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580 lines
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<title>09 December, 2021</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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<body>
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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>As Omicron Spreads, Jerome Powell Is in the Hot Seat</strong> - With inflation and the new coronavirus variant buffeting the economy, the Federal Reserve chair is attempting a feat that Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke failed spectacularly to pull off. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/as-omicron-spreads-jerome-powell-is-in-the-hot-seat">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Accidental Revolutionary Leading Belarus’s Uprising</strong> - How Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya came to challenge her country’s dictatorship. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/13/the-accidental-revolutionary-leading-belaruss-uprising">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Ultra-Nationalist Éric Zemmour Makes a Bizarre Bid for the French Presidency</strong> - The far-right leader’s campaign carries alarming echoes of Vichy France. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-ultra-nationalist-eric-zemmour-makes-a-bizarre-bid-for-the-%20french-presidency">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Tragic Misfit Behind “Harriet the Spy”</strong> - The girl sleuth, now the star of a TV show, has been eased into the canon. In the process, she’s shed the politics that motivated her creation. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-tragic-misfit-behind-harriet-the-spy">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Millions of Tons of Carbon Emissions That Don’t Officially Exist</strong> - How a blind spot in the Kyoto Protocol helped create the biomass industry. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-millions-of-tons-of-carbon-emissions-that-dont-%20officially-exist">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 data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Facebook still won’t give up Instagram for Kids</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/-hbCEx62il9uXCWi15DTBFRNYNk=/747x0:6720x4480/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70247862/1237103637.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri testifying at a Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday. | Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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</figcaption></figure></li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Even under serious political pressure, the company insists its products aren’t inherently harmful for young users.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KFcOFt">
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Following damaging internal leaks that showed <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-
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show-11631620739">Instagram can negatively impact teens’ mental health</a>, Instagram said it would halt its plan to build a version of its app for kids. But on Wednesday, the company revealed it hasn’t ruled out making an “Instagram for Kids” one day.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hCy9Mm">
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At a Senate hearing on Instagram’s impact on children and teens on Wednesday, when Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) asked Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri if he would commit to permanently stopping development of Instagram for Kids, Mosseri responded:
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</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GQ2Op7">
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What I can commit to you today is that no child between the ages of 10 to 12 — should we ever manage to build Instagram for 10- to 12-year-olds — will have access to that without explicit parental consent.
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</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e9ZiB4">
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In other words, Mosseri was saying that Instagram may still build a product for kids, despite facing months of heavy public outrage and political pressure to abandon those plans.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gF2h7T">
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The exchange reveals a deeper takeaway from the hearing: Instagram — and its parent company Meta (formerly Facebook) — do not seem to believe their product is harmful enough to children and teens that it needs radical change.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="skTJzA">
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That’s in spite of internal company research leaked by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, which showed that one in three teenage girls who felt bad about their bodies said Instagram made them feel worse. The research also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-
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toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739">showed that 13 percent of British teenage users and 6 percent of American teenage users</a> who had suicidal thoughts traced the desire to kill themselves to Instagram.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0gia7w">
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While Mosseri struck a thoughtful and serious tone at the hearing when discussing topics like teen suicide, he minimized his company’s own research that showed Instagram can contribute to teenage depression and denied that Instagram is addictive.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3oxPdw">
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His answers seemed to do little to reassure the remarkably bipartisan group of US lawmakers at the hearing, who say they believe Instagram is damaging teenagers’ mental health. These lawmakers say they are committed to passing legislation that could force Facebook and other tech companies to change their businesses to better protect children.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aI1rs6">
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Instagram’s impact on teenage mental health has become a lightning rod in larger conversations about regulating social media, at a time when a growing proportion of the US public is increasingly distrustful of major tech companies.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DegCzI">
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But Facebook and Instagram continue to downplay this harm.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OiIftY">
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When Blumenthal asked Mosseri if he supports legislation to outlaw social media apps <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/23/social-media-addiction-gambling">that are designed to be addictive for certain users</a>, Mosseri replied, “Senator, respectfully, I don’t believe the research suggests that our products are addictive. Research actually shows that on 11 of 12 difficult issues that teens face, teens who are struggling said that Instagram helps more than harms.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PcZZTM">
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“We can debate the meaning of the word ‘addicted,’ but the fact is that teens who go to the platform find it difficult and maybe sometimes impossible to stop,” said Blumenthal.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sV4YjS">
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Another illustrative moment in the two-and-a-half-hour hearing was a back-and-forth between Mosseri and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). While Cruz has used past hearings about social media to promote partisan concerns about alleged conservative censorship, this time the legislator stayed focused on the issue of children’s mental health.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vo5K7l">
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When Cruz pressed Mosseri about the internal research about Instagram’s harm to teenagers with body image issues and suicidal thoughts, Mosseri again argued that on the whole, Instagram made life better for teens.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3Y47v7">
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“If we’re going to have a conversation about the research, I think we need to be clear about what it actually says. It actually showed that one out of three girls who suffer from body image issues find that Instagram makes things worse, and that came from a slide with 23 other statistics where more teens found that Instagram makes things better,” said Mosseri.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fUxrdk">
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In a later exchange, Mosseri said that social media platforms like Instagram have “helped important movements like body positivity to flourish. … It has helped diversify the definitions of beauty, and that’s something that we think is incredibly important.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YlKUgZ">
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These defenses didn’t seem to soften lawmakers’ stances.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jVtg9i">
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“I’m a mom; I’m a grandma. … I have a 12- and 13-year-old grandson. I’m talking to parents all the time,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) at a press conference after the hearing. “And we know that [in] the vast number of stories that we are hearing, so many of the parents mentioned the adverse impact” of social media.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XrgGN8">
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Blackburn called Mosseri’s assertion that Instagram does more good than harm to teen users “astounding,” and said that “really sounded removed from the situation.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4XDqId">
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This all makes it clear that Facebook has lost significant trust with lawmakers. Whatever goodwill the company might have had on Capitol Hill a decade ago, when Facebook was still in its infancy and thought of by many as a universal social good, has been drastically diminished after years of controversy over the company’s struggles with privacy, hate speech, and other harmful content on its platforms.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PVzdJY">
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“Big Tech loves to use grand, eloquent phrases about bringing people together, but the simple reality and why so many Americans distrust Big Tech is: You make money,” said Cruz.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="shI1ua">
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It’s still too soon to say if Congress will actually pass legislation to force Facebook and other social media companies to fundamentally change their businesses to better protect teens and other users. Right now, there are several bills out to create stronger privacy laws, to establish penalties for Facebook if it allows damaging content to surface, and to mandate that Facebook must share more data with outside researchers to assess the harms of its products. So far, none of these bills have passed or are even close to passing.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cqpZ20">
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But this hearing reaffirmed how Democrats and Republicans are in increasing lockstep that something must be done on the topic of how social media can harm teens.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LLZIrd">
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Jim Steyer, the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Common Sense Media, which promotes safe technology and media for children and families, has long advocated for Congress to pass legislation that would better protect children on the platform by safeguarding their privacy and other measures. He said that even though Congress hasn’t moved quickly enough, he thinks Wednesday’s hearing is a sign that momentum is building for real legislation.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QP9GGl">
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“We’ve seen this movie way too many times before when it comes to Facebook and Instagram — and it’s time for action by Congress on a bipartisan basis period, full stop,” he said. “But I do think it’s going to happen now.”
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Wait, is Russia going to invade Ukraine?</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/Wnn1pZjTl3bDtUvWsF6l9GRmEkY=/0x0:2323x1742/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70246476/AP21337620588416.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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A Ukrainian soldier walks under a camouflage net in a trench on the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on December 3. | Andriy Dubchak/AP
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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 Russian troop buildup at Ukraine’s border threatens to intensify a long-running conflict.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SILoAh">
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A troubling buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border has Kyiv, Washington, and pretty much everyone else asking if Russia is about to invade Ukraine — again.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X529dD">
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The US and its allies, including Ukraine, are trying to forestall that scenario, most recently in a <a href="https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1468268999851089921?s=20">two-hour video call Tuesday</a> between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zxqyyr">
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During the call, Biden told Putin the “US and our allies would respond with strong economic and other measures” if Russia pursued military escalation, according to the White House, and called for a return to diplomacy. To be clear, a military option is not among the “other measures,” as Biden said Wednesday sending US troops unilaterally was “<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/08/sending-us-
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combat-troops-to-ukraine-not-in-the-cards-right-now-biden-says-523938">not in the cards right now</a>.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mJ6uqi">
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The Kremlin’s readout largely <a href="https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/1468309358249488388?s=20">blamed Ukraine for the crisis</a>, and NATO, for cooperating with Kyiv. It wanted guarantees against NATO’s eastward expansion, something the US, and NATO, will never give.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lHj21i">
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The call is far from a resolution, but the hope is that it will at least delay any dramatic action. Ahead of the meeting between the two leaders, US intelligence officials <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russia-ukraine-
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invasion/2021/12/03/98a3760e-546b-11ec-8769-2f4ecdf7a2ad_story.html">warned</a> that Russia was planning a major military offensive into Ukraine, launching as many as 175,000 troops into the country as soon as early next year. Russia had already been amassing troops and equipment along parts of Ukraine’s border, placing about 70,000 troops there, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russia-ukraine-
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invasion/2021/12/03/98a3760e-546b-11ec-8769-2f4ecdf7a2ad_story.html">according to a recent US estimate</a>. Ukrainian officials put the number higher, at <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-warns-putin-strong-
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response-if-russia-invades-ukraine-n1285523">more than 90,000</a>. These troop <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/satellite-images-show-russian-troop-buildup-sparking-invasion-
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fears-2021-12">buildups</a> had intensified fears that Russia would invade<strong> </strong>Ukraine, throwing the region into conflict and the European continent into deep crisis.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xmvo2I">
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In 2014, Russia <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/17/crimea-six-years-after-illegal-annexation/">seized the Crimean Peninsula</a> from Ukraine and aided a rebellion in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where pro-Russia separatists now control breakaway parts of Donetsk and Luhansk. A peace process in 2014 and 2015, <a href="https://www.gmfus.org/download/article/14875">known as the Minsk agreement</a>, was never fully implemented, and hostilities turned into this simmering conflict that still has, in seven years, killed more than 14,000 people.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cezXbN">
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This tenuous status quo has prevailed for years, and though a terrible result, especially for those in and near the fighting, it maybe wasn’t the worst outcome possible. Russia could keep Ukraine on edge because of constant unrest in eastern Ukraine, and Ukraine could get aid and attention from Western countries because of Russia’s aggression.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nPL6XC">
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“That was, to a large extent, the conventional wisdom,” said Olga Oliker, the program director for Europe and Central Asia with the International Crisis Group. “When Russia poured troops into the neighborhood, it led to this realization of, ‘Oh, maybe they’re not so happy with the situation as it is.’”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OjtypT">
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Troops are definitely in the neighborhood, though Putin has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-
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denies-ukraine-invasion-plans-amid-concerns-over-troop-buildup-2021-11">denied</a> any intention of launching an attack. Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/russian-envoy-says-moscow-wont-
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invade-ukraine-unless-provoked-01636682769">said</a> last month that Moscow “never planned, never did, and is never going to do it unless we’re provoked by Ukraine, or by somebody else.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0ezUfq">
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That may also depend on what Russia interprets as a provocation. Putin sees Ukraine’s closer cooperation with the West, specifically NATO, as leading toward an unacceptable outcome for Moscow: Ukraine’s potential membership in the alliance. Preventing Ukraine’s incorporation into Western organizations like NATO, but also the European Union, was part of the motivation for Russia’s incursions into Ukraine in 2014, said Sarah Pagung, an associate fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. “But what we’ve actually seen over the last years is Ukraine, as a consequence of the Crimean annexation, more intensively pursued the path of Western integration,” she said.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pwcOKh">
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None of these dynamics are entirely new, though experts said there are a few factors that might explain why Ukraine-Russia tensions are spiraling right now, including Russia’s dissatisfaction with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s continued orientation toward NATO, and a sense that the West is preoccupied.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt="A man wearing
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camouflage gear and a helmet, standing in a trench." src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/pxdL6cE2TKgRy7MEe5eoXYUpNcA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23073674/AP21340548034040.jpg"/> <cite>Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits troops in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on December 6.
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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="brarEh">
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War isn’t inevitable, and it would come with significant costs to Russia, too. But there are also tactics short of a full-on war that could still cause havoc for Ukraine. But what happens next, and the possible outcomes, remain uncertain.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fPaiHh">
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“The problem is we don’t know what Putin wants, and this is really the bottom line,” said Alexander Motyl, an expert in Soviet and post-Soviet politics at Rutgers University Newark. “Is he testing? Is he invading? Is he teaching the Ukrainians a lesson? We don’t know. And so it’s hard to do anything, because we don’t know what [Putin] wants, and we don’t know how far he’s willing to go.”
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</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h3 id="Wefmxz">
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What has changed that Russia is building up troops on the Ukrainian border?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wbUcYY">
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The current Ukraine-Russia crisis is a continuation of 2014, which itself was linked to a deep-rooted historical narrative in Russia held by<strong> </strong>Putin and many Russian elites.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Yxlwe">
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“Their No. 1 objective is to reestablish as much of the old empire as it could — Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia,” said Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis. “I think this is part of the legacy that President Putin sees for [himself].”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LYaZFY">
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||
Ukraine is central to this vision. Culturally and economically, Putin sees Ukraine as tied to Russia. Putin used his hot vax summer to publish an article about how Ukrainians and Russians “<a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181">were one people — a single whole</a>,” according to an English translation posted on the Kremlin’s website. For him, the ex-Soviet Republic is not really a sovereign state but belongs to Russia, or at least would if not for the meddling from outside forces (read: the West) that have created a “<a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181">wall</a>” between the two.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NN6yxV">
|
||
“Step by step, Ukraine was dragged into a dangerous geopolitical game aimed at turning Ukraine into a barrier between Europe and Russia, a springboard against Russia,” <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181">Putin wrote</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6yTrNA">
|
||
This issue of Ukraine being a “springboard” for military action<strong> </strong>against Russia is also unacceptable to Putin. He wants to recreate a “sphere of influence” for Moscow, and Ukraine is the buffer between it and NATO. As Ukraine moves closer to the West, that buffer crumbles.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E8dWRw">
|
||
“The reason there’s a war in Ukraine has a lot to do with Russia’s perception of the post-Cold War order in Europe, this notion that Western states have been moving closer and closer to Russia’s borders, and indeed, gobbling up its natural sphere of influence,” Oliker said. “Ukraine’s the front line on that.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/ghoXR_I4vQZxgB52TaIVLVEEE24=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23073721/AP21341506532478.jpg"/> <cite>Andriy Dubchak/AP</cite></p>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Ukrainian soldiers walk at the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on December 7.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2srtLX">
|
||
But recent political developments within Ukraine, the United States, Europe, and Russia help explain why tensions are flaring at this moment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IX7bHr">
|
||
Among those developments are the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487">2019 election of Ukrainian president Zelensky</a>. In addition to the other thing you <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/9/24/20882359/trump-impeachment-ukraine-
|
||
president-zelensky">might remember Zelensky for</a>, he promised during his campaign he would <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/06/ukraine-peace-talks-russia-war-donbass/">seek a solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine</a>. He said that would include <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/ukraine-
|
||
president-volodymyr-zelenskiy-gives-putin-one-year-strike-deal-end-war">dealing with Putin directly</a> to resolve the conflict. Russia, too, likely thought it could get something out of this: a potentially malleable Zelensky who might be more open to Russia’s point of view. That includes Russia’s desire to have Ukraine reincorporate separatist regions back into the country and hold elections, as outlined in the Minsk agreement. That sounds like something Ukraine would want until you recognize Russia has since effectively <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/08/27/in-the-donbass-
|
||
russias-newest-citizens-prepare-to-vote-a74912">taken over those breakaway regions</a>, and so it would really be, as one expert said, a “Trojan horse” for Moscow to wield influence and control Ukraine.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aoGivn">
|
||
Such a concession would be politically untenable for Zelensky based on the current situation on the ground, which forced Zelensky to take a tougher line on Russia and turn to the West for help. Beyond partnerships with NATO, Zelensky has <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/ukraine-president-says-nation-is-ready-to-join-nato">even talked openly about joining NATO</a>. For Putin, pining for his estranged brothers, this confirmed his worst fears.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n2tWmv">
|
||
“In getting to the point [where] Zelensky was calling for outright membership in NATO and crossing what Russia has long viewed as one of their red lines — I think that does help to explain why Russians felt an impetus to threaten far greater and new use of direct military force,” said Zachary Witlin, a senior analyst with the Eurasia Group.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jcViEm">
|
||
Just because Zelensky is asking when Kyiv gets itself into NATO does not actually mean Ukrainian membership is a realistic possibility. NATO and member states within NATO like the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-
|
||
room/statements-releases/2021/09/01/joint-statement-on-the-u-s-ukraine-strategic-partnership/">US</a> and <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/uk-signs-deal-to-help-boost-ukraines-navy-in-the-face-of-increased-threat-from-
|
||
russia-12470490">Great Britain</a> are cooperating with Ukraine on security, they’re helping in training and reforms, and providing (<a href="https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/delivery-of-turkish-drones-to-ukraine-continue-as-planned-
|
||
official-169867">or sellin</a>g) military equipment. But a close partnership is not the same as membership, as it doesn’t come with the obligation of mutual defense, and the NATO countries don’t exactly want to sign themselves up for a potential war with Russia.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9ymGyX">
|
||
Of course, NATO will never <em>say </em>Ukrainian membership is off the table because this is what Putin wants. Putin asked President Biden for legal guarantees that NATO wouldn’t expand eastward or put weapons systems in Ukraine during their call Tuesday; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/07/world/biden-putin#here-are-five-takeaways-from-the-biden-putin-call">US officials said they would never make such assurances</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dz4F7W">
|
||
Still, Ukraine’s closer cooperation with NATO is undeniable, said Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Politics Institute. “Putin and Kremlin understand that Ukraine will not be a part of NATO,” Bortnik said. “But Ukraine became an informal member of NATO without a formal decision.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SRb2WO">
|
||
That may have left Russia feeling as though it had exhausted all of its political and diplomatic tools to bring Ukraine back into the fold. “Moscow security elites feel that they have to act now because if they don’t, military cooperation between NATO and Ukraine will become even more intense and even more sophisticated,” Pagung, of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EhLzHY">
|
||
This is also not the first time Putin has signaled that he is prepared to ramp up pressure on Ukraine. In the spring of 2021, Russia began <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/russian-and-ukrainian-spring-2021-war-scare">gathering forces and equipment near parts of the Ukrainian border</a> under the guise of “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/world/europe/russia-
|
||
ukraine-troops.html">readiness exercises</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/PxkUgJ72wXlXnptI-lZEF87Tqoo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23073736/AP21078784564449.jpg"/> <cite>AP</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
People adjust a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin attached to a balloon during an anniversary celebration of the 2014 Crimean annexation in Sevastopol, Crimea, on March 18.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VJSNfJ">
|
||
Experts said this current buildup is a continuation of that, though Putin’s troop buildup also looked very much like a signal to the new administration in Washington, with a specific message to the White House that it should not underestimate, or forget about, Moscow’s ability to cause mayhem.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SNiZ0a">
|
||
Putin more or less got his wish, in the form of a <a href="https://www.vox.com/22535041/biden-putin-summit-geneva-navalny-nuclear">summit in Geneva with the new US president</a>. Not long after plans for the get-together were announced, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22535041/biden-
|
||
putin-summit-geneva-navalny-nuclear">Putin began drawing down some of the troops on the Ukrainian border</a>. But Putin’s own perspective on the US has also shifted, experts said, with things like the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal (which Moscow would know something about) and the US’s domestic turmoil revealing signs of fragility. “Instead of being fear-driven by the fear that America is strong and will come after them, now they’re opportunity-driven: they think that America is weak, and maybe in the spring we have just missed the chance,” said Gustav Gressel, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eFL4zb">
|
||
All of this may make Russia feel a bit opportunistic. The United States is distracted by its domestic agenda and wants to focus on China. Europe is dealing with its own internal crises, like a <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/01/poland-crisis-european-union-immigration-democracy-
|
||
law/">rebellious Poland</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/polish-belarus-border-migrant-crossings-
|
||
decrease-tension-remains-2021-12-06/">tensions with Belarus</a>, a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/13/business/uk-
|
||
eu-northern-ireland-protocol-article-16-intl-gbr-cmd/index.html">hangover from Brexit</a>, and a <a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/regions/europe/">surging coronavirus wave</a>. Germany <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/8/22810520/germany-government-olaf-scholz-chancellor-greens-fdp">has a new chancellor</a>; France <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/how-france-pivoted-to-the-right/">has elections soon</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N4aM4A">
|
||
Those distractions, combined with Ukraine’s resistance and affinity for NATO, may embolden Putin. Some experts noted Putin has his own domestic pressures to deal with, including the coronavirus and a struggling economy, and he may think such an adventure will boost his standing at home, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/8/29/6082769/one-chart-why-putin-invading-ukraine">just like it did in 2014</a>. “There may be a sense of now or never,” Motyl said. “We recapture this place, which shouldn’t have been independent in the first place. Perhaps they made a mistake, and we need to rectify that.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="JfVz1c">
|
||
So what happens now?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J2J0Fn">
|
||
Biden and Putin didn’t come to a real resolution over Ukraine during their Tuesday meeting. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/08/russia-talks-of-rapid-ukraine-
|
||
discussions-after-biden-putin-summit">said Wednesday</a> that the two leaders did agree to talks to discuss this “complex, confrontational situation.” The White House readout said that the two sides would follow up, and the US “would do so in close cooperation with its allies.” Biden spoke to US allies after the Putin call, and is speaking Thursday to Zelensky.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/VGgweFV_6MqPAL25vHmq4x7l8TQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23073695/AP21341641794893.jpg"/> <cite>Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with President Joe Biden via videoconference in the Bocharov Ruchei residence in Sochi, Russia, on December 7.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ahdsq5">
|
||
US and NATO officials have <a href="https://twitter.com/idreesali114/status/1466058435934527490?s=20">repeatedly indicated</a> they’re not interested in a head-to-head military conflict with Russia over Ukraine, which means the US and its allies are most likely looking at some sort of economic pressure on Russia.<strong> </strong>Some reporting suggests that any Russian provocation would <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/us-has-understanding-with-germany-shut-nord-stream-2-pipeline-if-
|
||
russia-invades-2021-12-07/">effectively kill Nord Stream 2</a>, the gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany that’s not yet up and running. Biden <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57180674">had waived sanctions against Nord Stream 2 in the spring</a>, a concession, in part, to its ally Germany but something Russia also saw as a win. Experts said there are other sanction options that could put pressure on Russia, such as cutting Russia off from SWIFT, the international payments system.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zWEDBL">
|
||
“I will look you in the eye and tell you, as President Biden looked Putin in the eye and told him today, that things we did not do in 2014 we are prepared to do now,” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/07/politics/biden-putin-call-ukraine/index.html">National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Tuesday</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OwWJKd">
|
||
But tens of thousands of Russian troops are still at Ukraine’s borders, an undeniable threat. “The problem with these concentrations of troops is that this can come also as an embarrassment for Putin if he does not get anything of the sort out of it,” said Andreas Umland, a Kyiv-based analyst for the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qo1ifJ">
|
||
And that something is not necessarily all- out war. Russia has already invaded Ukraine and is supporting separatists in Donbas (though it denies it). The heightened tensions mean Ukraine is also on high alert, and its military may be stretched as it tries to fend off a possible attack. Russia could take advantage and try to expand the conflict in eastern Ukraine. “The fact is, Putin can try to destabilize the Ukrainians by inflicting more casualties and trying to escalate. And from there, I can see, ‘Okay, can I go further? Or will the West react?’” Gressel said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aLYuTL">
|
||
This may even be the more likely scenario, and experts in the US, Europe, and Ukraine that I spoke to do not think war is inevitable, though it is undeniably a very dangerous situation. Putin’s ultimate goal is to get Ukraine to do what he wants, and what he wants is for Ukraine to come back under its influence and control. But even a large-scale evasion might not achieve that, and it would come with extreme costs for Russia. Russia could ultimately outmatch Ukraine’s military, but it would not be a bloodless fight. Russian soldiers would die — despite <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/02/russia-ukraine-
|
||
liberated/">Putin’s propaganda that suggests Ukraine would welcome Russia as its liberator</a>. A war with Ukraine could lead to an occupation, an insurgency, and the destruction of the country. No rational leader would attempt that, Motyl said. “And the answer to that is: But is Putin rational?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Supreme Court appears really eager to force taxpayers to fund religious education</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/SV2AVwXN-p6XCDKvJZUPcgixiBc=/381x0:6524x4607/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70245737/1236931870.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Reproductive rights and anti- abortion protesters rally outside the US Supreme Court before the start of oral arguments in <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization</em> on December 1, 2021. | Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption></figure></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Carson v. Makin appears likely to end in another transformative victory for the religious right.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZiSx0L">
|
||
At an oral argument held Wednesday morning, all six members of the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority appeared likely to blow a significant new hole in the wall separating church and state.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R2HXb6">
|
||
The case is <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/carson-v-makin/"><em>Carson v. Makin</em></a>; the question is whether the state of Maine is required to subsidize religious education; and the majority’s answer appears, at least under certain circumstances, to be yes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5OAgha">
|
||
Under current law, as Justice Elena Kagan noted during Wednesday’s argument, the question of whether to fund religious education is typically <a href="https://www.vox.com/22807738/supreme-court-carson-makin-maine-school-vouchers-religious-liberty-free-exercise-
|
||
right-tax">left up to elected officials</a>. Maine’s legislators decided not to do so when they drafted the state’s unusual tuition voucher program that’s at issue in <em>Carson, </em>and is meant to ensure that children in sparsely populated areas still receive a free education.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2ebStH">
|
||
The overwhelming majority of Maine schoolchildren attend a school designated by their local school district. But a small minority — <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1088/197324/20211022151803212_Brief%20of%20Respondent%2010%2022%2021.pdf">fewer than 5,000</a> students, according to the state — live in rural areas where it is not cost-effective for the state to either operate its own public school or contract with a nearby school to educate local students. In these areas, students are provided a subsidy, which helps them pay tuition at the private school of their family’s choice.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PsxWiN">
|
||
The issue in <em>Carson</em> is that only “nonsectarian” schools are eligible for this subsidy. Families may still send their children to religious schools, but the state will not pay for children to attend schools that seek to inculcate their students into a religious faith.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y2IsHY">
|
||
All six of the Court’s Republican appointees appeared to think that this exclusion for religious schools is unconstitutional — meaning that Maine would be required to pay for tuition at pervasively religious schools. Notably, that could include schools that espouse hateful worldviews. According to the state, one of the plaintiff families in <em>Carson</em> wants the state to pay for a school that requires teachers to sign a contract stating that “the Bible says that ‘<a href="https://www.vox.com/22807738/supreme-court-carson-makin-maine-school-vouchers-religious-liberty-free-exercise-
|
||
right-tax">God recognize[s] homosexuals and other deviants as perverted</a>’” and that “[s]uch deviation from Scriptural standards is grounds for termination.’”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y4oNLa">
|
||
In the likely event that these plaintiffs’ families prevail, that will mark a significant escalation in the Court’s decisions benefiting the religious right — even if the Court limits the decision narrowly to Maine’s situation.<strong> </strong>Shortly after Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation gave Republicans a 6-3 supermajority on the Supreme Court, the Court handed down a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/2/21726876/supreme-court-religious-liberty-revolutionary-roman-catholic-diocese-cuomo-
|
||
amy-coney-barrett">revolutionary decision</a> holding that people of faith may seek broad exemptions from the laws that apply to anyone else. But the Court has historically been more reluctant to require the government to tax its citizens and spend that money on religion.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IHqcIz">
|
||
That reluctance may very well be gone.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="WrPGBc">
|
||
The Court’s conservative majority wants to redefine what constitutes religious “discrimination”
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Db0iUU">
|
||
The purpose of Maine’s exclusion for sectarian schools, according to Christopher Taub, the lawyer given the unfortunate task of defending that exclusion against a hostile Supreme Court, is to ensure that the state remains “neutral and silent” on questions of religion.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zRMASm">
|
||
For many years, the Constitution was understood to <em>require</em> this kind of neutrality. As the Court held in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3620075287275437211"><em>Everson v. Board of Education</em></a><em> </em>(1947), “no tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n6f3hG">
|
||
<em>Everson</em> was effectively abandoned by the Court’s decision in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=127516650659374253"><em>Zelman v. Simmons-Harris</em></a> (2002), in which a 5-4 Court upheld a pilot program in Ohio that provided tuition vouchers funding private education — including at religious schools. But <em>Zelman</em>, as Kagan pointed out today, merely held that states “could” fund religious education if they chose to do so. Nothing in that decision prevents states from adopting the same neutral posture toward religion that was once required by cases like <em>Everson</em>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F3hPG2">
|
||
On Wednesday, however, several members of the Court’s Republican-appointed majority questioned whether religious neutrality is even possible, and suggested that Maine’s efforts to remain neutral on questions of religion are themselves a form of discrimination against people of faith.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x3uNgN">
|
||
Chief Justice John Roberts, for example, proposed a hypothetical involving two private schools. One of these schools teaches its religious beliefs openly and explicitly, and it also teaches a particular set of religious values in the process. The other school might eschew explicit references to God or to a holy text, but it teaches a different value system that is motivated by religious beliefs. If the state funds the latter school but not the former one, Roberts asked, why is it not drawing “distinctions based on doctrine”?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GczMdf">
|
||
Justice Samuel Alito, meanwhile, offered the Fox News version of Roberts’s argument. Maine’s law, Alito noted, does not contain explicit exemptions for private schools that teach white supremacy or critical race theory, but it does explicitly exempt religious schools from its tuition program. The implication was that Maine is discriminating against religion and in favor of critical race theory.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hf5roF">
|
||
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, meanwhile, offered the most direct version of this argument that neutrality toward religion is the same thing as discrimination. “Discriminating against all religions” is still unlawful discrimination, Kavanaugh told Taub — a position that is difficult to square with the text of the First Amendment, which prohibits laws “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">respecting an establishment of religion</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YtN1jC">
|
||
It should be noted that Roberts and Kavanaugh are, while both very conservative, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/1/22811837/supreme-court-roe-wade-abortion-doomed-jackson-womens-health-dobbs-barrett-
|
||
kavanaugh-roberts">most moderate members</a> of the Court’s six-justice conservative bloc. So if both of these justices vote against Maine, it’s hard to imagine how the state finds five votes to sustain its law.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="23SsOR">
|
||
That said, there is an off chance that the Court will dismiss this case. Early in the oral argument, Justice Clarence Thomas pointed to the fact that his Court may not have jurisdiction to hear the <em>Carson</em> case.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mf8a4e">
|
||
Under <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10150124802357408838&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr"><em>Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife</em></a><em> </em>(1992), federal courts may not hear a lawsuit unless the injury alleged by the plaintiffs can be “redressed by a favorable decision.” But, according to Maine, both of the plaintiff families want to send their children to schools that might refuse state funds even if such funds are offered to them — because Maine forbids all entities that receive state subsidies from <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1088/191423/20210903155751180_Brief%20for%20Petitioners.pdf">discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SKt32h">
|
||
Even if the Court were to order Maine to provide tuition subsidies to religious schools, in other words, the plaintiffs in <em>Carson</em> might wind up with nothing, because their preferred schools could choose to keep their anti-LGBTQ policies intact instead of receiving state subsidies.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vf0w2o">
|
||
Nevertheless, even if the Court does ultimately decide to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction, that will only delay a reckoning over public funding for religious institutions. Eventually, some lawyer will find a school that is willing to accept state funding. And when that happens, there will likely be at least five votes on the Supreme Court to hand that lawyer a victory.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="vdReZe">
|
||
The justices are likely to place some limits on its decision in <em>Carson</em>, but it’s not yet clear how they will justify those limits
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="alE4lO">
|
||
Although the six conservative justices showed little sympathy for Maine’s position — or for existing law — on Wednesday, some of them did suggest that there should be some limits on a decision forcing states to fund religion.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="69dLqq">
|
||
Roberts, for example, suggested that he might strike down a program that gave money directly to religious institutions in order to fund religious programs, rather than providing tuition grants to parents who then turn that money over to a religious school. Suppose that a state has a program that funds building construction at private schools, Roberts suggested at one point, but that also provides that the money cannot be used to build a chapel. He appeared to be suggesting that such an exclusion for chapel construction is permissible.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HuwTJ9">
|
||
Similarly, Kavanaugh asked Michael Bindas, the lawyer challenging Maine’s program, whether religious families are entitled to tuition vouchers merely because their state funds ordinary public schools. Bindas denied that tuition vouchers are required under these circumstances, pointing to a line in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1195_g314.pdf"><em>Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue</em></a> (2020) stating that “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/30/21308204/supreme-court-
|
||
separation-church-state-espinoza-montana-school-religion">a State need not subsidize private education</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vqm0VQ">
|
||
But it’s hard to draw a principled line between a Court decision requiring Maine to fund religious education as part of its existing private school tuition program and a decision requiring all states with a public school system to fund religious education.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b4kcrh">
|
||
In his brief, Bindas argues that policies that require religious families to “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1088/191423/20210903155751180_Brief%20for%20Petitioners.pdf">choose between their religious beliefs and receiving a government benefit</a>” are unconstitutional. But if the Constitution does not permit states to force families to choose between receiving a free education and a religious one, then then it’s unclear why this rule wouldn’t threaten <em>any</em> public school system.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lHrY1t">
|
||
Traditional public education, where students attend a government-run school for free, is a government benefit. All families who send their children to private, religious schools choose to forgo this government benefit. So, under the rule articulated in Bindas’s brief, every state may be required to pay for private tuition at religious schools.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XSnvEG">
|
||
In any event, the Court <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/7/22821274/texas-gerrymandering-justice-department-lawsuit-voting-
|
||
rights-act-supreme-court-biden">has previously drawn unprincipled lines</a> that are difficult to square with legal texts and existing doctrines. So if five justices are bothered by the possibility that ordinary public school districts may be required to fund religious education, they could simply declare that such a thing is not required and leave it at that. Proponents of a wall of separation between church and state can take some minor comfort in that fact.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NC1sXL">
|
||
At the very least, however, the Court appears likely to hand down a transformative decision rethinking much of its approach to religion — and to force at least some states to fund religious education in the process.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n18pkG">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vijay Hazare Trophy | Atharva’s unbeaten 164 blows away Andhra Pradesh</strong> - Atharva Taide made a mockery of the chase as he blasted 15 boundaries and five sixes</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>Smriti Mandhana ideal choice to lead India after Mithali Raj retires: Shantha Rangaswamy</strong> - Former captain Shantha Rangaswamy feels “excellent performer” Mandhana “should be given the opportunity to lead the country”</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>Ashes Test | Head, Warner help Australia to 196-run lead at stumps on day two</strong> - David Warner set up the Australian innings with 94 runs, while Travis Head extended the lead with an unbeaten century</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>What India searched on Google and posted on Twitter in 2021</strong> - Social media giants release list of topics that trended on their websites</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>Cummins & Co. rip through England</strong> - Skipper takes a five-for while Starc and Hazlewood scalp two each</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>Parliament passes Bill to enhance status of six more institutes of pharma education, research</strong> - The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was cleared by the Rajya Sabha on Thursday with a voice vote.</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>Actor Jacqueline Fernandez appears before ED on day 2</strong> - The agency suspects she is a “beneficiary” of the proceeds.</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>No solution to Naga political issue if AFSPA not repealed: NSCN (I-M)</strong> - Emboldened by law, soldiers treating Nagas as sub-humans, it says</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>Opposition protests government’s move to extend tenures of CBI, ED directors; terms it ‘arbitrary’</strong> - Moving a statutory resolution for disapproval of the Ordinances, Congress MP Manish Tewari said those were “arbitrary, capricious” and an “exercise of power”.</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>Helicopter crash: Investigators fly drones to gather evidence</strong> - Foggy weather slows down pace of probe; pall of gloom in Kattery village</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>Russia Ukraine: Sending US troops not on table - Biden</strong> - The US president says a Western response to a Russian invasion would not include boots on the ground.</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>British waste dumped in Romania</strong> - A BBC investigation has uncovered British waste being illegally shipped to Romania and dumped.</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>Netherlands to buy Rembrandt Standard Bearer self-portrait</strong> - The Dutch government puts aside €150m for the 1636 work, currently owned by the Rothschild family.</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>Germany’s Olaf Scholz takes over from Merkel as chancellor</strong> - Olaf Scholz is sworn in as chancellor, leading a three-party coalition after 16 years of Merkel rule.</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>Bayern Munich 3-0 Barcelona: Barca out of Champions League and drop down to Europa League</strong> - Barcelona lose to Bayern Munich to miss out on a Champions League last-16 place and drop down into the Europa League.</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>Malicious NPM packages are part of a malware “barrage” hitting repositories</strong> - People’s trust in repositories make them the perfect vectors for malware. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1818997">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Revisiting the “Tsar Bomba” nuclear test</strong> - Sixty years after the historic detonation, a historian offers a fresh interpretation. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1811168">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple won’t have to allow iPhone apps to use third-party payments tomorrow after all</strong> - The status quo will stay in place until an appeal has been resolved. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1818893">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tor is under threat from Russian censorship and Sybil attacks</strong> - Tor Project leaders disconnect rogue nodes and call on volunteers to bypass censorship. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1818891">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Stadia finally launches on LG TVs, shows off the greatness that could’ve been</strong> - Solid stuff, but it comes well after Google began winding Stadia’s concept down. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1818828">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>A Guys sits down in restaurant and orders a bowl of chili</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The waitress says, “Sorry, but the guy next to you got the last bowl”.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He looks over and sees that the guy’s finished his meal, but the bowl of chili is still full. He asks, “Are you going to eat that chili?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The other guy says, “No. Help yourself”.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He slides the bowl of chili over and starts to eat. When he gets about half way down, his spoon hits something. He looks down sees a dead mouse and immediately pukes all the chili back into the bowl.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The other guy says, “Yeah, that’s about as far as I got, too”.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nikan69"> /u/nikan69 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rc0wgx/a_guys_sits_down_in_restaurant_and_orders_a_bowl/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rc0wgx/a_guys_sits_down_in_restaurant_and_orders_a_bowl/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>I only recently found out that Albert Einstein was a real person..</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
All this time I thought he was only a theoretical physicist
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Comsicwastaken"> /u/Comsicwastaken </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rc5psq/i_only_recently_found_out_that_albert_einstein/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rc5psq/i_only_recently_found_out_that_albert_einstein/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Three gay men are at the crematorium</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
All three are mourning the recent death of their husbands and discussing their plans for scattering the ashes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The first, a pilot, says that he will scatter his husband’s ashes from the sky in the private plane that they built together.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The second, a sailor, says that he will scatter the ashes at sea, because their love of the sea kept them together during difficult times.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The third, a cook, says that he intends to mix his husband’s ashes into a bowl of chili and eat it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The two other men look at him in horror and disgust. The pilot asks “why would you eat a bowl of chili with your husband’s ashes in it?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The cook says “So he can tear up my ass one last time”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/atgr"> /u/atgr </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rca8ga/three_gay_men_are_at_the_crematorium/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rca8ga/three_gay_men_are_at_the_crematorium/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A woman got her nipple pierced right in front of me at a bar last night.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
On a completely unrelated note, I really suck at darts.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Prossdog"> /u/Prossdog </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rbz903/a_woman_got_her_nipple_pierced_right_in_front_of/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rbz903/a_woman_got_her_nipple_pierced_right_in_front_of/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A Politician Dies And Has To Spend Just ONE Day In Hell</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
A politician dies and ends up standing in front of the pearly gates. Saint Peter looks at him for a second, flicks through his book, and finds his name.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“So, you’re a politician…”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Well, yes, is that a problem?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Oh no, no problem. But we’ve recently adopted a new system for people in your line of work, and unfortunately you will have to spend a day in Hell. After that however, you’re free to choose where you want to spend eternity!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Wait, I have to spend a day in Hell?!” says the politician. “Those are the rules,” replies St Peter, clicks his fingers, and WOOMPH, the guy disappears. He awakes, curled up with his hands over his eyes, knowing he’s in Hell. Cautiously, he listens for the screams, sniffs the air for brimstone, and finds… Nothing. Just the smell of, is that fabric softener? And cut grass, this can’t be right?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Open your eyes!” says a voice. “C’mon, wakey wakey, we’ve only got 24 hours!” Nervously, he uncovers his eyes, looks around, and sees he’s in a hotel room. A nice one too. Wait, this is a penthouse suite… And there’s a smiling man in a suit, holding a martini. “Who are you??” The politician asks.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Well, I’m Satan!” says the man, handing him the drink and helping him to his feet. “Welcome to Hell!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Wait, this is Hell? But… Where’s all the pain and suffering?” he asks.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Satan throws him a wink. “Oh, we’ve been a bit misrepresented over the years, it’s a long story. Anyway, this is your room! The minibar is of course free, as is the room service, there’s extra towels next to the hot-tub, and if you need anything, just call reception. But enough of this! It’s a beautiful day, and if you’d care to look outside…”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Slightly stunned by the opulent surroundings, the man wanders over to the floor-to-ceiling windows through which the sun is glowing, looks far down, and sees a group of people cheering and waving at him from a golf course.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“It’s one of 5 pro-level courses on site, and there’s another 6 just a few minutes drive out past the beach and harbour!” says Satan, answering his unasked question.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
So they head down in the lift, walk out through the glittering lobby where everyone waves and welcomes the man, as Satan signs autographs and cheerily talks shop with the laughing staff. And as he walks out, he sees the group on the golf course are made up of every one of his old friends, people he’s admired for years but never met or worked with, and people whose work he’s admired but died long before his career started. And out of the middle of this group walks his wife, with a massive smile and the body she had when she was 20, who throws her arms around him and plants a delicate kiss on his cheek. Everyone cheers and applauds, and as they slap him on the back and trade jokes, his worst enemy arrives, as a 2 foot tall goblin-esque caddy. He spends the day in the bright sunshine on the course, having the time of his life laughing at jokes and carrying important discussions, putting the world to rights with his friends while holding his delighted wife next to him as she gazes lovingly at him.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Later, they return to the hotel for dinner and have an enormous meal, perfectly cooked. As everyone is falling about laughing and flinging bread sticks at each other, his wife whispers in his ear… And they return to their penthouse suite, and spend the rest of the night making love like they did on their honeymoon. After hours of passion, the man falls deep into the 100% Egyptian cotton pillows, and falls into a deep and happy sleep… and is woken up by St Peter.
|
||
</p>
|
||
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“So, that was Hell. Wasn’t what you were expecting, I bet?” “No sir!” says the man. “So then,” says St Peter. “You can make your choice. It’s Hell, which you saw, or Heaven, which has choral singing, talking to God, white robes, and so on.”
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</p>
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“Well… I know this sounds strange, but on balance, I think I’d prefer Hell,” says the politician. “Not a problem, we totally understand! Enjoy!” says St Peter, and clicks his fingers again.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The man wakes up in total darkness, the stench of ammonia filling the air and distant screams the only noise. As he adjusts, he can see the only light is from belches of flame far away, illuminating the ragged remains of people being tortured or burning in a sulphurous ocean. A sudden bolt of lightning reveals Satan next to him, wearing the same suit as before and grinning, holding a soldering iron in one hand and a coil of razor-wire in the other. “What’s this??” He cries. “Where’s the hotel?? Where’s my wife??? Where’s the minibar, the golf-courses, the pool, the restaurant, the free drinks and the sunshine???”
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</p>
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“Ah”, says Satan. “You see, yesterday, we were campaigning. But today, you voted.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ChequeMateX"> /u/ChequeMateX </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rbp2gb/a_politician_dies_and_has_to_spend_just_one_day/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rbp2gb/a_politician_dies_and_has_to_spend_just_one_day/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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