Israel Increases Offensive, GOP Candidates, & AI Recreates Smells
October 30, 2023
Israel Initiates Its Invasion
Late last week, Israel began expanding its ground operations in Gaza, sending groups of soldiers into the bombarded Palestinian enclave. At the same time, Israel took out communications lines in the area, with residents and humanitarian aid organizations saying that they’d lost internet and cell services as Israeli forces carried out their ground attacks – communications services were restored early on Sunday.
The Gaza Health Ministry now says that Israeli attacks have taken the lives of over 8,000 people in the area following what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “second stage” in his country’s war against Hamas. The ministry’s death toll counts were called into question just before the internet shutdown after U.S. President Joe Biden said that he had “no confidence” in its data. Interestingly, the U.N. and World Health Organization expressed their faith in the agency’s data, citing its history of reporting accurate casualty numbers in past conflicts. Biden and Israel have yet to offer any other source for counting Palestinian casualties in the war.
After the dust settled and communications were slowly restored in Gaza on Sunday, a small caravan of 33 trucks carrying humanitarian aid was allowed back into the area through the southern Rafah crossing. The U.N. World Food Program says that at least 40 trucks of humanitarian aid per day need to be let into southern Gaza to meet a growing demand for food. While Israel said it had restored water lines into southern Gaza over the past week, the media has been unable to verify those claims. The IDF has also reportedly warned a hospital in Gaza City, which is currently sheltering over 14,000 people, to be evacuated. The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said that multiple airstrikes landed within 50 meters of the building.
Want To Know More?
- Left revolts over Biden’s staunch support of Israel amid Gaza crisis (Guardian)
- Primary Battles Brew Over Progressive Democrats’ Stances on Israel (NYT, $)
- Pro-Palestinian protestors calling for ceasefire gather across the globe as bombardment of Gaza intensifies (CNN)
- Protesters fill the streets in New York to support Palestinians in Gaza. (NYT, $)
- Russia says Israel’s Gaza bombardment is against international law (Reuters)
Some Good News
- Musk says Starlink will support connectivity to aid organizations in Gaza (Politico)
- They went hunting for fossil fuels. What they found could help save the world (CNN)
Something Violent This Way Comes (Hopefully Not)
- In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Iran’s foreign minister declined to definitively say that his country would not get involved in the Israel-Hamas war should the conflict spread across the Middle East. He did, however, say, “We don’t want this war to spread out.” The interview came a few days after Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian threatened the U.S. in an address to the U.N. General Assembly, where he said, “If the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from the fire.” He appeared to reiterate that sentiment on Sunday, condemning the U.S. for “interfering in all aspects of the region.”
- Earlier last week, U.S. President Joe Biden warned Iran against taking any military action against his country’s troops stationed in the Middle East, saying, “My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond. And he should be prepared.” He quickly made good on that warning on Friday, when U.S. fighter jets launched airstrikes on two locations in Syria. The sites were linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Pentagon declared that the airstrikes were in retaliation to a spike in drone attacks on U.S. troops across the Middle East over the past week.
A Peek Into APEC
- In mid-November, leaders from across the world will descend upon San Francisco to take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. However, it’s still unclear whether or not Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the summit. Over the weekend, China’s foreign minister made a statement casting some doubt on Xi’s attendance, saying that securing a meeting between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the conference would not be “smooth-sailing,” adding that both states shouldn’t rely on “autopilot” to arrange the meeting.
- Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the statement during a three-day visit to Washington, where he met with Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan. Despite Wang’s warning, both parties seem committed to securing a meeting between the two leaders in SF. “We are making preparations for such a meeting,” said one senior Biden administration official. “Obviously, Chinese leaders often confirm publicly much closer to a trip, so I will leave it to the Chinese side to figure out if and when they make that announcement.”
Additional World News
- Erdogan opts for a low-key celebration of Turkey’s 100th anniversary as a secular republic (AP)
- Netanyahu Apologizes for Blaming Israeli Officials in Hamas Attack (NYT, $)
- Mission impossible? Biden says Mideast leaders must consider a two-state solution after the war ends (AP)
- Kazakhstan mourns after ArcelorMittal mine disaster kills 45 (Guardian)
- India police probe bomb blasts that killed two in Kerala (Reuters)
- Hurricane Otis death toll rises to 39 as searchers comb through debris in Acapulco (NPR)
- G7 calls for immediate repeal of bans on Japanese food, pressing China (Reuters)
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – Mother Teresa
Another One Bites Trump’s Dust
- This past weekend, former Vice President Mike Pence ended his 2024 campaign for president, narrowing the field even further (and once again reiterating to voters that former President Trump is still the frontrunner). Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie predicted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that more people will drop out of the primary following the third debate.
- Christie is one of only five remaining candidates, and of only four that will actually debate – Trump has not signed the RNC’s pledge to support the GOP candidate, which keeps him out of the debates (though he claims it’s his decision). Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will all face off with Christie on November 8. Senator Tim Scott has also said he’s met the requirements to qualify for the debate.
- Speaking of Nikki Haley, she’s doing quite well in the GOP race. Her fellow candidates – the anti-Trump Christie, the Trump-but-not candidate DeSantis, and the young, entrepreneurial, not-a-D.C.-mainstay Ramaswamy – have all had their moments in the spotlight, but Haley has performed well twice in the first two debates and made a name for herself in a field of testosterone (though she agrees with her competition on most issues anyway).
- In recent weeks, multiple authorities – from journalists and political experts to fellow politicians – have called for other candidates to drop out and endorse Haley. DeSantis recognizes the threat posed, attacking her at any opportunity. With Trump still leading the rest of the field by as many as 50 points nationally and 30 points in the early states, it’s unclear if she even stands a chance, despite her recent boost.
Additional USA Reads
- Halloween weekend shootings leave at least 6 dead, over 40 injured after multiple mass shootings (NBC)
- Alleged Maine gunman tried to buy a silencer months before Lewiston shootings (ABC)
- Ron DeSantis defends banning pro-Palestinian groups from Florida colleges: ‘Not cancel culture’ (NBC)
- Trump lashes out at New York judge for order requiring Ivanka to testify (Politico)
- 4 people, including 2 students, shot near Atlanta college campus (ABC)
- ‘I ain’t ashamed anymore’: poverty and tragedy led Elvis Presley’s cousin to run for Mississippi governor (Guardian)
- Andy Kim is making a big bet on breaking New Jersey Democratic politics (Politico)
Smells Like The Future
- You know how you can put a plastic nose onto those Mister Potato Head toys? Researchers are looking to do that for computers, only the nose will actually work. But before you can stick a cybernetic schnoz into your laptop’s USB port, scientists are working on a project to digitize smells. They say that the technology will allow massive revolutions in sectors from food and agriculture to disease prevention.
- “Unlike sound or vision – where the wavelength and amplitude clearly map to perceptual properties like tone frequency, color, or intensity – the relationship between a chemical’s structure and the underlying perception is not understood in olfaction,” says one neuroscience expert. Researchers have been working on ways to digitize smells since the 1980s, but they’ve just made breakthroughs using artificial intelligence in recent years.
- Using a form of AI called graph neural networks (GNN), researchers have been able to link certain molecular structures to different smells. According to recent tests, the smells predicted by the GNN are close to the average human description of the smells over 50% of the time. Researchers hope to apply this advance to things like perfumes and entertainment, but also pesticides – DEET, one of the most effective insect repellents in the world, relies on smell to drive away mosquitoes. This technology might be able to create a more effective and less harmful version of the chemical and others like it.
Additional Reads
- Unregulated AI is already at work in your doctor’s office (Politico)
- Marlene Warren murder: Florida “killer clown” case ends with unexpected twist after three decades (CBS)
- Adam Johnson: ‘Outstanding’ American ice hockey player dies in ’freak accident’ (CNN)
- In Benin, Voodoo’s birthplace, believers bemoan steady shrinkage of forests they revere as sacred (AP)
- Matthew Perry, ‘Friends’ Star, Dies at 54 (NYT, $)
- Rock on: ‘Devil comet’ will bring its horns swooping by Earth this summer (NBC)
- Alien language: If we met extraterrestrials, could we talk to them? (BBC)