Every Sunday, the voices of a Ukrainian musical ensemble fill a home in a quiet suburb of Washington. For this group, music is much more than just art: It’s an expression of solidarity. Maxim Adams has the story. Camera: Artyom Kokhan
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Category: Business
Business news. Business is the practice of making one’s living or making money by producing or buying and selling products such as goods and services. It is also “any activity or enterprise entered into for profit”
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday hosts top cryptocurrency players at the White House, a political boost for an industry that has struggled to gain legitimacy — and where the Republican president faces conflict of interest concerns.
The president’s “crypto czar,” Silicon Valley investor David Sacks, has invited prominent founders, CEOs and investors along with members of a Trump working group, to craft policies aimed at accelerating crypto growth, and providing legitimacy that the industry has long sought.
On Thursday night, Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” a move that Sacks said made good on a campaign promise to an increasingly important component of his coalition.
Summit guests include twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of crypto platform Gemini, as well as Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and Michael Saylor, the boss of major bitcoin investor MicroStrategy.
In a post on X, Sacks said the event would take place as a roundtable, and despite industry interest, the White House would have to “keep it small.”
For believers, cryptocurrencies represent a financial revolution that reduces dependence on centralized authorities while offering individuals an alternative to traditional banking systems.
Bitcoin, the world’s most traded cryptocurrency, is heralded by advocates as a substitute for gold or a hedge against currency devaluation and political instability.
Memecoins
Critics, meanwhile, maintain that these assets function primarily as speculative investments with questionable real-world utility that could leave taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up if the market crashes.
The proliferation of “memecoins” — cryptocurrencies based on celebrities, internet memes, or pop culture items rather than technical utility — presents another challenge.
Much of the crypto industry frowns upon these tokens, fearing they tarnish the sector’s credibility, amid reports of quick pump-and-dump schemes that leave unwitting buyers paying for assets that end up worthless.
Trump also faces conflict of interest concerns.
U.S. crypto investors were major supporters of Trump’s presidential campaign, contributing millions of dollars toward his victory in hopes of ending the Biden administration’s deep skepticism toward digital currencies.
Trump also has significant financial ties to the sector, partnering with exchange platform World Liberty Financial and launching the “Trump” memecoin in January, as did his wife, Melania.
Once hostile to the crypto industry, Trump has already taken significant steps to clear regulatory hurdles.
Under Thursday’s executive order, the bitcoin stockpile will be composed of digital currency seized in U.S. criminal proceedings.
The use of these assets “means it will not cost taxpayers a dime,” Sacks said in a post Thursday night on X.
Sacks has said that if previous administrations had held onto their digital holdings over the past decade, they would be worth $17 billion today.
Trump also appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Under Atkins, the SEC has dropped legal proceedings against major platforms like Coinbase and Kraken that were initiated during Biden’s term.
The previous administration had implemented restrictions on banks holding cryptocurrencies — which have since been lifted — and allowed former SEC chairman Gary Gensler to pursue aggressive enforcement.
However, meaningful change will likely require congressional action, where crypto legislation has remained stalled despite intense lobbying efforts led by investors, including Trump ally Marc Andreessen, an influential venture capitalist.
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Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart.
This time, wreckage from the explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up.
The 123-meter rocket blasted off from Texas. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost as the spacecraft went into an out-of-control spin.
Starship reached nearly 150 kilometers in altitude before trouble struck and before four mock satellites could be deployed. It was not immediately clear where it came down, but images of flaming debris were captured from Florida, including near Cape Canaveral, and posted online.
“Unfortunately, this happened last time too, so we have some practice at this now,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said from the launch site.
SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” during the ascent engine firing. “Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” the company said in a statement posted online.
Starship didn’t make it quite as high or as far as last time.
NASA has booked Starship to land its astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX’s Elon Musk is aiming for Mars with Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.
Like last time, Starship had mock satellites to release once the craft reached space on this eighth test flight as a practice for future missions. They resembled SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, thousands of which orbit Earth, and were meant to fall back down following their brief taste of space.
During the last demo, SpaceX captured the booster at the launch pad, but the spacecraft blew up several minutes later over the Atlantic. No injuries or major damage were reported.
According to an investigation that remains ongoing, leaking fuel triggered a series of fires that shut down the spacecraft’s engines. The on-board self-destruct system kicked in as planned.
SpaceX said it made several improvements to the spacecraft following the accident, and the Federal Aviation Administration recently cleared Starship once more for launch.
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A New Mexico resident who has died, tested positive for measles, the state health department said on Thursday, marking the second measles-related death in the United States in more than a decade.
The unvaccinated adult patient did not seek medical care before death and was the first measles-related death in the state in more than 40 years, according to David Morgan, Public Information Officer for the New Mexico Department of Health.
The cause of death is still under investigation by the state medical examiner, Morgan said.
The death brings to 10 the number of measles cases that occurred in Lea County, located adjacent to Gaines County, Texas, where more than 100 cases and one death in an unvaccinated child have been reported.
The outbreak, one of the largest the United States has seen in the past decade, has put U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine skeptic, to the test.
In a Cabinet meeting last week, Kennedy initially downplayed news that a school-aged child had died of measles, calling such outbreaks ordinary and failing to mention the role of vaccination to prevent measles.
Over the weekend, Kennedy published an opinion piece on Fox News that promoted the role of vaccination, but downplayed the role of vaccines by telling parents vaccination was a personal choice and urging them to consult with their physician.
He also stressed the role of vitamin A, overstating evidence for its use, which has only been shown to decrease measles severity in developing countries among individuals who are malnourished and vitamin A deficient, said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious diseases expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“It’s not clear to me that’s true in the developed world, where vitamin A malnutrition is uncommon,” he said.
As of Feb. 27, 164 measles cases have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in nine jurisdictions: Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Rhode Island, and Texas.
Measles typically kills one to three people per 1,000 cases, said Dr. Tina Tan, an infectious disease expert at Northwestern University in Chicago.
She said two deaths out of a total of 164 cases suggest “a much higher mortality rate than we would normally see,” adding that there are probably many undetected cases.
The cases in New Mexico included six adults and four children under the age of 17. Seven of these cases were unvaccinated, while the vaccination history of the remaining three was not yet known.
The Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closely monitoring the situation and in communication with state health authorities. “CDC recommends vaccination as the best protection against measles infections,” he said.
New Mexico’s health department said it will host two community vaccination clinics on March 11.
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President Donald Trump is signaling a major change in how the U.S. will support growth in key domestic industries such as semiconductors. Michelle Quinn reports.
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PARIS — An Ariane 6 rocket roared skyward with a French military reconnaissance satellite aboard Thursday in the first commercial flight for the European heavy-lift launcher.
The rocket took off smoothly from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, quickly disappearing into thick clouds. Video images beamed back from the rocket showed the Earth’s beautiful colors and curvature.
The rocket’s mission was to deliver the CSO-3 military observation satellite into orbit at an altitude of around 800 kilometers.
It was the first commercial mission for Ariane 6 after its maiden flight in July 2024.
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Canada is seeing a noticeable increase in measles cases this year, with more reported in the first two months of 2025 than all of last year, the country’s health agency said on Thursday and urged citizens to get vaccinated.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said it has recorded 227 measles cases as of March 6, with many patients requiring hospitalization.
“I strongly urge all Canadians to ensure they are vaccinated against measles,” said Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer.
The agency said most of the patients are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children exposed in community settings such as social events, day cares, schools and health care facilities.
Cases can also arise when unvaccinated individuals travel to or from regions where measles is prevalent.
“As we move through spring break travel season, I am concerned that the global rise in measles cases, combined with declining vaccination rates among school-aged children in Canada, could lead to more illness and more community transmission,” Tam said.
Canada reported a total of 146 measles cases last year, according to government data.
In the week ending Feb. 15, there were 96 confirmed cases of measles, a serious airborne disease caused by a virus that can lead to severe complications and even death.
The surge is linked to outbreaks of the disease in New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, the agency said.
The agency noted that recent cases in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia occurred after travelers were exposed to measles in other countries, and urged individuals to get vaccinated before traveling.
If needed, the vaccine should be administered at least two weeks before departure, but even last-minute vaccinations offer protection, the agency said.
Last week, an unvaccinated child died of measles in Texas, the center of one of the largest outbreaks of the disease that the United States has seen in the past decade.
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Collisions with boats are the cause of at least 20% of manatee deaths in Florida every year. But as Valdya Baraputri reports, that’s not the only threat faced by these gentle giants of the sea. Camera: Laurentius Wahyudi and Nabila Ganinda
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WASHINGTON — A drill to search for ice. A 4G network test. Three rovers and a first-of-its-kind hopping drone.
After becoming the first private firm to land on the moon last year, Intuitive Machines is aiming for its second lunar touchdown on Thursday, carrying cutting-edge payloads to support future human missions.
The Houston-based company is targeting no earlier than 12:32 p.m. ET (1732 GMT) at Mons Mouton, a plateau near the lunar south pole — farther south than any robot has ventured.
NASA will livestream the landing an hour before touchdown as Athena, the 4.8-meter hexagonal lander — about the height of a giraffe — begins its descent.
“It kind of feels like this mission is straight out of one of our favorite sci-fi movies,” said Nicky Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science.
Intuitive Machines’ first landing in February 2024 was a landmark achievement but ended with its lander tipping onto its side, an outcome the company is determined to avoid this time.
The pressure is on after Texas rival Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost lander on Sunday, becoming the second private company to reach the moon.
Both missions are part of NASA’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which partners with private industry to cut costs and support Artemis, the initiative to return astronauts to the moon and eventually reach Mars.
A hopper named Grace
Athena is targeting highland terrain about 160 kilometers from the moon’s south pole, where it will deploy three rovers and a unique hopping drone named Grace, after late computer science pioneer Grace Hopper.
One of Grace’s boldest objectives is a hop into a permanently shadowed crater, a place where sunlight has never shone — a first for humanity.
While NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter proved flight is possible on Mars, the moon’s lack of atmosphere makes traditional flying impossible, positioning hoppers like Grace as a key technology for future exploration.
MAPP, the largest of Athena’s rovers and roughly the size of a beagle, will assist in testing a Nokia Bell Labs 4G cellular network linking the lander, itself, and Grace — technology designed to one day integrate into astronaut spacesuits.
Yaoki, a more compact rover from Japanese company Dymon, is designed to survive drops in any orientation, making it highly adaptable.
Meanwhile, the tiny AstroAnt rover, equipped with magnetic wheels, will cling to MAPP and use its sensors to measure temperature variations on the larger robot.
Also aboard Athena is PRIME-1, a NASA instrument carrying a drill to search for ice and other chemicals beneath the lunar surface, paired with a spectrometer to analyze its findings.
Sticking the landing
Before any experiments can begin, Intuitive Machines must stick the landing — a challenge made harder by the moon’s lack of atmosphere, which rules out parachutes and forces spacecraft to rely on precise thrusts and navigation over hazardous terrain.
Until Intuitive Machines’ first mission, only national space agencies had achieved the feat, with NASA’s last landing dating back to Apollo 17 in 1972.
The company’s first lander, Odysseus, came in too fast, caught a foot on the surface and toppled over, cutting the mission short when its solar panels could not generate enough power.
This time, the company has made critical upgrades, including better cabling for the laser altimeter, which provides altitude and velocity readings to ensure a safe touchdown.
Athena launched last Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which also carried NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer probe — but not everything has gone smoothly. Ground controllers are struggling to re-establish contact with the small satellite, designed to map the moon’s water distribution.
These missions come at a delicate time for NASA, amid speculation that the agency may scale back or even cancel the crewed moon missions in favor of prioritizing Mars — a goal championed by U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk.
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LOS ANGELES — The day after her house burned down, Lara Ganz sent a group message to the youth theater troupe she runs: They would not let the Los Angeles firestorm stop their upcoming show.
“So many of our castmates have lost everything,” wrote Ganz, the director of youth theater at a beloved playhouse in the Pacific Palisades. “We will continue with rehearsals. I am confident we will find a stage.”
The devastating Jan. 7 fire gutted every inch of the 125-seat Pierson Playhouse, from the basement to the roof, leaving behind only a mangled steel skeleton. Many of the young actors watched it burn on live TV. About half of the show’s 45 cast members, aged 8 to 17, lost their homes or can’t yet return because of severe damage. Many also lost their schools to the fire.
But the show did go on. A two-week run of the musical Crazy for You opened last weekend, in a nearby school auditorium, marking a triumphant return to the stage for a community determined to see its theater rise from the ashes. Five more shows are scheduled for this weekend.
The experience lifted the young performers of Theatre Palisades Youth from an unfathomable low point, teaching them the healing power of art in the face of disaster.
“The first time I felt happy after the fire was when I walked into that first rehearsal,” said Callum Ganz, 17, the director’s son, who plays a tap-dancing cowboy in the show. “When I’m singing or dancing, I forget about everything else. I don’t think about the fire. All I feel is happiness.”
“It’s always a shock,” he said, “when it comes back to me and I remember, ‘Oh, right. My house is gone.'”
More than 6,800 homes and other structures were flattened in the Palisades fire. Places of worship, shops and schools were destroyed, along with favorite student hangouts downtown — the local skate shop, a pizza place, the Yogurt Shoppe, where the young performers would walk after shows for a celebratory treat.
The idea of rebuilding is still a distant dream. The fire destroyed the theater’s performance space and everything else — hundreds of costumes and shoes in the downstairs wardrobe department, vintage and new props, their piano and other musical instruments, lights and sound equipment.
Parents took to social media, posting pleas for donations. They were met with an outpouring of generosity from the artistic community, stretching from Hollywood to Broadway.
Emmy-award winning hairstylist Joy Zapata saw one of the posts, emailed the mother who wrote it to make sure it wasn’t a scam, and then put out a call to friends in the business.
“I have done horror films with 100 extras running down the Pacific Coast Highway. But this time, the story was real, and it blew me away,” Zapata said. She held a tutorial for the cast during dress rehearsals and then returned for opening night with a team of seven Hollywood hair and makeup artists.
“I wanted these kids to walk away feeling beautiful,” Zapata said, as she curled and sprayed the hair of showgirls into upswept buns. Cowgirls got braided pigtails.
A few weeks earlier, Broadway actress Kerry Butler, a Tony-nominated star of Beetlejuice, had invited the kids to sing with her during a concert in Orange County, south of Los Angeles. Then, she spent a day leading them in a master class on character development and vocal technique.
“I will never forget my time with them,” Butler wrote on Instagram. “I met people who lost their homes, schools. But they told me when they heard the theatre was gone — that was when they felt the deepest loss.”
The group also received wireless mics from Guitar Center and costumes from neighboring schools. The Paul Revere Charter Middle School, for now, has become the troupe’s home.
“Home” is a charged word in a community where so many have lost theirs. Yet for these young actors and their families, it fits.
“I’m learning that a home is not a physical thing. It’s the people,” said Scarlett Shelton, a 16-year-old from nearby Culver City who has been part of the theater since middle school.
It’s the type of small-town playhouse that no longer exists in many parts of the country. Kids join young and stay until high school, often leaving with dreams of Broadway. About half of the kids in the cast lived nearby in Pacific Palisades, and the rest come from all over the Los Angeles area.
On opening night in a new venue, much of the pre-show jitters and rituals felt the same. The big kids helped calm the nerves of “the littles,” as the young actors are affectionately called. Before the show, the entire cast circled up behind the curtain and took turns giving inspirational pep talks. “Knock their socks off!” said one child. Another stepped up to say: “Everyone, dance the night away!”
Putting on the show was not the primary goal when Ganz sent out her group text, as her own family evacuated and then learned their home was gone.
“That day of the fires, her whole life was destroyed in a few hours. But it wasn’t, ‘Woe is me, I lost everything,’” said choreographer Rebecca Barragan. “She said: ‘We need to have rehearsal right away and get these kids back on their feet. And let them know that life isn’t over.'”
The original cast of 58 kids dwindled to 45, as families scattered to new homes. Many are mired in a post-wildfire bureaucracy of insurance and government assistance and still figuring out where to go next.
“To be with the other kids and create something and have a purpose has been the most healing thing for all of us,” said Wendy Levine, whose sixth grader, Tyler, is in the show.
“It’s been a light in the darkness,” said her husband, Eric Levine. The family had just finished remodeling their home and was unpacking boxes mid-morning Jan. 7, when they were ordered to evacuate. They learned that night the home was gone.
Ironically, Crazy for You is about a small-town theater struggling to survive, set to the music of George and Ira Gershwin. As the story goes, the townsfolk are energized by coming together to create a show after their hometown is hit with hard times.
That’s what real life felt like these past few weeks, said Sebastian Florido, 14, who plays the lead character and loved getting to perform one number in particular — I Can’t Be Bothered Now, which is about the power of song and dance to chase away bad news.
“One of the lines is, ‘I’m dancing and I can’t be bothered now,’” the teen said. “It’s really relatable. All this bad stuff was happening, but I’m tap dancing with my best friends. It was like a getaway to a little paradise.”
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NEW DELHI — The U.S. government will stop sharing air quality data gathered from its embassies and consulates, worrying local scientists and experts who say the effort was vital to monitor global air quality and improve public health.
In response to an inquiry from The Associated Press, the State Department said Wednesday that its air quality monitoring program would no longer transmit air pollution data from embassies and consulates to the Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow app and other platforms, which allowed locals in various countries, along with scientists around the world, to see and analyze air quality.
The change was “due to funding constraints that have caused the Department to turn off the underlying network” the department said in a statement. However, it added, embassies and consulates were directed to keep their monitors running and the sharing of data could resume if funded is restored. The funding cut, first reported by The New York Times, is one of many under President Donald Trump.
The U.S. air quality monitors measured dangerous fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, which can penetrate deep into the lungs and lead to respiratory diseases, heart conditions, and premature death. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills around 7 million people each year.
Reaction was immediate from scientists who said the data were reliable, allowed for air quality monitoring around the world and helped prompt governments to clean up the air.
Bhargav Krishna, an air pollution expert at New Delhi-based Sustainable Futures Collaborative, called the loss of data “a big blow” to air quality research.
“They were part of a handful of sensors in many developing countries and served as a reference for understanding what air quality was like,” Krishna said. “They were also seen to be a well-calibrated and unbiased source of data to cross-check local data if there were concerns about quality,” he added.
“It’s a real shame,” said Alejandro Piracoca Mayorga, a Bogota-based freelance air quality consultant. U.S. embassies and consulates in Lima, Sao Paulo and Bogota had the air monitoring. “It was a source of access to air quality information independent of local monitoring networks. They provided another source of information for comparison.”
Khalid Khan, an environmental expert and advocate based in Pakistan, agreed, saying the shutdown of air quality monitoring will “have significant consequences.”
Khan noted that the monitors in the city of Peshawar in Pakistan, one of the most polluted cities in the world, “provided crucial real-time data” which helped policymakers, researchers and the public to make decisions on their health.
“Their removal means a critical gap in environmental monitoring, leaving residents without accurate information on hazardous air conditions,” Khan said. He said vulnerable people in Pakistan and around the world are particularly at risk because they are the least likely to have access to other reliable data.
In Africa, the program provided air quality data for over a dozen countries including Senegal, Nigeria, Chad and Madagascar. Some of those countries depend almost entirely on the U.S. monitoring systems for their air quality data.
The WHO’s air quality database will also be affected by the closing of U.S. program. Many poor countries don’t track air quality because stations are too expensive and complex to maintain, meaning they are entirely reliant on U.S. embassy monitoring data.
In some places, however, the U.S. air quality monitors propelled nations to start their own air quality research and raised awareness, Krishna said.
In China, for example, data from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing famously contradicted official government reports, showing worse pollution levels than authorities acknowledged. It led to China improving air quality.
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A World Economic Forum report says it will take roughly 130 years for the world to reach full gender parity, in which women and men contribute equally to all dimensions of life. In Colorado, Svitlana Prystynska has the story of two women making inroads. (Videographer: Svitlana Prystynska,
Video editor: Oksana Babenkova)
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LOS ANGELES — LeBron James became the first player in NBA history to score 50,000 combined points in the regular season and postseason Tuesday night.
James surpassed the mark with a 3-pointer early in the first quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
James got to 49,999 points Sunday night when he scored 17 while the Lakers beat the Clippers 108-102 for their sixth consecutive win.
The 40-year-old James already is the top scorer in NBA history in both the regular season and the playoffs during a career in which he has rewritten all previous definitions of basketball longevity.
James reached 50,000 points deep into his 22nd season, which ties him with Vince Carter for the most played in NBA history. Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played 20 seasons, is second in NBA history with 44,149 combined points.
And while nearly every other NBA player who lasted to his late 30s finished at a fraction of his peak powers, James’ game shows no significant signs of decline in his 40s. He was named the NBA’s Western Conference player of the month earlier Tuesday after he averaged 29.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.2 steals in February while playing more than 35 minutes per game for the Lakers, who went 9-2 to surge into second place in the West.
James began Tuesday at third in NBA history with 1,547 regular-season games played, trailing only Robert Parish (1,611) and Abdul-Jabbar (1,560). If he stays healthy and elects to return for a record 23rd season, he will likely surpass Parish next winter.
James has also played in 287 postseason games, the most in NBA history. He became the league’s career playoff scoring leader on May 25, 2017, when he surpassed Michael Jordan’s total of 5,987 during the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Eastern Conference finals game at Boston.
James then became the top scorer in regular-season history on Feb. 7, 2023, when he topped Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 38,387 points during the Lakers’ game against Oklahoma City.
James’ prolific scoring is due in large part to his metronomic consistency. With his performance against the Clippers, he has scored at least 10 points in 1,277 consecutive games since Jan. 6, 2007 — by far the longest such streak in NBA history.
James’ player of the month award for February was his 41st, extending his own league record. He also became the oldest player to win the award, surpassing a 37-year-old Karl Malone in November 2000.
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — A U.S. judge on Tuesday denied Elon Musk’s request to prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit business in a loss for the Tesla tycoon amid his feud with Sam Altman.
U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Musk and his xAI startup failed to prove an injunction against OpenAI was necessary as the case heads to trial.
Musk sued in California federal court to stop OpenAI from transitioning from a nonprofit to a for-profit business, arguing the startup violated antitrust law and betrayed his trust in their mission as a co-founder of OpenAI.
The judge wrote that, while Musk did not prove the need for an injunction, she is prepared to expedite a trial on that claim later this year.
The ruling leaves OpenAI free to continue its transition from nonprofit to for-profit enterprise.
Musk’s injunction bid argued that OpenAI’s co-founders, including chief executive Altman, “took advantage of Musk’s altruism in order to lure him into funding the venture,” according to court documents.
Musk contended in filings that it was clear his backing of OpenAI was contingent on it remaining a nonprofit, offering a few email exchanges to support the claim.
“Whether Musk’s emails and social media posts constitute a writing sufficient to constitute an actual contract or charitable trust between the parties is debatable,” the judge said in her ruling.
OpenAI’s board chairman in February rejected a Musk-led offer to buy the valuable artificial intelligence company for $97.4 billion.
“OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition,” OpenAI Board Chair Bret Taylor said in a statement posted by the company on Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter.
OpenAI currently operates in a hybrid structure, as a nonprofit with a money-making subsidiary.
The change to a for-profit model, one that Altman says is crucial for the company’s development, has exacerbated ongoing tensions with Musk.
Musk and Altman were among the 11-person team that founded OpenAI in 2015, with the former providing initial funding of $45 million.
Three years later, Musk left the company, with OpenAI citing “a potential future conflict for Elon … as Tesla continues to become more focused on AI.”
Musk established his own artificial intelligence company, dubbed xAI, in early 2023 after OpenAI ignited global fervor over the technology.
The massive cost of designing, training, and deploying AI models has compelled OpenAI to seek a new corporate structure that would give investors equity and provide more stable governance.
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NEW YORK — The Pritzker Prize, dubbed the “Nobel” for architecture, was awarded Tuesday to China’s Liu Jiakun, who was recognized for designs that celebrate “everyday lives.”
“In a global context where architecture is struggling to find adequate responses to fast evolving social and environmental challenges, Liu Jiakun has provided convincing answers that also celebrate the everyday lives of people as well as their communal and spiritual identities,” the award’s jury wrote in a statement.
Born in 1956, Liu has worked on more than 30 projects in China ranging from academic and cultural institutions to civic spaces and commercial buildings.
“Architecture should reveal something it should abstract, distill and make visible the inherent qualities of local people,” Liu said in the statement, evoking his craft’s capacity to create “a sense of shared community.”
Liu lives and works in his birth city of Chengdu, where he prioritizes the use of local materials and traditional building techniques.
His projects include the Museum of Clocks in Chengdu, a large circular structure with a skylight that illuminates an interior strip of photographs.
Alejandro Aravena, who won the award in 2016 and is chair of the jury, said Liu’s works offer “clues on how to confront the challenges of urbanization” especially because they are sometimes “a building, infrastructure, landscape and public space at the same time.”
“Cities tend to segregate functions, but Liu Jiakun takes the opposite approach and sustains a delicate balance to integrate all dimensions of the urban life,” Aravena said.
Liu, who is the 54th recipient of the Pritzker Prize, will be honored at a celebration in Abu Dhabi in spring, award organizers said.
Last year’s prize went to Japan’s Riken Yamamoto, whose projects are credited with promoting human contact and who said at the time his objective was to “design architecture that can bring joy to people around it.”
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Ukrainians in Czechia raised nearly 19,000 dollars to help a Ukrainian war veteran and dancer get back on the floor. Yevhen Skripnichuk lost his leg while fighting the Russians. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Camera: Yuriy Dankevych
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James Harrison, whose blood plasma donations are credited with saving 2.4 million babies, dies at 88
MELBOURNE, Australia — James Harrison, whose blood plasma donations are credited with An Australian man credited with saving 2.4 million babies through his record-breaking blood plasma donations over six decades, has died at 88, his family said Tuesday.
James Harrison, a retired state railway department clerk, died in a nursing home on the central coast of New South Wales state on Feb. 17, according to his grandson, Jarrod Mellowship.
Harrison had been surprised to be recognized by Guinness World Records in 2005 as the person who had donated the most blood plasma in the world, Mellowship said.
Despite an aversion to needles, he made 1,173 donations after he turned 18 in 1954 until he was forced to retire in 2018 at age 81.
“He did it for the right reasons. As humble as he was, he did like the attention. But he would never do it for the attention,” Mellowship said.
The record was beaten in 2022 by American Brett Cooper from Walker, Michigan.
Australian Red Cross Blood Service pays tribute to donor
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service said Harrison was renowned as the “Man with the Golden Arm.”
He was credited with saving the lives of 2.4 million babies through his plasma donations, the national agency responsible for collecting and distributing blood products, also known as Lifeblood, said in a statement.
Harrison’s plasma contained a rare antibody known as anti-D. The antibody is used to make injections that protect unborn babies from hemolytic disease of the newborn, in which a pregnant woman’s immune system attacks her fetus’ red blood cells. The disease is most common when a woman has an Rh negative blood type and her baby’s is Rh positive.
Australia has only 200 anti-D donors who help 45,000 mothers and their babies annually.
Lifeblood chief executive Stephen Cornelissen said Harrison had hoped that someone in Australia would one day beat his donation record.
“James was a remarkable, stoically kind and generous person, who was committed to a lifetime of giving, and he captured the hearts of many people around the world,” Cornelissen said in a statement.
“It was James’ belief that his donations were no more important than any other donors’ and that everyone can be special in the same way that he was,” Cornelissen added.
Antibody helps donor’s family
Mellowship said his mother, Tracey Mellowship, Harrison’s daughter, needed the treatment when he and his brother Scott were born.
Jarrod Mellowship said his own wife, Rebecca Mellowship, also needed the treatment when three of their four children were born.
There is speculation that Harrison developed a high concentrations of anti-D as a result of his own blood transfusions during major lung surgery when he was 14 years old.
“After the surgery, his dad Reg told grandad, you’re only really alive because people donated blood,” Jarrod Mellowship said. “The day he turned 18, he started donating.”
The application of anti-D in fighting hemolytic disease of the newborn was not discovered until the 1960s.
Harrison was born in Junee in New South Wales. He is survived by his sister Margaret Thrift, his daughter, two grandsons and four great grandchildren.
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Chinese tech firms and state media have spotlighted humanoid robots, which have grown in popularity since the Unitree G1 appeared to run, jump, dance and perform martial arts-like movements in a recent demonstration.
Both the United States and China are leaders in humanoid robot technology. But industry analysts believe that the United States is superior in AI technology, which is responsible for the robot’s “brain,” while Chinese technology companies have flourished in the hardware manufacturing capabilities of the robot’s “body.”
Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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