Controversial study claiming COVID-19 manufactured in Wuhan lab linked to former White House strategist

Yan Li-meng published paper under Rule of Law Foundation, funded by Chinese billionaire in exile

Posted on : Sep.18,2020 

Steve Bannon, former chief strategist in the White House, and billionaire Guo Wengui, a Chinese exile who lives in the US. (Guo’s Twitter account)

A controversial study claiming that the coronavirus was manufactured in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, turns out to be linked to Steve Bannon, a former senior strategist in the White House under US President Donald Trump. After a researcher from Hong Kong who is receiving assistance from Bannon claimed that the coronavirus was man-made, her social media accounts were either shut down or labeled with “fake news” warnings.

Yan Li-meng, a former postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong, published a paper on Zenodo, an open-access repository of scholarship, on Sept. 14, stating that she had evidence to back up her claims about the coronavirus. The title page of the article in question includes the name of the Rule of Law Foundation, an organization in which Bannon is involved.

The Rule of Law Foundation was established in November 2018 with a US$100 million donation from billionaire Guo Wengui, an exile from China who lives in the US. The foundation is composed of two charitable organizations based in New York, one of which is called the Rule of Law Society. Bannon is the chairman of the Rule of Law Society, which also appears on the title page of Yan’s paper.

Guo Wengui, a real estate magnate, fled China in 2014 after one of his associates was arrested on corruption charges. Since reestablishing himself in New York, he has organized a campaign to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party. Bannon used to be the executive chairman of Breitbart, a far-right American news website that has trafficked in conspiracy theories. After serving in Donald Trump’s successful campaign for US president in 2016, Bannon was appointed as an advisor to Trump in the White House; he stepped down from that position in August 2017.

Since then, Bannon has built a connection with Guo Wengui by appearing in dozens of videos criticizing the Chinese Communist Party. Bannon was arrested last month on charges of defrauding donors in a fundraising campaign and was released on US$5 million bail. At the time of his arrest, Bannon was on a superyacht owned by Guo, off the coast of Connecticut.

Yan says virus was created by PLA’s biological weapons department

A former resident of Hong Kong, Yan relocated to the US in April and has been advancing her coronavirus claims since July. On July 28, she said in a video on Bannon’s YouTube channel that the coronavirus was created as part of biological weapons development by China’s military, which is called the People’s Liberation Army.

Yan repeated these claims during appearances on ITV in the UK and Fox News in the US this month, before releasing her paper on Sept. 14. Four other researchers were named in the paper, but no information was provided about their qualifications. The paper did not disclose what role was played in the research by the Rule of Law Foundation or the Rule of Law Society, in which Bannon is involved.

As of Sept. 17, Yan’s Twitter account (@limengyan119) was temporarily suspended. The account, created earlier this month, had displayed a picture of Yan’s face and the message, “Let’s talk about science,” but currently appears to be empty of content. A notification states that the account violated Twitter’s rules. Since May, Twitter has been labeling tweets that contain information determined to be fake news, but it’s rare for an entire account to be suspended for that reason.

Facebook has also been categorizing Yan’s claims as fake news. On Sept. 15, the Facebook account of Tucker Carlson Tonight, a leading Fox News talk show focusing on current affairs, posted a video in which Carlson interviews Yan about her coronavirus claims. Facebook labeled the video in question with the following message: “This post repeats information about COVID-19 that independent fact-checkers say is false.”

Facebook’s label includes links to three articles related to COVID-19 and the claims made in the interview. Two were by FactCheck.org, a website run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and one was by USA Today, a major media outlet. The articles in question verify that there’s no factual basis for claims that the coronavirus was manufactured at a lab in Wuhan or that the coronavirus was derived from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Other scientists dispute Yan’s claims as false

The paper that Yan published on Zenodo is titled “Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route.” The paper argues that the coronavirus, officially known as SARS-CoV-2, is similar both to the SARS virus from 2003 and to a bat coronavirus discovered in a Chinese military laboratory.

“This pre-print report cannot be given any credibility in its current form,” said Andrew Preston, a researcher in the department of biology at the University of Bath.

Kristian Andersen, who published a paper in Nature demonstrating the natural origins of the coronavirus, said that Yan’s claims were factually wrong. Andersen said that SARS-CoV-2 and the bat coronavirus differ in more than 3,500 nucleic acid components.

Back in July, Yan said she’d discovered person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 early on in the outbreak, but that the University of Hong Kong had silenced her. The University retorted that Yan didn’t conduct any research about the coronavirus at the end of last year.

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter, and Jung E-gil, senior staff writer
@hani.co.kr]

Seoul court recognizes occupational disease of Samsung Electronics worker 16 years later

Semiconductor worker contracted Devic’s disease while handling dangerous chemicals

Posted on : Sep.16,2020 

Members of the watchdog group Banollim hold a press conference in front of the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service to call for industrial accident recognition for employees of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division. (Park Jong-shik, staff photographer)

An employee of Samsung Electronics who contracted a rare disease while working at one of the company’s semiconductor factories finally received government confirmation of suffering from an occupational disease, nearly 16 years after leaving the company.

Hon. Son Seong-hui, a judge with the Seoul Administrative Court, ruled in favor of “A,” who had petitioned the court to force the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service (KCOMWEL) to cover medical expenses. The employee contracted Devic’s disease, a disorder of the spine and eyes, while working at a Samsung semiconductor factory.

A came down with acute transverse myelitis in 2004, seven years after being hired at Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor factory in Giheung in 1997, and was ultimately diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica, also known as Devic’s disease. In this rare disease, inflammation of the spinal cord and optic nerves causes eyesight to deteriorate.

A, who was working on a three-shift rotation, was responsible for washing semiconductor wafers (the substrate of integrated circuits) in a tank of sulfuric acid and replacing the chemicals in the tank. A quit in 2005 and then asked KCOMWEL to recognize the medical condition as an occupational disease in 2017. But KCOMWEL refused on the grounds that A hadn’t established a causal relationship between the job and the medical condition.

In a lawsuit filed with the administrative court, A argued that his immune system had been weakened by his work on a rotating shift and continued exposure to harmful chemicals, which either caused or aggravated the disease. The court concluded that A’s argument couldn’t be denied, even if a definite causal relationship couldn’t be established.

“Considering that we’re becoming more aware of the problems with harmful chemicals and improving our management of work environments, the extent of A’s exposure to harmful chemicals during his time on the job was probably more severe than what has been found in related studies,” the court said

The court also ruled that A’s irregular sleeping schedule, caused by his rotating shifts and overtime, could conceivably have weakened his immunity, causing the disease or accelerating its progress.

“The purpose of the industrial accident compensation and insurance system is for industry and society as a whole to share this burden. In light of that purpose, the protocol for recognizing occupational diseases shouldn’t be stacked against workers, who already face the disadvantage of having to demonstrate [that their disease resulted from their work environment],” the court added.

“The court’s ruling suggests that various factors that could affect the incidence of disease ought to be taken into account when assessing causality, even for rare diseases, when there may be hardly any research into pathogenesis. This ruling is also a declaration that we need to rectify our current approach, which cruelly makes workers responsible for demonstrating [causality],” said Cho Seung-gyu, a full-time activist for Banollim, a watchdog group that advocates rights for semiconductor workers.

By Joh Yun-yeong, staff reporter hani.co.kr

[Photo] Civic groups call for punishing negligent corporate practices that result in worker deaths
Posted on : Sep.17,2020 


On Sept. 16, activists and civic groups gathered in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square to call for a revision in South Korean legislation for punishing companies where workers are seriously injured or die on the job due to irresponsible or negligent management. Following the high-profile death of Kim Yong-gyun, who was only 24 when he died during an accident at Taean Power Plant in South Chungcheong Province in December 2018, an increasing number of South Koreans are becoming aware of the frequency of industrial accidents that take people’s lives. (Baek So-ah, staff photographer)

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· [Special report- Part VIII] The Samsung Brazil's labor union case
· [Special report- Part III] Curses, verbal abuse, and impossible quotas
· Samsung LCD worker receives industrial accident recognition 15 years after developin

 [Column] We can’t wait any longer to eliminate fossil fuels and convert to renewables   

Recent catastrophes indicate we’ve reached a critical point that requires immediate action

Posted on : Sep.13,2020

South Korean President Moon Jae-in finishes giving a speech at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit in New York on Sept. 23, 2019. (Yonhap News)

South Korea’s recent record-breaking monsoon season, a slew of powerful typhoons, and COVID-19 all point to the same thing — climate change has reached a critical stage where it can no longer be ignored. In order to defuse this crisis, we have to stop emitting greenhouse gases. We can’t wait any longer to eliminate fossil fuels and convert to 100% renewable energy if we’re to save not only the human race, but all creatures on the earth.

It’s not a question of whether to transition to renewable energy, but how fast we can do so. The countries of Europe are moving resolutely to speed up that transition. Germany has increased the share of renewable energy from 6.6% in 2000 to 52% this year. Only a decade ago, the UK relied on coal for 40% of its power, but it recently brought coal usage down to zero and boosted renewable energy to 37% of its energy mix. In the US, renewables and natural gas are jostling for first place among sources of power. Japan’s goal is to achieve 100% in renewable energy usage by 2050.

Compare that with South Korea, which aims to increase renewable energy from the current level of 7% to 20% in 2030. We’re still a decade away from reaching a goal that Western countries have already achieved. Nevertheless, conservative politicians and some media outlets indignantly accuse the Moon administration of overinvesting in solar energy and other renewables. They inevitably trot out objections about the technical limitations of renewable energy.

In reality, transitioning to 100% renewable energy is mostly a matter of will. 

The goal is completely achievable right now using the technology in our possession.

A plan for this tradition was offered by Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, and Mark Delucchi, a research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, all the way back in 2009 in an article titled, “A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables.”

In a paper printed in “Energy Policy,” the most authoritative journal in the field, Jacobson and Delucchi wrote that the developed world could convert most or all of its infrastructure to renewable energy in 20-40 years. Jacobson has stuck with this research topic, increasing the number of countries to 143. In regard to South Korea, he said that South Korea could switch to 100% renewables by 2050. That transition would reduce the number of deaths from atmospheric pollution by 9,000 a year and would create 1.4 million more jobs than would be lost.

While delivering an online lecture as part of a recent forum held by the Korean Climate Change Center, Jacobson said that various energy conversion devices he’d installed in his house, built in 2017, earned him US$700 a year from his state government. Solar panels on his roof produced 120% of the energy used on his house and electric car; instead of paying for his electricity and heating and gas at the pump, he could sell the power company whatever electricity he didn’t need. In addition to the solar panels, Jacobson also has an electric-powered heat pump and heater that transfer heat from inside and outside the house into a reservoir. He prepares food on an induction cooktop. “It’s just not true that natural gas, coal, and petroleum are necessary. That’s just a myth,” Jacobson said.

Ultimately, our will is the key element that makes this transition possible. There must be collective will, resolve, and determination. The only way to prevent the planet from plunging irrevocably into a boiling cauldron is for ordinary people to take the climate crisis seriously, pressuring policymakers to take action and the state to aggressively implement the Green New Deal to enable this energy transition.

This year, people around the world have worn masks in their everyday lives — not only in Seoul and New York, London and Berlin, but even in Pyongyang. Just one year ago, surely no one could have imagined that we’d be living through such an abnormal, even dystopian, situation. Long ago, we lost any hope that this bizarre crisis would just blow over. Each day is a struggle for small business owners whose livelihood depends upon the volume of foot traffic. But we know that they aren’t the only ones who will suffer, which makes it all the more frightening to contemplate the future. Is it possible for humanity to examine the cause of this situation and to muster the unflagging resolution that is required? Or will we helplessly trudge down the path to our own annihilation?

Sept. 7, next Monday, has been designated as Blue Sky Day (short for the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies), in accordance with a proposal that the South Korean government submitted to the UN. The idea originated with a participant in a citizens’ panel with Korea’s National Council on Climate and Air Quality, which was created to resolve the issue of fine dust, and the UN accepted South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s proposal to designate the day during a climate action summit at the UN last year. The holiday was named for the blue skies that Koreans so longed to see when the skies were choked with particulate matter in early 2019, at a time when no one could have guessed that we’d be battling with COVID-19 one year later. There’s no telling what other climate disasters await us a year from now, or two years from now. We all need to take interest and show some resolve.

By Park Ki-yong, head of the climate change team @hani.co.kr

SOUTH KOREA

Six reactors shut down due to salinity during recent typhoons

 9 YEARS AFTER FUKUSHIMA

• Investigators say issue was preventable and should have been foreseen

Posted on : Sep.11,2020 

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Busan’s Kori-3 and Kor-4 reactors shut down amid Typhoon Maysak on Sept. 3. (Yonhap News)

The recent shutdown of six nuclear reactors at South Korea’s Kori and Wolsong nuclear power plants during the typhoons Maysak and Haishen resulted from the failure of power supply equipment, which was caused by salinity carried on the gale, according to an independent investigation by South Korea’s nuclear operator. This was an issue that should have been foreseen and forestalled at a coastal nuclear plant, which is likely to raise concerns about the safety of nuclear power.

Four nuclear reactors (Shin Kori-1, Shin Kori-2, Kori-3, and Kori-4) automatically shut down at night on Sept. 3 and early in the morning on Sept. 4 while Typhoon Maysak was overhead. Then on the morning of Sept. 7, two more nuclear reactors (Wolsong-2 and Wolsong-3) were brought to a halt because of Typhoon Haishen.

On Sept. 9, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) provided the following explanation of the cause of the shutdown at these reactors. “The powerful winds and waves whipped up by the typhoon caused a large amount of salinity to enter the power supply equipment at the power plant. That in turn caused breakdowns, triggering breakers that are in place to protect the generating equipment.”

The KHNP’s explanation can be regarded as recognition that the design and operation of nuclear power plants are vulnerable to the extreme weather events that are brought by climate change. Considering that all of Korea’s nuclear plants are located near the coast, precautions should have been taken against salinity in the plants’ design and operation. A protracted suspension of the external power supply could cause a meltdown of the nuclear fuel rods, which is what happened during the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan.

The KHNP placed the blame on the typhoon, which turned out to be stronger than expected. “The facility was designed with insulation because of its coastal location, but the wind was so strong that foam from the waves reached the hills on the other side of the reactor. The exposed equipment was vulnerable,” a KHNP spokesperson said.

“Equipment outside of nuclear reactors uses waterproof parts as a precaution against rainwater or saltwater. Even if salinity is the cause, as the KHNP claimed, the real problem might be poor-quality parts and slapdash construction,” said Han Byeong-seop, director of the Institute for Nuclear Safety.

Shortly after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in 2011, the South Korean government ordered the KHNP to implement 46 measures aimed at countering extreme natural disasters. The project was divided into phases that were supposed to be completed by 2015. But three of the measures remain incomplete: namely, installing watertight doors and waterproof pumps, installing exhaust or decompression equipment on the containment vessel, and improving anti-flooding measures in the main steam safety valve room and the emergency pump room.

By Kim Jeong-su, senior staff writer @hani.co.kr

Perfectly preserved Ice Age cave bear

found in Arctic Russia



The head and the full body of an Ice Age cave bear that was discovered on the Lyakhovsky Islands.
(North-Eastern Federal University)

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEP. 15, 2020

Reindeer herders in a Russian Arctic archipelago have found an immaculately preserved carcass of an Ice Age cave bear, researchers said Monday.

The find — revealed as permafrost melts across vast areas of Siberia — was discovered on the Lyakhovsky Islands with its teeth and even its nose intact. Previously, scientists only had been able to discover the bones of cave bears that became extinct 15,000 years ago.

Scientists of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, the premier center for research into woolly mammoths and other prehistoric species, hailed the find as groundbreaking.

In a statement issued by the university, researcher Lena Grigorieva emphasized that “this is the first and only find of its kind — a whole bear carcass with soft tissues.”

He added, “It is completely preserved, with all internal organs in place, including even its nose. This find is of great importance for the whole world.”

A preliminary analysis indicated that the adult bear lived 22,000 to 39,500 years ago.


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“It is necessary to carry out radiocarbon analysis to determine the precise age of the bear,” the university quoted researcher Maxim Cheprasov as saying.

The bear carcass was found by reindeer herders on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. It is the largest of the Lyakhovsky Islands, which are part of the New Siberian Islands archipelago that lies between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea.

At about the same time, a well-preserved carcass of a cave bear cub was also found in another area in Yakutia’s mainland, the university said. It didn’t describe its condition in detail but noted that scientists were hopeful of obtaining its DNA.

Recent years have seen major discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, Ice Age foals, several puppies and cave lion cubs as the permafrost melts.

Paleontologists find evidence of new mass extinction 233 million years ago


Scientists have discovered evidence of a new mass extinction even that occurred at the end of the Triassic period. Photo by D. Bonadonna/MUSE, Trento

Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Paleontologists have unearthed evidence of a new mass extinction that occurred during the Late Triassic, some 233 million years ago.

The extinction event, which scientists dubbed Carnian Pluvial Episode, was characterized by significant reductions in biodiversity and the loss of 33 percent of marine genera.

In a new paper, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, researchers suggest the episode may have created the ecological space for the emergence of a variety of important modern plant and animal lineages -- including conifers, insects, dinosaurs, crocodiles, lizards, turtles and mammals.

Through analysis of both paleontological assemblages and geological evidence, researchers confirmed that biodiversity declines coincided with stark chemical changes in the ocean and atmosphere.

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Scientists suspect these changes were triggered by massive volcanic eruptions in what's now Alaska and British Columbia.

"The eruptions peaked in the Carnian," lead study author Jacopo Dal Corso said in a news release.

"I was studying the geochemical signature of the eruptions a few years ago and identified some massive effects on the atmosphere worldwide," said Dal Corso, a researcher with the China University of Geosciences at Wuhan. "The eruptions were so huge, they pumped vast amounts of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, and there were spikes of global warming."

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The latest research builds on the conclusions of earlier geological studies that showed the Late Triassic was characterized by upticks in not only temperature, but also humidity and precipitation.

The sudden shift to a warmer, wetter climate proved deadly for many genera and species, but it also encouraged the proliferation of plant life -- specifically, the expansion of modern conifer forests.

"The new floras probably provided slim pickings for the surviving herbivorous reptiles," said study co-author Mike Benton. "I had noted a floral switch and ecological catastrophe among the herbivores back in 1983 when I completed my PhD."

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"We now know that dinosaurs originated some 20 million years before this event, but they remained quite rare and unimportant until the Carnian Pluvial Episode hit," said Benton, professor of earth sciences at the University of Bristol in Britain. "It was the sudden arid conditions after the humid episode that gave dinosaurs their chance."

In the wake of the extinction, modern-looking ecosystems appeared. The biodiversity losses were followed by the emergence of turtles, crocodiles, lizards and even the first mammals. In the oceans, corals appeared in large numbers, and modern groups of plankton rapidly multiplied.

"So far, paleontologists had identified five 'big' mass extinctions in the past 500 million years of the history of life," said Dal Corso. "Each of these had a profound effect on the evolution of the Earth and of life. We have identified another great extinction event, and it evidently had a major role in helping to reset life on land and in the oceans, marking the origins of modern ecosystems."

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upi.com/7038657

The biggest fish in the sea are females, survey shows


Whale sharks are the world's biggest fish species, and a decade-long survey of the animals shows that the biggest whale sharks are female. 

Photo by Andre Rereuka/Australian Institute of Marine Science

Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the sea, and the biggest whale sharks are females, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

For a decade, scientists measured the sizes and monitored the growth rates of male and female whale sharks, both in the ocean and in aquariums. The data showed males grow quickly earlier, but plateau just short of 30 feet.

Females, on the other hand, grow more slowly, but continue growing throughout adulthood, eventually surpassing males. Female whale sharks measured an average of 45 feet in length.

Between 2009 and 2019, researchers used a pair of underwater cameras to monitor the growth of 54 whales sharks along Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef. They used the unique spotting patterns on the backs of the whale sharks to identify and track individual fish.

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Over the decade-long study, the two cameras recorded thousands of whale shark measurements.

"It's basically two cameras set up on a frame that you push along when you're underwater," study co-author Brett Taylor said in a news release.

"It works the same way our eyes do -- so you can calibrate the two video recordings and get a very accurate measurement of the shark," said Taylor, a research fellow at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

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According to biologists, there is a simple explanation for the gargantuan size of the female whale sharks -- they birth a lot of pups.

"Only one pregnant whale shark had ever been found, and she had 300 young inside her," said lead study author Mark Meekan, fish biologist at AIMS. "That's a remarkable number, most sharks would only have somewhere between two and a dozen."

Whale sharks remain threatened by targeted fishing and ship strikes, and researchers suggest their findings point to the importance of robust conservation efforts.

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"If you're a very slow-growing animal and it takes you 30 years or more to get to maturity, the chances of disaster striking before you get a chance to breed is probably quite high," Meekan said.

The latest findings also explain why biologists regularly find large congregations of young male whale sharks in the tropics.

"They gather to exploit an abundance of food so they can maintain their fast growth rates," Meekan said.

Earlier this year, Meekan and other researchers published an updated strategy for estimating the age of whale sharks using vertebrate ring growth rates. Their findings showed whale sharks can live upwards of 50 years.

DNA data shows not all Vikings were Scandinavian

The Vikings were more genetically diverse than researchers thought, according to new DNA analysis. Photo by Pikist/CC

Sept. 16 (UPI) -- In the public imagination, the Vikings were closely-related clans of Scandinavians who marauded their way across Europe, but new genetic analysis paints a more complicated picture.

For the last six years, researchers in Britain and Denmark have been sequencing and analyzing DNA from more than 400 Viking skeletons recovered from dig sites across Europe and Greenland.

The data, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests Vikings were more genetically diverse than researchers thought.

"We have this image of well-connected Vikings mixing with each other, trading and going on raiding parties to fight kings across Europe, because this is what we see on television and read in books -- but genetically we have shown for the first time that it wasn't that kind of world," lead researcher Eske Willerslev said in a news release.

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"This study changes the perception of who a Viking actually was -- no one could have predicted these significant gene flows into Scandinavia from Southern Europe and Asia happened before and during the Viking Age," said Willerslev, a professor of evolutionary genetics at Cambridge University.

The so-called Viking Age begins with the earliest record of a Viking raid, dated to 800 A.D. The age lasted through the 1050s. During that time, Vikings raided monasteries and coastal cities, but also engaged in less violent activities, trading fur, tusks and seal fat.

Researchers knew the Vikings altered the political and economic landscape of Europe. In the 11th century, a Viking, Cnut the Great, ascended to the thrown of the North Sea Empire, comprising Denmark, England and Norway. But until now, researchers weren't really sure what the Vikings looked like, genetically speaking.

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"We found genetic differences between different Viking populations within Scandinavia which shows Viking groups in the region were far more isolated than previously believed," said Willerslev, director of the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Center at the University of Copenhagen.

"Our research even debunks the modern image of Vikings with blonde hair as many had brown hair and were influenced by genetic influx from the outside of Scandinavia," he said.

The DNA recovered from Viking burial sites showed raiding parties from what's now Norway traveled to Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and Greenland, while groups from what's now Sweden traveled to Baltic countries.
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"We discovered that a Viking raiding party expedition included close family members as we discovered four brothers in one boat burial in Estonia who died the same day," said study co-author Ashot Margaryan.

"The rest of the occupants of the boat were genetically similar suggesting that they all likely came from a small town or village somewhere in Sweden," said Margaryan, an assistant professor of evolutionary genomics at the University of Copenhagen.

Researchers also found evidence that local people in Scotland, Celtic-speaking people known as Picts, adopted Viking identities and were buried as Vikings, but never genetically mixed with Scandinavians.

The DNA sequencing efforts showed Viking populations in Scandinavia continued to receive genetic inflows from throughout Europe during the Viking Age.

"Individuals with two genetically British parents who had Viking burials were found in Orkney [Scotland] and Norway," said Daniel Lawson, lead author from the University of Bristol in Britain. "This is a different side of the cultural relationship from Viking raiding and pillaging."

Ancient footprints in Saudi Arabia help track human migrations out of Africa



Researchers found ancient human and animal footprints in a lake deposit in the western Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia. Photo by Palaeodeserts Project


Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Paleontologists have discovered a diverse assemblage of 120,000-year-old human and animal footprints in an ancient lake deposit in Saudi Arabia's Nefud Desert, offering new insights into the trajectories of human migrations out of Africa, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

A mounting body of evidence, compiled and published over the last two decades, has upended early theories that humans migrated out of Africa in one or two giant waves.

"As more and more fossils are discovered, it seems that humans repeatedly dispersed out of Africa and did so much earlier than previously thought," study co-author Mathew John Stewart told UPI in an email.

"Precisely when, how often and under what conditions remain open questions," said Stewart, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany.

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For answers to these questions, researchers have mostly looked to Africa and Eurasia, ignoring the Arabian Peninsula. Though it neighbors both Africa and Asia, evidence of human occupation in the region is scant.

"The area today is a hyper-arid desert, characterized by very little rainfall and large, expansive sand dunes," Stewart said. "The conditions are not very amenable to the preservation of material and sediments. Significant erosion of sediments and the subsequent destruction of material, such as fossil remains, is unfortunately common."

Paleoclimate data suggests that Arabia wasn't always as dry as it was today, and a scattering of fossil discoveries has confirmed that humans were able to make forays into the Arabian interior when shifts in climate turned the peninsula's deserts into grassland.

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The ancient footprints found in the Nefud Desert, fossilized in an ancient lake deposit known as 'Alathar' -- Arabic for "the trace" -- suggests humans made one of those forays roughly 120,000 years ago.

"The age of the footprints are consistent with Homo sapiens fossils in the Levant, and suggests that there were multiple routes that humans took upon expanding beyond Africa," study co-author Richard Clark-Wilson told UPI in an email.

"There is earlier evidence for our species moving into the Mediterranean environment of the Levant and southern Greece, but this is the earliest evidence of our species moving into a semi-arid grassland as Arabia would have been," said Clark-Wilson, a postgraduate research student at Royal Holloway in Britain.

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In addition to human footprints, researchers uncovered footprints left by elephants, horses and hippos, suggesting Homo sapiens weren't the only species drawn to the open grasslands and water resources of northern Arabia. Research suggests it's possible humans were following animals when they first moved into the region.

"Whats exciting about the animal footprints is that it closely ties human and animal movements around lakes in northern Arabia," Stewart said. "Unlike most other records, footprints provide very high-resolution information, on the order of hours or days. Also, the animal footprints provide information on what the environment and ecology was like when these people were moving through the landscape."

While the discovery of ancient footprints in Arabia suggests human movements out of Africa extended eastward into northern Arabia, Stewart said plenty of questions remain unanswered.

"Precisely what happened to these people during the more arid periods? How long did they occupy the Arabian interior? Where did they go?"

Poll: Migrants more vulnerable than natives in developed nations

A displaced girl is seen at a temporary shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 29. Friday's survey showed that Afghanistan has the greatest share of citizens in the "high vulnerability" category. File Photo by Hedayatullah Amid/EPA-EFE

Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Migrants in the developed world are more likely to face high vulnerability than native residents due to multiple factors, according to a Gallup survey Friday.

The poll, part of Gallup's Basic Needs Vulnerability Index, said migrants and natives in developed countries face the same health threats in the COVID-19 era -- but migrants have been particularly vulnerable due to working and living conditions and no access to medical care

The vulnerability index gauges potential exposure to risk from economic and other types of challenges, like a pandemic. The index measures a population's ability to afford food and shelter and their access to personal safety nets.

According to the survey, 36% of migrants in developed economies were found to be in either "high vulnerability" or "moderate vulnerability" situations compared to just 24% of natives. In underdeveloped economies, the split was 65% to 59%, respectively.

Gallup acknowledged that persons in "high vulnerability" situations include those who struggled over the past year to afford food or shelter and didn't have family or friends who could help. The moderately vulnerable faced the same situation, except they had some social support.

The survey also noted that low-income migrants in some nations have accounted for a high percentage of coronavirus cases.

"With an estimated 37 million people thrown into extreme poverty since the start of the pandemic, the ranks of the world's most vulnerable are likely only to grow before the pandemic runs its course," Gallup wrote. "These vulnerable populations will continue to bear a disproportionate burden from the pandemic."

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The survey said 5% of the U.S. population fell into the "high vulnerability" category and a quarter faced "moderate vulnerability."

Afghanistan has the highest share of its population considered "highly vulnerable" (50%) -- while Britain, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Iceland and Switzerland have the lowest (1%).

Gallup polled more than 1,000 adults in 142 nations for the survey, which has a margin of error between 1.5 and 5.4 points.