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The United States and other major Western economies have agreed on a plan to issue a loan of about $50 billion to Ukraine that would be repaid from interest and profits on nearly $300 billion in frozen Russian assets held in the West.The promise of much-needed financial support for weapons and to begin rebuilding damaged infrastructure comes as Ukraine has been forced to sell some state assets and the momentum of the war on its soil has shifted in favor of its enemy, Russia , whose forces launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.President Biden agreed that the United States would underwrite the entire loan, but American officials said they expected allies, including members of the European Union, to provide some of the upfront funds.The loan would ultimately be repaid through interest and pr...

For a year now, two philosophy professors have been addressing prominent authors and public intellectuals with an unusual, perhaps heretical, proposal. They asked these thinkers if, for a nice fee, they wouldn't mind turning into AI chatbots.John Kaag, one of the academics, is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is known for writing books, such as "Hiking With Nietzsche" and "American Philosophy: A Love Story," that blend philosophy and memoir.Clancy Martin, Mr. Kaag's partner in the venture, is a professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the author of 10 books, including "How Not to Kill Yourself," an unflinching memoir about his mental health problems and 10 suicide attempts. .The two became friends 14 years ago, when Mr. Kaag was struck ...

Palestinian residents and media reported a night of heavy shelling in the Rafah area of ​​southern Gaza on Thursday, while the Israeli army said its forces continued to operate "in face-to-face clashes" with militants of Hamas there.Saeed Lulu, a 37-year-old taking refuge in the nearby Al-Mawasi area - parts of which Israel has designated a "humanitarian zone" for people fleeing Rafah - said he heard strikes between midnight and 6 a.m. . he said he was not aware of any casualties. The attacks appeared to have targeted Al-Mawasi's southwestern border, he said.“We are very worried,” Mr. Lulu said. "This is supposed to be a safe area and we have nowhere else to go if they attack here," he added.The location of the strikes could not be independently verified.Wafa, the Palestinian Author...

Akira Endo, a Japanese biochemist whose mushroom research helped lay the foundation for widely prescribed drugs that lower a type of cholesterol that contributes to heart disease, died June 5 at age 90.Chiba Kazuhiro, president of the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, where Dr. Endo was professor emeritus, confirmed the death in a statement. The statement does not provide a cause or say where he died.Cholesterol, produced mainly in the liver, performs important functions in the body. It is also a major contributor to coronary heart disease, a leading cause of death in the United States, Japan and many other countries.In the early 1970s, Dr. Endo grew mushrooms in an attempt to find a natural substance that could block a crucial enzyme that is part of the production of chole...

A month into Russia's push across the border into northern Ukraine, Western weapons and Ukrainian reinforcements have largely blocked the attack. But they arrived too late to save one city, Vovchansk, where the town hall, a cultural center, countless apartment buildings and several riverside hotels are now in ruins.A small town divided by the Vovcha River, Vovchansk was once a regional tourist attraction, a pleasant base from which to explore the nearby chalk hills. But it is also three miles from the Russian border, and when Russia began a cross-border offensive on May 10, it became the defensive position of Ukrainian forces.The front line still runs through Vovchansk, about 70% of which remains under Ukrainian control. And a month of fierce fighting and relentless bombing by Russi...

The dispute over Elon Musk's pay package and the vote on whether to move Tesla's headquarters to Texas were in focus ahead of the company's shareholder meeting on Thursday, but not for Nordic investors.Tesla's major shareholders in Sweden, Denmark and Norway instead expect the meeting to bring the issue of workers' rights to the forefront at the automaker.Behind the campaign is the Tesla mechanics strike in Sweden. Now in its sixth month, the dispute has attracted unions across the region who have banded together in blocs aimed at bringing the US automaker to the negotiating table to reach a collective agreement with its Swedish workers.Many of the Nordics' largest shareholders are urging others to support a proposal that would require Tesla to respect workers'...

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Wednesday he will continue to urgently push for a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, despite a counterproposal from Hamas that he said includes unacceptable demands.After more than eight months of war in Gaza, the proposed ceasefire agreement follows an outline made public last month by President Biden and has the approval of the United Nations Security Council. But Israel and Hamas still seem far from reaching an agreement.“In the days ahead, we will push with urgency,” Blinken said, “to try to get this deal done.”Speaking at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, alongside Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who serves as both prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Qatar, Blinken said “there was a deal on the t...

Space changes you, even on short trips off-planet.Four people who spent three days off Earth in September 2021 experienced physical and mental changes that included modest declines in cognitive tests, immune system stress and genetic changes within their cells, scientists report in a package of published papers Tuesday in the journal Nature and several other related journals.Almost everything that changed in the astronauts returned to normal after the crash on Earth. None of the changes appeared to constitute a warning to future space travelers. But the findings also highlighted how little medical researchers know.Christopher Mason, a professor of genomics, physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City and one of the leaders of the research, called the collection o...

Russian warships arrived in Cuban waters Wednesday as part of planned military exercises that experts said were a symbolic show of force in reaction to continued U.S. support for Ukraine and a reflection of growing ties between Russia and Cuba.The group of four ships poses no real threat, U.S. officials said, despite tensions between the United States and Russia over the war in Ukraine. The group includes the nuclear submarine Kazan and the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and contains no nuclear weapons.The warships, which carried out military exercises before their arrival in the Caribbean, will remain in Havana until June 17 while the crew meet officials and visit cultural and historical sites, the Cuban Foreign Ministry said.Capable of engaging in surface warfare, using land-attack missiles a...

The European Union said Wednesday it would impose additional tariffs of up to 38% on electric cars built in China, a move that would help level the playing field for automakers in Europe.The tariffs, expected for months, come on top of existing 10% duties, but the level of their impact has been disputed. Some European automakers say they will start a trade war, but other experts have said they will not stop China's dominance in the industry.Instead, they argue that incentives to make low-emission cars more attractive to drivers would be needed if the European Union hopes to reach its goal of banning the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles in 2035.What does this mean for consumers?Industry experts predict that increased tariffs on electric vehicles from China will hurt cons...