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<title>18 February, 2024</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>A critical reexamination of recovered SARS-CoV-2 sequencing data</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 genomes collected at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic are valuable because they could help understand how the virus entered the human population. In 2021, Jesse Bloom reported on the recovery of a sequencing dataset that had been removed from the NCBI SRA database at the request of the data generators, a scientific team at Wuhan University. Bloom suggested that the data may have been removed in order to obfuscate the origin of SARS-CoV-2, questioning the generating authors' statements that the samples had been collected on and after January 30, 2020. Here, we show that sample collection dates were published in 2020 together with the sequencing data, and match the dates given by the authors in 2021. We examine mutations in these sequences and confirm that they are entirely consistent with the previously known genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 of late January 2020. Finally, we explain how an apparent phylogenetic rooting paradox described by Bloom was resolved by subsequent analysis. Our reanalysis demonstrates that allegations of cover-up or metadata manipulation were unwarranted.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.15.580500v1" target="_blank">A critical reexamination of recovered SARS-CoV-2 sequencing data</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Robust Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Variants Including JN.1 and BA.2.87.1 by Trivalent XBB Vaccine-Induced Antibodies</strong> -
<div>
Newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 variants like JN.1, and more recently, the hypermutated BA.2.87.1, have raised global concern. We recruited two groups of participants who had BA.5/BF.7 breakthrough infection post three doses of inactivated vaccines: one group experienced subsequent XBB reinfection, while the other received the XBB-containing trivalent WSK-V102C vaccine. Our comparative analysis of their serum neutralization activities revealed that the WSK-V102C vaccine induced stronger antibody responses against a wide range of variants, notably including JN.1 and the highly escaped BA.2.87.1. Furthermore, our investigation into specific mutations revealed that fragment deletions in NTD significantly contribute to the immune evasion of the BA.2.87.1 variant. Our findings emphasize the necessity for ongoing vaccine development and adaptation to address the dynamic nature of SARS-CoV-2 variants.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.16.580615v1" target="_blank">Robust Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Variants Including JN.1 and BA.2.87.1 by Trivalent XBB Vaccine-Induced Antibodies</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>MobileLAMP: A portable, low-cost, open-source device for isothermal nucleic acid amplification</strong> -
<div>
Isothermal amplification-based methods for pathogen DNA or RNA detection offer high sensitivity, rapid detection, and the potential for deployment in remote fields and home testing. Consequently, they are emerging as alternatives to PCR and saw a surge in research activity and deployment for the rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The most common isothermal DNA detection methods rely on minimal reagents for DNA amplification and simple hardware that can maintain isothermal conditions and read-out a fluorescent or colorimetric signal. Many researchers globally are working on improving these components based on diverse end-user needs. In this work, we have recognized the need for an open-source hardware device for isothermal amplification, composed of off-the-shelf components that are easily accessible in any part of the world, is easily manufacturable in a distributed and scalable way using 3D printing, and that can be powered using a wide diversity of batteries and power sources. We demonstrate the easy assembly of our device design and demonstrate its efficacy using colorimetric LAMP for both RNA and DNA targets.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.580127v1" target="_blank">MobileLAMP: A portable, low-cost, open-source device for isothermal nucleic acid amplification</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Disaster, Facial Recognition Technology, and the Problem of the Corpse</strong> -
<div>
The overlapping disasters of the Australian 2019-2020 bushfire season and the COVID-19 pandemic, figured alongside the imaginary of projected future disasters, have provided a space of legitimation to experiment with controversial facial recognition technologies (FRTs). Drawing upon interviews conducted with senior Australian government administrators and researchers, I argue that FRTs are being used to respond to the trauma of disaster through its novel mediation and refiguration, tied to discourses of resilience which have been used to justify the expansion of FRT as a means for relief and the provision of aid. This legitimation however is challenged by the difficulty FRT encounters in capturing the face in its vital and its mortal malleability. What I term ‘the problem of the corpse’ serves to bring to light the ‘paranoid’ gaze of the biometric apparatus, disrupting the aim of using biometric infrastructure to produce a ‘new normal’ in the ongoing aftermath of disaster.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/j4wdh/" target="_blank">Disaster, Facial Recognition Technology, and the Problem of the Corpse</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Viral Automation: The Case of COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
Manuscript of editor’s introduction to forthcoming special issue for New Media &amp; Society on legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic for automated decision-making.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/u6fht/" target="_blank">Viral Automation: The Case of COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>UBA1-CDK16: A Sex-Specific Chimeric RNA and Its Role in Immune Sexual Dimorphism</strong> -
<div>
RNA processing mechanisms, such as alternative splicing and RNA editing, have been recognized as critical means to expand the transcriptome. Chimeric RNAs formed by intergenic splicing provide another potential layer of RNA diversification. By analyzing a large set of RNA-Seq data and validating results in over 1,200 blood samples, we identified UBA1-CDK16, a female-specific chimeric transcript. Intriguingly, both parental genes, are expressed in males and females. Mechanistically, UBA1-CDK16 is produced by cis-splicing between the two adjacent X-linked genes, originating from the inactive X chromosome. A female-specific chromatin loop, formed between the junction sites, facilitates the alternative splicing of its readthrough precursor. This unique chimeric transcript exhibits evolutionary conservation, evolving to be female-specific from non-human primates to humans. Furthermore, our investigation reveals that UBA1-CDK16 is enriched in the myeloid lineage and plays a regulatory role in myeloid differentiation. Notably, female COVID-19 patients who tested negative for this chimeric transcript displayed higher counts of neutrophils, highlighting its potential role in disease pathogenesis. These findings support the notion that chimeric RNAs represent a new repertoire of transcripts that can be regulated independently from the parental genes, and a new class of RNA variance with potential implications in sexual dimorphism and immune responses.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.580120v1" target="_blank">UBA1-CDK16: A Sex-Specific Chimeric RNA and Its Role in Immune Sexual Dimorphism</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey of healthy, privately owned cats presenting to a New York City animal hospital in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021)</strong> -
<div>
Both domestic and non-domestic cats are now established to be susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While serious disease in cats may occur in some instances, the majority of infections appear to be subclinical. Differing prevalence data for SARS-CoV-2 infection of cats have been reported, and are highly context-dependent. Here, we report a retrospective serological survey of cats presented to an animal practice in New York City, located in close proximity to a large medical center that treated the first wave of COVID-19 patients in the US in the Spring of 2020. We sampled 79, mostly indoor, cats between June 2020 to May 2021, the early part of which time the community was under a strict public health lock-down. Using a highly sensitive and specific fluorescent bead-based multiplex assay, we found an overall prevalence of 13/79 (16%) serologically-positive animals for the study period; however, cats sampled in the Fall of 2020 had a confirmed positive prevalence of 44%. For SARS-CoV-2 seropositive cats, we performed viral neutralization test with live SARS-CoV-2 to additionally confirm presence of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies. Of the thirteen seropositive cats, 7/13 (54%) were also positive by virus neutralization, and 2 of seropositive cats had previously documented respiratory signs, with high neutralization titers of 1:1024 and 1:4096; overall however, there was no statistically significant association of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity with respiratory signs, or with breed, sex or age of the animals. Follow up sampling of cats, while limited in scope, showed that positive serological titers were maintained over time. In comparison, we found an overall confirmed positive prevalence of 51% for feline coronavirus (FCoV), an endemic virus of cats, with 30% confirmed negative for FCoV. We demonstrate the impact of SARS-CoV in a defined feline population during the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 infection of humans, and suggest that human-cat transmission was substantial in our study group. Our data provide a new context for SARS-CoV-2 transmission events across species.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.580068v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey of healthy, privately owned cats presenting to a New York City animal hospital in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A single-dose MCMV-based vaccine elicits long-lasting immune protection in mice against distinct SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> -
<div>
Current vaccines against COVID-19 elicit immune responses that are overall strong but wane rapidly. As a consequence, the necessary booster shots have led to vaccine fatigue. Hence, vaccines that would provide lasting protection against COVID-19 are needed, but are still unavailable. Cytomegaloviruses (CMV) elicit lasting and uniquely strong immune responses. Used as vaccine vectors, they may be attractive tools that obviate the need for boosters. Therefore, we tested the murine CMV (MCMV) as a vaccine vector against COVID-19 in relevant preclinical models of immunization and challenge. We have previously developed a recombinant murine CMV (MCMV) vaccine vector expressing the spike protein of the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 (MCMVS). In this study, we show that the MCMVS elicits a robust and lasting protection in young and aged mice. Notably, S-specific humoral and cellular immunity was not only maintained but even increased over a period of at least 6 months. During that time, antibody avidity continuously increased and expanded in breadth, resulting in neutralization of genetically distant variants, like Omicron BA.1. A single dose of MCMVS conferred rapid virus clearance upon challenge. Moreover, MCMVS vaccination controlled two immune-evading variants of concern (VoCs), the Beta (B.1.135) and the Omicron (BA.1) variants. Thus, CMV vectors provide unique advantages over other vaccine technologies, eliciting broadly reactive and long-lasting immune responses against COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.25.517953v2" target="_blank">A single-dose MCMV-based vaccine elicits long-lasting immune protection in mice against distinct SARS-CoV-2 variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Infer metabolic directions and magnitudes from moment differences of mass-weighted intensity distributions</strong> -
<div>
Metabolic pathways are fundamental maps in biochemistry that detail how molecules are transformed through various reactions. Metabolomics refers to the large-scale study of small molecules. High-throughput, untargeted, mass spectrometry-based metabolomics experiments typically depend on libraries for structural annotation, which is necessary for pathway analysis. However, only a small fraction of spectra can be matched to known structures in these libraries and only a portion of annotated metabolites can be associated with specific pathways, considering that numerous pathways are yet to be discovered. The complexity of metabolic pathways, where a single compound can play a part in multiple pathways, poses an additional challenge. This study introduces a different concept: mass spectra distribution, which is the empirical distribution of the intensities times their associated m/z values. Analysis of COVID-19 and mouse brain datasets shows that by estimating the differences of the point estimations of these distributions, it becomes possible to infer the metabolic directions and magnitudes without requiring knowledge of the exact chemical structures of these compounds and their related pathways. The overall metabolic momentum map, named as momentome, has the potential to bypass the current bottleneck and provide fresh insights into metabolomics studies. This brief report thus provides a mathematical framing for a classic biological concept.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/jmgea/" target="_blank">Infer metabolic directions and magnitudes from moment differences of mass-weighted intensity distributions</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>“Some distance between us:” a mixed methods study exploring experiences of remote care for eating disorders during COIVD-19</strong> -
<div>
Introduction: COVID-19 necessitated a rapid move from face-to-face services to remote care for eating disorders/eating distress (EDs). This study explores the advantages and challenges of remote care, identifying future implications for service provision. Methods: Using a mixed methods approach, data were collected from 211 people with lived experience (PWLE); 27 participating in semi-structured interviews/workshops and 184 via an online survey. Participants reported on their ED status; the impact of the pandemic on symptoms; benefits and challenges of remote care (and type of support accessed); any reasons for not accessing support; and future recommendations. Participation was open to PWLE with and without formal diagnosis. Results: ED symptoms were reported as worsening during the pandemic with contributing factors including isolation, lack of routine, negative emotions, and feeling like the external situation was outside of one’s control. Exercise was reported as a coping mechanism (although it is noted that responses did not allow for clarifications of respondents’ understanding of what constitutes healthy or unhealthy exercise). Remote care was positively attributed to increased flexibility and facilitation of social connection. However, identified barriers to access included a lack of awareness about support availability, digital access and/or literacy, and competing commitments (e.g., childcare). Further challenges included approaches being perceived as too clinical; uncertainty around remote care quality, and concerns that remote platforms may facilitate masking of symptoms. Participants also reflected heavily upon distress caused by default self-view during video calls. Participants expressed a need for more holistic approaches including “real stories” of recovery, and hybrid (online and offline) options for greater flexibility and widening of access choices; complimented by appropriate training to mitigate digital literacy barriers. Discussion: Future recommendations emphasise user-centered holistic, hybrid approaches to ED remote support, supported by training to address digital literacy barriers and facilitate user control of platform functionalities (e.g., self-view). The study underscores the need for continued remote care with a focus on inclusivity and user empowerment.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/5rpg3/" target="_blank">“Some distance between us:” a mixed methods study exploring experiences of remote care for eating disorders during COIVD-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Broad-Spectrum Multi-Antigen mRNA/LNP-Based Pan-Coronavirus Vaccine Induced Potent Cross-Protective Immunity Against Infection and Disease Caused by Highly Pathogenic and Heavily Spike-Mutated SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern in the Syrian Hamster Model</strong> -
<div>
The first-generation Spike-alone-based COVID-19 vaccines have successfully contributed to reducing the risk of hospitalization, serious illness, and death caused by SARS-CoV-2 infections. However, waning immunity induced by these vaccines failed to prevent immune escape by many variants of concern (VOCs) that emerged from 2020 to 2024, resulting in a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesize that a next-generation Coronavirus (CoV) vaccine incorporating highly conserved non-Spike SARS-CoV-2 antigens would confer stronger and broader cross-protective immunity against multiple VOCs. In the present study, we identified ten non-Spike antigens that are highly conserved in 8.7 million SARS-CoV-2 strains, twenty-one VOCs, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, Common Cold CoVs, and animal CoVs. Seven of the 10 antigens were preferentially recognized by CD8+ and CD4+ T-cells from unvaccinated asymptomatic COVID-19 patients, irrespective of VOC infection. Three out of the seven conserved non-Spike T cell antigens belong to the early expressed Replication and Transcription Complex (RTC) region, when administered to the golden Syrian hamsters, in combination with Spike, as nucleoside-modified mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (LNP) (i.e., combined mRNA/LNP-based pan-CoV vaccine): (i) Induced high frequencies of lung-resident antigen-specific CXCR5+CD4+ T follicular helper (TFH) cells, GzmB+CD4+ and GzmB+CD8+ cytotoxic T cells (TCYT), and CD69+IFN-g+TNF-a+CD4+ and CD69+IFN-g+TNFa+CD8+ effector T cells (TEFF); and (ii) Reduced viral load and COVID-19-like symptoms caused by various VOCs, including the highly pathogenic B.1.617.2 Delta variant and the highly transmittable heavily Spike-mutated XBB1.5 Omicron sub-variant. The combined mRNA/LNP-based pan-CoV vaccine could be rapidly adapted for clinical use to confer broader cross-protective immunity against emerging highly mutated and pathogenic VOCs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.14.580225v1" target="_blank">A Broad-Spectrum Multi-Antigen mRNA/LNP-Based Pan-Coronavirus Vaccine Induced Potent Cross-Protective Immunity Against Infection and Disease Caused by Highly Pathogenic and Heavily Spike-Mutated SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern in the Syrian Hamster Model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Probability Discounting and Adherence to Preventive Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
This brief communication reports preliminary findings of a study conducted to investigate the relationship between probability discounting and people’s adherence to preventive behaviors recommended during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 112 adults living in Brazil completed an online survey composed of a Probability Discounting Questionnaire (PDQ) and a 10-item assessment of how often they complied with the health authorities’ recommendations (e.g., wash the hands frequently, practice social distancing, stay at home as much as possible, wear a mask when in public). Data analysis included the participants who showed higher (n = 40) and lower (n = 40) adherence to preventive behaviors. Results revealed that probability discounting measures are related to people’s preventive actions. Participants in the higher adherence group present significantly larger risk aversion indices (i.e., larger h values) than participants in the lower adherence group. Also, participants who showed lower adherence to preventive behaviors were more likely to perform risky choices in the PDQ than participants who demonstrated higher compliance with health authorities’ recommendations. These preliminary results suggest that probability discounting can play an essential role in people’s self-protective decisions during a global health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/p4a76/" target="_blank">Probability Discounting and Adherence to Preventive Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Pooled PPIseq: screening the SARS-CoV-2 and human interface with a scalable multiplexed protein-protein interaction assay platform</strong> -
<div>
Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) are a key interface between virus and host, and these interactions are important to both viral reprogramming of the host and to host restriction of viral infection. In particular, viral-host PPI networks can be used to further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of tissue specificity, host range, and virulence. At higher scales, viral-host PPI screening could also be used to screen for small-molecule antivirals that interfere with essential viral-host interactions, or to explore how the PPI networks between interacting viral and host genomes co-evolve. Current high-throughput PPI assays have screened entire viral-host PPI networks. However, these studies are time consuming, often require specialized equipment, and are difficult to further scale. Here, we develop methods that make larger-scale viral-host PPI screening more accessible. This approach combines the mDHFR split-tag reporter with the iSeq2 interaction-barcoding system to permit massively-multiplexed PPI quantification by simple pooled engineering of barcoded constructs, integration of these constructs into budding yeast, and fitness measurements by pooled cell competitions and barcode-sequencing. We applied this method to screen for PPIs between SARS-CoV-2 proteins and human proteins, screening in triplicate &gt;180,000 ORF-ORF combinations represented by &gt;1,000,000 barcoded lineages. Our results complement previous screens by identifying 74 putative PPIs, including interactions between ORF7A with the taste receptors TAS2R41 and TAS2R7, and between NSP4 with the transmembrane KDELR2 and KDELR3. We show that this PPI screening method is highly scalable, enabling larger studies aimed at generating a broad understanding of how viral effector proteins converge on cellular targets to effect replication.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.580123v1" target="_blank">Pooled PPIseq: screening the SARS-CoV-2 and human interface with a scalable multiplexed protein-protein interaction assay platform</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Single-cell Masked Autoencoder: An Accurate and Interpretable Automated Immunophenotyper</strong> -
<div>
High-throughput single-cell cytometry data are crucial for understanding immune system's involvement in diseases and responses to treatment. Traditional methods for annotating cytometry data, specifically manual gating and clustering, face challenges in scalability, robustness, and accuracy. In this study, we propose a single-cell masked autoencoder (scMAE), which offers an automated solution for immunophenotyping tasks including cell type annotation. The scMAE model is designed to uphold user-defined cell type definitions, thereby facilitating easier interpretation and cross-study comparisons. The scMAE model operates on a pre-train and fine-tune approach. In the pre-training phase, scMAE employs Masked Single-cell Modelling (MScM) to learn relationships between protein markers in immune cells solely based on protein expression, without relying on prior information such as cell identity and cell type-specific marker proteins. Subsequently, the pre-trained scMAE is fine-tuned on multiple specialized tasks via task-specific supervised learning. The pre-trained scMAE addresses the shortcomings of manual gating and clustering methods by providing accurate and interpretable predictions. Through validation across multiple cohorts, we demonstrate that scMAE effectively identifies co-occurrence patterns of bound labeled antibodies, delivers accurate and interpretable cellular immunophenotyping, and improves the prediction of subject metadata status. Specifically, we evaluated scMAE for cell type annotation and imputation at the cellular-level and SARS-CoV-2 infection prediction, secondary immune response prediction against COVID-19, and prediction the infection stage in the COVID-19 progression at the subject-level. The introduction of scMAE marks a significant step forward in immunology research, particularly in large-scale and high-throughput human immune profiling. It offers new possibilities for predicting and interpretating cellular-level and subject-level phenotypes in both health and disease.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.580114v1" target="_blank">Single-cell Masked Autoencoder: An Accurate and Interpretable Automated Immunophenotyper</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A spring-loaded and leakage-tolerant synthetic gene switch for in-vitro detection of DNA and RNA</strong> -
<div>
Nucleic acid tests (NATs) are essential for biomedical diagnostics. Traditional NATs, often complex and expensive, have prompted the exploration of Toehold-Mediated Strand Displacement (TMSD) circuits as an economical alternative. However, the wide application of TMSD-based reactions is limited by leakage-the spurious activation of the reaction leading to high background signals and false positives. Here we introduce a new TMSD cascade that recognizes a custom nucleic acid input and generates an amplified output. The system is based on a pair of thermodynamically spring-loaded DNA modules. The binding of a predefined nucleic acid target triggers an intermolecular reaction that activates a T7 promoter, leading to the perpetual transcription of a fluorescent aptamer that can be detected by a smartphone camera. The system is designed to permit the selective depletion of leakage byproducts to achieve high sensitivity and zero-background signal in the absence of the correct trigger. Using Zika virus (ZIKV)- and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-derived nucleic acid sequences, we show that the assay generates a reliable target-specific readout. Native RNA can be directly detected under isothermal conditions, without requiring reverse transcription, with a sensitivity as low as 200 attomole. The modularity of the assay allows easy re-programming for the detection of other targets by exchanging a single sequence domain. This work provides a low-complexity and high-fidelity synthetic biology tool for point-of-care diagnostics and for the construction of more complex biomolecular computations.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.12.579921v1" target="_blank">A spring-loaded and leakage-tolerant synthetic gene switch for in-vitro detection of DNA and RNA</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Correlation of Antibody Response to COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnant Woman and Transplacental Passage Into Cord Blood.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Covid-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: COVID-19 Spike Protein IgG Quantitative Antibody (CMIA) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Vachira Phuket Hospital <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UNAIR Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine as Homologue Booster (Immunobridging Study)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pandemic; COVID-19 Vaccines; COVID-19 Virus Disease <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: INAVAC (Vaksin Merah Putih - UA- SARS CoV-2 (Vero Cell Inactivated) 5 μg <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Dr. Soetomo General Hospital; Universitas Airlangga; Biotis Pharmaceuticals, Indonesia; Indonesia-MoH <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety and Immunogenicity of a Sub-unit Protein CD40.RBDv Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted or Not, as a Booster in Volunteers.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: CD40.RBDv vaccin (SARS-Cov2 Vaccin) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: ANRS, Emerging Infectious Diseases; LinKinVax; Vaccine Research Institute (VRI), France <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>High-definition Transcranial Direct Current Ctimulation and Chlorella Pyrenoidosa to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Cardiovascular Diseases; Long Covid19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: High Definition-transcranial Direct Current Stimulation; Dietary Supplement: Chlorella Pyrenoidosa <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Federal University of Paraíba; City University of New York <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SGB for COVID-induced Parosmia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19-Induced Parosmia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Stellate Ganglion Block; Drug: Placebo Sham Injection <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Washington University School of Medicine <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effects of Physiotherapy Via Video Calls in Patients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Long COVID-19; Cardiopulmonary Function; Physical Function <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Exercise training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Chulabhorn Hospital <br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Investigating the Effectiveness of Vimida</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Post COVID-19 Condition <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: vimida <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Gaia AG; Medical School Hamburg; Institut Long-Covid Rostock <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Acute Cardiovascular Responses to a Single Exercise Session in Patients With Post-COVID-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Exercise session; Behavioral: Control session <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Nove de Julho <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reducing Respiratory Virus Transmission in Bangladeshi Classrooms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV2 Infection; Influenza Viral Infections; Respiratory Viral Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Box Fan; Device: UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Unit; Device: Combined: Box Fan and UV Germicidal Irradiation Lamp Units <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Stanford University; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SMILE: Clinical Trial to Evaluate Mindfulness as Intervention for Racial and Ethnic Populations During COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Anxiety; COVID-19 Pandemic <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Mindfulness <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); RTI International <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Interferon-stimulated gene PVRL4 broadly suppresses viral entry by inhibiting viral-cellular membrane fusion</strong> - CONCLUSION: Overall, our studies not only identify PVRL4 as an intrinsic broad-spectrum antiviral ISG, but also provide a candidate host-directed target for antiviral therapy against various viruses including SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in the future.</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>FEOpti-ACVP: identification of novel anti-coronavirus peptide sequences based on feature engineering and optimization</strong> - Anti-coronavirus peptides (ACVPs) represent a relatively novel approach of inhibiting the adsorption and fusion of the virus with human cells. Several peptide-based inhibitors showed promise as potential therapeutic drug candidates. However, identifying such peptides in laboratory experiments is both costly and time consuming. Therefore, there is growing interest in using computational methods to predict ACVPs. Here, we describe a model for the prediction of ACVPs that is based on the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Taming the cytokine storm: small molecule inhibitors targeting IL-6/IL-6α receptor</strong> - Given the increasing effectiveness of immune-based therapies, management of their associated toxicities is of utmost importance. Cytokine release syndrome (CRS), characterized by elevated levels of cytokine, poses a significant challenge following the administration of antibodies and CAR-T cell therapies. CRS also contributes to multiple organ dysfunction in severe viral infections, notably in COVID-19. Given the pivotal role of IL-6 cytokine in initiating CRS, it has been considered a most…</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>How can we promote vaccination of the mass population?-Lessons from the COVID-19 vaccination defaults</strong> - While vaccines are pivotal in combating COVID-19, concerns about side effects and complex procedures have hindered complete vaccination. Prior studies suggest that individuals defaulted to opt-out exhibit higher COVID-19 vaccination rates compared to those in opt-in systems. However, these studies were conducted in countries with a tolerant attitude towards vaccination and default changes, targeting specific age groups, and did not address potential deterrents like the increase in cancellation…</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>Nanobody engineering for SARS-CoV-2 neutralization and detection</strong> - In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the quest for coronavirus inhibitors has inspired research on a variety of small proteins beyond conventional antibodies, including robust single-domain antibody fragments, i.e., “nanobodies.” Here, we explore the potential of nanobody engineering in the development of antivirals and diagnostic tools. Through fusion of nanobody domains that target distinct binding sites, we engineered multimodular nanobody constructs that neutralize wild-type…</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>Effect of rifampicin administration on CYP induction in a dermatomyositis patient with vasospastic angina attributable to nilmatrelvir/ritonavir-induced blood tacrolimus elevation: A case report</strong> - Ritonavir (RTV), which is used in combination with nilmatrelvir (NMV) to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), inhibits cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A, thereby increasing blood tacrolimus (TAC) levels through a drug-drug interaction (DDI). We experienced a case in which a DDI between the two drugs led to markedly increased blood TAC levels, resulting in vasospastic angina (VSA) and acute kidney injury (AKI). Rifampicin (RFP) was administered to induce CYP3A and promote TAC metabolism. A…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain promotes IL-6 and IL-8 release via ATP/P2Y<sub>2</sub> and ERK1/2 signaling pathways in human bronchial epithelia</strong> - The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 as well as its receptor binding domain (RBD) has been demonstrated to be capable of activating the release of pro-inflammatory mediators in endothelial cells and immune cells such as monocytes. However, the effects of spike protein or its RBD on airway epithelial cells and mechanisms underlying these effects have not been adequately characterized. Here, we show that the RBD of spike protein alone can induce bronchial epithelial inflammation in a manner of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Targeting mevalonate pathway by zoledronate ameliorated pulmonary fibrosis in a rat model: Promising therapy against post-COVID-19 pulmonary fibrosis</strong> - CONCLUSION: ZA in a dose-dependent manner prevented the pathological effect of CCl4 in the lung by targeting mevalonate pathway. It could be promising therapy against PCPF.</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>Methotrexate Inhibits the Binding of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Receptor Binding Domain to the Host-Cell Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2 (ACE-2) Receptor</strong> - As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus mutates, finding effective drugs becomes more challenging. In this study, we use ultrasensitive frequency locked microtoroid optical resonators in combination with in silico screening to search for COVID-19 drugs that can stop the virus from attaching to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) receptor in the lungs. We found 29 promising candidates that could block the binding site and selected four of them that…</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>Evaluating NSAIDs in SARS-CoV-2: Immunomodulatory mechanisms and future therapeutic strategies</strong> - Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely recognized for their analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Amidst the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the role of NSAIDs in modulating viral and bacterial infections has become a critical area of research, sparking debates and necessitating a thorough review. This review examines the multifaceted interactions between NSAIDs, immune responses, and infections. Focusing on the immunomodulatory mechanisms of NSAIDs in SARS-CoV-2 and their…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Molecular docking of bioactive compounds extracted and purified from selected medicinal plant species against covid-19 proteins and in vitro evaluation</strong> - Bioactive compounds are secondary metabolites of plants. They offer diverse pharmacological properties. Peganum harmala is reported to have pharmaceutical effects like insecticidal, antitumor, curing malaria, anti-spasmodic, vasorelaxant, antihistaminic effect. Rosa brunonii has medicinal importance in its flower and fruits effective against different diseases and juice of leaf is reported to be applied externally to cure wounds and cuts. Dryopteris ramosa aqueous leaf extract is used to treat…</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>Asialoglycoprotein receptor 1 promotes SARS-CoV-2 infection of human normal hepatocytes</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes multi-organ damage, which includes hepatic dysfunction, as observed in over 50% of COVID-19 patients. Angiotensin I converting enzyme (peptidyl-dipeptidase A) 2 (ACE2) is the primary receptor for SARS-CoV-2 entry into host cells, and studies have shown the presence of intracellular virus particles in human hepatocytes that express ACE2, but at extremely low levels. Consequently, we asked if hepatocytes might express receptors…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-ACE2 interaction increases carbohydrate sulfotransferases and reduces N-acetylgalactosamine-4-sulfatase by p38 MAPK</strong> - Immunostaining in lungs of patients who died with COVID-19 infection showed increased intensity and distribution of chondroitin sulfate and decline in N-acetylgalactostamine-4-sulfatase (Arylsulfatase B; ARSB). To explain these findings, human small airway epithelial cells were exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain (SPRBD) and transcriptional mechanisms were investigated. Phospho-p38 MAPK and phospho-SMAD3 increased following exposure to the SPRBD, and their inhibition…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Investigating vulnerability of the conserved SARS-CoV-2 spike’s heptad repeat 2 as target for fusion inhibitors using chimeric miniproteins</strong> - Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 membrane fusion is a highly desired target to combat COVID-19. The interaction between the spike’s heptad repeat (HR) regions 1 (HR1) and 2 (HR2) is a crucial step during the fusion process and these highly conserved HR regions constitute attractive targets for fusion inhibitors. However, the relative importance of each subregion of the long HR1-HR2 interface for viral inhibition remains unclear. Here, we designed, produced, and characterized a series of chimeric…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>TYPE I INTERFERON PATHWAY GENETIC VARIANTS IN SEVERE COVID-19</strong> - Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been over 760 million reported cases and over 6 million deaths caused by this disease worldwide. The severity of COVID-19 is based on symptoms presented by the patient and is divided as asymptomatic, mild, moderate, severe, and critical. The manifestations are interconnected with genetic variations. The innate immunity is the quickest response mechanism…</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 Trials of Alejandro Mayorkas</strong> - The Secretary of Homeland Security has been forced to respond to an unprecedented flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. Why are Republicans in Congress impeaching him for it? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/26/the-trials-of-alejandro-mayorkas">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is the Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event?</strong> - Ads are scarce, search and social traffic is dying, and readers are burned out. The future will require fundamentally rethinking the press’s relationship to its audience. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/is-the-media-prepared-for-an-extinction-level-event">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Friendship Challenge</strong> - How envy destroyed the perfect connection between two teen-age girls. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/the-friendship-challenge">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Art World Before and After Thelma Golden, by Calvin Tomkins</strong> - When Golden was a young curator in the nineties, her shows, centering Black artists, were unprecedented. Today, those artists are the stars of the art market. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/the-art-world-before-and-after-thelma-golden">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld</strong> - After Zac Brettler mysteriously plummeted into the Thames, his grieving parents were shocked to learn that he’d been posing as an oligarch’s son. Would the police help them solve the puzzle of his death? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/a-teens-fatal-plunge-into-the-london-underworld">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>How NIMBYs are helping to turn the public against immigrants</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Anti-immigration protesters in Huntington Beach, California, hold a Trump flag and a sign saying “Build the Wall.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6OoRJsqs35AVC0a_inm7Qn7jf1Y=/556x0:5000x3333/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73147984/1145569173.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
If you don’t build housing, they’ll build the wall. | Kevin Sullivan/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In this house, we believe that high rents fuel nativist backlashes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tqLhjx">
The United States needs more immigrants. But at the moment, it does not especially want them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R8Beod">
The country’s fertility rate has fallen far below the replacement level. Absent immigration, our nation will grow older and smaller simultaneously. In that scenario, a shrinking population of prime-age workers would need to support a ballooning population of retirees. <a href="https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/aging-population-slow-growth">Growth would slow</a>, productivity would fall, and deficits would swell.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pV25up">
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently illuminated these realities. In an update to its 10-year economic forecast released February 7, the CBO <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/59933">reported</a> that America’s gross domestic product would be $7 trillion higher — and the federal deficit $1 trillion lower — than it had previously anticipated. This pleasant surprise came courtesy of the past year’s surge in immigration: Due to that uptick in new arrivals, the US is now on track to have 5.2 million more workers by 2033 than previously projected. That will increase the amount of goods and services the <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a> can produce and improve the nation’s ratio of laborers to retirees.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D8vrJd">
Even as the case for large-scale immigration has become stronger, however, political appetite for it has grown weaker. In <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1660/immigration.aspx">Gallup’s polling</a>, the share of Americans who want immigration levels “decreased” rose from 28 percent in 2020 to 41 percent in 2023. By contrast, only 26 percent of 2023 respondents wanted to increase immigration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v2oszs">
This restrictionist mood is apparent in polls focusing on the 2024 presidential race. In a recent <a href="https://pro-assets.morningconsult.com/wp-uploads/2024/01/Full-Data.pdf">Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey</a> of swing states, voters said they trusted <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> over <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a> on immigration by a 22-point margin, 52 to 30 percent. And this was, if anything, an unusually positive result for the president: An <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/poll-biden-trump-economy-presidential-race-rcna136834">NBC News poll</a> released this month found voters favoring Trump over Biden on immigration by 35 points.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lqGTCq">
This fundamental tension — between a growing economic need for immigrants and burgeoning political backlash against mass immigration — is common to virtually all wealthy countries. The world’s 15 largest economies all have <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/06/01/global-fertility-has-collapsed-with-profound-economic-consequences">below-replacement fertility rates</a> and aging populations. Yet a wide variety of those countries <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/07/16/record-migration-backlash-us-europe">have recently imposed</a> new immigration restrictions, and right-wing nationalist parties have gained ground in elections.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0ItSJw">
Overcoming this nativist backlash is a political imperative. We cannot ensure America’s future prosperity — or provide a home to the many millions who will be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html">displaced by climate change</a> — without fostering more pro-immigrant politics.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KlUZ8V">
Precisely how liberals can go about doing this is hard to say. Much of today’s backlash is rooted in the peculiar challenges of asylum policy. In 2022, <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=U0bL31">2.9 million people</a> applied for asylum, the most since at least 2000, according to the United Nations. In 2023, another 1.7 million submitted applications.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LVNEsH">
A large surge in asylum claims presents difficulties that an ordinary expansion of immigration does not. Governments can control the number of documented immigrants they admit annually and give preferential treatment to those who meet pressing national needs. Documented immigrants also have the right to work and impose no special burden on a nation’s judicial system or fiscal resources. They don’t need their legal status adjudicated in court and tend to have <a href="https://www.cato.org/white-paper/fiscal-impact-immigration-united-states#executive-summary">a more positive impact on the government’s finances</a> than native-born Americans.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OP4fwi">
By contrast, states can control neither the number of people who claim asylum at their borders nor the skills or age profile of that population. Asylum seekers are also typically denied work permits while they await the final adjudication of their cases, which can take years. This takes a toll on the resources of the municipalities where they live. Chicago and New York City have <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/united-states-america/new-york-and-other-us-cities-struggle-high-costs-migrant-arrivals">struggled</a> to maintain social services for their permanent residents amid large inflows of asylum seekers, with NYC spending <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/16/new-york-chicago-migrant-funding-00135668">$1.4 billion</a> on caring for migrants, according to the mayor’s office. Predictably, the politics of immigration in the Empire State have <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/22/new-york-voters-down-on-democrats-over-migrant-crisis-poll-finds-00112158">turned rightward in response.</a>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6iEEHp">
In a perfect world, liberals could mitigate all these challenges by dramatically expanding opportunities for immigration and investing in more robust administrative systems for screening, resettling, and integrating asylum seekers. In our actual world, Democrats can’t even get Republicans to support <em>their own party’s</em> preferred <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2024/2/5/24062710/senate-immigration-bill-border-security-ukraine-2024">reforms to the asylum process</a>, thanks in part to Trump’s demagogy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iNk9rR">
But there is one area where many Democrats are making the politics of immigration more toxic without any help from Trump’s GOP: By <a href="https://www.vox.com/videos/2021/8/17/22628750/how-the-us-made-affordable-homes-illegal">suppressing housing construction</a> through restrictive zoning laws, deep-blue municipalities are engineering a situation in which immigrants genuinely threaten the economic interests of native-born residents. If liberals want their country to be more welcoming of immigrants, they need to make their cities’ housing stock more accommodating of newcomers.
</p>
<h3 id="RCP91x">
The economic case against immigration is weak (unless you make it illegal to build apartments)
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GQrnsp">
In recent years, commentators on both the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/us-immigration-policy-1965-act/675724/">left</a> and <a href="https://americancompass.org/the-commons/worker-power-loose-borders-pick-one/#more-3126">right</a> have called the economic benefits of immigration into question. They’ve noted that Americans benefit from tight labor markets, in which firms must bid against each other for a scarce pool of workers. Large inflows of immigrant laborers undermine the bargaining power of native-born workers, the theory goes, thereby depressing wages and increasing unemployment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7vt5DT">
One may be able to find evidence of this phenomenon in discrete industries, but there’s little basis for believing that it holds at the level of the economy writ large. The tightness of labor markets is not determined by the supply of labor alone. If that were true, then America’s median wage would have steadily declined — and its employment rate steadily risen — as its population increased over the 20th century. But the baby boomers’ mass entrance into the labor force did not, in fact, trigger a second Great Depression in the 1960s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ihhGvE">
This is because the labor market is also affected by the demand for workers’ labor. Immigrants may expand the size of the workforce, but they also increase demand for goods and services. Ultimately, fiscal and monetary policy shape the balance between labor demand and supply far more than immigration admissions do. If you understimulate the economy, you can have high unemployment amid a mass exodus of immigrant workers (as occurred during the <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/immigrants-united-states-and-current-economic-crisis">Great Depression</a>). If you ramp up government spending, on the other hand, you can have low unemployment amid a large increase in immigration (as we’ve seen during the <a href="https://www.slowboring.com/p/hostility-to-immigration-isnt-about">post-Covid boom</a>).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s7OEq4">
For these reasons, a <a href="https://www.peri.umass.edu/publication/item/1050-is-it-merely-a-labor-supply-shock-impacts-of-syrian-migrants-on-local-economies-in-turkey">wide</a> variety of <a href="http://www.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.123856.1360740401!/menu/standard/file/SULCIS%20WP%2020131.pdf">studies</a> and <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp8961.pdf">meta-analyses</a> have found that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10109-010-0111-y">immigrants</a> do not generally reduce <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2696462">wages</a> or <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w13276/w13276.pdf">job opportunities</a> for native-born workers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5lXbDW">
But rents and home prices are a different story.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pWkJZM">
In principle, there is no reason why population growth must push up the cost of shelter. Immigrants need homes — but they are also <a href="https://qz.com/immigrants-make-up-more-of-the-us-construction-labor-fo-1851118320">disproportionately likely</a> to work in construction and, thus, increase the economy’s home-building capacity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O9LZkj">
The problem arises when governments effectively prohibit the supply of housing from rising in line with demand. Between 2012 and 2022, Americans <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/homes/housing-shortage/index.html">formed</a> 15.6 million new households but built only 11.9 million new housing units. As a result, even before the post-lockdown surge in migration, there were more aspiring households than homes in America’s thriving metro areas.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TQfFTA">
This was largely a consequence of zoning restrictions. Municipal governments have collectively made it illegal to erect an apartment building on about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/18/upshot/cities-across-america-question-single-family-zoning.html#:~:text=Today%20the%20effect%20of%20single,a%20detached%20single%2Dfamily%20home.">75 percent</a> of our country’s residential land. In large swaths of the country, there are households eager to rent or buy a modest apartment, and developers eager to provide them, but zoning restrictions have blocked such transactions from taking place.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5tUMQ8">
This creates a housing shortage. You can house 32 families much more quickly and cheaply by building a single apartment building than by erecting 32 separate houses. To require all of your community’s housing units to be single-family homes isn’t all that different from prohibiting the manufacture of all non-luxury cars. In both cases, you end up with artificial scarcity and unaffordability.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z1kWGj">
If private builders were allowed to respond to rising demand — while the government ensured the provision of housing to those unable to pay market rents — we could have large increases in immigration without any uptick in housing insecurity. In our current reality, the rise in asylum seekers has coincided with a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/09/23/housing-crisis-migrant-immigrants-homeless">record spike in homelessness</a> and persistently high housing costs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ehJTo5">
It is hard enough to sustain popular support for large-scale immigration when there aren’t major economic downsides to that policy. Add legitimate concerns about housing costs to perennial anxieties over cultural change, and it becomes difficult for even the most pro-immigration societies to avoid a nativist backlash. Or at least, this is what recent events in Canada suggest.
</p>
<h3 id="aEvraB">
Why Canada is getting colder on immigration
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uRHiuh">
Canada has long been considered an exceptionally <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/6/8/11879482/ramadan-justin-trudeau-canada">pro-immigrant country</a>. Yet it has struggled to sustain popular support for liberal immigration policies amid its deepening housing shortage. Canada’s experience therefore serves as a cautionary tale for American progressives: If we allow municipalities to suppress housing construction, then ridding our nation’s mainstream politics of Trumpian xenophobia and electing a vigorously pro-immigrant administration will not be enough to avert popular demands for restricting immigration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lC2x5a">
Until recently, Canada’s immigration politics were the envy of US cosmopolitans. In 2016, while many other nations were trying to repel Syrian refugees, the Canadian government <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/world/americas/canada-syrian-refugees.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=photo-spot-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=1">couldn’t find enough displaced families</a> to meet the public’s demand for sponsoring them. Since 2019, the country has <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/08/28/canada-immigration-trudeau-policy-multiculturalism-backlash/">welcomed</a> more refugees than any other nation, and done so with minimal public outcry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="80iidH">
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought to capitalize on his country’s multicultural openness by putting immigration expansion at the center of his vision of economic growth. Canada welcomed <a href="https://www.cicnews.com/2024/02/canada-welcomed-471550-new-permanent-residents-in-2023-0242798.html">471,550 new permanent residents</a> in 2023, up from 300,000 in 2015.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sb1z2K">
And that figure does not include foreign students, temporary workers, and refugees, who together constitute an even larger group of new arrivals. In 2025 and 2026, the government aims to admit 500,000 new permanent residents each year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HqRymh">
But in recent months, the political sustainability of Trudeau’s plan has come into question, in no small part because immigration’s impact on housing costs has come under scrutiny.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TqYq11">
Rents have soared across Canada in recent years. From 1990 to 2022, the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rent-prices-rose-in-2023-1.7100571#:~:text=The%20average%20rent%20for%20a,average%20of%202.8%20per%20cent.">average rent</a> for a two-bedroom apartment in the country increased at an average annual rate of 2.8 percent. In 2023, it rose by 8 percent. The government estimates that it will need to add 3.5 million extra housing units by 2030 to make shelter affordable. But a recent report from the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-06/canada-s-housing-target-falls-1-5-million-units-short-cibc-says">Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce</a> suggests that this underestimates the housing shortage by 1.5 million units, a shortfall driven by an undercount of nonpermanent immigrants, who have been entering the country in massive numbers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kdyFnu">
Trudeau has sought to promote housing construction in various ways. But his administration’s efforts have yet to offset the impact of years of <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10051121/canada-housing-zoning-changes/">highly restrictive zoning</a> in many of Canada’s largest population centers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DLI3Al">
As Canadians bid against each other for an inadequate supply of housing units, they’ve soured on immigration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NMaDAh">
In a 2022 poll from the <a href="https://www.environicsinstitute.org/docs/default-source/focus-canada-fall-2023/focus-canada-fall-2023---canadian-public-opinion-about-immigration-refugees---final-report.pdf?sfvrsn=75312743_2">Environics Institute for Survey Research</a>, Canadians disagreed with the statement that there was too much immigration in their country by a margin of 42 points. One year later, that margin had shrunk to 7 points, the largest single-year shift in the survey’s history. Among Canadians who said immigration levels were too high, the most commonly cited reason by far was that immigrants drive up housing prices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VZ9ZsB">
In response to these changing political winds, the Trudeau government has sought to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-set-two-year-cap-international-student-permits-2024-01-22/#:~:text=Canada%20on%20Monday%20announced%20an,seen%20aggravating%20a%20housing%20crisis.">restrict admissions of international students</a> while imploring universities to provide dedicated housing for their enrollees. But this minor concession to the nation’s restrictionist mood appears insufficient. The prime minister’s approval rating has sunk in recent months, with <a href="https://angusreid.org/trudeau-tracker/">64 percent</a> of Canadians now disapproving of his performance. Meanwhile, Canada’s Conservative Party has ridden the housing and immigration issues to a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10126729/immigration-housing-canada-leger-poll/">strong advantage</a> over Trudeau’s Liberals in the polls.
</p>
<h3 id="BZvvb7">
Abundance is possible, but scarcity seems popular
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D95Hnt">
There are many parallels between the politics of <a href="https://www.vox.com/immigration">immigration reform</a> and those of <a href="https://www.vox.com/housing">housing policy</a>. In both cases, countries have the power to swiftly increase their collective prosperity by tolerating some short-term disruptions. When cities let developers build more housing, they not only reduce rent inflation but also increase their tax bases, which makes it easier to fund robust social services. When rich nations let prime-age immigrants settle within their borders, they increase their productive capacity, which makes it more affordable to support retirees.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EtzJBK">
And yet, in both of these policy areas, we routinely opt to make ourselves poorer for the sake of avoiding change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c1WzGC">
America does not need to choose between expanding immigration and reducing housing costs. But there is a risk that we’ll choose to do neither.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Why we fear uncertainty — and why we shouldn’t</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An illustration of a red bird looking out of a building at a natural landscape through an opening in the shape of a woman’s silhouette." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/q2VZcufY1Zmp4Eddpa2zIs2r2Ms=/107x0:1814x1280/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73146314/GettyImages_1272116889.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Jorm Sangsorn/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Expert knowledge is useful for problem-solving. So is adapting to new challenges.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yq98Tb">
One of the things that human beings seem to fear is uncertainty. Most of us like to know things, and when we don’t know things, we get uncomfortable. And when we’re forced to face the unknown, our response is often to retreat into old ideas and routines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h3iejF">
Why is that? What’s so unnerving about ambiguity?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h5kVVC">
Maggie Jackson is a journalist and the author of a delightful new book called <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781633889187"><em>Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure</em></a>. It makes a great case for uncertainty as a philosophical virtue, but it also uses the best research we have to explain why embracing uncertainty primes us for learning and can improve our overall mental health.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tbbbiY">
So I invited her onto <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-gray-area"><em>The Gray Area</em></a> recently to talk about what she’s learned and how to think about it in our practical lives. Below is an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity. As always, there’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to and follow <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-gray-area"><em>The Gray Area</em></a> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-gray-area-with-sean-illing/id1081584611">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/search/vox%20conversations">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6NOJ6IkTb2GWMj1RpmtnxP">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/vox-conversations">Stitcher</a>, or wherever you find podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.
</p>
<div id="eeJhgc">
</div>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="6BN4Us"/>
<h4 id="OflXU1">
Sean Illing
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0ptfQw">
How did you come to this topic?
</p>
<h4 id="mgEn3k">
Maggie Jackson
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7ONh1q">
Reluctantly, to be honest.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ahqNBL">
This is my third book. I’ve been writing about topics that are right under our noses, that we don’t understand or that we deeply misunderstand. The <a href="https://www.maggie-jackson.com/whats-happening-to-home">first book</a> was about the nature of home in the digital age. The <a href="https://www.maggie-jackson.com/distracted">second book</a> was about distraction, but particularly attention, which very few people could define.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VXFC69">
And then finally I started writing a book about thinking in the digital age and the first chapter was about uncertainty. And not only did I discover uncertainty hadn’t really been studied or acknowledged, but there’s now this new attention to it. Lots and lots of new research findings, even in psychology. But I was still reluctant. Like many people, I had this idea that it was just something to eradicate, that uncertainty is something to get beyond, and shut it down as fast as possible.
</p>
<h4 id="jUkYaz">
Sean Illing
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lsrXVP">
So what’s beneath our near-universal fear of the unknown?
</p>
<h4 id="zVHWo8">
Maggie Jackson
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t1TsVr">
As human beings, we dislike uncertainty for a real reason. We need and want answers. And this unsettling feeling we have is our innate way of signaling that we’re not in the routine anymore. And so it’s really important to understand, in some ways, how rare and wonderful uncertainty is.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yCkClU">
At the same time, we also need routine and familiarity. Most of life is what scientists call predictive processing. That is, we’re constantly making assumptions and predicting. You just don’t think that your driveway is going to be in a different place when you get home tonight. You can expect that you know how to tie your shoelaces when you get up in the morning. We’re enmeshed in this incredible world of our assumptions. It’s so human, and so natural, to stick to routine and to have that comfort. If everything was always new, if we had to keep learning everything again, we’d be in real trouble.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gt0ZtO">
But neuroscientists are beginning to unpack what happens in the brain when we deal with the stress of uncertainty. The uncertainty of the moment, the realization that you don’t know, that you’ve reached the limits of your knowledge, instigate a number of neural changes. Your focus broadens, and your brain becomes more receptive to new data, and your working memory is bolstered. Which is why facing uncertainty is a kind of wakefulness. In fact, <a href="https://psychology.sas.upenn.edu/people/joseph-kable">Joseph Kable</a> of the University of Pennsylvania said to me, “That’s the moment when your brain is telling itself there’s something to be learned here.”
</p>
<h4 id="5IxeDc">
Sean Illing
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sPcGpU">
We can think of uncertainty as a precursor to good thinking, and I suppose it is. But that makes it sound a little too much like a passive state, as opposed to an active orientation to the world. Do you think of uncertainty as something closer to a disposition?
</p>
<h4 id="odHvJt">
Maggie Jackson
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M3DAo2">
Uncertainty is definitively a disposition. We each have our personal comfort zone when it come to uncertainty, and our impression is that uncertainty is static, that it’s synonymous with paralysis. But when you take up that opportunity to learn the good stress that uncertainty offers you, you actually slow down — there are less snap judgments, you’re not racing to an answer. Uncertainty, in other words, involves a process, and that’s really, really important.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kqb6Jq">
The way we think of experts is a good example. We venerate the swaggering kind of expert who knows what to do, whose know-how was developed over the so-called 10,000 hours of experience. But that type of expertise needs updating. That type of expert’s knowledge tends to fall short when facing new, unpredictable, ambiguous problems — the kind of problems that involve or demand uncertainty.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DGI4Xe">
So years of experience are actually only weakly correlated with skill and accuracy in medicine and finance. People who are typical routine experts fall into something called carryover mode, where they’re constantly applying their old knowledge, the old heuristic shortcut solutions, to new situations, and that’s when they fail. Adaptive experts actually explore a problem.
</p>
<h4 id="QXbE4P">
Sean Illing
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LnqN9d">
The idea that not knowing can be a strength does intuitively seem like a contradiction.
</p>
<h4 id="aSf6Es">
Maggie Jackson
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mdU6vg">
Knowledge is incredibly important. It’s the foundation and the groundwork.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nJr1Po">
But at the same time, we need to update our understanding of knowledge and understand that knowledge is mutable and dynamic. People who are intolerant of uncertainty think of knowledge as something like a rock that we are there to hold and defend, whereas people who are more tolerant of uncertainty are more likely to be curious, flexible thinkers. I like to say that they treat knowledge as a tapestry whose mutability is its very strength.
</p>
<h4 id="tdvLa8">
Sean Illing
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ce1ZZ9">
I doubt anyone would argue that ignorance is a virtue, but openness to revising our beliefs is definitely a virtue, and that’s the distinction here.
</p>
<h4 id="6TD6ME">
Maggie Jackson
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qwYe5g">
It’s really important to note that uncertainty is not ignorance. Ignorance is the blank slate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ssWjFG">
In child development, there’s an expression called the zone of proximal development, which is usually used as a shorthand for scaffolding. That’s the place where a child is pushing beyond their usual knowledge, they’re trying something complex and new and the parent might scaffold a little bit and help only where necessary, but letting them do the work of expanding their limits.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4cUkRO">
But that’s something we do throughout our whole lives. That zone of proximal development, as one scientist told me, is the green bud on the tree. That’s where we want to be. That’s where we thrive as thinkers and as people.
</p>
<h4 id="QtUsda">
Sean Illing
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="47ixj9">
When does uncertainty become paralyzing?
</p>
<h4 id="gV1rHj">
Maggie Jackson
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yWftef">
Forward motion involves choices. Uncertainty is never the end goal. It’s more like a vehicle and an approach to life. Most of the time it’s our fear of uncertainty that leads to paralysis. It’s not the uncertainty itself. If we approach uncertainty knowing it’s a space of possibilities, or as another psychologist told me, an opportunity for movement, then we can be present in the moment and start investigating and exploring.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xUuYBY">
But if we’re afraid of uncertainty, we’re more likely to treat it as a threat. And if we’re more tolerant of uncertainty, we treat it as a challenge.
</p>
<h4 id="tgQHGn">
Sean Illing
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LJRJiA">
You cite some research about fear of the unknown as at least one of the root causes of things like anxiety and depression. It certainly makes intuitive sense, but what do we know about that relationship?
</p>
<h4 id="sPOj7H">
Maggie Jackson
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="agOGt5">
This is a very new but rising theoretical understanding of mental challenges in the psychology world. More and more psychologists and clinicians are beginning to see fear of the unknown as the trans-diagnostic root, or at least a vulnerability factor, to conditions like PTSD and anxiety. But by narrowing down treatments to just helping people bolster their tolerance of uncertainty, they’re beginning to find that might be a really important way to shift intractable anxiety.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QC8isH">
There’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005789422000697">one gold-standard peer-reviewed study</a> by probably one of the world’s greatest experts on anxiety, Michel Dugas. He found that people who were taught simple strategies to try on uncertainty, their intractable anxiety went down. It also helped their depression. And then other studies with multiple different kinds of populations show that focused strategies about uncertainty boost self-reported resilience in patients with multiple sclerosis, who are dealing with a lot of medical uncertainty.
</p>
<h4 id="Cpd59Z">
Sean Illing
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZkeagE">
It’s just a fact of life that things will change and the world won’t conform to our wishes, and so I feel like we end up going one of two ways: We either embrace the limits of our knowledge or we distort the world in order to make it align with our story of it, and I think bad things happen when we do the latter.
</p>
<h4 id="0O4hCc">
Maggie Jackson
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5vOMWW">
That’s right. I think it’s also backbreaking work to continually retreat into our certainties and close our eyes to the mutability of the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dQPIyU">
I had a real epiphany when I was doing some writing about a Head Start program that teaches people from very challenged backgrounds, both parents and preschoolers, to pause and reflect throughout their very chaotic days. And it seems like something that doesn’t have much to do with uncertainty, but they were basically inhabiting the question even though it was a very difficult thing to snatch these moments of reflection within their lives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uJvjYx">
In parallel to that, there’s a lot of new movement to understand the strengths of people who live in lower economic situations that are often chaotic. What was amazing to me is that I realized how much I grew up expecting that stability and predictability was just an entitlement. That this is the way we should live, that this is the skill set you need to adapt in order to thrive. Many of us have airbrushed out of our psyches the ability to live in precarious situations.
</p>
<h4 id="5vAipF">
Sean Illing
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OuXURU">
So when someone is confronted with the feeling of fear that comes with not knowing, how should they sit with that? What’s your practical advice?
</p>
<h4 id="cOLQsM">
Maggie Jackson
</h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="83PHSZ">
Well, first, you can remind yourself that this is your body and brain’s way of signaling that there’s a moment when the status quo won’t do. That this might be uncomfortable, but it’s not a situation or a state of mind that prevents forward progress — it’s actually propelling you forward.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bux6zk">
It’s truly changed my life writing this book, and it’s taken away a little bit of the fear that I might carry into new situations — from giving a speech to being in the presence of someone who’s very upset. I used to want to just offer a solution, and give that silver lining, and get that moment over with and get them on the road to happiness. And now I feel much more patient. And with that comes the ability to follow a path down an unexpected road, or even take a detour.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RJIBjC">
<em>To hear the rest of the conversation, </em><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-joy-of-uncertainty/id1081584611?i=1000642477677"><em>click here</em></a><em>, and be sure to follow </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/thegrayarea">The Gray Area</a><em> on </em><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-gray-area-with-sean-illing/id1081584611"><em>Apple Podcasts</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/search/vox%20conversations"><em>Google Podcasts</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6NOJ6IkTb2GWMj1RpmtnxP"><em>Spotify</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/vox-conversations"><em>Stitcher</em></a><em>, or wherever you listen to podcasts.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>This Is Me… Now is the most J. Lo thing J. Lo’s ever done</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4TrQazucQhAhoiimPOFH4_7uazM=/846x0:2390x1158/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73146266/Screen_Shot_2024_02_16_at_2.25.31_PM.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
Jennifer Lopez singing in the film <em>This Is Me… Now: A Love Story.</em> | Courtesy of Prime Video - © Prime Video
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bonkers, star-studded musical-biopic-fantasia-mess proves Jennifer Lopez can do whatever she wants.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DaW42o">
Throughout her career but particularly over the last decade, Jennifer Lopez has earned the title of one of the busiest people in the entertainment industry. From <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pILCn6VO_RU">performing at the Super Bowl halftime show</a> to churning out rom-com after rom-com to repurposing “Let’s Get Loud” at a<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QEGv7REuXw"> presidential inauguration</a> and headlining a Las Vegas residency, the multihyphenate is truly everything everywhere.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NHHBno">
It only makes sense that she would tax herself with a superfluous three-part project revamping one of her highest-performing albums, 2002’s <em>This Is Me… Then</em> — not even during its anniversary, by the way — all of which essentially serves to emphasize her persisting dominance in pop culture. (And oh yeah, her current state of bliss with her husband, Ben Affleck.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OPym92">
The first part of this trifecta, which includes a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jennifer-lopez-documentary-greatest-love-story-never-told-trailer-1234969683/">forthcoming documentary</a> and a new album out today, is the <a href="https://www.vox.com/amazon-prime-video">Prime Video</a> movie <a href="https://youtu.be/Osu2N9gysYk?si=OEkxZplQqBgSwLnJ"><em>This Is Me… Now: A Love Story</em></a>. The trippy musical isn’t the sort of high-brow, experimental venture one might expect from a pop star of Lopez’s caliber (think more like a wacky <a href="https://www.vox.com/marvel">Marvel</a> film than Beyoncé’s <em>Lemonade</em>). If anything<em>, This Is Me… Now</em> is a confirmation of the singer/actress’s elite showmanship and her ability to bounce back as a cultural figure and chronic divorcée. It’s exactly the sort of galaxy-brained project one makes when one has nothing to prove and $20 million to spend — and one is high on love.
</p>
<h3 id="7WjWsF">
<em>This Is Me… Now</em> is a messy, green-screen fantasia — but to what end?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZgYN6I">
From the moment the movie trailer dropped on social media, <em>This Is Me… Now</em> seemed primed for jokes about Lopez’s theater-kid-level earnestness and whatever Oscar-winner Ben Affleck planned on doing in the film. (He’s almost unrecognizable as a rambunctious news anchor, in addition to a few other cameos.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WNlki0">
On one hand, it is obvious <a href="https://www.vox.com/internet-culture">meme</a> material. We’re talking about Lopez here, who has largely opted for maximalism over subtlety as a performer. (This is a woman who inserted a pole-dancing routine from <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/9/29/20884151/jennifer-lopez-hustlers-body">her role in <em>Hustlers</em></a> into a <a href="https://www.vox.com/super-bowl">Super Bowl</a> halftime show, after all.) And as the star of a slew of romantic comedies (<em>Maid in Manhattan</em>, <em>The Wedding Planner</em>, <em>Second Act</em>, <em>Marry Me</em>), she’s no stranger to reveling in cheesiness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eO9CCn">
That being said, the semi-autobiographical movie relies a lot on big metaphors and unsubtle imagery. For example, in a dream sequence, Lopez’s heart is represented by a giant, combustible apparatus operated by dancing factory workers and fueled by rose petals. But it somehow feels right from the brain of such an iconic Leo, known for wearing her heart on her sleeve.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zB7l8R">
The hour-long movie opens with Lopez reciting the Puerto Rican myth of <a href="https://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/1982/5/82.05.09/3">Alida and Taroo</a>, two star-crossed lovers from rival tribes. After Alida’s father forbids their romance, Alida prays to the gods for help, who then turn her into a red flower. When Taroo asks the gods to help him find Alida, he is transformed into a hummingbird, leading him on a continual search for his one true love. If you’re fluent in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22629442/bennifer-jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-reunion-explained">history of Bennifer</a> and all the tabloid scrutiny that followed the first round of their relationship, you’ll see where all this allegory is going.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rEIOPp">
But before Lopez can reunite with her Prince Charming, we’re taken on a fantastical musical odyssey through her tumultuous, star-studded romantic history. Directed by notable music video director Dave Meyers, the film is admittedly reminiscent of some of his later, less visually appealing work — from the overly glossy, video-game-like sheen to the depressingly gray-and-amber Zack Snyder look of the film. The constantly rotating, borderline nauseating <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcYodQoapMg">camera angles</a> brought to mind his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffxKSjUwKdU">unfortunate</a> collaborations with Ariana Grande.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1IPUREs4sjDQwszlL7KHdCwCCSM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25290009/Screen_Shot_2024_02_16_at_2.32.14_PM.png"/> <cite>Courtesy of Prime Video</cite>
<figcaption>
Jennifer Lopez holding flowers in <em>This Is Me… Now: A Love Story</em>.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aSHYy1">
In slightly more grounded moments— if you could describe any part of this film as grounded — Lopez is able to overcome a vexing amount of green screen to convey something real and exciting. In one particularly fun number where she reimagines her three ill-fated marriages, she adds new life to the otherwise middling single “Can’t Get Enough.” In arguably the movie’s most powerful scene, she makes amends with her younger self for putting men before her personal happiness. This is also where she performs the title track “This Is Me… Now,” a standout on an album that doesn’t seem to be brimming with hits.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZVUVrK">
Of course, Lopez’s <a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/jennifer-lopez-zodiac-themed-dress-searching-meaning">penchant</a> for <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2022/08/jennifer-lopez-reportedly-didnt-want-virgo-dancers-on-tour.html">astrology</a> is included throughout the film. One of the funniest and most enjoyable aspects is the Zodiac Love Council, who struggle to match Lopez with her one true love. The astrological gods are played by a random but somehow pitch-perfect ensemble of <a href="https://www.vox.com/celebrities">celebrities</a> including Lopez’s <em>Monster-In-Law</em> co-star Jane Fonda, rapper-singer Post Malone, actress Sofia Vergara, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, America’s sweetheart Keke Palmer, comedian Trevor Noah, screen legend Jennifer Lewis, and hyper-pop singer Kim Petras.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="066gHo">
Oddly enough, these supporting characters have more chemistry than you might expect and are as committed to the bit as Lopez is — and really, isn’t commitment the most you can ask for from an overstuffed vanity project?
</p>
<h3 id="205IcS">
The movie isn’t as confessional as you may think
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kh5DIu">
<em>This Is Me… Now</em> is more disorienting than revelatory. The fast-paced, CGI-on-steroids element feels like a purposeful distraction from the fact that viewers will not learn anything about Lopez’s love life and psyche that she hasn’t been open about before. If you haven’t noticed, she and Affleck have been extremely public about their rekindling. Since reuniting in April 2021, the two have <a href="https://people.com/movies/ben-affleck-jennifer-lopez-the-last-duel-nyc-premiere-red-carpet/">posed</a> on <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a37545754/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-pda-photos-venice-film-festival-2021/">numerous</a> red <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a43862753/jennifer-lopez-sequined-bra-skirt-mother-premiere-kiss-ben-affleck/">carpets</a> together, <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/pictures/ben-affleck-jennifer-lopez-quotes-about-their-relationship/">gushed over each other in interviews</a>, starred in <a href="https://youtu.be/Ve2miT5iF2M?feature=shared">Dunkin’</a> commercials, and even <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellendurney/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-jenny-from-the-block-recreated">recreated a moment</a> from the “Jenny From the Block” music video on a yacht for paparazzi.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4mvWyF">
The therapy scenes between Lopez and fellow Bronxite Fat Joe are almost entirely played for laughs, revealing nothing novel, despite a perfect opportunity in the film for deeper introspection. Plus, the narrative explored in <em>This Is Me… Now</em> feels similar to many of her albums exploring her mishaps in love, including <em>Love?, </em>her 2011 comeback album.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ozwmCa">
In her 2014 memoir <em>True Love</em>, she takes readers on the same self-love journey, investigating her regrettable approaches to her past relationships and what she describes as a tendency to mistake passion for genuine love. Even a striking sequence in the film where Lopez dances with a volatile partner inside a glass house isn’t particularly shocking, given that in her book, she <a href="https://people.com/books/jennifer-lopez-in-new-book-true-love-says-she-felt-abused-in-relationships/">writes</a> about being “mentally, emotionally, verbally” abused by an unnamed ex.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XJTKIQ">
A raw, more transparent piece of art would likely confront the public’s treatment of her love life, given that the <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/05/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-relationship-history-dating.html">media’s ridicule</a> and other <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a42088213/jennifer-lopez-discusses-heartbreak-breakup-ben-affleck-this-is-me-now/">external pressures</a>, according to Lopez, were such a huge part of her and Affleck’s initial estrangement. It could at least include a few fun, lighthearted Easter eggs. Perhaps she’s saving more personal anecdotes for her documentary, <em>The Greatest Love Story Never Told</em>, out February 27, but <em>This Is Me… Now</em> seems like a prime vehicle for some juicy details about her past.
</p>
<h3 id="LshpoR">
<em>This Is Me… Now</em> is more about J. Lo’s power as a celebrity than an artist
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="reCSxL">
It’s a bit ironic that the thing Lopez’s character overcomes in this film — a need for external validation — is what seems to be driving its existence. It’s hard not to view the movie within the larger context of Hollywood failing to take her seriously as an actress, despite being one of the most bankable movie stars and turning over some genuinely good performances throughout her career.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o5aFfh">
For example, Lopez <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/05/jennifer-lopez-recalls-emotional-hustlers-oscar-snub-in-halftime-trailer">has been open</a> about the disappointment that was her failed <a href="https://www.vox.com/oscars">Oscars</a> campaign for the 2019 movie <em>Hustlers</em>, even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdptUgnusFQ">capturing her tears during nominations morning</a> in her <a href="https://www.vox.com/netflix">Netflix</a> documentary <em>Jennifer Lopez:</em> <em>Halftime</em>. While the actress earned other big awards nominations that year, including for the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/golden-globes">Golden Globes</a> — she already has a Golden Globe nomination for the 1997 film <em>Selena </em>— the Hollywood establishment seems hesitant to see her as much more than a commercial star. Such treatment has presumably caused her to feel like an “<a href="https://www.tmz.com/2021/09/18/jennifer-lopez-doesnt-belong-in-hollywood-outsider-hustlers/">outsider</a>” in Hollywood.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h4YkmN">
Regardless, it’s hard to point to a moment in time since her breakthrough in the late ‘90s when Lopez’s name has not been in the public conversation, whether for her personal life or professional ventures.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2m3pZA">
Even initially questionable film and <a href="https://www.vox.com/tv">television</a> roles, like starring in the NBC cop show <em>Shades of Blue </em>or lending her voice to the <em>Ice Age</em> franchise, now feel like necessary stepping stones in her trajectory. For instance, despite having a spotty, often poorly reviewed filmography, her choices in projects — particularly rom-coms and two-handers — have at least contributed to her specific brand as a movie star. Fans know what to expect from a classic J. Lo movie. It’s why she can star in a chaotic, objectively bad rom-com, like 2022’s <em>Shotgun Wedding,</em> without any expectations beyond being generally entertaining and delivering nostalgia.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BAXAgH">
The same resilience and ingenuity can be seen in her bumpy music career, which saw a <a href="https://www.rap-up.com/2007/10/17/jlos-brave-disappoints-on-the-charts-new-song-with-santana/">downturn</a> in 2007 following the release of her Spanish-language album <em>Como Ama una Mujer </em>and her return-to-pop-R&amp;B album <em>Brave</em>. Her decision to judge <em>American Idol</em> in 2011 — a surprising gig for a pop star at her level of fame — gave her a platform to regain the country’s interest as well as advertise new music. Plus, her Las Vegas residency, <em>All I Have</em>, from 2016 to 2018 would also set the stage for a revival of her musical catalog.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eTENqb">
All in all, Lopez’s career has demonstrated reinvention and, more importantly, redemption that not many can emulate. Her determination is, of course, the result of a celebrity culture that enjoys building women up until they’re deemed past their prime. For women of color, this cycle can be more brutal. Nevertheless, it’s historically resulted in some of our most fascinating divas and pop cultural stories.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O3GtPD">
<em>This Is Me… Now</em> is a statement of Lopez’s cultural resilience, if not just her ability to rebound from a bad relationship and find herself in another attention-grabbing power couple. She’s the kind of celebrity who can make sense out of any creative decision, including funding a self-important long-form music video based on her therapy sessions. There’s a level of shamelessness (and megalomania) required in crafting a movie like this, but it’s the sort of unabashed confidence that makes our celebrity ecosystem go round.
</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>Table Tennis | Contrasting outings for Indian teams</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>Badminton Asia Team Championships 2024 | Indian women beat Thailand 3-2 in final, clinch historic gold</strong> - The young and sprightly group of Indian women’s team, led by P.V. Sindhu, defied all expectations as it rose to the occasion to come up trumps against two-time bronze medallists Thailand</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>IND vs ENG 3rd Test, Day 4 | India hammer England by 434 runs in third Test</strong> - With overall lead stretched to 440 runs and the welcome return of Ravichandran Ashwin firmed up India’s grip as only one team can win the game from this point</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>Top-ranked Swiatek wins her third straight Qatar Open</strong> - Swiatek’s 18th career singles title was her first of the year</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>Ravichandran Ashwin to join Indian team for last two days of 3rd Test: BCCI</strong> - The BCCI confirmed that Ashwin will be available from the fourth day itself</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>Ram temple construction heralds establishment of ‘Ram Rajya’ for next 1,000 years: BJP resolution</strong> - “The construction of a grand and divine temple of Lord Shri Ram at his birthplace in the ancient holy city of Ayodhya is a historic and glorious achievement for the country. This heralds the establishment of ‘Ram Rajya’ in India for the next 1,000 years with the beginning of a new ‘Kalachakra’,” resolution passed by BJP said</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>IGR rejects petition seeking disqualification of SNDP Yogam directors</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>Jaishankar discusses Gaza situation with Palestinian counterpart al-Maliki</strong> - India has been pushing for a two-state solution to the Palestine issue for many decades.</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>VSSC thrilled with the success of GSLV-F14/INSAT-3DS mission</strong> - It made significant contributions to mission planning, manufacture of launch vehicle elements, vehicle engineering, design reviews for flight readiness and overall project management.</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>Watch | NDA vs INDIA | Where alliances stand ahead of polls</strong> - In this episode of Talking Politics, we discuss the two big alliances, NDA and INDIA and where do they stand as a party as we near the 2024 general assembly elections</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>Biden assures Zelensky US will send $60bn in aid</strong> - Ukraine’s army was forced to withdraw from a key battle due to supply shortages, the US says.</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>Navalny’s team accuses Russia of ‘hiding’ his body</strong> - An ally of the opposition activist, who died on Friday, says officials are “trying to cover traces”.</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>Rosenberg: Dissent takes courage - and Navalny supporters are defiant</strong> - In a country where dissent has been silenced, just laying flowers is an act of courage, writes Steve Rosenberg.</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 Oscar-winning film that captured Navalny’s life and future death</strong> - The director of the 2022 Oscar-winning film speaks of his shock at the death of Alexei Navalny.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French Riviera town turns lemons into Olympic gold</strong> - Menton’s Lemon Festival is showcasing giant sculptures of athletes made of lemons.</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>SpaceX wants to take over a Florida launch pad from rival ULA</strong> - SpaceX now plans at least four Starship launch pads, two in Texas and two in Florida. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004247">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Flowers grown floating on polluted waterways can help clean up nutrient runoff</strong> - Cut-flower farms could be a sustainable option for mitigating water pollution. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004198">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New FDA-approved drug makes severe food allergies less life-threatening</strong> - Injections over several months allowed people to tolerate larger doses of trigger foods. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004231">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Elon Musk’s X allows China-based propaganda banned on other platforms</strong> - X accused of overlooking propaganda flagged by Meta and criminal prosecutors. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004185">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft fixes problem that let Edge replicate Chrome tabs without permission</strong> - Edge update is first proof that this was definitely a glitch. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=2004077">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>Scientists removed the left half of a man’s brain and asked him to count to 10. He said, “2, 4, 6, 8, 10.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then they put it back, and removed the right half of his brain and asked him to count to 10. He said, “1, 3, 5, 7, 9.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Finally they removed his entire brain and asked him to count to 10. He said, “Oh I can count to 10. Believe me. People are saying I can count to 10 better than anyone in the history of our country. If you ask me to count to 10, I will count to 10 the likes of which no one has ever seen before.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
(Edit: “put it back”)
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ajcpullcom"> /u/ajcpullcom </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1as840m/scientists_removed_the_left_half_of_a_mans_brain/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1as840m/scientists_removed_the_left_half_of_a_mans_brain/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A comedian shows up at his gig at an old age home.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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A comedian shows up at his gig at an old age home. The director says, “Listen, we’re thrilled that you’re here. It’s very rare that we get entertainment. You see, everyone here has Alzheimer’s.”
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The comedian says, “Well, that doesn’t sound too good.”
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“No!” says the director. “They’ll love you. They will be so happy to get some entertainment. Please. You’ll see.”
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So the comedian goes out and tells his first joke. Big laugh. Huge. He thinks, “Well, that’s a good start.”
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So he decides to tell the same joke again. This time he gets an even bigger laugh. So he tells it again. Gigantic laugh; the audience is falling out of their seats.
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He tells the same joke a few more times; each time he gets an even bigger response.
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The whole time there’s a guy in the back watching the show, but not laughing; just sitting there rubbing his chin. Finally the comedian tells the same joke one last time and says, “Good-night, everybody!”
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Thunderous applause. Huge standing ovation. As he’s leaving the comedian walks past the guy in the back.
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The guy says, “That’s quite a show you just did there.”
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The comedian says, “Thank you very much.”
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The guy says, “Let me ask you something: how do you remember all of those jokes?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Jokeminder42"> /u/Jokeminder42 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1atl3lv/a_comedian_shows_up_at_his_gig_at_an_old_age_home/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1atl3lv/a_comedian_shows_up_at_his_gig_at_an_old_age_home/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My dad told me this joke “when I was old enough”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Two men are sitting in a rooftop bar of a skyscraper when the first one says to the other “I bet you $100 I can jump off the building and survive.”
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The second man, too drunk to take him seriously, agrees. The first man gets up and jumps over the edge.
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A few minutes later, the first man gets off the elevator. The second is shocked “oh god, I thought you died! What happened!”
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The first man says, “on the twentieth floor there’s a strong air current and it’ll suck you into the building. Bet you $200 I can do it again.”
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The second man has to see this, so he leans over the edge and watches the first man jump… and sure enough he sees the guy get sucked into the twentieth floor. The first man reappears on the elevator a few minutes later.
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“Here’s your $300,” the second man says. “I bet the same thing will happen to me. Double or nothing!”
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The second man jumps… allllll the way down, SPLAT.
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The first man takes the money to the bar to pay the bartender for his tab.
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The bartender shakes his head and sighs. He says, “boy Superman, you’re a real jerk when you’re drunk.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/somewhenimpossible"> /u/somewhenimpossible </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1atjc98/my_dad_told_me_this_joke_when_i_was_old_enough/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1atjc98/my_dad_told_me_this_joke_when_i_was_old_enough/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>If Snoop Dogg dies before pot becomes legal in the US,</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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He will be rolling in his grave.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Town-Hoarse278"> /u/Town-Hoarse278 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1atrw88/if_snoop_dogg_dies_before_pot_becomes_legal_in/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1atrw88/if_snoop_dogg_dies_before_pot_becomes_legal_in/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>If you’re ever worried about your mental health, go for a run</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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You will discover your physical health is much worse.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ChiMeraRa"> /u/ChiMeraRa </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1atnfb8/if_youre_ever_worried_about_your_mental_health_go/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/1atnfb8/if_youre_ever_worried_about_your_mental_health_go/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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