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560 lines
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<title>14 May, 2021</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<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>Sheikh Jarrah and the Renewed Israeli-Palestinian Violence</strong> - Unless the evictions, unequal rights, and pervasive discrimination in Jerusalem end, clashes will continue. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/sheikh-jarrah-and-the-renewed-israeli-palestinian-violence">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India’s Crisis Marks a New Phase in the Pandemic</strong> - In countries where the storm is lifting, it’s time to turn outward and help the rest of the world. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/indias-crisis-marks-a-new-phase-in-the-pandemic">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How a Sexual-Harassment Suit May Test the Reach of #MeToo in China</strong> - Zhou Xiaoxuan’s case against a well-known television personality is unfolding under a system that remains skeptical, even hostile, toward such allegations. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-a-sexual-harassment-suit-may-test-the-reach-of-metoo-in-china">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why It’s So Important That Twelve-Year-Olds Can Now Get a COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - We are in a pandemic from which, as much as one might wish it, children have never been exempt. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-its-so-important-that-twelve-year-olds-can-now-get-a-covid-19-vaccine">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Somebody Should Tell Kevin McCarthy That Trump Is Still Lying About the 2020 Election</strong> - What the House Minority Leader’s role in ousting Liz Cheney tells us about the troubled future of the Republic. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/somebody-should-tell-kevin-mccarthy-that-trump-is-still-lying-about-the-2020-election">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>People want a quick fix for homelessness. There isn’t one.</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A woman walks past a row of tents in Los Angeles on February 1." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/U5LQpDVE6Q1SfGu4m1yCMCJ3ae0=/0x0:2313x1735/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69286212/GettyImages_1230917908.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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A woman walks past a row of tents in Los Angeles on February 1. Judge David O. Carter recently likened the city’s homelessness crisis to “a significant natural disaster … with no end in sight.” | Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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In Los Angeles, housing is scarce and homelessness is rising. That’s not a coincidence.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="49ctEx">
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NB1Fv0">
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On April 20, a US District Court judge put his foot down.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zCLcNi">
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“Here in Los Angeles, how did racism become embedded in the policies and structures of our new city,” he wrote. “What if there was a conscious effort, a deliberate intent, a cowardice of inaction?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6YTyww">
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In more than 100 pages, Judge David O. Carter detailed the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles and its disparate impacts on Black residents. He was ruling on a case brought by the LA Alliance for Human Rights, a group formed in recent years for the purpose of suing the City and County of Los Angeles over the homelessness emergency.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oi895v">
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Leaning on what some experts tell Vox are novel legal theories, Carter took homelessness policymaking into his own hands with a bold approach that seems heartening at first glance — but many of the court’s proposed reforms falter under scrutiny.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bwL2aZ">
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Among other things, Carter’s order requires:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li id="lfUi5k">
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The City of Los Angeles to place $1 billion in escrow within seven days. (Carter <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-26/judge-carter-1-billion-escrow-homelessness">later paused this request</a>.)
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</li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qO9AUI">
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The City and County of Los Angeles to offer shelter to all unaccompanied women and children living in Skid Row, a neighborhood that contains thousands of homeless Angelenos, by July 19, 2021.
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</li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e05eb2">
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The City and County of Los Angeles to offer shelter to all families living in Skid Row by August 18, 2021.
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</li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D1v6w5">
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The City and County of Los Angeles to offer shelter to the rest of the general population living in Skid Row by October 17, 2021.
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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="HAnBOG">
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The orders kicked up a firestorm among homelessness advocates, affordable housing developers, and local governments. The homelessness crisis has ballooned in Los Angeles — in a <a href="https://www.lahsa.org/news?article=726-2020-greater-los-angeles-homeless-count-results">June 2020 report</a>, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority revealed an astonishing 66,436 unhoused people, a 12.7 percent increase over the previous year.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vep2yjScT3fcDy4yLWB-oYdJy2U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22512686/GettyImages_1208448478.jpg"/> <cite>Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Judge David O. Carter walks out of a closed hearing to discuss solutions to the Skid Row homelessness crisis on March 26, 2020.
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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="YjDvZs">
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Few disagree that this is an emergency; in fact, Carter’s opinion makes liberal use of the defendants’ language railing against the state of homelessness several times. However, there is vast disagreement over how to fix the problem, leaving homelessness advocates divided over Carter’s decision.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VToyc2">
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It’s a dispute that highlights the difficulties of solving the growing homelessness crisis in many of America’s cities. As the issues become more visible to residents, searches for a quick fix can direct government funds toward bad policies. In reality, the crisis of homelessness is inextricable from the existing national shortage of affordable housing, which itself is the result of numerous policy choices made every day by local and state governments.
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</p>
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<h3 id="pWeovZ">
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Why many homelessness experts don’t think the $1 billion solution is the answer
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f5lfH4">
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The legal case in question, <em>LA Alliance for Human Rights v. City of Los Angeles</em>, was brought by a group that some have said represents business interests in the Skid Row neighborhood. (The Alliance, which declined to share its list of members with Vox, <a href="https://www.la-alliance.org/who_we_are">self-describes</a> as a “group of small business owners, residents, and social service providers.”)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2eixAK">
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Daniel Conway, a policy advisor for the Alliance, tells Vox the goal of the lawsuit was to require the government to produce “immediate housing options” and to begin restricting the ability of people to sleep outside. Conway added that the effort is not supposed to be a “law enforcement action.” Instead, he says, “This is about having outreach workers, social workers, therapists” get homeless people into temporary housing.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p2uXFk">
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Of course, if someone refuses shelter, law enforcement — not social workers — is responsible for enforcing homelessness criminalization ordinances.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Os0DWo">
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Carter’s order affirmed a lot of what the Alliance was looking for. It also sparked backlash.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sj90ma">
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The defendants immediately took issue with the order to set aside $1 billion in an escrow account.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o7VmBJ">
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LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office told me it doesn’t “just have a billion dollars sitting around in cash.” In response, Carter ended up <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.775720/gov.uscourts.cacd.775720.286.0.pdf">modifying his order</a> a few days later to require Los Angeles to draft a plan to ensure that $1 billion is spent to alleviate homelessness.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BCKLmz">
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The concerns didn’t stop there. Part of the funds to be appropriated for temporary housing would be pulled from the Prop HHH Supportive Housing Loan Program (HHH), which is meant to provide long-term housing.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-dUKC96o3rGvik-9HhttIxIDiX8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22512656/AP_21036028643542.jpg"/> <cite>Damian Dovarganes/AP</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Los Angeles City Council Member Kevin de León (left) talks to Michelle Coultier, who has been homeless for eight years, in February 2021.
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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="9HDxhS">
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That program, which issues bonds to subsidize developing housing for homeless and at-risk Angelenos, has had its struggles. Nearly halfway through its 10-year tenure, HHH has produced only 7 percent of the housing units it was supposed to create, according to <a href="https://hcidla2.lacity.org/housing/hhh-progress">the city dashboard tracking its progress</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pMncWE">
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Still, the plan was meant to create long-term solutions, and now that money will be used on housing that, by definition, is only a temporary fix. Moreover, <a href="https://hcidla2.lacity.org/housing/hhh-progress">$976 million</a> (or 81 percent) of the bond program’s revenue has already been committed.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="58u6le">
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Carter’s order immediately threw affordable housing developers into uncertainty, as existing projects depending on that funding may be at risk if the city is required to reallocate funds.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nxczu4">
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“Nonprofit developers are trying to figure out how [the reallocation of the HHH funds] affects their developments,” says Jet Doye, vice president of development and advancement at Skid Row Housing Trust, which provides and manages permanent supportive housing to at-risk Angelenos. Doye explained that requiring all HHH funding to go toward temporary housing solutions could undermine many of these projects.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HH0tND">
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“Certainty is a really important concept [in residential development],” Alan Greenlee, executive director of the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing, tells Vox. “So when the court steps in and says, ‘I’m going to change the rules in pretty significant ways,’ it really creates a lot of confusion and anxiety. … I think that the injunction has been really disruptive to the work that we’re doing.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W7XD9A">
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But perhaps the most worrying part of Carter’s order is this sentence, buried at the end: “After adequate shelter is offered, the Court will let stand any constitutional ordinance consistent with the holdings of <em>Boise</em> and <em>Mitchell.”</em>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hZK5fG">
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<em>Martin v. City of Boise</em> and <em>Mitchell v. City of Los Angeles </em>are cases that explore the limits of criminalizing homelessness. The <em>Martin </em>case <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/2019/12/martin-v-city-of-boise/">questioned the constitutionality of two city ordinances</a> restricting people from sleeping or camping on public property. The <em>Mitchell</em> ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed against Los Angeles by four homeless residents who accused police of “<a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.642450.9.0.pdf">confiscating and then destroying</a>” their <a href="https://la.curbed.com/2019/3/6/18253888/mitchell-settlement-los-angeles-homeless-property">personal property</a> without a warrant. The specific principles each case established are complicated, but by invoking their names, experts say Carter is indicating that once an offer of temporary shelter has been made, Los Angeles would be free to forcibly clear homeless folks who refuse to accept it.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vQempW">
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“One of the concerns is that this injunction will allow for the criminalization of homelessness and then resulting action to move homeless people along with no regard to actually where they’re going to go,” Greenlee explained.
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</p>
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<div class="c-wide-block">
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZJCHexn6GTUzInFvSKstYni5pn8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22512691/GettyImages_1147031674.jpg"/> <cite>Frederick J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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A sharp rise in the price of housing is a root cause of ballooning homelessness in high-cost cities like Los Angeles.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kG4vKV">
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There are many reasons why individuals might reject offers of temporary shelter and thus could be vulnerable to forced removal. As the Los Angeles Times’s editorial board <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-04-25/editorial-judge-carters-order-to-shelter-skid-row-got-a-few-things-right-and-everything-else-wrong">writes</a>: “It can take outreach workers weeks if not months to persuade homeless people to accept a shelter bed; this is a population inured to the hardships of the streets, many suffering from addiction or mental illness, and suspicious of other outreach workers who made promises they didn’t keep.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2xnYk5">
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Eric Tars, legal director at the National Homelessness Law Center, got more literal. It’s not just suspicion of help, he says — it’s that the help offered might actually come at too high a cost: “We often talk about the three P’s: pets, partners, and possessions.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vmpjJ3">
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Many shelters bar people from bringing their pets, which some unhoused residents are unwilling to do. That’s hard for some people to understand, Tars noted. “You’re refusing shelter because of a pet? But that doesn’t credit the emotional importance that these animals may serve for people in their times of crisis and trauma,” he says.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7oVQlN">
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Because many shelters are single-sex or sex-segregated facilities, often people are asked to separate from their significant others, which can be a deal breaker.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qJ8msd">
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And, finally, Tars tells Vox that shelters frequently don’t allow homeless people to bring their possessions with them, even though they’re often the only items people have been able to keep safe since becoming homeless.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9aRDvM">
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Shelters often present other barriers, too. They can have strict rules about when you can come and go, they can be located far from your work or family, and they may not have nearby transportation options, making it impossible for residents there to build a life.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cAbJUb">
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With all of these barriers (and more), it’s not hard to understand why some refuse temporary shelters. Even when they do go, the experience can be undesirable.
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</p>
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<div class="c-wide-block">
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/biCgniXnESBf2W9S3wL1tpMYlD0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22512251/GettyImages_1231946669.jpg"/> <cite>Wally Skalij/Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Protesters gather at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Lemoyne Street before LAPD officers evict homeless people in Echo Park.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ITZWGU">
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Erika D. Smith, a columnist for the LA Times, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-03/echo-park-lake-homeless-housing-los-angeles">spoke to several people</a> who were recently removed from another homeless encampment in Los Angeles:
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</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WIaKGC">
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Those who accepted hotel and motel rooms said they felt jerked around and unfairly put upon by the strict Project Roomkey rules. Some were ready to leave, calling into question whether we can really call the clearing of Echo Park a “success” if homeless people are so unhappy with what happened that they refuse to stay in the housing that’s offered.
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</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nDDsBP">
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Rev. Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union Rescue Mission and a well-known advocate for homeless Angelenos, strongly supports the push for temporary shelters, one of the few people Vox spoke with to have that view. He cited the need for urgency: “No more straw-man arguments against shelters. … 5,700 people have died on the street. The status quo can’t continue.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eIK2Sc">
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But do shelters work?
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</p>
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<h3 id="f3gyQy">
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The limits of shelters
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NpVYy2">
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With thousands on the streets during a pandemic, it can feel like the obvious solution is whatever gets them to a safe home immediately. So, for many, temporary shelters seem like the answer. But beyond the reasons why many homeless people refuse to go to shelters, there are even more reasons why allocating energy and time to them won’t actually solve the problem.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IelzSn">
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“It’s a doctor who gets the diagnosis right but the prescription completely wrong,” Tars says in response to Carter’s 110-page decision.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R3WgtH">
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The root cause of ballooning homelessness seen in high-cost cities over the past few decades is rising housing prices. Housing insecurity is a fact of life, but tent cities springing up in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington, DC, are a modern phenomenon caused primarily by the burdensome costs of renting. Before the 1980s, “There were people with mental illness, lots of people with substance abuse disorders, lots of poor people, all the same issues, but there was not widespread homelessness,” National Alliance to End Homelessness CEO Nan Roman <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-07-06/why-is-homelessness-such-a-problem-in-u-s-cities">told</a> Bloomberg CityLab in 2020. “What changed was the housing.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AfumZd">
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A <a href="https://www.zillow.com/research/homelessness-rent-affordability-22247/">2018 Zillow report</a> tracking the relationship between rent affordability and homelessness concluded that “communities where people spend more than 32 percent of their income on rent can expect a more rapid increase in homelessness.”
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="A chart showing a correlation between levels of homelessness and a lack of area rent affordability." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/onCU-VD6GK-AYPigoor0ErCKonc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22512911/Screen_Shot_2021_05_13_at_4.42.48_PM.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.zillow.com/research/homelessness-rent-affordability-22247/" target="_blank">Zillow</a></cite>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lux6gh">
|
||
A US Government Accountability Office <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-427.pdf">report</a> in 2017 found that nearly half of all renter households were “rent burdened” (that is, paying more than 30 percent of their household income on rent). For extremely low-income Americans, the picture was even worse — 72 percent of them were spending more than half their income on rent. The situation in Los Angeles is especially stark: A <a href="https://news.usc.edu/179928/los-angeles-rent-burdened-households-basic-needs-usc-research/">USC Sol Price Center for Social Innovation survey</a> conducted from January to October 2019 found that 75 percent of LA households spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kUlGJz">
|
||
What’s more, rents in LA increased 28 percent between 2000 and 2010 while median household incomes rose just 1.2 percent, according to the LA Department of City Planning. All of these numbers mean the same thing: The number of people at risk of homelessness has risen sharply.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oLDC0k">
|
||
This precarious position means that even if every person who is currently homeless were offered a residence today, more people will continue to experience homelessness as minor financial emergencies push their families into economic despair. Stopping this flow requires permanent and affordable housing solutions. As the LA Times editorial board writes: “The order treats skid row’s homeless population as an identifiable group, when in fact the population fluctuates. … In addition to the people who come and go on the street, there are those who move into and out of interim shelters in the neighborhood.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
||
<aside id="QpsLT8">
|
||
<q>“It’s a doctor who gets the diagnosis right but the prescription completely wrong”</q>
|
||
</aside>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FEvpNh">
|
||
Heidi Marston, executive director of the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-judge-orders-los-angeles-shelter-homeless-people-skid-row-n1265005">noted to NBC</a> that while LA County rehouses an average of 207 people every day, 227 people fall into homelessness at the same time.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WCGcg7">
|
||
In his opinion, Carter calls prioritizing long-term housing a “deadly decision” because the slow pace of affordable housing development ignores the tens of thousands of people left in the streets. But the problem is not that LA has prioritized long-term housing over temporary shelters — the problem is that LA’s solution for long-term housing is insufficient.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s20lji">
|
||
In a document disseminated five days following his original ruling, Carter clarified that “the Court’s preliminary injunction calls for both interim shelter and long-term housing,” but added that his order to clear Skid Row by mid-October remained in effect. So if Los Angeles were to comply, the solution would have to be temporary shelters.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="yOnIVk">
|
||
Just give people money — and ensure abundant housing
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kwHFOJ">
|
||
The most direct way Los Angeles currently perpetuates racial and economic segregation is through exclusionary zoning laws, which restrict the type and supply of housing and often place limits on more affordable options like apartment buildings and multiplexes in favor of single-family homes that are out of reach for lower-income residents.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ooP3m6">
|
||
Los Angeles has refused to respond to its massive housing shortage by liberalizing its zoning laws. Carter touches on this in his opinion: “Without major rezoning initiatives, Los Angeles will continue to lack the infrastructure to meet the homelessness crisis and stem growing housing insecurity.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eGxcsk">
|
||
One key example of this happened in March, when the LA City Council <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/livable-city/la-oe-vallianatos-sb-827-housing-zoning-20180402-story.html">voted to oppose a bill that would</a> “allow small-to-medium-sized apartment buildings to be built” near highly used transit stops. This type of legislation would help increase the housing supply — making it legal to build more than one home on one lot means more people can find a place to live. This isn’t a quick fix, but smaller units are generally more affordable than single-family homes due to both their size and the ability of developers to collect rents from multiple families on a single lot. Policies such as these can start to alleviate the pressure on hot housing markets and bring down rents.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4gRC6R">
|
||
But the city’s leadership — not only City Council members but also the mayor, Garcetti, who has said he wants to tackle homelessness — were against the measure. Council members alleged the bill would start “blowing up” and “chainsawing” neighborhoods, and Garcetti said he thought apartments just “wouldn’t ‘look right,’” according to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/livable-city/la-oe-vallianatos-sb-827-housing-zoning-20180402-story.html">an LA Times opinion article</a> written by LAplus director Mark Vallianatos.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_Z4cshs0wKxRLkgdyEsbQ70p0XY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22512274/GettyImages_1161641056.jpg"/> <cite>Paul Chesne/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
A for-sale sign advertising a $3.8 million home looms over a homeless person sleeping in a tent on a side street in Venice, California, in 2019.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zx52S4">
|
||
LA’s leadership is still committed to the very policies that are putting so many people on the brink of homelessness. The reason for this is clear: Many of LA’s own residents are unwilling to see affordable housing built in their communities. Though <a href="https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/proposition-hhh-debacle/">77 percent of voters approved</a> a 2016 bond measure that created the Prop HHH Supportive Housing Loan Program, Greenlee said neighbors often oppose the developments in practice.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pbMBiQ">
|
||
“If you look at what’s happened in places like Venice or even Hollywood, the communities have turned out in force to protest the sighting of permanent supportive housing in their communities,” he added. “They’re classist, homelessness-ist. … People just don’t want that in their communities.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fOCzPP">
|
||
Carter’s remedy does require the LA City Council Homelessness and Poverty Committee to report back with specific actions to address the crisis, including “the possibility of rezoning to accommodate more R3 (multi-family) zoning.” But in comparison to the bold changes he demands for temporary housing, it’s clear his heart really isn’t in it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7TIxD7">
|
||
“If [Carter] had ordered the city to rezone, we would have applauded it,” Doye told Vox.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zBhvJZ">
|
||
For many, this solution can seem too far off. How long can people wait until rents start becoming more affordable? That’s why many advocates for the unhoused favor combining zoning reform with a dramatic expansion and liberalization of the housing voucher program to ensure low-income Americans can get help paying rent as cities attempt to undo the damage caused by decades of classist zoning laws.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oaCTSD">
|
||
It’s one way a bias toward immediate action undermines the impetus for reform. There is no way to fix the homelessness crisis without also addressing the housing shortage. These are not discrete problems, and the desire to see them as separate reflects an unwillingness to address hard political realities in favor of a “quick fix” that is anything but.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qkUwLR2vVqPI_bcun5XvgqICqvA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22512732/GettyImages_1215182349.jpg"/> <cite>Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Tents line the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles on May 25, 2020.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
</div></li>
|
||
<li><strong>How angry Apple employees’ petition led to a controversial new hire’s departure</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="A sign outside the Apple building on Homestead One." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/x8krpPbukNiy9Dq9q6LEYlIW04c=/0x0:5333x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69284512/823089766.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
One of Apple’s many corporate office buildings in Cupertino, California.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Even Apple can’t avoid employee conflict over issues like sexism.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZEQ7ZI">
|
||
It’s not every day that a new hire at a major tech company unleashes employee outrage, a public departure, and debates around sexism in the workplace. That’s particularly true at Apple — a secretive company that stands apart from its largest tech rival Google, which has a history of <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22213494/google-union-alphabet-workers-tech-organizing-activism-labor">workplace activism</a> and a <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/8/2/20751822/google-employee-dissent-james-damore-cernekee-conservatives-bias">culture of employee dissent</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NB57A0">
|
||
But that’s what happened on Wednesday, when Apple abruptly parted ways with a new advertising product technology employee, Antonio García Martínez, after thousands of employees questioned his hiring.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PIDdnc">
|
||
The situation shows how tensions over gender parity in tech have persisted since exploding in November 2018 <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/1/18048720/google-employee-walkout-activism-sexual-harassment">during the Google Walkout</a> and the Me Too movement. Even a company like Apple can’t entirely avoid being swept up in internal conflicts over fraught issues like sexism and political views that have caused rifts and PR crises across the tech industry.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8S7dTs">
|
||
Nearly 2,000 Apple employees signed an internal petition by Wednesday evening that criticized Apple’s decision to hire García Martínez, citing <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12267960/chaos-monkeys-antonio-garcia-martinez-silicon-valley-book-podcast">passages from his 2016 memoir</a>, including one in which he described “most women” in the San Francisco Bay Area as “soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit.” Silicon Valley has long been plagued by <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/3/1/22306508/amazon-race-discrimination-sexual-harassment-assault-lawsuit-charlotte-newman">gender bias</a> issues <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/17/18678541/women-tech-photoshop-diversity">and inequality</a>, and Apple employees opposed to his hiring said it was unfair to expect women at the company to work with someone who’d expressed and never apologized for misogynistic views.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qMhsa7">
|
||
García Martínez, a former Facebook product manager and writer, has previously said <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/9/12415696/antonio-garcia-martinez-chaos-monkeys-recode-decode-podcast-transcript">that passage has been quoted out of context</a>, because he was making a positive comparison to his former romantic partner, not making a statement about women in isolation. Some people in the tech industry supporting García Martínez argued that he’s being <a href="https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1392756490138791937">unfairly punished for his personal writing</a>, which they say is <a href="https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1392861594569170950">tongue-in-cheek</a> and not a serious reflection of his professional treatment of women.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qWQ4Im">
|
||
Ultimately, Apple sided with the protesting employees when it announced that García Martínez was no longer working at the company, just hours after the employee petition was sent to Apple executive Eddy Cue, and soon after the petition — which one organizer told Recode was not intended to become public — was <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/12/22432909/apple-petition-hiring-antonio-garcia-martinez-chaos-monkeys-facebook">reported on by The Verge</a><em>. </em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8TlY91">
|
||
“At Apple, we have always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace where everyone is respected and accepted,” an Apple spokesman sent in a statement. “Behavior that demeans or discriminates against people for who they are has no place here.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XieoZE">
|
||
The García Martínez petition marks one of the first known times that a sizable group of rank-and-file employees at Apple — a corporation known for a heads-down work culture — pushed back on a management decision with a petition, and actually succeeded in getting that decision reversed.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bFCayD">
|
||
The whole thing also unfolded rapidly. The controversy began earlier this week when it became public that Apple had hired García Martínez to help build out Apple’s competing ads department.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kPeMib">
|
||
When old passages from García Martínez’s book started going viral on Twitter, some Apple employees noticed and began organizing a petition internally at the company.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tEZVT6">
|
||
“We are profoundly distraught by what this hire means for Apple’s commitment to its inclusion goals, as well as its real and immediate impact on those working near Mr. García Martínez,” stated the letter, which goes on to demand an investigation into how García Martínez “published views on women and people of color were missed or ignored” in Apple’s hiring process. The letter called for Apple to take steps to prevent a similar situation from happening again.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lnKOUZ">
|
||
The petition pointed to other passages in García Martínez’s memoir, including one in which he describes the physique of a former female colleague at Facebook (“composed of alternating Bézier curves from top to bottom: convex, then concave, and then convex again, in a vertical undulation you couldn’t take your eyes off of”), refers to an economically disadvantaged city in Silicon Valley as a “slum,” and compares a former Indian colleague to “bored auto-rickshaw drivers” in New Delhi who would “overcharge you” for a ride.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pak3oC">
|
||
The petition didn’t specifically call for García Martínez to be fired, but it quickly gained traction and created pressure on the company to take action.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uIK3vv">
|
||
Even though many may find these passages from García Martínez’s book to be controversial, it should be noted that <em>Chaos Monkeys </em>was generally well-received by the tech press after it debuted in 2016 (including Recode, which interviewed him <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/11/18661701/facebook-google-twitter-executives-casey-newton-code-conference">in an onstage panel at its 2019 Code Conference</a>) — some <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-30/book-review-chaos-monkeys-a-silicon-valley-memoir?sref=Wg6QzS2e">criticism of sexism withstanding</a>. Until recently, García Martínez was a regular freelance contributor to Wired. He has worked at at least one other tech company since publishing his memoir, other than Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FHj4dN">
|
||
Which is all to say that, García Martínez’s writing, even if distasteful to some, has not obviously impacted his career until now. And some argue that in an earlier era at Apple — especially given the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-jerk-2011-10">so-called “brilliant jerk” leadership style</a> of former CEO and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs — that García Martínez’s writing might not have been such a major issue.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2M7LrD">
|
||
But in a post Me Too world, gender and racial equality is no longer seen as an afterthought in corporate life, especially not for rank-and-file employees. And women at the company raise an important question: Should they work with someone who has said he views most women in Silicon Valley as “weak”? And if those comments were truly made in jest, should Apple and/or García Martínez have publicly clarified that more explicitly?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6lRAa8">
|
||
An Apple employee involved in writing the petition, who spoke to Recode on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions, described their reaction to the news of Apple parting ways with García Martínez as “very celebratory but firm that this is only the first step,” and that organizers intend to continue pressing the company to investigate the circumstances around García Martínez’s hiring.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bc3LN1">
|
||
There are still many open questions around the situation — like if Apple was aware of García Martínez’s writing, if he was terminated or willingly resigned, and if he was given a chance to recant his earlier stated views before leaving.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="it8OFd">
|
||
Apple did not respond to Recode’s follow-up questions, and García Martínez declined to respond to a request for comment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dvl0xV">
|
||
What we do know is Apple is just one example of how major companies across corporate America are having to grapple with the consequences of employing people who espouse views that seem to be at odds with their own stated goals on inclusivity in the workplace. On Wednesday, Apple found itself in the position of being publicly pressured by its own usually quiet workforce to stay accountable to that promise.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Trump’s signature Israel policy had a key flaw. We’re seeing it now.</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nOhlbqVZVzDkEBLPhTmEAS1hjeA=/134x0:3863x2797/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69283921/1228528835.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Then-President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the signing of the Abraham Accords on September 15, 2020, at the White House. | Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The Abraham Accords didn’t resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Thursday’s deadly violence makes that clear.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pOS32Z">
|
||
First-term Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), who stocked his office with <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/28/hagerty-office-trump-staffers-463535">13 former Trump administration staffers</a>, thinks the eruption of violence between <a href="https://www.vox.com/22430488/israel-gaza-war-2021-hamas-sheikh-jarrah">Israel and Hamas</a> this week is partly President Joe Biden’s fault.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="acAnIT">
|
||
“Last fall we saw a watershed shift toward peace w/the Abraham Accords,” Haggerty <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorHagerty/status/1392611294013018112?s=20">tweeted</a> on Wednesday. “The entire region was eager for more. Biden had 4 months to build on this … Instead, Biden squandered those 4 months.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O2A7dD">
|
||
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee member’s case is one that other <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/liberal-figures-blaming-jared-kushner-abraham-accords-israeli-palestinian-violence">Republicans and allies of former President Trump have been making</a> in recent days.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A52UOw">
|
||
They note Trump brokered <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/10/22167665/morocco-israel-trump-normalization-western-sahara">normalization-of-relations</a> deals between Israel and four Arab nations: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. Those pacts, known as the Abraham Accords, served two main purposes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="miMI85">
|
||
The first was straightforward: They allowed Israel to engage openly and officially with countries that refused to recognize its existence for years. That historic development received <a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/menendez-graham-young-and-cardin-lead-bipartisan-senate-resolution-congratulating-israel-uae-and-bahrain-on-historic-abraham-accords">bipartisan support in the US</a>, and many today want Biden to build upon the foundation Trump left him.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XS7yuG">
|
||
The second was more nuanced. Many of those and other Arab nations, like <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/saudi-monarch-expresses-support-for-palestinian-people/2239522">Saudi Arabia</a>, are key backers of Palestinians in their decades-long dispute with Israel. But by getting them to interact with Israel, the idea was that they might let their support for the Palestinians slip and side a little closer with the Israelis.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4NDAvm">
|
||
If that happened, the theory went, Palestinian leaders would have no choice but to negotiate a peace deal with Israel. Jared Kushner, the main architect of the accords during the Trump years, has remained confident this might happen. “We are witnessing the last vestiges of what has been known as the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he wrote in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/opportunity-beckons-in-the-mideast-11615750526">Wall Street Journal</a> two months ago.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pin0fV">
|
||
It’s hard to overstate how bold this play was. Former Secretary of State <a href="https://twitter.com/ArthurSchwartz/status/1306562339949277184?s=20">John Kerry</a>, now Biden’s top climate envoy, told a Washington, DC, audience in 2016 that there was no chance of striking normalization pacts before signing a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. “There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world,” he said. “That is a hard reality.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<div id="A3YjMV">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jo4px0">
|
||
So are Hagerty and his fellow conservatives right? Are we witnessing violence that’s seen over <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/10/22428819/israel-palestine-jerusalem-mosque-violence-biden">80 people in Gaza and seven others in Israel killed</a> because Biden “squandered” the momentum of Trump’s Abraham Accords? Experts I spoke to are unanimous in their answer: absolutely not.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q5n3TU">
|
||
“That’s nonsense on multiple levels, to be honest,” said H.A. Hellyer, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in DC. “I just don’t really buy that argument at all,” Guy Ziv, an assistant professor at American University, also in the capital, said of the growing conservative argument.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CTQj0Q">
|
||
The reason, they and others say, is that the Abraham Accords weren’t struck to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They were designed, well, to help Israel normalize relations with Arab nations.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v2GrHz">
|
||
The plight of the Palestinians was an afterthought, if even that. Along with the US, “the Abraham Accords gave Israel the impression they could proceed without anything significant with the Palestinians,” Hellyer said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ds4Gnf">
|
||
And that was a problem, because instead of trying to strike some sort of deal with the Palestinians, the Israelis realized they could push for whatever they wanted with America’s full support. In effect, the Abraham Accords emboldened the Israelis while allowing them to disregard Palestinian demands or rights.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pyL3M9">
|
||
That, simply put, doesn’t resolve a conflict. It fuels it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="55vopF">
|
||
The current crisis is over issues the Abraham Accords ignored
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QjCAiF">
|
||
Hagerty and his ilk have a point. The Biden administration purposely aimed to stay out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to focus on other priorities like the coronavirus pandemic, the rise of China, and bolstering America’s democracy. To this day, the president has <a href="https://www.vox.com/22432247/israel-palestine-gaza-conflict-biden-democrats">yet to name an ambassador to Israel or a special envoy for the crisis</a>, and now his team is scrambling to push regional players to deescalate tensions.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JYazBm">
|
||
That on its own would lend credence to the squandered-opportunity narrative. Such a case would ring truer, though, if the Abraham Accords had had any positive effect on the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But they didn’t, which means Biden’s hands-off approach and failure so far to strike another normalization deal isn’t why Israel and Gaza are warring.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JLJxri">
|
||
What does explain the troubling fight is more local to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4ZbEMc2Y2N5bzZ5hawThuidc4Ok=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22513093/1232817989.jpg"/> <cite>Laurent Van Der Stockt/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Israeli police argue with a local at the al-Aqsa Mosque during Israel’s “Jerusalem Day” on May 10.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E0xX5K">
|
||
Last week, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/how-jerusalems-police-shoot-first-and-ask-later-analysis-667700">Israeli police</a> in Jerusalem blocked off the Damascus Gate, a popular gathering place for Arabs during Ramadan, sparking protests. An attempt by Jewish settlers to evict longtime Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah, an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, inflamed tensions, leading to violent clashes with Israeli police. Arab youth <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/SyFU7k0IO">attacked ultra-Orthodox Jews</a> in the city, and Jewish extremists assailed Arab residents.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QPN4WW">
|
||
All of this culminated in a violent Israeli police raid on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/world/middleeast/jerusalem-protests-aqsa-palestinians.html">the al-Aqsa Mosque</a>, Jerusalem’s holiest site for Muslims, located on the Temple Mount (the holiest site in the world for Jews).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yRtGoR">
|
||
Then Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007, fired rockets at Jerusalem. Ostensibly, this was a display of solidarity with the protesters on the ground. But it appears to have been a political calculation — Hamas attempting to capitalize on Palestinian anger over the violence in Jerusalem to expand its own influence, especially in the wake of recently canceled Palestinian elections that likely would have strengthened its political position.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZwODeW">
|
||
Israel retaliated strongly, and now rockets from Gaza rip through civilians homes in Israel, and Israeli warplanes bomb Hamas and civilian targets in Gaza.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RKzP34">
|
||
Little of that has anything to do with the Abraham Accords, at least not directly. In fact, the pacts deliberately sidelined the Palestinian issue in favor of other priorities.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ba6Vl9">
|
||
“The Emiratis had their own impetus, the Bahrainis their own impetus. And then the Moroccans wanted their sovereignty over Western Sahara recognized in exchanged for very limited recognition of Israel. And the Sudanese were put in a terribly awful position due to the continuation of sanctions,” said Carnegie’s Hellyer. “But across the board, Palestinians were absent from the impetus.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iTIgsd">
|
||
On the one hand, that’s understandable: Trump’s team certainly didn’t want to wait for progress on the peace process before helping Israel normalize relations with four former adversaries. But on the other hand, that decision was deeply problematic because it left the crisis to fester just as Biden was coming into office.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UQcPTV">
|
||
The eruption after Israeli police and Palestinian protesters clashed at the mosque is case in point. “You can’t just wish this issue away,” said American University’s Ziv. “The situation is getting out of control.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FjQWjh">
|
||
It’s so out of control now that Kushner’s hope for closer Israeli-Arab ties to revive the peace process likely won’t come true anytime soon. Similarly, it’s hard to imagine any Palestinians would want to negotiate for peace imminently.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UJoeds">
|
||
There’s still a role for Biden to play. After helping to calm tensions, Ziv said, the president should present his own vision for a peace plan and put pressure on the Israelis and Palestinians to start talking. “There’s no adult in the room, and that’s where the US could step in,” he told me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TBGNbg">
|
||
What won’t work, though, is believing more side accords that don’t involve the Palestinians will somehow lead to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. It hasn’t worked yet, and it likely won’t work in the future, either.
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Coronavirus | Michael Hussey tests negative, Wriddhiman Saha tests positive again</strong> - Both Hussey and Saha had first tested positive during the now suspended IPL</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>Protest over denying opportunity to a Paralympic champion</strong> - Disability rights activists, Para sports persons and archers from different parts of the world are expected to take part in an online protest on May 1</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>Hawks, Knicks clinch playoff berths</strong> - Narrow win keeps Lakers’ hopes alive for a play-in spot</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>Shooting | Decoding Chinki Yadav’s omission from team</strong> - Rahi puts things in perspective as regards the reigning World No.1 in sports pistol.</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>Irfan, four others test COVID positive</strong> - Four support staff were also positive; all have been quarantined</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>Mamata Banerjee writes to PM Modi, urges him to be fair and quick in PSA plant allotment</strong> - She said the State, which was scheduled to get 70 PSA plants, has now been intimated that four such oxygen generating units would be set up in the first phase.</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>Minister takes stock of COVID-19 situation in Kallakurichi</strong> - Minister for Higher Education K. Ponmudi on Friday directed the district administration to conduct door-to-door testing in the rural areas and also a</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>Covid Care Centre inaugurated in Hassan city</strong> - It has 100 beds</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>DJ held for hurting Gujarat CM’s reputation through spoof video</strong> - ‘The accused was identified as Pradeep Kahar, a resident of Kahar Mohalla in Dandiya Bazaar locality of Vadodara’</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>Move SC afresh for raising quota limit: Fadnavis to Maha govt</strong> - His statement comes a day after the Centre moved the Supreme Court seeking review of the May 5 majority verdict.</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>Covid: Greece ends lockdown measures and opens to tourists</strong> - Flights arrive in Greece as restrictions on movement are lifted, but infections are still quite high.</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>Paris seeks to ban through traffic in city centre by 2022</strong> - The council wants to create a low-traffic zone to reduce pollution and congestion.</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>Irish health service hit by cyber attack</strong> - Many medical appointments are cancelled but Covid-19 vaccinations are proceeding as normal.</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>Turkish company cuts power supply to Lebanon</strong> - Turkish firm Karpowership shuts down its generators over a lack of payment and a legal dispute.</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>Russia picks team for film shot on International Space Station</strong> - An actress and director will blast off in October - but Tom Cruise also plans to visit the ISS.</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>Rocket Report: Starship orbital flight details, Ariane 5 may delay Webb launch</strong> - Also, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft gets a new launch date. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1765014">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lenovo’s new “Go” brand of travel gear kicks off with a wireless-charging mouse</strong> - Also announced: a 20,000 mAh portable charger for users’ various devices. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1764990">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New users can get 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $1 today</strong> - Dealmaster also has deals on iPhone cases, Garmin watches, and robot vacuums. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1764814">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New analysis confirms hypothesis for source of mysterious auroral “dunes”</strong> - Ongoing collaboration between physicists and amateur stargazers yields new insights. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1763383">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tesla owner who “drives” from back seat got arrested, then did it again</strong> - Man jailed for leaving driver seat empty says he feels safer in back seat. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1764902">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>My last girlfriend said I was unnecessarily mysterious.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Or did she?
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ricerly"> /u/ricerly </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nc0nmt/my_last_girlfriend_said_i_was_unnecessarily/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nc0nmt/my_last_girlfriend_said_i_was_unnecessarily/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>I asked the pirate why he had a steering wheel on his dick</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He said “Arr.. it drives me nuts”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/boomshiki"> /u/boomshiki </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nc09ax/i_asked_the_pirate_why_he_had_a_steering_wheel_on/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nc09ax/i_asked_the_pirate_why_he_had_a_steering_wheel_on/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Railroad</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
A man who had spent his whole life in the desert visited a friend. He’d never seen a train or the tracks they run on. While standing in the middle of the RR tracks, he heard a whistle, but didn’t know what it was. Predictably, he’s hit and is thrown, ass-over-tea-kettle, to the side of the tracks, with some minor internal injuries, a few broken bones, and some bruises.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
After weeks in the hospital recovering, he’s at his friend’s house attending a party. While in the kitchen, he suddenly hears the teakettle whistling. He grabs a baseball bat from the nearby closet and proceeds to batter and bash the teakettle into an unrecognizable lump of metal. His friend, hearing the ruckus, rushes into the kitchen, sees what’s happened and asks the desert man, “Why’d you ruin my good tea kettle?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The desert man replies, “Man, you gotta kill these things when they’re small.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/orgasmic2021"> /u/orgasmic2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nc1p13/railroad/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nc1p13/railroad/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A man says to his doctor “Doctor, I have an embarrassing sexual problem”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The doctor says “Tell me about your sex life,”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The man says “Well, first thing in the morning, the wife and I have a quick ‘morning glory’. Then I go to work and about eleven o’clock my secretary gives me a BJ at my desk. I nip home at lunchtime and do the wife over the kitchen table, then after work I go to see my mistress from five until seven. Then after dinner my wife and I generally hit the bed early for a serious session, sometimes two or three.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“I see,” says the doctor, “and what seems to be the problem?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Well,” says the patient, “it hurts when I masturbate.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Gil-Gandel"> /u/Gil-Gandel </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nc2li6/a_man_says_to_his_doctor_doctor_i_have_an/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nc2li6/a_man_says_to_his_doctor_doctor_i_have_an/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>I got caught masturbating to an optical illusion</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
I said “it’s not what it looks like”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Heliolisk_Matt05"> /u/Heliolisk_Matt05 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nbskgn/i_got_caught_masturbating_to_an_optical_illusion/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nbskgn/i_got_caught_masturbating_to_an_optical_illusion/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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