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When Stephane Castel first met with a group of Maori and other Pacific Islanders in New Zealand to talk about his pharmaceutical company's plans for genetic research, locals feared he might be trying to profit from community members' genes without thinking too much.Instead, Dr. Castel and his colleagues explained, the goal was to strike an unconventional deal: in exchange for trusting them with their genetic heritage, participating communities would receive a share of the company's revenues. Dr. Castel also promised not to patent any genes – as many other companies had done – but rather the drugs his company would develop from the partnership.“Many people told us it was a crazy idea and that it wouldn't work,” Dr. Castel said. But five years after that first conversation at an Indigenous h...

A top U.S. envoy who helped broker the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah reassured Monday that Israel will fully withdraw from southern Lebanon, as called for in the fragile 60-day truce deal that put the bloodiest war on hold between the two sides in recent decades. .Speaking to reporters in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, envoy Amos Hochstein said Israeli troops had withdrawn from the southern city of Naqoura on Monday. In a statement, the Lebanese army said it had redeployed to the city following the Israeli withdrawal.“These withdrawals will continue until Israeli forces are completely out of Lebanon,” Hochstein said after meeting with senior Lebanese officials. “There has been a lot of progress in the last few days and I expect to see more progress in the days to come.”While the tr...

Austria's president on Monday tasked Herbert Kickl, the outspoken leader of the Alpine country's far-right Freedom Party, with the task of trying to form a governing coalition, three months after the party won the most votes in the general elections."Mr. Kickl is confident that he can find workable solutions in the context of government negotiations and wants this responsibility," President Alexander Van der Bellen said during a five-minute speech after meeting with Kickl.The president's request sets in motion a process that could make Kickl, an anti-immigrant firebrand who has vowed to make the country a "fortress," Austria's first far-right chancellor by the end of the year.What led to this?The Freedom Party came first in the September 29 elections, with almost 30% of the vote, but was w...

“A journalist finds himself in the woods.” Marc Da Costa, a digital artist with a Ph.D. in anthropology, spoke from the controls of an AI-driven video installation at the Onassis Foundation's ONX Studio, a high-tech multimedia laboratory in the Olympic Tower in Midtown Manhattan. He was talking to the computer running this installation. About me.“A huge fleet of food delivery bicycles appears,” Da Costa continued, telling a nonsensical story that AI would soon render on screen. “The heavens open and a friendly, galactic being descends with a scepter. Frank and the galactic being meet the delivery men and share a meal under the forest canopy. …”Moments later, a fleet of food delivery bikes actually appeared on the three enormous screens surrounding us, the entire scene rendered in a charmin...

Since being diagnosed with cancer last year, Kent Manuel has regularly visited an oncologist near his home in Indianapolis. It's been a difficult time: After spinal surgery for paralysis caused by cancer, he is regaining the use of his legs with physical therapy, but still uses a wheelchair.Now, Mr. Manuel said, “I'm dealing with the pain.” His oncologist recommended palliative care, a medical specialty that helps people with serious illnesses cope with discomfort and distress and maintain their quality of life.So in November, Mr. Manuel, 72, a semi-retired accountant, began seeing Dr. Julia Frydman, a palliative care doctor. “We talk about what works and what doesn't,” he said. “Listen to what I have to say. It's very flexible."The first two drugs prescribed to reduce pain had troublesome...

The Israeli military said on Sunday it had conducted "operational raids" in recent weeks on Syria's Mount Hermon, continuing a military campaign on Syrian soil that is drawing growing international condemnation.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based Syrian war watchdog, also reported airstrikes around the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Sunday, attributing them to the Israeli army. The attacks targeted an ammunition depot used by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, ousted last month in a rebel offensive, the observatory said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the airstrikes.Israel's continued military operations in Syria, which it said on Sunday were intended to "strengthen the defense of Israeli citizens," have drawn accusations from the United Nation...

The Catholic priest stood at the altar of the hilltop church for the mass baptism, dipping dozens of heads into water and tracing a cross with his finger on each forehead.Then he rejoiced in Christianity's recovery of souls in a land where the vast majority of people are Muslim – as had been the men, women and children who stood before him.The ceremony was one of many held in recent months in Kosovo, a former Serbian territory inhabited largely by ethnic Albanians that declared itself an independent state in 2008. In a census last spring, 93% of the population said they were Muslim and only 1.75% Roman Catholic. .A small number of ethnic Albanian Christian activists, all converts from Islam, are urging their ethnic relatives to see the Church as an expression of their identity. They call i...

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a Beijing-based cybersecurity firm on Friday, accusing it of helping Chinese hackers infiltrate U.S. communications systems and conduct surveillance on four continents.In an announcement, the department said the company, Integrity Technology Group, had supported a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as Flax Typhoon in a campaign to break into foreign networks between the summer of 2022 and 2023, saying it having discovered that the group had "information sent to and received regularly by Integrity Tech infrastructure".The action came after the Treasury Department revealed in a letter to lawmakers this week that a Chinese intelligence agency had breached its systems in what appeared to be a spy operation, gaining access to government empl...

The day was sultry. The 61-year-old woman pushed her donkey into a trot. He loved riding around the ring on the beautiful white beast: at a walk, then a trot, then a gallop. Suddenly he noticed a tingling in his hands and feet that spread towards his torso. He recognized the feeling but forced himself to ignore it. It didn't work. His strength seemed to fade, and before he could say or do anything, he felt himself slump forward. As the world turned grey, the donkey stopped. His arms, and then his body, slid down the animal's sweaty neck and fell to the ground. Then everything went black.He woke up looking at the snow-white belly of his donkey. He bent down and neighed softly, then brayed at the approaching instructor. Are you OK? The instructor shouted in alarm. Should I call an ambulance?...

Hamas' military wing on Saturday released a video of Liri Albag, one of around 250 people taken hostage by the group during the attack on Israel, as Israeli and Hamas officials held further indirect ceasefire talks through mediators in Qatar .Around 100 hostages are still held in Gaza nearly 15 months after Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023 sparked Israel's war on Gaza. Talks to free them stalled after a week-long truce in November 2023 that allowed the release of 105 Israeli and foreign prisoners.Ms. Albag, 19, served in a lookout unit tasked with monitoring possible threats along the Gaza border. During the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, Palestinian fighters overran the military base where she served, killing more than 60 soldiers and kidnapping Ms. Albag and six other female so...