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<title>09 January, 2024</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>Towards Real-Time Airborne Pathogen Sensing: Electrostatic Capture and On-Chip LAMP Based Detection of Airborne Viral Pathogens</strong> -
<div>
Considerable loss of life, economic slowdown, and public health risk associated with the transmission of airborne respiratory pathogens was underscored by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Airborne transmission of zoonotic diseases such as the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) has caused major disruptions to domestic and global food security. Current ambient air pathogen monitoring systems involves the collection of air samples from indoor settings suspected of viral contamination, followed by subsequent processing of capture samples to determine the presence and species of airborne viral matter. Nucleic acid amplification techniques are considered the gold standard for pathogen diagnostics. Currently, the necessary extraction and purification of viral RNA from air collector systems prior to sample analysis is both time consuming and performed manually. A monitoring system with separate air sampling and biochemical detection procedures is prone to delay the response to emergent viral threats. In this paper, we present a pathogen monitoring system that overcomes these limitations related to extraction and purification of viral samples and lays the groundwork for a real-time monitor for airborne viral pathogens. We demonstrate a high flow electrostatic precipitator system, that uses small collection wells as counter electrodes for pathogen collection. Integrated reverse-transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) is used for detection of captured viral matter within wells. On-chip heating of collection wells is enabled by integrated planar heaters and small volumes of reagent (30 ) directly to the collection wells. We present the design of such a system and show experimental results that demonstrate the use of this device for detection of aerosolized SARS- CoV-2 virus like particles (VLPs), a model pathogen for SARV-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.05.574431v1" target="_blank">Towards Real-Time Airborne Pathogen Sensing: Electrostatic Capture and On-Chip LAMP Based Detection of Airborne Viral Pathogens</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Innate Immune Activation and Mitochondrial ROS Invoke Persistent Cardiac Conduction System Dysfunction after COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
Background: Cardiac risk rises during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and in long COVID syndrome in humans, but the mechanisms behind COVID-19-linked arrhythmias are unknown. This study explores the acute and long term effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the cardiac conduction system (CCS) in a hamster model of COVID-19. Methods: Radiotelemetry in conscious animals was used to non-invasively record electrocardiograms and subpleural pressures after intranasal SARS-CoV-2 infection. Cardiac cytokines, interferon-stimulated gene expression, and macrophage infiltration of the CCS, were assessed at 4 days and 4 weeks post-infection. A double-stranded RNA mimetic, polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (PIC), was used in vivo and in vitro to activate viral pattern recognition receptors in the absence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results: COVID-19 induced pronounced tachypnea and severe cardiac conduction system (CCS) dysfunction, spanning from bradycardia to persistent atrioventricular block, although no viral protein expression was detected in the heart. Arrhythmias developed rapidly, partially reversed, and then redeveloped after the pulmonary infection was resolved, indicating persistent CCS injury. Increased cardiac cytokines, interferon-stimulated gene expression, and macrophage remodeling in the CCS accompanied the electrophysiological abnormalities. Interestingly, the arrhythmia phenotype was reproduced by cardiac injection of PIC in the absence of virus, indicating that innate immune activation was sufficient to drive the response. PIC also strongly induced cytokine secretion and robust interferon signaling in hearts, human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs), and engineered heart tissues, accompanied by alterations in electrical and Ca2+ handling properties. Importantly, the pulmonary and cardiac effects of COVID-19 were blunted by in vivo inhibition of JAK/STAT signaling or by a mitochondrially-targeted antioxidant. Conclusions: The findings indicate that long term dysfunction and immune cell remodeling of the CCS is induced by COVID-19, arising indirectly from oxidative stress and excessive activation of cardiac innate immune responses during infection, with implications for long COVID Syndrome.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.05.574280v1" target="_blank">Innate Immune Activation and Mitochondrial ROS Invoke Persistent Cardiac Conduction System Dysfunction after COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>GENOMIC PROFILING OF SARS-COV-2 STRAINS CIRCULATING IN SOUTH EASTERN REGION OF INDIA DURING THREE WAVES OF PANDEMIC</strong> -
<div>
Continuous bio-surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 is an ongoing task at local, national and global levels since the pandemic onset for understanding genetic evolution and vaccine efficacy. Present study was designed to track the emergence of new variants along the duration of three peaks of infection in the city of Puducherry, India. A total of 128 samples were subjected to Illumina deep RNA sequencing. The results showed predominance of uncommon, delta and omicron variants in first, second and third waves respectively. The most common pangolin lineage was B.1.560 and B.1.617.2. The study observed a total of 3133 common and 11 new mutations. The most common is in the Spike_D614G. A new set of mutations was observed in key viral factors such as NS16 that are implicated to be involved in immune evasion. This may have impact on enhanced disease virulence, vaccine efficiency and possible tolerance to current antivirals. This warrants further in vitro studies to understand the significance of the mutations. While the results presented would also augment the ongoing research on evolutionary and the genetic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2, it also emphasizes the need for continuous genetic monitoring to predict the forthcoming threats due to the emergence of new or existing variants.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.06.574128v1" target="_blank">GENOMIC PROFILING OF SARS-COV-2 STRAINS CIRCULATING IN SOUTH EASTERN REGION OF INDIA DURING THREE WAVES OF PANDEMIC</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 nsp7-11 polyprotein processing and impact on complexation with nsp16</strong> -
<div>
In severe-acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, polyproteins (pp1a/pp1ab) are processed into non-structural proteins (nsps), which largely form the replication/transcription complex (RTC). The polyprotein processing and complex formation is critical and offers potential therapeutic targets. However, the interplay of polyprotein processing and RTC-assembly are poorly understood. Here, we studied two key aspects: The influence of the pp1a terminal nsp11 on the order of polyprotein processing by viral main protease Mpro and the influence of polyprotein processing on core enzyme complex formation. We established a method based on native MS to determine rate constants k considering the structural environment. This enabled us to quantify the multi-reaction kinetics of coronavirus polyprotein processing for the first time. Our results serve as a blueprint for other multi-cleavage reactions. Further, it offers a detailed and quantifiable perspective to the dynamic reactions of SARS-CoV-2 polyprotein processing, which is required for development of novel antivirals.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.06.574466v1" target="_blank">The kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 nsp7-11 polyprotein processing and impact on complexation with nsp16</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Systemic Dosing of Virus-derived Serpin Improves Survival and Immunothrombotic Damage in Murine Colitis</strong> -
<div>
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is potentially life-threatening, with risk of bleeding, clotting, infection, sepsis, cancer and toxic megacolon. Systemic and local immune and coagulation dysfunction increase IBD severity. Current treatments are partially effective, but there is no definitive cure. Serine protease cascades activate thrombotic, thrombolytic and complement pathways and are regulated by inhibitors, serpins. Viruses encode proteins evolved from endogenous central regulatory pathways. A purified secreted Myxomavirus-derived serpin, Serp-1, dosed as a systemic anti-inflammatory drug, has proven efficacy in vascular and inflammatory disorders. PEGylated Serp-1 protein (PEGSerp-1) has improved efficacy in lupus and SARS-CoV-2 models. We examined PEGSerp-1 treatment in a mouse Dextran Sodium Sulfate (DSS) colitis model. Prophylactic PEGSerp-1 significantly improved survival in acute severe 4-5% DSS colitis, reducing inflammation and crypt damage in acute 4-5% DSS induced colitis and when dosed as a chronic delayed treatment for recurrent 2% DSS colitis. PEGSerp-1 reduced iNOS+ M1 macrophage invasion, damage to crypt architecture and vascular inflammation with decreased uPAR, fXa, fibrinogen and complement activation. This work supports PEGSerp-1 as a tissue targeting serpin therapeutic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.08.574715v1" target="_blank">Systemic Dosing of Virus-derived Serpin Improves Survival and Immunothrombotic Damage in Murine Colitis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Through thick and thin: changes in creativity during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 took us by surprise. We all had to face a new situation never encountered before and find new solutions to the problems it generated, either related to the disease or the lockdown’s consequences. The lockdown and pandemic crisis caused new issues and placed us in an entirely new context, changing our way of life, work time and conditions, and habits. Coping with such an unprecedented situation may have stimulated creativity. However, the situation also restricted our liberties and wellbeing and triggered health or psychological difficulties. Worrying, concerns, challenging conditions of confinement may have hampered creativity or its expression. Hence, wellbeing factors related to affective experience, living conditions, social interactions, as well as workload or available free time, may have impacted creativity during the lockdown. We carried out an online survey based on a self-administered questionnaire to examine whether the first lockdown period related to the COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2020) was associated with creativity changes and explore the role of several factors in these changes. We measured self-reported creativity changes using two approaches: changes in creative self-efficacy and creative activities and achievements. We related them to several variables estimating time availability, conditions of confinement, social interactions, and affective experience of the situation. Despite a global negative subjective experience of the situation, individuals who participated in our survey (n=380) reported that they were on average more creative during the lockdown than before and engaged in more creative activities. The converging results from self-perceived and activity-based measures showed that this positive change could be linked with more time availability, feeling more motivated or inspired, or the need to solve a problem. However, when negative changes in creativity were experienced, they were instead related to negative affective experiences, including stress and anxiety, a low mood, a feeling of pressure, or a lack of resources or opportunities. This study helps to document what happened during the first lockdown period in France regarding aspects of creativity, showing some positive outcomes of the situation despite its negative consequences, and providing cues about the key factors that stimulated or, on the contrary, blocked creativity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/26qde/" target="_blank">Through thick and thin: changes in creativity during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>“Urban Exodus” During COVID-19 in Mexico? Using Digital Data to Analyze Medium-Term Pandemic Impacts on Internal Population Movements</strong> -
<div>
Previous work documented a decline of internal population movements and an increase in outflows from large cities to less densely populated areas during COVID-19 in Global North countries. However, the impact of the pandemic on levels and patterns of human mobility across the rural-urban hierarchy in the Global South is yet to be established. Lack of data with temporal and spatial granularity has prevented us from assessing this research gap. Drawing on location data of Facebook users, we analyse how the intensity and patterns of long-distance movements (&gt;100 Km) were affected during April 2020-May 2022 across different population density categories in Mexico. We find a decline of 40% in the total number of long-distance movements during April-December 2020, and a systematic decrease of outflows and inflows across the rural-urban hierarchy. Unlike in the Global North, outflows from large cities did not increase. The largest drop of outflows and inflows occurred in large cities, declining by 50%. Only specific flows increased during COVID-19, as those from large cities to certain towns, and intra-rural movements. The intensity and patterns of internal population movements across the rural-urban hierarchy have progressively returned to pre-pandemic levels during 2021 and 2022, as has occurred in Global North countries. However, the recovery has been slower in the large Mexican cities.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/e4au9/" target="_blank">“Urban Exodus” During COVID-19 in Mexico? Using Digital Data to Analyze Medium-Term Pandemic Impacts on Internal Population Movements</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>What impact does the COVID-19 pandemic era have on the incidence of myocardial infarction-related fatalities in distinct age groups of male and female? A comparison study (2017–2022)</strong> -
<div>
Abstract: Several studies, conducted earlier during the SARS, MERS, and recent COVID-19 pandemic, have indicated that coronavirus infection, particularly COVID-19 can lead to cardiac damage. There have been recorded cases of myocarditis or cardiomyopathy linked to COVID-19 vaccines, specifically those that use mRNA technology such as BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, primarily affecting males between the ages of 16 and 30. The prevalence and characteristics of sudden death due to myocardial infarction in various age groups of both males and females during the COVID-19 period have not been extensively examined as compared to the time before COVID-19. The aim of this study is to analyse and contrast the disparities in the average and proportion of abrupt fatalities associated with heart attacks (MI) in different age groups of males and females in the COVID-19 era and the time prior to the global outbreak. This study revealed that the maximum number of sudden deaths due to MI occurs at age 45 and above but below 60 years. The percent increase in mean sudden death due to MI in the Covid-19 period compared to the pre- COVID-19 period mean was highest in females (68.57%) of age groups 14 and above but below 18 years, while it was lowest in the males (9.51%) of the same age group. The lowest mean mortality, 38.5 (95% Conf. Interval-Mean-23.81 -53.19) due to MI during the study period was found in females in age groups 14 and above but below 18 years. The highest mean mortality was 9540.5 (95% Conf. Interval-Mean: 8551.93- 10529.07) due to MI during the study period observed in Male aged 45 and above but below 60 years. The overall percent increase in fatalities due to MI in 2022 compared to 2017 is greatest (88.46%) in females between 14 and 17 years, while the lowest is in females between 45 and 59 years (27.87%). In all age groups an increase in fatalities due to MI is seen in 2022 compared to 2017.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/42tcn/" target="_blank">What impact does the COVID-19 pandemic era have on the incidence of myocardial infarction-related fatalities in distinct age groups of male and female? A comparison study (2017–2022)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>“The best year” / “I struggled with everything”: Widening participation experiences of pandemic online learning</strong> -
<div>
Improving retention and graduate outcomes for students from a widening participation (WP) background is key to achieving more equitable outcomes. However, evidence suggests WP students experienced different challenges to their peers during the Covid-19 pandemic. With a focus on the pivot to online learning, we explored how WP students experienced HE during this time to understand which practices supported students’ access to education and which may have exacerbated existing inequalities. Data were collected across six focus groups from two Scottish universities (N = 23). While we found many similarities between WP students’ experiences and the broader student population, our findings also suggest coming from a position of relative disadvantage magnifies both positive and negative elements of online learning. Based on these findings, recommendations are made for pedagogical practice to enhance the experience of WP students specifically but can also be applied to the student population more generally.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/edarxiv/5bphj/" target="_blank">“The best year” / “I struggled with everything”: Widening participation experiences of pandemic online learning</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groups in Post-COVID-19 Labour Markets. Comparative report</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented health and far-reaching life consequences, triggering a global social and economic crisis through its protective measures aimed at safeguarding lives. This crisis compels social scientists and researchers to scrutinize the deficiencies in social and economic readiness and responses to the pandemic. The DEFEN-CE project, supported by the European Commission, delves into institutional strategies and power dynamics in social protection, policy formulation, and implementation. It sought to safeguard labour markets and workers by examining the governance of vulnerable groups in the (post) COVID-19 labor markets. Moreover, it aimed to generate research-based knowledge at EU and national levels, including candidate countries, on the role of social partners in creating and implementing protective policies vis-à-vis vulnerable groups. This report spotlights all key project findings both at the EU-level and the national level in 12 countries, embedding them to a conceptual understanding of vulnerability in general and labour-market related vulnerability in particular.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/v45ty/" target="_blank">DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groups in Post-COVID-19 Labour Markets. Comparative report</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groups in Post-COVID-19 LabourMarkets. EU-wide analysis of the Defence - database data</strong> -
<div>
The DEFEN-CE project’s Defence Database safeguards vulnerable groups in post-COVID-19 European labour markets. The research teams analysed data from EU-27 Member States, Turkey, and Serbia, including indicators covering policy, target groups, and social partners’ involvement. The analysis includes 853 policies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/43msb/" target="_blank">DEFEN-CE: Social Dialogue in Defence of Vulnerable Groups in Post-COVID-19 LabourMarkets. EU-wide analysis of the Defence - database data</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A basally active cGAS-STING pathway limits SARS-CoV-2 replication in a subset of ACE2 positive airway cell models</strong> -
<div>
Host factors that define the cellular tropism of SARS-CoV-2 beyond the cognate ACE2 receptor are poorly defined. From a screen of human airway derived cell lines that express varying levels of ACE2/TMPRSS2, we found a subset that express comparably high endogenous levels of ACE2 but surprisingly did not support SARS-CoV-2 replication. Here we report that this resistance is mediated by a basally active cGAS-STING pathway culminating in interferon (IFN)-mediated restriction of SARS-CoV-2 replication at a post-entry step. Pharmacological inhibition of JAK1/2, depletion of the IFN-alpha; receptor and cGAS-STING pathway effectors substantially increased SARS-CoV-2 replication in these cell models. While depletion of cGAS or STING was sufficient to reduce the preexisting levels of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs), SARS-CoV-2 infection in STING knockout cells independently induced ISG expression. Remarkably, SARS-CoV-2-induced ISG expression in STING knockout cell as well as in primary human airway cultures was limited to uninfected bystander cells, demonstrating efficient antagonism of the type I/III IFN-pathway, but not viral sensing or IFN production, in productively infected cells. Of note, SARS-CoV-2-infected primary human airway cells also displayed markedly lower levels of STING expression, raising the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 can target STING expression or preferentially infect cells that express low levels of STING. Finally, ectopic ACE2 overexpression overcame the IFN-mediated blocks, suggesting the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to overcome these possibly saturable blocks to infection. Our study highlights that in addition to viral receptors, basal activation of the cGAS-STING pathway and innate immune defenses may contribute to defining SARS-CoV-2 cellular tropism.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.07.574522v1" target="_blank">A basally active cGAS-STING pathway limits SARS-CoV-2 replication in a subset of ACE2 positive airway cell models</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Spatial Morphoproteomic Features Predict Uniqueness of Immune Microarchitectures and Responses in Lymphoid Follicles</strong> -
<div>
Multiplex imaging technologies allow the characterization of single cells in their cellular environments. Understanding the organization of single cells within their microenvironment and quantifying disease-status related biomarkers is essential for multiplex datasets. Here we proposed SNOWFLAKE, a graph neural network framework pipeline for the prediction of disease-status from combined multiplex cell expression and morphology in human B-cell follicles. We applied SNOWFLAKE to a multiplex dataset related to COVID-19 infection in humans and showed better predictive power of the SNOWFLAKE pipeline compared to other machine learning and deep learning methods. Moreover, we combined morphological features inside graph edge features to utilize attribution methods for extracting disease-relevant motifs from single-cell spatial graphs. The underlying subgraphs were further analyzed and associated with disease status across the dataset. We showed that SNOWFLAKE successfully extracted significant low dimensional embedding from subgraphs with a clear separation between disease status and helped characterize unique cellular interactions in the subgraphs. SNOWFLAKE is a generalizable pipeline for the analysis of multiplex imaging data modality by extracting disease-relevant subgraphs guided by graph-level prediction.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.05.574186v1" target="_blank">Spatial Morphoproteomic Features Predict Uniqueness of Immune Microarchitectures and Responses in Lymphoid Follicles</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>CGRP inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection of bronchial epithelial cells and its pulmonary levels correlate with viral clearance in critical COVID-19 patients</strong> -
<div>
Upon infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), patients with critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) present with life-threatening respiratory distress, pulmonary damage and cytokine storm. One unexplored hub in COVID-19 is the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), which is highly abundant in the airways and could converge in multiple aspects of COVID-19-related pulmonary pathophysiology. Whether CGRP affects SARS-CoV-2 infection directly remains elusive. We show that in critical COVID-19 patients, CGRP is increased in both plasma and lungs. Importantly, CGRP pulmonary levels are elevated in early SARS-CoV-2-positive patients, and restore to baseline upon subsequent viral clearance in SARS-CoV-2-negative patients. We further show that CGRP and its stable analogue SAX directly inhibit infection of bronchial Calu-3 epithelial cells with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and Alpha variants in a dose-dependent manner. Both pre- and post-infection treatment with GRRP and/or SAX is enough to block SARS-CoV-2 productive infection of Calu3 cells. CGRP-mediated inhibition occurs via activation of the CGRP receptor and involves down-regulation of SARS-CoV-2 entry receptors at the surface of Calu-3 cells. Together, we propose that increased pulmonary CGRP mediates beneficial viral clearance in critical COVID-19 patients, by directly inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection. Hence, CGRP-based interventions could be harnessed for management of COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.05.574360v1" target="_blank">CGRP inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection of bronchial epithelial cells and its pulmonary levels correlate with viral clearance in critical COVID-19 patients</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Rapid Emergence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Variants in Advanced HIV Infection</strong> -
<div>
Previous studies have linked the evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) genetic variants to persistent infections in people with immunocompromising conditions, but the evolutionary processes underlying these observations are incompletely understood. Here we used high-throughput, single-genome amplification and sequencing (HT-SGS) to obtain up to ~103 SARS-CoV-2 spike gene sequences in each of 184 respiratory samples from 22 people with HIV (PWH) and 25 people without HIV (PWOH). Twelve of 22 PWH had advanced HIV infection, defined by peripheral blood CD4 T cell counts (i.e., CD4 counts) &lt;200 cells/L. In PWOH and PWH with CD4 counts [≥]200 cells/L, most single-genome spike sequences in each person matched one haplotype that predominated throughout the infection. By contrast, people with advanced HIV showed elevated intra-host spike diversity with a median of 46 haplotypes per person (IQR 14-114). Higher intra-host spike diversity immediately after COVID-19 symptom onset predicted longer SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding among PWH, and intra-host spike diversity at this timepoint was significantly higher in people with advanced HIV than in PWOH. Composition of spike sequence populations in people with advanced HIV fluctuated rapidly over time, with founder sequences often replaced by groups of new haplotypes. These population-level changes were associated with a high total burden of intra-host mutations and positive selection at functionally important residues. In several cases, delayed emergence of detectable serum binding to spike was associated with positive selection for presumptive antibody-escape mutations. Taken together, our findings show remarkable intra-host genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 in advanced HIV infection and suggest that adaptive intra-host SARS-CoV-2 evolution in this setting may contribute to the emergence of new variants of concern (VOCs).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.05.574420v1" target="_blank">Rapid Emergence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Variants in Advanced HIV Infection</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>Integrated Mindfulness-based Health Qigong Intervention for COVID-19 Survivors and Caregivers</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Mindfulness-based Health Qigong Intervention <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: The Hong Kong Polytechnic 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>SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza A/B in Point-of-Care and Non-Laboratory Settings</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2 Infection; Influenza A; Influenza B <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: Aptitude Medical Systems Metrix COVID/Flu Test <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Aptitude Medical Systems; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority <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>Effect of Aerobic Exercises Versus Incentive Spirometer Device on Post-covid Pulmonary Fibrosis Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Lung Fibrosis Interstitial; Post-COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Aerobic Exercises; Device: Incentive Spirometer Device; Other: Traditional Chest Physiotherapy <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: McCarious Nahad Aziz Abdelshaheed Stephens; Cairo University <br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can Doctors Reduce COVID-19 Misinformation and Increase Vaccine Uptake in Ghana? A Cluster-randomised Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing, AIMS; Behavioral: Facility engagement <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: London School of Economics and Political Science; Innovations for Poverty Action; Ghana Health Services <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>Long COVID Ultrasound Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Splenic Ultrasound <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: SecondWave Systems Inc.; University of Minnesota; MCDC (United States Department of Defense) <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>Immunogenicity After COVID-19 Vaccines in Adapted Schedules</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Coronavirus Disease 2019; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: BNT162b2 30µg; Drug: BNT162b2 20µg; Drug: BNT162b2 6µg; Drug: mRNA-1273 100µg; Drug: mRNA-1273 50µg; Drug: ChAdOx1-S [Recombinant] <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Universiteit Antwerpen <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>Could Wearing Face Mask Have Affected Demodex Parasite</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Pandemic, COVID-19; Demodex Infestation <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: standard superficial skin biopsy (SSSB) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Nurhan Döner Aktaş <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>TDCS Stimulation After Covid-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: Transcranial Direct Stimulation <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Istanbul Medipol University Hospital; Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat 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>Safety and Immunogenicity of a Booster Vaccination With an Adapted Vaccine</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: PHH-1V81; Biological: Comirnaty Omicron XBB1.5 <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Hipra Scientific, S.L.U <br/><b>Active, not 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><em>In silico</em> Evaluation of ACE2 Inhibition by <em>Prunus armeniaca</em> L. and <em>in vivo</em> Toxicity Study</strong> - CONCLUSION: Four compounds from Prunus armeniaca seem to exert an inhibitory potential of ACE2.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Design, Synthesis, X-ray Crystallography, and Biological Activities of Covalent, Non-Peptidic Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease</strong> - Highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has infected billions of people worldwide with flu-like symptoms since its emergence in 2019. It has caused deaths of several million people. The viral main protease (Mpro) is essential for SARS-CoV-2 replication and therefore a drug target. Several series of covalent inhibitors of Mpro were designed and synthesized. Structure-activity relationship studies show that (1) several chloroacetamide- and epoxide-based compounds targeting Cys145 are potent…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Activity of a Polyphenolic Complex from Maackia amurensis</strong> - We studied the ability of the polyphenolic complex from Maackia amurensis, the active substance of Maksar, to inhibit the cytopathogenic effect induced by the SARS-CoV-2 and to reduce the concentration of viral RNA in infected Vero E6 cells. Polyphenolic complex showed significant anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity and effectively inhibited viral replication by direct action on viral particles and the early stage of viral infection.</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>Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 in sepsis, and current insights into clinical studies</strong> - Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) is a pattern recognition receptor and plays a critical role in the immune response. TREM-1 activation leads to the production and release of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, as well as its own expression and circulating levels of the cleaved soluble extracellular portion of TREM-1 (sTREM-1). Because patients with sepsis and septic shock show elevated sTREM-1 levels, TREM-1 has attracted attention as an important contributor to the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Two Receptor Binding Strategy of SARS-CoV-2 Is Mediated by Both the N-Terminal and Receptor-Binding Spike Domain</strong> - It is not well understood why severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 spreads much faster than other β-coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV. In a previous publication, we predicted the binding of the N-terminal domain (NTD) of SARS-CoV-2 spike to sialic acids (SAs). Here, we experimentally validate this interaction and present simulations that reveal a second possible interaction between SAs and the spike protein via a binding site located in the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cyclooxygenase-2/prostaglandin E2 pathway regulates infectious bronchitis virus replication in avian macrophages</strong> - Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is a significant respiratory pathogen that affects chickens worldwide. As an avian coronavirus, IBV leads to productive infection in chicken macrophages. However, the effects of IBV infection in macrophages on cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression are still to be elucidated. Therefore, we investigated the role of IBV infection on the production of COX-2, an enzyme involved in the synthesis of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in chicken macrophages. The chicken macrophage…</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>Evaluation of natural products from virtual screenings as SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors using combinational experiments</strong> - Recently, andrographolide, kaempferol, maslinic acid, rutin, and schaftoside have been identified as potent SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) inhibitors via molecular docking studies. However, no comprehensive in vitro testing of these compounds against Mpro has been conducted. In this study, we rigorously evaluated the in vitro inhibition of Mpro by these compounds using combinational experiments, including fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), fluorescence polarization (FP), 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 and spectroscopic characterization of (Artemisinin/Querctin/ Zinc) novel mixed ligand complex with assessment of its potent high antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 and antioxidant capacity against toxicity induced by acrylamide in male rats</strong> - A novel Artemisinin/Quercetin/Zinc (Art/Q/Zn) mixed ligand complex was synthesized, tested for its antiviral activity against coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), and investigated for its effect against toxicity and oxidative stress induced by acrylamide (Acy), which develops upon cooking starchy foods at high temperatures. The synthesized complex was chemically characterized by performing elemental analysis, conductance measurements, FT-IR, UV, magnetic measurements, and XRD. The morphological surface of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>High production <em>MBL2</em> polymorphisms protect against COVID-19 complications in critically ill patients: A retrospective cohort study</strong> - Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) binds to SARS-CoV-2, inhibits infection of susceptible cells, and activates the complement system via the lectin pathway. In this study, we investigated the association of MBL2 polymorphisms with the risk of hospitalization and clinical worsening in patients with COVID-19. A total of 550 patients with COVID-19 were included (94 non-hospitalized and 456 hospitalized). Polymorphisms in MBL2 exon 1 (codons 52, 54 and 57) and promoter region (-550, -221, and +4) were…</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>Studying SARS-CoV-2 interactions using phage-displayed receptor binding domain as a model protein</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) mediates viral entry into human cells through its interaction with angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Most neutralizing antibodies elicited by infection or vaccination target this domain. Such a functional relevance, together with large RBD sequence variability arising during viral spreading, point to the need of exploring the complex landscape of interactions between RBD-derived variants, ACE2 and antibodies. The current work was aimed at developing…</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 of an integrated sample amplification control for salivary point-of-care pathogen testing</strong> - BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rise in point-of-care (POC) and home-based tests, but concerns over usability, accuracy, and effectiveness have arisen. The incorporation of internal amplification controls (IACs), essential control for translational POC diagnostics, could mitigate false-negative and false-positive results due to sample matrix interference or inhibition. Although emerging POC nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 show impressive…</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>Multifunctional polymeric guanidine and hydantoin halamines with broad biocidal activity</strong> - Prolonged and excessive use of biocides during the coronavirus disease era calls for incorporating new antiviral polymers that enhance the surface design and functionality for existing and potential future pandemics. Herein, we investigated previously unexplored polyamines with nucleophilic biguanide, guanidine, and hydantoin groups that all can be halogenated leading to high contents of oxidizing halogen that enables enhancement of the biocidal activity. Primary amino groups can be used to…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Olgotrelvir, a dual inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup> and cathepsin L, as a standalone antiviral oral intervention candidate for COVID-19</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Olgotrelvir is an oral inhibitor targeting M^(pro) and CTSL with high antiviral activity and plasma exposure and is a standalone treatment candidate for COVID-19.</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>Ligand fishing approach to explore Amaryllidaceae alkaloids as potential antiviral candidates targeting SARS-CoV-2 Nsp4</strong> - Ligand fishing, also described as affinity-based assay, represents a convenient and efficient approach to separate potential ligands from complex matrixes or chemical libraries. This approach contributes to the identification of lead compounds that can bind to a specific target. In the context of COVID-19, the search for novel therapeutic agents is crucial. Small molecule-based antiviral drugs, such as Amaryllidaceae alkaloids, have been described as potential candidates because they can inhibit…</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>Regulation of innate immune and inflammatory responses by supersulfides</strong> - Innate immunity plays an important role in host defense against microbial infections. It also participates in activation of acquired immunity through cytokine production and antigen presentation. Pattern recognition receptors such as Toll-like receptors and nucleotide oligomerization domain-like receptors sense invading pathogens and associated tissue injury, after which inflammatory mediators such as pro-inflammatory cytokines and nitric oxide are induced. Supersulfides are molecular species…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Could Tip the Balance in the War in Ukraine?</strong> - In 2024, the most decisive fight may also be the least visible: Russia and Ukraine will spend the next twelve months in a race to reconstitute and resupply their forces. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-could-tip-the-balance-in-the-war-in-ukraine">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Trump Captured Iowa’s Religious Right</strong> - The state’s evangelical voters were once skeptical of the former President. Now they are among his strongest supporters. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/how-trump-captured-iowas-religious-right">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Some Academics Are Reluctant to Call Claudine Gay a Plagiarist</strong> - A political-science professor wrestles with his role in the drama surrounding the former Harvard president. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-some-academics-are-reluctant-to-call-claudine-gay-a-plagiarist">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The U.S. Is Reaping the Benefits of Low Unemployment</strong> - In many ways, keeping the jobless rate low and the labor markets tight is the most effective and cost-efficient welfare policy there is. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-us-is-reaping-the-benefits-of-low-unemployment">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nikki Haley Seeks an Iowa Surge as the Last G.O.P. Moderate in the Race</strong> - In the final run-up to the Iowa caucus, Haley made her closing argument to the state’s voters, pitching herself as the anti-chaos, anti-Trump candidate. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/nikki-haley-campaigns-in-iowa-breweries-and-vineyards">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Want to understand American views on Israel? Take a look at this 1958 novel.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Paul Newman from the 1960 movie Exodus superimposed over the cover of Leon Uris’s novel Exodus repeating in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wgAQkR1N0if3rbGvZXgPlP-SOZI=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73037533/Exodus_Lede_Vox.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
Vox/Everett Collection; Bantam Books
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Leon Uris’s bestselling epic Exodus — and its hit movie adaptation starring Paul Newman — influenced generations of Americans, from the suburbs to the State Department.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="slaMIo">
When I was 12 or 13, I found a copy of Leon Uris’s 1958 novel <em>Exodus</em> in my synagogue’s library. I stood amid the shelves, surreptitiously reading a sex scene (did the book just fall open right to it, the way every copy of Judy Blume’s <em>Forever</em> did at Chapter 12?) in which the passionate, long-legged, redheaded Jordana Ben Canaan makes love to her cerebral military strategist boyfriend, David Ben Ami, in the ruins of a Crusader castle on Mount Tabor in 1947 Palestine. As they canoodle, they recite King Solomon’s Song of Songs to each other. Uris uses ellipses ecstatically. (“And he kissed her breast … ‘<em>Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies …’</em> And he kissed her lips … <em>‘And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly’</em> …”) I was <em>scandalized</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GuHeyY">
I took the book home and devoured it, much the way David devoured Jordana.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WKPObT">
<em>Exodus</em> not only titillated me but also filled me with youthful pride. It’s difficult to overstate what a phenomenon the novel — a sweeping story about the founding of the modern state of Israel — was, even in the early ’80s, when it was already more than two decades old. It was over 600 pages long, structured in “five books” (you know, like the Hebrew Bible), touching on the exile of Jews from the Holy Land, the terrors of life in the Pale of Settlement in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the horrors of the Holocaust. Mostly, though, it focused on a handful of Jewish characters, plus one foxy blond Presbyterian American nurse, in 1947 and 1948.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3nv6I9">
If you walked into a Jewish living room when I was a kid (or today, if you have a grandparent of a certain age), you’d spot it on a shelf. The hardcover edition dominated bestseller lists for months; it was translated into over 50 languages. When the paperback came out in September 1959, it had the largest advance purchase order — a million and a half copies — of any novel in publishing history. It presaged a glut of massive, sweeping national epics by the likes of James Michener, John Jakes, and James Clavell. And in 1960, it became a blockbuster movie starring Paul Newman as hottie Jewish freedom fighter Ari Ben Canaan.
</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A shirtless Paul Newman in shorts smoking and leaning on a chair. He is wearing a chain necklace with a Star of David charm." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o8piT_efvjMK_FMSC6Mcz2zg8K8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25212018/GettyImages_1466801071.jpg"/> <cite>Leo Fuchs/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Paul Newman in Israel while filming <em>Exodus</em> in 1959.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3XdH8T">
From the start, <em>Exodus</em> hugely influenced the world’s perception of Israel. “It’s been said that the <a href="https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/237/the-exodus/">only other book</a> that had as great an impact on American foreign policy was Pearl Buck’s novel about <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a>,” said Riv-Ellen Prell, professor of American studies at the University of Minnesota and author of <a href="https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/SCSB-3668819"><em>Fighting to Become Americans: Jews, Gender, and the Anxiety of Assimilation</em></a>. “The book wasn’t just a driver of Jewish identity. People in the notoriously antisemitic state department read it at every level.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FkAWOT">
In <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/our-exodus-leon-uris-and-the-americanization-of-israel-s-founding-story-m-m-silver/6514077?ean=9780814334430"><em>Our Exodus: Leon Uris and the Americanization of Israel’s Founding Story</em></a>, Israeli college professor and historian M.M. Silver notes that the book was a gift to Israel’s tourist industry. “More tourists fly into Tel Aviv with <em>Exodus</em> than with the Bible,” said the director of the Israeli government’s tourist office in 1959. David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister, reportedly proclaimed, “I don’t usually read novels. But I read that one. As a literary work, it isn’t much. But as a piece of propaganda, it’s the greatest thing ever written about Israel.” Production images from the Otto Preminger film, featuring a shirtless Paul Newman wearing a Star of David necklace, only increased the story’s allure.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="AiLtqm"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v86cWd">
The book seemed to fit right in with the vision of Israel my parents provided for me. I grew up listening to Israeli folk records and hearing about the kibbutz movement, in which no one owned property and everyone tilled the land together and worked to make the desert bloom. I was taken to the Sinai desert, where my family camped with Bedouins and looked at the stars; I saw the mountain in the Galilee that would later feature in my bat mitzvah <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/haftarah/">haftarah</a>, where the prophet Deborah led the Israelites into battle against the Canaanites. Israel seemed like the happy almost-ending to the story of Jewish history. There’s a joke that the meaning of every Jewish holiday is “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.” Jaffa oranges and creamy feta seemed like our delicious due for surviving the Holocaust.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gr6BJj">
When my parents were growing up, Jewish American identity was in transition. The Holocaust was a shattering collective experience, not only because of the deaths of 6 million Jews but also because it reminded American Jews that they were only guests in their own country. They knew about the draconian immigration quotas in America and elsewhere. No one wanted refugee Jews. Then, suddenly, the newly established state of Israel provided what seemed like a true haven.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ekIz0x">
The postwar period was also when American Jews were starting to join the middle class in greater numbers, leaving tight urban enclaves and beginning a big collective move to the suburbs. It was a weird time. As Silver writes, “By the end of the 1950s, suburban Jews developed a new, vicarious form of affiliation; because Jewishness seemed inauthentic in suburban space, they sought membership in a far-off land whose moral credibility was rooted in a sacred Jewish past.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="TeNLRl">
<q>Jaffa oranges and creamy feta seemed like our delicious due for surviving the Holocaust.</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kNIsu8">
<em>Exodus</em>, the novel, arrived when Jews were searching for a new self-image. Uris was committed to a vision of muscular, heroic Jews, not ghetto weaklings or “golden riders of the psychoanalytic couch” (Silver’s term for Jewish American intellectual novelists like Philip Roth, who Uris loathed — and the feeling was evidently mutual). As Prell put it, “<em>Exodus</em> was a work of popular fiction that established a deep sense of Jewish identity, [instead of one] that had been far more complicated, fragmented, filled with shame. This book made the case that that’s not who you are as a Jew.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v5qcC1">
As I got older, though, my youthful love of the book started to feel like an embarrassing crush on an teen idol. When I thought about <em>Exodus</em> at all, I recalled it as wildly sexist and reductive. More importantly, I wanted to forge my own sense of Jewish American selfhood that didn’t rely on endless stories of Israeli heroism and Holocaust horror, the twin narratives that seemed to direct <a href="https://www.vox.com/22455044/american-jewish-education-israel-palestine">so much of Jewish education</a> and identity formation. Later, the Israeli government moved increasingly rightward and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080052/israel-settlements-west-bank">Jewish settlements</a> expanded incrementally in East Jerusalem, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a>, and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080034/west-bank-israel-palestinians">West Bank</a>, and I turned away from Israel as a source of Jewish identity entirely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="heHvdb">
I instead focused my attention on Jewish art, Jewish folklore and mythology, Jewish food, home-based rituals like lighting Shabbat candles and building a sukkah and hosting Passover seders. I chose to ponder Jewish values and history through culture, through learning about Jewish leadership in American labor and feminist movements. When I had kids, I addressed Israel the way many Gen X and older millennial parents have: by avoiding it. By sighing when the subject came up, saying “It’s complicated,” and passing the latkes.
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="brkl0a"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3RV2hX">
I no longer have the luxury of noping out. I need to address my ambivalence and confront the gaps in my education if I’m to talk responsibly about <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18079996/israel-palestine-conflict-guide-explainer">Israel and Palestine</a>, including the current <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023">siege of Gaza</a>, with my own kids, who’ve grown up in silence. (I choose the word advisedly: <a href="https://breakingthesilence.org.il/">Breaking the Silence</a> is an Israeli NGO established by Israel Defense Forces veterans to talk about their experiences in the Occupied Territories since 2000.) My failure to discuss Israel with my children, even if I don’t have answers, is my fault. The first time I <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/never-never-land">publicly wrestled</a> with the subject of talking to kids about Israel when you’re dismayed by Israel, I got an email from a reader who wrote, “Jews like you are how my family ended up in the ovens.” Now I think if you’re not being accused of being a self-hating Jew by some folks and a Zionist stooge by others, <a href="https://www.vox.com/23954323/return-of-liberal-zionism-israel">you’re doing something wrong</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a77KZC">
As part of my self-education, I decided to reread <em>Exodus</em> and watch the movie, which I’d never seen. (Spoiler alert: This is one of those rare cases in which the movie is better than the book. Which is damning with faint praise.)
</p>
<div>
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An illustration of Paul Newman as Ari, holding a gun, with Alexandra Stewart as Jordana in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NKo-bjkUHb9gakxcUGv9I2DrRoI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25212103/MMDEXOD_EC002.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy Everett Collection</cite>
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Original poster art for <em>Exodus</em> by Silvano Campeggi.
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</figure>
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<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A papercut-style illustration of figures hoisting a flag with the film’s title on it, with flames in the foreground. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Dw2DQsM3unPJ9GrToXPfYgXx-u4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25212130/MMDEXOD_EC003.jpg"/> <cite>Courtesy Everett Collection</cite>
<figcaption>
Another poster for <em>Exodus</em>, this one by Saul Bass.
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1E2f4S">
<em>Exodus</em> is a novel, but the foreword begins, “Most of the events in <em>Exodus</em> are a matter of history and public record.” The rest of the book’s 608 (!) pages are filled with a litany of historical names and real places. There’s no afterword offering clarification; I had to keep looking up what was factual and what Uris had invented. The Jewish characters are wholly noble, though their politics differ, with some swearing by diplomacy and others by violent freedom-fighting. The Arabs — both Christian and Muslim — are evil cartoons. Uris luxuriates in phrases like “so illiterate and so backward,” “blood orgy,” “slithering along the ground with knives between their teeth,” “nearly insane with rage,” and “the dregs of humanity.” He makes sweeping generalizations like “There was little song or laughter or joy in Arab life. It was a constant struggle to survive. In this atmosphere, cunning, treachery, murder, feuds, and jealousies became a way of life.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gagJF7">
The book proffers only two good Arabs. One is Kammal, the village leader who says, “The Jews are the only salvation for the Arab people. The Jews are the only ones in a thousand years who have brought light to this part of the world.” (When Kammal’s weak-willed son Taha takes over as mukhtar, he spends his time obsessing over having forbidden sex with Jordana and preparing to betray her brother Ari.) The other good Arab is Mussa, the Druze who saves Ari’s life when he’s shot by British soldiers after breaking his uncle out of jail. Mussa is essentially faceless, but has a “carriage of dignity” and a village that’s “sparkling white and clean in comparison to the filth and decay of most Arab villages.” How nice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WsWRlN">
<em>Exodus</em>’s Jews just want to live in peace. The only time they do something bad, it’s “a strange and inexplicable sequence of events” — a mysterious accident! In a short passage based on the real-life 1948 Deir Yassin massacre, in which Zionist paramilitary groups attacked a village of mostly women and children, Uris says, “a panic broke out among Maccabee troops and they opened up a wild and unnecessary firing.” Strange! Inexplicable! His problem with the massacre isn’t the dead innocents; it’s that it “fixed a stigma on the young nation that it would take decades to erase.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-left c-float-hang">
<aside id="CXFpxS">
<q><em>Exodus</em> is a novel, but the foreword begins, “Most of the events in Exodus are a matter of history and public record.”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N3E2v7">
The 1948 narrative I and so many others grew up with, the one depicted in <em>Exodus,</em> maintains that Arab leaders, both in Palestine and in the wider world, told residents to flee while Jews begged them to stay. We now know this isn’t true. Left-leaning Israeli media have <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2018-04-20/ty-article-magazine/.premium/hidden-stories-of-the-nakba/0000017f-e929-d62c-a1ff-fd7bf36e0000">reported</a> on the Israeli government’s ever-increasing efforts to suppress scholarship on 1948-era Palestine and its history, including the fact that Zionists attacked Arab residents and seized their land. Palestinians are more than justified in calling their own Exodus <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGVgjS98OsU">the Nakba</a> — the Catastrophe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SiIPlL">
The argument that Uris and the modern Jewish right share, that non-Jewish Palestinians <em>chose </em>to leave, isn’t correct. The insistence that Israel is inherently virtuous because, after the Nakba, it did what America refused to do and accepted Jewish refugees (this time, the ones expelled from or threatened with murder in the Arab countries in which they were residing in 1948) isn’t relevant. Absorbing all those refugees meant less land — or the impossibility of return — for the Palestinians. Jews deserve a homeland, but so do Palestinians. As I sighed to my kids: It’s complicated. But I also need them to know that there are Jews working for the rights of Palestinians. Organizations like <a href="https://truah.org">T’ruah</a>, <a href="https://www.nif.org">the New Israel Fund</a>, and <a href="https://www.btselem.org">B’Tselem</a> have long focused on peace and human rights throughout Israel and the Jewish world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1KKodA">
When I sat down to watch <em>Exodus,</em> the movie, with my home-from-college kid (who quickly fled, noting, “This is boring”), I was surprised to find it more nuanced than the book. Director Otto Preminger explicitly rejected Uris’s rabid anti-Arab prejudice. “I don’t believe that there are any real villains,” he later said. Preminger hired Uris, who had written a successful screenplay, <em>Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,</em> to adapt his novel into a movie but quickly wound up firing him. Preminger claimed he tried to work with Uris’s script but gave up a third of the way through; Uris claimed he never wrote a word and was fired for his beliefs. Uris said, “Otto was a terrorist — he’s Arafat, a Nazi, Saddam Hussein.” Preminger replaced him with the <a href="https://collider.com/hollywood-blacklist-changed-movies-explained-dalton-trumbo/">then-blacklisted</a> non-Jewish screenwriter Dalton Trumbo; it was Trumbo’s first script credit since his refusal to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6IuyRg">
“I think my picture is closer to the truth, and to the historic facts, than is the book,” said Preminger. In a strangely prescient snippet of dialogue not in the book, Ari objects to his uncle Akiva’s attacks on unsanctioned targets: “I think these bombings and these killings hurt us with the United Nations,” he says. “A year ago, we had the respect of the whole world. Now, when they read about us, it’s nothing but terror and violence.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zv0hFG">
Preminger’s claim that his film “avoids propaganda” is debatable, though. It still features a rousing speech from a Jerusalem balcony, in which Ari’s father Barak, a diplomatic Jewish leader played by Lee J. Cobb, tells a vast cheering crowd that the United Nations has voted to partition the land into two states and urges, “To the Arab population of Jewish Palestine, we make the following appeal: The Grand Mufti has asked you either to annihilate the Jewish population or to abandon your homes and your lands and to seek the weary path of exile. We implore you, remain in your homes and in your shops! And we shall work together as equals in the free state of Israel!” In reality, not so much.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Filming a crowd scene for the Otto Preminger film Exodus in 1959." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GgdspmHOmOayK2r7R5qTi8oEM28=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25211954/GettyImages_1077131528.jpg"/> <cite>Archive Photos/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A crowd scene being filmed for <em>Exodus</em>.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C9RIdY">
My kid is right: The movie isn’t great. It is three and a half hours long. (Comedian Mort Sahl supposedly stood up three hours into a screening and yelled, “Otto! <em>Let my people go!</em>”) Paul Newman is wooden. Preminger’s wife Hope Bryce told the director’s biographer that Newman and Preminger got off on the wrong foot when the actor arrived with five pages of notes and suggestions about his character and Preminger immediately informed him he wasn’t changing a word of Trumbo’s script. When filming began and Newman asked what Ari should be thinking in a certain scene while eavesdropping on two other characters, Preminger barked, “Oh for God’s sake, just stand there.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PWdYOw">
But as Ari Ben Canaan, Newman is at his most ravishing. Who cares about wooden acting when a human looks like <em>that</em>? Seeing this huge movie star (half-Jewish, as both <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5Z-HpHH9g">Adam Sandler</a> and my mother note) wearing a Star of David on his wet, bare, heaving chest — in his first scene, he’s just swum to shore in a heroic and strenuous reconnaissance mission, obviously — at a time when <a href="https://www.vox.com/23958988/bradley-cooper-maestro-jewish-nose-representation-hollywood-history">Jews were mostly depicted onscreen</a> in sword-and-sandal epics and generally played by the goyish and unpleasant Charlton Heston is surreal. Newman embodies exactly what Uris wanted from his Ari: an icy blue-eyed action hero, not a cringing shtetl weakling.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iyUrl2">
Sal Mineo — who also has a shirtless scene — gives an excellent performance as an angry young Holocaust survivor and Nazi rape victim. (Again, this is not in the book. Only Jewish women get raped in the book.) Mineo is naturalistic and emotional, and his chemistry with every other actor is magnetic. The movie’s action scenes are thrilling; there are flashes of humor the book lacks; the fact that the film was shot on location lends immediacy and verisimilitude. But it’s still cheesy, and it reminds me of how far away modern-day Israel is from the naïve, glorious promise of my childhood. I wonder how many other Jews my age and older have considered the ways in which <em>Exodus </em>warped our perception of the country and made us slow to demand better of it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1UjE8z">
I’d argue that it’s worthwhile for everyone to revisit books and movies they loved as kids. You too may be shocked to learn how you missed or even internalized some pretty problematic ideas. Real life is knotty and multistranded, and reductive storytelling harms us all. “Uris was a vivid and suspenseful writer,” said Prell — who, by the way, also read <em>Exodus</em> when she was 12 — “and a simple enough writer to tell a simple story about one of the most complicated places on earth.”
</p>
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ilzwFs">
The movie changes the book’s ending, making it bleaker. Ari stands over an open grave containing two corpses wrapped in linen. A double funeral, for an Arab and a Jew. Ari says, in Trumbo’s words, “I look at these two people and I want to howl like a dog. I want to shout ‘Murder!’ so that the whole world will hear it and never forget. It’s right that these two people should lie side by side in this grave, because they will share it in peace. But the dead always share the earth in peace. And that’s not enough. … I swear, on the bodies of these two people, that the day will come when Arab and Jew will share a peaceful life in this land that they have always shared in death.” But in the final shot of the film, a line of jeeps come, and the men and women with rifles hop in, and we know there will be more killing.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Why so many kids are still missing school</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An illustration shows several children writing and reading at school desks. Some children are negative-space silhouettes, showing that they are missing from class." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_tnqTgzFUfgb4ZA48Bs8Knko5JA=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73037512/ChronicAbsenteeism_Vox_MartaMonteiro.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
Marta Monteiro for Vox
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
What it means to be “chronically absent” — and why it matters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MNEFQr">
When schools reopened their doors after the peak of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">Covid-19 pandemic</a>, eager to “return to normal,” millions of students didn’t show up. Teachers prepared their classrooms to welcome children back to in-person learning, but millions of desks were unfilled. With an eye toward pandemic recovery, the government <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-highlights-efforts-support-k-12-education-students-go-back-school">allocated billions of dollars</a> to help students regain what they lost at the height of the pandemic, but many of them weren’t there to receive the aid.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t4DKEE">
Many of them were absent — and still are.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QGJzLl">
Some of the latest absenteeism data reveals the staggering impact the pandemic has had on student attendance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x1R7pG">
Before the pandemic, during the 2015–16 school year, an estimated<a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Hamilton_project_-reducing_chronic_absenteeism_under_the_every_student_succeeds_act.pdf"> 7.3 million students were</a> deemed “chronically absent,” meaning they had missed at least three weeks of school in an academic year. (According to the US Department of Education, there were <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018052/findings.asp#:~:text=In%20SY%202015%E2%80%9316%2C%20there,%E2%80%9315%20(Glander%202016).">50.33 million</a> K-12 students that year.) After the pandemic, the number of absent students has <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/chronic-absence/the-problem/">almost doubled</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SKab00">
Chronic absenteeism increased in every state where data was made public, and in Washington, DC, between the last pre-pandemic school year, 2018–19, and the 2021–22 school year, according to <a href="https://www.future-ed.org/tracking-state-trends-in-chronic-absenteeism/">data</a> from Future Ed, an education think tank. Locations with the highest increases saw their rates more than double. In California, for example, the pre-pandemic chronic absenteeism rate stood at 12.1 percent in 2018–19 and jumped to 30 percent in the 2021–22 school year. New Mexico experienced one of the largest increases, with the rate jumping from 18 percent before the pandemic to 40 percent after the pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BPhHdq">
There is so far some evidence, based on new state data from the 2022–23 school year, that attendance rates are rebounding, albeit slightly. Though chronic absenteeism rates remain notably higher than pre-pandemic levels, nearly two dozen states have reported decreases. Of the 31 states and Washington, DC, that have made <a href="https://www.future-ed.org/tracking-state-trends-in-chronic-absenteeism/">data</a> public, 21 reported moderate decreases of 5 percentage points or fewer. Michigan saw the greatest drop in chronic absenteeism, with a nearly 8 percentage-point decrease. But its 2022–23 rate, 30.8 percent, remains far above its pre-pandemic rate of 20 percent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QboKZh">
Experts point to deeper issues, some that have long troubled students and schools and others that are only now apparent in the aftermath of school shutdowns.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TEYuGb">
“When you see these high levels of chronic absence, it’s a reflection that the positive conditions of learning that are essential for motivating kids to show up to school have been eroded,” said Hedy Chang, the founder and executive director of Attendance Works, an organization that tracks attendance data and helps states address chronic absenteeism. “It’s a sign that kids aren’t feeling physically and emotionally healthy and safe. Belonging, connection, and support — in addition to the academic challenge and engagement and investments in student and adult well-being — are all so crucial to positive conditions for learning.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c9LEcy">
Despite increased attention to the topic, chronic absenteeism is not exactly new — until recently, it was considered a “<a href="https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/chronicabsenteeism.html">hidden educational crisis</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RCtzt1">
“This has been an ongoing issue and it didn’t just all of a sudden appear because the pandemic arose. Folks have been trying to address this issue for years,” said Joshua Childs, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies absenteeism interventions in communities and states. “It’s historically mainly impacted students from disadvantaged communities and underserved populations.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B5Xpk7">
What’s new about chronic absenteeism is that it now affects students from a variety of demographic backgrounds, from those in the suburbs and rural areas to those in cities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6roE0">
“Before the pandemic [there were] high levels of chronic absence for students with high needs: special education, who have [individual education plans], English learners, or free and reduced lunch students,” said Kari Sullivan Custer, an education consultant for attendance and engagement at the Connecticut State Department of Education. Though Connecticut has been lauded for its initiatives to track and address chronic absences, the pandemic still presented a significant roadblock. “The [state’s] opportunity districts had higher chronic absence rates prior to the pandemic, but once the pandemic hit, we started to see chronic absence rates escalate everywhere.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6CJ3eB">
The root causes of chronic absenteeism are vast. Poverty, illness, and a lack of <a href="https://www.vox.com/child-care">child care</a> and social services remain contributors to poor attendance, and some communities continue to struggle with <a href="https://www.vox.com/transportation">transportation</a> challenges; the pandemic has brought on a youth <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health">mental health</a> crisis that has caused students to miss school; parents have reframed how they think about illness, ready to keep their children home at the slightest signs of sickness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="87FPND">
The evidence has long been clear that absences contribute to lower achievement and worsen long-term economic outcomes for individual students and the country. Poor attendance influences whether a child can <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Attendance-in-the-Early-Grades.pdf">read proficiently</a> by the end of third grade. By sixth grade, <a href="http://www.baltimore-berc.org/pdfs/SixthGradeEWIFullReport.pdf">chronic absenteeism signals</a> that a student might drop out of high school.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8yHI5g">
“What we’re seeing is a large-scale failure for a substantial number of our students to reengage,” said Thomas Dee, a Stanford economist and the Barnett Family Professor of Education. “And it’s a very serious problem because we’re in the middle of a very important effort to try to address the educational harm that has unfairly fallen on this generation of students.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vOCQ2c">
There is hope. Chronic absenteeism can be addressed with preventative measures at the school level and with targeted approaches that meet students and families where they are. The pandemic has laid bare the reality that schools need to engage students and families with lessons and facilities that make children want to be there.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="9culso">
<q>“What we’re seeing is a large-scale failure for a substantial number of our students to reengage”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UL4x0Z">
“When we looked at the fall [2020] data and we realized that kids were not coming back to school and that they were falling behind in their learning, we knew we had to do something,” said Sullivan Custer. “Families were isolated. Families in our urban areas and other places were doubled up and there were a lot of people in a house, getting sick or, unfortunately, passing away from Covid. People were scared. And we wanted to reengage families with the school and to find out what’s happening with them. … [So we] put boots on the ground to go out and reach out to these families to say, ‘Hey, how are you? How can we help?’”
</p>
<h3 id="Jou2w1">
What exactly is chronic absenteeism, and why does it matter?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xeiSps">
A student is considered chronically absent when they miss 10 percent or more of the school year for any reason. The average school year for most schools across the country is 180 days long, which means that a chronically absent student typically misses at least 18 days of school or at least two days per month. Those absences can be for any reason.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R1C3AB">
Policymakers and researchers began using chronic absenteeism — rather than truancy, or unexcused absences — as a measure about 15 years ago. In a 2008 <a href="http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_837.pdf">report</a>, researchers found that students who miss nearly a month of school, or 10 percent of school days, are worse off academically. They also learned that absences in the early grades add up and have a negative effect on learning later on. Students who are chronically absent in kindergarten showed “lower achievement” in math, reading, and general knowledge in first grade, the researchers found.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="37BXCw">
“What we were trying to hit upon was a measure that predicted academic challenge,” said Chang, who helped research and popularize the concept. “But it’s also a common sense metric that people can use to notice early on when they can take action and prevent a child from becoming chronically absent for the entire school year.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ckOa8">
Chronic absenteeism and truancy are not interchangeable. Truancy only measures unexcused absences while chronic absenteeism measures unexcused and excused absences.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8yXCI2">
It may seem obvious that missing days of school might lead to worse academic outcomes for students, but schools didn’t draw causal conclusions about absenteeism until they were pushed to collect the data and analyze it. Under the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn">Every Student Succeeds Act</a> (ESSA), which President Obama signed into law in 2015, states were required to publicly report on five measures of student success. By 2017, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/09/26/550686419/majority-of-states-plan-to-use-chronic-absence-to-measure-schools-success">almost all states decided</a> to collect and report on chronic absenteeism as a way to measure student success or school quality and continue to do so today.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6kh1iL">
According to Chang, used to collect attendance on paper and simply used the “average daily attendance” measure — how many students show up on a given day — or a tally of unexcused absences. These methods overlook chronic absences. With classes as large as 30 students, it might be easy for a teacher to miss attendance patterns earlier in the school year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nT4VLf">
“People don’t realize how easily absences can add up. … When we think about a kid who misses school often, we might think about the kid who missed a week or two,” said Chang. “What we’re not always thinking about is the kid [who misses] one day here and another day here. And by the end of the year, you’ve added up to so much time lost in the classroom that you’re actually academically at risk.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7aMprs">
Paying closer attention to chronic absenteeism is not meant to be a scarlet letter for students but simply a way for educators to take note of the kind of outreach students and families might need.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CIyf6E">
Chronic absenteeism worsens existing problems and can lead to poor academic and long-term economic outcomes for students at all grade levels. Students who are chronically absent in early grades can set off a domino effect of negative consequences: Chronically absent<a href="https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/preschool-attendance-chicago-public-schools-relationships-learning-outcomes-and-reasons"> preschoolers</a> are more likely to have difficulty reading on grade level by the second grade.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QhCIhK">
And if they still <a href="https://www.aecf.org/blog/fourth-grade-reading-proficiency-2022">can’t read on grade level by fourth grade</a>, they are more likely to drop out of high school, which decreases their earning potential later on in life. For older students, each week of absences per semester in ninth grade is connected to a more than<a href="https://toandthrough.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/UChiToThrough_Mythbusters_vWeb.pdf"> 20 percentage-point decline</a> in the probability of graduating from high school, University of Chicago researchers observed about Chicago students. By comparison, “college-ready students,” those who are likely to enroll and persist in college, have<a href="https://toandthrough.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/UChiToThrough_Mythbusters_vWeb.pdf"> average attendance rates of 98 percent</a>, meaning they miss less than a week over the course of an entire school year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6293JH">
Constant absences create chaotic classroom environments, with teachers needing to help students make up missed work or missing students disrupting the balance of classrooms that might be necessary for certain lessons. Chronic absenteeism increases educational inequality since it has risen more among disadvantaged students, particularly those with disabilities and those from lower-income households.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oz7Ino">
There are other less explored areas when it comes to the impact of absences. “We need to talk more about what this means for the trajectory of students beyond their time in K-12,” said Childs. “What might their post-secondary education look like or how will this affect their ability to get and keep a job?”
</p>
<h3 id="Wkuqo8">
What the latest chronic absenteeism numbers tell us about attendance
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="puUQ0i">
The latest data point to a rise in chronic absenteeism that won’t rebound without concerted efforts to get students back into classrooms each day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aMUkdC">
Dee collected data from 40 states and Washington, DC, which collectively serve more than 92 percent of all K-12 public school students in the country. He examined changes between the last school year before the start of the pandemic, 2018–19, and the last year for which comprehensive data is available, 2021–22, and found that chronic absenteeism increased in every state between 4 to 23 percentage points.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="enTOEc">
The overall chronic absenteeism rate was 14.8 percent in 2018–19 and jumped to 28.3 percent in 2021–22, as students returned to in-person learning.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J3t6Dr">
Between those school years, the number of students who were chronically absent grew by 13.5 percentage points, with an additional 6.5 million students considered chronically absent, according to Dee’s research.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vfrjOz">
New Mexico experienced the highest increase, a 22.5 percentage-point jump, from about 18 percent to 40 percent between those two school years. Alaska, which had the highest chronic absenteeism rate at about 48.5 percent in 2021–22, experienced a similar rate of increase. Washington, DC, had the second highest rate of chronic absenteeism at 48 percent.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TDoY9irc1JXy7MGerYxnemPc5Wc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25212902/chronic_absenteeism_increased_chart.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AQTDOZ">
Dee also found that this increase in absenteeism occurred outside of enrollment loss, Covid-19 case rates, and school masking <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a>. According to Dee’s analysis, the growth in chronic absenteeism was on average similar across states with different masking rules and the spike in chronic absenteeism can’t all be explained by Covid-19 illness and a delay in students returning to in-person learning.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ioJyX6">
When Dee analyzed data at the district level, he determined that the increases in chronic absenteeism, though similar for male and female students, were larger for low-income students as well as Black and Hispanic students.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rh2dZO">
“I looked across a number of states and chronic absenteeism was consistently larger among minoritized students, and also among economically disadvantaged students,” said Dee. “That being said, it was also quite broad, even among students who were not economically disadvantaged and among white students, where we saw substantial increases.”
</p>
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Chang found similar patterns in the data.
</p>
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“High levels of chronic absence are especially concentrated in places that are economically challenged,” she said. About 69 percent of schools in which 75 percent of their students take free and reduced price lunch now have extreme levels of chronic absence whereas only about a quarter did before the pandemic, according to Chang.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="CYBhRw">
<q>“chronic absenteeism was consistently larger among minoritized students, and also among economically disadvantaged students”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HBCqWI">
When it comes to race and ethnicity, Native American, Pacific Islander, Latino, and African American kids are disproportionately affected by chronic absenteeism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tirdtE">
There has also been a shift for English learners, 36 percent of whom are now chronically absent, Chang said.
</p>
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“In California, for example, it used to be that young English language learners, let’s say kindergarteners, were actually not really more likely than English-speaking peers to be chronically absent. And in some communities they actually showed up more often,” Chang said. “That is no longer the case. Something happened [in] the relationship between English learner families and schools. I think it is connected to who got heavily affected by the pandemic. They were essential workers.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l7PgxF">
In addition, there were changes by grade level. There have typically been higher levels of absences in middle and high school, and they remain heavily impacted, but the largest increase in absences is happening in elementary schools. Before the pandemic, there were about 3,550 elementary schools with extreme levels of chronic absence, meaning 30 percent or more of their kids were chronically absent. Now, close to 20,000 elementary schools have 30 percent or more of their students deemed chronically absent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NBkazt">
High levels of chronic absenteeism don’t just affect the children who are absent. “The churn is affecting the learning experience [and] the teaching experience of everyone in the school,” Chang said.
</p>
<h3 id="I7nLX4">
What’s behind the chronic absenteeism surge
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XSlDVu">
By many measures, the pandemic has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23584869/covid-coronavirus-school-closures-remote-education-learning-loss-psychological-depression-teens">education’s most substantial disruption</a> for the way it i<a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/10/23162826/pandemic-learning-loss-remote-school-research">mpacted students of all backgrounds</a>. When it comes to attendance, the pandemic disrupted habits, exacerbating traditional causes of chronic absence and introducing new ones.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mFW2vz">
Reasons for missing school fall into <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/chronic-absence/addressing-chronic-absence/3-tiers-of-intervention/root-causes/">four categories</a>, according to Attendance Works: “barriers,” “aversion to school,” “disengagement,” and “misconceptions about the purpose of attendance.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RBOuGf">
Barriers include illness, poor transportation, neighborhood violence, housing and food insecurity, and responsibilities at home. Asthma, which is <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2019/19_0074.htm">more prevalent</a> among low-income and racial and ethnic minority students and students in urban areas, is the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4914465/">leading chronic illness</a> that forces kids to miss school. Some studies have found that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/children-who-take-the-school-bus-have-fewer-absences/">students who take the school bus</a> have fewer absences while another <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/study-links-longer-school-bus-rides-to-chronic-absenteeism/2022/06">linked long bus rides</a> to chronic absenteeism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wWprUw">
Low-income parents with young children lack access to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/4/17/23667770/child-care-crisis-prek-family-immigration">affordable child care</a> and sometimes resort to having older children look after younger siblings at home. These students deprioritize school to meet family responsibilities.
</p>
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“Students missing in urban areas might be working jobs or having health care issues like asthma and obesity. Students in suburban areas may be considered chronically absent but they’re missing school for reasons like college visits and family vacations,” said Childs. “What it means to be chronically absent can be different based on where students live, the type of school they’re in, and the resources that they have access to.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qDsNQI">
Students who are school averse struggle with academic or behavioral challenges; they might not feel like they fit in socially and face anxiety as a result. The<a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2023/covid-19-pandemic-associated-with-worse-mental-health-and-accelerated-brain-development-in-adolescents#:~:text=Compared%20to%20the%20pre%2Dpandemic,depression%20and%20greater%20internalizing%20problems."> NIH</a> found that young people reported greater anxiety and depression after the pandemic. An EdWeek Research Center <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/students-are-missing-school-because-theyre-too-anxious-to-show-up/2023/10">survey</a> conducted between August and September 2023 of more than 1,000 high schoolers found that anxiety, aside from bad weather, was a top reason they missed school. Bullying may create an unwelcoming school environment and force kids to stay home. Students with undiagnosed disabilities and unmet disability needs are also likelier to stay home.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VE3QpP">
Studies have found that when students find classroom lessons to be boring, unchallenging, or <a href="https://www.apertureed.com/resources/reduce-chronic-absenteeism-social-emotional-learning">culturally unresponsive</a>, they might stay away from school.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fEX9BT">
Ultimately, if families don’t understand the impact of even a few absences, the importance of school attendance won’t be prioritized at home. Some parents might think that missing two days of school each month is no big deal or that attendance only matters at higher grade levels. Others might believe that excused absences don’t matter, unaware of how broader absence patterns form.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uFSHLC">
Some education leaders warn that the pandemic changed the way parents and students think about school. Attendance is now viewed as optional for some parents, while others have grown more sensitive to the slightest signs of illness in their children.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7nM82e">
In August, the chief medical director for the Los Angeles Unified School District posted an online <a href="https://www.lausd.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&amp;DomainID=4&amp;ModuleInstanceID=4466&amp;ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&amp;RenderLoc=0&amp;FlexDataID=135622&amp;PageID=1">notice</a> to parents stating that it is “not practical for working parents to keep children home from school for every runny nose” and that it is not “in the best interest of children to continue to miss school after pandemic school closures.” The district, which has seen a large spike in absenteeism related to student medical issues, instructed parents to send kids to school if they test negative for Covid-19, where they can wear a mask if they have mild symptoms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="km2wWh">
District leaders have recognized that because there are so many different reasons why students miss school, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to solving chronic absenteeism. When the Connecticut State Department of Education conducted a summer 2023 survey of families and received 5,400 responses in English and Spanish, they realized the full extent of the challenges families faced, from RSV and the flu to allergies and mental health roadblocks. “Kids had kind of gotten used to not having to go to school every day for all of these reasons,” said Sullivan Custer. “And a lot of parents stay home for work now, too. We fell out of that habit and practice of get up, get ready, and go. Getting everybody to come back has been part of the challenge.”
</p>
<h3 id="AZKsk7">
States are already putting new initiatives to the test
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6R3bKO">
Experts fear that federal, state, and local investments in academic recovery won’t work if students aren’t there to benefit from them. Through the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22310269/third-stimulus-update-2021-package">American Rescue Plan</a>, the federal government has invested nearly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/04/18/schools-covid-relief-spending-aftermath/">$190 billion</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/magazine/covid-aid-schools.html">support academic recovery efforts</a> across all states. The education relief package is intended to help bolster pandemic response efforts, provide fiscal relief to state and school budgets, and support student academic and mental health recovery efforts, according to the <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/how-schools-are-spending-unprecedented-education-relief-funding#:~:text=Districts%20spent%20the%20largest%20share,increase%20educator%20and%20staff%20compensation.">National Conference of State Legislatures</a>. States reported that they planned to use most of the money on academic interventions such as tutoring and hiring more educators and other staff.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vBbhTJ">
“Educators are facing these challenges at a time when the resources available then for them to do this may be vanishing due to the so-called fiscal cliff,” said Dee. “This is a critique of states and districts that have had these resources for years and have been slow to spend them or to spend them with transparency. But we’re now in a position where these very serious educational challenges remain, but the resources available to meet those challenges are going to disappear.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oywd4z">
Some states and localities are already responding to the rise in chronic absenteeism. Connecticut <a href="https://www.future-ed.org/how-home-visits-helped-connecticut-cut-student-absenteeism/">used $10.7 million</a> in Covid-19 relief money to develop a home visit program that addressed more than 8,600 students in 15 opportunity zones. An <a href="https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/CCERC/Reports/CCERC-Exec-Summary-LEAP_FINAL.pdf">analysis</a> found that the home visits increased individual students’ attendance rate by about 4 percentage points in the month right after the visit and continued to increase in the months after. Connecticut’s <a href="https://www.future-ed.org/tracking-state-trends-in-chronic-absenteeism/">chronic absenteeism rate</a> shot up from 10 percent in 2018–19 to 24 percent during the 2021–22 school year. It slightly decreased to 20 percent in 2022–23.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="osEDcC">
<q>“we’re now in a position where these very serious educational challenges remain, but the resources available to meet those challenges are going to disappear”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ka1JLF">
A core purpose of the home visits was to build relationships with students and their families to understand their barriers, find solutions, and not place blame. Leaders expect the absenteeism rate to continue to decrease in the coming years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="03wWxq">
Other states, including <a href="https://www.mainepublic.org/education-news/2023-11-24/student-absenteeism-fell-slightly-in-maine-during-the-last-school-year">Maine</a> and <a href="https://www.nj.gov/education/safety/sandp/attendance/docs/ImprovingAttendance.pdf">New Jersey</a>, are launching similar efforts and setting up attendance teams in schools to analyze attendance data and develop solutions to meet student needs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EgWByN">
New Mexico <a href="https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/ALESC%20111523%20Item%208%20.1%20School%20Attendance%20and%20Chronic%20Absence-Final%20Attendance%20Report%20-%20All%20Files.pdf">state guidance</a> requires school districts to create an attendance plan that includes tiered interventions, starting with prevention efforts for all students and shifting to intensive ones that target students facing severe challenges. One <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2023/8/31/23853030/chronic-absenteeism-detroit-school-attendance-dpscd-brightmoor">Detroit school</a> paired chronically absent students with adult mentors in the school building, developed a home visitation system, tracked attendance patterns, and provided incentives such as trips to the movies for students and food shopping gift cards for parents. Previous <a href="https://education.wayne.edu/detroit_ed_research/derp_why_do_detroit_students_miss_school_final.pdf">reports</a> identified <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/why-detroit-students-miss-school/">transportation challenges</a> as a leading cause of chronic absenteeism in Detroit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LGrE8a">
Experts agree that <a href="https://www.attendanceworks.org/the-urgent-need-to-avoid-punitive-responses-to-poor-attendance/">punitive responses</a> to chronic absenteeism only damage school relationships with students and families. Fines alienate families and suspensions only cause students to miss more days.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MgU2kW">
It’s also about meeting families where they are. “As researchers we can point to the high numbers and shout about all the kids who are missing and how this is bad and problematic,” said Childs. “But to a family that’s got to make a decision about whether you can put food on the table or attend school, there are some clear choices around that.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E8SiHh">
Despite these efforts, chronic absenteeism still plagues school districts — a sign that battling it will take time and consistent effort. Leaders in Santa Fe hired new attendance coaches and offered students incentives, such as a pop-up science exhibit, to improve their attendance in response to their 2021–22 rate, yet just over half of students remained chronically absent in the 2022–23 year, according to<a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/9/28/23893221/chronic-absenteeism-attendance-santa-fe-orlando-schools"> Chalkbeat</a>. After the start of the pandemic, New Mexico’s absenteeism rate rose to 40 percent and remained at 39 percent the following school year. Before the pandemic, it was at 18 percent. The results prove that there is no immediate fix to chronic absenteeism. “We know we still have work to do,” Crystal Ybarra, the Santa Fe school district’s chief equity, diversity, and engagement officer, told Chalkbeat. “We’re still trying to figure out the steps post-pandemic. Everybody wants to see a quick fix, and that’s just not how initiatives work.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N7GM8B">
Schools have also tried a number of other creative ideas, from increasing teacher pay to upgrading facilities. Others have increased correspondence with families by sending postcards and text messages, which has proven effective.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="21DI21">
To address transportation issues, some schools are adding bus stops for various neighborhoods or arranging chaperoned walking groups. Other schools have recognized how food insecurity affects their students and that free breakfast is necessary. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/us/schools-laundry-rooms.html">Laundry rooms at schools</a> is a novel strategy that has helped some chronically absent students who don’t have access to washing machines at home. Some community schools have beaten chronic absenteeism by giving families access to the resources they need, all on one campus.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AnAXn1">
There are so many crises in education, researchers told Vox, and it’s key to not lose sight of progress.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3HLRYX">
“[We need] celebrations, [for] who’s doing well, those students who have improved attendance … those schools that are seeing a difference,” Sullivan Custer said. “Just seeing that it can be done, it’s not hopeless … We definitely have the ability to turn this around. It might take a little while, but we’re just going to keep right at it, being positive and focusing on the successes.”
</p></li>
<li><strong>Are $18 Big Macs the price of falling inequality?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A McDonald’s worker hands a paper bag to a customer at a drive-through window in Houston, Texas." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pi2bHrxDNGpD36FQi_G09TWt7qQ=/688x0:6192x4128/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73037484/1331161379.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A McDonald’s customer receives his order at a drive-through in Houston, Texas. | Brandon Bell/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Even socialists are bristling at the rising cost of fast food. 
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ICF29q">
Over the holidays, extremely online progressives debated the most important theoretical question facing the American left today: Is grousing about the price of a Big Mac counterrevolutionary?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0eJlMq">
For months now, political observers have been squabbling over whether the Biden <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a>’s unpopularity reflects its genuine weaknesses or voters’ collective failure to recognize its virtues. On the one hand, the president did preside over a sustained period of exceptionally high inflation. On the other, Americans’ real wages and net worths are higher than they were before the pandemic, unemployment is near historic lows, paychecks are rising faster than prices, and economic growth <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/29/us-gdp-grew-at-a-5point2percent-rate-in-the-third-quarter-even-stronger-than-first-indicated.html#:~:text=U.S.%20GDP%20grew%20at%20a,even%20stronger%20than%20first%20indicated">exceeded 5 percent</a> in the third quarter of 2023.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fsG0ng">
But in late December, the socialist commentator Doug Henwood noted that a far more important economic indicator showed the US economy in crisis, posting <a href="https://twitter.com/DougHenwood/status/1740790933661311424">on X</a>, “Can’t imagine why people think this isn’t a great economy. Lunch for three at McDonald’s: $44!!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pGTTAo">
Many liberals proceeded to <a href="https://twitter.com/ArmandDoma/status/1740794374794231846">accuse</a> Henwood of tacitly lamenting fast food workers’ wage gains. After all, such workers had secured <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/23/fast-food-wages-climbed-10percent-in-latest-quarter-the-largest-jump-in-years-report-says.html">large raises</a> in recent years, thereby increasing their employers’ labor costs, and thus, menu prices. As Matt Yglesias <a href="https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1741083849889611858">noted</a>, Big Macs had historically been $1.53 more expensive in social democratic Norway than in the United States. Complaining about a $44 McDonald’s bill was, therefore, a textbook case of bourgeois deviationism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QSNTdz">
All this was a bit unfair. Henwood <a href="https://twitter.com/DougHenwood/status/1741156953076678805">insisted</a> that he was merely citing his extraordinary Mickey D’s bill as an illustration of elevated food prices. Which is reasonable; the costs of commodities like bread and beef are major determinants of burger joint prices. And the socialist radio host was also, almost certainly, a victim of price-gouging: Henwood said he had purchased his meal at a highway rest stop, where fast food chains often exploit famished drivers’ limited options by charging them a premium for quick calories.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GoMjub">
Nevertheless, Henwood is <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/19/mcdonalds-branch-slammed-for-charging-18-for-a-big-mac-meal/">far from alone</a> in bristling at inflation in the quick eats sector. Recent months have witnessed many a viral complaint about, say, <a href="https://twitter.com/sam_learner/status/1681367351143301129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1681367351143301129%7Ctwgr%5Eb405cfa363fd495f29737b25efbbb6677b55b8cd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2023%2F07%2F19%2Fmcdonalds-branch-slammed-for-charging-18-for-a-big-mac-meal%2F">$18 Big Mac combo meals</a>. And for progressives, such discontent may be symptomatic of a genuine political challenge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WUPVVu">
Reducing wage inequality typically requires increasing the cost of labor-intensive services, at least for a period. In the long run, thinning the ranks of the working poor can leave almost everyone in society better off. In the short term, however, middle-class households can experience low-income workers’ wage gains as a burden. Ideally, we would mitigate that burden by tackling other cost pressures through public policy. But at a minimum, progressives should avoid affirming the idea that the measure of our economy’s vitality is the affordability of its quarter-pounders.
</p>
<h3 id="XRj9Ck">
As income inequality fell, public discontent with the economy rose
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PFv2u3">
In recent years, the US economy has grown less unequal and more unpopular.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zGekba">
Between 2020 and 2022, workers at the bottom of America’s income distribution saw their <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/29/low-income-wages-employment-00097135">real wages grow by 5.7 percent</a>, even as those at the top saw their real pay drop by 5 percent. As a result, income inequality shrank. Since the height of the pandemic, roughly 40 percent of that post-Reagan jump in inequality has been erased, according to a <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w31010/w31010.pdf">recent working paper</a> from the economists David Autor, Arindrajit Dube, and Annie McGrew.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zqlCSb">
As low-wage workers’ living standards rose, however, the American public’s assessment of the economy soured. In January 2020, more than 60 percent of US adults described their nation’s economic conditions as “excellent” or “good” <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/511868/americans-weak-economic-ratings-slip-further-september.aspx">in Gallup’s polling</a>. By last fall, that figure had dropped to 20 percent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ri4tV7">
These two trends aren’t necessarily related. After all, the median US worker saw their purchasing power decline for most of 2021 and 2022 <a href="https://www.vox.com/money/2023/8/10/23824742/real-wages-economy-inflation-no-money">as prices rose faster than wages</a>. And while inflation slowed markedly in 2023, the price level remains elevated. Inequality is an abstract concept; prices are a concrete burden. We wouldn’t expect the typical American to care more about a reduction in the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/what-is-the-gini-coefficient">Gini coefficient</a> than an increase in their grocery bills.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8tl6bD">
Yet there is some reason to worry that the newfound bargaining power of low-wage workers is contributing to the broader public’s discontent. With a high demand for labor, such workers have been able to demand better compensation or quit unremunerative jobs. That in turn has reduced the availability and affordability of labor-intensive services. Child care has grown harder to come by as workers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/us/child-care-worker-shortage.html">have left that industry for higher-paying jobs</a>. And, as Henwood’s controversial post illustrated, fast food has grown more expensive as food service workers have secured better pay.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YiUqzp">
The Republican Party was quick to politicize the latter phenomenon. In June 2021, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) — the body responsible for electing a GOP House majority — released an <a href="https://www.nrcc.org/2021/06/09/your-burrito-just-got-more-expensive/">official statement</a> blaming <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>’s “socialist stimulus bill” for the fact that Chipotle was raising its menu prices by 4 percent in order “to cover the cost of increased employee wages.” In so doing, the GOP effectively bet that opposing raises for food service workers was good politics.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zbmhEt">
Since then, menu prices at fast food restaurants have increased considerably. Such prices rose <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf">6 percent last year</a>, after advancing by <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_01122023.pdf">6.6 percent</a> in 2022 and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_01122022.pdf">8 percent in 2021</a>. Inflation has been even more pronounced at some signature chains. In its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-food-isnt-cheap-anymore-2023-11#:~:text=In%20its%20latest%20earnings%20call,increase%20in%20fiscal%20year%202022.">earnings call</a> in October, McDonald’s said that it expected to have raised menu prices at its US locations by roughly 10 percent by the end of 2023, after hiking prices 10 percent the previous fiscal year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZpDHE5">
Many viral complaints about burger prices have ensued. Last year, a Financial Times journalist expressed shock on X at a $17.59 Big Mac combo meal and had his incredulity written up by the <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/19/mcdonalds-branch-slammed-for-charging-18-for-a-big-mac-meal/">New York Post</a>. <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12710909/McDonalds-customers-unaffordable-price-burger-fries-soda.html">TikTok</a> influencers have turned their anguish at exorbitant McDonald’s bills into hit video content, with legions of commenters expressing their own outrage at the cost of such unhappy meals.
</p>
<h3 id="Seyxt9">
How do we know that rising wages have helped supersize McDonald’s prices?<strong> </strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d2KMFK">
Fast food prices are determined by a variety of factors. According to Michael Reich, an economist with University of California Berkeley’s Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, food accounts for one-third of the quick-service industry’s operating costs; commercial rent and non-food materials account for another third; and wages make up the rest. Therefore, when rent and meat get more expensive, that puts upward pressure on fast food prices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yvbapJ">
Businesses don’t merely charge what they must in order to meet expenses; they charge what they can get. When consumers have more money to spend, fast food chains tend to have more scope for raising prices without losing business. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen substantial increases in both demand for quick-service meals, and the costs of food and rent. So, wage growth is by no means solely responsible for the rising cost of Egg McMuffins.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RAe4Cj">
Nevertheless, the improving fortunes of low-wage workers is a key part of the story. Between the pandemic’s onset and August 2023, the average hourly wage at a limited-service restaurant increased by nearly 30 percent, according to Labor Department data reported in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-11-02/labor-shock-and-pay-raises-fuel-a-restaurant-transformation">Bloomberg</a> and the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/restaurant-staffers-are-returning-to-work-after-covid-flight-11671927341">Wall Street Journal</a>. According to Reich, for every percentage point increase in a fast food firm’s labor costs, one might expect to see a bit less than a 0.333 percentage point increase in menu prices. This is a rough estimate, but it’s a decent rule of thumb. And it would imply that rising wages have nudged fast food prices up by more than 9 percent since the pandemic’s onset.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WFjMir">
In other words, to an extent, costlier quarter-pounders are the price of progress on wage inequality.
</p>
<h3 id="wQzXUs">
When workers get raises, the economy can profit
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uNhwxV">
If the burgeoning bargaining power of less-skilled workers comes at middle-class consumers’ expense in the short run, almost everyone stands to benefit from rising working-class wages in the long term.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wqbaV5">
Middle-class households can more easily afford servants in <a href="https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/TMR/article/view/5514">many developing countries</a> than they can in the United States. Yet America’s middle class is nevertheless far wealthier than its counterparts in India or Pakistan. Even the privileged are generally better off in an economy with high levels of labor productivity than in one with a large pool of hyper-exploitable workers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F9D3WT">
And there’s reason to believe that rising working-class wages are a key driver of productivity gains. When workers’ time is cheap, businesses have little incentive to develop labor-saving technologies or production methods. As wage bills rise, by contrast, innovation often becomes imperative.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tWk2BC">
Ironically, conservatives often <a href="https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor/commentary/now-would-be-terrible-time-raise-the-minimum-wage">cite this reality</a> as an argument against increasing the minimum wage. Specifically, right-wing economists and commentators have often warned that raising the wage floor will cause employers to automate jobs away. Yet this is another way of saying that minimum wage hikes increase investment in productivity-enhancing technology (which is the ostensible aim of just about every Republican tax cut plan).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dWi045">
In any case, it is true that when wages rise at the bottom of the labor market, firms invest in labor-saving technology. In 2018, Grace Lordan and David Neumark <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w23667/w23667.pdf">demonstrated this</a> empirically. Those economists reviewed 35 years of government census data, identified jobs that could be automated given existing technology, and found that after minimum wage increases were enacted, “the share of automatable employment held by low-skilled workers” declined. In other words, minimum wage hikes spurred capital investment and increased productivity by mechanizing tasks that did not require uniquely human skills.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o6XVm3">
The notion that high wages spur productivity gains is consistent with the American economy’s broader historical record. As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/upshot/the-economy-is-getting-hotter-is-a-productivity-boom-next.html">Neil Irwin observed</a> in 2018, productivity booms have tended to follow labor market booms, while deep recessions have given way to productivity slumps.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NHuwqL">
This relationship between wage gains and productivity can be witnessed within today’s food service industry. As <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-11-02/labor-shock-and-pay-raises-fuel-a-restaurant-transformation">Bloomberg</a>’s Justin Fox notes, as restaurant wages jumped between 2020 and 2021, the sector’s output per worker hour soared by 21 percent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9vN1Xq">
In the short term, these productivity gains have not been sufficient to reduce restaurants’ operating costs and, thus, prices. But in the long term, when businesses increase the labor efficiency of their production processes, their wares tend to become more affordable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5UvZyV">
A world of cheap burgers and high working-class wages is therefore possible. Middle-class consumers need not see the rising fortunes of less-skilled workers as a threat to their standard of living.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HOBeBo">
For the moment, though, there is a genuine tension between boosting compensation for America’s most vulnerable workers and minimizing the cost of labor-intensive services for the nation’s consumers. Precisely how liberals can best navigate this tension isn’t easy to say. At the very least, though, we should not encourage our fellow Americans to mistake the symptoms of rising worker power for those of a deepening economic crisis.
</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>ICC rates Newlands pitch as unsatisfactory after shortest-ever Test in history</strong> - India defeated the hosts by seven wickets in the match, which turned out to be the shortest-ever in the history of Test 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>Mohammed Shami, para archer Sheetal conferred with National Sports Awards</strong> - Shuttlers Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were chosen for the coveted Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award for a breakout 2023</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>WTC has made it worse for Test cricket: Butcher</strong> - Former Australia skipper Steve Waugh also came down heavily on the ICC and top cricket boards, including the BCCI, after Cricket South Africa named as many as seven uncapped players in a 14-man squad for the two-Test series</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>Subcontinent pitches rated sub-par more often, yet Test matches end faster everywhere | Data</strong> - After the second Test match between India and South Africa ended inside two days, Rohit Sharma said there was a double-standard to rating pitches in India</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>Morning Digest | SC says remission to Bilkis Bano convicts a case of misusing SC order; T.N. bags investment of over ₹6 lakh crore at GIM, and more</strong> - Here is a select list of stories to start the day</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>Kadar tribal settlement in Anamalai hills gets bitumen road after decades’ wait</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>CM exhorts Godrej Agrovet to explore potential in real state, furniture and consumers goods sectors in Telangana</strong> - Govt prepared to extend necessary support to the company in expanding its oil palm and dairy businesses</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>Buzz in social media over reported sighting of the carcass of another tiger in Kagaznagar forest division</strong> - The death of a second tiger in the same forest area in a week has raised concerns</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>Railways land-for-jobs case: ED files charge sheet against Lalu Yadav’s family members, others</strong> - The alleged scam pertains to the period when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Railway Minister in the UPA-1 government</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>Madras High Court refuses to declare election of 4 MPs and 8 MLAs null and void</strong> - Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy say disputed questions of fact related to them having contested in symbols belonging to other parties cannot be decided in writ jurisdiction</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>Macron picks Attal, 34, as France’s youngest PM</strong> - Gabriel Attal is named France’s next prime minister, as Emmanuel Macron aims to revive his presidency.</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>Norway to approve controversial deep-sea mining</strong> - Environmental scientists have warned the practice could be devastating for marine life.</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>Sahra Wagenknecht: German politician launches ‘left-wing conservative’ party</strong> - Observers say BSW may siphon voters away from the far-right Alternative for Germany.</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>Franz Beckenbauer: German football legend dies aged 78</strong> - Former West Germany captain and manager Franz Beckenbauer, widely regarded as one of football’s greatest players, dies aged 78.</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>Anders Breivik: Mass murderer sues Norway over prison isolation</strong> - Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011, argues his prison conditions breach his human rights.</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>Cerne Abbas Giant is a depiction of Hercules</strong> - It’s “just the most visible of a whole cluster of early medieval features in the landscape.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1994228">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Intel’s CPU branding was already confusing, and today’s new CPUs made it worse</strong> - Some are 14th-gen Core and some are Core (Series 1), but they’re the same thing. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1994334">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Canonical wants better Snap support outside Ubuntu, based on latest hires</strong> - Returning developer says he might get to “change some of the old ideas.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1994465">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>LG OLED T is a transparent 77-inch TV that will arrive in 2024</strong> - Expect it to be extremely expensive. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1994343">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Elon Musk’s X loses fight to disclose federal surveillance of users</strong> - Musk disappointed SCOTUS won’t weigh harms of feds secretly spying on X users. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1994466">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>GF made this up: Why are South Koreans so good at video games?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They have good Hyundai coordination.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ectoplasm777"> /u/ectoplasm777 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1920o0o/gf_made_this_up_why_are_south_koreans_so_good_at/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1920o0o/gf_made_this_up_why_are_south_koreans_so_good_at/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A husband and wife sat down at their table at a coffee shop in New York.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The wife saw a pretty young woman sitting at a table and wearing the most gorgeous pair of shoes she’s ever seen. “I’d like to know where that lady got those shoes,” she said to her husband.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The husband walked over to the young woman and asked, “Where did you get those shoes?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I got them in a store just around the corner from here,” replied the woman.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Nice. How much were they?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh, around 300 dollars.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Thanks for letting me know.” The husband returned to his table and said to his wife, “She got her shoes in Los Angeles.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/wimpykidfan37"> /u/wimpykidfan37 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/191tdde/a_husband_and_wife_sat_down_at_their_table_at_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/191tdde/a_husband_and_wife_sat_down_at_their_table_at_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man is wandering deep in the forest when he comes upon a strange looking pub…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man walks inside and is immediately greeted by the barkeep.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What can I get you?” the barkeep asks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I’ll just have a beer,” the man replies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Unfortunately, the guy who just left drank our last beer,” the barkeep says. “However, I do have another drink I can offer you… the Elixir of the Forest Elves.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What’s that?” the man inquires.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Ah,” the barkeep responds. “It’s a potent mix of dragon blood, unicorn hair, and fairy tears.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man thinks for a moment. “Alright, I’ll try one of those.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The barkeep gets to work behind the bar, mixing the mystical ingredients: lights flash, colors change, smoke billows. He returns with a goblet, its contents bubbling out of the sides.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Intrigued, the man takes a nervous sip.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Jesus Christ,” the man exclaims. “That tastes horrible.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No shit,” says the barkeep. "Why do you think the last guy drank all the beer?
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/virtualbeggar"> /u/virtualbeggar </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/191v3fj/a_man_is_wandering_deep_in_the_forest_when_he/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/191v3fj/a_man_is_wandering_deep_in_the_forest_when_he/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Math Teacher: “If I have 5 bottles in one hand and 6 in the other hand, what do I have?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Student: “A serious drinking problem.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TheQuietKid22"> /u/TheQuietKid22 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1928pf7/math_teacher_if_i_have_5_bottles_in_one_hand_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1928pf7/math_teacher_if_i_have_5_bottles_in_one_hand_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy is out running in the park.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He sees an older man sitting on a bench with an upset look on his face. The guy waves it off and continues his run.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Another lap later, he sees an older woman sitting on that same bench with the older guy, both of them looking upset. Again, the runner waves it off, but this time his curiosity has been piqued.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Every time he passes by them, the runner still sees that its occupants look upset. When he finishes his final lap, he decides to stop.
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“Okay, I’ve been running laps by this bench here,” the runner says. “And every time I’ve passed by it, I see you two sitting there looking upset. What’s going on?”
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The man answers. “Come, sit down and we’ll explain why.”
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So the runner looks at his watch. “Yeah, sure, I’m done with my run anyway.” He sits down on the bench next to the man and woman. “So, what’s the problem?”
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“The problem?” the woman asks. “They just painted this bench.”
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/marxman28"> /u/marxman28 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19270qr/a_guy_is_out_running_in_the_park/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19270qr/a_guy_is_out_running_in_the_park/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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