New Study Identifies Neanderthal Ancestry In African Populations And Describes Its Origin

We're all a little more Neanderthal than we thought: Study claims ancient Europeans introduced Neanderthal DNA to African populations 30,000 years ago

• Study found the first conclusive evidence for Neanderthal DNA in Africans  
• Neanderthal DNA previously only found in Americans, Europeans and Asians  
• Neanderthals and humans hybridised after Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa 
• Ancient Europeans descended from these events then migrated back into Africa
• Mating between these European migrants and native Africans passed trace amounts of Neanderthal DNA into their genes  

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE 

PUBLISHED: 11:00 EST, 30 January 2020 | UPDATED: 03:08 EST, 31 January 2020

Scientists have found, for the first time, conclusive evidence that Neanderthal DNA exists in modern-day Africans. 

A new study by Princeton University reveals that African people — who were previously thought to have no Neanderthal DNA — got around 0.3 per cent of their genes from our ancient ancestors. 

African people obtained a sliver of Neanderthal DNA after breeding with humans, who migrated to Africa from Europe around 30,000 years ago.  

Ancestors of these Europeans are known to have bred with Neanderthals around 20,000 years earlier, providing an indirect pathway for Neanderthal DNA into Africans. 

The new study shows that native Europeans, Asians, Africans and Americans all have some Neanderthal DNA - and non-Africans have even more than previously assumed.  

Scroll down for video 

Study finds previous assumptions that Africans did not breed with Neanderthals direct

ly are true, but they inadvertently received Neanderthal DNA from those who originated in parts of the world whose ancestors had mated with Neanderthals (pictured, the two stages which led to Neanderthal DNA being found in Africans)

 

Neanderthals disappeared around 40,000 years ago but their DNA lives on in modern humans thanks to interbreeding between the two species (file photo)

TIMELINE OF HOW NEANDERTHAL DNA REACHED AFRICA

100,000 years ago - A large wave of migration out of Africa occurred

50,000 years ago - Parts of this Homo sapiens population mated with Neanderthals  

DNA from Neanderthals was then passed down the generations, becoming steadily more diluted 

30,000 years ago - European and East Asian populations split 

Some Europeans then migrated back into Africa where they mated with native Africans 

Neanderthal DNA was then passed into future generations of Africans from the European lineage  

Dr Aaron Wolf, study author from the University of Washington, told MailOnline: 'We believe a large portion of the Neanderthal ancestry in African populations is due to historic back-migration from an ancestral European population into Africa.'

Around 100,000 years ago, a large wave of migration out of Africa occurred, from which the vast majority of modern non-African populations are descended.

Parts of this population interbred with Neanderthals - around 50,000 years ago - and passed Neanderthal DNA onto today's human populations. 

'We believe some of this Neanderthal carrying non-African population returned to Africa, and introduced Neanderthal DNA into African populations,' said Dr Wolf.

'Importantly, we believe this happened after the split of the European and East Asian populations (~30,000 years ago).' 

Scientists identified regions of Neanderthal ancestry in Africans for the first time by identifying, on average, 17 megabases (Mb) of Neanderthal DNA per individual.

This corresponds to approximately 0.3 per cent of the African peoples' genome stemming from the Neanderthals, who went extinct around 40,000 years ago.  

This is significantly less than the levels of Neanderthal ancestry in Europeans (51 Mb/individual), East Asians (55 Mb/individual), and South Asians (55 Mb/individual). 

East Asians, who were thought to have 20 per cent more Neanderthal DNA than Europeans, actually only have 8 per cent more, the scientists discovered.  

'This suggests that most of the Neanderthal ancestry that individuals have today can be traced back to a common hybridisation event involving the population ancestral to all non-Africans, occurring shortly after the Out-of-Africa dispersal,' Dr Joshua Akey of Princeton University and study author says.  

The study confirms previous assumptions that Africans did not breed with Neanderthals directly.

However, it shows that they inadvertently received Neanderthal DNA from those who originated in parts of the world whose ancestors had mated with Neanderthals.

'I am struck by the fact that we often conceptualise human history in very simple terms,' Dr Akey says. 

'For example, we often imagine there was a single dispersal out of Africa that happened 60,000 to 80,000 years ago that led to the peopling of the world. 

'However, our results show this history was much more interesting and there were many waves of dispersal out of Africa, some of which led to admixture between modern humans and Neanderthals that we see in the genomes of all living individuals today.' 

WHO WERE THE NEANDERTHALS?

The Neanderthals were a close human ancestor that mysteriously died out around 50,000 years ago.

The species lived in Africa with early humans for hundreds of millennia before moving across to Europe around 500,000 years ago.

They were later joined by humans taking the same journey some time in the past 100,000 years. 

The Neanderthals were a cousin species of humans but not a
direct ancestor - the two species split from a common ancestor
 -  that perished around 50,000 years ago. 
Pictured is a Neanderthal museum exhibit

These were the original 'cavemen', historically thought to be dim-witted and brutish compared to modern humans.

In recent years though, and especially over the last decade, it has become increasingly apparent we've been selling Neanderthals short.

A growing body of evidence points to a more sophisticated and multi-talented kind of 'caveman' than anyone thought possible.

It now seems likely that Neanderthals buried their dead with the concept of an afterlife in mind.

Additionally, their diets and behaviour were surprisingly flexible.

They used body art such as pigments and beads, and they were the very first artists, with Neanderthal cave art (and symbolism) in Spain apparently predating the earliest modern human art by some 20,000 years.

 African people — who were previously thought to have no
Neanderthal DNA — got 0.3 per cent of their genes from our
 ancient ancestors. This breakthrough means scientists have
now discovered native Europeans, Asians, Africans and
Americans all have some Neanderthal DNA

In a study published in the journal Cell, Princeton University researchers used a computational method, called IBDmix, to assess the DNA of 2,504 modern Africans and non-Africans. 

The method looks for sections of DNA in two individuals that is identical which implies they once shared a common ancestor.  

Co-first author Lu Chen, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton's Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics (LSI), said: 'This is the first time we can detect the actual signal of Neanderthal ancestry in Africans. 

'And it surprisingly showed a higher level than we previously thought.' 

Scientists then used the principle of IBD — identity by descent — to identify Neanderthal DNA in the human genome.  

The new method uses characteristics of the Neanderthal sequence itself to distinguish shared ancestry from recent interbreeding. 

Researchers were able to identify Neanderthal ancestry in Africans for the first time and estimate that Europeans and Asians to have more equal levels of Neanderthal ancestry than previously thought. 

It adds that some of the detected Neanderthal ancestry in Africans was actually due to human DNA introduced into the Neanderthal genome.  

While researchers acknowledged the limited number of African populations they analysed, they hope their new method and their findings will encourage more study of Neanderthal ancestry across Africa and other populations. 

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HUMANKIND'S JOURNEY OUT OF AFRICA?

The traditional view

The traditional 'Out of Africa' model suggests that modern humans evolved in Africa and then left in a single wave around 60,000 years ago. 

The model often holds once modern humans left the continent, a brief period of interbreeding with Neanderthals occurred.

This explains why individuals of European and Asian heritage today still have ancient human DNA.

There are many theories as to what drove the downfall of the Neanderthals.

Experts have suggested that early humans may have carried tropical diseases with them from Africa that wiped out their ape-like cousins.

Others claim that plummeting temperatures due to climate change wiped out the Neanderthals.

The predominant theory is that early humans killed off the Neanderthal through competition for food and habitat.

How the story is changing in light of new research

Recent findings suggest that the 'Out of Africa' theory does not tell the full story of our ancestors.

Instead, multiple, smaller movements of humans out of Africa beginning 120,000 years ago were then followed by a major migration 60,000 years ago.

Most of our DNA is made up of this latter group, but the earlier migrations, also known as 'dispersals', are still evident.

This explains recent studies of early human remains which have been found in the far reaches of Asia dating back further than 60,000 years.

For example, H. sapiens remains have been found at multiple sites in southern and central China that have been dated to between 70,000 and 120,000 years ago.

Other recent finds show that modern humans reached Southeast Asia and Australia prior to 60,000 years ago.

Based on these studies, humans could not have come in a single wave from Africa around this time, studies have found. 

Instead, the origin of man suggests that modern humans developed in multiple regions around the world.

The theory claims that groups of a pre-human ancestors made their way out of Africa and spread across parts of Europe and the Middle East.

From here the species developed into modern humans in several places at once. 

The argument is by a new analysis of a 260,000-year-old skull found in Dali County in China's Shaanxi Province.

The skull suggests that early humans migrated to Asia, where they evolved modern human traits and then moved back to Africa. 

New Study Identifies Neanderthal Ancestry In African Populations And Describes Its Origin

When the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced, using DNA collected from ancient bones, it was accompanied by the discovery that modern humans in Asia, Europe and America inherited approximately 2% of their DNA from Neanderthals -- proving humans and Neanderthals had interbred after humans left Africa. Since that study, new methods have continued to catalogue Neanderthal ancestry in non-African populations, seeking to better understand human history and the effects of Neanderthal DNA on human health and disease. A comparable catalogue of Neanderthal ancestry in African populations, however, has remained an acknowledged blind spot for the field due to technical constraints and the assumption that Neanderthals and ancestral African populations were geographically isolated from each other.

A team of Princeton researchers led by Joshua Akey found that that African individuals
have considerably more Neanderthal ancestry than previously thought, which was
 only observable through the development of new methods
[Credit: Matilda Luk, Princeton University]

In a paper published in the journal Cell, a team of Princeton researchers detailed a new computational method for detecting Neanderthal ancestry in the human genome. Their method, called IBDmix, enabled them for the first time to search for Neanderthal ancestry in African populations as well as non-African ones. The project was led by Joshua Akey, a professor in Princeton's Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics (LSI).

"This is the first time we can detect the actual signal of Neanderthal ancestry in Africans," said co-first author Lu Chen, a postdoctoral research associate in LSI. "And it surprisingly showed a higher level than we previously thought," she said.

The method the Princeton researchers developed, IBDmix, draws its name from the genetic principle "identity by descent" (IBD), in which a section of DNA in two individuals is identical because those individuals once shared a common ancestor. The length of the IBD segment depends on how long ago those individuals shared a common ancestor. For example, siblings share long IBD segments because their shared ancestor (a parent) is only one generation removed. Alternatively, fourth cousins share shorter IBD segments because their shared ancestor (a third-great grandparent) is several generations removed.

The Princeton team leveraged the principle of IBD to identify Neanderthal DNA in the human genome by distinguishing sequences that look similar to Neanderthals because we once shared a common ancestor in the very distant past (~500,000 years ago), from those that look similar because we interbred in the more recent present (~50,000 years ago). Previous methods relied on "reference populations" to aid the distinction of shared ancestry from recent interbreeding, usually African populations believed to carry little or no Neanderthal DNA. However, this reliance could bias estimates of Neanderthal ancestry depending on which reference population was used.

The Princeton researchers termed IBDmix a "reference free method" because it does not use an African reference population. Instead, IBDmix uses characteristics of the Neanderthal sequence itself, like the frequency of mutations or the length of the IBD segments, to distinguish shared ancestry from recent interbreeding. The researchers were therefore able to identify Neanderthal ancestry in Africans for the first time and make new estimates of Neanderthal ancestry in non-Africans, which showed Europeans and Asians to have more equal levels than previously described.

Kelley Harris, a population geneticist at the University of Washington who was not involved in the study, noted that the new estimates of Neanderthal ancestry using IBDmix highlight the technical problem in methods reliant on reference panels. "We might have to go back and revisit a bunch of results from the published literature and evaluate whether the same technical issue has been throwing off our understanding of gene flow in other species," she said.

In addition to identifying Neanderthal ancestry in African populations, the researchers described two revelations about the origin of the Neanderthal sequences. First, they determined that the Neanderthal ancestry in Africans was not due to an independent interbreeding event between Neanderthals and African populations. Based on features of the data, the research team concluded that migrations from ancient Europeans back into Africa introduced Neanderthal ancestry into African populations.

Second, by comparing data from simulations of human history to data from real people, the researchers determined that some of the detected Neanderthal ancestry in Africans was actually due to human DNA introduced into the Neanderthal genome. The authors emphasized that this human-to-Neanderthal gene flow involved an early dispersing group of humans out of Africa, occurring at least 100,000 years ago -- before the Out-of-Africa migration responsible for modern human colonization of Europe and Asia and before the interbreeding event that introduced Neanderthal DNA into modern humans. The finding reaffirmed that hybridization between humans and closely related species was a recurrent part of our evolutionary history.

While the Princeton researchers acknowledged the limited number of African populations they were able to analyze, they hope their new method and their findings will encourage more study of Neanderthal ancestry across Africa and other populations. Regarding the overall significance of the research, Chen said: "This demonstrates the remnants of Neanderthal genomes survive in every modern human population studied to date."

Source: Cell Press [January 30, 2020]




NEANDERTHALS 
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=NEANDERTHALS

Fire of the sea: Mesmerising footage of bioluminescent ALGAE glowing bright blue as photographer runs his hands through water off the coast of Australia

• Jordan Robin, 26, recorded the phenomenon at Plantation Point in Jervis Bay
• This rare event only occurs on the shoreline there once or twice each year 
• It is caused by tiny organisms dubbed 'sea sparkle' that glow when disturbed
• Otherwise the microscopic creatures cause the water to look reddish instead

By IAN RANDALL FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 08:38 EST, 30 January 2020 | UPDATED: 10:01 EST, 30 January 2020

Mesmerising footage shows the moment bioluminescent algae glow bright blue as a photographer runs his hand through sea water off the coast of Australia.

Jordan Robin, 26, captured the gorgeous natural phenomenon which he found taking place at Plantation Point in Jervis Bay, on Australia's east coast.

The rare event — which only happens there once or twice a year — is caused by a microscopic organisms dubbed 'sea sparkle' that glow when disturbed.

In the video, the award-winning photographer can be seen moving his hand through the water, which triggers the algae to glow with an eerie, bright blue light.

'This rare occurrence only usually happens once or twice a year,' said Mr Robin, who hails from New South Wales, Australia.

'The video was taken on the 14th of January 2020.' 
'What can be seen as a red tide during the day, the microalgae Noctiluca scintillans produces a bright blue glow at night, like seen in the video,' Mr Robin added.

Commonly called the 'sea sparkle', 'sea ghost' or 'fire of the sea', Noctiluca scintillans is a microscopic single-celled organism.

Each individual Noctiluca scintillans is around 0.02 inches (0.5 millimetres) in diameter and has a tentacle-like 'flagellum' that helps it eat plankton.


The microscopic creatures bob around in the water column, regulating their buoyancy in order to move up and down.

Jordan Robin, 26, captured the gorgeous natural phenomenon which he found taking place at Plantation Point in Jervis Bay, on Australia's east coast



The rare event ¿ which only happens there once or twice a year ¿ is caused by a microscopic organisms dubbed 'sea sparkle' that glow when disturbed



In his video, the 26-year-old award-winning photographer can be seen moving his hand through the water, which triggers the algae to glow with an eerie, bright blue light


'This rare occurrence only usually happens once or twice a year,' said Mr Robin, who hails from New South Wales, Australia. 'The video was taken on the 14th of January 2020,' he added


'What can be seen as a red tide during the day, the microalgae Noctiluca scintillans produces a bright blue glow at night, like seen in the video,' Mr Robin said



Pictured, Noctiluca scintillans as seen under a microscope



Commonly called the 'sea sparkle', 'sea ghost' or 'fire of the sea', Noctiluca scintillans is a microscopic single-celled organism


Each individual Noctiluca scintillans is around 0.02 inches (0.5 millimetres) in diameter and has a tentacle-like 'flagellum' that helps it eat plankton



The microscopic creatures bob around in the water column, regulating their buoyancy in order to move up and down


Jordan Robin, 26, captured the gorgeous natural phenomenon which he found taking place at Plantation Point in Jervis Bay, on Australia's east coast

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT SO-CALLED 'SEA SPARKLE'? 

Commonly called the 'sea sparkle', 'sea ghost' or 'fire of the sea', Noctiluca scintillans is a microscopic single-celled organism.

They can appear as a red tide in the daytime but when disturbed, however, they glow bright blue.

In high enough numbers, this effect can even be detected by satellites orbiting the Earth.

This phenomenon is called the 'milky seas effect', or 'mareel' — as derived from the Old Norse for 'sea fire'.

Each individual Noctiluca scintillans is around 0.02 inches (0.5 millimetres) in diameter and has a tentacle-like 'flagellum' that helps it eat plankton.

The microscopic creatures bob around in the water column, regulating their buoyancy in order to move up and down. 

They are found widely distributed across the world's oceans. 

Engineers develop a 'lava-like' material similar to the highly radioactive molten nuclear fuel created during the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters to investigate ways to clean up the ruined power station sites

• Lava-like Fuel Containing Materials (LFCM) were created in nuclear meltdown
• Contain highly-radioactive nuclear fuel mixed with reactor building materials
• This molten material spread throughout the reactor site and is 'truly unique'
• Little is known about the material and scientists don't know how to remove it 
• Creating a structure that behaves similarly will allow for the development of techniques and robots to help neutralise the material 

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE   PUBLISHED: 30 January 2020

A substance has been made in a laboratory which mimics an extremely dangerous material created during the nuclear reactor disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima.

The material is intentionally similar to the Lava-like Fuel Containing Materials (LFCMs) created by the extreme and unique conditions only found during a nuclear meltdown. 

Researchers from the University of Sheffield say it is so radioactive it cannot be safely studied and its properties remain a mystery to scientists.  

This means it cannot be removed from the sites and is therefore obstructing decommission efforts and posing an ongoing radiological risk to the environment.

The artificial version is similar in its structure and properties to the enigmatic original material, which means it behaves in a similar way but is safe to use.

Scientists hope this material can aid in the creation of tools and processes to help rid the sites of LFCMs and aid in decommissioning them.   

Scientists believe they can help clean up Chernobyl and Fukushima

A substance has been made in a laboratory (pictured) which mimics an extremely dangerous material created during the nuclear reactor disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima. The material is intentionally similar to the Lava-like Fuel Containing Materials (LFCMs)

The 100-ton mass of the glass-like lava at Chernobyl spread to sub-reactor rooms, solidifying in large masses and creating, among other things, the infamous 'elephants foot' (pictured)

Researchers from the University of Chernobyl created a material designed to replicate the highly-radioactive rocks created in unique conditions to form Lava-like Fuel Containing Materials (LFCMs). Pictured, a Chernobyl rock

Chernobyl's catastrophic meltdown on April 26, 1986 'caused 31 direct deaths and a mass evacuation from a 30-km exclusion zone surrounding the reactor, that remains in place today', the authors write in their study, published today in the journal Nature Materials Degradation.

The formation of LFCMs at Chernobyl is well-known and the problems they pose are well documented. 

LFCMs are a mixture of highly radioactive molten nuclear fuel and building materials that fuse together.

For example, during the meltdown of Chernobyl's reactor core, temperatures exceeded 1600°C and the uranium fuel melted with the zirconium cladding.

This formed a radioactive molten mush that remained at an extremely high temperature. Propelled by its own weight, it then mixed with steel, concrete, serpentine and sand.

The 100-ton mass of the glass-like lava then spread to sub-reactor rooms, solidifying in large masses and creating, among other things, the infamous  'elephants foot'.

The researchers say there are relatively few samples of meltdown materials available for study and creating an artificial version is the best option. 

Dr Claire Corkhill from the University of Sheffield's Department of Materials Science and Engineering said: 'Understanding the mechanical, thermal and chemical properties of the materials created in a nuclear meltdown is critical to help retrieve them, for example, if we don't know how hard they are, how can we create the radiation-resistant robots required to cut them

The team of researchers developed the material in the lab to try and imitate the 'truly unique nuclear materials' at the centre of Chernobyl and Fukushima. 

They have a similar internal structure (as confirmed by scanning electron images), composition and behaviour to the real thing.   

Researchers suspect LFCMs have also formed at the site of Fukushima's doomed nuclear power plant, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 2011. 

It killed more than 21,000 people and the reactor is now still submerged in water used to cool the melted core.

Dr Corkhill is collaborating with researchers at the University of Tokyo and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency to see what happens to the highly radioactive dust that billows out from the surface of LFCM when water is removed. 

Dr Corkhill added: ''Thanks to this research, we now have a much lower radioactivity simulant meltdown material to investigate, which is safe for our collaborators in Ukraine and Japan to research without the need for radiation shielding. 

'Ultimately this will help advance the decommissioning operations at Chernobyl and also at Fukushima too.'

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE 1986 CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER? 

On April 26, 1986 a power station on the outskirts of Pripyat suffered a massive accident in which one of the reactors caught fire and exploded, spreading radioactive material into the surroundings.

More than 160,000 residents of the town and surrounding areas had to be evacuated and have been unable to return, leaving the former Soviet site as a radioactive ghost town.

+5

 A map of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is pictured above. The 'ghost town' of Pripyat sits nearby the site of the disaster

The exclusion zone, which covers a substantial area in Ukraine and some of bordering Belarus, will remain in effect for generations to come, until radiation levels fall to safe enough levels.

The region is called a 'dead zone' due to the extensive radiation which persists. 

However, the proliferation of wildlife in the area contradicts this and many argue that the region should be given over to the animals which have become established in the area - creating a radioactive protected wildlife reserve.

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REAL VERSUS SIMULANT CHERNOBYL LAVA 

 PROPERTY

UO2% 

DENSITY

MELT TEMP (°C)  

 REAL

7.8 

 1.8 – 3.5 g/cm3  

 ~1,450

SIMULANT 

8

3.054 g/cm3 

 1280 

THE PRESIDENTS MEN IN THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL RAISED CROWDSTRIKE

CANADA WINTER FORECAST 2019-2020

Trump’s border wall, vulnerable to flash floods, needs large storm gates left open for months

Border wall construction continues outside Douglas, Ariz. Gaps in the new border fence indicate where washes and other construction challenges appear along the border. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Post)

The wall at the southern border likely will need hundreds of storm gates that must be kept open every summer, said officials, agents and engineers. The open, unmanned gates already have allowed smugglers and migrants to enter easily.

• By Nick Miroff

THE ABOVE STORY IS BEHIND A PAYWALL HERE IS A PORTION OF IT

Trump’s border wall collapsed in the wind — now questions raised about what happens when it rainsJanuary 30, 2020 By Sarah K. Burris


Just this week a part of President Donald Trump’s border wall collapsed under heavy winds. It highlighted one of the obstacles to Trump’s Mexico border barrier.

Ironically, the threat of climate change will be brutal on Trump’s wall. Flash flooding, high winds, hurricanes and other storms, and dramatic swings in temperature can ultimately make the wall more susceptible to issues.

The Washington Post reported that the Trump border barrier project will require the installation of hundreds of large storm gates that will remain open for months every summer to keep the border wall from being damaged or falling over.

Lee Baiza, who was previously the park superintendent for the Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument explained that the president’s border project will further increase the risk for flood damage, because the work crews have loosened dirt, plants and rock along the road, which can be more easily carried away in floodwaters.

“It’s a fragile environment, so if you go drive across that country you will loosen up the soil and brush,” the Post quoted Baiza. “The more activity, the more it gets run over, the more debris you create.”

“Another section of border barrier toppled in 2014 near Nogales, Ariz., when U.S. agents failed to open the floodgates in time, sending mud and stones into nearby homes,” the report explained. “And in 2008, two people in the Mexican city of Nogales, just across the border, were killed in catastrophic flash floods that inflicted millions of dollars in damage, with some of the blame falling on a Border Patrol project that placed bars into cross-border culverts intended to block illegal crossings.”

Having open gates to protect against flooding for months on end poses questions about the function of the wall itself. Read the full report from the Washington Post

A newly-built chunk of Trump's new border wall blew over in heavy wind and landed in Mexico
insider@insider.com (Rosie Perper), Business Insider•January 29, 2020

Part of Trump's new border wall blew over into Mexico
VIDEO https://news.yahoo.com/video/part-trumps-border-wall-blew-130039914.html
The fallen length of wall was around 130 feet 

A portion of President Donald Trump's border wall blew over onto the Mexican side due to strong winds, according to NBC News-affiliate KYMA.

Video of the event showed the border wall section swaying in the wind as crews tried to stabilize it.

The section of the wall was under construction as part of Trump's signature policy. It replaced existing wall rather than extending the overall coverage any further.


A Customs and Border Protection agent told CNN that the wall was newly installed and had been set in concrete that had not yet cured.


Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A portion of President Donald Trump's border wall blew in strong winds and fell into Mexico, according to NBC News-affiliate KYMA.

The border wall collapsed around midday local time on Wednesday, and landed on a row of trees, according to police in Mexicali, a town on the Mexico-California border.
 

Mexicali map Google Maps/Business Insider

The fallen length of wall was around 130 feet long.

Agent Carlos Pitones of the Customs and Border Protection sector in El Centro, California, told CNN that the wall was newly installed and had been set in concrete that had not yet hardened.

According to CNN, the National Weather Service recorded wind gusts up to 37 mph when the wall fell down.

Video showed the border wall section swaying in the wind as crews tried to stabilize it.

—Qasim Rashid for Congress (@QasimRashid) January 30, 2020

It was being put up as part of Trump's signature policy to reinforce and extend the physical barrier diving Mexico from the US.

His original ambition to swiftly erect a full new barrier along the entire 1,954-mile border has been repeatedly scaled back.

This section of wall was being built to replace a part of the border that already exists.

According to KYMA, nobody appears to have been hurt by the collapse.

In January, the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration was preparing to divert $7.2 billion from the Pentagon's budget to pay for wall-building.

Trump replaced a decaying portion of the border partition with a 14-mile stretch of 18- to 30-foot slatted fence in September.

When Trump visited the $147-million border wall replacement project in Otay Mesa, California, he called the design "amazing" and signed his name in Sharpie pen.

But Trump's border plans have faced criticism both for their cost and effectiveness.

A video that went viral in December showed people easily sliding down the border wall slats like a fireman's pole before running away as a Border Patrol vehicle pulls up.

Other videos have emerged showing people as young as eight-years-old scaling an 18-foot replica of the wall. One man was able to climb while juggling.

Read the original article on Business Insider

‘I don’t believe this anymore’: What it’s like to escape an abusive, right-wing religion 

(AMERICAN HOMEGROWN PROTESTANT EVANGELICAL FUNDAMENTALISTS)
January 31, 2020 By Valerie Tarico- Commentary


Americans are leaving their religions at a faster rate than ever before, and that means more are looking for help with the transition. People who are casually religious may walk away and not look back. But for others religion is at the very heart of their identity, worldview and community, and having a safe place to process doubts can be a metaphorical godsend.

“Reclaimers,” people who are actively working to rebuild their lives after a period of religious immersion, may struggle with harmful ideas and emotions from the beliefs they once held or the behavior of fellow believers. Alternately, they may find that leaving is lonely and disorienting. Marlene Winell, a human development consultant who assists people leaving their religion, coined the term Religious Trauma Syndrome to describe a pattern she saw in some clients, in particular those leaving closed, authoritarian, fear-based communities. But even doubters who don’t experience this level of distress may find themselves feeling confused, afraid, self-doubting or overwhelmed.

Since 2009, a small nonprofit called Recovering From Religion, has worked to serve this population by establishing peer support groups, organizing “Recovering Your Sexuality” classes, and providing a matchmaking service for clients seeking therapists who are committed to a secular approach. In March, Recovering From Religion launched a hotline, 1-84-I-DoubtIt, staffed by a cadre of volunteers trained in listening and crisis triage techniques. From years of daily emails and calls to their office, the staff knew there was an unmet need. Even so, they were caught off guard by the response—over 1,000 calls in the first six weeks.

In this interview, Sarah Morehead, executive director of Recovering From Religion, talks about why her work is a personal passion and about the recovery hotline itself.

Valerie Tarico: Your commitment to supporting people in religious transitions comes from your own transition, which started with you as a life-long member of the Southern Baptist Convention and ended with you as an atheist.

Sarah Morehead: Yes. It was a long journey. Twelve years ago, I separated from my Promise Keeper husband. He had been violent toward me, but when he turned that on our kids, it was over for me. I found myself strapped financially, and in desperation I went to the benevolence committee at my church and asked for $600 to help pay the bills. This was a huge, successful mega-church, and the benevolence committee was their mechanism for helping members in need. The committee—all men—said they needed to pray about my request, and that regardless I needed to go to counseling about how to be a more godly wife so that I could lead my husband back to Christ through my submissiveness. They said this even though they knew he was physically abusive. Then, after praying, they let me know that Jesus wasn’t keen on them giving me the money.

As I was leaving I pushed open the church door and bumped into someone etching decorations on the outside, and I had an odd thought. I had just heard that God didn’t want me to have the $600 but this etching on the doors was totally cool with him. I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but that was the point that it stopped adding up. You question one piece and then another and then another. Eventually my conscience outweighed my creedal viewpoint.

VT: The heart of your Christianity was belief in God and his word and your relationship to Jesus. But this question of compassion and support is what rattled you and created that first crack.

SM: It was a combination—the disorienting lack of support on the inside and then equally disorienting support from an outsider. We had neighbors, two men who lived caddy-corner across the alley. We kept our children away from their children because they had a flag that I thought was satanic. Now I know it was just pagan. They would have bonfires in their back yard, and it was terrifying to me.

After I got home from the church, there was a knock at the door and it was one of the guys from across the alley way. He said, “We don’t talk much but I know there’s a lot going on for you guys and here is a casserole.” It was one of the more surreal moments in my life. I remember standing there and in my mind asking God what he was trying to tell me. Would Satan tempt me through the kindness of macaroni and cheese?

Our homeschool support groups pulled away when they heard of the divorce, and then when they learned I wasn’t going to that church anymore they stopped letting their kids hang out with my kids. It was very isolating and scary because I didn’t know anyone, other than the neighbor I had met, who had really survived this idea of reconsidering religion.

VT: You were really on your own.

SM: The only people who had the courage to say that they didn’t have all of the answers were this couple, who as it turned out were gay—of course they were, but it took me a while to figure that out because they couldn’t be gay because they were nice and gay people were pedophiles.

VT: So there you were, trying to juggle the loss of your faith and your entire community, while taking care of your children, who were also dealing with abandonment.

SM: The loss of my faith wasn’t all at once, as it isn’t for many people. At first the changes were tiny. I remember the moment when I had the epiphany that American Baptists might not burn in hell. Later, Bible-believing Christianity stopped working for me, but for a long time I thought that was a problem with me, not with the religion. I was probably destined for hell, but I just couldn’t figure it out. Eventually I tried out more liberal religious viewpoints, like the Unitarian Church. When I finally realized I don’t believe this anymore, I didn’t know where I fit.

I had come on this huge, huge journey with no map, and I didn’t know where I was. But you go on the internet and connect with people who are struggling, people who are going through the same things. So, that’s my motivation. There are people who are scared and lonely and afraid and who think they are the only person on the planet who can’t figure it out. The relief some of these people experience when I talk to them—being able to offer them that bridge when there’s nowhere else to go—that is one of the most rewarding things imaginable.

VT: So tell me about Recovering From Religion—the organization.

SM: It was founded by Psychologist Darrel Ray in 2009, after he wrote The God Virus. The book kicked off conversations that made the need apparent, so he started the network of peer support groups. But his time was limited. I came on board in 2011 and started developing it into a cohesive program.

The hotline project came about because of the emails that we get daily. People need someone to talk to, and the groups themselves—we will never have enough locations that everyone has somewhere to go. So we thought, what if everyone could call and talk with one person, just someone respectful? There’s a lot out there that mocks religion and hates on religion. There’s a place for that, but for people who are gently feeling out where they are, they need a place that lets them have one foot in and out.

VT: You feel strongly about giving people space to be where they are at.

SM: We created a tool called the spectrum of belief and disbelief. It ranges from polytheism to atheism, so that people can consider where they want to be. Maybe a caller thinks, there’s something out there but it doesn’t tell me how to have sex and I don’t have to tithe. If that’s where people are at we respect that. The relationship and the person matter more than the religion.

I’m huge on boundaries. Religion takes away boundaries—you tell children from day one that there’s something out there that can see their thoughts—so people in recovery are just learning that they can have boundaries and ideas and limits and can say, no you don’t have access to that part of me. We want to give that back.

VT: So how do you train volunteers for the hotline?

SM: We have a training program vetted by two psychologists to make sure we stay within the bounds of peer support. It’s about 10 hours of training—software and process and simulated calls. Our volunteers don’t provide counseling; it’s really active listening. If the person has a belief in God we don’t question or challenge that. If they say they don’t believe but want somewhere to go, then we might help them create an action plan. When people have safe way to explore their doubts they often do start letting go and they feel good and empowered and that’s a really cool thing to have happen, but we are serious about simply providing respectful support, so we provide careful training and oversight.

We have sophisticated (and I might add, expensive!) call management technology. It’s the same system used by the Trevor Project which works to prevent suicide for gay youth. The system lets both callers and volunteers remain anonymous, and a supervisor can move between calls without being intrusive. All calls are monitored to some extent. We can flag calls if there are any concerns and review them and then provide feedback. There are a lot of pieces to this, which is why it took us two years to get this up and running.

VT: So tell me about that unexpected grand slam opening.

SM: We opened March 1 from 6pm-midnight during the week and 24 hours on the weekend. Within six weeks we had 1,000 calls come in! A thousand calls was a big surprise. Imagine trying to figure out how to staff for call volume when you have no idea what to expect. We estimated based on contacts to the office line. But it’s different when people actually see a banner that says 1-84-I-DoubtIt.

We are getting calls from all demographics, all ages. Some of the calls leave you in tears. People feel so isolated and alone because religion has permeated every aspect of their community. We get calls from people who are being threatened that their kids will be taken away because of their nonbelief. We get calls from teens who are being kicked out because they’ve decided they’re not the same religion as their parents.

We had one lady who called and said that she saw the hotline article on CNN, and she held onto the number for three weeks. She said that it was the first time in her life that she said the word atheist even though she had been for years. Isolation, desperation—people get trapped in their circumstances and for a whole lot of reasons many can’t just pick up and move. Most people don’t want to be famous or activists. They just want to be able to not go to church and have it be ok.

VT: Sometimes you try to hook callers up with other resources, especially resources in their own communities. What are the biggest service gaps? What do you wish existed?

SM: We’ve been out for two months, and we’ll have a better assessment after a year. Right now we’re still in the discovery process. For example, we just got introduced to Footsteps, which supports people leaving Orthodox Judaism. So, we’re not at the point of saying this doesn’t exist, we need it; we’re saying this is probably out there, let’s find it.

When people call in crisis or with urgent needs that are beyond our scope, then processing questions about religion takes back burner to managing that need. If they are in active crisis when they call, like active domestic violence, or suicidal, there are fantastic crisis-trained hotlines out there. We try to keep them on the line and give them the number and make sure they are connected.

Alternately, they may be in urgent need of a place to stay. We refer to social service networks in their area if they are comfortable sharing their location or to general crisis services, if they are not.

VT: What’s your next big challenge?

SM: The challenge is maintaining the staff at a rate that can take all the calls. We have about 40 volunteers in training. We will be expanding to 24/7 and then will integrate an online system that lets us take calls from around the world. Right now our volunteers are everywhere, but we only serve Canada and the U.S. We want to be a resource to people who aren’t local to North America.

Funding is also a huge challenge. None of the staffing or supervision is paid, including my position, which isn’t sustainable indefinitely. Here is the really hard part about funding: The people we are helping are unable to fund the service. We can’t ask for money when, for example, a caller is struggling to keep their business and all of their clients are at their church. So we are going to need support from the secular community as a whole and people who see the value in what we do.

Also, donor development is really tough for many former fundies. We’ve been drilled from day one that you don’t ask for money. Yes, there’s the hypocrisy that you give all of your money to the church, but you don’t ask for things for yourself. Former minister Teresa McBain and much loved atheist blogger Neil Carter have joined the team. But we’re very wary of the flashy, believe-in-us mentality, so we’re trying to find the right balance. We’re working with people who have more skill in that regard than we do.