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A history of the ’Diplo’ A 70-year odyssey against the tide by Le Monde diplomatique , 23 November 2024 A 70-year odyssey against the tide ↑ 1954 In the 1950s, diplomacy was intensifying due to the cold war, wars of independence, new states and the deployment of international institutions. The editor of the daily Le Monde , Hubert Beuve-Méry, decided to create a monthly entirely devoted to foreign affairs with François Honti, a journalist and former Hungarian consul in Geneva, serving as its editor-in-chief. Subtitled ‘A newspaper for diplomatic circles and large international organisations’ (‘Journal des cercles diplomatiques et des grandes organisations internationales’), Le Monde diplomatique was a modest eight-page supplement which bore little resemblance to the newspaper we have today. An article in the first issue laid out the programme: ‘to provide members of the diplomatic and consular services of all countries and the staff of the main international organisations, as well as their families, with an organ devoted to events and issues of particular interest to them’. Printed alongside long, official-sounding analyses were announcements by social movements and appointments to the diplomatic corps, as well as articles on the fashion shows that season. Here is an article from the first issue, entitled ‘Dance dresses, evening dresses’ (‘Robes à danser, robes du soir’). It reads:‘A parade of dance dresses and grand evening gowns is the collection’s grand finale, its apotheosis: they trumpet not only the couturier’s talent but also the fabric manufacturers’ great artistry, the embroiderers’ skill, the seamstresses’ patience. They combine the most extraordinary colours with the most spectacular shapes in a feast for the eyes.’ If you picked up the ‘Diplo’ in 1955, you could also read an account of the royal wedding of King Hussein of Jordan and princess Dina Abdul Hamid: June 1955 In April 1957, there was a description of the late Elizabeth II and her husband Philip’s visit to Paris: April 1957 Over its first decade, the monthly newspaper, which promised to ‘furnish copious and reliable information’, published — almost exclusively — articles by Le Monde journalists, diplomats and senior officials. Like its daily evening counterpart, Le Monde diplomatique had complete faith in the Bretton Woods institutions. Its conventional approach sometimes earned it the nickname of ‘the voice of the Quai d’Orsay’. November 1955 Winds of change While relations between the two blocs seemed to stabilise in the mid-1950s, history was accelerating across the rest of the world: the period saw the first Indochina war, the Algerian war and the independence of Morocco and Tunisia. In Egypt, Nasser nationalised the Suez canal in 1956. The failure of the French-English-Israeli military effort to stop him marked an epochal change. In China, the Communist revolution of 1949 had rocked the most populous country on earth. In Cuba, young guérilleros fought the Washington-backed dictatorship.In 1955, 29 countries in Africa and Asia — including India and China — met at Bandung. They denounced colonialism and imperialism, proclaimed their ‘non-alignment’ to the two parties in the cold war, and proclaimed their intention to develop autonomously: the ‘third world’, as it was called, was stirring. In the West, too, protests were succeeding, societies were transforming, lines were shifting. Germany was rearming, Europe created a common market, the US reeled under pressure from the civil rights movement. Le Monde diplomatique as we know it was born in this ferment, and its evolution mirrored the changes of the 1960s. 1973 The Claude Julien era In 1969, Hubert Beuve-Méry retired. Jacques Fauvet succeeded him as editor of Le Monde and Claude Julien became the head of the prestigious foreign desk. In 1973, Julien, a journalist and Christian intellectual who was critical of the US and neoliberal economics, took the helm at Le Monde diplomatique . When he was a young man, Julien had been a member of the Résistance in the Tarn department. After the second world war, he studied journalism in the US, then moved to Morocco, where he supported the independence movement and was expelled by the colonial authorities. He joined Le Monde ’s foreign desk in 1951, covering the US during the decade of the civil rights struggle, going to Cuba during the revolution and publishing incisive works like L’Empire américain (1968). 1973 was the year of the energy crisis, the Yom Kippur war, the coup in Chile; Julien would remain in post until after the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989). Within a few months of his appointment — with the help of the journalist Micheline Paunet and two intellectuals, Ignacio Ramonet then Bernard Cassen — he had transformed the newspaper. The small team changed the page layout, modernised the design, increased the number of pages and widened the purview to include culture, the environment and communication technologies. New sections appeared: film reviews from a political angle, ‘Politics and literature’ etc. Furthermore, Julien established the line of the newspaper to this day: non-alignment. Poster for the May 1985 edition Unlike many media organisations, the ‘Diplo’ decided not to treat ‘third world’ countries simply as actors on a geopolitical chessboard, but to cover them as equal societies, with their own internal political games, culture and social and intellectual movements. Poster for the November 1983 edition Alongside these changes, the paper’s stable of writers became more diverse, and its pages were opened up to historians, philosophers, economists, sociologists, reporters, artists, activists, writers and more. Then came the ousting of far-right regimes in Europe (Portugal, Greece and Spain), the newfound independence of Mozambique and Angola (1975), the coup d’état in Argentina (1976). With each advance and backlash, the monthly newspaper deviated further from the neutral positioning of the daily Beuve-Méry had founded, asserted its ‘third-world’ line and took the side of the periphery over the centre, the dominated over the dominant. In 1982, a little-known episode provoked strong feelings on rue des Italiens, the headquarters of Le Monde . Claude Julien, who had been elected two years before to succeed Jacques Fauvet at the helm of the daily, was fired before he even started as a result of a politically-motivated internal intrigue. At a moment when the left was in power in France — and hadn’t yet given up on changing the economic order — a different Le Monde would have tipped the ideological scales... Julien returned to Le Monde diplomatique , where his freedom was unconstrained and he had the official title of director to guarantee his editorial independence. Poster for the September 1984 edition Over the course of the 1980s, his international analyses and his editorials railing against the French left’s betrayals caused a stir, as did Micheline Paunet’s rigour, which was such that many contributors still remember being confronted with her fatal verdict: ‘This is not very Diplo’ (‘Ça, c’est pas du Diplo’). Seeing things Solange Brand, who was responsible for layout and images, constructed a singular visual identity for the paper and began to trace a subterranean relationship between the articles and images. She would be succeeded by Alice Barzilay, then Maria Ierardi. Asking avant-garde visual artists and photographers to respond to articles by intellectuals resulted in a unique dialogue that made Le Monde diplomatique stand out — though it shocked some readers. The illustrator Selçuk’s drawings, with their hidden meanings, were featured in almost every issue, opening up a new dimension to the articles. They seemed to say: ‘This is not a press cartoon!’ Manière de voir In 1987, the team, now bolstered by the arrival of Alain Gresh, Christian de Brie and Jacques Decornoy, published the first issue of Manière de voir : a quarterly, then bimonthly publication that reprinted articles from the monthly by theme, enhancing them with new material, bibliographical elements, maps and graphs. The second issue of Manière de Voir was published under the title ‘Liberalism against freedoms’. A duty of disrespect In the 1980s, Le Monde diplomatique , which had until recently flourished alongside the political emergence of the ‘third world’ and protests in the West, found itself faced with a brutal ideological reversal. With Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Helmut Kohl, the neoliberal counter-revolution was growing while great revolutionary hopes were ebbing away and the Eastern bloc was disintegrating. From an initial distribution of 5,000 copies, Le Monde diplomatique was now selling 150,000 each month. ‘Produced by a very small team that relies on hundreds of collaborators scattered around the world, Le Monde diplomatique is, and wants to remain, a modest newspaper,’ Claude Julien said in 1984. His collected articles, pieces published in the monthly paper, was published in 1979 and entitled Le Devoir d’irrespect (A duty of disrespect): naming a mission that successive editorial teams have worked hard to bring to life. 1990 As a specialist in theories of communication, the new editorial director Ignacio Ramonet had both a scientific and a literary background. He took the helm in December 1990, on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union, US-inflicted shock therapy, the Gulf war, the proliferation of information technology and all things audiovisual. While the mainstream media was united in celebrating a cult of ‘happy globalisation’, hailing the advent of an American century and the Europe of Maastricht, the ‘Diplo’ continued its odyssey against the tide. Its arguments could be heard all the more clearly because the number of critical voices had thinned out, from socialists moving towards the centre to disoriented communists. The ‘Diplo’ stood out in a media-sphere increasingly ruled by money, and its circulation increased significantly. Each month, the radio show ‘Là-bas si j’y suis’, hosted by Daniel Mermet on France Inter, contributed to making the newspaper’s preoccupations and pursuits known to a wider audience. The team, enhanced by the arrival of Serge Halimi, documented the ravages of the free market, analysed the climate crisis, denounced the hypocrisy of military humanitarianism and described the geopolitics of the chaos created by Western interference. In France, Edouard Balladur’s ideological ice age had frozen public debate to the point where the word ‘capitalism’ had practically disappeared from the media. Le Monde diplomatique was working to provide the tools for a critical renewal. On the one hand, it castigated ‘ la pensée unique ’ and ‘reverential journalism’, and documented the ‘tyranny of communication’. On the other, it explored new forms of resistance, in Latin America in particular . In November-December 1995, France’s great revolt against neoliberal Europe changed the terms of the country’s ideological debate. The shock split the left, unions and intellectuals. Le Monde diplomatique welcomed into its pages proponents of a new radical critique, led in particular by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu , and itself became more present on the activist scene. The edition in English — a concise, translated version of the parent edition — began as an online publication in late 1996, led by the journalist Wendy Kristianasen, to share the paper’s arguments with the English-speaking world. In December 1997, the editorial ‘ Disarming the markets ’ closed on a proposal. ‘Why not set up a new worldwide non-governmental organisation, Action for a Tobin Tax to Assist the Citizen (ATTAC)?’, Ignacio Ramonet suggested. Cue hundreds of letters arriving at the newspaper’s headquarters. So, along with several organisers in the social movement, the newspaper created ATTAC. From Seattle to Larzac via Porto Alegre, from world social forums to counter-summits, alter-globalisation challenged the institutions of free trade and filled the monthly’s pages. In the meantime, the newspaper shook up its shareholder structure. In 1996, thanks to a $1m donation from Gunter Holzmann, a former German resistance fighter against Nazism, the newspaper team bought 24% of the capital from Le Monde , while its readers, under the banner of the organisation Les Amis du Monde Diplomatique, took on 25%. As a legally separate entity from Le Monde , and as it now had (along with its readers) a blocking minority, Le Monde diplomatique enjoyed a form of independence made even more sturdy by the fact that the editorial director, who also chaired the board of directors, had to be elected by all members of the team. This autonomy was particularly in evidence in 2000, when the ‘Diplo’ criticised the decision — made by Le Monde ’s management trio, Jean-Marie Colombani, Edwy Plenel and Alain Minc — to be listed on the stock market. While it refused the ‘financial modernity’ that was all the rage in the media, Le Monde diplomatique was, in February 1996, an internet pioneer. Among the French press, it was the first to have a website. Led by Philippe Rivière, it contributed, via the free software SPIP, to the creation of an ecosystem of alternative publications that would take the top spot on the web at the beginning of the 2000s. In 2006, Mona Chollet worked in the web division before joining the editorial staff. A radical, rigorous and aesthetically pleasing cartography was developing at the newspaper, an initiative driven by Philippe Rekacewicz and Cécile Marin. This provided new ways of seeing the order and disorder of the world, and would lead to the creation of numerous atlases in the 2000s and 2010s. A unique network of international editions was also growing. Until recently limited to English, Italian, German, Portuguese, Greek, Spanish and Arabic, it was beginning to extend to several dozen countries, making Le Monde diplomatique the most translated French newspaper in the world. Between 1995 and 2002, Dominique Vidal (Middle East), Maurice Lemoine (Latin America), Anne-Cécile Robert (Africa) and Martine Bulard (Asia) joined the editorial staff. NATO’s Kosovo war in 1999, the attacks of 11 September 2001 followed by the West’s invasions of Afghanistan, then Iraq , the second Intifada, the red wave in Latin America all provided the team new editorial battles to be waged. While, in the spring of 2005, the fight against the European Constitution Treaty was won, activists had been discouraged and divided by the failure, in 2003, of the long strike against pension reforms and the focus of public debate on issues like the Islamic veil. Sales of the newspaper, which had peaked with the alter-globalisation wave, slowed. 2008 Just as, in 2008, the most monumental global financial crisis in contemporary history hit, Serge Halimi began his mandate as editorial director. Halimi had a specialism in the US, where he had taught political economy, and was the author of works about the media and the great (neoliberal) leap backward. He at once had to answer a vital question: most newspapers, seized by digital intoxication , were choosing to put their articles online for free, in the hope that advertising would be their golden goose; Le Monde diplomatique was one of the first to reserve most of its editorial content for its subscribers, while making a limited number of articles accessible to all. Faced with the rise of social media and rolling news networks, the ‘Diplo’ refused the dictatorship of immediacy and instead used Twitter to post incentives for readers to delve back into its now entirely digitalised archives.Paradoxically, this era of real-time information superabundance saw an increase in confusion. Le Monde diplomatique suggested that its readers ‘stop and think’ about subjects that demand a longer view. There were many such subjects in this period. Between 2008 and 2015, the collapse of financial institutions, the bailout of the banks and the austerity that governments then imposed on the people of Europe, in particular in Greece, were the subject of in-depth analyses, notably by the economist Frédéric Lordon . The newspaper sent young journalists to report on the Occupy movement, popular protests against financial exploitation and burgeoning feminist and LGBT demonstrations throughout the world. At the same time, under Alain Gresh’s initiative, the hopes, victories and setbacks of the Arab Spring were contextualised in history and geopolitical power relations. In March 2010, as Barack Obama was hypnotising the Western world, Le Monde diplomatique invited Noam Chomsky to Paris. In a packed room at La Mutualité, the American linguist and critic analysed US imperial policy. His argument would be strikingly illustrated the following year with the destruction of the Libyan state by NATO powers and in 2013, with Edward Snowden’s revelations on US intelligence agencies’ illegal spying. It had become even more crucial for the ‘Diplo’ not to adopt the ‘ strategy of emotion ’ that served as an editorial compass for the mainstream media — and this was a delicate balancing act following the Islamist attacks of 2015-2016, particularly the one on the Charlie Hebdo team. Through the stream of bloody images and the anti-Muslim atmosphere provoked by the rise of ISIS in Europe, the editorial team tirelessly defended freedom of expression, including the right to blasphemy and the right to protest, and offered an increasingly cross-sectional analysis of international news. In times of data, capital, goods and refugee flows, global phenomena such as global warming broke down the barriers of an editorial team traditionally organised by sector and geographical area. In 2014, the campaign led by the newspaper against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership mobilised the entire team. Le Monde diplomatique ’s circulation began to grow again. In previous years, readers had contributed to the company’s financial health by responding enthusiastically to its fundraising campaigns. Once the coffers were replenished, these campaigns stopped. The workforce — which had moved from its original office on the premises of Le Monde to a building that had formerly been used by a cattle dealer (bought and renovated by the ‘Diplo’ in 2000) — had grown to around thirty employees, as well as several dozen freelance journalists and academics. Over the 2010s, the management and unions developed a salary scale and collective agreements, professionalising what had previously been a ‘family’ style of management of a team with strong personalities. The Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump to the White House confirmed two editorial axes that have characterised Le Monde diplomatique for decades.First, its analysis of the arrogance of urban Western educated classes living in echo chambers, who were being powerfully rejected. The French bourgeoisie’s reaction to the ‘gilets jaunes’ movement in 2018 provided a further illustration of this. Then, a disciplinary takeover of public space under the pretext of fighting against ‘ fake news ’. Because — from Trump and Putin’s alleged complicity, to the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine — liberal elites have also continued to relay false information and censor true information in order to conveniently shape the debate. Fake news and false oppositions In the early 2020s, the editorial battle continued against the military and moral rearmament of a ‘liberal’ West opposed to ‘authoritarian’ regimes. The editorial staff of Le Monde diplomatique was almost alone in a warmongering French media landscape in critically analysing both Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Western provocations that preceded it, as well in interrogating the coherence of the ‘ global South that challenged the hegemony of the North. Ultimately, seven decades after the Bandung Conference, the same questions arose in a new global configuration: would the people burst into the sumptuous banquet of the powerful, and how would they manage this? 70 years later On 30 September of this year, the team, its writers and the readers’ organisation came together at the Cité universitaire in Paris to celebrate the newspaper’s 70th birthday, and the publication of its most recent book, which is about history. On that occasion, Benoît Bréville, who was elected editorial director in 2022, pointed out that the very existence of a newspaper like Le Monde diplomatique is an anomaly: Some have judged the newspaper’s tone too critical. But over the last twenty years the ‘Diplo’ has often made proposals: for a tax on financial transactions , maximum wage , universal basic income and to free the fourth estate . We have analysed different strategies for standing up to the European Commission, confronting the euro crisis and the debt crisis, taking power away from the stock market and disarming finance... We await a government willing to implement them. Le Monde diplomatique serves as a compass because, as the right-left divide becomes increasingly blurred and progressive forces are scattered, it works hard to stay on course. It does not abandon its principles, values and struggles the moment they are taken over and distorted by others. We continue to criticise NATO and Atlanticist hegemony even though Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump have positioned themselves in this niche. We continue to denounce the austerity and free-trade dictates of the European Union, even though Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini in turn have adopted this language. Just as we continue to defend freedom of expression and denounce all forms of censorship, even though the fight has been taken up by the far right. Rather than abandoning our principles, we are working to expose these new converts’ hypocrisy and duplicity. When every media outlet seeks social media approval and avoids ruffling its community’s feathers, the ‘Diplo’ does not hesitate to irritate and even upset. What would be the point of a newspaper that only ever confirmed its readers’ assumptions? Today, our publication seems almost alien: most newsrooms are emptying; robots, algorithms and software are replacing humans; our team continues to grow and the newspaper is still produced by hand, ‘the old way’, with a proofreader, photoengraver and iconographer... As power becomes more concentrated and pressure on the media increases, as newspapers are passed from right-wing billionaire to far-right billionaire, the ‘Diplo’ fiercely cultivates its independence, with a shareholder structure that remains unchanged since 1996. As trends dictate that publications use only the shortest and the simplest forms, the ‘Diplo’ publishes long, sometimes difficult, articles on Bangladesh or the Freudian Unconscious. And it seems like, amidst the hubbub, many readers want to stop and think with us. This is what we have observed over the course of the many debates in which the team participates, often with the help of the Amis du Monde diplomatique — when readers thank us or challenge us in sometimes demanding but always enthusiastic, often joyful, ways. In these meetings, the team can measure the very special relationship between the newspaper and its readership — a group of vigilant and attentive, loyal and committed people. They sometimes tell us, in turn, about the moment they discovered the newspaper. For some, it was during the first Gulf war or at the time of the Kosovo war, and they describe the relief of coming across a newspaper that did not relay Western propaganda . For others, it was at a rally. These days, it is often in the context of the killing in Gaza. It was reading an article by Henry Laurens on the end of the Ottoman Empire ; a poem by Mahmoud Darwish ; a letter from John Berger to Subcomandante Marcos; or a short story by Margaret Atwood. One reader is at school, another is a college student. Some landed in Paris after fleeing Iran or Chile. They come to us through an aunt who is a long-time subscriber, or through a history and geography teacher who advised them to read ‘Le Diplo’. So long as this newspaper is able to weave these stories with its readers and collaborators, its future will be in good hands. Le Monde diplomatique Translated by Lucie Elven Share this article × Here is a terrific article you should definitely read: “A 70-year odyssey against the tide”, by Le Monde diplomatique (November 2024) // https://mondediplo.com/10584 This message is too long for Twitter. Copy this message Give this article to a friendAnother late-game meltdown sent the Bears to their sixth straight loss and led to the firing of coach Matt Eberflus. The 49ers suffered their second straight blowout loss and more crushing injuries to go from Super Bowl contenders to outside the playoff picture in a matter of weeks. The two reeling teams will try to get back on track on Sunday when the Bears (4-8) visit the 49ers (5-7) in Chicago's first game under interim coach Thomas Brown . “I told them a minute ago after practice there is no confidence loss at all as far as what I think about them,” Brown said Wednesday. “I don’t care what anybody else thinks about them. I think we have a very talented football team. It’s about just putting the work in every single day to give us an opportunity to win.” The Bears are hoping to get an emotional boost from the first in-season firing of a head coach in franchise history. Over the last 10 seasons, teams with interim coaches are 13-11 in their first game with the new coach. Those teams had a .284 winning percentage at the time they fired their coaches. “I wouldn’t say a new voice was needed. I would say there was change that was needed," rookie quarterback Caleb Williams said, pointing to a need for more accountability and better communication. The Niners came into the season as the favorites to get back to the Super Bowl from the NFC after losing the title game to Kansas City last season. But a series of key injuries, bad losses and spotty play have left them in last place in the NFC West with only slim hopes of even reaching the postseason. San Francisco lost 38-10 to Green Bay and 35-10 to Buffalo in back-to-back weeks and lost star running back Christian McCaffrey to a knee injury last week that will sideline him for at least the rest of the regular season. The Niners already lost key players Brandon Aiyuk and Javon Hargrave to season-ending injuries and are preparing to be without stars Nick Bosa and Trent Williams for a third straight week. “It’s just been a rocky mountain for real with the injuries and other stuff we’ve had to go through this season,” receiver Deebo Samuel said. “Our record don’t show how really good we are as a team. We're still believing in this locker room.” Williams described Eberflus’ firing as “interesting” and “tough” and vowed to “roll with the punches” while insisting the chaos and turnover of the past few weeks could help him handle similar situations in the future. Just 12 games into his NFL career, the prized quarterback is on his second head coach and third offensive coordinator, though Brown will continue to call plays. How does he keep the faith that his career is in good hands with this organization? “The first part is understanding I can’t control,” Williams said. “Even if I understand or don’t understand, that doesn’t matter. I have to roll with the punches like I said before. I don’t control everything.” With McCaffrey and Jordan Mason injured, the Niners running game will turn to rookie Isaac Guerendo . The fourth-round pick has 42 carries for 246 yards and two TDs this season and will be making his second start in either college or the pros. Coach Kyle Shanahan said the progress Guerendo has made since training camp makes him ready for his new role as he sees him running with more “urgency.” “I think it takes guys some time,” Shanahan said. “You start to get a feel for it the more, if you’ve got the right stuff, the more you get reps, the more you can adjust to it. How hard you’ve got to hit stuff, how quick those holes close, how when there is a hole how you have to hit it full-speed and can’t hesitate at all or it closes like that. We’ve seen that stuff get better in practice and we’ve seen it carry over into games.” San Francisco's usually stout run defense has been anything but that this season. The Niners have struggled to slow down the opposition on the ground all year with the problem getting worse recently. The 49ers allowed 389 yards rushing the past two weeks. “It’s been so frustrating because I know what is supposed to look like,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “That’s not it.” Stopping the run also continues to be a sore spot for Chicago. The Bears rank 25th overall against the run and 29th in yards allowed per rush after another difficult outing last week. They gave up 194 yards, including 144 in the first half as the Lions grabbed a 16-0 lead. Losing veteran defensive tackle Andrew Billings to a torn pectoral muscle last month did not help. He was injured in a Week 9 loss at Arizona and is expected to miss the remainder of the season after having surgery. AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman contributed to this report. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
(The Center Square) – Although it remains unclear how many Democratic Senators will vote for the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, some House members in the party have explained why they voted yes, despite a controversial provision restricting military-funded transgender surgeries for minors. The nearly $900 billion bill passed the House 281-140 Wednesday, with 200 Republicans and 81 Democrats voting in favor versus 124 Democrats and 16 Republicans voting against it. Most of the NDAA consists of bipartisan agreements, such as pay raises for service members, strengthened ties with U.S. allies, and funding of new military technology. But a critical point of contention is a Republican addition that would prohibit the military’s health program from covering any gender dysphoria treatments on minors that could "result in sterilization.” The must-pass bill is so critical that nearly 40% of House Democrats voted in favor–but not without expressing their disappointment. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., condemned Republican colleagues who, she said, “chose to sully this bill with political culture wars;” nevertheless, she voted in favor. “While it doesn't address everything we asked for and consider important, including the full ability of parents to make their own decisions about healthcare for their children, it marks a rare moment of productive bipartisan agreement on what is arguably the most crucial legislation we take up as a body each year,” Houlahan said. The bill’s provision does not forbid service members’ children from receiving transgender therapy. It forbids the military’s health insurance provider, TRICARE, from covering treatments on minors that “may result in sterilization.” Reps. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, and Terri Sewell, D-Ala., also voted in favor of the bill despite their displeasure at the ban. “The NDAA is a hugely important bill. We had to pass it, which is why I voted yes,” Landsman posted on X Friday. “However, the anti-trans language that was attached to it was mean and awful and should never have been included.” “I have serious concerns about some remaining provisions that were placed in the bill for political purposes,” Sewell said Wednesday. “Still, the responsibility to support our service members and provide for our national security is one that I do not take lightly, which is why I ultimately chose to support the bill.” Besides the importance of annual military funding, another reason some House Democrats assented to the legislation is because they were successful in axing other House Republican amendments, such as a plan to eliminate reimbursements for service members who travel to obtain abortions. The Senate is expected to pass the bill within the next few days, after which President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.None
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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The New York Jets might be dealing with an opponent even tougher to overcome than their poor play, missed opportunities and ill-timed mistakes. Wide receiver Garrett Wilson suggested last Sunday a losing “gene” might be an explanation for the Jets’ inability to pull out victories after the team dropped to 3-10 with a loss at Miami. On Wednesday, Aaron Rodgers presented another perhaps more sinister reason. “I mean, it might be something like that," the quarterback said of Wilson's theory. "It might be some sort of curse we've got to snap as well.” Generations of frustrated Jets fans have half-jokingly insisted there have been negative forces at work against the franchise since Joe Namath delivered on his Super Bowl guarantee in January 1969. It remains the team's only appearance in the NFL's biggest game. Rodgers has been there once — and won — with Green Bay. The 41-year-old quarterback came to New York hoping to finally lead the Jets back to the Super Bowl. He even commented on how lonely the team's only Lombardi Trophy looked during his introductory news conference 20 months ago. Instead, Rodgers' first season in New York was cut short by a torn Achilles tendon just four snaps in, immediately resurrecting "curse” theories among jaded Jets fans. With its loss last Sunday, New York extended its playoff drought to 14 straight years, the longest active skid among the major North American sports leagues. And the team will be looking for a new general manager and coach after this season, and Rodgers' future in New York is very much up in the air. “Whatever the case, this team, this organization is going to figure out how to get over the hump at some point,” Rodgers said. “The culture is built by the players. There’s a framework set down by the organization, by the upper ups, by the staff. But in the end, it’s the players that make it come to life. "And at some point, everybody’s going to have to figure out what that special sauce is to turn those games that should be wins into wins.” The Jets have held the lead in the fourth quarter in five games this season. They've lost each of them, including the past three games. New York's inability to come away with wins in those prompted Wilson's “gene” theory. “I’m not exactly sure what he was talking about there,” Rodgers said with a smile. "I don’t know what the proper nomenclature is for the situation where we’ve lost some leads or haven’t been able to take the lead late in the game, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. We haven’t been great in situational football. “A lot of those games come down to the plays in the first and second, even third quarter, where if you make the play the game is not in that situation. But in those situations, we haven’t been very good on offense or defense or even (special) teams.” Rodgers said “it takes a conscious effort, it takes an intentional effort” to establish a winning culture, and it includes leadership, practice habits and setting standards inside and outside of the locker room. And this year's Jets, Rodgers said, are “on the edge” of that. “We just haven’t quite figured out how to get that special sauce worked out, mixed up,” he said. “It’s close and a lot of great guys are in the locker room. There’s some good mix of veterans and young guys, but we just haven’t quite put it all together.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
FACT FOCUS: Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup
The adjustments are based on data relating to inflation. The Social Security Fairness Act would eliminate policies that limit payouts to beneficiaries. The bill would add an estimated $195 million to the federal deficit over the next 10 years if passed. WASHINGTON - The Senate is pushing toward a vote that would pass a law to provide full Social Security benefits for millions of Americans. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday the bill would "ensure Americans are not erroneously denied their well-earned Social Security benefits simply because they chose at some point to work in their careers in public service." RELATED: Social Security: It'll be harder to qualify for retirement benefits starting in 2025 — what to know The Social Security Fairness Act would eliminate policies that currently limit payouts for roughly 2.8 million people. If passed, the bill would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that broadly reduce payments to two groups of Social Security recipients: people who also receive a pension from a job that is not covered by Social Security and surviving spouses of Social Security recipients who receive a government pension of their own. It would add more strain on the Social Security Trust funds , which were already estimated to be unable to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035. It would add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office . The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget also estimates that if passed, the policy would hasten the Social Security program's insolvency date by about half a year as well as reduce lifetime Social Security benefits by an additional $25,000 for a typical dual-income couple retiring in 2033. FILE - In this photo illustration, a Social Security card sits alongside checks from the U.S. Treasury on Oct. 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo illustration by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) The legislation passed the House on a bipartisan vote, and a Senate version of the bill introduced last year gained 62 cosponsors. But the bill still needs support from at least 60 senators to pass Congress. It would then head to President Joe Biden. Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in leadership, acknowledged that the policy has strong bipartisan support, but said some Republicans also want to see it "fixed in the context of a broader Social Security reform effort." Information for this story was gathered from The Associated Press and the Social Security Administration website.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Once-promising seasons hit new lows for the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers last week. Another sent the Bears to their sixth straight loss and led to the firing of coach Matt Eberflus. The 49ers suffered their and to go from Super Bowl contenders to outside the playoff picture in a matter of weeks. The two reeling teams will try to get back on track on Sunday when the Bears (4-8) visit the 49ers (5-7) in Chicago's first game under . “I told them a minute ago after practice there is no confidence loss at all as far as what I think about them,” Brown said Wednesday. “I don’t care what anybody else thinks about them. I think we have a very talented football team. It’s about just putting the work in every single day to give us an opportunity to win.” The Bears are hoping to get an emotional boost from the first in-season firing of a head coach in franchise history. Over the last 10 seasons, teams with interim coaches are 13-11 in their first game with the new coach. Those teams had a .284 winning percentage at the time they fired their coaches. “I wouldn’t say a new voice was needed. I would say there was change that was needed," rookie quarterback Caleb Williams said, pointing to a need for more accountability and better communication. The Niners came into the season as the favorites to get back to the Super Bowl from the NFC after losing the title game to Kansas City last season. But a series of key injuries, bad losses and spotty play have left them in last place in the NFC West with only slim hopes of even reaching the postseason. San Francisco lost and 35-10 to Buffalo in back-to-back weeks and lost star running back Christian McCaffrey to a knee injury last week that will sideline him for at least the rest of the regular season. The Niners already lost key players Brandon Aiyuk and Javon Hargrave to season-ending injuries and are preparing to be without stars Nick Bosa and Trent Williams for a third straight week. “It’s just been a rocky mountain for real with the injuries and other stuff we’ve had to go through this season,” receiver Deebo Samuel said. “Our record don’t show how really good we are as a team. We're still believing in this locker room.” Williams described Eberflus’ firing as “interesting” and “tough” and vowed to “roll with the punches” while insisting the chaos and turnover of the past few weeks could help him handle similar situations in the future. Just 12 games into his NFL career, the prized quarterback is on his second head coach and third offensive coordinator, though Brown will continue to call plays. How does he keep the faith that his career is in good hands with this organization? “The first part is understanding I can’t control,” Williams said. “Even if I understand or don’t understand, that doesn’t matter. I have to roll with the punches like I said before. I don’t control everything.” With McCaffrey and Jordan Mason injured, the Niners running game will turn to . The fourth-round pick has 42 carries for 246 yards and two TDs this season and will be making his second start in either college or the pros. Coach Kyle Shanahan said the progress Guerendo has made since training camp makes him ready for his new role as he sees him running with more “urgency.” “I think it takes guys some time,” Shanahan said. “You start to get a feel for it the more, if you’ve got the right stuff, the more you get reps, the more you can adjust to it. How hard you’ve got to hit stuff, how quick those holes close, how when there is a hole how you have to hit it full-speed and can’t hesitate at all or it closes like that. We’ve seen that stuff get better in practice and we’ve seen it carry over into games.” San Francisco's usually stout run defense has been anything but that this season. The Niners have struggled to slow down the opposition on the ground all year with the problem getting worse recently. The 49ers allowed 389 yards rushing the past two weeks. “It’s been so frustrating because I know what is supposed to look like,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “That’s not it.” Stopping the run also continues to be a sore spot for Chicago. The Bears rank 25th overall against the run and 29th in yards allowed per rush after another difficult outing last week. They gave up 194 yards, including 144 in the first half as the Lions grabbed a 16-0 lead. Losing veteran defensive tackle Andrew Billings to a torn pectoral muscle last month did not help. He was injured in a Week 9 loss at Arizona and is expected to miss the remainder of the season after having surgery. AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman contributed to this report. AP NFL:Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report findsThe Green Bay Packers have released their inactive list for the Week 14 Thursday Night Football game against the Detroit Lions. Wide receiver Romeo Doubs (concussion), cornerback Jaire Alexander (knee), linebacker Edgerrin Cooper (hamstring), cornerback Corey Ballentine (knee) and offensive lineman Jacob Monk will miss the important NFC North battle. Doubs suffered a concussion against the San Francisco 49ers and hasn’t cleared concussion protocol. Alexander injured his knee in the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 27. He aggravated the injury during the game against the Chicago Bears last month. The Packers enter Thursday’s game with a lot of momentum, winning seven of their last eight games after starting the season 2-2. Interestingly enough, the loss the Packers suffered during that stretch was against the Lions at Lambeau Field. “It’s not like our first hostile environment,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said about playing in Detroit, per the team’s official website. “Chicago was pretty loud, but I get it. This is going to be louder. It’s going to be a dome stadium and their fan base is going crazy right now getting behind the Lions. More on the Packers vs. Lions TNF matchup “So it’s going to be a fun environment. I love it where it’s just the guys in the locker room going out and competing for one another.” The Packers won’t be intimidated by Ford Field since they won there last season. “Yeah, you can lean on that, but I think no matter who it is, if we had a whole new team, guys would be confident,” Packers QB Jordan Love said. “We’re confident every game we go into and obviously I think we have enough motivation having lost the first game to these guys, so we owe them and we’ll be able to put up a good fight in Detroit.” The Packers come into the game with a 9-3 record, while the Lions are 11-1. It’s a must-win game for Green Bay if they want to give themselves a chance to win the division and host a playoff game. This article first appeared on 5 GOATs and was syndicated with permission.