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<title>25 September, 2023</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>Basic Psychological Needs, Quality of Motivation, and Protective Behavior Intentions: A Nationally Representative Survey</strong> -
<div>
Objective: Citizens’ volitional engagement in protective behaviors is essential for successful pandemic management, as much of the required adherence is beyond authorities’ control and difficult to monitor. Building on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study examines how basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) related to COVID-19 behavioral measures is associated with the quality of motivation (autonomous vs. controlled), and whether this quality of motivation is predictive of the intention to wear a face mask and to avoid meeting others. Methods: Cross-sectional survey study involving a nationally representative sample (N = 2272) was conducted in Finland in May 2021, when protective behaviors were recommended to prevent acceleration of the epidemic. Mann-Whitney U tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, linear regression analysis, and multinomial logistic regression were conducted. Results: All three psychological needs were positively related to autonomous motivation (all p&lt;.001). Satisfaction of autonomy (β = .234) and relatedness (β = .402) had larger effects than competence (β = .091). Autonomous motivation (range Exp(B) = 1.82‒3.55, p = .001) was consistently related to intention to wear a mask and intention to avoid meeting people. Controlled motivation (range Exp(B) = .66‒.93, p = .001‒.457) was associated with decreased protective behavior intentions. The effects of amotivation (range Exp(B) = .65‒1.02, p = .001‒.911) varied across analyses. Conclusions: Fostering autonomous motivation could increase adherence to protective behaviors in situations without clear mandates. The results also suggest that increasing perceptions of pressure or appealing to personal risk and fear may not advance adherence as effectively.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/qgvua/" target="_blank">Basic Psychological Needs, Quality of Motivation, and Protective Behavior Intentions: A Nationally Representative Survey</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Characterization of Patients Requiring Inpatient Hospital Ethics Consults- A Single Center Study</strong> -
<div>
Ethics consultations are often needed at difficult junctures of medical care. However, data on the nature of how patient characteristics, including race/ethnicity, language, and diagnosis, affect ethics consult outcomes are lacking. We performed a retrospective cohort study of all patients who were seen by the Ethics Consult Service between 2017 and 2021 at a large tertiary academic center with the aim of determining whether patient demographic and clinical factors were associated with the timing of ethics consult requests and recommendations of the ethics team. We found that patients admitted for COVID-19 had significantly longer median times to consult from admission compared with other primary diagnoses (19 vs 8 days respectively, p=0.015). Spanish-speaking patients had longer median times to consult from admission compared to English speaking patients (20 vs 7 days respectively, p=0.008), indicating that language barriers may play a role in the timing of ethics consultation. This study demonstrates the need to consider clinical and demographic features when planning and prioritizing ethics consultations at large institutions to enhance consult efficiency, resource utilization, and patient experience and autonomy.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/ce9by/" target="_blank">Characterization of Patients Requiring Inpatient Hospital Ethics Consults- A Single Center Study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Mapping the Open-Source Response to Covid-19: Growth, Interactions, and Impact</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated rapid innovation to address emergent healthcare challenges, spotlighting the open-source community’s role in fostering collaborative solutions. This study explores the engagement dynamics within this community by analysing keyword mentions across academic databases, GitHub, and Google search from January 2020 to December 2022. Findings reveal a wave-based engagement pattern with spikes in mentions and search interest during critical pandemic junctures, particularly around ventilators, masks, and personal protective equipment. A challenge in maintaining heightened engagement post the peak of each wave was observed, reflecting the evolving focus of the crisis. The study also noted a shift in focus within the open-source community from ventilators to other healthcare necessities as the pandemic unfolded. These findings underscore the potential of open-source initiatives in fostering agile solutions amidst evolving crisis landscapes. The results advocate for strengthened engagement between policymakers, public health organisations, and the open-source community to align with real-world healthcare needs, augmenting the potential for innovative solutions during future crises. This study illuminates the significance of open-source paradigms as resilient frameworks for navigating complex healthcare challenges and underscores the value of collaborative, transparent, and innovative approaches in addressing global health exigencies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/wf5c4/" target="_blank">Mapping the Open-Source Response to Covid-19: Growth, Interactions, and Impact</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Impact of bivalent BA.4/5 BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine on acute symptoms, quality of life, work productivity and activity levels among symptomatic US adults testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 at a national retail pharmacy</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Evidence on the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on symptoms, Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI) is scarce. We analyzed associations between bivalent BA.4/5 BNT162b2 and these patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Methods: Symptomatic US adults who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were recruited between 03/02-05/18/2023. PROs were assessed using a CDC-based symptom questionnaire, EQ-5D-5L, WPAI-GH, and PROMIS Fatigue, from pre-COVID to Week 4 following infection. Multivariable analysis using mixed models for repeated measures was conducted, adjusting for several covariates. Results: The study included 641 participants: 314 vaccinated with bivalent BA.4/5 BNT162b2 and 327 unvaccinated/not up-to-date. Mean (SD) age was 46.5 years (15.9), 71.2% were female, 44.2% reported prior infection, 25.7% had ≥1 comorbidity. The BA.4/5 BNT162b2 cohort reported fewer acute symptoms through Week 4, especially systemic and respiratory symptoms. All PROs were adversely affected, especially at Week 1; however, at that time point, the bivalent BA.4/5 BNT162b2 cohort reported better work performance, driven by less absenteeism, and fewer work hours lost. No significant differences were observed for HRQoL. Conclusions: COVID-19 negatively impacted patient outcomes. Compared with unvaccinated/not up-to-date participants, those vaccinated with bivalent BA.4/5 BNT162b2 reported fewer and less persistent symptoms and improved work performance. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT05160636 Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; BA.4/5 BNT162b2; Bivalent; COVID-19; COVID-19 symptoms; HRQoL; Humanistic; Quality of life; WPAI; PROMIS Fatigue.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.23295904v1" target="_blank">Impact of bivalent BA.4/5 BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine on acute symptoms, quality of life, work productivity and activity levels among symptomatic US adults testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 at a national retail pharmacy</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Group A streptococcal cases and treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2022 outbreak: a retrospective cohort study in England using OpenSAFELY-TPP</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Group A streptococcal (GAS) cases and related antibiotic prescriptions. Design A retrospective cohort study with supporting dashboards with the approval of NHS England. Setting Primary care practices in England using TPP SystmOne software from January 2018 through March 2023. Participants Patients included were those registered at a TPP practice for each month of the study period. Patients with missing sex or age were excluded, resulting in a population of 23,816,470 in January 2018, increasing to 25,541,940 by March 2023. Main outcome measures We calculated monthly counts and crude rates of GAS cases (sore throat/tonsillitis, scarlet fever, invasive group A strep) and prescriptions linked with a GAS case, before (pre-April 2020), during and after (post-April 2021) COVID-19 restrictions. We calculated the maximum and minimum count and rate for each season (years running September-August), and the rate ratio (RR) of the 2022/23 season to the last comparably high season (2017/18). Results Recording of GAS cases and antibiotic prescription linked with a GAS case peaked in December 2022, higher than the 2017/2018 peak. The peak rate of monthly sore throat/tonsillitis (possible group A strep throat) recording was 5.33 per 1,000 (RR 2022/23 versus 2017/18 1.39 (CI: 1.38 to 1.40)). Scarlet fever recording peaked at 0.51 per 1,000 (RR 2.68 (CI: 2.59 to 2.77)), and invasive group A streptococcal infection (iGAS) at 0.01 per 1,000 (RR 4.37 (CI: 2.94 to 6.48)). First line antibiotics with a record of a GAS infection peaked at 2.80 per 1,000 (RR 1.37 (CI:1.35 to 1.38)), alternative antibiotics at 2.03 per 1,000 (RR 2.30 (CI:2.26 to 2.34)), and reserved antibiotics at 0.09 per 1,000 (RR 2.42 (CI:2.24 to 2.61). For individual antibiotics, azithromycin with GAS indication showed the greatest relative increase (RR 7.37 (CI:6.22 to 8.74)).This followed a sharp drop in recording of cases and associated prescriptions during the period of COVID-19 restrictions where the maximum count and rates were lower than any pre COVID-19 minimum. More detailed demographic breakdowns can be found in our regularly updated dashboard report. Conclusions Rates of scarlet fever, sore throat/tonsillitis and iGAS recording and associated antibiotic prescribing peaked in December 2022. Primary care data can supplement existing infectious disease surveillance through linkages with relevant prescribing data and detailed clinical and demographic subgroups.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.22.23295850v1" target="_blank">Group A streptococcal cases and treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2022 outbreak: a retrospective cohort study in England using OpenSAFELY-TPP</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Positive selection underlies repeated knockout of ORF8 in SARS-CoV-2 evolution</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Knockout of the ORF8 protein has repeatedly spread through the global viral population during SARS-CoV-2 evolution. Here we use both regional and global pathogen sequencing to explore the selection pressures underlying its loss. In Washington State, we identified transmission clusters with ORF8 knockout throughout SARS-CoV-2 evolution, not just on novel, high fitness viral backbones. Indeed, ORF8 is truncated more frequently and knockouts circulate for longer than for any other gene. Using a global phylogeny, we find evidence of positive selection to explain this phenomenon: nonsense mutations resulting in shortened protein products occur more frequently and are associated with faster clade growth rates than synonymous mutations in ORF8. Loss of ORF8 is also associated with reduced clinical severity, highlighting the diverse clinical impacts of SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.23295927v1" target="_blank">Positive selection underlies repeated knockout of ORF8 in SARS-CoV-2 evolution</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Hierarchical assembly of single-stranded RNA</strong> -
<div>
Single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) plays a major role in the flow of genetic information–most notably in the form of messenger RNA (mRNA)–and in the regulation of biological processes. The highly dynamic nature of chains of unpaired nucleobases challenges structural characterizations of ssRNA by experiments or molecular dynamics (MD) simulations alike. Here we use hierarchical chain growth (HCG) to construct ensembles of ssRNA chains. HCG assembles the structures of protein and nucleic acid chains from fragment libraries created by MD simulations. Applied to homo- and heteropolymeric ssRNAs of different lengths, we find that HCG produces structural ensembles that overall are in good agreement with diverse experiments including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and single-molecule Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET). The agreement can be further improved by ensemble refinement using Bayesian inference of ensembles (BioEn). HCG can also be used to assemble RNA structures that combine base-paired and unpaired regions, as illustrated for the 5’ untranslated region (UTR) of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.01.551474v2" target="_blank">Hierarchical assembly of single-stranded RNA</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Liver abnormalities following SARS-CoV-2 infection in children under 10 years of age</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective: Beginning in October 2021 in the US and elsewhere, cases of severe pediatric hepatitis of unknown etiology were identified in young children. While the adenovirus and adenovirus-associated virus have emerged as leading etiologic suspects, we attempted to investigate a potential role for SARS-CoV-2 in the development of subsequent liver abnormalities. Design: We conducted a study utilizing retrospective cohorts of de-identified, aggregated data from the electronic health records of over 100 million patients contributed by US health care organizations. Results: Compared to propensity-score-matched children with other respiratory infections, children aged 1-10 years with COVID-19 had a higher risk of elevated transaminases (Hazard ratio (HR) (95% Confidence interval (CI)) 2.16 (1.74-2.69)) or total bilirubin (HR (CI) 3.02 (1.91-4.78)), or new diagnoses of liver diseases (HR (CI) 1.67 (1.21-2.30)) from one to six months after infection. Patients with pre-existing liver abnormalities, liver abnormalities surrounding acute infection, younger age (1-4 years), or illness requiring hospitalization all had similarly elevated risk. Children who developed liver abnormalities following COVID-19 had more pre-existing conditions than those who developed abnormalities following other infections. Conclusion: These results indicate that SARS-CoV-2 may prime the patient for subsequent development of liver infections or non-infectious liver diseases. While rare (~1 in 1,000), SARS-CoV-2 is a risk for subsequent abnormalities in liver function or the diagnosis of diseases of the liver.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.23295905v1" target="_blank">Liver abnormalities following SARS-CoV-2 infection in children under 10 years of age</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Simulation-based validation of a method to detect changes in SARS-CoV-2 reinfection risk</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Given the high global seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2, understanding the risk of reinfection becomes increasingly important. Models developed to track trends in reinfection risk should be robust against possible biases arising from imperfect data observation processes. Objectives: We performed simulation-based validation of an existing catalytic model designed to detect changes in the risk of reinfection by SARS-CoV-2. Methods: The catalytic model assumes the risk of reinfection is proportional to observed infections. Validation involved using simulated primary infections, consistent with the number of observed infections in South Africa. We then simulated reinfection datasets that incorporated different processes that may bias inference, including imperfect observation and mortality, to assess the performance of the catalytic model. A Bayesian approach was used to fit the model to simulated data, assuming a negative binomial distribution around the expected number of reinfections, and model projections were compared to the simulated data generated using different magnitudes of change in reinfection risk. We assessed the approach9s ability to accurately detect changes in reinfection risk when included in the simulations, as well as the occurrence of false positives when reinfection risk remained constant. Key Findings: The model parameters converged in most scenarios leading to model outputs aligning with anticipated outcomes. The model successfully detected changes in the risk of reinfection when such a change was introduced to the data. Low observation probabilities (10%) of both primary- and re-infections resulted in low numbers of observed cases from the simulated data and poor convergence. Limitations: The model9s performance was assessed on simulated data representative of the South African SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, reflecting its timing of waves and outbreak magnitude. Model performance under similar scenarios may be different in settings with smaller epidemics (and therefore smaller numbers of reinfections). Conclusions: Ensuring model parameter convergence is essential to avoid false-positive detection of shifts in reinfection risk. While the model is robust in most scenarios of imperfect observation and mortality, further simulation-based validation for regions experiencing smaller outbreaks is recommended. Caution must be exercised in directly extrapolating results across different epidemiological contexts without additional validation efforts.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.23295891v1" target="_blank">Simulation-based validation of a method to detect changes in SARS-CoV-2 reinfection risk</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Levels Associated with COVID-19 Protection in Outpatients Tested for SARS-CoV-2, US Flu VE Network, October 2021 to June 2022</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: We assessed the association between antibody concentration within 5 days of symptom onset and COVID-19 illness among patients enrolled in a test-negative study. Methods: From October 2021 to June 2022, study sites in seven states enrolled and tested respiratory specimens from patients of all ages presenting with acute respiratory illness for SARS-CoV-2 infection using rRT-PCR. In blood specimens, we measured concentration of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies against the ancestral strain spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD) and nucleocapsid (N) antigens in standardized binding antibody units (BAU/mL). Percent reduction in odds of symptomatic COVID-19 by anti-RBD antibody was estimated using logistic regression modeled as (1-adjusted odds ratio of COVID-19)x100, adjusting for COVID-19 vaccination status, age, site, and high-risk exposure. Results: A total of 662 (33%) of 2,018 symptomatic patients tested positive for acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. During the Omicron-predominant period, geometric mean anti-RBD binding antibody concentrations measured 823 BAU/mL (95% CI:690 to 981) among COVID-19 case-patients versus 1,189 BAU/mL (95% CI:1,050 to 1,347) among SARS-CoV-2 test-negative patients. In the adjusted logistic regression, increasing levels of anti-RBD antibodies were associated with reduced odds of COVID-19 for both Delta and Omicron infections. Conclusion: Higher anti-RBD antibodies in patients were associated with protection against symptomatic COVID-19 during emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.23295919v1" target="_blank">Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Levels Associated with COVID-19 Protection in Outpatients Tested for SARS-CoV-2, US Flu VE Network, October 2021 to June 2022</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Intestinal microbiota programming of alveolar macrophages influences severity of respiratory viral infection</strong> -
<div>
Investigating the influence of intestinal microbiota composition on respiratory viral infection (RVI) revealed that segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB), naturally acquired or exogenously administered, protected mice against influenza virus (IAV) infection, as assessed by viral titers, histopathology, and clinical disease features. Such protection, which also applied to RSV and SARS-CoV-2, was independent of interferon and adaptive immunity but required basally resident alveolar macrophages (AM), which, in SFB-negative mice, were quickly depleted as RVI progressed. Examination of AM from SFB-colonized mice revealed that they were intrinsically altered to resist IAV-induced depletion and inflammatory signaling. Yet, AM from SFB-colonized mice were not quiescent. Rather, they directly disabled IAV via enhanced complement production and phagocytosis. Transplant of SFB-transformed AM into SFB-free hosts recapitulated SFB-mediated protection against IAV mechanistically linking intestinal microbiota, AM phenotype, and RVI severity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.558814v1" target="_blank">Intestinal microbiota programming of alveolar macrophages influences severity of respiratory viral infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>TMPRSS2 activation of Omicron lineage Spike glycoproteins is regulated by TMPRSS2 cleavage of ACE2</strong> -
<div>
Continued high levels spread of SARS-CoV-2 globally enabled accumulation of changes within the Spike glycoprotein, leading to resistance to neutralising antibodies and concomitant changes to entry requirements that increased viral transmission fitness. Herein, we demonstrate a significant change in ACE2 and TMPRSS2 use by primary SARS-CoV-2 isolates that occurred upon arrival of Omicron lineages. Mechanistically we show this shift to be a function of two distinct ACE2 pools based on cleavage or non-cleavage of ACE2 by TMPRSS2 activity. In engineered cells overexpressing ACE2 and TMPRSS2, ACE2 was cleaved by TMPRSS2 and this led to either augmentation or progressive attenuation of pre-Omicron and Omicron lineages, respectfully. In contrast, TMPRSS2 resistant ACE2 restored infectivity across all Omicron lineages through enabling ACE2 binding that facilitated TMPRSS2 spike activation. Therefore, our data support the tropism shift of Omicron lineages to be a function of evolution towards the use of uncleaved pools of ACE2 with the latter consistent with its role as a chaperone for many tissue specific amino acid transport proteins.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.22.558930v1" target="_blank">TMPRSS2 activation of Omicron lineage Spike glycoproteins is regulated by TMPRSS2 cleavage of ACE2</a>
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<li><strong>Healthcare system barriers impacting the care of Canadians with myalgic encephalomyelitis: a scoping review</strong> -
<div>
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Background: Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS) is a debilitating, complex, multi-system illness. Developing a comprehensive understanding of the multiple and interconnected barriers to optimal care will help advance strategies and care models to improve quality of life for people living with ME in Canada. Objectives: To: (1) identify and systematically map the available evidence; (2) investigate the design and conduct of research; (3) identify and categorize key characteristics; and (4) identify and analyze knowledge gaps related to healthcare system barriers for people living with ME in Canada. Methods: The protocol was preregistered in July 2022. Peer-reviewed and grey literature was searched, and patient partners retrieved additional records. Eligible records were Canadian, included people with ME/CFS and included data or synthesis relevant to healthcare system barriers. Results: In total, 1821 records were identified, 406 were reviewed in full, and 21 were included. Healthcare system barriers arose from an underlying lack of consensus and research on ME and ME care; the impact of long-standing stigma, disbelief, and sexism; inadequate or inconsistent healthcare provider education and training on ME; and the heterogeneity of care coordinated by family physicians. Conclusions: People living with ME in Canada face significant barriers to care, though this has received relatively limited attention. This synthesis, which points to several areas for future research, can be used as a starting point for researchers, healthcare providers and decision-makers who are new to the area or encountering ME more frequently due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.20.23295809v2" target="_blank">Healthcare system barriers impacting the care of Canadians with myalgic encephalomyelitis: a scoping review</a>
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<li><strong>Spatio-temporal surveillance and early detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern: a retrospective analysis</strong> -
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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been characterized by the repeated emergence of genetically distinct virus variants of increased transmissibility and immune evasion compared to pre-existing lineages. In many countries, their containment required the intervention of public health authorities and the imposition of control measures. While the primary role of testing is to identify infection, target treatment, and limit spread (through isolation and contact tracing), a secondary benefit is in terms of surveillance and the early detection of new variants. Here we study the spatial invasion and early spread of the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron (BA.1 and BA.2) variants in England from September 2020 to February 2022 using the random neighbourhood covering (RaNCover) method. This is a statistical technique for the detection of aberrations in spatial point processes, which we tailored here to community PCR (polymerase-chain-reaction) test data where the TaqPath kit provides a proxy measure of the switch between variants. Retrospectively, RaNCover detected the earliest signals associated with the four novel variants that led to large infection waves in England. With suitable data our method therefore has the potential to rapidly detect outbreaks of future SARS-CoV-2 variants, thus helping to inform targeted public health interventions.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.06.23292295v2" target="_blank">Spatio-temporal surveillance and early detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern: a retrospective analysis</a>
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<li><strong>Human origin ascertained for SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-like spike sequences detected in wastewater: a targeted surveillance study of a cryptic lineage in an urban sewershed</strong> -
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Summary Background: The origin of novel SARS-CoV-2 spike sequences found in wastewater, without corresponding detection in clinical specimens, remains unclear. We sought to determine the origin of one such “cryptic” wastewater lineage by tracking and characterizing its persistence and genomic evolution over time. Methods: We first detected a cryptic lineage in Wisconsin municipal wastewater in January 2022. By systematically sampling wastewater from targeted sub-sewershed lines and maintenance holes using compositing autosamplers, we traced this lineage (labeled WI-CL-001) to its source at a single commercial building. There we detected WI-CL-001 at concentrations as high as 2.7 x 109 genome copies per liter (gc/L) via RT-dPCR. In addition to using metagenomic 12s rRNA sequencing to determine the virus9s host species, we also sequenced SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domains (RBDs), and where possible, whole viral genomes to identify and characterize the evolution of this lineage over the 13 consecutive months that it was detectable. Findings: The vast majority of 12s rRNAs sequenced from wastewater leaving the identified source building were human. Additionally, we generated over 100 viral RBD and whole genome sequences from wastewater samples containing the cryptic lineage collected between January 2022 and January 2023. These sequences contained a combination of fixed nucleotide substitutions characteristic of Pango lineage B.1.234, which circulated in humans in Wisconsin at low levels from October 2020 to February 2021. Despite this, mutations in the spike gene, and elsewhere, resembled those subsequently found in Omicron variants. Interpretation: We propose that prolonged detection of WI-CL-001 in wastewater represents persistent shedding of SARS-CoV-2 from a single human initially infected by an ancestral B.1.234 virus. The accumulation of convergent “Omicron-like” mutations in WI-CL-0019s ancestral B.1.234 genome likely reflects persistent infection and extensive within-host evolution. Funding: The Rockefeller Foundation, Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the Center for Research on Influenza Pathogenesis and Transmission. Research in context Evidence before this study: To identify other studies that characterized unusual wastewater-specific SARS-CoV-2 lineages, we conducted a PubMed search using the keywords “cryptic SARS-CoV-2 lineages” or “novel SARS-CoV-2 lineages” in addition to “wastewater” on May 9, 2023. From the 18 papers retrieved, only two reported wastewater-specific cryptic lineages. These lineages were identified by members of our author team in wastewater from California, Missouri, and New York City. None of these could be definitively traced to a specific source. A third study in Nevada identified a unique recombinant variant (designated Pango lineage XL) in wastewater, which was also discovered in two clinical specimens from the same community. However, it was unclear whether the clinical specimens collected were from the same individual(s) responsible for the virus detected in the wastewater. To our knowledge, no prior study has successfully traced novel SARS-CoV-2 lineages detected in wastewater back to a specific location. How and where cryptic lineages are introduced into wastewater is not known. The added value of this study: This study documents the presence and likely source of a novel and highly divergent cryptic SARS-CoV-2 lineage detected in Wisconsin wastewater for 13 months. In contrast to previously reported cryptic lineages, we successfully traced the lineage (WI-CL-001) to a single commercial building with approximately 30 employees. The exceptionally high viral RNA concentrations at the source building facilitated the tracing effort and allowed for the sequencing of WI-CL-0019s whole genome, expanding our view of the lineage9s mutational landscape beyond the spike gene. Implications of all the available evidence: WI-CL-0019s persistence in wastewater, its heavily mutated Omicron-like genotype, and its identified point source at a human-occupied commercial building all support the hypothesis that cryptic wastewater lineages can arise from persistently infected humans. Because cryptic wastewater lineages have some amino acid changes that subsequently emerge in circulating viruses, increased global monitoring of such lineages could help forecast variants that may arise in the future.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.28.22281553v5" target="_blank">Human origin ascertained for SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-like spike sequences detected in wastewater: a targeted surveillance study of a cryptic lineage in an urban sewershed</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>ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Study of Repurposed Medications - Arm G (Metformin)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Placebo;   Drug: Metformin<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Susanna Naggie, MD;   National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS);   Vanderbilt University Medical Center<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>SA55 Injection: a Potential Therapy for the Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: SA55 Injection;   Other: Placebo for SA55 injection<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Life Sciences Co., Ltd.<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>A Study to Assess the Safety, Tolerability and Preliminary Efficacy of HH-120 for the Treatment of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: HH-120;   Drug: placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Huahui Health<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>Psychosomatic, Physical Activity or Both for Post-covid19 Syndrom</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Exercise Therapy;   Behavioral: Psychotherapy<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hannover Medical School;   Health Insurance Audi BKK;   occupational health service Volkswagen AG;   Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research<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>A Study to Investigate the Prevention of COVID-19 withVYD222 in Adults With Immune Compromise and in Participants Aged 12 Years or Older Who Are at Risk of Exposure to SARS-CoV-2</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: VYD222;   Drug: Normal saline<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Invivyd, Inc.<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>Omicron BA.4/5-Delta COVID-19 Vaccine Phase I Clinical Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Omicron BA.4/5-Delta strain recombinant novel coronavirus protein vaccine (CHO cells);   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy Co., Ltd.;   Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention<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>Reducing COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Hispanic Parents</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Vaccine-Preventable Diseases;   COVID-19 Pandemic;   Health-Related Behavior;   Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice;   Narration<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Baseline surveys;   Behavioral: Digital Storytelling Intervention;   Behavioral: Information Control Intervention<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Arizona State University;   Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)<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>Non-pharmacological and TCM-based Treatment for Long COVID Symptoms</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Acupuncture and TCM-based lifestyle management<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   The Hong Kong Polytechnic University<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>Evaluation of Safety and Immunogenicity of a SARS-CoV-2(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) Booster Vaccine (LEM-mR203)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Infection;   COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Reaction<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: LEM-mR203;   Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Lemonex<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>Cell Therapy With Treg Cells Obtained From Thymic Tissue (thyTreg) to Control the Immune Hyperactivation Associated With COVID-19 (THYTECH2)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Allogeneic thyTreg 5.000.000;   Biological: Allogeneic thyTreg 10.000.000<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañon;   Instituto de Salud Carlos III<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>SA55 Novel Coronavirus Broad-spectrum Neutralizing Antibody Nasal Spray in Health People</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: SA55 nasal spray<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Life Sciences Co., Ltd.<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>A Bioequivalence Trial of Fasting Single Oral STI-1558 Capsule in Healthy Chinese Subjects</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: STI-1558<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Zhejiang ACEA Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.<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>A Study to Determine the Tolerability of Intranasal LMN-301</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: LMN-301<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Lumen Bioscience, Inc.<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>Mind Body Intervention for Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Long COVID;   Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19;   COVID Long-Haul<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Mind Body Intervention #1<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center<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>Safety of Simultaneous mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine With Other Childhood Vaccines in Young Children</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Fever After Vaccination;   Fever;   Seizures Fever<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine;   Biological: Routine Childhood Vaccinations<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Duke University;   Kaiser Permanente;   Columbia University;   Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati;   Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<br/><b>Not yet 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>Heat shock protein 90 inhibition in the endothelium</strong> - No abstract</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>Determinants of <em>de novo</em> B cell responses to drifted epitopes in post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infections</strong> - Vaccine-induced immunity may impact subsequent de novo responses to drifted epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 variants, but this has been difficult to quantify due to the challenges in recruiting unvaccinated control groups whose first exposure to SARS-CoV-2 is a primary infection. Through local, statewide, and national SARS-CoV-2 testing programs, we were able to recruit cohorts of individuals who had recovered from either primary or post-vaccination infections by either the Delta or Omicron BA.1…</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>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 is 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>Complete substitution with modified nucleotides suppresses the early interferon response and increases the potency of self-amplifying RNA</strong> - Self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) will revolutionize vaccines and in situ therapeutics by enabling protein expression for longer duration at lower doses. However, a major barrier to saRNA efficacy is the potent early interferon response triggered upon cellular entry, resulting in saRNA degradation and translational inhibition. Substitution of mRNA with modified nucleotides (modNTPs), such as N1-methylpseudouridine (N1mΨ), reduce the interferon response and enhance expression levels. Multiple attempts…</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>Regulation of human interferon signaling by transposon exonization</strong> - Innate immune signaling is essential for clearing pathogens and damaged cells, and must be tightly regulated to avoid excessive inflammation or autoimmunity. Here, we found that the alternative splicing of exons derived from transposable elements is a key mechanism controlling immune signaling in human cells. By analyzing long-read transcriptome datasets, we identified numerous transposon exonization events predicted to generate functional protein variants of immune genes, including the type I…</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>Modelling and analysis of the complement system signalling pathways: roles of C3, C5a and pro-inflammatory cytokines in SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - The complement system is an essential part of innate immunity. It is activated by invading pathogens causing inflammation, opsonization, and lysis via complement anaphylatoxins, complement opsonin’s and membrane attack complex (MAC), respectively. However, in SARS-CoV-2 infection overactivation of complement system is causing cytokine storm leading to multiple organs damage. In this study, the René Thomas kinetic logic approach was used for the development of biological regulatory network (BRN)…</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>Utility of coproporphyrin-I determination in first-in-human study for early evaluation of OATP1B inhibitory potential based on investigation of ensitrelvir, an oral SARS-CoV-2 3C-like protease inhibitor</strong> - Coproporphyrin-I (CP-I) has been investigated as an endogenous biomarker of organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP) 1B. Here, we determined the CP-I concentrations in a cocktail drug-drug interaction (DDI) study of ensitrelvir to evaluate the OATP1B inhibitory potential because ensitrelvir had increased plasma concentrations of rosuvastatin in this study, raising concerns about breast cancer resistance protein and OATP1B inhibition. Furthermore, CP-I concentrations were compared between…</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>Protection of eIF2B from inhibitory phosphorylated eIF2: a viral strategy to maintain mRNA translation during the PKR-triggered integrated stress response</strong> - The integrated stress response (ISR) protects cells from a variety of insults. Once elicited (e.g. by virus infections), it eventually leads to the block of mRNA translation. Central to the ISR are the interactions between translation initiation factors eIF2 and eIF2B. Under normal conditions, eIF2 drives the initiation of protein synthesis through hydrolysis of GTP, which becomes replenished when binding to the guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) eIF2B. The antiviral branch of the ISR is…</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>Computational analysis of substrate recognition of Sars-Cov-2 Mpro main protease</strong> - M^(pro) main protease takes an essential role in the Sars-Cov-2 viral life cycle by releasing the individual protein from the single poly-peptide chain via proteolytic cleavage in the beginning of the viral infection. Interfering with this step by inhibiting the protease with small compound-based inhibitors has been proven to be an effective strategy to treat the infection. Thus, understanding the substrate recognition mechanism of the M^(pro) main protease has gained great interest from 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>Green synthesis, characterization, anti-SARS-CoV-2 entry, and replication of lactoferrin-coated zinc nanoparticles with halting lung fibrosis induced in adult male albino rats</strong> - The ethanolic extract of Coleus forskohlii Briq leaves was employed in the green synthesis of zinc nanoparticles (Zn-NPs) by an immediate, one-step, and cost-effective method in the present study. Zn-NPs were coated with purified bovine lactoferrin (LF) and characterized through different instrumental analysis. The biosynthesized Zn-NPs were white in color revealing oval to spherical-shaped particles with an average size of 77 ± 5.50 nm, whereas LF-coated Zn-NPs (LF-Zn-NPs) revealed a larger…</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>Age and prior vaccination determine the antibody level in children with primary SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: In our study, children aged 6 months to 2 years have the highest antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infection. Age and prior vaccination are the main factors influencing the immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 infection.</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 Brighton Collaboration standardized template with key considerations for a benefit/risk assessment for the Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine (NVX-CoV2373), a recombinant spike protein vaccine with Matrix-M adjuvant to prevent disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 viruses</strong> - Novavax, a global vaccine company, began evaluating NVX-CoV2373 in human studies in May 2020 and the pivotal placebo-controlled phase 3 studies started in November 2020; five clinical studies provided adult and adolescent clinical data for over 31,000 participants who were administered NVX-CoV2373. This extensive data has demonstrated a well-tolerated response to NVX-CoV2373 and high vaccine efficacy against mild, moderate, or severe COVID-19 using a two-dose series (Dunkle et al., 2022) [1],…</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>Impact of SARS-CoV-2 ORF6 and its variant polymorphisms on host responses and viral pathogenesis</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) encodes several proteins that inhibit host interferon responses. Among these, ORF6 antagonizes interferon signaling by disrupting nucleocytoplasmic trafficking through interactions with the nuclear pore complex components Nup98-Rae1. However, the roles and contributions of ORF6 during physiological infection remain unexplored. We assessed the role of ORF6 during infection using recombinant viruses carrying a deletion or…</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>TGF-β1 reduces the differentiation of porcine IgA-producing plasma cells by inducing IgM<sup>+</sup> B cells apoptosis via Bax/Bcl2-Caspase3 pathway</strong> - Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) performs a critical role in maintaining homeostasis of intestinal mucosa regulation and controls the survival, proliferation, and differentiation of many immune cells. In this study, we discovered that the infection of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), a coronavirus, upregulated TGF-β1 expression via activating Tregs. Besides, recombinant porcine TGF-β1 decreased the percentage of CD21^(+) B cells within the lymphocyte population in vitro. We further…</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>Therapeutic benefits of prophetic medicine remedies in treating hematological diseases (A review article)</strong> - Hematological disorders are common medical ailments constituting an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, which may be managed efficiently using different prophetic medicine remedies as adjuvants to current therapeutics. Prophetic medicine includes the body of knowledge about medicine that has been derived from the deeds, customs (sunnah), ahadith (sayings), actions, and agreements of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. This review article aims at exploring the magnitude of…</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>The Biden Administration’s Next Big Climate Decision</strong> - The liquefied-natural-gas buildout—and fossil-fuel exports—challenge progress on global warming. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-biden-administrations-next-big-climate-decision">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rupert Murdoch Takes a Step Back—Not Away</strong> - Although the media mogul announced that his son Lachlan will become the chair of News Corp. and Fox Corp., he was also careful to quash speculation that he would be retiring. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/rupert-murdoch-takes-a-step-back-not-away">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>House Republicans Refuse to Host Zelensky Because They’re Too Busy Fighting One Another</strong> - Reflections on a day of self-parody on Capitol Hill. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/house-republicans-refuse-to-host-zelensky-because-theyre-too-busy-fighting-one-another">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Soccer Players Restarted Spain’s #MeToo Movement</strong> - A journalist describes the history of feminist activism in Spain and why the World Cup controversy marks a new phase. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-soccer-players-restarted-spains-metoo-movement">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is Trump Just an Ordinary Republican Now?</strong> - The former President’s rhetoric during his recent trip to Iowa wasn’t any tamer, but he no longer sounds distinct from his G.O.P. rivals. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/is-trump-just-an-ordinary-republican-now">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A Supreme Court case about hotel websites could blow up much of US civil rights law</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Gorsuch (left) raises both hands in a gesture. Both men wear black suits. They stand in front of a large window divided by wooden window frames. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BLxlEE5nZr1Kd1IANkN8-W9OE9E=/28x0:2972x2208/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72685415/696327606.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch (left) talks with Chief Justice John Roberts on the steps of the Supreme Court following his official investiture at the Supreme Court on June 15, 2017, in Washington, DC. | Win McNamee/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Supreme Court hears a civil rights case straight out of a right-wing fever dream.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vb9huq">
Deborah Laufer has filed more than 600 different lawsuits — many of which, according to a federal court in Maryland, <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ovgzx8arb8ccyh/21-mc-00014_doc13.pdf?dl=0">appear to follow the same pattern</a>. The defendants are typically small hotels, and Laufer accuses them of failing to comply with a federal regulation requiring that they disclose on their websites whether their rooms are accessible to people with disabilities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vHaDFZ">
She also has a remarkable penchant for hiring ethically challenged lawyers. One, Tristan Gillespie, was suspended from the bar of that same Maryland court, in large part because of a scheme where he would use Laufer’s cases to <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ovgzx8arb8ccyh/21-mc-00014_doc13.pdf?dl=0">squeeze money out of these hotels for work that he never did</a>. Another, Thomas Bacon, was, according to the court, Gillespie’s “boss” and the mastermind of a “<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ovgzx8arb8ccyh/21-mc-00014_doc13.pdf?dl=0">scheme that raises serious ethical concerns</a>.” Another former lawyer, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.med.59123/gov.uscourts.med.59123.1.0.pdf">Daniel Ruggiero</a>, was recently <a href="https://www.padisciplinaryboard.org/for-the-public/find-attorney/attorney-detail/312849">forbidden from practicing law for a year</a> due to an unrelated scheme <a href="https://bbopublic.massbbo.org/web/f/BD-2023-006.pdf">targeting homeowners with unpaid mortgage bills</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ILi3Pc">
<a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/acheson-hotels-llc-v-laufer/"><em>Acheson Hotels v. Laufer</em></a>, one of Laufer’s many cases, is now before the <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a>. (The case will be argued on October 4.) It reads like the sort of horror story that business lobbyists tell lawmakers in order to sell them on tort reform. It involves a perennial plaintiff and lawyers who appear to have profited from a scheme to shake down small business owners — at least one of whom, Gillespie, is the subject of a <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ovgzx8arb8ccyh/21-mc-00014_doc13.pdf?dl=0">blistering federal court opinion disciplining him for unethical behavior</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XriPGt">
But behind the absurd facts underlying the case are fairly high stakes. They involve “testers,” civil rights plaintiffs who volunteer to face discrimination so that someone may challenge a discriminatory business’s behavior in court. There are very good reasons why Laufer — whose many lawsuits more than push the limits of the federal courts’ jurisdiction — should not be allowed to file these suits. But, in the worst-case scenario for civil rights advocates, a Supreme Court dominated by conservative Republicans may not only shut down Laufer’s vast array of lawsuits. They may also do considerable harm to civil rights writ large.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rD15Cn">
It’s hard to assess how likely this outcome is, beyond the fact that the current crop of justices frequently <a href="https://www.vox.com/23180634/supreme-court-rule-of-law-abortion-voting-rights-guns-epa">changes the law to benefit conservative causes</a>. But there is, at least, a real risk that a majority of the justices are so angered by Laufer’s blizzard of lawsuits, and by the behavior of some of her lawyers, that they hand down a far-too-sweeping decision cutting off many meritorious challenges to discrimination.
</p>
<h3 id="qDamWr">
“Testers,” briefly explained
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oQC1dr">
In <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/455/363.html"><em>Havens Realty v. Coleman</em></a> (1982), the Supreme Court considered a fairly ordinary case involving “tester” plaintiffs. A civil rights organization sent two individuals, one Black and one white, to “test” whether two apartment complexes would discriminate between these two individuals. Sure enough, the white tester was told that apartments were available for rent, while the Black tester was allegedly lied to and told that no units were available.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EHUJgS">
As a general rule, no one is allowed to file a federal lawsuit <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/17/22538462/supreme-court-obamacare-california-texas-stephen-breyer-standing-individual-mandate-constitution">unless they have been injured in some way</a> by the defendant they are suing — a requirement known as “standing.” <em>Havens Realty</em> held that the Black tester had standing to sue the apartment complexes because she was allegedly treated differently than white testers, a classic case of racial discrimination.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ko9ahf">
These testers are often the best, or even the only, way to smoke out discrimination that may otherwise go undetected or unsanctioned. Most families that inquire about renting an apartment will simply walk away if they are told that none are available. Even if they suspect discrimination, moreover, they are unlikely to be able to prove it unless they happen to know about a family of a different race that received a different response from the same landlord. And even if they are sure that they were turned away unlawfully, they may not be willing or able to track down a lawyer and file a lawsuit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8mJrW1">
Laufer, for her part, claims she is no different than the testers in the <em>Havens Realty</em> case.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8NuqJH">
A <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/28/36.302">federal regulation</a>, known as the “Reservation Rule,” requires hotel websites to “identify and describe accessible features in the hotels and guest rooms offered through its reservations service in enough detail to reasonably permit individuals with disabilities to assess independently whether a given hotel or guest room meets his or her accessibility needs.” Not all hotels are actually required to offer accessible rooms, but this regulation is supposed to ensure that no one books a room and travels to a faraway town, only to learn that they cannot use the room they’ve booked.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eDtPTS">
Laufer’s brief describes her as a “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-429/274500/20230802150335267_No%2022-429%20Acheson%20Hotels%20v.%20Laufer%20Respondents%20Brief%20Filed.pdf">Reservation Rule ‘tester’</a>” who “tests online hotel reservation systems for compliance independent of travel plans, and then seeks injunctions requiring noncompliant hotels to abide by the Rule.” Essentially, she searches the internet for hotel websites that don’t comply with the Reservation Rule, and then files lawsuits against hotels that do not adequately lay out how accessible their rooms are.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cxutDM">
Significantly, Laufer does not appear to have any intention to actually stay in most of these hotels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="agH6cX">
The lawyers representing her in the Supreme Court (who, to be clear, are not the same lawyers who’ve been accused of unethical behavior while representing her) argue that Laufer’s actions are “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-429/274500/20230802150335267_No%2022-429%20Acheson%20Hotels%20v.%20Laufer%20Respondents%20Brief%20Filed.pdf">legally indistinguishable from the standing challenge this Court rejected in <em>Havens Realty</em></a>.” Similarly to Laufer, the testers in <em>Havens Realty</em> “had no intent to rent an apartment in the complex, but rather inquired for the purpose of testing whether the realtor would provide her with accurate information.” And yet the Supreme Court determined that these testers had standing to sue in <em>Havens Realty</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jtkr7r">
But there is one very important difference between Laufer and the <em>Havens Realty</em> testers. The Supreme Court has long held that litigants do not have standing to raise “<a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14691052534062892510&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6,47&amp;as_vis=1">generalized grievances</a>” in federal court — that is, a federal plaintiff must not only assert that the defendant has injured them in some way, they must also allege that they’ve been injured in some way that is not shared by the public at large. As the Court put it in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10150124802357408838&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr"><em>Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife</em></a> (1992), this injury must be “particularized.” It must be specific to the actual plaintiff.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fnovCU">
In <em>Havens Realty</em>, the Black tester made an inquiry to a specific landlord and was allegedly lied to because of her race. That’s a particularized injury, specific to this one individual, and not shared by other people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GwTHT7">
Laufer, by contrast, alleges that she is unable to find information online that is also unavailable to everyone else in the world. Thus, under cases like <em>Lujan</em>, she does not have standing to bring her lawsuits, absent something more.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="01sgwc">
There should be no question, in other words, that the Supreme Court will dismiss the <em>Acheson</em> <em>Hotels</em> case because Laufer lacks standing. The question is whether the Court will use this case as a vehicle to roll back standing for testers who bring stronger cases where, like the Black tester in <em>Havens Realty</em>, they experienced an injury that isn’t shared with millions of other people.
</p>
<h3 id="M1dujK">
This dispute over Reservation Rule testers exists because of a poorly drafted statute
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qxpDDg">
Because the Constitution does not permit federal courts to hear cases where the plaintiff lacks standing, Laufer’s case must be dismissed. But such a decision is likely to take an already weak regime protecting travelers with disabilities and make it even weaker. Indeed, the reason why Laufer filed so many lawsuits — and why some of her lawyers may have behaved unscrupulously in order to make sure they got paid for representing her — most likely lies in a poorly drafted provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act that gives disabled travelers few good options to deal with hotels that flout the Reservation Rule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bQrEIr">
The ADA permits a plaintiff challenging a violation of this rule to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/12188">obtain an injunction requiring a non-compliant hotel to fix its website</a>, and it allows that plaintiff to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/2000a-3">have their attorney’s fees paid by the defendant</a> if the plaintiff prevails in court. But the plaintiff may not obtain money damages if they prevail.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0EciEG">
Thus, a hypothetical disabled plaintiff who flies across the country, only to discover that their hotel cannot provide them with an accessible room, will get nothing. They will not be reimbursed for the cost or inconvenience of finding a new room, or for the humiliation of being turned away from a hotel that promised to give them shelter. At most, they might obtain an injunction requiring the hotel to update its website in the future. (Because of the <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/461/95/">strict rules limiting who is entitled to seek an injunction</a> in federal court, they might not even be entitled to that limited relief.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uH7r0W">
As Laufer’s current legal team argues in its brief to the Supreme Court, “because Title III[ of the ADA’s] private cause of action is limited to injunctive relief, suing to enforce the Reservation Rule is essentially useless to a disabled traveler who encounters a noncompliant reservation website while looking for a room based on imminent travel plans, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-429/274500/20230802150335267_No%2022-429%20Acheson%20Hotels%20v.%20Laufer%20Respondents%20Brief%20Filed.pdf">as no injunction could be entered in time to help</a>.” Laufer says that, as a tester, she hopes to mitigate this problem by pressuring hotels to fix their websites in advance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LXO5A4">
Meanwhile, lawyers who represent ADA plaintiffs need to get paid, and there’s little honest money to be made representing plaintiffs seeking to enforce the Reservation Rule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v5pnpH">
Consider the scheme that led to attorney Tristan Gillespie, who represented Laufer in hundreds of her lawsuits, <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ovgzx8arb8ccyh/21-mc-00014_doc13.pdf?dl=0">being suspended by a federal court</a>. According to an investigation conducted by that court, Gillespie filed hundreds of nearly identical lawsuits against noncompliant hotels, and then immediately sent them letters offering to settle the entire case for “<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ovgzx8arb8ccyh/21-mc-00014_doc13.pdf?dl=0">a flat attorney fee of $10,000</a>.” But Gillespie did not do anywhere near $10,000 worth of legal work in each of these cases. He mostly just “plug[ed] the hotel information into a template complaint, allowing him to generate pleadings at a rapid pace.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z3hKaX">
As the investigation determined, “<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ovgzx8arb8ccyh/21-mc-00014_doc13.pdf?dl=0">Gillespie routinely bills ‘at least 3.9 [hours] of attorney time’</a>” for performing this very brief task. “On the day that Gillespie filed sixteen cases, Gillespie represented in three subsequent fee petitions that he spent 4.9 hours, 4.9 hours, and 3.9 hours drafting the complaints, for a total of 13.7 billable hours.” It’s simply not credible that he spent anywhere near this amount of time on these cases.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NwQMJu">
At the same time, however, if lawyers don’t inflate their fees then it’s unlikely that they will be willing to represent plaintiffs bringing Reservation Rule cases — because they will be paid virtually nothing for each case. Scrupulous lawyers figure out very quickly that they cannot earn a living litigating Reservation Rule cases, and so the rule goes largely unenforced.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vb5rug">
The ADA’s weak remedies for Reservation Rule violations, in other words, basically guarantee that either the rule will not be enforced at all, or, at least, that it will be enforced largely through lawsuits filed by lawyers willing to act — shall we say, “creatively” — to ensure that they get paid. Plaintiffs who are actually injured by a rule violation have little incentive to sue, and good lawyers have no incentive to represent such plaintiffs because they will earn barely any money for doing so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0wVOEF">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a> could fix this imbalance by allowing injured plaintiffs to seek money damages. Or it could fund a team of lawyers and investigators at the Justice Department who could file their own suits challenging violations of the Reservation Rule. Until that happens, however, the rule is likely to remain a paper tiger.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8AIgNm">
Again, none of that changes the fact that, under the Constitution, Laufer does not have standing to bring hundreds of different lawsuits against hotels she never plans to visit. But the absurd facts underlying <em>Acheson</em> <em>Hotels</em> did not arise from sheer random happenstance. They are the result of a poorly designed policy.
</p>
<h3 id="6PzxGA">
Why shouldn’t the courts just let this one slide?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QkOLWO">
Because a decision denying standing to Laufer could render the Reservation Rule even more toothless than it already is, it’s worth asking why the courts shouldn’t just loosen the rules governing standing to ensure that disabled travelers have some meaningful protection. What’s the value in policing the rules governing standing, if doing so turns important legal protections into something much more hollow?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cvH3rt">
One answer is that disabled plaintiffs like Deborah Laufer aren’t the only people pushing the limits of federal courts’ jurisdiction right now. And, if the Supreme Court takes a too-expansive approach to standing, the benefactors are unlikely to be civil rights plaintiffs and their lawyers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q1iPQ0">
Consider <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/17/22538462/supreme-court-obamacare-california-texas-stephen-breyer-standing-individual-mandate-constitution"><em>California v. Texas</em></a><em> </em>(2021), a case where a notoriously partisan judge <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/2/21147037/obamacare-supreme-court-texas-john-roberts">attempted to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act</a>. The plaintiffs’ legal theory in <em>Texas</em> was truly audacious. They claimed that a provision of <a href="https://www.vox.com/obamacare">Obamacare</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/17/22538462/supreme-court-obamacare-california-texas-stephen-breyer-standing-individual-mandate-constitution">that literally does nothing at all</a> is unconstitutional, and that the proper remedy for this alleged constitutional violation is to strike down the Affordable Care Act in its entirety.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xd5HeD">
While several lower court judges took this argument far more seriously than it deserved, seven justices did not. These justices correctly realized that no one has standing to file a lawsuit challenging a statutory provision that does nothing, because <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/17/22538462/supreme-court-obamacare-california-texas-stephen-breyer-standing-individual-mandate-constitution">no one is injured by a statutory provision that does nothing</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UEAq5j">
Take away the rule that federal plaintiffs may not bring generalized grievances, however, and it’s unclear that the Supreme Court reached the correct result. If Laufer can sue because she worries about hotels that might harm other disabled people, why can’t anti-Obamacare plaintiffs file similar lawsuits because they worry that this law is bad for the country?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V5CwUD">
Similarly, consider Judge James Ho’s concurring opinion in <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca5.213145/gov.uscourts.ca5.213145.506860229.1.pdf"><em>Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA</em></a> (2023), the case where several right-wing judges attempted to ban the <a href="https://www.vox.com/abortion">abortion</a> drug <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/4/10/23677220/texas-abortion-pills-usa-updates-mifepristone-misoprostol-kacsmaryk">mifepristone</a>. Ho claimed that anti-abortion doctors have standing to challenge the FDA’s approval of this drug because “doctors delight in working with their unborn patients — and <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/23841718/edgelord-federal-judiciary-james-ho-fifth-circuit-abortion-guns">experience an aesthetic injury when they are aborted</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1nbX4W">
<em>Alliance</em> is a quintessential case involving a generalized grievance. It is a lawsuit filed by anti-abortion doctors who are mad that abortions exist, and who want the courts to make them harder to obtain. But, under Ho’s theory, these doctors can sue based solely on their belief that a world with abortions in it is more ugly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mDsHSm">
The point is that, if the courts start relaxing the rules governing standing to benefit disabled plaintiffs like Laufer, many litigants will take advantage of those new rules — including litigants who want to use the courts to impose their right-wing views on the rest of the country. And, in a judiciary controlled by Republicans, these reactionary plaintiffs are far more likely to prevail than someone seeking to make the hotel industry more friendly to disabled travelers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5VFVMs">
Historically, Democratic judicial appointees have tended to support more expansive theories of standing, while Republican appointees have tended towards making it hard to file federal lawsuits. In the past, this alignment made sense because the Democratic coalition includes civil rights lawyers, and other plaintiff-side advocates who both benefit from expansive standing rules and hope to use these rules to vindicate the rights of the most vulnerable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cMLuoV">
But, as Ho’s <em>Alliance</em> opinion and the <em>Texas</em> litigation suggests, this partisan alignment is shifting. As University of Virginia law professor Richard Re <a href="https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=404002065095090005118025074105098031102074091084049053125004109000112104122125030025056004106123018045005086071086111017070097107034037021035124004067018001078095073047083085005095065115002070066093091004079018109024123096029125017113075012097081078&amp;EXT=pdf&amp;INDEX=TRUE">notes in a recent paper</a>, Justice Samuel Alito, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22545464/supreme-court-winners-losers-democracy-voting-rights-obamacare-republican-samuel-alito">most reliable Republican partisan on the Supreme Court</a>, “may be a more likely vote for standing than, say, [liberal] Justice Kagan.” Many Republican-appointed judges are <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/2/23706535/supreme-court-chevron-deference-loper-bright-raimondo">eager to expand the power of the federal judiciary</a>, now that they control it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tWi1zz">
Re also asks whether liberals and conservatives are experiencing a “standing realignment,” where the former push for tighter restrictions on who can file a federal lawsuit as those lawsuits increasingly become tools of the right.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dzAapd">
It’s probably too soon to predict whether such a realignment will occur. For now, the civil rights bar appears to be <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-429/274925/20230809095019333_FINAL%202023.08.09%20-%20Laufer%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf">standing up for Laufer’s expansive standing theory</a>, and plaintiff-side lawyers remain a strong presence in Democratic politics — and will <a href="https://www.vox.com/22233051/biden-courts-republican-trump-supreme-court-judicial-nominations-senate-dick-durbin">likely play an outsize role in helping Democratic presidents choose judges</a> for the foreseeable future.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z8Nyyc">
But if judges push broad theories of standing, the biggest winners are not likely to be disabled people like Laufer. They are much more likely to be the far-right advocates behind cases like <em>Texas</em> and <em>Alliance</em>.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The extraordinary need for disaster warning systems, explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A house damaged by Hurricane Maria stands in Grand Bay, Dominica, on Thursday, May 10, 2018." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lwL3XB2S2hgonrq2Tid56R01Wcs=/51x0:2718x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72685330/GettyImages_989899348.0.jpeg"/>
<figcaption>
After severe damage from Hurricane Maria, the Caribbean island of Dominica is building up an early warning system to protect residents from disasters. | Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
This tiny Caribbean country shows why early warnings are an essential climate change adaptation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V83ulf">
WOTTEN WAVEN, Dominica — This lush, leafy village of 200 residents, known for its hot springs, is less than 6 miles from the shore, but when Hurricane Maria battered the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica in 2017 with winds reaching <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/maria-landfall-dominica-category-5/story?id=49923831">160 miles per hour</a>, the residents here were cut off from the rest of the world for weeks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tVmL0h">
Though regional forecasts showed that a storm was brewing a day before landfall, many people in the region had no idea that it would turn into a monster. Maria erupted from Category 1 strength to <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/10/10/590">Category 5 in just 15 hours</a>. The Dominican government issued a <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/dominica/post-disaster-needs-assessment-hurricane-maria-september-18-2017">public advisory</a> over radio, text message, and social media warning of the approaching storm’s sudden strength just 1 hour and 15 minutes ahead of its landfall. Many residents without radios, phones, or computers didn’t get a warning at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I042uB">
Dominica is a rocky, jungle-covered island with about 70,000 residents, and Wotten Waven is nestled in the caldera of one of its nine volcanoes. Getting there from the capital Roseau on the coast requires driving up and down stomach-churning switchback roads. When Maria’s high winds and heavy rain quickly caused water, mud, and downed trees to block the few roads into the village, it meant help couldn’t get in and residents couldn’t get out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hkQTxY">
It also cut off phone and internet access to the village, so when a resident had a medical emergency after the storm, a local hobbyist stepped in. “An amateur radio operator used his handheld radio to call headquarters,” said Clement Pierre-Louis, the deputy chair for community disaster response in Wotten Waven. “They sent a helicopter, picked him up, took him to the hospital in town, and immediately he was flown overseas, where he had surgery for a heart attack.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Two men in t-shirts and baseball caps in front of flowering trees." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Jb86Oj94cy9mn0eSCv0Oa6J-Eho=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24944996/DSC08116.jpeg"/> <cite>Umair Irfan/Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
Rudolph George (left) and Clement Pierre-Louis in Wotten Waven describe their efforts to protect residents from future storms.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KFBPlv">
Maria ultimately <a href="https://wrd.unwomen.org/node/134">killed 65 people</a> on the island, damaged more than 90 percent of homes, and caused <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2017/11/28/a-360-degree-look-at-dominica-post-hurricane-maria">$1.3 billion in damages</a>, equal to 224 percent of the country’s GDP. Maria continues to haunt Dominicans as many still live in homes damaged by the storm. But it’s also given residents more resolve to prepare for future calamities, deploying more sophisticated tools as well as some traditional methods — from real-time weather stations to conch shells — to predict and communicate dangers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l0eKJ8">
Recent extreme weather events continue to reveal the dangers of inadequate warnings, and not just for small island states. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/2023/8/14/23831460/hawaii-fires-maui-wildfires-death-toll-search-rescue-missing">wildfire on Maui</a> amid a severe drought this past August <a href="https://apnews.com/article/maui-hawaii-wildfire-death-toll-3dc505d4d83b6af5ee01fdaf173c4f01">killed 97 people</a>. It was the deadliest wildfire in the US in more than a century, in part because the fire spread so quickly and because the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/12/us/warning-sirens-never-sounded-maui.html">emergency warning systems on the island didn’t sound</a>. A sudden storm in Libya this month killed close to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/libya-floods-death-toll-revised-chaotic-response/story?id=103299845">4,000 people</a> as it burst dams and triggered flash floods, leaving residents little time to get to safety. And <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/23389508/hurricane-ian-death-toll-storm-florida-landfall-climate">Hurricane Ian</a> last year became the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/07/hurricane-ian-deadliest-florida">deadliest storm</a> to hit Florida since 1935 when it <a href="https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/weather/2023-02-04/ian-death-toll-up-to-149">killed at least 149 people</a>. Ian <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2022/9/28/23376761/hurricane-ian-rapid-intensification-climate-change">rapidly intensified</a> and changed course before landfall, so evacuation alerts were issued too late for some residents.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2optUU">
Yet over the course of the last century, disaster fatalities in general declined, despite more frequent weather extremes and growing populations. According to the <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/weather-related-disasters-increase-over-past-50-years-causing-more-damage-fewer">World Meteorological Organization</a> (WMO), the number of disasters over the last 50 years has increased fivefold, but the number of deaths has fallen by almost two-thirds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="06SkWS">
Better predictions and warnings about impending catastrophes are a huge driver of this trend, and international aid groups are hoping to use these tools to drive down deaths further. “Just 24 hours’ notice of an impending hazardous event can cut the ensuing damage by 30 percent,” Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the WMO, <a href="https://library.wmo.int/records/item/58209-early-warnings-for-all">wrote in a report last year</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Iqh5SA">
But one-third of humanity — mainly in developing countries and in small island states — does not have adequate early warning coverage, according to the <a href="https://library.wmo.int/records/item/58209-early-warnings-for-all">United Nations</a>. Dominica is now part of a <a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/press_release_mdb_joint_statement_on_ew4all.pdf">$3.1 billion</a> UN campaign launched last year to ensure that everyone in the world is protected by a disaster early warning system by 2027. For island countries and remote communities with little room to retreat and few resources to fall back on, these systems are even more critical.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Rooftops amid a forested hillside" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yjoOxoz_DDZmT62zQVEkbFAbrFU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24945108/PXL_20230516_193510268.jpeg"/> <cite>Umair Irfan/Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
Wotten Waven is nestled in the caldera of one of Dominica’s nine volcanoes.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gd7G2z">
Across Dominica, the government, development banks, nonprofits, and ordinary residents are working to ensure that no one is caught off-guard when the next cyclone spools up, becoming a laboratory whose findings will inform the <a href="https://resourcewatch.org/data/explore/Populations-in-Coastal-Zones?section=Discover&amp;selectedCollection=&amp;zoom=3&amp;lat=0&amp;lng=0&amp;pitch=0&amp;bearing=0&amp;basemap=dark&amp;labels=light&amp;layers=%255B%257B%2522dataset%2522%253A%2522995ec4fe-b3cc-4cf4-bd48-b89d4e3ea072%2522%252C%2522opacity%2522%253A1%252C%2522layer%2522%253A%25222e533124-3258-4ec2-a777-beed1712d1a0%2522%257D%255D&amp;aoi=&amp;page=1&amp;sort=most-viewed&amp;sortDirection=-1">40 percent of humanity</a> that lives within 60 miles of a coastline.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nc2e1G">
Still, with average temperatures rising, many disasters are reaching greater scales and into regions where humanity has never experienced them before. Warmer air is making hurricanes dish out <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-and-global-precipitation">more rain</a> and hotter water, which fuels sea level rise and in turn leads to more destructive <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/9/9/16278822/storm-surge-danger-hurricane-florence">storm surges</a>. “We know for sure with <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a>, things are going to get a lot worse. And we’ve got to prepare for the worst,” said Rudolph George, a disaster coordinator in Wotten Waven.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mCHEAv">
Despite vast improvements in weather forecasting, recent disasters have shown intense wind, rain, waves, and heat can still catch people by surprise. More people are living in vulnerable areas too. And when a hurricane or wildfire is bearing down, a warning is only the first step; people need the resources to act on those warnings and to recover in the aftermath in order to save lives. Dominica is aiming to become a <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dominica-on-track-to-be-worlds-first-climate-resilient-nation">climate-resilient nation</a>, but the true test of its warning system will be the next major hurricane, and it’s only a matter of time before the next one lands on its shore.
</p>
<h3 id="TpE53M">
Dominica is preparing for the next major hurricane, but is still reeling from the last one
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kuwdXt">
Warning people about impending disasters in a country like Dominica requires tracking multiple threats and deploying many different communication strategies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OtdWzd">
Dominica has 365 rivers, so when a tropical storm rolls in, fast-rising water levels are often an early sign of floods and mudslides in a region. A big part of Dominica’s revamped early warning system is deploying rain gauges and water level monitors throughout the island and teaching local response managers to interpret the data. Working with the World Bank, Dominica recently inaugurated 34 hydrology and meteorology stations to get more precise local forecasts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XHDCK3">
“These were constructed to allow Dominica to access real-time weather information, and document it and transmit it to the <a href="https://www.weather.gov.dm/">Met Services Office</a> that can then feed into a potential early warning system,” said Mary Boyer, a disaster risk management specialist at the World Bank. “Until the system was put in place, they were relying on Guadeloupe for weather information, and other French islands.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zYj30f">
The next challenge is conveying the potential threats to the community and giving them practical advice. “Not everyone understands the jargon of the weather report,” said Sandra Charter-Rolle, director-general of the Dominica Red Cross.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="People sitting at a conference table" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/I1UbMqwcEMwv1nFQZu1Q-u1woWg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24945023/Redcross_Breifing_1.jpeg"/> <cite>Kreig Harris/UN Foundation</cite>
<figcaption>
Sandra Charter-Rolle of the Dominica Red Cross (center) describes the various tactics people on the island use to warn of disasters.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mq1Mas">
And when an emergency does occur, towns and villages send signals over multiple channels — radio, text message alerts, social media. “In some communities, they will use the church bells, they will use the conch shells, something that will alert the residents because not everybody can listen to the radio, or even have social media,” Charter-Rolle said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2cL4ba">
In Wotten Waven, residents formalized an ad hoc system of knocking on doors to alert neighbors and recruited local amateur radio operators to send alerts when official channels go down, effectively deputizing the whole village as emergency responders for the next hurricane. “We deal with incidents when all other communication has failed,” said Pierre-Louis. “To prepare better for next time, we must ensure that all people are involved.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cp3x73">
Once a warning does go out, Dominicans can get to work. “Preparation would look like bringing boats ashore, boarding up windows, stocking up on food supplies, knowing the shelters that they can evacuate to if need be, even stocking up on medication,” said Christine John of the Dominica Red Cross.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8ujgOQ">
In 2020, Dominica completed two dedicated <a href="https://odm.gov.dm/projects/regional-emergency-shelters/">regional emergency shelters</a> where residents can stay during a major hurricane. The country is also upgrading its building codes in line with its <a href="https://www.oecs.org/climate-&amp;-disaster-resilience/">neighbors in the Caribbean</a> and ensuring that there are schools, churches, or offices in every community that can also protect people during an intense storm. The Dominican government has built <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/14/1180477017/dominica-recovers-hurricane-maria-2017">more than 7,000 homes since Hurricane Maria</a> using revised construction codes and upgraded materials, but there are still residents whose houses are missing walls or roofs from the storm.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A brick building on the side of the road near sunset." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cgV-NhjEmFb6O-LlF9BlR0XY2LQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24945007/PXL_20230519_214736179.jpeg"/> <cite>Umair Irfan/Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
The Layou Regional Emergency Shelter in Dominica was built as a retreat for residents during severe weather.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AmiEYr">
Wotten Waven also bears some scars from the 2017 storm. “The main access road to the community is still blocked from Hurricane Maria, so they’re using bypass roads, alternative routes to get to that community,” Charter-Rolle said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9SaZHA">
Many of Dominica’s challenges are playing out in the <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/island-countries">48 island countries</a> of the world, but also remote coastal regions. These places also face their own unique threats and will have to examine their own hard lessons from past disasters to stay ahead of future emergencies.
</p>
<h3 id="CmA8yB">
Early warning systems are only one part of reducing deaths from disasters
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VRrQUn">
The foundation for reducing disaster fatalities must be built well before the catastrophe occurs, and in some cases, there is no other choice. Earthquakes, for example, are notoriously difficult to predict, like the magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Morocco earlier this month that killed at least <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02880-3">2,800 people</a>. But scientists know which parts of the world are <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/21/16339522/earthquakes-morocco-turkey-syria-explained-science">most likely to experience tremors</a> even if they don’t know exactly when they will occur.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wxst9d">
From this information, governments can enact building codes that allow structures to withstand quakes and save lives. Seismically active regions like Japan require building designs to withstand shaking but in some earthquake-prone places like Turkey, officials have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-2023-turkey-syria-earthquake-government-istanbul-fbd6af578a6056569879b5ef6c55d322">struggled to police builders</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SxVKuT">
Similarly, researchers can monitor trends like sea level rise and ocean temperatures to figure out which areas face the greatest chances of getting hammered by a tropical cyclone or inundated by storm surge. That can yield insight into how to build a home, how tall to make a seawall, or where it makes sense to retreat. But this too depends on the money and the political will to enforce the rules.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EHg6BR">
Dominica is currently working to stabilize the main road that crosses the island to ensure access to villages further inland in the wake of a major hurricane. “The [World] Bank is working with the government to make that road the most resilient in Dominica, in terms of slope stabilization, and other bioengineering — a mix of nature-based solutions and great infrastructure — so that road stays there for the next 50 years,” Boyer said.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A worker&amp;nbsp;repairs the roof of a house damaged by Hurricane Maria in Layou, Dominica, on Tuesday, May 8, 2018." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GDcgz8O0oRwnpOiqS7poY2vUd_4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24945010/GettyImages_989901366.jpeg"/> <cite>Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
After Hurricane Maria, Dominica imposed new building codes and built thousands of homes, but many residents still live in houses bearing damage from the storm.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nxqs6L">
And the need for warnings and communication doesn’t end when the ground stops shaking or when the winds die down. Oftentimes, the rubble of an earthquake or the floodwaters after a hurricane can be more dangerous than the event itself, leading to injuries and illnesses. Warning people about whether water is drinkable, where downed power lines are still energized, and where roads are impassable can prevent further casualties and route emergency services more effectively.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1E0HdV">
All the while, the global climate is changing, increasing catastrophic risks around the world. The rising concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere may be the most important early warning of the threats in store for the planet. But with most countries remaining <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23864312/climate-change-stocktake-cop28-dubai">far off course from their climate change goals</a>, it’s a warning that many are already tuning out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CKner4">
<em>This story was supported by a grant from the United Nations Foundation. </em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q6rszR">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dihFwS">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The Hollywood writers strike may finally be ending</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Writers Walk The Picket Line During The WGA Strike At Netflix" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MU84lo_aKwGJJT7Gj2jvyqSswlI=/307x0:5076x3577/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72684921/1498534184.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The longest labor strike in Hollywood history may be ending. | Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
What to know about the WGA’s tentative deal to end the longest labor stoppage in the industry’s history.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wgRhGk">
Hollywood’s longest and most costly <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/7/13/23794036/sag-strike-2023-wga-updates">labor strikes</a> may finally be coming to an end.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fDUY0H">
Late in the day on Sunday, September 24 – after 146 days of labor stoppage, the longest strike in Hollywood history by a long shot – the WGA, which represents Hollywood’s writers, and the AMPTP, an association of Hollywood’s largest studios and production companies, announced that an agreement had been reached.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zhz5AA">
According to an announcement sent to members by the WGA leadership on Sunday night, the union “reached a tentative agreement on a new 2023 MBA, which is to say an agreement in principle on all deal points, subject to drafting final contract language.”
</p>
<aside id="X1Xtim">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<h3 id="oA2uAp">
What does the agreement say?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hOCt0t">
We don’t know yet, but we likely will in the coming days. According to the WGA’s announcement, “We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional—with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bKiJZF">
What we know is that the WGA’s pattern of demands included cost-of-living to writers’ minimum salaries, residuals, working conditions, hiring practices, and the potential use of artificial intelligence to get around the need to hire and pay writers. There’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23696617/writers-strike-wga-2023-explained-residuals-streaming-ai">more to say</a>, but in general the demands are designed to protect writers from the severe hit to pay and job stability that’s come along with the pivot to streaming and the potential further changes from the advent of generative AI. SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents the actors, put forward a similar set of demands.
</p>
<h3 id="xiENuU">
Does this mean the writers aren’t on strike?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yE6M18">
There’s light at the end of the tunnel, but this isn’t all buttoned up yet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uvcFZ0">
According to the WGA, once a memorandum of understanding is established between the AMPTP and the WGA, the negotiating committee will vote on whether to recommend the agreement to the union’s leadership. If the leadership authorizes a vote to ratify the contract, then membership will vote.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tAAGHy">
At that time, the leadership will also vote on whether to end the strike. “This would allow writers to return to work during the ratification vote, but would not affect the membership’s right to make a final determination on contract approval,” the WGA’s message explained.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vwPIEH">
The union will suspend picketing immediately, but writers will not return to work until the leadership ends the strike. (The union encouraged WGA members to join the SAG-AFTRA picket lines in the meantime.) The leadership is scheduled to vote on Tuesday, September 26.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yj2iUp">
This timeline is similar to the events ending the last strike, which happened 15 years ago. The WGA and AMPTP held their final meeting on February 9, 2008 and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/show-tracker/story/2008-02-09/wga-announces-tentative-deal">reached a tentative deal</a>. The WGA filed a strike termination two days later, on February 11, and the next day, the writers voted to end the strike. The WGA then ratified the new contract two weeks later, on February 26. Members could reject the deal, but it’s very unlikely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1qbeG9">
On the AMPTP side, there’s no vote to be had — the offer is the offer.
</p>
<h3 id="P9gy25">
Are the actors in SAG-AFTRA still on strike?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wp6umy">
Yes. The SAG-AFTRA strike is separate from the WGA strike, and until an agreement is reached between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA, the actors remain on strike. Most production, for obvious reasons, can’t resume until that strike ends.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YK07xk">
However, the WGA’s agreement with the AMPTP historically sets the template for Hollywood’s other trade unions. The DGA (which represents directors) already <a href="https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/dga-ratification-vote-amptp-1235653169/">ratified their agreement in June</a>, averting their own strike. But whatever’s in the WGA’s agreement will likely help set the tone for a SAG-AFTRA’s agreement, and we can expect to see them back at the bargaining table soon.
</p>
<h3 id="ncsLDq">
Does this mean everything’s going to go back to normal?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pK8vBO">
No. TV and film production doesn’t happen overnight, and while it will likely ramp up rapidly once the actors come back to work, the lengthy strike has caused inevitable delays and hiccups.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nhzz0M">
The fall TV schedule, for instance, is largely full of reality and game shows; we won’t see a return to “normal” for a while. However, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/9/19/23880858/drew-barrymore-show-writers-strike-backlash-apology">talk shows such as Drew Barrymore’s</a> can now return to the air without risking censure from the WGA. Similarly, late night talk shows (such as those helmed by Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers) <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/late-night-talk-shows-return-post-wga-strike-1235733847/">are likely to return</a> by early October.<strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6BCLhe">
It seems unlikely that movies like <em>Dune: Part Two</em>, which was pushed into 2024, will be pulled back onto the 2023 schedule once actors and writers are permitted by their unions to promote work again. But once SAG-AFTRA’s strike ends, risks of further delays will drop off.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZFGQqI">
But October had long been seen as kind of a last-ditch moment for an agreement to be reached without catastrophic meltdowns in the industry. That said, many workers <a href="https://www.vox.com/money/2023/8/22/23840473/writers-strike-actors-wga-sag-workers-economy-impact">inside and outside of Hollywood</a> have incurred immense financial losses during the strike, and studios Warner Bros Discovery, which initially saw a bump to their bottom line, have projected earnings losses for 2023.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="joA9QH">
Once we see the agreement, we’ll know exactly how much of an effect the strikes had on the future of Hollywood. For now, though, the focus is likely to be on recovery, in an industry that’s already reeling from years of potentially bad financial decisions, covid delays, and existential struggles.
</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>Wall Street and Cellini please</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>Ruling Dynasty, The King N I and Galahad pleas</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 Golconda Masters to be held from September 27</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>Hanghzou Asian Games | India gets second gold as Titas blows away Sri Lanka in women’s cricket final</strong> - The Indian women’s team is missing a genuine quick bowler in its ranks since the retirement of Jhulan Goswami and Titas looks to be a worthy successor.</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>Hangzhou Asian Games | Gold medal favourite Bopanna-Bhambri pair suffers shock exit, Ankita, Rutuja progress to pre-quarterfinals</strong> - The defeat will rankle the Indian pair all the more as Bopanna is a top-10 player in doubles while Bhambri too is ranked among the top-100</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>Rathotsavam at Tirumala a grand affair</strong> - Elaborate arrangements by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams ensured that the festival went off without incident</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>Sena split | Official hearing on disqualification pleas to begin on October 13; Shinde group opposes clubbing of petitions</strong> - The Shiv Sena split in June last year following a rebellion by Mr. Shinde, who went on to become CM after unseating the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government</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>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated by Nalme Nachiyar.</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>Morainic foundation, population, building pressure behind Joshimath subsidence, say scientific reports</strong> - Joshimath’s susceptibility to land subsidence because of being located on a foundation of loose sediments coupled with increasing population pressure and multi-storeyed buildings, including hotels, in the town are some of the factors cited in nearly all the reports submitted by eight different institutions</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>Kerala High Court asks Kasaragod Collector to take steps to hand over houses to families of endosulfan victims by October 15</strong> - The court passed the order on a writ petition filed by Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust alleging that despite the completion of the construction of 36 houses several years ago, the Collector had not taken any steps to hand over these to the beneficiaries</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>Messina Denaro: Notorious Italian Mafia boss dies</strong> - The 61-year-old, who spent decades on the run, boasted that he could “fill a cemetery” with his victims.</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>Kosovo and Serbia row over monastery gun battle</strong> - A Kosovan policeman and three ethnic Serb gunmen are dead after a siege of a monastery in Kosovo.</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>Niger coup: Macron says France to withdraw troops and ambassador</strong> - France’s president says the ambassador will leave and all military co-operation will end in the coming months.</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>Nagorno-Karabakh: Thousands flee as Armenia warns of ethnic cleansing risk</strong> - A growing stream of ethnic Armenians are leaving after Azerbaijan’s seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh last 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>Lego axes plan to make bricks from recycled bottles</strong> - The toy giant finds that the new crude oil-free material did not cut carbon emissions.</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>A partial car substitute? Trek’s new cargo bike, reviewed</strong> - A pricey but feature-rich offering from Trek had me pedaling for my groceries. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1968104">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NASA spacecraft returns to Earth with pieces of an asteroid</strong> - Breathe easy, there’s a bounty from Bennu inside. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1970704">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inside the race to stop a deadly viral outbreak in India</strong> - With viral spillovers happening more frequently, containment is a fragile shield. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1970599">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The history of syphilis is being rewritten by a medieval skeleton</strong> - Columbus may not have brought syphilis back to the Old World after all. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1970581">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NASA’s asteroid sampling mission is on course for landing this weekend</strong> - “The spacecraft trajectory and performance have just been spot on.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1970566">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>Two old men felt they were close to their last days and decided to have a last night on the town.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
After a few drinks, they ended up at the local brothel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The madam took one look at the two old geezers and whispered to her manager,
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Go up to the first two bedrooms and put an inflated doll on each bed. These two are so old and drunk, I’m not wasting two of my girls on them. They won’t know the difference.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The manager did as he was told and the two old men went upstairs for their business.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As they were walking home the first man said, “You know, I think my girl was dead.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Dead?” said his friend, "Why do you say that?’’
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well,” replied the first, “she never moved or made a sound all the time I was making love to her.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
His friend said, “Could be worse, I think mine was a witch.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“A witch? Why the hell would you say that?” asked the other.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well, I was making love to her, kissing her on the neck and I gave her a little bite. Then she farted, flew out the window, and took my teeth with her.”
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Mahmood551"> /u/Mahmood551 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16rpjm1/two_old_men_felt_they_were_close_to_their_last/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16rpjm1/two_old_men_felt_they_were_close_to_their_last/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy had a massive crush on this woman.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He was so enchanted by her that every time he saw her he got an instant hard-on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In order to avoid any embarrassment from such an obvious happenstance he decided to call her and ask her out over the phone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To his surprise she agreed and they made plans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As soon as he hung up he thought, “Shit, what am I gonna do? I’ll get a hard-on as soon as I see her and she’ll never talk to me again.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So, man-like, he came up with what he thought was the perfect solution to him problem. He duct-taped and tied his man thing to his leg.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
On date night he went up to her door, doublechecked his work with a pat on his leg and rang the doorbell, but when she opened the door he kicked her in the face.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Mahmood551"> /u/Mahmood551 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16r91cb/a_guy_had_a_massive_crush_on_this_woman/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16r91cb/a_guy_had_a_massive_crush_on_this_woman/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man and his wife were in divorce court, but the custody of their children posed a problem…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The mother gets up and says to the judge that since she brought the children into this world, she should retain custody of them. The man also wanted custody of his children, so the judge asked for his justification. After a long silence, the man slowly rose from his chair and replied, “Your Honor, when I put a dollar in a vending machine and a Coke comes out, does the Coke belong to me or the machine?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/blueblueelephant"> /u/blueblueelephant </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16qyyul/a_man_and_his_wife_were_in_divorce_court_but_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16qyyul/a_man_and_his_wife_were_in_divorce_court_but_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Irish Toast</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An oldie but a goodie
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
John O’Reilly hoisted his beer and said, “Here’s to spending the rest of me life, between the legs of me wife!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
That won him the top prize at the pub for the best toast of the night!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He went home and told his wife, Mary, “I won the prize for the best toast of the night.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She said, “Aye, did ye now. And what was your toast?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
John said, “Here’s to spending the rest of me life, sitting in church beside me wife.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh, that is very nice indeed, John!” Mary said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The next day, Mary ran into one of John’s drinking buddies on the street corner. The man chuckled leeringly and said, “John won the prize the other night at the pub with a toast about you, Mary.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She said, “Aye, he told me, and I was a bit surprised myself. You know, he’s only been in there twice in the last four years. Once I had to pull him by the ears to make him come, and the other time he fell asleep”.
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Insteadly"> /u/Insteadly </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16rapeu/irish_toast/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16rapeu/irish_toast/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I tried dipping my balls in holy water and a nun caught me.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I told her I wanted my nuts to feel the power of God, but she said that was sack religious.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HappyFamily0131"> /u/HappyFamily0131 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16rgi25/i_tried_dipping_my_balls_in_holy_water_and_a_nun/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16rgi25/i_tried_dipping_my_balls_in_holy_water_and_a_nun/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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