Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Here’s what’s shaping the day: |
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13 Days: With less than two weeks left until Election Day, polls show a neck-and-neck race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in seven battleground states. Harris maintains a slight national lead over Trump but recent polls show that the initial enthusiasm for her campaign is fading.
- Unreasonable Demands: Taiwan’s foreign ministry on Tuesday refused to move its embassy from the capital of South Africa in response to a request from Pretoria likely prompted by the Chinese Communist Party.
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No Quarter Pounders: McDonald’s is temporarily pulling its Quarter Pounder hamburger from menus in 12 states following an outbreak of E. coli.
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His Grandfather’s Watch: Former Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani must hand over a long list of assets, including his interests in his Manhattan co-op apartment and his grandfather’s watch, in pursuit of satisfying the nearly $150 million judgment won by two ex-Georgia election workers who sued him for defamation, a federal judge ruled.
- Virtuous Friendship: Ancient Greeks believed happiness was impossible without friendship. But what makes a good friend? Our culture writer Leo Salvatore turns to Aristotle for answers. Story Below.
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Written by Ivan Pentchoukov,
U.S. National Editor |
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Bill Pugliano, Win McNamee/Getty Images |
Stagnation: Democratic strategist Theryn Bond notes that further gains will be challenging for Vice President Kamala Harris from this point onward. She told The Epoch Times that Harris’s challenge arises in part from her campaign’s messaging and inability to distinguish herself from President Joe Biden regarding policies. |
- “New means different, and so show us how you’re going to be different,” Bond said, referring to Hariris’s campaign slogan “New Way Forward.”
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Growth: Former President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has witnessed a resurgence with two weeks to go until the election. |
- “He has got the best polling numbers he’s had in his three presidential runs as the Republican nominee,” Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told The Epoch Times.
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The recall 2023-2025 Honda models cites a potential fuel leak that could increase the risk of fire, crash, or injury. |
“We estimate there is enough dissolved lithium present in that region to replace U.S. imports of lithium and more,” said the USGS lead researcher. |
The destruction in Appalachian communities needs to extend to the restoration of historic buildings. |
International Monetary Fund officials published the October edition of the World Economic Outlook, forecasting that headline inflation will cool to 3.5 percent by the end of next year, slightly below the two-decade average before the pandemic. |
The billionaire owner of X, SpaceX, and Tesla is becoming a central figure in the 2024 presidential election. |
‘Over Ruled’: It is hard to think of a single product you use that is not trapped in some kind of forced design emanating from a federal bureaucracy. This pertains to everything in your house but also to every business, all the way down to the fabric of the aprons in every restaurant.
Ask any real estate developer and he will tell you the reason for the housing shortage. It comes down to extreme controls on every single step in hiring and building. The customer ends up paying in two ways: higher prices and less choice.
Remedy: Deregulation does not mean anything goes. It means that society itself is in the position to provide market standards of quality. If the federal Food and Drug Administration were abolished, for example, we might well end up with safer food and more effective drugs. For one thing, all the indemnifications for vaccines would disappear, making companies legally liable for damages. |
- In fact, Justice Neil Gorsuch has a new book with the title “Over Ruled.” He says, it is not up to the judiciary to make a fundamental difference. That is the job of the legislatures.
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The Biden administration has signaled renewed hopes for a hostage deal and cease-fire in Gaza after Israeli forces killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week. |
- In her letter to a bipartisan congressional commission, Karen Kang said that her nephew Hou Lijun, who is more than 50 years old, has been “tortured physically and psychologically” in prison due to his faith.
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The American Stroke Association updated its guidelines for the first time in 10 years. |
“Blind Spots,” the new book, suggests that questioning the status quo in medicine may be key to advancing beyond outdated practices. |
The School of Athens by Raphael circa 1509-1511 |
“Friendship seems to hold states together.” |
— Aristotle, Ancient Greek philosopher (384–322 BC) |
Ancient Greeks believed the greatest happiness was impossible without friendship.
This fact of life moved many thinkers throughout history. Chief among them is the Greek philosopher Aristotle, whose “Nicomachean Ethics” offers a lucid discussion of friendship’s complex nature and transformative power.
Aristotle begins his study with a distinction between the three types of friendships: virtue, pleasure, and utility.
Utility: A friendship of utility revolves around the procurement of earthly benefits, like borrowing a car.
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- Aristotle would qualify this example as a classic case of utilitarian friendship. Friends who seek each other’s company to gain something don’t actually love each other.
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Pleasure: We enjoy the company of witty people not because of who they are, but because we like their humor. As Aristotle tells us, “in a friendship based on utility or on pleasure men love their friend for their own good or their own pleasure, and not as being the person loved, but as useful or agreeable.”
Virtue: Aristotle doesn’t condemn utility and pleasure completely. Each has its benefits. He is, however, uncompromising in claiming that only a friendship of virtue can foster genuine happiness in this life. |
- Its pleasure stems from a purer disposition to wish the other’s good for the other’s sake. Aristotle believed a friendship of virtue could only blossom between people virtuous enough to value that kind of friendship in the first place.
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Lynda Balslev for Tastefood |
This 30-minute vegetarian-friendly soup is an easy, healthy dinner. It’s a welcome time-out meal that brims with nutrient-rich ingredients and warms on a cool fall evening. Inspired by the Southwest with sweet potato, cumin, and chile heat, it relies on sturdy protein-rich lentils for heft and body.
Get the recipe here ➞ |
Here are more games that everyone loves: |
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Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful day. |
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