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<title>05 August, 2023</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Predicting Long COVID in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative Using Super Learner</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Post-acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), also known as Long COVID, is a broad grouping of a range of long-term symptoms following acute COVID-19 infection. An understanding of characteristics that are predictive of future PASC is valuable, as this can inform the identification of high-risk individuals and future preventative efforts. However, current knowledge regarding PASC risk factors is limited. Using a sample of 55,257 participants from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, as part of the NIH Long COVID Computational Challenge, we sought to predict individual risk of PASC diagnosis from a curated set of clinically informed covariates. We predicted individual PASC status, given covariate information, using Super Learner (an ensemble machine learning algorithm also known as stacking) to learn the optimal, AUC-maximizing combination of gradient boosting and random forest algorithms. We were able to predict individual PASC diagnoses accurately (AUC 0.947). Temporally, we found that baseline characteristics were most predictive of future PASC diagnosis, compared with characteristics immediately before, during, or after COVID-19 infection. This finding supports the hypothesis that clinicians may be able to accurately assess the risk of PASC in patients prior to acute COVID diagnosis, which could improve early interventions and preventive care. We found that medical utilization, demographics and anthropometry, and respiratory factors were most predictive of PASC diagnosis. This highlights the importance of respiratory characteristics in PASC risk assessment. The methods outlined here provide an open-source, applied example of using Super Learner to predict PASC status using electronic health record data, which can be replicated across a variety of settings.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.27.23293272v1" target="_blank">Predicting Long COVID in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative Using Super Learner</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Exploring Disparities and Novel Insights into Metabo-Nutritional Comorbidities among COVID-19 Patients in Mexico</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
During the previous years, particularly at the beginning of the COVID- 19 pandemic, the potential role of metabo-nutritional comorbidities in the severity and lethality of SARS-CoV2 infection has been widely dis- cussed, often describing ambiguous outcomes. Here we investigate the prevalence of metabo-nutritional comorbidities among COVID-19 patients in Mexico. Using a retrospective observational study design, data was collected from official databases of COVID-19 patients admitted to pub- lic and private hospitals in Mexico City. Our study found a discordant prevalence of metabo-nutritional comorbidities among COVID-19 patients, particularly obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. Discordance consists in geographic location-dependent over and under-representation phenomena, that is the prevalence of such comorbidities in COVID-19 patients was significantly over or under the reported value for the general population in each location. These findings highlight the importance of screening for metabo-nutritional comorbidities in COVID-19 patients and suggest the need for tailored interventions for this population. The study also provides insights into the complex relationships between COVID-19 and metabo-nutritional comorbidities, which may inform future research and clinical practice.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.31.23293471v1" target="_blank">Exploring Disparities and Novel Insights into Metabo-Nutritional Comorbidities among COVID-19 Patients in Mexico</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Text mining biomedical literature to identify extremely unbalanced data for digital epidemiology and systematic reviews: dataset and methods for a SARS-CoV-2 genomic epidemiology study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
There are many studies that require researchers to extract specific information from the published literature, such as details about sequence records or about a randomized control trial. While manual extraction is cost efficient for small studies, larger studies such as systematic reviews are much more costly and time-consuming. To avoid exhaustive manual searches and extraction, and their related cost and effort, natural language processing (NLP) methods can be tailored for the more subtle extraction and decision tasks that typically only humans have performed. The need for such studies that use the published literature as a data source became even more evident as the COVID-19 pandemic raged through the world and millions of sequenced samples were deposited in public repositories such as GISAID and GenBank, promising large genomic epidemiology studies, but more often than not lacked many important details that prevented large-scale studies. Thus, granular geographic location or the most basic patient-relevant data such as demographic information, or clinical outcomes were not noted in the sequence record. However, some of these data was indeed published, but in the text, tables, or supplementary material of a corresponding published article. We present here methods to identify relevant journal articles that report having produced and made available in GenBank or GISAID, new SARS-CoV-2 sequences, as those that initially produced and made available the sequences are the most likely articles to include the high-level details about the patients from whom the sequences were obtained. Human annotators validated the approach, creating a gold standard set for training and validation of a machine learning classifier. Identifying these articles is a crucial step to enable future automated informatics pipelines that will apply Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to identify patient characteristics such as co-morbidities, outcomes, age, gender, and race, enriching SARS-CoV-2 sequence databases with actionable information for defining large genomic epidemiology studies. Thus, enriched patient metadata can enable secondary data analysis, at scale, to uncover associations between the viral genome (including variants of concern and their sublineages), transmission risk, and health outcomes. However, for such enrichment to happen, the right papers need to be found and very detailed data needs to be extracted from them. Further, finding the very specific articles needed for inclusion is a task that also facilitates scoping and systematic reviews, greatly reducing the time needed for full-text analysis and extraction.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.29.23293370v1" target="_blank">Text mining biomedical literature to identify extremely unbalanced data for digital epidemiology and systematic reviews: dataset and methods for a SARS-CoV-2 genomic epidemiology study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Bi-directional associations between mask usage and the associated reasons before and after the downgrading of the legal status of COVID-19 in Japan: A longitudinal study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objectives: From a public health perspective, it is important to clarify the associations between mask usage and the associated reasons in situations when mask usage is promoted or mitigated. Therefore, I clarified the changes in mask usage and the associated reasons before and after the downgrading of the legal status of COVID-19 in Japan, and analyzed the bi-directional associations between the two. Design: Longitudinal study. Methods: Online surveys were conducted in two waves, between April 18-19, 2023 and June 6-15, 2023, among people aged 20-69 years living in Japan. A total of 291 participants completed both the surveys. The associations between mask usage and beliefs about the reasons for mask usage were analyzed using a cross-lagged panel model. Results: Mask usage decreased slightly, but significantly, from the first to the second wave (P &lt; 0.001, Cohen9s d = -0.23). Of the eight beliefs regarding mask usage, slight but significant decreases were observed in terms of relief and information effects (P = 0.046, Cohen9s d = -0.12; P = 0.018, Cohen9s d = -0.14). There was a significant association between socio-psychological reasons other than infection risk avoidance (such as norm and relief) during the first wave and mask usage during the second wave [standard estimates:0.25 (95% confidence interval (CI):0.06-0.44)]. Contrarily, mask usage during the first wave was significantly associated with the reasons for infection risk avoidance during the second wave [standard estimates:0.13 (0.03-0.24)]. Conclusions: The impact of downgrading the legal status of COVID-19 in Japan on mask usage and the associated reasons were found to be limited. In terms of promoting or mitigating mask usage, the significance of risk communication based on socio-psychological reasons other than infection risk avoidance, such as norms and relief, was highlighted.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.28.23293298v1" target="_blank">Bi-directional associations between mask usage and the associated reasons before and after the downgrading of the legal status of COVID-19 in Japan: A longitudinal study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparing full variation profile analysis with the conventional consensus method in SARS-CoV-2 phylogeny</strong> -
<div>
This study proposes a novel approach to studying SARS-CoV-2 virus mutations through sequencing data comparison. Traditional consensus-based methods, which focus on the most common nucleotide at each position, might overlook or obscure the presence of low-frequency variants. Our method, in contrast, retains all sequenced nucleotides at each position, forming a genomic matrix. Utilizing simulated short reads from genomes with specified mutations, we contrasted our genomic matrix approach with the consensus sequence method. Our matrix methodology accurately reflected the known mutations and true compositions, demonstrating its efficacy in understanding the sample variability and their interconnections. Further tests using real data from GISAID and NCBI-SRA confirmed its reliability and robustness. As we see, the genomic matrix approach offers a more accurate representation of the viral genomic diversity, thereby providing superior insights into virus evolution and epidemiology. Future application recommendations are provided based on our observed results.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.03.551784v1" target="_blank">Comparing full variation profile analysis with the conventional consensus method in SARS-CoV-2 phylogeny</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Single-linkage molecular clustering of viral pathogens</strong> -
<div>
Introduction: Public health faces the ongoing mission of safeguarding the population's health against various infectious diseases caused by a great number of pathogens. Epidemiology is an essential discipline in this field. With the rise of more advanced technologies, new tools are emerging to enhance the capability to intervene and control an epidemic. Among these approaches, molecular clustering comes forth as a promising option. However, appropriate genetic distance thresholds for defining clusters are poorly explored in contexts outside of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1). Methods: In this work, using the well-used pairwise Tamura-Nei 93 (TN93) distance threshold of 0.015 for HIV-1 as a point of reference for molecular cluster properties of interest, we perform molecular clustering on whole genome sequence datasets from HIV-1, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), Zaire ebolavirus, and Mpox virus, to explore potential pairwise distances thresholds for these other viruses. Results: We found the following pairwise TN93 distance thresholds as potential candidates for use in molecular clustering: 0.00014 (4 mutations) for SARS-CoV-2, 0.00016 (3 mutations) for Ebola, and 0.0000051 (1 mutation) for Mpox. Conclusion: This study provides valuable information for epidemic control strategies, and public health efforts in managing infectious diseases caused by these viruses. The identified pairwise distance thresholds for molecular clustering can serve as a foundation for future research and intervention to combat epidemics effectively.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.03.551813v1" target="_blank">Single-linkage molecular clustering of viral pathogens</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Long COVID manifests with T cell dysregulation, inflammation, and an uncoordinated adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
Long COVID (LC), a type of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), occurs after at least 10% of SARS-CoV-2 infections, yet its etiology remains poorly understood. Here, we used multiple omics assays (CyTOF, RNAseq/scRNAseq, Olink) and serology to deeply characterize both global and SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity from blood of individuals with clear LC and non-LC clinical trajectories, 8 months following infection and prior to receipt of any SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Our analysis focused on deep phenotyping of T cells, which play important roles in immunity against SARS-CoV-2 yet may also contribute to COVID-19 pathogenesis. Our findings demonstrate that individuals with LC exhibit systemic inflammation and immune dysregulation. This is evidenced by global differences in T cell subset distribution in ways that imply ongoing immune responses, as well as by sex-specific perturbations in cytolytic subsets. Individuals with LC harbored increased frequencies of CD4+ T cells poised to migrate to inflamed tissues, and exhausted SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells. They also harbored significantly higher levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and in contrast to non-LC individuals, exhibited a mis-coordination between their SARS-CoV-2-specific T and B cell responses. RNAseq/scRNAseq and Olink analyses similarly revealed immune dysregulatory mechanisms, along with non-immune associated perturbations, in individuals with LC. Collectively, our data suggest that proper crosstalk between the humoral and cellular arms of adaptive immunity has broken down in LC, and that this, perhaps in the context of persistent virus, leads to the immune dysregulation, inflammation, and clinical symptoms associated with this debilitating condition.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.09.527892v2" target="_blank">Long COVID manifests with T cell dysregulation, inflammation, and an uncoordinated adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Successful immigrants and attitudes toward immigration</strong> -
<div>
Can exposure to successful immigrants in the mass media affect perceptions of immigrants and alter attitudes toward immigration? To address this question, I study the case of Ozlem Tureci and Ugur Sahin, the co-developers of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, and children of Turkish immigrants in Germany. I first demonstrate that German media favorably highlighted the Turkish roots and migration history of vaccine developers. Leveraging the quasi-experimental setting with the announcement of the success of the vaccine, I then posit that the wide broadcasting of the vaccine’s success and its developers’ identity should have positive spillover effects on public attitudes towards immigration. Amongst those who were exposed to this announcement, compared to those who were not, I find a 4 percentage point increase in support of easing immigration opportunities. I suggest that this effect is driven by a change in perceptions of self-awareness on issues relating to immigration and integration. These findings imply that promoting successful immigrants in the media has the potential to diminish prejudice; however, it is crucial to address varying biases toward different immigrant groups.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/gct64/" target="_blank">Successful immigrants and attitudes toward immigration</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Getting culturally appropriate health messages out in a hurry: Developing a communications campaign for COVID-19 testing in a Vietnamese-American community.</strong> -
<div>
Background. Developing health communication materials can be time-consuming. During infectious disease outbreaks, health communication materials to limit the spread of the disease are needed promptly, which hampers the ability to get input from the target audience. This paper proposes a strategy to rapidly develop culturally appropriate communication materials with adequate community feedback. Context. Our strategy is illustrated using a communication campaign to encourage COVID-19 testing in a Vietnamese-American enclave in New Orleans. The community has a high vulnerability to COVID-19 infection due to their isolation from mainstream public health information and COVID-19 related stigma and discrimination. Programmatic elements. The project included community-based COVID-19 testing services and communication activities to increase awareness of the testing centers and encourage frequent testing. Our proposed strategy involves two main components: 1) use of a research team with existing trust relationship with the target community and that includes researchers from that community, and 2) use of a cultural broker and community-based gatekeepers. Free PCR tests were offered daily at a community-based health center. Another community-based organization promoted testing and issued referrals. We developed brochures and posters to increase awareness of the testing services. The cultural broker and community-based partners helped identify key message concepts that were salient for the target audience, as well as the objectives and content of the materials, which were then reviewed by the entire team. The entire team provided feedback on mock-ups of the materials and subsequent revisions. Finalized materials were placed at both partner organizations and at strategic locations throughout the community and supplemented with newspaper advertisements and community outreach. Discussion. During infectious disease outbreaks there is a need to rapidly develop new health communication materials. Our proposed strategy strikes a balance between the need to disseminate new materials with minimal delay and the need for community input by using a research team with an established trust relationship with the community, cultural brokers, and community-based gatekeepers. Effective planning for public health emergencies must start long before the crisis occurs. Collaborations between researchers and community leaders should be developed and nurtured, and community representatives should be involved throughout the entire project.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/a9r8d/" target="_blank">Getting culturally appropriate health messages out in a hurry: Developing a communications campaign for COVID-19 testing in a Vietnamese-American community.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Challenges faced by Madagascar’s protected area network during COVID-19 were very real</strong> -
<div>
We appreciate Andrianambinina at al. engaging with our paper “Elevated fires during COVID-19 lockdown and the vulnerability of protected areas” published in Nature Sustainability in May 2022. In their response, Andrianambinina et al. question the extent to which protected area management in Madagascar was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and our interpretation that the patterns we observe in excess fires are a result of this. They also question our use of the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) as the source of shape files for Madagascar’s protected areas. We respond to these points in turn.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/a4zf3/" target="_blank">Challenges faced by Madagascar’s protected area network during COVID-19 were very real</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Lancet peer reviewers and the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction: Peer review is paramount to the scholarly article paradigm, helping to ensure the integrity and credibility of research. The Lancet played a crucial role in disseminating key information on the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing early clinical descriptions, risk factors for death, and effectiveness of measures like physical distancing and masks. Notably, The Lancet was the world9s most cited journal for COVID-19 research, emphasising its significant impact on disseminating critical findings during the pandemic. Methods: Geographic data for The Lancet9s peer reviewers in 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2020 (pandemic) were analysed at the country level, ranking reviewer countries. A test of proportions compared reviewer numbers between the years. Results: In 2020, China emerged as one of the top ten reviewer countries for the first time, with a significant increase from 1% (25 of 1843) in 2019 to 3% (54 of 1850), p=0.001. Italy also entered the top five reviewer countries, rising from 4% (67) to 5% (90), p=0.065. Reviewers from Africa 43 (2%) and South America 31 (2%) represented their continents in 2020. The top ten reviewer nations for The Lancet in 2020 largely mirrored the top ten countries in global COVID-19 research output. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic9s acute phase in 2020, The Lancet, the world9s most cited journal for COVID-19 research, featured peer reviewers who were largely representative of global COVID-19 research output. Notably, reviewers from China, the first country affected by COVID-19, increased significantly. However, underrepresentation of some continents persisted. To foster global idea exchange and enhance pandemic preparedness, research capacity worldwide must expand, broadening the reviewer pool; a vital step given uncertainties in future pandemic geographic origin.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.02.23293558v1" target="_blank">The Lancet peer reviewers and the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Real-time epidemiological modelling during the COVID-19 emergency in Wales</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic presented governments, policy makers and health services with an unprecedented challenge of taking real-time decisions that could keep the disease under control with non-pharmaceutical interventions, while at the same time limit as much as possible severe consequences of a very strict lockdown. Mathematical modelling has proved to be a crucial element for informing those decisions. Here we report on the rapid development and application of the Swansea Model, a mathematical model of disease spread in real time, to inform policy decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.02.23293519v1" target="_blank">Real-time epidemiological modelling during the COVID-19 emergency in Wales</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Post-acute health care costs following SARS-CoV-2 infection: A retrospective cohort study of among 531,182 matched adults</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Post-acute health care costs following SARS-CoV-2 infection are not known. Beginning 56 days following SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, we compared person-specific total and component health care costs across their distribution for the following year (test-positive versus test-negative, matched people, January 1, 2020-March 31, 2021). For 531,182 individuals, mean person-specific total health care costs were $513.83 (95% CI $387.37-$638.40) higher for test-positive females and $459.10 (95% CI $304.60-$615.32) higher for test-positive males, or &gt;10% increase in mean per-capita costs, driven by hospitalization, long-term care, and complex continuing care costs. At the 99th percentile of each subgroup, person-specific health care costs were $12,533.00 (95% CI $9,008.50-$16,473.00) higher for test-positive females and $14,604.00 (95% CI $9,565.50-$19,506.50) for test-positive males, driven by hospitalization, specialist (males), and homecare costs (females). Cancer costs were lower. Six-month and 1-year costs differences were similar. These findings can inform planning for post-acute SARS-CoV-2 health care costs.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.02.23293563v1" target="_blank">Post-acute health care costs following SARS-CoV-2 infection: A retrospective cohort study of among 531,182 matched adults</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Neutralizing antibody responses and cellular responses against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 omicron subvariant BA.5 after an mRNA severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 vaccine dose in kidney transplant recipients</strong> -
<div>
We examined the anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein IgG antibody and neutralizing antibody titers and cellular immunity in 73 uninfected recipients and 17 uninfected healthy controls who received three doses of a coronavirus 2019 mRNA vaccine. Neutralizing antibody titers were evaluated using GFP-carrying recombinant SARS-CoV-2 with spike protein of B.1.1, omicron BA.1, or BA.5. For cellular immunity, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were stimulated with peptides corresponding to spike protein antigens of B.1.1, BA.1, and BA.5; spike-specific CD4/CD8 memory T cells were evaluated using intracellular cytokine staining. The median IgG antibody titers were 7.8 AU/mL in recipients and 143.0 AU/mL in healthy controls (p &lt; 0.0001). Neutralizing antibody titers against all three viral variants were significantly lower in recipients (p &lt; 0.0001). The number of spike-specific CD8 + memory T cells significantly decreased in recipients (p &lt; 0.0001). Twenty recipients and seven healthy controls additionally received a bivalent omicron-containing booster vaccine, and IgG antibody and neutralizing antibody titers increased in both groups; however, the increase was significantly lower in recipients. Recipients did not gain sufficient immunity with a third dose of vaccine, suggesting a need to explore methods other than vaccines.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.02.551424v1" target="_blank">Neutralizing antibody responses and cellular responses against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 omicron subvariant BA.5 after an mRNA severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 vaccine dose in kidney transplant recipients</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Genetic architecture and shared mechanisms of common ′neglected′ diseases</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The authors have withdrawn this manuscript owing to the paper being rewritten with a stronger focus on COVID-19 upon request from UK Biobank and to comply more clearly with the primary care data usage agreement. An updated version will be re-uploaded as soon as possible. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as reference for the project. If you have any questions, please contact the corresponding authors.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.23290408v2" target="_blank">Genetic architecture and shared mechanisms of common ′neglected′ diseases</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<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>Novel computational and drug design strategies for inhibition of monkeypox virus and <em>Babesia microti</em>: molecular docking, molecular dynamic simulation and drug design approach by natural compounds</strong> - CONCLUSION: These advanced computational strategies reported that 11 lead compounds, including dieckol and amentoflavone, exhibited high potency, excellent drug-like properties, and no toxicity. These compounds demonstrated strong binding affinities to the target enzymes, especially dieckol, which displayed superior stability during molecular dynamics simulations. The MM/PBSA method confirmed the favorable binding energies of amentoflavone and dieckol. However, further in vitro and in vivo…</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>Reflections on access to care for heavy menstrual bleeding: Past, present, and in times of the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> - The symptom of heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) affects at least a quarter of reproductive-age menstruators. However, given the variance in diagnosing the underlying causes, barriers, and inequity in access to care for HMB, and therefore reporting of HMB, this figure is likely to be a gross underestimate. HMB can have a detrimental impact on quality of life. From the limited reports available it is estimated that around 50%-80% of people with HMB do not seek care for this debilitating symptom, and…</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>Inhibition by components of <em>Glycyrrhiza uralensis</em> of 3CLpro and HCoV-OC43 proliferation</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). 3CLpro is a key enzyme in coronavirus proliferation and a treatment target for COVID-19. In vitro and in silico, compounds 1-3 from Glycyrrhiza uralensis had inhibitory activity and binding affinity for 3CLpro. These compounds decreased HCoV-OC43 cytotoxicity in RD cells. Moreover, they inhibited viral growth by reducing the amounts of the necessary proteins (M, N,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An engineered recombinant protein containing three structural domains in SARS-CoV-2 S2 protein has potential to act as a pan-human coronavirus entry inhibitor or vaccine antigen</strong> - The threat to global health caused by three highly pathogenic human coronaviruses (HCoV), SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, calls for the development of pan-HCoV therapeutics and vaccines. This study reports the design and engineering of a recombinant protein designated HR1LS. It contains 3 linked molecules, each consisting of three structural domains, including a heptad repeat 1 (HR1), a central helix (CH), and a stem helix (SH) region, in the S2 subunit of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein. It was…</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>Structural-Based Virtual Screening of FDA-Approved Drugs Repository for NSP16 Inhibitors, Essential for SARS-COV-2 Invasion Into Host Cells: Elucidation From MM/PBSA Calculation</strong> - NSP16 is one of the structural proteins of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) necessary for its entrance to the host cells. It exhibits 2’O-methyl-transferase (2’O-MTase) activity of NSP16 using methyl group from S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) by methylating the 5-end of virally encoded mRNAs and shields viral RNA, and also controls its replication as well as infection. In the present study, we used in silico approaches of drug repurposing to target and inhibit the SAM…</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>Invalidation of geraniin as a potential inhibitor against SARS-CoV-2 main protease</strong> - Recently, geraniin has been identified as a potent antiviral agent targeting SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro). Considering the potential of geraniin in COVID-19 treatment, a stringent validation for its Mpro inhibition is necessary. Herein, we rigorously evaluated the in vitro inhibitory effect of geraniin on Mpro using the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), fluorescence polarization (FP), and dimerization-dependent red fluorescent protein (ddRFP) assays. Our data indicate that…</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>Crystal structures of main protease (M<sup>pro</sup>) mutants of SARS-CoV-2 variants bound to PF-07304814</strong> - There is an urgent need to develop effective antiviral drugs to prevent the viral infection caused by constantly circulating SARS-CoV-2 as well as its variants. The main protease (M^(pro)) of SARS-CoV-2 is a salient enzyme that plays a vital role in viral replication and serves as a fascinating therapeutic target. PF-07304814 is a covalent inhibitor targeting SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro) with favorable inhibition potency and drug-like properties, thus making it a promising drug candidate for the treatment…</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>Direct blue 53, a biological dye, inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection by blocking ACE2 and spike interaction in vitro and in vivo</strong> - COVID-19 is a global health problem caused by SARS-CoV-2, which has led to over 600 million infections and 6 million deaths. Developing novel antiviral drugs is of pivotal importance to slow down the epidemic swiftly. In this study, we identified five azo compounds as effective antiviral drugs to SARS-CoV-2, and mechanism study revealed their targets for impeding viral particles’ ability to bind to host receptors. Direct Blue 53, which displayed the strongest inhibitory impact, inhibited five…</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>Chicoric Acid Presented NLRP3-Mediated Pyroptosis through Mitochondrial Damage by PDPK1 Ubiquitination in an Acute Lung Injury Model</strong> - Chicoric acid (CA), a functional food ingredient, is a caffeic acid derivative that is mainly found in lettuce, pulsatilla, and other natural plants. However, the anti-inflammatory effects of CA in acute lung injury (ALI) remain poorly understood. This study was conducted to investigate potential drug usage of CA for ALI and the underlying molecular mechanisms of inflammation. C57BL/6 mice were given injections of liposaccharide (LPS) to establish the in vivo model. Meanwhile, BMDM cells were…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Therapeutic effects of tea polyphenol-loaded nanoparticles coated with platelet membranes on LPS-induced lung injury</strong> - Patients with ALI (acute lung injury)/ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) are often septic and with poor prognosis, which leads to a high mortality rate of 25-40%. Despite the advances in medicine, there are no effective pharmacological therapies for ALI/ARDS due to the short systemic circulation and poor specificity in the lungs. To address this problem, we prepared TP-loaded nanoparticles (TP-NPs) through the emulsification-and-evaporation method, and then the platelet membrane vesicles…</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>Combination of Chinese herbal medicine and conventional western medicine for coronavirus disease 2019: a systematic review and meta-analysis</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Potentially, CHM listed in this study, as an adjunctive therapy, combining with CWM is an effective and safe therapy mode for COVID-19. However, more high-quality RCTs are needed to draw more accurate conclusions.</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>SARS-CoV-2 main protease targeting potent fluorescent inhibitors: Repurposing thioxanthones</strong> - The coronavirus disease, COVID-19, is the major focus of the whole world due to insufficient treatment options. It has spread all around the world and is responsible for the death of numerous human beings. The future consequences for the disease survivors are still unknown. Hence, all contributions to understand the disease and effectively inhibit the effects of the disease have great importance. In this study, different thioxanthone based molecules, which are known to be fluorescent compounds,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Identification of a small chemical as a lysosomal calcium mobilizer and characterization of its ability to inhibit autophagy and viral infection</strong> - We previously identified GAPDH as one of the cyclic adenosine diphosphoribose (cADPR)’s binding proteins and found that GAPDH participates in cADPR-mediated Ca^(2+) release from ER via ryanodine receptors (RyRs). Here we aimed to chemically synthesize and pharmacologically characterize novel cADPR analogues. Based on the simulated cADPR-GAPDH complex structure, we performed the structure-based drug screening, identified several small chemicals with high docking scores to cADPR’s binding pocket…</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>Discovery and evaluation of active compounds from Xuanfei Baidu formula against COVID-19 via SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup></strong> - CONCLUSION: Acteoside is regarded as a representative active natural compound in XFBD to inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2, which provides the antiviral evidence and some insights into the identification of SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro) natural inhibitors.</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>Neurological side effects and drug interactions of antiviral compounds against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - CONCLUSION: Neurological side effects and drug interactions must be considered for antiviral compounds against SARS-CoV-2. Further studies are required to better evaluate their efficacy and adverse events in patients with concomitant neurological diseases. Moreover, evidence from real-world studies will complement the current knowledge.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The War on Cities</strong> - For nearly two decades, Washington, D.C., had been carefully revising its criminal code. It took a month to blow it all up. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-crime/the-war-on-cities">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Trump’s Subdued Courtroom Appearance</strong> - At his arraignment on Thursday, the former President sat fragile and meek in the defendant’s seat. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/trumps-subdued-courtroom-appearance">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Former Federal Prosecutor Explains the Latest Trump Indictment</strong> - The case will hinge on proving whether the former President truly believed that the election was stolen as he attempted to overturn it. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-former-federal-prosecutor-explains-the-latest-trump-indictment">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Hidden Harms of CPR</strong> - The brutal procedure can save lives, but only in particular cases. Why has it become a default treatment? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/the-hidden-harms-of-cpr">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Pizza Shop in the Middle of New York’s Migrant Crisis</strong> - An immigrant small-business owner sees himself in the asylum seekers who were sleeping on the street outside his restaurant in midtown. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/a-pizza-shop-in-the-middle-of-new-yorks-migrant-crisis">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The pork industry’s forced cannibalism, explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A blender filled with a pink, messy substance sits in front of a pig’s silhouette." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gbqiHHT_xJFFtS4rfvcyvum91aU=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72516464/PaigeVickers_Vox_Feedback.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Paige Vickers/Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A new investigation exposes the stomach-churning practice that goes into making your bacon.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fUNcci">
The <a href="https://www.vox.com/animal-welfare">animal welfare</a> activist group Animal Outlook has been investigating the meat industry for over two decades, having documented chickens <a href="https://vimeo.com/683980796/1e64b28078">buried</a> and <a href="https://vimeo.com/695761100">roasted</a> alive, thrashing pigs killed at a <a href="https://vimeo.com/683958212/6820704697">high-speed slaughterhouse</a>, fish <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tpd3Y1X7pQ">bludgeoned to death</a>, and cows <a href="https://vimeo.com/683948344/94ee729c81">kicked and beaten</a>, among many other cruelties. But at a pig breeding farm in Minnesota, 120 miles southeast of Minneapolis, between late 2019 and early 2020, an undercover investigator with the organization <a href="https://vimeo.com/783736558/8289627bd9">witnessed</a> some of the worst cruelty they’d ever seen.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JJEYMf">
“It was brutal,” the investigator, who requested anonymity due to the covert nature of undercover investigations, told Vox. “They’re all really bad,” they said, referring to other investigations they’ve conducted, “but this one looked like a house of horrors.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4XnCow">
In one clip, a pregnant pig who got stuck between two pens and died is sawed in half. “Anyone want some ham?” one worker joked. “Ripped that bitch wide open,” another said. Animal Outlook’s investigator alleged that employees could’ve easily freed her before she died, but didn’t.
</p>
<div id="lx2FwD">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HlHUB7">
Male piglets at the farm have their tails cut off and testicles ripped out by hand without anesthesia or pain relief, both <a href="https://porkcheckoff.org/research/is-tail-docking-necessary-and-if-so-how-long-should-the-tail-be/">standard</a> <a href="https://www.avma.org/sites/default/files/resources/swine_castration_bgnd.pdf">practices</a> in the industry. The investigator filmed employees tossing the testicles at each other and at a wall that was covered in them. In another scene, a pregnant pig’s uterus has prolapsed, a <a href="https://www.thepigsite.com/articles/pain-control">painful condition</a> that’s more common in older female breeding pigs, known as<strong> </strong>sows, who typically give birth to larger litters than younger sows. In the video, she’s herded down a hallway to be euthanized — shot in the head with a captive bolt gun — with her insides dangling to the ground. The investigator alleged this happened to between one and three pigs every day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kPHxaM">
Sick and injured piglets on the farm are placed into a small black box to be euthanized with carbon dioxide poisoning, but some survive and are seen gasping for air amid a pile of dead piglets. In one instance captured on video, an injured piglet needed to be euthanized, but a supervisor appeared to say it wasn’t worth running a gassing cycle for just one animal, so he left the piglet to suffer overnight until there were more piglets that needed to be euthanized.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KY6pY4">
“That feels good,” one worker says in another clip, after repeatedly striking a pregnant pig with a paddle while trying to move her from one area to another.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eMxDUl">
Such cruelty could stress out other pigs who witness it, as <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/not-bad-science/can-pigs-empathize/">research</a> suggests pigs <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2382239-pigs-open-doors-to-free-companions-in-a-possible-show-of-empathy/">feel empathy</a> for one another when in distress.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WVzdMV">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIAaEhwePzc">Animal Outlook’s investigation</a> took place at a 3,300-sow breeding facility run by Holden Farms, a pork producer which, <a href="https://www.porkbusiness.com/news/hog-production/all-family-holden-farms-has-room-grow">as of 2017</a>, raised pigs for some of the world’s largest meat companies: Tyson Foods, JBS, and Triumph Foods. It’s an understatement to say the footage conflicts with Holden Farms’ approach to animal welfare stated on its <a href="https://holdenfarms.com/approach/welfare/">website</a>: “Do what’s best for the animal and practice the best animal husbandry skills possible.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bOI1w4">
Holden Farms declined an interview request for this story. Tyson Foods, JBS, and Triumph Foods did not respond when asked if they currently supply pigs from Holden Farms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ffCVJE">
(After the investigation concluded in early 2020, Animal Outlook took its findings to local enforcement and requested charges be brought against Holden Farms, Inc., its management, and several of its employees under the state’s animal cruelty laws. The statute of limitations has expired and no cruelty charges have been brought, so Animal Outlook is now releasing its findings to the public.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9r5PRi">
It’s tempting to write off Holden Farms and some of its employees as bad apples, but the practices documented are customary in pork production, and the malicious abuse — the kicking, punching, and hitting — is found in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2012/10/10/mercy-for-animals-undercover-investigation-exposes-shocking-cruelty-to-cows-at-burger-king-cheese-supplier.html">investigation</a> after <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23724740/tyson-chicken-free-range-humanewashing-investigation-animal-cruelty">investigation</a> after <a href="https://www.fayobserver.com/story/news/2014/06/04/mercy-for-animals-allege-abuse/22181382007/">investigation</a> into the meat industry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L8QRXy">
One of the more stomach-churning clips in Animal Outlook’s footage shows a practice that’s rarely been captured in other pork industry investigations. Employees can be seen removing the intestines of dead, disease-infected piglets and mixing them with piglet feces in a blender — a mixture to be fed to the adult breeding pigs — causing one worker to gag.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XIG0Ne">
The practice, called “feedback,” is <a href="https://www.pigprogress.net/health-nutrition/could-ice-blocks-encourage-feedback-intake-for-sows/#:~:text=Particularly%20in%20the%20US%2C%20the,Clostridium%20perfringens%20are%20commonly%20controlled">common</a> in the <a href="http://pig333.com/articles/diarrhea-in-neonatal-pigs-feedback_16479/">pork business</a> (or “controlled oral exposure” in industry jargon). The slurry of pig poop and parts is <a href="https://www.pig333.com/pig-glossary/F/feedback_115/">often</a> fed to new female breeding pigs who’ve yet to give birth to help them adapt to the germs of the farm, and to pregnant pigs to help them pass down immunity from disease to their babies, through their milk.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yAzjvb">
Animal Outlook’s investigator said the farm had begun using feedback because some piglets were getting sick with diarrhea, losing weight, and their skin was turning from pink to a grayish hue.
</p>
<h3 id="5n2HtD">
Why the pork industry feeds feces and raw intestines to pigs
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8P5P5o">
To drive down costs, the meat industry relies on practices that can increase the spread of disease, like <a href="https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-05-01/herd-sizes-trade-risk-pig-health">overcrowding</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/22/21228158/coronavirus-pandemic-risk-factory-farming-meat">intensive breeding</a>, which can trigger the need for gruesome practices like feedback to work around the problems it’s created.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9iohCk">
It might make you lose your appetite, but many in the pork industry <a href="http://pig333.com/articles/diarrhea-in-neonatal-pigs-feedback_16479/">say</a> feeding pigs what amounts to a smoothie of feces and intestines reduces the spread of disease on farms when there isn’t an effective vaccine available (though some recommend using it <a href="https://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/health/refining-feedback">in addition</a> to vaccines). And disease is a big deal on farms. <a href="https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/releases/iowa-state-university-lead-research-increase-pig-survivability#:~:text=Across%20the%20pork%20industry%2C%20an,to%20animal%20wellbeing%20and%20sustainability.">Around one-third</a> of pigs die before they ever reach the slaughterhouse, leading to enormous suffering for animals and significant losses for the producers, as they breed more pigs to make up for the early deaths.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KlmL8j">
Cesar Corzo, an associate professor of swine health and productivity at the University of Minnesota, defends the practice, comparing feedback to childhood <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/us/kentucky-governor-chickenpox.html">chickenpox parties</a>. Before the chickenpox vaccine came to market in 1995, parents would often bring infected kids together with uninfected kids, on the grounds that they would be better off contracting the disease as children than as adults. (Public health experts now recommend against intentionally infecting kids with disease in lieu of vaccination.) The same rough idea is at play in feedback.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GMCHRi">
“Those [piglets], when they come out into the world, if they happen to see some virus or some bacteria, they’re prepared to fight against it,” Corzo said. “We know that that works really well.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vS71ly">
Research into pig feedback <a href="https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/f250c158-3e9a-4059-b78d-87bd76bf566a/content">began</a> in the 1950s, and it’s since come into wide use. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tbed.12823">Some pig researchers</a> say that while feedback has clear benefits in fighting, for example, PEDv — a virus that caused <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7109690/">hundreds of millions</a> of dollars in economic loss to the pork industry a decade ago — it can be risky, and there’s no standard protocol. As a result, there’s a lot of variability in its deployment, with inconsistent outcomes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="imL73N">
Other industry experts say the way feedback is usually practiced is inefficient and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168170220301209#sec0185">unsafe</a>. Corzo said there are efforts underway to standardize its use.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gZt4YI">
Jim Reynolds, a bovine veterinarian in California who’s also worked with pigs and specializes in epidemiology, said the practice makes sense in theory, but he doesn’t recommend it in part because it risks exposing animals to unintended diseases.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pwRbf7">
“If you’re grinding up dead things and feeding them to the not sick things, that’s a bad idea. That’s bad biosecurity,” he said. “It’s intentionally spreading pathogens… Hopefully, it’s just the one you want. It might be another one.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n7L3ND">
Reynolds and <a href="https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-05-01/herd-sizes-trade-risk-pig-health">others</a> argue that many of the industry’s health and welfare issues boil down to overcrowding. Farms should “decrease the stocking densities to reasonable levels” to minimize disease spread, he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lpJB0T">
From a consumer perspective, the debate over whether or not feedback is worth the risk may be largely irrelevant. That much was evident in the early 2010s fight over so-called <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/03/09/148298678/is-it-safe-to-eat-pink-slime">pink slime</a>, a mix of meat scraps processed with chemicals meant to kill bacteria, that was turned into filler for beef products. It’s safe to eat but repulsed the public, leading <a href="https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/01/fast-food-companies-abandon-ammoniated-beef/">fast food chains</a> to swear off its use.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PurhwZ">
While feedback may be particularly off-putting, it’s a symptom of a larger problem: America’s enduring desire for cheap, plentiful meat, which has given way to thousands of massive factory farms where stressed, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10151575/">genetically identical</a> animals with poor immune systems are tightly packed together, providing the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/22/21228158/coronavirus-pandemic-risk-factory-farming-meat">perfect conditions</a> for <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.2294">disease to spread</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="URm7Fz">
Why you probably don’t know how sausage gets made
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r2Kvtq">
Americans eat more animals than practically any other country — around <a href="https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2021/05/an-overview-of-meat-consumption-in-the-united-states.html">264 pounds of red and white meat</a>, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/183678/per-capita-consumption-of-eggs-in-the-us-since-2000/">280 eggs</a>, <a href="https://www.dairyfoods.com/articles/95908-american-dairy-consumption-achieves-a-record-in-2021">667 pounds of dairy</a>, and around <a href="https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/foodservice-retail/americans-consumed-a-record-amount-of-seafood-in-2021#:~:text=National%20Fisheries%20Institute's%20(NFI)%20recently,1.5%20pound%20increase%20over%202020.">20.5 pounds of seafood</a> per person each year. To meet demand, an estimated <a href="https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/us-factory-farming-estimates">99 percent</a> of animals raised and slaughtered for food in the US are kept on factory farms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OEeZxi">
The pork industry has pushed pigs to their biological limits, leading to many bizarre practices beyond feedback, many of which are inhumane. To name one example recently in the news: There are horse <a href="https://sentientmedia.org/horse-blood-factory-farms/">farms</a> that impregnate horses, extract their blood for a serum, abort their pregnancies, and then sell the serum to pig farms to induce puberty in young female pigs and produce larger litters. Holden Farms, like most pig breeding farms, confine pregnant pigs in <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22958698/mcdonalds-icahn-pork-pigs-gestation-crates-animal-welfare">gestation crates</a>, cages so small they can’t turn around for practically their entire lives.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Te7JMhnvCYNL-tLCaDjzZ88TBek=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24828980/WAM26923.jpg"/> <cite>Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media</cite>
<figcaption>
Sows in gestation crates.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PhsQEh">
These practices are all legal and widespread because lawmakers have made them so. The federal Animal Welfare Act excludes livestock from protection, while many state animal cruelty laws exempt “<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/3/9/22967328/animal-cruelty-laws-state-federal-exemptions-pennsylvania-martin-farms-dairy-calves-dehorning">customary farming practices</a>,” allowing the industry to define what’s customary. Big Ag is one of the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/ranked-sectors">more powerful lobbies</a> in Washington.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4wAavu">
In some states, it’s even illegal to conduct investigations like the one featured in this story. From the early 1990s to the early 2020s, a <a href="https://www.animallaw.info/intro/ag-gag-laws#:~:text=The%20states%20that%20have%20passed,to%20impose%20a%20civil%20sanction.">number of states</a> passed <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/11/18176551/ag-gag-laws-factory-farms-explained">“ag-gag” laws</a>, which generally prohibit people from taking videos or photographs on farms without permission. Fortunately, most have been struck down as unconstitutional.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gBmhuv">
Industry has responded to consumer concerns with the practices brought to light in undercover investigations largely with empty gestures, like <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/3/9/22967328/animal-cruelty-laws-state-federal-exemptions-pennsylvania-martin-farms-dairy-calves-dehorning">firing individual employees</a> for abuse instead of meaningfully changing conditions for animals. There’s now a proliferation of meat, dairy, and egg labels carrying buzzwords or stamps of approval — like “humanely raised” or “farm fresh” — that receive little scrutiny from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), have no legal definition, and exaggerate the level of animal welfare or environmental sustainability on a farm. It’s known as “<a href="https://www.vox.com/22838160/animal-welfare-labels-meat-dairy-eggs-humane-humanewashing">humanewashing</a>,” and you can look at Holden Farms’ <a href="https://holdenfarms.com/">website</a> for a prime example, which highlights the company’s extensive commitments to animal welfare, family farming, community, and sustainability.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FMznRj">
Meat industry groups have also <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/7/24/23801785/cage-free-eggs-pork-eats-act-california-prop-12">fought hard</a> against laws that require sows to be raised crate-free.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c1Y5d3">
In June, the National Pork Board, a quasi-governmental organization <a href="https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/research-promotion/pork">administered</a> by the USDA, <a href="https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/2023/iowa-state-lead-consortium-build-trust-between-pork-producers-consumers">launched</a> a five-year effort in collaboration with several large public universities, aiming to “share research-based information about the pork industry” to strengthen consumers’ confidence in pork and demonstrate the industry’s “commitment to people, pigs and the planet.” The effort doesn’t appear to include any plans to change practices that consumers find inhumane.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CMPzkk">
Producing just about any commodity at scale entails some degree of moral sacrifice. But an industry that relies on a kind of forced cannibalism, among other repellant practices, might have to do a whole lot more than share research to earn consumer trust.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Sound of Freedom wants to raise awareness about child trafficking. Here’s what it’s really doing.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A black-and-white image shows two men standing together, one holding a child, with a light shining brightly from behind them." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ItFlW7xUFe383E_1JqTFPzgwHrc=/336x0:1776x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72452872/SOF_Background_Key_Art_2_1920x1080_20230510_BP_V3_lowres.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A promotional image for Sound of Freedom. The movie has been an unexpected box office hit thanks to word of mouth from conservatives. | Angel Studios
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Is a movie still just a movie if it becomes a culture war battleground?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y3UZ4h">
Usually when the culture war comes to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a>, it’s in the form of conservative backlash to films they perceive as too liberal. Increasingly, however, conservative filmmakers, often working outside of Hollywood’s studio system, are grabbing the spotlight with <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/3/19/17136066/i-can-only-imagine-mercyme-movie-box-office-faith-based-gods-not-dead-paul-apostle">unexpected hits</a>, some packed with ideology and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/4/3/17180138/gods-not-dead-light-darkness-evangelical-christian-persecution-race">tinged</a> with hallmarks of the modern right-wing worldview: moral panic, hints of vast leftist conspiracies, and a sense of persecution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lw08R4">
The latest surprise right-wing hit to tick these bingo squares is <em>Sound of Freedom</em>. The film stars Jim Caviezel in the very (very) loosely true story of Tim Ballard, who founded the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth">controversial</a> anti-trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad, or OUR. Coasting on word of mouth and a mountain of free publicity from influential supporters like <a href="https://www.vox.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> and Mel Gibson, <em>Sound of Freedom</em> went head to head against <em>Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny</em> in its July 4 opening weekend and wound up <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/sound-of-freedom-box-office-movie-theaters-1235532352/">reportedly out-earning</a> the Harrison Ford-led sequel by several million on opening day (if its maker Angel Studios’ on-site accounting is to be believed). It’s since gone on to earn nearly $<a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt7599146/">50 million</a>. Not bad for an indie outsider.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3wycON">
But <em>Sound of Freedom</em> has also generated a considerable amount of scathing left-wing backlash, aimed at both the movie itself, with its <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/10/9/21504910/qanon-conspiracy-theory-facebook-ban-trump">QAnon</a>-adjacent rhetoric, and the film’s target audience. Multiple left-wing critics have spent parts of their reviews of the film itself denigrating the way its fans are watching it, with one critic seemingly <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2023/07/sound-of-freedom-movie-jim-caviezel-trafficking-qanon.html">appalled</a> that audiences “acted like they were at <em>Top Gun</em>.” For their part, those audiences have flocked to the theater with the zeal of parishioners. Some fans have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtjVrwzcr2Q">described</a> attending the movie as a “duty,” while others have spun <a href="https://twitter.com/ninoboxer/status/1678138506453893121">conspiracy theories</a> that movie theaters are <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/sound-freedom-fury-multiple-people-claim-ac-not-working-during-film-1812374">trying to prevent them</a> from seeing the film — which, of course, just generates more determination to watch the film to spite the libs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jMct2t">
Yet the patriotic zeal behind <em>Sound of Freedom</em> might mask more than murky political agendas: According to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/sound-freedom-funder-fabian-marta-arrest-child-kidnapping-1817498">a report</a> by Newsweek, one of the film’s financial backers was recently charged with felony kidnapping.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hz84Jn">
Clearly, there’s a lot happening around this film — and while <em>Sound of Freedom</em> ostensibly wants to create awareness about child trafficking, that theme has mostly gotten lost in all the noise.
</p>
<h3 id="k52QrB">
<em>Sound of Freedom</em> is its own, highly effective, hype machine
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wg97U6">
<em>Sound of Freedom</em> was filmed in 2018 by director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde, but its release was delayed after <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/3/20/18273477/disney-fox-merger-deal-details-marvel-x-men">Disney acquired</a> its original distributor, Fox — a fact that has led to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/business/sound-of-freedom-trafficking.html">false rumors</a> that Hollywood tried to shut the film down. When the film languished in Disney limbo, Angel Studios, a small independent film company based in Utah, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2023/07/12/sound-of-freedom-movie-controversy/70405543007/">stepped in</a>. Angel has had a string of recent Christian hits like the 2019 streaming series <em>The Chosen</em>, which landed on <a href="https://www.vox.com/netflix">Netflix</a>, and <em>His Only Son</em>, 2023’s other Christian box office success. Angel <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/business/sound-of-freedom-trafficking.html">partly crowdfunded</a> the film’s $5 million distribution budget from “angel investors”, i.e., studio superfans like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CuiUlIPPAAF/">Tony Robbins</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PMwy4z">
With all that indie outsider energy combined with the long delay in release, <em>Sound of Freedom</em> was primed to feed a meta-narrative about the right’s sense of oppression at the hands of the left. Still, while most mainstream media reviewers have either <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sound_of_freedom">been dismissive</a> of the film or ignored it altogether, <em>Sound of Freedom</em> has its unexpected champions. <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/sound-of-freedom-review-jim-caviezel-1235660035/"><em>Variety </em>called it</a> a “solid,” “disquieting” thriller and praised Caviezel’s performance as his finest since <em>The</em> <em>Passion of the Christ</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2iT3Y0">
At the root of the film’s power seems to be its “urgency” toward its subject matter; fans apparently leave the theater galvanized to proselytize on its behalf, spreading the word about the dangers and rampant devastation of child trafficking — and, most of all, about OUR and its all-important rescue missions.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="Xci3gX">
<q>It’s a hype machine that’s not just a hype machine, but a patriotic, perhaps even divinely mandated, responsibility</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WbPyxd">
That evangelism plays right into film studio Angel’s marketing strategy, which <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/news/business/sound-of-freedom-box-office-analysis-crowdfunding-pay-it-forward-1234881363/">encourages moviegoers</a> to buy tickets for other would-be converts — in fact, after the film’s end credits, Caviezel himself <a href="https://jezebel.com/sound-of-freedom-review-1850596160">urges fans</a> to buy more tickets at the studio’s website in order to “make <em>Sound of Freedom</em> the <em>Uncle Tom’s Cabin</em> of 21st century slavery.” In the lead-up to its release, Angel <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/14u11pm/is_the_sound_of_freedom_a_legit_good_movie_or/jrf3h4j/">anecdotally</a> piggy-backed on a <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/05/22/hollywood-heresy">long</a> <a href="https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/hollywood-marketing-films-churches-38793/">tradition</a> of Christian film marketing by targeting churches and encouraging block ticket sales in order to engage entire communities and spread word of mouth. (Some of the film’s detractors have <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/14z8rgn/to_absolutely_no_ones_surprise_that_qanon_movie/jrwu6a3/">disputed</a> the movie’s box office success, noting that some theaters <a href="https://twitter.com/CocoaFox023/status/1679696985199378432">appear to be sold out</a> when they aren’t, that user reviews on websites like IMDb read like bot spam, and that the online ticketing system Angel encourages fans to use may be vulnerable to manipulation.) In June, for the film’s July 4 release, Elon Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1668822025098387458">offered</a> the production free publicity; on July 1, Mel Gibson went viral for <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CuLIf7nOnPO/">promoting</a> the film. “The first step in eradicating this crime is awareness,” he intoned solemnly. “Go see <em>Sound of Freedom</em>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jj7Lxn">
It’s easy to see how emotionally charged all of this is — it’s a hype machine that’s not just a hype machine, but a patriotic, perhaps even divinely mandated, responsibility. Adjacent to this urgent, awareness-raising narrative, however, sits <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/10/9/21504910/qanon-conspiracy-theory-facebook-ban-trump">QAnon</a> — the baseless extremist conspiracy theory that high-powered liberals and elites are trafficking children and harvesting their adrenalin in order to attain eternal life. <em>Sound of Freedom</em> doesn’t explicitly reference QAnon or any of its most common narratives, and Ballard has <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/sound-freedom-movie-creator-tim-ballard-responds-qanon-allegations-sick-1812204">brushed off</a> the connection — but in the same breath he speaks of liberals “running interference” for traffickers by creating such rumors. Arguably more damning: Caviezel’s open embrace of QAnon. The actor has repeatedly referenced QAnon rhetoric; he recently promoted <em>Sound of Freedom </em>on former Trump-admin and extremist <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/7/17/23217452/steve-bannon-january-6-trump-propaganda-election">Steve Bannon</a>’s podcast by <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/04/jim-caviezel-decries-the-adrenochroming-of-children-as-if-thats-a-thing">referencing</a> the aforementioned (false) adrenalin harvesting, a.k.a. “adrenochroming.” He also recently <a href="https://twitter.com/travis_view/status/1678881092802330624">defended QAnon</a> by comparing its detractors to Nazi and Klan apologists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Za2ptX">
None of this directly links the film to QAnon. But it doesn’t help that reviewers who’ve been less than charitable about the film have been deluged with harassment from people calling them pedophiles and groomers. Rolling Stone’s Miles Klee, who, in his <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/sound-of-freedom-jim-caviezel-child-trafficking-qanon-movie-1234783837/">review</a>, highlighted numerous examples of <em>Sound of Freedom</em> fans linking themselves to QAnon, <a href="https://thehandbasket.substack.com/p/how-rolling-stones-miles-klee-became">told journalist Marisa Kabas</a> that “the intensity of the death threats and pedophile smears outstripped any previous hate campaign I’ve experienced in my career.” (Disclaimer: Both Klee and Kabas are former colleagues and friends.) Still, Klee also noted that to the film’s fans he was just “a convenient embodiment” of evil for “a demographic that thinks child abusers and groomers make up the entire government, entertainment industry, and media, and all run cover for each other.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jV2OPy">
These two competing meta-narratives about the film have overshadowed the film itself. But if the primary objection to <em>Sound of Freedom</em> is that it’s a giant dog whistle for QAnon recruitment, then, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/business/sound-of-freedom-trafficking.html">counterargument</a> from its supporters usually goes that the film’s subject matter ought to transcend politics, despite how politically charged it is. After all, everyone should want to protect children, right?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fsILse">
Well, not everyone. One of the film’s apparent financial backers, Fabian Marta, was arrested on July 23 on felony charges of child kidnapping in the state of Missouri. Although the details of the case are not public, if convicted, Marta could face a lengthy sentence, with a minimum of 10 years in prison.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sig41F">
So the question then becomes: Is protecting children what <em>Sound of Freedom</em> is really valorizing?
</p>
<h3 id="lErUaB">
The real organization behind <em>Sound of Freedom</em> is also its own hype machine
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5GNxTM">
<em>Sound of Freedom</em> heavily fictionalizes the real-life figure of Ballard, a Mormon with a self-reported history of work with the CIA (unconfirmed per a <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth">Vice investigation</a>) and Homeland Security, who founded OUR in 2013 out of a desire to do more to fight human trafficking. The group quickly made a splash via dramatic self-promotion, including producing a <a href="https://ourrescue.org/films">movie</a>, <em>The Abolitionist</em> (2016), and a podcast, <em>In the Trenches</em>. In 2017, MAGA whisperer <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/8/8/17376824/trump-fan-art-maga-dinesh-dsouza-jon-mcnaughton">Jon McNaughton</a> produced an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OURrescue/photos/a.1582633588641067/2036459536591801/">infamous painting</a> which depicts Ballard and a bevy of white people as modern-day Harriet Tubmans, carrying trafficked victims to freedom while Abraham Lincoln and a crowd of American patriots look on approvingly. OUR <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/one-mans-mission-to-rescue-child-sex-trafficking-victims/">filmed at least one</a> of its early sting operations, a faux house party which <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/22/the-new-abolitionists-mexico-dominican-republic-human-trafficking-mormon-our/">reporters actually attended</a> and which Ballard has used to bolster his claims to expertise. This is one of the glitzier heroic moments that <em>Sound of Freedom</em> depicts onscreen.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="PBS0HM">
<q>Calls to protect children are really about attacking left-wing ideology</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ypjx9C">
In reality, however, OUR has come under repeated scrutiny for making false claims about its exploits, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth">including</a> taking credit for missions and rescues it had no part in, failing to give adequate support to rescued survivors, falsely claiming partnerships with other rescue organizations, and being vague and obfuscatory about what its missions are and where its sizeable donor funds are going. (The organization claims this is to protect the safety of victims.) One Utah prosecutor <a href="https://www.deseret.com/utah/2023/5/12/23717081/davis-county-attorneys-office-closes-investigation-into-operation-underground-railroad">spent years</a> pursuing criminal charges against the group, though without ultimately bringing a case. In 2014, Ballard, then the CEO of OUR, allegedly used a <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvxev5/inside-a-massive-anti-trafficking-charitys-blundering-overseas-missions">psychic medium</a> as his “source” for trying to locate a missing child. “He’s not making decisions tactically,” an anonymous source <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvxev5/inside-a-massive-anti-trafficking-charitys-blundering-overseas-missions">told Vice in 2021</a> about their experiences with Ballard. “He’s making decisions like a reality TV producer.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2WWynn">
That sensibility might not be very useful for finding trafficked children, but it’s perfect for capitalizing on a cultural moment in which public concern about trafficked children is arguably at an all-time high. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22252171/qanon-donald-trump-conspiracy-theories">ongoing spread</a> of QAnon as well as the recent reappearance of classic anti-LGBTQ <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23025505/leftist-groomers-homophobia-satanic-panic-explained">“groomer” rhetoric</a> have given conservatives the ultimate perfect excuse to demonize liberalism. Just as Ballard’s real goal seems to be less about protecting children and more about promoting Tim Ballard, calls to protect children are really about attacking left-wing ideology, no matter how bizarrely unfounded such attacks are.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AMzObr">
Ballard himself has leaned all the way into these murky elisions; in 2020, he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/technology/qanon-save-the-children-trafficking.html">described</a> QAnon to the New York Times as a positive development, helping people to “open their eyes” to the reality of human trafficking. That same year, he <a href="https://twitter.com/TimBallard/status/1282535670104219648">seemed to affirm</a> a false conspiracy theory, created in QAnon communities, that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53416247">the furniture retailer Wayfair</a> was facilitating child trafficking.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gwWZ85">
More recently, while promoting <em>Sound of Freedom</em> on <em>Fox &amp; Friends</em>, Ballard <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/tim-ballards-misleading-anti-trafficking-rhetoric-slips-seamlessly-transphobia-and">claimed</a> that allowing <a href="https://www.vox.com/lgbtq">trans teens</a> to transition would somehow lead to lowered ages of consent and implied that American immigration <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> were leading to increased child trafficking. It is true that reports of illegal labor exploitation of migrant children have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/us/politics/migrant-child-labor-biden.html">increased dramatically</a> since the pandemic; however, reports of a widespread child sex trafficking phenomenon <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/tim-ballards-misleading-anti-trafficking-rhetoric-slips-seamlessly-transphobia-and">are false</a>, a straightforward, old-school “think of the children” moral panic. Like all moral panics, this one gets used to justify hatred against perceived outsiders, in this case immigrants and queer and trans people.
</p>
<h3 id="86cepL">
Can any of this just be about going to the movies? (Alas, probably not.)
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CA7uPU">
None of this should erase the horrifying reality of human trafficking or its impact on victims and survivors. Director Monteverde’s father and brother were both <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3246253/Father-brother-Hollywood-film-director-Alejandro-Gomez-Monteverde-murdered-kidnapped-Mexican-home.html">murdered by drug traffickers</a> in 2015, so if anyone has a personal interest in making a film about the dangers of trafficking and the elite corruption that enables it, it’s him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TvkbbF">
Yet all of this debate erases another quirk surrounding <em>Sound of Freedom</em> — that without the film’s meta-narratives, it’s just a passably entertaining action thriller, a la <em>Taken</em>. If you don’t think too hard about it (why does Caviezel’s Ballard, as Klee observes, spend the whole movie talking about protecting children while fully ignoring his own?), it’s just a good time at the movies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cluwIn">
But is that <em>allowed</em>? Are conservatives allowed to simply have fun at the movies, even if they’re having fun watching a film that reifies the extremist rhetoric in which they are steeped? Are liberals allowed to have fun at the movies if the dumb action flick they’re watching is also doubling as a conspiracy theory recruitment tool? Can the answer to both of these questions just be “yes,” simply because it’s summer and we’re all very tired, without some vital existential fight being lost?
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="keyasB">
<q>Can faith-based cultural products exist without also fomenting extremism — and would their target audiences even want them? </q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VjVWeU">
Uncertainty over these concerns might be why some reviewers have been so harsh on audiences at <em>Sound of Freedom</em> for merely watching the film. <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2023/07/sound-of-freedom-movie-jim-caviezel-trafficking-qanon.html">Slate</a> lowkey fat-shamed the audience (“The audience toted jumbo buckets of popcorn and trash can–sized sodas”) while <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/sound-of-freedom-jim-caviezel-child-trafficking-qanon-movie-1234783837/">Rolling Stone</a> high-key age-shamed them. (“Nonetheless, the mostly white-haired audience around me could be relied on to gasp, moan in pity, mutter condemnations, applaud, and bellow ‘Amen!’ at moments of righteous fury … not even the occasional nasty coughing fit — and we had no shortage of those — could break the spell.”) Meanwhile, the audience can’t decide if they’re being oppressed because the theater is <a href="https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1677684847689752577">too hot</a> or because the theater is <a href="https://twitter.com/AleksDjuricic/status/1677701863834112001">too cold</a> — but many of them seem <a href="https://twitter.com/cpamba33/status/1677706539975557120">convinced</a> they’re being oppressed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vu4DlX">
And if, as one analyst <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/sound-of-freedom-box-office-success-1235664837/">told Variety</a>, “The strong response to faith-based films reflects a demand by an underserved audience who are hungry for entertainment that reflects their values and beliefs,” then the question becomes one that many people of faith <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/11/18/20961543/david-bazan-interview-strange-negotiations-pedro-lion">have grappled with</a>: Can such faith-based cultural products even exist at this point, let alone serve their specific malnourished target audience, without also fomenting extremist rhetoric, bigotry, and attacks on progressive ideals? If such works can somehow manifest, would their target audiences even want them?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cf5Fhp">
It’s arguable that for many evangelicals and other conservatives, the answer would be no. The controversy and the sense of persecution that accompany these films only increases the dopamine high many get from rebelling against the evil mainstream media by … watching this fairly mainstream movie. These are conservatives, after all, whose worldview frames patriarchal norms as <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/7/9/21291493/donald-trump-evangelical-christians-kristin-kobes-du-mez">synonymous with strength and leadership</a>, which is again synonymous with patriotism. The rugged individualism and masculine rogue operatives on display in <em>Sound of Freedom</em> are precisely tailored to cater to their views of idealized America; it must be profoundly validating to see such a fully formed conservative image of masculinity draped in the trappings of a typical glossy blockbuster.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EWYxkb">
Still, that masculine heroism is by no means unique to <em>Sound of Freedom</em>; it’s not as though Hollywood has ever missed the opportunity to cater to conservative audiences with a strong male archetype. And it’s hard to feel too much pity for an “underserved” faith-based populace, given that conservative ideology, from <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23667960/yellowstone-cast-drama-paleyfest-2023-costner-returning-season-five-release-date-show-ending"><em>Yellowstone</em></a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/16/18069756/green-book-review-racism-schomburg-segregation-golden-globes"><em>Green Book</em></a>, still permeates mainstream Hollywood narratives. If audiences acted like they were at <em>Top Gun</em>, that’s arguably because they basically were.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bdiw8Q">
Just as films like <a href="https://www.vox.com/23141487/top-gun-maverick-us-military-hollywood-oscar-winner-best-sound"><em>Top Gun</em></a> serve to keep us from criticizing America’s military-industrial complex, <em>Sound of Freedom</em> aims to keep us from scrutinizing hyperbolic, alarmist cries about child trafficking too closely. That, ironically, helps shut down useful conversation about the best way to effectively help curb trafficking. The point of such myths, after all, isn’t really to save children, but to create shrill narratives with which to demonize the left and other perceived outsiders. Just as OUR itself is something of a smokescreen, <em>Sound of Freedom</em> is ultimately a form of extremist propaganda — and that extremism is at least as dark and dangerous as the very thing <em>Sound of Freedom</em> wants to combat.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HS7Z91">
<strong>Update, August 4, 5:20 pm ET:</strong> <em>This story was originally published on July 14 and has been updated to include news of investor Fabian Marta’s kidnapping charges.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>How a Mississippi case of police brutality emphasizes the need for more accountability</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Black women hold signs displaying Parker and Jenkins’ wounds that read “We Demand Justice” and “Justice for Michael Corey Jenkins.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zM-WGMkR_r_MrsCbpl9W8UKVFt8=/0x0:3551x2663/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72515100/AP23216493231055.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Protesters march on the Rankin County sheriff’s office in July 2023, calling for police accountability for violence against Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. | Rogelio V. Solis/AP
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Six former police officers tortured two Black men. They just pleaded guilty.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="682INc">
<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/assistant-attorney-general-kristen-clarke-delivers-remarks-announcing-six-mississippi">Six white former police officers</a> have pleaded guilty to civil rights offenses related to the assault and torture of two Black men in Mississippi. Their pleas underscore the systemic nature of police abuse, the racism underpinning many incidents of police misconduct, and the urgent need for more accountability.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="39LQjH">
<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/six-mississippi-law-enforcement-officers-plead-guilty-torturing-and-abusing-two-black-men">In the Mississippi case</a>, the officers, some of whom referred to themselves as “the Goon Squad,” entered a home without a warrant and proceeded to physically and verbally assault two Black men — Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker — who were inside.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u4SJsI">
Over the course of 90 minutes, the officers attacked and tortured the men repeatedly, with one officer shooting Jenkins in the mouth. Additionally, the group tased the two men multiple times, used racial slurs, poured oil, alcohol, and chocolate sauce on them, and planted evidence in the house in a bid to escape responsibility. As part of the encounter, the police warned the men to stay out of Rankin County, Mississippi.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eMcB77">
The officers were reportedly told to go to the house on January 24, 2023, by a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/goon-squad-rogue-mississippi-officers-cover-torture-2-102013231">Rankin County deputy</a>, who’d received a complaint that the two Black men were in the house with a white woman. Court documents note that Parker was a longtime friend of the woman and aiding in her care, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/rankin-mississippi-deputies-civil-rights-brutality-2c2154e67cc6cd3b9a28cb16686f2a5c">per the Associated Press</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LjRvRs">
The Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation earlier this year and charged the officers with 16 felonies — including civil rights violations, discharge of a firearm during a crime, and obstruction of justice — all of which they pleaded guilty to this week. Additionally, the Mississippi attorney general’s office has charged the officers with assault, conspiracy, and obstruction.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EEZsrx">
This case is only the latest to illustrate how police can abuse the unique authority they have, and is only one of several highlighting the violence <a href="https://www.vox.com/race">Black Americans</a> can face at the hands of police. The pleas follow the recent police killings of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/12/jarrell-garris-fatally-shot-new-rochelle-ny-police-stealing-food/70405693007/">Jarrell Garris in New Rochelle</a> and <a href="https://wchstv.com/news/local/huntington-police-officer-returns-to-work-following-fatal-shooting-of-detroit-man-west-virginia-state-police-keith-mcsweeny-investigation-ahmad-abdullah-emergency-dispatchers-communication-radio-911">Ahmad Abdullah</a> in Detroit, both unarmed Black men, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/">among many others</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="AbA0Bf">
Police misconduct is a systemic problem — and there needs to be much more accountability
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2XOv0X">
Legal protections like qualified immunity — which require proof that an officer has violated a “clearly established” right — have typically made it difficult to hold police liable for everything from property damage to fatal violence. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/1/30/23578339/police-reform-tyre-nichols-congress">Efforts to remake qualified immunity law</a> on the federal level, which were accelerated after a police officer murdered George Floyd, have failed. As have efforts to increase transparent reporting and data collection about police use of force, making it tougher to pursue both investigations and convictions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sAsbH0">
“Departments don’t even have to disclose the most basic information about how many people officers kill each year,” <a href="https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/holding-police-accountable-q-a-with-professor-joanna-schwartz">UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz</a> previously said in an interview. “That, in itself, is a failure of accountability.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3MVDbX">
The Mississippi assaults present a rare instance when police have had to deal with legal ramifications for harms they’ve caused. As recent reports on <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2023/08/02/albany-police-block-misconduct-investigations-neutering-landmark-oversight-law">Albany</a>, <a href="https://news.wttw.com/2023/08/03/chicago-police-department-must-improve-methods-clarify-rules-reporting-officer-misconduct">Chicago</a>, and <a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/oakland-may-blow-deadlines-in-police-misconduct-cases">Oakland</a>’s police departments have shown, it is far more common that investigations into misconduct don’t come to any resolution. The Mississippi case is also a reminder of how ignoring misconduct can lead to further abuses. Infamously, Derek Chauvin, the former officer who killed Floyd, had previously been the subject of multiple complaints <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/minneapolis-derek-chauvin-history-of-complaints-george-floyd">concerning excessive use of force</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vV4yKP">
Similarly, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-deputies-black-violent-arrests-61acf712b13fc3c77dce76e508fa94c1">an AP report</a> linked several of the officers involved in the Mississippi case with four incidents of violence since 2019, including actions that led to the deaths of two Black men. And while the recent assaults they are accused of took place in January, the officers weren’t fired from their jobs or forced to resign until June of this year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mzG4b5">
The guilty pleas and DOJ investigation in this case are extremely important, Harvard Kennedy School professor and <a href="https://www.vox.com/police-violence">police violence</a> expert Desmond Ang tells Vox, though he notes that such accountability is uncommon.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uvtTFA">
“That the officers pleaded guilty, instead of going to trial, really demonstrates how clear-cut the evidence was,” he says. “At the same time, it’s really important to note that this type of behavior had been allowed to persist for way longer than it should.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hNJ2pr">
Because of the opacity when it comes to documenting use of force in police departments, it’s tough to track how frequently similar offenses are being confronted in court. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officers-charged-fatal-police-shootings-2021-not-everyone-sees-progres-rcna12799">One analysis from Bowling Green State University professor Philip Stinson</a> found an uptick in the number of police who were being charged with murder or manslaughter between 2017 to 2021, though they still marked a very small fraction of the reported number of police killings. Seven officers were charged in 2017, 10 in 2018, 12 in 2019, 16 in 2020, and 21 in 2021. In 2021 and the years since, however, there have been more than a thousand police killings per year, according to the <a href="https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/">Mapping Police Violence database</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xhsZw1">
“It makes you wonder how many other cases like this exist that just haven’t made the light of day,” says Ang, while alluding to other potential instances like the Mississippi case.
</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>World Archery championship | Compound archer Aditi Swami becomes senior world champion at 17</strong> - The Satara teenager, who had won the Under-18 title in Youth Championships in Limerick in July, shot a near perfect score of 149 out of a possible 150 points</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>Football transfer news | Man City signs Croatia centre-back Joško Gvardiol; Spanish goalkeeper Robert Sanchez joins Chelsea</strong> - Manchester City has signed Croatia centre-back Joško Gvardiol from Leipzig for 90 million euros ($99.2 million). Chelsea have signed Spanish goalkeeper Robert Sanchez from Brighton &amp; Hove Albion on a seven-year contract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Australian Open Super 500 badminton championship: H.S. Prannoy beats Rajawat; reaches final</strong> - The world number nine Prannoy took 43 minutes to ward off 21-year-old Rajawat’s challenge 21-18 21-12.</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>Pat Cummins played Oval Test with suspected broken wrist, could miss India series</strong> - The men from Down Under will fly to India for the ODI series, which is slated to begin on September 22 in Mohali.</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>2nd T20I: India aim for improved death overs batting keeping workload in mind</strong> - The T20I series is of little consequence in an ODI World Cup year but skipper Hardik Pandya along with his deputy Suryakumar Yadav would expect to put a far improved batting show</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>Four booked under PSA in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam</strong> - They were lodged at the Central Jail in Jammu’s Kot-Balwal and the Central Jail in Srinagar after obtaining formal detention orders from the competent authority, an official said</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>At Gruha Jyothi launch, Karnataka Chief Minister asserts implementation of guarantees will not impact development projects</strong> - Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah formally launched Gruha Jyothi scheme by switching on a light in a model of a house. He handed over zero electricity bills to 10 selected beneficiaries to symbolically mark the beginning of the scheme</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>Actor Bala booked for trespass, intimidating YouTuber</strong> - According to FIR, Bala and three accomplices barged into apartment near Kakkanad after being allegedly provoked by a video posted by the YouTuber criticising the actor</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>Suryateja takes charge as Project Officer of ITDA-K.R.Puram in Andhra Pradesh</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Telangana Assembly passes four Bills returned by Governor with voice vote</strong> - They include Private Universities Bill for establishment of five varsities</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>Russia says tanker hit in Ukrainian attack near Crimea</strong> - The attack is the second in as many days involving sea drones, Ukrainian security sources tell the BBC.</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>Russian soprano star sues NYC opera over firing</strong> - Anna Netrebko was dropped by the Met Opera last year after refusing to denounce Russia’s president.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia conscription laws change, leaving some fearful of Ukraine war call-up</strong> - As Russia increases the age limit for conscription, we speak to men afraid of being called up to Ukraine.</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>Switzerland 1-5 Spain: Aitana Bonmati scores twice as La Roja march into quarter-finals</strong> - Spain reach the quarter-finals of the Fifa Women’s World Cup for the first time after producing an outstanding display of firepower to send Switzerland out.</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>Alexei Navalny: Russian opposition leader’s jail term extended to 19 years</strong> - The Russian opposition leader is found guilty of further offences in a trial held at a prison colony.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A look at the surprising history of the earliest rocket pioneers</strong> - A review of the book <em>From the Earth to Mars</em>. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1959045">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Unlimited miles and nights: Vulnerability found in rewards programs</strong> - Points.com, used by major travel rewards programs, exposed user data… and more. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1959041">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>X user “super pissed” that Musk ordered takeover of his <span class="citation" data-cites="music">@music</span> account</strong> - X user quits paying for Twitter Blue to protest X commandeering his account. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1959132">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Voyager 2 phones home and says everything is cool</strong> - After sending the command, NASA had to wait 37 hours for a response. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1959104">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Absurd”: Google, Amazon rebuked over unsupported Chromebooks still for sale</strong> - No security or feature updates, but selling as “new.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1959002">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy chats with his milkman during the weekly daily delivery.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“You should’ve seen yesterday’s party, it was great. There was me, my wife and many couples in the neighborhood. By the end we were completely hammered.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh yeah? How did it go?” The milkman inquires.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well, we got so drunk that we got the idea for a little game. The men went into another room and stripped naked. Then one after the other, we’d walk out of the room with our body entirely covered by a bedsheet with a hole in it, and just our dick through the hole. Then, the women had to guess who was under the sheet.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“That does sound like a great party, I wish I’d been there!” The milkman replies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“You might as well have been, ’cause your name came out a couple times.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Iamabrawler"> /u/Iamabrawler </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15iit8f/a_guy_chats_with_his_milkman_during_the_weekly/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15iit8f/a_guy_chats_with_his_milkman_during_the_weekly/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">**A man bets his boss 5000<span class="math inline">$...** - &lt;!-- SC_OFF --&gt;&lt;div class="md"&gt;&lt;p&gt;that he (the boss) has a pimple on his ass.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;No way!&amp;quot; - says the boss and accepts the bet.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He opens his ass to show to the man. The man says: &amp;quot;It's too dark here, move to the window so I can see better&amp;quot;. The boss moves to the window. &amp;quot;Ok, you were right, there is no pimple on your ass&amp;quot;. He gives the boss 5000$</span>.</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“But why would you do that?”, asked the boss, bewildered.</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“Yesterday I have bet your colleagues 10000$ that today at exactly 3 o’clock they would see your ass through your office window”</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Gyaghsonyan"> /u/Gyaghsonyan </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ioxfl/a_man_bets_his_boss_5000/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ioxfl/a_man_bets_his_boss_5000/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Interview for a job</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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John goes to the Postal Ministry to face for an interview for a job in the Postal Department.
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The interviewer asks him, “Are you allergic to anything?” He replies, “Yes - coffee.”
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“Have you ever been in the military service?”Yes," he says, “I was in Iraq for two years.” The interviewer says,“That will give you 5 extra points towards employment.”
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Then he asks,“Are you disabled in any way?” Johnl says,“Yes. A bomb exploded near me and I lost both of my testicles.”
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The interviewer grimaces and then says, “O.K. You’ve got enough points for me to hire you right now. Our normal hours are from 8:00 A.M. To 4:00 P.M. You can start tomorrow from 10:00AM every day.”
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John is puzzled and asks, “If the work hours are from 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., why do you want me to start here from10:00 A.M.?”
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“This is a government job,” the inter-viewer says, “For the first two hours, we just stand around drinking coffee and scratching our balls. No point you coming in for that.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/dala07"> /u/dala07 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ii5qx/interview_for_a_job/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ii5qx/interview_for_a_job/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>[NSFW] A teenager goes to confession.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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“Bless me Father, for I have sinned,” he says. “I have been masturbating.”
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“Ah, my son, this is not uncommon. But you must save that for marriage. Your penance is to say a decade of the rosary,” says the priest.
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Many years later, the teenager, now a grown man, goes back to confession with the same priest.
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“Father, I am not here for confession, but for advice,” he says. “Many years ago, I confessed to you that I masturbated and you told me to save it for marriage.”
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“Yes, my son,” says the priest. “What is the problem?”
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“Well, Father, I’m about to get married and I have a 50 gallon drum of the stuff. What am I supposed to do with it?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/brother_p"> /u/brother_p </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15i4nty/nsfw_a_teenager_goes_to_confession/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15i4nty/nsfw_a_teenager_goes_to_confession/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy is fishing and hooks a salmon</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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he reels it in and is just going to kill it for his dinner when the salmon looks at him and says<br/> “Hey mate, don’t kill me, I’m only a baby, I haven’t swum the 7 seas yet, give me a chance pal”<br/> The man looks at the salmon “Hey, you can talk”? “Course I can, go on put me back, there’s much bigger fish under the bridge”. “All right”, says the man, “I’ll put you back, what’s your name?” “Rusty” says the salmon, “And yours?” “My name’s Dave”<br/> He puts the fish back in the water &amp; resolves to say nothing to anyone, for fear that he’ll become a laughing stock.<br/> 10 years later he’s fishing in the same spot &amp; he hooks a monster. It takes him 2 hours to land it. He looks at it &amp; pictures it on his dinner plate. Just then the salmon opens one eye &amp; looks at him “Dave, is that you”?<br/> “Rusty, I don’t believe it, it must be 10 years since I let you go, what have you been doing”?<br/> “Well Dave, I’ve had a fantastic time, I’ve swum the 7 seas &amp; all the oceans. In fact, I’ve just come across the Atlantic, but I was really disturbed”.<br/> “Why’s that Rusty”?<br/> “Well, I was half way across &amp; a voice told me to swim deeper, so I did, deeper &amp; deeper &amp; I found this huge shipwreck. I counted 4 funnels, it felt like death so I had to leave”.<br/> “Wow Rusty, that was the Titanic it sank &amp; almost all on board were drowned.”<br/> “Ah, I knew it, in fact, I was so upset I had to sit down &amp; write a poem about it” said Rusty.<br/> “A poem, don’t talk daft, you’re just a fish, how can you write a poem, that’s rubbish.”<br/> “No Dave, really, it’s available in all bookshops now.”<br/> “Ok” says Dave, “so what’s it called then?”<br/> “Salmon Rusty’s Titanic Verses.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Alpha-Studios"> /u/Alpha-Studios </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ijmol/a_guy_is_fishing_and_hooks_a_salmon/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ijmol/a_guy_is_fishing_and_hooks_a_salmon/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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