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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>Disease diagnostics using machine learning of immune receptors</strong> -
<div>
Clinical diagnoses rely on a wide variety of laboratory tests and imaging studies, interpreted alongside physical examination and documentation of symptoms and patient history. However, the tools of diagnosis make little use of the immune system’s internal record of specific disease exposures encoded by the antigen-specific receptors of memory B cells and T cells. We have combined extensive receptor sequence datasets with three different machine learning representations of the contents of immune repertoires to develop an interpretive framework, MAchine Learning for Immunological Diagnosis (Mal-ID), that screens for multiple illnesses simultaneously. This approach can already reliably distinguish a wide range of disease states, including specific acute or chronic infections, and autoimmune or immunodeficiency disorders, and could contribute to identifying new infectious diseases as they emerge. Importantly, many features of the model of immune receptor sequences are human-interpretable. They independently recapitulate known biology of the responses to infection by SARS-CoV-2 or HIV, and reveal common features of autoreactive immune receptor repertoires, indicating that machine learning on immune repertoires can yield new immunological knowledge.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.26.489314v1" target="_blank">Disease diagnostics using machine learning of immune receptors</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder in Times of COVID-19: Examining the Impact of the Pandemic on Emotional and Behavioral Problems and the Role of Parental Well-Being in Resilience</strong> -
<div>
This longitudinal study assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 62) by measuring emotional and behavioral problems before and during the pandemic, and by comparing this change to a matched sample of typically developing (TD) children (n = 213). Moreover, we examined whether indicators of parental well-being promoted resilience of children with ASD. Results showed that the mean change in problems did not differ between children with ASD and TD children. Importantly, some children showed an increase in problems, while others showed resilience. Parental well-being indicators were not related to resilience among children with ASD. The interindividual variability in responses, particularly among children with ASD, highlights the need for personalized support.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/h3s2u/" target="_blank">Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder in Times of COVID-19: Examining the Impact of the Pandemic on Emotional and Behavioral Problems and the Role of Parental Well-Being in Resilience</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>CovMayo: a new word in the medical literature</strong> -
<div>
World is facing COVID 19 from the past two years. Previously, we thought that it was a pulmonary infection. But, gradually we have seen the extrapulmonary manifestations of COVID 19. Many literatures got published on this. Most discussed topic is Cardiovascular manifestation of COVID 19. Several literatures got published on myocarditis and vascular thrombosis. So, we are coining a completely new terminology in English, that is Covmayo. We are pleased to include this word in the medical literature. Covmayo came from two words, COVID 19 and Myocardial tissue [Heart Tissue].
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/uz25t/" target="_blank">CovMayo: a new word in the medical literature</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>P681 mutations within the polybasic motif of spike dictate fusogenicity and syncytia formation of SARS CoV-2 variants</strong> -
<div>
The rapid spread and dominance of the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 over its Delta variant has posed severe global challenges. While extensive research on the role of the Receptor Binding Domain on viral infectivity and vaccine sensitivity has been documented, the role of the spike 681PRRAR/SV687 polybasic motif is less clear. Here we monitored infectivity and vaccine sensitivity of Omicron SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus against sera samples that were drawn four months post administration of the third dose of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. Our findings show that relative to Wuhan-Hu and Delta SARS- CoV-2, Omicron displayed enhanced infectivity and a sharp decline in its sensitivity to vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies. Furthermore, while the spike proteins form Wuhan-Hu (P681), Omicron (H681) and BA.2 (H681) pseudoviruses modestly promoted cell fusion and syncytia formation, Delta spike (P681R) displayed enhanced fusogenic activity and syncytia formation capability. Live-viruses plaque formation assays confirmed these findings and demonstrated that relatively to the Wuhan-Hu and Omicron SARS-CoV-2, Delta formed more plaques that were smaller in size. Introducing a single P681R point mutation within the Wuhan-Hu spike, or H681R within Omicron spike, restored fusion potential to similar levels observed for Delta spike. Conversely, a R681P point mutation within Delta spike efficiency abolished fusion potential. We conclude that over time, the efficiency of the third dose of the Pfizer vaccine against SARS CoV-2 is waned, and cannot neutralize Omicron. We further verify that the P681 position of the viral spike dictates fusogenicity and syncytia formation.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.26.489630v1" target="_blank">P681 mutations within the polybasic motif of spike dictate fusogenicity and syncytia formation of SARS CoV-2 variants</a>
</div></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on bronchiolitis (lower respiratory tract infection) due to respiratory syncytial virus: A systematic review and meta-analysis</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to quantitatively evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) associated bronchiolitis among hospitalised infants. Methods The study protocol was registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42022314000) and was designed based on PRISMA guidelines updated in May 2020. The meta-analysis component was modified appropriately to synthesise the pooled proportion of infants having RSV-associated bronchiolitis before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and during the pandemic with 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: The eight qualified studies for the meta-analysis were from Spain, Italy, France and China, including 109,186 symptomatic cases of bronchiolitis before the pandemic in 2019 and 61,982 cases in 2020-2021. The quantitative analysis included laboratory-confirmed RSV infection in 7691 infants with bronchiolitis reported before the pandemic in</p></div></li>
</ul>
<ol start="2019" type="1">
<li>Meanwhile, during the pandemic, 4964 cases were associated with RSV infection. The pooled proportion of RSV- associated bronchiolitis cases before the pandemic in 2019 was 16.74% (95% CI 11.73-22.43%). The pooled proportion of confirmed RSV cases during the pandemic in 2020/2021 was 19.20 % (95% CI 12.01-27.59%). Conclusion There was an increase in RSV activity after the relaxation of stringent public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.26.22274244v1" target="_blank">The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on bronchiolitis (lower respiratory tract infection) due to respiratory syncytial virus: A systematic review and meta- analysis</a>
</div></li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li><strong>Delayed booster dosing improves human antigen-specific Ig and B cell responses to the RH5.1/AS01B malaria vaccine</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Antibodies are crucial for vaccine-mediated protection against many pathogens. Modifications to vaccine delivery that increase antibody magnitude, longevity, and/or quality are therefore of great interest for maximising efficacy. We have previously shown that a delayed fractional (DFx) dosing schedule (0-1-6mo) - using AS01B-adjuvanted RH5.1 malaria antigen - substantially improves serum IgG durability as compared to monthly dosing (0-1-2mo; NCT02927145). However, the underlying mechanism and whether there are wider immunological changes with DFx dosing was unclear. Methods: Immunokinetics of PfRH5-specific Ig across multiple isotypes were compared between DFx and monthly regimen vaccinees. Peak responses were characterised in-depth with a systems serology platform including biophysical and functional profiling. Computational modelling was used to define the humoral feature set associated with DFx dosing. PfRH5-specific B cells were quantified by flow cytometry and sorted for single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA- seq). Differential gene expression between DFx and monthly dosing regimens was explored with Seurat, DESeq2 and gene set enrichment analysis. Results: DFx dosing increases the frequency of circulating PfRH5-specific B cells and longevity of PfRH5-specific IgG1, as well as other isotypes and subclasses. At the peak antibody response, DFx dosing was distinguished by a systems serology feature set comprising increased FcRn-binding, IgG avidity, and proportion of G2B and G2S2F IgG Fc glycans, alongside decreased IgG3, antibody-dependent complement deposition, and proportion of G1S1F IgG Fc glycan. At the same time point, scRNA-seq of PfRH5-specific B cells revealed enriched plasma cell and Ig / protein export signals in the monthly dosing group as compared to DFx vaccinees. Conclusions: DFx dosing of the RH5.1/AS01B vaccine had a profound impact on the humoral response. Our data suggest plausible mechanisms relating to improved FcRn-binding (known to improve Ig longevity) and a potential shift from short-lived to long-lived plasma cells. Recent reports of the positive impact of delayed boosting on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine immunogenicity highlight the broad relevance of these data.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.25.22274161v1" target="_blank">Delayed booster dosing improves human antigen-specific Ig and B cell responses to the RH5.1/AS01B malaria vaccine</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Higher contact among vaccinated can be a mechanism for negative vaccine effectiveness</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Evidence from early observational studies suggested negative vaccine effectiveness for the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. Using transmission modeling, we illustrated how increased contact between vaccinated individuals, vaccinated contact heterogeneity, paired with lower vaccine efficacies could produce negative measurements and how we can identify this mechanism via a key temporal signature.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.25.22274266v1" target="_blank">Higher contact among vaccinated can be a mechanism for negative vaccine effectiveness</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Estimating the period prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron (BA.1) surge in New York City (NYC), January 1-March 16, 2022</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In a population-based survey of NYC adults, we assessed positive SARS-CoV-2 tests (including via exclusive at- home testing) and possible cases among untested respondents. An estimated 27.4% (95%CI: 22.8%-32.0%) or 1.8 million adults (95%CI: 1.6-2.1 million) had SARS-CoV-2 infection. SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was high among groups that are more vulnerable to severe SARS-CoV-2 and death, including unvaccinated persons (21.7%, 95%CI 9.6%-33.8%) and those aged 65+ (17.8%, 95%CI 10.2-25.4%). Population-based representative surveys are an important adjunct surveillance tool to standard testing-based SARS-CoV-2 surveillance.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.23.22274214v1" target="_blank">Estimating the period prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron (BA.1) surge in New York City (NYC), January 1-March 16, 2022</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Discovery of new senolytics using machine learning</strong> -
<div>
Cellular senescence is a stress response characterised by a permanent cell cycle arrest and a proinflammatory secretome. In addition to its tumour suppressor role, senescence is involved in ageing and promotes many disease processes such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, and SARS-CoV-2 infection. There is a growing interest in therapies based on targeted elimination of senescent cells, yet so far only a few such senolytics are known, partly due to the poor grasp of the molecular mechanisms that control the senescence survival programme. Here we report a highly effective machine learning pipeline for the discovery of senolytic compounds. Using solely published data, we trained machine learning algorithms to classify compounds according to their senolytic action. Models were trained on as few as 58 known senolytics against a background of FDA-approved compounds or in late-stage clinical development (2,523 in total). We computationally screened various chemical libraries and singled out top candidates for validation in human lung fibroblasts (IMR90) and lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cell lines. This led to the discovery of three novel senolytics: ginkgetin, oleandrin and periplocin, with potency comparable to current senolytics and a several hundred-fold reduction in experimental screening costs. Our work demonstrates that machine learning can take maximum advantage of existing drug screening data, paving the way for new open science approaches to drug discovery for senescence-associated diseases.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.26.489505v1" target="_blank">Discovery of new senolytics using machine learning</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Faster SARS-CoV-2 sequence validation and annotation for GenBank using VADR</strong> -
<div>
Background: In 2020 and 2021, more than 1.5 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences were submitted to GenBank. The initial version (v1.0) of the VADR (Viral Annotation DefineR) software package that GenBank uses to automatically validate and annotate incoming viral sequences is too slow and memory intensive to process many thousands of SARS-CoV-2 sequences in a reasonable amount of time. Additionally, long stretches of ambiguous N nucleotides, which are common in many SARS- CoV-2 sequences, prevent VADR from accurate validation and annotation. Results: VADR has been updated to more accurately and rapidly annotate SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Stretches of consecutive Ns are now identified and temporarily replaced with expected nucleotides to facilitate processing, and the slowest steps have been overhauled using blastn and glsearch, increasing speed, reducing the memory requirement from 64Gb to 2Gb per thread, and allowing simple, coarse-grained parallelization on multiple processors per host. Conclusion: VADR is now nearly 1000 times faster than it was in early 2020 for processing SARS-CoV-2 sequences submitted to GenBank. It has been used to screen and annotate more than 1.5 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences since June 2020, and it is now efficient enough to cope with the current rate of hundreds of thousands of submitted sequences per month. Version 1.4.1 is freely available (https://github.com/ncbi/vadr) for local installation and use.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.25.489427v1" target="_blank">Faster SARS-CoV-2 sequence validation and annotation for GenBank using VADR</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within the community of a private tertiary university in the Philippines: a serial cross sectional study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The antibody testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was used to detect the presence of antibodies in a private university setting. This serial cross-sectional study determined the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using qualitative and quantitative tests.  Between June 2021 to December 2021, samples from 1,318 participants were tested, showing 47.80% of the study population yielding IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 virus. A general increase in seroprevalence was observed from June to December 2021. However, a decreasing trend in IgG reactivity was found in vaccinated individuals over time. IgG antibody formation was observed across all brands of vaccines.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.25.22274280v1" target="_blank">The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within the community of a private tertiary university in the Philippines: a serial cross sectional study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Determinants of motivated behavior are linked to fatigue and its perturbation by SARS-CoV-2 vaccination</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background. Fatigue has an adaptive function and serves as a temporary signal to rest and save energy often in response to immune activation. It may, however, also persist in a pathological condition incurring significant burden. While subjective symptoms and scientific consensus indicate that both physical and mental determinants of motivated behavior are affected in fatigue, the underlying processes are rarely examined using objective, task-based indicators. Methods. In three consecutive studies, including validation (N = 48) and reliability assessments (N = 27), we use an experimental task to jointly objectify reward learning and effort execution as two determinants of behavioral motivation. In addition, we tested how fatigue and its acute perturbation in response to immune activation after SARS- CoV-2 vaccination are linked to these task-based indicators of motivation in a longitudinal cross-over design (N = 55). Results. The validation study showed the utility of the experimental task for simultaneously assessing learning, effort exertion, and its regulation based on subjective confidence. The reliability assessment over a one-week period indicated that symptoms of fatigue and task behavior are highly reliable and that repetition effects have little impact on motivated behavior. Finally, in the vaccination trial, we found significant links between fatigue and task behavior. Baseline levels of fatigue predicted how effort is gauged in dependence of current confidence about reward outcomes, and state perturbations of fatigue in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination reduced confidence during learning. Importantly, task success was significantly lower in subjects who reported high fatigue at baseline and who additionally experienced stronger increase in fatigue in response to vaccination. Discussion. Our results demonstrate that the experimental task allows to jointly assess determinants of motivated behavior, and to link its constituent processes to subjective fatigue. This suggests that our understanding of fatigue and its perturbation due to acute immune activation can benefit from objective, task-based indicators of the underlying motivational mechanisms. Future studies could build on these findings to further deepen the understanding of neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying fatigue in the context of immune activation.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.23.22274186v1" target="_blank">Determinants of motivated behavior are linked to fatigue and its perturbation by SARS-CoV-2 vaccination</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Long-COVID post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome and affective symptoms are associated with oxidative damage, lowered antioxidant defenses and inflammation: a proof of concept and mechanism study.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The immune-inflammatory response during the acute phase of COVID-19, as assessed using peak body temperature (PBT) and peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2), predicts the severity of chronic fatigue, depression and anxiety (physio- affective) symptoms three to four months later. The present study was performed to characterize whether the effects of SpO2 and PBT on the physio-affective phenome of Long COVID are mediated by immune, oxidative and nitrosative stress (IO&amp;NS) pathways. This study assayed SpO2 and PBT during acute COVID-19, and C-reactive protein (CRP), malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonyls (PCs), myeloperoxidase (MPO), nitric oxide (NO), zinc, and glutathione peroxidase (Gpx) in 120 Long COVID individuals and 36 controls. Cluster analysis showed that 31.7% of the Long COVID patients had severe abnormalities in SpO2, body temperature, increased oxidative toxicity (OSTOX) and lowered antioxidant defenses (ANTIOX), and increased total Hamilton Depression (HAMD) and Anxiety (HAMA) and Fibromylagia- Fatigue (FF) scores. Around 60% of the variance in the physio-affective phenome of Long COVID (a factor extracted from HAMD, HAMA and FF scores) was explained by OSTOX/ANTIOX ratio, PBT and SpO2. Increased PBT predicted increased CRP and lowered ANTIOX and zinc levels, while lowered SpO2 predicted lowered Gpx and increased NO production. Both PBT and SpO2 strongly predict OSTOX/ATIOX during Long COVID. In conclusion, the impact of acute COVID-19 on the physio-affective symptoms of Long COVID is partly mediated by OSTOX/ANTIOX, especially lowered Gpx and zinc, increased MPO and NO production and lipid peroxidation-associated aldehyde formation. Post-viral physio-affective symptoms have an inflammatory origin and are partly mediated by neuro-oxidative toxicity.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article- html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.25.22274251v1" target="_blank">Long-COVID post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome and affective symptoms are associated with oxidative damage, lowered antioxidant defenses and inflammation: a proof of concept and mechanism study.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Clinical evaluation of an automated, rapid mariPOC® antigen test in screening of symptomatics and asymptomatics for SARS-CoV-2 infections</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A novel automated mariPOC SARS-CoV-2 antigen test was evaluated in a Health care center laboratory among symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals seeking SARS-CoV-2 testing. According to the national testing strategy, RT-PCR was used as a reference method. A total of 962 subjects were included in this study, 4.8% (46/962) of their samples were SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positive, and 87% (40/46) of these were from symptomatics. Among the symptomatics, the overall sensitivity of the mariPOC SARS-CoV-2 test was 82.5% (33/40), though the sensitivity increased to 97.1% (33/34) in samples with a Ct value &lt;30. The mariPOC SARS-CoV-2 test detected 2/6 PCR positive samples among the asymptomatics, four cases that remained antigen test negative had Ct values between 28 and 36. The specificity of the mariPOC SARS- CoV-2 test was 100% (916/916). The evaluation showed that the mariPOC SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test is very sensitive and specific for the detection of individuals who most probably are contagious.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.22.22273686v1" target="_blank">Clinical evaluation of an automated, rapid mariPOC® antigen test in screening of symptomatics and asymptomatics for SARS-CoV-2 infections</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Health care use attributable to COVID-19: A propensity matched national electronic health records cohort study of 249,390 people in Wales, UK.</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: To determine the extent and nature of changes in infected patients healthcare utilization, we studied healthcare contact in the 1-4 weeks and 5-24 weeks following a COVID-19 diagnosis compared to propensity matched controls. Methods: Survival analysis was used for time to death and first clinical outcomes including clinical terminology concepts for post-viral illness, fatigue, embolism, respiratory conditions, mental and developmental conditions, fit note, or hospital attendance. Increased instantaneous risk for the occurrence of an outcome for positive individuals was quantified using hazard ratios (HR) from Cox Regression and absolute risk was quantified using relative risk (RR) from life table analysis. Results: Compared to matched individuals testing negative, surviving positive community-tested patients had a higher risk of post-viral illness (HR: 4.57, 95%CI: 1.77-11.80, p=0.002), fatigue (HR: 1.47, 95%CI: 1.24-1.75, p&lt;0.001) and embolism (HR: 1.51, 95%CI: 1.13-2.02, p=0.005) at 5-24 weeks post- diagnosis. In the four weeks after COVID-19 higher rates of sick notes were being issued for community-tested (HR: 3.04, 95%CI: 0.88 to 10.50, p&lt;0.079); the risk was reduced after four weeks, compared to controls. Overall healthcare attendance for anxiety, depression was less likely in those with COVID-19 in the first four weeks (HR: 0.83, 95%CI: 0.73-1.06, p=0.007). After four weeks, anxiety, depression is less likely to occur for the positive community-tested individuals (HR: 0.87, 95%CI: 0.77-1.00, p=0.048), but more likely for positive hospital-tested individuals (HR: 1.16, 95%CI: 1.00-1.45, p=0.053). Although statistical associations between positive infection and post-infection healthcare use are clear, the absolute use of healthcare is very. Conclusions: Community COVID-19 disease is associated with increased risks of post-viral illness, fatigue, embolism, depression, anxiety and respiratory conditions. Despite these elevated risks, the absolute healthcare burden is low. Either very small proportions of people experience adverse outcomes following COVID-19 or they are not presenting to healthcare. Trial registration: Data held in SAIL databank are anonymised and therefore, no ethical approval is required. All data in SAIL has the permission from the relevant Caldicott Guardian or Data Protection Officer and SAIL-related projects are required to obtain Information Governance Review Panel (IGRP) approval. The IGRP approval number for this study is 1259.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.21.22274152v1" target="_blank">Health care use attributable to COVID-19: A propensity matched national electronic health records cohort study of 249,390 people in Wales, UK.</a>
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</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>Clinical Performance Evaluation of the Bio-Self™ COVID-19 Antigen Home Test</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Device: Bio-Self COVID-19 Antigen Home Test;   Device: Standard of Care COVID-19 Test;   Diagnostic Test: RT-PCR Test<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   BioTeke USA, LLC;   CSSi Life Sciences<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>Immunogenicity and Safety of Fractional Booster Dose of COVID-19 Vaccines Available for Use in Pakistan/Brazil: A Phase 4 Dose-optimizing Trial</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Sinovac;   Biological: AZD1222;   Biological: BNT162b2<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute;   Aga Khan University;   Oswaldo Cruz Foundation;   Stanford 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>A Study to Evaluate the Immunogenicity and Safety of a Recombinant Protein COVID-19 Vaccine as a Booster Dose in Population Aged 12-17 Years</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   SARS-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: SCTV01E;   Biological: mRNA-1273<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinocelltech 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>A Study to Evaluate the Immunogenicity and Safety of a Recombinant Protein COVID-19 Vaccine in Population Aged ≥18 Years</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection;   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: SCTV01E;   Biological: Comirnaty<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinocelltech 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>Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of Ad5 COVID-19 Vaccines for Booster Use in Children Aged 6-17 Years.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: 1 Nebulized inhalation for booster groups;   Biological: 2 Nebulized inhalation for booster groups;   Biological: 3 Nebulized inhalation for booster groups;   Biological: 4 Nebulized inhalation for booster groups;   Biological: 5 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 6 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 7 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 8 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 9 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 10 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 11 Nebulized inhalation for booster groups;   Biological: 12 Nebulized inhalation for booster groups;   Biological: 13 Nebulized inhalation for booster groups;   Biological: 14 Nebulized inhalation for booster groups;   Biological: 15 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 16 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 17 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 18 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 19 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 20 Intramuscular injection for booster groups;   Biological: 21 Nebulized inhalation for primary groups;   Biological: 22 Nebulized inhalation for primary groups;   Biological: 23 Nebulized inhalation for primary groups;   Biological: 24 Nebulized inhalation for primary groups<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Seventh Medical Center of PLA General Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A First-In-Human Phase 1b Study of AmnioPul-02 in COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: AmnioPul-02<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Amniotics AB<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>Immunogenicity，Safety and Cross - Immune Response With the Strains of the Booster Immunization Using an Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sinovac Research and Development 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>Aerobic Exercise and Covid-19 Survivors With Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (Pics)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Post Intensive Care Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:  <br/>
Other: Aerobic Exercise Training;   Other: Home Plan<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Riphah International 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>Efficacy and Safety of JT001 (VV116) Compared With Paxlovid</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: JT001;   Drug: Paxlovid<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Vigonvita Life Sciences<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Interleukine 6 (IL6) Assay for Predicting Failure of Spontaneous Breathing in Patients With COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>:  <br/>
Biological: IL6 assessment;   Biological: CRP and PCT assessment<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Centre Hospitalier Henri Duffaut - Avignon<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 Single Arm Phase-IV Study to Determine Reactogenicity and Immunogenicity of Delayed COVID-19 Vaccine Schedule in Children</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Vaccine Reaction;   COVID-19;   Children, Only<br/><b>Intervention</b>:  <br/>
Biological: BNT162b2 Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital;   Duke- NUS Graduate Medical School<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>Use of Continuous Glucose Monitors in Coronavirus Disease 2019 ICU and Potential Inpatient Settings</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   Diabetes Mellitus<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: continuous glucose monitoring<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Tanureet K Arora<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pilot Trial on Immunosuppression Modulation to Increase SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Response in Kidney Transplant Recipients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Immunosuppression reduction;   Other: No immunosuppression reduction<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Medical University of Vienna<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ABNCoV2 Vaccine in Adult Subjects Previously Vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Disease<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: ABNCoV2;   Biological: Comirnaty<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bavarian Nordic<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>Bivalirudin Versus Enoxaparin in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Acute Respiratory Failure;   SARS CoV 2 Infection;   Anticoagulants<br/><b>Interventions</b>:  <br/>
Drug: Enoxaparin Sodium;   Drug: Bivalirudin<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University Magna Graecia<br/><b>Not yet 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>A VSV-based assay quantifies coronavirus Mpro/3CLpro/Nsp5 main protease activity and chemical inhibition</strong> - Protease inhibitors are among the most powerful antiviral drugs. However, for SARS-CoV-2 only a small number of protease inhibitors have been identified thus far and there is still a great need for assays that efficiently report protease activity and inhibition in living cells. Here, we engineer a safe VSV-based system to report both gain- and loss-of- function of coronavirus main protease (M^(pro)/3CLpro/Nsp5) activity in living cells. We use SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro in this system to confirm…</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>2 deoxy-D-glucose augments the mitochondrial respiratory chain in heart</strong> - 2-Deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) has recently received emergency approval for the treatment of COVID-19 in India, after a successful clinical trial. SARS-CoV-2 infection of cultured cells is accompanied by elevated glycolysis and decreased mitochondrial function, whereas 2DG represses glycolysis and stimulates respiration, and restricts viral replication. While 2DG has pleiotropic effects on cell metabolism in cultured cells it is not known which of these manifests in vivo. On the other hand, it is known…</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>Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation</strong> - COVID-19 accelerated a decade-long shift to remote work by normalizing working from home on a large scale. Indeed, 75% of US employees in a 2021 survey reported a personal preference for working remotely at least one day per week¹, and studies estimate that 20% of US workdays will take place at home after the pandemic ends². Here we examine how this shift away from in-person interaction affects innovation, which relies on collaborative idea generation as the foundation of commercial and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 variants C.1.2 and B.1.621 (Mu) partially evade neutralization by antibodies elicited upon infection or vaccination</strong> - Rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants C.1.2 and B.1.621 (Mu variant) in Africa and the Americas, respectively, as well as a high number of mutations in the viral spike proteins raised concerns that these variants might pose an elevated threat to human health. Here, we show that C.1.2 and B.1.621 spike proteins mediate increased entry into certain cell lines but do not exhibit increased ACE2 binding. Further, we demonstrate that C.1.2 and B.1.621 are resistant to neutralization by bamlanivimab but…</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>Virus-host interaction networks as new antiviral drug targets for IAV and SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Currently, SARS-CoV-2, especially the Omicron strain, is ravaging the world and even co-infecting human beings with IAV, which is a serious threat to human public health. As of yet, no specific antiviral drug has been discovered for SARS- CoV-2. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore antiviral drug targets for SARS-CoV-2 and develop effective clinical drugs. This requires a deeper understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 replication cycle and the molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2-host interaction…</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>Potential of sphingosine-1-phosphate in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection by stabilizing and protecting endothelial cells: Narrative review</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread worldwide, resulting in over 250 million infections and &gt;5 million deaths. Most antiviral drugs and vaccines have shown limited efficacy against SARS-CoV-2. Clinical data revealed that except for the large number of self-healing mild cases, moderate and severe cases mostly survived after supportive treatment but not specific drug administration or vaccination. The endothelial system is…</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>Lichen planus drugs re-purposing as potential anti COVID-19 therapeutics through molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation approach</strong> - CONCLUSION: EGCG can be a potential inhibitor drug which can bind with ACE-2 receptor thus inhibiting the interaction of mainly M^(pro) protein and spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2.</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>Ayurvedic formulations: Potential COVID-19 therapeutics?</strong> - CONCLUSION: The most commonly used Ayurvedic treatments for management of respiratory symptoms associated with SARS- CoV-2 infection appear to have prophylactic and/or therapeutic properties. It would be of particular interest to assess synergistic and concomitant systemic effects and antiviral activities of individual phytoconstituents and their combinations in the Ayurvedic treatments.</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>Photo-Cross-Linked Probe-Modified Magnetic Particles for the Selective and Reliable Recovery of Nucleic Acids</strong> - Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays are used to diagnose various infectious diseases such as Coronavirus disease 2019 by detecting the nucleic acids of the pathogen. However, in practice, the yield of the extraction process and the inhibition of the reverse transcription reaction and PCR by foreign substances reduce the sensitivity and may yield false negative results. The sensitivity of the PCR test can be improved by using technologies that can reliably capture the target nucleic acid and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An antibody targeting the N-terminal domain of SARS-CoV-2 disrupts the spike trimer</strong> - The protective human antibody response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus focuses on the spike (S) protein which decorates the virion surface and mediates cell binding and entry. Most SARS-CoV-2 protective antibodies target the receptor-binding domain or a single dominant epitope (‘supersite’) on the N terminal domain (NTD). Here, using the single B cell technology LIBRA-seq, we isolated a large panel of NTD-reactive and SARS- CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies…</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>Gain-of-Signal Assays for Probing Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup>/3CL<sup>pro</sup> in Living Cells</strong> - The main protease, M^(pro), of SARS-CoV-2 is required to cleave the viral polyprotein into precise functional units for virus replication and pathogenesis. Here, we report quantitative reporters for M^(pro) function in living cells in which protease inhibition by genetic or chemical methods results in robust signal readouts by fluorescence (enhanced green fluorescent protein [eGFP]) or bioluminescence (firefly luciferase). These gain-of-signal systems are scalable to high- throughput platforms…</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>Genome-wide CRISPR screens identify GATA6 as a proviral host factor for SARS-CoV-2 via modulation of ACE2</strong> - The global spread of SARS-CoV-2 led to major economic and health challenges worldwide. Revealing host genes essential for infection by multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 can provide insights into the virus pathogenesis, and facilitate the development of novel therapeutics. Here, employing a genome-scale CRISPR screen, we provide a comprehensive data-set of cellular factors that are exploited by wild type SARS-CoV-2 as well as two additional recently emerged variants of concerns (VOCs), Alpha and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Transcriptional regulation and small compound targeting of ACE2 in lung epithelial cells</strong> - Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the receptor of COVID-19 pathogen SARS-CoV-2, but the transcription factors (TFs) that regulate the expression of the gene encoding ACE2 (ACE2) have not been systematically dissected. In this study we evaluated TFs that control ACE2 expression, and screened for small molecule compounds that could modulate ACE2 expression to block SARS-CoV-2 from entry into lung epithelial cells. By searching the online datasets we found that 24 TFs might be ACE2…</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-specific immune responses in elderly and immunosuppressed participants and patients with hematologic disease or checkpoint inhibition in solid tumors: study protocol of the prospective, observational CoCo immune study</strong> - BACKGROUND: Immunocompromised people (ICP) and elderly individuals (older than 80 years) are at increased risk for severe coronavirus infections. To protect against serious infection with SARS-CoV-2, ICP are taking precautions that may include a reduction of social contacts and participation in activities which they normally enjoy. Furthermore, for these people, there is an uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of the vaccination. The COVID-19 Contact (CoCo) Immune study strives to…</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-CoV2 wild type and mutant specific humoral and T cell immunity is superior after vaccination than after natural infection</strong> - CONCLUSION: Antibody neutralisation of the delta mutant was reduced compared to wt, as assessed in a novel inhibition assay with a finger prick blood drop. Strong CD4 T cell responses were present against wt and mutant SARS-CoV2 variants, including the delta (B.1.617.2) strain, in fully vaccinated individuals, whereas they were partly weaker 1 year after natural infection. Hence, immune responses after vaccination are stronger compared to those after naturally occurring infection, pointing out…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Real Meaning of Emmanuel Macron’s Victory</strong> - The fact is that, in difficult circumstances, Macron has managed to win the Presidency twice. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-real-meaning-of-emmanuel-macrons-victory">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>After a COVID Expert Struggled to Obtain New Treatments for His Parents, He Tweeted a Road Map</strong> - Older, disabled, and chronically ill Americans who could benefit from novel therapeutics are scrambling to find them easily. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/after-a-covid-expert-struggled-to-obtain-new-treatments-for-his-%20parents-he-tweeted-a-road-map">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Ordinary Americans Resettling Migrants Fleeing War</strong> - After Trump eviscerated the refugee-resettlement system, the government was unprepared for Afghans displaced by their country’s collapse. A new program lets civilians step up to help. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-ordinary-americans-resettling-migrants-fleeing-war">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Life and Death of the Original Micro-Apartments</strong> - With the Nakagin Capsule Tower, the architect Kisho Kurokawa had a prophetic vision of buildings and cities that prioritized mobility. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/dept-of-design/the-life-and-death-of-the-original-micro-apartments">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Clash Over Housing Pits U.C. Berkeley Against Its Neighbors</strong> - Dense cities are better for the environment. Should residents have a say over what parts get dense? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-clash-over-housing-pits-uc-berkeley-against-its-neighbors">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Ron DeSantis is Viktor Orbán’s true American disciple</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/xawrQnXT4AqtqbFGq2IMngUMqag=/186x0:1537x1013/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70804103/orban_desantis_board_3.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Christina Animashaun/Vox
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Florida governor isn’t doing “competent Trumpism.” He’s inventing American Orbánism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1650644850.526219">
<br/>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5DZi58">
In June of last year, Hungary’s far-right government passed a law cracking down on LGBTQ rights, including a provision prohibiting instruction on <a href="https://www.vox.com/22547228/hungary-orban-lgbt-law-pedophilia-authoritarian">LGBTQ topics in sex education classes</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EDH9Tx">
About nine months later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089221657/dont-say-gay-florida-desantis">banning</a> “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” up through third grade. According to some knowledgeable observers on the right, these two bills were closely connected.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iQ3mqC">
“About the Don’t Say Gay law, it was in fact modeled in part on what Hungary did last summer,” Rod Dreher, a senior editor at the American Conservative magazine, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG1tEZjRvLk">said during a panel interview in Budapest</a>. “I was told this by a conservative reporter who … said he talked to the press secretary of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and she said, ‘Oh yeah, we were watching the Hungarians, so yay Hungary.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1ijt9S">
When I asked DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw about a possible connection, she initially denied knowing of Hungarian inspiration for Florida’s law After I showed her the quote from Dreher, she did not respond further. (Dreher did not reply to two requests for comment.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nFr2H5">
It’s easy to see the connections between the bills — both in provisions and justifications. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán described his country’s anti-LGBTQ law as <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/hungary-approves-law-banning-lgbtq-content-for-
minors/a-57909844">an effort to prevent gay people from preying on children</a>; Pushaw described Florida’s law as an “anti-grooming bill” on Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristinaPushaw/status/1500651333480849419">adding that</a> “if you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer” — meaning a person preparing children to become targets of sexual abuse, a slur targeting LGBTQ people and their supporters that’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23025505/leftist-groomers-homophobia-satanic-panic-explained">becoming increasingly common on the right</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LkNhsP">
This is not a one-off example. DeSantis, who has built a profile as a pugilistic culture warrior with eyes on the presidency, has steadily put together a policy agenda with strong echoes of Orbán’s governing ethos — one in which an allegedly existential cultural threat from the left justifies aggressive uses of state power against the right’s enemies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7bBIWr">
Most recently, there was <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/04/ron-desantis-disney-dont-say-gay-banana-republic-florida-
authoritarian.html">DeSantis’s crackdown</a> on Disney’s special tax exemption; using regulatory powers to punish opposing political speech is <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/13/17823488/hungary-democracy-
authoritarianism-trump">one of Orbán’s signature moves</a>. On issues ranging from <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/with-last-minute-changes-floridas-stop-woke-bill-establishes-limits-on-
classroom-instruction-some-experts-call-flatly-unconstitutional/">higher education</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/7/1/22558980/florida-social-media-law-injunction-desantis">social media</a> to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/22/florida-quickly-sued-over-new-map-that-gives-big-wins-to-
republicans-00027203">gerrymandering</a>, DeSantis has followed a trail blazed by Orbán, turning policy into a tool for targeting outgroups while entrenching his party’s hold on power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LrJyWh">
Orbán has recently emerged <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/8/5/22607465/tucker-carlson-hungary-orban-authoritarianism-democracy-
backsliding">as an aspirational model</a> for many on the Trump-friendly right. During his presidency, many observers on both sides of the aisle compared Trump to the Hungarian autocrat — and not without some justification. But <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/13/17823488/hungary-democracy-authoritarianism-trump">after a 2018 visit to Hungary</a>, I concluded that Trump was not competent or disciplined enough to implement Orbán-style authoritarianism in America on his own. The real worry, I argued, was a GOP that took on features of Orbán’s Fidesz party.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2nHrRf">
DeSantis’s agenda in Florida is evidence that the Republican shift in this direction is continuing, maybe even accelerating. He has shown little interest in moderation or consensus-building, instead centering his governing philosophy on using policy to own the libs. While Trump may have been <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/6/15/22522504/republicans-authoritarianism-trump-competitive">an ideological catalyst</a> for the GOP’s authoritarian lurch, DeSantis is showing how it could actually be implemented in practice. The consequences for democracy in Florida, and America in general, could be dire.
</p>
<h3 id="nqWAuc">
The many places where DeSantis and Orbán meet
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f7heup">
There is no doubt that Hungary, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/13/17823488/hungary-democracy-authoritarianism-trump">an authoritarian state in all but name</a>, is becoming <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
politics/2021/8/5/22607465/tucker-carlson-hungary-orban-authoritarianism-democracy-backsliding">more and more important</a> in the American right-wing imagination.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4DzlOK">
Tucker Carlson, the most influential media figure in today’s GOP, is at the forefront of this effort. In January, Carlson released a “documentary” on Orbán’s government <a href="https://www.vox.com/22904444/tucker-carlson-hungary-soros-fox-nation-documentary-special">lionizing his regime</a> and encouraging Republicans to emulate it. That same month, Donald Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/us/politics/trump-endorses-viktor-orban-hungary.html">endorsed Orbán for reelection</a>, calling him a “strong leader” who has “done a powerful and wonderful job in protecting Hungary.”
</p></li>
</ul>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/oPZ7T0msyAz4igj8tsUDDkft47o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23420780/AP22093760950896.jpg"/> <cite>Petr David Josek/AP</cite></p>
<figcaption>
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán addresses cheering supporters during an election night rally in Budapest, Hungary, on April 3.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zij3tg">
This makes the echoes between DeSantis’s agenda and Orbán’s especially notable — with the “Don’t Say Gay” law, and the ensuing fight with Disney, being the most glaring examples.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mlXgkS">
Orbán’s political model has frequently employed <a href="https://www.vox.com/22547228/hungary-orban-lgbt-law-pedophilia-authoritarian">a demagogic two-step</a>: stand up a feared or marginalized group as an enemy, then use the supposed need to combat this group’s influence to justify punitive policies that also happen to expand his regime’s power. Targets have included Muslim immigrants, Jewish financier George Soros, and most recently LGBTQ Hungarians. Hungary’s version of the “Don’t Say Gay” law — which the government labeled an anti-pedophilia bill — <a href="https://www.vox.com/22547228/hungary-orban-lgbt-law-pedophilia-
authoritarian">expanded</a> both government control over curricula and its powers to regulate programming on Hungary’s airwaves.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PKrFVy">
You see a similar logic in DeSantis’s Florida. Alleging that classroom education on LGBTQ topics somehow threatens children, the governor and his allies pushed through <a href="https://pen.org/these-4-florida-
bills-censor-classroom-subjects-and-ideas/">a vague and broadly worded bill</a> that empowers both the state and private citizens to go after schools that teach about LGBTQ identity. A moral panic about alleged LGBTQ “grooming” serves to justify the imposition of ideological controls on public education — and the speech rights of progressive and LGBTQ teachers. (Relatedly, both Orbán and DeSantis have <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/new-school-curriculum-raises-eyebrows-
in-orbans-hungary/a-52964617">taken</a> <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/florida-education-department-explains-
ban-192710206.html">aim</a> at curricula and textbooks used in K-12 schools on expressly political-cultural grounds.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W7VapF">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/22545125/republicans-corporate-america-education-
polarization">Predictably</a>, the Florida bill provoked a backlash from corporate America — which DeSantis used as a justification to engage in even more Orbán-like behavior.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IBLCNy">
After Disney put out a statement criticizing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, DeSantis moved to strip the corporation of its special tax status in a 40-square- mile area around Disney World. In this area, called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, Florida allows the mega- corporation to essentially function as a local government, giving it the power to, for example, collect taxes (from itself) and build roads. These privileges, first granted by the state in 1967, are hugely beneficial for the company — and, on Friday, DeSantis <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/22/florida-gov-desantis-signs-bill-revoking-disneys-
special-district-status.html">signed a bill revoking them</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Xc4pzw">
In doing so, he was very explicit about his reasoning: This move was <a href="https://www.vox.com/23036427/ron-desantis-disney-first-amendment-
constitution-supreme-court">direct punishment</a> for Disney’s stance on the “Don’t Say Gay” law. In a fundraising email, DeSantis wrote that “Disney and other woke corporations won’t get away with peddling their <a href="https://www.kcra.com/article/disney-world-self-government-explained/39786585">unchecked pressure campaigns any longer</a>.” In an appearance <a href="https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1517245466433527809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1517245466433527809%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F23036427%2Fron-
desantis-disney-first-amendment-constitution-supreme-court">on Newsmax</a>, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez noted that Disney had “changed what they really espouse,” lambasting the company’s “very public agenda to indoctrinate our children.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xLhcHD">
This use of regulatory power to punish political opponents is right out of Orbán’s playbook. In 2015, Lajos Simicska — an extremely wealthy Hungarian businessman and longtime Orbán ally — turned on his patron, <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2015/02/09/curse-like-an-oligarch">using a vulgar term</a> to describe the prime minister.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NzfoRW">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/21/21256324/viktor-orban-hungary-american-
conservatives">In retaliation</a>, the government cut its advertising in Simicska’s media outlets and shifted contracts away from his construction companies. After Fidesz’s 2018 election, Simicska sold his corporate holdings (mostly to pro- government figures). He moved to an isolated village in western Hungary; his last remaining business interest was an agricultural firm owned by his wife.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sn6kJ3">
DeSantis isn’t the first Republican to follow Orbán here. Trump tried this kind of move <a href="https://www.slowboring.com/p/donald-trumps-re-election-is-a-dire?s=r">a few times</a>, most notably attempting to block AT&amp;T’s purchase of Time Warner because he hated CNN’s coverage of his campaign and administration, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house">according to Jane Mayer’s reporting</a> in the New Yorker. But he failed to follow through, whereas DeSantis actually made good on his threats (<a href="https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/the-contractual-impossibility-of-
unwinding-disneys-reedy-creek?context=search&amp;index=1">at least for now</a>).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GUe47q">
Higher education is another area where DeSantis, like Orban, has taken special aim. On April 22, DeSantis signed the “<a href="https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2022/04/22/florida-governor-desantis-stop-woke-act-race-bill-law-
sign-discussions-republicans/7403239001/">Stop WOKE Act</a>,” a bill that, among other things, expressly regulates what professors are allowed to teach about race and gender in college courses. In <a href="https://www.thefire.org/fire-
letter-to-florida-state-university-regarding-house-bill-7/">a letter to Florida State University</a>, the free speech advocacy group FIRE argued that the bill (also known as HB 7) was so obviously an unconstitutional abridgment of speech that administrators might simply “refuse to enforce” the bill.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
cdn.com/thumbor/qcfggRpPYkZvf6wLfYj5HdvtR_A=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23420737/GettyImages_1240219409.jpg" /&gt; <cite>Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis poses for a photo after signing HB 7, the “Stop WOKE Act,” at a school in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on April 22.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SOj8AU">
“By barring any ‘instruction’ that ‘espouses,’ ‘promotes,’ or ‘advances’ a prohibited concept, HB7 chills vast swaths of academic discussion and inquiry protected by the First Amendment,” FIRE writes. “Florida’s new prohibition will silence discussions on (among other topics) systemic racism, the gender pay gap, affirmative action, [and] reparations for slavery or indigenous peoples.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2maODj">
Orbán’s assault on higher ed has been even more striking. In 2018, his government issued a decree removing accreditation for Hungarian gender studies degrees, a move that <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/10/17/hungary-officially-ends-gender-studies-
programs">effectively banned Hungarian universities</a> from teaching the subject. Later that year, his government forced Budapest’s Central European University — a widely respected liberal arts college founded by Orbán’s foil, George Soros — <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/12/4/18123754/hungary-ceu-orban-soros-authoritarianism">to leave the country altogether</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ldi7bh">
For both men, the focus on academia is unsurprising: Universities are places where cultural liberal views flourish, and a forceful conservative agenda should take the fight to them. Conservatives believe state power can and should be wielded to prevent professors from “indoctrinating” students into a left-wing worldview (which <a href="https://medium.com/arc-digital/no-professors-are-not-brainwashing-their-
students-d4694522f413">doesn’t actually happen</a>).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="byWtUW">
On another hot-button culture-war issue, social media, DeSantis has actually outstripped Orbán.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e5Z2Yu">
In February 2021, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/hungary-to-regulate-digital-damaging-of-tech-
giants/">proposed a bill</a> to regulate “the Hungarian operations of large tech companies” to counteract <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/hungary-raises-concerns-about-shadow-banning-of-online-speech/">what she earlier called</a> their alleged restrictions on “Christian, conservative, right-wing opinions.” While Varga’s bill never passed, a version of it <a href="https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/breaking-it-down-florida-big-tech-
accountability-bill-signed-into-law/">became law in Florida</a> just three months after her proposal. Florida Senate Bill 7072 gave state regulators the power to fine social media companies if state authorities determined they improperly “deplatformed” a political candidate for office. (Shortly after its enactment, a court ruled that the bill <a href="https://www.wlf.org/2021/09/23/publishing/social-media-and-common-carriage-lessons-from-the-litigation-over-
floridas-sb-7072/">violated the First Amendment</a>; oral arguments for Florida’s appeal <a href="https://news.wfsu.org/state-news/2022-02-14/arguments-are-set-for-may-in-a-battle-over-floridas-law-regulating-
social-media-platforms">are set for mid-May</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L8eOQ4">
Finally, the Hungarian and Florida governments share a penchant for extreme gerrymandering (as, to be fair, do quite a few other <a href="https://www.vox.com/22961590/redistricting-gerrymandering-house-2022-midterms">Democratic and Republican state governments</a>).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ct6e5g">
Shortly after its initial victory in 2010, Fidesz created a new set of single- member districts that gave its supporters outsize representation in the country’s parliament. In the 2022 election, Fidesz won <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hungarians-vote-orbans-12-year-rule-tight-ballot-overshadowed-
by-ukraine-war-2022-04-03/">53 percent of the vote nationally</a> and <a href="https://telex.hu/english/2022/04/04/viktor-orbans-fourth-two-thirds-majority-a-disaster-for-the-opposition-
coalition-key-election-results">83 percent of the seats</a> in single-member districts — including a whopping 98 percent of seats in districts outside of Budapest.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7FpkTB">
During the current redistricting cycle, DeSantis <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/29/politics/desantis-vetoes-florida-congressional-map/index.html">rejected a congressional map</a> drawn by Florida’s Republican legislature, instead insisting on new maps that would give the party a substantially larger leg up in House elections. The statehouse complied, producing new maps that are so biased that, by one estimate, they could swing the <em>national </em>House bias <a href="https://www.vox.com/22961590/redistricting-
gerrymandering-house-2022-midterms">a full point in the GOP’s direction</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="uRwOOn">
Why DeSantis and Orbán have converged
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tHupSt">
These similarities reflect a certain ideological convergence between the post-Trump Republican Party and Fidesz: a belief in the central importance of cultural war and the need to wage it using state power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YyXnBC">
Broadly speaking, both Orbán and DeSantis characterize themselves as standing for ordinary citizens against a corrupt and immoral left-wing cosmopolitan elite. These factions are so powerful, in their telling, that aggressive steps must be taken to defeat their influence and defend traditional values. University professors, the LGBTQ community, “woke” corporations, <a href="https://www.mvtimes.com/2021/12/15/desantis-cites-marthas-vineyard-
immigration-destination/">undocumented immigrants</a>, opposition political parties — these are not merely rivals or constituents in a democratic political system, but threats to a traditional way of life.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iknYy7I6tfatxvozy-
VOo6lrdr0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23420815/GettyImages_1372618288.jpg"/></p>
<cite>Joe Raedle/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A poster of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declares “America needs a new generation of leaders,” alongside a poster of former President Donald Trump, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on February 24.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xao26e">
In such an existential struggle, the old norms of tolerance and limited government need to be adjusted, tailored to a world where the left controls the commanding heights of culture. Since the left can’t be beaten in that realm, government must be seized and wielded in service of a right-wing cultural agenda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IZcHDU">
These ideas are not exclusive to these two political figures: They are widely shared among far-right thinkers and parties across the Western world. You can find versions of them in factions ranging from Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FH5SD0">
In the United States, Trump was supposed to be the avatar of this far-right thinking — which, in this country, is broadly associated with a loose group of intellectuals and writers called “<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/164408/young-intellectuals-illiberal-revolution-
conservatism">the New Right</a>.” But it turned out he was too self-absorbed and haphazard to successfully implement a New Right agenda. Trump’s most notable legislative achievement? A tax cut written by old-school, pro-business conservatives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UjlNmS">
DeSantis is actually walking the New Right walk. His policy agenda has been described as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/politics/ron-desantis-republican-trump.html">competent Trumpism</a>,” but that’s a bit misleading. Trumpism was never a coherent intellectual doctrine, because the person whose name it bore did not have a coherent ideology. What DeSantis is doing is taking far-right ideas and making them into policy reality.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="notMvQ">
“There are important parallels [between Orbán and DeSantis], although I think they’re less exclusive to Orbán than they are indicative of a broader shift in right-wing parties across the West,” Nate Hochman, a writer at National Review affiliated with the New Right, tells me. “DeSantis and Orbán do share a much starker view of politics than the traditional, laissez-faire, business-friendly Republican approach to politics, which is much more willing to draw sharp lines between political friends and enemies.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MsKlyc">
That starker view of politics, and the foregrounding of the culture wars it entails, threatens to further undermine the status and security of marginalized groups. It also serves as a vehicle for maintaining and expanding Orbán’s and DeSantis’s own power and influence — at democracy’s expense.
</p>
<h3 id="NlQwwI">
Democracy in Hungary — and in Florida
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vCtbvZ">
Any politics that puts emphasis on punishing political and cultural enemies tends toward illiberal and anti-democratic practices.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sie6b4">
In the Hungarian case, this was a feature rather than a bug: Orbán designed <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/13/17823488/hungary-democracy-authoritarianism-trump">his ideological message</a> around his desire to create a “<a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/04/05/homo-
orbanicus-hungary/">central political forcefield</a>” that would dominate the country. The culture war was more of a means than an end, a legitimating tactic for policies explicitly designed to undermine Hungarian democracy, weaken political rivals, and strengthen Fidesz’s grip on power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O4auLm">
Today, the Hungarian political system is best described as a form of “<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/6/15/22522504/republicans-
authoritarianism-trump-competitive">competitive authoritarianism</a>”: a system where leaders do not ban elections or nakedly stuff ballot boxes, but instead hold contests under profoundly unfair background conditions — pervasive state control of the media, for example. By combining repressive tools with a culture-war message that genuinely resonates in Hungary’s conservative countryside, the government can maintain a near-absolute hammerlock on power without needing to resort to the most obvious forms of electoral cheating.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i3T27e">
This model has been proven effective. Orbán has been in power since 2010, and has won three separate reelection bids — in 2014, 2018, and April 2022 — on an increasingly uneven playing field.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kUhmRcmZ_FsHayf7u10-ZVuFvPA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23420852/GettyImages_1372590695.jpg"/> <cite>Joe Raedle/Getty Images</cite></p>
<figcaption>
Gov. Ron DeSantis arrives to speak at CPAC in Orlando, Florida, on February 24.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WygW1F">
DeSantis is operating in a very different context. His goal is not establishing a permanent DeSantis regime in Florida, but rather improving his status in the national Republican Party in order to launch <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/25/ron-desantis-republicans-wait-your-turn-00012024">an eventual presidential bid</a>. Bare-knuckles culture warring in Florida is also constrained by national politics and a legal system his party doesn’t (entirely) control. It is <a href="https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/the-third-
rail/6261f9a29881d90020642c9d/florida-ron-de-santis-disney-status/">very plausible</a> that some of his signature legislation, like the revocation of Disney’s tax status, will be struck down on constitutional grounds.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UUKVNY">
But that is cold comfort. The American federal system delegates huge amounts of power to state governments, enough to severely undermine democracy within a state’s boundaries. The United States has a long history of state-level authoritarianism: Jim Crow laws, in addition to being a form of racial apartheid, were also designed to guarantee indefinite Democratic control over Southern states.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vTXIOW">
In this political context, any diffusion of Hungarian-style culture-war authoritarianism to the state governments is extremely disturbing — potentially accelerating <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/5/22358325/study-republican-control-state-government-bad-for-democracy">a decade- plus process of democratic decline in Republican-governed states</a>. If DeSantis is in fact creating a blueprint for American Orbánism that Republicans across the country choose to follow, the implications for American democracy could well be disastrous.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Revisiting the Christian fantasy novels that shaped decades of conservative hysteria</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Talons reach down from the sky against a sunset, reaching toward a small white church." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GOa9MAWV9iRwnVbVkW-yEX60ZnE=/0x531:857x1174/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70803810/peretti1.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The cover of Frank Peretti’s <em>This Present Darkness</em>. | Crossway Books
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Demons, angels, and elite liberal conspiracies: Frank Peretti’s books sound like today’s headlines.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2NaRHC">
A sinister schoolteacher steadily grooms kids in their care to accept liberal indoctrination, ultimately leading to the takeover of young minds by shadowy forces. All the while, the teachers are backed by a larger, high-powered conspiracy to control the government, the educational system, and the national media — all in the name of evil leftists battling the ongoing culture war.
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That rhetoric might sound like sheer fantasy, but it’s increasingly becoming <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/02/11/survey-more-than-a-quarter-of-white-evangelicals-believe-core-qanon-
conspiracy-theory/">the dominant worldview</a> of many right-wing US conservatives, especially white evangelicals. It’s also the literal plot of two novels by Christian fantasy author Frank Peretti, <em>This Present Darkness</em> (1986) and its sequel <em>Piercing the Darkness</em> (1989). Although not household names to many, these are very likely two of the most culturally influential novels in recent history.
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Though they flew under the mainstream radar, especially relative to the bestselling <em>Left Behind</em> series that followed them a few years later, Peretti’s novels were formative and fundamental in a way the <em>Left Behind</em> books never were. They went viral in the pre-internet era, <a href="https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/427/frank-peretti">selling millions</a> of copies and spreading through word of mouth across churches all over America. It’s easy to see why: The <em>Darkness</em> duology arrived at the peak of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22358153/satanic-panic-ritual-
abuse-history-conspiracy-theories-explained">Satanic Panic</a>, when, as Peretti later wrote, “demons — and their doctrines — were gaining a weird, glassy-eyed respect from the popular culture.” Peretti envisioned a new kind of Christian fiction that visualized and vivified his idea of modern spiritual warfare: Angels and demons engaged in very real, literal battles for humanity, often just out of sight of their impassioned human charges.
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Peretti’s angels and demons are humanized and captivating. The angels are all tall, hot, witty, and sophisticated, the demons are brutish and calculating; all are dedicated to their metaphysical Pokémon battle for saints. Meanwhile, prayer and faith, at both an individual and collective level, function as a kind of angel Gatorade, juicing their battery packs and helping them find the strength to defeat the enemy. These books essentially transform Christians into crucial NPCs helping their favorite video game avatars defeat increasingly awful, powerful enemies. The prize? Nothing less than the souls of mankind.
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If that sounds gripping and immersive, now pair it with the other half of Peretti’s plot: an international conspiracy fueled by evil New Age practitioners using seemingly innocuous tools, like yoga, self-help psychology, and environmentalism, to indoctrinate the masses. Peretti’s feeble but faithful humans get tangled in a page-turning conspiracy that tugs the reader along, all the while taking them on a tour of Evil Indoctrination Stratagems. On the way we get glimpses of literal fundamentalism: for example, the belief that intense depression and anxiety attacks aren’t mental illnesses but are caused by demonic attacks that strong Christians can fight off.
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Peretti, who went on to write far more allegorical novels, most likely meant much of this fantasy to be read metaphorically, not literally. But his audience missed that memo. He engaged his readers so completely that the <em>Darkness</em> duology stayed on bestseller lists for nearly a decade. In 2013, Publisher’s Weekly <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/profiles/article/59186-frank-peretti-
the-father-of-christian-fiction-doesn-t-want-to-look-back.html">dubbed him</a> “the father of Christian fiction.”
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Peretti wasn’t creating the concept of spiritual warfare. The concept of angels and demons battling among us has been around for centuries; the Christian idea of humans helping them <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%206%3A10-19&amp;version=NIV">comes to us from Ephesians</a>. In the 1980s, such rhetoric percolated on talk radio, in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OMDxdkb_Po">contemporary Christian music</a>, and in churches, all at odds with modern mainstream culture. But his novels, with their thorough version of an embattled but entirely righteous Christian culture, are an early articulation of what has become the reigning modern evangelical conspiracy theory. A <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/02/11/survey-more-than-a-quarter-of-white-evangelicals-believe-core-qanon-
conspiracy-theory/">recent survey</a> revealed that a large number of right-wing Republicans — and 27 percent of white evangelicals — believe the central conceit of QAnon, the false conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is fighting high- powered Democrats and other powerful liberals who are engaged in sexually abusing, kidnapping, and sex trafficking children. The “liberal child-napping sex cult” theme of QAnon, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23025505/leftist-
groomers-homophobia-satanic-panic-explained">and its recent “groomer” variant</a>, seems to be the only thing literally different from the Peretti novels; everything else positing a high-powered government scheme to control the world and eradicate Christian culture is more or less identical.
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As far-right conspiracy theories swerve into the mainstream, more cultural critics have been <a href="https://relevantmagazine.com/culture/books/the-gospel-
according-to-frank-peretti-how-an-unlikely-author-sold-christians-on-horror/">revisiting</a><a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/rolltodisbelieve/series-list-and-newbie-guide/#TPD"> Peretti</a>, perhaps hunting for insight into the modern paranoiac evangelical far-right mind. Here at Vox’s culture team, we’ve discussed Peretti’s influence many times over the years. Three of us, like millions of other ’90s evangelical kids, have our own formative experiences of reading Peretti as preteens. Even rereading as adults, Alissa, Emily, and Aja agree that these books are still fun, engaging standouts among the pantheon of pulpy conspiracy theory thrillers. We sit down to discuss our own personal histories with Peretti and how it feels to revisit the series that helped shape the modern ideological divide.
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<strong>Emily:</strong> I read a fair amount of potboiler Christian fiction growing up in the evangelical church, and even as I left fundamentalist Christianity behind, I maintained a vague memory of Peretti’s books being “the good ones.” When I was a tween, I inhaled <em>This Present Darkness</em> and <em>Piercing the Darkness</em> in similar fashion to my friends who were just discovering Stephen King.
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And rereading these books in 2022, I am struck by how much tween me’s opinion holds up. Where, say, the <em>Left Behind</em> series is a dull slog, Peretti trained as a screenwriter, and you can really tell. His books move in a way that suggests a big-screen blockbuster. The second <em>Darkness</em> book is quite a bit better than the first, which has some clunky “this is my first novel aimed at adults” stuff in it. There’s a lot of unnecessary detail, as when Peretti spends several paragraphs on how a reporter makes sure she has the right apartment by … finding the door with the right number. But both books are enjoyably trashy in a way Christian fiction rarely allows itself to get.
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They are, strictly speaking, not very good as literature, but I would say the same of Michael Crichton (the mainstream writer whose prose Peretti’s most resembles), and I still love <em>Jurassic Park</em>. Both books work as serviceable horror fiction pastiche, with Peretti having a ball writing the slinky, slimy demons, who are constantly backbiting each other. They work even better as paranoid conspiracy thrillers, but it’s in that arena where everything in reality is a plot to take down evangelical Christians and, as such, Peretti’s books end up looking an awful lot like the conspiracy theorizing that dominates religious conservative spaces right now.
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<strong>Aja:</strong> I tend to think of such conspiracies as akin to Christian live-action roleplaying, because that’s what these books turned me into for about a year when I was a kid. It was the peak of Satanic Panic; my church youth director was teaching us how to spot demonic activity and making all us kids watch documentaries like <em>Hell’s Bells</em>, which taught that heavy metal music was satanic. Kids in my school were reading memoirs about satanic ritual abuse and lectures on the seven circles of Hell. This stuff was just in the water; and in the middle of it all, my church was among the thousands passing around a copy of <em>This Present Darkness</em>.
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And boy<em>,</em> was I too young to read those books! Because of Frank Peretti, I went around for months envisioning angels and demons fighting in the air all around me. Even after that initial wave of vivid fantasy wore off, the impression the books left me with for years was of an entire adjacent cosmic realm directed by the whims of God and the devil, if I would only believe enough to fall into it.
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Rereading them, one thing that stands out most to me is how flimsy the initial logic is that kicks off the whole conspiracy investigation. One villainous pastor is supposed to be suspicious because he’s into things like “saving the whales,” and has the audacity to tell one of our heroes, Marshall, that “every human has the natural capacity for good, for love, for expecting and striving for the best interest of himself and his neighbor.” This gentle humanism is the deceptive liberalism behind which Satan lurks?
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The devil’s primary weapon is New Age spirituality — which is also overtly racist, since Peretti frames most of the world’s demonic New Age practices as stemming from Asian mysticism — but the New Age spirituality in the books is utterly banal. <em>This Present Darkness</em> is vividly cinematic, but if it were an actual movie, the sight of villains dramatically doing yoga or sitting around smoking weed while they surf the astral plane hardly seems like it would invoke earth-shaking metaphysical terror.
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Clearly, though, decades of evangelical moral panic has shown us that people are leery of all these alternative practices. Peretti gives us a detailed road map for what that moral panic looks like on a granular level: It’s not the cloven-footed devil or the child-abducting clown in a storm drain, but the beautiful (demonic) liberal arts major who speaks to you of ecology, or the mild-mannered preschool teacher who lets your child draw their imaginary (demon) friends. In other words, it’s pretty much everything and anything. No wonder I saw angels and demons everywhere; no wonder that fascination never quite wore off.
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<strong>Alissa:</strong> I was such a voracious reader as a kid (we didn’t really watch TV or movies) that I basically read my way through the church library. And yes, they were exciting! While they had some kind of spiritual application and a highly, strangely moralistic worldview, I could also just tell that they were meant to be fun. They read like movies or comic books.
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Plus, they tapped into everything that I already thought was basically true, because it was what people were talking about on Christian radio, from preachers to drive-time hosts kicking it with various evangelical celebrities to future Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow and <a href="https://aclj.org/tune-in-to-our-live-radio-shows">his mega-popular call-in show</a>. At the time, among a wide swath of evangelicals, it was very much in vogue to have teenagers go through “worldview” study groups; <a href="https://www.summit.org/curriculum-old/understanding-the-times-home-school/">the curriculum we used</a> was primarily driven by video lectures that had been recorded in the 1980s and early 1990s, which meant a lot of them were about the various ways that the “new age” — or “cosmic humanism,” as they liked to call it — was infiltrating our minds in movies, books, college courses, public school curricula, and various toys.
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So the plots you both mention in the <em>Darkness</em> books seemed natural and correct to me, and the images they painted were so vivid. I believed every bit of it. I thought for sure that if I listened to rock music, I would discover one day that my mind had been colonized by a demon (in Peretti parlance, probably named “Rock Music” or maybe just “Rebellion”) and would have to be exorcised.
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I think what was so appealing is the same thing that’s appealing about any conspiracy thinking: It ascribes meaning and purpose and logic to things that aren’t honestly all that meaningful or purposeful or logical, like random accidents or senseless struggles that ordinary people encounter every day. It made me feel meaningful, like a warrior who could join with other warriors to protect what was good. To be honest, the same sort of thing made the <em>Left Behind </em>books appealing — the main characters even formed a force to fight the Antichrist that they called the “Tribulation Force.” Which is so cool! Especially when you feel kind of helpless and ordinary in your real life.
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When I started reading about QAnon’s rise as a belief system, I instantly saw the same sort of thinking at play — that its believers could save the world from a shadowy and hidden cabal of evil. Even if you didn’t ascribe to something quite as fantastical as that, though, there’s a strain of this thinking in all “us versus them” belief systems: that the real truth of what’s going on in the world has only been revealed to the faithful, and their purpose is to fight the other side.
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<strong>Aja:</strong> I completely agree with you, Alissa — there’s something really powerful and individualistic about the feeling you’re part of a spiritual ecosystem. Something that struck me too as I was rereading is how Peretti creates an inherent tension around every new meeting with another human: Are they one of the “initiated” Christians? Do they get it? Can they be trusted? As a way to generate suspense, that’s a classic conspiracy plot trope, but as a way of viewing humans IRL, it feels exhausting.
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I feel like the ’90s especially gave rise to this new era of performative self-identification among evangelicals, to the point where anticipating your societal persecution because of your faith was almost faddish; “what will people think when they hear that I’m a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbB0QrBIs9k">Jesus freak</a>?” etc. And now that mentality has resurged and joined with the broadly fundamentalist idea that the world is <a href="https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/christian-worldview-what-does-it-mean-to-be-in-the-world-but-not-of-the-
world/">inherently opposed</a> to Christianity.
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If you’re taught to believe the world is a spiritual land mine and everyone who’s not in the church is inherently standing against you, even if they don’t know it, then it surely makes you more likely to expect bad faith, stratagems, and manipulation coming from people you’ve identified as uninitiated. That makes it even harder to break down an “us versus them” divide. On a human-to-human level, how are evangelicals supposed to talk to people they think might be unwitting tools for Satan? For that matter, how is anyone else supposed to talk to <em>them</em> about things like basic human rights, much less anything else?
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<strong>Emily:</strong> There’s a bit of a double bind here, because compared to its height in the 1980s, the white evangelical church has seen a <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/07/08/survey-white-mainline-protestants-
outnumber-white-evangelicals/">precipitous drop</a> in membership. And if you are already trapped in a cycle of conspiratorial thinking, then learning that more and more people — maybe even people you think of as friends! — are “in on it” can be extremely discombobulating.
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The idea that the world is uniquely out to get evangelicals is incorrect; the idea that they are a small and shrinking remnant of believers, whose numbers grow smaller by the day, is more or less right. And since the two ideas feed each other, the latter props up the former too easily.
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If you poke at the logic of the book for even a second, it completely falls apart. When the angels are sufficiently prayer-powered, why do they still need to let the forces of darkness come so close to winning the day? If both the angels and demons engage in a little light rule-bending to, say, influence a vote to oust a particularly prayerful minister from his church, why is it fine when the angels do it but unscrupulous when the demons do so? The storytelling answer, of course, is that “the angels won, let’s go home” would be a very short novel. But the books also neatly capture the in-group projection inherent to a lot of evangelical art.
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Evangelical theology would argue that it’s okay for angels to cheat and not demons because a thing becomes good if it’s done by the right team, more or less. The answer within evangelicalism to the age-old theological question of “Is a thing good if God does it?” is always, always “yes,” and that answer gets applied to whatever in-groups evangelicals deem worthy. In this worldview, whatever the Republican Party does is always right, for instance, because the Republican Party is on the right side.
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The core assumption of Peretti’s work, and most evangelical art, is that this sort of “my side did it, so it’s okay” thinking is the way everybody approaches how they think about the world. In a polarized society, that’s occasionally true, but human beings are a lot more complicated and messy than all of us simply having the same thought patterns about society being a zero-sum game where only one group can win. (Of course, <em>most</em> potboiler fiction exists in a world where people are paper-thin caricatures who exist to advance the plot, and Peretti is working within that tradition.)
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<strong>Aja: </strong>This, again, is another thing that absolutely falls apart if you think about it for even a moment, because Peretti’s worldbuilding only works if all non- Christians and progressive Christians are, by default, incapable of building authentic loving communities and performing real authentic goodness. But of course, humans <em>are</em> quite capable of inherent goodness and love without invoking religion, and the longer the books progress through tours of characters who get divided up by religion without acknowledging their inherent capacity for humanity and goodness, the more these dividing lines stretch thin.
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Even less plausible is Peretti’s interpretation of gender relative to faith. In Peretti’s universe, unmarried men and women interact solely through a weird Puritan binary in which they are either always in danger of having sex (bad!), or else yoked together in a student/mentor or BDSM-y servant/master dynamic, with one always leading the other one (usually to Satan!). The only way Christian couples seem to function is by enthusiastically being in the God fandom together. The only way everyone else seems to function is by seeing the opposite sex as either a temptation or a tool. It’s such a strange way of framing relationships.
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He also presents masculinity as a sign of godliness. The effeteness of the villain’s church is one of its tells. Marshall thinks God should be bigger and tougher than the God he gets at the bad church. Peretti’s angels are big, brawny warriors. Peretti’s concern is with spiritual warfare, but even in the spiritual realm, war is a distinctly masculine subject.
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<strong>Emily:</strong> In that elevation of masculinity above all else, Peretti’s books accidentally capture the <em>real</em> scandal that was going on inside American evangelicalism at the time and that is now being steadily revealed: a terrible willingness to forgive child abuse and sexual assault if the accused was a powerful man and the accuser was a woman or child.
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In both books, male protagonists are accused of either child abuse or rape, and in both books, those accusations are lies concocted by demons to bring down powerful Christian men who are needed in the war against Satan. Within the fiction of the book, the accusations are <em>obviously</em> lies, because we see, for instance, every interaction pastor Hank Busche has with Carmen, the woman accusing him of raping her, and we also see that she’s possessed by many demons.
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In reality, however, the patriarchal hierarchy of evangelical churches creates a situation that is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/05/31/feature/the-epidemic-of-denial-about-sexual-
abuse-in-the-evangelical-church/">rife with opportunities for abuse</a>. When God has ultimate authority and when he has given the people who lead his churches a simulacrum of that ultimate authority, then what they do is, by definition, acceptable. Thus, when these men are accused of heinous crimes, they are either being assailed by Satan’s lies or their victims deserved what happened to them on some level. Peretti plays into that idea in both books, paying lip service to the idea that some pastors might be horrible people (or, in the book’s cosmology, demon-infested people) but never actually depicting that reality.
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In talking about the books’ portrayal of power dynamics, we also need to talk about their racism, which is sometimes quite direct. Peretti frames all of his villains as being vaguely Hindu, a choice so forthrightly awful that it becomes kind of darkly comedic. But I’m more interested in the books’ other depictions of race, which are within evangelical Christian spaces. For the most part, Peretti uses the “colorblind casting” approach of lots of popcorn fiction where a character’s race is incidental to their plot function — for instance, in <em>Piercing the Darkness</em>, one of the main characters, Ben Cole, is a Black cop — and at least when it comes to the angels, he’s occasionally egalitarian. Yet all the human characters are assumed to be white unless otherwise noted, and it’s here where the books’ depiction of evangelical racism is most pernicious.
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Modern evangelical Christianity often likes to pay lip service to diversity. An evangelical megachurch, especially in an urban area, will crow about the diversity of its membership, but that diversity only exists insofar as it props up the existing hierarchy, which elevates white, straight, cis men.
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The <em>Darkness</em> novels use a similar approach to race. Once you’re on the right side, you’re one of the good guys, regardless of your race, but Peretti’s diverse band of angels is still preserving the status quo of white, patriarchal American Christianity. And once you’re on the <em>wrong</em> side, well, then the book will just be forthrightly racist when talking about you.
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<strong>Alissa: </strong>When I reread the books a couple of years ago, the racism was the thing that stuck out most clearly to me, and I’m kind of curious how Peretti would handle it today. (I suspect a little differently, if only because of his publishers?)
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In the end, here is the thing — and the reason we even started talking about this in the first place, I think. Other than serving as a manual for spiritual warfare for some Christians — something Peretti actively discouraged, to his credit — his books are more of an encapsulation or embodiment of the culture wars of the time than a driver of them. When you read them, you were hearing echoes of what people were saying on Christian radio, from pulpits, and in Christian bookstores.
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And so it’s important to note that there was a <em>lot</em> of evangelical pop culture pushing and reflecting the same ideas at the time and soon afterward. Take, for instance, Audio Adrenaline’s mega-bestselling 1993 album <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Censor_Me"><em>Don’t Censor Me</em></a> (the one with that huge hit song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omoOLhDdTPA">Big House</a>” on it). The whole album is about how you can’t make Christians shut up or stop praying in schools — basically, an anti “cancel culture” album, and it came out when I was 10. Or, as you mentioned, Aja, there’s DC Talk’s song “Jesus Freak,” with the chorus “People say I’m strange, does it make me a stranger / That my best friend was born in a manger?”
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Or, as a friend recently pointed out on Twitter, there’s <a href="https://twitter.com/TylerHuckabee/status/1517165671955800065?s=20&amp;t=snHGNkHuRzj0WN2vj-
pS-g">a whole Christian nationalist mini-sermon</a> tacked onto the end of the band Sonicflood’s track “I Want to Know You,” a song that has nothing at all to do with America but <em>was</em> played at every single evangelical youth conference and event around the turn of the century. Sonicflood basically invented the “worship” genre (which has more or less taken over Christian music, but that’s another story), and American Christian nationalism now pervades the genre, which translates into what gets played in churches.
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Or, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/20/15369442/columbine-anniversary-cassie-bernall-rachel-scott-martyrdom">as I’ve written previously</a>, an entire cottage industry instantly sprang up in the late 1990s around what turned out to be somewhat apocryphal tales of Christian teens being killed for their faith at Columbine. That spawned a martyrdom fantasy that continues to this day.
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You can draw a straight line from these to <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/4/3/17180138/gods-not-dead-light-darkness-evangelical-christian-persecution-
race">the uberpopular and, frankly, downright un-Christian <em>God’s Not Dead</em></a> movies, which are the most political of all evangelical films and posit increasingly hysterical battles between evil ACLU atheists and devout Christians. Peretti’s books are kind of quaint and friendly by contrast.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UHjZCX">
I could go on and on and on. But the point is this: very little has changed. That fact is why we started talking about this at all. I remember, maybe a dozen years ago, during Obama’s first term, hearing evangelical “thought leaders” of various stripes proposing that the culture wars were over, that we were past all of that now. I was skeptical, and it turns out, rightly. Everything old is new again. I think some of us, having been exposed to the hysterics in the past, instantly recognize it when it resurfaces and know there’s nothing new here. But if we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to repeat it.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>An expert on why wars start, and how to prevent them</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/kJfTkI90hhvQ1NJGwPohFnj3Ojw=/295x0:5132x3628/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70803697/1240098294.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Ukrainian soldiers patrol a village destroyed by Russian shelling in Mykolaiv Oblast. | Celestino Arce/NurPhoto via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The key to understanding war: It’s the exception, not the rule.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DALuJ0">
War is a stupid idea.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QSqKCC">
Fighting is a bad way to resolve disagreements. If two countries want the same land, it is almost always less costly to each side to split it than to fight. The same is true if they are arguing over a shared natural resource, like oil. Fighting costs lives and money, with an incredibly uncertain payoff when the dust settles.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VZIQpE">
And yet wars persist, both within nations and, as appallingly demonstrated by Russia’s devastation of Ukraine, between them. Why? Why do governments and private armed groups still resort to violence when it’s so often mutually destructive?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="poEGXg">
That’s the question Chris Blattman’s new book, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/636263/why-we-fight-by-christopher-blattman/"><em>Why We Fight</em></a>, seeks to answer. Blattman is an economist and political scientist at the University of Chicago, and he has studied the roots of violence in many different contexts. In academic work, Blattman and his coauthors have examined the roots of <a href="https://chrisblattman.com/documents/research/2010.Consequences.RESTAT.pdf">child soldiering</a> in Uganda, the potential of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/04/15/jobs-and-jail-might-not-keep-young-
men-out-of-crime-but-how-about-therapy/">cognitive behavioral therapy to prevent violence</a> in post-war Liberia, and the policy choices of <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/5nyqs/">drug gangs who govern neighborhoods</a> in Medellín, Colombia.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X2Yn9a">
<em>Why We Fight</em> is an effort to summarize what he and other social scientists have learned about violent conflict, both between and within states: where it comes from; if it can be prevented; and how to stop it once it’s begun.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8mXDTd">
Blattman and I spoke for this week’s episode of the Vox podcast <em>The Weeds</em>. A transcript, edited for length and clarity, follows. Note that our conversation occurred on April 7, so we didn’t cover the past couple weeks of developments in Ukraine. As always, there’s much more in the full podcast, so listen and follow <em>The Weeds</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-
weeds/id1042433083">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vdGhld2VlZHM">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1vSUO6Bg4abtjRF7fnGpT1">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/voxs-
the-weeds">Stitcher</a>, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
</p>
<div id="ZgrcQr">
<div style="width: 100%; height:
152px;">
</div>
</div>
<h3 id="ngeSdd">
Dylan Matthews
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LFC4fl">
You start from a standpoint that is kind of surprising for a book about war, which is that war usually is a bad idea, it usually isn’t in anybody’s best interests, and most conflicts are resolved peaceably. Can you explain that organizing framework and why you think that’s important?
</p>
<h3 id="o4HtRq">
Chris Blattman
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v5bwJ9">
It is kind of amazing how much attention we pay to violence. We want doctors to pay a lot of attention to sick people, but then we don’t want them to forget that most people are healthy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uSuVlM">
For example, two weeks into Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/12/world/asia/india-pakistan-missile.html">India accidentally lobbed a cruise missile at Pakistan</a> and nothing came of it, and we shouldn’t be surprised at that. Likewise, schoolchildren will learn about the US invasion of Afghanistan for decades, [but] very few kids will be taught about the <a href="https://time.com/5682135/haiti-military-anniversary/">US invasion of Haiti in 1994</a>, which ended before it began. Colin Powell went to the coup leader [Raoul Cédras] who ousted a democratically elected president, showed him a video of US troops loading into planes and taking off and said, “This isn’t live. This happened two hours ago,” and he sort of surrendered right there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OoNeVt">
All of these things are happening all the time. And they’re happening for a pretty simple reason. If you’re Pakistan [after India’s missile launch], it’s just going to be ruinous if you go to war over this, even if you think it might not have been an accident. And this military leader in Haiti … It wasn’t just that the US was strong and Haiti was weak. That was part of it, but we know that weak parties can mount insurgencies. I think he just looked at [the situation] and he said, this isn’t going to be worth it, because I can basically use whatever bargaining power I have to get some kind of deal. [The US government wound up <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-14-mn-50281-story.html">giving the coup leader over $1 million</a> to leave.]
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bx2x8j">
That’s just the normal everyday business of what happens, precisely because war is so costly. Peace has this gravitational pull, from all the costs of war. So war only happens because some other force yanked it out of that orbit, which is actually pretty hard to do.
</p>
<h3 id="nmyzaM">
Dylan Matthews
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1cA6YB">
You list five explanations for war, which are all explanations of how bargaining breaks down and why people can’t reach agreements peaceably. Could you walk through those five?
</p>
<h3 id="tdAxhl">
Chris Blattman
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WAhDBK">
I call them:
</p>
<ol>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xAC9We">
Unchecked leaders
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qx3DKr">
Intangible incentives
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eKg8Id">
Misperceptions
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vruuvt">
Uncertainty, and
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mSIUFU">
Commitment problems
</li>
</ol>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CAzd24">
Three of them are more strategic in nature, and then two are more psychological.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8cMuRi">
Let me just start with a couple examples that I think are the most intuitive. We live in a world with a lot of autocrats, and even if they’re not autocrats, we live in a world where leaders are not totally constrained by their people, which means they don’t have to do the thing that’s in the interest of their group. This especially matters for someone who is completely unaccountable, like a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2017/03/23/the-rise-of-
personalist-rule/">personalized dictator</a>, which Vladimir Putin has increasingly become.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ClfEuh">
If you’re a personalized dictator, you don’t have to consider all these costs of war. You consider some of them, but you consider a much narrower range, so you’re much more ready to use violence. Sometimes leaders, particularly dictators, have a special incentive to invade or attack that their group doesn’t share. In Liberia, maybe the warlord Charles Taylor thinks he’s going to get more diamond profits by keeping the war going. Or maybe Putin thinks that too — to keep his regime of control the war needs to keep going. That’s one example of a very powerful thing that can yank us out of that peaceful orbit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="svTyYc">
Another, which is related, I call intangible incentives. What if the group or a leader — or in particular the dictatorial, personalized ruler — is seeking some ethereal benefits, something they value? That gives them a strong incentive to go to war. It’s not a material incentive like diamonds or something strategic, like “I need to gain this territory in Ukraine or exterminate democracy there because it’s going to threaten me.” Rather, it’s this nationalist ideal of a unified Russia. Or, in Charles Taylor’s case, a nationalist ideal of a unified West African Republic that, by the way, he would rule. It could be personal glory, like wanting to be the next Catherine the Great. It could be the desire to exterminate a heretic, or in service of some kind of religious or ethnic ideal. If you value this thing that only war can bring you, it’s going to yank you out of the peaceful orbit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V6pzfV">
“Misperceptions” includes all the ways war happens by mistake. Uncertainty is about times when we don’t know the strength of our opponent, we don’t know their resolve, so it seems like the optimal choice to fight. Commitment problems are mostly cases where there’s some way we can avert our opponent from being strong in the future. It actually pays to invade now to lock in our advantage forever. That can overcome the costs of war.
</p>
<h3 id="8srsKT">
Dylan Matthews
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iCTlYQ">
We’re having this conversation as a war in Ukraine rages. Just before the war broke out, you wrote a <a href="https://chrisblattman.com/blog/2022/02/15/when-we-focus-on-russian-aggression-and-motives-are-we-
asking-the-wrong-questions/">short post</a> asking the question of why diplomacy didn’t work, why the countries hadn’t been able to come to a deal. Looking back, how do you think about that question? How do you apply some of the lessons in this book to that context?
</p>
<h3 id="xNXGda">
Chris Blattman
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0erqp3">
I know exactly how to apply each of the lessons in the book. What I don’t know is which ones are correct.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PIRFoV">
What it comes down to is you either think Putin and his cabal are being strategic, or they’re not. I always lean on this side of [strategy]; fundamentally they’re not bonkers. Certainly in week four, they’ve woken up and they’re becoming strategic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O6oje6">
But at many lunch hours, I knock on the door of my colleague <a href="https://harris.uchicago.edu/directory/konstantin-sonin">Konstantin Sonin</a>, who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/opinion/masha-gessen-putin-and-his-new-years-resolutions.html">used to be the provost</a> of one of the most major universities in Moscow. He’s a game theorist, so he’s the kind of person who’s biased to think that everything is strategic, and he thinks it’s completely non-strategic. He thinks [Putin’s] inner circle has basically gone downhill in quality of thought and quality of individuals and experience, and that they’re both mass-deluded and ideological. He puts in the misperceptions and the intangible incentives, and that’s enough for him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3vLz3N">
I lean more towards the strategic camp. We can all understand Konstantin’s point of view because it’s what we read in the paper every day. I’m always suspicious of it because it gives those people very little agency. It denigrates them. It makes us feel superior.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6Znr0">
I think it comes down to Putin’s unchecked-ness: the fact that he is not responsible for the costs [of the war], and he has some private incentives, in terms of the preservation of his regime, to exterminate democracy in Ukraine. There’s uncertainty; he got bad draws and Ukraine got good draws. There’s maybe a little bit of a commitment problem, where he could see a point where [Ukraine] is more democratic, closer to the West, maybe even armed with long-range missiles by the West and thus impossible to invade, and so the window of opportunity is closing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K880P0">
I think those are really important to understanding the war. But for the record, Konstantin totally disagrees with me.
</p>
<h3 id="l1jJWm">
Dylan Matthews
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ACpPwY">
The US is still processing <a href="https://www.vox.com/22217039/capitol-attack-trump-rally-election-biden-
explained">what happened on January 6th</a> last year. On the extreme end, your colleague Barbara Walter has a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624156/how-civil-wars-start-by-barbara-f-walter/">book</a> raising the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22814025/democracy-trump-january-6-capitol-riot-election-
violence">possibility of widespread political violence</a> in the US. Even if not a Liberia-style civil war, then widespread terrorism and street violence. I’m curious how you think about that question, especially because I left your book oddly hopeful about our odds of finding peace.
</p>
<h3 id="RfknKg">
Chris Blattman
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rEZAxM">
Barbara’s not the extreme end — there’s people who think there <em>could</em> be full-scale civil war. Barbara’s more like, “At worst this is probably going to look like the Irish troubles, and that’s not assured.” She’s definitely more pessimistic than I am. I agree with a lot of what she says. We just have very different probabilities. We can all look at the same evidence and disagree.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xBhWqk">
Again, it comes down to these costs [of war]. These costs are very high and we have a lot of institutions that have not been politicized and are very good at internalizing these costs, and therefore will work very hard to avoid them. The thing that would push me to be as pessimistic as Barbara is if those institutions, like our military and our Supreme Court and police forces, were more split, or more unaccountable, and thus were not internalizing these costs of violence. But I actually have found those institutions to be amazingly resilient in a polarized age. I draw some optimism from that.
</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>Liverpool overwhelms Villarreal 2-0, on course for CL final</strong> - Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp struck a cautious note despite the one-sided nature of the first leg</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>Premier League launches plan for more South Asian footballers</strong> - According to data released by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) in March, there are just 16 professional footballers in the top four tiers of English football with British South Asian heritage</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>Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag enter BAC quarterfinals; Srikanth, Saina out</strong> - The Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also made it to the quarterfinals</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IPL 2022 | Mumbai Indians rope in Kumar Kartikeya Singh for injured Arshad Khan</strong> - Representing Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket, he has so far played eight T20s and has picked up nine wickets</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>Ben Stokes appointed as captain of England's test cricket team</strong> - Stokes replaces Joe Root, who quit two weeks ago as England’s Test captain</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>MCC budget’s push for biomining legacy waste, C &amp; D waste recycling plant</strong> - 150 parks to be taken up for development under PPP model</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>CET wins Hackathon hosted by UST</strong> - 173 teams from over 70 colleges in Kerala participate</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>Two kids drown in Meenachil</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha asks Karnataka CM to take PSI recruitment scam seriously</strong> - Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge said that the ruling party cannot justify its shortcomings citing bad things of the past</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>Mission for the differently abled on the model of Kudumbashree likely, says Kerala Minister for Social Justice R. Bindu</strong> -</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine War: Russia gas supply cuts ‘blackmail’, says EU</strong> - Russian energy giant Gazprom cuts supply to Poland and Bulgaria for refusal to pay in roubles.</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>German energy giant Uniper gives in to Russian rouble demand</strong> - Uniper is preparing to buy Russian gas using a payment system that critics say will undermine EU sanctions.</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>Transnistria and Ukraine conflict: Is war spreading?</strong> - Mysterious explosions in Transnistria raise fears that the Ukraine conflict may spread to Moldova.</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>Trevor Reed: Parents overjoyed at release of US Marine in Russia</strong> - Held in a Russian prison since 2019, Trevor Reed has landed back in the US.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-Semitism: Dramatic rise in 2021, Israeli report says</strong> - The Israeli study says social media and conspiracy theories about Covid are among factors to blame.</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>Moderna requests FDA authorization for COVID vaccine for kids under 6</strong> - “Getting protected sooner is what matters.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1850963">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Musk has “huge responsibility” to fight health misinfo on Twitter, WHO says</strong> - “In cases like this pandemic, good information is life-saving,” WHO official says. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1850931">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Call of Duty cheaters are being struck blind by anti-cheat software</strong> - “Cloaking” mitigation makes cheaters unable to see opponents, incoming bullets. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1850906">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia wages “relentless and destructive” cyberattacks to bolster Ukraine invasion</strong> - Cyberattacks complement and are sometimes timed to military actions. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1850890">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple launches self-service repair program for iPhone users in the US</strong> - Users can either purchase or rent tools and parts to fix the latest iPhones. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1850814">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A lady goes to the doctor and complains that her husband is</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
losing interest in sex. The doctor gives her a pill, but warns her that it’s still experimental. He tells her to slip it into his mashed potatoes at dinner, so that night, she does just that.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
About a week later, she’s back at the doctor, where she says, “Doc, the pill worked great! I put it in the potatoes like you said! It wasn’t five minutes later that he jumped up, raked all the food and dishes onto the floor, grabbed me, ripped all my clothes off, and ravaged me right there on the table!” The doctor says, “I’m sorry, we didn’t realize the pill was that strong! The foundation will be glad to pay for any damages.” “Nah,” she says, “that’s okay. We’re never going back to that restaurant anyway.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/nikan69"> /u/nikan69 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/udjoy1/a_lady_goes_to_the_doctor_and_complains_that_her/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/udjoy1/a_lady_goes_to_the_doctor_and_complains_that_her/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I’m a 5G installation engineer and people are constantly accusing me with bizarre conspiracy theories, such as how 5G is giving them headaches, or killing their sperm. I think they are completely crazy.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
4G must’ve fried their brains.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/udnwlh/im_a_5g_installation_engineer_and_people_are/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/udnwlh/im_a_5g_installation_engineer_and_people_are/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>My girlfriend tried to take a selfie in the shower, but it was too blurry.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She has selfie steam issues.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/udo3im/my_girlfriend_tried_to_take_a_selfie_in_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/udo3im/my_girlfriend_tried_to_take_a_selfie_in_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>The cop asked, “Whose car is this? Where are you headed? What do you do?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The miner replied, “Mine.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/808gecko808"> /u/808gecko808 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uds9bg/the_cop_asked_whose_car_is_this_where_are_you/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/uds9bg/the_cop_asked_whose_car_is_this_where_are_you/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>C’mon guys don’t make fun of Amber Heard’s lawyer</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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He probably gets enough abuse from her as it is
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BertnErnie32"> /u/BertnErnie32 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ud5xyj/cmon_guys_dont_make_fun_of_amber_heards_lawyer/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ud5xyj/cmon_guys_dont_make_fun_of_amber_heards_lawyer/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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