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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>Exploring the landscape of the genomic wastewater surveillance ecosystem: a roadmap towards standardization</strong> -
<div>
The landscape of genomic wastewater surveillance in the context of infectious disease monitoring is rapidly evolving, and this came into sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we highlight the significance of wastewater surveillance as a passive monitoring system complementary to clinical genomic surveillance activities. Emphasizing the need for coordination, standardization, and the development of a unified catalog of software tools and services, we aim to streamline the implementation of end-to-end genomic wastewater surveillance pipelines. Key considerations such as defining variants, understanding antimicrobial resistance, and assessing viral fitness within the framework of wastewater surveillance are explored, linking to examples of respective tools and existing pipelines. The challenges of wastewater data analysis, the need for specialized tools and bioinformatics workflows, and the significance of integrated pipelines are also discussed in detail. The article presents case studies, including the V-pipe integrated bioinformatics workflow and the integration of tools into the Galaxy platform, underscoring their role in enhancing data analysis efficiency and standardization within the field. Overall, the review highlights the critical importance of continued research efforts to advance understanding and implementation of bioinformatic approaches in wastewater surveillance for the effective monitoring and management of infectious diseases.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/biohackrxiv/rtgk9/" target="_blank">Exploring the landscape of the genomic wastewater surveillance ecosystem: a roadmap towards standardization</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Gods Lockdown: the effect of the April 2022 Colorado low blizzard on SARS-Cov-2 transmission in the midwest United States</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Lockdowns have been used as a primary non-pharmaceutical intervention to stop transmission of COVID19. There are many issues with interpreting the causal effects of most of these intentional, policy driven interventions. We leverage a natural experiment to avoid many of these issues to better understand the direct effects of lockdown like conditions on COVID19 transmission. Methods: We exploit a blizzard that interrupted activity across several midwestern states in April 2022. This blizzard broke records for snowfall and caused economic disruption. We leverage this to create control and treatment counties that were more or less affected by the snowfall. We demonstrate effects using event studies comparing these treatment and control counties. Results: We find that mobility within treatment counties was severely curtailed as a result of the blizzard relative to control counties. We find cumulative declines in the number of COVID19 cases per country by 400 and cumulative declines in COVID19 deaths by 1 per county over the 30 days after the storm. We find declines in by one per hospitalization due to COVID19. Conclusions: The April 2022 blizzard caused disruption in activity across the midwest United States akin to a lockdown. It reduced the number of COVID19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations in treatment counties relative to control counties suggesting that similar policies do limit transmissions of SARS-Cov-2.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.01.23297908v1" target="_blank">Gods Lockdown: the effect of the April 2022 Colorado low blizzard on SARS-Cov-2 transmission in the midwest United States</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to sustained testicular injury and functional impairments in K18 hACE2 mice</strong> -
<div>
Compromised male reproductive health is one of the symptoms of long COVID with a decrease in male fertility markers including testosterone levels and sperm count for months in recovering patients. However, the long-term impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on testicular injury and underlying mechanisms remains unknown. We previously demonstrated a disrupted tissue architecture with no evidence of virus replication in the testis during the acute stage of the disease in K18-hACE2 mice. Here, we systematically delineate the consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the testis injury and function both during the acute stage of the disease and up to 4 weeks after recovery in survivor K18-hACE2 mice. The gross morphological defects included sloughing of healthy spermatids and spermatocytes into the lumen, lack of lumen, and increase in apoptotic cells that sustained for at least 2 weeks after infection. Testis injury correlated with systemic and testicular inflammation, and infiltration of immune cells in the interstitial space and seminiferous tubules. Transcriptomic analysis identified dysregulation of key pathways associated with testicular immune homeostasis, spermatogenesis, and cell death at the symptomatic stage and immediately after recovery. Further, a significant reduction in testosterone levels was associated with transient reduction in sperm count and mouse fertility. Most of the testicular impairments except testosterone levels were resolved within 4 weeks, which is almost one spermatogenesis cycle in mice. These findings provide much-needed mechanistic insights beyond our current understanding of testicular pathogenesis, suggesting that recovering COVID-19 patients should be closely monitored to rescue the pathophysiological effects on male reproductive health.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.31.565042v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to sustained testicular injury and functional impairments in K18 hACE2 mice</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Pervasive aggregation and depletion of host and viral proteins in response to cysteine-reactive electrophilic compounds</strong> -
<div>
Protein homeostasis is tightly regulated, with damaged or misfolded proteins quickly eliminated by the proteasome and autophagosome pathways. By co-opting these processes, targeted protein degradation technologies enable pharmacological manipulation of protein abundance. Recently, cysteine-reactive molecules have been added to the degrader toolbox, which offer the benefit of unlocking the therapeutic potential of undruggable protein targets. The proteome-wide impact of these molecules remains to be fully understood and given the general reactivity of many classes of cysteine-reactive electrophiles, on- and off-target effects are likely. Using chemical proteomics, we identified a cysteine-reactive small molecule degrader of the SARS-CoV-2 non-structural protein 14 (nsp14), which effects degradation through direct modification of cysteines in both nsp14 and in host chaperones together with activation of global cell stress response pathways. We find that cysteine-reactive electrophiles increase global protein ubiquitylation, trigger proteasome activation, and result in widespread aggregation and depletion of host proteins, including components of the nuclear pore complex. Formation of stress granules was also found to be a remarkably ubiquitous cellular response to nearly all cysteine-reactive compounds and degraders. Collectively, our study sheds light on complexities of covalent target protein degradation and highlights untapped opportunities in manipulating and characterizing proteostasis processes via deciphering the cysteine-centric regulation of stress response pathways.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.30.564067v1" target="_blank">Pervasive aggregation and depletion of host and viral proteins in response to cysteine-reactive electrophilic compounds</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Stability of DNA-Methylation Profiles of Biological Aging in Children and Adolescents</strong> -
<div>
Background and Objectives. Methylation profile scores (MPSs) index biological aging and aging-related disease in adults and are cross-sectionally associated with social determinants of health in childhood. MPSs thus provide an opportunity to trace how aging-related biology responds to environmental changes in early life. Information regarding the stability of MPSs in early life is currently lacking. Method. We use longitudinal data from children and adolescents ages 8-18 (N = 428, M age = 12.15 years) from the Texas Twin Project. Participants contributed two waves of salivary DNA-methylation data (mean lag = 3.94 years), which were used to construct four MPSs reflecting multi-system physiological decline and mortality risk (PhenoAgeAccel and GrimAgeAccel), pace of biological aging (DunedinPACE), and cognitive function (Epigenetic-g). Furthermore, we exploit variation among participants in whether they were exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic during the course of study participation, in order to test how a historical period characterized by environmental disruption might affect children's aging-related MPSs. Results. All MPSs showed moderate longitudinal stability (test-retest rs = 0.42, 0.44, 0.46, 0.51 for PhenoAgeAccel, GrimAgeAccel, and Epigenetic-g, and DunedinPACE, respectively). No differences in the stability of MPSs were apparent between those whose second assessment took place after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic vs. those for whom both assessments took place prior to the pandemic. Conclusions. Aging-related DNA-methylation patterns are less stable in childhood than has been previously observed in adulthood. Further developmental research on the methylome is necessary to understand which environmental perturbations in childhood impact trajectories of biological aging and when children are most sensitive to those impacts.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.30.564766v1" target="_blank">Stability of DNA-Methylation Profiles of Biological Aging in Children and Adolescents</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Incorporation of 5 methylcytidine alleviates innate immune response to self-amplifying RNA vaccine</strong> -
<div>
In order to improve vaccine effectiveness and safety profile of existing synthetic RNA-based vaccines, we have developed a self-amplifying RNA (saRNA)-based vaccine expressing membrane-anchored receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 S protein (S-RBD) and have demonstrated that a minimal dose of this saRNA vaccine elicits robust immune responses. Results from a recent clinical trial with 5-methylcytidine (5mC) incorporating saRNA vaccine demonstrated reduced vaccine-induced adverse effects while maintaining robust humoral responses. In this study, we investigate the mechanisms accounting for induction of efficient innate and adaptive immune responses and attenuated adverse effects induced by the 5mC-incorporated saRNA. We show that the 5mC-incorporating saRNA platform leads to prolonged and robust expression of antigen, while induction of type-I interferon (IFN-I), a key driver of reactogenicity, is attenuated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), but not in macrophages and dendritic cells. Interestingly, we find that the major cellular source of IFN-I production in PBMCs is plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), which is attenuated upon 5mC incorporation in saRNA. In addition, we demonstrate that monocytes also play an important role in amplifying proinflammatory responses. Furthermore, we show that the detection of saRNA is mediated by a host cytosolic RNA sensor, RIG-I. Importantly, 5mC-incorporating saRNA vaccine candidate produced robust IgG responses against S-RBD upon injection in mice, thus providing strong support for the potential clinical use of 5mC-incorporating saRNA vaccines.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.01.565056v1" target="_blank">Incorporation of 5 methylcytidine alleviates innate immune response to self-amplifying RNA vaccine</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 spike protein induces the cytokine release syndrome by stimulating T cells to produce more IL-2</strong> -
<div>
Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is one of the leading causes of mortality in COVID-19 patients caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. However, the mechanism of CRS induced by SARS-CoV-2 is vague. This study shows that dendritic cells loaded with spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 stimulate T cells to release much more IL-2, which subsequently cooperates with spike protein to facilitate peripheral blood mononuclear cells to release IL-1{beta}, IL-6, and IL-8. These effects are achieved via IL-2 stimulation of NK cells to release TNF- and IFN-{gamma}, as well as T cells to release IFN-{gamma}. Mechanistically, IFN-{gamma} and TNF- enhance the transcription of CD40, and the interaction of CD40 and its ligand stabilizes the membrane expression of TLR4 which serves as a receptor of spike protein on the surface of monocytes. As a result, there is a constant interaction between spike protein and TLR4, leading to continuous activation of NF-{kappa}B. Furthermore, TNF- also activates NF-{kappa}B signaling in monocytes, which further cooperates with IFN-{gamma} and spike protein to modulate NF-{kappa}B-dependent transcription of CRS-related inflammatory cytokines. Targeting TNF-/IFN-{gamma} in combination with TLR4 may represent a promising therapeutic approach for alleviating CRS in individuals with COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.01.565098v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 spike protein induces the cytokine release syndrome by stimulating T cells to produce more IL-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Assessment of The Broad-Spectrum Host Targeting Antiviral Efficacy of Halofuginone Hydrobromide in Human Airway, Intestinal and Brain Organoid Models.</strong> -
<div>
Halofuginone hydrobromide has shown potent antiviral efficacy against some viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, Dengue virus or Chikungunya, and has therefore been hypothesized to have antiviral activity against other viruses. In this paper, we aimed to test the broad-spectrum antiviral activity of Halofuginone hydrobomide against relevant viruses from different families (Picornaviridae, Herpesviridae, Orthomyxoviridae, Coronaviridae, and Flaviviridae). To this end we used relevant human models of the airway and intestinal epithelium and regionalised neural organoids. The drug only showed antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in the airway epithelium with no toxicity at equivalent concentrations used in human clinical trials.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.01.565121v1" target="_blank">Assessment of The Broad-Spectrum Host Targeting Antiviral Efficacy of Halofuginone Hydrobromide in Human Airway, Intestinal and Brain Organoid Models.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Performance of A Point-of-care Fluorescence Immunoassay Test to measure anti Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 Spike, Receptor Binding Domain Antibody Level</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Quantitative determination of anti SARSCoV2 S RBD is necessary for the evaluation of vaccination effectiveness. Surrogate viral neutralization test (SVNT) is approved for measuring anti SARSCoV2 S RBD, but a point of care platform is needed to simplify anti SARS CoV 2 S RBD measurement. We aimed to evaluate the performance of a rapid fluorescent immunoassay-based kit, FastBio RBDtm, compared to SVNT. During April to September 2021, we enrolled two groups of subjects; convalescent subject and subject without COVID 19 history. Subjects were tested for anti SARS CoV2 S RBD antibody using FastBio RBDtm and GenScript cPASStm SVNT. We measured the correlation coefficient and conducted ROC analysis to determine the best cut-off value of anti SARS CoV 2 S RBD against SVNT percent inhibition levels of 30% and 60%. We included 109 subjects. Anti-SARS CoV 2 S RBD strongly correlated to SVNT % inhibition with R value = 0,866 (p &lt; 0,0001). ROC analysis showed that anti SARS CoV 2 S RBD of 6,71 AU/mL had 95,7% sensitivity and 87,5% specificity to detect percentage inhibition of 30%. Anti SARS CoV 2 S RBD of 59,76 AU/mL had a sensitivity of 88,1% and specificity of 97,0% to detect percentage inhibition of 60%. FastBio RBDtm can determine the presence and level of anti SARS CoV 2 S RBD with good sensitivity and specificity. It has the potential to be deployed in health facilities with limited resources.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.01.23297911v1" target="_blank">Performance of A Point-of-care Fluorescence Immunoassay Test to measure anti Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 Spike, Receptor Binding Domain Antibody Level</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Equity and efficiency in global respiratory virus genomic surveillance</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Public health interventions for respiratory virus outbreaks increasingly rely on genomic sequencing for the rapid identification of new (variant) viruses. However, global sequencing efforts are unevenly distributed, with some high-income countries sequencing at &gt;100,000 times the rate of many low-income countries. Given the importance of virus genomic sequencing and substantial global disparities in sequencing capacities, there is a need for meaningful minimum sequencing targets and functional upper bounds that maximise resource efficiency. Here, using mathematical models and analyses of data on global SARS-CoV-2 sequencing output in 2022, we show that increases in sequencing rates typical of low-income countries are &gt;100-fold more effective at reducing time to detection of new variants than increases from rates typical of high-income countries. We find that relative to 2022 sequencing rates, establishing a minimum respiratory virus sequencing capacity of two sequences per million people per week (S/M/wk) with a two-week time from sample collection to sequence deposition in all countries, while simultaneously capping sequencing rates at 30 S/M/wk in all countries, could reduce mean time to first variant detection globally by weeks-to-months while also reducing global sequencing output by &gt;60%. Our results show that investing in a minimum global respiratory virus sequencing capacity is far more effective at improving variant surveillance than expanding local sequencing efforts in countries with existing high-intensity respiratory virus surveillance programs and can guide rightsizing of global respiratory virus genomic surveillance infrastructure.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.01.23297901v1" target="_blank">Equity and efficiency in global respiratory virus genomic surveillance</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Insights From a Generation: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Young Adults’ Mental Health and Beyond</strong> -
<div>
Purpose: Initial discussions about the COVID-19 pandemic often overlooked its impact on young adults. Our research aimed to explore how this group experienced the pandemic, and specifically how it affected their mental health, relationships, and careers. Methods: Data collection involved the use of in-depth semi-structured interviews. Using a pre-determined sampling frame, we purposively recruited 30 participants based on age, gender, ethnicity, and deprivation from the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network (NSPN). The NSPN cohort, established in 2012, consists of 2403 young people aged 14 to 24 at baseline, recruited from Greater London and Cambridgeshire. Interviews were conducted in Autumn 2022; data were analysed using the framework method. Results: Participants were on average 28 years old (SD = 3 years, range 24-34 years; 53.3% female). The sample comprised individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds, with 40% from non-White ethnic groups. Participants’ perceptions regarding their mental health during the pandemic were organised across five domains including general impact, impact on social networks and dynamics, coping strategies, adaptation and personal growth, and work and education. Conclusion: Young adults reported experiencing profound personal growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, re-evaluating their mental health and career priorities. However, the pandemic also caused substantial disruptions, with many returning to their parents’ homes, facing career challenges, and lacking mental health support. Policy changes are needed to address these issues in the post-pandemic landscape.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/84yv7/" target="_blank">Insights From a Generation: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Young Adults’ Mental Health and Beyond</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The correlation between conspiracy mentality and vaccine intentions is moderated by social events: Evidence from longitudinal data during COVID-19 pandemic in the UK</strong> -
<div>
Social events may provide important cues that influence the sense of reality, including the perception that conspiracy theories are plausible. Using longitudinal panel data collected in the UK from March 2020 to December 2021, this study aims to identify whether social events influenced the strength of the association between conspiracy mentality and vaccine intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consistent with previous research, the conspiracy mentality was a significant predictor of vaccine intentions across three-time points, but also that conspiracy mentality at previous points predicted that participants were more hesitant to the vaccines in the following time points. The primary finding was that different social events moderated the strength of the correlation between conspiracy mentality and vaccine intentions within similar participants. Conspiracy mentality became more vital to evaluate COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020, when the vaccination program was about to commence.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5wcnz/" target="_blank">The correlation between conspiracy mentality and vaccine intentions is moderated by social events: Evidence from longitudinal data during COVID-19 pandemic in the UK</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Metagenomic sequencing detects human respiratory and enteric viruses in air samples collected from congregate settings.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Innovative methods for evaluating virus risk and spread, independent of test-seeking behavior, are needed to improve routine public health surveillance, outbreak response, and pandemic preparedness. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental surveillance strategies, including wastewater and air sampling, have been used alongside widespread individual-based SARS-CoV-2 testing programs to provide population-level data. These environmental surveillance strategies have predominantly relied on pathogen-specific detection methods to monitor viruses through space and time. However, this provides a limited picture of the virome present in an environmental sample, leaving us blind to most circulating viruses. In this study, we explore whether pathogen-agnostic deep sequencing can expand the utility of air sampling to detect many human viruses. We show that sequence-independent single-primer amplification sequencing of nucleic acids from air samples can detect common and unexpected human respiratory and enteric viruses, including influenza virus type A and C, respiratory syncytial virus, human coronaviruses, rhinovirus, SARS-CoV-2, rotavirus, mamastrovirus, and astrovirus.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.28.23290648v2" target="_blank">Metagenomic sequencing detects human respiratory and enteric viruses in air samples collected from congregate settings.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Motivational and behavioral mechanisms underlying generalized health risking behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in smokers</strong> -
<div>
Under the threat of public health challenges such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic, individual citizens’ active and cooperative participation in precautionary measures is crucial. Although non-compliance is recognized as a recurring problem, it remains unknown why some individuals tend to comply less than others and whether violations of preventive behaviors are observed consistently across different public health issues. To test our hypothesis that individuals would show consistent public health behavior transcending domains, we collected self-reports from two independent samples of participants (total N =2,983) on health risk beliefs and behavioral choices. Participants’ responses were collected in regard to two separate yet closely related public health issues: smoking and the COVID-19 pandemic. Our data reveal that on average, individuals’ beliefs and behaviors are consistent across different public health domains. In particular, smokers showed diminished compliance behaviors during the pandemic, which was mediated by their lower motives to protect public health. These results provide a psychological mechanism of how individuals’ health risk behaviors are generalized across different public health domains that may explain why some individuals (here, current-smokers) are more prone to violate public health behaviors.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/tkfzx/" target="_blank">Motivational and behavioral mechanisms underlying generalized health risking behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in smokers</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Unequal but Balanced: Highly educated mothers’ perceptions of work-life balance during the COVID-19 lockdown in Finland and the Netherlands</strong> -
<div>
One year after passage of the European work-life balance directive, and thus recognition of the need for policy support, measures to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic are shaping parents’ work-life balance in significant ways. Academically, we are challenged to explore whether existing theoretical frameworks hold in this new environment with combined old and new policy frameworks. We are also challenged to understand the nuanced ways in which the first lockdown affects the combination of paid work and care. We address both of these issues, providing a cross-sectional comparative analysis of highly educated mothers’ perceptions of work-life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland and the Netherlands. Our findings show that highly educated Finnish mothers have more difficulty combining work and care during the first lockdown than Dutch mothers. The absence of state-provided care during the lockdown creates greater difficulty for full-time working Finnish mothers in a dual-earner/state-carer system than an absence of such care in the Dutch one-and-a-half earner system, where most mothers work part-time. Further analyses suggest variation in part-time and (nearly) full-time hours mitigates the work-life balance experiences of highly educated Dutch mothers. We discuss these findings in light of current theoretical frameworks and highlight avenues for future research.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/652mh/" target="_blank">Unequal but Balanced: Highly educated mothers’ perceptions of work-life balance during the COVID-19 lockdown in Finland and the Netherlands</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pilot Randomized Study of RD-X19 Tx Device in Subjects With PCC (Long Covid) in the Outpatient Setting</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post COVID-19 Condition (PCC) <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: RDX-19 <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: KNOWBio Inc.; NAMSA <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CPAP Therapy Through a Helmet or an Oronasal Mask in Patients With Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure: Cross-over Study</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Pneumonia, Bacterial; Respiratory Failure; COVID-19 Pneumonia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: Arterial blood gases; Diagnostic Test: Respiratory rate (RR); Diagnostic Test: Pulseoximeter; Diagnostic Test: Assessment of accessory respiratory muscles work; Diagnostic Test: Esophageal pressure measurement; Diagnostic Test: Discomfort Visual Analog Scale (VAS); Diagnostic Test: Noninvasive blood pressure; Diagnostic Test: Heart rate <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PhaseⅡ Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Vaccine( ZSVG-02-O)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (ZSVG-02-O); Biological: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (ZSVG-02-O); Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell) ,Inactivated <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: CNBG-Virogin Biotech (Shanghai) Ltd. <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Investigation of Efficacy and Safety of Electrical Signal Therapy Provided by Dr Biolyse® Device in COVID-19 Disease</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pneumonia; Virus Diseases; COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Signal Therapy provided by Dr.Biolyse device; Other: Liquid Support Treatment <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: AVB Biotechnology <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PhaseⅠ Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Vaccine( ZSVG-02-O)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (ZSVG-02-O); Biological: Placebo; Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell) ,Inactivated <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: CNBG-Virogin Biotech (Shanghai) Ltd.; Shulan (Hangzhou) Hospital <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SAFE Workplace Intervention for People With IDD</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Developement of Infectious Airborne Disease Prevention Workplace Curriclulm <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: SAFE Employment Training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Temple University; National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effects of an EMDR Intervention on Traumatic and Obsessive Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Adult ALL; Post-traumatic Stress Disorder; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Disgust; Guilt; Shame <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: EMDR <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Pisa <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lithium Long COVID Dose-finding Study</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Dietary Supplement: Lithium <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: State University of New York at Buffalo <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pharmacokinetics and Safety of GST-HG171 Tablets in Subjects With Impaired and Normal Renal Function</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pneumonia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: GST-HG171 Tablets <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Fujian Akeylink Biotechnology Co., Ltd. <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Preoperative Educational Videos on Maternal Stress Whose Children Received Congenital Heart Disease Surgery: During COVID-19 Panic</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Educational Videos; Maternal; Uncertainty; Anxiety; Depression; Congenital Heart Disease; Children <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Preoperative educational videos plus routine education; Other: Preoperative routine education <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Chung Shan Medical University <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pharmacokinetics and Safety of GST-HG171 Tablets in Subjects With Impaired and Normal Liver Function</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pneumonia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: GST-HG171 Tablets <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Fujian Akeylink Biotechnology Co., Ltd. <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of Concordance Between Exhaled Air Test (eBAM-CoV) and RT-PCR to Detect SARS-CoV-2</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2 Infection; COVID-19; Coronavirus <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: eBAM Cov Testing <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nīmes; University of Nimes; brains’ laboratory sas, FRANCE <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Safety, Tolerability and Immunogenicity of EG-COVII in Healthy Adult</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: EG-COVII <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: EyeGene 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>Pharmacokinetics and Bioequivalence of Aterixen 100 mg Tablets and Aterixen 100 mg Film-coated Tablets in Healthy Volunteers</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Viral Infection COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Aterixen <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Valenta Pharm JSC <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 Practical RCT of TCM in the Treatment of LCOVID and Analysis of Syndrome Types and Medication Characteristics.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Traditional Chinese medicine treatment; Drug: Western medicine treatment <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Chinese University of Hong Kong <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>Surface enhanced Raman scattering investigation of tecovirimat on silver, gold and platinum loaded silica nanocomposites: Theoretical analysis (DFT) and molecular modeling</strong> - As of today, there have been 612 million confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) around the world, with over 6 million fatalities. Tecovirimat (TPOXX) is an anti-viral drug, and it was the first drug approved for the treatment of anti-pox virus in the US. However, the effectiveness of this drug against COVID-19 has not yet been explored. Since TPOXX is an anti-viral drug, an attempt has been made to determine its ability to act as a COVID inhibitor. Recent medical advances have…</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>Plasma cell leukemia in a 34-year-old male: rare scenario case report</strong> - CONCLUSION: This report showcases a rare age presentation with unique manifestations of secondary plasma cell leukaemia. Multiple myeloma should be a differential diagnosis for cases with unexplained back pain despite an unclassical 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>Exploring Pharmacy Student Experiences with Student Debt and Perspectives on Future Burnout and Loan Relief</strong> - CONCLUSION: Pharmacy students burdened with debt described a variety of different experiences and attitudes toward that debt and provided their perspectives on how student debt influences short-term education and career decisions. While students accept the trade-off of debt for their education as an inevitable burden, reported coping mechanisms and strategies shared suggest some solutions may be available to ameliorate this burden.</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>Potential PDE4B inhibitors as promising candidates against SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an RNA virus belonging to the coronavirus family responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It primarily affects the pulmonary system, which is the target of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), for which many new compounds have been developed. In this study, phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitors are being investigated. The inhibition of PDE4 enzyme produces anti-inflammatory and bronchodilator effects in the lung…</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>Proteomic analyses of smear-positive/negative tuberculosis patients uncover differential antigen-presenting cell activation and lipid metabolism</strong> - CONCLUSION: Our study provides valuable insights into the differential molecular mechanisms underlying SNPT and SPPT, reveals the critical role of antigen-presenting cell activation in SNPT for effectively clearing the majority of Mtb in bodies, and shows the possibility of APC activation as a novel TB treatment strategy.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong><em>Antrodia cinnamomea</em> May Interfere with the Interaction Between ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein in vitro and Reduces Lung Inflammation in a Hamster Model of COVID-19</strong> - CONCLUSION: AC shows potential as a nutraceutical for reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection by disrupting the interaction between ACE2 and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and for preventing COVID-19-associated lung inflammation.</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>Computational Screening Using a Combination of Ligand-Based Machine Learning and Molecular Docking Methods for the Repurposing of Antivirals Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease</strong> - CONCLUSION: Results demonstrated the efficiency of LBVS combined with MD. This combined strategy provided positive evidence showing that the top screened drugs, including CCX-140, which had the lowest MD score, can be reasonably advanced to the in vitro phase. This combined method may accelerate the discovery of therapies for novel or orphan diseases from existing drugs.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Impact of influenza immunity on the mortality among older adults hospitalized with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study</strong> - It has been suggested that the outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are better in individuals having recently received an influenza vaccine than in non-vaccinated individuals. We hypothesized that this association depends on the humoral responses against influenza viruses. We aim to assess the relationship between the humoral immunity against influenza and the 3-month all-cause mortality among hospitalized older patients with COVID-19. We performed an exploratory retrospective study…</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>Superior anti-pulmonary viral potential of Natrialba sp. M6-producing surfactin and C50 carotenoid pigment with unveiling its action modes</strong> - CONCLUSION: This study declared the promising efficacy of Sur as an efficient pharmacological treatment option for these pulmonary viruses and considered as guide for further in vivo research.</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>Identifying the Potential of miRNAs in <em>Houttuynia cordata</em>-Derived Exosome-Like Nanoparticles Against Respiratory RNA Viruses</strong> - INTRODUCTION: Pathogenic respiratory RNA viruses, including influenza A virus (IAV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and SARS-CoV-2, are major causes of causes of acute respiratory infection globally. Plant-derived exosome-like nanoparticles containing miRNAs have shown substantial cross-kingdom regulatory effects on both viral and human transcripts. Houttuynia cordata (H. cordata), a traditional Chinese medicine frequently used to treat respiratory diseases. However, the role of H….</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>Hypercapnia increases ACE2 expression and pseudo-SARS-CoV-2 entry in bronchial epithelial cells by augmenting cellular cholesterol</strong> - Patients with chronic lung disease, obesity, and other co-morbid conditions are at increased risk of severe illness and death when infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Hypercapnia, the elevation of CO(2) in blood and tissue, commonly occurs in patients with severe acute and chronic lung disease, including those with pulmonary infections, and is also associated with high mortality risk. We previously reported that hypercapnia increases viral replication and…</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 and Immunological Impacts of Latent Toxoplasmosis on COVID-19 Patients</strong> - Background Parasites are well-known immune-modulators. They inhibit some aspects of the immune system to ensure persistence inside the host for a long time; meanwhile, they stimulate other immune aspects to assure the survival of the host. Wide variations in the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among developed and developing countries were reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parasitic infections, including Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), were claimed to contribute to such…</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>IgG antibody levels against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in mother-child dyads after COVID-19 vaccination</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 mRNA vaccines induce high anti-SARS-CoV-2 S titers in pregnant women, which can inhibit the binding of ACE2 to protein S and are efficiently transferred to the fetus. However, there was a rapid decrease in antibody levels at 2 to 3 months post-partum, particularly in infants.</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>Neurotoxic effects of chloroquine and its main transformation product formed after chlorination</strong> - Pharmaceutical transformation products (TPs) generated during wastewater treatment have become an environmental concern. However, there is limited understanding regarding the TPs produced from pharmaceuticals during wastewater treatment. In this study, chloroquine (CQ), which was extensively used for treating coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) infections during the pandemic, was selected for research. We identified and fractionated the main TP produced from CQ during chlorine disinfection and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Development of Pan-Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Agents through Allosteric Inhibition of nsp14/nsp10 Complex</strong> - SARS-CoV-2 nsp14 functions both as an exoribonuclease (ExoN) together with its critical cofactor nsp10 and as an S-adenosyl methionine-dependent (guanine-N7) methyltransferase (MTase), which makes it an attractive target for the development of pan-anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs. Herein, we screened a panel of compounds (and drugs) and found that certain compounds, especially Bi(III)-based compounds, could allosterically inhibit both MTase and ExoN activities of nsp14 potently. We further demonstrated…</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>Tim Scott’s Racial Absolution</strong> - The senator from South Carolina presents an early electoral victory—he became president of his high school, years after a “race riot”—as a tidy tale of prejudice overcome. Is that the full story? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/tim-scotts-racial-absolution">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Gaza-ification of the West Bank</strong> - As the war in Gaza escalates, so, too, has the forcible displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. Is Israel’s approach to the two regions linked? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-gaza-ification-of-the-west-bank">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Smoking Gun for Biden’s Big Climate Decision?</strong> - A new analysis suggests that L.N.G. exports may well be worse for the environment than burning coal. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-smoking-gun-for-bidens-big-climate-decision">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Israel Is Splitting the Democrats</strong> - The Democratic coalition once seemed united in its staunch, unquestioning support for the country. Today, that consensus seems to be cracking. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/how-israel-is-splitting-the-democrats">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The $1.8-Billion Lawsuit Over a Teacher Test</strong> - In the nineties, New York began requiring aspiring educators to take an exam. Thousands of people later claimed that the test was racially biased. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/the-teachers-who-oppose-tests">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>America’s shoplifting problem, explained by retail workers and thieves</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="An animated illustration shows items going missing throughout the shelves of a pharmacy." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/f7P1QfoQdtz71yqEjEZFRqq2ETA=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72820410/BigSqueeze_PaigeVickers_11_1.0.gif"/>
<figcaption>
Paige Vickers/Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Retailers would rather complain about shoplifting than invest in fighting it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZEWyee">
Jonathan wants me to guess how often retail workers see someone steal. It’s a challenge he likes to make to friends, who always underestimate it. “It’s multiple times a day, maybe as often as once an hour. And that’s the stuff you can see, like the really blatant ones,” he says. “A lot of people picture a scared kid with a candy bar under their jacket, and you get that, but the majority of it is seasoned shoplifters going out with carts full of beer and liquor and hygiene products and electronics and laundry detergent, etc.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JzRcaP">
He recently quit his job at a major retail pharmacy chain over the issue. (Jonathan is not his real name, and he spoke with me on the condition that he be granted anonymity and the company not publicly named. All of the workers I spoke to for this story were given pseudonyms and/or anonymity.) His frustration isn’t so much with the thieves, per se, but instead with how his former company has dealt with them.
</p>
<aside id="tVL0yV">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nzxlMH">
Corporate ignored employees’ requests to <a href="https://sfist.com/2016/10/28/why_are_sf_safeways_suddenly_puttin/">put booze in locked cases</a> because the liquor aisle is an area of the store that attracts some especially “sketchy” characters. It also blew them off when they warned of camera blind spots that shoplifters were aware of. “The company didn’t really seem that interested in solving the problem, they seemed more interested in, I don’t know, complaining,” he says. The cops weren’t much help, either. They’d show up hours after being called and ask whether the perpetrators were still there (they obviously weren’t) and which way they’d gone (what does it matter if it was six hours ago?).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KiipDs">
<a href="https://www.curbed.com/article/walgreens-duane-reade-cvs-rite-aide-nyc-shoplifting-new-liberty-loans.html">Retail theft is a problem</a>, albeit one that can be difficult to unpack. Some people overstate the spike in shoplifting, others underplay it. Part of the matter is there just <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/02/27/shoplifting-retail-theft-lawmakers-response">isn’t great data</a> out there on what’s going on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M6cvmA">
Figuring out what to do about it all was above Jonathan’s pay grade. He’s got some ideas, like increasing staffing and, really, locking up the liquor, which would mean more work for employees but would also have increased safety. But these solutions would all cost money the company was apparently not willing to dole out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ibi31f">
I interviewed more than a dozen workers in retail and loss prevention — and two retail thieves — about what the country’s supposed shoplifting epidemic looks and feels like on the ground. In conversation after conversation, one thing became clear: While many corporations are frustrated by retail theft, they’re not doing enough to try to solve it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1yqyd1">
As David Rey, the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Larceny-34th-Street-Depth-Professional/dp/163867048X"><em>Larceny on 34th Street: An In-Depth Look at Professional Shoplifting in One of the World’s Largest Stores – A Memoir</em></a>, explained to Vox in an interview, “Most retailers really don’t spend [money] when it comes to asset protection, when it comes to the resources needed to protect themselves from shoplifting … because there’s no return on the investment.”
</p>
<h3 id="JzNELY">
Slowing down stealing isn’t free
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JebE1D">
Some amount of shoplifting is always going to happen. “Shrink” — retail-speak for missing inventory that may have been stolen by outside parties or its own workers, damaged, or just plain lost — is inevitable. <a href="https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/retail-crime-accounted-over-112-billion-industry-losses-2022-according">According to the National Retail Federation</a>, the average shrink rate increased from 1.4 percent in 2021 to 1.6 percent in 2022. Taken as a percentage of sales, that translates to an increase from $93.9 billion to $112.1 billion in losses. That’s a big number — it’s also one that companies could take more steps to bring down, workers say.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="zcI0D0">
<q>“All these companies that are screaming about theft, they’re kind of complicit in it because they keep reducing staff”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MqDt3L">
Last year, the Walmart that Riley worked at outside of Baltimore was well above the NRF average. It lost nearly 3 percent in sales to shrink — he says it’s a number that wouldn’t have been acceptable a few years ago but is now par for the course. Still, Riley, who worked in asset protection, says there are plenty of steps the company could have taken to make things better that it just didn’t, like hiring and retaining more associates. “If they had better sales coverage, a lot of this stuff wouldn’t happen, or if they didn’t have such high turnover,” he says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gx1vDK">
He recalls watching a security video of a man cutting into a merchandise case, looking around as he committed the crime and seemingly noticing there was nobody in the department around to see him. He says new cashiers often fall for <a href="https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/bbb-warns-of-cash-cash-scam-while-holiday-shopping/">scams with gift cards</a> at the register because they haven’t been properly trained, and self-checkout aisles go woefully underwatched because the store doesn’t have the labor budget to staff them. “Walmart’s really going heavy on the technology side of it right now, but all the upgraded tracking systems and computers in the world can’t make as much of a difference as having somebody actually in each aisle, or even in each department,” he says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="chCNCo">
One former manager at Ulta Beauty in Illinois recalled seeing the same handful of men coming into the store over and over, loading up on fragrances, and walking out the door. It spooked workers and customers alike. Reporting the thefts, doing inventory, and restocking added to her workload, not to mention the extra time on talking to police and even going to court. Having a security guard at the door — even if the guard couldn’t really do anything — did make some difference, but the company wasn’t always willing to pay for it. The same goes for extra payroll. “It was just a cycle,” she says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Iqc0nO">
A worker at OfficeMax says she finds empty ink cartridge packages lying around almost every shift, their contents having been lifted. She and her coworkers get lectured over it, but what are they supposed to do? She can’t go past aisle 5 while still keeping an eye on the register. “We’re stretched so thin,” she says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rhCnlI">
“All these companies that are screaming about theft, they’re kind of complicit in it because they keep reducing staff,” says Steven Rowland, the host of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retail-warzone/id1553717583"><em>The Retail Warzone</em></a><em> </em>podcast and a former retail store manager. “From an hourly standpoint, a lot of these folks feel like they’re not paid enough to care anyway. And then you have store managers who are bleeding out, basically, because they have a lack of payroll, they don’t have enough staff just to get their basic functions done.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N8LhGE">
Nobody wants retail workers to be acting as vigilantes — indeed, employers actively encourage them not to be, as situations can turn dangerous and even deadly. In mid-October, a GameStop employee shot and killed a man who <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gamestop-florida-shoplifter-shot-killed-af99584d03a525724892cec8fb4e499b">attempted to steal</a> five boxes of Pokemon cards. Months earlier in April, a shoplifter <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/home-depot-employee-killed-shoplifter-pleasanton-california/">shot and killed a Home Depot employee</a> who tried to stop her.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9BLEl9">
Mark, a loss prevention specialist who has worked for companies such as Walmart, Lowe’s, and Home Depot, says sometimes the issue is firms aren’t even sure what exactly they want to focus on. “Are you guys focused on theft? Or are you guys focused on shrink? Because there’s a big difference between the two,” he says. “One is more glamorous and more showy, while the other, focusing on shrink, you’re attacking your business model and your operational spend.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QdrNxc">
Companies can be quick to blame shrink on external theft, but it might be employees who are stealing, or merchandise that’s lost in transit. Say it’s a hardware store and 10 $400 leaf blowers are supposed to come in a pallet and nine show up, or one is a $200 model but nobody checks. “It’s extra time and extra money to look into something like that,” he says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pd55Q3">
It’s difficult to estimate exactly how much it would cost companies to really go after the shoplifting problem. Many retailers <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-09-26/retail-theft-2022-112-billion-losses#:~:text=Many%20retailers%20who%20participated%20in,to%20support%20their%20risk%20efforts.%E2%80%9D">say that they are spending more to combat retail theft</a> than they have in the past. In its <a href="https://ir.homedepot.com/~/media/Files/H/HomeDepot-IR/2023/2022_HD%20Annual%20Report.pdf">2022 annual report</a>, Home Depot made note that combating shrink and theft and keeping stores safe requires “operational changes” that could increase costs and make the store experience worse for customers and associates alike. (Nobody likes the whole unlock-the-box-to-buy song and dance.)
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="n8yb2W">
<q>“Loss prevention, in and of itself, does not bring any profits”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ktliFg">
It’s not even clear exactly how much money is being spent to fight theft right now, explains Jeff Prusan, a security and loss prevention consultant to the retail industry. Retailers don’t generally disclose the data, payroll increases vary by retailer and job purpose (employee versus loss prevention specialist versus private security guard), and the amortization of long-term security solutions, such as cameras and alarms, can be complicated to factor in. “There are so many variables in these situations that it is difficult to quantify,” he says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OQfTZZ">
There’s no strong consensus about what would really work, investment-wise. And loss prevention doesn’t bring in revenue, it’s just an expense. “Corporate offices want to see profit. Marketing brings profits, the buyers bring in profits. Loss prevention, in and of itself, does not bring any profits. We just try to deter loss,” says one loss prevention agent who works at a corporate office for a national retailer. “Loss prevention, typically, is the most underfunded department of any company.”
</p>
<h3 id="WzIxWL">
The financial incentives around retail theft make it a toughie
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qh0sJX">
I’m not going to litigate the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/12/shoplifting-holiday-theft-panic/621108/">size and scope</a> of shoplifting in America, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/u649kn/who_cares_if_someone_is_shoplifting_essentials/">offer opinions</a> over whether it’s really a “victimless” crime to steal makeup from a multibillion-dollar corporation, or question if retailers are <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/is-target-really-closing-a-new-york-store-over-shoplifting.html">overplaying their hands</a> by blaming so many of their problems on shoplifting. I’m not getting into public policy questions, either, on whether <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/facts-bail-reform-and-crime-rates-new-york-state">bail reform</a> or <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2017/04/the-effects-of-changing-felony-theft-thresholds">the amount at which a state considers theft a felony</a> impacts shoplifting rates. But I do think it’s important to acknowledge that this is a tough nut to crack. At the core of retail theft are all sorts of financial incentives on multiple sides that contribute to the problem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ICrqk">
Companies can and do try to crack down on theft by locking items up, but unless they really have enough workers to unlock everything, it’s a pickle, business-wise, not to mention an annoyance for customers. “Lock up your whole store and you’ll never lose anything. You’ll also never sell anything,” says Joshua Jacobson, a loss prevention professional in California. “Sales are more important to a company than shopping theft.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wyy0lt">
Organized retail crime operations made up of boosters — people who steal the goods — and fences — those who purchase or receive and resell the merchandise — do actually exist, and they are difficult to combat. Stores and police departments can and do build up cases against them and <a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/14-facing-charges-in-20-million-retail-theft-ring-busted-in-miami-dade/3139916/">make</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/15/nyregion/shoplifting-arrests-nyc.html">arrests</a>, but it can be a bit of a game of whack-a-mole.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bRQxbk">
Most workers say that even when they catch boosters in the act, they blow right past them, and they’re often not allowed to say anything at all for safety reasons. That includes security staff, many of whom aren’t permitted to make physical contact with thieves (some say they want to be allowed to be “hands on,” though you can see where this could start to become a problem on multiple fronts, from liability to safety). Stolen products wind up sold in the open on the street or online on <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/17/the-fight-against-stolen-products-on-amazon-and-facebook-marketplace.html">platforms like Amazon and Facebook</a>. In June, the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/INFORMAct">INFORM Consumers Act</a> became law at the federal level, which requires online marketplaces to verify and disclose information on “high-volume third-party sellers” in an attempt to crack down on organized retail crime. It’s not yet clear how much of an impact it’s making.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zKXXJB">
I found someone on <a href="https://www.vox.com/facebook">Facebook</a> Marketplace recently selling deodorant and a variety of hygiene products in Brooklyn for well under the price I’d find at a store. When I asked where they got them from, they replied, “On clearance.” I have my doubts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L0oBVp">
One former booster told me he got into retail theft on a “massive scale” to support a drug habit. (He’s now been sober for over three months and has a regular job.) He described going to Home Depot and Lowe’s dressed relatively nicely — with a collared shirt, maybe a Bluetooth piece in his ear — and asking workers to get him generators or tools down from shelves. He’d put them on a cart, walk out the door, sometimes with a manufactured receipt in his hand, and get into an <a href="https://www.vox.com/uber">Uber</a> or <a href="https://www.vox.com/lyft">Lyft</a> he’d ordered. “The times I was stopped, I never would acknowledge the fact that I’d just been caught,” he says. “If it’s already on the cart, I’m committed.” He’d then sell the items to a local pawnbroker or even to a foreman on a construction site. They had to have figured out what he was up to, handing over a brand-new generator for a fraction of the cost, but they didn’t ask. “They’ve got to be pretty stupid not to know.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="yovGAX">
<q>“People aren’t going to ask, ‘How did you get this? Is this stolen?’”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x2tGQX">
Asked whether he thought there was anything that would have stopped him, he says maybe customer service — where retail employees approach and sort of ask what’s up, if someone needs help, even acknowledge what’s going on — might have been a deterrent. He also notes the undercover loss-prevention people were often easy to spot, walking around aisles endlessly and picking up random items at random. “I go with my gut a lot,” he says. “At that point, I feel like they might know that I’m up to something and I’m not going to do it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GwdJiq">
Another booster in Hawaii described getting “orders” from fencing operations for a variety of items — Tide pods, baby formula, Spam. She and a friend stole Christmas lights for a woman who worked at a local clinic. After they dropped them off and were paid, the woman told them her coworkers had orders for them, too. “People aren’t going to ask, ‘How did you get this? Is this stolen?’” she says. “It’s a don’t ask, don’t tell kind of thing. They know it’s stolen, but it’s a better deal.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OApyGP">
Shoplifting isn’t her favorite — it’s a high risk for small amounts of money — but it’s something she’s done when she needs to for cash. (She told me her “passion” is credit card fraud.) As to what might stop her, it’s a hard question to answer. “People are going to do what they want to do regardless,” she says. She tries not to take anything from mom-and-pop stores, only big chain retailers. The Ross in her area regularly throws out a lot of its inventory in dumpsters behind the store to replace it with new. “We could wait until stuff goes in the dumpster, but why?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qce8NY">
“The professionals, unfortunately, are rarely deterred, and the biggest deterrent to them is having off-duty law enforcement, which is very expensive,” says Prusan, the security and loss prevention consultant. “You can’t catch everybody, no matter who you are.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DpqVNF">
In certain progressive circles, there can be a bit of a “who cares” attitude around retail theft, especially when it hits big companies like Walmart and Home Depot. There’s also often skepticism about just how much stuff is being shoplifted, an assumption that companies are overstating the losses. Target <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/is-target-really-closing-a-new-york-store-over-shoplifting.html">recently blamed theft</a> for its decision to close multiple locations even as other locations opened. While there may be some exaggeration (Walgreens has admitted it maybe “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shoplifting-retail/index.html">cried too much</a>” over retail theft), publicly traded companies get into trouble when they lie to investors, so they’re probably not making this all up.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6PBFqY">
Most of the workers I spoke to weren’t agonizing over their employers losing merchandise to theft, but they weren’t unbothered by its effects. They wondered about hours and staffing being cut even further to try to make up for losses. They worried about their safety. They figured some of what’s going on may eventually lead to higher prices. They often asked why their companies weren’t at least trying to do more about it — having someone at the door, more people on the floor, just listening to their feedback — even if that was going to cost them a little more.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AIJOev">
One night, Jonathan, who worked at the retail pharmacy chain, was about to close with just one other worker on staff when a man walked in with a gun. The guy told them to empty the store’s safe — he wasn’t interested in their personal belongings — and at one point suggested Jonathan check on his coworker to make sure she was okay. “That kind of stuck with me,” he says, “because the robber actually showed more concern for our well-being than my manager or the police did.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5G5qzT">
<em>We live in a world that’s constantly trying to sucker us and trick us, where we’re always surrounded by scams big and small. It can feel impossible to navigate. Each month, join Emily Stewart to look at all the little ways our economic systems control and manipulate the average person. Welcome to </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-squeeze"><em><strong>The Big Squeeze</strong></em></a><em>.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NF25sR">
<a href="http://vox.com/big-squeeze-newsletter"><em><strong>Sign up to get this column in your inbox</strong></em></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fEmYHz">
<em>Have ideas for a future column or thoughts on this one? Email </em><a href="mailto:emily.stewart@vox.com"><em><strong>emily.stewart@vox.com</strong></em></a>.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The Gaza Strip blockade, explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4r2C6qkUgW-UwueOUNmnaabxEnY=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72818498/VDC_ATL_673_THUMB_SYN.0.jpg"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Why Palestinians in Gaza have suffered for decades. 
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ioJ3sk">
On October 7, <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a>, a militant group based in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza Strip</a>, launched a deadly attack on <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a>, killing more than 1,400 Israelis and kidnapping more than 200. In retaliation, Israeli airstrikes had killed more than 7,000 <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestinians</a> when this video was published on October 27, and thousands more have been killed since in Gaza, where Palestinians have lived for decades under an occupation and blockade.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zHk6NA">
Since 1967, Israel has imposed tight restrictions on travel and essential goods such as food, fuel, medicine, and water in its occupied territories. In 2007, those restrictions became even tighter in Gaza after Hamas seized power there. Since then, it has been nearly impossible for Palestinians to leave Gaza or to access an adequate supply of essential goods.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jHVORB">
Today, the Gaza Strip, with a population of over 2 million Palestinians, is a victim of what many call “collective punishment” as Israel bombards its population, shuts off access to the internet, power, food, water, and medicine, forces them to leave their homes, and prepares for a ground invasion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WLDKTk">
This latest episode of Vox Atlas explains how the experience of Palestinians in Gaza got to this point, and what’s behind Israel’s occupation and its blockade of Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9y9Ss4">
<strong>Sources and readings: </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pqSmMw">
Thank you for watching! We know we couldn’t cover everything about the Gaza Strip, this was just a start. Below are a few of sources and readings you might find helpful to learn more.
</p>
<ul>
<li id="TkI0HU">
<a href="https://features.gisha.org/gaza-up-close/">Gisha</a>, an Israeli nonprofit that works to protect freedom of movement for Palestinians, has done <a href="https://gisha.org/en/red-lines-presentation-new-details-about-the-old-policy-while-the-current-policy-remains-shrouded-in-secrecy/">so much research</a> on the closure of <a href="https://www.gisha.org/UserFiles/File/publications/Map2020/English2020.pdf">Gaza</a> and <a href="https://gisha.org/UserFiles/File/publications/separating-land-separating-people/separating-land-separating-people-web-en.pdf">how it impacts Palestinians</a> there.
</li>
<li id="qsNWW7">
Visualizing Palestine, a nonprofit that uses data and research to make visuals, and B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, have <a href="https://statistics.btselem.org/en/intro/fatalities">useful databases</a> that track <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VgCaY3l3jJrp0SQ3eKZ_86dfHvpSA4naYTP5RSvFJzk/edit#gid=0">fatalities over time</a> in the Gaza Strip, Israel, and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080034/west-bank-israel-palestinians">West Bank</a>.
</li>
<li id="fhcxAk">
This United Nations <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/documents/">document database</a> helped us understand infrastructural destruction in past conflicts with Israel.
</li>
<li id="aq3NXA">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2856775-the-biggest-prison-on-earth"><em>The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories</em></a> by Ilan Pappé, professor of history at the University of Exeter
</li>
<li id="W7TzQL">
<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine"><em>The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017</em></a> by Rashid Khalidi, professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University
</li>
<li id="QWAsey">
<a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1649448#:~:text=In%20the%20new%20expanded%20edition,known%20as%20Operation%20Protective%20Edge"><em>The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development</em></a> by Sara Roy, senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vhRFyE">
You can find the video above and the entire library of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA"><strong>Vox’s videos on YouTube</strong></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="64Qc9g">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The death toll from Gaza, explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Bodies in white bags lie on the ground while a crowd of men looks on." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/94jkCTdxEou2EqzxDMXZPYY1cOA=/158x0:2678x1890/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72817759/1744271045.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Dead bodies at the morgue of Nasser Hospital in Gaza on October 25, 2023. | Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Real-time fatality counts from conflict zones like Gaza are almost never right. Pay attention to them anyway.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kCsm4y">
At a press conference on October 25, <em>PBS Newshour</em> reporter Laura Barrón-López asked US President Joe Biden a stark question. More than 6,000 Palestinian deaths had been reported in Gaza since October 7, she said. Did this suggest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ignoring Biden’s message to avoid civilian deaths?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Qlmnt">
In his response, Biden <a href="https://www.wpbstv.org/watch-biden-casts-doubt-on-hamas-reported-death-toll/">questioned</a> whether the fatality numbers, which came from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, accurately captured the reality on the ground. “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” he said.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="wN7BjW">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UO98Q0">
Biden’s remarks were met with <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/biden-gaza-palestinian-deaths-hamas-rcna122407">intense</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/26/appalling-why-has-biden-cast-doubt-on-the-palestinian-death-count">anger</a> by some commentators who found them overly dismissive of death and suffering; others noted Biden’s own administration has been <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-gaza-death-toll-state-department_n_653a80f3e4b0783c4ba0491f?69t">relying on those figures internally</a> throughout and <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/israel-west-bank-and-gaza/west-bank-and-gaza/">before the conflict</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k64j8r">
Two days later, in an unusual move this early in a conflict and seemingly in response to Biden’s remarks, Gaza’s Ministry of Health released a <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/gaza-health-ministry-releases-detailed-list-7000-victims">list</a> containing the names and identity numbers of the nearly 7,000 people it says have died in the conflict so far.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0YwnxQ">
Historically, the Gaza Health Ministry’s figures have been found largely accurate. News organizations, human rights groups, and international governments and bodies (including the United Nations) cite them in the moment; and human rights groups that have worked to verify the ministry’s data in previous conflicts have found it generally reliable. Vox reports these figures, as it reports the Israeli government’s stated death tolls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j9FXCT">
For those occupying a grim corner at the intersection of political science and epidemiology, lists like these are just the beginning. “When we’re in the midst of something, it’s really, really hard to know” exactly how many have been killed, said <a href="https://www.katalog.uu.se/profile/?id=N8-1301">Therese Pettersson</a>, a senior analyst and research coordinator at the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), a Swedish organization that has been gathering and publishing verified data on conflict-related fatalities for 40 years and is seen as one of the world’s most reliable sources on these types of figures. “As time passes, information will become better.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YVZ2SN">
She says the reality is that in the early days of a conflict, fatality numbers are incredibly important, incredibly politically powerful — and, unfortunately, incredibly hard to get right. Gazan health officials, for example, have cautioned that death tolls will likely grow, given the number of people trapped under rubble.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ln6trV">
Pettersson and other experts in this space urge people to try to balance a few truths when it comes to fatality figures reported during conflicts: Early figures are often inaccurate, and can be exaggerated for political reasons. At the same time, they give us a crucial sense of the devastating scale of loss. In previous conflicts, for instance, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/explainer-gazas-ministry-health-calculate-wars-death-toll-104374157">the UN has found Gazan health officials’ toll accurate within 4 percentage points</a>. And while a more precise understanding of a violent conflict’s true death toll will emerge in time, one thing is already clear: There is widespread death and suffering in Gaza as a result of the bombardment and fighting.
</p>
<h3 id="cmLo9C">
Although the Gaza Health Ministry’s numbers may historically be reliable, experts still view them as preliminary
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bKZ7ft">
Biden didn’t explain why he questioned the Gaza Health Ministry’s estimate of the conflict’s death toll, although it’s possible his remarks were related to what happened after an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/gaza-hospital-explosion-misinformation-reporting/675719/">explosion at the al-Ahli Hospital</a> on October 17. Even if it was not directly related to Biden’s comments, the incident at least shows how easy — and consequential — it is to make erroneous estimates and attributions around deaths related to individual incidents in the midst of a war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yHEEzj">
In the hours following that event, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-war-biden-rafah-e062825a375d9eb62e95509cab95b80c">news</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/16/israel-hamas-war-live-iran-warns-resistance-front-may-attack">outlets</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/pageoneplus/editors-note-gaza-hospital-coverage.html">worldwide</a> reported that Israel was responsible for the blast and that it had killed more than 500 people, attributing the information to Gaza’s health ministry. But in a matter of hours, that became hotly disputed. Israel released new evidence alleging that an errant rocket from Hamas-aligned terrorist organization Palestine Islamic Jihad had caused the disaster. A rare <a href="https://twitter.com/NSC_Spox/status/1714654402118832440">US statement on intelligence-gathering</a> sided with Israel; in the days since, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/world/middleeast/gaza-hospital-israel-hamas-video.html">news organizations</a> have cast doubt on at least some of the evidence and continued to scrutinize the cause of the explosion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="INJ5vQ">
Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-has-high-confidence-palestinian-rocket-caused-gaza-hospital-blast-official-2023-10-25/">US estimates</a> — although low-confidence — suggested the death toll from the hospital explosion was between 100 and 300. The health ministry’s revised final death toll was 471. The episode has been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b31f1faf73c703400b033">cited as a potential outlier</a> in the health ministry’s general reliability.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G22hj5">
But as<strong> </strong>investigative journalist David Zweig reported in a recent edition of his <a href="https://www.silentlunch.net/p/did-the-entire-media-industry-misquote?utm_source=profile&amp;utm_medium=reader2">newsletter</a>, the “500 deaths” figure is actually a misquotation of the health ministry and the likely result of some mistranslated Arabic and a game of journalistic telephone.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ifj8ct">
This is all to say: There were a lot of sources of uncertainty during this incident.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nZ8Q6Z">
Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch, which has been monitoring human rights abuses in Gaza for three decades, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/26/can-we-trust-casualty-figures-from-the-hamas-run-gaza-health-ministry">the Guardian</a> the group has “generally found the data that comes out of the ministry of health to be reliable.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F2K8Jg">
As one of the parties involved in the conflict, Hamas would arguably be incentivized to claim a large number of civilian casualties due to Israeli strikes (more on that below). However, the group has less control over Gaza’s Ministry of Health than it does over political and security agencies in Gaza, according to an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b31f1faf73c703400b033">Associated Press report</a>. Health ministry employees come from a mix of factions, including Hamas but also the secular nationalist Fatah party, and some are independent. Hamas does not pay their salaries, nor, they say, does it influence the casualty figures they report.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jnd2qv">
Pettersson said that, historically, the UCDP has trusted Gazan authorities — “but we have also been able to verify their reports with, for example, reports from [the human rights information organization] <a href="https://www.btselem.org/">B’tselem</a> or other types of news reports.” But at the moment, there’s scant news media coverage happening within Gaza due to low electricity supplies and communications services, as well as the danger of working in the area. While there is limited cross-referencing from independent media, what does exist confirms widespread suffering. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/explainer-gazas-ministry-health-calculate-wars-death-toll-104374157">AP reporters</a>, for instance, have “viewed large numbers of bodies at the sites of airstrikes, morgues and funerals.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MWc7od">
Notably, Israeli fatalities due to this conflict have been covered to an extraordinarily fine degree of detail by many different media outlets, making its casualty numbers much easier to corroborate, said Pettersson. The imbalance of information may be due in part to the imbalance in functioning communication infrastructure — Israel’s is still working, while Gaza’s has been fragile or, at times, completely out (a 34-hour communications blackout last weekend was blamed on a shutdown of phone and communication by Israel). It may also be related to the fact that while active violence leading to death has for the most part stopped in Israel, it remains ongoing in Gaza. An additional factor: Working as a journalist in Gaza is both currently and historically more dangerous than it is in Israel, due to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/journalists-in-gaza-struggle-with-safety-survival-while-reporting-on-the-ground">frequent air attacks</a> and Hamas’s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-threatening-journalists-in-gaza-who-expose-abuse-of-civilians/">history</a> of harassing and using violence against journalists who attempt to report on its activities. At least 30 journalists have been killed in Gaza since this most recent conflict began, <a href="https://cpj.org/2023/11/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/">many in Israeli airstrikes</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UoDnlV">
Whatever the reasons, the result is that Israel’s casualties have been easier to verify down to the individual than Gaza’s.
</p>
<h3 id="cr3gOL">
There are good reasons to be skeptical of fatality numbers that emerge during conflict
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KkHpOe">
Fatality numbers released early in the course of violent conflict are often inaccurate, said a number of experts who spoke with Vox. That’s partly because they’re hard to get. Violent conflict often destroys much of the infrastructure that would normally make it possible to reliably count deaths, said Paul Spiegel, a physician and director of the Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Morgues and health care facilities, generally important sources of reliable casualty information, may be understaffed or too physically damaged to keep good records (although <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b31f1faf73c703400b033">AP reporters</a> spoke with hospital administrators in Gaza who said they record identifying information on every wounded person occupying a bed and every dead body arriving at a morgue, which feeds into a central database).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cmJvKB">
Additionally, active or impending conflict often prevents human rights organizations’ field staff — the people who would typically verify the numbers and identities of the dead in a disaster setting — from being safely able to do their work.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IMv47D">
There’s another important reason that early figures are worth double-checking: They’re liable to be exaggerated, either upward or downward, by parties whose political aims may be aided by death counts that skew one way or another.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iPmh8u">
“Warring parties themselves have some interest in portraying the conflict in a certain way,” said Pettersson. In most conflicts, parties benefit from minimizing publicly reported deaths of their own fighters, while maximizing publicly reported deaths of their civilians. “I’m not saying that [Hamas] is exaggerating — we don’t know that really, it’s hard to know anything. But there is an interest to do that, to make it sort of fit into the narrative of Israel being the aggressors and Hamas and Gaza’s civilians being the victims,” she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LR7ynY">
The Israeli side would have this incentive too. “Each side will have reasons, usually political in nature, to either minimize or overemphasize,” Spiegel said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bcuvir">
Historically — in conflicts in 2008, 2014, and 2021 — the health ministry’s fatality numbers closely matched death tolls resulting from independent research by United Nations humanitarian agencies. The current conflict is far more complex than those prior conflicts were, and far fewer nongovernmental agencies are currently able to do that independent verification work in Gaza. However, it is reasonable to expect that when organizations like B’tselem verify deaths in the future, they will find numbers similar to what the ministry is now releasing — if not higher, given how many people remain unaccounted for.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GihsMj">
Meanwhile, combatant fatalities, if publicized instantaneously, provide information that can be used by an opposing side to determine whether they are correctly targeting battle stations, said Pettersson.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nlrxp7">
The list published by the Gaza Ministry of Health did not distinguish between combatants and civilians, though it has previously stated that nearly two-thirds of those killed are women and children.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rx6f6E">
The interest warring parties have in manipulating real-time fatality data is not unique to this conflict. In the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, something very similar has often played out, said Pettersson. But the dynamic capitalizes on the way we try to understand these kinds of complex events. “That’s also how our brains work,” she said. “Who’s the bad guy and who’s the good one?”
</p>
<h3 id="cNWNQ2">
Early fatality numbers can have important political consequences
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eG1HTu">
Public opinion that gets mobilized by early conflict-related casualty data can have real and significant impact on how the conflict itself plays out, said <a href="https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/lawrence-o-gostin/">Lawrence Gostin</a>, who directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m4rutG">
“Public opinion in Berlin, London, Paris, and Washington matters a lot in terms of what political leaders will do,” whether that’s sending aid or other assistance to the region, or voting for certain actions that affect the conflict in the United Nations Security Council.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MM6xfV">
The series of events that followed the al-Ahli Hospital explosion may be one of the best recent examples of how public opinion about fatalities in a conflict can change the course of that conflict. The explosion took place hours before President Biden was set to arrive in the region to meet with Israeli and Arab leaders. But public protests against Israel <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/diplomats-renew-calls-gaza-aid-iran-warns-israel-2023-10-16/">erupted worldwide</a>; citing anger at Israel’s supposed role in the blast, Arab leaders <a href="http://attributions">canceled</a> their planned summit. That meant delaying important conversations about the logistics of delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and, potentially, about paths toward peace in the region.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OeQ2ez">
To capitalize on the dynamic at work in episodes like this one, people with strong allegiances to warring parties may share data about their casualties before it has been confirmed. That’s why it’s so important, when news breaks of a fresh wave of violence in a larger conflict, to be aware that early numbers may be colored by bias — especially when they’re not corroborated by other, independent media sources.
</p>
<h3 id="PDZzUM">
Even imperfect fatality figures can be helpful
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AOxeXj">
Over time, Pettersson says, the exact details of a conflict’s lethality come to light. But when can the general public feel confident that has happened?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JZoZMo">
In the early days of a conflict, the UCDP begins gathering fatality data from open-source materials, including news media, nongovernmental agencies, Telegram, and whatever Twitter is going by. It publishes these on the 20th of each month as “<a href="https://ucdp.uu.se/downloads/">candidate event datasets</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wzTjaA">
The UCDP isn’t usually able to verify that data until much later — generally a month or more after events have taken place, said Pettersson. Typically, they’ll work to <a href="https://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/methodology/">verify the deaths</a> by going back to the primary source that reported each death, whether that’s a journalist, a warring party, or a witness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TEoowO">
Often, this verification takes place in partnership with organizations that are verifying deaths with primary sources on the ground in the conflict area. In Gaza, the UCDP often works with B’tselem — which maintains a <a href="https://statistics.btselem.org/en/all-fatalities/by-date-of-incident?section=overall&amp;tab=overview">database</a> of conflict-related deaths — to complement and triangulate data. But it uses data from other sources, too, including Reuters, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Crisis Group, and a range of smaller organizations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wCC21C">
The end result is a <a href="https://ucdp.uu.se/downloads/">list of verified organized violence-related fatalities</a> differentiated by combatants and civilians. Because its definitions are rather strict, the list inevitably underestimates deaths attributable to any given conflict. The UCDP publishes this data annually.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RXiUVG">
(Importantly, UCDP doesn’t count deaths that result indirectly from the conflict, like deaths due to conflict-related famine or sanitation problems. Not because they’re not relevant, said Petterson — it’s just not what her organization does.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Noctq">
There’s some debate over whether feverish media coverage of early fatality estimates is ultimately helpful to people suffering from violent conflict.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NRnf2Q">
On one hand, these numbers help us get a sense of the scale of the tragedy unfolding in a war-torn region. We don’t need precise figures to know that when many people are dying, many more are suffering. Early casualty numbers are “at the top of the pyramid,” said Gostin: When a conflict kills a large number of people early on, that signifies a much larger number of people who are extraordinarily vulnerable and need immediate humanitarian aid. Right now, over 1.4 million people are <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-25#:~:text=Displacement,in%2072%20non%2DUNRWA%20schools.">displaced in Gaza</a>, according to the UN.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D8z8dA">
Indeed, these figures may be important for determining how much help an area needs. Some <a href="https://handbook.spherestandards.org/en/sphere/#ch001">guidelines for providing humanitarian aid</a> use estimates of early mortality in certain age groups to determine the urgency of the response needed, said Spiegel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OYIFtu">
Still, it’s not always clear that ceaseless, real-time media coverage of evolving conflicts best serves individuals in war zones. “It’s not always good to have this instant sort of information flow,” especially if that information isn’t verified, said Pettersson. “We don’t know how true it is — and then we react on it.”
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Quadrangular men’s U-19 cricket series to begin on November 13 at Mulapadu Grounds</strong> - State association secretary S.R. Gopinath Reddy said that after a gap of seven years, Andhra Pradesh will host a Test match, between India and England in Visakhapatnam in February</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>New Zealand World Cup campaign on shaky ground as losses, injuries pile up</strong> - Kyle Jamieson has been called up from New Zealand as cover for Matt Henry; Lockie Ferguson could be available against Pakistan</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>Australia’s Marsh out of England game, back home for personal reasons</strong> - All-rounder Marcus Stoinis is set to return to the line-up after shaking off a calf problem while Cameron Green is likely to step in for Marsh.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IND vs SL | India must keep the winning tempo going against Sri Lanka</strong> - India mustn’t loosen up and keep the winning tempo going as it sends a message to the opposition that they are determined to win the trophy at home</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>League Cup | Newcastle defeats Man United to advance; West Ham knocks out Arsenal</strong> - Miguel Almiron, Lewis Hall and Joe Willock scored to give Manchester United its second consecutive 0-3 loss</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hyderabad door maker Shakti Hormann setting up Rs.175 cr wooden door plant in Jaipur</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>KGBV principal fined ₹25,000 for giving corporal punishment to student in Andhra Pradesh</strong> - NTR district Collector warns of severe action if teachers give corporal punishment to students</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Northern Army Commander reviews operational and security preparedness along the LAC</strong> - The Army commander lauded the tenacity and dedication of troops deployed in the challenging terrain and harsh weather conditions, it said</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>High altitude training centre hostel inaugurated in Udhagamandalam</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Congress extends complete support to KSU</strong> - KPCC president urges Chief Minister and Governor to work within the limits of the Constitution in the interest of democracy</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Migrants to Europe dying in gun battles and car crashes</strong> - In the Western Balkans, smuggler gangs are engaging in deadly shootouts as migrant numbers keep rising.</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>Ukraine war: Russia hits most settlements in one day, says Kyiv</strong> - Some 118 towns and villages were struck in 24 hours, the most this year, Kyiv’s interior minister says.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Swiss village of Aarwangen in ding-dong over challenge to cowbells</strong> - New residents in a Bernese Alpine village object to the traditional sound of rural Switzerland.</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 France’s Emmanuel Macron is courting Central Asia</strong> - Uranium is of interest to Paris, unsure about its supply of the fuel after a coup in Niger in July.</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>Germany asks forgiveness for Tanzania colonial crimes</strong> - German forces killed almost 300,000 people during the Maji Maji rebellion in the early 1900s.</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>Apple’s cheaper Pencil is available to buy now, but it has some limitations</strong> - $79 Pencil lowers the barrier to entry for drawing on an iPad. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1980400">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dealmaster: Big early Black Friday display sale, Apple deals, and more</strong> - Hot TV deals, laptops galore, Apple gear, and more ahead of Black Friday. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1980322">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Capcom thinks PC game modding is akin to “cheating”</strong> - Japanese publisher cites reputational damage, support costs of “unauthorized” mods. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1980411">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Despite spooky Consumer Reports’ testing, metals in chocolates aren’t scary</strong> - Chocolate is just not a big source of either lead or cadmium in diets. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1980371">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Amid price hikes, ads, &amp; crackdowns, Netflix finally cuts subscribers a break</strong> - Ad-tier improvement is rare good news for streaming subscribers. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1980365">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man was travelling the countryside with his 8-year-old daughter. One particularly stormy night they were forced to take shelter in a local mansion owned by a lonely widow. The widow was happy to receive guests and was very hospitable for the two weary travellers.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The next morning the father said to his daughter:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I have to take care of some business in the nearby town. Mrs. Sterling has kindly agreed to look after you while I’m gone. I will be back tomorrow morning. Promise to be good while I’m gone.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes father, I promise”, the little girl said, though deep down she was nervous to spend the night in the big house without her father.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Nighttime came and the widow took the little girl to her room upstairs. But not an hour had passed when the lady heard crying from the little girl’s room.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What is it, my sweet child? Did you have a nightmare?” The widow inquired softly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“There is someone in this room. Behind the curtains. I’m scared”, the girl whimpered pitifully.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The widow walked to the window and pulled the curtains aside.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“See? There is no one here. It was probably the draft moving the curtains as this is a very old house. Now be a good little girl and go back to sleep.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But only a short moment had passed when the widow once again heard cries from the little girl’s room.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“My sweet child, what is it now?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“There is someone here, I swear! I saw it in the corner. It’s a ghost”, the little girl whimpered in her bed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“There is no one here but you and me, dear. It is probably just shadows from the old oak tree outside playing tricks with your eyes. Your father will be back with us first thing tomorrow morning. Now for the last time, be a good little girl and try to get some sleep.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An hour passed and the widow was woken up by a knock on her door. She saw the little girl standing outside in her nightgown weeping pitifully.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“For heaven’s sake child! It’s past midnight and you should be fast asleep! What is it now?” The widow asked, exasperated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I saw the ghost again, miss! It won’t let me sleep. Can I come sleep next to you?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Now listen to me carefully, child. I have lived in this house for 367 years and not once have I seen a ghost! Now for the last time, go back to bed and try to get some sleep.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
​
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/foxmachine"> /u/foxmachine </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17m07fd/a_man_was_travelling_the_countryside_with_his/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17m07fd/a_man_was_travelling_the_countryside_with_his/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hippos can swim and run faster than humans. What does this mean?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bycicle is the only way to beat then in a triathlon.
</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/Rhododendronbuschast"> /u/Rhododendronbuschast </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17lyo3c/hippos_can_swim_and_run_faster_than_humans_what/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17lyo3c/hippos_can_swim_and_run_faster_than_humans_what/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man is playing golf, but keeps missing all his shots, and swearing, until a priest comes up to him and tells him not to use the lords name in vain.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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“Jesus’s christ! Missed again!” The golfer shouts in anger. “You mustn’t swear like that, or God will enact his wrath on you.” The priest explains. But the man doesn’t listen.
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His next shot is even further off. “Jesus christ! Missed again.” The man yells in anger. The priest explains again, how the man mustn’t use the lords name in vain.
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“Jesus christ! Missed again!” The man yells, until a massive storm cloud appears, and a lightning bolt shoots down and zaps the priest, turning him into a pile of dust. The man hears a loud voice come from the sky:
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“Jesus christ! Missed again!”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RetardedGuava"> /u/RetardedGuava </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17lf3ri/a_man_is_playing_golf_but_keeps_missing_all_his/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17lf3ri/a_man_is_playing_golf_but_keeps_missing_all_his/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The local police chief always said “It could be worse.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Every time there was a crime, no matter how terrible, he would hear the details from his officers and say “It could be worse.”
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One day, police were called to a beautiful house on a quiet street that belonged to a wealthy local businessman and his wife, the Dunwoodys. When they arrived, they found the front door open, and heard the sound of crying from the kitchen. The wife was sitting in a blood-drenched negligee at the kitchen table, crying hysterically. The husband was sitting calmly across from her, his hands covered in blood. He sipped a coffee. Bloody footprints led up the stairs to the master bedroom. A naked man was face-up on the bed with a knife protruding from his chest. His clothes were on the floor, and there was $1000 cash sitting on the nightstand.
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The investigating officers immediately called for the chief to come to the scene.
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“You know what he’ll say,” said one. “It could have been worse.”
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A while later the chief arrived along with the crime scene unit and a couple of detectives. The chief winced as he looked at the bloody scene in the bedroom, then walked away shaking his head.
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“Well, it could have been worse,” he said.
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One of the cops, feeling brave, called out to him.
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“Chief? I have to ask. How? I mean, a man is dead! His family is destroyed. Mr. Dunwoody found out his wife is a high-priced escort and committed murder, and now the Dunwoodys’ kids’ lives are ruined . . . how could it possibly have been worse?”
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The chief looked at him for a moment.
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“Well, for one thing, if this had been yesterday, the dead guy would have been me.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/brother_p"> /u/brother_p </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17ljm5f/the_local_police_chief_always_said_it_could_be/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17ljm5f/the_local_police_chief_always_said_it_could_be/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Before going on a safari, my wife asked me, “Is it difficult to spot cheetahs?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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Me: No. I think they usually come that way.
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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/17lvgex/before_going_on_a_safari_my_wife_asked_me_is_it/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17lvgex/before_going_on_a_safari_my_wife_asked_me_is_it/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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