Israel
UNESCO votes: No connection between Temple Mount and Judaism jpost
In a 24-6 vote, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization unesco.org on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a resolution that denies Jewish ties to its most holy religious sites: the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
Also see Israel Decries UNESCO Vote on Jerusalem Site voanews and Israel suspends ties with Unesco over motion that downplays Jerusalem links theguardian
Why Israel fears Obama’s last days nypost
Start with Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent flat refusal to promise a US veto on any upcoming anti-Israel resolution in the UN Security Council.
Venezuela accuses Israel of war crimes against Palestinians at UNSC jpost
The meeting, held under a process known as the Arria Formula un.orb, focused on the question of whether West Bank settlements are a stumbling block to peace.
UN
Peace is top priority for next UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres theglobeandmail
The former Portuguese prime minister and U.N. refugee chief told the 193 members of the U.N. General Assembly who elected him by acclamation that the United Nations has “the moral duty and the universal right” to ensure peace — and he will be promoting a new “diplomacy for peace” advocating dialogue to settle disputes.
U.N. agency pushes global soda taxes to curb obesity, fight disease washingtontimes
The World Health Organization, in a 36-page report released on World Obesity Day, said rising consumption of sodas, sports drinks and even pure fruit juices had contributed to a doubling of global obesity rates from 1980 through 2014. A 20 percent tax on such drinks would produce roughly a comparable reduction in consumption, in line with the way government taxes on tobacco had reduced smoking rates.
While private critics and the beverage industry say higher taxes have not proven effective in many cases, the U.N. agency said there was “strong evidence” that taxes can be a “very important tool” in the fight to reduce the consumption of “sugar-sweetened beverages.”
Syria
Aleppo must be 'cleaned', declares Assad, amid outcry over bloody siege theguardian
Speaking to Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda, Assad said Aleppo was effectively no longer Syria’s industrial capital but taking back the city would provide important political and strategic gains for his regime.
Military
CIA Prepping for Possible Cyber Strike Against Russia nbcnews
The sources did not elaborate on the exact measures the CIA was considering, but said the agency had already begun opening cyber doors, selecting targets and making other preparations for an operation. Former intelligence officers told NBC News that the agency had gathered reams of documents that could expose unsavory tactics by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This story is interesting but a) very new with "unnamed sources", b) the back and forth "banter" between Russia and US has been heating up quickly lately as the sides square off, and c) even the US does propaganda. Take this story with a grain of salt at this point...
Genetics
A Google Maps for the Human Body theatlantic
"All of these things, the type and the subtype, the states, the locations, and the transitions … you’d want to know all of them," Regev told me. She let her words hang, and she smiled gently. Because she had a plan to do exactly that: to know everything.
Medical Tech
Brain chips let a paralyzed man feel touch through a robotic arm theverge v
Nathan Copeland hasn’t been able to move his legs or hands since he broke his neck in a car accident more than a decade ago. But now that scientists have implanted four chips in his brain, Copeland can control a robotic arm with his mind and feel when someone touches its fingers. This is the first time that a neural implant has allowed a person to feel touch through a prosthetic by directly stimulating his brain.
Tech
To power through more pushups, this robot breaks a sweat theverge v
The team created custom "bones" by 3D printing porous aluminum. Water moves through these channels in predictable ways, and the "sweat glands" are positioned near motors, the pieces that typically overheat during strenuous activity. The unit can run for about 12 hours on half a cup of water, and the teams testing found that it was about three times more efficient with the sweat method than it was with ordinary air cooling.
Space
Asgardia, Proposed Space-Based Nation Accepting Citizenship Applications space
Asgardia, named after the Norse gods' home of Asgard, will be a democracy with an emphasis on the freedom of the individual to develop space technologies, according to Igor Ashurbeyli, Asgardia project team leader and founder. People can now apply to be selected as one of the first 100,000 citizens through the nation’s website asgardia.space. At the time of publication, the number of applicants has reached more than 84,000, according to the website. While Asgardia is not officially a nation (yet), prospective citizens must fulfil the legal requirements for Asgardia's United Nations application — for example, they must be from nations that allow multiple citizenships.
Also see The Founding of the First Space Nation Today Doesn't Really Mean Anything popsci
Creation
The Universe May Contain 10 Times More Galaxies Than We Thought popsci
In an interview with Popular Science, Conselice explained how the team made this astonishing calculation. Last year, the group came up with a formula for explaining how galaxies are distributed by size. Monstrously huge galaxies are very rare, while there are a vast number of very small galaxies. Medium-sized galaxies are medium common.
Analyzing the number of faint galaxies that can be seen with the Hubble space telescope hubblesite.org, Conselice's team determined that there must be an astronomical number of galaxies that we can't currently see.
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