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Chance discovery helps fight against malaria – BBC

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Scientists have found a naturally occurring strain of bacteria which can help stop the transmission of malaria from mosquitoes to humans.
They found it by chance, after a colony of mosquitoes in one experiment did not develop the malaria parasite.
The researchers say the bacteria could be a new tool for fighting one of the world's oldest diseases, which kills 600,000 people every year.
Trials assessing its safety in the real world are now taking place.
Scientists at a research facility in Spain, run by the GSK pharmaceutical company, made the discovery after noticing that a colony of mosquitoes being used for drug development had stopped carrying malaria.
"The infection rate in the mosquitoes started dwindling and so by the end of the year the mosquitoes just would not be infected with the malaria parasite," says Dr Janneth Rodrigues, who led the programme.
The team froze the samples from their 2014 experiment and went back to them two years later to explore what had happened.
Further studies revealed that a specific strain of bacteria – TC1 – which is naturally present in the environment, had stopped the development of the malaria parasites in the gut of the mosquitoes.
"Once it colonises the mosquito, it lasts for the entire lifespan," says Dr Rodrigues.
"And we found out that, yes, it is the bacteria which was responsible for reducing transmission in those mosquitoes."
New data published in Science magazine suggests the bacteria can reduce a mosquito's parasite load by up to 73%.
The bacteria works by secreting a small molecule, known as harmane, which inhibits the early stages of the malaria parasite growing in the mosquito's gut.
In conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, the GSK scientists discovered that harmane can either be ingested orally by the mosquito, if mixed with sugar, or absorbed through its cuticle on contact.
This lays open the possibility of treating surfaces in areas where the insects rest with the active compound.
More trials are now taking place at a contained field research facility called MosquitoSphere in Burkina Faso to assess how effective and safe it would be to use harmane at scale in the real world.
The hope is that by developing this bacteria-based intervention into a product, scientists may soon have another tool in the box against one of the world's oldest diseases.
Malaria kills about 620,000 people a year – often children under the age of five. Vaccines have now been developed, but they are still in the early stages of being rolled out in Africa.
Gareth Jenkins, from the charity Malaria No More, said the new discovery was promising.
"Malaria kills a child every minute. Significant progress has been made in reducing the global burden of malaria, but to get us back on track we need new and innovative tools in the arsenal.
"With a strong innovation pipeline, it is possible to end the threat of malaria in our lifetimes."
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© 2023 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.

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In Israel's fight for survival against tech savvy Hamas terrorists Biden seeks to micromanage the war – Fox News

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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2023 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
 FOX News White House correspondent Peter Doocy has the latest on the Biden administration’s response to the Middle East conflict on ‘Special Report.’
As Israeli Defense Forces resumed military operations to eradicate the Hamas terrorist threat last Friday, the Biden administration is inserting itself into Israel’s war planning process, teaching the Israelis – who’ve been fighting for their survival for decades – how to properly prosecute the conflict. 
Washington warfare “experts” – who arguably haven’t secured a single clear military victory since 1945 – insist that Israeli military strategists alter their war plans to make their combat operations more targeted and their strikes more accurate, in order to minimize casualties, especially among civilians. 
The Biden administration’s demands, while noble-sounding, are misguided and unreasonable. Implementing these requirements, at the expense of achieving the main mission of eliminating Hamas and its entire supporting infrastructure, will likely prolong the conflict, ultimately resulting in many more Israeli and Palestinian deaths. Here’s why.
LABELING CHINA, RUSSIA AND IRAN AS NEW ‘AXIS OF EVIL’ WILL NOT NEUTRALIZE THE THREATS THEY POSE
President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in an expanded bilateral meeting with Israeli and U.S. government officials, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, in Tel Aviv. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Hamas is no longer your grandfather’s terrorist gang, the way it used to be years ago. Like many other non-state terrorist groups, Hamas has benefited from the democratization of technology, which has made access to weapons, military-grade components, and the know-how necessary for indigenous production, much easier across the board than it used to be. 
Consequently, Hamas is now in possession of more deadly, more advanced weaponry than it had did even a decade ago. Its much more diverse weapons arsenal makes the terrorists look and fight more like a regular military force rather than a non-state terrorist group. This levels the battlefield a lot more than it did during the 2014 Gaza War between Israeli forces and Hamas.
The employment of drone warfare enabled Hamas to catch the Israelis off guard. During the initial wave of attacks on October 7, the terror group used small tactical drones to strike multiple Israeli military targets, disrupting infrastructure and destroying surveillance towers, cameras, and communications, as the terrorists  were infiltrating across the southern border, killing some 1,200 people. This element of surprise enabled Hamas to seize, at least temporarily, what’s called in modern warfare, strategic initiative, leaving Israelis stunned and scrambling to defend itself. 
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei meets Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran on November 5, 2023.  (Photo by Iranian Leader Press Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Hamas has modernized its drone arsenal, which now includes ‘Zouari’ suicide drone, named after Mohammed Zouari, the late Hamas engineer and drone pilot; Ababil-2 Iranian Tactical UAV; Misagh-1 with a high explosive-fragmentation warhead; AK-103-2 with aburst-fire setting, and RAAD-T, according to Army Recognition, OE Data Integration Network and DroneSec databases. 
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Hamas has also significantly improved its indigenously manufactured rockets, called Qassam, having extended their range from 2-3 miles in its first iteration to 10 miles, with the Qassam 3. Today’s generation of missiles used by Hamas have a range of 150 miles, covering all of Israel.
Hamas also has been the beneficiary of Iranian weapons, technical assistance, and training. In 2020, the State Department assessed that Iran sends $100 million a year to Palestinian terrorist groups, arming and training them to attack Israel and murder its civilians as Hamas did on October 7.
According to the Wall Street Journal, 500 Hamas terrorists were trained by Iran Quds Force, the foreign-operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in special combat tactics, during the weeks leading up to the October 7th terrorist attacks. Hamas used combined arms tactics during the assault, synchronizing the attacks across air, land, and sea, a warfare style used by regular armies.
Members Hamas display rockets during a military parade on the Streets in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip.  (Photo by Yousef Masoud/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
During the 2023 campaign, Israelis are dying at more than twice the rate as in 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal. The upgrades in weapons and tactics are the likely reasons why Hamas is a much more lethal force than it used to be, posing a much more formidable threat to the Israeli forces.
On a visit to Tel Aviv recently, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned the Israeli leadership, about “the imperative to the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south.” He demanded a “clear plan in place that puts a premium on protecting civilians as well as sustaining and building on the humanitarian assistance that’s getting into Gaza.” 
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (R) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shake hands prior to a meeting in Tel Aviv on November 30, 2023. Blinken told Israeli leaders on November 30 that a temporary truce in their war with Hamas was “producing results” and should continue.   (Photo by SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
How in the world can the Israelis assure Washington that they will avert civilian deaths, given that Hamas is known for using civilians as human shields? How can the IDF avoid striking civilian targets if Hamas uses hospitals as operational command centers and storage facilities for weapons and combat gear?
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Whether intentional or not, what the Biden administration is doing is restricting the IDF’s freedom of action and flexibility of maneuver, as Israel is striving to eliminate the existential threat to its survival. 
It is bad enough that Israel has to deal with a much more lethal and bloodthirsty enemy that is armed to the teeth. Now its defenders have to fight with one arm tied behind their back because Washington, almost certainly driven by politics, is hell-bent on micromanaging someone else’s war.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM REBEKAH KOFFLER
Rebekah Koffler is a strategic military intelligence analyst and the author of Putin’s Playbook. She is Managing Editor of an e-mail newsletter for independent thinkers, CutToTheNews.com. Follow her on Twitter @Rebekah0132
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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2023 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

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5 Fights We Need to See After UFC Fight Night 233 – Bleacher Report

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5 Fights We Need to See After UFC Fight Night 233  Bleacher Report
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Bleacher Report Boxing Pound-For-Pound Rankings: Feb 2009 – Bleacher Report

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Bleacher Report Boxing Pound-For-Pound Rankings: Feb 2009  Bleacher Report
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