Israeli Airstrikes Rock Southern Suburbs of Beirut and Cut Off a Key Crossing Into Syria

BEIRUT — Israel carried out a series of massive airstrikes overnight, hitting suburbs of Beirut and cutting off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria for tens of thousands of people fleeing Israeli bombardment.

The blasts in Beirut’s southern suburbs sent huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shook buildings kilometers (miles) away in the Lebanese capital. The Israeli military did not comment on what the intended target was, and there was no information yet available on casualties. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area.

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Meanwhile, Israel’s military said that Hezbollah had launched about 100 rockets into Israel on Friday, as fighting continued between Israel and the militant group.

The Israeli military also said Friday that a strike in Beirut the day before killed Mohammed Rashid Skafi, the head of Hezbollah’s communications division. The military said in a statement that Skafi was “a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000” and was “closely affiliated” with high-up Hezbollah officials.

Thursday’s strike along the Lebanon-Syria border, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Beirut, led to the closure of the road near the busy Masnaa Border Crossing.

Israel said it had targeted the crossing because it was being used by Hezbollah to transport military equipment across the border. It said fighter jets had struck a tunnel used to smuggle weapons from Iran and other proxies into Lebanon.

Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weaponry from Iran via Syria. The group has a presence on both sides of the border, a region where it has been fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

Associated Press video footage showed two huge craters on each side of the road. People got out of cars, unable to pass the site of the strike, carrying bags of their possessions as they crossed on foot.

Tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks.

The new wave of strikes came after Israel warned people to evacuate communities in southern Lebanon, including but also beyond an area that the United Nations declared a buffer zone after Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006.

Israel launched a ground incursion into Lebanon on Tuesday and its forces have been clashing with Hezbollah militants in a narrow strip along the border. A series of attacks before the incursion killed some of the group’s key members, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived Friday in Beirut for meetings with Lebanese officials. He warned that if Israeli carries out an attack on Iran, Tehran would retaliate in a harsh way.

Araghchi’s visit to Beirut came three days after Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel, the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks that threaten to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.

“If the Israeli entity takes any step or measure against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the previous one,” Araghchi said after meeting Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Iran is Hezbollah’s main backer and has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the group over the years.

In the Iranian capital, Tehran, the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led Friday prayers and delivered a speech where he praised the country’s recent missile strike on Israel and said Iran was prepared to conduct more strikes if needed.

He spoke to thousands of people at the capital’s main prayer site, the Mosalla mosque, which was decorated with a huge Palestinian flag.

The strike at the main border crossing was the first time it has been cut since the beginning of the war. Lebanese General Security recorded 256,614 Syrian citizens and 82,264 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syrian territory between Sept. 23 — when the Israel launched a heavy bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon — and Sept. 30.

There are half a dozen border crossings between the two countries and most of them remain open. Lebanon’s minister of public works said all border crossings between Lebanon and Syria work under the supervision of the state.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across Lebanon’s southern border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which the militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it carried out a strike Thursday in Tulkarem, a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank, in coordination with the Shin Bet internal security service.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp there.

Violence has flared across the Israeli-occupied territory since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October 2023. Tulkarem and other northern cities have seen some of the worst violence.

Israel declared war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to their Oct. 7 attack. More than 41,000 Palestinians have since been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in that time, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Israel’s military said Friday that militants in Gaza fired two rockets into Israeli territory, the first time Israel has seen rocket fire from Gaza in about a month.

The military said one of the rockets was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and the other fell in an open area near a kibbutz across the border from Gaza.

The number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel has slowed considerably since the start of the war.

source https://time.com/7048993/israeli-airstrikes-beirut-cut-off-key-syria-crossing/

The Story Behind The Outrun

It’s not often that an addiction drama feels like a nature documentary, but from its opening moments, The Outrun seems to want to be mistaken for one.

Though the film eventually finds its way to Saoirse Ronan’s captivating lead performance as a recovering alcoholic, The Outrun begins underwater, observing a lonesome seal in the North Sea. There, along the Orkney Islands, primordial land masses off the blustery and chilly Scottish coast, it’s common folklore that these “selkies” are actually drowned human souls who take the form of the seal for safety in the freezing water before shedding their skin and reverting to two legs on shore. In this harsh and isolated area of the world, that kind of magical transformation doesn’t seem too far-fetched.

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As evidenced in this serene opening sequence, Nora Fingscheidt’s searching and soulful adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s award-winning memoir makes good on its source material’s harmonious blend of sealife, mythology, and metaphor—and the extremes of a disease that can often feel like waves crashing into craggy rocks. Taking few liberties with Liptrot’s story, it follows Rona, a biology student who has spent seven years living in London, but whose promising future at work and with her boyfriend is upended by her alcohol abuse, which spirals into frequently harmful nights out. After completing three months of rehab, the 29-year-old decides to return home to Orkney, where her separated parents still live, taking a nature conservancy job as she struggles to stay sober.

Maybe, she thinks, it will lead to her own transformation, and help her to begin a new, clean chapter of life.

Leaning on Liptrot’s personal experiences and writing, Fingscheidt explores both spectrums of the author’s drunken and sober life in the film. Like the violent winds that make up the unpredictable life on Orkney, the movie whips back and forth along its timeline, bringing Rona’s messy past and isolated present into direct conversation. The jagged structure lends some drama and mystery to certain aspects of her journey, but it mostly captures the feeling of relapsing—and the bipolar nature of her recovery.

“That’s sort of how the healing process works,” Liptrot tells TIME in a recent interview, speaking from inside a caravan on her father’s Orkney farm. “I finally got sober for 13-and-a-half years yesterday. It’s really hard to quit.”

When Liptrot began to write The Outrun in 2011, she thought it would help her continue to process life as a recovering alcoholic. Throughout her time in rehab, she’d posted blogs that chronicled some of her damaging experiences. And once she returned home to Orkney, she started a nature column about island life and farming in the natural world. “These two bodies of work came together in this book,” she says. “More than cathartic, it was sort of artistically satisfying. I was finally doing the type and quality of writing that I’d always hoped that I would. I was writing about getting sober, but the writing itself was helping me to stay sober.”

Not long after her memoir was published in 2016, Liptrot was approached by numerous filmmakers about securing a movie option for her recovery tale. “It was something I thought quite seriously about: Is this a process that I want to enter into?” Liptrot says. “I remember going for a long walk and considering it all.” She ultimately perked up when eventual producer Sarah Brocklehurst sent her a love letter about the book, offering some ideas about how to adapt it and sharing some movie references, including Andrea Anrold’s Wuthering Heights and the Scottish film Movern Callar, to describe her vision. “The other thing that she was quite clear on was that she would like me to be involved in the process,” Liptrot says.

Saoirse Ronan signed on to the project a few years later (her husband, the actor Jack Lowden, introduced the book to her and has a producing credit), but it wasn’t until Fingscheidt joined the project that Liptrot began aiding the creative process. The director built out a script with a structure similar to the book, and enlisted Liptrot, credited as a screenwriter, to provide what they called the “nerd layer,” the movie’s journalistic, narrated observations about Orkney’s nature and long-held legends. The pair swapped ideas between Los Angeles and Yorkshire, changing the order of things and honing in on specific life events.

“I felt that this nerd layer really lifted what could have been a more straightforward adaptation,” Liptrot says. “We would have these long conversations and then she would come back with something written that would pick out unexpected details of something that I mentioned, combined with details from the book in new and inventive ways.”

The memoir, which is organized along various themes, is broadly chronological, but pivots around Liptrot’s memories on a whim. “Sometimes I say it’s about beauty, sensation and the feeling of cold water on hot skin,” she wrote in The Guardian upon its release. “Sometimes I say it’s about birds and addiction. Sometimes I say it’s about a period in my life when I’d returned to Orkney after I got out of rehab in London.” The conflation of events influenced her and Fingscheidt’s decision to build a nonlinear screenplay and lean into its literary feel.

To aid the writing process—and allow for some fictional leeway—they decided to name the movie’s protagonist Rona so they could avoid using Liptrot’s name. But things still got blurry—like when the production moved to the real caravan where her father lived, or when Ronan set up shop in the same rose house on Papa Westray, a remote island off the Orkneys, where Liptrot began writing her book. Outside of Rona’s background as a biology student and an added relapse on Orkney, “almost every scene in there is something real that happened to me,” Liptrot says.

Ahead of filming, Liptrot and Ronan had a few Zoom conversations in which the Oscar-winning actress, playing a living person for the first time in her career, began asking questions about various aspects of her time in a 12-step program and on the islands. “I do feel that she didn’t get her main inspiration from me as a person,” Liptrot says. “She’s not doing an impression of me. I think what she was channeling was my writing—that kind of slightly elevated voice that I have. My writing gets to be manifested rather than my slightly nervous, normal person.”

Though Liptrot concedes, there was at least one glaring similarity: “She’s got that little frown that you do,” her friend observed. 

Liptrot didn’t spend too much time on set, but she had full access to Fingscheidt’s scenes each day, which she watched come together in the editing room. The experience was a strange one, like going down a looking glass. “There was this moment when I clicked the link and suddenly, my real memory, and how I wrote it in the book, was overtaken by this new physical manifestation of those scenes,” she says. Watching her character get drunk was much harder, but she praises Fingscheidt for not turning the camera away too quickly from them. “Nora made some quite strong decisions to let some of these scenes play out at quite some length, and quite some awkwardness,” she says. 

Since the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Liptrot has been overwhelmed by the movie’s existence and the early buzz around Ronan’s award-worthy performance. The night before we spoke, she had just shown the movie to Orkney residents at a red-carpet style event where the entire island dressed up.

 “I feel just really proud that my story has added something to the tapestry of Orkney and the culture of the islands,” she says. 

But unlike her recovery journey, she adds, “there’s no guidebook for this experience for me.”

source https://time.com/7034642/the-outrun-true-story/

How 5 Influencers With IBD Are Fighting Stigma

Although some health conditions are spoken about with more nuance and understanding than in the past, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) hasn’t seemed to make that list yet, even though the condition affects between 2.4 and 3.1 million people in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Because flare-ups can involve frequent diarrhea, and severe cases may require surgical placement of an ostomy bag, IBD (which is the umbrella term for two conditions: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) can often feel embarrassing and isolating, particularly if flares happen often or if others around you—from family members to coworkers—don’t understand the extent of the disease. That’s why social media can be a boon for those with IBD, helping them connect with others and share insights, as well as offer support. Here are five influencers who are leading the way in fighting the kind of stigma associated with IBD, and creating a robust community in the process.

Addressing cultural stigma

Although getting an official diagnosis of IBD can take time as symptoms worsen, New Jersey-based Tina Aswani-Omprakash, 41, encountered an additional delay, and it wasn’t because of her gastrointestinal issues.

“My doctor said people like me, of South Asian descent, didn’t get IBD so that couldn’t be what I have,” she recalls. “Even when I told him that my dad died of colorectal cancer related to having Crohn’s, he still was unwilling to believe me or put me on medication.” 

After changing her provider and finally getting the treatment she needed for her Crohn’s, Aswani-Omprakash continued to hear misperceptions, but this time they were within her own family. Several of her relatives were unhappy that she was taking medications, since there can be distrust of Western medicine within the South Asian community, she says, and they believed she could “cure” herself through diet. 

“Also, I felt judged by many for having this disease,” she says. “Having UC is bad enough, but then to be blamed for it really takes a toll. Even when I needed emergency surgery, they were against it, telling me that ‘No one will marry you if you have an ostomy,’ and that this would be the end of my life.”

Read More: How to Navigate Dating When You Have IBD

She turned to social media to find others with the condition, but quickly discovered that not many people were talking about the type of cultural challenges she was facing. Because she knew other South Asian people must feel the same way, she got involved with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation to help manage online groups, and that led to starting to share her story on social media.

“That was so hard because a lot of my family and friends said I was bringing shame onto my family, that talking about this was inappropriate,” she says. “In some ways, that drove me even more to address this stigma.” In 2021, Aswani-Omprakash also co-founded a nonprofit organization, the South Asian IBD Alliance, and it’s continuing to scale up and expand its reach. Her personal blog, OwnYourCrohns.com, has won several awards, and she speaks at numerous conferences every year about her experience as a way to inform not just those with the condition, but also health providers who might inadvertently hold biases like the first doctor she saw.

“It’s really all about knowledge, because people tend to have bias and stigma around what they don’t understand,” she says. “That means the more awareness we can spread about what it’s like to have these conditions, the better.”

Read More: Why Bathroom Access Is a Public Health Issue

Navigating through emotional challenges

When Natalie Hayden, 41, graduated from college in 2005, she was eager to start her career as a broadcaster, kicking off with an internship at CBS Chicago. Then, her occasional gastrointestinal issues intensified to the point that she sought help, and was shocked to be diagnosed with Crohn’s. Even worse, her sickness became so overwhelming that she could barely walk up a flight of stairs, much less be on camera every day.

“When I left the hospital after an acute flare, I was put on 22 pills a day,” she says. “Plus, the prednisone I was taking changed my appearance. I didn’t even want anyone taking my photo, so it felt like my lifelong dream of being on the news was gone.”

Added to that challenge, she felt utterly alone. At the time, few people on social media were talking about chronic illness, and all her friends were healthy and pursuing their careers without interruption. Hayden says it all added up to mental health challenges as well as physical issues. Then, in 2014, after stints in public relations and TV news, she realized that her love for storytelling and the lack of representation for those with IBD could drive a whole new effort. She started writing for blogs and sharing her story on social media and her own blog, LightsCameraCrohns.com, particularly her journey through motherhood. Because those with IBD often have to switch medications or even discontinue them during pregnancy, flares become such a significant concern that even those in remission will be considered to be having a high-risk pregnancy, she says.

“It takes a lot to fight through the pain and to constantly be readjusting your life,” she says. “Becoming an advocate and sharing information, especially for those going through pregnancy, has become a source of transformation for me. I know many women with IBD who are worried that they can’t have children, but that’s simply not true.”

Hayden says she’s very vocal about all her ups and downs, because she wants others who may be going through similar circumstances to feel seen. She gets many DMs from followers who are struggling with the emotional aspect of IBD, and says she tries to be a “safe space” where they can be heard. 

“I know what it’s like to have dark thoughts with this disease and its treatment,” she says. “By sharing my own difficulties, I hope other people can feel lighter, and not alone.”

Modeling body acceptance

One of the most difficult aspects of IBD is accepting the kind of physical changes that come with treatment—for example, corticosteroids are commonly used to control inflammation but can result in a rounded face that might make people taking them feel self-conscious. For those who need a procedure such as placement of an ostomy bag, that awareness can be even more acute, says Gaylyn Henderson, 40, of Atlanta.

She started experiencing symptoms of Crohn’s as a teenager in 1998, and needed an ostomy a few years later. But rather than trying to hide the bag under loose clothing, she embraced the opportunity to share her experience, and launched an Instagram account, known as GutlessAndGlamorous, in 2012. Not only does she talk about her experiences with IBD, but Henderson shares modeling photos of herself in bikinis and crop tops, which feature her ostomy bag prominently.

Read More: Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women

“I wanted to address all the stigma around having an ostomy, because people have misconceptions like they’re nasty or stinky,” she says. “That can make people with an ostomy feel like they need to hide it, but I’m trying to show that it shouldn’t be a source of shame.”

After gaining traction and followers on social media, she’s been asked to speak to groups, including a local children’s hospital where teenagers might be struggling with IBD treatment. She’s working to found a nonprofit, also called Gutless and Glamorous, focused on providing more patient education and resources about ostomies. 

“When I was younger, I don’t think I would have felt so overwhelmed and on my own if I’d seen someone who looked like me modeling on the beach with an ostomy,” she says. “Now, I have the opportunity to be that person for a young girl who needs to see that and know it’s okay—that you can have a positive, beautiful life and a body that you celebrate, wherever you are in your IBD journey.”

Creating an IBD network

Like many with IBD, Kimberly Hooks spent years in and out of the hospital trying to manage the type of intense pain that can come with having ulcerative colitis. Then, she ended up having her colon removed in 2020, when COVID restrictions barred any hospital visitors during her recovery. To cope, she started both an Instagram account and a blog, KimberlyMHooks.com, and shared videos and photos from her bed.

“At first, it was just a way to deal with the emotional effects of having a chronic illness,” she says. “I was used to isolation after dealing with ulcerative colitis for 10 years. Even working in a big corporation, it just seemed like no one there could relate, so I kept it to myself. But being in the hospital alone made me want to reach out and connect.”

That was especially the case since she rarely saw Black women like herself represented in articles, patient information, or photos related to IBD. When she began using social media more often, she started building a patient community that reflected the diversity of people affected by the disease.

“Representation matters,” says Hooks. “If you don’t see other people who look like you, it’s easy to feel isolated, and that affects your mental health and outlook. I knew that if I shared my story, another person of color might feel less alone. Social media is so powerful for connecting people and creating community, and this is a great example of that.”

Fighting IBD stigma from the gym

When Robert Frank, 46, of Sarasota, Florida, started having intense stomach pain in early 2021, he suspected it was food poisoning since it came on so suddenly. A colonoscopy done at the ER led to a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis, which came as a shock to him, he says. Unlike many people with IBD, who tend to have symptoms for years, Frank had no idea—and that also meant he didn’t know what might come next. 

An avid bodybuilder, he started losing weight rapidly as a result of having the condition and going through treatment for it. He struggled to keep food down, and the physical changes and mental adjustment threw him into a dark place, he recalls. 

“I kept thinking they must be misdiagnosing me, that I probably had cancer and it was spreading,” says Frank. “I didn’t feel in control of my body at all, which was new for me after decades of building my body in meaningful ways.”

Because he already had a TikTok following from his bodybuilding videos, he began sharing his IBD story in a series of emotional videos that included him in a hospital bed, crying and detailing his worry over what might happen next. After he got home and began going back to the gym to rebuild his health, he kept sharing videos that were honest and vulnerable, and the response was stunning, he said. At this point, he has 1.7 million followers, and many of them come for the IBD insights.

Read More: 8 Apps That Can Help You Manage IBD

“I’ve gotten so many emails and DMs from people who have ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s, and they found me because they were looking for support or to feel less alone,” he says. “Once I started hearing from them, I realized how much stigma there is about IBD, so I encourage them to share their story, too. This disease can be hard, I’ve definitely felt that, and it’s even tougher when you feel alone.”

source https://time.com/7030961/inflammatory-bowel-disease-influencers-fighting-stigma/

Why It’s Time to Uncouple Obstetrics and Gynecology

What we’ve come to recognize as the modern OB-GYN specialty first emerged in the early 20th century when obstetrics and gynecology—separate and distinct fields until that time—were combined to offer comprehensive care throughout women’s reproductive years. Today, many women indeed rely on their OB-GYNs not just for reproductive health, but as primary care providers for everything from family planning to cancer screening and menopause management.

While the merger of obstetrics and gynecology seems logical, the union has led to “bikini medicine,” a remarkably short-sighted approach that reduces women’s health to their reproductive organs while short-changing other vital systems like the heart, brain, and gut.

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This narrow focus has had far-reaching consequences for women’s overall health and the medical profession’s approach to treating women. In fact, it has become increasingly clear that a more holistic, specialized approach is needed to address the complex health needs of women throughout their lives.

This realization has sparked a long-standing debate within the OB-GYN community about separating gynecology from obstetrics—a move I, a women’s health expert, wholeheartedly support. The split would foster subspecialty development, research, and innovation in these historically underexplored areas while giving young doctors the opportunity to specialize in one or the other.

Gynecology focuses on the health of the female reproductive system—including the uterus, ovaries and their hormone production, fallopian tubes, and vagina—encompassing everything from routine exams to the diagnosis and treatment of complex disorders. Obstetrics covers the care given to the mother and fetus during pregnancy and delivery. 

A combined OB-GYN practice skews care toward reproduction and neglects many crucial aspects of gynecology to the great detriment of women’s health. Women are up to 30% more likely to be misdiagnosed for major illnesses like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. This stems from a traditionally male-centric focus in medical research, leaving the unique ways these diseases manifest in women largely overlooked. Cardiovascular disease is a prime example, where women remain underrepresented in clinical cardiovascular trials, making it difficult to fully appreciate sex differences in novel medical therapies, devices, or other interventions. As a result, women also experience more years of poor health compared to men. Heart disease, for instance, is the leading cause of death in women, yet women are seven times more likely to be misdiagnosed and sent home from the ER during a heart attack.

And let’s face it: not all women are interested in reproduction. According to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey, adult men and women alike who are not already parents say they are unlikely to ever have children, citing reasons ranging from simply not wanting to have kids to concerns about climate change and the environment.

The rapid pace of medical advancement further justifies dividing gynecology and obstetrics. Medical knowledge now doubles every 73 days and new treatments take 17 years to reach clinical practice. Both fields have grown too complex for our outdated training model. We’re only now grasping how profoundly ovarian hormones influence a woman’s physiology throughout her life, not just during reproduction. It’s no wonder conditions like menopause remain misunderstood and too often overlooked.

My own experience underscores the challenge. At 43, I was blindsided by sudden anxiety and low-grade depression. Sure, I was working seven days a week with a two-year-old, but this was more than working-mom fatigue. 

As a confident surgeon and businesswoman, I was suddenly gripped by fear and uncertainty. With regular periods, I dismissed hormones—like most doctors in the 1990s—and turned to the medical literature, which pointed to depression.

It was my mother, with no medical background whatsoever, who suggested early menopause changes or perimenopause—something I hadn’t even considered. She was right. Given all my training and years as a practicing gynecologic oncologist and surgeon, how could I have missed the signs, I thought to myself.

If I’m being honest, I simply wasn’t well-versed in menopausal care then. Mismanaged menopause costs U.S. women $1.8 billion annually in lost work, lack of hormone support, and missed prevention of cardiometabolic disorders. Yet nearly two decades after my misdiagnosis, most young physicians still receive only a handful of lectures on menopause during their four-year OB-GYN training.

The problem extends far beyond menopause as well. Women with autoimmune disorders, which are significantly more common in women, often face delayed diagnosis and treatment due to lack of specialized knowledge. Mental health issues in women, particularly those tied to hormonal changes, are frequently misunderstood or dismissed. Even osteoporosis, a major concern for postmenopausal women, is an area where many OB-GYNs lack comprehensive training.

We need to train dedicated women’s health specialists—not just reproductive experts. This would revolutionize the care women receive and dramatically improve outcomes. Beyond the economic losses attributed to mismanaged menopause, consider the productivity losses from undiagnosed autoimmune disorders, the healthcare costs of preventable osteoporotic fractures, and the human cost of misdiagnosed heart disease in women. By creating true women’s health specialists, we can potentially mitigate preventable deaths and recoup billions in healthcare costs and lost productivity.

Read More: Why Maternity Care Is Underpaid

Proponents argue integrated OB-GYNs should remain primary care providers for women, given nationwide shortages. However, OB-GYNs often lack comprehensive training in neurology, cardiovascular, and metabolic health—critical for life-long, sex-specific care. This reliance may actually harm women’s overall health.

Splitting obstetrics and gynecology will allow practitioners to stay more current and proficient in their specific areas, following the precedent set by other medical subspecialties. After World War II, advancements in medical knowledge and technology led to the development of distinct surgical fields and focused residency and fellowship programs. 

As medical science evolves, so too should the training and structure of OB-GYN. Untethering these specialties would align with the broader trend toward increased specialization in medicine, leading to the development of a well-trained, true women’s health specialist—the 21st-century gynecologist. 

Training programs should create separate tracks for obstetrics and gynecology, and professional organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists should develop new standards. Policymakers must support this shift with funding and legislation to better address the unique needs of women’s health care.

Women deserve better than “bikini medicine.” Separating these fields can usher in a new era of women’s healthcare—one that truly addresses the complex, interconnected nature of women’s health. Today’s gynecologists would be true women’s health specialists. Because the cost of inaction is too high.

source https://time.com/7031874/uncoupling-obstetrics-gynecology-essay/

The Importance of the Friend That Gets Other People Together

Every year, for the fourth of July, my friends and I gather for an event called “The Corona Olympics.” Although we’re no longer quarantining, we’ve kept the original name of this casual sporting event; it reminds us how lucky we are to be able to gather freely. The annual party involves games, barbeque, a winner’s ceremony, and several silly speeches. Because of all the props we use (water guns, hula hoops, blindfolds, etc.) it’s more complicated than most hangouts. But fortunately, we have one member of our little group who always steps up to the plate.

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“If I didn’t do it, who would?” asks Emma. “Plus, if I arrange things, I know for sure that I will get to see all my friends.”

My friend Emma identifies as a “gathering friend.” You know the type: they’re the person who throws the dinner parties, sends invites for the park picnic, texts everyone movie showtimes, and knows which bar will be best for a quick round of happy hour drinks. They can act as a fulcrum for fully formed friend groups or as a collector of strays. They’re not necessarily the life of the party but they bring events to life. They’re not always women, though as Emma points out, there is a gendered component to this role. “Women often do this kind of emotional labor, which planning certainly is, and sometimes, it’s physical labor also,” she says.

Talking to Emma about our friend group, I became more aware of how valuable the gatherer friend is—and how my perception of friendship might need a serious update.

I identify as an “island friend,” a term that originated online to describe a person who prefers one-on-one socializing. I’ve long valued my independence, self-reliance, and seclusion. I am a writer, after all. And while I have no plans to change my entire personality, there appears to be plenty of evidence that my island status is doing me no favors.

Historically, I’ve kept a core group of friends since high school. But even though I’ve always attend Emma’s parties, I typically find myself falling into intimate conversations in corners, often with the same people. I’m not unsociable; I just notice that I tend to gravitate towards prolonged, intense engagements over quick catchups.

Read More: What Makes a Friendship Last Forever?

The gatherer friend, on the other hand, may perform a lot of extra labor, but at the end of the day, their efforts come with real rewards. “My mom, growing up, never had a cohesive family,” explains Emma. “So for her, her friends became her family. That was something she took a lot of pride in. She could be the matriarch in a chosen family. It made our home a gathering place, as you know. Everyone was welcome there.” Emma recalls watching people come over when she was a kid, seeing them walk straight to the refrigerator, and open the door, and “fish around for something to eat.”

It was a sign that guests felt right at home. “You still do that!” she exclaimed. (She’s right; I do.) 

According to researchers, having a mixture of strong and weak social ties is key to living a healthy, happy life. It’s good to have friends that you can call and cry to, but it’s equally important to have friends who can pull together a big group hangout. “There’s four different types of social support that people tend to study,” explains clinical psychologist Karmel Choi from Massachusetts General Hospital. These four categories are “emotional” (someone who listens to you), “informational” (someone who dispenses advice), “instrumental” (someone who can be called on to help in a pinch), and “positive interactions” (someone who is just a dang good hang). “Our research shows that the more types you have on board, the better,” says Choi. “It’s not usually one person who fills all these roles.”

Choi cautions against “pigeon-holing” relationships. While I like to pat myself on the back for providing good emotional support (one of my oldest friends jokes that I’m his best therapist), these skills shouldn’t be put into a hierarchy. It’s just as important to show up for people and answer their questions—and party with them in person.

It’s funny that, in thinking about Choi’s caution not to “compartmentalize other people,” I realized that I had been doing that to myself. I had been so used to thinking of myself as an intense talker, a good-in-a-crisis kind of girl, that I had forgotten the significance of everyday gestures of warmth. A well-rounded friend is one who shows up for the hard times and the good times.

In fact, when it comes to social interaction and its positive health benefits, research has shown that quantity can sometimes be just as important as quality. “Our work has shown that it is important to diversify your friendships,” explains Choi. She cites a 2022 study from Harvard Business School that examined relationship diversity and found that there’s value to be found in all varieties of friendship. Choi says, “Having many different kinds of relationships can promote wellbeing above and beyond the quality interactions.”

Another benefit of having a gathering friend is that their presence tends to promote socializing with acquaintances and friends-of-friends, which can help strengthen your overall social connectivity. “Count yourself lucky if you have a few really close people, but we do need a variety of people,” says researcher Julianne Holt-Lunstad, who served as the lead scientific editor for the U.S. Surgeon General’s inquiry into the effects of loneliness and isolation. She explains that social connection isn’t just about friendships, but all kinds of relationships, from the strongest in our lives (our partners, families, and best friends) to the weakest (the grocery store clerk you chatted with that one time).

“My research has focused on how this has been assumed to influence our emotional wellbeing, which it does, but unappreciated is how it impacts our physical health,” says Holt-Lunstad. “We’re starting to look at this more comprehensively and see the impacts it has beyond health.” For instance, Holt-Lunstad says communities that are more socially connected tend to be safe and more economically prosperous, have better education outcomes, and longer life spans. Bringing people together has ripple effects; in this way, Emma’s hosting is an act of community service. 

Friendship is a difficult thing to define and pin down. On a basic, animal level, we’re programmed to flock to each other. Bringing people together, planning parties, making events happen—these are laborious tasks that tend to fall to women, and often to women who identify as “Type A”. Although that letter doesn’t describe me very well, I can still perform gathering in my own messy, spontaneous way. It’s as simple as extending an invitation for pizza and movies to a few casual acquaintances or starting a group text with a few people who might just hit it off.  

Perhaps my previous expectations for friendships were a little bit self-serving and influenced by my biases. As I grow older, branching out and experimenting with new ideas, hobbies, and even places has become increasingly important to me—nothing makes you feel as young as being a novice. I just need to extend this trend to people, as well.

There’s a time and a place for long, intimate conversations (visitors to my island are still welcome!) but according to experts, it’s worth pursuing even the most glancing interactions.

Because in end, you never know who could become a lifelong friend—or what a good evening of “The Corona Olympics” could do for you.

source https://time.com/7027190/the-friend-that-gathers-others-essay/

How COVID-19 Messes Up Your Gut Health

When you reach for a COVID-19 test, it’s probably because you’ve got a scratchy throat, runny nose, or cough. But those are far from the only symptoms that make Dr. Rohit Jain, an internal medicine doctor at PennState Health, suspect the virus.

These days, when someone complains of nausea, diarrhea, or vomiting, “I always get a COVID test on that patient,” Jain says.

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Why? Despite its reputation as a respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2 can also have a profound impact on the gut. Although most people don’t realize it, “COVID-19 really is a GI-tract disease” as well as a respiratory illness, says Dr. Mark Rupp, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Here’s what to know about the gastrointestinal symptoms of COVID-19.

What are the GI symptoms of COVID-19?

While some people experience no gastrointestinal symptoms or mild ones, a subset of COVID-19 patients have experienced significant digestive symptoms since the early days of the pandemic.

Loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain are common GI symptoms of COVID-19, according to Jain’s research. Some people experience these issues as their first signs of infection, he says, while others initially experience cold-like symptoms and develop gastrointestinal issues as their illness progresses.

Read More: Why You Should Change Your Exercise Routine—and How to Do It

It’s not entirely clear why the same virus can affect people so differently, but it’s good to be aware that SARS-CoV-2 can result in a wide range of symptoms, Rupp says.

How long do GI symptoms of COVID-19 last?

Some patients recover in a matter of days, Jain says, while others may suffer from diarrhea and other symptoms for weeks. 

Still others may be sick for even longer. Gastrointestinal problems are a common manifestation of Long COVID, the name for chronic symptoms that follow a case of COVID-19 and can last indefinitely.

One recent study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology found that, among a small group of adults who were hospitalized when they had acute COVID-19, more than 40% who originally experienced GI problems such as stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea still had at least one a year or more later. Overall, whether they were hospitalized or not, adults who have had COVID-19 are about 36% more likely than uninfected people to develop gastrointestinal disorders including ulcers, pancreatitis, IBS, and acid reflux, according to a 2023 study published in Nature Communications.

GI problems are also common among kids with Long COVID. Stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting are telltale signs of the condition among children younger than 12, according to 2024 research published in JAMA.

Why a respiratory virus affects the gut

How can the same virus cause both a runny nose and the runs? 

Once SARS-CoV-2 gets into your body, it infects cells by binding to a protein called ACE2, which is found throughout the body. ACE2 is prevalent in the lungs, which helps explain COVID-19’s respiratory symptoms—but it’s also found in high concentrations in the gastrointestinal tract, “so it makes sense that the GI tract would be a target for the virus,” Rupp says. It’s in part because SARS-CoV-2 collects in the gut that wastewater surveillance is a useful tool for tracking the virus’ spread, Rupp adds.

Read More: Green Tea Is Even Better For You Than You Think

Studies have shown that the virus can hide out in the “nooks and crannies” of the digestive system for months or even years, says Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who co-authored the Nature Communications study on chronic post-COVID GI symptoms. This may explain why gut-related symptoms can long outlast an acute infection, Al-Aly says—but there are many potential hypotheses in play, and researchers don’t know for sure which one or ones are correct.

For example, many researchers also think the virus is capable of causing widespread and sometimes long-lasting inflammation, potentially affecting organs throughout the body. This inflammatory response may have trickle-down effects on the gut microbiome, the colony of bacteria and other microbes that live in the GI tract, Rupp says. “We’re just scratching the surface as to what happens there,” Rupp says, but studies have already shown that SARS-CoV-2 can change the composition of the gut microbiome both during an acute infection and chronically.

There’s also a complex relationship between the gut and the brain, adds Dr. Badih Joseph Elmunzer, a gastroenterologist at the Medical University of South Carolina and co-author of the Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology study on prolonged post-COVID GI symptoms. His research suggests people are particularly likely to suffer long-term GI problems if they also have signs of PTSD from their acute illness or hospitalization.

That’s not to say GI symptoms are all in patients’ heads; on the contrary, Elmunzer says, they are very real. But, he says, there’s a lot left to learn about the microbiome, the gut, and the myriad ways they interact with other bodily systems.

source https://time.com/7027179/covid-19-gastrointestinal-symptoms/

Iran Fires Missiles Into Israel as Retaliation for Killing of Hezbollah and Hamas Leaders

(JERUSALEM) — Iran said it fired dozens of missiles into Israel on Tuesday, a sharp escalation of the monthslong conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militias Hezbollah and Hamas. There were no immediate reports of casualties as Israel ordered residents to head to bomb shelters and as air raid sirens sounded across the country.

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A series of window-shaking explosions were heard in Tel Aviv and near Jerusalem, though it was not immediately clear whether the sounds were from missiles landing or being intercepted by Israeli defenses, or both.

Israel and the United States have warned there would be severe consequences in the event of an attack on Israel from Iran, which backs the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris monitored the attack on Israel from the White House Situation Room.

Israeli army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the country’s air defense system was fully operational, detecting and intercepting threats. “However, the defense is not hermetic,” he said.

Orders to shelter in place were sent to Israelis’ mobile phones and announced on national television.

Iran took responsibility for launching dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel. The claim was made in a statement read aloud on state television.

In its statement, Iran referenced Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut. It also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader in Hamas who was assassinated in Tehran in a suspected Israeli attack in July. It warned this attack represented only a “first wave,” without elaborating.

The air raid alerts in Israel came a day after Israel said it had begun limited ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire pounded southern Lebanese villages where people were ordered to evacuate, and Hezbollah militants responded by firing a barrage of rockets into Israel. There was no immediate word on casualties as fighting intensified and concerns of a wider regional war grew.

A senior White House official warned of “severe consequences” should Iran launch a ballistic missile against Israel. U.S. ships and aircraft are positioned in the region to assist Israel in the event of an attack from Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

Hagari also warned of consequences if Iran fired missiles into Israel.

He urged the public to stay close to sheltered areas. “The Iranian strike could be widespread,” he said.

Iranian officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Iran launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel in April, but few of its projectiles reached their targets. Many were shot down by a U.S.-led coalition, while others apparently failed at launch or crashed in flight.

While Hezbollah denied Israeli troops had entered Lebanon, the Israeli army announced it had also carried out dozens of ground raids into southern Lebanon going back nearly a year. Israel released video footage purporting to show its soldiers operating in homes and tunnels where Hezbollah kept weapons.

If true, it would be another humiliating blow for Iran-backed Hezbollah, the most powerful armed group in the Middle East. Hezbollah has been reeling from weeks of targeted strikes that killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Read More: Column: How the Death of Hezbollah’s Nasrallah Brings a Renewed Opportunity for Mideast Peace

On Tuesday morning, Israel warned people to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much farther than the Litani River, which marks the northern edge of a U.N.-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.

The border region has largely emptied out over the past year as the two sides have traded fire. But the scope of the evacuation warning raised questions as to how deep Israel plans to send its forces into Lebanon.

An Israeli airstrike hit a residential building near Beirut Tuesday, causing damage but with no immediate reports of casualties. The strike appeared to hit an apartment about 100 meters from the Iranian Embassy.

Anticipating more rocket attacks from Hezbollah, the Israeli army announced new restrictions on public gatherings and closed beaches in northern and central Israel. The military also said it was calling up thousands more reserve soldiers to serve on the northern border.

Questions raised over whether Israeli forces entered

An Associated Press reporter saw Israeli troops operating near the border in armored trucks, with helicopters circling overhead, but could not confirm ground forces had crossed into Lebanon.

Ahead of the Israeli announcement of an incursion, U.S. officials on Monday said Israel had described launching small ground raids inside Lebanon as it prepared for a wider operation.

Neither the Lebanese army nor a U.N. peacekeeping force that patrols southern Lebanon have confirmed that Israeli forces entered. The U.N. force said a cross-border operation would be a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.

Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif dismissed what he said were “false claims” of an Israeli incursion. He said Hezbollah is ready for “direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to or try to enter Lebanon.”

Hagari claimed troops were conducting “localized ground raids” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to ensure Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north.

“We’re not going to Beirut,” he said.

Read More: Column: Hezbollah and Israel Stare Into the Abyss

Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for citizens to return. Hezbollah has promised to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

He said Israel had carried out dozens of small raids inside Lebanon since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel after the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

Hagari said Israeli forces had crossed the border to collect information and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons. Israel has said Hezbollah was preparing its own Oct. 7-style attack into Israel. It was not immediately possible to confirm those claims.

An Israeli military official said troops participating in the latest incursion were within walking distance of the border, focused on villages hundreds of meters (yards) from Israel. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said there had been no clashes with Hezbollah fighters.

The Israeli military was accused of lying to media in 2021 when it released a statement implying ground troops had entered Gaza. The military played down the incident as a misunderstanding, but well-sourced military commentators in Israel said it was part of a ruse to lure Hamas into battle.

Israel strikes more targets and Hezbollah fires rockets

The Israeli military official said Hezbollah had launched rockets at central Israel, setting off air raid sirens and wounding a man. Hezbollah said it fired salvos of a new kind of medium-range missile at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military official said Hezbollah had also launched projectiles at Israeli communities near the border, targeting soldiers without wounding anyone.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel ignited the war in Gaza. Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes and the conflict has steadily escalated. In recent weeks Israel has unleashed a punishing wave of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon.

Hagari said the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war had not been enforced and that southern Lebanon was “swarming with Hezbollah terrorists and weapons.”

That resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the area between the border and the Litani River and for the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers to patrol the region. Israel says those and other provisions were never enforced. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating other terms of the resolution.

Israeli official says no plans to march on Beirut

The military statements indicated Israel might focus its ground operation on the narrow strip along the border, rather than launching a larger invasion aimed at destroying Hezbollah, as it has attempted in Gaza against Hamas.

Hezbollah and Hamas are close allies backed by Iran, and each escalation has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could draw in Iran and the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.

Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

Hezbollah is a well-trained militia, believed to have tens of thousands of fighters and an arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles. The last round of fighting in 2006 ended in a stalemate, and both sides have spent the past two decades preparing for their next showdown.

Recent airstrikes wiping out most of Hezbollah’s top leadership and the explosions of hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah indicate Israel has infiltrated deep inside the group’s upper echelons.

The group’s acting leader, Naim Kassem, said in a televised statement Monday that Hezbollah commanders killed in recent weeks have already been replaced.

As the fighting intensifies, European countries have begun pulling their diplomats and citizens out of Lebanon.

___

Mroue reported from Beirut and Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Zeke Miller and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed.

source https://time.com/7027202/iran-preparing-israel-missile-attack/