Author: NY TIMES

Neuralink, a company working to develop computer interfaces that can be implanted in human brains, placed its first device in a patient on Sunday, said its founder, Elon Musk.Mr. Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, said on Monday that the company’s first product was called Telepathy and would allow a human to control a phone or computer “just by thinking.”“Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs,” Mr. Musk wrote in a series of posts on X, his social media platform. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist…

Canada is postponing a plan to offer people suffering from mental illnesses the option of a medically assisted death, two cabinet ministers said on Monday.The announcement by Mark Holland, the health minister, and Arif Virani, the justice minister, came after a special parliamentary committee looking into the plan concluded that there are not enough doctors, particularly psychiatrists, in the country to assess patients with mental illnesses who want to end their lives and to help them do so.“The system needs to be ready, and we need to get it right,” Mr. Holland told reporters. “It’s clear from the conversations we’ve…

In late 1984 the singer and activist Harry Belafonte was both impressed and perturbed by “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” a British charity single featuring a cast of pop stars. The proceeds from the project went to Ethiopian famine relief. Belafonte complained to the music manager Ken Kragen, “We have white folks saving Black folks and we don’t have Black folks saving Black folks.”Such was the spur for the 1985 song “We Are the World.” The creative nucleus was Black: its writers, Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson; Stevie Wonder (who didn’t get a writing credit but, as relayed in the…

The Pentagon on Monday identified the dead soldiers as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Ga.; Spec. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Ga.; and Spec. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Ga. The three were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, an Army Reserve unit based in Fort Moore, Ga.The drone strike on the outpost in northeast Jordan near its borders with Syria and Iraq, called Tower 22, escalated hostilities in the region that have been mounting since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.Mr. Biden…

An Albanian court on Monday gave the green light to an agreement allowing Italy to send migrants who are rescued in the Mediterranean by Italian ships to detention centers in Albania while their asylum claims are considered.The deal is part of the Italian government’s multipronged efforts to stem migration, in particular Mediterranean Sea crossings, sending the message that many undocumented migrants will not be allowed directly into Italy, even temporarily.The agreement was signed in November by the leaders of the two countries, but challenged by opposition lawmakers in Albania, who argued that it violated the country’s Constitution.On Monday, the Albanian…

On Friday night at 3 Dollar Bill, a queer club in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, partygoers danced and sang along to early 2000s hits by Fergie, Justin Timberlake and, of course, Sophie Ellis-Bextor whose “Murder on the Dancefloor” is currently having a renaissance.The theme of the night was the movie “Saltburn,” which, based on the number of attendees who arrived dressed in costume, is quickly garnering cult status. The crowd cheered as the D.J. played “Untouched” by the Veronicas. It was like hopping in a time machine to 2007. (Well, a 2007 in which everyone owns an iPhone…

Pandora, known for its affordable sterling-silver charm bracelets, is the world’s largest jewelry company by volume: The Danish chain sells more than 100 million pieces annually. This week, it announced that it is now sourcing only 100-percent-recycled silver and gold for its collections.The move was touted as an important step by a massive company to reduce its environmental footprint. “We wanted to lead by example,” Pandora’s chief executive, Alexander Lacik, said in an interview. “If we can make positive contributions to society through our use of recycled gold and silver, it means anyone can do it.”By working with metals that…

Nine years ago, Joni Mitchell fans wondered if they might ever hear her perform again, after Mitchell — the Canadian singer-songwriter and icon of the folk movement — had an aneurysm that initially left her unable to speak.But in recent years she has made a gradual recovery, and in 2022 she surprised the music world with a performance at the Newport Folk Festival. And on Sunday, at age 80, Mitchell is set to perform at the Grammy Awards for the first time. Show organizers offered no details about her appearance, including whether she is expected to play solo or with…

A United Nations team has arrived in Israel to examine reports of sexual violence during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 even as Hamas and some critics of Israel continue to reject evidence that such assaults occurred.Israeli officials have said that Hamas terrorists brutalized women throughout their incursion into southern Israel and have complained that U.N. leaders and others have been slow to condemn sexual assaults.The U.N. visit comes after multiple news organizations reported allegations of sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack. In a Dec. 28 article, The New York Times documented a pattern of gender-based violence in the…

Irate farmers deployed tractors to block the main roads in and out of Paris on Monday in an intensifying standoff that has left the capital girding for disruptions and become the first major test for France’s newly appointed prime minister, Gabriel Attal.Last week Mr. Attal rushed to farming regions in the south of France and offered a series of rapid concessions as he tried to head off widening demonstrations on roadways from food producers nationwide. But the steps failed to appease many farmers.Their grievances are so varied that the protests present an increasingly precarious moment for the government that defies…