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Palestinians evacuating northern Gaza say they are being shot at by Israeli military

Mohammad Sultan, 28, said he and his family fled their house in Jabalya in northern Gaza “due to the intense and continuous bombardments in the area.” When he went back to retrieve food, water and blankets, he and other civilians were fired at, he said.

Footage taken by Sultan during his journey shows residents walking along a sandy road, surrounded by rubble and half-destroyed buildings. Some, including children, are on foot, struggling to walk with heavy bags. Others are on bicycles or tuk-tuks.

Drones can be heard buzzing in the background as the bullwhip-like sound of bullets piercing the air trigger screams and attempts to shelter.

The Israeli military on Monday issued fresh evacuation orders in both northern and southern Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been sheltering. In northern Gaza, the military said it is “currently operating with great force in the area” and told residents to move to Al Mawasi, a southern region designated as a so-called humanitarian zone that is already crammed with refugees.

A day earlier, Israel’s military said it had encircled Jabalya as it launched a new ground operation there amid efforts by Hamas to “rebuild its operational capabilities in the area.”

Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said on Monday it was engaged in “fierce fights” with Israeli forces in northern Gaza.

The renewed fighting comes on the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

Gunfire at ‘anything that moves’

“We stayed in the house to search for the remaining body parts of Hassan, but now we cannot go out due to the intensity of the shelling and gunfire,” the 58-year-old said, adding the gunfire targets “anything that moves.”

“We try to stay away from the windows, so they won’t shoot at us,” she said.

Residents say the fighting in Jabalya has been some of the most intense in recent days.

Mohammad Ibrahim, a resident of the city who decided to stay in his home with his two sons, said the explosions outside his house were so intense they “shook” his body.

From his window, Ibrahim said he could see smoke billowing between abandoned apartment buildings. “Anyone who wants to leave the north to Gaza wants death,” he said.

Jabalya has been targeted several times during the war, and like many other parts of Gaza, its residents say they don’t know where to go for shelter.

“We are living in the Stone Age,” Ibrahim said. “There is no conscience, no humanity, no human rights.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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A trainee doctor’s rape and murder sparked mass protests in India. A man has now been charged

A man has been charged for the rape and murder of a resident doctor during a night shift in India’s eastern city of Kolkata, a crime that ignited nationwide protests about the country’s pervasive problem with gender violence.

The resident doctor’s body was found the following day with multiple injuries and signs of sexual assault in a seminar hall at the hospital, local police said at the time.

The doctor trainee was resting in a seminar room at the medical college while working a night shift when the attack occurred, Kolkata’s then-police commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal said in August. By Indian law, rape victims cannot be named.

Evidence presented by CBI, according to the charge sheet, include CCTV footage of the man at the hospital at the time of the incident and DNA found on the victim that matches that of the suspect.

Protests and strikes

India has struggled for years to tackle high rates of violence against women, with a number of high-profile rape cases drawing international attention.

In the weeks after the alleged attack, hundreds of thousands of doctors have joined nationwide protests demanding justice and calling for improvements to women’s safety, especially better protections for health workers.

Medical bodies in multiple states have expressed support for the protests in Kolkata and urged doctors at government hospitals to stop providing elective services, calling for the case to be fast-tracked through the courts and for the establishment of a protective committee for health workers.

One of the nation’s top medical bodies, the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), said it will also carry out a hunger strike on Wednesday, which marks two months since the trainee doctor’s death.

“This ongoing violence highlights the urgent need for stronger protective measures and central legislation dedicated to safeguarding healthcare professionals,” FAIMA said in its statement.

Last month, the West Bengal government said they would meet some of protesters’ demands, including replacing the Kolkata police commissioner, deputy commissioner and two senior government health officials over the incident.

The state government also directed state-run hospitals to avoid putting female doctors on night duty, a decision slammed by the country’s Supreme Court, arguing they need security and not concessions. The measure was later revoked.

Two other people, the medical college’s former principal and a police officer were also arrested last month in connection to the case, the source from the CBI said.

“Amongst other things, they have been accused of compromising the scene of the crime and the delay of the registration of an FIR (First Information Report),”the source said, adding that their role is being investigated.

Many of the doctors who are protesting have highlighted incidents of violence toward health workers and threats of physical abuse by angry patients or their family members.

A survey in 2015 by the Indian Medical Association found 75% of doctors in India had faced some form of violence, local media reported at the time.

One of the country’s most infamous rape and murder cases to spark huge demonstrations and public anger was the 2012 gang-rape of a medical student who was beaten, tortured and left to die following a brutal attack on a public bus in New Delhi.

The case and ensuing nationwide protests drew international media scrutiny – and prompted authorities to enact legal reforms. The rape law was amended in 2013 to broaden the definition of the crime and set strict punishments not only for rape but also for sexual assault, voyeurism, and stalking.

Despite these changes, rape cases remain prevalent in the country, with victims and advocates saying the government is still not doing enough to protect women and punish attackers.

According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, a total of 31,516 rape cases were recorded in 2022, an average of 86 cases per day.

Experts warn that the number of cases recorded are a fraction of what may be the real number, in a deeply patriarchal country where shame and stigma surround rape victims and their families and where cases face delays and backlogs in court, denying victims justice or closure.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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North Korea to cut off road and rail links to South Korea

North Korea’s army said it will take the “substantial military step” of completely cutting off its territory from South Korea on Wednesday, after months of fortifying its heavily armed border.

The announcement, which comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un scrapped a longstanding policy of seeking peaceful reunification with South Korea earlier this year, declared that remaining roads and railways connected to the South would be completely cut, blocking access along the border.

“The acute military situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula requires the armed forces of the DPRK to take a more resolute and stronger measure in order to more creditably defend the national security,” the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) said, according to a notice on state-run news agency KCNA that referred to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Since January, Pyongyang has fortified its border defenses, laying land mines, building anti-tank traps and removing railway infrastructure, according to the South Korean military.

Kim has also ramped up his fiery rhetoric against the South, referring to it as the North’s “primary foe and invariable principal enemy,” a description echoed in the latest KPA notice.

The General Staff said the measures were a response to recent “war exercises” held in South Korea and visits by what it claims are US strategic nuclear assets in the region. Over the past year, a US aircraft carrier, amphibious assault ships, long-range bombers and submarines have visited South Korea, drawing angry rebukes from Pyongyang.

In a response Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea’s announcement was “a desperate measure stemming from the insecurity of the failed Kim Jong Un regime” and would “only lead to [its] harsher isolation.”

Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said North Korea’s latest move formalizes work already being done along its militarized border and suggests Pyongyang may aim to constitutionalize it in the future.

Simmering tensions

Inter-Korean hostilities have simmered this year as North Korea appears to have intensified its nuclear production efforts and strengthened ties with Russia, deepening widespread concern in the West over the isolated nation’s direction.

Last week, Kim threatened to use nuclear weapons to destroy South Korea if attacked, after South Korea’s president warned that if the North used nuclear weapons it would “face the end of its regime.”

Kim’s comments appeared to come in direct response to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who showcased Seoul’s most powerful ballistic missile and other weapons designed to deter North Korean threats during a parade for Armed Forces Day on October 1.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said the Korean army’s announcement could be Pyongyang’s attempt to “shift blame for its economic failures and legitimize its costly buildup of missiles and nuclear weapons” by exaggerating external threats.

“Kim Jong Un wants domestic and international audiences to believe he is acting out of military strength, but he may actually be motivated by political weakness,” Easley said. “North Korea’s threats, both real and rhetorical, reflect the regime survival strategy of a hereditary dictatorship.”

North and South Korea have been separated since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice agreement. The two sides are still technically at war, but both governments had long sought the goal of one day reunifying.

In January, Kim said North Korea would no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with South Korea, calling inter-Korean relations “a relationship between two hostile countries and two belligerents at war,” KCNA reported at the time.

In its statement, the North Korean army said it notified US forces on Wednesday morning to “prevent any misjudgment and accidental conflict” over its “fortification project.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Small town in Thailand holds mass cremation for 23 who died in a school trip bus fire

Mourners wept and monks prayed at a cremation ceremony Tuesday in a small town in central Thailand for 23 young students and teachers who died in last week’s bus fire on a school field trip.

A large cremation site was set up close to the temple in Lan Sak town whose compound hosts the school that was attended by the victims. Several furnaces with tall chimneys were erected, with floral adornments placed in front of them.

Six teachers and 39 elementary and junior high school students were on the bus when it caught fire on October 1 on a highway in Pathum Thani, a northern suburb of Bangkok. It spread so quickly that only 22 people were able to escape.

After forensic work in Bangkok made positive identifications of the badly burnt bodies, the victims’ remains were were returned to their hometown for funeral rites that began last week.

The tragedy sparked national outrage over insufficient safety procedures and pushed the authorities to take immediate legal action. Police arrested the driver of the bus for alleged reckless driving and announced they were charging the woman in whose name the bus was registered with negligence causing death.

Transport officials were being scrutinized after information emerged that the bus had passed an inspection about four months before the fire. In the wake of the accident, investigators found that the bus was fitted with 11 natural gas canisters although it had a permit for only six.

Officials have said that the bus, which was more than 50 years old, had been modified to run on CNG — compressed natural gas — which is often used especially by commercial vehicles to save money. Police believe that a gas tube from one of the canisters had come loose, with sparks then setting the leaking gas on fire.

The more than 13,000 buses running on CNG were ordered to be inspected within 60 days, while the Education Ministry suspended school study trips in the meantime.

Tuesday’s cremation in Uthai Thani province was held under the sponsorship of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who sent the head of his Privy Council, former army chief and prime minister Surayud Chulanont, to represent him.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Nobel physics prize awarded to ‘godfather of AI’ who warned the technology could end humanity

The 2024 Nobel prize for physics has been awarded to two scientists who laid “the foundation” for artificial intelligence – although one of them recently warned the technology could be the end of humanity.

John Hopfield from Princeton University and Geoffrey Hinton from the University of Toronto spent decades developing our knowledge of artificial neural networks, which are the basis of a lot of modern artificial intelligence.

Artificial neural networks are inspired by the human brain.

Just as we learn by strengthening or weakening the connections between synapses, machines can learn by strengthening or weakening the connections between nodes.

Professor Hopfield and Professor Hinton, who has been described as the “godfather of AI”, developed artificial neural networks that helped “initiate the current explosive development of machine learning,” according to the awarding body, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

But despite his work advancing the technology, Professor Hinton made waves last year when he stepped down from Google in 2023 because of his concerns about AI.

In an interview with the New York Times, he said he sometimes regretted his life’s work, telling the newspaper: “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things”.

He even warned the technology could pose a threat to humanity because the machines often learn unexpected behaviour from the vast amounts of data they analyse.

They will share a prize of 11 million Swedish kroner (around £810,000).

“This year’s two Nobel Laureates in physics have used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today’s powerful machine learning,” said the academy in a statement.

“Machine learning based on artificial neural networks is currently revolutionising science, engineering and daily life.”

The Nobel prizes are considered some of the most prestigious awards in the world and were created in the will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish scientist who invented dynamite.

Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, who helped modern understanding of atomic structure, both received the Nobel prize for physics in the past.

Last year it was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier for their work in creating ultra-short pulses of light that can show changes within atoms, potentially improving the detection of diseases.

Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week.

Yesterday, two American scientists who discovered how “microRNA” controls the decoding of genetic information in living organisms received the Nobel prize for medicine.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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That box full of wires you’ve kept for years could help avert a looming crisis

The unused cables and broken tech items you have tucked away at home could help steer the UK away from a copper crisis, according to new research.

The research by campaign group Recycle Your Electricals (RYE) suggests the UK has 1.3 billion unused or binned electricals, including 627 million cables, which could hold the answer to the nation’s fast-approaching gap in the supply of copper to meet growing demand.

Copper is a vital resource in the UK’s push to decarbonise the economy, as it’s used to build wind turbines and solar panels, as well as electric vehicles.

The Conservative government committed to a 68% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 with the aim of reaching net zero by 2050, meaning copper demand is soaring.

But additional analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence shows a growing gap between the amount of copper being produced and demand, with all the shallow, easy-to-extract copper deposits having been mined out.

The lack of mining resources mixed with growing demand suggests there will be a 6.5 million tonne gap between supply and demand by 2033, the experts say.

But households across the UK could help significantly reduce this gap, the RYE says, by recycling the cables we are throwing away or keeping tucked away in our so-called “drawers of doom” – whether that’s a box, a bag under the bed, or a pile forgotten about in the loft.

Cables contain 20% copper, according to the Critical Minerals Association – and RYE says households across the UK are throwing away or holding on to an average of 23 cables.

It means UK homes are holding around £266m worth of copper, enough to provide 30% of the copper needed in our green future, RYE says.

“Fess up time everyone – we all have our own stashes of unused or broken electricals,” says RYE executive director Scott Butler.

“But it’s time that we realised the value and power of the silent majority; the hidden treasures inside our homes.

“We need to start ‘urban mining’ and help protect the planet and nature from the harmful impacts of mining for raw materials and instead value and use what we have already.

“People may not realise that cables and electricals contain valuable materials, not just copper, and that if binned or stashed, we lose everything inside of them when we don’t recycle them into something new.

“Anything with a plug, battery or cable can be reused and recycled and there’s somewhere near you to do it.”

The group is urging people to use its recycling locator to find their nearest electrical recycling point.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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Early evening meteor shower peaks tonight: How to tell your Draconid meteors from your Taurids

The Draconid meteor shower will peak tonight, meaning stargazers have the best chance of seeing some of its shooting stars if the skies are clear.

If the weather is cloudy, however, it should also be visible for the next two evenings.

But with meteor showers appearing in the night sky all year long, how can you tell your Draconids from your Orionids?

Each meteor shower has unique qualities.

The Draconids are unique because the shower is best seen in the early evening instead of late at night and can sometimes produce huge numbers of meteors every minute.

Its appearance early in the evening is down to where it originates in the night sky.

It appears to come from the constellation Draco, hence its name, which is highest in the sky at nightfall.

Tonight, the best time to catch the meteors will be between 7pm and 7.30pm.

Meteor showers generally follow in the wake of passing comets or meteors; the showers are the debris hitting our atmosphere and burning up.

The Draconids come from a comet called 21 P/Giacobini-Zinner, named after the French astronomer Michel Giacobini who discovered it in 1900.

This particular meteor can be hit or miss. Sometimes, very few meteors will appear in the sky and in other years, it will cause “meteor storms”.

In 1933, NASA says 500 Draconid meteors were seen per minute in Europe.

Tonight’s show is not expected to be as chaotic as that, but it’s worth keeping an eye on the sky.

There are major meteor showers every few months, with many peaking between now and December.

Here’s what to look out for as the nights get longer. Although the meteor showers might be visible for much longer, we have listed the “peaks” below, which are the dates there will be the most activity – and therefore the biggest chance of spotting some meteors.

The Orionids will peak overnight on 21-22 October and are associated with Halley’s Comet.

Halley is thought to be the most famous comet because its discovery marked the first time astronomers understood comets could be repeat visitors to our night skies, according to NASA.

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The Taurids will peak in our hemisphere overnight on 12-13 November.

Its meteors are known to be “very slow”, according to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, and the meteor shower as a whole sticks around in the sky for a long time because the debris stream causing the shower is very spread out.

The Leonids will peak on 18 November, and “is one of the more prolific” meteor showers of the year, says the Greenwich observatory. The meteors appear to come from the head of the constellation Leo the Lion, hence the name.

Once Christmas party season is in full swing, there are two lots of meteor showers to watch on your walk home.

Firstly, the Geminids will peak overnight on 14-15 of December – its meteors tend to be bright but with few trails following behind.

Then, to take us into Christmas is the Ursids, a sparse shower that comes from the comet 8P/Tuttle.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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TikTok sued by 13 US states for ‘harming young people’s mental health’

Thirteen US states and Washington DC are suing TikTok over claims it is harming children’s mental health and not doing enough to protect them.

The lawsuits allege the video-sharing app is designed to be addictive and keep teenagers glued to the screen.

TikTok said the claims were “inaccurate and misleading” and pointed to features such as default screen time and privacy settings for under-16s.

The legal action is another blow for the app, owned by Chinese firm Bytedance, which already faces a potential US ban over fears it could give data to the Beijing government – something it insists will not happen.

“Young people are struggling with their mental health because of addictive social media platforms like TikTok,” said New York attorney general Letitia James.

She also alleged young people had died and been injured copying stunts they had watched.

Her counterpart in Washington DC, Brian Schwalb, called it “an intentionally addictive product”.

His lawsuit accuses TikTok of causing “profound psychological and physiological harms” – including depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia.

Other claims in the mass legal action include that a “virtual strip club with no age restrictions” is effectively able to operate via TikTok’s live streaming and virtual currency functions.

TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said he was dismayed the states had not chosen to work with the service on their concerns.

“We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading,” he said.

“We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product.

“We’ve endeavoured to work with the attorneys general for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industry-wide challenges.”

TikTok provides safety features including default screen time limits and privacy defaults for users under the age of 16, the company said.

TikTok also doesn’t allow under-13s to use its main service and restricts some content for under-18s.

The cases filed on Tuesday stem from an investigation launched by a bipartisan coalition of prosecutors in March 2022.

Those suing under the new action are: California, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington state, as well as Washington DC.

Other US states have previously launched similar child protection cases against TikTok.

In August, the US Justice Department also sued the app at a federal level for allegedly failing to protect children’s privacy.

However, the main threat remains a new US law which threatens to ban TikTok in the new year unless Bytedance sells it.

The company has appealed against the ruling and judges are expected to issue a decision – which could ultimately end up in the Supreme Court.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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Boki the bear to have pioneering surgery to drain fluid from skull and stop seizures

A young bear born to parents rescued from a Spanish circus will today undergo pioneering brain surgery.

Boki, a two-year-old European brown bear, has been suffering seizures and vision problems for the last five months.

MRI scans show he has hydrocephalus, a build up of fluid inside his skull that is putting pressure on his brain.

It’s a condition that also occurs in humans, affecting one in every 500 births. Other cases can be triggered by illness or injury later in life.

But it is believed to be rare in animals.

Specialist vets working with the Wildwood Trust, near Canterbury, where Boki lives, will insert a tube in his brain to drain the fluid and relieve the pressure.

Mark Habben, zoological director at the trust, told Sky News that Boki was “charismatic and a lot of fun” but his condition tends to flare up after bouts of high energy.

“It impedes his life,” he said.

“We want him to be able to climb up trees and jump in ponds without suffering negatively from that.”

The three-hour operation will be carried out by Romain Pizzi, an Edinburgh-based specialist with a reputation for taking on cases that other vets won’t touch.

He will make a small hole in Boki’s skull and run a tube from inside his brain, then under his skin down to his bladder, where it will drain the excess fluid.

The vet has carried out the procedure just once before, on an Asiatic black bear in Laos. The surgery was a success, giving the Wildwood Trust confidence it’s the right option for Boki.

Mr Habben said Boki is also in good physical condition and rapidly putting on weight.

“If we did not think this would have a happy ending, we would not put him or ourselves through the physical and emotional stress of conducting something like this,” he said.

“We are very optimistic about it.”

Boki was born at Port Lympne wildlife park in Kent, where his parents were brought after being rescued. But he was aggressively rejected by his family and was moved to the Wildwood Trust.

The decision to go ahead with surgery was given extra urgency by Boki’s imminent torpor, a winter dormancy similar to hibernation.

“Doing it now is the right thing to do because it’s much easier to monitor him,” said Mr Habben.

“If there is any medication or aftercare he needs, I don’t want him to be asleep for four months to administer that.

“As he recovers from surgery we will be assessing him on a day-to-day basis to see when he can resume normal life of being a young bear again.”

This post appeared first on sky.com

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Google faces threat of being broken up after US Justice Department warns of need to end ‘illegal monopoly’

US officials have confirmed they are considering breaking up Google’s “illegal monopoly” of internet searches.

The tech giant could face restrictions on its own products – including its Chrome browser, Play Store and Android operating system, the US Justice Department said.

It comes after a judge found in August the company had broken anti-trust laws to ensure its dominance of online searches.

Officials have now outlined a series of proposals to dismantle the company’s monopoly in a court filing.

The plans include blocking Google from paying other tech firms to have its search engine pre-installed or set as the default option on new devices.

The firm paid out more than $26bn (£20bn) in 2021 to companies such as iPhone maker Apple as part of the practice.

A Justice Department spokesperson said: “Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow.”

Google said the court filing was part of a “long process” and confirmed it would appeal against the ruling.

Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said the “radical changes” proposed went too far and accused the US government of having a “sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products”.

She added the move would risk the privacy and security of users, hamper the development of its artificial intelligence products and “break” software such as Android.

The government’s announcement comes following earlier reports that officials were considering moves to tackle Google’s monopoly.

Meanwhile, in a separate case on Monday, a judge ordered Google must open up its app store to greater competition, including making Android apps available from rival sources.

Judge James Donato said the firm should stop requiring its own payment system to be used for apps on the Play Store.

The ruling follows a court battle between Google and Epic Games, which makes the popular video game Fortnite, over in-app purchases.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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