Yunionmail – Page 45

Israel, Gaza and the Law on Starvation in War – Generic English

23May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

News

Israel, Gaza and the Law on Starvation in War – Generic English

Related media - Associated media In a March 15 letter to a British parliamentary committee, David Cameron, Britain’s foreign secretary, expressed his “enormous frustration” that aid supplied by the United Kingdom had been “routinely held up” on its way to Gaza. “The main blockers remain arbitrary denials by the government of Israel and lengthy clearance procedures including multiple screenings and narrow opening windows in daylight hours,” he wrote. Before Oct. 7, around 500 trucks entered Gaza each day, carrying both aid and commercial items, Mr. Cameron said. That number fell by approximately 75 percent in the early months of the conflict, and although there has been a modest increase in April, the most recent weekly average for which figures were available was only 202 trucks per ...

Meta and Google Are Betting on AI Voice Assistants. Will They Take Off? – Generic English

23May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

Technology

Meta and Google Are Betting on AI Voice Assistants. Will They Take Off? – Generic English

Associated media - Connected media An older voice assistant like Siri, which reacts to a database of commands and questions that it was programmed to understand, would fail unless you used specific words, including “What’s the weather in New York?” and “What should I pack for a trip to New York?” The former conversation sounds more fluid, like the way people talk to each other. A major reason people gave up on voice assistants like Siri and Alexa was that the computers couldn’t understand so much of what they were asked — and it was difficult to learn what questions worked. Dimitra Vergyri, the director of speech technology at SRI, the research lab behind the initial version of Siri before it was acquired by Apple, said generative A.I. addressed many of the problems that researchers ...

23May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

Economy

TikTok’s Future in U.S. Depends on Bet on First Amendment

Linked media - Associated media TikTok takes its fight to court TikTok fired the latest broadside in its battle with Washington, suing to block a law that could force the company to split from ByteDance, its Chinese owner, or face a ban in the U.S. The company argues that the law violates the First Amendment by effectively killing an app in the U.S. that millions of Americans use to share their views. Another problem: a divestiture within 270 days is practically impossible, Sapna Maheshwari and David McCabe report for The Times. DealBook spoke with Maheshwari about the lawsuit filed yesterday and what happens next. Do legal experts think TikTok has a chance at winning? It could go either way. Alan Rozenshtein, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, says th...

RFK Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain – Generic English

23May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

Health

RFK Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain – Generic English

Related media - Related media Dr. Clinton White, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said microscopic tapeworm eggs are sticky and easily transferred from one person to another. Once hatched, the larvae can travel in the bloodstream, he said, “and end up in all kinds of tissues.” Though it is impossible to know, he added that it is unlikely that a parasite would eat a part of the brain, as Mr. Kennedy described. Rather, Dr. White said, it survives on nutrients from the body. Unlike tapeworm larvae in the intestines, those in the brain remain relatively small, about a third of an inch. Some tapeworm larvae can live in a human brain for years without causing problems. Others can wreak havoc, often when they start to die, which caus...

Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards can’t run from stardom anymore – Generic English

23May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

Sports

Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards can’t run from stardom anymore – Generic English

Connected media - Related media PHOENIX — Fresh off, arguably, the most important performance of his young career, Anthony Edwards sat in front of the world with a white tank top and an all-black Atlanta Braves fitted cap that sat loose, hovering just above his crisp hairline — making him look more like an extra in Outkast’s “Player’s Ball” video than the future face of the NBA. Edwards is who he is. Silly. Lovable. Intelligent. Country. He wears it all, loudly and proudly. He’s also a competitor. A trash-talker. He wears all of those things just as loud, just as proud. You add all of that up and you have a star. You add all of those things up plus a 40-point performance in a playoff-sweeping 122-116 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night, and you start to enter superstardom. ...

22May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

News

Friday Briefing – The New York Times

Related media - Connected media Hamas hinted at progress on a cease-fire A Hamas leader said yesterday that the group was studying Israel’s latest cease-fire proposal with a “positive spirit,” raising hopes of progress in the stalled efforts for a truce. Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political wing, said that a delegation would travel to Cairo to discuss the cease-fire. The current deal would include a weekslong truce and the release of hostages held by Hamas and of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The proposal would also allow civilians to return to northern Gaza and would enable increased delivery of aid to the territory. The complex cease-fire negotiations have dragged on for months. This week, Israel softened some of its positions, saying that it would allow Palestini...

Google Unveils AI for Predicting Behavior of Human Molecules – Generic English

22May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

Technology

Google Unveils AI for Predicting Behavior of Human Molecules – Generic English

Associated media - Associated media Artificial intelligence is giving machines the power to generate videos, write computer code and even carry on a conversation. It is also accelerating efforts to understand the human body and fight disease. On Wednesday, Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s central artificial intelligence lab, and Isomorphic Labs, a sister company, unveiled a more powerful version of AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence technology that helps scientists understand the behavior of the microscopic mechanisms that drive the cells in the human body. An early version of AlphaFold, released in 2020, solved a puzzle that had bedeviled scientists for more than 50 years. It was called “the protein folding problem.” Proteins are the microscopic molecules that drive the behavior...

In a Surprise, Disney+ Becomes Profitable

22May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

Economy

In a Surprise, Disney+ Becomes Profitable

Related media - Related media When Disney reported robust earnings in February, the activist investors then circling the company essentially called it a stunt — a temporary, heat-of-battle effort to fend them off and not, as Robert A. Iger maintained, proof that a struggling Disney had finally “turned the corner.” The Disney chief’s argument just got a lot stronger. Disney blew past Wall Street’s expectations for a second consecutive quarter on Tuesday, in part because its flagship streaming service made money — a first. Disney+ had been expected to lose more than $100 million in the most recent quarter, widening losses since its 2019 arrival to roughly $12 billion. Instead, it swung to a $47 million profit. “Two quarters earlier than expected,” Hugh Johnston, Disney’s chief financi...

Kris Hallenga, Who Urged Early Breast Cancer Screenings, Dies at 38 – Generic English

22May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

Health

Kris Hallenga, Who Urged Early Breast Cancer Screenings, Dies at 38 – Generic English

Associated media - Associated media Kristen Hallenga was born on Nov. 11, 1985, in Norden, a small town in northern Germany, to a German father and an English mother, both of whom were teachers, according to The Times of London. When she was 9, she moved to Daventry in central England with her mother, Jane Hallenga; her twin sister, Maren Hallenga; and their older sister Maike Hallenga, all three of whom survive her. Her father, Reiner Hallenga, died of a heart attack when she was 20. Ms. Hallenga first felt a lump in 2009 when she was in Beijing working for a travel company and teaching on the side. During a visit back home in the Midlands, in central England, Ms. Hallenga went to her internist. She told The Guardian that her doctor had blamed the lump on hormonal changes associated...

Former N.H.L. Player Faces Sexual Assault Charges in Canada – Generic English

22May

By Nelson J. QuinteroNo Comments

Sports

Former N.H.L. Player Faces Sexual Assault Charges in Canada – Generic English

Linked media - Associated media The allegation of a sexual assault was reported to the police in 2018, when the players were members of Canada’s national junior team, and it has created an enormous firestorm over the years, even in a sport with a long history of similar accusations. It led to a clean sweep of the board and leadership of Hockey Canada, the sport’s national governing body, provoked an exodus of sponsors, cut off government funding for the sport, spurred a parliamentary inquiry and prompted scathing rebukes from the public and from political figures, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. As members of the national junior team, the accused players won the 2018 world junior championships. Their high profile intensified the public reaction to the assault allegations. Th...