Signs of life in mummy exhibit in Mexico have experts worried for those who get close

Daniel jayo/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Aspen Pflughoeft
Wed, April 5, 2023 

A traveling exhibit of several accidental mummies sparked concerns after Mexican officials spotted signs of life on one mummy, experts said.

The Mummies of Guanajuato are a unique collection of mummies from the 1800s, the Associated Press reported. The deceased were accidentally mummified after being “buried in crypts in dry, mineral-rich soil” of Guanajuato, Mexico, the outlet reported.

No one knows why the bodies mummified instead of disintegrating. Some attribute it to the local climate while others believe the crypts caused it, the Associated Press reported.

The mummies were discovered in 1865 by surprised cemetery workers who were removing the remains “of people whose relatives couldn’t afford to pay” graveyard fees, National Geographic reported.

The Mummies of Guanajuato, as they became known, are now on display at the Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato, according to the museum website.

Most recently, some of the mummies were part of a traveling exhibit and on display at a tourism convention in Mexico City from March 26 to 29, the Guanajuato government said in a new release. During the first day of the convention, over 5,000 people visited the mummies.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History expressed concerns about this exhibition, according to a March 31 statement. The institute said it was not alerted about the display and did not authorize or advise on the transportation, handling or presentation conditions of the mummies.

Experts saw photos of the display and spotted signs of possible fungal growths on one mummy, the institute said in its statement. The signs of life worried experts because of the possible biohazard concerns — yet lack of safeguards — and the danger of damage to the fragile mummies.

The municipal president of Guanajuato, Alejandro Navarro, said in a release that the mummies were transported under strict protocols and in adherence with expert recommendations.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History asked Guanajuato officials to allow the institute to analyze the mummies and collaborate in management of the remains.

Mexico City is about 220 miles southeast of the mummies’ usual museum display in Guanajuato.

Google Translate was used to translate the website of the Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato and news releases from the Guanajuato government and Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Hair found in Spanish cave shows people used psychedelics 3,000 years ago, study says

ASPEN PFLUGHOEFT

Fri, Apr 7, 2023, 1:

The cave entrance sits midway down the side of a ravine on an island off the coast of Spain. Anyone who enters will find a rocky cavern snaking far underground. Hidden deep within, this cave held a secret.

The cave of Es Càrritx was used for burials and rituals during the Bronze Age, according to a study published April 6 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Around 1600 B.C., the people living on the island of Menorca began using this cave for rituals. Eventually, “the cave became a collective funerary space and continued serving this function” until 800 B.C., researchers said. During this time, over 200 people were buried near the cave entrance.

Just before these burials stopped, “some individuals reluctant to abandon ancient traditions, concealed a collection of ritual objects belonging to certain members of the community, possibly shamans,” researchers said. They hid these items “deeper inside the burial ground of the ancestors.”

This collection of items contained six wooden containers, four horn containers, wooden spatulas, a comb and other artifacts, the study said.

The buried hoard which included a container with the human hair used in the study.

Archaeologists opened one of these wooden containers and found 3,000-year-old hair strands, the study said.

Finding such ancient hair is “exceedingly rare,” researchers said. Intrigued by what they could learn, the researchers did a drug test on the preserved locks. As drugs “circulate in the blood stream, they are incorporated into the growing hair matrix at the base of the follicle,” researchers said.

When the drug test came back positive, “we were very surprised,” lead author Elisa Guerra-Doce told Vice, “because the botanical analysis carried out at Es Càrritx had revealed no remains of drug plants.”

The ancient human hair with some bone fragments on it.

Traces of several alkaloids, specifically atropine, scopolamine, and ephedrine, were found in the hair, the study said. Researchers described these alkaloids as “highly psychoactive.”

Atropine and scopolamine are “deliriant drugs” which cause “extreme mental confusion, strong and realistic hallucinations, disorientation, alteration of sensorial perception, and behavioral disorganization” as well as “out-of-body experiences,” the study said.

Alternatively, the effects of ephedrine include “excitement and enhancement of mental alertness and physical activity, reduction of fatigue, improvement of concentration, and suppression of hunger,” researchers said.

Ancient shamans likely used these drugs for their psychedelic and medicinal qualities, the study said. Researchers could not identify which plants in Menorca carried these ancient drugs.

“The length of the hair strands and the analysis of segments all along the hair shafts point to consumption over a period of nearly a year; hence, drug intake was sustained over time probably well before death,” the study said.

Researchers theorized the drugs were consumed for medicinal properties or as part of ritual activities. Although further research is needed to resolve lingering uncertainties, the study’s analysis provided direct evidence that people used drug plants 3,000 years ago.

The cave of Es Càrritx is in the southwestern part of Menorca, an island about 130 southeast of Barcelona on mainland Spain.

Can you find the horses in these 22,000-year-old carvings? French archaeologists did

Aspen Pflughoeft
Thu, April 6, 2023 

At first glance, these yellow-brown stones don’t look very exciting. They’re not made out of some hard-to-find material. They’re not decorated with faded but preserved pastel paints. They look like, well, rocks.

Yet French archaeologists are calling these rocks — and their engravings — “exceptional.” Why? You’ll see after a closer look.

Archaeologists were excavating a site near Bellegarde, France, and uncovered four pieces of art from the Paleolithic era, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research said in a March 31 news release also shared with McClatchy News in English. The engravings were left by the Magdalenians, an ancient culture that emerged about 20,000 B.C.

The Bellegarde archaeological site.

Two of these carvings were 22,000 years old and showed horse profiles with “many precise anatomical details,” archaeologists said.


One carving showed the left-hand side of a single horse’s head, photos show. The animal’s nose reaches the far left edge of the stone, its ears almost touch the top, and its neck — topped with a flowing mane — extends off the right-hand side.

Highlights show the shape of the horse carving.

A second carving showed a trio of horses, also facing the left side, photos show. The horses are grouped closely together, depicted by their disconnected, almost floating, heads. The animal on the farthest left has a distinctly carved eye. The center horse is defined by its jawbone. The right-hand horse appears to be looking partially downward, its neck extending off the rock.

Highlights show the trio of horses.

Archaeologists uncovered another Magdalenian engraving from 18,000 years ago, the release said. This carving represents a female and shows an exaggerated vulva framed by legs. Photos show the design.

Experts emphasized the significance of this “exceptional” design, which has been found in “only one other specimen” of Magdalenian art, the release said.

The stone with a carving of a vulva.

Highlights show the design of the vulva carving.

The fourth ancient artwork archaeologists unearthed was the most puzzling, the release said. This piece was a fragmented stone slab about 19 inches long. It probably sat upright but was found broken on the floor of a dwelling among pieces of knapped flint, researchers said.

The fractured slab has many small incisions on it, but archaeologists could not figure out what these carvings meant, the release said. Photos show the fractured piece and the thin carvings decorating it.

The fragmented slab with thin incisions on it.

A close-up of some of the incisions on the fragmented slap.

Ancient art thrived among the Magdelinians. They lived “semisettled” lives and had “abundant food” allowing them the “leisure time” for creative and decorative pursuits, according to Britannica.

Other fragments of Magdelinian culture were also uncovered at the Bellegarde site, the release said. Archaeologists found many flint tools and weapons, reindeer bones and seashells that were used as beads, worn as adornments or attached to clothing. Photos show these ancient relics.

Some of the small blades found at the site.

A shell with signs of use as an adornment.

Another seashell with signs of use.

The archaeological site was found during the extension of a nearby landfill waste site, the release said. Subsequent excavations uncovered evidence that the site had been routinely, but not continuously, occupied since around 20,000 B.C., archaeologists said.

An archaeologist working at the Bellegarde site.

In total, archaeologists have found about 1,000 structures from a variety of periods and peoples. The structures included dwellings, storage spaces, craft workshops and agricultural buildings. Burials were also found at the site.

The site seen from afar.

Bellegarde is near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and about 415 miles southeast of Paris.

Google Translate was used to translate the release from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP).

2,000-year-old Roman sanctuary — and nearby burial ground — uncovered in France

ASPEN PFLUGHOEFT
Updated April 5, 2023

Empty tombs where skeletons had long since dissolved. A ditch where devoted offerings deteriorated. Traces of the Roman empire’s rule over western France echoing through the ages.

These traces of faded glory reemerged as archaeologists excavated an area of La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research said in an April 4 news release.

La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz is a small city near Rennes and about 210 miles southwest of Paris. Rennes was established by the Roman empire around the end of the first century B.C., French officials reported in an archaeological atlas for the area.

Archaeologists found evidence of an important Roman occupation site at La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz, the release said. The ruins included a sanctuary, thermal bathhouse and burial ground.

The roughly 2,000-year-old sanctuary was dedicated to Mars, the Roman god of war, and built at the start of the Roman period, experts said. A statue of Mars and numerous weapons, such as swords and spearheads, were unearthed at the sanctuary. The weapons were likely left as offerings by devoted soldiers.

Archaeologists photographing and excavating a ditch at the sanctuary.

The nearby thermal bathhouse was a wooden, public building, archaeologists said. Everyday objects, such as pottery, were buried there.

A short distance away, archaeologists located a burial ground, or necropolis, a relatively unexpected find, the release said. The burial ground had 40 tombs. Photos show a few of these long, rectangular graves.

Two tombs found at the burial ground.

The necropolis was about 1,500 years old and used during the third and fourth centuries, experts said. By the fourth century, the entire site was abandoned.


No skeletons were found at the necropolis, archaeologists said. The bones had dissolved in the acidic soil, but traces of the occupants lingered in the form of grave goods.

The studded soles of a pair of shoes were unearthed in one tomb, experts said and photos show. Another person was buried with glass and ceramic vases. Someone else’s tomb had rich items, including silver bracelets, pins and belt buckles. In another grave, a dagger and parts of a horse harness were unearthed.

The soles of a pair of studded shoes left in a tomb.

Bracelets and beads unearthed from a tomb.

A pearl necklace buried in one of the tombs.

After excavating the site, archaeologists did an inventory of their finds and took the items to a laboratory for further study, the release said. All told, they found seven pieces of terracotta architectural elements, 35 pieces of pottery, 12 iron swords, 4 billhooks, a sickle and over 700 other artifacts.

One of the swords found at the site.

A sickle unearthed at the site.

About half of the ancient weapons were found at a ditch near the sanctuary, and the other half were found at the burial grounds.

The metal finds will require special treatment for preservation, the study said. Research on the artifacts is ongoing.

Google Translate was used to translate the news release and archaeological atlas from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP).

200-year-old fish — not intended for eating — unearthed at iconic London site

Aspen Pflughoeft
Mon, April 10, 2023 

Boring a hole into the ground beneath an iconic U.K. landmark, archaeologists spotted something. Looking closer, they realized it was a 200-year-old fish — but not one intended as food.

The find came as archaeologists are surveying and excavating the Palace of Westminster in London to prepare for restorations, the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal said in an April 7 news release. The outside of the iconic building boasts Big Ben while the inside houses both chambers of the U.K. Parliament.

While digging a hole under the House of Lords, archaeologists spotted a 200-year-old fish carved from animal bone, the release said.

Photos show the slim, ivory-colored fish with a notch for a mouth, fins carved on the side and a chipped tail fin.

Michael Marshall, a team leader with the Museum of London Archaeology, identified the find as “a gaming counter,” he said in the release. “Counters like this were commonly used at gaming tables in Britain during the 18th and 19th century and were used as tokens for scoring.”

The antique fish toy.

The fish toy is mentioned in Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice” Marshall said, “where Lydia Bennet is described as winning and losing fish while playing games of ‘lottery tickets.’”

It’s unclear if the fish token was used for keeping score in a variety of card games or just some specific ones.

Still, Diane Abrams, one of the project’s lead archaeologists, described the fish as “wonderful,” according to the release.

“It certainly highlights the value of the Palace’s ‘hidden’ archaeology beneath its buildings and spaces and how even a single find such as this can contribute to its overall sense of history and our literary past,” Abrams said.

Excavations are ongoing at the Palace of Westminster.

Debt crunch looms for weaker economies with a wall of bond maturities ahead

A woman shops at a vegetable and fruit market in Tunis

Mon, April 10, 2023 
By Jorgelina do Rosario

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A combination of sticky high interest rates and lacklustre global growth could push a number of emerging economies that are facing soaring refinancing needs into debt difficulties next year.

Many weaker economies navigated the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine with financing aid from multilateral and bilateral lenders.

But repayments on emerging markets' high-yield international bonds will total $30 billion in 2024, a steep increase compared to the $8.4 billion left for the remainder of this year. This adds a layer of complexity to more vulnerable countries if some issuers can't refinance their debt soon.

"A more prolonged period without market access would be of more concern for the lower-rated tiers of the emerging markets sovereign universe," said James Wilson, EM sovereign strategist for ING.

How to mitigate the threat of severe debt distress for more vulnerable emerging economies will be a key topic in Washington, where policy makers and asset managers are meeting for the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings this week.

Tapping international debt markets hasn't been a problem across the board for emerging economies. Sovereign issuance has hit a record high so far this year, although that bond sale bonanza has been driven by higher rated sovereigns.

Meanwhile countries such as Tunisia, Kenya and Pakistan "would need to find alternative sources of financing if the market doesn't re-open for them," said Thys Louw, portfolio manager for the emerging markets hard currency debt strategy at Ninety One, in London.

Investors are concerned over refinancing risks for Kenya's $2 billion bond maturing in June 2024, said Merveille Paja, EEMEA sovereign credit strategist for BofA.

"The market expects more solutions to be delivered, either the IMF's resilience and sustainability trust or $1 billion external issuance or syndication loan," Paja told Reuters.

The resilience and sustainability trust, approved a year ago, is a lending facility for climate and pandemic preparedness for low-income and some middle-income nations.

Tunisia's debt crunch comes even earlier than Kenya's: a 500 million euro overseas bond matures in October and another 850 million euros are due in February. Ratings agency Fitch sees a default as a "real possibility" for the CCC rated country.

The nation reached in October a staff-level agreement for a $1.9 billion bailout with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), though Tunisia's President Kais Saied recently gave his clearest rejection yet of the terms of the stalled programme.

Ethiopia, which is currently negotiating a financing programme with the IMF, has a $1 billion eurobond issue coming due in 2024. Investors are already offering to extend maturities.

Sri Lanka, Zambia and Ghana have already defaulted on their overseas debt and are working towards debt reworks with creditors, albeit slowly.

Bahrain has limited reserves and large refinancing needs, but "strong support from peers such as Saudi Arabia mitigates some of this risk", according to an ING report.

GLOBAL RISKS

"In Tunisia and Pakistan, the finalization of the IMF programme will be an important step to avoiding a default as that would unlock bilateral and multilateral financing," added Louw.

Pakistan's refinancing needs for 2024 stand at 12% of its international reserves.

The JPMorgan's emerging markets bond index (EMBI) for high yield debt is at 900 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, and has largely remained over 800 bps since the beginning of last year.

"The spread movements during the pandemic were massive, but retreated very quickly. The Russia conflict and then the Fed hiking cycle led to higher spreads for a much longer period," said Gregory Smith, emerging markets fund manager at London-based M&G Investment.

A weaker U.S. dollar should help countries to tap international markets in the medium term, but recent data fueled jitters that restrictive central bank policies could push the global economy into recession.

"Investors are concerned about further contagion of the banking sector and risks of the Fed pausing too early or tightening too aggressively," said Paja from BofA.


(Reporting by Jorgelina do Rosario; Editing by Karin Strohecker and Toby Chopra)

The credit crunch the Fed fears may already be taking shape



Mon, April 10, 2023 
By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jeffrey Haley, the CEO of American National Bank and Trust Company, saw the crunch coming at the start of 2023.

Rising interest rates and a slowing economy to him meant that loan growth would likely fall by half as the Danville, Virginia-based community bank turned its focus to better-quality, higher-yielding credit, worrying little about volume.

Then a pair of U.S. regional banks abruptly failed in mid-March. Instinct told him things would tighten further, with loan growth plunging to perhaps a quarter of what it was in 2022, when his bank's loan book grew by 13% to around $2.1 billion.

Coming into 2023 "my rule of thumb was whatever you did last year you will probably do half this year," Haley said. "Based on current events ... I now think it gets cut in half again."

After a year of racing along a virtually unfettered path to higher interest rates, the Federal Reserve is facing its first significant pothole as the decisions made in hundreds of bank executive suites will either add up - or not - to an economy-shaping drop in lending.

By raising the benchmark interest rate that banks use in lending money to each other, tighter monetary policy makes consumer and business loans more expensive and harder to get. In theory, that lowers demand for credit-financed goods and services, and in time also lowers inflation.

The concern now is how far and fast that unfolds.

Household and business bank accounts remain comparatively flush, a buffer against too swift an economic comedown.

But overall bank credit has been stalled at about $17.5 trillion since January. Its year-over-year growth has been falling fast, and the Fed's next interest rate decision in May now hinges on whether policymakers decide that's just monetary policy running its course or something deeper.

Graphic-Loan officers say the crackdown has begun

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-FED/CREDIT/egvbylyxxpq/chart.png

RATTLED CAGE

Inflation, as measured by the Fed's preferred gauge, remains more than double the U.S. central bank's 2% target, and for now policymakers seem agreed that another rate increase at their May 2-3 meeting is warranted.

But the potential for a worse-than-expected credit crunch remains elevated in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapses last month, which raised concerns of a larger financial panic.

The worst seems to have been avoided. Emergency steps by the Fed and Treasury Department protected depositors at both banks, helping ease what could have been a destabilizing run from smaller banks to larger ones. Other actions by the Fed helped maintain confidence in the wider banking system.

Yet the cage was rattled as a year of rising interest rates had already put smaller banks under pressure, competing for deposits that were leaking into Treasury bonds and money market funds that paid more interest.

The response - less lending, tighter credit standards and higher interest on loans - was already taking shape. Officials are now watching for signs that has been kicked into overdrive.

Hard data on bank lending and credit will come into play, augmenting topline statistics like unemployment and inflation that the Fed is focused on. As Fed policymakers gauge whether tougher bank lending may let the central bank forego future rate hikes, bank officer surveys will also be mined for clues about sentiment among those driving credit decisions.

Updated results for one, the Fed's quarterly Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices, will be presented at the central bank's next meeting before being released publicly the following week - among the more-anticipated editions of a poll that gets little attention outside the most intent of Fed watchers and financial industry analysts.

"Survey data is going to be very important because it's going to give us a sense of whether financial institutions are pulling back even more on their credit standards," Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said last week. "We already saw it happening, which you'd expect to see as interest rates moved up ... That was kind of a normal thing."

"Now we're going to be really assessing, OK, is this even a stronger impact, because that's going to matter ... We're trying to calibrate our monetary policy, and tightening credit conditions is the mechanism through which that's going to impact the broader economy."

Graphic-Bank credit growth is slowing already

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-ECONOMY/CREDIT/klvygqbgwvg/chart.png

SENTIMENT WEAKENING

The survey of large and small banks asks high-level questions - Are lending standards tighter or looser? Is loan demand increasing or decreasing? - yet is considered a reliable gauge of how lending will behave.

It was already showing the wheels of a slowdown in motion.

Results for the last quarter of 2022 showed a net share of around 45% of banks were tightening standards for commercial and industrial loans, the survey question seen as the best barometer for the direction of lending. Up sharply in the last three surveys, that is already near levels associated with recession.

Some consumer loan standards were also getting stricter.

Other banking survey data has also turned down.

A Conference of State Bank Supervisors survey found the lowest sentiment among community bankers since the poll began in 2019. Nearly all of the 330 respondents, some 94%, said a recession had already begun.

A Dallas Fed bank conditions survey, conducted in late March after the two bank failures, indicated lending standards in that Fed regional bank's district have kept tightening, with loan demand falling.

What this means for consumption, business investment and inflation "remains difficult to gauge," wrote Peter Williams, director of global policy strategy at ISI Evercore. "This latest shock will add another, challenging-to-model, layer to the outlook."

Tighter credit is hitting an already-slowing economy, with key sectors showing stress.

Small businesses are already reporting tightened profit margins, a recent Bank of America study found. With their reliance on bank loans, lines of credit and credit cards, tougher financing conditions may land particularly hard on that segment of the economy, a key source of employment.

Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank, recently estimated if the next Fed loan officers survey shows a 10-percentage-point rise in the share of banks tightening credit, it could lop about half a percentage point from U.S. output - enough to turn expected meager growth into a recession.

"These scenarios would push lending conditions into a range that has more clearly been associated with recession," Luzzetti and his team wrote, saying they see potential for "a broader tightening of financial conditions that will meaningfully slow growth at a time when recession risks were already elevated."

Graphic-Community banks turn sour

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-FED/CREDIT/movakykgjva/chart.png

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Paul Simao)

Once viewed as food for the poor in Haiti, this staple crop is vying for UNESCO recognition

Jacqueline Charles
Mon, April 10, 2023 

In a wood-frame shack without walls on the western edges of this historic city, time stands still.

Amid the constant noise of passing motorcycles and honking car horns, dozens of Haitians are busy at work preparing a traditional staple crop the way their forebears and the island’s indigenous people did ages ago: with charred wood, artisan sieves and homemade wooden knives.

While a group of women scrapes away the outer skin of the edible root known as manioc or cassava, using nothing more than the peeled off metal tops of cans, a group of men prepares to process the tuber into flour by washing it, while a third group grates it and removes its toxic juice. The tuber’s dried, sifted flour is then spread evenly in a circular fashion onto a round, flat iron plate known as a platine, sitting on top of a large concrete slab with burning charcoal underneath.

Once a staple that was frowned upon as ‘poor people’ food, cassava bread has made a comeback thanks to the rising price of bread and since the COVID-19 pandemic. On the outskirts of Cap-Haïtien in northern Haiti, it is also providing employment.

Then come the unique flavorings that break up the neutral, crisp taste of cassava bread and give Haitian kasav its unique flavor and allow it to stand out from its counterparts in Amerindian and Afro-descendant communities across Latin America and the Caribbean: herring, peanut, ginger, sugar, salt, cinnamon, coconut, sweetened condensed cream, pineapple — or any combination of the above.

“We have around 11 different flavors,” Monarc Petit Benoit, the co-founder of Dope Kasav, says. “There are so many I forget.”

Staple food of nearly 1 billion people worldwide

The staple food for nearly a billion people around the world, cassava, also known as yuca, is enjoying a renaissance here thanks to its gluten and nut-free flour that is used to produce kasav or cassava bread, a popular flatbread of the region’s original Arawak population that until recently was considered poor people’s food in Haiti.

That rebirth, Benoit says, can be credited to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of wheat and other food. All have made wheat bread a pricey luxury, and kasav, with its long-shelf life, an attractive alternative.

“It’s part of our culture and the production of cassava has been here for a long time, since the native Indians,” Benoit said.

Josnel Pierre pepares kasav flatbread in Haiti, on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. The staple food, which has no fat or sourdough, is still prepared the way it was made centuries ago.

The traditional know-how associated with the making of cassava bread is the driving force behind the country’s decision to join forces with four other Latin America and Caribbean nations — Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Venezuela — to offer the traditional cuisine to UNESCO for recognition on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Cassava’s candidacy, a collaboration that’s been two years in the making, marks the first time five countries in the hemisphere have come together to pose a multinational entry for the prestigious United Nations honor.

Their pitch? While cassava’s taste and texture may vary across the region, and its name differs (kasav in Haiti; casabe in Cuba; ereba in Honduras; pan de Venezuela, bammy in Jamaica), the “pan de los Indios” or “bread of the Indians” as it is also known in Cuba, has transcended time and national boundaries.

“It’s a much needed reminder that at a time when Haiti can feel quite isolated, that we share some of the common lineage, common heritage, common cultural background with much of the region,” Dominique Dupuy, Haiti’s ambassador and permanent delegate to UNESCO, said.

Auguste Boniface Prince, 78, runs a popular cassava bread making business in northern Haiti. He says it’s a tradition that has been passed from the island’s first inhabitants, the Taino Indians, to the enslaved Africans and that Haitians continue to take ownership of the staple.

In Cuba, the tradition lives in six rural provinces across eastern and central Cuba; in Venezuela, cassava is popular among indigenous communities and the country’s African descendants; in the Dominican Republic, as in Haiti, it’s present throughout, while in Honduras, it’s a staple food for the Garífunas, the descendants of African slaves mixed with Carib and Arawak Indians who sought refuge in Central America after fleeing slavery and war in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Dupuy, who in 2020 successfully got Haiti’s first ever entry on UNESCO’s Intangible List with the country’s popular independence pumpkin soup, soup joumou, said a cassava inscription provides Haitians with an opportunity to expand the conversation around their country, currently undergoing one of its worst humanitarian crises along with unprecedented levels of gang violence and kidnappings.

Kasav — usually eaten with peanut butter, preferably Haiti-made with a pepper punch — is a symbol of national identity rooted in the country’s African and indigenous history that began long before the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the Spaniards, before French buccaneers established a settlement on Île de la Tortue, the pirates’ lair off the country’s northwest coast, in 1625, and long before enslaved Africans rebelled to create the world’s first Black republic in 1804.

Monarc Petit Benoit, in yellow shirt, decided to invest in a cassava business in Haiti’s second largest city. The food staple has grown in popularity amid rising food prices and the COVID-19 pandemic. Haiti recently joined Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Venezuela in seeking recognition from UNESCO for the popular flatbread known as casabe or kasav, which is still made the same way it was centuries ago, by hand.

That history began centuries earlier when the original inhabitants of the island of Hispaniola, the indigenous Arawak-speaking Taínos, named the entire island Ayiti, meaning “land of high mountains.”

“In this sense, kasav is a rare witness of this tragic and critical encounter between the Taíno people and the enslaved Africans brought by force on the colony of Saint Domingue to work on plantations,” Dupuy said. “It is a witness and a testament of a decision of resilience, a decision to survive and a decision to strive.”

The Taínos’ traditional know-how of producing cassava bread was passed on to others at a key time when the indigenous population on Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere in the hemisphere was on the verge of extinction. The knowledge was absorbed by the enslaved Africans and passed on to their descendants through generations.
Investing in Cassava

This history, said Benoit, along with the financial potential of the product, led him to invest in one of the oldest cassava businesses in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien. Like the throng of people stopping by on a recent afternoon to purchase the flatbread, Benoit was a client.

He was also motivated by the shortage of wheat bread during the COVID-19 pandemic and by the idea that if done right, he could also create jobs while helping out farmers.

“Cassava from the north is the preference in the country,” said Benoit, whose training is in computers. “So I thought, why not have the cassava from Cap-Haïtien reach other regions and help the national production? The more people consume cassava, the more it will be in demand and the more jobs can be created.”

He co-founded Dope Kasav, a joint venture with Auguste Boniface Prince, a well-known cassava bread producer in the city who has been in the business for more than 30 years. A towering figure, Prince isn’t much of a talker. But he is happy, he said, when he looks at the transformation taking place.

Auguste Boniface Prince, 78, is well-known in northern Haiti where he sources his cassava plant or manioc from local farmers across the region. His cassava bread business also provides dozens of jobs.

“From time to time, I catch myself thinking, ‘How is it that Haitians have come to love kasav like this?’ ” Prince said. “Because in the beginning when I started, Haitians didn’t want kasav; they didn’t like it like this.”

Back then his kasav was sold mostly in markets in Port-au-Prince. “But now,” Prince said, “people are stopping by from all over to buy kasav. We don’t need to send it out to make a sale.”

The open-air factory in Cap-Haïtien exists in similar communities in the other four countries, with a division of labor where women and men perform different tasks, and where production is a community affair.

“It’s one of the things I’ve seen Haitians make real and pass on to generations,” Prince said about cassava bread production. He also swears by its nutritional value.

“Unlike bread, it has nothing artificial in it,” he said as he walks over to one and pours a can of sweetened condensed milk on top after a worker added a mixture of ginger and coconut. “It’s made with all natural ingredients and it’s something that is good for your health.”

Josnel Pierre prepares kasav in Haiti, on Jan. 20, 2023. The popular flatbread, made from cassava flour, is a staple food in the country and is still prepared the way it was made centuries ago with wooden knives and charcoal.

Josnel Pierre, 24, started working at the factory while in school and today works full time, getting paid the equivalent of $19 a day.

“I have a wife. I have a child,” he said in between breaks. “It allows me to keep a roof over my head and make a living.”

His job is to bake the bread, shaped like an oversize tortilla or pancake. Grabbing a silver basin, he scoops up flour with both hands, pours it onto the iron plate and spreads it in a circle.

As the flour starts to roast, Pierre checks on other flatbread nearby before returning and adding a mixture of ginger and coconut, which were crushed using a wooden mortar. Over the next 30 minutes — the time it takes for the cassava to brown on both sides — he pats the flour into a round flat shape, creases its edges using a wooden paddle and then turns it over with his bare hands before cutting the bread into squares with a wooden handmade knife and then removing it so it can dry before packaging.

The workshop is abuzz with activity, from the people strolling in off the street to buy kasav, wrapped in brown paper, to motorcycle drivers who pull up to drop off bags of manioc. In one corner, a group of women scraped the root while in another a second group are preserving the starch.

In the middle, young men are either grating the tuber into flour or sifting it to ensure it has no sediments and is ready to be spread onto the platine. The same technique is used by the indigenous people in the community of Masakenari, Guyana, home to the native Wai-wai people, as well as in Dominica where cassava bread is a staple among descendants of the Carib Indians.
Job generator

Since joining forces with Benoit, Prince said he’s been able to hire a number of new workers and estimates that he has anywhere from 30 to 35 people working a day in his open-air workshop, where corrugated zinc sheets protect them from the elements but not the baking heat.

The number, he said, doesn’t include the farmers across the north who grow and sell him the manioc, or the motorcycle taxi drivers who deliver the tubers by the bag loads. The area that produces the best cassava roots, he said, is the northeast, which includes the villages of Caracol and Trou-du-Nord.

If the farmers had help, Prince said, they would be producing four times the amount of manioc they currently harvest.

“It’s unfortunate that we don’t have a thriving agricultural sector,” he said, “because the farmers don’t have support; they don’t really have materials to farm. They are planting with machetes in their hands.”

VISITING FROM FLORIDA

Black buzzards are circling New York City in sightings that 'would have been unheard of' 30 years ago, ornithologists say


American Black Vulture, Coragyps atratus, pulling at rubber seal on parked car at Anhinga Trail Florida.

David Tipling/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Mon, April 10, 2023 

Black vultures have been making their way north due to milder weather caused by climate change.

Ornithologists in New York have recorded more than 300 sightings in the last year.

The number "would have been unheard of" 30 years ago, one researcher told the NYT.

Climate change is behind the unusual appearance of hulking, bald-headed black vultures across parts of New York City, ornithologists say.

The vultures, which usually make their habitat in the southern states and across Mexico and other portions of Latin America, are now being seen regularly as far north as Manhattan.

The birds are changing their migratory patterns, being driven north by dwindling habitat space and milder winter weather, The New York Times reported.

Just 30 years ago, spotting groups — or committees — of black vultures so far north "would have been unheard of," Andrew Farnsworth, a researcher at Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology, told The New York Times. Yet, over the last year, the Cornell-backed public science project eBird has documented more than 300 sightings in the city.

Farnsworth told Insider the sightings are significant because, as the species expands its habitat in the region, the vulture's presence can impact relationships with other scavengers and omnivorous crows, as well as white tailed deer and other mammals that the birds eat, which as a result could impact how food chains in the region function or how diseases like West Nile Virus spread.

While the environmental impact of the vulture appearances remains unclear and will for some time, Farnsworth told Insider, it is likely to have impacts on other species, and those impacts can reveal information about the relationships between animals, changing climate, and epidemiology.

"All I do know is these huge creatures that have a wingspan of about five feet have invaded Staten Island," Deena Tomasulo, a resident of the Midland Beach neighborhood, told NBC News New York in August. "They perch on the roofs and stare at the animals — the feral cats, raccoons, and opossums. I have never witnessed an attack yet, thank God ... I just don't want any of the feral cats to get harmed, people have little small dogs. And if you put the dog in your yard, these birds will swoop in and attack."

Often regarded as an omen of death and renewal, the frightening-looking birds appear more intimidating than they are dangerous.

"They're not geared to killing, like a hawk or an owl would be, where they grasp and kill. They will come down and just eat mostly roadkill," said Don Riepe, with the Jamaica Bay American Littoral Society, a wildlife refuge, told CBS News. Representatives for the Littoral Society did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The new presence of the large birds may spell longer-term consequences for the ecosystem, The New York Times reported. Should the vultures disrupt the food chain or displace other birds by moving into the region, the impacts can ripple beyond just the sightings — potentially endangering entire species of insects and other animals by wiping out their food supply.

"All of our societies depend on these natural systems of insects, birds, plants in multiple ecosystems across the earth," Tod Winston, a researcher with the New York City Audubon Society told The New York Times, adding that environmental changes that impact birds should be a warning to us all, saying "people are in trouble," too.

The New York City Audubon Society did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Buttigieg pressured by Democrats to reform 'racist traffic enforcement'


Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts,  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg

Jessica Chasmar
Mon, April 10, 2023 

More than two dozen Democrats have signed a letter calling on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to reform what they describe as "racist traffic enforcement" against Black people.

A group of 27 Democrats, including "Squad" Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Cori Bush of Missouri, Jamaal Bowman of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, sent the letter to Buttigieg on Thursday, demanding he condemn America's "harmful" traffic enforcement practices and develop reforms that "support the wellbeing of Black people traveling on our nation’s roads and highways."

The group wants Buttigieg to direct funds from President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law to enact reforms that "move our nation closer to transit equity."

"On our nation’s roads and highways, Black motorists have experienced disproportionate scrutiny and excessive force under the guise of traffic enforcement," the letter read. "As Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), we urge you to condemn the status quo of traffic enforcement and develop reforms to reduce racial inequities in traffic stops."

Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary, speaks during a news conference near the site of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, US, on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023.


The Democrats argued in their letter that funds from the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, which passed Congress with limited Republican support in 2021, should be used for innovation in traffic enforcement, such as "eliminating financial barriers to vehicle registration and upgrading traffic lights."

"Furthermore, some states and localities, such as Virginia, Oregon, and the city of Philadelphia, have made systemic changes, moving minor traffic infractions, such as a single missing taillight or an object hanging on a rear-view mirror, away from enforcement by armed police officers," the letter stated. "Traffic safety should not come at the expense of the dignity and safety of the Black community. The status quo of inequitable traffic enforcement is the product of racist policies, outdated infrastructure, and limited oversight."

Buttigieg has previously said he wants to address racism built into the country’s highways, roads and bridges. He sparked conservative backlash in November 2021 after he argued that the federal government had a "moral" responsibility to address systemic racism in the county’s infrastructure.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (L), with his husband Chasten Buttigieg (R) and their children, participates in the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 10, 2023

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Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary, speaks during a news conference near the site of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, US, on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023.

"What we’re doing is we are reconnecting people who may have been disconnected or divided by discriminatory decisions in the past," the secretary said at the time. "That helps everybody. I don’t know why anybody would be against reconnecting people who have been divided by discriminatory decisions in the past."

The Department of Transportation told Fox News Digital it would be following up on the letter with congressional members directly.

"The Department takes this issue very seriously," a spokesperson said. "We will continue to work to ensure our traffic safety programs, including grant-making, uphold both safety and equity."

2,500-year-old last meal found inside intact tomb in Italy. It’s still popular today

Brendan Rascius
Mon, April 10, 2023

A 2,500-year-old tomb was recently unearthed in Italy with a rare last meal still inside, according to local media reports.

The tomb, which was discovered about 70 miles northwest of Rome, was built by the Etruscans, a mysterious civilization that inhabited the Italian peninsula before the Romans, according to an April 4 news release from the Parco di Vulci, an archaeological park.

The necropolis was enclosed by large stone slabs and had been undisturbed since its construction in 6th century B.C., according to GreenMe, an Italian news site.

Upon finding the centuries-old burial chamber, archaeologists were at a loss for words, according to GreenMe.

Upon excavating the ancient tomb, archaeologists found pottery and a brazier.

It is believed to have belonged to a woman based on the presence of a weaving tool and a piece of pottery, according to the park.

Also found inside the tomb were the remains of a last meal, a rare and unusual discovery, according to TGR, an Italian news outlet.

Coals and a spit were found inside of a bronze brazier, a cooking pan, TGR reported. The utensils would have been used to make meat skewers.

Coals in a brazier and a skewer constituted the remains of the last meal, archaeologists said.

The newfound artifacts will be sent to a laboratory to be analyzed, according to the outlet.

Animal remains previously discovered in an Etruscan tomb were considered to be associated with a funerary ritual offering known as “food of the dead,” according to a study published in 2013 in the French journal Anthropozoologica.

The Etruscans, a sophisticated people with an enigmatic language and disputed origin, were conquered by the Romans in the third century B.C., according to the Smithsonian Magazine. Their civilization was a major influence on Roman and Greek culture.

Sea levels rising rapidly in southern U.S., study finds

Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Mon, April 10, 2023

Damage after Hurricane Ian Bonita Springs, Fla., Sept. 29, 2022. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

A study published Monday finds sea-level rise along the coast of the southeastern United States has accelerated rapidly since 2010, raising fears that tens of millions of Americans’ homes in cities across the South will be at risk from flooding in the decades to come.

“It’s a window into the future,” Sönke Dangendorf, an assistant professor of river-coastal science and engineering at Tulane University, who co-authored the study that appeared in Nature Communications, told the Washington Post.

That paper and another published last month in the Journal of Climate find that sea levels along the Gulf Coast and the southern Atlantic Coast have risen an average of 1 centimeter per year since 2010. That translates to nearly 5 inches over the last 12 years, and it is about double the rate of average global sea-level rise during the same time period.

The Journal of Climate study found that the hurricanes that have recently hammered the Gulf Coast, including Michael in 2018 and Ian — which was blamed in the deaths of 109 Floridians last year — had a more severe impact because of higher sea levels.

“It turns out that the water level associated with Hurricane Ian was the highest on record due to the combined effect of sea-level rise and storm surge,” Jianjun Yin, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona and the author of the Journal of Climate study, told the Post.

Residents of Houston evacuate their homes after the area was flooded from Hurricane Harvey, Aug. 28, 2017. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) show the water level at Lake Pontchartrain, an estuary bordering New Orleans, is eight inches higher than it was in 2006. Other cities threatened by rising oceans in the region include Houston, Miami and Mobile, Ala.

The centimeter-per-year rate is far faster than experts had expected, and it is more in line with projections made for the end of the century, Dagendorf said. High-tide flooding — when the tides bring water onto normally dry land on rain-free days — has more than doubled on the Gulf Coast and Southeast coast since the beginning of this century, according to NOAA. Recent years have seen records for high-tide flooding obliterated. The city of Bay St. Louis, Miss., went from three days of high-tide flooding in 2000 to 22 days in 2020.

A study by scientists with the University of Miami, NOAA, NASA and other institutions, which has not yet undergone peer review, found that the Southeastern sea-level rise accounted for “30%-50% of flood days in 2015-2020.”

“In low-lying coastal regions, an increase of even a few centimeters in the background sea level can break the regional flooding thresholds and lead to coastal inundation,” the study said.