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<title>20 January, 2024</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Mis- and Disinformation during the 2021 Canadian Federal Election</strong> -
<div>
The Canadian Election Misinformation Project was a civil society and academic partnership that aimed to rapidly identify and respond to mis- and disinformation incidents during the 44th Canadian Federal Election while evaluating the extent to which these incidents impact the attitudes and behaviours of Canadians. It also sought to develop understanding of the types and consequences of misleading and false information circulating in the public sphere in addition to supporting world-class research into the dynamics of the information ecosystem and the broad impacts of misinformation on Canadian democracy. The data shows that: 1) Although there was widespread misinformation during the 2021 Canadian federal election, the overall election was minimally impacted by mis- and disinformation; 2) Most Canadians believe the election was safe from foreign interference and that misinformation played a minimal role in the election; 3) Communities that previously focused on sharing COVID-19 misinformation adopted conspiracy theories about a broader set of topics during the election, including vaccines, climate change, and the integrity of the election; and 4) Nevertheless, a strong majority of Canadians believe that misinformation is a threat to Canadian democracy, polarizes Canadians, and threatens social cohesion.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/ubfmx/" target="_blank">Mis- and Disinformation during the 2021 Canadian Federal Election</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Public Health Communication and Engagement on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Social media provides governments the opportunity to directly communicate with their constituents. During a pandemic, reaching as many citizens as possible with health messaging is critical to reducing the spread of the disease. This study evaluates efforts to spread healthcare information by Canadian local, provincial, and federal governments during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We collect all health-related communications coming from government accounts on Facebook and Twitter and analyze the data using a nested mixed method approach. We first identify quantifiable features linked with citizen engagement, before subsequently performing content analysis on outlier posts. We make two critical contributions to existing knowledge about government communication, particularly during public health crises. We identify cross-platform variations in strategy effectiveness and draw attention to specific, evidence-based practices that can increase engagement with government health information.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/7hypj/" target="_blank">Public Health Communication and Engagement on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>All in this together: deservingness of government aid during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on governments to engage in widespread cash transfers directly to citizens to help mitigate economic losses. These programs are major redistribution efforts aimed at a variety of sub-groups within society (the unemployed, those with children, those with pre-existing health conditions, etc.) and there has been remarkably little resistance to these government outlays. We employ a novel and pre-registered paired vignette experiment to assess support for government aid during the pandemic in a large, nationally representative sample. We evaluate whether the “normal” deservingness hierarchy and considerations of social affinity or material self-interest continue to drive preferences of Canadians regarding redistribution. We find only small deservingness considerations and little evidence that redistribution preferences are informed by similarity considerations. Instead, we find broad, generous, and non-discriminatory support for direct cash transfers during this period of crisis.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/eyvhj/" target="_blank">All in this together: deservingness of government aid during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The Causes and Consequences of COVID-19 Misperceptions: Understanding the Role of News and Social Media</strong> -
<div>
We investigate the relationship between media consumption, misinformation, and important attitudes and behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. We find that comparatively more misinformation circulates on social media platforms, while traditional news media tend to reinforce public health recommendations like social distancing. We find that exposure to social media is associated with misperceptions about COVID-19 while the inverse is true for news media. These misperceptions are in turn associated with lower compliance with social distancing measures. We thus draw a link from misinformation on social media to behaviours and attitudes that potentially magnify the scale and lethality of COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/6tcdn/" target="_blank">The Causes and Consequences of COVID-19 Misperceptions: Understanding the Role of News and Social Media</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The lasting earnings losses of COVID-19 short-time work</strong> -
<div>
This study is the first to investigate the impact of short-time work (STW) schemes during the COVID-19 pandemic on earnings after STW. STW schemes were implemented to preserve employee–employer matches, support workers’ incomes, and uphold consumption. Although workers faced temporary earnings losses under STW, it is unclear if the negative earnings effects of STW persisted or were limited to the STW spell. Therefore, this study uses a dynamic difference-in-difference (DiD) identification strategy with administrative data to identify any lasting STW effects on earnings. This approach accounts for factors that influenced worker selection into STW and tests for heterogeneous effects across subgroups of workers. We find lasting earnings losses that persisted beyond the STW participation itself. Most importantly, these earnings losses depended on the duration of STW exposure, with greater negative effects being more prominent in cases of long-term or recurring STW spells. Lasting, post-STW earnings losses tended to be more pronounced for white-collar jobs, while the largest losses were observed among men with blue-collar jobs whose STW spells exceeded one year.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/p2qvh/" target="_blank">The lasting earnings losses of COVID-19 short-time work</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Revealing the drivers of antibiotic resistance trends in Streptococcus pneumoniae amidst the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from mathematical modeling</strong> -
<div>
Non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented to block SARS-CoV-2 transmission in early 2020 led to global reductions in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). By contrast, most European countries reported an increase in antibiotic resistance among invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from 2019 to 2020, while an increasing number of studies reported stable pneumococcal carriage prevalence over the same period. To disentangle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on pneumococcal epidemiology in the community setting, we propose a mathematical model formalizing simultaneous transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and antibiotic-sensitive and -resistant strains of S. pneumoniae. To test hypotheses underlying these trends five mechanisms were built in into the model and examined: (1) a population-wide reduction of antibiotic prescriptions in the community, (2) lockdown effect on pneumococcal transmission, (3) a reduced risk of developing an IPD due to the absence of common respiratory viruses, (4) community azithromycin use in COVID-19 infected individuals, (5) and a longer carriage duration of antibiotic-resistant pneumococcal strains. Among 31 possible pandemic scenarios involving mechanisms individually or in combination, model simulations surprisingly identified only two scenarios that reproduced the reported trends in the general population. They included factors (1), (3), and (4). These scenarios replicated a nearly 50% reduction in annual IPD, and an increase in antibiotic resistance from 20% to 22%, all while maintaining a relatively stable pneumococcal carriage. Exploring further, higher SARS-CoV-2 R0 values and synergistic within-host virus-bacteria interaction mechanisms could have additionally contributed to the observed antibiotic resistance increase. Our work demonstrates the utility of the mathematical modeling approach in unraveling the complex effects of the COVID-19 pandemic responses on AMR dynamics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.08.503267v4" target="_blank">Revealing the drivers of antibiotic resistance trends in Streptococcus pneumoniae amidst the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from mathematical modeling</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Persistence and Free Chlorine Disinfection of Human Coronaviruses and Their Surrogates in Water</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the importance of understanding the behavior and control of human pathogenic viruses in the environment. Exposure via water (drinking, bathing, and recreation) is a known route of transmission of viruses to humans, but the literature is relatively void of studies on the persistence of many viruses, especially coronaviruses, in water and their susceptibility to chlorine disinfection. To fill that knowledge gap, we evaluated the persistence and free chlorine disinfection of human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) and its surrogates, murine hepatitis virus (MHV) and porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), in drinking water and laboratory buffer using cell culture methods. The decay rate constants of human coronavirus and its surrogates in water varied depending on virus and water matrix. In drinking water prior to disinfectant addition, MHV showed the largest decay rate constant (2.25 day-1) followed by HCoV-OC43 (0.99 day-1) and TGEV (0.65 day-1); while in phosphate buffer, HCoV-OC43 (0.51 day-1) had a larger decay rate constant than MHV (0.28 day-1) and TGEV (0.24 day-1). Upon free chlorine disinfection, the inactivation rates of coronaviruses were independent of free chlorine concentration and not affected by water matrix, though they still varied between viruses. TGEV showed the highest susceptibility to free chlorine disinfection with the inactivation rate constant of 113.50 mg-1 min-1 L, followed by MHV (81.33 mg-1 min-1 L) and HCoV-OC43 (59.42 mg-1 min-1 L).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.16.575911v1" target="_blank">Persistence and Free Chlorine Disinfection of Human Coronaviruses and Their Surrogates in Water</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A Bacteriophage Cocktail Targeting Yersinia pestis Provides Strong Post-Exposure Protection in a Rat Pneumonic Plague Model</strong> -
<div>
Yersinia pestis, one of the deadliest bacterial pathogens ever known, is responsible for three plague pandemics and several epidemics, with over 200 million deaths during recorded history. Due to high genomic plasticity, Y. pestis is amenable to genetic mutations as well as genetic engineering that can lead to the emergence or intentional development of pan-drug resistant strains. The dissemination of such Y. pestis strains could be catastrophic, with public health consequences far more daunting than those caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel, safe, and effective treatment approaches for managing Y. pestis infections. This includes infections by antigenically distinct strains for which vaccines, none FDA approved yet, may not be effective, and those that cannot be controlled by approved antibiotics. Lytic bacteriophages provide one such alternative approach. In this study, we examined post-exposure efficacy of a bacteriophage cocktail, YPP-401, to combat pneumonic plague caused by Y. pestis CO92. YPP-401 is a four-phage preparation with a 100% lytic activity against a panel of 68 genetically diverse Y. pestis strains. Using a pneumonic plague aerosol challenge model in gender-balanced Brown Norway rats, YPP-401 demonstrated ~88% protection when delivered 18 hours post-exposure for each of two administration routes (i.e., intraperitoneal and intranasal) in a dose-dependent manner. Our studies suggest that YPP-401 could provide an innovative, safe, and effective approach for managing Y. pestis infections, including those caused by naturally occurring or intentionally developed strains that cannot be managed by vaccines in development and antibiotics.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.17.576055v1" target="_blank">A Bacteriophage Cocktail Targeting Yersinia pestis Provides Strong Post-Exposure Protection in a Rat Pneumonic Plague Model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>GotGlycans: Role of N343 Glycosylation on the SARS-CoV-2 S RBD Structure and Co-Receptor Binding Across Variants of Concern</strong> -
<div>
Glycosylation of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein represents a key target for viral evolution because it affects both viral evasion and fitness. Successful variations in the glycan shield are difficult to achieve though, as protein glycosylation is also critical to folding and to structural stability. Within this framework, the identification of glycosylation sites that are structurally dispensable can provide insight into the evolutionary mechanisms of the shield and inform immune surveillance. In this work we show through over 45 s of cumulative sampling from conventional and enhanced molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, how the structure of the immunodominant S receptor binding domain (RBD) is regulated by N-glycosylation at N343 and how the structural role of this glycan changes from WHu-1, alpha (B.1.1.7), and beta (B.1.351), to the delta (B.1.617.2) and omicron (BA.1 and BA.2.86) variants. More specifically, we find that the amphipathic nature of the N-glycan is instrumental to preserve the structural integrity of the RBD hydrophobic core and that loss of glycosylation at N343 triggers a specific and consistent conformational change. We show how this change allosterically regulates the conformation of the receptor binding motif (RBM) in the WHu-1, alpha and beta RBDs, but not in the delta and omicron variants, due to mutations that reinforce the RBD architecture. In support of these findings, we show that the binding of the RBD to monosialylated ganglioside co-receptors is highly dependent on N343 glycosylation in the WHu-1, but not in the delta RBD, and that affinity changes significantly across VoCs. Ultimately, the molecular and functional insight we provide in this work reinforces our understanding of the role of glycosylation in protein structure and function and it also allows us to identify the structural constraints within which the glycosylation site at N343 can become a hotspot for mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 S glycan shield.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570076v2" target="_blank">GotGlycans: Role of N343 Glycosylation on the SARS-CoV-2 S RBD Structure and Co-Receptor Binding Across Variants of Concern</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Phase 1 of the NIH Preprint Pilot: Testing the viability of making preprints discoverable in PubMed Central and PubMed</strong> -
<div>
Introduction: The National Library of Medicine (NLM) launched a pilot in June 2020 to 1) explore the feasibility and utility of adding preprints to PubMed Central (PMC) and making them discoverable in PubMed and 2) to support accelerated discoverability of NIH-supported research without compromising user trust in NLM’s widely used literature services. Methods: The first phase of the Pilot focused on archiving preprints reporting NIH-supported SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 research. To launch Phase 1, NLM identified eligible preprint servers and developed processes for identifying NIH-supported preprints within scope in these servers. Processes were also developed for the ingest and conversion of preprints in PMC and to send corresponding records to PubMed. User interfaces were modified for display of preprint records. NLM collected data on the preprints ingested and discovery of preprint records in PMC and PubMed and engaged users through focus groups and a survey to obtain direct feedback on the Pilot and perceptions of preprints. Results: Between June 2020 and June 2022, NLM added more than 3,300 preprint records to PMC and PubMed, which were viewed 4 million times and 3 million times, respectively. Nearly a quarter of preprints in the Pilot were not associated with a peer-reviewed published journal article. User feedback revealed that the inclusion of preprints did not have a notable impact on trust in PMC or PubMed. Discussion: NIH-supported preprints can be identified and added to PMC and PubMed without disrupting existing operations processes. Additionally, inclusion of preprints in PMC and PubMed accelerates discovery of NIH research without reducing trust in NLM literature services. Phase 1 of the Pilot provided a useful testbed for studying NIH investigator preprint posting practices, as well as knowledge gaps among user groups, during the COVID-19 public health emergency, an unusual time with heightened interest in immediate access to research results.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.12.520156v2" target="_blank">Phase 1 of the NIH Preprint Pilot: Testing the viability of making preprints discoverable in PubMed Central and PubMed</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Deciphering the Molecular Mechanism of Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 through Comorbidity Network Analysis</strong> -
<div>
Introduction: The post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 presents a significant health challenge in the post-pandemic world. Our study aims to analyze longitudinal electronic health records to determine the impact of COVID-19 on disease progression, provide molecular insights into these mechanisms, and identify associated biomarkers. Method: We included 58,710 patients with COVID-19 records from 01/01/2020 to 31/08/2022 and at least one hospital admission before and after the acute phase of COVID-19 (28 days) as the treatment group. A healthy control group of 174,071 individuals was established for comparison using propensity score matching based on pre-existing diseases (before COVID-19). We built a comorbidity network using Pearson correlation coefficient differences between pairs of pre-existing disease and post-infection disease in both groups. Disease-protein mapping and protein-protein interaction network analysis revealed the impact of COVID-19 on disease trajectories through protein interactions in the human body. Results: The disparity in the weight of prevalent disease comorbidity patterns between the treatment and control groups highlights the impact of COVID-19. Certain specific comorbidity patterns show a more pronounced influence by COVID-19. For each comorbidity pattern, overlapping proteins directly associated with pre-existing diseases, post-infection diseases, and COVID-19 help to elucidate the biological mechanism of COVID-19's impact on each comorbidity pattern. Proteins essential for explaining the biological mechanism can be identified based on their weights. Conclusion: Disease comorbidity associations influenced by COVID-19, as identified through longitudinal electronic health records and disease-protein mapping, can help elucidate the biological mechanisms of COVID-19, discover intervention methods, and decode the molecular basis of comorbidity associations. This analysis can also yield potential biomarkers and corresponding treatments for specific disease patterns.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.17.575851v1" target="_blank">Deciphering the Molecular Mechanism of Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 through Comorbidity Network Analysis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Changes in wild meat hunting and use by rural communities during the COVID-19 socio-economic shock</strong> -
<div>
There has been limited quantitative research into the effects of socio-economic shocks on biological resource use. Focusing on wild meat hunting, a substantial livelihood and food source in tropical regions, we evaluated the impacts of the shock from Nigeria’s COVID-19 lockdown on species exploitation around a global biodiversity hotspot. Using a three-year quantitative dataset collected during and after the lockdown (covering 1,008 hunter-months) and matching by time of year, we found that successful hunting trip rates were more frequent during lockdown, with a corresponding increase in the monthly number, mass, and value of animals caught. Moreover, hunters consumed a larger proportion of wild meat and sold less during lockdown compared to non-lockdown periods. These results suggest that local communities relied on wild meat to supplement reduced food and income during lockdown, buffering COVID-19’s socio-economic shock. Our findings also indicate that wild species may be especially vulnerable to increased hunting pressure during such shocks.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/ezyr7/" target="_blank">Changes in wild meat hunting and use by rural communities during the COVID-19 socio-economic shock</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Discrete and conserved inflammatory signatures drive thrombosis in different organs after Salmonella infection</strong> -
<div>
Inflammation-induced thrombosis is a common consequence of bacterial and viral infections, such as those caused by Salmonella Typhimurium (STm) and SARS-CoV-2. The identification of multi-organ thrombosis and the chronological differences in its induction and resolution raise significant challenges for successfully targeting multi-organ infection-associated thrombosis. Here, we identified specific pathways and effector cells driving thrombosis in the spleen and liver following STm infection. Thrombosis in the spleen is independent of IFN-{gamma} or the platelet C-type lectin-like receptor CLEC-2, while both molecules were previously identified as key drivers of thrombosis in the liver. Furthermore, we identified platelets, monocytes, and neutrophils as core constituents of thrombi in both organs. Depleting neutrophils or monocytic cells independently abrogated thrombus formation. Nevertheless, blocking TNF, which is expressed by both myeloid cell types, diminished both thrombosis and inflammation which correlates with reduced endothelial expression of E-selectin and leukocyte infiltration. Moreover, tissue factor and P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1 inhibition impairs thrombosis in both spleen and liver, identifying multiple common checkpoints to target multi-organ thrombosis. Therefore, organ-specific, and broad mechanisms driving thrombosis potentially allow tailored treatments based on the clinical need and to define the most adequate strategy to target both thrombosis and inflammation associated with systemic infections.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.16.575813v1" target="_blank">Discrete and conserved inflammatory signatures drive thrombosis in different organs after Salmonella infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Impact of SARS-CoV-2 spike efficacy on tolerability of spike-based Covid-19 Vaccinations</strong> -
<div>
Abstract: Knowledge about the efficacy of vaccine spikes has multiplied in recent years. The purpose of this review is to update the key findings from the scientific literature that provide explanations for many of the reported and analysed adverse effects associated with the spike-based Covid-19 vaccination. Principle results: An overwhelming body of evidence supports the main mode of action of spike-based Covid-19 vaccines, namely the downregulation of ACE2 by spikes. Direct spike effects, synergisms and RAAS-independent responses complement and multiply the already deleterious effects on tolerability. It has been repeatedly confirmed that the SARS-CoV spike protein alone is not only able to downregulate ACE2, but also to induce cell fusion, activation of TLR4, of co-receptors and gastrointestinal responses. The systemic and long-lasting detection of spikes after vaccination disproves the claimed regionally limited and short-lasting spike production and efficacy. The production volume of spikes, their dependencies and the non-neutralised spike proportion have so far remained unknown for unknown reasons. Conclusions: The exceptionally broad spectrum, frequency and severity of the reported side effects associated with spike-based Covid-19 vaccination exceed the known level of conventional vaccinations. According to my side effect analyses, the spike-based vaccines possess an unacceptable class-specific, unique side effect profile. From a pharmacological point of view, spikes are highly active substances, but not tolerable simple antigens. For this reason, they are not suitable for preventive immunisation to avoid comparatively harmless infections.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/pw8zr/" target="_blank">Impact of SARS-CoV-2 spike efficacy on tolerability of spike-based Covid-19 Vaccinations</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Discovery and Characterization of a Pan-betacoronavirus S2-binding antibody</strong> -
<div>
Three coronaviruses have spilled over from animal reservoirs into the human population and caused deadly epidemics or pandemics. The continued emergence of coronaviruses highlights the need for pan-coronavirus interventions for effective pandemic preparedness. Here, using LIBRA-seq, we report a panel of 50 coronavirus antibodies isolated from human B cells. Of these antibodies, 54043-5 was shown to bind the S2 subunit of spike proteins from alpha-, beta-, and deltacoronaviruses. A cryo-EM structure of 54043-5 bound to the pre-fusion S2 subunit of the SARS-CoV-2 spike defined an epitope at the apex of S2 that is highly conserved among betacoronaviruses. Although non-neutralizing, 54043-5 induced Fc-dependent antiviral responses, including ADCC and ADCP. In murine SARS-CoV-2 challenge studies, protection against disease was observed after introduction of Leu234Ala, Leu235Ala, and Pro329Gly (LALA-PG) substitutions in the Fc region of 54043-5. Together, these data provide new insights into the protective mechanisms of non-neutralizing antibodies and define a broadly conserved epitope within the S2 subunit.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.15.575741v1" target="_blank">Discovery and Characterization of a Pan-betacoronavirus S2-binding antibody</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>Diet and Fasting for Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19; Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Low sugar diet and 10-12 hour eating window; Other: Low sugar diet, 8 hour eating window and fasting <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effectiveness of a Health Promotion Program for Older People With Post-Covid-19 Sarcopenia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post COVID-19 Condition <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Protein powder and Resistance exercise <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Mahidol University; National Health Security Office, Thailand <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Chronic-disease Self-management Program in Patients Living With Long-COVID in Puerto Rico</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Covid19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: “Tomando control de su salud” (Spanish Chronic Disease Self-Management) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Puerto Rico; National Institutes of Health (NIH) <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Treatment of Persistent Post-Covid-19 Smell and Taste Disorders</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-covid-19 Persistent Smell and Taste Disorders <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Cerebrolysin; Other: olfactory and gustatory trainings <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Sherifa Ahmed Hamed <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evealuate Safety and Immunogenicity of TI-0010 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in Healthy Adults</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; COVID-19 Immunisation <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: TI-0010; Biological: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: National Drug Clinical Trial Institute of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College; Therorna <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sodium Citrate in Smell Retraining for People With Post-COVID-19 Olfactory Dysfunction</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long Haul COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome; Anosmia; Olfaction Disorders <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Sodium Citrate; Drug: Normal Saline; Other: Olfactory Training Kit - “The Olfactory Kit, by AdvancedRx” <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase II, Double Blind, Randomized Trial of CX-4945 in Viral Community Acquired Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Community-acquired Pneumonia; SARS-CoV-2 -Associated Pneumonia; Influenza With Pneumonia <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: CX-4945 (SARS-CoV-2 domain); Drug: Placebo (SARS-CoV-2 domain); Drug: CX-4945 (Influenza virus domain); Drug: Placebo (Influenza virus domain) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Senhwa Biosciences, Inc. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Edge AI-deployed DIGItal Twins for PREDICTing Disease Progression and Need for Early Intervention in Infectious and Cardiovascular Diseases Beyond COVID-19 - Investigation of Biomarkers in Dermal Interstitial Fluid</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Heart Failure <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Use of the PELSA System for dISF extraction <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Charite University, Berlin, Germany <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase III Clinical Study Evaluating the Efficacy and Safety of WPV01 in Patients With Mild/Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Mild to Moderate COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: WPV01; Drug: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Westlake Pharmaceuticals (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Integrated Mindfulness-based Health Qigong Intervention for COVID-19 Survivors and Caregivers</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Mindfulness-based Health Qigong Intervention <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University <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>Analyzing the impact of COVID-19 on consumption behaviors through recession and recovery patterns</strong> - The COVID-19 outbreak has dramatically impacted the economy, particularly consumption behaviors. Studies on how consumption responses to COVID-19 can be a powerful aid for urban consumption recovery. In this paper, based on a high-frequency consumption dataset from January 6, 2020, to April 28, 2020 covering 18 sectors and dataset from the corresponding lunar period in 2021, we look at how COVID-19 changed how people spent their money by looking at patterns of recession and recovery during 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>Informatics and Computational Approaches for the Discovery and Optimization of Natural Product-Inspired Inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 2’-<em>O</em>-Methyltransferase</strong> - The urgent need for new classes of orally available, safe, and effective antivirals─covering a breadth of emerging viruses─is evidenced by the loss of life and economic challenges created by the HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 pandemics. As frontline interventions, small-molecule antivirals can be deployed prophylactically or postinfection to control the initial spread of outbreaks by reducing transmissibility and symptom severity. Natural products have an impressive track record of success as prototypic…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Identifying novel inhibitors targeting Exportin-1 for the potential treatment of COVID-19</strong> - The nuclear export protein 1 (XPO1) mediates the nucleocytoplasmic transport of proteins and ribonucleic acids (RNAs) and plays a prominent role in maintaining cellular homeostasis. XPO1 has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach to interfere with the lifecycle of many viruses. In our earlier study, we proved the inhibition of XPO1 as a therapeutic strategy for managing SARS-COV-2 and its variants. In this study, we have utilized pharmacophore-assisted computational methods to identify…</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>Klotho-derived peptide KP1 ameliorates SARS-CoV-2-associated acute kidney injury</strong> - Introduction: The severe cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), often present with acute kidney injury (AKI). Although old age and preexisting medical conditions have been identified as principal risk factors for COVID-19-associated AKI, the molecular basis behind such a connection remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the pathogenic role of Klotho deficiency in COVID-19-associated AKI and explored the therapeutic potential…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Peptidyl nitroalkene inhibitors of main protease rationalized by computational and crystallographic investigations as antivirals against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to represent a global public health issue. The viral main protease (M^(pro)) represents one of the most attractive targets for the development of antiviral drugs. Herein we report peptidyl nitroalkenes exhibiting enzyme inhibitory activity against M^(pro) (K(i): 1-10 μM) good anti-SARS-CoV-2 infection activity in the low micromolar range (EC(50): 1-12 μM) without significant toxicity. Additional kinetic studies of compounds FGA145,…</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>Longitudinal single cell atlas identifies complex temporal relationship between type I interferon response and COVID-19 severity</strong> - Due to the paucity of longitudinal molecular studies of COVID-19, particularly those covering the early stages of infection (Days 1-8 symptom onset), our understanding of host response over the disease course is limited. We perform longitudinal single cell RNA-seq on 286 blood samples from 108 age- and sex-matched COVID-19 patients, including 73 with early samples. We examine discrete cell subtypes and continuous cell states longitudinally, and we identify upregulation of type I IFN-stimulated…</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>Quantitative comparison of nuclear transport inhibition by SARS coronavirus ORF6 reveals the importance of oligomerization</strong> - Open Reading Frame 6 (ORF6) proteins, which are unique to severe acute respiratory syndrome-related (SARS) coronavirus, inhibit the classical nuclear import pathway to antagonize host antiviral responses. Several alternative models were proposed to explain the inhibitory function of ORF6 [H. Xia et al., Cell Rep. 33, 108234 (2020); L. Miorin et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 28344-28354 (2020); and M. Frieman et al., J. Virol. 81, 9812-9824 (2007)]. To distinguish these models and build…</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>NF9 peptide specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte clone cross react to Y453F mutation of SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein</strong> - The recognition by cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) is essential for the clearance of SARS-CoV-2 virus-infected cells. Several viral proteins have been described to be recognized by CTLs. Among them, the spike (S) protein is one of the immunogenic proteins. The S protein acts as a ligand for its receptors, and several mutants with different affinities for its cognate receptors have been reported, and certain mutations in the S protein, such as L452R and Y453F, have been found to inhibit 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>T4 apoptosis in the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection predicts long COVID</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Our observation raises the hypothesis that T4 cell death during the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection might pave the way for long COVID. Mechanistically, T4 lymphopenia might favor phenomena that could cause sequelae, including SARS-CoV-2 persistence, reactivation of other viruses, autoimmunity and immune dysregulation. In this scenario, inhibiting T cell apoptosis, for instance, by caspase inhibitors, could prevent long COVID.</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>Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Properties of <em>Theobroma cacao</em>, <em>Bourreria huanita</em>, <em>Eriobotrya japonica</em>, and <em>Elettaria cardamomum</em> - Traditional Plants Used in Central America</strong> - The search for alternative naturally occurring antimicrobial agents will always continue, especially when emerging diseases like COVID-19 provide an urgency to identify and develop safe and effective ways to prevent or treat these infections. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential antimicrobial activity as well as antioxidant properties of commercial samples from four traditional medicinal plants used in Central America: Theobroma cacao, Bourreria huanita, Eriobotrya japonica,…</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>Discovery of 2-amide-3-methylester thiophenes that target SARS-CoV-2 Mac1 and repress coronavirus replication, validating Mac1 as an anti-viral target</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus has made it clear that further development of antiviral therapies will be needed to combat additional SARS-CoV-2 variants or novel CoVs. Here, we describe small molecule inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 Mac1, which counters ADP-ribosylation mediated innate immune responses. The compounds inhibiting Mac1 were discovered through high-throughput screening (HTS) using a protein FRET-based competition assay…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In Vitro Antiviral Activity of a New Indol-3-carboxylic Acid Derivative Against SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has brought into sharp relief the threat posed by coronaviruses and laid the foundation for a fundamental analysis of this viral family, as well as a search for effective anti-COVID drugs. Work is underway to update existent vaccines against COVID-19, and screening for low-molecular-weight anti-COVID drug candidates for outpatient medicine continues. The opportunities and ways to accelerate the development of antiviral drugs against other pathogens are…</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>De-stabilizing innate immunity in COVID-19: effects of its own positive feedback and erratic viraemia on the alternative pathway of complement</strong> - Complement provides powerful, fast responses in the human circulation to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 virus) infection of the lower respiratory tract. COVID-19 effects were investigated in a revised human in silico Mass Action model of complement’s alternative pathway (AP) responses. Bursts of newly circulating virions increased the fission of Complement protein C3 into C3a and C3b via stimulation of the lectin pathway or inhibited complement factor H. Viral reproduction sub-models incorporated smoothly…</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>Apolipoprotein C3 (ApoC3) facilitates NLRP3 mediated pyroptosis of macrophages through mitochondrial damage by accelerating of the interaction between SCIMP and SYK pathway in acute lung injury</strong> - Respiratory failure caused by severe acute lung injury (ALI) is the main cause of mortality in patients with COVID-19.This study aimed to investigate the effects and underlying biological mechanism of Apolipoprotein C3 (ApoC3) in ALI. To establish an in vivo model, C57BL/6 mice were exposed by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). For the in vitro model, murine bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) or RAW264.7 cells were stimulated with LPS + adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Serum levels of ApoC3 were found…</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>Peptidomimetics as potent dual SARS-CoV-2 cathepsin-L and main protease inhibitors: In silico design, synthesis and pharmacological characterization</strong> - In this paper we present the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a new series of peptidomimetics acting as potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents. Starting from our previously described Main Protease (M^(Pro)) and Papain Like Protease (PL^(Pro)) dual inhibitor, CV11, here we disclose its high inhibitory activity against cathepsin L (CTSL) (IC(50) = 19.80 ± 4.44 nM), an emerging target in SARS-CoV-2 infection machinery. An in silico design, inspired by the structure of CV11, led to the…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Anxious Precision of Jacqueline Novak’s Comedy</strong> - “Get on Your Knees,” her new Netflix special, is a ninety-minute reflection on the blow job. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/jacqueline-novak-profile">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Drug-Decriminalization Fight Erupts in Oregon</strong> - An ambitious law set forth a more humane way to address addiction. Then came the backlash. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/a-new-drug-war-in-oregon">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Birth of My Daughter, the Death of My Marriage</strong> - Now that I was doing little besides keeping this tiny creature alive, it was impossible to ignore my desire to wander the streets with our baby, in ever-widening loops away from home. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/the-birth-of-my-daughter-the-death-of-my-marriage">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Price of Netanyahu’s Ambition</strong> - Amid war with Hamas, a hostage crisis, the devastation of Gaza, and Israel’s splintering identity, the Prime Minister seems unable to distinguish between his own interests and his country’s. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/22/benjamin-netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-war-hostages">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Ten Middle East Conflicts Are Converging Into One Big War</strong> - The U.S. is enmeshed in wars among disparate players in Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-ten-middle-east-conflicts-are-converging-into-one-big-war">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>How to be alone with your thoughts</strong> -
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<img alt="An illustration of a woman with brown hair wearing a red shirt and gray pants sitting on the floor in front of a window with her dog curled next to her. They sit on a green striped rug. Sun pours in from the window." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3x9f2ujfvooUUtG7whJrZGlixdU=/164x0:4733x3427/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73071091/GettyImages_1264127389.0.jpg"/>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Spend some time with your inner monologue (and actually enjoy it).
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DeAy2U">
Sitting in silence is, for some, an experience more dreadful than physical pain. One <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1250830">oft-cited study</a> from 2014 found that many people would rather give themselves electric shocks than spend just a few minutes alone with their thoughts. So don’t be ashamed if you’d rather listen to a podcast while you shower than bathe with nothing but the dull thrum of water on tile — when so much entertainment is readily available at all times, why wouldn’t you take advantage? With few moments of silence in your routine, you become less practiced at sitting with your thoughts.
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One reason people find spending spending quality time with their inner monologue so wildly unpleasant is that, left to your own devices, every embarrassing memory, every argument, every sad recollection can come flooding back, effectively derailing what was supposed to be a moment of peace. But while people often dread, and therefore avoid, mining their minds, they can find the actual experience enjoyable in practice, says <a href="https://www.thuyvytnguyen.com/">Thuy-vy Nguyen</a>, an associate professor at Durham University and principal investigator of the <a href="https://www.solitude-lab.com/">Solitude Lab</a>, where researchers study the effects and experiences of both lifelong and spontaneous alone time. Thinking about people and memories that are meaningful to us is more enjoyable than other pursuits we regularly engage in during downtime, like playing video games, checking social media, or texting, according to a <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/emo-emo0001029.pdf">2022 study</a>.
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Harnessing the power of silence can have profound benefits. Left to work without distractions, our minds can dream up imaginative musings, solve problems, and create — as well as allow us to savor pleasant memories, set goals, reflect on our lives, and build excitement for the future, says <a href="https://www.ethankross.com/">Ethan Kross</a>, a professor at the University of Michigan and author of <a href="https://www.ethankross.com/chatter/"><em>Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It</em></a>. “You’ve got to give yourself space to have those kinds of insights,” he says.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rCqzhR">
So how can we disconnect from the noise and tap into positive and inspired thinking? In short, structure your time strategically, avoid tempting distractions, and know how to cope when troubling thoughts arise.
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Make a plan for your thinking time
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<a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/emo-emo0001029.pdf">People often grab their phones</a> during unstructured downtime, a habit that neither enriches our lives nor is too detrimental — it simply cures boredom, Nguyen says. Being intentional with how you’ll spend your free time alone with your thoughts can help make the process easier and more enjoyable. Researchers refer to this practice as “<a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/emo-emo0001029.pdf">intentional thinking for pleasure</a>,” as opposed to daydreaming or mind wandering, which often occurs unintentionally when you’re attempting other tasks.
</p>
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Turn off notifications on your phone or stow it in another room for 15 to 20 minutes to create space for thinking, Kross suggests. <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/105112">Apple</a> and <a href="https://support.google.com/android/answer/9069335?hl=en">Android</a> offer Do Not Disturb modes that easily make your phone distraction-free. Maintain a list of topics you want to explore, like your upcoming wedding day or what your life would be like if you lived in Paris; this helps keep your thinking on track, <a href="https://www.erinwestgate.com/uploads/7/6/4/1/7641726/westgatewilsongilbert.emotion.pdf">according to research</a>, and gives you something to return to should your mind wander toward less pleasant thoughts. For example, <a href="https://gloriamark.com/">Gloria Mark</a>, a professor emerita in the department of informatics at the University of California Irvine and author of <a href="https://gloriamark.com/attention-span/"><em>Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity</em></a>, reflects on three positive things from the day before bed each night. When the topics of thought are more personally meaningful and positive, people find the practice more enjoyable, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33661664/">studies show</a>.
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Kross is a proponent of using time he already allots in his schedule to specific activities, like running or cycling, to think of creative solutions to research or writing blocks. “I’ll just activate what the issue is that I want to work through, and then I go on the treadmill,” he says, “and inevitably, my mind starts working, coming up with all sorts of solutions. I have lots of insights that way.”
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Other activities conducive to thinking include a walk outside (research has found <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2014/04/24/walking-vs-sitting-042414/">walking to improve creativity</a>) and other undertakings that don’t involve much attention, like bathing, driving a familiar route, or folding laundry, Mark says.
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Embrace negative thoughts as they come
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Now for the unfortunate truth: A product of sitting with your thoughts is facing negative ones head-on. No one is immune to worry or embarrassment. Some negative thoughts may be fleeting, like a memory of a joke that didn’t land in a meeting. This is where a list of thinking topics can come in handy, Mark says, so you can return to the items you want to mull over. “It’s pretty easy [for me] to manage getting rid of that negative thought,” she says, “because I had this goal of moving on to get to these three positive things.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Olwxjo">
But some negative thoughts are more persistent and require assessment, Kross says. For these more profound instances, try to think objectively about the issue at hand — say, improving communication with your partner if you keep circling back to a recent fight — to determine why you encountered the issue and to find a meaningful way forward. Or take the conversation out of your head and into the real world with an adviser, like a therapist or impartial friend. Mark uses negative thoughts as a learning opportunity: How can you grow from the negative experience you’re thinking about?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jNplFv">
Keep in mind that if you’re constantly mulling over the same issues, getting stuck in the emotions of the experience without finding solutions, you may be <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/rumination-a-cycle-of-negative-thinking">ruminating</a>. Rumination is repetitive thinking of negative emotions or experiences. Those who ruminate may not be able to process emotions effectively and may have increased anxiety and depression.
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“Rather than coming up with a solution, you instead start spinning, rehearsing the emotional elements of those experiences over and over again in ways that can be really debilitating,” Kross says. “Rumination can lead to problems in your ability to think and perform, problems in your relationships, and it can also undermine your physical and <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health">mental health</a>.” Try to look at the memory from an outsider’s perspective so you’re less likely to become immersed in the emotions, he suggests.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8xRz4F">
You don’t have to sit with negative feelings, either, Nguyen says. You want your solo time to be one of enjoyment and not despair. Switch to an activity you enjoy doing, like listening to music, reading, exercise, or gardening, to shift gears.
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<h3 id="5nxGj2">
Start small and keep practicing alone time with your thoughts
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As with any skill, the more time you dedicate to solitary thinking, the easier it becomes, Nguyen says. Begin with a few minutes alone with your thoughts each day and build up as you feel comfortable. Maybe you’ll come to an epiphany in the shower or while on a walk. These aha moments don’t simply materialize out of thin air — we have to give our minds space to wander.
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If your goal is to maximize your thinking power, you have to be intentional with your time. Instead of reflexively reaching for your phone during a break at work, see what happens when your mind is left to its own devices. Try thinking through ways out of an interpersonal conundrum or imagining the perfect vacation. It can be just as entertaining as whatever’s happening on TikTok today.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VZAlEB">
“You can be more deliberate,” Kross says, “about giving yourself opportunities to have those experiences more regularly.”
</p></li>
<li><strong>The GOP is moderating — and coming unhinged</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="House Speaker Mike Johnson Holds News Conference On Capitol Hill" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MLv-zroo_VjyvOa0BNcKLYQNQaY=/334x0:5667x4000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73071027/1932863230.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
While a far-right movement sows chaos in the House, a seemingly normal pro-business party is cutting deals in the Senate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zD5RL8">
Last week, House Republicans once again struggled to meet the most basic obligation of a governing party as roughly half its members effectively voted to force a government shutdown.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XHVkkd">
This was only the latest chapter in <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a>’s long, strange quest to pass a budget for 2024.<strong> </strong>Eight months ago, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/debt-ceiling-deal-explained.html">cut a deal</a> with <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a> over this year’s spending bill. Before that agreement, McCarthy and his caucus had held the nation’s economic health hostage, threatening to force the United States into a debt default — a course of action that could trigger a global financial crisis — unless the Democratic president <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/debt-ceiling-extortion-historical-republican-congress-hostage-default-threat-kevin-mccarthy.html">acquiesced to conservative policy goals</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="txmTtB">
Nevertheless, when Biden made it clear that he would not be coerced into repealing his own climate and student debt policies, McCarthy accepted a relatively ordinary fiscal compromise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lfTs1I">
This cost McCarthy his job. In order to secure election as speaker in the first place, McCarthy had needed to appease the far-right flank of his party’s narrow House majority. He did this by, among other things, giving conservative hardliners the power to vote him out of his leadership position at any time. Still smarting over McCarthy’s traitorous openness to legislative compromise, the hardliners <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/4/23903781/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-house-chaos-questions-answered">ousted the speaker in October</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dquzGi">
The party’s new leader, <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/29/23935362/mike-johnson-house-speaker-ukraine-israel-immigration">Mike Johnson</a>, himself extremely right-wing, is a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus. Unfortunately for his right-wing comrades, however, Johnson is also capable of understanding that his party does not control the White House or Senate and must therefore compromise with Democrats in order to pass legislation. Thus, earlier this month, Johnson <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/12/politics/speaker-mike-johnson-topline-spending-deal/index.html">reached a budget deal </a>with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that closely resembled McCarthy’s agreement with Biden from last year. Yet Johnson’s House allies in the Freedom Caucus still feel entitled to dictate terms to Democrats, so they have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/us/politics/house-republicans-johnson-deal-shutdown.html">denounced</a> the new agreement for its excessive social spending and lack of <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/18/disappointed-and-upset-conservatives-bemoan-lack-of-anti-abortion-win-in-funding-fight-00136235">anti-abortion provisions</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1Vi4fw">
Now, nearly one year after the initial deal between House Republicans and the president, McCarthy is out of Congress, and Congress still hasn’t passed a budget for 2024.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wzsx5Y">
Instead, lawmakers have been keeping the government running through a series of temporary emergency spending bills, the latest of which was set to expire on January 19. This week, Congress scrambled to extend temporary funding through March and finally got a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-government-shutdown-stopgap-bill/">continuing resolution</a> to Biden’s desk on Thursday night, January 18. But the House’s GOP majority proved incapable of keeping the government open on its own. While 107 House Republicans voted to pass the continuing resolution, 106 voted against it. If House Democrats had not been largely unified behind the legislation, Johnson’s caucus could have forced a government shutdown.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VvTWft">
And yet, even as the House GOP was struggling to execute the rudimentary task of keeping Uncle Sam’s lights on, their co-partisans in the Senate spent the week crafting <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/1/16/24035922/child-tax-credit-wyden-smith-deal#:~:text=How%20big%20a%20deal%20is,a%20year%20out%20of%20poverty.">a bipartisan plan</a> for reducing child poverty in the United States.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bZhKwY">
This jarring split screen — in which Republicans look like anarchic extremists in one picture and constructive partners for important legislative reforms in the other — is actually quite typical of today’s GOP. Senate Republicans have been far more open to bipartisan cooperation in the Biden era than they were in the Obama years, even as their party’s presidential frontrunner and House hardliners remain as radical and reckless as they’ve ever been.
</p>
<h3 id="ZObtTZ">
In the Biden era, the Senate GOP has been doing its best impression of a normal center-right party
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LWIQug">
On Tuesday, Republican Senator Jason Smith <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/1/16/24035922/child-tax-credit-wyden-smith-deal">announced</a> that he and his Democratic colleague Ron Wyden had struck a deal on tax policy: Democrats had agreed to support more favorable tax treatment for corporate spending on research and development, among other business tax breaks, in exchange for the GOP’s backing of an expansion in the child tax credit for poor and working-class families.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="meL4lA">
The details of these policies are deeply technical. But the upshot is that the changes to the child tax credit will primarily benefit families earning between $10,000 and $50,000 a year, with the average benefiting household securing $1,130 in additional annual income from the change, according to the <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/model-estimates/options-modify-refundability-child-tax-credit-november-2023/t23-0095-increase-ctc">Tax Policy Center</a>. Altogether, the expanded benefits are sizable enough to pull 400,000 children above the poverty line and increase the household incomes of 3 million more, according to the <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/about-16-million-children-in-low-income-families-would-gain-in-first-year-of-0">Center on Budget and Policy Priorities</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GMG9z1">
What’s more, some of the business tax breaks are defensible on the merits. For instance, the bill would enable firms to immediately deduct from their taxable income any investments they make into research and development. Before <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> took office, businesses already enjoyed such a deduction. But the Trump tax cuts scrapped that benefit in order to generate revenue for across-the-board corporate tax breaks. Giving companies a financial incentive to invest in R&amp;D for new technologies — instead of merely accumulating cash or paying it out to shareholders — may be socially beneficial, especially at a time when innovation in the energy sector <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/climate-biden-green-tech-innovation.html">is an environmental imperative</a>. The bill pays for these changes by rolling back the now-obsolete Employee Retention Credit, which encouraged businesses to keep their workers on staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xpak8H">
In other words: Republicans agitated for one of corporate America’s more reasonable requests while acquiescing to an expansion in pro-family social welfare policies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v6DcOB">
This is the sort of thing that one would expect from a healthy center-right party. And the tax deal is not wholly an aberration for the Biden-era GOP.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8FGD2i">
In marked contrast to his <a href="https://swampland.time.com/2012/08/23/the-party-of-no-new-details-on-the-gop-plot-to-obstruct-obama/">conduct</a> during Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House, Mitch McConnell has not reflexively obstructed Biden’s every legislative ambition. Instead, the Senate minority leader has facilitated the passage of bipartisan bills increasing federal investment in <a href="https://www.vox.com/22770447/infrastructure-bill-democrats-biden-water-broadband-roads-buses">infrastructure</a>, <a href="https://new.nsf.gov/chips#:~:text=About%20the%20%22CHIPS%20and%20Science%20Act%22&amp;text=On%20August%209%2C%202022%2C%20President,use%2Dinspired%2C%20translational%20research.">scientific research</a>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/7/27/23277664/chips-act-solve-chip-shortage-biden-manufacturing'">domestic semiconductor production</a>. He also <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/2/23488517/same-sex-marriage-bill-respect-for-marriage">allowed the enactment</a> of federal legislation effectively codifying equal <a href="https://www.vox.com/marriage-equality">marriage rights</a> for same-sex couples.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6TI4Y">
The Biden-era GOP therefore has two distinct faces. Seen from the Senate, it can look like a relatively ordinary (if unusually conservative) pro-business party in a Western democracy. This GOP has sheepishly retreated from its Obama-era contempt for the necessity of compromise under divided government, having decided that forcing government shutdowns is bad politics and that securing incremental legislative gains through bipartisan horse-trading is good policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3pYQJY">
This wing of the Republican Party still offends the moral sensibilities of any liberal. Its members are still committed to redistributing income and power away from workers and toward bosses. And their brand of social conservatism remains exceptionally reactionary, while their approach to <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate">climate change</a> would only accelerate ecological decline. But the party nevertheless evinces an interest in sustaining democratic governance through its upholding of election results and sharing of power with co-equal branches of government controlled by its rivals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BPN2XT">
Of course, if you look to the GOP’s caucus in the House or the candidate winning its presidential primary, the party will seem like an authoritarian personality cult too suffused with rage and nihilism to fulfill its most basic civic obligations.
</p>
<h3 id="2VS9f2">
Why today’s Republican Party looks reckless in one moment and weirdly responsible in the next<strong> </strong>
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ed9SE0">
The causes of this duality aren’t mysterious: Different factions of the GOP serve different interests. McConnell’s wing is aligned with both big and small business. The Chamber of Commerce’s agenda is focused on the short term and often cruel, favoring tax breaks for the rich <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/health-care/us-chamber-supports-american-health-care-act">over maintaining health insurance for working poor Americans</a>. But it is nevertheless an agenda. The nation’s business owners and shareholders have things they want to get out of public policy, and they have an interest in political stability. They are therefore served by pragmatic legislative compromise and the upholding of liberal democratic norms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OKGBmk">
But many in the House Freedom Caucus are either too reactionary or too nihilistic to have use for such things. These Republicans’ first loyalty is to either their own radical ideology, the conservative infotainment complex, or both. Such right-wingers often believe — or pretend to believe — that the Democratic Party has no legitimate claim to power (due to its reliance on the votes of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-worst-attack-our-democracy-160-years-how-about-immigration-act-1965">immigrants</a> and/or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/upshot/wisconsin-republicans-rural-urban-voters.html">city slickers</a>), that the nation’s culture and moral character are in catastrophic decline, that true patriots are at risk of irrevocably losing their country, and that the Republican leadership has enabled red America’s dispossession through its perennial refusal to truly fight.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ioiUoc">
Conservative media reflects and cultivates this paranoid and protoauthoritarian worldview. Right-wing entertainers have long recognized that fear and outrage drive viewership. They also long ago ascertained the appeal of morality plays in which a small band of true conservatives struggles against a Republican leadership too craven or cowardly to stick up for “real” Americans. Encouraging brinksmanship and legislative dysfunction may not be a sound way of obtaining conservative reforms, but the primary aim of <a href="https://www.vox.com/media">Fox News</a> et al is generating ratings, not achieving policy goals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fEsxNi">
Some Republican lawmakers, reared on right-wing agitprop, sincerely believe themselves to be in an epochal struggle with an essentially evil adversary. But it’s likely that others simply see more to gain from performing for the Fox News faithful than from carrying water for the GOP leadership. Why seek coveted committee assignments through quiet service to the party when you can earn a national following through anti-establishment theatrics?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a6rAOb">
Giving yourself a starring role in a headline-generating legislative fiasco can bring attention to your social media feeds, which can then be monetized via appeals to small-dollar donors or else a future career hawking paranoid rage, gold bars, and supplements. Matt Gaetz boasts little affection from his party’s congressional leadership (indeed, at least one of his colleagues has tried to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/matt-gaetz-is-miraculously-more-hated-than-ever-in-congress">physically attack</a> him in recent months, while others decry him as “diabolical”). But his <a href="https://twitter.com/mattgaetz">2.4 million-strong X following</a> may ultimately be more valuable than the admiration of his peers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CfOd58">
Donald Trump did not need to pander to conservative media devotees to gain fame and fortune. But his insatiable appetite for attention and adoration (combined with his own Fox News obsession) gave him many of the same incentives as far-right House backbenchers. Throughout his 2016 campaign and ensuing presidency, Trump often concerned himself less with advancing policy than with giving voice to right-wing America’s id.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Ig1lU">
The GOP’s more staid wing is complicit in the extremism and nihilism of its more radical faction. To build a majority coalition for their plutocratic agenda, business Republicans <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/07/republican-party-uses-populist-politics-advance-plutocratic-policy/">cultivated</a> the resentments and anxieties of white conservative Christians and abetted the rise of conservative media. The latter’s propaganda was supposed to be a means to the ends of legislative action. Now, many Republicans — including the party’s likely 2024 standard-bearer — see legislative action as a means to the ends of propaganda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2xeFC4">
Whether due to the shock of January 6 or personal affection for their former Senate colleague in the White House, Senate Republicans have proven more amenable to compromise during the Biden era than they were under Barack Obama. Yet almost all of the party’s senators are nevertheless prepared to support Trump over Biden this November. So long as the GOP’s most functional faction remains more enamored of power than alarmed by its co-partisans’ illiberal extremism, the party’s truest face will be its ugliest.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The Iran-Pakistan strikes aren’t about Gaza. They’re still alarming.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Protesters with banners and signs stand in the street, surrounded by smoke and with fire on the road in the foreground." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4bAPHrlvN8ff-1v1tnWwM8PRWb4=/336x0:5701x4024/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73070076/1936881658.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadees Pakistan activists protest in Lahore on January 19, 2024, after Iran launched an airstrike in Pakistan’s southwest Balochistan province. | Arif Ali/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Iran’s complicated calculus in attacking Pakistan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DYoWff">
Iran and Pakistan traded missile attacks over the past week, supposedly as part of each nation’s efforts to disrupt violence by ethnic separatist groups. The strikes arrived against a backdrop of spiraling conflict in the Middle East, meaning any further violence could risk expanding that fighting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x3yWS8">
To be clear, there’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/world/middleeast/iran-missile-program.html">no specific, concrete tie</a> between Iran’s conflict with Pakistan and the wider conflicts in the Middle East, which include <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a>’s war in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080046/gaza-palestine-israel">Gaza</a> as well as a tit-for-tat exchange between the US and Yemeni rebels in the Red Sea. And <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/19/pakistan-to-conduct-national-security-review-amid-standoff-with-iran">both Iran and Pakistan on Friday promised to de-escalate</a>. But it’s hard to ignore this week’s attacks, given the ongoing instability and gradual escalations in conflicts involving Iranian proxy groups.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="emHn4x">
That’s in large part because Iran plays at least some role in all of the conflicts currently underway in the Middle East. Iran has links to <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/10/28/23935157/hezbollah-lebanon-israel-hamas-palestine-gaza-iran-militia-group">Hezbollah in Lebanon</a> as well as <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas in Gaza</a>, both groups fighting Israel. The country has also offered past support to the Houthis in Yemen, the rebels currently <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/1/12/24036205/yemen-houthis-us-airstrikes-red-sea-gaza">disrupting shipping and sparring with the US</a> and its Western allies in the Red Sea. And Iran’s provided backing to smaller militia groups based in Iraq and Syria currently attacking US anti-ISIS coalition positions in those countries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="38h3cv">
Ultimately, this week’s exchange between Iran and Pakistan has more to do with each country’s internal politics than with Israel’s war in Gaza. It is the continuation of a long-running struggle against an ethnic insurgency that has troubled them both for decades. And Iran’s involvement — particularly its decision to strike Pakistani territory, as well as targets in Iraq and Syria earlier in the week — telegraphs both its battlefield capabilities as well as its anxiety about recent attacks on its own people.
</p>
<h3 id="QiPTX8">
What exactly happened between Pakistan and Iran?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n4P0xY">
Pakistan carried out what the country’s foreign office called “highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes” against Baloch separatists in Saravan, a city in Iran’s southeast about 70 miles from the Iran-Pakistan border. Thursday’s strikes were in apparent retaliation for a surprise Iranian attack on Tuesday in Pakistani territory, against the anti-Iranian Baloch militant group <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-iran-jaish-aladl-group-baluchistan-96a38d02523b508aa24aec11b0425828?user_email=d0ae70922af541a4cf45e48d2575200542345a2aa90b689d43e7a2924e4e3869&amp;utm_medium=Morning_Wire&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_campaign=Morning%20Wire_18%20Jan_2024&amp;utm_term=Morning%20Wire%20Subscribers">Jaish al-Adl</a>, or Army of Justice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xJckGv">
Pakistan and Iran share a border that cuts through the traditional homeland of the Baloch ethnic minority, a region known as Balochistan. All three of the groups targeted in this week’s strikes — Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan, as well as the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in Iran — are known to carry out violent campaigns against both governments in an effort to secure Baloch autonomy and improved rights and living conditions for the Baloch minority. But there are some important differences between the three groups, as Riccardo Valle, director of research at the Khorasan Diary, told Vox.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W0iVOW">
“BLA and BLF are part of the broader nationalist Baloch insurgency, while Jaish ul Adl is a jihadist organization with a territorial scope limited to Iran in terms of attacks,” he said, using an alternative spelling for Jaish al-Adl. That group is not only nationalistic, but also Sunni — a threat to Iran’s Shia Muslim revolutionary government. While the BLA and BLF wish only to secede from Pakistan and establish an independent Balochistan, “Jaish ul Adl is a Sunni jihadist militant group with a territorial focus which aims at not only gaining independence for Balochistan, but also toppling the Iranian government.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e5x4pS">
Each country has been trying to manage Baloch separatism for decades, but this week’s blow-for-blow strikes are an escalation of past tactics, which occasionally saw cross-border operations — but never something on this scale.
</p>
<h3 id="FLQkXE">
Who are the Baloch people, and why are Iran and Pakistan targeting them?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1ZpBte">
This is <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/iran-warns-islamabad-it-could-strike-militants-inside-pakistan">not the first time</a> that Iran and Pakistan — which typically have fairly friendly relations — <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29752647">have come into conflict over Baloch separatist groups</a>. But it is the most significant and violent clash Iran and Pakistan have had in their efforts to try and contain these groups.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tfr3oN">
The Baloch people are a Sunni Muslim ethnic minority living in a region called Balochistan that encompasses parts of Iran, Pakistan, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>. It’s sparsely populated, largely arid, and because of the comparative lack of development there, it’s also a fairly poor region. And both <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2013/04/11/balochistan-state-versus-nation-pub-51488">Pakistan</a> and <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1083772">Iran</a> have severely <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/iran-hangs-11-baluch-minority-members-in-2-days-rights-group-says/7209118.html">oppressed</a> their Baloch populations, fuelling protests and separatist movements over the decades.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wSJVYj">
Baloch society is organized along tribal lines, and infighting among the Baloch population has contributed somewhat to the group’s lack of political power, as has its <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2016/02/a-brief-history-of-balochistan/">subordination to various empires over the centuries</a>. Baloch <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2013/04/11/balochistan-state-versus-nation-pub-51488">separatist movements have been part of the political fabric of the region for decades</a>, extant in both Pakistan and Iran where about 20 percent of the Baloch population lives (about 70 percent are in Pakistani territory). The increasingly porous and poorly policed border between the two nations has meant that drug trafficking and several different insurgent groups have had the chance to flourish, with Valle particularly noting collaboration between Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which seeks to overthrow the Pakistani government and has launched several deadly attacks there, and Baloch militants.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NA8Mgm">
Jaish al-Adl, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/30/iran-protests-baluchistan-sunni-shiite-sectarian-tensions/">the anti-Iranian Baloch group</a> that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted in Pakistan, is thought to have <a href="https://www.dni.gov/nctc/ftos/jaa_fto.html">emerged from a previous Baloch group, Jundullah,</a> which staged violent attacks on the Iranian government including an assassination attempt against former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in 2003.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xL5HnX">
Iran claims to have killed nine members of the group using drone and missile strikes in Pakistan, close to the Iranian border, where “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/18/which-are-the-armed-groups-iran-and-pakistan-have-bombed-and">the group [had] taken shelter</a>,” according to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. Jaish al-Adl has operated out of Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Balochestan province as well as Pakistan’s border areas over the years in an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/militant-group-pakistan-targeted-by-iranian-strikes-2024-01-17/">attempt to secure better rights and living conditions for Balochs in Iran</a>, as well as ultimately overthrow Iran’s government. Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for an attack at a police station last month in the Iranian city of Rask, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/19/credibility-at-stake-why-did-iran-bomb-pakistan-amid-gaza-war">which killed 11 people</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W0OBt8">
In return, Pakistan targeted the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Balochistan Liberation Front, two groups that attack targets within Pakistan as part of their demands for a separate Baloch state, as well as in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/who-are-pakistan-separatists-behind-attack-chinese-citizens-2022-04-26/">retaliation for what they see as the government’s exploitation</a> of their territory’s mineral wealth and <a href="https://www.vox.com/fossil-fuels">natural gas</a>. Both the BLA and the BLF have attacked <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/who-are-separatists-targeted-by-pakistans-strikes-iran-2024-01-18/">Chinese targets within Pakistan and Balochistan</a>, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a> has invested heavily in projects that run through the province of Balochistan, and that include mining interests, as well as a port and international airport.
</p>
<h3 id="jrclXl">
What political purposes do the military strikes really serve?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KmyASb">
Though concern about the regional implications of the attacks is understandable, they are perhaps more about conditions within Pakistan and Iran than they are about regional tensions. Iran and Pakistan are dealing with internal instability; both countries are facing serious economic challenges, as well as political crises of legitimacy in their respective governments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GEsNc7">
In Pakistan, where the upcoming national elections have triggered division and unrest, Iran’s strikes “united an otherwise politically polarized country in anger,” <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/people/madiha-afzal/">Madiha Afzal</a>, a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution who studies Pakistani politics and extremism in South Asia, told Vox. And, given that Pakistan’s foreign ministry “also provided an off-ramp for de-escalation” — critical given Pakistan’s many internal crises — “seems to have satisfied the Pakistani political class and public,” Afzal said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wZjBdK">
Though Pakistan had <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-pakistan-baluchistan-strike-tensions-israel-hamas-3eb1bf5c7fd2de54aeec9fadecbc78b6">recalled its ambassador to Tehran</a> — and told Iran’s representative to Pakistan not to return — <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/pakistans-civil-military-leaders-review-iran-standoff-minister-2024-01-19/#:~:text=%22Foreign%20Minister%20Jilani%20expressed%20Pakistan's,closer%20cooperation%20on%20security%20issues.%22">both sides have since signaled a desire to avoid further escalation</a>. Within Pakistan, such measures are ”likely to receive wide approval from a politically divided Pakistan if it succeeds in de-escalation,” Afzal said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zzNB0D">
Iran’s Tuesday attack seems to have caught Pakistan by surprise, and its reasoning continues to be opaque. Given that, it’s hard to draw hard conclusions about what this week’s attacks mean, or what could come next. But there are a few useful strains of thought around why Iran would attack targets within not just Pakistan, but Iraq and Syria.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FLYZIG">
Iran’s strikes on Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan, as well as recent attacks on what it said are ISIS-aligned targets in Syria and what it called “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-revolutionary-guards-say-they-have-attacked-espionage-centers-iraqs-erbil-2024-01-15/">one of the main Mossad espionage headquarters</a>” in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil, relate to “Iran’s overall threat perception in the region rising. And at the same time, feeling the need — as a result of domestic and external pressure — to respond,” Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at SWP Berlin, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/19/credibility-at-stake-why-did-iran-bomb-pakistan-amid-ga">told Al Jazeera</a>. Iraqi and Kurdish authorities denied that the building in Erbil had any ties to Iran, and it’s not clear that Iran’s strikes in Syria did any major damage to ISIS targets, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68021483">according to the BBC</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rAbCPc">
While <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/world/middleeast/iran-conflict-gaza-pakistan-hezbollah.html">Iran typically projects power through its proxies,</a> insurgent groups and Iran’s adversaries have struck crucial blows against the country over the past month. ISIS Khorasan Province (ISIS-K or ISKP) claimed responsibility for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-vows-revenge-after-biggest-attack-since-1979-revolution-2024-01-04/">an attack on a ceremony</a> commemorating the assassination of former Islamic Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, which killed nearly 100 people in the Iranian city of Kerman. Israel’s Mossad also killed another top IRGC military adviser, Sayyed Razi Mousavi, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/25/israeli-air-strike-in-syria-kills-top-iranian-general">near Damascus in December</a>, likely contributing to <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/experts-react-whats-really-going-on-with-pakistan-and-iran-exchanging-attacks/#brodsky-iran-pakistan">Iran’s internal sense of threat</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GfY88y">
Essentially, this week’s attacks could be interpreted as a message to its own people — <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68021483">particularly the government’s hardline base</a> — that the Islamic Republic will not be bullied, even as it must take care to avoid direct confrontation with the United States and its allies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H0mV3v">
Tuesday’s missile strikes in Pakistan could also be an attempt to “force regional countries, including Pakistan, to rethink their preexisting alignment with the United States and to not offer further help that might allow the United States to counter Iran or its proxies in the region,” Asfandyar Mir, senior expert on South Asia at the US Institute of Peace, <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/01/making-sense-iran-pakistan-cross-border-strikes">wrote Friday</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pSaoyE">
And while there might not be a direct link between Israel’s war in Gaza and Iran’s attacks on targets in Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan this week, it could be that Iran believes now is the time to signal its own military capabilities — rather than using proxy groups to do so. But in attacking countries with which it has fairly friendly ties, Iran was able to display its firepower in a limited capacity, without significant risk of escalation, though both Iraq and Pakistan have expressed their fury at Iran’s attacks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KSabyX">
Iran could retaliate against Pakistan’s strikes, Mir wrote, but for now, it seems more likely that attacks will be suspended. Further strikes would be very risky given Pakistan’s superior military and Iran’s already-stretched military and proxy forces. “A tit-for-tat cycle with Pakistan in which Pakistan regularly violates Iran’s sovereignty will erode Iran’s ability to deter other adversaries,” Mir wrote, “including the United States and Israel.”
</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>Ranji Trophy | Jagadeesan races away to his maiden double ton; puts Tamil Nadu in the driver’s seat</strong> - The home side gets bowled out for 489 before Railways reaches 126 for two at the end of day two</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>MOTORSPORTS | New karting track at Sriperumbudur to be opened later this year</strong> - Winners of the MRF MMSC FMSCI National motorcycle and car racing championships honoured at awards function</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ICC Under-19 World Cup | Adarsh, Uday hit sedate fifties as India post 251 for 7 against Bangladesh</strong> - Bangladesh bowlers bowled 156 dot balls, which is 26 overs of the Indian innings.</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>Pitch full length, attack stumps and setting up straighter field placement should be mantra, Donald advises English pacers</strong> - Donald believes that setting negative fields like stationing a deep square leg or sweeper is actually a negative strategy in India.</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>Australian Open | Teenager Noskova stuns World No. 1 Swiatek in 3rd round</strong> - Four-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek took the first set, but lost the next two to the 19-year-old Noskova.</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>PMK, AMMK call for caste survey in Tamil Nadu</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Will protect Myanmar border like that of Bangladesh: Amit Shah</strong> - Addressing the passing out parade of the first batch of the five newly-constituted Assam Police Commando battalions, he said the Centre is rethinking the free-movement facility with Myanmar.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In a first, Army couple set to march down Kartavya Path in R-Day parade</strong> - The couple, who got married in June 2023, said it was a sheer coincidence that they were getting to march together on the occasion.</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>We will be vocal about failures of YSRCP in AP, says new Congress chief Y.S. Sharmila</strong> - The party seniors see Ms. Sharmila’s entry as a catalyst for Congress revival in the State.</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>INDIA bloc certain to disintegrate in Bihar; good development to follow for NDA: Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras</strong> - Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party leader Pashupati Kumar Paras said differences between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav have deepened.</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>AfD: Germans float ban on elected far-right party after scandal</strong> - Germans are angered by reports that AfD figures joined a meeting that discussed mass deportations.</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>Théo Luhaka: French police officers given suspended sentences for brutal assault</strong> - Théo Luhaka suffered severe injuries from a police baton in a case which triggered days of protests.</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>How London hotel sting caught Swiss museum heist thieves</strong> - A vase stolen from Geneva was carried around London in a JD Sports bag as the gang looked to sell it on.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Russian oil depot hit in Ukrainian drone attack</strong> - Fire breaks out over a large area in the Bryansk region, a day after another oil facility is targeted.</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>Bashkortostan protests against jail term reach regional capital Ufa</strong> - At least 10 people are detained as hundreds of people in Ufa defy warnings not to protest.</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>What happens when you trigger a car’s automated emergency stopping?</strong> - Experiencing the sequence of events in a car programmed for automated emergency stopping. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1995333">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft network breached through password-spraying by Russian-state hackers</strong> - Senior execs’ emails accessed in network breach that wasn’t caught for 2 months. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997633">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Elizabeth Holmes barred from federal health programs for 90 years</strong> - The former Theranos CEO is barred from receiving payments from federal health program. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997609">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>WordPad out; 80Gbps USB support and other Win 11 features in testing this month</strong> - Microsoft’s next batch of Windows 11 feature updates is taking shape. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997547">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Big Pharma hiked the price of 775 drugs this year so far: Report</strong> - Meanwhile, Senate to consider subpoenas to force pharma CEOs testify on prices. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1997565">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>“And what might that be?” said Mother, seeing the obvious excitement in her eldest daughter’s eyes. “Well,” replied the daughter, with a proud but sheepish grin, “I’m getting married!”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The other daughters squealed with surprise as Mother Potato exclaimed, “Married! That’s wonderful! And who are you marrying, Eldest daughter?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I’m marrying a Russet!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“A Russet!” replied Mother Potato with pride. “Oh, a Russet is a fine tater, a fine tater indeed!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
As the family shared in the eldest daughter’s joy, the middle daughter spoke up. “Mother, I too, have an announcement.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“And what might that be?” asked Mother Potato. Not knowing quite how to begin, the middle daughter paused, then said with conviction, “I, too, am getting married!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“You, too!” Mother Potato said with joy. “That’s wonderful! Twice the good news in one evening! And who are you marrying, Middle Daughter?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I’m marrying an Idaho,” beamed the middle daughter. “An Idaho!” said Mother Potato with joy. “Oh, an Idaho is a fine tater, a fine tater indeed!” Once again, the room came alive with laughter and excited plans for the future, when the youngest Potato daughter interrupted.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Mother? Mother Potato? Um, I, too, have an announcement to make.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yes?” said Mother Potato with great anticipation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Well,” began the youngest Potato daughter with the same sheepish grin as her eldest sister before her, “I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to you, but I am getting married, as well!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Really?” said Mother Potato with sincere excitement. “All of my lovely daughters married! What wonderful news! And who, pray tell, are you marrying, Youngest Daughter?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I’m marrying Joe Rogan!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“ Joe Rogan?!” Mother Potato scowled suddenly. “But he’s just a common tater!”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b07fd/and_what_might_that_be_said_mother_seeing_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b07fd/and_what_might_that_be_said_mother_seeing_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A ship sinks in the South Pacific, and the only survivors are a man, a dog, and a sheep.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
They manage to find a piece of wreckage to hang onto, and after a day or two, they wash up on a deserted island. The man looks around, and there’s plenty of fruit and fish and fresh water, but he’s all alone, just him and the dog and the sheep.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A couple of months pass. The man is surviving and thriving, but he’s getting lonely, and that sheep’s starting to look awful seductive. Eventually he gives into temptation, but as soon as he gets near the sheep, the dog starts barking and biting and chasing him off. This continues for the next three months, the dog chasing off the man every time he tries to make a move on the sheep.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One day, the man is walking along the beach to take a cold bath in the ocean, when he sees a beautiful woman on the sand, unconscious. He runs over and resuscitates her, and spends the next week tending to her injuries and learning about her. She was a pilot, and her plane crashed into the sea in a gale, and just happened to wash up on this deserted island, a thousand miles away from the nearest land.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The two of them grow close, and one night, she asks him, “I know you’re awful lonely here. Is there something I can do for you to repay you for helping me?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The man says, “Yeah, can you take the dog for a walk for a couple hours?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TheThalmorEmbassy"> /u/TheThalmorEmbassy </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19axvh7/a_ship_sinks_in_the_south_pacific_and_the_only/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19axvh7/a_ship_sinks_in_the_south_pacific_and_the_only/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Morse code</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I’ve been learning Morse code recently. The other day I was talking to someone using Morse code on ham radio and I accidentally said something he found offensive but I couldn’t apologize to him because I haven’t learned remorse code yet.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/jimdagem"> /u/jimdagem </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b45z6/morse_code/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b45z6/morse_code/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It was a dark and stormy night…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Outside a little town in Mexico, this guy was on the side of the road hitchhiking on a very dark night and in the middle of a storm.<br/> As the night descended and no cars passed by, the storm became stronger so he could hardly see a few feet in front of him. Suddenly, he saw a car coming towards him and stop.<br/> The guy without thinking, got in the car, closes the door, and just realizes there’s nobody behind the wheel. The car starts slowly, the guy looks at the road and sees a curve coming his way, scared he starts to pray, begging for his life. Then, just before he hits the curve, a hand appears through the window and steers the wheel into the curve. The guy, paralyzed with fear, watched how the hand appears every time they are coming to a curve. The guy, gathering strength, jumps out of the car and runs to the nearest town.<br/> Wet and in shock, he goes to a cantina and asks for two shots of tequila, and starts telling everybody about the horrible experience he endured. A silence enveloped everybody when they realize the guy was crying and wasn’t drunk.<br/> About half an hour later two guys walked inside the same cantina and one said to the other. “Look Paco, that’s the gringo that got in the car when we were pushing it.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/GANDORF57"> /u/GANDORF57 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19aqquk/it_was_a_dark_and_stormy_night/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19aqquk/it_was_a_dark_and_stormy_night/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How do you make your girlfriend yell during sex?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
You call her and tell her about it.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/solemnoak"> /u/solemnoak </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b7iih/how_do_you_make_your_girlfriend_yell_during_sex/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/19b7iih/how_do_you_make_your_girlfriend_yell_during_sex/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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