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<title>13 August, 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>2024 Preview: Bidenomics Versus the Trump Freak Show</strong> - The President’s feel-good tour offers a stark contrast to his predecessor’s summer of conspiracies and criminal indictments. But will it work? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/2024-preview-bidenomics-versus-the-trump-freak-show">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Ohio Voters Defeated an Effort to Thwart Abortion Rights</strong> - Opponents of the measure capitalized on fears of a Republican power grab. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-ohio-voters-defeated-an-effort-to-thwart-abortion-rights">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The End of Legacy Admissions Could Transform College Access</strong> - After the fall of affirmative action, liberals and conservatives want to eliminate benefits for children of alumni. Could their logic lead to reparations? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-end-of-legacy-admissions-could-transform-college-access">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Ambassador Without a Country</strong> - The Afghan statesman Zalmai Rassoul is recognized by the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland—but not by the Taliban. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/an-ambassador-without-a-country">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>China’s Economic Miracle Is Turning Into a Long Slog</strong> - As consumer prices fall and other signs of weakness emerge, fears are growing that the world’s second-largest economy could be heading toward an extended slump. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/chinas-economic-miracle-is-turning-into-a-long-slog">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>The Supreme Court is taking a wrecking ball to the wall between church and state</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A person in a black robe holding a religious cross on a chain. The Supreme Court building is in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cMUWuGpfEGtzYBJxCuG1iub_kQ4=/539x0:4848x3232/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72539614/525595384.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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A Catholic priest holds a cross in front of the Supreme Court on the first day of legal arguments over the Affordable Care Act. | Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The Court’s Republican majority has ground the Constitution’s establishment clause down to a nub.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ldQ1cz">
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Last June, a previously obscure Oklahoma state board voted to allow two Roman Catholic dioceses to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/us/oklahoma-first-religious-charter-school-in-the-us.html">operate a charter school in that state</a>. Lawyers from several civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, responded just over a month later with a lawsuit alleging that this <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/okplac-inc-v-statewide-virtual-charter-school-board?document=Complaint-OKPLAC-Inc-v-Statewide-Virtual-Charter-School-Board">state-funded religious school violates the state constitution</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LGDGFo">
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This challenge to the religious charter school, known as St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, should be a slam-dunk — at least assuming that the allegations in the lawsuit are correct.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4jwcrE">
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Charter schools are public entities funded by state tax revenue. Among other things, the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/okplac-inc-v-statewide-virtual-charter-school-board?document=Complaint-OKPLAC-Inc-v-Statewide-Virtual-Charter-School-Board">complaint</a> points to a provision of the Oklahoma Constitution which provides that public education funds may not be “used for any other purpose than the support and maintenance of common schools <a href="https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=85092">for the equal benefit of all the people of the State</a>.” And several school policies described in the complaint indicate that St. Isidore does not intend to operate for the equal benefit of all students.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yh46jj">
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According to the lawsuit, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, one of the two dioceses that plans to operate this school, has a policy of <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/okplac-inc-v-statewide-virtual-charter-school-board?document=Complaint-OKPLAC-Inc-v-Statewide-Virtual-Charter-School-Board">expelling students</a> who “intentionally or knowingly” express “disagreement with Catholic faith and morals.” This includes a rule that “‘advocating for, or expressing same-sex attractions … is not permitted’ for students,” and also a rule providing that a student who “reject[s] his or her own body” by beginning a gender transition “will be ‘choosing not to remain enrolled.’”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UxxWAm">
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Yet the most striking thing about this legal complaint is what it does not say. The lawsuit states explicitly that “the plaintiffs’ claims for relief are brought solely under the state constitution, state statutes, and state regulations.” It does not even mention the federal Constitution’s First Amendment, with its prohibition on laws “<a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">respecting an establishment of religion</a>.” Before a series of recent Supreme Court decisions <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch">carved up this establishment clause</a>, a lawyer challenging government funding of religion almost certainly would have raised some claim under this clause.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8gHQS1">
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(In response to my inquiry about the decision not to include an establishment clause claim in the Oklahoma lawsuit, Heather Weaver, a lawyer with the ACLU, said that “Oklahoma law provides robust protections for the separation of church and state and the fundamental principle that public schools must be open to all students, regardless of a student’s LGBTQ status, faith, disability, or other characteristics. Oklahoma law also gives taxpayers broad rights to challenge violations of these protections, so it made sense for us to file in state court with a focus on state law.”)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ETUkfj">
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This establishment clause was long understood to require strict separation of church and state — and specifically to forbid using public funds to pay for religious instruction. As the Supreme Court said 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.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CeaDDE">
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But those days are long past. Indeed, under the current Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf"><em>Carson v. Makin</em></a> (2022), it’s not even clear that Oklahoma may refuse to fund charter schools that are operated by a church, that seek to train students in that church’s values, and that actively discriminate against individuals the church deems sinful.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ADCMul">
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<em>Carson</em> held that Maine, which provided private school tuition vouchers to students in rural areas, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/21/23176893/supreme-court-carson-makin-religion-schools-vouchers-chief-justice-roberts">must allow students to use these vouchers at religious schools</a>. Private schools are, of course, private — meaning that they are not part of the state government even if they receive some funding from the state. So <em>Carson</em> does not, on its face, apply to charter schools — which are public schools even if they are often managed by a private institution. (Some advocates have <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/6/6/23751623/religious-charter-schools-private-oklahoma-explainer-supreme-court">claimed that charter schools should legally be classified as private schools</a> — an argument that has fairly obvious implications for religious charter schools under <em>Carson.</em>)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iCDqDi">
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But the Court’s Republican-appointed majority has <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch">relentlessly moved to shrink the establishment clause</a>, and to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/2/21726876/supreme-court-religious-liberty-revolutionary-roman-catholic-diocese-cuomo-amy-coney-barrett">expand the rights of religious conservatives</a> more broadly. Oklahoma’s decision to authorize an explicitly religious charter school reads like the next incremental step in a broader legal campaign to eliminate the establishment clause’s restrictions on public schools altogether. And it is far from clear where this Supreme Court will draw the line and say that there are limits to the government’s ability to promote religion.
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</p>
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<h3 id="PAsoLq">
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What is the establishment clause for?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9lupHK">
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The establishment clause provides simply that there can be no law “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">respecting an establishment of religion</a>.” It does not explain what an “establishment of religion” is. Nor does it lay out in any detail when the government can and cannot provide benefits to a religious institution.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QKIrZ8">
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Armed only with this vague text, the Supreme Court has offered several competing explanations for why the establishment clause exists and what it was intended to prevent. At times, the Court has said that it exists to prevent the government from coercing nonbelievers into acts of devotion they find objectionable. At other times, the Court has described the establishment clause as a nod to pluralism — something that allows many religious traditions to thrive in the United States by forbidding the government from taking sides in religious debates.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ZHk8N">
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<em>Everson</em> was rooted in the first of these two rationales, the belief that the government <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3620075287275437211">may not coerce others into religious exercise</a>. As Justice Hugo Black wrote in that case, the clause is intended to universalize a Virginia statute, authored by Thomas Jefferson, which provided that “no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5UdYxO">
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<em>Everson</em> read this prohibition on coerced religious activity expansively to include not just direct use of force against nonbelievers, but also the use of taxes collected from the general public to fund religion. As Black wrote, “individual religious liberty could be achieved best under a government which was stripped of all power to tax, to support, or otherwise to assist any or all religions, or to interfere with the beliefs of any religious individual or group.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PjQs9v">
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To be sure, this holding had limits. While <em>Everson</em> forbade taxation used specifically “to support” religion, it also recognized the government must provide some services to religious institutions. The government may still provide “police and fire protection, connections for sewage disposal, public highways and sidewalks” and the like to churches, for example, so long as these services are provided to religious institutions on the same terms that they are provided to everyone else.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SNpVUH">
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The idea was that the state had to be “neutral in its relations with groups of religious believers and non-believers.” It could provide a religious institution with the same services it would provide to anyone else. But, if the government taxed, say, a Buddhist to pay for Jewish education, then that would violate the establishment clause because it effectively coerced that Buddhist into paying for another person’s religion.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XS8aAX">
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Fifteen years later, in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/370/421/"><em>Engel v. Vitale</em></a> (1962), Black laid out a different theory of why the establishment clause exists.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LGR5TH">
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In <em>Engel</em>, the Court struck down a school district’s policy of requiring teachers to begin each school day by reciting a prayer authored by the school board. “One of the greatest dangers to the freedom of the individual to worship in his own way,” Black warned, “lay in the Government’s placing its official stamp of approval upon one particular kind of prayer or one particular form of religious services.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dnC2NG">
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The central idea animating <em>Engel</em> was that, if the government is allowed to write prayers or otherwise put its seal of approval on particular religious practices, then US politics will inevitably be consumed by religious believers from competing faiths, all lobbying elected officials to make sure that their religion receives the government’s blessing.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dQbqvz">
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The Court reached this conclusion after considering 16th-century English history, when Parliament approved a Book of Common Prayer that “set out in minute detail the accepted form and content of prayer and other religious ceremonies to be used in the established, tax-supported Church of England.” This led to perpetual lobbying, and frequent strife, over just what prayers the government should endorse and which ones it should reject. Powerful religious groups “struggled among themselves to impress their particular views upon the Government,” while less powerful religious believers literally fled the country — many of them becoming early American colonists.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rsqzDq">
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According to <em>Engel</em>, the First Amendment was drafted in large part to prevent this kind of strife among religious factions from occurring in the United States. The founding generation, Black wrote, was not willing “to let the content of their prayers and their privilege of praying whenever they pleased be influenced by the ballot box.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b7Db1t">
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Thus, while <em>Everson</em> read the establishment clause as a shield against the government coercing nonbelievers into participating in religion, <em>Engel</em> saw it more as a safeguard for pluralism. The idea behind the later decision was that, for multiple faith traditions to coexist peacefully in the United States, the government had to be hyper-cautious about picking favorites among them.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wkxzlk">
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Of course, these two theories of the establishment clause are not mutually exclusive — how else could both <em>Everson</em> and <em>Engel</em> have been written by the same justice?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kxd8Dg">
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But the last seven decades or so of establishment clause jurisprudence has largely been a fight over whether the Court should accept one or both of these theories — and just what it means to coerce religious belief or to pick favorites among faiths.
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</p>
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<h3 id="kcqeTC">
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The current Court has abandoned any concerns about pluralism and defined “coercion” very narrowly
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="swc0r3">
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Over time, <em>Engel</em>’s concerns about ensuring that the government does not favor one religion over another evolved into a ban on government “endorsement” of a particular religious viewpoint. The Court held in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/492/573/"><em>Allegheny County v. ACLU</em></a> (1989) that the prohibition against governmental endorsement of religion “preclude[s] government from conveying or attempting to convey a message that religion or a particular religious belief is <em>favored</em> or <em>preferred.</em>”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1pmfs4">
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As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in an influential <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/465/668/">1984 concurring opinion</a>, government endorsements of religion undercut the pluralistic idea that all citizens enjoy equal political standing. They tell “nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community” while simultaneously telling “adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xhPifd">
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Similarly, in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/90-1014.ZO.html"><em>Lee v. Weisman</em></a> (1992), the Court held that the establishment clause’s prohibition on coercion extends not just straightforward attempts to force a nonbeliever to participate in religion — such as if the government were to arrest or fine anyone who does not attend a church service. It also applies to more subtle forms of coercion, including the use of social pressure to encourage acts of faith.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vTUHe0">
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In <em>Lee</em>, a public school invited a rabbi to deliver a prayer at a graduation ceremony. This, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the Court, is not allowed.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2u0Y3z">
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“The undeniable fact,” Kennedy explained, “is that the school district’s supervision and control of a high school graduation ceremony places public pressure, as well as peer pressure, on attending students to stand as a group or, at least, maintain respectful silence during the Invocation and Benediction.” Such pressure, “though subtle and indirect, can be as real as any overt compulsion,” as it leaves a young nonadherent with “a reasonable perception that she is being forced by the State to pray in a manner her conscience will not allow.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P3FY8O">
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Thus, before the Roberts Court started dismantling the establishment clause’s safeguards, the Court recognized two values implicit in this clause: 1) the right to be free from coerced religious activity, and 2) the right to live in a pluralistic society where the government does not favor one person’s religion over the other. The right against coercion extended not just to direct pressure by the state, but also to more subtle forms of pressure such as a public school ceremony that effectively forces a student to choose between participating in a prayer or risking ostracizing themselves from their classmates. Meanwhile, the pluralistic right prevented the government from endorsing a particular religious viewpoint above others.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KgTW5j">
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All of that went by the wayside, however, in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf"><em>Kennedy v. Bremerton School District</em></a> (2022).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rBQLoy">
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<em>Bremerton</em> is a mystifying decision, in part because the six Republican-appointed justices in the majority <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch">took great liberties with the case’s facts</a>. It involved a high school football coach who would pray at the 50-yard line following games — in full view of students, players, and spectators, and sometimes surrounded by many of them as he was praying. There are photographs of crowds surrounding this coach as he prayed, some of which were included in Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3rOKV0">
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Yet Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the Court’s opinion, falsely claimed that this coach only wanted to offer a “short, private, personal prayer.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U8mIBQ">
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Because Gorsuch lied about the facts of this case, it’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch">hard to pinpoint exactly what <em>Bremerton</em> held</a>. No one questions that a public school employee may say private prayers while they are on the job. The question the Court was supposed to answer in <em>Bremerton</em> is whether a representative of the government may, during a public event, ostentatiously convey a religious message to hundreds or thousands of spectators — including potentially players who are under that government employee’s direct authority.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AXzVFi">
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One thing that is clear, however, is that the ban on government endorsements of religion will no longer be enforced by this Court’s GOP-appointed majority. Instead of applying “the endorsement test,” Gorsuch wrote, “the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf">reference to historical practices and understandings</a>.’”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6wmS5l">
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And what, exactly, are those “historical practices and understandings?” Gorsuch does concede that “government may not, consistent with a historically sensitive understanding of the Establishment Clause, ‘make a religious observance compulsory.’” But his opinion suggests that the clause may do nothing else.
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</p>
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Among other things, Gorsuch cites favorably to Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent in <em>Lee</em>, which described Justice Kennedy’s concerns about subtle pressure on public school students as “precious,” and which declares outright that “the coercion that was a hallmark of historical establishments of religion was coercion of religious orthodoxy and of financial support <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/505/577/"><em>by </em>force of law and threat of penalty</a>.” Gorsuch also quotes James Madison, claiming that Madison understood the First Amendment “to prevent one or multiple sects from ‘establish[ing] a religion to which they would compel others to conform.’”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9TDopN">
|
||
So, while the <em>Bremerton</em> opinion is not a model of clarity, two lessons can be extracted from it. One is that the ban on government endorsements of religion — the mechanism the Court used to ensure that a plurality of faiths would thrive in the United States — is now dead. The other is that, while the Court still recognizes that some forms of government coercion into religious behavior are not allowed, its Republican majority appears eager to narrow the definition of “coercion.” There may even be five votes for Scalia’s position — that the government may actively promote religion so long as it does not use force or the threat of penalty to do so.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="yNdNNu">
|
||
The Court’s GOP-appointed majority has even ruled that the Constitution <em>requires</em> the government to fund religion
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fkCNg9">
|
||
One form of coercion that the current Court permits is the government may now take taxes from a nonbeliever — taxes that the nonbeliever must pay to avoid criminal sanctions — and use them to fund religious education.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U861G6">
|
||
Indeed, the government has been allowed to fund religious education with tax money for quite some time. In <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=127516650659374253"><em>Zelman v. Simmons-Harris</em></a> (2002), a 5–4 Court abandoned <em>Everson</em>’s strict rule against government funding of religion. That said, <em>Zelman</em> merely held that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/8/22824027/supreme-court-carson-makin-first-amendment-religion-schools-subsidize-roberts-alito-kavanaugh">states <em>could</em> offer tuition vouchers that fund private religious education</a> if they chose to do so. Nothing in <em>Zelman</em> prohibited states from maintaining a neutral posture on religion — one where the state government allows private schools to teach whatever religious lessons they choose, but where the state also refuses to fund those lessons at the taxpayer’s expense.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y0KSoo">
|
||
The Roberts Court’s biggest innovation on public funding of religion came in <em>Carson</em>, the case about Maine’s private school vouchers program. As the Court described this program, it allowed families in sparsely populated areas, areas where the state determined that it was <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/21/23176893/supreme-court-carson-makin-religion-schools-vouchers-chief-justice-roberts">not practical to operate a traditional public school</a>, to receive vouchers that would pay up to a certain amount of tuition “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf">at the public school or the approved private school of the parent’s choice at which the student is accepted</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YEH7uu">
|
||
Before <em>Carson</em>, however, these vouchers could only be used at “nonsectarian schools.” Maine decided, exercising the choice the Court left to it in <em>Zelman</em>, not to fund schools that promote a “faith or belief system” or that “presents the material taught through the lens of this faith.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hd0XIL">
|
||
In ordering Maine to fund religious education, <em>Carson</em> reached two somewhat conflicting conclusions. The first is that the sort of neutral posture toward religion permitted by <em>Zelman</em> is now unconstitutional. Maine’s program, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for his Court, “pays tuition for certain students at private schools — so long as the schools are not religious.” That, he claimed, “is discrimination against religion.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qO1nsw">
|
||
At the same time, <em>Carson</em> still permits a state to “provide a strictly secular education in its public schools.” And it also “need not subsidize private education.” But, once a state decides to fund private schools, “it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FTbfpB">
|
||
Roberts’s explanation for this distinction is grounded somewhat in the rule against coercion. He emphasized that, under <em>Carson</em>, “public funds flow to religious organizations through the independent choices of private benefit recipients,” and that any parent whose child winds up in a religious school will do so only because of that parent’s “choice.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CypSWe">
|
||
By contrast, if a state only offered a public education to its students, and then taught religion in those schools, that would mean that parents would have no choice but to send their children to a school where they will be religiously indoctrinated. Such a regime would probably violate even the Roberts Court’s understanding of the establishment clause because it would effectively coerce schoolchildren into attending religious classes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EnuLg9">
|
||
<em>Carson</em>, however, shows no regard for an entirely different kind of coercion. By ordering Maine to fund religious education, even only within the context of its rural vouchers program, the Court coerces Maine’s taxpayers into funding religious education. And the Court apparently found this kind of coercion completely unobjectionable.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="3fSnWz">
|
||
So what are the Roberts Court’s limits on government programs that advance religion?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rqXpy6">
|
||
Read together, the Roberts Court’s establishment clause cases suggest that the Court probably will not neutralize this clause altogether. But they have already neutralized many of its modern applications, and they appear likely to endorse government behavior that would not have been tolerated even in the recent past.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9N19pU">
|
||
One category of establishment clause cases that I have not yet discussed is cases involving symbolic endorsements of religion. Think about cases where the government installs a giant <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/alabamas-chief-judge-ordered-remove-ten-commandments-monument-courthouse">Ten Commandments monument in the middle of a courthouse</a> or <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/17-1717_4f14.pdf">builds a cross on public land</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fg3r1s">
|
||
The Court’s previous decisions governing such monuments are <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/545/677/">nuanced</a> — a short summary is that government displays of religious symbols are sometimes allowed and sometimes not allowed. But it is far from clear whether, under the current Court, any religious display whatsoever will be struck down. After all, the best argument against allowing the government to build a giant cross on the front lawn of the White House is that doing so would endorse Christianity. But <em>Bremerton </em>held that the ban on government endorsements of religion is dead.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T1dZPH">
|
||
That leaves the rule against coercion, which does still seem to have a little life left in it. Even Gorsuch appears to concede, for example, that the government may not send the police to arrest someone who refuses to attend a Catholic mass or fine a Lutheran who refuses to convert to evangelical Christianity.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zGrzwo">
|
||
But it is not at all clear whether the ban on coercion extends very far beyond cases involving the “force of law and threat of penalty” that Scalia denounced in his <em>Lee</em> dissent. Because <em>Bremerton</em> decided a fake case and did not actually engage with the question of whether a public school coach may ostentatiously perform their religious identity in front of the school community, we don’t yet know for sure whether the Court will allow government employees who wield authority over children to use that authority to pressure those children to embrace Christianity.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cIAGQ0">
|
||
But the fact that the six justices who joined the <em>Bremerton</em> majority couldn’t even be honest about the facts of that case should not give hope to anyone who fears that teachers or coaches may use their government jobs to proselytize to their students. If nothing else, <em>Bremerton </em>shows that this Court will not be judicious in policing the line between private religious acts by government employees, which are emphatically permitted under the Constitution, and attempts by government officials to convert others to Christianity while the official is on the job.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4gtLT1">
|
||
And then there’s the school funding cases and other cases where a religious group sues to receive government funds. <em>Carson</em> held that private school voucher programs must fund religious education. And it also held that traditional public schools may elect to only teach secular material. But what about charter schools like Oklahoma’s St. Isidore?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S6abAY">
|
||
It remains to be seen how the courts will handle that case, but St. Isidore has a strong argument that it is entitled not only to receive government funds, but that it is also entitled to set up a religious school that is part of the Oklahoma government. Or, to put it another way, if <em>Carson</em> extends to charter schools and not just to private school voucher programs, then the <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/6/6/23751623/religious-charter-schools-private-oklahoma-explainer-supreme-court">45 states with charter school programs</a> all must include religious schools that otherwise qualify to participate in those programs.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oeOa0a">
|
||
Because <em>Carson</em> placed so much emphasis on whether a government-funded religious school allows parents to choose whether to send their children to that school, there’s a fairly high likelihood that the Supreme Court will, indeed, extend <em>Carson</em> to apply to charter schools. That’s because charter schools, like private schools, typically do not compel any parent to send a child there.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pGiaMI">
|
||
In the long run, advocates of private school vouchers and charter schools may come to regret the <em>Carson</em> decision. By forcing states to choose between either having a single, unitary public school system, or having government-funded private and charter schools that teach religious views many citizens may find objectionable, <em>Carson </em>places secularly minded states in a difficult position. If those states don’t want to fund schools like St. Isidore, or other religious schools that may teach that LGBTQ people are immoral, <em>Carson </em>suggests that they must eliminate any programs funding private schools or publicly funded charter schools altogether.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mHxBfe">
|
||
Nevertheless, the Court’s Republican-appointed majority appears as unconcerned with this problem as it is with the problem of taxing secular citizens to pay for religious education.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HjR8nc">
|
||
The future of religion in the United States, in other words, is unlikely to involve police officers breaking into people’s homes to arrest them for skipping church. But it is likely to include far more government funding of religious activity, far more proselytizing by teachers, coaches, and other government officials who wield authority over children, and many more monuments to Christianity — all paid for by your taxes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GWmC1T">
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>How to (actually) talk to kids</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="An adult crouching down to talk to a child." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TzGoPhkyRvCnj6sTTsJEFieThIo=/250x0:6250x4500/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72539605/GettyImages_1257153390.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Fumiko Inoue / Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
It’s not dissimilar from talking to other adults, but even the most well-meaning grown-ups can forget that.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nHQ1uN">
|
||
Somehow, despite our best efforts, it still happens to even the most self-assured adult. You’re at a birthday party or a family dinner or a picnic in the park, and suddenly, you find yourself face to face with a kid. You introduce yourselves, there’s a slight pause, and then, even though you know better, you hear the boring question coming out of your mouth: “So how’s school?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wO3ikp">
|
||
Why are adults so bad at talking to kids, considering each and every one of us used to be one? “We forget what it’s like to be a child,” says Tina Payne Bryson, a psychotherapist and co-author of <em>The Whole-Brain Child</em>. “It’s hard sometimes to relate to kids because the rhythm of our days is so different.” Our brains and habits have changed, and as adults, it can be tough to remember what it’s like to be a 10-year-old.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RRzZM0">
|
||
But that’s the key: Talking to and connecting with 10-year-olds now doesn’t require remembering what you were like at 10. Instead, it’s all about approaching them as people: individuals who have their own interests, insights, and personalities. If you’re curious, warm, and earnest, you can make a new friend — and leave your awkward adult persona behind.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="swg5lP">
|
||
Find a point of connection
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CaMJ7z">
|
||
Much like in an initial conversation with an adult stranger, it can be hard to know where to begin. But once you offer up an open-ended topic, a kid will often run with it. Icebreakers with a kid can be situational. If you’re at a barbecue, ask them what their favorite condiment is. Or they can be general: Did you see a funny animal video recently? “You just want to get the kid talking,” says Ben R., an 11-year-old who lives in Highland Ranch, Colorado. “You want to get to know them.” Ben recommends starting with a question about something that you enjoy. If you like video games, ask what games they like to play; if you’re a big reader, ask about their favorite recent book.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lVe8HX">
|
||
The framing is important. “Adults reach for whatever they can, and ask a yes or no question,” says Robyn Silverman, host of the podcast <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-talk-to-kids-about-anything/id1231126178"><em>How to Talk to Kids About Anything</em></a>. If a kid is wearing a baseball cap, asking whether they like baseball is not a good question — just like if you were wearing a baseball cap, that question wouldn’t encourage you to keep talking. Don’t despair: You can just tweak the format of a question to improve it. “Instead of ‘How’s school?’, you could ask, ‘If you were principal for the day, what’s one thing you’d absolutely change?’” suggests Silverman. “A more interesting question will elicit a response more than ‘fine.’”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QzRnt3">
|
||
That first conversational volley is all about finding a point of connection. It could be a shared interest, such as the card game Codenames, or a low-stakes disagreement, like whether dipping french fries in a milkshake is delicious or gross. “The great thing about asking questions is to find out what you have in common,” says Ben. “You’ll feel more relaxed then and can focus on connecting through that.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="O4j0sJ">
|
||
Ask good follow-up questions
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ZSmAb">
|
||
The next step in a good conversation with a kid? Pay attention. This is where many adults slip up. Instead of actually listening to what a kid has to say and asking a relevant follow-up question, they jump in with a long story about themselves — or, worse, offer up a weird non sequitur. Recently, Ben was waiting in line for a waterslide when the adult behind him asked what grade he was in. After he answered, the stranger, who had not previously met the fifth-grader, replied by saying that he grew up so fast. “I thought to myself, is this how adults are? They just ask simple questions, half-pay attention to the conversation, and get distracted by something else?” Ben says. “I felt like he could have just realized that I could talk the same way everybody else could, but he made it really awkward for the rest of the conversation.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xy6IkG">
|
||
Asking a good follow-up question is all about active listening, which requires humility. A kid is a person with their own interests and expertise, and you can learn from them, just like you learn from a conversation with another adult. “Kids are egocentric in nature, and they love to talk about what they love,” says Morgan Eldridge, a clinical psychologist who recommends framing a child as the expert on what they care about. “If you don’t know anything about Pokémon cards, ask them to tell you about it.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VZgmhr">
|
||
More key aspects of active listening are body language and tone. If you’re talking to a younger kid, physically get down on their level so that you’re not looming over them. For kids and adults alike, face them, put away your phone, make eye contact, and smile. No need to speak in a different voice, though. “There are multiple occasions where adults have talked to me with a childish tone,” says Ben. “We’re more sophisticated than they think.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r9DmiC">
|
||
When you’re fostering a comfortable conversational environment for a kid, you should also think about safety. There’s an inherent power imbalance between an adult and a kid, especially when you don’t know each other well, and as the adult, you’re responsible for making sure that your relationship and conversation stay appropriate. “Kids need to feel safe, seen, soothed, and secure,” says Bryson. “When you smile and have relaxed posture, it sends signals of safety and connection.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="mm4y2l">
|
||
Let their enthusiasm lead
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ThyiaL">
|
||
Once the conversation is moving, step back. “When talking to kids, adults make the mistake that they need to talk a lot,” says Silverman. “But people [not just children!] actually love it when you listen.” Instead, ask questions and let the kid direct the flow; they’ll naturally lead the conversation toward what interests them most.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nbavgb">
|
||
In many cases, this means going in a speculative, silly direction, which can be tricky for grown-ups. “Adults are more logical and solution-driven,” says Bryson. “We’ve forgotten what it’s like to play.” To rediscover your playful side, you can always ask an open-ended question, or even a goofy one: If you were going to open a restaurant that only serves three dishes, what would they be? What celebrity has the coolest style of all time? Would you rather have to fight 50 mosquito-sized alligators or one alligator-sized mosquito?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kk26hB">
|
||
No matter what, don’t dismiss their enthusiasm. If a kid loves basketball but you don’t care about sports, ask them to tell you about their favorite player of all time. If they just learned a ton about bugs in a science unit, don’t try to show off how much <em>you</em> know — encourage them to share instead. “There’s a power imbalance, and it seems to give adults permission to belittle,” says Silverman.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8J5KEP">
|
||
If you do make a faux pas, like talking over them or getting distracted, own up to it, apologize, and redirect. You can always say, “I just spaced out, I’m sorry. What were you saying about summer camp?” Just pick the conversation back up afterward.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="Fqkj2Z">
|
||
Be yourself (even if that means being shy)
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZY34o8">
|
||
Kids have different temperaments and personalities, just like adults do. They don’t expect everyone to be outgoing and loud. In fact, not every kid will want you to be. “Just like different friends appeal to different people, different kinds of adults will appear to different kids,” says Bryson. “The boisterous adult doesn’t appear to some kids, and the quiet adult doesn’t to others.” Just come as you are, since kids can tell whether you’re being authentic or not. “It’s really about showing up as yourself in the moment,” Bryson says.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QMoBIz">
|
||
If you are on the quieter side, don’t worry. Kids know what it’s like to feel anxious in a conversation, too. “Sometimes you just get nervous, and that’s okay,” says Fiona A., an 8-year-old who lives in Salinas, California. “Or sometimes you need a little bit of alone time. Just be you.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6N91Jz">
|
||
Ben suggests a trick that he uses when he feels awkward or unsure about what to talk about: When you get stuck and start to feel self-conscious, ask a question. “Even if you don’t pay attention, it diverts the conversation away from yourself,” he says. “You learn more about them, and also you don’t have to talk as much.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="91N1h7">
|
||
Sometimes, you’ll notice that a kid seems anxious to be talking to an adult. In that case, make sure you’re projecting a warm, friendly, safe environment. Being vulnerable can help them feel more comfortable, too. “A lot of adults are authority figures, and sharing something embarrassing can make us more accessible,” says Bryson. When she’s talking to a quiet kid, she often shares a story about when the class rat bit her in first grade at the school Christmas party; her listeners are always on the edge of their seats, ready to share their own best animal story afterward. You can be vulnerable about feeling awkward, too: If you share that you often feel shy at parties, then it normalizes the kid feeling shy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WSjNx2">
|
||
And if they’d rather be quiet, it’s also fine to share a companionable silence. “If we ask a question or two and they don’t expand, it just means they don’t want to be asked a question right now,” says Bryson. If they’re not uncomfortable with quiet, then you shouldn’t be, either.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="tJZz7P">
|
||
Refer back to your shared interests
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f8Bk0Q">
|
||
Once you’ve had a friendly conversation with a kid and found some common ground, you can start to develop an ongoing relationship with them. Just like with a new adult friend, it’s important to remember details about them and refer back to them in future conversations. Did they tell you about joining the soccer team? Ask how the season is going. Did you bond over your love of superhero <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a>? Ask them what they thought of the sequel to <em>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</em>. If you know in advance that you’re going to see a kid who you’ve already spent time with, you could send them something that you can then talk about in person. Bryson recently hosted a friend and their 13-year-old son; in anticipation of his visit, she sent him some funny dog videos on <a href="https://www.vox.com/instagram-news">Instagram</a>. That offers an easy way to break the ice and connect in person again.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t4o5dV">
|
||
No matter the age gap, making conversation and becoming friends always happens much the same way: capitalizing on shared interests, asking good questions, and paying attention. And once you’re friends, conversation is easy. “After I get to know an adult, it’s easy to talk to her,” says Fiona. “It’s more complex to build friendship with an adult, but once you do, it’s like they’re a kid just like you.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OjITi8">
|
||
<a href="https://charleylocke.com/"><em>Charley Locke</em></a><em> is a freelance journalist. She often covers young people and elders for publications including the New York Times for Kids, the New York Times Magazine, and the Atlantic.</em>
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>What could still go wrong with the US-Iran prisoner swap</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Visits The Holy Shrine Of Hazrat Zeinab..." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PYZd2F-wAHie4IDpV4lRUf1GQLw=/345x0:5465x3840/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72538756/1487585026.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Borna News/Matin Ghasemi/Aksonline ATPImages/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
For Iran’s struggling economy, the deal is more about money.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lmkZFM">
|
||
A tentative deal to release five Americans held in <a href="https://www.vox.com/iran">Iran</a> in exchange for access to $6 billion in assets and the release of people imprisoned in the US could hit major snags — or fall apart altogether — in the weeks before it’s complete due to persistent and escalating tensions between the US and Iran.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qgUCpP">
|
||
The agreement, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken detailed Thursday, was negotiated by the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran over a period of two years, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/politics/iran-us-prisoner-swap.html">the New York Times</a>, and was facilitated by Oman, Qatar, and Switzerland. Though the agreement does involve the eventual release of prisoners by both parties, Iran’s primary motivation for engaging in the negotiations is a mechanism by which it can access billions of dollars of its own assets to purchase humanitarian goods like food and medicine.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yFLtO1">
|
||
However, trouble already seems to be on the horizon, since Iranian state news has maintained as of Friday that the government can use the released funds however it sees fit.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qSkt8f">
|
||
Iran has been in an economic crisis for years, due in part to state corruption and incompetence — but also due to harsh US-led sanctions. The sanctions have had such a chilling effect that South Korean banks holding the Iranian assets in question have refused to release them, even to purchase necessities like food and medicine despite humanitarian carveouts built in to sanctions policy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zB5MRs">
|
||
Iran has reportedly already moved the five American-Iranian citizens from detention in its notorious Evin prison to house arrest, a positive sign that Iran is upholding its part of the deal. Three of the prisoners, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/world/middleeast/americans-prisoners-iran-swap.html">Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, and Emad Sharghi</a>, have been in detention on unsubstantiated charges of espionage and have served at least half of their sentence. Two others have not yet been identified in the press.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wP2dRE">
|
||
The US has so far declined to acknowledge that it will release any prisoners held in the US, much less how many people it will release under the deal or any of their identities. However, people familiar with the deal told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/politics/iran-us-prisoner-swap.html">New York Times </a>that a handful of <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/virginia-man-sentenced-federal-prison-conspiring-violate-iranian-sanctions">Iranian nationals</a> incarcerated for <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/iranian-nationals-charged-conspiring-evade-us-sanctions-iran-disguising-300-million">evading US sanctions against Iran</a> will be released once the prisoners currently in Iran are safely back in the US.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zhIFta">
|
||
Despite the seeming diplomatic victory, though, there is still plenty of time for it to go south; Qatar has agreed to facilitate Iran’s humanitarian purchases, but the mechanism through which that will take place could take more than a month to implement. That’s plenty of time for the deal to unravel, given the fact that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/8/11/23827555/bidens-risky-persian-gulf-bet">US has announced plans to put Marines on vessels</a> transiting the Strait of Hormuz to ward off attacks by Iran-linked groups.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="aXC6Xp">
|
||
The negotiations were complex and took more than two years
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LHtxmE">
|
||
Details of the negotiations themselves are scarce, but <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/12/politics/iran-prisoner-deal-took-shuttle-diplomacy-from-hotel-to-hotel/index.html">as CNN reported Friday</a>, they are the culmination of more than two years of complex and sensitive talks — made even more challenging by the fact that the US and Iran have no diplomatic relationship.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n3VA22">
|
||
Qatar, Oman, and <a href="https://www.eda.admin.ch/countries/iran/en/home/switzerland-and/bilateral-relations.html">Switzerland</a> were instrumental in hammering out the final deal, acting as the mediators between the Islamic Republic and US officials during sensitive meetings in Doha, Qatar’s capital. Iranian officials had refused direct meetings with Washington, but Switzerland manages US affairs in Iran, and Oman has significant experience negotiating similar agreements, <a href="https://fm.gov.om/oman-mediates-prisoner-swap-between-iran-and-belgium/#:~:text=Following%20the%20directives%20of%20His,for%20a%20mutual%20exchange%20deal.">including one in May between Belgium and Iran</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cj5CFj">
|
||
“These two Gulf countries, Oman and Qatar, believe that the other is playing a useful role — there’s no competition between Oman and Qatar in terms of trying to establish one or the other as the main back channel or diplomatic bridge between Iran and the West,” Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf Analytics, told Vox. “They are working in tandem and they have many of the same interests in terms easing tensions between Iran and its regional and international adversaries.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zUoMU6">
|
||
Qatar in particular plays a critical role in relations between the US and Iran because its close relations with both countries make that a necessity; as Cafiero told Vox, Qatar depends on the US for its <a href="https://www.vox.com/defense-and-security">national security</a> but is a partner with Iran in the world’s largest gas field, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northfield-qatar/factbox-qatar-iran-share-worlds-biggest-gas-field-idUSTRE66P1VV20100726">South Pars/North Dome gas-condensate field in the Persian Gulf</a>. Coordination on development in the field is critical for Qatar as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/09/business/energy-environment/qatar-gas-oil.html">one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG)</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0KXC3d">
|
||
Ties with Iran were also critical during the Saudi blockade of Qatar from 2017 to 2021. “The Qataris had to rely on Iranian ports and Iranian airspace for much of their international trade during that crisis,” Cafiero said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aELBSM">
|
||
Participating in and trying to manage de-escalatory talks between the two nations is critical to Qatar’s national interest — which may be why the emirate has stepped up to play such a critical role in the negotiations. “Qatar does not want to see an armed conflict between Iran and the United States,” Cafiero said. “That scenario would be extremely dangerous for Doha from the standpoint of Qatar’s economic and security interests.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VD42Tr">
|
||
In addition to being a mediator between the US and Iran, Qatar will also essentially manage the $6 billion in Iranian assets now in South Korea. That money, proceeds from oil sales, was transferred by the US to a South Korean account under the Trump administration. Despite exemptions for purchases for humanitarian essentials, South Korean administrators had frozen the funds due to the chilling effect of US sanctions, according to Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xoABPD">
|
||
“Qatar has done the heavy lifting, putting the financial mechanism together” to help put the deal over the finish line, he said in an interview.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="onDnwN">
|
||
Ultimately the funds are the important part of the deal for Iran — not the Iranian nationals that the US might release. As Vaez told Vox, the Iranian health ministry estimates that 60 percent of citizens do not have enough to eat, and there is limited access to live-saving advanced medicine like cancer treatments.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oaTsfK">
|
||
The Iranian economy has been in free-fall due to major nationwide protests against the police killing of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, last September, for wearing her hijab improperly. Now, the exchange rate for the Iranian rial is approximately 500,000 to 1 US dollar, compared to <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-currency-weakens-nuclear-deal-dead/32186097.html">298,200 to the dollar a year ago</a>, and inflation is at about 47.5 percent, the <a href="https://www.irna.ir/news/85180405/%D9%86%D8%B1%D8%AE-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%85-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D9%87%D9%85%D9%87-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%87%D8%A7-%D9%86%D8%B2%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C-%D8%B4%D8%AF-%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%DB%B4%DB%B3-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%86">Iran Statistical Center reported last month</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="apqOfQ">
|
||
Despite a de-escalatory success, conflict is still brewing between the US and Iran
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oid5eV">
|
||
The fundamental tension of arranging a prisoner swap while also ratcheting up conflict and military presence in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical commercial transits in the world, does not chart a safe path forward for the arrangement.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2ypbda">
|
||
Although Iran has engaged in de-escalatory actions with adversaries like <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/timeline-iran-saudi-relations?gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw29ymBhAKEiwAHJbJ8gEXlLlu87mtYB9jR9bLKdzfwZwUt7o19n1R-YYp9S2_VT-RiLU4qxoCZZ4QAvD_BwE">Saudi Arabia</a> and the US, that does not mean that the regime has fundamentally changed, Vaez said. “The <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a> is doing this deal with its eyes open,” Vaez said, calling the deal “transactional, not transformational.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pc819W">
|
||
Relations between Iran and the US continue to be strained, as evidenced by the US threat to put Marines aboard US-flagged vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. As <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/8/11/23827555/bidens-risky-persian-gulf-bet">Vox’s Jonathan Guyer</a> wrote earlier this week:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zAYf4v">
|
||
The Biden administration <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3485747/press-gaggle-with-air-force-brigadier-general-pat-ryder-pentagon-press-secretary/"><strong>says</strong></a> that the Iranian threat to tanker traffic is the reason for the deployment of sailors and Marines. Iran <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/second-oil-tanker-week-seized-by-iran-gulf-us-navy-2023-05-03/"><strong>seized</strong></a> two oil tankers in a week this past spring. Iran also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/6/us-navy-says-iran-seized-commercial-ship-in-gulf"><strong>intercepted</strong></a> a Tanzanian-flagged tanker on July 6, a day after the US Navy intervened to dissuade Iran from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gulf-iran-us-tensions-shipping-oil-127f8b77aa7e41dcd8266b6fbe5800dc"><strong>nearly seizing</strong></a> two ships. Iran has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/7/thousands-of-us-troops-arrive-in-red-sea-amid-ratcheting-iran-tensions"><strong>said</strong></a> that it sees itself as responsible for the security of the Gulf, not least because of its long coastline, and claimed it has not illegally seized tankers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ycpIRf">
|
||
That could put the two countries at higher risk for a confrontation, Vaez pointed out, potentially scuttling the prisoner swap deal. “That is the biggest concern,” he told Vox, although other regional issues could interfere — for example, increased confrontations between Iran-backed groups or Syrian forces and Israeli troops in Syria could also put the US on the defensive, since the US is Israel’s closest security partner.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Til696">
|
||
Domestic issues within both the US and Iran could also complicate matters, since factions on both sides object to the deal. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has called the deal a “ransom” and a “craven act of appeasement,” as <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/10/republicans-biden-iran-00110737">Politico</a> reported, Thursday, and claimed that Iran would use the released assets to “attack our troops, fund terrorism, and arm Russia.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bx1pmQ">
|
||
In Iran, though the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei likely supports the deal, Vaez said, there are factions within leadership that see the arrangement as “a humiliating oil for food arrangement,” referencing a <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/oip/sector-food.html">UN program from the 1990s</a> intended to offset the devastating consequences of sanctions against Iraq.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1VHNVg">
|
||
Overall, the regime has framed the deal as a major victory in state media, and as an important step in President Ebrahim Raisi’s program to stabilize the currency. But there seems to be a hitch in the plan already, as the <a href="https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-august-11-2023">Institute for the Study of War described in its August 11 Iran update</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sq1zq1">
|
||
Though US officials have stressed that the $6 billion released from the South Korean account is to be used only for humanitarian purchases, the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed that “the decision on how to use these unfrozen resources and financial assets lies with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-prisoner-deal-money-6-billion-restrictions/">CBS reported Friday</a>. <a href="https://www.irna.ir/news/85195537/%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D8%A7%D8%AE%D8%B0-%D8%AA%D8%B6%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86-%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%85-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%BE%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%A2%D9%85%D8%B1%DB%8C%DA%A9%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%A7-%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%87%D9%85-%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B2%DB%8C-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B9">Mohammad Marandi</a>, identified as a media advisor to the Iranian negotiating team, claimed that Iran has “full and direct access” to the funds, and that “no Qatari company” is managing the assets.
|
||
</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>Srinivas Reddy upbeat about Bangladesh’s prospects at the Asiad</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>Kylian Mbappe returns to training with PSG after constructive talks with the club</strong> - PSG received a world-record $332 million bid from Saudi Arabian team Al-Hilal for Mbappe, who reportedly refused to meet with representatives.</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>India jump to No. 3 place in FIH rankings after ACT triumph</strong> - India (2771.35 points) jumped one place to third and went past England (2763.50 points) behind top-ranked Netherlands (3095.90 points) and Belgium (2917.87 points)</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>Want to make sure, I’m ready for tomorrow: Jaiswal</strong> - Jaiswal said he’s making the most of the opportunity of sharing the Indian dressing room with seniors like coach Rahul Dravid, captain Rohit, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and Suryakumar Yadav</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>Asian Champions Trophy title triumph over Malaysia will ‘really count’ as India prepare for Asian Games: Fulton</strong> - The India hockey team fought back from two goals down to eke out a 4-3 win over Malaysia in the final to claim their fourth ACT title in Chennai</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>Budget outlay for ‘Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam’ may be increased in Tamil Nadu</strong> - A final decision on whether to increase the outlay would be made only after the final tally of applications, say sources</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>Delayed monsoon hits cotton, pulses’ cultivation</strong> - Energy consumption went up with increase in paddy cultivation</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>Manipur government employee lodges complaint in Bengaluru alleging takeover of her Imphal quarters to house refugees</strong> - Manipur has been witnessing ethnic clashes between Meities and Kuki-Zo communities since May 3.</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>Karnataka has 312 operational CNG stations, 1,414 more planned</strong> - Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts have set up 89 CNG stations as on May 31, followed by Dakshina Kannada district which has set up 28 CNG stations.</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>Eighteen deaths reported in 24 hours in Thane hospital; probe panel constituted, says civic chief</strong> - Twelve of the deceased were above the age of 50, civic commissioner Abhijit Bangar said</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Crimea bridge targeted by missiles, Russia says</strong> - The bridge that connects Russia to occupied Crimea has been attacked at least twice before.</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>Migrant boat sinks in Channel killing six people</strong> - UK and French coastguards rescued 59 people but two may still be missing, authorities said.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Sex lives in focus for Ukraine’s injured veterans</strong> - The charity ReSex is providing guidance for wounded soldiers looking for help with their sex lives.</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>US returns haul of stolen artefacts to Italy</strong> - The items were all stolen from Italy in the late 1990s and some were worth millions of euros.</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>K2: Climbers deny walking by dying guide in bid to break record</strong> - Footage has emerged appearing to show Kristin Harila’s team climbing over Mohammed Hassan on Pakistan’s K2.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The “Shove” mechanic in Baldur’s Gate 3 can ruin an encounter, and I love it</strong> - What my brave warrior’s death to a lowly goblin taught me about dice anarchy. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960409">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-magnetizing-vaccine doctor loses medical license</strong> - Tenpenny lost her license for refusing to cooperate with a board investigation. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960598">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sites scramble to block ChatGPT web crawler after instructions emerge</strong> - Restrictions don’t apply to current OpenAI models, but will affect future versions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960108">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft finds vulnerabilities it says could be used to shut down power plants</strong> - Exploitation is hard and patches are already out, but the potential risk is great. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960538">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sam Bankman-Fried is going to jail</strong> - Judge also denied SBF’s request to delay jail time. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960540">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Stalin appears to Putin in a dream.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Why is everything here so bad?” asks Putin, “What should I do to make Russia great again?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Execute half the population and paint the Kremlin blue” says Stalin.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Why blue?” asks the inquisitive Putin.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“I knew you wouldn’t object to the first part,” says Stalin.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MudakMudakov"> /u/MudakMudakov </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pmrpz/stalin_appears_to_putin_in_a_dream/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pmrpz/stalin_appears_to_putin_in_a_dream/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>This one is so old it’s been carbon-dated.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
A farmer was out working in his field one day when a carload of politicians came flying by. They were going too fast for the curve and turned over in the ditch. Later the sheriff stopped by and asked the farmer if he has seen the car.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Yep” replied the farmer.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Where are they?” asked the sheriff.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Over there”, replied the farmer pointing to the ditch filled with fresh dirt.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“You buried them?” asked the sheriff, “Are you sure they were dead?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Replied the farmer, “They said they weren’t, but you know how those people lie.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1>
|
||
humor
|
||
</h1>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Spare_Preparation_47"> /u/Spare_Preparation_47 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ppua4/this_one_is_so_old_its_been_carbondated/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ppua4/this_one_is_so_old_its_been_carbondated/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man haunted by his sins went to the church for a confession with the priest…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
There’s a devout Catholic man who once committed a regrettable act – he gave his best friend a blowjob while intoxicated. Filled with remorse, he decided to seek forgiveness from God and headed to the church.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Inside the church, he approached the priest and says he wants to confessed his sin, the priest say: “no need to tell me, take a look on this book” The priest handed him a book containing a list of sins along with their corresponding penances for forgiveness.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
As he flipped through the pages, he noticed various sins and their prescribed prayers: - “Stealing: 10 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers” - “Gluttony: 10 Hail Marys” - “Envy: 10 Our Fathers”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He searched the entire book but couldn’t find the specific sin he was seeking forgiveness for – “blowjob.” Feeling puzzled, he spotted one of the altar boys nearby, a regular helper at the church. He decided to ask for advice.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Approaching the altar boy, he inquired hesitantly, "Hey, young fellow, I’m not sure how to handle a situation. What does the priest usually give for. blowjobs?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The altar boy, unaware of the man’s situation, thought for a moment and responded cheerfully, “Well, for me, the priest usually gives a bag of Cheetos! But as for you, I guess you’ll have to negotiate that with him!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/pescadoparrudo"> /u/pescadoparrudo </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pd2el/a_man_haunted_by_his_sins_went_to_the_church_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pd2el/a_man_haunted_by_his_sins_went_to_the_church_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I dated a girl who’s kink was to freeze my erect penis before having sex.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
We eventually broke it off.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ilikesidehugs"> /u/ilikesidehugs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pe3ei/i_dated_a_girl_whos_kink_was_to_freeze_my_erect/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pe3ei/i_dated_a_girl_whos_kink_was_to_freeze_my_erect/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My coworker keeps complaining about his lunch being stolen from the break room fridge.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Monday morning he brought in a turkey and provolone on wheat bread. Put it in the fridge. By lunch time it was gone.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Tuesday he brought in ham and cheddar on white bread. Put it in the fridge, again gone by lunch.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Today he brought a chicken ceaser wrap. Gone by noon.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
I hope he brings a pastrami and Swiss tommorow. That’s my favorite.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/OkEnvironment3961"> /u/OkEnvironment3961 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pa6tc/my_coworker_keeps_complaining_about_his_lunch/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pa6tc/my_coworker_keeps_complaining_about_his_lunch/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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