https://english.almayadeen.net/news/health/drinking-tea-could-reduce-your-risk-of-death-and-dementia:-u

Drinking tea could reduce your risk of death and dementia: UK research

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggested that when compared with those who do not drink tea, people who consumed two or more cups each day had between a 9% and 13% lower risk of mortality.

The findings suggested the outcome was the same regardless of whether the tea had milk or sugar added, what their preferred temperature was or if genetic variants affected the rate at which individuals metabolize caffeine. From data used from the UK Biobank, researchers from the National Institutes of Health reported that 85% of the half a million men and women, aged 40 to 69, reported that they regularly drank tea and of those, 89% said they drank the black variety of tea. The study was carried out with a questionnaire answered from 2006 to 2010 and revised after over more than a decade.

Fernando Rodriguez Artalejo, professor of preventive medicine and public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid, characterized the research as illustrating “a substantial advance in the field”, adding that most studies had been done in Asia, where green tea is the most commonly consumed, and that the few conducted outside the region were “small in size and inconclusive in their results”.

He further commented: “This article shows that regular consumption of black tea (the most widely consumed tea in Europe) is associated with a modest reduction in total and, especially, cardiovascular disease mortality over 10 years in a middle-aged, mostly white, adult general population.”

Artalejo reiterated that the study did not definitively conclude that tea was the cause of the lower mortality of tea drinkers because it could not exclude that this was also dependent on other health factors associated with tea consumption.

According to The Guardian in November, drinking coffee or tea may be related to a lower risk of stroke and dementia, in the largest study of its kind.

Researchers at Tianjin Medical University in China found that people who consumed two to three cups of coffee or three or five of tea a day, or a combination of four to six cups of both beverages, had the lowest risk of either stroke or dementia. However, those who drank two to three cups of coffee and two to three cups of tea daily had a 32% lower risk of stroke.

>> Biden didn't drink enough tea.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/art-culture/3000-year-old-egyptian-artifact-from-europe-seized-in-tennes

3,000-year-old Egyptian artifact from Europe seized in Tennessee

Federal agents seized a millennia-old ancient Egyptian artifact in Memphis, Tennessee, that was imported from Europe. On August 17, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said they discovered the shipment of the 3,000-year-old funerary canopic jar lid named after the Egyptian deity Imsety.

According to the agency's statement, the ancient jar was shipped from a dealer to a private buyer in the US, and experts believe the lid is known to have been utilized for storing the mummified remains of Imsety.

Authorities resorted to experts at the University of Memphis Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology to identify the artifact’s origins, with a suspected production date between 1069 B.C. to 653 B.C. The lid is sculpted to illustrate the head of the funeral deity, Imsety, whose role in Egyptian mythology was to protect the liver of a deceased person. The size of the artifact was not disclosed by the agency.

In a statement, CBP officials stated the artifact is preserved by bilateral treaties around the import of archaeological materials - the authorities confiscated the item under the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act of 1983, which clarifies the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export, and transfer of ownership of cultural property adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

According to the CBP statement, the unidentified shipper, whose location in Europe has not been announced by authorities, submitted “contradictory” statements regarding the artifact's value - it was subsequently seized and handed over to the Department of Homeland Security Investigations for further inspection.

A series of artifact restorations has been an occurrence in different parts of the world for the past few months, with the US ranking in the top. In June, more than 200 objects thought to have been stolen from cultural sites around the nation and trafficked in the US were returned to Italy worth approximately $10 million and believed to be from the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C.E.

That same month, prosecutors in New York confiscated five Egyptian antiques from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former director of the Louvre Museum in Paris, which include a series of painted linen fragments dated between 250 and 450 BC and portraying a scene from the Book of Exodus, are worth more than $3 million.

In August, it was announced that Washington will be returning 30 stolen antiques to Cambodia, including bronze and stone statues of Hindu and Buddhist deities which were carved over a thousand years ago, according to US officials. The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, Damian Williams, said the items being returned were sold by Douglas Latchford to Western buyers. Latchford is notorious for issuing fake documents to conceal that the antiques were looted and smuggled.

The UK also began to return artifacts, starting with the Glasgow Museums Institution which said it will return seven Indian cultural artifacts plundered during British colonial control, a first for a UK museum service. Six of the objects were taken in the 1800s from northern India, while the seventh was unlawfully acquired after being stolen from its original owners.

Furthermore, 97 artifacts looted from Nigeria by the British colonial forces in 1897, could be returned to Nigeria following the latter’s request for the repatriation of the culturally significant items earlier this year. The 97 artifacts, which included bronzes, were stolen from Benin City and are presently housed at the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/russias-un-ambassador-strongly-condemns-israeli-airstrikes-o

Russia's UN ambassador strongly condemns Israeli airstrikes on Syria

Russia has asserted a condemning stance against the sustained Israeli airstrikes on Syria, expressing hopes for another Astana-format meeting on Syria before the end of 2022, according to Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia.

"We strongly condemn the continuing airstrikes of the Israeli Air Force on various targets in Syria," Nebenzia told a UN Security Council meeting.

Long-term stability and security in Syria are only possible through the full restoration of sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Syria, and the cessation of illegal foreign military presence, Nebenzia said.

Nebenzia also asserted that Russia condemns the Israeli airstrikes that were conducted in June at Damascus International Airport, and that they were launched after "Israel" received a tacit approval from Washington for such an action to go through.

He asserted that the airstrikes are a reflection of Western hypocrisy and double standards toward the basic tenets of international law and the principles of human rights.

"Israel" has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Syria in the last few years, completely violating the integrity and sovereignty of Syria and neighboring countries, such as Lebanon.

It is noteworthy that on June 10, Israeli air attacks destroyed the runways, control tower, reception rooms, and hangars of Damascus International Airport, forcing Syrian officials to cease flights and conduct extensive repairs.

US reviews Israeli plans for strikes against Iranian targets in Syria

According to current and former US officials, "Israel" secretly coordinates with the US on many of the airstrikes it conducts in Syria.

Behind the curtains, current and former officials say that for several years, many Israeli missions have been reviewed in advance for approval by senior officials at US Central Command and the Pentagon.

This means that the formal coordination was previously unknown, and the secrecy surrounding it demonstrates how Washington has sought to support its Israeli ally.

The US review, according to the Wall Street Journal, mainly focuses on Israeli missions in eastern Syria that pass close to the US occupation's Al-Tanf base.