Blog

Lynne Reid Banks, a versatile British author who began her writing career with the best-selling feminist novel “The L-Shaped Room” but found her greatest success with the popular children's book “The Indian in the Cupboard” , died Thursday in Surrey. , England. She was 94.Her death, in a nursing facility, was caused by cancer, said James Wills, her literary agent.Ms Banks was part of a generation of writers, including Shelagh Delaney and Margaret Drabble, who emerged in post-war Britain and whose books explored the struggles of young women seeking personal and financial independence, in stark contrast to the contemporary literature of "angry young men". movement defined by John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.Over the course of her long career, Ms. Banks's character portrayals have of...

Stripe, a payments start-up, is one of the most successful companies to emerge from Silicon Valley in recent times. Last year it reached a valuation of $65 billion. But in the 15 years since its founding, most people have had no chance to invest in it.It's a problem that has plagued retail investors for years, as startups like Stripe, SpaceX and OpenAI reach huge valuations in the private market. Only so-called high-net-worth accredited investors can invest in private technology startups. When companies go public, ten years or more after their birth, their growth is often slowed and their valuations are high.A new fund, Destiny Tech100, is trying to change that with a new solution. It offers an exchange-traded fund that contains shares of 23 private technology companies including ...

World leaders and aid groups said Friday that Israel must show concrete results after reacting to growing U.S. pressure by announcing it will open more aid routes to the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has warned that a famine is imminent.At a press conference in Brussels on Friday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken welcomed the new aid routes, calling them “positive developments,” but said the United States was watching to see whether Israel will make it a priority. the alleviation of humanitarian difficulties. crisis in Gaza. One measure of Israel's commitment, he said, will be "the number of trucks that actually arrive on an ongoing basis."“The true test is the results, and that's what we hope to see in the coming days and weeks,” he said, adding, “Really, the proof is...

Outbreaks of avian influenza among dairy cows in several states, and at least one infection among a farm worker in Texas, have raised fears that the virus could be the next infectious threat to people.The influenza virus, called H5N1, is highly pathogenic, meaning it has the ability to cause severe illness and death. But while its spread among cows was unexpected, people can contract the virus only through close contact with infected animals, not each other, federal officials said.“These are actually people who are in environments where they might interact with cattle infected with this virus,” said Dr. Demeter Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for disease control and prevention.“The risk for most others is very low,” he a...

Florentino Pérez had a satisfied smile on his face, and with good reason. He had just seen Spain and Brazil share a thrilling freewheeling draw in the stadium that he himself reconfirmed at great cost. Now, Pérez, the all-powerful president of Real Madrid, has found himself in a whitewashed tunnel, presented—completely randomly, of course—with his favorite kind of photo opportunity.On one side was Vinícius Júnior, Real Madrid's flag bearer and main event, dutifully introducing the man who pays his salary to his Brazilian teammates. A little further in the corridor, he was quick to bow, Rodrygo, another employee of Pérez.But Pérez's attention was on Endrick, the promising 17-year-old who will complete his long-awaited move to the Santiago Bernabéu this summer. To say the two sha...

Listen and follow 'Hard Fork'Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YoutubeThis week we'll look at how artificial intelligence is impacting jobs. As companies begin to announce AI-related job cuts and experiment with customer service bots, economists are betting that AI will lead to big gains for companies and workers. Some even predict that this will help rebuild the middle class.Then, multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Paul Trillo joins to talk to us about his experience as part of a select group of testers who were granted early access to Sora, OpenAI's video generation tool. Finally, Kevin explains what happened when a Microsoft developer encountered a massive cybersecurity breach.Today's guests:Paul Trillo, multidisciplinary artist, writer and directorAdditional read...

Israel has agreed to open another crossing and increase the flow of aid entering Gaza, a move apparently aimed at assuaging the US president's growing frustration over the dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave.The Israeli government confirmed the new measures in an overnight statement, after the Biden administration announced them Thursday evening following a tense phone call between President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During the call, Biden threatened to make future support for Israel conditional on how it addresses its concerns about civilian casualties and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.In a statement, a National Security Council spokesperson said Israel had agreed to open the Erez crossing to allow aid into northern Gaza, to use the port of Ashdod to direc...

If you're 50 or older and reading this article, chances are you wear a pair of inexpensive reading glasses to correct presbyopia, or hyperopia, the age-related decline in vision that makes it progressively harder to read small and tiny print . objects.Eventually, everyone gets the condition.But for nearly a billion people in developing countries, reading glasses are a luxury that many cannot afford. According to the World Health Organization, lack of access to corrective glasses inhibits learning among young students, increases the likelihood of road accidents and forces millions of middle-aged workers and farmers to leave the workforce too early.Not surprisingly, uncorrected presbyopia makes it more difficult for breadwinners to support their families. That's the conclusion of ...

Leaning for centuries with a worrying inclination, the Garisenda Tower in Bologna has suffered insults and traumas. Dickens called it “sufficiently unpleasant,” if extraordinary, while Goethe said it was “a disgusting sight.” And then there were the earthquakes, the Allied bombing of the city during the Second World War and the urbanization that destroyed other towers.The Garisenda has resisted all this, a beloved symbol of this medieval city, a reminder of a past when important families or communities erected towers to remind others of their status and for defense.But now Garisenda is in trouble.After sensors attached to the monument, which hangs at a 3.6-degree angle, detected “anomalous movements” last year, alarmed experts issued what was called a “technical code red.”In October, the...

Ford Motor on Thursday delayed production of at least two new electric cars and said it would shift to producing more hybrids. His decision was the latest sign that big automakers are being forced to rethink their electric vehicle strategy because sales of these models are slowing.The shift by Ford and automakers such as General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, which have also pushed back their plans for electric cars, was largely prompted by the companies' difficulties producing and selling enough electric cars and do it profitably.Sales of such vehicles are still growing, but the pace has slowed dramatically in recent months as automakers weed out many early adopters who were willing to spend more than $50,000 for a new battery-powered car. Because they are still learning how to produce c...