grand tour french police episode

Carnage A Trois

• Edit source
• View history

Carnage A Trois is the fourth episode of Season 4 of The Grand Tour . It aired on Amazon Prime on December 17th, 2021.

• 2 Production
• 3 Announcement
• 5 References

Synopsis [ ]

Everyone's favourite trio are back and they're here to answer a very important question: What's going on with French cars? Join Clarkson, Hammond and May as they investigate the wonderfully weird world of French cars on their latest Grand Tour adventure.

Production [ ]

From sightings during filming, it is believed most of the episode is based in the county of Powys in Wales. Most notably, Richard Hammond was seen crashing into two cars while parking in Crickhowell. This was seen in the Official Trailer.

Announcement [ ]

The first indication of a new episode announcement, was on November 23rd, 2021. A tweet on Twitter [1] , and a post on Facebook [2] showed a picture of a helicopter with a car attached to it (seen below). It featured various hidden messages, including one saying "New trailer 25th Nov".

As expected, on November 25th, 2021, the official trailer was released [3] , revealing the episode name too!

Gallery [ ]

References [ ]

• ↑ https://twitter.com/thegrandtour/status/1463069811550736385
• ↑ https://www.facebook.com/thegrandtour/photos/a.453404731524740/1745071069024760
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjzGlXD6bsQ
• 1 Hammond's Rimac Crash
• 2 Mike Skinner
• 3 Enviro-mental

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois

• Episode aired Dec 17, 2021

On a road trip, the trio dish up a hair-raising mountain climb, bomb defusals, propeller powered cars, helicopter stunts and the most thrilling race of their lives before reaching the Englis... Read all On a road trip, the trio dish up a hair-raising mountain climb, bomb defusals, propeller powered cars, helicopter stunts and the most thrilling race of their lives before reaching the English Channel for a jaw dropping medieval climax. On a road trip, the trio dish up a hair-raising mountain climb, bomb defusals, propeller powered cars, helicopter stunts and the most thrilling race of their lives before reaching the English Channel for a jaw dropping medieval climax.

• Jeremy Clarkson
• Richard Hammond
• 78 User reviews
• 1 Critic review

• Self - Presenter
• (as Jerome Clarkfils)

• (as Richard Jambonmond)

• (as Capitaine Lentement)

• Self - Driver
• Philosopher
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia James May eating with a napkin covering his head is a reference to a French dish made of a small songbird called the ortolan. It is captured alive, force-fed, then drowned in Armagnac, roasted whole and eaten that way, bones and all. While consuming this dish, diners traditionally draped their heads with linen napkins to preserve the precious aromas and, some believe, to hide from God.

User reviews 78

• buddrud-27194
• Dec 17, 2021
• December 17, 2021 (United States)
• Expectation Entertainment
• Television Interactive Network Agency
• W. Chump & sons
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 8 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

• The Inventory

I Regret To Inform You That The Grand Tour 's French Special Is Very Good

The trio asks the biggest question in automotive history: "what's the matter with the french".

For many folks, the Top Gear and The Grand Tour trio of Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond are the last word in automotive content and humor. For me, it has been the trio that my husband has insisted upon making me watch (ugh) while also telling me I should be more like Jeremy Clarkson (no). However, I regret to inform everyone that The Grand Tour ’s new special about French cars, “Carnage à Trois,” is very good.

Related Content

French cars have historically been an enigma, and the special opens with Clarkson posing the question the crew would aim to answer in the episode: “What’s the matter with the French?” It is an admirable goal to undertake in a single special, and it was extremely good.

That’s because it combined many of my favorite things: France, making fun of the French, awful cars, and a delightful sense of humor that culminates in launching a Citroën C3 Pluriel over the Cliffs of Dover and back to its homeland.

My husband pointed out that a large part of this episode felt scripted, but I thought it was well done. There’s one moment where Richard Hammond gets behind the wheel of a propeller-powered car and the entire crew runs off behind a fence, that was particularly egregious, but it was still an exceptional moment of humor — especially since it’s compounded by Hammond with several later crashes. There’s another where Clarkson’s car is shown rolling down a hill overlaid with his grunts, as if he’s behind the wheel when it’s quite clear he’s not. But it’s a slapstick-style comedy that works quite well for these three.

A large part of this episode focuses on the fact that the trio posit French cars are designed to be destroyed. No one in France ever sells their cars; they drive them until they need to be scrapped, since everyone just bumps into each other. This is something Hammond illustrates by parallel parking a car in between two cars that he needs to shove out of the way with his bumpers and that May illustrates by sledge-hammering some space into his trunk to fit around a dishwasher.

The trio also illustrates the durability of these French cars by off-roading three family vehicles. Arguably the highlight of the episode comes as Hammond tries to overtake his compatriots on this rutted, one-lane path, crashing into both of them and ultimately tipping his own car onto the side. Somehow, the massive catapult only serves as the cherry on top of an already-excellent cake.

The special is available on Amazon Prime, and it’s worth enjoying with a holiday beverage of your choice — even if this trio is normally not your cup of tea.

The Grand Tour – Une French Police Chase

Alex Bean Auto Culture , Blog , Drifting Cars , Road Rage , Video 2019 , car news , Chase , DeTomaso Pantera , French police , Jeremy Clarkson , The Grand Tour 0

Jeremy Clarkson, er, the French Police – chase baddies in a DeTomaso Pantera in last week’s episode of “The Grand Tour”…

Related Posts

Auto Culture , Blog , Formula One , Racing

Ferrari Collabs With HP Ahead Of 2024 Miami Grand Prix

Auto Culture , Blog , Car Crashes , Formula E , Racing , Video

Jaguar Goes 1-2 At The 2024 Monaco E-Prix

Hulkenberg To Sauber In 2025

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

‘The Grand Tour’: Trio Explores All Things French In New Amazon Episode

The Grand Tour trio is back on Amazon! Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are back in The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois . They are in France, eating French food, drinking French wine, and dropping French cars from unimaginable heights. What could possibly go wrong?

When is Amazon Prime dropping the next episode?

What Is The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois About?

According to IMDb , The Grand Tou r trio “dish up a hair-raising mountain climb.” In addition, some need to defuse a bomb. There is more and with helicopters. There will be stunts, and a helicopter-like vehicle, powered by a propeller.

Expect to see a thrilling race to the English Channel, for what is described as “a jaw dropping medieval climax.”

However, this is not all taking place in France. The former Top Gear hosts start in Wales . There may even be a smidgen of French art cinema, in the hour-long episode.

The Grand Tour Tests French Cars

The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois will show a lot of car testing of French vehicles. Clarkson pointed out in the Amazon preview , “French car can be a bit weird.”

Also in the preview, the trio seems to want to test a typical French family car. Jeremy says, “their view is if you want to go to the top of that hill, you just use your normal family car.”

Looks like they will test that theory. What cars will they test drive? A Citroen Berlingo, and an Xsara Picasso are two of the French-made vehicles that may or may not survive.

However, they will also test-drive a high-performance vehicle, the Citroen SM.

More of the antics include going on a roundabout “the French way.”

BONJOUR! The boys are back and this time they’re going French 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/3Esswt4I4L — The Grand Tour (@thegrandtour) November 25, 2021

When Will Amazon Drop Second Lockdown Episode?

For those of you paying attention, this is the second lockdown episode. The first was The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown . This is when Clarkson, Hammond, and May drove across Scotland during the height of lockdown, the fall of 2020.

This new French episode drops on Friday, December 17, 2021.

What Is Next For The Grand Tour ?

Where could The Grand Tour trio go next? In 2020 they planned to go to Russia in March. That trip was canceled. But, it appears that this is still the goal. According to The Radio Times , they plan on going there in 2022. They didn’t leave in 2020, as just as they were set to leave, the worldwide pandemic shut borders.

Clarkson shared, “We had to pull out with hours to spare, days at most. We could sense this lockdown was coming. So we pulled it, and then we were closed down [on 23rd March], so thank God we did.”

Hopefully, they can travel in 2022 and make this episode finally happen.

Don’t forget to watch The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois. Amazon drops this special episode on Friday, December 17.

• Recent Posts

• Are ‘WCTH’ Couple Kayla Wallace And Kevin McGarry Still Together? - May 2, 2024
• ‘WCTH’ S11, E5 ‘Stronger Together’ Video Preview: Does Lucas Remember? - May 2, 2024
• New ‘WCTH’ ‘Stronger Together’ Trailer Shows Intense Elizabeth And Nathan Encounter - May 2, 2024

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

'The Grand Tour's' Newest Special, 'Carnage a Trois' Is Comfort Food for Car Fans

Dec. 17 2021, Published 11:00 a.m. ET

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for The Grand Tour special Carnage a Trois.

In Carnage a Trois , Jeremy Clarkson pulls a George Michael, James May buys a dishwasher, and Richard attempts to drive a propeller-powered car. Of course, Jeremy, James, and Richard would also build (with no help from the crew whatsoever) a giant catapult to combat COVID lockdown boredom.

That’s right! Everyone’s favorite car guys are back in the newest French-themed Amazon Prime Video special, The Grand Tour: Carnage a Trois .

Naturally, only about five minutes of the special actually take place in France, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions at the time the special was filmed. However, that little snag doesn’t stop The Grand Tour guys from immediately launching into shenanigans with French cars. Jeremy launches into his typical The Grand Tour voice-over by posing one question to the viewers with his perfect booming British diction: "What is the matter with the French?"

Jeremy's question is the main joke/theme of Carnage a Trois . Is answering that question as dangerous as attempting to escape the Mongolian Steppe via a handmade off-roader with no instructions? Not exactly, but Carnage a Trois is still as fun as ever.

Carnage a Trois brings The Grand Tour guys back to basics. It’s fun to see what the trio are forced to do when they’re restricted to primarily the Welsh countryside armed only with their wits and some uniquely designed French cars.

In the hands of lesser men, this special could’ve easily devolved into a snooze-fest, but Jeremy, James, and Richard continue to work well together as a team with an endearing love for cars.

The Grand Tour Presents: 'Carnage a Trois'

Carnage a Trois is another hilarious outing from The Grand Tour's Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond.

Release Date : Dec. 17, 2021

Network : Amazon Prime Video

Cast : Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May

Jeremy, James, and Richard continue to wonder in amazement over French rules and sensibilities. If you know anything about these three, then you’ll know that they tend to poke fun at things they ultimately appreciate.

As The Grand Tour's executive producer Andy Willman told Express UK , the special is a "love letter to the French," and that intention is ever-present.

Richard occasionally tries his best French accent throughout the special, and it's hilariously terrible. After James dissects the Renault Avantime's unique design features, he falls out of it, demonstrating why the Avantime was probably discontinued.

Did we mention there's a bomb defusion thrown into the Carnage a Trois chaos? This may be The Grand Tour's second lockdown special, but it's still full of action.

It’s almost The Grand Tour tradition at this point that Jeremy, James, and Richard will pick a car to feature in an episode or special, spend half of the time trashing it, and then will fall in love with the aforementioned automobile by the program’s end. The same love story occurs in Carnage a Trois

But the happy ending is only earned after an assortment of hilarious moments during which Jeremy, James, and Richard test French cars through challenges they’re not designed for. The five minutes the three spend in France are naturally utilized to highlight the stark contrast between the French and the rest of the world. It’s during the French segment that Hammond actually crashes into something intentionally for once, rather than by accident.

Some viewers may miss the grand epic tours of the past during Carnage a Trois or feel like this special simply felt more like an extended "normal" Grand Tour episode. However, in a world besieged by a pandemic, it’s comforting to have three familiar faces doing what they do best: talking about cars, driving them, and selling viewers on the finer aspects of automobiles. Jeremy, James, and Richard are clearly having a blast testing out various French cars, and it shows.

The trio’s love for cars is positively genuine, even as they gleefully drop a Citroen 2VE from a helicopter. (It wouldn’t be a Grand Tour special if at least one car wasn’t dropped from a helicopter.)

Sure, they spend most of the special sounding genuinely confused by aspects of French car culture and design, but it’s really not meant to be a mockery of said culture. Rather, it's a funny tribute to all things French.

At one point, the trio quips about how the “strangeness” of the French cars makes them more endearing. It’s funny how aptly that phrasing works for why Jeremy, James, and Richard still work so well together after all these years.

James May, the Host of Amazon's 'Our Man in Japan,' Is a Huge Deal in the U.K.

Cast of 'Top Gear USA' Starred the Guy With the Best Line From 'The Dark Knight'

TikTokers Are Romantically "Listing" Themselves as if They Were Used Cars

Latest Reality TV News and Updates

• ABOUT Distractify
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• CONNECT with Distractify
• Link to Facebook
• Link to Instagram
• Contact us by Email

Opt-out of personalized ads

© Copyright 2024 Distractify. Distractify is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

James May on ‘The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois’: 'We’ve survived longer than most TV partnerships!'

'The Grand Tour Presents' has another outing on Prime Video for Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond who try to understand French cars.

The Grand Tour Presents is back! Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May have never been afraid of being outspoken, and in their latest motoring special, Carnage A Trois they pose the question: "What’s the matter with the French?" 

In search of answers, the petrolhead pals look at some typically idiosyncratic French car designs, including the bizarre "helicar" which comes complete with a huge propeller. They also stage a rallycross race in hot French hatchbacks, take three Gallic family cars offroad up a mountain, and, in a grand finale, select which motor they will attempt to fire back across the Channel using a giant catapult.

We caught up with The Grand Tour presenter James May for an interview to find out more about their French-themed caper Carnage A Trois …

‘The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage a Trois’ release date

The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois is available worldwide from Friday 17 December on Amazon Prime Video. 

What are the best things about French cars?

The Grand Tour Present s star James May says: “The 2CV was a fantastic example of a true people’s car, designed to meet the needs of someone who wanted basic transport. They also did that with the Renault 4. And they’re absolute masters of the hatchback.”

And the worst? 

“French cars have had a reputation for fragility, and their larger cars are often underpowered and slightly lacklustre. The only vaguely successful French luxury car has been the Citroen DS.”

What did you enjoy most about making this special? 

James May says: “I liked firing the trebuchet [giant catapult], because I’ve never done that before. And I was surprised how much I enjoyed the hot hatch race. But I felt bad about it afterwards because I’m not supposed to enjoy that sort of thing.”

Get the What to Watch Newsletter

The latest updates, reviews and unmissable series to watch and more!

Which British car do you think the French should fire back across the Channel?

James says: “The obvious answer would be the Austin Allegro or the Morris Marina. But I would have the French throw the Morris Minor at us. We all think it’s important to the nature of Britain because ‘my grandmother had one’, and it was always being driven by midwives. But it’s just a stupid car that was incorrectly built. So if the French would like to gather up all the survivors and catapult them at Kent, they can do us a favour.”

You’ve worked together for so long now. What’s the secret of your enduring success as a threesome? 

James says: “We’ve survived longer than most TV partnerships and one of the ways we do that is to go off and do our own things. It's like being in a relationship and having time to yourself in the shed, or in your attic, or in your line dancing club. It’s a difficult relationship. There are three people in it. That’s never healthy!”

Is there a trailer for ‘The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage a Trois’?

• The best Amazon Prime movies
• Amazon is right: You don't own your digital media
• The best shows on Amazon Prime
• New movies on Amazon Prime
• Amazon's Leonardo starring Aidan Turner
• Amazon's Lords of the Rings TV series
• Amazon's The Wheel Of Time
• Amazon Prime's Lioness
• Amazon's Cinderella
• All or Nothing: Arsenal on Amazon Prime

Ian writes about TV and film for TV Times, What’s on TV and TV & Satellite Week magazines. He co-hosts the weekly TV streaming podcast, Bingewatch. 

The Ghosts season 3 finale airs on CBS tonight, May 2

Cobra Kai season 6: release date, cast, plot and everything we know about the Netflix series

The Bold and the Beautiful spoilers: Finn and Deacon's mistake?

Most Popular

• 2 The Ghosts season 3 finale airs on CBS tonight, May 2
• 3 Have I Got News for You season 67: release date, guests, presenters, episodes and everything we know
• 4 The Idea of You ending explained: do Solène and Hayes end up together?
• 5 Cobra Kai season 6: release date, cast, plot and everything we know about the Netflix series

The Grand Tour: This Is What Happened To The Carnage A Trois Trebuchet

The Grand Tour’s second pandemic special saw Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond , and James May driving a number of french cars from Wales to the South Coast of England, and while they were restricted to the UK due to the pandemic, it was one of their best episodes yet.

But many questioned what happened to the amazing trebuchet they used to fling a car over the Channel to France. Well, in a recent video by DriveTribe that explores the company that makes The Grand Tour’s crazy contraptions, presenter Mike Fernie finds out how it came to its sticky end.

The trebuchet was built by the company HMS Engineering. These guys create all of the whacky and wonderful things you’ve seen used on Top Gear and The Grand Tour , and a number of other TV shows. But they also create work for other businesses such as an off-road track that winds itself through a Boeing for Land Rover.

They also created The Grand Tour’s trebuchet, which company boss Hadrian Spooner describes as “a piece of art” before admitting that it’s no longer with them.

“It’s gone, melted down, cut up,” he said to a saddened Mike Fernie. Spooner explains that something like the trebuchet would be a liability for the production company if anyone was to get hurt by it while being in storage, or if anyone was to use it wrongly or as a weapon. The easiest thing to do with builds like this is to destroy them.

“I used to think it was a crying shame, but when you’ve done so much of it, you just realise it’s what has to happen.”

He goes on to explain how the ask from The Grand Tour was “significantly past the world record”, and what he built was “one of the biggest in the world”.

HMS Engineering is currently building something for an upcoming episode of The Grand Tour, and while it’s currently being hidden from view, we’re very excited to see it being used when the time comes.

Steven Douglas

F1 news: fans defend lewis hamilton after racing driver called out on twitter, f1 news: toto wolff admits he feels for nikita mazepin after haas firing, related articles, the batmobile is up for sale with 500hp and all the gadgets, five record breaking cars before the bugatti chiron, james may brings back ‘the reassembler’… kinda, 2020 audi rs6 avant coming to united states.

• Entertainment
• The Grand Tour
• The Grand Tour Episode Guides
• The Grand Tour Series 2

The Grand Tour: Series 2, Episode 3 – ‘Bah humbug-atti’

• Jeremy Clarkson takes the Bugatti Chiron on an epic cross-Europe dash
• James May travels to Majorca to drive the Kia Stinger GT
• Richard Hammond and James May invent ‘car park racing’
• Celebrity Face Off: Hugh Bonneville (UK) vs Casey Anderson (US)

Episode Guide

In this show Jeremy Clarkson asks if Europe’s glamour set still need their jets and helicopters to fulfil a busy day of breakfasting in St Tropez, skiing in the Alps and dining in Turin or if they’d be better off with a car. And it’s not just any car because he’s testing the new, 1,479 horsepower Bugatti Chiron with an epic cross-Europe dash.

Also in this show, James May is on the Mediterranean island of Majorca to see if the new Kia Stinger GT is faster than gravity itself with a race against some skateboarders. Plus May joins Richard Hammond to relieve the boredom of office lunchtimes with the all-new sport of car park racing.

Another big question is answered in Celebrity Face Off as actor Hugh Bonneville goes against naturalist Casey Anderson to find the world’s fastest person who lives with a bear.

Screenshots

Richard Hammond’s Rimac Concept One crash in detail

The grand tour: series 2 episode 4 preview – ‘unscripted’, related posts, the grand tour: series 2 mini-special – ‘feed the world’, the grand tour: series 2, episode 10 – ‘oh, canada’, the grand tour: series 2, episode 9 – ‘breaking, badly’, the grand tour: series 2, episode 8 – ‘blasts from the past’, the grand tour: series 2, episode 7 – ‘it’s a gas, gas, gas’, the grand tour: series 2, episode 6 – ‘jaaaaaaaags’.

For road safety, Clarkson will return.

Why delete the EB110 VS XJ220 that was showed in the S02 trailer???

Where’s the EB110 VS XJ220?

Good question. Hopefully they will appear in a later episode.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Share full article

For more audio journalism and storytelling, download New York Times Audio , a new iOS app available for news subscribers.

The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu

An unusual outbreak of the disease has spread to dairy herds in multiple u.s. states..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The outbreak of bird flu that is tearing through the nation’s poultry farms is the worst in US history. But scientists say it’s now starting to spread into places and species it’s never been before.

Today, my colleague, Emily Anthes, explains.

It’s Monday, April 22.

Emily, welcome back to the show.

Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

So, Emily, we’ve been talking here on “The Daily” about prices of things and how they’ve gotten so high, mostly in the context of inflation episodes. And one of the items that keeps coming up is eggs. Egg prices were through the roof last year, and we learned it was related to this. Avian flu has been surging in the United States. You’ve been covering this. Tell us what’s happening.

Yes, so I have been covering this virus for the last few years. And the bird flu is absolutely tearing through poultry flocks, and that is affecting egg prices. That’s a concern for everyone, for me and for my family. But when it comes to scientists, egg prices are pretty low on their list of concerns. Because they see this bird flu virus behaving differently than previous versions have. And they’re getting nervous, in particular, about the fact that this virus is reaching places and species where it’s never been before.

OK, so bird flu, though, isn’t new. I mean I remember hearing about cases in Asia in the ‘90s. Remind us how it began.

Bird flu refers to a bunch of different viruses that are adapted to spread best in birds. Wild water birds, in particular, are known for carrying these viruses. And flu viruses are famous for also being shapeshifters. So they’re constantly swapping genes around and evolving into new strains. And as you mentioned back in the ‘90s, a new version of bird flu, a virus known as H5N1, emerged in Asia. And it has been spreading on and off around the world since then, causing periodic outbreaks.

And how are these outbreaks caused?

So wild birds are the reservoir for the virus, which means they carry it in their bodies with them around the world as they fly and travel and migrate. And most of the time, these wild birds, like ducks and geese, don’t even get very sick from this virus. But they shed it. So as they’re traveling over a poultry farm maybe, if they happen to go to the bathroom in a pond that the chickens on the farm are using or eat some of the feed that chickens on the farm are eating, they can leave the virus behind.

And the virus can get into chickens. In some cases, it causes mild illness. It’s what’s known as low pathogenic avian influenza. But sometimes the virus mutates and evolves, and it can become extremely contagious and extremely fatal in poultry.

OK, so the virus comes through wild birds, but gets into farms like this, as you’re describing. How have farms traditionally handled outbreaks, when they do happen?

Well, because this threat isn’t new, there is a pretty well-established playbook for containing outbreaks. It’s sometimes known as stamping out. And brutally, what it means is killing the birds. So the virus is so deadly in this highly pathogenic form that it’s sort of destined to kill all the birds on a farm anyway once it gets in. So the response has traditionally been to proactively depopulate or cull all the birds, so it doesn’t have a chance to spread.

So that’s pretty costly for farmers.

It is. Although the US has a program where it will reimburse farmers for their losses. And the way these reimbursements work is they will reimburse farmers only for the birds that are proactively culled, and not for those who die naturally from the virus. And the thinking behind that is it’s a way to incentivize farmers to report outbreaks early.

So, OK, lots of chickens are killed in a way to manage these outbreaks. So we know how to deal with them. But what about now? Tell me about this new strain.

So this new version of the virus, it emerged in 2020.

After the deadly outbreak of the novel coronavirus, authorities have now confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of influenza, a kind of bird flu.

And pretty quickly it became clear that a couple things set it apart.

A bald eagle found dead at Carvins Cove has tested positive for the highly contagious bird flu.

This virus, for whatever reason, seemed very good at infecting all sorts of wild birds that we don’t normally associate with bird flu.

[BIRD CRYING]

He was kind of stepping, and then falling over, and using its wing to right itself.

Things like eagles and condors and pelicans.

We just lost a parliament of owls in Minneapolis.

Yeah, a couple of high profile nests.

And also in the past, wild birds have not traditionally gotten very sick from this virus. And this version of the virus not only spread widely through the wild bird population, but it proved to be devastating.

The washing up along the East Coast of the country from Scotland down to Suffolk.

We were hearing about mass die-offs of seabirds in Europe by the hundreds and the thousands.

And the bodies of the dead dot the island wherever you look.

Wow. OK. So then as we know, this strain, like previous ones, makes its way from wild animals to farmed animals, namely to chickens. But it’s even more deadly.

Absolutely. And in fact, it has already caused the worst bird flu outbreak in US history. So more than 90 million birds in the US have died as a result of this virus.

90 million birds.

Yes, and I should be clear that represents two things. So some of those birds are birds who naturally got infected and died from the virus. But the vast majority of them are birds that were proactively culled. What it adds up to is, is 90 million farmed birds in the US have died since this virus emerged. And it’s not just a chicken problem. Another thing that has been weird about this virus is it has jumped into other kinds of farms. It is the first time we’ve seen a bird flu virus jump into US livestock.

And it’s now been reported on a number of dairy farms across eight US states. And that’s just something that’s totally unprecedented.

So it’s showing up at Dairy farms now. You’re saying that bird flu has now spread to cows. How did that happen?

So we don’t know exactly how cows were first infected, but most scientists’ best guess is that maybe an infected wild bird that was migrating shed the virus into some cattle feed or a pasture or a pond, and cattle picked it up. The good news is they don’t seem to get nearly as sick as chickens do. They are generally making full recoveries on their own in a couple of weeks.

OK, so no mass culling of cows?

No, that doesn’t seem to be necessary at this point. But the bad news is that it’s starting to look like we’re seeing this virus spread from cow to cow. We don’t know exactly how that’s happening yet. But anytime you see cow-to-cow or mammal-to-mammal transmission, that’s a big concern.

And why is that exactly?

Well, there are a bunch of reasons. First, it could allow the outbreak to get much bigger, much faster, which might increase the risk to the food supply. And we might also expect it to increase the risk to farm workers, people who might be in contact with these sick cows.

Right now, the likelihood that a farmer who gets this virus passes it on is pretty low. But any time you see mammal-to-mammal transmission, it increases the chance that the virus will adapt and possibly, maybe one day get good at spreading between humans. To be clear, that’s not something that there’s any evidence happening in cows right now. But the fact that there’s any cow-to-cow transmission happening at all is enough to have scientists a bit concerned.

And then if we think more expansively beyond what’s happening on farms, there’s another big danger lurking out there. And that’s what happens when this virus gets into wild animals, vast populations that we can’t control.

We’ll be right back.

So, Emily, you said that another threat was the threat of flu in wild animal populations. Clearly, of course, it’s already in wild birds. Where else has it gone?

Well, the reason it’s become such a threat is because of how widespread it’s become in wild birds. So they keep reintroducing it to wild animal populations pretty much anywhere they go. So we’ve seen the virus repeatedly pop up in all sorts of animals that you might figure would eat a wild bird, so foxes, bobcats, bears. We actually saw it in a polar bear, raccoons. So a lot of carnivores and scavengers.

The thinking is that these animals might stumble across a sick or dead bird, eat it, and contract the virus that way. But we’re also seeing it show up in some more surprising places, too. We’ve seen the virus in a bottle-nosed dolphin, of all places.

And most devastatingly, we’ve seen enormous outbreaks in other sorts of marine mammals, especially sea lions and seals.

So elephant seals, in particular in South America, were just devastated by this virus last fall. My colleague Apoorva Mandavilli and I were talking to some scientists in South America who described to us what they called a scene from hell, of walking out onto a beach in Argentina that is normally crowded with chaotic, living, breathing, breeding, elephant seals — and the beach just being covered by carcass, after carcass, after carcass.

Mostly carcasses of young newborn pups. The virus seemed to have a mortality rate of 95 percent in these elephant seal pups, and they estimated that it might have killed more than 17,000 of the pups that were born last year. So almost the entire new generation of this colony. These are scientists that have studied these seals for decades. And they said they’ve never seen anything like it before.

And why is it so far reaching, Emily? I mean, what explains these mass die-offs?

There are probably a few explanations. One is just how much virus is out there in the environment being shed by wild birds into water and onto beaches. These are also places that viruses like this haven’t been before. So it’s reaching elephant seals and sea lions in South America that have no prior immunity.

There’s also the fact that these particular species, these sea lions and seals, tend to breed in these huge colonies all crowded together on beaches. And so what that means is if a virus makes its way into the colony, it’s very conducive conditions for it to spread. And scientists think that that’s actually what’s happening now. That it’s not just that all these seals are picking up the virus from individual birds, but that they’re actually passing it to each other.

So basically, this virus is spreading to places it’s never been before, kind of virgin snow territory, where animals just don’t have the immunity against it. And once it gets into a population packed on a beach, say, of elephant seals, it’s just like a knife through butter.

Absolutely. And an even more extreme example of that is what we’re starting to see happen in Antarctica, where there’s never been a bird flu outbreak before until last fall, for the first time, this virus reached the Antarctic mainland. And we are now seeing the virus move through colonies of not only seabirds and seals, but penguin colonies, which have not been exposed to these viruses before.

And it’s too soon to say what the toll will be. But penguins also, of course, are known for breeding in these large colonies.

Probably. don’t have many immune defenses against this virus, and of course, are facing all these other environmental threats. And so there’s a lot of fear that you add on the stress of a bird flu virus, and it could just be a tipping point for penguins.

Emily, at this point, I’m kind of wondering why more people aren’t talking about this. I mean, I didn’t know any of this before having this conversation with you, and it feels pretty worrying.

Well, a lot of experts and scientists are talking about this with rising alarm and in terms that are quite stark. They’re talking about the virus spreading through wild animal populations so quickly and so ferociously that they’re calling it an ecological disaster.

But that’s a disaster that sometimes seems distant from us, both geographically, we’re talking about things that are happening maybe at the tip of Argentina or in Antarctica. And also from our concerns of our everyday lives, what’s happening in Penguins might not seem like it has a lot to do with the price of a carton of eggs at the grocery store. But I think that we should be paying a lot of attention to how this virus is moving through animal populations, how quickly it’s moving through animal populations, and the opportunities that it is giving the virus to evolve into something that poses a much bigger threat to human health.

So the way it’s spreading in wild animals, even in remote places like Antarctica, that’s important to watch, at least in part because there’s a real danger to people here.

So we know that the virus can infect humans, and that generally it’s not very good at spreading between humans. But the concern all along has been that if this virus has more opportunities to spread between mammals, it will get better at spreading between them. And that seems to be what is happening in seals and sea lions. Scientists are already seeing evidence that the virus is adapting as it passes from marine mammal to marine mammal. And that could turn it into a virus that’s also better at spreading between people.

And if somebody walks out onto a beach and touches a dead sea lion, if their dog starts playing with a sea lion carcass, you could imagine that this virus could make its way out of marine mammals and into the human population. And if it’s this mammalian adapted version of the virus that makes its way out, that could be a bigger threat to human health.

So the sheer number of hosts that this disease has, the more opportunity it has to mutate, and the more chance it has to mutate in a way that would actually be dangerous for people.

Yes, and in particular, the more mammalian hosts. So that gives the virus many more opportunities to become a specialist in mammals instead of a specialist in birds, which is what it is right now.

Right. I like that, a specialist in mammals. So what can we do to contain this virus?

Well, scientists are exploring new options. There’s been a lot of discussion about whether we should start vaccinating chickens in the US. The government, USDA labs, have been testing some poultry vaccines. It’s probably scientifically feasible. There are challenges there, both in terms of logistics — just how would you go about vaccinating billions of chickens every year. There are also trade questions. Traditionally, a lot of countries have not been willing to accept poultry products from countries that vaccinate their poultry.

And there’s concern about whether the virus might spread undetected in flocks that are vaccinated. So as we saw with COVID, the vaccine can sometimes stop you from getting sick, but it doesn’t necessarily stop infection. And so countries are worried they might unknowingly import products that are harboring the virus.

And what about among wild animals? I mean, how do you even begin to get your head around that?

Yeah, I mean, thinking about vaccinating wild animals maybe makes vaccinating all the chickens in the US look easy. There has been some discussion of limited vaccination campaigns, but that’s not feasible on a global scale. So unfortunately, the bottom line is there isn’t a good way to stop spread in wild animals. We can try to protect some vulnerable populations, but we’re not going to stop the circulation of this virus.

So, Emily, we started this conversation with a kind of curiosity that “The Daily” had about the price of eggs. And then you explained the bird flu to us. And then somehow we ended up learning about an ecological disaster that’s unfolding all around us, and potentially the source of the next human pandemic. That is pretty scary.

It is scary, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it. And I feel like I should take a step back and say none of this is inevitable. None of this is necessarily happening tomorrow. But this is why scientists are concerned and why they think it’s really important to keep a very close eye on what’s happening both on farms and off farms, as this virus spreads through all sorts of animal populations.

One thing that comes up again and again and again in my interviews with people who have been studying bird flu for decades, is how this virus never stops surprising them. And sometimes those are bad surprises, like these elephant seal die-offs, the incursions into dairy cattle. But there are some encouraging signs that have emerged recently. We’re starting to see some early evidence that some of the bird populations that survived early brushes with this virus might be developing some immunity. So that’s something that maybe could help slow the spread of this virus in animal populations.

We just don’t entirely know how this is going to play out. Flu is a very difficult, wily foe. And so that’s one reason scientists are trying to keep such a close, attentive eye on what’s happening.

Emily, thank you.

Thanks for having me.

Here’s what else you should know today.

On this vote, the yeas are 366 and the nays are 58. The bill is passed.

On Saturday, in four back-to-back votes, the House voted resoundingly to approve a long-stalled package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and other American allies, delivering a major victory to President Biden, who made aid to Ukraine one of his top priorities.

On this vote, the yeas are 385, and the no’s are 34 with one answering present. The bill is passed without objection.

The House passed the component parts of the $95 billion package, which included a bill that could result in a nationwide ban of TikTok.

On this vote, the yeas are 311 and the nays are 112. The bill is passed.

Oh, one voting present. I missed it, but thank you.

In a remarkable breach of custom, Democrats stepped in to supply the crucial votes to push the legislation past hard-line Republican opposition and bring it to the floor.

The House will be in order.

The Senate is expected to pass the legislation as early as Tuesday.

Today’s episode was produced by Rikki Novetsky, Nina Feldman, Eric Krupke, and Alex Stern. It was edited by Lisa Chow and Patricia Willens; contains original music by Marion Lozano, Dan Powell, Rowan Niemisto, and Sophia Lanman; and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Andrew Jacobs.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

• May 2, 2024   •   29:13 Biden Loosens Up on Weed
• May 1, 2024   •   35:16 The New Abortion Fight Before the Supreme Court
• April 30, 2024   •   27:40 The Secret Push That Could Ban TikTok
• April 29, 2024   •   47:53 Trump 2.0: What a Second Trump Presidency Would Bring
• April 26, 2024   •   21:50 Harvey Weinstein Conviction Thrown Out
• April 25, 2024   •   40:33 The Crackdown on Student Protesters
• April 24, 2024   •   32:18 Is $60 Billion Enough to Save Ukraine?
• April 23, 2024   •   30:30 A Salacious Conspiracy or Just 34 Pieces of Paper?
• April 22, 2024   •   24:30 The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu
• April 19, 2024   •   30:42 The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness
• April 18, 2024   •   30:07 The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial
• April 17, 2024   •   24:52 Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ a Forever Problem?

Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Produced by Rikki Novetsky ,  Nina Feldman ,  Eric Krupke and Alex Stern

Edited by Lisa Chow and Patricia Willens

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Dan Powell ,  Rowan Niemisto and Sophia Lanman

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

The outbreak of bird flu currently tearing through the nation’s poultry is the worst in U.S. history. Scientists say it is now spreading beyond farms into places and species it has never been before.

Emily Anthes, a science reporter for The Times, explains.

On today’s episode

Emily Anthes , a science reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

Scientists have faulted the federal response to bird flu outbreaks on dairy farms .

Here’s what to know about the outbreak.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Special thanks to Andrew Jacobs .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Advertisement