The Full Belmonte, 2/2/2023
© Associated Press / Susan Walsh | Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) spoke with reporters at the White House on Wednesday after meeting with President Biden.
Biden, McCarthy talk debt divisions without breakthrough
“President Biden says it shouldn’t happen. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) says no one wants it to happen. And the Federal Reserve chairman said on Wednesday that it’s up to Congress to prevent U.S. default by voting to let the Treasury Department borrow to pay the country’s bills.
After spending an hour together in the Oval Office during a much-anticipated tête-à-tête about the debt limit and other topics, Biden and McCarthy agreed they see the problem differently.
“I don’t want to put any words in his mouth,” McCarthy told reporters while standing in the White House driveway on a cold day after a meeting he sought, The Hill’s Brett Samuels reported.
“I thought it was a very good discussion and we walked out saying we would continue the discussion,” McCarthy said. “I think there is an opportunity here to come to an agreement on both sides. … My role right now is to make sure we have a sensible, responsible ability to raise the debt ceiling but not continue this runaway spending.”
Biden told the Speaker that he would not negotiate on the limit, but is open to a “separate discussion with congressional leaders about how to reduce the deficit and control the national debt while continuing to grow the economy,” according to a White House summary of the meeting.
McCarthy would not make any explicit commitments that the U.S. would not default, which the president wants. But the Speaker spoke positively.
The New York Times: Biden, McCarthy discuss debt limit as financial crisis looms.
There is nothing in there with me walking away that does not believe that at the end of the day we can come to an agreement,”McCarthy said.
What that agreement will be is still months away, according to veterans of previous debt ceiling battles. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who helped broker last-minute compromises during past budget impasses and the 2011 debt ceiling battle (Vox) — called for good-faith negotiations on Wednesday while accusing Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) of hypocrisy when it comes to the statutory cap on borrowing, which Treasury reached last month (The Hill).
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell put the responsibility on Congress to lift the borrowing limit. “There is only one way forward here and that is for Congress to raise the debt ceiling,” he said Wednesday during a press conference to announce another interest rate hike. “Any deviations from that path would be highly risky and no one should assume that the Fed can protect the economy” (The Wall Street Journal).
Anxieties that the United States might default because of the partisan impasse over accumulated debt and federal spending have revived talk that the Treasury could prioritize debt payments to prevent disaster. Treasury officials and the administration have rejected that possibility.
“I believe that Congress will wind up acting as it must in the end to raise the debt ceiling,” Powell said, eager to discourage the idea that the central bank would resolve political stalemate. “I believe it will happen” (Yahoo Finance).
McCarthy says the Pentagon’s budget is on the table as Republicans seek to negotiate savings over a 10-year budget window. His caucus has not identified where members envision cuts but have said Social Security and Medicare will not be touched. McCarthy has agreed with conservative lawmakers to cap all new discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels, which would amount to a $75 billion cut in the defense budget. The Speaker has disputed that specific figure, reports The Hill’s Brad Dress.” [The Hill]
“The Hill: In a dramatic move served cold, McConnell removed GOP Sens. Rick Scott (Fla.) and Mike Lee (Utah) from the powerful Senate Commerce Committee. The pair had attempted to oust him as GOP leader.” [The Hill]
“The New York Times: Meet the women on the House and Senate Appropriations committees who want to avoid a spending train wreck.” [The Hill]
“The Hill: Republicans on Wednesday advanced a resolution to the House floor that would oust Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on past comments critical of Israel, for which she apologized.” [The Hill]
An emotional funeral was held for Tyre Nichols yesterday.
“The scene: Family members and dignitaries, including Vice President Harris, gathered in Memphis days after the horrific footage of Nichols’s beating by police was released.
Calls to action: Harris and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered the eulogy, urged Congress to pass a policing law that would ban certain forms of force and help track problem officers.” [Washington Post]
Hunter Biden’s lawyers, in newly aggressive strategy, target his critics
His attorneys have sent letters to prosecutors urging probes of Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon and others
“Hunter Biden’s lawyers, in a newly aggressive strategy, sent a series of blistering letters Wednesday to state and federal prosecutors urging criminal investigations into those who accessed and disseminated his personal data — and sent a separate letter threatening Fox News host Tucker Carlson with a defamation lawsuit.
The string of letters, which included criminal referrals and cease-and-desist missives aimed at critics and detractors, marked the start of a new and far more hard-hitting phase for the president’s son just as House Republicans prepare their own investigations into him.
Abbe Lowell, a recently hired lawyer whom Biden enlisted about a month ago, sent lengthy letters to the Justice Department and Delaware’s attorney general requesting investigations into several key players who were involved in disseminating data from a laptop that Biden is said to have dropped off at a repair shop in Wilmington, Del….” Read more at Washington Post
Justice Department Finds No Classified Documents in Biden’s Beach Home
The president agreed to the search, which came on the first day of the special counsel’s inquiry
A Secret Service agent guarded President Biden’s beach house in Rehoboth, Del., after FBI agents conducted a search of the property.PHOTO: MARK MAKELA/REUTERS
“WASHINGTON—The Justice Department found no documents with classified markings during a Wednesday search of President Biden’s beach house in Rehoboth, Del., Mr. Biden’s lawyer said, but took some materials and handwritten notes that appeared to relate to his tenure as vice president.
The search lasted from 8:30 a.m. to noon, said the lawyer, Bob Bauer.
The search—one of at least three that have taken place upon agreement with Mr. Biden’s lawyers—came as special counsel Robert Hur quietly began work on Wednesday investigating how and why classified documents remained on premises used by Mr. Biden. That inquiry is expected to take months.
The FBI action at the Rehoboth house was the latest development in an expanding inquirythat began after Mr. Biden’s attorneys reported finding classified material on Nov. 2 at an office he used at a Washington think tank. People familiar with the probe said at least a dozen documents were recovered there and turned over to the National Archives….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
College Board Shrinks Advanced-Placement Curriculum for African-American Studies
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized an earlier version as indoctrination
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said last month the original curriculum for an AP class on African-American studies advanced a political agenda.PHOTO: MARTA LAVANDIER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“The College Board on Wednesday released a revised curriculum for a new advanced-placement class that covers African-American studies days after the draft was denounced by the governor of Florida as indoctrination.
The new curriculum removes several authors and makes optional some topics covered in the pilot version such as Black Lives Matter, Black queer studies and reparations for slavery. It adds optional subjects such as Black conservatism.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis barred the pilot curriculum from being taught, saying it advanced a political agenda and broke a state law regulating how race is taught in public schools.
‘We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them,’ he said in his initial objections to the curriculum. ‘When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.’
The shift by the College Board stands to be counted as a victory for Mr. DeSantis, a possible 2024 presidential contender, who has pushed several changes to educational content in Florida. He has pledged to strip out what he considers ‘woke indoctrination’ from public education. That includes the concept that a person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and should feel guilt because of past actions by members of the same group.
In its statement Wednesday, the College Board intimated it didn’t bow to political pressure, saying its revisions were completed in December in consultation with more than 300 professors of African-American Studies from 200 colleges.
‘This course has been shaped only by the input of experts and long-standing AP principles and practices,’ the statement said.
The revised curriculum was released on the first day of Black History Month and one day after Mr. DeSantis proposed a legislative agenda that would ensure higher education would eliminate any hint of critical race theory and diversity efforts while mandating teachings based on Western civilization, which is rooted in European history,
It isn’t yet clear whether the revised curriculum meets Florida’s standards. The Florida Department of Education is ‘reviewing the newly released AP African American Studies framework for corrections and compliance with Florida law,’ said Bryan Griffin, spokesman for Mr. DeSantis.
Florida law mandates African-American history in its statewide curriculum which includes: history of African peoples before slavery, the passage of enslaved Africans to America, the enslavement experience, abolition, and the history and contributions of Americans of the African diaspora to society, according to the statute.
The AP course would allow students who earn high scores on a national test in the subject to earn college credit. The pilot curriculum is being offered in 60 high schools this academic year. The revised curriculum is expected to be taught at hundreds of additional schools during the 2023-24 year.
The Florida Department of Education listed six problems with the pilot curriculum including Black Queer Studies, Intersectionality, Movement for Black Lives, Black Feminist Literary Thought, The Reparations Movement and Black Struggle in the 21st Century.
Florida has banned critical race theory, and intersectionality is fundamental to understanding it. Intersectionality describes how categories such as race, gender and sexual orientation overlap and can amplify inequality.
The word intersectionality appears 13 times in the pilot curriculum for the class, including in the title of a section taught in the fourth quarter called ‘Intersectionality and Activism.’
‘This topic examines intersectionality as an analytical framework and its connection to Chicana and Asian American feminist thought,’ the summary states. ‘Students may explore a text from the writings of Kimberlé Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins, or Angela Davis.’
In the revised version of the curriculum, the word intersectionality appears just once in a section offering examples for optional projects. The works of Ms. Crenshaw, who coined the term intersectionality; Ms. Collins, who wrote a book on Black feminism; and Ms. Davis, a political activist and former Black Panther Party member, don’t appear.
Affirmative action, reparations for slavery and the Black Lives Matter movement were part of the pilot, but are mentioned in the revised curriculum only as examples of optional projects….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
An icy mix covers Lake Cliff Park in Dallas on Tuesday. Dallas and other parts of North Texas are under a winter storm warning that has been extended through today.
Ice storm
“Treacherous wintry conditions due to freezing rain, sleet and ice are wreaking havoc across parts of the South. Texas has been bearing the brunt of a dangerous ice storm that has already caused power outages for nearly 400,000 homes and businesses, according to PowerOutage.US. Air travel in parts of the region has been halted and authorities are warning drivers to avoid poor road conditions across Texas as well as surrounding states -- including Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee. Meanwhile, the Northeast is bracing for a blast of bitterly cold air that could feel well below freezing. More than 15 million people are expected to be under a wind chill watch or warning in the Northeast beginning as early as today through at least Saturday.” [CNN]
Abortion
“Republican attorneys general from 20 states wrote letters to executives at CVS and Walgreens warning the pharmacy chains against using the mail to dispense abortion pills in their states. The letters rebuke recent guidance from the Justice Department and go against a new Biden administration policy that allows certified pharmacies to dispense abortion pills with a prescription, including by mail order. Several states restrict medication abortion, some with blanket bans and others with specific limits on access to abortion pills. CVS and Walgreens have said that they intend to comply with federal and state law with their plans to dispense mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortion. This comes as a new Gallup poll finds Americans are broadly unsatisfied with the country's policies on abortion.” [CNN]
Dems question Capitol security
Speaker McCarthy speaks to the media after meeting with President Biden at the White House yesterday. Photo: Kent Nishimura/L.A. Times via Getty Images
“House Democrats are raising concerns about Capitol security after House Republicans scaled back metal detectors put in place after Jan. 6, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.
Why it matters: The renewed focus on Capitol security comes ahead of President Biden's State of the Union address — next Tuesday — when nearly all members of Congress, Biden's cabinet and the Supreme Court will be packed into the House chamber.
More than a dozen House Dems wrote a letter to congressional leaders expressing ‘urgent concern for the safety and security of the President, other dignitaries, and guests at the upcoming State of the Union[.]’
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, asked about SOTU security, told Axios: ‘I haven't had a briefing on that.’ He said he'll include Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in the planning.” [Axios]
U.S., Philippines Strike Military-Base Deal
Agreement giving U.S. access to four more bases was announced during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arriving at Camp Aguinaldo in Manila.PHOTO: POOL/GETTY IMAGES
“The U.S. reached an agreement that gives it access to four more military bases in the Philippines, broadening Washington’s efforts to counter China’s influence and strengthening an alliance that a few years ago appeared in danger of collapse.
‘These efforts are especially important as the People’s Republic of China continues to advance its illegitimate claims,’ U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, referring to Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. Mr. Austin, who announced the deal Thursday along with acting Philippine Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., said the two sides discussed ways to strengthen their alliance and military capabilities.
The deal falls under the countries’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which dates back to 2014. The EDCA allows the U.S. military to build facilities at agreed-upon Philippine bases, preposition equipment, refuel and maintain aircraft and vessels and rotate troops through the bases.
In 2016, the two sides designated five Philippine bases for use under EDCA. The deal Thursday adds four more sites, nearly doubling the U.S. footprint.
U.S. officials said earlier this week that one of the sites could be on the northern island of Luzon, near Taiwan, and another in the southwestern province of Palawan, which sits on the edge of the South China Sea. Greater access could give U.S. forces more logistical support over a wider area in the event of a conflict, the officials said.
Rotating U.S. troops in the Philippines positions them to respond to threats to Taiwan or if tensions flare in the South China Sea, where China has built military bases upon artificial islands and is engaged in territorial and maritime disputes with other countries in the region, including the Philippines.
There are currently about 500 rotating U.S. military personnel in the Philippines, according to a spokesman for the Indo-Pacific Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the region.
The Philippines has watched nervously as tensions have risen over Taiwan, a self-governing island that the U.S. supports and that China claims as its territory. In August, China launched dayslong, large-scale military exercises around the island in response to a visit by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Any escalation would worry the Philippines due to its close proximity, as the northern province of Luzon is about 300 miles from the southern Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung. ‘We’re very much there, and that’s why we have to be terribly, terribly careful,’ Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told The Wall Street Journal last month.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. meeting with Mr. Austin in Manila.PHOTO: POOL/GETTY IMAGES
The Philippines is Washington’s oldest defense ally in Asia. The Southeast Asian nation once hosted two of the largest American military installations outside the U.S.—Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base. Both were shut down in the early 1990s, after Philippine senators voted not to renew U.S. privileges.
Tensions rose between the Philippines and China after Beijing’s 2012 seizure of Scarborough Shoal, a chain of rocky reefs in the South China Sea that Manila controlled. EDCA was enacted two years later. U.S. and Philippine officials say the pact is necessary for modernization, joint training, and delivering rapid humanitarian assistance.
The U.S.-Philippines relationship strained under former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who steered his country closer to China. In 2020, Mr. Duterte threatened to scrap an agreement that facilitates the rotation of U.S. troops and hardware through the Philippines, called the Visiting Forces Agreement. He later decided to keep the pact—a decision announced during a visit by Mr. Austin in 2021….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Suspected Assassins Sent from Haiti to U.S.
“Four key suspects in the killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse have been transferred to the United States for the trial. Local judges in Haiti have received threats.
Two of those transferred are Haitian Americans: James Solages, age 37, and Joseph Vincent, age 57. They were among the first arrested after the assassination. The other two were Christian Emmanuel Sanon, who is a pastor, doctor, and businessman, and Germán Rivera García, a Colombian citizen—one of almost two dozen Colombian soldiers charged.
A total of seven suspects in the killing are in custody in the United States. Dozens of others remain in Haiti’s main prison, and still more are still at large. Haitian officials are currently nominating a fifth judge; the first four either resigned or were dismissed.
Moïse was shot 12 times at his home near Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, in July 2021. Since then, Haiti’s government has requested international armed forces to help quell unrest. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said this week that his country would be willing to send soldiers and police officers to help support ‘a return to a reasonable level of stability and peace, which would be necessary for any inclusive, democratic process to take root.’
His announcement is the first time a regional government has responded to the Haitian government’s request they made it last October. Chaos in the country erupted partly due to a fuel siege that blocked energy supplies and was believed to be tied to a powerful gang. The United Nations Security Council has considered Haiti’s request, but ultimately issued sanctions, including on Jimmy Chérizier, a former police officer and gang leader.” [Foreign Policy]
Biden prepares to send longer-range weapons to Ukraine. The United States has prepared an aid package to Ukraine worth more than $2 billion. The package is expected to include longer-range rockets, marking the first time the United States has provided them to Ukraine, according to Reuters. The package is also expected to feature support equipment for the Patriot air defense system and Javelin anti-tank weapons (Javelins may sound familiar; they were mentioned in the phone call between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during which Trump is alleged to have pressed Zelensky for an investigation into Joe Biden in exchange for military aid, leading to his first impeachment trial).
One portion of this aid package will reportedly come from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the Biden administration to get the weapons from industry, not from U.S. weapons stock.” [Foreign Policy]
“Blinken wraps up his Middle East trip. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his Middle East trip—to Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt—with no tangible reduction in regional tensions. Blinken said it was ‘fundamentally’ up to Israelis and Palestinians to end the violence, though he called for de-escalation. ‘They have to work together to find a path forward that both defuses the current cycle of violence and, I hope, also leads to positive steps to build back some confidence,’ Blinken said.
In the past week, almost two dozen people have been killed. Blinken spoke out more forcefully in defense of Israeli democracy, stressing ‘our support for core democratic principles and institutions, including respect for human rights, the equal administration of justice for all, the equal rights of minority groups, the rule of law, free press, a robust civil society—and the vibrancy of Israel’s civil society has been on full display of late,’ an apparent reference to protests against proposed reforms that would weaken Israel’s judiciary.” [Foreign Policy]
“New Czech leader says Ukraine deserves to join NATO. Czech President-elect Petr Pavel told the BBC that Ukraine should be admitted into NATO ‘as soon as the war is over,” and that NATO would be “morally and practically ready.’ He also said that sending western fighter jets was ‘not taboo,’ but that the question was whether sending them could work on a timeframe that would be practically helpful to Ukraine. Pavel is a retired NATO general.” [Foreign Policy]
Myanmar marks the anniversary of its coup. Pro-democracy activists marked the two year anniversary of a military coup in Myanmar that saw Aung San Suu Kyi removed from power by holding a “silent strike.” Protesters asked that people stay indoors and businesses remain closed. The military administration has extended a state of emergency for six months. The governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada announced new sanctions against firms connected to the military.
February 2, 2023
Economics Reporter
Good morning. New data suggests a promising possibility for the economy — that the U.S. avoids big job losses.
Construction workers in New York this week.John Taggart for The New York Times
A constructive step
“American workers are getting smaller raises. Counterintuitively, that may be good news for the economy, and for hopes that the United States can avoid a recession.
Regular readers of this newsletter know that the big question facing the economy right now is whether policymakers can bring down inflation without driving up unemployment and putting millions of people out of work.
Some encouraging signs have emerged on that front lately. Inflation has moderated significantly over the past six months, though it remains too high. The job market has proved remarkably resilient: Despite high-profile layoffs in tech and a few other sectors, overall unemployment remains at a half-century low. Data released by the Labor Department yesterday showed only a slight increase in layoffs in December; we’ll get fresh data on unemployment tomorrow, when the government releases its monthly jobs report.
But many economists, including policymakers at the Federal Reserve, have viewed those signs of progress warily. That’s partly because they’ve been burned before, initially dismissing high inflation as temporary, only to see it prove more severe and last longer than almost anyone anticipated. But it’s also partly because of signs within the economic data that suggest inflation may persist.
Chief among those signs: wages, which have been rising much faster than they were before the pandemic. Fed officials have repeatedly argued that it will be hard for inflation to fall back to their long-term goal of 2 percent as long as wages keep rising at a rate of 5 percent or more a year, as they have been since the middle of 2021.
On Tuesday, however, there was a hopeful sign. Wages in the private sector rose just 1 percent in the final three months of 2022, the equivalent of a 4.2 percent annual growth rate. Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, called the data ‘constructive’ yesterday and applauded the evidence of moderating inflation, even as he warned that both pay and prices were still rising faster than policymakers were comfortable with.
Slower wage growth, slower inflation?
Calling slower wage growth a ‘hopeful sign’ might strike some readers as callous. And ordinarily, faster pay increases are better for both workers and the economy as a whole. Indeed, one of the most persistent problems in the decade before the pandemic was that wages were rising too slowly. When that began to change in 2021, many progressives cheered it as evidence that the balance of economic power was, at least temporarily, shifting back toward workers.
But it’s important to remember that the late-pandemic economy hasn’t been particularly friendly to workers, despite their rapidly rising wages. That’s because prices have been rising even faster. After adjusting for inflation, hourly pay actually fell last year, meaning that workers, on average, saw their standard of living decline. (One notable exception: Pay has increased faster than inflation for many workers in the lowest-paid service industries.)
Ultimately, what matters for workers and their families isn’t wage growth, in isolation. It is wage growth in relation to inflation: An economy with 4 percent wage growth and 2 percent inflation will be better for workers than one with 6 percent wage growth and 8 percent inflation.
Avoiding job losses
To be clear, most economists don’t think that wage growth is the primary reason that inflation has been high recently. And policymakers have said repeatedly that they see no evidence of a dreaded cycle in which pay and prices perpetually push each other higher.
But they also think it will be hard to get inflation fully under control as long as wages keep increasing as fast as they have been. That’s especially true in the service sector, where workers’ compensation accounts for a large share of companies’ costs, and where profit margins are often thin. Hourly pay in restaurants, for example, is up nearly 25 percent over the past two years. Few businesses can sustain that kind of rapid increase in labor costs without also raising prices for customers.
Economists disagree on what it will take for wage growth to slow. One camp, led most prominently by Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury secretary, holds that only a sharp increase in unemployment is likely to cool off salaries and prices of goods and services. That view is based on classic economic models that assume a fairly direct link between the job market and inflation: When unemployment is low, employers compete for workers by raising pay, and then in turn must increase prices to cover their higher costs.
Other economists, however, argue that the world is more complicated. In the period before the pandemic, for example, the job market was strong, but inflation stayed low. In the 1970s, unemployment and inflation were both high. Isn’t it possible that this period, when the economy and job market are adapting after three years of disruption and turmoil, will once again break the rules?
It’s too soon to know. But the wage numbers released this week, in conjunction with other recent economic data, hold out the tantalizing possibility that the answer could be yes. If so, that’s good news, suggesting that inflation could continue to fall without the wave of job losses that so many forecasters have been predicting, and that Americans have been fearing.” [New York Times]
Ancient vessels tell story of mummification techniques and long-distance exchange of goods
A re-creation of what the embalming process might have looked like around 664-525 B.C. in Saqqara, Egypt.PHOTO: NIKOLA NEVENOV
“Inscribed ceramic vessels left behind in an Egyptian subterranean embalming structure from the 26th Dynasty of ancient Egypt offer new clues as to how the dead were preserved, and the role trade played in the mummification process.
Researchers for the first time analyzed the organic materials found inside 31 vessels used in the embalming process at the necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo, a burial ground for royals and people of high society. These vessels, which carried inscriptions on them, contained materials including animal fat, oils and resins that played a major role in preservation practices—and were obtained through long-distance exchange and routes from far away lands, according to researchers.
The findings, published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, suggest embalmers adhered to organized practices using organic mixtures for each part of the body, and in some instances, manipulated those ingredients with heat or cooking methods.
‘This is a huge breakthrough,’ said Dr. Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in Cairo, who wasn’t involved in the study and reviewed it. ‘This is really the first time where we have a big proper sense of what the Egyptians were creating their mummies with.’
The ancient embalming facility was discovered by the late Dr. Ramadan B. Hussein and co-author of the paper, during an excavation project that started in 2016. The whole structure is believed to be from around 664-525 B.C.
Vessels discovered at the site are inscribed with Hieratic and Demotic texts, scripts that were used progressively throughout time in Egypt, giving instructions such as ‘to put on his head,’ ‘bandage or embalm with it,’ ‘to wash,’ almost providing a recipe in the mummification process. Researchers were able to use inscriptions on some vessels to match the name with the organic material analyzed.
The excavation area in Saqqara, Egypt.PHOTO: S. BECK/SAQQARA SAITE TOMBS PROJECT/UNIVERSITY OF TUBINGEN
Dr. Ikram theorizes that the initial stages of the mummification might have occurred in an aboveground area of the structure where the bodies were dried out. Then, the bodies may have been moved to a subterranean embalming workshop about 13 meters underground where the organic mixtures were applied on the body and prayers were read, away from predators such as dogs or jackals. Finally, the embalmed body would have to leave the chamber, travel aboveground where funeral rites might have been performed with a priest and mourners, and then make its way down to a burial chamber even deeper underground.
Previously, insight into the mummification process had been thanks to the analysis of samples of the mummies themselves such as embalming materials, bandages and the bodies, said Dr. Ikram. Classical Egyptian texts and works written by Greek authors Herodotus and Diodorus have also allowed experts to gather clues about embalming, according to the study.
Researchers analyzed the materials through a German-Egyptian collaboration with the University of Tübingen and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and the National Research Centre of Cairo.
Maxime Rageot, co-author of the study and postdoctoral researcher in biomolecular archaeology at the University of Tübingen, used a method of chemical testing called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze the substances with a team at the National Research Centre of Cairo.
Unwrapping the Embalming Mystery
Biomolecular analyses of vessels found in an embalming workshop in Saqqara dating from the first millennia B.C. has given new insight into the ancient Egyptian embalming techniques as well as a long-distance exchange and routes to supply the different substances to the mummification specialists.
To carry out the study, they drilled into the vessels to extract samples, which were then examined by researchers, Dr. Rageot said. The powders are prepared with liquid chemical substances before being introduced into a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry machine which turns the material into a gas and separates the different molecules in it. This allowed researchers to study the molecule structure to identify what substance they could have originated from.
Most of the embalming substances studied are believed to not have been available locally, but could have arrived from other parts of the Mediterranean. Some might have come from even farther. Elemi resin, for example, is produced from trees which grow in rainforests in Africa and Asia, according to the study.
Although trade routes were already known, these materials have pushed our knowledge of the trade networks, Dr. Ikram said, because we didn’t know that these kinds of materials could have been imported to Egypt from so far away….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
‘Watch this creep’: the women exposing gym harassment on TikTok
The hashtag ‘gym weirdos’ has received nearly 2m views as women covertly record their experiences
“Women have long been hyper-vigilant about unwanted male attention at the gym. But before smartphones, the sense they were being stared at was more of a feeling than a certainty.
Now catching perceived offenders in action has become its own sport on TikTok, with women covertly leaving their phones on record and then watching the resulting video to see who was staring at their behind while they were doing squats.
On the app, the pitiless hashtag “gym weirdos” has over 1.9m views, with videos showing men attempting to flirt with or pick up women who just want to get through their sets unbothered.
Gina Love is one such TikTok detective. She goes to the gym at least four times a week, because the endorphin boost that comes from a good deadlift counteracts the daily stress of life.
‘Watch this creep come over to my personal bubble while doing [Romanian deadlifts],’ Love wrote in the caption of an encounter she posted on TikTok, which was liked over 50,000 times. ‘The gym was practically empty, and so many corners to be in and he chose this one.’ In the clip, the man stands directly behind Love as she lifts dumbbells before deciding to leave….” Read more at The Guardian
“Lives Lived: Carin Goldberg was a graphic designer who reimagined old typefaces on the covers of hundreds of albums and thousands of books. She died at 69.” [New York Times]