navan
/
Daily-Dose
mirror of https://github.com/navanchauhan/Daily-Dose.git
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Added daily report

This commit is contained in:
Navan Chauhan 2023-10-27 12:43:27 +00:00
parent 8cc9c07441
commit ecdfa228fa
3 changed files with 909 additions and 2 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

186
archive-covid-19/27 October, 2023.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,186 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>27 October, 2023</title>
<style>
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
</style>
<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<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>COVID-19 first lockdown as a window into language acquisition: associations between caregiver-child activities and vocabulary gains.</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting closure of daycare centers worldwide, led to unprecedented changes in children’s learning environments. This period of increased time at home with caregivers, with limited access to external sources (e.g., daycares) provides a unique opportunity to examine the associations between the caregiver-child activities and children’s language development. The vocabularies of 1742 children aged 8-36 months across 13 countries and 12 languages were evaluated at the beginning and end of the first lockdown period in their respective countries (from March to September 2020). Children who had less passive screen exposure and whose caregivers read more to them showed larger gains in vocabulary development during lockdown, after controlling for SES and other caregiver-child activities. Children also gained more words than expected (based on normative data) during lockdown; either caregivers were more aware of their child’s development, or vocabulary development benefited from intense caregiver-child interaction during lockdown or both. We discuss these results in the context of the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight limitations of the study.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5ejwu/" target="_blank">COVID-19 first lockdown as a window into language acquisition: associations between caregiver-child activities and vocabulary gains.</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Homeworking and Division of Domestic Work: the Role of Gender Role Attitudes in Germany</strong> -
<div>
Homeworking is often portrayed as a work-life balance measure. Though in theory homeworking can provide workers with more time for leisure and family, due to the boundary blurring between work and life spheres, it can exacerbate gender inequalities. Empirically, the evidence is mixed whether homeworking increases women’s time in domestic labour and men’s time in paid labour. We extend the debate by exploring how individuals’ gender role attitudes moderate the relationship between homeworking and the division of domestic work. We apply hybrid models to the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics Survey. The data covers from 2008 to 2021 which includes the unique COVID-19 pandemic. Results show that gender role attitudes matter. When gaining access to homeworking egalitarian men increased their contribution to childcare, while traditional men did not. Similarly, homeworking traditional women increased their childcare contribution. During the pandemic, only traditional women did even more childcare, while men contributed more regardless of their gender role attitudes.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/85b23/" target="_blank">Homeworking and Division of Domestic Work: the Role of Gender Role Attitudes in Germany</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Reduced mobility? Urban exodus? Medium-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on internal population movements in Latin American countries</strong> -
<div>
The COVID‐19 pandemic has impacted the national systems of population movement around the world. Existing work has focused on countries of the Global North and restricted to the immediate effects of COVID-19 data during 2020. Data have represented a major limitation to monitor change in mobility patterns in countries in the Global South. Drawing on aggregate anonymised mobile phone location data from Meta‐Facebook users, we aim to analyse the extent and persistence of changes in the levels (or intensity) and spatial patterns of internal population movement across the rural-urban continuum in Argentina, Chile and Mexico over a 26-month period from March 2020 to May 2022. We reveal an overall systematic decline in the level of short- and long-distance movement during the enactment of nonpharmaceutical interventions in 2020, with the largest reductions occurred in the most dense areas. We also show that these levels bounced back closer to pre-pandemic levels in 2022 following the relaxation of COVID-19 stringency measures. However, the intensity of these movements has remained below pre-pandemic levels in many areas in 2022. Additionally our findings lend some support to the idea of an urban exodus. They reveal a continuing negative net balances of short-distance movements in the most dense areas of capital cities in Argentina and Mexico, reflecting a pattern of suburbanisation. Chile displays limited changes in the net balance of short-distance movements but reports a net loss of long-distance movements. These losses were, however, temporary, moving to neutral and positive balances in 2021 and 2022.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/2gf6b/" target="_blank">Reduced mobility? Urban exodus? Medium-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on internal population movements in Latin American countries</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>A deep learning framework for predicting the neutralizing activity of COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines against evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> -
<div>
Understanding how viral variants evade neutralization is crucial for improving antibody-based treatments, especially with rapidly evolving viruses like SARS-CoV-2. Yet, conventional assays are limited in the face of rapid viral evolution, relying on a narrow set of viral isolates, and falling short in capturing the full spectrum of variants. To address this, we have developed a deep learning approach to predict changes in neutralizing antibody activity of COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines against emerging viral variants. First, we trained a variational autoencoder (VAE) using all 67,885 unique SARS-CoV-2 spike protein sequences from the NCBI virus (up to October 31, 2022) database to encode spike protein variants into a latent space. Using this VAE and a curated dataset of 7,069 in vitro assay data points from the NCATS OpenData Portal, we trained a neural network regression model to predict fold changes in neutralizing activity of 40 COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines against spike protein sequence variants, relative to their neutralizing activity against the ancestral strain (Wuhan-Hu-1). Our model also employs Bayesian inference to quantify prediction uncertainty, providing more nuanced and informative estimates. To validate the model's predictive capacity, we assessed its performance on a test set of in vitro assay data collected up to eight months after the data included in the model training (N = 980). The model accurately predicted fold changes in neutralizing activity for this prospective dataset, with an R2 of 0.77. Expanding our methodology to include all available data from NCBI virus and NCATS OpenData Portal up to date, we assessed predicted changes in activity for current COVID-19 monoclonal antibodies and vaccines against newly identified SARS-CoV-2 lineages. Our predictions suggest that current therapeutic and vaccine-induced antibodies will have significantly reduced activity against newer XBB descendants, notably EG.5, FL.1.5.1, and XBB.1.16. Using the model, we were able to primarily attribute the observed predicted loss in activity to the F456L spike mutation found in EG.5 and FL.1.5.1 sequences. Conversely, mRNA-bivalent vaccines are predicted to be less susceptible to the recent BA.2.86 variant compared to new XBB descendants. These findings align closely with recent research, underscoring the potential of deep learning in shaping therapeutic and vaccine strategies for emerging viral variants.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.24.563847v1" target="_blank">A deep learning framework for predicting the neutralizing activity of COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines against evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Reduced Monocyte Proportions and Responsiveness in Convalescent COVID-19 Patients</strong> -
<div>
The clinical manifestations of acute severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and COVID-19 suggest a dysregulation of the host immune response that leads to inflammation, thrombosis, and organ dysfunction. It is less clear whether these dysregulated processes persist during the convalescent phase of disease or during long COVID. We investigated the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the proportions of classical, intermediate, and non-classical monocytes, their activation status, and their functional properties in convalescent COVID-19 patients and uninfected control subjects. We found that the percentage of total monocytes was decreased in convalescent COVID-19 patients compared to uninfected controls. This was due to decreased intermediate and non-classical monocytes. Classical monocytes from convalescent COVID-19 patients demonstrated a decrease in activation markers, such as CD56, in response to stimulation with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In addition, classical monocytes from convalescent COVID-19 patients showed decreased expression of CD142 (tissue factor), which can initiate the extrinsic coagulation cascade, in response to LPS stimulation. Finally, we found that monocytes from convalescent COVID-19 patients produced less TNF- and IL-6 in response to LPS stimulation, than those from uninfected controls. In conclusion, SARS-CoV-2 infection exhibits a clear effect on the relative proportions of monocyte subsets, the activation status of classical monocytes, and proinflammatory cytokine production that persists during the convalescent phase of disease.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.563806v1" target="_blank">Reduced Monocyte Proportions and Responsiveness in Convalescent COVID-19 Patients</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Discovery of a novel inhibitor of macropinocytosis with antiviral activity</strong> -
<div>
Several viruses hijack various forms of endocytosis in order to infect host cells. Here, we report the discovery of a new molecule with antiviral properties that we named virapinib, which limits viral entry by macropinocytosis. The identification of virapinib derives from a chemical screen using High-Throughput Microscopy, where we identified new chemical entities capable of preventing infection with a pseudotype virus expressing the spike (S) protein from SARS-CoV-2. Subsequent experiments confirmed the capacity of virapinib to inhibit infection by SARS-CoV-2, as well as by additional viruses, such as Monkeypox virus and TBEV. Mechanistic analyses revealed that the compound inhibited macropinocytosis, limiting this entry route for the viruses. Importantly, virapinib has no significant toxicity to host cells. In summary, we present a new molecule that inhibits viral entry via the endocytic route, offering a new alternative to prevent viral infection.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.563967v1" target="_blank">Discovery of a novel inhibitor of macropinocytosis with antiviral activity</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Early antiviral CD4 and CD8 T cell responses are associated with upper respiratory tract clearance of SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
<div>
T cells are involved in protective immunity against numerous viral infections. Limited data have been available regarding roles of human T cell responses controlling SARS-CoV-2 viral clearance in primary COVID-19. Here, we examined longitudinal SARS-CoV-2 upper respiratory tract viral RNA levels and early adaptive immune responses from 95 unvaccinated individuals with acute COVID-19. Acute SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were evaluated in addition to antibody responses. Most individuals with acute COVID-19 developed rapid SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses during infection, and both early CD4 T cell and CD8 T cell responses correlated with reduced upper respiratory tract SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA, independent of neutralizing antibody titers. Overall, our findings indicate a distinct protective role for SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells during acute COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.564014v1" target="_blank">Early antiviral CD4 and CD8 T cell responses are associated with upper respiratory tract clearance of SARS-CoV-2</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Navigating vaccination choices: The intersecting dynamics of institutional trust, belonging and message perception among Congolese migrants in the UK (A reflexive thematic analysis)</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted intersectionally marginalised migrants, revealing systemic disparities in health outcomes and vaccine uptake. An in-depth understanding of the underlying social and structural factors influencing health behaviours is necessary to develop tailored interventions for migrants but has been seldom explored. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to explore the contextual factors shaping COVID-19 vaccination decision-making among Congolese migrants in the UK.        Methods A community-based participatory research study was designed and led by a community-academic partnership in London, UK (2021-2022). Peer-led, semi-structured interviews were conducted in Lingala with 32 adult Congolese migrants and explored beliefs, perceptions and lived experiences of migration, healthcare and vaccination and the COVID-19 pandemic. Reflexive thematic analysis generated two themes and a model conceptualising the vaccination decision-making process was developed. Participants and community partners were financially compensated, and the study received ethical approval from the University of London ethics committee (REC: 2021.0128). Findings Participants highlighted the incompatibility of lockdown restrictions with their communal culture, which intensified feelings of exclusion and alienation. They expressed concerns about COVID-19 vaccination safety and effectiveness, partly informed by experiences and legacies of discrimination and exploitation of Black Africans. Inequality in the pandemic response and COVID-19 outcomes heightened participants’ sense that their views and needs were being overlooked; accordingly, government sources and information were perceived as coercive and untrustworthy. Drawing on this data, our model depicts the interplay between institutional trust, belonging, and message perception which shaped participants’ vaccination decisions and led to (non-)engagement with COVID-19 vaccination. Conclusion This research enhances understanding of how social and contextual factors may influence migrants’ engagement with health interventions. It underscores the necessity of partnering with migrant communities to understand their needs in context and co-design tailored interventions and inclusive messaging strategies which foster trust and belonging. Implementing systemic changes to address structural inequalities will be crucial to create an environment that supports engagement with health-protective behaviours and enhances health outcomes among migrant communities.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.23297575v1" target="_blank">Navigating vaccination choices: The intersecting dynamics of institutional trust, belonging and message perception among Congolese migrants in the UK (A reflexive thematic analysis)</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Potential impact of annual vaccination with reformulated COVID-19 vaccines: lessons from the U.S. COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Importance: COVID-19 continues to cause significant hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. Its continued burden and the impact of annually reformulated vaccines remain unclear. Objective: To project COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths from April 2023–April 2025 under two plausible assumptions about immune escape (20% per year and 50% per year) and three possible CDC recommendations for the use of annually reformulated vaccines (no vaccine recommendation, vaccination for those aged 65+, vaccination for all eligible groups). Design: The COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub solicited projections of COVID-19 hospitalization and deaths between April 15, 2023–April 15, 2025 under six scenarios representing the intersection of considered levels of immune escape and vaccination. State and national projections from eight modeling teams were ensembled to produce projections for each scenario. Setting: The entire United States. Participants: None. Exposure: Annually reformulated vaccines assumed to be 65% effective against strains circulating on June 15 of each year and to become available on September 1. Age and state specific coverage in recommended groups was assumed to match that seen for the first (fall 2021) COVID-19 booster. Main outcomes and measures: Ensemble estimates of weekly and cumulative COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Expected relative and absolute reductions in hospitalizations and deaths due to vaccination over the projection period. Results: From April 15, 2023–April 15, 2025, COVID-19 is projected to cause annual epidemics peaking November–January. In the most pessimistic scenario (high immune escape, no vaccination recommendation), we project 2.1 million (90% PI: 1,438,000–4,270,000) hospitalizations and 209,000 (90% PI: 139,000–461,000) deaths, exceeding pre-pandemic mortality of influenza and pneumonia. In high immune escape scenarios, vaccination of those aged 65+ results in 230,000 (95% CI: 104,000–355,000) fewer hospitalizations and 33,000 (95% CI: 12,000–54,000) fewer deaths, while vaccination of all eligible individuals results in 431,000 (95% CI: 264,000–598,000) fewer hospitalizations and 49,000 (95% CI: 29,000–69,000) fewer deaths. Conclusion and Relevance: COVID-19 is projected to be a significant public health threat over the coming two years. Broad vaccination has the potential to substantially reduce the burden of this disease.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.23297581v1" target="_blank">Potential impact of annual vaccination with reformulated COVID-19 vaccines: lessons from the U.S. COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Assessing the causal effect of air pollution on risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Introduction Emerging evidence suggests association of air pollution exposure with risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but many of these findings are limited by study design, lack of individual-level covariate data or are specific to certain subpopulations. We aim to evaluate causal effects of air pollution on risk of infection, whilst overcoming these limitations. Methods Concentrations for black carbon(BC), particulate matter 10(PM<sub>10</sub>), particulate matter 2.5(PM<sub>2.5</sub>), nitrogen dioxide(NO<sub>2</sub>) and oxides of nitrogen(NO<sub>x</sub>) from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Effect of Low-level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe (ELAPSE) were linked to postcodes of 53,683 Virus Watch study participants. The primary outcome was first SARS-CoV-2 infection, between 1st September 2020 and 30th April 2021. Regression analysis used modified Poisson with robust estimates, clustered by household, adjusting for individual (e.g., age, sex, ethnicity) and environmental covariates(e.g., population density, region) to estimate total and direct effects. Results Single pollutant analysis showed the direct effect of higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection with increased exposure to PM<sub>2.5</sub>(RR1.11,95%CI 1.08;1.15), PM<sub>10</sub>(RR1.06,95%CI 1.04;1.09), NO<sub>2</sub>(RR1.04,95%CI 1.04;1.05) and NO<sub>x</sub>(RR1.02,95%CI 1.02;1.02) per 1μg/m<sup>3</sup> increment with DEFRA 2015-19 data. Sensitivity analyses altering covariates, exposure window and modelled air pollution data source produced similar estimates. Higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 per 10<sup>-5</sup>m<sup>-1</sup> increment of BC (RR1.86, 95%CI 1.62;2.14) was observed using ELAPSE data. Conclusion Long term exposure to higher concentrations of air pollutions increases the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, highlighting that adverse health effects of air pollution is not only limited to non-communicable diseases.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.23297598v1" target="_blank">Assessing the causal effect of air pollution on risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Plasma-based antigen persistence in the post-acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
BACKGROUND: Although RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2 are generally thought to be transient, the persistence of viral components beyond the acute phase can be driven by a variety of virologic and immunologic factors. Recent studies have suggested that SARS-CoV-2 antigens may persist following COVID-19 but were limited by a lack of comparison to a large number of true negative control samples. METHODS: Using single molecule array (Simoa) assays for SARS-CoV-2 spike, S1, and nucleocapsid antigen in plasma from 171 pandemic-era individuals in the post-acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection and 250 pre-pandemic control samples, we compared prevalence of antigen detection. We used logistic regression models and prevalence ratios (PRs) to assess the relationship between demographic and disease factors and antigen persistence. RESULTS: Compared to the proportion of antigen positivity in the pre-pandemic controls (2%), detection of any SARS-CoV-2 antigen was more frequent across all post-acute COVID-19 time bins (3-6 months: 12.6%, p&lt;0.001; 6-10 months, 10.7%, p=0.0002; 10-14 months, 7.5%, p=0.017). These differences were driven by spike protein for up to 14 months and nucleocapsid in the first 6 months after infection. The co-occurrence of multiple antigens at a single timepoint was uncommon. Hospitalization for acute COVID-19 (versus not hospitalized) and worse self-reported health during acute COVID-19 among those not hospitalized (versus more benign illness) were associated with higher prevalence of post-acute antigen detection (PR 1.86, p=0.03; PR 3.5, p=0.07, respectively) in the pandemic era. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2 antigens can persist beyond the period of acute illness. The observation that more than 10% of plasma samples for over a year following initial SARS-CoV-2 infection contain detectable viral antigen, which are potentially immunogenic, has significant implications given the sheer number of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 to date. More work will be needed to determine whether these antigens have a causal role in post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC).
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.24.23297114v2" target="_blank">Plasma-based antigen persistence in the post-acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Scaling Behavioral Interventions in the Presence of Spillover: Implications for Randomized Controlled Trials and Evidence-Based Policy Making</strong> -
<div>
Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) are increasingly relied upon by policymakers as part of efforts to incorporate evidence into the policymaking process, a movement known as evidence-based policymaking, or EBPM. Testing possible policy interventions via RCTs before full rollout is commonly thought to be the gold standard of evidence in the EBPM process. However, real-world policy changes do not always scale up as expected. Even large-N RCTs targeting a random sample of policy beneficiaries do not capture the influence of social networks and risk missing consequential spillover effects. We illustrate this issue by assessing the efficacy of monetary incentives to increase COVID-19 vaccination in an RCT over the entire population of a medium-sized European town (~40,000 residents). We use administrative vaccination data as our primary outcome. Since the entire population was randomized, we are able to estimate spillover effects within households. There were significant negative spillover effects on booster vaccinations that we attribute to a displacement effect, potentially driven by long lines at the vaccination events. Our results illustrate that using a population-level RCT to test whether a policy scales can help avoid costly, ineffective, or even counterproductive policy outcomes.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/k5uap/" target="_blank">Scaling Behavioral Interventions in the Presence of Spillover: Implications for Randomized Controlled Trials and Evidence-Based Policy Making</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Policy impact evaluation: A potential use case for longitudinal monitoring of viruses in wastewater at small geographic scales</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
We used wastewater monitoring data to evaluate the impact of public health policies and interventions on the spread of COVID-19 among a university population. We first evaluated the correlation between incident, reported COVID-19 cases and wastewater SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations and observed changes to the correlation over time. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we evaluated the association between university COVID-19 policy changes and levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in wastewater. Policy changes associated with a significant change in campus wastewater SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations included changes to face covering recommendations, indoor gathering bans, and routine surveillance testing requirements and availability. We did not observe changes in SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations associated with other policy changes. The work presented herein demonstrates how longitudinal wastewater monitoring of viruses may be used for causal inference such as policy impact evaluation, especially at small geographic scales.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.23297556v1" target="_blank">Policy impact evaluation: A potential use case for longitudinal monitoring of viruses in wastewater at small geographic scales</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Changes in emergency department utilization in vulnerable populations after COVID-19 shelter in place orders</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Purpose: To compare emergency department (ED) utilization and admission rates for patients with a history of mental health (MH), substance use disorder (SUD) and social determinants of health (SDOH) before and after implementing COVID-199s shelter-inplace (SIP) orders. Methods: This was a retrospective, multicenter study leveraging electronic medical record data from 20 EDs across a large Midwest integrated healthcare system from 5/2/2019 to 12/31/2019 (pre-SIP) and from 5/2/2020 to 12/31/2020 (post-SIP). Diagnoses were documented in the patient9s medical records. Poisson and logistic regression models were used to evaluate ED utilization and admission rate changes. Results: 871,020 total ED encounters from 487,028 unique patients were captured. 2,572 (0.53%) patients had a documented Z code for SDOH. Patients with previously diagnosed MH or SUDs were more likely to seek ED care after the SIP orders were implemented (RR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.18 - 1.22, p&lt;0.001), as were patients with SDOH (RR: 2.37, 95% CI: 2.19 - 2.55, p&lt;0.001). Patients with both previously diagnosed MH or SUD and a documented SDOH had even higher ED utilization (RR: 3.31, 95% CI: 2.83 - 3.88, p&lt;0.001) than those with either condition alone. Patients with MH and SUDs (OR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.86 - 0.92, p&lt;0.001) or SDOH (OR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.54, 0.83, p&lt;0.001) were less likely to be admitted post-SIP orders while patients with a history of diseases of physiologic systems were more likely to be admitted. Conclusions: Vulnerable populations with a history of MH, SUD, and SDOH experienced increased ED utilization but a lower rate of hospital admissions after the implementation of SIP orders. The findings highlight the importance of addressing these needs to mitigate the impact of public health crises on these populations.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.23297561v1" target="_blank">Changes in emergency department utilization in vulnerable populations after COVID-19 shelter in place orders</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Peripheral Transcriptomics in Acute and Long-Term Kidney Dysfunction in SARS-CoV2 Infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV2 infection despite vaccination and leads to long-term kidney dysfunction. However, peripheral blood molecular signatures in AKI from COVID-19 and their association with long-term kidney dysfunction are yet unexplored. Methods. In patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV2, we performed bulk RNA sequencing using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). We applied linear models accounting for technical and biological variability on RNA-Seq data accounting for false discovery rate (FDR) and compared the functional enrichment and pathway results to a historical sepsis-AKI cohort. Finally, we evaluated the association of these signatures with long-term trends in kidney function. Results. Of 283 patients, 106 had AKI. After adjustment for sex, age, mechanical ventilation, and chronic kidney disease (CKD), we identified 2635 significant differential gene expressions at FDR&lt;0.05. Top canonical pathways were EIF2 signaling, oxidative phosphorylation, mTOR signaling, and Th17 signaling, indicating mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Comparison with sepsis associated AKI showed considerable overlap of key pathways (48.14%). Using follow-up estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) measurements from 115 patients, we found that 164/2635 (6.2%) of the significantly differentiated genes were associated with overall decrease in long-term kidney function. The strongest associations were autophagy, renal impairment via fibrosis and cardiac structure/function. Conclusions. We show that AKI in SARS-CoV2 is a multifactorial process with mitochondrial dysfunction driven by ER stress whereas long-term kidney function decline is associated with cardiac structure and function, and immune dysregulation. Functional overlap with sepsis-AKI also highlights common signatures indicating generalizability in therapeutic approaches.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.23297469v1" target="_blank">Peripheral Transcriptomics in Acute and Long-Term Kidney Dysfunction in SARS-CoV2 Infection</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>Evaluation of Concordance Between Exhaled Air Test (eBAM-CoV) and RT-PCR to Detect SARS-CoV-2</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV-2 Infection; COVID-19; Coronavirus <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: eBAM Cov Testing <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nīmes; University of Nimes; brains’ laboratory sas, FRANCE <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study to Safety, Tolerability and Immunogenicity of EG-COVII in Healthy Adult</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: EG-COVII <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: EyeGene Inc. <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pharmacokinetics and Bioequivalence of Aterixen 100 mg Tablets and Aterixen 100 mg Film-coated Tablets in Healthy Volunteers</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Viral Infection COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Aterixen <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Valenta Pharm JSC <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>Long COVID Brain Fog: Cognitive Rehabilitation Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Brain Fog; Cognitive Impairment; Cognitive Dysfunction; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Speed of Processing Training; Behavioral: In-lab Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Training; Behavioral: In-lab Brain Health Training; Behavioral: Transfer Package; Behavioral: Follow Up Phone Calls; Behavioral: Vocational Rehabilitation; Behavioral: Peer Mentoring <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Alabama at Birmingham; National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research <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>Paradoxical Response to Chest Wall Loading in Mechanically Ventilated Patients</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: ARDS; COVID-19; Mechanical Ventilation Pressure High; Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Diagnostic Test: Manual loading of the chest wall <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: HealthPartners Institute <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>A Practical RCT of TCM in the Treatment of LCOVID and Analysis of Syndrome Types and Medication Characteristics.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Traditional Chinese medicine treatment; Drug: Western medicine treatment <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Chinese University of Hong Kong <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity of Concomitant Administration of COVID-19 Vaccines With Influenza Vaccines</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Influenza; Vaccine Reaction; Contaminant Injected <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Omicron-containing COVID-19 vaccine; Biological: influenza vaccine <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Catholic Kwandong University; Korea University Guro Hospital <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Narrative Intervention for Long COVID-19 (NICO)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Long Covid19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Narrative Intervention for Long COVID-19 (NICO) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Colorado, Denver <br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Home-Based Respiratory Muscle Strength Training Program for Individuals With Post-COVID-19 Persistent Dyspnea</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Dyspnea <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Respiratory Muscle Strength Trainers <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of South Florida <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>Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training in Post-Covid Syndrome</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Cardiovascular Abnormalities; Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Physical Exercise <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Inspiratory muscle strength training <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: D’Or Institute for Research and Education <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>Inspiratory Muscle Training in People With Long COVID-19- A Pilot Investigation.</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: PrO2 <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Bath; Swansea University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rural Tailored Communication to Promote SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Testing in Saliva</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: SARS-CoV2 Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: General SARS-CoV-2 Communication; Behavioral: Rural-Targeted SARS-CoV-2 Communication <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Michigan State University; National Cancer Institute (NCI); Johns Hopkins University <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>Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Compensatory Cognitive Training for COVID-19; Behavioral: Holistic Cognitive Education <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: VA Office of Research and Development <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID Rehabilitation</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Rehabilitation; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-Infectious Disorders <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: One day course; Behavioral: Individual follow-ups <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University Hospital of North Norway; University of Bergen; Oslo University Hospital; Norwegian University of Science and Technology <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>Food Effects of GST-HG171 Tablets Combined With Ritonavir in Healthy Chinese Participants</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Respiratory Infection <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: GST-HG171/ritonavir; Drug: ritonavir <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Fujian Akeylink Biotechnology Co., Ltd. <br/><b>Active, not 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>Resolving a guanine-quadruplex structure in the SARS-CoV-2 genome through circular dichroism and multiscale molecular modeling</strong> - The genome of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is made up of a single-stranded RNA fragment that can assume a specific secondary structure, whose stability can influence the virus’s ability to reproduce. Recent studies have identified putative guanine quadruplex sequences in SARS-CoV-2 genome fragments that are involved in coding for both structural and non-structural proteins. In this contribution, we focus on a specific G-rich sequence referred to as RG-2, which codes for the non-structural protein 10…</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>Assessing the post hoc effectiveness of tixagevimab-cilgavimab for prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infections in solid organ transplant recipients</strong> - CONCLUSION: In a large cohort of SOT recipients, we found that Tix-Cil reduced infection risk even amidst emergent Omicron subvariants. Additionally, the extent of measurable humoral response to Tix-Cil may indicate relative effectiveness. Pre-exposure monoclonal antibody therapy may represent a strategy that will continue to offer clinical benefit for immunocompromised persons who are known to derive limited protection from vaccinations.</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 cell-penetrating peptide derived from SARS-CoV-2 protein Orf9b allosterically inhibits MARK4 activity and mitigates tau toxicity</strong> - Abnormal activation of microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 4 (MARK4) and its phosphorylation of the microtubule-associated protein tau are believed to play a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, and MARK4 inhibition can be a strategy to develop disease-modifying therapy. Here we report the development of a membrane-permeable peptide that inhibits MARK4 activity in an allosteric manner. The SARS-CoV-2-derived protein Orf9b inhibited MARK4-mediated tau phosphorylation in primary…</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>Integrin αvβ1 facilitates ACE2-mediated entry of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Integrins have been suggested to be involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely unclear. This study aimed to investigate how integrins facilitate the ACE2-mediated cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2. We first tested the susceptibility of a panel of human cell lines to SARS-CoV-2 infection using the spike protein pseudotyped virus assay and examined the expression levels of integrins in these cell lines by qPCR, western blot and flow cytometry. We found that integrin…</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>PGAM5 degrades PDCoV N protein and activates type I interferon to antagonize viral replication</strong> - In recent years, porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) has become a new intestinal coronavirus in pigs, rapidly spreading across multiple countries and causing significant financial losses in the global pig industry. Currently, no effective commercial vaccine is available to prevent this virus’ spread. Thus, it becomes crucial to investigate the interaction between the virus and its host to acquire valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms of viral replication and develop innovative strategies…</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 molecular dynamics simulations analysis of repurposing drugs for COVID-19 using bioinformatics methods</strong> - A number of multidisciplinary methods have piqued the interest of researchers as means to accelerate and lower the cost of medication creation. The goal of this research was to find target proteins and then select a lead drug against SARS-CoV-2. The three-dimensional structure is taken from the RCSB PDB using its specific PDB ID 6lu7. Virtual screening based on pharmacophores is performed using Molecular Operating Environment software. We looked for a potent inhibitor in the FDA-approved…</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>Effects of Two Soluble ACE2-Fc Variants on Blood Pressure and Albuminuria in Hypertensive Mice: Research Letter</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Soluble ACE2-Fc variant K reduces blood pressure and tends to lower albuminuria in hypertensive mice. Furthermore, soluble ACE2-Fc variant K has prolonged tissue retention, associated with increased tissue ACE2 activity. The results support further studies directed at the therapeutic potential of soluble ACE2-Fc variant K for cardiovascular and kidney protection.</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 CCZ1 as an essential lysosomal trafficking regulator in Marburg and Ebola virus infections</strong> - Marburg and Ebola filoviruses are two of the deadliest infectious agents and several outbreaks have occurred in the last decades. Although several receptors and co-receptors have been reported for Ebola virus, key host factors remain to be elucidated. In this study, using a haploid cell screening platform, we identify the guanine nucleotide exchange factor CCZ1 as a key host factor in the early stage of filovirus replication. The critical role of CCZ1 for filovirus infections is validated in 3D…</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>TMPRSS2 is a functional receptor for human coronavirus HKU1</strong> - Four endemic seasonal human coronaviruses causing common colds, HKU1, 229E, NL63 and OC43 circulate worldwide¹. After binding to cellular receptors, coronavirus spike proteins are primed for fusion by transmembrane-serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) or endosomal cathepsins^(2-9). NL63 uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a receptor^(10), whereas 229E uses human aminopeptidase-N^(11). HKU1 and OC43 spikes bind cells through 9-O40 acelytated sialic acid but their protein receptors remain…</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>Epidemiological profile of COVID-19 in patients with prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation therapy at a Brazilian Cancer Center</strong> - CONCLUSION: Androgen deprivation therapy was not associated with protective factors or potential treatments in patients with prostate cancer and COVID-19. Although the number of patients analyzed was limited, and there may have been a selection bias, this is a unique study that cannot be expanded or replicated in similar (unvaccinated) populations.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inhibition of the lectin pathway of complement activation reduces Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome severity in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - Most COVID-19 patients requiring ICU care develop an acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), characterised by severe hypoxemia, decreased lung compliance, and high vascular permeability. Activation of the complement system is a hallmark of moderate and severe COVID-19, with abundant deposition of complement proteins reported in inflamed tissue and on the endothelium during COVID-19. Using a transgenic mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection we assessed the therapeutic utility of an inhibitory…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Computational screening of neuropilin 1 unveils novel potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics</strong> - Neuropilin 1 (NRP-1) inhibition has shown promise in reducing the infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and preventing the virus entry into nerve tissues, thereby mitigating neurological symptoms in COVID-19 patients. In this study, we employed virtual screening, including molecular docking, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation, and Molecular Mechanics-Poisson Boltzmann Surface Area (MM-PBSA) calculations, to identify potential NRP-1 inhibitors. From a…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The effect of zofenopril on the cardiovascular system of spontaneously hypertensive rats treated with the ACE2 inhibitor MLN-4760</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: Zofenopril treatment reduced MLN-induced adiposity and improved cardiac function regardless of ACE2 inhibition. Although the concomitant MLN and zofenopril treatment increased thoracic aorta vasorelaxation capacity, zofenopril increased the participation of H(2)S and NO in the maintenance of endothelial function independently from ACE2 inhibition. Our results confirmed that the beneficial effects of zofenopril were not affected by ACE2 inhibition, moreover, we assume that ACE2…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Assessing the gene expression of the adenosine 5’-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and its relation with the IL-6 and IL-10 plasma levels in COVID-19 patients</strong> - CONCLUSION: Increasing AMPK gene expression is likely a necessary effort of the immune system to inhibit inflammation in critical COVID-19. However, this effort seems to be inadequate, probably due to factors that induce inflammation, like erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and IL-6.</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 neurotropism-induced anxiety and depression-like behaviors require Microglia activation</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been associated with a wide range of “long COVID” neurological symptoms. However, the mechanisms governing SARS-CoV-2 neurotropism and its effects on long-term behavioral changes remain poorly understood. Using a highly virulent mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 strain, denoted as SARS2-N501Y (MA30) , we demonstrated that intranasal inoculation of SARS2-N501Y (MA30) results in…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

721
archive-daily-dose/27 October, 2023.html Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,721 @@
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
<title>27 October, 2023</title>
<style>
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
</style>
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
<body>
<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 Uprooting of Life in Gaza and the West Bank</strong> - Israel’s Prime Minister has vowed to destroy Hamas and turn its territory into a “deserted island,” but Palestinians are determined not to be displaced. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-uprooting-of-life-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Mike Johnson Went from Relative Obscurity to Speaker of the House</strong> - The Louisiana Republican is best known for leading an effort to vote against certifying the results of the 2020 election—not because of fraud but on arcane legal grounds. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-mike-johnson-went-from-relative-obscurity-to-speaker-of-the-house">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In Arizona, No Labels Is Attracting Potential Candidates It Doesn’t Want</strong> - The state has recognized the group as a legitimate political party. Why is No Labels so angry? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/in-arizona-no-labels-is-attracting-potential-candidates-it-doesnt-want">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Some Lasting Lessons from a Dramatic Week at Trump’s Civil Trial</strong> - Among them: the former President is trying to undermine the court system, and prosecutors shouldn’t put too much faith in Michael Cohen. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/some-lasting-lessons-from-a-dramatic-week-at-trumps-civil-trial">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Speaker Who?: The Rise of a G.O.P. Nobody in Trump’s House</strong> - On the election of Mike Johnson. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/speaker-who-the-rise-of-a-gop-nobody-in-trumps-house">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The Biden administration needs to update its old thinking on Israel-Palestine</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uGK9j1-YOMv-k5XIDdxXnEVvKao=/27x0:6478x4838/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72799552/1719482074.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
President Joe Biden confers with national security adviser Jake Sullivan during a roundtable with Jewish community leaders in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building October 11, 2023, in Washington, DC. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A viral essay by Biden’s foreign policy adviser shows why Israel is more of a liability to the US than anyone’s ready to admit.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SmcSpT">
On September 29, at a festival put on by the Atlantic, Biden’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/defense-and-security">national security</a> adviser Jake Sullivan boasted of the Middle East’s unprecedented <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/israel-war-middle-east-jake-sullivan/675580/">stability</a>. Just a week later, <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a> attacked <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a>, and far from being stable, the Middle East hasn’t been this volatile in years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rOvQor">
It’s not quite fair to hold someone to a turn of phrase on a conference panel, but it turns out that Sullivan wasn’t speaking off the cuff. That sentiment encapsulated how the <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a>’s key thinker sees the state of the world — or, at least, how he saw it. The sentiment also appears in the print version of Sullivan’s November/December cover story for <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/sources-american-power-biden-jake-sullivan">Foreign Affair<em>s</em></a> magazine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y06UCF">
Overtaken by events would be a generous way to put this.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KU7MGC">
“The Middle East is quieter than it has been for decades,” he wrote in an essay that went to print before Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel. Sullivan deleted that passage from the web edition of the article and updated the Middle East portions of the piece. “We are working closely with regional partners to facilitate the sustainable delivery of humanitarian assistance to civilians in the Gaza Strip,” Sullivan writes in the online version. “We are alert to the risk that the current crisis could spiral into a regional conflict.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="EwYjRo">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2UsVlA">
But the print edition of the magazine arrived on doorsteps this week and is now a striking artifact of Biden’s pre-October 7 priorities. And while it would be <a href="https://twitter.com/ghoshworld/status/1716845882866319721">easy to dunk</a> on some of the now out-of-date passages from Sullivan, which demonstrated how the Biden administration totally missed the possibility of a new Hamas-Israel war, what’s more interesting is how little these events have seemed to change things for the administration.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7fezb6">
A read of the web version of his piece shows that the Hamas-Israel war has not fundamentally altered the national security adviser’s assumptions about the world. He remains focused on using unconventional economic tools, like investing in the US industrial base and using export controls to advance US statecraft, and stitching together new alliances to benefit American interests, all while being disciplined about how the US uses its military power. “Americans should be optimistic about the future,” he writes in both versions. “Old assumptions and structures must be adapted to meet the challenges the United States will face between now and 2050.” But what’s noteworthy is that the United States’ approach to the Middle East and Israel, according to Sullivan, is still not one of those areas that needs an update.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TwjQbE">
Yet the Hamas-Israel war reveals both the limits of Biden’s current foreign policy and the need for new thinking. Even as the administration has <a href="https://www.cfr.org/event/conversation-secretary-antony-blinken">prioritized</a> countering <a href="https://www.vox.com/china">China</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/russia">Russia</a>, the Middle East has pulled the White House back in. For Sullivan, the Biden administration’s approach “frees up resources for other global priorities, reduces the risk of new Middle Eastern conflicts, and ensures that U.S. interests are protected on a far more sustainable basis.” But the US has sent two aircraft carrier groups to the Middle East, militants are <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/politics/us-military-personnel-injured-drone-attacks/index.html">attacking</a> US military bases in Iraq and Syria, and a severe humanitarian crisis is spiraling in Gaza, all as the potential for a larger regional war looms. The unconventional diplomatic tools Sullivan touts in other contexts don’t always apply well to Israel: The country’s economic partnerships with Arab states, for example, are not coming in handy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ov25N2">
Biden paid a political price for the <a href="https://www.vox.com/afghanistan">Afghanistan</a> withdrawal, and Sullivan stands by the decision to “avoid protracted forever wars … that do little to actually reduce the threats to the U.S.” But that instinct doesn’t seem sufficiently present here. The administration backs Israel in a war that — for <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/75d27680-cdaa-46f7-b810-10b594bb0ad2">all the US’s pushing for Israel to define its goals</a> — has no clear outcome and that <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e0b43918-7eaf-4a11-baaf-d6d7fb61a8a5">will wear away</a> US credibility in the world. The administration has shown an old instinct to call for a two-state solution without an investment in <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy">policies</a> that would lead there.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mPjrsI">
The last three weeks have shown that the assumption that the Middle East is stable is simply wrong — no one could deny that. But what policymakers should realize is that the old Middle East toolkit of managing conflicts without addressing their root causes does not apply. And on that measure, at least, the Biden administration is not ready to offer a correction.
</p>
<h3 id="mniquy">
What Jake Sullivan’s essay says
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WPh3dk">
Sullivan in the essay focuses on the Biden administration’s big themes: countering China (and to a lesser extent Russia), prioritizing industrial policy, reinvigorating alliances and multilateral partnerships, and tackling global development issues like health and the environment, with signposts on how the US will prioritize these and other competing challenges.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UfifSQ">
“By investing in the sources of domestic strength, deepening alliances and partnerships, delivering results on global challenges, and staying disciplined in the exercise of power, the United States will be prepared to advance its vision of a free, open, prosperous, and secure world no matter what surprises are in store,” Sullivan writes. “We have created, in Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s words, ‘situations of strength.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZbpSDI">
What makes the essay noteworthy is not just the content, but the author. The national security adviser has gotten more powerful in each subsequent presidency, and Sullivan is the zenith of that trend. He’s considered the architect of the administration’s foreign policy, as <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/16/trial-by-combat">profile</a> after <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/us/politics/jake-sullivan-biden.html">profile</a> has portrayed him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="umHXCE">
It’s also rare for a sitting national security adviser to write at such length for readers. And it’s different from a speech, which Sullivan has delivered at many a think tank and which often serves as an announcement of a new policy; it’s also less technical or in-depth than an academic publication or a policy memo. You might call it a vibes piece, not with actionable foreign policy advice but rather an ideological blueprint for the Biden administration’s worldview.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dFzZ9c">
The main focus is on economic statecraft and alliance-building aimed at pushing back against China, with the Middle East component coming much later on in the article.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gq9EQE">
What’s interesting is that a war between Israel and Hamas doesn’t alter Jake Sullivan’s fundamental reasoning: The Middle East still falls under the heading of “Pick Your Battles.” That doesn’t seem feasible, nor does it seem to reflect what the administration has done since October 7. The last three weeks have drawn the US in, given Washington’s longtime role as Israel’s security guarantor.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xpE7qp">
The administration’s Middle East approach “emphasizes deterring aggression, de-escalating conflicts, and integrating the region through joint infrastructure projects and new partnerships, including between Israel and its Arab neighbors,” Sullivan wrote in the original version of the essay. “And it is bearing fruit,” bringing up the example of a “new economic corridor” announced in September that would ultimately connect <a href="https://www.vox.com/india">India</a> to Europe, through the Middle East. The web update changed “bearing fruit” to, “There was material progress,” and cited the relative calm in Yemen’s war. The rest of the text stayed the same.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Military trucks being unloaded from the tail ramp of a cargo jet." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7BmOKkiikl8rpoEo4gVJMwzDQcY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036488/1734021411.jpg"/> <cite>Israeli Government Press Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Israel received a new batch of US military aid last week as part of the package allocated by Washington to Tel Aviv.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m2EmMF">
A lot of lines were cut, like “we have de-escalated crises in Gaza,” referencing the May 2021 conflict there, and “restored direct diplomacy between the parties after years of its absence.” (Israel and the PLO <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15238.doc.htm">held talks</a> in March, which didn’t go anywhere, and this month the two parties are not talking.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mt3VbC">
Biden’s team has only put limited attention to Israel-Palestine in the past two and a half years. When Israel and Hamas fought in May 2021, Sullivan worked with regional partners to negotiate a ceasefire in 10 days. That event does not majorly figure into how the administration sees the Middle East. It seems to have confirmed priors, reinforcing the now-shattered idea that the conflict is manageable.
</p>
<aside id="UxHNbv">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8yrPnS">
Palestine has not been a central component of Middle East policy. <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">President Donald Trump</a> shunted aside Palestinians in favor of Israel-Arab normalization deals, and the Biden administration has continued that policy. In July 2022, the White House released a fact sheet on the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/14/fact-sheet-the-united-states-palestinian-relationship/">United States-Palestinian Relationship</a>” that focused on economic initiatives without a larger strategy for addressing the root causes of the conflict. As a senior administration official told journalists that month, “[W]e are not going to come in with a top-down peace plan, because we don’t believe that that would be the best approach and it would set expectations that would probably fall flat.” Ever since, the administration sought a deal that would <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/8/3/23817467/biden-israel-saudi-arabia-normalization-middle-east-policy">normalize diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A0Z6Zi">
Sullivan does not mention the path toward a Palestinian state in the original essay, but instead emphasizes “integrating the region” through normalization. It’s why the obscure <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/world/middleeast/i2u2-india-israel-uae-us.html">I2U2</a> partnership (between India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the US) merits a mention, an example that shows how the administration was continuing the Trump policy of pursuing a stability in the region that overlooked Palestinians. That approach has now proved to be unsustainable and even incendiary. And those policies will be increasingly difficult as the Israeli military campaign continues.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BeCe6M">
The essay has now been updated to say, “We are committed to a two-state solution. In fact, our discussions with Saudi Arabia and Israel toward normalization have always included significant proposals for the Palestinians. If agreed, this component would ensure that a path to two states remains viable, with significant and concrete steps taken in that direction by all relevant parties.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5cG13q">
But there are not strong indications that US leadership can secure an independent, sovereign Palestinian state. It hasn’t been a priority in the past two and a half years, nor is it now a priority for the near or even medium term.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TfL3pL">
Above all else, and beyond the behind-the-scenes efforts Biden has undertaken to slow a ground invasion of Gaza, the administration stands with Israel. Biden is asking <a href="https://www.vox.com/congress">Congress</a> for $14 billion of military aid to the country. US officials have reportedly helped <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/us/politics/us-hostages-israel-gaza.html">delay</a> a ground incursion into Gaza and marshaled a small supply of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza. But the Biden administration has not called for a Mideast ceasefire and vetoed a United Nations resolution with softened language on this.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UY0cJ0">
But the situation is so dire — the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/damning-evidence-of-war-crimes-as-israeli-attacks-wipe-out-entire-families-in-gaza/">Israeli military campaign continues </a>— that it’s surprising that the Biden administration sees its policies as durable and its framework as working.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pYfesE">
The Biden administration’s Middle East mantra, as both versions of the essay conclude, is, “We have to advance regional integration in the Middle East while continuing to check <a href="https://www.vox.com/iran">Iran</a>.” That is, Biden is doubling down on Israel normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia without acknowledging how much has changed in the world. The Hamas-Israel war led the Saudi crown prince and the Iranian president to talk on the phone <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/irans-raisi-saudi-arabias-mbs-discuss-israel-hamas-war">for the first time</a> since they began a China-led <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/3/10/23634464/deal-saudi-arabia-iran-china-explained">rapprochement</a>. We haven’t yet seen such a course correction from Biden.
</p>
<h3 id="d97QW8">
The Biden administration is still focused on countering China
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RueDoT">
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Jake Sullivan was leading White House efforts to write the National Security Strategy. That document guides US policy broadly, and officials delayed publication and <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2022/08/01/white-house-aims-to-release-overdue-security-strategies-within-weeks/">rewrote it</a> to stress the threat of Russia alongside the marquee issue of China.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j7YmRq">
The Biden administration remains focused on that superpower conflict. “The crisis in the Middle East does not change the fact that the United States needs to prepare for a new era of strategic competition—in particular by deterring and responding to great-power aggression,” writes Sullivan in the article. He also discusses China with measured language that reflects the administration’s attempts to break with the Trump administration’s heated China rhetoric while still maintaining some of its hawkish approaches.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M50w2H">
Ali Wyne, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, agrees that the Middle East war does not fundamentally affect what the US should focus on today. “Instability in the Middle East and Europe does not invalidate the judgment that the Indo-Pacific’s economic and military centrality in world affairs is poised to grow apace,” he wrote in an email.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cqDnFG">
The trickier part from a policy perspective is the role of the US military in the world. Sullivan acknowledges that “Washington could no longer afford an undisciplined approach to the use of military force.” Sullivan says the administration seeks to dodge the trap of “protracted forever wars that can tie down US forces and that do little to actually reduce the threats to the United States,” and cites the <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2022/8/15/23300236/no-one-held-accountable-catastrophic-afghanistan-withdrawal-biden-white-house">withdrawal from Afghanistan</a>. But explaining this, Sullivan doesn’t engage with the relatively small but seemingly permanent US troop presence in places like <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/3/16/23641929/congress-repeal-iraq-war-authorization">Iraq</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/6/15/23669622/syria-900-us-troops-forever-war-isis-assad">Syria</a>, among others. Those US servicemembers are coming under <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2023/10/23/us-troops-in-middle-east-brace-for-significant-escalation-of-attacks/">more and more militant attacks</a> and could draw the US even further into Middle East war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uEy5ta">
Sullivan argues in the essay that the US has entered a whole new era and that means that the United States has to make significant adjustments. “And yet, much of his prescription looks a lot like inertia,” Stephen Wertheim of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told me. “None of this is really argued in a way that would give a reader confidence that the US government has a plan to keep costs and risks under control.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L0gNal">
While Sullivan acknowledges in his writing that America’s resources are limited and difficult choices will need to be made, he does not address the trade-offs or how to think about them. A US aircraft carrier — like the two Biden deployed to the waters near Israel in the weeks after Hamas’s attack, out of 11 — can only be in one place at once.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KA8POi">
The potential of a long-term entanglement in a new Middle East war imperils Biden’s priorities. It could take not just manpower, but resources and attention away from countering China — which is “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge,” according to the National Security Strategy. Yet the Biden administration acknowledges, “As we implement this strategy, we will continually assess and reassess our approach to ensure we are best serving the American people.” Now is one of those moments to assess whether this is all working.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="idHSxr">
A wholesale reassessment of the US relationship with Israel, its <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23916266/us-israel-support-ally-gaza-war-aid">closest Middle East ally</a> and a stalwart defense partner, would be unlikely. Hamas is holding Americans and dual citizens hostage, and a wider war would hurt the US’s Middle East partners. The US sees the partnership with Israel based on shared values and cultural connections. American support of Israel is an unquestioned tenet of bipartisan foreign policy.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JoFvZJ">
But that partnership carries risks, too — and not just ones related to this outbreak of violence. “Much of the world sees the United States actively assisting the government of Israel in dispossessing and occupying Palestinian land,” Wertheim told me. Sullivan doesn’t grapple with what that means for US prestige and power in the world that many observers see the US as complicit if not a participant in Israel’s Gaza war, even as the Israeli goals remain undefined.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N8QeXj">
The essay from Sullivan contrasts that of his former Obama administration colleague Ben Rhodes. Writing in the <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/10/18/gaza-the-cost-of-escalation/">New York Review of Books</a>, Rhodes cautions that if Israel further escalates its military campaign in Gaza, it risks “igniting a war of undetermined length, cost, and consequences.” Rhodes says there is a need for “genuinely pursuing an Israeli–Palestinian peace as the end of this war.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zs0K7Z">
That would require intensive US leadership.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1gu7a0">
The cover of the issue is a frayed and fragmented American flag above Sullivan’s name and the headline “The Sources of American Power.” Previously, that image may have signaled the coming together of the US after the cleavages of the Trump years and the toll it took on American influence in the world. Now, the flag suggests the US is coming apart, unable to calm a Middle East at war and facing internal cracks as it grapples with the threats of Russia and China.
</p></li>
<li><strong>Palestinians fear they’re being displaced permanently. Here’s why that’s logical.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A young girl stands inside a tent, while a woman behind her kneels on the ground, washing clothing in a bucket of water, on October 19, 2023." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GZUOPvn-B2gz8K0wWYNPWU5Wu84=/107x0:1814x1280/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72799457/GettyImages_1733692894.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Palestinians seek refuge on the grounds of a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) center in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. | Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
In Israel, calls to expel Palestinians have become increasingly mainstream. Many believe an expulsion like the 1948 Nakba is possible.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LOFz0t">
Since <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/10/10/23911661/hamas-israel-war-gaza-palestine-explainer">Hamas</a>’s deadly attack on <a href="https://www.vox.com/israel">Israel</a> on October 7, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142842#:~:text=An%20estimated%201.4%20million%20people,150%20UNRWA%2Ddesignated%20emergency%20shelters.">1.4 million people have been displaced</a> in Gaza following Israeli orders to flee south, according to the United Nations. That’s over 60 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pLWff6">
In wartime, civilians sometimes have to flee an area until it’s safe to return. In the early days following the Russian invasion in 2022, for instance, hundreds of thousands of <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2023/02/22/war-in-ukraine-how-many-refugees-are-in-europe-one-year-after-the-beginning-of-the-war_6016794_8.html#:~:text=In%20the%20early%20days%20of,at%20the%20Ukrainian%2DPolish%20border.">Ukrainians</a> fled in search of safety. But many Palestinians worldwide fear that those who are trying to escape the fighting in Gaza will never be able to return to their homes. The displacement, they worry, will become a permanent exile.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JwZrG3">
That helps explain why Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who governs the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080034/west-bank-israel-palestinians">West Bank</a>, is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-holds-separate-calls-with-israels-netanyahu-palestinians-abbas-2023-10-14/?fbclid=IwAR0LV5k_RgvrBC_UxJxgHQjZf2RX0B9j-PfF-KuF3sJYTSgiWJ5VWezEiZU">strongly opposing</a> any plan that involves the mass displacement of Palestinians. Neighboring Arab states Egypt and Jordan are refusing to take in Gazans in part because of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/palestinian-jordan-egypt-israel-refugee-502c06d004767d4b64848d878b66bd3d">security and economic concerns</a>, but also because they say they don’t want to enable such a displacement. “What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to take refuge and migrate to Egypt,” <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/egypt-rejects-any-displacement-palestinians-into-sinai-says-sisi-2023-10-18/">said</a> Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/20/middleeast/protests-palestinian-gaza-middle-east-int/index.html">adding</a> that such a displacement would render the idea of a Palestinian state unviable. “The land will be there, but the people won’t.”
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="p41JWp">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VIjVy4">
There are three main drivers of this fear. The first is ingrained in Palestinian memory: In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2536718">were permanently expelled</a> during the first Arab-Israeli war, and intermittent displacements have continued ever since, as Israel has sought to maintain a Jewish majority in the state by pushing Palestinians out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ILE6Sb">
The second driver is what Israeli politicians were increasingly <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/could-israel-carry-out-another-nakba">saying</a> in the months before the Hamas attack — their pro-expulsionist rhetoric was so stark that <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/palestine-second-nakba/">experts warned</a> signs of another mass expulsion were mounting.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zgWB9q">
And the third driver is what the Israeli defense establishment has been saying since October 7: calling to make Gaza <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/17/israeli-minister-losing-land-is-price-arabs#:~:text=A%20newly%20appointed%20minister%20in,the%20price%20%27Arabs%20understand%27.">smaller</a>, if not permanently impossible for Palestinians to <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sju3uabba">live in</a>, let alone one day build a state in.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="csL2Jm">
Understanding the historical context and what Israel wants today is key to understanding where this war will go tomorrow — and why Palestinians have every reason to fear that the people of Gaza will be displaced forever.
</p>
<h3 id="YhVh1c">
“I’m living the Nakba right now”
</h3>
<div>
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A black-and-white photo shows a woman and two children wearing long tunics standing on the sand. Behind them stretches a tent-city." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ih2jJu8-DBem9ultAehIJjz8u94=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036173/Vox_AP22180662925318.png"/> <cite>S. Swinton/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
A mother and her children in front of a tent city on July 23, 1949, in the Gaza area of Egyptian-occupied Palestine, where thousands of Arab refugees lived in worn-out encampments.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Rows of white tents are erected on the sand. A boy sits alone on a single chair." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oUYSoET76ARIBhxOKMOgbLNlgl0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036174/Vox_AP23293827258337.png"/> <cite>Fatima Shbair/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
A Palestinian child displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip sits beside a UNDP-provided tent camp in Khan Yunis on October 19, 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oeJfdM">
Most of the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza aren’t originally from Gaza. They’re the children or grandchildren of the more than 700,000 refugees who were expelled or forced to flee their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war that led to the country’s creation. This 75-year-old expulsion — which Palestinians call the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe” — is not a long-faded memory. It’s a deeply felt, visceral, and ongoing pain.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yZTEZ0">
Many Palestinian families still have the keys to the houses they left in 1948. They took the keys with them because they were told by Israeli forces that they would be able to return home after a few weeks. That never happened; instead, they became permanent refugees. (Today, the Palestinian diaspora extends from Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria to the Gulf Arab countries and the West, while some Palestinians are citizens of Israel, making up <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-know-about-arab-citizens-israel">roughly 20 percent of the country’s population</a>.)
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="An elderly woman’s fingers flatten a floral black and white woven cloth. Between her hands lies a large old-fashioned iron key. This photo was taken at the Palestinian refugee camp in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, on May 13, 2018. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Mms-yt_XQuMBjq6hy4saxM3hMN0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036193/GettyImages_975328216.jpg"/> <cite>Wissam Nassar/Picture Alliance via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinian refugee Mdlalla Al Shalfouh, 92, holds the key to her home from where she was displaced in 1948.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0hMAUe">
These keys came to symbolize what Palestinians call <a href="https://imeu.org/article/the-right-of-return-palestinian-refugees">“the right of return”</a> — meaning the right of living refugees and their descendants to return to their original properties. Israel has refused to recognize such a right, fearing that letting in millions of refugees would be <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iMO9hP0SsPQC&amp;dq=%22right+of+return%22+destroy+Israel&amp;pg=PA100#v=onepage&amp;q=%22right%20of%20return%22%20destroy%20Israel&amp;f=false">a demographic threat</a> — turning the country’s Jewish majority into a minority and undermining the country’s status as a Jewish state.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7j5gJZ">
Now, in a replay of 1948, some Palestinians in northern Gaza in recent weeks have fled their homes with their keys in hand. “I’m taking my house key and thinking, will I ever return to my home?” Arwa el-Rayes, a 56-year-old doctor, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/middleeast/gaza-strip-evacuation-israel-hamas-war.html">told</a> the New York Times before leaving her childhood house in Gaza City.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nasfTL">
While some in the media are already referring to this as a <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13/israel_orders_gaza_evacuation">“second Nakba,”</a> the Palestinians I spoke to said that’s a misnomer because it implies that the Nakba that began in 1948 ever ended.
</p>
<div class="c-float-left">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Women and children dressed in white, some carrying bundles on their heads, walk in a long line down a sandy road. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cpvC0ymexcBB3Jgxl0XVgmVPvOk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036339/GettyImages_1371380018.jpg"/> <cite>Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinian women and children driven from their homes by Israeli forces, 1948.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6QosE">
“When people ask if I’m having flashbacks to the Nakba — no, I’m living the Nakba right now!” said Maysoon Zayid, a Palestinian American comedian, writer, and disability advocate.<strong> </strong>“It’s been an ongoing Nakba since 1948.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uuiVp7">
Nadia Saah, a Brooklyn-based Palestinian rights activist and creator of <a href="https://project48.com/">Project48</a>, an educational resource about the Nakba, agreed. “We’ve been carrying the generational trauma of our parents — and now, what our parents experienced, we’re watching unfold before our eyes on television,” she said. Saah’s mother fled to Jordan in 1948.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2NhWrg">
Dalia Hatuqa, a Palestinian American journalist currently based in the West Bank, told me her grandfather was killed and her father expelled from Rehaniya in present-day northern Israel — not in 1948, but in 1953, when the Israeli authorities suspected the villagers were getting too cozy with Lebanon, Israel’s adversary to the north. “That shows that the Nakba is something that’s ongoing. It’s something that never stopped. Because people are constantly being expelled.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R8AaUz">
In 1967, <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23921529/israel-palestine-timeline-gaza-hamas-war-conflict">long-simmering tensions in the region</a> erupted into another war, fought between Israel and an Arab coalition made up of Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. Israel captured the West Bank (from Jordan), Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula (from Egypt), and the Golan Heights (from Syria). Roughly 300,000 Palestinians were displaced from the newly occupied territories, mostly to Jordan.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Women surrounded by dry, barren brown land, fill white trash bags. Behind them stand some industrial silos, and farther in the distance, a settlement of multistory buildings can be seen. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/l5bNyqbaiR8n8VA7x1ABdVvpzrU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036307/AP599697015290.jpg"/> <cite>Sebastian Scheiner/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinian women collect scrap timber in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone near the Jewish West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim on November 22, 2010.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lKIEyA">
Ever since, increasing numbers of Israelis have moved into settlements in the West Bank; these new communities, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/2017-11-20/ty-article/israel-allocates-disproportionate-aid-to-settlements-study-finds/0000017f-eff4-d497-a1ff-eff41f550000">subsidized by the government</a>, serve the political purpose of creating new <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080052/israel-settlements-west-bank">“facts on the ground”</a> — a Jewish presence makes the land more likely to go to Israel, rather than Palestinians, in any potential future peace deal. And in the past few years, settlers have grown bolder about inflicting violence against Palestinians and driving them off their land, while Israeli authorities have ramped up <a href="https://www.btselem.org/facing_expulsion_blog">demolitions of Palestinian homes</a> under the pretext that they are just <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israel-ramps-up-demolition-of-palestinian-homes-in-jerusalem#:~:text=Last%20month%2C%20Israel%20demolished%2039,bulldozers%20clawing%20at%20Matar's%20home.">enforcing building regulations</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LpMcyn">
Even before the Israel-Hamas war, 2023 was already <a href="https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/occupied-palestinian-territory-protection-civilians-report-25-july-7-august-2023#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20Palestinians%20killed,including%20East%20Jerusalem%2C%20since%202005.">the deadliest year</a> for Palestinians since 2005. <a href="https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/un-and-partners-assess-urgent-humanitarian-needs-herding-communities-occupied-palestinian-territory-amid-increased-israeli-settler-violence">Settler violence was on the rise</a>. And the rhetoric and actions of Israel’s top brass with regard to Palestinian rights became so worrisome that experts warned another Nakba may be imminent.
</p>
<h3 id="w9nUXB">
What Israeli politicians were saying and doing in the months before the Hamas attack
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TIuqQP">
This April, Peter Beinart, a Jewish American journalist who writes frequently about the Middle East, penned a story called <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/could-israel-carry-out-another-nakba">“Could Israel carry out another Nakba?”</a> in Jewish Currents magazine. He noted that as Israel’s government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lurched to the far right, the idea of expelling Palestinians has become increasingly mainstream in Israeli society. In a 2017 poll by the political scientist Khalil Shikaki, 40 percent of Israeli Jews said they believed Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the West Bank “should be expelled or transferred.”
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Seen through a small hole in the wall, soldiers in camouflage military uniforms and helmets walk past. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UvyjOrwCh7IYfdR0f4KNU04Jvl8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036422/AP21026448512244.jpg"/> <cite>Ariel Schalit/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
Israeli soldiers at a West Bank junction near the joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial zone of Barkan in January 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8G7TX1">
By 2021, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2021-10-13/ty-article/.highlight/arabs-are-here-by-mistake-ben-gurion-didnt-finish-the-job-far-right-leader-says/0000017f-dedb-d3a5-af7f-feffd1af0000">telling</a> Palestinian members of the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, that they were “here by mistake — because [Israel’s founder David] Ben-Gurion didn’t finish the job and throw you out in 1948.” (Former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, now a member of Israel’s war cabinet, recognized this for what it was, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-smotrich-wants-another-nakba-says-former-defence-minister">saying</a> “Smotrich wants to cause another Palestinian Nakba — for him, escalation is a desirable thing.”) And by 2022, Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, felt emboldened enough to erect campaign billboards <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/mayor-wont-remove-far-right-faction-poster-calling-for-banishing-enemy-arab-mks/">reading</a> “May our enemies be banished” below photos of Knesset members from Palestinian parties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dm8vhQ">
While Smotrich and Ben-Gvir (both still in their positions in government) are known extremists, Beinart emphasized that expulsionist sentiment was also flourishing in Netanyahu’s center-right Likud party, with Israel’s current Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, and Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter all alluding to removing Palestinians. Beinart wrote:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cEu06W">
When Palestinians claim that Israel’s long term goal is not Palestinian statehood but Palestinian expulsion, they aren’t hallucinating … While the pace of Palestinian expulsion has waxed and waned in the 75 years since Israel’s war of independence, there is reason to worry that the radicalism of Israel’s current government, combined with rising violence in the West Bank, could turn the current trickle into a flood. Another Nakba is possible.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uGL4U2">
In a <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/palestine-second-nakba/">piece</a> in the Nation this past August, Middle East historian Anne Irfan warned that “current conditions in Israel-Palestine show some alarming parallels with the run-up to 1948.” She noted that senior figures in Israel’s far-right government were openly calling for more Palestinian expulsions:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D79fFK">
One of the worst attacks occurred in February, when around 400 settlers <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/palestine-israel-huwara-pogrom/">rampaged through the town of Huwara</a> and neighboring villages in the northern West Bank. Setting Huwara ablaze, they left one civilian dead and 100 others injured, four critically. Crucially, this kind of settler violence is not detached from the Israeli state. The Huwara pogrom received open support from some cabinet ministers. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds authority over civilian affairs in the West Bank, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-01/ty-article/.premium/palestinian-village-of-hawara-needs-to-be-wiped-out-israels-finance-minister/00000186-9d56-df48-ab96-bd576aac0000">tweeted</a> that Huwara should be “wiped out.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has similarly <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-ben-gvir-hails-hero-soldier-who-shot-youth-point-blank-range-job-well-done">feted</a> as “heroes” settlers who attack Palestinians.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s6XWPA">
All in all, Irfan judged the situation to be a powder keg. “All of this means that the risk of a second Nakba is at its highest in 75 years,” she wrote.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A man carrying two bags walks through piles of rubble and debris. The air is dusty and grayish. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/z35myZ7nBhgCadqLlbHIMrC8cDc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036431/AP23298833108800.jpg"/> <cite>AP Photo/Ali Mahmoud</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinians walk by buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment of al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, on October 20, 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3qwR3l">
Less than two months later, Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,400 people and kidnapping over 200. And Israel declared war.
</p>
<h3 id="3OpJqO">
What the Israeli defense establishment has been saying since the Hamas attacks
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nhqtoB">
Perhaps the most obvious reason Palestinians now fear a permanent displacement is that Israeli politicians have been ever more explicitly floating that possibility since Hamas’s attack, which was so astonishing and gruesome that it awakened intense shock, fear, and rage among the Israeli government, military, and public alike. Here are direct quotes from the Israeli defense establishment this month.
</p>
<ul>
<li id="YzBqWz">
Ariel Kallner, a member of parliament from Netanyahu’s Likud party, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/in-israels-call-for-mass-evacuation-palestinians-hear-echoes-of-their-original-catastrophic-exodus">wrote</a> on X after the Hamas attack: “Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join!”
</li>
<li id="7g0Up6">
Revital Gotliv, another parliament member from the Likud party, <a href="https://twitter.com/TallyGotliv/status/1711678420235534705">wrote</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TallyGotliv/status/1711426284322996613">on X</a> that the government should consider using nuclear weapons called Jericho missiles in Gaza. “Only an explosion that shakes the Middle East will restore this country’s dignity, strength and security! It’s time for a doomsday weapon. Shooting powerful missiles without limit. Not flattening a neighborhood. Crushing and flattening Gaza.”
</li>
<li id="S3lq5h">
Giora Eiland, a reservist major general and former head of the Israeli National Security Council, <a href="https://www.ynet.co.il/yedioth/article/yokra13625377">wrote</a> in a popular Hebrew-language newspaper, “The State of Israel has no choice but to turn Gaza into a place that is temporarily or permanently impossible to live in.” Elsewhere, he <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sju3uabba">specified</a> that “Israel needs to create a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, compelling tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in Egypt or the Gulf” and indeed that Israel must demand that “The entire population of Gaza will either move to Egypt or move to the Gulf.” Finally, he said that “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.”
</li>
<li id="ZybmEz">
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eli Cohen <a href="https://www.972mag.com/gaza-nakba-sinai-egypt-israel/">alluded to partial annexation</a>, per Israeli Army Radio. “At the end of this war, not only will Hamas no longer be in Gaza, the territory of Gaza will also decrease,” said Cohen.
</li>
<li id="GluRtq">
Similarly, Israeli minister Gideon Sa’ar <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/17/israeli-minister-losing-land-is-price-arabs#:~:text=A%20newly%20appointed%20minister%20in,the%20price%20'Arabs%20understand'.">said</a> that “Gaza must be smaller by the end of the war,” specifying he meant “both in the east and in the north,” because losing land is “the price of loss that Arabs understand.” He <a href="https://forward.com/fast-forward/564999/israeli-minister-gaza-must-be-smaller-saar/">added</a>, “We must make the end of our campaign clear to everyone around us. Whoever starts a war against Israel must lose territory.”
</li>
<li id="uIIysG">
Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of general staff, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/middleeast/gaza-strip-evacuation-israel-hamas-war.html">warned</a> that after the Israeli military assault, “Gaza will not look the same.”
</li>
</ul>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6iZeDj">
These comments — coupled with dehumanizing rhetoric, like Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/">statement</a> that “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly” — suggest that part of the Israeli defense establishment is not only interested in toppling Hamas (if so, there are <a href="https://www.vox.com/2023/10/20/23919946/israel-hamas-war-gaza-palestine-ground-invasion-strategy">better ways</a> than what Israel is doing now); instead, these are explicit calls for permanent displacement and loss of land. So it’s not surprising that some Palestinians have come to believe Israel will take over at least part of the land in Gaza after the war.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ycdwre">
They are not reassured by more recent comments by Gallant, who <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/amid-continued-airstrikes-israel-says-it-has-no-plan-for-gaza-after-destroying-hamas">said</a> that after the war with Hamas, Israel anticipates ending its “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip,” such that even the tenuous ties between them — like allowing some Gazans into Israel to work or allowing some goods to enter Gaza — <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d583f2eb-44f3-48cc-9910-619eac68dcef">will be cut</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A man sits on the second floor of a partially destroyed building, which is missing a wall. The missing wall exposes the building’s interiors, including a toilet and sink." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PLzySA2tx0XGmHXkGWIncJktNDE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036446/AP23298832958455.jpg"/> <cite>Abed Khaled/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
A Palestinian man surveys the damage from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on October 24, 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9K2AC9">
There is such deep disagreement between the Israeli government and the military and such vociferous infighting within the government itself that <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/75d27680-cdaa-46f7-b810-10b594bb0ad2">it seems they lack a unified plan</a>. (The US is reportedly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/us/politics/israel-us-gaza-invasion.html">worried</a> about this, and Biden himself warned in a visit to Tel Aviv this month that Israel needs “clarity about the objectives.”) Some Israeli officials may be more narrowly interested in a legitimate military strategy to topple Hamas and defend Israeli citizens, while others further to the right may see in this war a chance to expel more Palestinians.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RMS2ew">
Experts have <a href="https://time.com/6326777/after-hamas-then-what-israels-endgame-in-gaza/">outlined</a> a few possible long-term scenarios, all of them bad or unworkable: The Palestinian Authority takes control in the Gaza Strip (extremely difficult given its <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/10/23/can-the-palestinian-authority-control-gaza-if-hamas-is-ousted">unpopularity</a>), an international trusteeship governs Gaza with the UN as babysitter (highly unrealistic), new extremist groups spring up to fill a power vacuum (a security nightmare for Israel), or Israel ends up reoccupying Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1r1Rql">
Short of full reoccupation, which the Israeli ambassador to the US said Israel has <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/4257266-herzog-says-israel-has-no-desire-to-reoccupy-gaza/">“no desire”</a> for, one possibility is for Israel to take part of Gaza’s land to widen the “no-go zone” or “buffer zone” that has existed for several years inside Gaza along the perimeter fence separating the enclave and Israel. (Nobody can live there currently, and Palestinians who come too close to the fence <a href="https://features.gisha.org/gaza-up-close/">have been shot</a>.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rw00ox">
This is what Zayid predicts: “Israel’s going to take that land and be like, ‘Buffer zone,’” she told me. There’s precedent for that: <a href="https://features.gisha.org/closing-in/">Israel has previously shrunk Gaza in this way</a> when fighting flared up. In 2012, Harvard scholar Sara Roy <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/11/23/roy/sctFniw6Wn2n9nTdxZ91RJ/story.html">noted</a> that the buffer zone had absorbed “nearly 14 percent of Gaza’s total land and at least 48 percent of total arable land.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cHTyLg">
Two Israeli ministers, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/17/israeli-minister-losing-land-is-price-arabs#:~:text=A%20newly%20appointed%20minister%20in,the%20price%20%27Arabs%20understand%27.">Gideon Sa’ar</a> and Avi Dichter, have explicitly stated that this is part of Israel’s plan. “On the Gaza Strip all along, we will have a margin,” Dichter <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2139346d-1605-4a6f-bb58-340045c3cf44">said</a>. “And they will not be able to get in. It will be a fire zone. And no matter who you are, you will never be able to come close to the Israeli border.” He added that the width of the buffer zone would have to be decided “according to the distance of the Israeli military or the Israeli settlements.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OtSP0d">
Gaza is already one of the most densely populated, overcrowded places in the world. Palestinians fear that any loss of territory would make the enclave, which the UN has for years described as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-gaza-un/gaza-unliveable-ten-years-after-hamas-seized-power-u-n-idUSKBN19W17T">unlivable</a>, even more so — unless vast numbers of people are killed or forced out.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Seen from above, some buildings have been flattened to the ground, while a few still stand, missing windows, walls, and roofs. Crowds stand among the gray rubble, concrete slabs, and sheets of metal. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1mjTJArj0rAZbrOOPWGnvkBrgpA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036428/AP23299390432609.jpg"/> <cite>Mohammed Dahman/AP Photo</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinians inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 26, 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2HFMis">
“The whole idea of the Nakba was to get rid of the people for the land. Killing people was a part of it, obviously, because how do you get people to flee?” Hatuqa, the journalist in the West Bank, said. “What I see now is that it’s ongoing. The idea here is to get rid of as many civilians as possible.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yMZphU">
“The Israelis want a game-changing situation and are openly speaking of mass displacement and making Gaza unlivable,” Saah told me. “We should take them at their word.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="76RhNg">
Regardless of what ultimately happens to the territory, life will never be the same for many people in Gaza, where the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/26/1208680784/death-toll-in-gaza-approaches-7-000-as-aid-groups-raise-alarm-about-fuel">death toll has already topped 7,000</a>, according to Palestinian health officials.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="93GsrB">
An <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/10/19/mapping-the-destruction-in-gaza">analysis of satellite imagery</a> by the Economist suggests that Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have destroyed or damaged some 11,000 buildings — and counting. Per the analysis, “at least 92,000 people will have no home to return to when the fighting stops.” And that will be true no matter what happens next in the Israel-Hamas war.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Two young men and a woman walk down an asphalt road, past the piled rubble of collapsed houses. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XUHAmNjYoBRi4ZfaQZGXvjJYGfA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25036328/GettyImages_1733386987.jpg"/> <cite>Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Residents walk past residential buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in al-Zahra, Gaza, on October 19, 2023.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XGSP5S">
For now, it’s unclear where Gaza’s refugees might go, whether temporarily or permanently. Egypt continues to refuse them entry, but some experts <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/10/22/will-egypt-take-palestinian-refugees-from-gaza-israel-hamas-war/">say it’s possible</a> that the Arab nation, which is suffering an economic crisis, may be convinced to relent in exchange for <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1197956089">financial incentives</a>. That may save lives, but at the cost of displacement. It’s also possible that the international community, seeing the increasing devastation in Gaza, may be moved to accept refugees; <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4262981-scotlands-first-minister-says-country-willing-to-take-gaza-refugees/">Scotland</a> has offered to be the first country in Europe to do so. US politicians are <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4262981-scotlands-first-minister-says-country-willing-to-take-gaza-refugees/">divided</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gVyv5k">
Ultimately, this chapter of the Palestinian Nakba may or may not beget the same kind of permanent mass expulsion as the chapter that unfolded 75 years ago. But dispossession can happen in other ways, from high death tolls to homelessness.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ks0NKF">
“I’m hoping that they don’t get pushed into Egypt,” Zayid said. “But these people are refugees now. Israel destroyed their homes. They have nothing to go back to.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IDO4OX">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The Supreme Court must decide if it wants to own Twitter</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A photo of a phone displaying a Trump tweet that says “These thugs are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd and I won’t let that happen” and the tweet has a warning above it saying the post violated Twitter rules." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LZZwAGRFI3zcP9DcJ5DLJmZNQs0=/304x0:5168x3648/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72799411/1232456373.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
In this photo illustration, a notification from Twitter appears on tweet by former President Donald Trump that the social media platform says violated its policy on May 29, 2020. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The justices risk miring the entire federal judiciary in the content moderation wars.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vzy6fj">
The <a href="https://www.vox.com/twitter">Twitter</a> Wars have arrived at the <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus">Supreme Court</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3Y6fRe">
On Halloween, the Supreme Court will hear the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/oconnor-ratcliff-v-garnier/">first</a> <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/lindke-v-freed/">two</a> in a <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/9/22/23883888/supreme-court-social-media-first-amendment-netchoice-paxton-murthy-missouri-twitter-facebook">series of five cases</a> the justices plan to decide in their current term that ask what the government’s relationship should be with social media outlets like <a href="https://www.vox.com/facebook">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/youtube">YouTube</a>, or Twitter (the social media app that <a href="https://www.vox.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> insists on calling “X”).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1VX8DL">
These first two cases are, admittedly, the most low-stakes of the lot — at least from the perspective of ordinary citizens who care about free speech. Together, the first two cases, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/oconnor-ratcliff-v-garnier/"><em>O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier</em></a> and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/lindke-v-freed/"><em>Lindke v. Freed</em></a>, involve three social media users who did nothing more than block someone on their Twitter or Facebook accounts. But these three social media users are also government officials. And when a government official blocks someone, that raises very thorny First Amendment questions that are surprisingly difficult to sort out.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="br8v9T">
Two of the three other cases, meanwhile, ask whether the government may <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/9/19/23361050/supreme-court-texas-twitter-facebook-youtube-social-media-fifth-circuit-netchoice-paxton">order social media sites to publish content</a> they do not wish to publish — something that, under longstanding law, is an unambiguous violation of the First Amendment. The last case concerns whether the government <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/9/22/23883888/supreme-court-social-media-first-amendment-netchoice-paxton-murthy-missouri-twitter-facebook">may merely ask these outlets to pull down content</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nmvV8Z">
When the Supreme Court closes out its term this summer, in other words, it could become the central player in the conflicts that drive the Way Too Online community: Which content, if any, should be removed from social media websites? Which users are too toxic for Twitter or Facebook? How much freedom should social media users, and especially government officials, have to censor or block people who annoy them online? And should decisions about who can post online be made by the free market, or by government officials who may have a political stake in the outcome?
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<div id="dmrbcT">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nicNEa">
Some of the disputes that arise out of these questions are quite weighty. But if the Supreme Court allows itself to get pulled into the Twitter Wars, it risks drowning the judiciary in a deluge of inconsequential cases that have no business being heard by judges. For every president banned by Twitter, there is a simply astonishing array of ordinary moderation decisions lurking behind the scenes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WPdSEW">
As Twitter recently told the justices, since August 2015 it has “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1496/247605/20221129133916710_21-1496%20ts.pdf">terminated over 1.7 million accounts</a>” for promoting terrorism or other illegal activities — and there are countless other moderation choices that impose one consequence or another on rude people who aren’t calling for terrorism or criminality. The Supreme Court should be extraordinarily cautious before it allows itself to get pulled into fights over content moderation, lest it get dragged into millions of disputes brought by internet trolls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ldbH1n">
But, if the Supreme Court is not careful, it could wind up transforming itself into the final word on the most routine and petty online disputes between public officials and their constituents. Worse, by the end of its term, the Court could wind up becoming the venue of last resort for thousands of aggrieved social media users who are mad that their content has been suppressed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uplOoH">
The Court could end up, in effect, owning Twitter — an unfortunate position that has already <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/28/23428132/elon-musk-twitter-acquisition-problems-speech-moderation">turned the richest man in the world into a laughingstock</a>.
</p>
<h3 id="ffaegl">
So what’s going on in the two Halloween cases?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zJm5Zg">
Both <em>O’Connor-Ratcliff</em> and <em>Lindke</em> involve strikingly similar disputes.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jhVFIa">
In the first case, Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff and T.J. Zane, two candidates for school board in a district near San Diego, initially created Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote their candidacies. After they won, they continued to use these pages to interact with constituents and to promote some of their work on the school board.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h530wR">
A dispute arose after two parents of students in this school district started <a href="https://casetext.com/case/garnier-v-oconnor-ratcliff-1">posting lengthy and often repetitive criticisms of the board</a>. These complaints, according to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit panel that heard the <em>O’Connor-Ratcliff</em> case, concerned “race relations in the District, and alleged financial wrongdoing” by a former superintendent. One of these parents “posted 226 identical replies to O’Connor-Ratcliff’s Twitter page, one to each Tweet O’Connor-Ratcliff had ever written on her public account.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7pyAiW">
Eventually, O’Connor-Ratcliff blocked these parents from her Facebook page and blocked one of them on Twitter, while Zane also blocked the parents on Facebook. The parents then sued, claiming that they have a First Amendment right to post public comments responding to their elected officials.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pN6Oxd">
The <em>Lindke</em> case involves a similar dispute between James Freed, the city manager in Port Huron, Michigan, and Kevin Lindke, who was <a href="https://casetext.com/case/lindke-v-freed-2">blocked from Freed’s Facebook page</a> after Lindke posted comments on that page that were critical of Freed’s handling of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">Covid-19 pandemic</a>. Like the plaintiffs in <em>O’Connor-Ratcliff</em>, Lindke claims he has a First Amendment right to continue posting comments on Freed’s Facebook page.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yMN1Ta">
Ordinarily, if a social media user is upset that they were blocked by another user, they can try to take it up with that user. Or maybe they can raise their grievance with the management of Twitter or Facebook. But they certainly would have no business making a federal case out of such a minor dispute.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q8l5ep">
But the First Amendment imposes very tight restrictions on government officials who engage in <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/9/22/23883888/supreme-court-social-media-first-amendment-netchoice-paxton-murthy-missouri-twitter-facebook">viewpoint discrimination</a>. So, to the extent that O’Connor-Ratcliff, Zane, or Freed blocked someone because they disagreed with that person’s opinions or wanted to prevent those opinions from being seen by other people, they potentially violated the First Amendment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OSQENC">
That said, the specific issue before the Supreme Court in <em>O’Connor-Ratcliff </em>and <em>Lindke</em> doesn’t actually involve the First Amendment itself. It instead involves a threshold issue: Whether the three defendants in these cases were acting in their capacity as government officials when they blocked the plaintiffs, or whether they were merely acting as private citizens.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nZEne0">
As a general rule, the Constitution <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/state_action_requirement">only imposes limits on state actors</a>. It is unconstitutional for the government to censor speech, but the First Amendment imposes no limits on private citizens who block social media users, on private companies that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/5/31/23149183/supreme-court-texas-social-media-ruling-netchoice-paxton">refuse to publish content they do not like</a>, or on private individuals who tell someone else to “shut up.” Difficult questions sometimes arise when a government official takes an action that would be unconstitutional if they did it on the job — but it is unclear whether they were on the job.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TthhWk">
Imagine, for example, that an off-duty police officer spots two of his neighbors engaged in a fight, and that he uses excessive force to break this fight up. If the officer was acting as a cop when he did so, he could face a constitutional lawsuit in federal court. If he was merely acting as a private citizen, he may still be liable for battery in state court, but the Constitution would have nothing to say about his actions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y0hZPk">
The Supreme Court has handed down several precedents instructing lower courts on how to determine whether a government employee was acting within the scope of their employment when they took an allegedly unconstitutional action. In cases involving police officers, for example, the Court has placed a good deal of emphasis on whether the officer displayed their badge, or otherwise “<a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2720694831528992341&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=6&amp;as_vis=1&amp;oi=scholarr">purported to exercise the authority</a>” of a government official.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4vQfAE">
But social media is a relatively new innovation. And the Supreme Court has not yet provided guidelines on when a public official exercises the authority of office when they moderate social media content.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FlQkRU">
These cases are complicated even more because the specific social media accounts at issue in <em>O’Connor-Ratcliff</em> and <em>Lindke </em>were sometimes used to discuss governmental matters and sometimes used to discuss other things. In the <em>Lindke</em> case, for example, Freed used his Facebook page both as a personal webpage — where he <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-611/274907/20230808164032379_22-611_Brief%20of%20Respondent.pdf">posted nongovernmental content</a> such as photos of his daughter and Bible verses — and as a place where Facebook users could read press releases and other content relating to his official duties as city manager.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DrxF1D">
The Court, in other words, now faces the unenviable task of having to figure out which posts by public officials are sufficiently related to their <a href="https://www.vox.com/labor-jobs">jobs</a> that those posts should be attributed to the government, and not simply to a private citizen who works for the government.
</p>
<h3 id="8qRs0g">
It’s really hard to come up with a legal test to determine when government officials are acting as government officials
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YQLFjT">
Though the Supreme Court has decided quite a few cases asking whether a particular government official was acting in their official capacity when they took an allegedly unconstitutional action, the Court often emphasizes just how difficult it is to decide marginal cases. As the Court said in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/jackson-v-metropolitan-edison-co"><em>Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison</em></a> (1974), “the question whether particular conduct is ‘private,’ on the one hand, or ‘state action,’ on the other, frequently admits of no easy answer.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oZ5m7e">
The briefs in the <em>O’Connor-Ratcliff</em> and <em>Lindke </em>cases propose a variety of different sorting mechanisms that the Court could use to determine when a government official is on the clock when they post on social media — indeed, they propose enough possible tests that it would be tedious to list them here. All of them exist on a spectrum between tests that would provide more certainty to government officials about what they can do without risking a lawsuit, and tests that are more flexible and give judges more ability to determine whether a particular social media post should be attributed to the government.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p6TtYH">
The Sixth Circuit, which heard the <em>Lindke</em> case, erred on the side of certainty. Its <a href="https://casetext.com/case/lindke-v-freed-2">opinion</a> (written by Judge Amul Thapar, a Trump appointee with <a href="https://fedsoc.org/contributors/amul-thapar">close ties to the Federalist Society</a>) determined that the Constitution only applies to a governmental official’s social media posts if they were posted “pursuant to his actual or apparent duties,” such as if a state law requires the official to maintain a social media presence, or if the official posted to an account that is owned by the government. Or if the official posted “using his state authority,” such as if Freed had relied on his own government-employed staff to maintain his Facebook page.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OoOUI4">
The Sixth Circuit concluded that Freed did not act in his official capacity when he posted to his Facebook page, even when he wrote about the local government he belongs to.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SPbLKM">
The Sixth Circuit’s approach has the advantage of being clear-cut — absent evidence that a public official used government resources or acted pursuant to their official duties, their actions are not constrained by the Constitution. But, as the ACLU warns in an amicus brief, this test is also far too narrow. Among other things, the ACLU warns — drawing upon a somewhat <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/325/91/">modified version of the facts of an actual case</a> — that the Sixth Circuit’s test might prevent anyone from filing a constitutional lawsuit against off-duty police officers who <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-611/270194/20230630142957524_22-611%20Lindke%20v.%20Freed%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf">ambush a private citizen and beat that person to death</a>, since doing so is not an official duty of police officers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aWTqiO">
Perhaps anticipating this critique, the Sixth Circuit’s opinion suggests that police officers are categorically different than other government officials. A police officer, Judge Thupar wrote, exudes authority “<a href="https://casetext.com/case/lindke-v-freed-2">when he wears his uniform, displays his badge, or informs a passerby that he is an officer</a>,” and so a cop who does so is presumptively engaged in state action subject to constitutional restrictions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xBNWJN">
But this carveout for cops also sweeps too broadly. Imagine, for example, a police officer who gets off work and then, without changing out of their uniform, immediately drives to their child’s high school to pick up that child and a few friends. Now imagine that the student passengers refer to a classmate using vulgar and sexualized language, and the officer/parent tells them to “stop using that kind of language.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NTOArn">
Ordinarily, the First Amendment does not permit a uniformed law enforcement officer to police the language of a law-abiding citizen. But, in this situation, the officer was clearly acting as a parent and not as a government official. And no reasonable judge would conclude that the officer should be sued in federal court.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pvh9X6">
As the Supreme Court said in <em>Jackson</em>, coming up with bright-line rules that can distinguish private actions from state actions is quite difficult. And it’s easy to poke holes in the Sixth Circuit’s attempt to do so.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CJqtyh">
Meanwhile, the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in <em>O’Connor-Ratcliff </em>(written by Judge Marsha Berzon, a former <a href="https://www.vox.com/unions">union</a> lawyer and a leading liberal voice within the judiciary), adopts a more flexible approach. Under that opinion, which ruled that the school board members in that case did act as state officials when they posted about school district business online, courts should ask questions like whether an official purports to act as a government official when they post online, or whether their online activity “<a href="https://casetext.com/case/garnier-v-oconnor-ratcliff-1">‘related in some meaningful way’ to their ‘governmental status’ and ‘to the performance of [their] duties</a>.’”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gX2XlV">
Yet, as the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-611/270182/20230630132720480_22-324%20and%2022-611%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf">warns in its own amicus brief</a>, the Ninth Circuit’s approach risks chilling the sort of political campaign speech that elected officials routinely engage in, and that receives the highest levels of First Amendment protection.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sQJ19L">
“For an incumbent,” the NRSC’s brief argues, “an important part of a social media messaging strategy is often to remind voters about his or her job performance.” That means that candidates for reelection will often discuss their past conduct in office and tout their accomplishments. But a candidate may be reluctant to engage in this kind of First Amendment-protected campaign speech online if they fear that discussing “the performance of their duties” will open them up to federal lawsuits.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="09Vs1D">
Accordingly, the NRSC brief asks the justices to “establish a clear test that ensures ambiguity does not chill protected speech.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eEqkAH">
It’s a pretty compelling argument. If you’ve spent any time whatsoever on platforms like Twitter, you know about the kind of malevolent, always-willing-to-escalate trolls that flourish on those platforms. Political candidates are not going to want to do anything that could open them up to being sued by their worst reply guys.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kSaUHp">
But none of that changes the fact that the Supreme Court has repeatedly warned, over the course of many decades, that it is devilishly hard to come up with a legal test that will correctly sort every action taken by a government official into the “private action” or “state action” box. Judge Berzon’s approach, which effectively requires a judge to take a close look at marginal cases and sort them into one box or the other, may be the best thing anyone can come up with.
</p>
<h3 id="VhcXdk">
The judiciary does not want to be responsible for this mess
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Mjk9Oq">
The three other social media-related lawsuits that the Court will hear this term could also pull the judiciary into countless petty disputes about what is published online and who can see it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HqogYh">
Two of these cases, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/moody-v-netchoice-llc/"><em>Moody v. NetChoice</em></a> and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/netchoice-llc-v-paxton/"><em>NetChoice v. Paxton</em></a>, involve <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/9/22/23883888/supreme-court-social-media-first-amendment-netchoice-paxton-murthy-missouri-twitter-facebook">unconstitutional Florida and Texas laws</a> that force social <a href="https://www.vox.com/media">media companies</a> to publish or elevate content that they would prefer not to publish, or to publish but not widely distribute. Both laws are explicit attempts to force social media companies to give bigger platforms to conservative voices. As <a href="https://www.vox.com/ron-desantis">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis</a> said of his state’s law, it exists to fight supposedly “biased silencing” of “<a href="https://casetext.com/case/netchoice-llc-v-attorney-gen">our freedom of speech as conservatives … by the ‘big tech’ oligarchs in Silicon Valley</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3f611B">
The two laws are similar but not identical. Both seek to impose strict limits on the major social media platforms’ ability to moderate content they deem offensive or undesirable. Texas’s law, for example, prohibits these platforms from moderating content based on “<a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/872/billtext/html/HB00020S.htm">the viewpoint of the user or another person</a>” or on “the viewpoint represented in the user’s expression or another person’s expression.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DsJ3Ve">
As a practical matter, that means that Twitter or Facebook could not remove someone’s content because it expresses a viewpoint that is common within the Republican Party — such as if it promotes misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, or if it touts the false belief that <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> won the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election">2020 election</a>. It also means that these companies <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/9/22/23883888/supreme-court-social-media-first-amendment-netchoice-paxton-murthy-missouri-twitter-facebook">could not remove content published by Nazis or Ku Klux Klansmen</a> because the platforms disagree with the viewpoint that all Jews should be exterminated or that the United States should be a white supremacist society.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GRfVWW">
And both state laws permit private individuals to sue the major social media platforms — under Florida’s law a successful plaintiff can <a href="https://casetext.com/case/netchoice-llc-v-attorney-gen">walk away with a payday of $100,000 or more</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XInjL2">
The final social media case before the Supreme Court, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23a243_7l48.pdf"><em>Murthy v. Missouri</em></a>, involves an odd decision by the right-wing Fifth Circuit, which effectively <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/9/22/23883888/supreme-court-social-media-first-amendment-netchoice-paxton-murthy-missouri-twitter-facebook">ordered much of the Biden administration to stop talking to social media companies</a> about which content they should remove. According to the Justice Department, the federal government often asks social media companies to <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23A243/279530/20230914115558015_23A-Marthy%20v.%20Missouri.pdf">remove content</a> that seeks to recruit terrorists, that was produced by America’s foreign adversaries, or that spreads disinformation that could harm <a href="https://www.vox.com/public-health">public health</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OuF6wT">
As a general rule, the First Amendment forbids the government from coercing media companies to remove content, but it does not prevent government officials from asking a media outlet to voluntarily do so. The reason why the Fifth Circuit’s order in <em>Murthy </em>is so bizarre is that it blurred the line between these two categories, imposing a gag order on the <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a> despite the fact that the Fifth Circuit <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/9/22/23883888/supreme-court-social-media-first-amendment-netchoice-paxton-murthy-missouri-twitter-facebook">did not identify any evidence of actual coercion</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1VKPsT">
The common theme connecting all five of these Supreme Court cases is that, in each of them, aggrieved social media users want to turn the kind of routine content moderation decisions made by both rank-and-file users of social media and by the platforms themselves, into matters that must be resolved by the courts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WvgfXz">
The plaintiffs in <em>O’Connor-Ratcliff</em> and <em>Lindke </em>want the federal judiciary to get involved when a government official blocks someone online. The state laws animating the two <em>NetChoice</em> cases attempt to make state courts the arbiters of every social media company’s decision to ban a user, or even potentially to use an algorithm that doesn’t always surface conservative content. The Fifth Circuit’s approach in <em>Murthy</em> could potentially trigger a federal lawsuit every time a government official so much as has a conversation with someone at a social media company.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GtSdKS">
So let me close with a word of advice to the justices: You do not want this fight. Believe me, you do not want to turn yourselves into the final arbiter of what can be posted online. And, if you are not careful with these lawsuits, you are going to wind up overwhelming the court system with piddling disputes filed by social media trolls.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mo6ini">
Not long after Elon Musk made his cursed purchase of Twitter, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/">the Verge</a>’s Nilay Patel published a prescient essay laying out why this purchase would inevitably end in disaster. Its title: “<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/28/23428132/elon-musk-twitter-acquisition-problems-speech-moderation">Welcome to hell, Elon</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I60lXH">
A core part of Patel’s argument is that social media companies depend on advertisers to pay their bills, and advertisers demand “brand safety,” meaning that they don’t want their paid ads to appear next to a swastika, an anti-vaxxer, or some other content that is likely to offend many potential consumers. As Patel wrote, running a platform like Twitter “means you have to ban racism, sexism, transphobia, and all kinds of other speech that is totally legal in the United States but reveals people to be total assholes.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bJaDI2">
The courts are ill-equipped to make these kinds of judgments about which content should be published online, and any attempt by a government body like the judiciary to assume control over these sorts of content moderation decisions would raise serious First Amendment problems. Again, the First Amendment forbids government officials — and judges and justices are government officials — from telling a media company what they can and cannot publish.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i6yKoj">
And, as Patel emphasizes, the people who are most aggrieved by social media moderation are frequently, well, assholes. They are often the very sort of people who could bombard the courts with lawsuits because they are mad that their tweets aren’t getting much attention and are convinced that they’ve been “shadow banned.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lYyLWx">
The fundamental question the justices need to decide in these five social media cases, in other words, is whether they want to make the very same mistake that Elon Musk made. They need to decide whether they want to own every content moderation decision made by companies like Twitter, and every decision by a politician to block an annoying troll.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nFzdAd">
If the justices are smart, they will do whatever they can to ensure that they do not wind up owning Twitter.
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cricket World Cup 2023 | Virat Kohli bowls to Rohit Sharma in the nets as India trains for England game</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cricket World Cup 2023 IND vs ENG | India got its first part right, second act begins</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cricket World Cup 2023 SL vs ENG | I have confidence and belief in myself as a leader: Jos Buttler</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Time And Tide please</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India vs England | Shubman Gill focuses on short ball play, long tail prepares to wag</strong> - Captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and R. Ashwin stayed back in the team hotel after turning up on Thursday</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>Here are the big stories from Karnataka today</strong> - Welcome to the Karnataka Today newsletter, your guide from The Hindu on the major news stories to follow today. Curated and written by Nalme Nachiyar.</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>Training on fodder grass cultivation in Oachira</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy and host of leaders join Congress</strong> - He reportedly has been assured of ticket to Munugode constituency, which he nurtured for long</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>BJP will make backward class person as CM if elected to power, says Amit Shah</strong> - BJP leader asserted that the BRS and Congress Party work more for the benefit of the families in charge and are not at all concerned about the poor or the common people.</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>Karnataka Government plans to name Vijayapura in honour of social reformer Basaveshwara</strong> - Minister puts his weight behind proposal to rename the district</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>Israel Gaza: EU calls for ‘corridors and pauses’ for humanitarian aid</strong> - Member states disagreed over whether to call for short breaks in the fighting or a longer pause.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Russia executing own retreating soldiers, US says</strong> - The White House says heavy losses and poor morale are leading to mutinies in some units.</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>Neuschwanstein: US man charged over deadly attack at famed German castle</strong> - The suspect is accused of pushing two women into a ravine at Neuschwanstein Castle and raping one of them.</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>Swedish court clears dual national Skvortsov of spying for Russia</strong> - Sergei Skvortsov exported technology to Russia and prosecutors said he was a serious security threat.</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>Rédoine Faïd: France’s jailbreak king gets more jail time for helicopter escape</strong> - Rédoine Faïd is given another 14 years in jail for a spectacular escape involving a helicopter.</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>Daily Telescope: Meet the Flying Bat and Squid nebulae</strong> - The Squid Nebula is a recent discovery, first spotted in 2011. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1978974">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rocket Report: China launches 3-man crew; SpaceX adds to busy manifest</strong> - ABL Space Systems has blamed its launch mount for a January rocket failure. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1979086">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>iPhones have been exposing your unique MAC despite Apple’s promises otherwise</strong> - “From the get-go, this feature was useless,” researcher says of feature put into iOS 14. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1979099">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sam Bankman-Fried testifies, says he “skimmed over” FTX terms of service</strong> - SBF said he thought loans were legal but didn’t fully read FTX terms of service. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1979088">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Unprecedented diarrheal outbreak erupts in UK as cases spike 3x above usual</strong> - Cryptosporidium cases link to travel and swimming, but at unusually high rate. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1979074">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A 70 year old man goes into a brothel. He picks out a young pretty woman, ….</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
… they go up to her room, strip down and climb into bed.<br/> The old man performs like a teenager, the prostitute is amazed at how energetic and agile he is, she tells him if he can do it like that again, she’ll give him one for free.<br/> He says “Yeah, I can, but I need to take a 20 minute nap, and while I’m asleep, I need you to hold my old pecker.” She agrees, he wakes up 20 minutes later and goes at it again, just as vigorously as before.<br/> The girl is amazed at the old man’s stamina, and repeats her freebie offer, the old man tells her that once again, he’ll need a 20 minute nap and she’ll have to hold his dick while he’s asleep. She does as he asks, he wakes up 20 minutes later and he goes at it again, with even more enthusiasm than previously.<br/> The hooker catches her breath, and needing to satisfy her curiosity, asks the old man “I can understand why you need the nap, but why do you need me to hold your dick while you’re sleeping?”<br/> The old man replies “Oh, that’s just so you don’t steal my wallet.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Waitsfornoone"> /u/Waitsfornoone </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17h6umu/a_70_year_old_man_goes_into_a_brothel_he_picks/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17h6umu/a_70_year_old_man_goes_into_a_brothel_he_picks/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I was standing at an airport bar in International Departures when this small Chinese guy comes in, stands next to me, and starts drinking a beer. I asked him, “Do you know any of those martial arts things, like Kung-Fu, Karate and Ju-Jitsu?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
He says “No, why the <strong>fuck</strong> would you ask me that? Is it because I am Chinese?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“No”, I said, “It’s because you’re drinking my beer, you little fucker.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Make_the_music_stop"> /u/Make_the_music_stop </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17hkg6y/i_was_standing_at_an_airport_bar_in_international/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17hkg6y/i_was_standing_at_an_airport_bar_in_international/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Farmer and his Daughters</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Now once there was a farmer, and daughters he had five,<br/> And each of them was waiting for their first date to arrive.<br/> Their boyfriends all would tell him how they would have their fun.<br/> If the farmer didn’t like it, he’d shoot them with his gun.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
So the first guy knocked on the door and said, “Hello. My name is Teddy.<br/> I’m here to pick up your daughter Betty. You see, we’re going steady.<br/> We’re going to a restaurant to eat some fine spaghetti.”<br/> “Yes,” said the farmer, “she is ready.” So off went Teddy and Betty.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then the second guy knocked on the door and said, “My name is Joe.<br/> I’m here to pick up your daughter Flo, and here’s what you should know:<br/> We’re going to the movies. We’re excited for the show.”<br/> “Yes,” said the farmer, “you may go.” So off went Joe and Flo.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then the third guy knocked on the door and said, “Hello. My name is Nate.<br/> I’m here to pick up your daughter Kate. I hope that I’m not late!<br/> At the roller rink we’re going to skate. That’s how we’ll spend our date.”<br/> “Yes,” said the farmer, “that sound great.” So off went Nate and Kate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then the fourth guy knocked on the door and said, “Hello. My name is Lance.<br/> I’m here to pick up your daughter Nance. Is she ready, by any chance?<br/> We’re going to a high school dance that’s themed like Paris, France.”<br/> “Yes,” said the farmer, “I accept your romance.” So off went Lance and Nance.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then the fifth guy knocked on the door and said, “Hello. My name is Chuck.<br/> I’m picking up your daughter in my truck. Is she ready, by any luck?”<br/> The farmer went and grabbed his gun and shot Chuck in the head.<br/> And if this poem were not in rhyme, poor Chuck would not be dead.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/wimpykidfan37"> /u/wimpykidfan37 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17h9nxy/the_farmer_and_his_daughters/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17h9nxy/the_farmer_and_his_daughters/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I went to a seafood restaurant with my new girl friend</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I’m not a big seafood guy so I asked if they had any not sea food. The waitress looked at me appalled and shortly after I was asked to leave by the manager. My gf also dumped me because she said she won’t date an anti semite.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Enoehtalseb"> /u/Enoehtalseb </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17he2xo/i_went_to_a_seafood_restaurant_with_my_new_girl/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17he2xo/i_went_to_a_seafood_restaurant_with_my_new_girl/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Friendship between women:</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A woman didn’t come home one night. The next day she told her husband she had slept over at a friend’s house. The man called his wife’s 10 best friends. None of them knew about it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Friendship between men:
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A man didn’t come home one night. The next day he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend’s house. The woman called her husband’s 10 best friends. Eight of them confirmed that he had slept over, and two claimed that he was still there.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/arztnur"> /u/arztnur </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17h2lzb/friendship_between_women/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/17h2lzb/friendship_between_women/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>

4
index.html
View File

File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long