Flagship

Netanyahu still eyeing ground invasion

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was still preparing for a “crushing” ground invasion of Gaza. The army conducted a “targeted raid” in the enclave overnight using tanks, saying it was part of preparations for “the next stages of combat.” Israel’s 19-day bombing campaign of Gaza is now one of the most intense this century, The New York Times reported. The timing of the expected invasion, however, could be shaped by concerns among Israel’s allies who are worried the attack will destabilize the Middle East. Meanwhile U.S. President Joe Biden said a path to a “two-state solution” between Israel and Gaza must be retaken after the conflict, adding that he believed Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack at least partly intended to scuttle the potential normalization of Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia, a key step in that path.

UN: Fuel shortage hitting Gaza relief

The United Nations warned that it would be forced to stop its relief efforts in Gaza unless it can replenish its fuel supplies. Nearly 600,000 Palestinians have been displaced due to Israeli bombardments, many to shelters run by the U.N. Fuel shortages and a lack of desalinated water have also forced six hospitals to shut down, the World Health Organization said. The U.S. urged Israel to delay its invasion as it seeks to increase shipments of aid into Gaza, and gain time for the potential release of hostages held by Hamas. The head of the International Committee for the Red Cross in Gaza told the BBC that trucks and staff will “finally” be able to enter Gaza shortly, although he warned the ICRC’s assistance would be a “drop in the ocean” of what’s required.

Democrats on attack as Johnson elected

Mike Johnson was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. House Republicans voted unanimously for the previously little-known candidate — one veteran colleague said she was Googling his record, Semafor’s Benjy Sarlin and Kadia Goba reported. Democrats swiftly moved to attack mode: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said despite Johnson’s “pleasant demeanor” his voting record was as “extreme as the most extreme members” of his party, noting that he voted against certifying the 2020 election. Other Democrats noted his stances on gay marriage and abortion: One said “same menu, different waiter.” Moderate Republicans, though, are standing behind him. One praised his “Reagan-like vision” and “strong character.”

Hopes for talks to end Sudan ‘nightmare’

Sudan is undergoing one of “the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history,” a United Nations official said. The war between the government and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group has been going on for six months now: 9,000 people are believed to have died and 5.6 million are displaced. Talks between the two, brokered by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and the African Union, broke down in June after repeated ceasefire violations. But both sides are struggling to maintain a fighting force, and said they had accepted an invitation to resume negotiations, although they did not offer a pause in the fighting.

Extreme weather kills 15,000 in Africa

Extreme weather has killed at least 15,000 people in Africa so far in 2023, new analysis shows. The toll is dominated by the 11,300 who died in September’s devastating floods in Libya, but floods also hit 22 other countries in the region, killing a further 3,000 in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In East Africa a record-breaking tropical cyclone lasted 34 days in February, killing 860. Many millions more have been affected by drought, wildfires, and heat waves, Carbon Brief reported. Climate change has increased the likelihood of extreme weather events. The true toll is undoubtedly higher: Africa has the lowest density of climate-monitoring stations of any continent, meaning weather extremes often go unreported.

Xi hunts for real-estate corruption

Xi Jinping said he would sacrifice economic growth in order to root out corruption in China’s troubled real-estate sector. Real estate made up almost a quarter of the Chinese economy until recently, but a slowdown left the industry saddled with debt and major firms are close to bankruptcy. Beijing launched investigations into the founder of one of the biggest, Evergrande, and into other individuals and organizations, including a former head of the Bank of China. Xi is “looking for someone to blame,” and at a meeting last month said no stone can be left unturned while rooting out corruption, The Wall Street Journal reported.

CVS drops Sudafed after FDA ruling

The U.S. pharmacy chain CVS will no longer sell Sudafed after the Food and Drug Administration declared that it doesn’t work. The FDA voted unanimously last month that the widely used decongestant phenylephrine — the active ingredient in Sudafed, Benadryl, and other brand-name cold and flu remedies — is ineffective at treating blocked noses. Researchers have expressed doubt over phenylephrine’s efficacy since at least 2007: Early studies showing it to work are now known to have been badly flawed. But, Ars Technica reported, while CVS is taking steps to remove one apparently useless product from its shelves, it still sells an entire class of equally useless ones, in the form of homeopathic remedies.

Argentina candidate endorses Milei

Patricia Bullrich, the center-right candidate who came third in Sunday’s presidential primary in Argentina, said she would endorse radical libertarian candidate Javier Milei in next month’s runoff. Milei, whose controversial proposals include dollarizing the economy and legalizing the sale of human organs, came second in the primary behind Sergio Massa, the country’s economy minister. Bullrich hopes that a substantial share of her supporters — she had a 24% share in the primary — will vote for Milei, warning that a vote for Massa would be a “continuation of the worst government in history.” Critics within her own coalition have branded her endorsement as “irresponsible.”

AI improves its lexicon

A new artificial-intelligence model can interpret new words and make generalizations about language as well as humans. Humans can learn new words and use them in different contexts — once we know the word “photobomb” we can interpret phrases like “photobombed a Zoom call” — but AI chatbots such as ChatGPT struggle with it. The new model, developed by researchers at New York University, was trained using humans’ efforts, including their errors. It performed as well as the humans it was compared to. The researchers said it could help AI models learn more efficiently, Nature reported, reducing the huge amounts of data they currently need to operate.

A golden era for solar science

Solar science is undergoing a “paradigm-shifting moment,” as sun-orbiting spacecraft send home never-before-seen data about how our nearest star works. As the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle, several orbiters are working together to observe it. In the last three years, they’ve seen solar activity in unprecedented detail. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was caught in a 2022 solar storm. Such storms can be dangerous — SpaceX lost 38 satellites to one last year, and the 1859 “Carrington Event” destroyed telegraph equipment — but Parker survived and sent back rich information: “The amount of details, the amount of complexity and also the violence of the event — we’ve never seen it before,” one scientist told Nature. Understanding the sun’s behavior also allows scientists to predict Earth’s weather and climate better.

• The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia will meet top EU officials on the sidelines of a two-day summit in Brussels, in a move to normalize ties.
• The U.K. will hold an emergency meeting about its strategy and approach to the Israel-Hamas war.
• A to Z of The Designers Republic, a book about the design group that shaped graphic communication, is published.

The number of Russian prisoners released from custody and sent to fight in Ukraine. The country’s prison population was estimated at 420,000 before Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, but according to a justice minister is now at a record low of 266,000, with up to 100,000 believed to have taken up arms. The Wagner mercenary group pioneered offering prisoners pardons in exchange for service — its late leader Yevgeny Prigozhin would helicopter from prison to prison calling on inmates to pay for their crimes “in blood,” The Washington Post reported — and the defense ministry has continued the practice even after Prigozhin’s death in a suspicious air crash this year.

The possible face of an Inca girl sacrificed in a ritual atop the Andes more than 500 years ago was revealed. “Juanita” or the “Inca Ice Maiden,” believed to have been between 13 and 15 years old when she died, is Peru’s most famous mummy: She was discovered in 1995, almost 20,000 feet up the Ampato volcano. The extreme cold at the top of the mountain preserved her body, meaning that her organs, skin, hair, blood, and even the contents of her stomach are intact. The reconstruction, by scientists working with a sculptor, shows “a young woman with pronounced cheekbones, black eyes and tanned skin.”

• The AI boom’s chip shortage has an unlikely hero: the blockchain.
• How does a Democrat win in Mississippi? Brandon Presley thinks he’s found the formula.
• Business leaders are keeping a low profile regarding the new Middle East conflict after a decade of public CEO statements on hot-button issues.