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  • A global AI safety strategy depends on U.S.-China cooperation. They each see the other as the problem

    A global AI safety strategy depends on U.S.-China cooperation. They each see the other as the problem

    HONG KONG — As concern rises over the risks of artificial intelligence, hopes for any kind of global approach depend on cooperation between the U.S. and China — superpowers that seem only to be more skeptical of each other’s AI strategy.

    AI governance is expected to be on the agenda in a meeting planned for next week in Washington between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The topic has gained urgency in both countries, with American tech leaders saying that averting worst-case scenarios for rogue AI depends on a degree of cooperation with China.

    But both countries are vying for a decisive advantage on AI, with Trump warning that any efforts to regulate the technology would help China. That sets up a meeting in which any agreements might be superficial but a possible start to something larger.

    “A formal agreement or consensus may be near impossible, but they do not need to go that far,” said Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies’ Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs. “Trump and Xi just need to create political space by acknowledging AI poses risks to both countries.”

    China and the U.S. are increasingly at odds on AI

    Trump has pushed back on calls to strengthen regulation of the technology, claiming that doing so could cause China to eclipse America on AI. He has repeatedly declared that the nation that leads on the technology “wins.”

    “We are leading China, and all others,” Trump said Monday on social media.

    The two countries are moving the technology forward in different ways. U.S. companies are chasing AI frontiers with computing power supported by cutting-edge chips and the country’s rapidly expanding data center infrastructure. China is pursuing wide global adoption of its open-source, more affordable models.

    Chinese AI models have made major advances and gained traction with American companies even as U.S.-led restrictions bar China from getting the world’s most advanced AI chips. While most American frontier models are closed-source, with their design elements kept secret, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday the U.S. needs to develop more open-source models to counter China.

    The U.S. has accused China of “aggressive, malicious” efforts to extract capabilities from American AI systems. China has hit back, accusing the U.S. of trying to suppress Chinese companies so it can build a “monopoly of the AI industry.”

    David Sacks, a top AI adviser to Trump, said that China has “already rejected” slowing down the pace of developing the most advanced forms of AI. He said on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” that unlike the nuclear tensions with the Soviet Union during the Cold War it would be impossible to verify whether China honored any AI commitments.

    “In this case, we don’t have trust and we can’t verify,” Sacks said. “So let’s not be foolish about this and just hand the whole ball game to China.”

    Still, those with ties to the Chinese government see coordination on AI as helpful.

    At an annual security and defense conference in Beijing, Cui Tiankai, a former Chinese ambassador to the U.S., said Tuesday that AI is an area where “we should go ahead and build up” dialogue between Beijing and Washington. “Because there is a need, a growing need, for cooperation,” he told the Xiangshan Forum. “So how can we manage the balance?”

    American AI leaders call for keeping China in check — and cooperating with China

    Two leading American AI companies, Anthropic and OpenAI, each restrict access in China and have said the U.S. has a national security imperative to protect its lead on AI technology. But they also have called for cooperation with China to manage safety.

    In his essay last weekend calling for a slowdown of AI development for safety reasons, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the U.S. should slow China’s progress, including keeping up U.S. restrictions on China’s purchases of the world’s most advanced AI chips.

    He also added, however, that “global pacing will require cooperation with China, the autocratic country with by far the most advanced AI capabilities.”

    His essay quickly drew criticism from Beijing, with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying on Monday that “fearmongering, confrontation, and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance which serves no one’s interest.”

    China’s state-run Global Times newspaper went further, calling his remarks “packed with containment provisions targeting China and is, in essence, a ‘Cold War playbook’ for the AI sector.”

    Trump has consulted with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, even calling the maker of the world’s most advanced computer chips in the middle of a Monday podcast interview. Nvidia has generally favored some chip exports to China as a way to create an American ecosystem for the technology and a more open relationship on AI given the number of researchers in China.

    Both countries have been alarmed by emerging AI capabilities

    In both the U.S. and China, AI’s increasingly powerful capabilities have alarmed top officials and policymakers.

    The head of China’s Ministry of State Security, its spy agency, warned in an article Sunday that AI poses many threats to the country, from political and ideological security to cyberattacks.

    In the article, Chen Yixin argued that AI could threaten China’s political and ideological security if used by those “with ulterior motives,” while singling out Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s powerful AI models. It said they could be used to “weaponize” cybersecurity vulnerabilities and threaten China’s critical information infrastructure.

    Several other recent AI-related events were also causing concern in China when it comes to AI governance. That includes a U.S. security firm’s recent discovery of AI vulnerabilities in WeChat, China’s key messaging app that also offers payment services among other functions, said Paul Triolo, a partner at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group.

    While Chinese officials said after Trump’s Beijing summit with Xi in mid-May that China and the United States had agreed to pursue dialogue on AI development and governance, little progress has been made.

    At the same time, China and the U.S. have been working to form AI alliances with like-minded nations.

    In July, China launched the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, a group with 29 initial founding member countries, including Russia and Pakistan, meant to promote global AI governance. This month, China’s Xi has called on BRICS member countries to accelerate the setting up of a global AI governance framework and establish an open-source AI community.

    Some political observers saw the China-led organization as a response to the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative, which launched last year focusing on strengthening collaboration with countries including Japan, the U.K., and Australia on AI supply chains.

    Asked about his expectations on AI from the Trump-Xi meeting on AI in an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation, Amodei said “the more long-term thing would be working together to put a speed limit on the rate of AI progress.” But he said it likely would be very difficult.

    In the run-up to the Trump-Xi meeting, a recent social media post by Yuyuantantian, a Chinese state media-linked account, was similarly circumspect.

    “Only after the United States first demonstrates that the safety rules are equally effective for its own model companies can substantive discussions between the U.S. and China take place,” the post said.

  • Cases of Black people found hanged in the U.S. South are a reminder of nation’s lynching history

    Cases of Black people found hanged in the U.S. South are a reminder of nation’s lynching history

    The death of a Black Mississippi woman found hanging from a tree has stirred distressing memories of the grim history of lynchings across the U.S. South.

    The body of Tasia Fortune, 29, was found behind an abandoned home in Jackson, the state capital, on Aug. 3. Jarques Ratliff, 51, who is also Black, pleaded not guilty to murder on Monday. Police and prosecutors haven’t given a suspected motive and say more arrests are expected.

    Regardless of the circumstances of the case, for many Black people, the imagery of a rope and noose evokes the legacy of lynching and vigilante violence against Black people in the U.S. and brings with it deep pain and trauma.

    “Black folks down here in 2026, we are feeling and experiencing some of the same things we felt in 1956 and 1966 and that should not be happening,” Jackson activist Brad Franklin said of Fortune’s death.

    “But because it’s Mississippi and the racist history of our state, our skin has been toughened a lot to deal with it.”

    Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, told The Associated Press that she doesn’t believe race had anything to do with her daughter’s death. Spivey is white. She said Fortune’s father is Black.

    “I think this is something very personal, very personal,” Spivey said, insisting that someone who was acquainted with Fortune was involved.

    Recent cases have triggered skepticism — and private autopsies

    Over the past two years, about a half-dozen Black women and men have been found hanged across the South. Police in some of those cases quickly deemed them suicides — often eliciting historically grounded skepticism when investigators provide limited evidence ruling out foul play.

    “I say let the evidence show,” said Sean Joe, a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis and a nationally recognized authority on suicidal behavior among Black people. “But if … you go into a definition or a conclusion of suicide, you have to show some evidence for that.”

    Spivey says she is certain her daughter would not have killed herself. “Absolutely not. Even if she could climb that tree, no, no, she would never, ever, ever,” Spivey said.

    In Roanoke Rapids, N.C., police are investigating the Aug. 21 death of Demetrius Eugene Fleming, 38. Police Chief Lawrence Wiggins said Tuesday that his office is waiting on reports from a medical examiner.

    In February, police in Cobb County, Georgia, found the body of 21-year-old Kyle Bassinga in a park. While investigators said there was no indication of foul play, Bassinga’s death “caused many to think of the days of slavery and of Jim Crow,” said Cobb County Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.

    The September 2025 death of 21-year-old Black student Trey Reed at Mississippi’s Delta State University was ruled a suicide, as was that of Dennoriss Richardson, 39, in September 2024 in Alabama’s rural Colbert County.

    Richardson’s wife, Leigh, has said she doesn’t believe he killed himself and, as has occurred in other cases, a private autopsy was conducted, finding his death consistent with a hanging, according to news reports.

    Leigh Richardson told ABC News that despite chronic asthma and other breathing problems that would cause her husband anxiety attacks, “that is just not a way that he would even process to leave this world.”

    Group has chronicled thousands of lynchings in U.S.

    More than 4,400 lynchings occurred in the U.S. between Reconstruction and World War II, according to the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative. The 1955 lynching of teenager Emmett Till in Mississippi over accusations he flirted with a white woman helped catalyze the civil rights movement.

    “These were public, intentionally public in order to convey terror, not just to the individuals and their families, but to a whole community,” said Karlos Hill, professor of African and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma and author of Beyond The Rope: The Impact of Lynching on Black Culture and Memory.

    Nearly 60 members of Congress signed a letter in September demanding the Justice Department investigate hanging deaths of Black individuals and enforce the 2022 Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which made lynching a federal hate crime.

    “In this moment of anti-Blackness and emboldened white supremacy, we cannot stand idly by while the strange fruit of Black bodies hang from trees across the country,” U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley said in a statement.

    The Justice Department confirmed it received the letter but has not responded, according to the office of Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat and the letter’s lead author.

    ‘I know the skin I’m in’

    Trent Thompson, 58, of Florence, Ala., says the recent hangings and deaths of Black people led to talk in the Black community about the death this summer of Nolan Xavier Wells.

    Wells, 18 and Black, joined friends on a Fourth of July boat excursion to an island off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast but did not return with them. His body was found two days later. Scrutiny of the investigation has deepened with the state’s history of racist violence and distrust of law enforcement — triggering suspicion in the Black community toward many cases involving deaths of Black people, Thompson said.

    “I know the skin I’m in,” he said.

  • Body found in Grand Canyon was missing hiker, wife says, bringing flood death toll to 3

    Body found in Grand Canyon was missing hiker, wife says, bringing flood death toll to 3

    GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — Human remains found in the Grand Canyon this week were those of the last remaining person missing after the deadly flash flooding in late August, the victim’s wife said Thursday.

    The discovery of Timothy Allen Smith brought the death toll to three from flooding that devastated the Phantom Ranch area at the canyon bottom and damaged the water pipeline serving the South Rim.

    Smith, 53, was a pilot from western Wyoming’s Star Valley. His remains were found Monday near Crystal Rapids on the Colorado River that runs through the canyon.

    The remains of Smith’s two backcountry companions, Brent Rosenkranz, 42, and John Giusti, 46, both of Granbury, Texas, were found earlier.

    Smith grew up in Granbury and lived with his wife in Star Valley Ranch, about 40 miles southwest of Jackson.

    He, Rosenkranz and Giusti were on a multiday hiking, fishing, and camping trip when flooding swept through the Grand Canyon.

    During the two-day deluge, searchers used night vision and other equipment to find people in need of rescue. They relied on the Grand Canyon National Park’s permit system and checked vehicle license plates to track those still missing. More than 80 people were rescued.

    Soon, only Smith was missing. In a Facebook video at the time, his wife, Carrie, and their children thanked people for their support and prayers.

    On Tuesday morning, Carrie Smith posted on Facebook that the family was aware a body had been found a day earlier and asked others to pray with them.

    Smith confirmed in a Facebook post on Thursday that the remains had been identified as her husband’s.

    “My family has done a lot of waiting over the last three weeks … waiting and hoping Tim (Daddy) would come home, waiting and wondering if the remains found were Tim (Daddy),” she wrote. “We no longer have to wait, Tim was found two days ago by the Rangers at Grand Canyon National Park. Not in the way we had hoped, but we know that he was doing something he loved with John and Brent.”

    She added, “We know that these three men loved the Lord and were a shining light for Him. The impact their lives had on others is still being shown to our families daily.”

    The National Park Service and Department of the Interior did not immediately return email messages seeking comment Thursday. The agencies have not publicly identified the remains found this week.

    The flooding began Aug. 29 during the summer monsoon, or rainy, season when clear skies can quickly give way to thunderstorms and heavy rain. A desert landscape can funnel water from a deluge into sudden torrents that rage down previously dry gullies and canyons.

    The rain fell on part of a North Rim burn area left after a lightning-caused wildfire in July 2025. The fire destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, cabins and other structures.

    Burn areas can worsen flash flooding because there’s less vegetation to absorb runoff.

    The flooding damaged a pipeline spanning the canyon that supplies water to millions of tourists and residents. Insufficient water caused all overnight lodging to be halted until the pipeline could be restored. National Park Service officials said recently that they expected to restore a reliable water supply in the canyon in weeks — not months — after determining most of a near-complete pipeline project was not damaged during the flash flood.

    Many hiking trails and lodging areas remain closed, and water has been shut off in the inner canyon, prompting advisories that hikers bring their own water or water filtration devices.

    Another flash flood hit the canyon along Bright Angel Creek and the Colorado River during a storm Wednesday, park officials said. No injuries were reported. Authorities said efforts to minimize personnel in the canyon before the storm, as well as flash flood warnings, enabled crews to reach safety. Damage assessments were underway.

  • Carney calls for EU-Canada pact amid ‘ferocious storm’

    Carney calls for EU-Canada pact amid ‘ferocious storm’

    STRASBOURG, France — Canada’s newly proposed associate membership in the European Union will help to secure sovereignty and freedom for the country amid a “ferocious storm,” Prime Minister Mark Carney told the European Parliament on Thursday, adding that the move would also make his nation a better partner for the United States.

    President Donald Trump, reacting Wednesday to the potential alliance between Ottawa and Brussels, said the move could be perceived as “a hostile act.”

    “If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe,” he added.

    Carney countered on Thursday. “This alliance is a positive process. That’s my response to the American president. It’s a positive thing,” he told reporters after his European Parliament speech.

    “A stronger, more resilient Canada will be a more effective partner with the United States — same with the European Union,” he added.

    Carney said the associate membership outlined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday would strengthen core areas of life on both sides of the Atlantic.

    The push for closer links comes amid a historic low for U.S. ties with Canada and turbulence in the relationship between Washington and the European Union as Trump has upended traditional American alliances.

    Carney said Canada and the European Union were not looking to become another superpower.

    “I am not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great-power rival only with better manners,” he said during his speech to European lawmakers in Strasbourg, France. “We do not seek power to dominate others,” he added.

    Associate membership for Canada in the European Union could be the closest linkup the bloc of 27 nations has with a nonmember state. The move highlighted a deep desire of traditional American allies to seek stability by banding together as Trump remakes the U.S. role in the world.

    Carney suggested that Europe and Canada were seeking to band together “so that no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.”

    Trump has instigated a trade war against Canada, the United States’ closest ally and second-largest trading partner, and routinely said he wanted the northern neighbor to become the 51st state. He has also pulled the United States away from the traditional close alliance with the European Union, imposing tariffs and barriers to trade, and he has weakened the NATO defense pact by threatening to drastically cut the U.S. contribution.

    Carney did not mention the United States or Trump by name during his speech in Strasbourg, but he made clear allusions.

    “Economic integration is now being used as a weapon, and tariffs as a means of leverage,” he said. “Financial mechanisms are employed for coercion. Supply chains represent vulnerabilities to be exploited.”

    Carney said youth from both Canada and the European Union should be able to travel and study in each other’s territories through participation in the bloc’s student mobility program, Erasmus. That program is credited with building generations of young Europeans with joint identities and shared experiences.

    Canada would most likely need to contribute financially to participate in Erasmus, as well as in any other EU programs the country might join, though the fine print of how the alliance would work has not yet been discussed.

    Carney’s vision for how the European Union and Canada could work together also extended to major, foundational parts of their economies and society. He said the two should launch a “deep cooperation in the full range of strategic capabilities,” including industries involving critical minerals, defense, artificial intelligence and computing, and energy security. He also suggested that the bloc and Canada could work on managing payment systems.

    Control over services such as payment mechanisms has been worrying policymakers in the European Union and Canada because many of those services are controlled by the United States or by American companies. That concern is front and center as the debate grows about the future of AI.

    “Technology is transforming the nature of warfare, the structure of economies and the capacity of states to govern,” Carney said.

    He also took aim at online platforms, of which the largest are American.

    “Tech platforms aspire to sovereignty,” he said. “They seek to set the terms of access. They want to dictate regulatory rules — or even bypass them.”

    “They want to control our data, spread disinformation and steal our children’s childhood,” he added.

    Carney noted that Canada was endowed with major critical mineral and energy resources, which the country wanted to export to markets in the European Union. The two already have agreements in place for such collaboration. This year, Canada secured a major contract to sell liquefied natural gas to Germany.

    The exact shape of the alliance between Canada and the European Union has been unclear because there is no formal or legal framework for an “associate member” of the bloc.

    In Canada, the conservative opposition has raised concerns that an alliance might encroach on the country’s sovereignty. In Europe, officials from EU member states worry that the label could antagonize other countries with deep ties to the bloc, such as Britain and Norway, as well as those that are in the arduous process of becoming full members, such as Albania.

    In his address, Carney touched on those issues, saying, “Canada is not in a position or seeking to become a full member of the European Union.”

    “The precise nomenclature is a question for Europe,” he added.

    Carney noted that the Canadian Parliament, which reconvenes next week after the summer recess, would get a chance to debate the future EU-Canada relationship and put the proposal to a vote.

    During his speech, Carney made extensive references to the deep historical bonds between Europe and Canada, framing the new cooperation as existential. He was frequently interrupted by applause from members of the European Parliament as he harked back to past battles they had fought together.

    “Freedom and life must be earned every single day,” Carney said. “Every day. Not once in 1945 or 1956 or 1989. Every day, including this one.”

    The lawmakers, with the exception of many from far-right parties, gave him a lengthy standing ovation.

  • Jon Kyl, a former top Republican in the Senate, dies at 84

    Jon Kyl, a former top Republican in the Senate, dies at 84

    Former senator Jon Kyl, who served in Congress for nearly 30 years and rose through the ranks of GOP leadership to become the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, has died at the age of 84, his family said Thursday.

    Mr. Kyl’s passing comes nearly nine months after he announced he had been diagnosed with dementia and would be withdrawing from public life. In a statement to local news outlets, his family said Mr. Kyl had passed due to “complications from a neurological disease.”

    “We know that Jon belonged to all of Arizona, a state he loved and explored with vigor, curiosity, and wonder,” his family said. “Serving his state and nation in Congress was a privilege and responsibility he honored and respected.”

    Mr. Kyl served in the House from 1987 to 1995 and in the Senate from 1995 to 2013. He served as the Senate minority whip before he left public office in 2013 and became a lobbyist.

    After the death of former Arizona senator John McCain in 2018, then-governor Doug Ducey appointed Mr. Kyl to serve out the rest of McCain’s term. Mr. Kyl returned somewhat reluctantly, out of a sense of duty, and was instrumental in guiding Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh through the confirmation process.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

  • Is there anything a fruit fly brain can’t do?

    Is there anything a fruit fly brain can’t do?

    What can a fruit fly do? Buzz around ripe bananas, sure. But maybe, a whole lot more. Like parallel park. Or play Minecraft.

    Creative internet users have in recent days taken a complete map of a fruit fly’s 166,000 neurons, published by Google, and made simulated flies do some things that are pretty impressive, given that these insects have a brain the size of a poppy seed. One has been trained to solve a Rubik’s Cube. Another dances to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” in response to four tones. Others have envisioned fruit flies playing poker and blackjack and slicing a doner kebab.

    In general, the goal of these engineers and artists is not to show what a fly can do, but “what’s the dumbest thing we can make it do,” said Mark Unthank, a software developer who got a fly to parallel park a car after hundreds of failed attempts. Unthank, who lives in Italy, also programmed a fly to use a car’s blinkers when turning because he was frustrated that so few human drivers seem to use them.

    “That’s how easy it is,” he said. “Even a fly could do it.”

    Producing the map of the fly’s brain, on the other hand, was anything but easy. It was serious research meant to advance the study of neuroscience.

    For years, researchers worked to develop sophisticated imaging techniques to map the connections within the nervous systems of various organisms. Some have focused on fruit flies because of the insect’s relative lack of complexity; while the fly has just 166,000 neurons, a human being has about 86 billion.

    Scientists call the neural maps connectomes, similar to the genomes that help map the genes that determine an organism’s traits.

    Researchers at the Janelia Research Campus at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia completed the new map of the adult male fruit fly’s brain in partnership with Google. The effort involved hundreds of scholars.

    Scientists hope the map will help them understand how animals perceive the world, store memories, and react to stimuli.

    “Our goal is not simply to demonstrate that a fly brain is capable of generating movement in a fly — which we obviously know — but how,” said Nelson Spruston, a neuroscientist who is vice president and executive director at the Janelia campus.

    The institute is working to develop maps of the brain in two fish — a larval zebrafish and an adult Danionella. The research, it said, could one day reveal how humans develop Alzheimer’s or depression.

    For now, the Janelia researchers have been pleasantly surprised to see fruit flies driving cars and playing video games.

    “I certainly did not imagine this kind of application of our work, but I think it’s exciting and it’s fun, and it sort of demonstrates the power of open science,” Spruston said.

    Arie Matsliah, a research scientist at Princeton University, said the release of the maps has coincided with a spike in the capability of artificial intelligence-powered coding tools that allow people to create simulations with just a few simple prompts. Matsliah helped develop FlyWire Codex, an online portal for the maps that has seen thousands of downloads a day, he said.

    “It’s almost becoming a meme now,” he said. “Everyone is trying different things.”

    Alex Wormuth, a software engineer in Tulsa, Okla., said he used an OpenAI tool to make the fly play the 1990s first-person shooter video game Doom, which he named Doomfly. If the fly shoots and kills an enemy, it triggers the insect’s dopamine receptor, encouraging it to kill again to survive, he said.

    So far, the fly is not very good at Doom, he concedes.

    “It has been able to kill an enemy,” he said, “but I don’t think it’s learned that’s what it needs to do to beat the game.”

    Wormuth has also given a simulated fruit fly $100 in real bitcoin, with the option to buy, sell, or hold. For a brief period on Friday, he said, the fly made about $1 before the cryptocurrency’s price dropped.

    The simulations, although based on a fruit fly brain, do not actually account for the complex interactions between neurons, muscles, and other systems in a real fruit fly, Matsliah said.

    “They assume things, or they substitute the missing components with things that are not biological,” he said.

    That includes modifying the strength of the connections between neurons, which makes the simulations “substantially different from a real fly,” Spruston said.

    “It’s not like a fly brain in real life can play Doom, obviously,” he added.

    “Nevertheless, there is some reality there,” Matsliah said.

    Parallel to the existential anxieties brought up by recent rapid advancements in AI, some people have wondered whether the flies might have some form of consciousness as they twist and turn the faces of a Rubik’s Cube or try to win at poker.

    Wormuth, the Doomfly creator, has his doubts.

    “I don’t believe that’s happening,” he said. “But I think it’s an interesting thought experiment because, someday, we may have something like this for the human brain.”

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • 5 subtle dental symptoms you should never ignore

    5 subtle dental symptoms you should never ignore

    Plenty of dental issues can feel like no big deal, at least at first. The symptoms don’t always hurt and may not even catch your attention. “A lot of times patients don’t realize they have a problem in their mouth because they don’t look so closely,” said Steven Katz, immediate past president of the American Association of Endodontists.

    Even a toothache might come and go, Katz said, leading some people to put off dealing with it. And making a dentist appointment for a painless problem — for instance, gums that bleed when you floss — can feel like more of a hassle than it’s worth.

    But seemingly minor dental symptoms often signal infections that, if left untreated, can progress into more complex problems, Richard M. Lipari, a cosmetic dentist in New York, said in an email. These issues can also require more costly treatment and additional visits to repair. Some changes in your mouth can even be early warning signs of disease elsewhere in the body, Lipari added.

    Below are five tooth and gum symptoms you may be tempted to ignore — but shouldn’t, for the sake of your oral and overall health.

    Tooth pain of any kind

    “There’s no amount of pain in your teeth that should be considered normal,” Katz said. The most common cause of a toothache is tooth decay.

    It starts when bacteria combine with saliva and food particles to form a sticky film of plaque on a tooth’s surface. The bacteria feed on sugars and starches and produce acids that erode enamel. This decay can eventually lead to a cavity — a hole that can cause pain or irritation if it reaches the sensitive inner layers of the tooth.

    More than 1 in 5 people ages 20 to 64 in the United States have at least one untreated cavity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The concern is what can happen next: As bacteria move deeper into the tooth, an infection can develop at the root, causing sharp or throbbing pain. Over time, it may even spread to the face, neck, and underlying bone.

    Katz cautioned that even if your tooth stops hurting, you shouldn’t ignore it. “A lot of patients think, ‘OK, well, I aggravated something, and it’s gone now,’” he said. But usually, pain that suddenly lets up is a sign that decay has killed the tooth’s nerve. So, the pain can disappear even as the infection gets worse. “That’s when [bacteria] can start to eat away at the bone,” he said.

    While a cavity can be fixed with a simple filling (which generally costs a couple hundred dollars without insurance), a dental infection typically requires a root canal (which can cost $1,000 or more, depending on the tooth). During the procedure, a dentist drills into the tooth to clear out the infected pulp and then reseals it and stabilizes it with a crown. But if an infection destroys enough bone, the tooth will ultimately have to be removed.

    There’s also evidence that untreated dental infections are associated with a higher risk of several conditions beyond the mouth, including Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and dementia. Bacteria and inflammation around the root of an infected tooth may spill into the bloodstream and reach other parts of the body.

    Swollen or bleeding gums

    Puffy gums that bleed easily are often a sign of gingivitis, a mild form of gum disease, Lipari said, even if they’re not painful. Like cavities, gingivitis is generally caused by plaque buildup. The immune system triggers inflammation in the gums in an attempt to ward off an infection.

    While regular brushing and flossing can remove plaque and reverse gingivitis, if the swelling persists for longer than a couple of weeks, it’s important to see a dentist. They can use special tools to remove plaque and its hardened form, called tartar, at and below the gumline. This helps keep gingivitis from progressing to periodontitis, a more severe form of gum disease. At that stage, inflamed gums can pull away from a tooth, creating a pocket where bacteria can accumulate. The gums may become even more swollen or tender, and tooth pain and sensitivity can develop.

    Like dental infections, untreated gum disease has also been associated with other serious health issues. “The same systemic inflammatory mediators involved in gum disease are linked to conditions like cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders,” Lipari said.

    Though gingivitis is the usual culprit, persistently swollen or bleeding gums can sometimes have other causes, which a dentist can help rule out. For example, bleeding gums are also “strongly associated with diabetes,” said Lipari. Having high blood sugar can increase the amount of glucose in your saliva, which feeds bacteria in the mouth and increases the risk of plaque buildup.

    In very rare cases, gums that frequently bleed could also point to a blood disorder or cancer such as leukemia that interferes with blood clotting, Katz said. (If a dentist sees bleeding that doesn’t appear typical for gingivitis or suspects a different underlying trigger, they can refer you to the right doctor for a workup.)

    Loose teeth

    A loose tooth, particularly one that’s accompanied by tender or swollen gums, may signify advanced gum disease, Lipari said. Left untreated, the infection can damage the bone holding the tooth in place, leaving it mobile or wobbly.

    In rare cases, a loose tooth could also indicate a tumor in the mouth or jaw, Katz said. “Most of the time they grow silently until all of a sudden they don’t,” he said. “We might see loose teeth because tumors typically will destroy bone.”

    A slow-growing tumor could also push teeth out of alignment, Katz added. Outside of orthodontic treatment, you shouldn’t notice your teeth moving, he said: “Our teeth are always moving microscopically, but to move significantly such that your bite would be off, for example, that’s something that should ring a bell.”

    Bad breath or a bad taste that doesn’t go away

    A garlicky pasta or tuna salad sandwich can certainly give you bad breath that lingers for a few hours. But a foul odor or taste that persists day after day could signal an infection — and you might not always have pain or swelling along with it.

    In some cases, a small drainage track can form near an infected tooth or gum, allowing pus to escape. Sometimes it looks like a bubble or pimple on the gumline, though people often don’t notice it, Katz said. The release of fluid keeps bacteria and inflammation from building up, so the infection might not hurt much, he explained.

    Alternatively, off-smelling breath could be a result of dry mouth. Saliva helps wash away food debris and bacteria. Dry mouth is a common side effect of certain medications, including blood pressure drugs, antidepressants, and GLP-1s, Katz pointed out.

    If dryness and bad breath persist, it’s worth bringing it up to your dentist or primary care doctor. A dry mouth can also be associated with autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren’s syndrome (in which the immune system mistakenly damages the body’s moisture-producing glands) as well as diabetes, Lipari said, and can raise your cavity risk. In certain cases, a bitter or sour taste in the mouth could also be a byproduct of acid reflux, or the backflow of stomach acid and contents into the esophagus, he added.

    Persistent mouth sores

    Canker sores — small ulcers that form inside the mouth, such as on the inner cheek, tongue or gums — generally heal within a couple of weeks. (It isn’t known exactly what causes canker sores, but stress, minor trauma to the mouth, certain kinds of toothpaste, and spicy or acidic foods may trigger or aggravate them.) But if you have a sore that sticks around for longer than two weeks, or turns into a lump or bleeds, it’s important to see your dentist or primary care doctor. Certain autoimmune conditions, such as lupus, can cause mouth sores, and in rare cases, a persistent sore can be a sign of oral cancer, Lipari said.

    The bottom line

    If you notice any of the above symptoms, it’s better to get them checked sooner rather than later. That way, you’re more likely to catch an infection or other underlying issue before it becomes more serious. (It’s also wise to keep seeing your dentist regularly, even if you don’t have symptoms. They can spot problems early, when they’re easier to treat.)

    The typical resolution for gum and tooth disease is a root canal, Katz said. Getting one done when you need it may not only spare your tooth and stop the symptoms — research shows it can improve markers tied to heart health such as cholesterol and chronic inflammation.

    And these days, a root canal isn’t as bad as you may fear. Better local anesthesia can keep pain to a minimum. Improved technology means the procedure can often be completed quickly, Katz said, typically within an hour and in a single appointment. As he put it, “This is not your grandmother’s root canal.”

  • Peter Max, trippy artist of counterculture era and beyond, dies at 88

    Peter Max, trippy artist of counterculture era and beyond, dies at 88

    NEW YORK — Peter Max, whose trippy posters of Day-Glo flowers, butterflies, rainbows, stars and planets sold by the millions and expressed the blissed-out exuberance of the countercultural 1960s, died Monday in New York City. He was 88.

    The death, at a hospital, was confirmed by his son, Adam Max. He had long suffered from dementia.

    Mr. Max, a vegetarian and a teetotaler who expanded his consciousness through yoga, not drugs, was one of the most visible and successful artists of his time, selling posters in the millions.

    His simple graphic images, brightly colored and infectiously happy, lent themselves to a long list of licensed commercial products, from sheets and glassware and shower curtains to airplanes and, on one occasion, a stamp for the Postal Service.

    Incorporating art nouveau, op art and psychedelic motifs, Mr. Max’s designs offered instant visual gratification and a cheery endorsement of the generational politics of love, joy and universal consciousness. His “panopticon” images repeated visual elements in tight formation, producing a kaleidoscope effect that recalled Easter mandalas.

    His “cosmic jumper,” a young man in bell bottoms traversing the globe in giant strides, became an emblem of modern youth, eager to explore the far reaches of inner and outer space. Barefoot and surrounded by puffy clouds and chubby birds, the jumper appeared on the 10-cent stamp commissioned for Expo ’74, the conservation-themed World’s Fair in Seattle.

    In The Universe of Peter Max, a memoir published in 2013, he wrote: “My cosmic art subjects were always euphoric: Himalayan sages levitating under a shower of flowers beside snowcapped mountain peaks; faces and flowers exploding into a symmetrical cosmic butterfly; mirrored lakes and waters with a cascade of stars and planets; flowers in perpetual states of organic growth, begetting blossoms. My inspiration came from the new youth movement in America and in return spoke to it.”

    Peter Max Finkelstein was born Oct. 19, 1937, in Berlin, where his father, Jakob, was in the import-export business and his mother, Salla (Zeisel) Finkelstein, had been a fashion designer before her marriage. With the rise of Nazism, the family moved to Shanghai, where Jakob set up as a pearl merchant. Peter attended an English-language school and spent much of his spare time talking to monks at the nearby Buddhist monastery.

    As the Maoist revolution gathered strength, the Finkelsteins moved again, this time to Haifa, in Israel, where Peter learned Hebrew and, infatuated with the stars and planets, took special courses in astronomy at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology.

    In 1953, the family emigrated to New York, settling in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where Peter attended Lafayette High School. He had taken private art lessons in Israel, and, at the urging of a classmate, signed up for summer classes at the Art Students League in Manhattan after high school graduation. Abandoning his rather vague plan to pursue astronomy as a career, he threw himself into art.

    Initially he painted as a realist, then dabbled in abstraction and finally concentrated on commercial art. Riverside Records gave him his first assignment, to design the LP sleeve for The Blues Piano Artistry of Meade Lux Lewis, released in 1962. His moody, vaporous portrait of Lewis at the piano won a gold medal at the annual exhibition of the Society of Illustrators.

    With Tom Daly, he formed a design company that quickly found favor with advertising agencies and book publishers. Within two years, Daly & Max Studio had collected more than 60 awards for its book jackets, album covers and other work, but Mr. Max, feeling constrained, left in 1965. For two years, he lived in virtual seclusion in his duplex apartment on Riverside Drive, turning out thousands of drawing and ideas.

    In 1967, he applied some of his new concepts to the Tin Lizzie in midtown Manhattan, a theme restaurant that he decorated with paisley wallpaper, photographic collages of Charlie Chaplin film scenes and an actual Model T Ford.

    His advertising posters for local shops began to attract special attention. Young customers called up the job printer, Security Printing Company, asking for a poster to hang in their rooms. Denton Stein, the company’s owner, went into partnership with Mr. Max to create Peter Max Posters, which sold 25 of the artist’s designs, in millions of copies, to book stores, head shops and department stores.

    As his popularity grew, Mr. Max began doing commercial posters for the American Cancer Society, the Peace Corps, and the United Nations. The 3,000 posters and 40,000 flyers he printed for a gathering in Central Park on Easter 1967 inadvertently gave the event its name. The words “Be In,” in large letters, followed by “Central Park on March 31,” were read as a noun, not a verb in the imperative mood.

    In 1968, a transit advertising company commissioned Mr. Max to design posters for buses, streetcars and subways in 10 major cities. “I am bringing art to the people where the people are,” he told Time magazine. “Now they don’t have to go to galleries and see paintings on a wall.”

    General Electric approached him to design a clock. He followed up with a line of linens for J.P. Stevens and shirts for Van Heusen. Through the half dozen businesses bearing his name, he entered into licensing agreements with more than 70 companies.

    “You provide the cash, the production and the selling,” he told Business Week in 1968. “I’ll furnish the ideas and the designs — and we’ll split the profits 50-50.” When Life magazine put Mr. Max on its cover in 1969, the headline read “Peter Max: Portrait of the Artist as a Very Rich Man.”

    Mr. Max was everywhere. He was not, however, involved with the 1969 Beatles film Yellow Submarine, often assumed to be his work, in part because he often took credit for it. The film’s art director was Heinz Edelmann, sometimes called the German Peter Max.

    By the 1970s, Mr. Max was in a rut. He shut down his studio and again went into seclusion. “I stopped cold,” he told People magazine in 1976. “I was repeating myself creatively. I had filled myself with being everywhere, doing everything. I had had it.”

    Gradually, he reemerged. For the American Bicentennial, he accepted a commission from the Swedish company ASEA to produce the book Peter Max Paints America, a collection of paintings and drawings honoring each of the 50 states.

    That same year, he produced a series of bilingual “Welcome to the United States” signs posted at more than 200 crossings along the Canadian and Mexican borders. Initially rejected by the Customs Service as implicitly endorsing the ’60s drug culture, they were finally put up in 1978.

    He designed the logo for MTV in the 1980s and the official poster for soccer’s World Cup in 1994. In 1999 he decorated a Boeing 777 for Continental Airlines to commemorate NYC 2000, the official millennium celebration in New York. In 2015, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame commissioned him to do a poster for its annual induction ceremony.

    By then, he was already struggling with dementia. Yet the Peter Max brand flourished, boosted by the artist’s relationship with Park West Galleries, a Michigan-based company that sold Mr. Max’s work at cruise-ship auctions. Sales on a single voyage could reach $2 million, and in 2018, Mr. Max’s studio, ALP Inc. — named for its three owners, Peter Max and his two children, Adam and Libra — recorded a profit of more than $30 million.

    The artist’s production methods became the subject of widespread speculation. Friends reported that Mr. Max could no longer paint and merely signed his work, which was made, in prodigious quantities, by a small army of assistants.

    They were overseen by Adam Max, who was ousted from his father’s business in 2019 by his daughter, Libra Max, and the artist’s court-appointed guardian, who were concerned that Mr. Max was being exploited. Libra Max took over her father’s studio, fired many of his assistants and business associates, and set about restoring his reputation through galley and museum shows that showcased his earlier work.

    Mr. Max’s first marriage, to Elizabeth Nance, with whom he had two children, ended in divorce. In 1997, he married Mary Balkin, who was 30 years his junior and whom he randomly met on a Manhattan sidewalk a year earlier. “Hi, I’m Peter Max, and I’ve been painting your profile my entire life,” he reportedly said upon first seeing her.

    She died by apparent suicide in 2019, amid her husband’s worsening dementia and an extended legal dispute with her stepson over the handling of Peter Max’s art and wealth.

    Mr. Max is survived by Adam and Libra Max.

    For his legions of fans, Mr. Max would always remain an avatar of the 1960s counterculture in its happiest, most innocent phase. Whatever the year, and whatever the occasion, his work always breathed the spirit of the 1960s. When the De Young Museum in San Francisco organized an exhibition in 2007, the title said it all: “Peter Max and the Summer of Love.”

    “Just as The Beatles had the music, I had the images,” he told Crain’s New York Business in 2007. “Kids would buy the posters and look at them as they listened to the music. It was like their MTV.”

  • U.N.-backed experts cite possible U.S. war crimes in Iran strikes

    U.N.-backed experts cite possible U.S. war crimes in Iran strikes

    GENEVA — Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body say they have found “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in the southern city of Minab. They also accuse Iran’s theocratic government of carrying out crimes against humanity against its own people in a report published Thursday.

    The report, while not binding, adds to international evidence gathered about crimes in the war in Iran, and could eventually be used in efforts to reach justice in international courts.

    The fact-finding mission on Iran, chaired by jurist Sara Hossain of Bangladesh, is made up of independent experts and was created in 2022 by the Human Rights Council, the U.N.’s top human rights body, which is based in Geneva.

    The experts were expected to present their findings on Monday to the council, which is made up of 47 U.N. member countries.

    The team says the U.S. launched ‘indiscriminate’ attacks

    The international fact-finding mission says its findings on U.S. war crimes center on a pair of U.S. airstrikes that killed at least 178 civilians, including women and children.

    At the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in February, at least one U.S. missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, according to an Associated Press investigation. There has been no final accounting of what happened.

    Iranian state media have said 168 people were killed in the strike, most of them children.

    “Following the United States and Israeli attacks on 28 February, the mission found reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects,” a U.N. statement about the team’s findings said.

    The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press seeking comment.

    In their report, the experts concluded that “the building of the school was the intended point of impact” and the resulting damage wasn’t the result of an errant strike or collateral damage from an attack on a compound of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard next to the school.

    The Trump administration has yet to directly accept responsibility or release the findings of a Pentagon investigation into the school bombing.

    The U.N.-backed team based its allegations on two strikes — one involving Tomahawk missiles that hit the “clearly identifiable” school, and another in which Precision Strike Missiles dispersed tungsten pellets over a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area” in the southern city of Lamerd, also on Feb. 28.

    The U.N.-backed team said 22 civilian men and women were killed. U.S. Central Command has denied responsibility for the strike on Lamerd.

    Experts cite ‘crimes against humanity’ by Iran’s government

    The team found that killings by state security forces in Iran have occurred on a “staggering scale,” and civilians faced “gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own government.”

    Iranian security forces carried out “violent repression” over the last two years by firing assault rifles into crowds, beating protesters and arresting healthcare workers, among other things, the team said. Detainees faced torture, and were deprived of legal counsel, leaving their families “in the dark” about their whereabouts, the experts said.

    The Tehran government intensified the use of the death penalty, and said more than 70 people – including five women and three boys – remain at “imminent risk of execution,” they added.

    “The report concluded that many of these gross violations amount to crimes against humanity — including murder, imprisonment, torture, and other inhumane acts committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians,” the statement said.

    Both the U.S. and Iran should provide reparations, they say

    The experts said the United States and Iran should halt all rights violations and crimes, and provide “full reparations to victims.”

    The report, built on a “victims-centered approach,” was based on interviews with 73 people both inside and outside Iran, along with documentation, satellite imagery, photographic and video material and information from “credible” organizations and experts, the experts wrote.

    The ongoing conflict that has driven people from their homes in Iran as well as an internet shutdown and a lack of full cooperation from the two governments partially impeded the team’s efforts to get information.

    Nearly three dozen requests from the experts for information from Iran’s government went unanswered, they said, as have requests in June to the U.S. government for information and meetings with officials.

  • House approves sweeping Russia sanctions bill, sending it to Trump

    House approves sweeping Russia sanctions bill, sending it to Trump

    WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday passed a broad package of sanctions targeting Russian officials and key pillars of its economy as lawmakers look to deprive President Vladimir Putin of the financial resources needed to wage the war against Ukraine.

    The bill is named after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who spent more than a year negotiating it. The measure was approved in a 262-159 vote and now heads to President Donald Trump to be signed into law.

    The legislation represents the most ambitious effort to support Ukraine since Trump’s return to the White House and would break nearly two years of relative gridlock on the issue following a 2024 emergency aid package. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pushing for the bill’s passage and made a direct appeal to senators shortly before they passed it last month.

    The measure sanctions Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers that keeps Russian energy moving. It also directs Trump to impose up to 100% tariffs on the top five importers of Russian oil or natural gas, with an exception for countries that import less than 15% of Russia’s natural gas exports and have taken significant steps to reduce those imports.

    “These countries have a choice to make about whether they will continue to sustain Putin’s aggression,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas) said.

    Democrats are divided on the legislation

    Supporters said the tariff provisions are aimed at deterring China and India from purchasing Russian energy, but critics of the bill said they fear Trump will use the legislation to target allies in the European Union and elsewhere. Americans, they warned, would pay the price for such tariffs through higher prices at the cash register.

    “This president has always said he loves tariffs,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) said. “And we know the history of what he’s done with reference to tariffs to our European allies, and our allies everywhere.”

    Democrats were divided on the bill, despite overwhelming support in the caucus for aiding Ukraine. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) told colleagues they can’t control what the president does, but they can stand up and declare where they are on the war.

    “If we fail to pass this bill, there will be cheers in the Kremlin and tears in Kyiv,” Hoyer said.

    But Rep. Don Beyer (D., Va.) predicted Ukraine supporters would come to regret voting for the bill.

    “Yes they will be able to say ‘we stood with Ukraine’ in the immediate aftermath,” Beyer said. “But when Donald Trump hits our allies with new tariffs and waives sanctions on Russia, the propaganda victory for Putin will be lasting, and the damage will be embedded in U.S. law.”

    Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, speaking in opposition to the bill, said Democrats would continue to support the Ukrainian people until victory is won, “but this bill does not provide a path to secure that.”

    In all, 58 Democrats broke with Jeffries and voted for the bill, while 152 voted against it. Among Republicans, 203 voted yes while seven voted against it.

    Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) celebrated the vote and highlighted the additional tariff power it provides the president.

    “For too long, Putin has bankrolled this devastating war with money and resources from countries willing to look the other way, and today, that ends,” Johnson said.

    Getting Trump on board has been a long process

    Congress has struggled to ensure the flow of U.S. funding and munitions to Ukraine as Republican support for spending billions of dollars more on the effort has waned. Trump routinely derided the Ukraine aid while campaigning for the White House and insisted that, if elected, he would quickly end the war launched by Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.

    It took Graham essentially a full year to bring Trump on board with the Russia sanctions package. Eventually, Trump gave a nod to the bill after it included his push for a five-year extension of existing sanctions on Iran. Republicans speaking on the House floor in advance of Wednesday’s vote were overwhelmingly supportive of the package.

    Rep. French Hill (R., Ark.) acknowledged Democratic criticism that tariffs could be used aggressively on smaller U.S. allies, but said it was time to deliver a resounding message to the Kremlin: “End this war, get out of Ukraine, focus on rebuilding your shattered international reputation and your destroyed economy.”

    The Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill by a vote of 86-11 last month, but momentum slowed in the House. Republican leadership focused on other priorities, namely bills designed to put Democrats on defense going into the midterms. Meanwhile, a chorus of key Democratic lawmakers voiced alarm about the bill’s tariff provisions.

    Passage of the bill in the House came on the final day that the chamber is expected to be in session for votes before the Nov. 3 elections.

    After the vote, a group of Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate celebrated the vote at a rare bipartisan press conference.

    Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who wrote the bill with Graham, said he hopes the sanctions will help force Putin to the negotiating table and end the war.

    “To Vladimir Putin — we have your number,” Blumenthal said. “And to Ukraine — you are not alone.”

    Leading up to the vote, Zelensky took to social media urging the House to pass the bill. He said during war it is sometimes better to “make a not-so-perfect decision than to do nothing.”

    “And this is a very important historical moment for the United States. The bill must be passed, voted on, and supported,” Zelensky said on X. “Beyond that, strong decisions from the U.S. Administration are important. Personal decisions by President Trump. I very much hope we will see that.”