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Health

Pandemic may affect infants’ brain development; coronavirus can trigger kidney scarring

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Medical workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) check temperature of an infant, whose mother is suffering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), inside a care centre at an indoor sports complex, amidst the spread of the disease, in New Delhi, India, January 5, 2022. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

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Jan 5 (Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.

Pandemic may be affecting infants’ brains

Coronavirus infection during pregnancy does not appear to affect infants’ brain function, but the pandemic itself may be having an impact, a study published on Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics suggests.

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Researchers in New York City tracked 255 full-term infants born during the pandemic, including 114 whose mothers had COVID-19 during pregnancy. When the babies were six months old, the researchers saw “absolutely no effect of maternal infection with SARS-CoV-2” on neurodevelopment, said Dr. Dani Dumitriu of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute. But overall, compared with 62 infants born before the pandemic, the babies born during the health crisis had slightly lower scores on tasks involving large muscles, tasks requiring small muscle movements, and personal interactions. The findings do not necessarily mean these infants will suffer long-term consequences, Dumitriu said. Assessments at six months are poor predictors of long-term outcomes, she added.

If additional research confirms that birth during the pandemic negatively impacts neurodevelopment, she said, “because this is such an early time point there are lots of opportunities to intervene and get these babies onto the right developmental trajectory.”

Coronavirus can trigger kidney scarring

The coronavirus can directly damage the kidneys by initiating a cascade of molecular events that leads to scarring, new laboratory research found. The resulting scar tissue could have long-term impacts on survivors’ kidney function, according to a report published in Cell Stem Cell.

The researchers exposed tiny replicas of kidneys to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in test tubes. They found the virus could infect multiple types of kidney cells and trigger “a molecular switch” that starts the scarring process. The findings suggest that high rates of kidney function decline seen in a separate study of more than 90,000 COVID-19 survivors might be due to scarring of the kidney by the virus, the researchers said.

Jitske Jansen of Radboud University Medical Center in The Netherlands said in a statement that her team had found another “piece of the puzzle showing the deleterious effects the virus can have in the body.”

Lower COVID-19 risks seen after weight-loss surgery

Weight-loss surgery may reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 even if the infected person is still obese after losing weight, according to a report in JAMA Surgery.

Researchers studied 20,212 obese adults, including 5,053 who had undergone bariatric surgery before the pandemic and lost a substantial amount of weight. On average, the people in the surgery group, while still technically obese, weighed about 44 pounds (20 kg) less than study participants who had not undergone the surgery. Although the two groups had similar rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection at about 9%, infected patients with prior weight-loss surgery had a 49% lower risk of hospitalization, a 63% lower risk of need for supplemental oxygen, and a 60% lower risk of becoming critically ill or dying compared to the non-surgery group. Obesity is well known to be a risk factor for poor COVID-19 outcomes, but as the study was not a randomized trial it cannot prove weight-loss surgery caused the better outcomes. Still, the authors said, patients who underwent weight-loss surgery were likely healthier when they became infected.

The results “support the reversibility of the health consequences of obesity” for patients with COVID-19, coauthor Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic said in a statement. “This study suggests that an emphasis on weight loss as a public health strategy can improve outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic… That is a very important finding considering that 40% of Americans have obesity. “

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Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Megan Brooks; Editing by Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Health

Omicron Reinfections Can Trigger Milder Symptoms, New CDC Research Shows

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added to research suggesting the Omicron variant can lead to reinfections that are often accompanied by mild Covid-19 symptoms, as new cases soared across the U.S.

States reported 512,553 cases on Monday—the most for a single day since the start of the pandemic—as states caught up after pausing for the Christmas holiday, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. The tally lifted the seven-day average of reported cases to 237,061, 15,000 less than the pandemic high recorded about a year ago.

The report for Monday didn’t include North Carolina, South Carolina and Rhode Island, which remained on pause. That gap and more blackouts in reporting during the New Year weekend are expected to muddy the tracking of the full extent of the pandemic’s trajectory until January, when reporting catches up.

Covid-19 testing was also less prevalent earlier in the pandemic, complicating case-rate comparisons from one surge to another. As with earlier variants, tracking Omicron’s spread in the U.S. has been a challenge for public-health officials. The CDC on Tuesday estimated that Omicron was responsible for 59% of new infections for the week through Dec. 25 and 23% for the week through Dec. 18. Last week, the CDC had estimated Omicron drove some 73% of infections in the week through Dec. 18. The CDC said Tuesday that the latest figures fell within the bounds of its statistical model and that the trend of Omicron’s increasing prevalence among U.S. cases is clear.

The CDC on Tuesday also released a review of a cluster of recent Covid-19 cases in a family of six in Nebraska. The cases indicate that Omicron is able to infect people who have had past infections, and that it causes milder symptoms in some people with some immunity, either from a vaccine or past infection. Also, Omicron seems to bring about symptoms sooner—in about three days following exposure, rather than five or later, the agency said.

The first suspected case in the cluster was a 48-year-old man who returned from Nigeria on Nov. 23 and showed Covid-19-like symptoms a day later. By Dec. 1, all six family members had positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests, and sequencing confirmed the Omicron variant in each case. Five members of the family, including the only person who is fully vaccinated, had confirmed infections about a year ago. They each experienced symptoms similar to or more mild than those during their past infection. The one unvaccinated family member who didn’t have a confirmed infection had cough, joint pain, congestion, fever and chills. No one in the family was hospitalized, the CDC said.

Scientists are using automation, real-time analysis and pooling data from around the world to rapidly identify and understand new coronavirus variants before the next one spreads widely. Photo Illustration: Sharon Shi

The CDC on Monday reduced the recommended isolation period for people infected with Covid-19 to five days from 10. The new guidance reflects growing evidence that people with the virus are most infectious one to two days before the onset of symptoms and two to three days afterward, the agency said, as well as concern over the disruption staff outages are causing in the travel and healthcare sectors.

The CDC now says that infected people who are asymptomatic can leave isolation after five days and should wear masks when around other people for another five, while those vaccinated and exposed to someone with Covid-19 should wear a mask for 10 days and try to get tested five days after exposure.

The CDC should have included a requirement that people test negative with rapid tests before ending isolation, said

Angela Rasmussen,

a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan. “Test-to-release using rapid testing is sensible and would really reduce the likelihood of someone who is still contagious potentially transmitting the virus to others,” she said.

If the CDC’s new guidelines are adopted, they could enable people to return to work more quickly and avoid snarling key industries. Thousands of flights were canceled over the Christmas weekend, while officials in the U.S. and elsewhere have expressed concern over how quarantines are affecting hospital staffing levels.

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that some antigen tests, the basis of many at-home rapid tests, are able to detect the Omicron variant but “may have reduced sensitivity” to it. The data come from a collaboration between the FDA and the National Institutes of Health’s RADx program to assess how successfully antigen tests detect Omicron in samples from infected patients. Antigen tests are known to sometimes yield false negative results.

New York City will send children back to public schools on Monday while ramping up testing capacity and making it easier for children who are exposed to stay in school, the mayor, the governor and incoming Mayor

Eric Adams

said Tuesday.

Research in South Africa and the U.K. suggests that Omicron causes a milder form of Covid-19 among vaccinated people than previous strains; shoppers in London on Monday.



Photo:

David Cliff/Associated Press

The city and state are going to provide some three million rapid test kits that will be distributed to students and staff who are in a classroom with a positive case. Students who test negative and are asymptomatic will be able to remain in school. Officials said they plan to double the amount of regular testing of students in schools to track potential outbreaks and expand eligibility to include vaccinated students as well as staff.

President

Biden

officially revoked a ban on non-U.S. citizens traveling from countries in southern Africa, effective Dec. 31. Mr. Biden announced the ban last month after the Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa. An administration official said last week that Mr. Biden would lift the restrictions.

Research carried out in South Africa and the U.K. suggests that Omicron, while more transmissible, causes a milder form of the disease among vaccinated people than previous strains, such as Delta. A new study from the South African lab that has been at the forefront of research into Omicron suggests that infection with the new variant provides protection against Delta.

Scientists at the Africa Health Research Institute looked at 15 vaccinated and unvaccinated people who had been infected with Omicron. When they tested their blood samples against the Delta variant, they found a more than fourfold increase in antibodies against the virus over a two-week period.

A technician in a Covid-19 research lab at Africa Health Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, earlier this month.



Photo:

Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg News

Those who had been vaccinated produced a stronger response against Delta, according to the study, which hasn’t been peer reviewed.

“If Omicron does prove to be less pathogenic, then this may show that the course of the pandemic has shifted—Omicron will take over, at least for now, and we may have less disruption of our lives,” said

Alex Sigal,

who led the study.

The researchers cautioned that prior infection from other variants and vaccination might have contributed to the increased protection from Delta rather than the Omicron infection alone, spurring an increase in antibodies against Delta.

—Laura Kusisto, Anthony DeBarros and Tarini Parti contributed to this article.

Write to Nidhi Subbaraman at Nidhi.Subbaraman@wsj.com and James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com

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Entertainment

Attorney for ‘Rust’ assistant director says Alec Baldwin ‘did not pull that trigger’

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An attorney for “Rust” assistant director Dave Halls says she was told by her client that actor Alec Baldwin did not pull the trigger on the prop gun that discharged on the film’s set, killing one crew member and injuring another.

“Dave has told me since the very first day I met him that Alec did not pull that trigger,” Halls’ attorney, Lisa Torraco, told ABC News’ Kaylee Hartung in an exclusive interview airing Thursday on “Good Morning America.” “His finger was never in the trigger guard.”

Baldwin
, who was starring in and co-produced the Western film, also told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview that he “didn’t pull the trigger.”

The interview with Baldwin, produced by George Stephanopoulos Productions, will air on ABC as an hour-long special on Thursday, Dec. 2, at 8 p.m. ET and
streaming on Hulu
. On Friday, Dec. 10, a two-hour “20/20” delves into events ahead of the deadly shooting on the set of “Rust” and pending investigations into what went wrong.

“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Baldwin said in a clip of the upcoming interview.

On Oct. 21, Baldwin was holding an antique revolver during a dress rehearsal for “Rust” at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico, when the firearm discharged a live round, striking the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, in the chest. The bullet that hit Hutchins also struck the film’s director, Joel Souza, in the shoulder, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

Hutchins, 42, died after being airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, the state’s only Level 1 trauma center, in critical condition, according to the sheriff’s office and the hospital. Souza, 48, was rushed via ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe where he was receiving emergency care, according to the sheriff’s office. Actress Frances Fisher, who was cast in “Rust,” wrote on Twitter the next day that Souza was released from the hospital.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said an initial investigation determined that two other people had handled or inspected the loaded gun before it discharged — the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and the first assistant director, Halls.

Gutierrez-Reed was in charge of all weapons on set. Her attorney has stated that Gutierrez-Reed had no idea where the live rounds came from.

According to an affidavit for a search warrant filed on Oct. 22 by the sheriff’s office as part of the ongoing probe, Halls handed a Colt .45 revolver to Baldwin while proclaiming “cold gun,” to let the crew know a gun with no live rounds was being used. Halls told investigators he did not know there were any rounds in the firearm he gave to the actor, according to the affidavit.

Halls’ attorney would not confirm that he was the one who handed the gun to Baldwin, but she told ABC News that Halls was on set when the firearm discharged.

“Dave has told me since day one that it was an accident,” Torraco said. “It was a pure accident — freak, awful accident [that] unfortunately killed somebody.”

Torraco said Hall is “heartbroken” over the tragedy and ensuing scrutiny.

“It’s very, very painful and very hard for him,” she added.

No charges have been filed in the case. Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies has previously said “everything is on the table” and that any decision to bring charges could take weeks or months.

“I will be shocked if criminal charges get filed against Mr. Halls,” Torraco said. “He had no responsibility, no liability and certainly not at the level of criminal liability.”

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Entertainment

Alec Baldwin says he “didn’t pull the trigger” in fatal “Rust” movie set shooting

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Alec Baldwin says he never pulled the trigger on a prop firearm that discharged on the “Rust” movie set. The October 21 shooting in Santa Fe killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.

“The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger, never.”

In a promotional clip of the interview released Wednesday, Baldwin breaks down when describing the late Hutchins. This is one of the first public statements Baldwin has made since the shooting. 

Hutchins was 42 years old when she was killed. The cast and crew have largely disagreed on where the fault lies — and several lawsuits have been filed in the weeks since the shooting — but the incident remains under investigation. No one has been charged.

People attend a candlelight vigil for cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in Burbank, California.

David McNew/AFP via Getty


In October, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said that police recovered the bullet that injured Souza as well as “possible additional live rounds” on set. 

“I think there was some complacency on this set, and I think there are some safety issues that need to be addressed by the industry and possibly by the state of New Mexico, but I’ll leave that up to the industry and the state as to what those need to be,” Mendoza said. 

Authorities executed a search warrant Tuesday at PDQ Arm and Prop LLC in Albuquerque. According to documents, they retrieved .45 ammo, photographs, an ammo can and “Rust” documents.

Baldwin told ABC News he had “no idea” how a real bullet got onto the set or into the gun but said the shooting and death of Hutchins was the worst thing that ever happened to him. 

“I mean even now I find it hard to believe that,” the 63-year-old actor said. “It doesn’t seem real to me.”


Bullet recovered from “Rust” director’s shoul…

03:14

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Entertainment

Rust shooting: Alec Baldwin cries as he denies pulling trigger of gun

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Alec Baldwin has given his first interview since the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust.

The actor, who allegedly fired the fatal shot from what he believed was a safe “cold gun”, spoke to ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday (30 November).

Earlier on Wednesday (1 December), Stephanopoulos confirmed he and Baldwin spoke for an hour and 20 minutes and he called the conversation “intense,” “raw” and “very candid”.

Now, in a new clip shared from the interview by ABC, Baldwin can be seen breaking down in tears and denying that he pulled the trigger of the gun.

He said: “The trigger wasn’t pulled, I didn’t pull the trigger,” he said. “I would never point a gun at anyone at point a trigger at them, never.”

He continued: “Someone put a live bullet in a gun – a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Baldwin added.

He went on to agree with Stephanopoulos who asked him if this was the “worst thing to have ever happened to him.” Baldwin replied “yes” and added: “‘I think back, I think: ‘What could I have done?’”

The interview will air on Thursday (2 December) at 8pm ET on ABC. You can see a clip from the interview here:

When speaking on ABC earlier on Wednesday, Stephanopoulos added that Baldwin was “very forthcoming” in his answers and went into more detail with him about what happened on the set.

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He explained: “I’ve done thousands of interviews in the last twenty years at ABC over the years but this was the most intense I’ve ever experienced. [It was] so raw – as you can imagine, he’s devastated. He was also very candid, he was very forthcoming, he answered every question. He talked about Halyna Hutchins, talked about meeting with her family as well. [He] went through in detail what happened on the set that day.”

The shooting is currently under investigation, with a new search warrant suggesting how live bullets may have ended up on the film’s set.

Baldwin’s interview will be the first time the actor has spoken at length about the tragedy.

Following Hutchins’s death, he said: “There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours.

“I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”

The incident caused a widespread debate on the use of firearms on film sets and whether they should be permanently replaced with rubber and airsoft guns instead.

Hollywood stars, including Rian Johnson, are stating that gunshot effects should be added in post-production.

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Entertainment

Alec Baldwin: ‘I didn’t pull the trigger’ of gun on ‘Rust’ set

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“The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin said in an excerpt released Wednesday from the sit-down interview — his first since the October shooting.

When asked why he pointed the gun at Hutchins and pulled the trigger when that wasn’t in the script, Baldwin said, “I would never point a gun at anyone and then pull the trigger, never.”

Baldwin also said he has no idea how a live bullet got in the Colt .45 revolver he used in the scene. “Someone put a live bullet in the gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” he said.

An emotional Baldwin visibly fights back tears when talking about Hutchins.

“She was someone who was loved by everyone who worked with her, liked by everyone who worked with her — and admired,” Baldwin said, adding, “it doesn’t seem real to me.”

When asked by George Stephanopoulos if the shooting was the worst thing that had ever happened to him, Baldwin said yes, “because I think back and I think, what could I have done?”

ABC is set to air the interview Thursday night.

Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza injured in October after Baldwin discharged a weapon during a rehearsal that contained what authorities suspect was a live round.

The incident, which remains under investigation, has renewed calls for better safety practices on sets with regards to the use of weapons.

Baldwin has said he believes police officers should be present on “every film/TV set that uses guns, fake or otherwise” to monitor weapons safety.

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World

Concerns over COVID variant trigger more travel curbs on southern Africa

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  • Many states announce travel curbs, bans on southern Africa
  • Dutch authorities test air passengers for Omicron variant
  • Germany, Czech Republic have suspected Omicron cases

Nov 27 (Reuters) – Australia and several other countries joined nations imposing restrictions on travel from southern Africa on Saturday after the discovery of the new Omicron coronavirus variant sparked global concern and triggered a market sell-off.

Meanwhile, authorities in Amsterdam said that 61 out of around 600 people who arrived in the Dutch city on two flights from South Africa on Friday had tested positive for coronavirus. Health authorities were carrying out further tests to see if those cases involved the new variant. read more

Omicron, dubbed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, is potentially more contagious than previous variants of the disease.

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It was first discovered in South Africa and has since been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.

A minister in the German state of Hesse said on Saturday that the variant had very probably arrived in Germany, in a traveller returning from South Africa. Czech health authorities said they were examining a suspected case of the variant in a person who spent time in Namibia.

Financial markets plunged on Friday, especially stocks of airlines and others in the travel sector, as investors worried the variant could cause another surge in the pandemic and stall a global recovery. Oil prices tumbled by about $10 a barrel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) closed down 2.5%, its worst day since late October 2020, and European stocks (.STOXX) had their worst day in 17 months.

It could take weeks for scientists to fully understand the variant’s mutations and whether existing vaccines and treatments are effective against it. Omicron is the fifth variant of concern designated by the WHO.

TRAVEL CURBS

Although epidemiologists say travel curbs may be too late to stop Omicron from circulating globally, many countries around the world – including the United States, Brazil, Canada and European Union nations – announced travel bans or restrictions on southern Africa on Friday.

On Saturday, Australia said it would ban non-citizens who have been in nine southern African countries from entering and will require supervised 14-day quarantines for Australian citizens and their dependents returning from there. read more

Japan said it would extend its tightened border controls to three more African countries after imposing curbs on travel from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Lesotho on Friday.

Sri Lanka, Thailand and Oman also announced travel curbs on southern African nations.

Omicron has emerged as many countries in Europe are already battling a surge in COVID-19 infections, and some have re-introduced restrictions on social activity to try to stop the spread. Austria and Slovakia have entered lockdowns.

VACCINATIONS

In Britain, the main opposition Labour Party called on Saturday for a faster booster vaccination programme, saying the gap between the second vaccination dose and the booster jab should be cut from six to five months.

“This new variant is a wake-up call,” said Labour’s junior health spokesman Alex Norris. “The pandemic is not over. We need to urgently bolster our defences to keep the virus at bay.”

However, even as many developed countries are giving third-dose boosters, less than 7% of people in low-income countries have received their first COVID-19 shot, according to medical and human rights groups.

“Failure to help vaccinate sub-Saharan Africa – still barely 4% of the population – left us all exposed to risk of a new, more virulent #COVIDvariant,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva tweeted on Friday.

“News of #Omicron is an urgent reminder of why we need to do even more to vaccinate the world.”

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Reporting by Reuters bureaus
Writing by Frances Kerry
Editing by Alexander Smith

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

Smash-and-grab thefts at L.A. Nordstrom trigger police chase

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A group of alleged thieves broke into a Nordstrom store at a popular Los Angeles shopping center in an apparent smash-and-grab spree and fled the scene, triggering a police car chase, officials said.

A call came in at 10:40 p.m. PT about suspects breaking into a store at The Grove shopping center, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Mike Lopez said Monday evening. Initially it was unknown if anything was stolen. 

Suspects smashed a store window using a sledgehammer and merchandise was found littered outside, KNBC reported.

Los Angeles police said an unknown number of suspects fled in an SUV and a pursuit was initiated by Wilshire officers in the area.

The chase ended at 98th Street and Hoover Street in South Los Angeles. The driver of the car stopped in a residential area and took off running, according to KNBC.

Three suspects were taken into custody, police said Tuesday morning.

Initially it appeared that no other stores were damaged or affected in the incident. No injuries were reported in the incident, KNBC reported. 

It’s unclear how many suspects were involved and how much merchandise was stolen.

Noting recent headlines, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was ordering the California Highway Patrol to increase its presence at major shopping destinations. He also proposed increased spending on measures to combat shoplifting.

“The level of organized retail theft we are seeing is simply unacceptable,” Newsom said in a statement Monday night. “Businesses and customers should feel safe while doing their holiday shopping.” 

On Saturday night about 80 suspects descended on a Nordstrom in Walnut Creek, California, local police said.

An employee was pepper sprayed, and two others were punched and kicked, a police spokesperson said. Suspects were in and out of the store within a minute, police said. Officials didn’t specify the estimated value of the items that were stolen. Walnut Creek police said three people were arrested in connection with Saturday night’s incident.

Similarly, 14 suspects were caught on surveillance footage storming into a Louis Vuitton store at the Oakbrook Center mall in Oak Brook, Illinois, on Wednesday and escaped in three getaway vehicles, Oak Brook police said. 

Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

Dennis Romero contributed.



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US

Bomb Threats Trigger Evacuations at Columbia, Other Ivy Leagues – NBC New York

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Multiple university buildings were evacuated Sunday for reports of bomb threats on a series of Ivy League campuses, including Columbia, Cornell and Brown.

Text message alerts notified students at each of the campuses in the early afternoon hours to the possible threats and instructions to evacuate from a select number of campus buildings.

Columbia University confirmed it received bomb threats around 2:30 p.m. that triggered a campus-wide alert.

NYPD officers were seen patrolling the campus following the first reports of a possible threat. Police officers swept several buildings before declaring them safe.

Shortly before 5 p.m., school officials said the threats were not deemed credible and evacuated buildings were cleared for reentry.

The threats came two days after a Yale University evacuated a large portion of its campus over bomb threats made through a non-emergency line in New Haven. Police gave the all-clear roughly five hours later, around 7 p.m. Friday.

Cornell University similarly confirmed reports of bomb threats to the campus on Sunday, tweeting an advisory to avoid central campus while officials investigate the threats.

A student at Cornell tweeted video of students evacuating Uris Library on campus.

The Brown Daily Herald, the university’s student-run paper, also tweeted about students receiving text alerts over a bomb threat.

The university released a statement just before 4:30 p.m. confirming evacuations due to a bomb threat made through a phone call.

Law enforcement officials have yet to link any of the threats.



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Science

‘Cannibal’ solar flares trigger spectacular Northern Lights display across the US

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A ‘cannibal’ solar flare triggered a spectacular Northern Lights show across Northern parts of the United States on Wednesday, with the hues seen as far south as California and Connecticut. 

It came as the result of three outbursts from the sun, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), since Monday. The third outburst overtook the two previous CMEs to become a ‘cannibal’ solar flare and ‘ate’ it.

Its turbocharged energy resulted in the colorful nighttime display, which happens as a result of electrons colliding with the Earth’s thin upper atmosphere. 

The flare reached the earth’s magnetic field on Wednesday resulting in a level 3 – out of a 5 point scale- geomagnetic storm. The storm resulted in a stunning show of the Northern Lights from Washington to Maine. 

Friday’s beautiful storm was even seen in some parts of California and Connecticut, whose latitudes are normally too far south to catch the displays.

The outbursts are connected to sunspots, which are magnetic storms on the sun’s surface.  

Hongming Zheng captured the stunning scene of the Northern Lights in Lincoln, California on Wednesday, November 4

The Northern California sky was illuminated by a spectacular red glow as the aurora borealis peaked through the clouds

The beautiful display was only seen for a few minutes Wednesday night , as is common for the Northern Lights 

Bright green lights brighten up the sky above North Dakota on Monday November 1 as the geomagnetic storm began

The Northern Lights illuminated the night sky in North Dakota as solar flares reacted to the Earth’s magnetic fields 

The beautiful natural phenomena was also spotted in Northeast Montana as clouds began to roll in but did not block the view

Photographer Hongming Zheng captured the Northern Lights as they illuminated the sky in stunning shades of red as south as Lincoln, California.   

Solar flares bring an influx of electrons that interact with the oxygen and nitrogen in Earth’s magnetic field surrounding the planet. In turn, this produces the colorful waves of the aurora borealis – the scientific term for the Northern Lights. 

The sun’s activity is tracked in an 11-year cycle. The sun is currently in ‘solar cycle 25,’ which scientists expect to peak in the summer of 2025. 

‘The last several years really we’ve had very little activity, as is the case during solar minimum, but now we’re ramping up and ramping up quite fast into the next solar cycle maximum, which we expect in 2025,’ Bill Murtagh, a program coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Space.com. 

‘We’re seeing the increase in activity that one would expect with this rise in the solar cycle,’ Murtagh said. ‘This is kind of our awakening phase.’ 

He explained the CMEs as ‘a billion-ton cloud of plasma gas with magnetic fields’.  ‘So the sun shot a magnet out into space and that magnet made the 93-million-mile transit from the sun to the Earth.’ 

While the Northern Lights are typically easier to spot in dark remote locations, the lights this week were strong enough to dazzle over the bright city skyline in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Drone footage recorded the moment orange, yellow, and green light from the aurora borealis shimmered in the Alberta sky

Bright colorful lights were recorded dancing in the dark sky above  Manitoba, Canada putting on a beautiful display 

Pink and green lights flashed among the stars in Manitoba, Canada this week as three solar flares traveled to Earth’s orbit

The Earth has its own magnetic field which reacted to the CMEs magnetic fields causing the geomagnetic storm this week. 

The first two CMEs essentially cleared the path for the third CME which ‘cannibalized’ the previous two to travel the 93-million-mile to reach Earth’s orbit. 

Dr. Mark Conde, a physics professor with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, explained the phenomenon to Fox News. 

‘Most likely, neither (CME) would, by themselves, have ejected enough material to produce more than a moderate disturbance at Earth,’ Conde said. ‘But in this case, the blast front ejected by the second flare was traveling to Earth faster than the material shot out by the first flare – so it over-ran the expanding front of material from the first flare.’ 

Conde explained the third CME became a ‘Cannibal’ solar when it caught up to Sunday’s flare ‘and sort of (ate) it.’ 

‘Several CMEs occurred 1-2 Nov, to include a full halo CME,’ the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tweeted

‘G3 storm levels were reached at 03/2359 UTC due to anticipated CME arrival,’ the NOAA Space Weather account tweeted

‘The two combined to produce a much bigger effect at Earth than either CME would have done alone.’ The combined flares hit the Earth at 1.8 million mph, which is nearly triple the average speed that CME travels under calm conditions, according to Fox News. 

A CME can grow as it travels through space depending on the size of the CME and how the two magnetic fields align. 

Murtagh explained that scientist are able to model how a CME will travel but only after the magnetic field is measured once the outburst reaches the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), a NOAA spacecraft which hovers a million miles from the Earth towards the sun. 

At that point, the geomagnetic storm is typically about 20 to 30 minutes away from hitting the earth. 

These types of storms have happen hundreds of times but they can impact crucial infrastructure, including power grids, navigation satellites, and airplane radio communications in remote areas. 

The dazzling nighttime display that’s become one of Earth’s natural wonders  

The Northern Lights are a natural astronomical phenomena known as polar lights or their scientific name, aurora polaris. 

The scientific name for the Northern Lights specifically is aurora borealis. 

Polar lights are dancing curtains of colored light which is sometimes visible in the dark night sky. 

Sten Odenwald, author of The 23rd Cycle: learning to live with a stormy star, explains the beautiful phenomena in his book: 

‘The origin of the aurora begins on the surface of the sun when solar activity ejects a cloud of gas. Scientists call this a coronal mass ejection (CME). If one of these reaches earth, taking about 2 to 3 days, it collides with the Earth’s magnetic field. This field is invisible, and if you could see its shape, it would make Earth look like a comet with a long magnetic ‘tail’ stretching a million miles behind Earth in the opposite direction of the sun.

‘When a coronal mass ejection collides with the magnetic field, it causes complex changes to happen to the magnetic tail region. These changes generate currents of charged particles, which then flow along lines of magnetic force into the Polar Regions. These particles are boosted in energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere, and when they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms, they produce dazzling auroral light.

‘Aurora are beautiful, but the invisible flows of particles and magnetism that go on at the same time can damage our electrical power grid and satellites operating in space. This is why scientists are so keen to understand the physics of aurora and solar storms, so we can predict when our technologies may be affected.’ 

The stunning colors and patterns of the lights comes from the types of ions or atoms that are energized as they collide with the atmosphere and react to the different magnetic fields. 

They are most commonly seen closer to the North Pole in places like Antartica, Canada, Alaska, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

The Northern Lights are most active for a few minutes around the equinoxes in March and September between 5:00 pm and 2:00 am. 



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