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About a month ago, Judith Hansen woke up with a start in the early hours of the morning, thinking about her father's brain.His father, Morrie Markoff, was an unusual man. At 110, he was thought to be the oldest person in the United States. His brain was unusual, too, even after recovering from a stroke at 99.Although he dropped out of school after the eighth grade to work, Mr. Markoff became a successful entrepreneur. Later in life, his curiosity and creativity led him to the arts, including photography and sculpture made from scrap metal.He was a healthy centenarian when he exhibited his work at a gallery in Los Angeles, where he lived. At 103, he published a memoir called "Keep Breathing." He blogged regularly, pored over the Los Angeles Times daily, discussed articles in Scientific ...

According to legend, the sword given by God to Roland, an 8th-century leader in the service of Charlemagne, was so powerful that Roland's final mission was to destroy it.When the blade, called the Durandal, proved indestructible, Roland threw it as far as he could: it traveled over 100 miles before becoming embedded in the side of a rock face in the medieval French village of Rocamadour.That sword, as the story goes, had been embedded in stone for nearly 1,300 years, and had become a landmark and tourist attraction in Rocamadour, a small village in southwestern France, about 110 miles east of Bordeaux. So residents and officials were stunned to discover late last month that the blade was missing, according to La Dépêche du Midi, a French newspaper.A French national police officer in Ca...

Gliding on robot trucks, a row of Ferrari chassis moves through a gleaming new factory in northern Italy. At each station, engineers in cherry red uniforms add a component—an engine block, a dashboard, a steering wheel—as they transform the bodies into hybrids. Coming soon: fully electric.There’s a lot at stake in Ferrari’s €200 million “e-building,” which went online last month and is nearly twice the size of Rome’s Colosseum. The factory is set to bring the 77-year-old sports car maker, known for the sonorous roar of its gas engines, into the age of electrification.But the effort comes at a precarious time for the auto industry. The transition to electric vehicles, which should have quickly ushered in an era of climate-friendly transportation, has instead been held back by costly investm...

In a surprise election in Iran, a reformist candidate who advocated moderate policies at home and improved relations with the West won a presidential runoff against his hardline rival, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.The reformist candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian, 69, a heart surgeon, won 16.3 million votes to defeat Saeed Jalili, who won 13.5 million votes. The result dealt a severe blow to the conservative faction and was a major victory for the reformist camp, which had been sidelined from politics in recent years.According to the Interior Ministry, after polls closed at midnight, voter turnout stood at around 50 percent, about 10 percentage points higher than in the first round, when some 30.5 million votes were cast.The first round had a record low turnout because many Iranians boy...

La decisione della Corte Suprema di venerdì di limitare l'ampia autorità di regolamentazione delle agenzie federali potrebbe portare all'eliminazione o all'indebolimento di migliaia di norme in materia di ambiente, assistenza sanitaria, tutela dei lavoratori, sicurezza alimentare e farmaceutica, telecomunicazioni, settore finanziario e altro ancora.La decisione rappresenta una vittoria importante in una campagna decennale condotta dagli attivisti conservatori per ridurre il potere del governo federale, limitando la portata e l'autorità di quello che quegli attivisti chiamano "lo stato amministrativo".Il parere della corte potrebbe rendere più facile per gli oppositori delle normative federali contestarle in tribunale, innescando un'ondata di nuove controversie e, al con...

After 14 years in the shadows, Britain's Labour Party is back in power. And the country's first female Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, faces the daunting task of restoring Britain's economic growth prospects and ending a decade and a half of stagnation.For inspiration, she turned to another glass ceiling-shattering woman on the other side of the Atlantic: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen.Ms Reeves was appointed chancellor on Friday after Labour won a majority in Thursday’s general election. Now in charge of Britain’s budget, she is expected to pursue an economic agenda influenced by Ms Yellen, whose policies have encouraged job creation and a boom in US manufacturing investment.Ms. Yellen’s “modern supply-side economics” aims to boost economic growth by incre...

As Fourth of July celebrations began across the nation, Mark Zuckerberg posted a video to his Instagram account that immediately generated hundreds of thousands of views. Indeed, the clip seemed designed for warp-speed virality.Behind a fast-moving boat, Mr. Zuckerberg wakeboards in a tuxedo and sunglasses while sipping from a Tall Boy. The clip is based on Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 anthem “Born in the USA.” For its half-minute runtime, the multibillionaire CEO of Meta shows off his surfing technique."Unbelievable!" commented Lauren Sánchez, Jeff Bezos' girlfriend.Gaming influencer @StoneMountain64 wrote: "Now that's content."Mr. Zuckerberg responded: “I’m just doing my part.”To Zuckologists, the clip was yet another example of the 40-year-old executive trying to remake his image. I...

Israeli negotiators traveled to the Gulf nation of Qatar for the first time in weeks on Friday to resume talks on a ceasefire deal that could end the war in Gaza and free hostages held there, after weeks of deadlock in negotiations.According to an official familiar with the visit, David Barnea, head of the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, led the Israeli delegation to Doha, the capital of Qatar, and met with Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar's prime minister.Ceasefire negotiations had been stalled for weeks until Wednesday, when Hamas announced it had exchanged ideas with mediators on a new way forward. Both U.S. and Israeli officials said Hamas’ revised position could allow for a deal, but warned that it still faced a series of long and difficult de...

“Hey, buddy, how you doing?” said a man wearing a Boba Fett costume as he leaned over the bed of a young boy in a hospital gown.It was a Sunday afternoon in the emergency room at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, where Dr. Alex Arroyo, the hospital's director of pediatric emergency medicine, often dons one of more than 20 costumes when he sees patients. His favorite is Boba Fett, the famous bounty hunter from the "Star Wars" movies.“I love what I do, but it’s really hot in there!” said Dr. Arroyo, 48, who has worked at the hospital since 2006. She started wearing costumes in 2021.A die-hard “Star Wars” fan who grew up watching the original trilogy with his parents, Dr. Arroyo has passed that love on to his two youngest children, Grayson, 8, and Karra, 6. For New York Comic Con eac...

Count Binface, Elmo and a man wearing a balaclava with a print of baked beans all had their very brief moments of glory in this British election.As is a long tradition in Britain, elections include a variety of joke candidates, often competing with prominent politicians. While obviously comic relief in a serious time, the candidates are nonetheless there to make a point: since the 1970s, they have aimed to bridge the gap between politics and ordinary people.On election night, these joke candidates share the stage as they learn who won their constituency. That's how you get photos of the country's new prime minister shaking hands with a man in an Elmo suit, without even batting an eyelid.That's also how you get the photo of Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former cabinet minister who lost his...