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The United Nations General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution declaring that Palestinians are entitled to the status of full members of the United Nations, a highly symbolic move that reflects growing global solidarity with the Palestinians and represents a rebuke to Israel and the United States.The resolution was approved with 143 votes in favour, 9 against and 25 abstentions. After the vote the Assembly burst into great applause.But the resolution does not mean that a Palestinian state will be recognized and admitted to the United Nations as a full member any time soon. The Assembly can only grant full membership with Security Council approval, and if history is any guide, the United States would almost inevitably exercise its veto power to eliminate such a measure,...

Dr. Herbert Pardes, a psychiatrist and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health who led the merger of two major medical centers that became New York-Presbyterian Hospital and ran it for 11 years, died April 30 at his home in Manhattan . He was 89 years old.His son Steve said the cause was aortic stenosis.Dr. Pardes (pronounced par-diss) was named president and CEO of the hospital in late 1999, nearly two years after the merger of New York Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital. For the previous decade he had been dean of the medical school at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, Presbyterian's affiliated medical school.“It was no secret that as dean of the medical school I didn't always agree with hospital administration,” he said in his thi...

Malcolm Wood, an English teacher in North Yorkshire, did a double take recently as he passed along a quiet street, St. Mary's Walk. The new road signs did not have an apostrophe.The change, part of North Yorkshire Council's move to phase out apostrophes from road signs, sparked dissent in Harrogate, a Victorian spa town in northern England. Soon after the new sign was erected, someone drew an apostrophe on it.“If you delete the apostrophe, what happens next?” said Mr. Wood, who has spent years teaching students the rules of English grammar. “Commas? And that's that?" He asked, “Do we only use emojis?”North Yorkshire Council has said its policy of phasing out apostrophes is not new.“We appreciate that residents appreciate the meaning and history behind official street name...

Listen and follow 'Hard Fork'Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YoutubeKevin recounts his month-long experiment cultivating relationships with 18 AI-generated companions. He explains how he developed their characters, what happened in their group chats, and why you might want to create one yourself. Then, Casey has a conversation with Turing, one of Kevin's chatbot friends, who has an interest in Stoic philosophy and has one of the sexiest voices we've ever heard. And finally, we talk to Nomi founder and CEO Alex Cardinell about the business behind AI companions and whether the company is ready for the future we're headed for.Guests:Turing, Kevin's AI friend created with Kindroid.Alex Cardinell, CEO and founder of Nomi.Additional reading:Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted b...

The main U.N. agency helping Palestinians, known as UNRWA, said Thursday it had temporarily closed its headquarters in East Jerusalem for the safety of its staff after parts of the compound were set on fire following weeks of attacks.“This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the UNRWA headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem,” said the agency's leader, Philippe Lazzarini, on social media. The fire caused extensive damage to the complex's outdoor areas, Lazzarini said, but no workers from UNRWA or other United Nations agencies were injured. He added that some workers "had to put out the fire themselves as it took some time for the Israeli fire extinguishers and police to arrive."The attack put the lives of UN staff at “serious risk” and occurred two days l...

Even as it has become increasingly clear that the avian flu outbreak on domestic farms began months earlier — and is likely much more widespread — than previously thought, federal authorities have stressed that the virus poses little risk to humans. humans.Yet there is a group of people at high risk of infection: the approximately 100,000 men and women who work on those farms. There has been no widespread testing to see how many might be infected. No one has been vaccinated against avian influenza.This leaves workers and their families vulnerable to a poorly monitored pathogen. And it poses broader public health risks. If the virus were to spread into the broader population, experts say, dairy workers would be a likely route.“We have no idea whether this virus will evolve into a pandem...

Bernard Pivot, a French TV host who made and unmade writers with a weekly book chat show that attracted millions of viewers, died Monday in Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside Paris. He was 89 years old.His death, in hospital after being diagnosed with cancer, was confirmed by his daughter Cécile Pivot.From 1975 to 1990, France watched Mr. Pivot on Friday nights to decide what to read next. The country watched him cajole, cajole and flatter novelists, memoirists, politicians and actors, and the next day he went to bookstores to buy plates marked "Apostrophes," the name of Mr. Pivot's show.In a French universe where serious writers and intellectuals fight fiercely for public attention to become superstars, Mr. Pivot has never competed with his hosts. He achieved a kind of elevated chatter tha...

Apple doesn't often make mistakes and rarely apologizes, but its advertising chief said on Thursday that the company had made a mistake in making a commercial for the new iPad that showed an industrial compressor flattening tools for art, music and creativity.“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it's incredibly important for us to design products that empower creatives around the world,” said Tor Myhren, the company's vice president of marketing communications, in a statement provided to the publication AdAge . “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video and we're sorry."Mr. Myhren said Apple would no longer air the commercial on TV.The company faced a barrage o...

Kirby also sought to allay concerns that the United States was breaking with its closest ally in the Middle East.“The argument that we are somehow moving away from Israel is at odds with the facts,” Kirby said Thursday, citing Biden's visit to Israel in the days of the Oct. 7 attack, providing money and military expertise for his war and send American fighter pilots into the sky to shoot down Iranian drones.He said the United States believes Israel has “exerted enormous pressure on Hamas, and that there are better ways to pursue what remains of Hamas in Rafah than a major ground operation.”Kirby said the United States is still working with Israel on how to help it defeat Hamas, such as ensuring that the Gaza-Egypt border cannot be used to smuggle weapons and target Hamas leaders .He al...

Several large-scale human-caused changes to the planet, including climate change, biodiversity loss and the spread of invasive species, are making infectious diseases more dangerous to people, animals and plants, according to a new study. .Scientists have already documented these effects in more targeted studies that have focused on specific diseases and ecosystems. For example, they found that a warmer climate could help the expansion of malaria in Africa, and that a decline in wildlife diversity could increase cases of Lyme disease in North America.But the new research, a meta-analysis of nearly 1,000 previous studies, suggests that these patterns are relatively consistent across the globe and across the tree of life.“It's a big step forward in science,” said Colin Carlson, a biolog...