Day: May 14, 2024
Content of two closed hearings in Idaho case against Bryan Kohberger could help set trial Idaho Statesman
The post Content of two closed hearings in Idaho case against Bryan Kohberger could help set trial – Idaho Statesman first appeared on Idaho Murders – The News And Times.
‘It’s just astounding’: Genetic genealogy credited with helping solve cold cases Yahoo Movies Canada
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Russia pummeled towns and villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region on Monday, days after launching a surprise ground offensive over the border that has forced thousands to evacuate. Russia is becoming more aggressive in the Arctic in and around a remote Norwegian community. Polls closed in India for the fourth phase of its massive general elections on Monday after voters turned out to cast their ballots across several regions. And the release of a new AI model called GPT-4o, capable of realistic voice conversation and able to interact across text and vision is a big step forward in Artificial Intelligence.
TIME celebrated on Monday the 100 most influential people leading change in health at a special dinner. The first TIME100 Health list spotlights doctors, scientists, business leaders, advocates, and others at the forefront of big changes in the industry.
After a panel discussion on prioritizing women’s health, three TIME100 Health honorees gave toasts about surviving noma, a severe gangrenous disease of the mouth and face; the healthcare advocates pioneering research and treatments related to COVID; and hospitals under attack in conflict zones.
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Surviving noma
Fidel Strub, a survivor of Noma, has led an awareness campaign on the disease, which mostly affects malnourished young children living in extreme poverty. In 2023, the WHO officially recognized noma as a neglected tropical disease, noting that early detection is essential for effective treatment. Noma can be fatal and severely disfigure its victims; it typically begins as inflammation of the gums, before destroying facial tissues and bones if left untreated.
Strub thanked his doctor for saving his life and spoke about turning to advocacy to feel empowered. He noted the 27 surgeries he underwent to reconstruct his face. “When Dr. Zala first saw me, I was just skin and bones. He had very little hope, but still he literally fought to save my life,” Strub said. “Just learning to blow out a candle took me three years through speech therapy.”
COVID response pioneers
Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, shouted out more than a dozen TIME100 Health honorees who helped shape the world’s response to the pandemic. “Somehow during the course of the pandemic I went from a cardiologist to a covidologist,” he said. “I never planned for that.”
Topol says that Monday’s event is the first time he has met many of these people working on COVID solutions in person—even though he has become close friends with some. Among those he recognized were researchers who have closely followed Long Covid: Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine, and Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Hospitals under attack
Alaa Murabit—director of global policy, advocacy, and communications for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—spoke about starting her medical career in a conflict zone and how she is inspired by frontline health workers in Gaza, Ukraine, Yemen, and Sudan.
Murabit said in her toast that healthcare facilities have been increasingly caught in political violence over the last year. “Hospitals, which are meant to be places of healing and hope—I always say that a hospital is more spiritual to me than any mosque, church or synagogue because you hear more prayers in it—become at best overburdened and at worst, attacked,” she said. “It will come as no surprise to many of you that, in those moments of crisis and insecurity, it is women and children who are the most vulnerable. Violence exacerbates infectious disease, it exacerbates malnutrition and maternal and child death.”
Murabit spoke in particular about Gaza, where Israeli attacks have killed more than 35,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. She pointed out how most of those killed are believed to be women and children.
Murabit also paid tribute to female healthcare workers—noting that they make up more than two-thirds of the healthcare workforce. “They are on the frontlines of delivering care in the worst of circumstances,” she said. “We’ve been talking about everything from hyperemesis to menopause to COVID; you can imagine how much worse those are when there are bombs and bullets overhead.”
The TIME100 Impact Dinner: Leaders Shaping the Future of Health was presented by Eli Lilly, Northwell Health, Deloitte, On Purpose, A Podcast by Jay Shetty, and Apeiron Investments.
KYIV, Ukraine — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday in an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure Ukraine that it has American support as it struggles to defend against increasingly intense Russian attacks.
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The visit comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign assistance package that sets aside $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, much of which will go toward replenishing badly depleted artillery and air defense systems.
Read More: The Fate of Ukraine Has Become a War About America’s Power
On his fourth trip to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Blinken will underscore the Biden administration’s commitment to Ukraine’s defense and long-term security, U.S. officials said. They noted that since President Joe Biden signed the aid package late last month, the administration has already announced $1.4 billion in short-term military assistance and $6 billion in longer-term support.
It is “trying to really accelerate the tempo” of U.S. weapon shipments to Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
“What I am going to suggest is that the level of intensity being exhibited right now in terms of moving stuff is at a 10 out of 10,” Sullivan told reporters at a White House briefing Monday.
Artillery, air defense interceptors and long-range ballistic missiles have already been delivered, some of them already to the front lines, said a senior U.S. official traveling with the secretary on an overnight train from Poland.
Blinken will “send a strong signal of reassurance” to Ukrainian leaders and civil society figures he will meet during his two-day visit, said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of Blinken’s meetings.
In a statement released after Blinken’s arrival, the State Department said he would meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials “to discuss battlefield updates, the impact of new U.S. security and economic assistance, long-term security and other commitments, and ongoing work to bolster Ukraine’s economic recovery.”
Delays in U.S. assistance, particularly since Israel’s war with Hamas began to preoccupy top administration officials, triggered deep concerns in Kyiv and Europe. Blinken, for example, has visited the Middle East seven times since the Gaza conflict began in October. His last trip to Kyiv was in September.
The U.S. official added that Blinken also would give a speech later Tuesday extolling Ukraine’s “strategic successes” in the war. It is intended to complement a Blinken address last year in Helsinki, Finland, deriding Russian President Vladimir Putin for Moscow’s strategic failures in launching the war.
Read More: Why the U.S. Has the Most to Gain From Supporting Ukraine
Since the Helsinki speech, however, Russia has intensified its attacks, most noticeably as the U.S. House sat on the aid package for months without action, forcing a suspension in the provision of most U.S. assistance. Those attacks have increased in recent weeks as Russia has sought to take advantage of Ukrainian shortages in manpower and weapons while the new assistance is in transit.
Top Biden administration officials and Ukrainian national security officials held a call Monday “about the situation on the front, about the capabilities that they are most in need of, and a real triage effort to say, ‘Get us this stuff this fast so that we can be in a position to effectively defend against the Russian onslaught,’” Sullivan said.
Zelensky said over the weekend that “fierce battles” are taking place near the border in eastern and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers try to push back a significant Russian ground offensive.
The Kremlin’s forces are aiming to exploit Ukrainian weaknesses before a big batch of new military aid for Kyiv from the U.S. and European partners arrives on the battlefield in the coming weeks and months, Ukrainian commanders and analysts say. That makes this period a window of opportunity for Moscow and one of the most dangerous for Kyiv in the two-year war, they say.
The new Russian push in the northeastern Kharkiv region and a drive into the eastern Donetsk region come after months when the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line barely budged. In the meantime, both sides have used long-range strikes in what largely became a war of attrition.
The senior U.S. official said despite some recent setbacks, Ukraine could still claim significant victories. Those include reclaiming some 50% of the territory Russian forces took in the early months of the war, boosting its economic standing and improving transportation and trade links, not least through military successes in the Black Sea.
The official acknowledged that Ukraine faces “a tough fight” and is “under tremendous pressure” but argued that Ukrainians “will become increasingly more confident” as the new U.S. and other Western assistance begins to surge.
Blinken said Sunday that there was “no doubt” the monthslong delay in aid caused problems but that “we are doing everything we can to rush this assistance out there.”
“It’s a challenging moment,” he told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We are not going anywhere, and neither are more than some 50 countries that are supporting Ukraine. That will continue, and if Putin thinks he can outlast Ukraine, outlast its supporters, he’s wrong.”
—AP reporter Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed.
Dubai’s Emirates Group, operator of the world’s largest long-haul carrier, reported on May 13 annual profits of $5.1 billion for the financial year ending March, a rise of 71%, setting a new record for the second year in a row, Azernews reports.
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