Last week’s posts at Moon of Alabama:

• June 22 – Arms Control Diplomacy Used To Be Serious – It Has Been Replaced With Stupid Stunts

• June 23 – Egypt Is Facing Two Wars – How Will Sisi Decide?
  Related:
  Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to agree Nile dam deal ‘in two weeks’ – Al Jazeerah

• June 24 – Pompeo’s UN Move Against Iran Will Fail. Why Is He Still Pressing It?

• June 25 – “A Mask Is Not A Political Statement. It’s An IQ Test.”
  Related:

Prof Francois Balloux @BallouxFrancois – 20:26 UTC · Jun 27, 2020
Newspaper headlines from the the 1918/19 influenza pandemic. A furious debate about masks raged throughout the 1918/19 winter in San Francisco, with arguments essentially indistinguishable from those populating my Twitter feed
(for more info see: influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-sanfrancisco)

• June 26 – Deutsche Lufthansa Deal Shows How Bailouts Should Be Done

• June 27 – To Keep Russiagate Alive ‘Officials’ Make New Claims Without Providing Evidence
  Related:
  Trump administration finalizes plan to withdraw 4,000 soldiers from Afghanistan – NewsDio
  Russia Foreign Ministry: NYT article on Russia in Afghanistan fake from US intelligence – Tass

> The New York Times publication that Russia allegedly offered secretly bounties to Afghan militants for killing coalition forces was fabricated by the US intelligence agencies, Russia’s Foreign Ministry told TASS on Saturday.
…
The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed to US intelligence agencies’ involvement in Afghan drug trafficking.

“Should we speak about facts – moreover, well-known [facts], it has not long been a secret in Afghanistan that members of the US intelligence community are involved in drug trafficking, cash payments to militants for letting transport convoys pass through, kickbacks from contracts implementing various projects paid by American taxpayers. The list of their actions can be continued if you want,” the ministry said.
…
“We can understand their feelings as they do not want to be deprived of the above mentioned sources of the off-the-books income,” the ministry stressed. <

Office of the DNI @ODNIgov – 3:19 UTC · 28 Jun 2020
Statement by DNI Ratcliffe: “I have confirmed that neither the President nor the Vice President were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday.” (1/2)
“The White House statement addressing this issue earlier today, which denied such a briefing occurred, was accurate. The New York Times reporting, and all other subsequent news reports about such an alleged briefing are inaccurate.” (2/2)

—
Other issues:

Covid-19:

The mortality rate of hospitalized Covid-19 patients is declining in Italy as well as in England. The reasons are unknown. My hunch is that by now doctors have learned much more about the disease’s progression (cytokine storm, blood clotting) and how to manage it. The case load in both countries has also declined leaving more time for individual cases. This is really good news. The chances to find a good vaccine are not great. This makes good disease management and the right mix of medications for all the problems the virus causes even more important. An example is this man who endured more than two months of ventilation and survived!

SARS-CoV-2 timeline:

This well conducted study from Italy on old sewage samples found that SARS-CoV-2 was in Italy as early as December 18. In contrast this not peer reviewed study from Spain claims that SARS-CoV-2 has been found in March 2019 sewage samples from Barcelona. Several media have picked up on that. It contradicts the analysis of sequenced virus genomes which say that the virus jumped onto humans only in November 2019. There is only one sample in the study that shows partial virus debris and it is not even specific for SARS-CoV-2. I therefore agree with this comment:

Alan McNally @alanmcn1 – 22:14 UTC · Jun 26, 2020
They are using a PCR target shown to have Toss of a coin specificity and their amplifications are right on borderline. This is another example of importance of peer review I am afraid. This is not true!

Pandemic consequences:

• Historically pandemics lead to unrest: The Cholera Riots – Tribune
• Half of U.S. homeowners struggle with mortgage due to COVID-19, consider selling home – Studyfinds
• Seattle Businesses, Residents Sue City for ‘Extensive Harm’ for Allowing ‘Autonomous Zone’ – Yahoo

737 MAX:

• Exclusive: Boeing 737 MAX certification flight tests to begin on Monday – sources – Reuters
• Foreign regulators demand substantial new changes to Boeing 737 MAX flight controls – Seattle Times

Use as open thread …