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<title>16 July, 2023</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Oral immunization with rVSV bivalent vaccine elicits protective immune responses, including ADCC, against both SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza A viruses</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 and influenza both cause enormous disease burdens, and vaccines are the primary measures for their control. Since these viral diseases are transmitted through the mucosal surface of the respiratory tract, developing an effective and convenient mucosal vaccine should be a high priority. We previously reported a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV)-based bivalent vaccine (v-EM2/SP{Delta}C1Delta) that protects animals from both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses via intramuscular and intranasal immunization. Here, we further investigated the immune response induced by oral immunization with this vaccine and its protective efficacy in mice. The results demonstrated that the oral cavity delivery, like the intranasal route, elicited strong and protective systemic immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A virus. This included high levels of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against SARS-CoV-2, as well as strong anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (SP) antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and anti-influenza M2 ADCC responses in mice sera. Furthermore, it provided efficient protection against challenge with influenza H1N1 virus in a mouse model, with a 100% survival rate and a significant low lung viral load of influenza virus. All these findings provide substantial evidence for the effectiveness of oral immunization with the rVSV bivalent vaccine.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.14.549076v1" target="_blank">Oral immunization with rVSV bivalent vaccine elicits protective immune responses, including ADCC, against both SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza A viruses</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Absence of SARS-CoV-2 in Wildlife of Northeastern Minnesota and Isle Royale National Park</strong> -
<div>
We investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in free-ranging wildlife populations in Northeastern Minnesota on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation and Isle Royale National Park. 120 nasal samples were collected from white-tailed deer, moose, gray wolves, and black bears monitored for conservation efforts during 2022-2023. Samples were tested for viral RNA by RT-qPCR using the CDC N1/N2 primer set. Our data indicate that no wildlife samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Continued surveillance is therefore crucial to better understand the changing landscape of zoonotic SARS-CoV-2 in the Upper Midwest.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.14.549077v1" target="_blank">Absence of SARS-CoV-2 in Wildlife of Northeastern Minnesota and Isle Royale National Park</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Cognitive Adaptations in Career Decision-Making Among Chinese Undergraduates During the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The authors of this article use the mindsponge theory to understand better the cognitive dynamics underlying the challenges Chinese undergraduates face in making career decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/s68bz/" target="_blank">Cognitive Adaptations in Career Decision-Making Among Chinese Undergraduates During the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Methods for Improving Participation Rates in National Self-Administered Web/Mail Surveys: Evidence from the United States</strong> -
<div>
In the United States, increasing access to the internet, the increasing costs of large-scale face-to-face data collections, and the general reluctance of the public to participate in intrusive in-person data collections all mean that new approaches to nationally representative surveys are urgently needed. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for faster, higher-quality alternatives to face-to-face data collection. These trends place a high priority on the evaluation of innovative web-based data collection methods that are convenient for the U.S. public and yield scientific information of high quality. The web mode is particularly appealing because it is relatively inexpensive, it is logistically flexible to implement, and it affords a high level of privacy and confidentiality when correctly implemented. With this study, we aimed to conduct a methodological evaluation of a sequential mixed-mode web/mail data collection protocol, including modular survey design concepts, which was implemented on a national probability sample in the U.S. in 2020-2021. We implemented randomized experiments to test theoretically-informed hypotheses that 1) the use of mail and increased incentives to follow up with households that did not respond to an invitation to complete a household screening questionnaire online would help to recruit different types of households; and 2) the use of modular survey design, which involves splitting a lengthy self-administered survey up into multiple parts that can be completed at a respondent’s convenience, would improve survey completion rates. We find support for the use of mail and increased incentives to follow up with households that have not responded to a web-based screening questionnaire. We did not find support for the use of modular design in this context. Simple descriptive analyses also suggest that attempted telephone reminders may be helpful for the main survey.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/5hxgm/" target="_blank">Methods for Improving Participation Rates in National Self-Administered Web/Mail Surveys: Evidence from the United States</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Differential laboratory passaging of SARS-CoV-2 viral stocks impacts the in vitro assessment of neutralizing antibodies</strong> -
<div>
Viral populations in natural infections can have a high degree of sequence diversity, which can directly impact immune escape. However, antibody potency is often tested in vitro with a relatively clonal viral populations, such as laboratory virus or pseudotyped virus stocks, which may not accurately represent the genetic diversity of circulating viral genotypes. This can affect the validity of viral phenotype assays, such as antibody neutralization assays. To address this issue, we tested whether recombinant virus carrying SARS-CoV-2 spike (VSV-SARS-CoV-2-S) stocks could be made more genetically diverse by passage, and if a stock passaged under selective pressure was more capable of escaping monoclonal antibody (mAb) neutralization than unpassaged stock or than viral stock passaged without selective pressures. We passaged VSV-SARS-CoV-2-S four times concurrently in three cell lines and then six times with or without polyclonal antiserum selection pressure. All three of the monoclonal antibodies tested neutralized the viral population present in the unpassaged stock. The viral inoculum derived from serial passage without antiserum selection pressure was neutralized by two of the three mAbs. However, the viral inoculum derived from serial passage under antiserum selection pressure escaped neutralization by all three mAbs. Deep sequencing revealed the rapid acquisition of multiple mutations associated with antibody escape in the VSV-SARS-CoV-2-S that had been passaged in the presence of antiserum, including key mutations present in currently circulating Omicron subvariants. These data indicate that viral stock that was generated under polyclonal antiserum selection pressure better reflects the natural environment of the circulating virus and may yield more biologically relevant outcomes in phenotypic assays.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.14.549044v1" target="_blank">Differential laboratory passaging of SARS-CoV-2 viral stocks impacts the in vitro assessment of neutralizing antibodies</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Nanobody repertoire generated against the spike protein of ancestral SARS-CoV-2 remains efficacious against the rapidly evolving virus</strong> -
<div>
To date, all major modes of monoclonal antibody therapy targeting SARS-CoV-2 have lost significant efficacy against the latest circulating variants. As SARS-CoV-2 omicron sublineages account for over 90% of COVID-19 infections, evasion of immune responses generated by vaccination or exposure to previous variants poses a significant challenge. A compelling new therapeutic strategy against SARS-CoV-2 is that of single domain antibodies, termed nanobodies, which address certain limitations of monoclonal antibodies. Here we demonstrate that our high-affinity nanobody repertoire, generated against wild-type SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (Mast, Fridy et al. 2021), remains effective against variants of concern, including omicron BA.4/BA.5; a subset is predicted to counter resistance in emerging XBB and BQ.1.1 sublineages. Furthermore, we reveal the synergistic potential of nanobody cocktails in neutralizing emerging variants. Our study highlights the power of nanobody technology as a versatile therapeutic and diagnostic tool to combat rapidly evolving infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.14.549041v1" target="_blank">Nanobody repertoire generated against the spike protein of ancestral SARS-CoV-2 remains efficacious against the rapidly evolving virus</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A simulation framework for modeling the within-patient evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
The global impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to considerable interest in detecting novel beneficial mutations and other genomic changes that may signal the development of variants of concern (VOCs). The ability to accurately detect these changes within individual patient samples is important in enabling early detection of VOCs. Such genomic scans for positive selection are best performed via comparison of empirical data to simulated data wherein evolutionary factors, including mutation and recombination rates, reproductive and infection dynamics, and purifying and background selection, can be carefully accounted for and parameterized. While there has been work to quantify these factors in SARS-CoV-2, they have yet to be integrated into a baseline model describing intra-host evolutionary dynamics. To construct such a baseline model, we develop a simulation framework that enables one to establish expectations for underlying levels and patterns of patient-level variation. By varying eight key parameters, we evaluated 12,096 different model-parameter combinations and compared them to existing empirical data. Of these, 592 models (~5%) were plausible based on the resulting mean expected number of segregating variants. These plausible models shared several commonalities shedding light on intra-host SARS-CoV-2 evolutionary dynamics: severe infection bottlenecks, low levels of reproductive skew, and a distribution of fitness effects skewed towards strongly deleterious mutations. We also describe important areas of model uncertainty and highlight additional sequence data that may help to further refine a baseline model. This study lays the groundwork for the improved analysis of existing and future SARS-CoV-2 within-patient data.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.13.548462v1" target="_blank">A simulation framework for modeling the within-patient evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Multivalent Exosome based protein vaccine: a “mix and match” approach to epidemic viruses’ challenges.</strong> -
<div>
Endemic viruses are becoming increasingly the norm, and the development of a rapid and effective vaccine is emergent. Here, we used our StealthX TM exosome platform to express either Influenza H3 (StealthTM X-Hemagglutinin, STX-H3) or SARS-CoV-2 Delta spike (StealthTM X-Spike, STX-S) protein on the surface and facilitate their trafficking to the exosomes. When administered as single product, both STX-H3 and STX-S induced a strong immunization with the production of a potent humoral and cellular immune response in mice. Interestingly, these effects were obtained with administration of nanograms of protein and without adjuvant. Therefore, we tested the possibility of a multivalent vaccine: STX-H3 and STX-S exosomes were formulated together in a "mix and match" approach and the immune response was further evaluated. We showed that our STX-H3+S cocktail vaccine is as effective as the single components administered separately, resulting in a strong antibody and T-cell response. Our data show that our exosome platform has an enormous potential to revolutionize vaccinology by rapidly facilitating antigen presentation, and for therapeutics by enabling cell and tissue specific targeting.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.13.548895v1" target="_blank">Multivalent Exosome based protein vaccine: a “mix and match” approach to epidemic viruses’ challenges.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Healthcare in England was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the pancreatic cancer pathway: a cohort study using OpenSAFELY-TPP</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Healthcare across all sectors, in the UK and globally, was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed healthcare services delivered to people with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023 to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods With the approval of NHS England, and drawing from a nationally representative OpenSAFELY-TPP dataset of 24 million patients (over 40% of the English population), we undertook a cohort study of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We queried electronic healthcare records for information on the provision of healthcare services across the pancreatic cancer pathway. To estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, we predicted the rates of healthcare services if the pandemic had not happened. We used generalised linear models (GLM) and the pre-pandemic data from January 2015 to February 2020 to predict rates in March 2020 to March 2023. The 95% confidence intervals of the predicted values were used to estimate the significance of the difference between the predicted and observed rates. Results The rate of pancreatic cancer and diabetes diagnoses in the cohort was not affected by the pandemic. There were 26,840 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer from January 2015 to March 2023. The mean age at diagnosis was 72 (11 SD), 48% of people were female, 95% were of White ethnicity and 40% were diagnosed with diabetes. We found a reduction in surgical resections by 25% to 28% during the pandemic. In addition, 20%, 10% and 4% fewer people received BMI, HbA1c and liver function tests respectively before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There was no impact of the pandemic on the number of people making contact with primary care, but the number of contacts increased on average by 1 to 2 per person amongst those who made contact. Reporting of jaundice decreased by 28%, but recovered within twelve months into the pandemic. Emergency department visits, hospital admissions and deaths were not affected. Conclusions The pandemic affected healthcare in England across the pancreatic cancer pathway. Positive lessons could be learnt from the services that were resilient and those that recovered quickly. The reductions in healthcare experienced by people with cancer have the potential to lead to worse outcomes. Current efforts should focus on addressing the unmet needs of people with cancer.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.02.22283026v2" target="_blank">Healthcare in England was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the pancreatic cancer pathway: a cohort study using OpenSAFELY-TPP</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Mobilisation towards formal employment in the healthcare system: A qualitative study of community health workers in South Africa</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In low and middle-income countries (LMICs), community health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in delivering primary health care (PHC) services to vulnerable populations. In these settings, they often receive low stipends, function with a lack of basic resources and have little bargaining power with which to demand better working conditions. In this article, we examine CHWs’ employment status, their struggle for recognition as health workers, and their activities to establish labour representation in South Africa. Using a case study approach, we studied seven CHW teams located in semi-urban and rural areas of Gauteng and Mpumalanga Provinces, South Africa. We used in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observations to gather data from CHWs and their representatives, supervisors and PHC facility staff members. The rural and semi-urban sites CHWs were poorly supervised, resourced and received meagre remuneration, their employment outsourced, without employment benefits and protection. The lack of career progression opportunities demotivated the CHWs, particularly those keen to establish a career in health. In the semi-urban sites, CHWs established a task team to represent them that held regular meetings and often used violent and disruptive strategies against clinic, district and provincial management, which often led to tensions and conflicts with facility staff and programme coordinators.  After a meeting with the local provincial legislature, the task team joined a labour union (NEHAWU) in order to be able to participate in the local Bargaining Council. Though they were not successful in getting the government to provide permanent employment, the union negotiated an increase in stipend from R2 500 (136 USD) to R3 500 (192 USD). In contrast, in the rural sites, the CHWs were not actively demanding permanent employment due to their employment contracts being partly managed by non-government organisations (NGOs) managements; they were fearful of being recalled from the government programme. After the study ended, during the height of COVID-19 in 2020, when the need for motivated and effective CHWs became much more obvious to decision makers, the semi-urban-based teams received permanent employment with remuneration between R9-11,000 (500-600 USD). The task team and their protests raised awareness of the plight of the CHWs, and joining a formal union enabled them to negotiate a modest salary increase. However, it was the emergency created by the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic that forced decision-makers to acknowledge their reliance on this community-based cadre. Hopefully this recognition, and the associated gains, will not fade as the pandemic recedes.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.11.23292526v1" target="_blank">Mobilisation towards formal employment in the healthcare system: A qualitative study of community health workers in South Africa</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Environmental Surface Monitoring as a Noninvasive Method for SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance in Community Settings: Lessons from a University Campus Study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Environmental testing of high-touch objects is a potential noninvasive approach for monitoring population-level trends of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses within a defined setting. We aimed to determine the association between SARS-CoV-2 contamination on high-touch environmental surfaces, community level case incidence, and university student health data. Environmental swabs were collected from January 2022 to November 2022 from high-touch objects and surfaces from five locations on a large university campus in Florida, USA. RT-qPCR was used to detect and quantify viral RNA, and a subset of positive samples was analyzed by viral genome sequencing to identify circulating lineages. During the study period, we detected SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA on 90.7% of 162 tested samples. Levels of environmental viral RNA correlated with trends in community-level activity and case reports from the student health center. A significant positive correlation was observed between the estimated viral gene copy number in environmental samples and the weekly confirmed cases at the university. Viral sequencing data from environmental samples identified lineages contemporaneously circulating in the local community and state based on genomic surveillance data. Further, we detected emerging variants in environmental samples prior to their identification by clinical genomic surveillance. Our results demonstrate the utility of viral monitoring on high-touch environmental surfaces for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance at a community level. In communities with delayed or limited testing facilities, immediate environmental surface testing may considerably inform epidemic dynamics.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.13.23292575v1" target="_blank">Environmental Surface Monitoring as a Noninvasive Method for SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance in Community Settings: Lessons from a University Campus Study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SWAMPy: Simulating SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Amplicon Metagenomes with Python</strong> -
<div>
Motivation: Tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants through genomic sequencing has been an important part of the global response to the pandemic. As well as whole-genome sequencing of clinical samples, this surveillance effort has been aided by amplicon sequencing of wastewater samples, which proved effective in real case studies. Because of its relevance to public healthcare decisions, testing and benchmarking wastewater sequencing analysis methods is also crucial, which necessitates a simulator. Although metagenomic simulators exist, none are fit for the purpose of simulating the metagenomes produced through amplicon sequencing of wastewater. Results: Our new simulation tool, SWAMPy (Simulating SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Amplicon Metagenomes with Python), is intended to provide realistic simulated SARS-CoV-2 wastewater sequencing datasets with which other programs that rely on this type of data can be evaluated and improved. Availability: The code for this project is available at https://github.com/goldman-gp-ebi/SWAMPy. It can be installed on any Unix-based operating system and is available under the GPL-v3 license.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.10.519890v2" target="_blank">SWAMPy: Simulating SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Amplicon Metagenomes with Python</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Effect of COVID-19 on Home Advantage in High- and Low-Stake Situations: Evidence from the European National Football Competitions</strong> -
<div>
The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly altered the way sporting events are observed. With the absence or limited presence of spectators in stadiums, the traditional advantage enjoyed by home teams has diminished considerably. This underscores the notion that the support of home fans can often be considered a key factor of the home advantage (HA) phenomenon, wherein teams perform better in front of their own supporters. However, the impact of reduced attendance on games with higher stakes, as opposed to low-stakes friendly matches, remains uncertain. In this study, we investigate the recently concluded European football championship (EURO 20), wherein several teams had the advantage of playing at home in high-stakes games with only one-third of the stadium capacity filled. Firstly, we demonstrate that the Covid-19 restrictions, leading to reduced fan attendance, resulted in a nearly 50% decrease in HA compared to the HA exhibited by the same teams during the qualification stage preceding EURO 20, even after accounting for team strength. Secondly, we show that while low-stakes friendly matches generally exhibit a smaller overall HA compared to high-stakes games, the absence of fans led to a similar reduction in HA during the low-stakes matches. Utilizing the recently developed Home Advantage Mediated (HAM) model (Bilalić et al., 2021, Scientific Reports, 21558), we were able to attribute the reduction in both high- and low-stakes games to poorer team performance, with no significant contribution from referee bias.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/d3xat/" target="_blank">The Effect of COVID-19 on Home Advantage in High- and Low-Stake Situations: Evidence from the European National Football Competitions</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Death Seasonality, Google Community Mobility Trends, Seropositivity Rates, Comparisons of SINADEF Data with WHO Summary Data, and other Data Items as Useful in Analysis of Excess Deaths During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Peru, 2020-2021</strong> -
<div>
The government of Peru carried out extensive tracking of data for deaths and other public health parameters that allow analysis of potential efficacy of interventions used during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from those sources for death seasonality, mobility trends, household composition and seropositivity rates, as well as Google community mobility trends, are provided here as can facilitate such analysis. Also, excess deaths as calculated from Peru’s National Death Information System (SINADEF) are compared with monthy summary data for excess deaths for the period 2020-2021 as reported by the World Health Organization.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/a9ex5/" target="_blank">Death Seasonality, Google Community Mobility Trends, Seropositivity Rates, Comparisons of SINADEF Data with WHO Summary Data, and other Data Items as Useful in Analysis of Excess Deaths During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Peru, 2020-2021</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Performance of amplicon and capture based next-generation sequencing approaches for the epidemiological surveillance of Omicron SARS-CoV-2 and other variants of concern.</strong> -
<div>
To control the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, healthcare systems have focused on ramping up their capacity for epidemiological surveillance through viral whole genome sequencing. In this paper, we tested the performance of two protocols of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid enrichment, an amplicon enrichment using different versions of the ARTIC primer panel and a hybrid-capture method using KAPA RNA Hypercap. We focused on the challenge of the Omicron variant sequencing, the advantages of automated library preparation and the influence of the bioinformatic analysis in the final consensus sequence. All 94 samples were sequenced using Illumina iSeq 100 and analysed with two bioinformatic pipelines: a custom-made pipeline and an Illumina-owned pipeline. We were unsuccessful in sequencing six samples using the capture enrichment due to low reads. On the other hand, amplicon dropout and mispriming caused the loss of mutation G21987A and the erroneous addition of mutation T15521A respectively using amplicon enrichment. Overall, we found high sequence agreement regardless of method of enrichment, bioinformatic pipeline or the use of automation for library preparation in eight different SARS-CoV-2 variants. Automation and the use of a simple app for bioinformatic analysis can simplify the genotyping process, making it available for more diagnostic facilities and increasing global vigilance.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.14.549026v1" target="_blank">Performance of amplicon and capture based next-generation sequencing approaches for the epidemiological surveillance of Omicron SARS-CoV-2 and other variants of concern.</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>Homologous Booster Study of COVID-19 Protein Subunit Recombinant Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 Subunit Recombinant Protein Vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   PT Bio Farma<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>Role of Ivermectin and Colchicine in Treatment of COVID-19: Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin Tablets;   Drug: Colchicine 0.5 MG;   Drug: Standared managment<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Ain Shams University<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Immunogenicity and Safety of A Recombinant Protein COVID-19 Vaccine as Booster Vaccines</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: SCTV01E-2;   Biological: SCTV01E<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinocelltech Ltd.<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>COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Counseling Intervention for Pharmacists</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Standard implementation webinar and online training;   Behavioral: Virtual facilitation<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill;   University of Arkansas;   University of South Carolina;   National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)<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>Developing an Effective Intervention to Address Post-Corona-Virus-Disease-2019 Balance Disorders, Weakness and Muscle Fatigue in Individuals Aged 65+</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: Resistance Training<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education<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>Multimodal Long Covid19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Multimodal intervention in Long Covid19<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Universidad de Magallanes;   Teaching Assistance and Research Center of the University of Magallanes CADI-UMAG;   Clinical Hospital Dr. Lautaro Navarro Avaria<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety Study of SCB-2023 Vaccine as a Booster in Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: SCB-2023 vaccine (trivalent), a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 trimeric S-protein subunit vaccine for COVID-19; intramuscular injection;   Biological: SCB-2019 (monovalent), a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 trimeric S-protein subunit vaccine for COVID-19; intramuscular injection<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Clover Biopharmaceuticals AUS Pty Ltd<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 Safety and Immunogenicity Following a Heterologous Booster Dose of Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine LYB002</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: LYB002V14;   Biological: LYB002V14A;   Biological: LYB002CA<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Guangzhou Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.;   Yantai Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.;   Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Treatment of Long COVID (TLC) Feasibility Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Low-dose Naltrexone (LDN);   Drug: Cetirizine;   Drug: Famotidine;   Drug: LDN Placebo;   Drug: Cetirizine Placebo;   Drug: Famotidine Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Emory University;   CURE Drug Repurposing Collaboratory (CDRC)<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>Efficiency and Safety of Paxlovid for COVID-19 Patients With Severe Chronic Kidney Disease</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Renal Insufficiency, Chronic<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Chinese PLA General 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>The Immunogenicity and Safety Following a Heterologous Booster Dose of Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine LYB001</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Vaccine Reaction<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: LYB001;   Biological: CoronaVac<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Guangzhou Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.;   Yantai Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.;   Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Efficacy of Anakinra Treatment for Patients With Post Acute Covid Syndrome</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Placebo;   Drug: Anakinra 149 MG/ML Prefilled Syringe [Kineret]<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis<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>Effects of Music Combined With Sports Games on Alleviating Psychological Stress, Anxiety and Mental Energy Among Adolescents During COVID-19 Pandemic in Lanzhou Gansu Province China</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Stress;   Anxiety and Fear<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Music intervention only;   Behavioral: Sports games intervention only;   Behavioral: Music and sports games intervention<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Wu Jiarun<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 Efficacy, Safety, Tolerability and PK of SNS812 in Mild to Moderate COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Disease Caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (Disorder)<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: MBS-COV;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Oneness Biotech Co., Ltd.<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>Efficacy of the Therapy With BRAINMAX® Using fMRI for the Treatment of Patients With Asthenia After COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Asthenia;   COVID-19;   Functional MRI;   Cognitive Impairment<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Structural and functional MRI;   Drug: Ethyl methyl hydroxypyridine succinate + Meldonium;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Promomed, LLC<br/><b>Completed</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>‘Pterocephalodes hookeri-Onosma hookeri’ decoction protects against LPS-induced pulmonary inflammation via inhibiting TLR4/ NF-κB signaling pathway</strong> - CONCLUSION: In summary, the combination therapy of ‘P-O’ exhibited good antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory activity in vitro, as well as a therapeutic effect against pulmonary inflammation in vivo. These findings provide evidence for the clinical application of ‘P-O’ and offer new approaches for treating pneumonia.</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>Intranasal insulin - effects on the sense of smell</strong> - Intranasal insulin (IN) administration is a promising way to deliver the peptide to the central nervous system (CNS), bypassing the blood-brain-barrier and gastrointestinal absorption inhibition. IN receptors are localized in the olfactory mucosa and the brain, mainly in the olfactory bulb, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, cerebral cortex, and cerebellum. The pleiotropic mechanism of insulin action is characterized by its anti-inflammatory properties, antithrombotic, vasodilatory, 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>SARS-CoV-2 spike protein induces lung endothelial cell dysfunction and thrombo-inflammation depending on the C3a/C3a receptor signalling</strong> - The spike protein of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can interact with endothelial cells. However, no studies demonstrated the direct effect of the spike protein subunit 1 (S1) in inducing lung vascular damage and the potential mechanisms contributing to lung injury. Here, we found that S1 injection in mice transgenic for human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) induced early loss of lung endothelial thromboresistance at 3 days, as revealed by thrombomodulin loss…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor-binding domain perturbates intracellular calcium homeostasis and impairs pulmonary vascular endothelial cells</strong> - Exposure to the spike protein or receptor-binding domain (S-RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 significantly influences endothelial cells and induces pulmonary vascular endotheliopathy. In this study, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 humanized inbred (hACE2 Tg) mice and cultured pulmonary vascular endothelial cells were used to investigate how spike protein/S-RBD impacts pulmonary vascular endothelium. Results show that S-RBD leads to acute-to-prolonged induction of the intracellular free calcium concentration…</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>Immunothrombosis and its underlying biological mechanisms</strong> - The evolutionary conserved link between coagulation and innate immunity is a biological process characterized by the thrombosis formation stimulus of immune cells and specific thrombosis-related molecules. In physiological settings, the relationship between the immune system and thrombosis facilitates the recognition of pathogens and damaged cells and inhibits pathogen proliferation. However, when deregulated, the interplay between hemostasis and innate immunity becomes a pathological process…</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>CHO-produced RBD-Fc subunit vaccines with alternative adjuvants generate immune responses against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Subunit vaccines feature critical advantages over other vaccine platforms such as stability, price, and minimal adverse effects. To maximize immunological protection of subunit vaccines, adjuvants are considered as main components that are formulated within the subunit vaccine. They can modulate adverse effects and enhance immune outcomes. However, the most suitable formulation providing the best immunological outcomes and safety are still under investigation. In this report, we combined…</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>Determining the clinical and cost-effectiveness of nasal sprays and a physical activity and stress management intervention to reduce respiratory tract infections in primary care: A protocol for the ‘Immune Defence’ randomised controlled trial</strong> - BACKGROUND: Most adults in the UK experience at least one viral respiratory tract infection (RTI) per year. Individuals with comorbidities and those with recurrent RTIs are at higher risk of infections. This can lead to more severe illness, worse quality of life and more days off work. There is promising evidence that using common nasal sprays or improving immune function through increasing physical activity and managing stress, may reduce the incidence and severity of RTIs.</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><em>In</em><em>silico</em> generation of novel ligands for the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (3CL<sup>pro</sup>) using deep learning</strong> - The recent emergence of novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global public health crisis, and a crucial need exists for rapid identification and development of novel therapeutic interventions. In this study, a recurrent neural network (RNN) is trained and optimized to produce novel ligands that could serve as potential inhibitors to the SARS-CoV-2 viral protease: 3 chymotrypsin-like protease (3CL^(pro))….</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>Synergistic Effect of Zinc-Chitosan Nanoparticles and Hydroxychloroquine to Inhibit Buffalo Coronavirus</strong> - Zinc ions can hinder the synthesis of proteins required for accomplishing several stages of the viral life cycle. The intracellular zinc concentration can be increased by using zinc ionophores which transport zinc ions into the cells and hinder viral replication. (Hydroxy)chloroquine is an example of a zinc ionophore, but both zinc and (hydroxy)chloroquine can be toxic to the host organism. The nanocarriers may serve as camouflage to evade the adverse effects of drugs, chemicals, 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>Auraptene Has Antiviral Activity against Human Coronavirus OC43 in MRC-5 Cells</strong> - Auraptene (7-geranyloxycoumarin) is the abundant prenyloxycoumarin found in the fruits of Citrus spp. Auraptene has a variety of pharmacological and therapeutic functions, such as anticancer, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and anti-inflammation activities, with excellent safety profiles. In this study, we evaluated the anticoronaviral activity of auraptene in HCoV-OC43-infected human lung fibroblast MRC-5 cells. We found that auraptene effectively inhibited HCoV-OC43-induced cytopathic effects…</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>Potency of Xanthone Derivatives from <em>Garcinia mangostana</em> L. for COVID-19 Treatment through Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 and Main Protease Blockade: A Computational Study</strong> - ACE2 and Mpro in the pathology of SARS-CoV-2 show great potential in developing COVID-19 drugs as therapeutic targets, due to their roles as the “gate” of viral entry and viral reproduction. Of the many potential compounds for ACE2 and Mpro inhibition, α-mangostin is a promising candidate. Unfortunately, the potential of α-mangostin as a secondary metabolite with the anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity is hindered due to its low solubility in water. Other xanthone isolates, which also possess the xanthone…</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 Activity of Cepharanthine</strong> - Cepharanthine, a natural bisbenzylisoquinoline (BBIQ) alkaloid isolated from the plant Stephania Cephalantha Hayata, is the only bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid approved for human use and has been used in the clinic for more than 70 years. Cepharanthine has a variety of medicinal properties, including signaling pathway inhibitory activities, immunomodulatory activities, and antiviral activities. Recently, cepharanthine has been confirmed to greatly inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection. Therefore, we…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Aprotinin-Drug against Respiratory Diseases</strong> - Aprotinin (APR) was discovered in 1930. APR is an effective pan-protease inhibitor, a typical “magic shotgun”. Until 2007, APR was widely used as an antithrombotic and anti-inflammatory drug in cardiac and noncardiac surgeries for reduction of bleeding and thus limiting the need for blood transfusion. The ability of APR to inhibit proteolytic activation of some viruses leads to its use as an antiviral drug for the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory virus infections. However, due 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>Transcriptome Changes of Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells in the Peripheral Blood of COVID-19 Patients by scRNA-seq</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) threatens public health all over the world. It is well-accepted that the immune cells in peripheral blood are widely involved in the pathological process of COVID-19. However, hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), as the main source of peripheral immune cells, have not been well studied during COVID-19 infection. We comprehensively revealed the transcriptome changes of peripheral blood HSPCs after COVID-19 infection and vaccination by single-cell…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Multivariant Surrogate Neutralization Assay Identifies Variant-Specific Neutralizing Antibody Profiles in Primary SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Infection</strong> - Primary infection with the Omicron variant of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can be serologically identified with distinct profiles of neutralizing antibodies (nAbs), as indicated by high titers against the Omicron variant and low titers against the ancestral wild-type (WT). Here, we evaluated whether a novel surrogate virus neutralization assay (sVNT) that simultaneously quantifies the binding inhibition of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to the proteins of…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vermont’s Catastrophic Floods and the Spread of Unnatural Disasters</strong> - In parts of the Northeast, two months of rain fell in two days. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/vermonts-catastrophic-floods-and-the-spread-of-unnatural-disasters">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Instant Pot and the Miracle Kitchen Devices of Yesteryear</strong> - Preparing meals is a Sisyphean task, and anything that promises to make it faster, or easier, or better, or healthier, or more fun, is irresistible. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/afterword/the-instant-pot-and-the-miracle-kitchen-devices-of-yesteryear">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is It Hot Enough Yet for Politicians to Take Real Action?</strong> - The latest record temperatures are driving, again precisely as scientists have predicted, a cascading series of disasters around the world. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/is-it-hot-enough-yet-for-politicians-to-take-real-action">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can a New Spanish-Language Media Group Help Donald Trump?</strong> - Americano Media hopes to reach a nationwide conservative audience. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/can-a-new-spanish-language-media-group-help-donald-trump">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Evolving Free-Speech Battle Between Social Media and the Government</strong> - A recent court ruling dramatically curtailed the federal bureaucracy’s ability to communicate with Internet platforms. What’s at stake when free speech harms the public? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-evolving-free-speech-battle-between-social-media-and-the-government">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>How to keep your CSA produce from rotting in your refrigerator</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A display of vegetables in wooden baskets. Apples are dominant; cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, and other veggies are visible." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tHky_SGLaNMKT9SpEWzVXU3dpDw=/1x0:4866x3649/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72456123/GettyImages_165517601.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
So your CSA membership means you’re getting a little buried in vegetables. What should you do next? | Getty Images / CSA Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Community-supported agriculture is a great way to get a variety of local fruits and veggies, but it can be overwhelming to stare down all those leafy greens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mxhBGO">
My refrigerator’s vegetable drawer is stuffed with kale, peas, and turnips. I suspect my neighbors are in the same boat; up here in the Northeast, that’s what’s currently coming in community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes. The contents of your vegetable drawer may vary, but if you’re a CSA member, you know exactly what I mean. More importantly, you know the feeling of CSA Panic: The new share comes tomorrow, and we’re only half done with this one! What am I supposed to do with all these potatoes, or carrots, or mustard greens, or … celeriac?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lhkRmJ">
I grew up in a rural area, where being a “work-share” CSA member meant you actually went to the farm and helped out. (Dirty, but extremely fun, especially when you’re a kid.) Now, living in New York City, I have what is probably a more typical experience. Every spring, I send a chunk of change to my local, volunteer-led CSA, which in turn works with a handful of farms to put together several offerings. The base option is a box or a bag of vegetables, delivered every week to an empty nearby school that lets us use their space every Saturday morning. Volunteers arrive to bag up the goods and distribute them to other members as they pick them up (everyone takes a weekend as a volunteer in my CSA). In addition to vegetables, members can pay extra to receive eggs, or a fruit share, or other items like honey, coffee, or meat. A CSA can extend way beyond produce: During the first pandemic summer, my husband and I used a little of our stimulus check on a share in an oyster CSA. (Yes, it was awesome.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HlUKIa">
CSAs have a fascinating history, beginning <a href="https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/csas-rooted-in-black-history-zbcz1502/?fbclid=IwAR33z2BOv1RYJ4NhcJKfWotnN05iApwNSHGztCKnS97kCPARbdptVJyCVi4">with Black farmers in Alabama</a> in the 1960s and ’70s and slowly growing to number around 13,000 in the US the last time census data was collected. The appeal is obvious: Weekly shares generally cost the same or less than what you’d pay in the grocery store (mine works out to $30/week), often with higher-quality produce and subsidized shares or SNAP for lower-income members. The up-front investment helps family farms (which struggle in the face of Big Agriculture to stay alive) have a guaranteed income.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YXct57">
The constant flow of vegetables is the backbone of most CSAs, and whether you’re a newbie or veteran, once the season starts you are soon confronted with your own wasteful food habits and unimaginative cooking skills. I’ve developed an arsenal of tools of my own to confront the problem, and so have a bunch of expert cookbook authors and chefs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EGPIBY">
So if you, like me, are trying to make the best of a farm share, fear not: Help is on the way.
</p>
<h3 id="Ax0LFs">
Establish an order of operations
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zOpqSX">
The cycle starts when you bring home the goods, a variety of toothsome, wholesome, and usually pretty dirty produce. Where to begin?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dr3EKf">
Most of the experts I spoke with said the first thing to do is sort them in order of priority, which has to do with what will last a few days and what will still be edible if you find it in the back of the fridge in a month. “Arugula and other delicate head lettuces along with snap and snow peas tend to tire more quickly, so use those in the first days of bringing home your farm share,” says Alexandra Stafford, a <a href="https://alexandracooks.com/category/csa/">blogger</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055345983X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=alexandrask06-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=055345983X&amp;linkId=8cdaf3bc2ae744c010a642c8d2759bc4">cookbook</a> author who <a href="https://farmsharenewsletter.substack.com/">writes a Substack newsletter</a> devoted to making the most of your CSA. “Kale, cabbage, and other heartier greens will hold up just fine for at least a week in the fridge.” The same goes for hard and tough-skinned vegetables, I find: Winter squashes, carrots, beets, potatoes, and other root veggies can hang out for a while without harm. (Don’t refrigerate your potatoes. Or your tomatoes, while we’re at it.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zj4tHm">
Leafy greens can sometimes be the trickiest to deal with, since they take up a lot of space and can wilt quickly, but also will almost certainly not get eaten if you don’t store them clean. I immediately wash my lettuce and other leafy greens and run them through a salad spinner, then dry as well as I can between layers of towels. Then I wrap them in paper towels and store them in bags in the refrigerator, and this keeps them fresh for at least a few days. Maya Kaimal, owner of an <a href="https://www.mayakaimal.com/">eponymous line of Indian food products</a> and the author of<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/678136/indian-flavor-every-day-by-maya-kaimal/"> <em>Indian Flavor Every Day</em></a>, is a big proponent of CSAs, and she has a more eco-friendly, plastic-free solution: “I wrap my greens in moistened cloth market bags — the unbleached cotton type I seem to have a zillion of — and then I put them in my vegetable drawer,” she says.
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Linda Ly, who writes the award-winning homesteading and gardening blog <a href="https://www.gardenbetty.com/">Garden Betty</a> as well as<a href="https://www.amazon.com/No-Waste-Vegetable-Cookbook-Recipes-Techniques/dp/1558329978?&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=gardbett-20&amp;linkId=860895a8dc92d17d01aa57b34d2232cf&amp;language=en_US&amp;ref_=as_li_ss_tl"> <em>The No-Waste Vegetable Cookbook</em></a>, then tackles her root vegetables. First she removes the greens, wraps them in a damp towel, and seals them in a bag. Then she stores the roots separately, often in their own plastic bags. “With radishes in particular, I like to wash them first and then store them in the fridge, in a jar filled with water, which keeps them crisp and ready for snacking,” she says. (Radishes are good with every kind of dip, but I confess a weakness for eating them with butter and a little salt.) Other root veggies can also be stored in water in the fridge, in a food storage container, she notes.
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Tamar Adler, author of several books about using up food — including most recently <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Everlasting-Meal-Cookbook/Tamar-Adler/9781476799667"><em>The Everlasting Meal Cookbook</em></a> — says the first thing to do is simply make sure you’ve cooked everything that can be cooked, so that they’re already ingredients, rather than just raw materials. “Once you have roasted squash or boiled little turnips or sautéed greens, it is much easier to just add them to rice or a sandwich or a soup,” she says.
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What’s important is to not lose track of what you’ve got on hand. For sisters Irene and Margaret Li, chefs and authors of the zero-waste cookbook <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/perfectly-good-food"><em>Perfectly Good Food</em></a>, it’s all about strategy. “If you have leafy lettuce greens that need to be eaten sooner rather than later, don’t shove them to the back of your crisper drawer,” they say. Stick a running list on the fridge so you know which ingredients you’ve got, or keep a note on your phone.
</p>
<h3 id="VMMto5">
Use easy-to-replicate recipe formats
</h3>
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Using everything you get requires some strategic planning. “If you have root vegetables that will last longer, think ahead about fun ways to eat them and get those ingredients,” the Lis say.
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You’ll need to have some reliable tools and ingredients on hand. Kaimal suggests a salad spinner, sheet pans, and reusable zippered bags; Stafford says a good chef’s knife, extra-large bowl, and food processor are essential. I’d also recommend an air fryer (for making quick roasted vegetables), a blender, and one of <a href="https://www.crateandbarrel.com/oxo-grid-vegetable-chopper/s177129?localedetail=US&amp;storeid=633&amp;a=1552&amp;campaignid=10461646755&amp;adgroupid=103999389299&amp;targetid=aud-1675849850046:pla-1656472705342&amp;pla_sku=177129&amp;pcat=HSW&amp;ag=adult&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwqZSlBhBwEiwAfoZUIKMwesEpxnJKBmLknLLyVc7KCMhhqHcdtRrguGJQbk0HjusO_owLyhoCC5EQAvD_BwE">these chopper things</a>, which I spotted all over TikTok last summer. It’s brilliant for making a fast salad or provoking minimal onion-chopping tears.
</p>
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A Dutch oven is one of Ly’s favorite tools for turning everything into soup at the end of the week. Soup is in fact the great food-saver: The Lis recommend a hand blender (also called a stick or immersion blender) — “because you can toss so many different items from a CSA box into a soup!” Just heat up some broth, add languishing roasted vegetables, and blend, then add other ingredients till it tastes right (which could include cream, full-fat coconut milk, peanut butter, cooked garlic and onion, miso, and other refrigerator stalwarts).
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Everyone I spoke with recommended having olive oil, salt, and some kind of acid on hand, like lemon juice or wine vinegar. “Aleppo pepper or silk chili (from <a href="https://www.burlapandbarrel.com/?keyword=burlap%20and%20barrel&amp;device=c&amp;matchtype=p&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwqZSlBhBwEiwAfoZUIApDvJqmxRDVCR8fRZmu8VQvaDVWNPfGzq9xekBHu9pqcIGcks_VhRoCa9AQAvD_BwE&amp;campaign=Brand-Burlap-and-Barrel&amp;source=Google&amp;medium=cpc">Burlap and Barrel</a>) is great for sprinkling on all sorts of vegetables, especially sautéed greens and roasted vegetables,” recommends Stafford. I’m a New Yorker, which means I put <a href="https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/everything-bagel-seasoning/">“everything” seasoning</a> on, well, everything. But I also recently <a href="https://curiospice.com/products/curious-spice-club">subscribed</a> to a spice company that sends some new, fun spice every month to try, which keeps me from always defaulting to my beloved Herbes de Provence.
</p>
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Ly recommends having oil (such as avocado and olive) in both pour and spray bottles. I recently started using olive oil in spray bottles and it changed my life — coating vegetables and pans evenly is so much easier now. Ly also recommends a “good condiment that can go on anything,” like chili crisp or chimichurri. “If I’m feeling stuck or too lazy to cook, I throw veggies into a pan and top them with chili crisp,” she says. Having miso, rice vinegar, and soy sauce around, as well as a selection of spice blends from various regional cuisines, is always a smart move.
</p>
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Roasting vegetables is one of the easiest ways to turn your produce into ingredients. Preheat your oven to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit, then chop everything into roughly the same size, and then drizzle (or spray) olive oil onto them and add spices, salt, and pepper. “You can cook a whole bunch of different veggies at once — just keep an eye on them, since smaller pieces will cook faster than larger pieces,” the Lis say. “Once cooked, they’re super easy to use up in lots of different recipes, from pasta to salad to just eating straight, and they’ll last a few extra days in the fridge.”
</p>
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When I am drowning in leafy greens and need to make space, I handle the situation by turning them into a pesto (or something that I call pesto, anyhow). The traditional pesto most Americans think of is basil-based, with pine nuts and Parmesan involved. But I just take whatever huge pile of greens I have lingering from last week and, after washing, shove them in the blender. I add as much peeled, raw garlic as I have sitting around (which might be three cloves or a lot more), then glug some olive oil into the blender. I turn it on and continue adding olive oil through the lid until it forms a bright green sauce. Then I add salt till it tastes good enough to complement everything from rice to pasta to eggs veggie dip. (Beware: The garlic gets stronger over time.)
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My best recommendation, when it comes to cooking what you’ve got, is to store recipes in an easily searchable place, so you’re not flailing all over the internet when looking for something to do with those turnips. I’m a passionate fan of the <a href="https://www.paprikaapp.com/">Paprika Recipe Manager app</a>, which has desktop and mobile iterations that sync across platforms. You can drop a web link into the app and it will pull out the recipe with astonishing accuracy, saving ingredients and instructions and then making it easily searchable in your own private database. I also use this for printed cookbooks, scanning the text using my <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-live-text-iphcf0b71b0e/ios">iPhone’s Live Text function</a>, then cleaning it up slightly. Paprika also has some great list-making functions for creating a grocery list as well as keeping track of your “inventory,” which is especially helpful for tracking what’s in the produce drawer already.
</p>
<h3 id="ep5BUW">
What to do when your produce has seen better days
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My share is delivered on Saturdays, which means by Thursday I’m usually getting a little panicked and the fridge is looking a little … limp. Soggy. Not quite in shape anymore. So what should you do? When I asked around, the answers tended to provoke exclamation points.
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“Trim off anything soggy or rotting and cook it!” declares Adler. (Her book is devoted to ways to do this.) “Use a good deal of olive oil and salt so it’s delicious and you want to eat it!”
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Stafford favors “freezing!” Anything wilted can quickly be turned into a green sauce, and big batches of pesto and <a href="https://alexandracooks.com/2020/06/16/schug-zhug-sauce/">schug</a> can be frozen in ice cube trays, then popped out and stored in bags, for use throughout the season and into the winter months. Stafford transforms leafy greens into <a href="https://alexandracooks.com/2014/06/18/chard-fritters-montreal/">fritters</a> and <a href="https://alexandracooks.com/2015/07/21/csa-week-56-fried-greens-meatlessballs-more/">fried green meatless balls</a>, which can also be frozen. She also prefers to cook greens before freezing them: “For instance, if I have a head of kale or chard that is looking tired, I’ll quickly sauté it, and either stash it in the fridge (to be used as a pizza topping or omelet filling) or freeze for a future use.”
</p>
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<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23599906/canning-lids-inflation-covid-pandemic-food-prices">Traditional canning</a>, I’ve always found, is a bit beyond my reach, both in terms of labor and space (I do live in Brooklyn, after all). My freezer is tiny too. But a <a href="https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-quick-pickle-any-vegetable-233882">quick pickle</a> is a great way to rescue and change the taste of most vegetables. Ly turns extra cabbage into <a href="https://www.gardenbetty.com/quick-and-easy-kimchi-even-if-you-dont-live-near-an-asian-market/">kimchi</a> or <a href="https://www.gardenbetty.com/ruby-kraut-and-why-its-so-good-for-you/">sauerkraut</a>, and tomatoes that are overripe become <a href="https://www.gardenbetty.com/easy-peasy-homemade-tomato-sauce-no-peeling-required/">homemade tomato sauce</a>. Extra herbs can be frozen, too.
</p>
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I get eggs in my CSA share, which means I’m sometimes drowning in those if we haven’t been eating them as regularly. But that’s a great opportunity to make an <a href="https://www.loveandlemons.com/frittata-recipe/">easy frittata</a>, which uses up a dozen eggs and whatever random veggies are sitting around, especially the ones I don’t love. Slice it up and you can eat it throughout the week, and it makes a great office lunch, too.
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For me, the key to using everything up has been in seeking out great vegan and vegetarian cookbooks. I eat some meat and dairy, but find that plant-based chefs have the most creative ideas for what to make. Similarly, the best uses for odds and ends and unexpected vegetables often lie in global cuisine; Indian food, for instance, (as in <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/678136/indian-flavor-every-day-by-maya-kaimal/">Kaimal’s cookbook</a>) often lends itself to vegetarian cooking.
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And Kaimal has the kind of suggestion that might be worth hanging on to for next year: “I choose the alternate week CSA box so that I can still enjoy what looks good at the farmer’s market on the off weeks,” she says. “Otherwise, I get overwhelmed!”
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If there’s anything I’ve learned over the past few years of CSA membership, it’s that if you find yourself getting overwhelmed, just imagine you’re in an elaborate cooking competition show, tasked with figuring out what to do with all this wonderful food that you’ve already paid for. That mindset gamifies the experience, encourages experimentation, and makes any kitchen flops feel a little less floppy. Yes, CSAs support local agriculture and biodiversity; they’re good to join no matter what. But your CSA box is only as good as your imagination — and everything tastes better when you’re having fun.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lR8oMD">
<a href="http://www.vox.com/even-better"><em>Even Better</em></a><em> is here to offer deeply sourced, actionable advice for helping you live a better life. Do you have a question on money and work; friends, family, and community; or personal growth and health? Send us your question by filling out this </em><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiStGSlsWDBmglim7Dh1Y9Hy386rkeKGpfwF6BCjmgnZdqfQ/viewform"><em>form</em></a><em>. We might turn it into a story.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>Teachers are striking for more than just pay raises</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A dark-haired woman wearing sunglasses and a red Chicago Teachers Union shirt holds a sign that reads “Honk for teachers.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yH-0SAiyVMU7boaMkKI6psUyKhs=/0x0:2748x2061/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72456058/152206684.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Striking Chicago public school teachers picket outside of George Westinghouse College Preparatory High School on September 17, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois. | Scott Olson/Getty Images
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
What Oakland’s teachers union reveals about labor strikes in 2023.
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The school year ended in dramatic fashion in Oakland, California.
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Teachers went on strike on May 4, 2023, just three weeks before the last day of the academic calendar. The strike lasted seven school days. In negotiations, teachers not only fought for higher salaries and a better schedule, but for a set of what they called <a href="https://oaklandside.org/2023/05/26/oakland-teachers-strike-common-good-proposals-los-angeles/">“common good” demands</a> — like ensuring that all unhoused families in the district are expedited for Section 8 housing vouchers and implementing a task force on reparations. The strike had what appeared to be fairly widespread support based on turnout at school sites, though many caregivers and community members expressed confusion about the broader demands on climate and housing. Wasn’t this a salary renegotiation? Why were the teachers talking about <a href="https://www.vox.com/transportation">transportation</a>?
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These demands are part of a broader movement among <a href="https://www.vox.com/unions">unions</a> to bargain for the common good by including provisions in teachers’ contract demands that don’t just affect them directly, but also the quality of life for their students and the city. The movement for “common good bargaining” in the educational context — other industries are increasingly making common good demands too — was born during the Chicago teacher strike of 2012 and has been gaining steam ever since. In a country where increased privatization is too often the response to its most pressing problems, common good bargaining is a provocative counterforce. It’s a promising strategy for birthing new coalitions within communities that — in the best-case scenario — might get people talking about more than just third rail topics like charters, enrollment policy, and the “reading wars.”
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But, like all organizing strategies, it also risks becoming little more than a label. And it may generate backlash from the parents, like those in Oakland, who didn’t understand why those issues were on the table in the first place.
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As an Oakland Unified School District parent and <a href="https://courtneyemartin.com">a journalist who writes about education</a>, I wanted to better understand the growing movement of common good demands. Here’s what I learned.
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Common good bargaining is a national phenomenon
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Increasingly over the past decade, teachers unions are introducing what they call “common good demands” alongside salary and benefit requests during bargaining. These <a href="https://prospect.org/education/teacher-unions-bargaining-common-good/">demands</a> can include defunding campus police, offering more eco-friendly and free transportation options, shielding students from evictions, and more.
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In 2012, more than 25,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) included common good demands when they walked picket lines in front of 580 schools during a strike that lasted seven days; it was the first school strike the city had seen in a quarter-century. The teachers won salary increases and more job security — typical bargaining fare — but they also got more collective wins, like pushing back against the testing obsession of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/education">education reform</a> movement and fighting for more support staff, such as counselors and nurses, to serve their most marginalized students.
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Proponents say that common good bargaining is a wise strategy because it ensures legally enforceable gains. In theory, if districts agree to common good demands during the bargaining process, they can be sued if they don’t follow through. Many well-intentioned resolutions either die before they ever get voted on by school boards or they get approved and then end up being discussed to death in committees. Too often, little action is actually taken. When leadership shifts — at the school board or superintendent level — these resolutions are often lost in the mix. And we’ve all seen how dramatic and dysfunctional school board meetings can be because of increased political polarization. A binding contract requires a board to follow through.
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Teachers involved in this more expansive type of bargaining also argue that including common good demands is reflective of the reality of a teacher’s workday. If a portable classroom without air conditioning is too hot for kids to focus or an unhoused kid is constantly absent, it makes sense to address these issues during teacher bargaining. In this way, “working conditions” for teachers organically overlap with the most pressing problems of our time — particularly <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a> and racial and economic inequality.
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“Our students have needs, and if those needs aren’t being met, that’s impinging on our ability to do our job,” said Kasondra Walsh, a kindergarten teacher in an Oakland school serving low-income students. Walsh was on the bargaining team during her union’s recent renegotiation. “So often these things are outside of the control of a classroom teacher. So when the board fails to take action, our next option is to try to get something embedded into our contract.”
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Sarah Wheeler, an educational psychologist and public school parent in Oakland, said, “Imagine the daily experience of a teacher. You’re underpaid, under-resourced, under-supported, and contending with all of these huge societal forces every day in your classroom. I can imagine that demanding real action on some of these larger common good issues could give you a sense of agency. It might even help you have the stamina to stay in the job.”
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This isn’t an insignificant point when one considers that <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/3/6/23624340/teacher-turnover-leaving-the-profession-quitting-higher-rate">teacher turnover is at an all-time high in many states</a>. Even if some of the common good demands are challenging to win or ultimately difficult to implement in cash-strapped districts, the act of advocating for them may feel like a restorative practice for some teachers.
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Common good bargaining is not a new phenomenon
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This expansion of bargaining terms is building steam in part because of a national group called the <a href="https://www.bargainingforthecommongood.org/">Bargaining for the Common Good Network</a>, which first met a couple of years after that catalytic moment in Chicago. Hallmarks of a successful common good bargaining effort, <a href="https://www.bargainingforthecommongood.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Bargaining-Demands-Memo-Long-12.2020.pdf">according to the network’s materials</a>, include: getting grassroots community groups to collaborate and inform which demands end up on the bargaining table, centering <a href="https://www.vox.com/race">racial justice</a>, and keeping the campaign going with community allies long after the union settles its contract.
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Joseph A. McCartin, a labor historian and the executive director of Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, where the network is housed, is quick to point out that common good bargaining isn’t new. Rather, he says, its resurgence is “a rediscovery of an old labor tradition. In the early 20th century, when teachers unions first formed, the teachers’ first priority was trying to reform the tax system because the schools were so underfunded. Teachers have always had an interest in fixing a school system that’s broke on purpose.”
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Alex Han, the executive director of the progressive magazine In These Times<em>, </em>and Emma Tai, the executive director of United Working Families, <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/bcgs-big-bang-10-years-after-the-2012-chicago-teachers-union-strike/">writing last year in Nonprofit Quarterly</a>, also trace the way that broader bargaining is a modernization of an old approach, not an innovation. “Beyond equity issues,” they wrote, “the CTF” — the all-female predecessor to the Chicago Teachers Union — “took on fights that could be seen now as ‘bargaining for the common good’— against a University of Chicago-led and business-backed ‘factorization’ of Chicago’s public schools, and in favor of fair funding.”
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Today, <a href="https://chicago.chalkbeat.org/2023/5/15/23724506/brandon-johnson-chicago-mayor-inauguration-2023">Chicago stands out as a case study</a> of what happens when teachers get real political power in a city. Last month, <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/4/4/23670259/chicago-mayoral-race-vallas-johnson-election-2023">Brandon Johnson</a>, a teachers union organizer, was sworn in as Chicago’s 57th mayor after an extremely tight race. Johnson started as a middle school teacher, leaving the classroom a decade ago in order to get involved in common good organizing. Under the mentorship of the late Karen Lewis, then Chicago Teachers Union president, Johnson was part of school closure protests in 2013 and an effort to elect the <a href="https://www.ctulocal1.org/posts/susan-sadlowski-garza-makes-history-as-first-ctu-member-elected-to-chicago-city-council/">first teacher</a> to the City Council in 2015. All the while, Johnson mentored other cities’ teachers unions on rabble-rousing for more than just higher pay, but also broader support for public school families.
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Mayor Johnson wasted no time establishing his credentials. Some of his first executive orders were directed at getting money into programs for youth, and his first speech as mayor largely focused on his vision for a more collaborative and equitable public school system for all of Chicago’s kids.
</p>
<h3 id="UQbFEF">
Common good bargaining requires long-term organizing and awareness efforts
</h3>
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Johnson’s mayoral run didn’t come out of nowhere; it began when he quit teaching in 2012 to start knocking on doors. Likewise, successful common good bargaining campaigns need long runways, or else their demands can seem unintuitive at a tense moment in bargaining. According to Han and Tai, teachers unions must invest in “deep partnership” with community allies in the lead-up to the bargaining moment. They should also build relationships for the moments that require more civic stamina and engage in broader consciousness-raising efforts — door-knocking, listening tours, informational workshops, and any and all gatherings that make community members feel heard. Where that doesn’t happen, experience suggests, backlash is possible.
</p>
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In a city like Oakland, for example, which has experienced three teacher strikes in the last five years, there is strike fatigue among some parents and educational advocates. After all, additional demands, especially those that require coordination across so many institutions, slow down negotiations, which means more days that kids are out of school during strikes (on the tail end of a deeply disruptive pandemic). As Jesse Antin, a public school parent, <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/05/09/opinion-this-time-striking-oakland-teachers-have-gone-too-far/">wrote in the Mercury News</a> in response to the third strike, “The union is holding our kids hostage over common-good principles that we all agree on, but which have no place in a labor contract. Most of us are liberal people who choose to live in a liberal city, but activism has a time and place and this isn’t it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wpII5x">
Many labor experts argue that too-narrow bargaining demands lost teachers unions much of their popular support. What became known as the <a href="https://newlaborforum.cuny.edu/2020/10/03/the-red-for-ed-movement-two-years-in/">Red for Ed</a> movement — a wave of teacher strikes starting in West Virginia in 2018 that swept across states, including notoriously conservative ones — therefore felt like a profound departure. The resurgence of teachers unions, and community support for them, has coincided with a sense that educators are the canaries in the coal mine of democracy, demanding that our public institutions serve everybody better. Chris Jackson, a special education teacher who led the common good bargaining committee in Oakland last month, said, “Now we’re actually bargaining for the community. It’s not just about us; it’s about the students that we serve.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7BNJs3">
Jackson said that the Oakland Education Association curated the common good demands from a mix of district data, information gathered from door-knocking, and their long-term organizational allies like the <a href="https://blackorganizingproject.org/">Black Organizing Project</a> and <a href="https://www.bayareaplan.org/">Bay Area PLAN</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gaJBue">
The strike in Oakland <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11949458/oakland-teachers-strike-ends-as-union-reaches-agreement-with-school-district">came to an end in mid-May</a> with a tentative agreement that promised all union members a 10 percent raise, retroactive to November 1, 2022, and a 15.5 percent pay raise for most. It also promised all full-time union members an additional one-time payment of $5,000. (This was not significantly different from what the district offered before the strike started.) The union also won four common good demands, not technically in the contract language but as included memorandums of understanding.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="53cFle">
Lakisha Young, the founder and CEO of <a href="https://oaklandreach.org/">Oakland REACH</a>, says she is intrigued by a common good strategy in theory, but not to the point of prolonging a teacher strike. According to Young, common good bargaining should never be a justification for keeping kids out of school in a district where absenteeism is already such a problem. “The district isn’t the villain,” Young said. “The villain is the collective behavior of adults. When adults get distracted from reading and math, that’s the issue.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="psNSpQ">
For other organizers, though, common good bargaining can be part of a long-term strategy for labor. Stephen Lerner, a veteran organizer who got his start five decades ago in the farmworkers movement, is one such activist. “The way I’d look at it is, the labor movement needs to be more utopian,” Lerner said. “We need to have a bigger vision of what we want. Why do we exist if we are just taking the status quo?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FPD6oM">
After experiencing last month’s strike in Oakland, public school parent Rebekah Otto told me, “My new question is: What else needs to change to make the common goods a reality? We need a district and union that have a good relationship, we need a city council more invested in pushing for change, we need new ideas about county and state advocacy.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yiIHOJ">
Garrett Bucks, founder of community organizing group <a href="https://www.barnraisersproject.org/">The Barnraisers Project</a>, argues that teachers unions, using tools like common good bargaining, have the potential to be the catalysts for radical collectivity in America’s cities, but too often default to smaller questions around power and status.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LJleJS">
“Is the question here about the transformation of a city or is it a question of turf?” Bucks said. “In the last 15 years, there are a larger number of big-city teachers unions who are asking turf-based questions in more inspiring ways, and I like that, but it also bums me out. We don’t need adults on every side of education debates jockeying for power. We need organizing that is accompanied with soul searching about our relationship to our kids.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rocrcB">
<em>Courtney E. Martin is the author of </em>Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter’s School<em> and a public school parent in Oakland, California. </em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>Sudan’s mass grave is the latest development in a brutal conflict</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="SUDAN-CONFLICT" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sY17i21hBGmm8VzJO7HQ74qXcrw=/104x0:1760x1242/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72455492/1532934767.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The violence is further destabilizing the region.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gZRpqP">
The discovery of a <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/07/sudan-least-87-buried-mass-grave-darfur-rapid-support-forces-deny-victims">mass grave containing 87 people </a>n Sudan’s Darfur region is yet another atrocity in a brutal, three-month-long conflict in the country and an<strong> </strong>echo<strong> </strong>of infamous horrors of Sudan’s recent past.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nn6Kj0">
Just two years ago, Sudan seemed a tentative success story after years of conflict, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, and a decades-long dictatorship. But since April, conflict between the nation’s military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group has essentially halted Sudan’s hopes for a democratic future, created a humanitarian crisis, and threatened fragile regional stability. A series of ceasefires have failed to contain the violence, which began with rival military leaders battling for control after ousting the civilian transitional prime minister — offering little hope for an end to the brutality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X4QpXq">
United Nations investigators announced the existence<strong> </strong>of the mass grave on Thursday, on the eve of a mediation effort hosted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Sisi and other regional leaders have convened in Cairo in an effort to keep the conflict in Sudan from spreading and further destabilizing the neighboring countries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mJaF2B">
The bodies in the grave include members of a non-Arab-speaking ethnic group called the Masalit, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as others allegedly killed by the RSF forces and allied militia in the region over eight days in June. The dead include seven women and seven children, as well as people who died because they were unable to seek medical treatment for injuries sustained in the violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JZ7uZ8">
“I condemn in the strongest terms the killing of civilians and <em>hors de combat</em> individuals, and I am further appalled by the callous and disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities, were treated,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement Thursday.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="UN: 87 civilians killed, buried in mass grave in Sudanâs Darfur" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/efLN9iVHw3uVXqql2v5VLeM-cFY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24790675/1529536823.jpg"/> <cite>Elmurod Usubaliev/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IOyYXp">
The mass grave in West Darfur is a reminder of recent history. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Sudan/Conflict-in-Darfur">In 2003, the Sudanese government employed militias known as janjaweed</a> — out of which the RSF eventually developed —to brutally suppress an uprising by the non-Arab population in the Darfur region. The janjaweed also brutalized the civilian population, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths and displacing more than 2 million people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4xZf1N">
The conflict in Darfur officially ended in August 2020 with a peace agreement between rebel groups in Darfur and the transitional government, but the violence continued, with militias targeting ethnic minority groups and many thousands of people still displaced.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ygeoiG">
Surrounding nations like Egypt and Ethiopia have a vested interest in keeping the conflict from spiraling even further and affecting their own countries — whether that’s via a spillover of the violence, or due to external displacement. But if past efforts are any indication, any end to the violence will be impermanent and unsatisfactory.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xOsFXp">
The <a href="https://au.int/en/newsevents/20230531/third-meeting-expanded-mechanism-sudan-crisis-discuss-implementation-african">African Union</a> and<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/13/sudan-talks-to-resume-in-saudi-arabia-as-battles-rage-in-khartoum"> a coalition of countries including the US and Saudi Arabia </a>have attempted to broker peace between the two warring parties in the past three months, to no avail. Representatives from the RSF and the SAF headed to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday to resume talks after a series of deadly clashes in Bahri and Omdurman,<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudan-govt-representatives-arrive-jeddah-resume-talks-with-rsf-2023-07-15/"> Reuters reported</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="buaWT6">
But given the repeated ceasefire violations and both the RSF’s and SAF’s efforts to derail Sudan’s transition to democracy, lasting peace is difficult to envision. The current conflict began out of the RSF’s desire to remain independent from the regular military, and the<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudanese-pin-their-hopes-talks-saudi-arabia-2023-05-08/"> two sides have thus far proven unwilling to have substantive talks about a lasting ceasefire</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kZ56Jo">
Furthermore, neither side appears invested in putting the country back on the path to democratic civilian rule, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/pro-democracy-movement-persists-sudan">which the Sudanese people have been demanding for years</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="7Q3mgr">
The humanitarian crisis in Sudan shows no signs of stopping
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g6ckQI">
After<strong> </strong>widespread civilian protest and a military coup overthrew dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, former Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok al-Kinani was fairly capably leading the country in its transition to democratic civilian rule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mZvkDZ">
But the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Abd-al-Rahman interfered with that process, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/11/21/22794556/sudan-coup-protests-prime-minister-reinstated-democratic-transition">ousting Hamdok in October 2021</a>. Though Hamdok was briefly reinstated a month later, he formally resigned in January 2022, and al-Burhan has been the de facto head of state since.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lLNlvv">
The conflict between al-Burhan and the RSF’s Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemedti, spilled over into widespread chaos and violence in the capital Khartoum in the early morning of April 15. Since then, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/29/fighting-continues-in-sudan-as-latest-ceasefire-close-to-expiring#:~:text=So%20far%2C%20there%20have%20been,been%20violated%20to%20some%20extent.">several ceasefire attempts</a> to allow for humanitarian aid and access have failed, around 2.8 million have been displaced according to the UN International Organization for Migration. Accurate information about the number of deaths in the conflict have been difficult to obtain, but may be as high <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sudan-airstrike-military-rsf-khartoum-deaaf3f0fa531ac53412400277d44018">as 3,000</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2OetCb">
The fighting has spread from Khartoum, where it was initially concentrated, to the cities of North Khartoum, Omdurman, and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/heavy-clashes-heard-sudanese-city-bahri-army-tries-make-gains-2023-07-14/">Bahri</a>, and to the Darfur region.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oqbBFV">
The humanitarian situation remains dire throughout the country; on Saturday, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths condemned the violence and highlighted the challenge of delivering humanitarian aid in conflict.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hqvSTO">
“We cannot work under the barrel of a gun,” Griffiths <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/misery-deepens-sudanese-civilians-conflict-hits-three-month-mark-statement-martin-griffiths-under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief-coordinator">said in a statement</a>. “We cannot replenish stores of food, water and medicine if brazen looting of these stocks continues. We cannot deliver if our staff are prevented from reaching people in need.” Griffiths also estimated that 13 million children, or around half of those remaining in Sudan, are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u2o2hs">
But without an enduring ceasefire, delivering such aid will be a persistent challenge, Griffiths wrote.“We need predictable commitments from the parties to the conflict that allow us to safely deliver humanitarian assistance to people in need, wherever they are.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c9CMDT">
The SAF and RSF signed the <a href="https://www.state.gov/jeddah-declaration-of-commitment-to-protect-the-civilians-of-sudan/">Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan</a> on May 11 of this year under which both sides promised to honor “our core obligations under International Humanitarian Law to facilitate humanitarian action to meet the needs of civilians” in the conflict.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s9vZJC">
International humanitarian law requires that “<a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/es/customary-ihl/v2/rule115#90d0b90e-c1de-4377-bfd7-c91b36a16464">the dead are honorably interred,</a>” preferably in individual graves and according to the religious rites of their society or group, and clearly marked with the dead identified should circumstances necessitate group burials.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gQtQKy">
The mass grave in Darfur seems to violate those standards, particularly given that evidence that civilians were prevented from collecting and identifying their dead — not to mention burying them in a manner accordant with both IHL and local custom.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j59CcB">
The existence of the grave is also an indicator of <a href="https://www.state.gov/investigations-and-prosecutions-of-atrocities-in-darfur/">targeted violence against non-Arab ethnic groups</a>, in a brutal echo of the RSF’s beginnings as the janjaweed militias in 2003. The International Criminal Court, which charged <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/darfur/albashir">the former dictator Bashir</a> with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide for his part in the Darfur conflict, announced Thursday that it will again <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/icc-investigating-darfur-killings-rapes-violence-surges-sudan-2023-07-13/">investigate killings in Darfur</a>, as well as reports of mass rapes and gender-based crimes, looting, and crimes against children.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sqmCN1">
Multiple humanitarian groups also accused the RSF of holding more than 5,000 people — an estimated 3,500 of whom are civilians, including women and foreign nationals — in deplorable conditions in Khartoum, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudans-paramilitary-rsf-detained-5000-some-tortured-human-rights-groups-2023-07-14/">Reuters reported Friday.</a> The RSF denied those allegations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ayYOCN">
Airstrikes in urban areas like <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sudan-airstrike-military-rsf-khartoum-deaaf3f0fa531ac53412400277d44018">Khartoum </a>and Omdurman have also been particularly destructive; a SAF strike on the RSF supply route through<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/22-killed-air-strike-sudans-omdurman-health-ministry-2023-07-08/"> Omdurman on July 8</a> killed at least 22 and injured dozens more.
</p>
<h3 id="SAlnKZ">
Sudan’s conflict threatens to further destabilize the whole region
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WcDSAl">
Egypt’s attempt to mediate Sudan’s conflict has roots in its own concerns about its internal stability and economy, as Giorgio Cafiero of Gulf State Analytics wrote in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/12/analysis-the-war-in-sudan-is-a-problem-for-egypt">Al Jazeera</a> Wednesday. Egypt is poised to default on its debts, further downgrading its creditworthiness; inflation is at an all-time high; and wealthy Gulf nations that have lent the country billions over the years now seem uninterested in handing out any more money without guarantees that it will be put to good use.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7YfYel">
Around <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/6/27/stuck-in-limbo-frustration-and-despair-on-the-sudan-egypt-border">256,000</a> Sudanese refugees have fled north, but the Egyptian state and its social safety net lack the resources to properly support them. Furthermore, as Cafiero notes, Sudan was previously an important trading partner to Egypt, supplying agricultural products like beef and buying manufactured items in return. Without those agricultural imports, <a href="https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/egypt-sudan-crisis-provides-further-blow-egyptian-food-prices">food prices will continue to rise</a> — <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/bread-egypt-politics-social-unrest-and-state-stability">never a good sign for Egypt’s stability</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HdCNe3">
Thousands of Sudanese refugees have also come to Ethiopia, itself a site of ethnic strife and civil conflict. Though both Ethiopia and Sudan seemed to be on the on the path to more stable and democratic societies in 2019 under Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed and Sudan’s transitional council, that stability was short-lived. Abiy and the Ethiopian armed forces came into conflict with the ethnic Tigray region and its Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, sparking a brutal civil war in 2021.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zVQKbH">
Conflict in both countries increases the possibilities of further disputes in the region, including over Al Fashaga, a lush agricultural area on Sudan’s eastern flank, and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a massive hydroelectric dam which is located about 30 kilometers from Ethiopia’s border with Sudan. Instability in Sudan also has the potential to worsen violence and humanitarian crises in neighboring Chad, as a <a href="https://www.eiu.com/n/conflict-in-sudan-will-exacerbate-instability-in-chad/">May Economist Intelligence Unit report</a> outlined. Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees entered Chad even before the conflict began in April, but large swathes of the country are already facing food shortages due to bad harvests and internal instability.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PQ53Eu">
Neither party in the Sudan conflict has the impetus to back down, and appealing to the safety and security of the country and its people has thus far failed to produce any real stop to the bloodshed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uNeooc">
Though Egypt and other regional actors have a vested interest in keeping the violence from spilling over into their own territories, they may not be able to stop what may soon become a full-scale civil war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yJjMRR">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pBl1gm">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y0FfoU">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4wcVBn">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pZupeJ">
</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>Duleep Trophy final | South Zone beats West Zone by 75 runs to clinch title</strong> - This was South’s 14th title win in the Duleep Trophy; chasing 298 to win, West Zone were bowled out for 222; Sai Kishore and Vasuki Koushik sharined seven wickets among them for South Zone</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 Ashes 2023 | Axer Carey says he has no regrets about Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal at Lord’s</strong> - Carey’s stumping of Bairstow during the second Ashes Test snowballed into a big controversy with many pundits stating that it was against the spirit of the game</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>Lakshya Sen out of U.S. Open, loses to Feng in semis</strong> - Lakshya, who enjoyed a 5-2 win-loss record against Feng coming into the match, had defeated the Chinese 21-18, 22-20 to win the Canada Open</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India lose by 40 runs to Bangladesh in 1st ODI via DLS method</strong> - Amanjot and left-arm spinner Bareddy Anusha made their ODI debut, while top-order batter Priya Punia returned to the Indian squad for the first time since early 2021.</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>It’s Synthesis vs. Destroyer in the Betway Bangalore Summer Derby</strong> -</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>Demolition order issued for illegally constructed building at Kil Kundah in Udhagamandalam</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>AAP to take part in meeting of Opposition parties in Bengaluru</strong> - Welcoming Congress’ decision to oppose the Delhi ordinance, AAP announced that it will take part in the Opposition parties’ meet in Bengaluru</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>Over 1.44 lakh kg drugs to be destroyed in virtual presence of Shah on Monday</strong> - Destruction of the narcotics will be carried out in different cities.</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>PM Modi’s France and UAE visits not just ‘high on optics’ but also ‘high on substantive outcomes’: Minister Hardeep Singh Puri</strong> - Prime Minister Modi on Saturday returned after successive visits to France and the United Arab Emirates</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>Congress holds closed-door meeting on Uniform Civil Code even as Law Panel extends the deadline</strong> - The Congress has stated that it will wait for a draft of the proposed Uniform Civil Code before taking an official stand.</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>Singer and actress Jane Birkin dead at 76</strong> - The English-French star, who rose to fame alongside Serge Gainsbourg, has died in Paris, reports French media.</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>Europe heatwave: No respite in sight for heat-stricken southern Europe</strong> - The heatwave that brought temperatures above 40C across the Mediterranean will intensify next week.</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>La Palma: Thousands evacuated as Canary Island wildfire burns</strong> - The blaze on Spain’s La Palma has destroyed some 4,500 hectares of land since Saturday.</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>Wagner head Prigozhin rejected offer to join Russia’s army - Putin</strong> - The leader of June’s aborted mutiny did not want his mercenaries to become a regular unit, President Putin 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>Spain’s hot summer election: A simple guide</strong> - This highly unusual election takes place at the height of summer, after four years of left-wing rule.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Guidemaster: Picking the right tablet for each use case</strong> - Find the right tablet for work, play, and everything else in between. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1946193">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The gravitational interactions that have helped us dodge 60-hour days</strong> - An atmospheric effect got various tidal forces to cancel out. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1954165">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Game tutorials should be easily skipped. Why is that so hard?</strong> - Let’s talk about replay accessibility, not replay value. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1952139">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Viasat’s new broadband satellite could be a total loss</strong> - The mission now in peril is thought to be valued at roughly $700 million. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1954185">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft takes pains to obscure role in 0-days that caused email breach</strong> - Critics also decry Microsoft’s “pay-to-play” monitoring that detected intrusions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1954171">link</a></p></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dad had the opportunity to buy his medications directly from the pharmacy company. “Here is your prescription sir, that will be $515 dollars.” Dad was a bit hard of hearing so he only heard the $15. He dropped that amount on the counter and left. The clerk yelled “Wait sir, $515 dollars!”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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But Dad was already gone so they reported it to the manager. “Should we call the police sir?” “No, $5 profit is better than nothing.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Maleficent_Ant2594"> /u/Maleficent_Ant2594 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150o5to/dad_had_the_opportunity_to_buy_his_medications/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150o5to/dad_had_the_opportunity_to_buy_his_medications/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich and a cat behind him..</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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The waitress asks for their orders. The guy says, “A hamburger, fries, and a coke,” and turns to the ostrich, “What’s yours?”
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“I’ll have the same,” says the ostrich.
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A short time later the waitress returns with the order. “That will be $18.40 please.” The man reaches into his pocket and, without looking, pulls out the exact change for payment.
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The next day, the guy and the ostrich come again and the guy says, “A hamburger, fries, and a coke.”
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The ostrich says, “I’ll have the same.”
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Again the guy reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change. This becomes routine until one night they enter the restaurant and the waitress asks, “The usual?”
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“No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato, and salad”, says the guy.
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“Me too,” says the ostrich.
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The waitress brings the order and says, “That will be $42.62.”
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Once again the guy pulls the exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table. The waitress can’t hold back her curiosity any longer. “Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change out of your pocket every time?”
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“Well,” says the guy, “several years ago I was cleaning my attic and found an old lamp. When I rubbed it a genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there.”
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“That’s brilliant!” says the waitress. “Most people would wish for a million dollars or something, but you’ll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!”
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“That’s right. Whether it’s a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there,” says the guy.
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The waitress asks, “But, sir, what’s with the ostrich?”
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The guy sighs and answers, “My second wish was for a tall chick with long legs who agrees with everything I say.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HelpingHandsUs"> /u/HelpingHandsUs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150qlop/a_guy_walks_into_a_restaurant_with_a_fullgrown/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150qlop/a_guy_walks_into_a_restaurant_with_a_fullgrown/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I went to the doctors recently</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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He said: “Don’t eat anything fatty”
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I said: “What, like bacon and burgers?”
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He said, “No. fatty don’t eat anything.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/yomamaniceeh"> /u/yomamaniceeh </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150y39h/i_went_to_the_doctors_recently/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150y39h/i_went_to_the_doctors_recently/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Popular among my friends this one</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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A gay couple is traveling on a plane. Let’s call them Steve and Bill.
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“What if we had sex?” asks Steve.
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“Are you crazy? Here, on the plane? It would be awkward, everyone would watch us doing it…”
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“Nobody is even paying attention to anything. Look!”
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Steve stands up and asks loudly:
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“Could I have a pencil, please?”
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Nobody gives a damn. Everyone is sleeping, reading, looking out the window, etc.
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“They really wouldn’t care then, would they?” says Bill.
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So Steve and Bill have wild sex on the plane.
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Later, when the plane arrives to the airport and the people are leaving, the stewardess sees an old man who threw up all over his shirt, even his pants are soaking in the filth.
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“Sir, you should’ve asked for a bag!”
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“I didn’t dare” whispers the old man. “A few rows ahead I saw a man asking for a pencil and he got fucked in the ass…”
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/yomamaniceeh"> /u/yomamaniceeh </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150z7k9/popular_among_my_friends_this_one/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150z7k9/popular_among_my_friends_this_one/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The word “Boob” was created by engineers</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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B - Top View
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oo - Front View
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b - Right View
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AvGeek1245"> /u/AvGeek1245 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150xnhu/the_word_boob_was_created_by_engineers/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/150xnhu/the_word_boob_was_created_by_engineers/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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