Ukraine’s military said its forces repelled an attack in the area of Blahodatne in the eastern part of the Donetsk region, while Russia’s Wagner private military group said it took control of the village.

* Russia accused the Ukrainian military of deliberately striking a hospital in a Russian-held area of eastern Ukraine on Saturday in what it said was a war crime that killed 14 people and wounded 24 patients and medical staff. There was no immediate response to the allegations from Ukraine. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.

* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the situation at the front as “extremely acute“, especially in the eastern Donetsk region where Russia is stepping up an offensive.

* Tearful mourners in Kyiv commemorated a British volunteer aid worker, Andrew Bagshaw, killed while attempting a rescue mission from the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar.

* Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to contacts with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz though has no phone call scheduled with him, a Kremlin spokesman said. Scholz, who last week approved providing Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukrainian forces, was quoted in a published interview as saying he would speak to Putin again but the onus was on the Russian leader to withdraw troops from Ukraine “to end this horrendous, senseless war…”

* Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov will hold a meeting with Lynne Tracy, the new U.S. ambassador, early next week, RIA news agency reported.

* Zelenskiy condemned the idea of neutrality in sports at a time when his country’s athletes fight and die in war, while their Russian counterparts might be allowed to compete.

* Russia said it will not hold annual talks with Japan on renewing a pact that allows Japanese fishermen to operate near disputed islands, saying Japan had taken anti-Russian measures.

* Expedited talks are under way among Ukraine and its allies about its requests for long-range missiles that it says are needed to prevent Russia from destroying its cities, a top aide to President Zelenskiy said.

* German arms-maker Rheinmetall is ready to greatly boost output of tank and artillery munitions to satisfy strong demand in Ukraine and the West, and may start producing HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in Germany, CEO Armin Papperger told Reuters.

* Ukraine has been promised 321 heavy tanks by several countries, its ambassador to France said.

* Poland will send an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks it has pledged, the Polish prime minister said in an interview with Canadian television.

* Ukraine imposed sanctions on 182 Russian and Belarusian companies, and three individuals, in the latest of a series of steps by Zelenskiy to block their links to his country.

* On a trip to Turkey and the Middle East this week, the U.S. Treasury Department’s top sanctions official will warn countries and businesses that they could lose U.S. market access if they do business with entities subject to U.S. curbs as Washington cracks down on Russian attempts to evade sanctions.

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A Manhattan federal jury on Wednesday concluded that an artist’s non-fungible token versions of Hermes’ (HRMS.PA) famous Birkin bags violated the French fashion house’s trademark rights.

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Two Southern Resident killer whales.

David K. Ellifrit/Center for Whale Research, permit number: NMFS 21238.

• Southern Resident killer whales take care of their sons much longer than their daughters.
• Scientists have observed them feeding their sons well into adulthood, an expert said. 
• As food is scarce for these whales, that strategy may now be threatening their ability to survive.

Southern Resident killer whales look after their sons well into adulthood, and it may be threatening the population’s ability to survive, according to a study published Wednesday. 

Daughters find their independence early on in life, but moms continue caring for their sons and sharing food with them throughout their lives.

Sons are much more likely to die without their moms, said Michael Weiss, research director at the Center for Whale Research of Exeter University and an author on the study, in an interview with Insider.  

While this behavior probably gave the moms an evolutionary advantage in the past, it’s backfiring now that the whales have less food. Here’s how. 

Killer whale sons need their mom throughout their lives

A Southern Resident killer whale and a calf.

Kenneth C. Balcomb/Center for Whale Research, permit number: NMFS 21238.

All killer whales work in a matrilineal society, which means families tend to stick with the mother.

Among Southern Resident killer whales —  a small population that spend the summer and fall off the coast of Washington state — daughters will learn pretty quickly how to fend for themselves.

When they reach about age 12, they will stop taking food from their moms. While they will stay in the pod, they will also become more independent, hunt, and have calves of their own. 

The sons, however, never really stop asking their moms for help. Unlike some other killer whale populations, where the bull can peel off from the group and go hunting on his own, Southern Resident males stay mainly with the pod.

Moms will keep sharing their food with sons throughout their lives, even if it costs them. 

“Evolution has selected for this brain in the female killer whale that is so determined to keep her son alive, that she will potentially not get the food she herself needs, but go hungry to keep her son happy and healthy,” said Weiss.  

“There’s just a really strong social bond between the mom and the kid. They spend a lot of time floating at the surface together, rubbing on each other, and swimming in tandem and in synchrony,” he said.

To care for their sons, moms have fewer babies

Two Southern Resident killer whales.

David K. Ellifrit/Center for Whale Research, permit number: NMFS 21238.

That sacrifice comes at a reproductive cost, according to the study, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology on Wednesday. 

By following pods of Southern Resident killer whales, researchers found that mothers that care for sons are much less likely to have another calf themselves.

A 21-year-old female has a one in five chance of having a calf in the coming year. If she has a son, that drops to one in ten, the study found. 

Scientists think that may be because the mothers are feeding their sons.

“They actually don’t have enough resources to take on that extra burden of gestating and nursing a calf,” said Weiss. 

The males are huge and awkward, so they need help feeding themselves

A Southern Resident killer whales.

Kenneth C. Balcomb/Center for Whale Research, permit number: NMFS 21238.

It may come down to the size of the males. They are enormous, about 50% bigger than their moms, which means they need more food than females. 

Their size also makes them poor hunters.

Southern Resident killer whales only feed on Chinook salmon, which is a tiny prey for a big lumbering male.

“We know they do catch some of their own fish, but they might be less efficient at it, and at the same time they need more of it,” said Weiss.

That means the sons are completely dependent on their mothers.

Males are eight times more likely to die after their mom’s death, while females carry on unscathed, Weiss said.

Keeping sons alive makes evolutionary sense — if there’s enough food

A Chinook salmon on May 27, 2021 in Oroville, California.

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Because offsprings tend to stay with the pod, a child or a grandchild means another mouth to feed and more competition for reproduction. If the pod gets too big, there may not be enough resources to get around.

But if the male reproduces with a female in another pod, “you have grandchildren who have a lot of your DNA, but they’re someone else’s problem,” said Weiss. 

It may be that when food was plentiful, this was a great strategy, which is why moms hardwired to care for their sons were selected by evolution.

But that strategy may now be backfiring, as Chinook salmon becomes scarcer.

Resident Southern killer whales are now critically endangered. There are only three family pods known in the world J, K, and L, for a total of 73 individuals. 

The payoff may no longer be worth the effort as mothers who have sons have much fewer babies. 

This behavior is uncommon among moms that have several kids

A baby chimpanzee is shown here.

iStock / Getty Images Plus

Not many animals will keep caring for their offspring for most of their lives, and if they do, it usually doesn’t come at a cost for the parents.

“Actually they get some benefits back from their offsprings. For instance, chimpanzees mothers continue to help their sons and daughters, but those older offspring help care for their younger siblings,” he said. 

This is the first documented example of an iteroparous mother — meaning a mother that has the ability to have several offspring in her life — sacrificing her own well-being throughout the lifespan of her offspring, per the study. 

“It’s such an extreme, weird strategy,” said Weiss.

It’s not clear whether other populations of killer whales have the same behavior, but Weiss suspects they might, at least to some extent. 

“We’re fairly confident similar behaviors will be present in other resident killer whale populations where the mothers keep their sons and daughters around for their whole life,” said Weiss.

 

Many laid-off immigrant tech workers on H-1B visas now have a 60-day window to find a new job.

simplehappyart/Getty Images

• Tech layoffs sweeping across the country have left many startup employees on H-1B visas in a bind.
• These immigrant employees have only a 60-day window to find a new job or face leaving the country. 
• Here are three steps laid off visa holders should take, according to tech industry experts. 

Since the massive wave of startup layoffs began at the end of 2022, many immigrant workers have been left scrambling to find a new employer within a 60-day window — the maximum amount of time the US allows foreign workers to find a new job. 

“60 days is not a lot of time,” said Eugene Malobrodsky, a partner at One Way Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in immigrant-led startups. 

Since its creation in 1990, the H-1B work visa in the United States has been crucial for tech companies and startups hiring “highly skilled workers” from outside the country to come in and fill specialty technical and engineering roles. For immigrants wanting to land jobs at US tech companies, it was one of the most surefire ways to land employment and begin a path to citizenship, if they wanted to immigrate. 

Though, it appears that laid off immigrant workers are having success finding new roles. According to survey data from the recruiting company ZipRecruiter, 78.7% of visa holders who were laid off since July 2022 have already found new jobs, compared with only 38% of US citizens.

Insider spoke with immigration attorneys, venture capitalists, and recruitment experts and compiled the three most important steps laid off H-1B visa holders should take during their 60-day window. 

Speak with an immigration attorney

The most important thing that laid off immigrant startup employees should do is speak to an immigration attorney, if they can find one, said Jason Finkelman, an Austin, Texas-based immigration attorney.

“They can make sure you understand exactly when your 60-day grace period starts, and what options are available to you,” he said. 

An attorney can provide useful information about the documents to have ready to file in the case of a new role, and can help keep track of important deadlines, like when the H-1B visa lottery opens up on March 1 to all US employers, Finkelman said. And since immigration law is within federal jurisdiction, there’s some leeway as to where an attorney the worker chooses to work with is based, if they’re willing to accept remote clients. 

Look into other visa categories 

An attorney can also advise on what other visa categories a worker could be eligible for. Getting a new visa could buy some time in a job search, and there are options to swap to other types of visas, if a worker doesn’t think they can land a job in time, said Finkelman.

“Just because the H-1B doesn’t work, maybe you could get an E class visa or an O-1 Visa,” he said. 

There may be additional options to stay in the US if a laid off worker is married to a US citizen or green card holder, or has a family member that could sponsor them instead of an employer. 

“Everyone’s situation is different, it’s never one size fits all,” said Finkelman. 

Seek out resources from existing networks and search for targeted local job boards

For those immediately looking for a new role, it’s good to focus on existing networks of friends, colleagues, and family for word-of-mouth opportunities,  said Julia Pollack, ZipRecruiter’s chief engagement officer.

Pollack also suggested looking for open roles at startups founded by fellow immigrants, since they may be more sympathetic to visa status struggles and be more familiar with the sponsorship process. 

“Companies started by immigrant workers employ a lot of immigrant workers too,” she said.  

One way to do this is search for any local nonprofits or community outreach organizations that help immigrants looking for jobs. In Chicago, for example, there is P33, an organization focused on bringing more tech talent to the city. Most recently, P33 launched a job board with open roles in Chicago where employers, many of whom are local startups, have indicated that they are open to hiring H-1B visa holders.

And if all else fails, a skilled ex-startup employee could start their own company, provided they can secure outside funding from investors, said Malobrodsky.

“If they’ve secured financing, its kind of like a check mark that USCIS [US Citizenship and Immigration Services] accepts,” he explained. 

However, many immigrants would be rightfully wary of this option, said Nuwan Samaraweera, P33’s chief operating officer, since this route would likely involve finding a business attorney to file the necessary paperwork and securing venture capital funding within an extremely narrow window of time.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

• Technology stocks are poised to be the best performing sector in 2023 after a brutal 2022, according to Fundstrat.
• That’s because financial conditions are easing as the Fed slows down its interest rate hikes.
• Also helping the technology sector is an improving technical outlook after it reclaimed its 200-day moving average.

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After a brutal 2022, investors should start warming back up to technology stocks, according to a Wednesday note from Fundstrat’s Tom Lee.

Lee said he expects tech to be one of the best performing sectors this year, which would mark the polar opposite of their showing in 2022. 

Lee’s confidence stems from the fact that financial conditions are beginning to ease as the Federal Reserve slows down the pace of its interest rate hikes, and as inflation shows signs of easing. That’s great news for tech stocks because the sector has historically moved higher when financial conditions are improving.

“Technology is arguably the greatest beneficiary of” easing of financial conditions and easing of cost pressures for producers, Lee said. 

Also boosting the case for owning technology stocks is an increase in investor skepticism towards the sectors year-to-date rally, as short interest in the space continues to increase. 

“This rally year-to-date has been met with investor skepticism and they are increasing their short selling of technology. To me, this is fuel for further upside,” Lee said. According to data from FactSet, the median short interest as a percentage of float has increased to 4% over the past few weeks, even as short interest fell for the broader market. 

Improving technicals are also increasing the chance that technology stocks will outperform in 2023, according to the note. Lee observed that the Nasdaq 100 has broke above its 200-day moving average, which is a key technical resistance level monitored by traders. Additionally, the Nasdaq has broken out of its relative downtrend compared to the S&P 500.

The Nasdaq 100 “closed above the 200-day [moving average] for the first time since April 2022. So the technical picture has flipped positive,” Lee said. 

The improving technical picture comes at a time when parts of the sector have been “absolutely obliterated,” according to Lee, as about 20% of technology stocks are more than 75% off of their highs. That means the road to recovery is probably closer to its beginning than end.

Year-to-date, the Nasdaq 100 is up 15%, almost double the S&P 500’s return of 8% over the same time period.

To prove his pro-Israel bona fides, Colorado Republican Steve Laffey, the first in his party to challenge former President Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination, recalls a college class he and his Jewish roommate took on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We only took the Israeli side,” he said of their debates with pro-Palestinian students at Bowdoin College. 

Laffey, 62, the former mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, who narrowly lost a Republican primary to Sen. Lincoln Chafee in 2006 and lost a bid for Congress in 2014, announced that he is running for president last week. Days later, in an interview with the Forward, he reeled off a long list of Jewish friends, confidants and advisers, and emphasized his devotion to Israel, which he has never visited because he was preoccupied with work and his daughter’s battle with cancer. He is hawkish on the Jewish state to the point that he expressed doubt over the existence of a Palestinian people, and labeled liberal Jews who critique the Jewish state as “self-loathing.”

Laffey said what distinguishes him from others in the Republican pack is that he never supported Trump. S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley jumped into the race shortly after Laffey. Yet to declare a presidential bid: former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.

An evangelical Christian who lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, with his wife Kelly and six children, Laffey said he disagreed with Trump’s fiscal policy — and refused to enable his reckless behavior. He said he would shun extremist factions within his party, but doesn’t consider himself a member of the “Never Trump” movement. He said he voted for Laurence Kotlikoff, a Jewish economist who ran as a write-in candidate in 2016, and wrote in his own name on the 2020 ballot.

“I can understand why Trump is really upset” at his possible challengers, Laffey said, because each either sought his support or served in his administration. “It seems to be like, did you say nothing, or did you totally agree with him? And why are you running if you totally agree with him?” he asked. 

Laffey, who made a documentary in 2012 called “Fixing America,” said he will move this summer to New Hampshire, one of the early primary states, where he hopes to debate Trump on economics and conservative values.

Jewish buddies

Growing up in Cranston as the son of a toolmaker, Laffey — who spoke to the Forward on the phone and in person on a visit to New York last week — said he has made fast friends with Jews from the time he was a child growing up in Rhode Island, where less than close to 2% of the population is Jewish. Those friends and mentors, he said, shaped his understanding of Judaism and his love for Israel.

Steve Laffey, a Republican presidential candidate, on Feb. 07, 2023. Photo by Jacob Kornbluh

His 12th-grade buddy was Daniel Orodenker, who now lives in Hawaii and is the brother of the late Norman Orodenker, a well-known leader in the Rhode Island Jewish community. Laffey said he “kind of grew up” with the Orodenkers kids and parents, and that Anna Orendenker was a  mother figure to him. 

Laffey credits his Jewish high school economics teacher, Paul Zisserson, for introducing him to the market-based ideas of Milton Friedman. 

His best friend and roommate at Bowdoin, in Brunswick Maine, with whom he said he debated pro-Palestinian students, is Jonathan Newman, son of Sandra Schultz Newman, a former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice. She came under fire in the 2008 presidential election for signing an email to Jewish voters that likened a vote for Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, to ignoring warning signs before the Holocaust. She apologized and blamed the language on a Republican consultant.

Laffey said he and Newman still talk every day. “My kids call him uncle Jonathan,” he said. 

Other Jewish friends Laffey mentioned were Alan Levow, who was on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s board of directors; and Jeremy Friedman of Canada, who he knows from Harvard Business School. 

Laffey is a longtime fan of AIPAC. Sixteen years ago, he attended an AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., and impressed with the program, quipped publicly, “I wouldn’t mind if they ran part of our government.” 

When Laffey decided to run for mayor in 2002, Norman Ordenker and Paul Zisserson served as his senior advisors. Another Jewish friend, Evan Kirshenbaum, headed the campaign. They joined him for his 2006 Senate campaign. 

Laffey staffers now with Haley 

Both of Haley’s current senior and Jewish advisors on her presidential campaign, Jon Lerner and Nachama Soloveichik, also worked on Laffey’s 2006 Senate campaign. 

Laffey said that during a presentation on taxes during that race, flanked by his Jewish advisors, a local political columnist, Charlie Bakst, who is Jewish and wrote for The Providence Journal, asked him why there were so many Jews on his campaign. He recalled that Ordenker scolded Bakst, and Laffey said he explained that he supports Israel simply because it’s the promised homeland of the Jews and America’s only democratic ally in the Middle East.

In his book 2007 book, “Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everything in 2006,” Laffey wrote that every time he met a Jewish person on the campaign trail, he asked whether they had met his press secretary, but struggled to correctly pronounce the Hebraic “ch” of her first name. Soloveichik is the scion of the Soloveichik Orthodox rabbinic dynasty, and the sister of Rabbi Meir Soloveichik.

Nachama Soloveichik during the Laffey Senate campaign in 2006 — in Laffey’s book “Primary Mistake.” Photo by Joe Tatulli/Steve Laffey

“All heads would turn,” he wrote. “For the Jews, it was like having Babe Ruth’s granddaughter around.” Her official name on the campaign was “Solly,” her nickname from when she played high school basketball.  

He recalled in the interview that his family kept a special blender at their home for Soloveichik, who keeps kosher, to use for her shakes and that she used to warm up her fish dishes wrapped in foil on a portable radiator because she wasn’t able to use the unkashered appliances in the kitchen. One of the photos he shared in the book is him marching with her in the local Providence Purim Parade, though neither wore a costume.

Steve Laffey at the Providence Purim Parade during his 2006 Senate campaign. Photo by Kelly Laffey

Haley has just named Soloveichik her communications director. 

Enthused about Israel

Haley is considered a star in the pro-Israel community. But Laffey said he would outshine her. A first trip to Israel is also on his mind. 

He is dismissive of the Palestinian cause, and questioned the term “Palestinian people.”

“I don’t really think the Palestinians are Palestinians,” he said. “I think they lost the war. No one would let them in. They fought against Israel, and I wouldn’t really refer to it like that.” 

As for the conflict with Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said “I personally think that there will never be peace,” and added that he would never let Israel give back land they occupied during the 1967 war. In 2014, Laffey hosted an hour long radio show in which he discussed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s legacy and criticized his disengagement from Gaza in 2005. 

He also, to the Forward, repeated a claim made by Trump and other Republicans that liberal Jews, critical of Israel, “have lost their way” and are “self-loathing.” 

Differences over policy in the Middle East are understandable, Laffey said, but it must be recognized that “Israel is our one real ally in the Middle East,” and that Jews “lost 6 million people and they needed a homeland.”

Laffey said he supported Trump’s Israel policy, particularly the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. But he disagreed with the suggestion, made by Trump himself, that the move was to satisfy his evangelical base. “Jews are the chosen people,” he said. “It was just the right place and the right time. And as an American, I think that’s where it should be.” 

Laffey said that if he wins the nomination he would reject those on the extreme right in his party who claim the 2020 election was stolen and invoke conspiracy theories and antisemitic tropes. 

“Those people have to be told to the face: ‘Shut up,’” he said. “Those who have hatred for certain groups of people — Jews, Blacks or anything — they can’t be in our party. They’re excommunicated from day one. They are not part of my party.”

The post Trump’s first GOP challenger can’t say enough about his Jewish friends — and Israel appeared first on The Forward.

Fans of Fauda can now get an inside view of the often controversial Israeli drama, which revolves around a crew of antiterrorism soldiers and the people they hunt. 

The Fauda Experience, a package offered by travel agency Tourist Israel, is dubbed as a “tour of Israel’s secrets,” and comes complete with visits to the Arab hilltop town of Kfar Kasim, where the show is filmed.

A tour guide for the company told the Forward via email the visit “teaches the tourists about local everyday life” near the West Bank. The company declined to identify the guide, saying his identity “cannot be shared publicly because of the nature of his involvement in the security services.”

Tourists also get the chance to meet “a Palestinian former undercover agent, who had to undergo emergency rehabilitation in Israel after his identity was exposed by terrorist organizations,” as well as a “former senior counterterrorism official” who served in the Shabak (Israeli Secret Service). 

The guide said the meetings allow “a free and direct dialogue with experts in the Arab-Israeli conflict and gives tourists a unique opportunity to hear and learn about it without political ‘filters.’ Stories and personal experiences are shared without including any classified details.”

Tourist Israel is not affiliated with the Israeli government and the guide said no communication about the contents of the tour took place with the government or military. 

Although often complimented for its humanizing depiction of Palestinians, Fauda has also been criticized for its lack of nuance in how it portrays the politics of the conflict.

Pauline Frommer, publisher of the Frommer’s travel guidebook series, said the idea of offering tours based on proximity to both historical conflicts and entertainment isn’t new. Many companies offer tours of notable battlefields from history, be it the beaches in France, where D-Day unfolded in World War II, or Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, considered the turning point in the Civil War. Similarly, tours are offered of the filming locations of shows like Game of Thrones.

What separates the Fauda tour is that the conflict is ongoing. But, Frommer noted, the details of the tour, such as meeting with people who participated in fighting, are not without precedent. Tours in Belfast allow you to meet with members of both the Republican Irish Republican Army and Loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force factions.

The Fauda tour guide replied to questions sent by the Forward regarding the tour’s depiction of the conflict by saying only that, “The focus of the tour is to give fans of the show an inside look into the inspiration behind the drama, but our primary goal is to provide our guests an authentic yet fun experience.”

Palestinian advocacy groups contacted by the Forward did not immediately provide comment.

The post This Israeli tourism company wants to show you the reality behind ‘Fauda’ appeared first on The Forward.

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Wednesday on two members of the international criminal gang MS-13, accusing them of involvement in drug trafficking and murder in Central America and the United States.

The sanctions against the two individuals — an MS-13 leader in Honduras and an associate with the gang in Nicaragua — are part of a broader U.S. government effort to disrupt the group’s activities and financing, the department said in a statement.

“Treasury’s sanctions against MS-13 aim to interrupt its use of the financial system to launder illicit proceeds,” department official Brian E. Nelson said.

The leader in Honduras, Archaga Caria, has distributed cocaine from that country to the United States, and has ordered the murders of rival gang members, the department said.

Caria, also known as “Porky,” escaped from prison in Honduras and is a fugitive from U.S. and Honduran law enforcement, it added. The department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction, it said.

The MS-13 associate, Campbell Licona, used businesses the gang owned or controlled to launder drug proceeds, including through U.S. banks, the department said. He is currently incarcerated in Nicaragua, it added.

Washington has sought to increase pressure on MS-13 in recent years. U.S. authorities have charged top MS-13 leaders with terrorism, sought the death penalty for a leader facing murder charges, and pressured El Salvador to extradite wanted group leaders.