It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Winds blow massive Saharan dust cloud into U.S. airspace
Just this past week, the dust floated across the Caribbean into the southern Gulf of Mexico, and now forecasters say it'll move inland over parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast through Saturday. Photo courtesy of NOA
June 27 (UPI) -- Dust from the Sahara Desert that has been pouring off the western coast of Africa and into the Atlantic has effectively put the Atlantic hurricane season on pause, with the exception of short-lived Tropical Storm Dolly, which formed on Tuesday in the North Atlantic.
The dust is largely impacting the Gulf Coast, but could push northward into the airspace above a few other states farther inland.
The robust plume of dust, which satellite imagery showed had reached into U.S. airspace by Friday, has been felt by many across the Caribbean, where it left behind a thin coating on the ground in some areas. The sky turned hazy over the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Cuba, and visibility was drastically reduced in some areas. By Friday morning, the air quality in Galveston, Texas, where AccuWeather's Bill Waddell is stationed, had plunged from "excellent" on Thursday evening to "unhealthy."
Dusty skies were also observed in Panama City Beach on Friday morning, according to video posted on social media, and dust appeared to be hanging low in the skies over the Houston skyline, a photo posted on social media by Sergio Chapa showed.
"A quick glance out the window, it's easy to confuse it for fog," Chapa, a 44-year-old Houston resident told AccuWeather, adding that the haze looked like fog but with, "a slight brown tint."
"This is much different from ozone action days, but not quite like a forest fire," Chapa said. "I wear glasses and I was wearing a face mask. My eyes are fine, but even with the mask, my throat is irritating after talking around for about 30 minutes in the dust storm."
Dust is often pushed off the African coast during the early stages of Atlantic hurricane season, but the vastness of this episode has raised eyebrows.
The cloud is part of what's known as the Saharan Air Layer, which usually occupies a 2- to- 2.5-mile-thick layer of the atmosphere, with a base starting about 1 mile above the surface, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
AccuWeather meteorologists have been tracking dust emerging from the Africa coast since April, but there has been an uptick in activity since around June 14. Dust is most commonly observed over the Atlantic into July before it becomes less of an issue later in the hurricane season. AccuWeather's top hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski said the African Easterly Jet has been stronger than normal and this has produced more dust.
"Certainly the dust episodes in the Caribbean have been more robust than normal due to the active jet," Kottlowski said.
Just this past week, the dust floated across the Caribbean into the southern Gulf of Mexico, and now forecasters say it'll move inland over parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast through Saturday.
On June 23, @NOAA's #GOESEast viewed the #SaharanAirLayer (or #SAL) over Cuba, while a storm erupted through its dusty haze. During this time of year, the SAL often blows westward from Africa's Saharan Desert and can travel thousands of miles away.
The dust is forecast to be primarily concentrated over Gulf Coast states, but some could expand farther north into Oklahoma, Arkansas and eastward into Tennessee, Kottlowski said. He added that the forecast does not call for high concentrations of dust to play a role in the overall weather pattern across the northeastern U.S. Some dust could "barely" reach into Tennessee and southern Virginia, Kottlowski said.
"Dust, like any pollutant, can find its way farther north over time and it's possible some dust could work into the Great Lakes next week but it probably would not be very noticeable. A storm system forming over Quebec this weekend will move southeast into Maine early next week and bring a wind flow out of Canada and not up from the tropics," Kottlowski said.
Dust particles can produce vibrant sunsets and sunrises, but if there is too much of an accumulation, then those sunsets or sunrises can turn out dull. Dust is usually most noticeable when the skies are cloud-free, according to Kottlowski. The cloud cover combined with the haziness from dust obscured the sunrise in Galveston on Friday morning, Waddell reported.
Air quality levels could also drop from moderate to unhealthy over southern and eastern Texas, according to Plume Labs. Those with respiratory issues are being urged to limit the amount of time they spend outdoors. AccuWeather and Plume Labs have a partnership that allows users to monitor the realtime air quality in a given location from the AccuWeather website or mobile app.
Kottlowski said there is a second large area of dust over the open Atlantic, but it seems less impressive than the first batch of dust currently invading the U.S. The second round of dust is likely to dissipate faster, thanks in part due to stronger winds forcing it westward. However, it will still bring a "considerable" amount of dust to the Gulf of Mexico early next week which will result in hazy conditions and milky-looking skies.
Longer range forecasts show an easing in the amount of dust entering the atmosphere over the next week as the African Easterly Jet, which is responsible for triggering the potent storms that kick up the dust, is forecast to relax a bit, according to Kottlowski.
NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite analyzes Saharan dust aerosol blanket
NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
IMAGE: THIS JUNE 24, 2020 IMAGE IS FROM THE SUOMI NPP OMPS AEROSOL INDEX. THE DUST PLUME MOVED OVER THE YUCATAN PENINSULA AND UP THROUGH THE GULF OF MEXICO. THE LARGEST... view more
CREDIT: CREDITS: NASA/NOAA, COLIN SEFTOR
Dust storms from Africa's Saharan Desert traveling across the Atlantic Ocean are nothing new, but the current dust storm has been quite expansive and NASA satellites have provided a look at the massive June plume. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite showed the blanket of dust had moved over the Gulf of Mexico and extended into Central America and over part of the eastern Pacific Ocean.
NASA uses satellites and other resources to track aerosol particles made of desert dust, smoke, and volcanic ash. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard Suomi NPP provided a visible image while the Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite (OMPS) Nadir-Mapper (NM) instrument aboard the Suomi-NPP satellite provided absorbing aerosol index values. The OMPS index indicates the presence of light absorbing aerosol particles (ultraviolet (UV)-absorbing particles in the air) such as desert dust. The absorbing aerosol index is related to both the thickness and height of the aerosol layer.
The Absorbing Aerosol Index is useful for identifying and tracking the long-range transport of volcanic ash from volcanic eruptions, smoke from wildfires or biomass burning events and dust from desert dust storms. These aerosol particals can even be tracked over clouds and areas covered by snow and ice.
Colin Seftor, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., created imagery from the Suomi NPP OMPS absorbing aerosol index and visible imagery from the VIIRS instrument He said that on June 23 and 24 the dust plume had moved completely over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, up through the Gulf of Mexico and into southern Texas. "At that point, the situation becomes more complicated because the absorbing aerosol index signal seen further north into Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, etc., is probably a mix of dust and smoke from the numerous fires burning in the southwest U.S. You can also see that the dust traveled over Central America and out into the Eastern Pacific Ocean."
On June 25, an animation that combined OMPS aerosol index and VIIRS visible imagery from NASA/NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite was created at NASA Goddard showing the movement the Saharan dust cloud from June 15 to 25, 2020,. The animation showed the dust plume streamed from Africa's west coast over the Atlantic into the Caribbean Sea and up through the Gulf of Mexico over some of the Gulf states.
Aerosol particles absorb and scatter incoming sunlight, which reduces visibility and increases the optical depth. Aerosol particles have an effect on human health, weather and the climate. Aerosol particles are produced from many events including human activities such as pollution from factories and natural processes such as smoke from fires, dust from dust storms, sea salt from breaking waves, and volcanic ash from volcanoes. Aerosol particles compromise human health when inhaled by people with asthma or other respiratory illnesses. Aerosol particles also affect weather and climate by cooling or warming the earth as well as enhancing or preventing cloud formation.
On June 18, NASA's Earth Observatory noted the thickest parts of the plume appeared to stretch about 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) across the Atlantic Ocean. By June 24, the plume extended over 5,000 miles.
Dust from Africa can affect air quality as far away as North and South America if it is mixed down to ground level. But dust can also play an important ecological role, such as, fertilizing soils in the Amazon and building beaches in the Caribbean. The dry, warm, and windy conditions associated with Saharan Air Layer outbreaks from Africa can also suppress the formation and intensification of tropical cyclones.
"While Saharan dust transport across the ocean to the Americas is not uncommon, the size and strength of this particular event is quite unusual," Seftor said. "Also, if you look off the coast of Africa you can see yet another large cloud coming off the continent, continuing to feed the long chain of dust traveling across the Atlantic."
###
By Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
WITCH Boiler Room London Live Set ► WITCH — the kings of Zamrock — blessed our home studio with the sounds of African psychedelic rock SEVENTIES BAND FROM ZAMBIA, THE ONLY ORIGINAL MEMBER IS THE LEAD SINGER THE BAND LIKE ALL OF ZAMBIA WAS PART OF THE AFRICAN UPRAISING AGAINST APARTHEID AND IMPERIALISM
Support the crowdfund to make a film about WITCH and their first ever European tour: https://igg.me/at/weintendtocausehavoc WE INTEND TO CAUSE HAVOC W.I.T.C.H.
I POSTED ONE OF THEIR EARLY ALBUMS HERE THIS WEEK
WITCH - LAZY BONES [FULL ALBUM]. Tracklist 01 Black Tears 0:00 02 Motherless Child 5:27 03 Tooth Factory 9:26 04 Strange Dream 14:03 05 Look Out 17:24 06 Havoc 21:29 07 October Night 25:59 08 Off Ma Boots 30:42 09 Lazy Bones 33:42 10 Little Clown 37:50 Label: Zambezi – ZTZ 1 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album Country: Zambia Released: 1975 Band Members 1 Emanyeo Jagari Chanda (lead vocals, cowbells, marracas) 2 John Muma (rhythm guitar, backup vocals) 3 Gedeon Mulenga (bass) 4 Boidi Sinkala (drums) 5 Chris Mbewe (lead guitar, lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Siberia's record-breaking heatwave is leading scientists to issue stark warnings about climate change Sirena Bergman in news iStock
When you think of Siberia, you probably think of extreme cold, snow, darkness and frost.
None of us imagine sunbathing in scorching temperatures, but recent temperatures may change all this.
Scientists at a metereological station in Verkhoyansk, in Russia, recorded a record-breaking temperature of 38C (100.4F) on 20 June – the hottest on record since it started recording daily readings in 1885.
Verkhoyansk is one of the coldest inhabited places on earth, and regularly records freezing temperatures of up to -67C (-89F).
The previous temperature record was held by a reading of 37.3C (99.14F) in 1988.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has given “tentative acceptance” of the reading as a legitimate observation, but is currently working to verify the reading, which is a "very thorough and time-consuming project", according to Randall Cerveny, the WMO's special rapporteur on weather and climate extremes.
He said: The end result will be incredibly valuable information that will help climate scientists better understand climate, engineers and medical doctors better prepare for climate extremes and even the general public in achieving a better appreciation of climate change across this planet.
A local reindeer farm worker told The Telegraph that: We have seen a freaky heatwave. It’s really hard for us to bear this heat. The reindeer herders were the first to notice that something was wrong: reindeer started to feel unwell. They suffer from dehydration and don’t want to eat. Deer fawns are getting weaker.
But climate change scientists are not surprised, saying that warming temperatures are leading to a decrease in ice in the Arctic sea, and wildfires across Siberia.
Firefighters in the region are not equipped to handle the increase in fires, and are leaving them to just burn out in remote areas
Zachary Labe, a researcher in atmospheric sciences at Colorado State University, said:
Decades of climate model projections have shown that the Arctic is expected to warm more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe. We are now seeing the impacts of these extremes in real-time.
Dr Christina Schädel, the lead coordinator of the Permafrost Carbon Network, told The Telegraph that "what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic", and that the increase in temperatures could have serious implications for the rest of the world too.
That permafrost once thawed is never going to freeze back in our lifetime. The process is unstoppable and it’s irreversible.
She is optimistic that we could be able to slow climate change in order to avoid potentially catastrophic effects on the Arctic, but warns that "we just don't have that much time left".
Where is Greta when you need her?
TRUMP GOVERNMENT IS CRUEL Trump administration urges Supreme Court to invalidate ‘Obamacare’ even as coronavirus cases surge in South, West
TO IT'S BASE AND TO THE REST OF AMERIKA
Administration’s high-court filing comes on same day government reports that close to half a million people who lost their health insurance amid the pandemic shutdown have gotten coverage through HealthCare.gov Public health nurse Lee Cherie Booth performs a coronavirus antibody test outside the Salt Lake County Health Department on Thursday. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 26, 2020 By Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — As coronavirus cases rise in more than half of the states, the Trump administration is urging the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
The administration’s high court filing Thursday came the same day the government reported that close to half a million people who lost their health insurance amid the economic shutdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 have gotten coverage through HealthCare.gov.
The administration’s legal brief makes no mention of the virus.
More than 20 million Americans could lose their health coverage and protections for people with preexisting health conditions also would be put at risk if the court agrees with the administration in a case that won’t be heard before the fall.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted the administration’s latest move in a partisan battle over “Obamacare” that has stretched on for a full decade since the law’s passage in 2010. Pelosi is planning a floor vote early next week on her own bill to expand the ACA.
“There is no legal justification and no moral excuse for the Trump administration’s disastrous efforts to take away Americans’ health care,” she said in a statement.
Just as the nation seemed to be getting better control over the virus outbreak, states including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Texas are reporting a surge in cases. And more than half the states are seeing case increases.
Anger over problems with “Obamacare” was once a winning issue for Republicans, helping them gain control of the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014. But the politics of the issue flipped after President Donald Trump failed to deliver in 2017 on his vow to “repeal and replace” the health law. Democrats were energized by their successful defense of the ACA, and that contributed to their winning back the House.
In the case before the Supreme Court, Texas and other conservative-led states argue that the ACA was essentially rendered unconstitutional after Congress passed tax legislation in 2017 that eliminated the law’s unpopular fines for not having health insurance, but left in place its requirement that virtually all Americans have coverage.
Trump has put the weight of his administration behind the legal challenge.
If the health insurance requirement is invalidated, “then it necessarily follows that the rest of the ACA must also fall,” Solicitor General Noel Francisco wrote Thursday.
Other prominent Republicans, including Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, have said Congress didn’t intend to bring down the whole law by striking the coverage penalty.
The Trump administration’s views on what parts of the ACA might be kept or replaced if the law is overturned have shifted over time. But in legal arguments, it has always supported getting rid of “Obamacare” provisions that prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against people on account of their medical history.
Nonetheless, Trump has repeatedly assured Americans that people with preexisting conditions would still be protected. Neither the White House nor congressional Republicans have specified how.
The government report showing rising sign-ups for health coverage under the ACA amid the coronavirus shutdown came from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The figures are partial because they don’t include sign-ups from states that run their own health insurance marketplaces. Major states like California and New York are not counted in the federal statistics.
An estimated 27 million people may have lost job-based coverage due to layoffs, and it’s unclear what — if anything — they’re turning to as a fallback. People who lose employer health care are eligible for a special sign-up period for subsidized plans under the Obama-era law. Many may also qualify for Medicaid.
The Trump administration has been criticized for not doing as much as states like California to publicize these readily available backups. In response, administration officials say they have updated the HealthCare.gov website to make it easier for consumers to find information on special sign-up periods.
Thursday’s report from the government showed that about 487,000 people signed up with HealthCare.gov after losing their workplace coverage this year. That’s an increase of 46% from the same time period last year.
It’s unclear from the government numbers how many of the new enrollees lost their coverage because of layoffs due to the pandemic. CMS also made no estimate of how many people will ultimately seek coverage through the Obama health law as a result of economic shock waves. Generally there’s a 60-day window to apply after losing coverage.
However, the report found a clear connection. “While the magnitude may be unclear, job losses due to COVID-19have led to increased enrollments on HealthCare.gov,” it said.
Watchdog says Trump’s 2019 Fourth of July gala cost taxpayers $13 million
Trump’s desire to have Department of Defense military vehicles participate helped drive up the cost, as did the president’s attendance near the Lincoln Memorial
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump leave an Independence Day celebration. ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 26, 2020 By Associated Press
President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July gala in the nation’s capital last year cost taxpayers more than $13 million, twice as much as previous celebrations, government watchdogs reported Thursday. Trump’s desire to have Department of Defense military vehicles participate helped drive up the cost, as did the president’s attendance near the Lincoln Memorial.
Trump’s military-focused Independence Day event went beyond the traditional concert on the Capitol lawn featuring the National Symphony Orchestra and fireworks near the Washington Monument. Trump altered the lineup last year by adding his own speech from near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, shifting the fireworks closer to that landmark and summoning an array of tanks and warplanes to entertain the crowds.
A White House spokesman declined to directly address the findings on costs. Responding to Democratic lawmakers’ charges that the president’s spending on the Fourth of July is extravagant and amounts to political activity on the taxpayer’s dime, spokesman Judd Deere said Trump’s celebration “is not about politics.”
“It’s about all Americans coming together to celebrate Independence Day, our great armed forces and their heroic sacrifices, which have preserved our freedoms for generations, and our amazing heritage,” Deere said.
The Interior Department called the 2019 event “an incredible celebration,” but also refused to comment on the costs accrued then or what’s expected for this year’s event.
The White House has said Trump plans to mark the holiday this year by attending a fireworks show July 3 at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota and then celebrating in the nation’s capital on Independence Day.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump will host the event from the White House’s South Lawn and the Ellipse, with music, military demonstrations and flyovers. The president also is expected to deliver remarks.
The White House has said this year’s event will have a different look because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Government Accountability Office estimated that holiday celebrations from 2016 to 2018 cost from $6 million to $7 million annually. Its estimate for 2019 did not include costs such as the military flyovers of the National Mall.
Three Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee had asked for the GAO investigation of how much the federal government spent on the 2019 festivities.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said in a statement that the findings showed careless use of unbudgeted taxpayer money to meet Trump’s “extravagant demands.”
The senators, in a letter to the GAO that was released Thursday, requested that the agency examine costs for the Trump’s Fourth of July plans this year.
The president “intends to use these Fourth of July celebrations as a way to marshal the resources of federal agencies to conduct de facto political events with official funds,” Udall and Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., wrote congressional investigators.
Extra costs for last year’s fete included a $2.5 million contract to an unidentified private entity for overall event planning, paid out of National Park Service appropriations, according to the congressional investigators.
The presence of Trump and other top government officials required numerous Secret Service agents and overtime, the investigators said.
District of Columbia officials had to consult with engineers on whether city roads, bridges and sewers would stand up to the weight of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, rolled in to serve as props on both sides of musical bands near the Lincoln Memorial
How Fixing a Vintage Honda Made Shasta Smith’s Career Smith describes the bike as 'a little rocket'
Alexander Hotz Adam Falk Jan. 22, 2019
Shasta Smith put years into restoring her 1972 Honda, emblazoned with her signature number 5. It inspired a passion for vintage motorcycle restoration that led her to open a repair shop and venue space in Sacramento, Calif. Photo: Ryan Angel Meza for The Wall Street Journal.
House approves bill that would make District of Columbia the 51st state
STATEHOOD OR @UTONOMOUS ZONE
Published: June 26, 2020 By Jonathan Nicholson Measure won’t advance in Senate, but reflects another way protests have moved agenda
BUT IT WILL JAN.22 2021
FIRST DC THEN PUERTO RICO!
Washington, D.C. would become a state based on House-passed legislation sponsored by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. GETTY IMAGES
Washington, D.C., would become the 51st state in the Union under a bill passed by the House of Representatives on Friday along a mostly party-line vote.
The vote on the statehood bill, part of House Democrats’ last legislative push before a two-week break starting after July 4, was 232 to 180. All Republicans opposed the bill, joined by one Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, and Rep. Justin Amash, a Libertarian from Michigan who caucuses with neither Democrats or Republicans.
The legislation is not expected to move in the Republican-held Senate. Its movement to the top of the House agenda was quick, coming in the wake of the George Floyd protests that have roiled the nation. President Donald Trump’s move to bring in out-of-state National Guard troops to quell protests, as well as clearing a square across from the White House to make it easier to appear for a photo opportunity, highlighted the District’s second-tier status, in statehood advocates’ eyes.
The District is not represented in the Senate and its House delegate’s vote, under House rules, is symbolic, only counting as long as that vote would not be the deciding one on the floor. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s representative, sponsored the bill.
“The people of Washington, D.C. pay taxes — more important than that, serve in the military, contribute to the vitality of America and the economic strength of our country in a very political way and, what? do not have the right to representation in the Congress of the United States? How could it be? Whose idea was that?” asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a press conference Thursday.
The bill, which is numbered H.R. 51 as a nod to where D.C. would stand in the order of joining the Union, was assured of House passage, as it had more than 218 co-sponsors before it even came to the floor. It would declare the city a new state, named “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth,” and set up procedures for transferring authority and possession of much of the city’s nonresidential land to the federal government.
The new “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth” moniker would allow the city to still be called “Washington, D.C.” colloquially but also pay homage to Frederick Douglass, the former slave and abolitionist born in Maryland who later lived in the city.
Democrats have long sought representation for the District, whose population was until recently skewed heavily toward African American residents. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Washington’s 705,749 estimated inhabitants as of 2019 were made up almost equally — about 46% each — of white and black residents. The District’s three Electoral College votes are reliably Democratic.
Republicans said the bill would be unconstitutional and suggested other ways to deal with D.C.’s taxation without representation, like exempting residents from federal taxes or giving the land back to Maryland, similar to the retrocession of Virginia land that gave D.C. its current southern border.
“If you want voting rights, it’s simple: do what occurred in 1847 and give the land back to Maryland,” said Rep. Andy Harris, a Maryland Republican. “This is a pure political ploy.”
How Smartphone Cameras Told the Story of Police Brutality 'The smartphone camera is the only thing we have to protect ourselves'
By Joanna Stern WSJ June 12, 2020
In the last decade, the smartphone has become a tool for witnessing police violence toward African Americans. From the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant to the 2020 killing of George Floyd, we reviewed the footage and talked to the people who captured it, to see how the accounts of racial injustice became clearer as the phones evolved. Photo illustration: Preston Jessee for The Wall Street Journal
Bill Gates: Poor U.S. response is making pandemic picture ‘more bleak than I would have expected’
Published: June 27, 2020 By Mike Murphy In CNN virtual town hall, Microsoft co-founder says he’s optimistic on coronavirus treatments, vaccine Bill Gates speaks from his Seattle home during All In
WA: A Concert For COVID-19 Relief on June 24. GETTY IMAGES
“The global picture and the U.S. picture are both more bleak than I would have expected.”
That’s Bill Gates, the Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -2.00% co-founder whose philanthropic foundation has long funded the global fight against infectious diseases, speaking about the coronavirus pandemic Thursday night during a virtual town hall on CNN.
Appearing with anchor Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Gates said the U.S. is “not even close” to doing everything it can to battle the pandemic, and said the global response is worse off because of a lack of leadership from the U.S.
“The U.S. in particular hasn’t had the leadership messages or coordination that you would have expected,” he said. “I’m still pretty disappointed. Without U.S. leadership, it’s been hard to pull together a response, and now the developing countries are bearing the brunt of the burden.” Gates said he talks regularly to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, and even implied that he talks to Fauci more often than President Donald Trump does. Fauci, who is on the White House coronavirus task force, said earlier this month that he hadn’t spoken to Trump in two weeks. Gates noted that there has been real progress in treatments for COVID-19, and that should help lower the death toll as the pandemic drags on. He also expressed optimism that a vaccine will be developed, though he warned the biggest problem may be convincing vaccine skeptics to get it.
“It’s a challenge to get that safety database to build up the confidence,” he said, adding that he thinks ultimately most people will choose to get the vaccine.
Dow closes 730 points lower after spike in coronavirus cases forces Texas and Florida to close bars again, while bank stocks sink on stress tests
Social media stocks take a hit as more companies pull ad spending on hate speech concerns
HATE SPEECH IS NOT FREE SPEECH
HATE SPEECH IS VIOLENCE
Published: June 27, 2020 By Mark DeCambre and Andrea Riquier Rising cases rattle Wall Street GETTY IMAGES
U.S. stock indexes closed at their lowest levels in about two weeks Friday, after Texas and Florida were forced to backtrack on reopening their economies as coronavirus cases rose further and a record number of new cases were reported nationwide.
Meanwhile, investors were also parsing the results of the Federal Reserve’s bank stress tests which resulted in a cap on dividends and stock buybacks. How did benchmarks perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average US:DJIA closed 730.05 points, or 2.8%, lower at 25,015.55; and the S&P 500 index US:SPX retreated 74.71 points, or 2.4%, to close at 3,009.05, with the S&P’s financial sector XX:SP500 sinking 4.3%, and the energy sector XX:SP500 3.5% lower. All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 closed deep into negative territory on Friday.
Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index US:COMP lost 259.78 points to reach 9,757.22, a fall of 2.6%.
For the week, the Dow lost 3.3%, the S&P 500 notched a 2.9% decline, and the Nasdaq fell 1.9% for the period.
What drove the stock market?
Investors have wrestled with rising daily rates of new U.S. coronavirus cases all week and that again cast a pall over the stock market on Friday.
U.S. states saw a single-day record rise of 37,000 in infections on Thursday, led by Florida, Texas, California and Arizona, surpassing the 36,188 level from April 24, according to analysis of data from Bloomberg.
That case count “blew out any of the previous records,” said Will Geisdorf, senior research analyst with Sarasota, Fl-based Allegiant Private Advisors. “I think the markets are looking at that and starting to discount the potential for a V-shaped recovery.”
As evidence mounts that consumers are losing confidence, there will be pressure on policymakers to deliver another round of fiscal stimulus, Geisdorf said in an interview. “That’s what markets need to get out of this period of consolidation and volatility and continue higher. We’ve had the best 50-day period in market history. Some sort of correction was needed to relieve excessive optimism.”
Governors in Texas and Florida ordered all bars to close again on Friday, making the states the first to reverse some reopening measures after months of lockdowns. Texas reported 6,426 new coronavirus cases Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data, and Florida reported over 8,900.
Overall, total cases in the U.S. have topped 2.4 million and that increase, notably in southern and western states in the U.S., has also resulted in business reopening plans being halted in North Carolina, Louisiana and Kansas. However, governors in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are proceeding with reopening efforts but imposing a 14-day quarantine for visitors from some hard-hit states.
“The market has been threatened by anything that jeopardizes the economic recovery,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, told MarketWatch. “What you are seeing is the market react to the headlines,” she said.
The key for some investors is determining the degree by which the rise in cases results in hospitalizations and deaths, Krosby said. “It will give us a sense of whether the therapeutic treatments are working,” she said.
Investors are also digesting the results of the Federal Reserve’s annual bank stress tests which requires banks to preserve capital by suspending share repurchases and cap dividend payments in the third quarter based on average net income over the past four quarters.
However, financial institutions got a boost on Thursday after the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said they are planning to loosen the restrictions imposed by the Volcker rule and allow banks to more easily make large investments into venture capital and similar funds, among other rule rollbacks.
BANKS CAN'T MEET THEIR CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS SO IT MUST BE THE REGULATION'S FAULT
(AYN RAND LOGIC)In U.S. economic data, consumer spending climbed in May to a record 8.2% after tumbling in April, as consumers used government stimulus checks to help Americans deal with job losses during the pandemic. However, personal incomes sank 4.2% last month, reflecting the mass unemployment.
“Consumer demand will probably look good in June as well, supported by the reopening in the Northeast and a still-elevated savings rate,” wrote Jefferies analysts Aneta Markowska and Thomas Simons. “However, stimulus payments are now shrinking and dragging down overall income growth,” the wrote.
In other economic reports, the final results of the consumer-sentiment survey in June slipped to 78.1 from an initial 78.9, the University of Michigan said Friday.
New U.S. COVID-19 cases surpass peak set in April as states rethink strategyNO MORE TYPHOID MARY NOW ITS CORONA-VIRUSA
As the coronavirus pandemic is about to enter its seventh month, COVID-19 continues to surge in parts of the U.S. — even as it eases in some states and other countries — setting record highs and filling up hospitals across numerous states.
On Thursday, the governor of Texas, one of the hardest-hit states, said he would pause the process of reopening businesses and institutions.
According to tracking from NBC News, Wednesday saw the U.S.’s highest-ever single-day number of new cases, with more than 45,000. The previous peak was on April 26. There is positive news in that the death rate is declining, possibly reflecting the fact that many of the new patients are younger. But deaths lag new cases by several weeks to months, and there is a worrisome sign in the rise in cases requiring hospitalization. According to tracking numbers from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has had more than 122,000 deaths and 2.4 million positive cases, far more than any other nation. As cases in Europe fall, calls to ban travel from the U.S. until the virus is under control here have increased.
Among the states setting new daily records this week are California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documents obtained by Yahoo News show that most counties in these states were on a downward trajectory a month ago but now are almost all showing the opposite. Another map, by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, shows that as of June 21, 19 states had at least partially reopened (or never had statewide closures in the first place) while cases were still rising, despite CDC guidelines calling for at least two weeks of falling case numbers before the process was started.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
At this point the virus is not spiking in places that were previously hit hard, such as New York state, where cases continue to drop — despite concerns earlier this month that the massive Black Lives Matter protests would result in a new spike. TRUMP SABOTAGES TESTING Multiple outlets reported Wednesday that the White House planned to close 13 federally funded testing sites at the end of the month. This news comes amid reports that testing capacity in some states is “overwhelmed.” The New York Times reported that last Friday the largest lab in Arizona received more than twice as many samples as it could process, and that hundreds of appointments at a large testing facility on the state fairgrounds are reserved within minutes of opening every morning. Despite the rise in cases across the state, a couple of hundred demonstrators turned out in Scottsdale to protest the city’s new mandatory mask rule. A city councilman, Guy Phillips, removed his mask, saying, “I can’t breathe” — mocking both the public health order and the Black Lives Matter protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey called Phillips’s comments “just flat out wrong” and said that “despicable doesn’t go far enough” in describing them. Ducey has refused to mandate mask wearing, instead merely suggesting that citizens don them. He called it “an issue of personal responsibility” and “[asked] Arizonans to make responsible decisions to protect the most vulnerable in our communities.”
Scottsdale Council member Guy Phillips just addressed the crowd by saying, “I can’t breathe,” the last words of George Floyd before he died at the hands of Minneapolis police, before taking off his mask at this protest. @azcentralpic.twitter.com/jrxSUbHXi9 — Lorraine Longhi 🌵 (@lolonghi) June 24, 2020
Seven of the federal testing sites set to close are in Texas, which has been ravaged by the disease in recent weeks. As some of the state’s ICUs approach full capacity, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Thursday morning attempting to increase the number of hospital beds in the state’s largest counties by banning elective surgeries. While Abbott has urged Texans to both wear masks and stay home while allowing local authorities to require them for employees and patrons of businesses, he has not issued a statewide mandate.
The Texas Tribune noted that the test positivity-rate benchmark Abbott set when reopening the state in May has been breached, with more than 10 percent of tests coming back positive, a marker he had previously called a “warning flag.” Abbott began reopening Texas on May 1, making him one of the first governors to take that step. On Thursday he announced a “temporary pause” in reopening but will allow businesses already open — including bars, bowing alleys and amusement parks — to remain so.
“The outlook is not good,” said Rebecca Fischer, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. “We are in a super-dire situation.”
While the Palm Beach County commissioners voted to make masks mandatory, a clip from their meeting went viral Wednesday showing citizens opposing masks by promoting wild conspiracy theories.
MODELING BAD BEHAVIOUR
President Trump at a rally in Tulsa, Okla., last Saturday.
(Go Nakamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Tulsa, Okla., also saw a record daily high of new cases on Wednesday, days after President Trump held an indoor rally in the city despite pleas by city health officials to postpone the event, which was held in a 19,000-seat arena that was two-thirds empty. Tulsa Health Department Executive Director Bruce Dart said it was too soon to know the full effect of the rally, but the Washington Post reported Wednesday that dozens of Secret Service officers will be quarantined after two tested positive for the virus.
Trump has taken to minimizing and joking about the pandemic, complaining — illogically, in light of the rising rate of positive tests — that the increase in cases is an artifact of doing more testing, and calling it the “kung flu” to call attention to its origins in China.
At a rally in Arizona Tuesday, he pretended, or admitted, he didn’t understand the name for the disease: “COVID. COVID-19. COVID. I said, ‘What's the 19?’ ‘COVID-19.’ Some people can’t explain what the 19 — give me the — COVID-19. I said, ‘That’s an odd name.’ I could give you many, many names. Some people call it the ‘Chinese flu,’ the ‘China flu.’ Right? They call it the ‘China,’ as opposed to ‘Chi-’ — the ‘China.’ I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The name is a contraction of “coronavirus disease 2019,” reflecting the year the first cases were discovered.
As he has continually done throughout the pandemic, Trump predicted that it and the resulting lockdowns would end soon — his first target date was Easter — and that the economy would bounce back. “But here’s the story: We are going to be stronger than ever before, and it’s going to be soon,” he said.
* Jana Winter contributed reporting.
Startling images reveal coronavirus forming tentacles in cells. It may help identify new treatments.
OMG! ITS NOT A CORONAVIRUS IT'S A CTHULHU-VIRUS
AKA CTHULHU-19
Mark Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, USA TODAY•June 26, 2020
The finding, accompanied by evidence of potentially more effective drugs against COVID-19, published Saturday in the journal Cell by an international team of scientists.
Fluorescence microscopy image of human epithelial cells taken from the colon and infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus, that causes COVID-19. The infected cells produce tentacles, known formally as filopodia ( in white) extending out from the cell surface containing viral particles (M protein in red).
By focusing on the fundamental behavior of the virus — how it hijacks key human proteins and uses them to benefit itself and harm us — the team was able to identify a family of existing drugs called kinase inhibitors that appear to offer the most effective treatment yet for COVID-19.
"We've tested a number of these kinase inhibitors and some are better than remdesivir," said Nevan Krogan, one of more than 70 authors of the new paper, and director of the Quantitative Biosciences Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.
While remdesivir has yet to be approved for use against COVID-19, U.S. regulators are allowing "emergency use" of the drug in hospitalized patients.
Krogan said tests of kinase inhibitors showed some, including Gilteritnib and Ralimetinib, required lower concentrations than remdesivir in order to kill off 50% of the virus.
The new study, which involved experiments using cells from humans and others from African green monkeys, shows that the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 is especially adept at disrupting vital communications. These communications take place both within cells and from one cell to another.
Electron microscopy image of cells from the kidney of a female African green monkey that have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Infected cells produce tentacles known formally as filopodia (orange) extending out from the cell surface to enable budding of viral particles (blue) and infection of nearby cells.
(SAME MONKEY SPECIES THAT THEY FIRST DISCOVERED HAD HIV)
"This paper shows just how completely the virus is able to rewire all of the signals going on inside the cell. That's really remarkable and it's something that occurs very rapidly (as soon as two hours after cells are infected)," said Andrew Mehle, an associate professor of medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The communications system known as cell signaling, allows cells to grow, and to detect and respond to outside threats. Errors in cell signaling can lead to such illnesses as cancer and diabetes.
Mehle, who was not involved in the study, said the work shows that scientists are contending with a daunting enemy in the new conronavirus. "These are highly efficient, evolutionarily-tuned machines that will make it very challenging to develop therapeutics," he said.
A different approach
From early in the pandemic, Krogan and his colleagues have taken a different approach from that of many researchers seeking treatments for the new virus.
Many scientists have been screening thousands of drugs already approved for other uses to determine if they can also be used to treat COVID-19.
"We're not doing that," Krogan said. "We're saying 'Let's understand the underlying biology behind how the virus infects us, and let's use that against the virus.' "
In the search for treatments, many scientists have homed in on key proteins in the virus — especially the Spike protein, which allows the viral cells to attach themselves to human cells.
Fluorescence microscopy image of of human epithelial cells taken from the colon and infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Viral N protein (red) hijacks human Casein Kinase II (green; co-localization in yellow) to putatively produce branching filopodia protrusions (white outline boxes) to enable budding of viral particles and infection of nearby cells. Krogan and his team looked in the opposite direction, focusing on the human proteins, instead of those in the virus. Dozens of human proteins play a critical role in the disease process because the virus needs them to infect people and to make copies of itself.
There is an important advantage to developing treatments aimed at the human, rather than the viral, proteins. Viral proteins can mutate causing them to develop resistance to the drugs targeted to them. Human proteins are far less likely to mutate.
In April, Krogan and his colleagues published a study in the journal Nature showing that 332 human proteins interact with 27 viral proteins.
Feixiong Cheng, a PhD researcher who runs a lab at Cleveland Clinic Genomic Medicine Institute, called the mapping of interactions between these proteins "a novel" and "powerful" strategy for finding existing drugs that might help COVID-19 patients.
In the new study, Krogan's international team looked deeper into the biology, focusing on how the new coronavirus changes a complex process called phosphorylation. This process acts as a series of on-off switches for different cell activities, including growth, division, death and communication with one another.
"What they've done is really a fantastic next step," said Lynne Cassimeris, a professor of biological sciences at Lehigh University, explaining that the work builds on the previous paper and applies knowledge of cell biology gained over the last 30 years.
"It's an amazing leap. We know that the virus has to be manipulating these human proteins. Now we have a list of what is changing over time."
Cassimeris said that mapping these changes allows researchers to seek drugs that can intervene at specific points.
The scientists found that on-off switches changed significantly in 40 of the 332 proteins that interact with the new coronavirus.
The changes occur because the virus either dials up or down 49 enzymes called kinases. The dialing up or down of kinases cause them to alter 40 of the proteins that interact with virus.
Imagine the kinases as guards protecting our health until the new coronavirus turns them against us. In each case, however, the new study identified treatments that can stop the virus from turning guards into assailants.
The virus most powerfully hijacks a kinase called CK2, which plays a key role in the basic frame of the cell as well as its growth, proliferation and death.
This led the scientists to investigate a drug called Silmitasertib. Tests found this drug inhibits CK2 and eliminates the new coronavirus.
Electron microscopy image of cells from the kidney of a female African green monkey, which have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Infected cells produce tentacles known formally as filopodia (orange) extending out from the cell surface to enable budding of viral particles (blue) and infection of nearby cells.
They also found that the virus has a dramatic effect on a pathway — a group of kinases that form a cascade a little like falling dominoes. The virus hijacks this cascade so that the end result becomes a dangerous overreaction by our immune system.
The study's finding on this pathway may help to explain the extreme overreaction — a cytokine storm — that causes the immune system to kill both healthy and diseased tissue, leading to more than half of the deaths from COVID-19.
Here too, the scientists were able to identify treatments, including the experimental cancer drug Ralimetinib, which may prevent the immune system overreaction.
Authors of the new study also found that the virus harms a family of kinases called CDKs. These play roles in cell growth and in the response to DNA damage. An experimental drug called Dinaciclib may be effective in thwarting this viral assault.
Finally, Krogan and his colleagues found that the virus also hijack a kinase that helps cells stay healthy in different environments and cleans out damaged cells. A small molecule called Apilimod targets this kinase and has been able to hinder the virus in lab tests.
Krogan, who is also an investigator at the Gladstone Institutes at UCSF, said the strategy of examining the human kinases affected by the virus has proved fruitful.
"The kinases are a very druggable set of proteins in our cells," he said.
