Tulsa health official: Trump rally ‘likely’ source of virus surge

“In the past few days, we’ve seen almost 500 new cases,” Dr. Bruce Dart said.

COVID-TRUMP (MOVE OVER TYPHOID MARY)

CORONAVIR-USA

IT WAS A SUPER SPREADER EVENT BY THE SUPER SPREADER IN CHIEF

President Donald Trump at the June rally in Tulsa, Okla. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

07/08/2020 07

OKLAHOMA CITY — President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa in late June that drew thousands of participants and large protests “likely contributed” to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said Wednesday.

Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed new cases on Monday, a one-day record high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday. By comparison, during the week before the June 20 Trump rally, there were 76 cases on Monday and 96 on Tuesday.

Although the health department’s policy is to not publicly identify individual settings where people may have contracted the virus, Dart said those large gatherings “more than likely” contributed to the spike.

“In the past few days, we’ve seen almost 500 new cases, and we had several large events just over two weeks ago, so I guess we just connect the dots,” Dart said.

Trump’s Tulsa rally, his first since the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S., attracted thousands of people from around the country. About 6,200 people gathered inside the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena — far fewer than was expected.

Dart had urged the campaign to consider pushing back the date of the rally, fearing a potential surge in the number of coronavirus cases.

Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the campaign went to great lengths to ensure that those who attended the rally were protected.

“There were literally no health precautions to speak of as thousands looted, rioted, and protested in the streets and the media reported that it did not lead to a rise in coronavirus cases,” Murtaugh said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the President’s rally was 18 days ago, all attendees had their temperature checked, everyone was provided a mask, and there was plenty of hand sanitizer available for all.

“It’s obvious that the media’s concern about large gatherings begins and ends with Trump rallies,” he said.

Although masks were provided to rally goers, there was no requirement that participants wear them, and most didn’t.

REMEMBER ME

Shepard Smith joining CNBC as evening news anchor

Smith announced his departure from Fox News last fall after more than two decades at the network.


The addition of Shepard Smith to CNBC’s lineup comes after a New York Times report that the head of NBCUniversal is weighing a rightward turn for the network’s primetime slate. | Richard Drew/AP Photo

 OH JOY AH WELL I HOPE THEY ARE ALL BRAIN DEAD LIKE 

JOE KERNAN ON CNBC SQUAWK BOX 

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO POLITICO 07/08/2020

Shepard Smith, the former Fox News anchor who left the network abruptly last October, will join CNBC, where he will host an hourlong evening newscast beginning in the fall.

CNBC said in a news release on Wednesday that the new show, titled “The News with Shepard Smith,” would air Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. beginning later this year, but that Smith would join the network effective Monday. Smith will have the title of chief general news anchor, chief breaking news anchor and executive editor of his show.

Smith announced his departure from Fox News last fall after more than two decades at the network, stepping down from his role as the network’s chief news anchor and managing editor of the breaking news division. He also anchored “Shepard Smith Reporting” in the 3 p.m. hour for six years.

In his final months at Fox, Smith drew the ire and mockery of President Donald Trump for his unsparing coverage and criticism of the Trump administration, relative to more favorable coverage elsewhere on the network. Smith had also clashed with another personality at the network, engaging in an on-air feud with opinion host Tucker Carlson.

“I am honored to continue to pursue the truth, both for CNBC’s loyal viewers and for those who have been following my reporting for decades in good times and in bad,” Smith said in the press release.

The addition of Smith to CNBC’s lineup comes after a New York Times report that the head of NBCUniversal is weighing a rightward turn for the network’s primetime slate.

In a news release, CNBC Chairman Mark Hoffman called Smith’s forthcoming newscast the “perfect bridge between CNBC’s daytime investor-focused news programming and the network’s aspirational business-oriented entertainment programs in primetime.”

“We aim to deliver a nightly program that, in some small way, looks for the signal in all the noise,” Hoffman said. “We’re thrilled that Shep, who’s built a career on an honest fight to find and report the facts, will continue his pursuit of the truth at CNBC.”

THIRD WORLD USA

Why the U.S. still hasn't solved its testing crisis

The nation has conducted more than 4 million tests in the past week, more than ever before.

A healthcare worker administers a coronavirus test in Tampa, Florida. | Octavio Jones/Getty Images

By DAVID LIM and ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN

07/05/2020 

The United States still doesn’t have a handle on testing six months into the coronavirus pandemic.

The nation has conducted more than 4 million tests in the past week, more than ever before. But big jumps in testing capacity have been effectively erased by record-breaking increases in new infections as states reopen their economies. The supply chain problems that hampered testing early on never entirely went away and still threaten the ability of labs to conduct testing for everyone asking.

The renewed testing crisis threatens federal and state officials’ ability to quell an outbreak that public health experts say could spin out of control in the coming months.

Here are five reasons the U.S. still doesn’t have enough testing to safely reopen:
The supply chain is still a problem.

Commercial labs across the country are still having trouble getting adequate stocks of reagents, the chemicals they use to prepare samples for testing. Disposable pipette tips, which labs use to transfer samples from transport containers into testing machines, are emerging as another issue, said Julie Khani, president of the American Clinical Laboratory Association.

“There are labs that are going to be faced with stopping collecting of samples altogether, or limiting samples to high-risk populations for example,” Khani said. “These are the really difficult challenges that are facing laboratories. We’re doing everything we can do to avoid that.”

And 22 percent of the nation’s public health labs said in late June that they had a week’s supply or less of reagents and other crucial testing components.

Disruptions in any part of the long supply chain for testing materials can quickly lead to bottlenecks, labs and public health experts warn. And some states say federal efforts to distribute testing supplies have sometimes created more work.

The Trump administration has on multiple occasions sent Washington state testing supplies that were badly packaged, unlabeled, incompatible with the state’s equipment or otherwise unusable, the state’s health secretary, John Wiesman, wrote in a letter this week to Health and Human Services testing czar Brett Giroir.

In one case, the federal government sent 250,000 testing swabs packaged in bulk that the state then had to sterilize and repackage, Wiesman wrote in the letter, obtained by POLITICO. Though the letter thanks the administration for the supply distribution effort and says things are much better than the severe shortages the state experienced earlier this year, it notes that ongoing supply problems “threaten to limit our overall testing capacity at a critical time in the pandemic response."
Reopening has increased demand

Samples are piling up faster than labs can analyze them, which is lengthening turnaround times for results — complicating efforts to contain the virus.

But the soaring rates of new infections across the country are just one part of the equation. Part of the rising demand is the result of a recent push to test residents of prisons and nursing homes, who are especially vulnerable if the virus starts spreading in their facilities, Giroir told reporters Wednesday. Some businesses are also conducting mass testing of their workers and hospitals are testing people undergoing elective surgeries.

And if states’ reopening plans reach the point where travel returns to a normal volume, that could drive up the need for tests ⁠— potentially pitting visitors against residents in places like Hawaii. “We can complete between 5,000 and 7,000 tests per day, which we feel is adequate in terms of managing the disease,” Hawaii Gov. David Ige told POLITICO. “But reopening will create a real dilemma and testing challenge for us once we get anywhere close to a normal volume of tourism.”

In recent weeks, federal officials have said they are exploring a strategy called sample pooling to help preserve testing supplies while expanding capacity. The strategy combines samples from multiple people and tests them as a group. If the result comes back positive, each person in the group is tested individually.

“My assessment is that the data is very strong that pools of at least five and up to 10 are going to be highly validatable and can be put into use,” Giroir said. “By the time the universities get back, I think pooling will be very mature.”

China and some other countries have already used pooling to screen large numbers of people. In late May, the city of Wuhan tested millions of its citizens this way to help stamp out cases before they caused a second wave of infections.

But pooling isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, says Scott Becker, CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. The approach works best in areas where coronavirus prevalence is low, the number of samples in a pool is limited and high-quality labs conduct the testing, he said. “I am concerned as I was with [antibody tests] that the policy and the regulatory side may be getting ahead of quality,” Becker added.

THE VACCINE RACE THE NEW COLD WAR

The Dangerous Race for the Covid Vaccine

The international competition for a coronavirus vaccine harkens back to the golden age of Edison and the Wright Brothers. But excesses of national pride and one-upmanship are threatening to overwhelm the common good.


Illustration by Elzo Durt

LONG READ FEATURE ARTICLE

By ELIZABETH RALPH 07/07/2020
Elizabeth Ralph is deputy editor at Politico Magazine.


Michael Piontek believes his native Germany is putting too much money on one vaccine.

The reason is Donald Trump.

In June, Germany paid a whopping sum for a large stake in German drugmaker CureVac, which was developing a Covid-19 vaccine. Piontek was shocked. “Why CureVac?” he thought. The company’s vaccine is based on promising but untried and untested technology and its manufacturing capacities are limited

But, months earlier, the American president had insulted German pride by musing about paying CureVac to relocate to the United States. The offer, first reported in the German press under the headline “Trump vs. Berlin,” set off outrage in the Bundestag, elicited cries of “Germany is not for sale!” and led the government to shell out 300 million euros for 23 percent of the firm—an unprecedented move.

Piontek, whose biotech firm is also developing a Covid-19 vaccine, says Germany would have done better to invest in multiple companies with different approaches. “Betting on one horse,” he says, is a mistake.

The strange fate of CureVac shows just how much national pride is defining the lines of the global race for the Covid-19 vaccine. While scientists try to collaborate across national boundaries, national leaders are caught up in an old-fashioned game of one-upmanship—a competition that is driving, and in some cases complicating, the most consequential medical challenge of the 21st century. Public health experts say we should be worried.


Top: CureVac main shareholder Dietmar Hopp, left, and CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas, right, during a news conference with German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier on June 15, 2020. Below: The CureVac headquarters in Tubingen, Germany. | AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, Pool; Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
In China, where a vaccine victory could turn a country that started the virus’ spread into the savior of the world, the virologist and major general leading the country’s vaccine project has been hailed as a “goddess” on social media. “If China is the first to develop this weapon with its own intellectual property rights, it will demonstrate not only the progress of Chinese science and technology, but also our image as a major power,” she said on state TV in March.

In June, following fears that the U.S. could get first access to a vaccine produced by French pharma giant Sanofi, President Emmanuel Macron announced that Sanofi would be dramatically ramping up operations in France to put “Sanofi and France at the heart of excellence in the fight … to find a vaccine.” Invoking the “genius of Louis Pasteur,” Marcon hailed France as “a great vaccine country.”






The world is waiting on a coronavirus vaccine. We're tracking the global competition, the research and development, the rollout plan and how effective the vaccine will be.
Full coverage »



Meanwhile, across the English Channel, Britain is celebrating the news that its own Oxford scientists are “sprinting fastest” to develop a vaccine, in the words of an April 27 New York Times article—though the news site Irish Central took pains to point out that the lead scientist is Irish, not English.

And then there’s Trump, who stood in the Rose Garden in May and stated definitively that “America is blessed to have the most brilliant, talented doctors and researchers anywhere in the world. And now we’re combining all of these amazing strengths for the most aggressive vaccine project in history. There’s never been a vaccine project anywhere in history like this.”

President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 29, 2020. | AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Some think the contest recalls the antagonistic days of the Cold War—“a sputnik moment,” says biotech investor Brad Loncar. Others see parallels to the dash to invent a marketable light bulb—an American discovery that stunned Europe and put the United States on the map as a center of innovation. As coronavirus cases mount around the world and economies continue to limp through lockdowns, nations are not just competing for first access to the vaccine, they’re also hoping to claim victory in a race that would affirm their national identities, resourcefulness and power—proving that their character, systems and intellect are superior.


MOST READ




“This national-type race is something that has been around for maybe 200 years at least,” says Naomi Rogers, a history of medicine professor at Yale University. “It’s an incredible coup to have somebody in your country develop something that has such incredible global significance. It’s hard not to feel that their discovery … was the result of the special training that they received in that country, the special resources that they were able to access in that country.”

“It’s an incredible coup to have somebody in your country develop something that has such incredible global significance. It’s hard not to feel that their discovery … was the result of the special training that they received in that country, the special resources that they were able to access in that country.”
Naomi Rogers

Visible, prominent scientific achievements “reflect across a country’s political system, its economic system, its educational system,” says Jason Schwartz, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, becoming “a beacon for how countries view themselves and … how they want to be viewed around the world.”

In eras of great power competition, like today, these victories take on special significance, no matter how minuscule the achievement or how tangible the benefits. “It’s like the difference between the Soviet and American [Olympic] medal count during the Cold War,” when competition was intense, and during the 1990s, “when nobody really cared,” says James Carafano, a national security expert at the Heritage Foundation.


The American, Soviet and Norwegian flags are raised at an Olympic medal ceremony in Austria on Feb. 4, 1964. | AP File Photo

Today, eyes are on the not-quite-cold-war rivalry between China and the United States, who have been trading blame for the current pandemic. Beijing is gunning to eclipse the U.S. as the world leader in biotech and has put the full weight of the state behind the country’s vaccine candidates. Of the 10 vaccines currently in clinical trials globally, five are from China, according to the World Health Organization. “For China, it would be awesome to be first,” says Carafano, even if the benefits are ephemeral—so much so that Chinese hackers have, according to the FBI, been attempting to steal U.S. vaccine research to get there.

Meanwhile in the U.S., months out from a presidential election, Trump is relying on the government’s Operation Warp Speed to deliver a Covid-19 vaccine by January 2021—a feat that “will be one of the greatest scientific and humanitarian accomplishments in history,” according to the administration. Warp Speed is pouring billions into vaccine candidates around the world, except in China.

Patriotic competitions, however, have dark sides. Friendly races can spur scientists to innovate better and faster, but experts in public health, biotech and national security see many ways today’s vaccine nationalism might backfire. It can scramble priorities and lead to bad bets, as Piontek fears. It can goad countries to cheat and take shortcuts, ultimately rolling back progress. A “me first” attitude can also undermine global health. “The danger in vaccine nationalism is that it’s not a race to the top, and of sharing, but it’s some sort of zero-sum game,” warns Ian Goldin, a professor of globalization and development at Oxford University. “That’s what we need to guard against.”


“The danger in vaccine nationalism is that it’s not a race to the top, but it’s some sort of zero-sum game.”
Ian Goldin

Loncar doesn’t see much of a way out. “One thing that the whole Covid-19 event has taught the world is how important biotech is to society,” he says. From now on, “governments are going to view their biotech industries as a component of national security.”

The “unprecedented” CureVac investment, he says, is just the beginning of a new era of global competition.

READ ON https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/07/07/vaccine-race-covid-national-pride-348072

Harvard, MIT file suit over Trump administration visa rule for international students

The suit says that "the effect — and perhaps even the goal — is to create as much chaos for universities and international students as possible."

The Harvard University campus. | Maddie Meyer/Getty Images


By JUAN PEREZ JR. POLITICO 07/08/2020 

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed suit Wednesday against DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in an attempt to halt a proposed federal policy that could deport international students taking online-only courses at U.S. colleges.

Harvard plans to teach its students online in the fall, though the school plans to invite up to 40 percent of its undergraduates back to campus. MIT plans a hybrid on-campus and online program for the 2020-21 academic year. The government's proposal is still being finalized, but could affect a swath of other schools struggling to reopen their doors while the coronavirus pandemic continues.

Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber said the school would file an amicus brief for the lawsuit, while also “exploring other legal and policy options.” Yale President Peter Salovey, meanwhile, said his institution was working to "understand the full implications of DHS’s guidance."

A trio of other major universities — Arizona State, Michigan and the University of Southern California — have expressed confidence that their plans for the fall won't affect foreign students.

ICE said the proposed policy is intended to “maximize flexibility for students to continue their studies, while minimizing the risk of transmission of COVID-19 by not admitting students into the country who do not need to be present to attend classes in-person.”

“The policy speaks for itself," White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday. "You don’t get a visa for taking online classes from, let’s say, the University of Phoenix. So why would you if you were just taking online classes generally?"

Responding to the lawsuit by Harvard and MIT, she said: “Perhaps the better lawsuit would be coming from students who have to pay full tuition with no access to in person classes to attend.”

Schools planning to offer entirely online classes or programs, or that don't plan to reopen for the fall 2020 semester, must submit their plans to ICE by next week. Institutions planning to reopen with adjusted calendars or a hybrid of in-person and remote classes must do the same by the beginning of August.

The colleges argued in their complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, that "ICE’s decision reflects an effort by the federal government to force universities to reopen in-person classes." The Trump administration has been pushing hard for both colleges and K-12 schools to fully physically reopen.

The suit says that "the effect — and perhaps even the goal — is to create as much chaos for universities and international students as possible."

Both schools argue the government's proposed policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act, and are asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order and injunctions that bar the government from enforcing its planned policy or enshrining it as a required rule.

International students expressed shock as news of the Trump administration’s planned changes to policies for foreign scholars in the U.S. on visas filtered through group chats and Facebook posts this week.

“The announced changes are heartless, senseless, and damaging: they needlessly put international students at risk without serving any legitimate policy objective,” Princeton's Eisgruber said in a statement. “ICE’s announcement is policymaking at its worst: cruel, opaque, and arbitrary.”

Carly Sitrin contributed to this report

Congress wary on future aid as well-connected businesses rake in millions

The numerous anecdotes and controversies pouring out of the Paycheck Protection Program loan data are shaping lobbying efforts around the next economic relief package.


Sen. Ron Johnson is among the bipartisan group of lawmakers calling for tighter restrictions on future aid. | Samuel Corum/Getty Images


By ZACHARY WARMBRODT POLITICO 07/07/2020


The revelation that well-heeled businesses and nonprofits benefited from emergency small business loans is making it more likely that Congress will impose new limits on aid in its next rescue plan for employers and workers.

The Trump administration disclosed Monday that the recipients of the more than $521 billion in forgivable loans included top lobbying and law firms, private equity-backed restaurant chains like P.F. Chang’s, investment companies and even Kanye West’s clothing brand. Though $130 billion remains uncommitted under the so-called Paycheck Protection Program, it's rekindling long-running concerns about the degree to which businesses with ample sources of financing are getting government-backed support while smaller employers continue to struggle.

"It’s important for taxpayers and for the administration to ask whether some of these companies followed the rules," Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah) said Tuesday. "Moving forward, Congress should ensure that the affected small businesses receive the assistance they need – not celebrity clothing lines or companies already determined to be ineligible.”

POLITICO DISPATCH: JULY 8

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in families considered food insecure — and that’s true across demographic groups. But for Black and Hispanic families, the numbers are unprecedented.

Lawmakers negotiating the next round of small business aid were already discussing ways to target funds at employers that were hit hardest by the pandemic-induced shutdown even before the data was released. But the disclosures are spurring new calls for oversight of whether many of the program's loan recipients should have received the money. The loans have proved attractive to businesses of all sizes because they can be forgiven if employers maintain their payrolls. If they don't, they remain loans with a 1 percent interest rate.

The extraordinary aid program is widely lauded as an overall success after delivering emergency funds to nearly 4.9 million borrowers in less than three months, with 86.5 percent of businesses taking loans of less than $150,000. Defenders of the program's rocky rollout — including its shifting guidelines on who should receive the money — say it was the price to pay to keep workers attached to their jobs in rapid fashion.

Still, the numerous anecdotes and controversies pouring out of the Paycheck Protection Program loan data are shaping lobbying efforts around the next economic relief package that Congress is expected to take up later this month.

"It's straightforward," said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "Big businesses that can keep people on the payroll without a PPP loan should not get one. The purpose of these taxpayer dollars going out the door was to ensure that entities that truly needed money to keep regular Americans employed received it. "



CONGRESS
New data shows lawmakers secured millions in small-business aid


BY MELANIE ZANONA, ZACHARY WARMBRODT AND SAM MINTZ

Even the champions of the program have started arguing that it's time for a major overhaul. Linking the delivery of aid with demonstrated need is a key feature lawmakers are considering as they draft ideas for what to do beyond the initial iteration of the program, which closes to new loans on Aug. 8.

Senate Small Business Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a key architect of the program, has floated plans for new types of loans that would be available to businesses that employ 300 or fewer employees and can prove that they suffered significant revenue losses this year. One of his proposals for a long-term loan would focus on seasonal employers, businesses that make at least half of their profit in a low-income community, as well as manufacturers and hotels. Rubio's plan included $25 billion set aside for businesses that employ 10 or fewer people.




A bipartisan group of lawmakers who want to let businesses apply for second Paycheck Protection Program loans are also proposing that the additional aid be limited to the smallest businesses that took hits to revenue.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is among those calling for tighter restrictions on the flow of loan funds. In June, he slowed efforts in Congress to loosen the program's rules after warning that lawmakers should also enact reforms to prevent funds from going to organizations that didn't need them. He appears to have won over Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who said last month he agreed with Johnson that under the Paycheck Protection Program there should be "very specific criteria" that money goes to companies that need the help.

Johnson told POLITICO in an interview that he prefers Congress set the threshold based on businesses' profitability this year.

"We had to do something fast, we had to do something massive," Johnson said. "We knew that it was going to be far from perfect. But now we have more time and we really can provide greater direction and better targeting in terms of what the aid needs to be."

It would be a big change from the way Congress first designed the program. While it was aimed at businesses with fewer employees, it included exceptions for large restaurant and hotel chains to tap into the funds. The loan application doesn't require borrowers to prove hardship outside of a self-certification that "current economic uncertainty" made the loan necessary to support ongoing operations. After a public backlash when several large, publicly traded companies disclosed receiving the loans, the Trump administration tried to deter further takeup by the biggest corporations by threatening penalties and audits

The plight of small businesses is even more popular in American politics than apple pie," said Aaron Klein, a Brookings Institution fellow and former chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee. "The hidden truth is that lots of large businesses fit under the legal definitions of small business. The new data release crystallizes to the American public in every community around the country that recipients of millions of dollars in PPP money were not small, local stores but rather big enterprises with deep pockets who took advantage of free government money."

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Small Business Committee, told POLITICO in an interview that the next phase of small business support would concentrate on employers at smaller businesses as well as underbanked, minority and rural businesses.

"It's going to be based upon need," Cardin said. "There's going to be a revenue loss standard for businesses that qualify. It won't be the type of self-certification you saw in the first round and basically allowing almost any small business to qualify for funding."

Amanda Fischer, policy director at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, said Congress needs to consider "structural changes to get money into the hands of the most vulnerable small businesses." Fischer said she sees the possibility of Congress tightening eligibility rules or making some firms pay back the money.

"For example, some reporting showed that private equity portfolio firms gamed rules to gain access when they were otherwise prohibited," she said. "Hedge funds also received some PPP funds. This clearly was not the congressional intent."

The disclosures have given new ammunition to consumer advocates who are arguing that the program's reliance on banks to deliver the aid has benefited the well-connected while leaving the smallest businesses — including those owned by people of color — without access.

Ashley Harrington, federal advocacy director at the Center for Responsible Lending, said Congress should consider direct grants instead of using banks as intermediaries.

"The question is not just did they deserve the loans, did they need the loans," she said. "But they had access that other communities did not have. That's something we need to recognize and address when we think about what small business relief looks like going forward."

Cerne Abbas chalk giant is not prehistoric, snail remains suggest

Famous 180ft figure on Dorset hillside may only be a few hundred years old, new analysis findsChris Baynes

Archaeologists began work to establish the Cerne Abbas Giant's age this year but have tests have been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic ( PA )

An ancient naked man sculpted into a chalk hillside in Dorset is unlikely to be prehistoric as was once believed, archaeologists have said.

The Cerne Abbas giant may only be a few hundred years old, say researchers whose investigations into the age of the 180ft figure received assistance from a surprising source: snails.

Shells unearthed at the site of Britain’s largest chalk figure – depicted brandishing a club and, notoriously, a 35ft erect penis – indicate the artwork could not have been carved any earlier than medieval times, they added.

Fragments of snail species that first arrived in the country in the 13th and 14th centuries were discovered in soil samples contemporaneous with the giant.

The National Trust, which owns the site, and researchers from the University of Gloucestershire began tests earlier this year to determine the age of the giant, whose origins and purpose remain shrouded in mystery.

Tests of soil samples extracted from the hillside have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, with results not expected until later this year.

But separate analysis by environmental archaeologist Mike Allen of tiny snail shell fragments found at the site suggest the giant “may have been a rather more recent addition to the Dorset landscape than some have suggested”.

No trace of species brought over by the Romans from France as food were found at the site, but microscopic fragments of snails thought to have arrived accidentally in packing straw from Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries were discovered.

This suggests the figure “may not be prehistoric, nor even Roman, but may belong to more recent times”, wrote Mr Allen and the National Trust’s Martin Papworth in the magazine Current Archaeology.

A National Trust spokesperson told The Independent the archaeologists had made “tentative early suggestions about the age of the Cerne Abbas giant” but that “full analysis is ongoing and results will be made available as soon as possible”.

Mr Papworth said full soil sample test results would likely indicate “a date range, rather than a specific age, but we hope they will help us better understand, and care for, this famous landmark”.

The earliest recorded mention of the giant, gifted to the National Trust by the Pitt-Rivers family 100 years ago, was in 1694.

Theories about its origins range from an ancient fertility symbol and likeness of Greco-Roman hero Hercules to a caricature of Oliver Cromwell.

Brian Edwards, a historian at UWE Bristol, suggested the artwork may have been created in the late 17th century by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the future third Earl of Shaftesbury, and used as a propaganda tool depicting King William III as Herculean.

Other researchers believe the giant could have been carved by local landowner and MP, Baron Holles of Ifield, a bitter foe of Cromwell, and see the club as a reference to repressive rule and the phallus a mockery of the republican leader’s Puritanism.

Gordon Bishop, chair of the Cerne Historical Society, previously said Cerne Abbbas villagers were keen to know the truth about the local landmark.

“Although there are some who would prefer the giant’s age and origins to remain a mystery, I think the majority would like to know at least whether he is ancient or no more than a few hundred years old. Whichever may be the case, he is unique,” he said.

SO WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS A BUNCH OF MEDIEVAL VANDALS CREATED A GIANT PIECE OF GRAFFITI ON THE HILLSIDE TO PUZZLE THE FOLKS LIKE MODERN CROP CIRCLES DO 

Texas on track for driest conditions of the last 1,000 YEARS due to climate change with certain parts facing megadroughts, new study warns

Researchers used advanced climate models to predict the future of Texas

The data shows the state could face driest conditions of the past 1,000 years

West Texas could experience decreased rainfall and increased temperatures

The predictions are set to occur in the Lone Star State by the end of the century
By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 8 July 2020

Scientists warn Texas, which is home to some 29 million Americans, could be plagued with extreme heat due to future climate change.

The stark warning comes as climate models reveal the state could face its driest conditions of the past 1,000 years by the end of the century.

Western areas are likely to be hit with a 'double whammy' of decreased rainfall and increased temperatures that result in a megadrought.

All of these events combined could deplete Texas' water supply, leading experts to call on officials to prepare a 100-year water source plan.

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Scientists warn Texas, which is home to some 29 million Americans, could be plagued with extreme heat due to future climate change. The stark warning comes as climate models reveal the state could face its driest conditions of the past 1,000 years by the end of the century

A team at Texas A&M University released the climate study, which used advanced models that project drought conditions.

John Nielsen-Gammon, director of the Texas Center for Climate Studies and the Texas State Climatologist, said: 'Our study shows that the drier conditions expected in the latter half of the 21st century could be drier than any of those megadroughts, depending on how you measure dryness.'


He also noted that the state was much wetter following the last Ice Age some 15,000 years ago, but has since remained the current climate Texas experiences today.

Droughts have been a major player in Texas' history and an event in the 1950s still holds the 'drought record' and still remains the worst in the past 125 years.


All of these events combined could deplete Texas' water supply, leading experts to call on officials to prepare a 100-year water source plan. Certain areas of Texas are already experiencing extreme temperatures

However, the new model takes climate change into account, which would dramatically deplete water supplies, leading the state into a devastating drought.

'The state water plan doesn't explicitly consider climate change in figuring out how water supply and water demand will both change,' Nielsen-Gammon said.

'As our paper points out, pinning numbers on either of those changes is a difficult challenge, and it's not simply a matter of estimating changes in precipitation.

'Tying future water supply to criteria established by the drought of record is a defensible choice, but policymakers should be aware that the chances of exceeding the drought of record are probably increasing year by year.'

The reports also reveals that the western regions are vulnerable to megadroughts.

'West Texas seems most likely to get a double whammy: decreased rainfall and increased temperatures,' Nielsen-Gammon said.

'Even though rainfall has increased statewide over the past century by about 10 percent, West Texas has seen little to no increase.'

Researches are confident that Texas will continue a path of hotter drier conditions, as any long-term changes in precipitation will be 'dwarfed' by how much more evaporation will deplete the water supply. Pictured is a bed of Lake Austin that has dried up

'West Texas is already planning for what happens as one or more critical aquifers get depleted.'

'Climate change is going to make that depletion happen a little bit faster, but the decline of the Ogallala Aquifer is primarily caused by water extraction for irrigation rather than by climate change.'

Researches are confident that Texas will continue a path of hotter drier conditions, as any long-term changes in precipitation will be 'dwarfed' by how much more evaporation will deplete the water supply.

However, droughts are temporary by definition, so it would not be correct to think of the future as a state of permanent drought, Nielsen-Gammon said.

'It's really a change in the climate, with the normally dry conditions in West Texas slowly migrating toward East Texas,' he said.

Climate change increases possibility of drought in US (related)

United sending layoff notices to nearly half of U.S. employees

FILE – In this March 25, 2020 file photo, United Airlines planes are parked at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. United Airlines will send layoff warnings to 36,000 employees – nearly half its U.S. staff – in the clearest signal yet of how deeply the virus outbreak is hurting the airline industry. United officials said Wednesday, July 8 that they still hope to limit the number of layoffs by offering early retirement, but they have to send notices this month to comply with a law requiring that workers get 60 days’ notice ahead of mass job cuts. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
By ASSOCIATED PRESS |PUBLISHED: July 8, 2020

By DAVID KOENIG

United Airlines is warning 36,000 employees – nearly half its U.S. staff – they could be furloughed in October, the clearest signal yet of how deeply the virus pandemic is hurting the airline industry.

The outlook for a recovery in air travel has dimmed in just the past two weeks, as infection rates rise in much of the U.S. and some states impose new quarantine requirements on travelers.

United officials said Wednesday that they still hope to limit the number of layoffs by offering early retirement benefits, and that 36,000 is a worst-case scenario. The notices going to employees this month are meant to comply with a 60-day warning ahead of mass job cuts.


The furloughs could include up to 15,000 flight attendants, 11,000 customer service and gate agents, 5,500 maintenance workers and 2,250 pilots.

“The United Airlines projected furlough numbers are a gut punch, but they are also the most honest assessment we’ve seen on the state of the industry,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. “This crisis dwarfs all others in aviation history, and there’s no end in sight.”

If United carries through on the notices, furloughs would take effect on or shortly after Oct. 1. United can’t lay off workers before then as a condition of the $5 billion it got as its share of $25 billion in federal aid to help airlines cover payroll costs.

The flight attendants’ union and other airline labor groups are lobbying Congress for another $25 billion to protect jobs through next March. But a senior United executive expressed doubt that Congress would approve the spending in an election year.

United has already cut capital spending by $2.5 billion and convinced thousands of employees to take unpaid leave. It has hoarded cash after raising billions in new borrowing – including mortgaging its MileagePlus frequent-flyer program.


But with ticket sales sagging again, the Chicago-based airline is still losing about $40 million a day, executives said.

Layoffs are “the last option left to protect the long-term interests of the company,” said the senior United official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.

Executives said the notices covered 45% of the airline’s U.S. staff, most of whom are represented by unions. They would have reinstatement rights if United’s fortunes improve. Another 1,300 management and support staff will be laid off Oct. 1, the company said. Including international employees, United has a work force of about 95,000.

Air travel in the U.S. plunged about 95% from March 1 until mid-April, then began a slow recovery. The number of U.S. air travelers around the July 4 weekend was the highest since mid-March, but was still down about 70% from a year ago.

In recent weeks, the number of new reported cases of COVID-19 has roughly doubled to about 50,000 a day. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Chicago have announced that people arriving from states with high infection rates will have to quarantine, throwing up a new roadblock to travel.

United’s traffic at its hub in Newark, New Jersey, has slumped more deeply than the rest of its network since those quarantine rules were announced.

Executives of other airlines have predicted their companies will be much smaller, with fewer employees, in October.

Delta Air Lines recently told employees that it will send layoff notices to more than 2,500 of its 14,000 pilots. Germany’s Lufthansa has warned that it might cut 22,000 jobs, and Air France last week announced plans to eliminate 7,500 jobs.

United Airlines issues notice of a potential layoff to 36,000 employees

Wajeeh Khan  8th July, 18:00


United Airlines issues notice of a potential layoff to 36,000 employees .
The U.S. airline says it will prioritise voluntary measures to cut its workforce.
Labour unions want U.S. Congress to extend payroll support until March.

As of December 2019, United Airlines had a global workforce of 96,000 employees. The air carrier is currently in talks with its labour union for pilots over early retirements. Multiple labour union, including the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), requested the U.S. Congress last month to consider extending its payroll support for airlines until end of March 2021.

United performed slightly upbeat in the stock market in 2019 with an annual gain of about 7%. At the time of writing, the Chicago-headquartered company is valued at £7.25 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 8.55.

Ancient DNA suggests early migrants to the Caribbean may have come from several places, including perhaps North America.  

Ancient DNA reveals diverse origins of Caribbean’s earliest inhabitants

By Lizzie Wade Jun. 4, 2020

The Caribbean, which today includes a diverse mix of human cultures, was one of the last places in the Americas occupied by people. Yet researchers don’t know precisely where these early migrants came from when they arrived somewhere between 8000 and 5000 years ago. Now, ancient DNA suggests the deep history of the Caribbean includes complex tales of migration and mingling, including how descendants of the first waves of inhabitants interacted with newcomers who arrived beginning 2800 years ago.

“I’m thrilled to see the time span they were able to cover,” says Jada Benn Torres, a genetic anthropologist at Vanderbilt University who wasn’t involved in the new research. Genetic material decays quickly in tropical environments, she notes, and only a handful of genomes from precolonial Caribbean people had been sequenced prior to the new work.

Archaeologists divide precolonial Caribbean history into two eras: the Archaic Age, which includes the region’s early settlements and stretches back 8000 years on some islands, and the Ceramic Age, which began about 2800 years ago. In this latter age, an apparent wave of new arrivals from northern South America brought different styles of pottery and a lifestyle that depended more on agriculture to the islands, according to previous archaeological and genetic research.

But the origins of the Archaic Age peoples remained unclear. A team of mostly European and Caribbean researchers analyzed the DNA of 52 individuals from seven Archaic Age archaeological sites on Cuba, spanning from 3200 years ago to 700 years ago. They found evidence of at least two genetic groups, they report today in Science. That suggests these groups came from different places. “This is the first time that we can actually say that these [early inhabitants] were not only culturally diverse, but also biologically diverse,” says Yadira Chinique de Armas, an archaeologist at the University of Winnipeg and an author of the paper.

One individual showed a genetic similarity to Indigenous people who lived on California’s Channel Islands 5000 years ago, raising the possibility that some of the Caribbean’s earliest inhabitants may have originally hailed from North America or Central America. But researchers need additional genomes from ancient people who lived in places like Florida and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula to know for sure, says Kathrin Nägele, an archaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the paper’s first author.

Another big question is what happened when Archaic Age groups met the Ceramic Age newcomers after 2800 years ago. The Science paper found just one person, from Puerto Rico, who shows mixed Ceramic Age and Archaic Age admixture. Another paper on ancient DNA from the Caribbean, posted this week on bioRxiv, examined 184 early Caribbean inhabitants and found two people who had a mix of genes from both Ceramic Age and Archaic Age peoples. Both individuals lived on Hispaniola, the island that today includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It’s rare to see so little genetic mixing between groups once they meet, says Hannes Schroeder, an ancient DNA researcher at the University of Copenhagen. “We need more individuals from those crucial places in order to really have an idea as to how widespread [this genetic mixing] was.”

The studies are “both really novel contributions,” says Jorge Ulloa Hung, an archaeologist at the Museum of the Dominican Man and the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, who wasn’t involved in either one. Traditional models of Caribbean history, influenced by the views of European colonizers, erased the region’s complexity and diversity. But the new genetic work shows “the Caribbean was potentially always a mosaic” of cultures, origins, and ancestries.

doi:10.1126/science.abd16