Author: NY TIMES

The world’s highest court dealing with the oceans said on Tuesday that excessive greenhouse gases were pollutants that can cause irreversible harm to the marine environment. The groundbreaking advisory opinion was unanimous, and experts say it could lead to more wide-ranging claims for damages against polluting nations.The opinion by the court, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, is not binding, but it said that, legally, nations must take all necessary measures to reduce, control and prevent marine pollution caused by human-made greenhouse gas emissions.The stance taken by the tribunal, which is sometimes called the Oceans Court, is…

No, this wasn’t Caitlin Clark’s dreamy introduction to the professional ranks. Of course, this isn’t the hungover basketball hijinks that some of her legion are hoping for at some point this weekend.But rooks can’t jump over things.Her first two games could be disappointing, especially Thursday’s epic home opener against the Indiana Fever. This moment was enough to bring history to the venue. Sports’ newest luminaries made a splash at Gambridge Arena, rivaling the series between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers.Then the New York Liberty shut down the party and Breanna Stewart shattered any illusions that a rookie could…

On a drizzly Saturday afternoon, hundreds of mahjong enthusiasts gathered in Downtown Brooklyn to play the 19th-century Chinese game of strategy and luck.As attendees entered the Korean food hall Hana House, they spread out over some two dozen tables. Upbeat electronic music from a live D.J. played throughout the space.The afternoon marked the second birthday of Green Tile Social Club, a New York-based mahjong community that was hosting its first tournament. Four Asian American alumni from the University of Texas at Austin — Ernest Chan, Grace Liu, Joanne Xu and Sarah Teng — started playing together about two years ago,…

One hundred seventy-five cookie jars that belonged to Andy Warhol. The bat that Babe Ruth carried in his last appearance at Yankee Stadium. A piano plinked by Dooley Wilson, as Sam, in “Casablanca.” The Duchess of Windsor’s jewelry.David N. Redden, an innovative auctioneer and a dapper presence at the podium, sold them all in a 42-year career at Sotheby’s. He also sold the Magna Carta, James Naismith’s original rules of basketball, a 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence found behind a $4 flea-market painting, and the world’s most expensive book, stamp and coin.Mr. Redden, who specialized in rare manuscripts,…

One of the weirder, more unnerving things about today’s leading artificial intelligence systems is that nobody — not even the people who build them — really knows how the systems work.That’s because large language models, the type of A.I. systems that power ChatGPT and other popular chatbots, are not programmed line by line by human engineers, as conventional computer programs are.Instead, these systems essentially learn on their own, by ingesting massive amounts of data and identifying patterns and relationships in language, then using that knowledge to predict the next words in a sequence.One consequence of building A.I. systems this way…

Just before Katie Marsh dropped out of college, she began to worry that she might have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.“Boredom was like a burning sensation inside of me,” said Ms. Marsh, who is now 30 and lives in Portland, Ore. “I barely went to class. And when I did, I felt like I had a lot of pent-up energy. Like I had to just move around all the time.”So she asked for an A.D.H.D. evaluation — but the results, she was surprised to learn, were inconclusive. She never did return to school. And only after seeking help again four years…

Multipart music documentaries come at us these days with the insistence and abundance of the old K-tel collections, scrambling to satisfy the cravings of every variety of pop nostalgist. Recent months have added “James Brown: Say It Loud” (A&E), “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon” (MGM+), “Kings From Queens: The Run DMC Story” (Peacock) and “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story” (Hulu), among others, to the rotation.That’s four Rock & Roll Hall of Fame acts right there. But if you are looking for something even bigger — the arc of America across the 1960s and ’70s, set…

The Biden administration was poised to send about a dozen detainees at Guantánamo Bay to Oman for resettlement last year, but it abruptly halted the secret operation amid questions from Congress about security in the Middle East after Hamas attacked Israel, according to administration officials.None of the prisoners have ever been charged with crimes, and all of them had been cleared for transfer by national security review panels.A military cargo plane was already on the runway at Guantánamo Bay ready to airlift the group of Yemeni prisoners to Oman when the trip was called off, people familiar with the military…

As Israel’s invasion of Rafah stretches into its third week, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the southern Gaza city have encountered miserable conditions in their new encampments and shelters.Shortages of food, clean water and bathrooms have made the experience of relocating particularly dreadful, Gazans say, and price gouging has made the trip unaffordable for those who need transportation, including older and disabled people.“We’re dealing with horrific circumstances,” said Khalil el-Halabi, a retired U.N. official in his 70s who left Rafah last week for Al-Mawasi, a beachside area that Israel has designated as a “humanitarian zone.”“We don’t have what we…

NEW YORK — True to form, Knicks Nation was convincing and sharp in their Game 7 loss to the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden.”(Screaming) Scrubs,” one sane fan said as he walked away from MSG in the final minutes of a 130-108 loss.The home fans were very disappointed. No one on this island believes the Pacers can make it here, and the Knicks, as depleted as they are, can continue to grab big as long as Jalen Brunson is healthy and New York can compete for a conference finals berth in a winner-take-all format. The offensive rebound. ESPN’s reporting…