Growing number of Conservative voters think Canada gives 'too much support' to Ukraine, poll suggests


CBC
Tue, February 6, 2024 

This photograph, shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the social media platform X on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, shows Ukrainian prisoners of war reacting after a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. 

As the grim two-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches, a new poll suggests Canadians' engagement with the conflict is waning and support for Ukraine is weakening — especially among Conservatives.

A survey released Tuesday morning by the Angus Reid Institute says a quarter of Canadians believe Canada is offering "too much support" to Ukraine in its fight, up from 13 per cent who said the same thing in May 2022.

Conservative supporters are a driving force behind that result, according to the poll.

The percentage of Canadians who voted for the Conservative Party in the last election, and who now say Canada is doing too much to assist Ukraine, has more than doubled — from 19 per cent in May 2022 to 43 per cent now — according to the public opinion research group's findings.

"It's ... a massive jump," said Shachi Kurl, president of Angus Reid Institute. "This has the potential to be something of a political Gordian knot for Pierre Poilievre."

Sorting out the reasons behind the shift is largely an exercise in speculation at this point, said Kurl.

On the one hand, she said, there's a longstanding tradition of support for the military among Conservative voters. That position may be in tension with Conservative support for small governments and lower taxes, she added.

"I don't want to overemphasize it … but what is burgeoning, what is starting to sort of grow from out of the weeds into a fairly healthy seedling here, is this almost the Trump-esque, 'Canada First' mentality," she said.

"That mindset of conservative is not representative of the majority of the Conservative Party base in the country, or the entirety of the base. It is a minority, but it is a passionate, vocal and growing minority."

The poll suggests the belief that Canada is giving Ukraine too much is also growing among NDP and Liberal voters. The percentage of voters who think Canada is doing too much for Ukraine jumped from 5 to 10 per cent among 2021 Liberal supporters, and from 5 to 12 per cent among 2021 NDP supporters.

Since early 2022, the federal government has committed more than $2.4 billion in military assistance and more than $352 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

An emotional debate about trade with Ukraine

The poll landed a day after another emotional debate in the House of Commons over a bill to implement an update to the Canada-Ukraine free trade deal.

The Liberals accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party of abandoning Ukraine when Conservative MPs voted against the bill in November. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has attributed the opposition to "American MAGA-influenced thinking."

Poilievre, whose party has maintained a large polling lead over Trudeau's Liberals for months, has said his party still supports Ukraine and its objection is to the mention of "carbon pricing" in the legislation.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre address the national Conservative caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre addresses the national Conservative caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

"I really think it speaks to how pathologically obsessed Trudeau is with the carbon tax that, while the knife is at the throat of Ukrainians, he would use that to impose his carbon tax ideology on those poor people," Poilievre said in November.

The trade agreement imposes no obligation on the Ukrainian government to introduce a carbon tax.

Last week, Poilievre called on the Liberal government to donate to Ukraine tens of thousands of surplus air-to-ground rockets that are slated for disposal.

The Angus Reid poll suggests Canadians, by a three-to-one ratio, believe the Conservatives' vote against the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement will undermine Canada's reputation on the world stage. Half of likely Conservative voters believe there will be no effect at all, the poll says.

Kurl said elections based on foreign policy issues are rare in Canada, but for the first time in months Poilievre's opponents have something to talk about.

"He's spent little to no time on the defence and it has enabled him to stay very disciplined in terms of message and stay very focused in terms of a relentless attack on the government. And I'm not saying that those attacks in some cases haven't been cogent, or that they haven't been the result of really a litany ... of own-goals on the part of this government," said Kurl.

"But, you know, for the first time we we may be seeing something that puts Poilievre on the defence ..."

Canadians' interest dwindling

The Angus Reid Institute's survey suggests the number of Canadians closely following news of the conflict has dropped from 66 per cent in May 2022 to 45 per cent now.

"Overall, Canadians are checking out of this conflict," said Kurl.

"And you can see that those who are less engaged are much more likely to also say, you know, we're helping too much, we've fulfilled our commitments."

The poll suggests Canadians remain divided on the role Canada should play in the war going forward.

One third of respondents agreed Canada should support Ukraine "as long as it takes," while one-in-ten believe that support should continue for only another year.

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly speaks to the media during a press conference with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv, Ukraine on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. 

(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletk)

Another 30 per cent are uncertain, while 20 per cent say they believe the war should end now with negotiations for peace initiated by Ukraine.

Just five per cent of respondents want Canada to end its support entirely.

The Angus Reid Institute conducted the online survey from Jan. 29 to Jan. 31, 2024 using a randomized sample of 1,617 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum.

For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Ukraine is so desperate for arms, it's itching to get its hands on Canada's 83,000 decommissioned rockets

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan
Mon, February 5, 2024 

A Ukrainian general is asking Canada for its decommissioned CRV7 ground attack rockets. A spokesperson for the Canadian military told Global News that the 83,303 rockets were pending disposal.

Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images

One man's trash is another man's treasure.


Canada has decommissioned over 83,000 CRV7 ground attack rockets.


Ukraine now hopes Canada will give them the decades-old rockets instead of disposing of them.

Ukraine's military spy chief is asking Canada for its decommissioned rockets to replenish its dwindling supply of arms.

"We need a lot of equipment, both ammunition, munitions in general, artillery munitions — lots of types of equipment," Kyrylo Budanov told Canadian media outlet Global News in a report published on Monday.

Budanov, who heads Ukraine's military intelligence, has his sights set on Canada's decommissioned CRV7 ground attack rockets.

A spokesperson for the Canadian military confirmed with Global News that they have 83,303 CRV7 rockets that are pending disposal.

But the Canadians have yet to hand over the rockets, as they had concerns over the safety and stability of the decades-old CRV7s.

A representative for Canada's defense minister, Bill Blair, told Global News they needed to ensure that the CRV7s were "operationally effective and safe to transport to Ukraine before any potential donation."

"We have no concerns," Budanov said in response to the Canadian's apprehensions.

The Ukrainians aren't the only ones grappling with arms shortages. Their foes, the Russians, had to turn to the North Koreans for missile launchers and ballistic missiles.

Ukraine has been heavily reliant on Western support for its war efforts. The US has provided over $43 billion in security aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded them in February 2022.

Representatives for Canada's Department of National Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Budanov asks Canada to hand over 83,000 decommissioned rockets

Olena Goncharova
Mon, February 5, 2024 


Kyrylo Budanov, the chief of Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR), hopes that Canada could hand over to Ukraine tens of thousands of rockets that are awaiting demolition at one of the country's military bases.

More than 83,000 CRV7 ground attack rockets are warehoused at Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot Dundurn, south of Saskatoon. Canada no longer has any use for them, and has selected a private contractor to demolish the rockets.

Speaking with the Global News outlet, Budanov said donating the rockets will help Ukraine fend off Russian forces and save Canadian taxpayers the cost of destroying them.

The CRV7s would be deployed in Ukrainian attack helicopters and ground launchers to target Russian tanks and artillery, according to the intelligence chief. Ukraine has engaged in discussions with Canada on this matter but is still awaiting a decision.

Canada's opposition Conservative Party has asked the government to send decommissioned rockets to Ukraine instead of destroying them, according to the CBC report on Feb. 2. Canada's Department of National Defense has confirmed that the donation is under consideration.

Canadian officials mentioned they were examining the request but raised concerns about the age of the CRV7s, suggesting they could have become unstable over the decades, posing risks during handling and transportation.

Experts who talked to the Global News pointed out that rocket propellant has a finite lifespan and may become unstable after many years. However, given that CRV7s use solid fuel, they might still be considered safe if stored correctly and not exposed to moisture or contamination.

The Canadian government has committed more than $1.7 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 2022, which includes missiles as well as ammunition for small arms, artillery and battle tanks.

Read also: Canada-Ukraine security agreement could be finalized in weeks, Canadian FM says

Ukraine seeks Canadian aid with decommissioned CRV7 missiles

The New Voice of Ukraine
Tue, February 6, 2024 

CRV7 is a Canadian unguided aerial missile

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Military Intelligence (HUR), urged Canada to provide decommissioned CRV7 missiles to counter Russian threats, as reported by Global News on Feb. 5. These missiles are vital for Ukrainian attack helicopters and ground launchers to deter Russian tanks and artillery.

While discussions between Ukraine and Canada continue, Canadian officials express concerns over the outdated nature of CRV7s and potential safety risks during use and transport. However, experts suggest that proper storage can mitigate these risks.

Read also: Poland gears up for further military aid to Ukraine

As tensions escalate along the eastern border, Canada’s Department of National Defense considers including CRV7 missiles in a future military aid package to Ukraine.

This potential aid reflects Ukraine’s determination to defend its sovereignty against Russian aggression, pending diplomatic negotiations.

South Korea donates 10 demining machines to Ukraine in humanitarian gesture

Germany unveils new military aid package for Ukraine, including tanks, drones, and communication terminals

Canadian business considers investment opportunities in Ukraine's transport sector

Ukrainska Pravda
Tue, February 6, 2024 

Photo: Ministry of Infrastructure

Canadian businesses are considering launching investment projects to develop Ukraine's transport sector.

Source: Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development following a meeting between Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov and Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine Natalie Tsmoc

Details: The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the main priorities for the recovery and development of Ukraine's transport sector and to attract private capital.

"We already have a solid track record of cooperation, in particular within the framework of the Support to Ukraine's Reforms for Governance (SURGe) project funded by the Government of Canada. Together with experts, we formulate and implement state policy on recovery, regional development and decentralisation.

At the same time, the transport sector remains one of the most attractive sectors for investment despite the war – we are focusing our attention on increasing the export capacity of land transport and waterways, both in the long and short term," Kubrakov said.

According to the ministry, Canada is currently considering investing into the following parts of the transport sector:

• Rail transport, including multimodal transport;

• The modernisation of Ukrainian Black Sea ports;

• Development of land border crossings;

• Assistance in the rapid resumption of civil aviation;

• Shipbuilding

P.E.I. growing potato partnership with Ukraine

CBC
Sun, February 4, 2024 

(Submitted by Wayne Easter - image credit)

P.E.I. is helping Ukraine rebuild its economy by sharing its expertise in a field it is known for around the world — growing potatoes.

Razom Invest Canada, a P.E.I.-based company headed by former Malpeque MP Wayne Easter, began teaching Ukrainians how to plant and harvest potatoes on a large scale last year.

Easter said the idea came about in 2022 at a Rebuild Ukraine conference in Toronto.

"The prime minister of Ukraine spoke there and he said this: He said the economic front is as important as the military front in terms of Ukraine's future, and businesses and Canadian investors need to be in Ukraine now."

An early crop of potatoes from a field in Luhyny, Ukraine.

An early crop of potatoes from a field in Luhyny, Ukraine. (Submitted by Wayne Easter)

Potatoes are a food staple in Ukraine, but there is currently a shortage there because of the war with Russia.

"They imported something like 40 per cent of their potatoes from Belarus, and they're not on good terms [with] Belarus at the moment, so that's opened up some opportunity," Easter said in an interview with Island Morning host Mitch Cormier.

The first crop was grown and harvested in the town of Luhyny, in western Ukraine, with the help of equipment brought in from the Netherlands.

But there was a glitch. Easter said they couldn't use P.E.I. seeds because of the ongoing export restrictions imposed by the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency.

So they were forced to buy their seed from Scotland. It yielded a crop "equivalent to one of the better crops on Prince Edward Island" that is in storage and being sold into the local food chain, he said.

Razom is now hoping to expand to other farming industries in Ukraine in hopes of developing further trade relations.

"Prince Edward Island has a lot of expertise in the agriculture area," Easter said.

Easter spent about 40 days in Ukraine, and his partner about 100. He said the Ukrainian farmers are eager to continue the project.

He plans to go back to the country in March to help plan for the upcoming planting season.

"It was a real joy to work with the Ukrainian people and to work with the people on the farm.... There's an agrologist on this farm we're working, and to see his smile and be so proud of this crop…."

The war with Russia is mainly in the eastern part of Ukraine, but it limits what can be done with their cash crops along the Black Sea. But Easter said many grocery stores are stocked similar to how they are in Canada.

"Ukrainians are getting on with their lives, and, yes, there are air raid sirens, and, yes, there's missiles coming into the west, and it is a country at war. But they're getting on with their lives and the West has to be there in every way they can be to help the Ukrainians out."

Budanov: Enigmatic Ukraine spy chief behind attacks inside Russia

AFP
Mon, February 5, 2024 

Months before Russia's invasion Kyrylo Budanov predicted a large-scale attack when the rest of the world was in denial about Moscow's intentions (Handout)

Enigmatic and unflappable, spy chief Kyrylo Budanov has built up a legendary reputation in Ukraine with a series of daring operations against Russia.

Referred to as the man "without a smile" by Ukrainian news outlet NV, the 38-year-old is credited with attacks in occupied areas and deep inside Russia.

He is now among the rumoured contenders to replace popular military commander in chief Valery Zaluzhny if President Volodymyr Zelensky dismisses him.

Budanov was unknown to the public when he was appointed to head of the GUR military intelligence service in August 2020.

The war has changed all that.

At an international conference in Kyiv in September 2023, he received a standing ovation even before his speech and officials crowded to take his photo.

- Injured three times -

Originally from Kyiv, he did his initial studies at the faculty of airborne troops in Odesa.

When Russia stoked a separatist conflict in the east of the country in 2014, he was deployed there.

The only scrap of information about his activities there that has been made public is that he took part in a commando raid in Moscow-annexed Crimea in 2016 in which some Russian agents were killed.

Budanov himself does not say much about his service except for revealing that he was injured three times -- including once with shrapnel close to his heart.

A gunshot wound to the elbow has left him with a visible stiffness in his right arm.

According to a GUR spokesman, he has been the target of "more than 10" attacks.

In 2019, his car exploded in Kyiv -- an attack attributed at the time to Russian security services.

He became one of Ukraine's youngest generals aged 35.

Months before Russia's invasion in February 2022, he predicted a large-scale attack when the rest of the world was in denial about Moscow's intentions.

Since the war began, he has given interviews from a spartan office -- sometimes with a map of a fragmented Russia visible behind him.

"We are going to win against the 'great and invincible' Russian army like David won against Goliath," Budanov has said.

He is described by supporters as a master of asymmetrical warfare.

But his prediction that Ukrainian troops would enter Crimea in 2023 failed to materialise and the front line has remained largely static since the end of 2022.

- Attacks on Russia -

Budanov, dubbed "Buddhanov" by Ukrainian media for his calm demeanour, has claimed several operations inside Russia, including a drone strike in January on an oil refinery in St Petersburg -- far from the front line.

Moscow also accuses the GUR of orchestrating an explosion in October 2022 that partially destroyed the bridge linking the occupied Crimean peninsula to Russia.

Budanov and his men are favourite targets for the Kremlin.

Since the start of the invasion, Russia has at least twice targeted the military intelligence headquarters in Kyiv, claiming in May 2023 to have killed Budanov.

According to the GUR, his wife Marianna was poisoned last November but survived.

That has failed to stop Budanov.

"The number of attacks against Russian infrastructure will probably multiply," he said on February 1.

A few hours later, his agency claimed to have sunk a Russian warship in Crimea.

Budanov: Ukraine sunk Russian missile corvette on Feb. 1 with 6 naval drones

Alexander Khrebet
Sun, February 4, 2024 


The Russian missile corvette Ukraine reported to have sunk off the coast of occupied Crimea on Feb. 1 was destroyed using six naval drones, Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) chief Kyrylo Budanov said on Feb. 4.

Ukraine's military intelligence reported on Feb. 1 that it had sunk the Ivanovets, a Tarantul-class Russian corvette that formed part of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, after it sustained "direct hits to its hull" and was irreparably damaged.

According to Budanov, the mission was undertaken by one of HUR's special units, Group 13, using Maritime Autonomous Guard Unmanned Robotic Apparatuses (MAGURA) V5 – multi-purpose naval drones that can be used for surveillance, reconnaissance, detecting and eliminating mines, search and rescue missions, and combat.

"As a result of the damage, the ship (to the Ivanovets) rolled astern and sank. According to preliminary data, the search and rescue operation conducted by the enemy was not successful," Budanov told the War Zone media outlet on Feb. 4.

Read also: These are the most important Russian ships destroyed by Ukraine

ONTARIO

Essex Community Living support staff want an end to long overtime hours

"We're working 50, 60, 70 hours a week just to earn a livable wage."


CBC
Tue, February 6, 2024

Community Living Essex supports about 700 people across the county and has around 640 direct support workers. (Google Maps - image credit)

Disability support worker Amanda Hodgkins says a "staffing crisis" at Community Living Essex County has her "pretty close" to her breaking point.

In June 2022, Hodgkins says she worked 35 hours straight at her designated group home as there were no other staff members who could relieve her. She says she was given no notice that she'd be required to work multiple consecutive shifts and that she missed out on her kids' end-of-year soccer tournament.

"We have a passion to create change in the lives of people we support, but we are not being acknowledged or appreciated and we don't have that work-life balance," she said.

"We're working 50, 60, 70 hours a week just to earn a livable wage."

Throughout her work day, Hodgkins helps people with mental, developmental or learning disabilities manage their medications, develop relationships and take part in community activities.

Amanda Hodgkins is a direct support worker at Community Living Essex County. She says that in June 2022 she worked 35 hours due to poor staffing.

Amanda Hodgkins is a direct support worker at Community Living Essex County. She says that in June 2022 she worked 35 hours due to poor staffing. (Submitted by Amanda Hodgkins)

Hodgkins says it's not uncommon for her and her colleagues to work multiple shifts in a row, as there might not be any staff to fill in for ones who call in sick. When no additional staff are available, she says their workload also significantly increases.

The union that represents workers like Hodgkins, CUPE local 3137, is currently in bargaining with Community Living Essex County to secure a contract. The local president Paul Brennan told CBC News that the issue of staff working long hours is a "persistent" one that they are looking to address.

"You might not have brought any toiletries and found out you're stuck for the night, you might be working at a location that is a little further out and you don't have enough meals to carry you to the next, so yeah [working long hours] is very disruptive in our members' lives," said Brennan.

Community Living Essex County's executive director, Karen Bolger, told CBC News that Hodgkins working 35 hours is "totally against what we do."

"We don't want that to happen, we feel horrible that it did happen to that employee. We don't find it's safe or it's good for anybody," said Bolger.

She added that at the time this took place several of their homes had been in COVID-19 outbreaks, which might be why some staff were unable to come in to work.

Bolger says they have on-call employees who can fill in, but she added that the organization is looking to "beef up" that list.

Recruitment challenges

During the pandemic, Bolger says quite a few staff members left the organization. Since then, she says its been difficult to hire new people.

"Recruitment is a significant issue for developmental service organizations across the province and our organization we have dedicated substantial human and financial resources to recruiting new employees," she said.

She says Community Living Essex County has about 640 unionized direct support workers who help care for about 700 people with developmental disabilities across the county.

Karen Bolger is the executive director at Community Living Essex County. 

(Jennifer La Grassa/CBC)

Bolger says that the organization is mostly funded through the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. The ministry provided them with $38.7 million for their 2023/2024 budget, says Bolger.

She says that there hasn't been a base funding increase since 2008, and that her and other organizations under Community Living Ontario are calling for a five per cent base budget increase to help with inflating operational costs.

Getting this additional funding, says Bolger, would then allow the organization to allocate more money to wages.

In an email to CBC News Monday, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said that it recognizes "the concerns of the sector and the impact on workers, and we acknowledge that these challenges can impact the support provided to those who depend on our services."

For 2023/2024, the government said it is investing $3.4 billion in developmental services, which is an increase of $841 million over 2018/2019.

It said it's also working on helping the sector with recruitment and retention strategies.

Workers have been without contract for nearly 1 year

Workers with the organization have also been without a contract since March 2023.

Bolger says that the earliest the union could meet was five months after the contract had expired in August. She didn't want to get into the specifics of the contract, but says bargaining is going well and she'll be meeting with the union again later this month.

CUPE local 3137 told CBC News that higher wages and getting stuck at work are two main issues the union is discussing.

According to Brennan, the collective agreement doesn't allow workers to collect overtime unless they've been working more than 14 consecutive hours.

He says he hopes to have a contract by the end of the month.

HAWAII
Better equipment and communications are among Maui police recommendations after Lahaina wildfire

JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER, REBECCA BOONE and CLAUDIA LAUER
Updated Mon, February 5, 2024 


 The Rev. Ai Hironaka, resident minister of the Lahaina Hongwanji Mission, walks through the grounds of his temple and residence destroyed by wildfire, Dec. 7, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. Nearly six months after a wind-whipped wildfire destroyed the historic town of Lahaina, the Maui Police Department said Monday, Feb. 5, 2024, it is releasing a preliminary report about its response to the tragedy.

 (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

HONOLULU (AP) — Nearly six months after a wildfire destroyed the historic town of Lahaina, the Maui Police Department said Monday it is working on improving its response to future tragedies, including by obtaining better equipment and stationing a high-ranking officer in the island's communications center during emergencies.

The changes are among 32 recommendations listed in a preliminary “after-action” report that looks at what went well and what didn't during the chaotic events of Aug. 8, when the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century leveled Lahaina, the one-time capital of the former Hawaiian Kingdom, and killed at least 100 people.

“The Maui Police Department, in collaboration with other emergency response agencies, worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of our residents, coordinate evacuations, and provide support to those in need,” the report said. “The bravery and resilience demonstrated by our officers, personnel, fellow first responders, and members of the community who continued to assist the community while suffering losses themselves, have been nothing short of extraordinary.”

Many of the report’s recommendations call for better equipment and updates to technology, from getting officers earpieces they can use when high winds make it hard to hear their radios to equipping patrol cars with breaching kits to remove downed trees or utility poles from roadways.

Others focus on improving communications between emergency personnel and officers themselves, such as stationing a high-ranking officer — a lieutenant or higher — in the communications center to help relay information to police commanders. The report also suggested giving officers in the field more briefings during recovery efforts.

The fire is being investigated by outside experts at the behest of the Hawaii attorney general's office. The investigation, by the Fire Safety Research Institute, is expected to take several more months to complete.

During a news conference Monday, police Chief John Pelletier said the after-action report would be distributed to law enforcement agencies around the country to help them better prepare for catastrophes. He defended its thoroughness, noting it had been reviewed by two outside agencies and that it would not be finalized for up to another year, to give time to incorporate suggestions.

“There's been a lot of Monday-morning quarterbacks and a lot of folks that say ‘coulda-shoulda-woulda,’ but if you weren't there, then you don't know,” Pelletier said. “And if you think you can do better, MPD is hiring.”

Pelletier described the extensive efforts made to find the remains of three people who are still listed as missing in the wildfire.

“We created strategies of where they might have escaped to and then we sent anthropological teams to go to those estimated escape routes and then we got excavators to go through the rubble,” he said. “Any lead that is given to us, we will pursue, and the search is not over.”

The wildfire was driven by high winds from a hurricane passing far to the south and spread quickly through dry, invasive grasses.

Residents fled through black smoke that blotted out the sun, frequently encountering roadblocks or traffic jams where police blocked roads due to fire or downed power lines. Communications failed. In the chaos, some people jumped over a sea wall and sought refuge in the ocean, while others remained in their vehicles and died as heat and flames overtook them.

Audio recordings of 911 calls, obtained by The Associated Press through public records requests, reflected the confusion and terror many residents faced as they were trapped in their cars or homes and unsure of where they should go. Inundated with calls, and with police and firefighters all occupied, the dispatchers became increasingly powerless to render help, resorting to offering advice like “leave if you have to leave."

Video from body cameras showed police going to great lengths to try to help. One officer sprinted from house to house, alerting people to the approaching inferno, while another coughed and swore as he drove past burning buildings with people he rescued crammed in the back seat.

Forty-two victims were found inside structures, 15 were found in cars, 39 were outdoors, and one person was found in the ocean, according to the report. Some of the remains collected were as small as a quarter.

More than 50 victims were identified by collecting DNA from biological relatives, Sgt. Chase Bell told the news conference, but one person who was reported missing had no biological relative to provide a DNA sample. Authorities obtained a hairbrush she had used from a family friend and identified her using DNA analysis of hair follicles, Bell said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. An AP investigation found it might have started in an overgrown gully beneath Hawaiian Electric Co. power lines, where an initial fire burned in the morning and then rekindled in high winds that afternoon.

___

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho, and Lauer reported from Philadelphia.

Is the planet already hotter than we thought?

Stuti Mishra
Mon, February 5, 2024 

Is the planet already hotter than we thought?


Our planet might be hotter than we thought and may have crossed the crucial 1.5 degrees Celsius mark a decade ago, new research claims.

Findings published in the scientific journal Nature on Monday say the Earth warmed up by about 1.7C, surpassing the Paris Agreement limit of 1.5C in 2010-2012, with global warming impact noted decades before the current baseline of 1900s.

Based on untapped data collected from skeletons of Caribbean sponges, researchers from the University of Western Australia are challenging the current timeline of global warming, drawing mixed reactions from other scientists.

The researchers collected skeletons of Caribbean sponges, which are believed to be storing vital information about the temperatures in the region for around 300 years.

Scientists studied these aquatic creatures to understand various changes in the climate during the 19th century better.

They found that the Earth’s oceans started warming from the 1860s, with clear emergence by the mid-1870s, around 80 years earlier than previous studies show.

Matching this data with temperature records from land and ocean collected later, researchers estimated that the Earth might have been 0.5C hotter than what we have believed so far.

“This half a per cent [increase] is a dramatically greater number than what we currently think the global mean temperatures are and it has a number of very significant outcomes,” said Dr Malcolm McCulloch, a professor of geo-biochemistry and the lead author of the paper.

The research also says the latter 2C limit, beyond which catastrophic impacts of climate crisis can be experienced, may get crossed by the end of this decade, and not by mid-century as UN’s top scientific panel anticipated.

“The big picture is that the global warming clock for emission reductions to minimise the risk of dangerous climate change has been brought forward by at least a decade,” Dr McCulloch told journalists in a press briefing.

“This is more urgent because we’re going to experience more serious impacts from global warming sooner than we might have anticipated.”

The researchers said their study filled a gap in scientific knowledge about ocean temperatures in the late 19th century before the existence of accurate temperature records. Therefore, changing the baseline year from which global warming should be measured.

But the challenge posed to the timeline of global warming has received some scepticism from scientists. Scientists said research is needed to understand the sponges and climate records are needed from more locations.

“The importance of this paper is that it makes us ask the question: what if the planet has already warmed more than we thought?” said Professor Kate Hendry, a marine biogeochemist at the British Antarctic Survey.

Other experts have been more critical of the reliance on data from a specific region and argue that it may not be representative of global temperatures.

Dr Gavin Schmidt, head of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said people should be “careful in assuming that proxies from one part of the Atlantic are always reflective of the global mean” temperatures.

“There is a real uncertainty in what the mid-19th Century temperatures were compared to the modern period,” he added. “That complicates our ability to make definitive statements about the crossing of the 1.5C level.”

However, while the authors of the study acknowledged the limitations, they say the relationship between sponges and global ocean temperatures are robust.

“From a big global oceanographic viewpoint, the oceans are connected. They’re not disconnected entities,” explained Dr McCulloch.

“There’s no place on land that can mimic global or every land temperatures in the way you can on the ocean because the land is just too heterogeneous,” Dr McCulloch explained.

Dr Yadvinder Malhi FRS, professor of ecosystem science at University of Oxford, said that while the paper showed ocean warming in the Caribbean region began in 1860s, “it is unlikely that warming of 0.5C in the 1800s is human caused.”

He pointed out that before 1900, humans had only released 2.5 per cent of the carbon emissions we have in the atmosphere.

“This is unlikely to have caused substantial warming compared to the 1.4C of warming caused by the remaining 97.5 per cent of cumulative emissions.”

Responding to the questions from journalists, Dr McCulloch said: “We already know very well that atmospheric CO2 was already up by about 5 to 10 PPM (parts per million) during this period.”

“So, it’s not at all surprising that there’s been warming in the second part of the 1800s.”

He added that the findings also explained the “unusual” warming of land in this period, when oceans, the heat sinks of the planet, should be getting warm first.

So, their findings, that oceans were warmer in the late 19th century before the land got warmer in the 20th century, make it “more consistent” with the records.

However, Dr Daniela Schmidt, professor of earth sciences at the University of Bristol, said while knowing about temperature history is important, the focus of the discussion should be on action to prevent further heat.

“While the Paris Agreement strongly focused on 1.5C, we know that impacts increase with every increment of warming. Missing a target should not say we lose all hope but what we need to increase our efforts.”

Ocean sponges suggest Earth has warmed longer, more than thought; some scientists dubious

SETH BORENSTEIN
Mon, February 5, 2024 



A handful of centuries-old sponges from deep in the Caribbean are causing some scientists to think human-caused climate change began sooner and has heated the world more than they thought.

They calculate that the world has already gone past the internationally approved target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, hitting 1.7 degrees (3.1 degrees Fahrenheit) as of 2020. They analyzed six of the long-lived sponges — simple animals that filter water — for growth records that document changes in water temperature, acidity and carbon dioxide levels in the air, according to a study in Monday’s journal Nature Climate Change.

Other scientists were skeptical of the study's claim that the world has warmed that much more than thought. But if the sponge calculations are right, there are big repercussions, the study authors said.


“The big picture is that the global warming clock for emissions reductions to minimize the risk of dangerous climate changes is being brought forward by at least a decade,” study lead author Malcolm McCulloch, a marine geochemist at the University of Western Australia. “Basically, time's running out.”

“We have a decade less than we thought,” McCulloch told The Associated Press. “It's really a diary of — what's the word? — impending disaster.”

In the past several years, scientists have noted more extreme and harmful weather — floods, storms, droughts and heat waves — than they had expected for the current level of warming. One explanation for that would be if there was more warming than scientists had initially calculated, said study co-author Amos Winter, a paleo oceanographer at Indiana State University. He said this study also supports the theory that climate change is accelerating, proposed last year by former NASA top scientist James Hansen.

“This is not good news for global climate change as it implies more warming,” said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, who was not part of the study.

Many sponge species live long, and as they grow they record the conditions of the environment around them in their skeletons. Scientists have long used sponges along with other proxies — tree rings, ice cores and coral — that naturally show the record of changes in the environment over centuries. Doing so helps fill in data from before the 20th century.

Sponges — unlike coral, tree rings and ice cores — get water flowing from all over through them so they can record a larger area of ecological change, Winter and McCulloch said.

They used measurements from a rare species of small and hard-shelled sponges to create a temperature record for the 1800s that differs greatly from the scientifically accepted versions used by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The study finds that the mid-1800s were about half a degree Celsius cooler than previously thought, with warming from heat-trapping gases kicking in about 80 years earlier than the measurements the IPCC uses. IPCC figures show warming kicking in just after 1900.

It makes sense that the warming started earlier than the IPCC says because by the mid-1800s the Industrial Revolution had begun and carbon dioxide was being spewed into the air, said McCulloch and Winter. Carbon dioxide and other gases from the burning of fossil fuels are what causes climate change, scientists have established.

Winter and McCulloch said these rusty orange long-lived sponges — one of them was more than 320 years old when it was collected — are special in a way that makes them an ideal measuring tool, better than what scientists used in the mid- to late 1800s.

“They are cathedrals of history, of human history, recording carbon dioxide in the the atmosphere, temperature of the water and pH of the water,” Winter said.

“They're beautiful,” he said. “They're not easy to find. You need a special team of divers to find them.”

That's because they live 100 to 300 feet deep (33 meters to 98 meters) in the dark, Winter said.

The IPCC and most scientists use temperature data for the mid-1800s that came from ships whose crews would take temperature readings by lowering wooden buckets to dip up water. Some of those measurements could be skewed depending on how the collection was done — for example, if the water was collected near a warm steamship engine. But the sponges are more accurate because scientists can track regular tiny deposits of calcium and strontium on the critters' skeleton. Warmer water would lead to more strontium compared to calcium, and and cooler water would lead to higher proportions of calcium compared to strontium, Winter said.

University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn't part of the study, has long disagreed with the IPCC's baseline and thinks warming started earlier. But he was still skeptical of the study's findings.

“In my view it begs credulity to claim that the instrumental record is wrong based on paleo-sponges from one region of the world. It honestly doesn't make any sense to me,” Mann said.

In a news briefing, Winter and McCulloch repeatedly defended the use of sponges as an accurate proxy for world temperature changes. They said except for the 1800s, their temperature reconstruction based on sponges matches global records from instruments and other proxies like coral, ice cores and tree rings.

And even though these sponges are only in the Caribbean, McCulloch and Winter said they are a good representation for the rest of the world because they're at a depth that doesn't get too affected by warm and cold cycles of El Nino and La Nina, and the water matches well with global ocean temperatures, McCulloch and Winter said.

Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, who also wasn't part of the sponge study, said even if the McCulloch team is right about a cooler baseline in the 1800s that shouldn't really change the danger levels that scientists set in their reports. That's because the danger levels “were not tied to the absolute value of preindustrial temperatures” but more about how much temperatures changed from that time, he said.

Although the study stopped at 2020 with 1.7 degrees Celsius (3.1 degrees Fahrenheit) in warming since pre-industrial times, a record hot 2023 pushes that up to 1.8 degrees (3.2 degrees Fahrenheit), McCulloch said.

“The rate of change is much faster than we thought,” McCulloch said. “We're heading into very dangerous high-risk scenarios for the future. And the only way to stop this is to reduce emissions. Urgently. Most urgently.”

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Teresa de Miguel contributed to this report from Mexico City.

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Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

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Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.


Sea sponges keep climate records and the accounting is grim, new study suggests
Evan Bush
Mon, February 5, 2024 



If temperature-tracking sea sponges are to be trusted, climate change has progressed much further than scientists have estimated.

A new study that uses ocean organisms called sclerosponges to measure average global temperature suggests the world has already warmed by about 1.7 degrees C over the past 300 years — at least a half degree Celsius more than the scientific consensus as laid out in United Nations reports.

The finding, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, is startling, but some scientists say the study authors' conclusions extrapolated too much about global temperature than can be confidently gleaned from sea sponges.

But the study hits on an important question: How much did the world warm when fossil-fuel-powered machinery was chugging but humans were not very organized in measuring temperatures across the world? Scientists say it’s a critical question and something they need to better understand.

The authors of the study say that industrialization before 1900 had a larger impact than scientists previously realized, that its effect has been captured in the skeletons of centuries-old sponges, and that the baseline we’ve been using to talk about climate change politics has been wrong.

“Basically they show the industrial era of warming commenced earlier than we thought, in the 1860s,” Malcolm McCulloch, a lead author of the study who is a professor of geochemistry at The University of Western Australia, said of the sponges. “The big picture is that the global warming clock for emission reductions for minimizing the risk of a dangerous climate have been brought forward by at least a decade.”

Scientists not associated with the study said colleagues have been grappling with how much warming occurred in the early decades after the industrial revolution but before temperature records became more reliable.

“This isn’t the only effort to revisit what we call the preindustrial baseline and to suggest we may be missing increments of warming in the 19th century,” said Kim Cobb, a paleoclimate and oceanography expert at Brown University who is the director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. “This is an area of uncertainty and importance.”

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its most recent assessment of global warming estimated that global surface temperatures have risen by as much as 1.2 degrees C since preindustrial times.

Some scientists think the IPCC’s process — which requires consensus — yields conservative results. Scientists who study Earth’s ice, for example, have raised concerns that the Earth is approaching ice sheet tipping points sooner than expected and that the IPCC’s sea level rise projections are much too low.

Cobb, who did not contribute to the Nature Climate Change study, said it would take heaps of evidence to shift what scientists refer to as the preindustrial baseline, but also that other researchers have found some indications that warming before the 1900s is not accounted for adequately.

“How big this extra increment of warming truly is remains unknown right now. Is it important to study this? Could we be missing some tenths of degree — yes — that seems born out in lines of investigation over the last 6-10 years,” Cobb said.

Sclerosponges are one of many climate proxies scientists use to glean information about past climate conditions. With sclerosponges, layers of skeletal growth serve a similar purpose to marine biologists as rings within a tree serve those working in forests.

Sclerosponges grow slowly and the chemical contents of their skeleton changes as they grow, based on their surrounding temperature. That means scientists can track temperatures by looking at the ratio of strontium and calcium as the creatures steadily grow.

Every half millimeter of growth represents about two years of temperature data, the study says. The creatures can grow and add layers to their skeletons for hundreds of years.

“These are really unique specimens," McCulloch said. "The reason we’re able to get this unique data is because of the special relationship of these animals to the ambient environment.”

The study’s authors collected sponges from waters at least 100 feet deep off Puerto Rico and near the island of St. Croix, analyzed their skeletons’ chemical composition, charted their findings and compared their data against sea surface temperature measures from 1964 to 2012, finding the trends closely matched.

The sponge skeleton data dates to 1700, which is longer than reliable human records. That gives scientists a longer reference point to evaluate what temperatures were like before fossil fuels became popular. The researchers think it does a better job than other data sets, some which were calculated using 19th-century temperature measurements from ships crossing the sea.

The sponge data shows that temperatures began to rise in the 1860s — before what’s considered by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Some outside researchers, however, said the study could be making too much out of a single type of proxy measure, particularly when the data is tied to only one location on Earth.

“People should be careful in assuming that proxies from one part of the Atlantic are always reflective of the global mean,” Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an emailed statement, adding that the author’s claims are probably “overreaching.”

The study authors said they think the waters off Puerto Rico remain relatively consistent and reflect global change as well as anywhere in the world.

The results suggest that humanity has already crossed political guardrails, like world leaders’ goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C.

Cobb said more work should be done with sclerosponges to make sure this work is precise. And regardless of how far we’ve already pushed the Earth’s temperatures, humanity must put the brakes on greenhouse gas production.

“Every increment of warming brings with it a whole host of increased climate impacts and worsening climate impacts,” Cobb said. “We are already living with increments of warming that are not safe. … The job hasn’t changed.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Data from centuries-old sea creatures suggest the world has overshot a climate limit. Some scientists say not so fast

Rachel Ramirez, CNN
Mon, February 5, 2024 


Using sponges collected off the coast of Puerto Rico in the eastern Caribbean, scientists have calculated 300 years of ocean temperatures and concluded the world has already overshot one crucial global warming limit and is speeding toward another.

These findings, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, are alarming but also controversial. Other scientists say the study contains too many uncertainties and limitations to draw such firm conclusions and could end up confusing public understanding of climate change.

Sponges — which grow slowly, layer by layer — can act like data time capsules, allowing a glimpse into what the ocean was like hundreds of years ago, long before the existence of modern data.

Using samples from sclerosponges, which live for centuries, the team of international scientists was able to calculate ocean surface temperatures going back 300 years.

They found human-caused warming may have started earlier than currently assumed and, as a result, global average temperature may have already warmed more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Researchers say the results also suggest global temperature could overshoot 2 degrees of warming by the end of the decade.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries pledged to restrict global warming to less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, with an ambition to limit it to 1.5 degrees. The pre-industrial era — or the state of the climate before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels and warming the planet — is commonly defined as 1850-1900.

The study authors argue their findings suggest the pre-industrial era should be pushed further back to between the 1700s and 1860. Changing that baseline would mean the world has already warmed at least 1.7 degrees (scientists say long-term global warming currently stands at between 1.2 to 1.3 degrees).

“The big picture is that global warming, and the urgent need for emission reductions to minimize the risk of dangerous climate change, has been brought forward by at least a decade,” Malcolm McCulloch, lead author of the study and marine geochemist at the University of Western Australia, said at a news briefing. “So, this is a major change to thinking about global warming.”

However, several climate scientists have questioned the study’s findings, especially using one type of sponge from one location in the Caribbean to represent global temperatures. Gavin Schmidt, a NASA climate scientist, said estimating global average temperature requires data from as many locations as possible, as climate varies across the planet.

“Claims that records from a single record can confidently define the global mean warming since the pre-industrial are probably overreaching,” he said in a statement.

Gabi Hegerl, a professor of climate system science at the University of Edinburgh, said the study was “a nice new record that illustrates how temperatures in the Caribbean started to rise over the industrial period.” But, she added in a statement, “the interpretation in terms of global warming goals overstretches it.”

Some went further. Yadvinder Malhi, professor of ecosystem science at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, said the way the findings have been communicated were “flawed” and have “the potential to add unnecessary confusion to public debate on climate change.”

A co-author of the study defended its robustness and argued that temperature changes in the part of the Caribbean the sponges came from have always mimicked changes around the globe.

“It’s probably one of the best areas if you’re trying to figure out global averaging on the Earth,” said Amos Winter, a professor of geology at Indiana State University. Ocean temperatures in the region are predominantly affected by planet-heating pollution, rather than natural climate variability like El Niño, he said.

Whatever the baseline for measuring global warming, what remains clear, experts say, is that the impacts will worsen with every fraction of a degree of warming.

“It’s exciting to see new research that allows us to peek centuries in the past,” said Joeri Rogelj, director of research at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, in a statement. But, he added, “relabeling the warming that has occurred until today by using a different starting point does not change the impacts we are seeing today, or the impacts we are aiming to avoid.”

Winter hopes the study will function as a call to action. “Hopefully this will help change our viewpoints of what is happening in the globe, make us act now, and not wait for some disaster to happen for us to change our habits.”

ARCHAEOLOGY

Scholars use AI to read scrolls scorched by Vesuvius eruption


Rozina Sabur
Mon, 5 February 2024 

The Herculaneum Papyri, a library of scrolls, were buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD - Vesuvius Challenge

Classical scholars believe scrolls buried by Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago could soon be deciphered and “rewrite” our understanding of antiquity after a group of students used artificial intelligence to reveal charred text.

The Herculaneum Papyri, held in a library thought to belong to the family of Julius Caesar, were turned to charcoal when the Roman town was buried by the volcanic eruption in AD 79.

The collection is believed to contain thousands of ancient texts, possibly including works by Aeschylus, and Sappho, or even revelations around the early years of Christianity.


Since their discovery in 1752, most attempts to unfurl the charred scrolls and unlock their secrets have proved futile, with the carbonised lumps simply crumbling to ash.

The Herculaneum Papyri were turned to charcoal when the Roman town of Pompeii was buried by the volcanic eruption in AD 79 - Xantana/iStockphoto

But at least 15 passages have now been deciphered by three students who used AI to develop a tool that allowed them to identify the text from digital scans of a seared scroll.

Luke Farritor, a student from Nebraska, Youssef Nader a PhD student in Berlin, and Julian Schilliger, a scholar in Zurich, developed the tool in response to a global challenge set by Nat Friedman, a US tech executive, and academic Brent Seales.

The trio will share the $700,000 (£554,000) grand prize. Mr Farritor, a computer science student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, had already won $40,000 after he decoded the first letters on the scroll – spelling the Greek word for purple.

Since their discovery in 1752, most attempts to unfurl the charred scrolls and unlock their secrets have proved futile, - Vesuvius Challenge

Mr Farritor, 22, spent much of the last year developing a machine-learning model that could detect ultra-faint differences in the texture of the carbonised scrolls to identify the presence of ink not visible to the human eye.

He enlisted the help of Mr Nader and Mr Schilliger and was able to detect 15 passages comprising more than 2,000 characters, an estimated 5 per cent of the scrolls’ text.

The Herculaneum Papyri were buried inside a luxury villa believed to have belonged to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, a Roman senator whose daughter Calpurnia was married to Julius Caesar.

It constitutes the largest surviving library from the Greco-Roman world. Most of the texts that have proven legible have been attributed to the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus.

Thousands of the manuscripts were deemed irreparably damaged but classicists hope the technology could offer an invaluable window into antiquity, perhaps including texts related to Paul the Apostle, who is known to have passed through the region decades before the volcanic eruption.

“Some of these texts could completely rewrite the history of key periods of the ancient world,” Robert Fowler, a classicist and the chair of the Herculaneum Society, told Bloomberg.

“This is the society from which the modern Western world is descended.”

The students’ discovery is still being translated, but an early analysis suggests it is a philosophical treatise on the pleasure of food and music.

“In the case of food, we do not right away believe things that are scarce to be absolutely more pleasant than those which are abundant,” the author writes.

Prof Fowler and other experts believe the newly deciphered text to be another work by Philodemus.

A preliminary analysis has also confirmed that the text was never duplicated, meaning that it has gone unread since at least AD 79.

“It’s a situation that you practically never encounter as a classicist,” Tobias Reinhardt, a professor of ancient philosophy and Latin literature at the University of Oxford, told Bloomberg.

“The idea that you are reading a text that was last unrolled on someone’s desk 1,900 years ago is unbelievable.”

Mr Friedman, who launched the $1 million Vesuvius Challenge last year, set out with the ambition of encouraging people to develop AI software capable of reading four passages from a single scroll.

On the back of its success, his goal is to use the same techniques to decipher more scrolls, and, ultimately, “unlock all of them”.

Museum basement hid an ancient royal kitchen in Poland. See the 500-year-old discovery

Moira Ritter
Mon, February 5, 2024 at 11:49 AM MST·2 min read

Around the end of the 13th century, officials in Poland initiated the construction of a royal residence in the city of Poznań. The fort-like structure included brick walls, a tower, a square and an entrance from the south.

Since then, the sprawling hilltop site that started as a fortress has taken on many iterations. It’s most recent: the Museum of Applied Arts, which opened in 2017.

Now, a team of archaeologists from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań have started exploring the site — and have unearthed a number of ancient discoveries.


The team, led by professor Artur Różański, searched the basement of the museum’s administrative building, according to a Feb. 5 news release from the university. Although the building that now houses the museum’s administrative office was constructed in 1796, it was built atop older ruins.

In the basement, experts found the remains of what is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, preserved royal kitchens in Poland, the university said.

Archaeologists said it was previously assumed that the Royal Kitchen was a medieval residential tower, but the discovery of the approximately 30-by-36 feet building changes this understanding. Records from the time the kitchen was in use indicate that it had a well in the corner of the building.

The university shared photos of the ruins in their release and on Facebook.

Experts said the royal kitchen may be the oldest in Poland.

The kitchen dates back to 500 or 600 years ago, archaeologists said.

The kitchen dates back to the 14th or 15th century, according to the team.

A large pillar — about 9 feet by 11 feet — was also found in the building, Różański told Science in Poland, according to a Feb. 3 post. The pillar once held a kitchen stove and chimney to remove exhaust from the kitchen.

Experts also explored the castle’s courtyard area, the university said.

Archaeologists dug an approximately 10-by-13 feet trench that reached about 16 feet underground and unearthed more than 6,000 artifacts, including pottery, building ceramics and animal bones, they said. Among their finds were pieces of hypocaustum tile, which is evidence that the medieval castle was heated.

Poznań is about 190 miles west of Warsaw.

Google Translate was used to translate releases from Adam Mickiewicz University and Science in Poland.

‘Incredibly rare’ ancient Roman bed uncovered in London. See the ‘extraordinary’ find

Aspen Pflughoeft
Mon, February 5, 2024 

Underneath the bustling center of London sat an “incredibly rare” piece of furniture. For centuries, the ancient treasure went unnoticed. Not anymore.

Archaeologists in the United Kingdom began excavations near Holborn Viaduct to prepare for the construction of an office building, the Museum of London Archaeology said in a Feb. 5 news release shared with McClatchy News.

Digging into the “damp mud,” archaeologists uncovered an ancient Roman cemetery with five wooden coffins and a “complete” wooden funerary bed, the museum said.

The nearly 2,000-year-old bed is “made from high-quality oak,” has “carved feet, and joints fixed with small wooden pegs,” archaeologists said. Photos show the partially buried bedframe and a reconstruction of what it might have looked like.

An archaeologists excavates the ancient Roman bed. A smaller diagram shows what the bed might have looked like.

The ancient bed was “dismantled prior to being placed within the grave but may have been used to carry the individual to the burial and was likely intended as a grave good for use in the afterlife,” archaeologists said.

Funerary beds are known from depictions “across the Roman world,” the museum said. This bed, however, “is the first complete example ever discovered in Britain.”

Archaeologists described the ancient Roman bed and wooden coffins as “extraordinary” and “incredibly rare finds.”

Archaeologists excavate the ancient Roman wooden coffins.

“We know the Romans buried their dead alongside roads, outside of urban (centers),” Heather Knight, a project officer with the museum, said in the release. The site near Holborn Viaduct fit this pattern so “it was no great surprise to discover burials at this site.”

“However, the levels of preservation we’ve encountered — and particularly uncovering such a vast array of wooden finds — has really blown us away,” Knight said.

Excavations at the Roman cemetery also uncovered human remains, beads, a lamp and a glass jar, the museum said. A photo shows these smaller artifacts.

Smaller ancient Roman artifacts found at the site near Holborn Viaduct.

Archaeologists also unearthed more recent ruins at the site, including traces of a “medieval tanning workshop,” the museum said.

The ancient Roman empire invaded modern-day Britain in 43 A.D. and maintained control for about 400 years. The cemetery near Holborn Viaduct was used during this period.

Excavations are ongoing at the site and expected to finish in early 2024. Afterward, archaeologists will continue analyzing and conserving the finds.

The excavation site is near Holborn Viaduct in central London and about half a mile north of the Thames River.


Viking ruins hid beneath farmland for at least 900 years. Now, experts have found them

Moira Ritter
Mon, February 5, 2024 at 2:33 PM MST·2 min read

A small vehicle shuttled through an expansive, bright green field. From a distance, the vehicle, which resembled a golf cart, looked like nothing more than a means of transportation — but it was actually doing much more.

The vehicle was actually equipped with georadar tools and manned by archaeologists. As it drove through the sprawling farmland, it was sending signals into the ground in search of any ruins buried beneath the field.

Archaeologists were searching the area, part of a historic farm on the island of Klosterøy, according to a Feb. 4 news release from the University of Stavanger (UiS). They were searching for ruins left by Vikings after several metal detector finds in recent years unearthed objects related to trade, including weights and coins.

After scanning the farmland in September, experts learned that a collection of ancient structures are hidden underground, the university said. Archaeologists have so far identified pit houses and three pier or boathouse foundations.


Researchers identified several pit houses and three piers or boathouses, they said.

The pit house remains are typical of Scandinavian settlements from the Viking Age — which lasted from about the ninth century until the 11th century. Experts said these ruins typically include the remains of a floor surface, post holes or fireplaces.

Pit houses are often linked to workshops, but archaeologists said they have also found evidence of burial mounds, cooking pits and agricultural remains in their examination.

The georadar data also revealed several man-made burials, according to experts. They are large pits similar in shape and size to pits found at other Viking sites in Norway.


Archaeologists said traditional excavations are necessary to confirm their findings.

Researchers said their discovery indicates the site was likely a marketplace or trading center used by the Vikings.

While the georadar surveys provided archaeologists with valuable insight, they cannot confirm with certainty that the ruins belonged to a marketplace without traditional excavations, the university said.

Klosterøy is an island off the southeast coast of Norway.

Google Translate was used to translate a news release from UiS.

5,000-year-old human shelter — with bones and blades — discovered in Armenia. See it

Brendan Rascius
Mon, February 5, 2024 at 3:44 PM MST·1 min read

Researchers in Armenia recently uncovered a human shelter filled with artifacts that dates back thousands of years.

The ancient dwelling was discovered during the archaeological exploration of a rock shelter in the Yeghegis Valley in central Armenia.

The shelter — found in 2020 — featured a collapsed roof and wall-like structure, which appeared to have ancient origins, according to a study published on Feb. 1 in the journal Antiquity.

In 2022, a 6-foot-deep trench was dug next to the shelter entrance, revealing several distinct layers littered with signs of human activity.

Approximately 8,000 animal bone shards were found at the site, most of which belonged to goats and sheep, while others belonged to pigs, deer and cattle. An even smaller portion were traced to canines and bears.


Artifacts found at the site, including obsidian tools, bones and a copper pin

The bone shards from four separate layers were subjected to radiocarbon dating — the oldest of which dated back over 5,300 years.

Through this technique, researchers estimated the site was occupied by humans for at least 300 years.

About 2,000 other artifacts were also found, including pieces of copper, obsidian blades, beads and pottery.

“Preliminary results from the Yeghegis rockshelter underscore the potential of this site to provide important insights into human lifeways during the Chalcolithic,” also known as the Copper Age, researchers said.

Additional excavations are planned to further explore the site to shed light on ancient human activity in the region.

Ancient urn — still holding 2,500-year-old remains — unearthed during road

 construction

Moira Ritter
Mon, February 5, 2024 

At least 2,500 years ago, someone died and was cremated. Their ashes, feet bones and parts of their skull were then placed in an urn and buried in a sprawling cemetery in Poland.

That’s where the remains stayed — until recently when archaeologists discovered the ancient burial site amid road construction, according to a Feb. 5 release from the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways - Warsaw Branch.

Archaeologists working on three sections of a highway found the cremation cemetery in eastern Poland between Kałuszyn and Groszki, officials said. At the site, experts unearthed urns and pit graves.

Archaeologists found the artifacts just east of Warsaw. K Drewniak /General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways - Warsaw Branch

The cemetery dates to between the sixth century B.C. and the fifth century B.C., officials said. At that time, cremation was a common practice involving burning the deceased’s body, collecting their remains and placing them in a vessel that was then buried.

In one of the unearthed urns, archaeologists discovered foot bones at the bottom of the vessel and skull fragments at the top.

It was common practice to cremate the dead and bury their remains in urns or similar vessels, according to experts. General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways - Warsaw Branch

At another construction site near the cemetery, experts identified the remains of a 19th century brewery, according to officials.

Remains of the brewery’s foundation and floors were found at one of the construction sites, experts said. General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways - Warsaw Branch

Experts unearthed a hearth from one of the sites. General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways - Warsaw Branch

Remains of the structures foundations and floors were unearthed alongside glass pieces, ceramic artifacts and traces of plants used in beer. Evidence indicates that the brewery closed by the beginning of the 20th century, experts said.

The discoveries were made roughly 30 miles east of Warsaw.

Google Translate was used to translate a news release from the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways.

Mysterious ruins found hidden in courtyard of 500-year-old castle in Norway. See them

Aspen Pflughoeft
Mon, February 5, 2024
1
On a small island off the coast of Norway sat the ruins of a 500-year-old castle. The castle’s history was well-known and most of the structure had been extensively studied, but the courtyard hid a secret — until now.

Steinvikholm castle was built on Steinvikholmen island in the 1520s as a stronghold for a Catholic archbishop, according to the Large Norwegian Encyclopedia. The complex has a central courtyard surrounded by four wings and two round towers on opposite sides.

The central courtyard was the only part of the castle that archaeologists had not completely explored, the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research said in a Jan. 24 news release.

In a corner of the yard, the ground had collapsed, prompting speculation about a hidden structure, the manager of the regional antiquities association, Merethe Skjelfjord Kristiansen, said in the release.

Intrigued, archaeologists decided to scan the courtyard with ground penetrating radars to see if there was anything buried there.

There was.

An archaeologists scans the courtyard with a ground penetrating radar.

The radar scans identified the ruins of a structure buried just over 2 feet down, the release said. The fragmented structure was rectangular and measured about 26 feet by about 23 feet.

The ruins don’t connect to the surrounding castle or align with it, the institute said. Instead, the ruins probably belong to a separate building and are most likely older than the castle.

A pair of photos show the radar scans of the courtyard and the brown outline of the structure.

Archaeologists don’t know the exact age of the buried ruins or what purpose the structure served, the institute said.

The secret structure might be a hidden cellar or a temporary workshop used during the castle’s construction and then destroyed, archaeologists said.


The castle courtyard as seen in the radar scans (top) and with the outline of the buried ruins marked in brown (bottom).

Radar scans of the area outside the castle revealed traces of an old road and a well, the institute said.

A YouTube video shared by Ståle Kotte shows the Steinvikholm castle from above.

Steinvikholmen island is about 240 miles north of Oslo.

Google Translate was used to translate the news release from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) and the article from the Large Norwegian Encyclopedia.