Oct 7, 2026 · 31 min
Listen from 13:06
Listen at 13:06
Three years on, October 7 still shapes Israel and Gaza
Israelis mark three years since 7 October attacks
The episode connects unresolved accountability and humanitarian suffering with wars, diplomacy, scientific uncertainty, and bias embedded in AI systems.
- 1Memorials and political debate in Israel contrast with Palestinians’ continuing humanitarian hardship in Gaza.
- 2Russian attacks expose the growing challenge of intercepting ballistic missiles, jet-powered drones, and glide bombs.
- 3Experiments suggest people can reproduce gender bias when evaluating identical AI assistants presented through different identities.
Don't miss
An experiment found that participants paid an identical AI assistant less and, among men, trusted it less when it appeared female.
The brief
Three years after the October 7 attacks, memorials at the Nova Festival site and political arguments over accountability unfold alongside continuing humanitarian hardship in Gaza.
Rushdie Abu Al-Luf reports from Gaza, while coverage from Israel examines how the anniversary is being experienced on opposite sides of the conflict.
The episode then tracks Russia’s intensified strikes on Ukraine, a pneumonia outbreak at a Siberian plague research center, and Malaysia’s changing relationship with Myanmar.
Its science and society reports move from the Nobel chemistry question of left-handed molecules to South African efforts to prevent gender-based violence.
The standout finding comes from an experiment in which identical AI assistants received different evaluations when presented as robot, male-coded, or female-coded systems.
Mary Hausfeld describes participants assigning similar credit but paying the female-presenting assistant less, while male participants trusted it less.