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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>Resilience Strategies of Tour Operators During the Uncertainty of COVID-19: Evidence from Bangladesh</strong> -
<div>
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, tour operators have been going through uncertain times as they depend directly on supply-side (e.g. airlines, hotels) and demand-side (e.g. tourists) of tourism as well as on destination management organizations. This study explores resilience strategies made by tour operators in Bangladesh that ultimately helped them survive through the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 25 tour operators, findings of the study show that resilience-building depends not only on strategies of tour operators but also on supports from external agencies. The study further shows that a multi-dimensional understanding of resilience strategies is essential in tourism research and proposes that the resilience-building of tour operators can be conceptualized as a three-dimensional mechanism including innate resilience, internally-induced resilience, and externally-induced resilience. The study would facilitate improved resilience strategy and informed policymaking to better address uncertainties during and after a major crisis for tour operators.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/czxr4/" target="_blank">Resilience Strategies of Tour Operators During the Uncertainty of COVID-19: Evidence from Bangladesh</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Hesitancy Dilemma regarding covid19 vaccination</strong> -
<div>
COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the SARS-COV-2 virus which responsible for the high mortality rate in the last 3 years . Covid19 crisis change the world vision to infectious diseases .Vaccination is the master key in protective control behavior for COVID-19. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are the safest and effective modality to stop the COVID- 19 pandemic which limit the hospital and intensive care units admission .World Health Organisation delay acceptance or refusal of vaccines and considered it acritical descion making procedure . Although the high safety profile of the vaccine ,there were a reported rare adverse events following vaccines administration .Global adverse events categorise into; uncommon ,common ,very common. the vaccine -induce the immune-mediated response which takes days to develop, so resultant a life long immunity or a subsequent overexagerated adverse reaction in the second booster doses .The aim of this study to thorough the light on importance of vaccine to limit the wide spread of the virus and raise awarness of physicians toward different common and rare adverse reaction to promote early diagnosis and so prevent complication.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/ry6ku/" target="_blank">Hesitancy Dilemma regarding covid19 vaccination</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Proliferation of mesenchymal stem cell trials for COVID-19: risks and recommendations</strong> -
<div>
At least 20 clinical trials of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) for the treatment of covid-19 have been registered. We assess the emerging trial registrations and argue that the information gain is likely to be low, while the likelihood of false-positives and over-interpretation is high. The rush to test treatments may come at the expense of research quality.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/metaarxiv/72j6z/" target="_blank">Proliferation of mesenchymal stem cell trials for COVID-19: risks and recommendations</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Public Procurement and Corruption in South Africa</strong> -
<div>
Like many other countries, South Africa depends heavily on its public procurement system and faces persistent issues of corruption within that system. Its regulatory regimes for public procurement and for anti-corruption are nonetheless distinct. Despite knowledge of significant corruption in the final decades of apartheid, anti-corruption was treated as a secondary rather than a primary objective in the initial phase of post-apartheid reform and design of public procurement. Rules against corruption in public procurement have largely taken the form of criminal offences in the anti-corruption regime, and the form of administrative rules internal to government within the public procurement system, neither of which has been effective. The lack of attention to the overlap of these two regimes has created the potential for continued growth of corruption in public procurement. As a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to the grand corruption termed ‘state capture’, the South African government has recently introduced several measures and strengthened institutions to address corruption linked to public procurement; these are more investigative and ad-hoc than systemic and preventative. Finally, we briefly describe and then examine the place of information technology in South African public procurement, particularly in advancing the anti-corruption goal.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/bej9z/" target="_blank">Public Procurement and Corruption in South Africa</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Online Credibility of National Health Institutions: Infodemiological Analysis of Facebook Users’ Reactions in Eight Countries Worldwide</strong> -
<div>
Public trust in physicians, health-related websites, and medical institutions is one of the main determinants of health behaviour. This paper aims to examine the online credibility of the leading national health authorities in various countries worldwide in order to estimate the extent of the reputation damage during the COVID-19 crisis and evaluate the countermeasures to be undertaken. Specifically, users’ reactions to Facebook posts related to vaccine development and administration were studied. From 2021 to 2022, a sharp deterioration in the online credibility of the leading national health institutions worldwide has been observed. Infodemic reactions such as derision and anger, which already represented a health issue in 2021, have reached alarming percentages (i.e., between 30 and 50%) in England, France, Italy, Spain, and the USA during 2022. Such reactions reached a disproportionate 90% in Germany, where the online infodemiological situation appears incredibly serious. Conversely, the situation seemed more moderate in Argentina and Brazil (below 20%). Regardless of the sample size and its suitability for representing the global situation, these findings reveal a rising global security threat. Future research should focus on verifying how much of this online infodemic directly translates into dangerous health behaviours (e.g., vaccine hesitancy) and what were the main causes for these communication crises.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/8ftnu/" target="_blank">Online Credibility of National Health Institutions: Infodemiological Analysis of Facebook Users’ Reactions in Eight Countries Worldwide</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Music for hedonia and eudaimonia during pandemic social isolation</strong> -
<div>
The pandemic spread of the novel coronavirus and associated COVID-19 disease in 2020 prompted governments around the world to pursue strict containment protocols to minimize contagion risk. Although restrictions were interpreted more strictly in some countries than in others, widespread social isolation resulted on an unseen scale, leading to severe negative mental health consequences such as loss of hope, increased anxiety, stress, depressive symptoms, and sleep disturbance. During this time, while governments were battling the health crisis, musical engagement provided key, individualized coping strategies for laypeople. This was first demonstrated anecdotally in captivating balcony music videos from Italy and Spain and later substantiated in large scale, multi-country survey studies. This chapter reviews the emerging research literature on music listening and making during pandemic lockdown to establish how music became a compensatory source of hedonic pleasure and how it satisfied the need for eudaimonic meaning in life during socially and psychologically impoverished times.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/s9jf6/" target="_blank">Music for hedonia and eudaimonia during pandemic social isolation</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Mapping OHDSI OMOP Common Data Model and GA4GH Phenopackets for COVID-19 disease epidemics and analytics</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates a critical requirement for rapid and efficient sharing of data to facilitate the global response to this and future pandemics. Our project aims are to enhance interoperability between health and research data by mapping Phenopackets and OMOP schemas, and representing COVID-19 metadata using the FAIR principles to enable discovery, integration and analysis of genotypic and phenotypic data. Here, we present our outcomes after one week of BioHacking together 17 participants (10 new to the project), from different countries (CH, US and in EU), and continents.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://biohackrxiv.org/ep3xh/" target="_blank">Mapping OHDSI OMOP Common Data Model and GA4GH Phenopackets for COVID-19 disease epidemics and analytics</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Viral Tunes: Changes in musical behaviours and interest in coronamusic predict socio-emotional coping during COVID-19 lockdown</strong> -
<div>
Beyond immediate health risks, the COVID-19 pandemic poses a variety of stressors, which may require expensive or unavailable strategies during a pandemic (e.g., therapy, socialising). Here we asked whether musical engagement is an effective strategy for socio-emotional coping. During the first lockdown period (April-May 2020), we surveyed changes in music listening and making behaviours of over 5000 people, with representative samples from 3 continents. More than half of respondents reported using music to cope. People experiencing increased negative emotions used music for solitary emotional regulation, whereas people experiencing increased positive emotions used music as a proxy for social interaction. Light gradient-boosted regressor models were used to identify the most important predictors of an individual’s use of music to cope, the foremost of which was, intriguingly, their interest in the novel genre of “coronamusic.” Overall, our results emphasise the importance of real-time musical responses to societal crises, as well as individually tailored adaptations in musical behaviours to meet socio-emotional needs.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/7mg2v/" target="_blank">Viral Tunes: Changes in musical behaviours and interest in coronamusic predict socio-emotional coping during COVID-19 lockdown</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>CovidTube: Mapping information segregation on YouTube</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for a range of new conspiracy theories and extreme beliefs. Social media in general, and YouTube in particular, play a decisive role in the spreading of fringe content by not suppressing or even boosting the spread of such information. Users are predisposed to consume extreme content, creators prey on the emotions of users and game the algorithm to increase their popularity, and recommendation algorithms create feedback loops of progressively extreme content or ‘radicalization pipelines’. All three forces together may create information ‘bubbles’ that bias individual beliefs. We know, however, very little about the degree of information segregation and the structure of recommendation flows on YouTube, despite the platform’s position as the second most visited website in the world. This study maps the structure of COVID-19 information as a network of videos connected by inter-video recommendations. We collected nearly 10,000 videos and up to 20 recommendation links per video using COVID-related search terms on the YouTube API. To understand the structure of the graph we employed a mixed methods approach, using, a combination of quantitative graph analysis techniques and qualitative descriptions. We manually labeled the content of over a third of all videos and enriched the data further by merging with ideological labels from the Recfluence dataset. We then mapped these labels to pockets of videos that are well-connected to each other, as revealed by a community detection algorithm. Descriptive analyses of topical homogeneity within clusters of videos are supplemented with qualitative characterizations of the communities and the most important ‘bridging’ and ‘switching’ nodes within them. Contrary to popular beliefs about YouTube’s tendency to create informational ‘rabbit holes’ or ‘radicalization pipelines’, we find no evidence for algorithmic bias that would push users towards the consumption of fringe content.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/5u2zk/" target="_blank">CovidTube: Mapping information segregation on YouTube</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Substance use, psychiatric symptoms, personal mastery, and social support among COVID-19 long haulers: A compensatory model</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Substance use has become a critical health concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, and emerging attention has been paid to people with the persistent symptoms of COVID-19 (COVID-19 long haulers) due to their high vulnerability. However, scant research has investigated their substance use and relevant psychosocial factors. The current study was to (1) examine substance use behaviors (i.e., legal drug use, illicit drug use, and non-medical use of prescription drugs); and (2) assessed their associations with psychiatric symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder) and psychosocial factors (i.e., personal mastery and social support) among COVID-19 long haulers. Methods: In January to March 2022, 460 COVID-19 long haulers (50% female), with an average age of 32, completed online surveys regarding their demographics, substance use, psychiatric symptoms, and psychosocial factors. Results: In the past three months, the most commonly used or non-medically used substances were tobacco (82%) for legal drugs, cocaine (53%) for illicit drugs, and prescription opioids (67%) for prescription drugs. Structural equation modeling suggested that psychiatric symptoms were positively associated with substance use behaviors (bs = .38 to .68, ps &lt; .001), while psychosocial factors were negatively associated with substance use behaviors (bs = -.61 to -.43, ps &lt; .001). Conclusion: Substance use is common in COVID-19 long haulers and psychiatric symptoms are the risk factors. Personal mastery and social support appear to offer protection offsetting the psychiatric influences. Substance use prevention and mental health services for COVID-19 long haulers should attend to personal mastery and social support.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.22282679v1" target="_blank">Substance use, psychiatric symptoms, personal mastery, and social support among COVID-19 long haulers: A compensatory model</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>PARA-DIPLOMACY IN TIME OF COVID-19: JAKARTA REGIONAL GOVERNMENT’S OBJECTIVES IN HOSTING INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP</strong> -
<div>
The Novel Corona Virus Disease or COVID-19 has caused unprecedented huge impacts and affected all aspects of governance including the relations among countries. Amid the crisis, sub-national governments have demonstrated their international engagements and innovations in order to respond to the pandemic. Jakarta as the largest city and the capital city of the Republic of Indonesia became the national attention in early of the pandemic due to its functional position as the main gate of international mobility. However, the region held an international event called the International Youth Championship while the pandemic still existed. This research aimed to describe the region’s objectives to carry out the event as a para-diplomacy practice. This research applied the qualitative research method with a descriptive analysis. In addition, the research utilized para-diplomacy concept as a theoretical tool to help describe such objectives. This research found that the regional government had a number of objectives in hosting the event; promoting the success of handing the COVID-19, promoting sports tourism in the post-pandemic, and introducing a new ‘green’ icon of the region. Those objectives belong to the economic and cultural dimension of para-diplomacy. This paper argues that Indonesian para-diplomacy is an asset inasmuch as the national government can harvest benefits from sub-national governments’ para-diplomatic activities.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/ncwe2/" target="_blank">PARA-DIPLOMACY IN TIME OF COVID-19: JAKARTA REGIONAL GOVERNMENT’S OBJECTIVES IN HOSTING INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The dynamic relationship between COVID-19 cases and SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations across time and space: considerations for model training data sets</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
During the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater-based surveillance has been used alongside diagnostic testing to monitor infection rates. With the decline in cases reported to public health departments due to at-home testing, wastewater data may serve as the primary input for epidemiological models, but training these models is not straightforward. We explored factors affecting noise and bias in the ratio between wastewater and case data collected in 26 sewersheds in California from October 2020 to March 2022. The strength of the relationship between wastewater and case data appeared dependent on sampling frequency and population size, but was not increased by wastewater normalization to flow rate or case count normalization to testing rates. Additionally, the lead and lag times between wastewater and case data varied over time and space, and the ratio of log-transformed individual cases to wastewater concentrations changed over time. This ratio increased sequentially in the Epsilon/Alpha, Delta, and Omicron BA.1 variant surges of COVID-19 and was also related to the diagnostic testing rate. Based on this analysis, we present a framework of scenarios describing the dynamics of the case to wastewater ratio to aid in data handling decisions for ongoing modeling efforts.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.22282684v1" target="_blank">The dynamic relationship between COVID-19 cases and SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations across time and space: considerations for model training data sets</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>An Early SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Outbreak in a Dormitory in Saint-Petersburg, Russia</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has rapidly spread globally in late 2021 - early 2022, displacing the previously prevalent Delta variant. Before December 16, 2021, community transmission had already been observed in tens of countries globally. However, in Russia, the majority of reported cases at that time had been sporadic and associated with travel. Here, we report an Omicron outbreak at a student dormitory in Saint Petersburg between December 16 - 29, 2021, which was the earliest known instance of large-scale community transmission in Russia. Out of the 465 sampled residents of the dormitory, 180 (38.7%) tested PCR positive. Among the 118 residents for whom the variant has been tested by whole-genome sequencing, 111 (94.1%) carried the Omicron variant. Among these 111 residents, 60 (54.1%) were vaccinated or had reported previous COVID-19. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that the outbreak was caused by a single introduction of the BA.1.1 sublineage of Omicron. The dormitory-derived clade constituted a significant proportion of BA.1.1 samples in Saint-Petersburg and has spread to other regions of Russia and other countries. The rapid spread of Omicron in a population with preexisting immunity to previous variants underlines its propensity for immune evasion.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.22282648v1" target="_blank">An Early SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Outbreak in a Dormitory in Saint-Petersburg, Russia</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Assessment of Attitude and Hesitancy Towards Covid-19 Vaccine among Hepatitis B and C Patients in Pakistan</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
OBJECTIVE: The research aimed to evaluate the attitude and perceptions towards the covid-19 vaccine among Hepatitis B and C patients in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. METHODS: A survey-based study was adopted to evaluate the attitude of Hepatitis B and C patients towards immunization against covid-19 in Peshawar (KPK) and Muzaffarabad (AJK) cities of Pakistan. The study continued from January 2020 to February 2021. Participants were also assessed for their perception towards covid-19 vaccination. RESULTS: A total of 839 (33.6%) individuals participated in the study. About 52 % of Hepatitis B patients were immunized against Covid-19, whereas the number of Hepatitis C patients was recorded at around 48%. About 53.7 % of participants refused to get the vaccine without any reason. About 63.2% of patients showed concern about the insufficient data available on the vaccine safety and efficacy published by the Public Health Department. Individuals with higher education were observed to be more open towards vaccination then those without a formal education. More than half of the participants (61.5 %) were concerned about the interference of the vaccine with their hepatitis treatment whereas 54.7 % patients refused vaccine because of a poor liver condition. CONCLUSIONS: The data indicated that limited data availability regarding the vaccine efficacy in viral hepatitis patients and negative attitudes of people toward covid-19 vaccination is the main cause of Covid-19 vaccination refusal among hepatitis B and C patients. DESCRIPTORS: Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, covid-19, immunization, vaccine refusal, Pakistan.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.22282686v1" target="_blank">Assessment of Attitude and Hesitancy Towards Covid-19 Vaccine among Hepatitis B and C Patients in Pakistan</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>An FcRn-targeted mucosal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission</strong> -
<div>
SARS-CoV-2 and its variants cause COVID-19, which is primarily transmitted through droplets and airborne aerosols. To prevent viral infection and reduce viral spread, vaccine strategies must elicit protective immunity in the airways. FcRn transfers IgG across epithelial barriers; we explore FcRn-mediated respiratory delivery of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S). A monomeric IgG Fc was fused to a stabilized S protein; the resulting S-Fc bound to S-specific antibodies (Ab) and FcRn. A significant increase in Ab responses was observed following the intranasal immunization of mice with S-Fc formulated in CpG as compared to the immunization with S alone or PBS. Furthermore, we intranasally immunize adult or aged mice and hamsters with S-Fc. A significant reduction of virus replication in nasal turbinate, lung, and brain was observed following nasal challenges with SARS-CoV-2, including Delta and Omicron variants. Intranasal immunization also significantly reduced viral transmission between immunized and naive hamsters. Protection was mediated by nasal IgA, serum-neutralizing Abs, tissue-resident memory T cells, and bone marrow S-specific plasma cells. Hence FcRn delivers an S-Fc antigen effectively into the airway and induces protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission. Based on these findings, FcRn-targeted non-invasive respiratory immunizations are superior strategies for preventing highly contagious respiratory viruses from spreading.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.517678v1" target="_blank">An FcRn-targeted mucosal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study on Voluntary Routine COVID-19 Self-testing in Mizoram, India.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: COVID-19 Self testing and related messaging<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   PATH;   UNITAID;   Zoram Medical College (ZMC);   Pacchunga University College;   Association for Leprosy Education Rehabilitation &amp; Treatment India (ALERT India);   Government of Mizoram<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate EDP-235 in Non-hospitalized Adults With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: EDP-235;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study of RAY1216 Tablets Compared With Placebo in Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Mild to Moderate COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: RAY1216;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Guangdong Raynovent Biotech Co., Ltd<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The LAVA (Lateral Flow Antigen Validation and Applicability) 2 Study for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Innova Lateral Flow Test<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust<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>Q-POC SARS-CoV-2 Assay COVID-19 Clinical Evaluation</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Diagnostic Test: RT-PCR Test;   Diagnostic Test: Real-time PCR Test<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   QuantuMDx Group Ltd;   EDP Biotech;   Paragon Rx Clinical;   PathAI;   PRX Research and Development<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>Acute Rehabilitation in Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Rehabilitation;   Physical Medicine<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Procedure: Acute rehabilitation program<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Institut za Rehabilitaciju Sokobanjska Beograd<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>Enhancing Protection Against Influenza and COVID-19 for Pregnant Women and Medically at Risk Children</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Influenza;   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Nudge<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Adelaide<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Trial Evaluate the Immunogenicity and Safety of Recombinant COVID-19 Omicron-Delta Variant Vaccine (CHO Cell)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Omicron-Delta Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Protein Vaccine (CHO cells);   Biological: Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Protein Vaccine (CHO cells)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Antibody Responses in Cystic Fibrosis</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Cystic Fibrosis<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Blood sample<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospices Civils de Lyon;   Queen’s University, Belfast<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>Message Communicating Latest Data on COVID Transmission in Patient’s Area</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: COVID Booster text messages<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Pennsylvania<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</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>Message From Local Pharmacy Team</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: COVID Booster text messages<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   University of Pennsylvania<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of Trivalent Coronavirus Vaccine Candidate VBI-2901e With E6020 Adjuvant</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   COVID-19;   Coronavirus Infections<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: VBI-2901e<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   VBI Vaccines 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>Dietary Modulation of Gut Microbiota in Overweight/Obese Adolescents and COVID-19 Infection</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Health Behavior;   Child Development;   Adolescent Obesity<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Dietary Supplement: Probiotics;   Behavioral: Counselling on healthy eating, physical activity, and psychosocial stimulation;   Dietary Supplement: Placebo probiotics<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Indonesia University;   Gadjah Mada University;   Universitas Airlangga;   University of Melbourne;   The Indonesia Endowment Funds for Education, Ministry of Finance Indonesia<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>Phonation Therapy to Improve Symptoms and Lung Physiology in Patients Referred for Pulmonary Rehabilitation</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: Tonation Breathing Techniques;   Behavioral: Music Driven Vocal Exercises;   Behavioral: Silent Breathing<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   MetroHealth Medical Center<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>Canadian Adaptive Platform Trial of Treatments for COVID in Community Settings</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Paxlovid;   Drug: Other;   Other: Other<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Unity Health Toronto;   Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR);   Health Canada<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>Integrative transcriptome analysis of SARS-CoV-2 human-infected cells combined with deep learning algorithms identifies two potential cellular targets for the treatment of coronavirus disease</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) quickly spread worldwide, leading coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to hit pandemic level less than 4 months after the first official cases. Hence, the search for drugs and vaccines that could prevent or treat infections by SARS-CoV-2 began, intending to reduce a possible collapse of health systems. After 2 years, efforts to find therapies to treat COVID-19 continue. However, there is still much to be understood about the virus’…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Single-cell RNA-sequencing data analysis reveals a highly correlated triphasic transcriptional response to SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) is currently one of the most powerful techniques available to study the transcriptional response of thousands of cells to an external perturbation. Here, we perform a pseudotime analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection using publicly available scRNA-seq data from human bronchial epithelial cells and colon and ileum organoids. Our results reveal that, for most genes, the transcriptional response to SARS-CoV-2 infection follows a non-linear pattern characterized by…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Identification of a group of bisbenzylisoquinoline (BBIQ) compounds as ferroptosis inhibitors</strong> - Ferroptosis induced by detrimental accumulation of lipid peroxides has been recently linked to a variety of pathological conditions ranging from acute tissue injuries to chronic degenerative diseases and suppression of ferroptosis by small chemical inhibitors is beneficial to the prevention and treatment of these diseases. However, in vivo applicable small chemical ferroptosis inhibitors are limited currently. In this study, we screened an alkaloid natural compound library for compounds that can…</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>Paxlovid accelerates cartilage degeneration and senescence through activating endoplasmic reticulum stress and interfering redox homeostasis</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Paxlovid accelerated cartilage degeneration and osteoarthritis development, potentially by inducing endoplasmic reticulum stress and oxidative stress. Long-term follow-up is needed with special attention to the occurrence and development of osteoarthritis in patients treated with Paxlovid.</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>Comparison of antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 variants in Australian children</strong> - There is limited understanding of antibody responses in children across different SARS-CoV-2 variants. As part of an ongoing household cohort study, we assessed the antibody response among unvaccinated children infected with Wuhan, Delta, or Omicron variants, as well as vaccinated children with breakthrough Omicron infection, using a SARS-CoV-2 S1-specific IgG assay and surrogate virus neutralization test (% inhibition). Most children infected with Delta (100%, 35/35) or Omicron (81.3%, 13/16)…</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>siRNA Functionalized Lipid Nanoparticles (LNPs) in Management of Diseases</strong> - RNAi (RNA interference)-based technology is emerging as a versatile tool which has been widely utilized in the treatment of various diseases. siRNA can alter gene expression by binding to the target mRNA and thereby inhibiting its translation. This remarkable potential of siRNA makes it a useful candidate, and it has been successively used in the treatment of diseases, including cancer. However, certain properties of siRNA such as its large size and susceptibility to degradation by RNases are…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Novel CYP11A1-Derived Vitamin D and Lumisterol Biometabolites for the Management of COVID-19</strong> - Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and poor outcomes of the COVID-19 disease. However, a satisfactory mechanism explaining the vitamin D protective effects is missing. Based on the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties of classical and novel (CYP11A1-derived) vitamin D and lumisterol hydroxymetabolites, we have proposed that they would attenuate the self-amplifying damage in lungs and other organs through mechanisms initiated by interactions…</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 <em>Artemisia annua</em> Phytochemicals as Potential Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Enzyme</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a human coronaviruses that emerged in China at Wuhan city, Hubei province during December 2019. Subsequently, SARS-CoV-2 has spread worldwide and caused millions of deaths around the globe. Several compounds and vaccines have been proposed to tackle this crisis. Novel recommended in silico approaches have been commonly used to screen for specific SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors of different types. Herein, the phytochemicals of Pakistani…</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>Neuropeptides, New Ligands of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleoprotein, a Potential Link between Replication, Inflammation and Neurotransmission</strong> - This work identifies new ligands of the nucleoprotein N of SARS-CoV-2 by in silico screening, which used a new model of N, built from an Alphafold model refined by molecular dynamic simulations. The ligands were neuropeptides, such as substance P (1-7) and enkephalin, bound at a large site of the C-terminal or associated with the N-terminal β-sheet. The BA4 and BA5 Omicron variants of N also exhibited a large site as in wt N, and an increased flexibility of the BA5 variant, enabling substance P…</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>Elevated Serum Amyloid A Levels Contribute to Increased Platelet Adhesion in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients are prone to thrombotic complications that may increase morbidity and mortality. These complications are thought to be driven by endothelial activation and tissue damage promoted by the systemic hyperinflammation associated with COVID-19. However, the exact mechanisms contributing to these complications are still unknown. To identify additional mechanisms contributing to the aberrant clotting observed in COVID-19 patients, we analyzed platelets from…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The SARS-CoV-2 Delta-Omicron Recombinant Lineage (XD) Exhibits Immune-Escape Properties Similar to the Omicron (BA.1) Variant</strong> - Recently, a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 lineage, XD, emerged that harbors a spike gene that is largely derived from the Omicron variant BA.1 in the genetic background of the Delta variant. This finding raised concerns that the recombinant virus might exhibit altered biological properties as compared to the parental viruses and might pose an elevated threat to human health. Here, using pseudotyped particles, we show that ACE2 binding and cell tropism of XD mimics that of BA.1. Further, XD and BA.1…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Computational Analysis of SAM Analogs as Methyltransferase Inhibitors of nsp16/nsp10 Complex from SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Methyltransferases (MTases) enzymes, responsible for RNA capping into severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), are emerging important targets for the design of new anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents. Here, analogs of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), obtained from the bioisosteric substitution of the sulfonium and amino acid groups, were evaluated by rigorous computational modeling techniques such as molecular dynamics (MD) simulations followed by relative binding free analysis against…</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>Long Chain N3-PUFA Decreases ACE2 Protein Levels and Prevents SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry</strong> - Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is a target of interest for both COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease management. Even though lower ACE2 levels may be beneficial in SARS-CoV-2 infectivity, maintaining the ACE1/ACE2 balance is also crucial for cardiovascular health. So far, reports describing conditions capable of altering ACE2 protein levels, especially via dietary components, are limited. In this study, the effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n3-PUFA) on the protein levels of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Recovery of China’s Industrial Parks in the First Wave of COVID-19</strong> - Industrial parks are functional urban areas that carry the capacity to support highly concentrated production activities. The robustness and anti-interference ability of these areas are of great importance to maintaining economic vitality of a country. Focusing on the rate of production recovery (RPR), this paper examines the recovery of 436 major industrial parks in mainland China during the first wave of COVID-19. Leveraging spatio-temporal big data, we measured 14 attributes pertaining to…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Regression of Lung Cancer in Mice by Intranasal Administration of SARS-CoV-2 Spike S1</strong> - This study underlines the importance of SARS-CoV-2 spike S1 in prompting death in cultured non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells and in vivo in lung tumors in mice. Interestingly, we found that recombinant spike S1 treatment at very low doses led to death of human A549 NSCLC cells. On the other hand, boiled recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike S1 remained unable to induce death, suggesting that the induction of cell death in A549 cells was due to native SARS-CoV-2 spike S1 protein. SARS-CoV-2 spike…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is the Nancy Pelosi Era Really Ending?</strong> - The Speaker of the House is stepping aside, but her school of politics isn’t going anywhere. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/05/is-the-nancy-pelosi-era-really-ending">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Are We Doomed to See a Biden-Trump Rematch in 2024?</strong> - One thing’s sure: the early betting is often wrong—ask President Rand Paul. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/are-we-doomed-to-see-a-biden-trump-rematch-in-2024">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sam Bankman-Fried and the Long Road to Taking Crypto Mainstream</strong> - The disgraced founder of FTX played on the vanities of the establishment, reassuring V.C. firms and the media that smart-guy insiders like him could save the world. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/sam-bankman-fried-and-the-long-road-to-taking-crypto-mainstream">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why I Quit Elon Musk’s Twitter</strong> - A platform that once represented the new frontier of digital democracy is being used by the world’s richest man to troll us all. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-i-quit-elon-musks-twitter">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Meaning of the Colorado Springs Attack</strong> - The essential precondition for mass violence is not guns or hate but a culture of terror, a common imaginary that includes the possibility of a mass shooting. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-meaning-of-the-colorado-springs-attack">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The guy who got the midterms right explains what the media got wrong</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A person in a crowd holds up a sign reading “Fetterman U.S. Senate.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/J-UqDbX8203vXlD3mBxzNFbc5ZI=/395x0:6700x4729/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71678224/1244628740.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Supporters of Pennsylvania Democratic Senatorial candidate John Fetterman react at a watch party during the midterm elections at Stage AE in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 8, 2022. | Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The media fell for a false “red wave” narrative.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YQ6b43">
In the months leading up to the midterms, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/brace-yourself-for-a-republican-wave-competitive-district-generic-biden-inflation-economy-georgia-nevada-senate-majority-11666007633">many</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/24/opinion/midterms-truss-student-loans.html">pundits</a> <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/23/republican-wave-midterms-congress">and</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/25/us/politics/blue-states-midterm-landscape.html">politicians</a> thought that Republicans had momentum enough for big gains at the state and federal levels, enough to count as a “red wave.” But veteran Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg is one of a few voices in Washington who, despite President Joe Biden’s sagging approval ratings and polls that showed Democrats playing defense on inflation, remained optimistic about the party’s prospects and who was ultimately vindicated by a strong performance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2uRkng">
Rosenberg — who has previously advised the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and is the president of the progressive think tank NDN — says he’s not in the business of predictions. But he thought that the available data consistently pointed to a competitive election, and he became a self-described “info warrior” on Twitter trying to convince the pundit class of that. He believes that, unlike in 2016 and 2020 when polling failed to register Trump’s strength as a candidate, this time around, it was the media analyzing the polls who got it wrong.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mHxwpw">
“There was a massive media failure this cycle,” he said. “The failure that just took place is more grave than the polling error [in 2020] because there were a lot of really smart people who basically misled tens of millions of people through their political commentary in the final few weeks.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8RsBnt">
It’s hard to know whether there was a practical effect of the doom-and-gloom stories about Democrats in the months before the election — whether it suppressed turnout by demoralizing voters or motivated them to show up because they feared what would happen if they didn’t. But even if any negative effect was small, that might have made a big impact.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VOH0Z9">
“My own view is that it probably net cost us. It could have cost us the House,” Rosenberg said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="usRUHq">
Here’s what he thinks went wrong.
</p>
<h3 id="bi6BX5">
Real election results weren’t given enough credence over polls
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AET2D8">
Rosenberg has been arguing that Republicans made a huge mistake in running toward Trumpism since <a href="https://www.ndn.org/3-reasons-why-2022-won%E2%80%99t-be-2010">November 2021</a>, when he first challenged the notion that there would be a runaway red wave in the midterms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ai8CdO">
That hypothesis gained a wider following over the summer amid backlash against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn <em>Roe v. Wade</em>. But there was a significant vibe shift in the fall, when Democrats’ margins on the generic ballot narrowed and they showed relative weakness in polls on issues like the economy and crime. Those seemed like signs that outrage over <em>Roe</em> had waned and that Republicans had the edge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="X4tcQ1">
Rosenberg doesn’t think that was ever true and that available data showed an election where Democrats were favored in the Senate and the House was up for grabs. The clearest indication came from actual election results.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XGm5bk">
“Real voting is more important than polling,” Rosenberg said. “The way you interpret an election is looking at how people vote.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T4eFPz">
Republicans had doubled down on a brand of politics that had just been twice rejected by the American people in 2020 and 2018. And a series of special elections that occurred over the summer showed a similar pattern, with Democrats significantly overperforming across House races in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/results/nebraska/special-election/us-house-district-1">Nebraska</a>, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/30/americas-weirdest-voters-test-its-newest-voting-system-00059376">Alaska</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/results/minnesota/special-election/us-house-district-1">Minnesota</a>, and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/results/new-york/special-election/us-house-district-19">New York</a>. In Nebraska’s First District, for instance, the Democrat lost by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/results/nebraska/special-election/us-house-district-1">less than 6</a> percentage points, compared to more than <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/nebraska/house/district-1">20 percentage points</a> in 2020. And Democrats won a House seat in Alaska for the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/30/americas-weirdest-voters-test-its-newest-voting-system-00059376">first time in half a century</a>, defeating former Gov. Sarah Palin.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XystQN">
In August, voters in deep-red Kansas also showed up in supercharged numbers to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/8/2/23278845/kansas-abortion-vote-constitutional-amendment">vote against</a> a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed state lawmakers to further restrict abortion access following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn<em> Roe</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WSMjty">
All of that supported the notion that Democratic enthusiasm was up and that this wasn’t a normal midterm election, even as the polls narrowed and Biden’s approval rating was still underwater.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2reG1g">
“People should have started adjusting their understanding of the election at that point. They didn’t — they stuck with the old models. They got bamboozled by the red wave narrative,” Rosenberg said.
</p>
<h3 id="Sjul1h">
Polls were misinterpreted
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Linw0C">
When the polling averages narrowed in the fall, it was partially because <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/01/biden-gap-senate-surveys-00064362">partisan polls</a> commissioned by Republican organizations were bringing them down for Democrats. Rosenberg was one of the first to identify the phenomenon, which he described as an “unprecedented campaign by Republicans to flood the polling averages in the final month to create this impression of the red wave.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hRr0MQ">
If you were looking at polling averages that included Republican polls, “you were looking at a completely different election than we were looking at,” he added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PdA0Md">
When Rosenberg stripped out the partisan polling, he foresaw an election in which New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania were leaning Democrat, Nevada was too close to call, and Ohio, North Carolina, and Wisconsin were leaning a little Republican. That’s consistent with what actually transpired.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AynTcR">
It’s not clear whether the onslaught of partisan polls represented a deliberate attempt by Republicans to change the narrative of the election and dampen Democratic enthusiasm. But it may have had an outsized effect on the averages this year because of a lack of public independent polling. As Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/30/americas-weirdest-voters-test-its-newest-voting-system-00059376">pointed out</a>, big players like NBC News didn’t commission any state midterm polls this year, and the New York Times only did so in four individual House races and five states — far fewer than the number they’ve previously commissioned.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vjhnk1">
The media was also too reliant on issue polling, which can be misleading if you’re just looking at the aggregate numbers across parties, Rosenberg said. Crime and immigration were among voters’ top issues overall because they are high-priority issues for Republicans. But if Democrats were trying to turn out their own voters, they needed to focus on the issues that matter to them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hSKswb">
In general, it’s also hard to parse issue polling. Voters may say that they care a lot about a whole range of issues, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that any one of them will impact their decision to vote for a particular candidate or to vote at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DuTjBy">
“This reliance on the most important issue among all voters was playing into Republican talking points,” Rosenberg said.
</p>
<h3 id="b5nSLn">
The enduring salience of <em>Roe</em> was underestimated
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cY0N2f">
The anti-abortion movement lost big time in 2022: Democrats running on pro-abortion rights <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23444732/2022-midterm-elections-results-abortion-rights-nebraska-north-carolina">nearly swept the table</a>, and every ballot initiative aimed at restricting abortion <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23451074/abortion-ballot-measure-midterms-kentucky-montana-michigan">lost</a>, while ballot initiatives strengthening abortion rights prevailed and even outperformed Democratic candidates in some cases.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HqDU4u">
Though we shouldn’t put too much stock in exit poll data, which is incomplete at this point, KFF’s <a href="https://www.kff.org/other/press-release/analysis-reveals-how-abortion-boosted-democratic-candidates-in-tuesdays-midterm-election/">analysis of the AP VoteCast survey</a> found that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn <em>Roe</em> had a “major impact” on whether roughly four in 10 Americans decided to vote this year and that it activated key constituencies for Democrats, including Black and Hispanic women under the age of 50, voters under the age of 30 overall, and first-time voters. That’s consistent with strong post-<em>Roe </em>voter <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/25/upshot/female-voters-dobbs.html?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&amp;stream=top">registration numbers</a>: The number of women who registered to vote increased by 35 percent across 10 states in the month after the decision came down.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hzSIju">
As my colleague Rachel Cohen wrote, Republicans and their grassroots have <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/11/17/23462040/abortion-groups-midterms-dobbs-reproductive-rights">struggled to confront</a> just how pivotal the end of Roe and their subsequent efforts to curtail abortion rights proved in this election. And that appeared to seep into media coverage, with <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/voters-care-abortion-heading-midterms/story?id=92220097">many</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/07/politics/democrats-nightmare-scenario-election-eve-analysis/index.html">media</a> <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/democrats-struggle-message-inflation-final-midterm-push-rcna52676">outlets</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134832876/inflation-is-top-issue-in-this-weeks-midterms">projecting</a> before Election Day that abortion had receded from the spotlight in favor of inflation, an issue where Republicans thought they had the edge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h3Hd04">
“The debate over abortion rights has not emerged as a political silver bullet for Democrats,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/us/politics/abortion-midterms-democrats-republicans.html">the New York Times declared</a> on November 4.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xfNdYM">
Rosenberg speculates that male political commentators were particularly receptive to the Republican narrative on that front.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BkbNrZ">
“I think that they were unsympathetic to this idea that abortion really was going to be one of the two or three things that drove the election,” he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QCqQqk">
But the <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/abortion-was-always-going-to-impact-the-midterms/">evidence was always in the polls</a>: Interest in abortion didn’t drop over time and, among Democrats, actually increased across <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2022-midterm-elections-tracker/">several</a> <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/trackers/most-important-issues-facing-the-us?crossBreak=democrat">tracking</a> polls. And Rosenberg thinks its salience won’t wane anytime soon.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AK7T49">
“This could be creating a millstone around the Republican Party’s neck — not just in this election but for many elections to come, and potentially may alienate an entire generation of young people,” he said.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Qatar’s migrant labor system is bigger than the World Cup</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="FBL-WC-2022-ILLUSTRATION-LABOUR" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KOnJEtat0qyz_aiNi8BMA6lSi3Y=/88x0:3555x2600/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71676542/1245054242.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Migrant builders take a break while working at a construction site by the Corniche, in Doha, on November 24, 2022, during the Qatar 2022 World Cup football tournament. | Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Migrant workers are the backbone of Qatar’s economy, but many are incredibly vulnerable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gDfZuB">
Twelve years before host nation Qatar took to the pitch against Ecuador for the opening game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, kafala, a system of employment sponsorship for foreign workers was already casting an ominous shadow across the event.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C8dac7">
After securing the bid for Qatar and succumbing to a bribery scandal related to the hosting rights for that very country, former FIFA president Sepp Blatter called the selection “a bad choice.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1MGwci">
Tack on <a href="http://=https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/qatar/report-qatar/">widely reported human rights abuses</a> and the small Gulf Arab nation <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137204271/qatar-world-cup-controversies">has been a contentious choice to host world soccer’s biggest event</a>. It’s the first time the World Cup has been held in an Arab country, and when Qatar won the bid for this year’s World Cup back in 2010, it lacked the infrastructure — a metro system, major hotels, and stadiums — necessary to host a massive international event which led to an estimated $220 billion investment, <a href="https://qz.com/qatar-s-200-billion-splurge-will-be-hard-to-justify-wh-1849800219">according to Quartz</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nVPlEk">
Focus on its labor system zeroed in on <a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-soccer-sports-international-qatar-e9f1b97371bbc5592e2ec6239167ab3f">the construction industry</a>, since so many new facilities were built and because it can be such dangerous work. A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022">Guardian story</a> from 2021 found that 6,750 South Asian workers in all industries died over a 10-year period in Qatar; only 37 of those workers were directly linked to the construction of World Cup facilities. Still, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/18/qatar-world-cup-migrant-workers/">as the Washington Post reported earlier this month</a>, many families of deceased migrant laborers still lack meaningful information about how and why their loved one died, as well as compensation for their loss.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0qpnK9">
Since<strong> </strong>migrant workers are so prevalent in Qatar’s economy — <a href="https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/fodsccwxqydfdvt3mlk1nxg8780xixpz">approximately 90 percent of Qatar’s workforce</a> — other categories of laborers, with whom World Cup patrons are likely to interact, also face the possibility of abuse and exploitation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5JVtq0">
FIFA has pledged to commit a portion of its proceeds from the Qatar games to support migrant workers, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/uefa-welcomes-fifa-pledge-tackle-qatar-labour-issues-2022-11-20/#:~:text=The%20football%20associations%20said%20they,and%20non%2Dpayment%20of%20wages.">according to Reuters</a>. FIFA did not respond to Vox’s questions regarding plans for distribution of that funding by press time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H3hjdH">
Migrant workers in most countries are vulnerable by the very nature of their position and social status. But in Qatar, the economy depends on migrant workers, and there is an entire legal system set up to get people who need jobs into the country. But having legal status doesn’t exactly <a href="https://apnews.com/article/soccer-sports-arrests-dubai-2981f6ac57f281855a6b04ae651062f5">guarantee rights and freedoms</a> for these workers, and though there have been improvements, international scrutiny of the kafala<em> </em>system is challenging for Qatar to accept.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MTpXza">
“It is a society with no real political freedoms, there is no culture of public debate and criticism of how the state operates,” Mustafa Qadri, the founder of Equidem, a human rights organization based in the UK and active in Qatar, told Vox in an interview. “[The state] has an approach of, ‘any criticism is an attack on us,’ so that very quickly shifts to a siege mentality.”
</p>
<h3 id="SS84Ku">
The kafala<em> </em>system is baked into Qatar’s economy
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rz0tM5">
The kafala, or sponsorship system, is widely practiced throughout the Persian Gulf region, and some neighboring countries. In Qatar, the practice dates back to the early 20th century to support the pearl and other commercial industries, according to the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system#chapter-title-0-3">Council on Foreign Relations</a>. It expanded decades later, when the emirate, injected with wealth from its energy resources, brought in laborers to build new infrastructure in a period of rapid growth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BpVQxq">
“Typically [kafala] means that the worker is entirely dependent on the employer for their entry into the country, their stay in the country, their job — even their exit from the country,” said Max Tuñón, the head of the International Labor Organization office in Doha, Qatar. “Those multiple dependencies put the worker in a situation where they’re vulnerable to exploitation, because there is such a huge imbalance of power between the worker and the employer.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1ovihN">
Initially, the system was supposed to offer protection for migrant workers, most from South Asia, Africa, and Asian countries including the Philippines. Workers coming alone, without any family members or other connections and entering into an unfamiliar place where they understood neither the language nor the culture could theoretically rely on their sponsor to protect them and provide what they needed, according to <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system#chapter-title-0-3">Houtan Homayounpour</a>, the former head of the Qatar office of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qDy4DC">
Migrant workers make up approximately 77 percent of the Qatari population, according to a 2022 <a href="https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/WMR-2022-EN_3.pdf">International Organization for Migration</a> report, and they primarily come from South Asia. The largest number of workers by far are employed in construction, followed by wholesale and retail trade, and domestic services such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UbyOb2">
“Officially, the movement and welfare of these workers is subject to international treaties, government regulations, and other formal rules,” according to <a href="https://gulfmigration.grc.net/media/pubs/book/grm2017book_chapter/Volume%20-%20Migration%20to%20Gulf%20-%20Chapter%203.pdf">a publication</a> by The Gulf Labour Markets, Migration and Population program of the Gulf Research Center.<strong> </strong>In practice, an expansive extralegal market dominates the entire migration process, beginning with the very recruitment of workers in their home countries.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xsCMaC">
Often, Qadri said, people are recruited in their home country by subcontractors who can charge exorbitant rates for those visas and engage in contract-switching — essentially duping job-seekers by providing a contract for a job that isn’t actually available on the other side.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RGRhEb">
Visa centers <a href="https://www.ilo.org/manila/public/pr/WCMS_722225/lang--en/index.htm">have been established</a> in some host countries to help make the recruitment and visa granting process more transparent and less exploitative, but the illegal market still proliferates. “I suspect part of it, is it’s a business activity,” Qadri said. “If [Qatar] were to really crack down on it, then you’re looking at challenging a system where people are making lots of money. It’s very hard to prove because it’s so secretive, so illicit. So the fundamental structural changes you need to take will take more than just changing laws and having experts, it’s a political issue.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OpRXC4">
In the traditional kafala<em> </em>system, migrant workers’ individual and corporate employers have total control over a worker’s residency status because it’s entirely dependent on their employment status. Non-Qataris cannot become naturalized citizens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e1HC4A">
Qadri described a system still highly stratified according to race, ethnicity, gender, and national origin, calling it, “a textbook case of discrimination.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="snLIfu">
“You’ll go to somewhere like Qatar and you’ll notice, for example, the doormen — the liveried doormen at these expensive hotels — <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bdd457ee-7362-4522-b2be-66ec2ac6b80e">they’re typically African</a>,” Qadri told Vox. Hotels typically employ Filipino workers in client-facing roles, he said, while construction workers often come from South Asian countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, and India.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hh3XJT">
<a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G20/103/74/PDF/G2010374.pdf?OpenElement">That stratification</a> starts in the recruitment process; according to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc4457add1-visit-qatar-report-special-rapporteur-contemporary-forms">an April 2020 report</a> by the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. “Low-income (and even high-income) migrant workers reported that salaries greatly depended on their countries of origin, such that workers performing the same tasks often earned significantly different salaries,” the report found. “This is partly due to poor labour regulations regarding pay equity but […] national origin discrimination and racial and ethnic stereotyping also contribute to the problem.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aapWb9">
In <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/02/migrant-workers-and-qatar-world-cup#:~:text=In%20September%202020%2C%20Qatar%20passed,of%20nationality%20or%20employment%20sector.">September 2020 Qatar instituted a minimum wage of $274 per month for all migrant workers</a> as an attempt to address the issue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qlx42h">
“Among migrant workers’ most common grievances are non-payment or delayed payment of wages, crowded and unsanitary living conditions, and excessive working hours,” according to a 2021 interview with <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/02/migrant-workers-and-qatar-world-cup#:~:text=In%20September%202020%2C%20Qatar%20passed,of%20nationality%20or%20employment%20sector.">Hiba Zayadin, a Gulf researcher at Human Rights Watch.</a> Qatari Labor Minister H.E. Ali bin Samikh Al Marri <a href="https://www.fifa.com/social-impact/media-releases/fifa-welcomes-assurances-on-workers-compensation-mechanisms">recently told FIFA President Gianni Infantino</a> that $350 million had been paid out to workers, typically for late or unpaid wages, since 2018.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XO0BOJ">
Women <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/10/qatar-domestic-worker-abuse-and-exploitation-report/">workers in domestic labor</a> and <a href="https://www.equidem.org/assets/downloads/2021_Qatar_Hotels_v5_1.pdf">the hospitality industry</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/nov/17/female-migrant-workers-speak-out-about-harassment-in-qatar-world-cup-hotels">also face specific abuses</a> made more challenging in a deeply patriarchal society that limits women’s freedom of movement. Sexual abuse and harassment in particular are difficult to document because they are difficult to report; though there are new avenues for reporting labor complaints, sexual assault and abuse are more daunting to report due to Qatar’s zima<em> </em>law, which criminalizes extramarital sex. According to a Human Rights Watch report from 2021, “These laws disproportionately impact women, as pregnancy serves as evidence of extramarital sex and women who report rape can find themselves prosecuted for consensual sex.”
</p>
<h3 id="x2xTZ9">
Qatar has instituted some reforms, but they’re not enough
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1KJKbs">
In the face of international criticism Qatar has instituted some labor reforms for migrant workers over the past five years in addition to the ability to change jobs and leave the country without employers’ permission.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cv45fN">
“We don’t say the kafala<em> </em>system has been abolished, but we say the most problematic elements of kafala<em> </em>have been dismantled,” Tuñón said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hy2bnm">
There are now online reporting mechanisms, both with the <a href="https://hukoomi.gov.qa/en/service/submit-labor-complaint-via-unified-platform-for-complaints-and-whistleblowers">Qatari Ministry of Labor </a>and with <a href="https://www.bkms-system.net/bkwebanon/report/clientInfo?cin=gTf9nd&amp;c=-1&amp;language=eng">FIFA</a>, to submit possible labor law violations. Tuñón told Vox that in 2020, about 11,000 complaints were made to the Ministry of Labor; after moving the complaints mechanism online the following year, that number increased to 24,000. Still, he acknowledged, even if they have access to the complaints channel, workers may avoid using it because <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/the-2022-fifa-world-cup-is-less-than-a-month-away-qatars-supposed-labor-reforms-have-done-little-to-improve-workers-conditions/">they fear retaliation</a> from their employers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i6gnZZ">
Then there’s the question of getting justice for crimes against migrant workers. Though there are <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---arabstates/---ro-beirut/documents/publication/wcms_773305.pdf">labor courts and a dispute resolution system</a>, it can take months for workers to recover lost wages, for example, because there isn’t an adequate enforcement mechanism. Workers can’t organize and agitate for better wages and conditions, because, “There are no independent trade unions in Qatar,” Tuñón said. Instead, the ILO has worked with the government to allow elected migrant worker representatives at the individual company level, but that doesn’t serve workers who are employed by individuals or families, like nannies, maids, cooks, and other domestic workers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hFdjQB">
“Over time, we want to build up these platforms for workers’ voices; first at the enterprise level, but then eventually grow into the sectoral level and, eventually, the national level,” Tuñón said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="omOoRl">
There are a variety of reasons Qatar’s labor reforms aren’t expansive and entrenched despite the international attention the World Cup has brought, but Qadri pointed to two in particular. “It’s never the real power structure” making decisions about labor laws, he said. “It’s never the Ministry of Interior, or the real decision-makers, or the most powerful owners of the biggest businesses; [they] are not really part of that conversation.” Without buy-in from the most powerful and influential stakeholders, reform can’t permeate society. That’s another problem, Qadri said; the kafala<em> </em>and other deep inequalities are part of Qatari society, and reforming labor laws addresses only part of the problem, he said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1kcsHl">
“You can’t talk about this without talking about the whole human rights spectrum.”
</p></li>
<li><strong>How to become a truly excellent gift giver</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A drawing of hands tying a ribbon on a present." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4Dm0DrSTyXbqNxXNUxXVr0BCXn0=/240x0:1680x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71675406/giftgiver.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A great present should have at least one of these three qualities. Here’s what they are.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WIMFyr">
It’s a special kind of agony to realize, while exchanging gifts with someone, that they got you something way, way better than what you got them. A few years ago, I bought for my partner what I thought was a perfect anniversary gift: a bulk order of astronaut ice cream. In many ways, I nailed it. He loves freeze-dried ice cream, which you rarely see in the wild outside of science museums, and I had gotten a comical number of packages.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NAUo7e">
The problem is that his gift for me was an all-timer, a miniature painting that he had commissioned from an artist who specializes in painstakingly detailed watercolors. He had worked on it for months, and the image illustrated my favorite Google search: “<a href="https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/wild-little-owls-kissing-two-owl-old-fence-post-yellow-background-58270051.jpg">owls kissing</a>.” (Saccharine, I know, but I dare you to find me anything cuter.) Astronaut ice cream would have been an amazing present if given on a random Tuesday, but the occasion and the wild discrepancy between our gifts was hilarious and vaguely horrifying. I do believe that intention matters more than execution with gifts — that it doesn’t really matter what you give someone, as long as you put thought and love into it — but sometimes it would be nice to get a do-over.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C8Rcbj">
This holiday season, I am out for blood, and by blood, I mean really good presents. Is transforming myself into the best gift-giver of all time too much to ask? Probably. In the interest of merely learning how to give better presents, I turned to several experts in the arts of gift-giving and etiquette, who shared their tactics and frameworks for gathering ideas and getting in a creative mindset.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p0PGC9">
“I’ve always believed that literally anything on earth, any object, any piece of trash, anything you find in a store, can be a perfect gift,” says Helen Rosner, a New Yorker staff writer who publishes an annual <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/give-your-loved-one-an-oyster-iou-a-food-themed-holiday-gift-guide">food-themed gift guide</a> that is somehow both deranged and genuinely useful. “It can be a Tootsie Pop or a $10,000 diamond-encrusted cocktail shaker. What’s important is matching the right thing to the right person.”
</p>
<h3 id="cDhK19">
Not every gift has to be life-changing, and a meaningful gift doesn’t have to cost a lot of money
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3oPDSu">
Whether or not you’re in a position to buy a $10,000 cocktail shaker, it’s remarkably easy to start spiraling about finding the perfect gift for someone. Before you open a single browser tab, take a minute to remember that a gift doesn’t have to cause absolute emotional devastation (in a good way) in order to be successful.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tg7oEm">
“We often give ourselves this challenge of being like, ‘What is the gift that only I could give them? What is the gift that proves I know them so well?’ And that’s kind of impossible,” says Erica Cerulo, who runs the recommendation-filled <a href="https://www.athingortwohq.com"><em>A Thing or Two</em></a> podcast and newsletter with her business partner, Claire Mazur. (Cerulo and Mazur previously co-founded the retail destination Of A Kind, which shut down in 2019.) A great gift doesn’t have to change someone’s life, Cerulo says: It can just be something that’s fun and nice and comforting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TjNexu">
Similarly, you don’t have to spend a certain amount of money for a gift to feel meaningful. Rosner did a book swap with family last winter, wherein each person had to choose a title from their own shelf that they thought another person in the group would enjoy. “Part of the gift was explaining: ‘I have read this, I loved it, and I think you would love it,’” Rosner says. “It involved spending zero dollars, it created amazing conversations, and it felt really personal and deep.”
</p>
<h3 id="0YNGqD">
Try to tick one of three gift-giving boxes
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nVmbp6">
Because creativity thrives with constraints, Cerulo offered the following three-point framework for thinking about gift-giving: “Can I introduce someone to something they might not otherwise know about? Can I get them a nicer version of something than they would buy for themselves? Or can I make them feel seen?” If you can check one of those three boxes, you’ve probably got a good present on your hands.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IbYIMq">
Last summer, Cerulo and Mazur went to stay with some friends who were very generous hosts, cooking every meal. “All weekend we were running out for seltzer water, so afterward I sent them a really nice seltzer maker,” Mazur says. “We came back, and it was in use all weekend, and the kids had learned how to use it.” She describes this as a particularly satisfying gift-giving experience that ticked several of the boxes Cerulo laid out. It was something their hosts probably weren’t going to buy for themselves (and was luxurious in a way that only infinite seltzer can be), and it demonstrated that she was paying attention to their habits.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KpmeOy">
Making someone feel seen gets to the reason why we give people gifts in the first place. “The way that we express love to people through gift-giving is by reflecting who they are back to them, and also by showing them who we see them as,” says Rosner. You could get someone a $70 cut-crystal glass for their whiskey, for instance, but you could also track down the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Flintstone-Betty-Tumbler-Pizza-Hut/dp/B002W9Q57O">Pizza Hut <em>Flintstones Kids</em> glasses</a> from the 1980s that they loved as a child.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="47cGiu">
So how do you make someone feel known? Unlock your phone and …
</p>
<h3 id="kyPxCh">
Keep a running list of gift ideas
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ryEdLJ">
Almost universally, great gift-givers are doing legwork throughout the year, not just in the weeks leading up to a birthday or major holiday. Many keep lists of potential gifts for their friends and loved ones, which they update every time someone mentions an item they’d love or when their internet travels turn up a particularly great present idea. You can do this in any way that suits you: Cerulo has a single note in her phone dedicated to gift ideas, Mazur keeps individual notes for individual people, and Rosner uses friends’ contacts as a place to log food preferences, birthdays, and present ideas.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iI4o3w">
If a friend mentions an interest that lends itself well toward vintage or handmade products, you may also consider setting up alerts on that subject on sites like Etsy and eBay. In the earlier years of their relationship, Cerulo’s husband used eBay to hunt down a vintage Vogue cover from the 1940s that was designed by Salvador Dalí. It was a long con that took him several years, but it was incredibly meaningful to Cerulo when she received it: She worked in magazines at the time and was obsessed with that particular cover, having seen an exhibit of Dalí’s art while studying abroad in college. “It just really felt like, ‘Right<em>.</em> You get it,’” Cerulo recalls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qn5IS2">
Incidentally, devising systems for gathering gift ideas can help you steer clear of asking your loved ones what they want — something that Crystal L. Bailey, director of the <a href="https://www.washingtonetiquette.com">Etiquette Institute of Washington</a>, suggests avoiding. “It puts the onus on them to kind of figure out their own gifts, right? So if we can, in our relationships, really try to take notice of what someone appreciates and what they enjoy,” she says.
</p>
<h3 id="rXlW21">
Write a mini-bio of the recipient, even if you know them well
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PnOF5w">
Our closest confidantes are sometimes the most challenging people on our list. How are you supposed to distill your sister’s marvelous and unique essence into a single package? First, step away from the grandiose thinking. Second, get some perspective with a tactic that Mazur and Cerulo figured out while creating gift guides: Write a three-sentence description of the person you have in mind, paying close attention to their enthusiasms, obsessions, and interests. “I might say, ‘My dad is obsessed with sports, he thinks most kitchen gadgets are pretentious, and he’s been a lawyer his whole life,’” says Mazur. “Then there’s a little bit more room to get imaginative.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zlkavc">
If you’ve spent a lot of time looking at gift guides, this exercise can also help you break out of thinking about your loved ones in terms of consumer profiles. (I like gift guides, but they do have a tendency to, say, boil men’s interests down to whiskey stones and beard oil.) “It’s better to give something that’s like, ‘This is a gift for <em>you</em>’ — like you as a person, not you as some demographic category,” says Rosner. “I know you love Nutter Butters, so here are 17 packages of Nutter Butters.”
</p>
<h3 id="QLmFr5">
Don’t stress about gifts for people you don’t know well
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K7ECtc">
From an etiquette standpoint, Bailey advises personalizing gifts to people you don’t know very well, without getting too personal. For a co-worker, a signed greeting card and a gift card aligned with their interests can be a good option. Perfumes, scented items, and clothing, on the other hand, can be a little too intimate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dXCQSR">
This philosophy gets at a fundamental truth about buying a gift for your boss or your brother’s new honey: You’re not close friends, and that’s actually fine. “When it’s someone you don’t know super well, you don’t have to go through this crazy dance of trying to reflect themselves back at them and also the way you see them, because you don’t have that yet,” says Rosner. “This is a totally different type of gift communication where it’s just like, ‘I’d like to give you something that makes you a little bit happy.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iBwVud">
In this situation, you just need to know one personal fact about the recipient. “It could be as deep as, ‘She’s really into pre-Prohibition cocktails,’ or it could be as shallow as, ‘I know her favorite color’s lilac,’” Rosner says. Avoid giving someone “the gift equivalent of mansplaining” — i.e. an entry-level item pertaining to their interest, like the <em>Joy of Cooking</em> for an amateur chef — or buying them something so esoteric that it looks like you’re trying to one-up them. For the cocktail aficionado, you might just find them the best ice cube mold, according to cocktail experts — a little gesture to show that you care to buy them something of quality.
</p>
<h3 id="YRxcCL">
When in doubt, turn to one of these categories
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NSx3se">
Several kinds of presents kept coming up in my interviews, so I’ve compiled them here. Consider this your cheat sheet to buying a reliably good present.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="58ToQR">
<strong>Books</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hT020h">
Like Rosner, Cerulo and Mazur see books as an opportunity to bond with the recipient, whether or not you already know them well. You can give someone a book that you’ve read and loved, or you can buy them one that’s in line with their interests (a cookbook, a mystery novel, a birdwatching tome). “It creates longer-term relationship building that other things don’t,” says Cerulo.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KWpclg">
<strong>Food, beverages, and other consumables</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tXNLjB">
Etiquette-wise, Bailey is a big fan of gifts that avoid encumbering the recipient with clutter. Food is a great version of that. It can be personal and nostalgic (Skyline Chili shipped to a Cincinnati ex-pat via Goldbelly), decadent but not ridiculously expensive (special salt or olive oil), or lovingly made at home (Cerulo’s husband prepares eggnog every year and bottles it for friends).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dsSXC6">
<strong>The biggest version of the thing possible</strong>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="abrWrv">
Here’s a shortcut to a great gift: If you know that someone loves a particular item, just get them a ton of it. Absurd volume is funny, knowing, luxurious, and a little bit teasing. It could be a huge box of pink Starbursts, or, as Cerulo once bought for Mazur, a “several-gallon jug” of Red Boat Fish Sauce.
</p>
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ag0NUx">
“One pair of socks is tragic. Five pairs of socks feels dutiful. Ten starts to be a little interesting,” Rosner says. “But 100 is ludicrous. And that’s what makes it a great gift. You have to cross that line.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7ApIIz">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/authors/eliza-brooke"><em>Eliza Brooke</em></a><em> is a freelance journalist covering design, culture, and entertainment.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VkY0EM">
<a href="http://www.vox.com/even-better"><em>Even Better</em></a><em> is here to offer deeply sourced, actionable advice for helping you live a better life. Do you have a question on money and work; friends, family, and community; or personal growth and health? Send us your question by filling out this </em><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiStGSlsWDBmglim7Dh1Y9Hy386rkeKGpfwF6BCjmgnZdqfQ/viewform"><em>form</em></a><em>. We might turn it into a story.</em>
</p>
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</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w1RxPD">
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>King’s Ransom, Zuccarrelli, Theon and Iron Age caught the eye</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dragon’s Gold, Matera, De Villiers, Serdar and Salento excel</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FIFA World Cup 2022, Belgium vs. Morocco | Starting line-ups released</strong> - Here are the starting line-ups for the World Cup Group F match between Belgium and Morocco</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>Narendra Modi Stadium gets Guinness record for highest T20 attendance: BCCI</strong> - The Narendra Modi Stadium has a capacity of 1,10,000 which is nearly 10,000 more than Melbourne Cricket Ground</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>FIFA World Cup 2022 | Late Costa Rica goal stuns sluggish Japan</strong> - Japan could have qualified for the knockout stages early, but will now need to beat Spain in the last game to do so</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>Narendra Modi Stadium gets Guinness record for highest T20 attendance: BCCI</strong> - The Narendra Modi Stadium has a capacity of 1,10,000 which is nearly 10,000 more than Melbourne Cricket Ground</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>Invitation from India as G20 guest shows growing importance of Bangladesh economy: Deputy Foreign Minister Shahriar Alam</strong> - Bangladesh is seeking more energy from India, refined crude from Russia, says Bangladesh’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shahriar Alam</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>Satyendar Jain’s jail videos being leaked by people close to Arvind Kejriwal: BJP</strong> - Satyendar Jain is being provided facilities in the jail despite Arvind Kejriwal on record claiming credit to end “VIP culture” in Delhi's prisons, Sambit Patra said</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>BJP should not act like Pakistani raiders of 1947 in J&amp;K: Mehbooba Mufti</strong> - Mehbooba Mufti said J&amp;K had acceded to India in 1947 and had a relation of Constitution and love that “the BJP completely destroyed”</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>Frontier Nagaland State demand group to meet Amit Shah</strong> - The Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation has decided not to participate in the Hornbill Festival</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>Deadly landslide tears through Italian island of Ischia</strong> - A torrent of mud and debris dislodged trees, engulfed buildings and dragged cars into the sea.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Putin tells Russian soldiers’ mothers he shares their pain</strong> - Given the scale of destruction from Russia’s invasion, his words are certain to infuriate Ukrainians.</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>World Cup 2022: Fifa opens disciplinary proceedings against Serbia over controversial Kosovo flag</strong> - Fifa opens disciplinary proceedings against Serbia’s football association after its team hung a controversial flag depicting Kosovo in their dressing room.</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>World Cup 2022: France 2 Denmark 1: Kylian Mbappe scores twice as holders reach knockout stage</strong> - Kylian Mbappe scores twice for France as the defending champions lay down a marker by beating Denmark and becoming the first team to reach the World Cup knockout stage.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Facing a harsh winter on the front line</strong> - With no power or running water, the few remaining residents of Avdiivka have been urged to leave.</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>The evolution of whales from land to sea</strong> - Genomes of cetaceans help tell story of mammals who returned to life aquatic. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1899963">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>[Updated] Here are all the best Black Friday deals live now</strong> - We’re wading through the Black Friday flood so you don’t have to. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1898433">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The best Black Friday deals for Apple devices</strong> - Apple is offering gift cards, and retailers are serving up discounts. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1899376">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Scientists debate the role of a virus in multiple sclerosis</strong> - Recent study offers evidence of link between Epstein-Barr and multiple sclerosis. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1899794">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The best Black Friday laptop deals we can find</strong> - Some favorite and notable laptops are getting solid discounts this week. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1899696">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>A duck walks into a bar</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He walks up to the bartender and asks
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Got any bread?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Got any bread?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Got any bread?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Got any bread?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No, and if you ask again, I’ll nail your beak to the bar!”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Got any nails?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Got any bread?”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Threat_Identified"> /u/Threat_Identified </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5hhhy/a_duck_walks_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5hhhy/a_duck_walks_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>So there was an assassin who charged $10,000 per bullet.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A guy comes up to him in the bar one day and says, “Are you the guy who charges $10,000 a bullet?” “Yep.” “What if you miss?” He looks at the man, deadly serious. “I don’t miss.” “Okay! Well, I’ve got $20,000. I just found out my wife is having an affair with my best friend. They’re at the motel together right now.” “Let’s go”, the assassin says. So, they drive to the store across the street from the motel and climb up on the roof. The assassin takes out his rifle and attaches the scope. “I want you to shoot her in the head and I want you to blow his dick off.” The assassin looks thru his scope. He keeps staring for several minutes, not taking the shot.“Well, what are you waiting for?”, the husband asks. “Hold on a minute,” said the assassin. “I may be able to save you ten grand.”
</p>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/OkProperty2576"> /u/OkProperty2576 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5dc0f/so_there_was_an_assassin_who_charged_10000_per/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5dc0f/so_there_was_an_assassin_who_charged_10000_per/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A duck waddles into a hotel’s lobby convenience store…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
…and loudly asks the bored clerk, “Hey, where can a guy get some Tic Tacs?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Incredulous, the store clerk responds to the waterfowl at his feet, “Did you just ask for Tic Tacs?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Yeah, Tic Tacs,” says the duck. “Got a date with a smokin’ hot redhead.”
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Not knowing for certain how to respond to this bizarre situation, the clerk grabs a pack of Tic Tacs, places it on the counter, and says, “And how do you want to pay for this?”
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“I’m a guest of the hotel,” replies the duck, “so just put it on my bill.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The transaction occurs, and with an amused chuckle, the duck grabs the Tic Tacs and leaves.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Two hours later, the duck returns. And indeed, the hottest redhead the clerk has ever seen accompanies the duck.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“I wanna buy a condom,” the duck announces loudly without a hint of decorum.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The clerk, making every effort not to imagine the scenario posed by this turn of events, places a condom on the counter and states, “I suppose you want me to put this on your bill.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The duck replies, “What? Do I look like some kind of pervert to you?”
</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/ragnarok62"> /u/ragnarok62 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5q7nv/a_duck_waddles_into_a_hotels_lobby_convenience/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5q7nv/a_duck_waddles_into_a_hotels_lobby_convenience/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I saw that our local zoo has an interesting attraction : A lion and a sheep living peacefully in the same cage.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
​
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I asked the zookeeper whether they ever fight. He said, “Rarely.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I asked what happens when they do.
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“We get another sheep.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RibaldPancake"> /u/RibaldPancake </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5622t/i_saw_that_our_local_zoo_has_an_interesting/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5622t/i_saw_that_our_local_zoo_has_an_interesting/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A Pole-ish joke</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Two engineers…….
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Two engineers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking at its top. A woman walked by and asked what they were doing.
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“We’re supposed to find the height of this flagpole,” said one, “but we don’t have a ladder.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple of bolts, and laid the pole down on the ground. Then she took a tape measure from her pocketbook, took a measurement, and announced, “Twenty one feet, six inches,” and walked away.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
One engineer shook his head and laughed, “A lot of good that does us. We ask for the height and she gives us the length!”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Both engineers have since quit their engineering jobs and are currently working for Facebook.
</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/LarryMoCurley"> /u/LarryMoCurley </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5snu9/a_poleish_joke/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/z5snu9/a_poleish_joke/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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