navan
/
Daily-Dose
mirror of https://github.com/navanchauhan/Daily-Dose.git
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Added daily report

This commit is contained in:
Navan Chauhan 2024-01-23 12:46:34 +00:00
parent 1fa583866f
commit a9a62aa5c6
3 changed files with 668 additions and 2 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

168
archive-covid-19/23 January, 2024.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,168 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>23 January, 2024</title>
<style>
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
</style>
<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<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>Policy makers believe money motivates more than it does</strong> -
<div>
To motivate contributions to public goods, should policy makers employ financial incentives like taxes, fines, subsidies, and rewards? While these are widely considered as the classic policy approach, a substantial academic literature suggests the impact of financial incentives is not always positive; they can sometimes fail or even backfire. To test whether policy makers are overly bullish about financial incentives, we asked county heads, mayors, and municipal government representatives of medium-to-large towns in Germany to predict the effects of a financial incentive on COVID-19 vaccination, and tested the exact same incentive in a field experiment involving all 41,548 inhabitants (clustered in 10,032 addresses) of the German town of Ravensburg. Whereas policy makers overwhelmingly predict that the financial incentive will increase vaccination—by 15.3 percentage points on average—the same financial incentive yielded a precisely estimated null effect on vaccination. We discuss when financial incentives are most likely to fail, and conclude that it is critical to educate policy makers on the potential pitfalls of employing financial incentives to promote contributions to public goods.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/jq28n/" target="_blank">Policy makers believe money motivates more than it does</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Biophysical principles predict fitness of SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 employs its spike protein’s receptor binding domain (RBD) to enter host cells. The RBD is constantly subjected to immune responses, while requiring efficient binding to host cell receptors for successful infection. However, our understanding of how RBD’s biophysical properties contribute to SARS-CoV-2’s epidemiological fitness remains largely incomplete. Through a comprehensive approach, comprising large-scale sequence analysis of SARS-CoV-2 variants and the discovery of a fitness function based on binding thermodynamics, we unravel the relationship between the biophysical properties of RBD variants and their contribution to viral fitness. We developed a biophysical model that uses statistical mechanics to map the molecular phenotype space, characterized by binding constants of RBD to ACE2, LY-CoV016, LY-CoV555, REGN10987, and S309, onto a epistatic fitness landscape. We validate our findings through experimentally measured and machine learning (ML) estimated binding affinities, coupled with infectivity data derived from population-level sequencing. Our analysis reveals that this model effectively predicts the fitness of novel RBD variants and can account for the epistatic interactions among mutations, including explaining the later reversal of Q493R. Our study sheds light on the impact of specific mutations on viral fitness and delivers a tool for predicting the future epidemiological trajectory of previously unseen or emerging low frequency variants. These insights offer not only greater understanding of viral evolution but also potentially aid in guiding public health decisions in the battle against COVID-19 and future pandemics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.23.549087v3" target="_blank">Biophysical principles predict fitness of SARS-CoV-2 variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Cytoarchitecture of SARS-CoV-2 infected hamster lungs by X-ray phase contrast tomography: imaging workflow and classification for drug testing</strong> -
<div>
X-ray Phase Contrast Tomography (XPCT) based on wavefield propagation has been established as a high resolution three-dimensional (3D) imaging modality, suitable to reconstruct the intricate structure of soft tissues, and the corresponding pathological alterations. However, for biomedical research, more is needed than 3D visualisation and rendering of the cytoarchitecture in a few selected cases. First, the throughput needs to be increased to cover a statistically relevant number of samples. Second, the cytoarchitecture has to be quantified in terms of morphometric parameters, independent of visual impression. Third, dimensionality reduction and classification are required for identification of effects and interpretation of results. In this work, we present a workflow implemented at a laboratory CT setup, using semi-automated data acquisition, reconstruction and statistical quantification of lung tissue in an early screen of Covid-19 drug candidates. Different drugs were tested in a hamster model after SARS-CoV-2 infection. To make full use of the recorded high-throughput XPCT data, we then used morphometric parameter determination followed by a dimensionality reduction and classification based on optimal transport. This approach allows efficient discrimination between physiological and pathological lung structure, thereby providing invaluable insights into the pathological progression and partial recovery due to drug treatment.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.21.576083v1" target="_blank">Cytoarchitecture of SARS-CoV-2 infected hamster lungs by X-ray phase contrast tomography: imaging workflow and classification for drug testing</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Gaining Biological Insights through Supervised Data Visualization</strong> -
<div>
Dimensionality reduction-based data visualization is pivotal in comprehending complex biological data. The most common methods, such as PHATE, t-SNE, and UMAP, are unsupervised and therefore reflect the dominant structure in the data, which may be independent of expert-provided labels. Here we introduce a supervised data visualization method called RF-PHATE, which integrates expert knowledge for further exploration of the data. RF-PHATE leverages random forests to capture intricate feature-label relationships. Extracting information from the forest, RF-PHATE generates low-dimensional visualizations that highlight relevant data relationships while disregarding extraneous features. This approach scales to large datasets and applies to classification and regression. We illustrate RF-PHATE’s prowess through three case studies. In a multiple sclerosis study using longitudinal clinical and imaging data, RF-PHATE unveils a sub-group of patients with non-benign relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis, demonstrating its aptitude for time-series data. In the context of Raman spectral data, RF-PHATE effectively showcases the impact of antioxidants on diesel exhaust-exposed lung cells, highlighting its proficiency in noisy environments. Furthermore, RF-PHATE aligns established geometric structures with COVID-19 patient outcomes, enriching interpretability in a hierarchical manner.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.22.568384v2" target="_blank">Gaining Biological Insights through Supervised Data Visualization</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Mis- and Disinformation during the 2021 Canadian Federal Election</strong> -
<div>
The Canadian Election Misinformation Project was a civil society and academic partnership that aimed to rapidly identify and respond to mis- and disinformation incidents during the 44th Canadian Federal Election while evaluating the extent to which these incidents impact the attitudes and behaviours of Canadians. It also sought to develop understanding of the types and consequences of misleading and false information circulating in the public sphere in addition to supporting world-class research into the dynamics of the information ecosystem and the broad impacts of misinformation on Canadian democracy. The data shows that: 1) Although there was widespread misinformation during the 2021 Canadian federal election, the overall election was minimally impacted by mis- and disinformation; 2) Most Canadians believe the election was safe from foreign interference and that misinformation played a minimal role in the election; 3) Communities that previously focused on sharing COVID-19 misinformation adopted conspiracy theories about a broader set of topics during the election, including vaccines, climate change, and the integrity of the election; and 4) Nevertheless, a strong majority of Canadians believe that misinformation is a threat to Canadian democracy, polarizes Canadians, and threatens social cohesion.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/ubfmx/" target="_blank">Mis- and Disinformation during the 2021 Canadian Federal Election</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Public Health Communication and Engagement on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Social media provides governments the opportunity to directly communicate with their constituents. During a pandemic, reaching as many citizens as possible with health messaging is critical to reducing the spread of the disease. This study evaluates efforts to spread healthcare information by Canadian local, provincial, and federal governments during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We collect all health-related communications coming from government accounts on Facebook and Twitter and analyze the data using a nested mixed method approach. We first identify quantifiable features linked with citizen engagement, before subsequently performing content analysis on outlier posts. We make two critical contributions to existing knowledge about government communication, particularly during public health crises. We identify cross-platform variations in strategy effectiveness and draw attention to specific, evidence-based practices that can increase engagement with government health information.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/7hypj/" target="_blank">Public Health Communication and Engagement on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>All in this together: deservingness of government aid during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on governments to engage in widespread cash transfers directly to citizens to help mitigate economic losses. These programs are major redistribution efforts aimed at a variety of sub-groups within society (the unemployed, those with children, those with pre-existing health conditions, etc.) and there has been remarkably little resistance to these government outlays. We employ a novel and pre-registered paired vignette experiment to assess support for government aid during the pandemic in a large, nationally representative sample. We evaluate whether the “normal” deservingness hierarchy and considerations of social affinity or material self-interest continue to drive preferences of Canadians regarding redistribution. We find only small deservingness considerations and little evidence that redistribution preferences are informed by similarity considerations. Instead, we find broad, generous, and non-discriminatory support for direct cash transfers during this period of crisis.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/eyvhj/" target="_blank">All in this together: deservingness of government aid during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Causes and Consequences of COVID-19 Misperceptions: Understanding the Role of News and Social Media</strong> -
<div>
We investigate the relationship between media consumption, misinformation, and important attitudes and behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. We find that comparatively more misinformation circulates on social media platforms, while traditional news media tend to reinforce public health recommendations like social distancing. We find that exposure to social media is associated with misperceptions about COVID-19 while the inverse is true for news media. These misperceptions are in turn associated with lower compliance with social distancing measures. We thus draw a link from misinformation on social media to behaviours and attitudes that potentially magnify the scale and lethality of COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/6tcdn/" target="_blank">The Causes and Consequences of COVID-19 Misperceptions: Understanding the Role of News and Social Media</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The lasting earnings losses of COVID-19 short-time work</strong> -
<div>
This study is the first to investigate the impact of short-time work (STW) schemes during the COVID-19 pandemic on earnings after STW. STW schemes were implemented to preserve employee–employer matches, support workers’ incomes, and uphold consumption. Although workers faced temporary earnings losses under STW, it is unclear if the negative earnings effects of STW persisted or were limited to the STW spell. Therefore, this study uses a dynamic difference-in-difference (DiD) identification strategy with administrative data to identify any lasting STW effects on earnings. This approach accounts for factors that influenced worker selection into STW and tests for heterogeneous effects across subgroups of workers. We find lasting earnings losses that persisted beyond the STW participation itself. Most importantly, these earnings losses depended on the duration of STW exposure, with greater negative effects being more prominent in cases of long-term or recurring STW spells. Lasting, post-STW earnings losses tended to be more pronounced for white-collar jobs, while the largest losses were observed among men with blue-collar jobs whose STW spells exceeded one year.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/p2qvh/" target="_blank">The lasting earnings losses of COVID-19 short-time work</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Revealing the drivers of antibiotic resistance trends in Streptococcus pneumoniae amidst the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from mathematical modeling</strong> -
<div>
Non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented to block SARS-CoV-2 transmission in early 2020 led to global reductions in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). By contrast, most European countries reported an increase in antibiotic resistance among invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from 2019 to 2020, while an increasing number of studies reported stable pneumococcal carriage prevalence over the same period. To disentangle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on pneumococcal epidemiology in the community setting, we propose a mathematical model formalizing simultaneous transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and antibiotic-sensitive and -resistant strains of S. pneumoniae. To test hypotheses underlying these trends five mechanisms were built in into the model and examined: (1) a population-wide reduction of antibiotic prescriptions in the community, (2) lockdown effect on pneumococcal transmission, (3) a reduced risk of developing an IPD due to the absence of common respiratory viruses, (4) community azithromycin use in COVID-19 infected individuals, (5) and a longer carriage duration of antibiotic-resistant pneumococcal strains. Among 31 possible pandemic scenarios involving mechanisms individually or in combination, model simulations surprisingly identified only two scenarios that reproduced the reported trends in the general population. They included factors (1), (3), and (4). These scenarios replicated a nearly 50% reduction in annual IPD, and an increase in antibiotic resistance from 20% to 22%, all while maintaining a relatively stable pneumococcal carriage. Exploring further, higher SARS-CoV-2 R0 values and synergistic within-host virus-bacteria interaction mechanisms could have additionally contributed to the observed antibiotic resistance increase. Our work demonstrates the utility of the mathematical modeling approach in unraveling the complex effects of the COVID-19 pandemic responses on AMR dynamics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.08.503267v4" target="_blank">Revealing the drivers of antibiotic resistance trends in Streptococcus pneumoniae amidst the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from mathematical modeling</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Persistence and Free Chlorine Disinfection of Human Coronaviruses and Their Surrogates in Water</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the importance of understanding the behavior and control of human pathogenic viruses in the environment. Exposure via water (drinking, bathing, and recreation) is a known route of transmission of viruses to humans, but the literature is relatively void of studies on the persistence of many viruses, especially coronaviruses, in water and their susceptibility to chlorine disinfection. To fill that knowledge gap, we evaluated the persistence and free chlorine disinfection of human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) and its surrogates, murine hepatitis virus (MHV) and porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), in drinking water and laboratory buffer using cell culture methods. The decay rate constants of human coronavirus and its surrogates in water varied depending on virus and water matrix. In drinking water prior to disinfectant addition, MHV showed the largest decay rate constant (2.25 day-1) followed by HCoV-OC43 (0.99 day-1) and TGEV (0.65 day-1); while in phosphate buffer, HCoV-OC43 (0.51 day-1) had a larger decay rate constant than MHV (0.28 day-1) and TGEV (0.24 day-1). Upon free chlorine disinfection, the inactivation rates of coronaviruses were independent of free chlorine concentration and not affected by water matrix, though they still varied between viruses. TGEV showed the highest susceptibility to free chlorine disinfection with the inactivation rate constant of 113.50 mg-1 min-1 L, followed by MHV (81.33 mg-1 min-1 L) and HCoV-OC43 (59.42 mg-1 min-1 L).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.16.575911v1" target="_blank">Persistence and Free Chlorine Disinfection of Human Coronaviruses and Their Surrogates in Water</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Bacteriophage Cocktail Targeting Yersinia pestis Provides Strong Post-Exposure Protection in a Rat Pneumonic Plague Model</strong> -
<div>
Yersinia pestis, one of the deadliest bacterial pathogens ever known, is responsible for three plague pandemics and several epidemics, with over 200 million deaths during recorded history. Due to high genomic plasticity, Y. pestis is amenable to genetic mutations as well as genetic engineering that can lead to the emergence or intentional development of pan-drug resistant strains. The dissemination of such Y. pestis strains could be catastrophic, with public health consequences far more daunting than those caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel, safe, and effective treatment approaches for managing Y. pestis infections. This includes infections by antigenically distinct strains for which vaccines, none FDA approved yet, may not be effective, and those that cannot be controlled by approved antibiotics. Lytic bacteriophages provide one such alternative approach. In this study, we examined post-exposure efficacy of a bacteriophage cocktail, YPP-401, to combat pneumonic plague caused by Y. pestis CO92. YPP-401 is a four-phage preparation with a 100% lytic activity against a panel of 68 genetically diverse Y. pestis strains. Using a pneumonic plague aerosol challenge model in gender-balanced Brown Norway rats, YPP-401 demonstrated ~88% protection when delivered 18 hours post-exposure for each of two administration routes (i.e., intraperitoneal and intranasal) in a dose-dependent manner. Our studies suggest that YPP-401 could provide an innovative, safe, and effective approach for managing Y. pestis infections, including those caused by naturally occurring or intentionally developed strains that cannot be managed by vaccines in development and antibiotics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.17.576055v1" target="_blank">A Bacteriophage Cocktail Targeting Yersinia pestis Provides Strong Post-Exposure Protection in a Rat Pneumonic Plague Model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>GotGlycans: Role of N343 Glycosylation on the SARS-CoV-2 S RBD Structure and Co-Receptor Binding Across Variants of Concern</strong> -
<div>
Glycosylation of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein represents a key target for viral evolution because it affects both viral evasion and fitness. Successful variations in the glycan shield are difficult to achieve though, as protein glycosylation is also critical to folding and to structural stability. Within this framework, the identification of glycosylation sites that are structurally dispensable can provide insight into the evolutionary mechanisms of the shield and inform immune surveillance. In this work we show through over 45 s of cumulative sampling from conventional and enhanced molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, how the structure of the immunodominant S receptor binding domain (RBD) is regulated by N-glycosylation at N343 and how the structural role of this glycan changes from WHu-1, alpha (B.1.1.7), and beta (B.1.351), to the delta (B.1.617.2) and omicron (BA.1 and BA.2.86) variants. More specifically, we find that the amphipathic nature of the N-glycan is instrumental to preserve the structural integrity of the RBD hydrophobic core and that loss of glycosylation at N343 triggers a specific and consistent conformational change. We show how this change allosterically regulates the conformation of the receptor binding motif (RBM) in the WHu-1, alpha and beta RBDs, but not in the delta and omicron variants, due to mutations that reinforce the RBD architecture. In support of these findings, we show that the binding of the RBD to monosialylated ganglioside co-receptors is highly dependent on N343 glycosylation in the WHu-1, but not in the delta RBD, and that affinity changes significantly across VoCs. Ultimately, the molecular and functional insight we provide in this work reinforces our understanding of the role of glycosylation in protein structure and function and it also allows us to identify the structural constraints within which the glycosylation site at N343 can become a hotspot for mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 S glycan shield.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570076v2" target="_blank">GotGlycans: Role of N343 Glycosylation on the SARS-CoV-2 S RBD Structure and Co-Receptor Binding Across Variants of Concern</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Phase 1 of the NIH Preprint Pilot: Testing the viability of making preprints discoverable in PubMed Central and PubMed</strong> -
<div>
Introduction: The National Library of Medicine (NLM) launched a pilot in June 2020 to 1) explore the feasibility and utility of adding preprints to PubMed Central (PMC) and making them discoverable in PubMed and 2) to support accelerated discoverability of NIH-supported research without compromising user trust in NLM’s widely used literature services. Methods: The first phase of the Pilot focused on archiving preprints reporting NIH-supported SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 research. To launch Phase 1, NLM identified eligible preprint servers and developed processes for identifying NIH-supported preprints within scope in these servers. Processes were also developed for the ingest and conversion of preprints in PMC and to send corresponding records to PubMed. User interfaces were modified for display of preprint records. NLM collected data on the preprints ingested and discovery of preprint records in PMC and PubMed and engaged users through focus groups and a survey to obtain direct feedback on the Pilot and perceptions of preprints. Results: Between June 2020 and June 2022, NLM added more than 3,300 preprint records to PMC and PubMed, which were viewed 4 million times and 3 million times, respectively. Nearly a quarter of preprints in the Pilot were not associated with a peer-reviewed published journal article. User feedback revealed that the inclusion of preprints did not have a notable impact on trust in PMC or PubMed. Discussion: NIH-supported preprints can be identified and added to PMC and PubMed without disrupting existing operations processes. Additionally, inclusion of preprints in PMC and PubMed accelerates discovery of NIH research without reducing trust in NLM literature services. Phase 1 of the Pilot provided a useful testbed for studying NIH investigator preprint posting practices, as well as knowledge gaps among user groups, during the COVID-19 public health emergency, an unusual time with heightened interest in immediate access to research results.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.12.520156v2" target="_blank">Phase 1 of the NIH Preprint Pilot: Testing the viability of making preprints discoverable in PubMed Central and PubMed</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Deciphering the Molecular Mechanism of Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 through Comorbidity Network Analysis</strong> -
<div>
Introduction: The post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 presents a significant health challenge in the post-pandemic world. Our study aims to analyze longitudinal electronic health records to determine the impact of COVID-19 on disease progression, provide molecular insights into these mechanisms, and identify associated biomarkers. Method: We included 58,710 patients with COVID-19 records from 01/01/2020 to 31/08/2022 and at least one hospital admission before and after the acute phase of COVID-19 (28 days) as the treatment group. A healthy control group of 174,071 individuals was established for comparison using propensity score matching based on pre-existing diseases (before COVID-19). We built a comorbidity network using Pearson correlation coefficient differences between pairs of pre-existing disease and post-infection disease in both groups. Disease-protein mapping and protein-protein interaction network analysis revealed the impact of COVID-19 on disease trajectories through protein interactions in the human body. Results: The disparity in the weight of prevalent disease comorbidity patterns between the treatment and control groups highlights the impact of COVID-19. Certain specific comorbidity patterns show a more pronounced influence by COVID-19. For each comorbidity pattern, overlapping proteins directly associated with pre-existing diseases, post-infection diseases, and COVID-19 help to elucidate the biological mechanism of COVID-19's impact on each comorbidity pattern. Proteins essential for explaining the biological mechanism can be identified based on their weights. Conclusion: Disease comorbidity associations influenced by COVID-19, as identified through longitudinal electronic health records and disease-protein mapping, can help elucidate the biological mechanisms of COVID-19, discover intervention methods, and decode the molecular basis of comorbidity associations. This analysis can also yield potential biomarkers and corresponding treatments for specific disease patterns.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.17.575851v1" target="_blank">Deciphering the Molecular Mechanism of Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 through Comorbidity Network Analysis</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>Beneficial Effects of Natural Products on Management of Xerostomia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Xerostomia; Diabetes Mellitus; Hypertension; Post COVID-19 Condition <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: (Manuka honey-green tea- ginger) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: British University In Egypt <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>Eficacia Ventilatoria y Remolacha</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS CoV 2 Infection; Muscle Disorder; Fatigue <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Dietary Supplement: Remolacha <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Hospital de Mataró <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>Diet and Fasting for Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19; Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Low sugar diet and 10-12 hour eating window; Other: Low sugar diet, 8 hour eating window and fasting <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences <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>The Effectiveness of a Health Promotion Program for Older People With Post-Covid-19 Sarcopenia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post COVID-19 Condition <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Protein powder and Resistance exercise <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Mahidol University; National Health Security Office, Thailand <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>Chronic-disease Self-management Program in Patients Living With Long-COVID in Puerto Rico</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: “Tomando control de su salud” (Spanish Chronic Disease Self-Management) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Puerto Rico; National Institutes of Health (NIH) <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>Treatment of Persistent Post-Covid-19 Smell and Taste Disorders</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-covid-19 Persistent Smell and Taste Disorders <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Cerebrolysin; Other: olfactory and gustatory trainings <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Sherifa Ahmed Hamed <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>A Study to Evealuate Safety and Immunogenicity of TI-0010 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; COVID-19 Immunisation <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: TI-0010; Biological: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: National Drug Clinical Trial Institute of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College; Therorna <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>Sodium Citrate in Smell Retraining for People With Post-COVID-19 Olfactory Dysfunction</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Haul COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome; Anosmia; Olfaction Disorders <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Sodium Citrate; Drug: Normal Saline; Other: Olfactory Training Kit - “The Olfactory Kit, by AdvancedRx” <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill <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>Phase II, Double Blind, Randomized Trial of CX-4945 in Viral Community Acquired Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Community-acquired Pneumonia; SARS-CoV-2 -Associated Pneumonia; Influenza With Pneumonia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: CX-4945 (SARS-CoV-2 domain); Drug: Placebo (SARS-CoV-2 domain); Drug: CX-4945 (Influenza virus domain); Drug: Placebo (Influenza virus domain) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Senhwa Biosciences, Inc. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Edge AI-deployed DIGItal Twins for PREDICTing Disease Progression and Need for Early Intervention in Infectious and Cardiovascular Diseases Beyond COVID-19 - Investigation of Biomarkers in Dermal Interstitial Fluid</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Heart Failure <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Use of the PELSA System for dISF extraction <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Charite University, Berlin, Germany <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>Phase III Clinical Study Evaluating the Efficacy and Safety of WPV01 in Patients With Mild/Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Mild to Moderate COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: WPV01; Drug: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Westlake Pharmaceuticals (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. <br/><b>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>Generation of SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain mutants and functional screening for immune evaders using a novel lentivirus-based system</strong> - The emergence of rapid and continuous mutations of severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike glycoprotein that increased with the Omicron variant points out the necessity to anticipate such mutations for conceiving specific and adaptable therapies to avoid another pandemic. The crucial target for the antibody treatment and vaccine design is the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike. It is also the site where the virus has shown its high ability to mutate 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>The Development of an Oral Solution Containing Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir and Assessment of Its Pharmacokinetics and Stability</strong> - Paxlovid^(®), a co-packaged medication comprised of separate tablets containing two active ingredients, nirmatrelvir (NRV) and ritonavir (RTV), exhibits good effectiveness against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the size of the NRV/RTV tablets makes them difficult for some patients to swallow, especially the elderly and those with dysphagia. Therefore, an oral liquid formulation that can overcome this shortcoming and improve patient compliance is required. In this study, we…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Retinoic Acid-Mediated Inhibition of Mouse Coronavirus Replication Is Dependent on IRF3 and CaMKK</strong> - The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the shortfalls in our understanding of how to treat coronavirus infections. With almost 7 million case fatalities of COVID-19 globally, the catalog of FDA-approved antiviral therapeutics is limited compared to other medications, such as antibiotics. All-trans retinoic acid (RA), or activated vitamin A, has been studied as a potential therapeutic against coronavirus infection because of its antiviral properties. Due to its impact on different signaling…</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>Performance Analysis of Serodiagnostic Tests to Characterize the Incline and Decline of the Individual Humoral Immune Response in COVID-19 Patients: Impact on Diagnostic Management</strong> - Serodiagnostic tests for antibody detection to estimate the immunoprotective status regarding SARS-CoV-2 support diagnostic management. This study aimed to investigate the performance of serological assays for COVID-19 and elaborate on test-specific characteristics. Sequential samples (n = 636) of four panels (acute COVID-19, convalescent COVID-19 (partly vaccinated post-infection), pre-pandemic, and cross-reactive) were tested for IgG by indirect immunofluorescence test (IIFT) and EUROIMMUN…</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>AC-73 and Syrosingopine Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Entry into Megakaryocytes by Targeting CD147 and MCT4</strong> - Coagulation disorders are described in COVID-19 and long COVID patients. In particular, SARS-CoV-2 infection in megakaryocytes, which are precursors of platelets involved in thrombotic events in COVID-19, long COVID and, in rare cases, in vaccinated individuals, requires further investigation, particularly with the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. CD147, involved in the regulation of inflammation and required to fight virus infection, can facilitate SARS-CoV-2 entry into megakaryocytes….</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>Structural Basis for the Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup> D48N Mutant by Shikonin and PF-07321332</strong> - Preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants is crucial in the fight against COVID-19. Inhibition of the main protease (M^(pro)) of SARS-CoV-2 is the key to disrupting viral replication, making M^(pro) a promising target for therapy. PF-07321332 and shikonin have been identified as effective broad-spectrum inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro). The crystal structures of SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro) bound to PF-07321332 and shikonin have been resolved in previous studies. However, the exact mechanism…</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>Susceptibility and Resistance of SARS-CoV-2 Variants to LCB1 and Its Multivalent Derivatives</strong> - LCB1 is a computationally designed three-helix miniprotein that precisely targets the spike (S) receptor-binding motif (RBM) of SARS-CoV-2, exhibiting remarkable antiviral efficacy; however, emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants could substantially compromise its neutralization effectiveness. In this study, we constructed two multivalent LCB1 fusion proteins termed LCB1T and LCB1T-Fc, and characterized their potency in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus and authentic virus in vitro. In the inhibition of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Favipiravir Analogues as Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase, Combined Quantum Chemical Modeling, Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship, and Molecular Docking Study</strong> - Our study was motivated by the urgent need to develop or improve antivirals for effective therapy targeting RNA viruses. We hypothesized that analogues of favipiravir (FVP), an inhibitor of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), could provide more effective nucleic acid recognition and binding processes while reducing side effects such as cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, teratogenicity, and embryotoxicity. We proposed a set of FVP analogues together with their forms of triphosphate as new…</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>Synthesis and Antiviral Activity of Novel β-D-N4-Hydroxycytidine Ester Prodrugs as Potential Compounds for the Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and Other Human Coronaviruses</strong> - The spread of COVID-19 infection continues due to the emergence of multiple transmissible and immune-evasive variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Although various vaccines have been developed and several drugs have been approved for the treatment of COVID-19, the development of new drugs to combat COVID-19 is still necessary. In this work, new 5’-O-ester derivatives of N4-hydroxycytidine based on carboxylic acids were developed and synthesized by Steglich esterification. The antiviral activity of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Photodynamic Action of Curcumin and Methylene Blue against Bacteria and SARS-CoV-2-A Review</strong> - CONCLUSION: The photodynamic action of curcumin and methylene blue provides a possible approach against bacteria and SARS-CoV-2 infection because they act as non-toxic photosensitizers in PDT with an antibacterial effect, anti-viral properties, and disinfection functions.</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>Leveraging SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease (M<sup>pro</sup>) for COVID-19 Mitigation with Selenium-Based Inhibitors</strong> - The implementation of innovative approaches is crucial in an ongoing endeavor to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. The present study examines the strategic application of the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease (M^(pro)) as a prospective instrument in the repertoire to combat the virus. The cloning, expression, and purification of M^(pro), which plays a critical role in the viral life cycle, through heterologous expression in Escherichia coli in a completely soluble form produced an active enzyme….</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Integrated In Silico and In Vitro Approach for the Identification of Natural Products Active against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has provoked a global health crisis due to the absence of a specific therapeutic agent. 3CL^(pro) (also known as the main protease or M^(pro)) and PL^(pro) are chymotrypsin-like proteases encoded by the SARS-CoV-2 genome, and play essential roles during the virus lifecycle. Therefore, they are recognized as a prospective therapeutic target in drug discovery against SARS-CoV-2 infection….</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>Immunogenicity and safety of concomitant bivalent COVID-19 and quadrivalent influenza vaccination: Implications of immune imprinting and interference</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Concomitant administration of bivalent COVID-19 mRNA and quadrivalent influenza vaccines showed tolerable safety profiles and sufficient immunogenicity, particularly attenuating immune imprinting induced by prior ancestral vaccine strains.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An insights into emerging trends to control the threats of antimicrobial resistance (AMR): an address to public health risks</strong> - Antimicrobial agents are used to treat microbial ailments, but increased use of antibiotics and exposure to infections in healthcare facilities and hospitals as well as the excessive and inappropriate use of antibiotics at the society level lead to the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is considered a public health concern and has rendered the treatment of different infections more challenging. The bacterial strains develop resistance against…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2-induced disruption of a vascular bed in a microphysiological system caused by type-I interferon from bronchial organoids</strong> - Blood vessels show various COVID-19-related conditions including thrombosis and cytokine propagation. Existing in vitro blood vessel models cannot represent the consequent changes in the vascular structure or determine the initial infection site, making it difficult to evaluate how epithelial and endothelial tissues are damaged. Here, we developed a microphysiological system (MPS) that co-culture the bronchial organoids and the vascular bed to analyze infection site and interactions. In this…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

498
archive-daily-dose/23 January, 2024.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,498 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>23 January, 2024</title>
<style>
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
</style>
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<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>Will the Race Against Trump End in New Hampshire?</strong> - Nikki Haley’s performance in the state’s Republican primary on Tuesday is the only thing standing in the way of a Biden-Trump rematch. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/will-the-race-against-trump-end-in-new-hampshire">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sofia Coppola’s Path to Filming Gilded Adolescence</strong> - There are few Hollywood families in which one famous director has spawned another. Coppola says, “It’s not easy for anyone in this business, even though it looks easy for me.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/29/sofia-coppola-profile">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How to Eat a Tire in a Year, by David Sedaris</strong> - Walking and talking with my friend Dawn. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/29/how-to-eat-a-tire-in-a-year-david-sedaris">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rules for the Ruling Class</strong> - How to thrive in the power élite—while declaring it your enemy. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/29/rules-for-the-ruling-class">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Woman Who Spent Five Hundred Days in a Cave</strong> - Beatriz Flamini liked to be alone so much that she decided to live underground—and pursue a world record. The experience was gruelling and surreal. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/29/the-woman-who-spent-five-hundred-days-in-a-cave">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>How the internet built a conspiracy around a new spy flick, a debut novel, and Taylor Swift</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Howard sits at desk, typing at a computer." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fuuaOmCCHr0dAbGIbrCDz79m8Vw=/480x0:8160x5760/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73077619/Argylle_Photo_0102.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Bryce Dallas Howard as a suspiciously Swiftian-looking Elly Conway in <em>Argylle</em>. | Apple
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Argylle authorship controversy, explained .
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3nxOyd">
The internet has gone into a frenzy over <em>Argylle</em>, a forthcoming spy movie, and its supposed source material, a yet-to-be-published novel by one Elly Conway. The author’s identity is a buzzy mystery far more gripping than novel itself: <em>Is Elly Conway actually Taylor Swift?</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WGhmV0">
The thing is, Elly Conway doesn’t seem to exist. She does appear as a (suspiciously Swiftian) character played by Bryce Dallas Howard in the trailer for <em>Argylle</em>, but there’s no trace of her in real life except for almost comically fake-looking profiles on <a href="https://www.vox.com/twitter">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/instagram-news">Instagram</a>. Someone, clearly, has decided to make it look as if Elly Conway is an actual person — and why do that (people on the internet have demanded) if she is not a globally renowned superstar who wants to keep her head down on her fun writing hobby?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7EwQ9q">
Allow me to present my own, much less scintillating and much more mundane theory. What we are dealing with here appears to be at worst a good old-fashioned movie tie-in novel with a clever marketing plan, and at best a fun metafictional game in the spirit of <em>The Princess Bride</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dpp1hL">
Let’s get into the details.
</p>
<h3 id="qMT00i">
What’s the big mystery here?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ynDmKR">
<em>Argylle</em> the movie is directed by Matthew Vaughn of <em>Kingsman</em>, and it stars Henry Cavill, Ariana DeBose, Bryan Cranston, Dua Lipa, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly Conway herself. It comes with a hefty price tag. According to the Hollywood Reporter, <a href="https://www.vox.com/apple">Apple</a> paid $200 million for the deal — although no one has reported on whether Apple was paying for the book’s film rights, just that the movie would be based on the book.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iBDNL6">
In the film, author Conway is a central character, a writer thrust into the all-too-real world of her own spy novels. <a href="https://screenrant.com/argylle-movie-spy-book-series-adaptation-explained-director/">As Vaughn told the <em>Happy Sad Confused </em>podcast in October,</a> “I love the idea of what would happen if J.K. Rowling met a wizard and was real.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C2JG9x">
Vaughn explained on that podcast that his <em>Argylle</em> movie would be based on the as-yet-unwritten fourth volume in Conway’s Argylle series, saying, “I read the book, they bought the manuscript of the book, and met with [writer Jason] Fuchs, and we just came up with this.” Vaughn went on to explain that “Book 4, which is what the movie’s based around, was the one that would work for it. Mr. Lucas was clever enough to start <a href="https://www.vox.com/star-wars"><em>Star Wars</em></a> with Episode 4, so why not us?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dSXrPm">
The thing is: Those first three books haven’t been published either. Only the first volume has even been written, and it didn’t come out until this February. Vaughn seems to be implying here that he saw descriptions of the planned later volumes and thought the fourth would suit his purposes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TSDiP5">
It would be a huge deal for a first-time author to land a $200 million movie deal with this kind of star power in it. Yet when reporters tried to track down Conway, she proved elusive. She had almost no internet presence. <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/argylle-elly-conway-henry-cavill-apple-spy-mystery-1235220772/">When the Hollywood Reporter first went looking for Conway</a> in September, all that was connected to her was an empty Instagram account with nine followers, one of them a Bryce Dallas Howard fan account.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VuKnjH">
In December, Conway started to put her Instagram account to use. “How do you fluster an introvert?” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cxgjt6mSU2t/?hl=en">she wrote in an early post</a>. “Publish her first novel, have Matthew Vaughn buy the movie rights, then tell her she has to start using social media for ‘visibility.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IVM0nx">
“Something’s fishy,” an anonymous Hollywood producer who has worked with Vaughn <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/01/08/entertainment/inside-the-argylle-elly-conway-publishing-mystery/">told the New York Post in January</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="e6thZ9">
How did Taylor Swift get dragged into this?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r44u0l">
In the trailer for Vaughn’s movie, Bryce Dallas Howard’s portrayal of Elly Conway has what I can only call a Swiftian aesthetic.
</p>
<div id="mLPdXI">
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AYvWsH">
Howard’s wavy red hair is reminiscent of the red wig Swift donned to play a writer in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tollGa3S0o8"><em>All Too Well: The Short Film</em></a>, and her big cozy cardigan could easily be a nod to, well, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-a8s8OLBSE">Cardigan</a>.” For many Swifties, though, the smoking gun was the cat. In the trailer, Elly totes her cat around in a specially designed backpack with a window, exactly like the one Swift wears in her <a href="https://www.vox.com/netflix">Netflix</a> documentary <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/1/28/21095321/miss-americana-taylor-swift-documentary-interview-lana-wilson-netflix-sundance"><em>Miss Americana</em></a>. Moreover, Elly’s cat is a Scottish Fold, the same squishy-faced breed as Swift’s two famously doted-upon kitties. For some Swift fans, the coincidences seemed to be too many to bear.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BYXh41">
“I’m sorry to put it this way, but it really has the Swiftie erogenous zone covered,” Ringer staff writer Nora Princiotti <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/01/09/argylle-author-identity-taylor-swift/">said in the Washington Post</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ktclyO">
“imagine if this is just a random writer and not TS I’ll die dead,” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cxgjt6mSU2t/?hl=en">wrote one Swift fan on Conway’s Instagram</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qkdL2y">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22169813/taylor-swift-evermore-pop-culture-workhorse">Swift is famously one of the hardest-working women in show business</a>, but it takes a fair amount of willful suspension of disbelief to imagine that, while she was in the middle of a <a href="https://variety.com/2023/music/news/taylor-swift-eras-tour-record-1-billion-2023-ticket-sales-1235829395/">record-breaking world tour</a>, she also found the time to write one book in a mystery series and plot out the details of all its sequels. Nonetheless, when you create a mystery, it calls the mystery-minded. Swifties are some of our most dedicated detectives.
</p>
<h3 id="qLjfvW">
Who really wrote the book?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7hZso5">
<em>Argylle</em> the book, unlike the movie, has no metafictional elements. It’s a straightforward spy novel, and it was almost certainly written by the British thriller writer Tammy Cohen.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E0t6Ph">
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/01/09/argylle-author-identity-taylor-swift/">Washington Post writer Sophia Nguyen did the legwork here</a>. In the acknowledgments for <em>Argylle</em>, Conway thanks Robert Massey, a British astronomer who she says explained star charts to her. Nguyen called Massey up, and Massey told her that while he talked to “a novelist writing a contracted spy thriller for Penguin Random House,” her name wasn’t Elly Conway. It was Tammy Cohen.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BkIjbX">
Tammy Cohen has stayed mum on the issue of whether or not she is Elly Conway. Nonetheless, she fits the profile. She’s written multiple midlist spy novels, like <em>Argylle</em>, most recently <em>When She Was Bad</em> (2016) and <em>They All Fall Down</em> (2017). While Conway is supposed to be from upstate New York, <em>Argylle</em> is laced with Britishisms, and Cohen is British. She even has a connection to Vaughn. Her agent, Felicity Blunt, is married to Stanley Tucci, who appeared in Vaughn’s <em>The King’s Man</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="91chDB">
Cohen doesn’t appear to have a Scottish Fold cat. Vaughn, however, does. <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/09/argylle-henry-cavill-dua-lipa-bryce-dallas-howard">He told Vanity Fair he used his daughter’s pet cat for the shoot</a> after the professional acting cat he hired “was useless.” In addition, the <em>Argylle</em> novel is copyrighted to Marv Quinn Holdings Limited, a company registered to Vaughn and his wife.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EcxUJL">
Here’s what I think happened: Matthew Vaughn wanted to make a metafictional spy movie that poked gentle fun at the spy tropes he’s used in his previous <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a>. He decided it should be about a writer of spy novels who finds that her books are more accurate than she could have guessed, and he came up with the Elly Conway character to serve that purpose. As a cute movie tie-in, Vaughn or someone at his studio decided to publish a version of the book Elly Conway is writing in the movie, so Vaughn poked around through his Hollywood connections to find a career thriller writer who could put together a solid midlist spy novel. Cohen fit the bill.
</p>
<h3 id="T24Vzy">
Why keep the real <em>Argylle</em> author’s identity a secret?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e0D94r">
If I’m right, this would not be the first time that a fictional author published a book.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SVUn1m">
You can buy mysteries written by <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001HD1RBU/about">Richard Castle</a> of <em>Castle</em>, and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jessica-Fletcher/author/B09G3BS2NN">Jessica Fletcher</a> of <em>Murder She Wrote</em>. You can buy a romance novel by <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&amp;rh=p_27%3AMia+Thermopolis">Mia Thermopolis</a> of <em>The Princess Diaries</em>. <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a42745917/ant-man-scott-lang-memoir/">You can buy Ant-Man’s memoir</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9wlMwJ">
In those cases, though, no one pretended that Richard Castle et al were real people. The names on the covers of the books were the names of fictional characters, but the publishers made it clear that the books themselves were ghostwritten by real people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aWBe3C">
So why is Vaughn being so coy about <em>Argylle</em>?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y6Vife">
I think the best analogue to turn to here is the original novel version of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/7/1/21308353/vox-book-club-princess-bride-critics-roundtable-soraya-nadia-mcdonald-sangeeta-singh-kurtz"><em>The Princess Bride</em></a>. That book, which predated the film, was written by the great screenwriter William Goldman in a loving homage to and satire of the adventure novels he’d grown up reading.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dEiLyX">
As part of the story of <em>The Princess Bride</em>, Goldman developed a witty frame narrative. The true <em>Princess Bride</em>, he informed readers in a lengthy introduction, was a great 19th-century novel by the immortal Florinese author S. Morgenstern. (Florin, you will note, is not a real country.) The real <em>Princess Bride</em> was also, according to Goldman, unspeakably dull — hundreds of pages of impenetrable social commentary and political satire, periodically interspersed with brilliant chapters of romance and adventure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nwy8W3">
To save us all from Morgenstern’s highbrow story-killing ways, Goldman concluded, he’d cut the whole thing down to size, and annotated the text helpfully whenever one of his cuts affected the plot. He’d given us just the pure story, the good stuff.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t0VanC">
The whole thing was so convincing that <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/i2278m/the_princess_bride_made_me_furious_until_i/">readers regularly walk away convinced</a> that there is an unabridged <em>Princess Bride</em> out there, and that they can find it if they only work hard enough. Goldman managed to do the thing writers dream of: make the world he created feel so real that you could still believe in it after you closed the book. That’s part of what made the book magic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GgJXbN">
Vaughn is, I think, aiming to do something similar here. He’s making the frame story of his movie true, lifting one of his characters off the screen and into real life. He’s not telling anyone who wrote <em>Argylle</em> because admitting Elly Conway isn’t real means killing the magic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZlkvXU">
If nothing else, the Elly Conway trick is a fitting maneuver for our age of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23668199/fallacy-new-ideas-original-story-little-mermaid-live-action-remake">endless Hollywood IP grabs</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="axgAc9">
“This [<em>Argylle</em> the movie] is not based on any IP that I’m aware of,” <a href="https://screenrant.com/argylle-movie-spy-book-series-adaptation-explained-director/">said Josh Horowitz, host of <em>Happy Sad Confused</em></a>, as he interviewed Vaughn in October.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uvad2L">
“Define IP,” shot back Vaughn.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NhBmkd">
Right now, movies are left for dead at the box office if they’re not based on existing source material. If you want to improve your original movie’s changes, what’s a better bet than manufacturing your own IP for it out of whole cloth? And if a bunch of devoted Swifties want to go looking for their fave in it, all the better.
</p></li>
<li><strong>How a Haley presidency would be better — and worse — than Trump</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Nikki Haley, smiling into the camera, shakes hands with a distracted-looking Donald Trump." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZgdSB5uSLVQDbxCaeXnFipcxc_U=/351x0:4150x2849/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73077518/GettyImages_1047997432.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Nikki Haley, then the United States ambassador to the United Nations, in the Oval Office on October 9, 2018. | Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Trump has more extreme plans for democracy and the power of the presidency. But on foreign policy, things get more complicated.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F2lHor">
With <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/2/14/23599194/nikki-haley-donald-trump-2024-presidential-campaign">Nikki Haley</a> as the last remaining significant challenger to <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>, media coverage of her has focused overwhelmingly on the question of <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/11/nikki-haley-donald-trump-gop-00134902">whether she can win</a> and on <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/nikki-haley-civil-war-slavery-black-friends-growing-up">her gaffes</a>. Skepticism about her prospects certainly makes sense, given Trump’s commanding poll leads.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rbuk4y">
Still, comparatively little attention has been devoted to the question of how the two would govern differently as president of the United States.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RNdV9F">
You might think the answer would be simple: Trump would be his unhinged self, and Haley would be more of a “normal” Republican. Trump would pose a dire threat to democracy and the rule of law, and Haley would not.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="owJKYq">
And that’s a big part of the story — arguably, most of the story. Trump doesn’t respect election results, can inspire mob violence like that of January 6, and wants to turn the Justice Department against his critics. None of those apply to Haley.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aEYfmc">
On domestic policy, reports suggest a second-term Trump would use executive power very aggressively to crack down on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/us/politics/trump-2025-immigration-agenda.html">immigration</a> and fire <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-2025-radical-plan-second-term">vast swathes of civil service employees</a>, and perhaps to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/us/politics/trump-2025-trade-china.html">reshape US trade policy</a> as well. There’s reason to doubt Haley would go so far on any of these issues.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2j1rJM">
The complication is in foreign policy. There, the combination of Trump’s erraticism and his “America First” instincts presents risks to global stability. But Haley has campaigned as the avatar of a hawkish GOP establishment that has been responsible for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/20/opinion/nikki-haley-trump-foreign-policy.html">major foreign policy disasters</a>. The current obvious area of contrast is that Haley staunchly supports Ukraine and Trump does not, but their differing instincts could play out in other yet-to-erupt conflicts in unpredictable ways.
</p>
<h3 id="3N6gYh">
Trump vs. Haley on democracy
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Nikki Haley speaks at a lecture with the Trump/Pence logo on it" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yWK1Csy24xLpyObbjA-wk-Fsfd0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25242314/GettyImages_1228190562.jpg"/> <cite>Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Bloomberg</cite>
<figcaption>
Nikki Haley speaks during the Republican National Convention at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC, on August 24, 2020.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TjryRx">
It’s pretty obvious that President Trump would present a much greater threat to the continued functioning of American democracy than President Haley.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vhBHMx">
Trump, of course, tried to steal the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election">2020 election</a> and keep himself in power despite his loss to <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>. Such flagrant defiance of democratic norms is common in less developed democracies but something quite new in the United States — it’s a Trump special.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ou5gIy">
That tendency of Trump’s is made more dangerous by his ability to inspire supporters into mob violence, as demonstrated at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. It’s far less likely that anyone would storm the Capitol for Nikki Haley. Trump’s charisma is a powerful and dangerous thing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JTjuW3">
Additionally, there’s the desire Trump has repeatedly expressed to pervert the Justice Department and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/8/28/21358181/trump-barr-justice-department-second-term-agenda">launch (bogus) prosecutions</a> against his critics and political opponents. He largely failed in these efforts in his first term, despite many attempts. But now that he himself is facing four indictments, including two from the DOJ, he’d likely go further in trying to wrest complete personal control of the department.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="56kSUF">
Haley, for her part, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/07/nikki-haley-criticizes-trump-456320">said</a> on January 7, 2021, that Trump “was badly wrong,” and that “his actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history.” The following month, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/538573-haley-breaks-with-trump-we-shouldnt-have-followed-him/">she added</a>,Trump’sti “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xT7Vkk">
But she soon made it clear she <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/nikki-haley-thinks-trump-is-the-true-victim-of-the-insurrection-give-the-man-a-break/">opposed</a> impeaching and convicting Trump, saying, “Give the man a break.” She has been careful and measured in her criticism of Trump and will likely endorse him if he defeats her in the primary to preserve her future prospects in the GOP. So Haley isn’t exactly a champion of democracy — but she’s a normal Republican who wouldn’t actively try to shatter it, like Trump would.
</p>
<h3 id="GXGlto">
Trump vs. Haley on foreign policy
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Donald Trump and Nikki Haley speak while leaning toward each other." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CDUsWOQGuJA9fThrZ99YzPW65Ow=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25242300/GettyImages_848945094.jpg"/> <cite>Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty</cite>
<figcaption>
US President Donald Trump and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speak during a meeting on United Nations reform at the UN headquarters in New York on September 18, 2017.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T0T5ZS">
The world of 2024 is a dangerous place. Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are continuing, while tensions rise around <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/xi-warned-biden-summit-beijing-will-reunify-taiwan-china-rcna130087">Taiwan</a> and the <a href="https://www.38north.org/2024/01/is-kim-jong-un-preparing-for-war/">Korean peninsula</a>. And Trump and Haley have sharply different instincts in how to deal with many of these crises.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2jeyYt">
Haley shows every sign of being a traditional Republican hawk — she sees the US as <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/09/05/nikki-haley-knocks-trump-over-north-korea-amid-kim-putin-meeting/">locked in conflict</a> with <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/russia">Russia</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/iran">Iran</a>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/north-korea">North Korea</a>, and she wants to ramp up activity abroad and demonstrate “strength” against them. She wants to keep sending military aid to Ukraine and admit the country to NATO, while abiding by US commitments to defend South Korea and NATO allies in case of attack. She <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/nikki-haleys-2024-white-house-bid-charts-hazardous-path-isolationist-republican-2023-09-08/">has also said</a> she would defend Taiwan from any Chinese invasion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TYUJ39">
Trump is no peacenik: He had a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/28/21112468/iran-soleimani-us-trump-war">top Iranian general</a> assassinated, talked of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/9/4/17819298/woodward-book-fear-trump-north-korea-mattis-syria-assad">killing Syria’s president</a>, escalated drone warfare, heightened tensions with China, and often made <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/world/asia/north-korea-un-sanctions-nuclear-missile-united-nations.html">deranged-sounding threats</a>. Like Haley, he’s staunchly supported <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a>, been uncompromisingly hostile toward Iran, shown little interest in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/palestine">Palestinian</a> cause, and called for using the US military against Mexican drug cartels.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="522hGt">
But he has been much less enthused about the US’s global leadership role generally and skeptical of US ground interventions. He’s refused to commit to continuing Ukraine aid, and he has long been much less eager for conflict with Russia, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/01/trump-2024-reelection-pull-out-of-nato-membership/676120/">even talking</a> of pulling the US out of NATO. He (unsuccessfully) sought a deal with Kim Jong Un and has talked of <a href="https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2022/06/205_331080.html">withdrawing US troops</a> from South Korea. He launched a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/more-pain-than-gain-how-the-us-china-trade-war-hurt-america/">trade war</a> against China, but then (unsuccessfully) sought a trade deal. And though he deepened US ties with Taiwan, it’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/trump-won-t-say-if-he-would-provide-military-support-to-taiwan-against-an-invasion-from-china-193143877586">unclear</a><a href="https://youtu.be/Ct2Vl-NO6Og?feature=shared&amp;t=363"> whether</a> he’d defend Taiwan militarily. His own appointees reined in his instincts on many of these issues, but it’s anyone’s guess whether that would still hold true <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4136979-bolton-trump-second-term-nato/">in a second term</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bg5VHe">
So whose approach would be more likely to make the US — and the world — a better place?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="liH2PY">
With Haley, the risk is that she’d uncritically follow the hawks, when thinking like theirs has often led the US into disastrous overreach. There’s more to foreign policy than talking tough, and provocation can lead to escalation and military conflicts spiraling out of control. Nixon and Reagan were elected as hawks but eventually pivoted; Nixon built ties with Mao’s China and Reagan with Gorbachev’s USSR. We don’t yet know whether Haley is inclined to do anything similar.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0vzkvR">
With Trump, the risk is twofold. There’s his erraticism — the possibility that Trump, intending to threaten and bluff as he does, could end up blundering into war. But there’s also a risk to global stability if he follows through on his desire to withdraw the US from NATO or pull troops from South Korea. Current US policy in both arenas is intended as a deterrent, making Putin less likely to attack NATO countries and North Korea’s Kim less likely to attack South Korea, since it would mean war with the US. Troop withdrawals, in contrast, could be interpreted as a green light. And, as before World War II, the US might not find it so easy to withdraw from global conflict as America Firsters expect.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ury6iP">
Which is more likely — that the US’s involvement abroad brings about global chaos, or that its newfound absence abroad causes global chaos?
</p>
<h3 id="TTY09z">
Trump vs. Haley on domestic policy
</h3>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Donald Trump pats Nikki Haley on the arm." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ev-d-IIMK-CxZGccEl_5wxl0jrI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25242319/GettyImages_660292656__1_.jpg"/> <cite>Mark Wilson/Getty</cite>
<figcaption>
US President Donald Trump greets UN Ambassador Nikki Haley during an event celebrating Women’s History Month in the East Room at the White House on March 29, 2017.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3ntlsx">
On most domestic policy issues, Trump and Haley are pretty similar. They’re both hostile to <a href="https://www.vox.com/obamacare">Obamacare</a> (though it’s unclear whether Republicans will take another swing at repealing it), they both love tax cuts, they’ve both jumped on the GOP <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/01/trump-lgbtq-transgender-community-protections/676139/">bandwagon</a><a href="https://www.advocate.com/politics/nikki-haley-stays-transphobic"> against trans people</a>, and they’re both <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/nikki-haleys-history-abortion-policy-includes-backing-strict-bans-sc-rcna130579">against abortion rights</a> but<a href="https://time.com/6335088/donald-trump-abortion-position-2024-election/"> are</a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/14/us/politics/nikki-haley-republicans-federal-abortion-ban.html"> worried</a> about how that will play in the general election.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hsgbAO">
One difference that has gotten some attention is that Haley has been a loud and proud supporter of Medicare and Social Security reform, or entitlement cuts — though <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/05/politics/nikki-haley-social-security-medicare-reform/index.html">she says</a> her proposed changes would only impact younger workers. Trump has long <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/596338364187602944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E596338364187602944%7Ctwgr%5Ee6663e57165ec1a6d63015437771c1ad402821f8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Faflcio.org%2F2017%2F5%2F24%2Fpresidents-broken-promises-social-security-medicare-and-medicaid">claimed</a> he wouldn’t cut either program — though he has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/23/politics/donald-trump-medicare-entitlements-cuts/index.html">occasionally hedged</a>. But Haley would probably be more likely to prioritize the issue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RlphIE">
Any legislation that either would want to pass would depend on the situation in <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a>. The key constraint there is less about Trump vs. Haley and more about whether Republicans control both chambers and, if so, how big their majorities are. Congress always constrains the president’s agenda, as Trump found out in his first term and Biden experienced when he took office.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aaUpUp">
There’s also the question of whether a Senate GOP majority would keep the filibuster, which effectively requires 60 votes for all bills except the special budget reconciliation process. Since it’s quite rare for one party to have 60 senators, that’s meant that measures that don’t affect taxes or spending need bipartisan approval to pass. Trump has long called for <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/26/donald-trump-kill-the-filibuster-677151">eliminating the filibuster</a>, which could allow the GOP to enact a far more sweeping legislative agenda across many other issue areas. During his first term, Senate Republicans rolled their eyes at this demand, but Trump’s personality cult in the GOP has only strengthened since then, so it’s unclear how this would play out in 2025.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W4ejOb">
But the greatest domestic policy contrast would be on executive power, where Trump’s advisers have been shaping sweeping plans to use presidential authority to transform the immigration and trade systems as well as the federal government itself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m1Usxv">
The New York Times reported in November on how Trump advisers like Stephen Miller have been planning what Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/us/politics/trump-2025-immigration-agenda.html">promises will be</a> “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” This would include building huge detention camps, reassigning many federal agents and deputizing local officers for sweeping immigration raids, trying to end birthright citizenship, and much more. He’d try to do it all through executive power — though the <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a> would hear challenges over all this.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IZL8e1">
Haley is no immigration dove. Asked during the US now, <a href="https://www.politico.com/video/2024/01/10/haley-desantis-on-undocumented-immigrants-you-have-to-deport-them-1184294">she said</a>, “You have to deport them.” Yet she lacks the history of single-minded focus and fanaticism about this issue that Trump (and Miller) demonstrate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IeZ3st">
On trade, Trump last year <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/us/politics/trump-2025-trade-china.html">released a plan</a> to impose tariffs on most imported goods, <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6334380407112">saying</a> this could be a new 10 percent tax on imports. Though it’s meant to stimulate US industry, critics <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/22/trumps-proposed-10percent-tariff-plan-would-shake-up-every-asset-class-strategist.html">warn</a> that other countries would retaliate and that it would drive up many prices for American consumers. A Trump trade adviser <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/us/politics/trump-2025-trade-china.html">told the New York Times</a> that he believed this could be done through executive authority, adding that Trump had not made a final decision on whether he’d seek congressional congressional approval.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DIhhMn">
Haley <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/24/nikki-haley-says-china-is-an-enemy-us-companies-need-plan-b.html">has praised</a> Trump’s first-term actions on trade and called for more to be done to decouple the <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">US economy</a> from China. But some of her backers (like billionaire Charles Koch, whose political network <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/us/politics/koch-network-nikki-haley-endorsement-trump.html">has endorsed her</a>) would prefer a return to the old free trade Republican consensus.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WXQCsu">
Trump aides have also floated what’s known as the “<a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-2025-radical-plan-second-term">Schedule F</a>” plan, which would use executive authority to reclassify thousands of career civil service officials in the federal government as political appointees who can be fired. Effectively, this would let Trump purge a big chunk of what he considers “the deep state” — eliminating lifetime appointees and nonpartisan experts (who Trump argues are biased against him) so he can replace them with MAGA true believers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="z0xLZS">
Haley, meanwhile, has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/01/nikki-haley-government-worker-term-limits/">said she would</a> limit federal government officials to five years in the same job. On its face, this is even more sweeping than Trump’s plan, since it would apply to the entire federal bureaucracy — the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/01/nikki-haley-government-worker-term-limits/">Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell argued</a> that it would “destroy the basic machinery of government.” But Haley has also been quite vague on specifics here, unlike Trump’s team, who are crafting a very precise plan that they <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-presidency-schedule-f-federal-employees">told Axios</a> Trump would put into action immediately. My own suspicion is that Haley’s proposal is campaign trail pandering to small-government conservatives that she wouldn’t follow through on once in office.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hLpROO">
As governor of South Carolina, Haley did often push the envelope in expanding her executive power, repeatedly being<a href="https://www.thestate.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/cindi-ross-scoppe/article127985784.html"> checked by the courts</a>. But Trump would likely be at a different level entirely — driven by his obsessions over immigration and the deep state, surrounded by radical advisers, and having spent the past three years consumed with resentment about how his first term ended. Given another four years in office, expect him to go much further.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k1GYrs">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The Supreme Court says no, Texas can’t use razor wire to restrain federal agents</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="People walking across the river, holding their belongings. Razor wire in the foreground on one side of the river." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FGquAFNYory5k27uH8V1fbjoslA=/86x0:587x376/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73076736/temp.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
Razor wire lines the US-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas. | United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
By a bare 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court reaffirms that federal law still applies to Texas.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JshfFL">
One of the most well-settled questions in US constitutional law is that duly enacted federal laws overcome all state laws that conflict with them, and that states may not prevent federal officials from performing their official job duties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2IFT03">
This principle is written into the Constitution itself, which provides that federal law “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevi">shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby</a>.” The <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a> has even held, in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/135/1/"><em>In re Neagle</em></a> (1890), that states may not bring murder charges against a federal official who killed someone while performing his official duties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7ljUmt">
Nevertheless, last month a federal appeals court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23A607/294669/20240102145055112_23A%20DHS%20v.%20Texas%20app.pdf">reached the astonishing conclusion</a> that the state of Texas may erect razor wire barriers to prevent federal border patrol officers from doing their jobs, and it ordered the border patrol not to cut these wires except in very limited circumstances. The decision was handed down by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/27/23496264/supreme-court-fifth-circuit-trump-court-immigration-housing-sexual-harrassment">far-right court dominated by MAGA judges</a>, that frequently hands down decisions that are wildly at odds with existing law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="veIDaC">
On Monday, the Supreme Court handed down a very brief order in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/012224zr_fd9g.pdf"><em>Department of Homeland Security v. Texas</em></a> blocking this Fifth Circuit order. The order was decided in a 5-4 vote — which means that four justices appear to believe that Texas may use razor wire to restrain federal officials engaged in their official duties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nbZr92">
The four dissenters were Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. Chief Justice John Roberts and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/9/26/21457704/trump-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-nominee">Justice Amy Coney Barrett</a>, both Republican appointees, crossed over to vote with the Court’s three Democratic justices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wp604r">
The <em>Texas</em> case arises out of that state’s attempt to limit border crossings in Eagle Pass, Texas by lining nearly 30 miles of the US-Mexico border with razor wire. Much of this wire is along a river bank where migrants sometimes cross into the United States.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8wT0Nz">
This razor wire barrier, moreover, is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-immigration-migrants-fbd009e9ec8b2beb813bf790e78354a3">one of several steps Texas’s government</a> has taken to limit migration, often in defiance of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a> and of federal law. Texas also enacted a law that will allow state judges to issue deportation orders, a power that belongs to the federal government. And it is engaged in another court fight regarding a floating barrier of buoys the state erected in the Rio Grande.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2XP4VE">
The immediate issue before the Supreme Court is not whether Texas is allowed to construct such a barrier against the wishes of the federal government, which is itself a doubtful proposition. The Supreme Court has long held that “the supremacy of the national power in the general field of foreign affairs, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/312/52">including power over immigration</a>, naturalization and deportation, is made clear by the Constitution.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vzw6pF">
Rather, the question in the <em>Texas</em> case is whether the state of Texas may obtain a court order forbidding federal agents from cutting the razor wire barriers when they need to do so in order to perform their official duties. In at least one instance, according to the Justice Department, an agent “saw an ‘<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23A607/294669/20240102145055112_23A%20DHS%20v.%20Texas%20app.pdf">unconscious subject floating on top of the water</a>,’ but was ‘unable to retrieve or render aid to the subject due to the concertina wire barrier placed along the riverbank.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E6IdOs">
Nevertheless, the Fifth Circuit <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23A607/294669/20240102145055112_23A%20DHS%20v.%20Texas%20app.pdf">reached the flabbergasting conclusion</a> that it should issue an order allowing Texas to block federal officials with razor wire.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sHDmzu">
Despite the Fifth Circuit’s decision, Texas’s arguments in favor of such an order are so weak that they border on frivolity. Again, the Constitution says explicitly that states must yield to federal law, and that they must permit federal officials to perform their duties when those officials’ actions are authorized by federal law.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZWKGDL">
And there’s simply no question that federal law permits border patrol agents to approach migrants entering the United States, even if they do so on non-public land. Among other things, federal law explicitly gives border patrol agents the power, without first obtaining a search warrant, to “<a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:8%20section:1357%20edition:prelim)">have access to private lands</a>, but not dwellings, for the purpose of patrolling the border to prevent the illegal entry of aliens into the United States.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bCkRTQ">
So this case is a slam dunk for the federal government. And the only thing that should be surprising about the Court’s Monday order is that some of the justices dissented.
</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>Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty pair regains world no. 1 ranking</strong> - Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the world no. 1 ranking for a second time after successive runner-up finishes in the Malaysia Open super 1000 and India Open super 750 badminton tournaments</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>Djokovic extinguishes Fritz fire to make Australian Open semifinal</strong> - “It was extremely hot while the sun was still out there. Physically very draining, emotionally as well,” Djokovic said after the match</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>Pickleball is a hit at Chennai’s latest sporting arena in EA mall</strong> - Fancy playing pickleball? Check out Chennai’s latest sporting arena, Ice Water, located in Express Avenue mall, which is spread over spread over 20,000 sq. ft. and boasts three open air courts</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>K.L. Rahul will not play as wicketkeeper against England: Dravid</strong> - K.S. Bharat and Dhruv Jurel are the two specialist wicket-keepers who are in contention to stand behind the stumps</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>Rohit Sharma leads ICC ODI Team of the Year dominated by Indians</strong> - Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav also made it to the Team of the Year</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>Three held for peddling hash oil in Hyderabad</strong> - Police seized materials worth ₹12 lakh including two litres of Hashish oil</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Watch | World’s first ‘bagless’ tea dip</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>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Nalme Nachiyar.</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>Hyderabad filmmaker Anusha Didige’s documentary ‘The Otherside’ puts the spotlight on women in the food industry</strong> - Anusha Didige, director of the documentary ‘The Otherside’, holds forth on presenting the journeys of women in the food and business industry in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi and Puducherry</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>Tamil Nadu Cabinet approves policy for women</strong> - A State-level committee headed by Chief Secretaries and district-level committees headed by Collectors will be constituted to monitor the implementation of the policy and to address any issues of discrimination.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French protests: Female farmer killed as car hits French protesters</strong> - As French farmers expand their protests, a car crashes into a roadblock on a road south of Toulouse.</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: Civilians killed in missile strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv</strong> - Early morning missile attacks target blocks of flats in Ukraine’s capital and second biggest city.</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>‘Send back our husbands’ - Russian women in rare protest</strong> - A group of Russian women are making rare public demands for reservists to return from the front line.</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>Dramatic footage shows moment car smashes into café window in Italy</strong> - Customers were enjoying their breakfast when the vehicle ploughed into the local coffee shop.</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>Medibank hack: Russian sanctioned over Australia’s worst data breach</strong> - Aleksandr Ermakov has been targeted for his role in a “devastating” cyber-attack which rattled the nation.</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>NASA urged Astrobotic not to send its hamstrung spacecraft toward the Moon</strong> - A propellant leak prevented the Peregrine spacecraft from landing on the Moon. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997960">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Top Harvard Cancer researchers accused of scientific fraud; 37 studies affected</strong> - Researchers accused of manipulating data images with copy-and-paste. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997993">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Megalodon wasn’t as chonky as a great white shark, experts say</strong> - Fresh evidence points to megalodon being longer, more slender than previous depictions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1996598">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Google lays off “dozens” from X Labs, wants projects to seek outside funding</strong> - Google wants projects to take outside venture capital as part of budget cuts. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997874">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Robocall with artificial Joe Biden voice tells Democrats not to vote</strong> - Fake Biden voice urges New Hampshire Democrats to skip tomorrow’s primary. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997925">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>John walks into a pub and gets chatting to this big muscly guy at the bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What are you drinking?” he asks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Magic beer,” says the big guy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
John laughs. “Come on… there’s no such thing as magic beer.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Oh yeah?” says the big guy. “Watch this!” He takes a big swig of his beer, crosses his arms over his chest… and hovers three feet off the ground.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
John rubs his eyes, shakes his head to clear it, and says, “No, it’s been a long day and I’m tired. That can’t have happened - I’m seeing things.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The big guy says, “No, honest to God - hey, bartender, give me another pint of that magic beer!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender shakes his head, but he slides another pint of beer down the bar.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The guy drinks half of it in one go, stands up, and says, “Watch <em>this</em>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He runs upstairs, opens a window, jumps out… and flies three times around the building, shouting, “Wheeeeee!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
John is absolutely amazed, but he can’t deny the evidence of his own eyes. He snatches up the beer glass and downs the rest of it. He runs upstairs, opens a window, jumps out… and plummets to the ground, breaking both his legs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As he’s being loaded into the ambulance, the bartender shakes his head and says, “You know what, Superman? You’re a real dick when you’re drunk.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BeccasBump"> /u/BeccasBump </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19dbajk/john_walks_into_a_pub_and_gets_chatting_to_this/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19dbajk/john_walks_into_a_pub_and_gets_chatting_to_this/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I took my talking cow to a bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I took my talking cow to a bar and told the bartender that my cow would talk in exchange for a free drink.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender said, “Let’s see.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I asked my cow what the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet was.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My cow said, “mu.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then I asked my cow what a large shapeless dress was called.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My cow said, “mu-mu.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender said, “those aren’t real questions! Hey, cow, who was the greatest baseball player of all time?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
My cow answered, “Moooooo.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender got angry at this point and threw us out while yelling that we were frauds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Outside we sat on the curb. My cow looked sad, his head was bowed. A single tear trickled down from his eye and he asked me, “Do you think I should have said DiMaggio?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Flapjack_Ace"> /u/Flapjack_Ace </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19di6jk/i_took_my_talking_cow_to_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19di6jk/i_took_my_talking_cow_to_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Priest Peter arrives at Heaven’s Gates.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A priest named Peter was a really great man to God. Always faithful and hard-working. One day, he passed away of old age, and went to the Heaven’s Gates. Besides him was a really drunk bus driver (like, a really bad driver) who died the same day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Since Peter was thinking that the bus driver may not get a chance to enter heaven, he gave him the front place, saying “You can go before me, no problem.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
When the bus driver was going for the gates, Angel Gabriel saw him and shouted, “Oh my God, Reginald! What’s up, brother? We’ve been waiting for you man, come in!”. When Reginald entered the gates full of Angels welcoming him to Heaven, Peter was very confused as to how Gabriel welcomed him. Like a brother, nevertheless. But he then ignores that and went for his turn.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
When Angel Gabriel saw Peter, he said “Uhh, sorry Peter, but you’re not welcome here.” Peter then got furious, saying “WHAAT?? I dedicated my whole life to God’s work, and that’s how you reward me?? Why did you welcome this drunk bastard like a brother, but I, a man of God, get banished??”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Angel Gabriel answered him, “Well, Peter, you see… Whenever you are teaching in the church, you get the whole church so bored, that people start sleeping in the church. But that man? Reginald? Whenever he’s driving, he gets the whole bus praying!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/le_bouffon"> /u/le_bouffon </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19d5avy/priest_peter_arrives_at_heavens_gates/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19d5avy/priest_peter_arrives_at_heavens_gates/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Supporters of the 2nd amendment are very vocal</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But you don’t hear much from supporters of the 5th amendment
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Proof_Let4967"> /u/Proof_Let4967 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19d8vuf/supporters_of_the_2nd_amendment_are_very_vocal/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19d8vuf/supporters_of_the_2nd_amendment_are_very_vocal/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What do you call a man who’s lost 95% of his brain capacity?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Horny…
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Orn46777"> /u/Orn46777 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19dkvff/what_do_you_call_a_man_whos_lost_95_of_his_brain/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19dkvff/what_do_you_call_a_man_whos_lost_95_of_his_brain/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

4
index.html
View File

File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long