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An influential United Nations human rights body gave a scathing assessment of civil rights protections in Britain on Thursday, accusing the Conservative government of backsliding and urging the country to abandon its controversial legislation requiring applicants to be sent asylum in Rwanda.The criticism from the UN Human Rights Committee came as it presented the conclusions of two days of meetings in Geneva this month with a delegation of 24 British officials to review the country's compliance with an international treaty protecting civil rights and politicians.“We are seeing a really regressive trend and trajectory” in Britain, committee member Hélène Tigroudja said at a news conference in Geneva. She said the trend is happening “in many, many areas when it comes to civil and politi...

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.archived recording 1This is what democracy looks like!This is what democracy looks like!astead herndonIn 2011, I was a college student in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.archived recording 2Thursday night, tens of thousands of protesters packed three floors of the Capitol building.astead herndonAnd during that time —archived recording 3The protesters first descended on the Capitol Monday, raging at the new Republican governor, Scott Walker.archived recording 4We’re broke, like nearly every other state across the country. We’ve got a massive deficit...

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers, was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday, capping an extraordinary saga that has rocked the cryptocurrency industry and become a warning about greed and arrogance.Bankman-Fried's sentence was less than the 40 to 50 years that federal prosecutors had sought after a jury found him guilty of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering — charges that carried a maximum sentence of 110 years behind bars . But the sentence was well in excess of the six and a half years requested by his defense lawyers.Mr. Bankman-Fried, 32, did not visibly react when Judge Lewis A. Kaplan handed down the sentence in Federal District Court in Manhattan. His parents, law professors Joe Bankm...

A White House spokesman said Wednesday that the Israeli government has agreed to try to reschedule the visit of a group of officials whose trip to Washington to discuss a possible assault on a key southern Gaza city was canceled due to the United States decision not to veto a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.President Biden had asked Israel to send a delegation to Washington to discuss alternatives to a ground offensive in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than a million people have sought refuge. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled the delegation's trip at the last minute after being angered by the United States' decision to abstain from voting on the resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Monday.“The prime minister's of...

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it has finalized a new regulation that curbs the use of short-term health insurance plans that do not comply with the Affordable Care Act, reversing the Trump administration's move to give consumers greater access to cheaper but more succinct services. plans.Under the new rule, short-term plans will only be able to last 90 days, with consumers being able to extend a one-month extension.In 2018, the Trump administration issued a rule that allows plans to last just under a year, with the possibility of renewing them for a total duration of up to three years. Previously, under Obama-era policy, plans could last no longer than three months.The plans, often with lower premiums than those on Affordable Care Act marketplaces, do not have to c...

The British Museum on Thursday named Nicholas Cullinan, an art historian who currently heads the National Portrait Gallery in London, as its new director, ending a volatile period in which the august institution was without a permanent leader.It will immediately face a series of challenges, including the fallout from an embarrassing scandal in which the museum says a former curator stole more than 1,800 objects from its warehouses, then sold many of the artifacts on eBay.Cullinan is also expected to conduct a major fundraising campaign to finance a major renovation. And he will have to deal with growing calls for the return of disputed artifacts to their countries of origin, including the Parthenon sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, and a collection of Benin bronzes.

astead herndonHi. It’s Astead Herndon from The New York Times. I’ll try to call you back later.belinda schoendorfHey. Hey. You there?astead herndonOh, hey. I thought it was the voicemail.belinda schoendorfSorry. Hey.astead herndonAre you there?belinda schoendorfIt was. I was outside, OK?astead herndonHey. Is this Belinda? How are you?belinda schoendorfYes. I’m good. I’m good, thank you.astead herndonI want to thank you for picking up again, even though it was a surprise. Do you mind if we record this for our show?belinda schoendorfAnd tell me — and what’s your first name? Is it Stephan, you said?astead herndonNo, no. It’s Astead, A-S-T-E-A-D. So yeah, it’s the we talked over the summer.belinda schoendorfA-S-T-E-A-D. Right.astead herndonAnd after you took that Times polling.belinda schoendo...

Amazon said Wednesday it added $2.75 billion to its investment in Anthropic, a start-up that competes with companies like OpenAI and Google in the race to build cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems.Six months ago, Amazon invested $1.25 billion in Anthropic, making the San Francisco start-up Amazon's largest AI partner. Amazon said at the time that it had the ability to bring its total investment to $4 billion. According to financial documents, they had until the end of March to do so.However, the additional investment shows the enormous resources tech companies are pouring into AI and is indicative of how much financial support Anthropic needs to keep up with its peers.“We believe our strategic collaboration with Anthropic will further enhance our customers' experience an...

The Israeli air force continued to pound the Gaza Strip with strikes on Wednesday, and Hamas fighters continued to attack Israeli soldiers, a further indication that this week's United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire fire had failed to convince both sides while attempts because an agreement seemed to be faltering.In the two days since the UN resolution passed on Monday, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, have said they continue to carry out attacks against Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military said Wednesday that warplanes had struck dozens of targets over the previous day, including tunnels, military bases and militants.Israel has been vocal in its condemnation of the Security Council resolution, which called for a ceasefire for the remainin...

Most of the band members adhered to a young-live-fast lifestyle. But as they partook in the drinking and drug use endemic to the '90s grunge scene after shows at the Whiskey a Go Go, the Roxy and other West Coast clubs, the band's guitarist, Valter Longo, a Ph.D. Italian research obsessed with nutrition. student, struggled with a lifelong addiction to longevity.Now, decades after Dr. Longo abandoned his grunge-era band DOT for a career in biochemistry, the Italian professor finds himself with his floppy rocker hair and lab coat at the nexus of food obsessions and the aging of Italians.“For studying aging, Italy is simply incredible,” said Dr. Longo, a young 56-year-old, in the laboratory he runs at an oncology institute in Milan, where he will speak at a conference on aging at th...