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<title>15 May, 2023</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Ability to detect fake news predicts sub-national variation in COVID-19 vaccine uptake across the UK</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Susceptibility to believing false or misleading information is associated with a range of adverse outcomes. However, it is notoriously difficult to study the link between susceptibility to misinformation and consequential real-world behaviors such as vaccine uptake. In this preregistered study, we devise a large-scale socio-spatial model that combines the rigor of a psychometrically validated test of misinformation susceptibility administered to a nationally representative sample of 16,477 individuals with COVID-19 vaccine uptake data of 129 sub-national regions published by the United Kingdom (UK) government, to show that the general ability to detect misinformation strongly and positively predicts regional vaccine uptake in the UK. We put this practically significant correlational effect size into perspective by noting how psychological interventions that reduce individuals9 misinformation susceptibility could be associated with additional vaccine uptake.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.10.23289764v1" target="_blank">Ability to detect fake news predicts sub-national variation in COVID-19 vaccine uptake across the UK</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effectiveness of drugs for COVID-19 inpatients in Japanese medical claim data as average treatment effects with inverse probability weighted regression adjustment</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Earlier studies and clinical trials have indicated that drugs such as antiviral drugs, antibody cocktails, and steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs are expected to prevent severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes and death. Object: We used observational data for Japan to assess the effectiveness of these drugs for treating COVID-19. Method: We applied an average treatment effect model with inverse probability weighted regression adjustment, which can treat the choice of administered drug as a random assignment to inpatients, to the Medical Information Analysis Databank operated by National Hospital Organization in Japan. The outcome was defined as mortality. Subjects were all inpatients, inpatients with oxygen administration, and inpatients using respiratory ventilators, classified by three age classes: all ages, 65 years old or older, and younger than 65 years old. Information about physical characteristics, underlying disease, administered drug, the proportion of mutated strains, and vaccine coverage were used as explanatory variables for logistic regression. Result: Estimated results indicated that only an antibody cocktail (sotrovimab, casirivimab and imdevimab) raised the probability of saving life consistently, even though these drugs were administered in few cases. By contrast, other drugs might reduce the probability of saving life. Discussion: Results indicate that an antiviral drug (remdesivir), a steroid (dexamethasone), and an anti-inflammatory drug (baricitinib and tocilizumab) might not contribute to the saving of life, even in the pseudo-situation of random assignment.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.12.23289913v1" target="_blank">Effectiveness of drugs for COVID-19 inpatients in Japanese medical claim data as average treatment effects with inverse probability weighted regression adjustment</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Insight into risk associated phenotypes behind COVID-19 from phenotype genome-wide association studies</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Long COVID presents a complex and multi-systemic disease that poses a significant global public health challenge. Symptoms can vary widely, ranging from asymptomatic to severe, making the condition challenging to diagnose and manage effectively. Furthermore, identifying appropriate phenotypes in genome-wide association studies of COVID-19 remains unresolved. This study aimed to address these challenges by analyzing 220 deep-phenotype genome-wide association data sets (159 diseases, 38 biomarkers and 23 medication usage) from BioBank Japan (BBJ) (n=179,000), UK Biobank and FinnGen (n=628,000) to investigate pleiotropic effects of known COVID-19 risk associated single nucleotide variants. Our findings reveal 32 different phenotypes that share the common genetic risk factors with COVID-19 (p &lt; 7.6×10−11), including two diseases (myocardial infarction and type 2 diabetes), 26 biomarkers with seven categories (blood cell, metabolic, liver-related, kidney-related, protein, inflammatory and anthropometric), and four medications (antithrombotic agents, HMG CoA reductase inhibitors, thyroid preparations and anilides). As long COVID continues to coexist with humans, our results highlight the need for targeted screening to support specific vulnerable populations to improve disease prevention and healthcare delivery.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.09.23289706v1" target="_blank">Insight into risk associated phenotypes behind COVID-19 from phenotype genome-wide association studies</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Projecting the potential impact of an Omicron XBB.1.5 wave in Shanghai, China</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
China experienced a major nationwide wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections in December 2022, immediately after lifting strict interventions, despite the majority of the population having already received inactivated COVID-19 vaccines. Due to the rapid waning of protection and the emergence of Omicron XBB.1.5, the risk of another COVID-19 wave remains high. It is still unclear whether the health care system will be able to manage the demand during this potential XBB.1.5 wave and if the number of associated deaths can be reduced to a level comparable to that of seasonal influenza. Thus, we developed a mathematical model of XBB.1.5 transmission using Shanghai as a case study. We found that a potential XBB.1.5 wave is less likely to overwhelm the health care system and would result in a death toll comparable to that of seasonal influenza, albeit still larger, especially among elderly individuals. Our analyses show that a combination of vaccines and antiviral drugs can effectively mitigate an XBB.1.5 epidemic, with a projected number of deaths of 2.08 per 10,000 individuals. This figure corresponds to a 70-80% decrease compared to the previous Omicron wave and is comparable to the level of seasonal influenza. The peak prevalence of hospital admissions and ICU admissions are projected at 28.89 and 2.28 per 10,000 individuals, respectively, suggesting the need for a moderate increase in the capacity of the health care system. Our findings emphasize the importance of improving vaccination coverage, particularly among the older population, and the use of antiviral treatments.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.10.23289761v1" target="_blank">Projecting the potential impact of an Omicron XBB.1.5 wave in Shanghai, China</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>“Now you see me”: detecting asymptomatic infectious individuals in the population</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Quarantine is an effective countermeasure to stop or slow the spread of an emerging infectious disease when no other preventive measures are available to protect the population. However, when the disease results in a proportion of asymptomatic infections, the spread dynamics are affected, and quarantine efficiency is impaired. Here, we introduce an extended susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model to study the effects of asymptomatic individuals at the onset of an emerging infectious disease when no vaccination is yet available and/or when a vaccine is available but only a subset of the population can be vaccinated due to limited supply or the unwillingness of susceptible individuals to receive an injection. These aspects have been indirectly incorporated into the model using a time-dependent vaccination rate. With this model, we confirm that, in the case of a missing vaccine, quarantine is effective in stopping the spread of an infectious disease, but its efficiency can be substantially reduced in the presence of individuals developing asymptomatic infection. Moreover, we show that vaccination is effective only if available early during the epidemic and if the vaccination rate is sufficiently high. By applying this model to Zurich and all of Switzerland in case of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that the following two strategies have similar outcomes: either placing infectious individuals into quarantine when no vaccine is available or dropping quarantine measures but administering a vaccine at a daily rate of 1%, starting no later than 105 days after the onset of the epidemic. Beyond this time period, a vaccination campaign will have no effect in stopping the spread of the disease if 25% of the susceptible population is asymptomatic. We also found that the option of deploying a vaccination campaign was more effective for all of Switzerland than for only the city of Zurich.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.08.23289685v1" target="_blank">“Now you see me”: detecting asymptomatic infectious individuals in the population</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Immune response to SARS CoV2 infection by TLR3, TLR4 and TLR7 expression</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Toll like receptors (TLRs) may be involved both in the initial failure of viral clearance and in the subsequent development of fatal clinical manifestations of severe COVID19, essentially ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) with fatal respiratory failure. While TLR3 recognizes viral double stranded RNA (dsRNA), TLR7 recognizes viral single stranded RNA and is therefore likely to be involved in SARS CoV2 clearance. On the other hand, TLR4, at the surface of cells, toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) in the induction of damaging inflammatory responses during acute viral infections as it functions as a sensor for damage associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). These include a wide variety of molecules released from injured or dying tissues as well as molecules actively released in response to cellular stress from intact cells. We present the gene expression of TLR 3, 4, and 7 in nasopharyngeal total RNA samples from 150 individuals positive for SARS Cov2 (DET) by molecular techniques of isothermal amplification (Neokit SA) and 152 SARS CoV2 non detectable (ND) ambulatory and hospitalizedpatients with a non-defined respiratory disease, and we compared with the symptomatology developed by all those patients. We analyzed 4 cohorts: 1 SARS Cov2 genome detected patients with severe to high symptomatology (n=107);2 SARS Cov2 genome detected patients low to mild symptomatology (n=43); 3 SARS Cov2 genome non detected patients with severe to high symptomatology (n=109); and 4 SARS Cov2 genome non detected patients low to mild symptomatology (n=41). Our results showed no significant differences of expression for TLR3, TLR4 and TLR7 between SARS Cov2 detected and non-detected total cohort of patients (Non Paired T test p Value&gt;0.1). When compared severity of symptoms (presence of symptoms from the COVID19 12 diagnosis symptoms) and gene expression by a Spearman9s Correlation Coefficient there was significant positive correlation between severe symptomatology, and the number of symptoms and death for TLR4 and TLR7 for both infected and non COVID19 infected patients. When the cohort was construct with low/middle and severe symptoms, the Correlation Coefficient showed that expression of TLR4 and TLR7 was significantly amplified in those ND patients with severe symptomatology (p Value= 0.00311) as well as for TLR3 in ND low to mild symptoms cohort of patients. We also showed and discussed the results obtained of these genes expression and the sex and age of patients. In summary, our data suggest that although our innate immune system with TLRs contributes to the elimination of viruses, it can also be associated with harm to the host due to persistent inflammation and tissue destruction. We confirmed that principally TLR4 and TLR7 could be involved not only in the pathogenesis of COVID19 but also in other respiratory diseases with same symptomatology. We suggest that treatments focus on TLR4 and TLR7 expression in inflammatory respiratory diseases could be a start point against severe symptoms development.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.12.23288889v1" target="_blank">Immune response to SARS CoV2 infection by TLR3, TLR4 and TLR7 expression</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>From Collection to Analysis: A Comparison of GISAID and the Covid-19 Data Portal</strong> -
<div>
We analyse ongoing efforts to share genomic data about SARS-COV-2 through a comparison of the characteristics of the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data and the Covid-19 Data Portal with respect to the representativeness and governance of the research data therein. We focus on data and metadata on genetic sequences posted on the two infrastructures in the period between January 2020 and January 2023, thus capturing a period of acute response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a variety of data science methods, we compare the extent to which the two portals succeeded in attracting data submissions from different countries around the globe and look at the ways in which submission rates varied over time. We go on to analyse the structure and underlying architecture of the infrastructures, reviewing how they organise data access and use, the types of metadata and version tracking they provide. Finally, we explore usage patterns of each infrastructure based on publications that mention the data to understand how data reuse can facilitate forms of diversity between institutions, cities, countries, and funding groups. Our findings reveal disparities in representation between the two infrastructures and differing practices in data governance and architecture. We conclude that both infrastructures offer useful lessons, with GISAID demonstrating the importance of expanding data submissions and representation, while the COVID-19 data portal offers insights into how to enhance data usability.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.13.540634v1" target="_blank">From Collection to Analysis: A Comparison of GISAID and the Covid-19 Data Portal</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Large-scale template-based structural modeling of T-cell receptors with known antigen specificity reveals complementarity features.</strong> -
<div>
T-cell receptor (TCR) recognition of foreign peptides presented by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) initiates the adaptive immune response against pathogens. A large number of TCR sequences specific to different antigens are known to date, however, the structural data describing the conformation and contacting residues for TCR:antigen:MHC complexes is relatively limited. In the present study we aim to extend and analyze the set of available structures by performing highly accurate template-based modeling of TCR:antigen:MHC complexes using TCR sequences with known specificity. Using the set of 29 complex templates (including a template with SARS-CoV-2 antigen) and 732 specificity records, we built a database of 1585 model structures carrying substitutions in either TCR or TCR{beta} chains with some models representing the result of different mutation pathways for the same final structure. This database allowed us to analyze features of amino acid contacts in TCR:antigen interfaces that govern antigen recognition preferences and interpret these interactions in terms of physicochemical properties of interacting residues. Our results provide a methodology for creating high-quality TCR:antigen:MHC models for antigens of interest that can be utilized to predict TCR specificity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.29.533758v3" target="_blank">Large-scale template-based structural modeling of T-cell receptors with known antigen specificity reveals complementarity features.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Moving online: Experiences and potential benefits of digital dance for older adults and individuals with Parkinson’s disease</strong> -
<div>
Background. Dance is found to provide a range of beneficial effects for older adults including individuals with age-related neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease (PD). The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the development of at-home dance programs delivered digitally through live and pre-recorded media, but little is known about how participants may engage with and benefit from these resources. Objective. This study explored experiences and potential benefits of digital dance resources among healthy older adults and individuals with neurological conditions. Methods. An online survey consisting of fixed-choice and open questions was designed in collaboration with dance program providers and distributed between June and November 2020. Results. High levels of engagement in at-home dance programs were found among healthy older adults (N = 149) and individuals with PD (N = 178). Sensorimotor outcomes (e.g., balance, posture) were more widely reported among individuals with PD, while older adults reported similar numbers of sensorimotor and non-motor (e.g., mood, confidence) outcomes. The use of strategies (imagery and vocalising) during participation were differentially associated with outcomes in older adults and PD groups. At-home dance was found to offer convenience and flexibility, but participants missed the interaction, support and routine of in-person classes. The majority expressed a preference to continue with both digital and in-person participation in the future. Qualitative analysis of participants’ comments reinforced the quantitative findings, while also revealing that online dance could help to maintain connection and well-being, and identifying further considerations for improving accessibility and facilitating digital engagement. Conclusions. At-home dance programs appear to be accessible and engaging for older adults, including individuals with PD, although potential barriers to participation need to be addressed. Digital resources for home-based activities will be increasingly important to enable cost-effective, large-scale provision of therapeutic activities for older adults.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/954f2/" target="_blank">Moving online: Experiences and potential benefits of digital dance for older adults and individuals with Parkinson’s disease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Dance at home for people with Parkinson’s during COVID-19 and beyond: Participation, perceptions and prospects</strong> -
<div>
Emerging evidence shows that dance can provide both physical and non-physical benefits for people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The suspension of in-person dance classes during the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a transition to remote provision via live and recorded digital media. An online survey explored accessibility of and engagement with these home-based dance programs, as well as perceived benefits. The survey was co-developed by researchers and dance program providers, with input from people with PD and physiotherapists. Responses were collected from 276 individuals, including 178 current users of home-based programs, the majority of whom were participating at least once per week. Among respondents not currently using digital resources, lack of knowledge and motivation were the primary barriers. Most participants (94.9%) reported that home based practice provided some benefits, including physical (e.g., balance, posture) and non-physical (e.g., mood, confidence) improvements. Participants valued the convenience and flexibility of digital participation, but noted limitations including reductions in social interaction, support from instructors and peers, and routine. There was a strong preference (70.8%) for continuing with home-based practice alongside in-person classes in the future. The results indicate that at-home dance is accessible and usable for people with PD, and that some of the previously-reported benefits of dance may be replicated in this context. While COVID-19 expedited the development of digital programs, these will likely remain a key element of future provision for people with PD. The findings will inform the further development of resources and research into outcomes of home-based dance participation.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/4wep9/" target="_blank">Dance at home for people with Parkinson’s during COVID-19 and beyond: Participation, perceptions and prospects</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Regulation of coronavirus nsp15 cleavage specificity by RNA structure</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2, the etiologic agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, has had an enduring impact on global public health. However, SARS-CoV-2 is only one of multiple pathogenic human coronaviruses (CoVs) to have emerged since the turn of the century. CoVs encode for several nonstructural proteins (NSPS) that are essential for viral replication and pathogenesis. Among them is nsp15, a uridine-specific viral endonuclease that is important in evading the host immune response and promoting viral replication. Despite the established function of nsp15 as a uridine-specific endonuclease, little is known about other determinants of its cleavage specificity. In this study we investigate the role of RNA secondary structure in SARS-CoV-2 nsp15 endonuclease activity. Using a series of in vitro endonuclease assays, we observed that thermodynamically stable RNA structures were protected from nsp15 cleavage relative to RNAs lacking stable structure. We leveraged the s2m RNA from the SARS 3'UTR as a model for our structural studies as it adopts a well-defined structure with several uridines, two of which are unpaired and thus high probably targets for nsp15 cleavage. We found that SARS-CoV-2 nsp15 specifically cleaves s2m at the unpaired uridine within the GNRNA pentaloop of the RNA. Further investigation revealed that the position of uridine within the pentaloop also impacted nsp15 cleavage efficiency, suggesting that positioning within the pentaloop is necessary for optimal presentation of the scissile uridine and alignment within the nsp15 catalytic pocket. Our findings indicate that RNA secondary structure is an important determinant of nsp15 cleavage and provides insight into the molecular mechanisms of recognition of RNA by nsp15.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.12.540483v1" target="_blank">Regulation of coronavirus nsp15 cleavage specificity by RNA structure</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Rapid cloning-free mutagenesis of new SARS-CoV-2 variants using a novel reverse genetics platform</strong> -
<div>
Reverse genetic systems enable engineering of RNA virus genomes and are instrumental to study RNA virus biology. With the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, already established methods were challenged by the large genome of SARS-CoV-2. Herein we present an elaborated strategy for the rapid and straightforward rescue of recombinant plus-stranded RNA-viruses with high sequence fidelity, using the example of SARS-CoV-2. The strategy called CLEVER (CLoning-free and Exchangeable system for Virus Engineering and Rescue) is based on the intracellular recombination of transfected overlapping DNA fragments allowing the direct mutagenesis within the initial PCR-amplification step. Furthermore, by introducing a linker fragment (harboring all heterologous sequences) viral RNA can directly serve as template for manipulation and rescue of recombinant mutant virus, without any cloning-step needed. Overall, this strategy will facilitate recombinant SARS-CoV-2 rescue and accelerate its manipulation. Using our protocol, newly emerging variants can quickly be engineered to further elucidate its biology.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.11.540343v1" target="_blank">Rapid cloning-free mutagenesis of new SARS-CoV-2 variants using a novel reverse genetics platform</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Researching COVID to enhance recovery (RECOVER) pediatric study protocol: Rationale, objectives and design</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Importance: The prevalence, pathophysiology, and long-term outcomes of COVID-19 (post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 [PASC] or “Long COVID”) in children and young adults remain unknown. Studies must address the urgent need to define PASC, its mechanisms, and potential treatment targets in children and young adults. Observations: We describe the protocol for the Pediatric Observational Cohort Study of the NIH’s REsearching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative. RECOVER-Pediatrics is an observational meta-cohort study of caregiver-child pairs (birth through 17 years) and young adults (18 through 25 years), recruited from more than 100 sites across the US. This report focuses on two of five cohorts that comprise RECOVER-Pediatrics: 1) a de novo RECOVER prospective cohort of children and young adults with and without previous or current infection; and 2) an extant cohort derived from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study (n=10,000). The de novo cohort incorporates three tiers of data collection: 1) remote baseline assessments (Tier 1, n=6000); 2) longitudinal follow-up for up to 4 years (Tier 2, n=6000); and 3) a subset of participants, primarily the most severely affected by PASC, who will undergo deep phenotyping to explore PASC pathophysiology (Tier 3, n=600). Youth enrolled in the ABCD study participate in Tier 1. The pediatric protocol was developed as a collaborative partnership of investigators, patients, researchers, clinicians, community partners, and federal partners, intentionally promoting inclusivity and diversity. The protocol is adaptive to facilitate responses to emerging science. Conclusions and Relevance: RECOVER-Pediatrics seeks to characterize the clinical course, underlying mechanisms, and long-term effects of PASC from birth through 25 years old. RECOVER-Pediatrics is designed to elucidate the epidemiology, four-year clinical course, and sociodemographic correlates of pediatric PASC. The data and biosamples will allow examination of mechanistic hypotheses and biomarkers, thus providing insights into potential therapeutic interventions.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.27.23289228v2" target="_blank">Researching COVID to enhance recovery (RECOVER) pediatric study protocol: Rationale, objectives and design</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Post-16 students’ experience of practical science during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on students’ self-efficacy in practical work</strong> -
<div>
This paper presents the findings from a detailed study investigating UK undergraduate students’ experience of practical science in their post-16 studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also examines the perceived confidence and preparedness of the students in relation to areas of practical science skills at the start of their degree courses. The study employed an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, with the findings from focus groups with students at the end of their post-16 studies used to support the development of a comprehensive quantitative survey for incoming undergraduate students. Survey data were collected in September and October 2021 from 275 students commencing Biological Science/Life Science, Chemistry, Physics and Natural Science degrees at two universities in England. The research is significant for its finding that although almost all students had the opportunity to undertake practical work as part of their post-16 studies during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was significant variation in students’ experiences. The data indicate that students’ self-efficacy in relation to practical science was impacted by the closures of post-16 education establishments, ongoing social distancing and the removal of the assessment criteria for students to have ‘routinely and consistently’ undertaken each of the practical assessment requirements. The research presents important considerations which are relevant for educators supporting students’ transition from post-16 to Higher Education.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://edarxiv.org/gx2jh/" target="_blank">Post-16 students’ experience of practical science during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on students’ self-efficacy in practical work</a>
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<li><strong>Healthcare resource utilisation and costs of hospitalisation and primary care among adults with COVID-19 in England: a population-based cohort study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objectives To quantify healthcare resource utilisation (HCRU) and costs to the National Health Service (NHS) associated with acute COVID-19 in adults in England. Design Population-based retrospective cohort study, using Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Aurum primary care electronic medical records linked when available to Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) secondary care administrative data. Setting Patients registered to primary care practices in England. Population 1,706,368 adults with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR or antigen test from August 2020 to January 2022 were included; 13,105 within the hospitalised cohort indexed between August 2020 and March 2021, and 1,693,263 within the primary care cohort indexed between August 2020 and January 2022. Main outcome measures Primary and secondary care HCRU and associated costs during the acute phase of COVID-19 (≤4 weeks following positive test), stratified by age group, risk of severe COVID-19 and immunocompromised status. Results Among the hospitalised cohort, average total length of stay, as well as in critical care wards, was longer in older adults. Median healthcare cost per hospitalisation was higher in those aged 75 - 84 (£8,942) and ≥85 years (£8,835) than in those aged &lt;50 years (£7,703). Whilst few (6.0%) patients in critical care required mechanical ventilation, its use was higher in older adults (50 - 74 years: 8.3%; &lt;50 years: 4.3%). HCRU and associated costs were often greater in those at higher risk of severe COVID-19 when compared to the overall cohort, although minimal differences in HCRU were found across the three different high-risk definitions implemented. Among the primary care cohort, GP or nurse consultations were more frequent among older adults and the immunocompromised. Conclusions COVID-19 related hospitalisations in older adults, particularly critical care admissions, were the primary drivers of high resource use of COVID-19 in England. These findings may inform health policy decisions and resource allocation in the prevention and management of COVID-19.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.10.23289557v2" target="_blank">Healthcare resource utilisation and costs of hospitalisation and primary care among adults with COVID-19 in England: a population-based cohort study</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>The Standard of Care Combined With Glucocorticoid in Elderly People With Mild or Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Glucocorticoid<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Huashan Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Arginine Replacement Therapy in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Arginine Hydrochloride<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Emory University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effectiveness of a Second COVID-19 Vaccine Booster in Chinese Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Intramuscularly administered Ad5-nCoV vaccine;   Biological: Aerosolized Ad5-nCoV;   Biological: DelNS1-2019-nCoV-RBD-OPT1;   Biological: SYS6006<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<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-19 Syndrome Lifestyle Intervention Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Low carbohydrate diet intervention<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Southern California<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Pilot Study Evaluating the Efficacy of the Vielight Neuro RX Gamma in the Treatment of Post COVID-19 Cognitive Impairment</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post COVID-19 Cognitive Impairment<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: Vielight Neuro RX Gamma active device;   Device: Vielight Neuro RX Gamma sham device<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Vielight Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PAxlovid loNg cOvid-19 pRevention triAl With recruitMent In the Community in Norway</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post COVID-19 Condition, Unspecified;   SARS-CoV2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Haukeland University Hospital;   University of Bergen<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>Working Towards Empowered Community-driven Approaches to Increase Vaccination and Preventive Care Engagement</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: mHealth Outreach;   Other: Care Coordination<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of California, San Diego;   San Ysidro Health Center<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Role of Vit-D Supplementation on BioNTech, Pfizer Vaccine Side Effect and Immunoglobulin G Response</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Combination Product: Vitamin-D<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sulaimany Polytechnic university<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety, Tolerability and Immunogenicity of Alveavax-v1.2, a BA.2/Omicron-optimized, DNA Vaccine for COVID-19 Prevention</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Sars-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Alveavax-v1.2;   Drug: Janssen Ad26.COV2.S<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Alvea Holdings, LLC<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>Post Covid-19 Dysautonomia Rehabilitation Randomized Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome;   Dysautonomia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Procedure: Rehabilitation;   Procedure: Standard of Care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Evangelismos Hospital;   National and Kapodistrian University of Athens;   LONG COVID GREECE;   414 Military Hospital of Special Diseases<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>COVID-19 Vaccination Detoxification in LDL-C</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Stress Syndrome;   COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Reaction;   COVID-19-Associated Thromboembolism;   COVID-19 Post-Intensive Care Syndrome;   COVID-19-Associated Stroke;   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Combination Product: Atorvastatin Calcium Tablets<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Yang I. Pachankis<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>Exercise for Health in Patients With Post-acute Sequelae of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long COVID<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Rehabilitation program<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Campus docent Sant Joan de Déu-Universitat de Barcelona;   Hospital de Mataró;   University of Barcelona<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>Digital Multimodal Rehabilitation for People With Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-COVID Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: RehabCovid_Telematic;   Behavioral: RehabCovid_ImmersiveVR;   Behavioral: Control_Condition<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Consorci Sanitari de Terrassa;   University of Barcelona;   Universitat de Girona;   Unitat Assistencial i Preventiva de l’Esport- Centre d’Alt rendiment;   Politecnic University of Catalonia;   Corporación Fisiogestión<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study in Healthy Volunteers to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics, and Drug-Drug Interaction Potential of Single and Multiple Doses of ALG-097558</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: ALG-097558;   Drug: Placebo;   Drug: Midazolam;   Drug: Itraconazole;   Drug: Carbamazepine;   Drug: ALG-097558 in solution formulation;   Drug: ALG-097558 in tablet formulation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Aligos Therapeutics<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>Immunoadsorption Study Mainz in Adults With Post-COVID Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome;   Post-COVID Syndrome;   Post COVID-19 Condition<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: Immunoadsorption;   Device: Sham-apheresis<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University Medical Center Mainz<br/><b>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>Aqueous cannabidiol β-cyclodextrin complexed polymeric micelle nasal spray to attenuate in vitro and ex-vivo SARS-CoV-2-induced cytokine storms</strong> - Cannabidiol (CBD) has a number of biological effects by acting on the cannabinoid receptors CB(1) and CB(2). CBD may be involved in anti-inflammatory processes via CB(1) and CB(2) receptors, resulting in a decrease of pro-inflammatory cytokines. However, CBD’s poor aqueous solubility is a major issue in pharmaceutical applications. The aim of the present study was to develop and evaluate a CBD nasal spray solution. A water-soluble CBD was prepared by complexation with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) at a…</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>Bimekizumab efficacy and safety in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis: two-year interim results from the open-label extension of the randomized BE RADIANT phase 3b trial</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: High PASI100 responses achieved with bimekizumab over 48 weeks were sustained through Week 96; secukinumab patients who switched to bimekizumab achieved similar response by Week 96.</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>Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Immunoglobulin Products</strong> - CONCLUSION: Overall, more recent Ig products (expiration dates: 2023 - 2025) contained significantly higher binding and inhibition activities against SARS-CoV-2 proteins, as compared to earlier, or pre-pandemic products. Normal donor SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are capable of inhibiting ACE2-binding activities and may provide a therapeutic benefit for patients who do not make a robust vaccine response.</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>Small molecule inhibitor CRT0066101 inhibits cytokine storm syndrome in a mouse model of lung injury</strong> - Pneumonia is an acute inflammation of the lungs induced by pathogenic microorganisms, immune damage, physical and chemical factors, and other factors, and the latest outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia is also an acute lung injury (ALI) induced by viral infection. However, there are currently no effective treatments for inflammatory cytokine storms in patients with ALI/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Protein kinase D (PKD) is a highly active kinase that has been shown to be…</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>Impact of the Recognition Part of Dipeptidyl Nitroalkene Compounds on the Inhibition Mechanism of Cysteine Proteases Cruzain and Cathepsin L</strong> - Cysteine proteases (CPs) are an important class of enzymes, many of which are responsible for several human diseases. For instance, cruzain of protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is responsible for the Chagas disease, while the role of human cathepsin L is associated with some cancers or is a potential target for the treatment of COVID-19. However, despite paramount work carried out during the past years, the compounds that have been proposed so far show limited inhibitory action against these…</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>Comparing online and face-to-face administration of a neuropsychological computerized attention test: Assessment modality does not influence performance</strong> - CONCLUSION: The CVAT can be administered online or face-to-face without learning upon retesting. The data on agreement (online vs. face-to-face, test vs. retest, Americans vs. Brazilians) indicate that VRT is the most reliable variable.</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>Exercise With a Novel Digital Device Increased Serum Anti-influenza Antibody Titers After Influenza Vaccination</strong> - It has been reported that some exercise could enhance the anti-viral antibody titers after vaccination including influenza and coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines. We developed SAT-008, a novel digital device, consists of physical activities and activities related to the autonomic nervous system. We assessed the feasibility of SAT-008 to boost host immunity after an influenza vaccination by a randomized, open-label, and controlled study on adults administered influenza vaccines in the previous…</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>Glycolytic stress deteriorates 229E virulence to improve host defense response</strong> - Viral infection treatment is a difficult task due to its complex structure and metabolism. Additionally, viruses can alter the metabolism of host cells, mutate, and readily adjust to harsh environments. Coronavirus stimulates glycolysis, weakens mitochondrial activity, and impairs infected cells. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of 2-DG in inhibiting coronavirus-induced metabolic processes and antiviral host defense systems, which have not been explored so far. 2-Deoxy-d-glucose…</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 Omicron subvariant spike N405 unlikely to rapidly deamidate</strong> - The RGD motif on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has been suggested to interact with RGD-binding integrins αVβ3 and α5β1 to enhance viral cell entry and alter downstream signaling cascades. The D405N mutation on the Omicron subvariant spike proteins, resulting in an RGN motif, has recently been shown to inhibit binding to integrin αVβ3. Deamidation of asparagines in protein ligand RGN motifs has been demonstrated to generate RGD and RGisoD motifs that permit binding to RGD-binding integrins. Two…</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>Impact of anesthetic management on catheter ablation for premature ventricular complexes: insights during the COVID-19 outbreak</strong> - CONCLUSION: Ablation of PVC under LA presented significantly higher AAS rate compared to GA. The procedure under GA might be complicated by PVC inhibition (after catheter insertion/during mapping) and PVC disinhibition post-extubation.</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>Viricidal Activity of Thermoplastic Polyurethane Materials with Silver Nanoparticles</strong> - The use of diverse Ag-based nanoparticulated forms has shown promising results in controlling viral propagation. In this study, a commercial nanomaterial consisting of ceramic-coated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was incorporated into thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) plates using an industrial protocol, and the surface composition, ion-release dynamics and viricidal properties were studied. The surface characterization by FESEM-EDX revealed that the molar composition of the ceramic material was…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Computational and Enzymatic Studies of Sartans in SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD-ACE2 Binding: The Role of Tetrazole and Perspectives as Antihypertensive and COVID-19 Therapeutics</strong> - This study is an extension of current research into a novel class of synthetic antihypertensive drugs referred to as “bisartans”, which are bis-alkylated imidazole derivatives bearing two symmetric anionic biphenyltetrazoles. Research to date indicates that bisartans are superior to commercially available hypertension drugs, since the former undergo stronger docking to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). ACE2 is the key receptor involved in SARS-CoV-2 entry, thus initiating 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>In Vitro and In Vivo Therapeutic Potential of 6,6’-Dihydroxythiobinupharidine (DTBN) from <em>Nuphar lutea</em> on Cells and K18-<em>hACE2</em> Mice Infected with SARS-CoV-2</strong> - We have previously published research on the anti-viral properties of an alkaloid mixture extracted from Nuphar lutea, the major components of the partially purified mixture found by NMR analysis. These are mostly dimeric sesquiterpene thioalkaloids called thiobinupharidines and thiobinuphlutidines against the negative strand RNA measles virus (MV). We have previously reported that this extract inhibits the MV as well as its ability to downregulate several MV proteins in persistently MV-infected…</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 Binding and Neutralization Properties of Peptides Derived from N-Terminus of Human ACE2</strong> - The binding properties of synthetic and recombinant peptides derived from N-terminal part of ACE2, the main receptor for SARS-CoV-2, were evaluated. Additionally, the ability of these peptides to prevent virus entry in vitro was addressed using both pseudovirus particles decorated with the S protein, as well as through infection of Vero cells with live SARS-CoV-2 virus. Surprisingly, in spite of effective binding to S protein, all linear peptides of various lengths failed to neutralize the viral…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>AI-Driven De Novo Design and Molecular Modeling for Discovery of Small-Molecule Compounds as Potential Drug Candidates Targeting SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease</strong> - Over the past three years, significant progress has been made in the development of novel promising drug candidates against COVID-19. However, SARS-CoV-2 mutations resulting in the emergence of new viral strains that can be resistant to the drugs used currently in the clinic necessitate the development of novel potent and broad therapeutic agents targeting different vulnerable spots of the viral proteins. In this study, two deep learning generative models were developed and used in combination…</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 Bluesky Tells Us About the Future of Social Media</strong> - The new platform aims to be a decentralized alternative to Twitter. The vibe there is mostly like that of a Portland coffee shop. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-bluesky-tells-us-about-the-future-of-social-media">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Parents Who Fight the City for a “Free Appropriate Public Education”</strong> - Children with disabilities have a constitutional right to accommodation in public schools. Securing those rights can bring their families to a breaking point. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/the-parents-who-fight-the-city-for-a-free-appropriate-public-education">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Don’t Say You Haven’t Been Warned About Trump and 2024</strong> - CNN’s awful town hall with the former President heralds a disastrous election year to come. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/dont-say-you-havent-been-warned-about-trump-and-2024">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Chicago’s Unlikeliest Mayor, Brandon Johnson</strong> - The former union organizer makes the leap from protest to politics. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/chicagos-unlikeliest-mayor-brandon-johnson">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>W.G.A. Strike: Why Your Favorite Shows Could Go Dark</strong> - Michael Schulman talks with Laura Jacqmin, a veteran TV writer and a Writers Guild strike captain. Plus, the comedian and essayist Samantha Irby in conversation with Doreen St. Félix. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/wga-strike-why-your-favorite-shows-could-go-dark">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Could the US have helped avert the crisis in Sudan?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4_endioJa61MW4BXiHXiGJDF51s=/0x0:3548x2661/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72280690/1139270273.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A Sudanese protester walks past a recently painted mural during a demonstration near the army headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, on April 24, 2019. | Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The debate over the US’s failures in Sudan, explained.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="23SZgU">
In 2019, Sudan briefly<strong> </strong>held out hope. After <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/4/11/18305358/omar-al-bashir-sudan-president-military-coup-protests-women">mass protests</a>, the military arrested and <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/4/11/18306002/sudan-news-bashir-coup-protests-khartoum-auf">overthrew</a> Omar al-Bashir, who had brutally run Sudan for three decades. Though in the aftermath the military shakily shared power with civilian leaders, that ended two years later when military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Sudanese armed forces launched a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/29/22751437/sudan-coup-protests-al-burhan-hamdok">military coup</a>. The US engaged with the new military government.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MW396V">
Now, al-Burhan is <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23712710/sudan-war-khartoum-burhan-hemedt-rsf">battling a rival military leader for control of Sudan</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cBytqE">
Over the past month, conflict between al-Burhan’s Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces, an irregular militia led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who goes by Hemedti, has <a href="https://reports.unocha.org/en/country/sudan/">displaced more than 730,000 people</a>. More than 600 people have been confirmed killed and over 5,000 injured; the real numbers are likely much higher. Airstrikes and street fights in the capital of Khartoum continue, as the battling forces defy ceasefires. The conflict is “likely to be protracted as both sides believe that they can win militarily and have few incentives to come to the negotiating table,” national intelligence director Avril Haines <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/4/us-intelligence-chief-sees-protracted-fighting-in-sudan">told the Senate</a> last week.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EItWrn">
Now, as a humanitarian emergency looms over Sudan’s conflict, a debate has broken out as to whether the US could have handled the situation in Sudan differently — with significant implications for what comes next, and potentially big impact on US policy in Africa and the Middle East. Despite President Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to put <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/11/17/23423031/why-america-cant-seem-to-quit-saudi-arabia">human rights in the center of foreign policy</a>, the Biden administration has struggled to articulate a rights-driven approach.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qEJdT6">
There are valid critiques of the US and international community’s role in Sudan since the 2019 change of power. Not enough punitive measures were taken against the generals when they massacred protesters in June 2019 or when they ousted the democratic government. The US <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-africa-sudan-khartoum-96e7b33b6e1045fce01189e81b36814a">froze $700 million of aid</a> after the 2021 coup and worked with international partners to suspend development lending and debt relief to Sudan’s government, though the generals were not personally sanctioned.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WkwN3U">
“It was a real deep lack of imagination, and a real misunderstanding of democratic transitions in the context of Africa,” says Khalid Mustafa Medani, chair of the African studies program at McGill University. “That is not only naive in terms of how transitions work, but it’s also a misreading of the strength of civil society in Sudan.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YlGlvA">
But it’s not clear whether the US could have done much to prevent a coup in Sudan that halted the grassroots democratic movement or ongoing violent conflict. There have been at least <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/5/22919160/coup-guinea-bissau-africa-burkina-faso-sudan-why">seven military coups</a>, plus other coup attempts, in Africa in the past couple years. And the Sudanese generals’ crushing of protest is a mirror to the outcome in Arab states that had overthrown military leaders in the 2011 Arab Spring.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="raEgAx">
The series of events in Sudan reveals the limits of US influence. “The overall impression is this is a power struggle between Hemedti, Burhan, and their institutions that would have been very difficult for any country alone or in concert to prevent, when each sees the other as an existential threat,” says Jeffrey Feltman, who served as the US’s special envoy to the Horn of Africa from 2021 to 2022.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QC8Mz5">
His successor as special envoy says that the US did everything it could have, and had only bad options, forced to make deals with a military known for its heinous crimes. “At the end of the day, we had to include the military in the dialogue,” David Satterfield, a career diplomat, told me. “And I would argue to you right now, if there is ever an opportunity to return to a path towards restoration of a civilian-led government, you’re going to have to talk to the military then as well.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8jk9eV">
In effect, this was the argument that won the day in 2021 among the Biden administration and shapes its policies today.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r5nsYZ">
“I don’t think the US played its hand really well. I also don’t think that if the US had played its hand really well, that it would have necessarily averted a disaster,” says Michael Wahid Hanna of the International Crisis Group. “It’s like nostalgia for a mythical past that never existed.”
</p>
<h3 id="kHDy9f">
What the US has been up to in Sudan
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="48z6o4">
One of the strongest critiques of the Biden administration’s policy toward Sudan is that the country wasn’t a priority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ngVVVm">
When the Biden administration convened a summit with African leaders in December, it did not invite Sudan, in part because of the country’s military takeover. The country’s future did not figure prominently into meetings and events at the summit, according to summaries <a href="https://www.state.gov/africasummit/">published by the State Department</a>. And Sudan was not a centerpiece of policy discussions during President Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia in July 2022, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/16/joint-statement-following-the-summit-of-the-leaders-of-the-united-states-and-the-gulf-cooperation-council-gcc-countries/">according</a> to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/16/joint-statement-following-meeting-between-president-biden-and-egyptian-president-abdel-fattah-al-sisi-in-jeddah/">diplomatic</a> <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/16/joint-statement-following-meeting-between-president-biden-and-president-of-the-uae-sheikh-mohammed-bin-zayed-in-jeddah/">readouts</a>, despite the Middle East and Gulf countries in attendance at the Riyadh summit having sway in Sudan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e3za4U">
In December 2022, the US, United Nations, African Union, and regional groupings <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/us/politics/us-sudan-democracy-war.html">worked</a> with the Sudanese military to compose a framework agreement to transition to civilian rule. The document itself, according to <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/sudan/critical-window-bolster-sudans-next-government">Crisis Group</a>, wasn’t bad. But many of the grassroots protest groups were not involved. Critics noted how it did not offer mechanisms to hold the generals to account.
</p>
<div>
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Pompeo sits on the left of the photo on a low white couch, as al-Burhan sits in a matching white chair on the right. Behind both are drawn curtains in a large room." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wqevEURi0DFoYMnNwomaEkJleoo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24653229/GettyImages_1228198629.jpg"/> <cite>Sudanese Presidency Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chair of the Transitional Military Council, on August 25, 2020, in Khartoum, Sudan.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Phee, in a blue suit, stands on the left of the photo, shaking hands with Dagalo, in military fatigues. Both wear white masks and are surrounded by beautiful furnishings." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Qji9t3AiGNsgR3W_wSBQUxT10ws=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24653231/GettyImages_1241164818.jpg"/> <cite>Sudanese Presidency Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Molly Phee, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, meets with Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, in Khartoum, Sudan on June 7, 2022.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yWad3f">
“We’re working incredibly hard in Sudan … with civil society to work toward a civilian transitional government,” Judd Devermont, Biden’s top Africa adviser, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp0Fa7AbhMg">said</a> in February.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y1bjN5">
But the conditions for civil war came into place during the previous US administration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LtCBsO">
After Bashir’s overthrow, in June 2019, the Sudanese military <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/11/18/they-were-shouting-kill-them/sudans-violent-crackdown-protesters-khartoum">killed</a> more than 120 protesters and seriously injured about 900. There has been no accountability, and the Trump administration <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/10/accused-of-indifference-trump-team-set-to-appoint-sudan-advisor-khartoum-violence-protests-east-africa-diplomacy-state-department/">did little in response to the massacre</a>. One of the few arenas where Trump’s team meaningfully deployed leverage against Sudan was in urging the country to normalize relations with Israel as part of Trump’s Abraham Accords effort. In exchange, the US <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/12/14/946207797/sudan-who-once-sheltered-bin-laden-removed-from-u-s-terrorism-list">removed</a> Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in December 2020.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N8I9Mu">
The US’s tendency to play footsie with the Sudanese military in those two years reinforced the conditions that sparked today’s fighting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JRNYvi">
Then the Biden administration, according to analysts, <a href="https://prospect.org/world/will-biden-put-pressure-on-sudan/">failed to put pressure on the generals</a> in October 2021 when they detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. (Though they agreed to a deal a month later that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/11/21/22794556/sudan-coup-protests-prime-minister-reinstated-democratic-transition">reinstalled Hamdok as the head of a “technocratic government</a>,” Hamdok resigned in January 2022, recognizing the failure of that deal.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="su9OB9">
Activists say the US <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/03/sudan-coup-us-hamdok-democracy-transition-military/">should have quickly implemented targeted sanctions</a> against Sudan’s military in those months. The US was even <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/03/sudan-military-coup-khartoum-us-influence/">reluctant</a> to refer to al-Burhan’s military takeover of the country as a coup.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="98LunP">
Feltman, now a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, says that measures against Sudan’s generals after the coup should have been a priority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dTLDcS">
“The value would have been that the Sudanese civilians would have seen our actions match our words, in terms of trying to promote a civilian-led democratic transition,” he told me. “Refraining from imposing any punitive steps on generals bought time, but it didn’t buy us the type of goodwill from them to really promote a civilian transition.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TNANiJ">
Still, it’s not clear whether sanctions would have deterred the generals. Sudanese civil society was organized and active, but continually repressed by the military. Despite US efforts, democratic transitions in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia have been elusive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aALHMM">
Another key moment of US policy relates to the failure to anticipate how <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudanese-talks-hit-roadblock-over-security-sector-reform-2023-03-30/">security sector reform</a> — consolidating Sudan’s military and militias under one centralized umbrella, including al-Burhan and Hemedti — would invariably <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/04/20/sudan-civil-war-biden-burhan-hemeti-foreign-policy/">lead to conflict</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0fjH4Q">
Such reform was necessary for Sudan’s transition to democracy, but the timeline was rushed and the process unplanned. Medani says a fatal error was “the notion that security sector reform, accountability, issues of justice, and the dismantling of a deep state could occur and be agreed upon in one year.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="22cO6h">
The US also <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/03/sudan-military-coup-khartoum-us-influence/">outsourced</a> much of its policy to the Gulf countries like the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/28/analysis-uae-egypt-closer-to-different-sides-in-sudan-conflict">United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia</a>. But the future of Sudan was never a priority for those countries, where countering Iran’s influence, the war in Yemen, and other conflicts took precedence. But by ceding much to them, the US diminished its own agency.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S14TO9">
“The incompetence and short-sightedness was ridiculous, and also the inability and unwillingness to use American power to influence the allies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE is an astronomical mistake,” Medani told me.
</p>
<h3 id="LB9IdJ">
The debate around the US in Sudan, explained
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XkTVdc">
Just three days after the two rival military leaders began warring in Sudan, Feltman <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/18/sudan-civil-war-generals-negotiations/">published</a> an essay for the Washington Post arguing that the United States and its partners got burned by putting too much faith in the generals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="grEgqp">
It was a rare, scathing criticism from a recent alumnus of the Biden administration. That has crescendoed into a growing chorus of voices saying that the US screwed up. The “United States seems curiously mute or even absent,” columnist Lydia Polgreen <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/opinion/sudan-civil-war.html">wrote</a> in the New York Times. “Washington and its allies in the West have prioritized the voices of those people with guns over the people in the civilian, civil society leadership of the country,” Cameron Hudson, a former CIA analyst affiliated with the CSIS think tank, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr1evJDFVJk&amp;t=3s">told Deutsche Welle</a> recently.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AJCLBY">
<a href="https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-senior-state-department-officials-on-the-situation-in-sudan/">I asked the State Department</a> how they respond to these criticisms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6PhUv6">
A senior official said it’s “confusing when we’re told that we haven’t been pressing the generals” and described how the US “mobilized extraordinary economic pressure on the generals” against Burhan and Hemedti when they overthrew the democratic government in 2021. The senior official said they were part of a long line of “American officials from different agencies who have stood by the side of the Sudanese people and used US power and influence to press the generals to respond to the aspirations of the Sudanese people.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6HI5wU">
Satterfield, who served as special envoy for the Horn of Africa last year, says that the Biden administration did the best it could. “We tried all the tools available to us that were practicable and legally possible,” he told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ckD5jI">
Though critics of the Biden administration are arguing that the US should have taken a stronger line against the generals, that might not have been doable. Much of Hemedti’s assets are non-traditional, notably in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-gold-exclusive/exclusive-sudan-militia-leader-grew-rich-by-selling-gold-idUSKBN1Y01DQ">gold</a>. He trades billions annually with the <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/55662/sudan-the-central-role-of-the-gold-trade-in-its-politics/">United Arab Emirates</a>, which would be unlikely to implement sanctions against the Sudanese warlord. “The reach of sanctions would have been meaningless. You would have antagonized both of them at a time when they were indeed interlocutors for us, the international community, and achieved zero,” Satterfield, who is now at Rice University, told me.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Women, some with signs and one with a megaphone, walk in a city street with crowds of onlookers. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VL-CCTwA_ZsLatAIa_lKX8q-FCk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24652953/1241734581.jpg"/> <cite>AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Sudanese women take to the streets of the capital Khartoum, as they join the ongoing protests against military rule, on July 6, 2022.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9jOnIf">
Satterfield said he talked “continuously” with Sudan’s grassroots activist groups, “with the aim of shaping them into a coherent force that could, through and with the UN, present a unified and reasonable position.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lz5Xtu">
That is not the consensus. “Americans missed an opportunity in the sense that they thought that their pragmatism was going to be the most effective,” says Medani. “They didn’t understand that, despite the divisions within civil society, it really was the only balancing act that could actually guarantee that kind of transition.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rUOeU5">
The lack of US leverage led the State Department to focus on engaging Sudan through partner countries and international organizations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TNB2wq">
As for the criticism that the US paid too much attention to the generals: “Listen, if the generals don’t want there to be a transition, there’s no transition. They have the guns, they have the power,” Hanna of International Crisis Group explained.
</p>
<h3 id="i4sYhR">
What the US could do going forward
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="scCoAG">
For now, a ceasefire is the most urgent priority. The rival factions have been negotiating in Saudi Arabia. “The two combatants still believe they can win,” Satterfield told me. “Until they have concluded that they can only lose, this is going to continue.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0tp5aI">
On Thursday, the State Department announced it had helped broker an <a href="https://www.state.gov/jeddah-declaration-of-commitment-to-protect-the-civilians-of-sudan/">initial commitment</a> between Burhan and Hemedti’s forces to allow for some humanitarian measures, like the delivery of aid, withdrawing troops from medical facilities, and allowing for burials.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mCnl8Y">
“The negotiations were very tough” and a broader cessation of hostilities is “going to be a step-by-step process,” said a second senior State Department official. “We’ve also talked about steps that the civilian actors could take now to prepare to effectively participate in discussions when they go to that expanded format.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lyiGPv">
The current Horn of Africa envoy, Mike Hammer, has been more focused on Ethiopia. This week, he <a href="https://www.state.gov/special-envoy-for-the-horn-of-africa-mike-hammer-travels-to-los-angeles-california-and-santa-fe-new-mexico/">travels</a> to the West Coast to meet with leaders in the Ethiopian diaspora. Victoria Nuland, the top policy leader at the State Department, told a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?527987-1/state-department-usaid-leadership-testify-sudan-conflict">Senate hearing</a> on Wednesday that the US ambassador to Sudan, John Godfrey, is “likely to play a stronger role in some of the regional diplomacy and global diplomacy that we need on Sudan.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XcuZRk">
This division underestimates how easily Sudan could become a regional issue. “If you’ve restricted the special envoy for the Horn of Africa to just Ethiopia, you have undermined the purpose of having a special envoy that can look broadly, regionally,” Feltman told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2puHI3">
In this melting pot of external interests, the concerns go far beyond Sudan and to the potential spillover effects, especially as thousands of refugees flee Sudan. As neighboring countries get involved and may pick their own winners, new regional dynamics will likely exacerbate the situation. If Egypt takes a stronger side, then Ethiopia is likely to take the opposite side, given their conflict over the new Nile dam.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7VePrk">
Plus Hemedti may be able to reinforce his militia by drawing upon combatants from his own ethnic group across the continent and widening the conflict to the Sahel region. “So you could imagine a situation in which fighters are recruited from as far west as Mali,” political scientist Mai Hassan of the University of Michigan <a href="https://pomeps.org/covid-and-gender-in-the-middle-east-s-12-ep-24">said</a>. “Each new day brings us closer to these worst-case scenarios.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Iuzizp">
Feltman says that even with the benefit of hindsight, it’s not clear whether different US policies could have changed the trajectory. “There’s an overestimation of the US role, and an underestimation of the agency of the local actors,” he told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lWioMk">
But that doesn’t mean the US is powerless to influence change at this critical juncture for Sudan. “There has to be a graceful exit for these generals who have proven unable and unwilling to take the steps that would lead to fulfilling the aspiration of the Sudanese people for democratic, civilian-led government,” Feltman said. “That has to be a unified message, not from just the United States, but from neighbors.”
</p></li>
<li><strong>The fallacy of new ideas, and why we want them anyway</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A cluster of mermaids drawn in various styles to show different iterations throughout history." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/w3lYMecofA13e6LaHIu0JQySqjM=/254x0:1694x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72259325/2Spot.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Cristina Spanò for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Could we ever really tell a new story about a very old mermaid?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jh6JhS">
<em>Part of the issue </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23698278/everything-old-is-new-again"><em><strong>Everything old is new again</strong></em></a><em> from </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight?itm_campaign=hloct22&amp;itm_medium=article&amp;itm_source=intro"><em><strong>The Highlight</strong></em></a><em>, Vox’s home for ambitious stories that explain our world.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zqRh6x">
“Originals,” of course, rarely are.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iak6zm">
In 1989, a redheaded mermaid made her big-screen debut. She wanted to be part of the above-surface world, where people walk around on (what do you call ‘em?) feet, to wander free on the sand in the sunshine. She fell in love with a handsome, kind prince. After some terrifying obstacles and a near-miss, they married. Ariel got her feet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="akp6Us">
For Disney, <em>The Little Mermaid</em> was a big hit, the start of a new era for the studio’s animated entertainment. She launched a hot streak that would continue through the 1990s: <em>Beauty and the Beast</em> (1991), <em>Aladdin</em> (1992), <em>The Lion King</em> (1994), <em>Pocahontas </em>(1995), <em>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</em> (1996), <em>Hercules </em>(1997), <em>Mulan</em> (1998), and <em>Tarzan</em> (1999). They were hits then, the early films in particular, and form a foundational plank in billions of lives. A tremendous percentage of people walking around on the planet can sing snatches of “Part of Your World” or “A Whole New World” or “Circle of Life” at the drop of a hat.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="7yXq0e">
<q>Disney seems determined to make sure its most beloved movies feel like the emblem of a world that’s run out of ideas</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GUZICs">
Yet 30 years after these films defined an era, Disney seems determined to make sure its most beloved movies — including <em>The Little Mermaid</em> — feel like the emblem of a world that’s run out of ideas. One by one, they’re all being remade into “live-action” versions (a misnomer, unless you believe the <em>Lion King</em>’s magicians taught a bunch of wildlife to talk) that are in many ways identical to the originals, except not animated. The songs are re-recorded, the parts re-cast, some new bits are added. In the new <em>Little Mermaid</em>, Ariel is played by the young Black actress Halle Bailey, an innovation that’s both a welcome iteration on a story and a tacit acknowledgement of the overwhelming whiteness of most of Disney’s history.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NCILi5">
New, the films are not, mostly to their detriment: the songs are the same, the story beats maintained, because who wants to see their childhood messed with too much? Strangely, their existence could imply that the originals are unwatchable today — which, of course, is both ridiculous and vaguely insulting, and everybody knows it. They’re obviously unnecessary. Which doesn’t keep audiences from seeing them. Search the internet for “why is Disney remaking all of their films,” and the answer you get, most often, is “<a href="https://screenrant.com/why-disney-remake-animated-movies-live-action/">because they make a lot of money</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mM1bSE">
To call the originals “originals,” though, is wrong, sort of. Each followed a familiar Disney template: an old fairy tale or folk tale with some disturbing undercurrents gets scrubbed up a bit, made suitable for children but enjoyable for adults, draped in some of the catchiest tunes you’ve ever heard and capped with an inevitable happy ending. Each is an adaptation of an older, much-told story. <em>Beauty and the Beast</em> draws from an 18th-century French fairy tale, and also quotes a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038348/">1946 Jean Cocteau film</a>. <em>Aladdin </em>comes from <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34206/34206-h/34206-h.htm"><em>One Thousand and One Nights</em></a>, a collection of Arabic folk tales framed by Scheherazade’s desperate attempt to stay alive. <em>The Lion King </em>is mostly Hamlet, but with sprinklings of the Bible and a bit of <em>Bambi</em>. The stories come from novels and history, mythology and pulp. They are adaptations, new iterations of old stories. Plenty about them innovates on their source material, but they aren’t “new,” not really.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An 1800s ink and watercolor drawing of mermaids in rough seas, with two in the foreground clinging to a rock as a ship approaches, one singing and the other playing a lyre." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XDWajlCi77RrzAoaTjiEa4QIA4Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24599284/159830483.jpg"/> <cite>DeAgostini/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Lorenz Frolich’s illustration for Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid.”
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7G8B1L">
Ariel, too, preexisted Disney, though she didn’t have a name. Back then, she was the protagonist of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 story “<a href="https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheLittleMermaid_e.html">Den lille Havfrue</a>,” an unnamed young mermaid who longs to be human. She wants an eternal soul, which she can only get by marrying a human. When mermaids die, they turn to sea foam, with no persisting soul. So she turns her eyes to the world above the waves, where she finds an indifferent prince who jerks her around a lot. He marries someone else, and she goes to his bed to kill him, but instead sacrifices herself, jumping into water and turning to sea foam. Her sacrifice, however, is rewarded by the spirits of the air, who give her the chance to earn her soul through performing a few centuries of good works.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9lCdq4">
It’s a far less happy tale than in Disney’s telling, its unnamed protagonist given what she wants but only through great labor. Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” is neither morality tale nor heroic romance. In fact, <a href="https://lithub.com/dear-internet-the-little-mermaid-also-happens-to-be-queer-allegory/">scholars agree</a> it was probably Andersen’s expression of anger and longing for Edvard Collin, the son of his patron, upon the occasion of Collin’s marriage to a young woman.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hZcLn7">
Andersen said that his story had no model. That wasn’t strictly — or even kind of — true. Beings that were half-woman and half-fish had been part of Nordic ballads and folklore as early as the medieval era, when they turned up in songs and stories, sometimes as helpers to sailors. Furthermore, a few years before “The Little Mermaid,” Andersen had written another story entitled “Agnete go Havmanden” (or “Agent and the Merman”), which also turned on the matter of its subject’s immortal soul. That story, in turn, was based on a Danish folk ballad handed down across generations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W0ae2v">
Even the idea of a mermaid is far from unique to the chillier regions of Europe. Human culture seems to have a distinct attraction to the idea of a water-dwelling spirit that’s partly woman, partly fish, often mystical or divine, frequently associated with fertility. <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/mermaids-myth-kith-and-kin/">Scholars have chronicled</a> mentions of mermaid-like creatures in ancient written records as far back as the third century BCE. The Syriac fertility goddess Atargatis was described in the first century BCE as having “the face of a woman, and otherwise the entire body of a fish.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qz6OGC">
Whether or not Andersen was aware, there’s a whole bevy of mermaid-adjacent creatures throughout the world’s cultures. There are the sirens of the <em>Odyssey</em>, who are actually half-bird, half-woman, and lure sailors to their deaths. Centuries after Homer wrote about them, they became conflated with mermaids, and are frequently depicted as having fish tails. Or there’s Mami Wata, the water goddess pervasive throughout African folklore, who brings fertility and wealth and is tied to lust. From Iran to Indonesia, fertility and prosperity are embodied in spirits and goddesses, usually with feminine attributes, that live in water.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8zppoZ">
There’s a more murderous variation, too, who seems to lurk in the background of Andersen’s story. (We might properly think of her as a very, very distant antecedent of the antagonistic mermaids in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAMKwDsfUeU"><em>Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken</em></a>.) The 16th-century physician, alchemist, and philosopher Paracelsus proposed the existence of a creature called an “undine,” one of the four elemental beings, a spirit inhabiting water. The idea gripped European imaginations. An undine can gain an immortal soul if a man falls in love with her. If he leaves her, however, she has to kill him, and she may die too. Paracelsus’s conception wasn’t invented from whole cloth; he seems to have melded the European folklore figure of <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Melusine/">Melusina</a>, a woman who is a fish from the waist down, with a 14th-century High German novella entitled <em>Peter von Staufenberg</em>, in which a magical woman kills her human lover when he marries another woman. Undine is a remix.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An antique colorized photo shows a young woman crouched over the body of a man, among rocks at the edge of the sea." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yj9isENv0qSVfEHMfgERi6t3p6U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24599311/1137136898.jpg"/> <cite>LMPC via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A lobbycard for the 1916 film <em>Undine</em>, starring Ida Schnall.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PPcw4D">
In 1811, Baron Friederich de la Motte Fouqué made of Paracelsus’s undine a wildly popular novella, entitled <em>Undine</em>, the story of a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/undine-mythology">water spirit</a> who marries a knight in order to gain an immortal soul. Fouqué mixed the undine with some occult philosophy derived from Paracelsus’s other work, and also maybe an opera entitled <em>Das Donauweibchen</em>, or “Danube mermaid.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="29zAs8">
<em>Undine</em> was such a success that it spawned dozens of derivations. Here are just a few: E.T.A. Hoffmann and Albert Lortzing both wrote librettos based on Fouqué’s novella, in 1816 and 1845, respectively — decades before, and then after, Andersen’s little mermaid entered the world. Composers flocked to the tale, with figures as eminent as Tchaikovsky taking a crack at it; he composed his own <em>Undina</em> opera in 1869. In 1892, Maurice Maeterlinck wrote the play <em>Pelléas et Mélisande</em> based partly on <em>Undine</em>, and Maeterlinck’s play in turn was adapted into a 1902 opera with music by Claude Debussy. A 1916 silent film explored the story. In 1958, the eminent choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton premiered a ballet entitled <em>Ondine</em>, based also on Fouqué, with legendary ballerina Margot Fonteyn in the lead role.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W8K9ZY">
The undine — who is soft and yielding until deserted, and then dangerous beyond belief — is both sister to and antithesis of Andersen’s little mermaid, and thus a forerunner of Ariel. Yet by the time Disney’s mermaid swam on screen, the danger had been stripped away from her, handed to the sea-witch Ursula. There’s no moment when you fear that Ariel will murder Prince Eric. That won’t happen in the remake, either.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mmD9YF">
So decide for yourself. Was Andersen’s mermaid without model? Or was it a new idea? Was it a tired remix and reboot of what came before? Or is she part of a natural process, a progression borne out through time?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uJ4y9u">
Furthermore, if this is simply the way of things, why does Disney’s seemingly bottomless drive to make “live-action” remakes of its animated “originals” feel so creatively bankrupt?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fprxIo">
Do they make you, too, feel like we’re living in a culture that’s just run out of ideas?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F0PHgP">
“Every piece of art is made with reference — overt or not, conscious or not — to the traditions, practices, and possibilities of its genre, and so is in dialogue with other work,” A.O. Scott points out to me. Until recently the New York Times’s film critic, Scott has watched, and reviewed, more remixes and reboots than most people will see in a lifetime. He makes the case in his book <em>Better Living Through Criticism</em> that all art is, in a sense, criticism — a work that builds and comments upon other works of art — and that criticism in this sense is itself art.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5QQJbD">
“This isn’t to say that a reboot or imitation <em>can’t</em> be an original or critical work,” he says. The history of art is, after all, a history of remakes and reboots, paintings that take styles and symbols from the past and interpret them, sometimes in profoundly original ways. “But in those cases it’s the assertion of an individual style, the imposition of a personal will, on the material that makes the difference.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="fuhTGK">
<q>Andersen isn’t being <em>new.</em> But he is being <em>original</em>.</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GQ5frW">
So when Andersen uses folklore, legends, and the writings of a 16th-century alchemist to tell the story of a little mermaid, he isn’t being <em>new.</em> But he is being <em>original</em>. His personal will — in this case, thwarted desire for a man who would never love him back — is imposed on the material, shaping it into something related to but different from the stories told by Fouqué or medieval ballad singers or Homer or people in Africa and Indonesia.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zQXeDI">
Spend enough time around human stories, and you start to realize that all of culture seems suspiciously like variations on the same few ideas, archetypes, and arcs that we have, since our earliest ancestors, relied upon to make meaning from the world. Andersen is doing the same. So is Disney.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lbsOFt">
Art, however, is more than its ideas, its “content.” There’s something more than just content that attracts us to art, to stories. In the most enduring works, we are drawn to the evidence of a human’s sensibilities and proclivities and obsessions and passions exerted on the material. Yes, William Shakespeare based most of his plays on stories and histories that predated him. But the hook to see Shakespeare’s <em>Richard III</em> wasn’t (and still isn’t) that you want to see the familiar events of Richard’s life played out in front of you once again so you can remember them. It’s the language and the rhythm, the way the tale unspools, the themes and their interpretation. What we see on stage is a creative intelligence — that of the writer, and of the director, too. It’s the source of the old axiom: art isn’t just <em>what</em> it’s about, but <em>how</em> it’s about it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="izFC3X">
Of course, we haven’t come to the end of new ideas. Humans are inexorably creative, coming up with new ways of looking at the world, new ways of reinventing old human obsessions, of making meaning of our lives, all the time. We are creatures who remix and invert and mash up and imagine. As a wise man once said, there is nothing new under the sun.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7bwQrw">
So why do things feel different now? Why do I expect so little from Disney’s live-action remakes? Or the latest reboot of a sitcom from the ’90s? Or the millionth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Why does it feel like the kind of movies we were watching and celebrating in 1967 and in 1999 would be plainly impossible to make today?
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An image of Halle Bailey as a mermaid, under the sea." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Xs13xGHSea6AHrhWJ8RNFZt-h-g=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24599313/mermaid.jpg"/> <cite>Disney</cite>
<figcaption>
Halle Bailey as Ariel in the 2023 “live-action” remake of <em>The Little Mermaid.</em>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qkj2Yw">
In my professional career as a critic, I’ve seen plenty of shifts in the art on offer. I’m not naive enough to adopt an end of history attitude; the market goes in cycles, and I hope the independent-film heyday of the late aughts will return some day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O8VZU2">
That said, it’s hard to deny that the kind of movies we were watching and celebrating 30 years ago <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/1/3/18157860/1999-top-movies-box-office-fight-club-american-beauty-toy-story">feel markedly different</a> from the glut of familiar entertainment now. The culprit, I think, is simple: the “new” entertainment we’re offered by corporations today is filtered through an assertion of ownership over the ideas therein. We live in an entertainment culture dominated by movies and TV and video games, and who knows what else, drawn from “existing IP” by risk-averse companies. Ideas with a built-in audience and a proven market value are favored over the risk of a remix that has a different ending, a daring take, a complex or frightening element that’s not in its source material. Now, ideas are owned by a company, which gets to dictate who can do the remixing and reinventing, and along which lines, and who can sue if the fence gets jumped.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rd9u8Y">
“IP is an artifact of the marketplace,” Scott says. “IP is about who has the right to exploit material, and that person is never an artist, but always a corporate entity looking to extend its brand and limit what can be done with certain images and stories, and who can do it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I0xEEo">
Certainly, intellectual property laws exist for a reason. They can, at their best, encourage creativity and the sharing of new ideas by allowing creators to benefit from their work. In a market-driven world, trademarks and copyrights protect creativity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WwWUUJ">
But increasingly, the new stories on our screens don’t, and can’t, become part of our commons, fertilizing a field for us to plow and plant with our own versions molded by our own creative intelligences — or at least, not if we fear a lawsuit (or fan outrage). Yes, film and television have been dominated by adaptations of stories owned by corporations since the dawn of the moving image. But there’s axiomatically more of it now than ever before. And in a world where the simple tools for creativity are easily accessible to ordinary people, not just studios who can afford expensive equipment, the lockdown on stories, and the insistence on constant regurgitation of the same stuff with the same predictable outcome, feels particularly egregious. Particularly stale. Particularly like we’ve stifled our culture into stasis.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kmAKXL">
Is it really new ideas we’re looking for? Or do we yearn for the ability to be surprised, to fall in love with new versions of old stories that speak to our time?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wfb8uI">
Human nature doesn’t change, but the world in which humans live does. And our world presents us with particular challenges and fears. Fragmentation and alienation from one another. Technological advancements that challenge what it means to be human. New ways to conceive of our identities. A looming sense that nature is not within our control.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="TxNXM8">
<q>Something within us wants to hear the old stories told in new ways</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GKSwgI">
What we’re looking and longing for when we complain of stagnancy in the culture isn’t some wholly new idea. Instead, I think, something within us wants to hear the old stories told in new ways — not just converted from hand-drawn animation to more realistic computerized versions with the same story beats and songs, but with something to say to our age.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yKpbLt">
Art like this can be scary and threatening and makes people complain when it challenges their comfort, and that’s why companies don’t do it. Don’t look to Disney for that kind of innovation, that kind of meaning-making; they seem to have abandoned it decades ago.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZZnknL">
The art that endures out of our age, I think, will be made by people who sense how to harness the old romances and myths and figures that frighten us — the water-spirits, the partly-human, partly-something-else creatures that lurk around the edges of our species’ subconscious — and make them speak to our new world, and the world our children will live in, too. Art makes meaning from chaos, the same as it always has. There are artists with fresh imaginations who break through the fence. It’s incumbent on us to be ready.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Everything old is new again</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A figure holds their finger in the air. Their head is a lightbulb with the recycling symbol inside. Flowers and a bird surround the figure." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZGePaQXu4Da3tjIrA3floMXBs4s=/226x0:1666x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72280675/CristinaSpano_NoNewIdeas_Cover.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Cristina Spanò for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Is it possible to be truly original anymore — in your own life, in commerce, in art?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1NaybJ">
We’re in a cultural moment where it feels like so much is being rehashed, repackaged, and resold to a captive audience. This is certainly the case in entertainment, where the Hollywood reboot machine is the driving force behind what makes it to our screens; even “original” programming is frequently built from familiar storytelling tropes and formats. The same kind of recycling — sorry, <em>remixing</em> — holds true in pop music.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ettJdm">
This carries over into matters of business and politics with just as much resonance. And when it comes to lifestyle topics like dieting, parenting, and even sex, we wind up circling the drain and repackaging old trends and ideas as hot new fads, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OCRHX8">
What makes newness, or novelty, or originality, so important in the first place, particularly in a society that heavily prioritizes individual comfort and choices? Are we in a uniquely not-new moment, or has it actually always felt this way?
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="ychhL0"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A cluster of mermaids drawn in various styles to show different iterations throughout history." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MHrW4PyZ8LFGsHgIFhjotq6aKcg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24630032/2Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="QOLupP">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23668199/fallacy-new-ideas-original-story-little-mermaid"><strong>The fallacy of new ideas, and why we want them anyway</strong></a>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tIQp0o">
Could we ever really tell a new story about a very old mermaid?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N6EYPi">
<em>By Alissa Wilkinson</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="Z62zJB"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A cartoon drawing of two figures riding in battle tanks, facing each other, yelling at one another through bullhorns. A laptop sits in the background between them. The laptop screen reads “XXX.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IOl-G4ji6RrceNwlQv2C1po--fU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24630262/3Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="lp2WLg">
<strong>The return of the porn wars </strong><em><strong>(Coming Tuesday)</strong></em>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V3vI5m">
How today’s fight over pornography is rooted in a 40-year-old feminist schism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nP0SQK">
<em>By Constance Grady</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="ygZkQj"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Row of parents holding babies with speech bubbles above their heads. They are all offering the same advice to new parents." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Vo9pWaxb3xxLIovbzvaAT3lSXvM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24630385/5Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="iDER1r">
<strong>From banning hugs to gentle parenting, how are you supposed to raise kids, anyway? </strong><em><strong>(Coming Wednesday)</strong></em>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="piM15a">
The endless cycling — and recycling — of parenting advice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cqNjat">
<em>By Anna North</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="ieuIG7"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A cartoon drawing of a large figure sitting proudly on top of several people, who are struggling to hold the weight. The scene looks like a king on a throne with two bitcoins in place of arm rests." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KZSpLxZnJF6wsRAoUkjBijDfw5E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24630061/4Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="LwS7GY">
<strong>Crypto: New. Fraud: Old. </strong><em><strong>(Coming Thursday)</strong></em>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5i1yyS">
When you democratize finance, you get the good and the bad.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lc4tkl">
<em>By Emily Stewart</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="JipfNj"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A figure stands on a stage, which looks like a $100 bill, surrounded by showy rays of light. Audience members below reach their hands toward the stage to show their fandom." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AjAdHvTIPEuOnFUfNs-Hs5k1UkE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24635258/1Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="nhVVwa">
<strong>The billionaire’s guide to self-help </strong><em><strong>(Coming Friday)</strong></em>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NlkYoC">
Self-improvement is old. What’s new is the bootstrapping mythos and toxic positivity of the very rich.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fve35E">
<em>By Whizy Kim</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="2Dd4j4"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jW6hDf">
<strong>CREDITS</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="otp9Bk">
<strong>Editors: </strong>Meredith Haggerty, Alanna Okun, Lavanya Ramanathan, Julia Rubin<br/><strong>Copy editors/fact-checkers:</strong> Elizabeth Crane, Kim Eggleston, Tanya Pai, Caitlin PenzeyMoog<br/><strong>Additional fact-checking: </strong>Anouck Dussaud, Matt Giles<br/><strong>Art direction: </strong>Dion Lee<br/><strong>Audience:</strong> Gabriela Fernandez, Shira Tarlo, Agnes Mazur<br/><strong>Production/project editors:</strong> Lauren Katz, Nathan Hall
</p>
<div id="hq8rvd">
</div>
<div id="8eFsli">
<div id="money_pixel_page_level_exception">
</div></div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dhoni — the ultimate outsider who became Chennai’s own</strong> - The most remarkable thing about the CSK captain is just how unremarkably ‘normal’ he is</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>Keep Rohit and Kohli fresh for Tests and ODIs, try IPL performers like Tilak, Jaiswal, Jitesh in T20Is now, says Ravi Shastri</strong> - The likes of Jaiswal, Jitesh, Tilak and Rinku Singh have all done well in the IPL and would be pushing for regular slots under Hardik Pandya’s captaincy</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>IPL 2023, LSG vs MI | Lucknow looks to halt Mumbai’s momentum in crucial clash</strong> - Both teams will be looking to get out of the danger zone as eight teams remain in the play-off contention</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>IPL 2023 | Missing out on Varun Chakravarthy still hurts: CSK coach Fleming</strong> - On the loss against KKR on Sunday, Fleming said CSK did not read the conditions correctly</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 | Kharge set to pick Karnataka CM; key Turkey election heading for runoff, and more</strong> - Here’s a select list of stories to read before you start your 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>SSLC results on May 20, Plus Two on May 25</strong> - Schools will reopen on June 1</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Go First insolvency: NCLAT to pass order on aircraft lessors’ petitions on May 22</strong> - A two-member Bench headed by Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan on May 15 reserved its order after completing the hearing on the the three petitions</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cyclone ‘Mocha’ damages over 230 houses in Mizoram</strong> - A total of 5,749 people in more than 50 villages were affected by the powerful winds</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>Registration plates: three months needed to select manufacturers, Kerala govt. tells HC</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>Sachin Tendulkar invests in Hyderabad’s Azad Engineering</strong> -</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>Erdogan leads as Turkey heads for election run-off</strong> - Turkey’s president says he will win five more years in power, after taking a first-round lead.</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>Austrian train plays Hitler speech over loudspeaker</strong> - Staff and passengers were “upset” by the incident, for which two people have been charged.</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>Sweden’s Loreen wins Eurovision for the second time</strong> - Loreen is the first woman to win twice, but Mae Muller fails to replicate Sam Ryder’s success.</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>Ukraine Eurovision act’s city Ternopil attacked before performance</strong> - Ternopil was hit by Russian missiles before Tvorchi took the stage in Liverpool, authorities say.</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>Ukraine war: Kyiv not attacking Russian territory - Zelensky</strong> - Ukraine’s president says in Germany that Kyiv is preparing to liberate its regions seized by Russia.</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>The complicated history of how the Earth’s atmosphere became breathable</strong> - Biology, geology, and chemistry all worked together to make the present atmosphere. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1933473">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The challenges and promises of climate lawsuits</strong> - Suing governments and fossil fuel companies is a key tool in the climate change battle. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1938870">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>More evidence emerges that Saturn’s rings are much younger than the planet</strong> - ’In a way, we’ve gotten closure on a question that started with James Clerk Maxwell.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1938634">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Passkeys may not be for you, but they are safe and easy—here’s why</strong> - Answering common questions about how passkeys work. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939003">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Google to pay $8M settlement for “lying to Texans,” state AG says</strong> - “If Google is going to advertise in Texas, their statements better be true.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939110">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>Guy walks into a bar Sits at the bar and orders a drink. He pays with a $100 bill and refuses the change. Just when he’s about to take a drink, this little guy - not even a foot tall - runs across the bar and knocks the drink out of his hand. The little guy jumps off the bar and disappears.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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The bartender, really confused, pours him another drink. The guy pays him $100 and refuses the change again. Just as he’s about to sip his drink, the little guy appears, knocks the drink to the floor and runs off again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Now the bartender pours him another drink and asks him about the little guy. The patron says, "well, I found myself on a deserted island, with nothing but an old elaborate bottle. When I opened the bottle, this genie came out and granted me three wishes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My first wish was to be back in civilization. And here I am. My second wish was to have a never ending supply of $100 bills. And here’s one for you."
</p>
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The bar tender thanks for his third $100 bill and asks “what about your third wish?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I wished for a 10 inch dick”.
</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/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13hmlso/guy_walks_into_a_bar_sits_at_the_bar_and_orders_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13hmlso/guy_walks_into_a_bar_sits_at_the_bar_and_orders_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A stoner rubs a bong and a genie comes out, offering three wishes.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The stoner says, “ok for my first wish, I want a six inch joint.” And poof! A joint appears and the stoner and genie sit down and smoke it together.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“For my second wish, I want a 12 inch blunt!” And poof! A blunt appears and the stoner and genie sit down and smoke it together.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Ok now for my third wish, I want an 18 inch monster roll with a THC-concentrate core!” And poof! The biggest blunt you’ve ever seen appears and the stoner and genie sit down and smoke it together.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Finally the genie gets up and slowly starts to stagger away. Then he stops, turns his head and smiles, and says, “ok man, one more wish”
</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/ReturnOfTheBanned"> /u/ReturnOfTheBanned </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13hz369/a_stoner_rubs_a_bong_and_a_genie_comes_out/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13hz369/a_stoner_rubs_a_bong_and_a_genie_comes_out/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pavlov walks into a bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He orders a pint and sits at a table sipping his beer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Suddenly the phone rings. “Oh shit!” Pavlov exclaims, jumping up to his feet. “I forgot to feed the dogs!”
</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/hiddenyogi"> /u/hiddenyogi </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13hufje/pavlov_walks_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13hufje/pavlov_walks_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When I found out they had found a cure for dyslexia I was like…..</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Music to my arse!
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/_DogTits_"> /u/<em>DogTits</em> </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13i3bzp/when_i_found_out_they_had_found_a_cure_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13i3bzp/when_i_found_out_they_had_found_a_cure_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A farmer buys a young cock</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As soon as he gets home it fucks all of his 150 hens. The farmer is impressed. At lunch, the cock again screws all 150 hens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Next day it’s fucking the ducks and the geese too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Sadly, later in the day the farmer finds the cock lying on the ground half-dead and vultures circling over its head. Farmer yells , “You deserve it, you horny bastard!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The cock slowly opens one eye, looks up at the sky and whispers , " Shhhhhh, They’re about to land!!!"
</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/HelpingHandsUs"> /u/HelpingHandsUs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13hed49/a_farmer_buys_a_young_cock/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13hed49/a_farmer_buys_a_young_cock/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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