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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>Apropos of Universal Epitope Discovery for COVID-19 Vaccines: A Framework for Targeted Phage Display-Based Delivery and Integration of New Evaluation Tools</strong> -
<div>
Targeted bacteriophage (phage) particles are potentially attractive yet inexpensive platforms for immunization. Herein, we describe targeted phage capsid display of an immunogenically relevant epitope of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein that is empirically conserved, likely due to the high mutational cost among all variants identified to date. This observation may herald an approach to developing vaccine candidates for broad-spectrum, towards universal, protection against multiple emergent variants of coronavirus that cause COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html- link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.458222v1" target="_blank">Apropos of Universal Epitope Discovery for COVID-19 Vaccines: A Framework for Targeted Phage Display-Based Delivery and Integration of New Evaluation Tools</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Intravenous administration of BCG protects mice against lethal SARS-CoV-2 challenge</strong> -
<div>
Early events in the host response to SARS-CoV-2 are thought to play a major role in determining disease severity. During pulmonary infection, the virus encounters both myeloid and epithelioid lineage cells that can either support or restrict pathogen replication as well as respond with host protective versus detrimental mediators. In addition to providing partial protection against pediatric tuberculosis, vaccination with bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) has been reported to confer non-specific resistance to unrelated pulmonary pathogens, a phenomenon attributed to the induction of long-lasting alterations within the myeloid cell compartment. Here we demonstrate that prior intravenous, but not subcutaneous, administration of BCG protects human-ACE2 transgenic mice against lethal challenge with SARS-CoV-2 and results in reduced viral loads in non-transgenic animals infected with an alpha variant. The observed increase in host resistance was associated with reductions in SARS-CoV-2-induced tissue pathology, inflammatory cell recruitment and cytokine production that multivariate analysis revealed to be only partially related to diminished viral load. We propose that this protection stems from BCG-induced alterations in the composition and function of the pulmonary cellular compartment that impact the innate response to the virus and the ensuing immunopathology.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.458273v1" target="_blank">Intravenous administration of BCG protects mice against lethal SARS-CoV-2 challenge</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>(Machine) Learning the mutation signatures of SARS-CoV-2: a primer for predictive prognosis</strong> -
<div>
Motivation: Continuous emergence of new variants through appearance, accumulation and disappearance of mutations in viruses is a hallmark of many viral diseases. SARS-CoV-2 and its variants have particularly exerted tremendous pressure on global healthcare system owing to their life threatening and debilitating implications. The sheer plurality of the variants and huge scale of genome sequence data available for Covid19 have added to the challenges of traceability of mutations of concern. The latter however provides an opportunity to utilize SARS-CoV-2 genomes and the mutations therein as “big data records” to comprehensively classify the variants through the (machine) learning of mutation patterns. The unprecedented sequencing effort and tracing of dis-ease outcomes provide an excellent ground for identifying important mutations by developing ma-chine learnt models or severity classifiers using mutation profile of SARS-CoV-2. This is expected to provide a significant impetus to the efforts towards not only identifying the mutations of concern but also exploring the potential of mutation driven predictive prognosis of SARS-CoV-2. Results: We describe how a graduated approach of building various severity specific machine learning classifiers, using only the mutation corpus of SARS- CoV-2 genomes, can potentially lead to the identification of important mutations and guide potential prognosis of infection. We demonstrate the applicability of model derived important mutations and use of Shapley values in order to identify the significant mutations of concern as well as for developing sparse models of outcome classification. A total of 77,284 outcome traced SARS-CoV-2 genomes were employed in this study which represented a total corpus of 30346 unique nucleotide mutations and 18647 amino acid mutations. Machine learning models pertaining to graduated classifiers of target outcomes namely “Asymptomatic, Mild, Symptomatic/Moderate, Severe and Fatal” were built considering the TRIPOD guidelines for predictive prognosis. Shapley values for model linked important mutations were employed to select significant mutations leading to identification of less than 20 outcome driving mutations from each classifier. We additionally describe the significance of adopting a “temporal modeling approach” to benchmark the predictive prognosis linked with continuously evolving pathogens. A chronologically distinct sampling is important in evaluating the performance of models trained on “past data” in accurately classifying prognosis linked with genomes of future (observed with new mutations). We conclude that while machine learning approach can play a vital role in identifying relevant mutations, caution should be exercised in using the mutation signatures for predictive prognosis in cases where new mutations have accumulated along with the previously observed mutations of concern.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.458244v1" target="_blank">(Machine) Learning the mutation signatures of SARS-CoV-2: a primer for predictive prognosis</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Strikingly different roles of SARS-CoV-2 fusion peptides uncovered by neutron scattering</strong> -
<div>
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), a lethal respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, emerged in the end of 2019 and has since spread aggressively across the globe. A thorough understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cellular infection by coronaviruses is therefore of utmost importance. A critical stage in infection is the fusion between viral and host membranes. Here, we present a detailed investigation of the role of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein, and the influence of calcium and cholesterol, in this fusion process. Structural information from specular neutron reflectometry and small angle neutron scattering, complemented by dynamics information from quasi-elastic and spin-echo neutron spectroscopy, revealed strikingly different functions encoded in the Spike fusion domain. Calcium drives the N-terminal of the Spike fusion domain to fully cross the host plasma membrane. Removing calcium however re-orients the protein to the lipid leaflet in contact with the virus, leading to significant changes in lipid fluidity and rigidity. In conjunction with other regions of the fusion domain which are also positioned to bridge and dehydrate viral and host membranes, the molecular events leading to cell entry by SARS-CoV-2 are proposed.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.458099v1" target="_blank">Strikingly different roles of SARS-CoV-2 fusion peptides uncovered by neutron scattering</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Relationship between COVID-19 infection and neurodegeneration: Computational insight into interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the monoamine oxidase enzymes</strong> -
<div>
Although COVID-19 has been primarily associated with pneumonia, recent data show that its causative agent, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, can infect many vital organs beyond the lungs, including the heart, kidneys and the brain. The literature agrees that COVID-19 is likely to have long-term mental health effects on infected individuals, which signifies a need to understand the role of the virus in the pathophysiology of brain disorders that is currently unknown and widely debated. Our docking and molecular dynamic simulations show that the affinity of the spike protein from the wild type (WT) and the South African B.1.351 (SA) variant towards the MAO enzymes is comparable to that for its ACE2 receptor. This allows for the WT/SA***MAO complex formation, which changes MAO affinities for their neurotransmitter substrates, thus consequently impacting the rates of their metabolic conversion and misbalancing their levels. Knowing that this fine regulation is strongly linked with the etiology of various brain pathologies, these results are the first to highlight the possibility that the interference with the brain MAO catalytic activity is responsible for the increased neurodegenerative illnesses following a COVID-19 infection, thus placing a neurobiological link between these two conditions in the spotlight. Since the obtained insight suggests that a more contagious SA variant causes even larger disturbances, and with new and more problematic strains likely emerging in the near future, we firmly advise that the presented prospect of the SARS-CoV-2 induced neurological complications should not be ignored, but rather requires further clinical investigations to achieve an early diagnosis and timely therapeutic interventions.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.458208v1" target="_blank">Relationship between COVID-19 infection and neurodegeneration: Computational insight into interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the monoamine oxidase enzymes</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Epistasis at the SARS-CoV-2 RBD Interface and the Propitiously Boring Implications for Vaccine Escape</strong> -
<div>
At the time of this writing, August 2021, potential emergence of vaccine escape variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a grave global concern. The interface between the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein and the host receptor (ACE2) overlap with the binding site of principal neutralizing antibodies (NAb), limiting the repertoire of viable mutations. Nonetheless, variants with multiple mutations in the RBD have rose to dominance. Non-additive, epistatic relationships among RBD mutations are apparent, and assessing the impact of such epistasis on the mutational landscape is crucial. Epistasis can substantially increase the risk of vaccine escape and cannot be completely characterized through the study of the wild type (WT) alone. We employed protein structure modeling using Rosetta to compare the effects of all single mutants at the RBD-NAb and RBD- ACE2 interfaces for the WT, Gamma (417T, 484K, 501Y), and Delta variants (452R, 478K). Overall, epistasis at the RBD surface appears to be limited and the effects of most multiple mutations are additive. Epistasis at the Delta variant interface weakly stabilizes NAb interaction relative to ACE2, whereas in the Gamma variant, epistasis more substantially destabilizes NAb interaction. These results suggest that the repertoire of potential escape mutations for the Delta variant is not substantially different from that of the WT, whereas Gamma poses a moderately greater risk for enhanced vaccine escape. Thus, the modest ensemble of mutations relative to the WT shown to reduce vaccine efficacy might constitute the majority of all possible escape mutations.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.458225v1" target="_blank">Epistasis at the SARS-CoV-2 RBD Interface and the Propitiously Boring Implications for Vaccine Escape</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>When Knowledge is Blinding: The Dangers of Being Certain About the Future</strong> -
<div>
Despite much research on certainty and future thought, it remains unclear how certainty about the future influences the ways people think, feel, and act. Three studies (N = 1218) examined how certainty about the future impacts people’s cognition, affect, and behavior during two major events of future uncertainty; the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. In Study 1, certainty about the future of COVID-19 predicted ignorance of medical information and lower objective knowledge about the virus. In line with these findings, in Study 2, certainty about the future of COVID-19 predicted endorsing riskier health behaviors. Turning to the 2020 Presidential Election, in Study 3, being certain that one’s preferred candidate would win the election predicted greater claims that the election was rigged (after the election) and identifying with Capitol insurrectionists. These findings introduce certainty about the future as a psychological phenomenon that entails intellectual blindness across diverging domains.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/v78pd/" target="_blank">When Knowledge is Blinding: The Dangers of Being Certain About the Future</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>COVID-19 associated discrimination in Germany: Realistic and symbolic threats</strong> -
<div>
The contribution focusses on Covid-19 associated discrimination (CAD) in Germany and asks whether immigrants from Asian origin are increasingly discriminated against during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether other immigrant groups face similar threats. Using data from the COVID-19 add-on-survey for CILS4EU-DE (CILS4COVID), we demonstrate that immigrants from Asian origin report an increasing CAD during the pandemic, which is more pronounced for respondents residing in administrative districts with a more dynamic COVID-19 situation. Similar results can be found for respondents originating from both American continents and from countries of the former Soviet Union. Given that COVID-19 was first reported in Asia, but with rather low number of infections later on, and the rather high infection rates on both American continents and in Russia, we conclude that CAD experienced by these groups might happen in a reaction to both realistic and symbolic threats posed by the virus.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/azsb3/" target="_blank">COVID-19 associated discrimination in Germany: Realistic and symbolic threats</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Inferring Transmission Fitness Advantage of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern in Wastewater Using Digital PCR</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Throughout the global COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 genetic variants of concern (VOCs) have repeatedly and independently arisen. VOCs are characterized by increased transmissibility, increased virulence, or reduced neutralization by antibodies obtained from prior infection or vaccination. Tracking the introduction and transmission of VOCs relies on sequencing, typically whole-genome sequencing of clinical samples. Wastewater surveillance is increasingly used to track the introduction and spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants through sequencing approaches. Here, we adapt and apply a rapid, high-throughput method for detection and quantification of the frequency of two deletions characteristic of the B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1 VOCs in wastewater. We further develop a statistical approach to analyze temporal dynamics in drop-off RT-dPCR assay data to quantify transmission fitness advantage, providing data similar to that obtained from clinical samples. Digital PCR assays targeting signature mutations in wastewater offer near real-time monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs and potentially earlier detection and inference on transmission fitness advantage than clinical sequencing.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.22.21262024v1" target="_blank">Inferring Transmission Fitness Advantage of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern in Wastewater Using Digital PCR</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Cultural Consumption and Covid-19: Evidence from the Taking Part and COVID-19 Cultural Participation Monitor surveys</strong> -
<div>
How did cultural consumption change during the Covid-19 pandemic? Whilst the impact of the pandemic on cultural production has been given significant attention, work on consumption has seen less attention (Roberts 2020 on leisure time notwithstanding). This paper addresses this gap in the literature by presenting a comparative analysis of two, nationally representative, surveys of cultural activity in England. The analysis demonstrates that, when cultural consumption moved online and to digital modes of delivery and engagement as a result of the pandemic, there was no discernible transformation in the stratification of cultural participation in England. The majority of the population, characterised by the absence of participation in formal, and often state-funded, cultural forms, saw no change to their patterns of engagement. Where cultural consumption did increase, this was among the small minority of people who were already highly engaged. This minority maps closely onto pre-existing inequalities identified by existing research on cultural consumption, in England and beyond. For cultural consumption and the stratification of taste, it seems that the ‘new normal’ of pandemic life was much like the ‘old normal’ of an art and cultural audience characterised by significant inequality.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/x9dbv/" target="_blank">Cultural Consumption and Covid-19: Evidence from the Taking Part and COVID-19 Cultural Participation Monitor surveys</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>The People’s Vaccine: Intellectual Property, Access to Essential Medicines, and the Coronavirus COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
This paper explores intellectual property and access to essential medicines in the context of the coronavirus COVID-19 public health crisis. It considers policy solutions to counteract vaccine nationalism and profiteering by pharmaceutical companies and vaccine developers. This paper considers the campaign for the development of a People’s Vaccine led by the People’s Vaccine Alliance, UNAIDS, Oxfam and Public Citizen. The WHO has established the ACT Accelerator in order to boost research, development, and deployment of COVID-19 technologies. However, the operation of COVAX thus far has been falling short of its original ambitions. The Medicines Patent Pool has expanded its jurisdiction to include the sharing of intellectual property related to COVID-19. Meanwhile, Costa Rica has proposed a COVID-19 Technology Access Pool – an idea for a new institutional structure which has been taken up by the WHO. In the context of the coronavirus public health crisis, there has also been discussion of the use of compulsory licensing and crown use to counteract profiteering and anti-competitive behavior. There has been a push by Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) and others for the public licensing of COVID-19 technologies developed with government funding. The Open COVID Pledge has been taken by a number of intellectual property owners. In response to the assertion of proprietary rights in respect of COVID-19 technologies, the open movement has championed the development of Open Science models of science. India and South Africa have put forward a waiver proposal in the TRIPS Council to enable countries to take action in respect of COVID-19 without fear of retribution under trade laws. While the United States has been willing to support a TRIPS Waiver for vaccines, there remain a number of opponents to a TRIPS Waiver – including the European Union, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. This paper makes the case that international intellectual property law should accommodate a People’s Vaccine.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/sfmnu/" target="_blank">The People’s Vaccine: Intellectual Property, Access to Essential Medicines, and the Coronavirus COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Localized and Whole-Room Effects of Portable Air Filtration Units on Aerosol Particle Deposition and Concentration in a Classroom Environment</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In indoor environments with limited ventilation, recirculating portable air filtration (PAF) units may reduce COVID-19 infection risk via not only the direct aerosol route (i.e., inhalation) but also via an indirect aerosol route (i.e., contact with the surface where particles deposited). We systematically investigated the impact of PAF units in a mock classroom, as a supplement to background ventilation, on localized and whole-room surface deposition and particle concentration. Fluorescently tagged particles with a volumetric mean diameter near two micrometers were continuously introduced into the classroom environment via a breathing simulator with a prescibed inhalation-exhalation waveform. Deposition velocities were inferred on &gt;50 horizontal and vertical surfaces throughout the classroom, while aerosol concentrations were spatially monitored via optical particle spectrometry. Results revealed a particle decay rate consistent with expectations based upon the reported clean air delivery rates of the PAF units. Additionally, the PAF units reduced peak concentrations by a factor of around 2.5 compared to the highest concentrations observed and led to a statistically significant reduction in deposition velocities for horizontal surfaces &gt;2.5 m from the aerosol source. Our results not only confirm PAF units can reduce particle concentrations but also demonstrate that they may lead to reduced particle deposition throughout an indoor environment when properly positioned.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article- link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.22.21262392v1" target="_blank">Localized and Whole-Room Effects of Portable Air Filtration Units on Aerosol Particle Deposition and Concentration in a Classroom Environment</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>National Excess Mortality from Sub-National data: Method and Application for Argentina</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Currently, many countries have not yet reported 2020 or 2021 mortality data to allow an estimate of excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some countries have sub-national mortality data, at the state, province or city level. I present a simple method to allow estimation of national level mortality and excess mortality from sub- national data, using the case of Argentina and projecting excess mortality up to July 2021.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.21262814v1" target="_blank">National Excess Mortality from Sub- National data: Method and Application for Argentina</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Waning immunity of the BNT162b2 vaccine: A nationwide study from Israel</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background: Starting December 2020, Israel began a mass vaccination campaign against coronavirus administering the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine, which led to a sharp curtailing of the outbreak. After a period with almost no SARS-CoV-2 infections, a resurgent COVID-19 outbreak initiated mid June 2021. Possible reasons for the breakthrough were reduced vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant, and waning immunity. The aim of this study was to quantify the extent of waning immunity using Israel national-database. Methods: Data on all PCR positive test results between July 11-31, 2021 of Israeli residents who became fully vaccinated before June 2021 were used in this analysis. Infection rates and severe COVID-19 outcomes were compared between individuals who were vaccinated in different time periods using a Poisson regression, stratifying by age group and adjusting for possible confounding factors. Results: The rates of both documented SARS-CoV-2 infections and severe COVID-19 exhibit a statistically significant increase as time from second vaccine dose elapsed. Elderly individuals (60+) who received their second dose in March 2021 were 1.6 (CI: [1.3, 2]) times more protected against infection and 1.7 (CI: [1.0, 2.7]) times more protected against severe COVID-19 compared to those who received their second dose in January 2021. Similar results were found for different age groups. Conclusions: These results indicate a strong effect of waning immunity in all age groups after six months. Quantifying the effect of waning immunity on vaccine effectiveness is critical for policy makers worldwide facing the dilemma of administering booster vaccinations.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262423v1" target="_blank">Waning immunity of the BNT162b2 vaccine: A nationwide study from Israel</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Barrier gesture relaxation during vaccination campaign in France: modelling impact of waning immunity</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Non-pharmaceutical interventions have been implemented intermittently for more than a year in most countries of the world to mitigate COVID-19 epidemic. In France, while the vaccination campaign is progressing, the French government has decided to remove many public health restrictions such as business closure, lockdowns and curfews. Nonetheless, social distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing (also called barrier gestures) are still recommended. We utilize an age-structured compartmental SEIR model that takes into account SARS-CoV-2 waning immunity, vaccination, and increased transmissibility from variants of concern, to estimate if barrier gestures can be relaxed without causing a resurgence of severe infections. This model assumes that susceptibility to infection is a function of immunity status, which depends on initial infection severity and vaccination status. It is calibrated on confirmed COVID-19 cases from the French surveillance database, and accounts for changes in contact behaviors due to implementation of nation-wide public health policies. We study partial and full relaxation of barrier gestures occurring from August to December 2021 under various immunity duration assumptions. Maintaining application of barrier gestures appears essential to avoid a resurgence of severe infections that would exceed health care capacities, while surmounting vaccine hesitancy represents the key to consider their relaxation. Immunity duration assumptions significantly influence the short-term dynamic of the epidemic which should be considered for further modelling.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.29.21262788v1" target="_blank">Barrier gesture relaxation during vaccination campaign in France: modelling impact of waning immunity</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 Phase III Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Proxalutamide (GT0918) in Hospitalized Subjects With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: GT0918;   Drug: Standard of care;   Drug: Matching placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Suzhou Kintor Pharmaceutical Inc,<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of PF-07321332/Ritonavir in Non-hospitalized Low-Risk Adult Participants With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: PF-07321332;   Drug: Ritonavir;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Pfizer<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>Developing and Testing a COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance Intervention</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Vaccination<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Moving to COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Intervention<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   VA Office of Research and Development;   VA Bedford Healthcare System<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>Andrographis Paniculata vs Boesenbergia Rotunda vs Control in Asymptomatic COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Andrographis Paniculata;   Drug: Boesenbergia;   Other: Standard supportive treatment<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Mahidol University;   Ministry of Health, Thailand<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy of PJS-539 for Adult Patients With COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: PJS-539 Dose 1;   Drug: PJS-539 Dose 2;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospital do Coracao;   Covicept<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>Enhancing COVID Rehabilitation With Technology</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Behavioral: NexJ Connected Wellness;   Other: Usual Care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Ottawa;   Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR);   Ottawa Hospital Research Institute<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase I/II Clinical Trial of Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (Sf9 Cells) in Children and Adolescents</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: Recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells);   Other: Placebo control<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   WestVac Biopharma Co., Ltd.;   West China Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Treatment of Covid-19 With a Herbal Compound, Xagrotin</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Combination Product: Xagrotin<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:  <br/>
Biomad AS;   Directorate of health of Sulaimani, Iraq -KRG<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>Philippine Trial to Determine Efficacy and Safety of Favipiravir for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Combination Product: Favipiravir + Standard of Care;   Procedure: Standard of Care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of the Philippines;   Department of Health, Philippines<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of the Effects of Bradykinin Antagonists on Pulmonary Manifestations of COVID-19 Infections (AntagoBrad- Cov Study).</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: C1 Inhibitor Human;   Drug: Icatibant Injection;   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   GCS Ramsay Santé pour l’Enseignement et la Recherche<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>Combination of Dietary Supplements Curcumin, Quercetin and Vitamin D for Early Symptoms of COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Standard of care;   Dietary Supplement: combination of curcumin, quercetin and Vitamin D<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Ayub Teaching Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of Safety and Immunogenicity of a Novel Vaccine for Prevention of Covid-19 in Adults Previously Immunized</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: A vaccine composed of a recombinant S1 antigen<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Hospital do Coracao;   Farmacore Biotecnologia Ltda<br/><b>Withdrawn</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase 3 Clinical Study Evaluating Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray (NONS) Efficacy To Treat and Prevent the Exacerbation of Infection in Individuals With Documented Asymptomatic or Mild COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: to be given as a treatment<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Salmaniya Medical Complex<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>Changing of Prostate Specific Antigen Value in Patients With Covid-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   Covid19;   Prostate Specific Antigen<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: PSA value<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Saglik Bilimleri Universitesi<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>Evolution of Protective Immunization Against COVID-19 Among Hospital Workers in Health Care Facilities</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Other: Blood sample<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:  <br/>
Assistance Publique Hopitaux De Marseille<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Updated pharmacological effects of Lonicerae japonicae flos, with a focus on its potential efficacy on coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19)</strong> - Lonicerae japonicae flos (LJF), known as Jin Yin Hua in Chinese, is one of the most commonly used traditional Chinese herbs and nutraceuticals. Nowadays, LJF is broadly applied in an array of afflictions, such as fever, sore throat, flu infection, cough, and arthritis, with the action mechanism to be elucidated. Here, we strove to summarize the main phytochemical components of LJF and review its updated pharmacological effects, including inhibition of inflammation, pyrexia, viruses, and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 spike promotes inflammation and apoptosis through autophagy by ROS-suppressed PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling</strong> - BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection-induced inflammatory responses are largely responsible for the death of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. However, the mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 triggers inflammatory responses remains unclear. Here, we aimed to explore the regulatory role of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in infected cells and attempted to elucidate the molecular mechanism of SARS-CoV-2-induced inflammation.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Automated Culture System for Use in Preclinical Testing of Host-Directed Therapies for Tuberculosis</strong> - Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), was the most significant infectious disease killer globally until the advent of COVID-19. Mtb has evolved to persist in its intracellular environment, evade host defenses, and has developed resistance to many anti-tubercular drugs. One approach to solving resistance is identifying existing approved drugs that will boost the host immune response to Mtb. These drugs could then be repurposed as adjunctive host-directed…</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 Use of Lectins as Tools to Combat SARS-CoV-2</strong> - CONCLUSION: even with the development of effective vaccines, new cases of viral infection with the same virus, or new outbreaks with different viruses can occur; so, the development of new treatments should not be discarded. moreover, the discussions made in this work are relevant regarding the anti-viral properties of lectins.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong><em>In vivo</em> active organometallic-containing antimycotic agents</strong> - Fungal infections represent a global problem, notably for immunocompromised patients in hospital, COVID-19 patient wards and care home settings, and the ever-increasing emergence of multidrug resistant fungal strains is a sword of Damocles hanging over many healthcare systems. Azoles represent the mainstay of antifungal drugs, and their mode of action involves the binding mode of these molecules to the fungal lanosterol 14α-demethylase target enzyme. In this study, we have prepared and…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A computational study on hydroxychloroquine binding to target proteins related to SARS-COV-2 infection</strong> - COVID-19 disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has posed a global health emergency. Repurposing of existing drugs can be a rapid and effective strategy to fight the infection. Clinical trials have reported reduction or elimination of viral load when patients were treated with the anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). To understand the molecular mechanism of action for effective repurposing of this drug we have carried out in silico…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluation of a multi-species SARS-CoV-2 surrogate virus neutralization test</strong> - Assays to measure SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies are important to monitor seroprevalence, to study asymptomatic infections and to reveal (intermediate) hosts. A recently developed assay, the surrogate virus- neutralization test (sVNT) is a quick and commercially available alternative to the “gold standard” virus neutralization assay using authentic virus, and does not require processing at BSL-3 level. The assay relies on the inhibition of binding of the receptor binding domain (RBD)…</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 Natural Inhibitors Against SARS-CoV-2 Drugable Targets Using Molecular Docking, Molecular Dynamics Simulation, and MM-PBSA Approach</strong> - The present study explores the SARS-CoV-2 drugable target inhibition efficacy of phytochemicals from Indian medicinal plants using molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, and MM-PBSA analysis. A total of 130 phytochemicals were screened against SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S)-protein, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), and Main protease (M^(pro)). Result of molecular docking showed that Isoquercetin potentially binds with the active site/protein binding site of the Spike, RdRP, and Mpro…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An overview of potential inhibitors targeting non-structural proteins 3 (PL(pro) and Mac1) and 5 (3CL(pro)/M(pro)) of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - There is an urgent need to develop effective treatments for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in a global pandemic that has not only affected the daily lives of individuals but also had a significant impact on the global economy and public health. Although extensive research has been conducted to identify inhibitors targeting SARS-CoV-2, there are still no effective…</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>DAMPening COVID-19 Severity by Attenuating Danger Signals</strong> - COVID-19 might lead to multi-organ failure and, in some cases, to death. The COVID-19 severity is associated with a “cytokine storm.” Danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are proinflammatory molecules that can activate pattern recognition receptors, such as toll-like receptors (TLRs). DAMPs and TLRs have not received much attention in COVID-19 but can explain some of the gender-, weight- and age-dependent effects. In females and males, TLRs are differentially expressed, likely…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In Silico Identification of MicroRNAs targeting the Key nucleator of Stress Granules, G3BP: Promising Therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2 Infection</strong> - Stress granules (SGs) are non-membrane ribonucleoprotein condensates formed in response to environmental stress conditions via liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). SGs are involved in the pathogenesis of aging and aging-associated diseases, cancers, viral infection, and several other diseases. GTPase-activating protein (SH3 domain)-binding protein 1 and 2 (G3BP1/2) is a key component and commonly used marker of SGs. Recent studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein via…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In silico molecular docking of SARS-CoV-2 surface proteins with microbial non-ribosomal peptides: identification of potential drugs</strong> - Outbreak of COVID-19 by SARS-CoV-2 infection caused severe acute respiratory syndrome that has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. To control infections, there is urgent need to develop an effective therapeutic strategy. COVID-19 viral spike glycoprotein and proteases play major role in viral entry and mediating virus replication and spread and thus can serve as potential antiviral drug target. Being highly specific, efficacious and safe, peptides hold their place…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In silico screening of FDA approved drugs against ACE2 receptor: potential therapeutics to inhibit the entry of SARS-CoV-2 to human cells</strong> - An unknown coronavirus that emerged sometime at the end of 2019 in China, the novel SARS-CoV-2, now called COVID-19, has spread all over the world. Several efforts have been made to prevent or treat this disease, though not with success. The initiation of COVID-19 viral infection involves specific binding of SARS-CoV-2 to the host surface of the receptor, ACE2. The ACE2- SARS-CoV-2 complex then gets transferred into the endosomes where the endosomal acidic proteases cleave the S protein present…</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>Digital PCR can augment the interpretation of RT-qPCR Cq values for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious, acute respiratory disease caused mainly by person-to-person transmission of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Its emergence has caused a world-wide acute health crisis, intensified by the challenge of reliably identifying individuals likely to transmit the disease. Diagnosis is hampered by the many unknowns surrounding this disease, including those relating to infectious viral burden. This uncertainty is exacerbated by disagreement surrounding the…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In vitro data suggest that Indian variant B.1.617 of SARS-CoV-2 escapes neutralization by both receptor affinity and immune evasion</strong> - CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.617, as well as the better-studied variants B.1.351 and P.1 (all containing a mutation at position E484) display increased transmissibility both due their higher affinity for the cell receptor ACE2 and their ability to partially bypass immunity generated against the wild-type virus. For variant B.1.36 (with a point mutation at position N440), only increased affinity seems to play a role.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-Sars-Cov-2 Neutralizing Antibodies</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333857732">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Expression Vector for Anti-Sars-Cov-2 Neutralizing Antibodies</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333857737">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>DEVELOPMENT OF CNN SCHEME FOR COVID-19 DISEASE DETECTION USING CHEST RADIOGRAPH</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333857177">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-COV-2 BINDING PROTEINS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333402004">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A PROCESS FOR PREPARING MONTELUKAST SODIUM FOR TREATING COVID 19 PATIENTS</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333857132">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IDENTIFICATION OF ANTI-COVID 19 AGENT SOMNIFERINE AS INHIBITOR OF MPRO &amp; ACE2-RBD INTERACTION</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333857079">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Deep Learning Based System For Detection of Covid-19 Disease of Patient At Infection Risk.</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333857030">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>자외선살균등</strong> - 본 발명은 사람의 의복이나 사용한 마스크 등에 부착하여 있다 호흡기로 유입되어 감염을 유발할 수 있는 COVID-19와 같은 유해균류를 간편하게 살균하기 위한 휴대용 자와선살균등에 관한 것이다. 반감기가 길고 인체에 유해한 오존을 발생하지 않으면서 탁월한 살균능력이 있는 250~265nm(최적은 253.7nm) 파장의 자외선을 발광하는 자외선램프를 본 발명의 막대형의 자외선살균등 광원으로 사용하고 비광원부를 손으로 잡고 의복이나 사용한 마스크 등 유해균류가 부착되었을 것으로 의심되는 곳에 자외선을 조사하여 간편하게 유해균류를 살균하므로써 감염을 예방하기 위한 휴대용 자외선살균등에 관함 것이다. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR332958765">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Protein chip and kit for detecting the SARS-CoV-2 S antigen</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU333400883">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>桑黄和百蕊草复方作为新型冠状病毒治疗药物或抗病毒制剂的用途</strong> - 本发明公开了桑黄和百蕊草复方作为新型冠状病毒治疗药物或抗病毒制剂的用途。本发明提供了桑黄和百蕊草的应用：在制备治疗新型冠状病毒所致疾病的药物中的应用；在制备治疗新型冠状病毒感染的药物中的应用；在制备预防新型冠状病毒所致疾病的药物中的应用；在制备预防新型冠状病毒感染的药物中的应用；在制备新型冠状病毒抑制剂中的应用。发明人在前期研究发现桑黄和百蕊草具有抗新冠病毒的作用效果。进一步的，将百蕊草提取物与桑黄提取物组合使用，组合药物的毒性并没有增加，同时百蕊草有很强的抗炎作用，桑黄具有调节人体免疫力作用，这种组合药物对于治疗新冠肺炎病人是理想的选择药物。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN333965968">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Veterans Struggling to Save Afghan Allies</strong> - For many who served in Afghanistan, the flawed evacuation efforts have brought feelings of shame and betrayal. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-veterans-struggling-to-save-afghan-allies">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Do We Work Too Much?</strong> - In the modern office, stress has become a default metric for judging whether we are busy enough. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/office-space/why-do-we-work-too-much">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>U.S. Retaliation for the Kabul Bombing Won’t Stop ISIS or End Terrorism</strong> - The central flaw in U.S. strategy is the belief that military force can eradicate extremist groups or radical ideologies. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/us-retaliation-for-the-kabul-bombing-wont-stop-isis-or-end-%20terrorism">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s Chaotic Withdrawal from Afghanistan Is Complete</strong> - The U.S. has extricated its military from a two-decade-long conflict, but the country, and tens of thousands of Afghan allies, have been abandoned to the Taliban. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/bidens-chaotic-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-is-complete">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>After Hurricane Ida, How Much Longer Can New Orleans’s New Levees Hold?</strong> - The city may be better protected today than it was before Katrina, but with every day that passes the protection is waning. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/after-hurricane-ida-how-much-longer-can-new-orleanss-new-levees-%20hold">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>One Good Thing: This Chinese dance show is the only thing I care about</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A hip-hop dancer onstage backed by dancers all performing the same move." src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/s4BjjnlAUGEPLujPLMk71CHxYuc=/506x0:2374x1401/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69797346/Screen_Shot_2021_08_18_at_10.40.01_AM.0.png"/>
<figcaption>
Li Chunlin <a class="ql-link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJ-M5X89GQ" target="_blank">performs</a> on the third season of <em>Street Dance of China</em> in 2020. | Youku/YouTube
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Street Dance of China makes a compelling argument that what the world needs now is a giant global dance-off.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4BTLem">
The best thing about falling down rabbit holes is that you never know where they’ll lead. Eighteen months ago, I had no idea I’d spend most of the pandemic falling in love with a Chinese show about street dancing — and that it would shift my worldview in the process.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yEfoPB">
But that’s before I discovered <em>Street Dance of China</em>, a reality competition show where high-level dancers from all across China, and this season from all around the world, join teams and compete for the title of China’s best street dancer. It’s subtitled, and it runs long: Each season’s 12 episodes usually range from 90 to 120 minutes apiece, with last year’s finale broadcast live in a six-hour marathon. And its format is initially a bit confusing to anyone unfamiliar with typical street dance competitions. But despite these hurdles, I watched all 12 episodes of the show’s third season as they aired last year, then rewatched them again and again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yiLXtu">
I began watching <em>SDC</em> because the third season featured Wang Yibo, a multi-talented actor/dancer/idol I’ve followed since first watching his fantasy drama series <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/27/21192718/the-untamed-netflix-review-rec-mdzs-cql"><em>The Untamed</em></a> a year and a half ago. As it turned out, Yibo was a brilliant gateway drug to a whole new obsession. <em>SDC </em>not only gave me new appreciation for street dance as a culture and as an art form, but also introduced me to a whole new way of thinking about China.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Xv4uo">
Like many white Americans, my main view of Chinese culture has historically been filtered through the framework of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/atlanta-shooting-political-
rhetoric-violence/2021/03/19/f882f8e8-88b9-11eb-8a8b-5cf82c3dffe4_story.html">often-sinophobic US media</a>, the occasional martial arts or arthouse film notwithstanding. Until I watched this show where Chinese pop culture put itself on elaborate display, I hadn’t fully realized how skewed the typical US media portrayal of China can be — especially the false idea that China is primarily isolationist, and that Chinese pop culture is disinterested in actively engaging with the rest of the world.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H7Thw3">
To some extent, I owed that impression to the Chinese Communist Party, which has a habit of cracking down on external cultural influences if it feels they’re growing too pernicious. In recent years, for example, chilly receptions have greeted <a href="https://www.vox.com/latest-news/2017/3/3/14795636/china-
south-korea-pop-culture-kpop-attacks-thaad">Korean pop culture</a>,<a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-11-09/nba-
works-super-hard-reestablish-open-dialogue-china"> basketball</a>, and <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-
interpreter/beat-china-hip-hop-ban">hip-hop</a>. In fact, a <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/beat-
china-hip-hop-ban">hip-hop media ban</a> in China, which went into effect in 2018 after a controversial series of incidents involving high-profile Chinese rappers, inadvertently spawned <em>Street Dance of China. </em>With other forms of hip-hop culture banned, dancing was the only way for TV networks to satisfy their audiences’ growing interest in hip-hop. <a href="https://radiichina.com/hip-hop-dance-china/">Street dance culture has been growing</a> in China, so there’s a thriving competition scene and an incredible pool of talent to draw from.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9UjPv7">
As such, <em>SDC</em>, which launched in 2018, offers a <a href="https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001870/pop%2C-lock%2C-break%2C-repeat-street-dance-of-china-wows-audiences">highly popular</a>, highly positive alternative view of hip-hop: one that emphasizes its dancers’ artistry, sense of community, and multiculturalism. Thanks to its vibrance and sense of community, as well as the sheer joy of many of its dance routines, <em>SDC</em> was an ideal form of pandemic escapism.
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m04iwL">
The show, like the umbrella of street dance itself, brings together a broad range of modern dance styles, from jazz and hip-hop to breaking, locking, and waacking. The format balances choreographed routines with spontaneous freestyle battles. The performances often fuse traditional narrative storytelling with fun, cross-genre experimentation, combining a love of Chinese culture with a broad multicultural mindset in the dance styles and song choices. Season three saw everything from homages to Chinese folklore and Bruce Lee to homages to Charlie Chaplin, Jim Carey, <em>Sailor Moon</em>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olsf1LM3P4U">tomb raiders</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jZxIWM">
Dancers compete for places on four teams, each helmed by a celebrity captain, most of whom so far have been former K-pop idols with considerable dance experience. Season three featured Exo’s Zhang Yixing (Lay), Got7’s Jackson Wang, actor Wallace Chung, and Yibo, each competing against each other, often hilariously, to build their own teams and spare their dancers from weekly elimination. Their combined popularity drove the show to a massive ratings increase (the show announced in its season three finale that its ratings had nearly doubled over the season and that its revenue had increased by 65 percent), along with a considerable international fandom.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y3xre7">
As a part of that fandom, I came for the captains, but I stayed for the dancers, who by the finale had begun to seem less like competitors and more like an extended family (to them and to me). Fortunately for fans of last season, many of the competing dancers have returned for season four, which has expanded focus from merely pitting dancers against each other to bringing street dancers from around the world to join the competition, turning the show into a truly global event.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5VPUwG">
If that sounds like a surprising direction for a Chinese reality show to take, it’s nothing compared to the quiet surprises every episode of <em>SDC</em> has held for me. Each week, the show welcomes dancers of color like Bouboo, a French immigrant who has become one of the show’s most popular stars; Chinese ethnic minorities such as Yi and Wa dancers; one fantastic deaf dancer; and dancers who are openly queer, although their sexuality is never acknowledged on the show.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5R3tMn">
Even the age range of the dancers is diverse, with the season three finale seeing some of the show’s oldest competitors squaring off against some of the youngest. That’s not to say that there’s nothing problematic about this aggressively rosy depiction of Chinese culture as welcoming and inclusive. It is a deliberately selective view of a nation whose government’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22311356/china-uyghur-birthrate-sterilization-
genocide">human rights abuses</a> are well known and well publicized.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dn8AFR">
But <em>SDC</em>’s politics are mostly self-contained — a reminder that the CCP, after all, is not synonymous with China itself, and that China itself is not a monolith. The present tensions between our respective governments have arguably <a href="https://www.vox.com/22558949/china-violence-asian-americans">made it harder</a> for Americans to recognize and respect Chinese culture as complex, nuanced, and containing multitudes. Meanwhile, each week, <em>SDC</em> resists the US’s dominant narrative of China as static and hostile, simply by bringing together a lot of highly talented people who love dancing.
</p>
<div id="uNmGGT">
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</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wLd33A">
If you want to watch <em>SDC</em>, I recommend starting with season three, since it’s the most easily accessible and introduces you to most of the dancers who return in season four. Thanks to a team of dedicated fansubbers, <a href="https://twitter.com/i/events/1318741007509319680">full translated episodes</a> are available to watch for free. The fansubs are generally superior to the officially released subtitles — but the show’s network, Youku, has also made <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLATwx1z00HseGqtY7R08f5AAUW7QWFtcv">the entire third season available on YouTube with English subtitles</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gHWjP1">
Season four began airing in August, with Yixing and Yibo returning as team captains alongside Han Geng and his former Super Junior bandmate, Canadian prodigy Henry Lau. Because of its international focus, the season is more diverse than ever, with well-known dancers hailing from regions around the globe. Youku simulcasts episodes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLATwx1z00Hsf-
xawZ5vEG3G09-jQVpdKN">on YouTube</a>, with English subs on the day of release. The new season, so far, has held lots of format changes and plenty of surprises.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hg8R3W">
Even so, it still feels like the family reunion I didn’t know I needed. It’s a welcome reminder that even in the midst of an isolating pandemic, in many ways, the world is smaller than ever.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eaICKi">
Street Dance of China <em>is </em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLATwx1z00HseGqtY7R08f5AAUW7QWFtcv"><em>streaming</em></a><em> on </em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLATwx1z00Hsf-xawZ5vEG3G09-jQVpdKN"><em>YouTube</em></a><em>.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xYIn1Q">
<em>For more recommendations from the world of culture, check out the </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/one-
good-thing"><strong>One Good Thing</strong></a><em> archives.</em>
</p></li>
<li><strong>Arizona launches a bold new experiment to limit racist convictions</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/IDgEcseFGdniE1079bwcZyIv0ao=/252x0:3443x2393/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69797206/514703584.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Thirty-five years ago, Justice Thurgood Marshall proposed eliminating a practice known as “peremptory strikes” in jury selection. Now Arizona will follow his lead. | Bettman/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The state embraces a reform proposed by Justice Thurgood Marshall more than three decades ago.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iXqjq0">
Arizona’s conservative state Supreme Court took a surprising step last week that could lead to juries in that state being more racially diverse, and thus <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/127/2/1017/1826107">less likely to treat racial minorities more harshly</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mtRRYv">
It announced that it will <a href="https://twitter.com/KorematsuCtr/status/1431372457760284672">eliminate “peremptory challenges”</a> in Arizona — a practice that allows trial lawyers to remove jurors from a case, often for arbitrary or ill-defined reasons.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9CZ0JJ">
Although criminal justice reformers, including some who sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, have warned for decades that peremptory challenges are often used to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-9659.ZC.html">exclude jurors because of their race</a>, the practice remains widespread in the United States. Arizona will be the <a href="https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2021/08/29/court-
aims-to-end-racial-bias-in-jury-selection-with-new-rules/">first state to eliminate peremptory challenges entirely</a>; the state’s new rules will take effect in January.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sRYu93">
People of color are less likely to serve on juries for a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f2iawp0y5Y">wide range of reasons</a> — racial minorities are less likely than white people, for example, to appear on voter registration lists and vehicle registration lists, which many jurisdictions use to develop a pool of potential jurors. But multiple studies suggest that peremptory strikes play a major role in producing juries that are whiter than the population as a whole.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jQ49wp">
Typically, in both criminal and civil jury trials, a court will assemble a panel of potential jurors that is much larger than the actual number of jurors needed to hear the case. Though the rules vary from state to state (and the federal system has its own set of rules), lawyers on both sides of a case may ask the judge to remove a juror “for cause” if there is reason to doubt that juror’s impartiality. (A prosecutor, for example, may wish to exclude a juror who is related to the defendant.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YACT1t">
Peremptory challenges, meanwhile, allow lawyers to strike jurors even if they are unable to convince the judge to do so for cause. Typically, a lawyer who uses a peremptory challenge to remove a juror does not have to explain why they decided to do so, and is allowed to remove a juror for arbitrary reasons. A lawyer may, for example, use a peremptory challenge to remove a juror because they <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/514/765">do not like the juror’s haircut</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qoBdFA">
The number of peremptory challenges available to lawyers varies depending on the type of case and which court is hearing the case. In most federal felony trials, for example, the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/rule_24">prosecution may strike up to six jurors</a>, while the defense may strike 10.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KPVZ5z">
There are a few constitutional limits on peremptory strikes. Most notably, in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/476/79"><em>Batson v. Kentucky</em></a> (1986), the Court held that lawyers may not remove a juror because of that juror’s race, and it laid out a three-part test that judges should use to sniff out whether a particular juror was removed for racist reasons.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qdJEno">
In practice, however, <em>Batson </em>is difficult for judges to apply, and it rarely leads to convictions being tossed out because a juror was struck for racist reasons — even though data suggests that racial jury discrimination is quite widespread. As a pair of Arizona judges explained in a <a href="https://www.azcourts.gov/Rules-Forum/aft/1208">petition</a> asking the state supreme court to abolish peremptory challenges, “decades of litigation over <em>Batson</em> challenges have consumed countless hours of attorney time and judicial resources. Yet in Arizona, only five cases have been reversed over a <em>Batson </em>challenge.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kp9pxi">
The stakes are very high if racial minorities are less likely to serve on a jury than white Americans. A 2012 study of felony trials in Florida, for example, found that Black defendants are 16 percent more likely to be convicted than white defendants when no Black person serves on the jury. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/127/2/1017/1826107">This gap disappears</a> if the jury has a single Black member.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nrp7EH">
The upshot of the Arizona Supreme Court’s new rules is that racial discrimination through peremptory strikes will cease to exist in Arizona because peremptory strikes will themselves cease to exist. But the new rules were also <a href="https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2021/08/29/court-aims-to-end-racial-bias-in-jury-selection-
with-new-rules/">criticized by prosecutors</a> and <a href="https://blog.simplejustice.us/2021/08/30/arizona-eliminates-
peremptory-strikes/">at least some defense lawyers</a> because they will take away a tool that can potentially be used to screen out biased jurors.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rA0JYg">
Ultimately, the state supreme court appears to have decided that the benefits of eliminating peremptory challenges, including the benefit of eliminating a frequent vehicle for race discrimination, outweigh the risk of having some bad jurors remain on juries.
</p>
<h3 id="WRzDUK">
The case against peremptory challenges
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h8Yjq9">
Peremptory challenges have a long pedigree that predates the United States. Yet while the practice existed in English courts for many centuries, English prosecutors were stripped of their ability to exercise peremptory strikes <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/303899584.pdf">as far back as 1305</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fhorDi">
It was, instead, a protection afforded to defendants. As William Blackstone, a famous chronicler of English law, wrote in 1769, criminal defendants retained an “arbitrary and capricious species of challenge to a certain number of jurors” out of respect for the principle of “<a href="https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendV-
VI_criminal_processs14.html">in favorem vitae</a>,<em>” </em>a Latin phrase meaning “in favor of life.” The idea was that, if the life or liberty of a criminal defendant could be placed in the hands of a jury, the defendant should have some ability to exclude jurors who might be biased against them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BcRg0B">
American courts, however, largely have not followed the centuries-old English practice of only giving peremptory strikes to defense counsel. Typically, federal and state courts within the United States permit prosecutors and defense lawyers to exercise some peremptory challenges — although some jurisdictions do give extra challenges to the defense.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DekhEz">
Indeed, peremptory strikes are so widely used by prosecutors and defense attorneys that, when assembling a pool of potential jurors, courts typically summon far more potential jurors to serve jury duty than they actually need — because the courts assume that many of these potential jurors will either be removed for cause or removed by a peremptory challenge.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wJFYgA">
<em>Batson</em> recognized that peremptory strikes may be used to remove jurors for unconstitutional reasons. “Purposeful racial discrimination in selection of [potential jurors] violates a defendant’s right to equal protection,” Justice Lewis Powell wrote for the Court in <em>Batson</em>. It also violates the rights of the jurors themselves, who should have an equal opportunity to decide the fate of their peers, regardless of their race.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VLRPPd">
Yet, while racially motivated peremptory strikes are unconstitutional in theory under <em>Batson</em>, Justice Powell’s decision also made it very difficult for courts to sniff out discrimination.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="57wzql">
Under <em>Batson</em>, if the defendant raises a credible claim that a juror was excluded because of the juror’s race, the prosecution must “come forward with a neutral explanation” for why it decided to exclude a particular juror. At that point, it’s up to the judge to determine whom to believe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hpsebn">
One problem with this system is that there are all kinds of lawful reasons a prosecutor may wish to strike a juror who happens to be a person of color. The prosecutor may legitimately believe that the juror expressed a bias against police, for example. Or they may simply feel that the juror seemed inattentive during the juror screening process. The Constitution forbids excluding a juror <em>because</em> the juror is of a particular race, but it doesn’t forbid a prosecutor from striking a juror for being inattentive or a skeptic of police, even if that juror is also a person of color.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FnMEHz">
Peremptory strikes may be used to remove a juror for completely arbitrary reasons. In <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/514/765"><em>Purkett v. Elem</em></a> (1995), for example, the Supreme Court permitted a prosecutor to strike two Black jurors because the prosecutor disapproved of one juror’s “long hair” and thought that both jurors’ “mustaches and the beards look suspicious to me.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jfyv96">
Judges are not mind readers. So, when faced with a prosecutor’s race-neutral explanation for why they struck a particular juror, a judge will often have no way to determine that the prosecution’s real motive was racism.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2K76Rp">
Many prosecutors are even trained on how to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-is-it-so-easy-for-
prosecutors-to-strike-black-jurors">devise pretextual reasons</a> to exclude jurors. In 2004, Texas prosecutors were advised to tell judges that they excluded jurors not because of a particular juror’s race, but because the juror “agreed with O. J. Simpson verdict” or “watched gospel TV programs.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7WHFcY">
Data suggest that racial jury discrimination is widespread, even after <em>Batson</em>. The Arizona Supreme Court decided to eliminate peremptory challenges after two of the state’s appellate judges petitioned them to do so. That <a href="https://www.azcourts.gov/Rules-Forum/aft/1208">petition</a>, co-authored by Judges Peter B. Swann and Paul J. McMurdie, cites several studies suggesting that people of color are unusually likely to be excluded from juries.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zfinls">
A study of capital cases in North Carolina, for example, found that prosecutors “were responsible for eliminating 12% of whites who went through the [jury selection] process without being removed [for cause], and 35% of blacks who did so,” while “the defense’s strikes eliminated 35% of whites who were not removed [for cause], and 3% of blacks.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QebtXI">
A study in Mississippi found that “Black venire members are 4.51 times as likely to be excluded from a jury due to peremptory challenges from the prosecution in comparison to White venire members.” And federal data shows that “in criminal cases, the proportion of white jurors seated varied only 3% from their representation in the population.” Meanwhile, “black jurors were underrepresented by 16%, Native American jurors were underrepresented by 51% and Hispanic jurors were underrepresented by 21%.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SABCwN">
Courts, moreover, have been aware of similar data for at least the past several decades. In <em>Batson</em>, which was decided in 1986, Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote a concurring opinion arguing that the goal of ending race discrimination in jury selection “can be accomplished <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/476/79">only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DCMzqz">
Marshall cited a raft of studies arguing that race discrimination in the use of peremptory strikes was pervasive, including a study of prosecutions in Dallas that found that “the chance of a qualified black sitting on a jury was 1 in 10, compared to 1 in 2 for a white.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pcpA8J">
Thirty-five years after <em>Batson</em>, it appears that Marshall was correct that Justice Powell’s decision did not go far enough, if the goal was to prevent race discrimination in jury selection. The disparities Marshall warned about in <em>Batson</em> remain widespread.
</p>
<h3 id="7gXaEt">
Arizona’s new rules do add some uncertainty to criminal trials
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ngm7VN">
The primary argument for retaining peremptory challenges is that eliminating them will prevent trial attorneys from removing jurors who they correctly believe might be biased, even if the juror doesn’t do anything suspicious enough to justify removing them for cause.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Sea1XH">
Several prosecutors criticized the Arizona Supreme Court’s move, arguing that, in the words of Maricopa County prosecutor Kenneth Vick, “expecting a prospective juror to <a href="https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2021/08/29/court-aims-to-end-racial-bias-in-jury-selection-with-new-
rules/">candidly admit that they cannot be fair</a> is not realistic.” Trial lawyers often pay close attention to a potential juror’s body language or other subtle signals when determining whether to exercise a peremptory strike, rather than relying solely on how the juror responds to lawyers’ questions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zrdYu9">
Scott Greenfield, a criminal defense lawyer in New York, offered a <a href="https://blog.simplejustice.us/2021/08/30/arizona-eliminates-peremptory-
strikes/">similar criticism</a> of the new Arizona rules on his personal blog. Greenfield warned of a situation where a criminal defense attorney spots “a glint of hatred as [a potential juror] stares at the defendant,” but the lawyer is unable to remove that juror because they can no longer exercise peremptory strikes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EUynt1">
There are two reasons, however, to be hopeful that Arizona’s experiment with eliminating peremptory challenges will not lead to systemic injustices against a defendant. One is the Supreme Court’s recent decision in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-5924_n6io.pdf"><em>Ramos v. Louisiana</em></a> (2020), which held that “the Sixth Amendment’s right to a jury trial requires a unanimous verdict.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gsjwyQ">
That’s not a perfect safeguard against biased jurors — as Greenfield argues, there is a risk that the “juror with the killer eyes” will convince a juror who is inclined to vote for acquittal to flip their vote. But the requirement that convictions must be unanimous does diminish the ability of a biased juror to sway a verdict toward conviction.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hg2imv">
The other reason to be optimistic that Arizona’s new rules might succeed is that, while they are novel within the United States, they are in line with the rules in other democracies. Great Britain, for example, <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/33/section/118">eliminated peremptory challenges in 1988</a>, and <a href="https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-75/royal-assent#ID0EZC;">Canada did so in 2019</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TQsgCe">
Realistically, we cannot know what the full impact of Arizona’s new rules will be until the rules have been in place for some time. But, at the very least, Arizona’s experiment could teach us whether Justice Marshall was right when he warned that we cannot abolish discrimination in jury selection until we get rid of peremptory challenges.
</p></li>
<li><strong>NATO allies are preparing for a future without America’s “forever wars”</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/VfM7tSDhry7SddHzWxcfZ25uwus=/0x0:2667x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69797105/GettyImages_1234796466_copy.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
British armed forces work with the US military in mid-August to evacuate Afghans at Kabul airport. | UK Ministry of Defense via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
How the US’s Afghanistan withdrawal echoed overseas.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fn7OSk">
Afghanistan wasn’t just America’s 20-year war. It also belonged to US allies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pyasQ7">
“This has been above all a catastrophe for the Afghan people. It’s a failure of the Western world and it’s a game changer for international relations,” <a href="https://www.corriere.it/economia/finanza/21_agosto_30/borrell-afghanistan-catastrofe-
europa-crei-forza-primo-intervento-d045301e-0904-11ec-92ce-f1aac6dc2317.shtml">the European Union’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell told an Italian newspaper Monday</a>, according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/30/afghanistan-kabul-taliban-live-
updates/#link-3264HDAXBBCPZCKI4LQZPKTYHI">Washington Post</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sNxfy8">
“Certainly,” he continued, “we Europeans share our part of responsibility. We cannot consider that this was just an American war.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DmWck8">
As President George W. Bush said in October 2001 while <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/08/news/america-strikes-back-washington-and-london-make-their-case-bush-
vows.html?searchResultPosition=5">announcing air strikes against al Qaeda and the Taliban</a>, the US had the<strong> </strong>“collective will of the world” behind its mission in Afghanistan. (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/22/germany.france">Iraq, of course, was a different story</a>.) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has invoked Article 5 — the common-defense clause — only once in its history, after the September 11 attacks. More than 51 NATO members and partner countries sent troops to Afghanistan, with a combined 130,000 troops at the deployment’s peak.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W2Pqco">
NATO’s combat mission ended in 2014, but coalition troops remained to help train and advise Afghan security forces. Even as some countries wound down their military presence in the later years of the war, a total of <a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/military">1,145 allied troops died in Afghanistan</a> of the approximately <a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/military">3,500 service members killed</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/sFKMLOoXRhJtGo3M1I86ZOAG4Ew=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22815713/GettyImages_84035507_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Jim Verchio/WireImage via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
President George W. Bush gives an address on Afghanistan and the war on terror, saying the US “will not fail” at Travis Air Force Base on October 17, 2001.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hthBAz">
The United States, starting with Donald Trump, and continuing with Joe Biden, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/18/1028607717/strange-bedfellows-indeed-the-trump-biden-consensus-on-afghanistan">made clear the plan to withdraw from Afghanistan</a>. But the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22618215/afghanistan-news-taliban-advance">swiftness of the Taliban takeover</a> turned that departure into chaos. The United States looked blundering and inept, and it dragged its allies down with it. Some countries <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/germany-afghans-evacuation/2021/08/21/d33941ce-0202-11ec-
ba7e-2cf966e88e93_story.html">struggled to evacuate their personnel and Afghan associates</a> as the situation around the Kabul airport worsened.<strong> </strong>All had to reckon with the reality that after 20 years, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/fields-of-
operation/afghanistan#:~:text=British%20fatalities%20in%20Afghanistan&amp;text=As%20at%2023%20July%202015,a%20result%20of%20hostile%20action.">and lives lost</a>, and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-47391821">billions spent</a>, little was left to show for it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HzlCwZ">
That has led to recriminations in London and Berlin and Brussels, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/20/dominic-raab-resignation-pressure-afghanistan/">directed at leaders there</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58300984">and at the United States</a>. “Was our intelligence really so poor?” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/world/europe/britain-afghanistan-johnson-
biden.html">former British Prime Minister Theresa May asked in Parliament earlier this month</a>. “Was our understanding of the Afghan government so weak? Was our knowledge on the ground so inadequate? Or did we just think we had to follow the United States and on a wing and a prayer it would be all right on the night?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dOuBmb">
Some<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/david-petraeus-on-american-mistakes-in-afghanistan">voices on this side of the Atlantic</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SkyNewsPolitics/status/1429429464430166029?s=20">and the other</a> are simply advocating US engagement in Afghanistan continue indefinitely. But even among those who are not, there is a genuine frustration at how Afghanistan unraveled, and questions of how closely the US consulted with its coalition allies on its withdrawal timeline.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hS2tsn">
That has revived a debate that has beset the transatlantic alliance for years, especially during the Donald Trump era: Are the United Kingdom and Europe too dependent on the US for their security? And will the shifting US priorities finally require correcting that imbalance? Katharina Emschermann, deputy director at the Center for International Security at the Hertie School in Berlin, said, there is “uncertainty in Europe about the future course of US foreign policy, and what it means for it.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yOoxty">
“Part of the discord that we’re seeing now is probably also rooted in the sense of unease about how things are going to go on in the future,” Emschermann added.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rEYMC5">
It is still unlikely that Afghanistan begins a real remaking of NATO. But at the very least, allies may take it as a sign that Joe Biden’s reassurances that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-foreign-policy-g7-summit-munich-cc10859afd0f542fd268c0a7ddcd9bb6">“America is back”</a> is not enough.
</p>
<h3 id="GuNKEL">
Allies say the US communicated, but didn’t consult, on Afghanistan
</h3></li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JJMqvJ">
The Trump administration <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2020/2/29/21158939/us-taliban-sign-peace-
deal-troops-afghanistan">signed a peace deal</a> with the Taliban in February 2020. According to the terms of the deal, US-led NATO forces would depart Afghanistan by May 2021.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tlsJAW">
Biden, as president, recommitted to the US withdrawal, though in April he extended the final deadline, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-
security/biden-us-troop-withdrawal-afghanistan/2021/04/13/918c3cae-9beb-11eb-8a83-3bc1fa69c2e8_story.html">first to September 11</a>, and later <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/07/08/remarks-by-
president-biden-on-the-drawdown-of-u-s-forces-in-afghanistan/">inching it back</a> to Tuesday, August 31. In April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Brussels with the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who said NATO would also begin its drawdown. “We went into Afghanistan together, we have adjusted our posture together and we are united in leaving together,” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-lloyd-austin-antony-blinken-afghanistan-national-
security-c11c5620cd0830f40e5ece7f4d189012">Stoltenberg said</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9iWMlb">
Togetherness was simply the default. NATO governments didn’t have the capacity to stay in Afghanistan after the US left. Privately, diplomats grumbled that they weren’t fully consulted, or raised doubts about the US plans. But once the US made its decision, the decision was also made for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-kabul-government-and-politics-germany-
berlin-c8fdc02182519cfeffa1335c622ab27e">approximately 7,000 non-American NATO forces on the ground.</a>
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/pKDBWkj1qZ9N42T1B38-pG9cIyU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22815719/GettyImages_1058560932_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Antonio Masiello/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visits the Italian-run military base Camp Arena in Herat, Afghanistan, in 2018.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C67YPk">
“It showed basically, how dependent we really are,” Jana Puglierin, senior policy fellow and head of the Berlin office at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said of allies like Germany. “Because then it was immediately clear that we needed to follow the American withdrawal, and withdraw, as well.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eRM4wI">
Allies <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-kabul-government-and-
politics-germany-berlin-c8fdc02182519cfeffa1335c622ab27e">took steps to wind down their presence</a>, and as the security situation started deteriorating, some began <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20210713-france-
calls-on-its-citizens-to-leave-afghanistan-amid-security-fears">asking personnel and nationals to leave.</a> But the US and its allies did not fully anticipate (<a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/77801/cias-former-counterterrorism-chief-
for-the-region-afghanistan-not-an-intelligence-failure-something-much-worse/">or chose to downplay</a>) the Taliban’s accelerated run through Afghanistan, and the collapse of Afghan defenses. That left NATO and European governments also <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2021/08/17/nato-scrambles-to-complete-afghanistan-evacuations-as-
soon-as-possible/">rushing to get its personnel out</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GR4NjD">
“The immediate feeling around this whole situation is that perhaps there should have been more consultation and more joint planning about how to manage the exit strategy,” said David O’Sullivan, who served as EU ambassador to the United States from 2014 to 2019.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ezdn0G">
“The feeling is that this all kind of descended into something of a scramble,” he continued, “which is very difficult to manage, which put the European countries in a lot of difficulty — not only to get their own nationals out, but also to get out all the Afghans who are working closely with them, and were clearly at risk.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3mrH7r">
Governments <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2021/08/17/nato-scrambles-to-complete-
afghanistan-evacuations-as-soon-as-possible/">like Germany</a> and<a href="https://news.sky.com/story/afghanistan-boris-
johnson-says-collapse-happened-faster-than-even-the-taliban-predicted-12384383"> the United Kingdom</a> faced harsh criticism for their failures to prepare and evacuate their citizens and their Afghan allies. Some lawmakers there responded by <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/afghanistan-tony-blair-says-us-and-uk-troops-should-have-stayed-put-to-
see-it-through-as-withdrawal-could-lead-to-uk-security-threat-12387874">pushing the idea that after 20 years, the US</a> — and Western allies — should have stayed even longer<strong> </strong>in Afghanistan. “The Biden choice I thought was false. It was either total commitment of American forces and a lot more American deaths with a never-ending war, or pulling out,” <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL2Nob3BwZXI/episode/Z2lkOi8vYXJ0MTktZXBpc29kZS1sb2NhdG9yL1YwL2lDQnZOREZMTlUxdkwtdDExVDd0U3RZMFVMTElELVpvYlU1ak9kM0hxR1U?hl=en&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiAro6dh9nyAhVFUt8KHS_ACrQQjrkEegQIAhAF&amp;ep=6">Owen Paterson, a Conservative British MP said on The Telegraph’s <em>Chopper’s Politics</em> podcast.</a>
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/UubyvFaGjAwuuspfVnybkTcwFkY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22815728/AP21240686563089_copy.jpg"/> <cite>Jonathan Gifford/UK Ministry of Defense via AP</cite>
<figcaption>
UK military personnel board an aircraft departing Kabul on August 28.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="87rvWW">
But the prevailing sentiment revolved around the idea that the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-visits-afghanistan-troop-
withdrawal/story?id=76557517">Biden administration had failed to consult with allies</a> and refused to be flexible in ways that might have lessened the chaos of the withdrawal — though what could have been done differently wasn’t always articulated. “Nobody asked us whether it was a good idea to leave that country in such a quick way,” Johann Wadephul, a deputy caucus leader for Merkel’s Christian Democrats in Germany’s parliament, told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/5350Z:US">Bloomberg Television</a>. “So, the very irritating situation we now have — the chaos we are facing in Kabul — is of course the result of this.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kx1QEN">
Even though many NATO governments had already largely scaled back their commitments in Afghanistan, they, too inherited the mayhem and perception of failure in the US’s military withdrawal. And with that, came the realization they were limited in the ability to change the influence the narrative, or the final outcome.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xZ0Kfh">
“I think definitely the shock and the optics of how quickly things fell apart play a big part in the scope of the reaction,” said Garret Martin, a senior professional lecturer in the School of International Service at American University.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wVFc5I">
A sense of impotence, Martin said, has laid bare the extent of allies’ dependence on the United States. “I think that was hard to swallow that once the United States decided that it was over the game was over.”
</p>
<h3 id="n0HHov">
Allies’ frustration with the United States revives old insecurities and new political tensions
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DmkCNy">
At a G-7 meeting last week, European leaders <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-stick-aug-31-afghan-
withdrawal-deadline-u-s-speeds-n1277536">pushed the United States to extend the August 31 deadline for troop departure</a>. The available days to evacuate nationals and Afghan allies were dwindling, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/26/world/afghanistan-taliban-biden-news">made worse by an unstable security situation</a> that, after the meeting, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-service-members-killed-kabul-airport-
attack-what-we-know-about-the-victims/">became even more volatile</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2V3tYG">
<a href="https://www.euronews.com/2021/08/24/afghanistan-boris-johnson-to-urge-g7-leaders-to-boost-aid-for-refugees">The US didn’t change course</a>. That means people will be left behind; now, the United States and its allies are depending on the Taliban to let people continue to leave <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/30/world/afghanistan-
news#dozens-of-countries-say-they-will-accept-afghan-refugees-after-aug-31">after the August 31 date.</a> French President Emanuel Macron has proposed the United Nations designate a “safe zone” in Kabul to allow people to depart. “Will we be able to do it? I cannot guarantee that,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/30/afghanistan-kabul-taliban-live-updates/#link-
LOZ323CSY5HP7LE5USWVX4QEHQ">he said in an interview with French television channel TF1</a>, according to the Washington Post.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q5vbwo">
All of these machinations from allies in the past week also showed how little control they had over the situation in Afghanistan. Puglierin described it, at least in Germany, as a sense of “helplessness.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lf78Td">
“We realize that we are completely dependent, that it would not even be possible to evacuate our own citizens without the Americans going back in the thousands, without, Americans running this military airport,” she said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MkQjnA">
The dependency on the United States fuels insecurity about what happens if the country’s domestic interests diverge more profoundly from Europe’s. Since the Barack Obama administration, the United States has made clear it is losing its appetite for forever wars, but the Trump administration’s “America First” policies — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html">and sometimes open hostility to the EU and NATO</a> — accelerated fears that Europe wouldn’t be able to rely on the US.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<pre><code> &lt;img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
cdn.com/thumbor/jo6DS3mCJwjCg99fIKJO31oDl7I=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22815767/GettyImages_1233394447_copy.jpg" /&gt; <cite>Jonny Weeks/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
President Biden joins G7 summit leaders in a group photo in June 2021. In a G-7 meeting last week, European leaders pushed the US to extend the August 31 deadline for troop departure.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pI8nYT">
Biden has said the right things, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-foreign-policy-g7-summit-
munich-cc10859afd0f542fd268c0a7ddcd9bb6">and has promised allies he will work to rebuild the relationship</a>. But the Afghanistan adds to “this realization that maybe some of the things that were attributed to Trump, were actually part of something deeper that’s going on in the US on both sides of the political spectrum,” Benjamin Haddad, director of the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council, said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g6lj25">
As the US adjusts its relationship with the world, and its role in it, Europe must adapt, too. This is not to say that all of Europe wants the United States to continue its “forever wars” — and allies have been critical of US overreach, as in Iraq (<a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/61086/did-americans-really-call-french-fries-freedom-fries">which also strained relations</a> with allies).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qyF6zT">
But Europe may feel the effects of the withdrawal from Afghanistan more acutely than the United States.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bI2UAt">
Geography offers<strong> </strong>at least one explanation: <a href="https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Macron-says-Europe-must-protect-itself-from-wave-of-
Afghan-migrants">European leaders</a> don’t want to accept a surge of Afghan immigrants. The memories of the 2015 refugee crisis, with thousands of people fleeing Syria, the Middle East, and northern Africa<strong> </strong>by boat to Europe, are still very sharp, as is how the handling of the humanitarian catastrophe <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-06-24/how-brexit-campaign-used-refugees-scare-voters">destabilized</a> European politics. Political backlash to the arrivals helped give <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36130006">rise to extreme right-wing and nationalist parties</a> across Western Europe. Even though support for some of these parties has waned, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/world/europe/afghanistan-refugees-europe-migration-
asylum.html">upcoming elections in Germany and next year in France</a> have added to the skittishness. French President Emmanuel Macron recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/17/macron-accused-of-pandering-to-far-
right-over-afghan-crisis">said</a> France must “anticipate and protect itself from a wave of migrants.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j4kbCi">
In Germany, Afghanistan <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-chancellor-
candidates-face-off-1st-election-debate-79710401">may not dominate the election debate, but it certainly won’t be ignored</a>. The country had about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, second to the<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-us-troop-withdrawal-
afghanistan/2021/04/13/918c3cae-9beb-11eb-8a83-3bc1fa69c2e8_story.html"> US at the war’s close</a>. Germany’s decision to commit troops to Afghanistan was politically momentous, and became the country’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/world/27germany.html?scp=2&amp;sq=Kulish%20Germans%20Kunduz&amp;st=cse">first real combat mission for German soldiers since World War II.</a> Puglierin, of ECFR, also said that part of selling that mission to the public was selling its humanitarian mission, and building democracy and the Afghan state. That crumbled, and Germans will now need to reckon with that legacy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qoHDCA">
<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/uks-johnson-accused-of-complacency-over-afghanistan-retreat">That reckoning is also happening in the United Kingdom</a>. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-47391821">More than 450 UK troops died in Afghanistan</a>, with some members of Parliament arguing that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-
politics-58254794">the UK should have never left Afghanistan</a>. Patrick Porter, a professor of International Security and Strategy at the University of Birmingham, said the debate on Afghanistan was mostly about “this age old-question of Britain’s significance as a major power, that’s not a superpower, and where that all fits,” he said. “Afghanistan is the latest canvas on which that unease is projected.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ae9Wmn">
That unease is shared across capitals in Europe. It may be directed at the US, but in some ways it’s a deflection — a reality that these countries aren’t as singularly powerful as they want to be. US allies are wondering where they fit in the US’s priorities. “The process of self- reflection, with regard to what went down, is only just beginning,” Emschermann said.
</p>
<h3 id="XUplVQ">
Will Afghanistan shift the transatlantic alliance? It’s complicated.
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6PXPv4">
Afghanistan has opened up new fault lines in NATO, but it will likely not be the thing that fully fractures it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cEizGI">
Experts told me that the military withdrawal added to a growing skepticism of the United States, and its larger commitment to collaboration with allies. “People are unsure how much Trump is in Biden, how much of the Trump phenomenon was part of the United States foreign policy consensus — whether Trump wasn’t so much an outlier, but whether he was representing something bigger,” Puglierin said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BieIyF">
For NATO allies, who’ve built their security around the United States, it is getting harder to ignore the reality that US priorities are shifting. Some of this is seen in explicit foreign policy goals — for example, the US’s focus on China — and some of it is less directly linked, like America’s domestic political polarization.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/SylIjpVWOc5TbT5eOEZ3FJsunr0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22815776/GettyImages_1234796480_copy.jpg"/> <cite>UK Ministry of Defense via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
British armed forces work with the US military to evacuate eligible Afghans and their families on August 21.
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Afghanistan has laid bare that many allies are reliant on the United States. And that has led to the question of whether Europeans now need to ease themselves off that reliance, and invest and build their own security. During the Trump era, Macron pushed for a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46108633">“European army;”</a> Afghanistan is reviving another round of debate along these lines.
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Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, suggested as much in the interview with the Italian newspaper L’Economia. “The E.U. must be able to intervene to protect our interests when the Americans don’t want to be involved,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/30/afghanistan-kabul-taliban-live-
updates/#link-LOZ323CSY5HP7LE5USWVX4QEHQ">he said</a>.
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But even if Europe does begin to rethink its own security, it is unlikely that Afghanistan will unravel the transatlantic relationship entirely. “As for American allies, I think it’s not that they’re no longer there,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s just that maybe we need to do much more, to demonstrate our own autonomous willingness to defend ourselves, while at the same time wanting to keep the alliance which I think is fundamental to European security architecture.”
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And some experts were skeptical that Europe would really take steps to invest or build up its own security, separate from the United States and the transatlantic alliance. “We’ve had these calls a lot,” Martin said. “So I think whether that will serve as a wake-up call, I think it remains to be seen.”
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Tensions over Afghanistan are raw, but those grievances may not be long-lasting. As Porter noted, the US said it was going to leave Afghanistan, and it did.
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“It’s creating an enormous amount of short-term noise,” Porter said. “It’s helped touch off and really reinvigorate a number of searching debates about foreign policy. But in fact, I think this is one of those instances where there’s less than meets the eye.”
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<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>Paralympics | Mariyappan, Sharad Kumar win silver and bronze in high jump</strong> - The third Indian in the fray and 2016 Rio Paralympics bronze winner, Varun Singh Bhati ended seventh out of nine competitors as he failed to clear 1.77m</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>Devils Magic, Comanche Brave, Royal Commander, and Megasthenes excel</strong> - Devils Magic, Comanche Brave, Royal Commander and Megasthenes excelled when the horses were exercised here on Tuesday (Aug. 31).Inner sand: 600m: Cap</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>Juventus announces Ronaldo exit, signs Kean as a replacement</strong> - The Italian club looks to fill the void left in the attack left by the departure of Ronaldo</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>South African pace great Dale Steyn announces retirement from all forms of cricket</strong> - Steyn, 38, ended a 17-year career, which saw him play in 93 Tests, 125 ODIs and 47 T20Is for the South Africans.</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>Wasim Akram denies reports that he is interested in becoming chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board</strong> - Pakistan’s former captain Akram, who is in Australia, tweeted that the PCB chairman’s job was a specialised one and he was not up for it.</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>Police, Army’s call to 80 families of militant recruits</strong> - They ask the families ‘to play a role in safe return of armed youths’</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>Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla advises Parliamentary panels to visit far flung areas in J&amp;K, Ladakh, NE</strong> - The aim of these visits would be to understand the ground realities and suggest possible solutions for mitigating grievances of the local people,” Mr. Birla 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>How a Kerala farmer is experimenting with paddy</strong> - Praseed Kumar from Wayanad grows over 125 traditional rice varieties and does rice paddy art in his field</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>Punjab terror attack thwarted, claims DGP</strong> - Highly radicalised operative arrested, two hand grenades recovered, he says</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>Rajnath Singh praises Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath for ‘tough stand’ against criminals</strong> - The Defence Minister said progress cannot take place without better law and order situation, for which the CM deserves appreciation.</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>Sarah Rainsford: My last despatch before Russian expulsion</strong> - The BBC’s Moscow correspondent has spent much of her life in Russia. This is her final report there.</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>Cyprus on alert as Syrian oil slick spreads across Mediterranean</strong> - Modelling suggests fuel that leaked from a power plant last week will soon reach northern Cyprus.</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>Berlin university canteens cut meat from menus to curb climate change</strong> - The new menus are designed to reduce the carbon footprint of universities in the German capital.</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: EU recommends new travel restrictions for US as cases rise</strong> - The European Union has recommend barring American travellers as US hospital admissions peak.</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 surge ‘deeply worrying’ in Europe as vaccinations dip - WHO</strong> - Europe could see another 236,000 deaths by December as vaccinations slow, a WHO official predicts.</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>In the US, wind power is getting bigger and better, report says</strong> - Longer blades, taller towers among the reasons wind power is growing in the US. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1790689">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>65 mpg without hypermiling in the Lincoln Aviator hybrid</strong> - Lincoln hits most of the right notes with the plug-in hybrid version of the Aviator. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1788660">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Coinbase erroneously reported 2FA changes to 125,000 customers</strong> - The unexpected 2FA notifications led some customers to panic-sell everything. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1790707">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Scientists built a tiny robot to mimic the mantis shrimp’s knock-out punch</strong> - Geometric latch design lets animal store and release energy with just one input motion - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1788373">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Judge’s order requiring hospital to give COVID patient ivermectin called “unethical”</strong> - “If I were these doctors, I simply wouldn’t do it.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1790673">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>What’s the difference between George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, and Jane Fonda?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Jane Fonda went to Vietnam.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/iBooYourBadPuns"> /u/iBooYourBadPuns </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/peyg3x/whats_the_difference_between_george_w_bush_dick/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/peyg3x/whats_the_difference_between_george_w_bush_dick/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>John, a wealthy 60 year old man, shows up at the country club one day with his new wife, a smoking hot 22 year old blonde.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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His buddies are amazed. “There is no way someone that young and attractive would agree to marry an old geezer like you. How did you pull it off?”
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“It’s simple,” John says, “I lied to her about my age.”
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“Did you tell her you were 50?” his friends ask. John shakes his head no.
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“There is no way she could believe you were 40”. John shakes his head again.
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“So how old did you tell her you were exactly??”
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John smiles and says “85”.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/IMovedYourCheese"> /u/IMovedYourCheese </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/penbqp/john_a_wealthy_60_year_old_man_shows_up_at_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/penbqp/john_a_wealthy_60_year_old_man_shows_up_at_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I know a bit early but …..,</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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A Little Christmas Story
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When four of Santa’s elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce<br/> toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the<br/> per-Christmas pressure.
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Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which<br/> stressed Santa even more.
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When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were<br/> about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out,<br/> heaven knows where.
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Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked,<br/> the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.
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Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot<br/> of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk<br/> all the cider and hidden the liquor…
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Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the<br/> door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big<br/> Christmas tree. The angel said very cheerfully, ‘Merry Christmas, Santa.<br/> Isn’t this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would<br/> you like me to stick it?’
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And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the<br/> Christmas tree.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/orgasmic2021"> /u/orgasmic2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pezl18/i_know_a_bit_early_but/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pezl18/i_know_a_bit_early_but/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>So a penis walks into a bar,</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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So this penis walks into a bar, right? And the bartender says, “Why the fuck is there a giant walking penis in my place of business? What morbid Lovecraftian monstrosity is this, where a male sex organ has taken an anthropomorphic form and moved frictionlessly to my very own bar? What does this creature possess? Can it think? Feel? Love? Hate? What are the inner workings of this nightmarish oddity, and, more importantly, where did it come from? This is the scariest moment of my life, and I will be forever haunted by the deep psychological trauma of encountering a living, breathing, walking penis capable of conscious decision-making.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Jkopoulos9"> /u/Jkopoulos9 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/penhrp/so_a_penis_walks_into_a_bar/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/penhrp/so_a_penis_walks_into_a_bar/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>I spiced up our sex-life with some flavoured condoms….</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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My missus said, “Wow! This one tastes just like cheese and onion”. I said, “I haven’t put it on yet”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Rolaid-Tommassi"> /u/Rolaid-Tommassi </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pex1k4/i_spiced_up_our_sexlife_with_some_flavoured/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/pex1k4/i_spiced_up_our_sexlife_with_some_flavoured/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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