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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>Following the crowd in times of crisis: Descriptive norms predict physical distancing, stockpiling, and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Individuals engage in a variety of behavioral responses to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, from complying with or transgressing against physical distancing regulations, to stockpiling or prosocial behavior. We predicted that particularly descriptive social norms are important in driving pandemic-related behavior as they offer guidelines in times of insecurity and crisis. To investigate this assumption, we conducted a longitudinal survey with two measurement points (n = 1907) in Germany during spring 2020. Results show that descriptive norms (perceived behavior of close others) positively predicted future transgression against distancing regulations, stockpiling, and prosocial behavior over time. In our analysis, we account for previous behavior as well as other potential predictors (subjective threat, personality). In sum, our findings highlight the power of descriptive norms in increasing compliance with pandemic-related regulations and promoting future prosocial behavior.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/qmn2t/" target="_blank">Following the crowd in times of crisis: Descriptive norms predict physical distancing, stockpiling, and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Quantifying the effects of fake news on behaviour: Evidence from a study of COVID-19 misinformation.</strong> -
<div>
Previous research has argued that fake news may have grave consequences for health behaviour, but surprisingly, no empirical data have been provided to support this assumption. This issue takes on new urgency in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, and the accompanying wave of online misinformation. In this large preregistered study (N = 3746) we investigated the effect of a single exposure to fabricated news stories about COVID-19 on related behavioural intentions. We observed small but measurable effects on some behavioural intentions but not others – for example, participants who read a story about problems with a forthcoming contact-tracing app reported a 5% reduction in willingness to download the app. These data suggest that one-off fake news exposure may have behavioural consequences, though the effects are not large. We also found no effects of providing a general warning about the dangers of online misinformation on response to the fake stories, regardless of the framing of the warning in positive or negative terms. This suggests that generic warnings about online misinformation, such as those used by governments and social media companies, are unlikely to be effective. We conclude with a call for more empirical research on the real-world consequences of fake news.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/qfnm3/" target="_blank">Quantifying the effects of fake news on behaviour: Evidence from a study of COVID-19 misinformation.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Predicting Emerging Themes in Rapidly Expanding COVID-19 Literature with Dynamic Word Embedding Networks and Machine Learning</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Evidence from peer-reviewed literature is the cornerstone for designing responses to global threats such as COVID-19. The collection of knowledge and interpretation in publications needs to be distilled into evidence by leveraging natural language in ways beyond standard meta-analysis. Several studies have focused on mining evidence from text using natural language processing, and have focused on a handful of diseases. Here we show that new knowledge can be captured, tracked and predicted using the evolution of unsupervised word embeddings and machine learning. Our approach to decipher the flow of latent knowledge in time-varying networks of word-vectors captured thromboembolic complications as an emerging theme in more than 77,000 peer-reviewed publications and more than 11,000 WHO vetted preprints on COVID-19. Furthermore, machine learning based prediction of emerging links in the networks reveals autoimmune diseases, multisystem inflammatory syndrome and neurological complications as a dominant research theme in COVID-19 publications starting March 2021.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.14.21249855v3" target="_blank">Predicting Emerging Themes in Rapidly Expanding COVID-19 Literature with Dynamic Word Embedding Networks and Machine Learning</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>County-Level Estimates of Excess Mortality associated with COVID-19 in the United States</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the US has been largely monitored on the basis of death certificates containing reference to COVID-19. However, prior analyses reveal that a significant fraction of excess deaths associated with the pandemic were not directly assigned to COVID-19 on the death certificate. The percent of excess deaths not assigned to COVID-19 is also known to vary across US states. However, few studies to date provide information on patterns of excess mortality and excess deaths not assigned to COVID-19 for US counties, despite the importance of this information for health policy and planning. In the present study, we develop and validate a generalized linear model of expected mortality in 2020 based on historical trends in deaths by county of residence between 2011 and 2019. We use the results of the model to generate county estimates of excess mortality and excess deaths not assigned to COVID-19 for each county in the US along with bootstrapped prediction intervals. Overall, in counties that had statistically significant increases in excess mortality, the proportion of excess deaths assigned to COVID-19 was 82%, meaning that 18% of excess deaths were not assigned to COVID-19. The proportion assigned to COVID-19 was lower in the South (77%) and West (78%) as compared to counties in the Midwest (82%) and Northeast (94%). Across US Census Divisions, the proportion was especially low in the East South Central Division (68%). Rural counties across all divisions (68%) reported lower proportions of excess deaths assigned to COVID-19 than urban areas (84%). For instance, in the Pacific Division, less than half of excess deaths were assigned to COVID-19 in nonmetro areas. In contrast, the New England Census Division stood out as the only division where directly assigned COVID-19 deaths actually exceeded excess deaths, meaning there were 1.22 directly assigned COVID-19 deaths for every 1 excess death. However, this finding did not extend to nonmetro areas within New England where less than three-quarters of excess deaths were assigned to COVID-19. The finding that metro areas in New England reported higher direct COVID-19 mortality than excess mortality suggests that reductions in mortality from other causes of death may have occurred in these areas, at least among some populations. Across individual counties, the percentage of excess deaths not assigned to COVID-19 varied substantially, with some counties9 direct COVID-19 tallies capturing only a small fraction of total excess deaths, whereas in other counties the direct COVID-19 death rate far exceeded the number of estimated excess deaths. Taken together, our results suggest that regional inequalities in the mortality burden associated with COVID-19 are not fully revealed by data at the state level and that consideration of excess deaths across US counties is critical for a full accounting of the disparate regional effects of the pandemic on US mortality.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.23.21255564v2" target="_blank">County-Level Estimates of Excess Mortality associated with COVID-19 in the United States</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 infections in 171 countries and over time</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Understanding the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic, evaluating the efficacy of past and current control measures, and estimating vaccination needs, requires knowledge of the number of infections in the population over time. This number, however, generally differs substantially from the number of confirmed cases due to a large fraction of asymptomatic infections as well as geographically and temporally variable testing effort and strategies. Here I use age-stratified death count statistics, age-dependent infection fatality risks and stochastic modeling to estimate the prevalence and growth of SARS-CoV-2 infections among adults (age &gt;= 20 years) in 171 countries, from early 2020 until April 9, 2021. The accuracy of the approach is confirmed through comparison to previous nationwide general-population seroprevalence surveys in multiple countries. Estimates of infections over time, compared to reported cases, reveal that the fraction of infections that are detected vary widely over time and between countries, and hence comparisons of confirmed cases alone (between countries or time points) often yield a false picture of the pandemic9s dynamics. As of April 9, 2021, the nationwide cumulative SARS-CoV-2 prevalence (past and current infections relative to the population size) is estimated at 61% (95%-CI 42-78) for Peru, 58% (39-83) for Mexico, 57% (31-75) for Brazil, 55% (34-72) for South Africa, 29% (19-48) for the US, 26% (16-49) for the United Kingdom, 19% (12-34) for France, 19% (11-33) for Sweden, 9.6% (6.5-15) for Canada, 11% (7-19) for Germany and 0.67% (0.47-1.1) for Japan. The presented time-resolved estimates expand the possibilities to study the factors that influenced and still influence the pandemic9s progression in 171 countries.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.01.20241539v2" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 infections in 171 countries and over time</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>ORAI1 establishes resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection by regulating tonic type I interferon signaling</strong> -
<div>
ORAI1 and STIM1 are the critical mediators of store-operated Ca2+ entry by acting as the pore subunit and an endoplasmic reticulum-resident signaling molecule, respectively. In addition to Ca2+ signaling, STIM1 is also involved in regulation of a cytosolic nucleic acid sensing pathway. Using ORAI1 and STIM1 knockout cells, we examined their contribution to the host response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. STIM1 knockout cells showed strong resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection due to enhanced type I interferon response. On the contrary, ORAI1 knockout cells showed high susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection as judged by increased expression of viral proteins and a high viral load. Mechanistically, ORAI1 knockout cells showed reduced homeostatic cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration and severe impairment in tonic interferon signaling. Transcriptome analysis showed downregulation of multiple cellular defense mechanisms, including antiviral signaling pathways in ORAI1 knockout cells, which are likely due to reduced expression of the Ca2+-dependent transcription factors of the activator protein 1 (AP-1) family and MEF2C. Our results identify a novel role of ORAI1-mediated Ca2+ signaling in regulating the baseline type I interferon level, which is a determinant of host resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.04.442548v1" target="_blank">ORAI1 establishes resistance to SARS-CoV-2 infection by regulating tonic type I interferon signaling</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Impaired T-cell and antibody immunity after COVID-19 infection in chronically immunosuppressed transplant recipients</strong> -
<div>
Assessment of T-cell immunity to the COVID-19 coronavirus requires reliable assays and is of great interest, given the uncertain longevity of the antibody response. Some recent reports have used immunodominant spike (S) antigenic peptides and anti-CD28 co-stimulation in varying combinations to assess T-cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2. These assays may cause T-cell hyperstimulation and could overestimate antiviral immunity in chronically immunosuppressed transplant recipients, who are predisposed to infections and vaccination failures. Here, we evaluate CD154-expressing T-cells induced by unselected S antigenic peptides in 204 subjects-103 COVID-19 patients and 101 healthy unexposed subjects. Subjects included 72 transplanted and 130 non-transplanted subjects. S-reactive CD154+T-cells co-express and can thus substitute for IFNg (n=3). Assay reproducibility in a variety of conditions was acceptable with coefficient of variation of 2-10.6%. S-reactive CD154+T-cell frequencies were a) higher in 42 healthy unexposed transplant recipients who were sampled pre-pandemic, compared with 59 healthy non-transplanted subjects (p=0.02), b) lower in Tr COVID-19 patients compared with healthy transplant patients (p&lt;0.0001), c) lower in Tr patients with severe COVID-19 (p&lt;0.0001), or COVID-19 requiring hospitalization (p&lt;0.05), compared with healthy Tr recipients. S-reactive T-cells were not significantly different between the various COVID-19 disease categories in NT recipients. Among transplant recipients with COVID-19, cytomegalovirus co-infection occurred in 34%; further, CMV-specific T-cells (p&lt;0.001) and incidence of anti-receptor-binding-domain IgG (p=0.011) were lower compared with non-transplanted COVID-19 patients. Healthy unexposed transplant recipients exhibit pre-existing T-cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 infection leads to impaired T-cell and antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 and increased risk of CMV co-infection in transplant recipients.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.442371v1" target="_blank">Impaired T-cell and antibody immunity after COVID-19 infection in chronically immunosuppressed transplant recipients</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>CCR2-dependent monocyte-derived cells restrict SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 has caused a historic pandemic of respiratory disease (COVID-19) and current evidence suggests severe disease is associated with dysregulated immunity within the respiratory tract. However, the innate immune mechanisms that mediate protection during COVID-19 are not well defined. Here we characterize a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection and find that early CCR2-dependent infiltration of monocytes restricts viral burden in the lung. We find that a recently developed mouse-adapted MA-SARS-CoV-2 strain, as well as the emerging B.1.351 variant, trigger an inflammatory response in the lung characterized by expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and interferon-stimulated genes. scRNA-seq analysis of lung homogenates identified a hyper-inflammatory monocyte profile. Using intravital antibody labeling, we demonstrate that MA-SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to increases in circulating monocytes and an influx of CD45+ cells into the lung parenchyma that is dominated by monocyte-derived cells. We utilize this model to demonstrate that mechanistically, CCR2 signaling promotes infiltration of classical monocytes into the lung and expansion of monocyte-derived cells. Parenchymal monocyte-derived cells appear to play a protective role against MA-SARS-CoV-2, as mice lacking CCR2 showed higher viral loads in the lungs, increased lung viral dissemination, and elevated inflammatory cytokine responses. These studies have identified a CCR2-monocyte axis that is critical for promoting viral control and restricting inflammation within the respiratory tract during SARS-CoV-2 infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.442538v1" target="_blank">CCR2-dependent monocyte-derived cells restrict SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Mouse Adapted SARS-CoV-2 protects animals from lethal SARS-CoV challenge</strong> -
<div>
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in a worldwide pandemic causing significant damage to public health and the economy. Efforts to understand the mechanisms of COVID-19 disease have been hampered by the lack of robust mouse models. To overcome this barrier, we utilized a reverse genetic system to generate a mouse-adapted strain of SARS-CoV-2. Incorporating key mutations found in SARSCoV-2 variants, this model recapitulates critical elements of human infection including viral replication in the lung, immune cell infiltration, and significant in vivo disease. Importantly, mouse-adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 does not impair replication in human airway cells and maintains antigenicity similar to human SARS-CoV-2 strains. Utilizing this model, we demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 infected mice are protected from lethal challenge with the original SARS-CoV, suggesting immunity from heterologous CoV strains. Together, the results highlight the utility of this mouse model for further study of SARS CoV-2 infection and disease.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.442357v1" target="_blank">Mouse Adapted SARS-CoV-2 protects animals from lethal SARS-CoV challenge</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Sex-biased response to and brain cell infection by SARS-CoV-2 in a highly susceptible human ACE2 transgenic model</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Human angiotensin-converting enzyme II (hACE2) has been identified as the receptor enabling SARS-CoV-2 host entry. To establish a mouse model for COVID-19, we generated transgenic mouse lines using the (HS4)2-pCAG-hACE2-HA-(HS4)2 transgene cassette, which expresses HA-tagged hACE2 under control of the CAG promoter and is flanked by HS4 insulators. Expression levels of the hACE2 transgene are respectively higher in lung, brain and kidney of our CAG-hACE2 transgenic mice and relatively lower in duodenum, heart and liver. The CAG-hACE2 mice are highly susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection, with 100 PFU of SARS-CoV-2 being sufficient to induce 87.5% mortality at 9 days post-infection and resulting in a sole (female) survivor. Mortality was 100% at the higher titer of 1000 PFU. At lower viral titers, we also found that female mice exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection suffered much less weight loss than male mice, implying sex-biased responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We subjected neuronal cultures to SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection to ascertain the susceptibilities of neurons and astrocytes. Moreover, we observed that expression of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein alters the synaptic responses of cultured neurons. Our transgenic mice may serve as a model for severe COVID-19 and sex-biased responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection, aiding in the development of vaccines and therapeutic treatments for this disease.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.04.441029v1" target="_blank">Sex-biased response to and brain cell infection by SARS-CoV-2 in a highly susceptible human ACE2 transgenic model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Immunolocalization studies of vimentin and ACE2 on the surface of cells exposed to SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins</strong> -
<div>
The Spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 mediates docking of the virus onto cells and contributes to viral invasion. Several cellular receptors are involved in SARS-CoV-2 Spike docking at the cell surface, including ACE2 and neuropilin. The intermediate filament protein vimentin has been reported to be present at the surface of certain cells and act as a co-receptor for several viruses; furthermore, its potential involvement in interactions with Spike proteins has been proposed. Here we have explored the binding of Spike protein constructs to several cell types using low-temperature immunofluorescence approaches in live cells, to minimize internalization. Incubation of cells with tagged Spike S or Spike S1 subunit led to discrete dotted patterns at the cell surface, which showed scarce colocalization with a lipid raft marker, but consistent coincidence with ACE2. Under our conditions, vimentin immunoreactivity appeared as spots or patches unevenly distributed at the surface of diverse cell types. Remarkably, several observations including potential antibody internalization and adherence to cells of vimentin-positive structures present in the extracellular medium exposed the complexity of vimentin cell surface immunoreactivity, which requires careful assessment. Notably, overall colocalization of Spike and vimentin signals markedly varied with the cell type and the immunodetection sequence. In turn, vimentin-positive spots moderately colocalized with ACE2; however, a particular enrichment was detected at elongated structures positive for acetylated tubulin, consistent with primary cilia, which also showed Spike binding. Thus, these results suggest that vimentin-ACE2 interaction could occur at selective locations near the cell surface, including ciliated structures, which can act as platforms for SARS-CoV-2 docking.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.04.442648v1" target="_blank">Immunolocalization studies of vimentin and ACE2 on the surface of cells exposed to SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A novel highly potent inhibitor of TMPRSS2-like proteases blocks SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and is broadly protective against infection and mortality in mice</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus remains a global public health crisis. Although widespread vaccination campaigns are underway, their efficacy is reduced against emerging variants of concern (VOCs). Development of host-directed therapeutics and prophylactics could limit such resistance and offer urgently needed protection against VOCs. Attractive pharmacological targets to impede viral entry include type-II transmembrane serine proteases (TTSPs), such as TMPRSS2, whose essential role in the virus lifecycle is responsible for the cleavage and priming of the viral spike protein. Here, we identify and characterize a small-molecule compound, N-0385, as the most potent inhibitor of TMPRSS2 reported to date. N-0385 exhibited low nanomolar potency and a selectivity index of &gt; 1 million at inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection in human lung cells and in donor-derived colonoids. Importantly, N-0385 acted as a broad-spectrum coronavirus inhibitor of two SARS-CoV-2 VOCs, B.1.1.7 and B.1.351. Strikingly, single daily intranasal administration of N-0385 early in infection significantly improved weight loss and clinical outcomes, and yielded 100% survival in the severe K18-human ACE2 transgenic mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 disease. This demonstrates that TTSP-mediated proteolytic maturation of spike is critical for SARS-CoV-2 infection in vivo and suggests that N-0385 provides a novel effective early treatment option against COVID-19 and emerging SARS-CoV-2 VOCs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.442520v1" target="_blank">A novel highly potent inhibitor of TMPRSS2-like proteases blocks SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and is broadly protective against infection and mortality in mice</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Protective heterologous T cell immunity in COVID-19 induced by MMR and Tdap vaccine antigens</strong> -
<div>
T cells are critical for control of viral infection and effective vaccination. We investigated whether prior Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) or Tetanus-Diphtheria-pertussis (Tdap) vaccination elicit cross-reactive T cells that mitigate COVID-19. Using co-cultures of antigen presenting cells (APC) loaded with antigens and autologous T cells, we found a high correlation between responses to SARS-CoV-2 (Spike-S1 and Nucleocapsid) and MMR and Tdap vaccine proteins in both SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals and individuals immunized with mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The overlapping T cell population contained effector memory T cells (TEMRA) previously implicated in anti-viral immunity and their activation required APC-derived IL-15. TCR- and scRNA-sequencing detected cross-reactive clones with TEMRA features among the cells recognizing SARS-CoV-2, MMR and Tdap epitopes. A propensity-weighted analysis of 73,582 COVID-19 patients revealed that severe disease outcomes (hospitalization and transfer to intensive care unit or death) were reduced in MMR or Tdap vaccinated individuals by 38-32% and 23-20% respectively. In summary, SARS-CoV-2 re-activates memory T cells generated by Tdap and MMR vaccines, which may reduce disease severity.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.441323v1" target="_blank">Protective heterologous T cell immunity in COVID-19 induced by MMR and Tdap vaccine antigens</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Highly functional Cellular Immunity in SARS-CoV-2 Non-Seroconvertors is associated with immune protection</strong> -
<div>
The role of T cells in the control of SARS-CoV-2 infection has been underestimated in favor of neutralizing antibodies. However, cellular immunity is essential for long-term viral control and protection from disease severity. To understand T-cell immunity in the absence of antibody generation we focused on a group of SARS-CoV-2 Non-Seroconvertors (NSC) recovered from infection. We performed an immune comparative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals stratified by the absence or presence of seroconversion and disease severity. We report high levels of total naive and low effector CD8+ T cells in NSC. Moreover, polyfunctional Nucleocapsid (NP)-specific CD8+ T-cell responses, as well as reduced levels of T-cell activation monitored by PD-1 and activation-induced markers, were distinctive immunological traits in NSC. Longitudinal data support the stability of the NSC phenotype over three months. Our results implicate highly functional SARS-CoV-2 Spike and NP T-cell responses with low immune activation in protection from disease severity in the absence of seroconversion.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.04.438781v1" target="_blank">Highly functional Cellular Immunity in SARS-CoV-2 Non-Seroconvertors is associated with immune protection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Semi-supervised identification of SARS-CoV-2 molecular targets</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequencing efforts have scaled dramatically to address the current global pandemic and aid public health. In this work, we analyzed a corpus of 66,000 SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences. We developed a novel semi-supervised pipeline for automated gene, protein, and functional domain annotation of SARS-CoV-2 genomes that differentiates itself by not relying on use of a single reference genome and by overcoming atypical genome traits. Using this method, we identified the comprehensive set of known proteins with 98.5% set membership accuracy and 99.1% accuracy in length prediction compared to proteome references including Replicase polyprotein 1ab (with its transcriptional slippage site). Compared to other published tools such as Prokka (base) and VAPiD, we yielded an 6.4- and 1.8-fold increase in protein annotations. Our method generated 13,000,000 molecular target sequences— some conserved across time and geography while others represent emerging variants. We observed 3,362 non-redundant sequences per protein on average within this corpus and describe key D614G and N501Y variants spatiotemporally. For spike glycoprotein domains, we achieved greater than 97.9% sequence identity to references and characterized Receptor Binding Domain variants. Here, we comprehensively present the molecular targets to refine biomedical interventions for SARS-CoV-2 with a scalable high-accuracy method to analyze newly sequenced infections.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.440524v1" target="_blank">Semi-supervised identification of SARS-CoV-2 molecular targets</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>Oestrogen Treatment for COVID-19 Symptoms</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Transdermal estradiol gel<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hamad Medical Corporation;   Laboratoires Besins International<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>Standardized Olive Leaf Capsules; as a Co-therapy in the Treatment of COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Nusapure standardized olive leaves capsule, 750 mg (50% oleuropein)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Shimaa M. Abdelgawad<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>Impact of GSE and Xylitol (Xlear) on COVID-19 Symptoms and Time to PCR Negativisation in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: GSE and Xylitol<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Larkin Community Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) for Prevention of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   COVID-19 Prevention<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ);   Other: Standard care;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Evaluate a Single Dose of LTX-109 in Subjects With COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) Infection.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: LTX-109 gel, 3%;   Drug: Placebo gel<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Pharma Holdings AS;   Clinical Trial Consultants AB<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 to Evaluate the Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (CHO Cell) for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: low-dose Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (CHO cell);   Biological: high-dose Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (CHO cell);   Biological: placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   National Vaccine and Serum Institute, China;   Lanzhou Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd;   Beijing Zhong Sheng Heng Yi Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd.;   Zhengzhou 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>Safety and Efficacy of Niclosamide in Patients With COVID-19 With Gastrointestinal Infection</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Niclosamide;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   AzurRx BioPharma, Inc.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Immunobridging and Immunization Schedules Study of COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: 3-doses schedule 1 of COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated;   Biological: 3-doses schedule 2 of COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated;   Biological: 3-doses schedule 3 of COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated;   Biological: 2 doses of vaccine<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   China National Biotec Group Company Limited;   Beijing Institute of Biological Products 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>Convalescent Plasma as Adjunct Therapy for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Convalescent plasma treatment<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   National Institute of Health Research and Development, Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia;   Indonesian Red Cross;   Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology<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>Protecting Our Community: COVID-19 Testing</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2;   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Home-based SARS-CoV-2 test kit<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Montana State University;   National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS);   University of Washington;   Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center;   Salish Kootenai College<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>Selenium as a Potential Treatment for Moderately-ill, Severely-ill, and Critically-ill COVID-19 Patients.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Selenium (as Selenious Acid);   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   CHRISTUS Health;   Pharco Pharmaceuticals<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>Estradiol and Progesterone in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Placebo injection and placebo pill;   Drug: Estradiol Cypionate 5 MG/ML;   Drug: Progesterone 200 MG Oral Capsule<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Tulane 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>Detection of Covid-19 in Nasopharyngeal Swabs by Using Multi-Spectral Spectrophotometry</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: AP-23<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Fable Biyoteknoloji San ve Tic A.S<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>COVID-19 Vaccination Take-Up</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   Vaccination<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Financial incentives;   Behavioral: Convenient scheduling link;   Behavioral: Race concordant;   Behavioral: Gender concordant<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Southern California;   Contra Costa Health Services;   J-PAL North America, State and Local Innovation Initiative;   National Bureau of Economic Research Roybal Center;   National Institute on Aging (NIA)<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>#SafeHandsSafeHearts: An eHealth Intervention for COVID-19 Prevention and Support</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: eHealth for Covid-19 prevention and support<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Toronto<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The SARS-CoV-2 protein ORF3a inhibits fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. How SARS-CoV-2 regulates cellular responses to escape clearance by host cells is unknown. Autophagy is an intracellular lysosomal degradation pathway for the clearance of various cargoes, including viruses. Here, we systematically screened 28 viral proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and identified that ORF3a strongly inhibited autophagic flux by blocking the fusion of autophagosomes with…</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>Galectin-9, a Player in Cytokine Release Syndrome and a Surrogate Diagnostic Biomarker in SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infection has enormously impacted our lives. Clinical evidence has implicated the emergence of cytokine release syndrome as the prominent cause of mortality in COVID-19 patients. In this study, we observed massive elevation of plasma Galectin-9 (Gal-9) in COVID-19 patients compared to healthy controls (HCs). By using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, we found that a baseline of 2,042 pg/ml plasma Gal-9 can differentiate SARS-CoV-2-infected from…</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 Non-Specific Antiviral Activity of Polysulfates to Fight SARS-CoV-2, its Mutants and Viruses with Cationic Spikes</strong> - Polyanions are negatively charged macromolecules known for several decades as inhibitors of many viruses in vitro, notably AIDS virus. In the case of enveloped viruses, this activity was assigned to the formation of a polyelectrolyte complex between an anionic species, the polyanion, and the spike cationic proteins which are, for polymer chemists, comparable to cationic polyelectrolytes. Unfortunately, in vitro antiviral activity was not confirmed in vivo, possibly because polyanions were…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In Vitro Inhibitory Analysis of Rationally Designed siRNAs against MERS-CoV Replication in Huh7 Cells</strong> - MERS-CoV was identified for the first time in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2012 in a hospitalized patient. This virus subsequently spread to 27 countries with a total of 939 deaths and 2586 confirmed cases and now has become a serious concern globally. Camels are well known for the transmission of the virus to the human population. In this report, we have discussed the prediction, designing, and evaluation of potential siRNA targeting the ORF1ab gene for the inhibition of MERS-CoV replication. The…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fast Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Directly from Respiratory Samples Using a Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Test</strong> - The availability of simple SARS-CoV-2 detection methods is crucial to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined whether a commercial LAMP assay can reliably detect SARS-CoV-2 genomes directly in respiratory samples without having to extract nucleic acids (NA) beforehand. Nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS, n = 220) were tested by real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and with the LAMP assay. For RT-PCR, NA were investigated. For LAMP, NA from 26 NPS in viral transport medium (VTM) were…</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>Fears Related to COVID-19 among Rural Older People in Japan</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected people’s social lives by inhibiting their movement; this seriously impacts the lives of older people in particular. Rural older people may have been particularly affected because they live dispersedly and in isolation. This study explored rural older people’s perceptions of how COVID-19 has impacted their social lives. This qualitative study assessed participants who were 65 years and older and residing in rural Japanese communities. Five focus…</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>Remdesivir and Ledipasvir among the FDA-Approved Antiviral Drugs Have Potential to Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Replication</strong> - The rapid spread of the virus, the surge in the number of deaths, and the unavailability of specific SARS-CoV-2 drugs thus far necessitate the identification of drugs with anti-COVID-19 activity. SARS-CoV-2 enters the host cell and assembles a multisubunit RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) complex of viral nonstructural proteins that plays a substantial role in the transcription and replication of the viral genome. Therefore, RdRp is among the most suitable targets in RNA viruses. Our aim was…</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>Antiviral Properties of the NSAID Drug Naproxen Targeting the Nucleoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus</strong> - There is an urgent need for specific antiviral treatments directed against SARS-CoV-2 to prevent the most severe forms of COVID-19. By drug repurposing, affordable therapeutics could be supplied worldwide in the present pandemic context. Targeting the nucleoprotein N of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus could be a strategy to impede viral replication and possibly other essential functions associated with viral N. The antiviral properties of naproxen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that…</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>Structure and function of SARS-CoV-2 polymerase</strong> - Coronaviruses use an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) to replicate and express their genome. The RdRp associates with additional non-structural proteins (nsps) to form a replication-transcription complex (RTC) that carries out RNA synthesis, capping and proofreading. However, the structure of the RdRp long remained elusive, thus limiting our understanding of coronavirus genome expression and replication. Recently, the cryo-electron microscopy structure of SARS-CoV-1 RdRp was reported. Driven…</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 human-airway-on-a-chip for the rapid identification of candidate antiviral therapeutics and prophylactics</strong> - The rapid repurposing of antivirals is particularly pressing during pandemics. However, rapid assays for assessing candidate drugs typically involve in vitro screens and cell lines that do not recapitulate human physiology at the tissue and organ levels. Here we show that a microfluidic bronchial-airway-on-a-chip lined by highly differentiated human bronchial-airway epithelium and pulmonary endothelium can model viral infection, strain-dependent virulence, cytokine production and the recruitment…</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 Coronavirus Network Explorer: mining a large-scale knowledge graph for effects of SARS-CoV-2 on host cell function</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: The approach presented here can identify biologically plausible hypotheses for COVID-19 pathogenesis, explicitly connected to the immunological, virological and pathological observations seen in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. The discovery of repurposable drugs is driven by prior knowledge of relevant functional endpoints that reflect known viral biology or clinical observations, therefore suggesting potential mechanisms of action. We believe that the CNE offers relevant insights…</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>Complement inhibition in severe COVID-19 - Blocking C5a seems to be key: Author’s reply</strong> - No abstract</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>Experimental and natural evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced activation of type I interferon responses</strong> - Type I interferons (IFNs) are our first line of defence against virus infection. Recent studies have suggested the ability of SARS-CoV-2 proteins to inhibit IFN responses. Emerging data also suggest that timing and extent of IFN production is associated with manifestation of COVID-19 severity. In spite of progress in understanding how SARS-CoV-2 activates antiviral responses, mechanistic studies into wildtype SARS-CoV-2-mediated induction and inhibition of human type I IFN responses are scarce….</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>Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Analysis of the Immunometabolic Rewiring and Immunopathogenesis of Coronavirus Disease 2019</strong> - Although immune dysfunction is a key feature of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the metabolism-related mechanisms remain elusive. Here, by reanalyzing single-cell RNA sequencing data, we delineated metabolic remodeling in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to elucidate the metabolic mechanisms that may lead to the progression of severe COVID-19. After scoring the metabolism-related biological processes and signaling pathways, we found that mono-CD14^(+) cells expressed higher levels…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Infection Induces Psoriatic Arthritis Flares and Enthesis Resident Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Type-1 Interferon Inhibition by JAK Antagonism Offer Novel Spondyloarthritis Pathogenesis Insights</strong> - CONCLUSION: Entheseal pDCs link microbes to TNF/IFNα production. SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with PsA Flares and JAK inhibition suppressed activated entheseal plasmacytoid dendritic Type-1 interferon responses as pointers towards a novel mechanism of PsA and SpA-related arthropathy.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A COMPREHENSIVE DISINFECTION SYSTEM DURING PANDEMIC FOR PERSONAL ITEMS AND PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE) TO SAFEGUARD PEOPLE</strong> - The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to an enormous demand for gadgets / objects for personal protection. To prevent the spread of virus, it is important to disinfect commonly touched objects. One of the ways suggested is to use a personal UV-C disinfecting box that is “efficient and effective in deactivating the COVID-19 virus. The present model has implemented the use of a UV transparent material (fused silica quartz glass tubes) as the medium of support for the objects to be disinfected to increase the effectiveness of disinfection without compromising the load bearing capacity. Aluminum foil, a UV reflecting material, was used as the inner lining of the box for effective utilization of the UVC light emitted by the UVC lamps. Care has been taken to prevent leakage of UVC radiation out of the system. COVID-19 virus can be inactivated in 5 minutes by UVC irradiation in this disinfection box - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN322882412">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>USE OF IMINOSUGAR COMPOUND IN PREPARATION OF ANTI-SARS-COV-2 VIRUS DRUG</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU322897928">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Compositions and methods for the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) infection</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU321590214">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>用于检测新型冠状病毒的试纸和试剂盒</strong> - 本发明涉及生物技术和免疫检测技术领域，具体涉及一种用于检测新型冠状病毒的试纸和试剂盒。所述试纸或试剂盒含有抗体1和/或抗体2，所述抗体1的重、轻链可变区的氨基酸序列分别如SEQ ID NO:1‑2所示，所述抗体2的重、轻链可变区的氨基酸序列分别如SEQ ID NO:3‑4所示。本发明对于大批量的新型冠状病毒样本，包括新型冠状病毒突变（英国、南非）与非突变株的人血清、鼻咽拭子等样本的检测有普遍检测意义，避免突变株的漏检。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN322953478">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>METHOD FOR QUANTIFICATION OF PIRFENIDONE, A COVID-19 ANTI-FIBROTIC AGENT, BY SENSITIVE ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES</strong> - This invention relates to the development of specific methods for quantification of pirfenidone, an anti-fibrotic drug which is used to treat Covid-19 for curing lung infections. Ultra-Violet spectroscopy detection and quantification conducted using HPLC grade water as solvent. Linearity constructed for the concentration range of 3-15µL for UV spectroscopy, 2-10 µg/ml for HPLC using methanol as diluent and 5-25µg/ml using methanol as diluent for HPTLC. The chromatographic system comprised of HPLC system equipped with quaternary gradient pump and Shim-Pack GIST C18 (250X 4.6 mm, 5µm) column with PDA detector monitored at 310nm. HPTLC performed on silica gel 60 F254 plates using mobile phase in the ratio of toluene and methanol 8:2 v/v. Analytical method validation done according to ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines. System suitability, intraday precision and inter day precision calculations performed and reported which found to be within limits (%RSD&lt;2%). Recovery studies performed and amount recovered is found between 98.20-102.20%. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN322881663">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>5-(4-TERT-BUTOXY PHENYL)-3-(4N-OCTYLOXYPHENYL)-4,5-DIHYDROISOXAZOLE MOLECULE (C-I): A PROMISING DRUG FOR SARS-COV-2 (TARGET I) AND BLOOD CANCER (TARGET II)</strong> - The present invention relates to a method ofmolecular docking of crystalline compound (C-I) with SARS-COV 2 proteins and its repurposing with proteins of blood cancer, comprising the steps of ; employing an algorithmto carry molecular docking calculations of the crystalized compound (C-I); studying the compound computationally to understand the effect of binding groups with the atoms of the amino acids on at least four target proteins of SARS-COV 2; downloading the structure of the proteins; removing water molecules, co enzymes and inhibitors attached to the enzymes; drawing the structure using Chem Sketch software; converting the mol file into a PDB file; using crystalized compound (C-I) for comparative and drug repurposing with two other mutated proteins; docking compound into the groove of the proteins; saving format of docked molecules retrieved; and filtering and docking the best docked results. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN320884617">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>新闻传播速度测评方法和系统</strong> - 本发明实施例提供一种新闻传播速度测评方法和系统，核心是基于新闻媒体权重计算新闻事件主题的传播速度，再通过聚类分析确定传播速度测评体系，最后评定新闻事件主题的传播等级。其中方法包括：确定待测评的新闻事件主题，获取新闻事件主题的新闻数据；基于新闻数据中每一新闻文本的传播媒体信息，计算新闻事件主题的初始传播速度；基于初始传播速度，以及预先设定的传播速度测评体系，确定新闻事件主题的传播速度等级；其中，传播速度测评体系包括多个传播速度等级与初始传播速度之间的对应关系。本发明实施例提供的方法和系统，实现了基于大数据的新闻事件舆情监测，能够有效提高新闻事件舆情响应效率，有利于决策管理者及时做出舆情应对。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN322592921">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>AQUEOUS ZINC OXIDE NANOSPRAY COMPOSITIONS</strong> - Disclosed herein is aqueous zinc oxide nano spray compositions comprising zinc oxide nanoparticles and a synthetic surfactant for controlling the spread of Covid-19 virus. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN321836709">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bettverlängerungssystem</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Bettverlängerungssystem (1) für in Bauchlage beatmungspflichtige Patienten in Gestalt mit zumindest einer Platte (16), dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Platte (16) im Kopflagerungsbereich einen Luftwegezugangsdurchbruch (8) mit einem den Luftwegezugangsdurchbruch (8) umgebenden Auflagerbereich für ein durchbrochenes Kopfauflagepolster (14) aufweist, durch den von der Bettunterseite her und durch das Kopfauflagepolster (14) hindurch die Ver- und Entsorgungsschläuche für eine orotracheale Intubation oder eine nasotracheale Intubation ventral an das Gesicht des Patienten herangeführt werden können, und dass die Platte (16) im Bereich ihrer dem Kopfende eines Bettrosts (15) zugeordneten Stirnseite (6) ein Fixierelement (2) zur Befestigung der Platte (16) am Bettrost (15) nach Art eines einseitig frei über das Kopfende des Bettrosts hinausragenden Kragträgers aufweist.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE322212040">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种肝素类药物组合物、喷鼻剂及其制备方法及应用</strong> - 本发明公开了一种肝素类药物组合物、喷鼻剂及其制备方法及应用。该肝素类药物组合物包括肝素钠和阿比朵尔。本发明中的肝素类药物组合物首次采用肝素钠和阿比朵尔联合使用，普通肝素钠联合1μM/L以上的阿比朵尔病毒抑制效率显著高于单独普通肝素钠或单独阿比多尔组（p&lt;0.05）。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN321712860">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
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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>Inside India’s COVID-19 Surge</strong> - At a hospital in New Delhi, supplies and space are running out, but the patients keep coming. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/inside-indias-covid-19-surge">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s Great Economic Rebalancing</strong> - The President is looking to correct a capitalist economy that has gone askew, and reclaim a lost vision of shared prosperity. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/joe-bidens-great-economic-rebalancing">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Facebook and the Normalization of Deviance</strong> - The trouble with waiting to address problems long after you know that they exist. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/facebook-and-the-normalization-of-deviance">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mask Mandates Are Easing, but the Way We Look at Faces Has Changed Forever</strong> - Monitoring the human face through technology has become the default mode of public encounter. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/mask-mandates-are-easing-but-the-way-we-look-at-faces-has-changed-forever">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Surviving the Crackdown in Xinjiang, in Mandarin</strong> - The New Yorker translates its recent report on China’s mass internment of Uyghurs and Kazakhs. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/surviving-the-crackdown-in-xinjiang-in-mandarin">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>How China could force Biden’s hand on defending Taiwan</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Chinese President Xi Jinping, a satellite image of Taiwan, and US President Joe Biden." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bCppWaYxglAZEHQcuzbBzOZEl48=/200x0:1800x1200/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69239536/headshots_1620071842362.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Some are worried that Chinese President Xi Jinping might launch a bloody war for Taiwan. US President Joe Biden would feel pressure to get involved. | Getty Images/Gallo Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A war over Taiwan may lead Biden to a decision no American president since 1979 has wanted to make.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T18LoR">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oxb1M4">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UA6dXG">
No American president has had to choose whether to go to war to defend Taiwan against a Chinese military invasion. President Joe Biden might have the decision thrust upon him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4KdoCq">
The outgoing commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific region, Navy Adm. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-could-invade-taiwan-next-6-years-assume-global-leadership-n1260386">Philip Davidson</a>, told US lawmakers in March that he believes Beijing will attempt a takeover of the neighboring democratic island — which it considers part of mainland China — within the next six years. Davidson’s successor, Navy Adm. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/24/asia/indo-pacific-commander-aquilino-hearing-taiwan-intl-hnk-ml/index.html">John Aquilino</a>, expressed a similar concern days later.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mk7Zcp">
“This problem is much closer to us than most think,” he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We ought to be prepared today.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="teJLz9">
The four-stars’ predictions aren’t wholly shared by everyone in the administration. “I’m not aware of any specific timeline that the Chinese have for being able to try and seize Taiwan,” said one senior US defense official, who, like others in the administration, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive foreign policy issue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0jwp5H">
“I’m not concerned that in the near term we’re going to see a significant escalation,” a senior administration official told me, though they added that “any unilateral move to change the status quo, as well as a move to change the status quo by force, would be unacceptable regardless when it happens.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E1dR0z">
Experts I spoke to also felt Davidson and Aquilino’s claims are too <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/08/984524521/opinion-dont-help-china-by-hyping-risk-of-war-over-taiwan">alarmist</a> and may be in service of trying to boost defense spending for operations in Asia.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wz9B9i">
But all agree that <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/11/14/18091800/china-military-power-congress-commission-report-2050">China is a more credible threat to Taiwan today than in the past</a>. Beijing flaunts it, too. In recent weeks, China sent <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/taiwan-reports-largest-incursion-yet-by-chinese-air-force-2021-04-12/">25 warplanes</a> through the island’s airspace, the largest reported incursion to date, and had an <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/6/chinas-liaoning-aircraft-carrier-leads-naval-exercise-off-taiwan">aircraft carrier lead a large naval exercise</a> near Taiwan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="389Zl0">
These and other moves have some worried that Chinese <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-taiwan/chinas-xi-threatens-taiwan-with-force-but-also-seeks-peaceful-reunification-idUSKCN1OW04K">President Xi Jinping might launch a bloody war for Taiwan</a>. He hasn’t been subtle about it, either. “We do not promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the option to use all necessary measures,” Xi said two years ago.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GwK9V5">
Should Xi follow through with an all-out assault, Biden would face one of the toughest decisions ever presented to an American president.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9c9cW6">
It’s therefore worth understanding the history behind this perennial issue, how the US got into this predicament, and whether the worst-case scenario — a US-China war over Taiwan — may come to pass.
</p>
<h3 id="8bsXt6">
The inescapable tension at the heart of US policy toward Taiwan
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QHrNKa">
The roots of the current predicament were seeded in the Chinese civil war between the communists and the nationalists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jjtoYS">
When World War II ended in 1945, the longtime rival factions raced to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Chinese-Civil-War">control territory in China ceded by Japan</a> after its surrender. The communists, led by Mao Zedong, won that brutal conflict, forcing Chiang Kai-shek’s US-backed nationalists in 1949 to flee to the island of Taiwan (then called Formosa) off the mainland’s southeastern coast.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/S6u9vFjO24UvBfino59Rdw-pwlw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22489285/514870652.jpg"/> <cite>Agence France Presse/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing, China, in September 1945, toasting the victory over Japan.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2HEFZO">
Initially, the <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/107184.htm">US was resigned</a> to the idea that Taiwan would eventually fall under communist China’s control, and <a href="https://china.usc.edu/harry-s-truman-%E2%80%9Cstatement-formosa%E2%80%9D-january-5-1950">President Harry Truman even refused to send military aid</a> to support the nationalists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GZipiW">
The Korean War, launched in 1950, raised Taiwan’s importance to the United States. The Truman administration abhorred that a communist nation, North Korea, could invade a sovereign state like South Korea. Worried Taiwan might meet a similar fate, <a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/06/30/2003476734">the US president quickly sent the 7th Fleet</a> toward the island as a protective and deterrent force.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0MHCzQ">
Military and economic aid soon followed, and both governments signed a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-abstract/37/5/971/357720?redirectedFrom=fulltext">mutual defense treaty in 1954</a>. The US also provided intelligence support to Taiwan’s government during <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/lw/88751.htm">flare-ups with China in the 1950s</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T8FL9c">
“Taiwan went from being not interesting to the front lines of the global confrontation with Communism,” said Kharis Templeman, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lRjjEP">
Ironically, it would be the American fight against communism — the Cold War — that would see the US government change its Taiwan policy yet again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FwulsT">
Starting around <a href="http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_us_china.htm">1960</a>, a wedge formed between the Soviet Union and mainland China over ideological and geopolitical interests. To widen the gap between them (and get some help from Beijing during the Vietnam War), President Richard Nixon and his team sought a rapprochement with the Chinese communists in the early 1970s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3g3pyl">
During Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1972, he and Chairman Mao Zedong issued the <a href="https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v17/d203">Shanghai Communiqué</a>, which stated that both governments would seek a “normalization of relations.” The US also formally acknowledged that “there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fUC6ce">
President Jimmy Carter’s administration made it official: In January <a href="https://photos.state.gov/libraries/ait-taiwan/171414/ait-pages/prc_e.pdf">1979</a>, the US recognized “the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China,” and the two countries established formal diplomatic relations. At the same time, Carter terminated America’s official ties to Taiwan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BQQfxC">
But Republicans and Democrats in Congress were unhappy with the president’s decision. Only three months later, lawmakers — including then-<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/biden-sends-unofficial-delegation-taiwan-underscore-commitment-white-house-2021-04-13/">Sen. Joe Biden</a> — passed the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/96th-congress/house-bill/2479">Taiwan Relations Act</a>, which codified into law a continued economic and security relationship with the island.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Uhgp61">
It formalized that “the United States shall make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capacity as determined by the President and the Congress.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I5WBre">
The law also stated that “any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means” would be “of grave concern to the United States.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6rmdPy">
That sounds like a stark warning to Beijing. But, importantly, the US never stipulated that it would come to Taiwan’s defense during a military conflict, only that it would help the island defend itself and would be concerned if such an event happened.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="38WqVz">
Keeping that part ambiguous — strategically ambiguous, that is — allowed Washington to maintain its newly formal relations with mainland China while not abandoning Taiwan.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="v4PT1H">
<q>“You can talk policy all you want, but a war off the coast of China? Boy, you better think through all of that.” —Chuck Hagel, former US secretary of defense</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tt5WXm">
The Taiwan Relations Act (or TRA, as the law is more commonly known) remains the basis of the US-Taiwan relationship to this day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fez1Gp">
“It is the TRA that embodies the ambiguity that we have in our policy,” said Shirley Kan, a Taiwan expert for the Congressional Research Service from 1990 to 2015. “It is the law of the land and it has legal force.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3jDEOQ">
(There are other documents often referenced when detailing America’s relations with China and Taiwan, like the “<a href="http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zmgx/doc/ctc/">Three Communiqués</a>” between Washington and Beijing and the “<a href="http://www.taiwandocuments.org/assurances.htm">Six Assurances</a>” President Ronald Reagan gave to Taiwan. The communiqués underscore how the US “acknowledges” China’s claims on Taiwan, and the assurances made clear the US wouldn’t abandon the island or make it negotiate with Beijing for reunification. The TRA, however, is the only one of these documents signed into US law.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tP6nFH">
There’s an obvious tension here: The US recognizes “one China” but is close to both Beijing and Taipei. It was always going to put administrations in Washington in an awkward position, let alone US officials in those capitals.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zt0XIr">
It explains why the US-China-Taiwan relationship is such a delicate balancing act, one that not everyone’s convinced Washington should have engaged in.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bR6O1e">
“We have an interest in Taiwan because we have a commitment, we don’t have an interest because it’s important to our security,” said Robert Ross, a professor of political science at Boston College. “We’re living with the fiction that we don’t have a ‘two China’ policy.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UeQgEh">
Fiction or not, it’s the policy on the books — and it’s caused headaches for all involved ever since.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3StHVG">
“It’s a fairly convoluted political Band-Aid over an irreconcilable problem,” said Daniel Russel, the top State Department official for East Asian affairs from 2013 to 2017. “We don’t have a new policy because there are no other options.”
</p>
<h3 id="wrivoJ">
“This is the quiet before the storm”
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kECCQu">
A policy of “strategic ambiguity” — as the US policy toward Taiwan is known — is all well and good, until the US president has to actually decide whether to defend Taiwan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DprNTA">
A barrage of missile strikes and <a href="https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3945240">hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops landing on Taiwan’s beaches</a> would force Biden to make a choice: wade into the fight against a nuclear-armed China, or hold back and watch a decades-long partner fall.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cYBRkl">
The first risks countless American, Chinese, and Taiwanese lives and billions of dollars in a fight that many believe the US would struggle to win; the second risks millions of Taiwanese people coming under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party, losing their democratic rights and freedoms in the process, and Washington’s allies no longer considering it reliable in times of need.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M0Xr9J3Qtn8bUHSoj3uCsS0I0Gk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22489297/1302221268.jpg"/> <cite>An Rong Xu/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Anti-tank fortifications from previous conflicts line the shore along a beach on February 4 in Lieyu, Taiwan. The Chinese city of Xiamen is seen in the background.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qPXMXF">
Former officials who wrestled with this question know it’s not an easy call. “You’re damn right it’s hard,” Chuck Hagel, who served as secretary of defense when Biden was vice president, told me. “It’s a complex decision for any administration, not an automatic one. You can talk policy all you want, but a war off the coast of China? Boy, you better think through all of that.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0yChEM">
Taiwan’s government has certainly thought about it, and it’s concerned about what may be coming.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VEv7vP">
“We treat any threat from China as imminent, so we have to prepare for any contingency in this area,” a source close to Taiwan’s administration told me, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak freely about the government’s thinking. “It could be any time. It could be in the next six months or the next six years. The one thing we’re certain about is that China is planning something.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ns0957">
The US intelligence community assessed something similar. Greg Treverton, who chaired the National Intelligence Council from 2014 to 2017, told me that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan was “more a ‘possibility’ than a realistic option,” though he said he didn’t “remember any specific reports about Taiwan and timetables.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UjpxrG">
The Biden administration has done its best to reassure Taiwan and deter Beijing from doing the worst. “It would be a serious mistake for anyone to try to change the existing status quo by force,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-april-11-2021-n1263752">NBC’s <em>Meet the Press</em></a> in April.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DFDRlo">
Whether it’ll be enough for Biden to avoid making the decision no president wants to make will be a looming question during his presidency. And the world may get an answer sooner rather than later.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9J6mNs">
“This is the quiet before the storm,” said Joseph Hwang, a professor at Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan. “The Chinese government is looking for a good time to push for reunification by force. They just haven’t found the right time yet.”
</p>
<h3 id="UzTdcx">
China’s three red lines
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tK4aEx">
John Culver served in the CIA for 35 years, retiring in 2020 after a distinguished career tracking developments in the Taiwan Strait, the 110-mile body of water separating Taiwan and China — the area most likely to serve as the key battleground in a war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vsGbC5">
What he told me is that China, at least for now, begrudgingly accepts the situation that it’s in. But <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2005/03/08/china-sends-warning-to-taiwan-with-anti-secession-law/5dcdfae8-4523-4350-9d45-77a85f6b240f/">Beijing has made clear</a> it has three “red lines” that, if crossed, “would see China go to war tomorrow.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UoIuai">
The first is if Taiwan were to try to formally separate from China and become a sovereign state. Since China considers the island part of the country, any formal independence effort could see Beijing mobilize its forces to stop such an outcome.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x621aE">
The second red line is if Taiwan were to develop the capability to deter a Chinese invasion on its own, namely by trying to acquire nuclear weapons. This has been a contentious issue in the past. <a href="https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/would-a-nuclear-armed-taiwan-deter-china/">Taiwan has twice started a clandestine nuclear program</a>, and the US has twice pushed Taiwan to shut it down, worrying it could prompt China to attack before the island comes close to acquiring the bomb.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="91N3N9">
The third is if Beijing were to believe an outside power was getting too cozy with Taiwan. Yes, the US sells Taiwan <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54641076">billions in weapons</a> — fighter jets, rocket launchers, artillery — and holds military <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/us-marines-covert-training-operation-taiwan-defense-troops-1546213">exercises with Taiwanese forces</a>, but that’s a step below America (or another country, like Japan) stationing its troops on the island. With Taiwan only <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/16/taiwan-china-fear-coronavirus-success/">110 miles</a> away from mainland China, such a move might look like the makings of a real military alliance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wpDQBX">
None of that would please China, especially President Xi Jinping.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JOxPda">
“Actions by either the US or Taiwan that push Xi into a corner and question his legitimacy would make him vulnerable if he didn’t respond forcefully,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund think tank in Washington, DC. “I don’t think China is bluffing — there are red lines.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YNVRxY69dkzOVPBjB8hE-a7MBFs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22489316/1231339555.jpg"/> <cite>Costfoto/Barcroft Media/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Special forces training in Guangxi, China, on February 23.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a4IpLc">
This isn’t a hypothetical concern: China has lashed out at Taiwan previously over concerns that it was nearing those lines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oGfNyL">
The most recent and serious incident happened in the mid-1990s. In June 1995, Taiwan’s then-President Lee Teng-hui visited his alma mater in the United States, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/10/world/taiwan-s-president-tiptoes-around-politics-at-cornell.html">Cornell University</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bqjwUk">
That might seem innocuous, but to Beijing, the visit of a sitting Taiwanese president to America — the first such visit since the break of formal relations in 1979 — was viewed as a symbolic first step toward eventual independence.<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-07-20-mn-26065-story.html">A month later</a>, China responded by test-launching <a href="https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/taiwan_strait.htm">six missiles</a> in Taiwan’s direction.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HXsOdv">
Then, ahead of Taiwan’s first direct and free democratic presidential election in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/10/world/war-games-off-taiwan-to-expand-beijing-says.html">March 1996</a>, China conducted realistic military drills near<strong> </strong>Taiwan with ships and warplanes. One missile, which some experts said had the capacity to carry a nuclear bomb (though it didn’t in this case), nearly passed over<strong> </strong>Taipei before landing 19 miles off the island’s coast.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DxVNUh">
For many, these provocations required a US response. But what exactly that response should be was a delicate decision.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2pGVlw">
Importantly, the People’s Liberation Army (as China’s military is called) wasn’t overly powerful at the time — one expert called it a “backwater.” Its threats were seen more as political language and not a precursor to invasion.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bZOcYR">
Beijing’s weakness made it an easier call for the US, led by President Bill Clinton, to send <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/03/11/second-group-of-us-ships-sent-to-taiwan/34280337-be79-4d6e-b859-8046682a37b3/">two aircraft carriers</a> near Taiwan for both assurance and deterrence. “We did it as a signal to Taiwan that we’d defend it, but not poke China in the eye,” Randall Schriver, former assistant secretary of defense, who was in the Pentagon at the time working on America’s response to the crisis, told me.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MY5Xhj">
Still, such moves worried some that amassing the largest contingent of naval firepower in the region since 1958 could draw the US into a war. “It was very tense,” an unnamed senior defense official told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/06/21/us-and-china-nearly-came-to-blows-in-96/926d105f-1fd8-404c-9995-90984f86a613/">Washington Post</a> in 1998. “We were up all night for weeks. We prepared the war plans, the options. It was horrible.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="McWKAE">
Ultimately, China backed off and Taiwan held its election. But the crisis put all three actors in the drama on different courses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pUQaj8">
China invested heavily in a stronger military to ward off another intervention by America. The US, angered by Beijing’s actions during the crisis, pushed for closer relations with the island. And after the election, Taiwan blossomed into a wealthy democracy and showed signs of moving toward — but not actively reaching for — independence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oI533h">
That ushered in a precarious status quo that lasted for two decades. But how much longer it will last is becoming an increasingly troubling question. Because the China of today isn’t the same country it was 20, or even 10, years ago. Neither is the US.
</p>
<h3 id="pKp0sU">
China under Xi Jinping is more aggressive — and more powerful
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3kcarl">
In 2017, President Xi detailed his vision to realize his nation’s “<a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/19thcpcnationalcongress/2017-11/04/content_34115212.htm">Chinese Dream</a>” by 2049 — the 100th anniversary of the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/chinese-rev">Communist Party’s official leadership</a> of China. One section stands out:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8VQX2W">
Resolving the Taiwan question to realize China’s complete reunification is the shared aspiration of all Chinese people, and is in the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation. …
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZiPCRy">
We stand firm in safeguarding China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will never allow the historical tragedy of national division to repeat itself. Any separatist activity is certain to meet with the resolute opposition of the Chinese people. We have the resolve, the confidence, and the ability to defeat separatist attempts for “Taiwan independence” in any form.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TKnbus">
Xi stressed several times his regime’s desire to “uphold the principles of ‘peaceful reunification.’” But officials and analysts question the sincerity of that commitment, especially in light of recent events.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/47mb6zDx9ma1JaQQKrMAoMDQdzQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22489322/GettyImages_1171879575.jpg"/> <cite>How Hwee Young/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the Great Hall of the People in 2019 in Beijing. “We do not promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the option to use all necessary measures,” Xi has said on Taiwan.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4iXBpr">
One reason is <a href="https://www.vox.com/22321695/china-hong-kong-election-rules-beijing">Hong Kong</a>: Over the past several years, Xi has moved to usurp the democratic city into its fold by passing a draconian national security law, arresting pro-democracy leaders, changing electoral laws to favor Beijing loyalists, and more.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sy4eK0">
It’s a bold play. After taking over Hong Kong in a war in the 1800s, Britain returned it to China in <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/China/anniversary-hong-kongs-return-china/story?id=56229613">1997</a> with an important stipulation: The city would partly govern itself for 50 years before falling fully under Beijing’s control. So until 2047, the expectation was that the city and the mainland would operate under the principle known as “one country, two systems” (sound familiar?).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IldJoD">
But Xi accelerated that timeline, flagrantly crushing the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and bringing the city further under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, even in the face of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/17/22335622/us-sanctions-chinese-officials-crackdown-hong-kong-democracy">US-led international condemnation and pressure</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UkXA5V">
It’s one example of how China has no qualms about flexing its muscles these days. But Taiwan has also experienced that flexing even more directly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sCX0St">
In April, China sent one of its two <a href="https://apnews.com/article/beijing-taiwan-china-asia-pacific-958f1b151d46641c504bd36ce538037a">aircraft carriers</a> near Taiwan for what Beijing said was a routine naval exercise. The drills were meant to “assist in improving the ability to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests,” the Chinese navy said, using terminology many believed was aimed directly at Taipei.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kYyJgi">
Days later, China sent 25 warplanes through <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/12/china/china-taiwan-jets-defense-zone-incursion-intl-hnk-ml/index.html">Taiwan’s air defense identification zone</a>, airspace governments essentially consider their territory for national security reasons. The move was so provocative that Taiwan scrambled its own warplanes and readied its missile defense systems.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="maWnij">
China’s aggressions have steadily increased since last September and are now a near-daily occurrence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zWDGZr">
In response to those and other events, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister <a href="https://apnews.com/article/beijing-taiwan-china-08fd7c5e4002a6b295acb0282cb81d58">Joseph Wu</a> offered a startling statement to reporters: “We will fight a war if we need to fight a war, and if we need to defend ourselves to the very last day, then we will defend ourselves to the very last day.“
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VNTKEf">
China’s dim view of the United States is another factor. Chinese officials have felt, over the past decade or more, <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-china-watcher/2021/03/11/beijings-visions-of-american-decline-492064">that America is in economic and political decline</a>, their beliefs bolstered by the 2008 financial crisis and, most recently, the initial bungling of the American Covid-19 response. Moving when the US is most vulnerable might just be too good of an opportunity to pass up, some experts say.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cjpAMq">
It also doesn’t help that the US has gotten extra cozy with Taiwan lately.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e0NXeX">
For example, Taiwan’s unofficial ambassador to the US <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-sends-important-foreign-policy-signal-with-taiwan-inauguration-invite-11611230623">accepted Biden’s invitation</a> to his inauguration, the first envoy to represent the island at a presidential swearing-in since 1979. She even tweeted a video about her attendance in which she declared: “Democracy is our common language and freedom is our common objective.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kHDjKc">
Then in March, the US ambassador to the archipelago nation of Palau, John Hennessey-Niland, <a href="https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4163127">visited Taiwan</a>, becoming the first sitting envoy to set foot on the island in an official capacity in 42 years. He was there accompanying Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr., whose government is just one of 15 that recognize Taiwan, on his official trip.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IoKVTD">
But it was Hennessey-Niland who made the biggest splash during the visit when he referred to Taiwan as a “country.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uXGcF2">
“I know that here in Taiwan people describe the relationship between the United States and Taiwan as real friends, real progress, and I believe that description applies to the three countries — the United States, Taiwan, and Palau,” he told reporters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h3mfiz">
Beijing likely interprets these and other moves as the US moving steadily closer to Taiwan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iha75c">
Put all this together and you could have a recipe for disaster.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9rC1m0">
“China is looking for weakness everywhere and probing the US and Taiwan,” said Shelley Rigger, a professor at Davidson College and author of <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442204805/Why-Taiwan-Matters-Small-Island-Global-Powerhouse-Updated-Edition"><em>Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse</em></a>. “The trendlines are not looking good.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MLZKzb">
Not everyone subscribes to the doom and gloom, though.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zbLm4m">
Take those military flights in April, for instance. Experts who aren’t so concerned note that China routinely conducts nonlethal shows of force, and that the Chinese warplanes crossed through a part of Taiwan’s airspace that’s far from the island, making it less threatening than it could’ve been.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wMXUOT">
Some experts also point out that Beijing has a lot on its plate right now dealing with the Hong Kong situation, the Covid-19 pandemic, and international pressure over China’s mistreatment of Uyghur Muslims, thus likely putting the Taiwan issue low on the government’s agenda.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aH9zUrdbg-6ufqt2g5-mxPMIH4I=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22489331/1301386990.jpg"/> <cite>An Rong Xu/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Shoppers walk beneath lanterns strung up on February 10 as people prepare for Chinese New Year in Taipei, Taiwan.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TH0NjF">
“The relative importance of Taiwan has actually declined,” said Cathy Wu, an expert on the China-Taiwan relationship at Old Dominion University. “There’s actually less chance of war now.” She noted that the people in her hometown of Quanzhou, China, directly across the strait from Taiwan, aren’t gearing up for a fight. What they’re mostly concerned about is rising housing prices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6dBPro">
“There’s just no real risk right now when it comes to a direct confrontation between Beijing and Taipei,” Wu told me, noting that both capitals maintain strong economic links, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xxWp5X">
But even the smallest increase in risk today matters more than it did in the past, when China was weaker. “You pay more attention when a tiger clears its throat than when a Chihuahua strains at the leash,” said Culver, the CIA retiree.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6bWVk5">
And Taiwan and America are certainly paying attention, given what could be a catastrophic outcome: war.
</p>
<h3 id="oO7OSm">
“We have immense power, but so do they”
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JNOFFL">
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/china-s-growing-firepower-casts-doubt-whether-u-s-could-n1262148">War games</a> simulating a US-China military conflict over Taiwan make two things perfectly clear: 1) The fight would be hell on earth, potentially leading to <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/10/08/asia-pacific/china-taiwan-invasion-scenario/">hundreds of thousands of casualties</a>, and 2) the US might not win it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WQx0qY">
Experts say the first thing Beijing would most likely do is launch <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/10/08/asia-pacific/china-taiwan-invasion-scenario/">cyberattacks</a> against Taiwan’s financial systems and key infrastructure, possibly causing a water shortage. US satellites might also be targets since they can detect the launch of ballistic missiles.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="44x6e3">
Then China’s navy would probably set up a <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-third-taiwan-strait-crisis-the-forgotten-showdown-19742">blockade to harass Taiwan’s fleet</a> and <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/10/08/asia-pacific/china-taiwan-invasion-scenario/">keep food and supplies</a> from getting to the island. Meanwhile, China would rain <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-third-taiwan-strait-crisis-the-forgotten-showdown-19742">missiles down on Taipei and other key targets</a> — like the offices of political leaders, and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/23/asia/taiwan-china-invasion-intl-hnk">ports and airfields</a> — and move its warplanes out of reach of <a href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/country/taiwan/">Taiwan’s missile arsenal</a>. Some experts believe Beijing would move its aircraft carrier out of Taiwan’s missile range since Chinese fighter jets could just take off from the mainland.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="R36dEJ">
<q>“You pay more attention when a tiger clears its throat than when a Chihuahua strains at the leash.” —John Culver, 35-year CIA veteran</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ejRDsa">
And then comes the invasion itself, which China wouldn’t be able to hide even if it wanted to. To be successful, Xi would have to send hundreds of thousands of troops across the Taiwan Strait for what would be a historic operation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3MnITA">
“The geography of an amphibious landing on Taiwan is so difficult that it would make a landing on Taiwan harder than the US landing on D-Day,” said Ross, the Boston College professor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9ouPsj">
Many of Taiwan’s beaches aren’t wide enough to station a big force, with only about <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/23/asia/taiwan-china-invasion-intl-hnk">14 beaches</a> possibly hospitable for a landing of any kind. That’s a problem for China, as winning the war would require not only defeating a Taiwanese military of around <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/10/08/asia-pacific/china-taiwan-invasion-scenario/">175,000 plus 1 million reservists, but also subduing a population of 24 million</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bbyqpf">
For these reasons, some experts say Taiwan — with US-sold weapons — could thus put up a good fight. China’s military (known as the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA) “clearly would have its hands full just dealing with Taiwan’s defenders,” Michael Beckley, a fellow at Harvard University, wrote in <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/isec/article/42/2/78/12177/The-Emerging-Military-Balance-in-East-Asia-How">a 2017 paper</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XK4KH0">
Others agree. Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in the UK, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/23/asia/taiwan-china-invasion-intl-hnk">CNN</a> in 2019 that “the Taiwanese air force would have to sink around 40 percent of the amphibious landing forces of the PLA” — around 15 ships — “to render [China’s] mission infeasible.” That’s a complicated but not impossible task.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rvWUc4">
What’s more, the island’s forces have spent years digging tunnels and bunkers at the beaches where the Chinese might arrive, and they know the terrain better than the invaders do.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3RhXPt">
“Taiwan’s entire national defense strategy, including its war plans, are specifically targeted at defeating a PLA invasion,” Easton told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/23/asia/taiwan-china-invasion-intl-hnk">CNN</a> in 2019. In fact, in his book he wrote that invading Taiwan would be “the most difficult and bloody mission facing the Chinese military.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J6Y8kE">
Even so, most experts told me China would have a distinct advantage in a fight. It has <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-concerns-about-taiwan-put-focus-on-islands-defensive-weakness-11619113253">100 times more ground troops</a> than Taiwan and spends <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-concerns-about-taiwan-put-focus-on-islands-defensive-weakness-11619113253">25 times more</a> on its military. Even former top Taiwanese soldiers worry about the island’s defenses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="go2b1K">
“From my perspective, we are really far behind what we need,” Lee Hsi-min, chief of the general staff of Taiwan’s military until 2019, told the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-concerns-about-taiwan-put-focus-on-islands-defensive-weakness-11619113253">Wall Street Journal</a> in April. (It’s for this reason that Taiwan’s government consistently requests <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/03/taiwan-wants-more-missiles-s-not-bad-thing/172887/">more weapons as laid out in the TRA</a>.)
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0o-4Xy8sfRES4cNv5bryzkVriVE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22489334/1230681856.jpg"/> <cite>Walid Berrazeg/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Taiwanese soldiers at the Hukou military base during a military exercise in January.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gDDPL4">
Because of China’s power, proximity to Taiwan, and Taiwan’s weaker forces, most analysts I spoke with say Beijing would come away with a victory. “It’s more or less impossible to stop. Taiwan is indefensible,” said Lyle Goldstein of the US Naval War College. “I think China could go tomorrow and they’d be successful.” When there’s just over 100 miles for a stronger nation to get across, “good luck to the small island,” he added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j4rqpT">
This is why the question of America’s support in such a war is so big, and why a decision for Biden would be so weighty. Knowing all this, Biden — or any American president — would likely have to decide whether to intervene to keep Taiwan from losing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ka4wNA">
That’s risky, because many believe the US might not succeed at fending off an invasion. China has advanced its <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-missiles-specialreport-us/special-report-u-s-rearms-to-nullify-chinas-missile-supremacy-idUSKBN22I1EQ">missile arsenal to the point</a> that it’d be difficult to send fighter jets and aircraft carriers near the war zone. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/china-s-growing-firepower-casts-doubt-whether-u-s-could-n1262148">US bases in the region</a>, such as those in Japan hosting 50,000 American troops, would come under heavy fire. US allies and friends like Australia, South Korea, or even the Philippines could offer some support, but their appetite for large-scale war might not be so high.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CsofNr">
It’s a troubling scenario — one in which thousands of Americans could die — that US defense and military officials see over and over again in simulations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RdTBmE">
“You bring in lieutenant colonels and commanders, and you subject them for three or four days to this war game. They get their asses kicked, and they have a visceral reaction to it,” David Ochmanek of the Pentagon-funded RAND Corporation told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/china-s-growing-firepower-casts-doubt-whether-u-s-could-n1262148">NBC News</a> in March. “You can see the learning happen.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fCLSqx">
The best-case war game I found, reported on by <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/training-sim/2021/04/12/a-us-air-force-war-game-shows-what-the-service-needs-to-hold-off-or-win-against-china-in-2030/">Defense News</a> in April, found that the US could stop a full invasion of Taiwan. But there’s a big catch: America would succeed only in confining Chinese troops to a corner of the island. In other words, Beijing would have still pulled off a partial takeover despite the US intervention.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HDawKO">
That’s partly why Hagel, the former Pentagon chief, cautions against the US entering such a fight. “I was never sanguine, nor would I be today, about a showdown with the Chinese in that area,” he told me. “We have immense power, but so do they. This is their backyard.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WRS6Ai">
And, lest we forget, there’s little to no chance that a war over the island wouldn’t spill over to the rest of the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZGLB0c">
“I think it would broaden quickly and it would fundamentally trash the global economy in ways that I don’t think anyone can predict,” <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/significant-downsides-strategic-clarity-over-taiwan-us-2021-05-04/">Kurt Campbell</a>, Biden’s “Asia czar” in the White House, said on Tuesday.
</p>
<h3 id="iS5LIi">
What would Biden do?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yEWYaY">
Despite these dire predictions, some analysts I spoke to said the US would simply have no choice but to come to Taiwan’s defense. It might not be mandated by law — the US commitment is ambiguous, after all — but America’s reputation would take a major hit if it let China forcibly annex the island.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LVRAYq">
“How would other countries see the United States if we don’t come to Taiwan’s aid?” Glaser of the German Marshall Fund said. “We would lose all credibility as a leader and an ally,” especially if Washington didn’t act to support a fellow democracy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EErkpf">
There are some moves short of all-out war Biden could choose, said Schriver, who was also the top Pentagon official for Asia in the Trump administration and is now chair of Project 2049, an Asia-focused think tank.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dWyOnF">
The US could provide intelligence, surveillance, and logistics support to Taiwan; try to break China’s naval blockade of the island, assisting with logistics and supplies; and deploy its submarine force to augment Taiwan’s naval capabilities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y5hnxB">
“It would be an aberration of history if we did nothing, and the PLA would make a mistake to assume that we will do nothing,” Schriver told me.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="President Joe Biden speaks during a rally in Georgia in April." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Y-51yIY3OT4ddlD3UPtKRu535LA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22489335/1232598743.jpg"/> <cite>Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
In a 2001 essay, Joe Biden argued that US law doesn’t require involvement in a war over Taiwan.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xKr3Ca">
The US very well might do something, and the president may even be able to get congressional support for such a war given the strong bipartisan support for Taiwan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HiXIol">
Still, Biden would be the decider about whether or not to put US troops in harm’s way. The responsibility, at least for the next four years, lies with him — and no one is really sure what he’d do.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MXrSoy">
“Would the US come to Taiwan’s defense? The honest answer is that nobody knows,” said Abraham Denmark, a former top Pentagon official for Asia issues now at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington, DC. “It’s only up to one person. Unless you’re talking to that person, it’s never going to be clear. That’s been true since the late 1970s.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YTypzA">
<a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/joe-bidens-record-on-china-and-taiwan/">Biden has a long record on Taiwan</a>, but it’s as ambiguous as America’s Taiwan policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fwpr5Q">
As a senator, he voted in favor of the Taiwan Relations Act, the law that establishes security cooperation between the US and Taiwan. But in 2001, Biden wrote a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2001/05/02/not-so-deft-on-taiwan/2adf3075-ee98-4e70-9be0-5459ce1edd5d/">Washington Post</a> opinion article arguing that the law doesn’t require the US to come to Taiwan’s defense. In fact, it left that matter ambiguous, he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JGRZLv">
“The act obliges the president to notify Congress in the event of any threat to the security of Taiwan, and stipulates that the president and Congress shall determine, in accordance with constitutional processes, an appropriate response by the United States,” Biden wrote. “The president should not cede to Taiwan, much less to China, the ability automatically to draw us into a war across the Taiwan Strait.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Alk1Bf">
Still, a senior Biden administration official told me there are many reasons to believe that America’s support for Taiwan remains ironclad.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FZArgh">
“You hear the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/28/22408735/joe-biden-congress-speech-democracy-autocracy">president consistently talk about how democracies deliver</a>,” the official said. “Taiwan is a leading democracy in the region” and “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/06/15/the-covid-19-crisis-has-revealed-taiwans-resilience/">an example of addressing the pandemic</a>, the Covid crisis, in a way that is consistent with democratic values.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dIU7IK">
There’s also an economic imperative: Taiwan is the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/04/tsmc-the-worlds-most-important-company/">world’s key manufacturer of semiconductors</a> used in products, from <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/expanding-from-autos-to-appliances-and-sex-toys-the-chip-shortage-is-far-reaching-11619783117?mod=hp_lead_pos12">tablets to cars to sex toys</a>, that account for 12 percent of America’s GDP. If China were to usurp Taiwan, Beijing would have a firm grip on that supply chain and thus more influence on the future of the US and global economies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eKrDh0">
So would a Biden administration come to Taiwan’s defense? Unsurprisingly, America’s stance on the issue remains ambiguous so far, which is why experts and officials in Taiwan remain on high alert.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hoyrXB">
“We have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” said the Taiwanese source close to the current administration, speaking about the general mood on the island. “That’s our basic philosophy.”
</p></li>
<li><strong>What’s behind Arizona’s bizarre, haphazard, and highly partisan “audit” of the 2020 election</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/otdNmuh6rswaiOglSv46Lx226T0=/0x0:3200x2400/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69239407/AP_21115681777352.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Cyber Ninjas owner Doug Logan, left, talks about overseeing a 2020 election ballot audit ordered by the Republican-led Arizona Senate at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. | Ross D. Franklin/AP
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
No one can figure out why Republicans are shining UV lights on ballots, among other things.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KeQJZc">
Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election was a cocktail of equal parts ridiculousness and menace. On the one hand, a sitting president actively encouraged efforts to destroy American democracy — including an <a href="https://www.vox.com/22220746/trump-speech-incite-capitol-riot">attack on the US Capitol</a>. On the other hand, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/11/8/21555022/four-seasons-landscaping-trump-giuliani-philadelphia-press-conference">Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference</a> was a thing that happened.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hkJGhN">
So it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that, months after Joe Biden won the 2020 election and was sworn in as president, Trump loyalists in Arizona are engaged in the same kind of absurdist anti-democracy that drove the final weeks of Trump’s term in office by auditing all ballots cast in the state’s largest county.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qJEWg3">
Arizona’s Republican-controlled Senate does not have the power to overturn the 2020 election — indeed, the Constitution provides <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxii">no mechanism whatsoever</a> to contest a presidential election once the victor has taken office. But the state Senate is able to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elections-election-2020-business-government-and-politics-arizona-a56ee7c8214ecc876424ee3428e3ab72">subpoena the 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County</a>, which Biden <a href="https://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/arizona/">won</a> by more than 2 percentage points in 2020.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C13eA7">
The terms of this “audit” appear designed to destroy confidence in the process. The lead company conducting the GOP’s audit is a Florida security company called Cyber Ninjas, which has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elections-election-2020-business-government-and-politics-arizona-a56ee7c8214ecc876424ee3428e3ab72">no experience with elections</a>. Cyber Ninjas’ CEO, Doug Logan, however, does have a history of <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2021/03/31/arizona-senate-hires-a-stop-the-steal-advocate-to-lead-2020-election-audit/">spreading pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the 2020 election</a>.
</p>
<div class="c-float-left">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yGOSaIyU0Ft_alT6XqqqJeiILDk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22488841/logan_twitter_stopthesteal_venezuela.png"/> <cite>AZ Mirror via Archive.org</cite>
<figcaption>
A screenshot of a tweet from Doug Logan’s since-deleted Twitter account.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f8wSq1">
After a state court <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-arizona-recount/2021/04/29/bcd8d832-a798-11eb-bca5-048b2759a489_story.html">ordered Cyber Ninjas to disclose</a> how it is conducting this so-called audit, a subcontractor revealed that the process involves weighing ballots, examining them under a microscope, and examining the “thickness or feel” of individual ballots in order to <a href="https://www.cyberninjas.com/static/20210429155650/Wake-TSI-Counting-Floor-Policies.pdf">identify “questionable ballots”</a> that need to be examined by a “lead forensic examiner” and then “removed from the batch and sent for further analysis.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TrHi0g">
And then there’s a giant mystery involving ultraviolet lights.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ogb7pY">
As part of the audit, according to a document laying out the process for examining ballots, workers are required to place ballots “<a href="https://www.cyberninjas.com/static/20210429155650/Wake-TSI-Counting-Floor-Policies.pdf">under UV-B and UV-A source</a>” to compare the illuminated ballots to “representative specimens.” It’s not at all clear what exposing the ballots to UV light is supposed to accomplish — a coalition of election experts wrote the Justice Department asking it to send observers to monitor this quizzical audit, and one of their concerns is that “ultraviolet light causes not only paper to deteriorate, but also <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/election-experts-send-letter-department-justice-arizona-audits">leads to the deterioration of marks on paper ballots</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YJN4TM">
Nevertheless, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-arizona-recount/2021/04/29/bcd8d832-a798-11eb-bca5-048b2759a489_story.html">Trump reportedly talks “constantly”</a> about how these UV lights might reveal — something — that will undercut Biden’s victory.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QYvVvg">
It’s all nonsensical if you’re the kind of person who is inclined to ask critical questions like “Are these Cyber Ninjas guys really on the level?” or “So what is the UV light supposed to accomplish?” But if you’re the sort of person who asks such questions, you also aren’t the target audience for this audit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0S9OQd">
Pro-Trump outlets like <a href="https://www.oann.com/ariz-audit-chief-says-probe-of-2020-fraud-is-gaining-momentum/">One America News Network</a> (OAN) and <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/politics/arizona-republicans-audit-kelli-ward/2021/05/01/id/1019774/">Newsmax</a> feature breathless coverage of how, in Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward’s words, this audit will be “the first domino that will fall and then other states will look into irregularities, abnormalities, mistakes and potentially outright fraud that happened.” Trump himself touts the audit, claiming that Democrats are trying to stop it because “<a href="https://www.newsmax.com/politics/arizona-election-integrity-audit/2021/04/27/id/1019218/">it won’t be good for the Dems</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mCSKjl">
The real purpose of the audit, in other words, appears to be feeding <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/23/22346333/sidney-powell-dominion-defamation-lawsuit-trump">Trump’s big lie</a> — the false idea that the 2020 election results are fraudulent.
</p>
<h3 id="RLd14B">
How is this “audit” being conducted?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WZ8VEu">
Nothing about the processes used during this GOP-led audit inspires confidence that it will achieve reliable results, including the fact that the audit is occurring in the first place. There is simply <a href="https://www.vox.com/22352213/dominion-fox-news-1-6-billion-tucker-carlson-lou-dobbs-maria-bartiromo-defamation-first-amendment">no reason to suspect widespread fraud</a> in the 2020 election, and even many high-ranking Trump administration officials admit as much. In the words of former Attorney General Bill Barr, there’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/12/14/22175221/bill-barr-resigns-trump-attorney-general">no evidence</a> of “fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H1WxeU">
While the state Senate <a href="https://apnews.com/article/elections-election-2020-business-government-and-politics-arizona-a56ee7c8214ecc876424ee3428e3ab72">contributed $150,000 to help pay for the audit</a>, much of the funding comes from unknown sources, or from fundraising drives led by right-wing organizations. OAN has raised money for the effort.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="39aecD">
This dubiously funded audit, moreover, comes after Maricopa County conducted its own hand recount of all ballots cast in 2020, and after the county hired two independent firms to examine its voting machines. These nonpartisan investigations found <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/03/31/cyber-ninjas-founder-doug-logan-pushed-election-fraud-theories/4825258001/">no evidence of fraud or other serious problems in the 2020 election</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xmc11W">
A significant portion of the GOP audit involves weighing ballots, examining them under microscopes and under UV light, observing the “feel” of individual ballots, and examining whether the ballots are folded in a way that might be suspicious. A document laying out how to identify suspicious ballots, for example, tells ballot screeners to “<a href="https://www.cyberninjas.com/static/20210429155650/Wake-TSI-Counting-Floor-Policies.pdf">note the presence of a visible fold</a>” on any ballot cast on Election Day and to “note the absence of visible fold” on ballots cast on a different day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="26e0Ob">
The idea appears to be that people casting their ballots in person will not fold the ballot, while people who cast their ballot by mail will do so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BHeb7E">
In addition to identifying “questionable ballots” based on such rigorous criteria such as how much the ballot weighs or whether it is folded, the audit also includes a recount of Maricopa County’s ballots — though it is not clear whether ballots deemed “questionable” are included in this recount.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iDenEa">
Under the <a href="https://www.cyberninjas.com/static/20210429155650/Wake-TSI-Counting-Floor-Policies.pdf">recounting process used by the GOP audit</a>, three different “counters” are assigned to each ballot. Each ballot is shown to a team of three counters, who then make their own tallies of how many votes were cast for each candidate. Once 100 such ballots have been counted in this way, the three counters’ tallies are compared to see if they match.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cgJ0XZ">
If the three counters agree, then the stack of 100 ballots is counted. But if one counter disagrees with the other two, the ballots apparently will still be counted so long as the dissenting counter doesn’t disagree with the other two counters by three or more votes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JF6mtT">
For example, if two counters agree that 48 of the 100 votes cast in a particular stack of ballots were cast for Trump, then Trump will apparently be credited for 48 votes even if a third counter thought that he received only 46 votes — though, in fairness, ballot stacks where one of the three counters disagreed with the other two are marked to indicate this disagreement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DZZD8h">
The press has, at various points, been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-arizona-recount/2021/04/29/bcd8d832-a798-11eb-bca5-048b2759a489_story.html">excluded altogether</a> from observing this so-called audit — though the pro-Trump OAN is allowed to livestream the process. At other points, reporters were allowed in and then kicked out after revealing information that embarrassed the GOP.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cAFSCy">
Ryan Randazzo, a reporter for the Arizona Republic, tweeted out a picture <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2021/04/30/ryan-randazzo-escorted-from-arizona-audit-site-after-tweet-former-state-rep-anthony-kern/4892470001/">showing a former Republican state representative reviewing ballots</a>. Shortly thereafter, he was told that his press privileges were revoked — audit organizers claimed that Randazzo was kicked out because his picture also included the image of a ballot.
</p>
<div id="EbHbg4">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Looks like we have former AZ lawmaker Anthony Kern reviewing ballots <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/azauditpool?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#azauditpool</a> <a href="https://t.co/lCr7Cpy5MS">pic.twitter.com/lCr7Cpy5MS</a>
</p>
— Ryan Randazzo (<span class="citation" data-cites="utilityreporter">@utilityreporter</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/utilityreporter/status/1388179799198162945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2021</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OtpnDX">
But Randazzo’s tweet revealed a serious problem with the audit. The former lawmaker captured by Randazzo, Republican Anthony Kern, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anthony-kern-arizona-maricopa-county-capitol-riot_n_608cd3d3e4b046202707b08e">lost his seat in the 2020 election</a>, and he was slated to be a member of the Electoral College if Trump had won Arizona.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M7n2Wu">
Kern, in other words, is participating in an audit of an election in which he ran for two separate public offices. That’s a conflict of interest. A candidate who was rejected by voters in 2020 has a fairly obvious stake in undermining confidence in the 2020 election.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DMo19i">
In a separate incident, a reporting team from CNN was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/04/30/arizona-audit-2020-recount-cyber-ninjas-lah-dnt-ac360-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/">confronted by three men in outfits that resembled police uniforms</a> as another man wearing a badge from Cyber Ninjas accused the CNN crew of “trespassing.” The three uniformed men were not, in fact, police.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ECYcTI">
The audit, in other words, relies on dark money to fund a dubious recount where ballots can be deemed “questionable” for the thinnest of reasons. Reporters, meanwhile, have limited access to the whole process. And they can apparently be kicked out for revealing information that makes the audit appear even more suspicious.
</p>
<h3 id="RUrjgA">
What’s up with the UV lights?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZOtcve">
Perhaps the biggest mystery surrounding this whole circus is why, exactly, people in the audit are shining UV lights on individual ballots.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uDSA0D">
At a press conference last week, a reporter asked Ken Bennett, a Republican former secretary of state who is the Arizona Senate’s liaison to the auditing process, what the UV lights are being used for. His answer was far from edifying.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8jofTs">
“The UV lights are looking at the paper. And is part of several teams that are involved in the paper evaluation,” Bennett initially told reporters. When he was asked to explain what purpose this process serves, he responded, “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/04/30/arizona-audit-2020-recount-cyber-ninjas-lah-dnt-ac360-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/">I personally don’t know</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="couVz0">
One possibility is that the UV lights may be tied to the QAnon conspiracy theory. According to the Arizona Republic’s Jen Fifield, QAnon supporters “claimed that former President Donald Trump and others <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/04/28/arizona-election-auditors-running-ballots-under-uv-light-why/4880548001/">secretly watermarked mail-in ballots to prove fraud</a>” shortly after the November elections — so the UV lights may be intended to look for these secret watermarks, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/10/fact-check-false-qanon-claim-trump-watermarked-mail-ballots/6226310002/">which do not actually exist</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DXsPqJ">
Another theory is that the UV lights might be used to <a href="https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2021/04/29/auditors-hide-donors-look-for-secret-watermarks-on-ballots/">scan for fingerprints</a> — some conspiracy theorists claim that, if fake machine-printed ballots were cast in 2020, those ballots would not have fingerprints like a ballot that was handled by an actual voter.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KaAMLa">
A third theory, also floated by Fifield, is that the UV light may be used to scan for <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/04/28/arizona-election-auditors-running-ballots-under-uv-light-why/4880548001/">signs that a ballot was folded</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BEBaGT">
In any event, the whole thing is bizarre. It’s unlikely that Republicans are exposing these ballots to UV light for no reason at all. But no one has, at least as of yet, been able to get a clear answer as to why they are doing so.
</p>
<h3 id="2VCZdi">
This is all very silly, but it’s also very scary
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3fF0Q6">
The GOP’s audit is such a clown show that it is tempting to dismiss it as the kind of Trumpian spectacle that garners a lot of press attention but ultimately accomplishes nothing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mbZP4c">
While Republican leaders can’t answer very basic questions about their audit — such as what the UV lights are for — one leading Republican has been fairly clear about what she hopes to accomplish once the audit is over.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N8dqsX">
“How do we put election integrity back into our system, and that’s only what this has been about,” state Senate president Karen Fann told a local radio host last week. She added that the purpose of the audit is to “get answers <a href="https://ktar.com/story/4358700/senate-president-fann-says-finding-answers-goal-of-maricopa-county-audit/">so that if we have any problems, we can fix them</a> and we make sure that the next election is safer, cleaner and run smoothly.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C1NaE3">
The apparent purpose of this audit, in other words, appears to be to find “problems” with the state’s electoral process that the GOP can “fix” with legislation — legislation that may resemble voter suppression laws that Republicans already passed in <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22368044/georgia-sb202-voter-suppression-democracy-big-lie">Georgia</a> or <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/2/21/22293921/florida-republicans-new-voting-restrictions-arizona-iowa-georgia">Florida</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2wb7qa">
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Arizona lawmakers have introduced <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-voting-bills-tracker-2021">nearly two dozen bills that seek to make it harder to vote in the state</a>. That includes 14 bills targeting absentee voting and a <a href="https://www.vox.com/22307937/voting-rights-georgia-arizona-voting-by-mail-republican-absentee-donald-trump">strict voter ID bill</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jUhQel">
No reasonable person could take the Arizona GOP’s audit of the 2020 election seriously. But the target audience for this audit isn’t reasonable people. It’s Trump’s most unquestioning supporters — both inside and outside of the Arizona state legislature.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AEaEDZ">
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>The biggest impact of the Gates divorce may have nothing to do with the Gates Foundation</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Bill and Melinda Gates on CBS This Morning as guests." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Q7htXquez2pXYc9_CPslqXBjbX4=/111x0:4526x3311/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69237437/1124266359.jpg.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Bill and Melinda Gates are America’s foremost philanthropists. | Michele Crowe/CBS/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How important are billionaires? Look at the reaction to Bill and Melinda Gates’s divorce.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ICKy6P">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xss7TL">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uldWY8">
A divorce is typically a private matter that affects a family, with little consequence for the public at large.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y66svT">
But the <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22418060/bill-melinda-gates-divorce-foundation-charity">split between Bill and Melinda Gates</a> could have far-reaching consequences for global health and American life because they are the country’s biggest charitable donors — a sign, as sure as any, of just how central a role billionaire philanthropists play in our society.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jcUey7">
In the immediate aftermath of the surprise announcement, everyone from critics of billionaires to former Gates Foundation executives was grasping for explanations about what this could mean for the world’s most important philanthropy. To some, the divorce suggested that major strategic changes could emerge in the years to come, with entire nonprofit sectors and hundreds of billions of dollars hanging in the balance. To others, the Gates’s divorce was not that dissimilar from any other couple’s — a reflection of the ironclad legal commitments they already made, and the family’s stated commitment to work together.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2IKuae">
“I think the real story here is not the divorce itself having an impact, but the reaction the public had to the news,” said Megan Tompkins-Stange, a University of Michigan professor who has studied the Gates Foundation closely. “There was widespread fear and anxiety on behalf of the foundation’s current grantees, which in and of itself illuminates the extent to which the Gates’s actions cause ripple effects in the rest of the philanthropic sector.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iW9w28">
The anxiety surrounding the Gates divorce isn’t surprising when you consider what happened when Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/1/10/18176048/jeff-bezos-ami-extortion-medium-photos-divorce">announced their split in 2019</a>. While we didn’t know it at the time, the philanthropic world ended up <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/12/15/22176710/mackenzie-scott-bezos-philanthropy-speed-four-billion">transformed</a> by their $36 billion divorce settlement. What’s different with this Seattle tech billionaire divorce is that we <em>know</em> that this deal will reverberate in the world of mega-charity in some way or another because of their track record as major donors.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rydNuz">
Bill and Melinda Gates created a charitable trust that today manages about $50 billion on behalf of the Foundation — that money is donated irrevocably and cannot be redirected. But there is another <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-04/how-bill-and-melinda-gates-can-split-their-146-billion-fortune?sref=Wg6QzS2e">estimated $150 billion</a> or so of Gates wealth that currently sits outside the Foundation’s walls, a sum that presumably will be split between the couple in a to-be-announced divorce settlement.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QXArUg">
Now that the money is up to their individual — rather than collective — whims, it is possible that the fortune could end up funding different work than it would have previously. When the Gateses jump-started the Giving Pledge a decade ago, <a href="https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=199">the couple wrote</a> that they “had committed the vast majority of our assets to the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation.” We don’t know whether that will still be the case after the divorce.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LPl0nB">
So in some ways, the bigger story is the money that has yet to be apportioned to the Gates Foundation and currently sits at places like Cascade Investments, the Gates family’s personal investment shop.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aaZMI4">
This money, Gates insiders speculate, theoretically might have gone to the Gates Foundation over the next few decades, but now it might go to outfits like Pivotal Ventures, Melinda Gates’s personal investment company focused on gender equality; or to Gates Ventures, her husband’s investment shop.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IzT2oY">
One former Gates Foundation executive, granted anonymity to offer a candid view, wondered whether Melinda Gates, over time, would focus more of her energy on Pivotal and less on their jointly run foundation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D0XYTA">
The Gates Foundation itself is presenting a calm face: The $50 billion philanthropy said that both Bill and Melinda Gates would remain trustees of the foundation. “They will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues, and set the organization’s overall direction,” a spokesman told Recode.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ksmkIR">
But while that may be true now, divorces are complicated, and even an initially amicable split can turn acrimonious or tense with time. So it’s impossible to know how exactly the next few years, or decades, will go.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SX7Zl6">
“Even if they’re both clearly leading the foundation, I don’t see any scenario where it’s not going to turn into the things <em>he</em> cares about and the things <em>she</em> cares about,” said another former exec, who described there as already being a “massive, complex field of landmines between the foundation, Pivotal, and Gates Ventures.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="juSkg2">
Even people who used to work closely with the Gates couple disagree with one another about how the divorce might affect the foundation. Asked how big a deal this would be for the Gates Foundation, on a scale of 1 to 10, one former executive pegged it with at least a 7. Another prior Gates aide gave it a 3. A third was even more bullish, saying that when it comes to the program, the impact would be a 0 or a 1.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B0WJly">
Big changes could come, said one insider, but only once the Gateses are no longer preoccupied with what is sure to be a complex legal process. In the meantime, at least, some of the former executives predict that internal day-to-day matters could grow more paralyzed if the pair ends up struggling to cooperate, especially for people like <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/5/20997583/sue-desmond-hellmann-gates-foundation-departure">Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman</a>, who will have to manage the board.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EhMNFe">
But when it comes to the nonprofits themselves that depend on the Foundation’s largesse? There may be anxiety, but less drama than meets the eye.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uAhq4m">
And when it comes to the Gates orbit? The dominant feeling is a sullen dolefulness for their mentors.
</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>Looking back, organisers may have tweaked few things: Pat Cummins on hosting IPL in India</strong> - ‘First thing was to find out whether us playing the IPL was the right thing and basically everyone said, we would be lost without the IPL for three or four hours every night’</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 surge | Majority of England IPL cricketers reach home</strong> - With India put on the travel “red list” by the UK in the wake of the raging pandemic there, the cricketers will have to quarantine in a government-approved facility for 10 days</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>Yoga and practise: How table tennis champ Sharath Kamal is chasing his Olympics dream</strong> - Eyeing for glory, table tennis veteran Sharath Kamal next hopes to take the sport he dearly loves to the masses</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>Former Australian test bowler Stuart MacGill kidnapped and beaten</strong> - Police said the incident had been reported on April 20, prompting an investigation by the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad.</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>Mourinho looks for redemption at Roma after Tottenham failure</strong> - Mourinho’s task will be to challenge new Serie A champion Inter Milan — the team he memorably led to a treble of titles little more than a decade ago during his only previous job in Italy.</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>COVID-19 | Over 51,000 persons in 18-44 age group get first dose of vaccine in U.P.</strong> - Uttar Pradesh government said it noticed a trend where the number of people getting discharged was less than the daily positive cases</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>23 people booked for helping quack escape in Kudligi</strong> - Following a complaint by the Kudligi Tahsildar H.J. Rashmi, Kudligi police filed a case on Wednesday against 23 people from Ankanal village in Kudligi</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>Coronavirus | 10 States contributed 70.91% of new COVID-19 cases: Health Ministry</strong> - The National Mortality Rate has been falling and currently stands at 1.09%, says the Health Ministry</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>Over half newly-elected MLAs have criminal cases</strong> - ADR analysis finds 71% of winning candidates in Kerala, 60% in T.N., 49% in Bengal have criminal cases</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>Coronavirus | Bihar CM Nitish Kumar appeals for postponement of weddings, social functions</strong> - As lockdown begins in Bihar, police cane people defying restrictions</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>Madrid election: Isabel Díaz Ayuso defeats left in bitter Spanish vote</strong> - Conservative politician Isabel Díaz Ayuso opposed some of the government’s lockdown measures.</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>‘Disproportionate’ French power threat in Jersey fishing row</strong> - The Government of Jersey says it acted in “good faith” over a post-Brexit fishing licensing regime.</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>Pétrus wine aged in space up for sale at Christie’s</strong> - Christie’s predicts the bottle of Pétrus 2000 that orbited the earth could sell for $1m (£720,000).</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>Man City 2-0 Paris St-Germain (4-1 on aggregate): City into first Champions League final</strong> - Riyad Mahrez scores twice as Manchester City seal an aggregate win over Paris St-Germain to reach their first European final in 51 years.</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>Marine Le Pen: French far-right leader cleared of hate speech</strong> - A French court acquits the National Rally head over images she posted of Islamic State atrocities.</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>AirTag review: They work great—maybe a little too great</strong> - Apple made the most privacy-friendly tracker, but that’s not saying much. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1760614">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Agricomb” is the perfect tool for measuring gases from cow burps</strong> - More precise measurements could help boost yields and enable design of cleaner farms. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1753395">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden shifts strategy as national vaccination rate continues to slow</strong> - Vaccinations have been steadily declining since mid-April. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1762571">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NASA has selected its deep space hardware—now comes the fun part</strong> - “This isn’t a dream any more.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1762028">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Netflix IT exec forced employees to use products from vendors that bribed him</strong> - Jury finds ex-Netflix VP guilty of awarding tech contracts in exchange for bribes. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1762444">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A statue of a man and a statue of a woman stood looking at each…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A statue of a man and a statue of a woman stood looking at each other for hundreds of years out in a park. One day a wizard, feeling sorry for the statues, brought them to life for 30 minutes. Right away, the two of them ran into some nearby bushes and you could hear all kinds of strange sounds from there. After a while they came back out, giggling. The wizard told them “You have another 15 minutes left, if you want to have another go.” The statues looked at each other and the male statue answered “Fine, but this time you hold the pigeon and I will shit on it.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Vegan_Force"> /u/Vegan_Force </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n4wzn6/a_statue_of_a_man_and_a_statue_of_a_woman_stood/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n4wzn6/a_statue_of_a_man_and_a_statue_of_a_woman_stood/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What is the most expensive video-streaming service at this time?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
College
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<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/fit4l1fe"> /u/fit4l1fe </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n4qqmh/what_is_the_most_expensive_videostreaming_service/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n4qqmh/what_is_the_most_expensive_videostreaming_service/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Why don’t pirates shower before they walk the plank?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Because they’ll just wash up on shore later.
</p>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/flannohainifin"> /u/flannohainifin </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n4v5cf/why_dont_pirates_shower_before_they_walk_the_plank/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n4v5cf/why_dont_pirates_shower_before_they_walk_the_plank/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Bill and Melinda Gates woke up today and said…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
May divorce be with you.
</p>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mypostsaccount"> /u/mypostsaccount </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n4qdes/bill_and_melinda_gates_woke_up_today_and_said/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n4qdes/bill_and_melinda_gates_woke_up_today_and_said/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>How many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
none
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<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Waaarrrggghhh"> /u/Waaarrrggghhh </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n5di25/how_many_potatoes_does_it_take_to_kill_an_irishman/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/n5di25/how_many_potatoes_does_it_take_to_kill_an_irishman/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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