Mayan artifacts discovered along train construction route in Mexico

Archaeologists say they have discovered hundreds of Mayan artifacts, including ceramic vessels and burial sites, along the route of a train construction project in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has insisted construction of the Mayan Train project, which will run through five states, will be conducted in way that is safe for the environment and will benefit tourism.

By Radina Gigova, CNN 

Researchers have so far discovered nearly 2,500 pre-Hispanic structures, 80 burial sites and thousands of vessels and fragments along the route of the "Maya Train," Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced in a statement Thursday.

The artifacts were discovered with the help of GPS georeferencing, satellite topographic images and LIDAR sensors in the periphery of just one of the sections of the project, which runs from the cities of Palenque, in Chiapas to Escárcega, in Campeche.

Discoveries ranged from mounds to bases with complex architecture, INAH archaeologists Ileana Echauri Pérez and Iliana Ancona Aragón said. The pair also worked with INAH investigator Silvianne Boucher Le Landais.

"Both the immovable archaeological artifacts and the movable ones expand the knowledge about daily life, and trade and cultural exchange relations that existed centuries ago in the Mayan area," the researchers said.

Some objects "of special interest" for researchers include "an offering composed of a bowl and a spout vessel, both with four mammiform supports -- representing the breasts of a woman," which date from the transition from Pre-Classic to Classic periods, known as Protoclassic, INAH said.

Archaeologists believe the vessels were used by the ruling elite during "important political or religious moments," and the pouring vessel was likely to have been used for precious liquids such as chocolate and perfumes.

Preliminary analysis indicated the Mayan occupation had inhabited the area for a long time, from the Middle Preclassic Period -- which began in 700 BC -- to as late as 850 AD, the end of the Late Classic Period.

Another area of interest for researchers is the Boca del Cerro area, located on the banks of the Usumacinta River, which was part of a large residential area associated with a key commercial hub that connected regions the along the Usumacinta and other parts of Mesoamerica.

"The construction of the Mayan Train constitutes an important research opportunity, through archaeological recovery, with a view to expanding the knowledge about the archaeological sites of the regions that the train will travel through," researchers said.

However, critics of the train project, which is intended to connect beach resorts and the peninsula's interior, say it will damage the environment and potentially harm other archeological sites.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has insisted that construction of the project, which will run through five states, will be conducted in way that is safe for the environment and will benefit tourism.

Mammoths and other Ice Age giants survived longer than scientists thought

By Katie Hunt, CNN 

Mammoths and other giant creatures of the Ice Age such as woolly rhinos survived longer than scientists thought, coexisting with humans for tens of thousands years before they vanished for good. That's according to the results of an ambitious 10-year research project that analyzed DNA from hundreds of soil samples across the Arctic.  

© Guogang Zhang/Hubei University Mammoth Steppe was a unique ecosystem that hosted a number of large grazing animals.

The scientists involved in the project collected 535 samples of permafrost and sediment from frozen lakes, often in extremely cold locations from across Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia, in 73 locations where the remains of mammoths have been found.

Analysis of DNA contained in the soil showed that mammoths were living in mainland Siberia 3,900 years ago -- after the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in Egypt and the megaliths of Stonehenge were erected.

Most woolly mammoths were previously thought to have died off about 10,000 years ago, except for a very tiny population that survived on remote islands off Siberia.

Woolly rhinos, the researchers said, were still roaming around the Arctic 9,800 years ago. Earlier studies said they went extinct about 14,000 years ago.

Instead, extinction came when the last areas of Mammoth Steppe -- a unique ecosystem in the Arctic that doesn't exist today -- gave way to peatland as the climate became warmer and wetter.

"The authors present several dates for mammoth, woolly rhino, horse and steppe bison that are also substantially younger than the fossil record indicates, which builds a stronger case for late survival across the Arctic than has been made previously," said Tori Herridge, an evolutionary biologist and mammoth specialist at the Natural History Museum in London.

"I am very excited to see how this work develops, and what new data might arise to support or refute this. I am sure it will come under intense scrutiny," she said via email. Herridge was not involved in the research.

Most ancient DNA is typically taken from bones or teeth (the oldest DNA ever sequenced was from a mammoth tooth and was more than 1 million years old), but new techniques mean that genetic material preserved in soil can now be analyzed, dated and sequenced.

All animals, including humans, constantly shed genetic material when they pee, poop and bleed, lose hair and slough off dead skin cells. This genetic material leaches into the soil, where it can remain for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years when the conditions are right -- such as in frozen ground.

"An individual animal continuously spreads DNA throughout its lifetime in its dung, urine, epidermal cells, and hair, containing millions of DNA segments as it wandered across its full geographic range, but only left one skeleton upon its death, which is far less likely to have been preserved, recovered and dated," said one of the study's authors, Yucheng Wang, a research associate in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge.

"By sequencing only a few of these DNA molecules preserved in the environment, we can identify its existence and range. It is therefore not surprising that sedimentary DNA could produce a later and more accurate extinction estimate."

   

© Inger Greve Alsos The Arctic environment today.

Known as environmental or eDNA, the technique has been used by archaeologists to shed light on ancient humans, and the same method has also been used during the pandemic to test the sewage of human populations to detect and track Covid-19.

Megafauna mystery

The study, which published in the journal Nature, also detailed the Arctic ecosystem for the past 50,000 years. The environment in which mammoths lived, known as the Mammoth Steppe, was cold, dry and regionally complex, with a distinct community of vegetation composed of grasses, sedges (a grass-like plant), flowering plants and shrubs. As part of the research, the team sequenced the DNA of 1,500 Arctic plants for the very first time.

Why large, grazing animals such as the mammoth went extinct has been debated for more than a 100 years, Wang said. There are two main theories: Mammoths were hunted to death within centuries of their first contact with humans, or they weren't able to adapt quickly enough to a rapidly changing climate at the end of the Ice Age.

Wang said their research supported the theory that climate change at the end of the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago played the major role.

The longer overlap between humans and mammoths in the Arctic region, together with a detailed understanding of the Mammoth Steppe ecosystem and how quickly it changed, strengthened the case against the idea that humans were the main driver of mammoth's extinction, Wang explained.

"When the climate got wetter and the ice began to melt, it led to the formation of lakes, rivers, and marshes. The ecosystem changed and the biomass of the vegetation reduced and would not have been able to sustain the herds of mammoths," Wang said in a news release.

"We have shown that climate change, specifically precipitation, directly drives the change in the vegetation -- humans had no impact on them at all based on our models."

True dynamics?

Herridge at the Natural History Museum said more work needs to be done on the human presence in the Mammoth Steppe if any human role in the disappearance of mammoths is to be ruled out.

In the models used in this paper, she said, researchers used the scarce presence of human remains in the archaeological record and the existence of a climate suitable for humankind as a proxy, not DNA. Much finer data is needed to understand whether and when humans and mammoths actually overlapped in these regions.

"Environmental DNA studies like this have a lot of potential for directly testing for the presence through time of humans across the Arctic, in much the same way as they have done here for mammoths -- this is the sort of high resolution data we need to tease apart the true dynamics of the extinction of the woolly mammoth," she said.

"Overlap data alone won't cut it, as it isn't the last mammoth that matters, it's working out what drove mammoth numbers down so low that they were reduced to just few isolated and vulnerable populations."

© Yucheng Wang Scientists collected 535 samples of permafrost and sediment from across Siberia, Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

(Yonhap Interview) Partnering with S. Korea, India seeks to export K9 howitzers to third countries: Indian secretary

India's Secretary for Defense Production Raj Kumar poses for a photo during an interview with Yonhap News Agency at a hotel in Seoul on Oct. 21, 2021. (Yonhap)

Interviews October 21, 2021
By Song Sang-ho and Kang Yoon-seung

SEOUL, Oct. 21 (Yonhap) -- India is seeking to export the K9 self-propelled howitzer to third countries in cooperation with South Korea, India's secretary for defense production said Thursday, stressing his country is pushing for a "win-win" partnership between the two sides.

Raj Kumar made the remarks during an exclusive interview with Yonhap News Agency, expressing satisfaction over India's recent deployment of the K9s, which were manufactured by the Indian company, L&T, in technical collaboration with the South Korean company Hanwha Defense.

"The Indian armed forces are very satisfied with the performance of the K9 Vajra platform, where the K9 Thunder has been very effectively adapted and indigenously built for Indian conditions and requirements," the secretary said.

"The variant of the platform also has good potential in third countries, and our governments (of India and South Korea) and industries are cooperating to take these opportunities forward," he added.

Raj Kumar was in Seoul to visit the biennial Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX), which began its five-day run Tuesday to showcase high-tech weapons systems, including stealth fighters and hydrogen-powered drones.

India's military has recently rolled out 100 K9 howitzers to multiple areas, including those bordering China, as it has been pushing for military modernization. Kumar cast the domestic production of the K9s as a "success story" and "unique milestone" in cooperation between the two countries.

Asked if India's military has a plan to purchase more K9s, the secretary refused to give a direct answer.

"It's a dynamic process, and our armed forces do continuous assessment of their requirements and their capabilities," he said. "Depending upon future needs, you know, they (will) look at it."

The collaborative project between South Korea and India to produce the K9s is in tune with New Delhi's "Make In India" initiative aimed at turning the country into a global manufacturing hub.

"What we are looking at is making India make for the world, and we should have joint working collaboration and co-production," he said.

"They should ultimately result in self reliance for our country, but in the process, it should be a win-win for the industries of both India and Korea," he added.

South Korean defense companies have been stepping up efforts to advance into or strengthen their footholds in India's market, as India has been pushing for its wide-ranging defense modernization with an increased focus on homeland security.

From 2014-2019, the Indian government concluded contracts worth US$25.8 billion with Indian firms, many of which have partnered with international defense firms, according to the official.

"(Republic of Korea) defense industries can take advantage of these openings and huge opportunities now that a relationship of trust and confidence has been developed between the Indian and Korean defense establishments," Raj Kumar said.

sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)

S. Korean defense firms clinch deals worth US$128 mln at ADEX: organizers

 October 24, 2021

SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korean defense companies have signed business contracts worth US$128 million in total during a biennial arms exhibition held south of Seoul last week, its organizers said Sunday.

More than 250 local companies joined the five-day Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX), which ended Saturday. The event marked a rare opportunity for the companies to explore new opportunities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to the finalized contracts, local companies had consultations with their foreign clients over potential contracts, which could amount to a combined $22.5 billion if signed, organizers said.

During the exhibition, organizers arranged more than 700 meetings between local firms and foreign governments at the ADEX venue, Seoul Air Base, they said.

The 2021 exhibition involved 440 companies from 28 countries. It marks the largest number of participating firms since the exhibition was launched in 1996.


The South Korean Air Force's acrobatic flight team, the Black Eagles, performs to mark the opening of the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2021 at Seoul Air Base, south of Seoul, on Oct. 18, 2021. (Yonhap)

colin@yna.co.kr
(END)

(Yonhap Feature) S. Korean farmers struggle from labor shortage as pandemic disrupts migrant work system

Feature October 17, 2021
By Chang Dong-woo

ANSEONG, South Korea, Oct. 17 (Yonhap) -- Koh Jin-taek is proud of having built a small but stable farming business in Anseong, 77 kilometers south of Seoul, over the past two decades producing primarily lettuce, chicory and other types of leafy vegetables.

He currently owns 44 vinyl greenhouses and had supplied nearly 10,000 kilograms of produce monthly to food companies, with annual sales climbing as high as 800 million won (US$680,000).

Things looked fairly bright for 53-year-old until COVID-19 landed in South Korea last year.

Koh now has become increasingly doubtful of whether he can maintain his business going forward.

"We have to supply at least 9,000 kg of vegetables each month to break even and save some money. Last month, we were only able to sell 4,800 kg," Koh said.





Koh Jin-taek, a farmer in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, walks along his vinyl greenhouses used for producing vegetables on Oct. 15, 2021. (Yonhap)

One of the main reasons for such difficulties is the shortage of affordable labor.

The pandemic led to a sharp drop in the number of migrant workers in South Korea, driving up their wages. Koh's once nine-person workforce was recently slashed down to five as four abruptly left for higher paying jobs.

South Korea runs three types of migration labor schemes under which workers from 16 Asian countries are allowed to work in fields of low-skilled manual work, such as fishing, farming and manufacturing under E-8, E-9 and C-4 visas.

The programs are intended to provide local farmers with cheap labor while offering comparatively high wages for overseas workers who would have earned much less for the same job back in their home countries.

In 2019, nearly 9,000 workers from Asian countries, including Cambodia, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh, were hired here through the program. But due to strengthened border control against the pandemic, the number plunged 82 percent to 1,590 from January to August of this year.

This continued shortage of migrant workers is creating a supply-demand imbalance of farm labor, leading to a surge in hiring costs.

This phenomenon came as the local farming sector is dependent on foreign work more than ever. Young South Koreans are increasingly shunning manual labor, such as farming and fishing, and choosing to live in cities with higher-paying jobs.

Koh says he finds himself constantly checking his savings to see whether he is able to shoulder the sharp increase in labor costs due to the shortage of migrant workers since the pandemic.

The fast aging of the farming population isn't helping either. Last year, people over the age of 65 accounted for 41.7 percent of all farm households, up 3.9 percentage points from 2015.

A large number of anecdotes suggest that workers who arrive in South Korea are reportedly offered as high as double the daily wages as those before the pandemic.

Koh said his town's agency that matches farmers with migrant workers recently increased the daily wage up to 120,000 won from 80,000 won.

Koh said he had to destroy 30 vinyl greenhouses worth of goods this year. He simply was not able to harvest the perfectly tradable vegetables due to the labor shortage.

Rep. Ahn Ho-young of the ruling Democratic Party, a member of the parliament's labor committee, pointed out in a recent government audit session that the steep hikes in costs are driving local farmers to resort to employing undocumented workers.

On the consumer side of things, the labor shortage has ended up weakening the overall output of farm produce. This has led to hikes in food prices and has added inflationary pressure to the economy.

In the second quarter, South Korea ranked third among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the growth rate of food prices.

Despite seeing higher wages, migrant workers themselves too aren't necessarily welcoming of the situation.

"Work is more difficult and time consuming as we are constantly understaffed," said Sreychom Mao, a 30-year-old worker from Cambodia.

Some farming communities are demanding that farmers be included in the government program that compensates small and midsized businesses for damage caused by adhering to social distancing rules.

To help out, most counties across the nation offer support, such as discounts for renting farm equipment, while some also send their employees in groups to local farms to help out with the manual labor.

But such peripheral actions are nowhere near the amount of help and attention farmers are requesting.

Koh hopes that the central and local government can offer subsidies so that farmers are able to hire South Korean workers, even if higher wages have to be offered.

"If the government provides support, local workers might make the effort to come here," Koh said.

Farmers will be left with nothing if the financial burden of employing local workers is put solely on farmers themselves, he said.

odissy@yna.co.kr
(END)

 

N. Korea confirms test-launch of new SLBM

This combined photo, released Oct. 20, 2021, by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, shows a new type of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) being test-fired from waters the previous day. The South Korean military said on Oct. 19 that North Korea fired what appears to be an SLBM toward the East Sea from waters east of Sinpo, a city on the North's east coast. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
(END)

(LEAD) U.S., S. Korea to continue discussing end-of-war declaration, other options for N. Korea diplomacy: Washington envoy

 October 24, 2021
By Song Sang-ho and Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. point man on North Korea said Sunday that he looks forward to continuing exploring different options with South Korea to resume dialogue with Pyongyang, including the proposed declaration of a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

Sung Kim, special representative for North Korea, also reiterated Washington's willingness to help address the North's humanitarian concerns for its people in need, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, speaking to reporters right after a meeting here with his South Korean counterpart, Noh Kyu-duk.

He also called on Pyongyang to stop "provocations" and other destabilizing activities, and return to dialogue.

Their talks in Seoul came after tensions resurfaced following the North's recent test-firing of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). They met in Washington last week -- a sign of stepped-up diplomacy to resume dialogue with the North.

"I look forward to continuing to work with special representative Noh to explore different ideas and initiatives, including the ROK's end-of-war proposal as we continue to pursue our shared objectives on the peninsula," Kim said. ROK stands for South Korea's official name, Republic of Korea.


Noh Kyu-duk, South Korea's top nuclear envoy, and his U.S. counterpart, Sung Kim, speak during a joint press event after their meeting on North Korean issues in Seoul on Oct. 24, 2021. 

(Pool photo) (Yonhap)

Calling the latest SLBM test "concerning and counterproductive," he highlighted Washington's "strong commitment" to the defense of the South and exploring "sustained and substantive" diplomacy with the North.

Kim described the latest launch as a breach of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions but underlined the Joe Biden administration's desire to reengage with the North.

"We remain ready to meet with the DPRK without preconditions, and we have made clear that the United States harbors no hostile intent towards the DPRK," he said, referring to the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We hope the DPRK will respond positively to our outreach," he added.

Upon Kim's trip here, keen attention was drawn to whether he will shine more light on the U.S. position about President Moon Jae-in's recent proposal for the end-of-war declaration, but he didn't elaborate further.

Kim's characterization of the North's latest SLBM test as a "provocation" came as Pyongyang demanded Seoul and Washington drop what it terms "double standards" in reference to the allies casting the North's missile launches as provocations while justifying their own as "deterrence."

Noh said the latest security situation on the Korean Peninsula underscored the urgent need for resuming talks North Korea, and Seoul and Washington are ready to discuss any issues at the negotiating table if the North accepts their talk offer.

"We reaffirmed the earlier stance that (Seoul and Washington) can discuss any issue if it returns to the negotiating table," Noh said. "As the U.S. government from various levels has been continuously expressing willingness for talks, I hope the North Korean side promptly accepts the offer."

North Korea remains unresponsive to U.S. overtures. It has also stayed away from talks with the U.S. since the Hanoi summit in 2019 between the U.S. and North Korea ended without a deal.

The Seoul official said Kim and he discussed various ways to resume the peace process, including the end-of-war declaration and humanitarian assistance.

"Kim and I had serious and in-depth consultations over the end-of-war proposal as part of extended discussions in Washington," Noh said. "We agreed to continue to push for various ways to engage with North Korea, including cooperation in humanitarian cooperation and meaningful trust-building measures."

Noh said the two sides will have additional consultations at an early date on North Korea.

The U.S. envoy is scheduled to depart Seoul later in the day for Jakarta, where he doubles as ambassador.

ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)

Sri Lanka bans contaminated Chinese fertiliser

Issued on: 24/10/2021 

Sri Lanka Ports Authority has said it was told by the agriculture ministry to prevent the unloading of tainted fertiliser from China at any port 

ISHARA S. KODIKARA AFP/File

Colombo (AFP)

The action comes as Sri Lanka battles food shortages caused by a currency crisis while farmers have said a government ban on chemical fertiliser could ruin their crops this year.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office said the National Plant Quarantine Services had tested a sample from the unnamed Chinese vessel and "confirmed the presence of organisms, including certain types of harmful bacteria".

A Commercial High Court has banned any payment to Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co., Ltd for the 96,000 tonnes of fertiliser, an official statement added.

Authorities halted the $42 million deal last month, but reports said the cargo had still been shipped and was due in Colombo. The location of the ship has not been revealed.

Sri Lanka Ports Authority said the agricultural ministry ordered them on Saturday to prevent the unloading of the fertiliser in any port and to turn away the Chinese vessel.

Sri Lanka originally ordered the organic fertiliser from China as part of its efforts to become the world's first 100 percent organic farming nation.

The organic plant nutrients from China were meant to replace the phased-out chemicals during the main rice cultivation season that started October 15.

Following widespread farmer protests that the abandoning of agrochemicals would critically hit yields, the government last week lifted the ban on chemical fertiliser imposed in May.

It has since imported 30,000 tonnes of potassium chloride as fertiliser and some three million litres of nitrogen-based plant nutrients from India.

Farmers of tea -- the main export commodity along with rice -- have warned crop yields could be halved without chemicals.

© 2021 AFP

Wheat Hits New Highs as World Appetite Grows and Supply Shrinks



Kim Chipman and Megan Durisin
Fri, October 22, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- Spring wheat surged to $10 a bushel for the first time since 2012 as hot and dry crop conditions from North America’s prairies to Russia’s Urals leaves the world short on grain used to make everything from croissants to pizza crusts.

Prices climbed for the sixth straight week, the longest run of gains in more than two years, as a global appetite grows for wheat of all types. The U.S. expects overall grain stockpiles to end the season at a five-year low. The scarcity is boosting demand for hard red winter wheat, which was more abundant this year than other varieties. Those futures soared to a seven-year high.

Attention is now turning to 2022 and the early outlook is triggering concern. A three-month forecast from the U.S. predicts more drought in some of the country’s key wheat regions. That could cause growers already facing soaring costs for basic farm products to hold back on big crop investments.

“With the dryness, combined with fertilizer prices up double year on year and availability concerns, many wheat farmers will be ‘spoon feeding’ their crop,” Justin Gilpin, chief executive officer of the Kansas Wheat Commission, said in an interview. It “makes 2022 production harder to estimate at this time.”

The prospect of further supply problems next year raises the chance that wheat prices will continue to surge upward and worsen worldwide food inflation. The latest United Nations figures show food prices at a decade high amid harvest setbacks and supply chain disruptions.

Higher wheat prices also could boost the cost of livestock feed when China has been looking for alternatives to corn and soybeans to feed help feed its hog herds.

U.S. Drought Forecast Signals Latest Threat to World Wheat

Most-active spring wheat futures in the U.S. climbed 2.8% to $10.13 a bushel on Friday, the highest since July 2012. The futures in Minneapolis have soared 69% this year.

Hard red winter wheat, which is widely used for all-purpose flour and also is a potential substitute for spring wheat, settled the day up 3.5% at $7.74 a bushel in Chicago. That’s the priciest since May 2014.

Benchmark soft winter wheat, an ingredient in cakes, cookies and crackers, rose 2% to $7.56 a bushel in Chicago.

In other crops, December corn rose and January soybeans fell.

Poll: 6 in 10 percent of parents rate local schools highly despite GOP efforts to fan outrage over race and masks

Andrew Romano

·West Coast Correspondent

Sat, October 23, 2021, 

As Republican politicians from Virginia to Wisconsin stoke conservative outrage toward local school leaders over hot-button social issues and COVID-19 restrictions, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll suggests that most Americans actually like their local schools and trust their local school boards, not parents, to decide what happens in the classroom.

The survey of 1,704 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Oct. 19 to 21, comes as national Republicans have seized upon the “parents matter” messaging of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin — who has sought to transform schools into a cultural war zone by railing against racial and gender equity initiatives and public-health measures — as a possible template for the rest of the party heading into the 2022 midterms.

Youngkin opposes school mask mandates and has promised to ban what he calls “critical race theory” on his first day in office. Local school boards in states such as Florida have also been the target of vocal opposition and even harassment from conservative parents and activists who are upset by the same policies.

Yet according to the poll, a full 60 percent of parents with kids under 18 rate their local schools as either good or excellent; just 34 percent rate them either poor or fair. Republicans feel much the same way: 55 percent say their schools are good or excellent while just 33 percent say they’re poor or fair.

And far from disagreeing with Youngkin’s Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe — who has said he does not believe that “parents should be telling schools what they should teach” — Americans think it’s “mostly the Board of Education” (47 percent) that ought to determine the curriculum, as opposed to “mostly parents” (29 percent).

Likewise, 38 percent of Americans say parents should have “more” influence over instruction “than they have now” — while a larger share say either “the same as they have now” (30 percent) or less (14 percent).

A wide majority of Americans (56 percent) also agree that students and staff should be required to mask up in school when Delta is surging, versus 29 percent who say they shouldn’t and 15 percent who aren’t sure.

Third grade students in Mrs. Jordan's class prepare to exit their classroom in orderly fashion as they participate in the Great Shakeout at Pacific Elementary School in Manhattan Beach on Thursday, October 21, 2021. (Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images)

But while the crossover appeal of a “parents matter” strategy might be limited, there are signs it could help Republicans mobilize their base. For instance, nearly three-quarters of 2020 Donald Trump voters (72 percent) say parents should have more influence over curriculum than they have now. A full 60 percent of Trump voters think it’s “mostly parents” who should determine what’s taught in classrooms. And even more (62 percent) say students and staff shouldn’t have to cover their faces in school during a Delta surge.

At the same time, recognition of the phrase Critical Race Theory — the name of a graduate-level approach to race studies that conservatives have used to mislabel any attempt to discuss systemic racism in K-12 classrooms — is slightly higher now (57 percent) than it was in June (52 percent), while the number of Americans who say the U.S. has a problem with systemic racism has fallen from 58 percent to 55 percent over the same period.

Yet Republicans also risk a backlash by pushing too hard. If Americans agree on anything about U.S. schools as a whole, it’s that they have become “too politicized” (69 percent) by "national debates over race, gender and COVID-19.”

To be sure, more Republicans than anyone else (84 percent) are currently convinced that schools have become too politicized, and nearly all of them (88 percent) say “liberals” deserve the most blame. But it’s worth noting that two-thirds of Democrats (66 percent) also think schools have become too politicized, and nearly all of them (76 percent) say “conservatives” deserve the most blame. Most independents say conservatives (58 percent) and liberals (69 percent) both deserve at least some blame for politicizing schools.

Those are big numbers across the board. It’s true that Republicans may rile up Trump voters this fall and next by disparaging school officials. But right now, just 39 percent of Americans say schools in their own area have become too politicized — 30 points less than the share who say they’ve become too politicized on a national level. The more Republicans attack specific schools in specific communities, the more resistance they might arouse.

G20 SHOULD END BOOSTER SHOTS

'We're definitely not doing enough' to help global vaccinations: Former US Commerce Sec.

Anjalee Khemlani
·Senior Reporter
Fri, October 22, 2021,


The U.S. is drawing criticism at home and abroad for providing booster shots and potentially expanding COVID-19 vaccines for children while some countries have yet to be able to immunize frontline health-care workers.

"We're definitely not doing enough," Gary Locke, former U.S. Commerce Secretary during the Obama administration, told Yahoo Finance Live.

"Yes, all of our manufacturers are going 24/7... but we really need to expand the existing production facilities and really focus on the human infrastructure, the delivery mechanisms of getting the shots in arms of people," Locke said.

"We should be treating this as any other natural disaster; it's a human disaster. And we should be offering our personnel, whether it's relief workers or military personnel, and not just Americans, but from all around the world including U.N. forces," Locke said.

Advocacy groups like Public Citizen and Doctors Without Borders have joined the World Health Organization's call for solidarity in the need for equitable distribution of vaccines globally in order to end the pandemic.

To do so would require sharing intellectual property to ramp up production. With companies reluctant to do so, others are hoping to recreate the formulas for existing vaccines. Some companies are viable candidates to produce mRNA vaccines, including Biological E, working with Baylor College of Medicine, and the Serum Institute of India, which was supposed to bear the greatest burden of global vaccine production before the Delta wave hit and the company pivoted to domestic distribution.

These efforts don't replace the push for using the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement, to protect members' copyrights, or waiving it. The U.S. supported the idea to waive intellectual property rights in the case of COVID-19 vaccines, while European countries are among those stalling the negotiation process.

Vaccine manufacturers have maintained it is not rational to pursue an intellectual property waiver, with reasons that range from supply chain constrains to lack of skilled labor and other resources.

Pfizer (PFE) CEO Albert Bourla announced a partnership with South Africa's Biovac Institute, which will be operational by early 2022. He previously told Yahoo Finance that this process of including partners, and keeping a tight control on vaccine operations, is how the company has avoided some of the delays and issues that its competitors have seen.

Moderna (MRNA) CEO Stéphane Bancel announced waiving patent enforcement in October, but previously told Yahoo Finance that the company did not have the resources needed to help with transferring technology. Moderna announced it would create a manufacturing hub in Africa, but did not disclose where.

Both the mRNA companies (particularly Moderna for the steep investment of public dollars that helped produce its vaccine) have seen advocacy groups protest at their office doorsteps, at the CEO's homes, and even abroad, calling for greater attention to poorer countries.

The pushback from the companies gives critics the sense that U.S. support of the waiver is largely symbolic.

Locke said the concern over intellectual property is a fair one and that it would take too long for some places to build out the skills and capacity needed.

"Allowing some company to get the secret sauce ... will not enable them to ramp up a production facility overnight. It's not like you're building a factory to make shoes or shirts or toys," Locke said, citing the issues that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) partner Emergent BioSolutions faced after 60 million doses of the J&J shot had to be discarded for contamination.

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