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Just days before Britain's Conservative Party suffered a major setback in Thursday's local elections, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recorded a short video to promote some good news from his government. In the eight-second clipMr Sunak poured milk from a pint bottle into a tall glass, filled with a dark, steaming drink and bearing the scribbled figure of 900 pounds on the side.“Payday is coming,” Sunak wrote, referring to the savings an average wage earner would presumably get from a cut in mandatory contributions to Britain's national insurance system.Soon the mockery began. She had added too much milk, some said. His numbers didn't add up, others said. And why, one critic asked, would Sunak choose a pint bottle as a prop just days after the deputy leader of the opposition...

Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, caught competitors, suppliers and his own employees by surprise this week by reversing course on his aggressive push to build electric vehicle chargers in the United States, a top priority of the Biden administration.Musk's decision to fire the 500-member team responsible for installing charging stations and dramatically slow investment in new stations rattled the industry and raised questions about whether the number of public chargers would grow fast enough to keep the pace with sales of battery-powered cars. He has put the onus on other charging companies, raising doubts about their ability to build fast enough to address a shortage that appears to be discouraging some people from buying electric cars.As the owner of the largest charging netw...

For months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has avoided an in-depth public discussion about Gaza's post-war future. Seeking to appease both his far-right allies, who seek to rebuild Israeli settlements in Gaza, and Israel's foreign partners, who want Gaza to return to Palestinian rule, Netanyahu stopped short of any specific statements.Behind the scenes, however, senior officials in his office are considering an expansive plan for post-war Gaza, in which Israel would offer to share oversight of the territory with an alliance of Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates United Arabs. as has the United States, according to three Israeli officials and five people who discussed the plan with members of the Israeli government.Under that proposal, Israel ...

The avian influenza virus spreading across dairy farms in several states has acquired dozens of new mutations, including some that could make it better at spreading between species and less susceptible to antiviral drugs, according to a new study.None of the mutations in themselves are cause for alarm. But they highlight the possibility that, as the epidemic continues, the virus could evolve in ways that would allow it to spread easily among people, experts said.“The flu mutates all the time — that's what, in a sense, the flu does,” said Richard Webby, a flu expert at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, who was not involved in the work.“The real key would be if we started to see some of these mutations become more widespread,” Dr. Webby said. “This would increase the level of ...

The world watches what happens on American campuses with shock, pride, joy and alarm. Scenes of protests – and arrests of demonstrators – were headline news around the world, from Bogotá to Berlin, from Tehran to Paris.In some countries, including France, students have staged protests of their own, though not with the scale and intensity of those in the United States.Some applaud the protests. Others, especially in countries ruled by authoritarian regimes, see the crackdown as evidence of American hypocrisy on human rights and free speech. Still others see them as the latest sordid chapter in America's ongoing culture wars.In some ways, the protests and the response to them are a Rorschach test for the world: The analysis often offers more insight into local politics than American p...

A landmark antitrust trial against Google ended Friday after a federal judge heard closing arguments, setting the stage for a ruling that could fundamentally shift the power of the tech industry.“The importance and significance of this case is not lost on me, not only to Google but to the public,” Judge Amit P. Mehta said in the final moments of the proceedings Friday. He thanked the lawyers who discussed the case and then added: "I imagine you have passed the baton to us."Now he must decide the case in which the Justice Department and state attorneys general say Google abused its monopoly on the search business, stifling competitors and limiting innovation, which the company denies.During two days of closing arguments, Judge Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia d...

A Palestinian doctor from the Gaza Strip, detained by Israeli forces and held for four months, has died in detention, Palestinian officials and detainees' rights groups say.Dr. Adnan Ahmad Albursh, 50, head of the orthopedics department at Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical center in the Gaza Strip, was arrested along with other doctors in December by Israeli forces when they raided a hospital , according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Commission. Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which defend the rights of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Times of Israel quoted the military as confirming that the Israeli Prison Service had declared Dr. Albursh dead on April 19, without giving the cause of...

Soon after their arrival in late December 2020, Covid-19 vaccines turned the pandemic around and paved the way for a return to normality. According to one estimate, they have prevented around 14.4 million deaths worldwide.In a small percentage of people they also produced side effects.Over the course of more than a year, The New York Times spoke to 30 people who said they had been harmed by Covid vaccines. Their symptoms may turn out to be unrelated to the injections. But they — along with more than a dozen experts — believe federal officials aren't doing enough to investigate their complaints.All vaccines carry some risk of side effects. More than 270 million Americans have received about 677 million doses of Covid vaccines, and even rare side effects — occurring in, say, only 0.0...

Britain's Conservative Party suffered major setbacks on Friday in local elections that are seen as a barometer for how the party will perform in the next general election and a key test for embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.Only a small part of the results had been announced by midday on Friday, but the signs were already ominous for Sunak's Conservatives. The party has lost around 150 seats so far, including six in Hartlepool, north-east England, where it made inroads after Brexit but more recently lost ground to the resurgent Labor Party.The Conservatives have won a notable victory in a closely watched race for mayor of Tees Valley, also in the north-east of England, where the Conservative incumbent, Ben Houchen, held on, winning a narrow majority.Elsewhere, however, the pict...

Listen and follow "Hard Fork"Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YoutubeWe asked listeners to tell us the wildest ways they've used AI at work. This week we bring you their stories. Then, Hank Green, a legendary YouTuber, stops by to talk about how creators are reacting to the prospect of a ban on TikTok and how he's navigating an increasingly fragmented online environment. And finally, the deep fakes are coming to Main Street: We'll tell you the story of how they caused riots at a Maryland high school and what, if anything, can be done to combat them.Guests:Additional reading:Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose AND Casey Newton and produced by Whitney Jones AND Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Poyant only. Engineering by Alyssa Moxley and original music by Dan Powell,...