Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.

[Q]: Defusing Taliban publicity. Journalists in Afghanistan have decided for the second time this year to curtail their reporting on Taliban attacks as a means of reducing the impact of their message . The first such collective action was taken during the presidential elections when the Taliban were completely boycotted . This is a strategic decision according to Fahim Dashty, the chief executive of Afghanistan's National Journalists Union (ANJU) . The decision follows the recent heavy escalation of attacks in Kabul . "Our media is saturated with images of Taliban attacks," says a joint press statement by ANJU, and the media watchdog, Nai . "Taliban spokesman Zabihula Mujahid is active on TV and social media round the clock, he is in every home 24 hours a day, we need to confront his messages," says Nai's director, Sediqulah Tauhidi . Afghan journalists feel they need support from policy makers and the international community alike . "We will be calling on the new president, Ashraf Ghani, to consider blocking the sites that Taliban use for their publicity," says Dashty . Confronting publicity . The call by journalists in Afghanistan echoes international concerns about the need to confront publicity by armed groups such as ISIL, and the attempts in several countries including Britain to block these groups' use of the internet and social media to advertise, publicise and recruit . British Home Secretary Theresa May acknowledged the extent of the problem in her latest policy speech:"We need a counter terrorism strategy that is comprehensive and coherent." Among the measures to curb the activities of the Islamist terror groups she introduced restrictions on the use of the internet . "We are engaged in a struggle that is fought on many fronts," she said, naming terrorist groups in several parts of the world including Afghanistan . Police and intelligence agencies will be given new powers to track down those who plot terrorist attacks over the internet . "They enable the authorities to limit a subject's access to telephones and the internet," she said . Terrorist attacks have been complex but many are used for sending a specific message either to the local population or to the international community . Once these messages are turned into images on TV and internet across the world their impact is amplified . Broader audience . According to UN counterterrorism research, terrorist-related propaganda hosted on popular websites containing user-generated content has the potential to reach a significantly broader audience than content on traditional specialised websites, bulletin boards and web forums , which generally appeal to a self- selected group of individuals . "Their sophisticated use of the internet and social media means they have a significant propaganda reach across the world," said the British home secretary . "The scourge of ISIL should not mean that the Taliban are forgotten or seen as the milder terror group," stresses Dashty . There are serious reservations when British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond states at the opening of the London Conference on Afghanistan that "The terrorist threat from the region has been substantially reduced," when there are almost daily attacks in Kabul . "Taliban are blocking the fledgling democracy that has been built over the last decade," says Nai director . "They are attacking our liberty, they are targeting freedom of speech, they are targeting press freedom and we must have a counter offensive." Dashty says as journalists we must ask ourselves whether in our endeavour to provide information we are turning into communication channels at the service of the Taliban . The arguments are not straightforward . On the one hand , the media needs to report to inform the population and on the other hand , reporting terrorist attacks has increasingly become publicity for armed extremist groups . On the one hand freedom of speech and civil liberties should be preserved at all cost , and on the other hand ,  terrorist messages have traumatised societies and increased militant recruitment around the world . Credible counter-narrative . These issues must be discussed in depth and collectively around the world . There is a need for coordinating a credible counter narrative both at the local and the global level to confront the banality and cruelty of terrorist messages . Take for example their claim, believed even by some analysts, that they are fighting to save Muslims while facts tell us that they have killed tens of thousands over the years . Since 2009, there have been over 17,000 civilian deaths in Afghanistan alone as documented by the UN - 75 percent as a result of Taliban attacks . Or the contradictions in the Taliban claim that they want foreign forces out while targeting British interests one month after British forces left Afghanistan, or inviting foreign Islamist fighters and al-Qaeda to set up camp in Afghanistan during their rule . "Confusion and contradictions among the various terrorist voices" are common according to the latest State Department report on terrorism . Journalists, media analysts, communication experts and policy makers need to come together to discuss how best to build a framework for a new counterterrorism narrative that at the same time reveals the falsities of terrorist assertions . Once formulated, it could then be used as any public service broadcast messages woven into drama serials, discussions, debates and news coverage alike . The UN Office on Drugs and Crime, which created a counterterrorism task force, says that despite increasing international recognition of the threat posed by terrorists' use of the internet,"there is currently no universal instrument specifically addressing this pervasive facet of terrorist activity" . 'Psychological security' . The joint statement by ANJU and Nai calls on the media and the reporters in Afghanistan to refrain from competition over who shows more pictures of the gruesome Taliban attacks . It says that the "unprecedented" frequency of the footage shown on TV and social media have undermined the "psychological security" of the nation . "Our first boycott of the Taliban was successful," says Dashty . "Attacks were reduced and over 60 percent of the population took part in the elections." He says they would really benefit if journalists in the West supported their campaigns, especially those who frequently report from Afghanistan . "We would also welcome an international framework that sets an example for us," says Dashty . A coordinated global plan to counter terrorist media propaganda would be a useful tool for journalists in areas adversely affected by terrorist attacks . Attacks plotted on the World Wide Web need an appropriate worldwide media response .
[A]: Journalists in Afghanistan have decided for the second time this year to curtail their reporting on Taliban attacks as a means of reducing the impact of their message


[Q]: If California truly leads the nation, we can elect a black woman to the US Senate. Here in California, it's been a blockbuster week in politics : Barbara Boxer is finally stepping down as perma-Senator after over 20 years ; former San Francisco mayor and current lieutenant governor Gavin Newsom is running for governor ; and attorney general Kamala Harris gunning for Boxer's soon-to-be- vacated seat . Why does it matter? There' s certainly something compelling about Harris' daring bid for US Senate : there are only one in five senators are female in this Congress ; and there are only two black Senators currently (Cory Booker of New Jersey and Tim Scott from South Carolina) . If Harris won , she not only would contribute to the growing number of women in power, but having three actual black senators at one time would make history because, to date, two is the best we've been able to achieve as a nation . In America's entire history, only eight black people have ever been senators and of those, only half were actually elected, rather than appointed . Yet African-Americans make up about 13% of the population, according to the 2013 census . True proportional representation would see black senators in the double digits in Congress . California has outsized importance in the US economy : on its own, it is the world's eighth-largest economy, just behind booming Brazil but ahead of Russia and Italy . California's contributions are one of the chief reasons the US remains the world's biggest economy ... and a black woman is poised to be one of the most nationally influential politicians in the state . California's internal public policy tussles - and its standard more-liberal- than-the-nation solutions - often help lead the rest of the nation and the world forward, be it on pollution standards, minimum wage increases, medical marijuana legalization, organic produce certification, healthcare access for the uninsured, public-private technology innovation such as iHubs and tax breaks that encourage local production of zero-emission Teslas, same sex marriage and wetlands protections such as the CA Coastal Act of 1976 . California's politicians can bring to Washington the ability to combine strong, safe regulatory experience with a booming economy and environmental protections, offering a compelling counter-point to Republicans who argue otherwise . And ,  with the exception of Jerry Brown's first stint as governor from 1975-1983, California internal top politics has been tended to be dominated by southern California figures like Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger - but Harris (and Newsom) are both northern California people through and through . Instead of Hollywood values and priorities holding sway in the state, northern California's tech-powered financial and cultural strength may finally have a chance to drive the state's politics . And while Boxer, her fellow senator Dianne Feinstein and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi all hail from northern California, they spend much of their time in Washington DC  - so Harris's move to DC will provide us with a new generation of representatives steeped in the area's emerging tech-focused culture . While I believe California has much to gain from politicians like Newsom and Harris who see their work as largely cooperative and people-focused- as opposed to the ideological culture warriors who normally represent us in national policy debates - there's a long road ahead for each . Harris, for instance, may have to contend with billionaire Tom Steyer and former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a Democratic primary (and Villaraigosa would make history of his own) . But Harris is likely to have a lot of support behind her and  - being young, at 50 - a run now for Senate still leaves the door open to run for governor 10 or 20 years down the road . After all ,  stranger things have happened in CA politics : who would have thought that B-list actor Ronald Reagan would rise from California to become the GOP's iconic president , or that Jerry Brown, now 76-years-old, would become governor again after over 30 years?
[A]: Barbara Boxer is finally stepping down as perma-Senator after over 20 years attorney general Kamala Harris gunning for Boxer's soon-to-be- vacated seat


[Q]: Cameron would rather look 'frit' than face a bashing from Farage. Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage have each written to David Cameron saying they are willing to have TV election debates even if he doesn't take part . Cameron's people insist he won't come on unless the Greens are there too . Listen carefully and there is a faint creaking noise, the sound of a politician trying to wind back the great clock of politics . In Cameron's case, he wants it back to the happy days before Gordon Brown conceded the prime ministerial veto on TV debates . It might just work . Rule one in any prime minister's handbook is never give up an advantage . In an election, that's what being prime minister is - an advantage . That's why it took 12 general elections between most voters having access to a television in 1964 and the first (and last?) television debate in 2010 . Yet debates are as old as politics itself , and putting them on TV has had that "well, obviously" feel to it ever since the first US presidential debate in 1960 . It must have helped perpetuate the brand, that first contest , for it was between the two men whose lives and deaths shadowed the rest of the American century: the beautiful young upstart John F Kennedy and the so much less telegenic, even rather sweaty, Richard Nixon . Cameron's people have been trying to back out of TV debates in 2015 almost since the lights went down on the last debate of the last election campaign . It has been a carefully played, inch-by-inch retreat covered by protestations of enthusiasm, framed in the context of a wider concern for the state of democracy . Last August he ruminated on the way they sucked the oxygen out of the last campaign (and poured a good deal of it into the Lib Dems' camp) . Now he says he is standing up for the right of the Greens, excluded for- according to Ofcom - not being big enough . Questioning the value of the debates is easy . The doyen of electoral coverage, David Dimbleby, who chaired the BBC session, said later that he thought they didn't let in as much light as when politicians were made to face the voters on their own in the kind of Question Time event that, as it happens, he also chairs . There' s no doubt that accidental encounters with ordinary people- Brown's "bigoted woman", or Margaret Thatcher being confronted over the sinking of the Belgrano - have earned a place in history as moments of truth that have told a bigger story . There is something rather odd about the"one of these people will be prime minister" hype before a debate that has been widened to include Farage . But , of course, the debates aren't about debating in the traditional sense of the word , even when they are between two very different versions of the future , as they were in Scotland . What really mattered in those brutal encounters between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling was the extraordinary depth of Darling's antipathy to Salmond and, for a while, the unexpected haplessness of Salmond under pressure . That first debate will always be remembered as the moment the rabbit bit the car . All the same, Cameron's opponents cannot take victory for granted . They accuse him of running scared . The Twittersphere throbs with shouts of "frit" . It is a charge that might have a price for the Tory leader . It will certainly disconcert his less politically savvy supporters . But mainly it will just confirm the prejudices of those who were never going to vote Conservative anyway . What it does prove, if proof were needed, is that the Tories are running a core vote strategy . If the broadcasters find the nerve to go ahead anyway, which is a punt in itself , an empty podium would not look good . But try to imagine the view from the perspective of a Tory strategist : the bill for looking frit is tiny compared with the enduring burden of being savaged by Farage . For Cameron, the strategist would reckon, it would be like being assessed for a job by someone who had watched you in conversation with the pub bore . Putting the two together is on a par with divorce proceedings where the party who has walked out stands and shouts a string of excuses unconnected with the facts in a way that is somehow illogically appealing . Just say you've gone off him! And ,  of course, that's why it must be made to happen . Let's hear Cameron talking to both wings of his party at once . And just as importantly, please, please let's have the Greens in the room too . It really would be an outrage not to .
[A]:
Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage have each written to David Cameron saying they are willing to have TV election debates Cameron's people insist he won't come on