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<title>18 November, 2023</title>
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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>Spatially resolved single-cell atlas of the lung in fatal Covid19 in an African population reveals a distinct cellular signature and an interferon gamma dominated response</strong> -
<div>
Postmortem single-cell studies have transformed understanding of lower respiratory tract diseases (LRTD) including Covid19 but there is almost no data from African settings where HIV, malaria and other environmental exposures may affect disease pathobiology and treatment targets. We used histology and high-dimensional imaging to characterise fatal lung disease in Malawian adults with (n=9) and without (n=7) Covid19, and generated single-cell transcriptomics data from lung, blood and nasal cells. Data integration with other cohorts showed a conserved Covid19 histopathological signature, driven by contrasting immune and inflammatory mechanisms: in the Malawi cohort, by response to interferon-gamma in lung-resident alveolar macrophages, in USA, European and Asian cohorts by type I/III interferon responses, particularly in blood-derived monocytes. HIV status had minimal impact on histology or immunopathology. Our study provides data resources and highlights the importance of studying the cellular mechanisms of disease in underrepresented populations, indicating shared and distinct targets for treatment.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.16.566964v1" target="_blank">Spatially resolved single-cell atlas of the lung in fatal Covid19 in an African population reveals a distinct cellular signature and an interferon gamma dominated response</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Dynamic label-free analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection reveals virus-induced subcellular remodeling.</strong> -
<div>
Assessing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on organelle dynamics allows a better understanding of the mechanisms of viral replication. We combine label-free holo-tomographic microscopy (HTM) with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to visualize and quantify the subcellular changes triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection. We study the dynamics of shape, position and dry mass of nucleoli, nuclei, lipid droplets (LD) and mitochondria within hundreds of single cells from early infection to syncytia formation and death. SARS-CoV-2 infection enlarges nucleoli, perturbs LD, changes mitochondrial shape and dry mass, and separates LD from mitochondria. We then used Bayesian statistics on organelle dry mass states to define organelle cross-regulation (OCR) networks and report modifications of OCR that are triggered by infection and syncytia formation. Our work highlights the subcellular remodeling induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection and provides a new AI-enhanced, label-free methodology to study in real-time the dynamics of cell populations and their content.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.16.567378v1" target="_blank">Dynamic label-free analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection reveals virus-induced subcellular remodeling.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identification of mouse CD4+ T cell epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 spike and nucleocapsid for use in peptide:MHCII tetramers</strong> -
<div>
Understanding adaptive immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is a major requisite for the development of effective vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. CD4+ T cells play an integral role in this process primarily by generating antiviral cytokines and providing help to antibody-producing B cells. To empower detailed studies of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ T cell responses in mouse models, we comprehensively mapped I-Ab restricted epitopes for the spike and nucleocapsid proteins of the BA.1 variant of concern via IFN{gamma} ELISpot assay. This was followed by the generation of corresponding peptide:MHCII tetramer reagents to directly stain epitope-specific T cells. Using this rigorous validation strategy, we identified 6 reliably immunogenic epitopes in spike and 3 in nucleocapsid, all of which are conserved in the ancestral Wuhan strain. We also validated a previously identified epitope from Wuhan that is absent in BA.1. These epitopes and tetramers will be invaluable tools for SARS-CoV-2 antigen-specific CD4+ T cell studies in mice.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.16.566918v1" target="_blank">Identification of mouse CD4+ T cell epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 spike and nucleocapsid for use in peptide:MHCII tetramers</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Human microbiota is a reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 advantageous mutations</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 mutations are rapidly emerging, in particular advantageous mutations in the spike (S) protein, which either increase transmissibility or lead to immune escape, are posing a major challenge to pandemic prevention and treatment. However, how the virus acquires a high number of advantageous mutations in a short time remains a mystery. Here, we show that the human microbiota may contribute to mutations in variants of concern (VOCs). We identified a mutation and adjacent 6 amino acids (aa) in a viral mutation fragment (VMF) and searched for homologous fragments (HFs) in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. Among the approximate 8000 HFs obtained, 61 mutations in S and other outer membrane proteins were found in bacteria, accounting for 62% of all mutation sources, which is a 12-fold higher than the natural variable proportion. Approximately 70% of these bacterial species belong to the human microbiota, are primarily distributed in the gut or lung and exhibit a composition pattern similar to that of COVID-19 patients. Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) replicates corresponding bacterial mRNAs harboring mutations, producing chimeric RNAs. Collectively, SARS-CoV-2 may acquire mutations from the human microbiota, resulting in alterations in the binding sites or antigenic determinants of the original virus. Our study sheds light on the evolving mutational mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.16.567485v1" target="_blank">Human microbiota is a reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 advantageous mutations</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Krisp: A python package for designing CRISPR and amplification-based diagnostic assays from whole genome data</strong> -
<div>
Recent pandemics such as COVID-19 have highlighted the importance of rapidly developing diagnostics to detect and monitor evolving pathogens. CRISPR-Cas technology, combined with isothermal DNA amplification methods, has recently been used to develop diagnostic assays for sequence-specific recognition of DNA or RNA. These assays have similar sensitivity to the gold standard qPCR but can be deployed as easy to use and inexpensive test strips. However, the discovery of diagnostic regions of a genome flanked by conserved regions where primers can be designed requires extensive bioinformatic analyses of genome sequences. We developed the python package krisp to find primers and diagnostic sequences that differentiate groups of samples from each other at any taxonomic scale, using either unaligned genome sequences or a variant call format (VCF) file as input. Krisp has been optimized to handle large datasets by using efficient algorithms that run in near linear time, use minimal RAM, and leverage parallel processing when available. The validity of krisp results has been demonstrated in the laboratory with the successful design of SHERLOCK assays to distinguish the sudden oak death pathogen Phytophthora ramorum from closely related Phytophthora species. Krisp is released open source under a permissive license with all the documentation needed to quickly design CRISPR-Cas diagnostic assays.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.16.567433v1" target="_blank">Krisp: A python package for designing CRISPR and amplification-based diagnostic assays from whole genome data</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Unveiling the Emotional Turmoil: How Covid-19 impacted researchers and the pursuit of emotional well-being in academia.</strong> -
<div>
The Covid-19 crisis unprecedentedly required researchers to adapt to significant changes in their work and personal lives. Our study aims to fill this gap analysing the Covid-19 emotional impact and confinement potential disruptions on researchers activity (specifically, those related to working conditions, caring responsibilities, health, balance, and social support) considering the modulating role played by age, gender, and job position. An online survey was distributed during the first lockdown period of the Covid-19 pandemic, and answers from 1301 researchers (ECR %, senior researchers %) working in Sciences (28.1%), Social Sciences (25.9%), Humanities (16.2%), Health (16.2%) and in Engineering and Architecture (13.5%) were collected. The study highlights that the initial lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant emotional impact on researchers, exacerbating pre-existing emotional distress and burnout within this group. Factors such as age, health, gender, and difficulties in balancing work and family life were associated with an increased risk of burnout and emotional distress. Lack of social support was identified as a significant risk factor, while the academic culture prioritizing productivity over well-being contributed to the issue. These findings underscore the need for greater support and cultural changes in academia to preserve researchers' mental health and prevent the chronicization of mental health issues in young academics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.15.567306v1" target="_blank">Unveiling the Emotional Turmoil: How Covid-19 impacted researchers and the pursuit of emotional well-being in academia.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Extending the welcome: a pluralist and coevolutionary analysis of the transformation of induction and transition provision</strong> -
<div>
This paper reflects on an institution-wide transformation of student welcome, induction and transition (WIT) at a large, research-intensive UK university, a change accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper examines this process of change, from its origins, through its evolution, and co-evolution, over three academic years since the onset of the Pandemic. To do so, the paper adopts a pluralist approach, utilising theories of change established in higher education literature: Kift’s transition pedagogy and Kotter’s model of organisational change. Crucially, it augments these with a co-evolutionary approach examining interacting populations, learning and qualitative change, which may provide useful insights to other institutions navigating changes to WIT provision.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/edarxiv/emh3c/" target="_blank">Extending the welcome: a pluralist and coevolutionary analysis of the transformation of induction and transition provision</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Species and habitat specific changes in bird activity in an urban environment during Covid 19 lockdown</strong> -
<div>
Covid-19 lockdowns provided ecologists with a rare opportunity to examine how animals behave when humans are absent. Indeed many studies reported various effects of lockdowns on animal activity, especially in urban areas and other human-dominated habitats. We explored how Covid-19 lockdowns in Israel have influenced bird activity in an urban environment by using continuous acoustic recordings to monitor three common bird species that differ in their level of adaptation to the urban ecosystem: (1) the hooded crow, an urban exploiter, which depends heavily on anthropogenic resources; (2) the rose-ringed parakeet, an invasive alien species that has adapted to exploit human resources; and (3) the graceful prinia, an urban adapter, which is relatively shy of humans and can be found urban habitats with shrubs and prairies. Acoustic recordings provided continuous monitoring of bird activity without an effect of the observer on the animal. We performed dense sampling of a 1.3 square km area in northern Tel-Aviv by placing 17 recorders for more than a month in different micro-habitats within this region including roads, residential areas and urban parks. We monitored both lockdown and no-lockdown periods. We portray a complex dynamic system where the activity of specific bird species depended on many environmental parameters and decreases or increases in a habitat-dependent manner during lockdown. Specifically, urban exploiter species decreased their activity in most urban habitats during lockdown, while human adapter species increased their activity during lockdown especially in parks where humans were absent. Our results also demonstrate the value of different habitats within urban environments for animal activity, specifically highlighting the importance of urban parks. These species- and habitat-specific changes in activity might explain the contradicting results reported by others who have not performed a habitat specific analysis.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.03.543542v3" target="_blank">Species and habitat specific changes in bird activity in an urban environment during Covid 19 lockdown</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Unraveling antiviral efficacy of multifunctional immunomodulatory triterpenoids against SARS-COV-2 targeting virus-specific enzymes</strong> -
<div>
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) may be over, but its variants continue to emerge, and patients with mild symptoms having long COVID is still under investigation. SARS-CoV-2 infection leading to elevated cytokine levels and suppressed immune responses set off cytokine storm, fatal systemic inflammation, tissue damage, and multi-organ failure. Thus, drug molecules targeting the SARS-CoV-2 virus-specific proteins or capable of suppressing the host inflammatory responses to viral infection would provide an effective antiviral therapy against emerging variants of concern. Evolutionarily conserved papain-like protease (PLpro) and main protease (Mpro) play an indispensable role in the virus life cycle and immune evasion. Direct-acting antivirals targeting both these viral proteases represent an attractive antiviral strategy that is also expected to reduce viral inflammation. The present study has evaluated the antiviral and anti-inflammatory potential of natural triterpenoids: azadirachtin, withanolide_A, and isoginkgetin. These molecules inhibit the Mpro and PLpro proteolytic activities with half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) values ranging from 1.42 to 32.7 M. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) analysis validated the binding of these compounds to Mpro and PLpro. As expected, the two compounds, withanolide_A and azadirachtin exhibit potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity in cell-based assays, with half-maximum effective concentration (EC50) values of 21.73 M and 31.19 M, respectively. The anti-inflammatory role of azadirachtin and withanolide_A when assessed using HEK293T cells were found to significantly reduce the levels of CXCL10, TNF, IL6, and IL8 cytokines, which are elevated in severe cases of COVID-19. Interestingly, azadirachtin and withanolide_A were also found to rescue the decreased type-I interferon response (IFN-1). The results of this study clearly highlight the role of triterpenoids as effective antiviral molecules that target SARS-CoV-2 specific enzymes and also host immune pathways involved in virus mediated inflammation.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.24.546363v2" target="_blank">Unraveling antiviral efficacy of multifunctional immunomodulatory triterpenoids against SARS-COV-2 targeting virus-specific enzymes</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groupsin Post?COVID-19 Labour Markets. Report on Czechia and Slovakia</strong> -
<div>
This report is part of the EC-funded research project DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groups in Post-COVID-19 Labour Markets (VS/2021/0196). It scrutinizes how social partners influenced COVID-19-related policy responses towards vulnerable groups in the labour market, and whether this experience created opportunities for strengthening social dialogue in general. The empirical focus is on Czechia and Slovakia as representatives of embedded neoliberal countries. This means liberalizing labour market policies during their economic transition starting in the 1990s, but at the same time, anchoring some institutional mechanisms of policy-making, including social dialogue at the national level. The analysis is based on new empirical data in two dimensions: • primary data on policy measures relevant for the vulnerable groups in the labour market, categorized in a standard database of the most important COVID-19 measures relevant for vulnerable groups. • 19 original semi-structured interviews with employer organizations, trade unions, governments, and NGOs in Czechia and Slovakia, implemented in 2022-2023.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/cvprx/" target="_blank">DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groupsin Post?COVID-19 Labour Markets. Report on Czechia and Slovakia</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groups in Post-COVID-19 Labour Markets. Report on Turkey</strong> -
<div>
This report is part of an EU-wide project on the social dialogue regarding labour relations during the Covid-19 pandemic. More specifically the report aims to answer the following questions: 1. What public policy and social dialogue measures targeting the selected vulnerable groups were implemented for employment and social protection during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-2022? 2. To what extent and how did social dialogue play a role in the implementation of social and employment rights of selected vulnerable groups in the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022? 3. What lessons and opportunities does the COVID-19 pandemic yield for strengthening social dialogue in the studied countries? In the report, secondary and primary data sources are combined. Labour market and industrial relations analysis largely rely on existing literature. Social policies during the Covid-19 pandemic are based on the Turkish DEFEN-CE Database, which combines multiple sources such as international reports, official documents, reports from trade unions and employers’ organizations, and academic literature. To understand the role of social partners in the defense of vulnerable groups, the report uses 9 semi-structured interviews. 3 Trade Union and 3 Employer Associations from different confederations representing workers and employers across different sectors and sizes are selected to provide a broad range of opinions. Additionally, two NGOs that were quite active during the pandemic and the Turkish Medical Association as one of the most vocal groups and the representative of healthcare sector workers were chosen for interviews. No government officials, either at the local or national level, were willing or able to participate in the interviews. All interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis based on a DEFEN-CE coding scheme.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/d5xea/" target="_blank">DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groups in Post-COVID-19 Labour Markets. Report on Turkey</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Evolutionary arms race between SARS-CoV-2 and interferon signaling via dynamic interaction with autophagy.</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 emerged, and is evolving to efficiently infect humans worldwide. SARS-CoV-2 evades early innate recognition, interferon signaling activated only in bystander cells. This balance of innate activation and viral evasion has important consequences, but the pathways involved are incompletely understood. Here we find that autophagy genes regulate innate immune signaling, impacting the basal set point of interferons, and thus permissivity to infection. Mechanistically, autophagy genes negatively regulate MAVS, and this low basal level of MAVS is efficiently antagonized by SARS-CoV-2 ORF9b, blocking interferon activation in infected cells. However, upon loss of autophagy increased MAVS overcomes ORF9b-mediated antagonism suppressing infection. This has led to the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants to express higher levels of ORF9b, allowing SARS-CoV-2 to replicate under conditions of increased MAVS signaling. Altogether, we find a critical role of autophagy in the regulation of innate immunity and uncover an evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 ORF9b to overcome host defenses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.13.566859v1" target="_blank">Evolutionary arms race between SARS-CoV-2 and interferon signaling via dynamic interaction with autophagy.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Impact of SIV-Induced Immunodeficiency on Clinical Manifestation, Immune Response, and Viral Dynamics in SARS-CoV-2 Coinfection</strong> -
<div>
Persistent and uncontrolled SARS-CoV-2 replication in immunocompromised individuals has been observed and may be a contributing source of novel viral variants that continue to drive the pandemic. Importantly, the effects of immunodeficiency associated with chronic HIV infection on COVID-19 disease and viral persistence have not been directly addressed in a controlled setting. Here we conducted a pilot study wherein two pigtail macaques (PTM) chronically infected with SIVmac239 were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and monitored for six weeks for clinical disease, viral replication, and viral evolution, and compared to our previously published cohort of SIV-naive PTM infected with SARS-CoV-2. At the time of SARS-CoV-2 infection, one PTM had minimal to no detectable CD4+ T cells in gut, blood, or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), while the other PTM harbored a small population of CD4+ T cells in all compartments. Clinical signs were not observed in either PTM; however, the more immunocompromised PTM exhibited a progressive increase in pulmonary infiltrating monocytes throughout SARS-CoV-2 infection. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) of the infiltrating monocytes revealed a less activated/inert phenotype. Neither SIV-infected PTM mounted detectable anti-SARS-CoV-2 T cell responses in blood or BAL, nor anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies. Interestingly, despite the diminished cellular and humoral immune responses, SARS-CoV-2 viral kinetics and evolution were indistinguishable from SIV-naive PTM in all sampled mucosal sites (nasal, oral, and rectal), with clearance of virus by 3-4 weeks post infection. SIV-induced immunodeficiency significantly impacted immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 but did not alter disease progression, viral kinetics or evolution in the PTM model. SIV-induced immunodeficiency alone may not be sufficient to drive the emergence of novel viral variants.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.15.567132v1" target="_blank">The Impact of SIV-Induced Immunodeficiency on Clinical Manifestation, Immune Response, and Viral Dynamics in SARS-CoV-2 Coinfection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The SHOW COVID-19 cohort: methods and rationale for examining the statewide impact of COVID-19 on the social determinants of health</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: National and large city mortality and morbidity data emerged during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet statewide data to assess the impact COVID-19 had across urban and rural landscapes on subpopulations was lacking. The SHOW COVID-19 cohort was established to provide descriptive and longitudinal data to examine the influence the social determinants of health had on COVID-19 related outcomes. Methods: Participants were recruited from the 5,742 adults in the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) cohort who were all residents of Wisconsin, United States when they joined the cohort between 2008-2019. Online surveys were administered at three timepoints during 2020-2021. Survey topics included COVID-19 exposure, testing and vaccination, COVID-19 impact on economic wellbeing, healthcare access, mental and emotional health, caregiving, diet, lifestyle behaviors, social cohesion, and resilience. Results: A total of 2,304 adults completed at least one COVID-19 online survey, with n=1,090 completing all three survey timepoints. Non-Whites were 2-3 times more likely to report having had COVID-19 compared to Whites, females were more likely than males to experience disruptions in their employment, and those with children in the home were more likely to report moderate to high levels of stress compared to adults without children. Conclusion: Longitudinal, statewide cohorts are important for investigating how the social determinants of health affect health and well-being during the first years of a pandemic and offer insight into future pandemic preparation. The data are available for researchers and cohort is active for continued and future follow-up.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.17.23297146v2" target="_blank">The SHOW COVID-19 cohort: methods and rationale for examining the statewide impact of COVID-19 on the social determinants of health</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Becoming A Resilient Scientist Series: An Intervention Program</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Compared to the general population, science trainees experience challenges and heightened stressors that often lead to adverse mental health outcomes. With COVID-19, the stressors of social distancing, isolation, truncated lab time, and uncertainty about the future have all likely exacerbated these issues. Now, more than ever, practical and effective interventions are vitally needed to address the core causes of stress among science trainees and increase their resilience. This paper introduces a new resilience program targeted to biomedical trainees and scientists - Becoming a Resilient Scientist Series (BRS), a multi-part workshop complemented by facilitated group discussions all aimed at bolstering resilience, particularly in the context of academic and research environments. To assess the program9s efficacy, participants completed resilience measures and related assessments before and after completing the series. The results demonstrate that BRS significantly enhances trainee resilience (primary outcome) and reduces perceived stress, anxiety, and work-related presenteeism, as well as increased adaptability, self-awareness, and self-efficacy (secondary outcomes). Furthermore, program participants reported a high level of satisfaction, a strong willingness to recommend the program to others, and perceived positive changes in their resilience skills. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first resilience program designed explicitly for biomedical trainees and scientists, tailored to their unique professional culture and work environment.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.02.23289388v4" target="_blank">Becoming A Resilient Scientist Series: An Intervention Program</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>A Multicenter, Adaptive, Randomized, doublE-blinded, Placebo-controlled Study in Participants With Long COVID-19: The REVIVE Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID-19 Syndrome; Chronic Fatigue Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Fluvoxamine Maleate 100 MG; Drug: Placebo; Drug: Metformin Extended Release Oral Tablet <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Cardresearch <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>Clinical Evaluation of the Panbio™ COVID-19/Flu A&amp;B Panel</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Influenza A; Influenza B <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: Panbio™ <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Abbott Rapid Dx <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>Connecting Friends and Health Workers to Boost COVID-19 Vaccination in Latino Communities</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Vaccine <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: REDES; Behavioral: Control <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Johns Hopkins University; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); Rutgers University <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>Influence of Hypoxic, Normobaric and Hypobaric Training on the Immunometabolism of Post-covid-19 Athletes</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Normobaric Hypoxia; Hypoventilation; Normoxia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Repeated sprint <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Faculdade de Motricidade Humana; University of Sao Paulo; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior. <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>The Safety and Tolerability of A8G6 COVID-19 Neutralization Antibody Combined With Nasal Spray</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2; Prevention <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: A8G6 SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Antibody combination nasal spray; Other: A8G6 SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Antibody nasal excipient <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University <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>Building Engagement Using Financial Incentives Trial - Colorectal Cancer Screening</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Health Behavior; Colorectal Cancer; Influenza; COVID-19; Vaccine Hesitancy; Vaccine-Preventable Diseases; Healthcare Patient Acceptance <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Financial incentive for colorectal cancer screening; Behavioral: Financial incentive for flu shot; Behavioral: Financial incentive for COVID-19 shot <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Tulane University; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) <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>Clinical Evaluation of the Panbio™ COVID-19/Flu A&amp;B Panel to Support Home Use</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Influenza A; Influenza Type B <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: Panbio™ COVID-19/Flu A&amp;B Panel <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Abbott Rapid Dx <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>Effects of Rehabilitation Combined With a Maintenance Program Compared to Rehabilitation Alone in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: Rehabilitation combined to a digital maintenance program; Procedure: Rehabilitation without maintenance program <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Schön Klinik Berchtesgadener Land; Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care (Funding); Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (German pension insurance) (Design); Betriebskrankenkassen Landesverband Bayern (Bavarian health insurance) (Design) <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>Child and Adolescent Mental Health Literacy for Primary Schools Teachers. A Multicomponent Intervention</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Child Mental Health <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Child Mental Health Literacy Program <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Universidad de Valparaiso <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>Brief Digital Intervention to Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Among Individuals With Anxiety or Depression</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Misinformation; Vaccine Hesitancy; Anxiety; Depression; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Attitudinal inoculation; Behavioral: Cognitive-behavioral therapy-informed intervention; Behavioral: Conventional public health messaging <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: City University of New York, School of Public Health; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill <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>Type I interferon signaling induces a delayed antiproliferative response in respiratory epithelial cells during SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - The proliferation of respiratory epithelial cells is crucial to host recovery from acute lung injury caused by SARS-CoV-2 and other viral pathogens, but the molecular pathways that govern this process are poorly understood. We performed a high-throughput CRISPR screen that surprisingly revealed a detrimental effect of specific host response, type I interferon (IFN-I) signaling, on the fitness of SARS-CoV-2-infected Calu-3 cells. While IFN-I signaling has been previously associated with several…</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>Luminescent reporter cells enable the identification of broad-spectrum antivirals against emerging viruses</strong> - The emerging viruses SARS-CoV-2 and arenaviruses cause severe respiratory and hemorrhagic diseases, respectively. The production of infectious particles of both viruses and virus spread in tissues requires cleavage of surface glycoproteins (GPs) by host proprotein convertases (PCs). SARS-CoV-2 and arenaviruses rely on GP cleavage by PCs furin and subtilisin kexin isozyme-1/site-1 protease (SKI-1/S1P), respectively. We report improved luciferase-based reporter cell lines, named luminescent…</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>Identification of Ebselen derivatives as novel SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors: Design, synthesis, biological evaluation, and structure-activity relationships exploration</strong> - The main protease (M^(pro)) represents one of the most effective and attractive targets for designing anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs. In this study, we designed and synthesized a novel series of Ebselen derivatives by incorporating privileged fragments from different pockets of the M^(pro) active site. Among these compounds, 11 compounds showed submicromolar activity in the FRET-based SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro) inhibition assay, with IC(50) values ranging from 233 nM to 550 nM. Notably, compound 3a displayed…</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>Traditional Formulations for Managing COVID-19: A Systematic Review</strong> - Background: The advancing etiopathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have prompted the medical community to consider Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani as add-on preventive and therapeutic options. Objective: To explore the effect of standalone or integrative Traditional Formulations (TFs) on selected clinical symptoms and biomarkers of COVID-19. Search strategy: Out of 465 articles identified from PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Scopus, 17…</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>Potential drug-drug interactions of frequently prescribed medications in long COVID detected by two electronic databases</strong> - Infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) leads to a wide range of acute and chronic complications including long COVID, a well-known chronic sequela. Long COVID often necessitates long-term treatment, which may lead to an increased potential for drug-drug interactions (DDIs). The objective of this study was to assess potential DDIs among frequently prescribed medications in long COVID by using two electronic databases. Sixty frequently prescribed agents 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>Engineered Nanovesicles Expressing Bispecific Single Chain Variable Fragments to Protect against SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in high morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. Although the epidemic has been controlled in many areas and numerous patients have been successfully treated, the risk of reinfection persists due to the low neutralizing antibody titers and weak immune response. To provide long-term immune protection for infected patients, novel bispecific CB6/dendritic cell (DC)-specific…</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>Molecular Design of Novel Inhibitor by TargetingIL-6Rα using Combined Pharmacophore and Experimentally Verified Plant Products with Scaffold-Hopping Techniques: A Dual Therapeutic Strategy for COVID-19 and Cancer</strong> - The IL-6/IL-6R/gp130 complex serves as a significant indicator of cytokine release syndrome in COVID-19 and chronic inflammation, increasing the risk of cancer. Therefore, we identified IL-6Rα as a potential target to block gp130 interaction. Notably, there has been no reception of approval for an orally available drug to serve this purpose, to date. In this study, we targeted IL-6Rα to inhibit IL-6Rα/gp130 interaction. The selection of the lead candidate L821 involved the amalgamation of three…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The matrix metalloproteinase ADAM10 supports hepatitis C virus entry and cell-to-cell spread via its sheddase activity</strong> - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) exploits the four entry factors CD81, scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI, also known as SCARB1), occludin, and claudin-1 as well as the co-factor epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) to infect human hepatocytes. Here, we report that the disintegrin and matrix metalloproteinase 10 (ADAM10) associates with CD81, SR-BI, and EGFR and acts as HCV host factor. Pharmacological inhibition, siRNA-mediated silencing and genetic ablation of ADAM10 reduced HCV 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>Structure-based virtual screening, ADMET analysis, and molecular dynamics simulation of Moroccan natural compounds as candidates for the SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors</strong> - The lack of treatments and vaccines effective against SARS-CoV-2 has forced us to explore natural compounds that could potentially inhibit this virus. Additionally, Morocco is renowned for its rich plant diversity and traditional medicinal uses, which inspires us to leverage our cultural heritage and the abundance of natural resources in our country for therapeutic purposes. In this study, an extensive investigation was conducted to gather a collection of phytoconstituents extracted from…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The double-edged sword of the hippocampus-ventromedial prefrontal cortex resting-state connectivity in stress susceptibility and resilience: A prospective study</strong> - The hippocampus has long been considered a pivotal region implicated in both stress susceptibility and resilience. A wealth of evidence from animal and human studies underscores the significance of hippocampal functional connectivity with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in these stress-related processes. However, there remains a scarcity of research that explores and contrasts the roles of hippocampus-vmPFC connectivity in stress susceptibility and resilience when facing a real-life…</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>Influenza A virus replication has a stronger dependency on Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway activity than SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The recent COVID-19 pandemic again highlighted the urgent need for broad-spectrum antivirals, both for therapeutic use in acute viral infection and for pandemic preparedness in general. The targeting of host cell factors hijacked by viruses during their replication cycle presents one possible strategy for development of broad-spectrum antivirals. By inhibiting the Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway, a central kinase cascade of eukaryotic cells, which is being exploited by numerous viruses of…</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>Coffee as a dietary strategy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: This study verified moderate coffee consumption, including decaffeination, can provide a new guideline for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2. Based on the results, we also suggest a coffee-drinking plan for people to prevent infection in the post-COVID-19 era.</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>Weak SARS-CoV-2-specific responses of TIGIT-expressing CD8+ T cells in people living with HIV after a third dose of a SARS-CoV-2 inactivated vaccine</strong> - CONCLUSION: TIGIT expression on CD8+ T cells may hinder the T-cell immune response to a booster dose of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, suggesting weakened resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially in PLWH. Furthermore, TIGIT may be used as a potential target to increase the production of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of vaccination.</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>Intranasal G5-BGG/pDNA vaccine elicits protective systemic and mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2 by transfecting mucosal dendritic cells</strong> - Infectious disease pandemics, including the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, have heightened the demand for vaccines that provide both disease protection and transmission inhibition. Although parenteral vaccines induce robust systemic immunity, their effectiveness in respiratory mucosae is limited. Considering the crucial role of nasal-associated lymphoid tissue (NALT) in mucosal immune responses, in this study, the intranasal complex composed of G5-BGG and antigen-expressing plasmid DNA…</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>Colloidal aggregation confounds cell-based Covid-19 antiviral screens</strong> - Colloidal aggregation is one of the largest contributors to false-positives in early drug discovery and chemical biology. Much work has focused on its impact on pure-protein screens; here we consider aggregations role in cell-based infectivity assays in Covid-19 drug repurposing. We began by investigating the potential aggregation of 41 drug candidates reported as SARs-CoV-2 entry inhibitors. Of these, 17 formed colloidal-particles by dynamic light scattering and exhibited detergent-dependent…</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>What Kind of Trouble Is Eric Adams In?</strong> - New York City’s mayor has downplayed the federal investigation into his campaign fund-raising, but, by dodging questions and obfuscating, he’s invited even more public scrutiny. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-kind-of-trouble-is-eric-adams-in">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Comes After Panda Diplomacy?</strong> - Biden meets with President Xi as U.S.-China relations get less warm and fuzzy. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-comes-after-panda-diplomacy">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Journalistic Independence Isn’t a Human-Resources Exercise</strong> - A free and independent press is vital to preserve, but doing so requires the people running media companies to take that idea out of mothballs. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/journalistic-independence-isnt-a-human-resources-exercise">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Mother’s Grief in New Haven</strong> - Laquvia Jones lost both of her sons to shootings. Now she wonders why a city with a deep sense of community—and one of the wealthiest universities in the world—can’t figure out how to address gun violence. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/a-mothers-grief-in-new-haven">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Trauma of Gaza’s Doctors</strong> - The head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Palestine on the horrors of practicing medicine under siege. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-trauma-of-gazas-doctors">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Most of Israel’s weapons imports come from the US. Now Biden is rushing even more arms.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DW_ayOizDZWykDhAiUtl0Nz2bqc=/626x0:5635x3757/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72878785/1763009023.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Activists protest against war in Gaza as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testify during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing about the United States sending aid to Israel and Ukraine on Capitol Hill on October 31, 2023, in Washington, DC. | Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
What the US sending Israel weapons “at the speed of war” looks like.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8GjaLm">
One area where the Biden administration has set itself apart is in sending weapons to partner countries, and now we’re getting a more complete picture of what the US is sending Israel in the weeks since October 7.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SFQyTh">
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the US has ramped up its previously minimal military aid to the country to an unparalleled <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12040#:~:text=From%202014%2C%20when%20Russia%20first,according%20to%20the%20State%20Department.">$46.7 billion</a>. Ukraine <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts">towers</a> over the other major recipients in bar charts of US security assistance for 2022 and ’23. The US is sending so many munitions there that it has apparently strained American factories and led to a whole-of-government <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/02/15/fact-sheet-department-of-defense-releases-new-report-on-safeguarding-our-national-security-by-promoting-competition-in-the-defense-industrial-base/">effort</a> to revive military supply chains.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RdBd6v">
The US is also accelerating arms transfers to Israel in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks that killed <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-revises-death-toll-oct-7-hamas-attack-around-1200-2023-11-10/">1,200 people</a> and resulted in the kidnapping of more than 200. Last month, President Joe Biden announced from the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/18/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-october-7th-terrorist-attacks-and-the-resilience-of-the-state-of-israel-and-its-people-tel-aviv-israel/https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/18/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-october-7th-terrorist-attacks-and-the-resilience-of-the-state-of-israel-and-its-people-tel-aviv-israel/">Oval Office</a> that he would seek “an unprecedented support package for Israel’s defense” of $14.3 billion. “We’re surging additional military assistance,” he added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DSS7Hx">
But while Ukraine has never been a traditional recipient of heavy military aid, the US’s most recent support of the Israeli military builds on a long bipartisan American practice. Israel has received about $3 billion annually, adjusted for inflation, for <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/11/04/us-israel-aid-military-funding-chart">the last 50 years</a>, and is the <a href="https://www.stimson.org/2023/in-shadow-of-war-a-snapshot-of-u-s-military-assistance-to-israel/">largest historical recipient</a> of US security aid. The Obama administration in 2016 announced the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/world/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-military-aid.html">biggest security assistance package</a> to the country ever, pledging <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/14/fact-sheet-memorandum-understanding-reached-israel">$38 billion</a> for Israel over the next decade. US support has ensured that Israel maintains its <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf">qualitative military edge</a> over neighboring Arab countries by having more advanced weapons systems, something Congress wrote into law in 2008.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qoJAbb">
Israel would not be able to conduct this war without the US, which over time has provided Israel with about 80 percent of the country’s weapons imports. Israel is using them as part of its large-scale military operation that has so far killed over <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/">11,000 Palestinians</a> and destroyed hospitals and civilian infrastructure. While it is the Israeli Defense Forces doing the killing, the extent of US aid has raised serious questions about American culpability. “Providing weapons that knowingly and significantly would contribute to unlawful attacks can make those providing them complicit in war crimes,” Human Rights Watch <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/06/suspend-arms-israel-palestinian-armed-groups">said</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="28kqb6">
Which weapons, exactly, the US is sending to fill Israel’s requests since October 7 has been hitherto kept secret — in contrast to how the US publicizes the weapons it delivers to Ukraine. But <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-14/pentagon-is-quietly-sending-israel-ammunition-laser-guided-missiles?embedded-checkout=true&amp;sref=j0yibzu3#xj4y7vzkg">Bloomberg</a> this week published a leaked Pentagon document that showed the US has delivered 2,000 Hellfire missiles that can be launched from Apache helicopters, as well as an array of other mortars and ammo, including “36,000 rounds of 30mm cannon ammunition, 1,800 of the requested M141 bunker-buster munitions and at least 3,500 night-vision devices.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xk5T89">
This year, military budgets around the world hit <a href="https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2023/world-military-expenditure-reaches-new-record-high-european-spending-surges">all-time highs</a>. Israel in recent years has been <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-arms-sales-doubled-in-a-decade-hit-new-record-of-12-5-billion-in-2022/">growing its arms export business</a>. It also imports significant weapons from the UK, Italy, Canada, and Germany, but 92 percent of what Israel gets comes <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-ranked-worlds-10th-largest-weapons-exporter-in-past-five-years/">from the United States</a>. As researcher William Hartung wrote recently in <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/us-aid-israel-gaza/">The Nation</a>, “Israel’s arsenal, and its arms industry, are by and large made in, and financed by, the USA.”
</p>
<h3 id="G0QQPn">
Why Biden’s team is so effective at getting weapons to Israel
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rvcw5d">
The Biden administration has a robust understanding of weapons systems and the business behind them. While any mainstream US administration, Republican or Democrat, would likely be rushing weapons orders to Israel, this administration is uniquely qualified to do so, bringing to bear their successes on Ukraine arms transfer and experience advising weapons-makers. In the second year of his presidency, <a href="https://stephensemler.substack.com/p/comparing-arms-sales-under-trump">Biden’s arms sales</a> overtook President Donald Trump’s, who himself had already overseen a big increase.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SziMWz">
The House <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/03/1210386678/house-approves-military-aid-israel">voted</a> in favor of new military assistance to Israel but cut out the Ukraine aid component, so the Senate will likely not pass it. In the meantime, the Biden administration has been efficient and quiet about transfers, using creative tools to jump-start deliveries to Israel that include <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3566388/senior-defense-official-senior-military-official-hold-a-background-briefing-on/">direct commercial sales</a> from arms-makers (meaning the US isn’t financing the purchases but does allow American weapons manufacturers to sell to Israel), governmental financing vehicles that don’t require congressional approval, and hurrying up orders that were placed before October. Stockpiles meant for US use are also being diverted to Israel. As a senior Pentagon official put it, “<a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3566388/senior-defense-official-senior-military-official-hold-a-background-briefing-on/">expediting security assistance</a>” to Israel has been task number one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nkrxFH">
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is a former board member of Raytheon, the major military contractor that <a href="https://breakingdefense.com/2023/10/raytheon-rafael-officially-pick-arkansas-site-for-iron-dome-missile-production/">co-produces</a> Iron Dome receptors with the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. RTX, as Raytheon has been renamed, is one of the most significant providers to Israel. Austin and many other senior appointees to the Pentagon bring a depth of experience working for the arms industry. Even if they aren’t directly involved in the day-to-day — Austin has had to <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/in-response-to-senator-warrens-questions-secretary-of-defense-nominee-general-lloyd-austin-commits-to-recusing-himself-from-raytheon-decisions-for-four-years">recuse himself</a> from the Department of Defense’s dealings with Raytheon — the heft these appointments bring shows the seriousness with which the Biden administration takes the defense industrial base.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SV2udx">
As Austin <a href="https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/download_testimony8.pdf">told</a> the Senate, “We are flowing security assistance to Israel at the speed of war.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cdsTXC">
Secretary of State Antony Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors in 2017, which has worked for military contractors, new military-tech startups, and Israeli companies. Blinken, for his part, advised the defense contractor <a href="https://prospect.org/power/meet-the-consulting-firm-staffing-biden-administration-westexec/">Boeing</a>, according to his financial disclosure. Last month, Boeing rushed the transfer of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-plans-320-million-weapons-transfer-to-israel-as-gaza-toll-mounts-7c50afd9">1,000 smart bombs</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-18/boeing-accelerates-delivery-of-up-to-1-800-gps-guidance-bomb-kits-to-israel#xj4y7vzkg">1,800 GPS-guidance bomb kits</a> to Israel.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Shiny silver artillery shells stand in racks waiting to be painted." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TeWaLZTuubCHIo8lG0y5Dy1EYxU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25093447/1251797885.jpg"/> <cite>Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Unfinished shells wait to be prepared for painting. The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant held a media day to show what they make. The plant makes a 155mm artillery shell.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N5U2xG">
Much of the team that worked to get Israel the $38 billion Obama package over 10 years is leading the way. Other key State Department officials include Daniel Shapiro, who also <a href="https://prospect.org/power/biden-advisers-ride-on-pegasus-nso-spyware/">worked for the Israel spyware maker NSO Group</a> when he was out of government. Intelligence leaders, too, bring vast experience. Avril Haines, the director of the Office of National Intelligence, has worked as an adviser to the data-processing powerhouse Palantir, which has been a <a href="https://www.palantir.com/q3-2023-letter/en/">staunch supporter of Israel</a> and apparently provides advanced tech to the Israeli military.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c69tjA">
The <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-arms-sales-doubled-in-a-decade-hit-new-record-of-12-5-billion-in-2022/">foundation of relationships between the defense industries</a> in the US, Israel, and its other partners in the region also helps. When the world’s biggest aerospace and defense companies gathered at the Dubai Airshow this week, for example, Israeli defense firms and officials <a href="https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-defense-ministry-bans-israelis-from-attending-dubai-airshow-1001462608">kept a low profile</a> — but the big deals continued. Take the US-Israel-UAE triangle, which benefits each country. Boeing, an American company, signed a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dubai-air-show-israel-hamas-russia-ukraine-d2ca068f0c88592c60eb9f11737baa46">$52 billion</a> airliner contract with a UAE carrier. On the sidelines of the fair, business people discussed “the impact of the demand for equipment stemming from the conflicts in Gaza” and “Close U.S.-U.A.E. alignment on the Israel-Gaza conflict,” according to the <a href="https://mailchi.mp/usuaebusiness.org/us-officials-talk-defense-equipment-release-and-sales-policy-ahead-of-dubai-airshow-2023?e=7906d1715b">US-UAE Business Council</a>. At the same time, Elbit Systems’ Emirati subsidiary is selling <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aerospace/2023-11-15/amid-conflict-israel-projects-minimal-presence-dubai">$53 million of military tech</a> to the UAE.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XKNND5">
The US has promoted the <a href="https://www.state.gov/u-s-security-cooperation-with-ukraine/">long lists</a> of weapons it is sending to Ukraine, publishing one-pagers and tallies that go into great detail. But as <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/11/07/israel-us-weapons-secret/">the Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein</a> noted, the Biden administration has kept the list of weapons it’s sending to Israel secret. The administration has also “sought permission to unilaterally blanket-approve the future sale of military equipment and weapons — like ballistic missiles and artillery ammunition  —  to Israel without notifying Congress,” according to the watchdog group <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/article/white-house-request-waiver-arms-sales-gaza-israel">Women for Weapons Trade Transparency</a>. That would remove a key mechanism for oversight from lawmakers — and scrutiny from the public.
</p>
<h3 id="887DaD">
Who’s concerned about arms to Israel?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ApkupI">
Many of these weapons are now being used in Gaza, with catastrophic humanitarian results. That has led the United Nations, French President Emmanuel Macron, and a number of international organizations to urge an <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/11/4/23945628/israel-hamas-war-gaza-ceasefire-history-explained">immediate ceasefire</a>. Human Rights Watch has <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/14/gaza-unlawful-israeli-hospital-strikes-worsen-health-crisis">called for war crimes investigations</a> into the Israeli bombardment of the health care system.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RzMvO6">
“The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/10/right-now-it-is-one-day-at-a-time-life-on-israels-frontline-with-gaza">said</a> last month. That heavy bombardment and death toll prompted the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/nov/16/un-commissioner-says-killing-of-gaza-civilians-cannot-be-dismissed-as-collateral-damage-video">UN’s high commissioner for human rights</a> to say Thursday that “the killing of so many civilians cannot be dismissed as collateral damage.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eQkmF5">
Given this, some activists are protesting US military aid to Israel and are calling for a <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/11/9/23953714/biden-campaign-alumni-want-gaza-ceasefire-state-department-dissent-memo">ceasefire</a>. One group called <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/palestine-action-elbit-eight-activists-trial-israel-palestine-gaza-weapons-arms/">Palestine Action</a> has been staging actions in the US and the United Kingdom at the facilities of Elbit Systems, an Israeli military contractor. About 150 protesters <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/pro-palestinian-protesters-target-raytheon-192145731.html">picketed</a> Raytheon Technologies in El Segundo, California, for its arms trade with Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ugdwnP">
Josh Paul, a former senior State Department official overseeing arms sales who resigned in protest last month, has been straightforward in saying that Israel is in violation of international law. “It is my opinion that Israel is committing war crimes in its actions in Gaza right now,” he <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/11/us-ignores-israeli-war-crimes-domestic-politics-ex-official#ixzz8JGjuhTzZ">said</a>. “And it’s not just my opinion. I’ve actually heard from officials across government, including elected officials at a very senior level, who share that opinion but aren’t willing to say it in public.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M_ylTTOEkIh8TlOkizJjtFV8l3Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25093445/1723576026.jpg"/> <cite>Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A shipment of 155mm artillery shells used by the Israeli army is transported on a truck along a highway between Jerusalem and Beersheba in southern Israel on October 14, 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Arakb">
This may be setting up Israel for a collision with the Biden administration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZoZJwG">
In February 2022, Biden strengthened the human rights component of US arms transfers. The administration put a new emphasis on human rights in the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/02/23/memorandum-on-united-states-conventional-arms-transfer-policy/">Conventional Arms Transfer</a> policy that added safeguards for “elevating the importance of protecting civilians.” The policy specifically restricted the transfer of weapons that are “more likely than not” to be used in atrocities, including violations of the Geneva Convention or of international humanitarian law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I0J1cH">
The Biden administration may be “violating its own conventional arms transfer policy” by sending arms to Israel, as Seth Binder of the Project on Middle East Democracy <a href="https://jacobin.com/2023/11/biden-administration-israel-gaza-military-aid-conventional-arms-transfer-policy">recently told Jacobin</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BJJ6Vy">
But senior Biden officials insist the administration is upholding its commitments. “All of our arms transfers, including arms transfers to Israel, are rooted in the basic proposition that they will be used consistent with [the] law of armed conflict,” Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/10/20/on-the-record-press-call-with-omb-director-shalanda-young-and-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-on-the-supplemental-request-for-critical-national-security-funding-needs/">said</a> last month. “There is no exception here and no difference here from any of our other arms transfers.” The administration regularly conveys to Israel the importance of humanitarian laws, that “innocent civilians must be taken [in]to account for any operation,” <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3591847/deputy-pentagon-press-secretary-ms-sabrina-singh-holds-a-press-briefing/">according</a> to Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I119bG">
Some of the concerns relate specifically to the kinds of weapons the US delivers. The document that Bloomberg obtained showed that the US is sending Israel 57,000 of the 155mm shells that are used in artillery guns. A group of humanitarian aid groups and security experts had sent a <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/joint-open-letter-transfer-155mm-artillery-shells-israel">letter to the secretary of defense</a> earlier in the week urging the Biden administration not to send these shells to Israel, saying they are “inherently indiscriminate” and “have a high error radius, often landing 25 meters away from the intended target,” which would be particularly destructive in a place as densely populated as Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n0ULfD">
As arms trade accelerates and scrutiny on Israel’s operations heightens, the reason for the strengthening of the arms transfer policy’s human rights component seems more relevant than ever. “It is not in the US national interest to engage in arms transfers where we assess that they are likely to be used in human rights violations,” Christopher Le Mon, a senior State Department official, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULFfEvf3Mxs&amp;t=1s">said</a> in March. “It does not advance our national interests, it does not advance our national security.”
</p></li>
<li><strong>Formula 1 grew too fast. Now its new fans are tuning out.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Several young men shout and hold their thumbs down in front of them in the stands of a racetrack." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/83YTbBlYVR6WT3we0l3QKhyTZFQ=/140x0:5011x3653/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72878706/1798343525.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Spectators give a thumbs-down about leaving the track ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas on November 16. | Kym Illman/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Las Vegas Grand Prix proves F1 needs more than glitz and glamour.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8jWbgn">
Thanks to a little show called <a href="https://www.vox.com/22652554/drive-to-survive-f1-racing-netflix"><em>Drive to Survive</em></a>, as well as fresh ownership by way of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2017/08/15/revealed-how-liberty-media-bought-formula-one-for-301-million/?sh=346d41d7f2a1">Liberty Media</a>, Formula 1 has never been more popular.<strong> </strong>This weekend, they’ll send the fastest cars in the world zooming down the Las Vegas Strip for <a href="https://theathletic.com/5047927/2023/11/10/f1-las-vegas-grand-prix-failure/">the first time in almost 40 years</a>. But if you’re a local looking to catch the race live — or any other American hoping to catch a glimpse of the cars roaring past — good luck.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JpgGE7">
A revitalized pop culture engine has taken over the sport: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8URS4Vy/">Driver fancams on TikTok</a>, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/31/toto-wolff-the-compulsive-perfectionist-behind-mercedes-formula-1-team">erudite magazine features</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PJvpq8uOZM&amp;ab_channel=BadBunny">braggadocious trap tracks</a> proliferate with each passing day. American audiences, traditionally accustomed to Nascar, have bought into F1, and brought with them a whole new world of moneymaking ploys, not all of which are so fan-friendly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IyQNlr">
Ask anyone who has spent time at the Miami Grand Prix, which was added to the race calendar just last year: Liberty Media is all about making F1 into an experience, <a href="https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/formula-1-races-us-travel-destination">the racing equivalent of Coachella</a> for <a href="https://www.vox.com/celebrities">celebrities</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/influencers">influencers</a>, and uber-wealthy tastemakers. All the while, the company pumped up the showiness with <a href="https://www.autoweek.com/racing/formula-1/a43829636/over-the-top-driver-intros-at-f1-miami-grand-prix-divided-drivers/">lavish, cheesy ceremonies</a>. “I guess it’s the American way of doing things, doing sport,” Mercedes driver George Russell said about the Miami race back in May. (At races in Italy, Canada, and Japan, the ceremonies pale in comparison.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lmM23Z">
If Miami’s extravaganza is any indication, there’s trouble brewing for Las Vegas, especially when it comes to understanding the various audiences in America. Miami’s three-day event put spectacle above sport in every way. And it seems like this weekend on the Strip will have the same excessive vibe — at the cost of everyday fans, locals, and even the Formula 1 teams themselves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8R7Ypp">
Not only has the hasty construction for a temporary street race track caused <a href="https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2023/10/18/formula-1-officials-say-efforts-to-resolve-traffic-issues-still-a-work-in-progress/">months of havoc</a>, going to the race is out of the question unless you make serious bank. The average “get-in” price began at <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/15/business/f1-race-las-vegas-ticket-prices/index.html">about $1,600</a> when tickets went on sale a year ago, unless you want to <a href="https://f1destinations.com/tickets-f1-las-vegas-grand-prix-2023/">stand by the Sphere for a cool $500</a>. That’s not including airfare, lodging, food and drink, or any bougie hospitality package (those range from thousands to <a href="https://www.caesars.com/events/f1/nobu-emperor-package">millions of dollars</a>, FYI).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R0q1yC">
While F1 officials claim that the event will generate <a href="https://www.ktnv.com/news/f1-las-vegas-grand-prix-set-to-boost-valley-economy-by-1-3-billion">more than $1 billion</a> in economic activity for locals, the logistics and fizzled hype around the race tell a different story. <a href="https://am.ticketmaster.com/lvgp/buy">Official tickets are still available</a> when they’re typically sold out, and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/11/14/prices-plummet-for-las-vegas-f1-grand-prix-heres-why/?utm_campaign=socialflowForbesMainTwitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=ForbesMainTwitter&amp;sh=5d2a19cbd2a0">resale tickets have plummeted by hundreds of dollars</a>. (Don’t mistake a price drop for affordability, though — it’s still ridiculously expensive.) Reasons for such a decline include: an inconvenient start time (10 pm local time, or an absurd 1 am if you’re on the East Coast), a lack of <a href="https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/38831559/max-verstappen-2023-officially-most-dominant-f1-season-ever">stakes</a> — as driver Max Verstappen has dominated the competition this season — and the fact that it’s <a href="https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/las-vegas-grand-prix-weather-forecast-how-cold-will-it-be-for-the-f1-race/10546744/">quite chilly</a> to watch cars vroom vroom in late November.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A red Ferrari racecar is frozen in a still photo on a black racetrack, with lights and walls a blur around it." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-1aWMP__k6-kVq35WEJ0_DiKwKQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25092753/1798474936.jpg"/> <cite>Mark Thompson/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Carlos Sainz of Spain driving a Ferrari SF-23 during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas, on November 17.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N8RDIq">
Sure, Formula 1 has always been a glitzy sport, celebrated on Monaco’s champagne-laden yachts and marked by the opulence of Abu Dhabi’s day-to-night race. But the aggressive pursuit of even more glamour as its audience grows (and transforms) is a deep misunderstanding of why people like F1 to begin with. Fans brought in by Netflix’s <em>Drive to Survive</em> appreciate <a href="https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/how-does-a-formula-1-car-work-wings-diffusers-and-more-explained-4982275/4982275/">the sheer engineering fortitude</a> of cars that make 200 miles per hour look easy, the Bravo-worthy <a href="https://brobible.com/sports/article/fernando-alonso-ghosted-alpine-greek-isles/">interpersonal drama</a>, and the ease of only having to keep up with 20 drivers, rather than hundreds of athletes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vLoUrs">
The Las Vegas Grand Prix looks to be proof of a hunch many have had for a while. Formula 1’s strategy for explosive growth was never about courting a diverse American audience of fervent fangirls, dorky dads, or motorsport maniacs. It’s about selling the pastiche of American sports to the wealthy, and giving European racing Super Bowl-levels of revenue and cultural soft power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nDCtQ4">
Formula 1’s missteps in America reflect a fascinating microcosm of what Liberty Media believes drives Americans. But despite Formula 1’s popularity explosion, these recent changes ignore what everyone really wants: competitive, accessible racing. Unless the sport can provide that, new American fans will tune out.
</p>
<h3 id="rwL631">
How Formula 1 became so damn big in the US
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rDw99R">
At the risk of severely oversimplifying F1 to the chagrin of nerds everywhere, the cool thing about Formula 1 is that it’s a physical and technological feat every race. Drivers are going so fast that their bodies are actively fighting against <a href="https://onestopracing.com/g-force-in-f1-explained/">five times the G-force</a> of a normal car. That’s the equivalent of feeling your body becoming five times heavier than it actually is. And in order to make cars go faster and also keep drivers safe, suites of engineers tirelessly research improvements.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QLRS6x">
It’s different from Nascar in a few ways: Drivers race on winding tracks with hard turns rather than circular tracks, the gulfs in performance between the best and worst machines are massive, and, thanks to <a href="https://www.dive-bomb.com/post/the-importance-of-neck-training-for-formula-1-drivers">literally breakneck speeds</a> made to push bodies to their limits, the stakes are higher.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fS5ryd">
There are 10 teams in F1, with two drivers each. There’s a driver championship, where individual racers compete against each other (even teammates), and the constructor’s championship to reward the team as a whole. <a href="https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/track-guides/whats-the-difference-between-f1-constructor-standings-and-driver-standings">Winning in either category</a> nets you more money to build better cars, and better cars mean more wins.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6piuwF">
For a long time, the complexity of F1 alienated potential fans, much the way baseball’s stats-oriented ethos does. US-based company Liberty Media, which owns SiriusXM, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2017/08/15/revealed-how-liberty-media-bought-formula-one-for-301-million/?sh=7022c0877f2a">bought Formula 1 in 2017</a>, and updated the branding of the sport to be sexier and more watchable in order to get younger crowds at races. But it was <em>Drive to Survive</em> that changed F1’s longstanding reputation, matching feats of science with drama on the track.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A huge Texas flag flies over a long, twisting racetrack and huge stands full of people, while cars race along the track." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OaNnzA3TP2VKMyRVXJJffFeCWqY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25092760/1244207318.jpg"/> <cite>Gongora/NurPhoto via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
The grandstands were full of spectators during the F1 Grand Prix USA in October 2022 in Austin, Texas.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MXK0MT">
The show first aired in 2019, right before the pandemic, and while growth started slow, it has become exponential. 2021 was the first season where audiences could come back to the track, and it couldn’t have been a better time to be an F1 fan. Upstart Verstappen and veteran Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton — who was battling for his potentially <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/formula-1-lewis-hamilton-misses-out-on-record-eighth-f1-world-title-after-drama-at-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-12491965">record-breaking eighth world champion title</a> — were neck and neck all season, with Verstappen ultimately coming out on top.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rfjdVV">
Total attendance globally for the 2022 season was 5.7 million, up 36 percent compared to 2019, <a href="https://www.libertymedia.com/news/detail/485/liberty-media-corporation-reports-fourth-quarter-and-year">according to Liberty Media’s public financial reports</a>. 2021 and 2022 saw <a href="http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/f1-united-states-grand-prix-2022-record-attendance-cota-new-york-race/?zephr_sso_ott=RfVDpz#:~:text=Formula%20One's%20recent%20race,at%20the%20venue%20in%20Austin.">back-to-back record-breaking attendance</a> at the Austin Grand Prix, with 400,000 and 440,000 attendees, respectively. The average attendance in 2019 per race globally was <a href="https://www.eurosport.com/formula-1/motor-racing-silverstone-on-top-as-f1-reports-bigger-crowds-in-2019_sto7583046/story.shtml">around 200,000 viewers</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SlkSfr">
With that huge growth came the desire to do more in the US — where a lot of change stemmed from. Formula 1 added the Miami Grand Prix in <a href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/SB-Blogs/SBJ-Unpacks/2023/05/05.aspx?hl=formula+1&amp;sc=0">2022</a>, with the expectation of a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/miami-make-f1-debut-2022-under-10-year-deal-2021-04-18/">10-year contract</a>. The Las Vegas race was announced shortly after, with the debut aiming for 2023.
</p>
<h3 id="ZxolWw">
The growing pains of finding new audiences
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bGPzeC">
The crucial issue with Formula 1 and Liberty Media is their assumption of who is attending these races. The additions of Miami and Las Vegas suggest that F1 is only really after a good party. It makes sense: These are cities that offer a lot of nightlife, <a href="https://vegas.eater.com/2023/11/14/23959505/watch-formua-one-f1-race-dine-celebrities-expensive-las-vegas-strip">food</a>, and culture for those who might only attend a race because it’s the cool thing to do.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rhxNKG">
Roaming around the Miami paddock and the Mercedes party at the Ritz-Carlton on South Beach back in May, I asked folks whether they were fans of a certain team or racer. One answered while sipping a sake martini that she was here for a PR trip; another answered that she lives in Miami and that F1 creates an opportunity to mingle with celebrities and influencers. One half of electronic duo Disclosure played some oontz-oontz tracks, and for a moment, brought Mercedes reserve driver Mick Schumacher, <a href="https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1019743/1/impressive-f1-records-michael-schumacher-still-holds-2023">the son of decorated F1 racer</a> Michael Schumacher, to the stage. Only a handful of people recognized him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SCJMWH">
In some ways, Liberty Media is right. The guest who is there for the vibe needs to be catered to — they’re the ones who have full wallets. At the same time, longtime fans and even new fans who care about the actual sport bristle at this dynamic. Tickets are becoming more expensive when theoretically these races should be more accessible. Austin’s general admission for the whole race weekend in 2021 was around $200-$300. This year, <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/college/longhorns/football/2023/10/17/what-to-know-about-f1-u-s-grand-prix-at-cota-2023-the-killers-queen-adam-lambert-tiesto/71204748007/">they went for $475</a>. Las Vegas’s <a href="https://www.f1lasvegasgp.com/inventory?type=General%20Admission">standing room only admission starts at $500</a>, but the hospitality options exceed the price of Miami’s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zlc5rC">
Currently, some longtimers are miffed at the <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2023/03/formula-1-racing-fangirls.html">fangirl culture shift,</a> blaming them for the changes in F1. The lines between fangirl and clout-chaser are seemingly thin for those who can’t tell the difference. But really, it’s not the new female devotees who are at fault, it’s corporate greed. Those same enthusiasts are certainly the ones asking hard questions: Where are the <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/us/formula-1/news/f1-academy-explained-new-all-female-driver-series-2023/szkphkthjfkuhmjj36kx1vxn">female drivers</a>? Why did F1 seem so <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/05/motorsport/f1-austrian-grand-prix-drivers-kneel-and-stand-hamilton-bottas-spt-intl/index.html">pro-“End Racism”</a> in 2020 only to muzzle drivers years later? Why was an <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/formula-one-groping-driver-1557049">alleged abuser</a> and son of a <a href="https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/33681873/inside-haas-how-f1-american-team-cut-ties-nikita-mazepin-oligarch-father">Russian oligarch </a>racing for so long? That can be a tough pill to swallow when so much of the sport has for years been just about statistics. But questioning the status quo can only strengthen the sport — it’s leaving fans out that poses the real problem.
</p>
<h3 id="uyZ3cs">
What’s going on with the Las Vegas Grand Prix?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3sy4DQ">
Lovingly put, Formula 1 severely overestimated the Venn diagram of who loves to watch racing and who can afford a laughably decadent experience. F1 has turned into a spectacle, riding on the coattails of its <a href="https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.how-hamilton-and-verstappens-battle-evolved-over-the-2021-season.733vQgLMqampix5fLefN62.html">most exhilarating season in 2021,</a> and the <a href="https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/news/f1-news-charles-leclerc-speaks-candidly-about-hard-to-accept-failures-in-2022-jd22">gut-wrenching rise and fall of Ferrari’s attempt to win the driver’s championship in 2022</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ROLp4E">
But this season’s stakes are just … not there. It’s a total snooze for a new fan who may have become accustomed to the edge-of-your-seat dynamics of the last two years. Verstappen took the championship already with a <a href="https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/38831559/max-verstappen-2023-officially-most-dominant-f1-season-ever">record-breaking 17 wins out</a> of 23 races this year. He could start in the very back of the pack and still take pole position. With the driver’s and constructor’s championship more or less decided, the season is remarkably uninteresting. <a href="https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2023/11/nba-viewership-back-up-after-big-increase-f1-off-pace-iowa-womens-ratings-nhl/">According to ESPN</a>, Formula 1 is averaging 1.11 million viewers across its networks — down 8 percent from last year.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A racecar curves around a turn on a track with the lights of Las Vegas and a massive LED screen sphere in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ye8CRnZmS7l-USyRRq4UjuoQORQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25092764/1798410777.jpg"/> <cite>Mark Thompson/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Max Verstappen driving the Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas on November 17.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xQ9t1U">
Unlike what <em>Drive to Survive</em> depicts, the drama just isn’t there. The seemingly predetermined nature of these races is turning America off. (Longtime fans may remember a time when Michael Schumacher won five years in a row, so it’s not like the dominance is necessarily new, but it’s just not what drew in bright-eyed American fans.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="APKGh0">
So it’s not that much of a shocker that people don’t want to spend their hard-earned money on a race that doesn’t really matter all that much, especially when said race is the most expensive on the calendar. If Las Vegas apes Miami’s overpriced, underwhelming hospitality — one attendee in May <a href="https://twitter.com/PeterMcCormack/status/1655300145024491521">tweeted</a> “Fyre festival vibes,” after reportedly paying $42 for a “wagyu” sandwich that had what looked like a few slices of ham — it could mean even more tension between certain types of fans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LzCW4a">
Then there’s the issue of how unwelcome Formula 1 is in Las Vegas. Unlike Miami and Austin, where the races are held temporarily within a stadium or on a dedicated circuit far away from downtown areas, the Las Vegas Grand Prix is at the heart of the city, on roads locals use every day. Street races have their place on the calendar (like in Singapore, my personal favorite to watch), but the key difference is local governments have a sustained relationship with F1 and Liberty Media. What’s going on in Vegas is a haphazard, bureaucratic mess.
</p>
<div id="3vy26o">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 152px;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xT6ykR">
As Elizabeth Blackstock reported for <a href="https://jalopnik.com/i-hope-it-bankrupts-them-las-vegas-residents-enraged-a-1851009102">Jalopnik,</a> locals and laborers alike have immense scorn for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/11/16/las-vegas-f1-race-track/">infrastructural disaster the sport has wreaked on the city</a> for the last nine months, in addition to chopping down trees, pricing out tourists, and more. “I’ll leave you with this,” an anonymous front-of-the-house hotel worker told Blackstock. “I often hear the sentiment, joking or not, that folks wish the mob still ran Las Vegas instead of these vultures and leeches.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="39bLgY">
Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/nov/14/f1-apology-las-vegas-greg-maffei-disruption-night-race-complaints">recently issued an apology</a> for the disruption, but padded it with the so-called economic benefit of the race. “I want to apologize to all the Las Vegas residents and we appreciate that they have their forbearance and their willingness to tolerate us,” he said. “We’re going to bring something like $1.7 billion of revenue to the area.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DRP7qy">
The drivers themselves are a bit more measured. Negative connotations aren’t good for the sport. “I’ve heard there’s been a lot of complaints about the event being here from the locals,” Hamilton <a href="https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/38910392/lewis-hamilton-f1-circus-respect-las-vegas-locals">told reporters</a>. “We’ve got to make sure people are taken care of. We can’t be a circus that shows up that’s all glitz and glamour and people are affected negatively by it, in my opinion.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VaBNq1">
The big question Formula 1 will have to ask itself after this weekend is: Was it worth it? A <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNF1/status/1725383633094287724">poorly installed drain cover</a> shredded the bottom of Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz’s car during practice, leading to a <a href="https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/vasseur-f1-vegas-manhole-issues-that-wrecked-sainzs-ferrari-unacceptable/10547502/">pricey repair worth a “fortune,”</a> penalties for Sainz, and a 90-minute delay, pushing the second practice to 2:30 am. Fans were <a href="https://racingnews365.com/police-eject-fans-minutes-before-las-vegas-fp2">ejected from the grandstands</a> moments before practice resumed. What’s the point of spending all that money if you only got to see 10 minutes of car racing?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="krFIVI">
The impression is that the US is full of fans with money, and that’s true to some extent. But it’s hard to build something solid and lasting on razzle-dazzle and upcharged extras. Nothing can be cool forever, and drawing comparisons to doomed music festivals doesn’t bode well for the long term. Even if people are dropping the equivalent of a house down payment to have a good time, the growing pains are here. For some fans, the hurt will be too much.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The controversy over TikTok and Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A close-up of bin Laden’s face; it is long, thin. His skin is dark brown, and he sports a thick salt-and-pepper beard as well as a white turban. He appears to be wearing combat fatigues." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Dqu5r9MCXt7Xo1_Hk1A60FchyIM=/600x0:2864x1698/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72878002/GettyImages_1374472.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A still from a 1998 interview with Osama Bin Laden. | CNN/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Why bin Laden’s 2002 letter became the latest TikTok moral panic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c2i4yw">
This week, videos featuring former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s 2002 missive “Letter to America” were posted to TikTok, leading a wide swath of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/16/tech/tiktok-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/index.html">politicians</a>, <a href="https://911familiesunited.org/9-11-families-united-statement-on-viral-tiktok-videos-praising-osama-bin-laden/">families of 9/11 victims</a>, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/11/16/guardian-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/">influencers</a> to condemn users creating the clips — and the app itself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fSYdUC">
The story goes like this: TikTokers are “going viral” for sharing bin Laden’s arguments, and that is renewing calls to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/us/politics/nikki-haley-tiktok-ban.html">ban the app</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/13/tiktok-facebook-instagram-gaza-hastags/">feeding a recent fear</a> that <a href="https://www.vox.com/tiktok">TikTok</a> is indoctrinating Gen Z with pro-<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a> propaganda. The issue is, that story’s not fully true. While some TikTokers really were posting videos urging others to read the letter and getting modest views, these videos only made up a “tiny, tiny corner” of TikTok, as Jason Koebler, one of the earlier reporters to dig into the videos, explained in a <a href="https://twitter.com/jason_koebler/status/1724926681897693236">post on X</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qlxkhJ">
The controversy over the videos is a reminder that, often, a moral panic stems from a kernel of truth, one that is removed from its original context and coated in hyperbole. The panic over the letter is just the latest in a long line of these sorts of social media-driven scares about the dangers of the internet, which tended to create a false sense of frenzy. Did any children at all film themselves eating Tide Pods for views? Sure. Was it a wildly popular trend among Gen Z teens back in the day? No. The same goes for <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kelseyweekman/nyquil-chicken-fda-warning-tiktok-trend">last year’s panic</a> about kids baking NyQuil in chicken in order to go viral on TikTok.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vQwReL">
What makes this TikTok panic especially potent, however, is a mix of factors. There’s bipartisan support among US politicians to restrict or <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/3/23/23653325/tiktok-ban-us-china-congress">ban TikTok</a> as a <a href="https://www.vox.com/defense-and-security">national security</a> risk. In a hearing earlier this year, lawmakers <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/23653884/tiktok-hearing-shou-chew-winners-losers">grilled TikTok CEO Shou Chew</a> over the app’s ties to <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a> (TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is a Chinese company). And although TikTok says that the average age of its 150 million active users in the US is 31, the platform retains a deep association with youth culture. This makes it the ideal breeding ground for anxiety about what The Children are up to online.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TiM6Ac">
Meanwhile, bin Laden is a figure that elicits strong emotions — especially in the West — for his role in the 9/11 terror attacks and the shadow the resultant war on terror cast on American life. One of the things the letter touches on, and one of the things the videos focused on, is <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a>’s ongoing occupation of <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestinian</a> territories. The letter cites Israeli actions toward Palestinians, and the US’s allyship with Israel, as justification for al-Qaeda’s attacks on the US. In the wake of Hamas’s assault on Israel and Israel’s war on Hamas, those comments appear to have taken on new potency for some TikTok users. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america-tiktok-hashtag-removed-viral-videos-rcna125534">As NBC News reports</a>, many who’ve discussed the letter have not said that they support bin Laden’s actions and his perpetration of the September 11 attacks, but note that it has made them view the US’s foreign policy in the Middle East more critically.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BGQusG">
It seems likely that statements, tweets, and articles expressing outrage about TikTok personalities praising the letter went more viral than any of the videos in question. Regardless of how this story actually began, we’re all paying attention to it now.
</p>
<h3 id="X8ynzU">
The outrage over the bin Laden “Letter to America” TikTok videos, briefly explained
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fUpSBt">
As with many stories about viral trends, the original source of interest in the bin Laden letter is unclear. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/11/16/guardian-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/">Washington Post</a> noted that a small account on TikTok had posted one of the earlier videos on Monday, though its reporters write that <a href="https://www.vox.com/google">Google</a> search interest in the missive had been growing for days before videos about the bin Laden letter began to circulate on social media.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8j3HHv">
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/11/16/guardian-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/">According to the Post</a>, TikTok videos with the hashtag #lettertoamerica had been viewed about 2 million times as of Wednesday evening, a number the publication described as a “relatively low” figure given the 150 million accounts on the app in the US. On Wednesday night, social media influencer Yashar Ali posted a compilation of these posts on X that was viewed 38 million times, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/11/16/guardian-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/">per the Post</a>. Ali has a <a href="https://lamag.com/featured/yashar-ali">large, diverse, and politically well-connected following</a> on <a href="https://www.vox.com/twitter">X</a>, giving his posts wide reach. Following his post, TikToks with this hashtag had been viewed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/technology/videos-bin-laden-letter-tiktok.html">14.2 million times as of Thursday morning</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6k3UVB">
With all those views came backlash. The White House criticized those creating, watching, and sharing the videos: “There is never a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil and antisemitic lies that the leader of Al Qaeda issued just after committing the worst <a href="https://www.vox.com/terrorism">terrorist attack</a> in American history,” Andrew J. Bates, a deputy White House press secretary, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/technology/videos-bin-laden-letter-tiktok.html">said in a statement to the New York Times</a>. “No one should ever insult the 2,977 American families still mourning loved ones by associating themselves with the vile words of Osama bin Laden.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PFQPpd">
<a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/11/osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america-tiktok-context.html">Slate writer Fred Kaplan</a> was among <a href="https://www.vox.com/media">the media</a> experts and political observers who believed that those who are sharing the letter may be doing a selective reading that disregarded other provisions, including its broader “<a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/11/osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america-tiktok-context.html">attack on the modern secular world</a>,” justification for violence against civilians, and antisemitic statements. <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/far-right-bin-laden-letter-to-america-conspiracies/#:~:text=The%20issue%20has%20also%20led,propaganda%20machine%20for%20the%20Communists.">Far-right lawmakers</a> — many of whom backed former <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">President Donald Trump</a>’s efforts to ban the app — have also seized on the spread of this letter to try to reignite criticism of TikTok and calls for a ban. Because the app is owned by a Chinese parent company, some lawmakers have raised concerns that it could be used to amplify anti-American content and propaganda, an allegation TikTok has denied.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T3JrFV">
In response to this outrage, the Guardian, which had hosted an English translation of the letter <a href="https://time.com/6336280/osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america-tiktok/">since 2002</a>, removed it from its site, citing the lack of background provided. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/info/2023/nov/15/removed-document">The Guardian noted in a statement</a> that the letter was “widely shared on social media without the full context. Therefore we decided to take it down and direct readers instead to the news article that originally contextualized it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6JA2kw">
For his part, Ali — as well as <a href="https://twitter.com/donie/status/1725555873492172938?s=46&amp;t=LVLwPwruc4koXd6hdIOe8Q">CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan — disputes the implication that his video was the sole<strong> </strong>cause of this topic’s virality</a>. TikTok has also pushed back against the idea that the bin Laden videos went viral at all, while also taking down videos promoting the letter noting that these videos violate “rules on supporting any form of terrorism.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4U3iMD">
“The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate,” TikTok spokesperson Ben Rathe added in a statement to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america-tiktok-hashtag-removed-viral-videos-rcna125534">NBC News</a>. “This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media.”
</p>
<h3 id="7kyWqt">
What’s in the “Letter to America”
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VulWNX">
The <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/osama-bin-laden-letter-america-transcript-full-1844662">2002 letter</a> tries to answer the questions of why al-Qaeda is opposing and fighting the United States, and what the group wants from the US. It was published after the terrorist group killed nearly 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zchWTF">
Bin Laden argues that the rationale for the group’s violence is “because you attack us and continue to attack us,” citing the United States’s support of the creation of Israel and the occupation of Palestinian territories, among a number of other foreign policy actions including America’s sanctions on Iraq and bombing of <a href="https://www.vox.com/afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>. It also calls for more people to become adherents to Islam and criticizes the US for everything from its purported “acts of immorality” to its climate policy to its treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vsY1ef">
In its response to these two questions, the letter also attempts to justify the killing of civilians, uses several antisemitic tropes, and attacks gay people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PcYYUp">
In their posts, some TikTok users say that reading the letter has forced them to reflect on how history has framed the US’s culpability in geopolitics. “If you have read it, let me know if you are also going through an existential crisis in this very moment, because in the last 20 minutes, my entire viewpoint on the entire life I have believed, and I have lived, has changed,” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/16/tech/tiktok-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america?cid=ios_app">one user said</a>. And while much of the backlash has suggested that these posts are broadly synonymous with praise of bin Laden, some people in the videos featured in Ali’s compilation were focused more on reflecting on America’s historical relations with the Middle East than they were on backing bin Laden’s actions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zByCwP">
This response has come as there has been increased scrutiny of Israel’s airstrikes and siege of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a>, which have killed more than 11,000 civilians, and a desire to understand the history of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Israel-Hamas conflict</a>. At the same time, TikTok is gaining in popularity as a place to learn about and understand the news. According to a recent Pew Research poll, the share of TikTok users who regularly get news on the app <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/">has doubled</a> since 2020. Younger people, who have a large presence on TikTok, have also been among the groups who’ve been most critical of both Israel’s military response and the US’s support for it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sb4iQC">
One expert told the Washington Post that some of the users sharing bin Laden’s letter were potentially focusing on parts that resonated with them while ignoring other parts that perpetuated damaging tropes and violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JGwjhH">
“It’s not the letter that is going viral. It’s a selective reading of parts of the letter that’s going viral,” Charlie Winter, a specialist in Islamist militant affairs and director of research at the intelligence platform ExTrac, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/11/16/guardian-osama-bin-laden-letter-to-america/">told the Washington Post</a>. “And I don’t know whether it’s because people aren’t actually reading it or, when they’re reading it, they’re reading the bits that they want to see.”
</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>Video Assistant Referee likely in domestic competitions from 2025-26 season: All India Football Federation</strong> - “There will be a big decision on the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee very soon. We are doing a study on that,” AIFF acting Secretary General M Satyanarayan told PTI in an interview</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>Australians appear jittery over pitch behaviour, Cummins clicks photos of match strip</strong> - A black soil track, rolled heavily to ensure slowness, is on offer. Batting will be difficult under the lights if opposition has two quality spinners operating in the middle overs.</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>It would be awesome in terms of pinnacle to win World Cup with a great bunch of blokes, says Pat Cummins</strong> - The Australian skipper believes that a tournament that’s held only once in four years is certainly going to be a career highlight for him.</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>Cricket World Cup finals: India and Australia factfile</strong> - India are up against an Australian side who have won eight matches in a row and will be playing in their eighth World Cup final.</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>Final Countdown: Ruthless India ready for date with history on Super Sunday</strong> - November 19 will be completely different. It won’t just be a mere cricket tournament that needs to be won but also caring about the emotions of all those invested in the game.</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>Top priority to skill-oriented education in line with NEP, says IIIT new director Gopala Dhana Balaji</strong> - ‘Multiple skills and updating of knowledge in tune with changes in the technology will provide more opportunities for the youngsters’</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>India’s gem, jewellery exports decline 11.49% to ₹22,873 crore in October</strong> - The gross exports stood at ₹25,843.84 crore ($3,134.85 million) during October 2022, the data showed</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>Purandeswari demands judicial probe into Dalit youth suicide in Kovvuru</strong> - BJP will lodge a complaint with national SC panel, says party State president</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>Gross Enrolment Ratio of Telangana highest in the country: KTR</strong> - BRS working president said ₹1.25 lakhs is spent on each student in Gurukuls</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>Assam Rifles trooper, Arunachal youth injured in firing</strong> - The injured local was among three who were out hunting with firearms</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>Ukraine war: Marines gain riverbank foothold but front lines barely move</strong> - Marines talk of progress on “several bridgeheads” but soldiers talk of fatigue at the front.</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>Russia seeks extremist label for LGBT movement</strong> - The measure could leave any LGBT activist in the country vulnerable to criminal prosecution.</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>French senator Joël Guerriau questioned on suspicion of drugging MP</strong> - Joël Guerriau was detained after the MP complained of feeling unwell after a drink.</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>Berlin on edge for Erdogan after fierce Israel criticism</strong> - Israel’s war with Hamas takes centre stage as Turkey’s leader meets Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin.</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>Finland closes four crossing points on Russia border</strong> - Helsinki said it was trying to halt a surge in illegal crossings from Russia, mostly of third-country citizens.</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>Lotus Eletre R is a 900-horsepower SUV that weirdly slays the competition</strong> - Lotus is ready to sell you a super EV SUV. What is it, and can it be a winner? - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1984701">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Five things to watch for when Starship takes off Saturday morning</strong> - SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket is poised to head for space from South Texas. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985143">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>OpenAI President Greg Brockman quits as shocked employees hold all-hands meeting</strong> - Details emerge in Sam Altman firing, which blindsided Microsoft and investors. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985047">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Valve celebrates 25 years of Half-Life with feature-packed Steam update</strong> - New MP maps, widescreen/Steam Deck support, and more come amid “free to keep” weekend. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985017">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Barefoot workers, bacteria found at factory that made big-brand eye drops</strong> - Around 30 eye drop brands are recalled; FDA inspection report shows why. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1984986">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>If r/Jokes posts were like YouTube videos</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Joke title: IS THIS THE WORLD’S FUNNIEST JOKE?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Hello welcome to my joke, this joke is sponsored by BackdooredVPN, get the VPN service for just $29.95 a month. Also sponsored by Microtransaction Legends, download the app for free today.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Before we share the joke we want to remind you that if this is your first time reading don’t forget to subscribe, like, share, comment and subscribe and remember to SMASH that notification bell.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Now on to the joke. There are many jokes in the world but today we will be sharing the world’s most funny joke. Jokes have existed for a long time but we are going to be sharing the one we think is the most funny.
</p>
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So without further ado here is the joke:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I hope you like this joke. Don’t forget to subscribe to read more great jokes and if you like this video hit that like button, subscribe and most importantly SMASH THAT NOTIFICATION BELL! Also be sure to post your favorite jokes down in the comments.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/JerrySeinfeld1954"> /u/JerrySeinfeld1954 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17xtouw/if_rjokes_posts_were_like_youtube_videos/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17xtouw/if_rjokes_posts_were_like_youtube_videos/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I ate horse last week and it made me seriously ill.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But now I’m in a stable condition.
</p>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Tall_Acadia8838"> /u/Tall_Acadia8838 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17y07o7/i_ate_horse_last_week_and_it_made_me_seriously_ill/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17y07o7/i_ate_horse_last_week_and_it_made_me_seriously_ill/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My grandpa called to thank me, but forgot what for.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I said, “dementia it.”
</p>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Internal_Fennel_849"> /u/Internal_Fennel_849 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17y329c/my_grandpa_called_to_thank_me_but_forgot_what_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17y329c/my_grandpa_called_to_thank_me_but_forgot_what_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>So a British guy gets a call from a man asking for him to go through a maze.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man asks, “What type of maze?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“A maize maze,” responds the caller.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What the hell kind of a maze is that?” asks the man.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“You’ll get it. Just keep driving until you find it. Shouldn’t take too long.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So the man keeps driving on and on. Eventually, he drives along the whole coast of England. Furiously, he calls back. “I’ve been spending my whole weekend driving around for your stupid game,” he complains, “and I still don’t know where this maize maze is! And I’m lost in Cornwall!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The quest giver responds, “You fool. You’re not supposed to enter the maze through the walls.”
</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/Micro_Pinny_360"> /u/Micro_Pinny_360 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17xv70j/so_a_british_guy_gets_a_call_from_a_man_asking/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17xv70j/so_a_british_guy_gets_a_call_from_a_man_asking/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Little Johnny is playing with his electric train set in the living room…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
…and his mom is in the kitchen when she hears him say, “The train has arrived at the station. All you mother-fuckers getting off, get off and all you mother-fuckers getting on, get on.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She immediately scolds him for the language and puts him in time-out for 30 minutes. He comes back afterwards and resumes playing with the train. She smiles when she hears him say, “The train has arrived at the station. Those getting off the train, please do so. Those getting on the train, please do so.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then he says, “If you would like to make a complaint about the train being late, then go talk to the bitch in the kitchen,”
</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/Indotex"> /u/Indotex </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17xe7oo/little_johnny_is_playing_with_his_electric_train/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17xe7oo/little_johnny_is_playing_with_his_electric_train/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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