📌 Peace Truce, Billionaire Growth, More

Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners, suspending a 15-month-old war.

The truce allowed Palestinians to return to bombed-out neighborhoods to begin rebuilding their lives, while relief trucks delivered much-needed aid. Elsewhere in Gaza, crowds cheered Hamas fighters who emerged from hiding.

Fireworks were launched in celebration as buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah on the West Bank, where thousands waited to welcome them. Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis cheered and wept in a square outside the defense headquarters as a live broadcast from Gaza showed three female hostages getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by Hamas fighters.

The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent to Gaza and 33 of the nearly 100 remaining Israeli and foreign hostages to go free over the six-week first phase in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Many of the hostages are believed to be dead.

Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, of Gaza City said that while the ceasefire may have spared lives, the losses and destruction made it no time for celebration. “We are in pain, deep pain and it is time to hug one another and cry,” he said.

Billionaires’ wealth surged in 2024, adding $2 trillion to their pockets, says a report coinciding with the World Economic Forum.

The World Economic Forum, also known as the Davos Forum for the city where it is held, kicked off today under the theme "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age," where political, business, academic, and civil society leaders will gather to discuss global issues, such as inequality.

Oxfam's annual report on the worsening state of global inequality states that billionaire wealth grew by a combined $5.7 billion per day last year, while poverty has barely changed since the 1990s.

Last year also saw billionaires rise from 2,565 in 2023 to 2,769, with their combined wealth surging from $13 trillion to $15 trillion in the 12 months. According to the report, this represents the second-largest annual increase in billionaire wealth since records began.

The report states that 60% of billionaire wealth comes from either inheritance, cronyism, corruption, or monopoly power. If left unchecked, the world will see the "biggest transfer of the largest generational wealth in human history.”

To right the situation, Oxfam is calling for governments to ensure that the incomes of the top 10% of their citizenry are no higher than the bottom 40%. It urges the world's richest and their companies to pay their fair share in taxes.

Drinking fluids and taking fever-reducing medications during flu season is not strongly supported by science and may be harmful.

An exercise physiologist and specialist in body fluids and temperature regulation at Wayne State University says evidence points to “increased fluid intake and fever reducers, whether aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen,” as not always helping, adding, “in some cases, it could be harmful.”

Fevers are a natural response to infection and can be beneficial for recovery, but reducing fever with medications like aspirin or acetaminophen can weaken the immune response. A recent study warned that if everyone took fever suppressants, there would be even more flu cases and flu-related deaths.

A study evaluating “drink plenty of fluids” determined more fluid intake when sick may not offer benefits. To stop dangerous escalations in fever, the body releases antidiuretic hormones. Urination is diminished, so the body retains water through the actions of the kidneys.

If someone with a fever drinks more water than necessary, water intoxication — or hyponatremia, a potentially fatal medical condition in which a patient’s blood sodium levels are too low — could follow.

For mild or moderate fevers, the specialist says it is better to stay warm, rest, use fever-reducing medications sparingly, and drink fluids only when thirsty. Warm liquids containing sodium, like broths, may help avoid hyponatremia and could be more beneficial than water when dealing with fever or flu symptoms.

Scientists have discovered that the universe is expanding more rapidly than theoretical predictions allow.

Astronomers studying the nearby Coma galaxy cluster have found the universe is expanding about 9% faster than our physics models predict — a discrepancy known as the Hubble tension. This finding strengthens concerns that our fundamental understanding of cosmic evolution may need revision.

Researchers measured precise distances to 13 supernovae within the Coma cluster, determining it lies about 98.5 million light-years from Earth — significantly closer than models’ predictions of 111.8 million light-years based on observations of the early universe.

Dan Scolnic, an associate professor of physics at Duke University who led the research, commented: “We’re pressing really hard against the models we’ve been using for two and a half decades, and we’re seeing that things aren’t matching up. “This may be reshaping how we think about the Universe, and it’s exciting!”

A paper has found that AI might excel at coding or generating podcasts but struggles to pass a high-level history exam.

Researchers created a benchmark to test three top large language models (LLMs) — OpenAI’s GPT-4, Meta’s Llama, and Google’s Gemini — on historical questions. The benchmark, Hist-LLM, tests the correctness of answers according to the Seshat Global History Databank, a vast historical knowledge database.

The results, presented at an AI conference, were disappointing, said researchers affiliated with the Complexity Science Hub (CSH), a research institute based in Austria. The best-performing LLM was GPT-4 Turbo, but it only achieved about 46% accuracy — not much higher than random guessing.

“They’re great for basic facts, but when it comes to more nuanced, PhD-level historical inquiry, they’re not yet up to the task,” said Maria del Rio-Chanona, one of the paper’s co-authors and an associate professor of computer science at University College London.

The researchers asked GPT-4 if ancient Egypt had a professional standing army during a specific historical period. While the correct answer is no, the LLM answered incorrectly that it did. A researcher said this is likely due to much information about ancient empires, like Persia, having standing armies.

“If you get told A and B 100 times, and C 1 time, and then get asked a question about C, you might just remember A and B and try to extrapolate from that,” del Rio-Chanona said. The researchers add that, while LLMs need improvement, “they also underscore the potential” to aid historical researchers.

A senior Taliban figure has urged the group's leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls.

In a rare public rebuke of government policy, Sher Abbas Stanikzai, political deputy at the Foreign Ministry, told an audience at a religious school ceremony there was no reason to deny education to women and girls, “just as there was no justification for it in the past and there shouldn’t be one at all.”

The government has barred females from education after sixth grade. Last September, there were reports authorities had also stopped medical training and courses for women. In Afghanistan, women and girls can only be treated by female doctors and health professionals.

“We are committing an injustice against 20 million people out of a population of 40 million, depriving them of all their rights. This is not in Islamic law, but our personal choice or nature,” Stanikzai said.

Ibraheem Bahiss, an analyst with Crisis Group’s South Asia program, said Stanikzai periodically makes such statements. “However, this latest statement seems to go further in the sense that he is publicly calling for a change in policy and questioned the legitimacy of the current approach," Bahiss said.

In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, earlier this month, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urged Muslim leaders to challenge the Taliban on women and girls’ education.

Isopods are tiny creatures typically measuring just under 1 inch in length — scientists have discovered one over 12 times that size.

The newly identified specimen of

Bathynomus vaderi (B. vaderi)

weighs over 2 pounds. Scientists named the supergiant sea bug

B. vaderi

because of the striking resemblance its head bears to the helmet worn by

Star Wars

antagonist Darth Vader. It was caught by fishermen deep-sea trawling off the coast of central Vietnam.

B. vaderi

is the second recorded supergiant isopod found in the South China Sea. Its unique feature among supergiant isopods is the final segment of its hind legs tapers and curves slightly backward. It feeds on decomposing organic material, playing an important role in the ocean’s deep-sea food chain.

As demand for the Bathynomus species rises in Vietnam, where they are considered a delicacy with a lobster-like taste, there are concerns about overfishing. Prices for these creatures spiked to as much as 2 million Vietnamese dong ($79) in 2017, although they have since dropped to about 1 million dong by early 2024.

Due to their slow reproductive rate, with only a few hundred eggs produced at a time,

B. vaderi

could be vulnerable to overexploitation, researchers said.