Illegal immigrant accused in attempted teen kidnapping deported 5 times: officials

This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here.Perhaps the most important element of biology to understand is our own cells. If scientists could easily predict how a mutation, virus, drug, or any other change would affect a cell, and in turn all the tissues and organs it serves, they could rapidly unlock new vaccines and drugs. Multiple cell biologists recently described this to me as a long-standing “holy grail” of their field.But human cells are also among the most difficult things to study. Our bodies consist of tens of trillions of interacting cells, each of which has its own complex internal machinery. Scientists can’t come close to replicating that world in a lab, and have struggled to do so with computers, as well.That may be changing. In recent decades, scientists have collected troves of DNA and microscopic imaging data from human cells—and now they have a tool, generative AI, that might make sense of all that information. “Much as a chatbot can discern style and perhaps even meaning from huge volumes of written language, which it then uses to construct humanlike prose, AI could in theory be trained on huge quantities of biological data to extract key information about cells or even entire organisms,” I explained in a story this week.The research is in its early stages, and full-fledged, AI-driven “virtual cells” may never be realized. But biologists have already made substantial progress using the technology to study the basic components of our bodies—and perhaps changing the nature of that study too. As in so many other scientific domains, I wrote, “the ability to explain is being replaced by the ability to predict, human discovery supplanted by algorithmic faith.” Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic. Source: Getty. A Virtual Cell Is a ‘Holy Grail’ of Science. It’s Getting Closer.By Matteo Wong The human cell is a miserable thing to study. Tens of trillions of them exist in the body, forming an enormous and intricate network that governs every disease and metabolic process. Each cell in that circuit is itself the product of an equally dense and complex interplay among genes, proteins, and other bits of profoundly small biological machinery. Our understanding of this world is hazy and constantly in flux. As recently as a few years ago, scientists thought there were only a few hundred distinct cell types, but new technologies have revealed thousands (and that’s just the start). Experimenting in this microscopic realm can be a kind of guesswork; even success is frequently confounding. Ozempic-style drugs were thought to act on the gut, for example, but might turn out to be brain drugs, and Viagra was initially developed to treat cardiovascular disease. Read the full article.What to Read Next Why a cognitive scientist put a head cam on his baby: “Lake hopes to one day feed the data from Luna and others back into his own models,” my colleague Sarah Zhang wrote last year, “to find better ways of training AI, and to find better ways of understanding how children pull off the ubiquitous yet remarkable feat of learning language.” Science is becoming less human: “For centuries, knowledge of the world has been rooted in observing and explaining it,” I wrote in 2023. “Many of today’s AI models twist this endeavor, providing answers without justifications and leading scientists to study their own algorithms as much as they study nature.” P.S.Earlier this week, Meta announced that it was ending its professional fact-checking program, starting with the United States. “Good riddance,” my colleague Ian Bogost wrote. Fact-checking is supposed to be a time-consuming, complicated practice that “imbues a published work with an ethos of care.” But what social-media platforms such as Facebook have implemented is surface-level, at best, and “tarnished the idea that fact-checking could be something more.”— Matteo

When the writer-director Brady Corbet accepted his second Golden Globe of the night for The Brutalist on Sunday, he uttered a nervy appeal straight down the camera lens: “Final-cut tiebreak goes to the director,” he said. Many filmmakers are familiar with this struggle, butting heads over creative decisions with their producers, who often have the contractual authority to make the ultimate call. Corbet went on to acknowledge that his opinion might be “controversial” in an era when studios seem to err on the side of bland caution with every project. It might have seemed like an odd time to mount this sort of protest—arguing for the right to achieve his cinematic vision while accepting an industry accolade for conceiving one of the year’s best movies—but Corbet has made plain in interviews what a monumentally difficult time he had getting The Brutalist made. The film itself captures a similar experience; it’s an expansive but stark look at the successes and challenges involved in making personal art in a capitalist system.Corbet’s production woes also bear out in a way that most potential viewers are likely already aware of: the film’s run time. The Brutalist is very long—215 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission that essentially divides it into two 100-minute parts. The bifurcation is good for anyone in need of a bathroom break, but it’s also thematically purposeful. The first act follows László Tóth (played by Adrien Brody), a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor who moves to the United States after World War II and begins to scratch out recognition for his work with the help of a wealthy patron; the second act sees Tóth ever more alienated and dismayed by the strictures he needs to operate within.On paper, the movie is a very American epic—the rise and fall of a master builder, told as extravagantly as possible on 70-millimeter VistaVision, a largely obsolete film format that was predominantly used in the 1950s and ’60s. What starts as a triumphant tale later curdles into violence and tragedy; as the events drag on, it becomes apparent that Corbet is using this grand canvas to explore his own frustrations with the limits that commerce places on the arts. He’s never been a subtle filmmaker—his first two movies, The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux, also tend to dispense with subtext as they probe the rise of fascism and the constraints of modern pop stardom, respectively. But The Brutalist is his grandest cri de coeur yet, a gamble with the audience’s attention that on the whole pays off. Vox Lux was a film that had me crying out “I get it!” in frustration; with The Brutalist, I said the same line with more satisfaction.[Read: Finally, a Holocaust movie with no lessons]Much of the credit goes to Brody. The actor’s performance as Tóth is pained and lived-in: In the film’s opening moments, Tóth’s ecstatic relief upon arriving at Ellis Island from Hungary—even though he’s been separated from his wife and niece—feels palpable. The viewer gets a sense of his creative talent just as quickly, when he designs a chair for his cousin’s furniture store in Philadelphia that’s as bold as it is impractical. Soon, he’s contracted by the foppish Harry Van Buren (Joe Alwyn) to build a library for his father, the local land magnate Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce). Tóth creates a space that’s serene, light-filled, and utterly unique; the books themselves are hidden away, tucked behind fanlike shelves that open up in unison. To him, the space, not the possessions within it, should be celebrated.Harrison Van Buren is initially horrified upon seeing the library and kicks Tóth out of his home. Only later, after learning that the architect was somewhat revered in his homeland, does Van Buren realize that he’s stumbled on a diamond in the rough. Pearce plays Van Buren as hungry and avaricious even in his kinder moments, a man of immense wealth whose primary desire is to own more and more. It’s an excellent performance of a preening cartoon character, with Van Buren’s name (a combination of the names of two largely forgotten presidents) explicitly underlining the craven, dull establishment he represents. That’s the experience the viewer simply must embrace with The Brutalist: giving themselves over to the sheer loudness of it all.Tóth appears to know right away that Van Buren won’t fully understand the work he wants to do. He also recognizes that he’s hungry, poor, and desperate to get his family to America—and working for Van Buren could be a secure way to realize many of his ambitions. The Brutalist is at its most subtle during Tóth’s interactions with his benefactor, and then with the small-town Pennsylvania community around him. He engrosses as many people as he can with his sorrowful backstory and soaring artistic language, in an effort to win their approval of his aggressive blueprints. The thrill of The Brutalist’s first half is in watching him navigate these relationships in pursuit of creating something truly grand. But Corbet uses the second half to remind the audience, in excessive detail, just how many strings come attached with those aspirations.[Read: The sound of cruelty]On a first viewing, the latter part of The Brutalist is something of a slog. It’s involving, but it’s also unrelenting in its despair—especially when Van Buren violently betrays Tóth, which feels like one obvious hammer blow too many. This section plays both better and worse on a second viewing, because the blatant contours of the plot are less jarring. The pleasure mostly derives from picking out the remaining ambiguities, especially related to the film’s flash-forward coda; the finale has already inspired a lot of heated social-media debate over its intention. My read is that Corbet is pointedly leading the viewer to pore over the specifics of Tóth’s fate: Although the director’s disgust for the hollowness of the institution that Tóth tries, and ultimately fails, to navigate is thuddingly clear, what happens next to the character is more oblique. To me, the ending leaves as an open question whether Tóth has retreated to illusory safe ground or found a more hospitable home. The obscure epilogue has me pondering yet another watch of The Brutalist. The highest compliment I can bestow on it is that Corbet’s drive has paid dividends, leaving much for me to puzzle through.

Delta Flight 2668 was traveling from Atlanta to Minneapolis-St. Paul when it suspended takeoff after "an indication of an engine issue," the airline said.

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Company employees will be subject to a mandatory training titled "Welcome Back to Starbucks" between Jan. 21 and 26, according to Business Insider.

President-elect Donald Trump issued a warning to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who entered his third term Friday, that he better keep democracy activists 'safe and alive' after detaining Maria Machado.

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South Korea’s acting leader on Friday accepted the resignation of the chief of the presidential security service, Park Jong-joon, as he faced police questioning over how his forces blocked law enforcement efforts to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol last week.

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A 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death in a broad-daylight Friday morning attack outside a Bronx public housing complex, authorities said. 

TEL AVIV, Israel — President-elect Donald Trump’s repeated warning that “all hell will break out” should Hamas not release all remaining hostages before he takes office is an example of how he “speaks like a Middle Easterner,” Israeli and Palestinian officials and experts told The Post — adding that they believe Trump’s leadership style will...

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HuffPost's top editor resigned as fury grows that the parent company was "bowing to MAGA" ahead of Donald Trump taking office this month.

Users noticed the Grok app in Apple’s App Store on Thursday morning, according to a report.

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President-elect Donald Trump reacted on social media after virtually attending his sentencing in the "hush money" case in New York. CBS News' Aaron Navarro reports.

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Authorities in Los Angeles gave an update Friday on the wildfires that continue to burn around the city. Following their update, CBS News correspondent Elise Preston had a report from the Santa Monica.

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NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre praised Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman for his response to question about race after his team defeated Penn State to advance to the CFP title game.

A faulty rearview camera in some Teslas fails to properly display images, increasing the risk of a crash, traffic regulators say.

British pop star Robbie Williams talks to TIME about his biopic 'Better Man,' confronting past behaviors, '90s feuds, and more.

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More than half of JPMorgan's employees already come into the office full time, according to a memo.

A judge ended the case with a sentence of an unconditional discharge, closing the case with no punishment.

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Appearing on "Fox & Friends" Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., instructed mainstream media to stop politicizing the Los Angeles-area wildfires in their coverage of the disaster.

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Meta announced this week it was ending third-party fact-checking and moving towards community notes. Some experts fear it could lead to a rise in health misinformation.