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<title>22 November, 2023</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Serodynamics: a review of methods for epidemiological inference using serological data</strong> -
<div>
The availability and diversity of serological data measuring antibody responses to infectious pathogens, accelerated in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, has enabled key insights into infectious disease dynamics and population health. Here, we present a review of analytical approaches and considerations for inference using serological data, highlighting the range of epidemiological and biological insights that are possible using appropriate mathematical and statistical models. This in-depth review focuses on methods to understand transmission dynamics and infer past exposures from serological data, referred to as serodynamics, though we note that such analyses often address complementary immunological questions. We first discuss key considerations for data processing and interpretation of raw serological data which are prerequisite for fitting serodynamical models. We then review a range of approaches for estimating epidemiological trends, ranging from classical serocatalytic models applied to binary serostatus data, to contemporary methods using full quantitative antibody measurements and immunological understanding to estimate if and when individuals have been previously infected. Here, we collate and synthesize these approaches within the context of a unifying framework for the overall data-generation process, consisting of key concepts including antibody kinetics, quantitative models to represent within-host and epidemic processes, and considerations for linking observed serological data to models. We close with a discussion of the types of methodological developments needed to meet the increasingly complex serological data becoming available that provide new avenues for scientific discovery and public health insights.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/kqdsn/" target="_blank">Serodynamics: a review of methods for epidemiological inference using serological data</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Rapid increase in depression within the first month of the Shanghai Covid lockdown in 2022</strong> -
<div>
In the global efforts to combat Covid-19, researchers have increasingly recognized the profound impacts of society lockdown on population mental health. However, the fine temporal evolution of negative psychological consequences induced by lockdowns remains poorly understood. Here we report a rapid and systematic increase in depression due to the Shanghai Covid lockdown in March 2022. Measured by Beck Depression Inventory-2, 10% of the participants experienced at least mild depression before the official citywide lockdown started, and two and four weeks later this number increased to 21% and 36 %, respectively. Regression analyses show that lockdown duration and physical restriction jointly contribute to worsening depression. Furthermore, the time of sleep and social communication during the lockdown are associated with the severity of depression symptoms. These results highlight the fast development of depression during lockdowns and call for special attention to early psychological interventions once a lockdown is initiated.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/mwge8/" target="_blank">Rapid increase in depression within the first month of the Shanghai Covid lockdown in 2022</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Accurate Characterization of Conformational Ensembles and Binding Mechanisms of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 and BA.2.86 Spike Protein with the Host Receptor and Distinct Classes of Antibodies Using AlphaFold2-Augmented Integrative Computational Modeling</strong> -
<div>
The latest wave SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants displayed a growth advantage and the increased viral fitness through convergent evolution of functional hotspots that work synchronously to balance fitness requirements for productive receptor binding and efficient immune evasion. In this study, we combined AlphaFold2-based structural modeling approaches with all-atom MD simulations and mutational profiling of binding energetics and stability for prediction and comprehensive analysis of the structure, dynamics, and binding of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2.86 spike variant with ACE2 host receptor and distinct classes of antibodies. We adapted several AlphaFold2 approaches to predict both structure and conformational ensembles of the Omicron BA.2.86 spike protein in the complex with the host receptor. The results showed that AlphaFold2-predicted conformational ensemble of the BA.2.86 spike protein complex can accurately capture the main dynamics signatures obtained from microscond molecular dynamics simulations. The ensemble-based dynamic mutational scanning of the receptor binding domain residues in the BA.2 and BA.2.86 spike complexes with ACE2 dissected the role of the BA.2 and BA.2.86 backgrounds in modulating binding free energy changes revealing a group of conserved hydrophobic hotspots and critical variant-specific contributions of the BA.2.86 mutational sites R403K, F486P and R493Q. To examine immune evasion properties of BA.2.86 in atomistic detail, we performed large scale structure-based mutational profiling of the S protein binding interfaces with distinct classes of antibodies that displayed significantly reduced neutralization against BA.2.86 variant. The results quantified specific function of the BA.2.86 mutations to ensure broad resistance against different classes of RBD antibodies. This study revealed the molecular basis of compensatory functional effects of the binding hotspots, showing that BA.2.86 lineage may have primarily evolved to improve immune escape while modulating binding affinity with ACE2 through cooperative effect of R403K, F486P and R493Q mutations. The study supports a hypothesis that the impact of the increased ACE2 binding affinity on viral fitness is more universal and is mediated through cross-talk between convergent mutational hotspots, while the effect of immune evasion could be more variant-dependent.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.18.567697v1" target="_blank">Accurate Characterization of Conformational Ensembles and Binding Mechanisms of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 and BA.2.86 Spike Protein with the Host Receptor and Distinct Classes of Antibodies Using AlphaFold2-Augmented Integrative Computational Modeling</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Microplastics dysregulate innate immunity in the SARS-CoV-2 infected lung</strong> -
<div>
Global microplastic (MP) pollution is now well recognized, with humans and animals consuming and inhaling MPs on a daily basis. Herein we described the effects of azide-free, 1 um polystyrene MP beads co-delivered into lungs with a SARS-CoV-2 omicron BA.5 inoculum using a mouse model of mild COVID-19. Lung virus titres and viral RNA levels were not significantly affected by MPs, with overt clinical or histopathological changes also not observed. However, RNA-Seq of infected lungs revealed that MP exposure suppressed innate immune responses at 2 days post infection (dpi) and increased pro-inflammatory signatures at 6 dpi. The cytokine profile at 6 dpi showed a significant correlation with the cytokine release syndrome signature seen in some severe COVID-19 patients. This study adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that MPs can dysregulate inflammation in specific disease settings.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.19.567745v1" target="_blank">Microplastics dysregulate innate immunity in the SARS-CoV-2 infected lung</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Distinct evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB and BA.2.86 lineages combining increased fitness and antibody evasion</strong> -
<div>
The unceasing SARS-CoV-2 circulation in an immune population led to the continuous emergence of new viral sublineages. Here, we isolated and characterized XBF, XBB.1, XBB.1.5, XBB.1.9.1, XBB.1.16.1, EG.5.1.1, EG.5.1.3 and BA.2.86.1 variants, that represented &gt;80% of circulating strains as of November 2023. These XBB subvariants carry few recurrent mutations in the spike, whereas BA.2.86.1 harbors &gt;30 additional mutations. We compared their fitness in culture, sensitivity to antivirals and sera from vaccinees. These variants replicated in IGROV-1 and no longer in VeroE6 cells. They were not markedly fusogenic. BA.2.86.1 displayed the strongest binding to ACE2. They potently infected nasal epithelial cells, with EG.5.1.3 exhibiting the highest fitness. Nirmatrelvir, Remdesivir and Molnupiravir remained active, whereas Sotrovimab lost efficacy against BA.2.86.1. Neutralizing antibody (NAb) responses from vaccinees and BA.1/BA.2-infected individuals were 7 to 21-fold lower compared to BA.1, without major differences between variants. A breakthrough XBB infection enhanced NAb responses, particularly against XBB variants. Thus, while distinct, the evolution trajectory of these variants combines increased fitness and antibody evasion.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.20.567873v1" target="_blank">Distinct evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB and BA.2.86 lineages combining increased fitness and antibody evasion</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comprehensive contact tracing during an outbreak of alpha-variant SARS-CoV-2 in a rural community reveals less viral genomic diversity and higher household secondary attack rates than expected</strong> -
<div>
Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 genomes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a wealth of data on viral evolution across populations, but only a few studies have so far explored SARS-CoV-2 evolution across transmission networks of tens to hundreds of persons. Here, we couple data from SARS-CoV-2 sequencing with contact tracing data from an outbreak with a single origin in a rural Norwegian community where samples from all exposed persons were collected prospectively. A total of 134 nasopharyngeal samples were positive by PCR. Among the 121 retrievable genomes, 81 were identical to the genome of the introductor, thus demonstrating that genomics offers limited additional value to manual contact-tracing. In the cases where mutations were discovered, five small genetic clusters were identified. We observed a household secondary attack rate of 67%, with 92% of household members infected among households with secondary transmission, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 introduction into large families are likely to affect all household members.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.17.567570v1" target="_blank">Comprehensive contact tracing during an outbreak of alpha-variant SARS-CoV-2 in a rural community reveals less viral genomic diversity and higher household secondary attack rates than expected</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Dysregulated Platelet Function in Patients with Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
Objective: Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC, also referred as Long-COVID) sometimes follows COVID-19, a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. While SARS-CoV-2 is well-known to promote a prothrombotic state, and especially to activate platelets acutely, less is known about the thrombosis risk in PASC. Approach and Results: PASC patients and age-matched healthy controls were enrolled in the study on average 15 months after documented SARS-CoV-2 infection. Platelet activation was evaluated by Light Transmission Aggregometry (LTA) and flow cytometry in response to platelet surface receptor agonists. Thrombosis in platelet-deplete plasma was evaluated by Factor Xa activity. A microfluidics system assessed thrombosis in whole blood under venous shear stress conditions. While only a mild increase in platelet aggregation in PASC patients through the thromboxane receptor was observed platelet activation through the glycoprotein VI (GPVI) receptor was markedly decreased in PASC patients compared to age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Thrombosis under venous shear conditions as well as Factor Xa activity were reduced in PASC patients. Plasma from PASC patients was an extremely potent activator of washed, healthy platelets - a phenomenon not observed using age- and sex-matched platelets from healthy individuals. Conclusions: PASC patients demonstrate dysregulated responses in platelets and coagulation in plasma, likely caused by a circulating plasma-derived molecule that promotes thrombosis. A hitherto undescribed protective response appears to exists in PASC patients to counterbalance ongoing thrombosis that is common to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.18.545507v2" target="_blank">Dysregulated Platelet Function in Patients with Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>War fatalities in Russia in 2022 estimated via excess male mortality</strong> -
<div>
In this paper, we used excess deaths among young males to estimate the number of Russian fatalities in the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022. We based our calculations on the official mortality statistics in 2022, split by age and gender. To separate excess deaths due to war from those due to Covid-19, we relied on the ratio of male to female deaths, and extrapolated the 2015–19 trend to get the baseline value for 2022. We found noticeable excess male mortality in all age groups between 15 and 49, with 20,600±1,000 excess male deaths overall. This estimate was obtained after excluding all HIV deaths that showed complex dynamics unrelated to the war. Depending on the modelling assumptions, the estimated number of deaths varied from about 15,700 to about 23,600, with 20,600 corresponding to our preferred model. Our estimate should be treated as a lower bound on the true number of deaths as the data do not include either the Russian military personnel missing in action and not officially declared dead, or the deaths registered in the Ukrainian territories annexed in 2022.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/xcrme/" target="_blank">War fatalities in Russia in 2022 estimated via excess male mortality</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Development of a fast feature extraction method for SARS-CoV-2 spike sequences using amino acid physicochemical properties</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 continues to spread today, leading to an accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 virus mutations in databases, and large amounts of genomic datasets are currently available. However, due to these large datasets, utilizing this amount of sequence data without random sampling is challenging. Major difficulties for downstream analyses include the increase in the dimension size along with the conversion of sequences into numerical values when using conventional amino acid representation methods, such as one-hot encoding and k-mer-based approaches that directly reflect sequences. Moreover, these sequences are deficient in physicochemical characteristics, such as structural information and hydrophilicity; hence, they fail to accurately represent the inherent function of the given sequences. In this study, we utilized the physicochemical properties of amino acids to develop a rapid and efficient approach for extracting feature parameters that are suitable for downstream processes of machine learning, such as clustering. A fixed-length feature vector representation of a spike sequence with reduced dimensionality was obtained by converting amino acid residues into physicochemical parameters. Next, t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), a method for dimensionality reduction and visualization of high-dimensional data, was performed, followed by density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN). The results show that by using the physicochemical properties of amino acids rather than conventional methods that directly represent sequences into numerical values, SARS-CoV-2 spike sequences can be clustered with sufficient accuracy and a shorter runtime. Interestingly, the clusters obtained by using amino acid properties include subclusters that are distinct from those produced utilizing the method for the direct representation of amino acid sequences. A more detailed analysis indicated that the contributing parameters of this novel cluster identified exclusively when utilizing the physicochemical properties of amino acids significantly differ from one another. This suggests that representing amino acid sequences by physicochemical properties might enable the identification of clusters with enhanced sensitivity compared to conventional methods.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.18.567675v1" target="_blank">Development of a fast feature extraction method for SARS-CoV-2 spike sequences using amino acid physicochemical properties</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Structural basis for polyuridine tract recognition by SARS-CoV-2 Nsp15</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 non-structural protein 15 (Nsp15) is critical for productive viral replication and evasion of host immunity. The uridine-specific endoribonuclease activity of Nsp15 mediates the cleavage of the polyuridine [poly(U)] tract of the negative-strand coronavirus genome to minimize the formation of dsRNA that activates the host antiviral interferon signaling. However, the molecular basis for the recognition and cleavage of the poly(U) tract by Nsp15 is incompletely understood. Here, we present cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) structures of SARS-CoV-2 Nsp15 bound to viral replication intermediate dsRNA containing poly(U) tract at 2.7-3.3 [A] resolution. The structures reveal one copy of dsRNA binds to the sidewall of an Nsp15 homohexamer, spanning three subunits in two distinct binding states. The target uracil is dislodged from the base-pairing of the dsRNA by amino acid residues W332 and M330 of Nsp15, and the dislodged base is entrapped at the endonuclease active site center. Up to 20 A/U base pairs are anchored on the Nsp15 hexamer, which explains the basis for a substantially shortened poly(U) sequence in the negative strand coronavirus genome compared to the long poly(A) tail in its positive strand. Our results provide mechanistic insights into the unique immune evasion strategy employed by coronavirus Nsp15.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.17.567629v1" target="_blank">Structural basis for polyuridine tract recognition by SARS-CoV-2 Nsp15</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Tropism of AAV.CPP.16 in the respiratory tract and its application for a CRISPR-based gene therapy against SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
Efficient gene delivery vectors are essential for developing gene therapies for respiratory diseases. Here, we report that AAV.CPP.16, a novel AAV9-derived adeno-associated virus vector, can efficiently transduce airway epithelium systems and lung parenchyma cells in both mice and non-human primates after intranasal administration. AAV.CPP.16 outperforms AAV6 and AAV9, two wild-type AAVs with demonstrated tropism to respiratory tract tissues, and can target major cell types in the respiratory tract and the lung. We also report an all-in-one, CRISPR-Cas13d-based AAV gene therapy vector that targets the highly conserved RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (Rdrp) gene in SARS-CoV-2, and show the potential of such gene therapy against a broad range of circulating and emergent SARS-CoV-2 variants. Thus, AAV.CPP.16 could be a useful gene delivery vector for treating genetic respiratory diseases and airborne infections including for developing a potential prophilaxis to SARS-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.17.567583v1" target="_blank">Tropism of AAV.CPP.16 in the respiratory tract and its application for a CRISPR-based gene therapy against SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Preclinical Characterization of the Omicron XBB.1.5-Adapted BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> -
<div>
As SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, increasing in its potential for greater transmissibility and immune escape, updated vaccines are needed to boost adaptive immunity to protect against COVID-19 caused by circulating strains. Here, we report features of the monovalent Omicron XBB.1.5-adapted BNT162b2 vaccine, which contains the same mRNA backbone as the original BNT162b2 vaccine, modified by the incorporation of XBB.1.5-specific sequence changes in the encoded prefusion-stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S(P2)). Biophysical characterization of Omicron XBB.1.5 S(P2) demonstrated that it maintains a prefusion conformation that adopts a flexible and predominantly open one-RBD-up state, with high affinity binding to the human ACE-2 receptor. When administered as a 4th dose in BNT162b2-experienced mice, the monovalent Omicron XBB.1.5 vaccine elicited substantially higher serum neutralizing titers against pseudotyped viruses of Omicron XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, XBB.1.16.1, XBB.2.3, EG.5.1 and HV.1 sublineages and the phylogenetically distant BA.2.86 lineage than the bivalent Wild Type + Omicron BA.4/5 vaccine. Similar trends were observed against Omicron XBB sublineage pseudoviruses when the vaccine was administered as a 2-dose primary series in naive mice. Strong S-specific Th1 CD4+ and IFN[γ]+ CD8+ T cell responses were also observed. These findings, together with prior experience with variant-adapted vaccine responses in preclinical and clinical studies, suggest that the monovalent Omicron XBB.1.5-adapted BNT162b2 vaccine is anticipated to confer protective immunity against dominant SARS-CoV-2 strains.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.17.567633v1" target="_blank">Preclinical Characterization of the Omicron XBB.1.5-Adapted BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccine</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Lung inflammation is associated with lipid deposition</strong> -
<div>
Lung inflammation, pneumonia, is an acute respiratory disease of varying etiology that has recently drawn much attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as lungs are among the main targets for SARS-CoV-2. Multiple other etiological agents are associated with pneumonias. Here, we describe a newly-recognized pathology, namely abnormal lipid depositions in the lungs of patients who died from COVID-19 as well as from non-COVID-19 pneumonias. Our analysis of both semi-thin and Sudan III-stained lung specimens revealed extracellular and intracellular lipid depositions irrespective of the pneumonia etiology. Most notably, lipid depositions were located within vessels adjacent to inflamed regions, where they apparently interfere with the blood flow. Structurally, the lipid droplets in the inflamed lung tissue were homogeneous and lacked outer membranes as assessed by electron microscopy. Morphometric analysis of lipid droplet deposition area allowed us to distinguish the non-pneumonia control lung specimens from the macroscopically intact area of the pneumonia lung and from the inflamed area of the pneumonia lung. Our measurements revealed a gradient of lipid deposition towards the inflamed region. The pattern of lipid distribution proved universal for all pneumonias. Finally, lipid metabolism in the lung tissue was assessed by the fatty acid analysis and by expression of genes involved in lipid turnover. Chromato-mass spectrometry revealed that unsaturated fatty acid content was elevated at inflammation sites compared to that in control non-inflamed lung tissue from the same individual. The expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism was altered in pneumonia, as shown by qPCR and in silico RNA-seq analysis. Thus, pneumonias of various etiologies are associated with specific lipid abnormalities; therefore, lipid metabolism can be considered to be a target for new therapeutic strategies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.30.522299v2" target="_blank">Lung inflammation is associated with lipid deposition</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Wastewater surveillance pilot at US military installations: a cost model analysis</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the need for pathogen surveillance systems to augment both early warning and outbreak monitoring/control efforts. Wastewater samples provide a rapid and accurate source of environmental surveillance data to complement direct patient sampling. Due to its global presence and critical missions, the US military is a leader in global pandemic preparedness efforts. Clinical testing for COVID-19 on US Air Force (USAF) bases (AFBs) was effective, but costly with respect to direct costs and indirect costs of lost time. To remain operating at peak capacity such bases sought a more passive surveillance option and piloted wastewater surveillance (WWS) at 17 AFBs to demonstrate feasibility, safety, and utility from May 2021 to January 2022. Objective: Here we model the costs of a wastewater program for pathogens of pandemic potential within the specific context of US military installations using assumptions based on the results of the USAF and Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) pilot program. The objective was to determine the cost of deploying WWS to all AFBs, relative to clinical swab testing surveillance regimes. Methods: A simple WWS cost projection model was built based on subject matter expert input and actual costs incurred during a WWS pilot program at USAF AFBs. Several SARS-CoV-2 circulation scenarios were considered and costs of both WWS and clinical swab testing were projected. Break even analysis was conducted to determine how reduction in swab testing could open up space to enable WWS to occur in complement. Results: Our model confirms that wastewater surveillance is complimentary and highly cost-effective when compared to existing alternative forms of biosurveillance. We find that the cost of WWS was between $10.5 - $18.5 million less expensive annually in direct costs as compared to clinical swab testing surveillance. When indirect cost of lost work is incorporated, including assumed lost work required to go obtain a clinical swab test, we estimate that over two thirds of clinical swab testing could be maintained with no additional costs upon implementation of WWS. Conclusions: Our results support adoption of wastewater surveillance across US military installations as part of a more comprehensive and early warning system that will enable adaptive monitoring during disease outbreaks.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.14.23298310v2" target="_blank">Wastewater surveillance pilot at US military installations: a cost model analysis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Protocol for VIVALDI Social Care: Pilot Study to reduce Infections, Outbreaks and Antimicrobial Resistance in Care Homes for Older Adults</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Care home residents are vulnerable to severe outcomes from infections such as COVID-19 and influenza. However, measures to control outbreaks, such as care home closures to visitors and new admissions, have a detrimental impact on their quality of life. Many infections and outbreaks could be prevented but the first step is to measure them reliably. This is challenging in care homes due to the lack of data and research infrastructure. During the pandemic, the VIVALDI study measured COVID-19 infections in residents and staff by partnering with care providers and using routinely collected data. This study aims to establish sentinel surveillance and a research database to enable observational and future interventional studies in care homes. The project has been co-produced with care providers, staff, residents, relatives, and researchers. The study (October 2023 to March 2025) will explore the feasibility of establishing a network of 500-1500 care homes for older adults in England that is underpinned by a linked data platform. No data will be collected from staff. The cohort will be created by regularly extracting resident identifiers from Digital Social Care Records (DSCR), followed by pseudonymisation and linkage to routinely collected datasets. Following extensive consultation, we decided not to seek informed consent from residents for data collection, but they can opt out of the study. Our goal is to be inclusive, and it is challenging to give every resident the opportunity to opt in due to cognitive impairment and the requirement for consultees. The project, and all requests to use the data will be overseen by relatives, residents, staff, and care providers. The study has been provisionally approved by the Health Research Authority Confidentiality Advisory Group and the South-West Frenchay Research Ethics Committee. It is funded by the UK Health Security Agency.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.20.23298504v1" target="_blank">Protocol for VIVALDI Social Care: Pilot Study to reduce Infections, Outbreaks and Antimicrobial Resistance in Care Homes for Older Adults</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>Promoting Engagement and COVID-19 Testing for Health</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: COVID-19 Test Reporting; Behavioral: Personalized Nudges via Text Messaging; Behavioral: Non-personalized Nudges via Text Messaging <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Emory University; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK); Morehouse School of Medicine; Georgia Institute of Technology <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>Development and Qualification of Methods for Analyzing the Mucosal Immune Response to COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Certain Disorders Involving the Immune Mechanism <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Sampling; Biological: PCR (polymerase chain reaction) SARS-CoV-2 <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University Hospital, Tours <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>Mitigating Mental and Social Health Outcomes of COVID-19: A Counseling Approach</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Social Determinants of Health; Mental Health Issue; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Individual counseling; Behavioral: Group counseling; Other: Resources <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Idaho State University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Water-based Activity to Enhance Recovery in Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: WATER+CT; Behavioral: Usual Care <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: VA Office of Research and Development <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 Two Therapeutic Exercise Modalities for Patients With Persistent COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Persistent COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: exercise programe <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Facultat de ciencies de la Salut Universitat Ramon Llull <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>Performance Evaluation of the Lucira COVID-19 &amp; Flu Test</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Influenza <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Lucira COVID-19 &amp; Flu Test <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Lucira Health Inc <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>Cognitive Rehabilitation in Post-COVID-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: CO-OP Procedures; Behavioral: Inactive Control Group <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Missouri-Columbia; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) <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>Robotic Assisted Hand Rehabilitation Outcomes in Adults After COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Robotic Exoskeleton; Post-acute Covid-19 Syndrome; Rehabilitation Outcome; Physical And Rehabilitation Medicine <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Training with a Robotic Hand Exoskeleton <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Valladolid; Centro Hospitalario Padre Benito Menni <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>Safety and Immunogenicity of BNT162b2 Coadministered With SIIV in Adults 18 Through 64 Years of Age</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2 Infection; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: BNT162b2; Other: Placebo; Biological: Seasonal Inactivated Influenza Vaccine <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Pfizer <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 Multicenter, Adaptive, Randomized, doublE-blinded, Placebo-controlled Study in Participants With Long COVID-19: The REVIVE Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID-19 Syndrome; Chronic Fatigue Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Fluvoxamine Maleate 100 MG; Drug: Placebo; Drug: Metformin Extended Release Oral Tablet <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Cardresearch <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>Clinical Evaluation of the Panbio™ COVID-19/Flu A&amp;B Panel</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Influenza A; Influenza B <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: Panbio™ <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Abbott Rapid Dx <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>Influence of Hypoxic, Normobaric and Hypobaric Training on the Immunometabolism of Post-covid-19 Athletes</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Normobaric Hypoxia; Hypoventilation; Normoxia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Repeated sprint <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Faculdade de Motricidade Humana; University of Sao Paulo; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior. <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>Connecting Friends and Health Workers to Boost COVID-19 Vaccination in Latino Communities</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Vaccine <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: REDES; Behavioral: Control <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Johns Hopkins University; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); Rutgers University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Safety and Tolerability of A8G6 COVID-19 Neutralization Antibody Combined With Nasal Spray</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2; Prevention <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: A8G6 SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Antibody combination nasal spray; Other: A8G6 SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Antibody nasal excipient <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effects of Rehabilitation Combined With a Maintenance Program Compared to Rehabilitation Alone in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: Rehabilitation combined to a digital maintenance program; Procedure: Rehabilitation without maintenance program <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Schön Klinik Berchtesgadener Land; Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care (Funding); Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (German pension insurance) (Design); Betriebskrankenkassen Landesverband Bayern (Bavarian health insurance) (Design) <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Synthesis, characterization, biological activity and computation-based efficacy of cobalt(II) complexes of biphenyl-2-ol against SARS-CoV-2 virus</strong> - Cobalt(II) complexes of biphenyl-2-ol of composition, CoCl(2-n)(OC(6)H(4)C(6)H(5)-2)(n)(H(2)O)(4) (where n = 1 or 2), were prepared by reacting cobaltous(II) chloride with equi- and bimolar ratios of sodium salt of biphenyl-2-ol. The structural characterization of the synthesized complexes was accomplished by NMR, FTIR, thermogravimetry (TGA), high resolution mass spectroscopy (HRMS), electronic spectroscopic techniques coupled with density functional theory (DFT). The stability of the complexes…</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>Structure-based discovery of dual pathway inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 entry</strong> - Since 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has evolved rapidly and gained resistance to multiple therapeutics targeting the virus. Development of host-directed antivirals offers broad-spectrum intervention against different variants of concern. Host proteases, TMPRSS2 and CTSL/CTSB cleave the SARS-CoV-2 spike to play a crucial role in the two alternative pathways of viral entry and are characterized as promising pharmacological targets. Here, we identify compounds that show potent inhibition of these proteases 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>Chemical Composition of Rosemary (<em>Rosmarinus officinalis</em> L.) Extract and Its Inhibitory Effects on SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein-ACE2 Interaction and ACE2 Activity and Free Radical Scavenging Capacities</strong> - This study evaluated the chemical composition of rosemary water extract (RWE) and its influence on mechanisms by which the SARS-CoV-2 virus enters into cells as a potential route for reducing the risk of COVID-19 disease. Compounds in RWE were identified using UHPLC-MS/MS. The inhibitory effect of RWE was then evaluated on binding between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S-protein) and ACE2 and separately on ACE2 activity/availability. Additionally, total phenolic content (TPC) and free radical…</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>Minimal impact of IL-17 and IL-12/23 inhibition on SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 antibody response in psoriasis patients</strong> - No abstract</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Remdesivir-Loaded Nanoliposomes Stabilized by Chitosan/Hyaluronic Acid Film with a Potential Application in the Treatment of Coronavirus Infection</strong> - An object of the present study was the development of liposomes loaded with the medicine Veklury^(®) (remdesivir) stabilized by electrostatic adsorption of polysaccharide film formed from chitosans with different physicochemical characteristics and hyaluronic acid. The functionalization of the structures was achieved through the inclusion of an aptamer (oligonucleotide sequence) with specific affinity to the spike protein of the human coronavirus HCoV-OC43. The hydrodynamic size, electrokinetic…</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>Molecular Docking and ADME-TOX Profiling of <em>Moringa oleifera</em> Constituents against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2019) etiological agent, which has a high contagiousness and is to blame for the outbreak of acute viral pneumonia, is the cause of the respiratory disease COVID-19. The use of natural products grew as an alternative treatment for various diseases due to the abundance of organic molecules with pharmacological properties. Many pharmaceutical studies have focused on investigating compounds with therapeutic potential. Therefore, this…</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 infection as a model to study the effect of cinnamaldehyde as adjuvant therapy for viral pneumonia</strong> - CONCLUSION: The obtained results suggest the possible use of cinnamaldehyde as a co-adjuvant preventive treatment for COVID-19 disease together with vaccination, but also as a promising dietary supplement to reduce, more broadly, viral induced inflammation.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An exploratory study of drug concentration and inhibitory effect of cetylpyridinium chloride buccal tablets on SARS-CoV-2 infection among 10 Chinese subjects</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: The comparison between the salivary CPC concentration and EC50/CC50 values from in vitro antiviral experiments suggests that CPC buccal tablets may inhibit SARS-CoV-2 activity, and the inhibition may last for approximately 30 min without cytotoxicity.</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>Drug repurposing screen identifies vidofludimus calcium and pyrazofurin as novel chemical entities for the development of hepatitis E interventions</strong> - Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection can cause severe complications and high mortality, particularly in pregnant women, organ transplant recipients, individuals with pre-existing liver disease and immunosuppressed patients. However, there are still unmet needs for treating chronic HEV infections. Herein, we screened a best-in-class drug repurposing library consisting of 262 drugs/compounds. Upon screening, we identified vidofludimus calcium and pyrazofurin as novel anti-HEV entities. Vidofludimus…</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>Licochalcone A regulates viral IRES activity to inhibit enterovirus replication</strong> - Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), belonging to the genus Enterovirus of the Picornavirus family, is an emerging pathogen that can cause neurological and respiratory diseases in children. However, there is little understanding of the pathogenesis of EV-D68, and no effective vaccine or drug for the prevention or treatment of the diseases caused by this virus is available. Autophagy is a cellular process that targets cytoplasmic proteins or organelles to the lysosomes for degradation. Enteroviruses…</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>AG5 is a potent non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and immune regulator that preserves innate immunity</strong> - An archetypal anti-inflammatory compound against cytokine storm would inhibit it without suppressing the innate immune response. AG5, an anti-inflammatory compound, has been developed as synthetic derivative of andrographolide, which is highly absorbable and presents low toxicity. We found that the mechanism of action of AG5 is through the inhibition of caspase-1. Interestingly, we show with in vitro generated human monocyte derived dendritic cells that AG5 preserves innate immune response. AG5…</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 ORF6 protein targets TRIM25 for proteasomal degradation to diminish K63-linked RIG-I ubiquitination and type-I interferon induction</strong> - Evasion and antagonism of host cellular immunity upon SARS-CoV-2 infection provide replication advantage to the virus and contribute to COVID-19 pathogenesis. We explored the ability of different SARS-CoV-2 proteins to antagonize the host’s innate immune system and found that the ORF6 protein mitigated type-I Interferon (IFN) induction and downstream IFN signaling. Our findings also corroborated previous reports that ORF6 blocks the nuclear import of IRF3 and STAT1 to inhibit IFN induction 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>Highly potent dual-targeting angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and Neuropilin-1 (NRP1) peptides: A promising broad-spectrum therapeutic strategy against SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - The efficacy of approved vaccines has been diminishing due to the increasing advent of SARS-CoV-2 variants with diverse mutations that favor sneak entry. Nonetheless, these variants recognize the conservative host receptors angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and neuropilin-1 (NRP1) for entry, rendering the dual blockade of ACE2 and NRP1 an advantageous pan-inhibition strategy. Here, we identified a highly potent dual-targeting peptide AP-1 using structure-based virtual screening protocol….</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Targeting SARS-CoV-2 entry processes: The promising potential and future of host-targeted small-molecule inhibitors</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has had a huge impact on global health. To respond to rapidly mutating viruses and to prepare for the next pandemic, there is an urgent need to develop small molecule therapies that target critical stages of the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle. Inhibiting the entry process of the virus can effectively control viral infection and play a role in prevention and treatment. Host factors involved in this process, such as ACE2, TMPRSS2, ADAM17, furin, PIKfyve, TPC2,…</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>Lianhua Qingwen protects LPS-induced acute lung injury by promoting M2 macrophage infiltration</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data demonstrate that LHQW reduces the inflammatory response and ameliorates acute lung injury by promoting anti-inflammatory polarization of macrophages.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Supreme Court’s Self-Excusing Ethics Code</strong> - Under the Court’s new rules, the Justices appear not to have made any mistakes. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-supreme-courts-self-excusing-ethics-code">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>All the Newspapers’ Men</strong> - In Martin Baron’s “Collision of Power” and Adam Nagourney’s “The Times,” two well-known journalists turn their investigative power on their institutions—and themselves. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/newspapersmen-martin-baron-adam-nagourney-book-review">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A New Yorker Contributor Detained by Israeli Forces Is Released</strong> - Mosab Abu Toha, an award-winning poet and a father of three, was taken into custody in central Gaza. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/israeli-forces-reportedly-detain-a-new-yorker-contributor">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Free-Market Fundamentalism of Argentina’s Javier Milei</strong> - The President-elect, a right-wing populist with authoritarian instincts, has been compared to Donald Trump, but his radical views on the economy set him apart. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-free-market-fundamentalism-of-argentinas-javier-milei">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>One Family’s Perilous Escape from Gaza City</strong> - When Israel invaded Kamal Al-Mashharawi’s neighborhood, he crowded into a basement with his extended family. “The world is closing in on us,” he wrote on WhatsApp. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/one-familys-perilous-escape-from-gaza-city">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The many, many times Israelis and Palestinians tried to make peace — and failed</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="US President Bill Clinton, gray haired and clean shaven in a dark suit and black and gold tie, stands behind Rabin (white haired in a dark suit) and Arafat&amp;nbsp;(in green fatigues and a black and white keffiyeh) as the two Middle Eastern leaders shake hands." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AvYzDYW7JkCh8zFm2woHU0hp1-U=/188x0:2796x1956/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72891276/GettyImages_178320128.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The signing of the Oslo Accords between then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then-Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat at the White House, on September 13, 1993. | J. David Ake/AFP/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A timeline of the decades-long peace negotiations that came before the Israel-Hamas war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AWF6ng">
Even though <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a> has approved a temporary ceasefire in its unprecedented assault on <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a> following <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a>’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023">October 7 attack</a>, Israeli Prime Minister <a href="https://www.vox.com/23910085/netanyahu-israel-right-hamas-gaza-war-history">Benjamin Netanyahu</a> has made clear that he still believes it is a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/netanyahu-declares-it-is-time-for-war-as-israel-hails-hostage-release#:~:text=Calls%20for%20a%20ceasefire%20meant,is%20a%20time%20for%20war.%E2%80%9D">time for war</a>,” not for peace.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1r1jny">
On Tuesday, he <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/11/21/israel-hamas-hostage-ceasefire-deal-imminent">vowed</a> that the war will continue “until Hamas is destroyed, all the hostages are released and there is nobody in Gaza who can threaten Israel.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NiDOy3">
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/netanyahu-declares-it-is-time-for-war-as-israel-hails-hostage-release#:~:text=Calls%20for%20a%20ceasefire%20meant,is%20a%20time%20for%20war.%E2%80%9D"></a>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cN67HO">
But while US leaders have supported the Israeli war effort, they have also held out hope for an eventual <a href="https://x.com/AkbarSAhmed/status/1724116972160327952?s=20">two-state solution</a> in which Israel and a sovereign <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestine</a> exist side by side: “The only ultimate answer here is a two-state solution that’s real,” US President <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqkR7SXUhGE">Joe Biden said recently</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xx9pL4">
The two-state solution isn’t the only approach to solving the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18079996/israel-palestine-conflict-guide-explainer">Israel-Palestine conflict</a>. But it is the mainstream one; it’s been the international community’s approach for the last several decades. The idea is that US-brokered negotiations can lead to a peace treaty, or a “final status agreement,” which would establish a Palestinian state in Gaza and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080034/west-bank-israel-palestinians">West Bank</a> in exchange for a permanent end to hostilities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wqtvqW">
But in the three decades since this peace process really began — with the historic Oslo Accords in 1993 — the two-state solution has slipped further away. A lack of political will in Israel, Palestine, and the US, as well as disagreement over the precise contours of the deal, have rendered negotiations unsuccessful. Major sticking points include: what the borders of the two states should be (and where Jerusalem falls in that), whether Palestinian refugees who were forced out of what is now Israel will be able to once again live there (also known as the “right of return”), and how to establish security guarantees for both Israelis and Palestinians. Today, all of these issues remain major impediments to peace.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="16WfuL">
Violence perpetrated by Palestinian militants such as Hamas — an organization many countries designate as a terrorist group — as well as by Israeli security forces, has eroded trust on both sides. So, too, has Israel’s expansion of illegal settlements in West Bank territory that the international community sought to set aside for Palestine. The more extreme elements of Israeli and Palestinian society, and their political leaders, have forestalled negotiations at critical moments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z4Jfz0">
Israel and its allies have often laid the blame at the feet of Palestinians for rejecting what they saw as generous offers. “You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe,” former US President Bill Clinton <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/23/israel3">famously told</a> the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat when he refused a peace deal proposed at Camp David in 2000.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a1gD2s">
But Palestinians contend that those offers, no matter how generous by Israeli standards, never went far enough. Israel has always had the military and diplomatic edge in the conflict, with a powerful ally in the US. And Palestinians have been forced to progressively narrow their conception of acceptable peace, let alone a fair peace, especially as Israel treats its territorial expansion as a fait accompli and normalizes relations with Arab countries that had previously fought for the Palestinian cause.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p3hRuq">
“Palestinians wonder whether they are always doomed to accept what they have previously refused just to find that it is no more an offer — if it ever was an offer — again to be faced with new attempts to extort new concessions from them for an undefined future,” writes Palestinian diplomat Afif Safieh in his 2011 book, ​​<em>The Peace Process: From Breakthrough to Breakdown</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VLMe76">
Here is what you need to know about the history of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and why they have repeatedly failed.
</p>
<h3 id="yK1AKB">
1967: UN Resolution 242
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gvwqgV">
In 1967, Israel fought Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23921529/israel-palestine-timeline-gaza-hamas-war-conflict">Six-Day War</a>, a brief but intense conflict over water, land, and Palestine. Israel defeated the three Arab states, capturing Gaza, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, parts of East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="In a blue-tinted black and white photo, Rabin, close to the camera and seen in profile, smokes a cigarette. Gavish, in his fatigues, desert goggles around his military cap, smiles at the camera. Uniformed men move with purpose behind them." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mKPvmkBe3h1v6wQhsPF8RbSEGGI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103556/GettyImages_944228376.jpg"/> <cite>Universal Images Group/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Israeli military leaders confer during the Six Day War. On the left is then-Army Chief of Staff and future Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; on the right is General Yeshayahu Gavish.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kfraSA">
Following the conflict, the UN adopted <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/SCRes242%281967%29.pdf">Resolution 242</a>, which calls on Arab countries to recognize Israel’s right to “live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force,” as well as for Israel to withdraw from “territories occupied” in the conflict — essentially, to revert to its pre-1967 borders, a provision that Israel has <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/05/what-obama-meant-1967-lines-why-irked-netanyahu/350925/">since resisted</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PiW2Ge">
Israel, Egypt, and Jordan all came to accept the resolution, ushering in temporary peace between them. Egypt and Jordan recognized Israel’s existence and ceased direct hostilities with the country, though Israel didn’t uphold its part of the deal, never fully reverting to its pre-1967 borders — a choice that led to the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eEX4rB">
Still, achieving buy-in from Arab nations that were once hostile to Israel was a significant step toward opening formal Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. The resolution was later affirmed in 1973 in UN Resolution 338, which, along with resolution 242, served as the foundation of peace talks in the region for decades to come.
</p>
<h3 id="vruySz">
1978: Camp David Accords
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H9fVEI">
The <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/EG%20IL_780917_Framework%20for%20peace%20in%20the%20MiddleEast%20agreed%20at%20Camp%20David.pdf">Camp David Accords</a> established long-lasting (but cold) peace between Egypt and Israel, and also had a significant impact on the trajectory of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z1yNFY">
The Accords, brokered by then-US President Jimmy Carter, came after a ceasefire in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Egypt and Syria fought Israel, hoping to regain territory lost in previous conflicts. As part of the deal, Egypt and Israel agreed to refrain from use of force to resolve their disputes, and Israel agreed to a path toward returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. (Syria signed a separate disengagement agreement with Israel.)
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="In a black-and-white photo, the three men, all dressed in dark suits, clasp hands while smiling broadly. The flags of their respective nations wave behind them." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ULoUHkF-wv1bMpavIGwfv5QLdnc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103054/AP17270416419820.jpg"/> <cite>Bob Daugherty/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
From left to right, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, US President Jimmy Carter, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin celebrate the Camp David Accords at the White House on March 26, 1979.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hSsJOz">
Israel and Egypt also addressed the fate of Palestinians: They reiterated their commitment to UN Resolutions 242 and 338. Both countries called for Palestinians to participate in future negotiations, “full autonomy” for people in the West Bank and Gaza, a provisional government in those territories supported by Israeli security forces, and negotiations to determine Palestinians’ final status within five years. Palestinians were not formally invited to participate in the talks because the US refused to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella group for Palestinian nationalists, so long as they refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/08/world/arafat-says-plo-accepted-israel.html">renounce terrorism</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PBcIKe">
The Accords are considered a major watershed moment in Middle East peacemaking — earning then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat Nobel Peace Prizes — and provided a blueprint for subsequent negotiations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VDVRGM">
However, while Israel successfully kept the peace with Egypt, it did not abide by its commitments to Palestinians in the Accords. The five-year deadline for beginning to grant Palestinian people autonomy within the West Bank and Gaza came and went, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081118071827/http://fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/israeli-settler-population-1972-2006">Israeli settlements in the occupied territories ballooned</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J90jv3">
Carter writes in his 2006 book <em>Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid </em>that by “remov[ing] Egypt’s considerable strength from the military equation of the Middle East,” Israel “permitted itself renewed freedom to pursue the goals of a fervent and dedicated minority of its citizens to confiscate, settle, and fortify the occupied territories.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wT3PeK">
Historians — including Seth Anziska, author of the 2018 book <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/18/preventing-palestine-review-israel-pyrrhic-victories"><em>Preventing Palestine</em></a> — have also argued that the Accords had the effect of limiting remedies available to the Palestinians by focusing on establishing an ill-defined goal of “full autonomy” rather than sovereignty.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rv8cK4">
Essentially, the Accords successfully kept war from breaking out between Israel and Egypt. But in the view of Carter and others critical of the deal’s limitations, the agreement also removed incentives Israel may have had to pursue peace with the Palestinians, setting the stage for the next few decades of difficulties.
</p>
<h3 id="wEElAS">
1988: Amid the First Intifada, Arafat acknowledges Israel’s right to exist
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GNqF6o">
In 1987, Palestinian frustrations had reached a boiling point following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon to root out the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) presence there, the construction of new Israeli settlements, and increased repression by Israeli security forces in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians staged their <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080066/israel-palestine-intifadas-first-second">First Intifada</a>, Arabic for “shaking off,” engaging in nonviolent mass protests that often turned into violent clashes with Israeli security forces. It was amid this fighting that Hamas rose in prominence, initially committing to a nonviolent strategy alongside the PLO to facilitate peace talks.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="What appear to be a gaggle of teen and pre-teen boys, some with their faces covered by keffiyehs, throw up peace signs on a city street as the white foam falls like snow. One youth waves a Palestinian flag that has a color photo of Yasser Arafat attached to it." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YOxIXt8EUFCO0ewUMKE5X0dl0Js=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103093/GettyImages_154318119.jpg"/> <cite>Sven Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinian protesters gather in January 1988 amid the First Intifada as foam dropped by Israeli troops rains down on them.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hJICtp">
With the intifada unfolding, PLO leader Yasser Arafat, known as the father of Palestinian nationalism, made an announcement that paved the way for direct negotiations with the Israelis.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qNtZfy">
Arafat <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/08/world/arafat-says-plo-accepted-israel.html">said</a> that the PLO, which had previously sought to defeat and replace the state of Israel — often via violent means, like <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-03-29/ty-article/after-egyptair-four-hijackings-that-shook-israel/0000017f-e2c2-d804-ad7f-f3face960000#:~:text=1970%3A%20Nearly%20simultaneous%20hijackings%20of,York%20and%20one%20for%20London.">airplane hijackings</a> and bombings of Jewish civilians across the globe — had ‘’accepted the existence of Israel as a state in the region’’ and ‘’declared its rejection and condemnation of terrorism in all its forms.’’
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uxJtz4">
“We accept two states, the Palestine state and the Jewish state of Israel,” he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6c49wQ">
Though the initial reception from the US and Israel was icy, it was a significant capitulation. The PLO was still widely regarded as a terrorist group, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/specialprojects/breakingtheisraelpalestinestatusquo/timeline">including by the US</a>, following the announcement. But it would begin to take a more active role in determining the future of the Palestinians.
</p>
<h3 id="2PWBKY">
1991: Madrid Conference
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hMU5uB">
In 1991, representatives from the US, Soviet Union, Israel, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, as well as non-PLO Palestinian delegates, convened for the first time in Madrid to hold negotiations to create a new framework for the peace process. The conference was conceived by then-US Secretary of State James Baker to change course from a continued pattern of conflict during the final years of the First Intifada.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kvaliM">
There were still significant disagreements between the US and Israel around what peace should look like, particularly on settlement expansion, and no formal agreements came of the conference.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Men, many of them grey-haired, sit in dark suits around a long rectangular table with red and white flower arrangements. They are packed shoulder to shoulder, and listen with headphones in their ears to Gonzalez, also in a dark suit, speaking at a wooden lectern set atop the table. A posse of dark-suited men sit in a line behind him, also densely packed together. A tapestry that seems to feature robed figures hangs behind them." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/meUWNZ0dWx-Hp0fZO_E8Fi70vXs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103451/GettyImages_142612297.jpg"/> <cite>David Ake/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Spanish Premier Felipe Gonzalez addresses the assembled dignitaries at the Madrid conference on October 30, 1991.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hrbcg8">
But “what Madrid did achieve was significant,” write George Mitchell, former US President Barack Obama’s special envoy for Middle East peace, and Alon Sachar, a Middle East expert and former adviser to the US Ambassador to Israel, in the 2016 book <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Path-to-Peace/George-J-Mitchell/9781501153921"><em>A Path to Peace</em></a><em>. </em>That included bolstering public support for negotiations in Israel, which elected Yitzhak Rabin as prime minister in 1992 on a platform that focused on Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Together, Rabin’s election and the hope generated in Madrid laid the groundwork for the first major breakthrough in decades.
</p>
<h3 id="cOdMJJ">
1993: Oslo
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6tnSqC">
The year 1993 marked a breakthrough that established the modern peace process as we know it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BTu12W">
The PLO and Israel entered secret negotiations — facilitated by Norwegian politicians through a think tank in Oslo — at a moment when both felt backed into a corner. Israel was facing <a href="https://remix.aljazeera.com/aje/PalestineRemix/the-price-of-oslo.html#/14">increasing international pressure</a> to engage in peace talks following its violent clampdowns on Palestinian protesters in the intifada. And the PLO was <a href="https://remix.aljazeera.com/aje/PalestineRemix/the-price-of-oslo.html#/14">weakened</a> after supporting Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein before his defeat by US and international forces in the First Gulf War. The fall of the Soviet Union had also reduced Cold War tensions in the Middle East that had previously <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/pcw/97181.htm#:~:text=The%20Oslo%20Accords%20were%20a,most%20of%20the%20West%20Bank.">made peacemaking difficult</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hSAcoZ">
The secret talks allowed the negotiators to discuss difficult issues without fear of political blowback. After some progress had been made, the Israelis elevated them to official, public negotiations in Oslo. Then-US President Bill Clinton had a limited role in the negotiations, but held a formal signing ceremony for the so-called <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IL%20PS_930913_DeclarationPrinciplesnterimSelf-Government%28Oslo%20Accords%29.pdf">Oslo Accords</a> on the White House lawn in Washington, DC, in 1993, in which Rabin and Arafat famously shook hands.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Arafat, in his military uniform and keffiyeh, stands between the Israeli men and holds up two fingers, looking serious. Rabin, in a black suit and tie, holds a glass of champagne, while Peres seems to have his hands in his pockets. Both men listen intently." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wblmMC4D0NZKNah4CuNqufQC0sU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103498/GettyImages_51675378.jpg"/> <cite>Yaakov Saar/GPO/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
PLO leader Yasser Arafat speaks with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Norway after receiving their Nobel Peace Prizes for the progress made in the Oslo agreement.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ro9Gy1">
The Accords <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IL%20PS_930913_DeclarationPrinciplesnterimSelf-Government%28Oslo%20Accords%29.pdf">allowed Palestinians to self-govern</a> in the West Bank and Gaza and established the Palestinian Authority as the government of those areas. Israel agreed to withdraw its security forces from Gaza and “redeploy” those located in the West Bank in phases. In exchange, the PLO formally recognized the state of Israel and the right of its citizens to live in peace, accepting the language of UN Resolution 242. “To this day Palestinians refer to their acquiescence to 242 as their historic compromise, the moment they accepted partition,” Mitchell and Sachar write.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qZqPMM">
Critically, the PLO failed to limit Israel’s continued military presence in Gaza and the West Bank in key ways. The agreement provided no timeline for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and gave Israelis exclusive jurisdiction over their settlements in the occupied territories. At this time, the settler population there <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081118071827/http://fmep.org/settlement_info/settlement-info-and-tables/stats-data/israeli-settler-population-1972-2006">exceeded 280,000</a> and would increase by almost 70,000 in the following five years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vV7TdJ">
Meanwhile, the Palestinians were left to manage their own affairs, including administering security and public services, relieving Israel of “formal responsibility for the living conditions and welfare of the territories’ rapidly increasing population, still completely dominated by Israeli forces,” Carter writes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vnXiNq">
The Accords also established a five-year interim period in which the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20000816222849/http://www.merip.org/pins/pin1.html">thornier issues </a>of the conflict were meant to be resolved once and for all: the fate of a Palestinian state and its borders, whether Palestinian refugees would be able to return to Israel or the Palestinian territories or be compensated, what would happen to Israeli settlers and Jerusalem, and water usage. But that would never come to be.
</p>
<h3 id="VldCfs">
1995: Oslo II
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kcF8Fm">
Oslo II built on the momentum of the first Oslo agreement, which was received positively by both Palestinians and Israelis. In September 1995, Rabin and Arafat <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Israel/The-Oslo-Accords">convened</a> to sign a second agreement in DC that divided the West Bank into three zones, labeled Areas A, B, and C, keeping Gaza continuous. The hope was that, eventually, the Palestinian state would be formed in these areas.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qtxd2n">
The newly created Palestinian Authority (PA) was given full control over Area A, which encompassed the Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus, and Bethlehem. In Area B, which spans a dense zone around those Area A cities, the Palestinian Authority was to have civil jurisdiction in partnership with Israel, which would administer security. Area C, which represented most of the West Bank (and encompassed all of the settlements that Israel had built since it captured the territory in 1967) was to be administered entirely by Israel. Israel was still permitted to <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/oslo-accords#section_5">collect taxes</a> from the many Palestinians living anywhere in the West Bank and Gaza if they worked in Israel, which it would then distribute to the PA. The Israelis had agreed to <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo">withdraw from most of Gaza</a> ahead of Oslo II.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4WDtPz">
Rabin also agreed that Israel would withdraw from Areas A and B within three months of the signing of the agreement, and would negotiate further withdrawals in the five-year interim period established in the first Oslo agreement.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="At night, and illuminated by the camera’s flash, a large group of young Palestinian men dressed in colorful ’90s clothes pull down a chain link fence. Many smile and laugh; there seems to be a festive atmosphere." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xnMHHa6SBI8YU35B8SDtVFgJbYY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103518/GettyImages_1251962105.jpg"/> <cite>Yoav Lemmer/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinians tear down an Israeli fence in Hebron, in the West Bank, following the new land arrangement set by Oslo II.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jymvyp">
Radicals on both sides sought to prevent both Oslo I and II’s implementation. Rabin, who had become the face of the peace movement in Israel, was assassinated by a Jewish extremist who opposed the Accords just months later. A period of heightened attacks by Hamas followed. Public support for the peace process eroded, leading to Netanyahu’s election as prime minister in 1996. He opposed the Oslo Accords, arguing they only encouraged attacks like those Hamas was launching at the time, and that Israel needed to take a hard line against the Palestinians. He also distrusted the PLO’s Arafat, a feeling that was mutual.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6dxVOa">
Netanyahu’s first government wasn’t as far right as his latest one, but decisions he made in the years to come would make negotiations increasingly difficult.
</p>
<h3 id="OzoIJH">
2000: Camp David and the Clinton parameters
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KjYwGq">
Following Rabin’s assassination and Netanyahu’s election, the Accords were threatened, and Clinton tried to salvage the negotiations by inviting Arafat and Netanyahu to Maryland’s Wye River plantation in 1998. There, the leaders agreed to additional Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank as well as Palestinians taking measures to prevent violence against Israel — but both sides accused each other of failing to properly implement the agreement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KCeQnj">
That contributed to a <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo">deteriorating political situation</a> in Israel, where Netanyahu was facing criticism from the left for failing to make enough progress on negotiations and from the right for making what they saw as unreasonable territorial concessions. Netanyahu was subsequently voted out in 1999, with Ehud Barak taking his place as prime minister and promising an agreement with the Palestinians within 15 months.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pgiWex">
At Barak’s urging, Clinton held another summit at Camp David in July 2000, where the leaders failed to come to an agreement on borders, Jerusalem, and Palestinian refugees’ “<a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-210170/">right of return</a>.” Why they failed is a subject of disagreement: Clinton and other pro-Israel voices have blamed Arafat, arguing that he was unwilling to make peace, while others say the negotiations were <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/eastern-mediterranean/israelpalestine/behind-camp-david-myth">designed to fail</a> because they didn’t meet the “minimum requirements of any Palestinian leader,” as Robert Malley, one of the US negotiators, argued several years later. It was nevertheless a blow to Barak, who would not survive long as prime minister.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Clinton, white-haired and clean shaven, in a loose-fitting blue dress shirt and dark slacks, smiles as he watches Arafat, dressed in his military uniform and keffiyeh, shake hard with Barak, dressed in a black dress shirt and black slacks. Their aides mill about behind them and the whole group is surrounded by trees fulll of green leaves." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/udOpDhPyLi8IqSSx4fTpOYEKwas=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103120/GettyImages_51966855.jpg"/> <cite>Ralph Alswang/AFP/ Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
US President Bill Clinton watches Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak greet each other at Camp David in July 2000.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b6wGKf">
The failures of Camp David led Clinton to undertake a last ditch effort to salvage negotiations before he left office. At the outset of a Second Intifada, which would prove more bloody than the last, Clinton proposed his own <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020902181401/http://www.peacelobby.org/clinton_parameters.htm">parameters for peace</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xIPj4e">
In Clinton’s plan, 80 percent of Israeli settlers would remain in the West Bank, covering about 10 percent of the occupied land. Israel would have exclusive access to the utilities and certain roads that serviced them and would be allowed to create a security perimeter around the settlements. Palestinians would get some land adjacent to Gaza in exchange.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j7TC2i">
The rest of the West Bank would go to the new state of Palestine, which would also encompass all of Gaza. The new country would be demilitarized and supported by an international force. Palestinians would control the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, including what is known to Muslims as the al-Aqsa Mosque, and Israelis would control the Western Wall.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gHStmz">
Displaced Palestinians from around the world would have the right to return to the West Bank and Gaza, but not to their former homes in any land owned by Israel. Israel has generally opposed a right of return for Palestinians, which it “views as a tactic to undermine Jewish self-determination,” Mitchell and Sachar write. The return of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced in 1948 would erode Israel’s Jewish demographic majority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QmW4i5">
Israel accepted the framework with reservations that Clinton said were “<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/president-clinton-reflects-on-2000-camp-david-summit">within [his] parameters</a>.” Arafat also accepted the parameters but with reservations that Clinton deemed incongruous with an agreement. Part of the problem for Arafat was that the parameters required too many Palestinian concessions on land for settlers and on right of return, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/01/30/from-clinton-to-obama-u.s.-peace-deals-have-paved-path-to-apartheid-pub-80938">some foreign affairs experts have argued</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X98xYo">
Clinton later wrote in his memoir that Arafat had made an “<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/president-clinton-reflects-on-2000-camp-david-summit">error of historic proportions</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Slyv9e">
Carter saw Arafat’s decision differently, writing that “there was no possibility that any Palestinian leader could accept such terms and survive, but official statements from Washington and Jerusalem were successful in placing the entire onus for the failure on Yasser Arafat.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BZqyHc">
This was the closest that the Israelis and Palestinians have come in recent years to achieving a peace agreement.
</p>
<h3 id="Jp7jMU">
2002-2003: Various frameworks for peace are developed
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gbYp9s">
The Second Intifada, which ended with a ceasefire in 2003 following significant loss of life, made official peace overtures difficult. But several initiatives that were not orchestrated by Israeli or Palestinian government representatives were nevertheless pursued during this period.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xWOeUV">
That included the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative proposed by the Saudi Crown Prince, which proposed Arab nations’ recognition of Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from the occupied territories, among other elements of a peace plan. It was embraced by many Arab countries and Palestinian leaders, but dismissed by the new Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government as a “<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1898736.stm">nonstarter</a>” just as it was launching a major invasion of the West Bank in response to the Second Intifada. There was also the 2003 Geneva Initiative, spearheaded by former Israeli and Palestinian officials, which aimed to provide a comprehensive plan for implementation of a two-state solution based on the framework discussed in the Clinton Parameters and the Arab Peace Initiative. It was also rejected by Sharon.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="The woman holding the rifle smiles, its muzzle pointed at the paper mache face of Sharon, who is dressed in a black jacket featuring painted-on blue stars of David and red blood. A crowd parties behind her, many holding Palestinian flags." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/G19bM1bhzckHvlJ7ZrGDcYntBlg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103537/GettyImages_1252330434.jpg"/> <cite>Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
In the West Bank city of Nablus, a Palestinian woman points a rifle at an effigy of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon amid celebrations marking the first anniversary of the start of the Second Intifada.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YWKPHS">
The US, <a href="https://www.vox.com/russia">Russia</a>, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/european-union">European Union</a>, and the United Nations — together, the Quartet — also announced a roadmap for peace in 2003 that described progressive steps toward a two-state solution over the course of three years, with political, security, economic, humanitarian, and institution-building benchmarks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EXGCII">
The roadmap was grounded in then-US President George W. Bush’s belief that Palestinian militant violence was a primary obstacle to peace. He and the international community therefore demanded that Arafat step aside in favor of new Palestinian leadership to continue negotiations. At the time, there were still <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/casualties-in-suicide-and-other-bombing-attacks-in-israel-since-the-declaration-of-principles">significant numbers of suicide bombings</a> on Israeli and Jewish targets committed by Palestinian militants. Arafat agreed to step aside; the more moderate Mahmoud Abbas replaced him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Tcjkg">
The Palestinians accepted the roadmap — despite the fact that Bush had <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/01/30/from-clinton-to-obama-u.s.-peace-deals-have-paved-path-to-apartheid-pub-80938">made assurances </a>to the Israelis that they would not be expected to totally withdraw from the occupied territories and that Palestinians would not have right of return to Israel. But the Israeli government, led by Sharon, demanded prerequisites that ultimately doomed the deal. Those included dismantling all Palestinian militant groups, precluding any reference to UN Resolution 242, and barring discussion of Israeli settlements.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="On6nRw">
“The practical result of all this is that the Roadmap for Peace had become moot,” Carter writes.
</p>
<h3 id="M2qEpt">
2005: Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and some settlements in the West Bank
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wzQnGy">
Despite previously advocating for expansionist policies in the occupied territories, Sharon announced <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-gaza-disengagement-insight/shadow-of-israels-pullout-from-gaza-hangs-heavy-10-years-on-idUSKCN0QF1QQ20150810">an Israeli “disengagement plan” for Gaza</a> in 2005 that involved the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlements and military forces. However, Israel maintained control of the Gazan airspace and cooperated with Egypt in administering its border with Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ulviIP">
Approximately 8,500 Israeli settlers — some of whom had lived there for decades and resisted the plan — were removed from their homes, and some were compensated. Israel ceded control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, led by Abbas, who was elected its president that year. Israel also vacated four Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
</p>
<div>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Four officers carry a young man with glasses, dark hair, and a yarmulke between them, each holding one of his limbs, transporting him down a dusty road. He wears an expression that appears angry and defiant." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Xhx6GttpROJzZMydo13WAWORNkM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103237/GettyImages_53394983.jpg"/> <cite>Shaul Schwarz/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Israeli police officers detain a protester trying to stop the closure of the Neve Dekalim settlement in Gaza.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5EAOlR">
The move was surprising from Sharon, who had for years pursued a dream of a “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2014/1/11/the-legacy-of-ariel-the-bulldozer-sharon">Greater Israel</a>,” understood by many Israelis as their biblical lands that encompass the Palestinian territories. It earned him a reputation as a peacemaker who was seeking to deescalate the situation. But as Dartmouth professor Bernard Avishai <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ariel-sharons-dark-greatness">later argued in the New Yorker</a>, the decision was “not meant to precede a negotiated settlement of any kind but to obviate the need for one.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2gMYPg">
Sharon wanted to “cut Israel’s losses” in Gaza, Avishai argues, while pursuing his long-term goals of annexing Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and all major Israeli settlements in the West Bank, pushing the Palestinians well beyond Israel’s 1967 borders and behind the illegal <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5410823">“separation barrier”</a> he had built. Sharon, however, suffered from a stroke soon after that would leave him incapable of fully carrying out that vision.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wcjgmM">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a> won a majority in the PA in the 2006 elections following the withdrawal. The US refused to recognize their new government and pressured Abbas’s government to overturn the results, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/04/gaza200804">helping spark a brief civil war</a> that culminated in the group taking control of Gaza while the PA, led by politicians aligned with Abbas, continued to govern in the West Bank.
</p>
<h3 id="HgghSA">
2008: Olmert’s peace offer
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k1Ft6g">
After the schism in the Palestinian government, Ehud Olmert, who became Israel’s prime minister after Sharon suffered from a stroke, decided to reopen peace talks with the PA in Annapolis, Maryland, for the first time since 2000.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YkhLKe">
Hamas supported the talks and was prepared to reverse its policy of rejecting Israel if an agreement that the Palestinian people would approve of could be finalized.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uNwRNY">
Olmert presented a proposal to Abbas that included <a href="https://www.shaularieli.com/en/maps/negotiations/">significant territorial concessions</a>, though the exact contours of the proposal are vague and were never fully disclosed. Reportedly, Olmert <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-admits-he-rejected-2008-peace-offer-from-olmert/">offered</a> Palestinians 5.8 percent of Israeli land, consisting of lightly populated farmland, in exchange for 6.3 percent of the West Bank, encompassing major Israeli settlements. On other issues, however, there appeared to still be significant gaps between the Israeli and Palestinian positions on refugees, Jerusalem, and an Israeli withdrawal.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Sarkozy, in the center, grins at Abbas while holding both men’s hands; Abbas smiles, his lips pressed together, while Olmert gives a broad smile. All three men wear blue suits; Sarkozy and Olmert blue ties; Abbas, a purple tie. They stand in a courtyard, stone buildings and green trees behind them." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tQ1W8d3vg10Qb1PH8pMauiHvdGo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103288/GettyImages_1635287438.jpg"/> <cite>Gerard Cerles/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
French President Nicolas Sarkozy poses with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in France in 2008.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xgih20">
Abbas <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-admits-he-rejected-2008-peace-offer-from-olmert/">did not accept the proposal</a>, later saying he wasn’t provided enough detail, though Olmert speculates that Abbas was “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-never-said-no-to-2008-peace-deal-says-former-pm-olmert/">entirely for it</a>” and believes Abbas likely regrets that he did not sign the deal. In that respect, Abbas’s rejection of the offer is sometimes compared to Arafat’s reaction to the Clinton Parameters: It was “the best an Israeli prime minister had ever offered to a Palestinian leader” in terms of territory, Mitchell and Sachar write. But Abbas later stated that he believed the offer did not meet Palestinian aspirations for an independent and viable state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y2IRRQ">
Some reports suggest that Abbas was also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL28932252">concerned</a> about the political situation in Israel at the time, as Olmert had announced his intention to resign over corruption allegations. Olmert later served a prison sentence for accepting bribes and committing obstruction of justice. Netanyahu succeeded him and rejected the talks as dangerous for Israel, raising questions as to whether he would have honored any agreement signed.
</p>
<h3 id="2tL0pw">
2014: Negotiations led by John Kerry collapse
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hcVu2O">
Obama’s presidency began in 2009 with the ending of a Gaza war, known as Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, and he appointed George Mitchell, co-author of the 2016 book <em>A Path to Peace</em>, to shepherd peace talks. But the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/inside-barack-obama-benjamin-netanyahus-strained-relationship/story?id=44414492">Israeli government was skeptical of Obama</a>, and the heft Mitchell brought as a former negotiator with Northern Ireland did not directly translate to Israel and Palestine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DNfO8H">
It quickly became clear Obama’s peace overtures weren’t working. Senior US officials had begun warning that because of the pace of Israel’s settlement expansion, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/27/israel-palestinian-territories">horizon of the two-state outcome was approaching</a>, and human rights organizations were increasingly calling the <a href="https://www.vox.com/23924319/israel-palestine-apartheid-meaning-history-debate">situation in the West Bank apartheid</a>. US Secretary of State John Kerry put his hat in the ring, setting a deadline of mid-2014 to reach a comprehensive agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gqf50n">
Kerry started with a series of confidence-building measures: Israel agreed to progressively release Palestinian prisoners in four parts while Palestinians agreed to halt the process of applying for membership as a country in international bodies. However, when Israel refused to release the fourth group of prisoners and continued to expand its settlements, Abbas reacted by applying for Palestine to be recognized by 15 UN and other international bodies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IzlKYn">
Both sides also faced opposition within their own camps. Hamas rejected the talks, saying that Abbas had no authority to negotiate on behalf of Palestinians since no formal elections had been held in the Palestinian territories since 2005. The group <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/middle-east-unrest/analysis-who-will-heed-hamas-call-third-intifada-n165961">called for a third intifada</a>, though it never materialized.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EEYzmL">
Netanyahu’s Likud party <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/2018/07/israeli-palestinian-peacemaking/kerry-initiative-2013-14">proposed legislation</a> to annex the Jordan Valley in direct contradiction of the US’s proposal during the talks that the area go to Palestinians. Hardliners also <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/2018/07/israeli-palestinian-peacemaking/kerry-initiative-2013-14">threatened to resign</a> from Netanyahu’s government if he agreed to Israel’s 1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KMMK85">
These challenges led to a breakdown in the talks in April 2014.
</p>
<h3 id="9qFfFi">
2020: Trump’s “Deal of the Century”
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DgsFpd">
Former <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">President Donald Trump</a> severely undermined the prospect of Palestinian autonomy, delivering several major wins for Israel that poisoned dialogue with the Palestinians.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8JpcyF">
He <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/25/three-years-on-us-still-views-syrias-golan-as-israeli-territory">recognized</a> the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights, which Syria says should rightfully be its property — a decision later reaffirmed under Biden. He reversed decades of US policy and moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018 — a decision made in recognition of the fact that Israel had made unified Jerusalem its capital, but that ignores Palestinian claims on East Jerusalem that are recognized by the UN. It’s now incredibly politically difficult for any American president to move the embassy back to Tel Aviv.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Under a blue sky, in a field surrounded by razor wire, a young man with a keffiyeh around his neck twirls a slingshot, aiming at troops off camera. His compatriots duck in anticipation of his release." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-ipBxlTRRObSyQsTi7CaFlkxWUc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103439/GettyImages_888363780.jpg"/> <cite>Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinians in Gaza throw stones at Israeli troops to protest US President Donald Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing it at Israel’s capital.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1AjXOh">
The <a href="https://www.vox.com/trump-administration">Trump administration</a> also argued in 2019 that Israeli settlements in the West Bank <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/18/us-israeli-settlements-no-longer-considered-illegal-palestinian-land-mike-pompeo">are not necessarily illegal</a>, lending legitimacy to Israel’s claims on the territories. Israel’s annexations and settlements are widely regarded as illegal under international law, and no other country has recognized them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r9bfgo">
Though Trump unveiled a plan in 2020 that he hailed as the peace “deal of the century,” Palestinians vehemently rejected it. The <a href="https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/the-failed-deals-of-the-century/index.html">proposal</a> would have allowed Israel to absorb the vast majority of settlements in the occupied West Bank, home to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israeli-settler-population-in-west-bank-surpasses-half-a-million">more than half a million Israelis</a>, required that Palestine be fully demilitarized, and rejected Palestinian refugees’ right of return outright. It would have also recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, while also impossibly recognizing Jerusalem as the “undivided capital” of Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kXz1IM">
“We say a thousand nos to the Deal of The Century,” Abbas <a href="https://apnews.com/article/0dcb0179faf41e1870f35838058f4d18?fbclid=IwAR1TxEf_XIDo47P5rSfms1ZlUrGlKQRFsJDi6wajJBEL21F_aX1HbHjBo80">said</a> at the time.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Out in the desert, before a seated crowd, Netanyahu, in a blue suit, white shirt, and red tie stands at a podium, set up in front of a large blue and gold sign featuring the US and Israeli flags. In Hebrew, the sign says Ramat Trump; below in English it reads Trump Heights." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/S1nWYGoMLMj7i7Y7yFu1N9VvnS0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103431/GettyImages_1150209433.jpg"/> <cite>Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ground-breaking ceremony for the new settlement Trump Heights, named in honor of Donald Trump.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RPiiaf">
Trump’s barefaced pro-Israel policies undermined the US’s ability to credibly moderate peace talks going forward. There’s also no one credible representative for Palestinians across the occupied territories with which to negotiate. Polling in recent years but before Hamas’s October 7 attack has shown that the PA, under Abbas’s leadership, is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-jerusalem-israel-mahmoud-abbas-hamas-5a716da863a603ab5f117548ea85379d">broadly unpopular when compared with Hamas</a>, and as Mitchell and Sachar note, has become seen as “behaving like a security subcontractor easing the burden for Israel of the occupation.” That’s partially by the design of Netanyahu, who has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/">propped up Hamas</a> at the expense of a unified Palestinian voice in peace talks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xSabaV">
Even if there were strong representatives, Trump wasn’t interested in pursuing a peace plan. His administration created the Abraham Accords, which were normalization deals between Israel and Arab states like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco (Arab states that had previously not recognized Israel); such deals did not include any progress on the Palestinian issue. Biden took up this policy, and his team put a major emphasis on bringing Saudi Arabia into the normalization fold during his first two and a half years in office. This Trump-Biden approach went against the Arab Peace Initiative and cut Palestinians out of the conversation.
</p>
<h3 id="0y5og6">
2023: The US renews calls for a two-state solution
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RYwEHj">
For years after Trump announced his framework, no meaningful attempts were made to reopen peace negotiations, with US <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">President Joe Biden</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/us/politics/biden-israel-palestinians-peace.html">looking to turn his attention</a> to other parts of the world, including <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a> and Russia, and Israel signing normalization agreements with some of its Arab neighbors.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jagY3g">
But that calculus changed with the onset of the war in Gaza. The Biden administration has offered its nearly unconditional support to Israel, but has raised concerns about Israel’s ability to achieve its stated goal of eliminating Hamas and its methods as civilian casualties skyrocket. It has also called for a renewed commitment to a two-state solution.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A boy and a girl, each perhaps about 3 years old, are seen from behind as they use discarded items, including a can, to dig in the dirt “street” created by a long row of white tents. Laundry hangs on lines strung over their play area." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZG_2Z8Y_Dx3xKpn_3zlYu7NIh9I=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103569/GettyImages_1733694972.jpg"/> <cite>Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Children play at a UN refugee camp in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in October 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gx57Xu">
The Biden administration’s focus on a two-state solution raises the question as to whether the window for that path to peace has passed. Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories has become entrenched, and its settler population in the West Bank has grown to <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/human-rights-council-hears-that-700000-israeli-settlers-are-living-illegally-in-the-occupied-west-bank-meeting-summary-excerpts/">at least 700,000</a>, leading some observers — including Carter — to argue that the reality is that <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/israel-palestine-one-state-solution">Israel and Palestine are a de facto one state</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nbDbfQ">
“A system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights. This is the policy now being followed,” Carter wrote in his 2006 book.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4ANSp7">
As the war continues, Biden has called on Israel to <a href="https://wapo.st/46k9ADd">disentangle itself from Palestine</a>, and has warned the country <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-says-made-clear-israel-occupying-gaza-would-be-mistake-2023-11-16/">against trying to occupy Gaza</a> once it concludes its offensive. But Following Hamas’s October 7 attack and the destruction Israel has wreaked in Gaza, reversing the status quo now seems more difficult than ever.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sazbyw">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HFlXkX">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The Israel-Hamas hostage deal, explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A field of yellow plastic chairs with human eyes." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Qu8L42gBRTsuIE4cFaibVk58nnk=/454x0:7739x5464/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72890570/1780768570.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A Demonstration to bring the Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas back home, organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. | Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Here’s what the reported hostage deal does — and doesn’t — mean for war in Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5EXKub">
On Tuesday, the Israeli government <a href="https://t.co/X49wMctYac">reportedly</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1727127973218967654?s=20">approved a deal</a> <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-21/ty-article-live/hamas-haniyeh-we-are-close-to-truce-netanyahu-freeing-hostages-is-sacred-mission/0000018b-f003-d36e-a3cb-f05725160000?liveBlogItemId=1932142724#1932142724">with Hamas</a> that the state of Qatar brokered and that has been more than a month in the making.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2hRTui">
The final deal has <a href="https://aje.io/1ibqho?update=2504599">yet to be officially announced</a>, but the rough outlines reported in the media throughout Tuesday include several key planks: <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a> would exchange 50 hostages — women and children who are Israeli and dual-national — with <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a> for about 150 <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestinian</a> prisoners currently held in custody, mostly women. If all goes to plan, Israel would commence a four-day ceasefire in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a> and would also stop drone overflights for six hours a day. After those days, the ceasefire could be extended a day with each additional 10 or 20 hostages Hamas releases, though the details are a bit different in each news report. During this period, Israel would not allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, but would allow some 300 trucks of aid in daily, including fuel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A6TFDI">
This is a deal that has essentially been <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/israel-hamas-war-all-civilian-hostages-could-be-freed-from-gaza-in-days-if-fighting-paused-qatari-negotiators-say-12993168">on the table</a> for about a month, and according to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/09/netanyahu-rejected-ceasefire-for-hostages-deal-in-gaza-sources-say?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">Guardian</a>, negotiations were already happening before Israel launched its ground attacks on Gaza. Israel had defined its twin objectives as eliminating Hamas and bringing the hostages back, but experts noted that the former had been the priority until political dynamics led to an increased willingness among Israeli leadership to accept a truce to bring some hostages home. “Public pressure led <a href="https://www.vox.com/23910085/netanyahu-israel-right-hamas-gaza-war-history">Netanyahu</a> to agree to a deal that he refused until now,” wrote journalist Yossi Verter in <a href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politi/2023-11-21/ty-article/.highlight/0000018b-f345-d558-a3eb-f74fcbf70000">Haaretz’s Hebrew edition</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xEOcQB">
The deal itself would be neither a resolution to the war nor to the roots of the conflict between <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18079996/israel-palestine-conflict-guide-explainer">Israel and Palestine</a>. It’s a significant development that’s better than nothing, but it’s not a long-term solution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HdpU36">
<em>[Related: </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18079996/israel-palestine-conflict-guide-explainer"><em>Everything you need to know about Israel-Palestine</em></a><em>]</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YXXIJg">
When Hamas conducted its <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023">October 7 attack</a> and took about 240 Israeli, dual-national, and international people hostage, Israel’s security outlook changed. Its drive to pursue a destructive military campaign in Gaza is based in a desire to “destroy Hamas.” But, as US and Arab officials acknowledged at an international summit over the weekend, <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/11/19/what-happens-to-gaza-after-the-war">there is no plan for Gaza</a> the day after, or even now. Israel’s lack of strategy or goals in its response to the Hamas attack of October 7 has led to a situation where Israel’s ongoing military operations risk becoming a forever war just like America’s over the last two decades.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OwDTh4">
At the same time, Palestinians in Gaza are suffering most. Al Jazeera has reported that there are no functioning hospitals in the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/21/hospitals-in-northern-gaza-completely-out-of-service-health-official">northern part of occupied territory</a>, in large part due to Israeli military incursions and a lack of fuel, and that the remaining 21 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals are “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/20/israel-targets-gazas-indonesian-hospital-here-is-whats-to-know#:~:text=At%20least%2021%20of%20Gaza's,of%20medicines%20and%20essential%20supplies.">completely out of service</a>.” In the lead-up to the announcement of a ceasefire, Israel’s attacks on Gaza continued.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ff0m4G">
If this deal is confirmed, it is a diplomatic achievement, to be sure, but it’s only the beginning of a set of complex negotiations that will be needed to address the ongoing war, the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in Gaza, and the potential for the war to extend to the broader Middle East.
</p>
<h3 id="Hhin4v">
Why is there a deal now?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5bh9mF">
For weeks, Qatar, with US buy-in, has been helping facilitate negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a deal somewhat along the lines of today’s. But the experts I’ve spoken to in recent weeks had reservations. The skepticism was not around the need for the talks or their import, but more about their fragility; these deals are only real once they’re announced, and even then they are tenuous. (At least once over the last week, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/11/18/us-israel-hamas-reach-tentative-deal-pause-conflict-free-dozens-hostages/">media reports</a> indicated a deal was imminent, only for those assertions to be walked back.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6IyJNc">
But this evening, Netanyahu endorsed the deal and pushed his government’s ministers to accept it. “Tonight we stand before a difficult decision, but it is the right decision. All security organizations support it fully,” he told Israeli television. The White House has maintained that the deal was “close” but <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">President Joe Biden</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1727001060902940791">wouldn’t</a> go into further detail. On Tuesday evening, the deal’s announcement appeared imminent, and likely to come from the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-11-21-23/h_0b7def0feff8b42dbf2c77c83cb7ea38">Qatari government</a> if and when all parties agreed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tTcfDe">
A combination of Qatar’s orchestration of the deal, Israeli internal political pressure on Netanyahu, and Hamas’s commitment to getting the release of Palestinian prisoners has contributed to this truce and exchange.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="hxRAi9">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7YzPG2">
Some secrecy is required for such a deal to work, but that can also work to its detriment. Analysts speculate, for example, that Hamas would treat the exchange of Israeli civilians differently than it would Israeli soldiers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3EvEAH">
In the past, Israel has been willing to exchange many Palestinians for its soldiers: Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, was released from an Israeli prison as part of the 2011 deal for the Israeli soldier that released 1,000 Palestinians, for example. “We will not forget our prisoners who we left behind,” Sinwar <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2016/07/israel-turkish-agreement-hamas-refuses-to-return-idf-remains.html#ixzz8Jk7fxDPE">said</a> upon his release.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OnioZJ">
The terms are not likely to be made public in full, and there aren’t really any enforcement mechanisms. “It’s hard to tell when an agreement was violated, who violated it, and then how we can kind of get back to some sort of ceasefire agreement,” Yousef Munayyer, a researcher at the Arab Center in Washington, DC, told me. “This is something that’s played out between Israel and Hamas a lot, going back to 2008. So one of my concerns is like, what are the exact terms of this agreement? And are both sides publicly committing to the same terms?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Aymtgt">
Israelis will have 24 hours to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-21/ty-article-live/hamas-haniyeh-we-are-close-to-truce-netanyahu-freeing-hostages-is-sacred-mission/0000018b-f003-d36e-a3cb-f05725160000?liveBlogItemId=1659232070#1659232070">appeal any deal</a> to the Supreme Court, according to the country’s national security adviser.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A collection of sunglasses." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/T_NePjnLqIpiZBvtHccuu--GM9c=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103692/1802430765.jpg"/> <cite>Christopher Furlong/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Personal items from the Nova music festival site that have been put on display for family and relatives to collect at the Kochav HaYam complex on November 19, 2023, in Caesarea, Israel.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="254jqm">
One reason Israel has agreed to the deal now is the growing advocacy from the families of hostages. “The government is in complete disarray,” Mairav Zonszein, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told me. “In the first few weeks of this, the hostages were like an afterthought, they were not the priority. That’s a huge shift that happened in the last few weeks, where the families after the initial shock started to organize themselves and they basically put it on the agenda.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FheOwJ">
As the families became more and more organized and more agitated, they became more convinced that the Israeli government was avoiding doing the deal. Their slogan became “Deal Now!” These demands didn’t just exert pressure on Netanyahu’s government, but on him individually — calling into question his longtime framing of himself as Mr. Security, at a moment when he’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/10/31/23938474/netanyahu-benjamin-israel-palestine-gaza-hamas-war-remove-prime-minister-hostage-crisis">extremely politically vulnerable</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Blypsg">
Israel has perhaps also made a strategic calculation that its military campaign of 46 days had shown it was serious about its objective of eliminating Hamas. However impossible experts say that it might be to decimate a militant group that’s part of a broader social and political organization, Israel didn’t want to look as though they were compromising from a position of weakness. “For the Israelis, politically, I don’t think they were going to be prepared to accept any sort of exchange on October 8,” Munayyer explained. “They first wanted to do some damage. They first wanted to make it feel like they were imposing a price on Hamas before they made any sort of agreement, even though it was likely that an agreement was inevitable at some point.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W08sMo">
Though Israel still sees negotiations as a defeat or a concession, it’s really the only path to future peace and security for the region.
</p>
<h3 id="y3CWNQ">
The future of Gaza is unclear
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nisEg9">
Whatever the shape of the deal, the question looms of what happens next to Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EfVa3A">
In the short term, more suffering seems clear. Netanyahu has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/11/21/world/israel-hamas-gaza-war-news/netanyahu-says-he-hopes-for-good-news-soon-in-the-hostage-talks?smid=url-share">pledged</a> to continue military operations in Gaza after the five-day pause. “The war has its stages, and the release of the hostages has its stages as well. But we won’t rest until we achieve total victory, and until we bring everyone back,” he said in the televised remarks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HXwORB">
There also is no ceasefire or pause negotiated on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah and Israel have been trading strikes.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iRQwQQzgqz_hHtg9FHefGaRFR7k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25103696/1792710084.jpg"/> <cite>Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A Palestinian woman walks on building rubble following an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oR7o43">
And longer term, what came out of last week’s summit of Middle East leaders in Manama, Bahrain, is that there is no plan, no commitment, no interest. “After two days of talking to officials about the plan for post-war Gaza, the inescapable conclusion is that there is no plan. The shattered enclave will need external help to provide security, reconstruction and basic services,” <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/11/19/what-happens-to-gaza-after-the-war">the Economist</a> reported. “But no one—not Israel, not America, not Arab states or Palestinian leaders—wants to take responsibility for it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eiLqRR">
And it’s easy for Biden’s people to talk about a two-state solution, as we’ve seen in their talking points in recent days. The Israeli military operation will only go so far in achieving its goals. There will need to be a bigger political agreement to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Its core concerns won’t be solved militarily, as the hostage exchange deal makes clear. “You need a political path,” Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, a former Egyptian diplomat now at Dartmouth College, told me recently. “If this is only talk as it has been over the last few decades, then the outcome will be the same”: a frozen peace process that has gone nowhere.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gpgH06">
Like this exchange, such an over-the-horizon conversation about what happens to Gaza and the future of Palestinians is going to require engaging indirectly with Hamas. “The stated goal of destroying Hamas is not achievable,” Khaled Elgindy, a researcher with the Middle East Institute, told me last month. “So how do you even know when you’ve gotten to the day after?” That’s not exactly popular to hear.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vj8fxT">
One thing to watch is whether more Western countries and organizations call for a ceasefire. Though the French president, the United Nations, and leading humanitarian groups have urged one, other countries have rejected these calls. This pause may lead others to join the group. And that may ultimately put pressure on the Biden administration and other leaders. “The idea is that you need to stop the killing in order to figure out how you can build on that, how you can try to figure out alternatives to the fighting,” Zonszein told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4sjJUt">
Right now, Gaza needs aid. The 300 trucks that US humanitarian envoy David Satterfield briefed journalists about today won’t be enough, and Israel has restricted movement within Gaza. The UN <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-45">notes</a> that there still isn’t electricity in Gaza, hospitals face severe shortages, and Israel has not allowed food shipments to enter northern Gaza. According to the latest data from the Gaza <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/nov/21/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-hamas-leader-haniyeh-truce-ceasefire-talks-gaza-qatar-latest-news?CMP=share_btn_tw&amp;page=with%3Ablock-655d05998f082f8c84b7ee01#block-655d05998f082f8c84b7ee01">Ministry of Health</a>, more than 14,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, over half of whom are women and children, and 1.7 million people have been internally displaced. The situation in Gaza is beyond dire, with 53 journalists reportedly killed in Israeli strikes and more than 100 United Nations officials killed. The World Health Organization described al-Shifa Hospital as a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/19/gazas-main-hospital-has-become-a-death-zone-says-who">death zone</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jZ787n">
At the same time, militant groups with links to <a href="https://www.vox.com/iran">Iran</a> are attacking US military installations in Iraq, Syria, and off the coast of Yemen. The risks of this war expanding and drawing the US into a more direct role endure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nbx6eI">
The truce represents a major breakthrough after six weeks of war between Israel and Hamas, but the bigger takeaway is clear: More diplomacy is needed now. Five days of pause isn’t enough.
</p></li>
<li><strong>OpenAI won the battle, but it may have lost the war</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/A0PlypODW6sDPnYZdHEB0T_84V4=/211x0:3400x2392/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72890303/sam_altman_GettyImages_1786606241.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Sam Altman, the poster boy for AI, was ousted from his company OpenAI. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To the victor — Microsoft — go the spoils?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n5x2yb">
The seismic <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/11/20/23969589/openai-sam-altman-fired-microsoft-chatgpt-emmett-shear-silicon-valley">shake-up at OpenAI</a> has come as a shock to almost everyone. But the truth is, the company was probably always going to break. It was built on a fault line so deep and unstable that eventually, stability would give way to chaos.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AochY2">
That fault line was OpenAI’s dual mission: to build <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/4/28/23702644/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-technology">AI</a> that’s smarter than humanity, while also making sure that AI would be safe and beneficial to humanity. There’s an <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23621198/artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-openai-existential-risk-china-ai-safety-technology">inherent tension between those goals</a> because advanced AI could harm humans in a variety of ways, from entrenching <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22916602/ai-bias-fairness-tradeoffs-artificial-intelligence">bias</a> to enabling <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23820331/chatgpt-bioterrorism-bioweapons-artificial-inteligence-openai-terrorism">bioterrorism</a>. Now, the tension in OpenAI’s mandate appears to have helped precipitate the tech industry’s biggest earthquake in decades.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7HYdZr">
On Friday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired by the board over an alleged lack of transparency, and company president Greg Brockman then quit in protest. On Saturday, the pair tried to get the board to reinstate them, but negotiations didn’t go their way. By Sunday, both had accepted jobs with major OpenAI investor <a href="https://www.vox.com/microsoft">Microsoft</a>, where they can continue their work on cutting-edge AI. By Monday, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/95-percent-of-openai-employees-threaten-to-follow-sam-altman-out-the-door/?bxid=5cc9e1a1fc942d13eb20edb3&amp;cndid=56487501&amp;esrc=bounceX&amp;source=Email_0_EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_DAILY_ZZ&amp;utm_brand=wired&amp;utm_campaign=aud-dev&amp;utm_content=WIR_Daily_112023&amp;utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_112023&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=nl&amp;utm_term=P4">95 percent</a> of OpenAI employees were threatening to leave for Microsoft, too. By Tuesday, new <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-21/altman-openai-board-open-talks-to-negotiate-his-possible-return?sref=qYiz2hd0">reports</a> indicated Altman and Brockman were still in talks about a possible return to OpenAI.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mBe3z7">
As chaotic as all this was, the aftershocks for the AI ecosystem might be scarier. A flow of talent from OpenAI to Microsoft means a flow from a company that had been founded on worries about AI safety to a company that can barely be bothered to pay lip service to the concept.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jHs5V0">
Which raises the big question: Did OpenAI’s board make the right decision when it fired Altman? Or, given that companies like Microsoft will readily hoover up OpenAI’s talented employees, where they can then rush ahead on building AI with less concern for safety, did the board actually make the world a more dangerous place?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XLYAh3">
The answer may well be “yes” to both.
</p>
<h3 id="PyYbrm">
OpenAI’s board did exactly what it was supposed to do: Protect the company’s integrity
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SOGmZF">
OpenAI is not a typical tech company. It has a unique structure, and that structure is key to understanding the current shake-up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="51Cl7I">
The company was originally founded as a nonprofit focused on AI research in 2015. But in 2019, hungry for the resources it would need to create AGI — artificial general intelligence, a hypothetical system that can match or exceed human abilities — OpenAI created a for-profit entity. That allowed investors to pour money into OpenAI and potentially earn a return on it, though their profits would be capped, according to the rules of the new setup, and anything above the cap would revert to the nonprofit. Crucially, the nonprofit board retained the power to govern the for-profit entity. That included hiring and firing power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MHqgbu">
The board’s job was to make sure OpenAI stuck to its mission, as expressed in its <a href="https://openai.com/charter">charter</a>, which states clearly, “Our primary fiduciary duty is to humanity.” Not to investors. Not to employees. To humanity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1J6AuY">
The charter also states, “We are concerned about late-stage AGI development becoming a competitive race without time for adequate safety precautions.” But it also paradoxically states, “To be effective at addressing AGI’s impact on society, OpenAI must be on the cutting edge of AI capabilities.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VpdKEG">
This reads a lot like: We’re worried about a race where everyone’s pushing to be at the front of the pack. But we’ve got to be at the front of the pack.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Npssx">
Each of those two impulses found an avatar in one of OpenAI’s leaders. Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI co-founder and top AI researcher, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/11/sam-altman-open-ai-chatgpt-chaos/676050/">reportedly worried</a> that the company was moving too fast, trying to make a splash and a profit at the expense of safety. Since July, he’s co-led OpenAI’s “<a href="https://openai.com/blog/introducing-superalignment">Superalignment</a>” team, which aims to figure out how to manage the risk of superintelligent AI.
</p>
<aside id="NpGpDU">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WzIlYi">
Altman, meanwhile, was moving full steam ahead. Under his tenure, OpenAI did more than any other company to catalyze an arms race dynamic, most notably with the launch of ChatGPT last November. More recently, Altman was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/18/sam-altman-ilya-sutskever-openai/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzAwMjgzNjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzAxNjY1OTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MDAyODM2MDAsImp0aSI6IjcxYjRiM2EwLWM1NTQtNGNkMC1hOGUwLTExOTVlNTczZDZkMyIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS90ZWNobm9sb2d5LzIwMjMvMTEvMTgvc2FtLWFsdG1hbi1pbHlhLXN1dHNrZXZlci1vcGVuYWkvIn0.NIvaVLehlDf-uNZU4Ab6OnOxut31XiALMQvnfEWOKYc">reportedly fundraising</a> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-19/altman-sought-billions-for-ai-chip-venture-before-openai-ouster">with</a> autocratic regimes in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia so he could spin up a new AI chip-making company. That in itself could raise safety concerns, since such regimes might use AI to supercharge digital surveillance or human rights abuses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T7uE62">
We still don’t know exactly why the OpenAI board fired Altman. The board has said that he was “not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.” Sutskever, who <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ilya-sutskever-the-openai-genius-who-told-sam-altman-he-was-fired-26a3381c">spearheaded</a> Altman’s ouster, initially defended the move in similar terms: “This was the board doing its duty to the mission of the nonprofit, which is to make sure that OpenAI builds AGI that benefits all of humanity,” he <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/before-openai-ousted-altman-employees-disagreed-over-ai-safety?irclickid=3k%3AW1IycixyPWt2Stvz7LQ44UkFXQKVlyQpz0I0&amp;irgwc=1&amp;utm_source=affiliate&amp;utm_medium=cpa&amp;utm_campaign=10078-Skimbit%20Ltd.&amp;utm_term=wired.com">said</a>. (Sutskever later flipped sides, however, and <a href="https://twitter.com/ilyasut/status/1726590052392956028">said</a> he regretted participating in the ouster.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5f3hQ0">
“Sam Altman and Greg Brockman seem to be of the view that accelerating AI can achieve the most good for humanity. The plurality of the board, however, appears to be of a different view that the pace of advancement is too fast and could compromise safety and trust,” said Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e5Pbnj">
“I think that the board made the only decision they felt like they could make. They stuck to it even against enormous risk and resistance,” AI expert Gary Marcus told me. “I think they saw something from Sam that they thought they could not live with and stay true to their mission. So in their eyes, they made the right choice. What the fallout of that choice is going to be, we don’t know.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IeeRaf">
“The problem is that the board may have won the battle but lost the war,” Kreps said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7zxAo4">
In other words, if the board fired Altman in part over concerns that his accelerationist impulse was jeopardizing the safety part of OpenAI’s mission, it won the battle, in that it kept the company true to the mission.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FiBjlq">
But unfortunately, it may have lost the larger war — the effort to keep AI safe for humankind — because the coup may push some of OpenAI’s top talent straight into the arms of Microsoft. Which brings us to …
</p>
<h3 id="PKkhpr">
The AI risk landscape is probably worse now than it was before Altman’s dismissal
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BQcgmJ">
The coup has caused an unbelievable amount of chaos. According to futurist Amy Webb, the CEO of the Future Today Institute, OpenAI’s board failed to practice “strategic foresight” — to understand how its sudden dismissal of Altman might cause the company to implode and might reverberate across the larger AI ecosystem. “You have to think through the next-order implications of your actions,” she told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1UmpAP">
Altman, Brockman, and several others have already joined Microsoft. That, in itself, should raise questions about how committed these individuals really are to safety, Marcus said. And it may not bode well for the AI risk landscape.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MC2wLK">
After all, Microsoft <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/13/23638823/microsoft-ethics-society-team-responsible-ai-layoffs">laid off</a> its entire AI ethics team earlier this year. When Microsoft CEO <a href="https://www.vox.com/satya-nadella">Satya Nadella</a> teamed up with OpenAI to embed its GPT-4 into Bing search in February, he taunted competitor <a href="https://www.vox.com/google">Google</a>: “We made them dance.” And upon hiring Altman, Nadella <a href="https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1726516824597258569">tweeted</a> that he was excited for the ousted leader to set “a new pace for innovation.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y96lBL">
Firing Altman means that “OpenAI can wash its hands of any responsibility for any possible future missteps on AI development but can’t stop it from happening, and will now be in a compromised position to influence that development,” Kreps said, because it has damaged trust and potentially pushed its top talent elsewhere. “The developments show just how dynamic and high-stakes the AI space has become, and that it’s impossible either to stop or contain the progress.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eJUULW">
Impossible may be too strong a word. But containing the progress would require changing the underlying incentive structure in the AI industry, and that has proven extremely difficult in the context of hyper-capitalist, hyper-competitive, move-fast-and-break-things Silicon Valley. Being at the cutting edge of tech development is what earns profit and prestige, but that does not lend itself to slowing down, even when <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23621198/artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-openai-existential-risk-china-ai-safety-technology">slowing down is strongly warranted</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qh5Sl9">
Under Altman, OpenAI tried to square this circle by arguing that researchers need to play with advanced AI to figure out how to make advanced AI safe — so accelerating development is actually helpful. That was tenuous logic even a decade ago, but it doesn’t hold up today, when we’ve got AI systems so advanced and so opaque (think: GPT-4) that many experts say we need to figure out how they work before we build more black boxes that are even more unexplainable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tsSsHl">
OpenAI had also run into a more prosaic problem that made it susceptible to taking a profit-seeking path: It needed money. To run large-scale AI experiments these days, you need a ton of computing power — more than <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/11/11/132004/the-computing-power-needed-to-train-ai-is-now-rising-seven-times-faster-than-ever-before/">300,000 times</a> what you needed a decade ago — and that’s incredibly expensive. So to stay at the cutting edge, it had to create a for-profit arm and partner with Microsoft. OpenAI wasn’t alone in this: The <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23794855/anthropic-ai-openai-claude-2">rival company Anthropic</a>, which former OpenAI employees spun up because they wanted to focus more on safety, started out by arguing that we need to change the underlying incentive structure in the industry, but it ended up joining forces with <a href="https://www.vox.com/amazon">Amazon</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yVrhEs">
Given all this, is it even possible to build an AI company that advances the state of the art while also truly prioritizing ethics and safety?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C3jxvH">
“It’s looking like maybe not,” Marcus said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z5mDzP">
Webb was even more direct, saying, “I don’t think it’s possible.” Instead, she emphasized that the government needs to change the underlying incentive structure within which all these companies operate. That would include a mix of carrots and sticks: positive incentives, like tax breaks for companies that prove they’re upholding the highest safety standards; and negative incentives, like regulation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Seo7H5">
In the meantime, the AI industry is a Wild West, where each company plays by its own rules.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tJBK6r">
The OpenAI board seems to prioritize the company’s original mission: looking out for humanity’s interests above all else. The wider AI industry? Not so much. Unfortunately, that’s where OpenAI’s top talent might now find itself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ge7kkB">
</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>Gautam Gambhir back in Kolkata Knight Riders as mentor</strong> - The 42-year-old former India opener Gautam Gambhir, who worked as a mentor with Lucknow Super Giants, said, “I am not an emotional person. But this is different. This is back to where it all started.”</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>Argentina hand Brazil third straight loss after crowd trouble at Maracana</strong> - The match was delayed by half an hour after police clashed with fans in the stands</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>Transgender women have been barred from playing in international women’s cricket</strong> - Transgender women will not be allowed to compete in international women’s cricket</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>Between hope and hubris: Innocence, glumness, despair, gratitude after the World Cup final</strong> - This is sport. Unexpectedness and upsets are what it thrives on.</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>Indian para archers make four more finals, to fight for eight gold medals</strong> - India defeated Kazakhstan 128-118 to set up a title clash against Korea in the men’s W1 doubles</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>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Nalme Nachiyar.</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>I-T department reopens sealed rooms at medical college linked to E.V. Velu in Tiruvannamalai</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>Vote to Congress implies consent for meters to agricultural pump-sets, Harish cautions ryots</strong> - He says KCR did not allow meters as ryots’ interests are paramount to BRS Govt.</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>₹2,000 for political rallies, ₹300 for Bihu: Assam Police permission fees raise eyebrows</strong> - Opposition parties and NGOs slam ‘taxation’ as fundraiser for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024</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>New tourism policy will have measures to end inter-departmental disputes, says Karnataka Minister</strong> - The policy will include measures to resolve disputes between departments and promote tourism</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>Dutch election: Voters choose new leaders in neck-and-neck race</strong> - The head of the centre right, Dilan Yesilgöz, is tipped to become the Netherlands’ first female PM.</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>French Senate to debate anti-gay law apology</strong> - About 10,000 mostly gay men were targeted under laws inherited from Vichy France between 1942 and 1982.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russian actress killed in Ukrainian strike while performing to soldiers</strong> - Around 20 Russian soldiers were killed in the attack in the occupied Donetsk region, Ukraine 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>Italy mafia trial: 200 sentenced to 2,200 years for mob links</strong> - The three-year court case illustrated the mob’s broad influence over society in southern Italy.</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>Jamala: Ukrainian Eurovision winner added to Russia’s wanted list</strong> - Jamala, the song competition’s 2016 winner, is critical of the Kremlin and its invasion of Ukraine.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>USB worm unleashed by Russian state hackers spreads worldwide</strong> - LitterDrifter’s means of self-propagation are simple. So why is it spreading so widely? - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985993">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Binance slapped with $4B fine, accepts plea deal forcing CEO to resign</strong> - Binance CEO popularly known as CZ names successor in emotional X post. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985992">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ultrawide monitors remind us there’s still much to learn about OLED burn-in</strong> - Can playing 16:9 content on a 21:9 screen impact burn-in risk? Apparently. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985846">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>After driving the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, I finally get EV “engine” sounds</strong> - Fake gearshifts and powertrain noises enhance Hyundai’s electric hot hatch—mostly. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985728">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Amazon lays off Alexa employees as 2010s voice-assistant boom gives way to AI</strong> - Amazon has had a notoriously hard time making money from Alexa. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985794">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An old man calls his son and says, “Listen, your mother and I are getting a divorce. 45 years of misery is enough”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Dad, what are you talking about?” the son screams. “We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,” he says. “I’m sick of her face, and I’m sick of talking about this, so call your sister and tell her,” and he hangs up. Now, the son is worried. He calls his sister. She says, “Like hell they’re getting divorced!” She calls their father immediately. “You’re not getting divorced! Don’t do another thing. The two of us are flying home tomorrow to talk about this. Until then, don’t call a lawyer, don’t file a paper. DO YOU HEAR ME?” She hangs up the phone. The old man turns to his wife and says, "Okay, they’re both coming for Christmas and paying their own airfares.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/myvotedoesntmatter"> /u/myvotedoesntmatter </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/180sb7r/an_old_man_calls_his_son_and_says_listen_your/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/180sb7r/an_old_man_calls_his_son_and_says_listen_your/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A farmer drove over to his neighbor’s house and knocked on the door…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A boy, about 9, opened the door.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Is your mom or dad home?” The farmer asked the boy
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, they went in to town.” The boy replied
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well, how about your brother Howard?” The farmer asked
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, he went with mom and dad.” The boy said
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The farmer stood there for a minute shifting from one foot to another and mumbling when the boy says
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I know where the tools are if you need to borrow one or I could give my dad a message for you.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well,” The farmer said uncomfortably “I wanted to talk to your dad about your brother Howard getting my daughter pregnant.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The boy thought for a moment then said
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“You’ll have to talk to my dad about that. I know he charges $500 for the bulls and $150 for the pigs, but I have no idea how much he charges for Howard.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/arztnur"> /u/arztnur </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/180mpq6/a_farmer_drove_over_to_his_neighbors_house_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/180mpq6/a_farmer_drove_over_to_his_neighbors_house_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Does anyone know what oyings are?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
People keep telling me that I’m an “oying” but I don’t know what it means!! Pls help!
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/crystal31415"> /u/crystal31415 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18153kj/does_anyone_know_what_oyings_are/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18153kj/does_anyone_know_what_oyings_are/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Without the Arabs we wouldn’t have 9/11…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We would have IX/XI instead
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TheMaliElf"> /u/TheMaliElf </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/180scbf/without_the_arabs_we_wouldnt_have_911/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/180scbf/without_the_arabs_we_wouldnt_have_911/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>[Long] A family of four decides city life doesn’t suit their style anymore</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So they sell their house in the suburbs and buy a dairy-cow ranch. After a week or so, the dad and 2 sons are out mending the fences, when their neighbor comes driving up the road and stops to introduce himself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“How y’all doin? The name’s Al, friends call me Big Al. Are you folks new to the trials and tribulations of ranching?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The father said yes, and the pleasantries continued until Big Al asked if the family ranch had a name.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well,” said the father, “I wanted to name it “The Flying Q”, the wife suggested “The Lazy A”, my older son Gary was partial to “The BAR-J”, and the younger one Steve liked “The Pistol T.” So we had a family compromise and named the ranch “The Flying Q Lazy A BAR-J Pistol T Family Ranch.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“That’s quite a mouthful,” says Big Al. “But where’s all your cattle?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well,” said the father, “so far, none have survived the branding.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/EngagePhysically"> /u/EngagePhysically </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/180yxds/long_a_family_of_four_decides_city_life_doesnt/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/180yxds/long_a_family_of_four_decides_city_life_doesnt/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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