Senior NHS doctors have demanded an 11 per cent pay rise as they take to picket lines for the third time this year.

Junior doctors will then stage a joint walkout with the senior medics tomorrow and continue their own action until 7am on Saturday.

While sick Brits have been told to use emergency care as normal, health chiefs have warned patients face ‘the highest level of risk in living memory’.

But Dr Vishal Sharma, chair of the British Medical Association’s (BMA) consultants’ committee, which is coordinating the action, this morning claimed a ‘save level of service’ would be provided.

Consultants walked out of hospitals at 7am this morning as part of a 48-hour strike and are providing a ‘ Christmas Day’ level of service – meaning routine appointments and operations set to be significantly disrupted. Pictured, consultant members of the BMA on the picket line outside University College London hospital in August

The BMA also said it had written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Steve Barclay outlining the ‘key asks’ needed to end the pay dispute.

In the letter sent to Mr Sunak yesterday, Dr Sharma said the BMA has always been clear that ‘strikes could be avoided if the Government was to present us with a credible offer that we could put to our members.’

He added: ‘We are willing to negotiate with Government at any stage, but for strike action to be stood down we need to be able to present our members with an offer and cannot cancel strikes simply to enter talks.’ 

The BMA says consultants pay has been cut in real-terms since 2008 and is calling for pay restoration and reform of the pay review body that advises ministers on salary increases.

It claims their income has increased by 14 per cent over this period. 

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, he also said: ‘This has happened because the NHS staff across across the whole sector are really demoralised, they’re really burnt out and they’ve been forced into taking strike action.’

He said consultants wanted an above-inflation pay award for this year, which in April was running about 11 per cent.

‘That’s a very similar amount to what was offered to doctors in Scotland and it shows it’s absolutely possible to actually do that, if there’s the right political will,’ he added.

Last month, BMA members in Scotland accepted the SNP Government’s offer of a 14.5 per cent pay increase for junior doctors and doctors in training over two years. 

Consultants in England have already  staged four days of strike action, while junior doctors have taken to the picket lines on 19 separate days. 

But last week NHS bosses blamed medic strikes for heaping extra pressure onto already struggling hospitals — with 400,000 appointments rescheduled this summer due to walkouts. 

Some 885,154 appointments have been postponed since NHS industrial action — which has involved staff including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics — kicked-off in December.

If all community and mental health figures are included, the total rises to more than 940,000 — though this will not reflect the overall number of actual cancellations, due to some duplication of data.

NHS leaders also said the real impact of strikes is masked by the data, as many hospitals have stopped booking in surgeries and other appointments on announced strike days. 

Fresh NHS data last week also showed around 7.68million patients in England — or one in seven people — were in the queue in July for procedures such hip and knee replacements. 

The toll marks the highest figures logged since NHS records began in August 2007.

For comparison, around 4.4million were stuck in the system when the pandemic reached the UK. 

But this morning Dr Sharma said the growing NHS waiting lists ‘have not been caused by the strikes’ and ‘were going up well before the pandemic’.

England’s backlog, for procedures like hip and knee replacements, now stands at 7.6million, official figures revealed last week. It means roughly one in seven people across the country are currently stuck in the system awaiting care. More than 380,000 patients have gone a year without being treated, often in agony

He said this had led to ‘huge pressure on the whole NHS workforce’, adding that ‘the consultant workforce is absolutely burnt out’ and struggling to recruit.

The NHS Confederation however, which represents all NHS organisations, said increasing numbers of patients, including cancer patients, are seeing their appointments rescheduled more than once due to strikes.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the organisation, said: ‘This is likely to be the biggest walkout the NHS has ever seen, will cause serious disruption, and put patients at the highest level of risk in living memory.

‘Leaders are concerned that this dangerous situation is being underestimated by the Government, telling us that this feels much different and more complex than previous strikes.’

Many are reporting ‘greater difficulties in rota planning and having to cancel huge numbers of elective operations and appointments in advance’, he added. 

‘This is much worse than before as we’re now seeing patients who have already had an operation cancelled due to industrial action be hit again with a cancellation to their rescheduled appointment,’ he said.

‘Leaders have also told us that this time round a higher number of operations and appointments for cancer patients are being cancelled, meaning that some of the very sickest patients may be suffering the most.’

In July consultants and junior doctors were given a six per cent pay rise under No. 10’s pay offer.

At the time, Rishi Sunak said the deal, announced in July for 2023/24, was the Government’s ‘final offer’. 

Nurses, paramedics and other NHS staff received a five per cent rise and ‘NHS backlog bonus’.

The BMA however immediately rejected the rise, vowing to crack on with strike action. 

The action today also comes as the Government this week outlined plans to extend strike laws to ensure more healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, in hospitals provide a minimum level of cover.

The regulations, which could come into force next year, would mean doctors and nurses would have to provide a certain level of cover after being issued with a ‘work notice’ by employers on what is needed to maintain ‘necessary and safe levels of service’.

In July, the new strike law was granted Royal Assent, allowing ministers to impose minimum levels of service during industrial action by ambulance staff, firefighters, railway workers and those in other sectors deemed essential. 

Currently life-and-limb cover has to be provided in hospitals during strike action, but the extent of that is negotiated locally. 

Steve Barclay told Sky News this morning: ‘What we’re announcing today is how we protect time-critical hospital services, so things like chemotherapy, things like dialysis, because we recognise the right to strike is important, but we’ve got to balance that with also the right of patients to key treatments.’

He claimed France and Italy already had such measures in place.

Consultants in England have already staged four days of strike action, while junior doctors have taken to the picket lines on 19 separate days. Last week NHS bosses blamed medic strikes for heaping extra pressure onto already struggling hospitals — with 400,000 appointments rescheduled this summer due to walkouts. But this morning Dr Sharma said the growing NHS waiting lists ‘have not been caused by the strikes’ and ‘were going up well before the pandemic’. Pictured BMA consultant members on the picket line outside Leeds General Infirmary in July 

The action today also comes as the Government this week outlined plans to extend strike laws to ensure more healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, in hospitals provide a minimum level of cover. Steve Barclay told Sky News this morning: ‘What we’re announcing today is how we protect time-critical hospital services, so things like chemotherapy, things like dialysis, because we recognise the right to strike is important, but we’ve got to balance that with also the right of patients to key treatments’

But Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said the Government’s proposed minimum service levels risk ‘worsening industrial relations at a time when we need Government and unions to get around the table and enter into talks to avert further escalation and disruption to patient care.’

She said: ‘Strike action in the NHS over the past ten months has undoubtedly been disruptive for patients and staff.

‘This legislation – as well as the consultation announced today- doesn’t address any of the issues underlying current strike action, including dissatisfaction with pay and working conditions.

‘With unprecedented joint action by consultants and junior doctors just days away, we need government and unions to sit down and talk urgently.’

Last week however, Mr Barclay said there would be no more talks about pay with the BMA, claiming, ‘we made a fair and final settlement in terms of pay’. 

Yesterday, NHS national medical director professor Sir Stephen Powis said: ‘The NHS has simply never seen this kind of industrial action in its history. 

‘This week’s first ever joint action means almost all planned care will come to a stop, and hundreds of thousands of appointments will be postponed, which is incredibly difficult for patients and their families, and poses an enormous challenge for colleagues across the NHS.’  

Emergency care – through A&E departments and 999 – is still available but patients have been told to contact NHS 111 or their local pharmacy for minor health worries. 

Hospital patients who have an appointment and ‘who haven’t been contacted should attend as normal’, Sir Stephen added. 

It was one of the pivotal UFO videos captured by the US military that helped thrust the once-fringe topic into the mainstream — the so-called ‘GOFAST’ infrared video filmed by US Navy fighter pilots off the coast of the Atlantic in January 2015.

But NASA claims it has debunked any exotic or extraterrestrial theories for GOFAST, boasting new analysis that ‘reveals a less extraordinary interpretation.’

In a landmark advisory report released Thursday, the US space agency said — among other findings — that the GOFAST UFO was ‘most likely’ nothing more than a conventional object ‘drifting with the wind.’ 

But meteorological records, climate scientists, US Navy witnesses, and even computer simulations developed and tested by diehard UFO skeptics have cast doubt on the likelihood that NASA’s GOFAST explanation will hold fast much longer.

At the heart of the issue: NASA’s experts, by their own admission, failed to check their math on the UFO’s possible ‘wind drift’ against the global climate science community’s public wind-speed data from the likely time of the GOFAST sighting.

Public interest in UFOs heightened in 2017 with the leak of three Navy pilot infrared videos that captured ‘unidentified anomalous phenomena’ (UAP). Above, a still from one of these videos, GOFAST, which NASA’s expert UAP advisory panel attempted to explain as terrestrial this week

NASA UAP panelist Josh Semeter, director of Boston University’s Center for Space Physics, used technical details from the military infrared video’s user interface to calculate the altitude and speed of the ‘GOFAST’ UFO. But Semeter’s analysis ‘neglected’ wind data from the event 

To be sure, despite their own skepticism, NASA‘s UFO advisory panel did otherwise leave plenty of room for UFO true believers, noting in their final report that ‘alien technology operating in Earth’s atmosphere’ was ‘at least plausible.’

The US space agency even appointed a new director of research, Mark McInerney, solely devoted to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), the new more technically accurate term for UFOs.

But, while the panel expressed hope that their efforts would help reduce the stigma around the reporting and scientific analysis of UAP, NASA’s experts put forth a theory in their final report apparently intended to bring GOFAST back down to Earth.

In doing so, the space agency ignored voices from the squadron of Navy pilots that filmed GOFAST and the no-less-famous GIMBAL infrared UFO video, recorded that same evening in January 2015.

At the NASA group’s open meeting last May, one of its UAP advisory panel members Josh Semeter — an engineering professor and director of Boston University’s Center for Space Physics — presented his preliminary analysis of the GOFAST video.

Semeter made his case that the GOFAST was likely an object coasting in a strong breeze primarily by working with data present on the infrared video’s display: the same intel a Navy weapons systems officer would use in the backseat of a fighter jet.

‘Fortunately the information needed to determine the altitude and velocity of this object is contained on the display,’ Semeter explained.

NASA’s study group of 16 experts ranging from physicists to astronauts was formed in June 2020 to study unclassified UFO sightings from civilian, government and commercial sectors

Based on his trigonometric calculations of the fighter jet’s flight path as the jet filmed the ‘GOFAST’ UAP, itself a moving target, Semeter estimated that the mystery object was cruising at just about 40 miles per hour (mph).

‘That’s a velocity that is consistent with wind speeds at 13,000 feet,’ Semeter told his fellow NASA-appointed advisors this May. And, in fact, the calculated altitude for the GOFAST UAP, according to Semeter and others, was indeed about 13,000 feet.

Semeter’s calculations emerged largely unchallenged in the NASA panel’s final UFO report published this past Thursday — except for one significant caveat. 

‘Our calculation has neglected wind effects on the aircraft,’ NASA’s UFO report stated, ‘and thus there is uncertainty in this result.’ 

But this dry note of caution might drastically understate the importance of these wind effects, to judge from both Semeter’s critics and his allies.

Crucially, the Navy pilot witnesses heard in the GIMBAL video, which was filmed in the same area within approximately 15 minutes of the GOFAST video, state that the wind at their altitude of about 25,000 feet was then blowing ‘120 knots to the west.’  

One computer simulation, created by noted UFO skeptic Mick West and hosted on his skeptics forum Metabunk, found that the GOFAST object would have been going significantly faster than 40 mph when taking this wind speed into account.  

The skeptic’s simulation would have the GOFAST UFO traveling at 320 knots or 369 mph — hundreds of miles faster than the stated wind speed pushing at its back.

‘This suggests that the object could not be a balloon,’ as one Metabunk poster noted, ‘because it needs intrinsic speed in addition [to] wind speed at 13,000 ft.’

As the US National Weather Service notes, ‘wind speed generally increases with increasing height,’ and the Metabunk simulation estimates that 120 knots of wind at 25,000 feet could correspond in this case to 50-to-80 knots of wind at 13,000 feet.

But even with this 50-to-80 knots of wind helping the GOFAST sail along, the UFO would still be going too fast: faster than the top speed of a Cessna 172 aircraft (188 mph), faster even than a top-of-the-line Ferrari 488 GTB (205 mph).

While Mick West praised Semeter’s work for NASA last May, calling it a rare example of ‘peer review’ in UFO research, the prominent UFO skeptic also felt compelled to note that the wind issue left the GOFAST case still far from identified.

‘There are some open questions (and unknowns) re wind,’ West posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, ‘but I think this basic analysis is correct.’ 

While the prominent UFO skeptic Mick West praised NASA UFO advisor Josh Semeter’s work last May, calling it a rare example of ‘peer review’ in UFO research, West also felt compelled to note that the wind speed issue left the Navy’s GOFAST UFO case far from resolved 

Other observers, however, were less forgiving of the gaps in this NASA analysis. 

One, a former Obama-era appointee to the US Department of Defense named Marik von Rennenkampff, called Semeter’s omission of the reported wind conditions a ‘significant error.’ 

‘The ‘GOFAST’ video shows a small, sphere-like object with no wings, engines or thermal signature demonstrating ‘very interesting apparent maneuvers.” von Rennenkampff wrote in an opinion piece for The Hill.

The one-time DoD staffer likened the UAP to other small, sphere-like objects reported over the Middle East by the Pentagon’s new UFO investigation office, as well as reports from the other Navy pilots with the squadron that spotted GOFAST. 

But accurate wind speed data for the time of the GOFAST sighting need not be investigated solely via computer models and the recorded statements of the pilots present themselves that day.

Wind speed data from the time and place of the GOFAST sighting is already available — via detailed, archival weather data collated from multiple systems by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which is made open to the public via their ERA5 reanalyzed climate dataset.

Meteorologists and climate science researchers use ERA5 to obtain reliable, global, hour-by-hour weather information for academic research, commercial aviation and government policy making purposes.

It was exactly this kind of data that NASA’s UAP advisory panel leader, astrophysicist David Spergel, referenced when introducing the panel’s final report this Thursday.

‘We looked at NASA’s assets,’ Spergel said. ‘While they provide a comprehensive picture of the ocean, the Earth’s surface and atmosphere for studying our evolving planet, they typically do not have the resolution needed for UAP events.’ 

‘However,’ he added, ‘by providing data on environmental conditions, they can complement other data on UAP.’

In this case, such data would have complimented the infrared video data taken by the Navy and the Navy pilots’ witness testimony. 

Although NASA scientists have experience utilizing ERA5 to study everything from atmospheric rivers of water vapor to the reflection of sunlight off of ice at the South Pole, the space agency’s UFO team did not utilize it in their work on GOFAST.

It is not clear from NASA’s UFO report whether or not they even tasked the agency’s military liaison Mark McInerney, now NASA’s first director of UAP research, with requesting more detailed information on the time or place of the GOFAST event.

Such efforts might have assisted the panel in obtaining ERA5 data proximate to the date, region and elevations of the GOFAST UFO episode — like those obtained by the DailyMail.com from a PhD climate researcher who wishes to remain anonymous. 

Data from the ERA5 reanalyzed climate dataset, for both January 21st (left) and January 24th (right), show that only the later date had wind speeds approaching 120 knots near the region or cruising elevation of 25,000 feet reported by the Navy pilots 

The ERA5 maps are marked with a red dot off the lower Eastern seaboard near Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida — in an effort to approximate where the Navy fighter pilots reported witnessing the GIMBAL and GOFAST UAP in January 2015 

Two likely dates have emerged as the most probable candidates for the Navy’s GIMBAL and GOFAST UFO events, which occurred in late January 2015.

In a 2019 statement to Freedom of Information Act researcher John Greenewald, an official spokesperson for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, Joseph Gradisher, stated that both sightings occurred on January 21, 2015.

But metadata embedded within the original GIMBAL video, as well as an unclassified Department of Defense email, reviewed for a conference paper presented to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics place both sightings on the evening of January 24th, 2015.

The DailyMail.com can confirm the likelihood of these two dates from previous interviews with retired Navy fighter pilot Lt. Ryan Graves, whose squadron reported the GIMBAL and GOFAST events.  

Data from the ERA5 reanalyzed climate dataset, for both the 21st and 24th of January, show that only the later date had wind speeds approaching 120 knots near the region or cruising elevation of 25,000 feet reported by the Navy pilots.

The ERA5 maps are marked with a red dot off the lower Eastern seaboard near Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida — in an effort to approximate where the Navy fighter pilots reported witnessing the GIMBAL and GOFAST UAP in January 2015.

These ERA5 maps, alongside the DoD email and the infrared video metadata, help to corroborate the Navy witness heard in the GIMBAL video who describes the wind speed at 25,000 feet as ‘120 knots to the west.’ 

The period for high winds at high altitude persisted from, at least, 4:00 PM ET (21:00 UTC) to 8:00 PM ET (01:00 UTC). 

The prolonged time range means that this ERA5 data also helps confirm pilot testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee which attested that the sightings occurred ‘toward the end of one of the night flights.’

The ERA5 data helps confirm pilot testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee that the sightings occurred ‘toward the end of one of the night flights.’ These records were obtained by Freedom of Information Act researcher John Greenewald, owner of theblackvault.com

The climate scientist who helped supply the DailyMail.com with the ERA5 wind data described NASA’s explanation of the GOFAST video as ‘low-effort’ and ‘not rigorous.’ 

Semeter and the rest of NASA’s 16-person UAP advisory team, this researchers said, should have tried to ‘get more context from the filming crew [of US Navy aviators].’ 

But this researcher declined to be mentioned by name, citing risk of career repercussions for criticizing the space agency. 

‘As a research scientist I’m writing grants to fund my research, and NASA is one of our funding [agencies],’ this climate researcher said. 

‘I don’t want any problem with them.’

When the agency first announced its UAP advisory panel in June 2022, NASA’s Assistant Deputy Associate Administrator for Research Daniel Evans told CNBC that the budget would be ‘certainly no more than $100,000.’

Evans said that NASA’s budget for the UAP study would be ‘very consistent’ with standard grant review panels. 

It’s unclear how much of the 16-person team’s modest six-figure budget went toward Semeter’s analysis of the GOFAST UAP video. 

Perhaps significantly, Semeter’s trigonometric analysis largely echoed work that had already been previously posted to the skeptics’ forum Metabunk in 2018.

Perhaps significantly, Semeter’s trigonometric analysis (right) largely echoed work that had already been previously posted to the skeptics’ forum Metabunk in 2018 (left) 

Christophe Spitzer Isbert — a French UFO researcher whose work on a UAP event near Hessdalen in Norway was cited by the French government’s UFO research body Geipan — told the DailyMail.com that he believes NASA should have not rushed its GOFAST opinions into publication  

‘A small set of assumptions replaced hypothesis testing,’ Isbert said. 

‘Assuming the object was lighter than air because it was slow and did not radiate heat does not constitute evidence to support the balloon hypothesis,’ he added.

Isbert expressed his opinion that the US space agency should have attempted to collect a wider set of undisputed evidence on the GOFAST case, perhaps in the form of an official Navy report, before leveraging its stature with these public comments.

As an example, he recommended one possible method to help confirm NASA’s wind-blown hypothesis, a method that also used only data available in the video itself.

‘Tumbling on any axis would be visible as aspect ratio changes (length vs height),’ Isbert noted. ‘This would also be predicted by the balloon hypothesis since the object is not [perfectly] spherical.’

Josh Semeter of NASA’s UAP advisory panel has not yet responded to email and phone requests for comment from the DailyMail.com, but this article will be updated if or when he does. 

Democrats claim Biden shady business deals probe is a ‘total bust’ as they ramp up war with Republicans demanding his impeachment over ties to Hunter’s business

• ‘Chairman Comer ’s investigation has conclusively disproven the Republican allegations against President Biden,’ declared Rep. Jamie Raskin
•  Raskin claims the evidence gathered is a ‘total bust—an epic flop in the history of congressional investigations’ meant to distract from Trump ‘s legal woes 
• House Republicans are weighing a formal impeachment inquiry against the president 

By Morgan Phillips, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 13:40 EDT, 11 September 2023 | Updated: 14:22 EDT, 11 September 2023

House Republicans return from August recess ready to go after President Biden for his family’s foreign business deals – but House Democrats say the investigation is a ‘total bust’ that focus on Hunter rather than Joe in a new memo. 

‘Chairman Comer ’s investigation has conclusively disproven the Republican allegations against President Biden,’ declared top Oversight Committee Democrat Jamie Raskin, Md., in the new memo. 

‘The voluminous evidence they have gathered, including thousands of pages of bank records and suspicious activity reports and hours of testimony from witnesses, overwhelmingly demonstrates no wrongdoing by President Biden and further debunks Republicans’ conspiracy theories,’ the memo added. 

Raskin claims the evidence gathered is a ‘total bust—an epic flop in the history of congressional investigations’ that is meant to distract from Donald Trump‘s mounting legal woes.

‘Chairman Comer ’s investigation has conclusively disproven the Republican allegations against President Biden,’ declared top Oversight Committee Democrat Jamie Raskin, Md., in the new memo

Chair James Comer has sought to tie President Biden to his son’s foreign business dealings

Speaker Kevin McCarthy could move forward with a formal impeachment inquiry as soon as this month, he warned earlier in August – a threat Raskin pushed back against in the memo. 

An impeachment inquiry is contingent on whether Republicans are satisfied with the level of cooperation the Biden administration shows in providing evidence requested by the committee. 

Raskin claimed that agencies have cooperated plenty – but the evidence just doesn’t implicate the president. 

Comer ‘does not lack evidence – he has substantial evidence, but it shows no wrongdoing by the president and undermines the false GOP allegations,’ he said. ‘The Biden-Harris Administration has bent over backwards to accommodate Republicans’ often ridiculous and transparently political demands.’

Republicans have uncovered extensive evidence of Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family receiving millions from foreign oligarchs while Joe was vice president, but have yet to directly connect any such payments to him. 

The memo warned Republicans against launching an impeachment inquiry without more concrete evidence. 

‘If House Republicans vote to open an impeachment inquiry in the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing, let alone the “high crimes and misdemeanors” required under the Constitution, they will once again be enabling former President Trump’s efforts … to return to power and avoid being held accountable for his pervasive crimes and corruption.’

Republicans have uncovered extensive evidence of Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family receiving millions from foreign oligarchs while Joe was vice president, but have yet to directly connect any such payments to him

Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer revealed to the committee last month that Joe Biden had been in touch either by phone or in person with Hunter’s associates 20 times over the course of 10 years – though Archer did not say the president directly spoke about business. 

Archer testified that Hunter was selling the ‘Biden brand’ to his associates, and just hearing the vice president’s voice on speed dial was enough to convince them to fork over cash. Emails and testimony have revealed that Joe Biden did attend dinner with Hunter, Archer and foreign oligarchs who paid his son on two different occasions at Cafe Milano in Washington, D.C. 

‘This is a transparent effort to boost Donald Trump’s campaign by establishing a false moral equivalency between Trump,’ said the memo, ‘the four time-indicted former president now facing 91 federal and state criminal charges, based on a mountain of damning evidence for a shocking range of felonies, including lying to the FBI, endangering national security by illegally keeping classified documents, and conspiring to subvert the U.S. Constitution — and President Biden, against whom there is precisely zero evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever.’ 

Experts have hailed a ‘major discovery’ in Staffordshire – the identification of eight Knights Templar graves – and say ‘many more’ could be hidden around England. 

Historian Edward Spencer Dyas said he made the Da Vinci Code-style revelation at St Mary’s Church in the village of Enville, west of Birmingham.

He thinks the graves can be identified as belonging to Knights Templar members due to the appearance of the clan’s symbols on the headstones. 

Knights Templar was a powerful and wealthy military organisation provided safety to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land in the 12th century. 

They were founded around AD 1119 – two decades after the Crusaders captured the holy city of Jerusalem from Muslim control – but were disbanded by the pope in 1312 after false accusations of heresy. 

Edward Spencer Dyas made the Da Vinci Code-style discovery at St Mary’s Church in Enville, Staffordshire. He first discovered three 800-year-old medieval tombs belonging to members of the ancient order in the churchyard in 2021 and has now discovered five more graves. Mr Dyas believes the medieval building could be the most nationally important Templar churches in the country due to its links to William Marshall 

The Knights Templar, which had chapters across Europe, including in Britain, were known for their role in the Crusades and as one of the Middle Ages’ most powerful and wealthy religious organisations

Based on the finding, Mr Dyas believes St Mary’s could be one of the most nationally important Templar churches in the country. 

Tony McMahon, a historian, author and Templar expert, called it a ‘major discovery’ because there aren’t many known Templar graves in existence.

He thinks the relevance of the graves has remained unknown for around 500 years. 

‘It seems that these graves were recorded in the 16th century and then forgotten,’ he told MailOnline.

‘It’s thanks to the enduring interest in this mysterious order of knights that they have been uncovered again. 

‘It does beg the question – if Enville has revealed its Templar dead, how many more graves around England are lying under layers of clay?’ 

St Mary’s Church could have been one of hundreds of Templar churches in England, McMahon said, adding that members would have been buried with the order’s sacred insignia on their tombstones. 

‘Some of them may have seen active duty in Jerusalem and Acre fighting the Saracens while others might not have made it, succumbing to diseases like plague,’ he told MailOnline. 

Susie Hodge, historian and author of ‘Secrets of the Knights Templar’, said these ‘could be Templar graves’. 

‘Enville is an old village and so is the church,’ she told MailOnline. ‘There may have been other Templar buildings nearby [but] not enough research has been undertaken yet.’ 

Dr Matteo Borrini, an archeologist at Liverpool Moores University, said further study of the graves could give more information about those buried and whether they were truly knights. 

‘Regarding the possibility to find a real Templar grave, historical records and analysis of the archeological evidence can give the final answer,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘Definitely it is possible to find them in an hypothetical scenario.’ 

Depiction of Jacques de Molay, last Grand Master of the Knights Templar (he died in 1314 when sentenced to death) 

Pictured, St Mary’s Church in Enville, Staffordshire, close to the A458 road and just west of Birmingham 

This map above shows where St Mary’s Church in Enville is in Staffordshire – with outskirts of Birmingham to the west

Who were the Knights Templar? 

The Knights Templar were a mysterious holy militia that sprang up in the 12th century.

The medieval order were known for their role in the Crusades and as one of the Middle Ages’ most powerful and wealthy religious organisations.

A unique combination of knight and monk, the Knights Templar was made up of devout Christians tasked with providing safety to pilgrims to Jerusalem. 

In 1129, the Knights were officially recognised by the Pope and by 1180 there were some 600 of them in Jerusalem, Tripoli and Antioch. 

By the end of the 12th century there were thousands of Knights Templar, who accumulated considerable land, castles and spoils taken in battle.

They even bankrolled Henry II on his crusades.

The Knights Templar were a mysterious holy militia that sprang up in the 12th century (artist’s impression)

Some sources portray Knights Templar as fictional, but there is no doubt of their existence, according to Dr Borrini. 

‘Even if the novels and movies portrayed them as a legendary figure, they were an historical reality created around 1119 and formally disbanded in 1312,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘Documents such as the Chinon Parchment (dated 17-20 August 1308) prove not only the existence but also the charges and trial for heresy against them.’ 

St Mary’s Church, on the outskirts of the Black Country, was built in the early 12th century at a time when the Templars were creating Preceptories – a type of monastery – around Britain.

Each of the graves uncovered by Mr Dyas features a Templar cross within double circles in a standard Templar design. 

Mr Dyas believes the church was ‘under the patronage of the Templars’ and was built thanks to Templar financing. 

But not all experts seemed entirely convinced the graves offer proof of a Knights Templar stronghold at the site.

Helen Nicholson, Emerita Professor of medieval history at Cardiff University, said ‘a cross alone is not enough to show that a tomb was connected to the Templars’. 

‘Those are not necessarily Templar crosses,’ she told MailOnline, adding that the order had ‘no standard design’ for its insignia. 

‘The Templars did not use a distinctive cross – their crosses had four arms the same length, but otherwise varied.’ 

Professor Nicholson also pointed to a lack of available evidence that there ever were Templars at Enville.

‘The Templars were disbanded by the pope in 1312 after false accusations of heresy,’ she said.

‘In January 1308, King Edward II of England had all the Templars in England arrested as a result of those false accusations, and had inventories made of all their property.

‘He then appointed officials to administer the properties and send all the profits to his treasury. 

‘Many of the records that his officials produced still exist and are in the National Archives of the UK at Kew. 

‘A few years ago I transcribed the records for Staffordshire – Enville isn’t mentioned at all.’ 

One of the graves at St Mary’s Church identified as Templar by historian Edward Spencer Dyas

Each of the graves he has uncovered features a Templar cross within double circles in a standard Templar design. One also includes a Crusader cross, suggesting the knight was both a Templar and a Crusader of the ancient military order

The relevance of the church to Knights Templar may require more investigation, but more certain is England’s place in the order’s history. 

McMahon said the Templars were a ‘big deal’ in England as well as other countries around Europe, but their initiation rites and ceremonies were shrouded in mystery and scandal. 

‘They set up what were called “preceptories” funding their military operations in the Middle East,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘These were like medieval agri-businesses with farms, dairies, workshops, and of course a place of worship at the centre. 

‘England was of major importance to the Templars – their English headquarters was in what is now the Holborn area of London.

‘In fact, their first church in the capital was under what is now a modern office block called Southampton Buildings. 

‘You can still see their round church nearby – modelled on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on the exact spot where Christ was crucified and his tomb is also located.’

WHAT WERE THE CRUSADES?  

The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the near East. 

It’s known that nobility led the Crusades, but historical records lack details of the ordinary soldiers who travelled to, lived and died in the near East. 

Pope Urban II started the First Crusade (1096–1102) in order to aid the Christian Byzantine Empire, which was under attack by Muslim Seljuk Turks.  

Europeans captured Jerusalem in 1099 as a result and Muslims quickly unified against the Christian invasion. 

Muslims firmly controlled Jerusalem by 1291 and it remained in Islamic hands until the twentieth century.

The Crusades set the stage for several religious knightly military orders, including the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights, and the Hospitallers.

These groups defended the Holy Land and protected pilgrims travelling to and from the region. 

The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the near East. It’s known that nobility led the Crusades, but historical records lack details of the ordinary soldiers (file photo)

Scientists may have discovered a new human species for a second time this week.

Anthropologists in France found a 45,000-year-old pelvic bone of an infant, which is neither a match to Neanderthals nor Homo sapiens.

The hip bone was found with the remains of 11 Neanderthals in the Grotte du Renne cave, later settled by anatomically modern humans (AMHs), suggesting the child coexisted with the now extinct species.

The artifact was compared against two Neanderthal and 32 modern baby bones, finding its shape was different from both species – but slightly closer to AMHs.

‘We propose that this is due to its belonging to an early modern human lineage whose morphology differs slightly from present-day humans,’ the team wrote in the study published in Nature.

The news comes as a separate study revealed an ancient skull that belonged to a child who lived up to 300,000 years ago in China may also belong to a new human species.

A 45,000-year-old pelvic bone found in France may belong to a previously unknown lineage of Homo sapiens that lived before modern humans walked the Earth

The fossilized remains, which included a jaw, skull, and leg bones, were discovered in Hualongdong, China in 2019.

What bemused experts, however, is that the individual’s facial features did not match the lineage which split to form Neanderthals, nor Denisovans, nor us, leading them to suspect that we might be missing a branch from the human family tree.

And this is what the latest discovery has uncovered. 

AMHs appeared in Western Europe about 42,000 years ago, 2,000 years before Neanderthals went extinct.

The Grotte du Renne cave is a site that was home to both species during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic eras but has provided evidence that Neanderthals developed aspects of modern behavior before contact with modern humans.

Layers of earth inside the cave provide a timeline for when Neanderthals lived in the cave and when AMHs took over the site, but a middle layer was home to the small pelvic bone that suggests another lineage also resided in the structure.

The bone belonged to an infant and was uncovered in the Grotte du Renne cave, which Neanderthals first inhabited before our ancestors moved in

The infant bone was found at a level with 11 Neanderthal remains.

This level is known as the Châtelperronian techno-cultural complex, which lasted 45,000 to 40,000 years ago and was followed by the Mousterian industry. 

The Châtelperronian was an era when stone tools and flint knives were said to have been a pivotal point in the evolution of Neanderthals – although some scholars believe early humans fashioned the pieces.

The infant’s pelvic bone was found to have a completely different curvature than the immature Neanderthal bones but was just slightly off from the AHMs pelvic bone.

The team said the mysterious artifact was within the samples from modern humans.

‘This overlap could therefore indicate a variability of iliac [the hip bone] curvature shared between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, the study reads.

The researchers proposed that the infant was likely a member of the AMH population that coexisted with the last Neanderthals during the transition.

‘AR-63 would attest to the presence of AMH in this area of Western Europe during the Châtelperronian period, the researchers wrote.

‘The makers of the Châtelperronian could then be human groups where Neanderthals and AMH coexisted.’

If this hypothesis is validated, the team said ‘Châtelperronian may have ‘resulted from cultural diffusion or acculturation processes with possible population admixture between the two groups.’

This means Neanderthals learned from modern humans and used tool-making to evolve their technologies.

Another Covid variant is taking off in Britain — but experts have today insisted there is nothing to panic about.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) bosses have raised the alarm about Eris, saying it already makes up one in eight new cases after reaching the UK towards the end of May.

Hospitalisation rates are also starting to shoot up, sparking concern that the nation may be on the brink of being hit by a fresh wave.

However, experts today claimed it shows no sign of being more dangerous than the other strains circulating, including its ancestor Omicron.

Officials also say they are ‘closely’ monitoring the spread of the virus.

Experts have speculated that the ‘Barbenheimer effect’ – referring to the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer – might have contributed to the rise in infections, as well as the recent bad weather and waning immunity.

UKHSA analysts estimate Covid positivity rates increased 5.4 per cent with 17 outbreaks confirmed, on the previous week, which itself saw a rise of 3.7 per cent. Leading experts fear the outbreak will continue to pick up pace in the coming weeks as part of the virus’s natural cycle

Leading experts fear the outbreak will continue to pick up pace in the coming weeks as part of the virus’s natural cycle. But officials say they are ‘closely’ monitoring the spread of the virus. The UK however is no longer publishing daily infection numbers because so few tests are being carried out after the pandemic

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Reading University, told MailOnline: ‘Covid will continue to change and adapt.

‘So we shouldn’t be shocked or worried just because new variants appear and cause increasing numbers of infections.

‘The protection against serious illness provided by vaccination is still holding up well and while numbers of infections go up and down, hospitalisations and deaths remain reassuringly low.’

He added: ‘There’s no reason to be complacent.

‘But unless people are again admitted to hospital in large numbers and struggling to breathe, people should live their lives as normal.’

Professor Paul Hunter, a respected infectious disease specialist, said it was too early to say how Eris, scientifically known as EG.5.1, will affect Britain.

UKHSA chiefs say the variant already has a 20.5 per cent growth advantage and accounts for 14.6 per cent of cases, making it the second most prevalent in the UK.  

Growth rates were based on positive testing samples conducted in hospitals. 

The Omicron spin-off Arcturus — named XBB.1.16 — meanwhile was the most dominant variant, causing 39.4 per cent of all cases, according to the UKHSA data. 

Professor Hunter said that EG.5.1 was ‘likely to become dominant at some point and push up total infections but probably not that dramatically’.

He added: ‘One of the characteristics of immunity to new variants is that immunity to infection is reduced but immunity to severe disease remains strong. 

‘This is to do with the nature of the immune response to infections of the nose and throat — mucosal immunity — and infections of the lungs — systemic immunity.’ 

He said: ‘Unlike earlier in the pandemic, when the main driver of such waves was new escape variants, the main driver now is probably loss of immunity. 

‘But some impact from the holiday period may there as well. Since Omicron appeared travel and especially international travel became an important risk factor.’ 

Meanwhile, UKHSA epidemiologist Meaghan Kall yesterday tweeted: ‘In the past variants with similar growth advantage have not resulted in new waves. 

‘However, UKHSA will closely analyse countries with high EG.5.1 prevalence and laboratory neutralisation data. 

‘Growth estimates are likely to improve over the coming weeks.’ 

Professor Christina Pagel, professor of operational research at University College London, said: ‘We’ve not seen big waves in variants with growth advantage of around 20 per cent — previously needed 50 per cent growth advantage+ to get big wave…’ 

The government health body yesterday declared EG.5.1 a new Covid variant, after it was first raised as a signal in monitoring at the beginning of July. 

The World Health Organization also added EG.5 to the list of Omicron variants under monitoring in July.  

Globally, Eris — known in Greek mythology as the goddess of strife and discord — already accounts for around 20 per cent of Covid sequences in Asia, 10 per cent of sequences from Europe and seven per cent in North America. 

Japan has been hit by a spike in Covid infections in recent weeks, with experts predicting the trend will continue amid high heat, declining population-level immunity and the start of the holiday season. 

UKHSA data also shows the Covid weekly hospital admission rate increased to 1.97 per 100,000, as of July 30 — rising from the 1.47 per 100,000 recorded in the previous week. The South West recorded the largest number of admissions for the virus, while those aged over 85 were the age group with the highest rate

The Omicron spin-off Arcturus — named XBB.1.16 — was the most dominant variant, causing 39.4 per cent of all cases, according to the UKHSA data. It also had a growth advantage of 41.8 per cent. But the government health body yesterday declared the Omicron variant EG.5.1. a new Covid variant, after it was first raised as a signal in monitoring at the beginning of July. UKHSA data shows the variant was already the second largest in the UK, accounting for 14.6 per cent of cases. It also had a 20.5 per cent growth advantage

Latest data shows E.G.5.1 represents roughly 37.5 per cent of sequences. 

It comes as experts last month warned a spike in Covid cases may happen following the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer. 

The films, which earned the combined name Barbenheimer as they both opened on July 21, have captivated audiences and social media users, despite being wildly different. 

In the US, Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, tweeted: ‘Not to be a Debbie Downer…but anyone worried about a post-Barbie Box Office Covid bump? Or post-Oppie?’ 

Other experts today said the theory may have some merit.

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, told MailOnline that ‘increased cinema attendance’ as well as ‘more indoor mixing’ due to bad weather may have contributed towards a rise in cases. 

He said: ‘The EG.5.1 variant does appear to be spreading more efficiently in various Asian countries and is accounting for more infections in the UK. 

‘There is no evidence that this variant is more dangerous in causing severe disease. 

‘The rise in cases in the UK is probably due to waning protective immunity — it’s some time since people received their last booster jabs and/or were previously infected — and to increased mixing in enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces. 

‘Poor weather over the last month has meant more indoor mixing including during various events such as university degree congregations and increased cinema attendance.’

He added: ‘Overall levels of infection remain low but this is a wake up call stressing that we can’t be complacent when it comes to Covid. 

‘We need to keep an eye on the emergence of variants and be vigilant as we prepare for an inevitable increase in infections over the autumn/winter.’

UKHSA analysts estimate Covid positivity rates increased 5.4 per cent on the previous week, which itself saw a rise of 3.7 per cent. 

But the Government has insisted it will never revert back to pandemic-era measures unless a doomsday variant emerges.

Experts say fluctuations in case numbers will happen forevermore. 

Another round of the historic jab drive will also begin next month.

Information on who will be eligible for the autumn booster injections is expected in the coming weeks. 

The over-65s, care home residents and those aged five and over with a weakened immune system were previously eligible — the groups deemed most at risk of serious illness from the virus.

Last autumn, people over 50 were urged to have a booster, but uptake in England was just 40 per cent for people in their early 50s, and 52 per cent for those in their later 50s.

Those over 75 had a greater turnout for the boosters, with 80 per cent opting to receive another vaccine. 

It comes as experts last month warned a spike in Covid cases may happen following the release of Barbie (pictured) and Oppenheimer. The films, which earned the combined name Barbenheimer as they both opened on July 21, have captivated audiences and social media users, despite being wildly different. In the US, Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, tweeted: ‘Not to be a Debbie Downer…but anyone worried about a post-Barbie Box Office Covid bump? Or post-Oppie?’

Some experts today dismissed the theory. But Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, told MailOnline ‘increased cinema attendance’ as well as ‘more indoor mixing’ due to bad weather may have contributed towards a rise in cases. Pictured, Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy, has also drawn large crowds to movie theatres

Some 70 per cent of over-75s also opted for a spring booster earlier this year.  

UKHSA data also shows the Covid weekly hospital admission rate increased to 1.97 per 100,000, as of July 30 — rising from the 1.47 per 100,000 recorded in the previous week. 

The South West recorded the largest number of admissions for the virus, while those aged over 85 were the age group with the highest rate. 

Latest NHS hospital data also shows admissions increased by almost 50 per cent in a week rising from 127 — the day Barbie and Oppenheimer were both released — to 253, as of July 27. 

Hospitalizations had been freefalling nationally since March, from a peak of almost 1,200. 

The beginning of July however, saw these numbers begin an uptick, rising slightly.

But, current admission levels are nowhere near levels seen earlier in the pandemic, when a high of 4,134 admissions were logged per day. 

Infections climbed as high as 3.7million last winter during the spread of the original Omicron variant — but this was topped a few months later, when the number reached a record 4.1million. 

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at the UKHSA, said: ‘We continue to see a rise in Covid cases in this week’s report. We have also seen a small rise in hospital admission rates in most age groups, particularly among the elderly. 

‘Overall levels of admission still remain extremely low and we are not currently seeing a similar increase in ICU admissions. We will continue to monitor these rates closely.

She added: ‘The NHS will be in contact in autumn 2023 when the seasonal vaccine is available for those who are eligible due to health conditions or age, and we urge everyone who is offered to take up the vaccine when offered.’ 

Animal experts have rubbished claims a Chinese sun bear is, in fact, a man in a suit.

Speculation broke online after a viral clip showed the strange bear standing on two legs, drawing attention to its saggy bottom fur and stumpy little legs.

Now, a video from another angle sheds new light on the bizarre story. 

The Hangzhou Zoo in China quickly responded, writing as the four-year-old Malayan bear named Angela, ‘it seems you don’t understand me very well’.

They stressed that such deception would not happen at a state-run zoo.

Now, animal experts have weighed in on the issue. Dr Ashleigh Marshall, an expert from Chester Zoo, told the BBC that the animal ‘is definitely a real bear’.

She explained that the folds on its back, assumed to be evidence of an ill-fitting costume, help protect the bear from predators, as the looseness allows the bear to ‘turn around in their skin’ and fight back if grabbed.

The story has circulated world-over, with the zoo itself seeing a 30 per cent jump in visitors.

Mr You told a local news outlet: ‘After seeing this bear standing up on the internet, I wanted to see how it looks in real life, so I came here.’ 

The strange looking bear was seen standing on two legs and looking for food at the zoo

Qian Ming, one of 20,000 a day now making the pilgrimage, told local TV he had travelled 150 miles by train, from Suzhou, to see the bear.

‘We travelled overnight last night to get here,’ he said. 

Hangzhou Zoo was quick to address the bear’s unusual appearance, stating: ‘When it comes to bears, the first thing that comes to mind is a huge figure and astonishing power.

‘But not all bears are behemoths and danger personified.’

A spokesperson from the zoo dismissed claims the bear was a man in a suit, adding: ‘If you get someone to wear such thick fur in this summer heat, they won’t last more than a few minutes before they need to lie down.

‘We are a government-operated zoo. There will never be situations like that.’

Temperatures in the region can reach as high as 40C (104F) in summer. 

Angela has nonetheless captured the world’s attention since Sunday, racking up more than 30 million views online. 

The zoo said that she is ‘dating’ a male bear named Dalu but ‘wants to take things slow’. 

They also asked visitors to refrain from feeding the bears. 

Sun bears have distinct features, such as a short, sleek black coat, a pale yellowish crescent on their chests (which gives them their name), and a light-colored muzzle.

They are also known as honey bears – due to their love of honey – and dog-faced bears… for their dog-like faces.

Big paws with hairless soles may look like feet, but are adapted to help them climb.

Sun bears are the size of large dogs, standing at most 1.3 meters (4ft 3′) tall on their hind legs.

Grizzlies and other species can be as tall as 2.8 metres (9ft), according to the zoo.

They are the smallest of the bear species and are native to Southeast Asia.

The state-owned zoo responded to allegations the bear (pictured) was a human in a suit

The zoo in China said despite the odd looking fur and legs, ‘it is a real animal’

Although no actors have been caught dressing up as bears in this way before, in 2019 two zoo workers at Yancheng Wild Animal World in Changzhou, China, were seen wearing gorilla costumes and jumping around.

The zoo said it was an April Fools’ prank after receiving a number of complaints. 

MailOnline contacted Hangzhou Zoo for comment.

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s office rejects claim GOP asked Texas Democrat to SWITCH parties to help increase the House majority – with control still in the balance

• House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy is currently trying to gin up support for his House Speakership bid if Republicans retake the chamber
• It comes amid a rebellion from some members in his caucus over the lack of a promised ‘red wave’ in the midterm elections last week 
• Control of the House is still up in the air as of Monday evening, with Republicans holding 212 seats in the new Congress and Democrats so far with 204
• The Wall Street Journal reported that McCarthy’s circle has been courting Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar with committee assignment promises
• Cuellar has reportedly rejected all offers he’s received
• The Texas legislator’s spokesman declined to go into his private conversations but specified that Cuellar is a ‘lifelong Democrat’ 
• McCarthy’s spokesman has dismissed the reports as ‘fan fiction’
• ‘This is McCarthy trying to flip a lifelong Democrat because of the Republicans’ poor midterm results,’ a person familiar told DailyMail.com

By Elizabeth Elkind, Politics Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 17:58 EDT, 14 November 2022 | Updated: 19:45 EDT, 14 November 2022

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy‘s office on Monday rejected reporting that his circle was trying to persuade Rep. Henry Cuellar, perhaps the House’s most conservative Democrat, into switching parties.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday afternoon that Cuellar had rejected ‘multiple calls’ from McCarthy allies to cross the aisle.

It comes as Republicans face down the reality of one of the worst performances in a midterm by a party out of power in recent US history. 

McCarthy’s bid for the House Speakership appeared to be in peril, but a source told DailyMail.com on Monday evening after the first day of the leadership races that nobody rose to challenge him. He also received a standing ovation after his remarks to his caucus.

But as of Monday evening, it’s not even clear yet which party will control the House of Representatives next year. 

‘This is McCarthy trying to flip a lifelong Democrat because of the Republicans’ poor midterm results and missing out on a red wave,’ a person familiar told DailyMail.com. 

McCarthy’s allies reportedly tried tantalizing Cuellar with influential committee positions – but failed. 

Cuellar currently sits on the House Appropriations Committee, where the majority of government funding has to pass through in order to become law.

McCarthy spokesman Mark Bednar told DailyMail.com that ‘Anyone suggesting this is simply exercising in fan fiction.’ 

Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar has reportedly been courted to cross the aisle, according to the Wall Street Journal 

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (seen returning to Congress on November 14 for Republicans’ leadership forum) rejected that report via his spokesman

‘Leader McCarthy is going to be elected Speaker by the current and newly-elected members of the House Republican Conference,’ Bednar said in the statement provided to multiple media outlets.

‘Our efforts are exclusively focused on bringing our conference together and saving the country.’

Cuellar’s chief of staff Jake Hochberg declined to give details of his boss’s conversations with other lawmakers but went out of his way to call the Texas lawmaker a ‘lifelong Democrat.’

‘As a standard rule we do not discuss private conversations between members of Congress,’ Hochberg said.

‘However, Congressman Cuellar is a lifelong Democrat and will remain a Democrat. Period.’

As of Monday evening, the GOP is still struggling to reach a majority in the House, but is expected to narrowly do so, despite pre-election projections forecasting at least a 20-seat pickup. 

Democrats retained control of the Senate with a 50th seat called for the party on Saturday, and the House is still up in the air

The parties need to clinch 218 seats for a majority in the House of Representatives

The new Congress is currently split with 212 Republicans and 204 Democrats. 

Either party needs 218 members for a majority.

And Republican lawmakers appear to be readying for a rebellion against current party leadership, with the conservative House Freedom Caucus poised to have significant sway if their party clinches the majority along narrow margins.

Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry told reporters on Thursday that he had not heard from McCarthy since before the election, but it’s not clear if that’s changed as the leader has been making the rounds to lobby Republicans for his Speakership bid.

Multiple conservative members of the Republican caucus have called for delaying leadership elections until the final House tally is at least settled.

Politico reported on Sunday that Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, also part of the Freedom Caucus, may seek to challenge McCarthy for the Speakership just to derail his momentum.

But the conservative caucus itself is split on how to act, so it’s not clear if all 43 members will act in a monolith to hold McCarthy’s ambitions for the gavel hostage.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia urged colleagues to back McCarthy during an interview on Steve Bannon’s War Room Podcast, comparing the ‘anti-Kevin’ faction of Republicans to the ‘anti-Trump’ resistance faced by the ex-president.

Her staunch ally, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, said on Charlie Kirk’s Real America’s Voice program: ‘There are definitely at least five people, actually a lot more than that, who would rather be waterboarded by Liz Cheney than vote for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House.’

Patriots legend Julian Edelman shuts down ‘BS’ claim that ex-teammate Rob Gronkowski would party all night and then ‘pass out on the training tables’

• The claims were made by former Patriots backup defensive end Jake Bequette 
• Edelman and Gronkowski played in New England together for nine seasons in NE 
• DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news

By Tyrell Feaster For Dailymail.Com

Published: 21:29 EDT, 26 June 2023 | Updated: 21:29 EDT, 26 June 2023

New England Patriots legendary wide receiver Julian Edelman has blasted a claim about former teammate Rob Gronkowski‘s partying antics. 

He responded to an article by Fox which quotes former Patriots defensive end Jake Bequette as saying that Gronkowski would ‘pass out on the training tables in the Patriots training room,’ after a late nights out partying. 

Edelman responded to the article with a tweet saying: ‘Story is BS. Everyone wants to paint Gronk as a party animal. When in reality he was one of the most dedicated teammates I had.’

The three-time Super Bowl champion Edelman played 11 seasons and 137 games in New England, compared to the eight games Bequette played during his two seasons with the Patriots. Bequette also recorded no tackles or defensive statistics during his two-year career.

‘We all had these key fobs that gave us 24/7 access to the Patriots facility there in Foxborough, and during the offseason, Gronk would go out all night with his boys in Boston, stay up till 3 or 4 in the morning, whatever it was, and have his crew drop him off at the Patriots facility,’ Bequette said on ‘Prime Time with Alex Stein.’

Story is BS. Everyone wants to paint Gronk as a party animal. When in reality he was one of the most dedicated teammates I had. https://t.co/mQecYSd4bW

— Julian Edelman (@Edelman11) June 25, 2023

Julian Edelman has called ‘BS’ on a report in the defense of ex-teammate Rob Gronkowski

Edelman and Gronkowski played in New England together for nine seasons with the Patriots

‘And he would, like, stagger in to the Patriots locker room, key fob in, and go pass out on the training tables in the Patriots training room.

‘So then, like an hour or two later, when the trainers would come in to start their workday, they’d come in there and see Gronk just sprawled out on the training table, just fast asleep. 

‘They would go over there, they wouldn’t wake him up, they would roll up one of his sleeves and, you know, stick an IV in his arm.

The claims were made by former NE backup DE Jake Bequette who played for two seasons

‘After a couple hours, he would just wake up like Frankenstein revived and go out there and just kick ass.’

Gronkowski himself has never shied away from the fact that he enjoys having a good time and even jokingly credited late nights out to aiding his success on the football field.

‘Well, I’m carrying my friends, you know, throughout the bar. I’m holding them up. I’m lifting. I’m curling them,’ he told Jimmy Fallon in January. 

‘They’re on my back, I’m jumping up and down. I’m dancing the whole time. Kind of like Austin Butler. I’m gyrating.’

China has discovered two new coronaviruses lurking in bats – and state-funded virologists are parading them as proof Covid did not leak from a lab.

Both pathogens harbour the same genetic quirk believed to make the pandemic-causing strain so infectious.

Until SARS-CoV-2 spawned in China towards the end of 2019, no sarbecoviruses (the virus family it belongs to) had even been found to have a ‘furin cleavage site’.

Experts argued this oddity pointed to the pandemic as having a man-made origin, challenging Beijing‘s insistence that it emerged naturally.

However, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention-backed researchers said their discovery ‘deepens our understanding of the diversity of coronaviruses’.

Scientists in the study analysed results from 112 bats captured in ‘abandoned caves’ in Baoting County, Hainan Province in Southern China in March and April in 2021

CD35 and CD36 were found in samples taken from great roundleaf bats, which are also known as the great Himalayan leaf-nosed bat

Shi Zhengli – dubbed the ‘Bat Lady’ of ‘Bat Woman’ for her work on bat coronaviruses – investigated the possibility Covid could have emerged from her lab back in 2020 according to colleagues, she is also the editor Virologica Sinica

Sharing their findings in a scientific journal, they argued it ‘strongly’ indicates SARS-CoV-2’s furin cleavage site ‘naturally originated’.

They wrote the discovery: ‘Provides clues about the natural origin of the furin cleavage site of SARS-CoV-2.’

But independent experts said the study cannot draw such a conclusion as the viruses discovered aren’t actually that closely related to Covid.   

Neither of the two viruses, known as CD35 and CD36, have yet been proven capable of infecting humans.

This prospect requires ‘further investigation’, according to the researchers, who were funded indirectly by President Xi Jinping’s communist regime through China’s national research and development programme.

Dr Richard Ebright, a biologist at Rutgers University and lab leak proponent, said the paper’s conclusions do nothing to dismiss the possibility that Covid leaked from a research facility. 

‘The viruses reported in the paper are not SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘They are not even sarbecoviruses (the subgenus of viruses comprising SARS-CoV-1-related and SARS-Cov-2-related viruses). 

‘The authors of the paper classify them as hibecoviruses, placing clade hibecovirus adjacent to, but distinct from, clade sarbecovirus.’

He, therefore, said that the paper cannot draw any conclusion about Covid’s unique furin cleavage site. 

‘SARS-CoV-2 is the only one of hundreds of known sarbecoviruses that has an furin cleavage site,’ he said.

‘This was true before the paper and remains true after the paper.

‘No informed person would suggest that the paper, somehow, suffices dismiss the idea that Covid emerged from a lab.’

Professor Francois Balloux, an infectious disease expert based at University College London echoed these same doubts. 

‘It’s a hibecovirus, totally unrelated to SARS-CoV-1/2,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘It carries a furin cleavage site but many coronaviruses (outside sarbecoviruses) do.

‘This paper tells us nothing about the origin of Covid. It just adds one more coronavirus species to the hundreds described to date.’

The study itself describe CD35 and CD36 as being a 54 per cent genetic match for Covid. 

This means it’s not actually that related to Covid itself.

For comparison, a virus called RaTG13 collected from bats in China in 2013 is a 96 per cent match and has no furin cleavage site. 

Scientists in the study analysed results from 112 bats captured in ‘abandoned caves’ in Baoting County, Hainan Province in Southern China in March and April in 2021. 

Of the bats collected samples from 7 (6.3 per cent) tested positive for coronaviruses.

CD35 and CD36 were found in samples taken from great roundleaf bats, which are also known as the great Himalayan leaf-nosed bat.

The authors noted: ‘Bat CoV CD35 is so far the closest relatives of SARS-CoV-2 with a polybasic furin-like site, strongly suggesting that the cleavage site is of natural origin, which provides clues to the evolutionary origin of the furin cleavage site of SARS-CoV-2.’

They added that as great roundleaf bats have a wide geographic distribution, being found in southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia, this means CD35 could be circulating widely. 

Five of the paper’s ten authors were affiliated with the Chinese CDC – Beijing’s equivalent of the UK Health Security Agency or US organisation of the same name.

The discovery itself was published in Virologica Sinica, the publishing arm of the Chinese Society for Microbiology (CSM).

This society is linked to the state-affiliated China Association of Science and Technology with its website adding that it ‘accepts administrative supervision’ from the Chinese Government’s ‘Ministry of Civil Affairs’. 

Virologica Sinica is also edited by Dr Shi Zhengli, an influential scientist described as China’s ‘bat woman’ who works inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) – considered to be the source of the Covid pandemic in some corners.

Its editorial board also features over a dozen other academics linked to the WIV.

And the study can count a British zoologist whose organisation funded research at the WIV, and central to the debate about Covid’s origins, among its fans.

Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, which directed millions of US Government cash to fund experiments at the Chinese lab Tweeted about the study:  ‘Happy Saturday! Here’s a newly discovered bat β-CoV with a furin cleavage site from bats in Hainan Province China.

He also quoted the study’s conclusion ‘..this study deepens our understanding of the diversity of CoVs & provides clues about the natural origin of the FCS of SARS-CoV-2.’

British zoologist Dr Peter Daszak, is one of the most stringent deniers of the man-made Covid hypothesis with ties to WIV

Dr Daszak has been passionate defender of the WIV over the course of the pandemic and has repeatedly shot down any suggestion experiments at the lab could have led to the emergence of Covid. 

The expert in zoonosis, the spread of viruses from animals to humans, hails from the mining town Dukinfield, on the outskirts of Manchester, and has been one of the central, and controversial, figures at the centre of the debate on Covid’s origin.  

He has been accused of orchestrating a behind-the-scenes ‘bullying’ campaign to ensure blame for Covid was directed away from WIV. 

This involved allegedly persuading 26 other scientists to sign off on a letter he wrote to the scientific journal The Lancet claiming the virus could only have been natural in origin and to suggest otherwise creates ‘fear, rumours, and prejudice’.

The letter was so influential that it cowed most experts into refusing even to consider that the virus could have been man-made.

It also later emerged that Dr Daszak told his fellow signatories in an email that the letter would not be sent under the EcoHealth logo to not make it identifiable as coming from any ‘one organisation’ or ‘person’. 

These emails show that he even considered not signing the letter himself, although in the end he did.

He was also accused of not declaring EcoHealth’s, and therefore his own, ties with WIV during investigations into the pandemic. 

In January 2021, Dr Daszak joined the World Health Organization (WHO) team sent to Wuhan to investigate the origins of the virus. 

The group’s report, published in March 2021, concluded it was ‘extremely unlikely’ that the virus originated in a laboratory.

But he came under fire after it emerged that he had a working relationship with Dr Shi Zhengli, a virologist at the WIV nicknamed ‘Bat Woman’, and one of the very scientists whose work he was tasked with investigating.

EcoHealth Alliance has provided at least $600,000 to WIV where research was carried out. 

Dr Daszak has previously defended his connections to WIV during investigations into Covid’s origins, arguing the probe should involve those who know the most about coronaviruses in China.  

He also chaired a group of scientists probing Covid’s origins for the medical journal The Lancet but stepped down when his link with Chinese virus research was revealed.

The lab leak theory, once dismissed as an outright conspiracy, has gained increasing traction in the years since the virus first caused a global pandemic. 

Insiders at the heart of Beijing’s response to the pandemic have also admitted that the nation quietly investigated the possibility of the virus emerging from one of its labs.

Such investigations occurred despite President Xi Jinping’s communist administration repeatedly denying the hypothesis, labelling it a smear campaign by ‘anti-China’ forces and insisting the virus emerged naturally instead. 

Back in 2020 the overwhelming opinion, shared by the world’s leading experts, was that Covid crossed naturally from animals infected with a bat coronavirus to humans.

But consensus over how the pandemic began three years ago has slowly started to shift.

Even some US intelligence officials have backed it, with FBI director Christopher Wray stating in February that the virus ‘most likely’ originated from a lab incident in Wuhan.

However, most experts maintain that Covid most likely emerged naturally, being transmitted from animals to humans – what is known as zoonosis.

Such theories have largely pointed to Wuhan’s Huanan seafood wholesale market, where numerous species of live animals were kept and sold, as the potential site where such an infection could have taken place. 

And in February 2021, an investigation into Covid’s origin by the World Health Organization said it was ‘extremely unlikely’ the virus leaked from a lab. 

But plans for a second phase of the investigation, involving audits of laboratories in the Wuhan area, were rejected by the Chinese government.

No concrete proof to support either argument has ever been found, leaving experts fearing the truth behind Covid’s origins will never be uncovered. 

Beyond being just establishing a historical fact, experts also want to find how Covid emerged to help stop other similar pathogens becoming pandemics in the future.