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<title>13 August, 2023</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>To what extent are Chinese international students in Leuven influenced by the educational thoughts of Confucius when coping with the Covid-19 pandemic situation?</strong> -
<div>
The Chinese education market is the largest in Higher Education (HE) worldwide. The number of study-abroad Chinese students has experienced a constant growth throughout the previous decade. According to the Chinese Ministry of Education report, there were more than 660,000 Chinese students studying in different countries in 2018. This demonstrates the growing desire from Chinese students, as well as their parents, to integrate in multicultural contexts in order to broaden horizons in this modern era (Gao, 2018). However, recent studies revealed that Chinese overseas students have less affinity to different cultures and face many difficulties in integrating with students of different cultural backgrounds (Yu and Moskal, 2018). Both internal and external culture differences are the key factors behind Chinese students lacking ability for intercultural integration (Zhu and Gao, 2012), which is also associated with their difficulty in adapting in a different education system. Chinese overseas students come from a Confucian Heritage Culture where Confucianism has shaped the culture that has been deeply rooted in the Chinese education system. This has formed the students’ mind-set, resulting in certain personality traits related to social communication. Modesty, social and ritual propriety are the main tenets of Confucian traditionalism. It has become the standard for Chinese peoples’ social and moral behaviours, gives order to and strengthens the social connections between people. This mind-set influences Chinese international students’ cross-cultural communication, both in multilingual and multicultural contexts (Luo, Huang and Najjar, 2007). Taking the Covid-19 pandemic into consideration, it was observed that Chinese overseas students in different countries have proactively taken medical solutions for self-prevention in the crisis situation. In order to identify the role of Confucian Heritage Cultures influence in Chinese international students adapting to overseas education environments, this study examines the previous work on Confucian Heritage Culture involvement in Chinese education. It is designed to measure, to what extent are Chinese international students in Leuven influenced by Confucian Heritage Culture when coping with the Covid-19 pandemic situation during overseas study. The conducted thesis includes an academic review on Confucian Heritage Culture as a fundamental cultural factor in Chinese education system, a qualitative study and an analysis of Chinese international students in Leuven experience Confucian Heritage Culture to cope with lockdown situations. This thesis aims to explore the possible revelation of acculturation competence among Chinese international students within the coronavirus pandemic background.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/q2afv/" target="_blank">To what extent are Chinese international students in Leuven influenced by the educational thoughts of Confucius when coping with the Covid-19 pandemic situation?</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparative Immunogenicity, Safety and Efficacy Profiles of four COVID-19 Vaccine types in healthy adults: Systematic Review cum Meta-analysis of Clinical Trial data</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Four principal types of authorised COVID-19 vaccines include inactivated whole-virus vaccines, protein subunit vaccines, viral-vector vaccines and nucleic acid (mRNA and DNA) vaccines. Despite numerous Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs), comprehensive systematic review and comparative meta-analysis have not been performed to validate the immunogenicity, safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in the healthy adult population. We aim to fulfil this unmet void. We searched for peer-reviewed articles about RCTs of the COVID-19 vaccines on healthy adults (18-64 years) available in eight major bibliographic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus, ScienceDirect, POPLINE, HINARI) till August 28, 2022. The Risk of Bias (RoB) was assessed using the Cochrane RoB-2. Random effects meta-analysis was conducted by pooling dichotomous outcomes using risk ratios (safety outcomes) and continuous outcomes using standardised mean differences (immunogenicity outcomes). Efficacy outcomes were summarised narratively. Moderate to high-quality evidence suggests that those receiving COVID-19 vaccines had significantly higher immune responses compared to placebo. Serious adverse events were rare, confirming that COVID-19 vaccines were safe and immunogenic for the healthy adult population. Remarkably, adverse events were the least common in inactivated vaccines, and nucleic acid vaccines were the most immunogenic. The efficacies of COVID-19 vaccines ranged from 21.9% to 95.9% in preventing COVID-19. We endorse all four types of COVID-19 vaccines for public health policy implementing taskforces. Yet, meta-analyses based on individual patient data are warranted for more extensive measurement of differential impacts of COVID-19 vaccines on different genders, ethnicities, comorbidities and types of vaccine jabbed.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.10.23293964v1" target="_blank">Comparative Immunogenicity, Safety and Efficacy Profiles of four COVID-19 Vaccine types in healthy adults: Systematic Review cum Meta-analysis of Clinical Trial data</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Pan-antiviral effects of a PIKfyve inhibitor on respiratory virus infection in human nasal epithelium and mice</strong> -
<div>
Endocytosis, or internalization through endosomes is a major cell entry mechanism used by respiratory viruses. Phosphoinositide 5-kinase (PIKfyve) is a critical enzyme for the synthesis of Phosphatidylinositol (3,5)biphosphate (PtdIns(3,5)P2), and has been implicated in virus trafficking via the endocytic pathway. In fact, antiviral effects of PIKfyve inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 and Ebola have been reported, but there is little evidence regarding other respiratory viruses. In this study we demonstrated the antiviral effects of PIKfyve inhibitors on influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus in vitro and in vivo. PIKfyve inhibitors, Apilimod mesylate (AM) and YM201636 concentration-dependently inhibited several influenza strains in a MDCK cell-cytopathic assay. AM also reduced the viral load and cytokine release, whilst improving the cell integrity of human nasal air liquid interface cultured epithelium infected with influenza PR8. In PR8-infected mice, AM (2mg/ml), when intranasally treated, exhibited significant reduction of viral load and inflammation and inhibited weight loss caused by influenza infection, with effects being similar to oral oseltamivir (10 mg/kg). In addition, AM demonstrated anti-viral effects in RSV A2 infected human nasal epithelium in vitro and mouse in vivo, with equivalent effect to that of ribavirin. AM also showed anti-viral effects against human rhinovirus and seasonal coronavirus in vitro. Thus, PIKfyve is found to be involved in influenza and RSV infection, and PIKfyve inhibitor is a promising molecule for pan-viral approach against respiratory viruses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.11.553035v1" target="_blank">Pan-antiviral effects of a PIKfyve inhibitor on respiratory virus infection in human nasal epithelium and mice</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Additive Manufacturing Leveraged Microfluidic Setup for Sample to Answer Colorimetric Detection of Pathogens</strong> -
<div>
Colorimetric readout for the detection of infectious diseases is gaining traction at the point of care/need owing to its ease of analysis and interpretation, and integration potential with highly specific Loop-mediated amplification (LAMP) assays. However, coupling colorimetric readout with LAMP is rife with challenges including, rapidity, inter-user variability, colorimetric signal quantification, and user involvement in sequential steps of the LAMP assay, hindering its application. To address these challenges, for the first time, we propose a remotely smartphone-operated automated setup consisting of (i) an additively manufactured microfluidic cartridge, (ii) a portable reflected-light imaging setup with controlled epi-illumination (PRICE) module, and (iii) a control and data analysis module. The microfluidic cartridge facilitates sample collection, lysis, mixing of amplification reagents stored on-chip, and subsequent isothermal heating for initiation of amplification in a novel way by employing tunable elastomeric chambers and auxiliary components (heaters and linear actuators). PRICE offers a new imaging setup that captures the colorimetric change of the amplification media over a plasmonic nanostructured substrate in a controlled and noise-free environment for rapid minute-scale nucleic acid detection. The control and data analysis module employs microprocessors to automate cartridge operation in tandem with the imaging module. The different device components were characterized individually and finally, as a proof of concept, SARS-CoV-2 wild-type RNA was detected with a turnaround time of 13 minutes, showing the clinical feasibility. The suggested automated device can be adopted in future iterations for other detection and molecular assays that require sequential fluid handling steps.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.10.552726v1" target="_blank">Additive Manufacturing Leveraged Microfluidic Setup for Sample to Answer Colorimetric Detection of Pathogens</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Pretrainable Geometric Graph Neural Network for Antibody Affinity Maturation</strong> -
<div>
In the realm of antibody therapeutics development, increasing the binding affinity of an antibody to its target antigen is a crucial task. This paper presents GearBind, a pretrainable deep neural network designed to be effective for in silico affinity maturation. Leveraging multi-level geometric message passing alongside contrastive pretraining on protein structural data, GearBind capably models the complex interplay of atom-level interactions within protein complexes, surpassing previous state-of-the-art approaches on SKEMPI v2 in terms of Pearson correlation, mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE). In silico experiments elucidate that pretraining helps GearBind become sensitive to mutation-induced binding affinity changes and reflective of amino acid substitution tendency. Using an ensemble model based on pretrained GearBind, we successfully optimize the affinity of CR3022 to the spike (S) protein of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strain. Our strategy yields a high success rate with up to 17-fold affinity increase. GearBind proves to be an effective tool in narrowing the search space for in vitro antibody affinity maturation, underscoring the utility of geometric deep learning and adept pre-training in macromolecule interaction modeling.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.10.552845v1" target="_blank">Pretrainable Geometric Graph Neural Network for Antibody Affinity Maturation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Waning of post-vaccination neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2, a systematic literature review and meta-analysis</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Mass COVID-19 vaccination and the continuous introduction of new viral variants of SARS-CoV-2, especially of Omicron subvariants, has resulted in an increase in the proportion of the population with hybrid immunity at various stages of waning protection. We systematically reviewed waning of post-vaccination neutralizing antibody titers in different immunological settings to investigate potential differences. Methods We searched for studies providing data for post-vaccination neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 in PubMed, bioRxiv, and medRxiv from Dec 15, 2021, to Jan 31, 2023, using keywords related to COVID-19, vaccination, and antibody neutralization. We used random effects meta-regression to estimate the average fold-reduction in post-vaccination neutralizing antibody titers against the Index strain or Omicron BA.1. from month 1 to month 6 post last dose, stratified by vaccination regimen (primary or booster) and infection-naive vs hybrid-immune status. Findings In total, 26 studies reporting longitudinal post-vaccination neutralizing antibody titers were included. Neutralization titers against the Index variant were available from all studies for infection-naive participants, and from nine for hybrid-immune participants. Against Omicron BA.1, nine and eight studies were available for infection-naive and hybrid-immune cohorts, respectively. In infection-naive cohorts, post-vaccination neutralization titers against the Index strain waned 5.1-fold (95% CI 3.4-7.8) from month 1 to month 6 following primary regimen and 3.8-fold (95% CI 2.4-5.9) following the booster. Titers against Omicron BA.1 waned 5.9-fold (95% CI 3.8-9.0) in infection-naive, post-booster cohorts. In hybrid-immune, post-primary vaccination cohorts, titers waned 3.7-fold (95% CI 1.7-7.9) against the Index strain and 5.0-fold (95% CI 1.1-21.8) against Omicron BA.1. Interpretation No obvious differences in waning between post-primary or post-boost vaccination were observed for vaccines used widely to date, nor between infection-naive and hybrid-immune participants. Titers against Omicron BA.1 may wane faster compared to Index titers, which may worsen for more recent Omicron sub-variants and should be monitored. Relatively small datasets limit the precision of our current analysis; further investigation is needed when more data become available. However, based on our current findings, striking differences in waning for the analyzed and future comparisons are unlikely.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.08.23293864v1" target="_blank">Waning of post-vaccination neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2, a systematic literature review and meta-analysis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Iterative In Silico Screening for Optimizing Stable Conformation of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Nanobodies</strong> -
<div>
Abstract–Nanobodies (Nbs or VHHs) are single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) derived from camelid heavy-chain antibodies. The variable region of these nanobodies has special and unique characteristics, such as small size, good tissue penetration, and cost-effective production, making nanobodies a good candidate for the diagnosis and treatment of viruses. Identifying effective nanobodies against the COVID-19 would help us defeat this dangerous virus or other unknown variants in future. Herein, we introduce an in silico screening strategy for optimizing stable conformation of anti-SARS-CoV-2 nanobodies. Firstly, various complexes containing nanobodies were downloaded from the RCSB database, which were identified from immunized llamas. The primary docking between nanobodies and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor-binding domain was performed through ClusPro program, with the manually screening that leaving the reasonable conformation to the next step. Then, the binding distances of atoms between the antigen-antibody interfaces was measured through the Neighbor Search algorithm. Finally, filtered nanobodies were acquired according to HADDOCK scores through HADDOCK docking the Covid spike protein with nanobodies under restrictions of calculated molecular distance between active residues and antigenic epitopes less than 4.5 A. In this way, those nanobodies which with more reasonable conformation and with stronger neutralizing efficacy were acquired. This three-steps screening strategy iteratively in Silico greatly improved the accuracy of screening desired nanobodies compared to using only ClusPro docking or default HADDOCK docking settings. It provides new ideas for the screening of novel antibodies and computer-aided screening methods.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.09.552633v1" target="_blank">Iterative In Silico Screening for Optimizing Stable Conformation of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Nanobodies</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Development and Analytical Evaluation of a Point-of-Care Electrochemical Biosensor for Rapid and Accurate SARS-CoV-2 Detection</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for rapid and accurate screening and diagnostic methods for potential respiratory viruses. Existing COVID-19 diagnostic approaches face limitations either in terms of turnaround time or accuracy. In this study, we present an electrochemical biosensor that offers nearly instantaneous and precise SARS-CoV-2 detection, suitable for point-of-care and environmental monitoring applications. The biosensor employs a stapled hACE-2 N-terminal alpha helix peptide to functionalize an in-situ grown polypyrrole conductive polymer on a nitrocellulose membrane backbone through a chemical process. We assessed the biosensor's analytical performance using heat-inactivated omicron and delta variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in artificial saliva (AS) and nasal swabs (NS) samples diluted in a strong ionic solution. Virus identification was achieved through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and frequency analyses. The assay demonstrated a limit of detection of 40 TCID50/mL, with 95% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Notably, the biosensor exhibited no cross-reactivity when tested against the influenza virus. The entire testing process using the biosensor takes less than a minute. In summary, our biosensor exhibits promising potential in the battle against pandemic respiratory viruses, offering a platform for the creation of rapid, compact, portable, and point-of-care devices capable of multiplexing various viruses. This groundbreaking development has the capacity to significantly bolster our readiness and response to future viral outbreaks.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.08.552470v1" target="_blank">Development and Analytical Evaluation of a Point-of-Care Electrochemical Biosensor for Rapid and Accurate SARS-CoV-2 Detection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Enhanced Deep Convolutional Neural Network for SARS-CoV-2 Variants Classification</strong> -
<div>
High-throughput sequencing techniques and sequence analysis have enabled the taxonomic classification of pathogens present in clinical samples. Sequencing provides an unbiased identification and systematic classification of pathogens and this is generally achieved by comparing novel sequences to pre-existing annotated reference databases. However, this approach is limited by large-scale reference databases which require considerable computational resources and skills to compare against. Alternative robust methods such as machine learning are currently employed in genome sequence analysis and classification, and it can be applied in classifying SARS-CoV-2 variants, whose continued evolution has resulted in the emergence of multiple variants. We developed a deep learning Convolutional Neural Networks-Long Short Term Memory (CNN-LSTM) model to classify dominant SARS-CoV-2 variants (omicron, delta, beta, gamma and alpha) based on gene sequences from the surface glycoprotein (spike gene). We trained and validated the model using &gt; 26,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from the GISAID database. The model was evaluated using unseen 3,057 SARS-CoV-2 sequences. The model was compared to existing molecular epidemiology tool, nextclade. Our model achieved an accuracy of 98.55% on training, 99.19% on the validation and 98.41% on the test dataset. Comparing the proposed model to nextclade, the model achieved significant accuracy in classifying SARS-CoV-2 variants from unseen data. Nextclade identified the presence of recombinant strains in the evaluation data, a mechanism that the proposed model did not detect. This study provides an alternative approach to pre-existing methods employed in the classification of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Timely classification will enable effective monitoring and tracking of SARS-CoV-2 variants and inform public health policies in the control and management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.09.552643v1" target="_blank">Enhanced Deep Convolutional Neural Network for SARS-CoV-2 Variants Classification</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Open-source milligram-scale, four channel, automated protein purification system</strong> -
<div>
Liquid chromatography purification of multiple recombinant proteins, in parallel, could catalyze research and discovery if the processes are fast and approach the robustness of traditional, "one-protein-at-a-time" purification. Here, we report an automated, four channel chromatography platform that we have designed and validated for parallelized protein purification at milligram scales. The device can purify up to four proteins (each with its own single column), has inputs for up to eight buffers or solvents that can be directed to any of the four columns via a network of software-driven valves, and includes an automated fraction collector with ten positions for 1.5 or 5.0 mL collection tubes and four positions for 50 mL collection tubes for each column output. The control software can be accessed either via Python scripting, giving users full access to all steps of the purification process, or via a simple-to-navigate touch screen graphical user interface that does not require knowledge of the command line or any programming language. Using our instrument, we report milligram-scale, parallelized, single-column purification of a panel of mammalian cell expressed coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-229E) trimeric Spike and monomeric Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) antigens, and monoclonal antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) and Influenza Hemagglutinin (HA). We include a detailed hardware build guide, and have made the controlling software open source, to allow others to build and customize their own protein purifier systems.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.09.552685v1" target="_blank">Open-source milligram-scale, four channel, automated protein purification system</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Parental intention, attitudes, beliefs, trust and deliberation towards childhood vaccination in the Netherlands in 2022: Indications of change compared to 2013</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<b>Background and aim</b> Vaccine uptake within the Dutch National Immunisation Programme (NIP) has slightly declined since the COVID-19 pandemic. We studied psychosocial factors of vaccine uptake, namely parental intention, attitudes, beliefs, trust and deliberation (i.e. self-evidence), before (2013) and two years into the pandemic (2022). <b>Methods</b> In 2022 and 2013, parents with a young child (aged &lt;3.5 years) participated in online surveys on vaccination (n=1,000 and 800, (estimated) response=12.2% and 37.2%, respectively). Psychosocial factors were measured on 7-point Likert scales. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to study differences between parents in 2022 and 2013 in 9negative9 scores (≤2) of psychosocial factors. <b>Results</b> In both 2022 and 2013, most parents with a young child expressed positive intention (2022=83.1%, 2013=87.0%), attitudes (3 items: 2022=66.7%-70.9%, 2013=62.1%-69.8%) and trust (2022=51.8%, 2013=52.0%) towards the NIP and felt that vaccinating their child was self-evident (2022=57.2%, 2013=67.3%). Compared to parents with a young child in 2013, parents with a young child in 2022 had significantly higher odds of reporting negative attitudes towards vaccination (3 items combined: OR=2.84), believing that vaccinations offer insufficient protection (OR=4.89), that the NIP is not beneficial for the protection of their child9s health (OR=2.23), that vaccinating their child does not necessarily protect the health of other children (OR=2.24) or adults (OR=2.22) and that vaccinations could cause severe side effects (OR=2.20), preferring natural infection over vaccination (OR=3.18) and reporting low trust towards the NIP (OR=1.73). <b>Conclusions</b> Although most parents had positive intention, attitudes and trust towards vaccination and perceived vaccinating their child as self-evident, proportions of parents with negative scores were slightly larger in 2022 compared to 2013. Monitoring these determinants of vaccine uptake and developing appropriate interventions could contribute to sustaining high vaccine uptake.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.24.23291934v2" target="_blank">Parental intention, attitudes, beliefs, trust and deliberation towards childhood vaccination in the Netherlands in 2022: Indications of change compared to 2013</a>
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<li><strong>Contact patterns of older adults with and without frailties in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background During the COVID-19 pandemic social distancing measures were imposed to protect the population from exposure, especially older adults and persons with frailties who have the highest risk for severe outcomes. These restrictions greatly reduced contacts in the general population, but little is known about behaviour changes among older adults and persons with frailties themselves. Our aim was to quantify how COVID-19 measures affected contact behaviour of older adults and how this differed between older adults with and without frailties. Methods In 2021 a contact survey was carried out among persons aged 70 years and older in the Netherlands. A random sample of persons per age group (70-74, 75-79, 80-84, 85-89, 90+) and gender was invited to participate, either during a period with stringent (April 2021) or moderate (October 2021) measures. Participants provided general information on themselves including their frailty, and they reported characteristics of all persons with whom they had face-to-face contact on a given day over the course of a full week. Results In total 720 community-dwelling elderly persons were included (overall response rate of 15%), who reported 16,505 contacts. During the survey period with moderate measures, participants without frailties had significantly more contacts outside their household than participants with frailties. Especially for females, frailty was a more informative predictor for number of contacts than age. During the survey period with stringent measures, participants with and without frailties had significantly lower numbers of contacts compared to the survey period with moderate measures. The reduction of number of contacts was largest for the eldest participants without frailties. As they interact mostly with adults of a similar high age who likely have frailties, this reduction of number of contacts indirectly protects older adults with frailties from SARS-CoV-2 exposure. Conclusions The results of this study reveal that social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic differentially affected the contact patterns of older adults with and without frailties. The reduction of contacts may have led to direct protection of older adults in general but also to indirect protection of older adults with frailties.
</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.09.23289550v2" target="_blank">Contact patterns of older adults with and without frailties in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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<li><strong>An Energizing Role for Motivation in Information-Seeking During the Early Phase of the COVID- 19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Curiosity is a powerful determinant of behavior. The past decade has seen a surge of scientific research on curiosity, an endeavor recently imbibed with urgency by the WHO, which set managing information-seeking as a public health goal during pandemics. And yet, a fundamental aspect of curiosity has remained unresolved: its relationship to utility. Is curiosity a drive towards information simply for the sake of obtaining that information, or is it a rational drive towards optimal learning? We leveraged people’s curiosity about COVID-19 to study information-seeking and learning in a large sample (n=5376) during the spring of 2020. Our findings reveal that curiosity is goal-rational in that it maximizes the personal utility of learning. Personal utility, unlike normative economic utility, is contingent on a person’s motivational state. On the basis of these findings, we explain information-seeking during the pandemic with a rational theoretical framework for curiosity.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/hcta4/" target="_blank">An Energizing Role for Motivation in Information-Seeking During the Early Phase of the COVID- 19 Pandemic</a>
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<li><strong>Verification Theatre at Borders and in Pockets</strong> -
<div>
To appear in: Colleen M. Flood, Y.Y. Brandon Chen, Raywat Deonandan, Sam Halabi, and Sophie Thériault (eds.) Pandemics, Public Health, and the Regulation of Borders: Lessons from COVID-19 (Routledge, forthcoming). This version: August 2023. Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic saw the creation of a wide array of digital infrastructures, underpinning both digital and paper systems, for proving attributes such as vaccination, test results or recovery. These systems were hotly debated. Yet this debate often failed to connect their social, technical and legal aspects, focussing on one area to the exclusion of the others. In this paper, I seek to bring them together. I argue that fraud-free “vaccination certificate” systems were a technical and social pipe-dream, but one that was primarily advantageous to organisations wishing to establish and own infrastructure for future ambitions as verification platforms. Furthermore, attempts to include features to ostensibly reduce fraud had, and risks further, broader knock-on effects on local digital infrastructures around the world, particularly in countries with low IT capacities easily captured by large firms and de facto excluded from and by global standardisation processes. The paper further reflects on the role of privacy in these debates, and how privacy, and more specifically confidentiality, was misconstrued as a main design aim of these systems, when the main social problems could manifest even in a system built with state of the art privacy-enhancing technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic should sharpen our senses towards the importance of infrastructures, and more broadly, how to use technologies in societies in crises.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/h24uv/" target="_blank">Verification Theatre at Borders and in Pockets</a>
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<li><strong>Transformative Effects of COVID-19 on Healthcare Systems</strong> -
<div>
The global healthcare landscape has undergone an unprecedented metamorphosis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing vulnerabilities, sparking innovation, and necessitating adaptive strategies. This crisis’s impact extends beyond immediate health concerns, influencing healthcare delivery, policy, and infrastructure. Healthcare systems faced overwhelming strain, resulting in improvised medical units and resource allocation shifts. The pandemic prompted the deferral of non-urgent medical procedures, while telehealth integration surged, reshaping patient-doctor interactions. Fragile supply chains underscored the need for enhanced resilience measures. Mental health challenges highlighted the importance of comprehensive care, and healthcare workers exhibited remarkable resilience. Collective efforts accelerated scientific advancements, yielding swift vaccine development. Existing health inequalities were exacerbated, underscoring the urgency of equitable healthcare provision. Policy reforms and global cooperation played pivotal roles. A paradigm shift emerged, emphasizing digital innovation in healthcare. The pandemic’s repercussions underscore the significance of adaptability, collaboration, and ensuring fair access to care.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/8x53a/" target="_blank">Transformative Effects of COVID-19 on Healthcare Systems</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase 2/3 Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of an (Omicron Subvariant) COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Dose of Previously Vaccinated Participants.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: XBB.1.5 Vaccine (Booster);   Biological: XBB.1.5 Vaccine (single dose)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Novavax<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effect of Natural Food on Gut Microbiome and Phospholipid Spectrum of Immune Cells in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Freeze-dried Mare Milk (Saumal)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EFFECT OF COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY ON DEPRESSION AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH POST COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: rehacom<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Cairo University<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Intradermal Administration of a COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine in Elderly</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Vaccination; Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Comirnaty<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Radboud University Medical Center<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Safety and Immune Response Study to Evaluate Varying Doses of an mRNA Vaccine Against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: mRNA-CR-04 vaccine 10μg;   Biological: mRNA-CR-04 vaccine 30μg;   Biological: mRNA-CR-04 vaccine 100μg;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   GlaxoSmithKline<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase 3 Adolescent Study for SARS-CoV-2 rS Variant Vaccines</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: NVX-CoV2601 co-formulated Omicron XBB.1.5 SARS-CoV-2 rS vaccine;   Biological: Prototype/XBB.1.5 Bivalent Vaccine (5 µg)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Novavax<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dietary Intervention to Mitigate Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome;   Fatigue<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Dietary intervention to mitigate Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome;   Other: Attention Control<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Maryland, Baltimore<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hyperbaric on Pulmonary Functions in Post Covid -19 Patients.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post COVID-19 Patients<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: hyperbaric oxygen therapy;   Device: breathing exercise;   Drug: medical treatment<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Cairo University<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase II Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of BIMERVAX® When Coadministered With Seasonal Influenza Vaccine (SIIV) in Adults Older Than 65 Years of Age Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS CoV 2 Infection;   Influenza, Human<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: BIMERVAX;   Biological: SIIV<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Hipra Scientific, S.L.U<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Directed Topical Drug Delivery for Treatment for PASC Hyposmia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post Acute Sequelae Covid-19 Hyposmia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Beclomethasone;   Other: Placebo;   Device: Microsponge<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Duke University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Supported Employment COVID-19 Rapid Testing for PWID</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Health Behavior<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Supported Employment<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Oregon<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Telerehabilitation for Post COVID-19 Condition</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Long COVID;   Chronic Fatigue Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Telerehabilitation program based on cardiorespiratory principles<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Université de Sherbrooke;   Hotel Dieu Hospital<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of Tixagevimab/Cilgavimab and Regdanvimab Efficacy for Treatment of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Coronavirus Infections<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: tixagevimab/cilgavimab 150+150 mg;   Drug: tixagevimab/cilgavimab 300+300 mg;   Drug: regdanvimab<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   City Clinical Hospital No.52 of Moscow Healthcare Department;   Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Health Ministry of the Russian Federation<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety of Concomitant Administration of Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines With Influenza Vaccines</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Immune Response;   Safety<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: bivalent BNT162b2 mRNA original/omicron BA.4-5 vaccine;   Biological: quadrivalent influenza vaccine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Catholic Kwandong University;   Korea University Guro Hospital<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Getting INFORMED and Living Well Among Asian Americans in California</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Well-Being, Psychological<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: INFORMED-Living Well;   Behavioral: Text Messaging Only<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of California, San Francisco;   Chinese Community Health Resource Center;   University of California, Davis;   University of California, Merced;   California Department of Public Health<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Spike protein mutations and structural insights of pangolin lineage B.1.1.25 with implications for viral pathogenicity and ACE2 binding affinity</strong> - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID -19, is constantly evolving, requiring continuous genomic surveillance. In this study, we used whole-genome sequencing to investigate the genetic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Bangladesh, with particular emphasis on identifying dominant variants and associated mutations. We used high-throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) to obtain DNA sequences from COVID-19 patient samples and compared these…</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 drug binding pocket in TMEM16F calcium-activated ion channel and lipid scramblase</strong> - The dual functions of TMEM16F as Ca^(2+)-activated ion channel and lipid scramblase raise intriguing questions regarding their molecular basis. Intrigued by the ability of the FDA-approved drug niclosamide to inhibit TMEM16F-dependent syncytia formation induced by SARS-CoV-2, we examined cryo-EM structures of TMEM16F with or without bound niclosamide or 1PBC, a known blocker of TMEM16A Ca^(2+)-activated Cl^(-) channel. Here, we report evidence for a lipid scrambling pathway along a groove…</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>CYP19A1 mediates severe SARS-CoV-2 disease outcome in males</strong> - Male sex represents one of the major risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcome. However, underlying mechanisms that mediate sex-dependent disease outcome are as yet unknown. Here, we identify the CYP19A1 gene encoding for the testosterone-to-estradiol metabolizing enzyme CYP19A1 (also known as aromatase) as a host factor that contributes to worsened disease outcome in SARS-CoV-2-infected males. We analyzed exome sequencing data obtained from a human COVID-19 cohort (n = 2,866) using a…</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>Molnupiravir, a ribonucleoside antiviral prodrug against SARS-CoV-2, alters the voltage-gated sodium current and causes adverse events</strong> - Molnupiravir (MOL) is a ribonucleoside prodrug for oral treatment of COVID-19. Common adverse effects of MOL are headache, diarrhea, and nausea, which may be associated with altered sodium channel function. Here, we investigated the effect of MOL on voltage-gated Na^(+) current (I(Na)) in pituitary GH(3) cells. We show that MOL had distinct effects on transient and late I(Na), in combination with decreased time constant in the slow component of I(Na) inactivation. The 50% inhibitory…</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>Expression and immunogenicity of recombinant porcine epidemic diarrhea virus Nsp9</strong> - Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes acute diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and high mortality in newborn piglets, which leads to significant economic losses. Coronavirus nonstructural protein 9 (Nsp9) is an essential RNA binding protein for coronavirus replication, which renders it a promising candidate for developing antiviral drugs and diagnosis targeting PEDV. In this study, PEDV Nsp9 protein fused with MBP protein and His-tag were expressed and purified in Escherichia coli….</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>Targeted Application of Functional Foods as Immune Fitness Boosters in the Defense against Viral Infection</strong> - In recent times, the emergence of viral infections, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the monkeypox virus, and, most recently, the Langya virus, has highlighted the devastating effects of viral infection on human life. There has been significant progress in the development of efficacious vaccines for the prevention and control of viruses; however, the high rates of viral mutation and transmission necessitate the need for novel methods of control, management, and prevention. In recent years, there…</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>Phytochemical Profiling and Antiviral Activity of Green Sustainable Nanoparticles Derived from <em>Maesa indica</em> (Roxb.) Sweet against Human Coronavirus 229E</strong> - Plant secondary metabolites are key components for new, safe and effective drugs. Ethanolic extract of Maesa indica Roxb. Sweet (ME) aerial parts were used for biosynthesis of sustainable green zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) with an average particle size 6.80 ± 1.47 nm and zeta potential -19.7 mV. Both transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction assay confirmed the hexagonal shape of ZnO NPs. Phenolic ingredients in ME were identified using LC-ESI-MS/MS-MRM revealing the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Characterization of <em>Portulaca oleracea</em> Whole Plant: Evaluating Antioxidant, Anticancer, Antibacterial, and Antiviral Activities and Application as Quality Enhancer in Yogurt</strong> - Purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) is rich in phenolic compounds, protein, and iron. This study aims to produce functional yogurt with enhanced antioxidant, anticancer, antiviral, and antimicrobial properties by including safe purslane extract in yogurt formulation; the yogurt was preserved for 30 days at 4 °C, and then biochemical fluctuations were monitored. The purslane extract (PuE) had high phenolic compounds and flavonoids of 250 and 56 mg/mL, respectively. Therefore, PuE had considerable…</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>Assessment of Purity, Stability, and Pharmacokinetics of NGP-1, a Novel Prodrug of GS441254 with Potential Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Activity, Using Liquid Chromatography</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 is a highly contagious and pathogenic virus that first appeared in late December 2019 and caused a global pandemic in a short period. The virus is a single-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Coronaviridae family. Numerous treatments have been developed and tested in response to the pandemic, particularly antiviral drugs. Among them, GS441524 (GS441), a nucleoside antiviral drug, has demonstrated promising results in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, the limited oral…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Comprehensive Technology Platform for the Rapid Discovery of Peptide Inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 Pseudovirus Infection</strong> - We developed and validated a technology platform for designing and testing peptides inhibiting the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-based pseudoviruses. This platform integrates target evaluation, in silico inhibitor design, peptide synthesis, and efficacy screening. We generated a cyclic peptide library derived from the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. The cell-free validation process by ELISA…</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>Mechanism and antibacterial synergies of poly(Dabco-BBAC) nanoparticles against multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from human burns</strong> - Multi-drug resistant bacteria are a major problem in the treatment of infectious diseases, such as pneumonia, meningitis, or even coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Cationic nanopolymers are a new type of antimicrobial agent with high efficiency. We synthesized and characterized cationic polymer based on 1,4-diazabicyclo [2.2.2] octane (DABCO) and Bis (bromoacetyl)cystamine (BBAC), named poly (DABCO-BBAC) nanoparticles(NPs), and produced 150 nm diameter NPs. The antibacterial activity of poly…</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>Targeting RdRp of SARS-CoV-2 with De Novo Molecule Generation</strong> - Viruses are known for their extremely high mutation rates, allowing them to evade both the human immune system and many forms of standard medicine. Despite this, the RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) of the RNA viruses has been largely conserved, and any significant mutation of this protein is unlikely. The recent COVID-19 pandemic presents a need for therapeutics. We have designed a de novo drug design algorithm that generates strong binding ligands from scratch, based on only the structure…</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>Regadenoson for the treatment of COVID-19: A five case clinical series and mouse studies</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Infused RA is safe and produces rapid anti-inflammatory effects mediated by A2A adenosine receptors on iNKT cells and possibly in part by A2ARs on other immune cells and platelets. We speculate that iNKT cells are activated by release of injury-induced glycolipid antigens and/or alarmins such as IL-33 derived from virally infected type II epithelial cells which in turn activate iNKT cells and secondarily other immune cells. Adenosine released from hypoxic tissues, or RA infused as…</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>Shedding light into the biological activity of aminopterin, <em>via</em> molecular structural, docking, and molecular dynamics analyses</strong> - In this study, the structural and anticancer properties of aminopterin, as well as its antiviral characteristics, were elucidated. The preferred conformations of the title molecule were investigated with semiempirical AM1 method, and the obtained the lowest energy conformer was then optimized by using density functional (DFT/B3LYP) method with 6-311++G(d,p) as basis set. The vibrational frequencies of the optimized structure were calculated by the same level of theory and were compared with the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Soluble wild-type ACE2 molecules inhibit newer SARS-CoV-2 variants and are a potential antiviral strategy to mitigate disease severity in COVID-19</strong> - SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, has caused havoc around the world. While several COVID-19 vaccines and drugs have been authorised for use, these antiviral drugs remain beyond the reach of most low- and middle-income countries. Rapid viral evolution is reducing the efficacy of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies and contributing to deaths of some fully vaccinated persons. Others with normal immunity may have chosen not be vaccinated and remain at risk if they contract the…</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>2024 Preview: Bidenomics Versus the Trump Freak Show</strong> - The President’s feel-good tour offers a stark contrast to his predecessor’s summer of conspiracies and criminal indictments. But will it work? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/2024-preview-bidenomics-versus-the-trump-freak-show">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Ohio Voters Defeated an Effort to Thwart Abortion Rights</strong> - Opponents of the measure capitalized on fears of a Republican power grab. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-ohio-voters-defeated-an-effort-to-thwart-abortion-rights">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The End of Legacy Admissions Could Transform College Access</strong> - After the fall of affirmative action, liberals and conservatives want to eliminate benefits for children of alumni. Could their logic lead to reparations? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-end-of-legacy-admissions-could-transform-college-access">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Ambassador Without a Country</strong> - The Afghan statesman Zalmai Rassoul is recognized by the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland—but not by the Taliban. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/an-ambassador-without-a-country">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>China’s Economic Miracle Is Turning Into a Long Slog</strong> - As consumer prices fall and other signs of weakness emerge, fears are growing that the world’s second-largest economy could be heading toward an extended slump. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/chinas-economic-miracle-is-turning-into-a-long-slog">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Supreme Court is taking a wrecking ball to the wall between church and state</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A person in a black robe holding a religious cross on a chain. The Supreme Court building is in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cMUWuGpfEGtzYBJxCuG1iub_kQ4=/539x0:4848x3232/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72539614/525595384.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A Catholic priest holds a cross in front of the Supreme Court on the first day of legal arguments over the Affordable Care Act. | Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Court’s Republican majority has ground the Constitution’s establishment clause down to a nub.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ldQ1cz">
Last June, a previously obscure Oklahoma state board voted to allow two Roman Catholic dioceses to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/us/oklahoma-first-religious-charter-school-in-the-us.html">operate a charter school in that state</a>. Lawyers from several civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, responded just over a month later with a lawsuit alleging that this <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/okplac-inc-v-statewide-virtual-charter-school-board?document=Complaint-OKPLAC-Inc-v-Statewide-Virtual-Charter-School-Board">state-funded religious school violates the state constitution</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LGDGFo">
This challenge to the religious charter school, known as St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, should be a slam-dunk — at least assuming that the allegations in the lawsuit are correct.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4jwcrE">
Charter schools are public entities funded by state tax revenue. Among other things, the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/okplac-inc-v-statewide-virtual-charter-school-board?document=Complaint-OKPLAC-Inc-v-Statewide-Virtual-Charter-School-Board">complaint</a> points to a provision of the Oklahoma Constitution which provides that public education funds may not be “used for any other purpose than the support and maintenance of common schools <a href="https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=85092">for the equal benefit of all the people of the State</a>.” And several school policies described in the complaint indicate that St. Isidore does not intend to operate for the equal benefit of all students.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yh46jj">
According to the lawsuit, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, one of the two dioceses that plans to operate this school, has a policy of <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/okplac-inc-v-statewide-virtual-charter-school-board?document=Complaint-OKPLAC-Inc-v-Statewide-Virtual-Charter-School-Board">expelling students</a> who “intentionally or knowingly” express “disagreement with Catholic faith and morals.” This includes a rule that “‘advocating for, or expressing same-sex attractions … is not permitted’ for students,” and also a rule providing that a student who “reject[s] his or her own body” by beginning a gender transition “will be ‘choosing not to remain enrolled.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UxxWAm">
Yet the most striking thing about this legal complaint is what it does not say. The lawsuit states explicitly that “the plaintiffs’ claims for relief are brought solely under the state constitution, state statutes, and state regulations.” It does not even mention the federal Constitution’s First Amendment, with its prohibition on laws “<a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">respecting an establishment of religion</a>.” Before a series of recent Supreme Court decisions <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch">carved up this establishment clause</a>, a lawyer challenging government funding of religion almost certainly would have raised some claim under this clause.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8gHQS1">
(In response to my inquiry about the decision not to include an establishment clause claim in the Oklahoma lawsuit, Heather Weaver, a lawyer with the ACLU, said that “Oklahoma law provides robust protections for the separation of church and state and the fundamental principle that public schools must be open to all students, regardless of a student’s LGBTQ status, faith, disability, or other characteristics. Oklahoma law also gives taxpayers broad rights to challenge violations of these protections, so it made sense for us to file in state court with a focus on state law.”)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ETUkfj">
This establishment clause was long understood to require strict separation of church and state — and specifically to forbid using public funds to pay for religious instruction. As the Supreme Court said in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3620075287275437211"><em>Everson v. Board of Education</em></a><em> </em>(1947), “no tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CeaDDE">
But those days are long past. Indeed, under the current Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf"><em>Carson v. Makin</em></a> (2022), it’s not even clear that Oklahoma may refuse to fund charter schools that are operated by a church, that seek to train students in that church’s values, and that actively discriminate against individuals the church deems sinful.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ADCMul">
<em>Carson</em> held that Maine, which provided private school tuition vouchers to students in rural areas, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/21/23176893/supreme-court-carson-makin-religion-schools-vouchers-chief-justice-roberts">must allow students to use these vouchers at religious schools</a>. Private schools are, of course, private — meaning that they are not part of the state government even if they receive some funding from the state. So <em>Carson</em> does not, on its face, apply to charter schools — which are public schools even if they are often managed by a private institution. (Some advocates have <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/6/6/23751623/religious-charter-schools-private-oklahoma-explainer-supreme-court">claimed that charter schools should legally be classified as private schools</a> — an argument that has fairly obvious implications for religious charter schools under <em>Carson.</em>)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iCDqDi">
But the Court’s Republican-appointed majority has <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch">relentlessly moved to shrink the establishment clause</a>, and to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/2/21726876/supreme-court-religious-liberty-revolutionary-roman-catholic-diocese-cuomo-amy-coney-barrett">expand the rights of religious conservatives</a> more broadly. Oklahoma’s decision to authorize an explicitly religious charter school reads like the next incremental step in a broader legal campaign to eliminate the establishment clause’s restrictions on public schools altogether. And it is far from clear where this Supreme Court will draw the line and say that there are limits to the government’s ability to promote religion.
</p>
<h3 id="PAsoLq">
What is the establishment clause for?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9lupHK">
The establishment clause provides simply that there can be no law “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">respecting an establishment of religion</a>.” It does not explain what an “establishment of religion” is. Nor does it lay out in any detail when the government can and cannot provide benefits to a religious institution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QKIrZ8">
Armed only with this vague text, the Supreme Court has offered several competing explanations for why the establishment clause exists and what it was intended to prevent. At times, the Court has said that it exists to prevent the government from coercing nonbelievers into acts of devotion they find objectionable. At other times, the Court has described the establishment clause as a nod to pluralism — something that allows many religious traditions to thrive in the United States by forbidding the government from taking sides in religious debates.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ZHk8N">
<em>Everson</em> was rooted in the first of these two rationales, the belief that the government <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3620075287275437211">may not coerce others into religious exercise</a>. As Justice Hugo Black wrote in that case, the clause is intended to universalize a Virginia statute, authored by Thomas Jefferson, which provided that “no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5UdYxO">
<em>Everson</em> read this prohibition on coerced religious activity expansively to include not just direct use of force against nonbelievers, but also the use of taxes collected from the general public to fund religion. As Black wrote, “individual religious liberty could be achieved best under a government which was stripped of all power to tax, to support, or otherwise to assist any or all religions, or to interfere with the beliefs of any religious individual or group.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PjQs9v">
To be sure, this holding had limits. While <em>Everson</em> forbade taxation used specifically “to support” religion, it also recognized the government must provide some services to religious institutions. The government may still provide “police and fire protection, connections for sewage disposal, public highways and sidewalks” and the like to churches, for example, so long as these services are provided to religious institutions on the same terms that they are provided to everyone else.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SNpVUH">
The idea was that the state had to be “neutral in its relations with groups of religious believers and non-believers.” It could provide a religious institution with the same services it would provide to anyone else. But, if the government taxed, say, a Buddhist to pay for Jewish education, then that would violate the establishment clause because it effectively coerced that Buddhist into paying for another person’s religion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XS8aAX">
Fifteen years later, in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/370/421/"><em>Engel v. Vitale</em></a> (1962), Black laid out a different theory of why the establishment clause exists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LGR5TH">
In <em>Engel</em>, the Court struck down a school district’s policy of requiring teachers to begin each school day by reciting a prayer authored by the school board. “One of the greatest dangers to the freedom of the individual to worship in his own way,” Black warned, “lay in the Government’s placing its official stamp of approval upon one particular kind of prayer or one particular form of religious services.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dnC2NG">
The central idea animating <em>Engel</em> was that, if the government is allowed to write prayers or otherwise put its seal of approval on particular religious practices, then US politics will inevitably be consumed by religious believers from competing faiths, all lobbying elected officials to make sure that their religion receives the government’s blessing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dQbqvz">
The Court reached this conclusion after considering 16th-century English history, when Parliament approved a Book of Common Prayer that “set out in minute detail the accepted form and content of prayer and other religious ceremonies to be used in the established, tax-supported Church of England.” This led to perpetual lobbying, and frequent strife, over just what prayers the government should endorse and which ones it should reject. Powerful religious groups “struggled among themselves to impress their particular views upon the Government,” while less powerful religious believers literally fled the country — many of them becoming early American colonists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rsqzDq">
According to <em>Engel</em>, the First Amendment was drafted in large part to prevent this kind of strife among religious factions from occurring in the United States. The founding generation, Black wrote, was not willing “to let the content of their prayers and their privilege of praying whenever they pleased be influenced by the ballot box.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b7Db1t">
Thus, while <em>Everson</em> read the establishment clause as a shield against the government coercing nonbelievers into participating in religion, <em>Engel</em> saw it more as a safeguard for pluralism. The idea behind the later decision was that, for multiple faith traditions to coexist peacefully in the United States, the government had to be hyper-cautious about picking favorites among them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wkxzlk">
Of course, these two theories of the establishment clause are not mutually exclusive — how else could both <em>Everson</em> and <em>Engel</em> have been written by the same justice?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kxd8Dg">
But the last seven decades or so of establishment clause jurisprudence has largely been a fight over whether the Court should accept one or both of these theories — and just what it means to coerce religious belief or to pick favorites among faiths.
</p>
<h3 id="kcqeTC">
The current Court has abandoned any concerns about pluralism and defined “coercion” very narrowly
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="swc0r3">
Over time, <em>Engel</em>’s concerns about ensuring that the government does not favor one religion over another evolved into a ban on government “endorsement” of a particular religious viewpoint. The Court held in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/492/573/"><em>Allegheny County v. ACLU</em></a> (1989) that the prohibition against governmental endorsement of religion “preclude[s] government from conveying or attempting to convey a message that religion or a particular religious belief is <em>favored</em> or <em>preferred.</em>”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1pmfs4">
As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in an influential <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/465/668/">1984 concurring opinion</a>, government endorsements of religion undercut the pluralistic idea that all citizens enjoy equal political standing. They tell “nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community” while simultaneously telling “adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xhPifd">
Similarly, in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/90-1014.ZO.html"><em>Lee v. Weisman</em></a> (1992), the Court held that the establishment clause’s prohibition on coercion extends not just straightforward attempts to force a nonbeliever to participate in religion — such as if the government were to arrest or fine anyone who does not attend a church service. It also applies to more subtle forms of coercion, including the use of social pressure to encourage acts of faith.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vTUHe0">
In <em>Lee</em>, a public school invited a rabbi to deliver a prayer at a graduation ceremony. This, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the Court, is not allowed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2u0Y3z">
“The undeniable fact,” Kennedy explained, “is that the school district’s supervision and control of a high school graduation ceremony places public pressure, as well as peer pressure, on attending students to stand as a group or, at least, maintain respectful silence during the Invocation and Benediction.” Such pressure, “though subtle and indirect, can be as real as any overt compulsion,” as it leaves a young nonadherent with “a reasonable perception that she is being forced by the State to pray in a manner her conscience will not allow.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P3FY8O">
Thus, before the Roberts Court started dismantling the establishment clause’s safeguards, the Court recognized two values implicit in this clause: 1) the right to be free from coerced religious activity, and 2) the right to live in a pluralistic society where the government does not favor one person’s religion over the other. The right against coercion extended not just to direct pressure by the state, but also to more subtle forms of pressure such as a public school ceremony that effectively forces a student to choose between participating in a prayer or risking ostracizing themselves from their classmates. Meanwhile, the pluralistic right prevented the government from endorsing a particular religious viewpoint above others.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KgTW5j">
All of that went by the wayside, however, in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf"><em>Kennedy v. Bremerton School District</em></a> (2022).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rBQLoy">
<em>Bremerton</em> is a mystifying decision, in part because the six Republican-appointed justices in the majority <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch">took great liberties with the case’s facts</a>. It involved a high school football coach who would pray at the 50-yard line following games — in full view of students, players, and spectators, and sometimes surrounded by many of them as he was praying. There are photographs of crowds surrounding this coach as he prayed, some of which were included in Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3rOKV0">
Yet Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the Court’s opinion, falsely claimed that this coach only wanted to offer a “short, private, personal prayer.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U8mIBQ">
Because Gorsuch lied about the facts of this case, it’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch">hard to pinpoint exactly what <em>Bremerton</em> held</a>. No one questions that a public school employee may say private prayers while they are on the job. The question the Court was supposed to answer in <em>Bremerton</em> is whether a representative of the government may, during a public event, ostentatiously convey a religious message to hundreds or thousands of spectators — including potentially players who are under that government employee’s direct authority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AXzVFi">
One thing that is clear, however, is that the ban on government endorsements of religion will no longer be enforced by this Court’s GOP-appointed majority. Instead of applying “the endorsement test,” Gorsuch wrote, “the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf">reference to historical practices and understandings</a>.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6wmS5l">
And what, exactly, are those “historical practices and understandings?” Gorsuch does concede that “government may not, consistent with a historically sensitive understanding of the Establishment Clause, ‘make a religious observance compulsory.’” But his opinion suggests that the clause may do nothing else.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z5c4co">
Among other things, Gorsuch cites favorably to Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent in <em>Lee</em>, which described Justice Kennedy’s concerns about subtle pressure on public school students as “precious,” and which declares outright that “the coercion that was a hallmark of historical establishments of religion was coercion of religious orthodoxy and of financial support <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/505/577/"><em>by </em>force of law and threat of penalty</a>.” Gorsuch also quotes James Madison, claiming that Madison understood the First Amendment “to prevent one or multiple sects from ‘establish[ing] a religion to which they would compel others to conform.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9TDopN">
So, while the <em>Bremerton</em> opinion is not a model of clarity, two lessons can be extracted from it. One is that the ban on government endorsements of religion — the mechanism the Court used to ensure that a plurality of faiths would thrive in the United States — is now dead. The other is that, while the Court still recognizes that some forms of government coercion into religious behavior are not allowed, its Republican majority appears eager to narrow the definition of “coercion.” There may even be five votes for Scalia’s position — that the government may actively promote religion so long as it does not use force or the threat of penalty to do so.
</p>
<h3 id="yNdNNu">
The Court’s GOP-appointed majority has even ruled that the Constitution <em>requires</em> the government to fund religion
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fkCNg9">
One form of coercion that the current Court permits is the government may now take taxes from a nonbeliever — taxes that the nonbeliever must pay to avoid criminal sanctions — and use them to fund religious education.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U861G6">
Indeed, the government has been allowed to fund religious education with tax money for quite some time. In <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=127516650659374253"><em>Zelman v. Simmons-Harris</em></a> (2002), a 5–4 Court abandoned <em>Everson</em>’s strict rule against government funding of religion. That said, <em>Zelman</em> merely held that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/8/22824027/supreme-court-carson-makin-first-amendment-religion-schools-subsidize-roberts-alito-kavanaugh">states <em>could</em> offer tuition vouchers that fund private religious education</a> if they chose to do so. Nothing in <em>Zelman</em> prohibited states from maintaining a neutral posture on religion — one where the state government allows private schools to teach whatever religious lessons they choose, but where the state also refuses to fund those lessons at the taxpayer’s expense.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y0KSoo">
The Roberts Court’s biggest innovation on public funding of religion came in <em>Carson</em>, the case about Maine’s private school vouchers program. As the Court described this program, it allowed families in sparsely populated areas, areas where the state determined that it was <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/21/23176893/supreme-court-carson-makin-religion-schools-vouchers-chief-justice-roberts">not practical to operate a traditional public school</a>, to receive vouchers that would pay up to a certain amount of tuition “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf">at the public school or the approved private school of the parent’s choice at which the student is accepted</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YEH7uu">
Before <em>Carson</em>, however, these vouchers could only be used at “nonsectarian schools.” Maine decided, exercising the choice the Court left to it in <em>Zelman</em>, not to fund schools that promote a “faith or belief system” or that “presents the material taught through the lens of this faith.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hd0XIL">
In ordering Maine to fund religious education, <em>Carson</em> reached two somewhat conflicting conclusions. The first is that the sort of neutral posture toward religion permitted by <em>Zelman</em> is now unconstitutional. Maine’s program, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for his Court, “pays tuition for certain students at private schools — so long as the schools are not religious.” That, he claimed, “is discrimination against religion.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qO1nsw">
At the same time, <em>Carson</em> still permits a state to “provide a strictly secular education in its public schools.” And it also “need not subsidize private education.” But, once a state decides to fund private schools, “it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FTbfpB">
Roberts’s explanation for this distinction is grounded somewhat in the rule against coercion. He emphasized that, under <em>Carson</em>, “public funds flow to religious organizations through the independent choices of private benefit recipients,” and that any parent whose child winds up in a religious school will do so only because of that parent’s “choice.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CypSWe">
By contrast, if a state only offered a public education to its students, and then taught religion in those schools, that would mean that parents would have no choice but to send their children to a school where they will be religiously indoctrinated. Such a regime would probably violate even the Roberts Court’s understanding of the establishment clause because it would effectively coerce schoolchildren into attending religious classes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EnuLg9">
<em>Carson</em>, however, shows no regard for an entirely different kind of coercion. By ordering Maine to fund religious education, even only within the context of its rural vouchers program, the Court coerces Maine’s taxpayers into funding religious education. And the Court apparently found this kind of coercion completely unobjectionable.
</p>
<h3 id="3fSnWz">
So what are the Roberts Court’s limits on government programs that advance religion?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rqXpy6">
Read together, the Roberts Court’s establishment clause cases suggest that the Court probably will not neutralize this clause altogether. But they have already neutralized many of its modern applications, and they appear likely to endorse government behavior that would not have been tolerated even in the recent past.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9N19pU">
One category of establishment clause cases that I have not yet discussed is cases involving symbolic endorsements of religion. Think about cases where the government installs a giant <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/alabamas-chief-judge-ordered-remove-ten-commandments-monument-courthouse">Ten Commandments monument in the middle of a courthouse</a> or <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/17-1717_4f14.pdf">builds a cross on public land</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fg3r1s">
The Court’s previous decisions governing such monuments are <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/545/677/">nuanced</a> — a short summary is that government displays of religious symbols are sometimes allowed and sometimes not allowed. But it is far from clear whether, under the current Court, any religious display whatsoever will be struck down. After all, the best argument against allowing the government to build a giant cross on the front lawn of the White House is that doing so would endorse Christianity. But <em>Bremerton </em>held that the ban on government endorsements of religion is dead.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T1dZPH">
That leaves the rule against coercion, which does still seem to have a little life left in it. Even Gorsuch appears to concede, for example, that the government may not send the police to arrest someone who refuses to attend a Catholic mass or fine a Lutheran who refuses to convert to evangelical Christianity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zGrzwo">
But it is not at all clear whether the ban on coercion extends very far beyond cases involving the “force of law and threat of penalty” that Scalia denounced in his <em>Lee</em> dissent. Because <em>Bremerton</em> decided a fake case and did not actually engage with the question of whether a public school coach may ostentatiously perform their religious identity in front of the school community, we don’t yet know for sure whether the Court will allow government employees who wield authority over children to use that authority to pressure those children to embrace Christianity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cIAGQ0">
But the fact that the six justices who joined the <em>Bremerton</em> majority couldn’t even be honest about the facts of that case should not give hope to anyone who fears that teachers or coaches may use their government jobs to proselytize to their students. If nothing else, <em>Bremerton </em>shows that this Court will not be judicious in policing the line between private religious acts by government employees, which are emphatically permitted under the Constitution, and attempts by government officials to convert others to Christianity while the official is on the job.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4gtLT1">
And then there’s the school funding cases and other cases where a religious group sues to receive government funds. <em>Carson</em> held that private school voucher programs must fund religious education. And it also held that traditional public schools may elect to only teach secular material. But what about charter schools like Oklahoma’s St. Isidore?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S6abAY">
It remains to be seen how the courts will handle that case, but St. Isidore has a strong argument that it is entitled not only to receive government funds, but that it is also entitled to set up a religious school that is part of the Oklahoma government. Or, to put it another way, if <em>Carson</em> extends to charter schools and not just to private school voucher programs, then the <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/6/6/23751623/religious-charter-schools-private-oklahoma-explainer-supreme-court">45 states with charter school programs</a> all must include religious schools that otherwise qualify to participate in those programs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oeOa0a">
Because <em>Carson</em> placed so much emphasis on whether a government-funded religious school allows parents to choose whether to send their children to that school, there’s a fairly high likelihood that the Supreme Court will, indeed, extend <em>Carson</em> to apply to charter schools. That’s because charter schools, like private schools, typically do not compel any parent to send a child there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pGiaMI">
In the long run, advocates of private school vouchers and charter schools may come to regret the <em>Carson</em> decision. By forcing states to choose between either having a single, unitary public school system, or having government-funded private and charter schools that teach religious views many citizens may find objectionable, <em>Carson </em>places secularly minded states in a difficult position. If those states don’t want to fund schools like St. Isidore, or other religious schools that may teach that LGBTQ people are immoral, <em>Carson </em>suggests that they must eliminate any programs funding private schools or publicly funded charter schools altogether.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mHxBfe">
Nevertheless, the Court’s Republican-appointed majority appears as unconcerned with this problem as it is with the problem of taxing secular citizens to pay for religious education.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HjR8nc">
The future of religion in the United States, in other words, is unlikely to involve police officers breaking into people’s homes to arrest them for skipping church. But it is likely to include far more government funding of religious activity, far more proselytizing by teachers, coaches, and other government officials who wield authority over children, and many more monuments to Christianity — all paid for by your taxes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GWmC1T">
</p></li>
<li><strong>How to (actually) talk to kids</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An adult crouching down to talk to a child." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TzGoPhkyRvCnj6sTTsJEFieThIo=/250x0:6250x4500/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72539605/GettyImages_1257153390.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Fumiko Inoue / Getty Images
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
It’s not dissimilar from talking to other adults, but even the most well-meaning grown-ups can forget that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nHQ1uN">
Somehow, despite our best efforts, it still happens to even the most self-assured adult. You’re at a birthday party or a family dinner or a picnic in the park, and suddenly, you find yourself face to face with a kid. You introduce yourselves, there’s a slight pause, and then, even though you know better, you hear the boring question coming out of your mouth: “So how’s school?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wO3ikp">
Why are adults so bad at talking to kids, considering each and every one of us used to be one? “We forget what it’s like to be a child,” says Tina Payne Bryson, a psychotherapist and co-author of <em>The Whole-Brain Child</em>. “It’s hard sometimes to relate to kids because the rhythm of our days is so different.” Our brains and habits have changed, and as adults, it can be tough to remember what it’s like to be a 10-year-old.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RRzZM0">
But that’s the key: Talking to and connecting with 10-year-olds now doesn’t require remembering what you were like at 10. Instead, it’s all about approaching them as people: individuals who have their own interests, insights, and personalities. If you’re curious, warm, and earnest, you can make a new friend — and leave your awkward adult persona behind.
</p>
<h3 id="swg5lP">
Find a point of connection
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CaMJ7z">
Much like in an initial conversation with an adult stranger, it can be hard to know where to begin. But once you offer up an open-ended topic, a kid will often run with it. Icebreakers with a kid can be situational. If you’re at a barbecue, ask them what their favorite condiment is. Or they can be general: Did you see a funny animal video recently? “You just want to get the kid talking,” says Ben R., an 11-year-old who lives in Highland Ranch, Colorado. “You want to get to know them.” Ben recommends starting with a question about something that you enjoy. If you like video games, ask what games they like to play; if you’re a big reader, ask about their favorite recent book.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lVe8HX">
The framing is important. “Adults reach for whatever they can, and ask a yes or no question,” says Robyn Silverman, host of the podcast <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-talk-to-kids-about-anything/id1231126178"><em>How to Talk to Kids About Anything</em></a>. If a kid is wearing a baseball cap, asking whether they like baseball is not a good question — just like if you were wearing a baseball cap, that question wouldn’t encourage you to keep talking. Don’t despair: You can just tweak the format of a question to improve it. “Instead of ‘How’s school?’, you could ask, ‘If you were principal for the day, what’s one thing you’d absolutely change?’” suggests Silverman. “A more interesting question will elicit a response more than ‘fine.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QzRnt3">
That first conversational volley is all about finding a point of connection. It could be a shared interest, such as the card game Codenames, or a low-stakes disagreement, like whether dipping french fries in a milkshake is delicious or gross. “The great thing about asking questions is to find out what you have in common,” says Ben. “You’ll feel more relaxed then and can focus on connecting through that.”
</p>
<h3 id="O4j0sJ">
Ask good follow-up questions
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ZSmAb">
The next step in a good conversation with a kid? Pay attention. This is where many adults slip up. Instead of actually listening to what a kid has to say and asking a relevant follow-up question, they jump in with a long story about themselves — or, worse, offer up a weird non sequitur. Recently, Ben was waiting in line for a waterslide when the adult behind him asked what grade he was in. After he answered, the stranger, who had not previously met the fifth-grader, replied by saying that he grew up so fast. “I thought to myself, is this how adults are? They just ask simple questions, half-pay attention to the conversation, and get distracted by something else?” Ben says. “I felt like he could have just realized that I could talk the same way everybody else could, but he made it really awkward for the rest of the conversation.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xy6IkG">
Asking a good follow-up question is all about active listening, which requires humility. A kid is a person with their own interests and expertise, and you can learn from them, just like you learn from a conversation with another adult. “Kids are egocentric in nature, and they love to talk about what they love,” says Morgan Eldridge, a clinical psychologist who recommends framing a child as the expert on what they care about. “If you don’t know anything about Pokémon cards, ask them to tell you about it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VZgmhr">
More key aspects of active listening are body language and tone. If you’re talking to a younger kid, physically get down on their level so that you’re not looming over them. For kids and adults alike, face them, put away your phone, make eye contact, and smile. No need to speak in a different voice, though. “There are multiple occasions where adults have talked to me with a childish tone,” says Ben. “We’re more sophisticated than they think.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r9DmiC">
When you’re fostering a comfortable conversational environment for a kid, you should also think about safety. There’s an inherent power imbalance between an adult and a kid, especially when you don’t know each other well, and as the adult, you’re responsible for making sure that your relationship and conversation stay appropriate. “Kids need to feel safe, seen, soothed, and secure,” says Bryson. “When you smile and have relaxed posture, it sends signals of safety and connection.”
</p>
<h3 id="mm4y2l">
Let their enthusiasm lead
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ThyiaL">
Once the conversation is moving, step back. “When talking to kids, adults make the mistake that they need to talk a lot,” says Silverman. “But people [not just children!] actually love it when you listen.” Instead, ask questions and let the kid direct the flow; they’ll naturally lead the conversation toward what interests them most.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nbavgb">
In many cases, this means going in a speculative, silly direction, which can be tricky for grown-ups. “Adults are more logical and solution-driven,” says Bryson. “We’ve forgotten what it’s like to play.” To rediscover your playful side, you can always ask an open-ended question, or even a goofy one: If you were going to open a restaurant that only serves three dishes, what would they be? What celebrity has the coolest style of all time? Would you rather have to fight 50 mosquito-sized alligators or one alligator-sized mosquito?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kk26hB">
No matter what, don’t dismiss their enthusiasm. If a kid loves basketball but you don’t care about sports, ask them to tell you about their favorite player of all time. If they just learned a ton about bugs in a science unit, don’t try to show off how much <em>you</em> know — encourage them to share instead. “There’s a power imbalance, and it seems to give adults permission to belittle,” says Silverman.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8J5KEP">
If you do make a faux pas, like talking over them or getting distracted, own up to it, apologize, and redirect. You can always say, “I just spaced out, I’m sorry. What were you saying about summer camp?” Just pick the conversation back up afterward.
</p>
<h3 id="Fqkj2Z">
Be yourself (even if that means being shy)
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZY34o8">
Kids have different temperaments and personalities, just like adults do. They don’t expect everyone to be outgoing and loud. In fact, not every kid will want you to be. “Just like different friends appeal to different people, different kinds of adults will appear to different kids,” says Bryson. “The boisterous adult doesn’t appear to some kids, and the quiet adult doesn’t to others.” Just come as you are, since kids can tell whether you’re being authentic or not. “It’s really about showing up as yourself in the moment,” Bryson says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QMoBIz">
If you are on the quieter side, don’t worry. Kids know what it’s like to feel anxious in a conversation, too. “Sometimes you just get nervous, and that’s okay,” says Fiona A., an 8-year-old who lives in Salinas, California. “Or sometimes you need a little bit of alone time. Just be you.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6N91Jz">
Ben suggests a trick that he uses when he feels awkward or unsure about what to talk about: When you get stuck and start to feel self-conscious, ask a question. “Even if you don’t pay attention, it diverts the conversation away from yourself,” he says. “You learn more about them, and also you don’t have to talk as much.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="91N1h7">
Sometimes, you’ll notice that a kid seems anxious to be talking to an adult. In that case, make sure you’re projecting a warm, friendly, safe environment. Being vulnerable can help them feel more comfortable, too. “A lot of adults are authority figures, and sharing something embarrassing can make us more accessible,” says Bryson. When she’s talking to a quiet kid, she often shares a story about when the class rat bit her in first grade at the school Christmas party; her listeners are always on the edge of their seats, ready to share their own best animal story afterward. You can be vulnerable about feeling awkward, too: If you share that you often feel shy at parties, then it normalizes the kid feeling shy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WSjNx2">
And if they’d rather be quiet, it’s also fine to share a companionable silence. “If we ask a question or two and they don’t expand, it just means they don’t want to be asked a question right now,” says Bryson. If they’re not uncomfortable with quiet, then you shouldn’t be, either.
</p>
<h3 id="tJZz7P">
Refer back to your shared interests
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f8Bk0Q">
Once you’ve had a friendly conversation with a kid and found some common ground, you can start to develop an ongoing relationship with them. Just like with a new adult friend, it’s important to remember details about them and refer back to them in future conversations. Did they tell you about joining the soccer team? Ask how the season is going. Did you bond over your love of superhero <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a>? Ask them what they thought of the sequel to <em>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</em>. If you know in advance that you’re going to see a kid who you’ve already spent time with, you could send them something that you can then talk about in person. Bryson recently hosted a friend and their 13-year-old son; in anticipation of his visit, she sent him some funny dog videos on <a href="https://www.vox.com/instagram-news">Instagram</a>. That offers an easy way to break the ice and connect in person again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t4o5dV">
No matter the age gap, making conversation and becoming friends always happens much the same way: capitalizing on shared interests, asking good questions, and paying attention. And once you’re friends, conversation is easy. “After I get to know an adult, it’s easy to talk to her,” says Fiona. “It’s more complex to build friendship with an adult, but once you do, it’s like they’re a kid just like you.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OjITi8">
<a href="https://charleylocke.com/"><em>Charley Locke</em></a><em> is a freelance journalist. She often covers young people and elders for publications including the New York Times for Kids, the New York Times Magazine, and the Atlantic.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>What could still go wrong with the US-Iran prisoner swap</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Visits The Holy Shrine Of Hazrat Zeinab..." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PYZd2F-wAHie4IDpV4lRUf1GQLw=/345x0:5465x3840/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72538756/1487585026.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Borna News/Matin Ghasemi/Aksonline ATPImages/Getty Images
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</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
For Iran’s struggling economy, the deal is more about money.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lmkZFM">
A tentative deal to release five Americans held in <a href="https://www.vox.com/iran">Iran</a> in exchange for access to $6 billion in assets and the release of people imprisoned in the US could hit major snags — or fall apart altogether — in the weeks before it’s complete due to persistent and escalating tensions between the US and Iran.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qgUCpP">
The agreement, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken detailed Thursday, was negotiated by the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran over a period of two years, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/politics/iran-us-prisoner-swap.html">the New York Times</a>, and was facilitated by Oman, Qatar, and Switzerland. Though the agreement does involve the eventual release of prisoners by both parties, Iran’s primary motivation for engaging in the negotiations is a mechanism by which it can access billions of dollars of its own assets to purchase humanitarian goods like food and medicine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yFLtO1">
However, trouble already seems to be on the horizon, since Iranian state news has maintained as of Friday that the government can use the released funds however it sees fit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qSkt8f">
Iran has been in an economic crisis for years, due in part to state corruption and incompetence — but also due to harsh US-led sanctions. The sanctions have had such a chilling effect that South Korean banks holding the Iranian assets in question have refused to release them, even to purchase necessities like food and medicine despite humanitarian carveouts built in to sanctions policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zB5MRs">
Iran has reportedly already moved the five American-Iranian citizens from detention in its notorious Evin prison to house arrest, a positive sign that Iran is upholding its part of the deal. Three of the prisoners, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/world/middleeast/americans-prisoners-iran-swap.html">Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, and Emad Sharghi</a>, have been in detention on unsubstantiated charges of espionage and have served at least half of their sentence. Two others have not yet been identified in the press.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wP2dRE">
The US has so far declined to acknowledge that it will release any prisoners held in the US, much less how many people it will release under the deal or any of their identities. However, people familiar with the deal told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/politics/iran-us-prisoner-swap.html">New York Times </a>that a handful of <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/virginia-man-sentenced-federal-prison-conspiring-violate-iranian-sanctions">Iranian nationals</a> incarcerated for <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/iranian-nationals-charged-conspiring-evade-us-sanctions-iran-disguising-300-million">evading US sanctions against Iran</a> will be released once the prisoners currently in Iran are safely back in the US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zhIFta">
Despite the seeming diplomatic victory, though, there is still plenty of time for it to go south; Qatar has agreed to facilitate Iran’s humanitarian purchases, but the mechanism through which that will take place could take more than a month to implement. That’s plenty of time for the deal to unravel, given the fact that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/8/11/23827555/bidens-risky-persian-gulf-bet">US has announced plans to put Marines on vessels</a> transiting the Strait of Hormuz to ward off attacks by Iran-linked groups.
</p>
<h3 id="aXC6Xp">
The negotiations were complex and took more than two years
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LHtxmE">
Details of the negotiations themselves are scarce, but <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/12/politics/iran-prisoner-deal-took-shuttle-diplomacy-from-hotel-to-hotel/index.html">as CNN reported Friday</a>, they are the culmination of more than two years of complex and sensitive talks — made even more challenging by the fact that the US and Iran have no diplomatic relationship.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n3VA22">
Qatar, Oman, and <a href="https://www.eda.admin.ch/countries/iran/en/home/switzerland-and/bilateral-relations.html">Switzerland</a> were instrumental in hammering out the final deal, acting as the mediators between the Islamic Republic and US officials during sensitive meetings in Doha, Qatar’s capital. Iranian officials had refused direct meetings with Washington, but Switzerland manages US affairs in Iran, and Oman has significant experience negotiating similar agreements, <a href="https://fm.gov.om/oman-mediates-prisoner-swap-between-iran-and-belgium/#:~:text=Following%20the%20directives%20of%20His,for%20a%20mutual%20exchange%20deal.">including one in May between Belgium and Iran</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cj5CFj">
“These two Gulf countries, Oman and Qatar, believe that the other is playing a useful role — there’s no competition between Oman and Qatar in terms of trying to establish one or the other as the main back channel or diplomatic bridge between Iran and the West,” Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf Analytics, told Vox. “They are working in tandem and they have many of the same interests in terms easing tensions between Iran and its regional and international adversaries.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zUoMU6">
Qatar in particular plays a critical role in relations between the US and Iran because its close relations with both countries make that a necessity; as Cafiero told Vox, Qatar depends on the US for its <a href="https://www.vox.com/defense-and-security">national security</a> but is a partner with Iran in the world’s largest gas field, the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northfield-qatar/factbox-qatar-iran-share-worlds-biggest-gas-field-idUSTRE66P1VV20100726">South Pars/North Dome gas-condensate field in the Persian Gulf</a>. Coordination on development in the field is critical for Qatar as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/09/business/energy-environment/qatar-gas-oil.html">one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG)</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0KXC3d">
Ties with Iran were also critical during the Saudi blockade of Qatar from 2017 to 2021. “The Qataris had to rely on Iranian ports and Iranian airspace for much of their international trade during that crisis,” Cafiero said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aELBSM">
Participating in and trying to manage de-escalatory talks between the two nations is critical to Qatar’s national interest — which may be why the emirate has stepped up to play such a critical role in the negotiations. “Qatar does not want to see an armed conflict between Iran and the United States,” Cafiero said. “That scenario would be extremely dangerous for Doha from the standpoint of Qatar’s economic and security interests.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VD42Tr">
In addition to being a mediator between the US and Iran, Qatar will also essentially manage the $6 billion in Iranian assets now in South Korea. That money, proceeds from oil sales, was transferred by the US to a South Korean account under the Trump administration. Despite exemptions for purchases for humanitarian essentials, South Korean administrators had frozen the funds due to the chilling effect of US sanctions, according to Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xoABPD">
“Qatar has done the heavy lifting, putting the financial mechanism together” to help put the deal over the finish line, he said in an interview.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="onDnwN">
Ultimately the funds are the important part of the deal for Iran — not the Iranian nationals that the US might release. As Vaez told Vox, the Iranian health ministry estimates that 60 percent of citizens do not have enough to eat, and there is limited access to live-saving advanced medicine like cancer treatments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oaTsfK">
The Iranian economy has been in free-fall due to major nationwide protests against the police killing of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, last September, for wearing her hijab improperly. Now, the exchange rate for the Iranian rial is approximately 500,000 to 1 US dollar, compared to <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-currency-weakens-nuclear-deal-dead/32186097.html">298,200 to the dollar a year ago</a>, and inflation is at about 47.5 percent, the <a href="https://www.irna.ir/news/85180405/%D9%86%D8%B1%D8%AE-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%85-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D9%87%D9%85%D9%87-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%87%D8%A7-%D9%86%D8%B2%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C-%D8%B4%D8%AF-%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%DB%B4%DB%B3-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%86">Iran Statistical Center reported last month</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="apqOfQ">
Despite a de-escalatory success, conflict is still brewing between the US and Iran
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oid5eV">
The fundamental tension of arranging a prisoner swap while also ratcheting up conflict and military presence in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical commercial transits in the world, does not chart a safe path forward for the arrangement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2ypbda">
Although Iran has engaged in de-escalatory actions with adversaries like <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/timeline-iran-saudi-relations?gad=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw29ymBhAKEiwAHJbJ8gEXlLlu87mtYB9jR9bLKdzfwZwUt7o19n1R-YYp9S2_VT-RiLU4qxoCZZ4QAvD_BwE">Saudi Arabia</a> and the US, that does not mean that the regime has fundamentally changed, Vaez said. “The <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a> is doing this deal with its eyes open,” Vaez said, calling the deal “transactional, not transformational.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pc819W">
Relations between Iran and the US continue to be strained, as evidenced by the US threat to put Marines aboard US-flagged vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. As <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/8/11/23827555/bidens-risky-persian-gulf-bet">Vox’s Jonathan Guyer</a> wrote earlier this week:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zAYf4v">
The Biden administration <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3485747/press-gaggle-with-air-force-brigadier-general-pat-ryder-pentagon-press-secretary/"><strong>says</strong></a> that the Iranian threat to tanker traffic is the reason for the deployment of sailors and Marines. Iran <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/second-oil-tanker-week-seized-by-iran-gulf-us-navy-2023-05-03/"><strong>seized</strong></a> two oil tankers in a week this past spring. Iran also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/6/us-navy-says-iran-seized-commercial-ship-in-gulf"><strong>intercepted</strong></a> a Tanzanian-flagged tanker on July 6, a day after the US Navy intervened to dissuade Iran from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gulf-iran-us-tensions-shipping-oil-127f8b77aa7e41dcd8266b6fbe5800dc"><strong>nearly seizing</strong></a> two ships. Iran has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/7/thousands-of-us-troops-arrive-in-red-sea-amid-ratcheting-iran-tensions"><strong>said</strong></a> that it sees itself as responsible for the security of the Gulf, not least because of its long coastline, and claimed it has not illegally seized tankers.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ycpIRf">
That could put the two countries at higher risk for a confrontation, Vaez pointed out, potentially scuttling the prisoner swap deal. “That is the biggest concern,” he told Vox, although other regional issues could interfere — for example, increased confrontations between Iran-backed groups or Syrian forces and Israeli troops in Syria could also put the US on the defensive, since the US is Israel’s closest security partner.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Til696">
Domestic issues within both the US and Iran could also complicate matters, since factions on both sides object to the deal. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has called the deal a “ransom” and a “craven act of appeasement,” as <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/10/republicans-biden-iran-00110737">Politico</a> reported, Thursday, and claimed that Iran would use the released assets to “attack our troops, fund terrorism, and arm Russia.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bx1pmQ">
In Iran, though the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei likely supports the deal, Vaez said, there are factions within leadership that see the arrangement as “a humiliating oil for food arrangement,” referencing a <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/oip/sector-food.html">UN program from the 1990s</a> intended to offset the devastating consequences of sanctions against Iraq.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1VHNVg">
Overall, the regime has framed the deal as a major victory in state media, and as an important step in President Ebrahim Raisi’s program to stabilize the currency. But there seems to be a hitch in the plan already, as the <a href="https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-august-11-2023">Institute for the Study of War described in its August 11 Iran update</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sq1zq1">
Though US officials have stressed that the $6 billion released from the South Korean account is to be used only for humanitarian purchases, the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed that “the decision on how to use these unfrozen resources and financial assets lies with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-prisoner-deal-money-6-billion-restrictions/">CBS reported Friday</a>. <a href="https://www.irna.ir/news/85195537/%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D8%A7%D8%AE%D8%B0-%D8%AA%D8%B6%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86-%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%85-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%BE%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%A2%D9%85%D8%B1%DB%8C%DA%A9%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%A7-%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%87%D9%85-%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B2%DB%8C-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B9">Mohammad Marandi</a>, identified as a media advisor to the Iranian negotiating team, claimed that Iran has “full and direct access” to the funds, and that “no Qatari company” is managing the assets.
</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>Srinivas Reddy upbeat about Bangladesh’s prospects at the Asiad</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>Kylian Mbappe returns to training with PSG after constructive talks with the club</strong> - PSG received a world-record $332 million bid from Saudi Arabian team Al-Hilal for Mbappe, who reportedly refused to meet with representatives.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India jump to No. 3 place in FIH rankings after ACT triumph</strong> - India (2771.35 points) jumped one place to third and went past England (2763.50 points) behind top-ranked Netherlands (3095.90 points) and Belgium (2917.87 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>Want to make sure, I’m ready for tomorrow: Jaiswal</strong> - Jaiswal said he’s making the most of the opportunity of sharing the Indian dressing room with seniors like coach Rahul Dravid, captain Rohit, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and Suryakumar Yadav</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>Asian Champions Trophy title triumph over Malaysia will ‘really count’ as India prepare for Asian Games: Fulton</strong> - The India hockey team fought back from two goals down to eke out a 4-3 win over Malaysia in the final to claim their fourth ACT title in Chennai</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>Budget outlay for ‘Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam’ may be increased in Tamil Nadu</strong> - A final decision on whether to increase the outlay would be made only after the final tally of applications, say sources</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>Delayed monsoon hits cotton, pulses’ cultivation</strong> - Energy consumption went up with increase in paddy cultivation</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>Manipur government employee lodges complaint in Bengaluru alleging takeover of her Imphal quarters to house refugees</strong> - Manipur has been witnessing ethnic clashes between Meities and Kuki-Zo communities since May 3.</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>Karnataka has 312 operational CNG stations, 1,414 more planned</strong> - Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts have set up 89 CNG stations as on May 31, followed by Dakshina Kannada district which has set up 28 CNG stations.</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>Eighteen deaths reported in 24 hours in Thane hospital; probe panel constituted, says civic chief</strong> - Twelve of the deceased were above the age of 50, civic commissioner Abhijit Bangar said</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Crimea bridge targeted by missiles, Russia says</strong> - The bridge that connects Russia to occupied Crimea has been attacked at least twice before.</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>Migrant boat sinks in Channel killing six people</strong> - UK and French coastguards rescued 59 people but two may still be missing, authorities 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>Ukraine war: Sex lives in focus for Ukraine’s injured veterans</strong> - The charity ReSex is providing guidance for wounded soldiers looking for help with their sex lives.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>US returns haul of stolen artefacts to Italy</strong> - The items were all stolen from Italy in the late 1990s and some were worth millions of euros.</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>K2: Climbers deny walking by dying guide in bid to break record</strong> - Footage has emerged appearing to show Kristin Harila’s team climbing over Mohammed Hassan on Pakistan’s K2.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The “Shove” mechanic in Baldur’s Gate 3 can ruin an encounter, and I love it</strong> - What my brave warrior’s death to a lowly goblin taught me about dice anarchy. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960409">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-magnetizing-vaccine doctor loses medical license</strong> - Tenpenny lost her license for refusing to cooperate with a board investigation. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960598">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sites scramble to block ChatGPT web crawler after instructions emerge</strong> - Restrictions don’t apply to current OpenAI models, but will affect future versions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960108">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft finds vulnerabilities it says could be used to shut down power plants</strong> - Exploitation is hard and patches are already out, but the potential risk is great. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960538">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sam Bankman-Fried is going to jail</strong> - Judge also denied SBF’s request to delay jail time. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960540">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>Stalin appears to Putin in a dream.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Why is everything here so bad?” asks Putin, “What should I do to make Russia great again?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Execute half the population and paint the Kremlin blue” says Stalin.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Why blue?” asks the inquisitive Putin.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I knew you wouldn’t object to the first part,” says Stalin.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MudakMudakov"> /u/MudakMudakov </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pmrpz/stalin_appears_to_putin_in_a_dream/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pmrpz/stalin_appears_to_putin_in_a_dream/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>This one is so old it’s been carbon-dated.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A farmer was out working in his field one day when a carload of politicians came flying by. They were going too fast for the curve and turned over in the ditch. Later the sheriff stopped by and asked the farmer if he has seen the car.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yep” replied the farmer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Where are they?” asked the sheriff.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Over there”, replied the farmer pointing to the ditch filled with fresh dirt.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“You buried them?” asked the sheriff, “Are you sure they were dead?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Replied the farmer, “They said they weren’t, but you know how those people lie.”
</p>
<h1>
humor
</h1>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Spare_Preparation_47"> /u/Spare_Preparation_47 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ppua4/this_one_is_so_old_its_been_carbondated/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ppua4/this_one_is_so_old_its_been_carbondated/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man haunted by his sins went to the church for a confession with the priest…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
There’s a devout Catholic man who once committed a regrettable act – he gave his best friend a blowjob while intoxicated. Filled with remorse, he decided to seek forgiveness from God and headed to the church.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Inside the church, he approached the priest and says he wants to confessed his sin, the priest say: “no need to tell me, take a look on this book” The priest handed him a book containing a list of sins along with their corresponding penances for forgiveness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As he flipped through the pages, he noticed various sins and their prescribed prayers: - “Stealing: 10 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers” - “Gluttony: 10 Hail Marys” - “Envy: 10 Our Fathers”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He searched the entire book but couldn’t find the specific sin he was seeking forgiveness for – “blowjob.” Feeling puzzled, he spotted one of the altar boys nearby, a regular helper at the church. He decided to ask for advice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Approaching the altar boy, he inquired hesitantly, "Hey, young fellow, I’m not sure how to handle a situation. What does the priest usually give for. blowjobs?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The altar boy, unaware of the man’s situation, thought for a moment and responded cheerfully, “Well, for me, the priest usually gives a bag of Cheetos! But as for you, I guess you’ll have to negotiate that with him!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/pescadoparrudo"> /u/pescadoparrudo </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pd2el/a_man_haunted_by_his_sins_went_to_the_church_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pd2el/a_man_haunted_by_his_sins_went_to_the_church_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I dated a girl who’s kink was to freeze my erect penis before having sex.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We eventually broke it off.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ilikesidehugs"> /u/ilikesidehugs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pe3ei/i_dated_a_girl_whos_kink_was_to_freeze_my_erect/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pe3ei/i_dated_a_girl_whos_kink_was_to_freeze_my_erect/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My coworker keeps complaining about his lunch being stolen from the break room fridge.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Monday morning he brought in a turkey and provolone on wheat bread. Put it in the fridge. By lunch time it was gone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Tuesday he brought in ham and cheddar on white bread. Put it in the fridge, again gone by lunch.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Today he brought a chicken ceaser wrap. Gone by noon.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I hope he brings a pastrami and Swiss tommorow. That’s my favorite.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/OkEnvironment3961"> /u/OkEnvironment3961 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pa6tc/my_coworker_keeps_complaining_about_his_lunch/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15pa6tc/my_coworker_keeps_complaining_about_his_lunch/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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