Intermittent fasting seems to result in dynamic changes to the human brain

Intermittent fasting seems to result in dynamic changes to the human brain

Science Alert reports: Scientists looking to tackle our ongoing obesity crisis have made an important discovery: Intermittent fasting leads to significant changes both in the gut and the brain, which may open up new options for maintaining a healthy weight. Researchers from China studied 25 volunteers classed as obese over a period of 62 days, during which they took part in an intermittent energy restriction (IER) program – a regime that involves careful control of calorie intake and fasting on…

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World will look back at 2023 as year humanity exposed its inability to tackle climate crisis, scientists say

World will look back at 2023 as year humanity exposed its inability to tackle climate crisis, scientists say

The Guardian reports: The hottest year in recorded history casts doubts on humanity’s ability to deal with a climate crisis of its own making, senior scientists have said. As historically high temperatures continued to be registered in many parts of the world in late December, the former Nasa scientist James Hansen told the Guardian that 2023 would be remembered as the moment when failures became apparent. “When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change,…

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Thousands of children in Gaza have lost limbs and their dreams

Thousands of children in Gaza have lost limbs and their dreams

🚨Read it twice. 9,000 Palestinian children have had to amputate 1 or more limbs and 1000 children endured it without anesthesia. https://t.co/HhFWFD5bjH — Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) December 29, 2023 UNICEF: In the Gaza Strip, the life of any child could turn into a nightmare in the blink of an eye. Families try to keep their children safe, but this becomes harder and harder with the intense bombardments. Many houses have been destroyed, and many children ended up under…

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Kremlin says it has list of Western assets to be seized if Russian assets are confiscated

Kremlin says it has list of Western assets to be seized if Russian assets are confiscated

Reuters reports: The Kremlin on Friday warned the West that it had a list of U.S., European and other assets that would be seized if G7 leaders decided to go ahead and confiscate $300 billion in frozen Russian central bank reserves. Leaders of the Group of Seven major industralised nations will discuss a new legal theory that would enable the seizure of frozen Russian assets when they meet in February, two sources familiar with the plans and a British official…

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How Russia silences dissent about the Ukraine war

How Russia silences dissent about the Ukraine war

The New York Times reports: Russia’s crackdowns on free speech used to garner global headlines. Now they are noticed less and less. One reason is the sheer scale: On each of the 530 days of the war for which we have near-complete data, an average of 13 cases were heard in court involving people opposing the war — and that’s just under the discreditation law. The indignities of the crackdown, and the long arm of the Russia law, is being…

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Public Christian schools? Leonard Leo’s allies advance a new cause

Public Christian schools? Leonard Leo’s allies advance a new cause

Politico reports: Groups aligned with the conservative legal movement and its financial architect, Leonard Leo, are working to promote a publicly funded Christian school in Oklahoma, hoping to create a test case to change the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment’s separation of church and state. At issue is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma’s push to create the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would be the nation’s first religious school entirely funded by taxpayers. The…

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America has a life expectancy crisis. But it’s not a political priority

America has a life expectancy crisis. But it’s not a political priority

The Washington Post reports: The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration had an urgent message last winter for his colleagues, brandishing data that life expectancy in the United States had fallen again — the biggest two-year decline in a century. Robert Califf’s warning, summarized by three people with knowledge of the conversations, boiled down to this: Americans’ life expectancy is going the wrong way. We’re the top health officials in the country. If we don’t fix this, who will?…

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s war crimes

Benjamin Netanyahu’s war crimes

Hafiz Rashid writes: As 2023 comes to a close, grim numbers in Gaza are piling up, where Israel’s bombardment and invasion have thus far killed more than 20,000 people, including 8,200 children and 6,200 women. Those dire statistics lay alongside the grievous outcome of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed—including 36 children—and nearly 250 Israelis were taken hostage by Hamas, again, including about 30 children. But beyond the dismal casualty statistics, we’re ending…

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Tel Aviv high school principal faces suspension for sympathizing with suffering of Gazans

Tel Aviv high school principal faces suspension for sympathizing with suffering of Gazans

Haaretz reports: The Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality on Thursday summoned Yael Ayalon, the principal of the city’s Ironi Yud Daled High School, to a hearing before suspension, after she posted a Haaretz article criticizing the lack of Israeli media coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza on her Facebook page about a week ago. Following Ayalon’s Facebook post, a group of students opened a protest strike on Wednesday which escalated into a physical altercation, during which the head of the school’s…

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Recordings, emails show how Trump team flew fake elector ballots to DC in final push to overturn 2020 election

Recordings, emails show how Trump team flew fake elector ballots to DC in final push to overturn 2020 election

CNN reports: Two days before the January 6 insurrection, the Trump campaign’s plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail. So, Trump campaign operatives scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation’s capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress,…

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A fake Trump elector in Michigan told prosecutors of regret, anger

A fake Trump elector in Michigan told prosecutors of regret, anger

The New York Times reports: One of the Republicans in Michigan who acted as a fake elector for Donald J. Trump expressed deep regret about his participation, according to a recording of his interview with the state attorney general’s office that was obtained by The New York Times. The elector, James Renner, is thus far the only Trump elector who has reached an agreement with the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, which brought criminal charges in July against…

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Ex-GOP student leader’s links to Jan. 6 Capitol riot and a neo-Nazi web site

Ex-GOP student leader’s links to Jan. 6 Capitol riot and a neo-Nazi web site

USA Today reports: The young man is seen running with the crowd of Trump supporters toward the U.S. Capitol early in the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021. He wears a thigh-length dark blue coat, his face almost fully covered with a mask. The bill of an off-white baseball cap pokes out of the hood of his gray sweatshirt. At 2:35 p.m. and 20 seconds, a security camera inside the Capitol captures the man as he steps across the threshold of…

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Musical synchronization emerges spontaneously and enhances social connectedness

Musical synchronization emerges spontaneously and enhances social connectedness

PsyPost reports: Researchers have discovered a significant link between musical synchronization and social connectedness. Analyzing the behavior of university students engaged in impromptu music-making, the study found that individuals who synchronized their musical rhythms felt a stronger sense of connection with their peers, highlighting music’s unique role in fostering social cohesion. The findings have been published in Psychology of Music. Previous studies have indicated that music can establish and maintain social bonds, but the mechanics of how this happens were…

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