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<title>13 November, 2023</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>How well do surveys on adherence to pandemic policies assess actual behaviour: measurement properties of the Dutch Covid-19 Adherence to Prevention Advice Survey (CAPAS).</strong> -
<div>
Background Survey data on adherence to COVID-19 prevention measures have often been used to inform policy makers and public health professionals. However, there is a lack of studies critically examining the validity and reliability of those self-reported measures. Aim We studied the measurement properties of the Covid-19 Adherence to Prevention Advice Survey (CAPAS), a novel questionnaire implemented in a repeated cross-sectional (i.e., ‘Trend’) Study and a Cohort Study in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods The CAPAS is a novel questionnaire developed in March 2020, with the aim to assess social activity and adherence to COVID-19 prevention measures. Items were formulated to minimise social desirability and aid memory retrieval. Based on the COSMIN framework, we investigated criterion validity by comparing trends of self-reported behaviour to trends in objective data. Responsiveness was assessed by studying whether self-reported behaviour changed following contextual (e.g., policy) changes. Test-retest reliability was examined over periods in which the context was stable. Results Overall, trends in self-reported behaviour closely corresponded to trends in external objective data. Self-reported behaviours were responsive to contextual changes and test-retest reliabilities were adequate. For infrequent behaviours reliability improved when measures were dichotomised. We were able to examine national representativeness for vaccination, which suggested a modest overestimation of on average 3.7%. Conclusions This study supports the suitability of using carefully designed, self-reported surveys (and the CAPAS specifically) to study changes in pandemic behaviours in a dynamic context.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/rm8qn/" target="_blank">How well do surveys on adherence to pandemic policies assess actual behaviour: measurement properties of the Dutch Covid-19 Adherence to Prevention Advice Survey (CAPAS).</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Tracking the development of COVID-19 related PsyArXiv preprints</strong> -
<div>
Given the need for a rapid and critical response from behavioural sciences during times of crisis, this study investigated the trajectory of all preprints posted to the repository PsyArXiv up to 19 May 2020 that were related to COVID-19 (n = 211). Specifically, we examined the traction, impact, quality, and diversity of these preprints as compared to PsyArXiv preprints unrelated to COVID-19 (n = 167) and articles published in psychology journal articles (n = 75) within the same time frame. Preprints related to COVID-19 had similar traction to published journal articles on COVID-19, but compared to preprints unrelated to COVID-19, the COVID-19 preprints were more likely to be subsequently published during a follow-up period (until 2 March 2021), were published more quickly, and received more citations. Preprints related to COVID-19 reported fewer open science practices than preprints unrelated to COVID-19, but more than COVID-19 journal articles. Primary affiliations for all article types predominantly originated from Western countries, but this was comparatively more for preprints (both related to and not related to COVID-19), even though preprints had more international authorship teams than journal articles. Overall, the results demonstrate that some of the structural problems in research are still in play despite the global effort to mobilise research efforts during the pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/evmgs/" target="_blank">Tracking the development of COVID-19 related PsyArXiv preprints</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Basic Psychological Needs, Quality of Motivation, and Protective Behavior Intentions: A Nationally Representative Survey</strong> -
<div>
This is a pre-print of a study published at Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2023.2257295. Objective: Citizens’ volitional engagement in protective behaviors is essential for successful pandemic management, as much of the required adherence is beyond authorities’ control and difficult to monitor. Building on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study examines how basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) related to COVID-19 behavioral measures is associated with the quality of motivation (autonomous vs. controlled), and whether this quality of motivation is predictive of the intention to wear a face mask and to avoid meeting others. Methods: Cross-sectional survey study involving a nationally representative sample (N = 2272) was conducted in Finland in May 2021, when protective behaviors were recommended to prevent acceleration of the epidemic. Mann-Whitney U tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, linear regression analysis, and multinomial logistic regression were conducted. Results: All three psychological needs were positively related to autonomous motivation (all p&lt;.001). Satisfaction of autonomy (β = .234) and relatedness (β = .402) had larger effects than competence (β = .091). Autonomous motivation (range Exp(B) = 1.82‒3.55, p = .001) was consistently related to intention to wear a mask and intention to avoid meeting people. Controlled motivation (range Exp(B) = .66‒.93, p = .001‒.457) was associated with decreased protective behavior intentions. The effects of amotivation (range Exp(B) = .65‒1.02, p = .001‒.911) varied across analyses. Conclusions: Fostering autonomous motivation could increase adherence to protective behaviors in situations without clear mandates. The results also suggest that increasing perceptions of pressure or appealing to personal risk and fear may not advance adherence as effectively.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/qgvua/" target="_blank">Basic Psychological Needs, Quality of Motivation, and Protective Behavior Intentions: A Nationally Representative Survey</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Single Nucleus RNA Sequencing of Remnant Kidney Biopsies and Urine Cell RNA Sequencing Reveal Cell Specific Markers of Covid-19 Acute Kidney Injury</strong> -
<div>
Acute kidney injury (AKI) in COVID-19 patients is associated with high mortality and morbidity. Critically ill COVID-19 patients are at twice the risk of in-hospital mortality compared to non-COVID AKI patients. We know little about the cell-specific mechanism in the kidney that contribute to worse clinical outcomes in these patients. New generation single cell technologies have the potential to provide insights into physiological states and molecular mechanisms in COVID-AKI. One of the key limitations is that these patients are severely ill posing significant risks in procuring additional biopsy tissue. We recently generated single nucleus RNA-sequencing data using COVID-AKI patient biopsy tissue as part of the human kidney atlas. Here we describe this approach in detail and report deeper comparative analysis of snRNAseq of 4 COVID-AKI, 4 reference, and 6 non-COVID-AKI biopsies. We also generated and analyzed urine transcriptomics data to find overlapping COVID-AKI-enriched genes and their corresponding cell types in the kidney from snRNA-seq data. We identified all major and minor cell types and states by using by using less than a few cubic millimeters of leftover tissue after pathological workup in our approach. Differential expression analysis of COVID-AKI biopsies showed pathways enriched in viral response, WNT signaling, kidney development, and cytokines in several nephron epithelial cells. COVID-AKI profiles showed a much higher proportion of altered TAL cells than non-COVID AKI and the reference samples. In addition to kidney injury and fibrosis markers indicating robust remodeling we found that, 17 genes overlap between urine cell COVID-AKI transcriptome and the snRNA-seq data from COVID-AKI biopsies. A key feature was that several of the distal nephron and collecting system cell types express these markers. Some of these markers have been previously observed in COVID-19 studies suggesting a common mechanism of injury and potentially the kidney as one of the sources of soluble factors with a potential role in disease progression.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.10.566497v1" target="_blank">Single Nucleus RNA Sequencing of Remnant Kidney Biopsies and Urine Cell RNA Sequencing Reveal Cell Specific Markers of Covid-19 Acute Kidney Injury</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Recreating the Biological Steps of Viral Infection on a Bioelectronic Platform to Profile Viral Variants of Concern</strong> -
<div>
Viral mutation rates frequently outpace the development of technologies used to detect and identify harmful variants; for SARS Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), these are called variants of concern (VOC). Given the continual emergence of VOC, there is a critical need to develop platforms that can identify the presence of a virus and readily identify its propensity for infection. We present an electronic biomembrane sensing platform that recreates the multifaceted and sequential biological cues that give rise to distinct SARS-CoV-2 virus host cell entry pathways and reports the progression of entry steps of these pathways as electrical signals. Within these electrical signals, two necessary entry processes mediated by the viral Spike protein, virus binding and membrane fusion, can be distinguished. Remarkably, we find that closely related VOC exhibit distinct fusion signatures that correlate with trends reported in cell-based infectivity assays, allowing us to report quantitative differences in fusion characteristics among them that inform their infectivity potentials. This cell-free biomimetic infection platform also has a virus-free option that equally reports infectivity potential of the Spike proteins. We used SARS-CoV-2 as our prototype, but we anticipate that this platform will extend to other enveloped viruses and cell lines to quantifiably explore virus/host interactions. This advance should aid in faster determination of entry characteristics and fusogenicities of future VOC, necessary for rapid response.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.11.566634v1" target="_blank">Recreating the Biological Steps of Viral Infection on a Bioelectronic Platform to Profile Viral Variants of Concern</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sub-variant BA.2.86 is attenuated in hamsters</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 variants have emerged throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a need to risk-assess newly emerged variants in near 'real-time' to estimate their potential threat to public health. The recently emerged Omicron sub-variant BA.2.86 raised concerns as it carries a high number of mutations compared to its predecessors. Here, we assessed the virulence of BA.2.86 in hamsters. We compared the pathogenesis of BA.2.86 and BA.2.75, as the latter is one of the most virulent Omicron sub-variants in this animal model. Using digital pathology pipelines, we quantified the extent of pulmonary lesions measuring T cell and macrophage infiltrates, in addition to alveolar epithelial hyperplasia. We also assessed body weight loss, clinical symptoms, virus load in oropharyngeal swabs, and virus replication in the respiratory tract. Our data show that BA.2.86 displays an attenuated phenotype in hamsters, suggesting that it poses no greater risk to public health than its parental Omicron sub-variants.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.10.566576v1" target="_blank">The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sub-variant BA.2.86 is attenuated in hamsters</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Insights into B Cell and Antibody Kinetics Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants Using Mathematical Modelling</strong> -
<div>
B cells and antibodies are crucial in protecting against infections like SARS-CoV-2. However, antibody levels decline after infection or vaccination, reducing defences against future SARS-CoV-2 infections. To understand antibody production and decline, we developed a mathematical model that predicts germinal center B cell, long-lived plasma cell, memory B cell, and antibody dynamics. Our focus was on B cell activation and antibody generation following both primary and secondary SARS-CoV-2 infections. Aligning our model with clinical data, we adjusted antibody production rates for germinal center B cells and plasma B cells during primary and secondary infections. We also assessed antibody neutralization against Delta and Omicron variants post-primary and secondary exposure. Our findings showed reduced neutralization against Omicron due to its immune evasion. In primary and secondary exposures to Delta and Omicron, our predictions indicated enhanced antibody neutralization in the secondary response within a year of the primary response. We also explored waning immunity, demonstrating how B cell kinetics affect viral neutralization post-primary infection. This study enhances our understanding of humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and can predict antibody dynamics post-infection or vaccination.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.10.566587v1" target="_blank">Insights into B Cell and Antibody Kinetics Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants Using Mathematical Modelling</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Crykey: Rapid Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Cryptic Mutations in Wastewater</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We present Crykey, a computational tool for rapidly identifying cryptic mutations of SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, we identify co-occurring single nucleotide mutations on the same sequencing read, called linked-read mutations, that are rare or entirely missing in existing databases, and have the potential to represent novel cryptic lineages found in wastewater. While previous approaches exist for identifying cryptic linked-read mutations from specific regions of the SARS-CoV-2 genome, there is a need for computational tools capable of efficiently tracking cryptic mutations across the entire genome and for tens of thousands of samples and with increased scrutiny, given their potential to represent either artifacts or hidden SARS-CoV-2 lineages. Crykey fills this gap by identifying rare linked-read mutations that pass stringent computational filters to limit the potential for artifacts. We evaluate the utility of Crykey on &gt;3,000 wastewater and &gt;22,000 clinical samples; our findings are three-fold: i) we identify hundreds of cryptic mutations that cover the entire SARS-CoV-2 genome, ii) we track the presence of these cryptic mutations across multiple wastewater treatment plants and over a three years of sampling in Houston, and iii) we find a handful of cryptic mutations in wastewater mirror cryptic mutations in clinical samples and investigate their potential to represent real cryptic lineages. In summary, Crykey enables large-scale detection of cryptic mutations representing potential cryptic lineages in wastewater.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.16.23291524v2" target="_blank">Crykey: Rapid Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Cryptic Mutations in Wastewater</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Application of the Fluctuation Test to the data of Morbidity and Mortality by COVID-19 in China 2020-2023</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In this work the Luria and Delbruck Fluctuation Test was applied to the data of Morbidity and Mortality by COVID-19 in China from January 2020 to August 2023. Three types of data were used: es.statista.com, datosmacro.expansion.com and larepublica.co without modification, but trying to avoid and justify the anomalies and inconsistencies observed. The methods originally used to establish the interactions of two populations were evaluated: the viral population with that of its host and the drift of both organisms. Only the fluctuations of the weekly Variance of daily increase of Cases (Morbidity) and of the weekly Variance of daily increase of Deaths (Mortality) were studied. The results showed that the Fluctuation Test is applicable to the selected data from China and other data from India, Japan and South Korea, used as controls. The study was separated into two periods: a first initial period from January 2020 to September 2021 and a second final period from October 2021 to August 2023. Results were obtained for Morbidity and Mortality that relate the fluctuations of the first with the fluctuations of the second. However, it was possible to detect some anomalies and uncertainties that were possibly derived from inconsistencies in the original data. A repeated fluctuation was observed in the boreal winter in January, February and March of each one of the year studied. A clear decrease in fluctuation was detected in that period in 2021 that could be attributed to the strict confinement during the quarantine in China between 2020 and 2021. Massive, extensive and intensive vaccinations failed to completely eliminate the most important fluctuations. In this work we tried to correlate the appearance of some virus variants with the fluctuations. The most relevant results of said correlation are presented. With the results of this work, the animal origin cannot be confirmed nor can the human or laboratory origin of the SARS CoV-2 virus that caused the initial emerging infection, be ruled out. However, it was concluded that this method could be used to search for clues about its origin. One of these keys is the comparison of the result of the first important fluctuation in the boreal winter of 2020 in each of the countries studied as controls: India, Japan and South Korea. The comparison of this result with the first fluctuation of China for that same period could give clues about the origin of the virus.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.12.23298174v1" target="_blank">Application of the Fluctuation Test to the data of Morbidity and Mortality by COVID-19 in China 2020-2023</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Synergistic Role of NK Cells and Monocytes in Promoting Atherogenesis in Severe COVID-19 Patients.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Clinical data demonstrate an increased predisposition to cardiovascular disease (CVD) following severe COVID-19 infection. This may be driven by a dysregulated immune response associated with severe disease. Monocytes and vascular tissue resident macrophages play a critical role in atherosclerosis, the main pathology leading to ischemic CVD. Natural killer (NK) cells are a heterogenous group of cells that are critical during viral pathogenesis and are known to be dysregulated during severe COVID-19 infection. Their role in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease has recently been described. However, the contribution of their altered phenotypes to atherogenesis following severe COVID-19 infection is unknown. We demonstrate for the first time that during and after severe COVID-19, circulating proinflammatory monocytes and activated NK cells act synergistically to increase uptake of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (Ox-LDL) into vascular tissue with subsequent foam cell generation leading to atherogenesis despite recovery from acute infection. Our data provide new insights, revealing the roles of monocytes/macrophages, and NK cells in COVID-19-related atherogenesis.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.10.23298322v1" target="_blank">Synergistic Role of NK Cells and Monocytes in Promoting Atherogenesis in Severe COVID-19 Patients.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Covid19Vaxplorer: a free, online, user-friendly COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Comparison Tool</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: There are many COVID-19 vaccines currently available, however, Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) still have large proportions of their populations un- vaccinated. Decision-makers must decide how to effectively allocate available vaccines (e.g. boosters or primary series vaccination, which age groups to target) but LMIC often lack the resources to undergo quantitative analyses of vaccine allocation, resulting in ad- hoc policies. We developed Covid19Vaxplorer (https://covid19vaxplorer.fredhutch.org/), a free, user-friendly online tool that simulates region-specific COVID-19 epidemics in con- junction with vaccination with the purpose of providing public health officials worldwide with a tool for vaccine allocation planning and comparison. Methods: We developed an age-structured mathematical model of SARS-CoV-2 trans- mission and COVID-19 vaccination. The model considers vaccination with up to three different vaccine products, primary series and boosters. We simulated partial immunity de- rived from waning of natural infection and vaccination. The model is embedded in an online tool, Covid19Vaxplorer that was optimized for its ease of use. By prompting users to fill information through several windows to input local parameters (e.g. cumulative and cur- rent prevalence), epidemiological parameters (e.g basic reproduction number, current social distancing interventions), vaccine parameters (e.g. vaccine efficacy, duration of immunity) and vaccine allocation (both by age groups and by vaccination status). Covid19Vaxplorer connects the user to the mathematical model and simulates, in real time, region-specific epidemics. The tool then produces key outcomes including expected numbers of deaths, hospitalizations and cases, with the possibility of simulating several scenarios of vaccine allocation at once for a side-by-side comparison.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.15.23291472v2" target="_blank">Covid19Vaxplorer: a free, online, user-friendly COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Comparison Tool</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Prosocial behavior in emergencies: Evidence from blood donors recruitment and retention during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The impact of COVID-19 represents a specific challenge for voluntary transfusional systems sustained by the intrinsic motivations of blood donors. In general, health emergencies can stimulate altruistic behaviors. However, in this context, the same prosocial motivations, besides the personal health risks, could foster the adherence to social distancing rules to preserve collective health and, therefore, discourage blood donation activities. In this work, we investigate the consequences of the pandemic shock on the dynamics of new donors exploiting the individual-level longitudinal information contained in administrative data on the Italian region of Tuscany. We compare the change in new donors’ recruitment and retention during 2020 with respect to the 2017-2019 period, considering donors’ and their municipalities of residence characteristics. Our results show an increment of new donors, with higher growth for older donors. Moreover, we demonstrate that the quality of new donors, as proxied by the frequency of subsequent donations, increased with respect to previous years. Finally, we show that changes in extrinsic motivations, such as the possibility of obtaining a free antibody test or overcoming movement restrictions, cannot explain the documented improvement in performances.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/6t72b/" target="_blank">Prosocial behavior in emergencies: Evidence from blood donors recruitment and retention during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Clinical and Economic impact of updated Fall 2023 COVID-19 vaccines in the Immunocompromised Population in Canada</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Immunocompromised (IC) individuals are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection-related severe outcomes. Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are available in Canada, and differences in vaccine effectiveness (VE) have been found between the two in IC individuals. The objective of this analysis was to compare the clinical and economic impact of a Moderna XBB.1.5 updated COVID-19 mRNA Fall 2023 vaccine to a Pfizer-BioNTech XBB.1.5 updated COVID-19 mRNA Fall 2023 vaccine in Canadian IC individuals aged ≥18 years. Methods: A static decision-analytic model estimated the number of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, deaths, and resulting quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) over a one-year time horizon (September 2023-August 2024) in the Canadian IC adult population (n=894,580). Costs associated with COVID-19 infection were estimated from health care and societal perspectives. The predicted VE of the updated Moderna vaccine was based on prior variant versions, which were well-matched to the circulating variant. Pfizer-BioNTech VE was calculated based on a meta-analysis of comparative effectiveness between both vaccines (relative risk for Moderna vaccine: infection=0.85 [95%CI 0.75-0.97], hospitalization=0.88 [95%CI 0.79-0.97]). The model combined VE estimates with COVID-19 incidence and probability of COVID-19 related severe outcomes. Sensitivity analyses tested the impact of uncertainty surrounding incidence, hospitalization and mortality rates, costs, and QALYs. Results: Given the expected higher VE against infection and hospitalizations with the Moderna Fall 2023 vaccine, its use is predicted to prevent an additional 2,411 infections (3.6%), 275 hospitalizations (3.7%), and 47 deaths (4.0%) compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech Fall 2023 vaccine, resulting in 330 QALYs gained, and savings of $7.4M in infection treatment costs, and $0.9M in productivity loss costs. Results were most sensitive to variations in VE parameters, specifically the relative risk of infection and hospitalizations between the vaccines, and waning rates. Conclusions: If the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Fall 2023 vaccines protect against infection and hospitalizations similar to previous vaccines, using the Moderna Fall 2023 vaccine would result in substantial public health benefits in IC individuals, as well as provide health care and societal cost savings.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.10.23298369v1" target="_blank">Clinical and Economic impact of updated Fall 2023 COVID-19 vaccines in the Immunocompromised Population in Canada</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Generation and characterization of a multi-functional panel of monoclonal antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 research and treatment</strong> -
<div>
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an ongoing threat to global public health. To this end, intense efforts are underway to develop reagents to aid in diagnostics, enhance preventative measures, and provide therapeutics for managing COVID-19. The recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants with enhanced transmissibility, altered antigenicity, and significant escape of existing monoclonal antibodies and vaccines underlines the importance of the continued development of such agents. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and its receptor binding domain (RBD) are critical to viral attachment and host cell entry and are primary targets for antibodies elicited from both vaccination and natural infection. In this study, mice were immunized with two synthetic peptides (Pep 1 and Pep 2) within the RBD of the original Wuhan SARS-CoV-2, as well as the whole RBD as a recombinant protein (rRBD). Hybridomas were generated and a panel of three monoclonal antibodies, mAb CU-P1-1 against Pep 1, mAb CU-P2-20 against Pep 2, and mAb CU-28-24 against rRBD, were generated and further characterized. The monoclonal antibodies were shown through ELISA to be specific for each immunogen/antigen and to be reactive by immunoblotting against RBD. Monoclonal antibody CU-P1-1 has limited applicability other than in ELISA approaches and basic immunoblotting. Monoclonal antibody CU-P2-20 is shown to be favorable for ELISA, immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry (IHC), however, not live virus neutralization. In contrast, mAb CU-28-24 is most effective at live virus neutralization as well as ELISA, immunoblotting, and IHC. Moreover, mAb CU-28-24 was active against rRBD proteins from Omicron variants B.2 and B.4/B5 as determined by ELISA, suggesting this mAb may neutralize live virus of these variants. Each of the immunoglobulin genes has been sequenced using Next Generation Sequencing, which allows the expression of respective recombinant proteins, thereby eliminating the need for long-term hybridoma maintenance. These hybridomas and related mAbs are now protected by Intellectual Property agreements with the Clemson University Research Foundation and are Patent Pending based on their unique amino acids within the complementary determining regions (CDRs).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.08.566276v1" target="_blank">Generation and characterization of a multi-functional panel of monoclonal antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 research and treatment</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The influence of COVID-19 fear beliefs on the relationships between positive mood and loss-of-control eating: a ten-day diary study</strong> -
<div>
Objectives: Loss-of-control eating (LOCE), a perceived inability to stop eating or to resist eating onset, is driven by mood. LOCE prevalence increased following onset of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 has been associated with significant increase in stressors, such as fear beliefs regarding contracting illness. Fear beliefs could in turn impact a relationship between mood and LOCE. It was also hypothesized that daily protective strategies meant to prevent contagion may be associated with LOCE, in line with ego depletion theory. Design: This was a two-phase study with a cross-sectional phase and daily diary design. Methods: 108 adults from the United States completed a diary study over ten days regarding daily LOCE, positive and negative mood, and protective behaviors against contagion. Participants rated COVID-fear beliefs at a baseline assessment, hypothesized to predict LOCE directly between subjects and have a cross-level interactive effect on predictors within-subjects. Data were analyzed both within- and between-subjects with a multilevel model. Results: Negative mood was associated with LOCE at both levels, although protective behaviors evinced no significant associations. Positive mood did not reveal significant direct associations with LOCE, although there was an interactive effect such that positive mood was a significant model predictor at low COVID fear beliefs. Johnson-Neyman analyses showed that when COVID-fear beliefs were low, positive mood had a significant inverse association with LOCE. Conclusion: Negative mood and protective strategies are directly associated with LOCE but the relationship between positive mood and LOCE may be moderated by the degree of COVID-19 fear beliefs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/ta659/" target="_blank">The influence of COVID-19 fear beliefs on the relationships between positive mood and loss-of-control eating: a ten-day diary study</a>
</div></li>
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<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>Clinical Evaluation of the Panbio™ COVID-19/Flu A&amp;B Panel to Support Home Use</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Influenza A; Influenza Type B <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: Panbio™ COVID-19/Flu A&amp;B Panel <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Abbott Rapid Dx <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>Building Engagement Using Financial Incentives Trial - Colorectal Cancer Screening</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Health Behavior; Colorectal Cancer; Influenza; COVID-19; Vaccine Hesitancy; Vaccine-Preventable Diseases; Healthcare Patient Acceptance <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Financial incentive for colorectal cancer screening; Behavioral: Financial incentive for flu shot; Behavioral: Financial incentive for COVID-19 shot <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Tulane University; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) <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 Rehabilitation Combined With a Maintenance Program Compared to Rehabilitation Alone in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: Rehabilitation + maintenance program; Procedure: Rehabilitation only <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Schön Klinik Berchtesgadener Land; Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care (Funding); Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (German pension insurance) (Design); Betriebskrankenkassen Landesverband Bayern (Bavarian health insurance) (Design) <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>Child and Adolescent Mental Health Literacy for Primary Schools Teachers. A Multicomponent Intervention</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Child Mental Health <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Child Mental Health Literacy Program <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Universidad de Valparaiso <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>Brief Digital Intervention to Increase COVID-19 Vaccination Among Individuals With Anxiety or Depression</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Misinformation; Vaccine Hesitancy; Anxiety; Depression; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Attitudinal inoculation; Behavioral: Cognitive-behavioral therapy-informed intervention; Behavioral: Conventional public health messaging <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: City University of New York, School of Public Health; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PhaseⅡ Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (ZSVG-02-O); Biological: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (ZSVG-02-O); Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell) ,Inactivated <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: CNBG-Virogin Biotech (Shanghai) Ltd. <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>Pilot Randomized Study of RD-X19 Tx Device in Subjects With PCC (Long Covid) in the Outpatient Setting</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post COVID-19 Condition (PCC) <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: RDX-19 <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: KNOWBio Inc.; NAMSA <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>CPAP Therapy Through a Helmet or a Full Face Mask in Patients With Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure: Cross-over Study</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Pneumonia, Bacterial; Respiratory Failure; COVID-19 Pneumonia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: Arterial blood gases; Diagnostic Test: Respiratory rate (RR); Diagnostic Test: Pulseoximeter; Diagnostic Test: Assessment of accessory respiratory muscles work; Diagnostic Test: Esophageal pressure measurement; Diagnostic Test: Discomfort Visual Analog Scale (VAS); Diagnostic Test: Noninvasive blood pressure; Diagnostic Test: Heart rate <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Investigation of Efficacy and Safety of Electrical Signal Therapy Provided by Dr Biolyse® Device in COVID-19 Disease</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pneumonia; Virus Diseases; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Signal Therapy provided by Dr.Biolyse device; Other: Liquid Support Treatment <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: AVB Biotechnology <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase 1 Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Placebo; Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell) ,Inactivated; Biological: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (ZSVG-02-O) 10 μg; Biological: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (ZSVG-02-O) 30 μg; Biological: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (ZSVG-02-O) 60 μg <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: CNBG-Virogin Biotech (Shanghai) Ltd.; Shulan (Hangzhou) 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>SAFE Workplace Intervention for People With IDD</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Communicable Diseases; Prevention; Workplace Intervention <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: SAFE Employment Training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Temple University; National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effects of an EMDR Intervention on Traumatic and Obsessive Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Adult ALL; Post-traumatic Stress Disorder; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Disgust; Guilt; Shame <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: EMDR <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Pisa <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>Lithium Long COVID Dose-finding Study</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Dietary Supplement: Lithium <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: State University of New York at Buffalo <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>Pharmacokinetics and Safety of GST-HG171 Tablets in Subjects With Impaired and Normal Renal Function</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pneumonia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: GST-HG171 Tablets <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Fujian Akeylink Biotechnology Co., Ltd. <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>Preoperative Educational Videos on Maternal Stress Whose Children Received Congenital Heart Disease Surgery: During COVID-19 Panic</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Educational Videos; Maternal; Uncertainty; Anxiety; Depression; Congenital Heart Disease; Children <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Preoperative educational videos plus routine education; Other: Preoperative routine education <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Chung Shan Medical University <br/><b>Completed</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>Exploring the disruption of SARS-CoV-2 RBD binding to hACE2</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic was declared due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Viral infection is caused by the interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) and the human ACE2 receptor (hACE2). Previous computational studies have identified repurposed small molecules that target the RBD, but very few have screened drugs in the RBD-hACE2 interface. When studies focus solely on the binding affinity between the drug and the RBD, they ignore the effect of hACE2,…</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>Qinhuo Shanggan oral solution resolves acute lung injury by down-regulating TLR4/NF-<em>κ</em>B signaling cascade and inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation</strong> - Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common condition, particularly in the COVID-19 pandemic, which is distinguished by sudden onset of respiratory insufficiency with tachypnea, oxygen-refractory cyanosis, reduced lung compliance and diffuse infiltration of pulmonary alveoli. It is well-established that increasing activity of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) signaling axis and the NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation are associated…</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 review: Mechanism and prospect of gastrodin in prevention and treatment of T2DM and COVID-19</strong> - Gastrodin is an extract from the dried tuber of the Chinese herb Gastrodia elata (Tian ma), with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral properties. Recent studies have shown that, compared to commonly used diabetes drugs, gastrodin has antidiabetic effects in multiple ways, with characteristics of low cost, high safety, less side effects, protection of β-cell function, relieving insulin resistance and alleviating multiple complications. In addition, it is confirmed that gastrodin can…</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>Duvelisib for Critically Ill Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019: An Investigator-Initiated, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Pilot Trial</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study, duvelisib did not significantly improve 28-day OS compared to placebo for severe COVID-19. Duvelisib appeared safe in this critically ill population and was associated with reduction in cytokines implicated in COVID-19 and acute respiratory distress syndrome, supporting further investigation.</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>Beneficial effects of the combination of BCc1 and Hep-S nanochelating-based medicines on IL-6 in hospitalized moderate COVID-19 adult patients: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the combination of BCc1 and Hep-S inhibits IL-6 as a highly important and well-known cytokine in COVID-19 pathophysiology and presents a promising view for immunomodulation that can manage CSS.</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 of bempedoic acid in patients at high cardiovascular risk and with statin intolerance</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Bempedoic acid was well-tolerated compared with placebo. Safety data from the long-term CLEAR Outcomes study reinforce the positive benefit-risk profile of bempedoic acid.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In their absence; intensive care nurses’ experiences of communicating and supporting relatives from a distance</strong> - CONCLUSION: Visiting restrictions in the ICU meant that ICU nurses missed vital information about their patients as a person, which might have had a negative effect on personalizing and centring the patient care. But using a combination of digital and audio tools helped nurses to guide the relatives to a clearer picture of the situation as a whole. The support that nurses were able to provide to relatives was often insufficient due to the visiting restriction and as a consequence, they…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of experiences of the patients discharged from the COVID-19 intensive care unit: a qualitative research</strong> - Making arrangements by learning how intensive care patients feel due to a disease called as fatal worldwide can make it easier for patients to cope with the disease. For this reason, it is important for healthcare professionals to understand the patients who have been infected and discharged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experiences of the patients may affect the perspective of the disease and cause different changes in the perception of it. This study, which was conducted based on this…</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>Fangchinoline inhibits SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV entry</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, lead to mild to severe respiratory illness and resulted in 6.9 million deaths worldwide. Although vaccines are effective in preventing COVID-19, they may not be sufficient to protect immunocompromised individuals from this respiratory illness. Moreover, novel emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 pose a risk of new COVID-19 waves. Therefore, identification of effective antivirals is critical in controlling SARS and other coronaviruses, such as MERS-CoV. We…</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>Antibody-mediated spike activation promotes cell-cell transmission of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The COVID pandemic fueled by emerging SARS-CoV-2 new variants of concern remains a major global health concern, and the constantly emerging mutations present challenges to current therapeutics. The spike glycoprotein is not only essential for the initial viral entry, but is also responsible for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 components via syncytia formation. Spike-mediated cell-cell transmission is strongly resistant to extracellular therapeutic and convalescent antibodies via an unknown…</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>ceRNA Network Analysis Reveals Potential Key miRNAs and Target Genes in COVID-19-Related Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease</strong> - The continued spread of SARS-CoV-2 has presented unprecedented obstacles to the worldwide public health system. Especially, individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at a heightened risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection due to their pre-existing respiratory symptoms that are not well-managed. However, the viral mechanism of affecting the expression of host genes, COPD progression, and prognosis is not clear yet.This study integrated the differential expression…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Discovery of the covalent SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup> inhibitors from antiviral herbs via integrating target-based high-throughput screening and chemoproteomic approaches</strong> - The main proteases (M^(pro) ) are highly conserved cysteine-rich proteins that can be covalently modified by numerous natural and synthetic compounds. Herein, we constructed an integrative approach to efficiently discover covalent inhibitors of M^(pro) from complex herbal matrices. This work begins with biological screening of 60 clinically used antiviral herbal medicines, among which Lonicera japonica Flos (LJF) demonstrated the strongest anti-M^(pro) effect (IC(50) = 37.82 μg/mL). Mass…</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>An efficient eco-friendly, simple, and green synthesis of some new spiro-N-(4-sulfamoyl-phenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole-2-carboxamide derivatives as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 proteases: drug-likeness, pharmacophore, molecular docking, and DFT exploration</strong> - INTRODUCTION: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a global health crisis. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly contagious virus that can cause severe respiratory illness. There is no specific treatment for COVID-19, and the development of new drugs is urgently needed.</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>Lipid and cholesterols modulate the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 viral ion channel ORF3a and its pathogenic variants</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 accessory protein, ORF3a is a putative ion channel which immensely contributes to viral pathogenicity by modulating host immune responses and virus-host interactions. Relatively high expression of ORF3a in diseased individuals and implication with inflammasome activation, apoptosis and autophagy inhibition, ratifies as an effective target for developing vaccines and therapeutics. Herein, we present the elusive dynamics of ORF3a-dimeric state using all-atoms molecular dynamics (MD)…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The anti-SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 vaccine suppresses mithramycin-induced erythroid differentiation and expression of embryo-fetal globin genes in human erythroleukemia K562 cells</strong> - The COVID-19 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein (S-protein) plays an important role in the early phase of SARS-CoV2 infection through efficient interaction with ACE2. The S-protein is produced by RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, that were fundamental for the reduction of the viral spread within the population and the clinical severity of COVID-19. However, the S-protein has been…</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 Escalating Violence Between Israel and Lebanon</strong> - There’s a sense of history repeating itself along the border, where tens of thousands have been displaced and the civilian death toll is climbing. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-escalating-violence-between-israel-and-lebanon">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Warnings About Trump in 2024 Are Getting Louder</strong> - A judge’s plea, Hillary Clinton invokes the H-word, and a shock poll in the Times. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-warnings-about-trump-in-2024-are-getting-louder">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Lessons of Ohio’s Abortion-Rights Victory</strong> - Tuesday’s election results in that state and elsewhere offer fresh evidence of how the issue is likely to help Democrats in 2024. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-lessons-of-ohios-abortion-rights-victory">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How to Maintain Hope in an Age of Catastrophe</strong> - The psychoanalyst and author Robert Jay Lifton on what seventy years of studying both the victims and the perpetrators of horror has taught him about the human will to survive. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/how-to-maintain-hope-in-an-age-of-catastrophe">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Long Wait of the Families of Hamas Hostages</strong> - The relatives of those held by Hamas “live with a timer now that’s always on.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-israel/the-long-wait-of-the-hostages-families">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>How to think through allegations of genocide in Gaza</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YWwJZLlaZuIFXGWJBx1HXSs88F0=/222x0:3778x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72859684/1763979915.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A Palestinian woman consoles a child following Israeli airstrikes on the al-Fakhoora district of Jabaliya, northern Gaza, on November 4, 2023.  | Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
What we talk about when we talk about genocide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rCK0pS">
As the civilian death toll continues to rise from <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a>’s war in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a> in response to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907323/israel-war-hamas-attack-explained-southern-israel-gaza">Hamas’s October 7 attack</a>, more and more voices have warned of genocide.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z18tDZ">
On November 2, United Nations experts <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-running-out-time-un-experts-warn-demanding-ceasefire-prevent-genocide-0">said</a> in a joint statement that <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestinians</a> in Gaza were at “grave risk of genocide.” And on October 28, the director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stepped down because, as he wrote in his <a href="https://x.com/Raminho/status/1719385390086271164?s=20">resignation letter</a>, “we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes [in Gaza] and the Organization that we serve appears powerless to stop it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xrxRZT">
More than 800 scholars have also recently <a href="https://twailr.com/public-statement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/">signed on to a letter</a> aiming to “sound the alarm about the possibility of the crime of genocide.” And US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestinian American in <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a>, accused <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">President Joe Biden</a> of supporting “the genocide of the Palestinian people,” in a <a href="https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1720520713226908144?s=20">video</a> on November 3.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u4Y73l">
These warnings have pointed to the sheer number of civilian casualties from Israel’s bombardment, the effects of the siege, and rhetoric from Israeli officials that demonizes and calls for the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among other things, as indicators that Israel’s offensive against <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a> could cross the line into genocide. That is an explosive charge, and one that Israel, a nation whose existence is inextricably linked to the genocide of Jews in the Holocaust, has rejected by arguing that the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/07/us/politics/israel-gaza-war-death-toll-civilians.html">killing of innocents is unavoidable</a> in pursuit of its war aims.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vz9toA">
As bloody as the war in Gaza has been so far, it may not fit the popular conception many have of genocide from the 20th century, when the death tolls were far larger and, in retrospect, the intent by perpetrators to wipe out an entire people was undeniable. But there are different ways to define genocide — from the colloquial to the scholarly and political to the strict legal sense. And it is the legal definition, which includes a narrow set of criteria, that ultimately determines formal accountability.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SeSAdf">
On that score, most experts, with a couple of <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/letters/on-a-textbook-case-of-genocide">prominent exceptions</a>, say that it is not possible to prove Israel’s actions meet that legal threshold right now. “I don’t think it’s genocidal yet. I think it can easily be,” said <a href="https://kroc.nd.edu/faculty-and-staff/ernesto-verdeja/">Ernesto Verdeja</a>, an associate professor of political science and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. “At this point, it’s a little hard to put all the pieces together.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B9M9Ml">
With <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/world/gaza-death-toll-accuracy-unicef-intl-hnk/index.html">more than 10,000 Palestinians dead</a>, according to the latest estimates from the Gaza Health Ministry, the humanitarian situation is unquestionably urgent. Many <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-gaza-war-crimes-icc-1a42212b95a7f6ce54909fb22e0d681d">experts</a> Vox spoke to agreed that war crimes had likely been committed both by Hamas and Israel throughout this conflict. In some ways, the semantic fixation on whether what’s happening in Gaza is or isn’t genocide under the legal framework risks losing sight of that larger picture. Experts pointed out that charges of “genocide” carry no more legal or moral weight than “crimes against humanity” or “war crimes” under international law.
</p>
<aside id="8zORwJ">
<div>
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</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zxxi6a">
But it’s also true that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/10/24/23930269/israel-hamas-gaza-palestine-occupation-zionism-displacement">words we use to describe the conflict</a> carry real weight. And that is why, at a moment when all the world is weighing the atrocities and victimizations of one side and the other, it is so vital to understand what is meant, and what isn’t, by the term “genocide.”
</p>
<h3 id="gXEeS2">
Four different ways of understanding genocide
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lM50m0">
There are four main ways to conceptualize genocide, according to Verdeja, and each depends on how and where the term is being used — whether in the legal world, the realm of social science, the arena of international politics, or among the general public. That means what might constitute genocide to many members of the public might not to someone with a background in international law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WARMnj">
First, there’s the legal definition. According to the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">Genocide Convention</a>, which entered into force in 1951 and has been ratified by 153 states, genocide means “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”:
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B7DKMU">
Killing members of the group
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lREzGl">
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZDkGCm">
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
</li>
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Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ctIGNG">
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QIMVfB">
Notice that there are two components here. One is a physical element — the five acts just listed — which can be empirically determined. But the other is a mental element — the “intent to destroy” a group “as such” — and that’s much harder to prove.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hJzaVv">
By “as such,” the Convention means that the victims must be deliberately targeted not as individuals but because of their membership in a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group and as part of a broader plan to destroy that group. That second part is key: Not every violent attack against civilians — even if it is motivated by national, ethnic, racial, or religious bias — qualifies as genocide. It has to be intended to eliminate the group as a collective. (Note that genocide can be perpetrated <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml">against only part of a group</a>, so long as it’s an identifiable and substantial part.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gRSenD">
To prove that intent exists, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml#:~:text=To%20constitute%20genocide%2C%20there%20must,to%20simply%20disperse%20a%20group.">court precedent</a> has also required the “existence of a state or organizational plan or policy.” The statements of public officials and other decision-makers can help support that case, though they may not be enough alone. It’s even more difficult to prove that the threshold has been met while the atrocities are still ongoing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oxx8gk">
Only <a href="https://theconversation.com/genocide-70-years-on-three-reasons-why-the-un-convention-is-still-failing-108706">three genocides</a> in history have been officially recognized under the definition of the term in the 1948 Genocide Convention and led to trials in international criminal tribunals: one against Cham Muslim and ethnic Vietnamese perpetrated by Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia in the 1970s, the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre in Bosnia. (The Holocaust occurred before the adoption of the 1948 Convention.) The mass killings of the Yazidis by ISIS in Iraq and of the Rohingya in Myanmar have been recognized as genocide by the United Nations as a whole. Though the US <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/10/05/genocide-returns-to-darfur">called</a> the killing of Black Africans in the Sudanese region of Darfur between 2003 and 2005 “genocide,” a UN investigation <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-un-has-ruled-out-genocide-darfur">ruled it was not genocide</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Crowds of people gather on a muddy riverbank, most holding belongings or balancing them on their heads." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oo8e9WnRfcUzSe9J28AalzOEYwk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25072344/739937.jpg"/> <cite>Scott Peterson/Liaison</cite>
<figcaption>
Refugees crowd along the banks of a river on May 3, 1994, at the border of Rwanda and Tanzania.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GOJIgV">
The prosecution of genocide is rare in part because its definition under the Convention is the product of post-World War II compromise among UN member states and <a href="https://lemkinprogram.gmu.edu/lemkin">narrow by design</a> so that certain atrocities they had perpetrated would not be recognized as genocide: for example, mass killing and famine in the Soviet Union and lynchings and racial terror in the US. But that definition proved <a href="https://theconversation.com/genocide-70-years-on-three-reasons-why-the-un-convention-is-still-failing-108706">perhaps too narrow</a> to effectively prevent and respond to genocides when they happen. That has left some searching for a more expansive definition.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oHWqbP">
And so, secondly, there’s the way the term “genocide” is used in social science. “The social-scientific approach, I think, tends to be a bit more capacious,” Verdeja said, noting most academics don’t require proving “intent” beyond a reasonable doubt and don’t require victims to be in the Convention’s four protected groups. Social scientists might count a political group as a victim of genocide, for example including the Khmer Rouge’s political victims in addition to the legally recognized victims. “But that’s also partly because the purpose is different, right? We’re not using that for purposes of holding an individual accountable, or holding the state accountable at the International Court of Justice.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tXQaQG">
Third, there’s the way “genocide” is used in the international politics and policy world. “They’re thinking specifically around questions of prevention policy and intervention,” Verdeja explained. “Many international organizations and governments will use the term genocide when what they really mean is large-scale violence against civilians.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pD08P4">
That’s because those entities are more concerned with trying to identify instances where there might be outbreaks of grave human rights violations that merit an international policy response, ideally to prevent those violations from worsening, rather than being concerned with the strict legal definition. “So if you spend a lot of time talking to the State Department … that’s kind of loosely how they use ‘genocide,’ even though they know the legal definition,” Verdeja said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fyhGfY">
Fourth, there’s the way “genocide” is colloquially used by the public. “There, genocide tends to be used as a stand-in term for the greatest evils, the greatest harms that human beings experience,” Verdeja said. Typically, this is about using the moral and emotional weight of the term to make a political claim: The current situation is unacceptable and something must be done.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RK6j64">
For purposes of holding Israel accountable for its actions in Gaza, however, it’s the legal framework that matters most. And that’s why debates have focused on whether that strictest definition of genocide applies.
</p>
<h3 id="59oT4h">
Evaluating the allegations of genocide in Gaza
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g5aWSc">
Experts in human rights and war crimes are generally hesitant to call Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza “genocide” as understood in international law. That’s especially the case in the absence of “clear evidence verified by a third-party investigation,” said <a href="https://faculty.txst.edu/profile/2149472">Franziska Boehme</a>, an assistant professor of political science at Texas State University.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i2pyum">
But several of the scholars Vox spoke to caution that the violence could certainly become genocidal, may already be perilously close to meeting the threshold, and that the international community must hold Israel responsible for any atrocities it may have committed and prevent further ones, regardless of how we define them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2k8qEG">
Israel has already killed and injured Palestinians in Gaza en masse, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/06/middleeast/gaza-10k-deaths-intl/index.html">mostly women and minors</a>. There is no specific threshold number of deaths or proportion of a group killed required under the Genocide Convention or resulting case law, only that they be substantial.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gT5nmQ">
Israel has said its siege and bombardment of Gaza — which <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/03/netanyahu-israel-hamas-war-00125225">Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on November 3</a> will continue with “all of [Israel’s] power” — is intended to eliminate Hamas, after the horrors of October 7. It has denied that it intentionally targets civilians and, in a <a href="https://x.com/Schwartzesque/status/1719741450001269113?s=20">statement</a> to Insider, the IDF said it is “fully committed to respecting all applicable international legal obligations,” putting procedures in place to ensure as much. Instead, it says civilian deaths are the unfortunate collateral damage of its war on Hamas, which Israel has accused of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/human-shield-israel-claim-hamas-command-centre-under-hospital-palestinian-civilian-gaza-city">hiding behind civilian infrastructure</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Danir">
International law does not outright ban civilian casualties during war. Principles around “proportionality,” for instance, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/02/world/middleeast/international-law-israel-hamas.html?partner=slack&amp;smid=sl-share">imply that some civilian deaths can be acceptable depending on the military objective</a>. But <a href="https://twailr.com/public-statement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/">hundreds of scholars and practitioners of international law</a> have argued that, beyond any one incident, the “widespread killing, bodily and mental harm, and unviable conditions of life” that Palestinians are being subjected to means there is “a serious risk of genocide being committed in the Gaza Strip.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oxvAvi">
Beyond killing civilians en masse, Israel appears to be inflicting “conditions of life calculated to bring about [the targeted group’s] physical destruction,” as prohibited by the convention, said <a href="https://epp.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/adam-jones/">Adam Jones</a>, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia who has written a textbook on genocide. He pointed to Israel’s decisions to let in <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/catastrophic-humanitarian-situation-in-besieged-gaza/a-67310921">only limited humanitarian assistance </a>that is far from sufficient to provide for the needs of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1206479861/israel-gaza-hamas-children-population-war-palestinians">2.2 million people</a>; to cut off fuel, water, and electricity; and to deprive people of adequate access to medical care. As of November 5, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/catastrophic-humanitarian-situation-in-besieged-gaza/a-67310921">some 370 aid trucks</a> had reportedly arrived in Gaza since they were <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trucks-enter-gaza-carrying-medical-supplies-food-hamas-2023-10-21/">first allowed to enter on October 21</a>, but more than 100 trucks daily would be required to meet the needs of the population.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A group of people, including children, stand with heads bowed and arms crossed across their chests in prayer. Before them on the ground lie several body bags. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SvqGXpeQOiB5VvRb2G3CRTDFwWU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25072356/1764264228.jpg"/> <cite>Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
People perform funeral prayer for those who were killed in the Israeli attacks on the 30th day of the conflict after they were moved from the morgue of Nasser Hospital to be buried at a cemetery in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on November 5, 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CojDq7">
Some human rights lawyers and scholars say that entertaining allegations of genocide against Israel at this point is not just premature, but also cheapens the concept. Dov Waxman, a professor of political science and Israel studies and the director of the UCLA Y&amp;S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/letters/on-a-textbook-case-of-genocide">writes in Jewish Currents</a> that while there may be a “risk of genocidal actions” in Gaza, claims that it is happening now require “stretching the concept too far, emptying it of any meaning.” Eitay Mack, a human rights lawyer based in Jerusalem, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-11-01/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israel-is-not-committing-genocide-in-gaza/0000018b-8785-d055-afbf-b7a75d450000">writes in Haaretz</a> that the accusation of genocide is “a false claim not founded in international law” and one that “will not be useful for ending the war or promoting the freedom of the people in Gaza.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nVOhPY">
Among those who do see substantial risk of genocide, though, the biggest sticking point in the debate centers on what Israel’s intentions are.<strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ITVTyv">
Verdeja said that intentionality is tough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, especially “when you’re looking at these types of atrocities happening in real time.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="shjy1l">
<a href="https://www.tcd.ie/law/people/BECKERMA">Michael Becker</a>, an assistant professor of international human rights law at Trinity College, Dublin, similarly said that “because the requirement of genocidal intent has been construed so restrictively by international courts, it is not obvious that Israel’s actions satisfy the legal definition of genocide, notwithstanding the evidence of mass atrocity.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t7q0tY">
The same hurdle of proving intentionality applies to any evaluation of whether Hamas’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/7/23907683/israel-hamas-war-news-updates-october-2023">October 7 attack</a> constitutes genocide. Hamas, which governs Gaza and is designated by many countries as a terrorist organization, promises the destruction of Israel in its founding charter and has said it has plans for <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-official-says-group-aims-to-repeat-oct-7-onslaught-many-times-to-destroy-israel/?fbclid=IwAR2o7ud9PWED4Yf0j7meuXX4XyAmtLyBaqpaMH1_gvP5uwlB3MhXCzz9CZI">more attacks</a> like the one on October 7. Its “wild and indiscriminate killing” of more than 1,400 people is characteristic of what social scientists refer to as a “genocidal massacre” that should be “acknowledged and condemned as such,” but the intentionality requirement under the law is still a “high evidentiary bar to reach,” Jones said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GMKh5b">
Raz Segal, an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, said that Hamas’s charter alone isn’t enough to prove intent as required by the narrow definition in the Convention. “I definitely see intent to kill a significant number of members of the group, to instill unbelievable trauma and terror among members of the group,” he said. “But I don’t see intent to destroy in relation to the Hamas attack that would render it an act of genocide.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6XZwDY">
Similarly, there is already some support for the notion that Israel is intentionally trying to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza, though, again, proving that intent requires clearing a high bar. Scholars have pointed to statements by Israeli leaders as one piece of evidence that the country’s military campaign may be targeting Palestinians in Gaza broadly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iUbsgE">
A short, non-exhaustive list: Prime Minister <a href="https://www.vox.com/23910085/netanyahu-israel-right-hamas-gaza-war-history">Benjamin Netanyahu</a> pledged to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/israeli-prime-minister-declares-war-1696882534/">reduce parts of Gaza</a> “to rubble” and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-gaza-attacks-hamas-idf-netanyahu-long-fight-rcna122651/rcrd23808?canonicalCard=true">invoked</a> the people of Amalek, the foe that God ordered the ancient Israelites to genocide in the Bible, in a recent speech. Defense minister Yoav Gallant called for a “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/9/23910159/israel-gaza-siege-palestinians-hamas-humanitarian-crisis">complete siege</a>” on Gaza and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/">stated</a> that “we are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.” Army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said forces would turn Gaza into a <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/10/11/israeli-official-says-gaza-will-be-made-a-city-of-tents/">“city of tents</a>” and admitted that Israel’s “emphasis is on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/10/right-now-it-is-one-day-at-a-time-life-on-israels-frontline-with-gaza">damage and not on accuracy”</a> in dropping hundreds of tons of bombs on Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fObGmn">
These are people directly presiding over or involved in the military operations in Gaza, whose words carry more weight. But Israeli lawmakers and officials have also been <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23933707/israel-palestine-hamas-gaza-nakba-displacement-refugees-history">invoking dehumanizing language</a> that experts say should not be overlooked in evaluating Israel’s ambitions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fNlo6b">
Israeli President Isaac Herzog <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/israel-gaza-isaac-herzog_n_65295ee8e4b03ea0c004e2a8">blamed</a> Palestinian civilians in Gaza as a whole for Hamas’s October 7 attack: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.” Amichay Eliyahu, the minister of heritage, told a Hebrew radio station that there were no non-combatants in Gaza and advocated for dropping a nuclear bomb on the territory. (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/world/middleeast/amichay-eliyahu-israel-minister-nuclear-bomb-gaza.html#:~:text=Prime%20Minister%20Benjamin%20Netanyahu%20of%20Israel%20took%20the%20highly%20unusual,with%20the%20threat%20from%20Hamas">Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu</a>, but reportedly <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-wanted-to-fire-far-right-minister-caved-under-ben-gvirs-opposition-tv/">gave in to pressure from his other coalition members</a> and did not fire the minister entirely.) Revital Gotliv, a Parliament member from Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, <a href="https://twitter.com/TallyGotliv/status/1711678420235534705">called for Israel to use nuclear weapons</a> in Gaza: “It’s time for a doomsday weapon. Shooting powerful missiles without limit. Not flattening a neighborhood. Crushing and flattening Gaza.” Galit Distel Atbaryan, also of Likud, <a href="https://twitter.com/GalitDistel/status/1719689095230730656?fbclid=IwAR2uScN3L14jn3DTSxggK9xFgfWVxSlhBnoXnevoKSYysDd-f7xhzzF2Q4o">posted on X</a> in Hebrew that Israelis should invest their energy in one thing: “Erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth” and forcing the “Gazan monsters” either to flee the Strip to Egypt or to face their death.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bwS0zr">
Comments like those prompted Segal to argue in <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/author/raz-segal">Jewish Currents</a> recently that Israel’s actions constitute a “textbook case of genocide.” He told Vox that those statements, indiscriminate bombing of civilians, and cutting off of resources taken together point to the requisite “intent to destroy.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vhe2Mk">
“If this is not special intent to destroy, I don’t know what is,” Segal told Vox. “How many Palestinians need to die for these statements to be recognized as what they are?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7Raser">
Israel, for its part, has urged civilians to move south as its troops <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/06/israel-hamas-war-blinken-turkey-gaza-us-submarine-ankara-talks-hakan-fidan">encircle Gaza City</a> and warned that anyone who remains could be seen as “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/why-is-israel-attacking-south-gaza-after-telling-people-go-there-2023-10-25/">sympathizers of a terrorist </a>organization.” But some are unable to move or have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/why-is-israel-attacking-south-gaza-after-telling-people-go-there-2023-10-25/">refused to move</a>, fearing permanent displacement from their homes. Israel is continuing its bombardment, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinians-fleeing-fighting-south-find-no-escape-danger-2023-10-15/#:~:text=Many%20Gazans%20have%20refused%20to,war%20that%20accompanied%20Israel's%20creation.">even on corridors to the south</a>. Its reliance on aerial bombing, as opposed to “ground-level, up-close-and-personal killing,” may allow for “obfuscation” about who exactly it’s targeting, Jones said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Np2fdd">
When Israel <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/1209646548/israel-military-central-gaza-fighting-hamas">first bombed</a> the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza City, where it claimed to have <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-commander-behind-terror-attacks-killed-gaza-who-israel-targeting/">killed a Hamas commander</a>, it did so knowing that many civilians there would die. “This is the tragedy of war,” an IDF spokesperson <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/176534/cnn-host-blitzer-stunned-israel-hit-refugee-camp-airstrike?utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=SF_TNR">told CNN</a>. Israel has since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/11/02/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news/israel-rejects-the-un-human-rights-agencys-concern-that-israeli-strikes-on-jabaliya-may-constitute-war-crimes?smid=url-share">rebuffed UN concerns</a> that the bombing could constitute a war crime and bombed the site <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/11/4/israel-bombs-un-school-in-third-major-attack-on-gazas-jabalia-refugee-camp">two more times</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/11/02/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news/satellite-images-show-the-extent-of-the-damage-in-jabaliya?smid=url-share">leveling every building</a> in an approximate area of at least 2,500 square meters and resulting in reportedly hundreds of deaths and injuries. “Attacking a camp sheltering civilians including women and children is a complete breach of the rules of proportionality and distinction between combatants and civilians,” UN experts said in last week’s joint statement.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An aerial shot of flattened buildings, reduced to gray rubble. A bulldozer moves debris. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CtQ-_LlQ2gRppzJ-HoE1e_O7Q3Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25072364/1757594295.jpg"/> <cite>Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinians conduct a search and rescue operation after the second bombardment of the Israeli army in the last 24 hours at Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City, Gaza, on November 1, 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FA1CZx">
Though some have pointed out that <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/letters/on-a-textbook-case-of-genocide">Israel could have killed even more people in Gaza</a> if it really wanted to do so, it does not necessarily have to unleash its full arsenal to commit genocide. “It’s quite plausible that the state uses some of its firepower and nevertheless is carrying out the attacks in the context of the destruction of the target group,” Verdeja said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ajysaL">
All of this suggests that Israel’s operations in Gaza are “definitely going in the direction” of genocide, Verdeja said.
</p>
<h3 id="6DMVZF">
How should we describe what’s happening in Gaza?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iDoKnM">
Ultimately, experts said, the debate over whether what we’re seeing in Gaza is or isn’t genocide risks overshadowing the gravity of the harms that are being committed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T1xhhU">
There are other terms that might end up being more appropriate, after independent bodies conduct third-party investigations and scholars evaluate the conditions. In the legal arena, a group of independent UN experts <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/02/world/middleeast/international-law-israel-hamas.html">says</a> Israel’s siege and bombardment constitute <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/10/24/23930269/israel-hamas-gaza-palestine-occupation-zionism-displacement">collective punishment</a> — the harming of a person or group of people based on the actions of another member of their group — which is a war crime prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. Some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/16/israel-gaza-mass-evacuation-ethnic-cleansing">experts</a> also <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/un-expert-warns-new-instance-mass-ethnic-cleansing-palestinians-calls">warn</a> that Israel’s campaign against Hamas might become an “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in Gaza writ large. That term carries no legal weight, but it is used by scholars to describe operations aimed at making a geographic area ethnically homogeneous, often through tactics that can constitute war crimes, like indiscriminate killings or forced displacement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="03DzBT">
“Debates about whether Israel’s actions constitute genocide or ethnic cleansing are an unhelpful distraction from the fact that we are witnessing a situation of mass atrocity involving what appear to be egregious violations of international law, and that states need to press upon Israel to adopt a radically different approach in responding to the threat posed by Hamas,” Becker said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="69LIk3">
The term “genocide” grabs the world’s attention. But the devastation in Gaza should command attention just as much even if “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity” turn out to be better descriptors from a legal point of view. “These terms also speak to horrible atrocities and should be taken no less seriously,” Becker said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lQvxB8">
“It’s important to remember that there is no hierarchy among crimes under international law,” Amnesty International said in a statement. “As stated in the preamble of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes all are ‘the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole [and] must not go unpunished.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZB5ZfB">
Verdeja put it even more simply. “The international community has responsibility already,” he said. “Whether it’s genocide or not I think is a little bit beside the point.”
</p></li>
<li><strong>Your phone is the key to your digital life. Make sure you know what to do if you lose it.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Someone just lost their phone. It sinks into a container of water, their hand outstretched but not reaching it." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Brzwl0t-oshotS5Vn-5fAdshalg=/569x0:5121x3414/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72857067/GettyImages_591397373.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A terrifying image, especially if you haven’t prepared for the prospect of suddenly losing your phone. | Peter Cade/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Preparing yourself for the worst is easier than you might think — and it’s never been more important.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Ru92V">
The night before I was supposed to go on a long and well-deserved vacation, something very, very bad happened: I lost my phone. I had a friend over and, I decided, he must have accidentally taken my phone with him when he left. Which was a problem because all methods I had to contact him — including his phone number and address — were in the one thing I now didn’t have.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ru4x5r">
There’s nothing like spending 30 minutes panicking that you’ve lost your phone to make you realize just how devastating that loss can be … and how poorly you’ve prepared for the possibility. Access to just about everything I wasn’t already logged into on my computer was dependent on access to my phone, with my mobile-device-only password manager and multifactor <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22419794/authenticator-apps-and-you-authy-google-authenticator">authentication apps</a> and text messages. Actually, had I even backed my phone up to my iCloud account? Didn’t I delete my backups to free up storage space? Was I logged into iCloud on my laptop? Would it even be possible to log in, since my passwords and authentication tools were only on the phone?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mQBoTG">
“I don’t think most people prepare for losing their phone,” Sherrod DeGrippo, director of threat intelligence strategy at Microsoft, told Vox. “Which is surprising considering how many people [have] lost their phone, broke their device, or had it stolen. Despite many people having experience here, they aren’t often taking the right precautions.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sS5p7w">
Our phones have become our main — in some cases, only — gateway to so many things. If you lock yourself out of your house, you can call a locksmith to get back in, even if it’s the middle of the night on a holiday. But if you lose your phone, you may lose your keys to a whole lot more, and it may take a while, if ever, to get that access back.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w6T7LC">
Ironically, this is especially true if you’ve proactively taken the kind of basic digital security measures most experts would recommend. My efforts to secure my accounts from bad actors — some of which relied on having my phone — might have made it that much harder for me to get back into them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LHKqXk">
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t do those things — you absolutely should. You just want to make sure you’re preparing for the possibility of a lost device when you set them up. The trick is to make sure you aren’t low-hanging fruit for bad actors, while also not putting that fruit so high up that you can’t reach it if you need it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qUaGhM">
So I’ve put together a little guide on how to best protect yourself from losing everything if you lose your phone. One thing to keep in mind: These are recommendations for the average person with the average security concerns. If you’ve got different considerations because you’re, say, storing valuable company secrets on your phone, this is not the guide for you.
</p>
<h3 id="EWVr1G">
Make sure you have something to restore: Back that phone up
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EJuDMb">
If you aren’t backing up your phone, there may not <em>be</em> anything to get back if you lose or break it. Some of those things, like photos, may be lost forever. Fortunately, it’s easier than ever to back up your phone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ppc9KC">
“Backup of data in the digital reality we’re in now is paramount. The impact of no backups is just too dangerous,” DeGrippo said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PvIAKq">
The old-fashioned way is to connect your phone to your computer. You can find directions on how to do this for your iPhone <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-up-iphone-iph3ecf67d29/ios">here</a> and your Android <a href="https://www.acronis.com/en-us/blog/posts/how-to-backup-android-phone-to-pc/">here</a>. This is fine, as long as you remember to back it up regularly and you aren’t in a situation where both your phone and your computer are lost or destroyed at the same time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6qfEB6">
That’s why you may want to consider backing it up to the cloud. You can set it to do so automatically and frequently, and your data will be housed in a separate and secure location. There will also, most likely, be a price attached: <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211228">Apple</a> and <a href="https://one.google.com/about/storage-backup">Google</a>, for instance, offer a tiny bit of cloud storage for free. For most people, that’s not enough, and you’ll have to shell out for a paid tier.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lM7EHY">
“This is generally worth it to seamlessly transfer to another device without data loss in case your handset goes missing forever,” DeGrippo said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="68hxhC">
Your device manufacturer or carrier may have backup options, too, if you want to do some price and feature shopping.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LcruLN">
If you’re especially afraid of losing your backup, you can do what I do: back it up to the cloud as well as your laptop, and then back your laptop up to a password-protected external disk drive that you store in a water- and fire-proof safe. This is probably excessive and unnecessary for most people, but it does protect you from many of the worst-case scenarios.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YmaoBh">
But your work isn’t done yet. You also want to make sure you know how to access that backup if you need it. As I learned, your phone can’t be the sole point of access to your backup. That may also mean making sure that the passwords or authentication codes you need to log into your cloud account can be accessed outside your phone (more on this later).
</p>
<h3 id="n8VuSJ">
Your phone may not be as lost as you think
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yC9GTW">
These days, phones and many other devices come with locator services, like Apple’s “Find My.” Make sure you’ve both activated it and know where and how to access it on another device (assuming you have one) if the worst happens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XSrCQb">
This was how I got my phone back, by the way: after a half hour of panicking, I remembered I had Find My set up on my phone and laptop, and used my computer to find my phone (it was under my pillow a few feet away the whole time). You might not be so lucky, but locator services are good for that, too: They often allow you to remotely wipe your device if you fear it’s fallen into the wrong hands. (Hopefully you’ve done your backup homework so you aren’t actually losing anything if you do have to wipe your phone).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WzLU1q">
You can even put a message on the device for whoever has it to see. I can personally attest to the usefulness of that: I left my laptop on a bus years ago. I put a plea for its return (and a reward offer) on the laptop screen. I got my computer back. Instructions on how to use Apple’s “<a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210400">Find My</a>” service can be found here, and Google has <a href="https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6160491?hl=en">an option</a> for finding Android devices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ufFUVe">
“Test out these kinds of features so when you really need them, you’ll know exactly how to find them. Further, make sure to enable the find feature on all your devices, so when you lose one, the others can locate it for you,” DeGrippo said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pAUgGY">
You may also want to consider sharing your location (which is really your device’s location) with someone you trust. This concept is bizarre to me, a privacy reporter, but it’s something <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23742552/location-sharing-iphone-friends-privacy-risks">plenty of people</a> do, and that experts recommend. And not just for finding a lost phone, either.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rXop57">
“I do this with my friends and family and it makes me feel safer knowing someone always has a general idea of where I am,” DeGrippo said. “Only share this with people who you trust, under the idea that it is always safer for that person to know where you are.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VdUrJJ">
Remember, you can revoke that access anytime for whatever reason.
</p>
<h3 id="oOnJ4v">
The cybersecurity measures that could make you life harder (but you should still do them)
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PwmiET">
Now that you’ve done everything you can to back your phone up and possibly even locate it if it goes missing, you should think about if and how you can get into all of the apps and services you’ve put on your phone if you don’t have said phone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EcKC5u">
If you use the same password for virtually everything and don’t have multifactor authentication on your accounts, then it’ll be easy to get back into them, assuming they have a web version and you have access to a second device. Enter that one password that you’ve surely memorized by now and you’re in.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EGOqay">
But! This is also a terrible plan, because it makes it easy for anyone else to get into your account, too. Your password is only as safe as the worst company you’ve entrusted it to. All you need is for one of the countless websites and apps you use that password for to have a data breach, and <a href="https://haveibeenpwned.com/">you’re screwed</a>. <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/1/28/21080122/avoid-hack-hacker-theft">I speak from experience</a>. Trust me, you don’t want to log into your bank account and see that most of your life savings has been wired out of it because <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/8q88k5/hackers-stole-68-million-passwords-from-tumblr-new-analysis-reveals">Tumblr got hacked</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MxmSag">
Choose unique, <a href="https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32040?hl=en">strong</a> passwords for all of your accounts. That way, if a password is exposed in a data breach, the damage will be limited to just one account. Of course, that would mean you also need to remember all of those passwords. And that’s where a password manager comes in.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5h9OVM">
“I highly recommend everybody has a password manager and learns how to use it,” Casey Oppenheim, co-founder and CEO of security and privacy software developer Disconnect, said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9XlDFM">
<a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204085">Apple</a> and <a href="https://passwords.google.com/?pli=1">Google</a> have password managers built right into their services, which makes creating and storing those passwords a quick and simple process. A few taps and you’re good.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kVIfuk">
You can also try a third-party app like LastPass or 1Password, though you might have to pay for them. I used the free version of LastPass, which meant I only had access to it through my phone (the paid version lets you use it on multiple devices). Which was fine until I thought I lost my phone and realized it wasn’t.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U2Ua7S">
“Ideally, it’s a password manager that is not just on your phone, but you can access it on the web,” Oppenheim said. “That’s not as secure, but I think for most people, you want to be able to access your password manager not just locally on your device.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5FTVJJ">
When you set up one of these third-party password managers, you’ll have to give your account a master password — the password to get into your passwords. Do not store this password on your phone, for reasons that should be obvious by now. Keep it somewhere safe and ensure that you’ll remember it if you ever happen to need it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kktsuW">
Even if you can’t get into your password manager, it won’t be the end of the world. Humans are fallible and forgetful, and so we have password reset options. Just make sure you have access to whatever you’ll be getting those reset codes and links on if your phone is gone. If the reset code comes via a text, for example, that’s not very helpful.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QW5BIR">
That brings us to the second security measure that you really should do, but could make things difficult if you lose your phone: multifactor authentication. If you do this through texts (a strategy you <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22419794/authenticator-apps-and-you-authy-google-authenticator">might want to rethink</a>) or an authenticator app, you risk losing access to your accounts if you lose your phone. Getting that access back may be difficult, if not impossible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rL8nVB">
If that’s why you’ve been avoiding using multifactor authentication in the first place, it shouldn’t be. There are easy ways to get authentication codes even if you lose your phone. The trick is to make sure you’ve set that up. Instructions to do so for Authy, for example, <a href="https://support.authy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016317013-Enable-or-Disable-Authy-Multi-Device">are here</a>. Google Authenticator finally made this option available <a href="https://security.googleblog.com/2023/04/google-authenticator-now-supports.html">in April</a>. If your authenticator app has a master password, save it somewhere safe that isn’t your phone, just like you should for your password manager’s password.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c0iUZW">
If you’re one of the many people who rely on text-based authentication, you can always connect a second device, like a tablet, to your messaging app so you’re still getting texts even if you don’t have your phone. Just remember that’ll mean all of your texts, not just the authentication code ones, will go to that device, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ukiN2a">
Finally, when you set up multifactor authentication on accounts, you should also get recovery codes that will let you back into your account even if you can’t access your authentication method. Here’s how to get them <a href="https://help.instagram.com/1006568999411025">for your Instagram account</a>, for example. But you have to print those out or write them down and keep them somewhere safe — again, that place is not your phone. You could even take screenshots and put those on another device. There’s a bit of a debate within the security community on whether you should be storing master passwords and recovery codes on other devices or offline, but the general consensus seems to be: use the method that works best for you and is relatively secure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IniuU5">
This is the last step in a process that some people already think has too many steps, but I assure you that, for most people, it’s not that hard and you’ll be very glad you did it if the need ever arises … or very sorry that you didn’t.
</p>
<h3 id="BNBJ0o">
Put a second layer of protection on your apps
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H3oDlq">
While we’re on the topic of your phone getting lost or stolen, this might be a good time to make sure that someone else still can’t get the keys to your life even if they get into your phone — which <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-iphone-security-theft-passcode-data-privacya-basic-iphone-feature-helps-criminals-steal-your-digital-life-cbf14b1a">is a possibility</a> even if you’ve locked it with something like Face ID.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lwB7hp">
Many apps give you the option to add an app-specific lock. When you think about all of the really important things that can be accessed through your phone and the consequences if they fell into the wrong hands — bank accounts, <a href="https://www.vox.com/even-better/23157229/online-scam-venmo-zelle-cashapp-crypto">payment apps</a>, password managers, and authentication apps, to name a few — you may find that’s very much worth the few extra seconds it takes to unlock the apps when you need them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aU4tIK">
If you use Face ID, it really couldn’t be easier. A passcode takes a little longer, and if you go that route, just make sure the code isn’t the same as what you use to unlock your phone, and isn’t something that can be easily guessed. Setting this up is easy (here’s the instructions for Venmo, <a href="https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/217532257-PIN-Touch-ID-Setup">for example</a>), and most apps that have the really important stuff, like financial data or access, offer it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TsOqPG">
Finally, once you’ve got all of these measures in place, take a little bit of time to make sure you know what you have, where, and how to use it. When you first realize your phone is lost, broken, or stolen, panic might make you forget all the things you set up to protect and prepare yourself. The tool I ultimately used to find my phone was right there the whole time, but it took half an hour before I remembered it was an option. Part of the reason why is that I hadn’t used the “Find My” app on my computer in years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fgCCpY">
Hopefully, you’ll never need to actually use any of these things, although the chances that you’ll lose access to your phone at some point — even if it’s just lost in your home for half an hour — are pretty good. If you’ve done the work to prepare for the worst, you’ll be in a much better place if it ever happens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="im8WIp">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eRJo27">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The case for inviting everyone to everything</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A cartoon of large group of people enjoying themselves." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/h7akACPkfuW8NMO_teciqbce7sY=/235x0:2014x1334/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72856987/GettyImages_97218200.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Getty Images/CSA Images RF
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In a time when loneliness is more pervasive than ever, why not extend an invitation?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x6loAL">
When a friend from college told Melissa Chan that he was coming to visit her in New York City, she was thrilled. It was 2018; she hadn’t seen him in four years, when they had studied abroad in Vienna together. “I was like, ‘Okay, this is a big deal. Let me throw you a party,’” Chan remembers. This friend didn’t know anyone in New York, but that didn’t matter. Chan invited a bunch of her friends, and told them all her usual encouragement to “just bring whoever.” Leading up to the party, her friend mentioned that he had chatted a lot with the two young people in his row on the flight over. “He was like, ‘Oh, is it weird if I invite them to the party?’ And I was like, ‘No, no, that’d be so fun.’”
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And it <em>was</em> fun. Having two strangers who were totally unconnected from anyone, save for the serendipitous flight seating plan, made for a great icebreaker, and it sparked a lot of dynamic conversation. Although Chan didn’t keep in touch with the pair, she and her visiting friend remember that night fondly. It sort of encapsulated Chan’s general philosophy when it comes to parties and socializing: Be free and easy with your invitations. “When there’s more of a melting pot at an event, it’s just a more interesting environment and way more conducive to diverse conversations and making new friends,” she says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r3r3fh">
The idea of hosting or even attending a large social event where there will be plenty of strangers, or people from disparate friend groups, can generate a lot of anxiety for some. It can be easy to overthink about who may not get along, or catastrophize the potential awkwardness of talking to groups of people with whom you have little in common. Research, though, suggests that a reluctance to reach out and connect is <a href="https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jcpy.1336">unwise</a>, that we <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-28833-001">underestimate others’ interest</a> in connecting, and that people like Chan are really onto something. Of course, you cannot invite <em>everyone</em> to everything; an intimate game night will by definition include only a few people, and your dinner parties will be constrained to your number of place settings. If you are able to include more people, though, research suggests you should, and that it could benefit all involved. Especially in a purported <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/5/3/23707936/surgeon-general-loneliness-epidemic-report">epidemic of loneliness</a> and isolation, putting yourself in a place to form new and surprising connections could lead to revelations. So why not broaden the invitation?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CUqwOl">
Broadening the invitation means more than just including new acquaintances or strangers at social events. It can also mean reaching out to people you haven’t spoken to in a while, welcoming neighbors who you haven’t really socialized with before, or just encouraging your friends to bring plus-ones.
</p>
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Inviting someone to an event where they may not know others can feel awkward, especially if it’s been a long time since you last spoke or if you just don’t know them very well. But research shows that you should take heart — chances are that person will be way happier to hear from you than you expect. <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspi0000402.pdf">One study</a> found that people we know are consistently happier to hear from us than we anticipate, especially when the overture is more surprising and unexpected. “People are much more reluctant to reach out to old friends than they should be,” says Lara Aknin, a professor of social <a href="https://www.vox.com/psychology">psychology</a> at Simon Fraser University in Canada who studies how relationships affect well-being. But despite the research, “It’s surprisingly hard to get people to move the needle on this.”
</p>
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Another thing people commonly find challenging is reaching out to people when it seems like they aren’t very close. Still, asking to hang out with those beyond your closest circles of friends can reap so many other rewards, Aknin says. “I think it’s intuitive to us that our strong relationships matter. But we overlook all these possibilities for contact with people who are all around us all the time,” she says.
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For example, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167214529799">one study</a> found that people who mingled with more loose acquaintances or strangers in a day reported better moods and a higher sense of communal belonging. Similarly, a <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=62955">paper</a> assessing people’s “social portfolios” found that people whose regular social interactions ran the gamut of closeness (all the way from family members to coworkers to strangers) reported higher life satisfaction and better quality of life than those with less diverse social lives. Researchers have also <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797618783714">documented</a> what they call “the liking gap,” where after conversing with a stranger, “people systematically underestimated how much their conversation partners liked them and enjoyed their company.” Some introverts may expect to feel worse after a social interaction, but <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0199146#sec005">even they benefit</a>; all but the extremely introverted tend to feel happier and more energized after socializing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kkUBie">
Interacting with a wide circle of loose friends and acquaintances is also valuable because each person provides more information about the world outside your bubble, says <a href="https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/people/robin-dunbar">Robin Dunbar</a>, a psychologist and author at the University of Oxford. A lot of important context gets to us “through the information percolating through the friends in your network,” he says. This can be anything from the next fashion fad to a different worldview or philosophy.
</p>
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In other words, even people with little regular presence in your life can have a big impact on your happiness. So for people who tend to have diverse but disparate friend groups, this means that hosting events where you bring all your worlds together not only benefits yourself, but also “could reasonably be interpreted as a kind of service to others,” says Aknin.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0c6N9n">
“Generally, the more connected our networks are, with lots of tendrils and different camps, the better individuals feel and the higher they report their well-being to be,” she says. And there’s “a ton of work about how just belonging to multiple groups is strongly associated with health and happiness.” Researchers have linked belonging to multiple social groups — like recreational sports teams or book clubs — with <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0124609">higher self-esteem</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953613005194">lower rates of depression</a>.
</p>
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Auburn Scallon, a writer in Jackson Heights, New York, loves socializing with diverse mixes of friends. For her, hosting these events brings an added ease of scheduling: “If I met up with everyone I loved only one-on-one, I’d see each person once a year,” she says. Getting everyone together in a big to-do means “I can see the people I love more often.” Not everyone you invite will be able to attend everything, but that’s okay, Scallon says — she makes it clear her invites are low-stakes, and she doesn’t take a “no” personally. She remembers a friend in the early 2000s who, after turning down the fifth invite in a row said: “But please keep inviting me! I’ll make it eventually.” That sort of response is totally welcome, she says; she’d love to see them, but if not now, there will always be next time.
</p>
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It can also be cool to observe how people are when they’re talking to people whom they likely wouldn’t have met otherwise, says Scallon. It’s another thing she loves about mixing her friends: “You see a different side of people.” And it’s always thrilling when people end up connecting and tell her, “I enjoyed meeting so-and-so,” she says. Science, again, backs her up. <a href="https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/Anik%20Norton%202014_69c76077-9dc5-43ef-a28e-cdbe968c892f.pdf">Research from 2014</a> found that playing friend matchmaker increases happiness and well-being. And the more unlikely the match, the more rewarding facilitating that connection is.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bbLs0I">
If you have two friends who you think might get along, it can be easier to introduce them in a larger, more casual group setting, says Chan. Counterintuitively, it seems like larger groups can put people more at ease because it takes the pressure off of every little interaction, she thinks. Regardless of whether those bonds turn into long-term relationships, “it’s still a moment of human connection enjoyable in the moment, and that’s inherently enjoyable.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JZQPx2">
If two friends do hit it off, that opens up doors for you to invite them both to something smaller and more intentional, Scallon says. It can be trickier and more awkward to invite two people who don’t know each other to hang out when it’s just the three of you. But if they’ve already met and got along, then you’re in the clear.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="llTnP4">
Regardless of the size and scale of your social planning, Scallon says it’s important to stay mindful of certain things. She remembers living in Seattle and asking a friend along to a function — it was only when they got there that Scallon realized her friend was “the only person of color in a room full of white people.” She felt so apologetic and now tries to think about these things in advance. If she invites someone shy to a big gathering, “I try to be intentional about introducing people and providing context for who they’re talking to.” She’ll host things with open-ended time periods so that friends with work- or family-related time constraints can come whenever they prefer, and she’ll try to communicate as clearly as she can what vibe people can expect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kmIl2l">
Part of communicating that vibe includes Covid-safety expectations. Scallon is still extremely Covid-conscious, so social gatherings for her have been few and far between ever since 2020, and it’s been several years since she’s organized a large social event. These days, if she does socialize, it’s as a guest — “it’s easier to be safe on my own than to impose precautions on my own guests,” she says. But it’s not the same. Taking precautions while it seems that others have resumed socializing with abandon is isolating, says Scallon, and over the past few years she’s felt a slight shift in herself; she thinks she’s become a little more reserved and introverted as her social muscles grow cold from disuse. But “I do miss it,” she says — the hosting and organizing and bringing friends together. It’ll be exciting when the time comes to resume the practice and reconnect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YtQldR">
Socializing in big groups of people is intimidating. And people are terrible at predicting what social situations will make them happy, says Aknin. “Honestly, I also think we have overly pessimistic views of other people,” she adds. It comes from a reasonable place: “We’re trying to avoid the worst-case scenario which could be a big flop, an awful conversation. But many times we are really positively surprised by other people, by their kindness, by their warmth, by their appreciation, and by our own abilities.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wD2JLO">
Thankfully, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103122000750">research</a> suggests that the more we practice interacting with strangers in novel situations, the easier it becomes and the more positively we begin to view future interactions. “The more we’re exposed to something, the more we like it,” says Aknin.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uC5ZDL">
Being more open to mixing your social groups and extending invitations to people even if you don’t know them very well is about giving yourself, and your friends, more opportunities for connection. You simply cannot <a href="https://www.vox.com/friendship">make friends</a> with someone if you never cross paths with them, or if you don’t allow for time to converse and find common ground, says Aknin.
</p>
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UPTeDj">
Yes, broadening the invitation can mean embracing unknowns, Chan says, but who’s to say those potential unknowns won’t be great? By extending invitations beyond your inner circle, beyond what is known and familiar, you at least give yourself the possibility to make a new or interesting connection. If you don’t, those possibilities are zero, and that would be the greater shame, she says: “People are more capable than you give them credit for.”
</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>800 swimmers expected to take part in 19th masters swimming championship in Mangaluru from November 24-26</strong> - The 19th National Masters Swimming Championship will be held between November 24 and 26 at the Yemmekere international swimming pool in Mangaluru</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>Morne Morkel resigns as Pakistan’s bowling coach</strong> - The Babar Azam-led Pakistan lost five of the nine matches in the ODI showpiece event, losing the last match to England by 93 runs in Kolkata.</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>Australian third division club cricketer takes six wickets in six balls</strong> - Surfers Paradise were chasing 178 and were 174 for 4. In the last over, Gareth Morgan turned the game take wicket from each of his six deliveries.</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>We will lean on experience of senior players to tackle India’s ‘threat’ in World Cup semifinal, says Devon Conway</strong> - New Zealand, who finished fourth in the points table after the 45-match league round, have a dominant record against India in the knockout stage of ICC events.</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>Tucker, Illingworth to officiate in India-New Zealand semifinal; Menon on-field umpire for second semifinal</strong> - The first World Cup semifinal will be played in Mumbai on November 15 and second in Kolkata on November 16</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>Tula Uma returns to BRS after a gap of over two years</strong> - After denial of party ticket, she accused BJP of deceiving BC communities</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>Gold worth over ₹34 lakh seized at Kochi airport</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>Two youths killed as lorry hits bike in Kadapa of Andhra Pradesh</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>Rajasthan Assembly polls: Family members up against each other in four seats</strong> - Polling in all 200 Assembly constituencies in the State will be held on November 25 and counting of votes will take place on December 3</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>YSRTP leaders led by Gattu Ramachandra Rao join BRS, claim they are merging the party</strong> - Harish Rao alleges Revanth that he’s insulting statehood movement, martyrs</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>French march against antisemitism shakes up far right and far left</strong> - Far-right leader Marine Le Pen takes part, alongside major parties but the far left refuses.</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>Spain’s conservatives rally against deal with Catalan separatists</strong> - Protests denounce a deal with Catalan separatists aimed at securing a new term for the Socialist PM.</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>Iceland quakes weaker but river of magma still active</strong> - Seismic activity has been less intense but a volcanic eruption still seems imminent, scientists say.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Man grabs Greta Thunberg’s microphone after pro-Palestinian chants at climate rally</strong> - The stage invader says he “came here for a climate demonstration, not a political view”.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>International mafia bust shows US-Italy crime links still strong</strong> - While decades of prosecutions weakened the US and Italian mafia, transatlantic relations remain strong.</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>Daily Telescope: An amazing, colorful view of the Universe</strong> - Take a look at two clusters of galaxies that are colliding. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1982737">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Determinism vs. free will: A scientific showdown</strong> - Two books delve into what science may tell us about whether we have free will. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1982865">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mummified baboons point to the direction of the fabled land of Punt</strong> - Egyptians often mentioned a trading partner but neglected to say where it was. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1982985">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Protective vaccination rates falling out of reach in US; exemptions hit record</strong> - Vaccination exemptions among kindergartners rose from 2.6% to a record high of 3%. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1983182">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Alexa just cost Amazon another $46.7 million</strong> - “Alexus” voice assistant demoed 6 months before Alexa reveal, patent lawsuit said. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1983039">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>A waiter takes an order from a customer who asks for half a Caesar salad.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The waiter says “Well, we have a small and a large, would you like the small?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The customer says, “No, I don’t want a small or a large. I want HALF a Caesar salad. Why is that so hard?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The waiter says “Ok…. let me go check with the chef.” The waiter walks off toward the kitchen, but he doesn’t see that the customer has gotten up from his table and is following right behind him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The waiter gets to the kitchen, and says to the chef, “Some asshole jerk weirdo out there wants me to get him HALF a Caesar salad…” and he jerks his thumb toward the dining room, and in so doing, he sees the customer standing right behind him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“And this fine gentleman would like the other half.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mralex"> /u/mralex </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17u52xm/a_waiter_takes_an_order_from_a_customer_who_asks/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17u52xm/a_waiter_takes_an_order_from_a_customer_who_asks/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy comes back home to his small town from overseas at the end of WWII. The town plans a big parade for him the next day. He remembers that the day before he shipped out three years earlier, he left a pair of dress shoes at the shoemaker’s for repair.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He finds the receipt ticket and rushes to the shoemaker’s to get them. The shoemaker examines the ticket and disappears into the back for a couple of minutes. When he returns he says, “They’ll be ready Thursday.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/NopeNopeNope2020"> /u/NopeNopeNope2020 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17tn27n/a_guy_comes_back_home_to_his_small_town_from/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17tn27n/a_guy_comes_back_home_to_his_small_town_from/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I went to a Paraplegic Strip Club the other day . . .</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
NSFW
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<span class="md-spoiler-text">The place was crawling with pussy.</span>
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Gerry1of1"> /u/Gerry1of1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17tyni2/i_went_to_a_paraplegic_strip_club_the_other_day/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17tyni2/i_went_to_a_paraplegic_strip_club_the_other_day/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man went skydiving…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A man went skydiving for the first time. The pilot went to find the man’s wife. “I’ve got some bad news, some good news, some even worse news and some better news.” “Oh, my gosh…what happened?” “Your husband fell out of the plane. The good news is that he had a parachute on. The worse news is that the parachute didn’t open.” The wife had nearly fainted from shock. “The better news is that we hadn’t taken off yet.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
&lt;Probably not original, just hope it isn’t too recent&gt;
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/weaverl47"> /u/weaverl47 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17u293u/a_man_went_skydiving/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17u293u/a_man_went_skydiving/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A horse walks into a bar.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Why the long face?” the bartender asks…
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Haha,” the horse replies, sarcastically, “Haven’t heard that one before.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Just got the news,” the horse continues, “I’ve been accepted into college.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Bartender says, “That’s great news! You should be celebrating.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yeah… now I’ll be saddled with student loans.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/dadjokathon"> /u/dadjokathon </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17tvyti/a_horse_walks_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17tvyti/a_horse_walks_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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