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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>Trust in scientists and non-populist governments supports COVID-19 information and safeguarding behaviors</strong> -
<div>
Understanding how health communication influences engagement in protective health behaviors is crucial in the handling of pandemics, and especially the COVID-19 pandemic which has been branded an ‘infodemic’ due to the presence of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Here we investigate this through a large-scale survey in twelve countries (N = 7,755). We found, in line with our hypotheses, that trust in non-populist governments and scientists and their media predicted scientific knowledge, whereas distrust predicted conspiracy belief, together with trust in populist governments and social media. Scientific knowledge but not conspiracy belief in turn predicted safety guideline behaviors, whereas conspiracy belief but not scientific knowledge predicted misguided, self-centered behaviors like hoarding. However, conspiracy belief also predicted safety guideline behaviors, possibly due to the threat a presumed artificially created virus presents. We conclude that the communication of scientific knowledge through trusted sources is pivotal to adherence to safety guidelines during this and future health threats.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/chy4b/" target="_blank">Trust in scientists and non-populist governments supports COVID-19 information and safeguarding behaviors</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Zero COVID is Possible but Preventing Coronavirus Transmission is Not the Path to this Noble Reality</strong> -
<div>
Upon visualizing the reality in which biological phenomena occur with the Einsteinian method which does not make logical deductions in order to construct concepts such as those of the immunological kind which have eluded us since the birth of the repeatedly proven germ theory, it was found that immunological mechanisms do not protect us from the severe outcomes of the event in which the infectious disease (the disease the pathogen causes) is brought about by eliminating the pathogen but rather by permitting us to harbor the pathogen without the occurrence or completion of this event. Cases are therefore not direct consequences of infection but of the absence of immunological conditions that permit uneventful hosting of the pathogen so that infection goes undetected in the population when such protective conditions are widespread. And the noble goal of Zero COVID can only be achieved in a population in which the coronavirus is already harbored uneventfully through measures that ensure the presence and persistence of such immunological conditions and not through those such as lockdowns that aim to prevent coronavirus transmission on the basis of the assumption that cases occur in such a population as a direct consequence of community transmission. Given that vaccination does not protect from suffering and death by eliminating the coronavirus and those who have already been infected undetected cannot be protected by measures that aim to prevent community transmission, the elucidation of such immunological conditions with the goal of achieving Zero COVID ought to be the topmost priority of countries that are determined to put an end to the deaths that follow the co-manifestation of the different diseases in the COVID-19 spectrum long before those ages which the rare humans who celebrate their 110th birthdays approach more than all before they succumb to the outcomes of pathological events.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/s5aq4/" target="_blank">Zero COVID is Possible but Preventing Coronavirus Transmission is Not the Path to this Noble Reality</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Wikipedia as a tool for contemporary history of science: A case study on CRISPR</strong> -
<div>
Rapid developments and methodological divides hinder the study of how scientific knowledge accumulates, consolidates and transfers to the public sphere. Our work proposes using Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, as a historiographical source regarding contemporary science. We chose the high-profile field of gene editing as our test case, performing a historical analysis of the English-language Wikipedia articles on CRISPR. Using a mixed method approach, we qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed its text, sections and references, alongside 50 affiliated articles. These, we found, documented CRISPR’s maturation from a fundamental scientific discovery to a biotechnological revolution with vast social and cultural implications. We developed automated tools to support such research generically and demonstrated its applicability on two other scientific fields we have previously studied - COVID-19 and Circadian clocks. This method makes use of Wikipedia as a digital and free archive, documenting the incremental growth of knowledge and the manner scientific research accumulates and translates into public discourse. Using Wikipedia in this manner compliments and overcomes some issues with contemporary histories and can also augment existing bibliometric research.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.25.517950v1" target="_blank">Wikipedia as a tool for contemporary history of science: A case study on CRISPR</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Atomic-level characterization of the conformational transition pathways in SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins</strong> -
<div>
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronaviruses 1 and 2 (SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2) derive transmissibility from spike protein activation in the receptor binding domain (RBD) and binding to the host cell angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). However, the mechanistic details that describe the large-scale conformational changes associated with spike protein activation or deactivation are still somewhat unknown. Here, we have employed an extensive set of nonequilibrium all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, utilizing a novel protocol, for the SARS-CoV-1 (CoV-1) and SARS-CoV-2 (CoV-2) prefusion spike proteins in order to characterize the conformational pathways associated with the active-to-inactive transition. Our results indicate that both CoV-1 and CoV-2 spike proteins undergo conformational transitions along pathways unique to each protein. We have identified a number of key residues that form various inter-domain salt-bridges, suggesting a multi-stage conformational change along the pathways. We have also constructed the free energy profiles along the transition pathways for both CoV-1 and CoV-2 spike proteins. The CoV-2 spike protein must overcome larger free energy barriers to undergo conformational changes towards protein activation or deactivation, when compared to CoV-1.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.29.518406v1" target="_blank">Atomic-level characterization of the conformational transition pathways in SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Wastewater genomic surveillance captures early detection of Omicron in Utah</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has emerged as a powerful public health tool to trace new outbreaks, detect trends in infection and provide an early warning of COVID-19 community spread. Here, we investigated the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections across Utah by characterizing lineages and mutations detected in wastewater samples. We sequenced over 1,200 samples from 32 sewersheds collected between November 2021 and March 2022. Wastewater sequencing confirmed the presence of Omicron (B.1.1.529) in Utah in samples collected on November 19, 2021, up to seven days before its corresponding detection via clinical sequencing. We observed an increase in prevalence of several Omicron-defining mutations across sewersheds from December to January. Proportion of Omicron increased to ~58% by January 4th 2022 and completely displaced Delta by February 7th, 2022. Our study shows that WBE is an excellent complementary tool to SARS-CoV-2 clinical surveillance and can guide public health action and policy decisions.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.24.22282643v1" target="_blank">Wastewater genomic surveillance captures early detection of Omicron in Utah</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Disruption in seasonality, patient characteristics and disparities of respiratory syncytial virus infection among young children in the US during and before the COVID-19 pandemic: 2010-2022</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections and hospitalization have surged sharply among young children. Here we test how the seasonal patterns of RSV infections in 2022 compared with those from other COVID-19 pandemic and pre-pandemic years. For this purpose, we analyzed a nation-wide and real-time database of electronic health records of 56 million patients across 50 states in the US. The monthly incidence rate of first-time RSV infection in young children (0-5 years of age) and very young children (0-1 year of age) followed a seasonal pattern from 2010 to 2019 with increases during the autumn, peaking in winter, subsiding in spring and summer. This seasonal pattern was significantly disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the incidence rate of RSV infections was remarkably low throughout the year. In 2021, the RSV season expanded to 9 months starting in the early summer and peaking in October. In 2022, RSV infections started to rise in May and were significantly higher than in previous years reaching a historically highest incidence rate in November 2022. There were significant racial and ethnic disparities in the peak RSV infection rate during 2010-2021 and the disparities further exacerbated in 2022 with peak incidence rate in black and Hispanic children 2-3 times that in white children. Among RSV-infected children in 2022, 19.2% had prior documented COVID-19 infection, significantly higher than the 9.7% among uninfected children, suggesting that prior COVID-19 could be a risk factor for RSV infection or that there are common risk factors for both viral infections. Our study calls for continuous monitoring of RSV infection in young children alongside its clinical outcomes and for future work to assess potential COVID-19 related risk factors.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.29.22282887v1" target="_blank">Disruption in seasonality, patient characteristics and disparities of respiratory syncytial virus infection among young children in the US during and before the COVID-19 pandemic: 2010-2022</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Persistent alveolar type 2 dysfunction and lung structural derangement in post-acute COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
SARS-CoV-2 infection can manifest as a wide range of respiratory and systemic symptoms well after the acute phase of infection in over 50% of patients. Key questions remain on the long-term effects of infection on tissue pathology in recovered COVID-19 patients. To address these questions we performed multiplexed imaging of post-mortem lung tissue from 12 individuals who died post-acute COVID-19 (PC) and compare them to lung tissue from patients who died during the acute phase of COVID-19, or patients who died with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and otherwise healthy lung tissue. We find evidence of viral presence in the lung up to 359 days after the acute phase of disease, including in patients with negative nasopharyngeal swab tests. The lung of PC patients are characterized by the accumulation of senescent alveolar type 2 cells, fibrosis with hypervascularization of peribronchial areas and alveolar septa, as the most pronounced pathophysiological features. At the cellular level, lung disease of PC patients, while distinct, shares pathological features with the chronic pulmonary disease of IPF. which may help rationalize interventions for PC patients. Altogether, this study provides an important foundation for the understanding of the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 pulmonary infection at the microanatomical, cellular, and molecular level.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.28.22282811v1" target="_blank">Persistent alveolar type 2 dysfunction and lung structural derangement in post-acute COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Calpain-2 mediates SARS-CoV-2 entry and represents a therapeutic target</strong> -
<div>
Since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, much effort has been dedicated to identifying effective antivirals against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A number of calpain inhibitors show excellent antiviral activities against SARS-CoV-2 by targeting the viral main protease (Mpro), which plays an essential role in processing viral polyproteins. In this study, we found that calpain inhibitors potently inhibited the infection of a chimeric vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, but not Mpro. In contrast, calpain inhibitors did not exhibit antiviral activities towards the wild-type VSV with its native glycoprotein. Genetic knockout of calpain-2 by CRISPR/Cas9 conferred resistance of the host cells to the chimeric VSV-SARS-CoV-2 virus and a clinical isolate of wild-type SARS-CoV-2. Mechanistically, calpain-2 facilitates SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-mediated cell attachment by positively regulating the cell surface levels of ACE2. These results highlight an Mpro-independent pathway targeted by calpain inhibitors for efficient viral inhibition. We also identify calpain-2 as a novel host factor and a potential therapeutic target responsible for SARS-CoV-2 infection at the entry step.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.29.518418v1" target="_blank">Calpain-2 mediates SARS-CoV-2 entry and represents a therapeutic target</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Virus-like particle displaying SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain elicits neutralizing antibodies and is protective in a challenge model</strong> -
<div>
While the effort to vaccinate people against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has largely been successful, particularly in the developed world, the rise of new variants as well as waning immunity illustrate the need for a new generation of vaccines that provide broader and/or more durable protection against infection and severe disease. Here we describe the generation and characterization of IVX-411, a computationally designed, two-component virus-like particle (VLP) displaying the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) on its surface. Immunization of mice with IVX-411 generates neutralizing antibodies against the ancestral strain as well as three variants of concern. Neutralizing antibody titers elicited by IVX-411 are durable and significantly higher than those elicited by immunization with soluble RBD and spike antigens. Furthermore, immunization with IVX-411 is shown to be protective in a Syrian Golden hamster challenge model using two different strains of SARS-CoV-2. Overall, these studies demonstrate that IVX-411 is highly immunogenic and capable of eliciting broad, protective immunity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.29.518404v1" target="_blank">Virus-like particle displaying SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain elicits neutralizing antibodies and is protective in a challenge model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Exploring Views of Technology to Inform Maternal and Child Health Interventions for Black Birthing People</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Black birthing people experience disproportionately higher rates of morbidity and mortality, and poorer infant health outcomes than all other racial and ethnic groups. Statewide in Wisconsin, an alarming disparity exists between Black and Non-Hispanic White (NHW) breastfeeding initiation rates (54% and 87%, respectively). For the last fourteen years, the African American Breastfeeding Network (AABN) has operated in Milwaukee County, where 70% of the Black population of Wisconsin lives. The mission of AABN is to improve maternal health and champion breastfeeding equity for Black birthing families. In 2018, AABN received more referrals than could be served by their team of doulas, lactation consultants, and advocates, leading our team to pursue ways to expand their reach through technology-based approaches. With the onset of COVID-19, the need for telehealth support increased drastically, as referrals for AABN services tripled. In this study, we explore the use of technology to support Black birthing families in Wisconsin and beyond, in the hopes of expanding the capacity of organizations like AABN. Methods: A survey was conducted amongst 21 Black women who were pregnant or had given birth in the last year, regarding perceptions of technology. Women were split equally into three focus groups to discuss survey results further and provide context. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and coded for themes. Results: Participants were likely to use their phone or the internet to look for general or health-related information, but only somewhat likely to trust either general or health-related information. Participants were somewhat likely to trust the information on the phone or the internet as much as their healthcare provider (doctor, nurse, doula) in person. In the focus groups, all participants agreed that the phone or the internet was the first place looked to for information, ahead of consulting a healthcare professional. A comprehensive list of desired features was generated to guide the development of a resource to support AABN. Conclusions: Study findings support exploring mobile technology-based approaches for breastfeeding support and education. Participants emphasized that to be relevant for them, a telehealth resource would need to: 1) Build meaningful connections between patients and providers, 2) Treat diverse opinions with trust and respect, and 3) Offer multiple sources and formats for information that can be easily cross-referenced.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.28.22282786v1" target="_blank">Exploring Views of Technology to Inform Maternal and Child Health Interventions for Black Birthing People</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Mortality due to SARS COV-2 And its Associated Factors in East Shewa Zone Treatment Centers, Ethiopia, 2022: A retrospective cross-sectional study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease that is caused by the SARS-CoV-2virus. The objective of this study was to determine SARS COV-2 Mortality and its associated factors in East Shewa Zone Treatment centers, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2022. The study of these types of viral infection will add new insight into the most common causes of mortality in SARS-CoV-2infection and the most common co-morbidities associated with the disease in the East Shewa Zone. Methods: The study was conducted on patients who were admitted to Adama Hospital medical college and Modjo Primary Hospital for SARS-COV 2 treatment. The study period was from March 2020- Dec 2022 GC. The study population was SARS-COV 2 patients who come to Adama Hospital and Medical College and Modjo Primary Hospital for treatment. All eligible SARS-CoV-2 patients9 data were collected from Both Adama and Modjo treatment center SARS-CoV-2 accession registration book and medical record card. Result: A total of 409 patient data were collected from which 199 were from Adama Hospital and Medical College and 210 samples were collected from Modjo Primary Hospital Treatment center. The study design was a retrospective Cross-sectional study. The most affected age group in terms of mortality was the age group between 60-69 years old which suffers a 45.28% death rate. The major sign symptoms identified include cough (80.4%), Shortness of breath (66.7%) followed by fever (43.2%). SARS-CoV-2 Comorbidity was detected in 152 (37.2%) patients. Pneumonia was identified as the major comorbid disease to be recorded with 89(21.8%) cases. Other major comorbidities include Hypertension (16.9%) and Diabetes Mellites (13.9%). The least identified comorbidities were anemia (0.2%), Rectal cancer (0.2%), breast cancer (0.5%), and Chronic liver disease. Conclusion: Nearly one in four (22.7%) SARS-COV 2 patients admitted for treatment to Adama Hospital and Medical College and Modjo Primary Hospital did not make their way out of treatment Hospitals alive. Pneumonia was identified as the major comorbid disease to be recorded with 89(21.8%) cases.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.28.22282830v1" target="_blank">Mortality due to SARS COV-2 And its Associated Factors in East Shewa Zone Treatment Centers, Ethiopia, 2022: A retrospective cross-sectional study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Detection of COVID-19 in Chest X-Rays Using Ensemble CNN Techniques</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Advances in the field of image classification using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have greatly improved the accuracy of medical image diagnosis by radiologists. Numerous research groups have applied CNN methods to diagnose respiratory illnesses from chest x-rays, and have extended this work to prove the feasibility of rapidly diagnosing COVID-19 to high degrees of accuracy. One issue in previous research has been the use of datasets containing only a few hundred images of chest x-rays containing COVID-19, causing CNNs to overfit the image data. This leads to a lower accuracy when the model attempts to classify new images, as would be clinically expected of it. In this work, we present a model trained on the COVID-QU-Ex dataset, overall containing 33,920 chest x-ray images, with an equal share of COVID-19, Non-COVID pneumonia, and Normal images. The model itself is an ensemble of pre-trained CNNs (ResNet50, VGG19, VGG16) and GLCM textural features. It achieved a 98.34% binary classification accuracy (COVID-19/no COVID-19) on a balanced test dataset of 6581 chest x-rays, and 94.68% for distinguishing between COVID-19, Non-COVID pneumonia and normal chest x-rays. Also, we herein discuss the effects of dataset size, demonstrating that a 98.82% 3-class accuracy can be achieved using the model if the training dataset only contains a few thousand images, but that generalisability of the model suffers with such small datasets.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.29.22282856v1" target="_blank">The Detection of COVID-19 in Chest X-Rays Using Ensemble CNN Techniques</a>
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<li><strong>Developing a research ready population-scale linked data ethnicity-spine in Wales</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction Ethnicity information is recorded routinely in electronic health records (EHRs); however, to date, there is no national standard or framework for harmonisation of the existing records. Methods and analysis The national ethnicity-spine uses anonymised individual-level population-scale ethnicity data from 26 EHR available through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. A total of 46 million ethnicity records for 4,297,694 individuals in Wales-UK over 22 years (between 2000 and 2021) have been compiled in a harmonised, deduplicated longitudinal research ready data asset. We serialised this data and compared distribution of records over time for four selection approaches (Latest, Mode, Weighted-Mode and Composite) across age bands, sex, deprivation quintiles, health board, and residential location, against the ONS census 2011. The distribution of the dominant group (White) is minimally affected based on the four different selection approaches. Across all other ethnicity categorisations, the Mixed group was most susceptible to variation in distribution depending on the selection approach used and varied from a 0.6% prevalence across the Latest and Mode approach to a 1.1% prevalence for the Weighted-Mode, compared to the 3.1% prevalence for the Composite approach. Substantial alignment was observed with ONS census with the Latest group method (kappa= 0.68, 95% CI [0.67,0.71]) across all sub-groups. Conclusion We provides a reproducible EHR based resource enabling the investigation and evaluation of health inequalities related to ethnic groups in Wales. This generalisable method informs opportunities for the transferability of this methodology across the UK to platforms with comparable routine data sources. Ethics and dissemination This work was supported by the Con-COV team funded by Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK, ADR Wales funded by ADR UK through the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre, funded by Health and Care Research Wales.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.28.22282810v1" target="_blank">Developing a research ready population-scale linked data ethnicity-spine in Wales</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Opinions of Former Jail Residents about Self-collection of SARS-CoV-2 Specimens, Paired with Wastewater Surveillance: A Qualitative Study Rapidly Examining Acceptability of COVID-19 Mitigation Measures</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In year one of the COVID-19 epidemic, the incidence of infection for US carceral populations was 5.5-fold higher than that in the community. Prior to the rapid roll out of a comprehensive jail surveillance program of Wastewater-Based Surveillance (WBS) and individual testing for SARS-CoV-2, we sought the perspectives of formerly incarcerated individuals regarding mitigation strategies against COVID-19 to inform acceptability of the new program. In focus groups, participants discussed barriers to their receiving COVID-19 testing and vaccination. We introduced WBS and individual nasal self-testing, then queried if wastewater testing to improve surveillance of emerging outbreaks before case numbers surged, and specimen self-collection, would be valued. The participants9 input gives insight into ways to improve the delivery of COVID-19 interventions. Hearing the voices of those with lived experiences of incarceration is critical to understanding their views on infection control strategies and supports including justice-involved individuals in decision-making processes regarding jail-based interventions.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.29.22282848v1" target="_blank">Opinions of Former Jail Residents about Self-collection of SARS-CoV-2 Specimens, Paired with Wastewater Surveillance: A Qualitative Study Rapidly Examining Acceptability of COVID-19 Mitigation Measures</a>
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<li><strong>Performance of antigen lateral flow devices in the United Kingdom during the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron waves of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background Antigen lateral flow devices (LFDs) have been widely used to control SARS-CoV-2. Changes in LFD sensitivity and detection of infectious individuals during the pandemic with successive variants, vaccination, and changes in LFD use are incompletely understood. Methods Paired LFD and PCR tests were collected from asymptomatic and symptomatic participants, across multiple settings in the UK between 04-November-2020 and 21-March-2022. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyse LFD sensitivity and specificity, adjusting for viral load, LFD manufacturer, setting, age, sex, assistance, symptoms, vaccination, and variant. National contact tracing data were used to estimate the proportion of transmitting index cases (with ≥1 PCR/LFD-positive contact) potentially detectable by LFDs over time, accounting for viral load, variant, and symptom status. Findings 4131/75,382 (5.5%) participants were PCR-positive. Sensitivity vs. PCR was 63.2% (95%CI 61.7-64.6%) and specificity 99.71% (99.66-99.74%). Increased viral load was independently associated with being LFD-positive. There was no evidence LFD sensitivity differed between Delta vs. Alpha/pre-Alpha infections, but Omicron infections were more likely to be LFD positive. Sensitivity was higher in symptomatic participants, 68.7% (66.9-70.4%) than in asymptomatic participants, 52.8% (50.1-55.4%). 79.4% (68.6-81.3%) of index cases resulting in probable onward transmission with were estimated to have been detectable using LFDs, this proportion was relatively stable over time/variants, but lower in asymptomatic vs. symptomatic cases. Interpretation LFDs remained able to detect most SARS-CoV-2 infections throughout vaccine roll-out and different variants. LFDs can potentially detect most infections that transmit to others and reduce risks. However, performance is lower in asymptomatic compared to symptomatic individuals. Funding UK Government.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.29.22282899v1" target="_blank">Performance of antigen lateral flow devices in the United Kingdom during the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron waves of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic</a>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CareSuperb COVID-19 Antigen Test Usability</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: CareSuperb COVID-19 Antigen Home Test Kit<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   AccessBio, Inc.<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>Feasibility and Usability of COVID-19 Antigen RDTs in Uganda</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Diagnostic Test: PMC Sure Status COVID-19 Antigen Test;   Diagnostic Test: Acon Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   PATH<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 Study to Learn About Bivalent COVID-19 RNA Vaccine Candidate(s) in Healthy Infants and Children</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Bivalent BNT162b2 (original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) 3 microgram dose;   Biological: Bivalent BNT162b2 (original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) 6 microgram dose;   Biological: Bivalent BNT162b2 (original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) 10 microgram dose;   Biological: Bivalent BNT162b2 (original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) 1 microgram dose<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   BioNTech SE;   Pfizer<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SUNRISE-3: Efficacy and Safety of Bemnifosbuvir in High-Risk Outpatients With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS CoV 2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Bemnifosbuvir (BEM);   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc.<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>Study of RAY1216 Tablets Compared With Placebo in Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Mild to Moderate COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: RAY1216;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Guangdong Raynovent Biotech Co., Ltd<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of an Integrative Medicine Outpatient Clinical Setting for Post-COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Fatigue<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: outpatient clinic with multimodal integrative medicine and naturopathy for post-COVID-19 patients;   Other: waiting group<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Universität Duisburg-Essen<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>Acute Rehabilitation in Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Rehabilitation;   Physical Medicine<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Acute rehabilitation program<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Institut za Rehabilitaciju Sokobanjska Beograd<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>Message Communicating Latest Data on COVID Transmission in Patient’s Area</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: COVID Booster text messages<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Pennsylvania<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</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>Clinical Evaluation of the Panbio™ COVID-19/Flu A&amp;B Rapid Panel Professional Use Product Using Mid-Turbinate Nasal Swabs</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Influenza A;   Influenza Type B<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Panbio™<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Abbott Rapid Dx<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>Efficacy of a Physical and Respiratory Rehabilitation Program for Patients With Persistent COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2).</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection;   COVID-19 Recurrent;   Cognitive Dysfunction;   Fatigue<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: COPERIA-REHAB<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Fundacin Biomedica Galicia Sur;   University of Vigo;   Galician South Health Research Institute<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>VNS for Long-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome;   Postural Tachycardia Syndrome;   Dysautonomia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation;   Device: Sham Intervention<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai<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>Phonation Therapy to Improve Symptoms and Lung Physiology in Patients Referred for Pulmonary Rehabilitation</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Tonation Breathing Techniques;   Behavioral: Music Driven Vocal Exercises;   Behavioral: Silent Breathing<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   MetroHealth Medical Center<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>Differential Diagnosis of Persistent COVID-19 by Artificial Intelligence</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Fatigue;   Distress Respiratory Syndrome;   Cognitive Dysfunction;   COVID-19 Recurrent;   SARS CoV 2 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Experimental tests<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Fundacin Biomedica Galicia Sur;   University of Vigo;   Galician South Health Research Institute<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>Dietary Modulation of Gut Microbiota in Overweight/Obese Adolescents and COVID-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Health Behavior;   Child Development;   Adolescent Obesity<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Probiotics;   Behavioral: Counselling on healthy eating, physical activity, and psychosocial stimulation;   Dietary Supplement: Placebo probiotics<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Indonesia University;   Gadjah Mada University;   Universitas Airlangga;   University of Melbourne;   The Indonesia Endowment Funds for Education, Ministry of Finance Indonesia<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>Randomised Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy of an Online Cognitive Rehabilitation Programme (COPERIA-COG) for Patients With Persistent Covid</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Neuro-Degenerative Disease;   Psychological;   SARS CoV 2 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Sessions of cognitive stimulation<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Fundacin Biomedica Galicia Sur;   Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental;   Galician South Health Research Institute<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>A multi-reference poly-conformational method for <em>in silico</em> design, optimization, and repositioning of pharmaceutical compounds illustrated for selected SARS-CoV-2 ligands</strong> - BACKGROUND: This work presents a novel computational multi-reference poly-conformational algorithm for design, optimization, and repositioning of pharmaceutical compounds.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong><em>In silico</em> analysis of the antidepressant fluoxetine and similar drugs as inhibitors of the human protein acid sphingomyelinase: a related SARS-CoV-2 inhibition pathway</strong> - Acid Sphingomyelinase (ASM) is a human phosphodiesterase that catalyzes the metabolism of sphingomyelin (SM) to ceramide and phosphocholine. ASM is involved in the plasma membrane cell repair and is associated with the lysosomal inner lipid membrane by nonbonding interactions. The disruption of those interaction would result in ASM release into the lysosomal lumen and consequent degradation of its structure. Furthermore, SARS-CoV-2 infection has been linked with ASM activation and with a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Elevated ubiquitination contributes to protective immunity against severe SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - CONCLUSION: Ubiquitination characteristics provides new ideas for clinical intervention and prognostic guidance for COVID-19 patients.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>VPS34-dependent control of apical membrane function of proximal tubule cells and nutrient recovery by the kidney</strong> - The lipid kinase VPS34 orchestrates autophagy, endocytosis, and metabolism and is implicated in cancer and metabolic disease. The proximal tubule in the kidney is a key metabolic organ that controls reabsorption of nutrients such as fatty acids, amino acids, sugars, and proteins. Here, by combining metabolomics, proteomics, and phosphoproteomics analyses with functional and superresolution imaging assays of mice with an inducible deficiency in proximal tubular cells, we revealed that VPS34…</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 silico evaluation of flavonoids as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main nonstructural proteins (Nsps)-amentoflavone as a multitarget candidate</strong> - Despite the development of vaccines against COVID-19 disease and the multiple efforts to find efficient drugs as treatment for this virus, there are too many social, political, economic, and health inconveniences to incorporate a fully accessible plan of prevention and therapy against SARS-CoV-2. In this sense, it is necessary to find nutraceutical/pharmaceutical drugs as possible COVID-19 preventives/treatments. Based on their beneficial effects, flavonoids are one of the most promising…</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>Defective Interfering Particles with Broad-Acting Antiviral Activity for Dengue, Zika, Yellow Fever, Respiratory Syncytial and SARS-CoV-2 Virus Infection</strong> - More than 100 arboviruses, almost all of which have an RNA genome, cause disease in humans. RNA viruses are causing unprecedented health system challenges worldwide, many with little or no specific therapies or vaccines available. Certain species of mosquito can carry dengue virus (DENV), Zika virus (ZIKV) and yellow fever virus (YFV), where co-infection of these viruses has occurred. Here, we found that purified synthetic defective interfering particles (DIPs) derived from DENV type 2 (DENV-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>Combination of Cefditoren and <em>N</em>-acetyl-l-Cysteine Shows a Synergistic Effect against Multidrug-Resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae Biofilms</strong> - Biofilm formation by Streptococcus pneumoniae is associated with colonization of the upper respiratory tract, including the carrier state, and with chronic respiratory infections in patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The use of antibiotics alone to treat recalcitrant infections caused by biofilms is insufficient in many cases, requiring novel strategies based on a combination of antibiotics with other agents, including antibodies, enzybiotics, and antioxidants….</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein-Activated Dendritic Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Induce Antiviral Immunity in Mice</strong> - The onset and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have created an unprecedented universal crisis. Although vaccines have been developed against the parental SARS-CoV-2, outbreaks of the disease still occur through the appearance of different variants, suggesting a continuous need for improved and effective therapeutic strategies. Therefore, we developed a novel nanovesicle presenting Spike protein on the surface of the dendritic cell-derived extracellular vesicles (DEVs) for use as a potential…</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>Neurological disorders of COVID-19: insights to applications of natural products from plants and microorganisms</strong> - In addition to the typical respiratory manifestations, various disorders including involvement of the nerve system have been detected in COVID-19 ranging from 22 to 36%. Although growing records are focusing on neurological aspects of COVID-19, the pathophysiological mechanisms and related therapeutic methods remain obscure. Considering the increased concerns of SARS-CoV-2 potential for more serious neuroinvasion conditions, the present review attempts to focus on the neuroprotective effects of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Onychomadesis in a COVID-19 patient</strong> - We report the case of a 67-year-old woman who developed onychomadesis on 9 of her fingers 2 months after recovering from COVID-19, with subsequent full nail regrowth after 4 months. The development of onychomadesis in COVID-19 is probably related to inhibition of nail proliferation due to fever, direct viral damage, or an inflammatory process associated with endothelial damage and obliterative microangiopathy in the nail matrix area. Clinicians should be aware of nail changes and actively seek…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An evaluation of the convergent validity of a face-to-face and virtual neuropsychological assessment counter balanced</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for further research evaluating the validity of conducting a battery of neuropsychological assessments virtually compared with face-to-face administration. Previous research has suggested that some neuropsychological assessments yield valid results when administered virtually, however, much of the previous research focused on older adults. To determine the validity of virtually administered neuropsychological tests, 28 healthy participants were…</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>Nintedanib: a review of the properties, function, and usefulness to minimize COVID-19 induced lung injury</strong> - INTRODUCTION: In severe COVID-19 patients, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)-induced lung injury regularly causes a pulmonary fibrotic phase. There is no approved therapy for the COVID-19-induced pulmonary fibrosis. However, administration of an anti-fibrotic agent, in the early acute phase of the severe COVID-19 with ARDS may improve the infection outcomes.</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>Reactive-diffusion epidemic model on human mobility networks: Analysis and applications to COVID-19 in China</strong> - The complex dynamics of human mobility, combined with sporadic cases of local outbreaks, make assessing the impact of large-scale social distancing on COVID-19 propagation in China a challenge. In this paper, with the travel big dataset supported by Baidu migration platform, we develop a reactive-diffusion epidemic model on human mobility networks to characterize the spatio-temporal propagation of COVID-19, and a novel time-dependent function is incorporated into the model to describe the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Home Sweet Home: Working from home and employee performance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK</strong> - In 2020, many governments responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by encouraging employees to work from home (WFH). Analyzing representative data from the UK, we find that the pandemic-led increases in WFH frequency are associated with a higher self-perceived hourly productivity among employed respondents. Interestingly, changes in WFH frequency are unrelated to the respondents’ weekly working hours and weekly wages during the same period. While the WFH-productivity association is more substantial in…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fusion assays for screening of fusion inhibitors targeting SARS-CoV-2 entry and syncytia formation</strong> - Virus fusion process is evolutionarily conserved and provides a promising pan-viral target. Cell-cell fusion leads to syncytial formation and has implications in pathogenesis, virus spread and immune evasion. Drugs that target these processes can be developed into anti-virals. Here, we have developed sensitive, rapid, adaptable fusion reporter gene assays as models for plasma membrane and alternative fusion pathways as well as syncytial fusion in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus…</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>Chinese Protesters Warily Tell Xi Jinping, “Don’t Push Me”</strong> - The nation’s most defiant public demonstrations in years oppose “zero COVID” policies, but their roots run deeper. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/chinese-protesters-warily-tell-xi-jinping-dont-push-me">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What’s at Stake in the University of California Graduate-Worker Strike</strong> - The seventy per cent of Americans who support unions should understand that the future of organized labor won’t be in coal mines or steel mills but in places that might cut against the stereotypes. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/whats-at-stake-in-the-university-of-california-graduate-worker-strike">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why I Quit Elon Musk’s Twitter</strong> - A platform that once represented the new frontier of digital democracy is being used by the world’s richest man to troll us all. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-i-quit-elon-musks-twitter">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How COVID Policies and Party Politics Set the Stage for the Protests in China</strong> - Frustrations with Xi Jinping’s harsh approach to the virus have led to the most widespread public demonstrations in decades. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-covid-policies-and-party-politics-set-the-stage-for-the-protests-in-china">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Are We Doomed to See a Biden-Trump Rematch in 2024?</strong> - One thing’s sure: the early betting is often wrong—ask President Rand Paul. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/are-we-doomed-to-see-a-biden-trump-rematch-in-2024">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The surreal true crimes behind Hulu’s Welcome to Chippendales</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A spotlighted and mostly naked male dancer surrounded by seated women." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xSSK4ozw90MNmJHs5wOggz5NRc0=/588x0:4961x3280/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71690578/860836790.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Chippendales dancers perform at a Paris cafe in 1990. | Francois Lochon/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A pair of real-life murders bookend this series starring Kumail Nanjiani and Murray Bartlett.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NT7hvP">
Most people, when they think about striptease, probably view it as a campy, tongue-in-cheek parody of erotic desire. If that’s your main impression, then your expectation of a show about the rise of the Chippendale dancers would probably be pretty similar.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aAskqO">
It’s hard to overstate, then, what a wild contrast Hulu’s <em>Welcome to Chippendales</em> will be to the unsuspecting viewer: an eight-part series that fixates on the mechanics of power and racial dynamics, the lure of the hustle in ’80s LA, toxic masculinity, and the slow, corrupting influence of greed — all beginning and ending with a pair of shocking murders. Against the twin backdrops of seedy criminal activity and, yes, flashy erotic strip dancing, the show slowly slides from <em>Boogie Nights: The Series</em> into a kind of true crime fantasy. It’s honestly better than any show of its ilk has a right to be — and the wildest thing? Much of it really happened.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZIoMPw">
The show centers on real-life Chippendales creator Steve Banerjee, an Indian American businessman who transforms his failing backgammon club into the hottest nightclub in LA after realizing that female sexual desire was just waiting to be monetized. Banerjee receives an astonishing performance from a completely transformed Kumail Nanjiani, who plays him as an intense, seething social climber, constantly trying to figure out how to game a system that’s set up to keep him from winning. His struggle to climb the ladder of success leads him into a combative, exploitative, and ultimately deadly relationship with his business partner, Nick De Noia, played in the series by Murray Bartlett, fresh from an Emmy win for <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22622686/white-lotus-finale-departures-recap-review-hbo"><em>The White Lotus</em></a> and acting his heart out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j2DbYi">
<em>Chippendales</em> makes its subjects feel realistic, but the story is a wild one. You won’t be faulted for wondering what really went on in between all the sexy dances. While the show takes some liberties with reality, the Chippendales’ backstory really is as murderous as the series lays out.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TEPdZn7157Wn9JnzXARCYYcFq2U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24240802/502538579.jpg"/> <cite>Diana Nethercott/Toronto Star via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Chippendales dancer Brett Matheson performing for women at The Club at Richards in Mississuaga, Canada, in 1987.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mcCTCk">
Born Somen Banerjee in 1946 to Bengali parents, Banerjee migrated from Bombay to Canada in his mid-20s and worked there before finding his way to California. As the show’s first episode depicts, in California Banerjee worked his way up from gas station assistant to failed backgammon club owner (no, we don’t know what he was thinking, either). In 1975, he bought a nightclub on the west side of Los Angeles and named it Chippendales, then synonymous with the 16th-century furniture maker. But Banerjee struggled to elevate the joint to the level of arcane elegance suggested by its name; stunts like mud wrestling failed to draw crowds. The bar, <a href="https://pineapple.fm/welcome-to-your-fantasy-2">according to</a> film producer Bruce Nahin, who worked on the Chippendales creative team in its developmental stages, “wasn’t a high-end nightclub. This was a dive bar in an industrial section of West Los Angeles.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f86Yk0">
That all changed when Banerjee made the acquaintance of an LA promoter named Paul Snider (played in a remarkable early-series cameo by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1405398/">Dan Stevens</a>). In 1979, Snider, then married to 19-year-old Playboy Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten (Nicola Peltz Beckham), helped Banerjee promote Chippendales’s hottest event: a “Male Exotic Dance Night for Ladies Only.” The show, touting a $20 entrance fee, would soon expand into America’s first all-male strip club targeted at women.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tIzWbV">
The show depicts Banerjee as having the idea for the all-male dance lineup after watching Stratten enjoy a similar dance at a gay nightclub. But according to historian Natalia Petrzela and her indispensable Chippendales podcast, <a href="https://pineapple.fm/welcome-to-your-fantasy"><em>Welcome to Your Fantasy</em></a>, the idea was actually Snider’s, and the famous Chippendales tuxedo neckties and cuffs combo actually came from Stratten. What Banerjee brought to the enterprise was, again, his insistence on a veneer of respectability — even if what he was actually selling was, as one former Chippendales dancer describes to Petrzela, a “comedy act for women.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GauxC2">
Banerjee’s version of respectability may have been crude, but it was also effective — in part because it was steeped in whiteness: “I wanted to package an all-American, Ivy-league look,” he said in <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-03-vw-6809-story.html">a 1988 interview</a> with the LA Times, “and sell it to the American women.” He envisioned Chippendales as being a “Disneyland for adults,” and fantasized that perhaps Walt Disney could make him “a silent partner.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jxKOoE">
“It’s important to realize how deliberately this was constructed as a white space in a city that is extraordinarily diverse,” <a href="https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/chippendales-true-crime-podcast/">Petrzela told LA Mag</a>. “What Chippendales was creating was a new masculine ideal, which was white, really buff, and clean-cut.” But even while reifying that racist social hierarchy, Banerjee would spend his whole life butting up against it — obstacles to which he would respond with increasing violence and a turn toward corruption.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EwsJW2">
That 1988 interview in which he spoke of his erotic nightclubs as a Disneyland, was, after all, given a year after he had his own partner murdered.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lktHs2">
<em>Welcome to Chippendales</em> encapsulates the first of many ironies surrounding this glossy presentation of manhood during its first two episodes when it portrays Snider’s spiraling jealous obsession with Stratten. As she began to make a name for herself in Hollywood, she dallied briefly with famed director Peter Bogdanovich — which, as the show depicts, had a nuclear effect on Snider.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3AS6UT">
In reality, despite Snider’s possessiveness, the two were estranged by 1980, when Snider murdered Stratten before killing himself. The cultural shock wave of Stratten’s murder made it one of the country’s early reckonings with the realities of domestic violence. (Bogdanovich would later write a book about Stratten called <em>The Killing of the Unicorn</em>.) On the Hulu show, Snider and Stratten seem to wink in and out of Banerjee’s life, but the gruesome crime scene becomes foreshadowing of Banerjee’s escalating possessiveness and territorial jealousy — in his case, not over a woman, but over his life’s work: Chippendales itself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5JQKRR">
For Banerjee, Snider and Stratten were mere stepping stones toward something greater. The next phase of Chippendales involved upscaling it from rudimentary strip dances into a full-on choreographed show with trained performers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oHJ9Mv">
Enter Nick De Noia.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oudBwf">
Previously the husband and manager to actress Jennifer O’Neill, De Noia was a children’s TV producer and former high school teacher from New Jersey who won two Emmys for a forgotten children’s show called <em>Unicorn Tales</em>. His Emmy win, as depicted on the show, seems to have been a creative pinnacle that De Noia struggled to recapture until he partnered with Banerjee. In convincing Banerjee to let him take Chippendales to the next level, De Noia found a new creative purpose and finally came close to achieving the level of professional respect for which he hungered. It also allowed him, a closeted gay man, to attain a level of self-expression — a rare thing for any queer person in the 1980s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K551rY">
In 1983, De Noia convinced Banerjee, with whom he’d had perpetual creative disagreements, to open up a New York franchise of the club. It was here his creative ambitions really took off. The big spectacle number De Noia creates in the Hulu series, an erotic <em>Rocky Horror</em> riff in which a mad scientist creates the perfect male specimen from assembled body parts, was a real show conceived and staged by De Noia in 1984: <em>The Perfect Man.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ySJbsm">
“Banerjee would spend the rest of history devaluing Nicholas’s contribution,” Nahin told Petrzela. “But if there was no Nicholas, there would’ve never been the success we had.” But Banerjee and De Noia’s clashing desire for control became an East Coast-West Coast cold war, and De Noia’s insistence on claiming credit for Banerjee’s life’s work continued to escalate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YCM9h0">
The show’s depiction of the people in De Noia’s orbit seems to be fictional composites of real-life people. The pushy but ingenious seamstress turned manager, “Denise,” played by Juliette Lewis, could be Chippendales associate producer Candace Mayeron. Just as Denise does on the show, in real life, Mayeron basically fangirled her way onto the creative team. As the self-described “<a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a37635985/chippendales-murder-candace-mayeron/">den mother</a>” of the dancers, Mayeron was a close friend and loyal ally to De Noia, and one of many people who credit De Noia with essentially creating the version of Chippendales that became a sensation: polished, professionally choreographed, and knowingly camp. It’s unclear if De Noia’s “spoiled rich kid” investor boyfriend Bradford Barton (Andrew Rannells) has a real-life counterpart, but one possibility is that he was a talent agent named Will Mott, who, as described in <a href="https://medium.com/@AudraVy/the-real-chippendales-murder-mystery-p-s-anybody-know-what-the-hell-happened-to-will-mott-33738de9206">a single pseudonymous internet blog</a>, shared coworking space with De Noia and had a relationship with him that’s very similar to the one depicted on the show.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XDTcIN">
The show’s early focus on Black dancer Otis (Quentin Plair) also seems to be a fictional composite of several people, including real dancer Hodari Sababu, who like Otis experienced the stigma of being the only Black dancer in the otherwise all-white lineup, “because Banerjee felt that he didn’t want more than one Black guy in the club.” Like Otis, Banerjee deliberately excluded Sababu from the bestselling Chippendales calendar because of his skin color. In a <a href="https://pineapple.fm/welcome-to-your-fantasy-ep-4">memorable exchange</a> with Petrzela on the <em>Welcome to Your Fantasy</em> podcast, Sababu describes confronting Banerjee about his racism, just as Otis does in the show, and getting a very similar response:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ToPKaq">
Sababu: I’m like, “Why’s that, man?” And he stuttered, “I got mostly white women, they’d come in here and they’d spend a lot of money, and I don’t want a lot of Black guys in here. It makes it look like some gang stuff or something.” You know, it was like, Chippendale’s this classy thing, we got these classy guys, we want classy girls coming in here.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PfjgM9">
Petrzela: What do you think classy meant to him?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HsTmbZ">
Sababu: Definitely white, definitely white. Successful financially. It was all superficial.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gEGNUI">
Banerjee’s explicit discrimination led to expensive real-life lawsuits, which the show accurately depicts as stemming from his refusal to let people of color into the nightclub. The lawsuits, combined with a <a href="https://wikichippendales.com/index.php/31-days-in-february/">disastrously expensive printing error</a> on the annual Chippendales calendar at the end of 1986, would have wiped out Banerjee’s finances but for De Noia’s backup revenue stream. Earlier that year, De Noia had maneuvered Banerjee out of creative control over the new Chippendales touring production — which, predictably, became a massive international success. The Hulu show depicts them signing a contract drafted by Di Noia on a diner napkin, which really did happen.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mifEGO">
The tour saved Banerjee from financial ruin, but the fact that De Noia had scammed him out of the right to call himself the creator and owner of the wildly popular tour infuriated Banerjee, who by every account was a controlling and ruthless businessman. This ultimately led him to murder: In 1987, Banerjee tasked his underling Ray Colon (depicted in the Hulu series by <em>Tick Tick Boom</em>’s Robin de Jesús) with hiring a hitman to kill De Noia. On April 7, 1987, De Noia was <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1987/04/08/733187.html?pageNumber=30">found shot to death</a> in his office in Manhattan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qeQzhA">
With the whole franchise finally under Banerjee’s control, things should have been smooth sailing. But with De Noia no longer around to ameliorate Banerjee’s more aggressive and reckless traits, they only worsened — as did his paranoia. Banerjee had previously gotten Colon to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/c475f8ccbeef9b12339235c7e5a548f1">burn down two nightclubs</a>, purely because they were hosting their own male stripper nights. By now he was under investigation by federal authorities for De Noia’s murder, which made him hyper-vigilant, constantly looking over his shoulder. Still, the federal authorities had no way of proving Banerjee’s connection to the crime, so his bad habits and murderous tendencies only increased.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tJLZso">
In 1990, Banerjee utilized Colon once more in a failed plot to murder three former Chippendales dancers for “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-07-30-me-21593-story.html">defect[ing]</a> to a rival male dance revue.” The Hulu series makes much of how wild this was — though it omits perhaps the wildest part of all, which is that originally the plan was allegedly to <a href="https://pineapple.fm/welcome-to-your-fantasy-ep-6">stab all three dancers</a> with a syringe full of cyanide. The series also emphasizes that had it not been for Banerjee’s spiraling territorialism and greed, he probably would have gotten away with murder and continued to helm a lucrative small business empire.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bZLJsT">
Instead, in 1994, while Banerjee was essentially hiding out nursing millions of dollars in cash in a remote Swiss village, authorities finally caught up to him and arrested him, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-07-30-me-21593-story.html">charging him</a> with “violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) through a pattern of racketeering activity that included murder, murder for hire, solicitation to commit murder and arson.” Quite a resume. As a bonus, there are the crimes for which he wasn’t prosecuted: He allegedly <a href="https://pineapple.fm/welcome-to-your-fantasy-ep-5">hired</a> someone to attempt to kill yet another one of his dancers for producing a competing calendar, leading to a horror scene in which men stripping on a beach for a photo shoot wound up fleeing an unknown gunman. Another former dancer/choreographer <a href="https://pineapple.fm/welcome-to-your-fantasy-ep-8">temporarily fled into the mountains</a> after a rumor surfaced that Banerjee had put out a hit on him as well.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gJCLMd">
Little is known about Banerjee’s wife, Irene (played by Annaleigh Ashford on the Hulu series) or his two children, but he seems to have been thinking of securing their welfare when he made his final business decision. After pleading guilty to the RICO charges, Banerjee was facing the prospect of having all his assets, including his ownership of the Chippendales business, seized, meaning the entire empire would be auctioned off to the highest bidder, leaving Banerjee’s family with nothing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xG6RtR">
Before that could happen, however, Banerjee died by suicide in his jail cell just hours before his sentencing. As <em>Welcome to Chippendales</em> informs audiences, this meant that his family maintained control of the company. Banerjee’s family sold it to investors who revitalized the brand — including infamous boy band promoter Lou Pearlman, who had, to put it mildly, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/13/lou-pearlman-was-disgraced-mogul-who-defrauded-s-boy-bands-then-came-million-ponzi-scheme/">money problems of his own</a>. After 9/11, the New York club shut down and Chippendales became primarily a touring company, with a permanent Las Vegas <a href="https://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2004_3rd/Jul04_RioComplex.html">residency</a> beginning in 2005; the show eventually got its own customized theater.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YA45tl">
One thing that remains unclear is how much Banerjee, outside of all the greed and murder, cared about what a cultural touchstone he was creating. Dancers who worked with De Noia tend to acknowledge that he could be arrogant and self-aggrandizing but that he was always building the mythos of Chippendales as a liberating, feminist artistic experience. In reality, at least in its early years, its rowdy nightclub scene subjected its dancers to sexual exploitation and racial discrimination — not exactly a breakthrough for equality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aaHx1P">
Still, it’s undeniable that Chippendales’ lasting cultural legacy is one of empowerment, both for women who have a safe space to express their sexual desires and for men who find sexual and creative freedom in erotic dance. The famous dance lineup gave us, among other things, a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stqG2ihMvP0">legendary 1990 <em>SNL</em> skit</a> featuring Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley, and its tradition of titillating women arguably lives on in the <em>Magic Mike</em> franchise. People around the world still flock to see Chippendales dancers every night, while the official Chippendales Instagram gifts <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/ClCAYcJgT-k/">strategically lit erotica</a> to its 200,000 followers. The <a href="https://www.chippendales.com/dancers">current lineup</a> of dancers boasts a shark wrangler, a BMX biker, and a jazz pianist with an MFA.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1NNtsi">
In other words, Banerjee did achieve his dream: He gave the world high-class male erotica. And he did it, for better and worse, all in his own way.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Kari Lake’s lonely and deeply absurd quest to challenge the Arizona election results</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nqL4LQdZ-60KVA2puQ0RrheeWhM=/0x0:3467x2600/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71690553/GettyImages_1440085172a.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Kari Lake speaks to the media after voting in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 8. | John Moore/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Republican candidate for governor is still refusing to concede the race that made her a MAGA star.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0PBG3n">
Kari Lake, the defeated Republican nominee for Arizona governor who was the most prominent 2022 candidate running on former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies, still refuses to concede a race the Associated Press called for her opponent weeks ago.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M2sQWd">
<a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/election-denialism-lives-on-even-as-candidates-who-support-it-concede/">Most other election-denier candidates</a>, who lost up and down the ballot and across the country in 2022, have conceded their races with little fanfare. But Lake is an almost singular voice calling her state’s contests one of the “most dishonest elections in the history of Arizona” in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/users/KariLake/statuses/109424601087991522">video</a> posted on Trump’s social media network Truth Social on Monday.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="41yuWB">
“This botched election should not be certified,” she added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yLcyQo">
Monday was the county-level deadline to certify the results. All did, with the exception of Cochise County, where the Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors delayed certification until Friday, citing concerns about voting machines. Current Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democrat who won the gubernatorial race, consequently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/28/politics/arizona-county-delays-election-challenges/index.html">sued the county</a>, arguing that its decision could “potentially disenfranchise” some 47,000 voters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F5Nzlu">
The AP called the race on November 14, and the results weren’t within the half a percentage point margin required to trigger a recount. In the now complete vote count, Hobbs won the gubernatorial election by 17,116 votes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UEr52F">
That hasn’t stopped Lake from questioning the results<strong>. </strong>She has <a href="https://truthsocial.com/users/KariLake/statuses/109422759503070520">boosted</a> accounts from supporters who claim they had trouble voting, argued that Hobbs cannot certify her own election as governor due to conflicts of interest, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-lawsuits-arizona-phoenix-3d11510fc4130cba1640ef702486b536">filed a lawsuit</a> asking Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, to hand over various election records before the statewide canvass of the results, which is scheduled to happen on December 5.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TEPxKu">
Those documents include ones that could help identify people who may have not been able to cast a ballot, including those who checked in at more than one polling location or who submitted a mail ballot and sought to vote in person. Lake also is seeking details on counted and uncounted ballots that were mistakenly mixed. It’s unlikely that these ballots affected the results — mixing up counted and uncounted ballots is a routine problem in elections that county officials have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-arizona-4e15278b82452878d6f6aa45b2984579">confirmed happened</a> at a few vote centers this year, but that they can rectify.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HOvDlE">
Lake is getting help in her quest from Trump, who <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/109420209758475931">posted</a> on Truth Social Monday that Lake “should be installed as governor of Arizona” and baselessly claimed that she was the victim of a “criminal voting operation” involving broken voting machines in Republican districts, drawing a parallel to his false claims about his own 2020 loss. Lake became a key Trump ally during her campaign, and she has been floated as a potential 2024 running mate for Trump, who announced his candidacy just weeks ago.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HvHUIO">
“This is almost as bad as the 2020 Presidential Election, which the Unselect Committee refuses to touch because they know it was Fraudulent!” he wrote.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PkwKbB">
As to whether she’s planning on abandoning her claims anytime soon, Lake seemed to suggest she won’t. She <a href="https://truthsocial.com/users/KariLake/statuses/109419522841561026">wrote</a> Monday that “the Fake News ignores our Fake Elections and expects us to just ‘move on.’ We won’t.”
</p>
<h3 id="htFfY7">
Lake has long suggested she would challenge her loss
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KqYusj">
It was obvious well before Election Day that Lake intended to challenge the results if she lost.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ES8H6z">
Ahead of Election Day, Lake <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/nov/01/liz-cheney/in-arizona-gop-candidates-kari-lake-and-mark-finch/">repeatedly dodged questions</a> about whether she would concede the governor’s race if she lost, saying, “I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result,” and that she’d only accept a “fair, honest and transparent” result. During the primary, she said she would challenge the results if she lost because it would have indicated “<a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2022/08/25/kari-lake-is-one-of-4-big-lie-swing-state-gop-guv-candidates-they-could-upend-the-2024-presidential-election/">there’s some cheating going on</a>.” And before the race was called, she suggested that Arizona election officials were intentionally dragging their feet on releasing the results while still declaring, “<a href="https://twitter.com/KariLake/status/1590880821472219136?s=20&amp;t=giSaDOdzPloTGwiZTUO7xg">I am 100% going to win</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iaDg32">
Her comments were in line with her history of election denialism. Lake has said that, had she been governor at the time, <a href="https://www.insider.com/arizona-governor-candidate-kari-lake-not-certified-2020-election-results-2021-10">she wouldn’t have certified</a> the 2020 vote for Biden, saying that it was “<a href="https://twitter.com/KariLake/status/1504312758145146881?s=20&amp;t=tKQBFJx7TGN6ZDqd0y05XQ">Corrupt, Rotten &amp; Rigged</a>.” She even filed a lawsuit, which has since been <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/judge-declines-require-hand-count-arizona-ballots-november-election-rcna45058">dismissed</a> by a federal judge, that made false claims about issues with vote-counting machines, and sought to require Arizona officials to tabulate 2022 ballots by hand.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WAdrpH">
Other election-denying candidates, such as the Arizona GOP’s secretary of state nominee <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2022/08/02/mark-finchem-is-the-latest-in-a-wave-of-election-deniers-moving-toward-controlling-elections/">Mark Finchem</a>, similarly set up the expectation that they would challenge the election results. Almost all of them ended up losing. Abraham Hamadeh, the GOP nominee for Arizona attorney general, has <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/3747431-arizona-gop-ag-candidate-rnc-file-lawsuit-over-2022-election/">argued</a> that the election was “afflicted with certain errors and inaccuracies,” but his race is heading to a recount. Finchem has also yet to concede, arguing as recently as Monday that the election should be recalled and that there should be a “<a href="https://twitter.com/RealMarkFinchem/status/1597366613962940416?s=20&amp;t=LFonbdoti7CC671Mfjp9XA">new election</a>.”
</p>
<h3 id="FFg3xm">
Lake’s refusal to concede could be strategic
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BdbJH2">
The Arizona governor’s race made <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/arizona-kari-lake-midterms-governor-election-voters-polls-crime-border-homeless-trump-gop-campaign-candidate-schools-11666293986">Lake a GOP star</a>. It’s possible that her attempts to prolong the certification of the election in Arizona are just a ploy to maintain her national profile and create a launching pad for the next phase of her career, political or otherwise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9qThTB">
She ran an unconventional campaign, eschewing traditional ad buys for viral campaign videos full of controversial statements that grabbed national headlines, including <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/3716646-kari-lake-says-she-never-made-light-of-pelosi-attack-blames-creative-editing/">comments</a> that appeared to make light of the violent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. All of that won her Trump’s admiration (and endorsement) and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/arizona-kari-lake-midterms-governor-election-voters-polls-crime-border-homeless-trump-gop-campaign-candidate-schools-11666293986">praise from other prominent Republicans</a>, though she still proved a divisive figure within the party and might be even more so now that she’s lost what seemed to be a winnable race.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bR5KZb">
Kenneth L. Khachigian, Ronald Reagan’s former chief speechwriter, waxed poetic in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/arizona-kari-lake-midterms-governor-election-voters-polls-crime-border-homeless-trump-gop-campaign-candidate-schools-11666293986">Wall Street Journal</a> last month: “What makes Ms. Lake’s message different is its simplicity and fearlessness. It’s unapologetic and sincere, not clothed in code words.” Trump reportedly <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/07/trump-gop-kari-lake-00050215">sees something of himself</a> in Lake. Even the current term-limited Gov. Doug Ducey, who accused Lake of “<a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/political/elections/did-governor-ducey-just-endorse-kari-lake-for-governor">misleading voters</a>” when he was backing Taylor Robson during the primary, eventually <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/political/elections/did-governor-ducey-just-endorse-kari-lake-for-governor">warmed to her</a>, though he hasn’t entertained her refusal to concede and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/us/politics/kari-lake-arizona-republicans.html">called Hobbs</a> to offer his congratulations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dNek2D">
All the adulation from Republicans — and speculation that she might be a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/10/20/kari-lake-could-be-tormenting-democrats-for-years-00062741">potential running mate</a> for Trump, even though she didn’t win the governorship — suggests a future in the GOP. By keeping her supporters, and Trump’s, engaged, she puts herself in a strong position to help Trump mount a tough challenge to Biden come 2024, and to attempt to fulfill any other political aspirations, whatever they may be.
</p></li>
<li><strong>What makes China’s wave of protests different this time</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r3OQMqAtQtwfwIAWGrvadR_RGXs=/96x0:5113x3763/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71690489/1245158724.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Demonstrators hold blank signs during a protest in Beijing, China, on November 27, 2022. | Andrea Verdelli/Bloomberg via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
It’s not Tiananmen, but Xi Jinping faces his first China-wide protests.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V9kNbU">
Thousands of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/11/27/23480144/urumqi-xinjiang-apartment-fire-china-zero-covid-uyghur-xi-jinping-protest">protesters have taken to the streets across China</a> in defiance of the country’s strict Covid-19 lockdown policies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rIDzEm">
The information coming out of China offers an incomplete picture, but reports suggest that workers, students, rural residents, and middle-class people have joined protesters. It’s that diverse mix of people across so many locales that has some international outlets calling these protests the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-28/chinas-biggest-protests-since-1989-signal-the-end-of-xi-jinping/101704556">biggest threat</a> to China’s ruling Communist Party since Tiananmen Square in 1989.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qGWBmS">
The precipitating event: Last week, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/11/27/23480144/urumqi-xinjiang-apartment-fire-china-zero-covid-uyghur-xi-jinping-protest">fire</a> in an apartment building in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, killed at least 10 people. And protesters have responded by blaming the deaths on the harsh <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/29/china-zero-covid-policy-protests-explained/">zero-Covid policy</a> that is closely associated with <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/23403324/xi-jinping-china-worldview-soviet-union-arab-spring">President Xi Jinping</a>. For the past three years, the Chinese government has used its surveillance state to implement a program that cordons off <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n14/mimi-jiang/diary">entire districts</a> and communities at the first sign of an infection.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tzWxc1">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/10/16/23404561/china-communist-party-congress-xi-jinping-explainer">The 20th National Congress</a> of the Chinese Communist Party last month brought an intense focus on the country’s elite politics and how Xi has consolidated power. So much has focused on Chinese leadership, and mass protests present an opportunity to think about China’s people. Why are the protesters resisting the Chinese government’s policies now, and what do they want?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LTWQyk">
To explore the underlying grievances expressed in China’s public squares, the role of workers in the nascent movement, and how the government might clamp down in response, I reached out to Eli Friedman, a sociologist at Cornell University. Friedman teaches about how China’s rapid rise as a global economic power has affected the country’s workers, who have been drivers of the demonstrations. He is the author of <em>The Urbanization of People: The Politics of Development, Labor Markets, and Schooling in the Chinese City. </em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tkpLx3">
The protests have not yet reached 1989 levels, according to Friedman. But the uprising presents something that hasn’t happened since Xi took power in 2013.<strong> </strong>“For the first time under Xi Jinping, we have a nationwide protest movement,” he told me, “because nearly all Chinese people, at least Chinese people in large cities, have been subjected to similar kinds of surveillance and controls on their mobility over the past three years, and people are clearly fed up with it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NYSD1u">
Though China’s government represses its citizens, protests have endured over the years and with some regularity. But they tend to be very local. As Friedman put it, “What’s really unique about what we’re seeing now is that it is nationwide, that it is responding to a policy not just of some corrupt local officials or some bad boss, but quite specifically to a policy of the central government. Even more specifically, to a policy that Xi Jinping himself has taken responsibility for.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jgF92T">
Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QAXbtB">
<strong>Why are these protests happening now in China?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cor4A0">
Going back to October, there’s been a whole series of protests against lockdowns. They first emerged in October when thousands of workers at a Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, a large provincial capital in central China, were put in what’s called the closed loop management system. They were not allowed to leave the factory. And as the virus began circulating within the factory that has 100,000 [workers], people were concerned for their health. People within the factory were put into quarantine and were not being given adequate medical attention, or in some cases, even adequate food. People were worried about their livelihood and so thousands of workers just escaped, literally just jumped over the fence, because their employer was not letting them out.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Police officers wearing face masks hold hands to form a human chain near metal fencing at night. Behind them are protesters." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hImw0bZvbNuWMTJLa6C2rsO4jfg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24241842/1245164251.jpg"/> <cite>Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Police officers stand guard during a protest against “zero Covid” and epidemic prevention restrictions in Beijing, China, on November 27, 2022.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hh2nUE">
In November, there’s a series of other events, including some big protests in migrant worker communities in Guangzhou in response to a lockdown — again, they were not allowed to leave their houses, so they’re dependent on the government delivering them everything that they need to live on, and<strong> </strong>were not getting adequate medical attention and were not getting enough food. There were some riots there. Then there were more protests and very intense and violent riots in the third week of November, again at the Zhengzhou Foxconn facility.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A5ckc7">
That’s the prelude to the really big explosion, which happened following a fire in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. The official death toll in that fire was that 10 people died, and there are credible suggestions that as many as a couple dozen people perished.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NXou9G">
This really struck a chord nationally, because hundreds of millions of people have had some experience over the past three years being subjected to these lockdowns, and in some cases, literally locked in their apartments and unable to leave.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JcGRXE">
Although the specific information is debated — and the government has not been totally forthcoming — there are reasonable suspicions that some of these people might not have died had they not been under lockdown. After that, we see the whole deluge of protests in every city in the country. So that’s the fuse for these big protests.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fvWImF">
The reason that the past three years of “zero Covid” are really important is because we have these seemingly particular events — migrant workers in Guangzhou, factory workers in Zhengzhou, and then this fire in Urumqi. The response from residents resonated nationwide. For the first time under Xi Jinping, we have a nationwide protest movement, because nearly all Chinese people, at least Chinese people in large cities, have been subjected to similar kinds of surveillance and controls on their mobility over the past three years, and people are clearly fed up with it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HiqShi">
<strong>Who is in this crowd? You’ve described that it has a lot of the components of a labor protest, but reports show students, people in rural areas, and middle-class people united in response to this country-wide lockdown policy. </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kl1evi">
It is unbelievably diverse. We do have people who are in factories, who are migrant workers, who are highly exploited workers producing iPhones and other electronic gadgets that Americans and other people consume. We have other kinds of workers, the ones in Guangzhou, where [there are] very small garment workshops in very dense, informal housing arrangements. We have students at super elite universities — Tsinghua University, which is Xi Jinping’s alma mater. Dozens of universities around the country have had protests.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qma7fo">
Then if you look at the protests in other big coastal cities, like Shanghai or Beijing, you have a mixture — it’s hard to tell just from looking at the crowd, but certainly some pretty well-off white-collar workers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XBkYei">
The fact that the fire happened in Urumqi is interesting and important. Because Xinjiang is a place where the Uyghur minority, who are Muslims and are a minority nationally, but they represent at least a plurality, if not an absolute majority of the population in Xinjiang. They’ve been subjected to a very intense regime of repression, surveillance, policing, and mass incarceration over the last five years. Most if not all of the people who died in the fire were Uyghurs. If we look at the protests in Urumqi itself, it appears, though it can be hard to tell, that most of the people are Han, from the dominant ethnicity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NZS9sY">
The lockdown is a national policy, a blanket policy, around de-mobilizing people. But the effects have been very, very different.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ukBTqk">
What I think is happening is we have opposition to the lockdown as this kind of umbrella. It’s this category that has affected nearly all Chinese people in one way or another. Within that, people are raising all kinds of other demands. The workers at Foxconn were concerned with pay. The people in Xinjiang, to the extent that Uyghurs are able to openly speak, have big concerns about the broader repression of Muslim minorities. You have the students who are holding up the white pieces of paper, and that’s an expression of opposition to censorship and demands for free speech.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TyHhiQ">
<strong>Speaking of this surveillance state, how do these protests travel through the country when information doesn’t really flow freely? What techniques are protesters using to circumvent online censorship? What strategies are working?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ChKS0U">
First, digital censorship in China is comprehensive, but it is not perfect. So even if you’re using the Chinese internet, China-based apps like WeChat or Weibo, they’re not 100 percent perfect. They have well-developed AI that tries to anticipate certain kinds of things that they will scrub. They have teams of tens of thousands of people who are paid censors who are looking through this stuff. But there are still collective-action events that get through or things that are critical of the government that get through, particularly when there is a large quantity of things happening at the same time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y3jgsk">
The second thing is, particularly for people who are highly educated, it is still possible to use VPNs to get over the Great Firewall. People have access to Twitter and are posting photos, or sending videos or photos to international sites, and then people even within China who can still access those sites. It’s a relatively small percentage of the population.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5uU9KN">
But the third thing — which I think is actually most important for understanding these particular mobilizations — is that they’re just doing it the old-fashioned way, where they know people in the community. If you look at this whole sequence, the first event was Foxconn. Well, Foxconn has 200,000 people living in these incredibly tightly packed dormitories. They just were talking to people face to face. The next event in Guangzhou was these informal housing communities where the whole community was locked down, but you could move about within the community and people within that community were all having the same experience of worrying that they didn’t have enough food. So they talked to each other, and they went out and they tore down the fences and fought with the police.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iQXNZo">
Even in some of the bigger cities, certainly in Beijing and Shanghai, you have people who are communicating online about going to specific locations, but you’ve had other smaller-scale protests, where it’s just people within a large housing community. If they have lockdowns in these communities with thousands of people on the inside, they can’t leave, but they can talk to their neighbors.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0O3k5k">
<strong>How do these protests look in contrast to other Chinese protests in recent memory?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xv2DUE">
In the Chinese context, they are very, very different. There are a lot of protests in China, and there has been, for the last generation, protests among workers, among peasants who are having their land taken, some smaller-scale things among students, among feminist activists. Environmental issues have generated some big protests, as well as ethnic minorities. Tibetans have also had some major protest movements. But almost all of these cases have been very localized, in response to some specific local grievance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ONCPfU">
What’s really unique about what we’re seeing now is that it is nationwide, that it is responding to a policy not just of some corrupt local officials or some bad boss, but quite specifically to a policy of the central government. Even more specifically, to a policy that Xi Jinping himself has taken responsibility for.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AlPUs0">
<strong>Is this a threat to the CCP after the party congress? Is it potentially the biggest threat since the Tiananmen Square protests?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vll2GO">
This is not remotely a 1989 kind of situation yet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sh2crm">
One of the reasons that people jumped to this — something China scholars talk about is collapse-ology, which is like, every time something goes a little bit wrong for the Communist Party, people assume that it’s on the verge of collapse. That gains traction because the state itself sets such a high bar for what social order looks like. In the United States or other democratic societies, if you have a protest of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people in the nation’s capital, that is really just not a big deal for the state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qNIriF">
In the lead-up to the 20th Congress, there was this one guy who hung these banners off of a bridge, expressing opposition to zero-Covid policy and calling for the end of Xi Jinping’s rule. That was huge international news. That guy’s slogans are now being chanted all around the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jfvvcq">
The government sets a very high standard for what social order looks like, and when there’s a deviation from that, people assume that means that things are completely falling apart, that they’ve lost control. And the truth of the matter is, that’s not the case. This is a real challenge, and we’ll see how they respond in the coming days. But, absent some kind of internal split in the party — and there was as yet no evidence that that is the case — this movement itself can be pretty easily repressed. The state has just overwhelming resources at its capacity. Even if we look at what’s happened in the last 24 hours, there are many fewer protests, many people have already gone to jail. The costs of participation will continue to escalate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zuhE7k">
<strong>How do people in China see the zero-Covid policy?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b0unAI">
All these questions that people are asking, which are legitimate questions, like how come in the last three years the Chinese government — which can mobilize vast resources on a scale that no other country in the world can do in a short period of time — how come they haven’t built more ICU beds to increase the capacity for real outbreaks? They can mandate that people don’t leave their apartments for months on end, but how come we can’t get more people vaccinated? And so there’s a real frustration about that; people understand that the virus doesn’t have to be super deadly, but the government has not been doing the things that would allow them to learn to live with the virus.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Workers in hazmat-like suits carry a hose and tanks across a bridge on a river." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/l08OXMpD7jefoccXaurUJKmAKOc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24241839/1445232913.jpg"/> <cite>Kevin Frayer/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Workers disinfect an area on the Liangma River, a popular area for local residents and the site of a protest against Covid measures the day before, on November 28, 2022, in Beijing, China.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8QwdOn">
The wrong answer would be for the government to say, “Okay, tomorrow, there’s no rules, go for it,” because in fact, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of mostly elderly people would die. What they need to do is develop a very clear plan for exiting zero-Covid — timelines for how to vaccinate all these people, to increase health capacity, particularly in underserved communities. And they’re not doing that. And so that leaves many people with a sense that this is just going to be life forever, which leaves people feeling really kind of despondent, especially when they see every other country in the world doing something different.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WfP7JX">
<strong>What else do Americans need to know about China’s protests?</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fAuuYD">
Sometimes Americans are like, “Well, this is interesting that that’s happening over there, but why should we care about this?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jj8cgc">
Aside from the fact that American companies are implicated in these closed loop management models, I think there’s a broader issue around the question of surveillance. Because in order for zero-Covid to operate, it has required a huge expansion of state surveillance capacities. Now, the movements of people are very closely monitored. There have been times when they’ve locked down entire districts of the city, thousands of people, because there was one positive case. The only way to enforce that is through these apps that are tracking your movement through the city.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cLeVXq">
We don’t have that in the United States, obviously, and I don’t think that there’s a likelihood that the federal government will be able to implement something like that. But I think a lot of Americans and people in other countries outside of China do have concerns about surveillance, either by governments or by corporations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oQNapS">
Just in the last few days, you’ve seen videos of police on the streets in Beijing and Shanghai, going around and just asking random people to look at their phones. They go through your phone and see if you have any photos of protests, if you have any banned apps or anything like that, and that can land you in trouble. It is important for us to pay attention and be in solidarity with these protests.
</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jacinda Ardern and Sanna Marin dismiss claim they met due to ‘similar age’</strong> - The leaders were asked if they held talks in Auckland because they are “similar in age”.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French baguette gets Unesco heritage status</strong> - The loaf “celebrates the French way of life”, Unesco’s chief says as its inclusion was announced.</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>Why Dutch ‘bike banks’ are a game changer for kids</strong> - In the Netherlands, the cost of living crisis has pushed up demand for refurbished second-hand bikes.</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>Review: Intel’s “Raptor Canyon” NUC is a compact gaming PC without the stress</strong> - Building your own can be considerably cheaper, but DIY-ing isn’t always easy. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1898102">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Latest Super Mario Bros. movie trailer features a bold, new Princess Peach</strong> - Luigi, Donkey Kong, and Yoshis also make appearances in fresh two-minute promo. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1900814">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>OpenAI upgrades GPT-3, stunning with rhyming poetry and lyrics</strong> - Refinement to AI language model generates rhyming compositions in various styles. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1900698">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SpaceX fires up 11 engines as it prepares massive rocket for orbital test</strong> - Nothing blew up, which is always a win. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1900748">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How secure a Twitter replacement is Mastodon? Let us count the ways</strong> - The demise of Twitter’s security and privacy teams has people looking for alternatives. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1900717">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>I like my coffee like “I like my coffee” jokes.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Not made by me.
</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/porichoygupto"> /u/porichoygupto </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z8b7wa/i_like_my_coffee_like_i_like_my_coffee_jokes/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z8b7wa/i_like_my_coffee_like_i_like_my_coffee_jokes/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A lesbian named Linda went to the beach</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She unrolled her towel, removed her clothes, and lay down in her bikini. She looked to her left and saw an absolute knockout of a woman lying on her towel, reading a novel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
​
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“This woman is absolutely gorgeous,” thought Linda. “She’s the hottest woman I’ve ever seen. With my luck, she’s a lesbian too. I should start up a conversation.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She turned to the woman and asked, “What sort of stuff do you like?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I like plants,” replied the woman.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Do you like sunflowers?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Do you like pine trees?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I like them too.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Do you like pussy willow?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
​
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Suddenly, without warning, the woman tore off her bikini. Then she leapt onto Linda’s towel and ripped off hers. Linda was shocked at first, but then realized that this was exactly what she had wanted. So, the two women rolled around, making passionate love, and were inevitably kicked off the beach.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As Linda drove home, she thought to herself, “How did that lady know I was a lesbian?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As the other woman drove home, she thought to herself, “How did that lady know my name was Willow?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Mycroft2046"> /u/Mycroft2046 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z8ckt3/a_lesbian_named_linda_went_to_the_beach/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z8ckt3/a_lesbian_named_linda_went_to_the_beach/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>My wife said sex was much better on vacation.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
That wasn’t a very nice post card to receive.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Plastic-Ad-8469"> /u/Plastic-Ad-8469 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z8awd6/my_wife_said_sex_was_much_better_on_vacation/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z8awd6/my_wife_said_sex_was_much_better_on_vacation/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>To whoever lost an iPhone 14 Pro Max outside the train station yesterday</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Can you please stop calling my new phone?
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AdeptLengthiness8886"> /u/AdeptLengthiness8886 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z7ul0l/to_whoever_lost_an_iphone_14_pro_max_outside_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z7ul0l/to_whoever_lost_an_iphone_14_pro_max_outside_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>UK joke - What town uses VPNs the most?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Ipswich
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/LordOfTheTranceYeh"> /u/LordOfTheTranceYeh </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z8outp/uk_joke_what_town_uses_vpns_the_most/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z8outp/uk_joke_what_town_uses_vpns_the_most/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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