Air pollution affects brain development – but when does the damage start?

July 13, 2020 by Horizon Magazine

by Ian Le Guillou

The emergency rooms in Barcelona were collapsing under the pressure. Hundreds of patients were arriving in desperate need as they struggled to breathe, while intensive care units struggled to cope with the sudden influx of respiratory problems. Epidemiologists scrambled to trace the source of the outbreak. 

This epidemic in the 1980s might bear some striking similarities to the coronavirus pandemic, but there was no infection to blame. The city was suffering from outbreaks of asthma.

Between 1981 and 1989, 26 outbreaks of asthma were reported in the Spanish city with many cases centred around the harbour. Local scientists eventually discovered that the cause was soybean dust released into the air when the cargo was unloaded.

The solution was simple enough – filters to cover the soybeans silos – however, the episode left a remarkable legacy in the scientific community in Barcelona, which could help us to identify a significant risk to brain development in children.

The asthma epidemics were initially thought to be due to air pollution from burning fossil fuels, so the researchers created a register to map its potential impact. This became the basis for the local researchers to continue to monitor the effects of dirty air over the decades since.

Although the immediate effect of air pollution on asthma was much weaker than the soybean dust, it was affecting the population on a daily basis. Over time, air pollution appeared to be responsible for more emergency room admissions for asthma than the acute soybean-related epidemics.

Air pollution

Professor Jordi Sunyer from ISGlobal, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, was one of the researchers who discovered the link to soybeans and investigates the effects of air pollution.

‘In the 80s, home combustion of coal was a major problem, and the levels of sulphur oxide were very high. This was controlled but now, especially in Europe, there is a dramatic increase in traffic and diesel combustion,’ he said.

As well as changes in the type of pollution, he says that we have come to understand better the extent of damage caused by air pollution, beyond the lungs.

‘In the 90s, it appeared that the cardiovascular system was a major target of air pollution. Then in 2008, there were studies in animals that showed an effect on the brain,’ he said. ‘This was because the size of the particles of pollution was so small that they could go into the brain and cause neuroinflammation.’

In 2015, Prof. Sunyer and his colleagues published research showing that higher pollution levels were linked to a 5% decrease on tests of working memory in children aged 7 to 10.

‘This is the same amount of change that was found several years ago between children with high levels of lead in the blood and children with lower levels in the blood,’ said Prof. Sunyer.

When the lead pollution from petrol was found to be causing widespread harm, unleaded petrol was introduced from the 1970s. At an individual level, a 5% decrease on a test would not be enough to make an obvious impact, but on a population level it could have a significant economic cost says Prof. Sunyer.

He adds that 90% of brain development happens by the age of four, so he is now following up on his previous study to understand the effects of air pollution at the earliest stages of life.

He is leading the AIR-NB study to monitor the exposure to air pollution before the child is even born. The research team is recruiting 1,200 pregnant women in Barcelona to the study and measuring the pollution levels in their homes.

Taking into account other possible factors, such as physical activity, noise pollution and the mother’s stress hormones, they will try to identify differences between the children as they develop. The researchers will be imaging their brains at the third trimester of pregnancy and from one month after birth using MRI scans.

Autism

Another concern is that air pollution can raise the risk of developing autism spectrum disorder. Several studies in the US suggested that there is a link to air pollution, but the results from a big European project found no connection. However, this research brought together results from different studies that used different methods, which may have affected the results.

Dr Juana Maria Delgado-Saborit, a visiting researcher at ISGlobal, hopes to help investigate this issue by using data on 18,000 children in the UK. These children are all part of the Millennium cohort study and have been regularly monitored and tested over the past two decades.

‘I thought that maybe with that big cohort there might be the chance to see if there is a real problem in UK and Europe, or if the Americans are seeing a difference because of the composition of the pollution,’ she said.

For a project called COGNAC, Dr Delgado-Saborit is using health information collected on the children up to the age of 14 to look for diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder or traits of the condition. By overlaying this information with maps of pollution during pregnancy and in their early years, she hopes to identify any potential links.

The analysis of the data is ongoing, but her early results suggest that there is a connection with levels of ozone in the air. Ozone is an irritant that is formed by a reaction involving nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, common pollutants from road traffic.

Change

Both Dr Delgado-Saborit and Prof. Sunyer draw parallels to the change in perspective of the damage caused by air pollution following the thousands of deaths from the Great Smog of London in 1952.

‘From the industrial revolution, we knew that we were making our environment dirty, but we didn’t have the evidence (of harm). When we started measuring the changes, we started to realise that something was happening, especially when we had the episode of London smog. That kick-started (the realisation) that the air is having an impact on our health,’ said Dr Delgado-Saborit.

‘Then there was the Clean Air Acts and the air was cleaned. In the 80s it was thought that the levels (of pollution) were safe for health,’ said Prof. Sunyer.

Just like the 1950s, there is widespread understanding today that our dirty air is not safe, but we still do not know how great an impact it has on our lives. While there is acceptance that children at school should not be exposed to high levels of air pollution, Prof. Sunyer says, the results of their research could have far-reaching consequences:

‘If we found pregnancy and early life is a more vulnerable period, I think this would force society to find new ways to live in cities that also protect the health of children.’

However, compared to putting a lid on soybean dust, this may prove to be a big challenge.

The research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.

Published by Horizon

‘Four times more toxic’: How wildfire smoke ages over time

July 22, 2020 by Richard Gray

Enormous plumes of smoke thrown into the atmosphere by uncontrolled wildfires may be affecting the health of people living hundreds of miles away.

Every year, thousands of fires engulf forests, grasslands and moors across Europe. In 2018, more than 204,861 hectares of land were left burnt in Europe and other countries around the Mediterranean, while the previous year wildfires destroyed over 1.2 million hectares. Blazes in the Arctic in June set a new record in carbon emissions in 18 years of monitoring.

As the trees, shrubs, grass and peat are engulfed by these fires, huge quantities of smoke, soot and other pollutants are released into the air. With large fires, the smoke can rise many kilometres into the stratosphere and spread across entire regions, causing air pollution in areas far away from where the flames actually were.

‘In the eastern Mediterranean we get smoke that blows down from forest fires in Russia and when it happens there is just hazy smoke everywhere,’ said Professor Athanasios Nenes, an atmospheric chemist at the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences in Patras, Greece. ‘It can be quite dramatic. They are affecting air quality over entire regions or parts of continents.’

Prof. Nenes is principal investigator of the PyroTRACH project, which is attempting to find out how emissions from wildfires – along with other types of biomass burning, such as domestic wood fires – change in the atmosphere and the impact this has on human health and climate.

Globally, wildfire smoke is estimated to cause over 339,000 premature deaths a year – far more than those who lose their lives directly in these blazes.

The team is taking regular air samples at three locations in Greece – Crete, Athens and Patras. These are being combined with samples provided by collaborators around the world including in the US, the Arctic, India, Europe, Vietnam and in the air above the south Atlantic Ocean.

‘When you look at these samples, you can always find a lot of particles in the air, but you can’t say for sure whether it has come from biomass burning,’ said Prof. Nenes. ‘The idea behind PyroTRACH is to see if we can identify specific signatures of fires and, in addition, track what happens to the smoke as it ages in the atmosphere.’

Air pollution picked up by samplers, such as the one in Patras, Greece, could have come from fires thousands of kilometres away. Image credit – Spiro Jorga

Age

To do this, the researchers are using a special environmental chamber in the laboratory that replicates the conditions found in the atmosphere. They then generate fresh smoke samples by burning different types of plant material, which are then allowed to “age” in the chamber.

Over time they are able to see how the chemistry of the particles in the smoke changes when exposed to the atmosphere and daily patterns of sunlight and darkness. Portable chambers also allow them to age smoke directly produced from real fires in the outside environment.

‘We are trying to understand the lifetime of smoke in the atmosphere and how it chemically evolves,’ said Prof. Nenes. ‘We want to characterise the impacts it will have on human health and the climate. Does it become more toxic (with age), or have a greater (warming) effect on the climate (than currently thought), or supply more nutrients to ecosystems when it falls back to the ground?’

One of the key findings the team has made since the five-year project began in 2017 is that particles released from burning vegetation in forest fires become more toxic over time.

Smoke from forest fires can linger in the atmosphere for a couple of weeks as it spreads. While in the air the smoke particles chemically react with trace radicals – molecules with unpaired electrons – to undergo a process known as oxidation. This converts the compounds in the smoke particles into highly reactive compounds. When they are breathed in, these reactive compounds – known as free radicals – can damage cells and tissues in the body.

‘We know that breathing in smoke when you are close to a fire is not good, but we have seen that over time it gets worse – up to four times more toxic a day down the road,’ said Prof. Nenes, referring to some of their experiment results. These results showed smoke samples taken from the air more than five hours after they were released from a fire were twice as toxic than when they were first released and as they aged further in the laboratory the toxicity increased to four times the original levels.

‘This means that even if you are far away from a fire, if the smoke is being blown towards you, it can have a significant impact on health,’ he said. ‘People might not even be aware they are breathing in the fumes from a faraway forest fire, but it will be affecting their health.’

‘People might not even be aware they are breathing in the fumes from a faraway forest fire, but it will be affecting their health.’

Professor Athanasios Nenes, Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Greece

Health

While the exact health effects of breathing in this smoke are still to be fully understood, Prof. Nenes and his team will feed their results into another project called REMEDIA. It is looking at how air pollution affects the lungs as part of the Human Exposome Network, which focuses on what environmental exposures do to human health.

But reactive compounds from wildfire smoke are thought to have a number of short and long-term health effects.

‘They can make people more prone to infections, can lead to breathing difficulties and leave some people more prone to heart attacks,’ said Prof. Nenes. ‘At the same time the smoke particles also contain carcinogens – polyaromatic hydrocarbons – which also oxidise and become more carcinogenic, increasing the risk of cancers.’

This increase in toxicity is a particular concern as smoke from large wildfires is known to travel across whole continents and even oceans. Smoke billowing from forest fires in Alberta, Canada, for example, was tracked as spreading down the east coast of the US, across the Atlantic and into Europe in 2019. Similarly, smoke from the recent devastating fires in Australia engulfed South America and pollution from wildfires in Siberia have spread to western Canada and the US.

‘Wildfire smoke can circulate the globe,’ said Dr Mike Flannigan, director of the Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science at the University of Alberta. ‘Smoke from intense fire can be injected into the upper atmosphere where strong winds – typically west winds – can carry it rapidly around the world.’

This means that large wildfires can have dramatic impacts on the air quality and visibility in cities far away from the source of the smoke, which can then make urban air pollution worse, increasing the risk of health problems and deaths among those living there.

Samples of air in downtown Athens, Greece, along with others from around the world, are being analysed to see if signature particles from wildfires can be identified. Image credit – Irini Tsiodra

Smoke

In Europe there are on average 65,000 wildfires every year, but the region is also engulfed by seasonal clouds of smoke from blazes further afield too.

Through the colder winter months domestic wood burning contributes a significant fraction of the smoke in the atmosphere, particularly in urban areas, according to Prof. Nenes.

More work is needed to understand the many sources of pollution in the air. Unravelling these sources is the goal of the Aeromet project. It is developing new ways of better analysing the aerosols and particles that pollute the air, particularly in urban areas across Europe. Currently it is difficult to distinguish which come from natural sources – such as dust blown into the air and salt lifted off the oceans by the wind – and those that come from fires, vehicles, industry and other human activities.

Improving the accuracy of how these are measured and identified could not only help authorities monitor air pollution better, but also ‘potentially help to identify critical single sources of particles and to propose appropriate counter-measures to improve air quality’ based upon the findings, says Dr Burkhard Beckhoff, coordinator of the Aeromet project and a researcher at Germany’s Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Berlin.

Prof. Nenes hopes that characterising the pollution from wildfires and domestic woodburning could help to improve climate change models as some of the soot released by fires – known as brown carbon – plays a considerable role in absorbing heat from the sun, and makes global warming worse.

‘The smaller brown carbon molecules tend to bleach quite quickly but larger ones are more resilient, creating a low but persistent heating effect,’ he said.

Knowing how much of this brown carbon is produced in wildfires and domestic woodburning would allow climate scientists to make better climate predictions.

With climate models already predicting that wildfires are likely to become more common and intense as global temperatures increase, and domestic wood burning on the rise, the smoke they produce could pose an even greater risk to human health and the environment, says Prof. Nenes.

‘I grew up being able to see the effect fires have on our air here in Greece,’ he said. ‘It is alarming to think about what we are doing to ourselves and the environment. But hopefully as we understand more about this, we can contribute to policies that should be developed to help mitigate the impact of these fires.’

The research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.

Published by Horizon 

Ready To Roll: Hybrid Renewable Natural Gas Line-Haul Loco Cuts Fuel Use In Half, Emissions By 99.5 Percent

July 26, 2020 Alan Kandel

The below Jul. 22, 2020 press release is from OptiFuel Systems

OptiFuel Systems (“OptiFuel”), a system integrator of Cummins and BAE Systems hybrid power products for decarbonizing the rail, marine, and microgrid power market, is in the process of finalizing a $2.6 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to demonstrate a pre-production Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) hybrid 4,300 hp line-haul locomotive. The program will demonstrate that a suite of commercially available, EPA rail-certified engines present a near-term, low risk solution to create an affordable RNG hybrid line-haul locomotive with near zero emissions while simultaneously improving fuel cost by 50%. This new program, partially funded with the DOE grant, will allow pre-production testing at AAR’s Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) and will operate in-service with a regional railroad to validate that OptiFuel’s low-risk, affordable technology can also be applied in the higher horsepower freight and passenger locomotive market.

This program is integral to OptiFuel’s 5-year plan to disrupt and decarbonize the rail market with a full line of zero and near-zero NOx, PM and CO2 emissions freight and passenger locomotives. In several weeks, OptiFuel will be announcing that it will start taking orders, in 49 of the U.S. states, for a new line of affordable 800 hp to 3,200 hp, 100% natural gas freight and transit locomotives. All will have zero NOx/PM emissions with carbon-neutral emissions by consuming an RNG/CNG mixture. OptiFuel has already developed and tested a high volume CNG/RNG refueling system at the Indiana Harbor Belt CNG locomotive program, utilizing low-cost CNG. In the next 2 years, OptiFuel will be announcing additional refueling products, including an affordable 12,000 DGE (Diesel Gallon Equivalent) CNG/RNG tender; and a 9,000 CNG/RNG DGE, 1,600 hp zero emission, powered tender.

The Rail Sector is the only transportation modality without significant emissions related development that is feasible in the near-term to eliminate ozone, smog and GHG emissions. In comparison, the composite US freight line-haul fleet, which consumes 90% of the fuel in the rail industry, emits 8 g/bhp-hr of NOx while new CNG Class 8 trucks emit 0.02 g/bhp-hr of NOx, a reduction of 400 times. Even if locomotives can carry 4 times amount of tonnage per horsepower as a new CNG Class 8 trucks, it still has emissions 100 [sic] higher. Beside the U.S. locomotive fleet average NOx emissions of 8 g/bhp-hr, the U.S. rail fleet’s average fine Particulate Matter (PM) emissions is 0.22 g/bhp-hr. In comparison, OptiFuel’s 4,300 RNG hybrid line-haul locomotive is expected to emit 0.04 g/bhp-hr of NOx, a reduction of 200 times, and emit 0.00 g/bhp-hr of PM. Using RNG as the fuel, OptiFuel’s locomotive will dramatically lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting in a neutral or negative carbon footprint, in addition to far exceeding California’s Tier 5 locomotive petition standards to U.S. EPA.

As of September 2016, there were more than 1,000 railyards in the U.S. located in densely populated, urban areas classified as particulate matter and ozone EPA defined “nonattainment” areas. More than 122 million people (nearly 40% of the U.S. population) living in these nonattainment areas are having more acute and chronic adverse health outcomes, including exacerbation of respiratory and cardiovascular disease. In these U.S. railyards, there are more than 28,000 technologically obsolete, diesel powered locomotives operating which produce Pre-Tier 0 (non-regulated, pre-1973), Tier 0 or Tier 1 emissions. These pollutants create very high levels of ozone, air toxins, greenhouse gases, fine particulate matter, and other diesel exhaust compounds classified as carcinogenic to humans.

In 2018, Class I, II, and III railroads purchased 4.7 billion gallons of diesel fuel for the 39,000 locomotives used for freight operations in the US. Freight railroads emitted more than 1.6 million tons of NOx, 43,000 tons of PM, and 38 million metric tons of CO2, much of which occurs in Environmental Justice communities. OptiFuel’s EPA rail certified technology with a CNG/RNG fuel mixture would limit railroad emission throughout the U.S. to 8,600 tons of NOx, zero tons of PM, and zero metric tons of CO2.

This demonstration will include a comprehensive natural gas hybrid propulsion package featuring four 100% natural gas engines– the OptiFuel KOFSG11.9400 (“OFS12”) and a single Cummins Tier 4, EPA rail certified, diesel-powered QSK60 in a hybrid configuration. Our design also includes a 100% battery-electric mode for limited yard operations. OptiFuel’s OFS12 engine is EPA rail certified with emissions of 0.00 g/bhp-hr for both NOx and PM, and is capable of operating on either CNG, RNG, LNG, or a CNG-RNG blend. The OFS12 engine, which is identical to the Cummins ISX12N for on-road applications, is the cleanest rail engine currently certified by EPA.

The pre-production locomotive will consume 83% natural gas along with 20% improved efficiency versus Tier 4 diesel line-haul freight locomotives. OptiFuel will utilize one of its proprietary, Federal Railway Administration approved onboard CNG/RNG storage system holding 1,500 DGE to complete the locomotive design.

The production locomotive will be market competitive in pricing and will have an industry-leading 5-year warranty on all engines along with comprehensive maintenance coverage. The propulsion system design is compact enough to fit on virtually any legacy EMD or GE line-haul locomotive with no structural modifications to the operator cab or frame. OptiFuel design will allow the railroads to repower existing Tier 3 and Tier 4 line-haul locomotives at half the cost of fully replacing older Pre-Tier 0 to Tier 2 locomotives. In production, OptiFuel will provide its proven locomotive CNG fueling station solution and expect the CNG to cost between 0.70 to $1.35 per DGE, depending on capitalization and implementation strategies of the locomotive operator. This is well below the 10-year average cost of $2.45 that the Class 1 railroads have paid for diesel.

“We developed and certified these technologies for rail, because we believe there is a need for line-haul locomotives that deliver value and cleaner, more economical solutions simultaneously to railroads, railroad customers, and urban and Environmental Justice communities,” said Scott Myers, President of OptiFuel. “With the transportation and non-transportation mobile sector emitting 37% of all GHG emissions in the United States, it is critical to repower or replace all mobile assets to operate on carbon-neutral or carbon-negative renewable fuels such as RNG, Green Methane, Green Hydrogen or other biofuels, eliminating carbon-intensive gasoline or diesel fuels in the U.S. in 15 years.”

New York, New Haven & Hartford FL9 electric/diesel electric “dual-mode” locomotive-hauled train

Image above: Roger Puta

Published by Alan Kandel

Passion for purple revives ancient dye in Tunisia
by Kaouther Larbi

After years of trial and error - and after getting used to the foul stench - Mohamed Ghassen Nouira has cracked how to make the prized purple dye used for royal and imperial robes in ancient times

A Tunisian man has pieced together bits of a local secret linked to ancient emperors: how to make a prized purple dye using the guts of a sea snail.


"At the beginning, I didn't know where to start," said Mohamed Ghassen Nouira, who heads a consulting firm.

"I would crush the whole shell and try to understand how this small marine animal released such a precious colour."

Now, after years of trial and error—and after getting used to the foul stench—he uses a hammer and small stone mortar to carefully break open the spiny murex shells.

What happens next is part of a secret guarded so closely that it disappeared hundreds of years ago.

A symbol of power and prestige, the celebrated purple colour was traditionally used for royal and imperial robes.

Production of the dye was among the main sources of wealth for the ancient Phoenicians, and then for the Carthaginian and Roman empires, said Ali Drine, who heads the research division of Tunisia's National Heritage Institute.

The industry was "under the control of the emperors because it brought a lot of money to the imperial coffers", he said.

In August 2007 on a Tunisian beach, Nouira found a shell releasing a purplish red colour, reminding him of something he'd learnt in history class at school.

He bought more shells from local fishermen and set out experimenting in an old outside kitchen at his father's house that he still uses as a workshop.

To obtain one gramme of pure purple dye, Nouira said he had to shell 100 kilogrammes of murex

Secret know-how

"Experts in dyeing, archaeology and history, as well as chemistry, helped and encouraged me, but nobody knew the technique," Nouira said.

No historical documents clearly detail the production methods for the purple pigment, Drine said.

"Maybe because the artisans did not want to divulge the secrets of their know-how, or they were afraid to because the production of purple was directly associated with the emperors, who tolerated no rivalry," he said.

The only clues for unearthing the techniques lie in archaeological sites and artefacts in the Mediterranean, particularly in Tyre in southern Lebanon, and Meninx, on the coast of Tunisia's Djerba island.

Phoenicians from Tyre set down the foundations of what would become the Carthaginian empire on the Tunisian coasts.

Also known as Tyrian purple, the pigment is still highly valued today and is produced by just a handful of people around the world.

They include a German painter and a Japanese enthusiast, each with their own secret techniques.

No historical documents clearly detail the production methods for the purple pigment, Drine said

Among the buyers are collectors, artists and researchers.

The dye can cost $2,800 per gramme from some European traders, and prices can reach up to $4,000, Nouira said.

He said he had produced a total of several dozen grammes of the pure purple dye, which he sells internationally for more modest prices.

'Not a cooking recipe'

Nouira said that when he sought help from other dye-makers, one told him bluntly, "'it's not a cooking recipe to be passed around.'"

"That made me even more determined. It drove me to read more and redouble my efforts."

In a wooden box where he keeps his stock, ranging from indigo blue to violet, Nouira carefully guards a dye sample from 2009—a "dear memento of my first success".

"I improved my methods until I found the right technique and mastered it from 2013-2014," he said.

A symbol of power and prestige, the celebrated purple colour was traditionally used for royal and imperial robes

To obtain one gramme of pure purple dye, Nouira said he had to shell 100 kilogrammes of murex, a task that takes him two weekends.

He washes the marine snails and sorts them by species and size, then carefully breaks the upper part of the shells to extract the gland that, after oxidisation, produces the purple colour.

Nouira said his greatest wish was to see his work exhibited in Tunisian museums.

"Purple has great tourist potential," he added, expressing a desire to one day also conduct workshops.

But he lamented what he said was the authorities' lack of interest in the craft.

In the meantime, he too is keeping his trade secrets close, and said he hoped to pass them on to his children.

"I'm very satisfied, and I'm also proud to have revived something related to our Carthaginian ancestors."


Explore further 

On the trail of purple: Tracking ancient trade routes through purple dye

© 2020 AFP

Police declared a riot at Seattle anti-racism protest and arrested at least 45 people
Carmen Reinicke

Police face off with demonstrators during protests in Seattle on July 25, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. Police and demonstrators clash as protests continue in the city following reports that federal agents may have been sent to the city. David Ryder/ Getty Images

At least 45 people were arrested at an anti-racism march on Saturday, Seattle Police said on Twitter. 

Police declared the march a riot after protesters set fire to a construction site and continued to a local precinct, where at least one person breached its fence line, and a device exploded. 

The crowd also threw bricks, rocks, mortars, and other explosives at officers, according to a police report. 

Twenty-one officers were left with mostly minor injuries following the incident.

At least 45 people were arrested at an anti-racism march in Seattle on Saturday that police declared a riot. In addition, 21 officers were also injured, the Seattle police said on Twitter.

Police clashed with protesters Saturday in what was one of the largest Black Lives Matter protests Seattle has seen in weeks, Reuters reported. The march was also in support of ongoing anti-racism protests, including those in Portland, Oregon, which have seen violent clashes with authorities, according to the BBC.

Police used "less-lethal equipment including OC spray, blast balls, and 40 mm sponge rounds" in an attempt to disperse large crowds after some protesters set fire to a construction site at the King County Youth Service Center and courthouse, according to a police statement.

The group continued to the East Precinct, where at least one person breached the precinct's fence line, and moments later a device exploded, leaving an 8-inch hole in the side of the building, according to a police report. The crowd also threw bricks, rocks, mortars, and other explosives at officers, according to the report.

Police arrested at least 45 people for assaults on officers, failure to disperse, and obstruction. Most of the 21 officers that sustained injuries at the day's events were able to return to duty, while one was treated at a hospital for a knee injury, the police said on Twitter.

On Thursday, the Trump administration sent a team of tactical border officers to Seattle, expanding its pledge to protect federal property that also sent officers to Portland, the New York Times reported.

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best on Saturday called for peace and told reporters she had not seen any of the dispatched officers, the Associated Press reported.

Ann Arbor protesters rally against use of federal agents; police brutality

Updated Jul 25, 2020; Posted Jul 25, 2020

Ann Arbor gathers to protest arrests by federal agents

By Andrew Mullin | amullin@mlive.com

ANN ARBOR, MI – Protesters and politicians gathered around the federal building in Ann Arbor on Saturday to protest against police brutality and federal agents coming to Michigan.

About 200 people showed up to the building at 200 E. Liberty St. to rally against unidentified federal agents being sent to Michigan and to call for police reform. The rally was proceeded by a march through downtown.

White House to send federal agents into Detroit to ‘restore safety’ in U.S. cities

Jeff Gaynor, a retired teacher and current Ann Arbor School Board member, was one of the organizers of the event. He said he felt compelled to organize the rally after he heard about the federal agents in Portland, Oregon.

“The U.S. government action detention of protesters by federal agencies is something I never expected to happen, at least not in this country…,” Gaynor said. “When I saw no other protests in the area, I felt compelled to deal with it.”

While the topic of the federal agents was brought up, police reform was also discussed. Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton, Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor and former Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed were among those giving speeches.

“A chant of ‘defund the police’ means we want to challenge the status quo. That is OK,” Clayton said. “If at the end of the day, we ended up shifting funds somewhere else to help people that have been discriminated in the past, underserved in the past and marginalized in the past, I do not have a problem with that.”

Taylor spoke about the federal agents being used in Portland.

“Under no circumstances will we accept secret police in Portland, in Chicago, in Detroit and never in Ann Arbor,” he said

After the rally, protesters began marching, snaking their way through downtown streets chanting phrases such as “Black Lives Matter”, “Whose streets? Our Streets!” and “This is what democracy looks like.”

At the end of the march, protesters knelt in silence in the middle of the South Division and Liberty streets for eight minutes, 46 seconds, the length of time George Floyd was knelt on and killed by a Minneapolis police officer.

50 PHOTOShttps://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/07/ann-arbor-protesters-rally-against-use-of-federal-agents-police-brutality.html

   

Early Coronavirus chronology after COVID-19 found in Spain from March 2019

Early Coronavirus chronology after COVID-19 found in Spain from March 2019

Wikipedia

Coronavirus fact check chronology

Very interesting development that a strain of the Covid-19 virus — SARS-CoV-2 — has been discovered in a frozen sample of sewage in Barcelona dating from 12th March 2019, indicating (as some scientists have posited) that the virus was already circulating the world before exploding so virulently in Wuhan in December 2019.

America needs to provide an explanation as to why they were able to brief NATO and Israel about the coming pandemic in November but failed to warn China in the middle of a vicious trade war. In a bonfire of the virus protection measures: Trump disbanded in May 2018 the pandemic team set up by Obama, slashed their Beijing CDC office until no staff remained by July 2019, threatened to pull out of WHO and defunded research.

This, of course, means that NATO member Britain was fully in the frame having being tipped off about the virus even before China. However, despite still messing up its handling of the outbreak at home, it is nevertheless prepared to scapegoat China at the behest of the Trump administration. Very noble, chaps. So glad to see we took back control!

To bolster Trump's accusations of tardiness, there are still claims  –  which I thought had long been put to bed – that China suppressed its whistleblower doctors. Of course, early fumbles with the novel coronavirus, and taking less than five weeks from initial discovery to full-on national lockdown and eventual eradication of the virus, can hardly compete in the criminal negligence stakes with America's six months of paralysis.

In a full frontal attack on Age of Enlightenment fact-based science, Trump went medieval on our collective ass. For tales of suppression of doctors, you need only look at the attacks on Dr Anthony Fauci, the World Health Organisation, hospital workers who warn about lack of PPE and scientists working with China in vital research, such as Dr Peter Daszak whose crucial work was defunded. The treatment of the Seattle doctor who realised, "It's just everywhere" in January is a case in point.

So to clarify the chronology of the virus's discovery in China, the following is gleaned from the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, WHO, Xinhua, Asia Review, Read Passage, The Lancet and others.

An "odd" lung infection is noted in the Wuhan hospital 18th December.

Dr Zhang Jixian sees a sick family 26th December and on 27th December, she reports the unusual pneumonia to her hospital boss and local health authority in Wuhan. The provincial CDC then initiates full scale research at the hospital.

By 30th December, the Wuhan Municipal Health Committee (WMHC) notifies its medical institutions. “The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued an urgent notification to medical institutions under its jurisdiction, ordering efforts to appropriately treat patients with pneumonia of unknown cause.” (Xinhua)

On the same day, 30 December, Dr Ai Fen sends private message mentioning SARS to other doctors which is seen by opthalmologist Dr Li Wenliang.

Li sends a private WeChat message warning a group of eight medical colleagues incorrectly that it could be SARS and includes patients' private medical information - from there it goes viral. He is reprimanded by police on 3rd January and told to sign a pledge he won't do it again. (He tragically catches Covid-19 from a patient and dies 7th February.)

The WMHC issues a public notification on its Weibo account on 31st December when CCTV, CGTN and Reuters carry the story.

Same day, 31st Dec, China receives genome results from a commercial lab - the WHO is told (and then formally briefed 3rd Jan). US CDC learn from the 31st Dec reports and begin development reports for HHS on Jan 1st.

2nd Jan the WHO activates their incident management system.

On 3rd January, the US CDC chief Redfield talks to China's CDC chief, Guo. Redfield tells Azar who then tells the White House and instructs his chief of staff to share the Chinese report with the national security council.

The virus genome is identified, sequenced and shared internationally in record time by 12th January.

China's genuine biggest blunder allows a public banquet in Wuhan to go ahead on 18th January. Local officials are later disciplined and sacked.

Evidence for human to human transmission is confirmed 20th January.

Wuhan lockdown begins 23rd Jan when its air traffic is stopped. Two 1,000 bed emergency hospitals for confirmed cases are built in 10 days.

Complete China lockdown begins 1st February.

China reopens 76 days later having eradicated the virus but cautiously leaving the system in place to deal with flare-ups. It had a total of 86,000 cases with 4,653 deaths, most in Hubei.

Trump golfs with Brett Favre — as coronavirus deaths approach 150,000: report

TRUMP BEATS JONESTOWN RECORD
Published  July 25, 2020 By Bob Brigham


President Donald Trump reportedly golfed on Saturday while on vacation at his Bedminster resort in New Jersey.

Deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere reportedly told Reuters correspondent Steve Holland that Trump was golfing with retired quarterback Brett Favre.

HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte has been closely tracking the amount of presidential time and taxpayer dollars devoted to Trump’s hobby.

“He has now spent 262 days on a golf course he owns in his 1,283 days in office,” Dáte reported. “It is his 81st day at Bedminster.” By Dáte’s calculations, taxpayers have now spent $139.8 million on Trump’s golf habit

Trump’s latest round of golf occurred as coronavirus continues to devastate America, with total fatalities approaching 150,000.


GOLF UPDATE — 25 JULY 2020:

Trump is back at his golf course in New Jersey.

He has now spent 262 days on a golf course he owns in his 1,283 days in office.

It is his 81st day at Bedminster.

Taxpayer-paid golf tab rises to $139.8 million.https://t.co/2nZJqTDg1h

— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) July 25, 2020

1,171 Coronavirus deaths were reported in the US on Friday. The 7-day average went up to 886 deaths per day. The 7-day average was 574 deaths per day one month ago. (It was 483 on July 4.)

It was the fourth straight day over 1,000 deaths, the first time since May 20-23. pic.twitter.com/uOqGgHCGe6
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) July 25, 2020

https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1287136700540444672

‘Men hide behind their wives’: DHS chief faces protest at home after agents storm Portland
Published July 26, 2020 By David Edwards

Neighbors of acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf came to his home to protest on Sunday after his agency clashed with demonstrators in Portland, Oregon.

According to writer Julia Rosas, the group of neighbors assembled outside Wolf’s home because they oppose the use of force against protesters in Portland.

One woman, who described herself as Wolf’s neighbor, complained that powerful men and women often face no consequences for misbehavior.

“We know there are no career consequences for these men and women,” she explained. “We know there are no financial consequences for these men and women. We know there are no legal consequences for these men and women. We must make social consequences for these men and women. We must make it uncomfortable for them.”

“We will not be good Germans!” the neighbor continued. “We will not be the people who watched our neighbors commit these atrocities and said nothing because their kids were home, because they were polite.

She added: “What has been made more clear than ever is that men hide behind their wives, behind their children!”

Wolf and his family were reportedly not at home at the time of the event.

Watch the video below.
One speaker at the protest outside of Sec. Chad Wolf’s home complains how there’s no financial, career, and legal consequences for people like him. Says there must be social/political consequences: “[Wolf] lives here quietly…and we need to do something about that.” pic.twitter.com/b47dUrKFrB
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) July 26, 2020

MAJORITY OF DUTCH WANT FACE MASKS MANDATORY IN PUBLIC

By Zack Newmark on Sunday, 26 July 2020 - 11:51

Doctor's hand holding a surgical mask in front of the Dutch flagAlexanderPiragisDepositPhotosDeposit Photos

The weekly survey from political pollster Maurice de Hond showed that 55 percent of people in the Netherlands want face masks to be made mandatory within indoor public spaces. The mandate would have broad support from people across the political spectrum, except for those backing far right wing nationalist parties.

The survey was conducted after public health agency RIVM revealed that the number of positive tests for the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus had soared during the third week of July. The virus can cause respiratory illness Covid-19, which has caused over 6,100 deaths in the Netherlands and nearly 12 thousand hospitalizations.

De Hond's poll showed that 49 percent of those voting for the conservative VVD, the party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, were in favor of a strict mask rule. The coalition parties were also largely in favor of the mandate, with 63 percent of CDA voters, 58 percent of both D66 and CU voters signaling their approval.

The left wing opposition supporters also largely wanted to see the stricter face mask rule come into play. Some 64 percent of Labour (PvdA) voters were in favor, as well as 58 percent of both GroenLinks and Socialist Party (SP) backers. The party courting the elderly vote, 50Plus, showed 67 percent support, while animal rights party PvdD were level with the VVD at 49 percent.

Nationalist supporters of the FvD were less enthusiastic, with 40 percent in open to the face mask law. Those polling for the PVV showed 36 percent approval.

The percentage of undecideds was not revealed, and it was not clear how many people took part in the poll.

A separate survey of 24 thousand people by television program EenVandaag found that 67 percent of people were in favor of face masks being required in indoor spaces, with 60 percent also saying face masks help build awareness of the ongoing public health crisis.

Still, 53 percent said it would not likely improve others' participation in social distancing. The television poll also showed that just 37 percent said they supported a the government requiring people to wear a mask outdoors.