By Mike Butcher — techcrunch.com — Gaza, despite being one of the most economically challenged regions in the world, has ironically always been a tech hub — not only for Palestine and Palestinians, but for the world: International companies have, for many years, sought out a presence there to collaborate both with talented tech freelancers, and the startups which gradually emerged from the region. For examples, according to sources who helped build those bridges, Nvidia, famed for its role in the new AI boom, has been working with at least 100 engineers from the region for years. Since at least 2008 TechCrunch been covering technology companies out of Palestine, some serving their direct audience, some serving the tech world internationally. Silicon Valley had taken an increasing interest in Palestine as a tech hub, but like the ecosystem itself, it’s nascent: To date, those working in the region estimate that as much as $10 million has been invested in the Palestinian tech ecosystem. Notably, in 2017, Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff joined Silicon Valley luminaries in backing the first-ever coding academy to be created in Gaza. Gaza Sky Geeks, an Alphabet-backed initiative based in Gaza that provides pre-seed investments, training and technology resources to Palestine’s Gazan population, has been a beacon of entrepreneurship in the region. All of that is now, effectively, gone, like the buildings in Gaza itself.

Israel is currently retaliating militarily against the attacks on its people, on its soil, and the hostages subsequently taken by Hamas — the ruling organisation in Gaza that kidnapped at least 150 people and took them into Gaza during brutal attacks on Israel last weekend that killed 1,300 people. That strategy has seen it pummeling the ‘Gaza Strip’ with bombs to eradicate it of Hamas and to get its hostages back. Over 1,500 people in Palestine so far have been killed as a result. The tech industry in Israel — the country’s biggest export, and its biggest single contributor to GDP — is also taking a big knock (read about that here), but the impact on the smaller and more fragile ecosystem in Gaza has been, inevitably, significantly more serious. The physical, economic and societal destruction resulting from that leaves any future for the tech industry there in doubt.

by techcrunch.com — Ingrid Lunden, Ron Miller — The world is still coming to terms with Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israelis last weekend — and everything else that has unfolded so far in the aftermath, including the barrage of retaliation strikes on Gaza. A look at how the situation is playing out in the startup ecosystem sheds light on its impact to the country as a whole. In such a small country, just about everyone knows someone who was directly affected by the attacks, or someone involved in the subsequent defense and retaliation — and often all three. Technology is, without question, a giant part of Israel’s economy. In 2022, it contributed more than 18% of the country’s GDP, the most of any single sector, according to the latest annual report from the Israel Innovation Authority.

A total of 14% of Israeli citizens work in high tech, which in a country of just 9.2 million people works out to about 1.3 million. The active number of startups in the country is 9,000 (third-highest in the world after the Bay Area and NYC) and these startups have collectively, in the last five years, brought $95 billion into the country by way of venture capital. Combining the business development of startups with larger tech companies in the country — Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, Google and many others have operations in Israel — they collectively exported $71 billion last year, 48.3% of the total amount exported across all industries. Undoubtedly, those numbers are all going to be significantly lower this year, not least because the disruptions of this war are coming directly on the heels of a major protest movement.

by National Review — There’s still much that we don’t know about the Hamas massacre. But what we do know is as outrageous as it is unsurprising: Iran is also responsible. The Islamic dictatorship has armed, funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, and otherwise assisted Hamas over many years. That is a universally recognized fact, acknowledged by the U.S. State Department and by the regime itself. Now, at least 25 American citizens are dead: murdered, brutally, by Iran’s terrorist force on the Gaza Strip. Others have been taken hostage. America must now respond: to restore deterrence, neutralize the Iranian terror threat, and prevent further carnage.

The latest report on Iran’s involvement, via the Wall Street Journal, says that U.S. intelligence analysts believe that while the regime knew about Hamas’s plan to carry out attacks against Israel, it was not briefed on their timing or scope. That follows another report from the paper quoting Hezbollah and Hamas leaders as saying that Iran was so deeply involved in the planning that its foreign minister took part in coordinating meetings in Lebanon and ultimately gave the green light for the operation to move forward. The Washington Post reported Monday that intelligence sources believe the attack “bore hallmarks of Iranian support” including training, funding, logistical support, and technical assistance in manufacturing weapons from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. But the Biden administration and the Israeli government have avoided linking Tehran too directly to the terrorist plot. The line out of the White House, pushed by national-security adviser Jake Sullivan, is that Iran is “complicit” but that the U.S. does not have evidence of a direct Iranian hand in the plots.

BY ISSIE LAPOWSKY5 MINUTE READ Yitzy — Fastcompany — Hammer was itching to get back to work. For the last two weeks, Hammer, a lawyer who works with emerging tech companies in Israel, had been home with his four kids who weren’t in school during the Jewish high holidays. This week was supposed to be their first back, and Hammer had a packed schedule planned for the days ahead. But since Saturday—when Hammer and his wife awoke to the sound of bombs falling and spent part of the day huddled with their family in a shelter inside their home in the central Israeli city of Modi’in—Hammer says, “Work has been the last thing on my mind.” Instead, on Sunday, Hammer, who is a reservist with the Israeli Defense Forces, left his home and headed about an hour south to a military base on the Gaza border, where he is now spending 12-hour shifts working out of what he describes as a “fortified caravan,” serving as a legal advisor to the IDF. Hammer is not alone. “Everybody here with me is part of the tech industry in some way or another,” he tells Fast Company.

In a country where the tech sector accounts for roughly one-fifth of the annual GDP and 10% of of the labor force, Hammer is just one of many business leaders, investors, and workers in Israel’s booming tech industry who have been drawn into the conflict since Hamas launched an attack on civilians near the Gaza border Saturday morning, killing some 1,200 people in Israel, most of them civilians, and taking at least 150 people hostage. The attacks have prompted a declaration of war by the Israeli government, which has since pounded the Gaza strip with its own series of air strikes in what Israel’s defense minister has warned will be a “complete siege” of the Palestinian region. Already, the death toll from Israel’s strikes in the Gaza Strip has climbed to at least 950 people, with another 5,000 wounded, 60% of whom include women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. In addition to volunteers, the Israeli military has since called up more than 300,000 reservists, many of whom are executives, founders, or employees who make up Israel’s so-called “startup nation,” or who work at the Israeli headquarters of some of the world’s biggest tech firms. For Dor Serero, Monday was supposed to be his first day working for Microsoft, but he was called into the reserves before he had a chance to start. “[A]s I am writing this post, sirens are going on and off, and I can hear rockets exploding in the distance,” Serero wrote on LinkedIn.

By MIT Technology Review by Abdullahi Tsanni — Gene editing could help prevent chickens from catching and spreading bird flu, according to a proof-of-concept study.| Researchers used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to alter the DNA of 10 chickens to resist the bird flu virus and then exposed all of them to a low dose of it. Only one of the 10 chickens caught the virus, and that chicken did not pass it on to any others. “What this shows is that there’s a proof of concept that we can use to move toward making chickens resistant to the virus. But we’re not there yet,” Wendy Barclay, a virologist and professor at Imperial College London, who co-led the research, said on a press conference call. The study was published today in Nature Communications. Bird flu has killed millions of both wild and farmed birds across the world in recent years. It has increasingly affected mammals as well, raising fears among virologists that the virus could adapt to infect humans.

For the chicken study, the team made changes to a protein gene in the birds’ sperm and eggs. This protein, called ANP32A, helps flu viruses attack chickens’ systems. By rearranging the DNA letters of the ANP32A protein, the researchers were able to restrict the flu virus from infecting the chickens. “The genetic changes that we made were changes we knew will stop the growth of the virus in the chicken cells,” Alewo Idoko-Akoh, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, who was part of the study, explained. To further test the resilience of the gene-edited birds, the researchers exposed them to a second, higher dose of the bird flu virus. Of the 10, five became infected. Still, the gene edit did provide some level of protection. The researchers also found that the intervention limited spread of the virus: only one of four non-gene-edited chickens placed in the same incubator got infected, and there was no transmission to gene-edited chickens. However, the research team found that in the gene-edited birds, the virus adapted to enlist the support of two related proteins—ANP32B and ANP32E—to replicate.

By Aoibhinn McBride — venturebeat.com — From rising inflation to mass layoffs in the tech industry to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, economic doom and gloom has dominated the headlines in 2023. The threat of recession has also been lingering in the air but new data by Goldman Sachs Group has found that the chance of recession has fallen from 20% to 15%. This is down to two major factors: inflation has cooled from the record-breaking 9.1% we witnessed in June 2022 and currently sits at 3.7%. Secondly, the labor market remains in good shape, despite the aforementioned layoffs. As a consequence, disposable income is on the up and is predicted to accelerate in 2024. So what does that mean in terms of finding a new job? Should you stay put and wait to see what unfolds in the new year or get ahead of the curve now and start looking for opportunities before the holiday season slowdown? Here’s how to work it out.

Career credit check

For starters, it’s a good idea to identify if you really need or want to move jobs and if moving jobs will put you in a better position financially. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data’s July 2023 Survey of Consumer Expectations, salaries have increased by nearly $10,000 on average compared to July 2022. The report identified that in July, the average salary for a full-time job was $69,475 compared to $60,764 a year before. And for those switching jobs, the lowest amount workers were prepared to move for was almost $6,000 higher than what was deemed acceptable a year previously — meaning job seekers are in a prime position to ask for, and get, more money.

Professional gains

Next, look at what a new job will grant you in terms of professional development. If a better job title seems out of reach in your current role or you feel like you’re stagnating and not learning new skills, switching jobs should be a priority. Similarly, if your current employer isn’t offering learning and development opportunities, on site or through a third-party provider, moving jobs to a company that prioritizes L&D and has incorporated it into its benefits package is something to consider. And if you do find yourself on the job hunt, the VentureBeat Job Board is the ideal place to start your search. It features thousands of tech jobs across the U.S. including the three below.

By Middleeast Monitor — Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has urged Israeli Druze citizens and conscripts not to participate in hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territories, Anadolu news agency reported. In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Jumblatt asked Druze Arabs not to take part in Israel’s attack on Gaza. “The march of history, no […]

Story by Sarah Fortinsky — the hill — Elon Musk on Sunday flagged a post from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that celebrated the attacks by Hamas on Israel and said Khamenei’s statement made clear that Iran’s goal is eradicating Israel. “Khamenei’s official position is clear that the eradication of Israel is the actual goal, […]

By Hannah Brockhaus — catholicnewsagencycom — Pope Francis and the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem have responded to the sudden outbreak of conflict in Israel and Palestine over the weekend. The pope said at the end of a public address on Sunday he is following the violence “with apprehension and sorrow,” and issued an appeal to “please stop weapons attacks!” The head of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, called for a de-escalation of the situation in a statement Oct. 7. “The continuing bloodshed and declarations of war remind us once again of the urgent need to find a lasting and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in this land,” he said. A series of rocket attacks and incursions on Israel from Hamas militants had reportedly killed hundreds and wounded many between Saturday and Sunday morning.

The surprise attacks began early on the morning of Oct. 7, the start of the observance of the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah. Israel reacted to the attacks by fighting back in southern Israel and launching airstrikes in Gaza. Israeli military official Daniel Hagari told reporters Sunday morning that “hundreds of terrorists” had been killed during fighting in Gaza and southern Israel, the Associated Press reported. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday Israel is “at war.” In an appeal at the end of his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis said “terrorism and war do not bring any solution, but only death and suffering for many innocent people. War is a failure. Every war is a failure.” He said he is close to the families of the victims and called for prayers “that there will be peace in Israel and Palestine.”

by reuters — The Israeli military on Sunday said one of its drones struck a Hezbollah post in Har Dov area along the border with Lebanon, after Hezbollah claimed the artillery attack on Israeli-occupied Shebba farms. “We targeted with missiles the radar sites, Zibdin and Ruwaisat Al-Alam,” the militant group said in a statement. The […]