Monday, August 10, 2020

Some Canadians are trying to deter US visitors fleeing the coronavirus by vandalizing cars with American license plates.

BUT WE ARE POLITE, WE LEAVE A SORRY NOTE

OK, NO WE AREN'T

Gabby Landsverk

US Customs officers stand beside a sign saying that the US border is closed at the US/Canada border in Lansdowne, Ontario, on March 22, 2020.

LARS HAGBERG/AFP via Getty Images

In Canada, cars with American licensed plates have been vandalized, and their drivers subject to harassment, according to the New York Times.

Canadians have reportedly been acting hostile toward Americans to deter them from sneaking into Canada illegally, as borders are closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The conflict highlights stark differences in how Canada and the US have handled the coronavirus outbreak, with over 5 million American cases of COVID-19 to Canada's 121,000 as of August 9.

Despite Canada's reputation for politeness, some American drivers are seeing a different side to their northern neighbors.

Vandals have begun targeting cars with US license plates in Canada, keying or otherwise damaging the vehicles and harassing the drivers, according to the New York Times.

The hostility against American drivers (or those perceived as such) has been so prevalent that John Horgan, premier of British Columbia, has advised those driving with US license plates to consider changing them or travel by public transit or bicycle instead, the Times reported.

The vitriol against Americans has spilled over onto some legal residents of Canada who drive cars with US license plates, several of whom have been harassed or had their vehicles damaged, according to CBC News.

The US-Canada land border has been closed to tourists since March 31 to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

That hasn't prevented some Americans from trying to sneak into the country anyway, risking serious fines. So many Americans were violating the cross-country travel rules in recent months that the Canadian government tightened its policies, limiting where foreign nationals can enter the country and how long they can travel through en route to destinations such as Alaska.

The US has fared much worse than Canada in fighting COVID-19

Canadians' reluctance to accept American travelers right now is in part due to the stark difference in coronavirus case numbers between nations: the US has reported more than 5 million coronavirus cases as of August 9, while Canada has had just over 121,000 cases, according to John Hopkins data.

The US's numbers are far worse, too, when accounting for population. Canada has experienced 24.35 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people, compared to 49.65 in the US, according to Johns Hopkins data.

The ongoing prevalence of Americans COVID-19 cases has led some Canadian lawmakers to cite the US as an example of what not to do.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said certain US states have "reckless" and "careless" in handling the pandemic, re-opening business, and returning to public life before it was safe to do so, Business Insider previously reported.

"You see what's happening down in the states, you look at Florida, you look at Texas, Arizona, California — I don't want to be those states," he said.

Researchers studied 14 types of masks to see which offered the most protection — and found that neck fleeces might actually make things worse

Inyoung Choi
Aug 9, 2020,

Ross Chastain wearing a neck fleece while waiting on the grid before the NASCAR Xfinity Series Shady Rays 200 at Kentucky Speedway on July 9 in Sparta, Kentucky. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Researchers at Duke University studied the efficacy of face masks ranging from surgical masks to homemade alternatives like cotton masks, neck fleeces, and bandanas.

The researchers found that while some of the homemade alternative masks offered similar levels of protection from viral particles as surgical masks, neck fleeces and bandanas provided little protection.

They said that wearing a neck fleece actually led to more respiratory droplets than not wearing a mask at all, which "might be counterproductive."

New research by a group of scholars at Duke University compared 14 types of masks to see which would be the most effective at reducing the spread of the coronavirus.

One of them, they found, effectively made things worse.

The researchers tested how effective each mask was at reducing the number of respiratory droplets transmitted during speech — the kinds likely to carry viral particles.

They tested surgical masks, N95 masks, cotton masks, and polypropylene masks, as well as homemade alternatives such as neck fleeces and bandanas. The study involved a test group of people speaking 10 times while wearing each of these masks and a control group of people not wearing any masks.

The researchers found that most of the masks reduced the number of respiratory droplets transmitted compared with the control group, adding to the body of evidence that masks are important in helping to limit the spread of the coronavirus. They found that polypropylene masks transmitted a similar number of droplets as surgical and N95 masks, which transmitted the fewest droplets.

The neck fleece and bandanas, however, had higher counts of respiratory droplets. In fact, the researchers found that the neck fleece increased the number of respiratory droplets by creating several smaller droplets from larger ones, resulting in more droplets than not wearing masks at all.

The study said that since smaller droplets can stay in the air longer than larger droplets, a neck fleece "might be counterproductive."

"We were extremely surprised to find that the number of particles measured with the fleece actually exceeded the number of particles measured without wearing any mask," Martin Fischer, one of the study's authors, told CNN. "We want to emphasize that we really encourage people to wear masks, but we want them to wear masks that actually work."

US WeChat ban could cut global iPhone shipments by 30%, says Ming-Chi Kuo

CUTTING NOSE TO SPITE FACE
LAO TZETZE

By William Gallagher

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has warned investors that the Administration's decision to ban US companies from having business relationships with firms including WeChat, may have a significant impact on Apple's sales worldwide.

In a research note seen by AppleInsider, Kuo cautions that the ban means WeChat being removed from the App Store worldwide. Even if the ban solely meant its removal for users in China, however, the mass popularity of WeChat there would mean a drop in iPhone sales.

"Since WeChat is very critical to Chinese users, integrating communications, payments, e-Commerce, social software, news reading, and productivity functions," writes Kuo, "we believe that the move will tank iPhone shipments in the Chinese market."

Kuo has previously been one of the most reliable sources for information about future Apple hardware products. He is less well known for pricing or software issues, however, in this case he sees the potential impact as being serious enough to caution the readers of his investment notes.

Currently, the wording of the Executive Order forbidding dealings with specific Chinese companies is open to interpretation. "We think it implies that Apple will have to remove WeChat from the App Store," says Kuo. "Apple removed WeChat from the App Store in India in response to a government request. Therefore, we won't be surprised if the U.S. government asks Apple to do the same thing."

"[So] According to the executive order, Apple may have to remove WeChat from worldwide App Stores because the order prohibits Apple from allowing transactions involving WeChat," he continues. "However, the order doesn't clearly define how broadly the ban will be. Maybe the U.S. government will ask Apple to remove WeChat from only the US App Store."

The ban takes effect on September 20, 2020. If the order is to remove WeChat from the whole App Store, Kuo believes Apple will see a drop of as much as 30% of its iPhone shipments worldwide.

Best-case scenario

"The best-case scenario is that Apple will only remove WeChat from the App Store in the US," continues Kuo. "If this is the case, the negative impacts will be on WeChat users who are in the US mainly. We estimate that global iPhone will decline by 3-6%. Global shipments of other Apple hardware products, including AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac, will decline by less than 3%."

Kuo's note is specifically for investors and in it he suggests that they "reduce specific Apple supply chain stocks for lowering risks, including Genius and LG Innotek."

"Theoretically, the US government will not hurt Apple," he explains. "However, the U.S. presidential election is approaching, and we think [President] Trump may adopt more aggressive strategies for the election, including asking Apple to remove WeChat from worldwide App Stores."

Kuo has concentrated on WeChat because of its enormous popularity in China, but the US ban does also affect TikTok. While WeChat has not commented publicly, TikTok's owners have said they intend to sue to have the ban revoked.

AppleInsider has affiliate partnerships and may earn commission on products purchased through affiliate links. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content.

The big legal questions behind Trump’s TikTok and WeChat bans

A symbolic gesture that could still cause real problems

Adi Robertson @thedextriarchy Aug 10, 2020

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Trump administration has escalated its threats to ban Chinese social media apps TikTok and WeChat within the US, issuing executive orders last week sanctioning them. The orders will ban “transactions” between US entities and the parent companies of TikTok and WeChat (respectively ByteDance and Tencent). They leave a lot of unanswered questions, but they’re a threatening development for the companies, thanks to presidents’ broad sanctions powers.

On August 6th, Trump declared TikTok and WeChat a “national emergency” because of real — but also politically convenient — privacy and security concerns. He invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which lets him ban transactions between US and foreign entities. This requires less evidence of wrongdoing than putting ByteDance on the Department of Commerce’s banned “entity list,” something the Trump administration did with Chinese telecom Huawei. And the likely outcome is similar. Apple and Google could have to stop offering TikTok and WeChat on their app stores, and other parts of Tencent’s massive tech and media empire could suffer too. Existing app users wouldn’t necessarily be forced off the network, however, the way they’d be with China’s site-blocking Great Firewall.

“The legal authority for these executive orders is incredibly broad,” says attorney Brian Fleming, a former counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “It gives the president a lot of latitude to determine and declare national emergencies.” Trump threatened to use IEEPA powers last year when he demanded US companies leave China. (He didn’t follow through with that particular ultimatum.)

We don’t know exactly what’s getting banned now, though. The rules don’t take effect for 45 days, and the orders basically leave “transactions” as a blank check, giving the Secretary of Commerce the full 45-day period to list specific prohibitions. The results might depend on what these companies to do placate Trump.

If ByteDance sells off TikTok, Fleming says, the sanctions for ByteDance itself might be light — and the newly all-American TikTok wouldn’t face any at all. Meanwhile, Tencent’s sanctions have proven far more complicated because of its massive size. The administration told reporters it’s not banning the popular Tencent-owned game League of Legends, for example, but that’s not remotely clear in the order.

There’s at least one major wrinkle in both cases: while sanctions are nothing new, the ByteDance and Tencent orders ban Americans from accessing a piece of software and (at least in theory) the content on its network. This is unusual and could raise First Amendment questions that don’t apply in other IEEPA cases — including arguments that apps like TikTok are protected speech, or that banning them would infringe on users’ ability to engage in it.

The American Civil Liberties Union argues that speech concerns render Trump’s order unconstitutional. “This is another abuse of emergency powers under the broad guise of national security,” said ACLU national security head Hina Shamsi in a statement. “It would violate the First Amendment rights of users in the United States by subjecting them to civil and possibly criminal penalties for communicating with family members, friends, or business contacts.”

TechDirt’s Mike Masnick also notes that an IEEPA exemption bars “directly or indirectly” prohibiting any “information or informational material” from import or export. The category includes CD-ROMs, newswire services, and films. ByteDance and Tencent could claim apps count as well.

Fleming agrees that the companies could argue either of these cases, but he’s skeptical of both. He believes courts would have to weigh the First Amendment case against the evidence for a national security threat. “There’s heavy deference to executive action in this area, especially when national security is invoked,” he says.

Trump has issued several executive orders that were immediately challenged, but policies like his “Muslim ban” immigration restrictions have repeatedly crept back into court after being declared unlawful. Moreover, we aren’t sure who might file a legal case yet. TikTok said the order had “no adherence to the law,” and it’s reportedly planning to sue as early as Tuesday, arguing that it wasn’t given reasonable notice of the ban. On the other hand, if it closes a deal with an American company, there’s less reason to invite legal trouble. Tencent also has motivation to file a legal challenge — among other things, losing its relationship with Apple would deal a huge blow to both companies in the Chinese market.

If the order stands, how much would it affect American app users? Well, the ByteDance order might be ultimately symbolic. The company was already facing pressure to spin off TikTok from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and Microsoft seemed likely to seek a deal without this overt ban attempt. (Twitter is reportedly also interested.)

Tencent’s case could be much more important, particularly since there are no clear plans to spin off WeChat in the US. WeChat has a smaller American presence than TikTok, but many users specifically want to connect with family and friends in China, so splitting the markets would be even more difficult than cutting up TikTok. Apple and Google haven’t said whether they would remove WeChat or TikTok under these orders, but if the order bans transactions and isn’t declared unlawful, they’d theoretically have to.

The executive orders escalate a US-China trade war that’s been running through Trump’s entire tenure as president, but their future depends on what happens in November. If Vice President Joe Biden defeats Trump in the 2020 presidential election, he’s pledged to reverse orders like the immigration ban, and he could take a different stance on Chinese social media apps as well. But early signs suggest he’s not a fan of TikTok either — he recently told staff members to delete it from their phones.

#2KNOWNOTHINGS

TikTok's US fate reportedly rests on a brawl between two senior White House advisers
Shona Ghosh

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (left), and White House trade policy adviser Peter Navarro. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images/Reuters

The confused messages from the Trump administration about the fate of ByteDance-owned TikTok may stem from a disagreement between two senior White House advisers.

According to The Washington Post, trade adviser Peter Navarro pushed for an outright ban of TikTok, while Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wanted a sale.
The pair ended up in a "shouting match" in front of President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in late July, according to the report.

President Trump has told TikTok, whose parent company is Chinese, that it must sell its US business to an American tech firm or investors, or face a ban from mid-September.

Donald Trump's top advisers reportedly can't agree on what should happen to TikTok, whose fate in the US currently hangs in the balance.

According to a Washington Post report, citing anonymous witnesses, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and trade adviser Peter Navarro had a "shouting match" in front of President Trump in the Oval Office in late July over the short video app's future.

Navarro reportedly pushed for a full ban on TikTok, which is owned by Chinese startup ByteDance, and accused Mnuchin of being too gentle on China.

Mnuchin wanted TikTok's business to be sold to Microsoft or another US bidder — he has already held talks with Microsoft, the report said.

This "knockdown" brawl may partially explain some of the confused messages from the Trump administration on TikTok over the last month.

The administration signaled in July that it might ban the app. However, news emerged at the beginning of August that Microsoft might buy parts of TikTok's business, sealing the app off from its Chinese owners. On the same day, Trump said that he would ban TikTok altogether. Microsoft then said it had held talks with Trump and would continue discussions with TikTok.

Trump upped the pressure again, issuing an executive order on August 7 that banned US individuals or companies from doing business with TikTok's parent firm ByteDance. The order takes effect on September 20, effectively giving ByteDance a deadline to negotiate with Microsoft or other bidders.

It isn't clear that Microsoft will successfully acquire TikTok's business. Other bidders reportedly interested include existing ByteDance backer Sequoia Capital and Twitter.

TikTok, meanwhile, has threatened to sue the US over the executive order, saying the Trump administration had directly interfered with negotiations between private businesses.

THE BE$T HEALTHCARE MONEY CAN BUY
Walmart is moving past its experimental phase in healthcare and is plotting a massive expansion into Florida as the retail giant looks to take on the $3.6 trillion industry

Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer

The Walmart Health team in Loganville, Georgia. Walmart

Walmart in 2019 started a massive push into healthcare, as the giant US retailer vies for a bigger slice of the $3.6 trillion US healthcare industry.
The company set up Walmart Health centers in Georgia, offering services like primary care, counseling, and dentistry.
The man leading the push, Sean Slovenski, who served as Walmart's president of health and wellness for the past two years, left the role in August.
Walmart's still planning expanding that out nationally, starting with a big push into Florida.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It's been nearly a year since Walmart went public with its efforts to push deeper into healthcare.

In September 2019 the company started building out Walmart Health clinics, opening "prototype" health centers in northern Georgia. At the time the company shared ambitious plans that could quickly make Walmart into the largest provider of basic healthcare in the region.

To pull off that plan, Walmart needed to open clinics in a growing number of stores, right as the pandemic hit the US and states locked down.

The effort was led by Sean Slovenski, Walmart's former president of health and wellness. He left Walmart in August after two years with the company.

"We will miss Sean, but we are excited to continue building and expanding on what he created at Walmart and to provide many more customers with affordable, accessible, essential health care options," Walmart US CEO and president John Furner said in a memo to Walmart employees on August 4.

Furner said that the company would share more on a new leader for the health and wellness team in the next few weeks.

Business Insider spoke to Slovenski in July, prior to his departure. He shared additional details about the direction Walmart Health is heading, and what it was like leading the venture through the early months of the pandemic.
Opening new health centers in the middle of a pandemic

At first, the idea of opening up new centers while everyone was staying at home was daunting.

"I was thinking at the time: We're opening all these physical locations and they may never reopen, What did we just do?" Slovenski said in the July interview.

When the pandemic hit the US, Walmart's in-person office visits went down, while online visits went up. Now that states are reopening, Walmart Health centers are seeing as many or more patients per day as they were before the coronavirus outbreak, he said.

Since September, Walmart has gone on to open more clinics in Georgia and one in Springdale, Arkansas. It plans to add additional locations in Illinois and in Florida, starting with the Jacksonville area.

Other retailers are bulking up in healthcare, too. CVS is opening 1,500 HealthHub clinics in its stores, for example. Walmart's size—it's the biggest US retailer by sales—and its experience driving down prices, made it a competitor to watch from the start, even when the health effort was just a few experimental stores in Georgia.

Slovenski said the expansion into Florida signals the end of the prototyping phase.

"We're full bore ahead," Slovenski said in July.

"We're not giving specific numbers yet, but it will be hard to be in the state of Florida and not notice us wherever you are," he added.

Read more: Walmart's ambitions are becoming clearer as it pushes into the $3.6 trillion US healthcare industry. Its plans make the retailer a 'sleeping giant to watch.'

A medical professional evaluates a patient at a Walmart Health center in Elm Springs, Arkansas. Walmart

Hiring healthcare workers became easier

The coronavirus pandemic created massive challenges for every part of the healthcare industry. Healthcare workers faced layoffs, furloughs, and reassignments, even as hospitals were overwhelmed by patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The industry's challenges made hiring easier for Walmart Health, Slovenski said, helping Walmart grow quickly in states like Florida.

"Walmart can build lots of things really fast. That's not the problem," Slovenski said in July. "The problem is staffing and staffing with the right people. Because that has gotten so much easier, it's actually allowed us to accelerate our plans."

Read more:

V illageMD just raised $1 billion and Oak Street is going public.

Meet the 8 primary-care companies building a new future for medicine during the coronavirus pandemic.

#METOO VS #WHITEMALE

McDonald's former CEO exchanged sexually explicit photos (DICK PICS)

and videos with 3 coworkers via his company email, a new lawsuit from the fast-food giant claims
Irene Jiang

McDonald's ex-CEO, Steve Easterbrook resigned in November 2019.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

McDonald's filed a lawsuit on Monday against its former CEO, Steve Easterbrook, for conducting sexual relationships with three employees and lying about it while under investigation.

McDonald's says that Easterbrook used his company email account to exchange and then delete emails containing "dozens of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photographs and videos of various women."

The lawsuit also states that Easterbrook granted one employee hundreds of thousands in restricted stock after two sexual encounters.

McDonald's said that had it known about the true extent of Easterbrook's conduct, it would never have agreed to let him resign, and instead would have terminated him.

A new lawsuit filed by McDonald's says that former CEO Steve Easterbrook used his corporate email to conduct sexual relationships with three employees in 2018 and 2019.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in the state of Delaware, states that Easterbrook lied about and attempted to hide evidence of his affairs with three employees, deleting emails containing "dozens of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photographs and videos of various women" from his company phone while under investigation in 2019.

The emails also show that Easterbrook granted "hundreds of thousands of dollars" worth of restricted stock units to one employee shortly after two sexual encounters, according to the complaint.

Unknown to Easterbrook, the exchanged emails were not deleted from McDonald's company servers – and were later discovered in July 2020 following an anonymous tip. McDonald's says the photographs are "undisputable evidence" that Easterbrook repeatedly violated and lied about violating company policy. Easterbrook additionally sent emailed attachments from his corporate account to his personal email account, McDonald's said.

"Easterbrook's silence and lies — a clear breach of the duty of candor — were calculated to induce the Company to separate him on terms much more favorable to him than those the Company would have offered and agreed to had it known the full truth of his behavior," the lawsuit reads.

McDonald's says that had it known of the extent of Easterbrook's conduct, it would have "terminated Easterbrook for cause" instead of allowing him to resign.

Agriculture replaces fossil fuels as largest human source of sulfur to the environment

by Syracuse University

There are multiple forms of sulfur inputs used in agricultural systems, including elemental sulfur and sulfate, among others. Credit: K. M. Driscoll

Historically, coal-fired power plants were the largest source of reactive sulfur, a component of acid rain, to the biosphere. A new study recently publishing Aug. 10 in the journal Nature Geoscience shows that fertilizer and pesticide applications to croplands are now the most important source of sulfur to the environment.

Acid rain gained attention in the 1960s and 1970s when scientists linked degradation of forest and aquatic ecosystems across the northeastern US and Europe to fossil fuel emissions from industrial centers often hundreds of kilometers away. This research prompted the Clean Air Act and its Amendments, which regulated air pollution, driving sulfur levels in atmospheric deposition down to low levels today.

"It seemed like the sulfur story was over," said Eve-Lyn Hinckley, assistant professor of environmental studies at University of Colorado, Boulder, and lead author of the study. "But our analysis shows that sulfur applications to croplands in the US and elsewhere are often ten times higher than the peak sulfur load in acid rain. No one has looked comprehensively at the environmental and human health consequences of these additions."

Sulfur is a naturally occurring element that exists primarily in stable, geologic forms and is an important plant nutrient. Through mining activities, including fossil fuel extraction as well as synthesis of fertilizers and pesticides, sulfur is brought into air, land, and water systems. It can react quickly, and, as decades of research on acid rain showed, affect ecosystem health and the cycling of toxic metals that pose a danger to wildlife and people.

"Although sulfur is applied to agricultural lands to improve the production and health of crops, it can have detrimental effects to agricultural soils and downstream waters, similar to what occurred in remote forest landscapes under acid rain," indicates Charles Driscoll, a professor at Syracuse University and co-author of the study.

The researchers examined trends in sulfur applications across multiple important crops in the US, including corn in the Midwest, sugarcane in Florida, and wine grapes in California. Their models of surface water sulfate export demonstrate that while areas like New England show declining trends in response to recovery from historic atmospheric deposition, sulfate export from agricultural areas is increasing.

Driscoll says an example of the impacts of agricultural applications of sulfur is the enhanced formation of methylmercury in waters draining agricultural lands, such as the Everglades Agricultural Area in Florida. Methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin which accumulates in food chains leading to high concentrations in fish and increasing exposure of mercury to humans and wildlife that consume these fish.

The researchers predict that increasing trends will continue in many croplands around the world, including places like China and India that are still working to regulate fossil fuel emissions.

To date, much research has focused on understanding and regulating nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, which can cause eutrophication, fish kills, and harmful algal blooms downstream of agricultural areas.

Hinckley and Driscoll believe it is time for the research community to apply lessons learned while investigating the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers to studying the implications of high sulfur use in agriculture. This research must seek not only to document its environmental and human health effects, but also to collaborate with farmers to investigate how to optimize sulfur use.

"Sulfur in agriculture is not going away," said Hinckley, "Yet there is an opportunity to bring science and practice together to create viable solutions that protect long-term environmental, economic, and human health goals."

Researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, and Syracuse University participated in this study.

Explore further Study finds declining sulfur levels

More information: A shift in sulfur-cycle manipulation from atmospheric emissions to agricultural additions, Nature Geoscience (2020).

DOI: 10.1038/s41561-020-0620-3 ,

www.nature.com/articles/s41561-020-0620-3

Journal information: Nature Geoscience
Provided by Syracuse University

Transgender, Gender-Diverse Adults More Likely to Be Autistic says UK/Canadian Study

By Janice Wood
Associate News Editor

Last updated: 9 Aug 2020

Transgender and gender-diverse adults are three to six times more likely to be diagnosed as autistic, according to a new study.

The new study, conducted by scientists at the University of Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre in England, used data from more than 600,000 adults. Researchers say their study confirms previous smaller scale studies.

Researchers add that a better understanding of gender diversity in autistic individuals will help provide better access to health care and post-diagnostic support for autistic transgender and gender-diverse individuals.

The research team used five different datasets, including a dataset of more than 500,000 individuals collected as a part of the documentary “Are you autistic?” In these datasets, participants provided information about their gender identity, and if they received a diagnosis of autism or other psychiatric conditions, such as depression or schizophrenia. Participants also completed a measure of autistic traits, the researchers explained.

Across all five datasets, the research team found that transgender and gender-diverse adults were between three and six times more likely to indicate that they were diagnosed as autistic compared to cisgender individuals, people whose personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.

While the study used data from adults who indicated that they had received an autism diagnosis, it is likely that many individuals on the autistic spectrum may be undiagnosed, the researchers noted. As around 1.1% of the UK population is estimated to be on the autistic spectrum, this result would suggest that somewhere between 3.5. to 6.5 percent of transgender and gender-diverse adults are on the autistic spectrum, the researchers said..

“We are beginning to learn more about how the presentation of autism differs in cisgender men and women. Understanding how autism manifests in transgender and gender-diverse people will enrich our knowledge about autism in relation to gender and sex. This enables clinicians to better recognize autism and provide personalized support and health care,” said Dr. Meng-Chuan Lai, a collaborator on the study at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Transgender and gender-diverse individuals were also more likely to indicate that they had received diagnoses of mental health conditions, particularly depression. According to the study’s findings, transgender and gender-diverse people were more than twice as likely as their cisgender counterparts to have experienced depression.

Transgender and gender-diverse individuals also, on average, scored higher on measures of autistic traits compared to cisgender individuals, regardless of whether they had an autism diagnosis, the study discovered.

“This finding, using large datasets, confirms that the co-occurrence between being autistic and being transgender and gender-diverse is robust,” said Dr. Varun Warrier, who led the study. “We now need to understand the significance of this co-occurrence and identify and address the factors that contribute to well-being of this group of people.”

The researchers point out that their study investigates the co-occurrence between gender identity and autism. The researchers did not investigate if one causes the other.

“Both autistic individuals and transgender and gender-diverse individuals are marginalized and experience multiple vulnerabilities. It is important that we safe-guard the rights of these individuals to be themselves, receive the requisite support, and enjoy equality and celebration of their differences, free of societal stigma or discrimination,” said Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge, and a member of the research team.

The study was published in Nature Communications.

Source: University of Cambridge

Metal detector user uncovers ‘significant’ Bronze Age artefacts less than 2ft underground

‘I was shaking with happiness,’ says treasure hunter after discovering pre-Christian items

Jane Dalton @JournoJane

A metal detectorist has discovered a rare hoard of Bronze Age artefacts, which experts describe as “nationally significant”, in the Scottish Borders.

Mariusz Stepien was searching a field near Peebles with friends when he found a bronze object buried half a metre (1ft 8in) underground.

Archaeologists spent 22 days investigating, building a shelter to protect the find from the elements. Mr Stepien and his friends camped out there.

They uncovered a complete horse harness, preserved by the soil, and a sword dated to 1,000 to 900 BC.

The Bronze Age in Britain ran from about 2,000BC to about 650BC.

Archaeologists unearth only complete chicken egg from Roman Britain
Show all 8

Mr Stepien said: “I thought ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before’ and felt from the very beginning that this might be something spectacular, and I’ve just discovered a big part of Scottish history.

“I was over the moon, actually shaking with happiness.

“We wanted to be a part of the excavation from the beginning to the end.

“I will never forget those 22 days spent in the field. Every day there were new objects coming out which changed the context of the find, every day we learned something new.

Read more

Bronze Age find could shed light on one of London’s oldest mysteries

Mystery of ‘extraordinary’ haul of Bronze Age weapons baffles experts

Bronze Age Britons lived with 1m-long worms in their kidneys

Bronze Age saw flourishing drug trade, opium in ancient vase reveals

“I’m so pleased that the earth revealed to me something that was hidden for 3,000 years. I still can’t believe it happened.”

All newly discovered ancient objects in Scotland belong to the Crown, and must be reported to the Treasure Trove Unit, which Mr Stepien did.

The archaeologists also found decorated straps, buckles, rings, ornaments and chariot wheel axle caps.

Evidence of a decorative “rattle pendant” from the harness was also discovered — the first one to be found in Scotland and only the third in the UK.

Some of the pre-Christian objects found (PA)

The hoard has been taken to the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh.

Emily Freeman, head of the Treasure Trove Unit, said: “This is a nationally significant find — so few Bronze Age hoards have been excavated in Scotland.

“It was an amazing opportunity for us to not only recover bronze artefacts, but organic material as well.

“There is still a lot of work to be done to assess the artefacts and understand why they were deposited.”

In 1990, a hoard of late Bronze Age items was found at St Andrews in Scotland. As well as at least 200 tools, it included weapons, ornaments, and specimens of plant fibre textiles.

In 2015 a major excavation in Cambridgeshire revealed the remains of a remarkably intact Bronze Age settlement, made up of timber roundhouses raised on stilts above the marshy ground.

Additional reporting by PA

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Transgender, Gender-Diverse Adults More Likely to Be Autistic says UK/Canadian Study

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IN THIS STREAM

TikTok’s future in the US: all of the news about Microsoft’s deal and Trump’s ban threats

Transgender, Gender-Diverse Adults More Likely to Be Autistic says UK/Canadian Study