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<title>08 December, 2023</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Verification Theatre at Borders and in Pockets</strong> -
<div>
To appear in: Colleen M. Flood, Y.Y. Brandon Chen, Raywat Deonandan, Sam Halabi, and Sophie Thériault (eds.) Pandemics, Public Health, and the Regulation of Borders: Lessons from COVID-19 (Routledge, forthcoming). This version: August 2023. Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic saw the creation of a wide array of digital infrastructures, underpinning both digital and paper systems, for proving attributes such as vaccination, test results or recovery. These systems were hotly debated. Yet this debate often failed to connect their social, technical and legal aspects, focussing on one area to the exclusion of the others. In this paper, I seek to bring them together. I argue that fraud-free “vaccination certificate” systems were a technical and social pipe-dream, but one that was primarily advantageous to organisations wishing to establish and own infrastructure for future ambitions as verification platforms. Furthermore, attempts to include features to ostensibly reduce fraud had, and risks further, broader knock-on effects on local digital infrastructures around the world, particularly in countries with low IT capacities easily captured by large firms and de facto excluded from and by global standardisation processes. The paper further reflects on the role of privacy in these debates, and how privacy, and more specifically confidentiality, was misconstrued as a main design aim of these systems, when the main social problems could manifest even in a system built with state of the art privacy-enhancing technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic should sharpen our senses towards the importance of infrastructures, and more broadly, how to use technologies in societies in crises.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/h24uv/" target="_blank">Verification Theatre at Borders and in Pockets</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of biosafety in the biomedical sciences. While it is often assumed that biosafety is purely technical matter that has little to do with philosophy or the humanities, biosafety raises important ethical issues that have not been adequately examined in the scientific or bioethics literature. This article reviews some pivotal events in the history of biosafety and biosecurity and explores three different biosafety topics that generate significant ethical concerns, i.e., risk assessment, risk management, and risk distribution. The article also discusses the role of democratic governance in the oversight of biosafety and offers some suggestions for incorporating bioethics into biosafety practice, education, and policy.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/cjf2u/" target="_blank">Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 Lockdowns and Children’s Access to Justice: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Moroccan Family court filings</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 is a social disaster that has affected the operation of judicial systems globally. Access to justice is a vital right that ensures all other rights can be upheld. This study investigates how national lockdown affected the operation of family courts and children’s access to justice in Morocco. National lockdowns were enforced between March 21th and June 10th 2020 in response to the spread of coronavirus. The general closure of civil society was not extended to the judicial system and family courts were expected to continue operating and provide access to protection and justice. How well the court system mentioned to function under the constraints of stay-at-home orders is an open question. To investigate the impact of the national COVID-19 lockdown on family court systems and access to justice for children in Morocco this study used publicly available court filings (N= 77,335) pertaining to child abuse and neglect from 1st January 2020 to 30th December 2020 spanning the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and post-lockdown periods. Interrupted time series analysis was conducted to assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on court filing outcomes across different case types including penal, civil, complaints, and reports at the national, regional, and court level, controlling for time trends and regional fixed effects. National lockdowns were associated with decrease in cases filed and an increase in the percentages of cases with delays. Average case length differed by case type. Post-lockdown, case numbers recovered however there was large weekly variation likely due to rolling regional lockdowns. Evidence suggests that national lockdowns had a significant adverse impact on the judicial systems ability to provide access to justice for children.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/bf8vt/" target="_blank">COVID-19 Lockdowns and Children’s Access to Justice: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Moroccan Family court filings</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>From Viral Infections to Alzheimer’s Disease: Unveiling the Mechanistic Links Through Systems Bioinformatics</strong> -
<div>
Emerging evidence suggests that certain microorganisms, including viral infections, may contribute to the onset and/or progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), a neurodegenerative condition characterized by memory impairment and cognitive decline. However, the precise extent of their involvement and the underlying mechanisms through which specific viruses increase AD susceptibility risk remain elusive. We used an integrative systems bioinformatics approach to identity viral-mediated pathogenic mechanisms by which specific viral species, namely Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1), Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV), Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), Kaposi Sarcoma-associated Herpesvirus (KSHV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Influenza A virus (IAV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), could facilitate the pathogenesis of AD via virus-host protein-protein interactions (PPIs). We also sought to uncover potential synergistic pathogenic effects resulting from the reactivation of specific herpesviruses (HSV-1, HCMV and EBV) during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, potentially increasing AD susceptibility. Our findings show that Herpesviridae Family members (HSV-1, EBV, KSHV, HCMV) impact AD-related processes like amyloid-beta formation, neuronal death, and autophagy. Hepatitis viruses (HBV, HCV) influence processes crucial for cellular homeostasis and dysfunction. Importantly, hepatitis viruses affect microglia activation via virus-host PPIs. Reactivation of HCMV during SARS-CoV-2 infection could potentially foster a lethal interplay of neurodegeneration, via synergistic pathogenic effects on AD-related processes like response to unfolded protein, regulation of autophagy, response to oxidative stress and amyloid-beta formation. Collectively, these findings underscore the complex link between viral infections and AD development. Perturbations in AD-related processes by viruses can arise from both shared and distinct mechanisms among viral species in different categories, potentially influencing variations in AD susceptibility.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570187v1" target="_blank">From Viral Infections to Alzheimer’s Disease: Unveiling the Mechanistic Links Through Systems Bioinformatics</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>In Silico Therapeutic Intervention on Cytokine Storm in COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
The recent global COVID-19 outbreak, attributed by the World Health Organization to the rapid spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), underscores the need for an extensive exploration of virological intricacies, fundamental pathophysiology, and immune responses. This investigation is vital to unearth potential therapeutic avenues and preventive strategies. Our study delves into the intricate interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the immune system, coupled with exploring therapeutic interventions to counteract dysfunctional immune responses like the 'cytokine storm' (CS), a driver of disease progression. Understanding these immunological dimensions informs the design of precise multiepitope-targeted peptide vaccines using advanced immunoinformatics and equips us with tools to confront the cytokine storm. Employing a control theory-based approach, we scrutinize the perturbed behavior of key proteins associated with cytokine storm during COVID-19 infection. Our findings support ACE2 activation as a potential drug target for CS control and confirm AT1R inhibition as an alternative strategy. Leveraging deep learning, we identify potential drugs to individually target ACE2 and AT1R, with Lomefloxacin and Fostamatinib emerging as standout options due to their close interaction with ACE2. Their stability within the protein-drug complex suggests superior efficacy among many drugs from our deep-learning analysis. Moreover, there is a significant scope for optimization in fine-tuning protein-drug interactions. Strong binding alone may not be the sole determining factor for potential drugs; precise adjustments are essential. The application of advanced computational power offers novel solutions, circumventing time-consuming lab work. In scenarios necessitating both ACE2 and AT1R targeting, optimal drug combinations can be derived from our analysis of drug-drug interactions, as detailed in the manuscript.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570280v1" target="_blank">In Silico Therapeutic Intervention on Cytokine Storm in COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs in a Prolific Academic sample: A replication and extension of Georgiou et al. (2020)</strong> -
<div>
The authors reanalyzed the data and conducted a close replication of a study by Georgiou et al. (2020), who found amongst 660 (reported in abstract) or 640 (reported in participant section) participants that 1) COVID-19 related conspiracy theory beliefs were strongly related to broader conspiracy theory beliefs, that 2) COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs were higher in those with lower levels of education, and that 3) COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs were positively (although weakly) correlated with more negative attitudes towards different individual items measuring the government’s response. Finally, Georgiou et al. (2020) found that 4) COVID-19 beliefs were unrelated to self-reported stress. Reanalyzing their data and adjusting the analytical framework, the authors only found that an average of attitudes towards the appropriateness of the government response towards the pandemic was negatively related to conspiracy beliefs in general (not just COVID-19). In the present replication and extension study, random forest analyses show that attitude towards government responses (like the original study), stress (unlike the original study), and attachment avoidance towards the partner (unlike the original study) are the most important predictors of conspiracy beliefs. However, the explained variance of the whole random forest model (3.5-7.5%) was low and model fit of the presently and widely used conspiracy belief inventories was poor. Measurement error is a likely explanation for the differences between the original and replication study and independent development-validation studies therefore need to be conducted to better measure conspiracy beliefs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/t62s7/" target="_blank">COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs in a Prolific Academic sample: A replication and extension of Georgiou et al. (2020)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Algorithm for selecting potential SARS-CoV-2 dominant variants based on POS-NT frequency</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19, currently prevalent worldwide, is caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Similar to other RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve through random mutations, creating numerous variants, such as Alpha, Beta, and Delta. It is, therefore, necessary to predict the mutations constituting the dominant variant before they are generated. This can be achieved by continuously monitoring the mutation trends and patterns. Hence, in the current study, we sought to design a dominant variant candidate (DVC) selection algorithm. To this end, we obtained COVID-19 sequence data from GISAID and extracted position-nucleotide (POS-NT) frequency ratio data by country and date through data preprocessing. We then defined the dominant dates for each variant in the USA and developed a frequency ratio prediction model for each POS-NT. Based on this model, we applied DVC criteria to develop the selection algorithm, verified for Delta and Omicron. Using Condition 3 as the DVC criterion, 69 and 102 DVC POS-NTs were identified for Delta and Omicron an average of 47 and 82 days before the dominant dates, respectively. Moreover, 13 and 44 Delta- and Omicron-defining POS-NTs were recognized 18 and 25 days before the dominant dates, respectively. We identified all DVC POS-NTs before the dominant dates, including soaring and gently increasing POS-NTs. Considering that we successfully defined all POS-NT mutations for Delta and Omicron, the DVC algorithm may represent a valuable tool for providing early predictions regarding future variants, helping improve global health.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570216v1" target="_blank">Algorithm for selecting potential SARS-CoV-2 dominant variants based on POS-NT frequency</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Harmonizing Government Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Public health and safety measures (PHSM) made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been singular, rapid, and profuse compared to the content, speed, and volume of normal policy-making. Not only can they have a profound effect on the spread of the virus, but they may also have multitudinous secondary effects, in both the social and natural worlds. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts by numerous research groups, existing data on COVID-19 PHSM only partially captures their full geographical scale and policy scope for any significant duration of time. This paper introduces our effort to harmonize data from the eight largest such efforts for policies made before September 21, 2021 into the taxonomy developed by the CoronaNet Research Project in order to respond to the need for comprehensive, high quality COVID-19 data. In doing so, we present a comprehensive comparative analysis of existing data from different COVID-19 PHSM datasets, introduce our novel methodology for harmonizing COVID-19 PHSM data, and provide a clear-eyed assessment of the pros and cons of our efforts.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/zb6yx/" target="_blank">Harmonizing Government Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 NSP5 Antagonizes MHC II Expression by Subverting Histone Deacetylase 2</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 interferes with antigen presentation by downregulating MHC II on antigen presenting cells, but the mechanism mediating this process is unelucidated. Herein, analysis of protein and gene expression in human antigen presenting cells reveals that MHC II is downregulated by the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, NSP5. This suppression of MHC II expression occurs via decreased expression of the MHC II regulatory protein CIITA. This downregulation of CIITA is independent of NSP5’s proteolytic activity, but rather, NSP5 delivers HDAC2 to IRF3 at an IRF binding site within the CIITA promoter. Here, HDAC2 deacetylates and inactivates the CIITA promoter. This loss of CIITA expression prevents further expression of MHC II, with this suppression alleviated by ectopic expression of CIITA or knockdown of HDAC2. These results identify a mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 limits MHC II expression, thereby delaying or weakening the subsequent adaptive immune response. Importance: SARS-CoV-2 alters the expression of many immunoregulatory proteins to limit and delay the host antiviral response, thereby producing a more severe and longer-lasting infection. Preventing and limiting the activation of helper T cells by reducing MHC II expression on antigen presenting cells is one of these strategies, but while this mechanism was identified early in the pandemic, the mechanism allowing SARS-CoV-2 to limit MHC II expression has remained unclear. Herein, we demonstrate that this occurs via a tripartite interaction between viral NSP5 and host HDAC2 and IRF3, where a complex of NSP5 and HDAC2 is recruited to IRF3 bound to the promoter of CIITA - the master regulator of MHC II expression - with the delivery of HDAC2 then mediating the deacetylation of the CIITA promoter and the suppression of MHC II expression.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.10.528032v3" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 NSP5 Antagonizes MHC II Expression by Subverting Histone Deacetylase 2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Pretrainable Geometric Graph Neural Network for Antibody Affinity Maturation</strong> -
<div>
In the realm of antibody therapeutics development, increasing the binding affinity of an antibody to its target antigen is a crucial task. This paper presents GearBind, a pretrainable deep neural network designed to be effective for in silico affinity maturation. Leveraging multi-level geometric message passing alongside contrastive pretraining on protein structural data, GearBind capably models the complex interplay of atom-level interactions within protein complexes, surpassing previous state-of-the-art approaches on SKEMPI v2 in terms of Pearson correlation, mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE). In silico experiments elucidate that pretraining helps GearBind become sensitive to mutation-induced binding affinity changes and reflective of amino acid substitution tendency. Using an ensemble model based on pretrained GearBind, we successfully optimize the affinity of CR3022 to the spike (S) protein of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strain. Our strategy yields a high success rate with up to 17-fold affinity increase. GearBind proves to be an effective tool in narrowing the search space for in vitro antibody affinity maturation, underscoring the utility of geometric deep learning and adept pre-training in macromolecule interaction modeling.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.10.552845v2" target="_blank">Pretrainable Geometric Graph Neural Network for Antibody Affinity Maturation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Ribosomal frameshifting and misreading of mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines produces “off-target” proteins and immune responses eliciting safety concerns: Comment on UK study by Mulroney et al.</strong> -
<div>
We comment on the study by Mulroney et al.(1) entitled: “N1-methylpseudouridylation of mRNA causes +1 ribosomal frameshifting.” The study found evidence in mice and humans for the misreading of the modRNA contained within the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to inadvertently produce “off-target” proteins capable of eliciting “off-target” immune responses. The authors propose that these novel proteins are the result of ribosomal frameshifting occasioned by the substitution of N1-methyl pseudouridine. The authors state that the “error prone” code is a safety concern with a “huge potential to be harmful” and that “it is essential that these therapeutics are designed to be free from unintended side-effects.” The findings reveal a developmental and regulatory failure to ask fundamental questions that could affect the safety and effectiveness of these products. According to WHO guidelines for mRNA vaccines, (2) manufacturers should provide details of “unexpected ORFs”(Open Reading Frames). The formation of these off-target proteins is not disclosed in the package insert for COMIRNATY. The finding that unintended proteins may be produced as a result of vaccination is sufficient cause for regulators to conduct full risk assessments of past or future harms that may have ensued. Given that this study was conducted under the auspices of the United Kingdom Government, we must assume UK regulators, manufacturers, and international regulatory agencies, including FDA, were apprised of the data many months ago. We await their account of what steps they have taken to investigate why the formation of off-target proteins was not discovered sooner, what toxic effects they may have caused and what steps they are taken to prevent harm in the future and to inform the public of these findings.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/nt8jh/" target="_blank">Ribosomal frameshifting and misreading of mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines produces “off-target” proteins and immune responses eliciting safety concerns: Comment on UK study by Mulroney et al.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>GotGlycans: Role of N343 Glycosylation on the SARS-CoV-2 S RBD Structure and Co-Receptor Binding Across Variants of Concern</strong> -
<div>
Glycosylation of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein represents a key target for viral evolution because it affects both viral evasion and fitness. Successful variations in the glycan shield are difficult to achieve though, as protein glycosylation is also critical to folding and to structural stability. Within this framework, the identification of glycosylation sites that are structurally dispensable can provide insight into the evolutionary mechanisms of the shield and inform immune surveillance. In this work we show through over 45 s of cumulative sampling from conventional and enhanced molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, how the structure of the immunodominant S receptor binding domain (RBD) is regulated by N-glycosylation at N343 and how the structural role of this glycan changes from WHu-1, alpha (B.1.1.7), and beta (B.1.351), to the delta (B.1.617.2) and omicron (BA.1 and BA.2.86) variants. More specifically, we find that the amphipathic nature of the N-glycan is instrumental to preserve the structural integrity of the RBD hydrophobic core and that loss of glycosylation at N343 triggers a specific and consistent conformational change. We show how this change allosterically regulates the conformation of the receptor binding motif (RBM) in the WHu-1, alpha and beta RBDs, but not in the delta and omicron variants, due to mutations that reinforce the RBD architecture. In support of these findings, we show that the binding of the RBD to monosialylated ganglioside co-receptors is highly dependent on N343 glycosylation in the WHu-1, but not in the delta RBD, and that affinity changes significantly across VoCs. Ultimately, the molecular and functional insight we provide in this work reinforces our understanding of the role of glycosylation in protein structure and function and it also allows us to identify the structural constraints within which the glycosylation site at N343 can become a hotspot for mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 S glycan shield.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570076v1" target="_blank">GotGlycans: Role of N343 Glycosylation on the SARS-CoV-2 S RBD Structure and Co-Receptor Binding Across Variants of Concern</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>High throughput screening identifies broad-spectrum Coronavirus entry inhibitors</strong> -
<div>
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the pressing need for antiviral therapeutics capable of mitigating infection and spread of emerging coronaviruses (CoVs). A promising therapeutic strategy lies in inhibiting viral entry mediated by the Spike (S) glycoprotein. To identify small molecule inhibitors that block entry downstream of receptor binding, we established a high-throughput screening (HTS) platform based on pseudoviruses. We employed a three-step process to screen nearly 200,000 small molecules. First, we identified potential inhibitors by assessing their ability to inhibit pseudoviruses bearing the SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein. Subsequent counter-screening against pseudoviruses with the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus spike glycoprotein (VSV-G), yielding sixty-five SARS-CoV-2 S-specific inhibitors. These were further tested against pseudoviruses bearing the MERS-CoV S glycoprotein, which uses a different receptor. Out of these, five compounds including the known broad-spectrum inhibitor Nafamostat, were subjected to further validation and tested them against pseudoviruses bearing the S glycoprotein of the alpha, delta, and omicron variants as well as against bona fide SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. This rigorous approach revealed a novel inhibitor and its derivative as a potential broad-spectrum antiviral. These results validate the HTS platform and set the stage for lead optimization and future pre-clinical, in vivo studies.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.04.569985v1" target="_blank">High throughput screening identifies broad-spectrum Coronavirus entry inhibitors</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Identification and Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Mutation and Subtype using 2x tiled Primer Set with Oxford Nanopore Technologies Sequencing for Enhanced Variant Detection and Surveillance in Seoul, Korea</strong> -
<div>
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a respiratory virus that contains RNA as its genetic material and has caused a global pandemic since its outbreak in 2020. This virus has many mutations, some of which can reduce the effectiveness of existing vaccines. Therefore, next-generation sequencing (NGS) is necessary to accurately identify new mutations. Current NGS analysis of SARS-CoV-2 uses the amplicon analysis method through a multiplex polymerase chain reaction. This study collected and validated RNA samples from patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 from April to July 2022, and selected 613 samples for sequencing. The findings demonstrate the importance of long-read-based NGS analysis and 2x tiled primer set for identifying full SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence with new mutations and understanding the correlation between viral genotypes and patient characteristics for the effective management of SARS-CoV-2.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.03.569831v1" target="_blank">Identification and Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Mutation and Subtype using 2x tiled Primer Set with Oxford Nanopore Technologies Sequencing for Enhanced Variant Detection and Surveillance in Seoul, Korea</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Multi-variate statistical and machine learning reveals the interplay between sex and age in antibody responses to de novo SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination</strong> -
<div>
Prevention of negative COVID19 infection outcomes and infection/vaccine-acquired immunity is associated with the quality of antibody responses, whose variance by age and sex are poorly understood. Integrated, network approaches, identified sex and age effects in antibody responses and neutralization potential of de novo infection and vaccination throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Cluster analysis found neutralization values followed SARS-CoV-2 specific receptor binding RIgG, spike SIgG and S and RIgA levels based on COVID19 status. Stochastic behavior tests and other analytical methods revealed sex differences only in persons &lt;40y.o. Serum IgA antibody titers correlated with neutralization only in females 40-60y.o. Network analysis found males could improve IgA responses after vaccination dose 2, unlike &gt;60 y.o. females. Complex correlation analyses found vaccination induced less antibody isotype switching and neutralization in older persons, especially in females. Sex dependent antibody &amp; neutralization behavior decayed fastest in older males and with vaccination. Such sex and age characterization by machine learning can direct studies integrating cell mediated responses to define yet elusive correlates of protection and inform age and sex precision-focused vaccine design.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.569965v1" target="_blank">Multi-variate statistical and machine learning reveals the interplay between sex and age in antibody responses to de novo SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination</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>Intravenous Immunoglobulin Replacement Therapy for Persistent COVID-19 in Patients With B-cell Impairment</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Immunoglobulins <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Jaehoon Ko <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>Effect of Inhaled Hydroxy Gas on Long COVID Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Hydroxy gas <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Oxford Brookes University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Community Care Intervention to Decrease COVID-19 Vaccination Inequities</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Vaccination <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Community Health Worker Intervention to Enhance Vaccination Behavior (CHW-VB) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: RAND; Clinical Directors Network; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PROmotion of COVID-19 BOOSTer VA(X)Ccination in the Emergency Department - PROBOOSTVAXED</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Vaccine Messaging; Behavioral: Vaccine Acceptance Question <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of California, San Francisco; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); Pfizer; Duke University; Baylor College of Medicine; Thomas Jefferson University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluating a Comprehensive Multimodal Outpatient Rehabilitation Program for PASC Program to Improve Functioning of Persons Suffering From Post-COVID Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-Acute COVID-19 Infection; Long COVID; Long Covid19; Dyspnea; Orthostasis; Cognitive Impairment <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Comprehensive Rehabilitation; Other: Augmented Usual Care <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Pennsylvania; Medical College of Wisconsin; National Institutes of Health (NIH) <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>Multilevel Intervention of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Among Latinos</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Vaccine Hesitancy <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Multilevel Intervention <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: San Diego State University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Stem Cell Study for Long COVID-19 Neurological Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Stem Cell <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Charles Cox; CBR Systems, Inc. <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>Pursuing Reduction in Fatigue After COVID-19 Via Exercise and Rehabilitation (PREFACER): A Randomized Feasibility Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long-COVID; Long Covid19; Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-COVID Syndrome; Fatigue <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: COVIDEx <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Lawson Health Research Institute; Western University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Randomized Trial Evaluating a mRNA VLP Vaccine’s Immunogenicity and Safety for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: AZD9838; Biological: Licensed mRNA vaccine <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: AstraZeneca <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>Effect of Metformin in Reducing Fatigue in Long COVID in Adolescents</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Metformin; Other: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Trust for Vaccines and Immunization, Pakistan <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>“The Effect of Aerobic Exercise and Strength Training on Physical Activity Level, Quality of Life and Anxiety-Stress Disorder in Young Adults With and Without Covid-19”</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Aerobic Exercise and Strength Training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Pamukkale University <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>Vale+Tú Salud: Corner-Based Randomized Trial to Test a Latino Day Laborer Program Adapted to Prevent COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: COVID-19 Group Problem Solving; Behavioral: Standard of Care; Behavioral: Booster session <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety Study of SLV213 for the Treatment of COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Placebo for SLV213; Drug: SLV213 <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) <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>Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of biaryl amide derivatives against SARS-CoV-2 with dual-target mechanism</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the urgent need to develop effective small-molecule antivirals. Thirty-three novel biaryl amide derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for anti-coronaviral activity. Some significant SARs were uncovered and the intensive structure modifications led to the most active compounds 8b and 8h. The broad-spectrum anti-coronaviral effects of 8h were validated at RNA and protein levels. 8h inhibits coronavirus replication at multiple stages, from virus entry to virus…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infection and replication by Petasites hybridus CO2-extract (Ze 339)</strong> - CONCLUSION: Thereby, Ze 339 attenuated epithelial infection by SARS-CoV-2 and modeled the IFN response. In conclusion, this study highlights Ze 339 as a potential treatment option for COVID-19 that limits infection-associated cell intrinsic immune responses.</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>Integrin α<sub>5</sub>β<sub>1</sub> contributes to cell fusion and inflammation mediated by SARS-CoV-2 spike via RGD-independent interaction</strong> - The Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus infects host cells by engaging its spike (S) protein with human ACE2 receptor. Recent studies suggest the involvement of integrins in SARS-CoV-2 infection through interaction with the S protein, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood. This study investigated the role of integrin α(5)β(1), which recognizes the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif in its physiological ligands, in S-mediated virus entry and cell-cell fusion. Our…</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>Unraveling antiviral efficacy of multifunctional immunomodulatory triterpenoids against SARS-COV-2 targeting main protease and papain-like protease</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may be over, but its variants continue to emerge, and patients with mild symptoms having long COVID is still under investigation. SARS-CoV-2 infection leading to elevated cytokine levels and suppressed immune responses set off cytokine storm, fatal systemic inflammation, tissue damage, and multi-organ failure. Thus, drug molecules targeting the SARS-CoV-2 virus-specific…</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>Strategies to Mitigate the Drug-Drug Interaction between Nirmatrelvir/Ritonavir and Tacrolimus in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients on Azole Antifungals: Results of a Case Series</strong> - CONCLUSION: NIM/r-tacrolimus is a serious drug-drug interaction which can be mitigated by early discontinuation of tacrolimus and azole antifungals, close monitoring, and reinitiation of tacrolimus and antifungal 48-72 h after completion of therapy.</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>Patterns of physical activity among nursing home residents before and during the Covid 19 pandemic-a systematic observation</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Nursing homes constitute highly sedentary places-an issue exacerbated by access restrictions for external activity experts and significant others as well as behavioural restrictions for residents during the Covid-19 pandemic. Staff could not compensate due to existing time restraints and lack of training in PA promotion. Based on our findings, we recommend future studies to develop feasible and resource-low activities to be integrated into the daily routines of nursing homes.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A natural product YSK-A blocks SARS-CoV-2 propagation by targeting multiple host genes</strong> - Natural products and herbal medicine have been widely used in drug discovery for treating infectious diseases. Recent outbreak of COVID-19 requires various therapeutic strategies. Here, we used YSK-A, a mixture of three herbal components Boswellia serrata, Commiphora myrrha, and propolis, to evaluate potential antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. We showed that YSK-A inhibited SARS-CoV-2 propagation with an IC(50) values of 12.5 µg/ml and 15.42 µg/ml in Vero E6 and Calu-3 cells, respectively….</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Validation of nuclear receptor RORγ isoform 1 as a novel host-directed antiviral target based on the modulation of cholesterol levels</strong> - Currently, the clinically approved repertoire of antiviral drugs predominantly comprises direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). However, the use of DAAs is frequently limited by adverse effects, restriction to individual virus species, or the induction of viral drug resistance. These issues will likely be resolved by the introduction of host-directed antivirals (HDAs) targeting cellular proteins crucial for viral replication. However, experiences with the development of antiviral HDAs and clinical…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibition of non-muscular myosin light chain kinase accelerates the clearance of inflammatory cells by promoting the lysosome-mediated cell death</strong> - Infections like COVID-19 are the primary cause of death around the world because they can cause acute lung injury (ALI), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and sepsis. Inflammatory cells serve as crucial protective barriers in these diseases. However, excessive accumulation of inflammatory cells is also one of the major causes of organ damage. The non-muscular myosin light chain kinase (nmMLCK) plays crucial of cytoskeletal components involved in endothelial cell-matrix and cell-cell…</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>Crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M<sup>pro</sup>) mutants in complex with the non-covalent inhibitor CCF0058981</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 constantly circulates and evolves worldwide, generating many variants and posing a menace to global health. It is urgently needed to discover effective medicines to treat the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. An established target for anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug discovery is the main protease (M^(pro)), since it exerts an irreplaceable action in viral life cycle. CCF0058981, derived from ML300, is a non-covalent inhibitor that exhibits low nanomolar potency against SARS-CoV-2…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>USP2 inhibition prevents infection with ACE2-dependent coronaviruses in vitro and is protective against SARS-CoV-2 in mice</strong> - Targeting angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) represents a promising and effective approach to combat not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also potential future pandemics arising from coronaviruses that depend on ACE2 for infection. Here, we report ubiquitin specific peptidase 2 (USP2) as a host-directed antiviral target; we further describe the development of MS102, an orally available USP2 inhibitor with viable antiviral activity against ACE2-dependent coronaviruses. Mechanistically, USP2…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Molecular Generative Model of COVID-19 Main Protease Inhibitors Using Long Short-Term Memory-Based Recurrent Neural Network</strong> - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a serious threat to public health and prompted researchers to find anti-coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) compounds. In this study, the long short-term memory-based recurrent neural network was used to generate new inhibitors for the coronavirus. First, the model was trained to generate drug compounds in the form of valid simplified molecular-input line-entry system strings. Then, the structures of COVID-19 main protease…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase II study of bemnifosbuvir in high-risk participants in a hospital setting with moderate COVID-19</strong> - CONCLUSION: Our results suggest a potential role for bemnifosbuvir in blunting COVID-19 progression.</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 mechanisms of dexamethasone actions in COVID-19: Ion channels and airway surface liquid dynamics</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global health crisis of unprecedented magnitude. In the battle against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, dexamethasone, a widely used corticosteroid with potent anti-inflammatory properties, has emerged as a promising therapy in the fight against severe COVID-19. Dexamethasone is a synthetic glucocorticoid that exerts its therapeutic effects by suppressing the immune system and reducing inflammation. In the context of COVID-19, the severe form of the disease is often…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pilot Study of High-Dose Pemetrexed in Patients with Progressive Chordoma</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: High-dose pemetrexed appears tolerable and shows objective antitumor activity in patients with chordoma. Phase II studies of high-dose pemetrexed are warranted.</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 Senate Battle Over Immigration and Aid to Ukraine</strong> - Republicans are making one dependent on the other. Are vulnerable Democrats willing to make concessions? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-senate-battle-over-immigration-and-aid-to-ukraine">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Drag Queens Fighting Performance Bans in Texas</strong> - As a series of repressive bills targets drag shows across the country, performers in Texas try out a novel defense. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-drag-queens-fighting-performance-bans-in-texas">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Ron DeSantis Doesn’t Have a Prayer in Iowa</strong> - The Florida governor has won the backing of the state’s political establishment—and the electorate has always been skeptical of Trump. So what went wrong? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/why-ron-desantis-doesnt-have-a-prayer-in-iowa">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Would Sandra Day O’Connor Have Thought About Affirmative Action for Men?</strong> - For decades, college-admissions offices have quietly imposed higher standards on female applicants. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-would-sandra-day-oconnor-have-thought-about-affirmative-action-for-men">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Capital Has a Bad Case of Year-End Panic</strong> - Worries about a second Trump term and the end of aid to Ukraine are entirely justified. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-capital-has-a-bad-case-of-year-end-panic">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Poor Things stars Emma Stone as a horny Frankenstein’s monster coming of age</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A man with a mustache wraps his arms around a seated young woman with black hair parted down the middle. She wears a pale pink dress with a large ruffled and pleated collar." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YHnyMyYObBtSVZmZ589YAhiV2iI=/334x0:5667x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72943308/PT_Atsushi_Nishijima_20211105_00054_87aExBJ.0.jpg"/>
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Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo in <em>Poor Things. </em> | Atsushi Nishijima via Searchlight Pictures
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Stone reunites with The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos for a lovable movie from one of our prickliest filmmakers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HopuYn">
Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is famous for making strange and chilly <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a>: 2016’s eerie dramedy <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/5/14/11672946/the-lobster-review-colin-farrell-transformation"><em>The</em> <em>Lobster</em></a>; 2018’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/11/20/18104064/favourite-review"><em>The Favourite</em></a>, a cynical comedy; movies about power games and humans hurting each other and brutal, unforgiving worlds, shot through with jarring visual non sequiturs (the lobster race in the royal bedchambers in <em>The Favourite</em> haunts me).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k8m4Rb">
<em>Poor Things</em>, Lanthimos’s latest film, is a different story. It’s less vicious than his other work, more tender and approachable. It has plenty of the bizarre visual flair Lanthimos cut his teeth on, from his signature extreme wide angles up to and including a bulldog with the head of a duck frolicking through a grand living room. Yet <em>Poor Things</em>, based on a <a href="https://www.poorthingsnovel.com/">1992 novel by Alasdair Gray</a>, is joyous in its weirdness, joyous in its exploration and celebration of its strange, strange world. This movie is incredibly fun to watch.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="INUL9H">
Mostly that’s because of Emma Stone, reuniting here with Lanthimos after she was Oscar-nominated for her work in <em>The Favourite</em>. In <em>Poor Things</em>, Stone is doing some of the best work of her career as Bella Baxter, a grown woman with the brain (literally) of an infant.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6NpvFw">
This is a very physical, very grounded performance. Stone has a terrific walk: just a touch of Frankenstein jerkiness showing as Bella tries to control limbs she isn’t used to, head always on a swivel as she tries to take in more and more of the ever-fascinating brand new world. Faced with something she doesn’t care for, she glares her giant eyes up from under dyed-black beetled brows and then, usually, punches it. “Bluh,” she says gleefully, if the thing in question bleeds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Se6oF">
Bella lives with her guardian, Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe, gently avuncular). She calls him God. Godwin is an experimental surgeon working at the very limits of steampunk 19th-century science, and he himself is the product of endless sadistic science experiments at his father’s hands. Bella likes him to crawl into her bed at night, but he assures his worried assistant that there’s nothing untoward going on there. For one thing, he’s impotent after his father’s experiments. For another thing, he considers Bella to be his daughter.
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9J8YET">
Godwin celebrates Bella’s natural curiosity, but only up to a point. He’s delighted to help her refine her speech and her movements, and he lets her experiment with him in his laboratory, as long as she is only cutting up corpses rather than living bodies. He even brings her a suitor, sweet Max (Ramy Youssef, in puppy dog mode).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jOVnrr">
Godwin will not, however, let Bella leave his home, a fantastical menagerie populated with his various experiments, which Lanthimos shoots in moody black and white. When Bella inevitably rebels enough to leave God behind and see the world, the screen blooms into hyper-saturated color, all the blues removed, so that Bella becomes Dorothy walking into a gilded Oz.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bsj3JH">
Bella runs away to see the world with the help of the rakish Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, enjoying himself), a lawyer with a well-oiled mustache and a permanent sneer. Duncan finds Bella’s naivete and hunger for the world intoxicating, while she is won over by his willingness to help her discover sex. (Max chastely declines when Bella proposes they rub their genitals together.) “Why do people not do this all the time?” she demands of Duncan, post-coital and mystified.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mkWOdC">
Once on the continent, however, Bella does what girls do in Europe and discovers philosophy. Her mind thus expanded, she looks askance on her lover’s myopia. “My heart has become dim towards your swearing, weepy person,” she informs Duncan. Surviving Europe without Duncan will require Bella to dabble in both socialism and sex work, which she does with a good will.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="32ahZR">
The allegory here is straightforward: Bella is infantilized Victorian femininity, a grown woman pushed by controlling men into living her life like a child. She finds redemption by taking control of her fate, body, and mind for herself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Judv8v">
The reason the allegory works, though, is how vividly we see Bella’s radiant newborn mind embrace all that life has to offer her: sex, food, music, travel. She seems to watch her own life with the fierce scientific detachment she must have learned from her God. Faced with a choice, it’s generally clear to Bella what the wise thing to do is. That’s the option she usually ignores. She goes for the interesting pathway instead.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e9Xvij">
Bella’s impulse to do the interesting thing leads her, in the final act of <em>Poor Things</em>, to investigate the life her body led before her child mind was implanted inside of it. This act is the weakest of the film by far, the point where the allegory becomes clunky rather than clever, the action takes a turn for the dull, and Bella more or less stops developing. It’s hard to avoid the sense that the movie could have ended twenty minutes earlier and be all the better for it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="whlUCC">
Still, it is always joyful to watch Bella navigate her world: gorging on sugar pastries, swishing her hips in an avant-garde ballet of sorts, discussing the intricacies of consent with her johns. (Holly Waddington’s witty costumes are an especial pleasure, with their enormous ruffled collars framing Bella’s neck like a glam version of Frankenstein’s bolts.) Bella is an enormously lovable character, a fitting heart for this lovable movie from one of our prickliest directors.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LNnm3d">
Poor Things<em> will be released in theaters on December 8, 2023.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>George Santos treated politics like reality TV. And he won.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="George Santos smiling." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/B-q93ZaN0rEPG0wfyG4GAtn6_p4=/0x0:3021x2266/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72941314/1815420289.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Cameo star George Santos. | Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The expelled rep used his time in Congress like a Real Housewife, and now he’s found his true calling making bank on Cameo.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VrEA97">
Despite facing <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/congressman-george-santos-charged-conspiracy-wire-fraud-false-statements-0">23 federal charges</a> for a litany of crimes, including the kind that involve stealing — wire fraud, credit card fraud, and aggravated identity theft — people, including at least<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/12/06/fetterman-santos-cameo-video-price/71825290007/"> one sitting US Senator</a>, cannot give former Rep. George Santos money fast enough.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ccC5Ss">
Since his expulsion from Congress, Santos has found a home on Cameo, a service that allows regular people to pay more famous people, usually of the reality television or character actor variety, to record video messages for their personal use. For a small fee, you could ask Santos to tell your mom that you love her or “roast” one of your friends. Santos initially charged $75 but, after serious demand, upped his price to $400, according to Cameo (Real Housewife of New York City Ramona Singer charges <span class="math inline">$125 per video). &lt;a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/12/06/2023/george-santos-is-earning-six-figures-from-cameo-videos"&gt;According to Semafor&lt;/a&gt;, Santos has made more money in four days of Cameo appearances than he would have in one year ($</span><a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30064#:~:text=The%20compensation%20for%20most%20Senators,from%20Puerto%20Rico%20is%20%24174%2C000.&amp;text=These%20levels%20have%20remained%20unchanged,March%2011%2C%202009)%2C%20P.L.">174,000</a>) as a member of Congress.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="es4vQD">
A man who is facing possible prison time for theft and who got thrown out of Congress is now being given cash, hand over fist, to be that ex-congressional, money-stealing grifter on camera.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TLaut2">
What is happening? Is there no better way for people to use their wallets? Is inflation not a problem? Perhaps we have too much money?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uWGrRV">
While we may never fully understand what would compel a person to send Santos $200 of their hard-earned cash, his final form as a Cameo star is a little easier to explain. Anyone who has followed Bravo’s <em>“</em><a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/6/2/23745691/scandoval-vanderpump-rules-reunion-episode-2-ariana-madix">Scandoval</a><em>” </em>or <a href="https://www.vox.com/reset/2020/2/24/21145335/the-bachelor-instagram-social-media-influencers-money"><em>The Bachelor</em></a> could point out that this man’s career arc is that of a <a href="https://x.com/migold/status/1731823100004557005?s=20">reality TV star</a>. Those people, Santos’s Cameo cohort, go on TV with the aim of getting famous enough to launch a business, do social media influencing, or generate income via Cameo. Real Housewives <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/1/6/23542202/jen-shah-real-housewife-sentencing-78-months">Jen Shah</a> and Teresa Giudice, like Santos, faced federal charges and are doing or have served prison time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YIn6MD">
The only difference between Bravo celebrities and Santos is that the latter’s reality TV show was Congress. Perhaps there’s no difference at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vfNg5A">
“He’s obviously going to have to go on hiatus for a bit,” Vox senior politics reporter and Bravo watcher <a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/christian-paz">Christian Paz</a> told me, humoring me with TV speak. Paz and I sat down to discuss the man on everyone’s minds from our respective fields of expertise — politics for him, reality TV for me. But as Paz explains, while Santos might seem like an anomaly, one of the best ways to succeed in government is to act like a reality TV star. It’s actually designed that way.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zMUDKL">
<em>The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CHkMpO">
<strong>Christian, on the Jen Shah scale of prison time, how much prison time is George Santos possibly facing? Is it more or less time than Jen Shah? [Editor’s note: Shah was sentenced to </strong><a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/1/6/23542202/jen-shah-real-housewife-sentencing-78-months"><strong>6.5 years in prison</strong></a><strong>.]</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5oOlw1">
He has the potential to serve even more time. The big embarrassing stuff came out from this ethics report, but that’s just the House Ethics report. George Santos is still under indictment and facing pretty severe federal charges: wire fraud, identity theft, aggravated identity theft, lying to a federal office, money laundering, etc. Those are things that people go to jail for for a long time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xjzsMZ">
<strong>Wire fraud! Everything I know about wire fraud is from Jen Shah. If you had a Venn diagram of crimes real politicians do and crimes Real Housewives do, wire fraud is one of those crimes where there’s overlap.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jNLVbK">
I never thought we’d have federal charges against a congressman because of OnlyFans subscriptions. Though there was the misuse of taxpayer funds that happened with <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/2/26/8114239/aaron-schock">Aaron Schock</a>, the congressman from Illinois, famously.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="George Santos making a sad face." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/umuBU2Ez_JS3dEBDOTyMtxiP5IU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25141047/1813613167.jpg"/> <cite>Drew Angerer/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
George Santos, like most first-year members of Congress and Tinkerbell, needs attention to live.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oxD9ff">
<strong>He made his entire office like </strong><em><strong>Downton Abbey</strong></em><strong>!</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XJBA5m">
Exactly. We’ve had some scandalous/reality TV-adjacent scandals in the past, but never as outright and just brazen. And posting through it, as Santos is? In the last 10 years, politics in general has just become much more reality TV-esque.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H5AVi3">
<strong>I mean, what a perfect segue into what I want to talk about! There’s that saying, “Politics is Hollywood for ugly people.” I think that the update to that saying should be, “Politics is reality television.”</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6uxJeb">
Yeah, I totally agree.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tzicwX">
<strong>That politicians are ugly? [laughs]</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qhdhDZ">
No. That politics is reality TV!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="prlWiL">
Think of some of the institutional limits in Congress. The way that you get access to better committee positions, the way that you get clout within government, the way to access power is through showing that you can fundraise, showing you have the connections to people who will help the party long term, having a big donor base, and one of the ways that you can do that is by getting attention. The attention economy is the most important way to get donor money from the grassroots.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tMKJl8">
While George Santos is a very specific kind of attention grab that involves crimes, I think this general concept is kinda bipartisan. The way AOC and “The Squad” are branded gets attention. Sen. John Fetterman’s social media presence too. On the other side of that, there’s Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert. Everyone’s on social media, and I think it’s just more obvious now — succeeding in politics is getting famous.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ErcScB">
AOC and folks in The Squad were able to use social media very effectively, early on. And you mentioned this as a both-parties issue — it is. I’ve covered many freshman classes that enter Congress, and the number one thing that they want is obviously to win their next election, but they also want attention. They want stuff beyond just the traditional news coverage. They want the invites to the podcast. They want invites to the talk shows, to the daytime talk shows. They want to be talked about on cable news. The priorities tend to be to get attention, especially if you’re in the minority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kO6dKb">
<strong>Because when you’re in the political minority, you don’t necessarily have policy-making power?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9flu5V">
Especially in the House, you don’t have a lot of power when you’re in the minority. And that incentivizes cloud chasing — you know, little clips that go viral on TikTok, the interviews that get clipped from TV, cable news interviews that go viral on Twitter.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QmGx2V">
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you saw a lot of these right-wing social media influencer types come to prominence when they were in the minority too. In 2020, Republicans were in the minority, they didn’t have a lot of power. And so what’s the alternative? It’s to get as much attention as you can.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KCkueg">
You have these institutional frames that kind of force politicians to look for this attention because they don’t have political power. And then the attention will help them once they do get power and are able to rise. But then the other thing is that, in more recent years, it’s become harder for politicians in both parties to climb the ranks because so many people stay in powerful positions for so long.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="306xGy">
When you don’t have a path to promotions within the government, the next best thing is fame.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cHRDVn">
<strong>I think we’d be remiss in not mentioning that the model for “reality television and politics are the same” was President Trump. A former reality television star who became president, right?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ydw2w5">
A lot has been written and a lot still remains to be written about the reality TV star turned president. A lot of attention has also been paid through the political lens to, “Who is the next Trump? Who will succeed him?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1ucoN2">
A big part of that fails to see the reality TV star side. It’s not just a populist appeal. It’s also all the things that come with being a reality TV star that boost him, like the sense that he’s just like you or that his supporters view him through the lens of fandom and not through the lens of a political movement. A lot of politicians and people trying to posture as “the next Trump” don’t have that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RO0BA0">
<strong>I keep wrestling with the idea of politics being reality TV, one aspect in particular: Over the last decade and maybe even longer, the whole idea behind reality TV and why people participate has shifted.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vR5sHV">
<strong>People go on shows like </strong><em><strong>The Bachelor</strong></em><strong> or </strong><em><strong>Drag Race</strong></em><strong>, but winning isn’t necessarily the end goal. It’s nice, sure, but more and more the goal of being on reality TV isn’t winning. The goal is to get as famous as you can, and then when you leave the show, get more famous and monetize that.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="coSdAk">
<strong>If you think about George Santos, it seems like — barring a prison sentence — that he’s essentially embodied this model. He’s pivoted in a way that made him more famous and more powerful than he would have been had he gone through his career as a congressman representing a district in New York.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8XfJmS">
The grift was the key to it all. I totally see what you’re saying. He is making money off Cameo now. Maybe it’ll be short-lived. But his stans are continuing, and now we have Democratic Senators using donor money to send to George Santos to troll political rivals on Cameo. At the root of it, it’s still money from Americans going into George Santos’s pockets that he gets to keep.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="George Santos in a close-up profile." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xqkiRoptN3hkSBHSS0sabQZMggc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25141043/1824566781.jpg"/> <cite>Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
For $400, you can participate in George Santos taking money from American taxpayers.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ijLH8B">
<strong>If politics is truly reality TV, has the press coverage changed at all? Is it still the same?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P684IZ">
The DC press functions very similarly to Bravo blogs. I’ve written about this before, like, the interesting overlap in <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/23827432/pop-crave-pop-base-politics-election-2024-trump-biden-indictment">how pop culture coverage</a> has bled into political coverage and covering serious hard news. The DC press loves to cover anything that is remotely scandalous in any way. And with all the profiles, all the following him around asking him questions, and all these memorable moments, they also helped to create this Santos persona.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vLE4iM">
<strong>Do you think politics is the end goal anymore for any of these politicians? And has that ever been true? It’s not hard to think of former politicians and press secretaries who get book deals, gigs on cable news, and other kinds of contracts. Maybe those things just look different now.</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I3Osti">
In the past, it used to be about getting on TV or getting on boards or getting cushy consulting jobs on K Street.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EOZYxr">
But in the digital current era, sometimes politics is not really what people are entering politics for. There’s ideological reasons for running. But, for example, how many members of Congress have podcasts? There are so many more options in the entertainment space to make a more creative career through politics or after politics. And even the people around Trump, for example, they all either found book deals, rehabilitated themselves to become commentators on cable news or launched their own podcasts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LWRHyY">
There’s just this ecosystem that makes it lucrative for you to go into politics and not for politics’ sake. And what we’re seeing now is a lot of it is drifting into a purely entertainment direction.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nXB8f8">
<strong>If there’s a parallel to that, it’s how many Real Housewives have weird side businesses. And wire fraud!</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A7yAlU">
A book deal for a politician is like a Housewife selling a candle or athletic wear. But George Santos got caught, whereas there are so many other folks who are and will get away with it. And they’ll be around for another season.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jzChxS">
<strong>As someone who covers politics, is this turn really depressing to you? Or has politics always been like this?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fs1Dfj">
It’s definitely been a reality. But it’s depressing in the sense that I’m firmly in the camp that is trying to protect democracy and get people to believe in the system.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OxZbKr">
These kinds of grifts delegitimize the whole institution. It reminds folks that there is a huge class divide in America. And that’s one of those things that always becomes apparent when we see money grifts in politics because it’s often people trying to get out of whatever stratification they’re in because of class. That’s why you grift and steal money to find ways to better yourself. And you’re using the public and the electoral system to do it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OJd17P">
You’re just harming that system even more.
</p></li>
<li><strong>America’s unique, enduring gun problem, explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dWxtLwU60mC7-7_dYYz7NP68pz0=/0x0:2957x2218/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70913181/1829284512.103.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Parents gathered outside of the University of Nevada, where police confirmed multiple shooting victims and a suspected shooter is dead at the campus, on Wednesday, December 6, 2023, in Las Vegas.  | Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The factors that lead to tragedies like the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooting are deeply ingrained in US politics, culture, and law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aZtQSt">
<a href="https://www.fox5vegas.com/2023/12/06/university-police-responding-reports-shooting-unlv/">Three people were killed</a> and another injured in a mass shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EDmFdm">
The shooter, a former college professor in his 60s who reportedly had <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67642512">applied for a job at the university</a>, was killed in a shootout with police. Further details about his motive and the gun used in the attack were not immediately known.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7ovQAV">
The shooting was one of several hundred mass shootings this year, and it took place not far from the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, in which 58 people were killed and hundreds others injured at a Las Vegas music festival in 2017.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kV8Il1">
No other high-income country has suffered such a high death toll from <a href="https://www.vox.com/22382180/supreme-court-uvalde-guns-violence-second-amendment-heller-scalia">gun violence</a>. Every day, <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-in-america/">120</a> Americans die at the end of a gun, including suicides and homicides, an average of 43,375 per year. According to the latest available analysis of data from 2015 to 2019,<strong> </strong>the US gun homicide rate was <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-in-america/">26 times</a> that of other high-income countries; its gun suicide rate was nearly <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-in-america/">12 times higher</a>. Mass shootings, defined as attacks in which at least four people are injured or killed excluding the shooter, have been on the rise since 2015, peaking at <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/mass-shootings-in-america/">686 incidents in 2021</a>. There have been <a href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting">632 mass shootings</a> in the US in 2023 as of early December, including the Las Vegas shooting, and at the current pace, the US is set to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/24/politics/us-400-mass-shootings/index.html">eclipse the 2021 record</a> this year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rE1fGR">
Despite that sheer carnage, however, the political debate over how to ensure that guns don’t fall into the hands of people who may hurt themselves and others has long proved intractable. Last year,<strong> </strong>Congress reached a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/6/23/23180893/senate-gun-control-bipartisan-bill-2022-pass">deal on limited gun reforms</a> for the first time in nearly 30 years<strong> </strong>in the wake of a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas — the deadliest school shooting since 2012.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3IgO6E">
But those narrow reforms clearly haven’t stopped America’s gun violence epidemic. The US’s expansive view of civilian gun ownership has been so ingrained in politics, in culture, and in the law since the nation’s founding that there’s no telling how many more people will die before federal lawmakers take further action. In that absence, many red states have loosened their gun laws over the last few years, rather than making it harder to obtain a gun.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UQmeyK">
“America is unique in that guns have always been present, there is wide civilian ownership, and the government hasn’t claimed more of a monopoly on them,” said David Yamane, a professor at Wake Forest University who studies American gun culture.
</p>
<h3 id="r8kFVU">
The US has a lot of guns, and more guns mean more gun deaths
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Ga6He">
It’s hard to estimate the number of privately owned guns in America since there is no countrywide database where people register whether they own guns, there is a<a href="https://www.everytown.org/issues/gun-trafficking/"> thriving black market</a> for them in the absence of strong federal gun trafficking laws, and people can manufacture their own guns with DIY kits or 3D printers. The gun lobby has also <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/atf-gun-laws-nra/">vehemently opposed</a> federal legislation to track gun sales and establish a national handgun registry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IZkQHX">
One estimate from the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based research project, found that there were approximately <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081">390 million guns</a> in circulation in the US in 2018, or about 120.5 firearms per 100 residents. That number has likely climbed in the years since, given that<a href="https://www.norc.org/NewsEventsPublications/PressReleases/Pages/one-in-five-american-households-purchased-a-gun-during-the-pandemic.aspx"> one in five households</a> purchased a gun during the pandemic, though the 2018 estimate remains the most recent available. There has also been a significant increase in the number of <a href="https://www.thetrace.org/2023/03/guns-america-data-atf-total/">guns manufactured and imported</a> in the years since. But even without accounting for that increase, US gun ownership is still well above any other country: Yemen, which has the world’s second-highest level of gun ownership, has only 52.8 guns per 100 residents; in Iceland, it’s 31.7.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="At Least 5 Dead And 18 Injured In Colorado Springs Gay Nightclub Shooting" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/537Vh4HU65iknCFBhNJXafDkgJQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24876824/1443590414.jpg"/> <cite>Scott Olson/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A makeshift memorial set up for the victims of the Club Q nightclub shooting in Colorado Springs that happened on November 19, 2022.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IbOmoq">
American guns are concentrated in a tiny minority of households: just 3 percent own about half the nation’s guns, according to a 2016 Harvard and Northeastern University<a href="https://news.northeastern.edu/2016/09/study-70m-more-firearms-added-to-us-gun-stock-over-past-20-years/"> study</a>. They’re called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/19/us-gun-ownership-survey">super owners</a>” who have an average of 17 guns each. Gallup, using a different methodology, found that <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1645/guns.aspx">45 percent of Americans</a> lived in a household with guns in 2022.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xoicqw">
Researchers have found a clear link between gun ownership in the US and gun violence, and some argue that it’s causal. One 2013 Boston University-led study, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3828709/">for instance</a>, found that for each percentage point increase in gun ownership at the household level, the state firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9 percent. And states with weaker gun laws have higher rates of gun-related homicides and suicides, according to a <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/">study</a> by the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EQ1cLQ">
The link between gun deaths and gun ownership is much stronger than the link that<strong> </strong>gun rights advocates often seek to draw<strong> </strong>between violence and mental health issues. If it were possible to cure all schizophrenia, bipolar, and depressive disorders, violent crime in the US would <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/myth-vs-fact-violence-and-mental-health">fall by only 4 percent</a>, according to a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=v4oSb2Na4nQC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PA101#v=onepage&amp;q=swanson&amp;f=false">study</a> from Duke University professor Jeffrey Swanson, who examines policies to reduce gun violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mUBWoP">
There’s still a pervasive idea, pushed by gun manufacturers and gun rights organizations like the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/25/23140519/uvalde-school-shooting-nra-texas-good-guy-gun">National Rifle Association</a>, that further arming America is the answer to preventing gun violence — <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/25/23140519/uvalde-school-shooting-nra-texas-good-guy-gun">the “good guy with a gun” theory</a>. But there have been relatively few instances in which police or armed bystanders have been able to successfully stop an active attack.<strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="URSBLi">
According to a database maintained by Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University, there were 520 active attacks — <a href="https://www.activeattackdata.org/index.html">defined</a> as when one or more people are “actively killing or attempting to kill multiple unrelated people in a public space,” including but not limited to shootings — between 2000 and 2022. In many of those cases, police were <a href="https://www.activeattackdata.org/allattacks.html">unable to stop</a> the attacker, either because the attack had already ended by the time they arrived or because the attacker surrendered or committed suicide. Only in 160 cases were police able to successfully intervene by shooting or otherwise subduing the attacker.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tHt1aZehxpu8Y8N4xiJRGp1VMRM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24882439/Ndqdu_police_stopped_fewer_than_a_third_of_active_attacks_between_2000_and_2022__1_.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8WRO9O">
Another 2021 <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2776515">study</a> from Hamline University and Metropolitan State University found that the rate of deaths in 133 mass school shootings between 1980 and 2019 was 2.83 times greater in cases where there was an armed guard present. The researchers argue the results suggest the presence of an armed guard increased shooters’ aggression and that because many school shooters have been found to be suicidal, “an armed officer may be an incentive rather than a deterrent.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jWgibp">
“The idea that the solution to mass shootings is that we need more guns in the hands of more people in more places so that we’ll be able to protect ourselves — there’s no evidence that that’s true,” Swanson said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a070oM">
The prevalence of the self-defense narrative is part of what sets apart the gun rights movement in the US from similar movements in places like Canada and Australia, according to Robert Spitzer, a professor at SUNY Cortland who studies the politics of gun control.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="05FRv4">
Self-defense has become by far the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/">most prominent reason</a> for gun ownership in the US today, eclipsing hunting, recreation, or owning guns because they’re antiques, heirlooms, or work-related. That’s also reflected in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/us/politics/gun-manufacturing-atf.html">ballooning handgun sales</a>, since the primary purpose of those guns isn’t recreational, but self-defense.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LqVIqI">
American gun culture “brings together the hunting-sporting tradition with the militia-frontier tradition, but in modern times the hunting element has been eclipsed by a heavily politicized notion that gun carrying is an expression of freedom, individuality, hostility to government, and personal self-protection,” Spitzer said.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lWo0KpSDuPpD5l_xQ_b9EYOexL0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23589886/GettyImages_1240907270.jpg"/> <cite>Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
People gather at Sacred Heart Catholic Church to pray for the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mxItMo">
That <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/6/20/11975850/ar-15-owner-orlando">culture of gun ownership in the US</a> has made it all the more difficult to explore serious policy solutions to gun violence after mass shootings. In high-income countries lacking that culture, mass shootings have historically galvanized public support behind gun control measures that would seem extreme by US standards.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aoqzYW">
Canada <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/03/23/mass-shootings-response-other-countries-gun-laws/">banned military-style assault weapons</a> two weeks after a 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia. In 2019, less than a month after the Christchurch massacre, New Zealand lawmakers passed a gun buyback scheme, as well as restrictions on AR-15s and other semiautomatic weapons, and they later established a firearms registry. The 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Australia spurred the government to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9212725/australia-buyback">buy back 650,000 firearms</a> within a year, and murders and suicides plummeted as a result.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rw1Khl">
By contrast, nearly a decade went by after the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before Congress passed a new gun control law. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/6/23/23180893/senate-gun-control-bipartisan-bill-2022-pass">Bipartisan Safer Communities Act</a>, the law passed in June 2022, was relatively limited:<strong> </strong>It incentivized states to pass red flag laws, enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21, and closed the “boyfriend loophole,” which allowed some people with domestic violence convictions to purchase guns. But it did not ban any types of weapons, and certain studies suggest that even truly universal background checks may have <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/27/18224727/house-universal-background-checks-gun-violence-congress">limited effects on gun violence</a>.<strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qthrPL">
At the same time, many states have sought to expand gun ownership in recent years. At least 27 states have now passed laws allowing residents to carry a <a href="https://www.handgunlaw.us/documents/Permitless_Carry_States.pdf">handgun without a permit</a> and allow school staff and teachers to <a href="https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/laws-allowing-armed-staff-in-K12-schools.html">carry guns on campus</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RwL-LaKmE7ol0gTwc1FdeZjuEEM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24882641/nwQcq_27_states_have_passed_laws_allowing_people_to_carry_a_handgun_without_a_permit.png"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rNgOhz">
“Other countries look at this problem and say, ‘People walking around in the community with handguns is just way too dangerous, so we’re going to broadly limit legal access to that and make exceptions on the margins for people who might have a good reason to have a gun,’” Swanson said. “Here we do just the opposite: We say that, because of the way that the Supreme Court interpreted the Second Amendment, everybody has the right to a gun for personal protection, and then we tried to make exceptions for really dangerous people, but we can’t figure out who they are.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="irgpOC">
<a href="https://iop.harvard.edu/get-involved/harvard-political-review/vast-majority-americans-support-universal-background-checks">While the majority of Americans</a> support more gun control restrictions, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/">including universal background checks</a>, a vocal Republican minority unequivocally opposes such laws — and is willing to put pressure on GOP lawmakers to do the same. Alongside the NRA, and a well-funded gun lobby, this contingent of voters sees gun control as a deciding issue, and one that could warrant a primary challenge for a lawmaker who votes for it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8wKCli">
The gun lobby has the advantage of enthusiasm. “​​Despite being outnumbered, Americans who oppose gun control are more likely to contact public officials about it and to base their votes on it,” Barnard College’s Matthew Lacombe <a href="https://barnard.edu/news/break-down-gun-politics-america">explained in 2020</a>. “As a result, many politicians believe that supporting gun regulation is more likely to lose them votes than to gain them votes.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Two older Asian women stand comforting each other." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nOzeDGIDRyUQcunIBFKGLACA4ZY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24876847/1246706108.jpg"/> <cite>Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Mourners honor the victims of the January 27, 2023, Monterey Park, California, mass shooting.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h3 id="x5gwWU">
The Supreme Court has made it impossible to cure America’s gun violence epidemic
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PwxNBc">
In 2008, the Supreme Court effectively wrote NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre’s “good guy with a gun” theory into the Constitution. The Court’s 5-4 decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZO.html"><em>District of Columbia v. Heller</em></a> (2008) was the first Supreme Court decision in American history to hold that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm. But it also went much further than that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aWby7X">
<em>Heller</em> held that one of the primary purposes of the Second Amendment is to protect the right of individuals — good guys with a gun, in LaPierre’s framework — to use firearms to stop bad guys with guns. As Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in <em>Heller</em>, an “inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mctR9F">
As a matter of textual interpretation, this holding makes no sense. The Second Amendment provides that “<a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-ii">a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State</a>, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uuTZgL">
We don’t need to guess why the Second Amendment protects a right to firearms because it is right there in the Constitution. The Second Amendment’s purpose is to preserve “a well-regulated Militia,” not to allow individuals to use their weapons for personal self-defense.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b4k6DP">
For many years, the Supreme Court took the first 13 words of the Second Amendment seriously. As the Court said in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/307/174"><em>United States v. Miller</em></a><em> </em>(1939), the “obvious purpose” of the Second Amendment was to “render possible the effectiveness” of militias. And thus the amendment must be “interpreted and applied with that end in view.” <em>Heller</em> abandoned that approach.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sGVwGs">
<em>Heller</em> also reached another important policy conclusion. Handguns, according to Scalia, are “overwhelmingly chosen” by gun owners who wish to carry a firearm for self-defense. For this reason, he wrote, handguns enjoy a kind of super-legal status. Lawmakers are not allowed to ban what Scalia described as “the most preferred firearm in the nation to ‘keep’ and use for protection of one’s home and family.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SR5QS5">
This declaration regarding handguns matters because this easily concealed weapon is responsible for far more deaths than any other weapon in the United States — and it isn’t close. In 2021, for example, a <a href="https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/shr">total of 14,616 people were murdered in the US</a>, according to the FBI. Of these murder victims, at least 5,992 — just over 40 percent — were killed by handguns.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zuxWanJjGt4IpihFJwuTpvTv6cA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23589874/GettyImages_1240908247.jpg"/> <cite>Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A woman holds a photo of Nevaeh Bravo, who was killed in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, during a vigil for the victims in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LcMVNg">
In 2021, the Supreme Court made it even harder for federal and state lawmakers to combat gun violence. In its decision in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf"><em>New York State Rifle &amp; Pistol Association v. Bruen</em></a><em>, </em>it massively expands the scope of the Second Amendment, abandons more than a decade of case law governing which gun laws are permitted by the Constitution, and replaces this case law with a new legal framework that, as Justice Stephen Breyer writes in dissent, “imposes a task on the lower courts that judges cannot easily accomplish.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wCmPAt">
<em>Bruen </em>has since allowed handguns — which are responsible for the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22382180/supreme-court-uvalde-guns-violence-second-amendment-heller-scalia">overwhelming majority of gun murders</a> in the United States — to proliferate on many American streets. That’s because <em>Bruen</em> strikes the types of laws that limit who can legally carry handguns in public, holding that “the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.” Amid a flurry of activity in the courts over the last year, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/07/28/bruen-supreme-court-rahimi-00108285">more than a dozen state and federal gun control laws</a> have been invalidated in whole or in part as a result.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zbm2Hq">
Under this new legal regime, the future of firearm regulation looks grim for anyone who believes that the government should help protect us from gun violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iCVN66">
<em><strong>Update, December 7, 2023, 11:25 am: </strong></em><em>This story was originally published on May 26, 2022, and has been updated multiple times, most recently with the latest details from the December 6 shooting in Las Vegas.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dygxSm">
</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>No coach can create an artist like Mohammed Shami, says bowling coach Paras Mhambrey</strong> - Mohammed Shami, who finished on top of the bowling charts with 24 wickets from seven matches in the ODI World Cup, has been India’s go-to bowler in ODIs and Tests.</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>Northern Lights and Rasputin please</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>What makes winter trekking a not-to-miss experience for adventure junkies</strong> - As more trekkers attempt to conquer the mountains, we explore the challenges of winter treks, which demand physical fitness, good guides and considerable luck with the weather</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>Junior Women’s Hockey World Cup: India beats Korea 3-1 in classification match</strong> - Ropni Kumari (23rd minute), Mumtaz Khan (44th) and Annu (46th) scored for India, while Jiyun Choi (19th) was the goal-getter for Korea on December 7</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>ICC rates Ahmedabad pitch which hosted ODI World Cup final as ‘average’</strong> - Australia had won the World Cup final after beating India by six wickets on a pitch which was slow and sluggish</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>Allocate 13 Lok Sabha and 90 Assembly seats to BCs in the ensuing elections in Andhra Pradesh, parties urged</strong> - BCs will reject those parties which fail to give them more tickets, say leaders of BC association</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>Lokesh to resume padayatra in Kakinada district on Saturday</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>Carcass of 2 tigers found in Gundlupet, south Karnataka, poisoning suspected</strong> - There is talk in conservation circles that the two tigers may have been poisoned as their carcasses were found in the same place</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>Karavali Development Board Bill 2023 tabled in Assembly to fulfil Congress pre-poll promise</strong> - The board will replace the Coastal Development Authority, which does not have any statutory power</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>Suo motu revision against Ponmudy | Madras High Court impleads its Registrar-General too as a respondent</strong> - Justice G. Jayachandran calls for R-G’s response by December 12 on Minister’s plea to furnish him copies of the proceedings that led to transfer of trial in a disproportionate assets case from Villupuram to Vellore district</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>Armenia and Azerbaijan to work towards peace deal</strong> - The two neighbours have been involved in a decades-long conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.</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>Putin to stand for fifth term as Russian president</strong> - The 71 year old says he will take part in March elections, a move which could see him in power until 2030.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Two arrested in France over alleged bedbug scam</strong> - Police in Strasbourg say the men charged victims thousands of euros for pest control they did not need.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In pictures: Germany’s Scholz lights first candle as Hanukkah celebrated around the world</strong> - The Festival of Lights is marked around the world amid a difficult time for Jewish communities</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nepal: Twelve arrested for smuggling Nepalis into Russian army</strong> - Kathmandu has asked Moscow to return all Nepali mercenaries after six of them were killed.</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>Rocket Report: The final space shuttle stack; SpaceX may extend booster lifetimes</strong> - “God willing, the suborbital tests of the new generation ‘bio-capsule’ will be completely Iranian.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989451">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fungi join the list of organisms that can control when ice forms</strong> - What’s the advantage of triggering ice formation? It’s not entirely clear. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989479">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Google calls Drive data loss “fixed,” locks forum threads saying otherwise</strong> - The fix will sift through app data for cached files, but users say it doesn’t work. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989435">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EV battery swaps will be tested with the Fiat 500e in 2024</strong> - Ample’s technology replaces the existing EV battery pack to allow battery swaps. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989531">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>HP misreads room, awkwardly brags about its “less hated” printers</strong> - Opinion: HP’s printer business practices have infuriated users for years. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1989448">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>So a man goes to his local priest and says to him “Forgive me father for I have sinned.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Go on” says the priest. “I swore the other day” says the man.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Continue” says the priest.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I was on the golf course the other day and I hit my drive, it was looking perfect, heading dead straight. About 200 yards down my ball hit a power line crossing the fairway”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“And this is when you swore?” asked the priest.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No father, my ball then ricocheted of the power lines and flew off into the deep rough” continued the man.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“This must have been when you swore?” the priest exclaimed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No father, not yet. As I was walking over to the rough to hit my second shot a rat came out of nowhere and scurried off with the ball down the fairway.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Is this where you swore?” said the priest?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, because as I was running after the rat a hawk flew down from the trees, picked up the rat who then decided to hold onto my ball. The hawk then proceeded to fly off” continued the man.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Ahhh! I see!” Says the priest. “This must have been the point where you swore!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Nope not yet, as the bird flew over the green the rat had let go of the ball over the green. It landed, rolled towards the hole, stopping about two inches from the hole!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The priest pauses for a few seconds. "You missed the f*%$ing putt didn’t you?"
</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/willbeonekenobi"> /u/willbeonekenobi </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18divst/so_a_man_goes_to_his_local_priest_and_says_to_him/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18divst/so_a_man_goes_to_his_local_priest_and_says_to_him/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I met a guy who has an orgasm every time he sneezes</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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ME: Wow! I’ve never heard of that. What do you take for a problem like that?
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Him: Pepper
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Observer_042"> /u/Observer_042 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18dejlk/i_met_a_guy_who_has_an_orgasm_every_time_he/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18dejlk/i_met_a_guy_who_has_an_orgasm_every_time_he/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A software tester walks into a bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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runs into a bar
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hops into a bar
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skips into a bar
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jumps into a bar.
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He orders:
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a beer
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a bear
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a bier
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2 beers
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
3 beers
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65535 beers
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π beers
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-1 beers
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
0 beers
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O beers
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NULL beers
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</ul>
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The bartender fulfils the orders that he can fulfil and refuses the others. The tester writes up his results and forwards them to the senior analyst for sign-off.
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A live user walks into the bar and asks where the toilet is. The bartender explodes, the bar catches fire and the ceiling falls in.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Gil-Gandel"> /u/Gil-Gandel </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18d5o6x/a_software_tester_walks_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18d5o6x/a_software_tester_walks_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man met a beautiful girl and he decided he wanted to marry her right away.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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She protested, “But we don’t know anything about each other.” He replied, “That’s all right; we’ll learn about each other as we go along.” So she consented and they were married, and they went on honeymoon to a very nice resort.
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One morning, they were lying by the pool when he got up off his towel, climbed up to the 30-foot high board and did a two-and-a-half-tuck gainer, entering the water perfectly, almost without a ripple. This was followed by three rotations in jack-knife position before he again straightened out and cut the water like a knife. After a few more demonstrations, he came back and lay down on his towel.
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She said, “That was incredible.”
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He said, “I used to be an Olympic diving champion. You see, I told you we’d learn more about ourselves as we went along.”
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So she got up, jumped in the pool and started doing laps. She was moving so fast that the ripples from her pushing off at one end of the pool would hardly be gone before she was already touching the other end of the pool. After about thirty laps, completed in mere minutes, she climbed back out and lay down on her towel, barely breathing hard.
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He said, “That was incredible! Were you an Olympic endurance swimmer?”
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“No,” she said, “I was a prostitute in Venice and I worked both sides of the canal.”
</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/arztnur"> /u/arztnur </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18cxupy/a_man_met_a_beautiful_girl_and_he_decided_he/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18cxupy/a_man_met_a_beautiful_girl_and_he_decided_he/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man buys a new sports car.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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He takes his wife out for a drive in the countryside and is enjoying the power of the new engine, his wife starts feeling frisky and takes off her top. “go faster, and I’ll take more off” With a grin he stomps on the accelerator, this continues until she’s butt naked and they’re doing 150.
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He loses control on a tight corner and they roll down an embankment into a tree where he is pinned in the car and can’t get out, all her clothes are gone. He tells her to run back to the road and get help but she says no “I have nothing on, I’m naked!” His seatbelt is stuck and can’t remove his either, the only thing he can give her is his boots.
</p>
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She covers her lower bits with them and an arm across her boobs out of modesty and runs to the road where she stops a car screaming “Help me.. My husband is stuck!” The driver looks at the boots and says “Sorry lady, he’s in too far.”
</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/FooBangPop"> /u/FooBangPop </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18d4kqo/a_man_buys_a_new_sports_car/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/18d4kqo/a_man_buys_a_new_sports_car/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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