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735 lines
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<title>27 May, 2022</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>How to Prevent Gun Massacres? Look Around the World</strong> - Australia, Britain, Canada, and other countries have enacted reforms that turned mass shootings into rare, aberrational events rather than everyday occurrences. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-to-prevent-gun-massacres-look-around-the-world">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Will an Emergency Law Used to Keep Out Migrants Become Permanent?</strong> - At the start of the pandemic, the Trump Administration invoked an obscure provision called Title 42 to effectively stop migration. Even as other COVID restrictions are lifted, anti-immigration politicians insist that it remain in place. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/will-an-emergency-law-used-to-keep-out-migrants-%20become-permanent">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>America’s Redistricting Process Is Breaking Democracy</strong> - Democrats have tried to keep up with Republican gerrymandering—and everyone is losing. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/americas-redistricting-process-is-breaking-democracy">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Riding London’s Unexpectedly Fantastic Elizabeth Line</strong> - Sam Knight writes about London’s newly opened railway route, the Elizabeth Line, which took more than a decade and twenty billion pounds to complete, and which decreases commute time between the east and west points of London. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/riding-londons-unexpectedly-fantastic-elizabeth-line">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>On Guns, Biden’s Call for Action Is a Painful Reminder That He Cannot Make It Happen</strong> - America can’t even grieve collectively anymore. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/on-guns-bidens-call-for-action-is-a-painful-%20reminder-that-he-cannot-make-it-happen">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>Congress gives itself a 10-day deadline to find a deal on gun control</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A politician gestures from behind a lectern that reads “Everytown for gun safety” and “Moms
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demand action for gun sense in America.” The Capitol dome is in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/rFxmNg2Jlk3ZtzXmXFlpgL508pY=/610x0:5738x3846/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70916373/1399405716.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) addresses a rally with fellow Democrats and gun control advocacy groups outside the Capitol on May 26, in Washington, DC. | Chip Somodevilla/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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Lawmakers are weighing red flag laws and background checks in the search for a compromise.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qI5Fw7">
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In the wake of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
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politics/23140441/uvalde-shooting-robb-elementary-school-texas">Uvalde, Texas, school shooting</a>, Congress is once again at <a href="https://www.vox.com/23142734/uvalde-mass-shooting-gun-violence-control">a crossroads on</a> gun control, an issue lawmakers <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/america-mass-shooting-
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gun-violence-statistics-charts">have failed to act on for more than a decade</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sN76xb">
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“I’m hopeful there is growing momentum. But I have failed plenty of times before,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a leading gun control advocate, told reporters on Thursday.
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</p>
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<div id="CWeLJp">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
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The plan is to work hard at a compromise for the next 10 days. Hopefully we succeed and the Senate can vote on a bipartisan bill that saves lives. But if we can’t find common ground, then we are going to take a vote on gun violence. The Senate will not ignore this crisis. <a href="https://t.co/38cKIhUYCr">https://t.co/38cKIhUYCr</a>
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</p>
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— Chris Murphy (<span class="citation" data-cites="ChrisMurphyCT">@ChrisMurphyCT</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1529561699103264769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2022</a>
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</blockquote></div></li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zz0rea">
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For now, Murphy is heading a 10-day effort to see if he can find bipartisan compromise on the issue. He says he’s open to anything that could get sufficient support, though any agreement is likely to center on “red flag laws” or universal background checks — two policies Republicans have expressed a willingness to consider.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yzgmIO">
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If this effort falls short, the Senate plans to vote on two House-passed bills focused on strengthening background checks in order to get lawmakers on the record on the issue ahead of the midterms.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jmVIRx">
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Despite <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/04/21/mass-shooting-guns/">an increase in mass shootings in recent years</a>, gun control legislation has long been stalled in Congress due to Republicans’ unwillingness to support policies at the federal level. Whether that changes will become more apparent in the next two weeks.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pNuMds">
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Here’s what could happen.
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</p>
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<h3 id="HmV0gu">
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Path one: Congress finds a bipartisan deal — and 10 Republican senators willing to support it
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ogP4Hv">
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The biggest obstacle in Congress is a lack of Republican support in the Senate. Because of the filibuster, most bills need 60 votes to pass, which would require 10 Republicans to join the 50-person Democratic caucus to approve any gun control legislation.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pRJvaY">
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Thus far, Democrats have been united on the subject. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), both centrist lawmakers who’ve defected from the caucus on other issues, have expressed support for gun control discussions. However, neither has indicated a willingness to eliminate the filibuster, which would enable Democrats to pass legislation with the members they have.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ow8fab">
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As of Thursday, bipartisan talks were ongoing, with Republican lawmakers floating two potential options:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li id="Cb0TCZ">
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<strong>Red flag laws:</strong> Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is among the Republicans who have said they’re open to discussing a red flag law, similar to the yellow flag law <a href="https://wgme.com/news/local/what-is-maines-yellow-flag-law">in her home state of Maine</a>. These policies enable law enforcement to confiscate firearms if someone is considered a threat to themselves or others; they have previously been discussed in Congress following 2019 shootings in <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/05/graham-red-
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flag-bill-gun-violence-1448198">El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio</a>.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wj8TET">
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<a href="https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/08/20/gun-control-congress-senate-richard-blumenthal">That year</a>, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) negotiated a bill that would offer grant money to states to incentivize them to establish red flag laws, but it wasn’t able to get enough Republican support. <a href="https://twitter.com/CHueyBurns/status/1529888823450165248">On Thursday,</a> Blumenthal said they’re revisiting a version of this bill.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lSuXzs">
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These laws — which have already been established in <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/10/05/red-flag-laws-are-saving-lives-they-
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could-save-more">19 states</a> — enable family members or law enforcement to file petitions about the threat an individual poses. <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/extreme-risk-laws-save-lives/">According to the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety</a>, more than 8,000 petitions were filed across the country in 2020 and 2021.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w7DPyY">
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The effectiveness of the law, however, depends heavily on implementation. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/5/17/23104692/buffalo-shooting-red-flag-gun-new-york">As Vox’s Nicole Narea explained</a>, a New York red flag law failed to stop the shooter in the recent Buffalo mass shooting that killed 10 Black Americans, because police chose not to pursue a petition even though he had been flagged for a psychiatric evaluation after threatening murder-suicide.
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="myKABu">
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<strong>Universal background checks: </strong>Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), meanwhile, suggested this week that universal background checks could be an area to focus on since it has previously gotten Republican support. In 2013, Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) reached a bipartisan agreement that garnered the support of four Republicans including Collins and then-Sens. Mark Kirk and John McCain. That bill, however, wasn’t able to get 60 votes and ultimately failed in the Senate.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T5xNTV">
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In poll after poll, universal background checks have been extremely popular. And while they wouldn’t address all the causes of gun violence, they would add a safeguard when it comes to gun access. Experts note that background checks are also central to other gun control proposals, like requiring each firearm owner to have a gun license.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8g3Xny">
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In addition to Collins and Toomey, several Republicans including Sens. Rob Portman (OH), Thom Tillis (NC), and John Cornyn (TX) have said they’d be willing to consider legislation while many have reiterated that any new policies should be left up to the states.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UCqRBk">
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“What I’ve asked Senator Cornyn to do is to meet with the Democrats who are interested in getting a bipartisan solution and come up with a proposal, if possible, that’s crafted to meet this particular problem,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN on Thursday.
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</p>
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<h3 id="CvIks9">
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Path Two: Democrats take a symbolic vote
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JRnbYo">
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History tells us it’s more likely that Congress isn’t going to be able to reach a deal, given how entrenched opposition to gun control has been.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5B2rhS">
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<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/26/politics/senate-domestic-terrorism-bill-vote/index.html">Republicans just this week blocked the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act</a> — a bill Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had framed as a vehicle for gun control efforts — from advancing. The bill, which was raised in response to the mass shooting in Buffalo, would have established new units at the Homeland Security Department, the Justice Department, and the FBI that focused on domestic terrorism.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UNVC9Q">
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Schumer had said that lawmakers could debate policy additions to the bill if the procedural vote this week were to pass. In the end, however, 47 senators voted in favor of the bill, while 47 voted against it. Republicans opposed the bill because they didn’t see the need for new federal bodies focused on domestic terrorism, and expressed concerns that it could lead to disproportionate scrutiny of organizations on the right.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b882C0">
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If bipartisan talks collapse, Senate Democrats intend to hold votes on two other bills they know won’t pass, to show where lawmakers in both parties stand. As with recent votes on abortion rights, Democrats hope these votes could be used against Republicans in the midterm elections.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tDIzvC">
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Those bills would be:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li id="2ATeiZ">
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<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/what-hr8-bipartisan-background-checks-bill-thwarted-
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senate-1709935"><strong>Bipartisan Background Checks Act</strong></a><strong>: </strong>This bill would require background checks for all gun sales and close existing loopholes for gun shows and online sales.
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</li>
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<li id="olCTCK">
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<a href="https://thehill.com/news/house/3501301-here-are-the-gun-bills-stalled-in-congress/"><strong>Enhanced Background Checks Act</strong></a><strong>:</strong> This measure would address what’s known as the Charleston loophole, which enables an individual to buy a firearm without a completed background check if three days have elapsed. It would extend the window to 10 days, and directly address how the shooter who killed nine Black Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 was able to purchase a gun.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9sengY">
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Both measures advanced with a handful of Republican votes in the House and are widely expected to fail in the Senate. But Democrats think they’d provide fresh fodder to capitalize on public anger, something they hope they could channel into midterm campaigns that thus far don’t look promising. “One way or the other, we’re going to have a debate here. We’re going to force [legislators] to tell America which side they’re on,” Murphy said this week.
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>The long, long, twisty affair between the US military and Hollywood</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="Tom Cruise gives a thumbs-up from the cockpit of a fighter jet, set against the backdrop of an
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American flag." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YL3iY0Ycn2qJwAdRSzI4fFawAtw=/280x0:1480x900/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70916244/topguncover1.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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When Tom Cruise starred in <em>Top Gun</em> in 1986, it wasn’t just a box office bonanza — it was a boon to the US military. | Paramount Pictures
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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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For the Pentagon, films like Top Gun: Maverick are more than just a movie.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UvCQJo">
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It came like a bolt from the blue, a gift from the heavens. In 1986, audiences flocked to theaters to see Tony Scott’s <em>Top Gun</em>, starring a fresh-faced Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a hotshot Navy aviator bent on stardom. They kept coming for seven months. When the dust settled, the film had brought in over $176 million. Unlike its protagonist, who came in second at the eponymous elite flight academy, the film ended 1986 the top earner of the year.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vopnnj">
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But for the Navy, <em>Top Gun</em> was more than just a movie. It was a recruitment bonanza.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E74XcQ">
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Military recruiting stations were set up outside movie theaters, catching wannabe flyboys hopped up on adrenaline and vibes. Others enlisted on their own. Interest in the armed forces, primarily the Navy and the Air Force, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-05-ca-20403-story.html">rose</a> that year, though <a href="https://www.flyingmag.com/u-s-navy-air-force-banking-on-top-gun-maverick-recruitment-
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boost/">it’s unclear just how much</a>. Naval aviator applications were claimed to have <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2005/december/armed-forces-need-another-top-gun">increased</a> by a staggering 500 percent.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ulV6Hj">
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Hollywood knows how to sell the life of a soldier. <em>Top Gun</em> paints the life of an elite pilot as mostly a real-life video game, with young men competing to top the charts at the academy. (The rankings were a fiction invented for the film, though the school is real.) In a sort of coda to the story, the pilots do engage in real combat — but we never know who the enemy is, barely get an explanation as to the mission, and mostly see them pulling off daring maneuvers to great acclaim. And in 1986, the US wasn’t engaged in a real-life war. Vietnam was becoming a more distant memory for young people. Who wouldn’t want to be a hero?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QiQEoH">
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So <em>Top Gun</em> was more than a gangbusters earner for Paramount; it was a coup for the Pentagon. In exchange for the enlistment bounce and a sexy, exciting perspective on the pilot’s life being presented to the general public, the military lent considerable aid to the production, from locations and equipment to personnel. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has said that <em>Top Gun</em> would not have been made without the military’s assistance.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s2P03y">
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This is far from an anomaly.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="Tom Cruise on a motorcycle; Jennifer Connelly
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sitting behind him." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5--
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mq8Db16WxUMEKPcxDYAV8dSo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23587962/topgun1.jpeg"/></p>
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<cite>Paramount Pictures</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly in <em>Top Gun: Maverick</em>.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TAsg9G">
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The American movie industry and the American military have had a long, well-documented, and, on the whole, mutually beneficial relationship since before World War II. Certainly, movies about war and its effects have been made without the aid of the military. But the military has often seen opportunity in the movies: for boosting the morale of the public, altering the popular image of wars and soldiers, and encouraging young people to enlist. In a film industry concerned primarily with profits and technology rather than ideology — which is to say, one essentially conservative in orientation — the partnership has often been an ideal match.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q18PVG">
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But the nature of the collaboration has changed over time, with shifts in the US military’s role in the world as well as Hollywood’s aims. A movie like <em>Top Gun: Maverick</em> enters a very different world from its predecessor, and comes from an industry that has set its sights on raking in profit from not just America, but the whole world. It’s not just entertainment. It’s the apex of a lengthy and complicated history.
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</p>
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<h3 id="Tyq1gK">
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The Pentagon and Hollywood go way, way back
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OLOHdW">
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What happens when a large group of people immerse themselves in the same metanarrative over time? They begin to be directed by its implications, to see what it tells them as, essentially, true. In the case of the movies — for decades <em>the</em> mode of entertainment in America — that means there was a reality to cinema’s implications about the heroism of soldiers, the reasons for the struggle, the rightness of their cause. That has made Hollywood an attractive and powerful resource to the American military — and vice versa.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
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<aside id="tspIBy">
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<q>What happens when a large group of people immerse themselves in the same metanarrative over time? They begin to see what it tells them as, essentially, true.</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ANrztl">
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The first Academy Award for Best Picture was awarded in 1929 to <em>Wings</em>, a silent war drama directed by World War I combat pilot veteran William Wellman and made with substantial support from the War Department (the Pentagon of its time). Wellman <a href="https://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com/wings.htm">dedicated the film</a> “to those young warriors of the sky whose wings are folded about them forever.” It was a massive hit.
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||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T6BgD9">
|
||
Thus a pattern was set, with filmmakers concerned about authenticity — and hoping to use some authentic equipment — soliciting help from the military.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TC3O6i">
|
||
The relationship became even tighter when World War II began. The War Department needed to sell the war to the public, boost morale, and make the Allies’ case. They realized that Hollywood represented what might be an untapped resource. Mark Harris, a critic and film historian, wrote the book <em>Five Came Back</em> about the contributions that five legendary directors — Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, and William Wyler — made to the WWII propaganda effort at the government’s behest. The work ranged from those intended for troops (like Capra’s <em>Why We Fight</em> series, which was eventually shown to the general public as well) to documentaries made for the general public with the intention of influencing public opinion. It was effective.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NqrASR">
|
||
That the government was the driving force behind these films — which were called propaganda briefly, before the word took on a pejorative sense — seems, to our ears, pretty sinister. But, as Harris explains, things were a little more complex during that time. The military saw the opportunity to support “morale films” or “educational films” that would help the American public understand what we were fighting for and against. Capra’s <em>Why We Fight</em> “makes the point over and over again that these three entities, Germany, Japan, and Italy, have people in the thrall of lunatic dictators, and that those guys were trying to create a slave world and what we were fighting for was a free world,” Harris explained. So this was an ideological aim, one on which Hollywood and the War Department were largely aligned.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jGU47r">
|
||
Yet the War Department rarely dictated the exact message they wished the filmmakers to convey — they weren’t “stenographers,” as Harris puts it. That means military support in this era was mostly a handing over of the reins, with relatively little input into the final results. “What they had the ability to do was say to John Ford, ‘We’re going to send you to Midway and we want you to film this battle,’” Harris said. “But they didn’t say, ‘This is exactly what we want you to do. This is the message we want you to get across.’”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N9VsMp">
|
||
That doesn’t mean the military had <em>no</em> interest in the message they were sending. Huston’s documentary <em>Let There Be Light</em> — shot in 1946 and showing soldiers in a hospital living with the trauma of war — was banned by the Army, who feared it would have a demoralizing effect on post-war recruitment. <em>Let There Be Light</em> was suppressed until a belated release in 1980.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="A black-and-white image of young veterans in a hospital." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/7hxN4cCuF_R7sbl1S4KWGiPGsTU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23587957/lettherebelight.jpg"/> <cite>U.S. Army Pictorial Services</cite></p>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Faces of men in <em>Let There Be Light</em>, John Huston’s 1946 documentary, which was suppressed by the US military until 1980.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EO9u4f">
|
||
In the post-War decades, however, ideological harmony between much of Hollywood and the military disappeared. So, you see a pivot, Harris says. “After Vietnam, the Pentagon would never say to Hollywood, ‘We’re all in the same business,’ which was basically the argument that was made during World War II. That came to an end with Vietnam, and what replaced it was this more transactional relationship.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4kaWlB">
|
||
It’s not that things got bad. They just became about business rather than ideals. The situation, Harris says, went “from the military saying to Hollywood, ‘We need you to help us,’ to the military saying <em>to</em> Hollywood, ‘We’ll help <em>you</em>. We’ll give you access.’”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uOJUf1">
|
||
That transactional relationship is highly evident in the string of Reagan-era blockbusters that aimed to not just turn out audiences, but — implicitly or not — rehabilitate the image of the military in a post-Vietnam time of mistrust. <em>Top Gun</em> might be the most successful in that attempt.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="kgSUq8">
|
||
So you want to make a movie
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9qX2BT">
|
||
Say you’re a Hollywood filmmaker (or TV creator) who wants to tell a story that involves the military in some manner, even if your movie is about aliens or zombies or superheroes. In some countries, you’d have to submit your script or your movie for approval to the government before it could get made or distributed. But this is America. You can exercise your First Amendment right and tell any story you want.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LKqamJ">
|
||
Except, hang on. Making a movie or a TV show is <em>expensive</em>. One way to get a studio to agree to produce your script is to trim the budget, and you can do that by cutting down on paying for equipment or extras. Maybe you’re concerned with making sure everything looks authentic, or with getting the Army’s response to disciplinary matters correct. Or maybe you just want to make sure you’ve got rank details straight.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zoNnUj">
|
||
So you decide to ask for help. Depending on what you need, you might liaise with the designated entertainment coordinator in a particular branch of the military, or with the Pentagon generally. A tiny number of military personnel spend years, even decades, in the liaison role — reading scripts, working with directors, giving notes, and ultimately deciding if the military will lend its aid to the project.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="A scene from Independence Day." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/Ho89FlXQBQRK18DRz6gM4Jz7T9U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23587971/independence.jpg"/> <cite>20th Century Studios</cite></p></figure></div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
The US military withdrew support of <em>Independence Day </em><a class="ql-link" href="https://uproxx.com/movies/why-military-cut-ties-with-independence-day-area-51/" target="_blank">when the producers refused to remove references to Area 51</a>.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SgMqk5">
|
||
<a href="https://www.defense.gov/About/Biographies/Biography/Article/2896324/j-todd-breasseale/">Todd Breasseale</a> was one of them, a career Army officer who worked as the Army’s motion picture and television entertainment industry liaison for about six years beginning in 2002. He retired from the Army to join the Obama administration in 2014, and is now deputy assistant to the Secretary for Public Affairs at the Pentagon. In his liaison capacity, he told me by phone, his duties ranged from reading scripts for accuracy at the request of filmmakers to determining whether the Army would lend equipment, location, or personnel support to productions.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dnU3li">
|
||
“Sometimes it was entire scene rewrites that they needed help with,” he said. Other times, he might advise Steven Spielberg on technical details for a sequence in <em>War of the Worlds</em>, or work with the <em>Transformers</em> production to access locations that the Army owns.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YNEalv">
|
||
Often the role of the military comes in making equipment not currently in use available to production companies at cost — “every time you see a piece of military hardware that is not created through CGI, that cost is borne out by the production company,” he said. The company pays about how much it costs to keep a plane in the air hourly, far cheaper than renting commercial aircraft. “Unless a specific training mission was prescheduled and planned to be flown anyway, the production company would pay the hourly rate for that aircraft.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nqoO1r">
|
||
Soldiers are sometimes used as extras or pilots, too — perhaps if a filmmaker wants to shoot footage of a flyby. “Soldiers are paid anyway,” Breasseale said, because active duty service members receive a 24/7 salary. So the cost to the production company isn’t the union-mandated salary of a professional actor, stunt pilot, or extra; it’s just a per diem. “For instance, we shot a picture up in Canada and we brought in actual soldiers because they needed to be able to fly the Blackhawk helicopters. So they paid for the soldiers’ transportation up there, they paid a rate field cost for the Blackhawks, they paid the hourly rate for the Blackhawks, and then they paid the per diem and hotel expenses for the service members who are on set.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6D9z2b">
|
||
In other words, the taxpayer isn’t directly paying for the production costs, since the equipment and personnel would be getting paid for either way. The studio, however, gains a huge benefit if a deal is struck.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wrahHZ">
|
||
That said, the trade-offs can be high. Frequently, notes are returned to filmmakers, asking them to change plot points in ways that make the film more palatable to the military, and specifically to the liaison who is working with the production. And the issues with this have been well-documented, perhaps most notably in reporter David L. Robb’s 2004 book <em>Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies</em>. Robb documents cases in which prominent filmmakers agreed to substantial rewrites to paint military personnel in a more positive light, or, at times, excise material in historical films that don’t fit the military’s official narrative. As he puts it:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hHzwri">
|
||
Millions of dollars can be shaved off a film’s budget if the military agrees to lend its equipment and assistance. And all a producer has to do to get that assistance is submit five copies of the script to the Pentagon for approval; make whatever script changes the Pentagon suggests; film the script exactly as approved by the Pentagon; and prescreen the finished product for Pentagon officials before it’s shown to the public.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w1DFlc">
|
||
Some filmmakers refuse to comply with the notes, and they usually end up going their separate ways. But in many prominent cases, they agree, incorporating the military’s suggested changes into the script.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ly1sWV">
|
||
For instance, as Robb writes in his book, the Navy agreed to let the original <em>Top Gun</em> production shoot on a naval base near San Diego, but that meant making some changes. Maverick’s love interest, played in the movie by Kelly McGillis, was originally written as a fellow soldier. But the navy forbids officers and enlisted personnel from fraternizing, so the script was changed in order to gain access to the naval base.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WbXkF8">
|
||
Robb also writes (from 2004) that a sequel to <em>Top Gun</em> was thought to be impossible to make because the Navy feared it might <em>hurt</em> recruiting. The massive Tailhook scandal in 1991, in which navy pilots molested women at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, cast the movie’s womanizing and drinking in a new light. The new film was, of course, eventually made, <a href="https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43168/top-
|
||
gun-2s-extensive-support-from-the-u-s-military-is-all-laid-out-in-these-documents">with considerable involvement from the military</a> — and both drinking and sexual relationships (and the homophobic slurs of the original) are handled <em>far</em> differently. (It’s also very good, the rare and exhilarating sequel that transcends its original and doesn’t seem purely invented to build up excitement for the next installment.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="btDvhS">
|
||
So is the Pentagon censoring cinema?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EztLGy">
|
||
Even if you take a dim view, as many do, of the process of adopting military notes into scripts in return for support, it’s part of a long history of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/14/20802379/hunt-canceled-censorship-mpaa-hays-code-trump">Hollywood self- censorship</a>, often aimed at keeping the government from censoring them directly. In 1934, for instance, the major Hollywood studios voluntarily adopted a “Production Code” that banned, among other things, showing interracial marriage, or story lines in which clergy are disparaged or criminals are shown not being punished for their actions. Conformity to the Code lasted into the 1960s, when it was eventually replaced by an early version of the MPA ratings system we’re familiar with today.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
|
||
<aside id="9Q44R9">
|
||
<q>Hollywood has a long history of self-censorship, often aimed at keeping the government from censoring them directly</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fWZ1wk">
|
||
You could see productions’ willingness to bend on these matters as a continuation of that tradition. Breasseale, for his part, sees this as a reasonable accommodation to request for productions seeking not just accuracy in storytelling, but an economic advantage. “The rules that I operated when I was out there is that it needed to be <em>plausible</em>,” he said. “So if you’re going to show a soldier committing a war crime, then you’re going to also need to show how the uniform code of military justice deals with that, and the punishment that they would suffer.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DAzW5R">
|
||
You might reasonably ask why the military even bothers getting involved when they just as reasonably could refuse to ever participate in a film production. Breasseale cited several reasons. The first is recruitment. “If you see positive representations of your military — well, frankly, it doesn’t even have to be positive,” he said. Seeing the military in action, sometimes portrayed as heroes and sometimes portrayed as members of an organization with a strict code of military justice, can be immensely appealing. It sure was for those who saw <em>Top Gun</em>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vM2rwF">
|
||
There’s another reason, particularly in our time, when despite having been at war for two decades, Breasseale pointed out, a sizable number of Americans haven’t had much contact with the military in real life. “There’s a lot to be said about the necessity to educate the American public about the military they’re paying for,” he said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xUGyHO">
|
||
In Breasseale’s view, the reason to participate in a production was that it would help provide a “substantive military portrayal.” If, during negotiations with a production, he felt that the studio “just wanted cheap props, essentially, that would typically get rejected out of turn.” He might tell them to work with unions, rather than just trying to get nearly-free soldiers. He’d also reject a production that was asking for the kind of equipment that could imperil “the believability of a picture” if not shown the way the military would use it — that they wanted to “bring a knife to a gun fight.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p2skSx">
|
||
The whole process, he says, is reasonable and humane. He started working as the Army liaison in 2002, when “we were just starting a new era of war by politicians who had failed to find other alternatives,” as he puts it. “A lot of the scripts I was receiving at the time, even if they were set in contemporary settings in Iraq or Afghanistan or on a contemporary time period, were really movies about Vietnam. There were no substantive, decent, high-quality movies [about the military] between eras. There was an aura of the broken, crazy military vet who’s just one argument away from snapping and losing his shit.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dsdOuB">
|
||
“So,” he says, “a lot of what I did was help humanize a military that people have no touch with.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ugkH41">
|
||
Robb sees this through a different lens; after all, both Hollywood <em>and</em> the military are selling something. He writes that “in the movies, when companies pay producers to show their products on screen, it’s called ‘product placement.’ But when the government provides incentives to producers to make the military look good in their movies, it’s known by a different name. It’s called ‘propaganda.’”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="Brie Larson in uniform." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/hjWY9g4cgnpEzQwbfAF4O-daePs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23587954/captainmarvel.jpeg"/> <cite>Disney</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Brie Larson in <em>Captain Marvel</em>. Her character is an Air Force fighter pilot.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L5xgSP">
|
||
Furthermore, he argues, “the military’s approval process … isn’t about making movies more authentic, it’s about creating positive images; it’s about making the military look better than it really is; it’s about making the military more attractive to potential recruits, taxpayers, and Congress.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gGrgET">
|
||
You can see the point. The most popular movies on the planet currently are those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, produced by Marvel Studios, which was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2009. Disney has <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-
|
||
Stories/story/Article/1648430/artful-patriotism-dod-and-disney/">a long, long history of working with the Pentagon</a>, stretching back to public information and training cartoons as well as insignia produced during World War II.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fIvaVC">
|
||
From the launch of the MCU, even before its Disney days, <a href="https://www.cbr.com/captain-marvel-mcu-
|
||
military-relationship/">the same has often been true</a>. All three <em>Iron Man</em> movies received military support. So did <em>Captain America: The First Avenger</em>. When <em>Captain Marvel</em> arrived in theaters in 2019, featuring a main character who is an Air Force pilot, it had been preceded by a flurry of cross-promotional materials with the Air Force, including an ad in which filmmakers and stars praised their collaboration:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="G3tEcO">
|
||
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qnbktn">
|
||
Though the US military plays a prominent role in many MCU films, they haven’t always worked together. <a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/05/avengers-
|
||
military/#:~:text=%22We%20couldn't%20reconcile%20the,do%20anything%22%20with%20the%20film">Conflict arose</a>, for instance, during production of <em>The Avengers</em>, in which the Pentagon found S.H.I.E.L.D., the shadowy fictional espionage organization that works closely with the Avengers, to be too “unrealistic.” <em>The Avengers</em> went ahead without Pentagon support.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="qDAGic">
|
||
Should we be worried about this partnership? Depends on who you ask.
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y1fRXL">
|
||
Whether you agree more with Breasseale’s perspective or Robb’s depends on your answer to a fundamental question. From TV and movies to video games and more, the entertainment industry and the military have long seen one another as partners, ideologically and economically — but <em>should</em> they?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9CNjXj">
|
||
And if your view of the military is generally positive — as it is for most Americans — does this still count as propaganda?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="88GGBl">
|
||
In his foreword to Robb’s book, Jonathan Turley, a public interest law professor at George Washington University Law School, notes that “propaganda denotes a certain product; a packaged news account or film developed by a government or an organization to shape opinion … yet this is not traditional propaganda since the military does not generate the product itself and does not compel others to produce it. Rather, it achieves the same result through indirect influence; securing tailored historical accounts by withholding important resources.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float- right c-float-hang">
|
||
<aside id="lm5grS">
|
||
<q>What does it mean if the military has the financial power to say what version of history gets made?</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZZPOmZ">
|
||
It’s that “tailored historical accounts” part that troubles me, at least in principle. For many people, movies are their most direct access point to the tales of war and heroism and history; think about World War II, and the images that spring to your mind are almost certainly culled from films. In the future, when those involved have passed away and our cultural relationship to truth has only gotten more corrupted, how will we access the truth about the ethically murky wars of the past several decades? Even if we know the facts and the films differ, will we care?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i4Bd0W">
|
||
What does it mean if the military has the financial power to say what version of history gets made?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vHpbfh">
|
||
I ask Breasseale about this. “If I am party to a picture being made that I know presents only the wrong side, but an unfactual version of demonstrably provable events, then that’s propaganda. And so, if you can stay on the right side of those topics, to me, that is simply recruiting, or education. But it’s not propaganda.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nrJBkT">
|
||
“There have been academics, very serious academics, who’ve written books about this sort of thing, who believe that any support whatsoever to the motion picture industry is necessarily propaganda,” he concludes. “I just can’t get there. I can’t get my head around it, because it is not a black-and-white issue.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PrLKh1">
|
||
He’s right that it’s not a black-and-white issue — not at all. For one, Turley and Robb both note that some legal minds argue this use of military equipment, even if it’s not at taxpayer expense, is unconstitutional.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p0UA8f">
|
||
Furthermore, at times (as in the case of the 2002 film <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/06/15/to-the-shores-of-
|
||
hollywood/3adb86e3-13b9-4ca2-82ea-f05864aec874/"><em>Windtalkers</em></a>) the military requires a film about an otherwise marginalized group to run against the established historical record. If a few military officers (who may have variable political agendas) hold that much power with relatively low accountability, how dangerous is the whole collaboration in the long run?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="Tom Cruise
|
||
stands on the wings of a fighter jet, watching two jets streak by in the sky." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/iskFWoMaAaADlrcEeZC8GkN3Hoo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23587977/topgun.jpg"/> <cite>Paramount Pictures</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Tom Cruise in <em>Top Gun: Maverick</em>.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kx6vDA">
|
||
Ironically, we may not be asking this question all that much longer. The development of high-quality computer-generated effects and even performers could eventually eliminate or greatly reduce the need on Hollywood’s side to strike a deal with the military to get a picture made. Lower-budget films may find themselves more readily in a place to tell all kinds of stories about history.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hJcT92">
|
||
Meanwhile, a film like <em>Top Gun: Maverick</em>’s charm comes, in part, from its almost nostalgic feeling, a film about heroism and military prowess that isn’t tethered to a particular war or enemy. But it also feels like the natural endpoint of that military-movie marriage, one that’s graduated from the Reagan-era, post-Vietnam rah- rah of <em>Top Gun</em> and into a geopolitically sticky world in which Hollywood wants to make movies for the whole globe.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="prBRlb">
|
||
The film’s nearly three-year delay between production and distribution gave journalists plenty of time to dig into the ways<a href="https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43168/top-gun-2s-extensive-support-
|
||
from-the-u-s-military-is-all-laid-out-in-these-documents"> the military and Paramount had cooperated</a>. We still don’t know who they’re fighting in <em>Top Gun: Maverick</em>, and early reporting noted that <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2019/07/tom-cruises-jacket-taiwanese-japanese-patches-in-top-gun-maverick-
|
||
trailer-1202160078/">the Japanese and Taiwanese flags</a> on Tom Cruise’s iconic leather aviator jacket had been shifted to more generic symbols.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3rRKTH">
|
||
It may just be that Hollywood has moved beyond its desire to work with the US military at all. It’s not that they’re no longer on America’s side; it’s just that they have to be on everyone’s side. And the transactional partnerships that come from that need are what will shape the future of Hollywood.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cyyr2d">
|
||
Top Gun: Maverick <em>premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and opens in the US on May 27.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>How bad could the monkeypox outbreak get?</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/thumbor/hVd03qulmQxS3iUEhDnk2g7l-X4=/0x0:2667x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70916152/GettyImages_1144008196.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Passengers from Singapore walk past a monkeypox information panel and infrared thermometer displays checking their body temperature at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport near Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2019. | Andrew Gal/NurPhoto via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Health experts are optimistic monkeypox can be contained. Here’s why, and where it could go wrong.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6C3Re2">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wp4E3F">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jSXE5A">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gxMokb">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gS3MNV">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AgZ2rP">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dob8Zd">
|
||
As of May 26, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-
|
||
health/2022/5/19/23126248/monkeypox-infections-covid-outbreak-smallpox">global monkeypox</a> case count <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CEBhao3rMe-qtCbAgJTn5ZKQMRFWeAeaiXFpBY3gbHE/edit#gid=0">tops 350</a>, with cases spread across 23 countries. It’s easy to get a little <a href="https://jel.jewish-
|
||
languages.org/words/534">shpilkes</a> while wondering, what exactly are we in for? How big will this outbreak get, and how long will it be around?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G0IJis">
|
||
In the early days of any outbreak, epidemiologists try to answer these questions by first asking a different one: Is this virus containable? That is, can its spread be stopped before it gets out of control?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vJFTCQ">
|
||
If it is, that means the outbreak could be in our rearview mirror before the autumn. But if not, the public — and public health — could be in for a long slog.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="udgzIe">
|
||
When it comes to monkeypox, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-says-monkeypox-containable-
|
||
convening-research-meeting-support-member-states-2022-05-24/">many</a> <a href="https://news.umich.edu/how-concerned-
|
||
should-you-be-about-monkeypox/">experts</a> — including several I spoke with for this story — have emphatically said yes<em>, </em>this outbreak is containable. “There’s a solution just over the horizon,” said William Schaffner, an infectious disease and public health expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “This is one that I think we can nip in, if not in the bud, certainly in the flower.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<aside id="9DEUo5">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qZiz0a">
|
||
Epidemiologists assess containment potential on the basis of a few different categories: the biology of the germ itself, the immunity and compliance in communities in which it’s spreading, and the public health capacity to respond. When it comes to monkeypox, experts assessing these factors feel reasonably confident this outbreak won’t swell to pandemic proportions. However, there are some vulnerabilities monkeypox can exploit to stick around longer.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4gg0Pa">
|
||
How exactly could the monkeypox outbreak play out? It comes down to these key factors.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="78fje1">
|
||
The biology of the monkeypox virus makes containment likely
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RCFWKT">
|
||
When epidemiologists are wondering if an outbreak can be contained, they start by considering the pathogen itself. Its innate characteristics determine how far of a reach the virus could have, and help experts figure out how to intervene in its spread.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N4SWOQ">
|
||
The first thing to consider is the route of transmission, said Eric Toner, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Most monkeypox transmission happens by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/24/cdc-says-
|
||
monkeypox-doesnt-spread-easily-by-air-this-is-not-covid.html">skin-to-skin contact</a> (although it also <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox">can be transmitted</a> between people through respiratory secretions, via skin lesions, or exposure to recently contaminated objects). That makes it harder for one person to infect multiple people than it would be if the virus were primarily spread through the air.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cw1Jsx">
|
||
Whereas a more primarily airborne virus like SARS-CoV-2 can turn a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919e6.htm">choir practice</a> into a superspreader event, monkeypox is unlikely to spread as explosively because infection requires direct contact.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fwCOpB">
|
||
A second important variable is the incubation period, the time period between the moment of infection and the moment symptoms start. The longer a germ’s incubation period, the more time there is to intervene with measures that prevent spread, like quarantine or vaccination.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LscIM7">
|
||
Monkeypox’s incubation period is typically between 7 and 14 days (although it can range from 5 to 21 days). That’s a relatively long time, and it gives public health authorities a fighting chance at reaching infected people via contact tracing, in time to prevent them from becoming a source of transmission, either through quarantine or vaccination, Toner explained.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dxGGlm">
|
||
A third key attribute, Toner said, is a pathogen’s ability to spread before it makes people sick (i.e., if it can be asymptomatically transmitted).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6bwrhO">
|
||
Monkeypox is not thought to spread before people develop symptoms, which include fever, body aches, lymph node swelling, and a rash. That means it’s much easier for a person to notice when they might be contagious — and to take action by getting medical attention and isolating at home. (In contrast, Covid-19 can spread before a person starts to feel ill, which has made it very hard to contain.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-left">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bMEjAnjdpKDcESQz-
|
||
Fbx0SnA2UI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23591038/GettyImages_2067974.jpg"/></p>
|
||
<cite>CDC via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Monkeypox lesions from a 2003 case of the viral disease.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OzZAiy">
|
||
The features of the symptoms themselves can also make it easier to control an outbreak.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FPKAWv">
|
||
“You can look at somebody across the room and know that they have smallpox, for example, because they have a rash that no one would miss,” Toner said. Monkeypox’s rash is slightly less striking, he said: At different stages, it can mimic chickenpox, herpes, and syphilis.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4EYR4T">
|
||
However, it is still distinctive enough that most clinicians will make the diagnosis without having to wait for a test result to come back — especially after the raft of information they’ve been receiving lately about monkeypox.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5TJOgY">
|
||
In contrast, the symptoms of Covid-19 frustratingly resemble other common illnesses like colds and flus, making it harder to identify without testing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="rR2oWE">
|
||
But the virus can exploit some vulnerabilities
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w350W7">
|
||
All that said, there are a few aspects of monkeypox that could vex containment efforts.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XjjC1S">
|
||
While most lesions are painful, it might not be obvious to every infected person that they have monkeypox, especially early in the course of infection.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VsgfoP">
|
||
That is particularly salient in this outbreak, where many infected people have been reporting a rash localized to the genital area, often after close social or sexual contact. “Sometimes it’s dark, and you don’t inspect that very carefully,” Schaffner said, “so there are environments where transmission can occur, particularly if the contact is kind of semi-anonymous or fleeting.” In those scenarios, it might not be obvious to an infected person that they have symptoms and could be contagious. This concern could be mitigated with good public outreach (more on that below).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FLBxNw">
|
||
Overall, the virus’s biology and how it causes disease in humans suggest it should be containable. But there’s also the reality that many populations are less immune to monkeypox than they have been in the past.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lSIHAW">
|
||
There was a time when everyone at risk for smallpox infection had been vaccinated against it. But since smallpox was eradicated in 1980, global smallpox vaccination campaigns have ceased — and the public’s protection against related viruses, including monkeypox, has waned. In 2020, the Pasteur Institute <a href="https://www.pasteur.fr/en/research-journal/news/monkeypox-epidemic-potential-will-continue-increasing-diminishing-
|
||
herd-immunity-against-viruses">suggested</a> that as smallpox vaccine protection dwindles, monkeypox is gaining epidemic potential.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xe6UtQ">
|
||
Although people who are old enough to have been vaccinated against smallpox still have some protection, they’re not the ones who are at greatest risk during the current outbreak, which is largely affecting younger people, said Agoritsa Baka, a public health preparedness expert at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. “Right now, most of the public, and particularly the groups that we’re interested in, are largely unvaccinated, so they are vulnerable to the virus,” she said. That makes this outbreak harder to contain than it would be if more people were immune.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MFxI3f">
|
||
A final caveat is that experts’ understanding of monkeypox’s inherent containability hinges on the fact that the virus isn’t changing quickly (i.e., mutating) to evade control.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lVPqi9">
|
||
<a href="https://virological.org/c/monkeypox/46">Sequencing</a> <a href="https://nextstrain.org/monkeypox">data</a> obtained to date <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-
|
||
pharmaceuticals/who-says-no-evidence-monkeypox-virus-has-mutated-2022-05-23/">do not suggest</a> the virus is evolving rapidly — <a href="https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1529253205506289665">and researchers don’t expect it to</a>, tweeted Trevor Bedford, an epidemiologist and viral disease modeler at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. Still, the world will be watching closely to determine whether genetic variability of the monkeypox virus is playing a role in its current spread, and its potential to be kept in check.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VU_8a-Nn-i-DNsx8kytAyBBRuKE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23590956/AP22140456460244.jpg"/> <cite>Andrew Medichini/AP</cite></figure></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Hospital director Francesco Vaia speaks to reporters in Rome, Italy, on May 20. Vaia said three cases of monkeypox had been confirmed and isolated at his hospital in patients who traveled to the Canary Islands and Vienna.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="55IU60">
|
||
“Will it be contained” depends a lot on the communities the virus is spreading in
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sknpgF">
|
||
Even when a germ’s intrinsic qualities favor its containment, it can cause big problems if there’s stigma associated with the activities that spread it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="epH014">
|
||
With monkeypox, homophobia could jeopardize disease control, because links have emerged between cases and attendance at venues catering to men who have sex with men. If infection risk gets too closely associated with behaviors that some people stigmatize, it might prevent them from cooperating with contact tracing or vaccination for fear of being associated with those behaviors.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jFr9dk">
|
||
Health organizations run by and for gay men are an enormous asset to public health right now, and many of those organizations have longstanding relationships with public health, several experts told me. “Gay and bisexual men have been faced with HIV as a threat for three or four decades now, and we have a very activated community of people who are engaged in getting diagnosed and getting treated,” said John Brooks, chief medical officer at the CDC’s division of HIV prevention.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YS0njp">
|
||
And it’s not just men’s health groups who’ve helped educate and inform people in the LGBTQ community about monkeypox, Baka said. At least one <a href="https://darklands.be/monkeypox/">festival</a> linked to cases has posted a notice of infection risk on its website, and last weekend, two <a href="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/05/25/grindr-monkeypox-gay-bisexual-men/">dating apps</a> commonly used in Europe by gay and bisexual men began displaying public health messages about monkeypox in several languages.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="66KBeM">
|
||
That kind of community buy-in helps key information reach people who might otherwise be skeptical of engaging with government public health agencies. “The challenge definitely is to engage with the community so that people can go get tested without prejudice,” said Baka.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DJZmDV">
|
||
When a disease’s modes of transmission are highly stigmatized, messaging related to the disease has to walk a careful line.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JFh1pe">
|
||
On one hand, frank communication in language that out gay and bisexual men commonly use is best for efficiently providing these communities with non-judgmental information. “If you treat people with respect and meet them where they are, it can go a very long way,” said Brooks.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5rAF1f">
|
||
On the flip side, trumpeting the link between infection risk and getting close and sweaty at events for LGBTQ people can instigate stigma, Schaffner said. An ideal communications strategy likely uses different language and emphasizes different elements of risk with different populations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="94GE9K">
|
||
So far, Schaffner has been glad to see these associations often mentioned without sensationalism, even in news reports. “It’s not the lede,” he said, but “the third paragraph of the story.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="KOmqo7">
|
||
Containing monkeypox will take effort in a strained-but-prepared public health system
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CXwsgf">
|
||
As the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated, a robust public health system is a necessary ingredient of outbreak containment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VJlB0X">
|
||
Baka said that in this case, pandemic fatigue is to some degree a threat to containment. “People are tired. All the health care workers are tired, including the public health workforce,” she said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_KETk_1PrFMudO80sl_8Eo0gxvc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
||
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23590566/GettyImages_1053131658.jpg"/> <cite>Charles Bouessel/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Medical staff wearing protective equipment enter a quarantine area in Zomea Kaka, Central African Republic, where clusters of monkeypox cases were reported, in 2018.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XFKOzl">
|
||
But there’s still a lot of optimism they can control the monkeypox outbreak, she said, in part because that workforce is so experienced at curtailing infection transmission, whether the infections are sexually transmitted or not. Additionally, as a result of Covid-19, new technologies exist to make contact tracing easier than it used to be.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lvOCoC">
|
||
“This does require a lot of shoe-leather epidemiology,” Schaffner said, referring to the contact tracing epidemiologists do to identify cases and contacts during an outbreak, sometimes by pounding the pavement in person.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yvd8J3">
|
||
It’s also immensely helpful to have vaccines and medications that we know can prevent and treat monkeypox at the outset of this outbreak. The US Food and Drug Administration has <a href="https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-issues/smallpox-preparedness-and-response-updates-
|
||
fda">approved</a> several medications to treat smallpox, which CDC representatives said Monday could also be used to treat monkeypox. The <a href="https://www.phe.gov/about/sns/Pages/default.aspx">Strategic National Stockpile</a> contains three types of smallpox vaccines, which would also prevent monkeypox.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4HhJOn">
|
||
What’s unique and particularly helpful about the existing vaccines is that they work to protect people who receive them even if they’re vaccinated <em>after</em> they’re exposed, said Toner. Vaccination within four days of exposure can block infection altogether, he said, and vaccines still lessen the disease’s severity even if given later in the course of infection.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CdenGg">
|
||
That makes vaccinating cases and<em> </em>ring vaccination — vaccinating all the contacts of a case — a viable strategy for preventing the spread of infection, adding another point in favor of monkeypox being containable. Already, public health authorities in several <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/monkeypox-europe-
|
||
vaccine-close-contacts-uk-france-germany/">European countries</a> and the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/24/health/monkeypox-vaccine-explainer-us/index.html">US</a> are deploying these strategies, offering monkeypox vaccines to close social and health care contacts of cases.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="uLM8D0">
|
||
Containment is possible. But the window could soon start closing.
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B9kWrz">
|
||
Several experts were up front about why taking aggressive measures to contain monkeypox now are particularly urgent: Pride celebrations are coming up, and two-plus years into the Covid-19 pandemic, people are eager to party, said Brooks. “If there were to be non-compliance with containment measures, and it started transmitting more among the broader population, then it would be harder to contain,” Toner said.
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||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yiOOO8">
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There are backup plans: If the current containment strategies of contact tracing and ring vaccination don’t work, escalated vaccination strategies could involve vaccinating people in groups at high risk for infection or severe disease, regardless of whether they are cases or contacts. That would mean offering vaccines to people attending large gatherings where they’re likely to engage in the kind of contact that spreads monkeypox, such as certain Pride festivities. Meanwhile, groups offered the vaccine due to higher risk for severe disease would likely include immunocompromised people, including people with HIV, as well as pregnant people and children — but we’re not there yet.
|
||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k3XEco">
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For now, vaccine availability is not a problem, as many countries have stockpiles of smallpox vaccine as part of their bioterrorism preparedness strategies. However, companies that make these vaccines are ramping up production in case a larger supply is needed.
|
||
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eBHp2M">
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Fundamentally, an outbreak is likelier to be stopped in its tracks if it’s caused by a pathogen public health has successfully fought before, either with medicines or proven strategies like ring vaccination. And that’s also why experts are so optimistic. “That’s how smallpox was eradicated, and I believe that’s how monkeypox will be contained,” Toner said.
|
||
</p>
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZzzU2P">
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The smaller an outbreak is, the easier it is to contain. A plateau of the monkeypox case count would be a promising sign that things are headed in a positive direction. Over the next few weeks, epidemiologists — and the world — will be watching to see if their hopes of curbing this virus’ spread are fulfilled.
|
||
</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>If Rishabh Pant plays 100 Tests, his name would be etched in record books forever: Sehwag</strong> - Rishabh Pant has played 30 Tests and scored 1920 runs so far at an average of 40.85</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>Ligue 1 chairman slams La Liga for complaint against PSG retaining Mbappé</strong> - After Kylian Mbappé signed a new contract at Qatari-owned PSG, La Liga president said the Spanish league would file complaints against the club, but Ligue 1 has hit back at the allegations</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>England Test coach McCullum eager to support ‘strong leader’ Stokes</strong> - The England job is McCullum’s first as a red-ball coach, a point he acknowledged to reporters at Lord’s on Friday.</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>Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka second Test | Asitha rips through Bangladesh as Sri Lanka wins Test series</strong> - The visitors bowled out Bangladesh for 169 runs in their second innings with Asitha Fernando playing a starring role</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>Wimbledon to no longer use ‘Miss’, ‘Mrs’ on women’s honour roll: Report</strong> - The All England Lawn Tennis Club has traditionally used “Miss” and “Mrs” for women winners but do not use titles for men. A report says this is about to change</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>Andhra Pradesh: Renovated Venkateswara temple in Vizianagaram to be reopened soon</strong> - Chinna Jeeyar Swamy to take part in Santi Kalyana Mahotsavam on June 10</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>YSRCP’s ‘social justice tsunami’ will wash away opposition parties: Thammineni Seetharam</strong> - Assembly Speaker predicts rout of TDP for ‘ignoring’ the rights of the weaker sections</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>State to mount pressure on SZC</strong> - Finance Secretary to lead delegation to standing committee meet</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>Accused of molesting granddaughter, ex-Uttarakhand minister shoots self dead</strong> - Rajendra Bahuguna was booked recently under the POCSO Act on the complaint of his daughter-in-law</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>UAE, India discuss economic opportunities of energy transition</strong> - The meetings were held on the sidelines of UAE Climate Envoy and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Dr. Sultan Al Jaber's visit to New Delhi on May 26, UAE’s official news agency 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>EU’s awkward summit: Don’t mention Russian oil ban</strong> - The EU’s latest sanctions are held up by infighting, but a summit on Monday is unlikely to solve it.</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>Spanish MPs back ‘only yes means yes’ sexual consent law</strong> - The new legislation aims to make it easier for victims of sexual violence to prosecute attackers.</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>Louvre museum’s ex-president charged in art trafficking case</strong> - Jean-Luc Martinez is accused of facilitating the transfer of objects to the museum’s Abu Dhabi site.</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>Abba Voyage: The band’s virtual concert needs to be seen to be believed</strong> - All four members appear in public for the first time in 14 years, as they launch their Voyage show.</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>Ancient DNA reveals secrets of Pompeii victims</strong> - It is an almost complete set of “genetic instructions” from people who died when Mount Vesuvius erupted.</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>Humming birds suffer if they move uphill to escape the warming climate</strong> - Heights hinder hummingbird hovering—this could be bad news as the Earth warms. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1856474">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rocket Report: Meet the Gravity-1 rocket; will Starship really cut launch costs?</strong> - “I probably can’t express in words what it meant for me.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1856556">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CDC presumes community spread of monkeypox; 9 cases now in 7 states</strong> - Some US cases had recent international travel to areas with cases, others did not. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1856822">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can we cut the US’s carbon emissions in half this decade?</strong> - There are multiple routes to drop carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1856815">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lawsuit: Musk manipulated Twitter stock price in attempt to renegotiate sale</strong> - Investor alleges Musk posted false tweets in scheme to kill deal or renegotiate price. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1856788">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>How many Texas cops does it take to save children from an active shooter?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Still under investigation.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/yrthegood1staken"> /u/yrthegood1staken </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uyvdk0/how_many_texas_cops_does_it_take_to_save_children/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uyvdk0/how_many_texas_cops_does_it_take_to_save_children/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>There was a man who lost one of his arms in an accident.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He became very depressed because he had loved to play guitar and do a lot of things that took two arms.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
One day he had had it. He decided to commit suicide and went to the top of a building to jump off.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He was standing on the ledge looking down when he saw a man skipping along, whistling and kicking up his heels. He looked closer and saw this man didn’t have any arms at all. He started thinking, “What am I doing up here feeling sorry for myself? I still have one good arm to do things with. There goes a man with no arms skipping down the sidewalk happy and going on with his life.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He hurried down and caught up with the man with no arms. He told him how glad he was to see him because he had lost one of his arms and felt ugly and useless and was going to kill himself. He thanked him for saving his life and said he knew he could make it with one arm if he could go on with no arms.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The man with no arms began dancing and whistling and kicking up his heels again.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Why are you so happy anyway?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The guy replied, “I’m not happy. My nuts are itchy!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nothinlefttochoose"> /u/nothinlefttochoose </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uyfjzw/there_was_a_man_who_lost_one_of_his_arms_in_an/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uyfjzw/there_was_a_man_who_lost_one_of_his_arms_in_an/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>The CEO of IKEA has just been appointed as the Prime Minister of Sweden.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He’s currently assembling his cabinet.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/pacificdom"> /u/pacificdom </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uy9ey2/the_ceo_of_ikea_has_just_been_appointed_as_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uy9ey2/the_ceo_of_ikea_has_just_been_appointed_as_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>My son looked up from his homework and asked me, “Dad, what’s an acorn?” I smiled and explained…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Well, in a nutshell, it’s an oak tree!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/808gecko808"> /u/808gecko808 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uyvryj/my_son_looked_up_from_his_homework_and_asked_me/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uyvryj/my_son_looked_up_from_his_homework_and_asked_me/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>TIL, in the original draft of Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, JRR Tolkien wrote that Bilbo Baggins died while having sex with a dwarf prostitute…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Apparently old hobbits die hard.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TJeffersonsBlackKid"> /u/TJeffersonsBlackKid </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uyrn4q/til_in_the_original_draft_of_lord_of_the_rings/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uyrn4q/til_in_the_original_draft_of_lord_of_the_rings/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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