a building can be anywhere from a few months to years, it’s not their responsibility to make physical improvements to the building.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="byvEff">
|
||
But there is real need to improve these buildings. Wolfe notes that many older buildings don’t have adequate cooling and heating, a responsibility that should fall on the owner.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uIuHDP">
|
||
Many major upgrades require working with the landlord. For a proactive renter, Lewis recommended “approach[ing] the conversation with your landlord or property management company or property owner with curiosity, and be open to a conversation.” Show them the math on the specific upgrades that can save <em>them </em>money or be attractive to future tenants.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HbPQ72">
|
||
One of the rebates that appeal to landlords include the home owner managing energy savings (HOMES) rebates. A portion of the $4.3 billion for these rebates will be available for owners of multifamily properties to retrofit their units or buildings. A property might be eligible for $2,000 per unit if the project achieves 20 percent energy savings, and $4,000 per unit if it achieves 35 percent savings. The incentives are doubled for low- and moderate-income buildings.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SwJGoA">
|
||
Another option is the law’s $1 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, which provides owners of Section 8 multifamily properties and <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/09/27/2022-20855/green-and-resilient-retrofit-program-request-for-information">HUD-assisted housing</a> the direct funding to improve energy, water efficiency, air quality, and more. The other indirect way renters can benefit from IRA programs is through the <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1269#:~:text=The%20Low%2DIncome%20Communities%20Bonus%20Credit%20program%20will%20allocate%201.8,than%20five%20megawatts%20(MW).">low-income communities bonus credit</a>, which provides tax credits for qualifying wind and solar based in low-income communities. The credit helps cover the costs of renewable projects that are installed in rental buildings, as long as half of the cost-saving benefits are passed along directly to low-income households.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hQ762g">
|
||
It’s easier to bring new construction up to a higher bar than to retrofit older buildings. The IRA also incentivizes construction of energy-efficient households by offering owners of new multifamily units a base credit of at least $500 for units that participate in Energy Star’s program.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ti8PJs">
|
||
The funding doesn’t go far enough, though, Wolfe noted. Wolfe estimated the money is enough to help roughly 800,000 units, out of roughly 142 million units in the country (32 million of which are low-income homeowners and renters). “When you put it in that perspective, it’s quite daunting,” he said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RJJL4o">
|
||
Policies that will do the most good need to come from cities, states, and the federal government, and put responsibility on the decision-maker — the landlord. States and cities have an important role to play here to design better policies and stronger building codes aimed at renters and affordable housing, and the IRA even provides $1 billion for local and state governments to adopt the latest in building codes (the program is called Assistance for Latest and Zero Building Energy Code Adoption).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LlMgdO">
|
||
But blue states have shown more initiative in programs that go beyond federal funding. New York City, for instance, has a <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/heat-pumps/window-heat-pumps-will-help-electrify-new-york-citys-public-housing">$70 million initiative</a> to bring 30,000 window-size heat pumps to aging public housing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3gMEie">
|
||
Ultimately, the IRA funding is a start. But the split incentives renters and landlords face make for a complicated set of challenges that tax credits and rebates alone may not fix. There’s still need for policies outside the IRA, like the Energy Department’s building performance standards, to raise the bar for the nation’s least efficient buildings.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iyETLP">
|
||
“We need a long-term national commitment to retrofit the nation’s housing stock,” Wolfe said. “The IRA sets the stakes, but there will need to be more money, more training, and more resources.”
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>The Tennessee legislature’s expulsion of two Black Democrats is unprecedented and undemocratic</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="Three Tennessee Lawmakers Face Expulsion After Joining Gun Protest" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7iRAeSeAMx4Ru-7eiXLxbfI4st8=/10x0:5494x4113/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72151338/1250835377.15.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Democratic state Reps. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville and Justin Jones of Nashville raise their arms in defiance after a vote that expelled Jones from the governing body on April 6, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. | Seth Herald/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Republicans voted to remove Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black men, but declined to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oIXLbj">
|
||
In a rare and shocking move, the Tennessee state legislature voted to expel Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both Black men, for protesting for gun control. They declined to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman, who had engaged in a similar action, however.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SjeRac">
|
||
By a 72-25 vote, the Republican-dominant legislature voted to remove Jones from office, and by a 69-26 vote, they moved to do the same with Pearson. The vote to expel Johnson failed 65-30. The effort — which needed a two-thirds majority to pass, or a 66 vote threshold — is unprecedented.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B4qy8R">
|
||
It’s also undemocratic. Jones and Pearson were expelled not for breaking the law, but after leading student activists in gun control chants from the House floor. In the process, tens of thousands of voters who they represent in Nashville and Memphis, respectively, were disenfranchised.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G01rVi">
|
||
House Republicans justified their actions by saying that Jones and Pearson — along with Johnson — “knowingly and intentionally [brought] disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives” and that their chants broke chamber rules. The Democratic lawmakers acknowledged that they did violate certain rules around decorum, but argued they did so to speak out on behalf of their constituents who are frustrated by the lack of action on gun control.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="84vdL4">
|
||
Last week, Johnson, Pearson, and Jones joined thousands of students and parents who marched to the Capitol to call for gun reforms after three children and three adults were killed in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville. At one point, Jones and Pearson spoke on the House floor using bullhorns while accompanied by Johnson. Because they hadn’t been recognized to speak, the move was deemed a breach of the chamber’s rules.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OlKqts">
|
||
The legislature’s decision to expel Jones and Pearson, but not Johnson, was <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/06/tennessee-expulsion-amid-protests-house-gop-expel-lawmakers/70085057007/">said to be tied to the specifics of her role in the protest</a>, and also seems to be the latest example of white Republican lawmakers in Tennessee targeting Black political power. <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/06/tennessee-expulsion-vote-democrats-justin-jones-gloria-johnson-justin-pearson/70079929007/">According to The Tennessean,</a> two attorneys who defended Johnson noted that she did not use the bullhorn to lead chants, though she stood alongside Jones and Pearson in support.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JnRcAn">
|
||
Multiple lawmakers called out the racist nature of the vote. “You cannot ignore the racial dynamic of what happened today. Two young Black lawmakers get expelled and the one white woman does not?” <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/tennessee-gop-expels-two-black-lawmakers-for-joining-gun-protest-168325189571">Pearson said afterwards</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cRHlkR">
|
||
“The racism that is on display today! Wow!,” <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorLamar/status/1644127907718078470">wrote Democratic Sen. London Lamar on Twitter.</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4DUYV2">
|
||
The treatment of the two Black lawmakers echoes past Republican efforts to explicitly curb Black political power via bills that would gut local policies of Democrat-led cities like Nashville and Memphis, both of which have sizable Black populations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SAOrpl">
|
||
Only two lawmakers have been expelled from the Tennessee legislature since the Civil War, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-expulsion-gop-lawmakers-1c4793ba0552c07aa0dc3949c5f76ea9">according to the Associated Press</a>. The <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/04/tennessee-house-expulsions-history-legislative-members/70079648007/">most recent expulsion</a> was that of Rep. Jeremy Durham in 2016, over sexual misconduct allegations. Prior to that, Rep. Robert Fisher was expelled in 1980 for accepting a bribe to kill legislation. Pearson and Jones’ expulsions mark the first partisan removals in the state’s modern history and the only ones associated with a purported issue of decorum.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JjEMfY">
|
||
It’s possible both Pearson and Jones could get reappointed, however. Now, both their home county commissions are in charge of appointing interim representatives, which they could serve as. <a href="https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/05/what-if-tennessee-house-members-get-expelled-heres-what-we-know/70081397007/">There’s also nothing to prevent the</a> lawmakers from running for those same seats again, though it’s unclear if Republican leadership could try to bar them from getting sworn in.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="qyWwcx">
|
||
The resolutions to remove the lawmakers, briefly explained
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GV7w3f">
|
||
Republicans in the legislature filed Jones, Johnson, and Pearson’s expulsion resolutions following a gun control protest last Thursday when thousands of activists came to the Capitol in Nashville to call for reforms.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ADYiWe">
|
||
Currently, Tennessee has expansive gun rights and limited gun control, with the legislature and governor pushing laws in 2021 that <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paigeskinner/tennessee-governor-praying-nashville-school-shooting">enable more people to carry handguns</a> without a permit. The Republican-led legislature has also signaled it’s unlikely to do more on the issue in the near term.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UEnoQn">
|
||
“They came out this week and said they aren’t going to hear any more bills <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/03/31/tennessee-gun-legislation-nashville-school-shooting/">this year</a> to address gun violence.” says Brynn Jones, a Vanderbilt student and organizer with March For Our Lives.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HH3M64">
|
||
During the protest, Johnson, Jones, and Pearson — who represent Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis, respectively — went onto the House floor amid a legislative session and led protesters in the upper gallery in chants like “Gun control now,” using a bullhorn. Republicans had said that this behavior was disruptive and warranted expulsion. The Tennessee Constitution gives both chambers leeway in determining how they punish their members, though expulsion has only typically been used for unique and serious violations, like bribery and sexual misconduct.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J2yB53">
|
||
In this case, <a href="https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/heres-how-a-lawmaker-can-be-expelled-from-the-tn-house/">Republicans argued that Democrats</a> had broken multiple House rules including speaking without being recognized and crowding the House clerk’s desk. Speaker Cameron Sexton noted that Democrats violated principles of “decorum and procedure on the House floor,” and went so far as to compare <a href="https://www.wsmv.com/2023/04/04/speaker-sexton-compares-gun-protest-january-6-insurrection-draws-backlash/">the gun control protest misleadingly with an “insurrection,”</a> rhetorically linking lawmakers’ peaceful protest at their workplace with rioters’ deadly break-in at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The three Democrats had already been stripped of their committees following their participation in the protests.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QOmYCc">
|
||
Jones, Pearson and Johnson have said they protested to give attention to people’s concerns about gun control and the lack of action on it in the legislature. “My walk to the House floor in a peaceful and civil manner was not an insurrection. I wanted to listen and respond to the voices of Tennesseans who were not given the opportunity to speak in meaningful dialogue with us,” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CqnUbCdO2s5/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D">Pearson wrote in a letter to House members</a>, which he posted on Instagram. Both Pearson and Jones were first-term members, while Johnson was elected in 2018.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="krH6of">
|
||
Although the Democrats have said they broke rules about decorum, they’ve argued doing so was necessary to attempt to avoid future child gun deaths, with Jones using the term #GoodTrouble to reference the late Georgia Rep. John Lewis’s calls for civil rights activism. Their party has also pointed out that the consequences the lawmakers have already faced are very different from how Tennessee Republicans have treated issues within their own party. In the past, Republican leaders declined to expel members like state Rep. David Byrd, who was accused of child sexual abuse, and former House Speaker Glen Casada, who has since been indicted on charges of fraud and bribery.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UmkkYC">
|
||
“There should be a fair proportionate response regardless of party affiliation,” says Vanderbilt political science professor Samar Ali.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="HTyvwi">
|
||
Republicans’ actions send a chilling message
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hDv82F">
|
||
The introduction — and passage — of the expulsion resolution against Jones and Pearson sends a chilling message about free speech, democratic representation, and efforts to suppress Black political power. It also means that Jones and Pearson’s districts, which include more diverse constituencies, are stripped of the members that were democratically elected this past fall.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VXBIlj">
|
||
“These representatives are coming from some of the most diverse counties,” Ezri Tyler, a Vanderbilt student and March For Our Lives organizer said of the effort ahead of the vote. “Even just looking at the state legislature, they are trying to remove one of [few] women representatives and two young Black representatives in a majority white old male body.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7VIX8w">
|
||
That expulsion would disenfranchise Tennesseans has specifically been cited by Republicans in the past as to why they’ve refrained from <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2023/04/tn-speaker-who-refused-to-remove-republican-accused-of-child-sexual-abuse-moves-to-expel-three-dems-over-gun-violence-protest/">expelling their members</a>. And the Democratic lawmakers, who’ve been dubbed, the “Tennessee Three” have warned that the Tennessee GOP’s actions will create a model for the party to follow in other states.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ymjNf7">
|
||
“It will echo across the country. I think it will have a chilling effect on all states where there’s supermajorities or very red states,” <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/04/tennessee-gop-oust-dem-lawmakers-00090456">Rep. Gloria Johnson told Politico</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3w8fhc">
|
||
Beyond any potential effects outside the state, the debacle also sends a disturbing signal about lawmakers’ openness to even discussing gun control since it shuts down dissenting voices. “What’s clear is that this is an effort to undermine a conversation that has taken a long time to be had in Tennessee,” says Christian Heyne, vice president of policy at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
|
||
</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>Fans in for a feast as Super Cup kicks off</strong> - Blasters is scheduled to play Bengaluru FC on April 16, in their first meeting since the acrimonious clash in the ISL playoff</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>Royals need quick turnaround as they take on Capitals</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>Sai Sudharsan — building on pre-IPL domestic season form</strong> - Feels his knock against Delhi Capitals is one of the best he has played in his short career so far</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>Hockey India finalises key staff ahead of Asian Games</strong> - Chief coach Fulton to be assisted by analytical coach Halkett and scientific advisor Tan</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 glittering ceremony marks completion of tournament season at East Point Golf in Visakhapatnam</strong> - This year, about 10 major tournaments were conducted at East Point Golf Club in Visakhapatnam</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>Strive to bring TDP back to power in Andhra Pradesh, Kollu Ravindra urges party BC activists</strong> - “Every Backward Class will be given due priority if the TDP is voted to power in 2024”</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘B 32 Muthal 44 Vare’ movie review: A sensitive, nuanced take on body politics</strong> - Through the stories of six well-written characters, Shruthi Sharanyam’s film sensitively portrays the body politics faced by women while also delicately and empathetically handling homosexuality</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>120 persons booked for stone pelting, 18 arrested in Kodekal in Karnataka</strong> - The clash began when BJP workers objected to Congress workers blowing horns of their vehicles while passing by annual fair of Basavanna Devaru in Kodekal village</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ramp up COVID-19 testing and vaccination, identify hotspots, drill hospital infrastructure, Centre tells States</strong> - Daily COVID cases have risen to 4,188, and positivity is at 3%; much of the surge comes from eight States; in Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi, more than 10 districts have positivity rates above 10%</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nitish urges Centre to provide fresh stocks of Covid-19 vaccines</strong> - For the past few days, the Covid-19 cases are increasing in the state and on Thursday 17 people were found corona positive out of which 16 were from Patna, the state capital of Bihar.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>One Romanian family’s fatal attempt to reach the US</strong> - What drove the Iordache family to make a desperate bid to reach the US from Canada?</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>People were taking drugs in Spain 3,000 years ago, study finds</strong> - A new study finds people in Menorca got high on hallucinogenic drugs during the Bronze Age.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Macron counting on Xi to ‘bring Russia to senses’</strong> - The French president urges his Chinese counterpart to use his influence to end the Ukraine war.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Masha Moskaleva: Girl who drew anti-war image handed to mother</strong> - The Russian girl was taken away from her father after her school reported the picture to the authorities.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Italian ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi in hospital with leukaemia</strong> - Hospital officials say he has a chronic form of blood cancer after he is rushed to hospital in Milan.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rocket Report: Starship gets a tentative launch date; China tests ocean landing</strong> - Also, India gets closer to a human spaceflight. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1929603">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bank error in your favor: Google Pay bug accidentally sends users free money</strong> - Google tried to take the money back, but won’t chase users down who spent it. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1929700">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pandas in Wuhan market? China’s COVID genetic study is out—it has problems</strong> - The study acknowledges raccoon dogs were present but reports some unlikely animals. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1929768">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sony worries Microsoft will only give it a “degraded” Call of Duty</strong> - “Our business would never recover,” Sony exec says of potential substandard version. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1929772">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In 2019, Volkswagen decided to create a car OS—how’s that going?</strong> - The CEO of CARIAD, VW’s software arm, tells Ars what’s been going on at work. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1929749">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Two older guys were sitting on their usual park bench one morning. The 87-year-old had just finished his morning jog. The 80-year-old was amazed at his friend’s stamina and asked him what he did to have so much energy.</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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The 87-year-old said, <em>“Well, I eat rye bread every day. It keeps your energy level high and you’ll have great stamina with the ladies.”</em>
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||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
So, on the way home, the 80-year-old stops at the bakery. As he was looking around, the cashier asked if he needed any help. He said, <em>“Do you have any Rye bread?”</em>
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||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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||
She said, <em>“Yes, there’s a whole shelf of it. Would you like some?”</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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||
<em>“I want 5 loaves.”</em> he answered.
|
||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
She said, <em>“My goodness, 5 loaves! By the time you get to the third loaf, it’ll be hard.”</em>
|
||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Shocked, he replies <em>“I can’t believe it, everybody knows about this shit but me!”</em>
|
||
</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/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12e0tz8/two_older_guys_were_sitting_on_their_usual_park/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12e0tz8/two_older_guys_were_sitting_on_their_usual_park/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A pirate goes to the dermatologist.</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">
|
||
A pirate goes to the dermatologist to check the red bumps on his arm.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The dermatologist looks at them, and says “Don’t worry, they’re benign.”
|
||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The pirate says, “Arrr! I counted them meself, and there be eleven of ’em!”
|
||
</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/DooleyMTV"> /u/DooleyMTV </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12dz4pc/a_pirate_goes_to_the_dermatologist/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12dz4pc/a_pirate_goes_to_the_dermatologist/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bud light has always been trans…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
It’s water that identifies as beer.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
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||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Sweet_Baby_Cheezus"> /u/Sweet_Baby_Cheezus </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12dny2r/bud_light_has_always_been_trans/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12dny2r/bud_light_has_always_been_trans/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy wanted his wife dead so he hired Crazy Arti to murder her. Arti said he would do it for a dollar because, well, he’s crazy.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The husband said she always goes to the grocery store on Thursday so they decided to do it then. The day came and unbeknownst to Arti, the wife brought her friend with her so he strangled them both inside the grocery. The headline in the local newspaper the following day said…
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
ARTICHOKES 2 FOR A DOLLAR AT SAFEWAY
|
||
</p>
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||
</div>
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||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ClammyChipCup"> /u/ClammyChipCup </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12dv9na/a_guy_wanted_his_wife_dead_so_he_hired_crazy_arti/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12dv9na/a_guy_wanted_his_wife_dead_so_he_hired_crazy_arti/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What did Yoda tell Anakin after sleeping with Padame behind his back?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
May divorce be with you
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/darkysix"> /u/darkysix </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12dke3m/what_did_yoda_tell_anakin_after_sleeping_with/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/12dke3m/what_did_yoda_tell_anakin_after_sleeping_with/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
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