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 2023-05-16 12:49:57 +00:00
parent 740f8bcc15
commit b95af52ee8
3 changed files with 719 additions and 2 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

186
archive-covid-19/16 May, 2023.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,186 @@
<!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>16 May, 2023</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>Metformin an anti-diabetic drug, possess ACE-2 receptor-SARS- Cov-2 RBD binding antagonist activity, anti-inflammatory and cytokine inhibitory properties suitable for treatment of COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
Metformin is a widely used and is a safe anti-diabetic drug. It has also been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-viral activities in humans and animal models. Specifically we explored its activity in SARS-CoV-2 initiated COVID19 disease. Here we show that metformin 1. blocks the binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain RBD to human ACE2 receptor 2. We also show that it has anti-inflammatory effects and reduces cytokine secretion as well as blocks the recruitment of monocytes to endothelial cells 3. Finally we show its activity in a hamster in vivo model of SARS-CoV-2 infection as a nasal formulation. Based on the safety and the therapeutic properties relevant to COVID-19 it is feasible to propose a nasal spray of metformin that can be used in treatment of this disease. A nasal spray would deliver the drug to the target organ lung and spare other organs which get exposed upon oral dosing.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.14.540726v1" target="_blank">Metformin an anti-diabetic drug, possess ACE-2 receptor-SARS- Cov-2 RBD binding antagonist activity, anti-inflammatory and cytokine inhibitory properties suitable for treatment of COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A peptide derived from the SARS-CoV-2 S2-protein heptad-repeat-2 inhibits pseudoviral fusion at micromolar concentrations: Role of palmitic acid conjugation</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 S protein-mediated fusion is thought to involve the interaction of the membrane-distal, or N-terminal heptad repeat (NHR) (termed HR1) of the cleaved S2 segment of the protein, and the membrane-proximal, or C-terminal heptad repeat (CHR) (termed HR2) regions of the protein. Following the observations of Xia et al (Xia S, Liu M, Wang C, Xu W, Lan Q, Feng S, Qi F, Bao L, Du L, Liu S, Qin C, Sun F, Shi Z, Zhu Y, Jiang S, Lu L. Cell Res. 2020b Apr;30(4):343-355), we examined the fusion inhibitory activity of a PEGylated HR2-derived peptide and its palmitoylated derivative, using a pseudovirus infection assay. The latter peptide caused a 76% reduction in fusion activity at 10 M. Our results suggest that small variations in peptide derivatization and differences in the membrane composition of pseudovirus preparations may affect the inhibitory potency of HR2-derived peptides.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.13.540576v1" target="_blank">A peptide derived from the SARS-CoV-2 S2-protein heptad-repeat-2 inhibits pseudoviral fusion at micromolar concentrations: Role of palmitic acid conjugation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Reconstructing the first COVID-19 pandemic wave with minimal data in the UK</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Accurate measurement of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the population is crucial for understanding the dynamics of disease transmission and evaluating the impacts of interventions. However, it is particularly challenging to achieve this in the early phase of a pandemic because of the sparsity of epidemiological data. In our previous publication [1], we developed an early pandemic diagnostic tool that can link minimum datasets: seroprevalence, mortality and infection testing data to estimate the true exposure in different regions of England and found levels of SARS-CoV-2 population exposure are considerably higher than suggested by seroprevalence surveys. Here, we re-examined and evaluated the model in the context of reconstructing the first COVID-19 epidemic wave in England from three perspectives: validation from ONS Coronavirus Infection Survey, relationship between model performance and data abundance and time-varying case detection rate. We found that our model can recover the first but unobserved epidemic wave of COVID-19 in England from March 2020 to June 2020 as long as two or three serological measurements are given as model inputs additionally, with the second wave during winter of 2020 validated by the estimates from ONS Coronavirus Infection Survey. Moreover, the model estimated that by the end of October in 2020 the UK governments official COVID-9 online dashboard reported COVID-19 cases only accounted for 9.1% (95%CrI (8.7%,9.8%)) of cumulative exposure, dramatically varying across two epidemic waves in England in 2020 (4.3% (95%CrI (4.1%, 4.6%)) vs 43.7% (95%CrI (40.7%, 47.3%))).
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.17.23287140v2" target="_blank">Reconstructing the first COVID-19 pandemic wave with minimal data in the UK</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Lip movements and lexical features improve speech tracking differently for clear and multi-speaker speech</strong> -
<div>
Visual speech plays a powerful role in facilitating auditory speech processing and has been a publicly noticed topic with the wide usage of face masks during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a previous magnetoencephalography (MEG) study we showed that occluding the mouth area significantly impairs neural speech tracking. To rule out the possibility that this deterioration is due to degraded sound quality, in the present follow-up study, we presented participants with audiovisual (AV) and audio-only (A) speech. We further independently manipulated the trials by adding a face mask and a distractor speaker. Our results clearly show that face masks only affect speech tracking in AV conditions, not in A conditions. This shows that face masks indeed primarily impact speech processing by blocking visual speech and not by acoustic degradation. Furthermore, we observe differences in the speech features that are used for visual speech processing. On the one hand, processing in clear speech, but not in noisy speech, is profiting more from lexical unit features (phonemes and word onsets) hinting at improved phoneme discrimination. On the other hand, we observe an improvement in speech tracking driven by the modulations of the lip area in clear speech and conditions with a distractor speaker, which might aid by providing temporal cues for subsequent auditory processing. With this work, we highlight the effects of face masks in AV speech tracking and show two separate ways how visual speech might support successful speech processing.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.15.540818v1" target="_blank">Lip movements and lexical features improve speech tracking differently for clear and multi-speaker speech</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Ability to detect fake news predicts sub-national variation in COVID-19 vaccine uptake across the UK</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Susceptibility to believing false or misleading information is associated with a range of adverse outcomes. However, it is notoriously difficult to study the link between susceptibility to misinformation and consequential real-world behaviors such as vaccine uptake. In this preregistered study, we devise a large-scale socio-spatial model that combines the rigor of a psychometrically validated test of misinformation susceptibility administered to a nationally representative sample of 16,477 individuals with COVID-19 vaccine uptake data of 129 sub-national regions published by the United Kingdom (UK) government, to show that the general ability to detect misinformation strongly and positively predicts regional vaccine uptake in the UK. We put this practically significant correlational effect size into perspective by noting how psychological interventions that reduce individuals9 misinformation susceptibility could be associated with additional vaccine uptake.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.10.23289764v1" target="_blank">Ability to detect fake news predicts sub-national variation in COVID-19 vaccine uptake across the UK</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Effectiveness of drugs for COVID-19 inpatients in Japanese medical claim data as average treatment effects with inverse probability weighted regression adjustment</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Earlier studies and clinical trials have indicated that drugs such as antiviral drugs, antibody cocktails, and steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs are expected to prevent severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes and death. Object: We used observational data for Japan to assess the effectiveness of these drugs for treating COVID-19. Method: We applied an average treatment effect model with inverse probability weighted regression adjustment, which can treat the choice of administered drug as a random assignment to inpatients, to the Medical Information Analysis Databank operated by National Hospital Organization in Japan. The outcome was defined as mortality. Subjects were all inpatients, inpatients with oxygen administration, and inpatients using respiratory ventilators, classified by three age classes: all ages, 65 years old or older, and younger than 65 years old. Information about physical characteristics, underlying disease, administered drug, the proportion of mutated strains, and vaccine coverage were used as explanatory variables for logistic regression. Result: Estimated results indicated that only an antibody cocktail (sotrovimab, casirivimab and imdevimab) raised the probability of saving life consistently, even though these drugs were administered in few cases. By contrast, other drugs might reduce the probability of saving life. Discussion: Results indicate that an antiviral drug (remdesivir), a steroid (dexamethasone), and an anti-inflammatory drug (baricitinib and tocilizumab) might not contribute to the saving of life, even in the pseudo-situation of random assignment.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.12.23289913v1" target="_blank">Effectiveness of drugs for COVID-19 inpatients in Japanese medical claim data as average treatment effects with inverse probability weighted regression adjustment</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Insight into risk associated phenotypes behind COVID-19 from phenotype genome-wide association studies</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Long COVID presents a complex and multi-systemic disease that poses a significant global public health challenge. Symptoms can vary widely, ranging from asymptomatic to severe, making the condition challenging to diagnose and manage effectively. Furthermore, identifying appropriate phenotypes in genome-wide association studies of COVID-19 remains unresolved. This study aimed to address these challenges by analyzing 220 deep-phenotype genome-wide association data sets (159 diseases, 38 biomarkers and 23 medication usage) from BioBank Japan (BBJ) (n=179,000), UK Biobank and FinnGen (n=628,000) to investigate pleiotropic effects of known COVID-19 risk associated single nucleotide variants. Our findings reveal 32 different phenotypes that share the common genetic risk factors with COVID-19 (p &lt; 7.6×10−11), including two diseases (myocardial infarction and type 2 diabetes), 26 biomarkers with seven categories (blood cell, metabolic, liver-related, kidney-related, protein, inflammatory and anthropometric), and four medications (antithrombotic agents, HMG CoA reductase inhibitors, thyroid preparations and anilides). As long COVID continues to coexist with humans, our results highlight the need for targeted screening to support specific vulnerable populations to improve disease prevention and healthcare delivery.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.09.23289706v1" target="_blank">Insight into risk associated phenotypes behind COVID-19 from phenotype genome-wide association studies</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Projecting the potential impact of an Omicron XBB.1.5 wave in Shanghai, China</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
China experienced a major nationwide wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections in December 2022, immediately after lifting strict interventions, despite the majority of the population having already received inactivated COVID-19 vaccines. Due to the rapid waning of protection and the emergence of Omicron XBB.1.5, the risk of another COVID-19 wave remains high. It is still unclear whether the health care system will be able to manage the demand during this potential XBB.1.5 wave and if the number of associated deaths can be reduced to a level comparable to that of seasonal influenza. Thus, we developed a mathematical model of XBB.1.5 transmission using Shanghai as a case study. We found that a potential XBB.1.5 wave is less likely to overwhelm the health care system and would result in a death toll comparable to that of seasonal influenza, albeit still larger, especially among elderly individuals. Our analyses show that a combination of vaccines and antiviral drugs can effectively mitigate an XBB.1.5 epidemic, with a projected number of deaths of 2.08 per 10,000 individuals. This figure corresponds to a 70-80% decrease compared to the previous Omicron wave and is comparable to the level of seasonal influenza. The peak prevalence of hospital admissions and ICU admissions are projected at 28.89 and 2.28 per 10,000 individuals, respectively, suggesting the need for a moderate increase in the capacity of the health care system. Our findings emphasize the importance of improving vaccination coverage, particularly among the older population, and the use of antiviral treatments.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.10.23289761v1" target="_blank">Projecting the potential impact of an Omicron XBB.1.5 wave in Shanghai, China</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>“Now you see me”: detecting asymptomatic infectious individuals in the population</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Quarantine is an effective countermeasure to stop or slow the spread of an emerging infectious disease when no other preventive measures are available to protect the population. However, when the disease results in a proportion of asymptomatic infections, the spread dynamics are affected, and quarantine efficiency is impaired. Here, we introduce an extended susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model to study the effects of asymptomatic individuals at the onset of an emerging infectious disease when no vaccination is yet available and/or when a vaccine is available but only a subset of the population can be vaccinated due to limited supply or the unwillingness of susceptible individuals to receive an injection. These aspects have been indirectly incorporated into the model using a time-dependent vaccination rate. With this model, we confirm that, in the case of a missing vaccine, quarantine is effective in stopping the spread of an infectious disease, but its efficiency can be substantially reduced in the presence of individuals developing asymptomatic infection. Moreover, we show that vaccination is effective only if available early during the epidemic and if the vaccination rate is sufficiently high. By applying this model to Zurich and all of Switzerland in case of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found that the following two strategies have similar outcomes: either placing infectious individuals into quarantine when no vaccine is available or dropping quarantine measures but administering a vaccine at a daily rate of 1%, starting no later than 105 days after the onset of the epidemic. Beyond this time period, a vaccination campaign will have no effect in stopping the spread of the disease if 25% of the susceptible population is asymptomatic. We also found that the option of deploying a vaccination campaign was more effective for all of Switzerland than for only the city of Zurich.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.08.23289685v1" target="_blank">“Now you see me”: detecting asymptomatic infectious individuals in the population</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Immune response to SARS CoV2 infection by TLR3, TLR4 and TLR7 expression</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Toll like receptors (TLRs) may be involved both in the initial failure of viral clearance and in the subsequent development of fatal clinical manifestations of severe COVID19, essentially ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) with fatal respiratory failure. While TLR3 recognizes viral double stranded RNA (dsRNA), TLR7 recognizes viral single stranded RNA and is therefore likely to be involved in SARS CoV2 clearance. On the other hand, TLR4, at the surface of cells, toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) in the induction of damaging inflammatory responses during acute viral infections as it functions as a sensor for damage associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). These include a wide variety of molecules released from injured or dying tissues as well as molecules actively released in response to cellular stress from intact cells. We present the gene expression of TLR 3, 4, and 7 in nasopharyngeal total RNA samples from 150 individuals positive for SARS Cov2 (DET) by molecular techniques of isothermal amplification (Neokit SA) and 152 SARS CoV2 non detectable (ND) ambulatory and hospitalizedpatients with a non-defined respiratory disease, and we compared with the symptomatology developed by all those patients. We analyzed 4 cohorts: 1 SARS Cov2 genome detected patients with severe to high symptomatology (n=107);2 SARS Cov2 genome detected patients low to mild symptomatology (n=43); 3 SARS Cov2 genome non detected patients with severe to high symptomatology (n=109); and 4 SARS Cov2 genome non detected patients low to mild symptomatology (n=41). Our results showed no significant differences of expression for TLR3, TLR4 and TLR7 between SARS Cov2 detected and non-detected total cohort of patients (Non Paired T test p Value&gt;0.1). When compared severity of symptoms (presence of symptoms from the COVID19 12 diagnosis symptoms) and gene expression by a Spearman9s Correlation Coefficient there was significant positive correlation between severe symptomatology, and the number of symptoms and death for TLR4 and TLR7 for both infected and non COVID19 infected patients. When the cohort was construct with low/middle and severe symptoms, the Correlation Coefficient showed that expression of TLR4 and TLR7 was significantly amplified in those ND patients with severe symptomatology (p Value= 0.00311) as well as for TLR3 in ND low to mild symptoms cohort of patients. We also showed and discussed the results obtained of these genes expression and the sex and age of patients. In summary, our data suggest that although our innate immune system with TLRs contributes to the elimination of viruses, it can also be associated with harm to the host due to persistent inflammation and tissue destruction. We confirmed that principally TLR4 and TLR7 could be involved not only in the pathogenesis of COVID19 but also in other respiratory diseases with same symptomatology. We suggest that treatments focus on TLR4 and TLR7 expression in inflammatory respiratory diseases could be a start point against severe symptoms development.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.12.23288889v1" target="_blank">Immune response to SARS CoV2 infection by TLR3, TLR4 and TLR7 expression</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>From Collection to Analysis: A Comparison of GISAID and the Covid-19 Data Portal</strong> -
<div>
We analyse ongoing efforts to share genomic data about SARS-COV-2 through a comparison of the characteristics of the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data and the Covid-19 Data Portal with respect to the representativeness and governance of the research data therein. We focus on data and metadata on genetic sequences posted on the two infrastructures in the period between January 2020 and January 2023, thus capturing a period of acute response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a variety of data science methods, we compare the extent to which the two portals succeeded in attracting data submissions from different countries around the globe and look at the ways in which submission rates varied over time. We go on to analyse the structure and underlying architecture of the infrastructures, reviewing how they organise data access and use, the types of metadata and version tracking they provide. Finally, we explore usage patterns of each infrastructure based on publications that mention the data to understand how data reuse can facilitate forms of diversity between institutions, cities, countries, and funding groups. Our findings reveal disparities in representation between the two infrastructures and differing practices in data governance and architecture. We conclude that both infrastructures offer useful lessons, with GISAID demonstrating the importance of expanding data submissions and representation, while the COVID-19 data portal offers insights into how to enhance data usability.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.13.540634v1" target="_blank">From Collection to Analysis: A Comparison of GISAID and the Covid-19 Data Portal</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Large-scale template-based structural modeling of T-cell receptors with known antigen specificity reveals complementarity features.</strong> -
<div>
T-cell receptor (TCR) recognition of foreign peptides presented by the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) initiates the adaptive immune response against pathogens. A large number of TCR sequences specific to different antigens are known to date, however, the structural data describing the conformation and contacting residues for TCR:antigen:MHC complexes is relatively limited. In the present study we aim to extend and analyze the set of available structures by performing highly accurate template-based modeling of TCR:antigen:MHC complexes using TCR sequences with known specificity. Using the set of 29 complex templates (including a template with SARS-CoV-2 antigen) and 732 specificity records, we built a database of 1585 model structures carrying substitutions in either TCR or TCR{beta} chains with some models representing the result of different mutation pathways for the same final structure. This database allowed us to analyze features of amino acid contacts in TCR:antigen interfaces that govern antigen recognition preferences and interpret these interactions in terms of physicochemical properties of interacting residues. Our results provide a methodology for creating high-quality TCR:antigen:MHC models for antigens of interest that can be utilized to predict TCR specificity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.29.533758v3" target="_blank">Large-scale template-based structural modeling of T-cell receptors with known antigen specificity reveals complementarity features.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Moving online: Experiences and potential benefits of digital dance for older adults and individuals with Parkinson’s disease</strong> -
<div>
Background. Dance is found to provide a range of beneficial effects for older adults including individuals with age-related neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease (PD). The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the development of at-home dance programs delivered digitally through live and pre-recorded media, but little is known about how participants may engage with and benefit from these resources. Objective. This study explored experiences and potential benefits of digital dance resources among healthy older adults and individuals with neurological conditions. Methods. An online survey consisting of fixed-choice and open questions was designed in collaboration with dance program providers and distributed between June and November 2020. Results. High levels of engagement in at-home dance programs were found among healthy older adults (N = 149) and individuals with PD (N = 178). Sensorimotor outcomes (e.g., balance, posture) were more widely reported among individuals with PD, while older adults reported similar numbers of sensorimotor and non-motor (e.g., mood, confidence) outcomes. The use of strategies (imagery and vocalising) during participation were differentially associated with outcomes in older adults and PD groups. At-home dance was found to offer convenience and flexibility, but participants missed the interaction, support and routine of in-person classes. The majority expressed a preference to continue with both digital and in-person participation in the future. Qualitative analysis of participants’ comments reinforced the quantitative findings, while also revealing that online dance could help to maintain connection and well-being, and identifying further considerations for improving accessibility and facilitating digital engagement. Conclusions. At-home dance programs appear to be accessible and engaging for older adults, including individuals with PD, although potential barriers to participation need to be addressed. Digital resources for home-based activities will be increasingly important to enable cost-effective, large-scale provision of therapeutic activities for older adults.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/954f2/" target="_blank">Moving online: Experiences and potential benefits of digital dance for older adults and individuals with Parkinson’s disease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Dance at home for people with Parkinson’s during COVID-19 and beyond: Participation, perceptions and prospects</strong> -
<div>
Emerging evidence shows that dance can provide both physical and non-physical benefits for people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The suspension of in-person dance classes during the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a transition to remote provision via live and recorded digital media. An online survey explored accessibility of and engagement with these home-based dance programs, as well as perceived benefits. The survey was co-developed by researchers and dance program providers, with input from people with PD and physiotherapists. Responses were collected from 276 individuals, including 178 current users of home-based programs, the majority of whom were participating at least once per week. Among respondents not currently using digital resources, lack of knowledge and motivation were the primary barriers. Most participants (94.9%) reported that home based practice provided some benefits, including physical (e.g., balance, posture) and non-physical (e.g., mood, confidence) improvements. Participants valued the convenience and flexibility of digital participation, but noted limitations including reductions in social interaction, support from instructors and peers, and routine. There was a strong preference (70.8%) for continuing with home-based practice alongside in-person classes in the future. The results indicate that at-home dance is accessible and usable for people with PD, and that some of the previously-reported benefits of dance may be replicated in this context. While COVID-19 expedited the development of digital programs, these will likely remain a key element of future provision for people with PD. The findings will inform the further development of resources and research into outcomes of home-based dance participation.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/4wep9/" target="_blank">Dance at home for people with Parkinson’s during COVID-19 and beyond: Participation, perceptions and prospects</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Regulation of coronavirus nsp15 cleavage specificity by RNA structure</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2, the etiologic agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, has had an enduring impact on global public health. However, SARS-CoV-2 is only one of multiple pathogenic human coronaviruses (CoVs) to have emerged since the turn of the century. CoVs encode for several nonstructural proteins (NSPS) that are essential for viral replication and pathogenesis. Among them is nsp15, a uridine-specific viral endonuclease that is important in evading the host immune response and promoting viral replication. Despite the established function of nsp15 as a uridine-specific endonuclease, little is known about other determinants of its cleavage specificity. In this study we investigate the role of RNA secondary structure in SARS-CoV-2 nsp15 endonuclease activity. Using a series of in vitro endonuclease assays, we observed that thermodynamically stable RNA structures were protected from nsp15 cleavage relative to RNAs lacking stable structure. We leveraged the s2m RNA from the SARS 3'UTR as a model for our structural studies as it adopts a well-defined structure with several uridines, two of which are unpaired and thus high probably targets for nsp15 cleavage. We found that SARS-CoV-2 nsp15 specifically cleaves s2m at the unpaired uridine within the GNRNA pentaloop of the RNA. Further investigation revealed that the position of uridine within the pentaloop also impacted nsp15 cleavage efficiency, suggesting that positioning within the pentaloop is necessary for optimal presentation of the scissile uridine and alignment within the nsp15 catalytic pocket. Our findings indicate that RNA secondary structure is an important determinant of nsp15 cleavage and provides insight into the molecular mechanisms of recognition of RNA by nsp15.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.12.540483v1" target="_blank">Regulation of coronavirus nsp15 cleavage specificity by RNA structure</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>The Standard of Care Combined With Glucocorticoid in Elderly People With Mild or Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Glucocorticoid<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Huashan Hospital<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>Arginine Replacement Therapy in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Arginine Hydrochloride<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Emory University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effectiveness of a Second COVID-19 Vaccine Booster in Chinese Adults</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Intramuscularly administered Ad5-nCoV vaccine;   Biological: Aerosolized Ad5-nCoV;   Biological: DelNS1-2019-nCoV-RBD-OPT1;   Biological: SYS6006<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Pilot Study Evaluating the Efficacy of the Vielight Neuro RX Gamma in the Treatment of Post COVID-19 Cognitive Impairment</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post COVID-19 Cognitive Impairment<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: Vielight Neuro RX Gamma active device;   Device: Vielight Neuro RX Gamma sham device<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Vielight 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>Working Towards Empowered Community-driven Approaches to Increase Vaccination and Preventive Care Engagement</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: mHealth Outreach;   Other: Care Coordination<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of California, San Diego;   San Ysidro Health Center<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>PAxlovid loNg cOvid-19 pRevention triAl With recruitMent In the Community in Norway</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post COVID-19 Condition, Unspecified;   SARS-CoV2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Haukeland University Hospital;   University of Bergen<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>Role of Vit-D Supplementation on BioNTech, Pfizer Vaccine Side Effect and Immunoglobulin G Response</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Combination Product: Vitamin-D<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sulaimany Polytechnic university<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>REVERSE-Long COVID-19 With Baricitinib Pilot Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Baricitinib 4 MG<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Vanderbilt University Medical Center;   Emory University;   University of California, San Francisco;   University of Minnesota;   Vanderbilt University;   Yale University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Post Covid-19 Dysautonomia Rehabilitation Randomized Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome;   Dysautonomia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Procedure: Rehabilitation;   Procedure: Standard of Care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Evangelismos Hospital;   National and Kapodistrian University of Athens;   LONG COVID GREECE;   414 Military Hospital of Special Diseases<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety, Tolerability and Immunogenicity of Alveavax-v1.2, a BA.2/Omicron-optimized, DNA Vaccine for COVID-19 Prevention</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Sars-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Alveavax-v1.2;   Drug: Janssen Ad26.COV2.S<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Alvea Holdings, LLC<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>COVID-19 Vaccination Detoxification in LDL-C</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Stress Syndrome;   COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Reaction;   COVID-19-Associated Thromboembolism;   COVID-19 Post-Intensive Care Syndrome;   COVID-19-Associated Stroke;   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Combination Product: Atorvastatin Calcium Tablets<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Yang I. Pachankis<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Understanding the Determinants of Mucosal Immunity and Optimizing the Diagnosis of Infection With SARS-CoV-2 Variants</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Blood sample collection;   Other: Saliva sample collection;   Other: Nasopharyngeal and nasal sample collection;   Other: Exhaled Breath Condensate (EBC)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Institut Pasteur;   Biogroup Laboratoire de biologie médicale<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study in Healthy Volunteers to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics, and Drug-Drug Interaction Potential of Single and Multiple Doses of ALG-097558</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: ALG-097558;   Drug: Placebo;   Drug: Midazolam;   Drug: Itraconazole;   Drug: Carbamazepine;   Drug: ALG-097558 in solution formulation;   Drug: ALG-097558 in tablet formulation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Aligos Therapeutics<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>Exercise for Health in Patients With Post-acute Sequelae of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Long COVID<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Rehabilitation program<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Campus docent Sant Joan de Déu-Universitat de Barcelona;   Hospital de Mataró;   University of Barcelona<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunoadsorption Study Mainz in Adults With Post-COVID Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post-COVID-19 Syndrome;   Post-COVID Syndrome;   Post COVID-19 Condition<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: Immunoadsorption;   Device: Sham-apheresis<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University Medical Center Mainz<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>SARS-CoV-2 Enters Human Leydig Cells and Affects Testosterone Production In Vitro</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a SARS-like coronavirus, continues to produce mounting infections and fatalities all over the world. Recent data point to SARS-CoV-2 viral infections in the human testis. As low testosterone levels are associated with SARS-CoV-2 viral infections in males and human Leydig cells are the main source of testosterone, we hypothesized that SARS-CoV-2 could infect human Leydig cells and impair their function. We successfully detected…</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>NLRP3 Inflammasome’s Activation in Acute and Chronic Brain Diseases-An Update on Pathogenetic Mechanisms and Therapeutic Perspectives with Respect to Other Inflammasomes</strong> - Increasingly prevalent acute and chronic human brain diseases are scourges for the elderly. Besides the lack of therapies, these ailments share a neuroinflammation that is triggered/sustained by different innate immunity-related protein oligomers called inflammasomes. Relevant neuroinflammation players such as microglia/monocytes typically exhibit a strong NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Hence the idea that NLRP3 suppression might solve neurodegenerative ailments. Here we review the recent…</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 and non-structural proteins in SARS-CoV-2: potential aspects to COVID-19 treatment or prevention of progression of related diseases</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by a new member of the Coronaviridae family known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). There are structural and non-structural proteins (NSPs) in the genome of this virus. S, M, H, and E proteins are structural proteins, and NSPs include accessory and replicase proteins. The structural and NSP components of SARS-CoV-2 play an important role in its infectivity, and some of them may be important in the pathogenesis 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>Pan-sarbecovirus prophylaxis with human anti-ACE2 monoclonal antibodies</strong> - Human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that target the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein have been isolated from convalescent individuals and developed into therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, therapeutic mAbs for SARS-CoV-2 have been rendered obsolete by the emergence of mAb-resistant virus variants. Here we report the generation of a set of six human mAbs that bind the human angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (hACE2) receptor, rather than the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A peptide derived from HSP60 reduces proinflammatory cytokines and soluble mediators: a therapeutic approach to inflammation</strong> - Cytokines are secretion proteins that mediate and regulate immunity and inflammation. They are crucial in the progress of acute inflammatory diseases and autoimmunity. In fact, the inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines has been widely tested in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Some of these inhibitors have been used in the treatment of COVID-19 patients to improve survival rates. However, controlling the extent of inflammation with cytokine inhibitors is still a challenge because…</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>Novel targeted inhibition of the IL-5 axis for drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms syndrome</strong> - CONCLUSION: Current treatment guidelines for DRESS are based on case reports and expert opinion. Understanding the central role of eosinophils in DRESS pathogenicity emphasizes the need for future implementation of IL-5 axis blockade as steroid-sparing agents, potential therapy to steroid-resistant cases, and perhaps an alternative to CS treatment in certain DRESS patients more prone to CS toxicity.</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>Dual domain recognition determines SARS-CoV-2 PLpro selectivity for human ISG15 and K48-linked di-ubiquitin</strong> - The Papain-like protease (PLpro) is a domain of a multi-functional, non-structural protein 3 of coronaviruses. PLpro cleaves viral polyproteins and posttranslational conjugates with poly-ubiquitin and protective ISG15, composed of two ubiquitin-like (UBL) domains. Across coronaviruses, PLpro showed divergent selectivity for recognition and cleavage of posttranslational conjugates despite sequence conservation. We show that SARS-CoV-2 PLpro binds human ISG15 and K48-linked di-ubiquitin…</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>TRIM21 promotes ubiquitination of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein to regulate innate immunity</strong> - The innate immune response is the first line of host defense against viral infections, but its role in immunity against SARS-CoV-2 remains unclear. By using immunoprecipitation coupled with mass spectroscopy, we observed that the E3 ubiquitin ligase TRIM21 interacted with the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein and ubiquitinated it at Lys^(375) . Upon determining the topology of the TRIM21-mediated polyubiquitination chain on N protein, we then found that polyubiquitination led to tagging of the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Prophylactic administration of ivermectin attenuates SARS-CoV-2 induced disease in a Syrian Hamster Model</strong> - COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, is currently among the most important public health concerns worldwide. Although several effective vaccines have been developed, there is an urgent clinical need for effective pharmaceutical treatments for treatment of COVID-19. Ivermectin, a chemical derivative of avermectin produced by Streptomyces avermitilis, is a macrocyclic lactone with antiparasitic activity. Recent studies have shown that ivermectin inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro. In…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Efficacy and Mechanism Driven Study on the Impact of Hypoxia on Lipid Nanoparticle Mediated mRNA Delivery</strong> - Hypoxia is a common hallmark of human disease that is characterized by abnormally low oxygen levels in the body. While the effects of hypoxia on many small molecule-based drugs are known, its effects on several classes of next-generation medications including messenger RNA therapies warrant further study. Here, we provide an efficacy- and mechanism-driven study that details how hypoxia impacts the cellular response to mRNA therapies delivered using 4 different chemistries of lipid nanoparticles…</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>Aqueous cannabidiol β-cyclodextrin complexed polymeric micelle nasal spray to attenuate in vitro and ex-vivo SARS-CoV-2-induced cytokine storms</strong> - Cannabidiol (CBD) has a number of biological effects by acting on the cannabinoid receptors CB(1) and CB(2). CBD may be involved in anti-inflammatory processes via CB(1) and CB(2) receptors, resulting in a decrease of pro-inflammatory cytokines. However, CBD’s poor aqueous solubility is a major issue in pharmaceutical applications. The aim of the present study was to develop and evaluate a CBD nasal spray solution. A water-soluble CBD was prepared by complexation with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) at a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bimekizumab efficacy and safety in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis: two-year interim results from the open-label extension of the randomized BE RADIANT phase 3b trial</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: High PASI100 responses achieved with bimekizumab over 48 weeks were sustained through Week 96; secukinumab patients who switched to bimekizumab achieved similar response by Week 96.</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>Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Immunoglobulin Products</strong> - CONCLUSION: Overall, more recent Ig products (expiration dates: 2023 - 2025) contained significantly higher binding and inhibition activities against SARS-CoV-2 proteins, as compared to earlier, or pre-pandemic products. Normal donor SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are capable of inhibiting ACE2-binding activities and may provide a therapeutic benefit for patients who do not make a robust vaccine response.</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>Small molecule inhibitor CRT0066101 inhibits cytokine storm syndrome in a mouse model of lung injury</strong> - Pneumonia is an acute inflammation of the lungs induced by pathogenic microorganisms, immune damage, physical and chemical factors, and other factors, and the latest outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia is also an acute lung injury (ALI) induced by viral infection. However, there are currently no effective treatments for inflammatory cytokine storms in patients with ALI/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Protein kinase D (PKD) is a highly active kinase that has been shown to be…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Impact of the Recognition Part of Dipeptidyl Nitroalkene Compounds on the Inhibition Mechanism of Cysteine Proteases Cruzain and Cathepsin L</strong> - Cysteine proteases (CPs) are an important class of enzymes, many of which are responsible for several human diseases. For instance, cruzain of protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is responsible for the Chagas disease, while the role of human cathepsin L is associated with some cancers or is a potential target for the treatment of COVID-19. However, despite paramount work carried out during the past years, the compounds that have been proposed so far show limited inhibitory action against these…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

531
archive-daily-dose/16 May, 2023.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,531 @@
<!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>16 May, 2023</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>Chicago’s Unlikeliest Mayor, Brandon Johnson</strong> - The former union organizer makes the leap from protest to politics. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/chicagos-unlikeliest-mayor-brandon-johnson">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Vanishing Acts of Vladimir Putin</strong> - One of the seeming paradoxes of the Russian President is the degree to which he is at once a unitary micromanager and an absent, aloof, and often indecisive leader. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-vanishing-acts-of-vladimir-putin">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Bluesky Tells Us About the Future of Social Media</strong> - The new platform aims to be a decentralized alternative to Twitter. The vibe there is mostly like that of a Portland coffee shop. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-bluesky-tells-us-about-the-future-of-social-media">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Don’t Believe Donald Trump: A Failure to Raise the Debt Ceiling Would Be Disastrous</strong> - The ex-President’s intervention has made a fraught situation even more complicated. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/dont-believe-donald-trump-a-failure-to-raise-the-debt-ceiling-would-be-disastrous">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>W.G.A. Strike: Why Your Favorite Shows Could Go Dark</strong> - Michael Schulman talks with Laura Jacqmin, a veteran TV writer and a Writers Guild strike captain. Plus, the comedian and essayist Samantha Irby in conversation with Doreen St. Félix. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/wga-strike-why-your-favorite-shows-could-go-dark">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The overlooked Republican faction that could decide debt ceiling negotiations</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M3mGsgrtwKZgFIhfkORsk628sW8=/230x0:5034x3603/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72284000/1177076170.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks as Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) listen during a news conference at the US Capitol September 25, 2019, in Washington, DC. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Of the “five families” of the House GOP, one group could determine if the US defaults on its debt.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n9DTy4">
Over the past decade, the United States has gone through a series of standoffs over the federal budget and the debt limit with an ever-changing cast of characters. Starting from the original 2011 version, starring Barack Obama as the beleaguered Democratic president and John Boehner as the embattled Republican Speaker of the House, these fights have become a feature of American politics. The cast changes, as do some plot details, but, like the <em>Fast &amp; Furious</em> franchise, the same basic formula remains.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KRjX5S">
This year is the reboot with a new set of main protagonists. Joe Biden is in the role of the beleaguered Democratic president and <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/10/2022-midterms-kevin-mccarthy-is-the-man-in-the-maga-middle.html">Kevin McCarthy</a> is the embattled Republican Speaker of the House. But while casual viewers may think other elements of the story have remained otherwise stable, they haven’t. After all, this is Washington, not Hollywood, and the various events that have shaped the underlying political dynamics over the past few years could not be scripted in any writers room — like McCarthy’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/1/7/23543163/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-of-the-house-vote-elected">15-ballot battle to become speaker</a>, let alone the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. McCarthy is now trying to steer House Republicans toward a deal with a narrow five-vote majority and a <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/11/gop-leadership-fight-in-congress-shows-a-party-of-warlords.html">deeply factionalized conference</a> that in some ways bears a greater resemblance to a parliamentary coalition than the type of solid majorities that speakers traditionally command.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gF12Wh">
One of the ways in which McCarthy manages his fractious coalition is through meetings of what has come to be referred to on Capitol Hill as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/07/kevin-mccarthy-house-revolt-speaker/">“the five families,”</a> a reference to the Mafia clans that once dominated organized crime in metro New York. Every week, the leaders of five factions within the Republican conference meet in McCarthy’s office to hash out upcoming issues. They are Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) of the Problem Solvers Caucus, Rep. David Joyce (R-OH) of the Republican Governance Group, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) of the Republican Main Street Caucus, Rep. Kevin Hearn (R-OK) of the Republican Study Group, and Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) of the House Freedom Caucus. Yet while the five families comparison is an easy shorthand, it’s simplistic to view all the groups as having similar power, let alone being that easy to distinguish from each other.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="34eNyX">
First, the lines between the groups blur very easily. Taken broadly in order from left to right:
</p>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jNJcM2">
The<strong> Problem Solvers Caucus</strong> is a bipartisan group backed by the centrist lobby No Labels that is mostly moderates.
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8Seuyh">
The <strong>Republican Governance Group</strong> is the descendant of a group of liberal and moderate Republicans that formed in reaction to Newt Gingrich’s takeover in 1994.
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eJFuwX">
The <strong>Republican Main Street Caucus</strong> represents “pragmatic conservatives” and includes both relative moderates and party-line Republicans.
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cJU8lj">
The <strong>Republican Study Committee</strong>, which was once a group of hardcore conservatives, now encompasses the vast majority of the conference.
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8aF0Rg">
Finally, the <strong>House Freedom Caucus</strong> (HFC) has become the new factional stronghold of the hard right.
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bOLETX">
Second, the power dynamics have greatly changed in the past decade. Under Boehner, Republicans had a comfortable majority and the Freedom Caucus members were the troublemakers lobbing bombs from the sidelines and helping to push the US to the precipice of default. In contrast, the HFC is now a key part of McCarthy’s coalition; they were instrumental in helping deliver him the speaker’s gavel. HFC member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has gone from one of the leading bomb-throwers to a committee chair and key McCarthy ally. McCarthy still faces skepticism from the hard right. After all, members like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) held out until the end against him in the speaker’s election. But there is now real buy-in for McCarthy’s agenda from a right-wing faction of the GOP, which was outside the tent in the past. In April, this alliance was on display when McCarthy successfully passed his <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/4/19/23690167/debt-ceiling-bill-house-republicans">opening debt limit offer</a>, when a number of Republicans voted to raise the debt limit for the first time in their congressional careers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u3cDlu">
Assuming McCarthy and Biden can reach some sort of deal in the coming weeks on how to deal with the debt limit, it will require at least some support from all of the factions within the House Republican Conference. It also will require some Democratic votes — after all, even McCarthy’s maximalist offer only passed by one vote with the last-minute intervention of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/5/10/23717846/george-santos-federal-charges-court-new-york-money-laundering">Rep. George Santos (R-NY)</a>, who is currently under federal indictment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wRSd7A">
But relying on some Democratic votes doesn’t necessarily doom <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/01/kevin-mccarthys-tarnished-triumph.html">McCarthy’s speakership</a> — after the debacle of McCarthy’s 15-ballot speakership election in January, Republicans are not eager for a repeat. Instead, it divides the House into three groups that are not necessarily ideological in the short term. The first is those who will vote “yes” for whatever deal McCarthy reaches: These include moderates, members of leadership, and those who are McCarthy loyalists. The second are those who will vote “no” no matter what. This is at most a handful of members aligned with HFC who, for political or personal reasons, simply will not support any deal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Smluu8">
It’s the group in the middle that matters. These are the members who in situations like this often “vote no but hope yes.” They support a broader deal but don’t want to take the political risks to support it. After all, while nearly 150 House members voted not to certify the 2020 presidential election, it’s not as though many of them genuinely thought <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-legal-team-false-claims-5abd64917ef8be9e9e2078180973e8b3">Hugo Chavez</a> had risen from the dead to plot with Dominion Voting Systems to steal the presidency. They simply knew the election would be certified regardless of how they voted and didn’t want to risk the potential wrath of the MAGA right. The more of these members McCarthy can rally, the better a deal he can reach. The less he has to rely on Democratic votes, the more he can bargain for with the White House.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JaWOAC">
Any deal may still be elusive. But if one is reached, the key group is not moderates, nor the hard right. Instead, it’s the backbench conservatives who don’t want to risk default but don’t want to risk a primary challenge either. At this point, they have a symbiotic relationship with McCarthy. The more they back him, the more he can extract from Biden and vice versa. The question is just how many McCarthy can win over if he and Biden come to terms.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Everything old is new again</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A figure holds their finger in the air. Their head is a lightbulb with the recycling symbol inside. Flowers and a bird surround the figure." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZGePaQXu4Da3tjIrA3floMXBs4s=/226x0:1666x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72280675/CristinaSpano_NoNewIdeas_Cover.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Cristina Spanò for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Is it possible to be truly original anymore — in your own life, in commerce, in art?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1NaybJ">
We’re in a cultural moment where it feels like so much is being rehashed, repackaged, and resold to a captive audience. This is certainly the case in entertainment, where the Hollywood reboot machine is the driving force behind what makes it to our screens; even “original” programming is frequently built from familiar storytelling tropes and formats. The same kind of recycling — sorry, <em>remixing</em> — holds true in pop music.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ettJdm">
This carries over into matters of business and politics with just as much resonance. And when it comes to lifestyle topics like dieting, parenting, and even sex, we wind up circling the drain and repackaging old trends and ideas as hot new fads, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OCRHX8">
What makes newness, or novelty, or originality, so important in the first place, particularly in a society that heavily prioritizes individual comfort and choices? Are we in a uniquely not-new moment, or has it actually always felt this way?
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="ychhL0"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A cluster of mermaids drawn in various styles to show different iterations throughout history." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MHrW4PyZ8LFGsHgIFhjotq6aKcg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24630032/2Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="QOLupP">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23668199/fallacy-new-ideas-original-story-little-mermaid"><strong>The fallacy of new ideas, and why we want them anyway</strong></a>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tIQp0o">
Could we ever really tell a new story about a very old mermaid?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N6EYPi">
<em>By Alissa Wilkinson</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="Z62zJB"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A cartoon drawing of two figures riding in battle tanks, facing each other, yelling at one another through bullhorns. A laptop sits in the background between them. The laptop screen reads “XXX.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IOl-G4ji6RrceNwlQv2C1po--fU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24630262/3Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="lp2WLg">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23699724/pornography-wars-feminism-pornhub-andrea-dworkin-catharine-mackinnon-amia-srinivasan-kelsy-burke"><strong>The return of the porn wars</strong></a>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V3vI5m">
How today’s fight over pornography is rooted in a 40-year-old feminist schism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nP0SQK">
<em>By Constance Grady</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="ygZkQj"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Row of parents holding babies with speech bubbles above their heads. They are all offering the same advice to new parents." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Vo9pWaxb3xxLIovbzvaAT3lSXvM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24630385/5Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="iDER1r">
<strong>From banning hugs to gentle parenting, how are you supposed to raise kids, anyway? </strong><em><strong>(Coming Wednesday)</strong></em>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="piM15a">
The endless cycling — and recycling — of parenting advice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cqNjat">
<em>By Anna North</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="ieuIG7"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A cartoon drawing of a large figure sitting proudly on top of several people, who are struggling to hold the weight. The scene looks like a king on a throne with two bitcoins in place of arm rests." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KZSpLxZnJF6wsRAoUkjBijDfw5E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24630061/4Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="LwS7GY">
<strong>Crypto: New. Fraud: Old. </strong><em><strong>(Coming Thursday)</strong></em>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5i1yyS">
When you democratize finance, you get the good and the bad.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lc4tkl">
<em>By Emily Stewart</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="JipfNj"/>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A figure stands on a stage, which looks like a $100 bill, surrounded by showy rays of light. Audience members below reach their hands toward the stage to show their fandom." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AjAdHvTIPEuOnFUfNs-Hs5k1UkE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24635258/1Spot.jpg"/> <cite>Cristina Spanò for Vox</cite>
</figure>
<h3 id="nhVVwa">
<strong>The billionaire’s guide to self-help </strong><em><strong>(Coming Friday)</strong></em>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NlkYoC">
Self-improvement is old. What’s new is the bootstrapping mythos and toxic positivity of the very rich.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fve35E">
<em>By Whizy Kim</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="2Dd4j4"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jW6hDf">
<strong>CREDITS</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="otp9Bk">
<strong>Editors: </strong>Meredith Haggerty, Alanna Okun, Lavanya Ramanathan, Julia Rubin<br/><strong>Copy editors/fact-checkers:</strong> Elizabeth Crane, Kim Eggleston, Tanya Pai, Caitlin PenzeyMoog<br/><strong>Additional fact-checking: </strong>Anouck Dussaud, Matt Giles<br/><strong>Art direction: </strong>Dion Lee, Paige Vickers<br/><strong>Audience:</strong> Gabriela Fernandez, Shira Tarlo, Agnes Mazur<br/><strong>Production/project editors:</strong> Lauren Katz, Nathan Hall
</p>
<div id="hq8rvd">
</div>
<div id="8eFsli">
<div id="money_pixel_page_level_exception">
</div></div></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>The return of the porn wars</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A cartoon drawing of two figures riding in battle tanks, facing each other, yelling at one another through bullhorns. A laptop sits in the background between them. The laptop screen reads “XXX.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Nw5sXh1AMreDoewAZ-uFG0_b_Pk=/237x0:1677x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72259329/3Spot.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Cristina Spanò for Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How today’s fight over pornography is rooted in a 40-year-old feminist schism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6GzJLa">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tqJ340">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e6fGQg">
<em>Part of the issue </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23698278/everything-old-is-new-again"><em><strong>Everything old is new again</strong></em></a><em> from </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight?itm_campaign=hloct22&amp;itm_medium=article&amp;itm_source=intro"><em><strong>The Highlight</strong></em></a><em>, Vox’s home for ambitious stories that explain our world.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3C9Ifz">
The news has come, at first gradually and then all at once, over the past few years: The teens don’t believe in casual sex anymore. And they really don’t believe in porn.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IvAUdn">
They are the <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/gen-z-puriteens">puriteens</a>, they are in a backlash against <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/opinion/sex-positivity-feminism.html">sex-positive liberal feminism</a>, they want to <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/3/2/22308197/cancel-porn-tiktok-onlyfans-sex-work">#CancelPorn</a>. They also happen to be the first generation who grew up in a world where unlimited porn was readily available and free.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GSQs0n">
In her 2023 book <em>The Pornography Wars</em>, sociologist Kelsy Burke writes that many Americans are now between 10 and 15 years old when they are first exposed to porn. According to <a href="https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2022-year-in-review#age-demographics">PornHub’s self-reported traffic analysis</a>, a plurality of their visitors are between the ages of 18 and 24. Young people today watch a lot of pornography, usually while they are quite young. Some of them are uncomfortable with the results: In 2021, for example, Gen Z star <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/15/billie-eilish-says-watching-porn-gave-her-nightmares-and-destroyed-my-brain">Billie Eilish made headlines</a> for calling porn “a disgrace.” She started watching porn when she was 11 years old, she said, even when it gave her nightmares. “I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn,” she added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7ZUX9k">
The thing is, all of this was supposed to be settled by now. Surely this issue was put to bed (haha) after the porn wars of the 1980s. That was the big split between feminists over whether pornography was inherently misogynistic and should be outlawed, or whether feminists should embrace pornography as part of a liberated sex life. The porn wars were all but finished after the anti-porn feminists failed to get any of their legislation past the courts, and then the internet came along and apparently decided the matter: Pornography was everywhere, and feminists of all stripes had better make their peace with that fact.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ndclvW">
Yet the pornography question seems to have reemerged while we weren’t looking.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6MQB9c">
In her 2021 essay collection <em>The Right to Sex</em>, the political theorist Amia Srinivasan describes teaching her undergraduate students about the porn wars and finding that they were fascinated by the anti-porn position.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x2UX3M">
“Could it be that pornography doesn’t merely depict the subordination of women, but actually makes it real, I asked?” Srinivasan writes. “Yes, they said. Does porn silence women, making it harder for them to protest against unwanted sex, and harder for men to hear those protests? Yes, they said. Does porn bear responsibility for the objectification of women, for the marginalisation of women, for sexual violence against women? Yes, they said, yes to all of it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g8N1bc">
Here’s how we got from the porn wars of the 1980s to the porn wars of now.
</p>
<h3 id="e6gj0r">
For the feminists of the 1980s, the porn question created a schism
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7QE4YK">
The two most prominent feminists of the anti-porn movement of the 1980s were activists Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon. Dworkin was a writer; MacKinnon was a legal scholar. Like today’s teens, they were living in a moment of social change, in the midst of a series of debates about how we should think about gender and sexuality. They wanted everyone to rethink their relationship to sex — and specifically to porn.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XuxV9f">
MacKinnon and Dworkin argued that pornography hurts women in two ways: First, because the women who appear in pornography must be unconsenting. Second, because men who consume pornography are inspired to enact its violence upon women in real life.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bkZH0q">
The activists wrote about commercial pornography routinely as if it were the same thing as filmed rape. In part, that’s because the boundary between the two could be slippery.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ejjaU">
In her 1993 book <em>Only Words</em>, MacKinnon cited the case of Trish Crawford, who pressed charges against her husband for marital rape in 1992. Crawford submitted into evidence a videotape her husband had made of the assault. In the tape, she can be seen bound and gagged, with duct tape over her eyes, as her husband assaults her.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0hwDjs">
“Was that a cry of pain and torture? Or was that a cry of pleasure?” asked the defense lawyer as the videotape played. The defendant was found not guilty — in part, MacKinnon argued, because pornography had trained the jury to see such a scene as erotic rather than horrific.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BKRcYg">
Both MacKinnon and Dworkin referenced the case of Linda Lovelace, the star of the 1972 hit hardcore porn film <em>Deep Throat</em>. In 1980, Lovelace alleged that her ex-husband threatened and coerced her into making the movie against her will. “Every time someone watches that film, they are watching me being raped,” she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EBCMg1">
Women like Crawford and Lovelace constitute the entirety of the porn industry, according to MacKinnon and Dworkin: each woman unwilling, each brutalized, each forced to smile and say she likes being brutalized. The possibility of a woman consenting to make pornography in good faith does not exist in this worldview. Instead, sex work in general and porn in particular are held to be inherently degrading, and women only appear to do it willingly because they have been threatened or brainwashed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3nzlC4">
“She is taught to be that thing: raped, beaten, bound, used, until she recognizes her true nature and purpose and complies — happily, greedily, begging for more,” wrote Dworkin in her 1981 manifesto <em>Pornography: Men Possessing Women</em>. The “she” here is all women: “She is used until she knows only that she is a thing to be used. This knowledge is her authentic erotic sensibility: her erotic destiny.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7z14it">
In 1983, the pair collaborated to draft a statute defining pornography as a civil rights violation against women. One version was passed in Minneapolis in 1983, and another in 1984, but both were vetoed by the mayor on free speech grounds. Another version that focused specifically on violent pornography passed in Indianapolis in 1984, but it was ruled unconstitutional in court and overturned.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nNLs0Y">
Pro-porn feminists, meanwhile, argued that MacKinnon and Dworkin were unfairly conflating pornography with filmed rape. Pornography, they said, was not inherently nonconsensual, and it was in bad faith to pretend that being pro-porn meant being pro-rape.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fujLwX">
In her 2004 anthology <em>Porn Studies</em>, scholar Linda Williams writes scathingly of a 1993 MacKinnon article arguing that the Serbian rapes of Muslim and Croatian women in Bosnia were especially egregious because they were filmed. “With this war, pornography emerges as a tool of genocide,” MacKinnon wrote.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2anpft">
“This was not a theoretical argument about the evils of porn,” Williams responded, “it was an argument that encouraged taking action against pornography as if it were the same thing as taking action against rape. As such, it seemed to me to be thoroughly inimical to the goal of feminism.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="TpWeRR">
<q>Weren’t they just rebuilding the old misogynistic myth of the virgin/whore binary all over again?</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G7oNPN">
For Williams and those who agreed with her, one of the goals of feminism was sexual liberation. If adults consented to making a piece of pornography, even violent pornography, what was wrong with that? What was wrong with the adults who consented to watch it? Were women incapable of enjoying porn themselves? Why was the anti-porn position imagining women without desire or agency of their own? Weren’t they just rebuilding the old misogynistic myth of the virgin/whore binary all over again?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DMUMfp">
There was something suspiciously un-liberated, something demure and prudish, about the anti-porn position, some suggested. “‘Good’ women have always been incensed at smut,” pointed out activist Amber Hollibaugh in 1984. “Our reaction went far beyond disgust at pornography’s misogyny or racism; we were also shocked at the very idea of explicit sexual imagery. At heart, our horror at pornography is often horror at sex itself and reflects a lesson all women carry from their earliest childhoods: sex is filthy.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NAptD0">
Then came the technology that, in theory, was supposed to render the whole conversation moot.
</p>
<h3 id="88Cs1Y">
The internet era changed the way porn is made and consumed — for better or for worse
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="raiSVY">
Traditional commercial pornography flourished in the hypersexualized ’90s. In <em>The Pornography Wars</em>, Burke reports that porn stars working with the biggest production companies of the era could expect to make $10,000 a week just from shooting a couple of scenes and then, influencer-like, rake in even more cash by making an appearance at a nightclub. Porn was on VHS and DVD, on adults-only cable channels, and on paywalled websites on the nascent world wide web.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JurWq1">
Then, in 2005, YouTube was born: a website where you didn’t have to be a coder or a tech genius to upload a video to the internet. By 2006, there were multiple YouTube clones on the internet that were designed explicitly for the explicit stuff. One of them was named PornHub.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zLsHel">
PornHub is now a subsidiary of a company called MindGeek, which owns a conglomerate of pornographic streaming websites. In fact, it owns most of them: YouPorn, Playboy TV, plus many more niche affairs. MindGeek has a near monopoly on the internet porn market. The industry plays by its rules, and under the MindGeek business model, the audience generally doesn’t pay for its porn.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LpSFSV">
There’s little consensus on whether the audience for pornography is bigger in the internet era than it was before. What we know for sure is that the audience is younger than it used to be. Accessing MindGeek websites involves checking a box affirming that you are over the age of 18, which is not difficult to fool. (<a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/05/05/2023/anti-porn-activists-are-scoring-big-wins-utah-pornhub-cherie-deville">Utah</a> and <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/louisiana-law-requiring-proof-of-id-for-porn-site-access-has-privacy-advocates-worried/">Louisiana</a> both passed laws this year legislating ID checks on porn sites. MindGeek responded by blocking all of Utah from its content.) Because many very young people are watching pornography, some even before puberty, it can end up functioning as a form of sex education.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9C1GXQ">
The internet hasn’t only changed the way people watch porn. It’s also changed the way people work in porn. There’s a lower barrier to entry now. Performers can set up accounts on <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22749123/onlyfans-influencers-sex-work-instagram-pornography">OnlyFans</a> or other streaming platforms and do camwork on their own. They don’t necessarily have to do classic porn videos with other people, and they don’t have to work with the industry’s <a href="https://twitter.com/GiaPaige/status/1269077812582866945">notoriously</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/thesiridahl/status/1269086197420371969">predatory</a> <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/porn-actresses-accuse-top-agent-of-fraud-sex-abuse/2087014/">agents</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V1uAu7">
On the other hand, it’s also much harder for performers to make money from their labor than it was pre-PornHub. Porn makes more money than it ever has, going from $300 million in the US in 2005 to $800 million in 2020, per Burke. That money, though, is coming in the form of ad revenue. It goes to the owners of the websites — mostly MindGeek management — not to the performers who make the content.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5MEYTZ">
The porn performers Burke interviewed say that they can expect nearly all their paywalled videos to get uploaded to PornHub, where they will make no money from them, without their consent. Technically, that’s an illegal copyright infringement, but PornHub is slow to respond to complaints about such uploads, much as they tend to be slow to respond to complaints about nonconsensual revenge porn on the platform (<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/20/the-fight-to-hold-pornhub-accountable">deliberately so, some former employees allege</a>).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5c5EGg">
With less money available for the taking than ever before, performers can find themselves pushed into creating ever more extreme content in order to maximize their earnings. That’s especially the case if they’re women who can’t be booked to play either teens or MILFs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xuj9cc">
“If you don’t fit into those two stereotypes, which is 90 percent of the shoots that we are booked for on set, then all you have going for you is what you’re willing to do,” a porn actress tells Burke in <em>The Pornography Wars</em>. “And ‘what you’re willing to do’ is not exactly the same as ‘what you enthusiastically consent to,’” Burke adds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7dbhY6">
“Within the porn industry,” Burke concludes, “choice and coercion operate on a continuum.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zi1PLL">
In this new world of internet porn, the old arguments go on.
</p>
<h3 id="fEdP6O">
Can porn be made safely? Who gets to decide what “safe” is?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s9xYmx">
Like Dworkin and MacKinnon, today’s anti-porn feminists make the case that little if any pornography can be said to be truly consensual.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iQP5r4">
“Stuff that I was in looked consensual and I’m here to tell you right now, it never was,” sex trafficking survivor turned anti-porn activist Elizabeth Frazier says in <em>The Pornography Wars</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TMcGCe">
While not all porn performers have been sex trafficked, the reasoning goes, most of them are so young and have so little money that they cannot meaningfully consent to the work they are doing. “The majority of women are young and up against predators who use you and know how to manipulate you,” says sociologist Gail Dines in <em>The Pornography Wars</em>. “This idea that you’re actually consenting is ludicrous.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P6UTed">
Pro-porn feminists argue that while commercial porn has its consent issues, indie porn offers a potential ethical alternative. Independent producers can create shoots where performers call the shots on what they’re comfortable with and where the content is less likely than commercial porn to fetishize misogyny and racism. When they distribute their videos, they can push them to paywalled platforms. “Like paying more money for pasture-raised meat or organic produce,” writes Burke, “paying for porn is one way to support a more ethical industry” — until your video ends up on PornHub against your will.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JlnNdX">
Pro-porn feminists also point to industry regulatory bodies like the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee. APAC has published a <a href="https://apacommittee.org/performer-bill-of-rights/">Performer Bill of Rights</a> that states performers are entitled to informed consent, which they can withdraw if a scene feels unsafe or uncomfortable. It also links performers with sex worker-positive therapists and other services, offers a mentoring program, and can sometimes connect sex workers with pro bono legal help if they need to sue an agent or production company. APAC, though, has little practical leverage within the industry. It may have published a performer Bill of Rights, but it has no way of implementing sanctions when companies or agencies violate it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="akf9tH">
Bad labor conditions exist in every industry, though, say pro-porn feminists. Are the labor conditions of porn shoots inherently worse than those of Amazon’s warehouses? “Porn is operating under capitalism, not outside of it,” feminist pornographer Tristan Taormino says in <em>The Pornography Wars</em>. “It’s just smack dab in the middle of it.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="3t0i85">
<q>However furiously we might try to litigate pornography away, pro-porn feminists hold that it will always continue to exist</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C9Bpwt">
They also argue that women can meaningfully choose to work in the industry despite its problems. “The single narrative of pornography’s exploitation of women falls short in explaining women from middle- and upper-class backgrounds who graduate from college and decide to work in porn even when they have other, so-called legitimate choices to become successful outside the X-rated marketplace,” Burke points out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sLOfeT">
Moreover, however furiously we might try to litigate pornography away, pro-porn feminists hold that it will always continue to exist. In a version of the Clinton “safe, legal, and rare” model of abortion law, they argue that keeping it legal and regulated is the best way to protect women.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iaDDf0">
“Whatever the law says, porn is going to be made, bought, and sold,” Srinivasan writes in <em>The Right to Sex</em>. “What should matter most to feminists is not what the law says about porn, but what the law does for and to the women who work in it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Mqba9j">
Most of the regulation facing the industry today, however, is imposed from the outside, and the performers Burke spoke with say that it tends to make their jobs less safe. A campaign to get credit card companies to stop working with porn sites made it harder for sex workers to get paid directly by their viewers. A proposed California regulation to mandate visible condom usage on porn sets in 2016 would have ignored the industry’s rigorous STI testing practices, workers argued, while mandating the wearing of uncomfortable chafing condoms during multi-hour shoots.
</p>
<h3 id="1xn6pV">
Feminist porn exists. Not that many people watch it.
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5sqrPk">
The other half of the porn war argument, now and ever, is about the people who watch it. Pornography is harmful, argue anti-porn feminists, because it means everyone has to live in a world in which straight men get all their ideas about sex from the racist, misogynistic, and violent world porn has taught them to fantasize about.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hvhUC0">
In <em>The Right to Sex</em>, Srinivasan describes a meeting with a student whose ex-boyfriend always told her that she was “doing it wrong” during sex, because she didn’t act the way women do in porn. “My student, like the anti-porn feminists of the 1970s, traced a straight line from the consumption of porn to the negative treatment of women by men,” Srinivasan observes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nLoukJ">
The scientific evidence on whether pornography rewires people’s brains to make them more misogynistic is not definitive. Burke quotes public health professor Emily Rothman, who advocates for pornography literacy as part of a broader program of media literacy. “All signs point to the idea that mainstream online pornography appears to negatively influence youth in several ways,” says Rothman: It seems to be correlated with more negative beliefs about women, higher rates of depression and anxiety, and higher rates of unprotected sex.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kA3Ry5">
Yet it’s difficult to isolate porn as the only factor in these studies, Rothman says, because our entire popular culture is so saturated in racism and misogyny. Porn is a correlating variable, but it’s not the only one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ec8hzw">
Nonetheless, even people who identify as pro-porn feminists find themselves troubled by the concerns anti-porn feminists raise. “I didn’t want the responsibility of shaping young minds,” hardcore porn star <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/opinion/stoya-good-porn.html">Stoya lamented in a New York Times op-ed</a> in 2018. “And yet thanks to this country’s nonfunctional sex education system and the ubiquitous access to porn by anyone with an internet connection, I have that responsibility anyway. Sometimes it keeps me awake at night.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3G8CjB">
Once again, ethical and feminist porn presents itself as a potential solution to this problem. <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/izzyampil/gen-z-sex-scenes-discourse-puriteen-analysis">A recent BuzzFeed News article</a> described Gen Zers turning away from hardcore commercial porn to the gentler stuff. “A lot of the heterosexual porn always felt graphic,” an 18-year-old woman says in the article. “There was always an element of violence to it, and I never truly felt like any of the women or AFAB individuals in it were enjoying it. … That was very disturbing to me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mSVGxK">
That 18-year-old, though, is an outlier. Feminist porn is not what most young people watch, in part because it costs money. Young people making their way to the internet to watch pornography are most likely to go for the free stuff, the MindGeek sites, where the videos they are served are not particularly feminist.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SM1trB">
This issue is central to the argument of today’s anti-porn feminists, many of whom, unlike Dworkin and MacKinnon, say there’s nothing wrong with feminist porn aside from its scarcity. Burke quotes sociologist Bernadette Barton, who says plainly, “This content does not solve the problem of sexism in internet porn because feminist porn is a niche.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="roun2b">
There is also the simple fact that feminist porn is not always what gets people going, however progressive their politics might be. “Lucky are those whose arousal results from homegrown and independently produced feminist porn with gender-variant people of various races, body sizes, and abilities,” writes feminist scholar Jane Ward in her 2013 essay “Queer Feminist Pigs: A Spectator’s Manifesta.” “But for some of us mainstream porn — for all its sexist and racist tropes and questionable labor practices — still casts its spell.” Is it really helpful, Ward asks, to label some desires feminist and hence good, and other desires unfeminist and hence bad?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X4GnKF">
If ethical porn doesn’t work, the other solution that pro-porn feminists generally present to the problem of kids and porn is sex education. If kids were only taught properly about sex in schools, the thinking goes, they wouldn’t use porn as their sex ed instructor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SSvceE">
That’s the argument Srinivasan’s students make in her class. “They blame inadequate sex education for the authority that porn wields over them and their lives,” she writes. “In their view, porn has the power to teach them the truth about sex not because the state has failed to legislate, but because the state has failed in its basic responsibility to educate.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uAZ1jE">
Right now, a nuanced and careful education that includes discussing how to think about porn is not something the sex education system in the US necessarily supports. As of 2020, <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/health/state-policies-on-sex-education-in-schools">only 30 US states require public schools to teach sex ed</a>. Burke points out that no state requires any specific credentials for sex ed instructors, and very few universities offer specialization in sexuality education for degree programs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zrVqHT">
Srinivasan says her students fear any education reforms will come too late for them, that “they are already too old to reconfigure their desires. Children of the internet, with its infinite variety, somehow they find all but one possibility foreclosed.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="acyhOS">
This foreclosing of possibility is, in a way, the arc of the story of pornography over the past 40 years. One of the feminist responses to Dworkin and MacKinnon in the 1980s was that porn did not have to be <em>like that —</em> degrading, violent, exploitative — that pornography could be empowering and exciting for women. Sure, Dworkin and MacKinnon retorted, porn doesn’t have to be <em>like that</em>, but in practice it mostly is. At this point, it’s hard to say that either of those arguments is exactly wrong.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DzJlrB">
We’re left with a system that is still by and large exploitative and degrading, and that still seems to disproportionately hurt women — and that also offers people their livelihoods, artistic and erotic pleasures, and fantasies so potent it seems unlikely to ever die. So the question is, in a way, unchanged from the question that haunted the feminists of the 1980s: Do we decide that porn is too fundamentally rotten to be reformed, and try to wipe the whole thing off the map? Or do we decide that porn is so entrenched that it can never be banned, and try to reform it, embracing what is potentially liberatory and redemptive about the industry?
</p>
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I16lYm">
It’s a question knotty enough we may still be fighting over it 40 years from now.
</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>IPL 2023, GT vs SRH | Focused on my strengths, trying to keep it tight: Gujarat Titans pacer Mohammed Shami on his 4-wicket haul</strong> - “It’s very good to have a pacer like Mohit Sharma in the middle overs who uses the variations smartly,” says Gujarat Titans pacer Mohammed Shami</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>Injured Archer out of Ashes, Bairstow replaces Foakes for Ireland test</strong> - The 28-year-old, who will be missing for the rest of the summer, played five matches for Mumbai Indians before the injury ended his IPL stint last week</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>M.S. Dhoni signing shirt was an ‘emotional moment’ for me, says Sunil Gavaskar</strong> - CSK are currently placed second in the standings and looks set to make the IPL playoffs</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>England the toughest place in the world to bat for top-three batters: Usman Khawaja</strong> - Australian opener Khawaja has struggled in English conditions, averaging just 19.66 from six Tests; Australia will play India in the WTC final at The Oval in London from June 7, before the Ashes commence on June 16 in Birmingham</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>IPL 2023, PBKS vs DC | Punjab Kings eye big win against Delhi to keep play-off hopes alive</strong> - It has been a roller-coaster ride for PBKS, with six losses and as many wins. They are placed at eighth spot with 12 points and are still in contention to make the qualifiers</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>Karnataka poll results failed to bring any change in BJP, Congress: Council Chairman</strong> - He charges the BJP with continuing to bank on communal divide as route to power</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SC collegium recommends elevation of Prashant Mishra, Viswanathan as apex court judges</strong> - Prashant Kumar Mishra is the Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice and K.V. Viswanathan is a senior advocate of SC.</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>Gadkari gets another threat call at official residence in Delhi</strong> - Nitin Gadkari’s office in Nagpur had received such threat calls on two separate occasions earlier this year</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Spurious liquor deaths in Tamil Nadu | DMK government failed to prevent manufacture and supply of illicit liquor: Edappadi Palaniswami</strong> - The very fact that about 1,600 arrack sellers were arrested in the last two days across Tamil Nadu shows that the government had allowed the bootleggers to carry on their trade with impunity, alleges AIADMK general secretary</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>Hardeep Puri rules out BJP-SAD alliance for 2024 Lok Sabha election</strong> - The BJP remained in alliance with SAD for 25 years earlier but the SAD failed to come up to the expectations of the people of Punjab, said Mr. Puri</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>Ukraine war: Kyiv hit by ‘exceptional’ number of missiles</strong> - It is the eighth time Ukraine’s capital has been targeted by Russia so far this month.</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>Dresden jewel theft: Five men convicted of audacious 2019 heist</strong> - In 2019 the gang broke into a museum in Dresden and stole treasures worth €113 million (£98m).</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>Vladimir Kara-Murza’s mother speaks to the BBC</strong> - Elena Gordon’s son Vladimir Kara-Murza was convicted of treason for criticising Putin’s war in Ukraine.</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>Javad Marandi: Tory donor’s link to massive money laundering probe</strong> - Javad Marandi’s foreign firms were at the centre of a global investigation, BBC News can finally reveal.</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>Turkey’s presidential race to be decided in run-off</strong> - President Erdogan is favourite to stay in power, with a lead of almost 5% over his main rival.</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>Microsoft is scanning the inside of password-protected zip files for malware</strong> - If you think a password prevents scanning in the cloud, think again. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939441">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Diet sodas are not actually good for your diet, WHO guidance suggests</strong> - Artificial sweeteners don’t help control weight, and that’s where the problems start. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939427">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cosmic rays reveal hidden ancient burial chamber underneath Naples</strong> - Rectangular chamber was probably the tomb of a wealthy individual or family. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939194">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Willow could be the $50 hardware piece of the DIY voice assistant puzzle</strong> - Installation is a mess, but Home Asssistant-ready voice gear is sorely needed. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939388">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Musk defends enabling Turkish censorship on Twitter, calling it his “choice”</strong> - Musk said he cannot go beyond the laws of the country to defend free speech. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939412">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>My 6 y.o.’s accidental comedic brilliance</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">My daughter comes over and says</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Dad, I’ve got a great joke for you.
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Go ahead.
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Knock-knock.
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Who’s there?
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Ifa.
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Ifa who?
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
<em>she pauses for a few seconds</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">I FORGOT MY JOKE!
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I laugh, saying it’s brilliant, only to see her in tears that it wasn’t the joke. She’d actually forgotten her pun.
</p>
</li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mitiamedved"> /u/mitiamedved </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13iz4em/my_6_yos_accidental_comedic_brilliance/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13iz4em/my_6_yos_accidental_comedic_brilliance/">[comments]</a></span></li>
</ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I was running down the street where the houses were numbered, 64k, 128k, 256k, 512k, and 1MB.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
what a trip down the memory lane
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ivytheblindhusky"> /u/ivytheblindhusky </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13io6a9/i_was_running_down_the_street_where_the_houses/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13io6a9/i_was_running_down_the_street_where_the_houses/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What did one saggy boob say to the other saggy boob?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
If we don’t get some support, people will think we’re nuts.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MobiWan2015"> /u/MobiWan2015 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13ig065/what_did_one_saggy_boob_say_to_the_other_saggy/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13ig065/what_did_one_saggy_boob_say_to_the_other_saggy/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What do you call a virgin who lives in Alabama?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
An orphan
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/iMissTheOldKimye"> /u/iMissTheOldKimye </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13iwczd/what_do_you_call_a_virgin_who_lives_in_alabama/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13iwczd/what_do_you_call_a_virgin_who_lives_in_alabama/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What do you call a gay dinosaur?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Mega-sore-ass
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Quirky_Philosophy317"> /u/Quirky_Philosophy317 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13iqc56/what_do_you_call_a_gay_dinosaur/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13iqc56/what_do_you_call_a_gay_dinosaur/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

4
index.html
View File

File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long