Cats are far more susceptible to new coronavirus than dogs are, but people shouldn't be 'fearful' of their pets: study

by Mark Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

If your cat is being socially distant these days, maybe he's just trying to protect both of you.

A Chinese study published Wednesday in the journal Science reported that tests of the new coronavirus on domesticated cats, dogs, pigs, chickens, ducks and ferrets found that both cats and ferrets are highly susceptible to the virus. Cats can become infected through airborne transmission. Dogs, however, have a very low susceptibility to the virus.

Susceptibility means that a virus is able to enter a cell.

Specialists in veterinary medicine stressed that the study included very small numbers of cats and dogs, which were injected with much higher levels of the new coronavirus than they would likely encounter in the natural world. They also said it is highly unlikely that a person would become infected from a pet.

"I don't think that for most people cat-to-human transmission is the most likely way that they would be infected, but I'd be very surprised if this was impossible," said David O'Connor, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"This is a human disease," said Jeanette O'Quin, an assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine at Ohio State University. "It's being transferred from person to person. That is our greatest risk."

Still, the new paper follows a scattering of reports of animals becoming infected with the new coronavirus. Less than a week ago the Bronx Zoo announced that a 4-year-old Malayan tiger, named Nadia, tested positive for COVID-19.

A separate Chinese study reported that after the outbreak began in Wuhan, 14% of cats in the area were found to have antibodies for the virus, O'Connor said.

In Hong Kong, a recent study examined 17 dogs and eight cats taken from households where a human had become sick with COVID-19 or had come in close contact with a confirmed patient. In that group, two dogs tested positive, though one was deemed to be "a weak" positive. The cats were not positive at the most recent testing.

Jane Sykes, a professor of small animal medicine at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, cited a much larger report by a major veterinary laboratory, IDEXX, involving more than 4000 samples taken from dogs, cats and horses. None of the animals showed any evidence of the new coronavirus.

The samples were collected from animals in the U.S. and South Korea during a four-week period, starting on Feb. 14.

"There's a lot of stress in the world and the human-animal bond is so important," Sykes said. "We should be enjoying our pets, rather than being fearful of them."

Sykes and O'Quin both recommended steps people can take to reduce the small risk of the virus passing between people and their pets.

Sykes said that people who have COVID-19 should probably keep the pet in another part of the house and have another person in the household care for it. If there is no one else to care for the pet, the infected person should wear a mask when caring for the pet and wash their hands before and after feeding the animal. She also advised people not to allow a pet to lick them in the mouth.

Although the risk of the virus passing between pets and people "is really low, we should take precautions," O'Quin said.

If pet owners are quarantining themselves, they should also quarantine their cats inside.

"If you're not sick," O'Quin said, "you can interact with them pretty much the way you would always."

With Bronx Zoo tiger catching coronavirus, should pet owners be concerned about COVID-19? Health experts weigh in

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More information: Jianzhong Shi et al. Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs, and other domesticated animals to SARS–coronavirus 2, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.abb7015

Expert reactions to a study looking at susceptibility of pets to the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2): https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-a-study-looking-at-susceptibility-of-pets-to-the-covid-19-virus-sars-cov-2/

Why Africa's coronavirus outbreak appears slower than anticipated

SHIT HOLE COUNTRIES DOING BETTER THAN TRUMP USA
Philippe ALFROY with AFP bureaus,AFP•April 11, 2020

Coronavirus has since spread to 52 African countries, but despite a steady rise in confirmed cases, the continent continues to lag behind the global curve for infections and deaths (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)

Johannesburg (AFP) - When Africa's first case of coronavirus was detected in Egypt in February, the rest of the continent prepared for the brunt of a pandemic that has engulfed Europe and spread to the United States, infecting more than 1.6 million worldwide.

Health experts warned of the devastation the deadly virus could cause in Africa, where most hospitals are desperately short of equipment and trained staff.

Coronavirus has since spread to 52 African countries, but despite a steady rise in the number of confirmed cases, the continent continues to lag behind the global curve for infections and deaths.

Still, the World Health Organization last month warned Africa faced a dramatic evolution of the pandemic even as governments imposed restrictions to help curb the spread. The continent appears poorly equipt to manage a major health crisis and is struggling to test enough to monitor virus cases

Where does Africa stand?

To date the novel respiratory disease has infected more than 12,800 people on the continent and killed at least 692, according to a tally compiled by AFP.

Only the Comoros archipelago and the tiny kingdom of Lesotho have not yet detected any cases.

South Africa is the worst-affected country, with over 2,000 confirmed cases and 24 recorded deaths so far -- well behind the more than 871,000 cases and 71,000 deaths counted in Europe to date.

Experts, however, warn that the tide is rising.

"During the last four days we can see that the numbers have already doubled," said Michel Yao, the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa's emergency response programme manager.

"If the trend continues... some countries may face a huge peak very soon," Yao told AFP.

WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti echoed the concern, adding that the spread of COVID-19 outside major cities opened "a new front in our fight against this virus".

Are numbers underestimated?

Possibly the greatest question mark in analyses of coronavirus in Africa, compounded by a global lack of testing capacity.

Despite a donation of more than one million coronavirus testing kits by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, most African countries lack the equipment needed to detect the disease.

South Africa -- which has the most advanced healthcare system in sub-Saharan Africa -- has so far only managed to test around 73,000 of its 57 million inhabitants.

"This is way too low for the kind of challenges South Africa is facing," said the country's Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, who is aiming to scale up to 30,000 tests per day.

Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, has only carried out 5,000 coronavirus tests to date for a country of 190 million people.

"The testing system is quite overloaded," admitted a doctor working at a private clinic in Lagos, who asked not to be identified.

"It takes time for... the results," he added. "And are they accurate? We don't know."

Inability to test for the virus has forced several countries to work with vague and sometimes misleading estimates.

Kenya, for instance, has predicted its number of coronavirus cases to reach 10,000 by the end of April.

Ten days into the month, the number of detected infections remained lower than 200.

Director General of Kenya's health ministry, Patrick Amoth earlier this week said that was because they had not done community-based testing.

Kenya has since received 7,000 testing kits and machines that can process up to 3,000 samples in two hours. The government aims to roll out mass testing within the next three weeks.

"We utilise these machines to reach a bigger population so that we can be able to tell... if we are winning the battle or if we need to change our strategy," Amoth said during a televised briefing on Saturday.

The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, admitted that Africa's coronavirus statistics were far from "perfect".

"We just lack the means," he told AFP.

But Nkengasong dismissed claims that a high number of infections had slipped under the radar, pointing out that hospitals "would be flooded with people" if that was the case.

Have lockdowns, curfews worked?

The delayed spread of coronavirus gave African countries some leeway to roll out the same measures implemented in Europe to stem the disease.

Governments across the continent reacted ahead of time, closing borders and imposing lockdowns and curfews when just a handful of cases had been detected.

Those measures have been tricky to enforce in impoverished and densely populated neighbourhoods, where houses are overcrowded and most survive off informal work -- making it almost impossible to remain home.

The WHO's Moeti cautioned that it was "too early to say" whether anti-coronavirus measures were slowing the epidemic in Africa.

Meanwhile, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said earlier this week that there was "sufficient evidence" to show that a nation-wide lockdown was "working".

"In the two weeks before the lockdown, the average daily increase in new cases was around 42 percent. Since the start of the lockdown, the average daily increase has been around 4 percent," Ramaphosa said on Thursday, as he announced an extension of the 21-day shutdown.

Has Africa had enough time to prepare?

The time gained by African governments could be offset by a lack of means.

"There is a severe shortage of treatment facilities for critical cases of Covid-19," said a WHO statement.

There are barely five intensive care unit beds per one million people in Africa, compared to 4,000 in Europe, according to the organisation.

Public hospitals only have 2,000 medical ventilators between them to serve the whole continent.

Still no one dares make any predictions on the proportions the novel coronavirus could reach in Africa.

The WHO noted that 31 countries on the continent had less than 100 confirmed cases and believed "containment was possible".

Yet the threat remains.

"COVID-19 has the potential to cause thousands of deaths," said the WHO's Moeti. "To also unleash economic and social devastation."

burs-pa/bed/sch/pma

Protective gene in wild wheatgrass could stop fusarium head blight in wheat and barley

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers from several institutions in China, one in the U.S. and one in Israel, has found a protective gene in wild wheatgrass that shows promise in stopping fusarium head blight in wheat and barley crops. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how they found the gene and how well it has worked against fungal infections in test crops.

Fusarium head blight is a growing concern among wheat and barley growers around the world—also known as wheat scab, the fungus eats the grain in such plants, reducing yields. Worse, it leaves behind toxins in the uneaten grain, making it unsellable. Farmers have tried a wide variety of antifungal agents to rid their crops of the infections, but have not made much progress because the fungus attacks during the wet seasons—rain washes away the treatments. One approach that has seen some degree of success is genetically engineering certain wheat types to express a gene that has been found to confer some degree of resistance in a Chines heirloom—but it has thus far proven to provide only modest protection. In this new effort, the researchers have found a gene in a wild grass that is resistant to Fusarium graminearum—the fungus behind head blight—that appears to confer stronger resistance to infections.

The work involved a very long-term study of the wheatgrass Thinopyrum elongatum—early on, they discovered that it was resistant to F. graminearum. But it took nearly two decades to figure out which of its genes provided resistance—Fhb7. They found it coded for an enzyme called glutathione S-transferase, which works by degrading toxins in the fungus that lead to the blight seen in crops. The next step involved adding the gene to wheat plants at a test facility to find out if it had unwanted side-effects. Thus far, they have found that adding the gene to wheat plants makes them more resistant to F. graminearum—and it does not reduce crop yields. They note that more testing is required to determine how effective the gene is at helping the plants ward off infections, and also to find out what happens when it is used with the gene from the Chines heirlooms.

Cause of wheat resistance to scab discovered

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More information: Hongwei Wang et al. Horizontal gene transfer of Fhb7 from fungus underlies Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aba5435

POSTMODERN ALCHEMY

First sighting of mysterious Majorana fermion on a common metal

by Jennifer Chu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Physicists at MIT and elsewhere have observed evidence of Majorana fermions—particles that are theorized to also be their own antiparticle—on the surface of a common metal: gold. This is the first sighting of Majorana fermions on a platform that can potentially be scaled up. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are a major step toward isolating the particles as stable, error-proof qubits for quantum computing.

In particle physics, fermions are a class of elementary particles that includes electrons, protons, neutrons, and quarks, all of which make up the building blocks of matter. For the most part, these particles are considered Dirac fermions, after the English physicist Paul Dirac, who first predicted that all fermionic fundamental particles should have a counterpart, somewhere in the universe, in the form of an antiparticle—essentially, an identical twin of opposite charge.

In 1937, the Italian theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana extended Dirac's theory, predicting that among fermions, there should be some particles, since named Majorana fermions, that are indistinguishable from their antiparticles. Mysteriously, the physicist disappeared during a ferry trip off the Italian coast just a year after making his prediction. Scientists have been looking for Majorana's enigmatic particle ever since. It has been suggested, but not proven, that the neutrino may be a Majorana particle. On the other hand, theorists have predicted that Majorana fermions may also exist in solids under special conditions.

Now the MIT-led team has observed evidence of Majorana fermions in a material system they designed and fabricated, which consists of nanowires of gold grown atop a superconducting material, vanadium, and dotted with small, ferromagnetic "islands" of europium sulfide. When the researchers scanned the surface near the islands, they saw signature signal spikes near zero energy on the very top surface of gold that, according to theory, should only be generated by pairs of Majorana fermions.

"Majorana ferminons are these exotic things, that have long been a dream to see, and we now see them in a very simple material—gold," says Jagadeesh Moodera, a senior research scientist in MIT's Department of Physics. "We've shown they are there, and stable, and easily scalable."

"The next push will be to take these objects and make them into qubits, which would be huge progress toward practical quantum computing," adds co-author Patrick Lee, the William and Emma Rogers Professor of Physics at MIT.

Lee and Moodera's coauthors include former MIT postdoc and first author Sujit Manna (currently on the faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi), and former MIT postdoc Peng Wei of University of California at Riverside, along with Yingming Xie and Kam Tuen Law of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

High risk

If they could be harnessed, Majorana fermions would be ideal as qubits, or individual computational units for quantum computers. The idea is that a qubit would be made of combinations of pairs of Majorana fermions, each of which would be separated from its partner. If noise errors affect one member of the pair, the other should remain unaffected, thereby preserving the integrity of the qubit and enabling it to correctly carry out a computation.

Scientists have looked for Majorana fermions in semiconductors, the materials used in conventional, transistor-based computing. In their experiments, researchers have combined semiconductors with superconductors—materials through which electrons can travel without resistance. This combination imparts superconductive properties to conventional semiconductors, which physicists believe should induce particles in the semiconductor to split , forming the pair of Majorana fermions.

"There are several material platforms where people believe they've seen Majorana particles," Lee says. "The evidence is stronger and stronger, but it's still not 100 percent proven."

What's more, the semiconductor-based setups to date have been difficult to scale up to produce the thousands or millions of qubits needed for a practical quantum computer, because they require growing very precise crystals of semiconducting material and it is very challenging to turn these into high-quality superconductors.

About a decade ago, Lee, working with his graduate student Andrew Potter, had an idea: Perhaps physicists might be able to observe Majorana fermions in metal, a material that readily becomes superconductive in proximity with a superconductor. Scientists routinely make metals, including gold, into superconductors. Lee's idea was to see if gold's surface state—its very top layer of atoms—could be made to be superconductive. If this could be achieved, then gold could serve as a clean, atomically precise system in which researchers could observe Majorana fermions.

Lee proposed, based on Moodera's prior work with ferromagnetic insulators, that if it were placed atop a superconductive surface state of gold, then researchers should have a good chance of clearly seeing signatures of Majorana fermions.

"When we first proposed this, I couldn't convince a lot of experimentalists to try it, because the technology was daunting," says Lee who eventually partnered with Moodera's experimental group to to secure crucial funding from the Templeton Foundation to realize the design. "Jagadeesh and Peng really had to reinvent the wheel. It was extremely courageous to jump into this, because it's really a high-risk, but we think a high-payoff, thing."

"Finding Majorana"

Over the last few years, the researchers have characterized gold's surface state and proved that it could work as a platform for observing Majorana fermions, after which the group began fabricating the setup that Lee envisioned years ago.

They first grew a sheet of superconducting vanadium, on top of which they overlaid nanowires of gold layer, measuring about 4 nanometers thick. They tested the conductivity of gold's very top layer, and found that it did, in fact, become superconductive in proximity with the vanadium. They then deposited over the gold nanowires "islands" of europium sulfide, a ferromagnetic material that is able to provide the needed internal magnetic fields to create the Majorana fermions.

The team then applied a tiny voltage and used scanning tunneling microscopy, a specialized technique that enabled the researchers to scan the energy spectrum around each island on gold's surface.

Moodera and his colleagues then looked for a very specific energy signature that only Majorana fermions should produce, if they exist. In any superconducting material, electrons travel through at certain energy ranges. There is however a desert, or "energy gap" where there should be no electrons. If there is a spike inside this gap, it is very likely a signature of Majorana fermions.

Looking through their data, the researchers observed spikes inside this energy gap on opposite ends of several islands along the the direction of the magnetic field, that were clear signatures of pairs of Majorana fermions.

"We only see this spike on opposite sides of the island, as theory predicted," Moodera says. "Anywhere else, you don't see it."

"In my talks, I like to say that we are finding Majorana, on an island in a sea of gold," Lee adds.

Moodera says the team's setup, requiring just three layers—gold sandwiched between a ferromagnet and a superconductor—is an "easily achievable, stable system" that should also be economically scalable compared to conventional, semiconductor-based approaches to generate qubits.

"Seeing a pair of Majorana fermions is an important step toward making a qubit," Wei says. "The next step is to make a qubit from these particles, and we now have some ideas for how to go about doing this."New material shows high potential for quantum computing

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More information: Sujit Manna et al. Signature of a pair of Majorana zero modes in superconducting gold surface states, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1919753117

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

New species discovered during exploration of abyssal deep sea canyons off Ningaloo

by Schmidt Ocean Institute

A rare deep-sea hydroid is discovered by Dr Nerida Wilson (Chief Scientist, Western Australian Museum) and her team. The animal was found at 2497 m in Cape Range Canyon using ROV SuBastian. Branchiocerianthus is a giant hydroid that consists of a single polyp on a long stem living on a sandy bottom. It is a close relative of corals, anemones and sea fans. It is the first time this amazing animal has been filmed and collected in Australian waters. Others have been found elsewhere in the world including Japan, Ireland and Norway. In the control room, everyone looks on in amazement. Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute/ Alex Ingle

An estimated 150-foot siphonophore— seemingly the longest animal ever recorded was discovered during a month-long scientific expedition exploring the submarine canyons near Ningaloo. Additionally, up to 30 new underwater species were made by researchers from the Western Australian Museum aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor.


The discovery of the massive gelatinous string siphonophore—a floating colony of tiny individual zooids that clone themselves thousands of times into specialized bodies that string together to work as a team—was just one of the unique finds among some of the deepest fish and marine invertebrates ever recorded for Western Australia. Scientists from the Western Australian Museum, led by Chief Scientist Dr. Nerida Wilson, were joined by researchers from Curtin University, Geoscience Australia and Scripps Institution of Oceanography in exploring the Ningaloo Canyons in the Indian Ocean. Using an underwater robot, ROV SuBastian, they completed 20 dives at depths of up to 4,500 meters over 181 hours of exploration.

During the expedition, scientists collected the first giant hydroids in Australia, discovered large communities of glass sponges in Cape Range Canyon, and observed for the first time in Western Australia the bioluminescent Taning's octopus squid, long-tailed sea cucumber, and a number of other molluscs, barnacle and squat lobster species. Some of the species collected will be exhibited at the Western Australian Museum.

The team also found the largest specimen of the giant siphonophore Apolemia ever recorded—video of which was posted on Schmidt Ocean Institute's Twitter account. "We suspected these deep sea areas would be diverse but we have been blown away by the significance of what we have seen," Wilson said. Added Dr. Lisa Kirkendale, head of aquatic zoology at the Western Australian Museum and co-principal investigatorI, "These specimens represent so many extensions in depth and range records for so many species, and will form an important new part of WA Museum collections."

Check out this beautiful giant siphonophore Apolemia recorded on #NingalooCanyons expedition. It seems likely that this specimen is the largest ever recorded, and in strange UFO-like feeding posture. Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute

The expedition is part of Schmidt Ocean Institute's year-long initiative in Australia and the Pacific to conduct a number of science and engineering expeditions with teams of scientists and researchers from around the world. Using the underwater robot SuBastian, scientists for the first time are able to explore deep sea canyons and coral reefs around Australia that have never been seen before. The footage and samples collected from the oceans that surround Australia will have important implications for the sustainability and protection of these underwater ecosystems—and for similar habitats worldwide that are in peril because of rising ocean temperatures and other environmental threats.


Owned and operated by Schmidt Ocean Institute, a philanthropic non-profit established by Eric and Wendy Schmidt in 2009, Falkor is the only year-round seagoing philanthropic research vessel in the world. The vessel is equipped with a state-of-the-art 4,500 meter-capable underwater robotic system, ROV SuBastian, that was used to visually explore and collect samples from critical deep ocean areas that had not been explored before. The ship and ROV are both made available to the international science community at no cost, and the scientists agree to make their discoveries publicly available. The collection data for these specimens will be made publicly available.

"There is so much we don't know about the deep sea, and there are countless species never before seen," said Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Ocean Institute. "Our planet is deeply interconnected—what happens in the deep sea impacts life on land—and vice versa. This research is vital to advance our understanding of that connection—and the importance of protecting these fragile ecosystems. The Ningaloo Canyons are just one of many vast underwater wonders we are about to discover that can help us better understand our planet."

The science completed will allow the research team to formally describe many of the new species of animals that were found, develop ROV methodology for monitoring Marine Parks in Australia and screen deep water samples for environmental DNA in the Indian Ocean. The ROV SuBastian dives were livestreamed and are available in perpetuity on Schmidt Ocean Institute's YouTube page, including video highlights, making the incredible diversity in the Ningaloo region available for the public to explore. The footage and specimens collected are important records within the Gascoyne Marine Park, serving as a permanent record of biodiversity in the canyons to build on in the future.

"Ongoing scientific exploration is vital to the effective management of our marine parks," said Dr. James Findlay, director of Australia's National Parks, who has been closely following the Falkor expedition, "and we are committed to partnering with other agencies to record and monitor these precious places.

Deep-sea coral gardens discovered in canyons off Australia's South West

Provided by Schmidt Ocean Institute

Krakatoa volcano erupts spewing plumes of ash 1,600 feet into the air as people hear 'loud rumbles' 90 miles away in Jakarta

Krakatoa volcano has erupted in Indonesia shooting ash into the stratosphere

Satellite imagery captured plumes and lava flows coming from the cater

'Loud rumbles' could be heard 150km away in Indonesian capital Jakarta

First eruption since December 2018 which caused a tsunami killing over 400

The volcano's historic 1883 eruption killed more than 36,000 people

By WILLIAM COLE FOR MAILONLINE PUBLISHED:11 April 2020

The infamous Krakatoa volcano has erupted off the coast of Indonesia, spewing plumes of ash 500m into the air.

Two eruptions were recorded by the country's volcanology centre on Friday night between 9.58pm and 10.35pm local time, and have continued into today.

Residents of capital city Jakarta, 150km away, reported hearing 'loud rumbles' shortly after the eruptions.

A webcam image taken from Anak Krakatau Island, which is in the Sunda Strait, shows lava flowing from the volcano.


The Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation’s (PVMBG) magma volcanic activity report said that the first eruption lasted one minute and 12 seconds starting at 9:58 p.m., when it spewed out ash and smoke 200 meters high.

The infamous Krakatoa volcano has erupted off the coast of Indonesia,

 spewing plumes of ash 500m into the air. 

Pictured: A man watches the eruption in Serang, the closest

 mainland province to the volcano

A webcam image taken from Anak Krakatau Island, in the Sunda Strait, 

shows lava flowing from the volcano Krakatoa volcano begins to erupt

 spewing out ash and lava

The volcanology center reported a second eruption at 10:35 p.m. that lasted for 38 minutes and 4 seconds, spewing out a 500-meter-high column of ash that blew to the north.

'PVMBG monitoring shows that the eruption continued until Saturday morning at 5:44 WIB [Western Indonesian Time],' said the National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s head of data.

Satellite images detected a 'large magmatic eruption' with ash and plume shooting 15km (47,000ft) into the sky.

It is believed to be the strongest activity since an eruption in December 2018.

The volcano lost more than two-thirds of its height following the blast which triggered a deadly tsunami that killed 400 people.

People also took to Twitter to report sounds of an eruption, thousands of kilometres away.

Experts have issued a warning over a potential burst of lava materia and heavy ash rain within a radius of 2 km of the active crater




Images from MAGMA Indonesia show volcanic activity around the island

'We are fighting coronavirus. Please, go to sleep,' one person in Indonesia tweeted.

'Guys I just want to let you know that mount Krakatoa is erupting [right now], I keep hearing noises here in Indonesia,' another woman said.

Towering 357m (1,200ft) above the tropical stillness of the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, Krakatoa is one of the most terrifying volcanoes the world has ever known.

With an explosive force 13,000 times the power of the atomic bomb that annihilated Hiroshima, the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa killed more than 36,000 people and radically altered global weather and temperatures for years afterwards.

The eruption was so violent and catastrophic that no active volcano in modern times has come close to rivalling it, not even the spectacular eruption of Mount St Helens in the US in 1980.

Official records of the time show that the deadly eruption, together with an enormous tsunami it generated, destroyed 165 villages and towns, seriously damaged a further 132 and killed 36,417 people outright.

It follows the eruption of Whikaari, or the White Island volcano, in New Zealand in December 2019 which killed 21 people. 

Mesmerising footage shows volcanic lightning striking from Krakatau

Incredible footage shows a rare display of lightening spewing out of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa in 2018. The volcano, which annihilated 36,000 people in an eruption in 1883, hurled glowing rocks into the sky

THE VIOLENT PAST OF KRAKATOA

In around 416 AD, an ancient volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra collapsed, forming a 4-mile (7-km) wide caldera.

As a result, the islands of Krakatau, Verlaten, and Lang were formed, although Krakatau was substantially bigger than it is today.

After 1,400 years of relatively unrecorded activity, the volcano once again became active, and for months sent plumes of ash rocketing into the sky.

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, on August 27, killed more than 36,000 people and radically altered global weather and temperatures for years afterwards.

Official records of the time show that the 1883 eruption, together with the enormous tsunami it generated, destroyed 165 villages and towns, seriously damaging a further 132.

The eruption was so violent and catastrophic that no active volcano in modern times has come close to rivalling it, not even the spectacular eruption of Mount St Helens in the U.S. in 1980.

Its explosive force was 13,000 times the power of the atomic bomb that annihilated Hiroshima in Japan in 1945.

The 1883 eruption was heard thousands of kilometres away, with people reportedly hearing the sound of the eruption 4,800km away near Mauritius and 1,000km away in Perth in Western Australia.

The volcano was renamed Anak Krakatau, meaning Child of Krakatau, when a crater emerged from the sea in December 1927, and continues to grow in height

The force of the explosion almost entirely destroyed the island, sending rocks large enough to create temporary islands hundreds of metres out of the crater, and turning the central volcanic cone into a crater.

The volcano was renamed Anak Krakatau, meaning Child of Krakatau, when a crater emerged from the sea in December 1927, and continues to grow in height.

Over 150 years on, the region in the Indonesian archipelago has become densely populated, with small farmers working the rich soils nearby, and Indonesia's capital growing expansively.

It is not inconceivable that another massive eruption could now kill hundreds of thousands of people.

Marco Fulle, an Italian scientist andvolcano expert, said: 'These volcanoes repeat explosionslike that of 1883 many times during their life.'

'The commonopinion is that Krakatoa will again become really dangerous when itreaches the size it had been in 1883. It was two-times taller thannow.'

Hot gases, rocks, and lava were released in an eruption in April 2008, with scientists warning people to remain outside a 3 km zone around the island


An eruption on 22 December 2018, which led to the collapse of the volcano's cone, generated a powerful tsunami - a potential hazard which had been predicted prior to the eruption

The volcano's eruption alert status of Anak Krakatau was raised to Level 3 in 2009 as a result of continued activity.

Finally, an eruption on 22 December 2018, which led to the collapse of the volcano's cone, generated a powerful tsunami - a potential hazard which had been predicted prior to the eruption.

Waves up to five meters in height made landfall, with the country's disaster agency giving a death toll of 437, with 14,059 injured.

The tsunami affected more than 186 miles of coastline in Sumatra and Java. More than 420 people died, and 40,000 were displaced.

Volcanic activity has since been observed around a newly-reconstructed crater as the volcano continues to increase in height and remodel the areas destroyed in 2018.

Anak Krakatau volcano continued to spew hot ash following the major 2018 eruption into January 2019

Krakatoa volcano erupts 'spewing plumes of ash several kilometres into the air'

Indonesia's Anak Krakatau volcano erupts, ash rises over 1,600 feet
By Sommer Brokaw

Anak Krakatau erupted twice Friday night. Photo courtesy of PVMBG

April 11 (UPI) -- Indonesia's Anak Krakatau volcano erupted overnight, spewing ash and smoke more than 1,600 feet high, scientists said Saturday.

The first eruption occurred at 9:58 p.m. Friday and lasted 1 minute and 12 seconds with ash and smoke spewing about 650 feet high, the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation's magma volcanic activity report said.

The second eruption at 10:35 p.m. lasted 38 minutes and 4 seconds, spewing out volcanic gray ash from the bottom crater 1,640 feet high, blowing north, Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation shows.

"PVMBG monitoring shows that the eruption continued until Saturday morning at 5:44 [ Western Indonesian Time]," Agus Wibowo, head of data, information and communication center for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said in a statement.

"Based on our observation, no volcanic ashes or sulfurs smell have been reported until Saturday morning," the Regional Agency for Disaster Management in Lampung said. "So far, there have been no damage reports."

The situation was being monitored, but local residents have returned home.

Some residents in Indonesia's metropolitan area said they heard "a loud rumble," but PVMBG head Pat Kasbani said that might have been "unrelated to the eruption."

Still, volcanology expert Surono, who uses only one name, said citizens in the metropolitan area may have been able to hear the eruption since there was less activity in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. It was the first day of a partial lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus.

The eruption was small compared to other eruptions in the past couple years, Kasbani said, but Earth Sky reported that it was the longest eruption since 2018.

The volcano, also known as Krakatoa, is an island in a caldera between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. It emerged in 1883 from a caldera that destroyed the island of Krakatau formed.

Since the word "Anak" means "child" in Indonesian, the volcano is also called Child of Krakatau.

THIRD WORLD USA
‘Unforgettable’ footage of endless lines of cars at food banks illustrates coronavirus crisis in the US

“It is outrageous that in the richest country in the history of the world, people are going hungry,” said Sen. Sanders.

April 10, 2020 By Common Dreams
A drone captured aerial images of the long line of cars in Sunrise, 

Florida, where motorists hoped to receive food from 

Feeding South Florida, a local food bank. https://t.co/cSiOZKd6qD
— theGrio.com (@theGrio) April 10, 2020

by Eoin Higgins

Images and video of miles of cars lined up at food banks in San Antonio and other cities across the U.S. present a striking example of the economic effects of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has thrown at least 16 million Americans out of work in recent weeks and increased pressure on the distribution centers to provide key staples for a flood of needy people in the country.

“Unforgettable image: thousands of cars lined up at a San Antonio food bank today, the desperate families inside kept safely apart,” tweeted CNN senior editor Amanda Katz. “Breadline, 2020.”

On Thursday, San Antonio Food Bank creative manager Robert R. Fike posted a time-lapse video of the line of cars waiting to get supplies.

This is what I saw. Blistering heat. Folks in line since 7pm the night before. To get food. Hundreds of volunteers busting it to serve, so families could go home (probably to pass some out to their neighbors too) & get the nourishment they need.
This is the COVID-19 Crisis. pic.twitter.com/CL8Be0wNwI
— Robert R. Fike (@robfike) April 9, 2020

“It was a rough one today,” San Antonio Food Bank president and CEO Eric Cooper told the San Antonio Express News. “We have never executed on as large of a demand as we are now.”

The onset of the coronavirus outbreak brought with it economic paralysis across the U.S. and the world, shutting down businesses around the world as people use social distancing and isolation to curb the spread of the disease. In the U.S., where lawmakers have largely dragged their feet on providing unemployed people with help, Americans are increasingly turning to charities like food banks to provide the means of survival.

Se. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an outspoken advocate for economic relief efforts, tweeted on Friday that the scenes from food banks were indicative of the need for immediate Congressional action.

It is outrageous that in the richest country in the history of the world, people are going hungry. Congress must radically increase food assistance programs and offer grocery delivery options to ensure all people are able to eat safely during this crisis. https://t.co/zkvsGFdHOA— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 10, 2020

According to the New York Times, food banks across the country are facing funding shortfalls in the face of increasing demand despite donations from the superrich:

Feeding America, the nation’s largest network of food banks, with more than 200 affiliates, has projected a $1.4 billion shortfall in the next six months alone. Last week, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced that he was donating $100 million to the group—the largest single donation in its history, but still less than a tenth of what it needs.

In January 2019, Business Insider calculated Bezos makes roughly $4,474,885 every hour, making his donation to Feeding America the equivalent of around 22-and-a-half hours of passive wealth generation.

Hundreds of cars wait to receive food from the Greater Community Food Bank in Duquesne. Collection begins at noon. @PghFoodBank @PittsburghPG pic.twitter.com/94YFaO7dqX
— Andrew Rush (@andrewrush) March 30, 2020

This report from Pittsburgh shows the miles-long line to get to the local food bank.
Trump’s America, 2020.
Watch. Share. Donate to your local food bank if you can. #DemCast
pic.twitter.com/ZK9CWLeHqN
— Nick Knudsen

 

#DemCast (@DemWrite) April 4, 2020

Drive thru food bank in #Inglewood
Lots of people in need right now @NBCLA pic.twitter.com/RMxsCM8Ce4
— Darsha Philips (@DarshaPhilips) April 10, 2020

This morning, in the pouring rain, our office joined @BenHueso & @NoraVargasSD – and the @SDFoodBank in helping distribute 30lb food boxes to 1000 South Bay families! The need is heartbreaking, but the Food Bank is doing an incredible job! pic.twitter.com/ppkHaFtOVs
— Lorena (@LorenaSGonzalez) April 10, 2020

Over 1,000 vehicles received food today at PPG Pants Arena thanks to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank #stayconnectedtogether https://t.co/CxuIOqZuwH
— Newsradio 1020 KDKA (@KDKARadio) April 10, 2020


The United Center is helping with food storage for a local food bank in Chicago. MORE @ https://t.co/UMPaB9UZ9d pic.twitter.com/C1UkTO1syg
— BarDown (@BarDown) April 10, 2020


Feeding South Florida executive vice president Sari Vatske noted in an interview with the Daily Mail that with stay-at-home orders in her state curtailing the available workforce to handle an unprecedented surge in those needing aid, there may be trouble ahead in how to efficiently distribute the food.

“The math is not on our side,” said Vatske.

Richest GOP congressman accused of ‘insider trading’ on coronavirus — by a Republican AG

April 10, 2020 By Matthew Chapman

On Friday, The Montana Post reported that the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Attorney General Tim Fox is accusing Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) of “insider trading” off of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s an incredible claim, no doubt based on the research that shows Gianforte, rather than putting his investments into a blind trust as promised, has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past three months in companies hoping to profit from COVID-19, including the French manufacturer of Hydroxychloroquine,” wrote Don Pogreba.

Gianforte, who gained nationwide infamy after body-slamming a reporter on the eve of his special election in 2017, is competing with Fox for the gubernatorial nomination to replace departing two-term Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, who is mounting a challenge to Republican Sen. Steve Daines.

The winner of the primary will face off against either Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney or businesswoman Whitney Williams, who are competing for the Democratic nomination.

Trump uses coronavirus briefing to tout pastor who said 9/11 attack was God punishing America

April 10, 2020 By Sky Palma


During a press briefing today to address the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump was asked about certain Christian pastors who plan to defy state lockdown orders and hold Easter church services this Sunday.

“I’ve had talks with the pastors, and most of the pastors agree … that they are better off doing what they are doing, which is, distancing,” Trump said, adding that the pastors want to “get back to church so badly." FLEECING THEIR FLOCKS

Trump then referred to a notorious pastor who sits on his religious advisory council.

“I’m going to be watching Pastor Robert Jeffress, who’s been a great guy,” Trump said. “He’s a great guy and I’m going to be watching on a laptop.”

Jeffress is known for his litany of statements demonizing the LGBT community, abortion, and secular people. One of his most reviled comments came in 2015 when he said the 9/11 attacks were God’s punishment on America for abortion.

“People ask me all the time,” Jeffress said during a speech at Liberty University. “‘Well, I just don’t understand why God wouldn’t protect our nation and he would allow these radical Muslims in 2001 to kill 3,000 of our citizens and why God doesn’t protect us. Surely, God doesn’t use pagans to bring judgment upon his own people, does he?’”

Watch Trump’s press briefing below:

COVID-19 Pandemic Could Push Half A Billion People Into Poverty: Report

The virus could erase decades of progress in raising living standards.

By Kyla Mandel, HuffPost US

The economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world could lead to 580 million people ― 8% of humanity ― being pushed into poverty and see an increase in global poverty for the first time since 1990.
These findings come from a new report released by researchers at King’s College London and the Australian National University, which looks at the impact of declines in household consumption.

As the global economy comes to a standstill due to the pandemic, stories of distress are becoming familiar in almost every country ― but especially in the developing world where social safety nets are thin or often missing. Stories like that of Micah Olywangu, a taxi driver in Nairobi, Kenya, and a father of three.

Over the last three weeks, as Nairobi’s airport shut down and the tourism industry effectively disappeared, his income has completely dried up, making it impossible to pay this month’s rent. While his landlord has been understanding, it’s unclear how long such patience will last.

“This virus will starve us before it makes us sick,” Olywangu said.

“Just imagine that [experience] times half a billion going on all over the developing world right now,” said Max Lawson, head of inequality policy for the development organization Oxfam International. “That is deeply, deeply concerning.”
BILLY MUTAI/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES

A health volunteer walks through slums in Nairoba, Kenya, informing residents about the coronavirus pandemic. More than 2.5 million people live in impoverished conditions in the city.

Commissioned by Oxfam, the new research shows that the global pandemic could erase decades of progress on eradicating poverty. And the ripple effects would impact a wide range of matters, from access to health care and education to malnutrition and maternal mortality.

“The effects could be absolutely incredible,” researcher Andy Sumner, a King’s College professor of international development who works with the United Nations University-WIDER, which helped publish the report, told HuffPost. “There’s very likely to be a substantial increase in poverty, mainly because there’s so many people living not that far above the poverty line.”

Sumner added: “They’re very susceptible to these kinds of economic slowdowns or health shocks that can effectively push people back into poverty very suddenly.”

The report looked at what would happen if economic consumption ― measured as either a decline in household income or household spending in a given country ― dropped by 5%, 10% or 20%, and how that would impact people in the developing world living in poverty.

Even a conservative estimate of a 5% decline would see income-based poverty increase for the first time in 30 years. At this level, the number of people living in poverty would increase by 1% to 2%, to between 85 million to 135 million people across the developing world.

A 10% drop in consumption would result in an estimated 180 million to 280 million people falling into poverty. And at 20%, some 420 million to 580 million people would be pushed into poverty.

MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Men wearing masks wait outside an Egyptian Food Bank centre in Cairo to receive cartons with foodstuffs as the charity distributes aid to people who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While presumably no part of the developing world will be spared from the pandemic’s economic impacts, the report expects that the hardest-hit regions will include the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where poverty is expected to fall back to 1990-levels. Those levels range from roughly 10% to nearly 100% of the population, depending on the region and the figure for poverty-line income. This is “either because of their relatively slow progress in reducing poverty over the last years or because of their already high poverty levels,” the report states.

Even a 10% drop in consumption would be “enough to erase the progress achieved in reducing extreme poverty in recent years” in sub-Saharan Africa, the study warns.

Each of the millions affected by the estimates of the downturns “is a human being with lives, dreams and hopes,” Lawson said. “It’s a huge impact. I mean, it’s significantly worse than the financial crisis. And it’s quite hard to see an end to it at this point.”

Access to food is a critical concern, especially for workers in urban areas who aren’t able to grow their own food.

“Basically, if you haven’t got money for food in Nairobi, then you’re going to go hungry tonight. So, I [expect] big increases in malnutrition and hunger,” Lawson said. “I hope not, but I also think it’s quite possible that you will see increases in crime. People are just going to get a lot more desperate.”

MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGESA volunteer in Sanaa, 

Yemen, sprays disinfectant on the hands of a boy in the one of the city's

 poor neighborhoods on March 30.

How badly this plays out and how severely the impacts are felt depends on “how the national governments and the international community reacts,” the report said. In large part, Sumner said, it depends on whether governments “are willing to introduce or expand” social safety net programs.

Doing this obviously costs a lot of money ― a main reason that in the lead-up to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) annual spring meeting next week, Oxfam is calling on the international community to immediately cancel $1 trillion worth of debt payments in 2020 for developing countries. Doing so, the organization said, would free up essential money for these countries to spend on critical services like health care, supporting people’s incomes and increasing education about the best practices to limit the risk of coronavirus spreading.

“Like everything with this virus, every day that goes by, the impact of your actions is going to be less,” Lawson said. Developing countries “need a significant boost to their health spending as quickly as possible.”

Oxfam is also calling on nations to agree to make an additional $1 trillion in international IMF funding available to developing countries, in order to help them increase their health-care spending. However, to do so relies on a majority of nations voting in favour of such a measure ― including the U.S., which under current political circumstances seems unlikely, Lawson said.

Understandably, all nations are suffering from the pandemic and that means for developed countries such as the U.S. and the U.K., the focus remains on stemming the danger facing their own citizens, Sumner said. “I guess, what we’re hoping, is to try and open it up a bit … We need to worry about people all over the world, many of whom may not have the coping mechanisms that the rich countries have at their fingertips.”


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