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CNN’s Anna Stewart walks through the thinking you’ll need to go through before you decide if you should continue with your travel plans in light of coronavirus.

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Now the museum is facing a harder truth: All of its 16 expensive fragments are forgeries. This weekend, at a conference in Washington scrambled by the coronavirus pandemic, experts released a 200-page report revealing how the forgeries fooled scholars and buyers on the antiquities market. “After an exhaustive review of all the imaging and scientific analysis results, it is evident that none of the textual fragments in Museum of the Bible’s Dead Sea Scroll collection are authentic,” said the leader of the investigation, Colette Loll, the director of Art Fraud Insights, in a statement. “Moreover, each exhibits characteristics that suggest they are deliberate forgeries created in the twentieth century with the intent to mimic authentic Dead Sea Scroll fragments.”The findings were originally scheduled to be made public at the Museum of the Bible on Sunday, but the event was postponed. CNN raised questions about the museum’s Dead Sea Scroll fragments in 2017 as the Green family prepared to unveil their $500 million museum. Now scholars say the Dead Sea forgeries could be part of the most significant sham in biblical archeology since the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” which hoodwinked a Harvard scholar and made worldwide news in 2012.Some scholars estimate that as many as 70 forged fragments, purportedly part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, have hit the market since 2002. Revelations about the Green’s collection could raise more questions about ancient biblical artifacts bought by other evangelicals, often for millions of dollars. Why the scrolls are so coveted Discovered 70 years ago in caves around Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls are among archaeology’s most significant scriptural finds, containing the oldest versions of the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish texts that date to the time of Jesus. Most of the scrolls are kept at the Shrine of the Book in JerusalemIn 2018, German-based scholars tested the five of the Bible museum’s fragments and said they “show characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin.”Oklahoma billionaires, the Greens are best-known for their chain of Hobby Lobby craft stores and their religious freedom battle with the Obama administration over covering contraception in company health care plans.The news of the forgeries is a significant embarrassment for the new museum, which, at 430,000 square feet in the heart of downtown DC, is a deep investment for its evangelical founders. Museum leaders portrayed the fiasco as good for museums and the antiquities market. “The sophisticated and costly methods employed to discover the truth about our collection could be used to shed light on other suspicious fragments and perhaps even be effective in uncovering who is responsible for these forgeries,” said Jeffrey Kloha, the Museum of the Bible’s chief curator, in a statement.Heather Cirmo, a spokeswoman for the Bible Museum, said Steve Green, the museum’s founder and board chairman, is not commenting on this project, though he is supportive of it. Cirmo said the Bible museum will not release the cost of the tests. Green has declined to say how much his family spent for the 16 fake Dead Sea Scrolls fragments. Scholars say that similar, authentic artifacts can fetch millions in the antiquities market.How the forgeries were made The forgers likely used ancient scraps, possibly from archaeological sites around the Qumran caves. But most of the Green’s fake fragments are leather, not parchment like the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, according to the report by Art Fraud Insights. The leather scraps could have been bits from ancient Roman shoes, the report speculates.To make convincing forgeries, the forgers coated the scraps with a shiny amber material, most likely animal glue, to fix tears and match the waxy sheen of authentic Dead Sea scroll fragments, the report says. Remarkably, despite being bought from for different sellers, all were coated by the same amber material, suggesting the forgeries may have come from the same hand. Among the forgers’ errors, according to the report, was in using modern ink to write snippets from the Bible on the ancient scraps, according to an analysis by German labs. And the writing itself bore clues: letters appeared to follow the creases and tears of the ancient leather, an indication that someone was trying hard to write on the uneven surfaces. While the ink was still wet, the forgers scattered variety of loose mineral deposits consistent with the Dead Sea region. “It is our opinion that all of these methods were utilized with the intent to deceive,” the report says.To confirm the forgery, the six-member advisory team hired by the museum used a superhero-esque array of gadgetry, including 3D microscopes, infrared spectroscopy and “energy dispersive X-ray analysis.”Where did the forgeries come from?The report released this weekend doesn’t detail the fake fragment’s provenance, or history of how they ended up in the Green’s hands. It only says the textual artifacts were “purchased on behalf of” the Green family “in four lots from four separate private collectors.”During a 2017 interview at the Bible museum, Green said he wasn’t sure who sold him the Dead Sea Scroll fragments. “There’s been different sources, but I don’t know specifically where those came from.”But for years, scholars, including some hired by the Bible museum have expressed doubts about their authenticity. Kipp Davis, a scholar at Canada’s Trinity Western University, published evidence in 2017 that cast doubt on two Museum of the Bible fragments, including one that was on display when the museum opened in 2017. One fragment’s lettering squeezed into a corner that wouldn’t have existed when the writing surface was new. Another appeared to have a Greek letter alpha where a 1930s reference Hebrew Bible used an alpha to flag a footnote.

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Even though Charlie and a potential mate named Kadal were placed together in hopes of breeding, the first-time mother produced the three brothers, named Onyx, Jasper and Flint, on her own through a phenomenon called parthenogenesis. It’s extremely rare among vertebrates: Only 70 backboned species can do it, which is about 0.1% of all vertebrates, according to Scientific American. The hatchlings were born last August, but since zoo staff were never able to confirm any successful breeding between Charlie and Kadal, they ordered a DNA test. “*Maury Voice* Kadal, you are NOT the father!” the zoo announced in a Facebook post. Komodo dragons have evolved to reproduce both sexually and parthenogenetically because they mainly live isolated in the wild and become violent when approached, according to the zoo. Parthenogenesis happens when another egg, rather than sperm, fertilizes an egg, according to Scientific American. The biological process of making an egg cell, called oogenesis, typically produces a polar body, which contains a duplicate copy of egg DNA. “Normally, this polar body shrivels up and disappears. In the case of the Komodos, though, polar bodies evidently acted as sperm and turned ova into embryos,” Scientific American said in 2006 when the first cases of parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons were reported. Female Komodo dragons carry WZ sex chromosomes, while males carry the ZZ type. When parthenogenesis occurs, the mother can only create WW or ZZ eggs and since WW eggs aren’t viable, only ZZ eggs are left to produce all male hatchlings, the zoo said. “Our staff is thrilled to play a part and to be able to witness this truly miraculous occurrence,” Dardenelle Long, Chattanooga Zoo’s president and CEO, said in a news release. “As the Komodo dragon is listed as vulnerable to extinction, these hatchlings are even more special and represent a bright future for their species.”

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They are two of the more than 3,500 passengers and crew members aboard the cruise liner that was held off the coast of San Francisco for days after 21 people — two passengers and 19 crew members — tested positive for the illness. Passengers began disembarking the vessel Monday. More passengers are expected to be removed from the ship Tuesday morning, according to an announcement from the ship’s captain.The lawsuit accuses Princess Cruise Lines of sailing despite “knowing that the ship was infected from two previous passengers who came down with symptoms of COVID-19, and had sixty two passengers on board.”In response to the lawsuit, Princess Cruises issued a statement saying: “Princess has been sensitive to the difficulties the COVID-19 outbreak has caused to our guests and crew. Our response throughout this process has focused on well-being our guests and crew within the parameters mandated on us by the government agencies involved and the evolving medical understanding of this new illness. We (sic) not been served with any lawsuit relating to this matter, and we will not comment on any pending litigation.”The couple boarded the ship on February 21 and, along with all other passengers in this sailing, were not examined or screened before they got on the vessel even though the ship had previously had two people on board with the virus, the lawsuit said. They were also not given warning by the cruise line of the potential of exposure before they boarded or while they were already aboard, according to the filing.The lawsuit says no passengers aboard the Grand Princess were informed when an email went out to previous ship passengers on February 25 notifying them of a possible exposure on the ship.The Weissbergers would not have boarded the ship if they had been told and would have disembarked in Honolulu on February 26 if they had been made aware of the risk, the lawsuit said.The lawsuit alleges the couple is now at “actual risk of immediate physical injury.” They are also “suffering from emotional distress” and are “traumatized from the fear of developing COVID-19,” according to the suit.The suit also says that the cruise line should have taken more precautionary measures after another ship in its fleet, the Diamond Princess, experienced an outbreak of the virus in February that infected more than 700 people. CNN’s Lucy Kafanov contributed to this report.

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Airlines, train companies and transit systems are increasing their cleaning routines to keep people safe from coronavirus, but surfaces like subway poles and escalators can become contaminated quickly.

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How did Lima became one of the best culinary destinations on Earth? Gaston Acurio, arguably the chef that made it all happen in Peru, sits down over fried squid and a traditional ceviche to chew over this culinary success.

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