Technology

As the United States seeks to deepen its relationships with African nations and counter the influence of rivals like Russia and China, it confronts a tricky question: How does it respond when countries do things that run afoul of Washington’s stated commitment to democracy and human rights?That tension hung over a major trade conference between the U.S. and African countries that started in Johannesburg this week, after President Biden announced that he was suspending four nations from a critical trade program that aims to promote economic development in Africa.One of the suspended countries, Uganda, which passed a law this year calling for life imprisonment for anyone who engages in gay sex, sent a delegation to the conference to argue for its reinstatement to the program, the African Gro...

For the last five years, Spill Sesh, a popular YouTube channel, has covered the world of social media stars, providing detailed recaps and tart commentary on their scandals and beefs du jour.But even as the Spill Sesh channel racked up more than 700,000 subscribers, the person behind it kept her identity secret. She has not appeared in the account’s more than 1,000 videos and has disguised her voice with an audio filter called monster.Her viewers have long speculated about who or what was behind the channel. Was it a content farm? Or someone related to a famous YouTuber? Or maybe a famous YouTuber, doing gossip on the side? On Friday, the mystery was solved when the person behind Spill Sesh revealed her secret in a new video.She is Kristi Cook, a former TMZ staff member who grew up in Flor...

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Friday urged Israel’s leaders to take steps to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza and allow more humanitarian aid to enter the besieged territory, amid a war that has killed thousands of people and inflamed the Middle East.But soon after meeting with Mr. Blinken, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel appeared to rebuff the Biden administration’s call for a series of “humanitarian pauses” to allow more deliveries of badly needed food, water, medicine, and other supplies and facilitate the release of hostages held by Hamas. Mr. Netanyahu said that any cease-fire would be contingent on the release of Israeli hostages, many of them children, abducted in a deadly attack on Oct. 7.“I have made clear that we are continuing forcefully, and that Isra...

When Leah Wong met Dennis Fan, she was inspired by his passion for his work. His advice helped shape a future they are building together.

Global warming may be happening more quickly than previously thought, according to a new study by a group of researchers including former NASA scientist James Hansen, whose testimony before Congress 35 years ago helped raise broad awareness of climate change.The study warns that the planet could exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming this decade, compared with the average temperature in preindustrial days, and that the world will warm by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. When countries signed the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015 to collectively fight climate change, they agreed to try and limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and aim for 1.5 degrees.“The 1.5 degree limit is deader than a doornail,” said Dr. Hansen, now the director of the Climate Scienc...

In March 2018, Morgan Olivia Hartman, who was new to Alcoholics Anonymous, attended the Miami district annual A.A. banquet dinner. Phillip Xavier de Amezola, who had been sober for four years at the time, was also there, seated at another table.Though the two had been attending the same local morning meetings since the previous October, they had not truly connected. Until, that is, each observed the Swedish ivy plants serving as centerpieces on the banquet tables.“It’s the plant Bill W. gave to his sponsees when he was dying in the hospital,” Ms. Hartman, 52, said, referring to one of the founders of the 12-step recovery program. “Part of what makes the plant special and significant is that people are supposed to cut the leaves off, replant them, and let the plant continue to grow.”At the ...

David Kirke, a flamboyant British thrill-seeker who performed — and, more important, survived — what is widely acknowledged as the first modern bungee jump, died on Oct. 21 at his home in Oxford. He was 78.His death was confirmed by his brother Hugh Potter, who said no cause had been determined.Mr. Kirke, an irrepressible daredevil and prankster, helped found the Dangerous Sports Club at the University of Oxford in the late 1970s. He inadvertently led this tiny band of eccentrics, plucked from the upper rungs of British society, into a historic plunge off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England, on April Fools’ Day in 1979.Inspiration came in part from a rite-of-passage ritual on the South Pacific island country Vanuatu known as land diving, in which young men leap from high towe...