Taylor Swift’s Best Bridges, Ranked

A Taylor Swift song is nothing without its bridge. The star’s strongest skills as a storyteller and lyricist are on full display in that critical moment, which marks a noticeable shift in the song, whether it’s in the narrative, tone, tempo, or a combination of the three. And for Swift, the bridge is often what elevates a good song to a truly great one. Over the course of her career, she’s introduced songs with bridges that run the emotional spectrum—some are meant to be screamed at the top of your lungs, while others can be quietly sung through tears.

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With over 240 songs across 10 original studio and 4 re-recorded albums, Swift has a bridge for just about every type of emotional catharsis. We decided to go through her discography to decide on the very best. To determine what makes for a bridge of superior caliber, we each compiled our own individual rankings, taking into account how the bridge fits in with each song, and then we added up those results.

25. “Love Story”

“Love Story,” the lead single off 2008’s Fearless, put Swift in the mainstream. It shot to the top of different Billboard charts and solidified her status as a crossover artist. In the song, Swift invokes Romeo and Juliet to tell the story of a seemingly doomed young couple with the bridge bringing down the tempo to signify her growing apprehension—that is, until Romeo gets down on one knee and the fairytale ends happily.—Moises Mendez II

Best line: “My faith in you was fading, when I met you on the outskirts of town”

24. “right where you left me”

The “evermore” bonus track feels more like a Gothic short story than a song. It tells the story of a woman frozen in time, haunting the restaurant where she had her heart broken. In the bridge, Swift shares what the rumor mill is saying about the “woman who lives in delusion” before changing the pronouns to reveal she’s talking about herself. “Time went on for everybody else, she won’t know it,” she sings, perfectly encapsulating the shame that comes from living in the past while everyone around you moves on.—Samantha Cooney

Best line: “She’s still 23 inside her fantasy, how it was supposed to be”

23. “Mr. Perfectly Fine”

Every major pop star needs a f-ck you anthem dedicated to someone who has done them wrong. When “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” rumored to be about Joe Jonas, reaches the bridge, it sounds like Swift is kicking a door open to a new phase of her life without her Perfectly Fine man.—MM

Best line: “Now I’m Miss Gonna Be Alright Someday, and someday, maybe you’ll miss me, but by then, you’ll be Mr. Too Late”

22. “Back to December”

Closing a chapter with someone you care about deeply is one of the most heartbreaking things anyone can go through, and Swift expertly details that pain in “Back to December,” singing, “It turns out freedom ain’t nothing but missin’ you, wishin’ I’d realized what I had when you were mine”—some of the most tragic lyrics in her entire discography. The bridge only twists the knife even deeper as she sings about how she’d do everything differently if she were given a second chance.—MM

Best line: I’d go back in time and change it, but I can’t. So, if the chain is on your door, I understand”

21. “You’re On Your Own, Kid”

Though this Midnights track is carried by a fast and light beat, the heart of the song, about yearning for and experiencing fame, is quite devastating. The price of celebrity is summed up in the haunting lines of its bridge: “The jokes weren’t funny, I took the money. My friends from home don’t know what to say.”—Annabel Gutterman

Best line: “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it. You’ve got no reason to be afraid”

20. “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve”

Even though it was a bonus track, “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” quickly became a standout (if not the best song) of Midnights. Feverish and wild, the song unravels like a thunderstorm, as Swift wades through a toxic relationship over pulsing drums and haunting synths. In the eye of the storm is the bridge—a pleading call to a higher power for rest, followed by an earth-shattering line that further cements Swift’s lyrical genius: “I regret you all the time.”—Rachel Sonis

Best line: “I regret you all the time”

19. “betty”

At the center of the Betty/James/Inez teenage love triangle drawn out in the folklore standout “betty” is the question: “What if?” What if James wasn’t such a boy about things? What if he told Betty how he really felt? What if Inez never spread those “rumors” about James cheating with her on Betty? But in the bridge, where Swift often makes her biggest revelations, the “what if’s” give way to the truth about James’ restless summer spent with Inez, when he was really thinking about Betty. A moment of unbearable release—and of stinging regret.—RS

Best line: “I dreamt of you all summer long”

18. “Enchanted”

This Speak Now song had a resurgence on TikTok last year, with the bridge appearing everywhere, bringing everyone back to 2010. In the bridge, Swift blissfully blends the confidence in her feelings of falling for someone with the insecurity of not knowing if that person is in love with someone else. She perfectly describes meeting someone for the first time and instantly feeling enchanted. That someone is said to be Adam Young, the frontman of Owl City. Swift said an interview around the time the album came out that she wrote the song about a guy she was emailing and when they met, he mentioned being “wonderstruck,” which she incorporated into the tune. In a 2011 interview with Us Weekly, Young said the song is about him and responded to it with a song of his own.—MM

Best line: “Please, don’t be in love with someone else. Please, don’t have somebody waiting on you”

17. “Out of the Woods”

1989—Swift’s first full-on foray into pop music—is surprisingly sparse when it comes to soul-bearing bridges. (Case in point: “Style,” my all-time favorite Swift song, has a lyrically thin bridge). The one exception is “Out of the Woods,” with a bridge that serves as the song’s emotional and musical highpoint. Swift’s voice explodes as she describes a crash, and a snowmobile accident serves as a metaphor for the breakdown of a relationship. Despite the chaos and comedowns (“Remember when you said you couldn’t take the heat?”), the bridge ends with the hope that the relationship can make it, even if only for another day (“When the sun came up, you were looking at me.”)—SC

Best line: “Remember when you hit the brakes too soon? Twenty stitches in a hospital room”

16. “Treacherous”

This song from Red starts off soft and slow with lyrics that point to how easy it is to be consumed by the promise of love, even if that love is risky. The plucky chorus gives way to a powerful bridge that is most definitely meant to be screamed: “Two headlights shine through the sleepless night. And I will get you, get you alone.”—AG

Best line: “That nothing safe is worth the drive”

15. “You’re Losing Me”

“You’re Losing Me” was released as a vault song off Midnights just a month after it was reported Swift and her longtime boyfriend had split. While the bulk of the song is underwhelming, the bridge ranks among her best-ever, with some of her most emotionally raw songwriting. The lyrics balance righteous anger about not being given attention by a partner (“I’m the best thing at this party”) with anxious resignation about why it ended. It all builds up to the barnburner of a lyric: “And I wouldn’t marry me either.”—SC 

Best line: “And I wouldn’t marry me either. A pathological people pleaser. Who only wanted you to see her”

14. “Dress”

“Dress” is Swift’s most outwardly sexy song: the chorus is anchored around the line, “Only bought this dress so you could take it off.” But the bridge reveals the bluff: this is really a song about revealing the worst parts of yourself to someone and still having them want you. It’s all incredibly romantic and intimate.—SC 

Best line: “Even in my worst lies you saw the truth in me”

13. “Long Live”

Originally written as a love letter to Swift’s band and fans, the lyrics in this Speak Now song remind us all that there is so much beauty in living in the present, and even more beauty in being able to look back and remember how that present felt. Though much of “Long Live” is a celebration of memories, the bridge coalesces into a striking direct plea from Swift to protect and honor how the past interacts with the future.—AG 

Best line: “If you have children someday, when they point to the pictures, please, tell ‘em my name”

12. “champagne problems”

Swift tells the audience at the Eras Tour that she wrote one particular song during the pandemic with the hopes she’d one day hear fans scream its bridge in a stadium. That song is called “champagne problems”—and boy did I have fun screaming “what a shame she’s f-cked in the head” in Philadelphia last May. The song is a soft piano ballad about turning down a marriage proposal, and the bridge swells with scenes of devastation. The bridge’s bittersweet end promises the heartbroken ex will “find the real thing instead.” It’s a cathartic moment in the song—and at the show.—SC

Best line: “She would’ve made such a lovely bride. What a shame she’s fucked in the head, they said”

11. “You Belong With Me”

“You Belong With Me” is the quintessential country-pop song of 2009. It’s the type of song that gets you out of your seat. It begs to be scream-sung at the top of your lungs with your best friends by your side, especially the bridge, which captures the yearning of wanting your crush to see that you’re perfect for him.—MM

Best line: “I know your favorite songs, and you tell me ’bout your dreams. Think I know where you belong, think I know it’s with me”

10. “Death By A Thousand Cuts”

A Taylor Swift bridge ranking would not be complete without one that kind of feels like a rant—and “Death By a Thousand Cuts” is it. A song about an agonizing death of a relationship, what’s most interesting about this bridge is that it’s a stream of consciousness, with every line as cutting as the next, as Swift’s staccato delivery accentuates every dig. While her lover might’ve fired the first shot, Swift is here to deliver the final blow.—RS 

Best Line: “Paper cut stings from our paper thin plans”

9. “illicit affairs”

Most of this folklore song is a slow and often unsettling dissection of the true cost of infidelity. But Swift’s crooning turns much louder as she cries out in the bridge how, exactly, this relationship has broken her apart (she literally references needing to scream). It’s these lyrics that really crystallize how confusing it is to love a person who never really belonged to you.—AG 

Best line: “You showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else”

8. “Fifteen”

When Swift set to write the devastatingly vulnerable ballad “Fifteen,” she started with the bridge. “I started everything with the line ‘Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind’ and wrote everything else from that point, almost backwards,” Swift said of the song in her track-by-track explanation of the album on Big Machine Records’ website. That line makes not only the bridge, but the entire song—honest and searing, yet overflowing with sisterly love and empathy for her childhood best friend Abigail Anderson, as she goes through a brutal breakup.—RS 

Best Line: “Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind. And we both cried”

7. “the last great american dynasty“

Of all the “mad” characters that exist in the folklore universe, Swift’s sharp retelling of American heiress and socialite Rebekah Harkness’ story and her notorious parties at the “Holiday House” mansion in Rhode Island takes the cake. Steeped in fascinating tidbits about her life, Swift recounts how Harkness, who inherited the riches from her oil tycoon husband’s untimely death and even became the richest woman in America at one point, was considered an outcast and a madwoman for her unconventional choices and lavish lifestyle. Swift, of course, is not-so-subtly making connections to her own life here—and really lays it bare in the bridge: Swift bought Holiday House (now called “High Watch”) in 2013, a place where many of her own dalliances have resulted in serious drama, too. A kiss-off to the haters, Swift is the new madwoman in town, and she doesn’t really care what anyone thinks. Rebekah would, no doubt, be proud.—RS

Best line: “Free of women with madness, their men in bad habits. And then it was bought by me”

6. “Last Kiss”

Talk about emotional catharsis! This Speak Now song describes a terrible, consuming breakup, and what it feels like to obsess over the final moments of a relationship. The steady beat swells up at the bridge and suddenly the full intensity of the track emerges as Swift’s voice explodes. The desperation and yearning is palpable—and so is the belief that one day those memories won’t feel so crushing.—AG  

Best line: “So I’ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep. And I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breathe”

5. “Getaway Car”

There’s a reason the behind-the-scenes video of Swift and Jack Antonoff writing the “Getaway Car” bridge has become Swiftie lore. It’s exhilarating to watch Swift and Antonoff compose a cinematic bridge with strong storytelling in real time. The song turns Swift into an outlaw running from the heart she broke. In the bridge, Swift takes some responsibility—but also tells her partner he shouldn’t be surprised she ditched him in a motel bar. Try not to have fun belting this (especially when Swift goes full Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan on “when I switch to the other si-i-i-i-ide).—SC 

Best line: “It’s no surprise I turned you in. ‘Cause us traitors never win”

4. “Dear John”

The blueprint for Taylor Swift’s best bridge (more on that later) is all over this Speak Now song, one of Swift’s best breakup anthems, ever. As she unpacks a relationship with an older man (famously rumored to be John Mayer), Swift takes aim at how it feels to be taken advantage of by someone so manipulative and deceitful. In the bridge, Swift crucially reclaims the power she lost, directly calling out this toxic behavior, and rising above it. This is a moment of supreme clarity—impressive for anyone to capture so acutely, let alone from someone so young (Swift was just 21 when this album was released).—AG

Best line: “You are an expert at sorry and keeping lines blurry”

3. “august”

By the time “august” gets to the bridge, there’s an explosion of emotions. It’s the part of the song where, if you’re listening in the car, no matter who you’re with, you turn the volume up to scream, “Back when we were still changing for the better!” The song sounds like a balmy summer day, capturing exactly how it feels to fall in love with someone who makes you feel warm inside, but ends up breaking your heart by slipping away.—MM

Best line: “So much for summer love and saying us, ’cause you weren’t mine to lose”

2. “Cruel Summer”

Is there anything better than screaming the bridge “Cruel Summer” at the top of your lungs? Screaming the bridge while you have a new crush for the summer, maybe. “Cruel Summer” is definitely one of Swift’s sweatiest numbers—a song that is best played on a hot July day as the sun sets and the night has promise of meeting up with someone you’re “just texting,” but that no one knows about yet. The hushed secrets and that hurts-so-good feeling at the start of a relationship is what she’s getting at—that is, until she blurts out her biggest secret of all in the bridge: “I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you’ve ever heard?” Truly, the Queen of Catharsis.—RS

Best line: “I scream, ‘For whatever it’s worth, I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you’ve ever heard?’”

1. “All Too Well”

It should come as no surprise that Swift’s magnum opus contains her best bridge (and we’re not talking about the 10 minute version). All Too Well is not so much a breakup song as it is an in-depth postmortem on a past relationship. In cutting specificities, Swift holds to the light the seemingly small, everyday moments that come from sharing a life with someone else, revealing how much love can be derived there. While much of the song focuses on these little flashes of memory (the scarf, the twin sized-bed, the refrigerator light), the bridge takes stock of the damage that’s been inflicted in the aftermath. It’s her best bridge because it’s so vulnerable. Her rage and confusion are crystal clear as she questions how everything came crashing down.—AG

Best line: “And you call me up again, just to break me like a promise. So casually cruel in the name of being honest”

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source https://time.com/6966929/taylor-swift-best-bridges/

America’s Young Farmers Are Burning Out. I Quit, Too

In 2023, Scott Chang-Fleeman—a young farmer like me—put down his shovel. A post on his Instagram read, “Shao Shan Farm, in its current form, is going on indefinite hiatus.” From the outside, the burgeoning farm had the makeup of one that could stand the test of time. In reality, his experience of farm ownership was wrought with challenges.

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A farmer in his late 20s, Chang-Fleeman started Shao Shan Farm in 2019 to reconnect with his roots and provide a source of locally grown heritage Asian vegetables to the Bay Area. He quickly secured a clientele and fan base—two of the greatest hurdles of starting a farm—and became the go-to for San Francisco’s high-end Asian eateries.

But after four years of creative pivots to withstand unexpected hurdles that included financial stress, severe drought, and a global pandemic, Chang-Fleeman made a choice that many young farmers are considering: to leave farming behind. Why he left and what could have kept him on the land are critical questions we must address if we are to have a sustainable and food-secure future.

The USDA Census of Agriculture reported that in 2017, nearly 1 in 4 of the 3.4 million agricultural producers in the US were new and beginning farmers. Many of these new farmers are doing exactly what it seems American agriculture needs: starting small farms. According to the most recent data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) in 2019, farms with annual sales of less than $100,000 accounted for about 85% of all U.S. farms. And though not all of these small-scale farms are necessarily organic, small farms are more likely to grow a diversity of crop types, use methods that reduce negative impacts on the climate, increase carbon sequestration, and tend to be more resilient in the face of climate change.

Read More: How Extreme Weather Is Affecting Small Farmers Across the U.S.

There has been a growing interest among younger people in recent years in sustainable and organic farming practices, as well as in local food systems. This interest has led people in their 20s and 30s to enter into small-scale farming, particularly in niche markets such as organic produce, specialty crops, and direct-to-consumer sales.

As a result, both congressional Democrats and Republicans have maintained that encouraging young people to farm is of utmost importance in ensuring the stability of our food system. But getting young people into farming may not be the problem. Keeping them on the farm may be the hardest part.

I should know. I quit too.

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Chang-Fleeman got his start in agriculture right out of college, where he spent several years working at the on-campus farm. As a third-generation Chinese American, he noticed a distinct lack of Asian vegetables at local farmers markets, particularly those that were grown organically, and suspected there would be a demand should a supply exist. He started trialing some varieties, and his suspicions were quickly affirmed when samples of his choy sum caught the attention of chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s, a contemporary Chinese eatery with a Michelin star in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Jew provided some seed funds for what was to become Shao Shan Farm in 2019.

During the first year running his farm, Chang-Fleeman focused his sales on his relationships with local restaurants, while attending some farmers’ markets sales to supplement income. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, he lost all of his restaurant accounts overnight.

Like many farmers at that time, he pivoted to a CSA model, offering farm boxes that provide a household with an assortment of vegetables for the week.

“So literally over a night, I reworked my crop plan” he told me. “Just to get through that year, or through that season, not knowing how long [the pandemic was going to] last.”

As if a global pandemic wasn’t enough, in 2021, California entered a drought, and he lost the ability to irrigate his crops come mid-summer, which meant a hard stop for production.

“I was hoping to hit some sort of a rhythm, and every year felt a bit like starting from scratch,” Chang-Fleeman reflected.

Throughout farm ownership, he worked side jobs to compensate for the slow build of business income and the fact that he could only afford to pay himself a monthly salary of $2,000. He regularly worked 90 hours a week. At the same time, farm expenses were on the rise.

“The cost of our packaging went up like three times in one year and the cost of the produce didn’t change,” he explained. “Our operating expenses went up like 30%, after COVID.”

In four short years, Chang-Fleeman experienced an avalanche of extenuating circumstances that would bring most farm businesses to their knees. But the thing that finally catalyzed the closing of his business was burnout. He relayed the experience of the exhaustion and stress building over time until he reached a breaking point. “If I don’t stop now, it’s going to kill me,” he recalled thinking.

Chang-Fleeman’s burnout reminded me of my own story. In the fall of 2018, I took what ended up being a two-month medical leave from an organic farm I managed in Northern California in order to try to try to resolve a set of weird symptoms that included dizzy spells and heart palpitations. If you know anything about farming, fall is not the time to be absent. It’s peak harvest time and the culmination of all of your work is underway. But as my medical anomaly continued to worsen, I came no closer to getting back to work. After many doctor visits, several trips to the specialist, a flurry of blood tests, and a week of heart monitoring, it took one Xanax to solve the mystery.

Read More: ‘They’re Trying to Wipe Us Off the Map.’ Small American Farmers Are Nearing Extinction

The prolonged physical stress that I had been harboring at work had triggered the onset of panic disorder, a nervous system affliction that had led me into a near-chronic state of fight or flight mode, causing a swath of physical symptoms not typically associated with “anxiety.”

For me, this was a wake-up call. I turned to a slew of Western and naturopathic remedies to alleviate my symptoms, but ultimately, removing the stressors of farm management was the thing that allowed me to, mostly, reach a nervous system balance. Even still, six years later, I’m constantly navigating the ‘new normal’ of this diagnosis.

A pilot study conducted by agriculture researcher Josie Rudolphi and her colleagues in 2020 found that of 170 participants, approximately 71% met the criteria for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. By comparison, in the US, an estimated 18% of adults experience an anxiety disorder. Rudolphi’s work indicates that these disorders maybe three times more prevalent in young farmer and rancher populations.

This rang true as I went from farm to farm trying to figure out what so often goes wrong in a new farm operation. Again and again mental health was a through-line. Collette Walsh, owner of a cut-flower operation in Braddock, PA, put it to me bluntly: “I usually get to a point in late August or early September, where there’s a week where I just cry.”

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How can we build a farming economy that helps young farmers not only stay, but also thrive on the land? The Farm Bill, a federal package of legislation that provides funding for agricultural programs, is one route. As the reboot of the Farm Bill approaches, it’s a critical time to ask these questions and advocate for policies that support young farmers and the barriers they’re facing in maintaining a long-lasting career in agriculture.

Take for instance, Jac Wypler, Farmer Mental Health Director at the National Young Farmer Coalition (Young Farmers), who oversees the Northeast region’s Farmer and Rancher Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN). The organization was established by the Farm Bill in 2018 to develop a service provider network for farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural workers that was dedicated to mental well-being. Through the network of service providers she directs, called “Cultivemos,” Wypler and her colleagues utilize a multi-tiered approach to address mental health in farming spaces. Cultivemos partners provide direct support in moments of stress and crisis as well as peer-to-peer support spaces.

An expanded (and subsidized) program that scales efforts like Cultivemos to a size commensurate with the young work force is clearly needed. But it’s only part of the picture.

“While we believe that it is important to make sure that farms, farmers, and farmworkers are getting direct support around their mental health,” Wypler explained. “We need to alleviate what is causing them stress.” 

Cultivemos works to address the structural root causes of stress which can include climate change, land prices, and systemic racism, to name a few. They focus on communities that are disproportionately harmed by these structural root causes, specifically Black, Indigenous, and other farmers of color. Finally, they seek to make this impact by regranting funding directly into the hands of these farmers.

“The way I think of regranting is that the USDA and these large institutions are the Mississippi River of funding.” Wypler says. “We’re trying to get the funding into these smaller rivers and tributaries to disperse these funds and shift that power dynamic and leadership dynamic.”

The next Farm Bill cycle will be critical in ensuring this work is continued. In November of 2023, lawmakers signed a stopgap funding bill that allows for a one-year extension on the 2018 Farm Bill. Lawmakers are currently in deliberations over the bill until September when it will be up for a vote. Young Farmers underscores the importance of the appropriations process, which is when program areas that are authorized in the farm bill are allocated funding.

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Back-to-the-landism has waxed and waned throughout the last hundred years, booming in the pre-Depression years of the 1930s, dying in the war years and then storming back in the 60s and 70s. When my generation’s own farming revolution came along in the early 2000s, I was similarly swept up. I imagined when I chose to farm that the path would be lifelong. What I hadn’t accounted for, as a determined, starry-eyed changemaker, was the toll that a decade of farming through wildfires, evacuations, floods, power outages, and a global pandemic would take on my mental health.

Don’t get me wrong:  I was happy working hard with my two feet planted firmly on the land. In a better world I and people like Scott Chang-Fleeman would have kept getting our hands dirty, making an honest, if modest, living providing good and wholesome food in synch with the rhythms of the planet.

But to borrow a word from the world of ecology, being a young farmer in today’s economy is “unsustainable.” The numbers don’t work economically and, eventually, any mind trying to square this un-squarable circle is going to break. The economic, physical and mental challenges are all interconnected.

It’s hard to find an American, Republican or Democrat, red or blue state resident that doesn’t want more young hands on the land. We all rightly see agriculture as a pathway to personal fulfillment and a way to make our food supply healthier and more secure. But words and intentions can only do so much. We must answer these very real problems with very real subsidy.

If we don’t, my generation might be the last to think of going “back-to-the-land” as something actually worth doing.

source https://time.com/6966324/america-young-farmers-exhaustion-essay/

The Strategic Implications of the Iranian Attack on Israel

The Iranian attack on Israel was historic. For the first time since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Ayatollah regime violated Israeli sovereignty directly without using any of its proxies, such as Hezbollah or Hamas. Iran, in this sense, has created a new equation for its conflict with Israel. Likewise, the ability to counter hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones was also unprecedented, as it resulted from an American-led coalition—which included the U.K., France, Jordan, and other countries—that originated in the Abraham Accords and continued with multiple defense regional agreements. This pivotal moment bore strategic implications that exceeded the sole interest of Israel. Here are the top five.

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First, the response to the Iranian attack on Israel could affect geopolitical relations as we know them.

The Iranian attack on Israel was not only a local or regional event but a multinational one. In an era of a global war where the U.S. is on one side and Russia and China are on the other, the Israeli response will reflect the U.S.’s credibility as the leader of the Western world. In other words, it will define Western assurances regarding any country deeming itself part of the free world.

Indeed, President Biden warned Iran from attacking Israel by declaring yet another important “Don’t.” Well, they did. And now the world is watching. An aggressive response may lead to anarchy and force other players in the arena. A soft—or lack of—response could teach Iran and its allies that acts of aggression could occur without consequences. A restrained reaction to such a violent act of aggression in a world in which Russia had already invaded Ukraine may be one step too far. The secret here, hence, will be to find the right balance for deterring potential chaos agents such as Iran, yet not to accelerate the already sensitive reality.

Secondly, Iran endangered its two most significant investments—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the nuclear program.

The first is an active ongoing project, which embodies not only a core element of the Iranian DNA but also the most significant terror group in the world. The second is an Iranian aspiration that is too close to realization. Israel, which lost substantial portions of its international legitimacy following the continuous war in Gaza, could use the momentum of international support not only to respond to Iran kinetically but to label the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps diplomatically and legally as a terror group. Moreover, it could encourage the entire U.S.-led coalition to compose a joint plan to counter the Iranian nuclear program just before its completion. A vital element of such a program will have to include the encouragement of the Iranian people to demand their liberty alongside unapologetic and decisive moves driven by the understanding that a nuclear Iran is a threat to the free world.

The third implication concerns the potential misuse of international law to undermine countries’ territorial integrity or political independence.

The Iranian narrative during the attack was fascinating, as was its audacity. Looking at the language it chose to use, it was clear Iran attempted to differentiate itself from its terrorist proxy group and portray itself as a legitimate sovereign state in an act of self-defense. Two unexhaustive indications for that were given while the drones were on their way to Israel. The first was a tweet by the Iranian mission to the U.N., which declared the attack was “conducted on the strength of Article 51 of the UN Charter pertaining to legitimate defense.” This article embodies one of the two exceptions—alongside a UN Security Council authorization—for prohibiting the use of force. The second indication was an Iranian declaration regarding its intention to hit military targets only. This is, of course, an act-the language of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Accepting the notion that a country could launch 300 missiles and drones “in response to the Zionist regime’s aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus” undermines the core purpose of the U.N., which is to prevent wars from happening in the first place. Allowing this notion will open the gate for any country to cynically use Article 51 in a reality where the U.N. Security Council is under a near-constant deadlock anyway.

The fourth implication is that normalization between the Saudis and the Israelis is more likely than ever.

The world of October 6^th has presented us with the breathtaking possibility of normalization between the two countries. At its core, there was a triangle of interest. Plainly speaking, the Israelis wanted to enjoy a relationship with a regional power; the Americans knew they could place a condition this with advancing a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and the Saudis wanted, in return—among other things—a security agreement with the Americans, resembling those with Japan or South Korea.

The Iranian attack on Israel has provided the Saudis with a display of capability of such an agreement, demonstrated against the very same enemy they wish to protect themselves from: Iran. In this sense, the attack on Israel is likely to enhance normalization with the Saudis, not diminish it.

The fifth implication is that Israel must learn that there are no gifts.

Dependence on allies means the Israeli response will not happen in a vacuum. It will have to consider its allies and their domestic, political, and cultural sensitivities. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a strong reaction, but the rope isn’t as loose as Israel would have liked.

Looking forward to the near future, this means the Israeli ability to manoeuvre, literally, in other areas, such as Lebanon or Gaza, will be even more limited. The outcome may force Israel and its allies to (finally) convene into a joint “Day-After” plan. Such a plan must ensure a Palestinian state isn’t perceived as the direct reward for the October 7th massacre and the Iranian attack on Israel. Still, it must ensure the region has a clear path for the next decade or two.

The task of translating these implications into practical action items is now laid on the shoulders of world leadership. The choices they’ll make will determine if the Iranian attack on Israel will be perceived, in retrospect, as a tragedy or as an opportunity.

source https://time.com/6966982/strategic-implications-of-the-iranian-attack-on-israel/

It’s Tax Day. Your Refund May Be Big This Year

(WASHINGTON) — On this Tax Day, refunds are looking a bit bigger for taxpayers.

According to the latest IRS statistics, the average income tax refund so far this season is $3,011, up $123 from last year. Two out of three taxpayers expect to receive a refund.

The IRS is promoting the customer service improvements the agency rolled out since receiving tens of billions in new funding dollars through Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. Getting refunds out faster — to some people in just over a week — is part of the promotion.

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So far, the IRS has delivered more than $200 billion in refunds through early April, and the latest agency numbers show that 101 million people have filed returns this tax season.

From cutting phone wait times to digitizing more documents and improving the “Where’s My Refund” tool to show more account details in plain language, agency leaders are trying to bring attention to what’s been done to repair the image of the IRS as an outdated and maligned tax collector.

Read More: When Will I Receive My Tax Refund?

The promotion also in part is meant to quickly normalize a more efficient and effective IRS before congressional Republicans threaten another round of spending cuts to the agency. So time is of the essence for both taxpayers and the agency.

“This filing season, the IRS has built off past successes and reached new milestones,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on a Friday call with reporters. “It’s showing that when it has the resources it needs, it will provide taxpayers the service they deserve.”

“It’s clear that we’re seeing historic improvements in taxpayer service levels, and the agency is rebounding from some very tough and lean years during the past decade,” said IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel.

For most people, April 15 is the last day to submit tax returns or to file an extension.

Read More: How April 15 Became Tax Day

The IRS says call wait times have been cut down to three minutes this tax season, compared with the average 28 minutes in 2022. That has saved taxpayers 1.4 million hours of hold time and the agency has answered 3 million more calls compared with the same time frame. Also, the updated “Where’s My Refund” tool giving more specific information about taxpayers’ refunds in plain language was rolled out to 31 million views online.

Werfel told The Associated Press earlier this year that the agency’s agenda is to deliver “better service for all Americans so that we can ease stress, frustration and make the tax filing process easier — and to increase scrutiny on complex filers where there’s risk of tax evasion.”

“When we do that,” Werfel said, “not only do we make the tax system work better because it’s easier and more streamlined to meet your tax obligations. But also we collect more money for the U.S. Treasury and lower our deficit. The IRS is a good investment.”

Major new initiatives in recent months have included an aggressive pursuit of high-wealth earners who don’t pay their full tax obligations, such as people who improperly deduct personal flights on corporate jets and those who just don’t file at all.

This also is the first tax season that the IRS has rolled out a program called Direct File, the government’s free electronic tax return filing system available to taxpayers in 12 states who have simple W-2 forms and claim a standard deduction.

If Direct File is successful and scaled up for the general public’s use, the program could drastically change how Americans file their taxes and how much money they spend completing them. That is, if the agency can see the program through its development in spite of threats to its funding.

The Inflation Reduction Act initially included $80 billion for the IRS.

However, House Republicans have successfully clawed back some of the money. They built a $1.4 billion reduction to the IRS into the debt ceiling and budget cuts package passed by Congress last summer. A separate agreement will take an additional $20 billion from the IRS over the next two years to divert to other nondefense programs.

Government watchdogs warn IRS funding cuts will reduce the amount of revenues the U.S. collects.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reported in February that a $5 billion rescission from the IRS would reduce revenues by $5.2 billion over the next 10 years and increase the cumulative deficit by $0.2 billion. A $20 billion rescission would reduce revenues by $44 billion and a $35 billion rescission would reduce revenues by $89 billion and increase the deficit by $54 billion.

source https://time.com/6966981/tax-day-refund-irs/

Is Money Making You Sick?

The stress of doing your taxes is likely behind you, but there are plenty of other money worries keeping people up at night. Half of homeowners and renters are struggling to afford their monthly housing payments. Credit card debt, at $1.1 trillion nationwide, is at an all-time high. And progress in taming inflation has flatlined lately, leaving the price of everything from eggs to Uber rides up dramatically from pre-pandemic levels.

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It’s enough to make you sick. Literally.

That pain in your back or the throbbing of your head or the churn in your gut you feel when you pay your bills or check your credit card balance? Science confirms that it’s real, as a growing body of research documents the strong connection between financial anxiety and struggles with physical and mental health, particularly over the long term. Recent studies have linked money worries to anxiety and depression, pain and inflammation, heart disease, high blood pressure, headaches, insomnia, ulcers, back pain, arthritis, and asthma, among other ailments, as well as a higher risk of disability and early death.

In fact, a study published earlier this year by a team of British researchers suggests that among the serious life challenges that people often face—including divorce, disability, caregiving, illness, and bereavement—financial strain is the most detrimental to health. The results, based on an analysis of proteins and hormones in the blood of nearly 5,000 participants in a longitudinal survey of aging, found that people under financial strain had a nearly 60% greater risk of developing serious health problems, higher than any of the other stressors examined.

Read More: The Best Financial Advice for Young Adults

And it’s not only people with limited financial resources who are hurting. While lower income is strongly linked to greater health problems, how you feel about your money situation, regardless of your income or socioeconomic status, has a significant an impact on your health, too—and there’s plenty of worry to go around these days.

“Your socioeconomic status is only one piece of the puzzle,” says Carolyn McClanahan, a financial planner in Jacksonville, Fla., who began her career as an emergency-department doctor and still volunteers as a physician. “Financial stress cuts across every segment of society, and so do the health problems that come with it.”

The money problems that hurt most

“Being in debt has really affected my mental well-being. I worry on a daily basis. I don’t sleep at night.”

“I have sometimes had back pain, and even stomach problems, all due to being stressed over finances.”

“I feel like a failure for taking out money and not being able to pay it back on time. I am anxious and lose sleep over it.”

A sampling of responses in a new qualitative study of the link between health and finances by the Financial Health Network, a Chicago nonprofit, shows just how much people are hurting when it comes to their money. The participants ranged in age from 18 to over 65, and in annual income from less than $15,000 to more than $100,000, but they all shared one common trait: they were stressed about money and their health was suffering as a result.

“We’ve been hearing a lot about people having a hard time keeping up with rising prices or dealing with financial shocks and being overwhelmed by debt,” says Angela Fontes, the organization’s vice president of policy and research. “And the pandemic, which exacerbated mental health challenges for a lot of people, seems to have made everything worse.”

Research confirms how big a health threat being in debt is, especially when the loans are unsecured, like credit card or medical debt. Compared to people with little or no debt, for example, borrowers with chronic or high debt are more likely to suffer from inflammation and joint pain by age 50, and for that pain to interfere with work and other activities. People with medical debt are also three times more likely than others to grapple with mental health issues like anxiety and depression.

Read More: How to Reset Your Thinking Around Spending Money

Even just thinking about financially stressful things can be harmful to your health, according to a study from the University of Virginia and Columbia University. Subjects were asked to contemplate different anxiety-provoking economic scenarios—for example, living in a state with high unemployment or wondering if their college degree would shield them from job loss. Researchers measured the participants’ pain levels before and after the exercise, either as self-reported or by seeing how long they could keep their hands in a bucket of ice-cold water. The subjects reported more pain and lower tolerance after thinking about a shaky financial future.

The researchers concluded: “It physically hurts to be economically insecure.”

A stressful diagnosis

Why are money worries so detrimental to health? Scientists say the body’s physiological response to stress is a key factor. 

Persistent stress and the feeling of being out of control trigger complex biological interactions, including the release of the hormones cortisol and adrenaline into the bloodstream, that interrupt normal body functioning. That, over time, can lead to inflammation, a weakened immune system, elevated blood pressure, and other long-term threats to good health.  

Behavioral responses to financial stress also play a role. When money is tight, for example, people often forgo visits to the doctor or medical treatment. Stress is also linked to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as exercising less, drinking more, and eating junk food.

Read More: Why We’re Spending So Much Money

As health declines, it may interfere with an individual’s ability to work, which can worsen financial problems. Lower-income people are also less likely to have health insurance, receive new drugs and technologies, and have ready access to primary and specialty care.

“The process goes both ways,” says McClanahan. “Poor finances lead to poor health, and poor health leads to poor finances.”

Steps that can ease the pain

Not everyone with financial challenges ends up anxious or ill. The best preventive medicine, experts say, is to address the money issues that do the most harm before they turn into a serious health threat. 

Here’s what they suggest.

Come up with a plan.

In debt? Identify a concrete step or two you can take to lessen the load.

If you’re overwhelmed by student loans, consider switching from a standard 10-year repayment schedule to an income-based plan that stretches payments over 20 to 25 years. That can substantially lower the amount you owe each month. If you have big medical bills, call your health care provider to arrange more manageable payments; do the same with credit-card issuers and see if they’ll lower your interest rate, too (few people ask, but those who do are often successful).

“Just doing one thing can help restore your sense of control, which can have huge health benefits,” Fontes says.

Strengthen your resiliency.

Financial shocks are a common trigger for money-related health issues, but few Americans have a big enough rainy-day fund to cover an unexpected $400 repair bill, let alone see them through a layoff or serious illness. One way to start saving: set up an automatic savings plan through your employer or bank, and have a small amount deducted and sent to a dedicated emergency account every time you get paid.

“Having a chunk of cash set aside is the single greatest stress reducer in the event of a financial mishap,” McClanhan says.

Do some yoga.

Or meditate or work out—whatever helps you de-stress—before sitting down to pay bills or tackle other financial tasks. Participants in the 2024 Financial Health Network study that examined the link between money and mental health mentioned exercising and mindfulness practices as techniques that helped them feel calmer, think more clearly, and address triggers of their financial stress.

Taking care of yourself will only help, Fontes says: “Feeling better mentally bleeds over to your finances and helps you attack money challenges more effectively.”

source https://time.com/6966650/money-stress-illness/

The Abortion Fight Isn’t a ‘War on Women.’ It’s a War on Poor Women

On April 9, Arizona’s supreme court ruled that its 1864 almost total abortion ban remains in place. That came a week after Florida’s supreme court upheld an abortion ban, triggering an even stricter six-week ban. The onslaught of anti-abortion laws and court decisions has led liberals like California Governor Gavin Newsom to assert that the political right has declared “a war on women.”

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This concept isn’t new, but it actually distorts the history of anti-abortion legislation. Abortion regulations have never applied equally to all doctors or all women. Understanding this history reveals that today — as in the past — abortion bans affect both women and providers differently depending upon factors like their race, class, and social standing. The people impacted most have changed over time, but one thing has remained consistent: abortion restrictions are less a war on women than a war on poor women.

The conditions that created these class and social dynamics began to emerge almost two centuries ago. In 1829, for example, New York State enacted a law defining abortion as second-degree manslaughter — but only if the woman was “pregnant with a quick child,” that is, if she’d felt the fetus moving inside of her, something that typically happened around 20 weeks. 

In the late 1850s, that law — and others like it — came under attack by Boston doctor Horatio R. Storer. In an 1859 essay, he argued that these laws defined the crime of abortion too leniently. “By the Moral Law, THE WILFUL KILLING OF A HUMAN BEING AT ANY STAGE OF ITS EXISTENCE IS MURDER.” He also argued, without evidence, that women could face dire medical consequences from an abortion, including, on occasion, death. 

But Storer wasn’t just worried about women as a universal class. He reserved his greatest scorn for white middle- and upper-class women, whom he claimed were seeking abortions in greater numbers than poor and immigrant women. He claimed that middle-class women boasted to each other about their successful abortions, in the same way they might brag about a new dress or a social coup. In Storer’s view, these women who sought abortions were not just victims of a purportedly dangerous medical procedure, but dangerous criminals who were outside the reach of the law.

Read More: What to Know About the Arizona Supreme Court Abortion Ban Ruling

Storer’s anti-abortion activism occurred at a time when he and other “medical men” of similar social standing were attempting to professionalize medicine by implementing rigorous educational and training standards. As part of this push, these doctors hoped to take over what would become the lucrative fields of obstetrics and gynecology from female midwives and other providers they considered untrained and dangerous — those who Storer claimed “frequently cause abortion openly and without disguise.”

In Storer’s view, white, educated “medical men” like him had to seek justice as “the physical guardians of women and their offspring.” It was their responsibility to “stand… in the breach fast making in the public morality, decency, and conscience.” Behind these righteous pronouncements, though, lurked Storer’s unspoken fear: that if men like him did not intervene, middle-class wives would shirk their childbearing duties, leaving their husbands without heirs while poor and immigrant families swelled their ranks. 

Storer spent the latter part of the 1850s, and much of the 1860s, organizing letter-writing campaigns by new professional medical societies, including state affiliates of the American Medical Association (AMA). He hoped to pressure states into passing ever-stricter abortion bans. In New York, the effort paid off in 1869 when the legislature made abortion second-degree manslaughter at any stage of pregnancy if it resulted in the death of the mother or the termination of the pregnancy.

In the fall of 1871, the new statute led to the conviction of abortion provider Jacob Rosenzweig for manslaughter in the death of Alice Bowlsby in New York City. Railway officials had found Bowlsby’s body in a trunk bound for Chicago only days after the New York Times had published an exposé on abortionists, including Rosenzweig, titled “The Evil of the Age.”

The paper had described Rosenzweig as having a $40 degree, and purportedly knowing “more of the saloon business than of medicine.” Nonetheless, he did “a large business” — part of a “frightful profusion” of discreet abortions performed by untrained practitioners. 

It took less than two hours for a jury to find Rosenzweig guilty, and a judge sentenced him to seven years’ hard labor in the Albany State Penitentiary, the maximum sentence possible.

Meanwhile, just weeks after Bowlsby’s death, a young Albany waitress named Margaret Campbell died from an abortion performed by “Mrs. Dr. Emma Burleigh,” a well known abortionist. After colleagues of Burleigh’s tried to cover it up — including spiriting Campbell’s body away to an unmarked grave in the local cemetery — a second autopsy revealed that the young woman’s abdomen was inflamed, her uterus was missing, and her breasts were full of milk. A laceration was found in her vagina, “occupied by a clot of blood.”

The outcome for Burleigh, however, was very different than for Rosenzweig. Under cross-examination at the coroner’s inquest, she got the doctors who performed the autopsy to admit that alternate explanations existed for all of their findings. There was no definitive proof that Campbell had been pregnant, that she’d had an abortion, or that the operation had caused her death. The jury agreed that the cause of death was simple peritonitis, and Burleigh walked free. 

The disparity between the two cases was no accident. The abortion statute really wasn’t about protecting women from unqualified practitioners, nor was it a war on women, as Storer might have hoped. Instead, it was a weapon of class warfare. 

Rosenzweig was a Jewish immigrant — a dangerous outsider. Meanwhile, Burleigh — who lied about having a medical degree in advertisements, but had taken medical classes — was an educated white woman. That made her less of a threat to the native-born doctors like Storer who were working to consolidate medical authority under their own control. 

Class also separated the two victims: Newspaper accounts of Bowlsby’s death painted her as a young lady from “respectable society,” with “relatives in the highest circles.” In other words, she was an ideal victim for the villain of the immigrant doctor. Campbell, by contrast, was, in the words of one prominent abortion opponent, an obscure Irish waitress who was “evidently…not of correct moral habits.”

Read More: How Ronald Reagan Helped Abortion Take Over the Republican Agenda

In 1872, New York toughened the law further, defining abortion as a felony with a possible sentence of 20 years in prison. Yet even under this law, wealthy, typically white women continued to seek and receive safe abortions. Often, it was trained male physicians of similar social and class standing who performed them without legal penalties. Strict enforcement of abortion laws didn’t ramp up until the mid-20th century, when medical care moved from private offices exclusive to a well-off clientele into public hospitals and clinics serving the poor along with the wealthy. 

Understanding how New York’s abortion laws functioned in the 19th century creates a new perspective on abortion bans in 2024. 

They, too, are far more of a weapon of class warfare than a war on all women.

Strict abortion bans are more likely to exist in states where a high number of women of childbearing age have incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line. Of the five states with the highest levels of poverty among women of childbearing age —  Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, West Virginia, and New Mexico — all but New Mexico fall into the Guttmacher Institute’s  “most restrictive” abortion law category. Poverty strengthens the effects of abortion bans, since poor women can’t afford to miss work, book travel, arrange childcare, and pay out of pocket for procedures if they do not have health insurance. 

Abortion bans also exacerbate poverty. A University of California San Francisco study found that women denied an abortion saw an increase in poverty for at least four years and were more likely to see drops in their credit scores. These impacts don’t hurt poor women in isolation: abortion bans also put their children, their husbands, and their wider communities at a disadvantage by making the cycle of poverty harder to escape.

By contrast, just as in the 19th century, wealthier women — those who have health insurance, who can afford a pharmaceutical or surgical copay, and who have the means to take time off work and travel to a state with more lenient regulations — are far more insulated from the most potent and cascading impacts of abortion bans. So, too, are their families and communities.  

As in the 19th century, class, hand in hand with race, provides a more useful lens of analysis for understanding abortion legislation in the U.S. In restricting abortion, “medical men” like Storer worked to consolidate medical authority among the white upper classes. Today, it is often men from a similarly high social and class standing, serving in state legislatures and on courts, who are once again pushing for abortion restrictions that most adversely impact Americans with less social and economic capital.

R.E. Fulton is an independent historian of medicine, gender, and crime whose work focuses on abortion practitioners in 19th-century New York. Their book The Abortionist of Howard Street, out May 2024 from Cornell University Press, studies the life and career of Josephine McCarty, alias Emma Burleigh.

Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.

source https://time.com/6966423/abortion-fight-history-war-on-women/

Singapore Prime Minister to Step Down, Successor to Take Office in May

Singapore will soon get its fourth Prime Minister—and only the second outside of its founding family that has led the country for a combined more than 50 years since the city-state gained its independence in the 1960s. 

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 72, who has held the position since 2004, will relinquish his office on May 15, and 51-year-old Lawrence Wong—currently deputy prime minister and finance minister—will be sworn in as the country’s next premier, according to a statement Monday by the Prime Minister’s Office. (Singapore elected a new President last year, but the role is mostly ceremonial.)

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Wong, who has long been viewed as Lee’s successor, “has the unanimous support of the PAP MPs,” the statement said, referring to the country’s ruling People’s Action Party, which has continuously dominated politics since its founding under Lee’s late father Lee Kuan Yew, who was the country’s first Prime Minister for 31 years before stepping down in 1990, though he remained in politics until 2011.

“For any country, a leadership transition is a significant moment. Lawrence and the 4G team have worked hard to gain the people’s trust, notably during the pandemic,” Lee posted on Facebook on Monday, referring to the so-called fourth generation of PAP leaders helmed by Wong. “I ask all Singaporeans to give Lawrence and his team your full support, and work with them to create a brighter future for Singapore.”

Lee, who had previously expressed plans to step down before his 70th birthday in 2022 until they were disrupted by the pandemic, said last November that he would resume his succession plans and hand over leadership to Wong before the next general election, due to take place by November this year: “Either I can continue to lead the party in the next [general election], which would be my fifth as [Prime Minister], and then hand over soon afterwards to Lawrence [Wong]; or I can hand over to Lawrence before the GE, then he leads the party into the campaign, wins his own mandate, and takes the country forward with the full backing of the nation,” Lee said during a party convention.

“Everything depends on the success of this third transition in our history,” he added.

Wong’s succession to the premiership comes as Singapore emerges from a series of recent political and financial scandals—some of the biggest the city-state has ever seen—and as Southeast Asia continues to navigate the geopolitical rivalry between China and the U.S. looming over the region. The country has also consistently ranked as the most expensive in the world to live in, though it ranks as one of the happiest in Asia, too.

Read More: A Wave of Scandals Is Testing the Singaporean Government’s Ability to Take Criticism

“I accept this responsibility with humility and a deep sense of duty,” Wong said in a video published on his Instagram on Monday. “Together, we can build a future that shines brightly for all Singaporeans.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lawrence Wong (@lawrencewongst)

source https://time.com/6966826/singapore-prime-minister-lee-wong-handover-date-transition/