All posts tagged: Heighten

Gaza aid worker deaths heighten scrutiny of Israel’s use of AI to select targets

Gaza aid worker deaths heighten scrutiny of Israel’s use of AI to select targets

Published by Sam

The killing of foreign aid workers in Gaza has piled further pressure on Israel over its conduct of the war against Hamas, renewing scrutiny of how the Israeli army selects its targets in an ongoing military campaign that has devastated most of the Gaza Strip and killed or maimed tens of thousands of its inhabitants.    Israeli officials have promised a thorough investigation after seven staff of the US-based charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an air strike in central Gaza on Monday – an attack UN chief Antonio Guterres described as “unconscionable” and “an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted”.    The WCK workers, six of them foreign nationals, had been travelling in two armoured cars bearing the charity’s logo, and a third “soft-skinned” vehicle, along a route preapproved and coordinated with the Israeli army.  Defence sources told Haaretz that the convoy was hit three times by missiles fired from a drone because of erroneous suspicions that a terrorist was on board.   In a video message on Wednesday, the top commander of the Israel …

Prenatal caffeine exposure and high-fat diet heighten risk of autism-like behaviors in rodents

Prenatal caffeine exposure and high-fat diet heighten risk of autism-like behaviors in rodents

Published by José

Exposure to caffeine during pregnancy, combined with a high-fat diet after birth, significantly increases the risk of autism-like behaviors in rodents, according to new research published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. This increased risk is related to changes in gut bacteria and increased levels of a specific immune molecule, IL-17A. The findings shed light on the relationships between diet, prenatal environmental exposures, and neurodevelopmental disorders. The motivation behind this new study stems from a growing concern over the effects of prenatal caffeine exposure and high-fat diets on the developing brain. Previous research had already established a link between prenatal caffeine exposure and reduced fetal growth, with emerging evidence suggesting an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is a complex developmental condition that involves persistent challenges in social interaction, speech and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive behaviors. Given the widespread consumption of caffeine and the prevalence of high-fat diets, understanding these potential risk factors is crucial for developing strategies to prevent ASD. “Most autism research focuses on genetic factors, …

Attacks Heighten Fears of a Wider War for the Middle East and U.S.

Attacks Heighten Fears of a Wider War for the Middle East and U.S.

Published by Sam

American, Israeli and Lebanese officials insist that few parties want Israel’s war in Gaza to become a wider conflict that engulfs the Middle East. But the assassination of a top leader of Hamas in Lebanon on Tuesday, and the deaths of scores of people in mysterious twin explosions in Iran on Wednesday, threatened to bring the Middle East — and the United States — closer to the brink of a regional war, which the Biden administration has tried to stave off since Hamas’s deadly attacks against Israel on Oct. 7. Just hours after the bombs went off in Iran, the United States and 11 of its allies issued a written warning to another militia group in the region, the Houthis of Yemen, who have been mounting near-daily missile, drone and seaborne attacks on commercial vessels. So far the United States has held back from retaliating against Houthi bases in Yemen, in large part because it does not want to undermine a fragile truce in Yemen’s civil war. But now Biden officials are signaling that their …