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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>High fusion and cytopathy of SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.640.1</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 variants with undetermined properties have emerged intermittently throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Some variants possess unique phenotypes and mutations which allow further characterization of viral evolution and spike functions. Around 1100 cases of the B.1.640.1 variant were reported in Africa and Europe between 2021 and 2022, before the expansion of Omicron. Here, we analyzed the biological properties of a B.1.640.1 isolate and its spike. Compared to the ancestral spike, B.1.640.1 carried 14 amino acid substitutions and deletions. B.1.640.1 escaped binding by some anti-NTD and -RBD monoclonal antibodies, and neutralization by sera from convalescent and vaccinated individuals. In cell lines, infection generated large syncytia and a high cytopathic effect. In primary airway cells, B.1.640.1 replicated less than Omicron BA.1 and triggered more syncytia and cell death than other variants. The B.1.640.1 spike was highly fusogenic when expressed alone. This was mediated by two poorly characterized and infrequent mutations located in the spike S2 domain, T859N and D936H. Altogether, our results highlight the cytopathy of a hyper-fusogenic SARS-CoV-2 variant, supplanted upon the emergence of Omicron BA.1.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.06.556548v1" target="_blank">High fusion and cytopathy of SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.640.1</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Pre-dominance of dengue non-cross-reacting SARS-CoV-2 spike antibodies during the Omicron era and their role in the ADE-mediated surge of Dengue virus serotype 3</strong> -
<div>
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In India, the SARS-CoV-2 Delta wave (2020-21) gradually faded away with the advent of the Omicron variants (2021-present). Dengue incidences were observably less in Southeast Asia during the active years of the pandemic (2020-21). However, Dengue virus type 3 (DV3) cases were increasingly reported in India and many other dengue-endemic countries concurrent with the progression of the Omicron wave since 2022. This observation prompted us to investigate the current state of cross-reactivity between prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants and different DV serotypes. Fifty-five COVID-19 serum samples (collected between January-September, 2022) and three pre-pandemic healthy serum samples were tested for DV or SARS-CoV-2 Immunoglobulin G/Immunoglobulin M (IgG/IgM) using the lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs). The SARS-CoV-2 antibody (Ab)-positive samples were further tested for their ability to cross-neutralize DV types 1-4 (DV1-4) in Huh7 cell lines. Cross-reactivity between SARS-CoV-2 and DV diminished with the shift from Delta to Omicron prevalence. COVID-19 serum samples that were DV cross-reactive neutralized all DV serotypes, including DV3. However, Omicron wave serum samples were predominantly DV non-cross-reactive (about 70%) in LFIAs and coincided with the prevalence of BA.2 Omicron variant. They also cross-neutralized DV1, 2 and 4 but enhanced DV3 infectivity as evident from increased DV3 titres in virus neutralization test (VNT) compared to control serum samples. In conclusion, DV non-cross-reactive COVID-19 serum samples are becoming increasingly prominent in the present times. These non-cross-reactive serums could neutralize DV1, 2 and 4 but they are contributing to the surge in DV3 cases worldwide by means of ADE.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.23295136v1" target="_blank">Pre-dominance of dengue non-cross-reacting SARS-CoV-2 spike antibodies during the Omicron era and their role in the ADE-mediated surge of Dengue virus serotype 3</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Change in body weight of older adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Longitudinal results from the Berlin Aging Study II</strong> -
<div>
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Background: Change in body weight during the COVID-19 pandemic as an unintended side effect of lockdown measures has been predominantly reported for younger and middle-aged adults. However, information on older adults for which weight loss is known to result in adverse outcomes, is scarce. Aims: Describe body weight change in older adults before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown measures and explore putative associated factors with a focus on the period that includes the first six months of the COVID-19 containment measures. Methods: In this study, we analyzed the longitudinal weight change of 472 participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (mean age of 67.5 years at baseline, average follow-up time 10 years). Additionally, differences between subgroups characterized by socio-economic, cognitive, and psychosocial variables as well as morbidity burden, biological age markers (epigenetic clocks, telomere length), and frailty were compared. Results: On average, women and men lost 0.87% (n=227) and 0.5% (n=245) of their body weight per year in the study period covering the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Weight loss among men was particularly pronounced among groups characterized by change in physical activity due to COVID-19 lockdown, low positive affect, premature epigenetic age (7-CpG clock), diagnosed metabolic syndrome, and a more masculine gender score (all variables: p&lt;0.05, n=245). Conclusions: Older participants lost weight with a 2.5-times (women) and 2-times (men) higher rate than what is expected in this age.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.23295246v1" target="_blank">Change in body weight of older adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Longitudinal results from the Berlin Aging Study II</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Recognition and Cleavage of Human tRNA Methyltransferase TRMT1 by the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease</strong> -
<div>
The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) plays a crucial role in the production of functional viral proteins during infection and, like many viral proteases, can also target and cleave host proteins to subvert their cellular functions. Here, we show that the human tRNA methyltransferase TRMT1 can be recognized and cleaved by SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. TRMT1 installs the N2,N2-dimethylguanosine (m2,2G) modification at the G26 position of mammalian tRNA, which promotes global protein synthesis, cellular redox homeostasis, and has links to neurological disability. We find that Mpro can cleave endogenous TRMT1 in human cell lysate, resulting in removal of the TRMT1 zinc finger domain that is required for tRNA modification activity in cells. Evolutionary analysis shows that the TRMT1 cleavage site is highly conserved in mammals, except in Muroidea, where TRMT1 may be resistant to cleavage. In primates, regions outside of the cleavage site with rapid evolution could indicate possible adaptation to ancient viral pathogens. To visualize how Mpro recognizes the TRMT1 cleavage sequence, we determined the structure of a TRMT1 peptide in complex with Mpro, which reveals a substrate binding conformation distinct from the majority of available SARS-CoV-2 Mpro-peptide complexes. Kinetic parameters for peptide cleavage showed that while TRMT1(526-536) is cleaved much slower than the Mpro nsp4/5 autoprocessing sequence, it is proteolyzed with comparable efficiency to the Mpro-targeted nsp8/9 viral cleavage site. Mutagenesis studies and molecular dynamics simulations together indicate that kinetic discrimination occurs during a later step of Mpro-mediated proteolysis that follows substrate binding. Our results provide new information about the structural basis for Mpro substrate recognition and cleavage that could help inform future therapeutic design and raise the possibility that proteolysis of human TRMT1 during SARS-CoV-2 infection may impact protein translation or oxidative stress response and contribute to viral pathogenesis.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.20.529306v3" target="_blank">Recognition and Cleavage of Human tRNA Methyltransferase TRMT1 by the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Partial Face Visibility and Facial Cognition: An Electroencephalography and Eye-Tracking Investigation</strong> -
<div>
Face masks became a part of everyday life in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Previous studies showed that the face cognition mechanism involves holistic face processing, and the absence of face features could lower cognition ability. This is opposed to the experience during the pandemic, when people were able to correctly recognize faces, although the mask covered a part of the face. This paper shows a strong correlation in face cognition based on the EEG and eye-tracking data between the full and partial faces. We observed two event-related potentials, P3a in the frontal lobe and P3b in the parietal lobe, as subcomponents of P300. Both P3a and P3b were lowered when the eyes were invisible, and P3a evoked by the nose covered was larger than the full face. The eye-tracking data showed that 16 out of 18 participants focused on the eyes associated with the EEG results. Our results demonstrate that the eyes are the most crucial feature of facial cognition. Moreover, the face with the nose covered might enhance cognition ability due to the visual working memory capacity. Our experiment shows the possibility of people recognizing faces using both holistic face processing and structural face processing. Furthermore, people can recognize the masked face as well as the full face in similar cognition patterns due to the high correlation in the cognition mechanism.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.556282v1" target="_blank">Partial Face Visibility and Facial Cognition: An Electroencephalography and Eye-Tracking Investigation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prevalence and predictors of self-medication for COVID-19 among slum dwellers in Jinja City, Uganda</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: Self-medication is a serious public health concern globally and is more prevalent in underserved populations, especially in resource limited settings. The lack of effective treatment for COVID-19 and poor access to healthcare were drivers of self-medication. We investigated the prevalence and associated factors with self-medication for COVID-19 among slum dwellers in a Ugandan slum. Methods and materials: We conducted a cross-sectional study using randomly selected respondents from slums in Jinja city, Uganda. Households were proportionately selected from the slums and one participant with confirmed or self-reported COVID-19 during 2021 was recruited. Poisson regression with robust standard errors was used to determine the crude (CPR) and adjusted prevalence ratios (APR) (95% CI) of factors associated with self-medication. Variables were selected apriori and backward elimination approach used to fit the final multivariate model in which variables with a P≤ 0.05 were included. Results: Overall, 517 respondents were recruited, median age (years) was 31 (26-40), and 59% were male. The prevalence of self-medication for COVID-19 was 87.23% (451/517), 95% CI: [84.00%-90.00%] and 56% knew that self-medication was dangerous. Age≥50 years, compared to 20-29 years [APR: 1.12, 95% CI:1.05, 1.20], being female [APR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.13], minor [APR: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.25, 2.11], and severe symptoms [APR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.16, 1.96], access to internet [APR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.20]. Having medical insurance [APR: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.46, 0.87] and awareness about laws against self-medication [APR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.81, 0.97] were associated with a lower risk of self-medication.   Conclusion: The prevalence of self-medication in slum dwellers in Uganda was high despite high awareness about its dangers. Self-medication was common in those with severe symptoms and those access to internet.  There is need to control infodemia and improve health insurance cover in informal settlements within Uganda.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.23295267v1" target="_blank">Prevalence and predictors of self-medication for COVID-19 among slum dwellers in Jinja City, Uganda</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Evolution and neutralization escape of the SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 subvariant</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Omicron BA.2.86 subvariant differs from Omicron BA.2 as well as recently circulating variants by over 30 mutations in the spike protein alone. Here we report on the first isolation of the live BA.2.86 subvariant from a diagnostic swab collected in South Africa which we tested for escape from neutralizing antibodies and viral replication properties in cell culture. BA.2.86 did not have significantly more escape than Omicron XBB.1.5 from neutralizing immunity elicited by infection of Omicron subvariants ranging from BA.1 to XBB, either by infection alone or as breakthrough infection in vaccinated individuals. Neutralization escape was present relative to earlier strains: BA.2.86 showed extensive escape both relative to ancestral virus in sera from pre-Omicron vaccinated individuals and relative to Omicron BA.1 in sera from Omicron BA.1 infected individuals. We did not observe substantial differences in viral properties in cell culture relative to XBB.1.5. Both BA.2.86 and XBB.1.5 produced infection foci of similar size, had similar cytopathic effect (both lower than ancestral SARS-CoV-2), and had similar replication dynamics. We also investigated the relationship of BA.2.86 to BA.2 sequences and found that the closest were BA.2 samples from Southern Africa circulating in early 2022. These observations suggest that BA.2.86 is more closely related to sequences from Southern Africa than other regions and so may have evolved there, and that evolution led to escape from neutralizing antibodies similar in scale to recently circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.23295250v1" target="_blank">Evolution and neutralization escape of the SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 subvariant</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>How immunity shapes the long-term dynamics of seasonal influenza</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Since its emergence in 1968, influenza A H3N2 has caused yearly epidemics in temperate regions. While infection confers immunity against antigenically similar strains, new antigenically distinct strains that evade existing immunity regularly emerge (9antigenic drift9). Immunity at the individual level is complex, depending on an individual9s lifetime infection history. An individual9s first infection with influenza typically elicits the greatest response with subsequent infections eliciting progressively reduced responses (9antigenic seniority9). The combined effect of individual-level immune responses and antigenic drift on the epidemiological dynamics of influenza are not well understood. Here we develop an integrated modelling framework of influenza transmission, immunity, and antigenic drift to show how individual-level exposure, and the build-up of population level immunity, shape the long-term epidemiological dynamics of H3N2. Including antigenic seniority in the model, we observe that following an initial decline after the pandemic year, the average annual attack rate increases over the next 80 years, before reaching an equilibrium, with greater increases in older age-groups. Our analyses suggest that the average attack rate of H3N2 is still in a growth phase. Further increases, particularly in the elderly, may be expected in coming decades, driving an increase in healthcare demand due to H3N2 infections. We anticipate our findings and methodological developments will be applicable to other antigenically variable pathogens. This includes the recent pandemic pathogens influenza A H1N1pdm09, circulating since 2009, and SARS-CoV-2, circulating since 2019. Our findings highlight that following the short-term reduction in attack rates after a pandemic, if there is any degree of antigenic seniority then a resurgence in attack rates should be expected over the longer-term. Designing and implementing studies to assess the dynamics of immunity for H1N1pdm09, SARS-CoV-2, and other antigenically variable pathogens may help anticipate any long-term rises in infection and health burden.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.23295244v1" target="_blank">How immunity shapes the long-term dynamics of seasonal influenza</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Disease trajectories in hospitalized COVID-19 patients are predicted by clinical and peripheral blood signatures representing distinct lung pathologies.</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Linking clinical biomarkers and lung pathology still is necessary to understand COVID-19 pathogenesis and the basis of progression to lethal outcomes. Resolving these knowledge gaps enables optimal treatment approaches of severe COVID-19. We present an integrated analysis of longitudinal clinical parameters, blood biomarkers and lung pathology in COVID-19 patients from the Brazilian Amazon. We identified core signatures differentiating severe recovered patients and fatal cases with distinct disease trajectories. Progression to early death was characterized by rapid and intense endothelial and myeloid activation, presence of thrombi, mostly driven by SARS-CoV-2 + macrophages. Progression to late death was associated with systemic cytotoxicity, interferon and Th17 signatures and fibrosis, apoptosis, and abundant SARS-CoV-2 + epithelial cells in the lung. Progression to recovery was associated with pro-lymphogenic and Th2-mediated responses. Integration of antemortem clinical and blood biomarkers with post-mortem lung-specific signatures defined predictors of disease progression, identifying potential targets for more precise and effective treatments.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.23295024v1" target="_blank">Disease trajectories in hospitalized COVID-19 patients are predicted by clinical and peripheral blood signatures representing distinct lung pathologies.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 modulates lung inflammation and clinical disease progression</strong> -
<div>
The virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2, is the causative agent of the current COVID-19 pandemic. It possesses a large 30 kilobase (kb) genome that encodes structural, non-structural, and accessory proteins. Although not necessary to cause disease, these accessory proteins are known to influence viral replication and pathogenesis. Through the synthesis of novel infectious clones of SARS-CoV-2 that lack one or more of the accessory proteins of the virus, we have found that one of these accessory proteins, ORF8, is critical for the modulation of the host inflammatory response. Mice infected with a SARS-CoV-2 virus lacking ORF8 exhibit increased weight loss and exacerbated macrophage infiltration into the lungs. Additionally, infection of mice with recombinant SARS-CoV-2 viruses encoding ORF8 mutations found in variants of concern reveal that naturally occurring mutations in this protein influence disease severity. Our studies with a virus lacking this ORF8 protein and viruses possessing naturally occurring point mutations in this protein demonstrate that this protein impacts pathogenesis.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.556788v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 modulates lung inflammation and clinical disease progression</a>
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<li><strong>Early combination with remdesivir, nirmatrelvir/ritonavir and sotrovimab for the treatment of COVID-19 in immunocompromised hosts</strong> -
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Background: Immunocompromised patients with COVID-19 have higher morbidity and mortality than general population. Some authors have successfully used antiviral combination, but never in the early phase of the infection. Methods: Retrospective cohort study to describe efficacy and safety of the combination of 2 antivirals, with or without a mAb, both in early (within 10 days from symptoms) and in later phase (after 10 days) of SARS-CoV-2 infection in immunocompromised patients admitted to our facility. Results: We treated 11 patients (7 in early phase and 4 in later phase of COVID-19) with 10 days of intravenous remdesivir plus 5 days of oral nirmatelvir/ritonavir, also combined with sotrovimab in 10/11 cases. Notably, 100% of the &lt;early&gt; patients reached virological clearance at day 30 from the end of the therapy and were alive and well at follow-up, whereas corresponding figures in the &lt;late&gt; patients were 50% and 75%. Patients in late group more frequently needed oxygen supplementation (p=0.015) and steroid therapy (p=0.045) during admission and reached higher a COVID-19 severity (p=0.017). Discussion: The combination of antiviral and sotrovimab in early phase of COVID-19 in immunocompromised patients is well tolerated and associated with 100% of virological clearance. Patients treated later have lower response rate and higher disease severity, but a causative role of the therapy in such finding is yet to be demonstrated.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.23295202v1" target="_blank">Early combination with remdesivir, nirmatrelvir/ritonavir and sotrovimab for the treatment of COVID-19 in immunocompromised hosts</a>
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<li><strong>Uncovering the implications of IFN-I in severe COVID-19 neutrophil inflammasome</strong> -
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Excessive inflammation defines COVID-19 pathophysiology. Neutrophils represent a critical arm of the innate immune response and are major mediators of inflammation. We conducted transcriptomic profiling of polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs), consisting mainly of mature neutrophils, which revealed a pronounced type I interferon (IFN-I) gene signature in severe COVID-19, compared to mild COVID-19 and healthy controls. Notably, low-density granulocytes (LDGs) from severe COVID-19 did not exhibit this signature and displayed a distinct immature neutrophil phenotype. PMNs from severe COVID-19 patients showed heightened nigericin-induced caspase1 activation but reduced responsiveness to exogenous inflammasome priming. Interestingly, while mature neutrophils efficiently released IL-1? upon inflammasome activation, they were poor producers of IL-18. Furthermore, IFN-I emerged as a priming stimulus for neutrophil inflammasomes, which was confirmed in a COVID-19 mouse model. Overall, these findings underscore the crucial role of neutrophil inflammasomes in driving inflammation during severe COVID-19 and opens promising avenues for targeted therapeutic interventions to mitigate the pathological processes associated with the disease.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.23295190v1" target="_blank">Uncovering the implications of IFN-I in severe COVID-19 neutrophil inflammasome</a>
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<li><strong>Comparison of Different PCR Methods for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater Based on the Reported Incidence of COVID-19 in Finland</strong> -
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The spatial and temporal changes of the COVID–19 pandemic have been monitored with wastewater–based surveillance, which many countries have applied to their national public health monitoring measures. The most commonly used methods for the detection of SARS–CoV–2 in wastewater are RT–qPCR and RT–ddPCR. Previous comparisons of the two methods have produced conflicting results; some found RT–ddPCR to be more sensitive, one found RT–qPCR to be more sensitive, and others found them to be equal in sensitivity. This research was conducted to further study these two methods as well as two different RNA extraction methodologies and gene assays for the detection of SARS–CoV–2 in wastewater. We compared two RT–qPCR kits and RT–ddPCR based on sensitivity, variability, and the correlation of SARS–CoV–2 gene copy numbers in wastewater with the incidence of COVID–19. Our results indicate that the most sensitive and low–variance method to detect SARS–CoV–2 in wastewater was RT–ddPCR. However, we obtained the best correlation between COVID-19 incidence and SARS–CoV–2 gene copy number in wastewater using RT–qPCR (CC = 0.697, p &lt; 0.001). We found a significant difference in sensitivity between the two RT–qPCR kits, one having a significantly lower limit of detection and a higher percentage of positive samples than the other. Furthermore, the CDC N1 primers and probe were the most sensitive for both RT–qPCR kits, while there was no significant difference between the tested gene targets using RT–ddPCR. For the most sensitive RT–qPCR, the use of different RNA extraction kits affected the result. All methods showed a trend between COVID–19 incidence and SARS–CoV–2 gene copy numbers in wastewater. In addition, we tested an isothermal amplification method for the detection of SARS–CoV–2 RNA in wastewater. It proved to be a viable option if results are expected quickly, resources are limited, and presence–absence information is sufficient.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.23295183v1" target="_blank">Comparison of Different PCR Methods for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater Based on the Reported Incidence of COVID-19 in Finland</a>
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<li><strong>Effectiveness of BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccination in Children Aged 5–17 Years in the United States</strong> -
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Importance: COVID–19 vaccines are authorized for use in children in the United States; real–world assessment of vaccine effectiveness in children is needed. Objective: To estimate the effectiveness of receiving a complete primary series of monovalent BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech) COVID-19 vaccine in US children. Design: A cohort study of children aged 5—17 years vaccinated with BNT162b2 matched with unvaccinated children. Setting: Participants identified in Optum and CVS Health insurance administrative claims databases were linked with Immunization Information System (IIS) COVID-19 vaccination records from 16 US jurisdictions between December 11, 2020, and May 31, 2022 (end date varied by database and IIS). Participants: Vaccinated children were followed from their first BNT162b2 dose and matched to unvaccinated children on calendar date, US county of residence, and demographic and clinical factors. Censoring occurred if vaccinated children failed to receive a timely dose 2 or if unvaccinated children received any dose. Exposure: BNT162b2 vaccinations were identified using IIS vaccination records and insurance claims. Main Outcomes and Measures: Two COVID–19 outcome definitions were evaluated: COVID–19 diagnosis in any medical setting and COVID–19 diagnosis in hospitals/emergency departments (EDs). Propensity score–weighted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated with Cox proportional hazards models, and vaccine effectiveness (VE) was estimated as 1 minus HR. VE was estimated overall, within age subgroups, and within variant–specific eras. Sensitivity, negative control, and quantitative bias analyses evaluated various potential biases. Results: There were 453,655 eligible vaccinated children one–to–one matched to unvaccinated comparators (mean age 12 years; 50% female). COVID-19 hospitalizations/ED visits were rare in children, regardless of vaccination status (Optum, 41.2 per 10,000 person– years; CVS Health, 44.1 per 10,000 person– years). Overall, vaccination was associated with reduced incidence of any medically diagnosed COVID–19 (meta–analyzed VE = 38% [95% CI, 36%–40%]) and hospital/ED–diagnosed COVID-19 (meta–analyzed VE = 61% [95% CI, 56%–65%]). VE estimates were lowest among children 5—11 years and during the omicron variant era. Conclusions and Relevance: Receipt of a complete BNT162b2 vaccine primary series was associated with overall reduced medically diagnosed COVID–19 and hospital/ED–diagnosed COVID–19 in children; observed VE estimates differed by age group and variant era.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.06.23294426v1" target="_blank">Effectiveness of BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccination in Children Aged 5–17 Years in the United States</a>
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<li><strong>Effect of the 2022 COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign in 50 year olds in England: regression discontinuity analysis in OpenSAFELY</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are highly effective in preventing severe COVID-19 but require boosting to maintain protection. Changes to circulating variants and prevalent natural immunity may impact on real-world effectiveness of boosters in different time periods and in different populations. Methods: With NHS England approval, we used linked routine clinical data from &gt;24 million patients to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2022 combined COVID-19 autumn booster and influenza vaccine campaign in non-clinically vulnerable 50-year-olds in England using a regression discontinuity design. Our primary outcome was a composite of 6-week COVID-19 emergency attendance, COVID-19 unplanned hospitalisation, or death. The secondary outcomes were: respiratory hospitalisations or death; any unplanned hospitalisation; and any death. Results: Our study included 1,917,375 people aged 45-54 years with no evidence of being in a high-risk group prioritised for vaccination. By 26 November 2022, booster vaccine coverage was 11.1% at age 49.75 years increasing to 39.7% at age 50.25 years. The estimated effect of the campaign on the risk of the primary outcome in 50-year-olds during weeks 7-12 after the campaign start was -0.4 per 100,000 (95% CI -7.8, 7.1). For the secondary outcomes the estimated effects were: -0.6 per 100,000 (95%CI -13.5, 12.3) for respiratory outcomes; 5.0 per 100,000 (95%CI -40.7, 50.8) for unplanned hospitalisations; and 3.0 per 100,000 (95%CI -2.7, 8.6) for any death. The results were similar when using different follow-up start dates, different bandwidths, or when estimating the effect of vaccination (rather than the campaign). Conclusion: This study found little evidence that the autumn 2022 vaccination campaign in England was associated with a reduction in severe COVID-19-related outcomes among non-clinically vulnerable 50-year-olds. Possible explanations include the low risk of severe outcomes due to substantial pre-existing vaccine- and infection-induced immunity. Modest booster coverage reduced the precision with which we could estimate effectiveness. The booster campaign may have had effects beyond those estimated, including reducing virus transmission and incidence of mild or moderate COVID-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.23295194v1" target="_blank">Effect of the 2022 COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign in 50 year olds in England: regression discontinuity analysis in OpenSAFELY</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 2nd Generation E1/E2B/E3-Deleted Adenoviral COVID-19 Vaccine: The TCELLVACCINE TRIAL</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: hAd5-S-Fusion+N-ETSD;   Biological: Placebo (0.9% (w/v) saline)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   ImmunityBio, Inc.<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Aerobic Training for Rehabilitation of Patients With Post Covid-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome;   Long-COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Aerobic Exercise Training<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Witten/Herdecke;   Institut für Rehabilitationsforschung Norderney<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Additional Recombinant COVID-19 Humoral and Cell-Mediated Immunogenicity in Immunosuppressed Populations</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Immunosuppression;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: NVX-CoV2372<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Wisconsin, Madison;   Novavax<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>Comparative Immunogenicity of Concomitant vs Sequential mRNA COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccinations</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Influenza;   COVID-19;   Influenza Immunogencity;   COVID-19 Immunogenicity<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Simultaneous Vaccination (Influenza Vaccine and mRNA COVID booster);   Biological: Sequential Vaccination (Influenza vaccine then mRNA COVID booster);   Biological: Sequential Vaccination (mRNA COVID booster then Influenza vaccine)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Duke University;   Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   Arizona State University;   University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center;   University of Pittsburgh;   Washington University School of Medicine;   Valleywise Health;   VA Northeast Ohio Health Care;   Senders Pediatrics<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>Bronchoalveolar Lavage in Recovered From COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Bronchoalveolar Lavage<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Bronchoalveolar Lavage<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Mohamed Abd Elmoniem Mohamed;   Marwa Salah Abdelrazek Ghanem;   Mohammad Khairy El-Badrawy;   Tamer Ali Elhadidy;   Dalia Abdellateif Abdelghany<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase I Safety Study of B/HPIV3/S-6P Vaccine Via Nasal Spray in Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: B/HPIV3/S-6P<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID);   Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health;   National Institutes of Health (NIH)<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effects of Cognitive-behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Nurses With Post Covid-19 Condition</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Cognitive Behavioral Therapy<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: cognitive behavioral therapy<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Tri-Service General Hospital<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 Effectiveness of Natural Resources for Reducing Stress</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Distress, Emotional;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Combination Product: Balneotherapy plus complex;   Combination Product: Combined nature resources treatment;   Other: Nature therapy procedure<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Klaipėda University;   Research Council of Lithuania<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pre-probiotic Supplementation for Post-covid Fatigue Syndrome</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long COVID<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Dietary Supplement: Experimental;   Dietary Supplement: Dietary Supplement: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Long COVID Immune Profiling</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Long COVID;   POTS - Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome;   Autonomic Dysfunction<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Diagnostic Test: IL-6;   Diagnostic Test: cytokines (IL-17, and IFN-ɣ);   Behavioral: Compass 31<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Vanderbilt University Medical Center;   American Heart Association<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of Healthy Microbiome, Healthy Mind</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Critical Illness;   COVID-19;   PICS;   Cognitive Impairment;   Mental Health Impairment;   Weakness, Muscle;   Dysbiosis<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Fermented Food Diet<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Mayo Clinic<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>Efficacy and safety evaluation of Azvudine in the prospective treatment of COVID-19 based on four phase III clinical trials</strong> - Azvudine (FNC) is a synthetic nucleoside analog used to treat adult patients living with human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infection with high viral load. After phosphorylation, Azvudine inhibits RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, leading to the discontinuation of RNA chain synthesis in viruses. In addition, Azvudine is the first dual-target nucleoside oral drug worldwide to simultaneously target reverse transcriptase and viral infectivity factors in the treatment of HIV infection. On 9 August…</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>Altered DNA methylation underlies monocyte dysregulation and innate exhaustion memory in sepsis</strong> - Innate immune memory is the process by which pathogen exposure elicits cell-intrinsic states to alter the strength of future immune challenges. Such altered memory states drive monocyte dysregulation during sepsis, promoting pathogenic behavior characterized by pro-inflammatory, immunosuppressive gene expression in concert with emergency hematopoiesis. Epigenetic changes, notably in the form of histone modifications, have been shown to underlie innate immune memory, but the contribution of 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>In Vivo Antiviral Efficacy of LCTG-002, a Pooled, Purified Human Milk Secretory IgA product, Against SARS-CoV-2 in a Murine Model of COVID-19</strong> - Immunoglobulin A (IgA) is the most abundant antibody (Ab) in human mucosal compartments including the respiratory tract, with the secretory form of IgA (sIgA) being dominant and uniquely stable in these environments. sIgA is naturally found in human milk, which could be considered a global resource for this biologic, justifying the development of human milk sIgA as a dedicated airway therapeutic for respiratory infections such as SARS-CoV-2. In the present study, methods were therefore developed…</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>Cationic Chitosan Derivatives for the Inactivation of HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 Enveloped Viruses</strong> - Cationic chitosan derivatives have been widely studied as potential antimicrobial agents. However, very little is known about their antiviral activity and mode of action against enveloped viruses. We investigated the ability of hydroxypropanoic acid-grafted chitosan (HPA-CS) and N-(2-hydroxypropyl)-3-trimethylammonium chitosan chloride (HTCC) to inactivate enveloped viruses like the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Preventive treatment of coronavirus disease-2019 virus using coronavirus disease-2019-receptor-binding domain 1C aptamer by suppress the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor</strong> - The cause of the worldwide coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is known to employ the same entry portal as SARS-CoV, which is the type 1 transmembrane angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) is located on the spike S-protein’s S1 subunit of the spike glycoprotein. The most important and effective therapy method is inhibiting the interaction between the ACE2 receptor and the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Natural PAK1 inhibitors: potent anti-inflammatory effectors for prevention of pulmonary fibrosis in COVID-19 therapy</strong> - One of the main efforts of scientists to study drug development is the discovery of novel antiviral agents that could be beneficial in the struggle against viruses that cause diseases in humans. Natural products are complex metabolites that are designed and synthesised by different sources in an attempt to optimise nature. Recently, natural products are still a source of biologically active molecules, facilitating drug discovery. A p21-activating kinase PAK1 is a key regulator of cytoskeletal…</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>Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir-induced elevation of blood tacrolimus levels in a patient in the maintenance phase post liver transplantation</strong> - Nirmatrelvir is an orally administered anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug used in combination with ritonavir, the drug-metabolizing cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A inhibitor, to evade metabolism and extend bioavailability. Meanwhile, the immunosuppressant tacrolimus is a CYP3A4/5 substrate, and CYP3A inhibition results in drug-drug interactions. Herein, we report the case of a coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) patient in the maintenance phase post liver transplantation, receiving tacrolimus treatment, with a marked…</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>Comparison of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticle Integration into Non-Woven Fabrics Using Different Functionalisation Methods for Prospective Application as Active Facemasks</strong> - The development of advanced facemasks stands out as a paramount priority in enhancing healthcare preparedness. In this work, different polypropylene non-woven fabrics (NWF) were characterised regarding their structural, physicochemical and comfort-related properties. The selected NWF for the intermediate layer was functionalised with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) 0.3 and 1.2wt% using three different methods: electrospinning, dip-pad-dry and exhaustion. After the confirmation of ZnO NP…</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>Membrane-Targeting Perylenylethynylphenols Inactivate Medically Important Coronaviruses via the Singlet Oxygen Photogeneration Mechanism</strong> - Perylenylethynyl derivatives have been recognized as broad-spectrum antivirals that target the lipid envelope of enveloped viruses. In this study, we present novel perylenylethynylphenols that exhibit nanomolar or submicromolar antiviral activity against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV) in vitro. Perylenylethynylphenols incorporate into viral and cellular membranes and block the entry of the virus into the host cell….</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>Could the Oxidation of α1-Antitrypsin Prevent the Binding of Human Neutrophil Elastase in COVID-19 Patients?</strong> - Human neutrophil elastase (HNE) is involved in SARS-CoV-2 virulence and plays a pivotal role in lung infection of patients infected by COVID-19. In healthy individuals, HNE activity is balanced by α1-antitrypsin (AAT). This is a 52 kDa glycoprotein, mainly produced and secreted by hepatocytes, that specifically inhibits HNE by blocking its activity through the formation of a stable complex (HNE-AAT) in which the two proteins are covalently bound. The lack of this complex, together with the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Small Molecules Targeting Viral RNA</strong> - The majority of antivirals available target viral proteins; however, RNA is emerging as a new and promising antiviral target due to the presence of highly structured RNA in viral genomes fundamental for their replication cycle. Here, we discuss methods for the identification of RNA-targeting compounds, starting from the determination of RNA structures either from purified RNA or in living cells, followed by in silico screening on RNA and phenotypic assays to evaluate viral inhibition. Moreover,…</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>Screening, Synthesis and Biochemical Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Protease Inhibitors</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome-causing coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) papain-like protease (PL^(pro)) and main protease (M^(pro)) play an important role in viral replication events and are important targets for anti-coronavirus drug discovery. In search of these protease inhibitors, we screened a library of 1300 compounds using a fluorescence thermal shift assay (FTSA) and identified 53 hits that thermally stabilized or destabilized PL^(pro). The hit compounds structurally belonged to two…</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 Influence of KE and EW Dipeptides in the Composition of the Thymalin Drug on Gene Expression and Protein Synthesis Involved in the Pathogenesis of COVID-19</strong> - Thymalin is an immunomodulatory drug containing a polypeptide extract of thymus that has demonstrated efficacy in the therapy of acute respiratory distress syndrome and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as in complex therapy related to severe COVID-19 in middle-aged and elderly patients.. KE and EW dipeptides are active substances of Thymalin. There is evidence that KE stimulates cellular immunity and nonspecific resistance in organisms, exerting an activating effect on macrophages,…</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>Differential Type-I Interferon Response in Buffy Coat Transcriptome of Individuals Infected with SARS-CoV-2 Gamma and Delta Variants</strong> - The innate immune system is the first line of defense against pathogens such as the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The type I-interferon (IFN) response activation during the initial steps of infection is essential to prevent viral replication and tissue damage. SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 can inhibit this activation, and individuals with a dysregulated IFN-I response are more likely to develop severe disease. Several mutations in different variants of SARS-CoV-2 have shown…</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>Nano-Enabled Antivirals for Overcoming Antibody Escaped Mutations Based SARS-CoV-2 Waves</strong> - This review discusses receptor-binding domain (RBD) mutations related to the emergence of various SARS-CoV-2 variants, which have been highlighted as a major cause of repetitive clinical waves of COVID-19. Our perusal of the literature reveals that most variants were able to escape neutralizing antibodies developed after immunization or natural exposure, pointing to the need for a sustainable technological solution to overcome this crisis. This review, therefore, focuses on nanotechnology and…</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>Narendra Modi’s New New Delhi</strong> - A multibillion-dollar revamp of India’s capital complex reflects the Prime Minister’s vision for the country’s future—and what he wants to erase from its past. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/narendra-modis-new-new-delhi">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Did Authoritarianism Cause China’s Economic Crisis?</strong> - An erosion of trust between the government and its people now threatens the country’s decades-long boom. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/did-authoritarianism-cause-chinas-economic-crisis">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can Teachers and Parents Get Better at Talking to One Another?</strong> - Families are more anxious than ever to find out what happens in school. But there may be value in a measure of not-knowing and not-telling. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/can-teachers-and-parents-get-better-at-talking-to-one-another">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Wisconsin G.O.P.’s Looming Judicial Attack</strong> - A state Supreme Court justice—recently elected in a landslide—may be impeached before she ever hears a case. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-wisconsin-gops-looming-judicial-attack">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>David Grann on Turning Best-Sellers Into Movies</strong> - The author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Wager” on his reporting process and adapting his work to the screen. Plus, Richard Brody makes the case for keeping your DVDs. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/david-grann-on-turning-best-sellers-into-movies">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>This decades-old GOP movement is finally scoring breakthrough wins in the Biden era</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An illustration of students in blue graduation caps and gowns, some holding signs with school buildings on them, some holding signs with big Xs. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/stAZEH6rExsDmW7OQaoa3AE58bg=/336x0:1776x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72520939/SchoolMovement_MinHeo.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
Min Heo for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The conservative push for “school choice” has had its most successful year ever. Why — and what comes next?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xL7PTo">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LWFvU1">
With little national attention, the conservative movement has racked up a remarkable series of victories on one of their long-held policy dreams.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NE5Qwa">
For decades, activists on the right have pushed to steer state money toward alternatives to the public school system. Typically, they proposed vouchers, in which the state would pay part or all of a child’s private school tuition.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fOeGMb">
But despite all this effort, conservatives could only get limited and targeted voucher programs into place — vouchers for low-income families, or those in low-performing school districts, or for students with disabilities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HDcrOI">
Even in the reddest states, they fell short of their true Holy Grail: public money funding private school tuition, for all who want it, including middle-class and wealthy families.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UffFo5">
Very suddenly, that has changed. It started with West Virginia in 2021 and Arizona in 2022, and then continued with a flood this year — Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Indiana. More may follow. “It’s happening!” Corey DeAngelis, a conservative activist who describes himself as a “<a href="https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey">school choice evangelist</a>,” regularly tweets, joyfully chronicling each new victory.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wtNLIp">
The reform sweeping red America is slightly different from a voucher — it’s called an education savings account, or an ESA. In a voucher system, public funds go directly to schools. With ESAs, parents who opt out of the public school system get several thousand dollars in an account that they can use for private school tuition, homeschooling, or other education-related expenses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eNJInT">
But the biggest change is in who can use them: everyone. “It’s really hard to overstate how different from any kind of previous legislation these programs are.” said Liz Cohen, policy director for Georgetown University’s FutureEd think tank. “It’s not income-tested; it’s not about getting the lowest-income kids in the worst schools. Prior to three years ago, I would have bet a lot of money you would have never seen this happen.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g1CTRm">
The aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic and an unfolding culture war shook up the status quo enough that a longstanding, well-financed conservative advocacy effort could finally defeat longstanding resistance. Now, in many red states and the occasional purple state, we’re seeing what could prove the most sweeping change in K-12 <a href="https://www.vox.com/education">education policy</a> in decades.
</p>
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“We’re ending up with, really, two different systems for arranging our schools,” said Morgan Polikoff, an associate professor at USC Rossier School of Education. Blue states are sticking with the traditional state-funded public education system, while red states are increasingly creating an option for government-subsidized private school tuition — the full consequences of which won’t be clear for some time.
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Critics of these changes argue they amount to a wealth transfer to families with kids in private schools, and they fear it will result in the weakening or even the eventual privatization of public school systems. They also voice concern over the separation of church and state, since many ESA funds will go toward sending children to religious education.
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For many supporters, those are features, not bugs. They characterize the new ESA laws as letting parents take “their money” — the dollars that would have been used to educate their kids — out of public schools they have no interest in using. They call this “funding students instead of systems.” Their critics say it’s the destruction of the common good.
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<h3 id="QJnTTu">
The birth of the school voucher movement
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2dBXT8">
Public schools have long been treated as a public resource. They are typically administered by local governments, free to all, and funded by taxpayers generally, including those who don’t have children.
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But in <a href="http://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEFriedmanRoleOfGovttable.pdf">a 1955 paper</a>, economist Milton Friedman proposed a different model. The government should stop running schools, and instead merely give parents vouchers worth a certain amount that could be redeemed at “approved” educational institutions. This, he asserted, would create free market competition, expand the choices available to parents, and produce better outcomes than the current government-funded monopolies.
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In the ensuing decades, various groups dissatisfied with the public school system would come to embrace vouchers as an alternative, as journalist <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/23847728/public-school-vouchers-choice-cara-fitzpatrick-book">Cara Fitzpatrick</a> writes in her new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Death-Public-School-Conservatives-Education/dp/1541646770"><em>The Death of Public School</em></a>. The coalition included free market enthusiasts like Friedman, but also devout families preferring religious schooling for their children. And as school desegregation was taking place, some Southern white parents hoped voucher-like <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> could help fund their kids’ exit to mostly white private schools. These policies were eventually blocked by courts, meaning “white flight” had to occur without government help.
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The most effective converts to the voucher cause were several deep-pocketed conservative donors — members of the <a href="https://politicalresearch.org/2012/08/01/rights-school-choice-scheme">DeVos</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/16/koch-network-says-it-wants-remake-public-education-that-means-destroying-it-says-author-new-book-billionaire-brothers/">Koch</a>, and <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/business-week-waltons-schools-crusade/">Walton</a> families, and leaders of the <a href="https://philanthropydaily.com/the-bradley-foundation-and-school-choice-in-milwaukee/">Bradley Foundation</a>, among others. Some appeared to be motivated by free market ideology and others by religious belief, but the common thread was a disdain for government.
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These donors’ largesse and consistency ensured that, whichever way the political winds were blowing, there would always be a well-funded network of voucher supporters refining policy arguments, shaping advocacy strategy, and conducting research that would produce results showing vouchers “work.” Over the past few decades, these donors spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the cause — promoting vouchers as well as other policies, like charter schools, under the banner of “school choice.”
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When the quality of American schools became a nationwide concern in the 1980s and onward, conservatives pitched vouchers as a solution, framing them now <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/school-choice-the-last-civil-rights-battle">as a civil rights cause</a>. Too many poor or minority children, they said, were trapped in dysfunctional public schools. Vouchers could give some of them other options — and perhaps they could even create competitive pressures to make the public schools better. This argument prevailed in Wisconsin in 1990, when Republicans joined with a few Democrats to <a href="https://politicalresearch.org/2015/01/29/opening-pandoras-box-the-rise-fall-of-the-rights-school-voucher-pioneer">create the nation’s first modern voucher program</a>, for low-income kids in Milwaukee (an idea promoted by the Wisconsin-based Bradley Foundation).
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But most Democrats were anti-voucher. They argued that voucher programs would harm the public school system, draining funds and students from it. Teachers <a href="https://www.vox.com/unions">unions</a>, a powerful Democratic-aligned interest group, were staunch opponents because private schools were non-unionized.
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So at the peak of the education reform movement in the 2000s, most of the bipartisan action was on other issues. President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act focused instead on testing and accountability for schools deemed to be “failing” — Bush supported vouchers, but Democrats largely didn’t, and he needed them to pass the bill. President Barack Obama notably <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/05/biden-abandons-the-obama-legacy-on-charter-schools.html">backed charter schools</a>, which are public schools administered by independent operators, but he was hostile to vouchers.
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When a few Republican-controlled states, such as Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Indiana, did pass statewide voucher programs, they came with sharply restricted eligibility. These were specialized programs for low-income people, those in districts with poor-performing schools, foster children, or children with special needs.
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<h3 id="lsirEo">
Why vouchers-for-all failed for so long
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m04VIx">
For vouchers’ biggest backers, this was never just about helping the disadvantaged. They wanted vouchers for all. And yet, despite all that conservative money and activism, not a single state had managed to create such a program by 2020.
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The simplest reason is that proposals to radically disrupt public schools were unpopular. The opposition was typically led by Democrats and teachers unions, but even many Republican voters <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2018/1/18/21107322/the-v-word-why-school-choice-advocates-avoid-the-term-vouchers">were deeply skeptical</a> about anything that could be framed as weakening their own public schools.
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Often, suburban parents had moved to an area specifically for high-quality public schools. Meanwhile, in rural areas, there could be few private options, the public schools were often significant employers, and a loss of students could mean a painful loss of funding. “The main opposition to these programs in Republican-dominated states has come from rural superintendents,” a recent <a href="https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/whats-behind-the-recent-surge-school-choice-victories">Heritage Foundation paper stated</a>. So typically, proposals for statewide vouchers ended up watered down or blocked even in Republican-controlled legislatures.
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When voucher proponents took their case to the public, it went even more disastrously.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iRA0uF">
In 2000, Betsy DeVos (who would later go on to become President Donald Trump’s education secretary) and her family <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/12/08/a-sobering-look-at-what-betsy-devos-did-to-education-in-michigan-and-what-she-might-do-as-secretary-of-education/">spent about $5 million</a> on a Michigan voucher ballot initiative, but it <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Michigan_Vouchers_and_Teacher_Testing_Amendment,_Proposal_1_(2000)">failed</a> by a 69 percent to 31 percent margin. A similar measure in California that same year <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_38,_School_Vouchers_Initiative_(2000)">failed 70-30</a>. Out of about two dozen voucher ballot initiatives, <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/does-school-choice-work">none were approved</a>.
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Meanwhile, the few programs that passed the legislature faced court challenges, nationally and on the state level, often over government funding of religious schools. Some were struck down — including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/us/florida-supreme-court-blocks-school-vouchers.html">Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s prized voucher program</a> and a fledgling <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/two-voucher-programs-struck-down-in-arizona/2009/03">Arizona voucher program</a> for special needs students. An alternative policy scheme involving tax credits for families who donated to nonprofits that would provide private school scholarship money <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice/types-of-school-choice/tax-credit-scholarship/">gained steam in some states</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bgTdSX">
The obstacles for vouchers seemed so daunting that, in 2005, Dan Lips, an education policy expert at the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, <a href="https://freopp.org/education-savings-accounts-a-vehicle-for-school-choice-2385fb00b093">proposed a new spin on the policy</a>: education savings accounts (ESAs). Now, instead of a voucher coupon that would be given directly to a private school, parents would get an account in which actual money would be deposited, and the money could also be spent on tutoring, homeschooling, or other education-related expenses.
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Advocates hoped this would address the Arizona Supreme Court’s concern over funding religious schools, which had undone the state’s voucher program. Now the state money would be given to parents, not to schools directly.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="liIqix">
ESAs were also a helpful rebranding. “Part of my job was to actively call reporters and try to get them to take the word ‘voucher’ out of their stories,” said Charles Siler, a former lobbyist for the Goldwater Institute who has since become a critic of his onetime allies.
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In 2011, Arizona Republicans passed the nation’s first ESA program, limited to special needs students. They immediately went to work expanding eligibility to other groups — just one year later, <a href="https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/cms_page_media/2015/2/2/PR253ESAsPathToAllChildren_0.pdf">nearly 20 percent</a> of the public school population was eligible (though far fewer actually chose to participate).
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aNiS5H">
But a 2018 attempt to make every Arizona student eligible ran into the <a href="https://newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2020/10/03/the-red-for-ed-movement-two-years-in/">Red for Ed movement</a> of teacher activism and walkouts in conservative states. A union-led effort gathered enough signatures to put the new law up for a statewide referendum before it could go into effect. The result was similar to the other referendums: <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_Proposition_305,_Expansion_of_Empowerment_Scholarship_Accounts_Referendum_(2018)">a lopsided defeat</a>, 65 to 35 percent.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oH0ECl">
Even in red states, it seemed, you still couldn’t mess with the public schools.
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<h3 id="CsPZCu">
The pandemic and the culture war gave conservatives the opportunity for a breakthrough
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DBTiH5">
It’s a cliché to say the pandemic changed everything, but for the politics of K-12 education that happens to be true.
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Universal voucher bills had long failed because most parents didn’t want radical disruption of the public school status quo. The pandemic brought this radical disruption. Polarizing battles unfolded over school closures, mask and vaccine requirements, and (after reopening) how long kids should be kept home if classmates tested positive.
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Then the culture war that erupted over race, gender, and sexuality teaching in schools in 2020 and beyond ensured that things never entirely returned to “normal.” Activists like <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-a-conservative-activist-invented-the-conflict-over-critical-race-theory">Christopher Rufo</a> argued that “<a href="https://www.vox.com/22443822/critical-race-theory-controversy">critical race theory</a>” concepts were pervading teaching about race, <a href="https://www.vox.com/twitter">Twitter</a> accounts <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/19/libs-of-tiktok-right-wing-media/">like Libs of TikTok spread videos</a> of educators discussing <a href="https://www.vox.com/gender">gender identity</a>, and such matters became omnipresent on <a href="https://www.vox.com/media">Fox News</a> and in conservative media.
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In the right’s narrative, parents reasonably recoiled against the incompetence or ideological extremism of educators. In the left’s narrative, conservatives targeted the public school system with a strategic and unrelenting campaign of vilification, laden with <a href="https://www.vox.com/22443822/critical-race-theory-controversy">exaggeration</a> and <a href="https://michaelhobbes.substack.com/p/moral-panic-journalism">moral panic</a>. “The overriding message has been to drive a wedge between parents and public schools,” Polikoff said.
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Conservative activists saw opportunity. “It is time for the school choice movement to embrace the culture war,” the Heritage Foundation’s Jay Greene and James Paul <a href="https://www.heritage.org/education/report/time-the-school-choice-movement-embrace-the-culture-war">wrote in 2022</a>.
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In a 2019 survey, 31 percent of <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/394784/confidence-public-schools-turns-partisan.aspx">Republican respondents said</a> they had very little or no confidence in public schools; in a 2022 survey, that number had risen to 50 percent. Democratic and independent voters, in contrast, remained roughly as confident in the public school system as before the pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pDCON7">
But the drop in Republican support shifted the previous political status quo, especially in red states, making rank-and-file GOP voters less hostile about proposals to shake up the system.
</p>
<h3 id="uAol8K">
The dam breaks in Arizona
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In June 2021, Joel John was a few months into his first term in the Arizona House of Representatives, when the state’s governor, Doug Ducey, took another shot at greatly expanding ESAs. Though a Republican, John wasn’t on board. He was concerned that public schools had to compete with unregulated private schools that lacked accountability measures. Two other Republicans, citing similar objections, joined him and <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2021/06/26/house-finalizes-budget-tax-cuts-but-kills-esa-expansion/">blocked the proposal</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4qpY0f">
“It was my first term; it takes time to get your bearings and to understand how things work,” John told me in an interview. He would soon learn. Afterward, John and the other two holdouts were attacked in <a href="https://www.vox.com/youtube">YouTube</a> ads funded by an outside group: the American Federation for Children (AFC).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sMwaMb">
The American Federation for Children has long been the leading advocacy group trying to get vouchers passed into law. It was initially funded, founded, and chaired by Betsy DeVos, who was for many years the main financial force behind the voucher movement. (The group’s name is a dig at the American Federation of Teachers — meant to imply that the union represents teachers’ interests, while the group represents children’s.)
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nK69fs">
Investor Bill Oberndorf, who took over as board chair when DeVos became education secretary, outlined AFC’s strategy on <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/this-is-the-civil-rights-issue-of-our-time-philanthropist-bill-oberndorf/#:~:text=Bill%20Oberndorf%20has%20committed%20his,candidates%20at%20the%20state%20level.">a 2021 podcast</a>. Statewide referendums were hopeless, he said: “There has never been a ballot initiative that’s passed.” Instead, AFC would identify “states where we feel that, over a three- to five-year period, we can change the legislative composition to be favorable to choice and where we can help elect a governor who is receptive to signing such legislation.” That legislation, it became increasingly clear, was ESAs for all who wanted them.
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In Arizona, a sympathetic governor was already in place: Ducey. Ambitious Republican governors seeking to cultivate the conservative base have long been drawn to the school choice issue — it’s important to both big donors and the religious right, two key factions in GOP power politics, and it earns positive press in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/school-choice-blooms-in-the-desert-arizona-education-savings-account-scholarships-11656368155">conservative media outlets</a>. John’s impression, he told me, was that Ducey was “hoping to build a national platform” off the issue.
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In 2021, West Virginia Republicans had <a href="https://excelined.org/2021/03/31/state-spotlight-west-virginia-creates-the-nations-most-expansive-esa-program/">created an ESA</a> for which 90 percent of students would be eligible (students currently attending private schools <a href="https://alec.org/article/rethinking-and-reimagining-learning-education-freedom-makes-its-way-to-west-virginia/">were excluded</a>). Implementation there was delayed <a href="https://wvrecord.com/stories/607085977-notice-of-intent-filed-regarding-hope-scholarship">due to a lawsuit</a>. So in 2022, his final year in office, Ducey took another shot at getting the nation’s first truly universal ESA program — in which even families already sending their kids to private school could get money — off the ground in Arizona.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sndcS2">
Ducey faced the same three GOP holdouts in the state House. But he and his party’s legislative leaders deployed carrots and sticks. The carrot was a historic boost in funding to the public education system, made possible due to a large budget surplus. The stick was pressure from party leaders and outside groups before the primaries. In the end, all three of the holdouts flipped, <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/gop-plan-to-expand-school-vouchers-to-all-1-1-million-arizona-students-clears-house/">voting for the bill</a>. “To be frank, I have regretted it ever since,” John told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BNBqzL">
All three went on to lose their primaries that year anyway. Meanwhile, liberal activists tried to gather signatures to force the new law onto the ballot, as they did during the Red for Ed days, but they <a href="https://kjzz.org/content/1813924/save-our-schools-arizona-fails-gather-enough-signatures-school-voucher-bill">fell short</a>. So the nation’s first universal ESA program went into effect in Arizona in the fall of 2022.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p5W3Xi">
It would not be the last. AFC intervened in state legislative primaries across the country that year, hoping some attention-getting defeats of incumbents could scare others into going along. In Iowa, after Gov. Kim Reynolds’s ESA bill failed in the state House, she backed primary challenges against several holdout Republicans. Assisted by campaign ads <a href="https://www.federationforchildren.org/school-choice-supporters-advance-in-iowa-primary/">funded by AFC</a> and other conservative groups like the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, they defeated four of them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="umVx6N">
One, Jim Thorup, was a solid conservative but feared the bill would harm rural school districts. “I think if I agree with the governor on nine out of ten issues, that tenth issue, if we disagree on it, that should be okay,” <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/06/02/republican-primaries-party-divides/">Thorup had told the Iowa Capital Dispatch</a> before the election.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sws8pA">
AFC’s goal was to make sure that wasn’t okay — they wanted to make “universal school choice” a litmus test issue for Republicans, as previous generations of anti-abortion, pro-gun rights, and anti-tax activists had successfully done for their own causes. Yet the groups could only succeed in this if enough Republican voters felt the same way, and largely, they now did.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M794qB">
The midterms didn’t end up producing a GOP wave, but as 2023 began, a wave of ESA bills rippled through red states. Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at AFC, became the public face of the effort, traveling from state to state, holding rallies, making media appearances, and tweeting constantly. After getting his PhD at the University of Arkansas’s (<a href="https://arktimes.com/general/top-stories/2005/07/29/conservative-think-tanker-to-head-ua-school-reform-operation">Walton-funded</a>) education reform program, DeAngelis concluded that he could “make more of an impact” in an advocacy role. “You can write a thousand white papers and politicians won’t even read it,” he told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4KHqPG">
Iowa was the first domino to fall this year, with Gov. Reynolds <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2023/01/24/iowa-governor-kim-reynolds-signs-school-choice-scholarships-education-bill-into-law/69833074007/">finally getting her ESA bill </a>through the now-more-pliable legislature in January. Republicans in Utah, Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Indiana soon followed with their own universal or near-universal ESA laws (though some will phase in eligibility gradually over a few years).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iWmYy0">
Other GOP-controlled states didn’t go quite so far, but took steps in that direction — South Carolina created its first ESA program, New Hampshire <a href="https://www.concordmonitor.com/Sununu-signs-bill-expanding-school-voucher-program-51471658">expanded eligibility</a> for the program it created in 2021. In other states like Georgia and Texas, advocates have fallen short for now, but they will try again.
</p>
<h3 id="Ypi8oh">
What will these programs actually do?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mWE98p">
Arizona’s universal ESA program, which went into effect in fall 2022, is the furthest along so far. Arizona families who already sent their children to private schools or homeschools were immediately eligible for the $7,000-per-student benefit, if they signed up. Many have.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WB9zcV">
After John left office, he told me, he spoke with a local banker about the bill: “I told him it was such bad policy, I was embarrassed I supported it,” John said. “He said he was happy about it: it saved him seven grand per kid on tuition.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gO2NW0">
“In the short term, mostly it’s just going to be a funding giveaway to families that were already sending their kids to private schools,” said Douglas Harris, an economist at Tulane University who studies education policy. “In the long run, there’s potentially a much bigger story here.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="znbaVF">
By mid-May 2023, <a href="https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2023/06/01/esa-vouchers-projected-to-cost-900m-next-year/">about 61,000 Arizona students</a> were enrolled in an ESA, and the state department of education <a href="https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2023/06/01/esa-vouchers-projected-to-cost-900m-next-year/">estimated</a> that number would rise to 100,000, about 8 percent <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/AZ">of school-aged children</a> in the state, over the next year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DxLdtU">
Shortly after the universal program was opened, the state superintendent (then a Democrat) said that 75 percent of applicants <a href="https://tucson.com/news/local/education/most-applying-for-arizona-vouchers-already-go-to-private-schools/article_34d75b9a-2968-11ed-812b-f7dad22200b5.html">had never attended</a> public schools in the state. More recently, the current superintendent (a Republican) said 49 percent of enrollees had been in <a href="https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2023/06/01/esa-vouchers-projected-to-cost-900m-next-year/">public schools</a>. All we know for sure is that some families who weren’t using the public school system are now getting money to do what they were already doing, and some families who had been attending public schools are now getting money to go elsewhere.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jlqEYi">
What is the money producing? Again, the answer is unclear. The Goldwater Institute <a href="https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/arizona-legislature-passes-goldwaters-esa-expansion-to-empower-families/">bragged in 2022</a> that Arizona’s ESA bill “does not have any testing requirements.” (Iowa legislators, in contrast, did <a href="https://www.wqad.com/article/news/verify/verify-iowa-education-savings-account-private-school-state-federal-testing/526-df789fe6-6f6e-4836-b4cb-8f7067b7fed4#:~:text=Yes%2C%20Iowa%20private%20school%20students,annual%20condition%20of%20education%20report.">include some</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NKOsUU">
Critics fear state money will go to low-quality private schools that don’t actually educate children well — and that, without transparent testing requirements, we’ll never find that out for sure. “These policies being passed now are almost being evidence-proofed,” said Polikoff. “You won’t be able to say, ‘This isn’t working, we need to do something different,’ because there won’t be the data. The data will just be, ‘Look at all these people who’ve enrolled their kids.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9H4XA7">
Public school enrollment will likely decline somewhat now that funds are available to go elsewhere, with the question being exactly how much. In the short term, an overwhelming exodus from public to private schools likely won’t materialize simply because the existing private school infrastructure can only support so much. (Tuition will surely increase, as is <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023/05/11/reynolds-not-concerned-by-private-schools-raising-tuition-because-of-esa-program/">already happening in Iowa</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iL4D6u">
But already, Arizona’s superintendent Tom Horne <a href="https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2023/06/01/esa-vouchers-projected-to-cost-900m-next-year/">has said</a> he would push to close some public schools if enrollment dropped, which is just what rural school voucher skeptics long feared.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="edz8s2">
As time passes, there could be greater change. For-profit K-12 schools will likely expand, eager to get their hands on newly available state funding (Arizona’s program is <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2023/06/01/arizona-school-voucher-program-growth-explodes-to-900-million-for-the-upcoming-school-year/">now estimated to cost</a> $900 million). “In some places where similar things have been tried for low-income kids, there were not enough private schools, so new low-quality private schools opened,” said Cohen of FutureEd.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Uxi32r">
Many controversies surely lie ahead as well. Private schools have wide latitude to discriminate in admissions (though it’s illegal to do so based on race) — can it truly be called “universal school choice” if children can’t get into the school they want?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1ngs03">
The politicized curriculum controversies that have dogged public schools could also soon hit private schools, with more scrutiny from the left about what certain private schools are teaching. And there will be <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/many-more-states-enact-education-savings-accounts-implementation-challenges-abound-esas-choice-permitted-expenses/">questions</a> about the appropriateness of some spending (one <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/chicken-coops-trampolines-and-tickets-to-seaworld-what-some-parents-are-buying-with-education-savings-accounts/">article names</a> “chicken coops, trampolines and tickets to SeaWorld” as among homeschooling parents’ claimed education-related expenses).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mGM3Pc">
There’s also the budget question. In many of these states, universal ESAs were passed at a time when state budgets were flush with Covid aid. States could create what was essentially a new benefit for families who weren’t previously utilizing government money to educate their children, while often increasing funding and teacher pay at public schools, in “have your cake and eat it too” fashion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jqX44m">
But the Covid aid is ending, which will eventually present a math problem for states if revenues slow down. Either taxes will have to go up, or something — ESAs, public schools, or other state spending — will have to be cut. “The federal money drying up is going to be a big deal, and the whole tenor of the conversation is going to change,” said Andrew Rotherham of Bellwether Education Partners.
</p>
<h3 id="DkzTrf">
ESAs are here to stay in many states. What comes next?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5Yl1kj">
Democratic opposition to ESAs remains high, but in states where they’ve been implemented, Republicans have staunchly defended them (Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s new Democratic governor, <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2023/05/09/gov-katie-hobbs-caves-capping-universal-school-vouchers-budget/70199586007/">couldn’t get</a> her effort to roll back ESAs past the GOP-controlled legislature). The wind could change in purple states, but in red states, the GOP is highly likely to hold onto legislative majorities, so ESAs are likely here to stay.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q0gsNx">
“I’d like to see the legislature roll it back and reconsider the soundness of this policy, for sure,” said John, the former Arizona legislator. “But while Republicans have a majority, don’t count on that. No one’s gonna break ranks on this where a lot of people have an interest in it and there’s so much money behind it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lSgUYI">
Robert Enlow, president and CEO of the group EdChoice and a supporter of the new laws, put it a different way: “Once you give choice to families, it’s going to be very hard to take it away.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iy819w">
Even in states that have passed “universal school choice,” advocates may keep pushing for more. Milton Friedman, in his <a href="http://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEEFriedmanRoleOfGovttable.pdf">original voucher article</a> from 1955, mused about getting government out of the business of administering public schools altogether.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cWumEJ">
Once the market of educational options was up and running, Friedman wrote, the role of the government could be something more like a restaurant inspector ensuring “certain minimum standards” are met. We’re a long way from that happening. But perhaps not as far off from it as we once were.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zWb3Fp">
For now, DeAngelis still has more battles to fight. His home state, Texas — Republican-controlled, and home to 5.4 million students — is currently embroiled in controversy over Gov. Greg Abbott’s ESA proposal. There’s a similar story of rural reluctance among legislators, and Abbott <a href="https://thetexan.news/gov-abbott-confirms-plans-to-call-for-school-choice-special-session/">has said</a> he will call for a special session to try to force action. Advocates may well fail — but if there’s one thing the past few decades have proved, it’s that they’ll keep at it until they succeed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nd9Lyv">
</p></li>
<li><strong>What if the Real Housewives unionized?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Z100’s iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2022 - Press Room" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dbbQ0brmUpo4K9LTXQ8AXMOES5o=/76x0:5409x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72634100/1448037514.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Bethenny Frankel wants to start a reality television union … maybe | Photo by Arturo Holmes/WireImage,
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Bethenny Frankel’s reality TV star union is easier said than done.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SPq0F6">
To this day, there’s probably no Bravolebrity — a portmanteau of Bravo and celebrity that denotes the network’s crop of reality stars — who has benefited more from their association with that brand of <a href="https://www.vox.com/reality-tv">reality TV</a> than former Real Housewife of New York Bethenny Frankel. And there’s probably no Bravoleb more determined to burn the whole thing down than Frankel herself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d3WzVY">
This past summer, the star of eight seasons of <em>RHONY</em>, three seasons of <em>Bethenny Getting Married </em>(subsequently renamed <em>Bethenny Ever After</em>), and one season of <em>Bethenny &amp; Fredrik</em> has pushed for the creation of a reality <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv">television</a> star <a href="https://www.vox.com/unions">union</a>, saying that she, her Bravo cohort, and other reality TV show stars have been exploited by Bravo and networks for too long. Streaming has made things crystal clear to the former reality star; on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, which houses Bravo’s content, you can watch her anytime you want, and yet Frankel hasn’t seen a dime.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hhoFiS">
“We signed a contract. Does it mean we should be exploited?” <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/bethenny-frankel-reality-union-strike-1235674531/">she told Variety</a> in July, explaining that she and other reality stars should be striking. Frankel believes non-actor on-camera talent should be fighting for the same kind of residuals and compensation that SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild are asking for. “Networks and streamers have been exploiting people for too long.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qB3mCO">
Because of Frankel’s penchant for the limelight and bluster, it’s hard to gauge how seriously she is taking this union idea. In between making news for <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@bethennyfrankel/video/7259560874661186859?lang=en">chaotically</a> sucking crab legs out of a plastic bag in her hotel room, Frankel has also been inviting guests like <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/biggest-takeaways-from-bethenny-frankel-and-jill-zarins-reunion/">former co-star and frenemy Jill Zarin</a> and “<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/6/2/23745691/scandoval-vanderpump-rules-reunion-episode-2-ariana-madix">Scandoval</a>” main character <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/raquel-leviss-vanderpump-rules-future-fallout-bethenny-frankel-1235567951/">Raquel Leviss</a> on her podcast, <em>ReWives</em>, to point out how manipulative and dastardly reality show producers and network execs can be. On <em>ReWives</em>, which launched in 2022, Frankel reexamines and discusses how the <em>Housewives</em> series are made, often questioning the ethics and behind-the-scenes business that make Bravo’s reality shows. <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1357575/see-bethenny-frankel-and-andy-cohens-tense-reunion-on-watch-what-happens-live">Frankel had a tense reunion</a> with <em>Housewives</em> executive producer Andy Cohen on <em>Watch What Happens Live</em> in December, when Cohen told her: “You’ve been trashing the <em>Housewives</em> publicly for the last three years.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Frankel is talking animatedly, sat between Cohen and Lewis on the set of Watch What Happens Live." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Qq_5zmObf4EP-xHN0Vu1xbNhXUc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24906401/1245461205.jpg"/> <cite>Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Andy Cohen, Bethenny Frankel, and Jeff Lewis have it out on<em> Watch What Happens Live</em>.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lyxf1t">
Whether or not Frankel does create a union — and it appears she and her legal team are more <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/bravo-lawsuit-allegations-what-to-know.html">interested in a lawsuit</a> at the moment — she has opened up an important conversation about reality television, the talent reality stars possess, and the cruel industry they’re competing in. Frankel and her reality TV cohort would benefit from a union to protect themselves against abuse, exploitation, and unfair wages, but according to experts, figuring out what that looks like is much easier said than done.
</p>
<h3 id="YzvwZH">
What Bethenny Frankel wants
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q3vTZM">
The primary and clearest demand Bethenny Frankel has brought up as a point of concern with her proposed reality television is pay, specifically residuals — the money a reality show participant theoretically gets when a show they’ve filmed is replayed after airing, the way that <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23696617/writers-strike-wga-2023-explained-residuals-streaming-ai">actors and writers do</a>. Bethenny appeared on eight seasons of <em>The</em> <em>Real Housewives of New York</em>, and explained that while she was paid per season, she and other Housewives do not receive any residuals despite Bravo airing reruns of episodes she appears on, and Peacock (Bravo’s parent company’s streaming service) having an archive of every season of<em> New York</em>, <em>Atlanta</em>, <em>Orange County</em>, <em>Beverly Hills</em>, <em>New Jersey</em>, <em>Potomac</em>, and <em>Salt Lake City</em> available to stream. Not receiving residuals is reportedly the reality television industry norm.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eDIWMa">
“From Snooki [<em>Jersey Shore</em>] to Lauren Conrad [<em>Laguna Beach </em>and <em>The Hills</em>] to Kaitlyn Bristowe [<em>The Bachelor</em>], to myself, reality tv has generated millions of dollars and entertained people GLOBALLY and my name and likeness and content are used for years to come for free on episodes where I was paid peanuts for my work,” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cu43FLjpkGF/">Frankel wrote on Instagram</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Frankel poses on a red carpet with Skinnygirl branding." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5vnDmGWtP9ESPab4tpB2gGDzKSI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24906403/506950842.jpg"/> <cite>Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Bethenny Frankel promoting her brand Skinnygirl back in 2016.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jLb2oi">
Brian Moylan, <em>Real Housewives</em> expert and author of <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-housewives-brian-moylan/1138500575"><em>The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives</em></a><em>, </em>explained to Vox that reality show contracts are what he believes are “some of the worst contracts in entertainment” primarily due to the lack of supervision. Reality show contestants often don’t have lawyers or agents to look over the terms they’re signing, especially those who signed on back in the early days of reality TV. Back when Frankel first signed on, in 2008, streaming services were barely a blip on the horizon, and the idea that a Housewife might monetize a brand or catchphrase — now fundamental to becoming a<em> </em>star — was unheard of.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="88t9dp">
Moylan pointed out that Bravo also has what he calls the “Bethenny” rule, named after Frankel. Frankel, who appeared on the first three seasons of RHONY and a second stint of seasons seven to 11, created a liquor and lifestyle brand on the show called Skinnygirl, which she <a href="https://people.com/tv/bethenny-frankel-sell-skinnygirl-empire-rhony/">sold in 2009 for an estimated $100 million</a>. In doing so, Frankel inadvertently created a new paradigm, showing future Housewives that they could create and promote a business on air as a means to supplement their fame and income. Moylan explained that post-Bethenny, Bravo now takes a 10 percent cut if any reality participant on the network starts a business while on one of their shows and sells it for more than a million dollars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7VZbi8">
In Moylan’s eyes though, there’s a slight that’s even more egregious: the way Bravo monetizes Housewife catchphrases and viral moments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6d3emH">
“Dorinda comes up with ‘<a href="https://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-new-york-city/season-8/episode-9/videos/dorinda-medley-i-cooked-i-decorated">I cooked, I cleaned … I made it nice</a>,’ on the fly. That’s something she created. It’s like a story you would write or a song somebody wrote, and now Bravo slaps it on mugs and aprons and socks, selling it on Bravo.com,” Moylan told me. “Dorinda is not getting any of that. So now you’re looking at [catchphrases like] ‘<a href="https://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-new-york-city/season-7/episode-15/videos/dont-be-all-like-uncool">Be cool, don’t be all, like, uncool</a>’ and the ‘dinner party from hell,’ etc. All that shit that Bravo’s monetized — that’s thanks to the women’s emotional and intellectual labor, and those women are getting no benefit from it other than getting re-upped for another season, potentially.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="55mdJI">
Frankel and Moylan both make the point that being a Housewife or any other reality television star should be considered a talent. There is no <em>Real Housewives </em>without the Housewives themselves, and a show isn’t successful if the women don’t play their roles. Similarly, there’s no <em>Jersey Shore</em> without Snooki, and no <em>Bachelor</em> or <em>Bachelorette</em> without its contestants. These shows bring in ratings and money for their networks and now, with the age of streaming, are not only available to watch anytime but also are part of the draw to get people to sign up for a service like Peacock.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5oAcXq">
While Frankel, many of her fellow Housewives, and some other reality stars have commanded high-paying salaries, she argues that they’ve brought Bravo and other networks exponentially more.
</p>
<h3 id="WA5yfO">
What makes a Bravo or reality TV union so difficult
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SHMPkg">
Bravo has no problem paying Housewives. According to one person — who we’ll call Sam — who has worked behind the camera on at least one season of one of Bravo’s <em>Real Housewive</em>s franchises, it’s not unheard of for a top-tier Housewife (usually the most popular and longest-tenured) to make up to six figures an episode. Sam requested anonymity so as not to jeopardize their professional relationship with Bravo.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B0MWl1">
“If you’re on like a long-running show, a Housewife could make between $1 million and $2 million a season,” Sam said, explaining that compared to the rest of the realm of reality television (barring the Kardashians), that kind of salary was top of the market.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="The cast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta in blue and teal gowns stand with Andy Cohen." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9qBAwwui804HAQrLCpp6avxhjVg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24906409/1623805074.jpg"/> <cite>Jocelyn Prescod/Bravo via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
<em>The Real Housewives of Atlanta</em>, one of the more storied Bravo franchises on the network’s TV schedule.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HeaoJP">
“Short of Bethenny though, these women are not great businesspeople,” Sam said, naming <em>The Real Housewives of Atlanta</em>’s Kandi Burruss and Kenya Moore as other money-making exceptions. Sam says that most of these women “are not great at leveraging their appearances into product.” It’s not for a lack of trying, though. “Because it’s so hard to make crazy money in this business right now, everyone is always looking for the loophole to get through and get the network into giving you more money,” Sam said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0d9ZoB">
The key word Sam used is “leverage,” which is not only central to current Housewife success, but is also crucial to Frankel’s argument and whether or not her proposed union takes off.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p8cyPv">
In order for a union to function, labor has to have some kind of bargaining power. There have to be some consequences, some buttons to push or levers to pull to try to get management to meet their demands. And the people with real leverage or bargaining power in reality television aren’t popular ex-Housewives like Bethenny Frankel, but currently employed Real Housewives. Unlike a lot of reality television participants, these current stars are on for multiple seasons, have devoted fans, and could be seen as crucial to the show.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qzLOWL">
“Those are the people who have real bargaining power, because their shows are popular enough and they appear regularly, to the point where a show couldn’t manage without them,” said <a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/our-faculty/faculty-profiles/catherine-fisk/">Catherine Fisk</a>, a professor and expert in labor law at UC Berkeley. “That’s where leverage comes from.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XwIdR0">
In Bravo terms that means the multiple-season Housewives like <em>Atlanta</em>’s Burruss and Moore, <em>Orange County</em>’s Shannon Storms Beador, <em>Beverly Hills</em>’s Kyle Richards, and <em>New Jersey</em>’s Teresa Giudice. Lisa Vanderpump and her cast on Vanderpump Rules, thanks to a breakout “<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/3/7/23629293/vanderpump-rules-tom-sandoval-cheating-raquel-leviss-scandoval">Scandoval</a>” season, also count. As do <em>Below Deck </em>cast members like <em>Below Deck Med</em>’s Sandy Yawn, <em>Below Deck Sailing Yach</em>t’s Glenn Shepard and Daisy Kelliher<em>, </em>and longtime cast members on shows like <em>Summer House</em> and <em>Southern Charm. </em>These people are as valuable as reality television show participants can be on Bravo.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="myDusb">
Unfortunately for Frankel and those who would like union protections, cast members like <a href="https://www.etonline.com/kandi-burruss-explains-why-shes-not-joining-bethenny-frankels-reality-tv-strike-exclusive-209451">Burruss</a> and <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2023/08/lisa-vanderpump-reality-star-unions.html">Vanderpump</a> have said on the record that they don’t support Frankel’s idea of a union. In order to be effective, striking needs some sort of solidarity, especially from seniority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8nqGTx">
The other problem for Frankel, and those who would like to see a reality television union at Bravo and beyond, is that any kind of leverage is tempered by an industry where the supply heavily outweighs the demand. Bravo’s shows are an outlier in that most reality TV programs, from<em> American Idol </em>to <em>Survivor</em> to <em>Love Is Blind</em> to <em>Big Brother</em> to <em>Love Island USA</em> to <em>The Circle</em>, cycle in and out contestants season after season. It’s near impossible to build leverage as a reality TV show participant when you’re only on for one season, and doubly difficult when there’s an entire supply of reality contestants waiting in the wings.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NlCVbS">
“I think the mindset of the industry would be like, ‘Hey, if you don’t want to do this, no problem. Don’t do it. We’ll find 1,000, maybe 2,000, maybe 10,000 other people who would gladly even do this for less,’’ said Steve Schiffman, a professor at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. Schiffman has network experience, working as the CEO at National Geographic where he oversaw some reality shows on NatGeo’s various channels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zBGumO">
“There’s a supply and demand economic dynamic here that is not in favor of those who would say, ‘Oh, I want to have some representation,’” he added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q3CIBv">
Earlier this summer, Bravo showed that it can do what Schiffman said. It rebooted its entire <em>Real Housewives of New York City</em> franchise, ending the tenures of some of its longest-running Housewives like Ramona Singer, LuAnn de Lesseps, and Sonja Morgan. Those three were reported to appear in a separate <em>RHONY</em> show alongside ex-Housewife Jill Zarin, but instead were shuffled into a Peacock’s <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/rhony-legacy-ultimate-girls-trip-ramona-singer-season-14-trailer-1235613165/"><em>Ultimate Girls Trip</em></a> spinoff. <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/ultimate-girls-trip-season-5-dubbed-rhony-legacy-what-to-know/">Zarin said</a> that she was unhappy with salary discrepancies among the women, and she was not included in the upcoming <em>Girls Trip</em> show.
</p>
<h3 id="gdfcZH">
Reality television’s problems go deeper than pay
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pO0rBI">
Sam, who has worked on <em>Housewives, </em>explained to me that what struck them about Frankel’s initial comments about the union and her reality television union push is how concerned Frankel was about her own pay and not the shows’ awful working conditions. Long hours, manipulative production practices, mistreatment of crew, psychological abuse, and an actual lack of compensation for those lower on the call sheet are all the norm in reality television.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="32pxFT">
If Bethenny were truly serious about a reality television show union, Sam told me, a more convincing argument would address those things. “Part of the reason I can go to bed at night is because these women are taken care of,” Sam said of the Housewives. “These women are compensated, and these women are creative partners.” Sam explained that participants and crew on <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/love-blind-contestant-lawsuit-cast-members-denied-water-plied-alcohol-rcna38191">Netflix</a>, <a href="https://www.gawker.com/a-twisted-industry-reality-tv-workers-are-really-fed-1601137605">VH1</a>, and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-11-30/jessica-willis-fisher-memoir-sexual-abuse-tlc-reality-show">TLC</a>’s reality shows are not treated with the same care or respect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VJvxsG">
While Frankel’s main complaint was pay, her legal team wrote a letter to <a href="https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/NBCU-REALITY-TV-LETTER-1-1.pdf">Bravo’s parent company NBCUniversal on August 4</a> that stated it was investigating “depraved mistreatment” of the company’s reality stars and warned that a “day of reckoning” has arrived. They allege that cast members and production crew members who worked on the company’s reality shows have been subject to food and sleep deprivation, nonconsensual sharing of sexual audio or video, cover-ups of acts of sexual violence, and denied mental health treatment. On August 20, <a href="https://dam.tmz.com/document/af/o/2023/08/21/af1761020ab24631bd9c04bc95edbbe5.pdf">Frankel’s legal team</a> threatened NBCUniversal that a lawsuit was impending and more reality stars have joined Frankel — talk of establishing a union has since softened while the lawsuit has ramped up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DJfD7r">
To Sam, Frankel’s unionization plea felt a bit hollow because it also didn’t take into account how difficult and wide-ranging reality television show unionization would actually be.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d0xE9y">
While Bravo owns the shows and sets salaries for its stars, the work to create these reality shows falls on production companies and the teams of editors, producers, and camera operators who bring these programs to life. Many of those companies are nonunion, and flipping them into union shops might require a broader effort among said editors and producers. If a Bravo union somehow manifests at these production companies, will other shows that these production companies create also unionize? And has Frankel even thought about what’s happening at other places?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KnvQ9L">
“They fucking torture those kids on <em>The Bachelor</em> and <em>The Bachelorette,” </em>Moylan, the Housewife and reality television expert, told me. “People say they know what they signed up for, because we’ve watched 30 seasons of the show. But yeah, you don’t see them getting starved, fed alcohol, and asked the same question 17 different times in 17 different ways to get exactly the answer they want so that they can make you look like an asshole on television!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JRG9KM">
Moylan, who explained that he isn’t a legal expert by any means, has his own doubts about what a reality television show union would look like. It’s also not lost on Moylan that a unionization effort would require Housewives, who are often cast on the show to backstab, fight, and humiliate their costars, to band together.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xfO8wO">
“There is a fair amount of exploitation on these shows that we benefit from,” he told me. “Let’s say we get a contract that says, ‘If you have reality stars on a show, they need to be fed every four hours.’ Okay, that sounds reasonable. Well, what about <em>Survivor? </em>Will <em>Survivor</em> have to start feeding people? And if they’re feeding people that isn’t just<em> Big Brother</em>? Then it gets into questions like, okay, so people can consent to not being fed on <em>Survivor</em>, but then can you just consent to everything?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dQWkG3">
When I asked Fisk, the labor law expert at UC Berkeley, about what a reality television union would even look like, she was a bit more optimistic. She drew a parallel to how extras and background performers are protected.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5QRJnz">
“I assume it would look like the contracts that [SAG-AFTRA] has negotiated for various kinds of actors who work super episodically or not very often or for a period of time on this and then not again. I’m thinking of the group of actors formally known as extras,” Fisk told me. “Their minimum wages would be part of the contract, protection against abuse in the workplace, residuals, of course, for reuse of the material — all the same stuff that is in a SAG-AFTRA contract, and they could just adapt it to take into consideration the different nature of the work.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Fists raised in the air along with a Writers Guild of America sign that says “Unscripted? Yeah, write.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KJD-Tx7vebBhifc5LIvJWY6BOh8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24906422/78307349.jpg"/> <cite>David McNew/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A photo from the 2007 Writers Guild Strike. Even back then, the Writers Guild was calling attention to conditions facing writers on game shows and some reality television programming.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iW3wEZ">
Other labor experts I spoke to explained to me that a minimum master contract might be more sustainable than creating a new contract for each show and each new show that comes into creation. From there, negotiations could theoretically take place on an individual basis, not unlike the way professional sports work.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3PiUoq">
Again, this is all of course theoretical and hypothetical since no one, not even Frankel, has given us an idea of what a contract would look like. But Fisk did explain to me that SAG-AFTRA, <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/08/sag-aftra-bethenny-frankel-reality-tv-contestants-union-1235459562/">which has expressed interest</a> in helping Frankel and reality television participants organize, would greatly benefit from helping reality show participants unionize.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WJLghZ">
“I think there may be an incentive to do that, in part, because they have to recognize that there is a substitution or a potential substitution problem where the producers are clearly going to substitute reality shows for scripted shows, the longer this strike goes on — they did that in the 2007–2008 strike,” Fisk told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L2fiAc">
It comes back to leverage. If SAG-AFTRA were able to organize reality TV or help unionize reality TV, it would give them an edge over the management that would normally pit the two against each other. For SAG-AFTRA, it would take away that competitive scenario.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="406cc3">
“This is true for every union or every group of employees that recognizes that if they use their leverage they have as a union, the company is just going to substitute nonunion labor for their work,” Fisk said. “You always have to look at who the nonunion labor is and say, ‘Can we organize them and can we improve their working conditions? And if they unionize, it prevents the degradation of our working conditions.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IhMkYb">
Fisk reminded me that talk about the union is always easier than the reality of organizing, negotiating, and banding together to make one. The <a href="https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8xp773p/">Screenwriters Guild took some nine years</a> to secure its first contract in 1942, and that fight is still ongoing today.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oh9a4K">
In nine years, there’s no telling what reality TV might look like — what <a href="https://www.vox.com/tiktok">TikTok</a> stars might have become Real Housewives, what new cause will have captured Frankel’s attention, or how much worse (or better) it’ll get for the genre’s biggest stars.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Google owns search. Is that illegal?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Google’s office in New York City." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fe92kHdWUZZvMZYy9NTgjumoAP8=/0x0:5973x4480/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72634065/GettyImages_1281329479.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Google’s office in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Which search engine do you use, and why is it Google? A judge will soon decide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UBXrRl">
The first big trial of the modern Big Tech antitrust movement is here: On September 12, the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Google’s search engine monopoly begins. What’s at stake? Oh, nothing much — just the future of the internet. Or maybe the future of antitrust law in the US. Maybe both.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="efoF5K">
This will be the first antitrust trial that goes after a Big Tech company’s business practices since the DOJ took on Microsoft in the late ’90s, and it’s the first in a set of antitrust lawsuits against dominant tech platforms from federal and state antitrust enforcers that will play out in the next few months. Those include the DOJ and state attorneys general’s lawsuits against Google over its ad tech business, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/19/22632826/facebook-ftc-lawsuit-antitrust-monopoly-lina-khan-instagram-whatsapp-path-circle">FTC’s case</a> against Meta over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, and a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ftc-antitrust-suit-against-amazon-set-for-later-this-month-after-meeting-fails-to-resolve-impasse-c888700f">likely forthcoming</a> case from the FTC against Amazon over its marketplace platform and Prime service. Apple might even <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-escalates-apple-probe-looks-to-involve-antitrust-chief-2fa86ddf">catch a lawsuit</a>, too. The outcomes of these cases, starting with this one, will tell us if our antitrust laws, written decades before the internet existed and tried before an increasingly business-friendly justice system, can be applied to dominant digital platforms’ business practices now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dVMLEJ">
“If the DOJ loses, it becomes a very serious question of what’s it going to take,” Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge, an open internet advocacy group, said. “Other than an act of Congress, is there any way that a court is going to apply the antitrust laws to these new business models and new technologies?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ragBzL">
That is to say, this case may change how much power those platforms have over us and how they’re allowed to wield it. And it all boils down to a simple question: Which search engine do you use, and why?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ktRiaN">
The first part of this isn’t in dispute. If you’re like <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/united-states-of-america">90 percent of Americans</a>, it’s Google, which has been synonymous with internet search for decades. The “why” is where the fight is. Google says it’s because it’s the best search engine out there. The DOJ and attorneys general from almost every state and territory in the country say it’s because Google pays a host of companies — everyone from Apple to Verizon — billions of dollars a year to make its search the default on the vast majority of devices and browsers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TvAakb">
Most of us probably take search engines for granted at this point, but they’re still a hugely important part of how the internet works. The proof is Google, which in just 25 years has grown into a $1.7 trillion company that owns major swathes of what we do online. It was all built on that search engine, which remains Google’s biggest revenue generator even now. Search ads were <a href="https://abc.xyz/assets/9a/bd/838c917c4b4ab21f94e84c3c2c65/goog-10-k-q4-2022.pdf">nearly 60 percent</a> of the company’s revenue in 2022, to the tune of $162.45 billion. And that doesn’t count all the other ways Google can and does monetize its exclusive knowledge of what most of the world wants to know all the time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KZykQR">
Ironically enough, it was another tech company’s antitrust woes that helped Google emerge in the first place: Microsoft.
</p>
<h3 id="tl9xa5">
Remember Internet Explorer? The DOJ sure does.
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oG8DkK">
A few decades ago, your internet experience almost certainly began with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, as was the case for up to 95 percent of internet users when the browser was at its early 2000s peak. But that market share didn’t happen because Internet Explorer was better, the DOJ contended in its <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22893117/microsoft-activision-antitrust-big-tech">1998 antitrust lawsuit</a> against the company. It was because Microsoft leveraged its dominance over computer operating systems to force its browser onto users.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GHgkko">
Internet Explorer was bundled with Microsoft’s Windows operating system, and Microsoft ensured it was just about impossible to remove. Installing an alternate browser was technically possible but difficult, so most people didn’t bother. This killed off most of Internet Explorer’s competitors and gave Microsoft a monopoly over internet browsers that was similar to the one it enjoyed over computer operating systems. And that, the DOJ said, was an abuse of Microsoft’s monopoly power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V4giOL">
The US District Court for the District of Columbia agreed and ordered Microsoft to be broken up into two companies. But a higher court overturned part of that ruling, and the DOJ subsequently settled with Microsoft. The company got to stay in one piece, but it paid a price. While Microsoft was tied up in court, paying billions in fines, afraid to make any major moves that could incur more government wrath and no longer allowed to gatekeep the internet through its browser, new companies like Google emerged.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QCQIIJ">
Now, the DOJ says, the cycle is repeating. But Google is the one that is using its dominance to freeze out competitors, and consumers are being denied the kind of innovation that put Google on the map in the first place.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dSEe8W">
“If the government’s allegations are to be believed, Google is doing exactly what Microsoft did in many respects,” said Gary Reback, an antitrust lawyer who was <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/06/27/141770/gary-reback-technologys-trustbuster/">instrumental</a> in convincing the DOJ to bring the case against Microsoft back then and <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/google-dodges-bullet-as-ftc-closes-probe-085724">tried to get</a> the FTC to take Google on 10 years ago. “The major arguments — I’ve seen them all before — they were made by Microsoft, and they failed.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kgme2I">
The DOJ’s lawsuit <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/21524710/google-antitrust-lawsuit-doj-search-trump-bill-barr">was filed</a> in October 2020, at the very end of Trump’s presidency and when anti-Big Tech sentiment was high and bipartisan. It came <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/10/6/21505027/congress-big-tech-antitrust-report-facebook-google-amazon-apple-mark-zuckerberg-jeff-bezos-tim-cook">just a few weeks</a> after the House’s long investigation into Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta’s business practices, which led to a set of <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22529779/antitrust-bills-house-big-tech">bipartisan</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/9/6/23332620/amy-klobuchar-antitrust-code-2022">bicameral</a> antitrust bills meant to address the unique ways digital platforms operate and maintain their dominance. Eleven states joined that suit; three more signed on a few months later. In December 2020, 35 states, the territories of Puerto Rico and Guam, and Washington, DC, filed their own lawsuit against Google over its search practices. Those two cases have been combined for this trial.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VSXyK9">
This isn’t to be confused with all the other antitrust lawsuits the government has filed against Google that address other parts of its business. One of those, about Google’s app store, was <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/7/7/22567656/google-play-store-states-antitrust-suit-letitia-james-utah-new-york-north-carolina">recently settled</a>. <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/1/24/23569609/google-antitrust-lawsuit-digital-ads">Two</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/texas-antitrust-lawsuit-against-google-return-lone-star-state-2023-06-05/">others</a> about Google’s ad tech business are winding their way through the courts. Here, we’re just looking at Google’s search arm, which is the foundation of the company but far from the only thing it does.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FwR3hF">
There are also a few things you won’t see in this case that used to be there. A few weeks ago, Judge Mehta <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/04/judge-narrows-case-in-google-antitrust-suits-brought-by-states-and-doj.html">threw out</a> several of the plaintiffs’ claims. The states’ argument that Google harmed competitors like Yelp and Expedia by designing its search results to prominently feature its own services over theirs was tossed. The DOJ’s claims that Google’s agreements with manufacturers to give its services default placement on Androids and Internet of Things devices were exclusionary were also dismissed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OqmknD">
So we’re left with two claims. One is from the states’ case about Google’s search engine marketing tool, and it accuses the company of making certain features available to its search engine and not Microsoft’s Bing in order to give it an unfair advantage. But the core of this case is the second claim about Google’s default search agreements.
</p>
<h3 id="WozNCt">
How Google’s default search agreements hurt you — or help
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bqvvx8">
With so much of its revenue riding on the popularity and scale of its search product, Google is willing to spend a lot of money to ensure that it’s the default search in as many places as possible. The company shells out billions of dollars every year to browser developers, device manufacturers, and phone carriers for Google to be the default search engine almost everywhere. The exact amounts of those default search agreements have been redacted for this trial, but <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04/panic-at-google-samsung-considers-dumping-search-for-bing-and-chatgpt/">estimates</a> put it at as much as $20 billion a year to Apple alone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xLjwbk">
This paid placement, the DOJ says, has helped Google maintain its dominance and made it impossible for just about anyone else to compete. Very few companies have billions of dollars to throw around. Or, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-monopolist-google-violating-antitrust-laws">as the DOJ said</a>, it’s “creating a continuous and self-reinforcing cycle of monopolization.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Aj1TYx">
And while it’s possible for users to switch to a different search engine, very few of them actually do. The DOJ is expected to say that’s because Google has locked up the best distribution channels. Using a competitor requires knowing that it’s even possible to do it in the first place as well as how to make the switch. There are also countless studies that will tell you how difficult it is to overcome consumer inertia. The vast majority of people just go with whatever’s there, which is why Google is paying to be there. Microsoft’s defense that people could install alternate browsers if they so chose didn’t work 25 years ago. The DOJ doesn’t think it should work now.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pPOUHQ">
All this has hurt competitors, who can’t get a foothold in the market, according to the DOJ. It has impacted advertisers, who have to pay what Google is charging for those search ads because there’s no other game in town, and consumers, who don’t have much choice in search engines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bQV3xs">
The lack of choice is also, the suit says, stifling innovation. There’s no pressure on Google to improve its product because there aren’t any companies trying to develop their own, possibly better, ones. The DOJ will likely argue that the quality of Google’s product has gone down as its dominance became more entrenched. One example could be all of those knowledge panels Google sticks on top of search results that direct users to other Google products, not to mention the presence of more and more search ads. The states’ case that this harmed third parties like Yelp was thrown out, but the DOJ could still say that it harms consumers who have to do more work to get to the search results they came to Google for in the first place.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LmcNhV">
There are other search engines, but they’ve struggled to gain market share. Microsoft has Bing, which is <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/united-states-of-america">currently</a> just 6.4 percent of the US market (Yahoo!, which uses Bing, is another 2.4 percent). There’s also DuckDuckGo, which has been trying to compete with Google as a privacy-preserving alternative. But it only has a fraction of the market, and it blames Google’s default search agreements for that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QIr1Lb">
“Even though DuckDuckGo provides something extremely valuable that people want and Google won’t provide — real privacy — Google makes it unduly difficult to use DuckDuckGo by default. We’re glad this issue is finally going to have its day in court,” Kamyl Bazbaz, spokesperson for DuckDuckGo, said in a statement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IbakdS">
DuckDuckGo, obviously, is an existing product. This case is also very much about the search engines that don’t exist and never will, the ones that you, the consumer, will never get to use. The DOJ will likely argue that’s because Google intentionally made the search engine barrier to entry too high.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pftmvz">
For its part, Google <a href="https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/response-us-v-google/">maintains</a> that it’s the most popular search engine because it’s the best one out there, giving its users the most meaningful and relevant results. The DOJ’s case, the agency counters, is aimed at helping competitors — not consumers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ikFpn5">
Google says the companies that choose its search to be the default on their products do so because it’s better, not because Google is paying them. And consumers use Google because it’s better, not because it happens to be there when they turn their new phones on or fire up their new computer’s browser for the first time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IfWu3k">
“People don’t use Google because they have to — they use it because they want to,” Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, said in a <a href="https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/response-us-v-google/">blog post</a>. “Making it easier for people to get the products they want benefits consumers and is supported by American antitrust law.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EzVBZy">
But why, you might ask, is Google paying anyone at all if it’s so great? Well, the company has long maintained that this is equivalent to a brand paying a grocery store for prime shelf space, something that is perfectly legal and happens all the time. (People who disagree with this will point out that occupying the only search engine slot on the vast majority of web browsers and devices is not quite the same thing as sitting on a shelf in a grocery store.) Google thinks it’s improving customer access to what it believes is the best product. And that, Google says, is good for consumers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EaDPmL">
Google also says it’s easy to switch to a different search engine — much easier, in fact, than it was to install a new browser back in the Microsoft lawsuit days. Apps can be downloaded in seconds, and it takes just a few clicks to change your search engine settings, as long as you know it’s possible and how to do it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="26w1WW">
“While default settings matter (that’s why we bid for them), they’re easy to change. People can and do switch,” Walker said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iTbZAv">
Google also says it’s continuously improving and innovating. Any perceived lack of competition (and the company says it has plenty of competition) hasn’t caused it to rest on its laurels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2kqPxd">
“We invest billions of dollars in R&amp;D and make thousands of quality improvements to Search every year to ensure we’re delivering the most helpful results,” Walker said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZZmIUv">
Finally, Google has maintained that the market is more than just general search engines like Bing or DuckDuckGo, because general search engines aren’t the only way people look for things on the internet. They may also go directly to Reddit or Amazon, for example. So it has more competitors than the DOJ claims as well as a smaller market share. That’s probably not going to fly with the judge, but Google will give it a try anyway.
</p>
<h3 id="TZM4Lb">
The future of the internet, as determined by a business-friendly justice system
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uOJEth">
As Reback says, we saw many of these concepts litigated with the Microsoft case nearly three decades ago. So we should have case law that says some of the same or very similar practices Google is engaged in are illegal, right? Not necessarily.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nHEhV6">
Google has a few things going for it here. For one, it’s been more careful about how it phrases and frames things in internal documents than <a href="https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/5/18/17362452/microsoft-antitrust-lawsuit-netscape-internet-explorer-20-years">Microsoft was</a> (assuming those internal documents <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/tech/judge-google-deleted-chat-logs-antitrust-case/index.html">exist</a> — the DOJ has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-justice-dept-accuses-google-evidence-destruction-antitrust-case-2023-02-23/">accused</a> Google of withholding or destroying some of them). For another, the courts that will ultimately decide how to apply the law are different, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pupOl7">
“Since Microsoft, there’s <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/540/398/">been</a> a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-1454_5h26.pdf">couple</a> of Supreme Court decisions that are, by their attitude and their approach, tolerant of dominant firm behavior,” William Kovacic, who served as the chair of the FTC under George W. Bush, said. “Their attitude toward plaintiffs is not nearly so generous as the Court of Appeals was in the Microsoft case.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7y67aO">
No matter what the judge decides, it will be a while before we know the final outcome. The trial is expected to last about nine weeks, and Judge Mehta’s ruling won’t come out until next year. We’re sure to have a long appeals process after that. But whatever the outcome is, it may be hugely consequential, especially when viewed in combination with the other digital platform antitrust cases we have now (or likely will have soon) and the larger antitrust reform movement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mB1hoH">
If Google loses, it faces the possibility of being broken up into smaller companies (an extreme, but not unheard of, measure that the DOJ is asking for) or forbidden from offering those search agreements. We could be looking at a much different Google, or we’ll get to see which search engine users pick when Google is not the default.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ojcuzA">
If the DOJ loses, there are a few ways to look at it. One is that this is proof that Google isn’t doing anything wrong and should be allowed to continue to operate as it always has, without being unfairly targeted by the government with its anti-Big Tech agenda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RkT5VF">
But if you believe that Google and its Big Tech brethren’s dominance and power is a problem that needs to be solved, a DOJ loss would show that our antitrust laws and the courts that are charged with interpreting them aren’t equipped to deal with the realities of this digital economy and how its major players operate within it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pQ8E7b">
“If the government gets the door slammed on its face … if they try and they lose, then they can turn to Congress and say, ‘Well, our antitrust system is so cramped and limited that we can’t do the job. You’ve got to fix it,’” Kovacic said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mCh4IY">
That could be what motivates Congress to pass antitrust laws that do account for dominant digital platforms. An internet that’s essentially controlled by a handful of companies may well open back up again — assuming it isn’t already too late.
</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>Panda holds Grebnev; Indians lead in girls’ event</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dhiraj finishes fourth</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Daily Quiz | On teen prodigies in sports</strong> - Following Coco Gauff’s U.S. Open triumph, here’s a quiz on teen prodigies in sport today</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>Asia Cup 2023, India vs Pakistan | Play resumes on reserve day after rain delay, no overs lost</strong> - Intermittent rain had pushed Sunday’s India-Pakistan game to the reserve day after India reached 147 for two in 24.1 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>Review of Aditya Bhushan’s Guts amidst Bloodbath, The Aunshuman Gaekwad Narrative: True-blue opener</strong> - Aunshuman Gaekwad held his own against a menacing West Indies pace attack in their hey day</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>Leadership camp organised at college in Hyderabad</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kerala, the only State to reinstate portions deleted by NCERT: Sivankutty</strong> - Portions such as Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination &amp; Gujarat riots to be reinstated</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>Will probe allegations of Pawan Kalyan, says Minister Peddireddi</strong> - YSRCP cadres planned to eliminate 50 of my party men during Varahi Yatra, alleges Jana Sena chief</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>Private transporters’ strike: Protestors attack non-participant cab drivers, bike taxi riders</strong> - Many cabs and autorickshaws were stopped by protestors and threatened with dire consequences to stay off the road or join the protest.</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 coordination committee meet to finalise campaigns, rallies: Manoj Jha</strong> - The first meeting of the 14-member coordination committee of the Opposition INDIA bloc will be held at the residence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Delhi on September 13</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>Spanish FA president Rubiales to resign over kiss</strong> - Luis Rubiales resigns as president of the Spanish Football Federation following criticism for kissing Jenni Hermoso after the Women’s 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>G20: How Russia and West agreed on Ukraine language</strong> - Consensus seemed far away, but India managed to bring together nations with starkly divergent views.</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>Srebrenica: A scientist’s long quest to name the dead</strong> - A forensic anthropologist tries to put names to the last 1,000 unidentified dead of a Bosnian War genocide.</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>Greek minister resigns after late ferry passenger death</strong> - The man died after allegedly being pushed off the vessel by crew members, sparking outrage in Greece.</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>Beatification for Polish family murdered for sheltering Jews</strong> - A beatification Mass is held for the family of nine, who were executed by Nazis for protecting Jews.</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>The truth is out there: Celebrate 30 years of The X-Files with our 30 favorite episodes</strong> - From alien abductions to monsters of the week, this sci-fi series had something for everyone. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957642">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft offers legal protection for AI copyright infringement challenges</strong> - “Some customers are concerned about the risk of IP infringement claims,” says Microsoft. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1966332">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Teen’s death after eating a single chip highlights risks of ultra-spicy foods</strong> - The hot pepper linked to teen’s death can cause arteries in the brain to spasm. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1966876">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The MonsterVerse comes to Apple TV+ with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters teaser</strong> - “If you come with me, you’ll know everything, I promise.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1966615">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>X sues Calif. to avoid revealing how it makes “controversial” content decisions</strong> - X decried law’s “draconian financial penalties” up to $15K per violation per day. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1966853">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>Three engineers and three accountants are traveling by train to a conference</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Three engineers and three accountants are traveling by train to a conference. At the station, the three accountants each buy tickets and watch as the three engineers buy only a single ticket.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“How are you going to travel with only one ticket?” asks an accountant.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Watch and you’ll see,” answers one of the engineers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They all board the train, and the accountants take their seats, while the three engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Shortly after the train departs, the conductor comes around to collect tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, “Ticket, please.” The door opens just a crack, and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes the ticket and moves on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The accountants are impressed by this clever trick. On the way back from the conference, they decide to try the same tactic and save some money. When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To their astonishment, the engineers don’t buy a ticket at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“How are you going to travel without a ticket?” asks one of the accountants.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Watch and you’ll see,” answers an engineer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They all board the train. The three accountants cram into one restroom, and the three engineers cram into another restroom nearby.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Shortly after the train departs, one of the engineers leaves his restroom, walks over to the restroom where the accountants are hiding, knocks on the door, and says, “Ticket, please.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/hoangfbf"> /u/hoangfbf </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16fp42i/three_engineers_and_three_accountants_are/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16fp42i/three_engineers_and_three_accountants_are/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I was visiting a mental hospital</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
And I asked the director how they know if someone is insane and needs to be committed. He says ‘it’s actually very simple, we fill up a bathtub and offer the patient a bucket, a teacup, and a teaspoon and ask them to empty the bathtub’. ‘Oh I see’ I said, ‘and a sane person would choose the bucket, because it’s the biggest?’. The director shakes his head and says ‘no. A sane person would pull the plug. Would you like a bed next to a window?’
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CriticismShot2565"> /u/CriticismShot2565 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16fl4s5/i_was_visiting_a_mental_hospital/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16fl4s5/i_was_visiting_a_mental_hospital/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy is playing golf with his wife…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They’re on the 12th hole and the guy slices his tee shot right into the woods. He trudges into the woods, and locates his ball. it’s in a little clearing, but there is a big barn between him and the green.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He takes a good look, and says, “Listen, honey, I think if you hold the barn door open, I can hit the ball right through the barn and onto the green!” So his wife goes over and holds the door open.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The guy takes a four-iron and whack! hits the ball. The ball hits his wife right between the eyes, killing her instantly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Well, it’s a year later, and the guy is on the same golf course with his new wife. They’re on the 12th hole and, once again, he hits a slice into the woods. Shaking his head with disgust, he heads into the woods. Sure enough, his ball is in about the same spot. Sadly, he takes out a seven-iron and lines up to hit the ball sideways back onto the fairway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Before he can take the shot, his new wife says, “Honey, you know … I think I might be able to hold the barn door open for you. That way, you can hit the ball through the barn and onto the green.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The guy just shakes his head. “No way, dear,” he says. “I tried that last year … and ended up with a 9 on the hole.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Jokeminder42"> /u/Jokeminder42 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16f4f3u/a_guy_is_playing_golf_with_his_wife/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16f4f3u/a_guy_is_playing_golf_with_his_wife/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man was having a bad day…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A little man sits sadly in the bar with a beer in front of him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A large, bad guy walks along, smacks him on the shoulder and drinks his beer happily.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The little man begins to cry with desperation, sobbing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The big one: “Don’t be like that, ya plump wimp! Crying for a beer!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The little one: “Well then, listen up. This morning my wife left me, our account was cleared, and the house was empty! After that I lost my job! I didn’t want to live anymore, so I put myself on the railway track… no train came! Then I wanted to hang myself… the rope ripped! Wanted to shoot myself… Revolver jams! And now I bought myself a beer with my last money, poured all my rat poison into it and you just drank it away!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CraftyAd3270"> /u/CraftyAd3270 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16f9drx/a_man_was_having_a_bad_day/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16f9drx/a_man_was_having_a_bad_day/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man with a completely bald head and only one leg is invited to a Fancy Dress Party.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He doesn’t know what to wear to hide his head and his wooden leg, so he writes to a fancy dress company to explain his problem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A few days later he receives a parcel with a note:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Dear Sir
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Please find enclosed a Pirate’s outfit. The spotted handkerchief will cover your bald head and with your wooden leg you will look just right as a Pirate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man is offended that the outfit emphasizes his disability, so he writes a letter of complaint.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A week passes and he receives another parcel and note.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Dear Sir
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Sorry about the previous parcel. Please find enclosed a Monk’s habit. The long robe will cover your wooden leg and with your bald head you will really look the part.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man is really incandescent with rage now, because the company has gone from emphasising his wooden leg to drawing attention to his bald head.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So he writes a really strong letter of complaint. A few days later he gets a very small parcel from the company with an accompanying letter:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Dear Sir
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Please find enclosed a tin of Golden Syrup. We suggest you pour the tin of Golden syrup over your bald head, let it harden! then stick your wooden leg up your arse and go as a toffee apple
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/orgasmic2021"> /u/orgasmic2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16fow0u/a_man_with_a_completely_bald_head_and_only_one/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/16fow0u/a_man_with_a_completely_bald_head_and_only_one/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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