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<title>27 January, 2024</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>In silico assessment of immune cross protection between BCoV and SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
Background: Humans have long shared infectious agents with cattle, and the bovine-derived human common cold OC-43 CoV is a not-so-distant example of cross-species viral spill over of coronaviruses. Human exposure to the Bovine Coronavirus (BCoV) is certainly common, as the virus is endemic in most high-density cattle-raising regions. Since BCoVs are phylogenetically close to SARS-CoV-2, it is possible that cross-protection against COVID-19 occurs in people exposed to BCoV. Methods: This article shows an in silico investigation of human cross-protection to SARS-CoV-2 due to BCoV exposure. We determined HLA recognition and human B lymphocyte reactivity to BCoV epitopes using bioinformatics resources. A retrospective geoepidemiological analysis of COVID-19 was then performed to verify if BCoV/SARS-CoV-2 cross-protection could have occurred in the field. Brazil was used as a model for the epidemiological analysis of the impact of livestock density, as a proxy for human exposure to BCoV, on the prevalence of COVID-19 in people. Results: As could be expected from their classification in the same Betacoronavirus genus, we show that several human B and T epitopes are shared between BCoV and SARS-CoV-2. This raised the possibility of cross-protection of people from exposure to the bovine coronavirus. Analysis of field data added partial support to the hypothesis of viral cross-immunity from human exposure to BCoV. There was a negative correlation between livestock geographical density and COVID-19. Whole-Brazil data showed areas in the country in which COVID-19 prevalence was disproportionally low (controlled by normalization by transport infrastructure). Areas with high cattle density had lower COVID-19 prevalence in these low-risk areas. Conclusions: These data are hypothesis-raising indications that cross-protection is possibly being induced by human exposure to the Bovine Coronavirus.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.25.577193v1" target="_blank">In silico assessment of immune cross protection between BCoV and SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>No Substitute for the Real Thing? Physical and Digital Cultural Participation in Denmark during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Research Note</strong> -
<div>
In this research note, we analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cultural participation. We use rich survey data from Denmark to construct pooled time-series cross-sectional data for each month of the years 2019-2021 and report three findings. First, participation in physical cultural activities (e.g., attending a concert or a museum) plummeted during two lockdowns and did not return to its pre-pandemic level by the end of 2021. Second, participation in digital activities (e.g., reading a digital book or following a museum on social media) did not change much during the pandemic. Overall, we find little evidence of substitution from physical to digital cultural participation during the COVID-19 lockdown in Denmark. Third, socioeconomic gradients in cultural participation decreased during the pandemic for physical cultural participation, but did not change for digital cultural participation. We end by discussing what we can learn from our results about how social disruptions affect patterns of cultural participation and inequality.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/ksy9w/" target="_blank">No Substitute for the Real Thing? Physical and Digital Cultural Participation in Denmark during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Research Note</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Stratification in Parents’ Selection of Developmentally Appropriate Books for Children: Register-based Evidence from Danish Public Libraries</strong> -
<div>
This paper studies socioeconomic gradients in selecting developmentally appropriate children’s books from public libraries. I draw on research on developmental gradients in parental inputs to hypothesize that families with high socioeconomic status (SES) are more likely to select books that match children’s developmental stage in order to best improve children’s learning environments. In contrast to previous survey-based research, I use behavioral data on the actual books families have selected from libraries. Based on Danish registry data that cover all books borrowed from public libraries in 2020, I find that highly educated families are more likely to use libraries and borrow more books when they use libraries, but they do not select a larger share of developmentally appropriate books; in fact, they select a slightly lower share. In contrast, I find only a weak positive income gradient for the amount of books borrowed and the share of developmentally appropriate books. The supplementary analyses show that results are robust across families with children of different ages and to account for nonrandom selection into the sample of library users, socioeconomic differences in children’s reading skills, and the impact of library lockdowns due to Covid-19. I conclude that stratification in library book selection is more prominent concerning the voraciousness with which highly educated parents provide reading inputs (more books) than how discriminating they are in terms of selecting developmentally appropriate books.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/8pzv5/" target="_blank">Stratification in Parents’ Selection of Developmentally Appropriate Books for Children: Register-based Evidence from Danish Public Libraries</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>No Utilitarians in a Pandemic? Shifts in Moral Reasoning during the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic poses many real-world moral dilemmas, which can pit the needs and rights of the many against the needs and rights of the few. We investigated the influence of this contemporary global crisis on moral judgments in older adults, who are at greatest personal risk from the pandemic. We hypothesized that during this pandemic, individuals would give fewer utilitarian responses to hypothetical dilemmas, accompanied by higher levels of confidence and emotion elicitation. Our pre-registered analysis (https://osf.io/g2wtp) involved two waves of data collection, before (2014) and during (2020) the COVID-19 pandemic, regarding three categories of moral dilemmas (personal rights, agent-centered permissions, and special obligations). While utilitarian responses considered across all categories of dilemma did not differ, participants during the 2020 wave gave fewer utilitarian responses to dilemmas involving personal rights; that is, they were less willing to violate the personal rights of others to produce the best overall outcomes.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/yjn3u/" target="_blank">No Utilitarians in a Pandemic? Shifts in Moral Reasoning during the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The global and specific cardiovascular burden of spike-based Covid-19 1 Vaccination</strong> -
<div>
Aims: The aim of this investigation was to determine whether the global and cardiovascular 10 burden associated with spike-based Covid-19 vaccination has continued to increase. 11 Methods and results: An updated analysis of spontaneously reported individual cases with 12 ADRs and their fatal outcomes associated with Covid-19 vaccines, as well as adverse 13 cardiovascular events caused by the spike-inducing vaccine Tozinameran, was performed. 14 Data were retrieved from the EudraVigilance web reports of the European Medicines Agency 15 (EMA). All evaluated adverse events correspond to the search terms of the EudraVigilance 16 based on clinical characterisation. 17 The total number of individual cases (n=2256506; i.e. 2338/day) with adverse effects that were 18 fatal in 2.3% (n=51740; i.e. 54 deaths/day), as well as the wide range of reports of 19 cardiovascular adverse effects, have revealed the unusual magnitude and specificity of these 20 events. 21 Tachycardia, arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation/flatter, bradyarrhythmia and impaired stimulus 22 formation and conduction (n=57438 combined) dominated the cardiovascular side effect profile 23 of Tozinameran, followed by blood pressure increase (n=25907), myo-/pericarditis (n=23775), 24 heart failure, cardiomyopathy, cardiac flatter/fibrillation, cardiac arrest, circulatory collaps 25 (n=16778 combined) and coronary artery disease/myocardial infarction (n=9912). The 26 importance of acute cardiovascular reactions is underlined by the fact that deaths caused by 27 them accounted for at least one third (35%) of all deaths associated with Tozinameran’s side 28 effects 29 Based on individual assessment, ARBs are currently recommended in the treatment of spike-30 induced symptoms. 31 Conclusions: The spectrum of side effects of spike-based Covid-19 vaccines is more extensive 32 and severe than is generally known, Adverse cardiovascular events convincingly reflect the 33 mode of spike action, namely down-regulating of the cardiovascular protective enzyme ACE2 34 resulting in increasing Ang II concentrations. A fundamental re-evaluation of the benefit-risk 35 assessment of these novel vaccines is mandatory. Health professionals should be educated about 36 the consequences of spike-induced ACE2 downregulation, the resulting symptoms and 37 therapeutic options.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/we5cx/" target="_blank">The global and specific cardiovascular burden of spike-based Covid-19 1 Vaccination</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Suspected Cardiovascular Side Effects of two Covid-19 Vaccines</strong> -
<div>
Fatalities or cardiovascular side effects of vaccines were rather uncommon in the past. So far, numerous reports of side effects and deaths associated with Covid-19 vaccination have been accepted behind the background of the pandemic situation and the priority vaccinated elderly population at the beginning of the vaqccination campaign. Cardiac and heart circulatory disturbances resp. cardiovascular side effects associated with the application of Covid-19 vaccines have not been recognized up to now with the exception of thrombotic/embolic side effects and cases of myo-/pericarditis. But the mechanism of action suggests that downregulation of ACE2 by non-neutralised spike proteins may have cardiovascular effects. The objective of this analysis was to determine the total number of reported adverse events and fatalities and to record suspected important cardiovascular adverse events up to the cut-off date in European countries. Therefore, a current review/analysis of spontaneously reported fatalities as well as of adverse events after application of Covid-19 vaccines has been performed. Data were retrieved from the EudraVigilance web reports of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), partly also from the safety reports of the German PEI. Covid-19 vaccine-associated suspected side effects and related deaths are alarming. Surprisingly, numerous cardiovascular reactions were reported, many of which were life-threatening. Cardiac and heart circulatory caused fatalities alone accounted for about 33% of all ComirnatyR vaccine-related deaths. The second most important side effects were vascular thrombotic/embolic side effects, often also associated with serious consequences. Based on their quality and quantity, these side effects seem to be characteristic for spike-producing vaccines and do not appear to be substance-specific. Further investigations are needed to clarify the approximately 3.5 times more frequent cases of sinus vein thrombosis and the some different frequent cases of thrombotic/embolic events after VaxzevriaR. The hypothesis could be confirmed. Because of their importance and their sometimes life-threatening consequences, cardiovascular side effects need to be better communicated. Limitations of the investigation result from the individual reporting and recording procedure, the lack of detailed individual information and the lack of an appropriate comparison population.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/gh9u2/" target="_blank">Suspected Cardiovascular Side Effects of two Covid-19 Vaccines</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are required to prevent SARS-CoV-2 persistence in the nasal compartment</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent of COVID-19 and continues to pose a significant public health threat throughout the world. Following SARS-CoV-2 infection, virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are rapidly generated to form effector and memory cells and persist in the blood for several months. However, the contribution of T cells in controlling SARS-CoV-2 infection within the respiratory tract are not well understood. Using C57BL/6 mice infected with a naturally occurring SARS-CoV-2 variant (B.1.351), we evaluated the role of T cells in the upper and lower respiratory tract. Following infection, SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are recruited to the respiratory tract and a vast proportion secrete the cytotoxic molecule Granzyme B. Using antibodies to deplete T cells prior to infection, we found that CD4+ and CD8+ T cells play distinct roles in the upper and lower respiratory tract. In the lungs, T cells play a minimal role in viral control with viral clearance occurring in the absence of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells through 28 days post-infection. In the nasal compartment, depletion of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, but not individually, results in persistent and culturable virus replicating in the nasal compartment through 28 days post-infection. Using in situ hybridization, we found that SARS-CoV-2 infection persisted in the nasal epithelial layer of tandem CD4+ and CD8+ T cell-depleted mice. Sequence analysis of virus isolates from persistently infected mice revealed mutations spanning across the genome, including a deletion in ORF6. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of T cells in controlling virus replication within the respiratory tract during SARS-CoV-2 infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.23.576505v1" target="_blank">CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are required to prevent SARS-CoV-2 persistence in the nasal compartment</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Adaptive advantage of deletion repair in the N terminal domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in variants of concern</strong> -
<div>
Mutations within the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the spike (S) protein play a pivotal role in the emergence of successful SARS-CoV-2 viral lineages. This study investigates the influence of novel combinations of NTD lineage-defining mutations found in the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants on viral success. We performed comparative genomics of more than 10 million public SARS-CoV-2 samples to decipher the transmission success of different NTD markers. Additionally, we characterized the viral phenotype of such markers in a surrogate in vitro system. We found that viruses bearing repaired deletions SDeltaH69/V70 and SDeltaY144 in Alpha background were associated with increased transmission rates. After the emergence of the Omicron BA.1 lineage, Alpha viruses harbouring both repaired deletions still showed increased transmission compared to their BA.1 counterparts. Remarkably, Alpha viruses with the SDeltaH69/V70 repair displayed the highest emergence rate, while those in BA.1 exhibited the lowest. Moreover, repaired deletions were more frequently observed among older individuals infected with Alpha, but not with BA.1. In vitro biological characterization of Omicron BA.1 spike deletion repair patterns revealed substantial differences with Alpha. In BA.1, SDeltaV143/Y145 repair enhanced fusogenicity and susceptibility to neutralization by vaccinated individuals' sera. In contrast, the SDeltaH69/V70 repair did not significantly alter these traits but reduced viral infectivity. Simultaneous repair of both deletions led to lower fusogenicity. These findings highlight the intricate genotype-phenotype landscape of the spike NTD in SARS-CoV-2, which impacts viral biology, transmission efficiency, and susceptibility to neutralization. Overall, this study advances our comprehension of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, carrying implications for public health and future research.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.23.575696v1" target="_blank">Adaptive advantage of deletion repair in the N terminal domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in variants of concern</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>In COVID-19 health messaging, loss framing increases anxiety with little-to-no concomitant benefits: Experimental evidence from 84 countries</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic (and its aftermath) highlights a critical need to communicate health information effectively to the global public. Given that subtle differences in information framing can have meaningful effects on behavior, behavioral science research highlights a pressing question: Is it more effective to frame COVID-19 health messages in terms of potential losses (e.g., “If you do not practice these steps, you can endanger yourself and others”) or potential gains (e.g., “If you practice these steps, you can protect yourself and others”)? Collecting data in 48 languages from 15,929 participants in 84 countries, we experimentally tested the effects of message framing on COVID-19-related judgments, intentions, and feelings. Loss- (vs. gain-) framed messages increased self-reported anxiety among participants cross-nationally with little-to-no impact on policy attitudes, behavioral intentions, or information seeking relevant to pandemic risks. These results were consistent across 84 countries, three variations of the message framing wording, and 560 data processing and analytic choices. Thus, results provide an empirical answer to a global communication question and highlight the emotional toll of loss-framed messages. Critically, this work demonstrates the importance of considering unintended affective consequences when evaluating nudge-style interventions.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/sevkf/" target="_blank">In COVID-19 health messaging, loss framing increases anxiety with little-to-no concomitant benefits: Experimental evidence from 84 countries</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Global Experiment on Motivating Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e. a controlling message) compared to no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly-internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared to the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly-internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing: Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/n3dyf/" target="_blank">A Global Experiment on Motivating Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A global test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy which modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries/regions (N = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vs. both control conditions) had consistent effects in reducing negative emotions and increasing positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world to build resilience during the pandemic and beyond.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/m4gpq/" target="_blank">A global test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Correlates of Health-Protective Behavior During the Initial Days of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Norway</strong> -
<div>
The coronavirus outbreak manifested in Norway in March 2020. It was met with a combination of mandatory changes (closing of public institutions) and recommended changes (hygiene behavior, physical distancing). It has been emphasized that health-protective behavior such as increased hygiene or physical distancing are able to slow the spread of infections and flatten the curve. Drawing on previous health-psychological studies during the outbreak of various pandemics, we investigated psychological and demographic factors predicting the adoption and engagement in health-protective behavior and changes in such behavior, attitudes, and emotions over time. We recruited a non-representative sample of Norwegians (n = 8676) during a 15-day period (March 12–26 2020) at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Norway. Employing both traditional methods and exploratory machine learning, we replicated earlier findings that engagement in health-protective behavior is associated with specific demographic characteristics. Further, we observed that increased media exposure, perceiving measures as effective, and perceiving the outbreak as serious positively was related to engagement in health-protective behavior. We also found indications that hygiene and physical distancing behaviors were related to somewhat different psychological and demographic factors. Over the sampling period, reported engagement in physical distancing increased, while experienced concern or fear declined. Contrary to previous studies, we found no or only small positive predictions by confidence in authorities, knowledge about the outbreak, and perceived individual risk, while all of those variables were rather high. These findings provide guidance for health communications or interventions targeting the adoption of health-protective behaviors in order to diminish the spread of COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/6vgf4/" target="_blank">Correlates of Health-Protective Behavior During the Initial Days of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Norway</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Evaluation of the cross reactivity of neutralising antibody response in vaccinated human and convalescent hamster sera against SARS-CoV-2 variants up to and including JN.1 using an authentic virus neutralisation assay</strong> -
<div>
New vaccines, therapeutics and immunity elicited by natural infection create evolutionary pressure on SARS-CoV-2 to evolve and adapt to evade vaccine-induced and infection-elicited immunity. Vaccine and therapeutics developers thus find themselves in an “arms race” with the virus. The ongoing assessment of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants remains essential as the global community transitions from an emergency response to a long-term management plan. Here, we describe how an authentic virus neutralisation assay using low passage clinical virus isolates has been employed to monitor resistance of emerging virus variants to neutralising antibodies from humans and experimentally infected hamsters. Sera and plasma from people who received three doses of a vaccine as well as those who received a bivalent booster were assessed against SARS-CoV-2 variants, up to and including JN.1. Contemporary or recent virus variants showed substantial resistance to neutralisation by antibodies from those who had received three doses of an ancestral vaccine but were still effectively neutralised by antibodies from individuals who had received a bivalent booster (ancestral/BA.1). In our recent studies, however, the JN.1 VOI was found to be significantly more resistant to neutralisation by antibodies from those who had received the ancestral/BA.1 bivalent boost. Convalescent sera from hamsters that had been experimentally infected with one of seven virus variants (ancestral, BA.1, BA.4, BA.5.2.1, XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, XBB.2.3) were also tested here. The recent contemporary variant, BA.2.86, was effectively neutralised by sera from hamsters infected with XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16 but it was not neutralised by sera from those infected with BA.5.2.1. These data support the recommendations given by the WHO that a new vaccine was required and should consist of an XBB sub-lineage antigen.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.21.563398v2" target="_blank">Evaluation of the cross reactivity of neutralising antibody response in vaccinated human and convalescent hamster sera against SARS-CoV-2 variants up to and including JN.1 using an authentic virus neutralisation assay</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparing frequency of booster vaccination to prevent severe COVID-19 by risk group in the United States</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
There is a public health need to understand how different frequencies of COVID-19 booster vaccines may mitigate the risk of severe COVID-19, while accounting for waning of protection and differential risk by age and immune status. By analyzing United States COVID-19 surveillance and seroprevalence data in a microsimulation model, here we show that more frequent COVID-19 booster vaccination (every 6-12 months) in older age groups and the immunocompromised population would effectively reduce the burden of severe COVID-19, while frequent boosters in the younger population may only provide modest benefit against severe disease. In persons 75+ years, the model estimated that annual boosters would reduce absolute annual risk of severe COVID-19 by 199 (uncertainty interval: 188-229) cases per 100,000 persons, compared to a one-time booster dose. In contrast, for persons 18-49 years, the model estimated that annual boosters would reduce this risk by 14 (11-19) cases per 100,000 persons. Those with prior infection had lower benefit of more frequent boosting, and immunocompromised persons had larger benefit. Scenarios with emerging variants with immune evasion increased the benefit of more frequent variant-targeted boosters. This study underscores the benefit of considering key risk factors to inform frequency of COVID-19 booster vaccines in public health guidance and ensuring at least annual boosters in high-risk populations.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.10.23292473v4" target="_blank">Comparing frequency of booster vaccination to prevent severe COVID-19 by risk group in the United States</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Migraine inhibitor olcegepant reduces weight loss and IL-6 release in SARS-CoV-2 infected older mice with neurological signs</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 can result in neurological symptoms such as fever, headache, dizziness, and nausea. However, neurological signs of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been hardly assessed in mouse models. Here, we infected two commonly used wildtype mice lines (C57BL/6 and 129S) with mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 and demonstrated neurological signs including motion-related dizziness. We then evaluated whether the Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist, olcegepant, used in migraine treatment could mitigate acute neuroinflammatory and neurological responses to SARS-COV-2 infection. We infected wildtype C57BL/6J and 129/SvEv mice, and a 129 CGRP-null mouse line with a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 virus, and evaluated the effect of CGRP receptor antagonism on the outcome of that infection. First, we determined that CGRP receptor antagonism provided protection from permanent weight loss in older (&gt;12 m) C57BL/6J and 129 SvEv mice. We also observed acute fever and motion-induced dizziness in all older mice, regardless of treatment. However, in both wildtype mouse lines, CGRP antagonism reduced acute interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels by half, with virtually no IL-6 release in mice lacking CGRP. These findings suggest that migraine inhibitors such as those blocking CGRP signaling protect against acute IL-6 release and subsequent inflammatory events after SARS-CoV-2 infection, which may have repercussions for related pandemic and/or endemic coronaviruses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.23.563669v5" target="_blank">Migraine inhibitor olcegepant reduces weight loss and IL-6 release in SARS-CoV-2 infected older mice with neurological signs</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Long COVID-19 [11C]CPPC Study</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID Long-Haul <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: [11C]CPPC Injection; Drug: [11C]CPPC Injection <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Johns Hopkins University; Radiological Society of North America <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Thrombohemorrhagic Complications of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: Prevention algorithm <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Volgograd State Medical University <br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Combined Use of Immunoglobulin and Pulse Steroid Therapies in Severe Covid-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Pulse Steroid and Immunoglobulins Drugs in Covid 19 Patients <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: pulse steroid and nanogam <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Konya City Hospital <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Beneficial Effects of Natural Products on Management of Xerostomia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Xerostomia; Diabetes Mellitus; Hypertension; Post COVID-19 Condition <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: (Manuka honey-green tea- ginger) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: British University In Egypt <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eficacia Ventilatoria y Remolacha</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS CoV 2 Infection; Muscle Disorder; Fatigue <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Dietary Supplement: Remolacha <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Hospital de Mataró <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Diet and Fasting for Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19; Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Low sugar diet and 10-12 hour eating window; Other: Low sugar diet, 8 hour eating window and fasting <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effectiveness of a Health Promotion Program for Older People With Post-Covid-19 Sarcopenia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post COVID-19 Condition <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Protein powder and Resistance exercise <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Mahidol University; National Health Security Office, Thailand <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Chronic-disease Self-management Program in Patients Living With Long-COVID in Puerto Rico</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: “Tomando control de su salud” (Spanish Chronic Disease Self-Management) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Puerto Rico; National Institutes of Health (NIH) <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Treatment of Persistent Post-Covid-19 Smell and Taste Disorders</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-covid-19 Persistent Smell and Taste Disorders <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Cerebrolysin; Other: olfactory and gustatory trainings <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Sherifa Ahmed Hamed <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evealuate Safety and Immunogenicity of TI-0010 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; COVID-19 Immunisation <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: TI-0010; Biological: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: National Drug Clinical Trial Institute of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College; Therorna <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Recurrent viral capture of cellular phosphodiesterases that antagonize OAS-RNase L</strong> - Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) encoded by viruses are putatively acquired by horizontal transfer of cellular PDE ancestor genes. Viral PDEs inhibit the OAS-RNase L antiviral pathway, a key effector component of the innate immune response. Although the function of these proteins is well-characterized, the origins of these gene acquisitions are less clear. Phylogenetic analysis revealed at least five independent PDE acquisition events by ancestral viruses. We found evidence that PDE-encoding genes were…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibitory Activity of Flavonoid Scaffolds on SARS-CoV-2 3CL<sup>pro</sup>: Insights from the Computational and Experimental Investigations</strong> - The emergence of the COVID-19 situation has become a global issue due to the lack of effective antiviral drugs for treatment. Flavonoids are a class of plant secondary metabolites that have antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 through inhibition of the main protease (3CL^(pro)). In this study, 22 flavonoids obtained from natural sources and semisynthetic approaches were investigated for their inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV-2 3CL^(pro), along with cytotoxicity on Vero cells. The…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Triterpenoidal Saponins from the Leaves of <em>Aster koraiensis</em> Offer Inhibitory Activities against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Triterpenoidal saponins have been reported to be able to restrain SARS-CoV-2 infection. To isolate antiviral compounds against SARS-CoV-2 from the leaves of Aster koraiensis, we conducted multiple steps of column chromatography. We isolated six triperpenoidal saponins from A. koraiensis leaves, including three unreported saponins. Their chemical structures were determined using HR-MS and NMR data analyses. Subsequently, we tested the isolates to assess their ability to impede the entry of the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Assessing Genomic Mutations in SARS-CoV-2: Potential Resistance to Antiviral Drugs in Viral Populations from Untreated COVID-19 Patients</strong> - Naturally occurring SARS-CoV-2 variants mutated in genomic regions targeted by antiviral drugs have not been extensively studied. This study investigated the potential of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) complex subunits and non-structural protein (Nsp)5 of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) to accumulate natural mutations that could affect the efficacy of antiviral drugs. To this aim, SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences isolated from 4155 drug-naive individuals from…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Investigation of Severe Influenza Cases in Russia during the 2022-2023 Epidemic Season and an Analysis of HA-D222G/N Polymorphism in Newly Emerged and Dominant Clade 6B.1A.5a.2a A(H1N1)pdm09 Viruses</strong> - In Russia, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a decrease in influenza circulation was initially observed. Influenza circulation re-emerged with the dominance of new clades of A(H3N2) viruses in 2021-2022 and A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses in 2022-2023. In this study, we aimed to characterize influenza viruses during the 2022-2023 season in Russia, as well as investigate A(H1N1)pdm09 HA-D222G/N polymorphism associated with increased disease severity. PCR testing of 780 clinical specimens showed 72.2% of them to…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Antivirals for Broader Coverage against Human Coronaviruses</strong> - Coronaviruses (CoVs) are enveloped positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses with a genome that is 27-31 kbases in length. Critical genes include the spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M), nucleocapsid (N) and nine accessory open reading frames encoding for non-structural proteins (NSPs) that have multiple roles in the replication cycle and immune evasion (1). There are seven known human CoVs that most likely appeared after zoonotic transfer, the most recent being SARS-CoV-2, responsible for…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Emerging Therapeutic Potential of Polyphenols from <em>Geranium sanguineum</em> L. in Viral Infections, Including SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The existing literature supports the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral capacities of the polyphenol extracts derived from Geranium sanguineum L. These extracts exhibit potential in hindering viral replication by inhibiting enzymes like DNA polymerase and reverse transcriptase. The antiviral properties of G. sanguineum L. seem to complement its immunomodulatory effects, contributing to infection resolution. While preclinical studies on G. sanguineum L. suggest its potential…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Excess phosphate promotes SARS‑CoV‑2 N protein‑induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation via the SCAP‑SREBP2 signaling pathway</strong> - Hyperphosphatemia or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) infection can promote cardiovascular adverse events in patients with chronic kidney disease. Hyperphosphatemia is associated with elevated inflammation and sterol regulatory element binding protein 2 (SREBP2) activation, but the underlying mechanisms in SARS‑CoV‑2 that are related to cardiovascular disease remain unclear. The present study aimed to elucidate the role of excess inorganic phosphate (PI) in SARS‑CoV‑2…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Quercetin inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection and prevents syncytium formation by cells co-expressing the viral spike protein and human ACE2</strong> - CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that at low 3-digit micromolar concentrations of quercetin could impair SARS-CoV-2 infection of human cells partly by blocking the fusion process that promotes its propagation.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The temporal association of CapZ with early endosomes regulates endosomal trafficking and viral entry into host cells</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the temporal association of CapZ with EEs facilitates early-to-late endosome transition (physiologically) and the release of the viral genome from endocytic vesicles (pathologically).</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Drug repurposing platform for deciphering the druggable SARS-CoV-2 interactome</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has heavily challenged the global healthcare system. Despite the vaccination programs, the new virus variants are circulating. Further research is required for understanding of the biology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and for discovery of therapeutic agents against the virus. Here, we took advantage of drug repurposing to identify if existing drugs could inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection. We established an…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mechanistic Understanding of the Modes of Ca<sup>2+</sup> Ion Binding to the SARS-CoV-1 Fusion Peptide and Their Role in the Dynamics of Host Membrane Penetration</strong> - The SARS-CoV-1 spike glycoprotein contains a fusion peptide (FP) segment that mediates the fusion of the viral and host cell membranes. Calcium ions are thought to position the FP optimally for membrane insertion by interacting with negatively charged residues in this segment (E801, D802, D812, E821, D825, and D830); however, which residues bind to calcium and in what combinations supportive of membrane insertion are unknown. Using biological assays and molecular dynamics studies, we have…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pharmacokinetics of recombinant human annexin A5 (SY-005) in patients with severe COVID-19</strong> - Objective: Annexin A5 is a phosphatidylserine binding protein with anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant and anti-apoptotic properties. Preclinical studies have shown that annexin A5 inhibits pro-inflammatory responses and improves organ function and survival in rodent models of sepsis. This clinical trial aimed to evaluate the pharmacokinetic (PK) properties of the recombinant human annexin A5 (SY-005) in severe COVID-19. Methods: This was a pilot randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial….</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biosurfactant potential and antiviral activity of multistrain probiotics</strong> - The COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 has become a great threat to humans. However, there is no recommendation for an effective and safe drug to treat the disease. The strategy developed in this study is to utilize biosurfactant potential activity of Lactobacillus spp. and Rhodopseudomonas palustris probiotics to prevent the virus from entering human body. The outer membrane of the virus is comprising of phospholipid compounds. Biosurfactants, are known to have detergent-like properties (able to…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Online Group Supervision as Pedagogy: A Qualitative Inquiry of Student Mental Health Nurses’ Discourses and Participation</strong> - This study explored online group clinical supervision participation, as a component of pre-registration education following mental health nursing students’ clinical placements. Clinical supervision has historically been valued as a supportive strategy by healthcare professionals to develop practice and competence and prevent burnout. As many student nurses do not have access to clinical supervision via practice areas as a standardised process, their experiences of engaging in or benefitting from…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Senate Democrats Are Divided on Israel</strong> - Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley discusses Bernie Sanders’s failed resolution to condition U.S. military aid to Israel, and his visit to the Gaza border. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-senate-democrats-are-divided-on-israel">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Future of Academic Freedom</strong> - As the Israel-Hamas war provokes claims about unacceptable speech, the ability to debate difficult subjects is in renewed peril. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/the-future-of-academic-freedom">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How to Eat a Tire in a Year, by David Sedaris</strong> - Walking and talking with my friend Dawn. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/29/how-to-eat-a-tire-in-a-year-david-sedaris">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sofia Coppola’s Path to Filming Gilded Adolescence</strong> - There are few Hollywood families in which one famous director has spawned another. Coppola says, “It’s not easy for anyone in this business, even though it looks easy for me.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/29/sofia-coppola-profile">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rules for the Ruling Class</strong> - How to thrive in the power élite—while declaring it your enemy. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/29/rules-for-the-ruling-class">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Narendra Modi is celebrating his scary vision for India’s future</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A silhouetted figure watches a tv screen. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RPYdc82YPrTeEYhvKyJm8WywUn0=/342x0:5707x4024/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73089424/1943615522.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
People in Ayodhya watch Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony on January 22, 2024. | Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
National festivities this week danced on Indian secularism’s grave — and pointed to an existential threat to Indian democracy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KWZz8C">
On Monday, tens of millions across <a href="https://www.vox.com/india">India</a> celebrated the opening of the Ram Mandir — a huge new temple to Ram, one of Hinduism’s holiest figures, built in the city of Ayodhya where many Hindus believe he was born.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gFzEgH">
The celebration in Ayodhya, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attracted some of India’s richest and most famous citizens. But in the pomp and circumstance, few dwelled explicitly on the grim origins of Ram Mandir: It was built on the site of an ancient mosque torn down by a Hindu mob in 1992.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ac9IA">
Many of the rioters <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/25/711412924/nearly-27-years-after-hindu-mob-destroyed-a-mosque-the-scars-in-india-remain-dee">belonged to the RSS</a>, a militant Hindu supremacist group to which Modi has belonged since he was 8 years old. Since ascending to power in 2014, Modi has worked tirelessly to replace India’s secular democracy with a Hindu sectarian state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JMYGwl">
The construction of a temple in Ayodhya is the exclamation point on an agenda that has also included revoking the autonomy <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/5/20754813/india-kashmir-article-370-modi-hindu-muslim">long provided to the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir</a>, creating new citizenship and immigration rules <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50670393">biased against Muslims</a>, and rewritten textbooks to whitewash Hindu violence against Muslims from Indian history.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KEIYRy">
Modi has also <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/6/21/23683842/india-democracy-narendra-modi-us-biden-china">waged war on the basic institutions of Indian democracy</a>. He and his allies have consolidated control over much of <a href="https://www.vox.com/media">the media</a>, suppressed critical speech on social media, imprisoned protesters, suborned independent government agencies, and even <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/3/24/23654832/rahul-gandhi-expelled-lok-sabha-narendra-modi">prosecuted Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi on dubious charges</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sDU2P7">
For many Hindus, the inauguration of the Ram Mandir was a meaningful religious event. But viewed from a political point of view, the event looks like a grim portrait of Modi’s India in miniature: a monument to an exclusive vision of Hinduism built on the ruins of one of the world’s most remarkable secular democracies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wjAcZi">
Understanding the temple’s story is thus essential to understanding one of the most important issues of our time: how democracy has come under existential threat in its largest stronghold.
</p>
<h3 id="YKQSeT">
How the Ayodhya temple dispute gave rise to Modi’s India
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Wys1X">
The dispute over Ayodhya has become a flashpoint in modern Indian politics because it speaks to a fundamental ideological question: Who is India for?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vH6BW5">
The relevant history here starts in the early 16th century, when a Muslim descendant of Genghis Khan named Babur invaded the Indian subcontinent from his small base in central Asia. Babur’s conquests inaugurated the Mughal Empire, a dynasty that would reign in what is now India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh for generations. At least a remnant of the Mughal state survived until the British seized India in the 19th century.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1d1SGr">
The mosque in Ayodhya was a product of the early Mughal Empire, with some evidence suggesting it was built almost immediately after Babur’s forces conquered Ayodhya in 1529. Called the Babri Masjid — literally “Babur’s Mosque” — it was a testament to the impact the Mughal dynasty and its Muslim rulers had on Indian history and culture.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UeLiaG">
During the British colonial period, different Indian factions diverged sharply on how to remember the Mughal empire.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yBuEXV">
For Mahatma Gandhi, who led the mainstream independence movement, the Moghul Empire was <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2348448919834791">a testament to India’s history of religious diversity and pluralism</a>. Gandhi praised the Moghul dynasty, especially its early leadership, for <a href="http://rarre.org/documents/sen/Sen-%20Human%20Rights%20and%20Asian%20Values.pdf">adopting religious toleration</a> as a central state policy. “In those days, they [Hindus and Muslims] were not known to quarrel at all,” he said in 1931, blaming current sectarian tensions on British colonial policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bx9Sl7">
But the leadership of the Hindu nationalist RSS organization saw things differently. Focusing in particular on the late Mughal emperor Aurangzeb — who <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61519088">imposed a special tax on non-Muslims and tore down Hindu temples</a> — they argued that the Mughals were more like the British than Gandhi allowed. The Muslim dynasty was not, in their mind, an authentic Indian regime at all; it was just another colonial conquest of an essentially Hindu nation. Muslims could not, and should not, be seen as full and equal members of the polity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l625CY">
The Babri Masjid swiftly became a major flashpoint for this historical and political dispute. Because Ayodhya was widely seen by Hindus as Ram’s birthplace, the presence of a prominent Mughal mosque there was <a href="https://time.com/6564148/ayodhya-ram-temple-modi-india/?utm_source=roundup&amp;utm_campaign=20230202&amp;itm_source=taboola.&amp;itm_version:control">seen as an affront by Hindu nationalists</a>. In 1949, shortly after independence, a statue of Ram was discovered inside the mosque itself. Hindu nationalists claimed that this was a divine manifestation, proof that the mosque itself was the site where Ram was born.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ewojeU">
But according to Hartosh Singh Bal, executive editor of the Indian news magazine The Caravan, the historical record tells a different story.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6vgdkU">
“Members of a Hindu right-wing organization clambered over the walls, took the idol, [and] placed it there,” Bal told Vox’s <em>Today Explained</em>. “This was the first supposed proof that this [site] was in any way connected to a Hindu monument.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FtHJrs">
For years, this manufactured conflict over <a href="https://www.vox.com/religion">religion</a> and the Mughal legacy didn’t play a major role in Indian politics. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a> party, the political descendant of Gandhi’s secular liberal vision for India, dominated Indian politics — winning every single national election for the first 30 years of Indian independence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YFMfMg">
But in the 1980s, as the public tired of the Congress party’s domination, Hindu nationalist efforts to stoke tension surrounding the mosque intensified — and caught political fire. The BJP, the political arm of the RSS, made the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of the Babri Masjid a central part of its political agenda. The party, which won just two seats in India’s parliament in 1984’s election, won 85 seats in the 1989 contest.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="mosque on a hill guarded by fence." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LwlN4BLbjS5sLprrr1ASuXAdEOc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25249919/742040.jpg"/> <cite>Robert Nickelsberg/Liaison</cite>
<figcaption>
Indian police guard the Babri Masjid in 1990.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M5oYh0">
The RSS and BJP kept pressing on the issue, helping organize a series of yatras (pilgrimages) to Ayodhya calling for the mosque’s demolition. These grew huge, unruly, and even violent. In 1992, an out-of-control Hindu nationalist mob armed with hammers and pickaxes stormed the Babri Masjid. They tore it down by hand, horrifying many Indians and setting off religious riots across India that killed thousands.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZBqmpg">
Andrea Malji, a scholar of Indian religious nationalism at Hawaii Pacific University, describes the Babri Masjid movement as creating a kind of “feedback loop.” By bringing widespread attention to a source of Hindu-Muslim conflict, the movement actually made Hindus and Muslims more afraid of each other — leading to more conflict between the groups and, thus, increasing support among Hindus for Hindu nationalism. This was very good for the BJP’s political fortunes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EilKc3">
“Mobilizing around identity — especially when you’re 80 percent of the country [as Hindus are] is an effective political strategy,” she tells me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2otbZa">
The Ayodhya dispute was not the only reason that, in the coming years, the BJP would displace Congress as the dominant party in Indian politics. Modi’s first national victory, in the 2014 election, owed more to economic issues and Congress’ many corruption scandals than anything else.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eB0zme">
But Ayodhya was the crucible in which the BJP’s modern political approach was formed. Modi’s political innovation has been refining this approach, developing a brand of Hindu identity politics with greater appeal to the lower castes than the historically upper caste BJP had previously managed. As time has gone on, he has only gotten more aggressive in pushing his ideological agenda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s5nifA">
Through it all, the Ayodhya issue remained a major priority for both Modi and the BJP. In 2019, just months after Modi’s reelection, India’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a> ruled that the construction of Ram Mandir on the former site of the Babri Masjid could begin. Its inauguration this week is a declaration of victory for Modi and the BJP on one of their signature issues — one of the most visible in a long line of successes.
</p>
<h3 id="JEuAOU">
Hindu nationalism versus democracy
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ueXvHo">
The Ayodhya dispute helps us understand a deeper connection between the rise of Modi-style populism and the erosion of Indian democracy — that anti-democratic politics is not some kind of bug in BJP rule, but an essential feature.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jqSrvl">
India’s constitution and founding documents unambiguously declare the country a secular nation of all of its citizens. This universalistic vision permeates Indian law and government; it lies at the heart of the Indian state. India’s founders believed this was essential to making the Indian state a viable democracy: There is no world in which the citizens of such a large and staggeringly diverse country could cooperate together if they weren’t guaranteed certain basic equal rights.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d6PoGg">
“We must have it clearly in our minds and in the mind of the country that the alliance of religion and politics in the shape of communalism is a most dangerous alliance,” Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, <a href="https://library.bjp.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/347/1/On-Independence%20-%20Speeches%20-%20Nehru.pdf">said in a 1948 speech</a>. “The only right way for us to act is to do away with communalism in its political aspect in every shape and form.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i0J0PG">
Modi’s Hindu nationalism, by contrast, posits that legitimacy flows not from consent of all the citizens but consent of true people of India. That means Hindus in general, and Hindu nationalists in particular. Because they believe they represent the true nation, Modi and the BJP have no problem steamrolling on the rights of those who disagree with them — including not just Muslims, but also Hindu critics in the press and checks and balances in the Indian state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i3RCRn">
“It’s very difficult for me to find compatibility between Hindu nationalism and democracy,” says <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/political-science/faculty/aditi_malik">Aditi Malik</a>, a political scientist at the College of the Holy Cross who studies Indian politics.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rmyzSG">
There is nothing in theory undemocratic about the construction of a Hindu temple on a recognized holy site, especially when the construction is duly authorized by the legal authorities. But when it’s built on the ruins of a mosque torn down by a Hindu nationalist mob aligned with the ruling government, it sends a signal not just of Hindu joy but of Muslim subordination by any means necessary. Notably, Modi did not, <a href="https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2024/01/22/ram-temple-cpi-mp-binoy-viswam-asks-if-pm-modi-will-apologise-for-babri-masjid-demolition.html">at any point during the ceremony</a>, apologize to India’s Muslims for the violent way in which the road to Ram Mandir was paved.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/J1HkFZSaajv5SWjKbYZZ5otdAG8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25249923/1956609527.jpg"/> <cite>Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Devotees queue to get a glimpse of a statue of Ram one day after the consecration ceremony of the Ram Mandir on January 23, 2024, in Ayodhya, India.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LnjQK7">
Milan Vaishnav, an India expert at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, sees this as exemplary of the BJP’s general approach to wielding power. In his view, the party has presided over a gradual breakdown of norms of restraint governing Indian politics — adopting an “ends justify the means” approach to imposing the Hindu nationalist agenda because they believe they speak for the true majority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KPWw1H">
“There is this feeling that, because this government is democratically elected, whatever they do has a democratic imprimatur,” he says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="33j8Pb">
Modi’s <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/focus/20231102-india-s-declining-press-freedom-journalists-face-increasing-threats">war on the free press</a> — which has included friendly oligarchs buying up independent media outlets, siccing auditors on critical media outlets, and even imprisoning reporters on terrorism charges — is a case in point.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UpBf8B">
Seeking to force the media to tow a friendly line is undemocratic under any definition, even if the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> are authorized by a legislative majority. But the BJP believes that it, and it alone, speaks on behalf of the Hindu nation — and that critics in the press have no more right to challenge them than Muslims do.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VmZYFV">
There is every reason to believe that India will continue following this anti-democratic path in the years to come.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6aL670">
Across India, Ram Mandir’s inauguration was widely seen as the beginning of Modi’s reelection campaign. With elections scheduled to begin sometime in the mid-to-late spring, Modi is previewing a campaign focused on his appeal <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/world/asia/modi-india-ram-temple.html">as an almost godlike</a> champion for Hindus.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q30bsZ">
“[The temple inauguration] bolsters an image of Mr. Modi as the champion of Indians abroad and Hindus at home; as someone who keeps his promises,” <a href="https://www.cfr.org/expert/manjari-chatterjee-miller">Manjari Chatterjee Miller</a>, a senior fellow studying South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, tells me. “Expect much much more of this as election season gets underway.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ob8ty0">
The consensus among India watchers is that Modi will win comfortably. The BJP is coming off three victories <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/31/bjp-modi-india-general-election-2024">in December local elections</a>, and the prime minister himself has an approval rating <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/with-approval-rating-of-76-narendra-modi-most-popular-global-leader-morning-consult/articleshow/105849567.cms?from=mdr">somewhere in the 70s</a>. Whatever one’s opinion of Modi’s Hindu nationalism, there’s no doubt that it’s genuinely popular with hundreds of millions of Indians.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g5ksVX">
In evaluating India, we have to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time. First, Modi and his agenda is genuinely popular with the Hindu majority. Second, this popularity has given him room to pursue an ideological agenda that imperils the long-term viability of Indian democracy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zaJlX2">
When Modi said in his speech at Ayodhya that the day marks “the beginning of a new era,” this might very well be true. India could be at the beginning of a long illiberal night — one its democracy may not be able to survive.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The ICJ orders in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="People, holding Palestinian flags, gather outside the International Court of Justice." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1gz5EtfhrAnv5YgO0Zg7I0El1tw=/334x0:5667x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73087713/1955382983.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather outside the International Court of Justice in the Hague, the Netherlands, on January 26, 2024. | Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Even without a ceasefire, the top UN court’s orders are a warning to Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9f8vh5">
The International Court of Justice <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf">ruled Friday that Israel must increase its efforts to protect Palestinians and provide humanitarian aid to Gaza</a>, though it did not call for an immediate ceasefire.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uaGxA9">
The ruling comes as part of a case South Africa brought against the Middle Eastern country, accusing it of committing genocide against the <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestinian</a> people in its war in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a>, which <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a> launched in response to an <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023">October 7 attack</a> by <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a>, the militant and political group that governs Gaza. The question of whether Israel is committing genocide remains open — proceedings in the case could continue for years — but South Africa had requested the court put a stop to the fighting as it weighs that possibility.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9BDrUF">
It doesn’t provide that injunction. But importantly, the court affirmed in Friday’s ruling that the court would still be hearing the genocide case, rather than dismissing it as Israel requested. And the Friday decision indicates the court believes Israel isn’t doing enough to prevent genocide against Palestinian people, nor is it sufficiently punishing incitement to genocide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gRN1my">
Still, the court’s decision indicates that the body finds it possible genocide is occurring or could in the future.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hf6yz5">
The six measures the ICJ issued are legally binding, meaning that under its treaty obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention, Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians and prevent genocide. There would be few, if any, consequences if it ignores the ruling — <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/ben-gvir-slams-icj-as-antisemitic-says-israel-should-ignore-ruling-on-provisional-measures/">as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir suggested Israel do</a> — because the enforcement mechanism for the court’s orders is the notoriously political UN Security Council, in which the US, Israel’s strongest ally, has a permanent veto.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3uKVWx">
In short, the Friday ruling isn’t a clear victory for either side — but does suggest that South Africa’s claims are plausible. While little will likely change on the ground in the near term, the court’s decision has reinvigorated debate over the place of international law in conflict and imposed some boundaries on Israel’s prosecution of this war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="naKErb">
Israeli Prime Minister <a href="https://www.vox.com/23910085/netanyahu-israel-right-hamas-gaza-war-history">Benjamin Netanyahu</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1750872237811388734">responded to the interim ruling in a video message,</a> the English version of which reiterates that Israel has a right to defend itself and calls South Africa’s request for a ceasefire “vile” and “blatant discrimination against the Jewish state” while insisting that “Israel’s commitment to international law is unwavering” and that it will continue to facilitate humanitarian aid to Gaza. However, as Times of Israel journalist Amy Spiro noted on X, <a href="https://twitter.com/AmySpiro/status/1750875709432541208">his Hebrew message made no such promise</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XoAGLk">
South Africa suggested that the best way for Israel to comply with the court would be to stop its Gaza operations. “I believe that in exercising the order, there would have to be a ceasefire,” South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor <a href="https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1750881275169182034">said during a news conference</a> following the announcement.
</p>
<h3 id="bdAKI7">
South Africa’s complaint against Israel, explained
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h2omy2">
South Africa first filed the accusations against Israel on December 29, requesting an urgent hearing for a preliminary ruling. That means that Friday’s decision isn’t a case decided on the merits — that could be a years-long process, and it will decide if Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, or if the state is guilty of violating other tenets of the Genocide Convention in prosecuting this war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bqRezU">
The ICJ has decided that any state — South Africa, in this case, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/24019720/south-africa-israel-genocide-case-gaza-hamas-palestinians">country with unique historical ties to the Palestinian cause</a> — can make a complaint against another that it suspects of violating the Genocide Convention, even if the accusing state isn’t party to the conflict precipitating the alleged or potential genocide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VQeYyG">
Israel has argued that its actions over the past three months — killing more than 25,000 Palestinians, imposing siege conditions in Gaza, forcibly displacing a million people, bombing UN facilities and hospitals, and destroying much of northern Gaza — do not indicate genocidal intent. Rather, these horrors, which ICJ President Joan Donoghue listed in detail while reading the ruling, are unfortunate but necessary collateral damage as it pursues Hamas militants.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="muwqo7">
Genocide is extremely difficult to prove, since there must be intent to destroy an ethnic group in whole or in part for an atrocity to be considered genocide. But at this stage, it was not necessary to prove intent — just that it’s possible genocide is occurring and that Israel isn’t doing enough to prevent it or to punish incitement to genocide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="efEXLu">
As <a href="https://law.rutgers.edu/directory/view/adhaque">Adil Haque</a>, a professor of international law at Rutgers University, said in a panel put on by the University of Wollongong in Australia, “the heart of South Africa’s case is first the complete siege on Gaza, followed by severe restrictions on humanitarian assistance,” not necessarily Israel’s relentless bombing campaign. Per South Africa’s argument, that Israel “has systematically destroyed the health and food systems of Gaza,” it “has created the humanitarian crisis that now creates the risk of group destruction.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6XDmHn">
Though the ICJ put limits on how Israel can continue its war, it didn’t explain its reason for not calling for a ceasefire. It could be because the court doesn’t have jurisdiction over Hamas, a non-state actor, and can’t require the group to abide by the ceasefire. But the decision “is kind of indirectly indicating that Israel did have the right to defend itself militarily against what Hamas had done,” <a href="https://cardozo.yu.edu/directory/jocelyn-getgen-kestenbaum#:~:text=Jocelyn%20Getgen%20Kestenbaum%20is%20Associate,and%20Human%20Rights%20(CLIHHR).">Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum</a>, who directs the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic and the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR), told Vox. Even so, “that doesn’t mean that [Israel] can proportionately respond with war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.”
</p>
<h3 id="m4AI2U">
A final decision is a long way away — but here’s what could happen in the meantime
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ArXKIA">
The court’s decisions are legally binding but difficult to enforce. Countries do ignore the ICJ’s orders — <a href="https://www.vox.com/russia">Russia</a>, for example, ignored the court’s 2022 preliminary ceasefire order after its invasion of Ukraine, with no externally imposed consequences.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L4tZgu">
South Africa and Israel are obligated to follow the court’s orders in this case because they’re party to the 1948 Genocide Convention. If they don’t, they are violating that treaty. The ICJ is the court of the United Nations, and its enforcement mechanism is the UN Security Council, which can pass resolutions requiring Israel to do more to punish those who incite genocide, for instance, or who prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MLGCL7">
The US — one of the five permanent members of the Security Council — has historically vetoed any measure it sees as antagonistic toward Israel. Even if that weren’t the case, the Security Council is highly politicized and fractious, limiting its ability to enforce any resolution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JiWKlc">
On Thursday before the ruling, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel <a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-january-25-2024/">confirmed that the US is standing by Israel</a>, including by rejecting claims that Israel is committing genocide, and there’s no evidence the two countries’ longstanding alliance is in any danger. “I doubt this will directly affect either US arms transfers or US actions at the UN regarding a ceasefire,” <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/who-we-are/people/brian-finucane">Brian Finucane</a>, senior adviser for International Crisis Group’s US Program, told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hAoNkz">
Though it won’t stop the war, Friday’s decision “will definitely create a more pressured environment for Israel to operate in,” <a href="https://people.unisa.edu.au/Juliette.McIntyre">Juliette McIntyre</a>, a lecturer in law at the University of South Australia, told Vox. It’s illegal for Israel’s allies, including the US, to “aid or assist in the commission of other wrongful acts (i.e., genocide),” she said, which could cause some partners to “withdraw military or other support for Israel in order to avoid this. States also have a duty to prevent genocide — which they may take more seriously once the Court has established that it’s a plausible risk.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XRtWJj">
The court is also requiring Israel to submit a report within one month detailing its adherence to the interim orders. As Haque told Vox in an interview, that “might turn out to be significant, because Israel would have to convince the court that it’s abided by these orders. The court’s obviously going to make its own judgment and based on the tone of today’s reading, I think the court is going to scrutinize Israel’s representations about its degree of compliance.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VXyaPP">
Even without a strong enforcement mechanism, the court is at the very least a venue for accountability: The ongoing genocide case can be used by other international bodies, like the International Criminal Court, in their investigations into war crimes and atrocities.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Does Barbie need all the Oscars for feminism?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Greta Gerwig is on the left in a sleeveless white dress, with Margot Robbie on the right in an off-the-shoulder red gown. They are both smiling and holding an award." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZGQ29msQC00xbEaNBUOzpgdZ7Wg=/184x0:2584x1800/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73087464/1933790750.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie celebrating a Critics Choice Award win for <em>Barbie</em>. Gerwig and Robbie were not nominated for individual awards at the 2024 Oscars. | Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
What we’re really fighting about when we fight about Barbie.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IZj0VB">
Like the Barbies in the movie <em>Barbie</em>, the film <em>Barbie</em> seemed capable of anything. From critical praise, to pop culture reverence, to <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1077904129/">box office domination</a>, to culture war lightning rod, to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/business/mattel-earnings-barbie-hot-wheels/index.html">doll sales</a>, <em>Barbie</em> has checked every box.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ZwoK3">
But it’s the few things Barbie won’t achieve that have caused a massive uproar: namely, Best Actress and Best Directing Academy Award nominations for Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig, respectively.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AOKHln">
Their snubs have snowballed into an <a href="https://twitter.com/itszaeok/status/1750254305905426510">avalanche</a> of proclamations that these exclusions show that the <a href="https://x.com/MarTEAnisEddy/status/1749823966124916907?s=20">world</a> we live in is brimming with <a href="https://x.com/thatclarafied/status/1749840237902352560?s=20">misogyny</a> and <a href="https://x.com/keithedwards/status/1749837472299708469?s=20">sexism</a>. No matter that Gerwig and Robbie were recognized for screenwriting and producing, with the film nominated for a total of eight <a href="https://www.vox.com/oscars">Oscars</a>, including Best Picture. To some, it was <a href="https://x.com/scddevereaux/status/1749792570840907879?s=20">even worse</a> that Robbie’s co-star Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for playing <a href="https://x.com/yosoymichael/status/1749794592076034203?s=20">Barbie’s patriarchy-loving non-boyfriend, Ken</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aBXiPM">
<a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2024-oscar-nominations-barbie-snub">Columns</a> upon <a href="https://x.com/TalkerReel92/status/1749904772260376887?s=20">columns</a> were written, each one more enflamed than its predecessor. Gosling <a href="https://time.com/6576771/ryan-gosling-oscar-nominations-barbie-statement-gerwig-robbie-ferrera/">released a statement</a> expressing disappointment about the snubs. Even former Secretary of State <a href="https://www.vox.com/hillary-clinton">Hillary Clinton</a> <a href="https://x.com/HillaryClinton/status/1750185844219015517?s=20">chimed in</a>, offering consolation and condolences to Gerwig and Robbie. “While it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you,” she wrote, ending her message with a “#HillaryBarbie” hashtag.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WBtswm">
A lot of people saw <em>Barbie</em>. A lot of people were moved by <em>Barbie</em>. A lot of people are now mad that Academy voters who saw <em>Barbie</em> were perhaps not moved in the same way they were.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lx6hBy">
Through the lens of Robbie’s snub, Gosling’s nod can feel a little salty. Coupled with Gerwig’s absence in the directing category, it makes the movie’s message — that the hard work of women goes unnoticed and unappreciated — seem like prophecy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7MKEsb">
But the acute ferociousness, not to mention single-mindedness, of the Oscar nominations backlash seems to conflate the ideas of “Barbie” and “woman” in weird ways. Specifically, that rewarding or not rewarding <em>Barbie</em> with an Oscar is some kind of feminist barometer. Even more complicated is this entire conversation in the face of the Academy of Motion Pictures Sciences’ history of bias and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/9/9/21429083/oscars-best-picture-new-rules-2024-diversity-inclusion">startling lack of diversity</a>. If, as fans point out, the Academy is a sexist organization, then why does <em>Barbie</em> need its awards? Would it somehow stop being sexist if Robbie and Gerwig got their nominations?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xV52ET">
That these omissions have sparked such a vocal and strong reaction speaks to what <em>Barbie</em> stands for, its cultural impact, and how it has changed how we understand women’s stories. The things we talk about when we talk about <em>Barbie</em> are bigger than the movie itself.
</p>
<h3 id="vCevm4">
Barbie has become bigger than <em>Barbie</em>, the movie
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lplI1p">
The inescapable Barbie discourse is a testament to how the movie made its feminist message accessible. It begins as a riff on creationism: The Barbies live in Barbie Land, a place where female Barbies are capable of anything and everything — from President Barbie (Issa Rae) to Nobel Prize Barbie (Emma Mackey) to Doctor Barbie (Hari Nef) to Stereotypical Barbie (Robbie). The Kens, who are all named Ken, are just <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/7/24/23805608/barbie-movie-explained-2023-ken-feminist-im-just-ken-ryan-gosling">another Barbie accessory</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="In a scene from the movie Barbie, Barbie drives a pink convertible through a desert, with Ken in the backseat sitting sideways. Both are dressed in pink and singing." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-cdTSOlJd42xDUe61JxOVSqjlbw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25249838/rev_1_BAR_TT3_0059_High_Res_JPEG.jpeg"/> <cite>Warner Bros.</cite>
<figcaption>
Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken in <em>Barbie</em>. Despite being just Ken, Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="38XnzI">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/7/21/23801727/barbie-movie-marketing-budget-pr-hype-mattel"><em>Barbie</em>’s savvy marketing department</a> leaned into this concept of Barbie-feminist identification even before the movie was released, encouraging people on social media to post what kind of Barbie they would be with a selfie generator. Last month I visited my 3-year-old niece, and she had at least three new dolls — Doctor Barbie, President Barbie, and Pink Power Jumpsuit/<a href="https://creations.mattel.com/products/barbie-in-pink-power-jumpsuit-barbie-the-movie-hrf29">Dismantle the Patriarchy Barbie</a>. She wants to be just like the Barbies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zByWtf">
In the film, when Barbie and Ken venture to the real world, Ken finds out that men like him are in positions of power (doctor, president, cowboy) and are boosted by the patriarchy, a system he barely understands — and, crucially, doesn’t need to understand. Ken brings back symbols (horses and beer) and ideologies (subservient women) of the patriarchy to Barbie Land and brainwashes the trusting Barbies and eager Kens. He’s finally stopped by regular human woman Gloria (Academy Award nominee America Ferrera) who explains via monologue the hardships women are held to in the real world. Gloria restores order in Barbie Land, allowing Barbies to reclaim their power. Still, Stereotypical Barbie makes the choice to move to the real world, even with all its imperfections.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DTWGAq">
Using allegory and a <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a44640422/america-ferrera-full-barbie-monologue/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=arb_ga_elm_md_pmx_hybd_mix_us_20071786260&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAqsitBhDlARIsAGMR1Rhw_Q9QEDwfxU6E970p5pisgcdmBEMMVOQ0CAcwW2Z1jnQhY4TTyAkaAmNeEALw_wcB">hard-hitting speech</a>, <em>Barbie</em> gives the audience a framework and language to point out the double standards that women endure, often without complaint. Barbie is cat-called on the street, and the Mattel overlords want to shove her into a box. Gloria is ignored in her job at Mattel, even though she has amazing ideas, and navigates the rejections of her teenage daughter seemingly alone, while her anodyne husband plays Duolingo. It raises the question of why society allows women to hurt like this, big and small. Why can’t things be better?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yd1W99">
Inadvertently making the movie’s point — and reflexively making the movie an even bigger phenomenon — <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/barbie-movie-right-wing-backlash-ted-cruz-ginger-gaetz-1234791386/">right-wing</a> pundits and personalities dragged the film. Some hated its message about how men are treated in the real world, labeled the movie <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy">woke</a>, and predicted, because of its said wokeness, <em>Barbie</em>’s <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/barbie-seems-to-have-destroyed-ben-shapiro">box office demise</a>. They called <em>Barbie </em><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/barbie-feminism-nukes-conservative-backlash-155-million-1234794442/">man-hating feminist propaganda</a>. A few even tried to burn their Barbie dolls and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/greta-gerwig-barbie-conservatives-burning-dolls-ben-shapiro-2023-7">boycott the movie</a>. With all this commotion, <em>Barbie</em> and its box office success became politicized. Mattel and Warner Bros. likely didn’t envision the movie becoming the bane of some conservative firebrands’ existence, but largely due to the backlash, Barbie became even more of a touchstone and shorthand for feminism and equality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y4JERg">
The movie’s feminist message, combined with its huge marketing push, the corresponding Mattel merch, billion-dollar box office, and status as a culture war flashpoint made <em>Barbie</em> a pop culture phenomenon. Even before the Oscar nominations, Barbie was a national conversation.
</p>
<h3 id="26pDBT">
Is <em>Barbie</em> winning Oscars really a feminist benchmark?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ztHy1t">
On Tuesday, January 23, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2024/1/23/24048088/2024-oscar-nominations-winners-losers-barbie-ken-oppenheimer">Oscar nominations rolled in</a>. Gosling and Ferrera snagged theirs early, as supporting actors and actresses are the first categories in the announcement. But soon it became clear that Robbie didn’t make the cut for Best Actress or Gerwig for Best Directing<em>. Barbie </em>did get a nomination for Best Picture, the biggest prize of the show, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and two Best Original Song nominations for Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” and Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZE6ICJ">
Usually, Oscar awards snubs and surprises are a fairly insular concern, something only people who are extremely enthusiastic about <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a> care about. Without Googling, it might be difficult for the average person to name more than one big omission from last year’s group of contenders. But it was different for Robbie and Gerwig’s exclusions, as their Oscar slights went mainstream.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Margot Robbie, as Barbie, driving a pink convertible past a pink plastic house, wearing a white-and-blue dress." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ecSuFkE9Sc-kydiGDejrNINOwZo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25249865/rev_1_BAR_00238_High_Res_JPEG.jpeg"/> <cite>Warner Bros.</cite>
<figcaption>
There are probably more pressing feminist issues than Margot Robbie (who was nominated as a producer) not getting an Academy Award acting nomination for <em>Barbie</em>.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CcT0wB">
A common refrain: <a href="https://twitter.com/rhysr97/status/1749798563373035860?s=20">Ryan Gosling</a> getting an Oscar nomination and Margot Robbie getting none proves the movie’s point. Similarly: If <a href="https://twitter.com/strengthtodream/status/1749806442524422320?s=20">Gosling and Ferrera deserved accolades</a>, so did Robbie and Gerwig. Also: <a href="https://twitter.com/scddevereaux/status/1749792570840907879?s=46&amp;t=gVDCG-WIWRQsuSYMwZv8Xg">Ryan Gosling got a nomination</a> for Ken but Margot Robbie didn’t get one for playing Barbie in <em>Barbie</em>. And: The Academy is exactly what <a href="https://x.com/SatyamInsights/status/1749798418825068947?s=20">the movie was about</a>. The Academy Awards ignoring Robbie and Gerwig was actually the sexism, <a href="https://x.com/TalkerReel92/status/1749904772260376887?s=20">misogyny, and patriarchy</a> that’s explicitly addressed in the movie!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dFhgrI">
Outcry spiraled, growing and growing. Taylor Swift’s song about sexism, <a href="https://twitter.com/cruelsummerwbre/status/1749797500418978170">“The Man,” was invoked</a>. A column <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2024-01-23/barbie-oscar-snubs-greta-gerwig-margot-robbie-movie-point">appeared</a> in the Los Angeles Times where Mary McNamara wrote: “If only Barbie had done a little time as a sex worker. Or barely survived becoming the next victim in a mass murder plot,” referring on the latter count to Lily Gladstone’s role as an Indigenous Osage woman witnessing the murders of her family and friends in <em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em>. Now, the backlash to the backlash has awoken some <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/24/opinion/barbie-movie-oscars.html">predictably cantankerous</a> “Barbie is actually bad” takes. Truly no one has time for that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F08yno">
To the movie’s most ardent and earnest fans, the misogyny and patriarchy <em>Barbie</em> depicted was, in real time, taking the form of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pNku2Q">
Criticisms about the movies the Academy has rewarded and the voting body’s biases aren’t necessarily wrong. Female directors and people of color across categories win so rarely that it becomes a milestone when they do (e.g., Halle Berry being the lone Black actress to win Best Actress, for 2001’s <em>Monster’s Ball</em>). In recent years, the organization itself has talked about its lack of diversity and tried to, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/1/17065160/oscars-diversity-2018">via new members and new eligibility rules</a>, address those issues. It’s a <a href="https://www.vox.com/22332389/oscars-academy-diversity-membership-2021">continual work in progress</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nat6KO">
But the thing is, most of these arguments seem to imply that Robbie and Gerwig’s missed nominations — in acting and directing — are the only feminist wins that count. They were not the only women thought to be frontrunners who were ignored this year, and many found themselves asking where this energy was for <a href="https://twitter.com/sassyblackdiva/status/1750170935209206010">Celine Song and Greta Lee</a>, the director and star of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23569131/past-lives-review-sundance"><em>Past Lives</em></a>, or <a href="https://twitter.com/LamardCherAime/status/1749960471044633073">Ava Duvernay and Aunjanue Ellis</a>, director and star of <em>Origin</em>. Unfortunately, centering particular white women and largely forgetting women of color or the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination">intersectionality</a> of feminism is a pattern that arises in these <a href="https://www.vox.com/22466574/gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss-meaning">fights for recognition</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lJUEDp">
These arguments also serve to undermine the nominees who were recognized. Best Picture nominee <em>Anatomy of a Fall</em>, written and directed by Best Directing nominee Justine Triet, examined society’s ideas about gender and who we see as victims. <em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em> told the story of Mollie Burkhart and the atrocities committed against her people. Gladstone, who played Burkhart, is the first Native American to be nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ThLm48">
It’s also worth noting that while Gosling’s acting nomination is being presented as a slight to Robbie, Robbie’s competition is the rest of the Best Actress field — not Gosling. Five other women, including Gladstone, were nominated instead of Robbie. That field also doesn’t include critically lauded performances from Lee, Ellis, and Natalie Portman, who Robbie would also had to have edged out to be recognized. It seems notable, too, that Ferrera’s nomination isn’t being lauded.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OvKwpt">
Framing praise for Gosling’s performance in the movie <a href="https://x.com/arghavan_salles/status/1749836054247690657?s=20">as some kind of negative</a> is strange in that his character is an integral part of this feminist movie. It’s like saying Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in <em>The Dark Knight</em> shouldn’t be recognized because that character represents the evil that Batman is fighting against. Gosling’s performance is a credit to the character and decisions that the director, screenwriters, and producers made.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Margot Robbie as Barbie, seen sitting at a pink vanity wearing a pink checked dress and smiling." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FPAZUynph2cZKyObxN743DIfNls=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25249876/entertainment_barbie_movie_longform_2500x1406_71823_ddm_64b183731c484.jpeg"/> <cite>Warner Bros.</cite>
<figcaption>
The insufferable Barbie discourse isn’t Margot Robbie’s fault. Margot Robbie’s innocent.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PLgeIc">
Robbie was nominated as a producer by way of <em>Barbie</em>’s Best Picture nomination. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/luckychap/?hl=en">Luckychap</a>, the production company Robbie co-founded in 2014, touts itself as helping create female-focused <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv">television</a> and movies like <em>I, Tonya</em>,<em> Promising Young Woman</em>, and <em>Barbie</em>. Robbie winning for producing <em>Barbie</em> would be huge for a mission she seems to take pride in.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HpzKm2">
In the grand scheme of things, I’m not quite sure if a nomination for Robbie in acting or Gerwig in directing would be considered a capital-W win for feminism. As <a href="https://x.com/judysquirrels/status/1750192884035596413?s=20">critics of the backlash</a> have already pointed out, there are bigger issues facing women. Individual nominations would not single-handedly solve the problem of the Academy’s biases and failure to recognize talent. <em>Barbie</em> could win all the Oscars and those problems would still exist.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zvlmwe">
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>AUS vs WI pink ball Test | Steve Smith guides Australia to healthy position at stumps</strong> - Australia’s hopes of taking the win, however, may be hampered by predicted heavy rain for the next two days.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Australian Open 2024 | Aryna Sabalenka crushes Zheng Qinwen; first woman to defend singles title in a decade</strong> - The last time the tournament witnessed a successful women’s title defence was in 2013, when fellow Belarusian Victoria Azarenka achieved the feat.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Indian men’s hockey team beats SA 3-0 on home soil</strong> - Captain Harmanpreet Singh (2nd minute), Abhishek (13th), and Sumit (30th) scored for the winners on Jan. 26 night.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ind vs Eng 1st Test | Ollie Pope’s ton helps England to 126-run lead on Day 3</strong> - In reply to England’s 246, India were all out for 436 in the morning session</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FA Cup | Ake’s late goal sends Man City into 5th round, Chelsea held</strong> - After the game, Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola said he would miss Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who announced he would leave the club, but said that he could now sleep better when City plays Liverpool</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kharge writes to Mamata seeking safety of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in West Bengal</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Telangana CM announces caste census</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Railways land-for-job case | Delhi court summons former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, daughter Misa Bharti</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lok Sabha polls: BJP appoints election in-charges, co-in-charges for 23 States, Union Territories</strong> - BJP national secretary Arvind Menon has been appointed as election in-charge for Tamil Nadu.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gyanvapi mosque committee should handover structure to Hindus: VHP chief</strong> - The VHP said that it believes that this righteous action would be an important step towards creating amicable relations between the two communities</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Europe’s farmers are taking their anger to the streets</strong> - Europe is swept by a wave of protests by farmers, who blame EU policies for their hardship.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>US approves F-16 fighter jet sale to Turkey worth $23bn</strong> - The $23bn sale comes after Turkey ratified Sweden’s accession to Nato this week.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Czech Republic MPs vote to tighten gun laws</strong> - But it’s unclear whether the proposed new rules would have stopped the Prague shooter.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evan Gershkovich: Russia again extends detention of US journalist</strong> - The Moscow court’s ruling means Evan Gershkovich will spend over one year behind bars as he awaits trial.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Identical twins separated and sold at birth reunited by TikTok</strong> - Thousands of people in Georgia have found out they were stolen from their parents at birth and sold.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In major gaffe, hacked Microsoft test account was assigned admin privileges</strong> - How does a legacy test account grant access to read every Office 365 account? - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1999478">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Measles is “growing global threat,” CDC tells doctors in alert message</strong> - Since December, there have been 23 measles cases in the US, including two outbreaks. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1999449">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NSA finally admits to spying on Americans by purchasing sensitive data</strong> - Violating Americans’ privacy “not just unethical but illegal,” senator says. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1999375">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dungeons &amp; Dragons turns 50 this year, and there’s a lot planned for it</strong> - It started with “a new line of miniatures rules” and became a global phenomenon. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1999203">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tens of thousands of pregnancies from rape occurring in abortion-ban states</strong> - States with bans logged 10 or fewer legal abortions per month, despite rape exceptions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1999327">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Scottish cow farmer sees an Englishman crossing his field</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Englishman stoops down to a little stream to take a drink. The Scotsman yells, “Ye cannae drink tha! It’s fool of coo piss an’ shite!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To which the Englishman says, “I can’t understand you. Speak English properly.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Scotsman responds, “I said use both hands!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/testudoaubreii1"> /u/testudoaubreii1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1ac4caw/a_scottish_cow_farmer_sees_an_englishman_crossing/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1ac4caw/a_scottish_cow_farmer_sees_an_englishman_crossing/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Which rock group has four men, including one named George and another who was shot to death?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Mount Rushmore
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/wimpykidfan37"> /u/wimpykidfan37 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1abvnv3/which_rock_group_has_four_men_including_one_named/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1abvnv3/which_rock_group_has_four_men_including_one_named/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>70 year old man goes out and buys himself a new sports car</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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As he’s cruising down the highway at 75 mph, he sees a cop with their lights on start to give chase. Not wanting to get a speeding ticket with his new car the old man decides to floor it and shake the cop. So he guns it 85,95, 120 MPH flying down the highway swerving in and out of traffic. This goes on for a good hour with the cop keeping pace. Finally the old man has a change of heart and pulls over to the shoulder. The officer gets out walks up to the old man and says. “Look I have been chasing you for over an hour and I was supposed to get off shift 30 minutes ago and REALLY do not want to fil out all the paperwork that you are going to cause me to do. So if you can give me a damn good reason why I shouldn’t haul you off to jail, I’ll let you go with a warning.” The old man sits thinks for a minute and goes “10 years ago my wife left me for a cop, I thought you had tracked me and were trying to return her.” The cop replies “Sir, have a good day and remember to wear your seatbelt.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/cikanman"> /u/cikanman </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1abr8kr/70_year_old_man_goes_out_and_buys_himself_a_new/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1abr8kr/70_year_old_man_goes_out_and_buys_himself_a_new/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Married couple</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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It is 12.02am and a married couple have just finished having sex.
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The wife thinks for a moment and then hits her husband.
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“Ouch!” he says, “why did you do that?”
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“That’s for being a lousy lover!” she says.
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The guy thinks for a while and then hits her back.
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“Ouch!” she says, “why did you do that?”
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“That’s for knowing the difference!” he says.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/jimph"> /u/jimph </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1ac06xb/married_couple/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1ac06xb/married_couple/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Airman Jones was assigned to the induction center, where he advised new recruits about their GI insurance. It wasn’t long before Captain Smith noticed that Airman Jones was having a staggeringly high success-rate, selling insurance to nearly 100% of the recruits he advised.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Rather than ask about this, the Captain stood in the back of the room and listened to Jones’ sales pitch. Jones explained the basics of the GI Insurance to the new recruits, and then said: “If you have GI Insurance and go into battle and are killed, the government has to pay $200,000 to your beneficiaries. If you don’t have GI insurance, and you go into battle and get killed, the government only has to pay a maximum of $6000. Now,” he concluded, “which group do you think they are going to send into battle first?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1abiogb/airman_jones_was_assigned_to_the_induction_center/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1abiogb/airman_jones_was_assigned_to_the_induction_center/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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