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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>High-resolution within-sewer SARS-CoV-2 surveillance facilitates informed intervention</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To assist in the COVID-19 public health guidance on a college campus, daily composite wastewater samples were withdrawn at 20 manhole locations across the University of Colorado Boulder campus. Low-cost autosamplers were fabricated in-house to enable an economical approach to this distributed study. These sample stations operated from August 25th until November 23rd during the fall 2020 semester, with 1,512 samples collected. The concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in each sample was quantified through two comparative reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reactions (RT-qPCRs). These methods were distinct in the utilization of technical replicates and normalization to an endogenous control. (1) Higher temporal resolution compensates for supply chain or other constraints that prevent technical or biological replicates. (2) The endogenous control normalized data agreed with the raw concentration data, minimizing the utility of normalization. The raw wastewater concentration values reflected SARS-CoV-2 prevalence on campus as detected by clinical services. Overall, combining the low-cost composite sampler with a method that quantifies the SARS-CoV-2 signal within six hours enabled actionable and time-responsive data delivered to key stakeholders. With daily reporting of the findings, wastewater surveillance assisted in decision making during critical phases of the pandemic on campus, from detecting individual cases within populations ranging from 109 to 2,048 individuals to monitoring the success of on-campus interventions.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.24.21257632v1" target="_blank">High-resolution within-sewer SARS-CoV-2 surveillance facilitates informed intervention</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Behaviour of smokers and their influencers in the UK during COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented circumstances and changes in behaviour. This research sought to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and lockdown, on smoking behaviour in the UK from the perspectives of consumers (current and former smokers) and some of their smoking-related behaviour-influencers. Design/methodology/approach This research project encompassed two surveys, one for current and former smokers (Consumers) and one for those individuals in professions with the potential to influence smoking behaviours (Influencers). Both surveys were conducted online and were infield for approximately two weeks during UKs first COVID-19 lockdown. Because of the unprecedented times the society was experiencing, several questions relating directly to COVID-19 were added to the survey and this paper is based only on findings only from those questions and not the whole project. The results were analysed descriptively. Findings A total of 954 consumers and 1027 influencers participated in the surveys. Increased smoking was reported by 67% of the consumers mainly due to stress and boredom arising out of COVID-19 lockdown. Consumers under 45 years of age, those in professional and managerial occupations, and among dual users reported increased smoking in lockdown. The COVID-19 situation changed the plans to quit smoking in 36% of consumers, with only 6% deciding to quit. Only 40% of healthcare professionals (HCPs) documented patient smoking status in over half their interactions. Originality/ value This research among current and former smokers and their influencers highlights important changes in behaviour during the COVID-19 times and underscores urgent measures to be taken by HCPs and policymakers for staying on course of achieving smokefree goals despite challenges posed by COVID-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.25.21257716v1" target="_blank">Behaviour of smokers and their influencers in the UK during COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Testing in Healthcare Workers: a comparison of the clinical performance of three commercially available antibody assays</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are an excellent indicator of past COVID-19 infection. As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, retained sensitivity over time is an important quality in an antibody assay that is to be used for the purpose of population seroprevalence studies. We compared 5788 healthcare worker (HCW) serum samples on two serological assays (Abbott SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid IgG and Roche Anti-SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid Total Antibody) and a subset of samples (all Abbott assay positive or grayzone, n=485) on Wantai SARS-CoV-2 anti-spike Antibody ELISA. For 367 samples from HCW with previous PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection we correlated the timing of infection with assay results. Overall seroprevalence was 4.2% on Abbott, 9.5% on Roche. Of those with previously confirmed infection, 41% (150/367) and 95% (348/367) tested positive on Abbott and Roche respectively. At 21 weeks (150 days) after confirmed infection, positivity on Abbott started to decline. Roche positivity was retained for the entire study period (33 weeks). Factors associated (P≤ 0.050) with Abbott seronegativity in those with previous PCR-confirmed infection included sex (male OR0.30;95%CI0.15-0.60), symptom severity (OR0.19 severe symptoms;95%CI0.05-0.61), ethnicity (OR0.28 Asian ethnicity;95%CI0.12-0.60) and time since PCR diagnosis (OR2.06 for infection 6 months previously;95%CI1.01-4.30. Wantai detected all previously confirmed infections. In our population, Roche detected antibodies up to at least seven months after natural infection with SARS-CoV-2. This may indicate that Roche is better suited than Abbott to population-based studies. Wantai demonstrated high sensitivity but sample selection was biased. The relationship between serological response and functional immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection needs to be delineated.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.25.21257772v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Testing in Healthcare Workers: a comparison of the clinical performance of three commercially available antibody assays</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Feasibility and utility of rapid antigen testing for COVID-19 in a university residence: a cross sectional study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Importance: Understanding feasibility of rapid testing in congregate living setting provides critical data to reduce the risk of outbreaks in these settings. Objective: Use rapid antigen screening to detect SARS-CoV-2 in an asymptomatic group of university students and staff. Design: Cross-sectional Setting: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Participants: Students and staff living or working in congregate housing. Intervention: Health care professional administered rapid antigen test Main Outcomes and measures: Use of BD Veritor rapid antigen testing and asymptomatic participants experiences with rapid testing Results: A total of 3536 BD Veritor tests were completed in 1141 unique individuals. One third of participants completed between two to four tests and 21% were screened five or more times. The mean number of tests completed per person was three. The mean length of time between those who had more than one test was seven days. There were eight false positives and 25 PCR confirmed COVID-19 positive individuals identified through this work. All individuals reported having no symptoms that they attributed to COVID-19. Almost all (n=22, 88%) COVID-19 positive cases were found in male participants. A total of 86 additional students from multiple different student residences (n=9) were asked to self-isolate while they waited for their COVID-19 diagnostic test results. An average of seven additional students positive for COVID-19 living in congregate housing were identified through contact tracing by finding one positive case. Conclusions and relevance: Rapid testing is a relatively inexpensive and operationally easy method of identifying asymptomatic individuals with COVID-19.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.24.21257732v1" target="_blank">Feasibility and utility of rapid antigen testing for COVID-19 in a university residence: a cross sectional study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Does immune recognition of SARS-CoV2 epitopes vary between different ethnic groups?</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The SARS-CoV2 mediated Covid-19 pandemic has impacted humankind at an unprecedented scale. While substantial research efforts have focused towards understand the mechanisms of viral infection and developing vaccines/ therapeutics, factors affecting the susceptibility to SARS-CoV2 infection and manifestation of Covid-19 remain less explored. Given that the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) system is known to vary among ethnic populations, it is likely to affect the recognition of the virus, and in turn, the susceptibility to Covid-19. To understand this, we used bioinformatic tools to probe all SARS-CoV2 peptides which could elicit T-cell response in humans. We also tried to answer the intriguing question of whether these potential epitopes were equally immunogenic across ethnicities, by studying the distribution of HLA alleles among different populations and their share of cognate epitopes. We provide evidence that the newer mutations in SARS-CoV2 are unlikely to alter the T-cell mediated immunogenic responses among the studied ethnic populations. The work presented herein is expected to bolster our understanding of the pandemic, by providing insights into differential immunological response of ethnic populations to the virus as well as by gauging the possible effects of mutations in SARS-CoV2 on efficacy of potential epitope-based vaccines through evaluating ~40000 viral genomes.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.24.21257707v1" target="_blank">Does immune recognition of SARS-CoV2 epitopes vary between different ethnic groups?</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Genomic reconstruction of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic across England from September 2020 to May 2021</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Despite regional successes in controlling the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, global cases have reached an all time high in April 2021 in part due to the evolution of more transmissible variants. Here we use the dense genomic surveillance generated by the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium to reconstruct the dynamics of 62 different lineages in each of 315 English local authorities between September 2020 and April 2021. This analysis reveals a series of sub-epidemics that peaked in the early autumn of 2020, followed by a singular jump in transmissibility of the B.1.1.7 lineage. B.1.1.7 grew when other lineages declined during the second national lockdown and regionally tiered restrictions between November and December 2020. A third more stringent national lockdown eventually suppressed B.1.1.7 and eliminated nearly all other lineages in early 2021. However, a series of variants (mostly containing the spike E484K mutation) defied these trends and persisted at moderately increasing proportions. Accounting for sustained introductions, however, indicates that their transmissibility is unlikely to exceed that of B.1.1.7. Finally, B.1.617.2 was repeatedly introduced to England and grew rapidly in April 2021, constituting approximately 40% of sampled COVID-19 genomes on May 15.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.22.21257633v1" target="_blank">Genomic reconstruction of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic across England from September 2020 to May 2021</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Influence of past infection with SARS-CoV-2 on the response to the BioTech/ Pfizer BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in health care workers: kinetics and durability of the humoral response</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 have provided an invaluable resource in the fight against this infection. Given the current vaccine shortage, vaccination programs must prioritize their distribution to the most appropriate segments of the population. Methods: We carried out a prospective cohort study with 63 health care workers (HCWs) from a public General Hospital. We compared antibody responses to two doses of BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine between HCWs with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection before vaccination (experienced HCWs) and HCWs who were not previously infected (naive HCWs). Results: Seven days after the first vaccine dose HCWs with previous infection experienced a 126 fold increase in antibody levels (GMC 26955 AU; 95% CI 18785-35125). However, in the HCW naive group the response was much lower and only 5 of them showed positive antibody levels (&gt;50 AU). The HCWs with previous infection did not significantly increased their antibody levels after the second dose while there was a significant increase in the naive HCW group (16 fold; GMC 20227 AU; 95% CI: 15179-25275). Approximately two months after completing vaccination, the level of antibodies was much lower in naive HCWs (GMC 6595 AU vs. 25003 AU; p&lt;0.001) Conclusion: The study shows that 10 months after the disease has passed, the immune system is capable of producing a rapid and powerful secondary antibody response after one single dose of the vaccine. This response reflects the persistence of immunological memory and it is independent of whether or not anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are detected in blood. Besides, we found that the second dose does not improve the antibody response in individuals with previous Covid-19 infection. Nonetheless, two months later, the persistence of antibody levels is still higher in the experienced HCWs. These data suggest that immune memory remains for a long time in recovered individuals, and therefore, vaccination in this group could be postponed until immunization of the rest of the population is complete.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.25.21257788v1" target="_blank">Influence of past infection with SARS-CoV-2 on the response to the BioTech/ Pfizer BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in health care workers: kinetics and durability of the humoral response</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Five RCTs recently published in mainstream scientific journals that confirm major, statistically significant benefits of ivermectin against COVID-19 as reported in several prior RCTs</strong> -
<div>
Major benefits of ivermectin (IVM) treatment for COVID-19 have been known since the results of 20 such randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were reported, as compiled in January 2021. Of the eight of these RCTs that tracked mortality or morbidity in patients with serious cases, seven showed statistically significant clinical improvements. The pooled mortality reduction in these eight RCTs was 78% in the treatment vs. controls groups, and the RCT that used the highest dose of IVM reported a 92% reduction in mortality (p &lt; 0.001). Three RCTs for IVM prevention of COVID-19 and two animal studies of IVM at low human-equivalent doses likewise reported pronounced efficacy. Here we note the recent publication of RCTs for IVM treatment or prevention of COVID-19 in mainstream scientific journals that confirm these previously reported findings.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/qru8k/" target="_blank">Five RCTs recently published in mainstream scientific journals that confirm major, statistically significant benefits of ivermectin against COVID-19 as reported in several prior RCTs</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Why Working From Home Will Stick</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 drove a mass social experiment in working from home (WFH). We survey more than 30,000 Americans over multiple waves to investigate whether WFH will stick, and why. Our data say that 20 percent of full workdays will be supplied from home after the pandemic ends, compared with just 5 percent before. We develop evidence on five reasons for this large shift: better-than-expected WFH experiences, new investments in physical and human capital that enable WFH, greatly diminished stigma associated with WFH, lingering concerns about crowds and contagion risks, and a pandemic-driven surge in technological innovations that support WFH. We also use our survey data to project three consequences: First, employees will enjoy large benefits from greater remote work, especially those with higher earnings. Second, the shift to WFH will directly reduce spending in major city centers by at least 5-10 percent relative to the pre-pandemic situation. Third, our data on employer plans and the relative productivity of WFH imply a 5 percent productivity boost in the post-pandemic economy due to re-optimized working arrangements. Only one-fifth of this productivity gain will show up in conventional productivity measures, because they do not capture the time savings from less commuting.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/wfdbe/" target="_blank">Why Working From Home Will Stick</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Impact of Glycosylation on SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Broadly Protective Vaccine Design</strong> -
<div>
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in more than 167 million confirmed cases and over 3 million deaths so far. This global pandemic has led to great efforts directed toward the study of this virus and its infection mechanism as well as development of effective means to control this devastating infectious disease. Like many other viral surface proteins, the trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein is heavily glycosylated with 22 N- and 2 O-glycosites per monomer which are likely to influence S protein folding and evade host immune response. More than one million S protein sequences with over 1,000 sites of mutation in its 1,273 amino acids have been reported to the GISAID database, including the highly transmissible variant strains found in the UK and South Africa. This high frequency of transmission and mutation is a major challenge in the development of broadly protective vaccines to control the pandemic. We have studied the impact of glycosylation on receptor-ligand interaction through evaluation of ACE2 and S protein expressed in different cell lines. Of different S protein glycoforms, the one expressed from lung epithelial cells, the primary cells for infection, has more complex-type glycans and higher binding avidity to the receptor as compared with the S protein from HEK293T cells which have more high-mannose or hybrid-type glycoforms. We also found that most of the S protein glycosites are highly conserved and the glycosites at positions 801 and 1194 are essential for viral entry. In addition, the RBD of S1 and the HR regions of S2 contain most of highly conserved sequences, and removal of each glycosite on pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 virus for evaluation of the impact on structure and function provides insights into the design of broadly protective vaccines. In an effort to develop such universal vaccines, we found that mice immunized with monoglycosylated S protein (Smg) elicited better antibody responses capable of neutralizing not only the wild type but also the variants from the UK and South Africa than those with the fully-glycosylated S protein (Sfg), and strikingly, Smg vaccination provides better survival for hACE2 transgenic mice when challenged with lethal dose of SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, using single B cell technology, we isolated a monoclonal antibody from Smg immunized mice which was also able to neutralize the wild type and variants, suggesting that removal of unnecessary glycans from S protein to better expose the highly conserved sequences is an effective approach to developing broadly protective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and variants.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.25.445523v1" target="_blank">Impact of Glycosylation on SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Broadly Protective Vaccine Design</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>An Issue of Concern: Unique Truncated ORF8 Protein Variants of SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
Open reading frame 8 (ORF8) protein is one of the most evolving accessory proteins in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It was previously reported that the ORF8 protein inhibits presentation of viral antigens by the major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) and interacts with host factors involved in pulmonary inflammation. The ORF8 protein assists SARS-CoV-2 to evade immunity and replication. Among many contributing mutations, Q27STOP, a mutation in the ORF8 protein defines the B.1.1.7 lineage of SARS-CoV-2, which is engendering the second wave of COVID-19. In the present study, 47 unique truncated ORF8 proteins (T-ORF8) due to the Q27STOP mutations were identified among 49055 available B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 sequences. The results show that only one of the 47 T-ORF8 variants spread to over 57 geo-locations in North America, and other continents which includes Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. Based on various quantitative features such as amino acid homology, polar/non-polar sequence homology, Shannon entropy conservation, and other physicochemical properties of all specific 47 T-ORF8 protein variants, a collection of nine possible T-ORF8 unique variants were defined. The question of whether T-ORF8 variants work similarly to ORF8 has yet to be investigated. A positive response to the question could exacerbate future COVID-19 waves, necessitating severe containment measures.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.25.445557v1" target="_blank">An Issue of Concern: Unique Truncated ORF8 Protein Variants of SARS-CoV-2</a>
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<li><strong>Exploiting Molecular Basis of Age and Gender Differences in Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 Infections.</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Motivation: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (coronavirus disease, 2019; COVID-19) is associated with adverse outcomes in patients. It has been observed that lethality seems to be related to the age of patients. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that ageing causes some modifications at a molecular level. Objective: The study aims to shed out light on a possible link between the increased COVID-19 lethality and the molecular changes that occur in elderly people. Methods: We considered public datasets on ageing-related genes and their expression at tissue level. We selected interactors that are known to be related to ageing process. Then, we performed a networkbased analysis to identify interactors significantly related to both SARS-CoV-2 and ageing. Finally, we investigated changes on the expression level of coding genes at tissue, gender and age level. Results We observed a significant intersection between some SARS-CoV-2 interactors and ageing-related genes suggesting that those genes are particularly affected by COVID-19 infection. Our analysis evidenced that virus infection particularly affects ageing molecular mechanisms centred around proteins EEF2, NPM1, HMGA1, HMGA2, APEX1, CHEK1, PRKDC, and GPX4. We found that HMGA1, and NPM1 have a different expression in lung of males, while HMGA1, APEX1, CHEK1, EEF2, and NPM1 present changes in expression in males due to aging effects. Conclusion Our study generated a mechanistic framework to explaining the correlation between COVID-19 incidence in elderly patients and molecular mechanisms of ageing. This will provide testable hypotheses for future investigation and pharmacological solutions tailored on specific age ranges.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.23.21257669v1" target="_blank">Exploiting Molecular Basis of Age and Gender Differences in Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 Infections.</a>
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<li><strong>Plitidepsin has a positive therapeutic index in adult patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.</strong> -
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Plitidepsin is a marine-derived cyclic-peptide that inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication at low nanomolar concentrations by the targeting of host protein eEF1A (eukaryotic translation-elongation-factor-1A). We evaluated a model of intervention with plitidepsin in hospitalized COVID-19 adult patients where three doses were assessed (1.5, 2 and 2.5 mg/day for 3 days, as a 90-minute intravenous infusion) in 45 patients (15 per dose-cohort). Treatment was well tolerated, with only two Grade 3 treatment-related adverse events observed (hypersensitivity and diarrhea). The discharge rates by Days 8 and 15 were 56.8% and 81.8%, respectively, with data sustaining dose-effect. A mean 4.2 log10 viral load reduction was attained by Day 15. Improvement in inflammation markers was also noted in a seemingly dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that plitidepsin impacts the outcome of patients with COVID-19.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.25.21257505v1" target="_blank">Plitidepsin has a positive therapeutic index in adult patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.</a>
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<li><strong>Addressing anti-syncytin antibody levels, and fertility and breastfeeding concerns, following BNT162B2 COVID-19 mRNA vaccination</strong> -
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Objective: To determine whether antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein following BNT162B2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) COVID-19 mRNA vaccination cross-react with human syncytin-1 protein, and if BNT162B2 mRNA enters breast milk. Methods: In this observational cohort study of female front-line workers with no history of COVID-19 infection, we amplified BNT162B2 mRNA in plasma and breast milk and assayed anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies and anti-human syncytin-1 binding antibodies in plasma, at early (1-4 days) and late (4-7 weeks) time points following first-dose vaccination. Results: Fifteen consented participants (mean age 40.4 years, various ethnicities) who received at least one dose of BNT162B2, including five breast-feeding women and two women who were inadvertently vaccinated in early pregnancy, were recruited. BNT162B2 mRNA, detected by amplifying part of the spike-encoding region, was detected in plasma 1-4 days following the first dose (n=13), but not 4-5 weeks later (n=2), nor was the mRNA isolated from aqueous or lipid breast milk fractions collected 0-7 days post-vaccination (n=5). Vaccine recipients demonstrated strong SARS-CoV-2 neutralising activity by at least four weeks after the first dose (n=15), including the two pregnant women. None had placental anti-syncytin-1 binding antibodies at either time-point following vaccination. Conclusions: BNT162B2-vaccinated women did not transmit vaccine mRNA to breast milk, and did not produce a concurrent humoral response to syncytin-1, suggesting that cross-reactivity to syncytin-1 on the developing trophoblast, or other adverse effects in the breast-fed infant from vaccine mRNA ingestion, are unlikely.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.23.21257686v1" target="_blank">Addressing anti-syncytin antibody levels, and fertility and breastfeeding concerns, following BNT162B2 COVID-19 mRNA vaccination</a>
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<li><strong>Immunogenic Amino Acid Motifs and Linear Epitopes of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Reverse vaccinology is an evolving approach for improving vaccine effectiveness and minimizing adverse responses by limiting immunizations to critical epitopes. Towards this goal, we sought to identify immunogenic amino acid motifs and linear epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that elicit IgG in COVID-19 mRNA vaccine recipients. Paired pre/post vaccination samples from N=20 healthy adults, and post-vaccine samples from an additional N=13 individuals were used to immunoprecipitate IgG targets expressed by a bacterial display random peptide library, and preferentially recognized peptides were mapped to the spike primary sequence. The data identify several distinct amino acid motifs recognized by vaccine-induced IgG, a subset of those targeted by IgG from natural infection, which may mimic 3-dimensional conformation (mimotopes). Dominant linear epitopes were identified in the C-terminal domains of the S1 and S2 subunits (aa 558-569, 627-638, and 1148-1159) which have been previously associated with SARS-CoV-2 neutralization in vitro and demonstrate identity to bat coronavirus and SARS-CoV, but limited homology to non-pathogenic human coronavirus. The identified COVID-19 mRNA vaccine epitopes should be considered in the context of variants, immune escape and vaccine and therapy design moving forward.
</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.25.21257427v1" target="_blank">Immunogenic Amino Acid Motifs and Linear Epitopes of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines</a>
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<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>Study to Evaluate a Single Intranasal Dose of STI-2099 (COVI-DROPS™) in Outpatient Adults With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: COVI-DROPS;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Recombinant Hyperimmune Polyclonal Antibody (GIGA-2050) in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: GIGA-2050<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   GigaGen, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Evaluate the Effects of RO7496998 (AT-527) in Non-Hospitalized Adult and Adolescent Participants With Mild or Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: RO7496998;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc.;   Hoffmann-La Roche<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on COVID-19 Recovery</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Vit-D 0.2 MG/ML Oral Solution [Calcidol];   Drug: Physiological Irrigating Solution<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Monastir;   Loussaief Chawki;   Nissaf Ben Alaya;   Cyrine Ben Nasrallah;   Manel Ben Belgacem;   Hela Abroug;   Imen Zemni;   Manel Ben fredj;   Wafa Dhouib<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>Using Text Messages to Improve COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Text message content<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust;   Central London CCG;   Imperial College Health Partners;   Institute for Global Health Innovations;   The Behavioural Insights Team<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>Prophylaxis for COVID-19: Ivermectin in Close Contacts of COVID-19 Cases (IVERNEX-TUC)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Ministry of Public Health, Argentina<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>Mix and Match of the Second COVID-19 Vaccine Dose for Safety and Immunogenicity</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine;   Biological: BNT162b2;   Biological: ChAdOx1-S [recombinant];   Other: 0, 28 day schedule;   Other: 0, 112 day schedule<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Canadian Immunization Research Network;   Canadian Center for Vaccinology;   BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute;   Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba;   CHU de Quebec-Universite Laval;   Ottawa Hospital Research Institute;   Northern Alberta Clinical Trials + Research Centre;   Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion;   University of Toronto;   Massachusetts 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>CISCO-21 Prevent and Treat Long COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Resistance Exercise<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde;   University of Glasgow;   Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government<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>Amantadine for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Amantadine;   Drug: Lactose monohydrate<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre;   University of Copenhagen<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>Leronlimab in Moderatelly Ill Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Leronlimab;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein;   CytoDyn, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti COVID 19 Intravenous Immunoglobulin (C-IVIG) Therapy for Severe COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Anti COVID 19 Intravenous Immunoglobulin (C-IVIG)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Dow University of Health Sciences;   Higher Education Commission (Pakistan)<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>Leronlimab in Critically Ill Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) With Need for Mechanical Ventilation or Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Leronlimab;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein;   CytoDyn, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Proof of Concept Study for the DNA Repair Driven by the Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Critical COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Mesenchymal Stem Cells Transplantation<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   SBÜ Dr. Sadi Konuk Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi;   Istinye University;   Liv Hospital (Ulus)<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Global Phase III Clinical Trial of Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cells)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells);   Other: Placebo control<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Jiangsu Province Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;   WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd.;   West China 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>ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Study of Repurposed Medications</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: Ivermectin Tablets<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Susanna Naggie, MD;   National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS);   Vanderbilt University Medical Center<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>Long non-coding RNAs in Epstein-Barr virus-related cancer</strong> - Epstein Barr-virus (EBV) is related to several cancers. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) act by regulating target genes and are involved in tumourigenesis. However, the role of lncRNAs in EBV-associated cancers is rarely reported. Understanding the role and mechanism of lncRNAs in EBV-associated cancers may contribute to diagnosis, prognosis and clinical therapy in the future. EBV encodes not only miRNAs, but also BART lncRNAs during latency and the BHLF1 lncRNA during both the latent and lytic…</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 ‘deep dive’ into the SARS-Cov-2 polymerase assembly: identifying novel allosteric sites and analyzing the hydrogen bond networks and correlated dynamics</strong> - Replication of the SARS-CoV-2 genome is a fundamental step in the virus life cycle and inhibiting the SARS-CoV2 replicase machinery has been proven recently as a promising approach in combating the virus. Despite this recent success, there are still several aspects related to the structure, function and dynamics of the CoV-2 polymerase that still need to be addressed. This includes understanding the dynamicity of the various polymerase subdomains, analyzing the hydrogen bond networks at the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Time-dependent viral interference between influenza virus and coronavirus in the infection of differentiated porcine airway epithelial cells</strong> - Coronaviruses and influenza viruses are circulating in humans and animals all over the world. Co-infection with these two viruses may aggravate clinical signs. However, the molecular mechanisms of co-infections by these two viruses are incompletely understood. In this study, we applied air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures of well-differentiated porcine tracheal epithelial cells (PTECs) to analyze the co-infection by a swine influenza virus (SIV, H3N2 subtype) and porcine respiratory coronavirus…</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>Sulforaphane inhibits the expression of interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 induced in bronchial epithelial IB3-1 cells by exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein</strong> - CONCLUSION: The control of the cytokine storm is one of the major issues in the management of COVID-19 patients. Our study suggests that SFN can be employed in protocols useful to control hyperinflammatory state associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.</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>Phytochemicals present in Indian ginseng possess potential to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 virulence: A molecular docking and MD simulation study</strong> - Coronaviruses are deadly and contagious pathogens that affects people in different ways. Researchers have increased their efforts in the development of antiviral agents against coronavirus targeting M^(pro) protein (main protease) as an effective drug target. The present study explores the inhibitory potential of characteristic and non-characteristic Withania somnifera (Indian ginseng) phytochemicals (n ≈ 100) against SARS-Cov-2 M^(pro) protein. Molecular docking studies revealed that certain W….</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>Penetrating the Blood-Brain Barrier with New Peptide-Porphyrin Conjugates Having anti-HIV Activity</strong> - Passing through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to treat neurological conditions is one of the main hurdles in modern medicine. Many drugs with promising in vitro profiles become ineffective in vivo due to BBB restrictive permeability. In particular, this includes drugs such as antiviral porphyrins, with the ability to fight brain-resident viruses causing diseases such as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). In the last two decades, BBB shuttles, particularly peptide-based ones, have…</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>Antibodies: what makes us stronger</strong> - Neutralizing antibodies are the basis of almost all approved prophylactic vaccines and the foundation of effective protection from pathogens, including the recently emerging SARS Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, the contribution of antibodies to protection and to the course of the disease during first-time exposure to a pathogen is unknown. We analyzed the antibodies and B cell responses in severe and mild COVID-19 patients. Despite our primary assumption that high antibody titers contribute…</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 screening of quinoline derived library for SARS-COV-2 targeting viral entry and replication</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic infection has claimed many lives and added to the social, economic, and psychological distress. The contagious disease has quickly spread to almost 218 countries and territories following the regional outbreak in China. As the number of infected populations increases exponentially, there is a pressing demand for anti-COVID drugs and vaccines. Virtual screening provides possible leads while extensively cutting down the time and resources required for ab-initio drug design….</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>Tie2 activation protects against prothrombotic endothelial dysfunction in COVID-19</strong> - Profound endothelial dysfunction accompanies the microvascular thrombosis commonly observed in severe COVID-19. In the quiescent state, the endothelial surface is anticoagulant, a property maintained at least in part via constitutive signaling through the Tie2 receptor. During inflammation, the Tie2 antagonist angiopoietin-2 (Angpt-2) is released from activated endothelial cells and inhibits Tie2, promoting a prothrombotic phenotypic shift. We sought to assess whether severe COVID-19 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>4’-Fluorouridine is a broad-spectrum orally efficacious antiviral blocking respiratory syncytial virus and SARS-CoV-2 replication</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for broad-spectrum therapeutics against respiratory viruses. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major threat to pediatric patients and the elderly. We describe 4’-fluorouridine (4’-FlU, EIDD-2749), a ribonucleoside analog that inhibits RSV, related RNA viruses, and SARS-CoV-2 with high selectivity index in cells and well-differentiated human airway epithelia. Polymerase inhibition in in vitro RdRP assays established for RSV 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>Inhibition mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 main protease by ebselen and its derivatives</strong> - The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has triggered global efforts to develop therapeutics. The main protease of SARS-CoV-2 (M^(pro)), critical for viral replication, is a key target for therapeutic development. An organoselenium drug called ebselen has been demonstrated to have potent M^(pro) inhibition and antiviral activity. We have examined the binding modes of ebselen and its derivative in M^(pro) via high resolution co-crystallography and investigated their chemical reactivity via mass spectrometry….</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>Targeting novel LSD1-dependent ACE2 demethylation domains inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication</strong> - Treatment options for COVID-19 remain limited, especially during the early or asymptomatic phase. Here, we report a novel SARS-CoV-2 viral replication mechanism mediated by interactions between ACE2 and the epigenetic eraser enzyme LSD1, and its interplay with the nuclear shuttling importin pathway. Recent studies have shown a critical role for the importin pathway in SARS-CoV-2 infection, and many RNA viruses hijack this axis to re-direct host cell transcription. LSD1 colocalized with ACE2 at…</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>Electroencephalography-detected neurophysiology of internet addiction disorder and internet gaming disorder in adolescents - A review</strong> - CONCLUSION: EEG can identify distinct neurophysiological changes among Internet Addiction Disorder and Internet Gaming Disorder that are akin to substance abuse disorders.</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>Early Humoral Responses of Hemodialysis Patients after COVID-19 Vaccination with BNT162b2</strong> - Background and objectives Patients receiving hemodialysis are at high risk for both SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 disease. A life-saving vaccine is available, but sensitivity to vaccines is generally lower in dialysis patients. Little is yet known about antibody responses after COVID-19 vaccination in this vulnerable group. Design, setting, participants, and measurements In this prospective single-center study, we included 22 dialysis patients and 46 healthy controls from Heidelberg…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Arginine Methylation of SARS-Cov-2 Nucleocapsid Protein Regulates RNA Binding, its Ability to Suppress Stress Granule Formation and Viral Replication</strong> - Viral proteins are known to be methylated by host protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) necessary for the viral life cycle, but it remains unknown whether SARS-CoV-2 proteins are methylated. Herein, we show that PRMT1 methylates SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein at residues R95 and R177 within RGG/RG motifs, preferred PRMT target sequences. We confirmed arginine methylation of N protein by immunoblotting viral proteins extracted from SARS-CoV-2 virions isolated from cell culture. Type I…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>METHOD OF IDENTIFYING SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME CORONA VIRUS 2 (SARS-COV-2) RIBONUCLEIC ACID (RNA)</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU323956811">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO PARTICLE, INCLUDING SARS-CoV-2, DETECTION AND METHODS THEREFOR</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU323295937">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>DEEP LEARNING BASED SYSTEM FOR DETECTION OF COVID-19 DISEASE OF PATIENT AT INFECTION RISK</strong> - The present invention relates to Deep learning based system for detection of covid-19 disease of patient at infection risk. The objective of the present invention is to solve the problems in the prior art related to technologies of detection of covid-19 disease using CT scan image processing. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN324122821">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A COMPREHENSIVE DISINFECTION SYSTEM DURING PANDEMIC FOR PERSONAL ITEMS AND PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE) TO SAFEGUARD PEOPLE</strong> - The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to an enormous demand for gadgets / objects for personal protection. To prevent the spread of virus, it is important to disinfect commonly touched objects. One of the ways suggested is to use a personal UV-C disinfecting box that is “efficient and effective in deactivating the COVID-19 virus. The present model has implemented the use of a UV transparent material (fused silica quartz glass tubes) as the medium of support for the objects to be disinfected to increase the effectiveness of disinfection without compromising the load bearing capacity. Aluminum foil, a UV reflecting material, was used as the inner lining of the box for effective utilization of the UVC light emitted by the UVC lamps. Care has been taken to prevent leakage of UVC radiation out of the system. COVID-19 virus can be inactivated in 5 minutes by UVC irradiation in this disinfection box - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN322882412">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING SYSTEM FOR MENTAL HEALTH MONITORING OF PERSON DURING THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU323295498">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>USE OF IMINOSUGAR COMPOUND IN PREPARATION OF ANTI-SARS-COV-2 VIRUS DRUG</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU322897928">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>一种高灵敏SARS-CoV-2中和抗体的检测方法、检测试剂盒</strong> - 本发明公开了一种高灵敏SARS‑CoV‑2中和抗体的检测方法、检测试剂盒，属于生物医学检测技术领域，本发明试剂盒包括层析试纸、卡壳和样本稀释液，所述层析试纸包括底板、样品垫、结合垫、NC膜和吸水垫，所述NC膜上依次设置有捕获线、检测线和质控线，所述捕获线包被有ACE2蛋白，所述检测线包被有RBD蛋白，所述结合垫设置有RBD蛋白标记物；本发明采用阻断法加夹心法原理提高检测中和抗体的灵敏度，通过添加捕获线的方式，将靶向RBD的非中和抗体提前捕获，保证后续通过夹心法检测中和抗体的特异性。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN323798634">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>逆转录酶突变体及其应用</strong> - 本发明提供一种MMLV逆转录酶突变体，在野生型MMLV逆转录酶氨基酸序列（如SEQ ID No.1序列所示）中进行七个氨基酸位点的突变，氨基酸突变位点为：R205H；V288T；L304K；G525D；S526D；E531G；E574G。该突变体可以降低MMLV逆转录酶对Taq DNA聚合酶的抑制作用，大大提高了一步法RT‑qPCR的灵敏度。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN323494119">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Konstruktion einer elektrochemischen Atemmaske zum aktiven Schutz vor Coronavirus</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Konstruktion einer elektrochemischen medizinischen Atemmaske (1) für den aktiven Schutz gegen Infektion mit Coronaviren dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass ein elektrochemischer Effekt durch eine allgemein positives Magnetfeld der Maske erzeugbar ist, das die positiv geladenen Coronavirus-Mikroorganismen von der Person vertreibt, indem eine aktive elektrochemische Atemmaske (1) aus einem zweischichtigen Material verwendet wird, umfassend eine äußeren Schicht (2) aus einer hochmolekularen Verbindung aus Bambus in Mischung mit Kupfer-, Silber- oder Goldmetallfasern und einer inneren Schicht (3) aus einem Vliesstoff auf Basis von Polypropylenfasern SMS oder SNS, wobei der Maskenkörper aus zwei in der Mitte der Gesichtssymmetrie genähten Elementen gebildet ist, um die Kontur der Gesichtskurven so weit wie möglich zu wiederholen, ausgestattet mit einem Atemfilter (9) mit einem Einsatz aus zwei Schichten ferromagnetischen Metallgewebes, wobei das Filter (9) hat eine herausnehmbare SMS- oder SNS-Vlieskartusche in einem Kunststoffrand (14) und eine Öse zur Fixierung im Filtergehäuse umfasst, wobei die Maske (1) jeweils einen Nasen- und Kinnbügel aus einem flexiblen Einschubstreifen zwischen den beiden Lagen des Maskengewebes aufweist, die eine Fixierung auf Basis von doppelseitig klebendem Silikonklebeband in den Maskenseitenkanten sowie Nacken- und Kopfbefestigungsschlaufen ermöglichen.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE324122059">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Compositions and methods for the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) infection</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU321590214">link</a></p></li>
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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>Are Government Benefits Contributing to Worker Shortages?</strong> - Republicans have argued that unemployment supplements are causing worker shortages. But some progressive economists believe that they are helping workers drive a harder bargain for their time. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/are-government-benefits-contributing-to-worker-shortages">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The High Price of a New York City Cop</strong> - One of the city’s star officers has cost taxpayers more than two and a half million dollars in police-misconduct settlements. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-high-price-of-a-new-york-city-cop">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Beginning of the End of the American Pandemic</strong> - The country is reopening. What does the future hold? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-american-pandemic">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>George Floyd, the Tulsa Massacre, and Memorial Days</strong> - The two tragedies make for easy inferences about the importance of commemoration. But this is not how trauma works. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/george-floyd-the-tulsa-massacre-and-memorial-days">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bitcoin’s Troubles Go Far Beyond Elon Musk</strong> - Recent moves by China have exposed the vulnerability of the cryptocurrency. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/bitcoins-troubles-go-far-beyond-elon-musk">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>In defense of the two-state solution</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BxGrVdkGqjdfhSdCbe9E2slb17I=/333x0:3000x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69344597/GettyImages_1233089934.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A man in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, inspects his destroyed house next to buildings heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes earlier this month. | SOPA/LightRocket/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Some are declaring the two-state paradigm for Israel and Palestine totally doomed. But it’s not — and it’s still worth fighting for.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rFfWnW">
Last week, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in a conflict that claimed <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1395471972600094725">nearly 250 lives</a>. But the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/22447820/israel-hamas-ceasefire-palestine-gaza-truce-meaning">underlying status quo</a> makes another round of fighting <a href="https://www.vox.com/22430488/israel-gaza-war-2021-hamas-sheikh-jarrah">all but inevitable</a>, and a fundamental solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems further away than ever.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PGgYHy">
Worse, the long-running American solution for the problem — a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080090/israel-palestine-peace-process">US-mediated peace process</a> aimed at creating a “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080094/what-are-the-two-state-solution-and-the-one-state-solution">two-state solution</a>,” with an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank existing alongside Israel — has proven to be a dismal failure.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YnCcRD">
Israel has become more and more entrenched in the West Bank, building new Jewish settlements that make it increasingly difficult to imagine a viable Palestinian state on that land. Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership remains deeply divided: The militant group Hamas controls Gaza, while Fatah, a secular nationalist political party, nominally administers the West Bank through the Palestinian Authority (with Israel still ultimately in control).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IFDmIT">
This has led to a growing sense among analysts and experts that the two-state solution is no longer possible. Writing in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/opinion/israel-palestine.html">the New York Times last week</a>, the Arab Center’s Yousef Munayyer proclaimed “a growing global consensus” that “the two-state solution is dead. Israel has killed it.” Last year, influential Jewish American writer Peter Beinart <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/yavne-a-jewish-case-for-equality-in-israel-palestine/">declared that</a> “the project to which liberal Zionists like myself have devoted ourselves for decades — a state for Palestinians separated from a state for Jews — has failed.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2EriCz">
But while pointing out the failings of the current approach is vital, its critics go too far. As far away as it may seem, the two-state solution is still the best possible option available for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That’s in large part because the alternatives are even less plausible.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/T62_MajYyaFAcv-dtTN9Aiqjkt0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22536944/GettyImages_1233087417.jpg"/> <cite>Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Artist Etaf al-Najili paints al-Aqsa Mosque’s Dome of the Rock on a remaining wall section of a damaged building in Gaza City on May 24.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="664E3W">
The most commonly proposed replacement is a “one-state solution,” which would merge Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip into a single democratic country with equal rights for Arabs and Jews. Under this scenario, Arab Muslims would outnumber Jews, thus ending Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. Nor would Palestinians have a state purely to call their own, instead having to accommodate a large Jewish minority.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="clxSo2">
One state is even less likely to happen than a two-state solution. It would involve the most powerful player in the conflict, Israel, choosing to abandon its raison d’être. It’s far more likely to abandon West Bank settlements than to give up on Zionism wholesale.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NijZLS">
This speaks to the deeper reason the two-state solution remains better than the leading alternative: It is the only realistic way of dealing with the fact that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one between two distinct nations<em>.</em> Israelis and Palestinians have fundamentally different identities and different ideas about how they want to be governed; in one state, one of their political projects would necessarily be defeated. This would make future violence more likely, not less.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pvcXyT">
Reviving the goal of a two-state solution is vital. But to do that, it needs to be separated from the moribund peace process. Instead, the US should pursue a strategy that could be termed “deoccupation”: one that aims to weaken the Israeli occupation’s hold on Israeli minds and Palestinian lives while, ultimately, creating the conditions under which its dismantling may become possible.
</p>
<h3 id="49d59G">
Why a two-state solution seems impossible right now
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wufmYQ">
The reason for the surge in one-state advocacy is fairly simple: Developments on the ground have created a kind of one-state reality, one that is slowly but surely eroding the conditions that make partition thinkable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YdRVoX">
There are currently <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-issues-tenders-for-2500-settler-homes-hours-before-biden-inauguration/">650,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank</a>. Many of these settlers live near the “Green Line,” Israel’s border prior to conquering the West Bank, in communities that would likely be ceded to Israel in any peace agreement. Many others reside in settlements across the West Bank, an archipelago built on occupied Palestinian land that cuts Palestinians off from each other by design.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mLPvJ0">
These settlers are governed by Israeli law and protected by Israeli troops, and drive on separate Israeli roads. Palestinians, by contrast, live under a military occupation — given limited self-government under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority, but ultimately subject to the whims of the Israeli occupiers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SC4B1F">
The growth of these settlements has made a two-state solution much harder to envision. The more settlements grow, the harder it will be to physically undo all of the infrastructure that has been put in place to separate them from Palestinians in the West Bank.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wuUSMz">
And the more settlers there are, the harder it will be politically for Israel to remove large numbers of them — a necessary condition for a two-state solution. When Israel evacuated settlers from Gaza in 2005, it was a brutal internal conflict that prompted a vicious right-wing backlash. There were only <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/maps/pages/israels%20disengagement%20plan-%202005.aspx">about 9,000 settlers in Gaza</a> at the time.
</p>
<aside id="yI5juM">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uprEDs">
Life in Gaza today is controlled by Israel in a more indirect way. While Hamas rules inside Gaza, Israel (in partnership with Egypt) tightly controls exit and entry. The stifling Israeli blockade, in theory designed to limit Hamas’s ability to arm itself, has destroyed ordinary Gazans’ ability to build a functional and healthy society. A 2018 UN report estimates that the combination of the blockade and three different wars did damage to Gaza’s economy worth <a href="https://unctad.org/news/israeli-occupation-cost-gaza-167-billion-past-decade-unctad-estimates#:~:text=Extremely%20high%20unemployment%20in%20Gaza&amp;text=Between%202007%20and%202018%2C%20the,and%20unemployment%20increased%20by%2049%25.">roughly six times its GDP</a> — leading to a poverty rate nearly four times what it would have been otherwise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8cZUOa">
Israel’s approach to Gaza and the West Bank, together with its rule over heavily Arab East Jerusalem and its treatment of the Arab Israeli minority inside Israel, prompted two leading human rights groups — the Israeli organization <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid">B’Tselem</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">Human Rights Watch</a> — to issue landmark reports this year declaring the current situation a form of “apartheid.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zZjh0D">
In their view, there is one governing power applying different and unequal sets of laws to two different peoples, defined in ethnonational terms — a unified system of inequality and discrimination, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, that is becoming increasingly difficult to separate into two distinct states in practice.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kyijC9">
As if this weren’t bad enough, the politics on both sides currently make a two-state solution nearly unthinkable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RlnWTA">
Since the failure of the 1990s peace process, left-wing parties in Israel that championed the two-state solution have been in terminal decline, with voters blaming their vision of territorial compromise for the violence of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080066/israel-palestine-intifadas-first-second">Second Intifada</a> in the early 2000s, and the rise of Hamas in Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P5oKGM">
The political right, which favors either the status quo or outright annexation of the West Bank, dominates the political scene. The settlement enterprise is primarily driven by the annexationist right, their ever-expanding enclaves planned to make an Israeli withdrawal more logistically difficult and politically costly. Israel’s rightward political drift, the growth of settlements, and waning public support for the two-state solution are all linked and mutually reinforcing — pushing Israel away from any kind of territorial compromise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yRDbGo">
On the Palestinian side, the biggest problem is political division.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b6TDkw">
During the 1990s peace process, the Palestinians had a unified leadership. The Fatah party controlled both the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, giving its leader, Yasser Arafat, clear authority to negotiate on behalf of Palestinians as a whole. Then, Palestinian elections held in January 2006 delivered a split verdict, with Hamas winning a plurality of seats in the Palestinian parliament.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sXgAF6">
But Hamas and Fatah, now led by Mahmoud Abbas, couldn’t come to terms on how to share power — a disagreement partly fueled by an international community that rejected the idea of a Hamas-led government. Tensions between the two factions ultimately exploded into a brief civil war, which ended with Hamas in control of Gaza and Fatah in charge of the West bank.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1bzBGCqa1SSsYJx_KUEIXFZyL20=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22536961/GettyImages_1233086848.jpg"/> <cite>Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas in Gaza, greets supporters during a rally in Gaza City on May 24.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IjE1jJ">
Since then, repeated efforts to reconcile the two sides have failed; Abbas, whose term as Palestinian Authority president was supposed to end in 2009, rules indefinitely without a popular mandate. Before the war this year, Abbas canceled parliamentary elections, fearing he’d lose — a decision that points both to his lack of legitimacy and fundamental unwillingness to compromise with Gaza’s rulers. Hamas, for its part, runs a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/travel-middle-east-womens-rights-israel-gaza-strip-acc6bdb0383b43d5c13af594374ada88">repressive Islamist regime</a> in Gaza and hopes to extend its laws to the West Bank.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cu0qjf">
As a result, the political unity that once gave Arafat the ability to negotiate with Israel authoritatively no longer exists. There is no political entity that could make a deal on behalf of the Palestinians and enforce it in all of what would become Palestine — and it’s not clear that one will emerge in the near future.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w3RLWY">
Under these circumstances, it’s easy to see why people are proposing a one-state alternative.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rLLTUW">
Israel would not be forced to evacuate the settlements or come to some kind of negotiated compromise with the Palestinians on borders. Instead, it could unilaterally grant equal citizenship to everyone living in the territory and open up elections to all — the first step toward a system that would, in theory, deliver a better future than the status quo perpetuated by endless final status negotiations.
</p>
<h3 id="TYgeAd">
A two-state solution is hard. A one-state solution is even harder.
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W4gRHB">
While one state may sidestep the political barriers to two states, it has its own problems — barriers considerably more serious than those standing in the way of two.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t1iGQB">
The most prominent one-state advocates are, primarily, supporters of Palestine abroad — not Palestinians on the ground. The official position of Fatah remains support for two states, and Hamas <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/5/2/hamas-accepts-palestinian-state-with-1967-borders">accepts it as the starting point for an end to hostilities</a>. Ayman Odeh and Mansour Abbas, the leaders of the major Arab factions in Israel’s Knesset, its parliament, are both two-staters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v3kdmU">
A <a href="http://pcpsr.org/en/node/839">March 2021 poll</a> found that, while support for one state has risen over time among the Palestinian public, it’s still very much a minority position — only one-third of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians support abandoning the pursuit of two states in favor of one.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1YtGYQ">
“I don’t see one state as politically viable when there is currently no party or movement advocating for it inside Palestine,” says Khaled Elgindy, the director of the program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n0A2Oo">
Meanwhile, the nature of the Palestinian factions makes a two-state solution even less thinkable. Israelis see Hamas, with ample evidence, as a group bent on murdering Jewish civilians. Is their armed wing supposed to unify with the Israeli military into a new, jointly administered military? If not, how do you convince them to disarm? And what about the many other Islamist militant groups in Palestine, like Islamic Jihad?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kqZWla">
Perhaps if the political reality on the Palestinian side changes radically, these questions might have answers. But in the short term, there is little prospect for Hamas and Fatah to get over their own differences and somehow unite behind one-state advocacy — let alone for Hamas to change so radically that Israelis would be willing to integrate it into their own government and society.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bTOTgC">
And the politics on the Israeli side poses an even bigger problem.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lSmvkw7fMdbB2kHZoIqrfCWa-i0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22536999/GettyImages_1233047146.jpg"/> <cite>Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Israeli security forces prevent Palestinians from passing through an Israeli police checkpoint at the entrance of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem on May 22.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ng7nvB">
Today, more Arabs than Jews live between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Any one-state solution would also include some version of the right of return, in which Palestinians displaced in 1948 and their descendants are permitted to move back to the new binational state. In a one-state arrangement, Arabs would outnumber Jews by a significant margin.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mNka99">
The result would be the end of Zionism, the vision of a specifically Jewish state that exists to protect Jews in a hostile world. The political structures of the Israeli state as they currently exist would have to be completely unraveled, replaced with some alternative that isn’t oriented around the state’s Jewish identity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PysWe2">
This is more than unacceptable to Israeli Jewish political leaders and citizens: It would, in their minds, amount to total defeat.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H8wfcc">
A <a href="https://www.pcpsr.org/en/node/823">2020 poll</a> found that a scant 10 percent of Jewish Israelis supported a one-state solution in which Palestinians and Jewish Israelis are equal citizens. And only 13 percent of Israel’s Arab citizens supported such an option. By contrast, 42 percent of Jewish Israelis and 59 percent of Arab Israelis supported two states — with much of the opposition among Jews stemming from a sense that two states were not currently achievable rather than a principled unwillingness to compromise.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ngR7O0">
The Israeli commitment to Zionism creates an insuperable political problem for a one-state solution. Israel holds the preponderance of the power in the current situation; getting to one state would require a nuclear-armed state with one of the world’s best-equipped militaries to unilaterally agree to dismantle itself.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Keio0S">
“There’s no conceivable possibility that Israel would agree to disappear in favor of a Palestinian state with a Jewish minority, and there is no one on earth outside of some social media supporting the idea,” Noam Chomsky, the MIT professor and prominent pro-Palestinian intellectual, told me via email.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="79Sj9L">
Compared to that, the barriers to a two-state solution seem more surmountable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1IrQYI">
While evacuating settlements will be challenging for Israel, it has the capacity to do so. Daniel Seidemann, a leading expert on Jerusalem and the geography of the conflict, told me that Israel would have to withdraw and rehome about 185,000 settlers to make a two-state solution viable. This is a logistical challenge but hardly an impossibility: Seidemann points out that, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Israel successfully absorbed roughly a million Jews seeking a new home in Israel.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sW7aMh8CPJYiK3uPy8yA1p5o6x0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22537027/GettyImages_825884482.jpg"/> <cite>Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
The Beitar Illit Israeli settlement in the West Bank in 2017.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FESQCc">
The politics of evacuating Israelis from settlements are much harder than integrating Jewish immigrants from abroad. And yet they are infinitely easier than those of asking Israel to commit what Jewish citizens see as national suicide. If forced to choose between withdrawal and destruction by some kind of pressure campaign, Israel would have both the power and the will to choose the former.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kC5a8W">
“Even if you demand one state, and even if you generate enough pressure on Israel, Israel will retreat to two states,” Yehuda Shaul, the founder of the Israeli anti-occupation activist group Breaking the Silence, tells me. “Once we end the occupation and retreat to the Green Line, no one will support your struggle anymore. It doesn’t matter what you demand; what matters is the geographic and demographic reality on the ground.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ekwl9c">
Similarly, while the divisions between Hamas and Fatah run deep, it’s much easier to imagine them agreeing to share power under the current Palestinian political framework than some new one-state movement. Since the split, there have been repeated negotiations between the two sides and several interim agreements on power-sharing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XVl8Pr">
These agreements, of course, broke down. But part of the problem is that the Palestinians were working with limited international support. A <a href="https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/ending-gazas-perpetual-crisis">2018 report on Gaza and Palestinian division</a> written by a group of leading experts in Washington — including Hady Amr, Biden’s current deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli and Palestinian affairs — argues that a more robust international effort to foster Palestinian unity could offer stronger incentives and security guarantees for all sides, increasing the chance that an agreement might stick.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o5Iy3L">
“Getting agreement from Israel, Hamas, and the PA/PLO will still be extraordinarily difficult, but a campaign coordinated between all the external actors has the greatest likelihood of success,” <a href="https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/ending-gazas-perpetual-crisis">the report argues</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wjiqz8">
Support for a one-state solution is born of a justified sense that the two-state paradigm is failing to deliver. But the argument that it is somehow more realistic than two states only works if one ignores the basic realities on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides of the conflict.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hAsgYG">
“Out of despair, people turn to magic,” as Shaul puts it.
</p>
<h3 id="W3kRcp">
Two states are worth fighting for
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="POD9TY">
One-state advocates are not unaware of these barriers. They believe they can be overcome by the moral force of the one-state democratic vision: an ideal that could galvanize a political movement akin to the South African anti-apartheid struggle, changing the way that people on both sides of the conflict think about themselves and their historic enemies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b2K09s">
“A struggle for equality could elevate Palestinian leaders who possess the moral authority that Abbas and Hamas lack,” Beinart writes. “Progress often appears utopian before a movement for moral change gains traction.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nx0jx6">
But there’s a moral core to the two-state vision as well: self-determination for two peoples, each of which have a history of victimization that leads them to desire a government for and by their own people. And that makes two states not only more feasible than one, but also in certain respects more desirable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sxCY55">
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not just a fight for individual rights, though it is that. It’s a struggle for collective rights between two distinct groups of people. Depriving Israeli Jews of a Jewish state or Palestinians of a Palestinian state would represent a subordination of one group’s aspirations to someone else’s vision.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="SkFfEo">
<q>“I don’t think there’s anyone that thinks that, right away, a one-state solution would lead to political equality between Jews and Arabs”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3nXVLQ">
To overcome that, leaders and ordinary citizens on both sides would need to fundamentally change their national aspirations: Jews would need to reject Zionism and Palestinians reject Palestinian nationalism. That would involve not just changing political institutions, but changing the sorts of identities people have and care about. That is not impossible, but it is exceptionally difficult to imagine in this case.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KW9E6T">
“Abandoning the desire for self-determination, something that has been the very raison d’etre of Palestinian nationalism since the 1960s and something that has actually been achieved by Zionists, is a steep demand to make of both,” Nadav Shelef, a University of Wisconsin professor who studies national identity and ethnic struggle, <a href="https://pomeps.org/israel-palestine-and-the-prospects-for-denationalization">wrote</a> in a recent essay applying academic research on how nationalist sentiment declines to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JAlvuR">
Given the entrenched identities on both sides, it would likely be nearly impossible to create a truly “democratic” single state in which both communities feel authentically represented. Far more likely is a situation in which one national vision dominates the other, either by force of arms or force of numbers. In either case, one side will feel unrepresented by a one-state reality — which is a recipe for disaster.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pvG886">
“I don’t think there’s anyone that thinks that, right away, a one-state solution would lead to political equality between Jews and Arabs,” Shelef tells me in a phone interview. “In that context, you would expect a one-state solution would lead to violence.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PVyKnLhx5l4F3-2uaOcESmXMmf4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22537045/GettyImages_1233081518.jpg"/> <cite>NurPhoto/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Children wave Palestinian flags at the site of a house that was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza on May 23.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tqrjT0">
This analysis depends, crucially, on exclusive national identities on both sides running quite deep. Syracuse University professor Yael Zeira, an expert on nationalism, tells me that identities can be altered: that “physically separating ethnic groups in conflict is not necessarily required to achieve peace.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PPXNk3">
But if anything, these national identities seem to be hardening, not softening.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wa9iQt">
For instance, during the recent war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, communal violence between Jews and Arabs erupted on the streets of demographically mixed cities within Israel. This fighting reflected the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2021/5/15/22436068/israel-violence-lod-bat-yam-jerusalem-lynching-arab-jewish-palestinian">deepening mistrust between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel</a>, fed by anti-Arab sentiment among Jews and a justified sense among Arabs that the Jewish majority does not consider them full and equal citizens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ddFYOa">
And yet, Arab Israelis, also known as Palestinian citizens of Israel, had been part of the Jewish state for decades — and, in recent years, had made<a href="https://twitter.com/YairWallach/status/1393339362994237444"> significant strides toward integration in Israeli social and cultural life</a>. If tensions between Israelis and Palestinians can cause major internal violence in this context, it’s hard to imagine that a one-state reality would be remotely stable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tisXjR">
“It’s like saying Israelis and Palestinians hate each other so much that they can’t get divorced — and that they’ll have to have a successful marriage instead,” Seidemann, the Jerusalem expert, told me.
</p>
<h3 id="Mc4wfm">
To save the two-state solution, ditch the “peace process”
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rIIDyT">
Even if the prospect of a two-state solution seems impossible right now, it’s not impossible to imagine eventually getting there — if the right steps are taken.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tKqQJo">
“We can ignite a process that will create the reality of two states,” Ami Ayalon, former commander in chief of the Israeli navy and now peace activist, told me. “Probably it will take 10 or 20 years to execute, but we can achieve [it].”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4eCEl0">
Recent reports from <a href="https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/a-new-u-s-strategy-for-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict">the Center for a New American Security</a> (CNAS) and the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/files/BreakingtheStatusQuo_final2.pdf">Carnegie Endowment for International Peace</a> — prominent think tanks that recently employed some of Biden’s top foreign policy officials — have outlined ways to shift American policy away from immediate negotiations and toward changing the reality on the ground.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4bEEhA">
The first step, these experts say, should be to abandon the US-led peace process as traditionally conceived. This doesn’t mean Washington shouldn’t still be involved; America is by far the most important international actor here, given its close relationship with Israel and traditional role leading Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WYwnbMM-6ivcXZGx_AFH8qHwLbY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22537084/GettyImages_1319128848.jpg"/> <cite>Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the conflict in the Middle East after speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on May 20.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pvX6pS">
Rather, it just means the US focus needs to shift from trying to negotiate a final peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians to trying to create the conditions under which one is possible — a strategy Seidemann suggests could be called “deoccupation.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dfpHOW">
The goal of a deoccupation strategy is to halt and eventually reverse the processes that are pushing the two sides further away from two states, with the ultimate aim of returning to final status negotiations when conditions have changed. It involves three key aspects: 1) raising the costs of the status quo for Israel; 2) changing the political equation on both sides; and 3) rethinking what an acceptable two-state solution might look like.
</p>
<h4 id="nYSOYZ">
<ol type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Raise the costs of the status quo for Israel
</li></ol></h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9FRYfj">
“The United States needs to send a clear and consistent signal to Israel that the violation of norms and the undermining of U.S. policy goals will have consequences,” the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/files/BreakingtheStatusQuo_final2.pdf">Carnegie report</a> argues. “Absent these messages and the policies to back them up, the trajectory of Israeli policy and politics will not change and the door on peaceful conflict resolution and a two-state outcome will further close.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6NJ4PM">
As a baseline, this requires openly rejecting the Trump administration’s “peace plan,” which <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2020/1/28/21111890/trump-israel-palestine-peace-plan-deal-century-apartheid">gave Israelis everything and Palestinians nothing</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7QmLmO">
It also means using US leverage over Israel to push it back on a better path. This could involve ending the US practice of vetoing UN Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, and putting conditions on <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf">the $3.8 billion of military aid</a> the US gives to Israel every year, requiring the Israeli government to do things like ease the blockade of Gaza and freeze settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9YtDZE">
This kind of approach used to be unthinkable in Washington, given staunch pro-Israel sentiment on both sides. But <a href="https://www.vox.com/22440197/us-israel-democrats-alliance-partisanship-gaza">a dramatic shift in attitudes on the Democratic side</a> — both in public opinion and on Capitol Hill — has created an opportunity for the US to use its leverage over Israel in pursuit of peace.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fZiVBp">
There’s even <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/6/in-washington-a-debate-grows-about-conditioning-us-aid-to-israel">a bill in the House right now</a>, written by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), that aims to block the use of US-provided weapons in Israeli human rights abuses. It has the support of both prominent legislators like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and J Street, the pro-peace Israel lobby that regularly attracts leading Democrats to its annual gathering.
</p>
<h4 id="bnwNdV">
<ol start="2" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Foster the political conditions under which genuine negotiations are possible
</li></ol></h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="psA09Z">
This means both supporting the pro-peace camp in Israel and, more controversially, working to reconcile Hamas and Fatah to create a unified Palestinian leadership that could make authoritative promises.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vWDJ1Q">
Mechanisms for achieving that include increasing funding to pro-peace civil society groups, negotiating with Hamas through third parties like Egypt, and investing significant resources in repairing broken Palestinian political institutions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EGAVjg">
This will mean the US having to abandon its longstanding skepticism about including Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, in a Palestinian government — working not only to making such an outcome happen, but to create a world in which Israel could accept and even negotiate with its longtime enemy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hf7X9G">
“The United States must encourage intra-Palestinian reconciliation by becoming more flexible about the composition of the government that the Palestinians form,” the CNAS report explains.
</p>
<h4 id="PjoEvv">
<ol start="3" type="1">
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Rethink what an acceptable two-state solution could look like
</li></ol></h4>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QQWmr3">
Finally, the US and other international actors need to think more flexibly about the conditions that make two states so difficult — and what a solution to them might look like.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OgTiF8">
For example, a final agreement could allow some West Bank settlers to stay if they agree to Palestinian rule — an option once proposed by <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/d2106i">the late Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said</a> as the only viable alternative to his preferred one-state solution.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GjhFlq">
Another option would be <a href="https://tcf.org/content/report/confederation-alternative-israel-palestine/">a confederal solution</a>, a kind of 1.5-state arrangement in which Israel and Palestine are separate governments that maintain an EU-like open borders agreement. Israeli citizens could live in the West Bank, and many Palestinian refugees could return to their homes inside the Green Line — but they would vote in Israeli and Palestinian elections, respectively.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JoIAfo">
This sort of modified two-state solution is hardly easy. Much like the one-state solution, there are no meaningful factions on the ground lobbying for it. And leaving a large number of settlers in the West Bank has the potential to reignite violence even after an agreement. Erin Jenne, an expert on ethnic conflict at Central European University, told me that “stay behind” minorities are one of the key reasons why partitions have failed to solve conflicts in other cases (like India and Pakistan).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PO1Dx1">
But the purpose of proposing ideas like confederation is not to present a silver bullet replacement for two states. It’s to broaden the scope of diplomatic discussions, ultimately changing the contours of negotiations in a way that actually makes a two-state approach more plausible.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hSetjFoMlJggk3iPcUcGpd5jAtg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22537102/GettyImages_1233079243.jpg"/> <cite>SOPA/LightRocket/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Nazmy al-Dahdouh, 70, releases his birds above the ruins of his home, destroyed in recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, on May 23.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RaB8LF">
“Confederation can help expand the range of possible options and negotiating tools available to the two sides — particularly at a time when physical realities have all but foreclosed the classic two-state model and political conditions do not yet allow for an egalitarian, one-state option,” Elgindy, the Middle East Institute scholar, wrote in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/fp_20180601_after_oslo.pdf">a 2018 report for the Brookings Institution</a>. “In order to salvage the possibility of a two-state solution we may first need to abandon it on some level.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4hORsD">
There is no guarantee that this three-pronged approach will succeed. But if implemented, it would represent a radical shift away from the current American approach — abandoning the conceit that the US-Israel alliance alone would give Israel the confidence it needed to sacrifice land for peace.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ClY0PP">
And the very fact that this new approach is available, and that it’s being proposed by leading experts with real clout in Washington, suggests that the world hasn’t exhausted every avenue for pursuing two states.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F3WSI1">
Thinking of the available options as a binary between the traditional approach and a one-state solution is a mistake. There are other, more realistic possibilities — ones that do not involve wishing away the fundamental facts of Israeli military dominance, strong Jewish attachment to Zionism, and the Palestinian quest for independent statehood.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4taZgt">
No one should be too hopeful about the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the best hope for avoiding a future of apartheid or violence isn’t trying to achieve the unachievable; it’s thinking of new ways to reach a solution that both sides have already said they can live with.
</p></li>
<li><strong>How Black Lives Matter reenergized Black-Palestinian solidarity</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YfObcrRsKE3D2XVBcSa44ZujHuY=/167x0:2834x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69344390/GettyImages_1232039092.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
A mural of George Floyd is painted on a section of Israel’s controversial separation barrier in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on March 31. | Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Many progressive, youthful Black organizations have embraced Palestinian liberation as a core element of their global agenda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4SxNkg">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XUijPo">
Marching in a recent Ithaca, New York, demonstration in solidarity with Palestine was one of the truly gratifying moments of my life as an internationalist.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ADM0cL">
Organized by Cornell University undergraduates, the protest against Israel’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/22430488/israel-gaza-war-2021-hamas-sheikh-jarrah">latest, massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/10/22428819/israel-palestine-jerusalem-mosque-violence-biden">assault on Palestinians within and beyond Jerusalem</a> proved that even in Ithaca — a sleepy college town in upstate New York — one finds some of the legions of civilians around the world who have mobilized against Israel’s brutal policies of occupation and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/israel-collectively-punishes-population-gaza-targeting-homes">collective punishment</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3J8UHI">
The Ithaca demonstration, which featured a rally on Cornell’s campus followed by a march to the downtown commons, was heartening for another reason: The crowd of roughly 300 included a generous smattering of Black and brown faces. Indeed, almost half of the participants were people of color, most of them students.
</p>
<div id="95CyRt">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eUOxeY">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ymEb7S">
That a critical mass of young people was willing to openly support Palestinian freedom — a cause many progressive activists once viewed as a third rail — reflects the extent to which public discourse on this issue has shifted. Even in the US, the citadel of support for Israeli might, some mainstream news outlets now supplement conventional assertions of Israel’s “right to defend itself” with forthright themes of Palestinian liberation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zEQ0O7">
In some ways, the visible presence of African Americans in many pro-Palestine mobilizations of recent weeks, including rallies in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, constitutes an equally remarkable cultural transition. While no wholesale pivot to the anti-imperialist left is underway, there are signs of a revitalization of some of the most vibrant traditions of Black internationalism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b4xhLJ">
It may be an exaggeration to suggest that the upsurge of mass resistance to white supremacy that propelled the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has also reenergized ideals of global solidarity among African Americans. But there can be no doubt that BLM, which some have dubbed the <a href="https://www.interlinkbooks.com/in-solidarity-with-the-american-intifada/">“American Intifada,”</a> has driven to the center of Black political awareness questions of human rights and state violence — and principles of popular revolt — that are germane to Palestinian struggle.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o0fJy3">
Still, transformations of consciousness are never absolute. If Palestinian suffering is increasingly legible to some African Americans, especially those younger progressives who have radicalized the practice of domestic anti-racism, many remaining barriers must be overcome before Black solidarity with Palestine becomes a genuinely grassroots phenomenon in the US.
</p>
<h3 id="47iaVW">
The Black Lives Matter movement reenergized Black-Palestinian solidarity
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gZG465">
African American militants have long been among the staunchest allies of Palestinians. During the heyday of the US civil rights era, Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee all <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29556">embraced the demand for Palestinian liberation</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SELQG4">
After the 1960s and ’70s, the strands of African American-Palestinian solidarity waxed and waned. But those bonds were strengthened in recent years when new bouts of state violence led both populations to cultivate overseas support.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_rj1DUczKOePVRc47B04uFBlvMQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22538656/GettyImages_1227130050.jpg"/> <cite>Archives/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Representatives of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) meet with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chair Yasser Arafat (center) in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 21, 1979.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JaAKjC">
Some of the most powerful exchanges occurred after the advent of BLM as a mass movement in 2014. Palestinians played a crucial role in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2015/5/31/17937728/ferguson-missouri-michael-brown-police-shooting-black-lives-matter">Ferguson, Missouri, uprising that flared that year in the wake of the police killing of Black teenager Michael Brown</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BU01hr">
Palestinian activists <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2014/08/16/palestinians-and-ferguson-protesters-link-arms-via-social-media">used social media to share with African American protesters tactics</a> for dealing with tear gas attacks by militarized police forces — an experience with which many subjects of Israeli occupation are all too familiar.
</p>
<div id="1PRqGs">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Don’t Keep much distance from the Police, if you’re close to them they can’t tear Gas. To <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ferguson</a> from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Palestine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Palestine</a>
</p>
— Rajai Abukhalil (<span class="citation" data-cites="Rajaiabukhalil">@Rajaiabukhalil</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rajaiabukhalil/status/499768093921800192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 14, 2014</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<div id="bBe3yR">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
The oppressed stands with the oppressed.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Palestine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Palestine</a> stands with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ferguson</a>. <a href="http://t.co/hxK94VqfsO">pic.twitter.com/hxK94VqfsO</a>
</p>
— Abbas Sarsour (<span class="citation" data-cites="iFalasteen">@iFalasteen</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/iFalasteen/status/499819258373623808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 14, 2014</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J8tvYU">
In 2015, more than 1,000 Black organizers and intellectuals <a href="http://www.blackforpalestine.com/read-the-statement.html">signed a solidarity statement</a> condemning Israel’s lopsided war on Gaza and stranglehold on the West Bank. That year also saw the release of a stylish video titled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5RY4MjdoXM">“When I See Them I See Us”</a> that featured African American figures, from activist Angela Davis to singer Lauryn Hill, highlighting the “similarities, but not sameness,” of Black and Palestinian subjugation and resilience.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4DxUi0">
BLM, which rejuvenated mass African American protest amid the bourgeois racial politics of the Obama years, also provided a new framework for fashioning Black and Palestinian affinities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xUrY6K">
Progressive, youthful Black organizations, from the Dream Defenders to Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, embraced Palestinian liberation as a core element of their global agenda.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VXLffq">
Some members of these and other African American groups toured Palestinian territories as part of international delegations, then returned to the US to circulate accounts — overwhelmingly absent from Western reportage — of the barbaric conditions of life under Israeli occupation. Often, such travelers were struck by the warm hospitality of the Palestinians, who appeared eager to forge cultural and social links to Black America.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VogmC9yESKwfF_Ukl20bYOCvEI4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22539390/GettyImages_453740034.jpg"/> <cite>Bilgin Sasmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
A protester waves Palestinian flag in solidarity with people in Gaza during a demonstration against police violence after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 16, 2014.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5NLZ5w">
Meanwhile, African American thinkers such as journalist <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/30/cnn-fires-contributor-marc-lamont-hill-for-criticising-israel">Marc Lamont Hill</a> and author <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/19/opinion/sunday/martin-luther-king-palestine-israel.html">Michelle Alexander</a> braved vilification to denounce Israeli practices of “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vhCMiA">
Similar acts of solidarity unfolded during the recent, bloody siege of Palestinian civilian populations by the Israeli military. Groups such as <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/passaic/paterson/2021/05/12/paterson-really-palestinian-rights-draws-crowd-hundreds/5024698001/">Black Lives Matter of Paterson, New Jersey</a>, have decried the wildly uneven violence unleashed on Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and Israel, and have called on the US, which funnels <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf">$3.8 billion to Israel in military aid annually</a>, to stop sponsoring the carnage.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vFh2fZ">
Such expressions of kinship do not erupt spontaneously. Many of the latest manifestations of African American-Palestinian mutuality reflect the work of US organizations such as Existence Is Resistance that have designed political education campaigns to counter Western erasures and distortions of Palestinian socio-historical realities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gosKhu">
But to gain a fuller picture of African American outlooks, one must weigh such comradely efforts against deep dimensions of ambivalence. In truth, the Palestine issue generates no more consensus among Black Americans than it does among Americans more broadly.
</p>
<h3 id="uXTR9V">
Black people aren’t immune to the American ignorance of foreign conflicts
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R8Ej5U">
There will always be those African Americans who oppose, on ideological grounds, the right of Palestinians to self-determination and territorial restoration. Many such individuals belong to churches that propagate essentialist theories of “Judeo-Christian” values or otherwise promote Christian Zionist beliefs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QP7Rza">
Some African Americans are simply accommodationists who refuse to challenge the foreign policy dictates of US elites. Others harbor real admiration for Israel, in some instances seeing the state as a model of uncompromising sovereignty and ethnocentrism that Black nationalists should attempt to emulate.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
<aside id="kv6epa">
<q>African American militants have long been among the staunchest allies of Palestinians</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xPW6Xr">
But the opposite of solidarity is not antagonism; it is indifference. Black people are hardly immune to the ignorance with which so many Americans view foreign, nonwhite populations. Victims of white supremacy, African Americans are nevertheless fully capable of internalizing and reproducing the racist, Orientalist tropes that have buttressed imperial ventures within and beyond the Arab world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DAZkHS">
As members of a marginalized population, some Black Americans are loath to bear the social costs of open identification with Palestinians, a stigmatized group located thousands of miles away. In the end, many Black people may lack the desire or knowledge to contest framings of Israel-Palestine as a hopelessly intractable conflict rooted in ancient hostilities.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NHCxT5">
Nor has the compass of African American political conscience always pointed toward Palestine. Prior to the mid-1950s and ’60s, when events such as the 1956 Suez Crisis and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War underscored the imperialist nature of the Zionist project, many African Americans supported statehood for Jewish refugees. Like other Westerners, they tended to overlook the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080030/israel-palestine-nakba">violent displacement<strong> </strong>of Palestinians<strong> </strong>that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4NkmaN">
Still, it is safe to say that African American perspectives on Palestine remain well to the left of those of the American majority.
</p>
<h3 id="HbsfNL">
Solidarity is never predetermined — it must be reconstructed by each generation
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gW9kyP">
As demands for Palestinian liberation gain international momentum, buoyed by the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/9/18172826/bds-law-israel-boycott-states-explained">Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement</a>, the relative independence of social media, and the painstaking labor of countless activists, expressions of Black kinship with Palestinians may continue to expand.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u7KSj0">
But if they do so, it will not be the result of mere similarities between African American and Palestinian oppression. Connections, of course, do exist; both populations face conditions of “internal colonialism,” including racialization, dispossession, underdevelopment, and state violence. However, no perfect analogy exists between Black and Palestinian suffering. Parallelism alone cannot foster a sense of shared fate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IHZfwE">
For African American camaraderie with Palestine to become a truly popular ideal, broad segments of the Black rank and file must recognize the global scope of white supremacy. They must see the need to form insurgent, international alliances across lines of color and culture. These principles must transcend the ranks of seasoned organizers, galvanizing those who lack firsthand experience with anti-racist and anti-imperialist campaigns.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eULsaH9s1FMKX563PrxYAGf4i5g=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22539406/GettyImages_1233054302.jpg"/> <cite>Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Demonstrators gather for a “rally for Palestine” in Queens, New York, on May 22.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pNZ58g">
The complexity of African American political aspirations suggests that such an awakening is entirely possible.<strong> </strong>The Black working classes have never equated their own freedom with the demise of formal segregation, or with the prospect of greater social inclusion within the apparatus of American empire. They have rarely let parochialism constrain their visions of a more just and egalitarian world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="URMKcn">
I suspect that in the final analysis, many Black people can fully appreciate the Palestinian cause, a protracted struggle for land, autonomy, and cultural redemption that posits the total dismantling of domination as the horizon of human dignity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3k2uui">
Solidarity is never predetermined. It must be reconstructed by each generation. I draw hope, therefore, from the scattered evidence that, practically everywhere, an insurgent spirit is spreading.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DBRLD0">
During the recent Ithaca march, I spotted on the sidelines a cluster of young African American men. They appeared to be non-students — members, perhaps, of the town’s tiny, working-class Black community. They watched intently but did not join the throngs of chanting protesters. “Black and Palestinian liberation,” I shouted in their direction, and raised a fist. They said nothing. Yet one of them signaled his approval by wrapping me in a spontaneous hug.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M5aZp1">
<em>Russell Rickford is an associate professor of history at Cornell University. </em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rFeuCK">
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Journalists can tweet about Black Lives Matter but not about Palestine</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9vg2SFfEpA-tGqN7R7iOyKEGX9w=/588x0:7372x5088/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69344314/1233016201.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The wreckage of the Al-Jalaa Tower in Gaza City, which was demolished by an Israeli air strike in May. The building hosted the offices of the Associated Press. | Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Newsrooms are debating, in real time, what’s okay to say out loud and what you’re supposed to keep in your head. Ask Emily Wilder.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xrspDB">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uqlVuZ">
Last week, no one had heard of Emily Wilder. Then she became the focus of a national campaign to get her fired. Days later, she was.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RXUgYQ">
Things move fast. So there’s a good chance that days from now, the story of a rookie journalist who lost her job because of the way she used social media to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will have faded from the discourse. Her firing will become just another bullet point in future stories about “cancel culture” on the right and left.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EFMur5">
On the other hand: I have a hunch that the particular circumstances of Wilder’s narrative will have more resonance than your standard Outrage of the Week. Because it merges two storylines — the long-running, intractable standoff between Israelis and Palestinians, and the newer, intractable fight over fairness and objectivity in journalism that is being hashed out on Twitter and in Slack rooms and in the real world. What do fairness and objectivity in journalism really mean? And do those two ideas have to be linked at the hip? That is: Can you be fair in your reporting but abandon “the unreasonable and hideously stupid expectation that reporters must harbor no strong opinions about the things they care about,” as <a href="https://defector.com/its-never-about-fairness/">journalist Laura Wagner put it in Defector</a>?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BwwHUz">
Answers that might have made sense a few years ago don’t seem to work anymore, so journalists, their bosses, and their readers are coming up with answers on the fly — and, in this case, failing miserably.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MHYWQy">
First, the chronology, as relayed by Wilder in press interviews and via <a href="https://twitter.com/vv1lder/status/1396142932583874563/photo/1">Twitter</a>:
</p>
<ul>
<li id="0FXvdd">
Wilder, who graduated from Stanford in 2020 and had been working as an intern for the Arizona Republic, went to work for the Associated Press this month as a “news associate” in Phoenix, “<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6787476120720809984/">helping edit and produce content for publication”</a> — an entry-level job.
</li>
<li id="N3qx2P">
On Monday, May 14, the <a href="https://twitter.com/Stanford_GOP/status/1394452686003654656">Twitter account</a> for the Stanford College Republicans circulated old tweets and quotes — commentary critical of Israeli policies and supporters, like calling Republican donor Sheldon Adelson a “naked mole rat” — from her days as a student activist at Stanford. Those were quickly recirculated by right-wing outlets like Fox News and the Federalist.
</li>
<li id="8DeIPu">
Wilder says an Associated Press manager told her that the news organization would investigate her social media use, but that she shouldn’t worry. “The editor said I was not going to get in any trouble because everyone had opinions in college,” Wilder told <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Emily-Wilder-Associated-Press-Israel-Palestine-AP-16192391.php">SFGate</a>. “Then came the rest of the week.”
</li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7Ux43Q">
On Thursday, May 17, she was fired for violating the AP’s social media guidelines. Wilder said she asked the AP to tell her what specifically she’d done wrong but hasn’t received an answer. “I asked them, ‘Please tell me what violated the policy,’ and they said, ‘No.’”
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Khzk67">
The AP says it fired Wilder for violating the company’s social media policy while employed there — that is, not for tweets she made prior to getting hired — but wouldn’t spell out specific infractions. A rep passed along this statement:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F2IQZ2">
While AP generally refrains from commenting on personnel matters, we can confirm Emily Wilder’s comments on Thursday that she was dismissed for violations of AP’s social media policy during her time at AP. We have this policy so the comments of one person cannot create dangerous conditions for our journalists covering the story. Every AP journalist is responsible for safeguarding our ability to report on this conflict, or any other, with fairness and credibility, and cannot take sides in public forums.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PtCUIK">
So we’re left to guess at Wilder’s supposed infractions. The most likely candidate is this May 16 tweet — posted the day before the Stanford College Republicans went after her — critiquing the way mainstream media covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
</p>
<div id="JyvJ3G">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
“objectivity” feels fickle when the basic terms we use to report news implicitly stake a claim. using “israel” but never “palestine,” or “war” but not “siege and occupation” are political choices—yet media make those exact choices all the time without being flagged as biased
</p>
— emily wilder (<span class="citation" data-cites="vv1lder">@vv1lder</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/vv1lder/status/1394073763289829378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2021</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nlmg6I">
Which presumably conflicts with the AP’s <a href="https://www.ap.org/assets/documents/social-media-guidelines_tcm28-9832.pdf">policy</a> that “employees must refrain from declaring their views on contentious public issues in any public forum.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6xWxTH">
Wilder has also retweeted several other tweets about the conflict, and the AP says that “Retweets, like tweets, should not be written in a way that looks like you’re expressing a personal opinion on the issues of the day. A retweet with no comment of your own can easily be seen as a sign of approval of what you’re relaying … unadorned retweets must be avoided.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ykEV0P">
But let’s be clear: Wilder was working out of the AP’s Phoenix newsroom, half a world away from its former offices in Gaza, which were <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-west-bank-gaza-middle-east-israel-palestinian-conflict-7974cc0c03897b8b21e5fc2f8c7d8a79">destroyed this month by Israeli airstrikes</a>. Firing her doesn’t “safeguard” the AP’s ability to report on the conflict in any way. All of this tweet-parsing is ridiculous and shameful. The most charitable explanation is that her managers really didn’t like a handful of tweets their new hire had made — which is something they could resolve without firing her. But firing her days after she became the target of a political campaign is an explicit capitulation, and a green light for other groups to target other journalists with similar efforts — which they most certainly will.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YaUYe0">
It’s worth noting that we still haven’t heard directly from anyone at the AP about its side of the story in any detail. In a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/05/24/ap-associated-press-emily-wilder/">memo distributed to AP employees this weekend</a>, executives wrote that “much of the coverage and commentary does not accurately portray what took place,” but didn’t offer their own version of events.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H5TKyp">
But if the premise of the AP’s actions is that the appearance of wrongdoing is as important as the act itself, then the AP is the guilty party here: It’s signaled that it will throw its journalists under the bus at a moment’s notice if people on Twitter complain loudly enough. And while the AP has told employees it intends to have an internal “conversation” about its social media policy, my hunch is that it’s still going to be fundamentally uncomfortable with a point of view common among journalists in 2021 — which is that they have points of view, and pretending otherwise is dishonest.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6C0oD2">
Wilder’s firing is one inflection point in a complex and evolving debate about journalistic objectivity that’s usually addressed sideways, rather than head-on. It highlights the strain newsrooms in the US are experiencing as they try to figure out how to tell journalists what beliefs they can express publicly. And which ones they’re either not supposed to have or that they’re supposed to pretend not to have.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YLLbf9">
Consider: Last year, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Americans on social media aligned, at least temporarily, behind the Black Lives Matter moment. There were few willing to defend the actions of the Minneapolis police officers who killed him or didn’t stop his murder. And social media services were bursting with people proclaiming their opposition to systemic racism and support for the Black Lives Matter movement — a movement that had been considered left-of-mainstream just a few years earlier.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eTU1Vr">
That momentum swept up middle-of-the-road mega-companies, like <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2020/06/12/advancing-our-work-on-racial-equity">Walmart</a> and Amazon. And it definitely included newsrooms, including my own: Last June, Vox.com managers sent out a memo reminding us that Vox journalists aren’t supposed to participate in political rallies, and to “refrain from using hashtags associated with movements and organizations we are actively covering, or publicly endorsing them.” That said, the memo added: “Racism is not a ‘both sides’ issue, and employees are free to speak out against racism and inequality.” It was a major shift.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e8m5HT">
In the recent past, some mainstream journalists would announce, in public, that they didn’t vote because they didn’t want their work to be biased — or because they wanted to prevent anyone, ever, from accusing them of bias. And <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/08/why-i-dont-vote/">some of that thinking still, amazingly, exists</a>. But it’s wildly out of step with the present moment, where debates about ideology and politics have been replaced with debates between facts and fiction.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1BfxOi">
Half of Republicans, for instance, believe that the Capitol Riot “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-disinformation/half-of-republicans-believe-false-accounts-of-deadly-u-s-capitol-riot-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN2BS0RZ">was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists ‘trying to make Trump look bad</a>.’” And that’s a story that requires no work at all to understand — you have to work hard <em>not</em> to comprehend what happened on January 6.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bk6qiz">
But when it comes to Israel and Palestine, there’s nothing like that kind of clarity, even among people who generally see the world the same way you do: Declare your support for children killed by Israeli artillery in Gaza, and you may find your Slackmate or Instagram followers have a lot to say about Hamas rockets aimed at Israel, or <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-condemns-attacks-us-jewish-community-despicable-2021-05-24/">about a spike in anti-Semitic attacks worldwide</a> since the most recent conflict. Or, just as likely, you may hear an uncomfortable silence. And my hunch is that those responses may surprise a younger generation of journalists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bLxUyj">
Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting for decades, but we haven’t seen much of the conflict unfold during the social media age that really started in the 2010s, years after the last full-scale intifada: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/dec/06/first-social-media-war-israel-gaza">People have certainly employed social media as a weapon in the conflict</a>, but that was before social media was all-encompassing, and before algorithmic design brought stuff to you before you knew you wanted to see it. Which means there’s a generation of Twitterers, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/24/21300631/instagram-black-lives-matter-politics-blackout-tuesday">Instagrammers</a>, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/22436208/palestinians-gaza-israel-tiktok-social-media">TikTokers</a> fully accustomed to sharing their views and advocating for causes online, but who haven’t seen pushback from most of their peers or bosses before.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BqfpR4">
See, for example, a recent tweet from the New Yorker Union declaring support for Palestine by expressing “<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-yorker-union-accused-of-urging-israels-genocide-for-supporting-palestinians-from-the-river-to-the-sea">solidarity for Palestinians from the river to the sea</a>.” After critics argued that the phrase was anti-Semitic — whether that’s true is also <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/415250/from-the-river-to-the-sea-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-means/">up for debate</a> — the union deleted it.
</p>
<div id="ZtHS3g">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
We stand in solidarity with the Palestinians who went on strike for dignity and rights. We’ve removed our original post, which used a phrase with connotations that distracted from our intended message of solidarity.
</p>
— The New Yorker Union (<span class="citation" data-cites="newyorkerunion">@newyorkerunion</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/newyorkerunion/status/1395141188525690880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KR4CZ6">
Then again, things are changing. It used to be that mainstream American politics had room for just one response when it came to Israel and Palestine. Now some <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/us/politics/israel-gaza-democrats-biden.html">Democrats, at least, are willing to critique Israeli behavior</a> instead of supporting the country’s actions without reservation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tDNGLG">
So are some celebrities, though there are limits to how freely they can express that. Earlier this month, Mark Ruffalo, who has a starring role in Disney’s Marvel universe, <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo/status/1392103671282864136">compared Israel to South African apartheid</a>. Now he seems to have either walked back that post or something else:
</p>
<div id="BBnfFt">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
I have reflected &amp; wanted to apologize for posts during the recent Israel/Hamas fighting that suggested Israel is committing “genocide”. It’s not accurate, it’s inflammatory, disrespectful &amp; is being used to justify antisemitism here &amp; abroad. Now is the time to avoid hyperbole.
</p>
— Mark Ruffalo (<span class="citation" data-cites="MarkRuffalo">@MarkRuffalo</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkRuffalo/status/1397023731722113032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YRTOer">
Which is a pretty good summary, maybe, of the mess we’re in right now: Americans have conflicting feelings about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but they aren’t quite sure about how to express that — and how publicly to do it. So of course journalists are in the same boat, but they’re also the ones who are often called on to pretend that they don’t have any opinion at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1OJRMt">
That might have worked in the past. But it certainly doesn’t now. Which is why Emily Wilder’s story may stick with us for a while longer.
</p>
<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>Explainer | Why are football fans in England protesting against club owners?</strong> - The unrest among football fans in England has existed well-before the recent ESL debacle - among their biggest demands are the implementation of the German 50+1 rule and an Independent Football Regulatory body.</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>Kohli, Rohit static in ODI batting chart, Bumrah 5th among bowlers</strong> - India skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy Rohit Sharma held on to their second and third positions respectively in the batting chart, while pacer Jas</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>Umar Akmal pays 4.5 million rupee fine, to take part in Anti-Corruption Unit’s rehab program</strong> - It may take some time before the Pakistan batsman can resume his cricket career</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>People won’t understand how it feels to face racism throughout your entire life: Holding</strong> - Holding was speaking on Sky Sports’ ‘The Cricket Show’ on the first death anniversary of African-American George Floyd, who died at the hands of a white police office in the Minnesota last year.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>People won’t understand how it feels to face racism throughout your entire life: Holding</strong> - “Some people say things and don’t even realise what they are saying or the effect it might have on a black person.”</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>Three of family die of COVID-19</strong> - Three persons of a family died of COVID-19 related complications at Yeli Munnoli village in Belagavi district on Wednesday. Advocate S.S. Manjal, his</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>Modi govt has delivered only misgovernance: CPI</strong> - Recent Assembly elections clearly indicate the beginning of their fall, says D. Raja</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>Assam schoolmates ‘reunite’ for COVID-19 cause</strong> - 1991 batch of Guwahati school now connect daily to serve free meals</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>Horatti mourns Doreswamy’s demise</strong> - Chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti has mourned the demise of freedom fighter and Gandhian H.S. Doreswamy and termed it a grea</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>Pandemic curbs prove death knell for auditoriums</strong> - Most managements considering conversion, lease or permanent shutdown of halls</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>Belarus journalist Roman Protasevich’s colleagues fear for their lives</strong> - Associates of detained dissident journalist Roman Protasevich say they are receiving death threats.</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>Belarus plane arrest - is it a first?</strong> - We take a look back at previous incidents where planes may have been intercepted and forced to land.</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>Italy cable car fall: Three arrested over fatal accident</strong> - Investigators say an emergency brake system had been disabled before the crash, which killed 14.</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>France puzzled by mystery anti-Pfizer campaign offer</strong> - French social media influencers say they have been offered money to discredit the anti-Covid vaccine.</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>China overtakes Germany as UK’s top import market</strong> - It came as Brexit disrupted trade with the EU and the pandemic boosted demand for Chinese goods.</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>Knockout City is the best team-deathmatch game we’ve played in years</strong> - Step one: Replace guns with dodgeballs. Steps two through 27: Tweak for madcap fun. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1767146">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>New USB-C Type 2.1 standard offers up to 240 W power delivery</strong> - 240 W power delivery over USB-C lets high-powered laptops lose the barrel jack. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1767661">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Moderna’s data in kids ages 12-17 “consistent with a vaccine efficacy of 100%”</strong> - The company plans to seek FDA authorization in early June. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1767658">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Amazon’s most-favored nation clauses slammed in lawsuit filed by Washington, DC</strong> - DC AG: “Amazon fixed online retail prices through contract provisions and policies.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1767630">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vulnerability in VMware product has severity rating of 9.8 out of 10</strong> - Remote code execution flaw in vCenter Server poses “serious” risk to data centers. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1767612">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>We should have a TV show where illegal immigrants hunt down sex offenders for a chance at citizenship</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We can call it “Alien vs Predator”
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/banana_hammock_815"> /u/banana_hammock_815 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nl6i3n/we_should_have_a_tv_show_where_illegal_immigrants/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nl6i3n/we_should_have_a_tv_show_where_illegal_immigrants/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A woman who is constantly embarrassed by her husband falling asleep in church goes to the priest to ask for help.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The priest says, “Look love, if he falls asleep again, poke him with this hat pin. I’ll nod to you as a signal to poke him.”. The woman agrees to the plan.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So Sunday rolls around and sure enough, good old Mr. Jones nods off again. The priest notices and asks, “Who is our savior?” then nods to Mrs. Jones. She pokes her husband, and he wakes up and shouts, “Jesus Christ!”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The priest, pretending to be impressed, says, “Very good!”.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A full three minutes later, Mr. Jones is asleep again. The priest again notices, and asks, “What is the name of Jesus’ father?” before nodding at Mrs. Jones again. She pokes her husband, who screams, “GOD!” at the top of his lungs.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The priest again congratulates Mr. Jones on his alertness and continues with the sermon. However, during the sermon, he begins nodding enthusiastically, which Mrs. Jones mistakes for a poking signal.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The priest then says, “And what did Eve say to Adam after she gave him his 99th child?” the priest nods. The mistaken Mrs. Jones pokes her husband, and he shouts, “If you poke that fucking thing into me one more time, I’ll snap it in half and shove it up your ass!”.
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Sameeera"> /u/Sameeera </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nkta55/a_woman_who_is_constantly_embarrassed_by_her/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nkta55/a_woman_who_is_constantly_embarrassed_by_her/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A shark is teaching his kid how to eat humans</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
and he says “look son, first you swim full force at the human but at the last second, you turn away. Then you swim at him full force again, but again at the last second you swim away. Then you can go back and eat the human.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The son looks confused and asks, “But dad, why can’t we just go eat the human the first time?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Dad replies “Well, you can but why would you want to eat him when he’s still full of shit?”
</p>
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/sakatimi"> /u/sakatimi </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nkmuuw/a_shark_is_teaching_his_kid_how_to_eat_humans/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nkmuuw/a_shark_is_teaching_his_kid_how_to_eat_humans/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>So I asked a bunch of guys today if they would go gay for a billion dollars.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
And I didn’t get any straight answers.
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/axel2191"> /u/axel2191 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nl5n5c/so_i_asked_a_bunch_of_guys_today_if_they_would_go/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nl5n5c/so_i_asked_a_bunch_of_guys_today_if_they_would_go/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I was going to cook alligator for dinner</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
But then I realized I only have a croc pot
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/medium-rare-chicken"> /u/medium-rare-chicken </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nl3lwf/i_was_going_to_cook_alligator_for_dinner/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nl3lwf/i_was_going_to_cook_alligator_for_dinner/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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