Siberian town records 100 degree F day — the hottest in Arctic history

Siberia — the land of black snow, blood rain and spontaneous solar eclipses — may have just set a dire new climate record. On Saturday (June 20), temperatures in the far-north town of Verkhoyansk broke 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) for the first time, according to news reports. If verified, that makes Saturday’s high the hottest-ever temperature documented above the Arctic Circle, The Washington Post reported.

Verkhoyansk is a town of some 1,300 residents in the Siberian Arctic, about 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) east of Moscow. The town has one of the most extreme temperature ranges on Earth, with winter lows hitting an average of minus 56 F (minus 49 C) and a previous all-time summer high of 98.96 F (37.2 C), according to Brittanica.com. On Saturday, several weather stations reported a new high of 100.4 F — the town’s all-time hottest temperature since record keeping began in 1885. On Sunday, June 21, the town also reported a high of 95.3 (35.2 C), showing the previous day’s heat was not a blip.

That sweltering new high (which is still being verified) arrives on the heels of Siberia’s hottest May on record, with average temperatures soaring roughly 18 F (10 C) higher than the May average from 1979 to 2019, according to a special report from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. This summer’s high Arctic temperatures have already affected the region. Wildfires are running rampant, with 31 fires currently burning through 885,800 acres (358,472 hectares) of forest in the Sakha Republic (the region that includes Verkhoyansk), Russia’s Federal Forest Agency reported today (June 21). Recently, Russian officials blamed an oil spill that leaked about 20,000 tons of diesel into a river in the Siberian Arctic on melting permafrost that allegedly caused the ground to sink below several oil tanks.

While remarkable, the news out of Siberia is also depressingly predictable. For years, average temperatures in the Arctic have been rising at a far faster rate than anywhere else in the world, largely due to melting sea ice induced by man-made global warming.  –Live Science

There’s a one-in-three chance of a ‘massive’ disaster that could be worse than COVID-19, says Deutsche Bank

Clearly, disasters aren’t necessarily devastating to financial markets. That’s worth bearing in mind when considering a new report from Deutsche Bank that looked at the next massive tail risk for markets. Analysts, led by Henry Allen, say there is at least a one-in-three chance that at least one of four major tail risks will occur within the next decade: a major influenza pandemic killing more than two million people; a globally catastrophic volcanic eruption; a major solar flare; or a global war. (The current COVID-19 pandemic has killed 443,765 globally already.)

If the time frame is two decades, then there is a 56% chance of one of these disasters occurring, the analysts say, based on various studies and risk assessments. Earthquakes were omitted from the numbers on the grounds that they are more local events. The solar flare possibility is one rarely discussed, perhaps because the last severe one was in 1859, but the Deutsche Bank team finds that to be more likely than a major global war.

“There could be major power outages as electrical power grids are disrupted, which in turn would have knock-on effects throughout the economy as critical infrastructure is unable to be run properly. Lives could be lost if it impacted hospitals and medical care. Communications would be disrupted, many payment systems would be dysfunctional, and GPS [Global Positioning System] satellites would face extensive interference, to the detriment of all the individuals and industries that rely on accurate location services, not least aircraft,” says the cheery report.

Citing one study that assessed the odds of a major solar flare happening are 12% in a decade, that means there is a 40% chance it will take place in the next 40 years. Might want to keep a few spare batteries around. Another point made is that these major events tend to have ripple effects as well, just as the current COVID-19 crisis has led to fraying ties between the U.S. and China. The analysts didn’t suggest an investment strategy around their findings. Judging by the current environment, perhaps buying stocks would be the best response.  –Market Watch

China develops weapons to fry US electric grid, eyes high-tech ‘Pearl Harbor’ attack

With the help of stolen U.S. technology, China has developed at least three types of high-tech weapons to attack the electric grid and key technologies in a “surprise Pearl Harbor” assault that could send America into a deadly blackout, according to a new analysis. According to the report from the independent EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, China has built a network of satellites, high-speed missiles, and “super-electromagnetic pulse” weapons that could melt down the U.S. electric network, fry critical communications, and stifle aircraft carrier groups. According to the report, written by the task force’s executive director, Peter Pry, long an expert on EMP warfare, China developed the weapons as part of its “Total Information Warfare” that includes hacking raids on computers.

What’s more, despite China’s promises to attack only after being attacked, Pry revealed new data to show that the communist nation is lying and eager to shoot first with “high-altitude electromagnetic pulse,” or HEMP, weapons launched from satellites, ships, and land. “China’s military doctrine — including numerous examples presented here of using HEMP attack to win on the battlefield, defeat U.S. aircraft carriers, and achieve against the U.S. homeland a surprise ‘Pearl Harbor’ writ large — is replete with technical and operational planning consistent with a nuclear first-strike,” said Pry in his report provided to Secrets. It is shown below.

He added that while some believe China’s promise not to fire first, there are key U.S. officials who don’t buy it. For example, he cited February 2020 testimony from the chief of U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richard, who said that he could “drive a truck through China’s no first use policy.” Pry has helped awaken the nation to the threat posed by an EMP attack, either from a military foe or solar event. Once a concern that resulted in eye-rolling by officials in Washington, the Pentagon and President Trump take the threat seriously and are slowly moving to build protections from an attack. Those efforts come as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran move to build and deploy the weapons which, essentially, launch a nuclear weapon into the atmosphere to explode and disable electronics below, including flying aircraft.

A report done while Pry was a key member of a congressional EMP commission years ago found that an EMP attack on the East Coast electric grid could lead to the death of 90% of the population within a year from looting, a lack of food and water, and desperation attacks. Even short electric blackouts, such as one in New York in 1977, resulted in looting. In his new 14-page report, he outlined China’s weaponry. First is a “Super-EMP” weapon, built with stolen U.S. military technology. It is a nuclear warhead on a missile that could be used against ships and on the battlefield, he said. He cited a Chinese Army news article that said an attack would be like a 21st century “Pearl Harbor.” It said, “a highly computerized open society like the United States is extremely vulnerable to electronic attacks from all sides. This is because the U.S. economy, from banks to telephone systems and from power plants to iron and steel works, relies entirely on computer network.”

Second are hypersonic weapons, including missiles, that can send a warhead at five-times the speed of sound to a target. And third is the development of EMP satellites armed with nuclear weapons that can float for years in the sky. Said Pry, “The U.S. should be very concerned about a scenario where China uses nuclear space weapons, perhaps ICBMs and IRBMs with specialized warheads, to quickly sweep the skies of U.S. satellites, even at the risk of losing PRC satellites, which could then be replaced with a surge of satellites launched by China to capture the ‘high frontier’ and cripple U.S. military capabilities.”  –Washington Examiner

Coronavirus model used by White House now predicts 200,000 U.S. deaths by October – Beijing outbreak alarms the world

A coronavirus model once used by the White House now projects more than 200,000 Americans could die of COVID-19 by October 1. The prediction went up by more than 30,000 since last week. As of Tuesday, more than 116,000 people in the U.S. have died of the coronavirus, and the death toll is still growing by hundreds per day. Infection rates and hospitalizations are rising in numerous states as businesses open up and people drop precautions. According to the latest model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, a research institute once utilized by the White House for coronavirus projections, another 85,000 or so deaths are now projected by October 1.

HME’s interactive projections show that by October 1, deaths from the coronavirus in the United States could reach anywhere from 171,000 to 270,000, with a likely figure in between of about 201,129. Daily deaths from the coronavirus are expected to begin rising again in September, after they started to plateau nationwide this month for the first time. According to the IHME, “rising mobility and premature relaxation of social distancing in some states are the main reasons” for the projected increase.

IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray explained the reasons behind the upward trend at a June 11 press briefing, before the institute raised its projections again this week. “Starting in the third week of August in our forecast at the national level, we see the daily death rate… going up again, after having been declining since mid-April at the national level,” he said. “That increase in daily deaths really starts to gather momentum from mid-September onwards.”

“What’s underlying that is two factors: The steady rise in contact rates, steady rise in mobility, and the likely continued relaxation of mandates over the course of the summer. Combined with the increasingly clear signal that seasonality is important,” he said. According to the IHME, “Higher mobility means higher transmission and more infections at the beginning of the expected second wave” in the fall. As COVID-19 cases continue to decline in New York, once the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak, new hotspots are emerging in states across the South and West. Some health experts say we could be seeing the impact of reopening too early.  –CBS News

A recent resurgence of the CCP virus in China’s capital has forced top officials to warn that a worse situation is yet to come. Authorities have sealed off all neighborhood compounds as of June 17, after dozens of cases emerged from the sprawling Xinfadi food market. Beijing is now scrambling to control movements in and out of the city, halting trains and canceling nearly 70 percent of flights at its two international airports. All school classes have been suspended. Beijing officially reported 137 new infections as of June 17, including a jump of 33 within a 24-hour span. Authorities have underreported numbers before; nonetheless, the cluster outbreak prompted health authorities to conduct mass testing.

The increase is especially concerning given that China has taken extraordinary measures to keep the virus out of its political center. “The virus outbreak in Beijing is still on an upward trend. The risk of virus spreading is significant and controlling it is difficult,” Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the city’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference. Noting the sharp increase in cases, Yang Zhanqiu, a professor at the virology laboratory at Wuhan University, suspected that the virus may have reemerged as more contagious than in Wuhan. The virus multiplies more quickly in winter weather, and the summer heat should have made it more difficult for the virus to grow, Yang told state media.

If the Beijing strain is more contagious, this would present new challenges to creating an effective vaccine, he noted. The outbreak in Bejing has spread to at least four other provinces across the country due to people traveling to neighboring Hebei, the northeastern province of Liaoning, Sichuan in the southwest, and Zhejiang in China’s eastern coast. Several other provinces have established restrictions on travelers from Beijing.   –NTD

Beijing grapples with another COVID-19 outbreak described as “extremely severe” – more virulent strain than Wuhan

Authorities in Beijing have described the city’s coronavirus outbreak as “extremely severe” as dozens more cases emerged, travel from the city was curtailed and its schools and universities shut down. Beijing residents were told to avoid “non-essential” travel out of the capital, and anyone entering or leaving will be tested for COVID-19. Additional neighborhoods were fenced off on Tuesday, with 27 now designated medium risk, which means authorities can impose stricter restrictions on the movement of people and cars and can carry out temperature checks. One has been designated high risk.

“The epidemic situation in the capital is extremely severe,” Beijing city spokesman Xu Hejian warned at a press conference. “Right now, we have to take strict measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.” Entry restrictions have also been brought back in many residential compounds. Health authorities said sealed-off residences and people in quarantine would have food and medicine delivered to them. Schools, which had recently re-opened, have been ordered to resume online classes, and universities required to suspend the return of their students.

Companies were told to encourage working from home, indoor sports and entertain venues have been shut, and libraries, museums, art galleries and parks must now limit capacity. Authorities also reported four new domestic infections in neighboring Hebei province, while a case reported in Sichuan province was linked to the Beijing cluster. Some other cities across China warned they would quarantine arrivals from the capital.

The outbreak is the most significant in China since February, prompting fears of a second wave and questions over how the virus was able to spread given severe quarantine measures taken by authorities. The outbreak is potentially embarrassing for Beijing, which had declared victory over the virus and ordered citizens back to work. The capital, where measures were among the strictest in the country, had reported no new locally transmitted cases for 56 consecutive days before a cluster of diagnoses began on Thursday. Before that most new cases had come from Chinese nationals returning from abroad.

On Tuesday, state media appeared to push the idea that the virus had come from abroad. Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said the strain was most similar to those seen in Europe, the US or Russia. “It clearly indicates the virus strain is different from what it was two months ago,” he told state broadcaster CGTN. “The virus strain is the major epidemic strain in European countries. So, it is from outside China brought to Beijing.” In a similar vein, a deputy director at the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University, told state media he believed the new outbreak involved a more contagious strain of the virus than the one that hit Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic.  –Guardian

Beijing residents are rounded up and put in quarantine as the city goes back into lock-down and new travel bans

China is rounding up Beijing residents and forcing them into quarantine as the capital goes back into lock-down amid an ‘extremely severe’ coronavirus outbreak, which is being blamed on European salmon. Footage shows officials in hazmat suits barking orders through a megaphone while people line up in queues and pack into buses amid fears that a second wave of virus cases is about to hit the country.  Activist Jennifer Zeng, who posted the footage, claims that seven hotels were requisitioned as quarantine sites with people rounded up in an all-day operation after an outbreak linked to the Xinfadi wholesale market.   

Beijing has today reported 27 new infections from the Xinfadi cluster and cases have spiked in recent days after mass testing and draconian lock-downs appeared to have brought China’s outbreak to a virtual standstill. The boss of the Xinfadi market on Saturday told reporters that researchers had found traces of the novel coronavirus on a chopping board used to cut imported salmon. The Chinese Center for Disease has however come out to say there is no evidence to suggest contaminated salmon played a role in the outbreak.

Today’s new cases took the number of confirmed infections in Beijing over the past five days to 106, as authorities locked down almost 30 communities in the city and tested tens of thousands of people. Those at most risk of having come in contact with the virus were also banned from leaving the city, in measures echoing the drastic lock-down in Wuhan where the disease was first detected late last year. China now faces a dilemma on how drastically to deal with new outbreaks while keeping the momentum in its economic recovery – a situation shared by other countries such as New Zealand that have beaten the virus. Beijing has not set an GDP growth target for this year for the first time in decades, but analysts say it will have to grow GDP by three per cent to steady its economy.

There remains a sense of unease on Asian and global markets about signs of a COVID-19 resurgence, just as the city was getting back on track and after months of no new cases. ‘A cluster like this is a concern and it needs to be investigated and controlled – and that is exactly what the Chinese authorities are doing,’ WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said. China had eased much of its anti-coronavirus measures in recent months as the government all but declared victory against the disease that emerged in Wuhan late last year.

“The epidemic situation in the capital is extremely severe,’ Beijing city spokesman Xu Hejian warned at a press conference. The country’s Vice Premier Sun Chunlan urged the city’s officials to impose ‘the strictest’ virus control measures to contain the spread of the virus, which has been linked to a massive food wholesale market called Xinfadi.  The World Health Organization had already expressed concern about the cluster, pointing to Beijing’s size and connectivity. Officials in the city said they would test stall owners and managers at all of its food markets, restaurants and government canteens. All markets, restaurants, canteens and offices have been instructed to carry out deep clean and disinfection. Other public facilities, such as museums, galleries and parks, can only run at 30 per cent of its maximum capacity.  –Daily Mail

Texas woman contracts COVID-19 a second time – four months after getting over virus: makes tearful plea ‘please wear a mask’

A Dallas woman is detailing her battle with not one but two rounds of coronavirus. Over the weekend, Meredith McKee posted a tearful photo — that’s now been seen by more than 100,000 people — from her hospital bed at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas. McKee is sick with the coronavirus again, and she told NBC 5 she wouldn’t wish it on her worst enemy.

“To be alone in the hospital and not have anyone, you know,” McKee said tearfully. McKee tested positive for COVID-19 in February. She was diagnosed after feeling “clear and obvious” symptoms. “I had a dry cough like you would not believe. It would not stop,” McKee said. She fought the virus from home and beat it. She even donated plasma twice after testing positive for antibodies, thinking she was in the clear. “I felt great doing finally something good coming out of the hell that I’ve been through because I’m going to help up to eight people with this plasma,” McKee said.

As early as April of 2020, experts were unsure if a second infection of COVID-19 was likely in patients who had already recovered. Immunity from a primary infection of COVID-19 could only last a few months. 

But this past Friday, McKee went to the hospital with high blood pressure and a headache. She never imagined — four months later — she’d test positive for COVID-19 again. “I was floored when it was positive,” McKee said of her diagnosis. An epidemiologist at UT Southwestern — not connected to McKee’s case — said catching the coronavirus twice is possible, but it appears to be uncommon. “We don’t really know how serious the illness is the second time compared to the first time,” said Dr. Robert Haley with UT Southwestern.

A second positive test after a negative result may mean the virus is simply taking its time leaving the body, doctors said, and is no longer able to infect others. “It’s possible that people could shed remnants of the virus for some period of time. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong with them or that they are contagious,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. McKee said her doctors believe the virus went dormant after her first round of coronavirus, then reemerged. While scientists still do not know the long-term effects of the virus, some experts have cast doubt that re-testing positive after having tested negative means that the person is still contagious, NBC News reported.

A study of 285 COVID-19 patients in South Korea who tested positive after having appeared to recover could not find evidence that the patients were still contagious, with viral samples unable to thrive in a lab. “What we’re finding more and more is that the fragments of virus that are being picked up on these swabs weeks later are not able to replicate,” Dr. Ania Wajnberg, associate director of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, told NBC News. “They’re not live virus.” Still, McKee said the worst part for her is realizing she may have unknowingly exposed family, friends and countless strangers. “I’m mortified and I’m seriously devastated,” McKee said. McKee said she wants her case to serve as a reminder for everyone to wear a mask, something she now wishes she’d done.  –NBC News

COVID-19 cases surging across the southern U.S. as lock-downs ease – First wave far from over

New cases of COVID-19 nearly doubled in Alabama and South Carolina in the second week of June compared to the prior seven days, a Reuters analysis found, as 17 U.S. states reported weekly increases in the spread of the novel coronavirus. Alabama’s new cases rose 97% to 5,115 for the week ended June 14, with 14% of COVID-19 tests coming back positive compared to 6% in the prior week, according to the analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak. New cases in South Carolina rose 86% to 4,509, while the positive test rate rose to about 14% from 9% over the same period, according to the analysis and state data.

When asked to comment on the increases, South Carolina and Alabama health officials said some residents were not following recommendations to maintain social distance, avoid large gatherings and wear a mask in public. In Oklahoma, where President Donald Trump plans to hold an indoor campaign rally on Saturday, new cases rose 68% to 1,081 in the second week of June, while the positive test rate increased to 4%, from 2% the previous week. Oklahoma officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The three states are among hot spots throughout the South and Southwest that helped push the total number of new infections in the United States up 1% in the week ended June 14, the second increase after five weeks of declines, Reuters found. The state that reported the largest number of new cases was California at 20,043, up 10% from the previous week. Nationally, the rate of positive tests has hovered around 5% for several weeks, according to the analysis. More than 583,000 tests were reported in a single day last week, a new record. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended states wait for new COVID-19 cases to fall for 14 days before easing social distancing restrictions. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have met that criteria, the analysis showed. Pennsylvania and New York lead with nine straight weeks of declines, followed by Rhode Island and Indiana.  –Reuters