Hundreds of roosting starlings die after fireworks set off in Rome

An animal rights group says a display of firecrackers is the likely cause.

Philip Whiteside
News reporter
Friday 1 January 2021 
ITALY

Several of the starlings lying dead on the streets of Rome. Pic: IOPA/Facebook

Hundreds of birds have died after fireworks were set off in Rome on New Year's Eve, animal rights groups have claimed, calling it a "massacre."

Video footage of the roads near the main train station in the Italian capital showed scores of birds - mostly starlings - dead on the ground.

The reason was not certain, but the International Organisation for the Protection of Animals said it looked likely that firecrackers and fireworks set off in the leafy neighbourhood that many birds use to roost had been the cause.

Image:Fireworks explode in the sky next to Rome's Colosseum

Loredana Diglio, a spokeswoman for the organisation, said: "It can be that they died from fear. They can fly up together and knock against each other, or hit windows or electric power lines. Let's not forget they can also die of heart attacks."

The firework display was in breach of a ban by the city of Rome, which was widely ignored. The Italian capital had also imposed a 10pm curfew as part of its virus restrictions.

The Italian branch of IOPA has called for a ban on selling firecrackers and fireworks for personal use, because of the threat to animals.

The RSPB says there is little evidence to suggest that fireworks harm wild birds but says further research is needed to ensure the best course of action for their conservation.

The society advises: "To minimise any adverse impact of fireworks on birds, we urge organisers of firework displays to avoid launching the rockets near to sensitive wildlife areas, such as nature reserves, and nesting and roosting sites for wild birds."

In 1110, The Moon Vanished From The Sky.   We May Finally Know Why

PETER DOCKRILL
29 DECEMBER 2020


Almost a millennium ago, a major upheaval occurred in Earth's atmosphere: a giant cloud of sulphur-rich particles flowed throughout the stratosphere, turning skies dark for months or even years, before ultimately falling down to Earth.

We know this event happened because researchers have drilled and analysed ice cores - samples taken from deep within ice sheets or glaciers, which have trapped sulphur aerosols produced by volcanic eruptions reaching the stratosphere and settling back on the surface.

Ice can thus preserve evidence of volcanism over incredibly long timescales, but pinpointing the precise date of an event that shows up in the layers of an ice core is still tricky business.

In this case, scientists had assumed the sulphurous deposit was left by a major eruption unleashed in 1104 by Iceland's Hekla, a volcano sometimes called the 'Gateway to Hell'. Since the thin strip of ice ranks among the largest sulfate deposition signals of the last millennium, it sounds plausible.

Only, what if the accepted timeline of an ice core turns out to be time-warped? A few years ago, one study concluded that a timescale called the Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005 (GICC05) was off by up to seven years in the first millennium CE, and by up to four years early in the next millennium.

Those findings, according to research published in April 2020 - led by palaeoclimatologist Sébastien Guillet from the University of Geneva in Switzerland - mean Hekla couldn't have been the culprit for the giant sulphate signal after all.

"A prominent discovery arising from this revised ice-core dating is a major and hitherto unrecognised bipolar volcanic signal with sulfate deposition starting in late 1108 or early 1109 CE and persisting until early 1113 CE in the Greenland record," Guillet and his co-authors explain in their paper, noting that evidence for the same event can also be seen in a similarly revised Antarctic ice core chronology.

To investigate what might have been responsible for leaving these ancient tracks at both the top and the bottom of the world, the team combed historical documentation, looking for medieval records of strange, dark-looking lunar eclipses that could correspond to the stratospheric haze of major eruptive events.

"The spectacular atmospheric optical phenomena associated with high-altitude volcanic aerosols have caught the attention of chroniclers since ancient times," the team writes.

"In particular, the reported brightness of lunar eclipses can be employed both to detect volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere and to quantify stratospheric optical depths following large eruptions."


According to NASA records based on astronomical retrocalculation, seven total lunar eclipses would have been observable in Europe in the first 20 years of the last millennium, between 1100 and 1120 CE.

Among these, a witness to a lunar eclipse that occurred in May 1110 wrote of the exceptional darkness of the Moon during the phenomenon.

"On the fifth night in the month of May appeared the Moon shining bright in the evening, and afterwards by little and little its light diminished, so that, as soon as night came, it was so completely extinguished withal, that neither light, nor orb, nor anything at all of it was seen," an observer wrote in the Peterborough Chronicle.

Many astronomers have since discussed this mysterious and unusually dark lunar eclipse. Centuries after it occurred, the English astronomer Georges Frederick Chambers wrote about it, saying: "It is evident that this [eclipse] was an instance of a 'black' eclipse when the Moon becomes quite invisible instead of shining with the familiar coppery hue".

Despite the event being well-known in astronomy history, though, researchers have never suggested it might have been caused by the presence of volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere, even though that's the most likely cause, the new study suggests.


"We note that no other evidence of volcanic dust veil, such as a dimming of the Sun, red twilight glows and/or reddish solar haloes, could be found during our investigations for the years 1108–1110 CE," the researchers write.

If the timing is right, then what volcano was responsible for the sulphur cloud, given Hekla is now out of the frame?

While it's impossible to know for sure, the team thinks the most probable explanation is Japan's Mount Asama, which produced a giant, months-long eruption in the year 1108 – significantly larger than a subsequent eruption in 1783 that killed over 1,400 people.

A diary entry recorded by a statesman describes the 1108 event: "There was a fire at the top of the volcano, a thick layer of ash in the governor's garden, everywhere the fields and the rice fields are rendered unfit for cultivation. We never saw that in the country. It is a very strange and rare thing."

In addition to witness accounts, the researchers also looked at tree ring evidence, which suggests 1109 CE was an exceptionally cold year (about 1 degree Celsius cooler in the Northern Hemisphere), based on significantly thinner tree rings.

Other historical documentation, in particular accounts of climatic and societal impacts in the years 1109–1111 CE, corroborate the hypothesis that an 1108 eruption (or a series of eruptions that began that year), could have led to disastrous effects on affected communities.

The researchers found an "abundance of testimonies referring to adverse weather, crop failures, and famines in these years", noting that the "assembled evidence suggests that the subsistence difficulties, which began in 1109, deepened into famine in several regions of western Europe".

Of course, those long-ago hardships can't be taken as proof of any particular eruptive event, but the researchers say all the evidence, taken together, suggests a 'forgotten' cluster of volcanic eruptions in 1108 to 1110 unleashed terrible consequences on humanity. We're only rediscovering them now.

The findings are reported in Scientific Reports.

A version of this article was originally published in May 2020.

Wind Generated More Than Half of Britain's 

Electricity For The First Time on Saturday

A rainbow over a windfarm in Wortley, near Sheffield in 2016. 

(OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)

ENVIRONMENT

AFP

1 JANUARY 2021

Wind power accounted for more than half of Great Britain's daily generated electricity on Saturday in the wake of Storm Bella, according to energy giant Drax.

The percentage of wind power in the country's energy mix hit a record 50.67 percent on Saturday, the company said over the weekend, beating the previous record of 50  percent in August

"For the first time ever (on Saturday), amid #StormBella, more than half of Great Britain's electricity was generated by the wind," Drax Group tweeted.

🌬 For the first time ever yesterday, amid #StormBella, more than half of Great Britain's #electricity was generated by the #wind
☔️ 5️⃣0️⃣.6️⃣7️⃣% of power was produced by wind turbines
⚡️ Previous record of 50% set on 21 August
👉🏾 https://t.co/otBFE9zO46 (👀 by @I__like__eggs) pic.twitter.com/yEU4mdRf50

— Drax (@DraxGroup) December 27, 2020

It added: "This is the first time ever wind has supplied the majority of the country's power over the course of a whole day."

The encouraging news comes ahead of COP26, the UN's global climate change summit, which will be held in Glasgow next year.

The British government wants offshore wind farms to provide one third of the country's electricity by 2030, as part of its strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 to help meet its commitments under the Paris climate accord.

The UK has also placed nuclear power at the heart of its low-carbon energy policy.

"Britain has experienced a renewables revolution over the last decade with the growth of biomass, wind and solar  power",  he said.

Added to the brightening picture, National Grid's Electricity System Operator (NGESO) division declared Tuesday that this year was a historic year for UK renewables.

"2020 was the greenest year on record for Britain's electricity system, with average carbon intensity - the measure of CO2 emissions per unit of electricity consumed - reaching a new low," NGESO said in a statement.

National Grid also revealed that on Christmas Day, December 25, the share of coal in the UK electricity mix stood at zero for the first time.

🚨2020 saw the first ever coal-free #ChristmasDay for GB #Electricity ⚡️🚨

🔽 Down from 20% in 2009 and 1.8% last year.

More #ChristmasDay stats below (38% #renewable and 31% #gas) 👇, and live data on our app 👉📱https://t.co/lHk1RviMwT https://t.co/baMwBKbraJ

— National Grid ESO (@ng_eso) December 29, 2020

That compared with just 1.8 percent the previous year - and 20 percent in 2009.

© Agence France-Presse

There's Mounting Evidence That Life on Earth Started With More Than Just RNA

(Ktsimage/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
NATURE
DAVID NIELD
1 JANUARY 2021

How life originated on Earth continues to fascinate scientists, but it's not easy peering back billions of years into the past. Now, evidence is growing for a relatively new hypothesis of how life began: with a very precise mix of RNA and DNA.

RNA and DNA both determine the genetic make-up of all biological life, with DNA acting as a genetic blueprint and RNA as a blueprint reader or decoder. For a long time, it was thought that RNA developed on Earth first, with DNA evolving afterwards – but mounting evidence suggests they may have emerged at the same time and both been involved in kickstarting life on the planet.

The latest study to back up this idea explains how the simple compound diamidophosphate (DAP) – which may have predated life on Earth – can knit together DNA building blocks called deoxynucleosides into basic DNA strands.

"This finding is an important step toward the development of a detailed chemical model of how the first life forms originated on Earth," says chemist Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy form Scripps Research in California.

The findings add credence to the idea that both DNA and RNA developed together from the same sort of chemical reactions at the beginning of life on our planet, and that the first self-replicating molecules could have been mixes of both these nucleic acids – not just RNA, as suggested in the more established 'RNA world' hypothesis.


One of the big issues with the idea that RNA alone gave rise to life on Earth is how RNA was able to go through the necessary self-replication process – RNA usually requires enzymes to split, which evolved after RNA.

From what we know so far, it seems that RNA had some kind of helping hand in engineering life – and the latest experiments show that DNA could well have been it, creating "chimeric" molecular strands that can separate more easily than RNA alone.

The series of lab tests run by the researchers simulated what might have happened before the beginnings of life on Earth, and show how DAP could have feasibly formed basic DNA in much the same way as RNA can come together from chemical building blocks.

"We found, to our surprise, that using DAP to react with deoxynucleosides works better when the deoxynucleosides are not all the same but are instead mixes of different DNA letters such as A and T, or G and C, like real DNA," says chemical biologist Eddy Jiménez, from Scripps Research.

We may never know for sure whether DNA helped RNA to form the first lifeforms on our planet, considering this happened billions of years ago, but our understanding of these processes continues to develop.

The research isn't just useful in terms of how it relates to the origins of life, either – insight into the RNA-DNA relationship can have a whole host of applications in modern chemistry and biology.

"Now that we understand better how a primordial chemistry could have made the first RNAs and DNAs, we can start using it on mixes of ribonucleoside and deoxynucleoside building blocks to see what chimeric molecules are formed – and whether they can self-replicate and evolve," says Krishnamurthy.

The research has been published in Angewandte Chemie.

Cabbage, cavemen and miracle cures: how fast-moving COVID-19 science can confuse the public

© Lars Hagberg/THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES A firetruck with 'Stay safe, stay apart' is seen through a heart during an anti-lockdown protest in Kingston, Ont., on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues across Canada and around the…

As the coronavirus pandemic began to grip countries around the world, forcing shutdowns and filling hospitals, the scientific community sprung into action.

However, as scientists worked directly under the public’s watchful eye while people anxiously awaited a miracle cure that would make things normal again, all sorts of studies started receiving media attention – and not all of them made sense.

Read more: Coronavirus misinformation is spreading — what is Canada doing about it?

One article claimed that people with Neanderthal ancestors could find themselves more at-risk for severe outcomes from the virus. But just a month later, another article claimed humans who boast the Neanderthal gene may actually be better protected from the virus — directly contradicting the previous report.

Identifying COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

Meanwhile, an article noticed that parts of the world where populations filled their plates with fermented vegetables and cabbage saw lower mortality rates — but faster than people could say ‘sauerkraut,’ fact checkers pointed out that study needed a whole lot more research.

Coronavirus: Canada’s health minister cautions against vaccine misinformation following Conservative MP’s anti-vaccination petition involvement

But just because the science moves quickly and some early findings end up being disproved, doesn’t mean science can’t be trusted. This is all a part of the normal scientific process, experts say, which requires floating and testing new — and sometimes wrong — ideas

“From an infectious disease and from a medical standpoint, obviously (COVID-19 is) one of the biggest events of the past decade,” said Dr. Zain Chagla.

“There is such an interest in the research here — many research groups have pivoted their research towards COVID-19. Grants are being rewarded. The ability to publish if you put COVID-19 in the title has emerged as an incentive.”

Part of the force driving the appetite for COVID-19 research is the sheer scope of the virus. To date, more than 1.8 million people have died from the virus globally and another 82 million people have contracted it.

In Canada alone, there have been over 580,000 cases and over 15,500 deaths.

This worldwide push for answers has led to solid scientific developments emerging at light speed, such as the safe and effective coronavirus vaccines.

But not all of the emerging science has been reliable as the data backing vaccines — and some of these emerging ideas may receive media coverage before they’ve been through a rigorous scientific review.

Alternative social media platforms fuel polarization and conspiracies

Chagla said one early example of the damage these conflicting studies can do related to findings about how COVID-19 binds to ACE2 receptors. Doctors began to worry that blood pressure drugs, which affect the same receptors, could impact the body’s response to COVID-19 — for better or for worse.

Read more: Misinformation is spreading as fast as coronavirus. It will ‘take a village’ to fight it

Studies flip-flopped on whether these drugs helped or hurt the body’s coronavirus response.

“At the end of the day, people were deciding whether or not to put people (on) or take people off medications they had been on for years and years,” Chagla said.

“So that was one right at the beginning that confused many people.”

A factor that adds to the issue is the existence of preprints, which are research papers shared before they receive a full peer review. While they can help authors to get credit, visibility and feedback on their findings, these papers can also do harm to the public’s understanding of an issue as these potentially flawed publications gather traction.

Tackling COVID-19 misinformation

Dr. Rob Kozak, a scientist and clinical microbiologist, was part of a Canadian team that isolated the COVID-19 virus.

He said that while these preprints can be a huge help for researchers, they can also help harmful misinformation to proliferate if their sometimes controversial findings are later disproven.

“It's a double edged sword because on one hand, preprints are great. We're seeing information released far quicker than we than we did in the pre-COVID era,” Kozak said.

“But at the same time, too, I often worry because without that benefit of a scientific peer review…you don't know the quality of it.”

Despite these concerns, in the right hands, research that pointed in the wrong scientific direction can still sometimes help to send researchers on the right track.

“One of the things that that is kind of nice about these preprints and the stuff is that the information gets out there, which really, when it's good science, it's great because it kind of helps guide us,” Kozak said.

‘This is misinformation’: Lethbridge MP receives backlash over post on COVID deaths"

He said that even the seemingly conflicting studies about the impact of the Neanderthal gene on the body’s response to COVID-19 helped researchers to learn more about the virus.

“For those of us that are studying the immune response to COVID, it's one more piece of information that says they've found something. Let's see if we can reproduce it,” he explained.

“So…you're fishing and now all of a sudden, I know I've got a better chance of catching something because someone's already said, ‘hey, go look for this, see if you get the same thing that we do.’”

Read more: Health misinformation gets billions of views on Facebook amid coronavirus, report says

Still, the reality is that these fishing expeditions are now happening under more of a spotlight than ever. And for people who don’t understand that science involves the exploration of theories that may ultimately prove to be incorrect, flip-flopping advice can hurt their trust in medical professionals.

“When the science evolves and people start practicing differently based on better information, unfortunately, it does create distrust,” Chagla said.

“It's unfounded,” he added, “if we had all the answers for COVID-19...in February, then clearly we would have not been in this scenario.”

 "Experts say COVID-19 myths cause for concern"

He pointed to the guidance on masks as an example of this shift. As the scientific community learned more about how this virus spreads, Canada’s public health officers moved from advising against mask wearing to mandating it.

“As much as it creates distrust this is…how it actually works in reality. Experimentation, evidence, hypothesis generation and integrating that into future activity,” Chagla said.

Still, these feelings of mistrust can create fertile minds for the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation. The issue has escalated to the point that Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam has had to take steps to stamp out misleading information about the virus.

“We’ve been working on various fronts, including looking at social media platforms in terms of combating mis- and disinformation,” Tam said, speaking in a press conference in October.

She added that the country needed to “immunize the population” against misinformation as vaccines — a key subject of misinformation — begin to be rolled out.

“We as a collective public health system, have tried through various means to provide information like these press briefings are web websites, guidance, et cetera. But we are aware, of course, that misinformation, this information exists,” Tam said.

Read more: Canada must ‘immunize’ public against misinformation before COVID-19 vaccine arrives: Tam

In addition to the steps governments are taking, there are also ways that individuals can better navigate this complex world of scientific findings and misinformation.

“What I recommend to my friends and family is, first off, to look for things from reputable sources. So, you know, if it's published in a scientific journal (it) is obviously better than something which is a comment posted on the Internet,” Kozak said.

"Coronavirus: Tam concerned about spread of misinformation when it comes to COVID

He noted that it’s also good to search whether others have been able to replicate the findings — as opposed to just a one-off finding. And, when in doubt, listen to local public health advice.

“Local public health authorities, so Public Health Ontario, the Public Health Agency of Canada, they've tried to do their best to really translate what the state of literature is,” Chagla said.

Finally, Chagla has one rule to keep front of mind.

“Not everything on the internet is completely true.”

And as Canadians work to immunize their minds from misinformation, the actual COVID-19 immunization effort is underway — prompting hope that the end of this pandemic is on the horizon.

Read more: Canada still awaiting data from AstraZeneca as U.K. approves new coronavirus vaccine

Manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna have both received regulatory approval for their jabs to be used in Canada, and multiple other vaccine candidates are currently being reviewed. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which was approved in the U.K. this week, is among those candidates.

More than 87,000 people across the country have already received their first dose of the approved vaccines, and Canada is on track to receive 1.2 million doses by the end of next month.

Should Canada decide to approve the two-dose Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, it would set in motion the agreement Canada signed with the company for up to 20 million vaccine doses. The deal would also be in addition to the 60 million doses Canada is already set to receive from Pfizer and Moderna by September.

That means that Canada would have enough doses in its arsenal to vaccinate 40 million Canadians next year — which is more than Canada’s population of 38 million.

Betting markets see Republican win in Georgia’s crucial runoffs, while polls give edge to Democrats

Last Updated: Jan. 2, 2021

 First Published: Dec. 31, 2020
By Victor Reklaitis

Peach State’s two runoff elections on Tuesday will determine which party controls U.S. Senate


Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are facing off in runoff elections against Georgia's two Republican incumbent senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. 

MARKETWATCH PHOTO ILLUSTRATION|GETTY IMAGES| ISTOCKPHOTO


Ahead of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoff elections on Tuesday that will determine the balance of power in Washington, betting markets are signaling some confidence in the Republican Party’s prospects, while polls indicate a slight advantage for Democrats.

Betting market PredictIt gives Republicans a 65% chance of staying in charge of the Senate as of Thursday. Other sites that enable wagers on politics, such as BetOnline, also have the GOP favored to keep its grip on the 100-seat chamber.


Republicans already control 50 seats following November’s elections and can remain the majority party by winning just one of the two Georgia races. They then would provide a check on policies backed by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden and the Democratic-run House of Representatives.

But Democratic challenger Rev. Raphael Warnock leads Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Perdue by 1.8 percentage points in a RealClearPolitics moving average of polls for one of the Georgia runoffs. And in RCP’s average of surveys for the other Georgia contest, Democrat Jon Ossoff is ahead of GOP Sen. David Perdue by 0.8 percentage point. To be sure, pollsters are coming off a rough November in which they missed badly on some races.

“I think the races are closer than the betting odds would suggest,” said Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at Axi, a broker, in a note on Wednesday. Innes also said the Georgia runoffs could be “the next key catalyst” for traders, but added that “a Democratic sweep with such a tight majority should not mean aggressive corporate tax hikes as the market SPX, +0.64% may fear.”

Related: If the Democrats win the Senate, Big Tech better be ready for a bigger fight

And see: Democrats’ chances of Senate takeover rise, and that could affect health care, energy and financial services

Many analysts view the Georgia races as nail-biters, and some have warned that winners might not be declared for days, as happened in the 2020 presidential contest.

“This election is about as close as you can get,” wrote J. Miles Coleman and Niles Francis in a recent analysis for the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “It’s hard to tell who has the edge, but undoubtedly, the party that does a better job turning out the base will be the party that carries the day.”

With turnout considered critical, both Biden and President Donald Trump have campaigned for their party’s candidates in Georgia, and they are slated to make final in-person appeals to Peach State voters on Monday. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by less than 12,000 votes.

New York Post editorial board is off the Trump train

Trump is, the editorial pointedly states, “cheering for an undemocratic coup.”

Published: Dec. 28, 2020 at 3:50 p.m. ET

By Tim Rostan

Front-page editorial encourages Trump, whom the tabloid endorsed in November, to ‘stop the insanity’ and quit contesting Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election



‘You lost the election — here’s how to save your legacy.’

That’s a stark front-page appeal from the New York Post editorial board to a president whom it endorsed during the 2016 Republican primaries and in the general election this year.

In short, the generally Donald Trump–cordial editorial page argues, the outgoing Republican should focus on mitigating damage to his legacy and helping to get Republican incumbents elected in Georgia’s dual Senate runoff elections, which are now just over a week away. “Stop thinking about Jan. 6,” when Congress is slated to accept (or, Trump and allies hope, not) the Electoral College outcome of the presidential election (a 306-232 win by President-elect Joe Biden), and “[s]tart thinking about Jan. 5,” the date of the Georgia runoffs, the tabloid’s editorial advises.


Victories by Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue over Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in those races, the editorial board writes, would, in maintaining a Republican majority in that chamber, apply a “much-needed check on [Biden’s] agenda.”

By continuing to argue that Biden’s victory was rendered illegitimate by election fraud, which no court in dozens of attempts has accepted as a truthful claim, Trump is, the editorial pointedly states, “cheering for an undemocratic coup.”

The New York Post and MarketWatch parent Dow Jones are both units of News Corp.

Revolution of the Daleks

 There's some clever commentary from showrunner and writer Chris Chibnall here on the age untrustworthy governments, border checks and national security, unscrupulous private funding of national governances, the refusal to trust in 'experts' and the ruthless ambition that puts power before the people. Perhaps the scariest aspect of Revolution of the Daleks is that Robertson emerges not only unscathed but in a direct line for the White House. Perhaps now that Trump is out, a Trump-esque politician vying for the big seat might be more palatable in future episodes?

"Doctor Who" Revolution of the Daleks (TV Episode 2021) - IMDb

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11892730

1 day ago · Directed by Lee Haven Jones. With Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole. The upcoming festive special will see the return of one of the Doctor's biggest and most feared enemies - the Daleks. The Doctor is locked away in a high-security 

From 1963 to 2020, star Jodie Whittaker explains why 

"Doctor Who" resonates today

In 1963, the first episode of "Doctor Who" aired on BBC. Now in 2020, the show is going strong and embracing the first woman to portray the Doctor, actor Jodie Whittaker. Whittaker explains on "Salon Talks" how the show maintains its relevance with "incredible hindsight."

Watch more of Whittaker discussing season 12 of "Doctor Who" on "Salon Talks."

"Doctor Who" airs on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on BBC America

Like 2020, "Revolution of the Daleks" is dark. The heroic Captain Jack insists "hope is still there"

Salon talks to "Doctor Who" guest star John Barrowman and Mandip Gill about its relevant holiday special

By MELANIE MCFARLAND, SALON
JANUARY 1, 2021 

)

John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness in "Doctor Who" (James Pardon/BBC Studios/BBCA)

"Revolution of the Daleks" is one the darker "Doctor Who" festive specials in recent memory, for reasons that become apparent soon after it begins. This grimness is separate from the Thirteenth Doctor's current conundrum, by the way – when last we saw Thirteen (Jodie Whittaker), she was being locked away in an intergalactic prison with slim to no chance of escape. A terrible circumstance, to be sure.

In the meantime Thirteen's loyal "fam" Yaz (Mandip Gill), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Graham (Bradley Walsh) have been waiting for her on Earth with no word of where she's gone or when she's coming back. This separation has taken its toll on each of them, some more than others. Soon enough their loneliness takes a back seat to the much larger threat involving the discovery of yet another insidious Dalek plan.

On the flipside, hope for salvation also arrives in the form of Whovian favorite Captain Jack Harkness, the dashing timeline-tripping rogue played by John Barrowman.

"Sometimes Jack comes back because Jack – if I may be so blunt, not that I'm an advocate – but Jack is the gunslinger that The Doctor can rely on to do some of the dirty work," Barrowman told Salon in a recent conversation. "It's almost like Jack's like a guilty pleasure, I think, to The Doctor, because although there was a period where she didn't like him, as one of the previous carnations, she has come to love him in a sense. But she also uses him as a guilty pleasure, and Jack's quite happy with that. So that's the other little naughty side to it."
Adv

That affection doesn't end with The Doctor. Barrowman is beloved among sci-fi fans in general and Whovians in particular, and based upon the expressive excitement the actor exuded during a Zoom interview he conducted from his Palm Springs home the feeling is more than mutual. At that point, which was days before Thanksgiving, I hadn't yet seen "Revolution of the Daleks," so when Barrowman observed, "Everything always seems to relate to what's happening in 'Doctor Who' to what's happening in society," there was no way to know how true that observation turned out to be.

"Doctor Who" has danced with the Daleks many times over the decades, including in Thirteen's first festive special, 2019's "Resolution." But this apocalyptic battle begins as the product of a sinister marriage of draconian politics, corporate greed and the Faustian bargain hidden within promises of "security." BBC America has asked previewers to reveal as few specifics about it as possible.

Indeed, the plotline's accidental relevance to 2020's ground-shifting events is mind-reeling, especially when one considers that production on this special wrapped in late 2019. That's before the pandemic, before the worldwide marches for civil rights and justice, before a highly toxic presidential election in America. "Revolution of the Daleks" would seem to be a response to all that if we didn't know that series creator Chris Chibnall wrote the script more than a year ago.

Gill, who chatted with Salon in a separate interview, said she looked back on the script from the perspective of having lived through 2020 with a bit of shock. If we were only to consider the plot point regarding The Doctor's imprisonment being viewed by an audience that has been self-quarantining, "they're going to relate to this episode way more than they would have done prior to this pandemic," she says. "We've spent so long away from families and friend because everyone's had to. If we spent two months away from our families in everyday life prior to the pandemic, it was because everyone was busy."

"Now," she adds, "we're being told to stay inside, we're wanting to see people, which is not unlike having things taken away from us. Which is what's happened to Yaz. Like everyone now, Yaz has had her life taken away from her."

Barrowman's been with the franchise since the Chris Eccleston era, and for him the story's coincidental relevance is nothing new. "A lot of things that have happened within 'Doctor Who' and also with 'Torchwood,' I have to say, in a way predicts something that's coming. When [Russell T. Davies] was showrunner, I'm like, 'How do you know this?' Also with Chibnall: 'How do you guys know this s**t's going to happen?' We had no idea any of it was going to happen because obviously this was filmed pre-COVID."

Even so, "Doctor Who" is considered family entertainment, which may be one of the reasons that the series is not often granted the same of gravitas as other genre TV titles. When I bring that up to Barrowman, citing "Star Trek" and the Ronald Moore revival of "Battlestar Galactica as examples, he points out a key difference between those shows and "Doctor Who." "They all have political and social stuff that they write into their storylines, but you know what? All of that stuff's already happened." He then jokes, "Maybe someone in the show actually can go to the future. I'm being silly, but you know what I mean? I agree with you on that. It doesn't get the credit that it should."

One element that's not up for debate is the show's deft way of appealing to how its audience is feeling in the here and now, in a year that has left millions around the world feeling psychologically taxed and emotionally exhausted. "Revolution of the Daleks" brings Yaz together with Jack, and in one remarkable scene he helps her deal with her overwhelming anxiety – something she has in common with many of us. Yaz lives with mental health issues, and The Doctor's disappearance affects her acutely. "I feel like it's Jack's character that gives her hope and reassurance that it's okay not to be okay," Gill said.

Ultimately the objective of any "Doctor Who" holiday special is to entertain and in some way leave viewers feeling a bit better. Many of them mark significant change in the Time Lord's universe; the same is true of this one. Barrowman hopes that this episode reminds people about what believes is extraordinary about "Doctor Who," that its hero accepts strong-willed and good misfits into their life without question.

"I want you to make sure that this is presented as a positive word, misfits," he said. "People who are different and people who are unique, The Doctor brings them into the TARDIS with open arms. And that was why the show means so much to me. That's why there's a joy behind it, because we're all part of something that is greater than ourselves."

Barrowman added, "I hope that by the time this comes, people have learned that we have to make certain sacrifices to move forward, to make things better. Because again, when people see this episode, they'll see that when they come onto the TARDIS, it's not about self. It's about family and unity. It's about protection and helping others. And I hope that when they see this episode, they'll see the sacrifices that these characters are making, but yet the love is still there. The strength is still there. The hope is still there."

UK
Teaching unions press for primary school openings to be halted across England after London U-turn

Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green said last-minute decisions ahead of term on Monday have caused “huge stress” for pupils, families and staff

By Georgina Littlejohn
January 2, 2021 

Teachers and unions have called for all primary schools across England to remain closed (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)

Teaching unions have called for all schools to stay shut across the country after the Government announced all London primary schools will remain closed next week.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson was accused of causing another chaotic U-turn after he confirmed on New Year’s Day that schools across the capital will not reopen from Monday, as London battles with high levels of coronavirus infections.

Under the Government’s initial plan, secondary schools and colleges were set to be closed to most pupils for the first two weeks of January, while primary schools within 50 local authorities in London and the south of England were also told to keep their doors shut.

Mr Williamson said the decision to escalate the measure by closing all London primary schools was a “last resort”.

He said: “As infection rates rise across the country, and particularly in London, we must make this move to protect our country and the NHS.

“We will continue to keep the list of local authorities under review, and reopen classrooms as soon as we possibly can.”

‘Chaos for parents’

While the move was welcomed as the “right decision” by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green said the last-minute nature of the Government’s decision had caused “huge stress” for pupils, families and staff.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has been accused of causing another chaotic U-turn (Photo by -/PRU/AFP via Getty Images)

She said: “This is yet another Government U-turn creating chaos for parents just two days before the start of term.

“Gavin Williamson’s incompetent handling of the return of schools and colleges is creating huge stress for parents, pupils, and school and college staff and damaging children’s education.”

Dr Mary Bousted, joint head of the National Education Union which has more than 450,000 members, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that all schools – primary and secondary – across England should close, not just those in London.
Ignoring scientific advice

She said: “We know the virus is up to 70 per cent more infectious and the thing we do uniquely with children is we put them all together in secondary schools where we know children really can transmit, in year group bubbles of up to 240 pupils with no social distancing.

“So it is not difficult to see why secondary school pupils are the highest age group for Covid infection and primary schools are the second highest.”

And the NASUWT union, which represents 300,000 teachers and headteachers, accused the government of ignoring scientific advice that suggested school closures could be “essential in breaking the chain of coronavirus transmission”.

Its general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said parents and teachers in tier four areas would “no doubt wonder why the government regards the risks to their health and safety as less significant than in other tier four areas in London and the South East

THEY ARE'NT CHRISTIANS THEY ARE WHITE NATIONALISTS

Toxic Christian ideology is infecting the Covid debate. And that's bad for everyone.

Despite the magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., where over 340,000 people have already died, recent news about the effectiveness of vaccines has provided some hope this holiday season. Videos of the first Americans receiving the vaccine were cause for celebration.

© Provided by NBC News

A consistent narrative among many political leaders who delayed an aggressive response to the virus, including President Donald Trump, is the expectation that Covid-19 vaccines will speed the return to life as we used to know it. Yet, epidemiologists and public health experts say vital herd immunity will be harder to achieve if a sizable number of Americans resist vaccination.

Americans have found all sorts of reasons to be suspicious of vaccines. One community that appears disproportionately opposed is Christian nationalists. In fact, we find in a new study that Americans who strongly embrace Christian nationalism — close to a quarter of the population — are much more likely to question the safety of vaccines and to be misinformed about them (e.g., believing that vaccines cause autism or don't work or that those who administer them are dishonest). If enough of these Americans resist a Covid-19 vaccine based on suspicions rooted in misinformation, the results would be disastrous for achieving herd immunity and reducing the spread of the virus.

VIDEO Covid vaccine's biggest obstacle turns out to be leadership, not science

We examined nationally representative data including 1,219 participants collected by researchers at Chapman University as part of the 2019 wave of the Chapman University Survey of American Fears.

Regarding vaccination attitudes, the survey instrument asked respondents to agree or disagree with various statements that we then combined into a single scale:
"Vaccines cause autism."
"Doctors and drug companies are not honest about the risks of vaccines."
"People have the right to decide whether or not to vaccinate their kids."
"Kids are given too many vaccines."
"Vaccines do not help protect children from dangerous diseases."

To measure Christian nationalism, we combined responses to these five questions into a single scale:
"The federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation."
"The federal government should advocate Christian values."
"The federal government should enforce strict separation of church and state."
"The federal government should allow prayer in public schools."
"The federal government should allow religious symbols in public spaces."

Christian nationalism is an ideology that seeks to have a particular expression of Christianity be privileged in the public sphere — in the national identity, public policies and sacred symbols of the U.S. It focuses on defining the boundaries of American citizenship, who is (and isn't) a "true" American.

Most often, a "Christian America" is one where white, native-born, politically and religiously conservative Christian Americans are at the center of the culture. In our recent book, we show that in order to understand various issues animating the culture wars, we must pay close attention to Christian nationalism.

Americans who agreed with the various measures of Christian nationalism were much more likely to espouse anti-vaccine attitudes, even after controlling for other influences, such as political party, political ideology, religiosity, race or even education.

While concerning, this information shouldn't be too surprising. First, Americans who embrace Christian nationalism are more skeptical of science. They are more likely to believe scientists are hostile to faith, that creationism should be taught in public schools and that our country relies too much on science over religion. Christian nationalists believe that authority in the public sphere should come from sources they trust are friendly to religion, not secular scientists.

In two other recent studies, we find that Christian nationalism is a leading predictor of ignoring precautionary behaviors regarding Covid-19. We show that these Americans prize individual liberty or economic prosperity rather than protection of the vulnerable. And while not measuring Christian nationalism directly, other researchers find that religious states disobeyed stay-at-home orders at a higher rate and that conservative Protestants are much more skeptical that scientists understand Covid-19.

Finally, Christian nationalism is strongly associated with support for politicians who promise to advance its values and oppose targets of suspicion. Trump and other conservative politicians have embraced anti-vaccination arguments in the past. Medical professionals have even raised the alarm about the effect of Trump's public skepticism, although as president he has acknowledged the importance of vaccinations.

So, just as with other common culture war issues, like gun control, same-sex marriage or policing, Christian nationalism appears closely intertwined with Americans' attitudes toward vaccines and the Covid-19 pandemic. One limit of these data is that the researchers at Chapman were unable to ask about a Covid-19 vaccine directly, given that they fielded the survey in the fall of 2019.

But we feel confident connecting Christian nationalism and Americans' likely responses to the Covid-19 vaccine.

In our public discourse and ethics surveys this year, we asked Americans, "Would you get vaccinated if/when a Covid-19 vaccine becomes available?" One of the possible answers was "I don't plan to get vaccinated at all." Even after controlling for important sociodemographic, religious and political characteristics, the more strongly respondents identified with Christian nationalism, the more likely they were to say they don't plan on taking the vaccine.

This is a significant concern. Christian nationalist ideology will almost certainly serve as a barrier for a sizable minority of Americans who need the vaccine. Policymakers and health care professionals will need to attend to this hurdle as they plan and then execute any broad-scale vaccination strategy.

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IS THE FINAL DEVOLUTION OF AMERICAN PROTESTANTISM