A young child inadvertently shattered a 3,500-year-old jar into fragments while visiting a museum in Israel.

According to the Hecht Museum in Haifa, the crockery dates back to the Bronze Age, which lasted between 2200 and 1500 BC, and is a remarkable object due to its preservation.

It had been displayed near the museum’s entrance without glass because the museum feels there is a “special charm” in exhibiting archaeological artefacts “without obstructions”.

The boy’s father, Alex, stated that his son “pulled the jar slightly” because he was “curious about what was inside,” which caused it to fall.

Alex also stated that he was “shocked” to discover his son close to the busted jar and initially assumed “it wasn’t my child that did it.”

Alex told the BBC that after calming the kid down, he spoke with the security guard.

The Hecht Museum said the youngster, who is four or five years old, has been welcomed back to the exhibition with his family for an organised tour following the event a few days ago.

“There are instances where display items are intentionally damaged, and such cases are treated with great severity, including involving the police,” museum spokesperson Lihi Laszlo told the BBC.

“In this case, however, it was not the case. The jar was accidently damaged by a little child while visiting the museum, and the response will be appropriate.”

A conservation specialist has also been hired to restore the jar, which will be returned to its original location “in a short time”.

The boy’s father, Alex, said they will be “relieved” to see the jar restored, but they are “sorry” since “it will no longer be the same item”.

According to the museum, “whenever possible, items are displayed without barriers or glass walls”.

And, “despite the rare incident,” the museum stated that it plans to maintain this tradition.

The jar was most likely used to hold local commodities like wine and olive oil.

It predates the Biblical Kings David and Solomon and is unique to the Canaan region on the eastern Mediterranean coast.

Similar pottery found during archaeological excavation is normally shattered or fragmentary, thus this whole jar was “an impressive find” when it was discovered, according to the museum.

The Hecht Museum, located on the grounds of the University of Haifa in northern Israel, houses archaeological and artistic collections.

Source: BBC

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms (META.O), stated that the Biden administration pressed the company to “censor” COVID-19 content during the pandemic. This appears to allude to White House requests to remove misinformation concerning the coronavirus and immunisations.

In a letter dated August 26, Mark Zuckerberg informed the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee that he regretted not speaking up sooner about this pressure, as well as other judgements he had made as the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp over the removal of specific information.

In July 2021, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, stated that social media platforms such as Facebook “are killing people” by permitting misinformation regarding coronavirus vaccines to be shared.

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy have openly stated that the company’s failure to combat misinformation is hindering efforts to save lives during the outbreak.

Facebook announced at the time that it was taking “aggressive steps” to combat such misinformation. Despite the spread of vaccine-related misinformation on social media, the Biden administration eventually relaxed its criticism.

In a letter to the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee on Monday, Mark Zuckerberg stated that his firm was “pressured” into “censoring” information and that it would respond if similar demands were made again.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Letter to House Judiciary Committee

“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humour and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,”Mark Zuckerberg wrote in the letter, which the Judiciary Committee posted on its Facebook page.

“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret we were not more outspoken about it,” he said. “I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”

The White House issued a statement encouraging reasonable efforts to preserve public health and safety in the face of a devastating epidemic.

“Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.”

Mark Zuckerberg has recently attempted to cater to conservative fans, praising Republican nominee Donald Trump’s response to an assassination attempt as “badass” and appearing on right-wing podcasts. Representative Jim Jordan, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is a long-time Trump supporter.

In a Facebook post, the Judiciary Committee described the letter as a “big win for free speech” and stated that Mark Zuckerberg agreed that “Facebook censored Americans”.

In the letter, Zuckerberg also stated that he will not contribute to electoral infrastructure in this year’s presidential election in order to “not play a role one way or another” in the November vote.

During the 2020 pandemic, the billionaire contributed $400 million to support election infrastructure through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, his philanthropic venture with his wife. However, some groups criticised the move as partisan and sued.

Prince Harry has taken an unexpected step to clear the air about his future plans, following reports of reconciliation with King Charles.

The Duke of Sussex has apparently decided to create his own online institution and has applied for a trademark.

It arose amid suspicion that King Charles had accelerated efforts to mend a gap with his son in his life.

Harry, who struggled academically at Eton College and departed with a D in A-level geography and a B in art, is poised to reveal a new effort with the US tutoring platform BetterUp.

The father of two, who bypassed university and went directly to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an officer cadet, is a key member of a team developing its own ‘life-coaching’ university.

The Duke is third in command of the platform and was named the company’s ‘chief impact officer’ in March 2021, with a rumoured salary of more than $1 million, to focus on ‘preventative mental fitness’.

The Silicon Valley mental health startup intends to establish BetterUp University, which will provide online degrees in life coaching.

In freshly filed documents, the San Francisco-based company has applied to the US Patent and Trademark Office to register its BetterUp University concept.

According to the application, the university will offer “online educational forums in the fields of life coaching, professional coaching, personal development coaching, and career development coaching.”

In a BetterUp discussion two years ago, Harry acknowledged to having “burnout” and feeling like he was “getting to the very end of everything that I had”.

He has spoken honestly about his mental health “unravelling” on TV and in his 2023 memoir Spare, decrying the Royal Family’s lack of “support”. He also revealed that he had been in treatment for four years “to heal myself from the past”.

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