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Israeli woman finds out about grandma’s death from Hamas video on Facebook

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Israeli woman finds out about grandma’s death from Hamas video on Facebook

An Israeli woman reportedly learned that her grandmother was killed by Hamas militants after seeing a video on Facebook as fighting continues in Gaza.

“This young woman’s grandmother was murdered by Hamas terrorists. She found out from Facebook after Hamas posted a video of the execution,” the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on Facebook. “This is what we are fighting against.”

The post on Monday morning comes amid fighting between members of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Hamas militants in parts of the Gaza Strip. On Saturday, Hamas launched an attack, after which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the country was “at war.”

“We will take strong revenge for the black day they gave the people of Israel. We will operate everywhere and with all of our force. This war will take time and it will be difficult but we will win,” Netanyahu said.

IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a briefing on Saturday that Israeli military forces were fighting “in 22 locations.”

“There is no community in Southern Israel where we do not have forces, in all the towns. There are communities that have been rid of terrorists, but we want to finish additional scans of the area before declaring so,” Hagari said in the briefing, which was shared with Newsweek over the weekend.

While there was little information shared about the Israeli woman’s grandmother reportedly killed by Hamas, there have been similar reports of people being taken hostage.

Several videos and images were posted on social media showing hostages being taken at the Tribe of Nova music festival in southern Israel near Gaza over the weekend.

Israel resident Adva Adar also posted images on Facebook announcing that her grandmother, Yaffa Adar, was taken hostage.

“My grandmother who founded the kibbutz with both her hands, who believed in Zionists, who loved this country that abandoned her, was kidnapped,” Adar said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this weekend that the agency has received reports that several Americans have been taken hostage in Israel.

“We have reports that several Americans may be among the dead….We are very actively working to verify those reports. Similarly, we’ve seen reports about hostages,” Blinken told NBC‘s Meet the Press on Sunday. “Any American anywhere who is being detained or held hostage, that is going to be a priority for this government, this administration, and for me.”

Newsweek reached out to the Israeli Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh recently said about the fighting: “We warned the whole world, with this fascist government that unleashed the settlers to wreak havoc in Al-Aqsa Mosque and in Jerusalem….And we told them not to play with fire, and not to cross the red line, but they deafened their ears and blinded their eyes.”

Haniyeh’s remarks where shared with Newsweek after previously reaching out for comment.

Ex-NBA player slams Black Lives Matter silence on Israel

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Ex-NBA player slams Black Lives Matter silence on Israel

Former NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire called out Black Lives Matter (BLM) following Saturday’s attacks in Gaza and Israel.

Hamas fired rockets from Gaza into Israel as part of a multi-faceted act of aggression conducted via land, air and sea. Israel carried out strikes on Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas to the west of Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring: “We are at war, not an operation, not an escalation, a war.”

The Hamas attack was deemed by James Stavridis, a former high-ranking leader within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as comparable to a “9/11 level event” due to the scale and number of deaths and injuries. At least 700 people have been killed in Israel and more than 400 in Gaza as of Monday morning, according to the Associated Press. Thousands of others have been wounded on each side.

“I woke up this morning to some disturbing news out of Israel, of Hamas kidnapping children, putting them in cages,” Stoudemire said in a video posted on his Instagram page. “Killing women, killing the elderly—that’s some coward s***. That’s cowardly.

“And for all y’all Black Lives Matter [supporters] who ain’t sayin’ nothin,’ or ‘let me figure out exactly what happened before I say anything,’ f*** you. Figure out what? It ain’t never been cool to kidnap kids and put ’em in cages. It ain’t ever been cool to kill women and elderly, never been no matter where you from, what you represent, what tribe you from. Don’t matter. It ain’t never been no cool thing, never been nothing nobody supported.”

Newsweek reached out to Stoudemire via social media and Black Lives Matter via phone and email for comment.

Stoudemire, a six-time NBA all-star who played 14 seasons, is currently an American-Israeli professional basketball coach who previously served as a player development assistant for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.

In August 2020, Stoudemire posted on Instagram that he completed his two-year conversion to Judaism. He was granted Israeli citizenship in March 2019 while playing professional basketball in Israel.

His Hebrew name is Yahoshafat Ben Avraham, identifying with the Hebrew Israelites—African Americans who believe they are connected to the biblical Israelites, which involves the observation of Jewish holidays.

He reportedly stepped down from the Nets organization due to conflicts with his religious observance.

“And then you’re gonna hide and put the kids in front of you like a barricade,” Stoudemire also said over the weekend. “That’s some coward s***. All you politicians who always have something to say on the contrary, I see you. F*** you. All you Black Lives Matter people who always have something to say and always support everything else and you’re quiet now? F*** you, too.

“[Israel is the] only place in the world where I can go and study, tour and eat cultured food. Only place in the world. Some coward s***, dog. And all you support it. F*** you. On my mama, we don’t respect none of y’all for that. Peace,” he said.

As American and European politicians and diplomats have expressed support for Israel as the conflict has escalated in Gaza, Iran and Iraq have pledged support to Palestinians.

The attacks translated to protester clashes domestically, including in New York City, where upwards of 1,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in Times Square on Sunday. They were met with dozens of Israel supports who waved Israeli flags, according to multiple reports.

Pro-Palestinian supporters were also reportedly present in other cities including Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco. In Atlanta, about 75 people attended the event, the Associated Press wrote, calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

Joe Biden overturned Trump policy to give Palestinians $235M in aid

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Joe Biden overturned Trump policy to give Palestinians $235M in aid

Soon after the Islamist militant group Hamas launched its attack against Israel, a number of right-wing figures suggested that funding approved by the Biden administration may have played a role in the deadly violence.

The White House National Security Council (NSC) has already dismissed suggestions that the $6 billion in frozen Iranian money which had been freed up in exchange for the release of five American detainees was used by Iran—which supports Hamas—to help plot the attacks that broke out on Saturday.

Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn suggested that a 2021 decision to provide $235 million in aid to the Palestinians may have also helped fund Hamas, a group that is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

In April 2021, the Biden administration approved plans to provide $235 million in aid to Palestinians, which included $150 million in humanitarian assistance for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza.

The move was a reversal from what occurred in the previous administration when Donald Trump blocked nearly all aid to UNRWA after it severed ties with the Palestinian Authority in 2018.

Blackburn, a loyal Trump supporter, suggested in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, that there was a link between the incursion from Hamas on Saturday and the aid relief promised to Palestine.

“President Trump cut U.S. aid to Palestine. President Biden reversed this decision and sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Palestine,” Blackburn wrote.

“Biden admin officials are now saying they didn’t think pouring millions of dollars into Hamas areas would fuel terrorism,” she said in a subsequent post. “The lies keep piling up.”

Blackburn called for the Biden administration to halt all aid to the Palestinian Authority and the “Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas” in the wake of the attack which has left at least 700 people dead in Israel and a further 400 dead in Gaza, according to the Associated Press, with thousands wounded on each side.

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Republican political consultant Ryan Girdusky also criticized Biden for approving the aid to Palestinians in the first few months of his time in office.

“How is it that Biden thought it was okay to send $235 million to the Palestinian territory but couldn’t even visit Palestine, Ohio?” Girdusky wrote in reference to the location of a chemical spill during a train derailment near the town of East Palestine on February 3.

Austria and Germany confirmed on Monday that they would be suspending aid to Palestinians in response to Hamas’ attack, with the European Union foreign minister set to hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss future development assistance.

“EU funding supports most essential services for the Palestinian population and contributes direct financing also to the Palestinian Authority,” an EU Commission spokesperson told reporters on Monday.

In a statement, Trump described the Hamas attacks as a “disgrace” and said that Israel has “every right to defend itself.”

“Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden administration,” Trump said.

It’s unclear what taxpayer dollars the former president is referring to but other GOP figures, including Blackburn and Trump’s fellow 2024 presidential hopeful Vivek Ranswawarmy, have falsely suggested that the transfer of $6 billion of Iranian oil money from countries such as South Korea and Qatar so American citizens held captive in Iran can be released helped to fund the attacks.

The $6 billion is not taxpayer money, and the White House National Security Council said the money in question hasn’t been accessed by Iran.

“Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people,” a spokeswoman for the NSC, Adrienne Watson, said in a statement on Saturday. “These funds have absolutely nothing to do with the horrific attacks today, and this is not the time to spread disinformation.”

On Sunday morning, Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and expressed his “deep sympathy” for all those missing, wounded and killed during the “unprecedented and appalling assault by Hamas terrorists.”

“[Biden and Netanyahu] discussed the taking of hostages by Hamas terrorists, including entire families, the elderly, and young children,” the White House said in a readout detailing the conversation. “The President emphasized that there is no justification whatsoever for terrorism, and all countries must stand united in the face of such brutal atrocities.”

Israel’s "total siege" heralds "worst times" for Gaza

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Israel’s "total siege" heralds "worst times" for Gaza

Israeli aircraft and artillery are undertaking an intense bombardment of the Palestinian Gaza Strip, following this weekend’s surprise Hamas infiltration attack. It is expected to be the first stage of a major military operation into the blockaded coastal enclave in a bid to destroy the Islamist militant group.

A Palestinian humanitarian worker told Newsweek on Monday that the situation in the impoverished 140 square-mile territory had already badly deteriorated under intensifying strikes and warned that a humanitarian crisis appears inevitable as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to put the area under a complete siege.

Around 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza as of early Monday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, with another 2,750 people wounded. Newsweek has not been able as yet to verify these and other figures. The bombardment follows Hamas’ rocket and infiltration attack this weekend, in which at least 800 people have been killed and more than 2,500 injured.

The Palestinian death toll is expected to soar amid the ongoing Israeli air campaign and with the launch of the expected ground incursion. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) could be seen preparing for this around Gaza’s borders as of Monday morning.

Israel has mobilized around 300,000 reservists, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring the Israelis are now at war. Their death toll, too, is still rising up as their forces secure the southern area infiltrated by Hamas units.

Imminent ‘Crisis’

Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, told Newsweek that humanitarian teams are already struggling to handle the deluge of killed and wounded from the opening stages of the Israeli campaign.

“We are witnessing a significant increase in attacks on towers, residential buildings, mosques, and homes in Gaza,” Farsakh said. “This has resulted in a large number of casualties,” she added, noting that “some residential buildings were reportedly struck without even warning for residents to be evacuated.”

Israel has, at times, warned Gazan residents of an impending airstrike using SMS messages or the so-called “roof knocking” technique, in which an inert munition is dropped on a target building to warn those nearby to flee. The target is then destroyed sometime after using explosive munitions.

Farsakh said PRCS teams had handled 172 fatalities and 683 wounded since the start of the latest campaign. More than 120,000 Gazans—of a total population of around 2 million—have been internally displaced, she added.

The casualties, Farsakh said, include PRCS workers. “Israel is also targeting medical facilities and staff conducting their humanitarian role,” she said. “We have recorded around five different violations against medical missions in Gaza. This has led to the injuries of five PRCS [personnel], one of them suffered critical injuries.”

“The humanitarian situation has really degraded,” Farsakh said. “If the escalation is going to be continued, absolutely we’re heading towards a humanitarian crisis.”

“Absolutely it is one of the worst times that the PRCS teams in Gaza have dealt with,” Farsakh said. “The number of airstrikes is intensifying. We are witnessing a significant increase in attacks on residential buildings and homes of civilians. It is very difficult for us to work under such circumstances, and our capacity simply doesn’t cover our needs. We are talking about hundreds of fatalities as well as thousands of injuries.”

A ground offensive, Farsakh added, will “absolutely make it worse. The situation already in Gaza is really, really difficult. The humanitarian situation is degraded.”

Gaza Under Siege

Israel shows no sign of easing its increasing pressure on Gaza, which, since 2007, has been under blockade by Israel and Egypt. Hamas seized control of the territory that year after a brief conflict with Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority that nominally governs the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

This weekend’s massacre in southern Israel appears to be a turning point in the simmering confrontation between Hamas and Israel, which has periodically ignited into short-lived but intense conflicts. The surprise operation humiliated the Israeli government and horrified its foreign backers. The brutality and scale of the Hamas attack has set the tone for what is expected to be a devastating Israeli response.

Netanyahu told Israelis this weekend that the military “will act immediately to destroy Hamas’s capabilities.” He added: “We will cripple them mercilessly and avenge this black day they have brought upon Israel and its citizens.”

The Israeli Air Force said Monday it was “launching an extensive attack on many centers of the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip.” Newsweek has contacted the IDF by email to request comment.

Gallant made clear Israeli intentions in Gaza. “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip,” the defense minister said. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” He added: “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” Gaza’s water, too, has been cut off by order of Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz.

The humanitarian situation in the coastal Hamas stronghold has long been deteriorating, with the enclave having been under air, sea and land blockade—which Israel says is needed to stop weapons smuggling—for 15 years.

Unemployment has reached 45 percent, and there are few prospects for the territory’s young people, who report soaring levels of mental health problems. Medical supplies and fuel are sparse, while food insecurity—already a significant problem—has been exacerbated by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“Operation Swords of Iron,” then, comes against a bleak backdrop. Gaza’s enclave’s stretched infrastructure is already in dire straits.

“Electric supply is only available for four hours during the day,” Farsakh said. “The electricity cuts are affecting hospitals that now rely on backup generators. Some hospitals only have enough fuel to last for four days.

“We’re heading towards a humanitarian crisis if the escalation will continue,” Farsakh added. “That’s why we call international organizations to pressure Israel to open a humanitarian corridor to allow the entry of medical supplies and the humanitarian aid.”

New Florida species named in honor of Jimmy Buffett

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New Florida species named in honor of Jimmy Buffett

Researchers have discovered a new species in the Florida Keys—and they have named it in honor of legendary American musician Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville.”

The new species—a brightly colored, lemon-yellow marine snail—is described for the first time in a study published Monday in the journal PeerJ.

Rüdiger Bieler, curator of invertebrates at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the study’s lead author, noticed and collected the first specimens in the mid-1990s, shortly after his team started scuba-based biodiversity surveys in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

“I first spotted the unusually bright colors of the living animals while diving in the Keys—they almost looked artificially illuminated,” Bieler told Newsweek. “At the time, we could not be sure that they represented a new species, because many of the worm snail species that had been described in the literature were based on empty shell tubes.”

Over time, the team found several dozen specimens in various locations in the reefs along the island chain of the Keys.

This string of tropical islands located off the southern tip of Florida is home to the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States, as well as many animals—including the newly identified species—that are found nowhere else in the world.

The new species belongs to a group of marine animals known as “worm snails”—a distant relative of the snails you find in your garden.

Studies of material from collections around the world and DNA sequencing made it clear that this creature represented a new species. Bieler—who has spent four decades studying invertebrate animals in the Western Atlantic—and his team also found a similar snail, this one colored lime-green, during research in the waters off the coast of Belize in Central America.

The researchers found that this species was also new to science, and it has been described for the first time in the PeerJ paper alongside its Floridian cousin.

Not only had the two worm snails never been described before, but the researchers also had to create an entire new genus (or group of species) to classify them, which they named “Cayo” after the Spanish word for a small, low island.

The lime-green snail from Belize was named Cayo galbinus—which means “greenish-yellow” in Latin. Meanwhile, the scientists named the worm snail found in the Keys, Cayo margarita—a nod to Buffett’s famous song from 1977 and his signature citrusy drink.

“The luminous yellow color looked ‘citrusy’ to me from the first time I saw them underwater while scuba diving,” Bieler said. “It was almost funny to find a lime-colored form in the reefs of Belize and a lemony one in the Keys.”

“Having been involved in biodiversity research in the Florida Keys for several decades, our team was no stranger to the regional signature drink, and, of course, Jimmy Buffett’s music. So Cayo margarita‘s name alludes to the drink’s color and the fact that it lives in the Florida Keys, where Jimmy Buffett wrote his Margaritaville song.”

Worm snails spend most of their lives in one place, unlike their free-living relatives. When the juveniles find a suitable spot to live, they cement their shell to a substrate, such as coral rock, and stay put until they die.

“All worm snails look dramatically different from their free-living cousins,” Bieler said. “These animals cement their young shells to the substrate and from then on, the shell is formed as an irregularly coiling tube.”

“In the case of the margarita snail, some of that shell is entrenched or embedded in the underlying coral rock and often only the end part of the shell tube is visible. From that opening, the snail’s body interacts with the outside world,” he said.

The larger worm snails are in the size range of human fingers, but the margarita snail is much smaller, with the shell opening smaller than a pencil eraser.

Intriguingly, the Cayo worm snails lack the protective lid, known as the operculum, that many other groups have. As a result, the coloration of the their exposed head poking out of the shell is clearly visible.

“The most distinctive feature of [Cayo margarita] is the luminous coloration that we have not seen in any other species,” Bieler said.

Because these worm snails never move after finding a spot to hunker down, they have had to invent completely new ways of eating, reproducing and defending themselves, leading to “very interesting” anatomical and behavioral innovations, according to Bieler.

“They have long tentacles that are connected to a mucus gland in the animal’s muscular foot and these tentacles can release mucus threads that combine into a spider-like web to trap plankton and floating particles from the water column,” he said.

“The animal then ingests the entire mucus web, screens out the edible bits, and recycles the valuable mucus. These animals are directly competing with the surrounding coral polyps for food but use a very different technique of capturing it.”

The researchers think that the bright coloration of the Cayo snails may also act as a warning, helping to ward off predators.

“They have some nasty metabolites in their mucus,” Bieler said in a press release. “That also might help explain why they’re able to have exposed heads—on the reef, everybody is out to eat you, and if you don’t have any defensive mechanism, you will be overgrown by the corals and sea anemones and all the stuff around you. It seems like the mucus might help deter the neighbors from getting too close.”

Update 10/09/23, 8:10 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information from Rüdiger Bieler.

The sun is about to send Earth on an electric roller coaster

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The sun is about to send Earth on an electric roller coaster

The sun’s magnetic poles are about to disappear as they swap polarities, which may lead to a number of geomagnetic storms hitting Earth in their wake.

The sun’s magnetic poles swap positions every 11 years or so as the sun approaches its most active period (solar maximum), with the sun having no magnetic poles and a messy, chaotic magnetic field during the interim. The amount of time that the sun is left with no poles varies from solar cycle to solar cycle.

This swapping of the poles is expected to send increasingly weird space weather our way, in part because of a section of the sun’s magnetosphere called the heliospheric current sheet—a ring of electricity blown out from the sun by the solar wind—becoming wavier than usual.

“The solar polar reversal is a normal phenomenon that occurs every 11 years. We call this the solar cycle,” Daniel Billett, a space physics researcher at the University of Saskatchewan, told Newsweek. “The reversal happens when the poles themselves are about to disappear, but it’s actually when the sun is most active. If you could see the sun’s magnetic field right now, it would be a large tangled web of magnetic field lines without a coherent shape. In half a cycle’s time [5.5 years from now], the poles will be well defined and look more like a bar magnet.”

“What this means is right now, as we are solar maximum with a huge mess of a solar magnetic fields, is we get more solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These can hit Earth and cause geomagnetic storms in our atmosphere, which last year caused the loss of about 50 Starlink satellites.”

Geomagnetic storms are a result of solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs) of solar plasma being flung out from the sun, which usually occurs at sunspots or other areas of high magnetic energy.

“The sun’s magnetic field behaves a little bit like lots of elastic bands which, during the rising phase of the solar cycle which we are now in, become increasingly tangled up and taught,” Gareth Dorrian, a research fellow in space science at the University of Birmingham, told Newsweek. “At some point, all that stored potential energy has to be released, which is the chaotic period called solar maximum.

“Once this stored energy is released, the field returns to a less tangled and simpler state, only to begin the cycle again. It’s essentially a cyclical process of a build-up of and release of energy. The sun’s magnetic field threads through the visible surface of the sun [the photosphere] and at its densest can result in the appearance of dark regions called sunspots. At solar maximum, there are many sunspots; at solar minimum, there are few or none at all.”

The next solar maximum was forecast for 2025, but the sun has been ahead of schedule this cycle, sending out higher numbers of flares and CMEs than would usually be expected two years before the maximum.

“During solar minimum, the sun has a clear bipolar magnetic field with fast and relatively undisturbed solar wind” Dorrian said. “At solar maximum the whole solar magnetic field becomes quite chaotic with a highly variable solar wind flow…and large numbers of solar flares and CMEs.”

The sun’s poles swapping is a sign that the maximum is approaching. Currently, its south magnetic pole has almost completely vanished, with the north pole just hanging on. This is expected to send ripples into the heliospheric current sheet, which will also have an impact on Earth’s space weather.

“The heliospheric current sheet is like a projection of the solar magnetic field out into space,” Billett said. “When at solar minimum, we get a somewhat predictable current sheet as the poles are well-defined, so it’s not very variable when it hits Earth. Think of it like ripples of the magnetic field hitting Earth-like waves on a beach…you get the peaks and troughs. At maximum, you still get the waves, but there is more structure and variability. The differences in the current sheet between maximum and minimum don’t have a huge impact on the Earth [compared to flares], but it does affect motions of the upper atmosphere.”

Despite its scary-sounding effects, the real-life impacts on Earth are likely to be minimal, except for the unlikely case of an exceptionally powerful flare or CME heading our way.

“Most space weather impacts for humans are technological,” Dorrian said. “Solar storms can disrupt satellite operations, and occasionally damage ground-based infrastructure. I should emphasize, however, that human civilization has witnessed and cataloged 25 solar cycles [if one includes the present one], six of which occurred in the Space Age, so we should be OK.”

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the solar cycle? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.

Thousands of skeletons reveal most violent period in ancient Middle East

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Thousands of skeletons reveal most violent period in ancient Middle East

An analysis of thousands of ancient skeletons has revealed intriguing details about the history of violence millennia ago, specifically in the Middle East.

A study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior documents evidence showing that interpersonal violence in the region during the pre-Classical period (around 12,000 to 400 B.C.) fluctuated over time, peaking roughly between 4,500 and 3,300 B.C.

The study authors came to their conclusions after studying more than 3,500 individual human remains from the Middle East’s pre-Classical period. The findings of the research shed new light on the question of how violence developed over long periods of time in early human history.

It has often been claimed that interpersonal violence—which includes assault, killing, slavery, torture, punishment, feuds and so on—has declined over millennia and more rapidly since the Age of the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries.

This idea has been challenged, although so far no consensus has been reached among scholars. Given that homicide statistics are available only for recent historical periods, and because conflict records are often subject to biases, the understanding of long-term violence trends remains limited the further researchers look back in time.

“This situation has generated highly polarized narratives about the early history of violence,” the study’s authors wrote. “Indeed, the scholarship on the origins of warfare split into two major factions: the so-called ‘pacified past’ group or ‘doves’—thinking that violence in human history picked up only after the Agricultural Revolution and the rise of states; and the other viewing warfare as pervasive in prehistory, that is the ‘hawks.'”

“Although the hawks/doves division fueled much debate between the 1990s and early 2000s, nowadays a more nuanced picture is emerging,” the authors said.

In the latest study, Giacomo Benati, a researcher at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues put together a dataset detailing skeletal remains from 3,539 individuals dated to 12,000 to 400 B.C. These remains were found in seven Middle Eastern countries: Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.

The researchers used the database to assess the amount of interpersonal violence across the period by documenting the proportion of skeletons that showed evidence of trauma to the skull or weapon-related wounds.

The results suggest that interpersonal violence in the pre-Classical Middle East reached a maximum between 4,500 and 3,300 B.C., during the Chalcolithic period. The authors then observed a steady decline in violence during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (3300 to 1500 B.C.) before it increased again from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age (1500 to 400 B.C.).

The researchers propose that the spike in violence during the Chalcolithic period may be connected to the emergence of the first centralized proto-states in the region and a shift from occasional feuding to large-scale, organized conflict.

Buying a car may get more expensive

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Buying a car may get more expensive

Buying a new car may cost you more.

Unexpectedly high jobs numbers in September have increased the chances of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates at least once more this year. The central bank has been raising interest rates since March of 2022 to the current range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent—a two-decade high—which has pushed up borrowing costs of everything from homes to automobiles.

Auto-loans borrowing costs jumped to 7.5 percent last month for five-year car loans, according to data firm Statista, from its low of nearly 3.9 percent in December 2021.

Some Fed policymakers have acknowledged that with the U.S. economy still showing strength—as the job numbers showed—its fight to bring inflation down to the 2 percent target will need interest rates to stay higher for longer.

“Inflation remains too high, the labor market is still very strong, and output, spending and job growth are beating expectations,” Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said Monday. “I anticipate that we will need continued restrictive financial conditions to return inflation to 2 percent in a timely way and sustainably achieve our goals of maximum employment and price stability.”

What does this mean for car buyers?

If interest rates stay high for an extended period over the next few years, it means that purchasing a car will cost consumers more than in the recent past.

While prices have shown signs of softening lately, in July the average price for a new car was up nearly 34 percent from five years ago, according to data from the online car platform Edmunds. A used car was close to 46 percent more expensive in the same time period.

The car industry is still struggling to recover from the COVID-induced supply chain crisis that slowed manufacturing and lowered the availability of new vehicles for sale leading to a spike in prices. With interest rates also elevated at historic levels, loans to acquire vehicles also saw an increase.

Edmunds analysts suggest consumers may have to be patient.

“Anyone waiting for a sudden reduction in dealer asking prices or a major uptick with incentives offers had better hold tight until next year,” Ivan Drury, Edmunds director of insights, wrote.

Complicating matters could be the ongoing autoworkers strike involving Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. A protracted stalemate could reduce supply and lead to a jump in car prices, analysts say.

But it’s not all bad news for car buyers, Edmunds said. Dealerships are offering more incentives to buyers to encourage more sales, despite the tough environment for shoppers.

“Pay attention to which brands are offering greater discounts and if you’re willing to give them a chance, it could save you some money,” Ronald Montoya of Edmunds pointed out.

Jewish communities attacked around the world following Israel bloodshed

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Jewish communities attacked around the world following Israel bloodshed

With violence erupting between Israel and Palestinian militant groups over the weekend, there are already reports of attacks on Jews and Jewish communities prompted by the latest chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Several incidents have so far been recorded in Britain, where the authorities have stepped up protective measures, but early reports suggest possible instances of hate in Paris and New York as well.

The attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants—which began on Saturday and coincided not only with the Sabbath but the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah—have already led to an estimated 1,100 confirmed deaths in Israel and Gaza and thousands of wounded, including many civilians. Nine American citizens are among the dead, according to the State Department.

After Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, the death toll is expected to rise significantly.

While many world leaders were quick to condemn the attacks by Hamas militants, some activists have viewed the killings as a justified response to the Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

Despite holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel being an example of antisemitism cited by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hate, there are early suggestions that some are already doing just that.

On Monday, the British newspaper Jewish News reported that a Kosher restaurant in a predominantly Jewish part of London had been vandalized, with a door smashed in. Nearby bridges had been graffitied with the words “Free Palestine.”

“There is no tolerance for hate in our city,” Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wrote in response. “I remain in close contact with the Met Police. Whoever did this will face the full force of the law.”

The Community Security Trust, a U.K.-based charity that provides security to Jewish institutions, said it was “already seeing incidents of racist antisemitism against Jewish people and property in response to the awful terror attack in Israel.”

On Sunday, CST Chief Executive Mark Gardner said he had spoken with the British Home Secretary Suella Braverman and security minister Tom Tugendhat, who has Jewish ancestry, about measures that were needed to protect Jews.

“CST was already on a high security alert and deployment,” he said. “That’s because of the general situation of antisemitism right now here in the U.K. Those security deployments will continue for as long as necessary.”

According to The Times, the CST has already received reports of verbal abuse mentioning the situation in the Middle East being hurled at Jewish people or synagogues. The Metropolitan Police has stepped up patrols in response to incidents shared on social media.

“We are aware that this conflict has a far-reaching impact on communities around the world, and we extend our full support to those affected in London,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Valentine said in a statement.

“We are aware that a number of demonstrations and protests are planned. We have spoken to the organizers and we expect these will pass off peacefully,” he added. “However, we will take a zero-tolerance approach to any activity which crosses the lines into criminality.”

Braverman wrote in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Sunday: “There must be zero tolerance for antisemitism or glorification of terrorism on the streets of Britain. I expect the police to use the full force of the law against displays of support for Hamas, other proscribed terrorist groups or attempts to intimidate British Jews.”

Elsewhere, video footage online appears to show a man being detained by police outside the gates of Beth Hanna Jewish school in Paris’s 19th arrondissement. The person who posted the clip alleged the man had been impersonating a Jew and had been found to have “several knives” on him.

Though Newsweek was able to verify the location of the footage, it could not immediately confirm the full nature of the incident. The Parisian police were contacted via email for comment on Monday.

Meanwhile, images of demonstrators at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York City’s Times Square on Sunday show one protester holding up an image of a Nazi swastika on his phone during the event. Displaying a swastika in New York is considered a hate crime and a criminal offense.

Before the march had taken place, New York Governor Kathy Hochul criticized it as “morally repugnant.”

China’s social media pushes back on Israel’s online appeals

Fox News
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China’s social media pushes back on Israel’s online appeals

The Israeli embassy in China froze the comments section on its social media posts over the weekend after its appeals against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas were met with indifference and schadenfreude by Chinese netizens, and one researcher told Newsweek he thinks China’s online discourse has become a “cesspool” for that type of activity.

Saturday was the start of large attacks against Israel, with Hamas firing thousands of rockets and conducting raids across the border, taking more than 100 hostages. At least 1,300 have died, including nine Americans, between Hamas’ strikes and the Israeli military’s counteroffensive.

Young adults partying at the Tribe of Nova “peace” music festival were taken unaware. Their attackers killed over 260 at the event and took many others captive. Disturbing footage shows one attendee, identified as 25-year-old Noa Argamani, being dragged from her boyfriend and forced onto the back of a motorcycle.

As the attacks continued over the weekend and Israel launched retaliatory strikes, the Israeli Embassy in China began posting on the Chinese social media platform Weibo in solidarity with the victims. The diplomatic mission shared the video of Argamani, writing that she is of mixed Chinese and Israeli descent. “She is a daughter, a sister, and a friend,” the post said.

Posts surfaced showing comments, now hidden, from Chinese netizens responding to the post. While some expressed sympathy with the victims of the attack, others ranged from unfazed to outright hateful:

“Hamas must be totally destroyed this time. They cannot be given the slightest chance [to regroup]”

“If you support the Ukrainians, you have to support the Palestinians too!”

“The Jewish Nazis massacre Palestinians every day. Let’s go, Hamas—fellow countrymen—kill Jewish Nazis for your country!”

Yet another Chinese netizen remarked that Israel was getting its just deserts, as the country has not yet apologized for the death of Du Zhaoyu, a Chinese member of a UN peacekeeping post mistakenly bombed during the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in 2006.

As of Monday, the Israeli embassy had disabled comments on its Weibo posts, in some cases leaving either no or only a handful of supportive comments visible out of the hundreds that had been posted, an indication of the extent of the backlash.

Chinese media has become “a cesspool of racism, xenophobia, and toxic nationalism,” said Tuvia Gering, researcher at Tel Aviv University-affiliated Institute for National Security Studies. The Chinese authorities use their cutting-edge surveillance tech to constantly monitor and censor their citizens, but when it comes to racist and xenophobic remarks—there is freedom of speech, especially when they match the Chinese Communist Party’s official viewpoint, he told Newsweek.

Age-old antisemitic tropes, such as a Jewish conspiracy pulling the strings of Western governments, have found a new audience on the Chinese internet, in what Gering has called “antisemitism with Chinese characteristics,” amid the rising tide of Chinese nationalism and Beijing’s geopolitical competition with the U.S., he said.

China has called on both sides of the conflict to de-escalate and avoid civilian casualties and has warned Chinese nationals to avoid travel to Israel amid the hostilities.

During his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping Monday afternoon, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed disappointment with what he said was a muted response from China. He appealed to Xi to “condemn these cowardly and vicious acts.”

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