Author: NY TIMES

Consciousness may be a mystery, but that doesn’t mean that neuroscientists don’t have any explanations for it. Far from it.“In the field of consciousness, there are already so many theories that we don’t need more theories,” said Oscar Ferrante, a neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham.If you’re looking for a theory to explain how our brains give rise to subjective, inner experiences, you can check out Adaptive Resonance Theory. Or consider Dynamic Core Theory. Don’t forget First Order Representational Theory, not to mention semantic pointer competition theory. The list goes on: A 2021 survey identified 29 different theories of consciousness.Dr.…

A bombshell lawsuit, and a mogul in handcuffsFists pounding on a Los Angeles apartment door broke the silence early one morning in September 2016.Bryana Bongolan, who was visiting her friend, the singer Casandra Ventura, who goes by the stage name Cassie, later said in court papers that she recognized the unhinged voice of Ms. Ventura’s boyfriend, Sean Combs.Ms. Ventura, who occupied the fashionable 17th-floor apartment, remained in her bedroom. But Ms. Bongolan said she quickly told a third friend to lock herself in the bathroom.According to the account Ms. Bongolan, an artist and designer, gave in an ongoing lawsuit she…

Britain’s military said it had carried out a joint operation with U.S. forces against the Houthi militia in Yemen for the first time since President Trump re-entered the White House and stepped up attacks on the Iran-backed group.There was no immediate comment from the American military about the operation, which the British Defense Ministry said early Wednesday was carried out overnight “to degrade Houthi capabilities and prevent further attacks against U.K. and international shipping.”The joint operation came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the unclassified Signal messaging app to post sensitive details about a U.S. mission in Yemen raised…

My girlfriend and I have been together for seven years. We were both married with children when we met, had an affair and left our marriages to be together. We are very much in love, but she hides me from her family and friends. I have never met her children (13 and 10), and I’ve been asked to leave her house hurriedly when they are coming over. I haven’t met many of her friends, either. I’ve told her how much this hurts me. It’s our biggest source of conflict. But she says she prefers it this way. We have a…

“Bonjour, Macron!”At Le Prem’s, a small bar in western France that sells lottery tickets and tobacco, this greeting has become a running joke since President Emmanuel Macron dropped by unannounced the other day and bought a round of coffee for everyone, save the customers who opted for a bracing midmorning sauvignon blanc.“He did not come to scratch!” said Christophe Jacques, the cheerful bar owner, alluding to the betting games he offers on scratch cards, where winning numbers are revealed by scratching off an opaque covering. “He came to chat.”Chat the president did, for more than an hour, about health care…

President Trump’s tariffs are already taking a toll on China’s factories.Three weeks into a trade war that pushed import tariffs of Chinese-made goods to 145 percent, an official report on manufacturing activity signaled that in April, Chinese factories experienced the sharpest monthly slowdown in more than a year.The report, a survey of industrial firms published on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics, provides the first official indication of how the U.S. tariffs are affecting the Chinese economy. China has responded to the U.S. tariffs with 125 percent tariffs of its own on American goods.The trade brinkmanship threatens U.S. and…

A former athletic director at a Baltimore area high school who was accused of using artificial intelligence to create a racist and antisemitic audio clip impersonating the school’s principal was sentenced on Monday to four months in jail as part of a plea deal, according to prosecutors.The former director, Dazhon Darien, 32, pleaded guilty to disturbing school operations, a misdemeanor charge, according to the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office. Mr. Darien had previously faced additional charges, including theft, stalking and retaliating against a witness.According to The Associated Press, Mr. Darien entered an Alford plea to the disturbing school operations charge,…

Environmental Health Perspectives, widely considered the premier environmental health journal, has announced that it would pause acceptance of new studies for publication, as federal cuts have left its future uncertain.For more than 50 years, the journal has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to review studies on the health effects of environmental toxins — from “forever chemicals” to air pollution — and publish the research free of charge.The editors made the decision to halt acceptance of studies because of a “lack of confidence” that contracts for critical expenses like copy-editing and editorial software would be renewed after their…

The last time Beyoncé performed “Daddy Lessons,” the stomping, biting number from her 2016 album, “Lemonade,” was at that year’s C.M.A. Awards, in a blistering rendition alongside the Dixie Chicks (now the Chicks).Not everyone in country music embraced Beyoncé’s experimentation. “I did not feel welcomed,” she wrote in album notes leading up to the release last year of “Cowboy Carter,” her eighth solo album, an exploration of the many tendrils of American roots music and their connections to Black music of all stripes and generations.So it was meaningful, and pointed, that at the opening night of the Cowboy Carter Tour…

Deadly clashes fueled by sectarian tensions erupted on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing at least nine people, Syrian officials and a war monitoring group said on Tuesday.The violence erupted overnight from Monday to Tuesday in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, which has a large population from the minority Druse sect. It began after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The clip was attributed to a Druse cleric.The cleric and Druse religious figures in Jaramana denied the accusation. The Syrian Interior Ministry said that its initial findings showed that the…