📌 Caribbean Slavery, Abuse Of Scientists, More

One of the four bodies returned by Hamas to Israel was not that of the hostage Shiri Bibas, Israel’s military said.

The Israeli military confirmed that two of the bodies belonged to Bibas’s children, Ariel and Kfir. “No match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body,” the Israeli military said during identification.

Hamas has not issued any public comment so far on the Israeli accusation, which threatens to derail the fragile ceasefire agreement reached with US backing and with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Thursday’s release marked the first time the group has returned the remains of dead hostages.

Intelligence and forensic findings showed that Bibas’ children had been “murdered by terrorists.” Hamas had said the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli bombing.

Bibas and her children — who Hamas says were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the early days of the war — became a symbol of the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, that ignited the war in Gaza.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said today that Hamas had handed over the body of a “Gazan woman” instead of Bibas and that Israel would make Hamas pay.

Caribbean leaders have defended the region’s pursuit of slavery reparations for centuries of enslavement and oppression.

At the Caribbean Community (Caricom) heads of government meeting in Barbados, the Antigua and Barbuda prime minister, Gaston Browne, said Caribbean states were seeking ”a final resolution … one in which there’s an apology for the wrongs of their forebears, and at the same time, some form of restitution.”

Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, over 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported to the Americas, and sold into slavery.

Browne said: “Our forebears were treated as chattels… for hundreds of years and were not paid.” He said resources from the Caribbean and the profits were sent to Europe and North America to build cities, and universities, and to advance their economies without investment in Caribbean education or healthcare.

Exact reparation figures have not been agreed, but the focus is on constructive collaboration on the issue. It was raised during closed meetings on Thursday, which were also attended by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, reports say.

Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said: “We owe it to ourselves and to future generations of humanity to ensure that the transatlantic slave trade and the enslavement of Africans in the Caribbean, Latin, Central, South, and North America are accepted as a crime against humanity and that the appropriate apology and compensation is paid.”

A large number of scientists face intimidation or harassment while pursuing their research, a global study finds.

In the study of over 2,000 scientists across six areas of science, 41% had, as a result of their work, been harassed or intimidated at least once over five years. Intimidation efforts included online abuse, physical threats, and threats to budgets or employment.

Harassment, while personal, could be meted out by superiors, colleagues or outsiders. Some scientists felt their leaders had thrown them under the bus to protect the institution's reputation.

Most cases of intimidation and harassment were perpetrated by senior colleagues or managers. But for climate scientists, most came from outside. Climate scientists reported online abuse three times more often than astronomers.

The motivations of perpetrators varied greatly. But the most common reasons were to damage their reputation, to stop them from publishing certain types of research, or to "put me in my place.”

More than 40% of those affected said their career prospects had worsened following incidents of harassment; and 34% reported a decline in their desire to work in science. Scientists who experienced intimidation often cut back their collaboration with colleagues (35%), leaving them more isolated.

Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) statement that he will not seek reelection in 2026 has led to a scramble to replace him.

A large cohort of ambitious Kentucky Republicans has long been angling to succeed the 83-year-old former Senate GOP leader, who has held his seat since 1985.

McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, said in a floor speech that his “current term in the Senate will be my last.“ Former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the unsuccessful GOP nominee for governor in 2023, responded quickly by launching his campaign to succeed McConnell. Rep.

Andy Barr (R-Ky.) also released a statement saying he's “considering running for Senate“ and is “encouraged by the outpouring of support and my family and I will be making a decision about our future soon.“

Torunn Sinclair, a spokesperson for Republicans' Congressional Leadership Fund, told Axios: “Democrats have no shot here. President Trump remains extraordinarily popular in Kentucky, while Democrats are in constant disarray and have dismal approval numbers.“

A complex problem that took microbiologists a decade to solve took a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool just two days.

Professor José R. Penadés and his team at Imperial College, London, spent years working out and proving why some superbugs are immune to antibiotics.

Penadés gave Google tool Co-Scientist a short prompt asking it about the core problem he had been investigating, and it reached the same conclusion in 48 hours. He recounted his shock when he found what it had done, given his research was not published — so AI could not have found it in the public domain.

Prof Penadés said the tool had done more than successfully replicate his research. “It's not just that the top hypothesis it provided was the right one. It provided another four, and all of them made sense. And for one of them, we never thought about it, and we're now working on that.“

The researchers have been trying to find out how some superbugs — dangerous germs that are resistant to antibiotics — get created. They hypothesize that the superbugs can form a tail from different viruses, which allows them to spread between species.

“I feel [AI] will change science, definitely,“ Mr Penadés said. “I'm in front of something spectacular, and I'm very happy to be part of that.“

When you hear the phrase “gluten-free,“ you may imagine someone with a healthy lifestyle and a slender frame.

But a new study has some unsavory news: Many gluten-free products are packed with sugar and calories, lack essential nutrients like fiber and protein and cost more.

Researchers looked at 39 gluten-free products and compared them to their gluten-filled alternatives. They discovered that, on average, the gluten-free items had significantly less protein and more sugar and calories than their counterparts.

Sachin Rustgi, a professor of molecular breeding at Clemson University and a co-author of the study, said: “Manufacturers often add supplements to compensate, but the incorporation of dietary fibers during processing can hinder protein digestion.“

Rustgi said gluten-free products mostly lack wheat, rye, barley and oats — all of which are rich sources of arabinoxylan, an insoluble fiber that promotes digestive health by aiding bowel movement and preventing constipation.

Medical experts generally agree that a gluten-free diet should only really be adopted by people who have celiac disease or are otherwise sensitive to gluten. According to estimates, about 25% of Americans eat gluten-free products, while roughly 1% have celiac disease.

A village in China known for snowy landscapes has apologized for using cotton wool and soapy water to make fake snow.

Chengdu, the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan, experienced unusually warm weather during the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January, resulting in a snow no-show to the disappointment of tourists bound for the snowy village.

The Chengdu Snow Village project attempted to replicate its typical winters with artificial snow, posting photos on social media that tourists called misleading.

Photos online showed large cotton wool sheets strewn about the grounds and on top of houses, but the village did not disclose it wasn't real snow — though many on social media noticed it.

“To create a 'snowy' atmosphere, the tourist village purchased cotton for the snow … but it did not achieve the expected effect, leaving a very bad impression on tourists who came to visit,“ the Chengdu Snow Village project said.

The tourist area is believed to have now been cleared of the synthetic snow.