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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>Prior exposure to malaria decreases SARS-CoV-2 mediated mortality in K18-hACE2 mice without influencing viral load in lungs</strong> -
<div>
Abstract: Background: Epidemiological evidence for decreased prevalence and/or mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 infections in countries endemic for malaria have been reported. However, such associational studies in human population are limited by known and several unknown confounding factors. The current study, the first of its kind, was designed to seek experimental evidence to test the hypothesis if prior exposure to Plasmodial infections cross-protect against SARS-CoV-2 challenge infection in a murine model, K-18 human ACE2 transgenic mice. Methods: Mice that had recovered from Plasmodium chabaudi infection 40 days earlier were challenged with a virulent strain of SARS-CoV-2 and viral load in lungs as well as mortality were scored and compared with K18 hACE2 mice that had not experienced prior malaria. Results: The viral load in lungs 6 days post challenge were comparable in malaria recovered mice and controls suggesting no significant generation of anti-viral immunity. However, mice with prior malaria exposure were significantly protected against SARS-CoV-2 induced mortality. Significant differences were observed in several host immune responses between the two groups when cytokines, chemokines and transcription factors were quantified in lungs. The plasma levels of several cytokines and chemokines were also significantly different between the two groups. Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that prior exposure to malaria protects mice against viral induced mortality in K18 hACE2 transgenic mice challenged with a virulent isolate of SARS- CoV-2 in the absence of demonstrable host immunity inhibiting viral growth in lungs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.19.579434v1" target="_blank">Prior exposure to malaria decreases SARS-CoV-2 mediated mortality in K18-hACE2 mice without influencing viral load in lungs</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 BA.5 Variants in H11-K18-hACE2 Hamsters</strong> -
<div>
This study aims to comprehensively characterize the SARS-CoV-2 BA.5 variants using K18 hACE2 transgenic mice and golden hamsters as model organisms. Previous research on SARS-CoV-2 has utilized both mouse and hamster models, leading to conflicting results concerning the virus's lethality. In our study, the finding suggests that H11-K18 hACE2 golden hamsters closely mimic the disease progression observed in human COVID-19 cases caused by BA.5 variants, demonstrating consistent severity and symptoms comparable to severe infections. Additionally, hamsters exhibit heightened respiratory viral replication, accurately reflecting the clinical viral kinetics observed in humans. The study emphasizes the critical importance of selecting an appropriate animal model for SARS-CoV-2 research, while also providing robust support for the hypothesis that BA.5 variants contribute to fatal outcomes in COVID-19 cases. These findings highlight the pivotal role of the golden hamster model in advancing our understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms underlying SARS-CoV-2 variants, as well as in the development of targeted therapeutic strategies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.19.581112v1" target="_blank">Characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 BA.5 Variants in H11-K18-hACE2 Hamsters</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Predicting Antibody and ACE2 Affinity for SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 and JN.1 with In Silico Protein Modeling and Docking</strong> -
<div>
The emergence of the Omicron sublineage of SARS-CoV-2 virus BA.2.86 (nicknamed “Pirola”) has raised concerns about its potential impact on public health and personal health as it has many mutations with respect to previous variants. We conducted an in silico analysis of neutralizing antibody binding to BA.2.86. Selected antibodies came from patients who were vaccinated and/or infected. We predicted binding affinity between BA.2.86 and antibodies. We also predicted the binding affinity between the same antibodies and several previous SARS-CoV2 variants (Wuhan and Omicron descendants BA.1, BA.2, and XBB.1.5). Additionally, we examined binding affinity between BA.2.86 and human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, a cell surface protein crucial for viral entry. We found no statistically significant difference in binding affinity between BA.2.86 and other variants, indicating a similar immune response. These findings contradict media reports of BA.2.86s high immune evasion potential based on its mutations. We discuss the implications of our findings and highlight the need for modeling and docking studies to go above and beyond mutation and basic serological neutralization analysis. Future research in this area will benefit from increased structural analyses of memory B-cell derived antibodies and should emphasize the importance of choosing appropriate samples for in silico studies to assess protection provided by vaccination and infection. This research contributes to understanding the BA.2.86 variants potential impact on public health. Moreover, we introduce new methodologies for predictive medicine in ongoing efforts to combat the evolving SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and prepare for other hazards.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.22.568364v3" target="_blank">Predicting Antibody and ACE2 Affinity for SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 and JN.1 with In Silico Protein Modeling and Docking</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Information bias of vaccine effectiveness estimation due to informed consent for national registration of COVID-19 vaccination</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Registration in the Dutch national COVID-19 vaccination register requires consent from the vaccinee. This causes misclassification of non-consenting vaccinated persons as being unvaccinated. We quantified and corrected the resulting information bias in the estimation of vaccine effectiveness (VE). Methods: National data were used for the period dominated by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (11 July to 15 November 2021). VE ((1-relative risk)*100%) against COVID-19 hospitalization and ICU admission was estimated for individuals 12-49, 50-69, and ≥70 years of age using negative binomial regression. Anonymous data on vaccinations administered by the Municipal Health Services were used to determine informed consent percentages and estimate corrected VEs by iteratively imputing corrected vaccination status. Absolute bias was calculated as the absolute change in VE; relative bias as uncorrected / corrected relative risk. Results: A total of 8,804 COVID-19 hospitalizations and 1,692 COVID-19 ICU admissions were observed. The bias was largest in the 70+ age group where the non-consent proportion was 7.0% and observed vaccination coverage was 87%: VE of primary vaccination against hospitalization changed from 75.5% (95% CI 73.5-77.4) before to 85.9% (95% CI 84.7-87.1) after correction (absolute bias -10.4 percentage point, relative bias 1.74). VE against ICU admission in this group was 88.7% (95% CI 86.2-90.8) before and 93.7% (95% CI 92.2-94.9) after correction (absolute bias -5.0 percentage point, relative bias 1.79). Conclusions: VE estimates can be substantially biased with modest non-consent percentages for registration of vaccination. Data on covariate specific non-consent percentages should be available to correct this bias.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.23290384v2" target="_blank">Information bias of vaccine effectiveness estimation due to informed consent for national registration of COVID-19 vaccination</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Robust SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies Sustained through Three Months Post XBB.1.5 mRNA Vaccine Booster</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies were substantially expanded one month after a shot of XBB.1.5 monovalent mRNA vaccine (XBB.1.5 MV) booster, but the durability of this response remained unknown. Here, we addressed this question by performing neutralization assays on four viral variants (D614G, BA.5, XBB.1.5, and JN.1) using sera from 39 adult participants obtained at ~1 month and ~3 months post an XBB.1.5 MV booster. Our findings indicate that the resultant neutralizing antibody titers were robust and generally maintained at stable levels for the study period, similar to those following XBB infection. Importantly, this durability of neutralizing antibody titers contrasts with the decline observed after a booster of the original monovalent or BA.5 bivalent mRNA vaccine. Our results are in line with the recent national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showing the efficacy against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection is sustained for up to 4 months after an XBB.1.5 MV booster.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.16.580687v1" target="_blank">Robust SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies Sustained through Three Months Post XBB.1.5 mRNA Vaccine Booster</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 during pregnancy alters circulating extracellular vesicle cargo and their effects on trophoblast</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 infection and the resulting coronavirus disease (COVID-19) complicate pregnancies as the result of placental dysfunction which increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. While abnormal placental pathology resulting from COVID-19 is common, direct infection of the placenta is rare. This suggests maternal response to infection is responsible for placental dysfunction. We hypothesized that maternal circulating extracellular vesicles (EVs) are altered by COVID-19 during pregnancy and contribute to placental dysfunction. To examine this, we characterized maternal circulating EVs from pregnancies complicated by COVID-19 and tested their functional effect on trophoblast cells in vitro. We found the timing of infection is a major determinant of the effect of COVID-19 on circulating EVs. Additionally, we found differentially expressed EV mRNA cargo in COVID-19 groups compared to Controls that regulates the differential gene expression induced by COVID-19 in the placenta. In vitro exposure of trophoblasts to EVs isolated from patients with an active infection, but not EVs isolated from Controls, reduced key trophoblast functions including hormone production and invasion. This demonstrates circulating EVs from subjects with an active infection disrupt vital trophoblast function. This study determined that COVID-19 has a long-lasting effect on circulating EVs and circulating EVs are likely to participate in the placental dysfunction induced by COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.17.580824v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 during pregnancy alters circulating extracellular vesicle cargo and their effects on trophoblast</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Genome-Wide Arrayed CRISPR Screen Reveals PLSCR1 as an Intrinsic Barrier to SARS-CoV-2 Entry</strong> -
<div>
Interferons (IFNs) play a crucial role in the regulation and evolution of host-virus interactions. Here, we conducted a genome-wide arrayed CRISPR knockout screen in the presence and absence of IFN to identify human genes that influence SARS-CoV-2 infection. We then performed an integrated analysis of genes interacting with SARS-CoV-2, drawing from a selection of 67 large-scale studies, including our own. We identified 28 genes of high relevance in both human genetic studies of COVID-19 patients and functional genetic screens in cell culture, with many related to the IFN pathway. Among these was the IFN-stimulated gene PLSCR1. PLSCR1 did not require IFN induction to restrict SARS-CoV-2 and did not contribute to IFN signaling. Instead, PLSCR1 specifically restricted spike-mediated SARS-CoV-2 entry. The PLSCR1-mediated restriction was alleviated by TMPRSS2 over-expression, suggesting that PLSCR1 primarily restricts the endocytic entry route. In addition, recent SARS-CoV-2 variants have adapted to circumvent the PLSCR1 barrier via currently undetermined mechanisms. Our study contributes to understanding the association between PLSCR1 variants and severe COVID-19 cases reported in a recent GWAS.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.16.580725v1" target="_blank">A Genome-Wide Arrayed CRISPR Screen Reveals PLSCR1 as an Intrinsic Barrier to SARS-CoV-2 Entry</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Non-Consensual Sex among Japanese Women in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Large-Scale Nationwide Survey-Based Study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Non-consensual sex including rape and sexual assault has been a global concern and may have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, however the information on this topic is limited. Therefore, our objective was to survey the incidence rate of non-consensual sex among Japanese women aged 15-79 years between April to September 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.   Materials and Methods: We utilized the data obtained from a nationwide, cross-sectional internet survey conducted in Japan between August and September 2020. Sampling weights were applied to calculate national estimates, and multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with non-consensual sex. Data was extracted from a cross-sectional, web-based, self-administered survey of approximately 2.2 million individuals from the general public, including in men and women.   Results: Excluding men and responses with inconsistencies, the final analysis included 12,809 women participants, with 138 (1.1%) reporting experiencing non-consensual sex within a five-month period. Being aged 15–29 years and having a worsened mental or economic status were associated with experiencing non-consensual sex.   Conclusions: Early intervention to prevent individuals from becoming victims of sexual harm should be extended to economically vulnerable and young women, especially during times of societal upheaval such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, Japan should prioritize the implementation of comprehensive education on the concept of sexual consent.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.16.24302967v1" target="_blank">Non-Consensual Sex among Japanese Women in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Large-Scale Nationwide Survey-Based Study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>RISK OF THROMBOEMBOLISM AFTER COVID-19 VACCINATION AND COVID-19 INFECTION</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Vaccine safety monitoring systems worldwide have reported cases of venous thromboembolism and arterial thromboembolism following a COVID-19 vaccination. However, evidence shows that the association between thromboembolism and SARS-CoV-2 infection is stronger, compared to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Hence, weighing the risks and benefits of vaccination should also encounter the roles of vaccination in reducing infection rate, and potentially indirectly lowering the risk of thromboembolism caused by infection. Methods: We conducted a self-controlled case series study (SCCS) from Dec 1st 2020 to 31st August 2022 (before the bivalent vaccine was available) to examinate the association between the first two doses Pfizer/Moderna vaccination and thrombotic events among patients in Corewell Health East (CHE, formerly known as Beaumont Health) healthcare system. We also investigated the effect SARS-CoV-2 infection on the risk of thrombosis events and observed a significant increased risk using the SCCS design. However, because of misclassification bias, SCCS indeed overestimated incidence rate ratio (IRR) of acute event after infection, we then proposed a case-control study addressing this misclassification issues and obtained odd ratio comparing effect of exposure on thrombosis and a subset of controls group. Finally, we analyzed the risk of thromboembolism between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups by a simple diagram, explaining possible factors that affects the probability of experiencing an acute thromboembolism event after a COVID-19 vaccination. Results: Using EHR data at Corewell East, we found an increased risk of thrombosis after the first two doses of COVID-19 vaccination, with incidence rate ratios after the first dose is 1.16 (CI: [1.04, 1.29]), and after the second dose of 1.19 (CI: [1.07,1.32]). The association between thromboembolism and SARS-Cov-2 infection depends on prior vaccination status, as the conditional OR among unvaccinated and vaccinated groups are 1.77 (CI: [1.48, 2.1]) and 1.34 (CI: [1.09, 1.66]) respectively. Encountering the vaccine efficacy (VE), receiving the COVID-19 vaccine decreases the risk of thromboembolism, and the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines are much stronger in the period of high infection rate.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.24302535v1" target="_blank">RISK OF THROMBOEMBOLISM AFTER COVID-19 VACCINATION AND COVID-19 INFECTION</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A retrospective study of the effects of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical interventions on Influenza in Canada</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on endemic respiratory illnesses. Through behavioural changes in populations and government policy, mainly through non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), Canada saw historic lows in the number of Influenza A cases from 2020 through 2022. In this study, we use historical influenza A data for Canada and three provincial jurisdictions within Canada: Ontario, Quebec and Alberta to quantify the effects of these NPIs on influenza A. We aim to see which base parameters and derived parameters of an SIR model are most affected by NPIs. We find that the effective population size is the main driver of change, and discuss how these retrospective estimates can be used for future forecasting.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.16.24302930v1" target="_blank">A retrospective study of the effects of COVID-19 Non-pharmaceutical interventions on Influenza in Canada</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>No clear evidence for relationships of Apolipoprotein E genotype with measures of common infections in three UK cohorts</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<i>APOE</i> genotype is the strongest genetic risk factor for late onset Alzheimer9s disease, with the ϵ2 and ϵ4 alleles decreasing and increasing risk relative to the ϵ3 allele, respectively. Although evidence has been conflicting, several common infections have been associated with Alzheimer9s disease risk, and interactions by <i>APOE</i> ϵ4 carriage have also been reported. Nevertheless, to date, no study has examined relationships between <i>APOE</i> genotype and measures of multiple common infections among large population-based studies. We investigated associations of <i>APOE</i> ϵ2 and ϵ4 carriage (i.e. non-carrier vs carrier) with serostatus and antibody titers to 14 common pathogens — encompassing herpesviruses, human polyomaviruses, <i>C.trachomatis</i>, <i>H.pylori</i>, and <i>T.gondii</i> — in three population—based cohorts (UK Biobank, National Survey of Health and Development, Southall and Brent Revisited). Pathogen serostatus was derived using validated antibody cut-offs for relevant antigens and included as an outcome assessing previous infection. Antibody titers were dichotomised among the seropositive subset for each antigen and included as binary outcomes assessing recent immunological responses. We conducted analyses in each cohort using mixed-models, including age, sex and genetic principal components as fixed-effects, and genetic relatedness as a random-effect. In secondary analyses, we additionally assessed i) relationships of <i>APOE</i> ϵ2 and ϵ4 dosage (i.e. number of copies of the allele of interest), and ii) relationships of <i>APOE</i> genotype with continuous antibody titers (rank-based inverse normal transformed). Findings were meta-analysed across cohorts (n=10,059) using random-effects models and corrected for multiple tests using the false discovery rate. We found no clear evidence of relationships between <i>APOE</i> genotype and serostatus or antibody titers to any pathogen, with no strong associations observed in any of our analyses following multiple testing correction. Investigations of <i>APOE</i> genotypes with the clinical manifestations of these pathogens, as well as expanding to include other viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, would also be warranted.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.17.24302569v1" target="_blank">No clear evidence for relationships of Apolipoprotein E genotype with measures of common infections in three UK cohorts</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Barriers in accessing healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis of the Virus Watch community cohort study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Differential barriers to accessing healthcare contribute to inequitable health outcomes. This study aims to describe the characteristics of individuals who experienced barriers, and what those barriers were, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We analysed data from Virus Watch: an online survey-based community study of households in England and Wales. The primary outcome was reported difficulty accessing healthcare in the previous year. Results: Minority ethnic participants reported difficulty accessing healthcare more than White British participants (41.6% vs 37%), while for migrants this was at broadly similar levels to non-migrants. Those living in the most deprived areas reported difficulty more than those living in the least deprived quintile (45.5% vs. 35.5%). The most frequently reported barrier was cancellation/disruption of services due to the COVID-19 pandemic (72.0%) followed by problems with digital or telephone access (21.8%). Ethnic minority participants, migrants, and those from deprived areas more commonly described 9insufficient flexibility of appointments9 and 9not enough time to explain complex needs9 as barriers. Conclusions: Minority ethnic individuals and those living in deprived areas were more likely to experience barriers to healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is essential they are addressed as services seek to manage backlogs of care.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.15.24302762v1" target="_blank">Barriers in accessing healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis of the Virus Watch community cohort study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Gold Standard Dataset for Lineage Abundance Estimation from Wastewater</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, genome-based wastewater surveillance sequencing has been a powerful tool for public health to monitor circulating and emerging viral variants. As a medium, wastewater is very complex because of its mixed matrix nature, which makes the deconvolution of wastewater samples more difficult. Here we introduce a gold standard dataset constructed from synthetic viral control mixtures of known composition, spiked into a wastewater RNA matrix and sequenced on the Oxford Nanopore Technologies platform. We compare the performance of eight of the most commonly used deconvolution tools in identifying SARS-CoV-2 variants present in these mixtures. The software evaluated was primarily chosen for its relevance to the CDC wastewater surveillance reporting protocol, which until recently employed a pipeline that incorporates results from four deconvolution methods: Freyja, kallisto, Kraken2/Bracken, and LCS. We also tested Lollipop, a deconvolution method used by the Swiss SARS-CoV2 Sequencing Consortium, and three recently-published methods: lineagespot, Alcov, and VaQuERo. We found that the commonly used software Freyja outperformed the other CDC pipeline tools in correct identification of lineages present in the control mixtures, and that the newer method VaQuERo was similarly accurate, with minor differences in the ability of the two methods to avoid false negatives and suppress false positives. These results provide insight into the effect of the tiling primer scheme and wastewater RNA extract matrix on viral sequencing and data deconvolution outcomes.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.15.24302811v1" target="_blank">A Gold Standard Dataset for Lineage Abundance Estimation from Wastewater</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 infection and Pregnancy outcome: A cross-sectional study from Eastern U.P. Population, India</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Pregnant women with coronavirus infection are at a higher risk for severe diseases. In the present study, we evaluated and compared clinical characteristics and outcomes in pregnancy of normal females and females with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our study was a cross-sectional study. The pregnant females were examined, their blood samples were taken for Covid Panel (D-Dimer, Ferritin, IL-6, CRP, PCT (Procalcitonin)); and oral-nasal swabs were taken for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Both SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative (control) females were followed up every trimester for any complication related to pregnancy. We found that females suffering from SARS-CoV-2 infection had reduced gestation periods, and had higher percentage of caesarean and pre-term delivery than SARS-CoV-2 negative females. Based on our findings, it appears that there exist close associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant females and increased risk of reduced gestation periods, and spontaneous caesarean and pre-term delivery. However, more studies are still needed to validate present findings.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.15.24302882v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 infection and Pregnancy outcome: A cross-sectional study from Eastern U.P. Population, India</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effectiveness of Omicron XBB.1.5 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB and JN.1 infection in a prospective cohort study in the Netherlands, October 2023 to January 2024</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We estimated vaccine effectiveness (VE) of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB.1.5 vaccination against self-reported infection between 9 October 2023 and 9 January 2024 in 23,895 XBB.1.5 vaccine-eligible adults who had previously received at least one booster. VE was 41% (95%CI:23-55) in 18-59-year-olds and 50% (95%CI:44-56) in 60-85-year-olds. Sequencing data in a subset of infections suggests immune escape of the emerging BA.2.86 (JN.1) variant from recent prior infection (OR:2.6; 95%CI:1.1-6.3) and, although not statistically significant, from XBB.1.5 vaccination (OR:1.6; 95%CI:0.9-2.9).
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.15.24302872v1" target="_blank">Effectiveness of Omicron XBB.1.5 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB and JN.1 infection in a prospective cohort study in the Netherlands, October 2023 to January 2024</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>Treatment of Post-COVID With Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: a Randomized, Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-COVID Syndrome; Post COVID-19 Condition; Post-COVID Condition; Post COVID-19 Condition, Unspecified; Long COVID; Long Covid19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Hyperbaric oxygen <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Erasmus Medical Center; Da Vinci Clinic; HGC Rijswijk <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>World Health Organization (WHO) , COVID19 Case Series of Post Covid 19 Rhino Orbito Cerebral Mucormycosis in Egypt</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Mucormycosis; Rhinocerebral (Etiology); COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: debridment <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Nasser Institute For Research and Treatment <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mindfulness-based Mobile Applications Program</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Cell Phone Use; Nurse; Mental Health <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: mindfulness-based mobile applications program <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Yu-Chien Huang <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Correlation of Antibody Response to COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnant Woman and Transplacental Passage Into Cord Blood.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Covid-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: COVID-19 Spike Protein IgG Quantitative Antibody (CMIA) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Vachira Phuket 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>UNAIR Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine as Homologue Booster (Immunobridging Study)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pandemic; COVID-19 Vaccines; COVID-19 Virus Disease <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: INAVAC (Vaksin Merah Putih - UA- SARS CoV-2 (Vero Cell Inactivated) 5 μg <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Dr. Soetomo General Hospital; Universitas Airlangga; Biotis Pharmaceuticals, Indonesia; Indonesia-MoH <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>High-definition Transcranial Direct Current Ctimulation and Chlorella Pyrenoidosa to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Cardiovascular Diseases; Long Covid19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: High Definition-transcranial Direct Current Stimulation; Dietary Supplement: Chlorella Pyrenoidosa <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Federal University of Paraíba; City University of New York <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Immunogenicity of a Sub-unit Protein CD40.RBDv Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted or Not, as a Booster in Volunteers.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: CD40.RBDv vaccin (SARS-Cov2 Vaccin) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: ANRS, Emerging Infectious Diseases; LinKinVax; Vaccine Research Institute (VRI), France <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>SGB for COVID-induced Parosmia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19-Induced Parosmia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Stellate Ganglion Block; Drug: Placebo Sham Injection <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Washington University School of Medicine <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>Investigating the Effectiveness of Vimida</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Post COVID-19 Condition <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: vimida <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Gaia AG; Medical School Hamburg; Institut Long-Covid Rostock <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>Effects of Physiotherapy Via Video Calls in Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Long COVID-19; Cardiopulmonary Function; Physical Function <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Exercise training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Chulabhorn Hospital <br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Acute Cardiovascular Responses to a Single Exercise Session in Patients With Post-COVID-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Exercise session; Behavioral: Control session <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>Reducing Respiratory Virus Transmission in Bangladeshi Classrooms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV2 Infection; Influenza Viral Infections; Respiratory Viral Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Box Fan; Device: UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Unit; Device: Combined: Box Fan and UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Units <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Stanford University; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Role of epinephrine in attenuating cytokine storm, decreasing ferritin, and inhibiting ferroptosis in SARS-CoV-2</strong> - CONCLUSION: Epinephrine may attenuate CS and inhibit ferroptosis which is an iron-dependent, non-apoptotic mode of cell death. Epi interacts with ferric and/or ferrous iron and built a stable complex that impedes activation of beta-adrenergic receptors. Epi may cause marked decrease of ferritin and other inflammatory markers. Epi may be used to decrease iron overload which is associated with many medical diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiometabolic diseases such as coronary heart…</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>Challenges Experienced by Saudi Patients With Cancer and Their Family Caregivers in Using Digital Healthcare Technology Platforms in the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> - COVID-19 has provided a unique boost to the use of digital healthcare technology, putting many vulnerable people at risk of digital exclusion. To promote digital healthcare equity, it is important to identify the challenges that may inhibit cancer patients and family caregivers from benefiting from such technology. This study explored the challenges that cancer patients and family caregivers experience in using digital healthcare technology platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative…</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 of SARS-CoV-2 replication by a ssDNA aptamer targeting the nucleocapsid protein</strong> - The nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 plays significant roles in viral assembly, immune evasion, and viral stability. Due to its immunogenicity, high expression levels during COVID-19, and conservation across viral strains, it represents an attractive target for antiviral treatment. In this study, we identified and characterized a single-stranded DNA aptamer, N-Apt17, which effectively disrupts the liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) mediated by the N protein. To enhance the aptamer’s…</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>Transcriptional regulation of SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 by SP1</strong> - Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is a major cell entry receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The induction of ACE2 expression may serve as a strategy by SARS-CoV-2 to facilitate its propagation. However, the regulatory mechanisms of ACE2 expression after viral infection remain largely unknown. Using 45 different luciferase reporters, the transcription factors SP1 and HNF4α were found to positively and negatively regulate ACE2 expression, respectively,…</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>Anemoside B4 inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication <em>in vitro</em> and <em>in vivo</em></strong> - CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that AB4 inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication through the RLR pathways and moderated the RNA metabolism, suggesting that it would be a potential lead compound for the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Targeting host-virus interactions: in silico analysis of the binding of human milk oligosaccharides to viral proteins involved in respiratory infections</strong> - Respiratory viral infections, a major public health concern, necessitate continuous development of novel antiviral strategies, particularly in the face of emerging and re-emerging pathogens. In this study, we explored the potential of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) as broad-spectrum antiviral agents against key respiratory viruses. By examining the structural mimicry of host cell receptors and their known biological functions, including antiviral activities, we assessed the ability of HMOs…</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 network pharmacology and experimental validation-based approach to reveal the underlying mechanisms and key material basis of Jinhua Qinggan granules against acute lung injury</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: In summary, our finding clarified the underlying mechanisms and material basis of JHQG therapy for ALI by integrated network pharmacology and experimental validation-based strategy.</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>Molnupiravir inhibits human norovirus and rotavirus replication in 3D human intestinal enteroids</strong> - Human norovirus (HuNoV) and human rotavirus (HRV) are the leading causes of gastrointestinal diarrhea. There are no approved antivirals and rotavirus vaccines are insufficient to cease HRV associated mortality. Furthermore, treatment of chronically infected immunocompromised patients is limited to off-label compassionate use of repurposed antivirals with limited efficacy, highlighting the urgent need of potent and specific antivirals for HuNoV and HRV. Recently, a major breakthrough in the in…</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>Type-II IFN inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication in human lung epithelial cells and ex vivo human lung tissues through indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase-mediated pathways</strong> - Interferons (IFNs) are critical for immune defense against pathogens. While type-I and -III IFNs have been reported to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication, the antiviral effect and mechanism of type-II IFN against SARS-CoV-2 remain largely unknown. Here, we evaluate the antiviral activity of type-II IFN (IFNγ) using human lung epithelial cells (Calu3) and ex vivo human lung tissues. In this study, we found that IFNγ suppresses SARS-CoV-2 replication in both Calu3 cells and ex vivo human lung tissues….</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Development of a quantitative ELISA for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate, NDV-HXP-S, with CpG 1018® adjuvant</strong> - NDV-HXP-S is a Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vectored vaccine candidate which expresses the S-antigen of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This vaccine candidate is under evaluation in human clinical studies with and without cytosine phosphate guanine (CpG) 1018® adjuvant. Existing potency methods for NDV-HXP-S do not allow for quantification of the S-antigen when the adjuvant is present. To support evaluation of NDV-HXP-S with CpG 1018® adjuvant, an inhibition…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong><em>Syringa reticulata</em> potently inhibits the activity of SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease</strong> - The ongoing coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) still urgently requires effective treatments. The 3C-like (3CL) protease of SARS-CoV-2 is a highly conserved cysteine protease that plays an important role in the viral life cycle and host inflammation, providing an ideal target for developing broad-spectrum antiviral drugs. Herein, we describe the discovery of a large number of herbs mainly produced in…</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 Case Report of Drug Interactions Between Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir and Tacrolimus in a Patient With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus</strong> - Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir is a treatment for COVID-19 consisting of nirmatrelvir, which has anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity, and ritonavir, a booster to maintain blood levels. Ritonavir is known to be a potent inhibitor of cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A), and interactions with CYP3A-metabolized drugs, such as the immunosuppressant tacrolimus, can be problematic. Ritonavir’s inhibition of CYP3A is irreversible due to covalent binding, and its inhibitory effects are expected to persist until replaced by new…</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>Second Boost of Omicron SARS-CoV-2 S1 Subunit Vaccine Induced Broad Humoral Immune Responses in Elderly Mice</strong> - Currently approved COVID-19 vaccines prevent symptomatic infection, hospitalization, and death from the disease. However, repeated homologous boosters, while considered a solution for severe forms of the disease caused by new SARS-CoV-2 variants in elderly individuals and immunocompromised patients, cannot provide complete protection against breakthrough infections. This highlights the need for alternative platforms for booster vaccines. In our previous study, we assessed the boost effect of the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Preparation and characterization of a fluorogenic ddRFP-M biosensor as a specific SARS-CoV-2 main protease substrate</strong> - The conventional peptide substrates of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) are frequently associated with high cost, unstable kinetics, and multistep synthesis. Hence, there is an urgent need to design affordable and stable Mpro substrates for pharmacological research. Herein, we designed a functional Mpro substrate based on a dimerization-dependent red fluorescent protein (ddRFP) for the evaluation of Mpro inhibitors in vitro. The codon-optimized DNA fragment encoding RFP-A(1) domain, a polypeptide…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Neutralizing antibodies to block viral entry and for identification of entry inhibitors</strong> - Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) are naturally produced by our immune system to combat viral infections. Clinically, neutralizing antibodies with potent efficacy and high specificity have been extensively used to prevent and treat a wide variety of viral infections, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Dengue Virus (DENV) and Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). An overwhelmingly large subset of clinically effective NAbs operates by…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The New Yorker’s Luke Mogelson and Masha Gessen Win Polk Awards</strong> - Mogelson received the Magazine Reporting prize for his work in the trenches in Ukraine, and Gessen was honored for their commentary on historical memory and the Israel-Hamas war. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-new-yorkers-luke-mogelson-and-masha-gessen-win-polk-awards">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Legal Weed in New York Was Going to Be a Revolution. What Happened?</strong> - Lawsuits. Unlicensed dispensaries. Corporations pushing to get in. The messy rollout of a law that has tried to deliver social justice with marijuana. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/legal-weed-in-new-york-was-going-to-be-just-and-fair-what-happened">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Snake with the Emoji-Patterned Skin</strong> - In the wild, ball pythons are usually brown and tan. In America, breeding them to produce eye-catching offspring has become a lucrative, frenetic, and—for some—troubling enterprise. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/inside-the-world-of-designer-ball-pythons">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Matt Gaetz’s Chaos Agenda</strong> - The Florida Republican is among the most brazen and controversial figures in Donald Trump’s G.O.P. He’s also among the most influential. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/matt-gaetz-profile">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Trials of Alejandro Mayorkas</strong> - The Secretary of Homeland Security has been forced to respond to an unprecedented flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. Why are Republicans in Congress impeaching him for it? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/the-trials-of-alejandro-mayorkas">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Why car insurance rates are soaring</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_P1HgmSNf6jl3BKsboG9uhR3MHg=/474x0:4450x2982/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73153593/GettyImages_1953496423.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Cars make their way heading east out of Los Angeles during the evening rush hour on January 25, 2024. | Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
You’re paying a lot more for car insurance than you were in 2020. Here’s why.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2e46sp">
If you pay for car insurance, you’ve probably noticed that rates are really high lately. You’re not alone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="psho2L">
Last week’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report — the government’s method <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cpi/">for tracking what people are paying</a> for goods and services and how that’s changing over time — noted that the price of car insurance was up <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf">more than 20 percent</a> over the same time last year. What’s particularly painful is that rates were already rising: CPI reports have shown that, overall, car insurance rates are up more than 38 percent since January 2020.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rPj4Ve">
What’s going on? The big insurance companies have been relatively quiet about what’s driving rates up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8hYmWj">
Inflation is definitely a big part of the equation. Everything now costs more, including cars and car repairs, and insurance companies are passing those costs on to consumers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5RA2W6">
But industry insiders and experts I spoke with say there are a few under-the-radar trends also driving rates up, and they relate to <a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/marin-cogan">the subjects I cover</a> at Vox, so let’s dive in.
</p>
<h3 id="m9lcdg">
We’re driving more dangerously
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hihdw8">
One reason rates are up is that driving became much more dangerous during the pandemic. People started engaging in risky behaviors like speeding and using their phones while driving more.
</p>
<aside id="nBuAW6">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p7TWFC">
“Since Covid, we saw this incredible increase in distracted driving,” says Ryan McMahon, senior vice president of strategy for Cambridge Mobile Telematics. “You could almost track it by the day schools started to shut down.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TJ1yIF">
He’s not just speculating: CMT has access to driver data for millions of drivers, who download apps via their insurance companies that measure things like speeding, hard braking, and cellphone use while driving. McMahon told me that the huge jump they saw in distracted behaviors during the pandemic hasn’t come down since.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UM4ZVg">
Maybe not surprisingly, the number of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23496462/crisis-american-roads-pedestrian-traffic-deaths-safety">fatal accidents spiked</a>; so did the <a href="https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/breaking-news/pandemic-sparks-surge-in-us-auto-claim-severity-453345.aspx">severity of auto insurance claims,</a> meaning cars came in severely damaged and requiring expensive repairs.
</p>
<h3 id="11YXS1">
Costs keep rising
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K5QJLS">
While drivers were getting more dangerous, law enforcement in many parts of the country began <a href="https://www.vox.com/23880418/traffic-safety-enforcement-tickets-rock-creek-crash">pulling back on traffic safety enforcement</a>, likely due to Covid-related staff shortages and criticisms over racial biases following the murder of George Floyd.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Jk2qB">
Traffic enforcement has always been a deeply imperfect mode of safety enforcement, <a href="https://www.vox.com/23735896/racism-car-ownership-driving-violence-traffic-violations">one that leaves Black drivers susceptible to racial biases</a> from law enforcement. But it’s also one of the factors insurance companies use to determine individual rates.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ARNct0">
“Ultimately, without traffic violation data, insurers aren’t able to accurately assess and underwrite a driver’s risk. With the compounding cost from accidents, carriers are now increasing rates for everyone, meaning we are all paying for this problem,” Mark McElroy, executive vice president and head of TransUnion’s insurance business, said <a href="https://newsroom.transunion.com/transunion-insurance-research-highlights-link-between-13-decrease-in-traffic-enforcement-and-22-rise-in-driving-fatalities/">in a recent report</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QCngMO">
Cars have also become more technologically advanced, making car repair more expensive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uhLNLT">
Think of a car made in 2004 versus a car made in 2024. If the two crashed, the car from 2024 would probably be more expensive to fix because it’s more likely to have advanced technology like backup cameras and lane sensors.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TfgSXQ">
According to one report by <a href="https://www.cccis.com/news-and-insights/posts/what-is-vehicle-complexity-really-costing-us">industry analysts CCC</a>, the average estimate for a front-end claim in 2022 was $3,706, up more than 15 percent over the year before. Vehicles more than seven years old, meanwhile, were over $1,000 less to repair.
</p>
<h3 id="iPjmWu">
When does it end?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZNs5vd">
This is, needless to say, not good news for consumers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ivvpKU">
The price of new cars has grown so much that they’re practically <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-02-14/new-car-prices-are-so-high-only-rich-americans-can-afford-them">unaffordable for middle-class consumers</a> now, and these rising costs hit low-income people even harder. It’s particularly difficult because for many, a car is often an essential means of keeping a good job.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gFGa7r">
So they’re stuck with a kind of Catch-22: They can’t live with the <a href="https://www.vox.com/23753949/cars-cost-ownership-economy-repossession">rising costs of car ownership, but they can’t live without them, either</a>. And their rates are already likely to be higher if they have poor credit or live in a high-crime neighborhood. “The people least able to afford it are paying the highest amount,” said the industry insider.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JFkaYV">
The good news — if you can call it that — is that experts don’t think rates will keep growing so much over the next year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IJZzJe">
“You had this problem where the insurance companies fell behind, so the prices didn’t match the costs and they were losing a bunch of money,” another insider told me. Rates rose in an attempt by insurance companies to catch up with costs, but now inflation isn’t growing at the same runaway clip and insurers aren’t seeing the same levels of loss.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="74uhyU">
“Costs shouldn’t be as high as last year,” he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HbERur">
<em>This story appeared originally in </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/today-explained-podcast"><em><strong>Today, Explained</strong></em></a><em>, Vox’s flagship daily newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/today-explained-newsletter-signup"><em><strong>Sign up here for future editions</strong></em></a><em>.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>Why you probably shouldn’t blow up a pipeline</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A photo collage includes images of clouds on a blue sky, solar panels, wind turbines, pipelines, and puffs of smoke." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iPwk1qN8v9XjBd1MLIVvFzNoHbA=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73153550/Tarini_Sharma_Vox_Final_021224.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Tarini Sharma for Vox
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The revolutionary left’s theory of the climate crisis puts ideology above inconvenient truths.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JH4ODj">
Seventeen years ago, the British novelist John Lanchester puzzled over a “strange and striking” fact: No one was blowing anything up to fight <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7ti9NV">
This was strange, Lanchester <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n06/john-lanchester/warmer-warmer">wrote</a>, because “terrorism is for the individual by far the modern world’s most effective form of political action.” What’s more, there was no shortage of soft targets for an anti-carbon terror cell to attack. Gas stations were highly flammable. SUVs, ripe to be keyed, sat unguarded along every city’s streets. So why was no one engaging in such property destruction? Why did activists remain committed to pacifism, even as the world hurtled toward catastrophe? Perhaps, Lanchester mused, “even the people who feel most strongly about climate change on some level can’t quite bring themselves to believe in it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g5xYwx">
The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere is now nearly <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1091926/atmospheric-concentration-of-co2-historic/">10 percent higher</a> than when Lanchester wrote those words. In 2007, limiting the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels remained plausible. Today, <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/1/3/21045263/climate-change-1-5-degrees-celsius-target-ipcc">it is not</a>. The absence of violent resistance to carbon power might therefore seem even more curious in 2024 than it was when Lanchester wrote his essay.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R74s9I">
Still, there are ways of resolving the apparent tension between the severity of the climate crisis and the absence of ecoterrorism. One is to question whether terrorism is, in fact, “the modern world’s most effective form of political action.” Another is for climate activists to start detonating pipelines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6T4b4P">
Andreas Malm recommends the latter.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HWRUoR">
In 2021, the Swedish academic published a case for climate activists to embrace property destruction titled <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/products/2649-how-to-blow-up-a-pipeline"><em>How to Blow Up a Pipeline</em></a> (aspiring bombers will be disappointed by the volume’s lack of step-by-step instructions). The book was a surprise bestseller. Mainstream media does not typically shower coverage on calls for violent resistance penned by Swedish <a href="https://jacobin.com/2020/06/andreas-malm-coronavirus-covid-climate-change">Leninists</a>. But given the perennial failure of ordinary politics to answer the demands of climate science, the liberal intelligentsia was ready to hear Malm out. His book won respectful notices in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/opinion/climate-change-energy-infrastructure.html">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/andreas-malm-on-the-environmental-movement-and-intelligent-sabotage">the New Yorker</a>, and <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-reads/2022/10/28/what-to-read-to-understand-climate-change">the Economist</a>, among other publications, and even generated a much-acclaimed <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/how_to_blow_up_a_pipeline#:~:text=Movie%20Info,controversial%20book%20by%20Andreas%20Malm.">cinematic adaptation</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gm43Bu">
Malm and his ideas received a new wave of scrutiny last month, after David Marchese of the New York Times Magazine conducted an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/14/magazine/andreas-malm-interview.html">adversarial Q&amp;A</a> with the author and activist. Marchese suggested that socialists who endorse left-wing political violence but condemn the far right’s attempts to override democratic decision-making through similar shows of force are moral hypocrites. Malm disagreed. Much debate over the permissibility of blowing up pipelines ensued.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BgdQBN">
Yet Malm’s true failing is not hypocrisy, but dogmatism. And the fundamental problem with <em>How to Blow Up a Pipeline</em> isn’t its radical prescriptions, but rather, its doctrinaire diagnosis of the social crisis that it aims to cure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KEot6E">
In that book, Malm makes some plausible arguments for the efficacy and morality of property destruction in some contexts. But he also paints a deeply misleading portrait of the climate crisis, one that is oblivious to many of the most vexing economic, technical, and political obstacles to rapid decarbonization. Unable or unwilling to see these barriers, Malm fails to articulate a persuasive vision for how they can be overcome in his book (and declined an interview request). Instead, he evangelizes for a course of action that would (almost certainly) undermine the climate movement’s political standing while doing little to contain global temperatures.
</p>
<h2 id="wEiqrO">
Malm’s argument, in brief
</h2>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4lXO9l">
The perils of climate change are increasingly vivid. <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/2023/6/8/23753980/canada-fires-smoke-climate-change-air-quality">Wildfires</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/2023/7/11/23791452/nyc-flooding-brooklyn-weather-climate-change">floods</a>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/22538401/texas-heat-wave-weather-definition-record-temperature-climate-change">heat waves</a> regularly take lives and make headlines. Last year was <a href="https://www.vox.com/23969523/climate-change-cop28-paris-1-5-c-uae-2023-record-warm">the hottest in recorded history</a>. With each passing day, our prospects for preventing global temperatures from exceeding the red lines set by scientists grow more remote. Yet <a href="https://www.vox.com/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a> continue to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/fossil-fuels-still-dominate-global-power-systems-2023-11-30/#:~:text=LITTLETON%2C%20Colorado%2C%20Nov%2030%20(,sources%20in%20every%20major%20economy.">dominate</a> the world’s energy grids.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pjbmis">
This disconnect between ecological necessity and economic reality is central to <em>How to Blow Up a Pipeline</em>. Its case for property destruction rests on the demonstrable failure of nonviolent resistance to bring about the fossil fuel industry’s demise. Malm argues that the climate movement has been scrupulously honoring Gandhian principles for decades; disrupting global economic forums, marching through city streets, and appealing to the better angels of policymakers’ nature. And none of it stopped our species’ headlong sprint toward ecological collapse.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6qVFWb">
Even if we stopped building new fossil fuel plants tomorrow, Malm writes, the lifetime emissions of existing power plants would be enough to lift global temperatures more than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Yet capitalists are blithely financing new coal and gas infrastructure that will only pay off if the world’s nations blow past their emissions targets. In Malm’s words, “these capitalists do not see any wrecking balls coming their way. They think they have nothing to fear.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="28ReIR">
And make no mistake: For Malm, it’s the capitalist class that is (more or less single-handedly) frog-marching us all to hell. <em>How to Blow Up a Pipeline</em> acknowledges no technical obstacles to rapid decarbonization, nor any regrettable economic trade-offs. Rather, it suggests that an immediate green transition would be relatively painless for ordinary people. Renewable energy is now “consistently cheaper” than the carbon variety, Malm writes. For this reason, the world’s poor and working classes have no compelling interest in even the near-term use of fossil fuels. Malm insists that “all emissions must be brought to zero in no time,” but that such radical measures will “not condemn the poor to eternal poverty, for what they need is not emissions but energy, and with the renewable kind cheaper across the board, the transition does not require the sacrifice of their material aspirations.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AcfyEE">
With few technical challenges left to resolve, and no lamentable economic downsides to a swift green transition, victory, in Malm’s view, would seem close at hand — were it not for the greed of the ruling class. The wealthy, he suggests, would rather drown every coastal city than take losses on stranded fossil fuel assets. And since the world’s governments deem capitalist property “sacred,” they’re unwilling to prioritize humanity’s future over Shell’s profits. Climate activists can liberate governments from their ruinous deference to capital, but only if their movement forsakes its sentimental commitment to nonviolence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L6xalf">
This is where blowing up a pipeline comes in. By sabotaging fossil fuel infrastructure, militants can demonstrate, he says, that “Property does not stand above the earth.” With each “refinery deprived of electricity” or “digger in pieces,” the idea of stranding fossil fuel assets will grow more politically thinkable. And militants can do this without doing bodily harm to a single soul.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JFeSLD">
Property destruction, he argues, can also change the calculus of capitalists themselves. Much fossil fuel infrastructure is highly vulnerable to sabotage. Pipelines traverse long stretches of thinly populated territory and become inoperable if even a single segment is destroyed. If pipelines became subject to routine attacks, they would cease to be attractive investments. Capitalists might not be sensitive to climate risks, but they are highly responsive to financial ones.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L96OAX">
At the same time, the emergence of a violent, militant wing of the climate movement will make the demands of more mainstream green groups appear more reasonable. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Malm argues, violent resistance helpfully supplemented many of history’s most successful, supposedly nonviolent movements.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JOuEuL">
A pipeline cannot suffer. But poor people in frontline communities can. In Malm’s view, we should not hesitate to do violence to the former to stop CO2 emissions from devastating the latter.
</p>
<h2 id="LFTLFc">
Why soaking the rich won’t cleanse the atmosphere
</h2>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X4SleV">
If Malm were right, and the ruling class’s power and avarice were the overriding obstacles to a green transition, then the outlook for both ecosocialism and the climate might seem bright. In that circumstance, radicals like Malm would have a decent chance of mobilizing a mass base behind their agenda, which includes an immediate ban on all new C02-emitting devices. Attacks on fossil fuel infrastructure, meanwhile, would be liable to provoke considerable public sympathy, since most people would have no interest in the ongoing production of oil and gas.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zKijC1">
But the ideological convenience of Malm’s narrative comes at the expense of its accuracy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NLxMDT">
It is true that rich people in general, and fossil fuel shareholders in particular, wield disproportionate political influence. And in the United States, this influence has long undermined efforts to decarbonize the <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a>. The fossil fuel sector’s clout has kept the Republican Party from fighting for climate policy of virtually any kind, while constraining the Democrats’ environmental ambitions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BFtHoP">
Although the political power of Big Oil is an obstacle to decarbonization, it is far from the only one. And the same can be said of <em>How to Blow Up a Pipeline’s</em> other main target, the carbon-intensive consumption of the super-rich. If every fossil fuel lobby shuttered its doors tomorrow, and all billionaires forfeited their yachts and jets, the climate crisis would persist.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ALErcz">
This is because <em>How to Blow Up a Pipeline’s</em> narrative is at odds with some basic facts about the climate crisis. Decarbonizing at Malm’s preferred pace would require technologies that do not yet exist and economic sacrifices that few wish to make. And those sacrifices would not just burden rich people in the West, but also working people in the Global South.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OtNsgE">
Malm is right that, by many metrics, <a href="https://www.vox.com/renewable-energy">renewable energy</a> is now cheaper than carbon power. Yet wind and <a href="https://www.vox.com/solar-energy">solar power</a> remain highly variable, generating more energy than needed during certain times of day and meteorological conditions, and little in others. This liability can be mitigated by massively overbuilding wind and solar assets in geographically diverse regions, and <a href="https://www.freeingenergy.com/solar-wind-intermittency-batteries-curtail-overbuild/">connecting them all to the grid</a> through transmission lines. But such overbuilding could eliminate renewables’ apparent cost advantage and would require large quantities of land.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qKp2eT">
Advances in <a href="https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/repost-why-im-so-excited-about-solar">battery technology</a> may eventually resolve the intermittency problem. But for now, renewable-heavy electricity grids need to be undergirded by firm (i.e., non-intermittent) power sources. There are some carbon-free sources of firm power, such as nuclear and geothermal energy. But the former has high upfront costs, and the latter is not currently accessible in most areas. In practice, this means that even climate-conscious jurisdictions generally need fossil fuels to avert blackouts when the sun hides and wind grows still.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0vZfRm">
Meanwhile, carbon-free approaches to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/the-long-road-to-guilt-free-flying-climate/index.html">aviation</a> and <a href="https://www.iea.org/articles/the-challenge-of-reaching-zero-emissions-in-heavy-industry">heavy industry</a> remain far from commercial viability.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cL0Cz9">
The global economy’s persistent demand for fossil fuels derives less from the machinations of nihilistic capitalists than from the genuine difficulties of decarbonization. For this reason, it is not just private investors who are bankrolling new fossil fuel infrastructure, but also developmental states in the Global South.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="brYN1o">
Malm’s book suggests that the energy <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> of middle-income countries, and the rising living standards of their people, play only a marginal role in the climate crisis. “Look at it which way you will,” Malm writes, “from the angle of investment, production or consumption, it is the rich that drive the emergency[.]” But the truth is far more complicated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Mm1FTF">
Last year, the world’s annual CO2 emissions increased by 398 million metric tons. <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/india">India</a> accounted for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/carbon-dioxide-climate-change-china-india-aa25e5a4271aa45810c435280bb97879">more than 100 percent</a> of that increase. Take those two nations out of the equation, and global emissions would have fallen in 2023.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cv1yxF">
These trends are poised to continue in the coming decades. According to the International Energy Agency, as much as <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2023/overview-and-key-findings">80 percent</a> of the global growth in demand for electricity between now and 2030 is likely to come from emerging markets and developing economies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QKT3hE">
None of this says anything about <em>moral</em> responsibility for the climate crisis. The cumulative emissions of Western nations wildly outstrip those of Asia. And the per-capita emissions of an American billionaire vastly exceed those of a middle-class Chinese household. <strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GWJ9qx">
But the atmosphere does not care about moral responsibility. Through sheer force of numbers, the Indian and Chinese people emit more carbon than American billionaires. Any political strategy for achieving decarbonization must therefore have an answer for how the Global South can industrialize sustainably.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eM2Gd7">
Malm’s assurance that renewables “are cheaper across the board” does not qualify. Due to wind and solar’s intermittency problem, and the high upfront costs of renewable infrastructure, it is often more economical for developing countries to rely heavily on carbon power, according to <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d0c0c6a2-f331-4bb9-b9d1-638d1f039e7d/content">an analysis</a> from the World Bank.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hNvZs9">
To be fair to Malm, global capitalists are implicated in that problem. Lenders generally <a href="https://jacobin.com/2024/02/green-transition-renewable-energy-government-investment-markets">demand higher interest rates</a> when financing renewable projects in developing countries than they do when bankrolling such infrastructure in wealthy nations. These elevated borrowing costs make it even harder for low-income nations to shoulder the large infrastructure expenses that low-carbon grids require.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ydubn3">
Still, the economic incentives for carbon development persist, even when states take the reins from private investors. Take China: Following widespread blackouts in 2021, the Chinese Communist Party has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/business/china-coal-climate-change.html">made a concerted</a> effort to increase its nation’s reserves of electricity. Theoretically, it could have done this largely through the expansion of renewables. But China’s wind and solar installations are concentrated in the nation’s sunny, windy northwestern regions, far from population centers, and would have required the construction of massive transmission lines to transport power to cities. So it was much cheaper and easier for the Chinese state to rapidly scale up electricity production by building new coal plants.
</p>
<h2 id="1EC0fc">
Greening the global economy isn’t much like overthrowing apartheid
</h2>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DP0ikX">
None of this is meant to exonerate jet-setting plutocrats and fossil fuel lobbyists, or to deny capitalism’s structural defects. Wealthy countries should reduce the CO2 emissions of both their superrich citizens (by redistributing much of their wealth and income) and affluent households (by, among other things, expanding <a href="https://www.vox.com/transportation">mass transit</a> and urban housing). And such nations should also cease subsidizing oil companies, and increase public investment in <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy">clean energy</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nY2eAL">
Nevertheless, contrary to Malm’s populist rhetoric, the carbon economy’s persistence cannot be chalked up to the greed of wealthy shareholders, decadence of yacht owners, or corruption of democratic states. In reality, switching out the energy basis of industrial society is a genuinely difficult technical challenge. Abruptly phasing out fossil fuels and carbon-emitting devices would have significant economic costs for ordinary people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0zS5bw">
Malm’s blindness to these facts impairs his political analysis. At one point in <em>How to Blow Up a Pipeline</em>, the author mulls the mystery of why people in the Global South haven’t been sabotaging fossil fuel infrastructure. He decides that it must be due to “the demise of revolutionary politics” and “insufficient politicisation of the climate crisis.” The possibility that people in developing countries want to keep the lights on in their homes, and are therefore uninterested in breaking their nations’ energy infrastructure, goes unconsidered. Which is odd, since many low-income nations are unabashed in their enthusiasm for new fossil fuel pipelines. Indeed, such enthusiasm has driven one of this decade’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/23458617/cop27-fossil-fuels-energy-developing-countries-coal-oil-gas-africa-finance">biggest conflicts</a> in global energy politics: Wealthy states in the Global North have been choking off financing to fossil fuel projects in the developing world, a policy that has generated <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/uganda-other-african-nations-push-for-fossil-fuel-projects-7dbcd006">furious protest</a> from poor countries, which tend to be more concerned with mitigating their extreme poverty than minimizing their emissions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="l4OOdE">
Malm is similarly inattentive to the climate movement’s political challenges in the Global North. In making his case for the legitimacy and efficacy of property destruction, he notes that many of history’s most lauded social movements have featured violence at their fringes. He argues that the Black Power movement served to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s demands appear more reasonable. And he observes that the African National Congress had no compunction about deploying political violence in South Africa when it seemed strategically helpful, while violent insurrections abetted India’s independence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DvyBtJ">
Malm posits that one reason why the struggles against Jim Crow, South African apartheid, and British rule in India succeeded — while the West’s climate movement has thus far failed — is that the former all availed themselves of violence while the latter has largely forsworn it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tr5ny6">
He acknowledges that Western environmentalists made <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/magazine/earth-liberation-front-joseph-mahmoud-dibee.html">forays into sabotage in the 1990s</a>, and that these experiments yielded far more state repression than tangible progress. But he attributes such failures to both the unpopularity of the saboteurs’ goals (which included a large reduction in the human population), and the imprecision of their targets. Malm is sensitive to the threat of backlash, and chastises activist group Extinction Rebellion for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/17/extinction-rebellion-activists-london-underground">attempting to shut down the London Underground in 2019</a>. In his view, inconveniencing ordinary people who are trying to use a low-carbon form of transit advances nothing but the climate movement’s own marginalization. If activists directly target “the plinth of fossil capital,” however, he believes they are more likely to win <em>some</em> public sympathy, and less likely to undermine their more respectable allies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nPH8JV">
Yet a commitment to nonviolence is scarcely the only thing that distinguishes the climate movement from all of the auspicious precedents that Malm cites. In many respects, climate radicals simply face a much more difficult challenge than did the celebrated social movements that they wish to emulate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HFz79N">
The struggles against Jim Crow, apartheid, and British colonialism consisted of mass movements to secure basic rights. The injustice and indignities of apartheid structured Black South Africans’ daily lives, constraining their economic opportunities and denying their political freedoms. And the same can be said of Jim Crow’s implications for <a href="https://www.vox.com/race">Black Americans</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F8Rx4P">
By contrast, the typical Westerner does not find their basic aspirations frustrated by climate change on anything like a daily basis. Extreme weather events periodically call the problem to mind, but even then it is <a href="https://heatmap.news/climate/wildfire-smoke-what-caused">not always clear</a> that rising global temperatures are responsible for a specific flood or fire.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xnduML">
Further, the anti-apartheid and civil rights movements could plausibly promise to redress their animating grievances, and without the advent of any new technology or cooperation of any foreign power. No technical challenge stood in the way of universal <a href="https://www.vox.com/voting-rights">voting rights</a>. Formal political equality could be established with the stroke of pen and enforced by existing institutions of federal law enforcement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D5ZgCF">
The climate movement, on the other hand, cannot credibly promise to eliminate the problems that it seeks to politicize. The world is going to get warmer, no matter how much we reduce emissions from this point forward. In any given rich country, climate activists can’t honestly say that their agenda will improve climatic conditions, only that it <em>might</em> limit the extent to which those conditions get worse, assuming that other nations enact similar policies. Malm’s radical vision of decarbonization pairs this meager, uncertain prize with clear and immediate economic costs: Any near-term ban on fossil fuels would dramatically increase energy prices, and undermine the functioning of electricity grids.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ahjZAW">
It is not surprising, then, that Malm’s cause commands far less widespread and intense support among contemporary Westerners than the anti-apartheid struggle did among Black South Africans or the civil rights movement among Black Americans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JkCJfl">
In fact, at least in the United States, polling and election results indicate scant public support for decarbonization efforts that entail <em>any</em> significant material costs. Last year, an <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2023-04/Ipsos%20Global%20Advisor%20-%20Earth%20Day%202023%20-%20Full%20Report%20-%20WEB.pdf">Ipsos poll</a> asked Americans whether they would be willing to pay higher income taxes to combat climate change. Just 25 percent of respondents said yes. That comports with a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1TR17X/">2019 Reuters survey</a>, which found that nearly 70 percent of Americans backed “aggressive” action on climate change — but only one-third would be willing to pay $100 more in annual taxes to address the crisis.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TTKduV">
Issue polling can be unreliable. Different question phrasings can generate contradictory results. But the idea that Americans are unwilling to shoulder substantial costs for the sake of reducing emissions is buttressed by the electorate’s political behavior. In deep blue Washington, voters have <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/9/28/17899804/washington-1631-results-carbon-fee-green-new-deal#:~:text=The%20tax%20would%20have%20started,ton%20(in%202016%20dollars).">repeatedly rejected</a> a carbon tax at the ballot box, even when that levy was offset by tax breaks for working-class households. The fact that <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/467897/party-preferences-evenly-split-2022-shift-gop.aspx">roughly half of US voters</a> are open to supporting the Republican Party, despite its unabashed complacency about carbon emissions, further testifies to climate change’s limited political salience.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="grkRga">
Perhaps most tellingly, even some climate activists routinely refuse to prioritize decarbonization over conflicting ideological commitments. In recent years, Maine’s Sierra Club fought to <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/11/01/hydro-qubec-project-facing-green-opposition-in-maine-ahead-of-tuesdays-referendum.html">block a transmission line</a> that would have enabled Americans to avail themselves of Canadian hydropower, New York environmentalists <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/so-long-indian-point-nuclear-plant-hello-more-fossil-fuels">increased their state’s carbon emissions</a> by shuttering the Indian Point nuclear plant, and a chapter of the Sunrise Movement <a href="https://www.gazettenet.com/Proposed-moratorium-on-large-scale-solar-projects-in-Amherst-gets-public-support-44506632">backed a moratorium</a> on large-scale solar farms in Amherst, Massachusetts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o0Bw78">
There is little reason to believe that climate radicals’ failure to deliver decarbonization derives from the pacifism of their tactics, rather than the complexity and unpopularity of their demands, and consequent narrowness of their social base.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yDltOo">
All this undermines Malm’s pragmatic case for pipeline destruction. Acts of violence conducted in the name of goals that the public opposes seem more likely to induce backlash than a leftward lurch in political consciousness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rQZ0Kv">
To be sure, acts of sabotage don’t need to be popular to cost fossil fuel investors money. But to meaningfully deter investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, radicals would need to commit sabotage at an extraordinary scale. This is an inherently difficult feat, which public backlash and state repression would make even more daunting.
</p>
<h2 id="orMpIn">
How to decarbonize the economy (without blowing up a pipeline)
</h2>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p8vNSm">
Ultimately, Malm’s account of the climate crisis is at once too rosy and too bleak.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rla7px">
On the one hand, he makes the task facing climate activists look deceptively simple by suggesting that there is only one fundamental problem to be solved: Governments must be forced to subordinate the financial interests of the wealthy to the well-being of humanity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DFJGi6">
But the actual challenge facing proponents of decarbonization is much more complex and multifaceted.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ww9mUU">
On the other hand, Malm exaggerates the political power of fossil fuel interests. Yes, governments haven’t found the will to put oil companies out of business by fiat (partly because doing so would increase energy costs for the broader public). But they have allowed market forces to strand all manner of carbon assets, in defiance of industry complaints. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2015/06/23/414926833/how-fracking-is-changing-the-nation-s-electrical-grid">Competition from renewables and natural gas</a>, combined with <a href="https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/05/inside-war-on-coal-000002/">new EPA rules</a>,<em> </em>devastated America’s coal industry over the past decade. By 2026, the US is expected to have <a href="https://ieefa.org/articles/us-track-close-half-its-coal-fired-generation-capacity-2026#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways%3A-,The%20U.S.%20is%20on%20track%20to%20close%20half%20of%20its,by%20the%20end%20of%202030.">only half as much coal power generation</a> as it did in 2011. If we can solve the technical and economic liabilities of non-carbon energy sources — which is to say, if we can make them truly “cheaper across the board” — we can euthanize the fossil fuel industry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4SayqV">
Doing this will require a great deal of political agitation and policy action. We need to increase public investment in green technologies, slash regulatory barriers to clean energy deployment, provide generous aid and financing to green development projects in the Global South, and solve myriad other problems, all without imposing large costs on electorates, lest support for (relatively) climate-conscious political<strong> </strong>parties disintegrates.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eXFOvx">
Reasonable people can disagree about which political tactics will best advance these goals. But when self-styled climate hawks privilege ideologically flattering dogmas over inconvenient truths, they make progress on all these fronts more difficult.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Wisconsin’s new legislative maps are a win for democracy</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Tony Evers speaks at a lectern." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OzvTZmhqJ98RDZgGQZL8cC9RROI=/415x0:5290x3656/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73152963/1953489513.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks about funding for the I-535 Blatnik Bridge before a visit by US President Joe Biden on January 25, 2024, at Earth Rider Brewery in Superior, Wisconsin.  | Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They could break the GOP’s longstanding gerrymandered grip on the state legislature.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XuS5ur">
Wisconsin now has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/19/us/politics/wisconsin-legislative-maps.html">legislative maps</a> that align more closely with voters’ political preferences, a significant development that will fuel more competitive contests and could break <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/23861973/wisconsin-gerrymander-republican-impeachment-justice-protasiewicz-supreme-court#:~:text=The%20state's%20legislature%20is%20so,of%20the%20assembly's%2099%20seats.">Republicans’ longstanding grip</a> on its legislature.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ubcxvs">
The maps, which were approved by both chambers of the Republican-led state legislature and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Monday, change the breakdown of the state’s Assembly and Senate districts from predominantly GOP leaning to nearly evenly split between the two parties. This redistricting means that Democrats actually have a shot at retaking the majority of the State Assembly in November, a prospect that was virtually impossible under the state’s prior maps, which the GOP had heavily gerrymandered in its favor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QwkR7u">
Shifts in the composition of the legislature could be huge for the types of <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> passed and for executive power. Shortly before Evers first took office, GOP lawmakers in the state <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/4/18123784/gop-legislature-wisconsin-michigan-power-grab-lame-duck">voted</a> to weaken the governor’s powers — something Democrats could change. In a state fairly <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/state/wisconsin/party-affiliation/">evenly divided</a> between Democrats and Republicans, the new maps could also make the legislature more representative of the distribution of voters’ political beliefs. (<a href="https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-redistricting-republican-democrat-9c2677a09e48152df323fbf5c55611ef">Per the AP</a>, of the last 17 statewide elections, Democrats have won 14, but Republicans have maintained control of the legislature for more than a decade.) And new toss-up districts will create real campaigns in purple areas, giving those voters an actual say in who represents them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="amw9MS">
“When I promised I wanted fair maps — not maps that are better for one party or another, including my own — I damn well meant it,” Evers said. “Wisconsin is not a red state or a blue state — we’re a purple state, and I believe our maps should reflect that basic fact.”
</p>
<h3 id="i8rFT0">
The key changes to the maps, briefly explained
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3RC1Gd">
<a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2024/02/19/interactive-explore-wisconsins-new-electoral-maps/72664708007/">According to an analysis</a> from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the state will move from having 64 Republican-leaning Assembly seats to 46 out of 99; 45 will lean Democratic, and eight will have no partisan lean. Additionally, it will go from 22 Republican-leaning Senate seats to 15 out of 33. Fourteen will lean Democratic, and four are expected to be true toss-ups.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YUJUUi">
“This is a turning point in the balance of power in Wisconsin state government. It upends over a decade of guaranteed Republican control,” University of Wisconsin-La Crosse political scientist Anthony Chergosky tells Vox. Previously, Wisconsin’s gerrymandered maps ensured that Republicans would maintain their hold on the legislature even if Democrats won the statewide popular vote in an election.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mux0P2">
The new changes follow <a href="https://www.wpr.org/news/evers-signs-new-maps-into-law-ending-wisconsin-redistricting-lawsuit">significant court battles</a> over Wisconsin’s legislative maps, which the GOP had been fighting to keep as is. That fight went all the way to the now liberal-leaning state Supreme Court, which <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-calls-for-legislative-maps-to-be-redrawn-in-case-brought-by-democrats">declared the old maps unconstitutional</a> last year. Faced with a choice between adopting a map drawn by the Wisconsin Supreme Court or the maps passed Monday, which were proposed by Evers, GOP lawmakers chose the latter, fearing a court-drawn map would be even more favorable to Democrats.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2vzD5k">
Chergosky noted that the election of liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023 “utterly transformed the politics of redistricting in this state.” Protasiewicz’s presence gave liberals a majority on Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court for the first time in 15 years.
</p>
<h3 id="v6E2qP">
The impact this could have
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GDEmGn">
The near-term impact of the new maps could be evident this fall, when Democrats have a real chance of winning the majority in the state Assembly. Because half of Wisconsin’s state Senate terms are up every two years, Democrats won’t have a chance to flip enough seats to take the majority in that chamber for at least a few terms. But that they even have the potential to win the state Assembly this year is groundbreaking, and it has major implications for democracy in the state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YxxImw">
“The most likely outcome this November is that the party that wins the majority of the vote will win the majority of the state Assembly. That has not been the outcome for over a decade in Wisconsin,” John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette Law School, told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8MMInE">
Under divided government, with the Assembly controlled by one party and the Senate another, there would likely still be gridlock. But Democratic control of even a single chamber would force more compromise on items like the state’s budget, which could mean different levels of funding for key priorities like education and child care.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1hOINw">
Longer term, if Democrats gain control of both chambers (and if Evers or another Democrat wins the 2026 gubernatorial race), they’d be able to pass even more expansive policies, with experts noting that <a href="https://www.vox.com/marijuana-legalization">marijuana legalization</a> and Medicaid expansion are likely to be on the docket. Under those circumstances, lawmakers could also approve stronger protections for <a href="https://www.vox.com/abortion">abortion</a> rights in the state, where its Supreme Court is being asked to review whether access to legal abortions can continue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5uy1Of">
Michigan, which has a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/2/9/23591330/michigan-democrats-whitmer-legislature-midterms">Democratic trifecta</a> in both its legislative chambers and governor’s office, has rolled back restrictive abortion and labor laws and approved new policies that promote the use of <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy">clean energy</a>, for example. Johnson notes that it’s a good case study of what’s possible with Democratic control.
</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>AUS vs NZ 1st T20 | David, Marsh propel Australia to thrilling T20 win over New Zealand</strong> - Having been set 216 to win, Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh hammered 72 off 44 balls before batting partner David (31 not out) sealed a thrilling last-gasp victory</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>Terrorist Pannun threatens to disrupt India-England Test; security tightened in Ranchi</strong> - Pannun, who has been designated as a terrorist by the Home Ministry, has also appealed to the banned CPI (Maoist) through a video uploaded on social media to disrupt the match</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>Chappell urges Root to play his natural game and drop Bazball philosophy</strong> - Senior batter Root has struggled for runs in the ongoing five-match series against India, registering a set of low scores across six innings</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>Jota out for months, says Klopp, as Liverpool’s injury crisis deepens</strong> - The injury potentially threatens Diogo Jota’s involvement in the European Championship in Germany starting in June.</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>Andreas Brehme, scorer of West Germany’s winning goal in the 1990 World Cup final, dies at 63</strong> - Andreas Brehme, who scored the only goal as West Germany beat Argentina to win the 1990 World Cup final, has died</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Nalme Nachiyar.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bar Association felicitates senior lawyers</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>Congress’ Samaragni Yatra to reach Alappuzha on February 23</strong> - The yatra to be given a reception at Thanneermukkom by Congress workers led by District Congress Committee president</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>Station upgradation of 15 cities under way in Mysuru railway division</strong> - ₹384.79 crore being spent under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme to shore up passenger amenities</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>Karnataka govt admits to ‘mistake’ in notification on singing of State anthem in schools, issues fresh one</strong> - Minister for Kannada and Culture Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi admitted that the words ‘private schools’ had been left out from the notification</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>Dozens of Russian troops ‘die in Ukraine air strike’</strong> - Video of the incident appears to show large numbers of dead in a training area in occupied eastern Ukraine.</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>UK sanctions Russian prison chiefs after Navalny death</strong> - The UK freezes the assets of six prison bosses after the death of activist Alexei Navalny in a penal colony.</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>‘Grandfather satellite’ due to fall to Earth</strong> - Europe’s pioneering ERS-2 Earth observation spacecraft will make an uncontrolled dive to destruction.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French warships intercept drones from Yemen</strong> - Large explosions can be seen in footage released by France from its patrol zones in the Red Sea.</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>Egyptian officials on trial over Italian student’s death</strong> - Giulio Regeni’s mutilated body was found left in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo in 2016.</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>NASA faces a quandary with its audacious lunar cargo program</strong> - Failure is now an option at the US space agency. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004034">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Court blocks $1 billion copyright ruling that punished ISP for its users’ piracy</strong> - “Cox did not profit from its subscribers’ acts of infringement,” judges rule. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004755">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>After years of losing, it’s finally feds’ turn to troll ransomware group</strong> - Authorities who took down the ransomware group brag about their epic hack. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004713">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Musk claims Neuralink patient doing OK with implant, can move mouse with brain</strong> - Medical ethicists alarmed by Musk being “sole source of information” on patient. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004706">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Walmart buying TV-brand Vizio for its ad-fueling customer data</strong> - Deal expected to close as soon as this summer. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004655">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>How many Germans does it take to change a light bulb?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
(As told to be by a German colleague)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“One! Because we are very effective and don’t have a sense of humor!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
…
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Same colleague proceeded to explain to me what the colors in the German flag stood for. Red = work Yellow = work Black = work Blue = sense of humor
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ReddutModzRKuntz"> /u/ReddutModzRKuntz </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1avnj5t/how_many_germans_does_it_take_to_change_a_light/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1avnj5t/how_many_germans_does_it_take_to_change_a_light/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jokes from UK FHM #001 - September 2001.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
After 3 weeks on the road, a trucker pulls in to a Brothel and bangs £500 on the counter “Young lady” he says to the woman “I want a really tough overcooked steak and the ugliest woman you’ve got”.<br/> “Listen” cries the madam, “for £500 you can have a five-course cordon bleu meal and the most beautiful girl we’ve got”.<br/> The trucker glowers at her “listen sweetheart, I’m not feeling horny, I’m feeling homesick”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BigBlueMountainStar"> /u/BigBlueMountainStar </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aw9d7b/jokes_from_uk_fhm_001_september_2001/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aw9d7b/jokes_from_uk_fhm_001_september_2001/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Upon hearing that her elderly grandfather had just passed away…..</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Katie went straight to her grandparent’s house to visit her 95 year-old grandmother and comfort her.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
When she asked how her grandfather had died, her grandmother replied, “He had a heart attack while we were making love on Sunday morning.” Horrified, Katie told her grandmother that 2 people nearly 100 years old having sex would surely be asking for trouble.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh no, my dear,” replied granny. “Many years ago, realizing our advanced age, we figured out the best time to do it was when the church bells would start to ring. It was just the right rhythm. Nice and slow and even. Nothing too strenuous, simply in on the Ding and out on the Dong.” She paused to wipe away a tear, and continued, “He’d still be alive if the ice cream truck hadn’t come along.”
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/vect77"> /u/vect77 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1avogq6/upon_hearing_that_her_elderly_grandfather_had/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1avogq6/upon_hearing_that_her_elderly_grandfather_had/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I have an EpiPen.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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My friend gave it to me when he was dying, it seemed very important to him that I have it.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/James-k"> /u/James-k </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aw5kyv/i_have_an_epipen/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1aw5kyv/i_have_an_epipen/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Having sex with my girlfriend, she says “well, this is proper boring”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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I go “whoa, thank you!”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/trubol"> /u/trubol </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1avzqg6/having_sex_with_my_girlfriend_she_says_well_this/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1avzqg6/having_sex_with_my_girlfriend_she_says_well_this/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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