The NYTimes just published an article on Baghdad losing a lot of green space due to a building boom, which is driving up temperatures in the city.

>Baghdad Loses Green Space to Real Estate Boom

>The problem is driving up temperatures in what is already one of the hottest cities in the world, where air-conditioning is a luxury only the rich can afford.

(The link I posted is without pay wall.)

Link to the paper

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)01378-2

Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14th century

Highlights
• Genome-wide data for 33 Jewish individuals from 14th-century Erfurt, Germany
• Medieval and modern Ashkenazi Jews (AJ) have similar ancestral genetic sources
• Medieval AJ were genetically heterogeneous, likely divided into two or more groups
• The individuals descend from an extreme founder event shared with modern AJ

Summary
We report genome-wide data from 33 Ashkenazi Jews (AJ), dated to the 14th century, obtained following a salvage excavation at the medieval Jewish cemetery of Erfurt, Germany. The Erfurt individuals are genetically similar to modern AJ, but they show more variability in Eastern European-related ancestry than modern AJ. A third of the Erfurt individuals carried a mitochondrial lineage common in modern AJ and eight carried pathogenic variants known to affect AJ today. These observations, together with high levels of runs of homozygosity, suggest that the Erfurt community had already experienced the major reduction in size that affected modern AJ. The Erfurt bottleneck was more severe, implying substructure in medieval AJ. Overall, our results suggest that the AJ founder event and the acquisition of the main sources of ancestry pre-dated the 14th century and highlight late medieval genetic heterogeneity no longer present in modern AJ.

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Graphical Abstract

https://www.cell.com/cms/attachment/3759f43a-46a8-43c7-9dbf-77bbb60292b2/fx1.jpg

Well, the (perceived) permission to enter may have been a misunderstanding. With the information we have right now, it's impossible to tell what exactly happened. However, journalists who cover a crime scene and believe they have been granted access are unlikely to decline this option.

In that scenario I put more blame on the network who decided to air the footage. A lot of journalists and photographers take videos and images of horrific scenes, which networks and media outlets decide not to publish. The network had editorial control and made the decision to put the footage out there.

Sometimes it can be an honest misunderstanding between cultures.

When I lived in Bangkok, I visited a public but very untouristy temple and walked towards the central ubosot. On the way, I had to pass a couple of people, of whom a few looked at me somewhat weirdly. Since I'm very tall and used to Thais looking at me for that reason, I didn't think much of it.

I walked up the stairs to the ubosot, took off my shoes, walked around the corner into the hall and stood in front of at least 50 meditating monks.

Turns out, they had just received a new Buddha statue and were holding an ordination ceremony. Everybody else around the temple knew about it and knew I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but nobody spoke up, since they were being polite and didn't want to confront me.

It's possible that the situation was different for the CNN team and they should've certainly been especially careful and respectful in this specific situation, but I can definitely picture a scenario in which they thought they were following the correct steps and still ended up in this situation.