The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is accelerating a major transformation in biomedical research, launching new initiatives intended to reduce reliance on animal testing while expanding the use of human cells, organoids, organs-on-chips, artificial intelligence and computational models in drug development. The effort represents one of the federal...
Los Angeles Needs Thousands of Apartments, but Developers Say Building Them No Longer Pays
Los Angeles is confronting a striking contradiction in its housing crisis: the city desperately needs more apartments, but many developers say constructing them has become financially unattractive. Despite persistent housing shortages and high rents, multifamily construction is slowing as developers confront elevated interest rates, falling apartment values, rising construction expenses,...
U.S. Expands Its Arctic Military Footprint in Landmark Greenland Security Deal
The United States, Denmark and Greenland have signed a major new security agreement that significantly expands the American military presence on Greenland while leaving sovereignty over the strategically important Arctic territory unchanged. The agreement represents an effort to resolve months of diplomatic tension generated by President Donald Trump’s repeated demands...
Meta’s Massive Network Gives Zuckerberg the Freedom to Fail Until the Next Big Idea Works
Mark Zuckerberg has survived a remarkable series of expensive technological bets, controversies and strategic mistakes, yet Meta continues to emerge with new opportunities for growth. The latest example is Muse, the company’s new artificial-intelligence assistant, whose rapid popularity demonstrates Meta’s greatest competitive advantage: an enormous global network that gives the...
Potent Kratom Products Drive a New Wave of Addiction and Severe Withdrawal Across the U.S.
Addiction treatment centers across the United States are reporting a sharp increase in patients seeking help for dependence on kratom and, increasingly, highly concentrated products containing 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH. Kratom comes from the leaves of a tree native to Southeast Asia and has been available in the United States for...
US Supreme Court hears major online music piracy case
The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday on whether internet service providers should be held liable for the online pirating of copyrighted music by their users. Cox Communications, a major broadband ISP, is asking the court to throw out a jury verdict awarding $1 billion in damages to Sony...
Asian markets rise as US rate cut bets temper Japan bond unease
Stocks rose Tuesday following the previous day’s stutter as more weak US data helped solidify US interest rate cut optimism and tempered nervousness over rising Japanese bond yields. Expectations the Federal Reserve will lower borrowing costs has provided a boon to markets in the past few weeks and saw them...
Apple AI chief leaving as iPhone maker plays catch-up
Apple on Monday said the head of its artificial intelligence team is stepping down, and the effort is to be led by a veteran engineer from Google and Microsoft. The plan for Apple senior vice president of Machine Learning and AI Strategy John Giannandrea to retire early next year comes...
Samsung unveils first ‘special edition’ triple-folding phone
Samsung launched its first triple-folding phone on Tuesday, a special-edition product with an eyewatering price tag placing it out of the reach of the average consumer. The Galaxy Z TriFold will go on sale on December 12 and costs more than twice as much as the new iPhone 17 at...
Prada completes acquisition of flashy rival Versace
Italian fashion group Prada announced on Tuesday it had completed its acquisition of smaller rival Versace, announced earlier this year for 1.25 billion euros (now $1.45 billion). Prada Group said in a statement that the deal with Capri Holdings, the US group which owned Versace, had “received all required regulatory...