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<title>23 December, 2023</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Long Covid Perspectives: history, paradigm shifts, global challenges</strong> -
<div>
The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the most devastating health disasters in recorded history. In addition to the significant death toll, the pandemic is leaving behind a long tail of prolonged disease and disability. The long-term symptoms, clinical signs and sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection are collectively known as Long Covid – a patient-made term that was created and gained consistency in just a few months in Spring to Summer 2020. Long Covid was openly recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in August 2020, following intense advocacy by Covid-19 survivors. Long Covid has been described as the first illness identified, named and defined by patients finding one other on social media such as Twitter. As a disease entity named and defined collectively by patients, Long Covid has the potential to change knowledge building in medicine, while centring patient expertise within the biomedical community. This paper will, first, explore the rise of Long Covid as patient-made term, clinical entity and collective, grassroots, international advocacy–research movement in early 2020 and beyond. This happened while people with Covid-19 suffered abandonment and lack of care in the pandemic’s disaster context. Second, I will discuss some key paradigm shifts triggered by this ground-breaking patient-driven, collective advocacy–research, while sketching links with earlier patient movements, such as around HIV/AIDS. Then, I will explore the role of Long Covid advocacy–research in our digital era. This advocacy took place during a pandemic when digital spaces such as Twitter and Facebook were often the only arenas available to Covid-19 survivors. Moreover, I will raise some pressing issues around epistemic injustice in relation to the use of patient-produced data and the recognition of patient contributions to knowledge. Finally, I will address the need to fully acknowledge the nature, scope, and severity of Long Covid, which are detailed in thousands of scientific publications, including in relation to the ongoing spread of SARS-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/u3bfy/" target="_blank">Long Covid Perspectives: history, paradigm shifts, global challenges</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Genomic analysis of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from bacteremia reveals genetic features associated with the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Genomic analyses of bacterial isolates are necessary to monitor the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes and virulence determinants. Herein, we provide a comprehensive genomic description of a collection of 339 Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from patients with bacteremia between 2014 and 2022. Nosocomial acquisition accounted for 56.6% of episodes, with vascular catheters being the predominant source of infection (31.8%). Cases of fatality (27.4%), persistent bacteremia (19.5%) and diagnosis of septic emboli (24.2%) were documented. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we observed a 140% increase of the episodes of S. aureus bacteremia per year, with a concomitant increase of the cases from nosocomial origin. This prompted us to investigate the existence of genetic features associated with S. aureus isolates from the COVID-19 pandemic. While genes conferring resistance to {beta}-lactams (blaI-blaR-blaZ), macrolides (ermA, ermC, ermT, mphC, msrA) and aminoglycosides (ant(4')-Ia, ant(9)-Ia, aph(3')-IIIa, aph(2'')-Ih) were prevalent in our collection, detection of the msrA and mphC genes increased significantly in pandemic S. aureus isolates. Similarly, we observed a higher prevalence of isolates carrying the genes encoding the Clumping Factors A and B, involved in fibrinogen binding. Of note, macrolides were extensively used as accessory therapy for COVID-19 and fibrinogen levels were usually elevated upon SARS-CoV-2 infection. Therefore, our results reveal a remarkable adaptation of the S. aureus isolates to the COVID-19 pandemic context and demonstrates the potential of whole-genome sequencing to conduct molecular epidemiology studies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.22.572975v1" target="_blank">Genomic analysis of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from bacteremia reveals genetic features associated with the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Virion morphology and on-virus spike protein structures of diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> -
<div>
The evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants with increased fitness has been accompanied by structural changes in the spike (S) proteins that are the major target for the adaptive immune response. Single-particle cryo-EM analysis of soluble S from SARS-CoV-2 variants has revealed this structural adaptation at high-resolution. The analysis of S trimers in situ on intact virions has the potential to provide more functionally relevant insights into S structure and virion morphology. Here, we characterized B.1, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Kappa, and Mu variants by cryo-electron microscopy and tomography, assessing S cleavage, virion morphology, S incorporation, "in-situ" high-resolution S structures and the range of S conformational states. We found no evidence for adaptive changes in virion morphology, but describe multiple different positions in the S protein where amino acid changes alter local protein structure. Considered together, our data is consistent with a model where amino acid changes at multiple positions from the top to the base of the spike cause structural changes that can modulate the conformational dynamics of S.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.21.572824v1" target="_blank">Virion morphology and on-virus spike protein structures of diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) era impact on incidence of sudden deaths due to Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack) in States and Union Territories of India- A cross-sectional comparative study (2018-2022)</strong> -
<div>
Background-COVID-19 pandemic increased the risk of CVD (cardiovascular disease). There is lack of comparative assessment on the incidence of sudden death due to MI during and before COVID-19. This study aimed to quantify this assessment. Another quest to start this study is that several studies have reported COVID-19 vaccine-associated myocarditis/cardiomyopathy. Methods and results-This study was based on NCRB data from all states and UTs of India who died suddenly due to MI between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2022. 5 coastal states of India accounts for about 70 % of all MI cases related sudden death. The base year 2018 is having least whereas the last year 2022 is having the largest number of total new MI cases related mortality detected in one individual year. The largest and noteworthy percent change in sudden death due to MI in males is found in 2022 when it increased by 14.26% (is it due to delayed cardiomyopathy due to COVID-19 or its due to Vaccine? This will be a matter of research in coming era). This study revealed that there is 25.80 percent increase in total number of new MI cases related mortality in 2022 in comparison to pre-COVID-19 year of 2018. There is an overall increase of 11.24 percent in sudden death due to MI cases in males during the COVID-19 period. The Male-Sudden death due to Myocardial Infarction increased during COVID-19 year 2022 by 26.71 percent in comparison to 2018 pre- COVID-19 year. Conclusion-Sudden death due to MI increased during COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/dcr9a/" target="_blank">The SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) era impact on incidence of sudden deaths due to Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack) in States and Union Territories of India- A cross-sectional comparative study (2018-2022)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>MixOmics Integration of Biological Datasets Identifies Highly Correlated Key Variables of COVID-19 severity.</strong> -
<div>
BackgroundDespite several years since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, challenges remain in understanding the factors that can predict the severity of COVID-19 disease and complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection. While many large-scale Multiomic datasets have been published, integration of these datasets has the potential to substantially increase the biological insight gained allowing a more complex comprehension of the disease pathogenesis. Such insight may improve our ability to predict disease progression, detect severe cases more rapidly and develop effective therapeutics. MethodsIn this study we have applied an innovative machine learning algorithm to delineate COVID-severity based on integration of paired samples of proteomic and transcriptomic data from a small cohort of patients testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection with differential disease severity. Targeted plasma proteomics and an onco-immune targeted transcriptomic panel was performed on sequential samples from a cohort of 23 severe, 21 moderate and 10 mild COVID-19 patients. We applied DIABLO, a new integrative method, to identify multi- omics biomarker panels that can discriminate between multiple phenotypic groups, such as the varied severity of disease in COVID-19 patients. ResultsAs COVID-19 severity is known among our sample group, we can train models using this as the outcome variable and calculate features that are important predictors of severe disease. In this study, we detect highly correlated key variables of severe COVID-19 using transcriptomic discriminant analysis and multi-omics integration methods. ConclusionsThis approach highlights the power of data integration from a small cohort of patients offering a better biological understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving COVID-19 severity and an opportunity to improve prediction of disease trajectories and targeted therapeutics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.14.557558v2" target="_blank">MixOmics Integration of Biological Datasets Identifies Highly Correlated Key Variables of COVID-19 severity.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in wastewater: an assessment of nine computational tools using simulated genomic data</strong> -
<div>
Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) is an important epidemiological and public health tool for tracking pathogens across the scale of a building, neighbourhood, city, or region. WBS gained widespread adoption globally during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic for estimating community infection levels by qPCR. Sequencing pathogen genes or genomes from wastewater adds information about pathogen genetic diversity which can be used to identify viral lineages (including variants of concern) that are circulating in a local population. Capturing the genetic diversity by WBS sequencing is not trivial, as wastewater samples often contain a diverse mixture of viral lineages with real mutations and sequencing errors, which must be deconvoluted computationally from short sequencing reads. In this study we assess nine different computational tools that have recently been developed to address this challenge. We simulated 100 wastewater sequence samples consisting of SARS-CoV-2 BA.1, BA.2, and Delta lineages, in various mixtures, as well as a Delta-Omicron recombinant and a synthetic novel lineage. Most tools performed well in identifying the true lineages present and estimating their relative abundances, and were generally robust to variation in sequencing depth and read length. While many tools identified lineages present down to 1% frequency, results were more reliable above a 5% threshold. The presence of an unknown synthetic lineage, which represents an unclassified SARS-CoV-2 lineage, increases the error in relative abundance estimates of other lineages, but the magnitude of this effect was small for most tools. The tools also varied in how they labelled novel synthetic lineages and recombinants. While our simulated dataset represents just one of many possible use cases for these methods, we hope it helps users understand potential sources of noise or bias in wastewater sequencing data and to appreciate the commonalities and differences across methods.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.20.572426v1" target="_blank">Tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in wastewater: an assessment of nine computational tools using simulated genomic data</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Deciphering Abnormal Platelet Subpopulations in Inflammatory Diseases through Machine Learning and Single-Cell Transcriptomics</strong> -
<div>
Introduction: The transcriptional heterogeneity of activated platelets, play a significant role in contributing to negative outcomes in sepsis, COVID-19, and autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Despite this, our understanding of these heterogeneous platelet responses remains limited. In this study, we aim to investigate the diverse transcriptional profiles of activated platelets in these diseases, with the goal of deciphering this platelet heterogeneity for new therapeutic strategies to target abnormal and pathogenic platelet subtypes. Materials and methods: We obtained the single cell transcriptional profiles of blood platelets from patients with COVID-19, sepsis, and SLE. Utilizing machine learning algorithms, Deep Neural Network (DNN) and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), we discerned the distinct transcriptomic signatures indicative of fatal versus survival clinical outcomes. Our methodological framework incorporated source data annotations and platelet markers and used SingleR and Seurat for detailed profiling. Additionally, we implemented Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) for dimensionality reduction and visualization, aiding in the detection of various platelet subtypes and their correlation with disease status and patient outcomes. Results: Our study identified distinct platelet subpopulations that are associated with disease severity. We demonstrated that alterations in platelet transcription patterns can exacerbate endotheliopathy, potentially heightening the risk of coagulation in fatal patients. Moreover, these changes can also influence lymphocyte function, indicating a more extensive role for platelets in inflammatory and immune responses. Conclusions: Enhanced transcriptional heterogeneity in activated platelets is linked to adverse outcomes in conditions such as sepsis, COVID-19, and autoimmune diseases. The discovery of these unique platelet subpopulations paves the way for innovative therapeutic strategies targeting platelet activation, which could potentially improve patient outcomes.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.20.572680v1" target="_blank">Deciphering Abnormal Platelet Subpopulations in Inflammatory Diseases through Machine Learning and Single-Cell Transcriptomics</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Persistence of an infectious form of SARS-CoV-2 post protease inhibitor treatment of permissive cells in vitro</strong> -
<div>
Reports have described SARS-CoV-2 rebound in COVID-19 patients treated with nirmatrelvir, a 3CL protease inhibitor. The cause remains a mystery, although drug resistance, re-infection, and lack of adequate immune responses have been excluded. We now present virologic findings that provide a clue to the cause of viral rebound, which occurs in ~20% of the treated cases. The persistence of an intermediary form of infectious SARS-CoV-2 was experimentally documented in vitro after treatment with nirmatrelvir or another 3CL protease inhibitor, but not with a polymerase inhibitor, remdesivir. This infectious intermediate decayed slowly with a half-life of ~1 day, suggesting that its persistence could outlive the treatment course to re-ignited SARS-CoV-2 infection as the drug is eliminated. Additional studies are needed to define the nature of this viral intermediate, but our findings point to a particular direction for future investigation and offer a specific treatment recommendation that should be tested clinically.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.20.572655v1" target="_blank">Persistence of an infectious form of SARS-CoV-2 post protease inhibitor treatment of permissive cells in vitro</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Humoral immune responses to the monovalent XBB.1.5-adapted BNT162b2 mRNA booster</strong> -
<div>
Continued SARS-CoV-2 evolution and immune escape necessitated the development of updated vaccines, and a monovalent vaccine incorporating the XBB.1.5 variant spike protein is currently being rolled out. Amidst the emergence of the highly mutated BA.2.86 lineage and against the backdrop of pronounced immune imprinting, it is important to characterize the antibody responses following vaccination, particularly in the elderly. Here, we show that the monovalent XBB.1.5-adapted booster vaccination substantially enhanced both binding and neutralising antibody responses against a panel of variants, including BA.2.86, in an older population with four or more previous vaccine doses. Furthermore, neutralizing antibody titers to XBB.1.5 and BA.2.86 were boosted more strongly than titers to historical variants were. Our findings thereby suggest increased vaccine induced protection against both antigenically matched variants, as well as the more distant BA.2.86 variant, and support current vaccine policies recommending a monovalent XBB.1.5 booster dose to older individuals.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.21.572575v1" target="_blank">Humoral immune responses to the monovalent XBB.1.5-adapted BNT162b2 mRNA booster</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Appraising the decision-making process concerning COVID-19 policy in postsecondary education in Canada: A critical scoping review protocol</strong> -
<div>
Responses to COVID-19 in Canadian postsecondary education have overhauled usual norms and practices, with policies of unclear rationale implemented under the pressure of a public health emergency. However, despite the unprecedented nature of these policies and their dramatic impact on millions of lives, the decision-making process leading to them has not been documented or appraised. Drawing from macro and micro theories of public policy, specifically the critical tradition in policy studies exemplified by Carol Bacchi’s approach “What is the problem represented to be” (WPR), we will conduct a scoping review of COVID-19 policies in Canadian postsecondary education, guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s framework for scoping reviews and by the team-based approach of Levan and colleagues. Data will include diverse and publicly available documents to capture multiple stakeholders’ perspectives on the phenomenon of interest, and will be retrieved from university, newsletter, and legal websites through combinations of search terms adapted to specific data types. Two reviewers will independently screen, chart, analyse and synthesize the data and disagreements will be resolved through full team discussion. By identifying, summarizing, and appraising the evidence, our review should inform practices that can contribute to effective and equitable public health policies in postsecondary institutions moving forward.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/u3e28/" target="_blank">Appraising the decision-making process concerning COVID-19 policy in postsecondary education in Canada: A critical scoping review protocol</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in primary human nasal cultures demonstrates Delta as most cytopathic and Omicron as fastest replicating</strong> -
<div>
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was marked with emerging viral variants, some of which were designated as variants of concern (VOCs) due to selection and rapid circulation in the human population. Here we elucidate functional features of each VOC linked to variations in replication rate. Patient-derived primary nasal cultures grown at air-liquid-interface (ALI) were used to model upper-respiratory infection and human lung epithelial cell lines used to model lower-respiratory infection. All VOCs replicated to higher titers than the ancestral virus, suggesting a selection for replication efficiency. In primary nasal cultures, Omicron replicated to the highest titers at early time points, followed by Delta, paralleling comparative studies of population sampling. All SARS-CoV-2 viruses entered the cell primarily via a transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2)-dependent pathway, and Omicron was more likely to use an endosomal route of entry. All VOCs activated and overcame dsRNA-induced cellular responses including interferon (IFN) signaling, oligoadenylate ribonuclease L degradation and protein kinase R activation. Among the VOCs, Omicron infection induced expression of the most IFN and IFN stimulated genes. Infections in nasal cultures resulted in cellular damage, including a compromise of cell-barrier integrity and loss of nasal cilia and ciliary beating function, especially during Delta infection. Overall, Omicron was optimized for replication in the upper-respiratory system and least-favorable in the lower-respiratory cell line; and Delta was the most cytopathic for both upper and lower respiratory cells. Our findings highlight the functional differences among VOCs at the cellular level and imply distinct mechanisms of pathogenesis in infected individuals.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.24.553565v2" target="_blank">Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in primary human nasal cultures demonstrates Delta as most cytopathic and Omicron as fastest replicating</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Integrated histopathology, spatial and single cell transcriptomics resolve cellular drivers of early and late alveolar damage in COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
The most common cause of death due to COVID-19 remains respiratory failure. Yet, our understanding of the precise cellular and molecular changes underlying lung alveolar damage is limited. Here, we integrate single cell transcriptomic data of COVID-19 donor lungs with spatial transcriptomic data stratifying histopathological stages of diffuse alveolar damage (DAD). We identify changes in cellular composition across progressive DAD, including waves of molecularly distinct macrophages and depleted epithelial and endothelial populations throughout different types of tissue damage. Predicted markers of pathological states identify immunoregulatory signatures, including IFN-alpha and metallothionein signatures in early DAD, and fibrosis-related collagens in organised DAD. Furthermore, we predict a fibrinolytic shutdown via endothelial upregulation of SERPINE1/PAI-1. Cell-cell interaction analysis revealed macrophage-derived SPP1/osteopontin signalling as a key regulator during early DAD. These results provide the first comprehensive, spatially resolved atlas of DAD stages, highlighting the cellular mechanisms underlying pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic pathways across alveolar damage progression.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.20.572494v1" target="_blank">Integrated histopathology, spatial and single cell transcriptomics resolve cellular drivers of early and late alveolar damage in COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Deep profiling of antigen-specific B cells from different pathogens identifies novel compartments in the IgG memory B cell and antibody-secreting cell lineages</strong> -
<div>
A better understanding of the bifurcation of human B cell differentiation into memory B cells (MBC) and antibody-secreting cells (ASC) and identification of MBC and ASC precursors is crucial to optimize vaccination strategies or block undesired antibody responses. To unravel the dynamics of antigen-induced B cell responses, we compared circulating B cells reactive to SARS-CoV-2 (Spike, RBD and Nucleocapsid) in COVID-19 convalescent individuals to B cells specific to Influenza-HA, RSV-F and TT, induced much longer ago. High-dimensional spectral flow cytometry indicated that the decision point between ASC- and MBC-formation lies in the CD43+CD71+IgG+ Activated B cell compartment, showing properties indicative of recent germinal center activity and recent antigen encounter. Within this Activated B cells compartment, CD86+ B cells exhibited close phenotypical similarity with ASC, while CD86- B cells were closely related to IgG+ MBCs. Additionally, different activation stages of the IgG+ MBC compartment could be further elucidated. The expression of CD73 and CD24, regulators of survival and cellular metabolic quiescence, discerned activated MBCs from resting MBCs. Activated MBCs (CD73- CD24lo) exhibited phenotypical similarities with CD86- IgG+ Activated B cells and were restricted to SARS-CoV-2 specificities, contrasting with the resting MBC compartment (CD73-/CD24hi) that exclusively encompassed antigen-specific B cells established long ago. Overall, these findings identify novel stages for IgG+ MBC and ASC formation and bring us closer in defining the decision point for MBC or ASC differentiation.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.19.572339v1" target="_blank">Deep profiling of antigen-specific B cells from different pathogens identifies novel compartments in the IgG memory B cell and antibody-secreting cell lineages</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Predicting the Trend of SARS-CoV-2 Mutation Frequencies Using Historical Data</strong> -
<div>
As the SARS-CoV-2 virus rapidly evolves, predicting the trajectory of viral variations has become a critical yet complex task. A deep understanding of future mutation patterns, in particular the mutations that will prevail in the near future, is vital in steering diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccine strategies in the coming months. In this study, we developed a model to forecast future SARS-CoV-2 mutation surges in real-time, using historical mutation frequency data from the USA. To improve upon the accuracy of traditional time-series models, we transformed the prediction problem into a supervised learning framework using a sliding window approach. This involved breaking the time series of mutation frequencies into very short segments. Considering the time-dependent nature of the data, we focused on modeling the first-order derivative of the mutation frequency. We predicted the final derivative in each segment based on the preceding derivatives, employing various machine learning methods including random forest, XGBoost, support vector machine, and neural network models, in this supervised learning setting. Empowered by the novel transformation strategy and the high capacity of machine learning models, we witnessed low prediction error that is confined within 0.1% and 1% when making predictions for future 30 and 80 days respectively. In addition, the method also led to a notable increase in prediction accuracy compared to traditional time-series models, as evidenced by lower MAE, and MSE for predictions made within different time horizons. To further assess the method's effectiveness and robustness in predicting mutation patterns for unforeseen mutations, we categorized all mutations into three major patterns. The model demonstrated its robustness by accurately predicting unseen mutation patterns when training on data from two pattern categories while testing on the third pattern category, showcasing its potential in forecasting a variety of mutation trajectories. To enhance accessibility and utility, we built our methodology into an R-shiny app (https://swdatpredicts.shinyapps.io/rshiny_predict/), a tool with potential applicability in studying other infectious diseases, thus extending its relevance beyond the current pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.19.572480v1" target="_blank">Predicting the Trend of SARS-CoV-2 Mutation Frequencies Using Historical Data</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Inverse folding of protein complexes with a structure-informed language model enables unsupervised antibody evolution</strong> -
<div>
Large language models trained on sequence information alone are capable of learning high level principles of protein design. However, beyond sequence, the three-dimensional structures of proteins determine their specific function, activity, and evolvability. Here we show that a general protein language model augmented with protein structure backbone coordinates and trained on the inverse folding problem can guide evolution for diverse proteins without needing to explicitly model individual functional tasks. We demonstrate inverse folding to be an effective unsupervised, structure-based sequence optimization strategy that also generalizes to multimeric complexes by implicitly learning features of binding and amino acid epistasis. Using this approach, we screened ~30 variants of two therapeutic clinical antibodies used to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection and achieved up to 26-fold improvement in neutralization and 37-fold improvement in affinity against antibody-escaped viral variants-of-concern BQ.1.1 and XBB.1.5, respectively. In addition to substantial overall improvements in protein function, we find inverse folding performs with leading experimental success rates among other reported machine learning-guided directed evolution methods, without requiring any task-specific training data.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.19.572475v1" target="_blank">Inverse folding of protein complexes with a structure-informed language model enables unsupervised antibody evolution</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>A Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of a Combined Modified RNA Vaccine Candidate Against COVID-19 and Influenza.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Influenza; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Influenza and COVID-19 Combination A; Biological: Licensed influenza vaccine; Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine; Biological: Influenza and COVID-19 Combination B; Biological: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: BioNTech SE; 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>Transcranial Pulse Stimulation (TPS) in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Fatigue <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Transcranial pulse stimulation Verum; Device: Transcranial pulse stimulation Sham <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Medical University of Vienna; Campus Bio-Medico University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of “Formosa 1-Breath Free (NRICM101)” in Subjects With the Symptoms of COVID-19 or Influenza-like Disease</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Influenza Viral Infections; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Formosa 1-Breath Free (NRICM101); Drug: Placebo control drug <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: China Medical University Hospital; Tian-I Pharmaceutical,. Co. Ltd.; China Medical University, China; Qualitix Clinical Research 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>A Phase 3 Clinical Study to Evaluate the Efficacy, Safety and Immunogenicity of Booster Vaccination With Recombinant COVID-19 (XBB) Trimer Protein Vaccine (Sf9 Cell)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 (XBB) Trimer Protein Vaccine (Sf9 Cell); Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 Variant Vaccine (Sf9 Cell); Biological: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd.; WestVac Biopharma (Guangzhou) 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>Restoring Energy With Sub-symptom Threshold Optimized Rehabilitation Exercise for Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19; Exercise Intolerance, Riboflavin-Responsive <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Restoring Energy with Sub-symptom Threshold Aerobic Rehabilitation Exercise; Behavioral: Light Stretching/Breathing Exercises <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Columbia University; New York University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Pilot Study of Liraglutide (A Weight Loss Drug) in High Risk Obese Participants With Cognitive and Memory Issues</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Multiple Sclerosis; Long COVID; Long Covid19; Obese; Obesity; Obesity, Morbid; Acute Leukemia in Remission <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Liraglutide Pen Injector [Saxenda]; Other: Medication Diary <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Chicago <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>EXERCISE TRAINING USING AN APP ON PHYSICAL CARDIOVASCULAR FUNCTION INDIVIDUALS WITH POST-COVID-19 SYNDROME</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Exercise; Behavioral: Control <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Nove de Julho <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase 1 Trial of Recombinant COVID-19 Trivalent Protein Vaccine （CHO Cell）LYB002V14 in Booster Vaccination</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19 Vaccine <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: 30μg dose of LYB002V14; Biological: 60μg dose of LYB002V14; Biological: placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Guangzhou Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd.; Yantai Patronus Biotech Co., Ltd. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Against Recurrent Infection Among Lung Cancer Patients and Biomarker Research</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Recurrent; Lung Cancer; Vaccination; Antibody; Chemotherapy; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Any Chinese government-recommended COVID-19 booster vaccine <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Peking Union Medical College Hospital <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IMMUNERECOV CONTRIBUTES TO IMPROVEMENT OF RESPIRATORY AND IMMUNOLOGICAL RESPONSE IN POST-COVID-19 PATIENTS.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19; Dietary Supplements; Respiratory Tract Infections; Inflammation <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Dietary Supplement: Nutritional blend (ImmuneRecov). <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Federal University of São Paulo <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>Physical Activity Coaching in Patients With Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Self-monitoring; Behavioral: Goal setting and review; Behavioral: Education; Behavioral: Feedback; Behavioral: Contact; Behavioral: Exercise; Behavioral: Report; Behavioral: Social support; Behavioral: Group activities; Behavioral: World Health Organization recommendations for being physically active <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Alcala; Colegio Profesional de Fisioterapeutas de la Comunidad de Madrid <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>Study on Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome in Improvement of COVID-19 Rehabilitated Patients by Respiratory Training</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19, Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome, Dyspnea, Incentive Spirometer <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: breathing training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Tri-Service General Hospital <br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Using a Function-First “Scout Fragment”-Based Approach to Develop Allosteric Covalent Inhibitors of Conformationally Dynamic Helicase Mechanoenzymes</strong> - Helicases, classified into six superfamilies, are mechanoenzymes that utilize energy derived from ATP hydrolysis to remodel DNA and RNA substrates. These enzymes have key roles in diverse cellular processes, such as translation, ribosome assembly, and genome maintenance. Helicases with essential functions in certain cancer cells have been identified, and helicases expressed by many viruses are required for their pathogenicity. Therefore, helicases are important targets for chemical probes 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>In Vitro Antiviral Activity of Hyperbranched Poly-L-Lysine Modified by L-Arginine against Different SARS-CoV-2 Variants</strong> - The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants requires close monitoring to prevent the reoccurrence of a new pandemic in the near future. The Omicron variant, in particular, is one of the fastest-spreading viruses, showing a high ability to infect people and evade neutralization by antibodies elicited upon infection or vaccination. Therefore, the search for broad-spectrum antivirals that can inhibit the infectious capacity of SARS-CoV-2 is still the focus of intense research. In the present work,…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Water Extract of Portulaca Oleracea Inhibits PEDV Infection-Induced Pyrolysis by Caspase-1/GSDMD</strong> - Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) belongs to the coronavirus family and the coronavirus genus, causing contact enteric infection in pigs. It is one of the most serious diseases that threatens the pig industry. However, there is currently no specific drug to prevent and treat the disease, indicating that we need to be vigilant about the spread of the disease and the development of anti-PEDV drugs. The dried aerial parts of the plant Portulaca oleracea in the family Portulacaceous, whose…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Performance of a Point-of-Care Fluorescence Immunoassay Test to Measure the Anti-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 Spike, Receptor Binding Domain Antibody Level</strong> - Quantitative determination of anti-SARS-CoV2-S-RBD is necessary for the evaluation of vaccination effectiveness. The surrogate viral neutralization test (SVNT) is approved for measuring anti-SARS-CoV2-S-RBD, but a point-of-care platform is needed to simplify anti-SARS-CoV-2-S-RBD measurement. We aimed to evaluate the performance of a rapid fluorescent immunoassay-based kit, FastBio-RBD^(TM), compared to the SVNT. During April-September 2021, we enrolled two groups of subjects, convalescent…</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>Repurposing ebselen as an inhalable dry powder to treat respiratory tract infections</strong> - Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are one of the leading causes of death globally, lately exacerbated by the increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistance. While antimicrobial resistance could be overcome by developing new antimicrobial agents, the use of a safe repurposed agent having potent antimicrobial activity against various RTIs can be an efficient and cost-effective alternative to overcome the long and complex process of developing and testing new drugs. Ebselen, a synthetic…</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>Inhibitory effects against SARSCoV-2 main protease (M<sup>pro</sup>) of biflavonoids and benzophenones from the fruit of Platonia insignis</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 mutation and the limitation of the approved drug against COVID-19 are still a challenge in many country healthcare systems and need to be affronted despite the set of vaccines to prevent this viral infection. To contribute to the identification of new antiviral agents, the present study focused on natural products from an edible fruit with potential inhibitory effects against the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M^(pro)). First, LC-ESIMS analysis of Platonia insignis fruits was performed…</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 RNA Rebound After Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir Treatment in Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trials - United States and International Sites, 2021-2022</strong> - Rebound of SARS-CoV-2 shedding or COVID-19 signs and symptoms has been described after treatment with nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid). The direct association of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir to COVID-19 rebound remains unclear because most reports are based on individual cases or nonrandomized studies. Viral RNA shedding data from two phase 2/3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Evaluation of Protease Inhibition for COVID-19 in High-Risk Patients…</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>Synthetic graphene-copper nanocomposites interact with the hACE-2 enzyme and inhibit its biochemical activity</strong> - This study demonstrates the copper nanocomposite-induced enzymatic inhibition of human angiotensin I-converting enzyme-2 (hACE-2) by complex stabilization through the formation of the enzyme nanocomposite. The immediate application of this work is related to ACE-2 as a mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 entry into cells. Moreover, ACE-2 enzyme regulation is a potential therapeutic strategy in hypertension and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung injury, and fibrotic disorders. Thus, inhibition of ACE-2…</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 two-stage design enhanced biodegradation of high concentrations of a C16-alkyl quaternary ammonium compound in oxygen-based membrane biofilm reactors</strong> - Quaternary ammonia compounds (QAC), such as hexadecyltrimethyl-ammonium (CTAB), are widely used as disinfectants and in personal-care products. Their use as disinfectants grew during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, leading to increased loads to wastewater treatment systems and the environment. Though low concentrations of CTAB are biodegradable, high concentrations are toxic to bacteria. Sufficient O(2) delivery is a key to achieve high CTAB removal, and the O(2)-based Membrane Biofilm…</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>CNP blocks mitochondrial depolarization and inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro and in vivo</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 6.5 million lives worldwide and continues to have lasting impacts on the world’s healthcare and economic systems. Several approved and emergency authorized therapeutics that inhibit early stages of the virus replication cycle have been developed however, effective late-stage therapeutical targets have yet to be identified. To that end, our lab identified that 2’,3’ cyclic-nucleotide 3’-phosphodiesterase (CNP) inhibits SARS-CoV-2 virion assembly. We show…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Molecular insights to the anti-COVID-19 potential of α-, β- and γ-cyclodextrins</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 viral infection is regulated by the host cell receptors ACE2 and TMPRSS2, and therefore the effect of various natural and synthetic compounds on these receptors has recently been the subject of investigations. Cyclodextrins, naturally occurring polysaccharides derived from starch, are soluble in water and have a hydrophobic cavity at their center enabling them to accommodate small molecules and utilize them as carriers in the food, supplements, and pharmaceutical industries to improve…</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>Combined in vitro/in silico approaches, molecular dynamics simulations and safety assessment of the multifunctional properties of thymol and carvacrol: A comparative insight</strong> - Bioactive compounds derived from medicinal plants have acquired immense attentiveness in drug discovery and development. The present study investigated in vitro and predicted in silico the antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties of thymol and carvacrol, and assessed their safety. The performed microbiological assays against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica Typhimurium revealed that the minimal inhibitory concentration values ranged from (0.078 to 0.312…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Molecular dynamics, molecular docking, DFT, and ADMET investigations of the Co(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) chelating on the antioxidant activity and SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibition of quercetin</strong> - The natural flavonol quercetin (Q) is found in many vegetables, fruits, and beverages, and it is known as a strong antioxidant. Its metal ion chelation may increase its antioxidant activity. The present study aims to explore the Co(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) chelating on the antioxidant effectiveness and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) main protease (M^(pro)) inhibitory of quercetin using Density-functional theory (DFT), molecular docking, and molecular dynamics…</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>Integrated metabolomics and transcriptomics analyses reveal metabolic responses to TGEV infection in porcine intestinal epithelial cells</strong> - Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) is a coronavirus that infects piglets with severe diarrhoea, vomiting, dehydration, and even death, causing huge economic losses to the pig industry. The underlying pathogenesis of TGEV infection and the effects of TGEV infection on host metabolites remain poorly understood. To investigate the critical metabolites and regulatory factors during TGEV infection in intestinal porcine epithelial cells (IPEC-J2), we performed metabolomic and transcriptomic…</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>Inhibition potential of natural flavonoids against selected omicron (B.1.19) mutations in the spike receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2: a molecular modeling approach</strong> - The omicron (B.1.19) variant of contagious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is considered a variant of concern (VOC) due to its increased transmissibility and highly infectious nature. The spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) is a hotspot of mutations and is regarded as a prominent target for screening drug candidates owing to its crucial role in viral entry and immune evasion. To date, no effective therapy or antivirals have been reported; therefore, there is an…</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>How Netanyahu’s Right-Wing Critics See Israel’s Future</strong> - Danny Danon, the former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, believes there’s no path forward for a Palestinian state. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-netanyahus-right-wing-critics-see-israels-future">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Unpermitted Shooting Range Upends Life in a Quiet Town</strong> - Residents of Pawlet, Vermont, were accustomed to calm and neighborly interactions. Then a new resident moved in. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/one-mans-war-against-a-small-towns-rules">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>There Are No Safe Places in Gaza</strong> - As Israel’s military campaign has expanded into southern Gaza, displaced families have been forced to move again and again. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/there-are-no-safe-places-in-gaza">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Colorado’s Top Court Kicked Trump Off the Ballot. Will the Supreme Court Agree?</strong> - A legal scholar analyzes how the nine Justices are likely to view the blockbuster decision. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/colorados-top-court-kicked-trump-off-the-ballot-will-the-supreme-court-agree">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When Americans Are the Threat at the Border</strong> - Many people charged with trafficking in Tucson are U.S. citizens, suffering from the same problems of poverty and addiction that plague the rest of the country. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/when-americans-are-the-threat-at-the-border">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Why sexual violence in war is so widespread — and under-covered</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A woman lights a candle placed atop a sign showing an Israeli flag with hand-written notes on November 7, 2023, in Tel Aviv, Israel." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3ckOY-45Vw0rjwWfcfzyF1FdlRQ=/0x0:5333x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72993122/1768641406.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A woman lights a candle placed atop a sign showing an Israeli flag with hand-written notes. | Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How to understand Hamas’s alleged sexual attacks on October 7.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HrHrhB">
As Israeli officials piece together the attacks of October 7, evidence is mounting that <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a> committed crimes of sexual violence against the people it attacked in <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a> — both women and men, both dead and alive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aHojpg">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwoLCtO0WFw">UN testimony delivered earlier this month</a> implicates Hamas and other militants in potential sexual crimes during the rampage in Israel, including shooting at the genitals of the victims, inserting foreign objects into sexual organs, as well as, potentially, rape and other forms of sexual violence. But as the testimonies shared before the UN indicate, investigations into what happened on that day are ongoing and will be complicated by the fact that many of the victims and witnesses are dead.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JYaIyz">
Sexual violence is horrific in any context, and is always connected to power and domination. But it takes on a different dimension when it is utilized <a href="https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/factsheet2022-2.pdf">as a tool of war</a> — as it has been for centuries. And even though it is an unfortunately common feature of broader conflict, it’s often misunderstood and is difficult to prosecute — as all war crimes are — making justice for victims a complicated prospect at best.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HwRgBU">
In the case of the October 7 attacks, <a href="https://time.com/6342428/israel-hamas-sheryl-sandberg-oct-7/">high-profile figures</a>, like Sheryl Sandberg and <a href="https://www.vox.com/hillary-clinton">Hillary Clinton</a>, who has also <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/hamas-israel-ceasefire-humanitarian-pause-gaza/675992/">firmly backed Israel’s war in Gaza</a>, have called for more attention to be drawn to the allegations. There has been a fraught discourse over claims the allegations were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-sexual-violence-un.html">insufficiently covered</a> and ignored by the United Nations, followed by scrutiny of <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/12/07/ajcv-d07.html">the motivations of those who are highlighting it</a> and how this all plays into the world’s understanding of October 7 and Israel’s ensuing war in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a>. It’s worth pointing out: Sexual violence in conflict is often under-covered relative to the gravity of the harms inflicted.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YaKnX8">
The United Nations and Israel are now seriously pursuing these allegations. The UN secretary-general on conflict-related sexual violence has requested access to information to investigate the assaults, and a UN Commission of Inquiry collecting evidence of war crimes — including sexual violence — committed by all sides in Israel and the occupied <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestinian</a> territories since October 7 was established in the days <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/commission-inquiry-collecting-evidence-war-crimes-committed-all-sides-israel">following the attacks.</a>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="03NGdG">
Testimony and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-hamas-used-sexual-violence-on-october-7th">evidence available so far</a> indicates that some horrific forms of sexual violence did occur on<strong> </strong>October 7. (Hamas, for its part, has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67613153">denied</a> that its fighters would engage in that specific kind of brutality.) But it’s not yet clear how widespread that sexual violence was, and it may be unclear for many months to come, in part because Israel has been somewhat circumspect in releasing information, given <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-17/ty-article/.premium/the-ethics-of-covering-hamas-dehumanizing-sexual-violence-against-israeli-women/0000018c-5e45-d798-adac-feef6cb80000">the sensitive nature of the alleged crimes</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f3xCi8">
What is known is that violent conflict almost always includes sexual violence — in fact, as one expert Vox spoke to said, it is actually an inherent, if under-examined, aspect of conflict.
</p>
<h3 id="iPYJGm">
What we know about sexual violence on October 7
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PBuFrN">
Israeli authorities have collected testimony from witnesses and first responders, as well as footage gathered from militants as they attacked towns and villages, as part of the Israeli government’s investigation into the sexual crimes that Hamas and other militants allegedly perpetrated. Evidence <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/accounts-sexual-violence-hamas-attack-mount-justice-is-remote-israels-victims-2023-12-05/">is still emerging</a> and may be difficult to ascertain in full — gathering that evidence becomes forensically challenging as dead bodies decompose. And it may take time for survivors — including,<a href="https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/gaza-strip-sexual-violence/"> potentially, hostages</a> — to be able to recount their experiences and share them with the authorities, since sexual trauma often carries with it shame, doubt, and confusion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QSPG20">
Conflict-related sexual violence encompasses a broad and evolving set of crimes that don’t necessarily involve rape; sexually invasive searches, groping, stripping and public shaming, and damaging or maiming sexual organs are all forms of sexual violence, as is coercion into sexual acts to secure favorable treatment, shelter, food, or security in conflict or in captivity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OOrlyC">
Following the October 7 attack in Israel, witnesses have presented testimony about nails and other objects being placed in the sexual organs of at least one victim, as well as evidence that militants shot at the sexual organs of victims. Israeli police have also collected witness testimony that indicates militants violently raped some of the victims, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/06/middleeast/rape-sexual-violence-hamas-israel-what-we-know-intl/index.html">CNN reported earlier this month</a>. However, the police do not have first-hand testimony from survivors, because it’s not clear there are any left. (Israel’s Prime Minister <a href="https://www.vox.com/23910085/netanyahu-israel-right-hamas-gaza-war-history">Benjamin Netanyahu</a>, after meeting with released hostages, has <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/video/20231206-israeli-pm-netanyahu-says-heard-of-sexual-violence-at-meeting-with-returned-hostages">said</a> that Hamas and militants in Gaza are <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctor-who-treated-freed-hamas-hostages-describes-physical-sexual-and-psychological-abuse/">sexually assaulting female hostages</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ejLUE">
The investigation thus far has released limited information, with authorities navigating the tension between respecting the privacy of victims and ensuring the world knows about the violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vs3m2X">
“There’s an effort by the [Israeli] government … to not really reveal yet a lot of what happened for various reasons, both to protect the people who were released, and the people who are still captive, and maybe other reasons that we’re not aware,” Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel analyst with the International Crisis Group, told Vox. “So there’s a lot of fog around all of it.”
</p>
<h3 id="gCll2d">
Putting the sexual violence of October 7 in context
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="116DPz">
Though sexual violence in conflict is not new, sexual violence at this scale in this particular conflict, at least by Palestinian actors, is, Zonszein said. (There is documented<a href="https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/31481"> evidence </a>of<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2019-07-05/ty-article-magazine/.premium/how-israel-systematically-hides-evidence-of-1948-expulsion-of-arabs/0000017f-f303-d487-abff-f3ff69de0000"> rape </a>and sexual assault by Israeli troops against Palestinians during the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGVgjS98OsU">Nakba</a>, though since then<a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/conflict-and-society/9/1/arcs090105.xml">, many scholars argue that sexual violence by Israel Defense Forces against Palestinians is rare during conflict</a>. However, state-sponsored sexual violence against Palestinians does occur in other contexts, <a href="https://www.972mag.com/palestinians-abused-israeli-prisons-torture/">like in Israeli prisons</a> and by <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-21/ty-article-magazine/.premium/beatings-burns-attempted-sexual-assault-settlers-and-soldiers-abused-palestinians/0000018b-530f-d1d7-ab8b-7f5fca1d0000">Israeli settlers</a> in the territories. As with all sexual violence, it’s difficult to evaluate how widespread these phenomena are due to limits in self-reporting.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ebUcjd">
There could be many reasons for this; one is simply the unprecedented scale of Hamas’s attack, as well as the nature of it. Rather than the suicide bombings or rocket attacks Hamas has intermittently used against Israel over the last decade, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters who breached the Gaza border fence to attack Israeli towns and villages were face-to-face with their victims in ways Palestinian militants hadn’t been in previous conflicts — creating the opportunity to commit sexual violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9SdGVM">
Another possibility, if indeed the attacks were premeditated as Israeli officials have insisted, is that Hamas may have intentionally used the tactic as part of the group’s broader plan to provoke a massive reaction from Israel. If so, Jennie Burnet, director of the Institute for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Georgia Southern University, said it’s worth asking if they picked up the tactic of using sexual violence from other extremist groups they are in contact with, such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, <a href="https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2023/apr/19/us-report-sexual-gender-based-violence-iran">which routinely uses sexual violence</a> as <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/7480/2023/en/">a terror tactic against Iranians</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IQrsOE">
“It’s really important that it be investigated what precisely happened,” Burnet said. “Whether it was Hamas soldiers or militants taking their own initiatives, or whether it was planned and systematic, I think that is an important thing to uncover.”
</p>
<h3 id="BwWwGy">
Sexual violence is intrinsic to war throughout history
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="chW0fe">
Sexual violence is extremely common throughout the history of conflict and conquest, though our understanding of what constitutes sexual violence within conflict is evolving. For example, the idea of enslaved people or concubines who were always at a ruler’s disposal for sex would have been thought of as slavery or membership in a royal court rather than as conflict-related sexual violence centuries ago. The taking of “brides” or sex slaves, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/supporting_resources/hrw_submission_cedaw_iraq.pdf">as ISIS did to Yazidi women</a> in Iraq as it captured land to build its caliphate, is now considered a clear-cut case of sexual violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CvdI71">
<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/11/un-peacekeeping-has-sexual-abuse-problem">UN peacekeepers in Haiti</a>, insurgent groups like the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2023/11/sudan-alarming-reports-women-and-girls-abducted-and-forced-marry-held">Rapid Support Forces in Sudan</a>, state actors like Japan’s use of<a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/09/guide-understanding-history-comfort-women-issue"> Korean “comfort women,”</a> and <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1141417">Russian forces raping Ukrainians</a> are among the wide variety of perpetrators. Academic literature, especially that which centers on avenues for justice, often focuses on cases of systemic sexual violence — most often in the Rwandan genocide and in the Bosnian war, as the violence was so widespread, systemic, and ethnically motivated. These conflicts also led to the first international tribunals to include prosecutions for conflict-related sexual violence, and the documentation, study, and prosecution of these cases greatly advanced the study of conflict-related sexual violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zWIf0S">
“The prosecution of sexual violence by the [International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia] transformed scholarly studies of gender and war, as well as international human rights law,” Burnet said. Other instances, like the abuse of Korean women by Japanese soldiers and longstanding patterns of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/un-congo-humanitarian-sexual-violence-conflict-minerals-0f5ebeaccff39ab97c61e981f1a7a3cf">sexual violence by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo</a>, remain under-studied.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ri4Dbj">
But no matter who is perpetrating this violence or where it’s happening, it’s part of conflict because it serves a purpose — really, three purposes. First, experts say, it telegraphs to a community under siege that nowhere and no one is safe; second, it destabilizes the targeted society by fraying community and familial bonds, often by targeting women who often maintain those bonds; and third, it breaks the “gender contract” of a society, shattering the illusion that a society’s men can “protect” its women from violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pac1aN">
“Sexual violence is very, very effective in destroying the women and girls of a particular community, but also the repercussions are massive, in terms of [disrupting] entire communities, entire families, entire communities, and entire nations,” said Joanna Bourke, a historian who has written extensively about sexual violence, war, and conflict.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2796Ux">
This violence has devastating repercussions for women in terms of unintended pregnancies, disease, and injury to their sexual organs, Bourke said, but it also can create a cycle of harm, particularly for any children born from the sexual violence of the invading or adversarial forces. Significant evidence “shows that these children are highly abused, they have a real marginal existence within their communities, and have a disruptive presence within their communities, because they are constant reminders of the war, and what went wrong,” she told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PhKSxQ">
This is not to say that men are never the victims of conflict-related sexual violence; <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8935555/#bibr2-15579883221084496">they are</a>, and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263349802_Sexual_violence_against_men_in_countries_affected_by_armed_conflict">likely far more often than is reported</a>. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/03/men-can-experience-sexual-violence-war-too">There are more extreme examples</a>, but one of the most jarring was the series of photos of detained Iraqi men coming from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43783-2004May20.html">Abu Ghraib prison in 2004</a>. American soldiers participated in and took photos of the men naked and piled on top of each other, and forced them to perform sexual acts, in a horrific pattern of sexual humiliation and abuse.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xiRyHQ">
“Sexual violence [against] men in military conflicts has been kind of ignored, mainly because it doesn’t or doesn’t always … involve rape,” Bourke said. “But it does involve sexual humiliation, it does involve the crushing of testicles, it does involve all those sorts of things,” which researchers had previously classified as torture. “It turns out to be extremely high levels of sexual abuse against men in modern conflicts, but it simply was being categorized differently, because they were men and not women.”
</p>
<h3 id="ULWPiv">
Can victims of sexual violence in war find justice?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1FlTFa">
The Geneva Conventions, the post-World War II international agreements that form the basis for international humanitarian law (IHL), “require the parties to an armed conflict to protect women against rape, and to protect women and children from indecent assault,” Adil Haque, a professor at Rutgers Law School who specializes in the law of armed conflict, told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I0gXzM">
Though it is unlawful under the Geneva Conventions, sexual violence in conflict is difficult to prosecute in ordinary civilian courts, especially in places where gender inequality is pronounced and societal understanding of sex crimes is limited, as it was in Rwanda following the genocide of the Tutsi people by the Hutu militias. “In Rwanda before the genocide, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1996/Rwanda.htm">there [was no] precise word for rape or sexual violence</a> in the local language, Kinyarwanda, and most Rwandan traditions are around dealing with sexual impropriety,” Burnet said. “They didn’t address rape, they addressed inappropriate sexual relationships between men and women.” And although rape was against the law at the time of the genocide, “at the time rape was not clearly defined.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8dm55t">
However, in both Rwanda and Bosnia, “women survivors of sexual violence in the conflict … wanted legal recourse, and they wanted their perpetrators held to account before courts whenever possible,” Burnet told Vox. “And there’s documented cases in both countries of women going to great lengths and breaking lots of social taboos by giving testimony before courts about how they were violated, as part of that effort,” as well as, in Rwanda, demanding that the post-conflict national law categorize sexual violence among the most severe crimes of genocide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kL7nL1">
Both Rwanda and Bosnia used their national courts to try (largely lower-level) perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence. Under IHL, national courts are the right venue to try war crimes committed by regular troops, as long as they have the appropriate laws to prosecute conflict-related sexual violence. However, even with the right laws on the books, that doesn’t mean survivors get the justice they deserve; as of 2017, less than 1 percent of the estimated 20,000 Bosnians who suffered conflict-related sexual violence had their cases tried, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2017/09/bosnia-and-herzegovina-last-chance-for-justice-for-over-20000-wartime-sexual-violence-survivors/">according to Amnesty International</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KnDL4D">
Bosnia and Rwanda also set up <a href="https://www.icty.org/en/features/crimes-sexual-violence/landmark-cases">special tribunals</a> in cooperation with the United Nations, which were intended to go after those in power who directed or facilitated sexual violence in those conflicts, as well as other war crimes and crimes against humanity. Though the international tribunal courts arguably did not go far enough in providing reparations and support for victims of sexual violence,<a href="https://www.icty.org/en/features/crimes-sexual-violence"> they were the first international criminal tribunals</a> to bring charges pertaining to conflict-related sexual violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JgISo1">
But many people who have suffered the life-long consequences of conflict-related sexual violence never find a measure of justice, whether that’s in court or a formal apology. Over the decades, disagreements over how to recognize, characterize, and provide reparations for “<a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/09/guide-understanding-history-comfort-women-issue">comfort women</a>,” the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-court-orders-japan-compensate-comfort-women-reverses-earlier-ruling-2023-11-23/">Korean women and children who were used as sex slaves</a> for Japanese soldiers during that country’s occupation of the Korean Peninsula, have greatly contributed to the strained relations between the two countries. Despite a<a href="https://thediplomat.com/2021/11/why-did-the-2015-japan-korea-comfort-women-agreement-fall-apart/"> 2015 agreement and apology from Japan</a>, it remains contentious; over the past decade, the issue has been litigated in South Korean courts, with Japan denying that the victims were forcibly taken from their homes and objecting to the use of “sexual slavery” to describe the events.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JyrdQK">
In the context of October 7, Israel has already indicated that it is taking claims of sexual violence seriously, as has the International Criminal Court (ICC).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TdQpMd">
“Importantly, rape is a war crime under the ICC Statute … as well as a crime against humanity if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population,” Haque said. “The ICC prosecutor, from his very first public statements about the conflict, alluded to clear evidence of sexual violence, and has repeatedly identified rape as one of the war crimes that his office is investigating.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kcYkKL">
Though the ICC and Israeli police are investigating the reports of sexual violence during Hamas’s attack, Israel is not cooperating with the UN Commission of Inquiry due <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-commission-investigate-hamas-sexual-violence-appeal-evidence-2023-11-29/">to perceived anti-Israel bias</a>, which could greatly impede the investigation into war crimes that the commission is mandated to perform. Israel has invited the special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, on an official visit to the country, but Israel hasn’t invited the UN agencies with a mandate to investigate the allegations to do so yet. Israel’s investigation into the reports of sexual violence indicates a willingness to try the perpetrators in court, and <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-khan-kc-cairo-situation-state-palestine-and-israel">the ICC could potentially have jurisdiction over some crimes that occurred on October 7</a>, even though Israel is not party to the ICC.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BdVKBR">
Regardless of how these investigations play out, justice for victims of conflict-related sexual violence is not guaranteed, despite forward steps in its study, understanding, and prosecution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D0b7ta">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lqQh5f">
</p></li>
<li><strong>How to think before you speak, online and off</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A computer illustration of a girl sitting on the ground in front of a giant phone screen full of apps, surrounded by purple emptiness." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Vh1s9OJCEqGYClVB5K4H2nhhtZo=/417x0:7084x5000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72993094/GettyImages_1348828446.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Getty Images/iStockphoto
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Social media is a stressful place. Keeping things in perspective is important.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q49pez">
We’ve all been there: scrolling through a heated <a href="https://www.vox.com/facebook">Facebook</a> comment section, and some troll says the most offensive trash ever. You know you should let it go, take some space, but you can’t hold it in. You need to fight back. Or do you?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P2d7nu">
Holding a rational debate can be impossible when you are feeling triggered. Whether it occurs online or in person, over political stances or who does the most chores — when a dispute ignites, all bets are off. You might have a split-second reaction, jump to conclusions, and feel willing to risk it all just to claim victory.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PmX9in">
“A lot of folks are in it for the quick win. They go with an impulse and abandon themselves as a person,” says <a href="https://webpsych.com/">Henry Ortiz</a>, a Gestalt psychologist in Los Angeles, California. “Arguing and having the last word never wins people over to your perspective. You’re playing a tug of war and the harder you pull your end of the rope, the more the other person resists you.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4vfYXN">
Especially online, a comment can trail you forever, says Brad Bushman, a social psychologist and anger expert. “It’s always best to prevent a problem from occurring than to try to solve it after it’s already occurred.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YJVZGn">
More than ever, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/#:~:text=between%20the%20parties.-,Today%2C%2092%25%20of%20Republicans%20are%20to%20the%20right%20of%20the,up%20from%2070%25%20in%201994.">American discourse feels incredibly polarizing</a>. Although it might be tempting to sound off when you’re angry or when you disagree with someone, you aren’t likely to win any friends by ranting in a comment section. Nor are you going to get your significant other to see it your way while you are both fuming. So what can you do? I asked five experts about the best ways to stop and think before you say something that you might end up regretting.
</p>
<h3 id="JJK5wk">
Put things in perspective
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1IImP4">
When you give in to impulses during a heated debate, your reaction is filtered through many of the pains, fears, and losses you’ve endured in the past. “We bring all these different experiences into every relationship,” says <a href="https://www.inclusivetherapists.com/district-of-columbia/washington/dr-bernasha-anderson">Bernasha Anderson</a>, a psychologist in Washington, DC, who specializes in interpersonal therapy. “Sometimes they’re dormant, they’re underneath the surface, but they’re there.” You may be fighting with your new boo, but deep down, you could be evoking issues from your childhood. “Once our nervous system regulates, we find ourselves looking back and saying, ‘That’s not even my value system. That’s not who I want to be,’” Anderson says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cQwTjb">
Be aware of your circumstances. Fights are more likely to strike when people are overwhelmed in other areas of their life. A dispute with your partner about doing the dishes, for example, may actually be about not having enough child care. When we feel powerless, we may be more likely to lash out, pushing our negative energy out at any cost.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qaOugp">
The same goes for frustrations we might encounter online. On the internet, it can feel like we have no choice but to be pulled into arguments, especially when algorithms are tailored to our own opinions. Any break in those feedback loops can be jarring. “There’s a lot of pressure to make public statements that align with your group’s interests in order to be accepted by that group,” says<a href="https://www.drmichelledrouin.com/"> Michelle Drouin</a>, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/psychology">psychology</a> professor and the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Out-Touch-Survive-Intimacy-Famine/dp/0262046679"><em>Out of Touch: How to Survive an Intimacy Famine</em></a>.
</p>
<div>
<aside id="KAssZf">
<q>While it feels like fighting with trolls is a productive use of time, it almost never is.</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="giCEp8">
“It’s very easy to get baited into these online debates because we want to channel this anger and hopelessness and despair that we feel,” says<a href="https://hellodrjoy.com/"> Joy Harden Bradford,</a> psychologist, host of the <a href="https://therapyforblackgirls.com/podcast/"><em>Therapy for Black Girls</em> podcast</a>, and author of<a href="https://www.sisterhoodheals.com/"> <em>Sisterhood Heals: The Transformative Power of Healing in Community</em>.</a> But while it feels like fighting with trolls is a productive use of time, it almost never is. Sometimes, saying nothing at all can be powerful, too — especially when you feel vulnerable or unsure of how to calmly express yourself.
</p>
<h3 id="fi5S1q">
Pause and take it all in
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aYlwgQ">
Everyone has a window of tolerance where they are in a calm state and can take in information and tolerate emotions, explains Ortiz. When someone feels physically or emotionally threatened, they go outside of that window and either freeze or go into fight or flight.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nkVGK8">
Once triggered, your heart rate and blood pressure jump up, says Bushman. But shoving down your feelings can lead to rumination. “It’s like a tea pot boiling on the stove. You can vent the steam or you can try to contain the steam and stuff it inside. A better strategy is just to turn down the heat on that stove.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WD8RpS">
Remember, the person you are arguing with is probably in fight or flight, too, says Ortiz. “Who you’re arguing with isn’t even that person anymore. You’re arguing with their pain, with their trauma, and with their past.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JeRcAQ">
Ortiz recommends asking to take a break from the conversation, saying something like, “I’m sorry. I’m feeling really overwhelmed right now, and I just need a moment. I didn’t mean to upset you.” You can even mark down a date on your calendar to revisit the discussion later that day or week when everyone is calmer. You’ll likely find that by then, you’ll feel a lot more levelheaded.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RuOo5K">
In disputes online, Drouin suggests pulling out of the conversation completely by making a boundary-setting public statement, saying that you will not have conversations about certain issues online but will have them in private. Conversations that take place over DMs instead of the world stage of a public feed or forum can often be more civil.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c0YggK">
“My grandma used to tell me that before you say or do anything [while angry], you should count to 10 before you respond,” Bushman said. “Thomas Jefferson said, ‘If you’re really angry, you should count to 100 instead.’” Just taking that pause allows you to clear your thinking.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="w33hQh">
<q>Remember, the person you were fighting with online may not be the person they are in reality.</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CXZgQo">
In addition, Anderson recommends using the acronym <a href="https://americanaddictioncenters.org/blog/common-stressors-recovery">HALT</a> — Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired — to take inventory of silent predators that can cause you to act out of character. Used in sobriety communities, HALT helps people recovering from addiction recognize overlooked stressors that may not seem major but can throw off someone’s ability to make clear decisions, leading them back to a drink or drug. She also recommends that you ground yourself in the present by meditating, taking a walk, or doing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQg7seUGDUc">the five senses exercise</a>, where you pause to identify five things surrounding you that you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste.
</p>
<h3 id="GaDyjR">
Lead with empathy
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FQ2vks">
There’s a chance that you will realize the dispute isn’t even worth revisiting, but there are certain discussions that may still need to be had. In those cases, provide empathy from the jump. Tell the person how much the relationship means to you and that you understand that they were really upset. Explain your feelings too, saying something like, “I was really hurt by what you said, or I was very shocked,” Harden Bradford recommends.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0xfpD9">
Try to view differences of opinion as interesting and not a threat, says Ortiz. Often, people don’t need to be debated or preached to when they are triggered, he says, they just need someone to listen and hold their pain. Being the person to offer them an ear can be a magnificent gift. It’s similar to when a toddler gets a booboo and needs a quick cuddle and a kiss.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JK2VWE">
When someone is heard, they often drop their guard, says Ortiz. “Because you’re heard by me, you may be actually willing to listen to what I have to say.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X3bFwO">
Remember, the person you were fighting with online may not be the person they are in reality, says Drouin, so take difficult conversations offline. “When people are posting online, they post one or two things a day. Going to them for the full story is probably a good way to move forward.”
</p>
<h3 id="vOqg1A">
Focus on a solution
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k5GGsq">
Because fights with friends and significant others are often about something completely unrelated to the topic at hand, acknowledge that and focus on the real issue. Maybe you are both overwhelmed with kids and work and need a date night. Maybe a bud keeps canceling plans because they are afraid to tell you that they are struggling financially. “It is not you against your partner. It is you and your partner against whatever this thing is,” Harden Bradford says. “When you think about it, like, ‘We’re on a team together.’ That’s a very different approach than, ‘You’re my adversary, and I’m trying to win this battle.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ukEGtd">
Be willing to apologize for stepping out of line, and ask how you can repair the situation. This could mean monitoring your tone and approach in the future, or it may mean putting up a new post saying you published inaccurate information.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="La7TZm">
If your online battles stem from feeling powerless over world issues, “find a more productive way to channel that,” says Harden Bradford. “It could be making calls to politicians or making a donation.”
</p>
<h3 id="xSHWsU">
Plan for the future
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fDbGr2">
Tough conversations <em>will</em> arise again, so discuss with your significant other or friend how you can handle them better in the future, especially when you are overwhelmed. Harden Bradford recommends saying something like, “We know the world is falling apart, but what kinds of things can we do to support each other? That might mean conversations, or that might mean we don’t talk about these things.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DjnwXL">
You might even decide it’s better to unfollow certain friends online in the interest of your relationship. Maybe you don’t discuss politics with your buddy and simply bond over other shared interests. Maybe you just accept that you and your partner are going to be snappy for the next few weeks, and you will both try to be understanding of each other despite that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KUr29W">
When conversations emerge, be empathetic. Set boundaries for fighting fair, both in person and online. If someone is swearing, threatening to leave, or shutting the other down, it’s time to take a pause.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YGPG7Z">
Try and remember, most of these fights don’t matter much in the lifespan of a relationship, says Bushman. “This issue might be important right now at this moment, but what about tomorrow or a week from now? Or a month from now or a year from now? How important is this issue?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NDSmO7">
If arguments arise, stay accountable, but have self-compassion. Be willing to forgive yourself and the other person. “We have to humanize them,” Anderson says. “And we have to humanize ourselves.” The harder you are on others, the harder you are on yourself. “We must be intentional about giving ourselves compassion as well as giving compassion to others. We have to say to ourselves, ‘These people are human.’ Because right now, I see a lot of dehumanization.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wt3Yj0">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xbmkQg">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The US may be flouting its own laws by sending unrestricted aid to Israel</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Biden sits in front of an Israel flag with a concerned look on his face." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Wih3uL91DFKm_Nw5ZxtChspPiYs=/0x0:2956x2217/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72990968/1731157124.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
US President Joe Biden joins Israel’s Prime Minister for the start of the Israeli war cabinet meeting, in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. | Miriam Alster/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
US law limits aid to countries that violate human rights. Here’s why it isn’t applied to Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hRZzzU">
The recent high-profile killings of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-12-17-2023-22e6e6ac2098dbf29c89c1a49980907b">three Israeli hostages</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/16/middleeast/idf-sniper-gaza-church-deaths-intl-hnk/index.html">two women in a Gaza church</a>, and <a href="https://x.com/EliClifton/status/1737635829131141207?s=20">11 unarmed Palestinian men</a> in front of their family members have raised new global alarm at <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a>’s targeting of civilians amid its war in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a>. The deaths came as part of its ground assault, and as it continues a bombing campaign that even staunch Israel ally <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">President Joe Biden</a> has called “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-israel-hamas-oct-7-44c4229d4c1270d9cfa484b664a22071">indiscriminate</a>.” Yet, he continues to push for additional, essentially <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/13/politics/us-conditions-military-aid-israel/index.html">unconditional aid</a> to Israel — despite the fact that some foreign affairs experts say existing US laws meant to safeguard human rights should have long restricted the flow of such assistance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hZpfZf">
“We always treat Israel with kid gloves when it comes to potential human rights violations of any kind,” said Josh Paul, who has become a prominent critic of the Biden administration’s Israel policy since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/us/state-department-official-resigns-israel-arms.html?partner=slack&amp;smid=sl-share">resigning</a> from his post as the director of congressional and public affairs at the State Department bureau overseeing American arms sales over concerns about the Israeli response to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023">October 7 attack</a> by <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a>, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestinian</a> militant group designated as a terrorist organization by many countries. “When it comes to suspending or curtailing lethal military assistance, there’s no sign of anyone willing to take any actual steps.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rznhjx">
The US provides more aid to Israel than to any other country, about <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/11/04/us-israel-aid-military-funding-chart">$3.8 billion annually</a> in recognition of the two states’ <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23916266/us-israel-support-ally-gaza-war-aid">“special relationship” that dates back decades</a>. Now, Biden wants <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a> to approve an additional <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/state-department-approves-tank-ammo-sale-to-israel-bypasses-congress/">$14.3 billion</a> in aid to Israel as part of a broader package that also includes aid for Ukraine and that has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/12/14/23981077/immigration-deal-biden-senate-asylum-ukraine">held up</a> over <a href="https://www.vox.com/immigration">immigration policy</a> negotiations. He also recently circumvented Congress to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/state-department-approves-tank-ammo-sale-to-israel-bypasses-congress/">sell Israel $106 million worth of tank ammunition</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AQwAZ5">
Biden administration officials <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/13/politics/us-conditions-military-aid-israel/index.html#:~:text=The%20Biden%20administration%20currently%20has,to%20protect%20civilians%20in%20Gaza.">told CNN</a> that they are not currently considering placing conditions on aid beyond those that already exist in federal law, saying that the US expects Israel to abide by international humanitarian law and that the Israel Defense Forces conducts internal legal reviews of its strikes beforehand.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wfE4sB">
“We’re not going to do a damn thing other than protect Israel in the process. Not a single thing,” Biden <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/13/politics/us-conditions-military-aid-israel/index.html#:~:text=The%20Biden%20administration%20currently%20has,to%20protect%20civilians%20in%20Gaza.">recently told Democratic donors</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b3iNTJ">
But some foreign policy experts say that those existing legal conditions aren’t being adequately enforced against Israel given the high civilian death toll in Gaza, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67764664">which has exceeded 20,000</a> since October 7. That includes <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> designed to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/02/23/memorandum-on-united-states-conventional-arms-transfer-policy/">prevent arms transfers</a> that may enable violations of international humanitarian law or to foreign forces <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/09/13/state-department-chirg-civilian-deaths/">suspected of using American weapons to harm civilians</a>. But one law in particular has recently gotten more attention from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/03/israel-aid-democrats-leahy-act-congress">progressive Democrats</a>: the “Leahy Law.” They argue that the US may be shirking its legal duty to ensure that assistance to Israel is not being used to violate human rights.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2UL1Lv">
First approved by Congress in 1997, the Leahy Law’s purpose is to prevent the US from being implicated in serious crimes committed by foreign security forces that it supports by cutting off aid to a specific unit if the US has credible information that the unit committed a gross violation of human rights. No security forces, not even American ones, are entirely immune to committing such violations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k66Rvd">
A State Department spokesperson told Vox that the Leahy Law applies to all countries, including Israel, and that the agency is meeting the requirements under the law. However, some former administration officials and congressional staff say that the law has never had teeth against Israel, despite what human rights experts, both in the US government and outside of it, have identified as substantive evidence that Israel has committed human rights violations both before and during the current Gaza war. The Department of Defense referred Vox to the State Department for comment, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zp7T5C">
“The Israelis too often seem to act as though international law does not apply to them. And our government has acted as though the Leahy Law doesn’t apply to [the Israelis],” said Tim Rieser, a longtime senior adviser to former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) who was a key architect of the law. “As a result, there is a kind of culture of impunity — they can do almost anything to the Palestinians without being accountable.”
</p>
<h3 id="xynPbG">
How the Leahy Law works — and how Israel gets special treatment
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Px5BEm">
The US vets every foreign military unit designated to receive American assistance under the Leahy Law for <a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PP410_INVEST_v2.1.pdf">almost every country</a>. The US embassy in that country leads an investigation, and the information it produces, along with other source material, is reviewed by analysts at the State Department.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GXUpmR">
Those analysts are looking for “credible” evidence that the unit has committed a gross human rights violation, which is typically defined as torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, or rape, but can also be interpreted more broadly. That information can come from a variety of reliable sources, including media and NGO reports, and is ideally corroborated by multiple sources, but it does not need to meet the strict legal standard required to be admitted as evidence in a court of law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z9F63L">
If there is such evidence, then the US must cut off aid to that unit under the Leahy Law — but it can be later reinstated if the State Department determines that the country is taking effective steps to bring responsible members to justice. In that sense, the law is designed to “address the problem of impunity and to build more accountable security forces that we partner with,” Rieser said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IwiyUi">
However, for Israel and a few other countries receiving levels of US military aid so high that it is impossible to track where the assistance is going — including Egypt and Ukraine, according to Paul — the process is different. “Rather than vetting and then providing assistance, we provide assistance and then we keep our ears out for potential violations,” he said, adding that both Egyptian and Ukrainian units have been found to have committed gross violations of human rights as part of that process.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hP8yAP">
In Israel’s case, any allegations of gross human rights violations against Israeli units come before a vetting forum comprised of representatives from various State Department bureaus handling human rights, security interests, and legal issues, as well as regional specialists at the agency’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the US embassy in Jerusalem, Paul said. The forum can only determine that a gross human rights violation has been committed if it reaches a consensus, he added. Without one, the process stalls. If it’s determined a violation took place, the US will send Israel a list of the offending units, and Israel will not support those units with American aid, per a 2021 <a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25181410/_Untitled___1_.pdf">agreement between the two countries obtained by Vox</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PRO5TI">
However, neither Paul, Rieser, nor Harrison were aware of any time that the US had found that an Israeli unit committed any such violation. Sen. <a href="https://www.vox.com/bernie-sanders">Bernie Sanders</a> recently <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-introduces-resolution-to-investigate-israels-indiscriminate-bombing-campaign-in-gaza/">introduced a resolution</a> asking the State Department to certify as much or else report on any violations committed amid the current Gaza war. The State Department did not indicate whether any such finding had ever been made when asked for comment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xnudbD">
The lack of confirmed offenses is not because Israel has a uniquely pristine record. Rather, it’s because the implementation of the Leahy Law has been biased in Israel’s favor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8M6ZWg">
For one, the 2021 agreement relies on Israel to police its own, presuming that “Israel has a robust, independent and effective legal system, including its military justice system” under which gross violations of human rights would not go unpunished. That’s a sentiment that has been echoed by US officials over the years, including former <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">President Donald Trump</a>’s ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who went even further in giving Israel the benefit of the doubt: “Israel is a democracy whose army does not engage in gross violations of human rights,” <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/16/trump-ambassador-israel-scrutiny-military-human-rights-david-friedman-650383">he wrote in 2018</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kS7jAp">
But in reality, Rieser said, “they very rarely hold their own soldiers accountable.” Paul said that he has been “raising concerns for ages that the Israeli military court system is not an unbiased system when it comes to violations by Israeli officials.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bxjuzh">
Nevertheless, neither Republican nor Democratic administrations have proven interested in dealing with the “inevitable criticism from the Israelis or their most ardent supporters in this country for accusing members of the Israeli Defense Force of a heinous crime,” Reiser said. And that kind of thinking has trickled down through the bureaucracy: Paul said that speaking up on issues related to Israel “can be a career killer.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r6E1Ux">
“I was shocked when I saw how differently, even at the lowest levels of the government, US officials treated Israel,” said Sarah Harrison, who coordinated with the State Department on Leahy issues related to Israel from 2018 to 2021 as a former Department of Defense attorney. “I’ve seen officers not even look at a case and say, ‘No, we’re not cutting off assistance to Israel.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6nSetR">
Paul said that allegations often haven’t moved forward against Israeli units due to the objections of the Bureau of Near East Affairs and the US embassy in Jerusalem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hcmWkR">
And Harrison said that she recalled incidents in which officials had testimony and video recordings that would in other cases constitute credible evidence, but still would not cut off aid. Instead, the department spent months trying to get information from Israel about its intelligence on the incidents, the perpetrator’s intent, and the kind of crimes they were charged with, if any. Though US officials consult with partner governments on Leahy matters, Harrison said the degree to which they do so with Israel is “extreme” and well beyond what is required by the law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PnWogk">
“The US is trying to make sure Israel has every opportunity to undermine the allegation because the US is loath to cut off assistance to Israel,” Harrison said. “It’s a completely different standard.”
</p>
<h3 id="P6qw0I">
Has Israel committed gross human rights violations?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7Huzsm">
Foreign policy experts say there is credible evidence that Israel has committed gross human rights violations that should have required the US to restrict assistance under the Leahy Law, both before and during the current Gaza War.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DsVllL">
In one 2022 case, a <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/civilians-are-primary-victims-increased-violence-israel-and-occupied">UN investigation</a> found that Israeli forces killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist who worked for Al Jazeera, while she was covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080034/west-bank-israel-palestinians">West Bank</a> and was wearing a blue vest that read “press.” Immediately following her killing, Israeli officials <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/24/middleeast/shireen-abu-akleh-jenin-killing-investigation-cmd-intl/index.html">argued</a> that she had been “filming and working for a media outlet amidst armed Palestinians” and may have been killed by stray Palestinian fire, something that those on the scene rebutted. Israel later admitted that she was likely killed by Israeli fire, but <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/05/middleeast/idf-shireen-abu-akleh-investigation-intl/index.html">ruled her death accidental</a> and never charged the soldiers involved.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ICQk4m">
“To me, that was a case in which the Leahy Law should probably have been applied,” Rieser said. “No credible or thorough investigation was ever done by either our government or the Israeli government, but there is other information compiled by nongovernmental organizations that directly contradicts the assertion that the shooter acted in self-defense.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JdxNis">
Paul described another 2021 case in which the NGO Defense for Children International Palestine brought to the State Department’s attention the alleged rape of a 13-year-old boy in an Israeli prison. He said it was “brought into the Leahy forum, was reviewed, was thought to be potentially credible, and was referred to the government of Israel.” The next day, he said the IDF <a href="https://x.com/amanpour/status/1731745533474074663?s=20">went into the organization’s offices,</a> took its computers, and <a href="https://nbctf.mod.gov.il/en/Pages/211021EN.aspx">declared it a terrorist entity</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xyvU7E">
As for Israel’s current war in Gaza, it might be difficult to argue the country’s bombing strategy runs afoul of the Leahy Law, which “wasn’t originally conceived as a vehicle for responding to large bombing campaigns,” Rieser said. “But that’s not to say that some of what’s occurring in Gaza would not trigger the Leahy Law.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7OKCMR">
He cited the International Criminal Court complaint accusing Israel of committing war crimes against journalists covering the conflict in the Palestinian territories. One journalist killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/obituary-reuters-issam-abdallah-covered-worlds-biggest-events-with-bravery-2023-10-14/">Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah</a>, was explicitly targeted, Reporters Without Borders argues in its <a href="https://rsf.org/en/rsf-video-investigation-death-reuters-reporter-issam-abdallah-lebanon-journalists-vehicle-was">forensic analysis</a> of the attack. Israel has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/watchdog-group-accuses-israel-of-intentionally-killing-journalists-on-lebanon-border/">claimed</a> that it was responding to an anti-tank missile fired by the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, which is designated by many countries as a terrorist organization, suspecting a “terrorist infiltration into Israeli territory” from Lebanon, only to later find out journalists had been harmed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IXqsX2">
But Reporters Without Borders says that Abdallah and his colleagues were <a href="https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-LEBANON/JOURNALIST/akveabxrzvr/">out in the open</a>, not embedded with combatants, with their equipment, clothing, and vehicle clearly marked as “press,” and that an Israeli helicopter had flown over them twice in the hour prior to the attack, meaning that Israeli forces had time to identify them as journalists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K56O0i">
Paul said that other examples of extrajudicial killings under the Leahy Law could be the two women killed in a Gaza church by an Israeli sniper earlier this week and the killing of the Israeli hostages who were shot by the IDF, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/16/middleeast/what-we-know-hostages-killed-israel-gaza/index.html">shirtless and waving a white flag</a>. Israel has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-refutes-claim-it-targeted-sole-catholic-church-in-gaza-after-2-women-said-killed/">denied involvement in the church killings</a>, but has since <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/16/middleeast/what-we-know-hostages-killed-israel-gaza/index.html">acknowledged </a>that the hostage killings were against its rules of engagement and announced that the responsible soldiers would face disciplinary procedures.
</p>
<h3 id="Ryx46R">
What it would mean if Israel were actually held accountable
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pEZ0yD">
The State Department did not indicate<strong> </strong>whether it is evaluating some of these incidents as potential gross human rights violations or how many allegations the Leahy forum on Israel is currently considering when asked for comment. Harrison recalled “dozens” of open allegations against Israel detailed on a spreadsheet while she was in government, when it was unusual for any country, even others receiving large amounts of US aid, to have more than a few.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rTJnmX">
But if the State Department were to acknowledge gross human rights violations committed by Israel, Rieser said it would “demonstrate that the law applies to everyone and that no country is immune from the law when it comes to US assistance for their security forces.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ryo0uY">
“I think it would be very significant if the administration finally were to make clear that our aid is not unconditional — that if you commit those types of crimes there’s a consequence,” he said. “Why shouldn’t we say that? We say that to other countries.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gB3fkQ">
Harrison said that doing so wouldn’t necessarily cause Israel to change its strategy in Gaza, since it can just ensure that any unit prohibited from receiving US assistance is being funded through its coffers instead.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jkZyC5">
“But it still sends a message politically that we’re not willing to tolerate this kind of egregious behavior,” she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iChm4T">
That’s not only important for the protection of human rights on the ground, but also for US credibility globally. As the international community <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/12/14/24001352/gaza-ceasefire-united-nations-israel-palestine">grows louder in its condemnations</a> of Israel’s war, the Biden administration has tried to salvage some credibility by ramping up its critiques of Israel’s tactics. That’s included urging Israel to exercise <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000009229788/austin-gallant-israel-civilians-gaza.html">more care for civilian life</a> and pushing it to end the hostilities “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/blinken-ending-israel-hamas-war-as-quickly-as-possible-top-priority-for-us-in-2024/">as quickly as possible</a>,” if not before the end of the year. But that has so far appeared to have little operational impact on Israel and on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is only <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/20/politics/united-nations-security-council-delay/index.html">deteriorating further</a> in the absence of sufficient food, water, sanitation, electricity, communications, and medical services.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="caqpd7">
“I think there is an increasing urgency to the demands coming out of the Biden administration to Israel, not because we suddenly care about Palestinian lives, but because this is doing damage to US interests,” Paul said. “There’s no incentive for Israel to listen for as long as we are expediting as many weapons as we possibly can.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Gt0G3">
<em><strong>Update, December 22, 2:30 pm ET: </strong></em><em>This story was originally published on December 22 and has been updated with additional comments from a State Department spokesperson provided after initial publication. </em>
</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>Kochi Blue Spikers signs Poland’s Jan Krol</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>Kristina Mladenovic for ITF women’s event in Navi Mumbai</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>Now Deaflympics gold medallist Virender Singh to return Padma Shri over WFI president’s election</strong> - Virender said he would return the honour as a mark of protest against the election of Brij Bhushan’s close aide.</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>Former South Africa captain Dean Elgar announces retirement from international cricket after India series</strong> - Elgar, who has scored more than 5,000 runs with 13 centuries in his 84 tests, will play his final test at Newlands in Cape Town starting January 3.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India U19 to play tri-series against South Africa, Afghanistan ahead of World Cup</strong> - The tri-series will be played at the Old Edwardians Cricket Club in Johannesburg</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>Training programme on landscaping</strong> - Certificates will be issued to students who successfully complete the course and on payment of certificate fee</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>Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to lead Karnataka delegation to WEF at Davos from January 15</strong> - The delegation is expected to woo industrialists from across the globe for investment on key sectors such as semiconductors, aerospace, defence, precision manufacturing, electronics</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>Duck farmers pin their hopes on Christmas for revival of fortunes</strong> - They cry foul over delay in receiving compensation for last year’s bird flu outbreak</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>Communal forces will never emerge victorious in Tamil Nadu soil, says Stalin</strong> - Mr. Stalin, at the occasion said, ₹6,000 cash relief had been provided to 98% of beneficiaries in Chennai and neighbouring districts. Another 5 lakh applications have been received and it will be reviewed and the amount will be distributed in the wake of floods.</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>KSRTC enters into logistics business with 20 trucks</strong> - KSRTC launches new venture.</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>Czech Republic mourns victims of Prague university mass shooting</strong> - Flags fly at half-mast on a day of national mourning after 14 people were killed in Prague on Thursday.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine says it downed three Russian Su-34 warplanes</strong> - Moscow has not commented officially on the claim but influential Russian bloggers report losses.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: New Christmas date marks shift away from Russia</strong> - This year Ukraine will celebrate Christmas on 25 December - moving away from the Russian calendar.</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>Airbus Atlantic: 700 staff sick after Christmas dinner</strong> - It is unclear what was on the menu for the festive feast turned nightmare before Christmas.</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>Plane grounded in France over human trafficking fears</strong> - The aircraft carrying more than 300 Indian nationals was on its way from the UAE to Nicaragua.</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>People exaggerate the consequences of saying no to invites</strong> - People are more understanding of the reasons for rejections than most of us think. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1992723">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>From CZ to SBF, 2023 was the year of the fallen crypto bro</strong> - Going from zero to billionaire to zero is no crypto bro’s dream. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1992122">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Banks use your deposits to loan money to fossil-fuel, emissions-heavy firms</strong> - Your $1,000 in the bank creates emissions equal to a flight from NYC to Seattle. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1992594">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rocket Report: Vulcan stacked for launch; Starship aces test ahead of third flight</strong> - “We look forward to flying our next crewed flight soon.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1992244">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Laptops’ 2023 quantum leap: 5 computers we’ll still be talking about in 2024</strong> - You likely didn’t want these PCs this year, but they may impact your future devices. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989702">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>During the Great Depression, a penniless young woman is desperate to get back to her family in Europe. (NSFW)(long)</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She has no money and can’t find any work New York City. On a dark and moonless night, she goes down to the docks and sneaks aboard a ship. She finds a covered lifeboat and hides there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Sometime in the morning, a deck hand finds her. She tells him of her plight and begs him not to report her. The deckhand says, “I’m from Europe myself, I have no one, and I’m barely getting by?. I’ll find you a place to stowaway below deck, and we can start a new life together when we get there. My uncle has an empty cottage on his farm. We can make a life for ourselves and be happy”. The deck hand is sweet, and is good looking, so she agrees.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The next night he takes her to a secluded storage area and gives her a blanket. Every night he brings her food and water, and they talk a bit. After a few nights, they end every visit with passionate sex.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
After the third week, the Chief Engineer is doing a routine inspection below deck, and he hears a quiet rustling in the storage area. He pulls back a tarp and sees her, shaking in fear. “WHAT are YOU doing here, miss??”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
And she tells all, “I…I’m a stowaway! I have an…arrangement with one of the sailors on this ship. He’s helping us get to Europe, and he lets me hide out in here, smuggling me food.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"Have you told me everything? “asks the Chief.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“And…well. He’s screwing me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
and the Chief says, “He sure is lady, this is the Staten Island Ferry!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/bebobbaloola"> /u/bebobbaloola </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18ou9em/during_the_great_depression_a_penniless_young/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18ou9em/during_the_great_depression_a_penniless_young/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man is feeling lonely during the Holiday Season, so he buys a pet parrot to keep him company. The man gets the parrot home, sets up a cozy cage, and says, “Hi, buddy birdie. Want a cracker?” The parrot replies:</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Go fuck yourself.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man, shocked, says: “What did you say?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The parrot says again, “Go fuck yourself.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
At first, the man thinks it’s kind of funny. However, as time goes by, he realizes that “Go fuck yourself” is all the parrot ever says to him. Eventually this gets old, and the man loses his patience with the parrot.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Stop telling me to ‘go fuck’ myself.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Go fuck yourself,” is all the parrot says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I’m warning you. You better stop.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Go fuck yourself.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“This is your last chance. You better not tell me to ‘go fuck’ myself again, or you’re gonna regret it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Go fuck yourself.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Irritated, but with no plan, the man looks around his home to see how he can teach the parrot a lesson. He spots the refrigerator, and thinks that a few seconds alone in the cold dark will teach this ungrateful bird who’s boss. So, the man yanks the parrot out of its cage, shoves it in the fridge, waits 15 seconds, takes it out and puts it back in its cage. Satisfied with himself, the man leaves for a bit to allow the parrot to reflect on its punishment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man returns later and sees the parrot staring at him from its cage in utter terror.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Are you okay?” the man asks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The parrot doesn’t respond. It just stares back with intense fear.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Buddy birdie, no need to be afraid. I just wanted to teach you a lesson. C’mon, talk to me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The parrot replies, “Because I told you to ‘go fuck yourself’, you shoved me in a cold, dark refrigerator?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man shrugs and answers, “Yeah. It was just 15 seconds. I didn’t think it’d have any long-term damage.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The parrot says, “Jesus! What the hell did that turkey do?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/cwschultz"> /u/cwschultz </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18opi44/a_man_is_feeling_lonely_during_the_holiday_season/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18opi44/a_man_is_feeling_lonely_during_the_holiday_season/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Christian husband and wife couldn’t agree on who should make the morning coffee.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The husband said that his wife should make it because she gets up earlier. The wife disagrees, and adds that Bible says that her husband should make it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The husband asks her where it says that. The wife opens their Bible and points to the top of the page. It said “HEBREWS.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Free-Veterinarian714"> /u/Free-Veterinarian714 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18owtu0/a_christian_husband_and_wife_couldnt_agree_on_who/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18owtu0/a_christian_husband_and_wife_couldnt_agree_on_who/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man in his 50s visits the doctor.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I just can’t take it anymore, doc,” he says, wincing. “I stand at the urinal for 20 minutes and nothing happens. Is there something I can take?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I’ll tell you what you can take,” the doctor snarls. “A cold dose of reality! Do you have <em>any</em> idea what’s happening out there?! Global warming is destroying the planet! Supervolcanoes are waking from dormancy! We’re on the verge of a nuclear war, and NOTHING CAN STOP IT!!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Visibly shaken, the man looks down and realizes he’s pissed his pants. Ashamed but relieved, he thanks the doctor profusely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No trouble at all,” the doctor chuckles. “All you needed was a little dire rhetoric.”
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/KairuSmairukon"> /u/KairuSmairukon </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18oyysv/a_man_in_his_50s_visits_the_doctor/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18oyysv/a_man_in_his_50s_visits_the_doctor/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A poor Irish family</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A poor Irish family lives on a farm and they rely on their single cow for income.<br/> One morning, the father walks outside to find their cow dead.<br/> “There is nothing that could help get us out of poverty now,” says the dad as he shoots himself.<br/> The mom walks outside and sees the dad and the cow on the ground.<br/> “I can’t live without my husband,” she says as she shoots herself with her husband’s gun.<br/> The daughter walks outside and sees her mother, father and cow dead.<br/> “I can’t live any longer without my family,” she says as she jumps into the river and kills herself.<br/> The oldest son, 23 years old, walks outside looking for the family and sees them all dead.<br/> “Is there anyway to bring them back,” he yells at the sky.<br/> Poof! A female leprechaun appears.<br/> “I will bring your whole family back to life, even the cow,” she says, “if you can fuck me 5 times in a row. If not I get to kill you.”<br/> The boy fucks her 3 times in a row and he dies.<br/> The middle son, 20 years old, comes out and sees the leprechaun. She gives him the same offer as his brother.<br/> “I will bring your whole family back to life, even the cow,” she says, “if you can fuck me 5 times in a row. If not I get to kill you.”<br/> The son agrees to do it but can only do it 4 times. He dies.<br/> The youngest son, 18 years old, comes out and is given the same offer.<br/> “I will bring your whole family back to life, even the cow,” she says, “if you can fuck me 5 times in a row. If not I get to kill you.”<br/> The son says, “What if I fuck you 10 times in a row?”<br/> The leprechaun thinks. She says, “I will bring back your family and give you my pot of gold.<br/> The son says,”Wait, how do I know you will survive it?“<br/>”What do you mean?" says the leprechaun.<br/> “The cow didn’t.”
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/My_Balls_Itch_123"> /u/My_Balls_Itch_123 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18oufgh/a_poor_irish_family/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18oufgh/a_poor_irish_family/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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