Latest news with #McCollough
Irish Daily Mirror
27-05-2025
- General
- Irish Daily Mirror
Archaeologists 'confirm' site of Jesus' water-into-wine miracle
After centuries of speculation, the location where Jesus Christ is said to have turned water into wine, as per biblical accounts, may finally have been discovered. The Gospel of John recounts this miracle - the first attributed to Jesus - occurring at a wedding in Cana, Galilee. The narrative tells of Jesus' mother Mary, who was present at the wedding along with her son and his disciples, noticing that the wine had run out. It is at this point that Jesus performs the transformation of water into wine, showcasing his divine prowess. The site of this purported miracle has remained elusive for 2,000 years, but archaeologists now believe they may have solved the mystery. Excavations at the erstwhile site of Khirbet Qana - a Jewish village from 323 BC to 324 AD - revealed several intriguing clues, as reported by the Daily Mail. Archaeologists unearthed a series of tunnels used for Christian worship, adorned with crosses and inscriptions of 'Kyrie Iesou', a Greek phrase translating to Lord Jesus, reports the Express. Artifacts such as an altar and a shelf bearing the remnants of a stone vessel were found, suggesting that weddings might have taken place there. The Gospel account mentions that the wine was stored in six stone jars akin to the one discovered at Khirbet Qana. Dr Tom McCollough, who supervised the excavations at the site, located in present-day Israel, acknowledged that there are three other sites with plausible claims to being the location of the miracle. "But none has the ensemble of evidence that makes such a persuasive case for Khirbet Qana," he said. "We have uncovered a large Christian veneration cave complex that was used by Christian pilgrims who came to venerate the water-to-wine miracle. This complex was used beginning in the late fifth or early sixth century and continued to be used by pilgrims into the 12th-century Crusader period. "The pilgrim texts we have from this period that describe what pilgrims did and saw when they came to Cana of Galilee match very closely what we have exposed as the veneration complex." In his findings, Dr McCollough highlights the work of the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, which he claims "align logically" with the description of the site. While it's been widely believed that the miracle occurred in the Arab town of Kafr Kanna, Dr McCollough expresses his scepticism regarding this claim. He said, discussing modern tourism, "When tourists visiting Israel today are taken to Cana, they are taken to Kafr Kanna," Further to this, he critiques the lack of historical precision saying: "However, this site was not recognised as a pilgrimage site for those seeking Cana until the 1700s. At this point the Franciscans were managing Christian pilgrimage and facilitating easy passage rather than historical accuracy." Adding to the implications of his discovery, Dr McCollough shared his belief the finds at Khirbet Qana could lend credence to the historical validity of the Gospel of John. He commented on the significance of the location: "Our excavations have shown that this was in fact a thriving Jewish village located in the heart of much of Jesus' life and ministry. For the Gospel of John, Cana is in some ways, Jesus' safe place or operational centre. "It is a place he and his disciples return to when they encounter resistance in Judea. I would argue our excavations warrant at least a reconsideration of the historical value of John's references to Cana and Jesus."
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
PVPC working on two-decade plan for bikers and pedestrians
The rail trails now scattered throughout the four counties of Western Massachusetts were once just a thought. Twenty years later, the trails offer scenic escapes to bikers and walkers from the bustle of everyday life. The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission is embarking on its mission to encourage more pedestrians and cyclists to use shared paths and roadways over the next 25 years, as part of its Regional Transportation Plan. 'These plans are powerful, (and) we can't do that without people sharing their visions and dreams,' Jeff McCollough, principal transportation planner at the commission, said of converting the public's transportation visions into reality. The first plan was completed at the turn of the century in 2000, and revisions were made in 2008. A lot of the commission's immediate goals include improving safety and security measures for bikers and pedestrians, according to a draft of the plan. 'We are focused on removing barriers, so that all of us, depending on ability, can feel engaged in those activities,' said McCollough. 'If you can stay active, you can stay independent.' The plan will tackle major capital improvement projects — like connecting Northampton to New Haven, Connecticut, via the Columbia Greenway in Westfield. It also will ensure that both city streets and rural roads are safe for all people in transit, McCollough said. There also will be some smaller projects in the works. 'People tell us they just want to be able to get across the street from the post office to the library,' he said. In 2019, a statewide regional transportation plan encouraged increasing the number of bikers on the road, while also working to eliminate fatalities and injuries. Then, the pandemic, McCollough said, brought a surge of bikers who have remained on the roads and trails to this day. Anecdotally, he said, 'the number of bikers doubled and quadrupled in some locations, and we are still riding that curve.' McCollough pointed out that more bicyclists on roads — shared with passenger cars and other vehicles — means more people will be looking out for bikers down the line. 'There is safety in numbers,' he said. In that same vein, McCollough said rural roads can be just as dangerous as city streets for bicyclists and pedestrians. 'There are narrower roads, no shoulders and the lack of light are an invitation to disaster,' he said, urging the public to speak up about intersections or state highways that could use some guidance from the commission or the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The commission already has received several survey responses from the public, he said. Mostly, people have said that they mainly care about the maintenance of the roads. 'We have these pristine, beautiful trails, and people want them to stay that way,' he said. 'They want them to be just as exciting for the next generation as it is for them.' People are encouraged to weigh in on what they would like to see in this next plan through an online survey, or by emailing or calling the commission. The survey will be available until June 30. Wastewater overflow in Connecticut River falls to 543 million gallons in 2024 Big Y recalls made-to-order sandwiches for salmonella concerns Police, Fire Dept. contend with explosive munition at Memorial Hall in Northampton Trump administration policies creating 'chilling effect' on smaller colleges Read the original article on MassLive.
Politico
21-05-2025
- Health
- Politico
Vaccine critics head to Capitol Hill
Presented by With Lauren Gardner Driving The Day TAKING THE ANTI-VAX TEMPERATURE — A Senate investigations panel hearing today could help gauge how the anti-vaccine movement — and members of Congress — feel about HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s moves on vaccines so far. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing on how 'health officials downplayed and hid myocarditis and other adverse events' associated with Covid-19 vaccines comes a day after federal health officials released a new framework for vaccines. The FDA also said it would limit approvals of future Covid vaccines to adults 65 and older or people with an underlying condition, a marked change from the broad-based recommendations of the past several years. Why it matters: Amid a growing distrust of vaccines and the medical community, there's also been a growing divide in the Make America Healthy Again initiative: those who are pleased with how Kennedy — who leads the movement to combat chronic diseases — has moved to reevaluate vaccines versus those who want him to go further. In recent weeks, wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means has faced conservative backlash after she was nominated to be U.S. surgeon general, partly for not being anti-vaccine enough, The Washington Post reported. Since his confirmation, Kennedy has falsely claimed MMR vaccines contain aborted fetus debris, given noncommittal statements on measles prevention before promoting vaccination and said vaccines aren't safety tested enough. However, as he promised before becoming secretary, he's stopped short of outright calling for certain vaccines to be pulled from the market. The witnesses at today's hearing represent a more extreme contingency of vaccine skeptics, and their testimony could show how they feel about Kennedy's restraint. They include: — Aaron Siri, a vaccine injury lawyer and close ally of Kennedy's. Siri has challenged Covid vaccine mandates and petitioned the FDA to rescind the approval of polio vaccines. He was Kennedy's personal attorney. — Cardiologist Peter McCollough, who's been accused of spreading Covid vaccine misinformation and falsely linking the vaccine to deaths by misrepresenting federal data. McCollough is also chief scientific officer of a supplement and telehealth company whose CEO recently filed an ethics complaint against Kennedy adviser Calley Means. — Obstetrician James Thorp, who, with McCollough, has urged a moratorium on Covid vaccines in pregnancy, falsely claiming they lead to increased risk of miscarriage. The new FDA plan lists pregnancy as an underlying condition. — Orthopedic surgeon Joel Wallskog, who founded a vaccine injury advocacy group after he said he received a spinal cord injury following a Covid shot. Also testifying is Dr. Jordan Vaughn, who treats long Covid and vaccine injuries, and Democratic Hawaii Governor Josh Green, a doctor who was critical of Kennedy's confirmation due to his anti-vaccine advocacy. Key context: The FDA added a warning to Covid vaccine fact sheets in 2021 about myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, after a CDC safety panel determined a 'likely association' between the mRNA shots and the condition. The CDC says cases are rare but are most likely to be observed in young males. WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE. Former President Joe Biden's diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer has ignited conversation about how his cancer was caught so late. Some experts say it could be because of recommendations against screening for men over 70. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@ and khooper@ and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @Kelhoops. In Congress BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL CBO SCORE — More than 8.6 million more people could lose their health insurance if a draft portion of the House GOP's party-line megabill is implemented, according to an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday, POLITICO's Ben Leonard and Robert King report. While the bill would lead to nearly $800 billion in savings over 10 years — 7.6 million people would lose Medicaid benefits and 1 million would lose plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Among that group, 1.4 million people would lose health coverage from provisions under consideration for inclusion in the bill that would bar federal payments in Medicaid for people whose immigration status hasn't been verified. Why it matters: The latest projections from the congressional scorekeeper come at a delicate moment in the negotiations around the final text of President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' of tax cuts and extensions, border security investments, energy policies and more. Republicans across the conference are increasingly wary about the political blowback of cuts to Medicaid specifically, with Trump telling members in a closed-door GOP conference meeting early Tuesday not to 'fuck around with Medicaid.' RUBIO DEFENDS FOREIGN AID CUTS — Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back on Democratic senators' claims Tuesday that global health and food-assistance cuts have killed hundreds of thousands of children in the world's poorest countries, POLITICO's Carmen Paun reports. In his first appearance before lawmakers since billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, Rubio took responsibility for those decisions and said he reviewed line by line the contracts and grants that were canceled and those that were retained. Appearing before two Senate committees Tuesday to defend a halving of the State Department's budget for the 2026 fiscal year, as proposed by the White House, Rubio gave few explanations for the freeze and cancellation of global health grants and contracts over the last four months. The secretary didn't explain why the State Department planned to cut all funding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which helps low-income countries buy and deliver vaccines. But he insisted that 'we are still doing vaccines,' mentioning vaccines for malaria. He also said that 85 percent of the grants and contracts under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, were operational. What's next: Rubio will face two House committees today — Foreign Affairs and the Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, Department of State and Related Programs. AROUND THE AGENCIES SOMETHING TO TALC ABOUT — A panel of scientists told FDA Commissioner Marty Makary on Tuesday that there's broad consensus that talc is likely carcinogenic in some forms and increases inflammation — properties that could justify attempts to remove the additive from the food and drug supply, Lauren reports. The expert roundtable at FDA headquarters acknowledged there are still scientific unknowns about the risks of ingesting talc, which is used in some pharmaceuticals as a filler and in some candies and gums. But they said enough safety concerns exist — as do safer alternatives for drugmakers — that warrant a shift away from its use. While Makary acknowledged the lack of data on whether talc is implicated in several chronic diseases affecting the gut, he said enough evidence suggests the issue 'deserves a hard look by the FDA.' 'I'm not suggesting that talc is the driver of our chronic disease epidemic,' he said. 'But if we generally believe it's pro-inflammatory and kids are ingesting it, aside from the potential cancer-causing effects, shouldn't there be reason for concern?' What's next: It's unclear whether and how the discussion might inform FDA action. 'Any future regulatory decisions will be made only after further scientific analysis and careful consideration of all available evidence,' HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said. MAHA LEADERS TO KENNEDY: STAND FIRM — Make America Healthy Again leaders are pushing back against the pesticides industry and members of Congress concerned that an upcoming White House report will target the chemicals used by farmers. A letter to Kennedy today from MAHA leaders, including former Kennedy campaign finance director Dave Murphy and Zen Honeycutt, executive director of Moms Across America, urges Kennedy to 'stand firm' against a farmer-led petition and a letter from 79 Republican members of Congress that ask the secretary not to discredit safety-tested pesticides in a MAHA Commission review to be released this week. The pushback comes after Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) warned Kennedy during a Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that the report better not target the chemicals without definitive proof they cause disease. 'It's going to be a shame if the MAHA Commission issues a report suggesting, without substantial facts and evidence, that our government got things terribly wrong when it reviewed a number of crop-protection tools and deemed them to be safe,' Hyde-Smith told Kennedy, referencing the Make America Healthy Again panel he leads. Kennedy denied that the report would target American farmers. 'The report will not put a single farmer in this country out of business,' he said, adding: 'We are not going to do anything to jeopardize that business model.' Names in the News James Swann is now director of communications at America's Essential Hospitals. He previously was director of communications and public affairs at AHIP. WHAT WE'RE READING The New York Times reports on a new system to evaluate traumatic brain injuries. POLITICO's David Lim reports on new details on the Trump administration's most favored nations policy. The Associated Press reports on how blood and urine biomarkers can reveal how much ultraprocessed foods we eat.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez named creative directors at Loewe
PARIS (AP) — Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the celebrated design duo behind Proenza Schouler, will take over as creative directors at Loewe, the Spanish luxury house announced Monday. Their tenure begins April 7, succeeding Jonathan Anderson, who stepped down last week after an influential 11-year run that elevated Loewe into a major global brand, achieving annual revenues exceeding a reported $1.5 billion. McCollough and Hernandez, known for pioneering a distinctive American aesthetic since founding Proenza Schouler in 2002, are relocating from New York City to Paris, home to Loewe's creative offices. The designers also plan frequent visits to Madrid, where Loewe originated as a leather-maker serving the Spanish royal family in 1846. The duo established Proenza Schouler as a downtown darling, referencing cultural touchpoints such as artists Helen Frankenthaler and John Currin, filmmaker Harmony Korine and singer Annie Lennox. While the brand struggled to replicate the immense success of its utilitarian PS1 bag, subsequent collections featured sculptural yet supple shapes, including ruched totes and crescent-moon wristlets. 'We are incredibly honoured to join Loewe, a house whose values and mission align closely with our own,' McCollough and Hernandez said in a statement released by Loewe. They expressed excitement at continuing the brand's celebrated commitment to craft, nurtured under Anderson. The transition marks another significant reshuffle within luxury conglomerate LVMH, which owns both Loewe and Dior. LVMH has been recasting key creative roles across brands including Givenchy, Fendi and Dior to reignite growth after luxury's post-pandemic slowdown. Rival groups are making similar moves, with Kering appointing Demna as Gucci's artistic director and Chanel preparing for Matthieu Blazy's debut. Sidney Toledano, CEO of LVMH Fashion Group, praised McCollough and Hernandez's 'eclectic creativity and dedication to craft,' calling the duo 'a natural choice' to guide Loewe's evolution. At Loewe, the duo inherits a brand enjoying unparalleled visibility and industry goodwill thanks to Anderson's eclectic and innovative approach. Initiatives such as the Loewe Craft Prize, Salone del Mobile exhibitions and partnerships with influential content creators and celebrities will offer them a powerful platform to amplify their vision far beyond what was achievable at their independent brand. McCollough and Hernandez stepped down from Proenza Schouler in January but remain on its board. The brand is currently led by CEO Shira Suveyke Snyder, who joined last October and is spearheading the search for a new creative director.
The Independent
24-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez named creative directors at Loewe
Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the celebrated design duo behind Proenza Schouler, will take over as creative directors at Loewe, the Spanish luxury house announced Monday. Their tenure begins April 7, succeeding Jonathan Anderson, who stepped down last week after an influential 11-year run that elevated Loewe into a major global brand, achieving annual revenues exceeding a reported $1.5 billion. McCollough and Hernandez, known for pioneering a distinctive American aesthetic since founding Proenza Schouler in 2002, are relocating from New York City to Paris, home to Loewe's creative offices. The designers also plan frequent visits to Madrid, where Loewe originated as a leather-maker serving the Spanish royal family in 1846. The duo established Proenza Schouler as a downtown darling, referencing cultural touchpoints such as artists Helen Frankenthaler and John Currin, filmmaker Harmony Korine and singer Annie Lennox. While the brand struggled to replicate the immense success of its utilitarian PS1 bag, subsequent collections featured sculptural yet supple shapes, including ruched totes and crescent-moon wristlets. 'We are incredibly honoured to join Loewe, a house whose values and mission align closely with our own,' McCollough and Hernandez said in a statement released by Loewe. They expressed excitement at continuing the brand's celebrated commitment to craft, nurtured under Anderson. The transition marks another significant reshuffle within luxury conglomerate LVMH, which owns both Loewe and Dior. LVMH has been recasting key creative roles across brands including Givenchy, Fendi and Dior to reignite growth after luxury's post-pandemic slowdown. Rival groups are making similar moves, with Kering appointing Demna as Gucci's artistic director and Chanel preparing for Matthieu Blazy's debut. Sidney Toledano, CEO of LVMH Fashion Group, praised McCollough and Hernandez's 'eclectic creativity and dedication to craft,' calling the duo 'a natural choice' to guide Loewe's evolution. At Loewe, the duo inherits a brand enjoying unparalleled visibility and industry goodwill thanks to Anderson's eclectic and innovative approach. Initiatives such as the Loewe Craft Prize, Salone del Mobile exhibitions and partnerships with influential content creators and celebrities will offer them a powerful platform to amplify their vision far beyond what was achievable at their independent brand. McCollough and Hernandez stepped down from Proenza Schouler in January but remain on its board. The brand is currently led by CEO Shira Suveyke Snyder, who joined last October and is spearheading the search for a new creative director.
