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Tag Archives: findings
Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations
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Healthy aging and drinking water: Fascinating findings from a new study
Nearly half of people worldwide do not get the recommended daily total water intake, a new report indicates
Yet drinking enough water may help to delay the aging process for many.
A recent study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published in eBioMedicine suggests as much — though there are caveats to know.
SHOULD YOU DRINK WATER BEFORE BED? EXPERTS CHIME IN
“The results suggest that proper hydration may slow down aging and prolong a disease-free life,” said Natalia Dmitrieva, PhD, a study author and researcher in the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, in a news release.
The researchers looked at the link between sodium levels in blood and certain health markers — and explained that blood sodium levels increased when fluid intake decreased.
Staying well-hydrated is associated with better health, fewer chronic conditions and longer life, a new study suggests. Fox News Digital talked to several physicians, who shared some key caveats.
(iStock)
Adults who had serum sodium levels at the higher end of a normal range were more likely to die at a younger age.
They were also more likely to develop chronic conditions and show signs of advanced biological aging, compared to those whose levels were in the medium ranges, the NIH report said.
The study’s authors explained that hydration plays a role in serum sodium levels.
A normal serum sodium range should be between 135-146 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L), according to the NIH release.
The study’s authors explained that hydration plays a role in serum sodium levels.
NEW COVID OMICRON SUBVARIANT XBB.1.5 IS ‘SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE’ IN US: HEALTH EXPERTS REVEAL WHY
“Decreased body water content is the most common factor that increases serum sodium, which is why the results suggest that staying well-hydrated may slow down the aging process and prevent or delay chronic disease,” they said.
The team collected data from 11,255 participants over a 30-year period.
Staying well-hydrated was also associated with better health, fewer chronic conditions and longer life, a new study said.
(iStock)
The NIH release indicated that the team found that serum sodium greater than 142 mmol/l for those who are middle-aged is associated with a 39% increased risk of developing chronic diseases — and up to a 64% increased associated risk for developing dementia and chronic diseases such as diabetes, stroke, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and peripheral artery disease.
Randomized, controlled trials are needed to determine if the optimal amount of fluid intake can help prevent disease and promote healthy aging.
Staying well-hydrated was also associated with better health, fewer chronic conditions and longer life, the study said.
The researchers also found that participants with serum sodium levels above 144 mEq/L had a 50% increased risk of being “biologically older” than their actual age — while those around the 142 mEq/L mark had up to a 15% increased risk, compared to those who had ranges between 137 and 142 mEq/L
IS STRETCHING PART OF YOUR ROUTINE IN THE NEW YEAR? HERE’S HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
Adults with levels between 144.5 and 146 mEq/L presented a 21% increased risk of premature death compared to those with ranges between 137-142 mEq/L, the NIH report also said.
The study’s authors found that adults with serum sodium levels between 138-140 mEq/L had the lowest risk of developing chronic disease.
The correlations found in the study can be helpful in guiding an individual’s behavioral habits and be informative to clinicians, the researchers said.
(iStock)
The NIH release, however, noted that the researchers’ findings do not prove a causal effect — and that randomized, controlled trials are needed to determine if the optimal amount of fluid intake can help prevent disease and promote healthy aging.
The researchers said the correlations found in the study can be helpful in guiding an individual’s behavioral habits and be informative to clinicians.
POTATOES AREN’T ALWAYS BAD FOR YOU — IT’S ALL IN THE PREPARATION, NEW STUDY INDICATES
“People whose serum sodium is 142 mEq/L or higher would benefit from [an] evaluation of their fluid intake,” Dmitrieva said in the NIH release.
It is important for people to discuss with a physician how much water intake is appropriate for them and their individual situations.
People can increase their fluid intake with water as well as with juices, vegetables and fruits with high water content, she said in the release.
Health experts said certain medical conditions could also affect fluid intake or a need for fluid restriction — so it is important for people to discuss with a physician how much water intake is appropriate for them and their individual situations.
“The goal is to ensure patients are taking in enough fluids, while assessing factors, like medications, that may lead to fluid loss,” said Manfred Boehm, M.D., a study author and director of the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine, in the NIH release.
“The authors’ findings are in keeping with advice many of us received from our mothers — drink six to eight glasses of water every day,” said one physician.
(iStock)
Boehm also said in the release, “Doctors may also need to defer to a patient’s current treatment plan, such as limiting fluid intake for heart failure.”
Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., MPH, is director of Mount Sinai Heart Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. He was not part of the study, but he told Fox News Digital that the findings were interesting and provocative.
“The authors’ findings are in keeping with advice many of us received from our mothers — drink six to eight glasses of water every day,” he said.
“Staying well-hydrated is probably a good idea, though for the average healthy person, I wouldn’t say to drink more water unless you are thirsty.”
“More recently, that conventional wisdom has been challenged, with experts instead recommending drinking water only when actually thirsty and not on a schedule.”
Bhatt cautioned, “Older adults or those with some degree of dementia … may lose their sense of thirst — and in those situations, more scheduled water consumption can sometimes be useful.”
Bhatt, who is also a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System, pointed out that the investigators examined sodium levels — and it was not a direct study of the amount of daily water intake.
“To prove that drinking more water actually improves health would require a gold-standard, randomized trial,” he said.
“Bottom line: Staying well-hydrated is probably a good idea, though for the average healthy person, I wouldn’t say to drink more water unless you are thirsty,” he added.
When more people are working from home today, said one health professional, it’s perhaps “more important not to lose track of time and to make sure you are getting enough water to stay well-hydrated.”
(iStock)
“Perhaps, in this peri-pandemic period where some people may be working from home and glued to a computer, it is more important not to lose track of time and to make sure you are getting enough water to stay well-hydrated.”
Dr. Marzena Gieniusz, an internist and geriatrician in the Department of Medicine and Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Northwell Health in New York, told Fox News Digital, “An important thing to take from this study is that more research needs to be done to understand the dynamics between hydration and aging, and how to best optimize hydration in the setting of various conditions, and on an individual level to improve health and outcomes.”
FITNESS FAIL? EQUINOX GYM’S SHAMING OF NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS RAISES THE EYEBROWS OF EXERCISE EXPERTS
She added, “The findings of this study do not prove a causal effect — and more hydration is not synonymous with better hydration, healthier aging and better outcomes for everyone. This is important to understand.”
Dr. Gieniusz, also an assistant professor at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, said as well, “Optimal hydration depends on the individual and the body’s needs, which are affected by various factors including, but not limited to, activity level, medical conditions, weather, etc.”
She noted, “When it comes to recommendations about how much water or fluids we should drink, it depends on the individual. The standard 6-8 cups per day does not apply to everyone.”
“The body is designed to self-regulate and maintain balance — although self-regulation and maintaining balance becomes more challenging as we get older.”
Added Gieniusz, “The human body is very complex — and we are still learning how the various systems work independently and interact with each other, including the system of using and balancing salt and fluids in the body.”
She said, “We do know that the body is impressively designed to self-regulate and maintain balance — although self-regulation and maintaining balance becomes more challenging as we get older.”
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
For example, she said, “with aging, we often experience a decline in our thirst sensation, so older adults may drink [fewer] fluids, which may increase their risk of fluid depletion or dehydration — and that can sometimes lead to complications. Yet sometimes it can actually be a good thing.”
She added, “Certain medical conditions (e.g. heart failure), which are more common in older adults, may benefit from limiting fluid and/or salt intake, and some patients even take medications to rid the body of water in order to better manage their medical conditions.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The current guidelines from the National Academies of Medicine suggest women should drink 6-9 cups (1.5-2.2 liters) daily and men should drink 8-12 cups (2-3 liters) daily, according to the release.
Fascinating findings from a new study
Nearly half of people worldwide do not get the recommended daily total water intake, a new report indicates
Yet drinking enough water may help to delay the aging process for many.
A recent study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published in eBioMedicine suggests as much — though there are caveats to know.
SHOULD YOU DRINK WATER BEFORE BED? EXPERTS CHIME IN
“The results suggest that proper hydration may slow down aging and prolong a disease-free life,” said Natalia Dmitrieva, PhD, a study author and researcher in the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, in a news release.
The researchers looked at the link between sodium levels in blood and certain health markers — and explained that blood sodium levels increased when fluid intake decreased.
READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP
Adults who had serum sodium levels at the higher end of a normal range were more likely to die at a younger age.
They were also more likely to develop chronic conditions and show signs of advanced biological aging, compared to those whose levels were in the medium ranges, the NIH report said.
A normal serum sodium range should be between 135-146 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L), according to the NIH release.
The study’s authors explained that hydration plays a role in serum sodium levels.
NEW COVID OMICRON SUBVARIANT XBB.1.5 IS ‘SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE’ IN US: HEALTH EXPERTS REVEAL WHY
“Decreased body water content is the most common factor that increases serum sodium, which is why the results suggest that staying well-hydrated may slow down the aging process and prevent or delay chronic disease,” they said.
The team collected data from 11,255 participants over a 30-year period.
The NIH release indicated that the team found that serum sodium greater than 142 mmol/l for those who are middle-aged is associated with a 39% increased risk of developing chronic diseases — and up to a 64% increased associated risk for developing dementia and chronic diseases such as diabetes, stroke, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and peripheral artery disease.
Staying well-hydrated was also associated with better health, fewer chronic conditions and longer life, the study said.
The researchers also found that participants with serum sodium levels above 144 mEq/L had a 50% increased risk of being “biologically older” than their actual age — while those around the 142 mEq/L mark had up to a 15% increased risk, compared to those who had ranges between 137 and 142 mEq/L
IS STRETCHING PART OF YOUR ROUTINE IN THE NEW YEAR? HERE’S HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
Adults with levels between 144.5 and 146 mEq/L presented a 21% increased risk of premature death compared to those with ranges between 137-142 mEq/L, the NIH report also said.
The study’s authors found that adults with serum sodium levels between 138-140 mEq/L had the lowest risk of developing chronic disease.
The NIH release, however, noted that the researchers’ findings do not prove a causal effect — and that randomized, controlled trials are needed to determine if the optimal amount of fluid intake can help prevent disease and promote healthy aging.
The researchers said the correlations found in the study can be helpful in guiding an individual’s behavioral habits and be informative to clinicians.
POTATOES AREN’T ALWAYS BAD FOR YOU — IT’S ALL IN THE PREPARATION, NEW STUDY INDICATES
“People whose serum sodium is 142 mEq/L or higher would benefit from [an] evaluation of their fluid intake,” Dmitrieva said in the NIH release.
People can increase their fluid intake with water as well as with juices, vegetables and fruits with high water content, she said in the release.
Health experts said certain medical conditions could also affect fluid intake or a need for fluid restriction — so it is important for people to discuss with a physician how much water intake is appropriate for them and their individual situations.
“The goal is to ensure patients are taking in enough fluids, while assessing factors, like medications, that may lead to fluid loss,” said Manfred Boehm, M.D., a study author and director of the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine, in the NIH release.
Boehm also said in the release, “Doctors may also need to defer to a patient’s current treatment plan, such as limiting fluid intake for heart failure.”
Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., MPH, is director of Mount Sinai Heart Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. He was not part of the study, but he told Fox News Digital that the findings were interesting and provocative.
“The authors’ findings are in keeping with advice many of us received from our mothers — drink six to eight glasses of water every day,” he said.
“More recently, that conventional wisdom has been challenged, with experts instead recommending drinking water only when actually thirsty and not on a schedule.”
Bhatt cautioned, “Older adults or those with some degree of dementia … may lose their sense of thirst — and in those situations, more scheduled water consumption can sometimes be useful.”
Bhatt, who is also a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System, pointed out that the investigators examined sodium levels — and it was not a direct study of the amount of daily water intake.
“To prove that drinking more water actually improves health would require a gold-standard, randomized trial,” he said.
“Bottom line: Staying well-hydrated is probably a good idea, though for the average healthy person, I wouldn’t say to drink more water unless you are thirsty,” he added.
“Perhaps, in this peri-pandemic period where some people may be working from home and glued to a computer, it is more important not to lose track of time and to make sure you are getting enough water to stay well-hydrated.”
Dr. Marzena Gieniusz, an internist and geriatrician in the Department of Medicine and Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Northwell Health in New York, told Fox News Digital, “An important thing to take from this study is that more research needs to be done to understand the dynamics between hydration and aging, and how to best optimize hydration in the setting of various conditions, and on an individual level to improve health and outcomes.”
FITNESS FAIL? EQUINOX GYM’S SHAMING OF NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS RAISES THE EYEBROWS OF EXERCISE EXPERTS
She added, “The findings of this study do not prove a causal effect — and more hydration is not synonymous with better hydration, healthier aging and better outcomes for everyone. This is important to understand.”
Dr. Gieniusz, also an assistant professor at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, said as well, “Optimal hydration depends on the individual and the body’s needs, which are affected by various factors including, but not limited to, activity level, medical conditions, weather, etc.”
She noted, “When it comes to recommendations about how much water or fluids we should drink, it depends on the individual. The standard 6-8 cups per day does not apply to everyone.”
Added Gieniusz, “The human body is very complex — and we are still learning how the various systems work independently and interact with each other, including the system of using and balancing salt and fluids in the body.”
She said, “We do know that the body is impressively designed to self-regulate and maintain balance — although self-regulation and maintaining balance becomes more challenging as we get older.”
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
For example, she said, “with aging, we often experience a decline in our thirst sensation, so older adults may drink [fewer] fluids, which may increase their risk of fluid depletion or dehydration — and that can sometimes lead to complications. Yet sometimes it can actually be a good thing.”
She added, “Certain medical conditions (e.g. heart failure), which are more common in older adults, may benefit from limiting fluid and/or salt intake, and some patients even take medications to rid the body of water in order to better manage their medical conditions.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The current guidelines from the National Academies of Medicine suggest women should drink 6-9 cups (1.5-2.2 liters) daily and men should drink 8-12 cups (2-3 liters) daily, according to the release.
January 6 committee transcripts: Trump wanted to trademark ‘Rigged Election!’ and other key findings
CNN
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The House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, on Friday released another wave of witness interview transcripts.
The new drop, which complements the panel’s sweeping 845-page report and is among a steady stream of transcripts released over the past week, includes interviews with some of the most intriguing figures in the committee’s probe into the US Capitol attack.
Those witnesses include Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, who told the committee that she regretted texts she sent to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows encouraging election reversal efforts.
Trump White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato – whose interview transcript was also released Friday after the committee publicly questioned his credibility in its report – pushed back on another key witness’ claim that he had recounted to her a dramatic episode involving Trump in his motorcade.
Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, shed new light on how a Trump team shift in strategy came to be.
The latest transcript drop comes as the panel winds down its work with the House majority set to change hands from Democrats to Republicans next week at the start of the new Congress. The releases have shed new light on how the House committee conducted its investigation of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol – and new details about what key witnesses told the panel.
Here are some of the highlights from the latest disclosures:
Then-President Donald Trump wanted to trademark the phrase “Rigged Election!” days after Election Day in 2020, according to emails provided by Jared Kushner to the House select committee.
On November 9, 2020, then-Trump aide Dan Scavino emailed Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, with the request from Trump.
“Hey Jared! POTUS wants to trademark/own rights to below, I don’t know who to see – or ask…I don’t know who to take to,” the email from Scavino reads, according to a transcript of Kushner’s testimony to the committee, which was released by the panel on Friday.
Two phrases were bolded in the email: “Save America PAC!” and “Rigged Election!”
Kushner forwarded the request and discussed it on an email chain that included Eric Trump, the president’s son; Alex Cannon, a Trump campaign lawyer; Sean Dollman, the chief financial officer of Trump’s 2020 campaign; and Justin Clark, a Trump campaign lawyer.
“Guys – can we do ASAP please?” Kushner wrote.
Eric Trump responded, saying: “Both web URLs are already registered. Save America PAC was registered October 23 of this year. Was that done by the campaign?”
Dollman responded: “‘Save America PAC’ is already taken/registered, just confirming that. But we can still file for ‘Save America.’”
Kushner’s response, according to the transcript, was: “Go.”
A feeling that courts weren’t comfortable with Trump’s legal challenges to the 2020 election drove the Trump team’s pivot to state legislatures, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the select committee earlier this year.
The theory that the US Constitution lets state legislatures intervene in the presidential election results first came up within the week after the election, Giuliani told congressional investigators. But he and then-fellow Trump attorney Jenna Ellis looked more closely at the idea when the lawsuits challenging the results weren’t getting traction.
“We just got a bad feeling that these judges didn’t – they didn’t want to hear witnesses, citizens, American citizens, and that if American citizens could get up and testify, there were so many of them that it would make a very big difference,” Giuliani said in his May deposition.
The theory that a state legislature could override the results of a state’s presidential vote is considered a fringe one, and Congress recently enacted statutory changes to limit legislatures’ ability to do so.
At one point, Giuliani said, “It seemed to me the courts didn’t want to be involved in a political question like this. And there was a kind of a discomfort too. Somehow we were trying to think, well, who would resolve something like this. And we started reading the Constitution.”
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the committee that when she said she was “disgusted” with then-Vice President Mike Pence in a text on January 10, 2021, she wasn’t referring to his refusal to stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s win, but rather to her frustration with him not talking up election fraud claims. There was no evidence of widespread election fraud in the election.
“I was frustrated that I thought Vice President Pence might concede earlier than what President Trump was inclined to do,” Thomas said, according to a transcript released Friday. “And I wanted to hear Vice President Pence talk more about the fraud and irregularities in certain states that I thought was still lingering.”
“I wasn’t focused on the Vice President’s role on January 6th,” she said, when asked specifically if the text – previously reported by CNN – was connected to how he handled that day.
At another point in the interview, committee member Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, asked Thomas what specific episodes of fraud concerned her.
“I can’t say that I was familiar at that time with any specific evidence,” she said, pointing instead to what she heard from “friends on the ground” and “grassroots activists” who had “found things suspicious” at polling places.
“I don’t know specific instances,” she said. “But certainly I think we all know that there are people questioning what happened in 2020, and it takes time to develop an understanding of the facts.”
The committee had only limited questions about Thomas’ interactions with her husband and his role on the Supreme Court – an area she would likely be able to decline to answer questions about, given the confidentiality allowed for married couples.
Her husband had no idea she was texting Meadows, Thomas told the investigators.
“He first learned of my text messaging with Mark Meadows in March when he was in the hospital and this committee released them,” she said in her interview.
Ginni Thomas told the House select committee she regretted the text messages she was sending to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after the election.
“I regret the tone and content of these texts … I really find my language imprudent and my choices of sending the context of these emails unfortunate,” Thomas said.
Thomas’ mea culpa to the committee, captured in a transcript of her September interview that was released publicly Friday, marks a rare moment of public reflection from one of the more intriguing avenues the House panel pursued, after obtaining Meadows’ texts. Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, had been sending Meadows messages about challenging the election results. She explained to the committee at her interview she was concerned about a concession of the election before accusations of fraud were fully explored.
“It was an emotional time. I was probably just emoting,” she said, in response to direct questions from committee member Adam Schiff, a California Democrat. “Some of these are just things I was showing were moving through the movement and I’m regretting that they became public … Certainly I didn’t want my emotional texts to a friend released and made available.”
An attorney for Thomas said in a statement Friday that her “post-election activities” after Trump lost in 2020 were “minimal and mainstream.”
“Her minimal activity was focused on ensuring that reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated,” attorney Mark Paoletta said in the statement. “Beyond that, she played no role in any events following the 2020 election. She also condemned the violence on January 6.”
One of the key witnesses in the House committee’s investigation, former White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato, told the panel he couldn’t recall details from January 6, amid what he called “the fog of war” during the US Capitol attack.
Ornato has been a central figure in the investigation since former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that he relayed to her how the then-president angrily tried to redirect his motorcade to the Capitol that day – another detail that Ornato told the committee he didn’t recall.
Ornato told the committee that most of his job on January 6 involved relaying information he received to then-chief of staff Meadows and said he couldn’t recall specific details when asked about who was trying to encourage Trump to send out a statement that day.
“I’ll be honest with you, it was a very chaotic time in trying to get the information, and it was usually late information or it wasn’t accurate or it was the fog of war and it was misrepresented. And it was very – a very chaotic day, so I don’t recall those specific details,” Ornato said.
During a public hearing in June, Hutchinson testified that Ornato told her Trump was angry he couldn’t go to the Capitol on January 6 after his speech at the Ellipse and that, during the ride back to the White House, he reached toward the front of the car to grab at the steering wheel.
According to Ornato’s November testimony to the committee, which was released Friday, Ornato did not recall the conversation with Hutchinson and said he was “shocked” by her testimony.
“I was called to put it on,” Ornato told the committee, referring to Hutchinson’s televised testimony, “and I was shocked and surprised of her testimony and called Mr. Engel and asked him, ‘What is she talking about?’”
Ornato said that Robert Engel, the lead Secret Service agent in Trump’s motorcade on the day of the US Capitol attack, didn’t know what Hutchinson was referring to. Hutchinson testified that Ornato relayed the story about Trump’s outburst to her back at the White House, while Engel was in the room.
The committee makes clear in its final report it did not find Ornato’s testimony credible.
An attorney on Trump’s post-election legal team questioned some of the statistics being used to support claims of mass fraud, pointing out that many supposedly dead voters in Georgia likely sent in their ballots before they died, according to a January 6 committee transcript released Friday.
The committee read an email from the attorney, Katherine Friess, to Giuliani during the panel’s interview with him. In the email, Friess weighed in on a chart being prepared for Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican.
“Many of the dead voters on the Georgia list sent their vote in before they passed. I don’t think this makes a particularly strong case, and I think it’s possible that Chairman Graham will push back on that,” Friess said in the email, according to the committee investigators who were questioning Giuliani.
CNN previously reported that another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, told the committee that Graham promised to “champion” Trump’s election fraud claims, saying: “Just give me five dead voters.” And Georgia election officials told Trump they found two votes cast in the names of dead people, not 5,000 as the former president suggested.
Friess said in her email that she was raising the issue so that everyone is aware of “what the data actually says.” Hundreds of names on the list were of people who had died after their ballot was received, according to the committee’s description of the chart.
An attorney who represented Friess in litigation she brought to block a committee subpoena of her phone records did not immediately respond to CNN’s inquiry about her email.
A Trump administration official who was accused of trying to access sensitive Justice Department election-related information denied in testimony to the committee that she was barred from entering the DOJ’s building, as was reported at the time.
Heidi Stirrup, who was working as the White House liaison to the DOJ during the 2020 election, said that her badge to enter in the building was deactivated briefly in November 2020, but that after a day or two it was reactivated and she was able to reenter the building.
In her deposition with the committee, Stirrup recounted conversations she had with then-Attorney General Bill Barr and another DOJ official when she was seeking information about what the department was doing to investigate voter fraud allegations after the 2020 election. She told congressional investigators that she “took it upon” herself to talk to the DOJ officials about how the department was approaching the allegations, after being asked by “friends” not in the federal government what was going on.
Stirrup told the committee that Will Levi, the other DOJ official she spoke to, shared with her a memo Barr sent to the department outlining the authority that US attorneys had to investigate allegations presented to them in their state. According to the transcript, Stirrup emailed that memo to various other Trump administration officials – including John Zadrozny and John McEntee, who both worked in the White House. She told the committee that she couldn’t recall having conversations with any of those individuals about DOJ’s investigations into the allegations, and said she shared with them the memo because she thought they would be interested in it.
Robert Sinners, who worked on the Trump campaign’s Election Day operations in Georgia in 2020 and helped organize the slate of alternate GOP electors there, told congressional investigators that his “intent was never to be aligned with team crazy.”
Sinners said he was assured that lawyers had signed off on the alternate elector plan and didn’t realize that numerous lawyers working with the Trump campaign had soured on the electors idea by the time the fake electors were convening on December 14, 2020, according to a transcript released Friday night.
In hindsight – after more fully understanding the extent of the schemes to overturn the 2020 election and the reservations some Trump attorneys had about these plots – Sinners told investigators he was both “ashamed” to have helped organize the fake electors and “angry.”
CNN previously reported that Sinners emailed the fake electors asking for “complete secrecy and discretion” on December 13, 2020, a day before the GOP electors convened at the Georgia capitol. Sinners told the panel that efforts to ensure Georgia’s GOP electors met in secrecy had more to do with skirting Covid-19 restrictions and avoiding protesters than keeping the elector plan under wraps.
This story has been updated with additional details Friday.
D.C. attorney general to release more findings about Commanders
“We are going to give Mr. Snyder and his team an opportunity to pay back exactly what we found they owe D.C. residents,” Racine said. “But that’s not going to be a long opportunity, and we’ll prepare a legal document that will be filed in court next week if a deal is not reached.”
Some former season ticket holders have recently received letters from the team regarding refundable deposits, and Racine said that is “of course” connected to his office’s investigation.
“We haven’t accepted security deposits in nearly a decade, and we began returning deposits to ticket holders as early as late 2004,” a team spokesperson said. “We sent a letter a few weeks ago as part of the most recent outreach to return deposits to ticket holders.”
Racine’s office had been investigating the Commanders and Snyder after allegations of workplace misconduct and sexual harassment, as well as for claims made by one former employee of financial irregularities.
“We investigated the team not only in regards to these outrageous and illegal acts against women and [against] their employees, but we also … had a referral made to us from Congress and, acting responsibly, we dug into that,” Racine said.
The Commanders and Snyder also are being investigated by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, the NFL and the office of Jason S. Miyares (R), Virginia’s attorney general. Investigators for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia also have interviewed witnesses about allegations of financial improprieties involving the team, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.
Jason Friedman, a former vice president of sales and customer service for the team, told the House Committee this year that the Commanders engaged in a long-running practice of withholding refundable deposits from season ticket holders and hiding money that was supposed to be shared among other NFL owners.
In recent weeks, some former season ticket holders have shared letters received from the Commanders saying the team tried to contact them once before to no avail and is reaching out again to return the deposit. The letters say state law “requires the team to report and/or remit the funds” in the season ticket holder’s account if they are not claimed.
One former season ticket holder, Christopher Barnett, told The Post he had tickets for two seats over a five-year term in the 1990s. He didn’t renew after the term expired, and he does not recall hearing from the team about a deposit refund before receiving a letter in October.
“It’s not surprising that when the sheriff is on your heels, conduct begins to comport itself to the law,” Racine said, adding the team “should hurry up.”
Racine announced the consumer protection lawsuit less than two months before he is scheduled to leave office. He said Thursday he is “quite confident” the case will move forward under the watch of Attorney General-elect Brian Schwalb.
“As soon as Brian clears ethics and ceases his employment at the law firm he’s at, he will get all the information that he wants about any case that we have,” Racine said.
The lawsuit, filed in the civil division of D.C. Superior Court, alleges the Commanders and the NFL violated the district’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act with “public misrepresentations, omissions, and ambiguities of material fact.”
Racine’s office said it is seeking financial penalties under the CPPA for every misstatement made by the Commanders, Snyder, the NFL and Goodell to District residents dating from July 2020. It also is seeking a court order to force the NFL to release the findings of a previous investigation of the team’s workplace conducted by attorney Beth Wilkinson.
D.C.’s attorney general, unlike attorneys general of the 50 states, cannot prosecute adult crimes and serious misdemeanors. The U.S. attorney’s office handles such cases.
“The [team] can seek to have our case dismissed,” Racine said. “We will issue subpoenas. We will seek testimony under oath. Depositions. I promise you. Let me just give you a hunch: The depositions are not likely to occur on a yacht but in a conference in the District of Columbia because no one is above the law.”
When asked whether he has had any communication with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia, Racine declined to provide specifics.
“I think it’s best for us to not go into that,” he said. “I can tell you that we’ve certainly made outreach.”
Scientists May Have Really Screwed Up on Early James Webb Findings
“I don’t think anybody really expected this to be as big of an issue as it’s becoming.”
Star-Struck
The James Webb Space Telescope has been so impressive that it’s making even astronomers a bit too eager about its incredible observations. When the first batch of data dropped earlier this summer, many dived straight into analysis and putting out papers. But according to new reporting by Nature, the telescope hadn’t been fully calibrated when the data was first released, which is now sending some astronomers scrambling to see if their calculations are now obsolete.
The process of going back and trying to find out what parts of the work needs to be redone has proved “thorny and annoying,” one astronomer told Nature. Another griped that “I don’t think anybody really expected this to be as big of an issue as it’s becoming.”
Getting Heady
When looking at celestial bodies extremely far away, calibration is paramount — and very difficult. It might take a few weeks before the next calibration updates from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) are released. With more time comes more refinement, and the accuracy of the telescope’s findings will no doubt continue to improve.
According to Jane Rigby, the telescope’s operations project scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, the STScI “made it clear” that at this early a stage, the calibrations weren’t going to be fully fine tuned. But since it’s been so long since there’s been a new telescope, Rigby told Nature, that reality probably flew over a lot of astronomers’ heads.
Trust the Process
As with any advanced new piece of research equipment, it’s going to take time to understand the capabilities and limitations of the Webb. Researchers have separately warned that current models for exoplanet data analysis might not be good enough for the Webb’s exquisitely sensitive sensors. And in some cases, researchers have simply been surprised to find that the scope’s observations contradict their best theories — although, generally speaking, they find that phenomenon thrilling.
At the end of the day, none of this undermines the James Webb’s groundbreaking capabilities. Rather, it’s a brutal reminder that neither scientists nor their equipment are infallible. And heck, we all get carried away sometimes.
More on the James Webb: Webb and Hubble Release Amazing Views of NASA’s Asteroid Collision
Astronomers forced to rethink early Webb telescope findings
Astronomers have been so keen to use the new James Webb Space Telescope that some have got a little ahead of themselves. Many started analysing Webb data right after the first batch was released, on 14 July, and quickly posted their results on preprint servers — but are now having to revise them. The telescope’s detectors had not been calibrated thoroughly when the first data were made available, and that fact slipped past some astronomers in their excitement.
The revisions don’t so far appear to substantially change many of the exciting early results, such as the discovery of a number of candidates for the most distant galaxy ever spotted. But the ongoing calibration process is forcing astronomers to reckon with the limitations of early data from Webb.
Four revelations from the Webb telescope about distant galaxies
Figuring out how to redo the work is “thorny and annoying”, says Marco Castellano, an astronomer at the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome. “There’s been a lot of frustration,” says Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “I don’t think anybody really expected this to be as big of an issue as it’s becoming,” adds Guido Roberts-Borsani, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Calibration is particularly challenging for projects that require precise measurements of the brightness of astronomical objects, such as faint, faraway galaxies. For several weeks, some astronomers have been cobbling together workarounds so that they can continue their analyses1. The next official round of updates to Webb’s calibrations are expected in the coming weeks from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, which operates the telescope. Those updates should shrink the error bars on the telescope’s calibrations from the tens of percentage points that have been bedevilling astronomers in some areas, down to just a few percentage points. And data accuracy will continue to improve as calibration efforts proceed over the coming months.
The STScI made it clear that the initial calibrations to the telescope were rough, says Jane Rigby, operations project scientist for Webb at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Much of the issue stems from the fact that Webb, which launched in December 2021, is a new telescope whose details are still being worked out. “It’s been a long time since the community has had a brand-new telescope in space — a big one with these amazingly transformative powers,” Rigby says.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be perfect right out of the box,” says Martha Boyer, an astronomer at the STScI who is helping to lead the calibration efforts2.
Calibration controversy
All telescopes need to be calibrated. This is usually done by observing a well-understood star such as Vega, a prominent star in the night sky. Astronomers look at the data being collected by the telescope’s various instruments — such as the brightness of the star in different wavelengths of light — and compare them with measurements of the same star from other telescopes and of laboratory standards.
Webb telescope spots CO2 on exoplanet for first time: what it means for finding alien life
Working with Webb data involves several types of calibration, but the current controversy is around one of the telescope’s main instruments, its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam). In the six months after Webb launched, STScI researchers worked to calibrate NIRCam. But given the demands on Webb, they had only enough time to point it at one or two calibration stars, and to take data using just one of NIRCam’s ten detectors. They then estimated the calibrations for the other nine detectors. “That’s where there was a problem,” Boyer says. “Each detector will be a little bit different.”
Within days of the first Webb data release, non-peer-reviewed papers began appearing on the arXiv preprint server, reporting multiple candidates for the most distant galaxy ever recorded. These studies relied on the brightness of distant objects, measured with Webb at various wavelengths. Then, on 29 July, the STScI released an updated set of calibrations that were substantially different from what astronomers had been working with.
“This caused a little bit of panic,” says Nathan Adams, an astronomer at the University of Manchester, UK, who, along with his colleagues, pointed out the problem in a 9 August update to a preprint they had posted in late July3. “For those including myself who had written a paper within the first two weeks, it was a bit of — ‘Oh no, is everything that we’ve done wrong, does it all need to go in the bin?’”
A young observatory
To try to standardize all the measurements, the STScI is working through a detailed plan to point Webb at several types of well-understood star, and observe them with every detector in every mode for every instrument on the telescope4. “It just takes a while,” says Karl Gordon, an astronomer at the STScI who helps lead the effort.
Link: Webb telescope wows with first image of an exoplanet
In the meantime, astronomers have been reworking manuscripts that describe distant galaxies on the basis of Webb data. “Everyone’s gone back over and had a second look, and it’s not as bad as we thought,” Adams says. Many of the most exciting distant-galaxy candidates still seem to be at or near the distance originally estimated. But other preliminary studies, such as those that draw conclusions about the early Universe by comparing large numbers of faint galaxies, might not stand the test of time. Other fields of research, such as planetary studies, are not affected as much because they depend less on these preliminary brightness measurements.
“We’ve come to realize how much this data processing is an ongoing and developing situation, just because the observatory is so new and so young,” says Gabriel Brammer, an astronomer at the University of Copenhagen who has been developing Webb calibrations independent of the STScI.
In the long run, astronomers are sure to sort out the calibration and become more confident in their conclusions. But for now, Boyer says, “I would tell people to proceed with caution — whatever results they might be getting today might not be quite right in six months, when we have more information. It’s just sort of, ‘Proceed at your own risk.’”
Life on Mars? Latest Intriguing Organic Findings by NASA’s Perseverance Rover
Perseverance Workspace at ‘Skinner Ridge’: NASA’s Perseverance rover puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater. Composed of multiple images, this mosaic shows layered sedimentary rocks in the face of a cliff in the delta, as well as one of the locations where the rover abraded a circular patch to analyze a rock’s composition. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Investigates Geologically Rich Mars Terrain
The most recent discoveries provide greater detail on a region of the Red Planet that has a watery past and is yielding promising samples for the
“We picked the Jezero Crater for Perseverance to explore because we thought it had the best chance of providing scientifically excellent samples – and now we know we sent the rover to the right location,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington. “These first two science campaigns have yielded an amazing diversity of samples to bring back to Earth by the Mars Sample Return campaign.”
Jezero Crater, which is 28 miles (45 kilometers) wide, hosts a delta – an ancient fan-shaped feature that formed about 3.5 billion years ago at the convergence of a Martian river and a lake. Perseverance is currently examining the delta’s sedimentary rocks, which formed when particles of various sizes settled in the once-watery environment. During its first science campaign, the rover surveyed the crater’s floor, finding igneous rock, which forms deep underground from magma or during volcanic activity at the surface.
Perseverance Explores the Jezero Crater Delta: NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover has arrived at an ancient delta in Jezero Crater, one of the best places on the Red Planet to search for potential signs of ancient life. The delta is an area where scientists surmise that a river once flowed billions of years ago into a lake and deposited sediments in a fan shape. Credit: NASA/
“The delta, with its diverse sedimentary rocks, contrasts beautifully with the igneous rocks – formed from crystallization of magma – discovered on the crater floor,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California. “This juxtaposition provides us with a rich understanding of the geologic history after the crater formed and a diverse sample suite. For example, we found a sandstone that carries grains and rock fragments created far from Jezero Crater – and a mudstone that includes intriguing organic compounds.”
A notable rock about 3 feet (1 meter) wide has been given the name “Wildcat Ridge.” It likely formed billions of years ago as mud and fine sand settled in an evaporating saltwater lake. On July 20, the rover abraded some of the surface of Wildcat Ridge. This allowed it to analyze the area with a sophisticated scientific instrument called Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals, or SHERLOC.
According to SHERLOC’s analysis, the samples include a class of organic molecules that are spatially correlated with those of sulfate minerals. Sulfate minerals found in layers of sedimentary rock can yield important details about the aqueous environments in which they formed.
Two Perseverance Sampling Locations in Jezero’s Delta: NASA’s Perseverance rover collected rock samples for possible return to Earth in the future from two locations seen in this image of Mars’ Jezero Crater: “Wildcat Ridge” (lower left) and “Skinner Ridge” (upper right). Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
What Is Organic Matter?
Organic molecules consist of a wide variety of compounds made primarily of carbon and they usually also include hydrogen and oxygen atoms. In addition, they can contain other elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Although there are chemical processes that produce these molecules that don’t require life, some of these compounds are the chemical building blocks of life. The presence of these specific molecules is considered to be a possible biosignature – a substance or structure that could be evidence of past life but may also have been produced without the presence of life.
In 2013, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover found evidence of organic matter in rock-powder samples, and Perseverance has detected organics in Jezero Crater before. But unlike that previous discovery, this latest detection was made in an area where, in the distant past, sediment and salts were deposited into a lake under conditions in which life could have potentially existed. In its analysis of Wildcat Ridge, the SHERLOC instrument recorded the most abundant organic detections on the mission thus far.
“In the distant past, the sand, mud, and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge sample were deposited under conditions where life could potentially have thrived,” said Farley. “The fact the organic matter was found in such a sedimentary rock – known for preserving fossils of ancient life here on Earth – is important. However, as capable as our instruments aboard Perseverance are, further conclusions regarding what is contained in the Wildcat Ridge sample will have to wait until it’s returned to Earth for in-depth study as part of the agency’s Mars Sample Return campaign.”
Sample Collection and Rock Analysis at ‘Wildcat Ridge’: Composed of multiple images from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, this mosaic shows a rocky outcrop called “Wildcat Ridge,” where the rover extracted two rock cores and abraded a circular patch to investigate the rock’s composition. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
The first step in the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign began when Perseverance cored its first rock sample in September 2021. Along with its rock-core samples, the rover has collected one atmospheric sample and two witness tubes. All of these are stored in the rover’s belly.
The geologic diversity of the samples already carried in the rover is so good that the rover team is looking into depositing select tubes near the base of the delta in about two months. After depositing the cache, the rover will continue its delta explorations.
“I’ve studied Martian habitability and geology for much of my career and know first-hand the incredible scientific value of returning a carefully collected set of Mars rocks to Earth,” said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “That we are weeks from deploying Perseverance’s fascinating samples and mere years from bringing them to Earth so scientists can study them in exquisite detail is truly phenomenal. We will learn so much.”
More About the Mission
Astrobiology is a key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars, including caching samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, help pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach. This includes crewed Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
‘Concerning’ Findings Emphasize Importance of Depression Screening
Summary: Researchers are calling for postnatal depression risk screening for women with persistent depression while they are still pregnant.
Source: University of Queensland
University of Queensland researchers are calling for screening of perinatal depression (PND) for all women during pregnancy, after finding women with persistent depression are at high risk of developing the condition.
Ph.D. candidate Dr. Jacqueline Kiewa from UQ’s Child Health Research Centre compared the perinatal experiences of women with lifetime major depression and found almost three quarters of them had at least one episode of PND.
“Of the 7,182 participants in the study, 5,058 (70 percent) experienced perinatal depression,” Dr. Kiewa said.
Those who experienced perinatal depression—during pregnancy or within six months after giving birth—were more likely to experience severe, complex and frequent depressive episodes and earlier onset of symptoms.
“These women were more likely to have other psychiatric illness such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and respond less to anti-depressants,” Dr. Kiewa said.
The research found they were also more likely to experience severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.
Dr. Kiewa described the findings as concerning.
“In Australia, PND is a leading cause of disease in women who give birth and puts children at risk of developing cognitive and emotional problems,” she said.
Dr. Kiewa said Australian women of non-European and Indigenous ancestry and those who have a history of trauma had a higher risk of PND.
“Some of the characteristics we identified suggest environmental influences as the cause of PND in women with depression, while others point to genetic and biological reasons that may be specific to women and pregnancy,” she said
“Very few PND studies have considered whether mothers have ADHD or other psychiatric illnesses.”
“This is why it’s important that perinatal depression screening be included in all perinatal examinations.”
The research is published in the journal BMJ Open.
About this depression research news
Author: Press Office
Source: University of Queensland
Contact: Press Office – University of Queensland
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Original Research: Open access.
“Lifetime prevalence and correlates of perinatal depression in a case-cohort study of depression” by Jacqueline Kiewa et al. BMJ Open
Abstract
Lifetime prevalence and correlates of perinatal depression in a case-cohort study of depression
Objectives
This study sought to evaluate the prevalence, timing of onset and duration of symptoms of depression in the perinatal period (PND) in women with depression, according to whether they had a history of depression prior to their first perinatal period. We further sought to identify biopsychosocial correlates of perinatal symptoms in women with depression.
See also
Design and setting
The Australian Genetics of Depression Study is an online case cohort study of the aetiology of depression. For a range of variables, women with depression who report significant perinatal depressive symptoms were compared with women with lifetime depression who did not experience perinatal symptoms.
Participants
In a large sample of parous women with major depressive disorder (n=7182), we identified two subgroups of PND cases with and without prior depression history (n=2261; n=878, respectively).
Primary and secondary outcome measures
The primary outcome measure was a positive screen for PND on the lifetime version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Descriptive measures reported lifetime prevalence, timing of onset and duration of PND symptoms. There were no secondary outcome measures.
Results
The prevalence of PND among parous women was 70%. The majority of women reported at least one perinatal episode with symptoms both antenatally and postnatally. Of women who experienced depression prior to first pregnancy, PND cases were significantly more likely to report more episodes of depression (OR=1.15 per additional depression episode, 95% CI 1.13 to 1.17, p<0.001), non-European ancestry (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.0 to 2.1, p=0.03), severe nausea during pregnancy (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.6, p=0.006) and emotional abuse (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.7, p=0.005).
Conclusions
The majority of parous women with lifetime depression in this study experienced PND, associated with more complex, severe depression. Results highlight the importance of perinatal assessments of depressive symptoms, particularly for women with a history of depression or childhood adverse experiences.