Friday, August 02, 2024

Trump’s comments saying Native Americans ‘don’t look like Indians’ resurface after remarks about Harris’ heritage

Amelia Neath
Updated Thu, August 1, 2024

Footage of Donald Trump complaining that Native American casino operators “don’t look like Indians to me” has resurfaced in the wake of his shocking comments where he questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ heritage.

Back in October 1993, Trump spoke at a congressional hearing about the opening of Native American-owned casinos, which would have competed with his own casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The then-businessman had sued the government claiming that Native American casinos had an unfair advantage because, under federal law, they did not pay taxes on casinos on Native American land.

During the hearing, Trump got into a heated exchange with Democratic congressman George Miller where he claimed that many Native American casino owners “don’t look like Indians.”

“Is this you, discussing Indian blood: ‘We’re going to judge people by whether they have Indian blood whether they’re qualified to run a casino or not?’” Miller asked.

Trump responded: “That probably is me, absolutely. Because I’ll tell you what. If you look at some of the reservations that you’ve approved – that you, sir, in your great wisdom have approved – I will tell you right now, they don’t look like Indians to me,” Trump replied.

Trump appears at a congressional hearing in 1993 over a casino dispute, where he claimed that Native American casino owners ‘don’t look like Indians to me’ (MSNBC)

“And they don’t look like the Indians. Now, maybe we say politically correct or not politically correct, they don’t look like Indians to me, and they don’t look like Indians to Indians,” he added.

Miller fired back at Trump, saying: “Thank God that’s not the test of whether or not people have rights in this country or not – whether or not they pass your ‘look’ test.

“Mr Trump, do you know, do you know in the history of this country where we’ve heard this discussion before? ‘They don’t look Jewish to me. They don’t look Indian to me. They don’t look Italian to me.’ And that was the test for whether people could go into business, or not go into business. Whether they could get a bank loan. ‘You’re too Black, you’re not Black enough.’”

The clip initially resurfaced in 2016 when Trump began referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas” after she revealed she has Native American ancestry.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks on a panel of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago (Reuters)

The video has emerged on social media again this week, first shared by Republicans Against Trump, after Trump stunningly questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ ethnicity and claimed she “happened to turn Black” recently.

In the interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference on Wednesday, Trump said: “I didn’t know she was Black.

“She happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black? ... I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and all of a sudden she made a turn, and she became a Black person.”

Harris’ campaign clapped back at the remarks, saying that Trump’s “tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump’s MAGA rallies this entire campaign.”

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UK rocked by far-right riots fueled by online disinformation about Southport stabbings

Kara Fox, CNN
Thu, August 1, 2024

Far-right demonstrations turned violent for a second night across England Wednesday, in the wake of this week’s mass stabbing in Southport – the worst attack on children in the country in recent history.

While a community continues to grieve the murder of three young girls, far-right agitators have mobilized around online misinformation and hateful, anti-migrant and anti-Muslim narratives – fueling disorder in London, Manchester and the northeastern town of Hartlepool.

Chaotic scenes unfolded in the capital on Wednesday night, with protesters from the “Enough is Enough” demonstration throwing bottles and cans at police, and hurling flares toward the gates of Downing Street while chanting far-right, anti-Islam slogans, including, “We want our country back.”


In Manchester, demonstrators wearing balaclavas gathered outside a hotel that houses asylum seekers, and in Hartlepool, police cars were set ablaze by a mob who carried sticks and pelted officers with objects.

More than 100 people in London were arrested for “violent disorder” and an “assault on an emergency worker,” according to the city’s Metropolitan Police. There were two arrests in Manchester, and eight in Hartlepool, according to police there.

The violence follows Tuesday’s night of unrest in the northwest English town of Southport, where a group of far-right protesters hurled bricks at a mosque, set cars and police vehicles on fire and clashed with police barely an hour after a peaceful vigil for Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7) and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (9) was held across town.

Eight other children suffered stab wounds in the attack and five of them are in critical condition. Two adults also remain in critical condition after being injured in the attack, police said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the scenes, saying the protesters “hijacked” the community’s grief.

Far-right demonstrators chanted anti-migrant, anti-Muslim slogans at the London rally that turned violent on Wednesday. - Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images

Met police superintendent Neil Holyoak said that while “it is understandable the public have strong feelings” about the Southport stabbings, “the subsequent violent, unlawful disorder that unfolded was completely unacceptable and driven by misinformation.”

Shortly after Monday’s attack, far-right groups began to circulate a false name for the alleged attacker across social media, and falsely claimed that he was an asylum seeker.

The suspect is a 17-year-old from Banks, Lancashire. He was born in Cardiff, Wales, according to police.

Axel Rudakubana, who was charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder, was named on Thursday after a judge lifted reporting restrictions.

Less than 24 hours after the attack, however, before the suspect’s name had been released, the false name had already received over 30,000 mentions from more than 18,000 unique accounts on X alone – and was amplified by prominent far-right leaders, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).

That false name had been also recommended to users through X’s algorithm, and was trending as a top recommended search result for users under the “What’s happening” sidebar.

Tim Squirrell, ISD’s director of Communications and Editorial, told CNN that after any attack, there are always people speculating about the suspect’s ethnicity and religion.

“White nationalists will seize on any opportunity to spread misinformation about Muslims, about anyone who’s not White. So they were immediately on it – and were happy to spread basically whatever would confirm their presuppositions about who had done it,” he said.

Whether it was a malicious actor, or whether it was someone who was looking for “clicks,” is unclear, Squirrell added. “But we do know that the name that they gave out was made up… and that all the details are completely made up.”

Squirrell pointed to the fact that the viral posts about the alleged attacker said that he was on a watch list for MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. However, MI5 – MI6’s internal counterpart – is the organization responsible for fighting domestic terrorism. “They gave out details that were basically designed to pick up the attention of the far-right, and also for anyone who is concerned about migration,” he said.

Algorithms tend to favor emotive, sensationalist, outrageous, engaging content – because they are based on engagement.

“Things that people on the far-right – or people who are interested in peddling misinformation as a way of getting engagement – tend to post things that will appeal to the algorithm,” Squirrell said. He added that, while the algorithm played a part, there was also a “huge amount of organizing happening” in a variety of different places that are not algorithmically oriented – for example in far-right groups on the instant-messaging platform Telegram.

Such Telegram groups have been instrumental in organizing these demonstrations.

Hope Not Hate, a UK advocacy group that campaigns against racism and fascism, identified one of the first Telegram groups that appeared on the encrypted social media network just hours after the Southport stabbings.

Like what was being shared on X and other platforms, the Telegram group “Southport Wake Up,” also posted false information about the alleged suspect. Hours after the attack, the group’s creator sent out the details for the first protest: Meet near a Southport mosque on Tuesday.

It was there that the violence began.

The “Southport Wake Up” group is still active, and on Thursday, posted calls for similar disruptions at Muslim centers in other cities across England.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Starmer was set to meet with senior police leaders in London on Thursday.

In a statement, Downing Street said: “While the right to peaceful protest must be protected at all costs, he will be clear that criminals who exploit that right in order to sow hatred and carry out violent acts will face the full force of the law.”

CNN’s Jessie Gretener, Duarte Mendonça, Ivana Kottasová and Radina Gigova contributed to this article.

PM Starmer warns social media firms after Southport misinformation fuels UK riots

Alistair Smout
Thu, August 1, 2024 

British PM Starmer holds meeting on clashes following Southport stabbing, in London

By Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned social media companies that they must uphold laws that prohibit the incitement of violence online after misinformation around a fatal mass stabbing earlier in the week sparked violent scenes.

A 17-year-old boy appeared in an English court on Thursday charged with the murder of three young girls in a knife attack at a summer dance class in Southport that has shocked the nation and sparked two nights of violent protests.


The disturbances followed the rapid spread of false information on social media that the suspect in the stabbings was a radical Islamist migrant, with anti-immigrant protesters descending on Southport from elsewhere, attacking police and targeting a mosque.

Starmer said that the disturbances were not legitimate protests, saying it was criminal disorder that was "clearly driven by far-right hatred" before adding a warning to tech companies.

"Let me also say to large social media companies, and those who run them, violent disorder clearly whipped up online: that is also a crime. It's happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere," he said at a news conference, adding there was a "balance to be struck" in handling such platforms.

"It's an amazing opportunity that we all enjoy... There is also a responsibility that goes with it. That's a space for a mature conversation to take place."

BLIZZARD OF FALSE INFORMATION

Campaign group Hope Not Hate said that the riot in Southport on Tuesday followed a "blizzard of false information around the attack, much of it circulated by far-right accounts online."

The 17-year-old suspect was not initially named due to rules regarding children who are charged with crimes, before a judge then ruled that media could name him as Axel Rudakubana. He turns 18 next week and police have said he was born in Cardiff.

But a claim that the suspect was an asylum seeker or immigrant has been viewed at least 15.7 million times across X, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, a Reuters analysis showed.

A false claim that he was an undocumented migrant who arrived in a small boat appeared on the website "Channel 3 Now", who later apologised for publishing information that was misleading and not accurate.

Internet personality Andrew Tate on Tuesday shared a picture of a man he said was responsible for the attack with the caption "straight off the boat", but the claim was also incorrect as it was a picture of a 51-year-old man arrested for a separate stabbing in Ireland last year.

Separately, a Channel 4 analysis showed that 49% of traffic on social media platform X referencing 'Southport Muslim' - in reference to an unevidenced claim about the attacker's religion - came from the United States, with 30% coming from Britain.

Police have said the incident was not being treated as terror-related, and have urged people not to speculate on details while the investigation continues.

Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform Party, on Tuesday said he wondered "whether the truth is being withheld from us" as he questioned why the incident wasn't being treated as terror-related and asked if the suspect had been monitored by security services.

After criticism from several people including Starmer's deputy Angela Rayner, accusing Farage of stoking conspiracy theories, Farage said he thought his "gentle questions" were fair and reasonable while adding that the internet had at the same time been awash with unfounded theories.

Starmer declined to be drawn into commenting on what Farage had said, reiterating that his focus was on the families and police officers impacted.

But Starmer warned that any misinformation that interfered in the work of authorities could jeopardise attempts to hold a fair trial.

"The price for a trial that is prejudiced is ultimately paid by the victims and their families who are deprived of the justice that they deserve," he said.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout, additional reporting by Rachael Kennedy, Kylie MacLellan and Sam Tobin; Editing by Toby Chopra)


 


Starmer blames far-Right for Southport riots


Charles Hymas
Thu, August 1, 2024 

Sir Keir Starmer has blamed the far-Right for the violent protests that have broken out across the country following the Southport stabbings.

The Prime Minister said that he would “not permit, under any circumstances, a breakdown in law and order on our streets” amid warnings that the country faces a summer of riots.

It follows disorder in Southport, London and Hartlepool in the wake of the killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Monday.

On Thursday, the 17-year-old accused of murder was named as Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, who was born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff before moving to Banks, in Lancashire.

The protests had been fuelled by speculation online about the attacker and his motives, including inaccurate claims that he was an asylum seeker.

Police are understood to have intelligence that the far-Right and unaligned hooligans intent on violence were planning to stir up more public disorder, including at the weekend and for most of the summer.


Hartlepool was among the towns to see rioting this summer - BACKGRID UK

Announcing a new violent disorder unit at a press conference in Downing Street, the Prime Minister said the Government would ensure the threat was met with “the most robust response in the coming days and weeks”.

Asked whether the country faced a summer of riots, he said: “It’s obvious to me, and I think anybody looking in, that as far as the far-Right is concerned this is coordinated. This is deliberate. This is not a protest that has got out of hand. It is a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence.

“I’ve just held a meeting with senior police and law enforcement leaders, where we resolved to show we are a country that will not allow understandable fear to curdle into division and hate in our communities, and that will not permit – under any circumstances – a breakdown in law and order on our streets.

“Because let’s be very clear about this – it’s not protest, it’s not legitimate. It’s crime, violent disorder, an assault on the rule of law and the execution of justice. And so on behalf of the British people who expect their values and their security to be upheld, we will put a stop to it.”

A police source said: “We have intelligence that they are planning to do more, for this weekend and for most of the summer. It is coordinated. It is not spontaneous at all. Some are EDL, some are more extreme far-Right. Then you have a cohort of people who are just obsessed with violence.”


Far-Right protests extended to the capital - Heathcliff O'Malley for the Telegraph

The new national violent disorder unit was agreed after a Downing Street summit with police chiefs and ministers. The unit will enable all 43 police forces across England and Wales to better share intelligence on potential protest hotspots so extra officers specially trained in public order can be dispatched to those areas.

British Transport Police (BTP) will monitor passenger flows to identify unusual surges in travellers with information gathered used as an early warning sign for forces to prepare for any influx of potentially violent protesters.

Mobile facial recognition cameras, which are currently only used in London and by a handful of other forces, will be deployed at protests to identify troublemakers who may be wanted for other offences or have previous convictions.
Travel bans

Police forces are to be issued with new guidance, specifically on violent disorder, which will advise them to use criminal behaviour orders on protesters convicted of disorder. These can impose travel bans with breaches carrying a penalty of up to five years in jail. They may be applied retrospectively to those already convicted.

The guidance will set out officers’ current powers and range of public order offences that can be used to arrest and prosecute troublemakers including protesters who use masks to hide their identities.

Officers will be deployed at stations to exploit railway bylaws that will enable them to stop anyone suspected of being drunk or disruptive from travelling to a protest.

Sir Keir said: “These thugs are mobile, they move from community to community. We must have a policing response that can do the same.”

Nearly all of the 16 people so far arrested for disorder at the protests in Southport and Hartlepool are from the local or nearby areas, despite claims that many of the demonstrators were outsiders.


One of those arrested in Hartlepool was an 11-year-old boy, it emerged late on Thursday. The child was arrested on suspicion of arson after a police vehicle was set alight on Wednesday.

Police believe they have enough officers trained in public order and with sufficient powers but do not have the coordinated intelligence picture to deploy them at hot spots.

“We have to wean ourselves off the idea that the only response is to pass more legislation every time we have a challenge in front of us,” said Sir Keir. “It is about using the existing powers that we’ve got, pulling together intelligence, the data, making sure that that is being shared across police forces.”

The Prime Minister also warned social media companies to take action following the sharing of misinformation about the Southport suspect. Tech firms are expected to take down any illegal content.

“Let me also say to large social media companies and those who run them: violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a crime, it’s happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere,” he said.

The need to counter this type of speculation was cited in the decision to name the suspect a week before his 18th birthday.


Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17, has been named as the suspect in the Southport murder case

Judge Andrew Menary KC, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, said he had to balance risk to the suspect’s family and initial risk to him while in custody with the public interest in accurately reporting his identity to quell misinformation that has been fuelling disorder.

He said: ‘By continuing to prevent full reporting at this stage has the disadvantage of allowing others who are up to mischief to continue to spread misinformation in a vacuum and runs the risk that when the information becomes publicly available in six days’ time, that will provide an additional excuse for a fresh round of public disorder.

“Allowing full reporting will undoubtedly remove some of the misreporting as to the identity of the defendant.”

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Afghanistan sprinter uses Olympic trip to shine light on how women are treated in her country
PAT GRAHAM and EDDIE PELLS
Fri, August 2, 2024 at 6:23 AM MDT·2 min read

Olympics Afghanistan Women's Sprint
FILE - Kimia Yousofi, front left, and Farzad Mansouri, of Afghanistan, carry their country's flag during the opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium at the 2020 Summer Olympics on July 23, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. Afghan sprinter Yousofi is preparing to compete at her third Olympics after being selected for the Paris Games from her training base in Australia. The Australian Olympic Committee on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, congratulated Yousofi on her selection for the women's 100-meter sprint. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
ASSOCIATED PRESSMore


SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — To get a sense of the real race Afghanistan's lone woman at the Olympic track meet is running, one only needed to look at the back of her bib.

On it, in handwritten script, were the words, spelled like this: “Eduction" and "Our Rights.”

Women and girls in Afghanistan have suffered immensely since Kimia Yousofi's home country was taken over by the Taliban in August 2021. A United Nations report last year said the country has become the most repressive in the world for women and girls, who are deprived of virtually all their basic rights.


“I think I feel a responsibility for Afghan girls because they can’t talk,” Yousofi said Friday after finishing last in her 100-meter preliminary heat.

Her 13.42-second sprint down the track was not the main point of this trip. Yousofi's story was a bracing illustration of how these trips to the Olympics aren't always about winning and losing.

“I’m not a politics person, I just do what I think is true,” Yousofi said. “I can talk with media. I can be the voice of Afghan girls. I (can) tell (people) what they want — they want basic rights, education and sports.”

Before she was born, Yousofi's parents fled Afghanistan during the Taliban's previous rule. She and her three brothers were born and raised in neighboring Iran.

In 2012, when she was 16, Yousofi took part in a talent search for Afghan immigrant girls living in Iran. She later returned to Afghanistan to train for a chance to represent the country at the 2016 Olympics. These are her third Games.

But after the Taliban took over her country again, at around the time the Tokyo Games started, she moved to Australia with the help of officials there and the International Olympic Committee. She has been living in Sydney, trying to get better at speaking English. When she goes back, she will start looking for a job.

Had she sought one, she almost certainly would have earned a place on the Olympic refugee team that is designed for displaced athletes like her.

But she wanted to represent her country, flaws and all, with a hope that this trip to the Olympics will help shine a light on the way women are treated there.

“This is my flag, this is my country," she said. “This is my land.”
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Scientists reveal new details about ‘screaming’ Egyptian mummy’s life and death

Katie Hunt
Thu, August 1, 2024 


Scientists reveal new details about ‘screaming’ Egyptian mummy’s life and death

Sahar Saleem

With her mouth wide open, locked for eternity in what appears to be a scream, an ancient Egyptian woman captured the imagination of archaeologists who discovered her mummified remains in 1935 in a tomb near Luxor.

Still fascinated by the “screaming woman” who died some 3,500 years ago, a different team of scientists recently used CT scans to reveal details about the mummy’s morphology, health conditions and preservation and employed infrared imaging and other advanced techniques to “virtually dissect” the remains and understand what might have caused her striking facial expression.

Their findings, published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, revealed that the woman was 48 years old when she died, based on analysis of a pelvis joint that changes with age. Certain aspects of the process used to mummify her stood out.

Her body was embalmed with frankincense and juniper resin, lavish, expensive substances that would have been traded from afar, said study author Sahar Saleem, a professor of radiology at Kasr Al Ainy Hospital at Cairo University, in a statement.

Saleem also found no incisions on the body, which was consistent with the assessment made during the original discovery that the brain, diaphragm, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys and intestines were still present.

The failure to remove internal organs, the study noted, was unusual because the classic method of mummification from that period included the removal of all such organs except the heart.

The researchers found that the anonymous woman stood 1.54 meters, or a little more than 5 feet, tall and suffered from mild arthritis of the spine, with scans revealing bone spurs on some vertebrae that make up the backbone. Several teeth, likely lost before death, were also missing from the woman’s jaw.

However, the study was not able to determine an exact cause of death.

“Here we show that she was embalmed with costly, imported embalming material,” Saleem said in a news release.

“This, and the mummy’s well-preserved appearance, contradicts the traditional belief that a failure to remove her inner organs implied poor mummification.”

The coffin of the "screaming" mummy is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. - Rogers Fund, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Only a few ancient Egyptian mummies have been found with their mouths open, the study noted, with embalmers typically wrapping the jawbone and the skull to keep the deceased’s mouth shut.

What caused the woman’s chilling expression isn’t clear from the study findings, although the researchers put forward a grisly hypothesis.
What mummification techniques reveal

Saleem said the well-preserved nature of the mummy, the rarity and expense of the embalming material, along with other funerary techniques such as the use of a wig made from a date palm and rings placed on the body, seemed to rule out a careless mummification process in which embalmers neglected to close her mouth.

The mummy’s “screaming facial expression” could be read as a cadaveric spasm, a rare form of muscular stiffening associated with violent deaths, implying that the woman died screaming from agony or pain, according to the study.

It’s possible, the study authors suggested, that she was mummified within 18 to 36 hours of death before her body relaxed or decomposed, thus preserving her open mouth position at death.

However, a mummy’s facial expression does not necessarily indicate how a person was feeling at death, the study noted.

Several other factors, including the decomposition process, the rate of desiccation, or drying out, and the compressive force of the wrappings, could all affect a mummy’s facial expression.

“Burial procedures or post-mortem alterations might have contributed to the phenomena of mummies with screaming appearances,” the authors noted in the study.

“The cause or true history or circumstances of the death of this woman are unknown, hence the cause of her screaming facial appearance cannot be established with certainty,” Saleem said via email.

CT scans, including of the teeth (left) and brain, have revealed new details about the mummy’s morphology, health conditions and preservation. - Sahar Saleem
Open-mouthed mummies

The “screaming woman” had been buried beneath the tomb of Senmut, an architect of the temple of Egyptian queen Hatschepsut (1479–1458 BC) who held important positions during her reign. It’s thought the woman was related to Senmut, according to the study.

The discovery of her remains occurred during an expedition led by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and her coffin is on display there today. Her mummified body is stored at the Cairo Egyptian Museum.

Saleem said she had previously studied two other open-mouthed mummies from ancient Egypt.

One, a mummy thought to be the remains of a prince known as Pentawere, had his throat slit for his role in assassinating his father, Ramesses III (1185-1153 BC). His body was barely embalmed, indicating a lack of care in the mummification process, Saleem said in the news release.

The second mummy was a woman known as Princess Meritamun, who died of a heart attack, and Saleem’s analysis suggested her wide mouth was due to a postmortem contraction or movement of her jaw.

Randall Thompson, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine, who has studied ancient mummies using CT scans to learn about the origins of cardiovascular disease, called the study helpful and detailed. He said the authors’ preferred explanation for the mummy’s open mouth “made sense.”

“Their investigation helps us to understand what substances were available in ancient times and how our ancestors used them,” said Thompson, who was not involved in the study.

“More broadly, we can learn much about health and disease from the study of ancient mummies,” he added.

“For example, we have learned that heart disease is not new, as many people used to believe. It is literally older than Moses.”

Mummy with shrieking expression may have "died screaming from agony"

Haley Ott
Updated Fri, August 2, 2024


Mummy with shrieking expression may have "died screaming from agony"

The mummy of an ancient Egyptian woman with her mouth wide open in what looks like an anguished shriek may have died "screaming from agony," researchers say.

The unnamed woman mummy, discovered in a 1935 archeological expedition in Deir el-Bahari near Luxor, was kept in The Cairo Egyptian Museum and referred to as "Screaming Woman Mummy of the store of Kasr al Ainy."

In an article in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, scientists said they used CT scans and other testing to examine whether the mummy had any pathological abnormalities and assess potential causes of death.

They found that the woman, who was around 48 years old at the time she died, had lost some teeth and lived with mild arthritis of the spine. Her body was embalmed about 3,500 years ago with high quality ingredients.

Ancient Egyptians mummified bodies because they believed preserving them after death secured a worthy existence in the afterlife. Usually, internal organs would be removed during the mummification process, but that did not take place with the "Screaming Woman."

"In ancient Egypt, the embalmers took care of the dead body so it would look beautiful for the afterlife. That's why they were keen to close the mouth of the dead by tying the jaw to the head to prevent the normal postmortem jaw drop," lead researcher in the study, Cairo University radiology professor Sahar Saleem, told the Reuters news agency.

But this had not happened in the case of the "Screaming Woman."

"This opened the way to other explanations of the widely opened mouth — that the woman died screaming from agony or pain and that the muscles of the face contracted to preserve this appearance at the time of death due to cadaveric spasm," Saleem told Reuters, adding that, due to all of the unknowns around her history, the cause of her expression can't be established with certainty.

Saleem told Reuters that cadaveric spasm is a poorly understood condition, where contracted muscles become rigid immediately after death.


Ancient 'Screaming' Mummy May Have Been ‘Suffering Before Death,’ Researchers Say: See the Photos

Abigail Adams
Fri, August 2, 2024 

Researchers originally believed the mummified woman’s open mouth could have been the result of a “poor mummification” process




2024 Sahar N. Saleem and El-MerghaniThe 'Screaming Woman' mummy, believed to be from Egypt's 18th Dynasty

A new study suggests a famous screaming mummy from ancient Egypt may have died in agony.

The facial expression exuded by the Screaming Mummy of Cairo, also known as the “Screaming Woman,” could mean the woman was “suffering before death,” according to a new article published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine.


The mummified woman was discovered at Deir el-Bahari near Luxor in 1935, according to Reuters.

Originally, researchers believed the woman’s open mouth could have been a result of a “poor mummification” process.

But according to the new study, which utilized CT scans to gather new information, “tests revealed expensive imported embalming materials” were used on the woman’s body, debunking that original theory.

Related: 4,300-Year-Old Mummy Covered in Gold Is Among the Dazzling Discoveries Made at Egyptian Site

Sahar Saleem, a radiology professor at Cairo University, told Reuters this new research opened the door to other explanations regarding the mummy’s open mouth.

Now, researchers believe the woman’s face may have become “fixed by cadaveric spasm,” which occurs when muscles become “stiff and rigid immediately after death,” according to a 2023 article published by the National Library of Medicine.


“That the woman died screaming from agony or pain,” Saleem said, “and that the muscles of the face contracted to preserve this appearance at the time of death due to cadaveric spasm.”




2024 Sahar N. Saleem and El-MerghaniThe "Screaming Woman" mummy found in Egypt in 1935

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But since experts are unfamiliar with the “history or circumstances” surrounding the woman’s death, Saleem said they cannot officially determine what caused her unique facial expression.

However, Saleem told Reuters that she does not think the woman to have been embalmed while still alive: “I don't believe that this is possible.”

Related: Man with 800-Year-Old Mummy in Bag — Whom He Called Juanita, His 'Spiritual Girlfriend' — Detained in Peru

The “Screaming Woman” is believed to have been around 48 years old when she died, according to the study.

Her remains were “discovered beneath Theban Tomb 71,” where relatives of Senmut, a high-ranking official from the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, are buried.

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JD Vance Stumps as Pro-Family But Skips Vote on Child Tax Break

Steven T. Dennis
Thu, August 1, 2024 



(Bloomberg) -- JD Vance, who generated campaign-trail controversy with arguments the government should more strongly favor families with children, skipped a Senate vote on a bipartisan tax plan that would have been a step in that direction.

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked the $78 billion tax-cut package that would benefit an estimated 16 million children through an expanded child tax credit. It also would provide breaks for US businesses.

Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, stirred furious criticism after 2021 comments surfaced in which he disparaged as “childless cat ladies” Democrats including Vice President Kamala Harris, who has two stepchildren. He argued their policies don’t do enough for families.

The Harris campaign and Senate Democrats immediately blasted Vance for missing the vote and instead traveling to Arizona for a campaign event criticizing President Joe Biden’s performance on border enforcement.

“While JD Vance is off not doing his job as senator and taking a break from insulting women across America, he’s missing the vote to support a tax cut for families,” the Harris campaign said in a statement emailed to reporters after the Senate vote.

Vance spokesperson Parker Magid said in a statement that the tax cuts “didn’t even come close to passing” and were destined to fail regardless of Vance’s vote. Magid didn’t say how Vance would have voted on the legislation.

Democrats couldn’t muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster blocking the Senate from considering the tax package. The procedural step received 48 votes in favor and 44 against, with several senators not voting.

The bill allows more of the $2,000 per child tax credit to be paid to individuals with such low income they currently only qualify for part of the credit. It would also bolster payments to low-income filers with more than one child. The maximum credit for all parents would be indexed to inflation for two years starting in 2024.

The tax package passed the House on a 357 to 70 vote in January with broad support from both parties. It also would provide a boon for US companies with large capital and domestic research expenditures and has been a top priority of business lobbyists.

Some senior Republicans argued the tax credit expansion for low-income families would be too large and discourage them from working. Others had a purely political calculus, pushing their colleagues to block the bill lest millions of families get checks from the IRS before the November election and thereby help Harris’s presidential campaign.

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Rep. Ilhan Omar Introduces Bill To Punish Corporations For ‘Shrinkflation’
Dave Jamieson
Fri, August 2, 2024 

Rep. Ilhan Omar and other progressive lawmakers say it’s time to crack down on companies for “shrinkflation.”

The Minnesota Democrat unveiled a bill Friday that would require brands to add labels to their packaging noting when they’ve reduced the amount of product a package contains but kept its price the same. She and her 14 House co-sponsors are calling the bill the “Shrinkflation Reduction Act.”

Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have been hammering companies for shrinking consumer goods like toilet paper and potato chips without lowering their cost. Manufacturers sometimes use the practice to mask price increases, since consumers are more sensitive to sticker prices.

Omar told HuffPost in a statement that it was “unacceptable that corporations are secretly downsizing their products to pad their profits.”

“This bill will shine a light on these deceptive practices and give consumers the information they need to make informed choices,” she said. “Shrinkflation is a hidden tax on working families, and it’s time we put a stop to it.”

Democrats have been hammering companies for shrinking consumer goods like paper towels and potato chips without lowering their cost.

“We must protect consumers from such deceptive practices and, at a minimum, provide enough transparency for consumers to make fully informed financial decisions when purchasing food and other household items,” she wrote.

The bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission to develop a rule requiring the labels, deeming it a “deceptive or unfair” trade practice to shrink products without informing the public. Companies that run afoul of the rule would be subject to fines.

The bill text defines shrinkflation as “the practice of downsizing, including by reducing the amount or size of, a consumer product while not decreasing the price of such product by a commensurate amount.”

Omar said the labeling requirement was inspired by similar measures recently instituted in South Korea and France.

The bill is similar to one that Democrats introduced in the Senate and House earlier this year. That legislation, championed by Sen. Bob Casey (Penn.) and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), also directs the FTC to develop a rule classifying shrinkflation as a deceptive practice, though it does not specifically call for labeling on products.


Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said companies are shrinking their products just to "pad their profits." Anadolu via Getty Images

The shrinkflation bills are highly unlikely to land on Biden’s desk, as Republicans control the House and Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in the Senate. So far the bills have attracted only Democratic lawmakers as co-sponsors, and not all of them.

But many Democrats see it as a winning issue with voters. The Biden administration has tried to build an agenda around reducing prices for families, in part by attacking hidden or “junk” fees corporations attach to their products.

The shrinkflation phenomenon has been around for years, but it gained fresh attention amid a period of high inflation and rising prices in grocery stores. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal agency that tracks consumer prices, said the most common categories that companies shrink are household goods like paper towels and snacks like chips and candy.

It’s not always easy to spot when products start to shrivel.

“Downsizing is sometimes hard to identify because manufacturers employ a variety of means to reduce package size while keeping the same price,” Kari McNair, a BLS economist, wrote last year. “For example, they might add air to the package or increase the divot in the bottom of the jar.”
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