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House Republicans on Tuesday accused officials at the National Institutes of Health of orchestrating “a conspiracy at the highest levels” of the agency to hide public documents related to the origins of the Covid pandemic. And lawmakers vowed to expand an investigation that uncovered emails in which top health officials spoke openly about trying to evade federal records laws.The latest allegations — which come just days before a House committee is expected to publicly question Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a former top NIH official — represent one front in a growing push by lawmakers to connect American research groups and the country's leading medical research agency with the onset of the Covid pandemic.So far this push has produced no evidence that American scientists or health officials ha...

Russian forces struck several Ukraine energy facilities with drones and missiles Saturday morning, in a major airstrike that targeted cities across the country, including some near borders with NATO members.The Ukrainian air force said that Russia fired 53 missiles on its territory, that it shot down two-thirds of them, and that some were heading towards the western regions of Zakarpattia and Lviv, which border Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, countries that part of NATO. The Polish military said its fighter planes and those of other allies were scrambled to protect their borders in case a Russian weapon crossed them, as has happened in the past.Saturday's attack was Russia's sixth attack on energy facilities in Ukraine since March, part of a broader campaign apparently aimed at cutt...

When Frank Pine Googled a link to a news article two months ago, he came across AI-generated paragraphs on the topic at the top of his results. To see what he wanted, he had to scroll further.This experience bothered Mr. Pine, executive director of Media News Group and Tribune Publishing, which own 68 newspapers across the country. Now, those paragraphs scare him.In May, Google announced that AI-generated summaries, which pull together content from news sites and blogs on the searched topic, would be made available to everyone in the United States. And this change has made Pine and many other publishing executives fear that paragraphs pose a major danger to their fragile business model by dramatically reducing the amount of traffic to their sites from Google.“It could stifle the origina...

A day after President Biden called on Israel and Hamas to reach a truce, declaring it was "time for this war to end," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday reiterated that Israel will not agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza as long as Hamas still retains governmental and military power.In his statement, Netanyahu did not explicitly endorse or reject the proposed ceasefire plan that Biden laid out in an unusually detailed speech on Friday. Two Israeli officials confirmed that Biden's proposal corresponded to an Israeli ceasefire proposal that had been given the green light by Israel's war cabinet. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.But the timing of Netanyahu's remarks, which came first thing the next morning, appeared to...

Take a moment to imagine a small gray rock sitting in the palm of your hand. It's quiet, smooth and otherwise unremarkable.Are you bored already? If so, that's exactly the point.Most people will eventually lose interest in a dull piece of granite. So there's a theory circulating online that if you adopt the qualities of a stone, becoming impassive and bland, then you will repel the argumentative, antagonistic people in your life who crave conflict.It's called the "grey rock" method, and over the last decade it has spread across social media, including among TikTok influencers, who have shared strategies for channeling their inner rock. It also came up in a recent episode of the reality show "Vanderpump Rules," when a cast member, Ariana Madix, said that using the techni...

Arnaud Gaudillat, a history teacher in France, recalled breaking down in tears as he watched television coverage of the flames that swept through Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019. “We could do nothing but watch it burn,” he said.Now, five years later, as hundreds of architects, engineers and metalworkers race to finish rebuilding the cathedral's roof coverings and electrical cables by the end of the year, Gaudillat will not stand on the sidelines. He will build his Notre-Dame. One made up of 4,383 Lego pieces.Lego, the world's largest toy company, launched a model of Notre-Dame Cathedral on Saturday, complete with rose windows, bell towers and a central spire surrounded by statues. The set, designed for adults, will be part of the company's collection of sets based on architectu...

When Google CEO Sundar Pichai introduced a generative AI feature for the company's search engine last month, he and his colleagues demonstrated the new capability with six text-based queries for the public to try .Questions included “how do I clean a fabric sofa” and “what should I use to get a coffee stain out of my carpet.” These were intended to highlight how Google's new feature, AI Overviews, could generate comprehensive and useful summaries of information on top of traditional search results.But on Friday, only one of six queries still provided an overview of the AI, according to The New York Times' tests. Instead, the functionality was noticeably less widespread. A search for “what should I use to get a coffee stain out of my carpet” now resulted in a snippet of text ...

Friday's remarks were Biden's first public statements on the war since an Israeli attack and subsequent fire on Sunday killed at least 45 people, including children, and injured 249 in a camp for displaced people, according to health officials in Gaza. A visual analysis by The New York Times found that Israel used American-made bombs in the attack, forcing the White House to face difficult questions about American responsibility for the rising death toll.Mr Biden said on Friday he had seen “terrible images” of the deadly fire.“The Palestinian people have endured hell in this war,” Biden said after describing the pain of those whose relatives were “massacred by Hamas terrorists on October 7” and the “anguish” of waiting Israeli families of the release of the hostages. .Biden also ...

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday raised concerns about the health effects of MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, citing flaws in a company's studies that could pose major hurdles to approval of a treatment expected to help people who struggle with the condition.The agency said bias crept into the studies because participants and therapists were easily able to tell who received MDMA versus a placebo. It also reported “significant increases” in blood pressure and heart rate that could “trigger cardiovascular events.”The staff analysis was conducted for an independent advisory panel that will meet Tuesday to consider an application from Lykos Therapeutics to use MDMA-assisted therapy. The agency's concerns highlight the unique and complex issues facing ...

A day after U.S. officials said Ukraine might use American weapons in limited attacks inside Russia, a deepfake video of an American spokesperson discussing that policy appeared online.The fabricated video, taken from real footage, shows State Department spokesman Matthew Miller appearing to suggest that the Russian city of Belgorod, just 25 miles north of the Ukraine-Russia border, was a legitimate target for such attacks.The 49-second video clip, which has an authentic feel despite tell-tale signs of manipulation, illustrates the growing threat of misinformation and in particular so-called deepfake videos powered by artificial intelligence.U.S. officials said they had no information on the video's origins. But they are particularly concerned about how Russia might use such technique...