human

Neuralink’s Brain Chip Is Running in a Human. Your Skull Is Safe, for Now

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Back in January, the Elon Musk-led Neuralink implanted its chip, named Telepathy, in a human for the first time. There’s an intriguing update: On March 20, the company streamed live video of that patient, now identified as Noland Arbaugh, playing online chess on a laptop, using the brain chip to move the cursor on the … Read more

Human rights experts decry new evidence of torture of Ukrainian POWs by Russia

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GENEVA — U.N.-backed human rights experts said Friday they have gathered new evidence of “horrific” torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war by their Russian jailers, saying such practices could amount to war crimes. The Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said human rights violations have been widespread since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to … Read more

Pandemic left much of the world on lower human development trajectory

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Dozens of poor nations have yet to regain their pre-pandemic levels of overall well-being, amid signs that the pandemic may have permanently depressed the world’s development trajectory, according to a U.N. report. Four years after societal lockdowns disrupted the global economy, every affluent nation has regained its pre-pandemic score on a U.N. ranking called the … Read more

E.U. Court of Human Rights backs encryption as basic to privacy rights

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While some American officials continue to attack strong encryption as an enabler of child abuse and other crimes, a key European court has upheld it as fundamental to the basic right to privacy. The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights has no effect in the United States; only the 46 European countries that … Read more

How to talk to a human at the IRS

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In the tax filing process, there are few tasks that feel as daunting as talking to a human at the Internal Revenue Service. Taxpayers who contact the IRS continue to experience long wait times, according to the 2023 annual report published by the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization housed by the IRS. But in … Read more

Human After All? Madame Tussauds Unveils Hyper-Realistic Daft Punk Wax Figures

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Through some technologic magic, hyper-realistic wax replicas of Daft Punk have landed at Madame Tussauds New York. Daft Punk may be no more, but the robots now stand frozen in time as wax effigies at the venue, one of the nation’s most popular tourist attractions. The brand-new doppelgängers of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo will appear … Read more

Indonesia’s likely next president made 4-star general despite links to alleged human rights abuses

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday awarded an honorary four-star general rank to Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, a former high-ranking army officer who is linked to human rights abuses and who emerged as the apparent winner of the Feb. 14 presidential election. Widodo gave the honorary promotion to Subianto, 72, in front … Read more

Memorial human rights leader Oleg Orlov sentenced to prison

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MOSCOW — Prominent Russian activist Oleg Orlov, a leader of the Memorial human rights organization that jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, was sentenced to 2½ years in prison Tuesday for denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Orlov, 70, a veteran human rights campaigner who worked as a hostage negotiator during the first Chechen … Read more

Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of Blocking Aid to Gaza

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By February 26, 2024 9:10 AM EST Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli government on Monday of blocking aid to the Gaza strip in violation of orders from the Hague, the U.N.’s highest ranking court.  “The Israeli government has simply ignored the court’s ruling, and in some ways even intensified its repression, including further blocking … Read more