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An independent advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday rejected the use of MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, highlighting the unprecedented regulatory challenges of a new therapy using the drug commonly known as Ecstasy.Before the vote, committee members expressed concerns about the design of the two studies submitted by the drug's sponsor, Lykos Therapeutics. Many questions focused on whether study participants were generally able to correctly guess whether they had taken MDMA, also known as Ecstasy or Molly. The jury voted 9-2 on the effectiveness of MDMA-assisted therapy and 10-1 on whether the benefits of the proposed treatment outweighed the risks.Other speakers expressed concerns about the drug's potential cardiovascular effects...

The two contenders to become Britain's next prime minister clashed furiously over taxes, immigration and health policy Tuesday in a televised debate that at times descended into bad-tempered exchanges as the political rivals argued with each other.The clash came exactly a month before the crucial general election that will determine whether the opposition Labor Party can capitalize on its strong lead in opinion polls and end 14 turbulent years of Conservative-led government during which the party has had five different prime ministers.Soon after the debate began, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that his opponent, Labor leader Keir Starmer, would raise taxes on British citizens by £2,000 a year if he won the election, repeating the same claim numerous times. “Absolute rubbish,” Starmer...

A group of OpenAI insiders are calling out what they say is a culture of recklessness and secrecy at the San Francisco artificial intelligence company, which is racing to build the most powerful artificial intelligence systems ever created.The group, which includes nine current and former OpenAI employees, has rallied in recent days around shared concerns that the company hasn't done enough to prevent its artificial intelligence systems from becoming dangerous.Members say OpenAI, which started as a nonprofit research lab and went public with the release of ChatGPT in 2022, is prioritizing profits and growth in an effort to build artificial general intelligence, or AGI, the industry term for a computer. program capable of doing everything a human can do.They also allege that OpenAI use...

Some Palestinians in Gaza expressed hope that peace talks could advance after President Biden endorsed an Israeli road map to a permanent ceasefire and called on Hamas to accept the plan. But many remained skeptical that U.S. influence would help bring an immediate end to the war and their suffering.After eight months of devastating bombing, many in Gaza believe Hamas should make any compromises necessary to end the war and allow reconstruction to begin.“I hope Hamas accepts this deal,” said Ayman Skeik, a 31-year-old trader from Gaza City displaced in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. “But I'm still afraid that it won't be reached.”Declaring Hamas no longer capable of carrying out a major terrorist attack on Israel, President Biden said Friday that the time has come for a permanent c...

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to approve the use of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. An independent advisory group of experts will review the studies on Tuesday and is expected to vote on whether the treatment is effective and whether its benefits outweigh its risks.The commission will hear from Lykos Therapeutics, which presented evidence from clinical trials in an effort to get the agency's approval to legally sell the drug to treat people with a combination of MDMA and talk therapy.Millions of Americans suffer from PTSD, including military veterans at high risk for suicide. No new treatments for PTSD have been approved in more than 20 years.What is MDMA?Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a synthetic psychoactive d...

A new tourist tax in Bali. Higher hotel taxes in Amsterdam and Paris. Stricter rules on public alcohol consumption in Milan and Mallorca. Ahead of the summer travel season, leaders of many resort towns have taken steps to tame the tourist crowds – or at least make more revenue from them.All of this can create headaches for travelers, although in most cases the new fares or tax increases represent only a small fraction of the total cost of a trip. The goal is to ensure tourism runs smoothly for both visitors and locals, said Megan Epler Wood, managing director of the Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program at Cornell University.“All tourism depends on beautiful natural and cultural resources. You need to protect these resources to be a viable tourist destination – and if you don&#...

Anadol said that every artist wants to see “what is beyond reality” and “perceive worlds that don't exist.” Artificial intelligence is a vehicle for the imagination, which he says could represent “hallucinations, dreams, fantasies.”The technology we deal with today is no longer “just a pen, or a printing press” and “not just a car or a wheel”. Instead "it's intelligence", he said, she said. “It's mimicking our reasoning right now and will evolve. It will turn into something else.” And this “has never happened before in our history”.Currently, he explained, artificial intelligence is “50% human, 50% machine”. In the future, she said, artificial intelligence will be “designed from the ground up: to see, to hear, to feel” and to produce “a living art form” that will be “a sy...

The future of art is the main theme of “Your Ghosts Are Mine: Expanded Cinema, Amplified Voices,” a film and video installation that coincides with this year's Venice Biennale. Organized by Qatar Museums and featuring around 40 artists from the region, it speaks to the emergence of the Middle East as a force in various art forms, not to mention the force in changing the narrative on how the region is represented in films and 'art.The future is in the mind of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, president of Qatar Museums and the Doha Film Institute. Al Mayassa sees this year's Art for Tomorrow conference in Venice, convened by the Democracy & Culture Foundation, with panels moderated by New York Times journalists, as an opportunity to raise the profile of artis...

Using her arms as a makeshift slat, a Sudanese woman in a black hijab and black-and-white kaftan clapped her hands, signaling the start of rehearsals. The other amateur actors, wearing comical stick-on mustaches, moved toward their goals, improvising a scene in a women's beauty salon where a customer's hair is accidentally dyed blue.By the time the scene was over, all the women were hysterical and teasing each other about how they could play their parts better next time. Scenes like this are common at the Kuluhenna Creative Workshop, held in a clubhouse on the outskirts of this Yorkshire town. The workshop is open to all local women, but with a focus on immigrant communities, including refugees and asylum seekers.The 90-minute class, which the Mafwa Theater has been holding sinc...

As the speeches dragged on, eyes drifted to screens. Teenagers scrolled Instagram. One man texted his girlfriend. And men crowded around a phone streaming a soccer match while the group’s first female leader spoke.Just about anywhere, a scene like this would be mundane. But this was happening in a remote Indigenous village in one of the most isolated stretches of the planet.The Marubo people have long lived in communal huts scattered hundreds of miles along the Ituí River deep in the Amazon rainforest. They speak their own language, take ayahuasca to connect with forest spirits and trap spider monkeys to make soup or keep as pets.They have preserved this way of life for hundreds of years through isolation — some villages can take a week to reach. But since September, the Marubo have had hi...