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<title>06 June, 2023</title>
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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>A flexible and high-throughput genotyping workflow tracked the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the UK in 2022</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In late 2021, the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant spread rapidly worldwide. To track its emergence, and the continued evolution of SARS-CoV-2 while giving actionable epidemio- logical data that informs public health policy, we developed a high-throughput, automated, genotyping workflow that pairs flexible liquid handling with a re-configurable LIMS system. This workflow facilitated the real-time monitoring of the spread of BA.4 and BA.5, and by the time of its retirement, the system was responsible for typing c. 400,000 SARS-CoV-2 samples. When combined with a population-scale testing program, genotyping assays, can offer a rapid and cost-effective method of determining variants and horizon-scanning for changes in the pool of circulating mutations. Strategies to prepare diagnostics infrastructure for Pathogen X should consider the development of flexible systems with interchangeable components that can be rapidly re-configured to meet uncertain and changing requirements.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.03.23289684v1" target="_blank">A flexible and high-throughput genotyping workflow tracked the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the UK in 2022</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Potential involvement of protein phosphatase PP2CA on protein synthesis and cell cycle during SARS-CoV-2 infection. A meta analysis investigation</strong> -
<div>
Coronavirus disease 2019 is a multi-systemic syndrome that caused a pandemic. Proteomic studies demonstrate changes in protein expression and interaction involved in signaling pathways related to SARS-CoV-2 infections. Protein phosphatases are important for cell signaling regulation. Here we aimed to understand the involvement of protein phosphatases and the signaling pathways that may be involved during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Then, we carried out a metanalysis of protein phosphatase interaction directly or indirectly with viral proteins. Additionally, we analyzed the expression degree of protein phosphatases, and phosphorylation degree of intermediate proteins. Our analyses revealed that PP2CA and PTEN were the key protein involved in the cell cycle and apoptosis regulation, during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Showing it as potential target for COVID-19 control.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.02.543487v1" target="_blank">Potential involvement of protein phosphatase PP2CA on protein synthesis and cell cycle during SARS-CoV-2 infection. A meta analysis investigation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Phenotypic evolution of SARS-CoV-2: a statistical inference approach</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Since its emergence in late 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread globally, causing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the fall of 2020, the Alpha variant (lineage B.1.1.7) was detected in England and spread rapidly, outcompeting the previous lineage. Yet, very little is known about the underlying modifications of the infection process that can explain this selective advantage. Here, we try to quantify how the Alpha variant differed from its predecessor on two phenotypic traits: the transmission rate and the duration of infectiousness. To this end, we analysed the joint epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics as a function of the Stringency Index, a measure of the amount of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions. Assuming that these control measures reduce contact rates and transmission, we developed a two-step approach based on SEIR models and the analysis of a combination of epidemiological and evolutionary information. First, we quantify the link between Stringency Index and the reduction in viral transmission. Secondly, based on a novel theoretical derivation of the selection gradient in an SEIR model, we infer the phenotype of the Alpha variant from its frequency changes. We show that its selective advantage is more likely to result from a higher transmission than from a longer infectious period.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.25.22279206v2" target="_blank">Phenotypic evolution of SARS-CoV-2: a statistical inference approach</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Syndromic surveillance during 2022 Uganda martyrs’ commemoration</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Mass gatherings frequently include close, prolonged interactions between people, which presents opportunities for infectious disease transmission. Over 20,000 pilgrims gathered at Namugongo Catholic and Protestant shrines to commemorate 2022 Uganda Martyr’s Day. We described syndromes suggestive of key priority diseases particularly COVID–19 and viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) among visiting pilgrims during May 25−June 5, 2022. A suspected COVID–19 case was defined as ≥2 signs or symptoms of: fever &gt;37.50C, flu, cough, and difficulty in breathing whereas a suspected VHF case was defined as fever &gt;37.50C and unexplained bleeding among pilgrims who visited Namugongo Catholic and Protestant shrines from May 25 to June 5, 2022. Pilgrims were sampled systematically at entrances and demarcated zonal areas to participate in the survey. Additionally, we extracted secondary data on pilgrims who sought emergency medical services from Health Management Information System registers. Descriptive analysis was conducted to identify syndromes suggestive of key priority diseases based on signs and symptoms. Among 1,350 pilgrims interviewed, 767 (57%) were female. The mean age was 37.9 (±17.9) years. Nearly all pilgrims 1,331 (98.6%) were Ugandans. A total of 236 (18%) reported ≥1 case definition symptom and 25 (2%) reported ≥2 symptoms. Twenty-two (1.6%) were suspected COVID–19 cases and three (0.2%) were suspected VHF cases from different regions of Uganda. Among 5,582 pilgrims who sought medical care from tents, 538 (9.6%) had suspected COVID–19 and one had suspected VHF. Almost one in fifty pilgrims at the 2022 Uganda Martyrs’ commemoration had at least one symptom of COVID–19 or VHF. Overall, we identified 4 Viral Hemorrhagic Fever and 560 COVID-19 suspected cases during the 2022 Uganda Martyrs’ commemoration. Intensified syndromic surveillance and planned laboratory testing capacity at mass gatherings is important for early detection of public health emergencies that could stem from such events.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.26.23290598v1" target="_blank">Syndromic surveillance during 2022 Uganda martyrs’ commemoration</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Social genomics, cognition, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction - Adverse psychosocial Adverse psychosocial exposure is associated with increased proinflammatory gene expression and reduced type-1 interferon gene expression, a profile known as the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA). Little is known about CTRA activity in the context of cognitive impairment, although chronic inflammatory activation has been posited as one mechanism contributing to late-life cognitive decline. Methods - We studied 171 community-dwelling older adults from the Wake Forest Alzheimers Disease Research Center who answered questions via a telephone questionnaire battery about their perceived stress, loneliness, well-being, and impact of COVID-19 on their life, and who provided a self-collected dried blood spot sample. Of those, 148 had adequate samples for mRNA analysis, and 143 were included in the final analysis, which including participants adjudicated as having normal cognition (NC, n = 91) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 52) were included in the analysis. Mixed effect linear models were used to quantify associations between psychosocial variables and CTRA gene expression. Results - In both NC and MCI groups, eudaimonic well-being (typically associated with a sense of purpose) was inversely associated with CTRA gene expression whereas hedonic well-being (typically associated with pleasure seeking) was positively associated. In participants with NC, coping through social support was associated with lower CTRA gene expression, whereas coping by distraction and reframing was associated with higher CTRA gene expression. CTRA gene expression was not related to coping strategies for participants with MCI, or to either loneliness or perceived stress in either group. Discussion - Eudaimonic and hedonic well-being remain important correlates of molecular markers of stress, even in people with MCI. However, prodromal cognitive decline appears to moderate the significance of coping strategies as a correlate of CTRA gene expression. These results suggest that MCI can selectively alter biobehavioral interactions in ways that could potentially affect the rate of future cognitive decline and may serve as targets for future intervention efforts.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.31.23290618v1" target="_blank">Social genomics, cognition, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Reduced SARS-CoV-2 infection and altered antiviral transcriptional response in IBD intestinal organoids.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
IBD is characterized by altered immune reactions and infections are thought to trigger the chronic inflammatory response in IBD. The gut represents a productive reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 and the aforementioned factors together with immunosuppression used to treat IBD are likely influencing the outcomes of IBD patients in COVID-19. We used large and small intestinal organoids from IBD patients and controls to comparatively assess the transcriptional response of the gut epithelium during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our analysis showed that IBD epithelia exhibit reduced viral loads compared to controls associated with a reduced expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors including the host receptor ACE2. Moreover, several genes implicated in the epithelial response to viral infection are intrinsically altered in IBD likely counteracting viral propagation. Notably, differences between IBD phenotypes exist wherein ulcerative colitis represents with induced cell death pathways and an induction of IL-1β despite overall lower viral loads suggestive of increased epithelial stress in this IBD phenotype. Altogether our analysis shows that IBD epithelia are not more prone to SARS-CoV-2 infection but epithelia from ulcerative colitis and Crohn9s disease exhibit specific differences which might explain the differing COVID-19 outcomes between IBD phenotypes.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.05.23290961v1" target="_blank">Reduced SARS-CoV-2 infection and altered antiviral transcriptional response in IBD intestinal organoids.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Feature Selection for an Explainability Analysis in Detection of COVID-19 Active Cases from Facebook User-Based Online Surveys</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In this paper, we introduce a machine-learning approach to detecting COVID-19-positive cases from self-reported information. Specifically, the proposed method builds a tree-based binary classification model that includes a recursive feature elimination step. Based on Shapley values, the recursive feature elimination method preserves the most relevant features without compromising the detection performance. In contrast to previous approaches that use a limited set of selected features, the machine learning approach constructs a detection engine that considers the full set of features reported by respondents. Various versions of the proposed approach were implemented using three different binary classifiers: random forest (RF), light gradient boosting (LGB), and extreme gradient boosting (XGB). We consistently evaluate the performance of the implemented versions of the proposed detection approach on data extracted from the University of Maryland Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey (UMD-CTIS) for four different countries: Brazil, Canada, Japan, and South Africa, and two periods: 2020 and 2021. We also compare the performance of the proposed approach to those obtained by state-of-the-art methods under various quality metrics: F1-score, sensitivity, specificity, precision, receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and area under ROC curve (AUC). It should be noted that the proposed machine learning approach outperformed state-of-the-art detection techniques in terms of the F1-score metric. In addition, this work shows the normalized daily case curves obtained by the proposed approach for the four countries. It should note that the estimated curves are compared to those reported in official reports. Finally, we perform an explainability analysis, using Shapley and relevance ranking of the classification models, to identify the most significant variables contributing to detecting COVID-19-positive cases. This analysis allowed us to determine the relevance of each feature and the corresponding contribution to the detection task.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.26.23290608v1" target="_blank">Feature Selection for an Explainability Analysis in Detection of COVID-19 Active Cases from Facebook User-Based Online Surveys</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Impact of patient gender on low back pain management before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in commercially insured and Medicare Advantage cohorts. A retrospective cohort study</strong> -
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Background: Variability in the management of LBP has been extensively studied, however the degree to which this variability is associated with patient gender is less well understood. The purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to examine variability in the management of LBP associated with patient gender in commercially insured (CI) and Medicare Advantage (MA) cohorts before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A US national sample of LBP episodes with a duration of less than 91 days experienced during 2019-2021 was analyzed. Independent variables included patient gender, whether an individual had CI or MA coverage, and the timing of LBP onset during pre-, early, and late COVID time periods. Dependent measures included the percent of individuals initially contacting eighteen types of health care provider (HCP) and receiving twenty-two types of health care services, and total episode cost. Measures associated with female patients were compared with a male patient baseline to examine patient gender related differences. Results: The study included 222,043 CI and 466,125 MA complete episodes of LBP. 114,322 (51.5%) of the CI and 281,597 (60.4%) of MA episodes were associated with female patients. Individual home address zip code population attributes were nearly identical in both CI and MA cohorts. During the pre-, early, and late COVID time periods, in both CI and MA cohorts, female patients were less likely than male patients to initially contact DCs (risk ratio (RR) CI pre-COVID 0.88, CI early COVID 0.90, CI late COVID 0.86, MA pre 0.70, MA early 0.70, MA late 0.73) and were more likely to initially contact rheumatologists (2.72, 2.62, 3.20, 2.15, 2.59, 2.08). In the CI cohort during the pre-, early, and late COVID time periods female patients more likely than male patients to initially contact physical therapists (PT) (RR pre-COVID 1.24, early COVID 1.17, late COVID 1.16) and licensed acupuncturists (LAC) (1.75, 1.53, 2.21). In both the CI and MA cohorts plain film radiology was the most provided service for both female (32-40% of episodes) and male (31-40%) patients. During all time periods in both CI and MA cohorts female patients were less likely than male patients to receive spinal surgery (risk ratio (RR) CI pre-COVID 0.53, CI early COVID 0.54, CI late COVID 0.53, MA pre- 0.45, MA early 0.46, MA late 0.42), prescription oral steroids (0.75, 0.73, 0.77, 0.82, 0.79, 0.83), and chiropractic manipulative therapy (CMT) (0.87, 0.89, 0.85, 0.70, 0.71, 0.73). In the CI cohort during all time periods female patients more likely than male patients to receive acupuncture (RR pre- 1.41, early 1.48, late 1.48). Conclusions: In both CI and MA cohorts, and compared to males, females with LBP were less likely to seek treatment from DCs and more likely to seek treatment from Rheumatologists. In the CI cohort females were more likely than males to seek treatment from PTs and LAcs. Females with LBP were less likely than males to undergo spinal surgery, receive a prescription oral steroid, or receive CMT.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.05.23290968v1" target="_blank">Impact of patient gender on low back pain management before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in commercially insured and Medicare Advantage cohorts. A retrospective cohort study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Home food procurement associated with improved food security during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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Home food procurement (HFP), including gardening, is associated with food security and improved health behaviors and outcomes. In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, HFP increased in many high-income countries; yet little evidence has demonstrated what impact HFP had on food security. Furthermore, existing HFP studies are largely qualitative from unrepresentative samples, limiting population-level understanding of HFP engagement and impact. Using data from a representative sample of residents (n=988) in northern New England in the United States conducted in Spring/Summer 2021, we explore the relationship between HFP engagement in the first year of the pandemic and changes in food security status. We employ matching techniques to compare food security outcomes in households with observably similar demographic and social characteristics, and examine food security outcomes in three periods among households who do and do not participate in HFP. Our results show that nearly 60% of respondents engaged in at least one kind of HFP in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with food insecure households being more likely to do HFP. Food insecure households (both newly and chronically food insecure) were also more likely to do HFP activities for the first time or more intensely than they had previously. Newly food insecure households were the most likely to engage in HFP overall, especially gardening. Furthermore, HFP engagement early in the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with improved food security for food insecure households in the 9-12 months after the start of the pandemic, though these improvements were primarily associated with newly, not chronically, food insecure households. Future research about HFP should continue to explore multiple HFP strategies and their potentially myriad relationships to food security, diet, and health outcomes.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.01.23290848v1" target="_blank">Home food procurement associated with improved food security during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparative Analysis of Decision Trees on Two COVID-19 Symptom Datasets</strong> -
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Objective: This study compares decision trees on two COVID-19 symptom datasets to assess their performance and feature importance in predicting and understanding infection patterns. Methods: We created decision trees on Israeli and Swedish COVID-19 infection datasets. Performance metrics were used to assess their predictive capabilities, and feature importance analysis identified significant variables in the decision-making process. Results: The study observed different performance levels of decision trees on the COVID-19 datasets. The Swedish dataset achieved high accuracy and F1-score without hyperparameter tuning, while the Israeli dataset improved significantly with Extreme Gradient Boosting. Dataset characteristics impact the selection of an optimal decision tree algorithm. The key variable in both datasets was sore throat. Conclusion: This study compares decision trees on COVID-19 infection datasets, emphasizing the importance of dataset characteristics in selecting an optimal algorithm. Identifying significant features enhances understanding of infection patterns, benefiting decision-making and prediction accuracy in infectious disease analysis.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.02.23290867v1" target="_blank">Comparative Analysis of Decision Trees on Two COVID-19 Symptom Datasets</a>
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<li><strong>Mental health issues among medical students: Exploring predictors of mental health in Dhaka during COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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Background Mental health has always been under the shadow of everyone9s belief about their health. Concerns about mental health have already risen in the whole world. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused havoc worldwide, notably in the educational system. It has been difficult to quantify the influence of COVID-19 on the mental health of medical students in Bangladesh. Aims This study was conducted to assess medical students’ mental health status in Dhaka during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This study was undertaken at Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh and 359 medical students were the primary respondents for this study. Results Depression, anxiety and stress were found in around half of the study participants. Overall, three-fourth of the medical students had poor mental health status. The research study showed that depression, anxiety and stress were dependent on various socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics of medical students. Conclusion Poor mental health is still highly prevalent in the medical students. Different factors like age, gender, academic year, and physical exercise behavior have affected medical students9 mental health. This calls for attention towards the needs of the more vulnerable demographics and creating a welcoming environment for medical students.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.04.23290948v1" target="_blank">Mental health issues among medical students: Exploring predictors of mental health in Dhaka during COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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<li><strong>Adherence of SARS-CoV-2 seroepidemiologic studies to the ROSES-S reporting guideline during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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Background: Complete reporting of seroepidemiologic studies is paramount to inform public health decision-making. The Reporting of Seroepidemiologic studies-SARS-CoV-2 (ROSES-S) guideline is a checklist that guides the reporting of SARS-CoV-2 seroepidemiological studies. Adherence of SARS-CoV-2 seroepidemiologic studies to the ROSES-S guideline has not yet been evaluated. Objectives: Evaluate SARS-CoV-2 seroepidemiologic study reporting by assessing adherence to the ROSES-S reporting guideline; determine whether publication of the ROSES-S guideline was associated with reporting completeness; and identify study characteristics associated with reporting completeness. Methods: A stratified random sample of SARS-CoV-2 seroepidemiologic studies was evaluated for adherence to the ROSES-S guideline. Study adherence to each reporting item was categorized as “reported”, “not reported”, or “not applicable”. Percent adherence per reporting item and the median and interquartile range (IQR) adherence were reported across all items and by item domain. Beta regression analyses examined if study characteristics were associated with changes in the overall adherence scores. Results: 199 studies were analyzed. Median adherence to reporting items was 48.1% (IQR 40.0%-55.2%) per study, with no significant changes before and after guideline publication. Article publication source (p&lt;0.001), study risk of bias (p=0.001), and sampling method (p=0.004) were associated with adherence to the ROSES-S guideline. Conclusions: There was suboptimal reporting in SARS-CoV-2 seroepidemiologic studies, which was associated with key study characteristics. Publication of the ROSES-S guideline was not associated with changes in reporting practices. Given the importance of complete reporting for the utility of seroprevalence data, authors should improve reporting.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.02.23290895v1" target="_blank">Adherence of SARS-CoV-2 seroepidemiologic studies to the ROSES-S reporting guideline during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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<li><strong>Back to normal? The health care situation of home care receivers across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on health</strong> -
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The COVID-19 pandemic began impacting Europe in early 2020, posing significant challenges for individuals requiring care. This group is particularly susceptible to severe COVID-19 infections and depends on regular health care services. In this article, we examine the situation of European care recipients aged 50 years and older 18 months after the pandemic outbreak and compare it to the initial phase of the pandemic. In the descriptive section, we illustrate the development of (unmet) care needs and access to health care throughout the pandemic. Additionally, we explore regional variations in health care receipt across Europe. In the analytical section, we shed light on the mid- and long-term health consequences of COVID-19-related restrictions on accessing health care services by making comparisons between care recipients and individuals without care needs. We conducted an analysis using data from the representative Corona Surveys of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Our study examines changes in approximately 3,400 care-dependent older Europeans (aged 50+) interviewed in 2020 and 2021, comparing them with more than 45,000 respondents not receiving care. The dataset provides a cross-national perspective on care recipients across 27 European countries and Israel. Our findings reveal that in 2021, compared to the previous year, difficulties in obtaining personal care from someone outside the household were significantly reduced in Western and Southern European countries. Access to health care services improved over the course of the pandemic, particularly with respect to medical treatments and appointments that had been canceled by health care institutions. However, even 18 months after the COVID-19 outbreak, a considerable number of treatments had been postponed either by respondents themselves or by health care institutions. These delayed medical treatments had adverse effects on the physical and mental health of both care receivers and individuals who did not rely on care.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.01.23290847v1" target="_blank">Back to normal? The health care situation of home care receivers across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on health</a>
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<li><strong>Association between sleep and seroconversion after vaccination with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 in pregnant women</strong> -
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To assess the association between sleep and seroconversion after receipt of two doses of inactivated severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines in pregnant women. The serum level of immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibodies against the nucleic acids of SARS-CoV-2 was measured. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between sleep and seroconversion. After two doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, 41.2% of the study cohort reached seroconversion. Analysis revealed that pregnant women with poor quality of sleep had a lower serum level of IgG antibodies (P = 0.008, 95%CI = 0.285–0.826) and that sleeping late at night (SLaN) may be a risk factor for a low serum level of IgG antibodies (P = 0.025, 95%CI = 0.436–0.946). Besides sleep, age and the time since vaccination were important influences on seroconversion. A stratified analysis revealed that the effects of sleep quality and SLaN on seroconversion occurred mainly in pregnant women aged &lt;35 years. Thus, sleep quality and SLaN can affect the serum level of IgG antibodies in pregnant women after vaccination with inactivated SARS-CoV-2.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.04.23290946v1" target="_blank">Association between sleep and seroconversion after vaccination with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 in pregnant women</a>
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<li><strong>The Use of the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) to Improve the Efficiency of Primary Care Referrals to Memory Services in the Accelerating Dementia Pathway Technologies (ADePT) Study</strong> -
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Background Current primary care cognitive assessment tools are either crude or time-consuming instruments that can only detect cognitive impairment when it is well established. This leads to unnecessary or late referrals to memory services, by which time the disease may have already progressed into more severe stages. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some memory services have adapted to the new environment by shifting to remote assessments of patients to meet service user demand. However, the use of remote cognitive assessments has been inconsistent, and there has been little evaluation of the outcome of such a change in clinical practice. Emerging research has highlighted computerised cognitive tests, such as the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA), as the leading candidates for adoption in clinical practice. This is true both during the pandemic and in the post-COVID-19 era as part of healthcare innovation. Objectives The Accelerating Dementias Pathways Technologies (ADePT) Study was initiated in order to address this challenge and develop a real-world evidence basis to support the adoption of ICA as an inexpensive screening tool for the detection of cognitive impairment and improving the efficiency of the dementia care pathway. Methods Ninety-nine patients aged 55-90 who have been referred to a memory clinic by a general practitioner (GP) were recruited. Participants completed the ICA either at home or in the clinic along with medical history and usability questionnaires. The GP referral and ICA outcome were compared with the specialist diagnosis obtained at the memory clinic. Participants were given the option to carry out a retest visit where they were again given the chance to take the ICA test either remotely or face-to-face. Results The primary outcome of the study compared GP referral with specialist diagnosis of MCI/dementia. Of those the GP referred to memory clinics, 78% were necessary referrals, with ~22% unnecessary referrals, or patients who should have been referred to other services as they had disorders other than MCI/dementia. In the same population the ICA was able to correctly identify cognitive impairment in ~90% of patients, with approximately 9% of patients being false negatives. From the subset of unnecessary GP referrals, the ICA classified ~72% of those as not having cognitive impairment, suggesting that these unnecessary referrals may not have been made if the ICA was in use. Conclusions The results from this study demonstrate the potential of the ICA as a screening tool, which can be used to support accurate referrals from primary care settings, along with the work conducted in memory clinics and in secondary care.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.31.23290793v1" target="_blank">The Use of the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) to Improve the Efficiency of Primary Care Referrals to Memory Services in the Accelerating Dementia Pathway Technologies (ADePT) Study</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>Extracorporeal Photopheresis as a Possible Therapeutic Approach to Adults With Severe and Critical COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Extracorporeal photopheresis<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Del-Pest Central Hospital - National Institute of Hematology and Infectious Diseases<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Clinical Trial on Booster Immunization of Two COVID-19 Vaccines Constructed From Different Technical Routes</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Prototype and Omicron BA.4/5 Bivalent Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine(Adenovirus Type 5 Vector) For Inhalation;   Biological: Bivalent COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine;   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Adenovirus Type 5 Vector) For Inhalation<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Zhongnan Hospital;   Institute of Biotechnology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, PLA of China<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>Evaluation of Safety, Tolerability, Reactogenicity, Immunogenicity of Baiya SARS-CoV-2 Vax 2 as a Booster for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccine;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: 50 μg Baiya SARS-CoV-2 Vax 2;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Baiya Phytopharm Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Study of Repurposed Medications - Arm B (Fluvoxamine)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Fluvoxamine;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Susanna Naggie, MD;   National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS);   Vanderbilt University Medical Center<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>Physiotherapy in Mutated COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Physiotherapy<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Giresun University<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety Study of COVID19 Vaccine on the Market</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Recombinant new coronavirus vaccine (CHO cell)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy Co., Ltd.;   Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention;   Guizhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention;   Hainan Center for Disease Control &amp; Prevention<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>Evaluation of Home Use COVID-19 Frequent Antigen Testing and Data Reporting</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Respiratory Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: SARS CoV-2 antigen tests<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   IDX20 Inc;   National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)<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>Pycnogenol® in Post-COVID-19 Condition</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Post COVID-19 Condition;   Long COVID<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Pycnogenol®;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Zurich<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy of Bailing Capsule on Pulmonary Fibrosis After COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Pulmonary Fibrosis;   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Bailing capsule<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>To Explore the Regulatory Effect of Combined Capsule FMT on the Levels of Inflammatory Factors in Peripheral Blood of Patients With COVID-19 During Treatment.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Fecal Microbiota Transplantation;   COVID-19 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Fecal microbiota transplantation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shanghai 10th People’s Hospital<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>Mitoquinone/Mitoquinol Mesylate as Oral and Safe Postexposure Prophylaxis for Covid-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Mitoquinone/mitoquinol mesylate;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluating Emetine for Viral Outbreaks (EVOLVE)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Emetine Hydrochloride;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Johns Hopkins University;   Nepal Health Research Council;   Bharatpur Hospital Chitwan;   Stony Brook University;   Rutgers University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase 3 Study of Novavax Vaccine(s) as Booster Dose After mRNA Vaccines</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: NVX-CoV2373;   Biological: SARS-CoV-2 rS antigen/Matrix-M Adjuvant<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Novavax<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Monoclonal Antibodies for Long COVID (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Long COVID;   Post-Acute Sequela of COVID-19;   Post-Acute COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: AER002;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Michael Peluso, MD;   Aerium Therapeutics<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Assess Safety, Reactogenicity and Immunogenicity of the repRNA(QTP104) Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2(COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: QTP104 1ug;   Biological: QTP104 5ug;   Biological: QTP104 25ug<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Quratis Inc.<br/><b>Active, not 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>The PRMT5/WDR77 complex restricts hepatitis E virus replication</strong> - Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the main pathogenic agents of acute hepatitis in the world. The mechanism of HEV replication, especially host factors governing HEV replication is still not clear. Here, using HEV ORF1 trans-complementation cell culture system and HEV replicon system, combining with stable isotope labelling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) and mass spectrometry (MS), we aimed to identify the host factors regulating HEV replication. We identified a diversity of host…</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>Gasdermin D-mediated pyroptosis: mechanisms, diseases, and inhibitors</strong> - Gasdermin D (GSDMD)-mediated pyroptosis and downstream inflammation are important self-protection mechanisms against stimuli and infections. Hosts can defend against intracellular bacterial infections by inducing cell pyroptosis, which triggers the clearance of pathogens. However, pyroptosis is a double-edged sword. Numerous studies have revealed the relationship between abnormal GSDMD activation and various inflammatory diseases, including sepsis, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),…</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>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Activity of Adamantanes In Vitro and in Animal Models of Infection</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had devastating effects worldwide, with particularly high morbidity and mortality in outbreaks on residential care facilities. Amantadine, originally licensed as an antiviral agent for therapy and prophylaxis against influenza A virus, has beneficial effects on patients with Parkinson’s disease and is used for treatment of Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, acquired brain injury, and various other neurological disorders. Recent observational data…</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 <em>silico</em> evidence implicating novel mechanisms of <em>Prunella vulgaris</em> L<em>.</em> as a potential botanical drug against COVID-19-associated acute kidney injury</strong> - COVID-19-associated acute kidney injury (COVID-19 AKI) is an independent risk factor for in-hospital mortality and has the potential to progress to chronic kidney disease. Prunella vulgaris L., a traditional Chinese herb that has been used for the treatment of a variety of kidney diseases for centuries, could have the potential to treat this complication. In this study, we studied the potential protective role of Prunella vulgaris in COVID-19 AKI and explored its specific mechanisms applied by…</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>Analyzing immune responses to varied mRNA and protein vaccine sequences</strong> - In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, different types of vaccines, such as inactive, live-attenuated, messenger RNA (mRNA), and protein subunit, have been developed against SARS-CoV-2. This has unintentionally created a unique scenario where heterologous prime-boost vaccination against a single virus has been administered to a large human population. Here, we aimed to analyze whether the immunization order of vaccine types influences the efficacy of heterologous prime-boost vaccination,…</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>Recent topics in the pathophysiology and treatment of immune thrombocytopenic purpura</strong> - Increased and impaired platelet productions via immunological abnormalities are the main pathophysiological mechanisms of primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Recent studies have revealed that platelet removal from circulation involves not only Fc receptor-mediated phagocytosis of immunoglobulin G autoantibodies-bound platelets but also complement-dependent mechanism and platelet glycoprotein desialylation. Understanding the molecular mechanism of ITP pathophysiology has helped develop many…</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>Prospective evaluation of the efficacy, safety, and optimal biomarker enrichment strategy for nangibotide, a TREM-1 inhibitor, in patients with septic shock (ASTONISH): a double-blind, randomised, controlled, phase 2b trial</strong> - BACKGROUND: Activation of the triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) pathway is associated with septic shock outcomes. Data suggest that modulation of this pathway in patients with activated TREM-1 might improve survival. Soluble TREM-1 (sTREM-1), a potential mechanism-based biomarker, might facilitate enrichment of patient selection in clinical trials of nangibotide, a TREM-1 modulator. In this phase 2b trial, we aimed to confirm the hypothesis that TREM1 inhibition might…</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>Isolation of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Natural Products Extracted from <em>Mentha canadensis</em> and the Semi-synthesis of Antiviral Derivatives</strong> - Traditional herbal medicine offers opportunities to discover novel therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 mutation. The dried aerial part of mint (Mentha canadensis L.) was chosen for bioactivity-guided extraction. Seven constituents were isolated and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS). Syringic acid and methyl rosmarinate were evaluated in drug combination treatment. Ten amide derivatives of methyl rosmarinate were synthesized, and the dodecyl (13) and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Computational design of medicinal compounds to inhibit RBD-hACE2 interaction in the Omicron variant: unveiling a vulnerable target site</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has globally affected both human health and economy. Several variants with a high potential for reinfection and the ability to evade immunity were detected shortly after the initial reported case of COVID-19. A total of 30 mutations in the spike protein (S) have been reported in the SARS-CoV-2 (BA.2) variant in India and South Africa, while half of these mutations are in the receptor-binding domain and have spread rapidly throughout the world. Drug…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In silico screening, ADMET analysis and MD simulations of phytochemicals of <em>Onosma bracteata</em> Wall. as SARS CoV-2 inhibitors</strong> - Being attracted with their cardiotonic, antidiabetic, cough relieving activity, treatment of fever, absorbent, anti-asthmatic, etc. activities reported in ancient Ayurvedic literature, phytochemicals of Onosma bracteata wall should be evaluated for their activity against SARS-CoV-2 virus. The main objective of this study is to identify a hit molecule for the inhibition of entry, replication, and protein synthesis of SARS CoV-2 virus into the host. To achieve given objective, computational…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong><em>In silico</em> Antivirus Repurposing and its Modification to Organoselenium Compounds as SARS-CoV-2 Spike Inhibitors</strong> - &lt;b&gt;Background and Objective:&lt;/b&gt; The COVID-19, which has been circulating since late 2019, is caused by SARS-CoV-2. Because of its high infectivity, this virus has spread widely throughout the world. Spike glycoprotein is one of the proteins found in SARS-CoV-2. Spike glycoproteins directly affect infection by forming ACE-2 receptors on host cells. Inhibiting glycoprotein spikes could be one method of treating COVID-19. In this study, the antivirus marketed as a database will be…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PACT inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 through the blockage of GSK-3β-N-nsp3 cascade</strong> - The protein activator of protein kinase R (PKR) (PACT) has been shown to play a crucial role in stimulating the host antiviral response through the activation of PKR, retinoic acid-inducible gene I, and melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5. Whether PACT can inhibit viral replication independent of known mechanisms is still unrevealed. In this study, we show that, like many viruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) hijacks GSK-3β to facilitate its replication….</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 isolation in cell culture from nasal/nasopharyngeal swabs or saliva specimens of patients with COVID-19</strong> - It has been revealed that SARS-CoV-2 can be efficiently isolated from clinical specimens such as nasal/nasopharyngeal swabs or saliva in cultured cells. In this study, we examined the efficiency of viral isolation including SARS-CoV-2 mutant strains between nasal/nasopharyngeal swab or saliva specimens. Furthermore, we also examined the comparison of viral isolation rates by sample species using simulated specimens for COVID-19. As a result, it was found that the isolation efficiency of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Facile Strategy to Construct Anti-Swelling, Antibacterial and Antifogging Coatings for Protection of Medical Goggles</strong> - During the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional medical goggles are not only easy to attach bacteria and viruses in long-term exposure, but also easy to fogged up, which increases the risk of infection and affects productivity. Bacterial adhesion and fog can be significantly inhibited through the hydrogel coatings, owing to their super hydrophilic properties. But on the one hand, hydrophilic hydrogel coatings are easy to absorb water and swell in wet environment, resulting in reduced mechanical…</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>Secreted ORF8 induces monocytic pro-inflammatory cytokines through NLRP3 pathways in patients with severe COVID-19</strong> - Despite extensive research, the specific factor associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection that mediates the life-threatening inflammatory cytokine response in patients with severe COVID-19 remains unidentified. Herein we demonstrate that the virus-encoded Open Reading Frame 8 (ORF8) protein is abundantly secreted as a glycoprotein in vitro and in symptomatic patients with COVID-19. ORF8 specifically binds to the NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) in CD14^(+) monocytes to…</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>Ted Koppel on Covering—and Befriending—Henry Kissinger</strong> - Did the veteran newscaster give Kissinger a pass on his hundredth birthday? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/ted-koppel-on-covering-and-befriending-henry-kissinger">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Irrational Exuberance of a Non-Catastrophe</strong> - The bipartisan debt deal was a win for both Biden and McCarthy, but it might not have been the breakthrough Washington was waiting for. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/the-irrational-exuberance-of-a-non-catastrophe">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Abortion Fight Has Voters Turning to Ballot Initiatives</strong> - And Republicans are increasingly attempting to limit that direct-democracy option. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-abortion-fight-has-voters-turning-to-ballot-initiatives">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Does the Debt-Ceiling Agreement Say About the U.S. Political System?</strong> - The bipartisan deal showed that the government is still capable of avoiding a self-inflicted disaster, but a credit-ratings agency warns it is suffering from slow rot. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-does-the-debt-ceiling-agreement-say-about-the-us-political-system">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is It Possible to Be Both Moderate and Anti-Woke?</strong> - A small nonprofit launched by the journalist Bari Weiss devolves into tribalism. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-activism/is-it-possible-to-be-both-moderate-and-anti-woke">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Can the West keep supplying Ukraine with enough artillery?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Artillery shells are lined up in rows, ready to be put into the furnace at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on April 12." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/laqFwAfP27bFxIfQjpaqHdmfDuU=/354x0:4518x3123/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72344628/1251797895.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
According to a March estimate, Ukraine was then using between 6,000 and 7,000 artillery shells each day. | Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
And what it might take.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3elUi7">
In Ukraine, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-artillery-does-more-damage-with-fewer-rounds-than-russia-2023-4">artillery</a> has become a defining feature of the war. Both Russian and Ukrainian troops have <a href="https://euobserver.com/ukraine/156836">fired a lot of it</a>, and it has become a symbol of the brutal, attritional fight across the front lines. But the nature of these battles is unlikely to change, and that means Ukraine and <a href="https://www.vox.com/russia">Russia</a> will need more and more munitions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t5lfKq">
Artillery is sometimes called the <a href="https://history.army.mil/html/books/070/70-27/cmhPub_70-27.pdf">“king of battle.”</a> These are the big guns that allow militaries to hit larger targets, frequently at long ranges. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDiWjgHNZd4">howitzers</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/ukrainian-soldiers-carry-out-risky-mortar-shell-attacks-on-the-front/a-64866091">mortars</a> or certain <a href="https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/himars.html">rocket systems</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hcYKeH">
Ukraine has relied on such systems, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/expanding-equipment-options-ukraine-case-artillery">which the West has supplied</a>. It also relies on the West for a steady stream of rounds: that is, the shells or munitions that launch from these artillery systems. Think those <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/eu-plan-aims-to-accelerate-production-of-weapons/">155 millimeter</a> shells, which look like gigantic bullets. The two-foot-long shells are filled with explosives, so when they land, they explode, with a blast radius that kills.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K0HPTE">
Ukraine was burning through about 6,000 to 7,000 <a href="https://time.com/6263802/ukraine-west-ammunition-shortages/">artillery rounds per day, according to an estimate in March</a>, adding up to much more than the US or Europe is currently producing in a given month. As the <a href="https://www.vox.com/russia-invasion-ukraine">war in Ukraine</a> goes on, and looks to go on much longer, the United States and Europe are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/18/europe-weapons-military-industrial-base/">facing more constraints</a> in their ability to supply Ukraine. Stockpiles are being depleted, reaching a point where to give much more might mean compromising Western countries’ own military readiness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VPAoH8">
There are reports that Ukraine has had to cut or limit the use of artillery because it has shortages of munitions. Ukrainian officials <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QIxeTAdB0">have talked about it</a>, and so have Western officials; the so-called <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenErlanger/status/1633391102072856581?s=20">“artillery”</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/KofmanMichael/status/1633458341069422592?lang=en">“ammunition”</a> diet.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZywMC3">
Artillery isn’t the only weapon facing <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-may-run-out-of-air-defenses-by-may-leaked-pentagon-documents-warn-b96b0655">possible supply constraints</a> as the Ukraine war stretches on, but the availability and continued access to shells is likely to be decisive in this war. Both Russia and Ukraine risk shortages, but Kyiv is wholly dependent on support from the West. Supply interruptions could force Ukrainian troops to make trade-offs on the battlefield — holding or delaying fire, for example.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="quisHE">
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said that Ukraine <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraines-zelensky-we-are-ready-for-counteroffensive-22f4f3f2">is ready</a> for its long-anticipated counteroffensive. The hope among Western partners is that Ukraine will have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/us/politics/ukraine-russia-war-spring-offensive.html">enough firepower to execute its spring campaign</a>, and potentially be in a strong enough position by fall and winter to buy Ukraine’s backers some time to <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/2023/03/28/us-army-eyes-six-fold-production-boost-of-155mm-shells-used-in-ukraine/">scale up things like artillery production</a>, as <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2023/05/05/eu-joint-procurement-of-ammunition-and-missiles-for-ukraine-council-agrees-1-billion-support-under-the-european-peace-facility/">they’re starting to do</a>, and deliver more supplies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xygnGm">
But it also raises new questions for the US and Europe, about how much more support they might need to deliver to Ukraine, and how much they are willing to invest to do it, potentially moving industry to a more explicitly wartime footing. As experts said, there are obstacles to scaling up production — supply chains and labor, for example — and while a lot of these can be overcome, it’s at a cost. And even then, it’s unclear what amount of artillery will actually be enough for a war being fought around it, with an indefinite end.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FHa8fG">
“Nobody has as much as they want, whenever they want it,” said Eugene Gholz, associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, and former Pentagon adviser for manufacturing and industrial base policy. “And yet, somehow, they manage to fight.”
</p>
<h3 id="Z9AotL">
The US and Europe don’t have unlimited stockpiles of artillery
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6ULpix">
At the start of the Ukraine war, the US and its allies, especially eastern European countries, donated lots of old Soviet-style weapons to Ukraine. They gave Western equipment, too, but a lot of it was the military-assistance equivalent of cleaning out the basement. Governments found ammo and refurbished old systems that would work with Ukraine’s Soviet models. This made sense: the West wasn’t going to use it, and Ukraine’s military was already trained on and familiar with it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TEbQgZ">
But this equipment has since gotten used up and worn down, and it can’t be replaced or easily fixed. So the West began donating more of its own stuff, gradually upgrading to more advanced weaponry as its confidence in Ukraine increased — <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/17/russia-ukraine-war-summary-of-weapons-us-has-given-to-ukraine.html">howitzers</a> to <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3095394/us-provided-himars-effective-in-ukraine/">HIMARS</a>, <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/gearscout/2022/05/12/javelin-missile-made-by-the-us-wielded-by-ukraine-feared-by-russia/">anti-tank weapons</a> to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-battle-tanks-russia-spring-counteroffensive-abrams-leopards-challengers-1799378">main battle tanks</a>. A lot of this stuff came out of arsenals in the US and Europe. For example, in the US, <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">President Joe Biden</a> uses something called “<a href="https://www.state.gov/use-of-presidential-drawdown-authority-for-military-assistance-for-ukraine/">drawdown authority</a>,” which lets the US transfer weapons from the Pentagon’s own stocks in emergency situations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RvfZ8G">
These stockpiles are not unlimited. There are also limits to how much the US or Europe can give without jeopardizing their own security (though exactly what those thresholds are is probably a subject of debate). This is an issue for the United States, but much more so for many European countries, which, on the eve of the Ukraine war, did not have the kind of arsenal or commitment to military readiness that exists in the US.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EXQNx6">
“A lot of European countries already ahead of the war faced significant shortfalls in their stockpiles,” said Rafael Loss, coordinator for pan-European data projects at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “And because of what they have supplied to Ukraine over the past 15 months, they have become more and more empty.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Me3UbD">
Which is where we are now: the West wants to keep supplying Ukraine, and Ukraine needs more weapons to fight. Especially when it comes to artillery shells, the West needs to replace the stuff it’s given away, and maybe add to it, as Russia’s war has shifted European countries’ calculuses about their own<strong> </strong>security. In part, the US is trying to find other sources for artillery to give to Ukraine (<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-korean-artillery-supply-allows-u-s-to-delay-decision-on-cluster-munitions-for-ukraine-4e41c04b">hello, South Korea</a>). But mostly, the war has forced the US and Europe to think about making a lot more of it.
</p>
<h3 id="gwdUdv">
How the West is trying to overcome the artillery math
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fZ6l2K">
More than a year into Russia’s war in Ukraine, artillery continues to shape the conflict. And providing more of it makes sense: it has immediate impact on the battlefield, and while it requires precision to manufacture, it’s not quite the same as a battle tank or a fighter jet, which also requires significant training and long-term maintenance. Artillery is designed to be destroyed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y6QJ3x">
As of May, the United States has given Ukraine <a href="https://www.state.gov/u-s-security-cooperation-with-ukraine/">more than 160 howitzers and more than 2 million 155 mm artillery rounds</a>, in addition to other systems and thousands more types of ammunition that fit them. <strong> </strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1jIEZ9">
European allies, Canada, Australia, and other Ukraine backers have all donated thousands of artillery shells. But Kyiv is firing off tens of thousands of rounds each month as it is. This spring, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/75ee9701-aa93-4c5d-a1bc-7a51422280fd">Ukraine asked the EU for 250,000 rounds per month</a> — which is not that far off <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/eu-plan-aims-to-accelerate-production-of-weapons/">what the EU arms industries collectively produced in all of 2022</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zTfnkv">
Which is why both the US and Europe are trying to scale up production. Typically, the United States <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/2023/03/28/us-army-eyes-six-fold-production-boost-of-155mm-shells-used-in-ukraine/#:~:text=The%20Army%20is%20spending%20%241.45,Force%20Symposium%20in%20Huntsville%2C%20Alabama.">produces about 14,000 155 mm shells per month</a>, just a small fraction of what the US has given Ukraine in the past year and a half. Now, the Pentagon is <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/2023/03/28/us-army-eyes-six-fold-production-boost-of-155mm-shells-used-in-ukraine/#:~:text=The%20Army%20is%20spending%20%241.45,Force%20Symposium%20in%20Huntsville%2C%20Alabama.">investing about $1.45 billion to increase that to 24,000 per month later this year</a>, with the goal of reaching 85,000 to 90,000 rounds per month in five years. This is about a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/us/politics/pentagon-ukraine-ammunition.html">500 percent increase</a> in production in two years, rivaling levels not seen since the Korean War, according to the New York Times.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="585zmB">
Europe is also trying to supercharge production. But European defense industries face even bigger hurdles, as EU countries have tended not to have as big of military spending appetites as the United States.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bAUcXC">
In the spring, the European Union proposed a plan to deliver about 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by the end of the year. The plan includes three stages. The first is to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-envoys-seal-deal-joint-ammunition-buying-ukraine-2023-05-03/">reimburse states that turn over their stocks</a>; the second is to make joint purchases to replace those stocks; the third involves ramping up production to meet EU defense needs and the needs of Ukraine. Though it took a bit to agree on the details, this plan is a big deal for the EU. Usually, defense is the purview of individual EU countries, but a component of this plan involves joint procurement — think <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/coronavirus-response/public-health/eu-vaccines-strategy_en">the EU’s Covid vaccine plan</a>, but for weapons.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ksENxI">
The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-says-its-sent-220000-artillery-shells-ukraine-2023-05-23/">plan has yielded about 220,000 artillery shells so far</a>, Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said at the end of May.
</p>
<h3 id="XQklVc">
What it actually takes to make a lot more artillery shells
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xqiLDM">
These might just seem like a bunch of numbers; the US and the EU want more, so they make more. It is that simple, but also not quite that simple.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NLqeqB">
“The US can’t, or the European allies can’t, just push a button, but they can start planning,” said Jennifer Erickson, an arms expert and associate professor at Boston College.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8fEYsL">
The United States has a little bit more capacity than Europe, but both face constraints. Making artillery takes time: you’ve got to cut steel, cool it, mold it, and fill it with explosives to make a shell. There are supply chain, labor, and production issues — for example, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/long-war-in-ukraine-highlights-need-for-u-s-army-to-modernize-ammo-production">the US has just two sites that make the steel bodies for the 155 mm rounds used in howitzers</a>. “It’s not like there’s an empty factory, right, sitting out there that could just do it,” said Jen Spindel, assistant professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sEvwpx">
Broadly, the more resources you put in, the easier it is to overcome these constraints. “If you want more ammunition, you just have to say, ‘We want more ammunition, and here’s the money to make it,” Gholz said. If you want as much as Ukraine does, this fast, it will cost you, he added. “But the fundamental question is: how many resources are you going to devote for this? What are you willing to do?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fkVJUq">
In some ways, that is not really a resource question but a political, economic, and security one. In deciding to make those investments — putting billions into making more artillery — governments are signaling their national and defense priorities, now and potentially into the future. This is about Ukraine, but also about the potential of other threats: Russia, <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a>, and whatever other big war might be looming.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PVjYPo">
A lot of defense industry experts will say that if weapons companies are going to increase capacity and hire more people to make more artillery, then they want to know that they’re going to have a buyer not just this year, but in the long term too — and the buyer is really governments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uRY6EO">
“The US government has more ability to turn on the spigot, but the spigot might not be flowing for these different constraint reasons,” said Kaija Schilde, Jean Monnet Chair in European Security and Defense at Boston University.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EPAYvv">
“But,” she added, “if the US government incentivized firms enough, it’ll happen. It’s just that the firms aren’t going to do it without these major, major incentives.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CiwXTL">
The European defense base is a little bit more complicated. For European defense manufacturers, the issue had previously been whether they would produce too much for Europe’s defense needs, rather than not enough. And defense has typically been handled by individual countries in the EU — Germany does its own thing, Poland does its own thing — each with their own security needs and priorities. That makes a collective ramp-up hard. The EU is trying to tackle with with its new plan, though exactly how successful it will be is still unclear.
</p>
<h3 id="fCm4h2">
Will it be enough for Ukraine?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nDgvc7">
“We need more artillery shells,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFNAnm1VFk8">said Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Operational Command East in a recent Semafor video</a>. “This entire war, we’ve been on the artillery ammo diet. I wouldn’t say it’s a total hunger, but it’s a diet.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9KVVzq">
An artillery diet is really about trade-offs, and all militaries make them to some degree. If you need to conserve artillery, it may be a choice between firing on a target today, or waiting until tomorrow, in hopes of a clearer, more decisive shot. It may <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/29/two-weeks-at-the-front-in-ukraine">mean compensating with different weapons or tools</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SpeqXm">
And for Ukraine, more is more, but the Western weapons-delivery system is an imperfect one. “It’s volume, it’s also availability. And it’s making sure that you have the right combination of hardware, and then shell, is easily accessible, and easy to get into the theaters of conflict once a fight has begun,” Spindel said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JCqLy3">
Ukraine is getting a lot of artillery from NATO, and as you may have heard, NATO equipment is interoperable, or is supposed to be — the idea being if allies were fighting a war together, their equipment and systems should also able to work together. That’s why a lot of countries have this 155 mm caliber shell: it’s part of a standardization effort across NATO. “That doesn’t translate into interchangeability in a lot of ways, and we see this in Ukraine,” Loss said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tU4kXH">
In other words, interoperability isn’t interchangeability. A US system may work with, say, a German-made shell, but it might not be quite as good. The projectile might not travel the same range, which potentially reduces its effectiveness on the battlefield. It could potentially degrade the equipment. “It’s like a giant matching problem,” Gholz said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bIUGqb">
These are not necessarily new challenges for Ukraine, just another Kyiv will have to deal with as its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/05/world/russia-ukraine-news">expected counteroffensive has maybe, finally, begun</a>. Offensives, when troops are moving forward, tend to require lot more ammunition than when they’re on defense, firing from more static positions. That is, if Ukraine is restrained, it will be harder to pull off what they need to this spring and summer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pawhxQ">
This is partly behind the Western urgency of getting artillery and other equipment to Ukraine. But that comes with the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/4/22/23693259/ukraine-counteroffensive-russia-spring">expectation of Ukraine making real advances, and retaking territory</a>. If it does not, and the war looks increasingly deadlocked — two sides, just firing and firing artillery, with no real progress — that could change the West’s calculus when it comes to continued support to Ukraine.
</p>
<h3 id="lK11tP">
The Ukraine war is also changing the calculus in some Western capitals
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nka0zW">
A ramp-up in artillery production won’t be instantaneous in either the US or Europe. But plans to do so are a signal of political support — a sign, at least, that the West is willing to support Ukraine for the long haul.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oVsf45">
But, in lots of ways, the decisions by Washington and Brussels to invest in arms manufacturing goes well beyond Russia’s invasion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LqFUEF">
Ukraine <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23600837/ukraine-war-russia-whats-next">is reshaping our understanding of warfare</a>. The Ukraine war is already one of the bloodiest and deadliest of this century, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/23/ukraine-war-deaths-soldiers-history/">if not longer</a>. This is true on the front lines, where artillery has contributed to stunning casualty counts in the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-war-already-with-up-354000-casualties-likely-drag-us-documents-2023-04-12/">hundreds of thousands of soldiers</a>, but also for <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/05/ukraine-civilian-casualty-update-8-may-2023#:~:text=From%2024%20February%202022%2C%20which,8%2C791%20killed%20and%2014%2C815%20injured.">Ukrainian civilians whose cities and towns have become artillery battlefields</a> themselves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2yAUv9">
Right now, traditional instruments of war — ammunition, artillery, armored vehicles, ground troops, trenches — are anchoring this conflict. Both Russia and Ukraine are deploying advanced technology on the battlefield — drones and facial recognition, for example — but instead of replacing old tools of warfare, it is interacting with or enhancing them. One way to know where to direct your artillery fire is to send in a surveillance drone over an enemy’s position.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3bTZhx">
All armies have artillery, and artillery stockpiles. No one, after all, was about to abandon the “king of battle.” But the rate of artillery use in Ukraine raises questions about whether the US and its partners really are, themselves, prepared for a big war. Part of the reason the US manufactured the number of shells it did is because that was enough in relative peacetime: <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1127059.pdf">enough to use, when needed</a>, and keep those stockpiles in good condition.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vG0ynN">
“The wars the US has fought have been fairly low-intensity, and so the production capacity could meet that — or it was short, high-intensity,” Spindel said. “And so the reserves were never burned through in quite the same way that Ukraine was doing it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MiYGE8">
Of course, some of this is about opportunity: The Ukraine war is a chance for the generals and the military agencies and the defense industries to get more resources, to make the case that the US or Europe needs more to prepare for a future conflict.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kNhlIO">
Ukraine really is generating a broader reassessment about what the next war will look like, especially among more evenly matched powers. Russia is very much bogged down right now, but its invasion of Ukraine raised the threat level, especially in Europe. US-China tensions are not ebbing, especially <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/4/1/23665178/taiwan-president-americas-china-tsai-ing-wen">over Taiwan</a>. The decision to ramp up artillery production may say much about Western support for Ukraine, but it says much more about what the US and its allies think they might need to fight their next war.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Republicans’ abortion bans are nothing like those in Europe</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A crowd of people holding pro-choice signs in English and Dutch" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/d7ymqNs_KcrU64fwQMsVhXQRLuU=/267x0:4524x3193/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72344598/1240508193.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Thousands of people and human rights activists gather on the Dam Square to attend a rally for abortion rights worldwide on May 7, 2022, in Amsterdam. | Pierre Crom/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Yes, even the 12-week ones.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GTa9md">
Republicans scrambling to<strong> </strong>address mounting backlash to abortion bans have<strong> </strong>landed on what they hope they can market as a moderate political compromise: limiting abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BSDOmu">
Over the last month, Republicans in North Carolina and Nebraska have passed 12-week abortion bans, a dramatic reduction in access for states that previously allowed <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/3/23055125/roe-v-wade-abortion-rights-supreme-court-dobbs-v-jackson">abortion</a> up until 20 weeks and 22 weeks, respectively.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tqwXzD">
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/us/abortion-ban-north-carolina.html">North Carolina’s ban</a> would permit abortion for rape victims through 20 weeks, for life-threatening fetal anomalies through 24 weeks, and to protect the life of the mother throughout. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/20/1177304503/nebraska-12-week-abortion-ban-restrictions-gender-affirming-care">Nebraska’s new ban</a> would permit exceptions for rape and to save the life of the mother, but not for fatal fetal anomalies. (Health of pregnant person exceptions <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/3/12/23631278/supreme-court-abortion-texas-medically-necessary-sepsis-zurawski">have been notoriously confusing</a> for doctors in practice, who <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/04/25/1171851775/oklahoma-woman-abortion-ban-study-shows-confusion-at-hospitals">fear criminal sanctions for violating the vague statutes</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a74cfI">
Republican politicians <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/20/republicans-deploy-new-playbook-abortion-bans-citing-political-backlash/">are casting these new 12-week bans</a> as “<a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article275487376.html">mainstream</a>,” comparing them to even more extreme GOP-led states that have banned virtually all abortion, and pointing to other countries, particularly in Europe, that also impose gestational age limits at 12 weeks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vYldYj">
The rhetorical strategy of invoking other countries to justify banning abortion will sound familiar to those who followed<em> </em>the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/3/23055125/roe-v-wade-abortion-rights-supreme-court-dobbs-v-jackson">overturn of <em>Roe v. Wade</em></a><em>. </em>In that case, <em>Dobbs v. Jackson, </em>Mississippi lawmakers defended their 15-week abortion ban <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-tate-reeves-jackson-constitutions-e7b1cd1786edc6d6657a3b71dec795f7">by pointing out</a> that most European countries have even earlier restrictions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JvYRj8">
In the <em>Dobbs </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a> hearing itself, Justice John G. Roberts <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2021/19-1392_4425.pdf">claimed</a> the proposed 15-week ban mirrors “the standard that the vast majority of other countries have.” In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito <a href="https://lozierinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/On-Point-63.pdf">cited a study published</a> by a leading anti-abortion group that argued the US was out of step with the rest of the world in terms of abortion after 20 weeks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8hJhma">
The study, published by the think tank arm of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said 47 out of 50 European nations limit “elective” abortion before 15 weeks, meaning before then doctors are not required to attest to a particular justification for the abortion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tpvtS1">
But differences between the US and European countries are more complex than that simple comparison suggests. In practice, abortion limits in the United States are far more restrictive than what exists in most of the Western world, including in nations with gestational age limits at 12 weeks, like Germany, Denmark, Belgium, and Italy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SCT1Yo">
This distinction between “elective” abortions (or “abortion on demand,” as it’s more provocatively called) and “therapeutic” abortions, which are done for medical reasons, might seem like a key distinction between the US and Europe. But in practice, the line is much blurrier. All <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/why-we-should-stop-using-term-elective-abortion/2018-12">abortions are ultimately elective</a> — no one is forced to end a pregnancy, even if a doctor recommends it. Plenty of elective abortions are done for therapeutic reasons.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dmmVxc">
Moreover, European countries that have 12-week limits on “elective” abortions still make it fairly easy for women to get abortions later on, with relatively broad exceptions for <a href="https://www.vox.com/mental-health">mental health</a> or socioeconomic circumstances. Republicans have aggressively fought against similar exceptions, and in particular have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-science-health-government-and-politics-arizona-fc2114ecfce72eeca65e21fb970ca62f">worked to bar consideration of mental health risk</a> — <a href="https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/Senate/PDF/S20v5.pdf">even the risk of suicide</a> if a pregnancy continues — as a factor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WL7jEy">
And in other ways, European countries make it easier to get an abortion than in even relatively permissive jurisdictions in the United States.<strong> </strong>Across Europe, abortion services are covered<strong> </strong>under national health insurance, meaning the cost of accessing care is a far lower barrier for pregnant people facing time constraints.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PEKjAd">
By contrast, in the US, cost is one of the biggest hurdles to ending a pregnancy. Even though <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/ss/ss7110a1.htm#T10_down">more than<strong> </strong>90 percent of</a> abortions occur within the first 13 weeks, <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states">roughly 75 percent of all US abortion patients</a> are low-income<strong> </strong>according to 2014 numbers, and researchers find Americans needing care in the second trimester <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2011/second-trimester-abortions-concentrated-among-certain-groups-women">tend to be</a> those with less education, Black women, and women who have experienced “multiple disruptive events” in the past year, such as losing a job.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ApxtL9">
Republican lawmakers are also bucking international trends in working to aggressively restrict access to telehealth abortion care and medication abortion generally — which allows patients, especially those who live in remote and rural areas, to get the abortion services they seek on a faster timeline. Both <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/state-facts-about-abortion-north-carolina">North Carolina</a> and <a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=28-335">Nebraska</a> have fully banned abortion via telehealth, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5847856/">despite research affirming its safety and efficacy</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rnvFKF">
Across the globe, <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/us-a-global-outlier-on-abortion-rights/">the clear trend </a>has been to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/21/colombia-decriminalize-legal-abortion/">expand</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/07/mexico-abortion-supreme-court/">access</a> to abortion, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/argentina-abortion-legal-fernandez-senate-vote/2020/12/28/4a6d77d4-492a-11eb-a9f4-0e668b9772ba_story.html">decriminalize</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newzealand-abortion/new-zealand-passes-historic-law-to-decriminalize-abortion-idUSKBN2153YN">the procedure</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/south-korea-court-strikes-down-six-decade-old-abortion-ban/2019/04/11/0200f028-5c43-11e9-842d-7d3ed7eb3957_story.html">and loosen</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/26/ireland-votes-by-landslide-to-legalise-abortion">restrictions</a>. While restrictive policies, including earlier gestational limits, still present barriers for international abortion care, per the Center for Reproductive Rights, nearly 60 countries have liberalized their laws and policies on abortion since 1994. Only four — the US, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Poland — have further restricted rights.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wmrpfh">
Even with earlier gestational limits, abortion in Europe is broadly affordable and accessible. This is not the paradigm Republicans are proposing in the United States. They are fighting to keep abortion expensive, particularly for low-income patients who rely on Medicaid; to limit the reasons like mental health for which patients can access legal abortion; and to restrict access to care, all while imposing bans on telemedicine, ramping up criminal penalties for providers, and shortening the legal timeline for pregnant people to raise funds, arrange travel, and book mandatory medical appointments.
</p>
<h3 id="TOVtMA">
Understanding international abortion access in practice
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eh7G1i">
Republicans have been eager to point to countries that restrict “elective” abortion after 12 weeks to justify the supposedly mainstream nature of their new bans. But across Europe, the cost of abortion care is fully paid for by federal governments, making first-trimester abortions simply easier to do. Abortions in the US <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01528">can easily exceed $500</a> out of pocket, and only 17 states currently cover abortion under their Medicaid programs, which they must do with state funds, <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Briefing-Paper_The-High-Cost-of-State-Bans-on-Abortion-Coverage_Updated_9.16.pdf">not federal dollars, as Congress prohibits it</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9kgpJ8">
Another difference is that abortion exceptions for “health of the pregnant woman” in Europe take into account mental health, too. In Germany, for example, while abortion is permitted upon request throughout the first 12 weeks, someone can seek legal abortion <a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stgb.html">through 22 weeks</a> if it would help them “avert the danger of grave impairment<strong> </strong>to [their] physical or mental health.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YRDDhm">
In Britain, which allows<strong> </strong>legal abortion <a href="https://www.msichoices.org.uk/abortion-services/abortion-and-your-rights/">up to 24 weeks</a>, it’s similarly clarified that a pregnant person can access care<strong> </strong>if it’s determined that ending the pregnancy would cause less damage to the patient’s physical or mental health than continuing to carry.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LYkm1H">
“This is always granted [by doctors] under the correct assumption that continuing a pregnancy is <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270271/">always more dangerous </a>than terminating, and that continuing an unwanted pregnancy is always detrimental to a person’s mental health,” said Maria Lewandowska, a reproductive and sexual health researcher at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0vFsOA">
Any doctor can provide this authorization, she said, and in practice, patients often get approval directly from doctors at abortion clinics. Advocates in the UK have been encouraging the government to authorize nurses and midwives to grant this permission, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EU3WT3">
Some countries don’t explicitly state “mental health” in their statute, but recognize that maternal health includes psychological health. The author of France’s 1975 abortion law clarified <a href="https://eclj.org/abortion/french-institutions/avortement-jusquau-9e-mois-pour-detresse-psychosociale--le-danger-dun-motif-imprecis">during legislative hearings</a> that “the very term ‘health’ covers, it seems to me, the mental aspect as well as the physical aspect.” The World Health Organization’s definition of <a href="https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/major-themes/health-and-well-being">“health” includes “mental health.”</a> In Canada, leaders make no formal distinction between physical and mental health, which Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, says allows providers to “better integrate abortion care into the broader <a href="https://www.vox.com/health-care">health care</a> system.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1ntCiw">
Meanwhile, research on the psychological harm associated with carrying unwanted pregnancies continues to mount. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23055300/supreme-court-overturn-roe-wade-abortion-bans-health-care">Turnaway Study, a longitudinal study</a> on the effects of unwanted pregnancy on patients’ lives, found that the mental health of women able to end unwanted pregnancies was significantly better than that of women forced to carry to term. Another <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8976222/">report</a> published in 2022 found that suicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant people during pregnancy and the first year following it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4HuAyC">
Anti-abortion activists in the US, for their part, continue to dismiss these studies. “Having an abortion will not mitigate mental health issues,” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-science-health-government-and-politics-arizona-fc2114ecfce72eeca65e21fb970ca62f">said</a> Laura Echevarria, a spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee, which has lobbied state legislatures to exclude mental health.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="op4xK9">
In addition to providing exceptions for mental health and paying for abortion care, pregnant people in European countries can also seek legal abortion beyond their country’s 12- or 14-week limit for broad socioeconomic reasons, like feeling too young or too old to have children, feeling consumed by existing children, being a single parent, or lacking a stable housing or financial situation. The Center for Reproductive Rights <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/15381_CRR_Europe_October_2022.pdf">counts at least 16 European countries</a> that permit abortion on socioeconomic grounds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GpsR82">
In Denmark, for example, though the country has a 12-week ban on paper, it’s considered relatively feasible for residents to get approval for abortion beyond that. In 2021, 803 pregnant people applied to get an abortion in Denmark beyond 12 weeks, and <a href="https://cphpost.dk/2022-12-12/news/ethics-council-mulls-new-abortion-recommendations/">750 were approved</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="yz48hg">
Thousands of pregnant women living in countries with 12-week abortion bans travel internationally to end their pregnancies
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MydBQL">
Even with broader grounds for legal exceptions and greater financial assistance available in countries with earlier gestational age limits, first-trimester bans in Europe <a href="https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1471-0528.16534#bjo16534-bib-0009">still force thousands of pregnant people</a> to travel internationally every year to end their unwanted pregnancies. (A French <a href="https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/15/rapports/ega/l15b3343_rapport-information.pdf">parliamentary report from 2020</a> estimated that as many <a href="https://www.vie-publique.fr/rapport/276225-rapport-sur-lacces-linterruption-volontaire-de-grossesse-ivg">as 4,000 French women traveled abroad</a> for abortion annually due to gestational limits. In 2022, French legislators extended their limit to 14 weeks.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nKKsyA">
One <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362300117X">study published in March</a> looked at people who traveled from countries like Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, and Italy to the Netherlands or England for later abortion care. Over half of the pregnant people surveyed hadn’t learned they were even pregnant until they were at least 14 weeks along, when they had already surpassed the limits in their home countries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LI2QCd">
The reasons participants cited for not knowing they were pregnant hold strong relevance for pregnant people in the US living in states with new 12- or six-week bans. The participants all said they would have preferred earlier abortion care but didn’t know they were pregnant due to reasons like irregular periods, lack of clear pregnancy signs, misinformation by doctors about contraception, or their gestational age.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FFxQ28">
While European passports make travel to other EU countries relatively easy, pregnant people then have to shoulder the cost of travel and the abortion, as national governments only fund abortion care for their own residents. Feminist <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/28/europe/europe-abortion-travel-as-equals-intl-cmd/index.html">activists help fundraise for pan-European surgical abortion</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.doctorsforchoice.mt/abortion-statistics">the distribution of medication abortion</a> to regions where it’s illegal, but second-trimester abortions for non-Dutch residents <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/28/europe/europe-abortion-travel-as-equals-intl-cmd/index.html">can cost up to 1,100 euros</a>. Abortion travel also delays care, which increases a pregnant person’s health risks.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LCV14v">
Twelve-week bans in the US won’t end the need for abortion care in the second trimester, because there will always be women who lack the knowledge that they’re pregnant before then. But if Republicans wanted to reduce the need for abortion after 12 weeks, they could back straightforward policies to make the procedure more accessible and affordable.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Who wants to pay $3,500 for Apple’s new goggles?</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A woman sitting in a living room wearing virtual reality goggles." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m9bBpBQQqI6G5edUwETUQtMaoOg=/147x0:1072x694/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72343555/Screen_Shot_2023_06_05_at_2.52.02_PM.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
An image from Apple’s Vision Pro promotional video. | Apple
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We know what the Vision Pro does, but we’re still wondering why you would buy it. Apple seems confused, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rViynd">
Goggles. They’re goggles.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ACaX2K">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/apple">Apple</a> CEO <a href="https://www.vox.com/tim-cook">Tim Cook</a> debuted the <a href="https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/">$3,500 Vision Pro</a> headset on Monday. And we’ll have to take his word for it that these goggles use amazing tech to show you really cool things when you wear them. As we <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/5/31/23742675/apple-headset-goggles-vr-ar-mixed-extended-reality-peter-kafka-media-column">previewed last week</a>, they can either show you a completely digital reality, or they can show you digital images superimposed on the real world around you.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gYOfyy">
Also, let’s imagine that over time we’ll see advances that will make the goggles smaller and cheaper. And that maybe one day they’ll just become glasses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OBCUir">
But for now, Apple’s biggest product launch in more than a decade — maybe its biggest launch since the iPhone — is a pair of goggles. If they didn’t have a power cord attached to them, you might mistake them for something you’d see on a ski slope.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vtDLiC">
For the record: Apple says Vision Pro is its entry into “spatial computing.” In practical terms that means it’s a computer you wear on your face, and that instead of staring into a phone screen or monitor, you look into the headset — and sometimes, through it to see digital images overlaid on the world around you. You can plug it into the wall or use a battery pack to power it.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HU7dnpIKsCQ9ehPEHJOoWqib6hw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24704942/Apple_WWCD23_Vision_Pro_with_battery_230605.jpg"/> <cite>Apple</cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iaqfmv">
Apple promises that Vision Pro can do many of the things you can do on an iPhone or MacBook: run apps, use FaceTime, watch <a href="https://www.vox.com/movies">movies</a>. But instead of manipulating the software with a mouse or a keyboard or a touch screen, you’ll use your eye movements and hand movements, because it has cameras trained on your face as well as the outside world. We’ve seen versions of this tech before, namely <a href="https://www.vox.com/meta">Meta</a>’s Oculus line of VR headsets. But Apple, as it often does, says its version is better, more sophisticated, and more intuitive.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W65jXX">
So we can talk about what Vision Pro does now — or, more accurately, “early next year,” when Apple says they’ll go on sale — and what it might do down the road. But my main takeaway from Apple’s debut demo is that these things are goggles. And I have to wonder how many people want to wear goggles of any size, weight, or cost, for any amount of time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UcRhiv">
The question was implicit throughout the demo, and Apple seemed to labor to answer it. Maybe they’ll be cool when you’re sitting at home — alone — and watching a movie: You could make the screen fill your entire living room. Maybe they’ll be cool when you’re sitting at home — alone — and want to see your kids: You could look at videos of your kids, or even talk to them on FaceTime. Maybe they’ll be cool when you’re at work — not quite alone, but not really interacting with your coworkers, either — and you want to look at multiple screens at a time: You could do that, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hoRRMw">
The question is also implicit in the design of the goggles themselves. Apple knows that wearing goggles cuts you off from the world, so it has created a way for people to see your eyes. Technically, it’s a video display on the front of your goggles that shows a representation of your eyes, filmed by cameras inside the goggles that are trained on your eyes, all so people won’t feel so cut off from you.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mVlDDX">
It was one of the first things the company showed off in its demo: A woman is happily browsing something online in a giant urban apartment. A younger person, maybe her daughter, wants to come interact with her.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BysyYeUQ39bTurFl5szFmSDTFEU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24704939/Screen_Shot_2023_06_05_at_2.28.55_PM.png"/> <cite>Apple</cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VIiP3o">
If we stopped the movie there, it might be standard sci-fi dystopia, straight from <em>Black Mirror</em>. But Apple’s contention is that because the person wearing the goggles can see the person who’s not wearing the goggles — and because the person who’s not wearing the goggles can see a video screen of the goggle-wearer’s eyes — it’s actually super cool. Something you’d pay $3,500 for.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nJ3ExdTM7ktKwmp3r-82ipHLehY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24704940/Screen_Shot_2023_06_05_at_2.52.02_PM.png"/> <cite>Apple</cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hrKklR">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fPQjq3">
Maybe?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DtlHfR">
In that scene from <a href="https://www.apple.com/apple-events/">Apple’s demo video</a>, by the way, likely-Mom is using her Vision Pro to … look at a website for designer furniture. She seems totally into it! But it’s hard to see that her experience is much different from looking at the same site on her iPad, and Apple doesn’t explain it themselves. It wants the user to do that work, on their own.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="anwSGH">
So who is that user?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GeAniD">
One thing Apple was uncharacteristically frank about in its demo video is that Vision Pro is a starting point for the “mixed reality” tech it has been working on for years. Good enough to sell, eventually. Good enough for <a href="https://www.vox.com/disney">Disney</a> CEO Bob Iger to endorse via an onstage appearance. It was explicitly rolling this out now, more than half a year before it will start shipping them, at Apple’s annual developers conference so that developers can make stuff for the goggles.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w7zlIX">
And some developers most certainly will. Even if you don’t believe Vision Pro or subsequent models are going to be mass market devices in the near future, the promise of being a star app in Apple’s prized new platform-to-be will be an exceptionally powerful lure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TPX7rL">
But, again, Apple doesn’t imagine that the stuff it showed off today is where it’s going to stop. The expectation is that it will get cheaper, better, lighter, with longer-lasting batteries, etc. Go find the original 2007 model of the iPhone and compare it to the one you have today.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mRNkk9">
But the Catch-22 is that until someone does create something truly remarkable and compelling and useful — and, crucially, something you can’t do with the phones and computers Apple sells today — it’s going to be very hard to convince people to wear these things. Which means there’s less incentive for the brightest minds to make that killer app, and no incentive to strap these things on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cnDaNS">
Caveat! All of this takes time. Developers didn’t make apps for the iPhone for a year following its debut. And once they did, they made a lot of crap. Apple still has an admonition in its developer guidelines, written in 2010, telling programmers that it has all the fart apps it needs, thank you very much.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HY8j6b">
The bigger caveat is that people may end up loving the idea of putting on goggles, tuning out the world, and retreating to their own digital worlds. They’re pretty much doing that already with phones and earbuds (or, as I increasingly see on the subway or in the park, just blasting the audio out to everyone around them, whether they want to hear it or not). So what’s an additional piece of hardware to strap to their face?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FUoGo8">
But I don’t think Apple truly believes that’s what people want. If they did, why didn’t Cook and Iger wear the goggles themselves in their demo? The trick will be figuring out what they do want.
</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>Kerala Blasters temporarily shuts down women’s team after men’s side fined by AIFF</strong> - The AIFF had rejected Kerala Blasters’ appeal against the ₹4 crore fine, as well coach Ivan Vukomanovic’s appeal against the fine of ₹5 lakh and a 10-game ban imposed on him</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>Tottenham hires Ange Postecoglou as manager after his departure from Celtic</strong> - The 57-year-old Postecoglou, who just won a trophy treble with Celtic in Scotland, has signed a four-year contract with English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspurs</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 money’s nice, but I’d love to play 100 Test matches: Mitchell Starc on IPL ahead of the World Test Championship final</strong> - The left-arm pacer said he sat out hasn’t been participating in the IPL in order to prolong his international career and represent his country in 100 Test matches</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 pace bowler Scott Boland to play against India in WTC final</strong> - Australia had also added Michael Neser to their 15-man squad against India in the WTC final, after Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of the one-off contest.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French Open | Alexander Zverev defeats Grigor Dimitrov, advances into quarter-finals</strong> - 26-year-old Zverev defeated Grigor Dimitrov in three straight sets 6-1, 6-4, and 6-3.</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>NCSC issues yet another notice to Punjab govt. over allegation of sexual misconduct on its Minister</strong> - NCSC chairman directed Punjab’s Chief Secretary, DGP, and DIG Border Range Amritsar to record statements of the victim through video conference or in person in Delhi, provide him with security, and submit the action taken report by June 12</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>Merging Railway Budget with Union Budget ‘major blunder’ of NDA Government: Veerappa Moily</strong> - Congress leader Veerappa Moily also demanded that Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw should tender his resignation on moral grounds</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 will not face any shortage of coal this year: Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi</strong> - Union Minister of Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi assures that India will not face any shortage of coal this year even during the monsoon</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>Anhra Pradesh: 42,000 quintals of seeds are being distributed to farmers through Rythu Bharosa Kendras in Vizianagaram district, says official</strong> - ‘Adequate quantity of fertilizers is also being kept ready ahead of kharif season’</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>Andhra Pradesh: 19 passengers injured as APSRTC bus overturns in Srikakulam district</strong> - There is no life threat to any passenger in the incident, say doctors</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Kyiv says troops advance on eastern front</strong> - Ukraine says its has gained ground near Bakhmut, as Russia claims to have thwarted a new attack.</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: Wagner detains Russian officer over ‘drunk’ attack</strong> - In a video posted online, the officer says he fired on a Wagner vehicle because he dislikes the group.</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: ‘It’s better to die at home than abroad’</strong> - Thousands of Ukrainians are moving back to towns close to the front line, despite the dangers.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why are people leaving Russia, who are they, and where are they going?</strong> - A trickle of Russians leaving became a stream after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine of 2022.</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>Poland protest: Hundreds of thousands demand change in Warsaw</strong> - Politicians including main opposition leader Donald Tusk led crowds calling for a change of direction.</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>Mass exploitation of critical MOVEit flaw is ransacking orgs big and small</strong> - SQL injection attacks on MOVEit file transfer service likely to get worse. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1945579">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What to make of Apple’s intriguing $3,499 Vision Pro headset</strong> - Some instant analysis of Apple’s boldest product experiment in years. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1945556">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Game on—the most metal of asteroid missions is back on the menu</strong> - “We believe Psyche is on a positive course for an October 2023 launch.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1945486">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SEC sues Binance, says it evaded US law with “extensive web of deception”</strong> - Binance slammed by SEC chair for “calculated evasion of the law.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1945525">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple avoids “AI” hype at WWDC keynote by baking ML into products</strong> - Apple prefers using “machine learning,” or just having AI work in the background. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1945446">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A husband notices his wife’s hearing is deteriorating and decides to visit her doctor for advice…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I can’t speak to my wife directly as she might find it offensive, given our old age” he says to the doc.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“There’s a simple trick you can try to determine her hearing” explains the doctor. “Simply ask her a question at a distance and if she doesn’t hear you, move slightly closer and ask again until she does”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
That night, the husband arrives home and sees his wife in the kitchen cooking. He thinks to himself, “what a perfect opportunity to test her hearing”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He stands in the doorway of the kitchen and promptly asks;
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What’s for dinner honey?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
No answer. He moves closer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What’s for dinner honey?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Still no answer. He moves even closer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What’s for dinner honey?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Still his wife doesn’t answer. He now sees how serious her hearing problem is. At this point, he is standing right next to his wife.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“What’s for dinner honey?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“FOR THE FOURTH FUCKING TIME WE’RE HAVING CHICKEN”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HelpingHandsUs"> /u/HelpingHandsUs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/141xwx3/a_husband_notices_his_wifes_hearing_is/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/141xwx3/a_husband_notices_his_wifes_hearing_is/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why do riot police wake up early</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To beat the crowds
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/attractivepenguin"> /u/attractivepenguin </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14268cy/why_do_riot_police_wake_up_early/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/14268cy/why_do_riot_police_wake_up_early/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>[Serious] Just a reminder to be careful when telling jokes that may be offensive.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A few days ago I was talking to some friends, and friends of those friends, at a bar.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I decided to break the ice with the new friends with a few jokes, most of which went down very well…until I decided to tell a few more offensive ones…and picked the worst possible one to start with.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Here’s the joke I told:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
"What do you do if you see an epileptic having a fit in the bath?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Throw your washing (laundry if you’re American) in."
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One of the new friends instantly became enraged and swung for me. When I asked him what the hell his problem was he replied that his younger brother was epileptic and died in the bath many years ago.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Obviously, I felt mortified as I didn’t know about it, and said “I’m so sorry to hear that. Did he drown?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No,” replied the guy. “He choked on a sock.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ThatOnePogger"> /u/ThatOnePogger </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/141n924/serious_just_a_reminder_to_be_careful_when/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/141n924/serious_just_a_reminder_to_be_careful_when/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reddit’s new API Costs</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Yep that’s it. It’s going to price out all those apps you all use instead of the official one to read or post jokes. And I can tell you first hand, it is much tougher to copy and paste in official app.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Can we go black out on June 12-14?
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ElGrandeTonto"> /u/ElGrandeTonto </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/141rmn5/reddits_new_api_costs/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/141rmn5/reddits_new_api_costs/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Serb, a Croat and a Bosniak are arrested in Iran for drinking alcohol.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The court sentences them to 10 whip lashes each, but everyone is allowed to make a special request beforehand.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
First up is the Serb. “I request a pillow strapped on my back!” he says. After 2 lashes it rips apart and his back gets completely torn open.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Second up is the Croat. “I request two pillows strapped on my back!” he says. After 4 lashes it rips apart and his back gets completely torn open.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Third up is the Bosniak. The judge says “since you are a fellow muslim, you can make 2 requests!”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“My first request is for 100 lashes!” the Bosniak shouts. Bewildered the judge asks “And your second request?”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Strap the Serb on my back!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
​
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I hope I don’t start of another balkan war in the comments. I’m a Serb myself and this is my favourite Balkan joke. Love and peace, my brothers!
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Aco282"> /u/Aco282 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/141d99j/a_serb_a_croat_and_a_bosniak_are_arrested_in_iran/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/141d99j/a_serb_a_croat_and_a_bosniak_are_arrested_in_iran/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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