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<title>03 June, 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>Impact of reference design on estimating SARS-CoV-2 lineage abundances from wastewater sequencing data</strong> -
<div>
Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from wastewater samples has emerged as a valuable tool for detecting the presence and relative abundances of SARS-CoV-2 variants in a community. By analyzing the viral genetic material present in wastewater, public health officials can gain early insights into the spread of the virus and inform timely intervention measures. The construction of reference datasets from known SARS-CoV-2 lineages and their mutation profiles has become state-of-the-art for assigning viral lineages and their relative abundances from wastewater sequencing data. However, the selection of reference sequences or mutations directly affects the predictive power. Here, we show the impact of a mutation- and sequence-based reference reconstruction for SARS-CoV-2 abundance estimation. We benchmark three data sets: 1) synthetic 'spike-in' mixtures, 2) German samples from early 2021, mainly comprising Alpha, and 3) samples obtained from wastewater at an international airport in Germany from the end of 2021, including first signals of Omicron. The two approaches differ in sub-lineage detection, with the marker-mutation-based method, in particular, being challenged by the increasing number of mutations and lineages. However, the estimations of both approaches depend on selecting representative references and optimized parameter settings. By performing parameter escalation experiments, we demonstrate the effects of reference size and alternative allele frequency cutoffs for abundance estimation. We show how different parameter settings can lead to different results for our test data sets, and illustrate the effects of virus lineage composition of wastewater samples and references. Here, we compare a mutation- and sequence-based reference construction and assignment for SARS-CoV-2 abundance estimation from wastewater samples. Our study highlights current computational challenges, focusing on the general reference design, which significantly and directly impacts abundance allocations. We illustrate advantages and disadvantages that may be relevant for further developments in the wastewater community and in the context of higher standardization.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.02.543047v1" target="_blank">Impact of reference design on estimating SARS-CoV-2 lineage abundances from wastewater sequencing data</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Civil society initiatives addressing COVID-19 in Rio de Janeiro (PT)</strong> -
<div>
Handwashing is key for stemming COVID-19 transmission, but many communities around the world lack access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). This research investigated the work that civil society organizations (CSO) developed with vulnerable populations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We interviewed 15 CSO leaders working in the region. This study had three research questions: 1. How do leaders of civil society organizations perceive the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on populations with limited access to safe WASH in Brazil? 2. What actions have CSOs implemented to support vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic? 3. What is the perceived level of success of these actions according to CSO leaders? Our key findings revealed that: 1. Vulnerable populations faced generalized fear and confusion, high rates of COVID-19 infections and income loss. Additionally, CSO leaders noted an increase and diversification in people seeking assistance, as well as rising police and domestic violence. 2. CSOs focused on providing relief aid by donating food, water, hygiene kits, and personal protection equipment (PPE). They invested too in partnering with other organizations and raising awareness about COVID-19, hygiene practices, and public health measures. 3. Initiatives perceived as successful included the construction of water infrastructure and fundraising. Compliance with public health measures, on the other hand, had significant limitations.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/yue8f/" target="_blank">Civil society initiatives addressing COVID-19 in Rio de Janeiro (PT)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Hospital vulnerability to spread of respiratory infections: close contact data collection and mathematical modelling</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 within hospitals can exceed that in the general community because of more frequent close proximity interactions. However, epidemic risk across wards is still poorly described. We measured CPIs directly using wearable sensors given to all those present in a clinical ward over a 36-hour period, across 15 wards in three hospitals in spring 2020. Data were collected from 2114 participants. These data were combined with a simple transmission model describing the arrival of a single index case to the ward to estimate the risk of an outbreak. Estimated epidemic risk ranged four-fold, from 0.12 secondary infections per day in an adult emergency to 0.49 per day in general paediatrics. The risk presented by an index case in a patient varied twenty-fold across wards. Using simulation, we assessed the potential impact on outbreak risk of targeting the most connected individuals for prevention. We found that targeting those with the highest cumulative contact hours was most impactful (20% reduction for 5% of the population targeted), and on average resources were better spent targeting patients. This study reveals patterns of interactions between individuals in hospital during a pandemic and opens new routes for research into airborne nosocomial risk.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.13.22279837v2" target="_blank">Hospital vulnerability to spread of respiratory infections: close contact data collection and mathematical modelling</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Disruptiveness of COVID-19: Differences in Course Engagement, Self-appraisal, and Learning</strong> -
<div>
We investigated how the transition to remote instruction amidst the COVID-19 pandemic affected students’ engagement, self-appraisals, and learning in advanced placement (AP) Statistics courses. Participants included 681 (Mage=16.7 years, SDage=.90; %female=55.4) students enrolled in the course during 2017-2018 (N=266), 2018-2019 (N=200), and the pandemic-affected 2019-2020 (N=215) year. Students enrolled during the pandemic-affected year reported a greater improvement in affective engagement but a decrease in cognitive engagement in the spring semester relative to a previous year. Females enrolled in the pandemic-affected year experienced a greater negative change in affective and behavioral engagement. Students enrolled during the pandemic-affected year reported a greater decrease in their anticipated AP exam scores and received lower scores on a practice exam aligned with the AP exam compared to a prior year. Though resilient in some respects, students’ self-appraisal and learning appeared negatively affected by pandemic circumstances.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/b2pxd/" target="_blank">Disruptiveness of COVID-19: Differences in Course Engagement, Self-appraisal, and Learning</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Socio-demographic characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccination uptake in Switzerland: longitudinal analysis of the CoMix study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Vaccination is an effective strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination has varied across and within countries. Switzerland has had lower levels of COVID-19 vaccination uptake in the general population than many other high-income countries. Understanding the socio-demographic factors associated with vaccination uptake can help to inform future vaccination strategies to increase uptake. Methods: We conducted a longitudinal online survey in the Swiss population, consisting of six survey waves from June to September 2021. Participants provided information on socio-demographic characteristics, history of testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), social contacts, willingness to be vaccinated, and vaccination status. We used a multivariable Poisson regression model to estimate the adjusted rate ratio (aRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Results: We recorded 6,758 observations from 1,884 adults. For the regression analysis, we included 3,513 observations from 1,883 participants. By September 2021, 600 (75%) of 806 study participants had received at least one vaccine dose. Participants who were older, male, and students, had a higher educational level, household income, and number of social contacts, and lived in a household with a medically vulnerable person were more likely to have received at least one vaccine dose. Female participants, those who lived in rural areas and smaller households, and people who perceived COVID-19 measures as being too strict were less likely to be vaccinated. We found no significant association between previous SARS-CoV-2 infections and vaccination uptake. Conclusions: Our results suggest that socio-demographic factors as well as individual behaviours and attitudes played an important role in COVID-19 vaccination uptake in Switzerland. Therefore, appropriate communication with the public is needed to ensure that public health interventions are accepted and implemented by the population. Tailored COVID-19 vaccination strategies in Switzerland that aim to improve uptake should target specific subgroups such as women, people from rural areas or people with lower socio-demographic status. Keywords: Vaccine, COVID-19, contact survey, social contact, socio-demographic characteristics, Switzerland.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.13.23287183v2" target="_blank">Socio-demographic characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccination uptake in Switzerland: longitudinal analysis of the CoMix study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Discovering Social Determinants of Health from Case Reports using Natural Language Processing: Algorithmic Development and Validation</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Social determinants of health are non-medical factors that influence health outcomes (SDOH). There is a wealth of SDOH information available via electronic health records, clinical reports, and social media, usually in free text format, which poses a significant challenge and necessitates the use of natural language processing (NLP) techniques to extract key information. Objective: The objective of this research is to advance the automatic extraction of SDOH from clinical texts. Setting and Data: The case reports of COVID-19 patients from the published literature are curated to create a corpus. A portion of the data is annotated by experts to create gold labels, and active learning is used for corpus re-annotation. Methods: A named entity recognition (NER) framework is developed and tested to extract SDOH along with a few prominent clinical entities (diseases, treatments, diagnosis) from the free texts. Results: The proposed NER implementation achieves an accuracy (F1-score) of 92.98% on our test set and generalizes well on benchmark data. A careful analysis of case examples demonstrates the superiority of the proposed approach in correctly classifying the named entities. Conclusions: NLP can be used to extract key information, such as SDOH from free texts. A more accurate understanding of SDOH is needed to further improve healthcare outcomes.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.30.22282946v4" target="_blank">Discovering Social Determinants of Health from Case Reports using Natural Language Processing: Algorithmic Development and Validation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Suspensions of prominent accounts minimally impact platform engagement</strong> -
<div>
Health-related misinformation online poses threats to individual well-being and undermines public health efforts. In response, many social media platforms have temporarily or permanently suspended accounts that spread misinformation, at the risk of losing traffic vital to platform revenue. Here we examine the impact on platform engagement following removal of six prominent accounts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focused on those who engaged with the removed accounts, we find that suspension did not meaningfully reduce activity on the platform. Moreover, we find that removal of the prominent accounts minimally impacted the diversity of information sources consumed.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/x4jau/" target="_blank">Suspensions of prominent accounts minimally impact platform engagement</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Complex Adaptive Systems and Human Resource Management: Fostering a Thriving Workforce in the Post-Pandemic Era</strong> -
<div>
The outbreak of COVID-19 has presented unparalleled difficulties for both companies and their staff, resulting in a state of emergency that jeopardizes the welfare of employees and the prosperity of organizations. The present article delves into the prospects of human resource management (HRM) in promoting a workforce that is sustainable and thrives in diverse situations or paradigms through the lens of complex adaptive systems. An examination of the current body of literature indicates deficiencies in comprehending the function of HRM in fostering employee thriving, particularly within the framework of broader and more remote organizational contexts. The article utilizes the framework of complex adaptive systems to suggest various human resource strategies, policies, practices, systems, and processes that can enhance the thriving of the workforce. These strategies include initiatives aimed at promoting employee well-being, flexible working arrangements, and leadership that fosters inclusivity. The significance of HR executives in steering organizations through periods of crisis and recuperation is underscored, along with the imperative to reevaluate the definition of thriving in the context of the pandemic and its enduring ramifications. The article’s final remarks entail the identification of potential avenues for future research and practice in the field of HRM. The significance of HRM in fostering a workforce that is capable of thriving sustainably, both during and post-pandemic, is underscored.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/74pg5/" target="_blank">Complex Adaptive Systems and Human Resource Management: Fostering a Thriving Workforce in the Post-Pandemic Era</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Deep Phenotyping of the Lipidomic Response in COVID and non-COVID Sepsis</strong> -
<div>
Lipids may influence cellular penetrance by pathogens and the immune response that they evoke. Here we find broad based lipidomic storm driven predominantly by secretory (s) phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) dependent eicosanoid production occurs in patients with sepsis of viral and bacterial origin and relates to disease severity in COVID-19. Elevations in the cyclooxygenase (COX) products of arachidonic acid (AA), PGD2 and PGI2, and the AA lipoxygenase (LOX) product, 12-HETE, and a reduction in the high abundance lipids, ChoE 18:3, LPC O-16:0 and PC-O-30:0 exhibit relative specificity for COVID-19 amongst such patients, correlate with the inflammatory response and link to disease severity. Linoleic acid (LA) binds directly to SARS-CoV-2 and both LA and its di-HOME products reflect disease severity in COVID-19. AA and LA metabolites and LPC-O-16:0 linked variably to the immune response. These studies yield prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for patients with sepsis, including COVID-19. An interactive purpose built interactive network analysis tool was developed, allowing the community to interrogate connections across these multiomic data and generate novel hypotheses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.02.543298v1" target="_blank">Deep Phenotyping of the Lipidomic Response in COVID and non-COVID Sepsis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>AGILE Platform: A Deep Learning-Powered Approach to Accelerate LNP Development for mRNA Delivery</strong> -
<div>
Ionizable lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have seen widespread use in mRNA delivery for clinical applications, notably in SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines. Despite their successful use, expansion of mRNA therapies beyond COVID-19 is impeded by the absence of LNPs tailored to different target cell types. The traditional process of LNP development remains labor-intensive and cost-inefficient, relying heavily on trial and error. In this study, we present the AI-Guided Ionizable Lipid Engineering (AGILE) platform, a synergistic combination of deep learning and combinatorial chemistry. AGILE streamlines the iterative development of ionizable lipids, crucial components for LNP-mediated mRNA delivery. This approach brings forth three significant features: efficient design and synthesis of combinatorial lipid libraries, comprehensive in silico lipid screening employing deep neural networks, and adaptability to diverse cell lines. Using AGILE, we were able to rapidly design, synthesize, and evaluate new ionizable lipids for mRNA delivery in muscle and immune cells, selecting from a library of over 10,000 candidates. Importantly, AGILE has revealed cell-specific preferences for ionizable lipids, indicating the need for different tail lengths and head groups for optimal delivery to varying cell types. These results underscore the potential of AGILE in expediting the development of customized LNPs. This could significantly contribute to addressing the complex needs of mRNA delivery in clinical practice, thereby broadening the scope and efficacy of mRNA therapies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.01.543345v1" target="_blank">AGILE Platform: A Deep Learning-Powered Approach to Accelerate LNP Development for mRNA Delivery</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>NULISA: a novel proteomic liquid biopsy platform with attomolar sensitivity and high multiplexing</strong> -
<div>
The blood proteome holds great promise for precision medicine but poses substantial challenges due to the low abundance of most plasma proteins and the vast dynamic range across the proteome. We report a novel proteomic technology - NUcleic acid Linked Immuno-Sandwich Assay (NULISA) - that incorporates a dual capture and release mechanism to suppress the assay background and improves the sensitivity of the proximity ligation assay by over 10,000-fold to the attomolar level. It utilizes pairs of antibodies conjugated to DNA oligonucleotides that enable immunocomplex purification and generate reporter DNA containing target- and sample-specific barcodes for a next-generation sequencing-based, highly multiplexed readout. A 200-plex NULISA targeting 124 cytokines and chemokines and 80 other immune response-related proteins demonstrated superior sensitivity for detecting low-abundance proteins and high concordance with other immunoassays. The ultrahigh sensitivity allowed the detection of previously difficult-to-detect, but biologically important, low-abundance biomarkers in patients with autoimmune diseases and COVID-19. Fully automated NULISA addresses longstanding challenges in proteomic analysis of liquid biopsies and makes broad and in-depth proteomic analysis accessible to the general research community and future diagnostic applications.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.09.536130v2" target="_blank">NULISA: a novel proteomic liquid biopsy platform with attomolar sensitivity and high multiplexing</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Combinatorial Regimens Augment Drug Monotherapy for SARS-CoV-2 Clearance in Mice</strong> -
<div>
Direct acting antivirals (DAAs) represent critical tools for combating SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) that evolve to escape spike-based immunity and future coronaviruses with pandemic potential. Here, we used bioluminescence imaging to evaluate therapeutic efficacy of DAAs that target SARS-CoV-2 RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (favipiravir, molnupiravir) or Main protease (nirmatrelvir) against Delta or Omicron VOCs in K18-hACE2 mice. Nirmatrelvir displayed the best efficacy followed by molnupiravir and favipiravir in suppressing viral loads in the lung. Unlike neutralizing antibody treatment, DAA monotherapy did not eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in mice. However, targeting two viral enzymes by combining molnupiravir with nirmatrelvir resulted in superior efficacy and virus clearance. Furthermore, combining molnupiravir with Caspase-1/4 inhibitor mitigated inflammation and lung pathology whereas combining molnupiravir with COVID-19 convalescent plasma yielded rapid virus clearance and 100% survival. Thus, our study provides insights into treatment efficacies of DAAs and other effective combinations to bolster COVID-19 therapeutic arsenal.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.31.543159v1" target="_blank">Combinatorial Regimens Augment Drug Monotherapy for SARS-CoV-2 Clearance in Mice</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The HLA-II immunopeptidome of SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
Targeted synthetic vaccines have the potential to transform our response to viral outbreaks; yet the design of these vaccines requires a comprehensive knowledge of viral immunogens, including T-cell epitopes. Having previously mapped the SARS-CoV-2 HLA-I landscape, here we report viral peptides that are naturally processed and loaded onto HLA-II complexes in infected cells. We identified over 500 unique viral peptides from canonical proteins, as well as from overlapping internal open reading frames (ORFs), revealing, for the first time, the contribution of internal ORFs to the HLA-II peptide repertoire. Most HLA-II peptides co-localized with the known CD4+ T cell epitopes in COVID-19 patients. We also observed that two reported immunodominant regions in the SARS-CoV-2 membrane protein are formed at the level of HLA-II presentation. Overall, our analyses show that HLA-I and HLA-II pathways target distinct viral proteins, with the structural proteins accounting for most of the HLA-II peptidome and non-structural and non-canonical proteins accounting for the majority of the HLA-I peptidome. These findings highlight the need for a vaccine design that incorporates multiple viral elements harboring CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes to maximize the vaccine effectiveness.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.26.542482v1" target="_blank">The HLA-II immunopeptidome of SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Single-cell multi-omic topic embedding reveals cell-type-specific and COVID-19 severity-related immune signatures</strong> -
<div>
The advent of single-cell multi-omics sequencing technology makes it possible for researchers to leverage multiple modalities for individual cells and explore cell heterogeneity. However, the high dimensional, discrete, and sparse nature of the data make the downstream analysis particularly challenging. Most of the existing computational methods for single-cell data analysis are either limited to single modality or lack flexibility and interpretability. In this study, we propose an interpretable deep learning method called multi-omic embedded topic model (moETM) to effectively perform integrative analysis of high-dimensional single-cell multimodal data. moETM integrates multiple omics data via a product-of-experts in the encoder for efficient variational inference and then employs multiple linear decoders to learn the multi-omic signatures of the gene regulatory programs. Through comprehensive experiments on public single-cell transcriptome and chromatin accessibility data (i.e., scRNA+scATAC), as well as scRNA and proteomic data (i.e., CITE-seq), moETM demonstrates superior performance compared with six state-of-the-art single-cell data analysis methods on seven publicly available datasets. By applying moETM to the scRNA+scATAC data in human bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs), we identified sequence motifs corresponding to the transcription factors that regulate immune gene signatures. Applying moETM analysis to CITE-seq data from the COVID-19 patients revealed not only known immune cell-type-specific signatures but also composite multi-omic biomarkers of critical conditions due to COVID-19, thus providing insights from both biological and clinical perspectives.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.31.526312v2" target="_blank">Single-cell multi-omic topic embedding reveals cell-type-specific and COVID-19 severity-related immune signatures</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Geospatially-resolved public-health surveillance via wastewater sequencing</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Wastewater, which contains everything from pathogens to pollutants, is a geospatially- and temporally-linked microbial fingerprint of a given population. As a result, it can be leveraged for monitoring multiple dimensions of public health across locales and time. Here, we integrate targeted and bulk RNA sequencing (n=1,419 samples) to track the viral, bacterial, and functional content over geospatially distinct areas within Miami Dade County from 2020-2022. First, we used targeted amplicon sequencing (n=966) to track diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants across space and time, and we found a tight correspondence with clinical caseloads from University students (N = 1,503) and Miami-Dade County hospital patients (N = 3,939 patients), as well as an 8-day earlier detection of the Delta variant in wastewater vs. in patients. Additionally, in 453 metatranscriptomic samples, we demonstrate that different wastewater sampling locations have clinically and public-health-relevant microbiota that vary as a function of the size of the human population they represent. Through assembly, alignment-based, and phylogenetic approaches, we also detect multiple clinically important viruses (e.g., norovirus) and describe geospatial and temporal variation in microbial functional genes that indicate the presence of pollutants. Moreover, we found distinct profiles of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes and virulence factors across campus buildings, dorms, and hospitals, with hospital wastewater containing a significant increase in AMR abundance. Overall, this effort lays the groundwork for systematic characterization of wastewater to improve public health decision making and a broad platform to detect emerging pathogens.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.31.23290781v1" target="_blank">Geospatially-resolved public-health surveillance via wastewater sequencing</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>Extracorporeal Photopheresis as a Possible Therapeutic Approach to Adults With Severe and Critical COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Extracorporeal photopheresis<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Del-Pest Central Hospital - National Institute of Hematology and Infectious 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>A Clinical Trial on Booster Immunization of Two COVID-19 Vaccines Constructed From Different Technical Routes</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Prototype and Omicron BA.4/5 Bivalent Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine(Adenovirus Type 5 Vector) For Inhalation;   Biological: Bivalent COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine;   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Adenovirus Type 5 Vector) For Inhalation<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Zhongnan Hospital;   Institute of Biotechnology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, PLA of China<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effect of Special Discharge Training in the COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: COVID-19 Discharge Education<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Kilis 7 Aralik 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>Evaluation of Safety, Tolerability, Reactogenicity, Immunogenicity of Baiya SARS-CoV-2 Vax 2 as a Booster for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccine;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: 50 μg Baiya SARS-CoV-2 Vax 2;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Baiya Phytopharm Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Physiotherapy in Mutated COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Physiotherapy<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Giresun 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>Mitoquinone/Mitoquinol Mesylate as Oral and Safe Postexposure Prophylaxis for Covid-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Mitoquinone/mitoquinol mesylate;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Texas Southwestern Medical 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>To Explore the Regulatory Effect of Combined Capsule FMT on the Levels of Inflammatory Factors in Peripheral Blood of Patients With COVID-19 During Treatment.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Fecal Microbiota Transplantation;   COVID-19 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Fecal microbiota transplantation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shanghai 10th People’s Hospital<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>Phase 3 Study of Novavax Vaccine(s) as Booster Dose After mRNA Vaccines</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: NVX-CoV2373;   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 rS antigen/Matrix-M Adjuvant<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Novavax<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>A Study to Learn About How Loss of Liver Function Affects the Blood Levels of the Study Medicine Called PF-07817883.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: PF-07817883<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Pfizer<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>Dose Exploration Intramuscular/Intravenous Prophylaxis Pharmacokinetic Exposure Response Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: AZD3152;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   AstraZeneca<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>Study to Assess Safety, Reactogenicity and Immunogenicity of the repRNA(QTP104) Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2(COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: QTP104 1ug;   Biological: QTP104 5ug;   Biological: QTP104 25ug<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Quratis Inc.<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>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Monoclonal Antibodies for Long COVID (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Long COVID;   Post-Acute Sequela of COVID-19;   Post-Acute COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: AER002;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Michael Peluso, MD;   Aerium 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>COVID Frequent Antigen Testing</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: SARS CoV-2 antigen tests<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   IDX20 Inc;   National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effects of Individual Tailored Physical Exercise in Patients With POTS After COVID-19 - a Randomized Controlled Study</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome;   COVID-19;   Post COVID-19 Condition;   Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Individual tailored exercise<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Karolinska Institutet;   Karolinska University Hospital<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</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>Fluvoxamine for Long COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long COVID<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Fluvoxamine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Washington University School of Medicine;   Balvi COVID Fund<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>Isolation of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Natural Products Extracted from <em>Mentha canadensis</em> and the Semi-synthesis of Antiviral Derivatives</strong> - Traditional herbal medicine offers opportunities to discover novel therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 mutation. The dried aerial part of mint (Mentha canadensis L.) was chosen for bioactivity-guided extraction. Seven constituents were isolated and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS). Syringic acid and methyl rosmarinate were evaluated in drug combination treatment. Ten amide derivatives of methyl rosmarinate were synthesized, and the dodecyl (13) and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Computational design of medicinal compounds to inhibit RBD-hACE2 interaction in the Omicron variant: unveiling a vulnerable target site</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has globally affected both human health and economy. Several variants with a high potential for reinfection and the ability to evade immunity were detected shortly after the initial reported case of COVID-19. A total of 30 mutations in the spike protein (S) have been reported in the SARS-CoV-2 (BA.2) variant in India and South Africa, while half of these mutations are in the receptor-binding domain and have spread rapidly throughout the world. Drug…</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 silico screening, ADMET analysis and MD simulations of phytochemicals of <em>Onosma bracteata</em> Wall. as SARS CoV-2 inhibitors</strong> - Being attracted with their cardiotonic, antidiabetic, cough relieving activity, treatment of fever, absorbent, anti-asthmatic, etc. activities reported in ancient Ayurvedic literature, phytochemicals of Onosma bracteata wall should be evaluated for their activity against SARS-CoV-2 virus. The main objective of this study is to identify a hit molecule for the inhibition of entry, replication, and protein synthesis of SARS CoV-2 virus into the host. To achieve given objective, computational…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong><em>In silico</em> Antivirus Repurposing and its Modification to Organoselenium Compounds as SARS-CoV-2 Spike Inhibitors</strong> - &lt;b&gt;Background and Objective:&lt;/b&gt; The COVID-19, which has been circulating since late 2019, is caused by SARS-CoV-2. Because of its high infectivity, this virus has spread widely throughout the world. Spike glycoprotein is one of the proteins found in SARS-CoV-2. Spike glycoproteins directly affect infection by forming ACE-2 receptors on host cells. Inhibiting glycoprotein spikes could be one method of treating COVID-19. In this study, the antivirus marketed as a database will 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>PACT inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 through the blockage of GSK-3β-N-nsp3 cascade</strong> - The protein activator of protein kinase R (PKR) (PACT) has been shown to play a crucial role in stimulating the host antiviral response through the activation of PKR, retinoic acid-inducible gene I, and melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5. Whether PACT can inhibit viral replication independent of known mechanisms is still unrevealed. In this study, we show that, like many viruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) hijacks GSK-3β to facilitate its replication….</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 isolation in cell culture from nasal/nasopharyngeal swabs or saliva specimens of patients with COVID-19</strong> - It has been revealed that SARS-CoV-2 can be efficiently isolated from clinical specimens such as nasal/nasopharyngeal swabs or saliva in cultured cells. In this study, we examined the efficiency of viral isolation including SARS-CoV-2 mutant strains between nasal/nasopharyngeal swab or saliva specimens. Furthermore, we also examined the comparison of viral isolation rates by sample species using simulated specimens for COVID-19. As a result, it was found that the isolation efficiency of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Facile Strategy to Construct Anti-Swelling, Antibacterial and Antifogging Coatings for Protection of Medical Goggles</strong> - During the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional medical goggles are not only easy to attach bacteria and viruses in long-term exposure, but also easy to fogged up, which increases the risk of infection and affects productivity. Bacterial adhesion and fog can be significantly inhibited through the hydrogel coatings, owing to their super hydrophilic properties. But on the one hand, hydrophilic hydrogel coatings are easy to absorb water and swell in wet environment, resulting in reduced mechanical…</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>Secreted ORF8 induces monocytic pro-inflammatory cytokines through NLRP3 pathways in patients with severe COVID-19</strong> - Despite extensive research, the specific factor associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection that mediates the life-threatening inflammatory cytokine response in patients with severe COVID-19 remains unidentified. Herein we demonstrate that the virus-encoded Open Reading Frame 8 (ORF8) protein is abundantly secreted as a glycoprotein in vitro and in symptomatic patients with COVID-19. ORF8 specifically binds to the NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) in CD14^(+) monocytes to…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nsp14 of SARS-CoV-2 inhibits mRNA processing and nuclear export by targeting the nuclear cap-binding complex</strong> - To facilitate selfish replication, viruses halt host gene expression in various ways. The nuclear export of mRNA is one such process targeted by many viruses. SARS-CoV-2, the etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome, also prevents mRNA nuclear export. In this study, Nsp14, a bifunctional viral replicase subunit, was identified as a novel inhibitor of mRNA nuclear export. Nsp14 induces poly(A)+ RNA nuclear accumulation and the dissolution/coalescence of nuclear speckles. Genome-wide…</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 Silico Screening of Drugs That Target Different Forms of E Protein for Potential Treatment of COVID-19</strong> - Recently the E protein of SARS-CoV-2 has become a very important target in the potential treatment of COVID-19 since it is known to regulate different stages of the viral cycle. There is biochemical evidence that E protein exists in two forms, as monomer and homopentamer. An in silico screening analysis was carried out employing 5852 ligands (from Zinc databases), and performing an ADMET analysis, remaining a set of 2155 compounds. Furthermore, docking analysis was performed on specific sites…</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>Combination Therapy for the Treatment of Shingles with an Immunostimulatory Vaccine Virus and Acyclovir</strong> - Practically the entire global population is infected by herpesviruses that establish lifelong latency and can be reactivated. Alpha-herpesviruses, herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2 (HSV-1/HSV-2) and varicella zoster virus (VZV), establish latency in sensory neurons and then reactivate to infect epithelial cells in the mucosa or skin, resulting in a vesicular rash. Licensed antivirals inhibit virus replication, but do not affect latency. On reactivation, VZV causes herpes zoster, also known as…</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>Discovery of Polyphenolic Natural Products as SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup> Inhibitors for COVID-19</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has forced the development of direct-acting antiviral drugs due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The main protease of SARS-CoV-2 is a crucial enzyme that breaks down polyproteins synthesized from the viral RNA, making it a validated target for the development of SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics. New chemical phenotypes are frequently discovered in natural goods. In the current study, we used a fluorogenic assay to test 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>Neutralizing antibody levels and epidemiological information of patients with breakthrough COVID-19 infection in Toyama, Japan</strong> - Breakthrough infection (BI) after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination has exploded owing to the emergence of various SARS-CoV-2 variants and has become a major problem at present. In this study, we analyzed the epidemiological information and possession status of neutralizing antibodies in patients with BI using SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped viruses (SARS-CoV-2pv). Analysis of 44 specimens diagnosed with COVID-19 after two or more vaccinations showed high inhibition of infection by 90% or…</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>Circulating ACE2 level and zinc/albumin ratio as potential biomarkers for a precision medicine approach to COVID-19</strong> - Highly mutable influenza is successfully countered based on individual susceptibility and similar precision-like medicine approach should be effective against SARS-COV-2. Among predictive markers to bring precision medicine to COVID-19, circulating ACE2 has potential features being upregulated in both severe COVID-19 and predisposing comorbidities. Spike SARS-CoVs were shown to induce ADAM17-mediated shedding of enzymatic active ACE2, thus accounting for its increased activity that has also been…</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>Discovery of quinazolin-4-one-based non-covalent inhibitors targeting the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 main protease (SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup>)</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 continues to pose a great threat to public health while various vaccines are available worldwide. Main protease (M^(pro)) has been validated as an effective anti-COVID-19 drug target. Using medicinal chemistry and rational drug design strategies, we identified a quinazolin-4-one series of nonpeptidic, noncovalent SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro) inhibitors based on baicalein, 5,6,7-trihydroxy-2-phenyl-4H-chromen-4-one. In particular, compound C7 exhibits superior…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Irrational Exuberance of a Non-Catastrophe</strong> - The bipartisan debt deal was a win for both Biden and McCarthy, but it might not have been the breakthrough Washington was waiting for. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-irrational-exuberance-of-a-non-catastrophe">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Abortion Fight Has Voters Turning to Ballot Initiatives</strong> - And Republicans are increasingly attempting to limit that direct-democracy option. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-abortion-fight-has-voters-turning-to-ballot-initiatives">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Confession Exposes India’s Secret Hacking Industry</strong> - The country has developed a lucrative specialty: cyberattacks for hire. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-crime/a-confession-exposes-indias-secret-hacking-industry">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Should We, and Can We, Put the Brakes on Artificial Intelligence?</strong> - Sam Altman, who ushered in ChatGPT, and Yoshua Bengio, an early pioneer of A.I., discuss the growing concerns surrounding unfettered, nonhuman intelligence. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/should-we-and-can-we-put-the-brakes-on-artificial-intelligence">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ted Koppel on Covering—and Befriending—Henry Kissinger</strong> - Did the veteran newscaster give Kissinger a pass on his hundredth birthday? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/ted-koppel-on-covering-and-befriending-henry-kissinger">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>What will stop AI from flooding the internet with fake images?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A cartoon image of a man sitting at a desk using a 2000s-era computer and looking frustrated." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZukC-E46tkET_ooWtIEqxvY-AwU=/500x0:5863x4022/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72337690/GettyImages_532629665.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
CSA Archive / Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Google, Adobe, Microsoft, and other tech companies are trying new ways to label content made by AI.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GT99O8">
On May 22, a fake photo of an explosion at the Pentagon <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/22/1177590231/fake-viral-images-of-an-explosion-at-the-pentagon-were-probably-created-by-ai">caused chaos online</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5rnEUU">
Within a matter of minutes of being posted, the realistic-looking image <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-22/fake-ai-photo-of-pentagon-blast-goes-viral-trips-stocks-briefly?sref=qYiz2hd0">spread on Twitter and other social media networks</a> after being retweeted by some popular accounts. Reporters asked government officials all the way up to the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/30/white-house-press-shop-adjusts-to-proliferation-of-ai-deep-fakes-00099337">White House press office</a> what was going on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pU6ntv">
The photo was quickly determined to be a hoax, likely generated by AI. But in the short amount of time it circulated, the fake image had a real impact and even briefly moved <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4015817-market-dips-briefly-after-ai-image-of-fake-explosion-near-pentagon-goes-viral/">financial markets</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T2TeFL">
This isn’t an entirely new problem. Online misinformation has existed since the dawn of the internet, and crudely photoshopped images fooled people long before generative AI became mainstream. But recently, tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, and even <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/generative-fill.html">new AI feature updates</a> to Photoshop have supercharged the issue<strong> </strong>by making it easier and cheaper to create hyperrealistic fake images, video, and text, at scale. Experts say we can expect to see more fake images like the Pentagon one, especially when they can cause political disruption.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZiRRFq">
One report by Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, <a href="https://www.europol.europa.eu/cms/sites/default/files/documents/Europol_Innovation_Lab_Facing_Reality_Law_Enforcement_And_The_Challenge_Of_Deepfakes.pdf">predicted that as much as 90 percent</a> of content on the internet could be created or edited by AI by 2026. Already, <a href="https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/newsbots-ai-generated-news-websites-proliferating/">spammy news sites seemingly generated entirely by AI</a> are popping up. The anti-misinformation platform NewsGuard started tracking such sites and found nearly three times as many as they did a few weeks prior.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lWqFXT">
“We already saw what happened in 2016 when we had the first election with a flooding of disinformation,” said Joshua Tucker, a professor and co-director of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics. “Now we’re going to see the other end of this equation.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O0Aq4Y">
So what, if anything, should the tech companies that are rapidly developing AI be doing to prevent their tools from being used to bombard the internet with hyperrealistic misinformation?
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="NMjy02">
<q>“We all have a fundamental right to establish a common objective reality”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bw53YC">
One novel approach — that some experts say could actually work — is to use metadata, watermarks, and other technical systems to distinguish fake from real. Companies like Google, Adobe, and Microsoft are all supporting some form of labeling of AI in their products. Google, for example, <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/about-this-image-google-search/">said at its recent I/O conference that</a>, in the coming months, it will attach a written disclosure, similar to a copyright notice, underneath AI-generated results on Google Images. OpenAI’s popular image generation technology DALL-E already adds a colorful stripe watermark to the bottom of all images it creates.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lnjAig">
“We all have a fundamental right to establish a common objective reality,” said Andy Parsons, senior director of Adobe’s content authenticity initiative group. “And that starts with knowing what something is and, in cases where it makes sense, who made it or where it came from.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fQgxCV">
In order to reduce confusion between fake and real images, the content authenticity initiative group developed a tool Adobe is now using called content credentials that tracks when images are edited by AI. The company describes it as a nutrition label: information for digital content that stays with the file wherever it’s published or stored. For example, Photoshop’s latest feature, Generative Fill, uses AI to quickly create new content in an existing image, and content credentials can keep track of those changes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gXjq84">
AI-labeling tools like Adobe’s are still in their early stages, and by no means should they be considered a silver bullet to the problem of misinformation. It’s technically possible to manipulate a watermark or metadata. Plus, not every AI generation system will want to disclose that it’s made that way. And as we’ve learned with the rise of online conspiracy theories in recent years, people will often ignore facts in favor of believing falsehoods that confirm their personal beliefs. But if implemented well — and especially if these labels are seen as more neutral than traditional social media fact-checking — AI disclosures could be one of our only hopes for navigating the increasingly blurry distinction between fake and real media online.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sLApMf">
Here is how some of these early AI markup systems could work, what the limitations are, and what users can do to navigate our confusing post-truth internet reality in the meantime.
</p>
<h3 id="4UTmh8">
The devil is in the metadata
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qulTZM">
When you look at an image on social media or a search engine today, odds are you don’t know where the photo came from — let alone if it was created by AI. But underneath the hood, there’s often a form of metadata, or information associated with the digital image file, that tells you basic details, like when and where the photo was taken. Some tech companies are now starting to add specific metadata about AI to their products at the moment of creation, and they’re making that information more public in an effort to help users determine the authenticity of what they’re looking at.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y9OifD">
Google recently said it will start marking up images made by its own new AI systems in the original image files. And when you see an image in Google Search that’s made by Google’s AI systems, it will say something like “AI-generated with Google” underneath the image. Going a step further, the company announced it’s partnering with publishers like Midjourney and stock photography site Shutterstock to let them self-tag their images as AI-generated in Google Search. This way, if you come across a Midjourney image in Google Search, it will say something like “Image self-labeled as AI-generated”
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<aside id="pwxt75">
<div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QLy4a0">
Google Search public liaison Danny Sullivan said that this kind of AI labeling is part of a broader effort to give people more context about images they’re seeing.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Cvpbw">
”If we can show you a helpful label, we’re going to want to do that,” said Sullivan, “but we’re also going to want to try to give you background information that we can determine independent of the label.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HqnJCPI-nl-n88ZAV8BV1VSY3po=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24697608/AI_Label.jpg"/> <cite>Google</cite>
<figcaption>
What your search result could look like if you come across an image that was generated by AI image creation platform Midjourney, which is partnering with Google to label images in search. Below the image is the disclaimer: “Image self-labeled as AI generated.”
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nwmux7">
That’s why Google is also adding an “About this image” feature next to image search results — whether they are AI labeled or not — that you can click and see when the image was first indexed by Google, where it may have first appeared, and where else it’s been seen online. The idea is, if you searched for, say, “Pentagon explosion” and saw a bunch of images in the results, you would be able to see a fact-checked news article debunking the piece.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VxNczl">
“These tools are really designed to help people understand information literacy more and bake it into the search product itself,” said Sullivan.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QUei9X">
Other major industry players have also been working on the issue of how to label AI-generated content. In 2021, a group of major companies including Microsoft, Adobe, the BBC, and Intel created a coalition <a href="https://c2pa.org/">called the C2PA</a>. The group is tasked with helping to create an interoperable open standard for companies to share the provenance, or history of ownership, of a piece of media. C2PA created its first open standard last January, and since then, Adobe and Microsoft have released features using that standard.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3nqWrv">
For example, if you’re a photographer at a news outlet, you can mark when a specific picture was taken, who took it, and have that be digitally signed by your publisher. Later, your editor could make changes to the photo, signing it again with a seal of authenticity that it’s been verified by the C2PA standard. This way, you know that the photo was taken by a person — not generated by AI— and know who has made edits to it and when. The system uses cryptography to preserve the privacy of sensitive information.
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“Now you can read the entire lineage of the history of a piece of digital content,” said Mounir Ibrahim, EVP of public affairs and impact at Truepic, a visual authenticity app that is a member of C2PA. “The purpose of us is to help content consumers … decipher the difference between synthetic and authentic.”
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<aside id="NX9tDW">
<q>However flawed these early AI flagging and identification systems are, they’re a first step</q>
</aside>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C4e08l">
Knowing the history and provenance of an image could potentially help users verify the legitimacy of anything from a headshot on a dating app to a breaking news photo. But for this to work, companies need to adopt the standard.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Mq4Hb">
Right now, it’s up to companies to adopt the C2PA standard and label verified content as they wish. The organization is also discussing potentially standardizing the look of the C2PA content credential when it shows up on images, Ibrahim said. In the future, the C2PA credential could be similar to the little padlock icon next to the URL in your browser window that signifies your connection is secure. When you see the proposed C2PA icon, you would know that the image you’re seeing has had its origins verified.
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So far, two big C2PA members, Adobe and Microsoft, have announced tools that integrate C2PA standards into their products to mark up AI-generated content. Microsoft is labeling all AI-generated content in Bing Image Generator and Microsoft Designer, and Adobe is using C2PA standards in its new AI Firefly product’s content credentials.
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“The biggest challenge is we need more platforms to adopt this,” said Ibrahim.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vhfxzi">
While the C2PA-style metadata labels work behind the scenes, another approach is for AI systems to add visible watermarks, as OpenAI has done with the rainbow bar at the bottom of DALL-E images. The company says it’s also working on a version of watermarking for its text app, ChatGPT. The challenge with watermarks, though, is that they can be removed. A quick Google search turns up forms of people discussing how to circumvent the imprint.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sysWzf">
Another imperfect option is technology that can detect AI-generated content after the fact. In January, <a href="https://openai.com/blog/new-ai-classifier-for-indicating-ai-written-text">OpenAI released a tool</a> that lets you cross-check a block of text to determine whether it’s likely written by AI. The problem, though, is that by OpenAI’s own assessment, the tool is not fully reliable. It correctly identified only 26 percent of AI-written texts in OpenAI’s evaluations, although it’s notably more accurate with longer than shorter text.
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“We don’t want any of our models to be used for misleading purposes anywhere,” said a spokesperson for OpenAI in a statement. “Our usage policies also require automated systems, including conversational AI and chatbots, to disclose to users that they are interacting with our models.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gxEcq7">
At the end of the day, even if these early AI flagging and identification systems are flawed, they’re a first step.
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<h3 id="YJZGy3">
What comes next
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xHrCs0">
It’s still early days for tech platforms trying to automate the identification of AI-generated content. Until they identify a dependable solution, however, fact-checkers are left manually filling in the gaps, debunking images like <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/3/30/23662292/ai-image-dalle-openai-midjourney-pope-jacket">the Pope in a puffy jacket</a> or fake audio of politicians.
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Sam Gregory, executive director of human rights and civic journalism network Witness, who works with fact-checkers largely outside of the US, said that while he thinks technical solutions to AI identification like watermarking are promising, many fact-checkers are worried about the onslaught of misinformation that could come their way with AI in the meantime. Already, many professional fact-checkers are dealing with far more content to check than humanly possible.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wu6Skt">
“Is an individual going to be blamed because they couldn’t identify an AI-generated image? Or is a fact-checker going to be the one to take the strain because they’re overwhelmed by this volume?” said Gregory. The responsibility to address AI misinformation “needs to lie on the people who are designing these tools, building these models, and distributing them,” he added.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TafUbK">
In many cases, Gregory says, it’s unclear exactly what social media platforms’ rules are about allowing AI-generated content.
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<aside id="0cNTqb">
<q>There is an urgency to figure out these problems as AI-generated content floods the internet</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g3lLjf">
TikTok has one of the more updated policies around “synthetic media,” or media that is created or manipulated by AI. The policy, which was revised in March 2023, allows synthetic media but requires that, if it shows realistic scenes, the image must be clearly disclosed with a caption, sticker, or otherwise. The company also doesn’t allow synthetic media that contains the likeness of any private figure or anyone under 18. TikTok says it worked with outside partners like the industry nonprofit Partnership on AI for feedback on adhering to a framework for responsible AI practices.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="chuzkS">
“While we are excited by the creative opportunities that AI opens up for creators, we are also firmly committed to developing guardrails, such as policies, for its safe and transparent use,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement. “Like most of our industry, we continue to work with experts, monitor the progression of this technology, and evolve our approach.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kWZfWf">
But many other platforms have policies that might need some updating. <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/01/enforcing-against-manipulated-media/">Meta</a>, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/10834785?hl=en">YouTube</a> both have general rules against manipulated media that misleads users, but those could be clarified regarding what uses are acceptable or not, according to Gregory. Meta’s fact-checking policies state that manipulated media containing misinformation is eligible for fact-checking by its third-party partners, as <a href="https://www.vishvasnews.com/english/world/fact-check-ai-generated-image-claiming-to-show-an-explosion-near-pentagon-is-fake/">it did with the fake</a> Pentagon AI explosion claims.
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“AI is bigger than any single person, company, or country, and requires cooperation between all relevant stakeholders,” Meta said in a statement. “We are actively monitoring new trends and working to be purposeful and evidence-based in our approach to AI-generated content.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kTHWBV">
Technological solutions to help people fact-check content themselves, like AI detection systems and watermarks, couldn’t come sooner.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xRy1XP">
But NYU’s Tucker says we need to test these solutions to see whether they’re effective in changing people’s minds when they encounter misleading AI content, and what the disclosures need to look to be impactful. For example, if the disclosures that an image or video is AI-generated are too subtle, people could miss it entirely. And sometimes, labels don’t work as expected. For example, Tucker co-authored <a href="https://csmapnyu.org/research/news-credibility-labels-have-limited-average-effects-on-news-diet-quality-and-fail-to-reduce-misperceptions">a study last year</a> showing that high- or low-quality news credibility labels had limited effects on people’s news consumption habits and failed to change people’s perceptions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xjhhXf">
Still, there’s hope that if AI disclosures are seen not as politicized fact-checks but as neutral context about the origins of an image, they could be more effective. To know whether these labels are resonating with people and changing their minds will require more research.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZUcklc">
There is an urgency to figure out these problems as AI-generated content floods the internet. In the past, tech companies had time to debate the hypothetical risks of AI misinformation because mainstream generative AI products weren’t yet out in the wild. But those threats are now very real.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KwyRbK">
These new tools that label AI-generated content, while far from perfect, could help mitigate some of that risk. Let’s hope tech companies move forward with the necessary speed to fix problems that come with AI as quickly as they’re being created.
</p></li>
<li><strong>California has the country’s strongest animal welfare law. Now it just needs to be enforced.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A close-up of a few pigs on a transport truck." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/e7uyswNakq7_9A75lSMFbt9aQik=/107x0:1814x1280/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72337667/WAM26283.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Pigs en route to slaughter in California. | Bobby Sud/We Animals Media
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Supreme Court sided with pigs. Will California?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tySYA9">
Last month, in a welcome surprise to <a href="https://www.vox.com/animal-welfare">animal welfare</a> advocates, the US <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a> sided with pigs over the pork industry.
</p>
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In a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-468_5if6.pdf">5-4 decision</a>, the Court upheld Proposition 12, a California law that partially <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/10/9/23393017/supreme-court-pork-pigs-prop-12-california-animal-welfare">bans the sale</a> of pork from farms that keep pregnant breeding pigs, known as sows, in tiny enclosures called gestation crates. They’re akin to forcing a human to live their entire life in a bathtub. (Other parts of the law, which require eggs and veal to come from cage-free animals, took effect last year and were not a part of the Supreme Court case.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eqHGkx">
While it was a victory for those who argue against caging <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/10/11/20909685/pigs-use-tools-video-study-animal-intelligence">intelligent, social animals like pigs</a> for months on end, animal welfare wasn’t the main point for the justices. Rather, <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/11/23719825/supreme-court-pigs-california-national-pork-producers-ross-neil-gorsuch">the case hinged</a> on the ability of US states to set their own standards for how goods imported from other states are produced. California imports <a href="https://cdn.saffire.com/files.ashx?t=fg&amp;rid=CowPalace&amp;f=PDF_pork_fact_sheet_pg_1.pdf">nearly all </a>of its pork from other states, and the National Pork Producers Council, an industry trade group that brought the lawsuit, argued that the state’s heightened standards were imposing an unfair burden on other states, particularly <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/194371/top-10-us-states-by-number-of-hogs-and-pigs/">top pork producers</a> like Iowa and Minnesota. The industry estimated it would have to spend <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-468/193744/20210927102549231_NPPC%20v%20Ross%20Petition%20for%20Cert%20PDFA.pdf">$294 million to $348 million</a> to convert enough barns to crate-free.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Five pigs in gestation crates — small enclosures that breeding pigs live in for most of their lives." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8fobTeRQt8_3EttJS-bIhpAJl3g=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24699444/WAM26884.jpg"/> <cite>Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media</cite>
<figcaption>
Breeding pigs at a farm in Canada.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5e8QUM">
Given the conservative, business-friendly majority on the Court, and the fact that <a href="https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/white-house-26-attorneys-general-urge-scotus-overturn-prop-12">26 mostly red states</a> and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a> sided with the pork producers, the mother pigs’ odds didn’t look good. Animal welfare advocates I spoke to before the ruling assumed it likely wouldn’t go their way, which could have posed an existential threat to animal welfare laws in other states. (Disclosure: The effort to pass Proposition 12 was led by the Humane Society of the United States, where I worked from 2012 to 2017. I worked briefly on Prop 12 in 2018 while at a different animal welfare organization.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QzEkFx">
To the <a href="https://farmanimalwelfare.substack.com/p/a-big-supreme-court-win-for-farm">surprise</a> of <a href="https://www.agrinews-pubs.com/livestock/2023/05/19/prop-12-ruling-caught-us-by-surprise/">both sides</a>, that didn’t happen. But now that Prop 12 has been upheld, there’s another question: How will America’s strongest farm animal welfare law actually be enforced?
</p>
<h3 id="Onlky0">
A law is only good as its enforcement
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QQGXpI">
The animal welfare movement has poured millions of dollars into banning cages and crates for farmed animals, a strategy that has proven <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22331708/eggs-cages-chickens-hens-meat-poultry">surprisingly successful</a>. <a href="https://welfarecommitments.com/">Hundreds</a> of food corporations have pledged to source exclusively cage-free eggs and/or pork, and over a <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/HSUS_state-farm-animal-protection-laws.pdf">dozen states</a> have passed what are called “production” bans, which prohibit in-state meat or egg producers from using cages and crates for one or more farmed animal species. Most of these states aren’t themselves agricultural heavyweights — they import most of their animal products from other states. So as a way of affecting production elsewhere, eight states have passed “sales” bans, like California’s Prop 12, which go much further by banning the sale of eggs, pork, and/or veal from caged animals raised anywhere in the world.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kASLL7pwXHDCIjOt9vEc8Kr-k60=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24699449/lq3Ie_the_legal_landscape_of_cage_free_farming__2_.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ygQT1S">
All told, California’s Prop 12 should get around 40 million egg-laying hens, tens of thousands of veal calves, and half a million sows out of cages and crates each year. Pigs will go from having around 14 square feet of space to 24 square feet, while hens will go from around <a href="https://uepcertified.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Caged-UEP-Guidelines_17.pdf">75 square inches</a> to double the space or more. Such laws don’t create humane conditions, as the animals are still in factory farms, but it’s progress nonetheless.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ivQpoy">
However, Prop 12 does have important carveouts for industry.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WAZ3fW">
For example, mother pigs can still be confined in crates for <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_12,_Farm_Animal_Confinement_Initiative_(2018)">five days</a> prior to the expected date of birth, and for several weeks after while they nurse piglets. Importantly, pork that goes into processed or precooked foods, like hot dogs, soups, and frozen pizzas — which accounts for <a href="https://dof.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/352/Forecasting/Economics/Documents/CDFA_Proposition_12_SRIA.pdf">42 percent</a> of California’s pork consumption — is also exempt. (The law only covers whole, uncooked pork cuts like bacon or ribs.)
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="yep3cT">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5rrhX1">
But for the law to cover the tens of millions of animals it’s supposed to protect each year, it’ll need to be strongly enforced, which is far from a given with animal protection regulations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ns42Pf">
“These laws are only as good as the enforcement,” said Bryan Pease, a longtime animal lawyer in California. “Unfortunately, the animal rights movement has a bit of a track record of passing great laws, claiming victory, and then just moving on to the next thing without actually ensuring enforcement.” Pease pointed to California animal welfare laws that had been violated and/or weakly enforced, like laws to prohibit the sale of foie gras, fur, and dogs from puppy mills (as well as cats and rabbits). Pease has <a href="https://www.sandiegoville.com/2022/02/two-san-diego-restaurants-sued-for-selling-banned-foie-gras.html">sued</a> two San Diego restaurants for allegedly selling foie gras and a store in Orange County for allegedly selling fur, and accused a <a href="https://www.cbs8.com/article/life/animals/pet-store-escondido-puppy-mill/509-6d5d4f4b-51ae-4fb7-9196-435f6b77cc6d">store in Escondido</a> of selling dogs from puppy mills.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zxCEec">
<a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/20StateEnforcementReport.pdf">As of 2019</a>, there was only evidence of enforcement for one of 16 state cage production bans, according to the Washington, DC-based nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute (AWI). That one instance happened to be in Southern California, where an egg farm was <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ontario-egg-farm-charged-animal-cruelty-20170207-story.html">charged</a> in 2017 for not providing hens adequate space.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KC7e05">
But there’s more evidence that cage-free <em>sales</em> bans have been enforced. Between 2015 and 2019, according to records obtained by AWI, California audited 15 noncompliant egg farms, five of which were out of state. Oregon investigated complaints of a noncompliant egg producer and a noncompliant egg wholesaler, both from out of state. Earlier this year, when Arizona’s cage-free egg law took effect, the state issued hold orders on eggs from out-of-state producers 32 times from entering the food supply until they could verify production methods.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Rows of hens in cages." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tpE8PNYBKsZ9HfyNt1c8oQeIBEE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24699755/AP18276514558872.jpg"/> <cite>AP/Rich Pedroncelli</cite>
<figcaption>
Caged egg-laying hens at a farm in California.
</figcaption>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xD33V2">
Scant evidence of enforcement doesn’t mean there’s mass fraud. It just means enforcing animal welfare laws doesn’t appear to be a priority for states — and the production ban laws don’t even contain provisions that give states authority to enforce them, said Dena Jones of AWI.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aLHzaw">
Absent strict enforcement, compliance shouldn’t be assumed: Meat producers have been repeatedly accused of <a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2022/08/10/its-another-price-fixing-lawsuit-shocking/">price fixing</a>, <a href="https://environmentalintegrity.org/news/slaughterhouses-violate-water-pollution-permits/">water pollution</a>, <a href="https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20230217-1">labor</a> <a href="https://www.foodmanufacturing.com/home/news/21099868/meat-producer-to-pay-4m-over-labor-violations#:~:text=JBS%20USA%20was%20accused%20of,against%20applicants%20for%20laborer%20positions.&amp;text=GREELEY%2C%20Colo.,allegations%20by%20federal%20labor%20officials.">violations</a>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23724740/tyson-chicken-free-range-humanewashing-investigation-animal-cruelty">cruelty to animals</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2PgeDC">
Jon Lovvorn, chief counsel for animal protection litigation at the Humane Society of the United States, said that “the interlocking nature of the contractual relationships in this industry” — contracts between meat and egg producers and restaurant food distributors and grocers — “make compliance [with Prop 12] more likely.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eZXtrf">
Prop 12 stipulates that grocers and restaurants <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&amp;sectionNum=25993.1.">aren’t liable</a> for selling noncompliant products so long as they had received written certification of compliance from producers. As a result, meat and egg producers are incentivized to follow the law lest they risk not just the chance of monetary penalties and jail time, but also getting sued by the retailers for selling them noncompliant goods.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r7a5qQ">
Lovvorn said that while he expects enforcement to be straightforward, it “doesn’t mean there won’t be problems, and it doesn’t mean there won’t be people cheating the system. … I think that’s going to exist in any enforcement system, but I don’t think this is going to be a huge problem.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cFKZPr">
The industries that have allegedly flouted some of California’s animal welfare laws, like those that prohibit the sale of foie gras, fur, and dogs, are fragmented and informal. The egg and pork industries, by contrast, are <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22298043/meat-antitrust-biden-vilsack">highly consolidated</a>, which could lead to higher rates of compliance compared to other animal industries, Pease believes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gcDqiP">
“As long as you gain compliance from [the major producers], then you’re pretty much looking at full compliance, and that’s good,” he said. Many of the nation’s largest pork producers had <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/10/9/23393017/supreme-court-pork-pigs-prop-12-california-animal-welfare">publicly stated</a> that they’ll comply with Prop 12 before the Supreme Court’s decision, including <a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/104708849/files/doc_financials/2021/q3/08-11-21_Tyson-Foods-080921.pdf">Tyson Foods</a>, <a href="https://www.smithfieldfoods.com/getmedia/7ecf12e2-da3b-4d31-8796-d07e38b39e51/2021-Sustainability-Impact-Report.pdf">Smithfield Foods</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-pork-producer-resume-shipments-california-after-farm-animal-law-delayed-2022-02-08/">Seaboard Foods</a>, <a href="https://www.hormelfoods.com/newsroom/news/hormel-foods-company-information-about-california-proposition-12/">Hormel</a>, and <a href="https://clemensfoodgroup.com/brands/hatfield/">Clemens Food Group</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ehaaRP">
There’s ample evidence the egg and pork industries are complying with cage-free laws and keeping more of their animals in cage-free barns. In 2015, when the nation’s first cage-free sales law went into effect, just <a href="https://assets.ctfassets.net/ww1ie0z745y7/5x4LpTMoZLQbGpYSaZXpY3/24e96497c51f7398f03776790e9a1b9d/E008R01-us-egg-production-data.pdf">6 percent</a> of US hens were cage-free; today it’s close to <a href="https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/fb494842n/wm119446c/8g84p241q/ckeg0523.pdf">40 percent</a>. That number will shoot up in 2024 and 2025 as more state laws come into effect and food corporations fulfill their <a href="https://welfarecommitments.com/cage-free/">cage-free commitments</a>. A few years ago, the pork industry said <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/National_Pork_Producers_Council_v._Ross">over a quarter</a> of its sows were crate-free for around <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22958698/mcdonalds-icahn-pork-pigs-gestation-crates-animal-welfare">70 percent</a> of their four-month pregnancies, up from <a href="https://www.fmi.org/docs/animal-welfare/avma-task-force-report.pdf?sfvrsn=a8618021_4">10 percent</a> in 2011.
</p>
<h3 id="uY3WEo">
How Prop 12 will be enforced
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B2ZRZj">
Despite the minimal evidence of California enforcing its cage-free laws, Jones of AWI said the state is gearing up to ensure compliance with Prop 12: “California appears to have done the most in terms of setting up enforcement programs, so we’ll have to watch down the road.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j6U1yi">
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) will require pork, veal, and egg producers to work with one of its <a href="https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/AHFSS/AnimalCare/AccreditedCertifyingAgents.html">five accredited third-party certifiers</a>, or with the state itself, to conduct annual audits on their farms. But the enforcement rollout has been, and will continue to be for the months ahead, a bit messy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q2q0CR">
First, let’s look at the sale of eggs and veal. These components of the law went into effect at the start of 2022, but the CDFA didn’t <a href="https://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/news/prop-12-implementation-expected-be-delayed-until-july-1-2023">finalize regulations</a> until September 2022. Since the egg and veal components took effect, producers have been allowed to “self-certify” — essentially attesting to grocers and food distributors that they are in compliance, with the understanding that they are subject to inspection. Egg, veal, and pork producers will all be allowed to self-certify until January 1, 2024, when they’ll need to be certified by a third-party auditor or the CDFA.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="99fDFq">
The pork component of Prop 12, which was <a href="https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/livestock/article/2022/12/06/california-court-gives-pork-industry">delayed</a> due to the Supreme Court case, is now slated to fully take effect on July 1, 2023. The six-month gap that allows producers to self-certify could mean some of the pork sold in California is noncompliant.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EvcBns">
“During the transition period, it may be difficult to determine if whole pork is from breeding sows raised in compliance with Prop 12,” said CDFA spokesperson Jay Van Rein.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tqCZtP">
Despite the uncertainty, pork producers are pushing to convert their facilities and begin the auditing process. “Since the Supreme Court made their ruling, it’s gotten very busy here,” said Matt Jones, vice president of operations at the accredited certifier Validus, speaking about the flurry of interest from producers looking to understand certification.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xXYF2k">
Grocery stores and other food distributors must also <a href="https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/AHFSS/AnimalCare/docs/Distributor_Registration_Guidance.pdf">certify</a> that eggs, veal, and pork they sell is compliant, which entails demonstrating through an audit trail that the product came from a certified producer.
</p>
<h3 id="I65xSy">
The political and corporate fallout of the Supreme Court’s decision
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lJJSib">
While the political fight over cages has failed in the courts, members of <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a> from states that lead in pork production are looking to overturn Prop 12 on Capitol Hill. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) is <a href="https://www.iowaagribusinessradionetwork.com/hinson-countering-prop-12-with-eats-act/">expected to soon reintroduce</a> a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4999?overview=closed">bill</a> that would prevent state and local governments from setting standards for how agricultural products imported from other states are produced, which she <a href="https://www.iowaagribusinessradionetwork.com/hinson-countering-prop-12-with-eats-act/">said</a> would “circumvent what Prop 12 does.” The bill is a repeat of past <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-kings-farm-bill-amendment-hurt-chickens--and-americans/2013/08/25/f24aa1dc-0b36-11e3-8974-f97ab3b3c677_story.html">efforts</a> by former Iowa Rep. Steve King to do the same.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PFdMfW">
On the other end of the political spectrum, progressive Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) last year introduced the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2939?s=1&amp;r=32">PIGS Act</a> to ban gestation crates nationwide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4UXdxa">
However, animal advocates are more likely to find success at the state level, where the vast majority of legal progress for farmed animals has been made. There are legislative efforts underway to <a href="https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/state/2023/03/02/oklahoma-kirkpatrick-foundation-seeks-improvements-in-housing-treatment-of-pigs/69957366007/">ban gestation crates in Oklahoma</a>, home to around 8 percent of US sows, and allocate funds to help pork producers transition to crate-free systems.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R1mUpL">
The Prop 12 decision could also spur food corporations to eliminate gestation crates from their supply chains, as it’ll expand the crate-free pork supply. In the early 2010s, nearly <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22576044/prop-12-california-eggs-pork-bacon-veal-animal-welfare-law-gestation-crates-battery-cages">60 fast food chains and grocers</a>, including <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22958698/mcdonalds-icahn-pork-pigs-gestation-crates-animal-welfare">McDonald’s</a> and Kroger, pledged to source crate-free pork, but most still haven’t fulfilled their commitments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VNR3g1">
For decades, there’s been a race to the bottom on animal welfare on America’s farms, where over 200 million animals are stuffed into cages and crates. It’s torture, but it’s perfectly legal torture in most states, and at least for now, it’s still the dominant method of production for pork and eggs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dWAYBr">
It should be expected that even incremental laws like Prop 12 will be challenged in the courts by industry, as they’re fundamental to our system of cheap meat. When a law survives, as Proposition 12 has, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if some producers violate it, or if enforcement is spotty. These aren’t reasons to ditch politics as a means of social change for the billions of animals factory-farmed in the US annually, but they should put renewed focus on not just passing laws and improving corporate food <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a>, but also ensuring they work as intended.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Hollywood is staring down the barrel of a triple strike</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Crowds of people holding pro-union signs." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/83Bi2Ghb-fhqs0zWcoem_ZBCt6Y=/241x0:4101x2895/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72335964/1258205508.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Demonstrators hold signs while picketing during the continuing strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in Los Angeles, California, on May 26, 2023. | Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
What happens if everybody walks off the job?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VEVCUE">
The <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23696617/writers-strike-wga-2023-explained-residuals-streaming-ai">Hollywood writers strike</a> marked its one-month anniversary on Friday, with no signs of slowing down. While other guilds in the industry are still on the job — except when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/business/media/writers-strike-picket-lines.html">they’re blocked by picket lines</a> — the writers may soon get company on those picket lines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0JNIKq">
Two other major entertainment guilds, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), also entered the summer with looming contract expiration dates. Both groups’ agreements with AMPTP, the trade association that represents the industry’s film and TV production companies, end on June 30. A lot could happen between now and then, but the situation is looking dicey.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eCDwTm">
All of that means that come July 1, the studios may be facing a double or even triple strike, in effect shutting Hollywood down completely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uOTWxA">
The DGA rarely strikes — the last time was in 1987 — and its leadership has not called for a strike authorization vote. But its relations with the AMPTP have been trickier than usual. Negotiations began on May 10, with demands that in part mirror the WGA’s concerns. The main sticking point is wage and residual increases that keep in step with rising costs of living. In particular, lower residuals for shows on streaming services, where the lion’s share of entertainment now lives, have wreaked havoc for many people in the industry, drastically reducing compensation and making it increasingly difficult to just pay the bills.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A crowd of people holding pro-union signs." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9zO-df5DJ-iIojJ93u-pEY0yNZU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24698873/1492673758.jpg"/> <cite>Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A rally at 30 Rock in New York.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lkcx7A">
In the past, the DGA has sometimes managed to make an agreement with AMPTP ahead of the start of bargaining, effectively setting a pattern for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA to follow in their own demands. Last November, the DGA <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/03/hollywood-unions-strike-dga-wga-studios-negotiations-1235303378/">sent a “pre-negotiation”</a> offer to the AMPTP, seeking resolution ahead of bargaining. The AMPTP reportedly rejected the DGA’s proposal, meaning both parties came to the bargaining table without an arrangement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="21RQUF">
The situation seemed to intensify due to an unforced error. On May 23, Warner Bros. Discovery launched Max, its newly rebranded streaming platform, which had previously been named <a href="https://www.vox.com/hbo-max">HBO Max</a>. Eagle-eyed observers noticed that in listed credits, the platform lumped writers, directors, producers, and so on into one category labeled “creators.” Aside from the queasy implications that the greatest works of cinema and <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv">television</a> were just “content,” the choice on the company’s part ran afoul of hard-fought contract regulations regarding credits for artists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TC85EI">
It was a weird choice, and one that set blood boiling in Hollywood. The presidents of the WGA and the DGA issued a <a href="https://www.dga.org/News/PressReleases/2023/230524_StatementFromDGAWGAPresidentsRegardingMaxCreditChanges.aspx">rare joint statement</a>, with DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter noting that “The devaluation of the individual contributions of artists is a disturbing trend and the DGA will not stand for it. We intend on taking the strongest possible actions, in solidarity with the WGA, to ensure every artist receives the individual credit they deserve.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5aki00">
By the end of the day, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would modify how credits were listed on the platform in compliance with its preexisting contract agreement with the unions. Yet the strong language indicated that the DGA was ready to play hardball.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I9sW5h">
Meanwhile, members of SAG-AFTRA have been vocally supportive of the WGA. This is no shock, since on top of the same issue of residuals and wages, the union — which includes, in addition to film and TV actors, people who work in radio, singers, voice actors, <a href="https://www.vox.com/influencers">influencers</a>, models, and other media professionals — is concerned about the <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23700519/writers-strike-ai-2023-wga">existential threat posed by AI</a> and other technologies. Even before the WGA’s strike began, SAG-AFTRA issued statements <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-statement-use-artificial-intelligence-and-digital-doubles-media-and-entertainment">regarding how the use of AI</a> could eliminate or greatly reduce work for its members.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wDNUmJ">
Members of SAG-AFTRA have shown up on picket lines <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/colin-farrell-mariska-hargitay-writers-strike-picket-line-1235625544/">to support the writers</a>, and the star power posed by some of its most prominent members helps bring attention to the WGA’s strike. It’s also an effort to remind the studios that when their own negotiations begin, they’re ready for a fight. Underlining that implicit statement, the leadership of SAG-AFTRA unanimously agreed to <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/strike-authorization-deadline">ask its membership for a strike authorization vote</a>, which concludes this coming Monday, June 5. That’s a move designed to signal solidarity to the AMPTP ahead of negotiations.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Someone in a crowd holds a sign that says Let the unions win." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rFHGeN1Asc8Kcy1xhJNUaKf8woM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24698870/1258206876.jpg"/> <cite>Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Demonstrators at the WGA strike on May 26 in LA.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="npIfLh">
It’s clear that all of Hollywood’s unions — not just the three with expiring contracts — are working together to show solidarity. Both IATSE, which represents Hollywood’s “below-the-line” workers (everyone from grips to craft services to first aid to electricians), and the Teamsters (who drive trucks, wrangle animals, manage locations, and a lot more) are authorized by their leadership to refuse to cross picket lines, and have made that choice throughout the writers strike. DGA and SAG members have frequently refused as well.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G2wCzm">
The DGA’s negotiations are set to end on June 7, the same day SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations begin. Knowing this, on May 31, the leaders of the Teamsters, IATSE, WGA, and SAG-AFTRA <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/05/sag-wga-iatse-joint-statement-dga-solidarity-1235383790/">issued a joint statement</a> supporting the DGA in their negotiations, declaring that “as eyes around the world again turn towards the negotiation table, we send a clear message to the AMPTP: Our solidarity is not to be underestimated.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mdCpqp">
When writers go on strike, some of the industry can still operate, provided their workers are willing to cross picket lines. (Due to available personnel, the WGA also can’t picket every production, and thus chooses strategically.) But if the DGA or SAG-AFTRA walks off the job — or both — then productions will shut down across the board. Hollywood would grind to a halt.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rJqJ7K">
Here’s what’s most significant about all of this: All three unions have <em>never</em> gone on strike at the same time, in the history of Hollywood. The fact that this scenario is possible, even likely, emphasizes how extraordinary this moment is in the entertainment business. Technology has always been a major driver in labor negotiations. But the major companies’ use of streaming services, and their demonstrated interest in cutting out humans through the use of tech, poses an existential threat to everyone who makes the TV, <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a>, and other scripted entertainment that brings in billions of dollars every year. The question, at this juncture, is whether there’s a future for Hollywood at all — or whether entertainment will be swallowed whole by the tech industry. For Hollywood’s artists and craftspeople, that’s a fate worth fighting against.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9G5cZc">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nB08SK">
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pandya one of the best pace-bowling all-rounders: Klusener</strong> - Former South African great Lance Klusener believes that Pandya possibly gave up on Test cricket a bit too easily</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>David Warner hopes to end Test career with swansong at SCG next year</strong> - The Australian opener said he hopes the Sydney Test against Pakistan in January would be his last.</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>Jammu Kashmir: Tazeem Fayaz clinches silver medal in Judo Championship</strong> - Tazeem’s amazing accomplishment demonstrates the talent and potential of Kashmiri athletics</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>PCB refuses to play ODI series in Sri Lanka after SLC’s proposal to host all Asia Cup matches: Sources</strong> - Pakistan will play Tests in Sri Lanka, and the SLC has suggested ODIs for World Cup qualifiers in an effort to give the country experience before the main event</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>BCCI chief Binny distances himself from 1983 WC team statement on wrestlers’ protest</strong> - “Contrary to some media reports, I would like to clarify that I have not issued any statement regarding the current situation of the wrestlers’ protest,” BCCI President Roger Binny said</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>Expo held at KV Pangode</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>Welfare pensions to be disbursed from June 8</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>International cooperation essential for vaccine development of emerging pathogens: Health Minister</strong> - ‘G20 can serve as a vital platform to facilitate collaboration between governments, research organisations, pharmaceutical companies, and other stakeholders’, says Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya</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>Residents want government to acquire lands near Kattery Dam</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>Pope Francis offers prayers after Odisha train accident</strong> - The pontiff said he was “deeply saddened” by the “immense loss of life” caused by three-train collision on June 3 in Odisha</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>Lake Maggiore boat accident: Questions remain over spy deaths</strong> - Intelligence officers from Italy and Israel are among the four people who drowned on 28 May.</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>Belgorod: Shelling in Russian border region kills two, governor says</strong> - Officials say two women died in Ukrainian shelling, as anti-Putin fighters claim another cross-border raid.</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>Sanda Dia: Belgium reckons with verdict over black student’s hazing death</strong> - Sanda Dia died after being made to consume excessive amounts of fish oil and alcohol in 2018.</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>German row over jail term for woman who attacked neo-Nazis</strong> - Lina E’s conviction has angered Germany’s far left, but the right is furious she is free pending appeal.</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>Kaija Saariaho: Feted Finnish composer dies at 70</strong> - Saariaho, who was suffering from brain cancer, was seen as a leading light of contemporary classical music.</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>More than 400 Grail patients incorrectly told they may have cancer</strong> - Life assurance customers pause review relationship with early-detection biotech. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944244">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>They plugged GPT-4 into Minecraft—and unearthed new potential for AI</strong> - A bot plays the video game by tapping the text generator to pick up new skills. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944184">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pandemic lessons: More health workers, less faxing—an Ars Frontiers recap</strong> - Amid science and tech triumphs, basic infrastructure problems hurt COVID responses. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944284">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Google’s Android and Chrome extensions are a very sad place. Here’s why</strong> - It was a bad week for millions of people who rely on Google for apps and Chrome extensions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944202">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Some Google Pixel Watches are falling apart [Update]</strong> - Several users report the back of the Pixel Watch just falls off after a short time. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1944115">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Room no. 13</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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One night a guy goes to get a room in a hotel. “Hello, I want a single room for the night please.” “Fine, sir, here’s one of our best rooms. Room 13,” says the concierge and hands him the key.
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The guy goes upstairs, takes a shower and gets straight into bed. At about 2 0’clock in the morning, two gorgeous naked women come in and slide under the covers. When he realizes what is going on, he starts screwing both of them. He can’t believe what’s happening. Next morning, still surprised by last night’s events, he goes downstairs to settle the bill. “How was your room sir?” asks the receptionist. “Excellent, I will come back again. What do I owe you?” asks the man.
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“Well. actually, sir, we are doing a promotional offer. Not only do you not have to pay but we give you $10 as a welcome gesture,” says the receptionist. “What?” says the guy, very surprised indeed. “That’s amazing.” He takes the ten-dollar bill and wanders off, debating whether his buddies will believe him or not. Needless to say, after a few days he’s told all his friends and neighbors about room 13 and the amazing night of passion. The next week one of his buddies goes to check out the room. “Room 13 please.” “Certainly, sir, here’s your key.” After he gets in bed, at the same time, 2 o’clock, two girls this time, extremely horny, get in bed and screw his brains out. The next morning, not only does he not have to pay, but he too gets $10. After a month, everyone knows this hotel and especially room 13. Everyone that stays in room 13 gets the same treatment: a good screw and a ten bucks.
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After a few weeks, the story reaches the President. The President decides to check the story out for himself. He visits the hotel and asks for room 13. He gets the keys and goes upstairs. After a couple of drinks he gets in bed waiting patiently for the naked girls to appear. Indeed at about 2 0’clock in the morning two naked ladies come to bed. They are as horny and wild as all the stories the President has heard. The President gets his pecker out and screws the both of them all night long. This is the night of his life. Next morning he goes to reception and when he asks how much the bill is, the receptionist says, “Nothing to pay, sir. Actually, we are doing an introductory offer. Here’s $50 as a welcome gesture.” Curious, the President asks the receptionist, “Well, that’s strange. Everyone else who comes here gets $10. Why do I get $50?” “Well, sir,” says the receptionist. “This is the first time we’ve filmed a porn movie with a President in it!”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/castle_03"> /u/castle_03 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13z0b9r/room_no_13/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13z0b9r/room_no_13/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Termite walks into a bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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And says is the bar tender here
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Golden211"> /u/Golden211 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13z4hqf/a_termite_walks_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13z4hqf/a_termite_walks_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When my girlfriend got pregnant everything changed</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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My address, my phone number..
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TreeBearOne"> /u/TreeBearOne </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13ykvd2/when_my_girlfriend_got_pregnant_everything_changed/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13ykvd2/when_my_girlfriend_got_pregnant_everything_changed/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A woman said to her husband: “I just dreamt that you gave me a necklace of pearls. What do you think it means?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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The man smiled and said: “You’ll know tonight.” That evening, the man came home with a small package which he gave to his wife. She embraced him, and then slowly and unwrapped the package. It contained a book entitled, The Meaning of Dreams.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mr_m_r"> /u/mr_m_r </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13yxlrm/a_woman_said_to_her_husband_i_just_dreamt_that/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13yxlrm/a_woman_said_to_her_husband_i_just_dreamt_that/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Taking off down the road, he floored it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little gray hair he had left. Amazing, he thought as he flew down I-94, pushing the pedal even more.
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Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a state trooper behind him, lights flashing and siren blaring. He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120. Suddenly he thought, What am I doing? I’m too old for this, and pulled over to await the trooper’s arrival. Pulling in behind him, the trooper walked up to the Corvette, looked at his watch, and said, “Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a reason for speeding that I’ve never heard before, I’ll let you go.”
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The old gentleman paused. Then he said, “Years ago, my wife ran off with a state trooper. I thought you were bringing her back.”
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“Have a good day, sir,” replied the trooper.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RagsTheRecounter"> /u/RagsTheRecounter </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13yw16i/a_senior_citizen_drove_his_brand_new_corvette/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13yw16i/a_senior_citizen_drove_his_brand_new_corvette/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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