By LAURA UNGAR

A new study suggests that babies are able to distinguish between the different objects they see around them at 2 months old, which is earlier than scientists previously thought.

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The findings, published Monday in Nature Neuroscience, may help doctors and researchers better understand cognitive development in infancy.

“It really tells us that infants are interacting with the world in a lot more complex of a way than we might imagine,” said lead author Cliona O’Doherty. “Looking at a 2-month-old, we maybe wouldn’t think that they’re understanding the world to that level.”

The study looked at data from 130 2-month-olds who underwent brain scans while awake. The babies viewed images from a dozen categories commonly seen in the first year of life, such as trees and animals. When babies looked at an image like a cat, their brains might “fire” a certain way that researchers could record, O’Doherty said. If they looked at an inanimate object, their brains would fire differently.

The technique — known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI — allowed scientists to examine visual function more precisely than in the past. Many previous studies relied on how long an infant looked at an object, which can be difficult to assess at younger ages. Some of those past studies suggested that infants as young as 3 to 4 months could distinguish between categories such as animals and furniture.

“What we’re showing is that they really already have this ability to group together categories at two months,” O’Doherty said. “So it’s something much more complex than we would’ve thought before.”

In the new study, many of the babies returned at 9 months, and researchers successfully collected data from 66 of them. In the 9-month-olds, the brain was able to distinguish living things from inanimate objects much more strongly than in the 2-month-olds, O’Doherty said.

Someday, researchers said, scientists may be able to connect such brain imaging to cognitive outcomes later in life.

Liuba Papeo, a neuroscientist at the National Center for Scientific Research in France, said the number of babies in the study is one thing that makes the work “impressive and unique.” Brain imaging with very young infants presents challenges.

“One — perhaps the most obvious — is that the infant needs to (lie) comfortably in the fMRI scanner while awake without moving,” she said in an email.

O’Doherty, who did the work at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, said the key was making the experience as comfortable as possible for the babies. Inside the scanner, they reclined on a bean bag so they were snug.

The images “appear really big above them while they’re lying down,” she said. “It’s like IMAX for babies.”

AP video journalist Havovi Todd contributed to this story from London.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Monday rejected calls for a Europe-wide army, warning that it could be “extremely dangerous” as the bloc considers ways to provide its own security after the United States warned that its priorities lie elsewhere.

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Talk of a European army has resurfaced amid tensions within NATO over President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, the semiautonomous territory of NATO-ally Denmark.

“Those who say that we need a European army, maybe those people haven’t really thought this through practically,” Kallas said. “If you are already part of NATO then you can’t create a separate army.”

Kallas told a security conference in Norway that the most important military asset during a crisis “is the chain of command — who gives orders to whom.”

She added: “And if you have, like the European army and then you have the NATO (one), then, you know, the ball just falls between the chairs. And this is extremely, extremely dangerous.”

NATO’s military operations are overseen by a Supreme Allied Commander, who is always a top U.S. officer. The role is currently held by Airforce Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich.

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said: “NATO is there with the decision-making process among allies, which is in itself complex, but it is trained to work.” He rejected calls for a European army, saying that “it is not a road we should travel.” Norway is not a member of the EU.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last week that Europe is incapable of defending itself without U.S. military support and would have to more than double current military spending targets to be able to do so.

“If anyone thinks here … that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the U.S., keep on dreaming. You can’t,” Rutte told EU lawmakers in Brussels.

Europe and the United States “need each other,” he said.

By TRÂN NGUYỄN, SOPHIE BATES, JONATHAN MATTISE and SUSAN HAIGH

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Mai Vang wouldn’t be born for another seven years when Bob Matsui was first elected to Congress from California in 1978. By the time Matsui died in 2005 and was replaced by his widow, Doris Matsui, Vang was still studying biology and sociology in college.

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Now a member of the Sacramento City Council, Vang, 40, is mounting the first serious challenge 81-year-old Matsui has faced since she began representing the area two decades ago. Vang is among a nationwide cadre of young Democrats trying to oust some of their party’s most stalwart figures in Washington, channeling angst that an aging generation of lawmakers is unable or unwilling to mount a bare-knuckles opposition to President Donald Trump.

“I’m not waiting for permission,” Vang said. “Because our communities are under attack, and we need leaders in this moment that understand the day-to-day struggles of our working families, and I believe that I could be the leader in this moment.”

In Trump’s first term, grassroots Democrats focused their ire on the Republican president. But now, after President Joe Biden’s reluctance to step aside in 2024 at age 81 helped pave the way for Trump’s return to the White House, many see their party’s own veterans as part of the problem.

Matsui, who was born in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, said she’s fought Trump’s strict immigration policies and delivered billions of dollars for her district. She said in a statement experience is about “being effective when the stakes are highest for our families.”

Civil rights leader faces an economic populist

Evan Turnage had barely learned to walk when Rep. Bennie Thompson, a civil rights leader, was first elected to Congress from Mississippi.

Democrat Evan Turnage, who is challenging Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., in the March primary, poses for a portrait in Jackson, Miss., Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)

Now Thompson, 78, is one of the most senior Black lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and Turnage, 33, is challenging him in the state’s Democratic primary. Turnage, who’s also Black, is an antitrust lawyer who previously worked for top Senate Democrats in Washington, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

He said the modern era demands leaders who understand how social media and artificial intelligence are transforming life.

“Just steadily doing the committee work with your head down behind the scenes is not how we’re gonna get the transformational change that we need here in this district,” Turnage said.

Thompson formerly chaired the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump’s supporters.

“Elections were created to give people the ability to make a choice,” he said. “I trust the voters of the district.”

A congressman is challenged by a former intern

Rep. Steve Cohen, 76, of Tennessee, is running for an 11th term. He’s up against Justin Pearson, 31, who was a sixth grader promising better school lunches as president of the student government when Cohen was first elected to Congress. He later interned for Cohen.

Pearson was one of two Black Democrats expelled from the Tennessee Legislature by Republicans after leading a gun control protest inside the state Capitol building. He was quickly reinstated by local officials and later reelected.

FILE – Tennessee state lawmaker Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, speaks with reporters after meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, April 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

“With all due respect to Steve, he’s been in office for 43 years, and he has done the best that he can possibly do, and the status quo is still what it is,” Pearson said, tallying up Cohen’s time in the state legislature and in Congress.

Democrats have held their party back by hanging around too long, he said.

“Time and time again, we are seeing people who are staying in positions of power who are good people but who are no longer doing it for the benefit of their constituencies but for themselves,” Pearson said.

A polio survivor, Cohen has won nearly every election with more than 70% of the vote. Cohen said age shouldn’t be the criterion for judging a lawmaker and he’s never been status quo.

“I’ve always been an iconoclast,” he said in an interview.

Former mayor takes on a House veteran

In Connecticut, several Democrats in their 30s and 40s are challenging 77-year-old Rep. John Larson for the party’s endorsement at Connecticut’s Democratic state convention in May.

Luke Bronin, former mayor of Hartford, Conn., who is challenging Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., in the 2026 election primary, right, speaks with James Jeter, left, at the Semilla Cafe and Studio in Hartford on Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Susan Haigh)

Concerns about Larson’s health and age intensified last year after he abruptly stopped speaking during a speech on the House floor.

His office later said the 13-term lawmaker had suffered a complex partial seizure. Larson has said medication helps control the condition and he is fit to seek a 14th term.

Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 46, is widely viewed as the leading challenger, buoyed by his name recognition and fundraising. A Rhodes scholar, lawyer and U.S. Navy Reserve officer, Bronin was a sophomore at Yale when Larson was first elected to Congress.

Bronin said the Democratic Party has been too reluctant to embrace generational change.

“Part of meeting this moment means getting new members of Congress, new Democratic leaders who have the energy and courage and clarity of mission that this moment demands,” he said.

Larson is leaning on his progressive credentials and touting his experience as a virtue.

“Another Wall Street-funded corporate lawyer using this office as a stepping stone is not the kind of change this district needs,” Larson’s campaign manager, Gerry Gerratana, said in a statement. “It deserves a progressive champion like John Larson who grew up in the district, understands the challenges people face because he’s seen them firsthand, and has a proven record of taking on Trump.”

Bates reported from Jackson, Miss., Haigh from Hartford, Conn., and Mattise from Nashville, Tenn. Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.

By SAMY MAGDY and JOSEF FEDERMAN

CAIRO (AP) — The first medical evacuees from Gaza entered Egypt on Monday as the Rafah border crossing reopened. It marked a key step in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire but a mostly symbolic one, as few people will be allowed to travel in either direction and no goods will pass through.

Ambulances waited for hours at the border before ferrying patients across after sunset, Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News satellite television channel showed. The crossing had been closed since Israeli troops seized it in May 2024.

About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults needing medical care hope to leave the devastated territory via the crossing, according to Gaza health officials. Thousands of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to enter and return home.

The number of travelers is expected to increase over time if the system is successful. Israel has said it and Egypt will vet people for exit and entry.

The office of the North Sinai governor confirmed that the first Palestinian patient crossed into Egypt.

Before the war, Rafah was the main crossing for people moving in and out of Gaza. The territory’s handful of other crossings are all shared with Israel. Under the terms of the ceasefire, which went into effect in October, Israel’s military controls the area between the Rafah crossing and the zone where most Palestinians live.

Violence continued across the coastal territory Monday, and Gaza hospital officials said an Israeli navy ship had fired on a tent camp, killing a 3-year-old Palestinian boy. Israel’s military said it was looking into the incident.

Egypt prepares to receive the wounded

Rajaa Abu Mustafa stood Monday outside a Gaza hospital where her 17-year-old son Mohamed was awaiting evacuation. He was blinded by a shot to the eye last year as he joined desperate Palestinians seeking food from aid trucks east of the southern city of Khan Younis.

“We have been waiting for the crossing to open,” she said. “Now it’s opened and the health ministry called and told us that we will travel to Egypt for (his) treatment.”

About 150 hospitals across Egypt are ready to receive Palestinian patients evacuated from Gaza through Rafah, authorities said. The Egyptian Red Crescent said it has readied “safe spaces” on the Egyptian side of the crossing to support those evacuated from Gaza.

Israel has banned sending patients to hospitals in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem since the war began, cutting off what was previously the main outlet for Palestinians needing medical treatment unavailable in Gaza.

The Rafah crossing will be supervised by European Union border patrol agents with a small Palestinian presence.

Historically, Israel and Egypt have vetted Palestinians applying to cross. Fearing that Israel could use the crossing to push Palestinians out of the enclave, Egypt has repeatedly said it must be open for them to enter and exit Gaza.

Palestinian toddler killed by Israeli fire

A 3-year-old Palestinian was killed when Israel navy hit tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, Palestinian hospital authorities said.

According to Nasser hospital, which received the body, the attack happened in Muwasi, a tent camp area on Gaza’s coast.

More than 520 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The casualties since the ceasefire are among the over 71,800 Palestinians killed since the start of Israel’s offensive, according to ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians.

The ministry, which is part of Gaza’s Hamas-led government, keeps detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Rafah’s opening represents ceasefire progress

Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024, calling it part of efforts to combat arms-smuggling for Hamas. The crossing was briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a ceasefire in early 2025.

Israel had resisted reopening the Rafah crossing, but the recovery of the remains of the last hostage in Gaza cleared the way to move forward.

The reopening is seen as a key step as the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement moves into its second phase.

The truce halted more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas that began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Its first phase called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, an increase in badly needed humanitarian aid and a partial pullback of Israeli troops.

The second phase of the ceasefire deal is more complicated. It calls for installing the new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, deploying an international security force, disarming Hamas and taking steps to begin rebuilding.

Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war