Vox Sentences: China’s cracking down on VPNs. That’s a BFD.

Welcome to Vox Sentences, our news bulletin breaking down the day's biggest stories.

1. An even greater firewall

A person surfs the internet in a net cafe on January 21, 2008 in Chongqing Municipality, China. (China Photos/Getty Images)

• China has initiated a crackdown on the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), a technology widely used to evade the country's extensive internet censorship.

  [NYT / Andrew Jacobs]

• An official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology confirmed the crackdown to People's Daily, a government paper.

  [People's Daily]

• Over the past month or so, a variety of Western sites — like Gmail, Instagram, and Flickr — have been blocked as well.

  [Washington Post / Simon Denyer]

• In addition to the blockages, there have also been hacks, like one targeting Microsoft Outlook, which the Chinese government is widely suspected of carrying out.

  [The Verge / Russell Brandom]

• The internet restrictions aren't just a form of censorship; they're also a kind of protectionism, sheltering Chinese businesses like Baidu and Alibaba from competition by US tech companies.

  [WSJ / Te-Ping Chen]

• In 2008, many observers were insisting China would never crack down on VPNs: "Every bank, every foreign manufacturing company, every retailer, every software vendor needs VPNs to exist," one professor said.

  [The Atlantic / James Fallows]

• Besides hurting businesses, the VPN crackdown is making life very difficult for Chinese scientists trying to work with their Western colleagues.

  [NYT / Andrew Jacobs]

• It's worth noting this is not as severe as a 2012 incident in which VPN services were blocked almost entirely; the fact that they were later restored gives some cause for optimism now.

  [Washington Post / Simon Denyer]

2. Licensed to Ill

The more tightly regulated this hygienist's job is, the more teeth she's going to have to take from poor Janet here. (Shutterstock)

• President Obama's budget will contain $15 million for state and local governments to evaluate their occupational licensing rules.

  [NYT / Eduardo Porter]

• The number of jobs that require a license has grown considerably in recent decades, often in baffling fields; as of 2012, 39 states required licensing for massage therapists and 34 states required a license to install security alarms.

  [Vox / Tim Lee]

• As of 2008, 29 percent of workers had a government license for their job.

  [Journal of Labor Economics / Morris Kleiner and Alan Krueger]

• Licensing increases wages considerably, but hurts consumers by raising prices; one study found that people in states where dental hygienists are tightly regulated are more likely to lose teeth to decay or gum disease.

  [Vox / James Bessen]

• By one estimate, licensing costs consumers $208 billion a year, and cuts employment by 2.85 million.

  [Upjohn Institute / Morris Kleiner]

• Obama's budget isn't out until Monday, but this paper by the University of Minnesota's Morris Kleiner, the leading economist on licensing issues, illustrates what this kind of reform would look like.

  [Hamilton Project / Morris Kleiner]

3. Keystonewalled no more

Protesters are led away after disrupting the US Senate vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline Bill. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

• The Senate has passed a bill approving construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

  [NYT / Coral Davenport]

• The vote was 62 to 36, which is five votes short of a veto-proof majority. And Obama has promised he'll veto this.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

• The House has already passed the bill, but also fell short of a veto-proof margin.

  [Washington Post / Lori Montgomery and Steven Mufson]

• While Obama has been clear that he doesn't want Congress forcing his hand, he hasn't said whether he'll approve the pipeline.

  [AP / Josh Lederman]

• Environmentalists fear that approving the pipeline would accelerate the burning of high-carbon tar sands oil, causing worse global warming. That might be true, but it's hard to say how big a deal it is.

  [Vox / Brad Plumer]

4. Misc.

• "Chinese officers caught feasting on an endangered salamander" is the greatest headline of our times.

  [Washington Post / William Wan and Gu Jinglu]

• We have drugs that can dramatically cut heroin overdoses and help people end their addictions. And few people are able to get them.

  [Huffington Post / Jason Cherkis]

• According to one study, surgeons left objects (usually sponges) inside patients 4,857 times from 1990 to 2010. They operated on the wrong patient altogether 27 times.

  [Vox / Sarah Kliff]

• Here are three concrete things that the NFL can do to make concussions and brain damage less common.

  [The Atlantic / Jeff Nussbaum]

• Political nerds love talking about brokered conventions because they're really fun and chaotic and haven't happened in decades, but Sean Trende makes a good case that Republicans could face one next year.

  [RealClearPolitics / Sean Trende]

• Anti-vaxxers didn't cause the 2014 measles outbreak. An Amish missionary did.

  [Vox / Julia Belluz]

5. Verbatim

• "A couple who named their child 'Nutella' are now the proud parents of baby 'Ella' after a French court rejected their decision to name the child after the delicious hazelnut spread."

  [Washington Post / Abby Ohlheiser]

• "If you’re looking for people to join your insanely dangerous and lucrative bombing spree, there are worse places to recruit than Liverpool."

  [Bloomberg / Nick Summers]

• "Muslim countries average 2.4 murders per annum per 100,000 people, compared to 7.5 in non-Muslim countries."

  [Washington Post / Steven Fish]

• "It makes you feel like a lobster, just like, ready to be declawed."

  [Barbara Kavovit to New York Post / Dana Schuster]

• "Binge-watching a TV show on Netflix or Hulu is one of the great pleasures of modern life, but now a study from the University of Texas at Austin is going to make you feel weird about it."

  [NY Mag / Melissa Dahl]