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<title>09 December, 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>Distance to Vaccine Sites is Associated with Lower COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 remains a leading cause of mortality in the U.S., despite widespread availability of vaccines. Conventional wisdom ties failure to vaccinate primarily to vaccine-skeptic beliefs (e.g., conspiracy theories, partisanship). Yet in this research, we find that vaccination is also hindered by travel distance to vaccine sites (a form of friction, or structural barriers). In study 1, Californians living farther from vaccine sites had lower vaccination rates, and this effect held regardless of partisanship. In study 2, Chicago zip codes saw an uptick in vaccination following vaccine site opening. These results proved robust in multiverse analyses accounting for a wide range of covariates, outcomes, and distance indicators. COVID-19 vaccination is hampered not just by vaccine hesitancy, but also structural barriers like distance. Efforts to boost vaccination could benefit from minimizing friction.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/mux5s/" target="_blank">Distance to Vaccine Sites is Associated with Lower COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with intestinal permeability, systemic inflammation, and microbial dysbiosis in hospitalized COVID-19 patients</strong> -
<div>
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and associated severity has been linked to uncontrolled inflammation and may be associated with changes in the microbiome of mucosal sites including the gastrointestinal tract and oral cavity. These sites play an important role in host-microbe homeostasis and disruption of epithelial barrier integrity during COVID-19 may potentially lead to exacerbated inflammation and immune dysfunction. Outcomes in COVID-19 are highly disparate, ranging from asymptomatic to fatal, and the impact of microbial dysbiosis on disease severity is unclear. Here, we obtained plasma, rectal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs, and nasal swabs from 86 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and 12 healthy volunteers. We performed 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize the microbial communities in the mucosal swabs and measured circulating cytokines, markers of gut barrier integrity, and fatty acids in the plasma samples. We compared these plasma concentrations and microbiomes between healthy volunteers and the COVID-19 patients who had survived or unfortunately died by the end of study enrollment, and between severe disease and healthy controls, as well as performed a correlation analysis between plasma variables and bacterial abundances. The rectal swabs of COVID-19 patients had reduced abundances of several commensal bacteria including Faecalibacterium prausnitsii, and an increased abundance of the opportunistic pathogens Eggerthella lenta and Hungatella hathewayi. Furthermore, the oral pathogen Scardovia wiggsiae was more abundant in the oropharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients who died. The abundance of both H. hathewayi and S. wiggsiae correlated with circulating inflammatory markers including IL-6, highlighting the possible role of the microbiome in COVID-19 severity, and providing potential therapeutic targets for managing COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.07.570670v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with intestinal permeability, systemic inflammation, and microbial dysbiosis in hospitalized COVID-19 patients</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effects of remote work on population distribution across cities: US evidence from a QSE model</strong> -
<div>
This study investigates the impact of remote work adoption on the size and competitiveness of cities in the United States. As a contribution to the ongoing debate sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the research initially establishes city-specific upper-bound measures of potential remote work adoption, utilizing the share of employment in remotely-performable occupations for each city. Subsequently, it employs a Quantitative Spatial Economic model, incorporating shipping and commuting costs, to assess the counterfactual effects that these potential levels of remote work adoption would have on population distribution across US cities. Model predictions indicate that upon full remote-work adoption, only select highly productive cities would grow in size and productivity, tothe detriment of the majority of locations. Nevertheless, the emerging spatial equilibrium yields generalized welfare gains characterized by reduced markups in larger cities, extending even to shrinking cities through the pro-competitive effect of trade. The findings suggest a policy-relevant dual role of remote work, concurrently enhancing welfare while reinforcing agglomeration and inequality across cities.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/krnzq/" target="_blank">Effects of remote work on population distribution across cities: US evidence from a QSE model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prediction of mental well-being from individual characteristics and circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The “Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on NIMH Patients and Volunteers” study was a longitudinal study launched in spring 2020 by researchers at NIMH, to investigate the effect of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. For each participant, the study collected personal characteristics, such as demographics, psychological traits, and clinical history, together with personal circumstances at regular intervals during their enrollment in the study. In this paper, we examine the degree to which a variety of mental health outcomes over time for an individual can be predicted from personal characteristics and their changing circumstances, using regression models trained on other study participants. We find that it is possible to predict the variation of a participant’s mental health outcomes from time point to time point, for most of the outcomes we consider. This capability is dominated by information about the primary outcome measures that were collected at the time of study enrollment but can be improved by considering personal characteristics and circumstances.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/7enqw/" target="_blank">Prediction of mental well-being from individual characteristics and circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<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.
</div>
<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>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of biosafety in the biomedical sciences. While it is often assumed that biosafety is purely technical matter that has little to do with philosophy or the humanities, biosafety raises important ethical issues that have not been adequately examined in the scientific or bioethics literature. This article reviews some pivotal events in the history of biosafety and biosecurity and explores three different biosafety topics that generate significant ethical concerns, i.e., risk assessment, risk management, and risk distribution. The article also discusses the role of democratic governance in the oversight of biosafety and offers some suggestions for incorporating bioethics into biosafety practice, education, and policy.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/cjf2u/" target="_blank">Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 Lockdowns and Children’s Access to Justice: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Moroccan Family court filings</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 is a social disaster that has affected the operation of judicial systems globally. Access to justice is a vital right that ensures all other rights can be upheld. This study investigates how national lockdown affected the operation of family courts and children’s access to justice in Morocco. National lockdowns were enforced between March 21th and June 10th 2020 in response to the spread of coronavirus. The general closure of civil society was not extended to the judicial system and family courts were expected to continue operating and provide access to protection and justice. How well the court system mentioned to function under the constraints of stay-at-home orders is an open question. To investigate the impact of the national COVID-19 lockdown on family court systems and access to justice for children in Morocco this study used publicly available court filings (N= 77,335) pertaining to child abuse and neglect from 1st January 2020 to 30th December 2020 spanning the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and post-lockdown periods. Interrupted time series analysis was conducted to assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on court filing outcomes across different case types including penal, civil, complaints, and reports at the national, regional, and court level, controlling for time trends and regional fixed effects. National lockdowns were associated with decrease in cases filed and an increase in the percentages of cases with delays. Average case length differed by case type. Post-lockdown, case numbers recovered however there was large weekly variation likely due to rolling regional lockdowns. Evidence suggests that national lockdowns had a significant adverse impact on the judicial systems ability to provide access to justice for children.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/bf8vt/" target="_blank">COVID-19 Lockdowns and Children’s Access to Justice: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Moroccan Family court filings</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>From Viral Infections to Alzheimer’s Disease: Unveiling the Mechanistic Links Through Systems Bioinformatics</strong> -
<div>
Emerging evidence suggests that certain microorganisms, including viral infections, may contribute to the onset and/or progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), a neurodegenerative condition characterized by memory impairment and cognitive decline. However, the precise extent of their involvement and the underlying mechanisms through which specific viruses increase AD susceptibility risk remain elusive. We used an integrative systems bioinformatics approach to identity viral-mediated pathogenic mechanisms by which specific viral species, namely Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1), Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV), Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), Kaposi Sarcoma-associated Herpesvirus (KSHV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Influenza A virus (IAV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), could facilitate the pathogenesis of AD via virus-host protein-protein interactions (PPIs). We also sought to uncover potential synergistic pathogenic effects resulting from the reactivation of specific herpesviruses (HSV-1, HCMV and EBV) during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, potentially increasing AD susceptibility. Our findings show that Herpesviridae Family members (HSV-1, EBV, KSHV, HCMV) impact AD-related processes like amyloid-beta formation, neuronal death, and autophagy. Hepatitis viruses (HBV, HCV) influence processes crucial for cellular homeostasis and dysfunction. Importantly, hepatitis viruses affect microglia activation via virus-host PPIs. Reactivation of HCMV during SARS-CoV-2 infection could potentially foster a lethal interplay of neurodegeneration, via synergistic pathogenic effects on AD-related processes like response to unfolded protein, regulation of autophagy, response to oxidative stress and amyloid-beta formation. Collectively, these findings underscore the complex link between viral infections and AD development. Perturbations in AD-related processes by viruses can arise from both shared and distinct mechanisms among viral species in different categories, potentially influencing variations in AD susceptibility.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570187v1" target="_blank">From Viral Infections to Alzheimer’s Disease: Unveiling the Mechanistic Links Through Systems Bioinformatics</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>In Silico Therapeutic Intervention on Cytokine Storm in COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
The recent global COVID-19 outbreak, attributed by the World Health Organization to the rapid spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), underscores the need for an extensive exploration of virological intricacies, fundamental pathophysiology, and immune responses. This investigation is vital to unearth potential therapeutic avenues and preventive strategies. Our study delves into the intricate interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the immune system, coupled with exploring therapeutic interventions to counteract dysfunctional immune responses like the 'cytokine storm' (CS), a driver of disease progression. Understanding these immunological dimensions informs the design of precise multiepitope-targeted peptide vaccines using advanced immunoinformatics and equips us with tools to confront the cytokine storm. Employing a control theory-based approach, we scrutinize the perturbed behavior of key proteins associated with cytokine storm during COVID-19 infection. Our findings support ACE2 activation as a potential drug target for CS control and confirm AT1R inhibition as an alternative strategy. Leveraging deep learning, we identify potential drugs to individually target ACE2 and AT1R, with Lomefloxacin and Fostamatinib emerging as standout options due to their close interaction with ACE2. Their stability within the protein-drug complex suggests superior efficacy among many drugs from our deep-learning analysis. Moreover, there is a significant scope for optimization in fine-tuning protein-drug interactions. Strong binding alone may not be the sole determining factor for potential drugs; precise adjustments are essential. The application of advanced computational power offers novel solutions, circumventing time-consuming lab work. In scenarios necessitating both ACE2 and AT1R targeting, optimal drug combinations can be derived from our analysis of drug-drug interactions, as detailed in the manuscript.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570280v1" target="_blank">In Silico Therapeutic Intervention on Cytokine Storm in COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs in a Prolific Academic sample: A replication and extension of Georgiou et al. (2020)</strong> -
<div>
The authors reanalyzed the data and conducted a close replication of a study by Georgiou et al. (2020), who found amongst 660 (reported in abstract) or 640 (reported in participant section) participants that 1) COVID-19 related conspiracy theory beliefs were strongly related to broader conspiracy theory beliefs, that 2) COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs were higher in those with lower levels of education, and that 3) COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs were positively (although weakly) correlated with more negative attitudes towards different individual items measuring the government’s response. Finally, Georgiou et al. (2020) found that 4) COVID-19 beliefs were unrelated to self-reported stress. Reanalyzing their data and adjusting the analytical framework, the authors only found that an average of attitudes towards the appropriateness of the government response towards the pandemic was negatively related to conspiracy beliefs in general (not just COVID-19). In the present replication and extension study, random forest analyses show that attitude towards government responses (like the original study), stress (unlike the original study), and attachment avoidance towards the partner (unlike the original study) are the most important predictors of conspiracy beliefs. However, the explained variance of the whole random forest model (3.5-7.5%) was low and model fit of the presently and widely used conspiracy belief inventories was poor. Measurement error is a likely explanation for the differences between the original and replication study and independent development-validation studies therefore need to be conducted to better measure conspiracy beliefs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/t62s7/" target="_blank">COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs in a Prolific Academic sample: A replication and extension of Georgiou et al. (2020)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Algorithm for selecting potential SARS-CoV-2 dominant variants based on POS-NT frequency</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19, currently prevalent worldwide, is caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Similar to other RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve through random mutations, creating numerous variants, such as Alpha, Beta, and Delta. It is, therefore, necessary to predict the mutations constituting the dominant variant before they are generated. This can be achieved by continuously monitoring the mutation trends and patterns. Hence, in the current study, we sought to design a dominant variant candidate (DVC) selection algorithm. To this end, we obtained COVID-19 sequence data from GISAID and extracted position-nucleotide (POS-NT) frequency ratio data by country and date through data preprocessing. We then defined the dominant dates for each variant in the USA and developed a frequency ratio prediction model for each POS-NT. Based on this model, we applied DVC criteria to develop the selection algorithm, verified for Delta and Omicron. Using Condition 3 as the DVC criterion, 69 and 102 DVC POS-NTs were identified for Delta and Omicron an average of 47 and 82 days before the dominant dates, respectively. Moreover, 13 and 44 Delta- and Omicron-defining POS-NTs were recognized 18 and 25 days before the dominant dates, respectively. We identified all DVC POS-NTs before the dominant dates, including soaring and gently increasing POS-NTs. Considering that we successfully defined all POS-NT mutations for Delta and Omicron, the DVC algorithm may represent a valuable tool for providing early predictions regarding future variants, helping improve global health.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570216v1" target="_blank">Algorithm for selecting potential SARS-CoV-2 dominant variants based on POS-NT frequency</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Harmonizing Government Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Public health and safety measures (PHSM) made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been singular, rapid, and profuse compared to the content, speed, and volume of normal policy-making. Not only can they have a profound effect on the spread of the virus, but they may also have multitudinous secondary effects, in both the social and natural worlds. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts by numerous research groups, existing data on COVID-19 PHSM only partially captures their full geographical scale and policy scope for any significant duration of time. This paper introduces our effort to harmonize data from the eight largest such efforts for policies made before September 21, 2021 into the taxonomy developed by the CoronaNet Research Project in order to respond to the need for comprehensive, high quality COVID-19 data. In doing so, we present a comprehensive comparative analysis of existing data from different COVID-19 PHSM datasets, introduce our novel methodology for harmonizing COVID-19 PHSM data, and provide a clear-eyed assessment of the pros and cons of our efforts.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/zb6yx/" target="_blank">Harmonizing Government Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 NSP5 Antagonizes MHC II Expression by Subverting Histone Deacetylase 2</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 interferes with antigen presentation by downregulating MHC II on antigen presenting cells, but the mechanism mediating this process is unelucidated. Herein, analysis of protein and gene expression in human antigen presenting cells reveals that MHC II is downregulated by the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, NSP5. This suppression of MHC II expression occurs via decreased expression of the MHC II regulatory protein CIITA. This downregulation of CIITA is independent of NSP5’s proteolytic activity, but rather, NSP5 delivers HDAC2 to IRF3 at an IRF binding site within the CIITA promoter. Here, HDAC2 deacetylates and inactivates the CIITA promoter. This loss of CIITA expression prevents further expression of MHC II, with this suppression alleviated by ectopic expression of CIITA or knockdown of HDAC2. These results identify a mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 limits MHC II expression, thereby delaying or weakening the subsequent adaptive immune response. Importance: SARS-CoV-2 alters the expression of many immunoregulatory proteins to limit and delay the host antiviral response, thereby producing a more severe and longer-lasting infection. Preventing and limiting the activation of helper T cells by reducing MHC II expression on antigen presenting cells is one of these strategies, but while this mechanism was identified early in the pandemic, the mechanism allowing SARS-CoV-2 to limit MHC II expression has remained unclear. Herein, we demonstrate that this occurs via a tripartite interaction between viral NSP5 and host HDAC2 and IRF3, where a complex of NSP5 and HDAC2 is recruited to IRF3 bound to the promoter of CIITA - the master regulator of MHC II expression - with the delivery of HDAC2 then mediating the deacetylation of the CIITA promoter and the suppression of MHC II expression.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.10.528032v3" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 NSP5 Antagonizes MHC II Expression by Subverting Histone Deacetylase 2</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/10.1101/2023.08.10.552845v2" target="_blank">Pretrainable Geometric Graph Neural Network for Antibody Affinity Maturation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Ribosomal frameshifting and misreading of mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines produces “off-target” proteins and immune responses eliciting safety concerns: Comment on UK study by Mulroney et al.</strong> -
<div>
We comment on the study by Mulroney et al.(1) entitled: “N1-methylpseudouridylation of mRNA causes +1 ribosomal frameshifting.” The study found evidence in mice and humans for the misreading of the modRNA contained within the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to inadvertently produce “off-target” proteins capable of eliciting “off-target” immune responses. The authors propose that these novel proteins are the result of ribosomal frameshifting occasioned by the substitution of N1-methyl pseudouridine. The authors state that the “error prone” code is a safety concern with a “huge potential to be harmful” and that “it is essential that these therapeutics are designed to be free from unintended side-effects.” The findings reveal a developmental and regulatory failure to ask fundamental questions that could affect the safety and effectiveness of these products. According to WHO guidelines for mRNA vaccines, (2) manufacturers should provide details of “unexpected ORFs”(Open Reading Frames). The formation of these off-target proteins is not disclosed in the package insert for COMIRNATY. The finding that unintended proteins may be produced as a result of vaccination is sufficient cause for regulators to conduct full risk assessments of past or future harms that may have ensued. Given that this study was conducted under the auspices of the United Kingdom Government, we must assume UK regulators, manufacturers, and international regulatory agencies, including FDA, were apprised of the data many months ago. We await their account of what steps they have taken to investigate why the formation of off-target proteins was not discovered sooner, what toxic effects they may have caused and what steps they are taken to prevent harm in the future and to inform the public of these findings.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/nt8jh/" target="_blank">Ribosomal frameshifting and misreading of mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines produces “off-target” proteins and immune responses eliciting safety concerns: Comment on UK study by Mulroney et al.</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>Ensitrelvir for Viral Persistence and Inflammation in People Experiencing Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Ensitrelvir; Other: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Timothy Henrich; Shionogi Inc. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Low-intensity Aerobic Training Associated With Global Muscle Strengthening in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: muscle strengthening <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Centro Universitário Augusto Motta <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>Intravenous Immunoglobulin Replacement Therapy for Persistent COVID-19 in Patients With B-cell Impairment</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Immunoglobulins <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Jaehoon Ko <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 Inhaled Hydroxy Gas on Long COVID Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Hydroxy gas <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Oxford Brookes University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PROmotion of COVID-19 BOOSTer VA(X)Ccination in the Emergency Department - PROBOOSTVAXED</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Vaccine Messaging; Behavioral: Vaccine Acceptance Question <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of California, San Francisco; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); Pfizer; Duke University; Baylor College of Medicine; Thomas Jefferson 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>Community Care Intervention to Decrease COVID-19 Vaccination Inequities</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Vaccination <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Community Health Worker Intervention to Enhance Vaccination Behavior (CHW-VB) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: RAND; Clinical Directors Network; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluating a Comprehensive Multimodal Outpatient Rehabilitation Program for PASC Program to Improve Functioning of Persons Suffering From Post-COVID Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-Acute COVID-19 Infection; Long COVID; Long Covid19; Dyspnea; Orthostasis; Cognitive Impairment <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Comprehensive Rehabilitation; Other: Augmented Usual Care <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Pennsylvania; Medical College of Wisconsin; National Institutes of Health (NIH) <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>Stem Cell Study for Long COVID-19 Neurological Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Stem Cell <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Charles Cox; CBR Systems, Inc. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pursuing Reduction in Fatigue After COVID-19 Via Exercise and Rehabilitation (PREFACER): A Randomized Feasibility Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long-COVID; Long Covid19; Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-COVID Syndrome; Fatigue <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: COVIDEx <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Lawson Health Research Institute; Western 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>Multilevel Intervention of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Among Latinos</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Vaccine Hesitancy <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Multilevel Intervention <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: San Diego State 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 Metformin in Reducing Fatigue in Long COVID in Adolescents</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Metformin; Other: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Trust for Vaccines and Immunization, Pakistan <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 Randomized Trial Evaluating a mRNA VLP Vaccine’s Immunogenicity and Safety for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: AZD9838; Biological: Licensed mRNA vaccine <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: AstraZeneca <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>New anti-SARS-CoV-2 aminoadamantane compounds as antiviral candidates for the treatment of COVID-19</strong> - Here, the antiviral activity of aminoadamantane derivatives were evaluated against SARS-CoV-2. The compounds exhibited low cytotoxicity to Vero, HEK293 and CALU-3 cells up to a concentration of 1,000 µM. The inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of aminoadamantane was 39.71 µM in Vero CCL-81 cells and the derivatives showed significantly lower IC(50) values, especially for compounds 3F4 (0.32 µM), 3F5 (0.44 µM) and 3E10 (1.28 µM). Additionally, derivatives 3F5 and 3E10 statistically reduced 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>Pan-antiviral effects of a PIKfyve inhibitor on respiratory virus infection in human nasal epithelium and mice</strong> - 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…</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>Analysis of bioactive compounds of <em>Olea europaea</em> as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease: a pharmacokinetics, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation studies</strong> - COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease caused by a new type of extremely contagious coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. The virus’s main protease enzyme, SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, is essential for its replication and transcription processes. Targeting this enzyme presents a promising avenue for antiviral drug development. Researchers have explored the intricate three-dimensional configurations of the enzyme, analyzing its interactions with various inhibitors. These findings provide a foundation for designing…</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>Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of biaryl amide derivatives against SARS-CoV-2 with dual-target mechanism</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the urgent need to develop effective small-molecule antivirals. Thirty-three novel biaryl amide derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for anti-coronaviral activity. Some significant SARs were uncovered and the intensive structure modifications led to the most active compounds 8b and 8h. The broad-spectrum anti-coronaviral effects of 8h were validated at RNA and protein levels. 8h inhibits coronavirus replication at multiple stages, from virus entry to virus…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication by Petasites hybridus CO2-extract (Ze 339)</strong> - CONCLUSION: Thereby, Ze 339 attenuated epithelial infection by SARS-CoV-2 and modeled the IFN response. In conclusion, this study highlights Ze 339 as a potential treatment option for COVID-19 that limits infection-associated cell intrinsic immune responses.</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>Integrin α<sub>5</sub>β<sub>1</sub> contributes to cell fusion and inflammation mediated by SARS-CoV-2 spike via RGD-independent interaction</strong> - The Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus infects host cells by engaging its spike (S) protein with human ACE2 receptor. Recent studies suggest the involvement of integrins in SARS-CoV-2 infection through interaction with the S protein, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood. This study investigated the role of integrin α(5)β(1), which recognizes the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif in its physiological ligands, in S-mediated virus entry and cell-cell fusion. Our…</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>Unraveling antiviral efficacy of multifunctional immunomodulatory triterpenoids against SARS-COV-2 targeting main protease and papain-like protease</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may be over, but its variants continue to emerge, and patients with mild symptoms having long COVID is still under investigation. SARS-CoV-2 infection leading to elevated cytokine levels and suppressed immune responses set off cytokine storm, fatal systemic inflammation, tissue damage, and multi-organ failure. Thus, drug molecules targeting the SARS-CoV-2 virus-specific…</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>Strategies to Mitigate the Drug-Drug Interaction between Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir and Tacrolimus in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients on Azole Antifungals: Results of a Case Series</strong> - CONCLUSION: NIM/r-tacrolimus is a serious drug-drug interaction which can be mitigated by early discontinuation of tacrolimus and azole antifungals, close monitoring, and reinitiation of tacrolimus and antifungal 48-72 h after completion of therapy.</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>Patterns of physical activity among nursing home residents before and during the Covid 19 pandemic-a systematic observation</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Nursing homes constitute highly sedentary places-an issue exacerbated by access restrictions for external activity experts and significant others as well as behavioural restrictions for residents during the Covid-19 pandemic. Staff could not compensate due to existing time restraints and lack of training in PA promotion. Based on our findings, we recommend future studies to develop feasible and resource-low activities to be integrated into the daily routines of nursing homes.</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 natural product YSK-A blocks SARS-CoV-2 propagation by targeting multiple host genes</strong> - Natural products and herbal medicine have been widely used in drug discovery for treating infectious diseases. Recent outbreak of COVID-19 requires various therapeutic strategies. Here, we used YSK-A, a mixture of three herbal components Boswellia serrata, Commiphora myrrha, and propolis, to evaluate potential antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. We showed that YSK-A inhibited SARS-CoV-2 propagation with an IC(50) values of 12.5 µg/ml and 15.42 µg/ml in Vero E6 and Calu-3 cells, respectively….</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>Validation of nuclear receptor RORγ isoform 1 as a novel host-directed antiviral target based on the modulation of cholesterol levels</strong> - Currently, the clinically approved repertoire of antiviral drugs predominantly comprises direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). However, the use of DAAs is frequently limited by adverse effects, restriction to individual virus species, or the induction of viral drug resistance. These issues will likely be resolved by the introduction of host-directed antivirals (HDAs) targeting cellular proteins crucial for viral replication. However, experiences with the development of antiviral HDAs and clinical…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibition of non-muscular myosin light chain kinase accelerates the clearance of inflammatory cells by promoting the lysosome-mediated cell death</strong> - Infections like COVID-19 are the primary cause of death around the world because they can cause acute lung injury (ALI), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and sepsis. Inflammatory cells serve as crucial protective barriers in these diseases. However, excessive accumulation of inflammatory cells is also one of the major causes of organ damage. The non-muscular myosin light chain kinase (nmMLCK) plays crucial of cytoskeletal components involved in endothelial cell-matrix and cell-cell…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M<sup>pro</sup>) mutants in complex with the non-covalent inhibitor CCF0058981</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 constantly circulates and evolves worldwide, generating many variants and posing a menace to global health. It is urgently needed to discover effective medicines to treat the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. An established target for anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug discovery is the main protease (M^(pro)), since it exerts an irreplaceable action in viral life cycle. CCF0058981, derived from ML300, is a non-covalent inhibitor that exhibits low nanomolar potency against SARS-CoV-2…</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>USP2 inhibition prevents infection with ACE2-dependent coronaviruses in vitro and is protective against SARS-CoV-2 in mice</strong> - Targeting angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) represents a promising and effective approach to combat not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also potential future pandemics arising from coronaviruses that depend on ACE2 for infection. Here, we report ubiquitin specific peptidase 2 (USP2) as a host-directed antiviral target; we further describe the development of MS102, an orally available USP2 inhibitor with viable antiviral activity against ACE2-dependent coronaviruses. Mechanistically, USP2…</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 Molecular Generative Model of COVID-19 Main Protease Inhibitors Using Long Short-Term Memory-Based Recurrent Neural Network</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a serious threat to public health and prompted researchers to find anti-coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) compounds. In this study, the long short-term memory-based recurrent neural network was used to generate new inhibitors for the coronavirus. First, the model was trained to generate drug compounds in the form of valid simplified molecular-input line-entry system strings. Then, the structures of COVID-19 main protease…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What October 7th Did and Didn’t Change About Israeli Politics</strong> - A pollster examines support for a two-state solution, Benjamin Netanyahu’s falling approval ratings, and why the next Prime Minister may not change course on relations with Palestinians. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/what-october-7th-did-and-didnt-change-about-israeli-politics">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Would Sandra Day O’Connor Have Thought About Affirmative Action for Men?</strong> - For decades, college-admissions offices have quietly imposed higher standards on female applicants. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-would-sandra-day-oconnor-have-thought-about-affirmative-action-for-men">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Capital Has a Bad Case of Year-End Panic</strong> - Worries about a second Trump term and the end of aid to Ukraine are entirely justified. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-capital-has-a-bad-case-of-year-end-panic">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In the Shadow of the Holocaust</strong> - How the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Liz Cheney: Trump Should Go to Jail if Convicted</strong> - Once a top Republican, Cheney is calling out former colleagues in Congress, like Speaker Mike Johnson, for “enabling” a would-be dictator. Plus, a live performance from Brandy Clark. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/liz-cheney-trump-should-go-to-jail-if-convicted">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Can Democrats overcome their deep divisions over Gaza?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, and Tlaib stand side by side wearing serious expressions. Part of the Capitol dome can be seen in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/U8YoVxIbMRijspOwyBR5f6Detu8=/598x0:5385x3590/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72946866/1792203657.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
US Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) listen during a news conference calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol building on November 13, 2023, in Washington, DC.  | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The party is fractured over President Joe Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel as it continues its military campaign in Gaza ahead of 2024.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LjwwY3">
Democratic divisions over the war in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a> have spilled out into the open in recent weeks, raising questions about the potential electoral consequences ahead of 2024.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2fCpSy">
On Tuesday, the House passed a resolution proposed by Republicans that equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Republicans said they intended to curb a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-antisemitic-incidents-up-about-400-since-israel-hamas-war-began-report-says-2023-10-25/">very real outpouring of antisemitism</a> amid the war. But the actual outcome of the resolution — which advances a misleading <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/anti-zionism-not-anti-semitism/675888/">premise</a> that criticism of a diverse pro-<a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a> political movement is equivalent to hatred of Jews — merely put Democratic discord on display.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a8BXEa">
Some 95 Democrats voted for the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/hres894/BILLS-118hres894ih.pdf">resolution</a> to show their support for Israel following the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023">October 7 attack</a> by <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a>, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestinian</a> militant group designated a terrorist organization by many countries. Another 92 Democrats, including <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4343220-gop-antisemitism-resolution-passes-house-fractures-democrats/">several Jewish Democrats</a>, voted “present,” neither supporting nor opposing the resolution. The remaining 13 Democrats, mostly progressives who have <a href="https://connolly.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4303">called for a ceasefire</a> as the death toll in Gaza <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-rcna128682">surpasses 17,000,</a> voted against the resolution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cwQuoJ">
The divisions go beyond the resolution, however. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) has also recently <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4345978-democratic-divisions-deepen-over-hamas-sexual-violence-response/">faced backlash</a> from her colleagues for what they perceive as her not being forceful enough in condemning <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-israel-hamas-sexual-violence.html">widespread sexual violence</a> that Israel claims Hamas committed on October 7. The criticism came after Jayapal said in an <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4345978-democratic-divisions-deepen-over-hamas-sexual-violence-response/">interview with CNN</a> last weekend that while using rape as a tool of war is “horrific,” “we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians.” Several Democrats have since <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4345978-democratic-divisions-deepen-over-hamas-sexual-violence-response/">started drafting</a> a resolution condemning the alleged sexual violence, which Hamas has denied despite witness testimony, crime scene photos, and videos posted by Hamas fighters themselves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OI7zns">
And progressives have sought to place conditions on any military aid sent to Israel, which <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4348381-senate-democrats-amendment-conditions-israel-aid/">President Joe Biden</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/18/democrats-in-senate-house-discuss-conditioning-military-aid-to-israel-00127930">Vice President Kamala Harris</a> have rejected as the administration maintains its unequivocal support for the war. More than a dozen Democratic senators have called for an amendment to a pending $111 billion foreign-aid package — around $10 billion of which would go to Israel — requiring that Israel “abide by US and international law, prioritize the protection of civilians, assure the provision of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza, and align with a long-term vision for peace, security, and two-state diplomatic solution,” as Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) described it in a statement. Moderate Democrats have not joined those calls, and the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/democratic-senators-demand-israel-reduce-civilian-casualties-in-gaza-as-part-of-aid-package">AP reported</a> that some believe the amendment is unnecessary given that US law already requires that recipients of US military aid respect human rights.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Egbxww">
Democrats have prided themselves for years on staying unified around core issues in contrast to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/21/jim-jordan-house-speaker-republicans-dysfunction">Republican disarray</a>, but are now facing bitter disagreement about the US’s relationship with Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cj7eiB">
“There’s a huge cleave in their coalition right now,” said Jason Cabel Roe, a GOP strategist based in Michigan. The state has a large <a href="https://apnews.com/article/muslim-swing-state-biden-vote-fb3b93f465ed6fd34a901c269a084a90">Muslim-American community frustrated with Biden’s handling of the war</a>, and some political strategists believe that could cost him the critical swing state where a recent poll <a href="https://www.freep.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.freep.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Felections%2F2023%2F11%2F18%2Felection-2024-biden-trump-poll-michigan%2F71619518007%2F">showed him trailing</a> former <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">President Donald Trump</a>. “How forceful Biden has been in his support of Israel creates a real problem and forces every Democrat to now pick a side within their coalition,” said Roe.
</p>
<h3 id="Lldmoj">
Will Democrats’ disagreements actually matter in 2024?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NV5w2X">
The division within the Democratic caucus reflects a national debate Republicans believe they can use to their advantage in next year’s elections.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZBWpKc">
GOP pollster Robert Cahaly said that, based on what he’s hearing from voters, US policy on Israel may well become a determinative issue for voters in 2024 akin to <a href="https://www.vox.com/abortion">abortion</a> or guns. Biden’s almost unconditional support for Israel as it continues its indiscriminate bombing campaign in Gaza has been met with outrage among many <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3882">young voters</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/03/muslim-leaders-swing-states-abandon-biden-campaign">Muslim Americans</a>, a number of whom are consequently <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/3/us-muslims-pledge-to-ditch-biden-in-2024-over-his-stance-on-israel-gaza-war">threatening to ditch Biden</a> in 2024. And conversely, there are also some Democrats <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-apnorc-poll-biden-democrats-42b195c5a577a40ff981d26afbff9997">who don’t think that their party’s support for Israel has been strong enough</a>. In the last month, Biden has taken a slightly more critical stance, pressuring Israel to take more care to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/30/us/politics/biden-israel.html">avoid civilian suffering</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/us/politics/us-visas-israelis-palestinians.html">rein in Israeli settlers</a> in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080034/west-bank-israel-palestinians">West Bank</a>, apparently to little avail.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oEUlaQ">
“People are angry about this,” Cahaly said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CII7Sh">
But Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist who correctly predicted Democrats’ <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/11/27/23475262/midterm-elections-2022-results-red-wave-democrats">strong performance in the midterms</a>, said that Republicans shouldn’t be licking their chops yet. Polls have repeatedly shown that most Democrats approve of Biden’s approach to the war. There is a sizable share of Democrats who don’t approve — <a href="https://apnorc.org/projects/hostage-recovery-tops-publics-priorities-for-israel-hamas-conflict/">39 percent</a> in a December AP-NORC Center survey, which is consistent with other recent polls by <a href="https://t.co/9ngQREEFl3">Quinnipiac</a>, <a href="https://t.co/Dnnv5G387Y">Marist</a>, and <a href="https://t.co/VBZATgq5GI">YouGov</a>. But the question is whether their disagreement with the president will matter when it comes time to vote.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lCxrXg">
“It’s highly unlikely that for other than a small number of people this will be a determinative voting issue for them 11 months from now,” Rosenberg said. “Based on history, where foreign policy issues often are not determinative for many voters, it’s unlikely that this is going to become something that creates a major fissure in the Democratic Party.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6eOwyM">
So far, it doesn’t seem like the war has meaningfully hurt Biden in head-to-head matchups with Trump. There have been <a href="https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/more-notes-on-polling-and-why-i-am?utm_source=profile&amp;utm_medium=reader2">six such polls</a> released in the last week in which Biden was ahead or tied with Trump, and in several, he had improved his standing since November. And in a Harvard Institute of Politics poll released earlier this week, Biden was beating Trump among 18- to 29-year-olds by <a href="https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/46th-edition-fall-2023">24 percentage points</a> — the same margin he won by in 2020, according to exit polls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="upl3BC">
“There is an important debate happening inside the Democratic Party right now,” Rosenberg said. “Is it going to be corrosive and divisive? Of course, it could be. There isn’t a lot of evidence that it is right now.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R5aRDw">
Democrats still need to be careful about how they manage the war, both in terms of communicating with the American people and in terms of ensuring that the war is “conducted in a way that’s consistent with our values and policies,” Rosenberg said. So far, he added, Biden has been effective in responding to his more progressive critics’ calls for a ceasefire while ultimately preserving his pro-Israel stance. The ceasefire, brokered by Qatar and Egypt, was welcomed by Biden, but was only temporary, lifting on December 1 after <a href="https://time.com/6341993/israel-hamas-ceasefire-war/">negotiations between Israel and Hamas deteriorated</a> with each side blaming the other.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V1iVXD">
Still, Republicans perceive opportunities to pick up voters who might be alienated by Biden’s support for Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZNc1n8">
That might include Jews who feel Democrats haven’t been full-throated enough in their support for the war, Roe said. While any gains with that group might have limited impact in terms of winning elections given that Jewish voters are concentrated in large, mostly Democratic cities, it could be a boon for fundraising, he added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jNkvCB">
“When it comes to defending Jews in America today, Republicans are out there forcefully and aggressively, and obviously, there’s political opportunity there,” Roe said. “How are these voters still lined up with Democrats?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BOOwbw">
Cahaly said that the war may help Republicans reframe the narrative around extremism in their camp, allowing them to point the finger at Democrats for espousing what they perceive as antisemitism. It’s worth noting, however, that some Republicans who have recently taken up the argument that Democrats belong to an extreme, antisemitic party, including <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2023-12-06/ty-article/.highlight/looking-for-a-congressional-champion-to-fight-antisemitism-forget-stefanik/0000018c-3feb-d062-a9ee-ffeb4d050000">Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY</a>) and <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-rep-rashida-tlaib-hits-back-at-marjorie-taylor-greenes-efforts-to-censure-her-for-anti-semitism/3034019">Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)</a>, are notorious peddlers of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/25/1000129271/marjorie-taylor-greenes-holocaust-remarks-blasted-by-republicans-leaders">antisemitic conspiracy theories</a> themselves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oBSrmx">
Cahaly also sees an opportunity for Republicans to win over disaffected Democrats and independents and energize members of their base who see the pro-Palestinian views of young people as the product of left-wing ideas run amok at institutions like <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/11/5/23944007/free-speech-israel-palestine-college-universities-campus-protests">universities</a>. “There is a price for having the next generation taught a bunch of nonsense,” he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a1dtX8">
Otherwise, all Republicans really need to do is “sit back and watch [Democrats] burn their house down,” Cahaly said. In his view, that’s especially the case given the swath of potential independent and third-party candidates <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/12/05/liz-cheney-third-party-trump-threat/71750947007/">angling to enter the race for president</a>, and primary challenges that pro-Israel groups like AIPAC have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/11/israel-ads-attack-rashida-tlaib-us-politicians">threatened</a> against Democrats who don’t support the war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dpXUwh">
“There are going to be a lot of alternatives for people to vote for and make known their displeasure with Biden without having to vote for Trump,” Cahaly said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZFW7WK">
But while votes like the one on Tuesday create an opportunity for Republicans to keep Democratic divisions in the news and on the minds of voters, Rosenberg argues the Democratic coalition has shown no signs of fraying in actual elections over the last year. The party has notched critical victories in the Virginia legislature, a Wisconsin <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a> race, and in preserving abortion rights in Ohio.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vG0OZ1">
“[Republicans] are the ones that are getting their ass kicked all over the country,” Rosenberg said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bzeh10">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The many layers of May December</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Q3lJaEk_CkK2oRSNtle_9XW2XlQ=/1036x0:6227x3893/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72946835/May_December_n_00_59_53_22_R.0.jpeg"/>
<figcaption>
Natalie Portman and Charles Melton in <em>May December.</em> | Courtesy of Netflix
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
May December isn’t camp. So what is it?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0OEd9W">
In the opening moments of Todd Haynes’s <em>May December</em>, scandalous tabloid subject-turned-homemaker Gracie (Julianne Moore) opens a refrigerator, dramatically accompanied by a sudden piano sting and an ominous camera zoom.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U0QrBb">
The twist? They might not have enough hot dogs for their upcoming cookout.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0If0tG">
If that strikes you as funny, you’re not alone. This is a film that reportedly had audiences laughing out loud during its debut, a story the New York Times called “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/movies/may-december-cannes-todd-haynes.html">the most fun film</a>” at Cannes 2023. And yet, it’s also a film based on the <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23973193/mary-kay-letourneau-is-may-december-real-what-happened-where-is-vili-fualaau-today">horrifying real-life story</a> of a sexual predator and her child victim.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B91kSp">
Viewers have been debating since its December 1 platform release. <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/awards/consider-this/todd-haynes-may-december-camp-interview-1234926492/">Is it camp</a>? Is it supposed to be funny? Is Natalie Portman a bad actor or is she just <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2023/12/natalie-portman-may-december-movie-netflix-black-swan-jackie.html">very good at playing a bad one</a>?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rq3YSx">
These are all interesting questions to consider, but they arguably obscure the biggest question of all: What does it mean that audiences are laughing at a story as dark as this one — and does that say more about the film or its viewers? Is <em>May December</em> critiquing the exploitative nature of media, or is it an example of the very thing it seeks to deconstruct?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RLEoC8">
<strong>[</strong><em><strong>Note</strong></em><strong>: This review contains spoilers.]</strong>
</p>
<h3 id="swzUx3">
<em>May December</em> adapts a real-life tabloid scandal
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EQiyLF">
<em>May December</em> fictionalizes the story of<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23973193/mary-kay-letourneau-is-may-december-real-what-happened-where-is-vili-fualaau-today"> Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau</a>. The pair met when she was a teacher and he was in second grade. After years of plying Fualaau with gifts and special attention, Letourneau became pregnant by Fualaau when he was just 13. Convicted of rape, she was released after just three months but immediately violated parole to become pregnant with Fualaau’s second child. In 2005, after serving a seven-year sentence during which she continued her relationship with Fualaau, Letourneau married him. The couple separated in 2019, shortly before Letourneau’s death from cancer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FzzcHn">
This crime would be properly viewed today as that of a child predator who successfully spent years grooming her target. In the ’90s, however, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/mary-kay-letourneau-vili-fualauu-relationship-media-child-rape-tryst-1025466/">the media framed it</a> as a star-crossed love story, allowing Letourneau to direct the narrative, so much so that even Fualaau’s own family defended her, insisting the pair were in love and that Fualaau was “extremely mature” for his age.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jBVWqU">
The film picks up where our cultural memory leaves off. The fictional Gracie and her victim, Joe Yoo (Charles Melton), have been together 24 years. Still living in Savannah, Georgia, where the scandal occurred, they’re preparing for the graduation day of their younger daughter and son. Into this dynamic saunters a fictional celebrity, Elizabeth (Natalie Portman). But Elizabeth, who’s trying to get to know Gracie in order to play her for an upcoming film adaptation, isn’t an objective observer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="edyieC">
Haynes’s directorial choices make it extremely clear that this relationship was far from rosy, indicting not just Letourneau but the onlookers, too — the tabloid media who hyped the story as a romance, the Hollywood machine that made it the stuff of Lifetime movie lore, and the real-life audiences who ate it up. To do that, he utilizes a tonal approach that suggests his three main characters are in three different <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a> within the movie, each one clashing with the other.
</p>
<h3 id="yAGNYT">
<em>May December</em> utilizes clashing perspectives to keep us discomfited
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1GpLFA">
Gracie is inside a movie about star-crossed soulmates who find each other against all odds — a movie where she is the hero and the whole world is rooting for her. The hot dog scene is our first tell that Gracie’s world is a delusion. It’s the kind of overly dramatic stinger we might find in a ’90s made-for-TV movie, applied to something vapid. In Gracie’s narcissistic point of view, however, little things become magnified. Today, her tightly controlled world could be disrupted by missing hot dogs; tomorrow, it could be something much worse.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tBYipb">
Her lawyer reveals to Elizabeth at one point that Gracie’s friends are all Norma Desmonding her — humoring her attempts to set herself up as a baker by ordering cakes they don’t eat, just to give her something to do. Gracie clings to this vision of herself; the smallest disturbance leaves her sobbing, desperate for comfort from Joe. She relies on him for everything, and he shoulders everything from emotional support to parenting duties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mhXSPt">
Yet Joe, much like Fualaau toward the end of his relationship with Letourneau, undergoes an awakening during the film. Over a series of heartbreaking moments beautifully acted by Melton, we see him slowly come to know what the rest of us already do: He was a victim, not a willing participant, in the “love story” planned out for him by Letourneau. In one devastating scene, he watches his son smoke a joint with a look of palpable yearning, reminding viewers that he never got the chance to do something so mundane as a teen because he was robbed of a normal adolescence.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Melton and Portman walk outside with two dogs." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NbUBdYmRqQLGUef-panKSffIs5A=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25141336/MAYDEC_11_04.2022_FD_0078_R.JPG"/> <cite>François Duhamel/Courtesy of Netflix</cite>
<figcaption>
Charles Melton and Natalie Portman in <em>May December</em>.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XIb5bf">
Of our three different narratives, only Joe’s is an accurate reflection of reality. That reality is full of troubling conflict; Joe’s devastation at his lost childhood mixes with pride in and love for his kids. He moves through the film with quiet care for his children, for Gracie, for the butterflies he’s been nursing, helping protect them until they, like his own children, can leave their cocoons and fly away.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dakXoF">
As he begins to understand his situation, Joe seeks help and understanding from Elizabeth; later, he unsuccessfully pleads for help from Gracie herself. But any hope that Elizabeth can be a moral arbiter here quickly dies. Instead, within the tableau of perspectives on Gracie’s crime, she represents the tabloid view, one that sees the “May-December romance” as not only shocking but titillating — ultimately erotic rather than dangerous. She reminds us throughout that in reality, Vili Fualaau was a victim, not just of Letourneau, but of a media machine and a society that was quick to sexualize him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P1QvfA">
Once we understand this, Portman’s performance becomes anything but phoned-in. She becomes the key to unlocking the whole movie.
</p>
<h3 id="sgRYAs">
Portman’s performance is crucial to understanding Haynes’s project
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ma4rzo">
If this were a typical cautionary tale, Portman’s character would be the vehicle for the audience’s moral outrage — the character we’re allowed to relate to and empathize with who serves as our tour guide through the distorted landscape of Gracie and Joe’s relationship.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XicwVo">
But Elizabeth winds up aiding and abetting the distortion. Portman plays her like an ingenue, a starlet who’s still in her starlet mode, even though in the world of the film, she’s an industry veteran of 36 — the same age Gracie was when her relationship with Joe came to light.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="00wXbt">
Over the course of the film, she falls for the fantasy of becoming Gracie. She smiles flirtatiously at teen boys. She gets lost in a wildly inappropriate description of filming sex to a group of high schoolers. Later, she pantomimes sex at the literal scene of the crime — in the pet shop stockroom where Gracie and Joe were ultimately caught.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9UBUDj">
In one charged scene, she allows Gracie to do her makeup and reacts to their intimacy with a homoerotic mix of repulsion and elation. Ultimately, she has sex with Joe — then, finally, fully transforms into the older seductress by performing one of Gracie’s love letters as a monologue.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Moore helps Portman stir while they are baking in the kitchen." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LXrkvFL7NkgPscTDB-4T45s3SD8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25141341/May_December_n_01_13_08_05_R.JPG"/> <cite>Courtesy of Netflix</cite>
<figcaption>
Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman serving homoerotic vibes (but don’t call it camp!).
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UgiG1k">
The more she is drawn into this version of the story, the more callous Elizabeth becomes. After viewing footage of 13-year-olds auditioning for the role of Joe in the movie she’s in, she complains to the director that they aren’t “sexy enough.” When Joe angrily insists to her that his life isn’t a story, she says calmly, “There’s no need to get so worked up about it” — exactly the kind of thing Gracie herself might say. She becomes fully swept up in a story that’s all about her and her repressed sexual desires coming to the fore.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bZce3G">
The difficulty audiences have had in parsing what Portman is doing reveals just how smart her performance is: She’s so believable that not everyone believes she’s acting. (Portman <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/awards/consider-this/todd-haynes-may-december-camp-interview-1234926492/">first championed the script to Haynes</a>, so it’s likely that she was thinking about the layered dynamics at play here long before anyone else.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1IVdh0">
Our frustrated expectations of Portman’s role are also tied to confusion over the film itself. With two divas each getting carried away with the idea of themselves as the hero of a fantastical (but in fact disintegrating) love story, it’s easy to see how <a href="https://filmspeak.net/movie-reviews/2023/12/1/may-december-review-charles-melton-is-sensational-in-todd-haynes-latest">claims have arisen</a> that <em>May December</em> is a work of camp. It doesn’t help that Haynes has a penchant for lush, indulgent dramas (<em>Velvet Goldmine</em>, <em>Carol</em>) that sometimes nudge the campy line between melodrama and farce.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JfIKDh">
So, to really understand <em>May December</em>, we have to understand the ways in which it could be camp — but ultimately isn’t.
</p>
<h3 id="fyO5S0">
May December isn’t camp, but thinking about it through the lens of camp is useful
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vMqVO4">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/5/3/18514408/what-is-camp-explained-met-gala-susan-sontag">Camp is what happens</a> when societal expectations collide with a character or a persona who can’t perform those expectations convincingly. Instead, their attempt at performance unwittingly reveals and magnifies the artifice of those expectations. Camp is closely related to queer identity and performance, which expose the artifice of heteronormativity. Gender and sexual deviance of all kinds are likewise camp-adjacent because they often reveal how absurd the mechanics of repression can be.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NKtJCk">
In Gracie’s case, she is a true sexual deviant who’s deeply invested in adhering to societal rules. They help validate her version of the narrative. But because she’s a true deviant, ultimately unable to perform normative social behavior, she breaks the illusion of normalcy in ways that border on hysterical.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sgbACF">
A perfect example of this is the moment Gracie gushes to Elizabeth about a card Joe gave her years earlier, featuring a banal love note. Then she casually adds that the card was a classroom assignment, reminding Elizabeth and the audience that Joe was a seventh grader. It’s a hilarious, deeply disturbing moment. These two emotions converging is the essence of camp.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bo8RXY">
For something to truly be camp, however, its presentation has to align with the destabilizing worldview. If the subject, the camera, or the direction is too knowing, the effect can become satirical, and in some cases <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23466389/millennials-cringe-epic-bacon">cringe</a>. (This is also, incidentally, why the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/5/6/18534583/met-museum-camp-fashion-exhibit">Met Gala “camp” theme</a> was a disaster; you can’t plan camp.) But Haynes never allows the artificial, fantasist narratives of Gracie and Elizabeth to overshadow the anguish Melton conveys. As Elizabeth becomes more entranced by Gracie’s story, her performance as Gracie becomes more campy and less effective. Meanwhile, Gracie’s performance of the role of perfect housewife fails to convince anyone but herself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hllvcD">
When Joe finally confronts Gracie about the truth of their lives together, the scene is anything but camp. It’s a deeply troubling reminder that society gave its stamp of approval to a relationship that left him with lifelong trauma. Adding to the discomfort of this moment is that screenwriter Samy Burch uses dialogue from a jaw-dropping<a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/infamous-matt-doran-interview-goes-viral-after-netflix-film-release-005355605.html"> real-life 2018 interview</a> with Australian journalist Matt Doran. In the segment, the adult Letourneau and Fualaau have a tense exchange in which she tells him repeatedly, in front of a shocked Doran, that he was “the boss” in their relationship.
</p>
<div id="GSuPvX">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
So many contemporary movies and shows based on real events traffic in imitation, with uncanny impressions seen as the highest achievement. What May December does to incorporate this moment is 1000x more interesting. <a href="https://t.co/hNQIlQtzZQ">pic.twitter.com/hNQIlQtzZQ</a>
</p>
— Louis Peitzman (<span class="citation" data-cites="LouisPeitzman">@LouisPeitzman</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/LouisPeitzman/status/1730959465887768853?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2023</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bCuj49">
Outside of the film, it’s easy to be aghast by this clip. Inside of the film, this moment shatters the idea of “younger boy pursuing an older woman” as a legitimate narrative. “You seduced me,” Gracie tells Joe with complete confidence. It’s terrifying how effortless Moore makes playing a fictional Letourneau seem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7zonDw">
But the film isn’t really that interested in condemning Gracie — what would be the point? Instead, its sharpest castigation rests with Elizabeth. In a single role, she is able to embody the amoral self-interest of the tabloids, Hollywood, the public who consumed the story as entertainment, and everyone around Fualaau who left him to his fate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rbQLUV">
We might ask whether Haynes himself is part of that web of exploitation — after all, isn’t <em>May December</em> a coy treatment of a scandal?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AIX3zB">
Yes and no. One function of the film’s funnier moments is to allow the audience its share of nervous laughter, an exhalation amid our escalating discomfort. If <em>May December</em> were less self-aware, it might belong in the category of camp or failed melodrama; if it were less earnest, it might earn the title of tongue-in-cheek satire. But ultimately, the movie’s discordant aesthetic isn’t coy. It’s about revealing the nightmarish circus that Joe has survived with quiet resilience.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ozPYIc">
And it’s about us: The circus attendees, arriving with popcorn — prepared to laugh, when perhaps we should be in mourning.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Why so many members of Congress are calling it quits</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="House Members Return To Washington, DC After Midterm Election" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1j15TKsnWWY_Bl3vFOhX_2o1z9E=/532x0:5865x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72944722/1244787014.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) walks to the House Floor on Capitol Hill on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 in Washington, DC.  | Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy joins a growing number of lawmakers who are eyeing the exits.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DZCtm6">
Wednesday, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) became the latest lawmaker to announce his departure, adding to a wave of retirements and resignations in both the House and the Senate this term. McCarthy will resign before his term is over, leaving House Republicans with a narrower majority and his California seat up for a special election. Thus far, <a href="https://pressgallery.house.gov/member-data/casualty-list">37 House members</a> and seven senators have announced that they’re leaving.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LewDDV">
At this point, these departures are in line with past trends. The number of House retirements this cycle — people who will finish their term but won’t run for reelection — is on par with 2020 and 2022, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_U.S._Congress_incumbents_who_are_not_running_for_re-election_in_2024">according to Ballotpedia</a>. The figure in the Senate is slightly higher. The announcements are also surging around the same time they typically do: right around candidate filing deadlines when lawmakers have to decide if they’re in it for another cycle. If these retirements continue <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/11/26/congress-retirements-record-2024">at such a rapid pace</a>, however, it’s possible the total <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/18/congress-retirements-2024-elections-00127883">number this cycle will exceed past records</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZC70Kl">
Additionally, although these departures follow some recent patterns, there are also unique characteristics in the types of lawmakers who are choosing to leave this term. In the House, several Republicans who’ve announced retirements or resignations are longtime lawmakers known for adhering to congressional norms and traditions rather than the more disruptive tactics of the far right. Some of the GOP retirees in both chambers have also expressed concern about the increasingly Trump-centric and extremist direction their party is taking. Multiple lawmakers who are retiring have cited general congressional dysfunction, from difficulty passing major legislation to petty infighting, as a central reason for their departure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u3cUmv">
“I’m sure the leadership chaos on the Republican side is not helping keep members in <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a>,” says Kyle Kondik, a political analyst and managing editor at Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia. “Overall, though, the House just does not seem like a very pleasant place to be.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rNQER8">
McCarthy’s departure feels driven by a combination of these factors, with his ouster as leader — which was led by the right flank of his own party — likely influencing his decision to leave. For a number of other lawmakers, personal ambitions are a key motivator, including many House members eager to pursue Senate and gubernatorial runs. And for older lawmakers, age and a push for generational change were also part of that decision.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FnG0bK">
As these departures continue to pile up, here are a few of the reasons lawmakers are eying the exits.
</p>
<h3 id="0hRbRj">
Party polarization
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YIXc0y">
As the House and Senate GOP conferences have become more alt-right friendly, a number of moderate and institutionalist (meaning those interested in preserving norms and traditional procedures when it comes to passing policy) Republicans have decided to call it quits, with some signaling that there’s a limited place for their vision in their party.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MiAY4j">
Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, one of the few House Republicans to condemn his party’s election denialism, cited the GOP’s extremism on this issue as a specific reason for his retirement. “Too many Republican leaders are lying to America, claiming that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election">2020 election</a> was stolen, describing January 6 as an unguided tour of the Capitol, and asserting that the ensuing prosecutions are a weaponization of our justice system,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6KbBpHHNqM">Buck said in a video</a> announcing the decision.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bPqJws">
McCarthy and his ally Rep. Patrick McHenry — who served as acting speaker after McCarthy was deposed and who is also leaving — are among the Republicans who, though they backed Trump, were slightly more institutionalist as well. Both members opposed shutting down the government as leverage for funding cuts, for example, and both struggled with the demands of an ascendant far right that made it clear the duo’s style of politics was out of fashion. Rep. Kay Granger, the head of the House Appropriations Committee who’s long been steeped in policy-making processes, is among those stepping down, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gtsMhB">
“What’s very pronounced for 2024 is we’re seeing a raft of retirements on the part of more institutionalist members,” Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/11/26/congress-retirements-record-2024">told Axios in November</a>. “I think that list on the Republican side will grow in the next month.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uLKSUE">
In the upper chamber, Sen. Mitt Romney (UT), the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial twice, is also a notable retirement on the GOP side who has openly criticized the former president and his influence on the party.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GMVZK9">
“Look, my wing of the party talks about policy, and about issues that will make a difference to the lives of the American people,”<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mitt-romney-seeking-reelection-senate/story?id=103160588"> Romney told ABC News’s Rachel Scott</a>. “The Trump wing of the party talks about resentments of various kinds and getting even and settling scores and revisiting the 2020 election.”
</p>
<h3 id="ybg9iC">
Dysfunction
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qGN4Wz">
A byproduct of the political polarization in Congress has also been an increased level of dysfunction. This past term, that dysfunction has been especially apparent in the House, where members struggled to elect a speaker, threatened to enable a debt default, and deposed McCarthy over his unwillingness to shut down the government.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qNIOg7">
Frustration coupled with polarization has led to an increasingly toxic environment, with <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4308930-greene-issa-house-gop/">members</a> on both sides <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/eric-swalwell-kevin-mccarthy-fight_n_64c2df44e4b021e2f2924b09">calling each other names</a>, accusing <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6338813818112">members of the other party of being hatemongers</a>, using procedural tactics to <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/6/22/23769975/adam-schiff-censure">punish one another</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-hangs-sign-mocking-congressional-neighbor-s-n1258821">engaging in bullying</a>, and even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/14/us/politics/fighting-congress.html">reportedly participating in altercations</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Tq0EZ">
“Right now, Washington, DC, is broken,” Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/18/debbie-lesko-re-election-dc-is-broken">said in a statement about her departure.</a> “It is hard to get anything done.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="30PlDR">
Multiple lawmakers have referenced this dysfunction as they’ve discussed their departures, emphasizing that the lack of productivity is related to their dissatisfaction with the job. “The growing divide between Democrats and Republicans is paralyzing Congress and worsening our nation’s problems,” <a href="https://www.vox.com/2024-elections/2023/7/17/23797895/joe-manchin-third-party-2024-election-no-labels-joe-biden">Sen. Joe Manchin</a> (D-WV) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-xiBEy8GTg">said in a video</a> announcing his retirement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xdDJm1">
That dysfunction has compounded some lawmakers’ willingness to take on the sacrifices that come with the role, which includes extended amounts of time away from family, long hours, and a contentious work environment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="scuozN">
This is the “most unsatisfying period in my time in Congress because of the absolute chaos and the lack of any serious commitment to effective governance,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/26/us/politics/congress-retirement-republicans-democrats.html">told the New York Times</a>. “This feeling that the sacrifice we’re all making in order to be in Washington, to be witness to this chaos, is pretty difficult to make.”
</p>
<h3 id="VkAWhk">
Personal ambition
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bW4SHN">
Others who’ve announced their departures are doing so for a simple reason: They’re interested in higher office.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NjxnKc">
In the House, nine of the Democratic members who’ve opted out of reelection are now vying for the Senate, including Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff, and Barbara Lee in California; Rep. Ruben Gallego in Arizona; Rep. Elissa Slotkin in Michigan; Rep. Colin Allred in Texas; Rep. David Trone in Maryland; Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester in Delaware; and Rep. Andy Kim in New Jersey. On the Republican side, Rep. Alex Mooney in West Virginia and Rep. Jim Banks in Indiana are similarly vying for Senate seats next year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IwmwWR">
Some lawmakers are also pursuing other state-level offices including Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson and Republican Rep. Dan Bishop, both of whom are running for attorney general in North Carolina. Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger in Virginia is running for governor and Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips has thrown his hat into the presidential primary against <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">President Joe Biden</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gGeIC7">
This pattern is less evident on the Senate side, in which six of the seven retirees are not seeking public office; just Republican Sen. Mike Braun has said he’s running for Indiana governor. In the House, 16 of the members who are retiring aren’t seeking public office.
</p>
<h3 id="3bbhmb">
Electoral challenges
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WsEqu7">
Finally, some retirements are related to members getting drawn out of their districts by gerrymandering, which has made it impossible for them to win reelection. Others were poised to deal with contentious primaries and general elections as party polarization has gotten worse.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lHICRo">
North Carolina Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson has discussed the issue candidly, saying, “I’ve officially been drawn out of my congressional district by a small group of politicians,” <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffJacksonNC/status/1717541579404038249">in a video</a> on the subject. His North Carolina district has since been redrawn by the legislature to lean much more heavily to the right, a change that takes effect this year. <a href="https://rollcall.com/2023/12/07/manning-decides-not-to-run-again-in-north-carolina/">Rep. Kathy Manning</a>, another Democrat of North Carolina, has seen the same thing happen to her district and announced that she won’t run for reelection.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bEZGk9">
“Politicians should not choose their voters; voters should choose their representatives,” she said in a statement. Both their cases underscore how a Republican-led state legislature is attempting to skew electoral maps in favor of their party’s candidates.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VeTkkH">
Other lawmakers among the retirements would have faced fierce reelection fights, with Sen. Joe Manchin likely to face an intense battle in the heavily red state were he to run again. Sen. Mitt Romney was also among those who were set to have an aggressive conservative primary challenge if he decided to pursue another term.
</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>Gutsy, Royal Icon, Forever and Sonic Dash impress</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>Jendayi and Azrinaz show out</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>Run For The Sun, Czar, Splendido and Regal Aristocracy excel</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>Guwahati Masters 2023 | Ashwini-Tanisha duo storms into the final</strong> - Indians in other categories — Malvika Bansod (women’s singles), Amsakarunan Hariharan &amp; Ruban Kumar (men’s doubles), Dhruv Kapila &amp; Tanisha (mixed doubles) – bowed out in the semifinals</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>Uncapped Indians Kashvee Gautam, Vrinda Dinesh break bank at WPL auction</strong> - Both Vrinda and Kashvee had recently featured for India A in their three-match series against England A.</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>Mrinal Sen photo exhibition at IFFK 2023</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>This winter, Kolkata is set for a series of events on harmony, and heritage</strong> - ‘As polarisation increases in India today, it has become more important than ever to ensure that human rights are ensured for all,’ the convenor of the programme 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>BSP suspends its MP Danish Ali for ‘anti-party’ activities</strong> - In a brief statement, the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit said, Mr. Ali, MP from Amroha, has been suspended for anti-party activities</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>Cyclone Michaung | Tamil Nadu CM Stalin announces ₹6,000 as relief amount to all flood-affected families</strong> - The relief amount will be distributed to residents through fair price shops; the CM has also increased the solatium for families of those who lost their lives in the floods, and has also upped the compensation for crop losses and damaged boats</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 to be $5 trillion economy by end of 2025: Amit Shah</strong> - Union Home Minister Amit Shah said India has grown exponentially on every front over the past one decade due to the farsighted and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</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>Laura Kuenssberg: Ukraine in ‘mortal danger’ without aid, Olena Zelenska warns</strong> - Ukraine’s first lady tells Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that continued Western support is life or death.</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>AI: EU agrees landmark deal on regulation of artificial intelligence</strong> - The proposed rules cover the use of AI in systems like ChatGPT and by law enforcement.</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>France’s Emmanuel Macron buffeted from all sides in row over secularism</strong> - France’s president is denounced by all sides after lighting a Hanukkah candle at the Elysée Palace.</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>Putin to stand for fifth term as Russian president</strong> - The 71-year-old is widely expected to win next March, and can then potentially stay in power until 2036.</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>Gérard Depardieu’s obscene remarks shown in new documentary</strong> - The French actor is under renewed pressure as a programme shows him sexually demeaning women.</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>Hubble back in service after gyro scare—NASA still studying reboost options</strong> - NASA is still evaluating Hubble servicing studies from SpaceX and other companies. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989867">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EU agrees to landmark rules on artificial intelligence</strong> - Legislation lays out restrictive regime for emerging technology. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989869">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Revisiting the Ford Mustang Mach-E—how’s the pony EV doing 3 years later?</strong> - This midsize crossover EV has a lot more competition than when it debuted in 2021. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989783">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FDA approves first CRISPR therapy—here’s how it works against sickle cell</strong> - The landmark treatment turns on another blood protein that prevents sickling. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989840">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple appears to have blocked Beeper Mini’s iMessage app in less than a week</strong> - Co-founder: “All data indicates that” Apple has cut off Beeper Mini’s reverse-engineering. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989830">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>Politicians</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A politician visited a village and asked what their needs were.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
”We have 2 basic needs sir,” replied the villager.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Firstly, we have a hospital, but there’s no doctor.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
On hearing this, politician whipped out his cellphone, and after speaking for a while he reassured the village leader that the doctor would be there the next day. He then asked about the second problem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Secondly sir, there is no cellphone coverage anywhere in this village.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/arztnur"> /u/arztnur </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18dtnl4/politicians/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18dtnl4/politicians/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I just learned that someone in Chicago gets stabbed every 2 minutes.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Poor guy
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/PR0CR45T184T0R"> /u/PR0CR45T184T0R </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18dv2io/i_just_learned_that_someone_in_chicago_gets/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18dv2io/i_just_learned_that_someone_in_chicago_gets/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Shortly after he got divorced…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A friend asked Paul McCartney “would you ever go down on one knee again?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I’d prefer if you called her Heather,” Paul replied.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TomatoJuice303"> /u/TomatoJuice303 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18ea5sf/shortly_after_he_got_divorced/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18ea5sf/shortly_after_he_got_divorced/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A blonde is overweight, so her doctor puts her on a diet…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I want you to eat regularly for two days,” says the doctor, “then skip a day, and repeat the procedure for two weeks. The next time I see you, you’ll have lost at least five pounds.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Two weeks later, the blonde returns. She has lost nearly twenty pounds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Wow, that’s amazing!” the doctor says. “Did you follow my instructions?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The blonde nods…
</p>
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“I’ll tell you, though, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day.”
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“From hunger, you mean?” asked the doctor.
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“No, from skipping,” replied the blonde.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CraftyAd3270"> /u/CraftyAd3270 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18eccj7/a_blonde_is_overweight_so_her_doctor_puts_her_on/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18eccj7/a_blonde_is_overweight_so_her_doctor_puts_her_on/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man heard that Mr. Swordy is the best swordsman in the world.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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A man heard that Mr. Swordy is the best swordsman in the world
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He asked ppl where to find him and they told him he lives in Swordville. He goes there and finds a swordsman standing while a bee flying by him so he took his sword and in one swing the bee is cut into perfect two halves. The man said happily you must be Mr. Swordy but the swordsman said: “I wish, I’m nothing compared to Mr. Swordy. Go there and you might find him.” The man continues his journey and finds another swordsman while a fly flying by him. The 2nd swordsman man swings his sword and in one blow he cuts the fly into two perfect halves. The man said you’re definitely Mr. Swordy but the 2nd sowrdsman says “I wish, I’m nothing compared to Mr. Swordy. You see the guy over there, thats him” So the man goes there and while Mr. Swordy standing a mosquito flies by him and he gives it one swing but to the astonishment of the man the mosquito keeps flying. He said: “How come you’re the best swordsman alive while you couldn’t hit the mosquito” Mr. Swordy said: “You can spit on my grave if this mosquito gets more children”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Mrhilal"> /u/Mrhilal </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18dyjyx/a_man_heard_that_mr_swordy_is_the_best_swordsman/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18dyjyx/a_man_heard_that_mr_swordy_is_the_best_swordsman/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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