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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>Integrating health behavior theories to predict COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: differences between medical students and nursing students in Israel</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Abstract Objectives: To explore behavioral-related factors predicting intention of getting a COVID-19 vaccine among medical and nursing students using an integrative model combining the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among medical and nursing students aged &gt;18 years in their clinical years in Israel between August 27 and September 28, 2020. Hierarchical logistic regression considering sociodemographic and health-related factors as well as factors derived from HBM and TPB, was used to predict intention to receive COVID-19 vaccine. Results: A total number of 628 participants completed the survey. Medical students expressed higher intentions of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 than nursing students (88.1% vs. 76.2%, p&lt;0.01). The integrated model based on HBM and TPB was able to explain 66% of the variance (adjusted R2 = 0.66). Participants were more likely to be willing to get vaccinated if they reported higher levels of perceived susceptibility, benefits, barriers, cues to action, attitude, self-efficacy and anticipated regret. Two interaction effects revealed that male nurses had higher intention of getting vaccinated than did female nurses and that susceptibility is a predictor of the intention of getting vaccinated only among nurses. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that both models considered (i.e., HBM and TPB) are important for predicting the intention of getting a COVID-19 vaccine among medical and nursing students, and can help better guide intervention programs, based on components from both models. Our findings also highlight the importance of paying attention to a targeted group of female nurses, who expressed low vaccine acceptance. Keywords: COVID-19; Health Belief Model; Healthcare workers; Theory of Planned Behavior; Vaccine acceptance
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.18.21257416v1" target="_blank">Integrating health behavior theories to predict COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: differences between medical students and nursing students in Israel</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Spectrum of neurological manifestations and systematic evaluation of cerebrospinal fluid for SARS-CoV2 in patients admitted to hospital during the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Neurological manifestations of COVID-19 are increasingly described in the literature. There is uncertainty whether these occur due to direct neuroinvasion of the virus, para-infectious immunopathology, as result of systemic complications of disease such as hypercoagulability or due to a combination of these mechanisms. Here we describe clinical and radiological manifestations in a sequential cohort of patients presenting to a district hospital in South Africa with neurological symptoms with and without confirmed COVID-19 during the first peak of the epidemic. In these patients, where symptoms suggestive of meningitis and encephalitis were most common, thorough assessment of presence in CSF via PCR for SARS-CoV2 did not explain neurological presentations, notwithstanding very high rates of COVID-19 admissions. Although an understanding of potential neurotropic mechanisms remains an important area of research, these results provide rationale for greater focus towards the understanding of para-immune pathogenic processes and the contribution of systemic coagulopathy and their interaction with pre-existing risk factors in order to better manage neurological disease in the context of COVID-19. These results also inform the clinician that consideration of an alternative diagnosis and treatment for neurological presentations in this context is crucial, even in the patient with a confirmed diagnosis COVID-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.14.21254691v1" target="_blank">Spectrum of neurological manifestations and systematic evaluation of cerebrospinal fluid for SARS-CoV2 in patients admitted to hospital during the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>One year of SARS-CoV-2: Genomic characterization of COVID-19 outbreak in Qatar</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The state of Qatar has emerged as a major transit hub connecting all parts of the globe, making it as a hotspot for infectious disease introduction and providing an ideal setting to monitor the emergence and spread of variants. In this study, we report on 2634 SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequences from infected patients in Qatar between March-2020 and March-2021, representing 1.5% of all positive cases in this period. Despite the restrictions on international travel, the viruses sampled from the populace of Qatar mirrored nearly the entire global population9s genomic diversity with nine predominant viral lineages that were sustained by local transmission chains and the emergence of mutations that are likely to have originated in Qatar. We reported an increased number in the mutations and deletions in B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 lineages in a short period. This raises the imperative need to continue the ongoing genomic surveillance that has been an integral part of the national response to monitor SARS-CoV-2 profile and re-emergence in Qatar.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.19.21257433v1" target="_blank">One year of SARS-CoV-2: Genomic characterization of COVID-19 outbreak in Qatar</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Vaccination and three non-pharmaceutical interventions determine the end of COVID-19 at 381 metropolitan statistical areas in the US</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The rapid rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine global raises the question of whether and when the ongoing pandemic could be eliminated with vaccination and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Despite advances in the impact of NPIs and the conceptual belief that NPIs and vaccination control COVID-19 infections, we lack evidence to employ control theory in real-world social human dynamics in the context of disease spreading. We bridge the gap by developing a new analytical framework that treats COVID-19 as a feedback control system with the NPIs and vaccination as the controllers and a computational and mathematical model that maps human social behaviors to input signals. This approach enables us to effectively predict the epidemic spreading in 381 Metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US by learning our model parameters utilizing the time series NPIs (i.e., the stay-at-home order, face-mask wearing, and testing) data. This model allows us to optimally identify three NPIs to predict infections actually in 381 MSAs and avoid overfitting. Our numerical results universally demonstrate our approach9s excellent predictive power with <i>R<sup>2</sup>&gt;0.9</i> of all the MSAs regardless of their sizes, locations, and demographic status. Our methodology allows us to estimate the needed vaccine coverage and NPIs for achieving <i>R<sub>e</sub></i> to the manageable level and the required days for disease elimination at each location. Our analytical results provide insights into the debates on the aims for eliminating COVID-19. NPIs, if tailored to the MSAs, can drive the pandemic to an easily containable level and suppress future recurrences of epidemic cycles.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.18.21257362v1" target="_blank">Vaccination and three non-pharmaceutical interventions determine the end of COVID-19 at 381 metropolitan statistical areas in the US</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Garcinia kola and garcinoic acid suppress SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein S1-induced hyper-inflammation in human PBMCs through inhibition of NF-κB activation</strong> -
<div>
Symptoms and complications associated with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and organ damage have been linked to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein S1-induced increased production of pro inflammatory cytokines by immune cells. In this study, the effects of an extract of Garcinia kola seeds and garcinoic acid were investigated in SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein S1-stimulated human PBMCs. Results of ELISA experiments revealed that Garcinia kola extract (6.25, 12.5 and 25 g/mL) and garcinoic acid (1.25, 2.5 and 5 M) significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein S1-induced increased secretion of TNF, IL-6, IL-1{beta} and IL-8 in PBMCs. In-cell western assays showed that pre-treatment with Garcinia kola extract and garcinoic acid reduced elevated expressions of both phospho-p65 and phospho-I{kappa}B proteins, as well as NF-{kappa}B DNA binding capacity and NF-{kappa}B driven luciferase expression following stimulation of PBMCs with spike glycoprotein S1. Furthermore, pre-treatment of PBMCs with Garcinia kola extract prior to stimulation with SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein S1 resulted in reduced damage to adjacent A549 lung epithelial cells. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) and HPLC-PDA confirmed the presence of garcinoic acid in the Garcinia kola extract used in this study. These results suggest that the seed of Garcinia kola and garcinoic acid are natural products which may possess pharmacological/therapeutic benefits in reducing cytokine storm during the late stage of severe SARS-CoV-2 and other coronavirus infections.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.18.444690v1" target="_blank">Garcinia kola and garcinoic acid suppress SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein S1-induced hyper-inflammation in human PBMCs through inhibition of NF-κB activation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Virtually in Synch: A Pilot Study on Affective Dimensions of Dancing with Parkinson’s during COVID- 19</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Parkinson9s disease (PD) is a degenerative neurological disorder with no known cure. While PD is primarily considered in terms of motor dysfunctions, the disease manifests with affective dimensions impacting quality of life and daily function. Music and dance have shown promise in diminishing symptoms and improving quality of life for people living with PD and can have a significant impact on non-motor symptoms including depression. Over the past 19 years, Dance for PD and affiliates have supported the development and delivery of programs around the world that provide people living with PD an opportunity to dance, where possible, accompanied by live music. The COVID-19 pandemic has made the delivery of in-person programs such as these impossible in some locations, and many previously live classes have been forced to shift to a virtual format. Our study investigates the impact of this transition on dance-based programs in an online environment that use both/either live and recorded music, with the aim of determining whether a virtual format can provide affective support or other benefits. Given the increased incidence of mental health problems and isolation associated with COVID-19, this is an urgent question whose answer can contribute to the development of better supports for this and other vulnerable populations.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.17.20249000v1" target="_blank">Virtually in Synch: A Pilot Study on Affective Dimensions of Dancing with Parkinson’s during COVID- 19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Remote, unsupervised functional motor task evaluation in older adults across the United States using the MindCrowd electronic cohort</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the ability to evaluate motor function in older adults, as motor assessments typically require face-to-face interaction. This study tested whether motor function can be assessed at home. One hundred seventy-seven older adults nationwide (recruited through the MindCrowd electronic cohort) completed a brief functional upper-extremity assessment at home and unsupervised. Performance data were compared to data from an independent sample of community-dwelling older adults (N=250) assessed by an experimenter in-lab. The effect of age on performance was similar between the in-lab and at-home groups for both the dominant and non-dominant hand. Practice effects were also similar between the groups. Assessing upper-extremity motor function remotely is feasible and reliable in community-dwelling older adults. This test offers a practical solution in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and telehealth practice and other research involving remote or geographically isolated individuals.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.17.21257333v1" target="_blank">Remote, unsupervised functional motor task evaluation in older adults across the United States using the MindCrowd electronic cohort</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Covariance of Interdependent Samples with Application to GWAS</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We devise a significance test for covariance of samples not drawn independently, but with known inter-sample covariance structure. The test distribution we propose is a linear combination of χ2 distributions, with positive and negative coefficients. The corresponding cumulative distribution function can be efficiently calculated with Davies algorithm at high precision. As an application, we propose a test for dependence between SNP-wise effect sizes of two genome-wide association studies at the level of genes. The test can be extended to detect gene-wise causal links. We illustrate this method by uncovering potential shared genetic links between severity of Covid-19, taking of class M05B medication (drugs affecting bone structure and mineralization), Vitamin D (25OHD) and Calcium concentrations. In particular, our method detects a potential role played by chemokine receptor genes linked to TH1 versus TH2 immune reaction, a gene related to integrin beta-1 cell surface expression, and other genes potentially impacting severity of Covid-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.16.21257289v1" target="_blank">Covariance of Interdependent Samples with Application to GWAS</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Rapid Screening of COVID-19 Disease Directly from Clinical Nasopharyngeal Swabs using the MasSpec Pen Technology</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The outbreak of COVID-19 has created an unprecedent global crisis. While PCR is the gold standard method for detecting active SARS-CoV-2 infection, alternative high-throughput diagnostic tests are of significant value to meet universal testing demands. Here, we describe a new design of the MasSpec Pen technology integrated to electrospray ionization (ESI) for direct analysis of clinical swabs and investigate its use for COVID-19 screening. The redesigned MasSpec Pen system incorporates a disposable sampling device refined for uniform and efficient analysis of swab tips via liquid extraction directly coupled to a ESI source. Using this system, we analyzed nasopharyngeal swabs from 244 individuals including symptomatic COVID-19 positive, symptomatic negative, and asymptomatic negative individuals, enabling rapid detection of rich lipid profiles. Two statistical classifiers were generated based on the lipid information aquired. Classifier 1 was built to distinguish symptomatic PCR-positive from asymptomatic PCR-negative individuals, yielding cross-validation accuracy of 83.5%, sensitivity of 76.6%, and specificity of 86.6%, and validation set accuracy of 89.6%, sensitivity of 100%, and specificity of 85.3%. Classifier 2 was built to distinguish symptomatic PCR-positive patients from negative individuals including symptomatic PCR-negative patients with moderate to severe symptoms and asymptomatic individuals, yielding a cross-validation accuracy of 78.4% accuracy, specificity of 77.21%, and sensitivity of 81.8%. Collectively, this study suggests that the lipid profiles detected directly from nasopharyngeal swabs using MasSpec Pen-ESI MS allows fast (under a minute) screening of COVID-19 disease using minimal operating steps and no specialized reagents, thus representing a promising alternative high-throughput method for screening of COVID-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.14.21257006v1" target="_blank">Rapid Screening of COVID-19 Disease Directly from Clinical Nasopharyngeal Swabs using the MasSpec Pen Technology</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Adapting the UK Biobank brain imaging protocol and analysis pipeline for the C-MORE multi-organ study of COVID-19 survivors</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
SARS-CoV-2 infection has been shown to damage multiple organs, including the brain. Multiorgan MRI can provide further insight on the repercussions of COVID-19 on organ health but requires a balance between richness and quality of data acquisition and total scan duration. We adapted the UK Biobank brain MRI protocol to produce high-quality images while being suitable as part of a post-COVID-19 multiorgan MRI exam. The analysis pipeline, also adapted from UK Biobank, includes new imaging-derived phenotypes (IDPs) designed to assess the effects of COVID-19. A first application of the protocol and pipeline was performed in 51 COVID-19 patients post-hospital discharge and 25 controls participating in the Oxford C-MORE study. The protocol acquires high resolution T1, T2-FLAIR, diffusion weighted images, susceptibility weighted images, and arterial spin labelling data in 17 minutes. The automated imaging pipeline derives 1575 IDPs, assessing brain anatomy (including olfactory bulb volume and intensity) and tissue perfusion, hyperintensities, diffusivity, and susceptibility. In the C-MORE data, these quantitative measures were consistent with clinical radiology reports. Our exploratory analysis tentatively revealed that recovered COVID-19 patients had a decrease in frontal grey matter volumes, an increased burden of white matter hyperintensities, and reduced mean diffusivity in the total and normal appearing white matter in the posterior thalamic radiation and sagittal stratum, relative to controls. These differences were generally more prominent in patients who received organ support. Increased T2* in the thalamus was also observed in recovered COVID-19 patients, with a more prominent increase for non-critical patients. This initial evidence of brain changes in COVID-19 survivors prompts the need for further investigations. Follow-up imaging in the C-MORE study is currently ongoing, and this protocol is now being used in large-scale studies. The pipeline is widely applicable and will contribute to new analyses to hopefully clarify the medium to long-term effects of COVID-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.19.21257316v1" target="_blank">Adapting the UK Biobank brain imaging protocol and analysis pipeline for the C-MORE multi-organ study of COVID-19 survivors</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Strategies that make vaccination easy and promote autonomy could increase COVID-19 vaccination in those who remain hesitant.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the US has been immensely successful in vaccinating those who are receptive, further increases in vaccination rates however will require more innovative approaches to reach those who remain hesitant, deliberative or indifferent. Phenomena such empty mass vaccination sites and wasted vaccine doses in some regions suggest that in addition to dispelling misinformation and building trust, developing more person-centered vaccination strategies, that are modelled on what people want could further increase uptake. To inform vaccine distribution strategies that are aligned with public preferences for COVID-19 vaccination campaign features we conducted a survey and discrete choice experiment among a representative sample of 2,895 people in the US, between March 15 and March 22, 2021. We found that on average the public prioritized ease, preferring single to two dose vaccinations, vaccinating once rather than annually and reduced waiting times at vaccination sites - for some these were the primary preference drivers. Vaccine enforcement reduced overall vaccine acceptance, with a trend of increasing control aversion with increasing vaccine hesitancy, particularly among those who were young, Black/African American or Republican. These data suggest that making vaccination easy and promoting autonomy by offering the public choices of vaccination brands and locations may increase uptake, and that vaccine mandates could compromise autonomy and increase control aversion in those who are hesitant - reducing vaccination in such groups and potentially undermining the goals of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.19.21257355v1" target="_blank">Strategies that make vaccination easy and promote autonomy could increase COVID-19 vaccination in those who remain hesitant.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Analysis of the Second COVID-19 Wave in India Using a Birth-Death Model</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
India is witnessing the second wave of the COVID-19 disease from the first half of February 2021. The method in [5] is applied here to analyze the second wave in India. We start with fitting a birth-death model to the active and total cases data for the period from 13th to 28th February 2021. This initial dataset is expanded step by step by adding the two future weeks9 data to it until 14th May 2021. This resulted in six models in total. The efficacy of each model is tested in terms of predictions made for the next two weeks. The infectivity rates are found to be ever-increasing in the case of the five initial models. The infectivity rate for the sixth model, which is based on the data from 13th February to 14th May 2021, shows a decreasing nature with an increase in time. This indicates a decline in the second wave, which may start from 4th June 2021 according to the fitted parameters.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.19.21257447v1" target="_blank">Analysis of the Second COVID-19 Wave in India Using a Birth-Death Model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Associations of socioeconomic position and adverse childhood experiences with health-related behaviour changes and changes to employment during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 may have disproportionately affected already disadvantaged populations. Methods We analysed data from 2710 young adult participants of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. We assessed the associations of socioeconomic position (SEP) and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs, e.g. abuse, neglect, measures of family dysfunction) with changes to health-related behaviours (meals, snacks, exercise, sleep, alcohol and smoking/vaping), and to financial and employment status during the first UK lockdown between March-June 2020. Results Experiencing 4 or more ACEs was associated with reporting decreased sleep quantity during lockdown (OR 1.53, 95% CI: 1.07-2.18) and increased smoking and/or vaping (OR 1.85, 95% CI: 0.99-3.43); no other associations were seen between ACEs or SEP and health-related behaviour changes. Adverse financial and employment changes were more likely for people with low SEP and for people who had experienced multiple ACEs; e.g. people who had been in the 9never worked or long-term unemployed9 or 9routine and manual occupation9 categories pre-lockdown were almost 3 times more likely to have stopped working during lockdown compared with people who were in a higher managerial, administrative or professional occupation pre-lockdown (OR 2.83, 95% CI: 1.45-5.50 and OR 2.68, 95% CI: 1.63-4.42 respectively). Conclusion Adverse financial and employment consequences of lockdown were more likely to be experienced by people who have already experienced socioeconomic deprivation or childhood adversity, thereby widening social inequalities. Despite this, in this sample of young adults, there was little evidence that lockdown worsened inequalities in health-related behaviours.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.18.21257397v1" target="_blank">Associations of socioeconomic position and adverse childhood experiences with health-related behaviour changes and changes to employment during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Continued longitudinal analysis of avid outdoor recreationists during the COVID-19 pandemic and sensitivities to new outdoor recreationists</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered outdoor recreation behaviors in the United States for over one year. In an effort to continue gathering timely and relevant data on national outdoor recreation patterns, the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and its academic partners, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Montana, conducted a four-phase study to offer guidance to land managers, recreation providers, and outdoor enthusiasts across the United States. This report details findings from Phase 4, occurring one year into the pandemic. By comparing survey results from April 2020 (Phase 1) and April 2021 (Phase 4), we provide a longitudinal perspective of how avid outdoor recreationists’ reported behaviors and perspectives are evolving with the ever-changing pandemic. Phases 1, 2, and 3 of this assessment were detailed by previous reports1. In addition to examining differences between April 2020 (Phase 1) and April 2021 (Phase 4), this report details how avid outdoor recreationists have been impacted by and reacted to influxes of new outdoor recreationists during the pandemic. This report is intended to provide valuable information for managing changing recreation use of public lands and offer insight for land managers as they work to protect the natural world.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/p3yqg/" target="_blank">Continued longitudinal analysis of avid outdoor recreationists during the COVID-19 pandemic and sensitivities to new outdoor recreationists</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2 and emergence of mutators during experimental evolution</strong> -
<div>
“How predictable is evolution?” is a key question in evolutionary biology. Experimental evolution has shown that the evolutionary path of microbes can be extraordinarily reproducible. Here, using experimental evolution in two circulating SARS-CoV-2, we estimate its mutation rate and demonstrate the repeatability of its evolution when facing a new cell type but no immune or drug pressures. We estimate a genomic mutation rate of 3.7x10^-6 nt^-1 cycle^-1 for a lineage of SARS-CoV-2 with the originally described spike protein (CoV-2-D) and of 2.9x10^-6 nt^-1 cycle-1 for a lineage carrying the D614G mutation that has spread worldwide (CoV-2-G). We further show that mutation accumulation is heterogeneous along the genome, with the spike gene accumulating mutations at a mean rate 16x10^-6 nt^-1 per infection cycle across backgrounds, five-fold higher than the genomic average. We observe the emergence of mutators in the CoV-2-G background, likely linked to mutations in the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and/or in the error-correcting exonuclease protein. Despite strong bottlenecks, several de novo mutations spread to high frequencies by selection and considerable convergent evolution in spike occurs. These results demonstrate the high adaptive potential of SARS-CoV-2 during the first stages of cell infection in the absence of immune surveillance.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.19.444774v1" target="_blank">Mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2 and emergence of mutators during experimental evolution</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>Recombinant Hyperimmune Polyclonal Antibody (GIGA-2050) in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: GIGA-2050<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   GigaGen, 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>Using Text Messages to Improve COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake, an RCT.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Text message content<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust;   Central London CCG;   Imperial College Health Partners;   Institute for Global Health Innovations;   The Behavioural Insights Team<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>Study to Evaluate the Effects of RO7496998 (AT-527) in Non-Hospitalized Adult and Adolescent Participants With Mild or Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: RO7496998;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc.;   Hoffmann-La Roche<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>The Role of High Dose Co-trimoxazole in Severe Covid-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Co-trimoxazole;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on COVID-19 Recovery</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Vit-D 0.2 MG/ML Oral Solution [Calcidol];   Drug: Physiological Irrigating Solution<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Monastir;   Loussaief Chawki;   Nissaf Ben Alaya;   Cyrine Ben Nasrallah;   Manel Ben Belgacem;   Hela Abroug;   Imen Zemni;   Manel Ben fredj;   Wafa Dhouib<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Effect of STC3141 Continuous Infusion in Subjects With Severe Corona Virus Disease 2019（COVID-19）Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: STC3141<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Grand Medical Pty Ltd.;   Trium Clinical Consulting<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>tDCS for Post COVID-19 Fatigue</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post Covid-19 Patients<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Thorsten Rudroff<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>A Phase 2 Study of APX-115 in Hospitalized Patients With Confirmed Mild to Moderate COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: APX-115;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Aptabio Therapeutics, Inc.;   Covance<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>Prophylaxis for COVID-19: Ivermectin in Close Contacts of COVID-19 Cases (IVERNEX-TUC)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Ministry of Public Health, Argentina<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>Leveraging CHWs to Improve COVID-19 Testing and Mitigation Among CJIs Accessing a Corrections-focused CBO</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Onsite Point-of-care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Montefiore Medical Center;   The Fortune Society;   University of Bristol<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>Mix and Match of the Second COVID-19 Vaccine Dose for Safety and Immunogenicity</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine;   Biological: BNT162b2;   Biological: ChAdOx1-S [recombinant];   Other: 0, 28 day schedule;   Other: 0, 112 day schedule<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Canadian Immunization Research Network;   Canadian Center for Vaccinology;   BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute;   Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba;   CHU de Quebec-Universite Laval;   Ottawa Hospital Research Institute;   Northern Alberta Clinical Trials + Research Centre;   Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion;   University of Toronto;   Massachusetts General Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Breathing Effort in Covid-19 Pneumonia: Effects of Positive Pressure, Inspired Oxygen Fraction and Decubitus</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: Esophageal catheter<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   San Luigi Gonzaga Hospital<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>Anti COVID 19 Intravenous Immunoglobulin (C-IVIG) Therapy for Severe COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Anti COVID 19 Intravenous Immunoglobulin (C-IVIG)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Dow University of Health Sciences;   Higher Education Commission (Pakistan)<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>A Global Phase III Clinical Trial of Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cells)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells);   Other: Placebo control<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd.;   West China Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Study of Repurposed Medications</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin Tablets<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Susanna Naggie, MD;   National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS);   Vanderbilt University Medical Center<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>Diverse Functional Autoantibodies in Patients with COVID-19</strong> - COVID-19 manifests with a wide spectrum of clinical phenotypes that are characterized by exaggerated and misdirected host immune responses^(1-6). While pathological innate immune activation is well documented in severe disease¹, the impact of autoantibodies on disease progression is less defined. Here, we used a high-throughput autoantibody (AAb) discovery technique called Rapid Extracellular Antigen Profiling (REAP)⁷ to screen a cohort of 194 SARS-CoV-2 infected COVID-19 patients and healthcare…</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>Virucidal and antiviral activity of astodrimer sodium against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro</strong> - An effective response to the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) will involve a range of complementary preventive modalities. The current studies were conducted to evaluate the in vitro SARS-CoV-2 antiviral and virucidal (irreversible) activity of astodrimer sodium, a dendrimer with broad spectrum antimicrobial activity, including against enveloped viruses in in vitro and in vivo models, that is marketed for…</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>Computational Approaches to Discover Novel Natural Compounds for SARS-CoV-2 Therapeutics</strong> - Scientists all over the world are facing a challenging task of finding effective therapeutics for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). One of the fastest ways of finding putative drug candidates is the use of computational drug discovery approaches. The purpose of the current study is to retrieve natural compounds that have obeyed to drug-like properties as potential inhibitors. Computational molecular modelling techniques were employed to discover compounds with potential SARS-CoV-2 inhibition…</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>Pharmacological activation of STING blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a global pandemic, resulting millions of infections and deaths with few effective interventions available. Here, we demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 evades interferon (IFN) activation in respiratory epithelial cells, resulting in a delayed response in bystander cells. Since pretreatment with IFNs can block viral infection, we reasoned that pharmacological activation of innate immune pathways could control SARS-CoV-2 infection. To…</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 diamidobenzimidazole STING agonist protects against SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - Coronaviruses are a family of RNA viruses that cause acute and chronic diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract in humans and other animals. SARS-CoV-2 is a recently emerged coronavirus that has led to a global pandemic causing a severe respiratory disease known as COVID-19 with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. The development of antiviral therapeutics are urgently needed while vaccine programs roll out worldwide. Here we describe a diamidobenzimidazole compound, diABZI-4,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Could Isotretinoin be a protective agent against COVID-19?:A dermatologist perspective</strong> - Being a “trending” unique treatment for moderate-to-severe acne, isotretinoin (13-cis retinoic acid) (ISO) is currently considered by experts the first line treatment even for mild acne, unless there is an absolute contraindication. ISO was identified, among other retinoids, to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in Vero E6 cells. Shoemark et al.¹.</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>Antiviral nucleoside analogs</strong> - The minireview surveys the modification of native nucleosides as a result of which huge libraries of nucleoside analogs of various structures were synthesized. Particular attention is paid to the synthesis of the so-called prodrug forms of nucleoside analogs which ensure their penetration into the cell and metabolism to active 5’-triphosphate derivatives. All the best known antiviral cyclic nucleoside analogs approved for the treatment of HIV infections, hepatitis B, C, and influenza since 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>Ceftazidime is a potential drug to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro by blocking spike protein-ACE2 interaction</strong> - No abstract</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>Type-I interferon signatures in SARS-CoV-2 infected Huh7 cells</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a global health emergency. A key feature of COVID-19 is dysregulated interferon-response. Type-I interferon (IFN-I) is one of the earliest antiviral innate immune responses following viral infection and plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. In this study, using a proteomics-based approach, we identified that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces delayed and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Further insights into the molecular complexity of the human sinus node - The role of ‘novel’ transcription factors and microRNAs</strong> - RESEARCH PURPOSE: The sinus node (SN) is the heart’s primary pacemaker. Key ion channels (mainly the funny channel, HCN4) and Ca^(2+)-handling proteins in the SN are responsible for its function. Transcription factors (TFs) regulate gene expression through inhibition or activation and microRNAs (miRs) do this through inhibition. There is high expression of macrophages and mast cells within the SN connective tissue. ‘Novel’/unexplored TFs and miRs in the regulation of ion channels and immune…</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>Role of leukotriene pathway and montelukast in pulmonary and extrapulmonary manifestations of Covid-19: The enigmatic entity</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the responsible agent for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), has its entry point through interaction with angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors, highly expressed in lung type II alveolar cells and other tissues, like heart, pancreas, brain, and vascular endothelium. This review aimed to elucidate the potential role of leukotrienes (LTs) in the pathogenesis and clinical presentation of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and to…</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>Disruption of disulfides within RBD of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein prevents fusion and represents a target for viral entry inhibition by registered drugs</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic imposed a large burden on health and society. Therapeutics targeting different components and processes of the viral infection replication cycle are being investigated, particularly to repurpose already approved drugs. Spike protein is an important target for both vaccines and therapeutics. Insights into the mechanisms of spike-ACE2 binding and cell fusion could support the identification of compounds with inhibitory effects. Here, we demonstrate that the integrity of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Computational designing of a peptide that potentially blocks the entry of SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV</strong> - Last decade has witnessed three major pandemics caused by SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV that belong to Coronavirus family. Currently, there are no effective therapies available for corona virus infections. Since the three viruses belong to the same family and share many common features, we can theoretically design a drug that can be effective on all the three of them. In this study, using computational approach, we designed a peptide (Peptide 7) that can bind to the Receptor Binding Domain…</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>ZMPSTE24 Regulates SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein-enhanced Expression of Endothelial Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1</strong> - Endothelial dysfunction is implicated in the thrombotic events reported in COVID-19 patients, but underlying molecular mechanisms are unknown. Circulating levels of the coagulation cascade activator PAI-1 are substantially higher in COVID-19 patients with severe respiratory dysfunction than in patients with bacterial-sepsis and ARDS. Indeed, the elevation of PAI-1 is recognized as an early marker of endothelial dysfunction. Here, we report that recombinant SARS-CoV-2-S1 stimulated robust…</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>Opposing forces fight over the same ground to regulate interferon signaling</strong> - The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has spurred new interest in interferon signaling in response to viral pathogens. Much of what we know about the signaling molecules and associated signal transduction induced during the host cellular response to viral pathogens has been gained from research conducted from the 1990’s to the present day, but certain intricacies of the mechanisms involved, still remain unclear. In a recent study by Vaughn et al. the authors examine one of the main mechanisms…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO PARTICLE, INCLUDING SARS-CoV-2, DETECTION AND METHODS THEREFOR</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU323295937">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A COMPREHENSIVE DISINFECTION SYSTEM DURING PANDEMIC FOR PERSONAL ITEMS AND PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE) TO SAFEGUARD PEOPLE</strong> - The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to an enormous demand for gadgets / objects for personal protection. To prevent the spread of virus, it is important to disinfect commonly touched objects. One of the ways suggested is to use a personal UV-C disinfecting box that is “efficient and effective in deactivating the COVID-19 virus. The present model has implemented the use of a UV transparent material (fused silica quartz glass tubes) as the medium of support for the objects to be disinfected to increase the effectiveness of disinfection without compromising the load bearing capacity. Aluminum foil, a UV reflecting material, was used as the inner lining of the box for effective utilization of the UVC light emitted by the UVC lamps. Care has been taken to prevent leakage of UVC radiation out of the system. COVID-19 virus can be inactivated in 5 minutes by UVC irradiation in this disinfection box - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN322882412">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING SYSTEM FOR MENTAL HEALTH MONITORING OF PERSON DURING THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU323295498">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>USE OF IMINOSUGAR COMPOUND IN PREPARATION OF ANTI-SARS-COV-2 VIRUS DRUG</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU322897928">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种高灵敏SARS-CoV-2中和抗体的检测方法、检测试剂盒</strong> - 本发明公开了一种高灵敏SARS‑CoV‑2中和抗体的检测方法、检测试剂盒，属于生物医学检测技术领域，本发明试剂盒包括层析试纸、卡壳和样本稀释液，所述层析试纸包括底板、样品垫、结合垫、NC膜和吸水垫，所述NC膜上依次设置有捕获线、检测线和质控线，所述捕获线包被有ACE2蛋白，所述检测线包被有RBD蛋白，所述结合垫设置有RBD蛋白标记物；本发明采用阻断法加夹心法原理提高检测中和抗体的灵敏度，通过添加捕获线的方式，将靶向RBD的非中和抗体提前捕获，保证后续通过夹心法检测中和抗体的特异性。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN323798634">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>逆转录酶突变体及其应用</strong> - 本发明提供一种MMLV逆转录酶突变体，在野生型MMLV逆转录酶氨基酸序列（如SEQ ID No.1序列所示）中进行七个氨基酸位点的突变，氨基酸突变位点为：R205H；V288T；L304K；G525D；S526D；E531G；E574G。该突变体可以降低MMLV逆转录酶对Taq DNA聚合酶的抑制作用，大大提高了一步法RT‑qPCR的灵敏度。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN323494119">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Compositions and methods for the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) infection</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU321590214">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>用于检测新型冠状病毒的试纸和试剂盒</strong> - 本发明涉及生物技术和免疫检测技术领域，具体涉及一种用于检测新型冠状病毒的试纸和试剂盒。所述试纸或试剂盒含有抗体1和/或抗体2，所述抗体1的重、轻链可变区的氨基酸序列分别如SEQ ID NO:1‑2所示，所述抗体2的重、轻链可变区的氨基酸序列分别如SEQ ID NO:3‑4所示。本发明对于大批量的新型冠状病毒样本，包括新型冠状病毒突变（英国、南非）与非突变株的人血清、鼻咽拭子等样本的检测有普遍检测意义，避免突变株的漏检。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN322953478">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fahrgastleitsystem und Verfahren zum Leiten von Fahrgästen</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Die Erfindung betrifft ein Fahrgastleitsystem zum Leiten von mit einem Fahrzeug (1) mit wenigstens zwei Türen (2.L, 2.R) transportieren Fahrgästen (3), mit wenigstens einem Sensor (4) zur Überwachung der Fahrgäste (3), wenigstens einem Anzeigemittel (5) zur Ausgabe von Leitinformationen, wenigstens einem Aktor zum Öffnen oder Verriegeln einer Tür (2.L, 2.R) und wenigstens einer Recheneinheit (7). Das erfindungsgemäße Fahrgastleitsystem ist dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Recheneinheit (7) dazu eingerichtet ist durch Auswertung vom wenigstens einen Sensor (4) erzeugter Sensordaten zu erkennen an welcher Tür (2.L, 2.R) des Fahrzeugs (1) Fahrgäste (3) ein- und/oder aussteigen möchten und wenigstens eine Tür (2.L, 2.R) für einen Ausstieg festzulegen und/oder wenigstens eine Tür (2.L, 2.R) für einen Einstieg festzulegen, sodass eine Anzahl an Begegnungen von sich durch das Fahrzeug (1) bewegender Fahrgäste (3) und/oder aus dem Fahrzeug (1) aussteigenden und/oder in das Fahrzeug (1) einsteigenden Fahrgästen (3) minimiert wird.</p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE323289145">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vorrichtung zum Desinfizieren, der Körperpflege oder dergleichen</strong> -
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</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Vorrichtung zum Desinfizieren, der Körperpflege oder dergleichen mittels einer flüssigen oder cremigen Substanz (20), dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Vorrichtung mit einem elektrisch betriebenen Erinnerungs-Modul und einem Vorratsbehälter (10) für die Substanz (20) versehen ist, die Substanz (20) in dosierter Menge zur Ausgabeöffnung (9) gefördert wird und die Vorrichtung dazu geeignet ist, am Körper oder der Kleidung einer Person getragen zu werden.</p></li>
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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>Saying Her Name</strong> - Remains that were found to be those of a Black teen who was killed by Philadelphia police in 1985 were treated as an anthropological specimen. How was her identity known and then forgotten? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/saying-her-name">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Policing Politics Takes Over the New York City Mayoral Race</strong> - With the spectre of crime suddenly top of mind for many voters, the language of “defund the police” has been deemed a political liability. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/policing-politics-takes-over-the-new-york-city-mayoral-race">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Japan’s Olympic-Sized Problem</strong> - The government’s inept response to the coronavirus pandemic has led to widespread discontent about hosting the Games. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/japans-olympic-sized-problem">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Tensions Inside a Mixed Jewish-Arab City in Israel</strong> - Cities such as Lod are experiencing the worst bouts of internecine violence since the country’s founding. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-tensions-inside-a-mixed-jewish-arab-city-in-israel">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Particular Psychology of Destroying a Planet</strong> - What kind of thinking goes into engaging in planetary sabotage? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-particular-psychology-of-destroying-a-planet">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Why isn’t Biden pushing Israel harder?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rE8L6oX_4IoOa_spCLgYf-7-zGw=/206x0:2873x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69316115/AP_21139556466024.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
President Joe Biden arrives at the US Coast Guard Academy commencement ceremony in New London, Connecticut, on May 19. | Andrew Harnik/AP
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To understand Biden’s Israel policy now, you have to look at his past.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="60RgWO">
There’s a <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/full-text-of-biden-s-speech-at-aipac-policy-conference-1.5232499?lts=1621343906076">story</a> Joe Biden likes to tell any time he speaks to an audience about Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3D76cB">
It’s <a href="https://www.jta.org/2019/12/12/united-states/where-does-joe-biden-stand-on-anti-semitism-israel-and-other-issues-that-matter-to-jewish-voters-in-2020">1948</a>, a matter of days before Israel’s founding and three years after the end of World War II. Six-year-old Joey Biden is at the dinner table with his family, listening to his Catholic father wonder aloud why some people wouldn’t want to recognize the state of Israel. That’s when his father uttered the words “never again,” making clear to young Joey that the existence of Israel was crucial to preventing another Holocaust.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CnoY9R">
It’s a story that helps explain why, even in the face of mounting pressure from human rights groups and progressives within his own party, Biden has stood firmly by Israel over the last 10 days as it has relentlessly bombed Gaza, killing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/17/world/middleeast/israel-palestine-gaza-conflict-death-toll.html">more than 200 people</a>, including children.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EzU5hH">
While his party has moved to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22432247/israel-palestine-gaza-conflict-biden-democrats">left on Israel policy</a>, with even <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-pro-israel-senator-menendez-issues-rare-rebuke-over-gaza-media-offices-strike-1.9811952">pro-Israel Democrats</a> more willing to criticize the country, Biden has stayed put. He <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexWardVox/status/1394621155756158981?s=20">has yet to directly call for a ceasefire</a> in the conflict, preferring instead to repeat the mantra that “<a href="https://abc7ny.com/biden-israel-palestine-conflict-2021-why-are-and-hamas-fighting-gaza/10625463/">Israel has a right to defend itself</a>.” (A Republican, Sen. <a href="https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-young-call-for-ceasefire-in-middle-east">Todd Young</a> of Indiana, beat him to the punch on calling for a ceasefire, though he later <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2021/05/todd-young-israel-gaza-ceasefire/">backtracked</a>.) His administration has also blocked <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/17/no-us-action-after-third-unsc-meeting-on-israel-palestine">three resolutions</a> at the UN Security Council that would have backed a ceasefire.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XhsA38wcem-DPuBrScyqfCnkLXY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22526562/AP_21138579585175.jpg"/> <cite>Evan Vucci/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (left) conveys to President Biden her dissatisfaction with the US response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Detroit on May 18.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GxpQFZ">
Meanwhile, Israel — which has seen <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-palestinians-hamas-death-toll-cease-fire-calls/">more than 10 people</a>, including children, killed by Hamas rockets — continues to bomb Gaza and wreak devastation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hi0Qbm">
Part of the reason for his current stance, US officials say, is that Biden would prefer to focus on passing trillions in economic packages at home while competing with China abroad. Wading into another Middle East conflict — one with political tripwires at every turn — just isn’t appealing. Plus, they seem to believe Israel <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-middle-east-israel-palestinian-conflict-government-and-politics-d313985ade629d9c33e9147e07712180">probably wouldn’t respond to open calls for a ceasefire</a> anyway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3g68SM">
But that plan won’t do much to end the suffering disproportionately felt by Palestinians. “The right position for the US is to be on the side of ending the conflict, which is where we have traditionally been in the Middle East, and doing so on the basis of our very considerable leverage over Israel,” said Thomas Pickering, the former American ambassador to Israel and the United Nations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NXDZOY">
It’s not that Biden or his team is indifferent. The administration has discussed the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/05/11/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-secretary-of-energy-jennifer-granholm-and-secretary-of-homeland-security-alejandro-mayorkas-may-11-2021/">plight of the Palestinians</a> and said it’s been involved in a “<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-17/white-house-defends-quiet-diplomacy-over-israel-gaza-crisis">quiet</a>,” behind-the-scenes diplomatic effort to end the conflict. Biden also told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he’d <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/05/17/readout-of-president-joseph-r-biden-jr-call-with-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-of-israel-4/">support a ceasefire</a> if one was struck and pressed him more forcefully to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-middle-east-israel-palestinian-conflict-government-and-politics-d313985ade629d9c33e9147e07712180">wind down</a> the conflict during private conversations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9nBKsD">
And according to the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/05/19/readout-of-president-joseph-r-biden-jr-call-with-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-of-israel-5/">White House</a> on Wednesday, Biden told his Israeli counterpart on their fourth call in recent days that he expects “a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire.”
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SEE7Gx5rz2rh_AYmXj4kjX0VWgQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22526590/AP_21139612672812.jpg"/> <cite>Yousef Masoud/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinians inspect a destroyed house that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip on May 19.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BuDZb5">
Biden’s unwillingness to do more can’t be separated from his past Israel stances. “His position on Israel-Palestine is a relic of a different era,” said Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, who added that the president’s famed stubbornness makes “it hard to dislodge him from his own premises.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5kYkYp">
To understand where Biden is now requires you to understand where he’s been. And a look at his record makes it clear he’s always been side-by-side with Israel, saving his harshest rebukes for private.
</p>
<h3 id="oVrvrN">
The Senate’s Israel defender
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oc3DEc">
That dinner table moment in 1948 wasn’t the only formative early experience Biden had concerning Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Iv7pRC">
During his first overseas trip as a senator from Delaware in 1973, the 30-year-old Biden met with then-Israeli Prime Minister <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/when-biden-met-golda-new-details-emerge-of-storied-1973-encounter/">Golda Meir</a>. In their hour-long encounter, she chain-smoked while describing all the security threats her nation faced, using <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/when-biden-met-golda-new-details-emerge-of-storied-1973-encounter/">maps as aids</a>, and detailed the devastation of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Six-Day-War">Six-Day War</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7VK4G6">
“She painted a bleak, bleak picture — scared the hell out of me, quite frankly, about the odds,” <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/23/remarks-vice-president-joe-biden-67th-annual-israeli-independence-day-ce">Biden recounted</a> over 40 years later as vice president. He continued:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UBZ8vl">
She said, “Senator, you look so worried.” I said, “Well, my God, Madam Prime Minister,” and I turned to look at her. I said, “The picture you paint.” She said, “Oh, don’t worry…we have a secret weapon in our conflict with the Arabs. You see, we have no place else to go.”
</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eit2fbesvaZ3xN6mGCWKL8OJgtk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22526607/AP_730228035.jpg"/> <cite>Harvey Georges/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir talks with acting US Secretary of State Kenneth Rush in 1973 in Washington, DC. Biden met Meir the same year.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7Aa8yf">
The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Yom-Kippur-War">Arab-Israeli war</a> started that same year. More than <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-08-mn-2592-story.html#:~:text=ARAB%2DISRAELI%20WAR%2C%201973%3A,15%2C000%20killed%20and%2030%2C000%20wounded.">2,500 Israelis were killed and another 7,500 were injured</a> in the three-week fight that drew the US in to defend its ally.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T8Ndqg">
<a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/23/remarks-vice-president-joe-biden-67th-annual-israeli-independence-day-ce">Biden would go on to say</a> that talking with Meir was “one of the most consequential meetings I’ve ever had in my life.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="79baq8">
With the words of his father and Meir echoing in his ears, Biden turned into a pro-Israel force in the Senate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OFU17n">
During the Reagan administration, Biden <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/457184/i-worked-for-joe-biden-heres-what-he-really-thinks-about-israel/">firmly</a> <a href="https://theintercept.com/empire-politician/biden-saudi-arms-sales/">opposed</a> the sale of advanced weapons like F-15 warplanes to Saudi Arabia, arguing it would undercut Israel’s military advantage in the region. “The Israeli Government now has recognized that Israel’s military superiority and military-technology edge would be dangerously eroded by the arms package and could not be offset by any likely compensatory measures,” he wrote in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/15/opinion/stop-arms-for-saudis.html">1981 New York Times op-ed</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XGGKKX">
Then, in June 1982, Biden joined other senators for what the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/23/us/mood-is-angry-as-begin-meets-panel-of-senate.html">New York Times</a> described as “a highly emotional confrontation” with then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Israel had just invaded Lebanon — a maneuver known as “<a href="https://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/history/pages/operation%20peace%20for%20galilee%20-%201982.aspx">Operation Peace for Galilee</a>” — to root out Palestinian guerrillas who attacked Israel from the country. American lawmakers weren’t happy about it and aimed to tell Begin off.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pX2zX4">
Except one senator. Biden said he wasn’t critical of the Lebanon policy, with <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/biden-a-longtime-friend-israel-critic-of-settlements-may-be-at-odds-over-iran/">Begin later telling Israeli journalists</a> the Delaware senator had “delivered a very impassioned speech … and he actually supported Operation Peace for the Galilee.”
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7hd0lZS6cTtFR0skSl-BmOCT0do=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22526613/GettyImages_457650026.jpg"/> <cite>Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Smoke billows from buildings in Beirut after being shelled by Israeli forces during “Operation Peace for Galilee” in 1982.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0WjjMB">
Per Begin, and as recounted by the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/biden-a-longtime-friend-israel-critic-of-settlements-may-be-at-odds-over-iran/">Times of Israel</a> last year, Biden “said he would go even further than Israel, adding that he’d forcefully fend off anyone who sought to invade his country, even if that meant killing women or children.” The Israeli premier added, “I disassociated myself from these remarks … According to our values, it is forbidden to hurt women and children, even in war.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IrRkMt">
Nearly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/09/03/war-casualties-put-at-48000-in-lebanon/cf593941-6067-4239-a453-71bdcaf9eba0/">18,000 people were killed and another 30,000 wounded</a> in the invasion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OKiUo4">
Biden did push back against Begin about one thing, though: settlements. The young lawmaker said if Israel continued to allow Israeli Jews to dispossess Palestinians of their homes, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/23/us/mood-is-angry-as-begin-meets-panel-of-senate.html">rancor in the US toward Israel was likely to grow</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pnWGt5">
This would be a theme Biden returned to often in his career. Despite his rock-ribbed views on Israel’s security, he felt settlements made the prospects of peace less likely, ruined Israel’s image abroad, and harmed Palestinians.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4pUoLl">
The issue of arms sales to Arab states in the Middle East came up again in 1986, reigniting debates about whether or not to block it so Israel could remain the predominant military regional force. Biden, with a stern look and an impassioned voice, came to Israel’s defense on the Senate floor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B3dhxh">
“It’s about time we stop apologizing for our support for Israel, there’s no apology to be made. It is the best $3 billion investment we make,” he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/08/07/pro-israel-lobbyists-target-sale-of-us-arms-to-arabs/f9673447-36dd-453c-83db-547eaaca5dce/">said</a> of the annual aid package to the country. “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.”
</p>
<div id="vyILxp">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 75%;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mxlrlC">
Biden’s support continued. In the fall of 1991, then-President George H.W. Bush sought to put <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-how-an-ultimatum-from-president-george-h-w-bush-transformed-u-s-israel-relations-1.6702047">conditions on $10 billion in loan guarantees the US was giving Israel</a> to help the country welcome an influx of immigrants from the Soviet Union. To get the money, Israel would have to agree to end its settlements in Palestinian territories. Biden didn’t like the idea and <a href="https://www.congress.gov/amendment/102nd-congress/senate-amendment/1247?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22loan+guarantees%22%5D%2C%22cosponsor-state%22%3A%22Delaware%22%7D&amp;r=1&amp;s=10">co-sponsored a bill</a> to make the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt17/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1991-pt17-7-1.pdf">assistance unconditional</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="15XX3k">
The following year, he gave a <a href="https://theintercept.com/empire-politician/biden-israel-aipac/">speech</a> at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — a powerful pro-Israel group — to say that the US shouldn’t pressure Israel to make peace with Palestinians or other neighboring nations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ntHdTm">
“We are now at the ‘peace table,’ quote unquote, with unclean hands, because there is a feeling abroad in this administration, among some in Congress, that somehow we owe an obligation to our Arab brethren to have Israel, quote, ‘be reasonable,’” he said, claiming it was an “absurd notion that publicly vilifying Israel will somehow change its policy.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4vGuwb">
There’s more, but you get the idea. Biden’s Israel support throughout his career was so fierce that he’s said on <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4859644/user-clip-joe-biden-zionist">more</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY3Rc3-sIZA">than</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbn4i7_CFIM">one</a> occasion: “I am a Zionist.” He believes you don’t have to be a Jew to be a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080010/zionism-israel-palestine">Zionist</a> — the ideology that holds that Judaism is a nationality as well as a religion, and that Jews deserve their own state in their ancestral homeland, Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7hDj8l">
In fairness, Brookings’s Hamid said, Biden was a lawmaker at a time “when support for Israel just kind of went without saying.” Judging his past stances now, when Democrats have clearly moved to the left, needs to take into account the political environment of the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VsOxFw">
But it’s also true that there were few voices in Congress during Biden’s many decades there who were more ardently pro-Israel than he was. The question was whether he’d bring that same gusto to the White House.
</p>
<h3 id="DiLet3">
The Obama White House’s Israel “good cop”
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rI8HHm">
Biden tempered his outright support for Israel while serving as President Barack Obama’s vice president.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WUmcX7">
Experts told me that had less to do with an evolution in his thinking and more to do with the need to defer to his boss’s policy preferences. Obama wasn’t anti-Israel by any means, but he often was willing to take positions that irked the country’s government — especially Prime Minister Netanyahu — including seeking a nuclear deal with Iran, which Netanyahu vehemently opposed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PO3s28">
That was awkward for Biden, who by then had a decades-long relationship with the Israeli premier. He often got caught in the middle as the president and Netanyahu jousted, but he still came away with the reputation of being “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-good-cop-joe-biden-and-israel-during-the-obama-years/">the good cop</a>” to Obama’s “bad cop” on Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V03Bhp">
It got tough for Biden almost right from the start.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VGRqG5">
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/middleeast/10biden.html">Biden visited Israel on March 9, 2010</a>, to reassure the country it still had a partner in the US and try to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Hcc0k">
In a joint address, Netanyahu told the vice president that Israel had planted a circle of trees in Jerusalem as a “tribute” to Biden’s mother, alongside a <a href="https://www.kkl-jnf.org/international-cooperation/the-grove-of-nations/">grove of trees</a> planted by foreign leaders to symbolize their friendship with Israel. Biden was touched. “My love for your country was watered by this Irish lady who was proudest of me when I was working with and for the security of Israel, so it’s a great honor,” Biden <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/pressroom/2010/pages/joint-press-conference-with-pm-netanyahu-and-vp-biden-9-mar-2010.aspx">said</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8m5wBTb6jU07KT3JpoK4UWZrB3k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22526627/GettyImages_97570869.jpg"/> <cite>David Furst/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Then-Vice President Biden shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on March 9, 2010.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BPc0VJ">
But the trip soon turned sour when, just a few hours later, the Israeli government announced the construction of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/11/biden.mideast/index.html">1,600 new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qOmCdX">
In 1948, Jerusalem — which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital — was divided, with Israel controlling the western half and Jordan the eastern. But in 1967, Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem and since then has worked to evict the Arabs living there and establish a Jewish presence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8qmKCp">
The international community doesn’t accept East Jerusalem as part of Israel, though, and views this settlement activity as detrimental to peace efforts. That was also the US position at the time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n7JMGL">
So the Israeli government announcing the construction of 1,600 new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem while Biden was in the country, in part to try to restart peace talks, seemed like a slap in the face to the US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hJ2BLD">
Netanyahu later claimed he knew nothing of the announcement, which was made by his Interior Ministry, but Biden had already taken offense. “He was humiliated,” Bruce Jentleson, a State Department official at the time, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/19/politics/biden-netanyahu-relationship/index.html">CNN</a> this week. “It was really in-your-face.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xNes0R">
Biden released a <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/realitycheck/the-press-office/statement-vice-president-joseph-r-biden-jr">statement</a> expressing his displeasure that same day. “I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem,” he said. “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P9fHzt">
“Unilateral action taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations on permanent status issues,” he continued.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ALfZKu">
Biden’s aides recommended that he skip a dinner with Netanyahu, but the vice president said it was better he attend and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/us/politics/biden-netanyahu.html">discuss the matter delicately and privately with the Israeli premier</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dLhbqL">
That became a recurring theme during Biden’s first stint in the White House. “Biden reserved his most strident criticism for Netanyahu for behind the scenes,” an unnamed source close to Biden told the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-good-cop-joe-biden-and-israel-during-the-obama-years/">Times of Israel</a> last year. “There was a lot less public drama involving Biden.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M68EUR">
But some disagreements played out in the open.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PdbEcu">
In late 2014, Obama was trying to sell the Iran nuclear deal — where Iran would accept constraints on its nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief — not only to members of Congress, but also to Israel. The <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/joe-bidens-new-mission-selling-the-iran-deal/449295/">president dispatched Biden</a> to do it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7MY7fN">
During a December <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/07/remarks-vice-president-joe-biden-2014-saban-forum">speech</a> at the Brookings Institution’s Israel-friendly Saban Forum that year, Biden made his Iran-deal pitch. He spoke of “the uncommon courage” displayed by Israelis in the face of Iranian threats and why an agreement would ease their worries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8LcxD0">
“A diplomatic solution that puts significant and verifiable constraints on Iran’s nuclear program represents the best and most sustainable chance to ensure that America, Israel, the entire Middle East will never be menaced by a nuclear-armed Iran,” he said.
</p>
<div id="jXtYD8">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GIz6Zj">
Three months later, congressional Republicans invited <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/3/2/8130977/netanyahu-speech-explained">Netanyahu to make an address in the Capitol</a> to rail against the deal and essentially rebuke everything Biden had just advocated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Coypym">
“Why would anyone make this deal?” the Israeli prime minister <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/03/03/full-text-netanyahus-address-to-congress/">told US lawmakers</a>. “A deal that’s supposed to prevent nuclear proliferation would instead spark a nuclear arms race in the most dangerous part of the planet.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fcCGJq">
Still, through it all, Biden’s support for Israel rarely wavered.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iz6JLZ">
He proved instrumental in helping to send <a href="https://www.vox.com/22435973/israel-iron-dome-explained">Iron Dome</a> missiles to Israel during its 2014 war against Hamas to defend against incoming rockets. “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-good-cop-joe-biden-and-israel-during-the-obama-years/">Get it done</a>,” a former Pentagon official recalls the vice president demanding. In 2016, the Obama administration finalized a <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/u-s-israel-sign-historic-10-year-38-billion-military-aid-deal-1.5434739">$38 billion, 10-year military aid package to Israel</a> — a deal experts said Biden was helpful in pushing through.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BcxOrb">
Biden even broke with Obama at the end of that year. The US made the then-controversial decision to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/23/us-abstention-allows-un-to-demand-end-to-israeli-settlements">abstain from a UN vote</a> calling on Israel to end the settlements. Usually, the US blocks such measures and defends Israel at the global body — and had blocked a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/23/us-abstention-allows-un-to-demand-end-to-israeli-settlements">similar measure in 2011</a> — but for Obama, Netanyahu’s government had gone too far.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ewmo3U">
Even though Biden had long railed against the settlements, he still <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-the-us-came-to-abstain-on-a-un-resolution-condemning-israeli-settlements/2016/12/28/fed102ee-cd38-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html">advised Obama against the abstention</a>, for fear members of Congress and Israel itself would get angry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pDFvdd">
The vice president’s firm commitment to Israel, despite serving a president who was more skeptical of consistently backing the country, kept him in Netanyahu’s good graces. “I hope you feel at home here in Israel because the people of Israel consider the Biden family part of our family,” <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2016/Pages/PM-Netanyahu-meet-with-US-Vice-President-Joe-Biden-9-Mar-2016.aspx">Netanyahu told Biden on his 2016 visit to Israel</a>. “You’re part of our mishpucha,” he said, using the Hebrew word for “family.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b6nuBf">
The vice president responded with another story he tells often. Years after he and the Israeli leader became friends, Biden sent him a signed picture that jokingly reads: “Bibi, I don’t agree with a damn thing you say, but I love you.”
</p>
<h3 id="Entb6L">
Biden’s old Israel playbook is limited
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sb43wz">
When I mentioned this history to experts, some parts of which they weren’t aware of, they said it makes two things clear about Biden’s current handling of the Israel-Gaza crisis.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kbl2pM">
The first is that Biden is unlikely to back away from defending Israel when it’s faced with a security threat. Thousands of rockets incoming from Hamas certainly count as one of those times, even if the country’s powerful <a href="https://www.vox.com/22435973/israel-iron-dome-explained">Iron Dome defense system</a> intercepts most (but not all) of those rockets.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gr0wuE">
The second is that if Biden disagrees with his friend Netanyahu — even fiercely — he’s not necessarily going to say so publicly. Instead, he’ll likely save his harshest words for a private conversation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="duMcfm">
This seems to be the case so far with the current conflict. Biden’s public statements have been tepid at best, and mainly pro-Israel because they’ve ignored Palestinian deaths and grievances.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OQ3mgi">
But the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/us/politics/biden-netanyahu.html">New York Times</a> on Tuesday reported that Biden had struck “a somewhat sharper private tone” in a conversation with Netanyahu on Monday, telling the Israeli leader that he (Biden) could only fend off criticisms of Israel’s strikes on Gaza for so long.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5jZMjZH5EfKi-gSIO21OyzkpM2s=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22526638/AP_21138269987011.jpg"/> <cite>Khalil Hamra/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Recent Israeli airstrikes have destroyed high-rise buildings, cratered roads, and turned homes and apartments to rubble in Gaza.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3pTkeR">
Similarly, the reason the US blocked <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/17/no-us-action-after-third-unsc-meeting-on-israel-palestine">three separate UN statements</a> that called for a ceasefire, some people surmise, may have been in service of not embarrassing Israel publicly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="53I3v5">
But experts point out that Biden’s approach hasn’t yet stopped the war, despite <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/20/israel-gaza-conflict-latest-updates/">hopes for a ceasefire to come soon</a>. “This is not a successful strategy,” said Logan Bayroff, the spokesperson for the progressive pro-Israel group J Street.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xAKb7l">
The US hasn’t placed enough pressure on Israel, publicly or privately, to make it stop bombing Gaza. And there are options available to Biden that he simply hasn’t taken, including placing conditions on the $3.8 billion in annual aid the US gives Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nDNzqP">
But Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign strongly rejected an idea like this last May. “He would not tie military assistance to Israel to any political decisions that it makes. Period. Full stop,” said <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-election-2020-joe-biden-will-not-condition-aid-israel-campaign-adviser-says">Antony Blinken</a>, then a campaign aide and now secretary of state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vqLBR2">
Brookings’s Hamid told me that’s not the most noteworthy thing, though. “The bigger issue is Biden isn’t even willing to consider much less than [conditions] and push Israel to seriously consider a ceasefire and find a way to halt its bombing campaign,” he told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pSqW9H">
Based on Biden’s history, a stronger push on Israel was never likely.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Why firing squads are making a comeback in 21st-century America</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9vLJHOOfnKUM59YpYv2cJ8yVs44=/0x0:2744x2058/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69316081/GettyImages_517200524.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A US Marine Corps firing squad shooting a deserter, circa 1830. | Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The death penalty is slowly disappearing in the United States, but its death throes are getting ugly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LtaEDh">
On Monday, the Associated Press ran a headline that reads like something from the end of the 19th century: “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sc-state-wire-government-and-politics-d5fb523db482da233e1f081a63a80cf4">New law makes inmates choose electric chair or firing squad</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a8wNgU">
The law referenced in the headline is a <a href="https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess124_2021-2022/prever/200_20210505.htm">bill signed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster</a> (R) on Monday, which permits the state to kill death row inmates using a firing squad. South Carolina is now one of four states, along with Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah, where the practice is lawful.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jfifyb">
Previously, South Carolina law provided that all death row inmates would be executed by lethal injection unless they chose to be killed by an electric chair instead. The new law makes electrocution the default punishment, while allowing inmates to choose to be killed by lethal injection or a firing squad — although they can only choose lethal injection “if it is available at the time of election.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y00pKJ">
It’s a brutal solution to a problem that’s faced the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/30/22187578/death-penalty-united-states-executions-decline-gregg-georgia-bucklew-precythe">minority of states that still execute people</a> for about the past decade: the increasing unavailability of the drugs used to do so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aEEv9l">
Though execution protocols can vary from state to state, lethal injections are typically performed using a <a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/the-cruel-and-unusual-history-that-led-to-oklahomas-cruel-and-unusual-execution-551f3945dba7/">three-drug combination</a> — an anesthetic to knock out the person and dull their pain, a paralytic, and then a toxic drug that stops their heart. But many pharmaceutical companies that make anesthetic drugs <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/3/27/8301357/death-penalty-lethal-injection">refuse to sell their products for use in executions</a>. Others are located in Europe and subject to a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/can-europe-end-the-death-penalty-in-america/283790/">European Union export ban</a> targeting a drug that was commonly used in executions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RR8OlD">
The result is that death penalty states have struggled to obtain reliable execution drugs. Some states used unsuitable or poor-quality drugs, leading to high-profile cases including one in which a man <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/execution-clayton-lockett/392069/">died in a prolonged state of visible agony</a>. A few prominent judges have argued that firing squads are preferable to lethal injection in part because people who are executed by firing squads are less likely to suffer before dying.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HEpMvS">
Other states<strong> </strong>largely suspended executions while they try to track down new drugs — South Carolina last <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sc-state-wire-government-and-politics-d5fb523db482da233e1f081a63a80cf4">killed an inmate in 2011</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VvvghB">
The state’s new law is an attempt to break this impasse and allow people to be killed by the state, even if South Carolina is unable to obtain new lethal injection drugs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HSM0hV">
For now, South Carolina’s solution to the drug shortage appears to be fairly novel. Though three other states permit firing squads, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sc-state-wire-government-and-politics-d5fb523db482da233e1f081a63a80cf4">only Utah has executed anyone using this method</a> in recent decades. And the firing squad <a href="https://apnews.com/article/d03ed571c01f4df59d497b497c4a2361">hasn’t been used to execute anyone since 2010</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CpJofb">
Nevertheless, the shortage of execution drugs appears to be a persistent problem. So other death penalty states could easily follow South Carolina’s lead, especially if the state’s new law is upheld by the courts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iDiAlX">
And proponents of the death penalty have good reason to be optimistic that South Carolina’s law will be upheld. While the new law is already being challenged in court, the Supreme Court has largely paved the way for states to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/30/22187578/death-penalty-united-states-executions-decline-gregg-georgia-bucklew-precythe">experiment with unusual and potentially cruel methods of execution</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="cRQOvj">
South Carolina is swimming against a broader anti-death penalty tide
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="69ZHfo">
The Supreme Court <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3510234117314043073&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6,47&amp;as_vis=1">briefly abolished the death penalty</a> in 1972. Four years later, in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15950556903605745543&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr"><em>Gregg v. Georgia</em></a> (1976), the Court allowed death sentences to resume, but only if states had very specific procedural safeguards to help ensure that only people whom the justice system considered the worst criminals were executed. (Though, in practice, courts applying <em>Gregg</em>’s framework are still much more likely to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/10/7/6923089/death-penalty-race-bias-discrepancy-row-black-white">sentence Black defendants</a> and people who cannot afford good legal counsel to die.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T8CFFJ">
<em>Gregg</em> upheld a Georgia statute allowing prosecutors to argue that a death sentence was warranted because “aggravating circumstances” were present, such as if the offender had a history of serious violent crime. Meanwhile, defense attorneys could argue that “mitigating circumstances” justify a lesser penalty, such as if the defendant was abused as a child or had a mental illness. Defendants could only be sentenced to die if a jury determined that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="81kgMe">
Nevertheless, this weighing test is now a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/30/22187578/death-penalty-united-states-executions-decline-gregg-georgia-bucklew-precythe">keystone of capital trials in the United States</a>, and scholars and advocates who study the death penalty often refer to 1976 as the beginning of the modern legal regime governing death sentences.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fgcX5c">
Shortly after <em>Gregg</em>, the number of death sentences handed down every year by courts in the United States rose to between 250 and 300, and it hovered in that range for most of the 1980s and 1990s. Then, starting around the year 2000, the number of new death sentences handed down every year began a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/30/22187578/death-penalty-united-states-executions-decline-gregg-georgia-bucklew-precythe">sharp downward trend</a>, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rdL3_kR2LC6rwQfYCDEFbPg0OTE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22180571/SentenceTrends2020.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/" target="_blank">Death Penalty Information Center</a></cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5vwR9B">
The number of executions in the United States has similarly collapsed. Only 17 people were executed in 2020, and that number would have been much lower if the Trump administration hadn’t resumed federal executions for the first time in nearly two decades (though, admittedly, it might have also been higher if the pandemic hadn’t discouraged prisons from gathering prison officials and witnesses for an execution). Only five states — Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, and Tennessee — performed an execution in 2020. And only one state, Texas, killed more than one death row inmate in 2020.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pkHY9o">
There are several possible explanations for this collapse in death sentences and executions. The number of homicide crimes fell sharply between 1991 and 2010 — although not far enough to account for the entirety of the drop in death sentences. Also, while the death penalty still enjoys majority support in the United States, public support for it is now at its <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1606/death-penalty.aspx">lowest point since the early 1970s</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l8ftY3">
More than half of all states either <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state">ban the death penalty</a> or have a moratorium in place suspending executions. Earlier this year, Virginia became the <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state">first Southern state to ban the death penalty</a> — a significant landmark because Virginia used to execute more people than any state other than Texas.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EqraTN">
Meanwhile, many death penalty<strong> </strong>states enacted laws <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/30/22187578/death-penalty-united-states-executions-decline-gregg-georgia-bucklew-precythe">providing more resources to capital defense lawyers</a> in the last four decades, and several nonprofits formed to help ensure that capital defendants receive an adequate defense. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in 2001, “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-backs-death-penalty-freeze/">People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B6THV2">
So states like South Carolina, which are so eager to perform executions that they are willing to use antiquated practices like the electric chair or a firing squad, are bucking a much broader national trend. That said, it remains to be seen whether this trend will continue, due to a Supreme Court that is more supportive of the death penalty than any Court in the modern age.
</p>
<h3 id="K80ZSI">
The current Supreme Court is hyperprotective of the death penalty
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GLjiPf">
There was a time when capital defense lawyers might have been able to argue that unusually barbaric execution practices violate the Constitution. But that time has likely passed, at least with respect to methods like electrocution or a firing squad. The Supreme Court has spent the past six years shoring up the death penalty against claims that particularly cruel modern forms of execution are unconstitutional.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9go0Mk">
Until the mid-2010s, it even seemed possible that the death penalty itself would be declared unconstitutional. The Eighth Amendment forbids “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/eighth_amendment">cruel and unusual punishments</a>,” and, at least until very recently, the Supreme Court believed that this amendment “must draw its meaning from the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/356/86">evolving standards of decency</a> that mark the progress of a maturing society.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Mr7GSz">
Thus, as a punishment grew more and more “unusual,” it became more constitutionally suspect. As the death penalty faded away in most of the country, there was a very strong legal argument that all death sentences were unconstitutional.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gy2tex">
Meanwhile, while states were struggling to find execution drugs in the early 2010s, capital defense lawyers launched what seemed, at the time, like a promising legal attack on lethal injections.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y6wRaC">
By the mid-2010s, there was a fair amount of evidence that at least some of the three-drug combinations used in executions did not actually prevent people from experiencing excruciating pain while they were dying — especially in states that were resorting to unreliable anesthetics because the companies that made reliable painkillers refused to sell their drugs to executioners. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in 2015, lethal injection using unreliable drugs “may well be the <a href="https://casetext.com/case/glossip-v-gross">chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Mre9i">
But Sotomayor wrote these words in a dissenting opinion. The question of whether at least some lethal injection protocols are an unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment reached the Supreme Court in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/glossip-v-gross"><em>Glossip v. Gross</em></a> (2015), and Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in <em>Glossip</em> rescued lethal injections largely by assuming the opinion’s own conclusion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N464vN">
“Our decisions in this area have been animated in part by the recognition that because it is settled that capital punishment is constitutional, it necessarily follows that there must be a [constitutional] means of carrying it out,” Alito wrote. If you begin with the assumption that there must be a death penalty, then an attack on the primary method states use to kill people becomes suspect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lClewt">
At oral argument, Alito laid the blame for tortured inmates <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-7955">at the feet of pharmaceutical companies</a> that refused to be complicit in executions. “Executions could be carried out painlessly,” he claimed. The reason inmates were suffering was because of what Alito described as a “guerrilla war against the death penalty which consists of efforts to make it impossible for the States to obtain drugs that could be used to carry out capital punishment with little, if any, pain.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OIkuTj">
The effective holding of <em>Glossip</em>, in other words, was that if death penalty opponents made it too difficult to execute people without causing them great pain, then states were free to torture people to death.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H5sirj">
Then the Court went even further in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14684708398609285165&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr"><em>Bucklew v. Precythe</em></a> in 2019.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RhXTWk">
Though <em>Bucklew</em> does not explicitly overrule the long line of cases holding that courts should look to “evolving standards of decency” when interpreting the Eighth Amendment, Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion ignores that framework and substitutes a different, much narrower approach to the Eighth Amendment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qsocyC">
Gorsuch’s opinion in <em>Bucklew</em> does list some methods of execution that are not allowed — “dragging the prisoner to the place of execution, disemboweling, quartering, public dissection, and burning alive” — but he wrote that these forms of execution violate the Eighth Amendment because “by the time of the founding, these methods had long fallen out of use and so had become ‘unusual.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r172rs">
Thus, while pre-<em>Bucklew</em> decisions asked if a particular punishment was unusual today, Gorsuch asked whether it was unusual “by the time of the founding.” That suggests that a wide array of relatively modern punishments, including lethal injection, electrocution, and firing squads, are now immune from constitutional challenge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PERQWW">
States like South Carolina, in other words, can be fairly confident that the Supreme Court will bless their decision to revive methods of execution that have largely fallen out of favor with modern society.
</p>
<h3 id="bbtrgY">
Firing squads might actually be less cruel than lethal injection
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zlQPGB">
In 2017, a death row inmate named Thomas Arthur brought a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/16-602_n758.pdf">very unusual claim</a> to the Supreme Court. Arthur was scheduled to be executed by the state of Alabama, and Alabama planned to kill him using a three-drug protocol that included a notoriously unreliable anesthetic. He asked the Court to allow him to be killed by firing squad instead because he thought such a death would be less painful than the fate Alabama intended for him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wFdiRN">
Though the Court rejected this request in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/16-602_n758.pdf"><em>Arthur v. Dunn</em></a> (2017), Sotomayor once again dissented. Citing evidence suggesting “that a competently performed shooting may cause nearly instant death.” Sotomayor wrote that “condemned prisoners, like Arthur, might find more dignity in an instantaneous death rather than prolonged torture on a medical gurney.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wgZdD8">
Just as significantly, Sotomayor indicted the entire process of using toxic drugs to kill people, because it sanitized the process of executions without rendering them any less cruel. “States have designed lethal-injection protocols with a view toward protecting their own dignity,” she wrote, “but they should not be permitted to shield the true horror of executions from official and public view.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t5dCBT">
A lethal injection can appear like a sterile medical procedure, where the person being executed seems to slip into a peaceful sleep. But there’s no denying what the state is doing when it orders a line of shooters to simultaneously fire bullets into a person’s heart.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tMVtcG">
So, if we accept Alito’s view that there must be a death penalty in this country — and it appears likely that a 6-3 Republican Supreme Court will accept this viewpoint for the foreseeable future — there are plausible reasons to prefer South Carolina’s new firing squads to lethal injections. Inmates executed by firing squad appear to be less likely to experience the prolonged agony faced by many people who are executed by lethal drugs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qvznuU">
And if South Carolina insists on killing people, it will be harder to ignore the enormity of what the state is doing.
</p></li>
<li><strong>In many Asian American families, racism is rarely discussed</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/k3qt8Ycs6y1tM0GQyZkmWu7iWYE=/0x454:2977x2687/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69315958/Lizzie.Chen_Film_007b_w.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Sandi Chai (center) with her daughters, Shalom (left) and Zoe, in College Station, Texas. | <a class="ql-link" href="https://www.lizziechen.com/" target="_blank">Lizzie Chen</a> for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I just didn’t want them to stress and not be afraid to go to school. The less they knew, the better it was.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2XD5ma">
Sandi Chai immigrated to the United States from Taichung, Taiwan, at 22 to attend college. She settled in a small, rural town in Texas called Brownwood, where she met and later married her then-husband and raised two daughters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CVeAhI">
Chai says she never encountered any form of discrimination before moving to Texas, where she not only dealt with everything from being ignored to being followed around in stores as a suspected shoplifter but also experienced racism from her white ex-husband’s family. But Chai never really talked about these issues with her daughters — until recently.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lshzhn">
“I have to say, I did raise them white,” Chai told Vox. She didn’t teach them how to speak Mandarin, nor did she talk much about her culture and heritage. “Part of it was because where we were living, I didn’t want them to get bullied. … There wasn’t a Chinese or Taiwanese population in Brownwood, and I didn’t want to push the culture on them.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZJqXco">
In most Asian American households, having frank discussions about race and racism are somewhat taboo because of cultural, language, and intergenerational barriers. According to a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/25/how-often-people-talk-about-race-with-family-and-friends/">2019 Pew Research Center survey</a>, only 13 percent of Asian adults said race came up “often” in conversations with friends and family, compared with 27 percent of Black adults.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p0PnaG">
Avoidance was a common theme in a survey Vox conducted in April 2021 about Asian American identity. “Denial is the best word to describe my family’s attitude towards racism,” wrote one respondent from New Jersey.
</p>
<aside id="mU6Cep">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rdOkFV">
“My parents paid the ‘immigrant tax’ that <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hasan-minhaj-american-dream-tax_n_5bd8823fe4b07427610bdea6">Hasan Minhaj talked about</a>,” wrote another from California. “Being ‘let’ into this country and able to live a life with food on the table and [relative] physical safety was considered progress. Any racism encountered by the immigrant was a tax to pay for being able to live here.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bjEKRC">
“Older generations of Asian Americans, who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much to provide their children and grandchildren opportunities they never had, are just grateful to exist,” a respondent from Arkansas wrote. “They continually say, ‘This is a white man’s world,’ accepting the fact that dirty looks, racial slurs, and violence [are] just part of the minority experience in the US.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iSXuZj">
After more than 6,000 reported attacks against the Asian community between March 2020 and March 2021 — intensified by the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22335666/asian-spa-shooting-atlanta">Georgia shootings in March</a> that left six Asian women dead, Asian American families like Chai’s are beginning to reconsider whether avoiding conversations about racism is still the right approach.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eqaoCq">
Vox talked to three Asian families about the conversations they’ve had about racism, what they wish they’d talked about earlier, and how the dialogue has evolved throughout the surge of pandemic-related attacks against Asians across the US. The conversations have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
</p>
<h3 id="R1BOAb">
“With the recent movements, it was more like it’s past time to actually say and do something about it”
</h3>
<h4 id="63nQKP">
Sandi Chai, 48, mother; Shalom Brown, 21, daughter; Zoe Brown, 19, daughter — Taiwanese Americans living in College Station, Texas
</h4>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4wQPOSJzrQgqo9Jyin1-Tf5v-Bs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22526248/Sandi_Chai_034.jpg"/> <cite>Lizzie Chen for Vox</cite>
<figcaption>
Sandi Chai talks with daughters Shalom and Zoe about Shalom’s upcoming commencement plans.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e1MO7M">
<strong>Sandi: </strong>By the time I got to the US in ’95, Taichung was more developed than Brownwood was. I don’t think I realized how racist America is. I had more money, I was better educated, but they looked at me and they treated me like I was a lower- or second-class creature, just because of my skin color. That was very surprising to me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kHn5xf">
I mostly ignored the racism I experienced. A lot of it. Some of it was just outright aggression in the very Southern way. Sometimes I walked into stores and the owner just pretended I wasn’t there. They made sure I knew I wasn’t welcome. I got followed at Dillard’s [department store] all the time. My ex-husband’s mother’s family said a lot of racist stuff against me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IoLWPC">
Getting a divorce and getting out of there was great. I didn’t talk about these experiences at all before my divorce, or actually before Donald Trump got elected. Then with George Floyd and the [Black Lives Matter] movement, I became even more vocal about it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qHLc0J">
<strong>Shalom: </strong>For us three, we started talking [more about racism] after Donald Trump’s election. We were told [by my dad’s side of the family and by neighbors] that we have to pray for him to become president. And honestly, as someone who is biracial, it was scary. The people that you’re supposed to trust and respect are all of a sudden supporting a man who would do or say horrible things about people that look like you.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yI38ah">
George Floyd’s death did spark more conversations. Even with Trump, I was still quiet and didn’t really talk about it or post about it. But with the recent movements, it was more like it’s past time to actually say and do something about it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k8w7h9">
<strong>Zoe: </strong>I look more white than I look Asian. Growing up, whenever my classmates would make any jokes or racial slurs against Asians, they wouldn’t think they were being racist towards anyone in the classroom because I look white. When my sister was around, they would say, “Oh, there’s an Asian person here, maybe we shouldn’t say something like that.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="On1gWH">
<q>“I have to say, I did raise them white. … Part of it was because where we were living, I didn’t want them to get bullied”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lsgz21">
<strong>Shalom:</strong> Some people I met in high school would ask me about my accent, the food we ate, just frustrating microaggressions. Sometimes I did feel myself being self-conscious. But the biggest thing was more in my personal life, not really in school. Our dad’s mother and their family are very racist. I remember she would always say my sister is really pretty. Don’t get me wrong, she really is. But like, [my grandmother] would always pick on something, like tell me that my ears were too big every time she saw me. I was little and never understood why she picked on me. I never really voiced these things till I got older, when we started talking more about race. Mom faced more racial prejudices than we did.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BVf79B">
My mom kind of shielded us from racism growing up. I’m an anthropology student, and I had this project where I had to talk to my mom. And I realized that the whole time she was in our hometown, it was really rough for her. She mentioned it before and everything, but I guess being able to have a long, fluid conversation about it brought up everything that she had to go through. I then realized how she shielded us from a lot, so we didn’t really have to face it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Gkn4B">
<strong>Zoe: </strong>I love that we get to explore more of my mom’s culture [now]. Learning more about it makes me so happy because I get to know more about that side of my mom that was kind of suppressed when she moved to the US. They would tell her, “Don’t do these things, don’t say this, don’t eat that,” and I’m just happy to be able to learn more about the culture with her. Our mom is just such a beautiful person, and I’m really proud of the three of us and what we’ve overcome in the last few years. It’s been such a journey.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="gxSLfu"/>
<h3 id="0r5T8Y">
“We didn’t have a lot of conversations because I wanted to shield them from the trouble or to protect them from what’s going on in the world”
</h3>
<h4 id="NAJJtt">
Willie Saligumba, 58, father; Jo-an Saligumba, 55, mother; Jacob Saligumba, 21, son — Filipino Americans living in Portland, Oregon
</h4>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PD6wRPmuhiDybfymx_Y00rmvSU0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22526236/Saligumba_family.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of the Saligumba family</cite>
<figcaption>
Jacob (left), Jo-an, and Willie Saligumba.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xI8vJz">
<strong>Willie: </strong>We never discussed it. We never pointed out color. My kids were taught with high discipline, to treat and respect everybody and to be polite and obedient, but we never discussed color or racism because they always got along with everybody. There was never an issue until recently.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6pOUZd">
<strong>Jacob:</strong> I didn’t recognize a lot of them back when I was in high school. Some were subtle Asian ones, just like, “Oh, you’re good at math because you’re Asian.” I was taken aback, but also I didn’t know those were microaggressions growing up until, like, college. Microaggressions are kind of subtle hints of racism that you might not even notice when you’re in person or when it happens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="czXGsT">
<strong>Jo-an:</strong> I’m sort of naive. I went to Oregon City High School, and it was all Caucasian. I was naive and trying to speak English at the same time, and not aware of everything. To me, I thought they were friendly. No discrimination here.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0P69jV">
<strong>Willie: </strong>People take little jabs at you like that. You don’t know it because you just didn’t pay attention to it. To me, it was never an issue. But things have changed a lot lately. New words have been brought up. Jacob and I will go at it all day long.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k61PNK">
He calls me racist all the time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rihW9R">
<strong>Jacob: </strong>I don’t say you’re racist. I say some of the ideals or beliefs we grew up with are racist, and I’m even trying to unlearn some of the racist things that [have] been said. I remember talking about colorism in the Filipino or Asian culture. I said something like, “It’s racist for us to believe that just because you’re a darker color, it means you’re not worth as much value.” It’s also trying to apply that to the American mindset that we’re in.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="onNqQc">
<strong>Willie: </strong>No, that’s because of the way I grew up with many different nationalities, starting with the military and living in the Columbia Villa [affordable housing] projects. I can blend with any of those races and be accepted [with] no problem because my personality allows me to. But if this guy is beating up on this guy or disrespecting this guy, [it] doesn’t matter who you are, doesn’t matter what color, it’s just wrong. But he still calls me racist.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sQ3KGJ">
<strong>Jo-An: </strong>It’s like a wrestling match between them. I just watch and listen.
</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
<aside id="hC6JVS">
<q>“I wished we acknowledged how racism isn’t only towards a certain race, like recognizing that we face our own type of racism in this country”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tt1kiP">
<strong>Willie: </strong>With the attacks on Asian Americans, he’s worried about mom and myself being attacked or whatever. But firstly, I’ll fight to the death if it means protecting my family.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HmqK7U">
All this was brought to life because the previous administration was prejudiced, discriminatory, and racist. I admit I’ll kid about, “Hey, where does this thing originate from?” I’ll joke about that because I’m Asian. I’ve been like that ever since I was in the military. I lived with many different races. That’s just my attitude. So it doesn’t matter what color you are.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oKziMO">
<strong>Jacob:</strong> I wished we acknowledged how racism isn’t only towards a certain race, like recognizing that we face our own type of racism in this country or area we’re in. Because we’re so used to it, we don’t really acknowledge it or bring it up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Zi4Hy">
<strong>Willie: </strong>We didn’t have a lot of conversations because I want to shield them from the trouble [and] protect them from what’s going on in the world. I want them to experience it, slowly but surely. It was never discussed. I just didn’t want them to stress and not be afraid to go to school. The less they knew, the better it was.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F9SKpD">
<strong>Jacob:</strong> That’s why I joined the [Filipino American Student Association] in college — to find a place to bond with other people that have the same upbringing and experience and culture as I did growing up. Because we’re very Filipino American, we don’t really do a lot of Filipino activities and aren’t a traditional household. I don’t know Tagalog besides some words. It’s been a lot of pride to say to them that I’m still carrying on this Filipino culture even though we weren’t really raised with it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UDnls0">
<strong>Willie: </strong>There’s a big reason why he set out to where he’s at right now. I never taught the language to the kids because I wanted them to get really immersed. Still, if they want to hang the Filipino flag in their rearview mirror, go for it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hkROUm">
<strong>Jo-An: </strong>I cook Filipino food all the time, and he loves it. He’ll eat bagoong<em> </em>[a Filipino fermented shrimp paste].
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="syp2sb">
<strong>Willie: </strong>That, the food, we never forgot.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4PpTYw">
<strong>Jo-An:</strong> I’m so thankful that Jacob belongs to FASA because he’s learning more about the Filipino culture instead of us teaching him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pbRCtn">
<strong>Willie:</strong> I’m glad he’s opinionated. How else is he going to grow? I don’t want him to think the way I think. I’ve learned a couple things from him, too.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="WIoQrT"/>
<h3 id="5hRdqO">
“As Asians, we tend to suppress and not speak out. … But there are times where that actually works against us. This is one of those times.”
</h3>
<h4 id="Vd7A2W">
Kee Park, 58, father; Susan Park, 49, mother; Sophie Park, 23, daughter — Korean Americans living in Boston, Massachusetts
</h4>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sk7IIHWBlLNW3laCriDU6BeadAQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22526239/Park_family.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy of the Park family</cite>
<figcaption>
Susan (left), Sophie, and Kee Park.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AZDQta">
<strong>Sophie: </strong>I definitely had those quintessential Asian American child experiences of bringing sushi to lunch and the kids recoiling, or someone asking me why my face looks like it was hit by a pan. I just didn’t process it as any form of racism. It wasn’t until relatively recently that I realized how different I was. Even though I thought about it a lot in high school, I just remember distinctly walking on the street one day in Boston and being like, “Oh, I am a minority.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="APIHFQ">
<strong>Kee: </strong>Growing up in the ’70s, my parents wanted to assimilate as quickly as possible to American culture and give up our Korean identity. I was told to pick an American name. There was no emphasis on trying to maintain our Korean heritage and culture. We never really talked about racism. If we were being ridiculed, we just kind of swallowed it and moved on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PIOTM1">
With Sophie’s generation, it’s been different. We’ve been talking about it actively, a lot more than my parents spoke with me, and I think it’s healthy. As Asians, we tend to suppress and not speak out, like silence is a virtue. But there are times where that actually works against us. This is one of those times. When our safety is at stake, it’s time to speak up. I’m really happy that our daughters are all very vocal. And so have I been, and so has my wife.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CdKF9T">
<strong>Susan: </strong>The Atlanta murders really upset me. When I found out that four of the eight people who were murdered were Korean women, it made me feel like that could have been my mom. It could have been my sisters. It could have been my daughters. It could have been me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F33aB9">
<strong>Kee: </strong>After the Atlanta killings, I was asked to make a statement for work for one of our big gatherings. I don’t like to talk about these things by nature, but I felt like I needed to. And I did.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bC5P8Y">
<strong>Sophie: </strong>Historically, I didn’t like to talk about it either. But at this point, it’s doing everyone a disservice to stay silent. I was talking to my mom about the different experiences I’ve had as an Asian woman, and I realized I don’t actually share those things with my parents when they happen because I just shrug it off. Racism takes such a more insidious form against the Asian community, and I don’t think I realized that certain things were microaggressions or were racist until I reflect back on them. I feel like conversations around our identity as Asian Americans didn’t really happen until recently. Right?
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="TTskUh">
<q>“Growing up in the ’70s, my parents wanted to assimilate as quickly as possible to American culture and give up our Korean identity”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SG2vJQ">
<strong>Kee: </strong>I think the Atlanta shooting was like the George Floyd moment for Asian Americans. After the press briefing, when the police were trying to empathize with the killer for having a “bad day,” that woke me up, and I was like, this is truly systemic racism with the white people at the preferred seats — and they’ve maintained that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O453aG">
If you look at the interracial (Black-Asian) tensions, people fail to see why that’s happening. Whites have always kept the preferred seats, and we and all the others get to fight over the crumbs. It’s really the white people’s refusal to share the power and the wealth that they have in this country with everybody. What I realized after the shooting was we have to dismantle the whole system of structural racism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dfYU7h">
<strong>Susan: </strong>Also, we’re a Christian home. So I really didn’t have conversations with Sophie to be proud of her Korean American heritage, but it was more like, “Don’t forget, we have a faith.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5iMg52">
It’s wonderful that we’re Korean American. We embrace our culture. I make Korean food, we practice our traditions, we do our New Year’s and all of that. With my belief in God, my priority was that my family felt loved. But when the Atlanta murders happened, I thought, we’ve got to stand up for our Asian women, especially Koreans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oeerPP">
<strong>Sophie: </strong>I wasn’t really aware about systemic racism in America until maybe I was, like, 16 or 17. I don’t know what capacity you guys had, but hypothetically speaking, I wish it didn’t have to take so long for me to realize that it was a thing. Maybe I wish we had conversations about our unique experiences with racism and how those experiences matter.
</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>Indian women to play maiden pink ball Test in Australia later this year</strong> - The move was part of the BCCI’s commitment to promoting the women’s game, says BCCI secretary Jay Shah</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>Sandpapergate | Bowlers have ‘cleared the air’ with Bancroft, says Paine</strong> - The 2018 scandal was once again in the spotlight after Bancroft recently stated that whether the Australian bowlers knew of the plan to use a sandpaper on the ball during the Cape Town Test against South Africa, was “self-explanatory”</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>Ruud meets Koepfer in last eight</strong> - Casper Ruud believes he has the weapons to reach the second week of Roland Garros and maybe help transform him into a “rock star” in his native Norway</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>Bach offers extra medical help during the Games</strong> - Says IOC will hold “safe and secure” Olympics in the midst of the pandemic</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Asian championship crucial: Mary Kom</strong> - Champion boxer wants to assess herself before the Olympic Games</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>Govt. declares Mucormycosis as a notifiable disease</strong> - All government and private health facilities asked to report all suspected and confirmed cases to Health department</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>COVID-19 | ICRA lowers growth outlook across automobile segments</strong> - Significant medical spends have eroded the purchasing power of individuals and families, ICRA Vice President says.</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>Panel to probe stranding of ONGC vessels during Taukte</strong> - To submit report within one month</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 Tauktae: Rajnath Singh lauds armed forces, ICG, for their search &amp; rescue operations</strong> - The cyclone made a landfall on Monday night near Una town in Gir Somnath, Gujarat, and wreaked havoc for around 28 hours</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>Pinarayi Vijayan sworn in as Kerala Chief Minister for the second time</strong> - A 21-member Cabinet was sworn in</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>Climate change: EU official backs German Greens on curbing flights</strong> - The Greens’ leader - a strong candidate for chancellor - wants to ban short-haul flights.</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>Nicolas Sarkozy: Ex-president goes on trial for illegal campaign funding</strong> - He is accused of illegally overspending by millions of euros on his failed 2012 re-election campaign.</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>PIP implant victims ‘elated’ by compensation win</strong> - Women who had the breast implants say they are delighted by the “victory” after 10 years fighting for justice.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia flexes muscles in challenge for Arctic control</strong> - Russia vows to protect its interests from a remote outpost as global warming opens up the Arctic.</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>Nord Stream 2: Biden waives US sanctions on Russian pipeline</strong> - The US also waives sanctions on a Putin ally who leads the firm behind the Nord Stream 2 project.</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>What PlayStation’s “monopoly” lawsuits get wrong about digital game sales</strong> - Adding download options from traditional retailers doesn’t seem to affect prices. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1766234">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>This is Ford’s first electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning</strong> - The standard-range electric F-150 will start at just under $40,000 before tax credits. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1766120">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Android 12 at Google I/O: Hints of the redesign in the beta, lots of news</strong> - Google I/O features a big Android info dump, but not much working code right now. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1766029">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Before ruining millions of vaccines, Emergent failed inspections, raked in cash</strong> - Tens of millions of J&amp;J and AstraZeneca doses are still in limbo. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1766272">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Review: The Nevers makes abrupt turn in disorienting midseason finale</strong> - We briefly wondered if HBO Max was accidentally airing an entirely different series - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1765374">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Boss: This is the third time you’ve been late for work this week. Do you know what that means?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Me: That it’s only Wednesday
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MaxQ50"> /u/MaxQ50 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nghxx2/boss_this_is_the_third_time_youve_been_late_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nghxx2/boss_this_is_the_third_time_youve_been_late_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>The world leading expert on wasps is walking down the street when he passes a record store.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In the window he sees a record called “wasps of the world, and the sounds they make”. Intrigued, he walks into the store. He says to the shopkeeper “I’ll have that wasp record in the window please. You know I’m the world leading expert in wasps, there are thousands of different species of wasp, and I can identify any one of them just by listening to the sound it makes!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He smiles smugly as the shopkeeper fanes interest. The wasp expert pays and leaves. When he gets home he puts the record on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Bbzzzzzzzzz” it goes, but the man is stumped, he doesn’t know what type of wasp this is! He waits for the next track.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Bbbbzzzzzzzzzzzz” and again, he can’t identify which species of wasp this is!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
It gets to the fifth track and he breaks down in tears. He can’t identify a single wasp yet he thought he was the world’s leading expert! He calls his old professor round to the house to help, when he arrives he explains to him,
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I thought I was the best in the wasp business, but I can’t identify a single wasp on this whole record!” He says, still in tears.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The old professor ponders for a minute as he looks at the record.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Ah, I know what the problem is”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Says the professor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What? what is it?!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
-“you’ve got it on the B-side”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Ned_Wells"> /u/Ned_Wells </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ngw5zr/the_world_leading_expert_on_wasps_is_walking_down/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ngw5zr/the_world_leading_expert_on_wasps_is_walking_down/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A man gets a flat tire outside the fence of an insane asylum.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
While he’s changing the tire he sees a patient on the other side of the fence observing him so he hurries. He gets the flat off and puts the spare on, but since he was rushing to get out of there, he accidentally drops all 4 lug nuts down a drain. While he’s standing there staring at the spare with no lugs to secure it, scratching his head, he hears the patient on the other side of the fence say, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” He calmly replies, “Yes?” The patient inquires, “Whatcha doin?” He explains his predicament and the patient asks, “Why don’t you just take one lug nut off the other 3 wheels and put them on the spare to get you where you’re going?” The man, surprised, says, “That is a really good idea. Why they got you locked up in there? You’re really smart.” The patient replies, “I’m crazy, not stupid.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/NukeDC"> /u/NukeDC </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ngf8mg/a_man_gets_a_flat_tire_outside_the_fence_of_an/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ngf8mg/a_man_gets_a_flat_tire_outside_the_fence_of_an/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I always ask what LGBT stands for…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But i never get a straight answer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Ps: I’m very aware of its meaning(since im very gay).
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/tadashi4"> /u/tadashi4 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ng2ov5/i_always_ask_what_lgbt_stands_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ng2ov5/i_always_ask_what_lgbt_stands_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>The Pope decides to take a cross-country tour across America, beginning in California and ending in New York.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Somewhere in the Mid-West, the Popemobile breaks down, and while it’s repaired, the Pope continued his journey with a limousine rental.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
After a few hours, the limousine driver rolled down the glass partition, and spoke: “I know I’m not supposed to talk to you, your holiness, or highness - I’m not even sure what to call you?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“It’s okay, my son, say what you want to say.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well, when they told me who I’d be driving, I was really thrilled. It’s such an honor, and if there is anything I can do to make it a better trip, I’ll do my best to make sure it happens.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Pope thought for a while, then replied, “You know, before I became Pope, I really enjoyed driving. I would drive for hours. But now, no one will allow me to drive anywhere. Would you mind if we switched places and I can drive?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The limousine driver agreed and the two switched places.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
After a while, the Pope became relaxed, turned the radio on, hung his arm out the window, and just enjoyed cruising. However, not aware of his increasing speed, he was soon pulled over by a motorcycle cop.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The cop walked up to the limousine, saw who was driving, said, “Excuse me, your holiness, for a moment”, then returned to his bike and got on the radio.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Chief, I think I have a problem. I believe I pulled over someone pretty important, and I’m not sure how to deal with it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Chief responded: “Don’t tell me you pulled over a state representative again, Johnson?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, I think this person is more important.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Not our Governor?!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, I believe more important than the Governor.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Johnson, tell me you didn’t pull over a Presidential Motorcade.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, they may be even more important than the President.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What? Really? Who’s more important than the President?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Hell if I know, but the Pope’s driving.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/GodOfArk"> /u/GodOfArk </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nfzbky/the_pope_decides_to_take_a_crosscountry_tour/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nfzbky/the_pope_decides_to_take_a_crosscountry_tour/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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