THE PANDEMIC IS STILL HERE

Two million people estimated to be suffering from long COVID-19 in the UK, official data shows

The Office for National Statistics' assessment found nearly a third of the two million people reporting long-lasting symptoms first had COVID-19, or suspected they had it, during the Omicron wave which began late last year.

Paramedics unload a patient from an ambulance parked outside the emergency department at The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel in London, England, on 19 December, 2021. Source: Getty / Hollie Adams/Getty Images

An estimated two million people in the UK, which represents around three per cent of the population, have reported experiencing so-called long COVID-19, official statistics showed Wednesday.

Around 1.4 million of them said they first had COVID-19, or suspected they had the virus, at least 12 weeks previously, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It also found 826,000 of them first had coronavirus at least a year earlier, while 376,000 said they first had it at least two years previously.


Here's what we know about the long-term symptoms of COVID-19
The ONS figures are based on people's own reports of suffering from long COVID-19 from a representative sample of private households in the four weeks to 1 May.

Fatigue is the most common symptom - experienced by 55 per cent of those with self-reported long COVID-19 - followed by shortness of breath (32 per cent), a cough (23 per cent) and muscle ache (23 per cent).

The biggest proportion were people aged 35 to 69, females, those living in more deprived areas and those working in certain professions such as social care, teaching and education or health care, the ONS said.

Those with another activity-limiting health condition or disability were also more prevalent among the long COVID-19 sufferers, it added.

The UK, which was one of the worst-impacted countries by the pandemic, has eased all restrictions this year as cases and hospital admissions have fallen amid relatively high vaccination rates.

The country of around 67 million people has recorded nearly 18.8 million cases, and almost 178,000 deaths from the virus, since it hit more than two years ago.

The ONS assessment found nearly a third of the two million people reporting long-lasting symptoms first had COVID-19, or suspected they had it, during the Omicron wave which began late last year.

Its numbers follow another UK study published in April showing that only around a quarter of people have completely recovered from COVID-19 a full year after being hospitalised with the disease.

The research, by the National Institute for Health and Care Research involving more than 2,300 people, also found that women were 33 per cent less likely to fully recover than men.

Michigan adds 19,535 cases, 50 deaths from COVID-19 over last week

Sarah Rahal
The Detroit News

Michigan added 19,535 cases and 50 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, including totals from the previous six days.

The state reported an average of about 2,790 cases per day over the last seven days, a decrease from 3,710 cases per day a week prior.

Hospitalization and new case rates in Michigan declined for the second week after rising for the previous six weeks.

On May 25, the state said it had added 25,968 cases and 139 deaths from the virus in the previous week.

Between May 20-26, about 15% of Michigan's COVID-19 tests returned positive.

The dip in cases was expected but doesn't indicate a long-term downward trend, said Dr. Preeti Malani, professor of infectious diseases and chief health officer at the University of Michigan health system.

"As cases go up, hospitalizations go up and there's always a little bit of a stagger," Malani said. "Cases are a bit lower nationally but it’s because more people are getting COVID more than once and we’re seeing more mild disease. The antivirals are also helping."

With few mitigation measures and no mandates in place, "This is what the world might look like for the foreseeable future," Malani said.

The third booster shot has been shown to prevent severe disease and seniors or immunocompromised people are recommended to get a fourth booster.

"Have a plan for what you’re going to do if you get it," Malani said. "The test and treat program isn’t where it needs to be. Treatment works best if given early, but it doesn't mean the treatment will be easily accessible for long."

All Metro Detroit health departments are following CDC's guidelines to recommend indoor masking for public settings and K-12 schools as the rate of infection has grown from "medium" to "high."

Wednesday's additions bring the state's overall total to 2,54,366 cases and 36,407 deaths since the virus was first detected here in March 2020.

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On Monday, the state reported that 885 adults and 37 pediatric patients were hospitalized with confirmed infections, a decrease from 934 adults and 35 children last week.

Inpatient records were set on Jan. 10, when 4,580 adults were hospitalized with COVID-19.

About 5.7% of the state's hospital beds were filled with COVID-19 patients and there were an average of 1,360 emergency room visits related to COVID-19 per day in the state as of Monday. That compares to 24% of hospital beds being full and 2,889 daily emergency room visits due to the virus in the first week of January.

However, 14 Michigan counties remain at a "high" level for the increased burden on health care or severe disease: Alger, Calhoun, Kalkaska, Livingston, Mackinac, Macomb, Manistee, Marquette, Monroe, Oakland, Schoolcraft, Washtenaw and Wayne. Another 30 counties have a "medium" transmission level, according to the state health department.

► For subscribers: Map shows where Michigan is seeing the highest COVID spread

Case counts are well below early January when the state set a new high mark with more than 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 per day.

In Michigan, variants of the virus have moved at a high rate, proving more contagious than past variants and infecting both unvaccinated and vaccinated residents.

A new iteration of the omicron variant, BA.2, is now the dominant across Michigan and the country, but experts say another surge of cases is unlikely.

The Food and Drug Administration expanded its approval of remdesivir on April 25, making it the first COVID-19 treatment for children under age 12.

In Michigan, 298 cases of a rare inflammatory condition in children linked with the coronavirus have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 65% of kids with the syndrome are admitted to intensive care units and there have been five deaths.

In Michigan, residents ages 30 to 39 currently have the highest case rate of any age group.

As of Monday, 73 new outbreaks were reported over the prior week. The majority, 44 outbreaks, were in long-term care facilities and senior assisted living centers. Another 16 outbreaks were in K-12 schools and seven were in daycare programs. The state is tracking 418 ongoing outbreak cases.

About 66%, or 6.6 million, state residents have received their first doses of a vaccine, and 60% are fully vaccinated. More than 231,000 children ages 5 to 11 in Michigan, or 28%, have received their first dose of the vaccine.

More than 3.1 million, or 36.7% of the eligible population, have received a vaccine booster in Michigan and 5.2 million are fully vaccinated.

srahal@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @SarahRahal_

 Scientists discovered the largest known plant on Earth

And it's 4,500 years old.

BYPRANJAL MEHAR

JUNE 1, 2022

 

SCIENCE

Credit: The seagrass Posidonia australis. Photograph, Rachel Austin.

Shark Bay, Western Australia, is a World Heritage Area dominated by temperate seagrass meadows. Recently, scientists from the University of Western Australia and Flinders University have discovered the most giant planet at Shark Bay. 

They discovered an ancient and incredibly resilient seagrass, Posidonia australis, that stretches 180km and is estimated to be at least 4,500 years old.

Evolutionary biologist Dr. Elizabeth Sinclair from UWA’s School of Biological Sciences and the UWA Oceans Institute said, “The project began when scientists wanted to understand how genetically diverse the seagrass meadows in Shark Bay were and which plants should be collected for the seagrass restoration.”

“We often get asked how many different plants are growing in seagrass meadows, and this time we used genetic tools to answer it.”

UWA student researcher Jane Edgeloe, a lead author of the study, said, “the team sampled seagrass shoots from across Shark Bay’s variable environments and generated a ‘fingerprint’ using 18,000 genetic markers.”

“The answer blew us away – there was just one! Just one plant has expanded over 180km in Shark Bay, making it the largest known plant on Earth.”

“The existing 200km2 of ribbon weed meadows have expanded from a single, colonizing seedling.”

“What makes this seagrass plant unique from other large seagrass clones, other than its enormous size, is that it has twice as many chromosomes as its oceanic relatives, meaning it is a polyploid.”

“Whole-genome duplication through polyploidy – doubling the number of chromosomes – occurs when diploid ‘parent’ plants hybridize. The new seedling contains 100 percent of the genome from each parent, rather than sharing the usual 50 percent.”

“Polyploid plants often reside in places with extreme environmental conditions, are often sterile, but can continue to grow if left undisturbed, and this giant seagrass has done just that.”

“Even without successful flowering and seed production, it appears to be resilient, experiencing a wide range of temperatures and salinities plus extreme high light conditions, which would typically be highly stressful for most plants.”

Journal Reference:

1. Jane M. Edgeloe, Anita A. Severn-Ellis et al. Extensive polyploid clonality was a successful strategy for seagrass to expand into a newly submerged environment. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0538

The Largest Clone on Earth Is Found in Australia

Jessica Thomson 
Newsweek
© iStock / Getty Images Plus

In a paper released on Tuesday, scientists have announced that they have discovered the largest-known clone on the planet—a giant seagrass plant.

While it's not quite a massive Dolly the Sheep, the clone is actually a single, widespread polyploid clone of the seagrass Posidonia australis, spanning at least 180km (a little over 110 miles) in Shark Bay, Western Australia. According to co-author Dr. Elizabeth Sinclair, a senior research fellow at the School of Biological Sciences & Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, the previous record-holder was only around 50km across.

In 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be successfully cloned.

While animal clones, like Dolly, are grown from adult cells and are genetically identical to the single parent, this giant seagrass plant grew from a single seed. According to Sinclair, the difference is that the seed contained a full set of chromosomes from both the pollen donor and the maternal plant, making it polyploid: it has twice as many chromosomes (40 chromosomes) as its diploid oceanic relatives (20 chromosomes).

"Whole genome duplication through polyploidy occurs when diploid 'parent' plants hybridize. The new seedling contains 100 percent of the genome from both parents, rather than sharing the usual 50 percent, and therefore has lots of genetic diversity. This seagrass plant continued growing, expanding through vegetative or clonal growth, where the new shoots are genetically identical to the original seedling," Sinclair told Newsweek.

The near pristine conditions of Shark Bay, which is an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Heritage Area, meant that this huge seagrass has remained relatively undisturbed its entire life, including since European settlement. The plant has been able to continue growing so large through vegetative growth, the way a strawberry plant would in your back garden, extending its runners outwards and growing another little clone of itself where it touches back down on the ground.

This giant seagrass clone has gotten so big that it has begun to make its own environment more stressful to grow in.

As Sinclair told Newsweek: "Seagrass meadows modify their local environment. The leaves 'filter' particles (sediment or soil particles, bacteria and so on) out of the water. The particles then accumulate on the seafloor, keeping the waters shallow and crystal clear. Seagrass also reduces water flow—which is great for protecting coastlines—but in a bay, such as Shark Bay, reduced water flow, combined with low rainfall and freshwater input, the high evaporation rates in summer mean the water gets much saltier. The seagrass now grows in high salinity waters (up to about 1.5 time normal seawater), experiences a high annual temperature range (shallow water heats up and cools down quicker than in the deeper ocean), all of which combined with high light conditions makes the environment more stressful."

Despite these self-inflicted setbacks, Posidonia australis will hopefully be okay in its newly stressful home—polyploid plants (and animals) have more copies for genes, which can be a very effective way of increasing genetic diversity, and this one is very diverse: 90 percent of the 18,000 genetic markers were variable, according to Dr. Sinclair. This may give the polyploid an advantage over normal diploid plants, and enable it to cope with a wider range of environments or different environments from diploids.

Sunak’s UK oil subsidy could have insulated 2m homes, says thinktank


The billions now going to fossil fuel exploitation could have funded efficiency measures that cut energy bills for good

E3G calculates that the chancellor handed oil and gas companies between £2.5bn and £5.7bn. 

With £3bn he could have insulted 2m homes and cut energy bills. 

Photograph: ivansmuk/Getty Images/iStockphoto


Damian Carrington

Environment editor

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 31 May 2022 

Billions of pounds given away in a tax break for UK oil and gas exploitation could have permanently cut the energy bills of 2m homes by £342 a year if invested in insulation measures, according to a green thinktank.

Rishi Sunak announced the 91% tax break alongside a windfall tax on the huge profits of oil and gas companies last week. The E3G thinktank calculated that the tax break would hand between £2.5bn and £5.7bn back to the oil companies over three years, while an energy efficiency programme of £3bn over the same period would upgrade 2.1m homes making them less reliant on gas.


Soaring international gas prices are expected to more than double energy bills in a year by October, pushing a third of households into fuel poverty. Proponents of energy efficiency, including loft and wall insulation, say it is a no-regrets investment that cuts bills for good, slashes the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis and boosts jobs. Green groups said the chancellor’s grants to households partly funded by the windfall tax were only a “sticking plaster”.

Another report published on Tuesday by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) found that a £4bn annual investment in energy efficiency could permanently halve heating bills for households by 2035. Its author said Sunak was handing out “raincoats” but “failing to fix the roof”.

The tax reduction meets official definitions of a fossil fuel subsidy, which the UK and other countries had pledged to phase out. It incentivises new oil and gas production, despite a recent Guardian investigation finding that the fossil fuel industry is already planning projects that would blow the world’s chances of maintaining a liveable climate.

Euan Graham, at E3G, who conducted the tax break analysis, said: “[Sunak] is providing a subsidy to oil and gas producers which will do long-term harm to the energy transition. The government has not grasped what is needed in order to deliver a genuinely resilient and affordable energy system. Instead, it is willing to implement policies that support the interests of oil and gas companies instead of British households.”

Ministers argue that more UK oil and gas supply would increase future energy security, but the fuels are owned by the companies and mostly exported.

The tax break has also been criticised by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS). “[It means] a massively loss-making investment could still be profitable after tax. It is hard to see why the government should provide such huge tax subsidies and thereby incentivise even economically unviable projects,” said Stuart Adam at the IFS.

The E3G analysis used investment estimates from the industry and data from an insulation plan backed by energy companies and groups. The £342 a year savings in upgraded homes is based on the bills expected in October. The new tax break meets the World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund definitions of a subsidy, as well as a new UK legal definition.

The TBI report advocates the setting up of an independent “home energy service”, which would provide every home with a simple, practical plan to reduce their bills and decarbonise, along with interest-free loans. It said a 10-year plan would save bill payers a total of £100bn compared to current prices and that similar approaches in Germany and Scotland were already driving down bills.

“Short-term support, such as the measures announced last week are important, but by spending a fraction of that amount per year [Sunak] could cut heating bills in two over the coming decade and insulate the UK from future economic shocks,” said Daniel Newport at TBI. “He is currently handing out much-needed – but very expensive – raincoats. Now we need to fix the roof.”

Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, which is supported by more than 100 Tory MPs said: “It was disappointing that the chancellor announced no new measures to help people upgrade the nearly 19m poorly insulated households across the UK.” A green homes grant scheme for England was scrapped in March 2021 and judged a “slam dunk fail” by parliament’s public accounts committee, having only upgraded about 47,500 homes out of the 600,000 originally planned.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was contacted for comment.

REPORT QUESTIONS QATAR 2022’S CARBON-NEUTRAL CLAIM

Posted by Bradley Rial
on 31st May 2022



Carbon Market Watch, a non-profit association with expertise in carbon pricing, has released a report which questions claims made by organisers of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar that the tournament will be the first carbon-neutral event of its kind.

Research from Carbon Market Watch suggests that Qatar 2022’s goal will be achieved through “creative accounting” rather than actually reaching a carbon footprint of net zero.

The report states that calculations used by World Cup organisers ignore some “major sources of emissions” and that the credits currently being purchased to offset them have a “low level of environmental integrity”.

Carbon Market Watch cites the emissions associated with the construction of permanent new stadiums as one of the main reasons why Qatar 2022’s carbon-neutrality claim appears “far-fetched”. The group says that the emissions impact could be understated by a factor of eight.

The report also suggests that other sources of emissions could have been underestimated, such as those due to the exclusion of emissions from maintaining and operating stadiums in the years following the tournament.

Carbon Market Watch acknowledges that its report does not assess the full extent of the impact of the implemented climate mitigation measures, but the group said that some of the proposed actions also “lack integrity”.

The report notes that World Cup organisers have contributed to establishing a new carbon credit standard, the Global Carbon Council, which is supposed to deliver at least 1.8 million credits to offset World Cup emissions. According to the report, the council has two registered projects and has issued just over 130,000 credits.

Carbon Market Watch’s Gilles Dufrasne, the author of the report, said: “It would be great to see the climate impact of FIFA World Cups being drastically reduced. But the carbon neutrality claim that is being made is simply not credible.

“Despite a lack of transparency, the evidence suggests that the emissions from this World Cup will be considerably higher than expected by the organisers, and the carbon credits being purchased to offset these emissions are unlikely to have a sufficiently positive impact on the climate.”

In September, Qatar 2022 organisers detailed plans to deliver the first carbon-neutral World Cup in the history of the event. Organisers cited the short distance between stadiums and the use of solar power at venues as ways to achieve the carbon-neutral goal.

Following the release of the Carbon Market Watch, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy told BBC Sport: “We are on track to hosting a carbon-neutral World Cup.

“The methodology used to calculate the carbon-neutral commitment is best in practice and was designed to be based on actual activity data, after the World Cup has concluded. This will be published, and any discrepancies will be explained and offset.

“No other country has engaged so deeply with its citizens to ensure a sustainable legacy is left behind after a FIFA World Cup.”

A spokesperson also told The Guardian that the criticisms from Carbon Market Watch were “speculative and inaccurate”.

A statement from FIFA added: “The organisers have pledged to measure, mitigate and offset all FIFA World Cup 2022 greenhouse gas emissions, while advancing low-carbon solutions in Qatar and the region. Thus, at no point has FIFA misled its stakeholders, as is claimed by the report.

“FIFA is fully aware of the risks that mega-events pose on the economy, the natural environment and on people and communities. [It] has been making efforts to tackle those impacts and use opportunities that arise to mitigate the negative impacts and maximise the positive impacts of its iconic tournament.”


Image: Ben Sutherland/CC BY 2.0/Edited for size

Switching to plant-based cheese can reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent compared to the dairy version

Research by the World Economic Forum shows dairy cheese is one of the largest greenhouse gas generators behind beef and lamb, placing it ahead of pork, chicken and eggs, but only 26 per cent those surveyed ranked it as one of the most carbon-intensive foods.

 by Joe Mellor
2022-05-31 
in Food and Drink
LONDON ECONOMIC EYE


A life cycle evaluation used to determine environmental impacts, including indicators for climate impact and land use, has revealed that ordinary cheese is a major cause of carbon emissions.

Popular dairy cheese varieties such as cheddar, mozzarella, feta and Parmesan yield between 6.4 and 13.4 kg carbon dioxide (eq) per kilo over their life cycle, according to sustainability consultancy Quantis.

By comparison, the climate impacts of Violife vegan alternatives to dairy cheese are substantially lower and create at least 3.7 kg less carbon dioxide per kilo, the equivalent of driving a car almost seven miles.

The findings come as a survey of 2,000 adults revealed that while many show an interest in the impact of cheese production on the environment, one in three admit they don’t understand how greenhouse gas emissions and food production are linked.

Research by the World Economic Forum shows dairy cheese is one of the largest greenhouse gas generators behind beef and lamb, placing it ahead of pork, chicken and eggs, but only 26 per cent those surveyed ranked it as one of the most carbon-intensive foods.

Sally Smith, director of sustainability for Upfield, owner of Violife said: “There’s a clear appetite among the public for more information about what we eat and how it affects the planet, but the environmental impact of dairy often slips under the radar.

“Our research found if an average UK household of four switched from dairy cheese to Violife vegan alternative cheese for a year, they could save the equivalent CO2 emissions as they would driving a car 173 miles – roughly the same distance as London to Sheffield.

“Studies show what we eat can reduce our impact on our planet by making a simple switch from dairy cheese. Those wanting to reduce their carbon footprint now have a wider range of delicious, natural plant-based alternatives than ever.

“This means people can make the change from dairy cheese with minimal effort, without sacrificing what we enjoy eating and cooking with.”

The national poll found 58 per cent of adults eat dairy cheese three or more times a week with over a fifth (22 per cent) eating it five times or more per week.

A little under two thirds (64 per cent) have never tried a vegan cheese alternative, though over four in 10 confess to feeling guilty for eating too many foods with a high carbon footprint.

There appears to be an appetite for change however, with 54 per cent admitting they would be more likely to buy food with a low carbon footprint, and 50 per cent saying they are worried about the impact of food production on the planet.

And two thirds think food products should be labelled with their carbon footprints.

Upfield’s Sally Smith said: “In the UK, Violife vegan alternatives to cheese have less than half of the climate impacts and occupy less than one third of the land when compared to the same amount of dairy cheese.

“By creating a variety of non-dairy cheese alternatives, there’s something to appeal to everyone.

“There’s a clear desire for change in the UK, as shown in the survey results. That gives us hope we can drive the change.”

ENVIRONMENT

Who’s After Rare Metals in the Klamath Mountains?

THEO WHITCOMB 06/01/22

When Interstate 5 was built in the 1960s, it sliced through southwest Oregon’s Klamath Mountains, exposing their metamorphic innards. To Michael Cope, the brawny founder of American Mineral Research (AMR), this layer cake of mineralized rock proves that Josephine County is sitting on a cache of valuable rare metals — and his small company hopes to eventually free up the resource so that it can be used in solar panels. 

In early May, I met Cope on the shoulder of an I-5 off-ramp. The rain was sporadic, and we hurried across the road so that he could show me where he’d found gold a few years back. Neither of us had rain jackets, and when it began to hail, Cope looked up and asked God to stop the downpour. It stopped minutes later, and I laughed as the spring sun came out, highlighting rusty ochre and deep maroon rocks. Some had a navy-blue tinge, others a slight purple — a sign that the area is mineralized and a possible site not just for gold, but for tellurium, a rare metal increasingly useful as a semiconductor material in the solar and battery industry. It’s a metal that is now included on the Department of the Interior’s “critical minerals” list. 

Cope interrupted his own monologues with excited outbursts whenever he found an interesting rock. He was able to read the geology in a way I could not. A few rocks at his feet were serpentine green. “This is what you’re looking for right there,” he said. “It’s the blues, the dense rock. What your feet are on… all of this is what we looked for on road cuts and [Bureau of Land Management] roads.” He cracked open colorful rocks one by one with a small hammer and smelled them for sulfur. After scrutinizing the insides with a small magnifying glass, he pointed out tiny flecks of metal, shimmering in the sun. “Fool’s gold,” he guessed. 

Cope has found tellurium on AMR’s properties, confirmed by lab tests he shared with me. And he and his partner, Jay Meredith, an investor and the former city accountant for Grants Pass, OR, recently got a permit to look for rare metals on a county-owned parcel near the towns of Placer and Golden.

  

Dusk falls over Grants Pass. Photo credit: Andrew Cullen / High Country News

But despite the glimmer of possibility, AMR’s quest could prove quixotic: Mining in the area is nearly nonexistent, smothered by global competition and an expensive regulatory environment. Cope still holds out hope for these knotted, colorful rocks; he’s fixated on the unique geology of the Klamath Mountains and the hidden riches it may hold. “It’s just sitting here waiting for people to take advantage,” Cope told me, looking out at the forested hills sprawling southwest toward Grants Pass. “We’re the State of Jefferson. The way I look at it — we could be the wealthiest state ever.”

For rural towns like Grants Pass, extractive industries paid the bills during the 20th century. Timber provided a large share of the county budget; by the 1990s, it accounted for well over 40 percent of the funding, underwriting roads, schools, and law enforcement. But once the industry was automated and consolidated, everything changed; the number of sawmill workers in Oregon fell from 25,500 in 1969 to 18,500 in 1989. 

By the mid-’90s, then-President Bill Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan curtailed public-lands logging, and Josephine County’s budget was gutted. “Timber payments … created a really hard situation for local governments in Oregon specifically,” said Kris Smith, a researcher at Headwaters Economics, an independent research group. The area was “stuck in a downward spiral of not having enough money to pay for your everyday needs in local government,” Smith said. 

“We’re the State of Jefferson. The way I look at it — we could be the wealthiest state ever.”

Since then, Josephine County has had to remake its economy. Visitors raft down wild and scenic rivers, patronize local vineyards and restaurants, or buy weed from cannabis farms. But now, wildfires, heat waves, and smoke threaten the tourist season. Grants Pass, for instance, was ranked fifth in the nation for poor air quality this year, largely due to wildfires. And the area’s socioeconomic problems are chronic: The median income and educational attainment consistently lag behind state averages, and the industries that have replaced timber — including health care and tourism — are generally either low-wage or seasonal, or both. The county mirrors a nationwide trend, with the fastest growing sector being the health-care industry, which accounts for 18 percent of jobs. Retail comes in second at 13 percent. Lack of housing in its biggest city is also acute: The rental vacancy in Grants Pass is below 1 percent, and Kelly Wessels, the former director of the United Community Action Network, estimated that the percentage of fast-food workers living without shelter was roughly 25 percent in 2020.  

When I spoke with Josephine County Commissioner Dan DeYoung this spring, he had a long list of grievances, including the environmental regulations he sees as hampering his county’s ability to extract resources. As a member of the county’s mining advisory, he has fought them at every turn, complaining that the resources have been “locked up.” But he’s also skeptical that a company like American Mineral Research can launch a new era of extractive wealth there. “I don’t know of any private company that could ever pull it off,” he said. “Not in today’s environment.”

Still, new-energy metals could be a possible way out of the economic purgatory DeYoung describes. He aided AMR by weaving a statement from Cope and Meredith into a testimony before the US House Natural Resources Committee. For years, they’d tried to attract the federal government’s attention, even suggesting at one point that the Trump administration christen the area the “Trump Mineral Belt.”

New extractive frontiers may indeed open up as the Biden administration attempts to transition the nation away from fossil fuels. The administration slipped $500 million into a military spending request to “expand domestic production of critical minerals” to secure energy and mineral supplies. 

The Klamath Mountains are known to hold useful metals like cobalt, nickel, and bismuth, but geologists still see the development of tellurium as a long shot. The rare metal is produced cheaply in China and Texas as a byproduct of copper smelting. But AMR hasn’t stopped trying. The company says it has a plan to mine tellurium alongside gold, noting the long-term growing demand for rare metals. When I asked Meredith if he thought tellurium development could cure the county’s budget woes, he was emphatic. “Absolutely,” he said.

“That’s where big, big dollars could be available in the long term.”   

THUMBNAIL PHOTO Klamath Mountains near Medford, OR. Photo credit: © John Craig/Planet Pix via ZUMA Wire

TURKEY'S WAR ON YPG/PKK KURDISTAN

US reacts to Turkey's attacks on northern Syria

TEHRAN, Jun. 01 (MNA) – US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that any new Turkish attack on northern Syria will weaken the stability of the region and aggravate the situation.

"We remain deeply concerned about discussions of potential increased military activity in northern Syria," Price said.

Saying that the US supports the maintenance of current ceasefire lines, Price stated, "We would condemn any escalation that has the potential to jeopardize that. We believe it is crucial for all sides to maintain and respect ceasefire zones, principally to enhance stability in Syria and to work towards a political solution to the conflict."

"Any new offensive would further undermine regional stability and would put at risk," he added.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said his country would not take permission from anyone to fight terrorism.

Syrian Foreign Ministry has described the movements of Turkey and its affiliated militias' actions in northern Syria as war crimes.

Turkey’s armed forces are ready for another cross-border operation in northern Syria, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday.

"The Turkish armed forces are ready for any tasks [in northern Syria]," Turkey’s TRT television channel quoted the minister as saying.

Akar also pledged to continue the fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the so-called National Defense Forces (NDF), a Syrian force Ankara believes has links to the PKK, till the last terrorist is eliminated.

MP/TSN2720231

Turkey targets US coalition positions in Syria for 1st time

TEHRAN, Jun. 01 (MNA) – News sources reported that Turkish forces had targeted the US coalition positions in Syria for the first time.

According to the Al Mayadeen report, Turkish forces on Wednesday intensively attacked several positions in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, including the positions of the US coalition.

The report comes just hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's remarks about expanding the scope of attacks on Syrian soil.

Erdogan on Wednesday said that Turkey is set to clear two areas of northern Syria, near the Turkish border, of terrorist elements and the Turkish operation will continue gradually in other parts of Syria.

“We are entering a new phase of our decision to establish a safe zone 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) deep south (of the Turkish-Syrian border). We are clearing Tel Rifat and Manbij of terrorists,” he told a group meeting of his Justice and Development (AK) Party in the capital Ankara.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Tuesday reacted to the Turkish moves in Syria and said that any new Turkish attack on northern Syria will weaken the stability of the region and aggravate the situation.

"We remain deeply concerned about discussions of potential increased military activity in northern Syria," Price said.

Saying that the US supports the maintenance of current ceasefire lines, Price stated, "We would condemn any escalation that has the potential to jeopardize that. We believe it is crucial for all sides to maintain and respect ceasefire zones, principally to enhance stability in Syria and to work towards a political solution to the conflict."

"Any new offensive would further undermine regional stability and would put at risk," he added.

MP/FNA14010311000846

The National: Turkey Calls On German And French Envoys To Protest Against Kurdish Militant Events

“Turkey summoned the German and French ambassadors to Ankara to protest against events organised by Kurdish militants in their countries. The envoys were told of Turkey's discomfort with the events organised by the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU, state-run Anadolu news agency cited Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying on Tuesday. On a possible operation in northern Syria, Mr Cavusoglu vowed to “eliminate terrorist threat at home and abroad — in Syria and wherever it is”. Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed plans for a cross-border incursion against Kurdish militants in Syria to create a 30-kilometre buffer. Ankara staged a military operation against the Kurdish group YPG, or People’s Protection Units, in October 2019. Russia, the Syrian government, and the US have troops in the border region. Turkish officials consider the YPG to be a terrorist group linked to the outlawed PKK, which has waged an insurgency against Turkey since 1984, leading to tens of thousands of deaths. The YPG is central to US-led forces in the fight against ISIS in Syria. On Russia-Ukraine war, there was a possibility of bringing the parties together, perhaps at leadership level, as part of Turkey's negotiation efforts, Mr Cavusoglu said.”

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Job openings outnumber job seekers by almost 2-to-1, report shows

GRAYSON QUAY

HABesen/iStock

The labor market continued to favor job seekers in April, with nearly twice as many job openings as there were Americans looking for work.

According to a report released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 11.4 million job openings in April. 4.4 million Americans quit or changed jobs — a rate close to a 20-year high. Meanwhile, only 1.2 million Americans — an all-time low — were laid off.

In other words, if you don't like your job, you can probably find a better one. But if your boss doesn't like you, there's no guarantee she can replace you with someone better. "We're still very much in a worker's and job seeker's market," economist Nick Bunker told The Washington Post.

Unemployment dropped to 3.6 percent, its lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Monday, President Biden claimed that the "job market is the strongest since the post-World War II era" with "millions of Americans getting jobs with better pay."

Not everyone was so optimistic about the report. The conservative Heritage Foundation warned that worker shortages "will translate into reduced services, limited supplies of goods, longer wait times, and potentially travel delays or cancellations this summer."

Workers say selling the Hynes would destroy livelihoods. Others point to economic benefits

June 01, 2022
Yasmin Amer

The entrance to the Hynes Convention Center in Back Bay. (Adrian Ma/WBUR)

Workers at the Hynes Convention Center demonstrated Wednesday against a potential sale of the facility.

Hundreds of union workers gathered with UNITE HERE Local 26, according to organizers' estimates, to protest Gov. Charlie Baker's proposal to sell the Back Bay building, which spans nearly 6 acres of land.

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Advocates for the sale contend proceeds would go toward much-needed projects in downtown Boston, such as affordable housing. They also argue the money required to renovate and maintain the Hynes would be better spent adding amenities to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in the Seaport.

The Hynes is currently owned by the state and managed by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which also manages the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC).

"Selling the Hynes will bring benefits to the Back Bay and the city of Boston," said Nate Little, a spokesman for the convention center authority. "This is a situation where we're going to have exciting redevelopment in the Back Bay, exciting expansion at the BCEC, and a stronger hospitality economy here in Boston."



But Darryl Singletary, 55, who's been working at the Hynes for 36 years, isn't convinced. He said selling the Hynes would hurt the 200 people who work there, as well as employees at nearby hotels and businesses that benefit from the convention center's foot traffic.

"It’s going to cripple a lot of families," Singletary said. "Jobs are not knocking on your door when you’re 50-plus, paying you the money we’re getting now, so a lot of people are nervous about them selling the Hynes."

Singletary leads a team of runners — workers who transport food and are responsible for preparing the center for its various events. The average union wage in his department is about $26 per hour. Team leaders like him earn roughly $35 per hour.

"To have this job, I’m definitely able to take care of my family," he said, pointing to wages that help him to keep up with the cost of living in Boston, where rental prices are among the highest in the country.

Baker's proposal to sell the Hynes was included in his most recent economic development bill released in April. The sale would ultimately have to be approved by the Massachusetts Legislature.

A 2019 proposal to sell the Hynes fizzled. But as the convention industry slowly recovers from the pandemic, Baker has once again put the idea forward. This time, as part of a $3.5 billion economic proposal to help communities make "transitions into a post-pandemic world."

The Baker administration argues that use of the Hynes was low even before the pandemic, hovering at around 60% of its capacity. The 40-year-old facility also needs an estimated $275 million in renovations, according to the convention center authority.

Singletary said he's seen business increase at the Hynes as COVID restrictions have lifted. He believes selling it now would send the wrong message to workers in the community.

“We helped build this city," he said. “Do not leave us behind."

Fox’s conspiracy theories collapse with Sussmann acquittal, unmasking revelation

The network has aired more than 2,000 weekday segments discussing the Durham probe or origins of Mueller investigation

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ
PUBLISHED 06/01/22 

The Fox News-fueled Justice Department probes then-President Donald Trump demanded as rebuttals to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation generated plenty of frothy Fox content. They also gave Republican partisans excuses to discount the obviously unethical and potentially illegal behavior of Trump and the crimes of his underlings. But efforts to turn the network’s conspiracy theories into federal cases have tended to diminish and fail under the scrutiny of prosecutors, judges, and juries.

Years of claims from Sean Hannity and others at Fox that a criminal probe had been needed to “investigate the investigators” received two body blows on Tuesday. First, a jury found former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann not guilty of lying to the FBI in one of the few charges brought by special counsel John Durham’s three-year probe of the origins of Mueller’s investigation. And that night, newly released documents revealed that a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney assigned by then-Attorney General William Barr to review allegations regarding the purportedly sinister “unmaskings” of former Trump adviser Michael Flynn and other people associated with Trump’s transition team had concluded in September 2020 that those actions had been routine and that no criminal investigation into them was justified.

Hannity and his fellow travelers had responded to the initiation of Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election by furiously manufacturing a counternarrative in which Trump and his associates were victims of a witch hunt and the real crimes were all committed by overzealous, anti-Trump investigators. The Fox hosts’ coverage created incentives for Republican politicians to join in, and over the years, they together concocted a hodgepodge of slipshod allegations. The pseudoscandal’s shorthand quickly became impenetrable to anyone who wasn’t a regular viewer of the network, with adherents throwing around terms like Obamagate, #ReleaseTheMemo, Uranium One, and Operation Boomerang, to name a few. Hannity’s cabal claimed that a legal reckoning was coming for an array of high-ranking public officials, including former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.



While this might have just been overheated nonsense for Fox’s audience under normal circumstances, at the time, the network’s most avid viewer was the president of the United States. He adopted Fox’s conspiracy theories in his public statements and replaced the recalcitrant Jeff Sessions with the more compliant Barr, a favorite of Fox hosts who hoped he would launch the probe they desired. This ultimately came to pass when Barr appointed Durham in 2019 to conduct first an administrative review, then a criminal inquiry, and in 2020 a special counsel investigation into the initial Russia probe. Trump’s campaign explicitly credited Hannity for the investigation into what its spokesperson termed “the misdeeds of the Obama administration.”

Hannity, for his part, described Durham’s appointment in 2019 as a “major, huge development” that would give “the deep state … every reason to be afraid, every reason to panic.” He later argued that if the investigation did not result in convictions, “the great American republic will disintegrate before your eyes.”

The Durham probe has provided Fox with years of content. The network has aired more than 2,000 weekday segments that discussed his investigation or the origins of the Mueller probe since his May 2019 appointment, more than 500 of which came after he was named special counsel in October 2020, according to Media Matters' internal database. And Trump eagerly watched the coverage — during a September 2020 presidential press conference, he reeled off half a dozen shows that had covered the investigation that day, calling it “the biggest political scandal in the history of our country” as he tried to use the cloud of the phony scandal to bolster his reelection campaign.

However, Durham’s investigation has proven less effective in court. His prosecutors secured a guilty plea from former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith for altering a document used to justify the surveillance of a Trump campaign aide, but the judge believed Clinesmith’s argument that he had not intended to mislead his colleagues but had inserted words he believed were accurate and sentenced him to probation. Sussmann, charged with a single count of lying to an FBI agent over his role in an aspect of the Russia story so minor that Hannity had barely mentioned it, was found not guilty by a unanimous jury, with the forewoman stating that the government had wasted their time. The only person remaining on Durham’s public docket is Igor Danchenko, a Russian national who contributed to the Steele dossier and is charged with five counts of making false statements to the FBI.

Durham’s investigation has now dragged on for more than three years. During that time the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded that the Russia probe was properly predicated. It is reasonable to conclude both that Durham does not have the goods and that he has inadvertently debunked the conspiracy theory he was appointed to prove. By contrast, it took Mueller’s team less than two years to deliver a completed report detailing Russia’s “sweeping and systemic” interference on Trump’s behalf in the 2020 election and Trump’s own potential criminal actions, and his prosecutors secured guilty pleas or convictions against a lengthy list that included Trump’s 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort, his deputy, Rick Gates, Trump’s longtime political consigliere, Roger Stone, and his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

But Fox narratives can never really fail, they can only be failed – the likes of Hannity will never admit they got it wrong. Instead, the Fox prime-time host opened Tuesday night’s show by claiming that “America's two-tiered system of justice is alive and well” and arguing that Sussmann’s jury was “tainted.”

“In my humble opinion, Durham likely knew exactly what he was up against in the D.C. courts knew the makeup of the jurisdiction and the D.C. swamp is leftist liberal and likely was not counting on a conviction as much as getting more important information out to the general public,” Hannity later added. “In other words, this is a preview of coming attractions. Forget about Sussmann. It's the system, what the system is.”

At around the same time Hannity was telling his audience that justice was right around the corner, another aspect of Fox’s counternarrative collapsed.

In May 2020, Richard Grenell, an unscrupulous political operative then ensconced as acting director of national intelligence, produced what he claimed was a list of senior Obama administration officials who “unmasked” Flynn, receiving his name after they followed the National Security Agency’s standard process and asked the agency to reveal the identity of an individual generically referenced in an NSA report. While it was always unclear that the unmasking had been inappropriate, Fox gave the story wall-to-wall coverage, running at least 250 weekday segments that touched on the “unmasking” story or the broader “Obamagate” conspiracy theory that month alone, according to Media Matters’ database.

But on Tuesday night, Buzzfeed’s Jason Leopold and Ken Bensinger produced a September 2020 report then-U.S. Attorney John Bash authored for Barr indicating that his review had found no predicate for a criminal investigation and concluding that senior Obama officials had not unmasked Flynn “for political purposes or other inappropriate reasons.” Indeed, Bash concluded that contrary to the overheated Fox rhetoric that flowed from Grenell’s document, "all but one of the requests that listed a senior official as an authorized recipient of General Flynn’s identity were made by an intelligence professional to prepare for a briefing of the official, not at the direction of the official.”

Over the years, Fox took its audience down a rabbit hole, and the Justice Department followed. But the lack of successful prosecutions does not mean that Fox’s effort was fruitless. The House select committee Fox demanded to investigate the 2012 Benghazi attacks found no illicit actions by Hillary Clinton, but it did uncover her use of a private email server, and while the FBI investigation into her activity ultimately cleared her, the resulting political damage likely cost her the 2016 presidential election.

Fox-fueled investigations may not put anyone in jail – but they can still stir up enough political controversy to help the GOP win elections. And for a propaganda organ that effectively runs that party, that may be enough.