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<title>13 May, 2021</title>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The COVID States Project #51: Trajectory of health-related behaviors in California</strong> -
<div>
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, California has had more than 3.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 62,000 total deaths. According to Statista, California has been the state with the most COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. and has maintained that status for the majority of the pandemic. Recently, however, the case and death rates for the state have decreased drastically. For the week of May 3, California’s COVID-19 case load is approximately 5 per 100,000 residents, ranking it at the bottom of the list for case rates compared to other states in the country, down 98% from its peak; and deaths from COVID are down to 0.15 per 100,000 residents, down 95%. The state’s 7 day rolling average of new cases in 2020 remained well below 10,000 from March to early July, but sharply increased and exceeded 10,000 by August. Then, it decreased to the 4,000 range in the fall. From late November to mid-January, there was another rise, with the average reaching its highest recorded level at approximately 44,000 on December 22. After reaching its peak in December, it fell dramatically, to below 1,900 by early May. Consequently, the probability of contracting COVID as a resident in California is far slimmer today than it was just three months ago.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/bas8w/" target="_blank">The COVID States Project #51: Trajectory of health-related behaviors in California</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Why is Children’s Time in Less-Structured Activities Associated with Executive Function? A Study of Children at Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Time in less-structured activities is associated with children’s developing executive function, but it is unclear why. Prior research suggests less-structured time specifically benefits self-directed executive function, by allowing children to practice making choices. We tested another hypothesis: that less-structured time also benefits externally-cued executive function, which develops earlier than self-directed executive function, theorizing that less-structured time can provide children with opportunities to acquire knowledge that supports emerging control skills. Caregivers of 93 3- to 5-year-olds reported their child’s activities on a typical day at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and children completed a widely-used cued executive function task, the Dimensional Change Card Sort. Time and variety in less-structured activities predicted successful switching on the card sort, controlling for age, family income, caregiver education, and verbal knowledge. Caregivers were more involved in less-structured versus structured activities. Children’s temperament, as rated by caregivers, predicted how they spent their time. Findings provide a more nuanced picture of how less-structured time and executive function are related, consistent with less-structured time affording opportunities for children, particularly those higher in effortful control, to acquire diverse knowledge that supports engaging control in various ways.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/nw3qa/" target="_blank">Why is Children’s Time in Less-Structured Activities Associated with Executive Function? A Study of Children at Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Public attitudes to COVID-19 vaccines: A qualitative study</strong> -
<div>
OBJECTIVE: To explore public attitudes to COVID-19 vaccines in the UK, focused on intentions and decisions around taking vaccines, views on ‘vaccine passports’, and experiences and perspectives on post-vaccination behaviour. DESIGN: Qualitative study consisting of 6 online focus groups conducted between 15th March – 22nd April 2021. SETTING: Online video conferencing PARTICIPANTS: 29 adult UK-based participants RESULTS: Three main groups regarding participants’ decision or intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine were identified: (1) Accepters, (2) Delayers and (3) Refusers. Two reasons for vaccine delay were identified: delay due to a perceived need more information and delay until vaccine was “required” in the future. Three main facilitators (Vaccination as a social norm; Vaccination as a necessity; Trust in science) and six barriers (Preference for “natural immunity”; Concerns over possible side effects; Distrust in government; Perceived lack of information; Conspiracy theories; “Covid echo chambers”) to vaccine uptake were identified. For some delayers, ‘vaccine passports’ were perceived to be a reason why they would get vaccinated in the future. However, vaccine passports were controversial, and were framed in four main ways: as “a necessary evil”; as “Orwellian”; as a “human rights problem”; and as a source of confidence”. Participants generally felt that receiving a vaccine was not changing the extent to which people were adhering to COVID-19 measures. CONCLUSIONS: Overall positive sentiment around vaccines is high. However, there remains a number of potential barriers which might be leading to vaccine delay in some. ‘Vaccine delay’ might be a more useful and precise construct than vaccine hesitancy in explaining why some may initially ignore or be uncertain about vaccination invitations. Vaccine passports may increase or ‘nudge’ uptake in some delayers but may be unpopular in others. Earlier concerns that vaccination might reduce adherence to social distancing measures are not borne out in our data, with most people reporting adherence and caution.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/h87s3/" target="_blank">Public attitudes to COVID-19 vaccines: A qualitative study</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Stuck in a lockdown: dreams, bad dreams, nightmares, and their relationship to stress, depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
<div>
Background: An upsurge in dream and nightmare frequency has been noted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and research shows increases in levels of stress, depression and anxiety during this time. Growing evidence suggests that dream content has a bi-directional relationship with psychopathology, and that dreams react to new, personally significant and emotional experiences. The first lockdown experience was an acute event, characterized by a combination of several unprecedented factors (new pandemic, threat of the disease, global uncertainty, , experience of social isolation, exposure to stressful information) that resulted in a large-scale disruption of life routines. This study aimed at investigating changes in dream, bad dream and nightmare recall; most prevalent dream themes, and the relationship between dreams, bad dreams, nightmares and symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety during the first COVID-19 lockdown (April-May 2020) through a national online survey. Methods: 968 participants completed an online survey. Dream themes were measured using the Typical Dreams Questionnaire; stress levels were measured by the Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale; symptoms of anxiety were assessed by Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale; and symptoms of depression were assessed using the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology. Results: 34% (328) of participants reported increased dream recall during the lockdown. The most common dream themes were centered around the topics of 1) inefficacy (e.g., trying again and again, arriving late), 2) human threat (e.g., being chased, attacked); 3) death; and 4) pandemic imagery (e.g., being separated from loved ones, being sick). Dream, bad dream and nightmare frequency was highest in individuals with moderate to severe stress levels. Frequency of bad dreams nightmares and dreams about the pandemic, inefficacy and death were associated with higher levels of stress, as well as with greater symptoms of depression and anxiety. Conclusions: Results support theories of dream formation, environmental susceptibility and stress reactivity. Dream content during the lockdown broadly reflected existential concerns and was associated with increased symptoms of mental health indices.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/hbm84/" target="_blank">Stuck in a lockdown: dreams, bad dreams, nightmares, and their relationship to stress, depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Digital Contact Does Not Promote Wellbeing, but Face-to-Face Does: A Cross-National Survey During the Covid-19 Pandemic</strong> -
<div>
With restrictions on opportunities for face to face (FtF) interactions, Covid-19 lockdowns test the promises of digitally mediated communication (DMC) to foster social contact and wellbeing. In a multinational sample (n= 6436), we investigated how different modes of contact relate to wellbeing during a global pandemic. DMC was more popular than FtF and Covid-19 death rates played a bigger role in DMC use than state stringency measures. FtF contact was positively associated and messaging negatively associated with wellbeing. FtF was especially positive for people who did not perceive any loved ones in their household as vulnerable to the disease, yet did not vary with people’s perception of their own vulnerability. The results suggest that, in the face of the pandemic, men and women of all ages relied on DMC over FtF contact. Despite tangible costs to wellbeing, during the pandemic, people endeavoured to be physically distanced but not socially isolated.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/b8vfx/" target="_blank">Digital Contact Does Not Promote Wellbeing, but Face-to-Face Does: A Cross-National Survey During the Covid-19 Pandemic</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Pandemic boredom: Predicting boredom and its consequences during self-isolation and quarantine</strong> -
<div>
Does boredom increase risk behaviors in real-world settings, and if so, might it contribute to failure to comply with public health guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic? In a large cross-national sample of 63,336 community respondents from 116 countries, we examined the prevalence of lockdown-related boredom during the initial outbreak of COVID-19, as well as its demographic and situational predictors. Boredom was higher in countries with more COVID-19 cases, more stringent lockdown policies, and lower GDPs, as well as among men and less educated/younger adults. Additionally, we examined whether “pandemic boredom” predicted longitudinal decreases in social distancing behavior (and vice versa; n = 8031). We found little evidence that changes in boredom predict individual public health behaviors (handwashing, staying home, self-quarantining, avoiding crowds) over time, or that such behaviors had any reliable longitudinal effects on boredom itself. In summary, we found little evidence that boredom affects pandemic health behaviors.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/78kma/" target="_blank">Pandemic boredom: Predicting boredom and its consequences during self-isolation and quarantine</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Moral Judgments Impact Perceived Risks from COVID-19 Exposure</strong> -
<div>
The COVID-19 pandemic has created enormously difficult decisions for individuals trying to navigate both the risks of the pandemic and the demands of everyday life. Good decision making in such scenarios can have life and death consequences. For this reason, it is important to understand what drives risk assessments during a pandemic, and, in particular, to investigate the ways that these assessments might deviate from ideal risk assessments. Two studies (N = 841) investigate risk judgments related to COVID-19. The results indicate that risk judgments are sensitive to factors unrelated to the objective risks of infection. In particular, activities that are morally justified are perceived as safer while those that might subject people to blame, or culpability, are seen as riskier.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/59s2g/" target="_blank">Moral Judgments Impact Perceived Risks from COVID-19 Exposure</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Preclinical evaluation of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine PTX-COVID19-B</strong> -
<div>
Safe and effective vaccines are needed to end the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Here we report the preclinical development of a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulated SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, PTX-COVID19-B. PTX-COVID19-B was chosen among three candidates after the initial mouse vaccination results showed that it elicited the strongest neutralizing antibody response against SARS-CoV-2. Further tests in mice and hamsters indicated that PTX-COVID19-B induced robust humoral and cellular immune responses and completely protected the vaccinated animals from SARS-CoV-2 infection in the lung. Studies in hamsters also showed that PTX-COVID19-B protected the upper respiratory tract from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Mouse immune sera elicited by PTX-COVID19-B vaccination were able to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs), including the B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and P.1 lineages. No adverse effects were induced by PTX-COVID19-B in both mice and hamsters. These preclinical results indicate that PTX-COVID19-B is safe and effective. Based on these results, PTX-COVID19-B was authorized by Health Canada to enter clinical trials in December 2020 with a phase 1 clinical trial ongoing (ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT04765436).
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.11.443286v1" target="_blank">Preclinical evaluation of a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine PTX-COVID19-B</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Early cross-coronavirus reactive signatures of protective humoral immunity against COVID-19</strong> -
<div>
The introduction of vaccines has inspired new hope in the battle against SARS-CoV-2. However, the emergence of viral variants, in the absence of potent antivirals, has left the world struggling with the uncertain nature of this disease. Antibodies currently represent the strongest correlate of immunity against COVID-19, thus we profiled the earliest humoral signatures in a large cohort of severe and asymptomatic COVID-19 individuals. While a SARS-CoV-2-specific immune response evolved rapidly in survivors of COVID-19, non-survivors exhibited blunted and delayed humoral immune evolution, particularly with respect to S2-specific antibody evolution. Given the conservation of S2 across {beta}-coronaviruses, we found the early development of SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity occurred in tandem with pre-existing common {beta}-coronavirus OC43 humoral immunity in survivors, which was selectively also expanded in individuals that develop paucisymptomatic infection. These data point to the importance of cross-coronavirus immunity as a correlate of protection against COVID-19.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.11.443609v1" target="_blank">Early cross-coronavirus reactive signatures of protective humoral immunity against COVID-19</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Unique protein features of SARS-CoV-2 relative to other Sarbecoviruses</strong> -
<div>
Defining the unique properties of SARS-CoV-2 protein sequences, has potential to explain the range of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity. To achieve this we compared proteins encoded by all Sarbecoviruses using profile Hidden Markov Model similarities to identify protein features unique to SARS-CoV-2. Consistent with previous reports, a small set of bat and pangolin-derived Sarbecoviruses show the greatest similarity to SARS-CoV-2 but unlikely to be the direct source of SARS-CoV-2. Spike analysis identified all regions of the protein that have tolerated change and revealed that the current SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) have sampled only a fraction (~31%) of the possible spike domain changes which have occurred historically in Sarbecovirus evolution. This result emphasises the evolvability of these coronaviruses and potential for further change in virus replication and transmission properties over the coming years.
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.06.438675v2" target="_blank">Unique protein features of SARS-CoV-2 relative to other Sarbecoviruses</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Methotrexate Hampers Immunogenicity to BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Objective: To investigate the humoral and cellular immune response to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) on immunomodulatory treatment. Methods: Established patients at NYU Langone Health with IMID (n=51) receiving the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination were assessed at baseline and after second immunization. Healthy subjects served as controls (n=26). IgG antibody responses to the spike protein were analyzed for humoral response. Cellular immune response to SARS-CoV-2 was further analyzed using high-parameter spectral flow cytometry. A second independent, validation cohort of controls (n=182) and patients with IMID (n=31) from Erlangen, Germany were also analyzed for humoral immune response. Results: Although healthy subjects (n=208) and IMID patients on biologic treatments (mostly on TNF blockers, n=37) demonstrate robust antibody responses (over 90%), those patients with IMID on background methotrexate (n=45) achieve an adequate response in only 62.2% of cases. Similarly, IMID patients do not demonstrate an increase in CD8+ T cell activation after vaccination. Conclusions: In two independent cohorts of IMID patients, methotrexate, a widely used immunomodulator for the treatment of several IMIDs, adversely affected humoral and cellular immune response to COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Although precise cut offs for immunogenicity that correlate with vaccine efficacy are yet to be established, our findings suggest that different strategies may need to be explored in patients with IMID taking methotrexate to increase the chances of immunization efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 as has been demonstrated for augmenting immunogenicity to other viral vaccines.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.11.21256917v1" target="_blank">Methotrexate Hampers Immunogenicity to BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Who should get vaccinated first? An effective network information-driven priority vaccination strategy</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Approval of emergency use of the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in many countries has brought hope to ending the COVID-19 pandemic sooner. Considering the limited vaccine supply in the early stage of COVID-19 vaccination programs in most countries, a highly relevant question to ask is: <i>who should get vaccinated first?</i> In this article we propose a network information-driven vaccination strategy where a small number of people in a network (population) are categorized, according to a few key network properties, into priority groups. Using a network-based SEIR model for simulating the pandemic progression, the network information-driven vaccination strategy is compared with a random vaccination strategy. Results for both large-scale synthesized networks and real social networks have demonstrated that the network information-driven vaccination strategy can significantly reduce the cumulative number of infected individuals and lead to a more rapid containment of the pandemic. The results provide insight for policymakers in designing an effective early-stage vaccination plan.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.10.21256999v1" target="_blank">Who should get vaccinated first? An effective network information-driven priority vaccination strategy</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 Positive Individuals in California From Two Periods During Notable Decline in Incident Infection</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Despite declining SARS-CoV-2 incidence, continued epidemic monitoring is warranted. We collected SARS-CoV-2 test results from 150 drive-through testing centers across California from two observation periods: February 23rd-March 3rd 2021 and April 15th-April 30th 2021. We assessed SARS-CoV-2 positivity, stratified by Hispanic heritage among sociodemographic characteristics and potential exposures. We analyzed 114,789 test results (5.1% and 2.6% positive during the respective observation periods). Nearly half of all positive tests were among testers reporting a recent exposure (48.8% and 45.3% during the respective observation periods). Those findings may provide insight into evolving local transmission dynamics and support targeted public health strategies.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.11.21257008v1" target="_blank">Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 Positive Individuals in California From Two Periods During Notable Decline in Incident Infection</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Comparative sensitivity evaluation for 122 CE-marked SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid tests</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Abstract Objective Independent evaluation of the sensitivity of CE-marked SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag RDT) offered in Germany. Method The sensitivity of 122 Ag RDT was adressed using a common evaluation panel. Minimum sensitivity of 75% for panel members with CT&lt;25 was used for differentiation of devices eligible for reimbursement in in the German healthcare system. Results The sensitivity of different SARS-CoV-2 Ag RDT varied over a wide range. The sensitivity limit of 75% for panel members with CT &lt;25 was met by 96 of the 122 tests evaluated; 26 tests exhibited lower sensitivity, few of which were completely failing. Some devices exhibited high sensitivity, e.g. 100% for CT&lt;30. Conclusion This comparative evaluation succeeded to distinguish less sensitive from better performing Ag RDT. Most of the Ag RDT evaluated appear to be suitable for fast identification of acute infections associated with high viral loads. Market access of SARS-CoV-2 Ag RDT should be based on minimal requirements for sensitivity and specificity.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.11.21257016v1" target="_blank">Comparative sensitivity evaluation for 122 CE-marked SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid tests</a>
</div></li>
<li><strong>Cohort-based surveillance of SARS-CoV2 transmission mirrors infection rates at the population level: a one-year longitudinal study</strong> -
<div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Background More than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, important data gaps remain on longitudinal prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection at the population level and in defined risk groups, efficacy of specific lockdown measures, and on (cost-)effective surveillance. Methods The ELISA (Luebeck Longitudinal Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 Infection) study invited adult inhabitants (n=~300,000) from the Luebeck area (Northern Germany) and enrolled 3051 participants (~1%); 1929 population-matched and 1645 with high-exposure based on profession. The one-year study period (03/2020-02/2021) covered massive influx of tourism in the summer, rise of infection rates in the fall/winter 2020/2021, and two lockdowns. Participants were screened seven times for SARS-CoV-2 infection using PCR and antibody testing and monitored with an app-based questionnaire (n=~91,000). Results Cohort (56% female; mean age: 45.6 years) retention was 75%-98%; 92 persons (3.5%) were antibody- and/or PCR-positive. Seropositivity was almost 2-fold higher in men and increased risk detected in several high-exposure groups (highest for nurses, followed by police, army, firemen, and students). In May 2020, 92% of the infections were missed by PCR testing; by February 2021, only 29% remained undiagnosed. Contact to COVID-19-affected was the most relevant risk factor. Other factors, such as frequent use of public transportation, shopping, close contacts at work, and extensive tourism in the summer did not impact infection rates. Conclusions We i) provide a model for effective, regional surveillance; ii) identify infection risk factors informing public health measures; iii) demonstrate that easing of lockdown measures appears safe at times of low prevalence in the presence of continuous monitoring.
</p>
</div>
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.10.21256966v1" target="_blank">Cohort-based surveillance of SARS-CoV2 transmission mirrors infection rates at the population level: a one-year longitudinal study</a>
</div></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase 3 Randomized, Double-Blind Placebo Controlled, Multi-regional Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of GT0918 for the Treatment of Mild to Moderate COVID-19 Male Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: GT0918 tablets or placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Suzhou Kintor Pharmaceutical Inc,<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Recombinant Hyperimmune Polyclonal Antibody (GIGA-2050) in COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: GIGA-2050<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   GigaGen, Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Role of High Dose Co-trimoxazole in Severe Covid-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Co-trimoxazole;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh<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>Breathing Effort in Covid-19 Pneumonia: Effects of Positive Pressure, Inspired Oxygen Fraction and Decubitus</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: Esophageal catheter<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   San Luigi Gonzaga 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>The Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on COVID-19 Recovery</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Vit-D 0.2 MG/ML Oral Solution [Calcidol];   Drug: Physiological Irrigating Solution<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   University of Monastir;   Loussaief Chawki;   Nissaf Ben Alaya;   Cyrine Ben Nasrallah;   Manel Ben Belgacem;   Hela Abroug;   Imen Zemni;   Manel Ben fredj;   Wafa Dhouib<br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (CHO Cell) for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Biological: low-dose Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (CHO cell);   Biological: high-dose Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (CHO cell);   Biological: placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   National Vaccine and Serum Institute, China;   Lanzhou Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd;   Beijing Zhong Sheng Heng Yi Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd.;   Zhengzhou 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>A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Effect of STC3141 Continuous Infusion in Subjects With Severe Corona Virus Disease 2019（COVID-19）Pneumonia</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Drug: STC3141<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Grand Medical Pty Ltd.;   Trium Clinical Consulting<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>tDCS for Post COVID-19 Fatigue</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Post Covid-19 Patients<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Thorsten Rudroff<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Phase 2 Study of APX-115 in Hospitalized Patients With Confirmed Mild to Moderate COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: APX-115;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Aptabio Therapeutics, Inc.;   Covance<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>Leveraging CHWs to Improve COVID-19 Testing and Mitigation Among CJIs Accessing a Corrections-focused CBO</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Behavioral: Onsite Point-of-care<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Montefiore Medical Center;   The Fortune Society;   University of Bristol<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>Convalescent Plasma as Adjunct Therapy for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Biological: Convalescent plasma treatment<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   National Institute of Health Research and Development, Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia;   Indonesian Red Cross;   Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology<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>Selenium as a Potential Treatment for Moderately-ill, Severely-ill, and Critically-ill COVID-19 Patients.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Selenium (as Selenious Acid);   Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   CHRISTUS Health;   Pharco Pharmaceuticals<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>Protecting Our Community: COVID-19 Testing</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>:   SARS-CoV-2;   Covid19<br/><b>Intervention</b>:   Diagnostic Test: Home-based SARS-CoV-2 test kit<br/><b>Sponsors</b>:   Montana State University;   National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS);   University of Washington;   Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center;   Salish Kootenai College<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>Estradiol and Progesterone in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Other: Placebo injection and placebo pill;   Drug: Estradiol Cypionate 5 MG/ML;   Drug: Progesterone 200 MG Oral Capsule<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Tulane 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>Safety, Tolerability and PK of Ensovibep (MP0420 - a New Candidate With Potential for Treatment of COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>:   COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>:   Drug: Ensovibep;   Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>:   Molecular Partners AG<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 uses a multipronged strategy to impede host protein synthesis</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the cause of the ongoing coronavirus disease 19 pandemic¹. Coronaviruses developed varied mechanisms to repress host mRNA translation to allow the translation of viral mRNAs and concomitantly block the cellular innate immune response^(2,3). Although different SARS-CoV-2 proteins are implicated in host expression shutoff^(4-7), a comprehensive picture of the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on cellular gene expression is lacking….</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>Critical Interactions Between the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein and the Human ACE2 Receptor</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infects human cells by binding its spike (S) glycoproteins to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors and causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Therapeutic approaches to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection are mostly focused on blocking S-ACE2 binding, but critical residues that stabilize this interaction are not well understood. By performing all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we identified an extended network…</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>Small-Molecule Inhibitors of the Coronavirus Spike: ACE2 Protein-Protein Interaction as Blockers of Viral Attachment and Entry for SARS-CoV-2</strong> - Inhibitors of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and human ACE2 (hACE2), which acts as a ligand-receptor pair that initiates the viral attachment and cellular entry of this coronavirus causing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, are of considerable interest as potential antiviral agents. While blockade of such PPIs with small molecules is more challenging than that with antibodies, small-molecule inhibitors (SMIs) might offer alternatives that are less strain-…</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 mini-review on Sofosbuvir and Daclatasvir treatment in COVID-19</strong> - Sofosbovir and daclatasvir have been used successfully since 2013 for hepatitis C virus treatment .It has been shown by different studies that sofosbovir can inhibit RNA polymerase of other positive-strand RNA viruses including Flaviviridae and Togaviridae. Homology between HCV RNA polymerase and SARS-CoV-2 has also been established. The efficacy of sofosbuvir and daclatsvir as potential choices in treating patients with COVID-19 and their recovery can be hypothesized.</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>Thymoquinone: A Promising Natural Compound with Potential Benefits for COVID-19 Prevention and Cure</strong> - COVID-19 has caused a major global health crisis, as excessive inflammation, oxidation, and exaggerated immune response in some sufferers can lead to a condition known as cytokine storm, which may progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDs), which can be fatal. So far, few effective drugs have emerged to assist in the treatment of patients with COVID-19, though some herbal medicine candidates may assist in the fight against COVID-19 deaths. Thymoquinone (TQ), the main active…</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>Dengue virus-free defective interfering particles have potent and broad anti-dengue virus activity</strong> - Dengue virus (DENV) is spread from human to human through the bite of the female Aedes aegypti mosquito and leads to about 100 million clinical infections yearly. Treatment options and vaccine availability for DENV are limited. Defective interfering particles (DIPs) are considered a promising antiviral approach but infectious virus contamination has limited their development. Here, a DENV-derived DIP production cell line was developed that continuously produced DENV-free DIPs. The DIPs contained…</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>Identifying potential drug targets and candidate drugs for COVID-19: biological networks and structural modeling approaches</strong> - Background: Coronavirus (CoV) is an emerging human pathogen causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) around the world. Earlier identification of biomarkers for SARS can facilitate detection and reduce the mortality rate of the disease. Thus, by integrated network analysis and structural modeling approach, we aimed to explore the potential drug targets and the candidate drugs for coronavirus medicated SARS. Methods: Differentially expression (DE) analysis of CoV infected host genes (HGs)…</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>Structural insight into SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and modulation of syncytia</strong> - Infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is initiated by binding of the viral Spike protein to host receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), followed by fusion of viral and host membranes. Although antibodies that block this interaction are in emergency use as early coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) therapies, the precise determinants of neutralization potency remain unknown. We discovered a series of antibodies that potently block ACE2 binding but…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Systematic functional analysis of SARS-CoV-2 proteins uncovers viral innate immune antagonists and remaining vulnerabilities</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) evades most innate immune responses but may still be vulnerable to some. Here, we systematically analyze the impact of SARS-CoV-2 proteins on interferon (IFN) responses and autophagy. We show that SARS-CoV-2 proteins synergize to counteract anti-viral immune responses. For example, Nsp14 targets the type I IFN receptor for lysosomal degradation, ORF3a prevents fusion of autophagosomes and lysosomes, and ORF7a interferes with…</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>Complement levels at admission as a reflection of Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) severity state</strong> - CONCLUSION: We found evidence of complement hyperactivation in COVID-19, associated with hyperinflammation and thrombotic microangiopathy. Complement inhibition should be further investigated for potential benefit in patients displaying a hyperinflammatory and microangiopathic phenotype. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.</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>Activation of Interleukin-1<em>β</em> Release and Pyroptosis by Transmissible Gastroenteritis Virus Is Dependent on the NOD-Like Receptor Protein 3 Inflammasome in Porcine Intestinal Epithelial Cell Line</strong> - Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) is a coronavirus, which causes fatal severe diarrhea and leads to high mortality in newborn piglets. Inflammasomes are hub molecules that induce proinflammatory cytokine production and maturation to initiate innate immune defenses upon cellular infection. To date, the potential role of inflammasome in TGEV infection in porcine intestinal epithelial cells has not been elucidated. The present study aims to investigate the function of the inflammasome in…</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>Immune-Based Therapy for COVID-19</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel zoonotic virus identified as the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that has crossed species and infected humans. In order to develop new insights on the immune-based treatments against this disease, it is vital to understand the immunopathology of the COVID-19, implications of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2, and immune dysfunction in response to SARS-CoV-2. There is no approved drug for the treatment of…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lipid-Modulating Agents for Prevention or Treatment of COVID-19 in Randomized Trials</strong> - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with systemic inflammation, endothelial activation, and multi-organ manifestations. Lipid modulating agents may be useful in treating patients with COVID-19. They may inhibit viral entry by lipid raft disruption or ameliorate the inflammatory response and endothelial activation. In addition, dyslipidemia with lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and higher triglycerides portends worse outcome in patients with COVID-19. Upon a systematic…</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 novel highly potent inhibitor of TMPRSS2-like proteases blocks SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and is broadly protective against infection and mortality in mice</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus remains a global public health crisis. Although widespread vaccination campaigns are underway, their efficacy is reduced against emerging variants of concern (VOCs) ^(1,2) . Development of host-directed therapeutics and prophylactics could limit such resistance and offer urgently needed protection against VOCs ^(3,4) . Attractive pharmacological targets to impede viral entry include type-II transmembrane serine proteases (TTSPs), such as…</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Single-cell RNA sequencing of blood antigen-presenting cells in severe COVID-19 reveals multi-process defects in antiviral immunity</strong> - COVID-19 can lead to life-threatening respiratory failure, with increased inflammatory mediators and viral load. Here, we perform single-cell RNA-sequencing to establish a high-resolution map of blood antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in 15 patients with moderate or severe COVID-19 pneumonia, at day 1 and day 4 post admission to intensive care unit or pulmonology department, as well as in 4 healthy donors. We generated a unique dataset of 81,643 APCs, including monocytes and rare dendritic cell…</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO PARTICLE, INCLUDING SARS-CoV-2, DETECTION AND METHODS THEREFOR</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU323295937">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A COMPREHENSIVE DISINFECTION SYSTEM DURING PANDEMIC FOR PERSONAL ITEMS AND PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE) TO SAFEGUARD PEOPLE</strong> - The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to an enormous demand for gadgets / objects for personal protection. To prevent the spread of virus, it is important to disinfect commonly touched objects. One of the ways suggested is to use a personal UV-C disinfecting box that is “efficient and effective in deactivating the COVID-19 virus. The present model has implemented the use of a UV transparent material (fused silica quartz glass tubes) as the medium of support for the objects to be disinfected to increase the effectiveness of disinfection without compromising the load bearing capacity. Aluminum foil, a UV reflecting material, was used as the inner lining of the box for effective utilization of the UVC light emitted by the UVC lamps. Care has been taken to prevent leakage of UVC radiation out of the system. COVID-19 virus can be inactivated in 5 minutes by UVC irradiation in this disinfection box - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=IN322882412">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING SYSTEM FOR MENTAL HEALTH MONITORING OF PERSON DURING THE PANDEMIC OF COVID-19</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU323295498">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>USE OF IMINOSUGAR COMPOUND IN PREPARATION OF ANTI-SARS-COV-2 VIRUS DRUG</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU322897928">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>逆转录酶突变体及其应用</strong> - 本发明提供一种MMLV逆转录酶突变体，在野生型MMLV逆转录酶氨基酸序列（如SEQ ID No.1序列所示）中进行七个氨基酸位点的突变，氨基酸突变位点为：R205H；V288T；L304K；G525D；S526D；E531G；E574G。该突变体可以降低MMLV逆转录酶对Taq DNA聚合酶的抑制作用，大大提高了一步法RT‑qPCR的灵敏度。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN323494119">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Compositions and methods for the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) infection</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU321590214">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>用于检测新型冠状病毒的试纸和试剂盒</strong> - 本发明涉及生物技术和免疫检测技术领域，具体涉及一种用于检测新型冠状病毒的试纸和试剂盒。所述试纸或试剂盒含有抗体1和/或抗体2，所述抗体1的重、轻链可变区的氨基酸序列分别如SEQ ID NO:1‑2所示，所述抗体2的重、轻链可变区的氨基酸序列分别如SEQ ID NO:3‑4所示。本发明对于大批量的新型冠状病毒样本，包括新型冠状病毒突变（英国、南非）与非突变株的人血清、鼻咽拭子等样本的检测有普遍检测意义，避免突变株的漏检。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN322953478">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Fahrgastleitsystem und Verfahren zum Leiten von Fahrgästen</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Die Erfindung betrifft ein Fahrgastleitsystem zum Leiten von mit einem Fahrzeug (1) mit wenigstens zwei Türen (2.L, 2.R) transportieren Fahrgästen (3), mit wenigstens einem Sensor (4) zur Überwachung der Fahrgäste (3), wenigstens einem Anzeigemittel (5) zur Ausgabe von Leitinformationen, wenigstens einem Aktor zum Öffnen oder Verriegeln einer Tür (2.L, 2.R) und wenigstens einer Recheneinheit (7). Das erfindungsgemäße Fahrgastleitsystem ist dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Recheneinheit (7) dazu eingerichtet ist durch Auswertung vom wenigstens einen Sensor (4) erzeugter Sensordaten zu erkennen an welcher Tür (2.L, 2.R) des Fahrzeugs (1) Fahrgäste (3) ein- und/oder aussteigen möchten und wenigstens eine Tür (2.L, 2.R) für einen Ausstieg festzulegen und/oder wenigstens eine Tür (2.L, 2.R) für einen Einstieg festzulegen, sodass eine Anzahl an Begegnungen von sich durch das Fahrzeug (1) bewegender Fahrgäste (3) und/oder aus dem Fahrzeug (1) aussteigenden und/oder in das Fahrzeug (1) einsteigenden Fahrgästen (3) minimiert wird.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE323289145">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vorrichtung zum Desinfizieren, der Körperpflege oder dergleichen</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Vorrichtung zum Desinfizieren, der Körperpflege oder dergleichen mittels einer flüssigen oder cremigen Substanz (20), dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass die Vorrichtung mit einem elektrisch betriebenen Erinnerungs-Modul und einem Vorratsbehälter (10) für die Substanz (20) versehen ist, die Substanz (20) in dosierter Menge zur Ausgabeöffnung (9) gefördert wird und die Vorrichtung dazu geeignet ist, am Körper oder der Kleidung einer Person getragen zu werden.</p></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE323289850">link</a></p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gebrauchter Schnellteststreifen als Probenmaterial für eine Nachtestung</strong> -
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Die Erfindung betrifft ein Verfahren zur laborbasierten Überprüfung und/oder weiteren Ausdifferenzierung einer im Schnelltestverfahren erhaltenen Diagnose einer Infektionskrankheit, wobei im Rahmen des Schnelltestverfahrens eine flüssige Patientenprobe auf ein Objekt aus einem porösen Material aufgetragen wird und wobei dieses Objekt nach Trocknung der flüssigen Patientenprobe an das diagnostische Labor übermittelt wird. Im Labor werden dann die eingetrockneten Probenreste aus dem porösen Material ausgelöst und analysiert.</p></li>
</ul>
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<li><a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=DE323289151">link</a></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inside India’s COVID-19 Surge</strong> - At a hospital in New Delhi, supplies and space are running out, but the patients keep coming. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/inside-indias-covid-19-surge">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden’s Great Economic Rebalancing</strong> - The President is looking to correct a capitalist economy that has gone askew, and reclaim a lost vision of shared prosperity. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/joe-bidens-great-economic-rebalancing">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Facebook and the Normalization of Deviance</strong> - The trouble with waiting to address problems long after you know that they exist. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/facebook-and-the-normalization-of-deviance">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India’s Crisis Marks a New Phase in the Pandemic</strong> - In countries where the storm is lifting, it’s time to turn outward and help the rest of the world. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/indias-crisis-marks-a-new-phase-in-the-pandemic">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>It’s Time to Kick Gas</strong> - And do it as quickly as possible. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/its-time-to-kick-gas">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>The lawsuit seeking to impose the “death penalty” on the NRA, explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Wayne LaPierre, the CEO and executive vice president of the NRA, standing onstage at a lectern." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2Gl4bsxB4NeSzefzItISJiauWGM=/205x0:3761x2667/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69279736/1139485134.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Wayne LaPierre, the CEO and executive vice president of the NRA. | Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Thoughts and prayers.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Hk7Ynr">
In August 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed an <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/summons_and_complaint_1.pdf">audacious lawsuit</a> against the nation’s largest and most powerful gun rights group.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EloMmi">
The suit alleges that several top leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) — including its CEO, Wayne LaPierre — engaged in a ridiculous amount of self-dealing with the organization. Among other things, the lawsuit accuses LaPierre of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on private charter planes for himself and his extended family, accepting lavish gifts from NRA vendors, and spending $1.2 million in NRA funds on “personal expenses,” the list of which includes his golf club membership.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hiEP6A">
Although the NRA initially denied the allegations, it filed a tax document with the IRS in November admitting it “became aware during 2019 of a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nra-irs-disclosure-990/2020/11/25/50521108-2d34-11eb-9c71-ccf2c0b8d571_story.html">significant diversion of its assets</a>.” The tax return also says LaPierre reimbursed the NRA for $300,000 in travel expenses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dqbX8N">
James’s lawsuit asks the court to impose several steep penalties on the NRA, including dissolving its corporate charter — a sanction NRA’s attorneys have characterized as akin to the “<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20705869/nra-bankruptcy-ruling.pdf">death penalty</a>” for a corporation.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F4xSHM">
Needless to say, the NRA wants to avoid this outcome and has engaged in some fairly audacious legal maneuverings of its own to strip the state of New York of much of its power over the organization. Although the NRA is, by its own accounts, in <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20705869/nra-bankruptcy-ruling.pdf">strong financial shape and fully capable of paying off its creditors</a>, the organization declared bankruptcy last January.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d3OhYb">
The primary purpose of the NRA’s declaration, many outsiders surmised, is to cut many of its formal ties with New York and reincorporate it in the state of Texas, thus stripping James of much of her authority over the organization. On Tuesday, a federal bankruptcy judge agreed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D3h0hy">
Texas-based Judge Harlin Hale <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20705869/nra-bankruptcy-ruling.pdf">formally rejected</a> the NRA’s attempt to use the bankruptcy courts in this way, ruling that “the NRA did not file the bankruptcy petition in good faith because this filing was not for a purpose intended or sanctioned by the Bankruptcy Code.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OK5p6h">
If you’re confused by this complicated web of corporate and bankruptcy law, fear not. It is arcane and convoluted, and I will explain what the law has to say about all of these legal maneuvers. The bottom line is the NRA lost the first round of what is likely to be years of litigation over whether it can declare bankruptcy and what sanctions New York’s courts can impose on the group.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Csxelw">
There is a very small chance that this all ends with the <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/summons_and_complaint_1.pdf">dissolution of the NRA</a>. That could mean the NRA’s current leadership would lose control of all the organization’s assets, including its valuable donor lists.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gU4bka">
Meanwhile, there’s a larger possibility that New York’s courts will allow the NRA to continue operating but will also impose significant sanctions on LaPierre and other top NRA leaders. Those sanctions could include requiring reimbursing the NRA for their own alleged self-dealing, or even removing them from the NRA’s leadership.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tybb5H">
And there’s an even greater possibility these lawsuits reveal humiliating information about LaPierre and other top officials. The NRA faced several <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/17/18167430/nra-2018-midterms-trump-spending-trouble">unexpected policy defeats</a> during the Trump administration, and it is <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/28/20936511/nra-nratv-ackerman-mcqueen-lawsuit-complaint">caught up in another round of litigation</a> with one of its former vendors. More embarrassing news about the gun rights group may discourage people from giving to the NRA in the future. NRA supporters, after all, typically give to the organization because they agree with its political views, not because they want to help pay for one of LaPierre’s trips to the Bahamas.
</p>
<h3 id="hU5q8w">
Why does New York get to decide whether the NRA can continue?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ikh4AF">
There is something a little odd about the fact that just one state, New York, may have so much authority over a major interest group such as the NRA. Not long after James filed her suit, the usual suspects denounced it as a power grab: Former President Donald Trump accused the “Radical Left New York” of “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nra-lapierre-ny-attorney-general/2020/08/06/8e389794-d794-11ea-930e-d88518c57dcc_story.html">trying to destroy the NRA</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dql4v6">
New York’s power over the NRA arises from an unusual quirk of American corporate law. Although corporations can do business in all 50 states or in foreign countries, new companies are typically chartered by states and are thus bound by the state’s corporate laws, not the federal government’s.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PsqC52">
The fact that corporations typically get to choose which state to incorporate in often benefits the companies themselves. More than 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies, for example, are <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/76951/why-are-so-many-us-companies-incorporated-delaware">incorporated in Delaware</a>. That’s because Delaware laws are particularly favorable to these corporations; also, many corporate lawyers are familiar with Delaware law and Delaware’s courts.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sdJePD">
But this system also places a disproportionate amount of power in the hands of some states’ courts. The large number of companies incorporated in Delaware means that multibillion-dollar corporate cases of national importance are often decided by judges <a href="http://www.judicialselection.us/judicial_selection/index.cfm?state=DE#:~:text=Under%20the%20Delaware%20Constitution%2C%20judges,qualified%20candidates%20for%20judicial%20appointments.">appointed by the governor of a tiny state</a> with <a href="https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/26/2020-census-give-delaware-second-house-member/7385909002/">fewer than a million residents</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YQo4ub">
It’s not unusual, in other words, for a single state to wield the type of power New York now does over the NRA.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iOQ8uf">
The NRA is 150 years old. Indeed, it is so old that it was formed in an era when corporations were often created by special acts of the state legislature — New York’s legislature <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20705869/nra-bankruptcy-ruling.pdf">granted the NRA a corporate charter in 1871</a>, and the organization continues to operate under the charter to this day.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pJ2bsw">
That means the NRA is subject to a wide array of New York laws governing corporations formed in the state, including one that permits the state attorney general to bring a lawsuit seeking to “<a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/notforprofit-corporation-law/npc-sect-112.html">annul the corporate existence or dissolve a corporation</a> that has acted beyond its capacity or power.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qiOoal">
Under certain circumstances, a New York corporation may also be dissolved if “the directors or members in control of the corporation have <a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/notforprofit-corporation-law/npc-sect-1102.html">looted or wasted the corporate assets</a>, have perpetuated the corporation solely for their personal benefit, or have otherwise acted in an illegal, oppressive or fraudulent manner.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QWZ4bt">
The crux of James’s <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/summons_and_complaint_1.pdf">lawsuit against the NRA</a> is that LaPierre “exploited the organization for his financial benefit, and the benefit of a close circle of NRA staff, board members, and vendors,” and that he did so in violation of his legal “duties of care, loyalty and obedience to the mission of the charity.” The suit also claims several other senior NRA leaders “regularly ignored, overrode or otherwise violated the bylaws and internal policies and procedures that they were charged with enforcing” in order to divert assets to “insiders and favored vendors.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0RDs59">
Thus, James claims the NRA has “acted beyond its capacity or power” by operating not as a legitimate nonprofit corporation that serves its stated mission but as a kind of personal enrichment machine for a handful of the organization’s senior leaders.
</p>
<h3 id="xMDKcm">
What are the allegations against the NRA?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PdngnI">
Realistically, James’s office faces a tough road if it hopes to dissolve the NRA. New York courts have likened this remedy to a “<a href="https://casetext.com/case/people-v-oliver-154?resultsNav=false">judgment … of corporate death</a>,” and they place a very high burden on state officials seeking to dissolve a corporation. The state often must show that the corporation committed “some sin against the law of its being” that is “material and serious … such as to harm or menace the public welfare.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YLfIpM">
Yet, while it’s far from clear James can convince a court to impose a “corporate death penalty” on the NRA, her complaint does describe some very serious allegations against the NRA’s senior leadership, which <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/summons_and_complaint_1.pdf">stretch for more than 100 pages of James’s filing</a>. They claim the NRA <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/899712823/new-york-attorney-general-moves-to-dissolve-the-nra-after-fraud-investigation">misused as much as $64 million</a> over just three years, and they include some genuinely shocking claims of self-dealing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="52U1Pj">
LaPierre, for example, is accused of chartering a private flight, priced at more than $26,995, for his niece and her daughter after they were unable to catch a commercial flight to an NRA event. The NRA allegedly paid more than $500,000 to fly LaPierre and his family to the Bahamas on at least eight different occasions, where LaPierre often stayed on a 108-foot yacht owned by one of the NRA’s largest vendors, as well as nearly $600,000 over five years for “consulting services” provided by LaPierre’s wife’s “executive assistant.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TeAATT">
The NRA also purportedly agreed to pay LaPierre a simply enormous amount of money if he retired or was not reappointed as the organization’s CEO — so much money, in fact, that his annual compensation would have<em> </em>increased. One version of LaPierre’s “post-employment” contract specified he would be paid more than a million dollars a year through 2030 if he left his job.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XOCAtB">
And then there’s the NRA’s relationship with certain favored vendors. According to James’s complaint, for many years the NRA’s largest vendor was the public relations firm Ackerman McQueen. The NRA allegedly paid Ackerman nearly $32 million in 2018 alone — and that’s on top of the fees the NRA paid to the Mercury Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ackerman.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FiwtZO">
According to the complaint, however, the NRA’s arrangement with Ackerman appeared designed to hide what all that money actually paid for. LaPierre, who reportedly had a very close relationship with a late co-founder of Ackerman whom he would often speak to daily, allegedly “requested that invoices from Ackerman … contain very little detail about the work performed or services rendered.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kiiQum">
To be clear, it’s not like the NRA received nothing at all from Ackerman — among other things, the PR firm <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/28/20936511/nra-nratv-ackerman-mcqueen-lawsuit-complaint">built the NRA’s now-defunct video streaming network NRATV</a>. But the relationship between the NRA and Ackerman has also turned sour. Among other things, the NRA sued Ackerman in 2019, claiming the firm misled it into wasting millions of dollars on NRATV and produced content even many NRA leaders viewed as “<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/28/20936511/nra-nratv-ackerman-mcqueen-lawsuit-complaint">distasteful and racist</a>.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="12IAnf">
In any event, these are just a few of the accusations in James’s complaint, which paints a picture of an organization that allowed LaPierre to spend lavishly on himself, his family, and his personal friends and close associates, with little oversight from within the NRA.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wmFi3p">
The NRA’s response to James’s allegations has also evolved over time. In August, the organization put out a statement claiming it was “<a href="https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1291468835317518356">well governed, financially solvent, and committed to good governance</a>,” but then admitted in its November IRS filing that it discovered “a significant diversion of its assets” in 2019.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DcnMiV">
In October, the NRA <a href="https://images.law.com/contrib/content/uploads/documents/292/77229/NRA-MDL-NYAG-countercomplaint.pdf">filed a lawsuit against James</a>, claiming her investigation of the NRA and subsequent lawsuit violate the Constitution because James intends to “obstruct, chill, deter, and retaliate against the NRA’s core political speech, which is protected by the First Amendment.” The NRA states in the suit that it “has undertaken efforts to improve its internal governance functions up to the present day.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RS4RDs">
Regardless, even if James’s allegations are proven, they may not be enough to justify dissolving the NRA in its entirety. But they do suggest the organization is deeply corrupt and may need new management.
</p>
<h3 id="kouSuE">
What does bankruptcy law have to do with all of this?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="geMhK6">
The purpose of bankruptcy, as the Supreme Court explained many years ago, is to “<a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7870978431784548905">relieve the honest debtor</a> from the weight of oppressive indebtedness and permit him to start afresh free from the obligations and responsibilities consequent upon business misfortunes.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mCC3j9">
The idea is that an organization sometimes takes on debts it cannot afford to pay, whether because of poor business decisions, bad luck, or court decisions ordering it to pay large sums of money. When this happens, it is normally better to allow the organization to pay off as many of these debts as possible, and continue to exist and employ some of its workers, than to have it simply collapse under the weight of its financial obligations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8DWGyn">
Given that bankruptcy exists to relieve debtors from unpayable debts, the NRA’s decision to file bankruptcy is more than a little odd. As Hale explained in his opinion dismissing the NRA’s filing, “The NRA has consistently represented to the Court and to its members” that it is “<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20705869/nra-bankruptcy-ruling.pdf">in its strongest financial condition in years</a>.” Like most large organizations, the NRA does have debts, but there is no indication it can’t pay those debts, or that it needs a federal bankruptcy court to step in and help manage its finances.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MR1wg0">
Rather, as the NRA itself admitted in a court filing, the organization hoped to use the bankruptcy process to implement “a plan of reorganization that provides for the reorganized NRA to emerge from these chapter 11 cases as a Texas nonprofit entity.” The NRA, in other words, hoped a bankruptcy court would allow it to reincorporate in Texas, thus stripping New York state of much of its power over the NRA.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rQQ0xt">
Yet, while bankruptcy courts sometimes have significant power to restructure a bankrupt corporation, Hale refused to play along with the NRA’s scheme.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gUIjOm">
While debtors often file bankruptcy because they lose a lawsuit and, as a result, cannot afford to pay what they owe, multiple courts have held that, in Hale’s words, “a bankruptcy case filed for the purpose of avoiding a regulatory scheme is not filed in good faith and should be dismissed.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YOdAm4">
So, after determining that the purpose of the NRA’s bankruptcy filing was to frustrate James’s effort to enforce New York’s corporate law, Hale dismissed it, ultimately agreeing with James that “the NRA is using this bankruptcy case to address a regulatory enforcement problem, not a financial one.” And that is not something federal bankruptcy law permits.
</p>
<h3 id="3US2Zy">
Is the NRA actually going down?
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o5hJpw">
So, the NRA lost the first round in its fight against NY regulators.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LqPOGi">
Hale, however, is unlikely to have the final word on whether the NRA’s attempt to reorganize as a Texas corporation through bankruptcy will prevail.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SkiHBP">
For one thing, the NRA may appeal Hale’s decision, and it is likely their appeals will ultimately be <a href="https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/docs/default-source/forms-and-documents---clerks-office/rules/federalrulesofappellateprocedure">heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit</a>, an extremely conservative court dominated by Bush and Trump appointees. So it’s possible the NRA will argue its appeal in front of a panel of judges who are very sympathetic to the NRA’s mission — and equally unsympathetic to Democratic attorneys general from New York.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pvTda2">
Meanwhile, the NRA’s general counsel testified that he does not expect New York’s courts to try James’s lawsuit against the NRA <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20705869/nra-bankruptcy-ruling.pdf">until early next year</a>. So even if the NRA’s attempt to file bankruptcy in order to reincorporate in Texas ultimately fails, it will be a long time before any New York judge weighs in on James’s allegations against the gun rights group — and even if James prevails at trial, the NRA will likely appeal that decision.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GbF9kk">
What’s more, Hale wrote in his opinion that he was “<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20705869/nra-bankruptcy-ruling.pdf">not dismissing this case with prejudice</a>,” meaning the NRA could potentially refile for bankruptcy in Hale’s court — though it’s unlikely a second filing would accomplish much, unless its circumstances change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FW7Pf2">
All of which is a long way of saying that dissolution of the NRA remains unlikely and is certainly not imminent. Nevertheless, the organization did suffer a significant loss in Hale’s court, and James’s allegations against it are very serious. Even if James’s lawsuit does not end in the NRA’s destruction, it could end with significant sanctions against LaPierre and his inner circle.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The Gaza doom loop</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zmWIxz7Fyerda49niU7VOZapgyQ=/189x0:2854x1999/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69279647/GettyImages_1232817723.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Israeli police run after a Palestinian demonstrator at the al-Aqsa Mosque during Israel’s Jerusalem Day on May 10. | Laurent Van Der Stockt/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
What’s happening in Israel and Gaza is the near-inevitable result of a grim status quo.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="goDKHM">
Dozens have already died in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, and more will perish if the fighting continues to escalate.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d8Ic9k">
But there is little chance that the root cause of all this death — the long-running political status quo in the Israel-Palestinian conflict — will be altered in the slightest. Israeli-Palestinian warfare has become routinized; it follows a familiar script that repeats itself endlessly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zo0qz6">
Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, there have been three full-scale wars and numerous rounds of lower-level fighting. But the basic structure of the conflict — Israel’s blockade of Gaza and occupation of the West Bank, and Palestinian rule divided between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — has remained remarkably durable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pp6tGN">
It would seem as if the current round of violence emerged out of a complex series of events in Jerusalem, most notably heavy-handed actions by Israeli police and aggression by far-right Jewish nationalists. But in reality, these events were merely triggers for escalations made almost inevitable by the way the major parties have chosen to approach the conflict.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EL29rCxpNL8_DMtWCOrT6vvJf4Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22510286/AP_21130298690487.jpg"/> <cite>Mahmoud Illean/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Israeli police entered the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on May 10. The Jerusalem Day holiday celebrates the unification of the city under Israel’s control following the 1967 Six-Day War, and comes amid protests over the eviction of Palestinian families.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9sSUYY">
Both Israeli and Palestinian leadership have basically accepted the painful political status quo in Gaza, seeing the violence and humanitarian suffering it causes as bad, but basically tolerable as part of an effort to secure their hold on power. Israel’s leadership bears particular responsibility: As the most powerful actor in the conflict, it has the greatest ability to break the pattern. But the current factions in power in Jerusalem have strong ideological and strategic reasons for keeping its Gaza policy in place.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nHF8hM">
As a result, the underlying status quo will likely outlive this conflict, guaranteeing more violence.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zB5Bom">
“It’s like the worst version of <em>Groundhog Day</em>,” says Khaled Elgindy, the director of the program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute. “[Leaders] just put a Band-Aid on it and we go back to the pre-crisis normal.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nc2wss">
It’s a horrible equilibrium, one in which “manageable” levels of violence stand in for doing something to actually improve the lives of Israelis or Palestinians. It is also a direct result of the deepest political structure governing the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the iron hand of Israeli control over the West Bank and Gaza’s border.
</p>
<h3 id="5bZsyL">
The Israeli-Palestinian doom loop
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5mLS9G">
The current violence began with a series of conflicts in Jerusalem.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E0xX5K">
<a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/how-jerusalems-police-shoot-first-and-ask-later-analysis-667700">Israeli police</a> in the city blocked off the Damascus Gate, a popular gathering place for Arabs during Ramadan, sparking protests. An attempt by Jewish settlers to evict longtime Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah, an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, inflamed tensions dramatically, leading to violent clashes with Israeli police. Arab youth <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/SyFU7k0IO">attacked ultra-Orthodox Jews</a> in the city and Jewish extremists assailed Arab residents. All of this culminated in a violent Israeli police raid on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/world/middleeast/jerusalem-protests-aqsa-palestinians.html">the al-Aqsa Mosque</a>, Jerusalem’s holiest site for Muslims, located on the Temple Mount (the holiest site in the world for Jews).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yRtGoR">
Then Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem. Ostensibly, this was a display of solidarity with the protesters on the ground. But it appears to have been a political calculation — Hamas attempting to capitalize on Palestinian anger over Jerusalem to expand its own influence, especially in the wake of recently canceled Palestinian elections that would likely have strengthened its political position.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aEbEEt">
“This is much more about internal Palestinian politics than it is about what’s been going on in Jerusalem,” says Michael Koplow, the policy director at the Israel Policy Forum.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7zF7Wp">
The attacks on Jerusalem crossed what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to as a “<a href="https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/netanyahu-gaza-terrorists-crossed-red-line-with-jerusalem-rockets-667789">red line</a>,” breaking the unspoken rules that limited the pace and range of rocket attacks to limited barrages mostly targeting southern Israel. Israel responded with overwhelming force; massive air strikes targeting Hamas emplacements in densely populated Gaza. This prompted more rocket attacks from Hamas and, in turn, more bombings from Israel. As a result, at least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/12/world/israel-jerusalem-gaza">seven Israelis and dozens of Palestinians are </a>dead — with no end in sight.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/G8ipwKxtIOi2Uo0oJnv758td_fI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22510295/AP_21131710036016.jpg"/> <cite>Heidi Levine/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Israeli firefighters respond to damage created by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Holon, near Tel Aviv, on May 11.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dG0PbgPte2NPbymfGPGFAmmZfYQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22510296/AP_21130376188508.jpg"/> <cite>Oded Balilty/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinians evacuate a protester wounded by Israeli police at the Lions Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City on May 10.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TZW5K7">
But while the events that led to this point are unique, the broader pattern of events is not. This week’s violence is part of a recurring pattern determined by structural factors in the conflict. If the events in Jerusalem hadn’t prompted Hamas rocket fire and Israeli escalation, something else almost certainly would have.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qJEg39">
“The most likely scenario is unfortunately the one we’ve been in for the past 15 years,” says Ilan Goldenberg, the director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IvzsM0">
Goldenberg coauthored <a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/files.cnas.org/documents/CNAS-Report-Gaza-final-v2-web2.pdf?mtime=20190102140854&amp;focal=none">a report</a> in 2018 documenting what he terms “the cycle of violence” between Israel and Hamas. It documents the ways in which the political status quo is arranged in a way that makes frequent violent flare-ups all but inevitable.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y35MT5">
The stage is set, Goldenberg and his coauthors say, by the policy approaches of both sides. Israel aims to minimize the threat posed by Hamas and other militant factions, imposing a harsh blockade on Gaza that limits the flow of goods and people into the territory. Hamas aims to cement its hold on power and expand its influence relative to its Palestinian rivals, seeing violence against Israel as a key tool in this struggle. This creates an underlying reality in which fighting breaks out again and again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zeQ75c">
“Eventually, humanitarian and economic pressure builds inside Gaza, and Hamas escalates its use of violence both to generate domestic political support and to pressure Israel to ease the economic situation,” they write. “Israel responds with its own escalation, including military strikes inside Gaza and punitive economic measures that further choke the Strip.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yxYDCS">
Once the fighting starts, it’s not clear how much it’ll escalate. Sometimes it ends swiftly and with minimal loss of life. Other times — as in 2008 to 2009, 2012, and 2014 — it turns into an all-out war, with hundreds of (mostly Palestinian) casualties. The current fighting is rapidly moving in that direction, with Israeli leaders pledging to continue the bombardment of Gaza indefinitely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6tie8g">
“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will continue to strike and bring complete silence for the long term,” Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/12/israeli-bombardment-continues-on-gaza">said on May 12</a>.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UL1UUT71RlpCNZ3ZSm1QxFv2r34=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22510298/AP_21132427251837.jpg"/> <cite>Adel Hana/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
A damaged building in Gaza City that was hit by an Israeli airstrike on May 12.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0HNRAw">
Ultimately, the warring parties either unilaterally decide to stop bombing, or else agree to an internationally brokered settlement that does little to change the fundamental dynamics. This is the nature of current conflict: Many people die, and many more suffer, without any real prospect for change.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BITvU0">
“The question isn’t why this keeps happening,” Elgindy says. “It’s why anyone isn’t doing anything to prevent it from [continuing to] happen.”
</p>
<h3 id="B0ATjy">
The doom loop has deep roots in Israeli politics
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Mlj55s">
It’s clear that that this status quo produces horrors. The problem, though, is that these terrible costs are seen as basically tolerable by the political leadership of all the major parties.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zQEIg4">
Hamas continues to be able to rule Gaza and reaps the political benefits from being the party of armed resistance to Israeli occupation. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas appears cowed by Hamas’s power — <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-officially-delays-palestinian-elections-blaming-israel/">most analysts</a> believe he canceled the Palestinian election because he thought he would lose — and so is content to let Israel keep his rivals contained in Gaza.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NUCsav">
Israel is the most powerful actor of the three: It controls access to the Gaza Strip and operates a military occupation in the West Bank. If the Israeli leadership wanted to take actions to short-circuit the cycle of violence, like easing the blockade of Gaza, it could. But despite the persistent rocket threat, the leadership isn’t willing to try something new.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="92qEOF">
Why?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9T8S7V">
The last time I was in Israel, on a reporting trip in November 2019, I spoke with Yehuda Shaul, the founder of Breaking the Silence, a group that helps Israeli soldiers tell their stories about service in the Palestinian territories. He told me that the traditional categories used to describe politics — left, right, and center — are fundamentally inadequate when it comes to explaining what happens in Israel.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y4HPkK">
These days, he argues, most of Israel’s leadership falls into what he terms the “annexation” camp or the “control” camp.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2aoMgL">
The annexationists are Jewish extremists, who want to formally seize large chunks of Palestinian land while either expelling its residents or denying them political rights — ethnic cleansing or apartheid. The “control” camp, which includes current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sees things primarily through the lens of military and physical security: how the Palestinians are ruled is less important than minimizing the threat they pose to Israeli lives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4KbFMB">
“The driving principle [of the control camp] is a national security idea,” Shaul explains. “We are in a zero sum game: between the river and the sea, there is room for one sovereign power. It’s either us or the Palestinians.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zOFAh2">
The status quo in Gaza serves both groups. From the annexationist view, keeping the Palestinians weak and divided allows Israeli settlements to keep expanding and the seizure of both the West Bank and East Jerusalem to continue apace. Lifting the blockade on Gaza, and working to promote some kind of renewed peace process involving both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, jeopardizes the agenda of “Greater Israel.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R2mRfV">
“It is Israeli policy to fragment Palestinians politically and geographically, to isolate them into these different areas. It’s classic colonial strategy of divide and conquer,” Elgindy says.
</p>
<div class="c-wide-block">
<div class="c-image-grid">
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BO2LOpwjt56FoCttsBXVdWVqKjU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22510304/AP_21132441365258.jpg"/> <cite>Majdi Mohammed/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Palestinians mourn Rasheed Abu Arra, who was killed while confronting Israeli forces in Aqqaba near the West Bank town of Tubas, on May 12.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<div class="c-image-grid__item">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AiuDfmT0ezKtxcnb4AiG92rnmaI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22510306/AP_21132441446105.jpg"/> <cite>Majdi Mohammed/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Rasheed Abu Arra’s mother lays hands over her son.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DmYpTb">
Meanwhile, the “control” camp sees this as the least bad option. Any easing of the Gaza blockade would risk Hamas breaking containment and expanding its presence in the West Bank, which would be far more dangerous than the rockets — a threat heavily mitigated by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. In this analysis, periodic flare-ups are a price that has to be paid to minimize the threat to Israeli lives — with heavy escalations like this one required to restore a basically tolerable status quo.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3p3mKI">
I witnessed one of these flare-ups on the same trip where I met Shaul, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/2/27/21075868/israeli-democracy-war-netanyahu">reporting from Israel and the West Bank</a> as Israel and Hamas exchanged fire. After a few days of mayhem and air raid sirens, life just went back to normal in Israel — as if nothing had happened, as if dozens of Palestinian lives had not just been snuffed out (there were no Israeli deaths in that round).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A4jLnA">
“A lot of the Israeli security and political establishment has sort of internalized this idea that … there’s a sort of stable equilibrium,” says Koplow. “You get occasional rockets, and Israel will respond with a few missile strikes on Gaza, but it happens very occasionally and things immediately quiet down.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iqSoqp">
For much of Israeli history, a third camp — which Shaul calls the “equality” camp — presented a different vision for achieving Israel’s security needs. Epitomized by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government formed in 1992, it believed that Palestinians deserved a political voice as a matter of principle — either in a single state or, more typically, through a two-state arrangement. Such an agreement would sap Palestinian support for violent groups like Hamas by taking away the population’s underlying grievance: the lack of a state to call their own.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v9XAsp">
Yet the equality camp practically collapsed after the failure of the peace process and the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. Its political vehicles among Israeli Jews, the Labor and Meretz parties, make up a little more than 10 percent of Israel’s current Knesset (parliament). The result is indefinite occupation with no end in sight; no fundamental rethinking of the approach to either Gaza or the West Bank.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cDOqe5">
“As a society, the view is that the risks necessary to solve [the conflict with the Palestinians] are not worth it and it won’t work,” Goldenberg says. “So all we can deal with is the problem in front of us today, without really thinking long-term. We’ll deal with the other problems tomorrow — that’s basically the Israeli attitude.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="N2mSqn">
None of this excuses Hamas from its role in escalating the current conflict, or makes the deep divisions between Palestinians themselves less significant. The status quo is not only Israel’s fault.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0fu9bY">
But the Israeli government sets the terms for how Israelis and Palestinians interact, the underlying policy architecture that shapes the options available to the various different sides.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5tGcmXw3BIzP4BMzKE6W-3KghKw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22510327/GettyImages_1232811196.jpg"/> <cite>Anadolu Agency/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
An image of the Dome of the Rock constructed with rubber bullets and stun grenades fired by Israeli police against Palestinians in Jerusalem on May 10.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gAI0hP">
So long as the annexation and control camps are in the driver’s seat in Israel, it will pursue policies that aim to maintain control over Palestinian land while simultaneously minimizing the security threats intrinsic to the enterprise of military rule over a hostile population. The Gaza situation is an outgrowth of this reality, the sort of policy that one pursues in a world where a more fundamental revision is ideologically foreclosed.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LGgLVZ">
Barring some international intervention, it’s hard to see how things get much better — and easy to see how the same terrible things keep happening, over and over again.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pRYO0L">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CxhxJL">
</p></li>
<li><strong>Open for a surprise: The endearing results of Twitter’s new image crop</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/axd3N1n6KjFaK9_7lznxzZY3yTQ=/0x317:550x730/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69279515/E0qqF0VVgAUnVM5.0.jpeg"/>
<figcaption>
Twitter
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Twitter users rarely agree on anything. When they do, it’s an opportunity for community building.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1t5pMz">
Twitter recently made a small but striking change to its interface: It changed the aspect ratio of cropped images on users’ mobile feeds, meaning many photos that would usually be cropped can now be displayed in their entirety.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lt4QBz">
The sudden shift — one among a slew of changes Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1369680667886444548">began testing</a> in March — gave many people the impression that the social media site had done away with automatic image cropping overnight. (In actuality, the old cropping ratio is still in effect on desktop browsers, and cropping is still happening on mobile but in a different ratio.) Once users started noticing, celebrations ensued, with an outpouring of art-sharing, meme-making, and gentle ribbing. The response provides an interesting lesson in how we use social media and why such unexpected changes often become opportunities for vital community building.
</p>
<h3 id="xwJCGA">
Welcome to the vertical art party!
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q4at75">
Two of the fundamental truths about modern social media is that every platform has its own quirks, and that different communities of users evolve and transform these characteristics in a way that makes each platform unique. Whether they’re well-liked, core features (such as Twitter’s overall brevity) or inconveniences users must work around (like Twitter’s lack of an edit button), it’s how a platform’s users respond to and incorporate these traits into their daily lives that matters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MikHmG">
On Tumblr, for example, users evolved the “gifset,” a bundle of interlocking animated images that tell a story and could really only exist as a creative entity on Tumblr. On Vine, the fact a video could only be six seconds long became <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/10/28/13439450/vine-shutdown-loss-to-black-culture">the linchpin</a> of the entire platform, spawning a new medium of microvideos that continue to shape internet culture. One of TikTok’s defining qualities is the ability to reuse audio from someone else’s videos; while lots of sites enable remixes, TikTok users, building off earlier apps such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical.ly">Musical.ly</a> (which merged with TikTok in 2018), routinely utilize each other’s original art as the basis for <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/1/19/22233525/sea-shanty-tiktok-wellerman-song">glorious strings</a> of duets, virtual choirs, and other vocal creations.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9ysh2Z">
Less popular features and quirks can reliably unite an entire community in complaining. On Twitter, users have spent years lobbying for an image crop that works correctly.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GLyAmk">
Twitter began to crop photos <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/a/2014/friendlier-photo-sharing-is-here.html">around 2014</a>, when it introduced different default aspect ratios for users to apply to their own photos during uploading. At one point in 2015, it <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/a/2015/a-new-look-for-your-twittercom-photos.html">announced</a> it would completely do away with image cropping; it later reneged on that decision, and by 2018 it was <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/topics/infrastructure/2018/Smart-Auto-Cropping-of-Images.html">using AI image detection</a> to automatically crop the images people added to their tweets, much to their chagrin.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bQmWiV">
Until this recent change, the auto-crop feature typically forced all images, regardless of size and original framing, into a landscape orientation, often trimming photos in unpredictable and sometimes nonsensical ways. The desire to circumvent the Twitter crop grew so strong that <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/twitter-image-size/">elaborate tutorials</a> emerged explaining <a href="https://twitter.com/kophing_/status/1028000217654652928">exactly how to crop</a> and display images so they’d show in their entirety without being placed on the algorithmic chopping block.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U8z4yG">
Another way Twitter users evolved and adapted to the crop is the “<a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/open-for-a-surprise">open for a surprise!</a>” meme, where they strategically post photos (knowing Twitter will crop out the best parts) and invite others to click on the full version for a “surprise.” <a href="https://twitter.com/ShouldHaveCat/status/1333897981049917440">For example</a>:
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7uNMk6Fcqr97YlVGqXgVkuCr4xo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22506414/Screen_Shot_2021_05_11_at_9.46.25_AM.png"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://twitter.com/ShouldHaveCat/status/1333897981049917440" target="_blank">Twitter</a></cite>
<figcaption>
Clicking into the photo reveals a bevy of kittens — surprise!
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JwIKr8">
With the Twitter crop thoroughly established as a source of both endless hilarity and petty annoyance, the change in aspect ratios quickly became cause for celebration. While some users understandably <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/5/22421574/twitter-crop-issue-bigger-images-rollout">mourned the hit to the “open for a surprise!” meme</a>, conversation about the new image crop spread across the platform, with trends like “RIP Twitter crop” and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerticalArtParty">#VerticalArtParty</a> gaining traction.
</p>
<div id="modai3">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
RIP Twitter crop!<br/>Here is a favorite that I took recently in NYC <a href="https://t.co/uJUu3S2gaT">pic.twitter.com/uJUu3S2gaT</a>
</p>
— Rishi (<span class="citation" data-cites="rishi_kara">@rishi_kara</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/rishi_kara/status/1390074242285412353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2021</a>
</blockquote></div></li>
</ul>
<div id="IK18gc">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
It’s time for a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VerticalArtParty?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VerticalArtParty</a> ! Post your vertical art that got slaughtered by twitter crop!<br/><br/>This one is an old pencil piece of mine. I misspelled my last name on it because I finished it after an all nighter. <a href="https://t.co/oXTLe635fZ">pic.twitter.com/oXTLe635fZ</a>
</p>
— Karla Ortiz (<span class="citation" data-cites="kortizart">@kortizart</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/kortizart/status/1390089271927742464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RrbEgU">
To be clear, the site hasn’t actually done away with the crop; it’s merely changed the aspect ratio, meaning awkward crops can <a href="https://twitter.com/shuailormoon/status/1390842918781427714">still happen</a>.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/foq_212cp5BftkZaKBsJJRWxd0U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22506415/Screenshot_20210511_081455_Twitter.jpg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://twitter.com/shuailormoon/status/1390842918781427714" target="_blank">Twitter</a></cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dJw9Lh">
Or maybe, depending on your point of view, it’s still a fun gift:
</p>
<div id="L0fNYW">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
“open for a surprise” still works if you try hard enough <a href="https://t.co/3Bpv7jG00O">pic.twitter.com/3Bpv7jG00O</a>
</p>
— vy ️ (<span class="citation" data-cites="vyxnilla">@vyxnilla</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/vyxnilla/status/1390110454660296706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4ihXRM">
And because the new crop ratio still applies only to mobile and not laptop browsers right now, the issue of presentation is still a source of frustration for many artists. For example:
</p>
<div id="mkrZwV">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
desktop really said yes crop behead unicorn… <a href="https://t.co/LAjir1GaxW">pic.twitter.com/LAjir1GaxW</a>
</p>
— isadora zeferino (<span class="citation" data-cites="imzeferino">@imzeferino</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/imzeferino/status/1390093460825427968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QwOeNg">
People have already started <a href="https://twitter.com/MOlTIEMOlTIE/status/1390061349921767429">updating</a> their image guidelines, which are very important to visual artists who use Twitter, to accommodate the new crop ratio. It is unclear whether the recent change is permanent, whether more changes are forthcoming, or when, if ever, the new ratio will be applied to desktop browsers. Still, there’s another crucial reason to celebrate the change.
</p>
<h3 id="5G83zV">
The new crop ratio may help combat racist tendencies in Twitter’s AI
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dPNTyx">
Twitter’s automatic image-crop function is supposed to algorithmically detect the subject of a photo before cropping it. But its AI’s judgment is often revealing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UwVcmQ">
Sometime the results are funny. Consider <a href="https://twitter.com/yibosgay/status/1390038267438018560">this photo</a> of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/27/21192718/the-untamed-netflix-review-rec-mdzs-cql"><em>Untamed</em></a> star Xiao Zhan walking away from the camera, which the algorithm cropped very pointedly:
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wFXwrbflyoRB_XJ-i0VWDxQ4Tvo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22506424/E0ppGkrXoAIY4R6.jpeg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://twitter.com/yibosgay/status/1390038267438018560" target="_blank">Twitter</a></cite>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AGX06o">
But as some users have periodically pointed out, there are very serious biases at work in the autofocus algorithm Twitter uses: Like <a href="https://www.vox.com/videos/2021/3/31/22348722/ai-bias-racial-machine-learning">many other algorithms</a>, it has a tendency to be racist. People <a href="https://hackaday.com/2020/09/23/community-testing-suggests-bias-in-twitters-cropping-algorithm/">began noticing</a> and testing how it worked in September 2020, and they repeatedly demonstrated that the algorithm defaulted to showing white people over Black people.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="piMrzA">
The tweet below shows Twitter’s algorithm automatically cropped two images to display the lighter-skinned person, each time in instances where they’re displayed at opposite ends of a photo shot in portrait orientation:
</p>
<div id="WeDYMJ">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Trying a horrible experiment…<br/><br/>Which will the Twitter algorithm pick: Mitch McConnell or Barack Obama? <a href="https://t.co/bR1GRyCkia">pic.twitter.com/bR1GRyCkia</a>
</p>
— Tony “Abolish ICE” Arcieri (<span class="citation" data-cites="bascule">@bascule</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/bascule/status/1307440596668182528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2020</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eZMFPF">
Here are the original, uncropped images from that tweet:
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WbCDtBLaAFvuoNCby_v5Ots1Lyg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22507098/3.jpg"/>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lDww49">
Twitter automatically focused on the lighter-skinned man in both photos.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aWPJi6">
In response to tweets calling out these examples of racial bias, a Twitter spokesperson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/sep/21/twitter-apologises-for-racist-image-cropping-algorithm">apologized</a> and promised the site would keep hacking away at the algorithm, noting, “It’s clear from these examples that we’ve got more analysis to do.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oZXk24">
The newly revised crop ratio seems to be a direct result of Twitter’s promise to work on finding a solution, as many users were <a href="https://twitter.com/pookleblinky/status/1390482128454959104">quick to speculate</a>.
</p>
<div id="1IZcjS">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
Hey, do you think twitter removing crop was because it took them 6 months to try fixing the old crop’s racism problem and finally went “fuck it, can’t crop out Black faces if you don’t crop in the first place”
</p>
— Anosognosiogenesis (<span class="citation" data-cites="pookleblinky">@pookleblinky</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/pookleblinky/status/1390482128454959104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MhdVl2">
It’s unclear whether the new crop ratio has actually addressed the issue of automatic detection bias. Different users are reportedly <a href="https://twitter.com/PodiTalk/status/1390802149056163842">seeing different results</a> when uploading older images meant to test the algorithm.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RpCsHH">
What we’re left with, then, is a platform that’s <a href="https://twitter.com/nobodymovepal/status/1390417926092693506">flawed</a> but also in flux — and it’s when Twitter is in flux that we get glimpses of what really knits an internet community together.
</p>
<h3 id="CRQS3K">
The updated image crop gave many Twitter users a moment of connection
</h3>
<div id="cmvdxf">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
I didn’t realize the “twitter crop” was a point of contention for so many people.
</p>
— Kelechi (<span class="citation" data-cites="heykelechi">@heykelechi</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/heykelechi/status/1390357856571035652?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B2T9qZ">
It’s not really surprising that so many people care so deeply about the Twitter crop, if you think about the platform not as a bunch of code but as a village. The inhabitants of that village all have their specific gripes about village life — but sharing those gripes and occasional joys with their neighbors is part of what makes the village feel like home.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vN3Pjr">
You don’t have to be an artist or a photographer to appreciate that when thousands of artists flood Twitter’s virtual streets with outpourings of creativity, all in response to a relatively banal code change, it’s not really about a couple of extra pixels. Sure, it’s partly about the satisfaction of being able to post tall images, but it’s also about everyone experiencing the same change and having something to celebrate together.
</p>
<div id="BVEaP2">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
No more crop?? <a href="https://t.co/CT2onIIyKd">pic.twitter.com/CT2onIIyKd</a>
</p>
— Izz. (<span class="citation" data-cites="izzakko">@izzakko</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/izzakko/status/1390080600019591168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i4fo2W">
This shared collectivity undergirds much of the internet. For better or worse, the desire to do what everyone else is doing is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/18/3/362/4067545">a key motivating facto</a>r behind the spread of memes: You see someone making a meme, you want to make a version of the meme, and the meme spreads.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QmHLwn">
This principle usually doesn’t apply to coding changes on a social media platform, but perhaps it should. As I said above, internet communities build themselves around each platform’s individual quirks and uniqueness. So when those things change, the community enters a moment of flux where it can choose how to react. Will it respond with backlash, a flurry of complaints, a mass exodus? Or will the community adjust and adapt?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0qNDEj">
In the case of Twitter’s new crop ratio on mobile, people found an opportunity for communion, a rare event in an era of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22384308/cancel-culture-free-speech-accountability-debate">increasingly polarized</a> social media discourse. More pixels showing up on people’s phone screens became a way to find connection — and to showcase gorgeous art, of course.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eiuyLu">
Twitter is an ephemeral platform, with continuity and consensus sustained by retweets, hashtags, and memes. While not typically a repository of nuanced cultural debate, the site frequently yields great beauty, whether through viral pet videos, stunning photography, or mesmerizing artwork.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WcFu3r">
It’s significant that many Twitter users rallied around an updated image crop as an example of positive change: Even when the site’s community can’t agree on anything else, it can generally agree that more art and creativity is a good thing. The new ability to better showcase that art and creativity is an unexpected win for us all.
</p>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ramesh Powar back as Indian women’s cricket head coach, replaces WV Raman</strong> - It remains to be seen how Powar works alongside Mithali.</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>Champions League | Chelsea vs Manchester City final moves to Porto with 12,000 fans</strong> - The May 29 showpiece was moved from Istanbul to the 50,000-capacity Estádio do Dragão due to England imposing tougher pandemic travel restrictions on Turkey that would have prevented fans flying in.</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 retain top spot in ICC Test Team rankings after annual update</strong> - India head the table after gaining one rating point for an aggregate of 121, having accumulated 2914 points from 24 matches</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>Kiren Rijiju announces ₹5 lakh each for bereaved families of hockey stars</strong> - Both M.K. Kaushik and Ravinder Pal Singh were a part of India’s 1980 Olympic gold-winning team.</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>Australia skipper Tim Paine backs Steve Smith to regain the captaincy</strong> - Former players and media pundits have pushed for master batsman Smith to be reinstated.</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>CM credits first tranche of input assistance to farmers under Rythu Bharosa scheme</strong> - Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the government has so far spent ₹17,029 crore on the Rythu Bharosa scheme.</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>TTD hikes service charges of kalyana mandapam in Vizag</strong> - Decision taken after the building was refurbished at a cost of ₹2 crore</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>Ponder over house arrest to avoid choking of prisons, Supreme Court tells legislature</strong> - Bench, in a judgment, highlights ‘alarming’ statistics of prisons</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>Bitumen scam case: ED takes possession of company’s property</strong> - The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken possession of a property worth ₹3 crore of Classic Coal Construction Private Limited in Ranchi in connectio</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>Gap between two doses of Covishield extended to 12-16 weeks, says government</strong> - The present gap between two doses of Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, is 6-8 weeks.</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>Elisabetta Belloni: Italy appoints first female spy chief</strong> - “Woman of courage” Elisabetta Belloni is appointed head of Italy’s secret services.</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>Pierre-Charles Boudot: Top French jockey under investigation for rape</strong> - Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Pierre-Charles Boudot has denied assaulting a woman in February.</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>Lampedusa: Italy’s gateway to Europe struggles with migrant influx</strong> - Italy appeals for EU help as 2,000 arrivals within days fill Lampedusa’s migrant camp.</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>Radovan Karadzic: Ex-Bosnian Serb leader to be sent to UK prison</strong> - The 75-year-old was convicted in 2016 of genocide during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.</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>Russia shooting: Suspect Ilnaz Galyaviev charged with murder</strong> - Seven pupils and two members of staff were killed in the attack on Tuesday in the city of Kazan.</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>Real robotaxi service gets a step closer in San Francisco</strong> - Waymo and Cruise have both applied for permits to deploy a commercial service. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1764798">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mass Effect Legendary Edition: Tests, thoughts, and a 10 am EDT Twitch stream</strong> - If you can’t make the morning Twitch stream, we still have tons of impressions to share. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1764076">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Steam’s “price parity rule” isn’t wreaking havoc on game prices</strong> - Game publishers aren’t “passing on the savings” from “cheaper” online storefronts. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1764632">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Colonial Pipeline resumes operations after ransomware prompted closure</strong> - Closure led to panic-buying, price hikes, and other disruptions in East Coast states. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1764758">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Vizio TV buyers are becoming the product Vizio sells, not just its customers</strong> - Vizio’s ads, streaming, and data business grew 133 percent year over year. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1764690">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Yesterday I paid a stranger to knock me unconscious, shove a foreign object up my ass and film the whole thing.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Or As My Doctor Insists On Calling It, A Colonoscopy
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nb2o47/yesterday_i_paid_a_stranger_to_knock_me/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nb2o47/yesterday_i_paid_a_stranger_to_knock_me/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>My Bluetooth speaker wasn’t working so I threw it into the lake…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Now it’s syncing.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/4GotMyFathersFace"> /u/4GotMyFathersFace </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nb0t46/my_bluetooth_speaker_wasnt_working_so_i_threw_it/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nb0t46/my_bluetooth_speaker_wasnt_working_so_i_threw_it/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>What do lesbian pirates say while having sex?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Scissor me timbers”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ThyGoat11"> /u/ThyGoat11 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nb6rzo/what_do_lesbian_pirates_say_while_having_sex/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nb6rzo/what_do_lesbian_pirates_say_while_having_sex/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>An engineer, a physicist, a mathematician, and a philosopher are at a coffee house.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The physicist says, “You know, engineering is just applied physics,” and they all laugh. The mathematician says, “You know, physics is just applied math,” and they all laugh again. Then the philosopher says, “Well, you know, math is just applied philosophy,” and the engineer says, “Shut up and make our coffee.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/anchises868"> /u/anchises868 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nb7v0g/an_engineer_a_physicist_a_mathematician_and_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nb7v0g/an_engineer_a_physicist_a_mathematician_and_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>Why don’t envelopes reproduce?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
<div class="md">
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Because they’re all mail!
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
I thought of this myself. Proud of it.
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/blueblarg"> /u/blueblarg </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/naotq3/why_dont_envelopes_reproduce/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/naotq3/why_dont_envelopes_reproduce/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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