Author: NY TIMES

As Elon Musk sweeps through the federal government, those close to the billionaire are touting one particular tool in their arsenal: artificial intelligence.Mr. Musk, who leads a bevy of technology companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, X and xAI, has been tasked by the Trump administration with drastically reducing federal spending through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. In the first two weeks of the administration, the group has upended federal agencies and urged workers to resign in order to reduce costs.Musk allies who have taken on roles inside government agencies are evaluating how to harness A.I. to identify budget…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to two biotechnology companies for clinical trials that will transplant organs from genetically modified pigs into people with kidney failure. If successful, these studies could lead to the broader use of cross-species transplantation, a dream of medical scientists for centuries.One of the companies, United Therapeutics Corporation, will begin its trial with six patients, but that number could eventually rise to 50. The other, eGenesis, said it would begin with three patients and grow the study from there.“We are entering a transformative era in organ transplantation,” said Mike Curtis, the…

“I Am … Sasha Fierce” losing to Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” — plausible. “Beyoncé” losing to Beck’s “Morning Phase” — laughable. “Lemonade” losing to Adele’s “25” — teachable. “Renaissance” losing to Harry Styles’s “Harry’s House” — risible.Four times, Beyoncé was nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, and four times, she came up short. Given that she is the most nominated artist in Grammy history, and also the winningest, the shutout has been notable and borderline inexplicable.And so some trepidation hovered over the 67th annual Grammys on Sunday night, where she was, for the fifth time, up for album…

A car bomb killed 15 agricultural workers in northern Syria on Monday, the country’s civil defense force said, as ongoing violence threatens to undermine the new government’s push for stability.There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the explosion, which took place in the city of Manbij, about 20 miles from the border with Turkey. Manbij has been a focal point of violence between armed groups, one backed by the United States and the other by Turkey. The blast on Monday was one of the deadliest such attacks since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December.The Turkish-backed fighters wrested control…

Before LIV kicked off in 2020, when he ran to the venue for the first time, the chief Dustin Colquitt remembered that he looked up and looked up, and saw a trivial matter on the video board: If the chief won today, Dustin joined his father Craig and his brother Britton to become a super bowl champion.It immediately triggered a round of excessive thinking and anxiety.”Oh, nonsense,” Korkit thought.In order to calm his nerves, he used a simple remedy: a series of breathing exercises.People in various places are dealing with similar pressures or tensions. Professional football players entering the super…

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago convinced Europe’s leaders that they needed to spend more money on defense. On Monday, leaders from across the European Union and Britain will meet in Brussels to debate a vexing question: how to pay for it.It is a concern made more acute by President Trump’s return to the White House.The United States is the largest military funder of Ukraine’s war effort, but Mr. Trump has suggested he will rapidly withdraw U.S. financial and military support and leave it to the Europeans. He has also insisted that NATO nations ramp up defense outlays…

Markets around the world braced for volatile trading on Monday as investors began to assess the potential fallout from President Trump’s announcement of tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.On Monday, markets in Japan and South Korea were more than 2 percent lower. The Taiwan Stock Exchange weighted index slumped around 4 percent. Overnight trading on Wall Street pointed to a sharp slide for U.S. stocks when the markets open in New York on Monday.As investors begin to assess the potential fallout from what could be the start of a disruptive trade war, big exporting countries in Asia are likely to…

At a newly built dock along Germany’s Elbe River, tankers from the United States unload liquefied natural gas to fuel factories and homes. In central Spain, a forest of wind turbines planted atop mountains helps power the energy grid. In French government buildings, thermostats have been lowered in winter to save electricity.In the three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ignited an energy crisis across Europe, the continent has transformed how it generates and stores power. Russian natural gas, long Europe’s energy lifeline, has been replaced with other sources, notably liquefied natural gas from the United States. Wind and solar…

A week ago, OpenAI released a tool that can go online to shop for groceries or book a restaurant reservation. Now it is offering A.I. technology that can gather information from across the internet and synthesize it in concise reports.OpenAI unveiled the new tool, called Deep Research, with a demonstration on YouTube on Sunday, days after showing the technology to lawmakers, policymakers and other officials in Washington.“It can do complex research tasks that might take a person anywhere from 30 minutes to 30 days,” Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer, said at the event in Washington. By contrast, Deep Research…

Javier comes across as bewildered by the changes in his wife. He is grieving, he says, the loss of the woman he married, starting with her physical self. “I used to love feeling her body, her big body, next to me in bed, the softness of it. The extra tummy and extra booty was comforting and reassuring,” he says. “I miss that. The voluptuousness, being able to lean up next to her and feel her, for lack of a better word, draping over me or onto me. That’s no longer an option.”Before prescribing these drugs, responsible clinicians will advise patients…