A medical company set up by Elon Musk is under investigation for potential welfare violations – with a total of 1,500 animals dying in four years, according to a report.
Staff at Neuralink have made internal complaints that animal testing is being rushed – causing needless suffering and deaths, Reuters says.
Records seen by the news agency allege that 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys have died following experiments since 2018.
Read more: Elon Musk’s Neuralink puts computer chips in pigs’ brains
Musk speaking about the launch of Neuralink in 2018. Pic: AP
Neuralink is developing a brain implant that it hopes will help paralysed people walk again – and cure other neurological issues.
The complaints made by staff allege that Musk has increased pressure to accelerate development, leading to botched experiments that need to be repeated.
In one case, 25 pigs were reportedly implanted with devices that were the wrong size – with a source telling Reuters this was an error that could have been avoided with more preparation.
Earlier this year, a Neuralink executive reportedly sent staff a news article about Swiss researchers who developed an electrical implant that helped a man to walk again.
He wrote: “In general, we are simply not moving fast enough. It is driving me nuts!”
Reuters also claimed that – on several occasions – Musk told employees to imagine they had a bomb strapped to their heads in an effort to get them to move faster.
The total number of animal deaths does not necessarily indicate Neuralink is violating regulations or standard research practices.
Many companies routinely use animals in experiments to advance human healthcare, and they face financial pressure to quickly bring products to market.
The animals are typically killed when experiments are completed, often so they can be examined post-mortem for research purposes.
But current and former Neuralink employees say the number of animal deaths there is higher than it needs to be.
The San Francisco-based company had sought approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the Neuralink project, which has seen scientists develop a tiny implant with more than 3,000 electrodes, attached to flexible threads measuring about the tenth of the size of a hair, and capable of monitoring about 1,000 neurons.
At the time of its launch, Mr Musk said they had three pigs with two coin-sized implants each, and he described them as “healthy, happy and indistinguishable from a normal pig”.
The alleged issues highlighted with Neuralink’s testing have raised questions about the quality of the data generated from experiments – and this could potentially delay attempts to begin trials on humans.
But some employees interviewed by Reuters said the company treated animals quite well when compared with other research facilities – with animals given freedom to roam in what has been likened to a “Monkey Disneyland”.
One former Neuralink staffer recalled Musk saying that he disliked using animals for research but wanted to make sure they were “the happiest animals” while alive.
Mr Musk and other Neuralink executives did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
US
Trump pauses higher tariffs for most countries for 90 days – but increases those on China to 125%
Donald Trump has paused his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on most of America’s trading partners for 90 days – while increasing those on China to 125%.
There have been fears of a global recession and stock markets around the world had plummeted after Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on Wednesday 2 April.
However, the S&P 500 stock index jumped 9.5% and global markets bounced back following Mr Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that the increased tariffs on nearly all trading partners would now be paused.
Tariffs latest: Trump gives reasons for pausing some tariffs
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said the “90-day pause” was for the “more than 75 countries” who had not retaliated against his tariffs “in any way”.
He added that during this period they would still have to pay a “substantially lowered” 10% tariff, which is “effective immediately”.
It is lower than the 20% tariff that Mr Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea.
The UK was already going to face a blanket 10% tariff under the new system.
Mr Trump said the increased 125% tariff on imported goods from China was “effective immediately”.
He added: “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the USA, and other countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”
Hours after Mr Trump announced the pause on tariffs for most countries, a White House official clarified that this did not apply to the 25% duties imposed on some US imports from Mexico and Canada.
The tariffs were first announced in February and Mexico and Canada were not included in the “Liberation Day” announcements.
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Donald Trump says China ‘wants to make a deal’
Hours before the 125% tariff on China was revealed, Beijing said it was increasing tariffs on US goods by 50%.
It meant tariffs of 84% would be enforced on US goods – up from the 34% China had previously planned.
Mr Trump spoke to reporters in the Oval Office. Pic: Reuters
China ‘want to make a deal’
Asked why he posted “BE COOL” on Truth Social hours before announcing his tariff pause, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House: “I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line.”
“They were getting yippy, you know, were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid,” he added.
Mr Trump continued: “China wants to make a deal, they just don’t know how to go about it.
“[They’re] quite the proud people, and President Xi is a proud man. I know him very well, and they don’t know quite how to go about it, but they’ll figure it out.
“They’re in the process of figuring out, but they want to make a deal.”
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the walk back was part of a grand negotiating strategy by Mr Trump.
“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” she said, adding that the news media “clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here”.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also insisted Mr Trump had strengthened his hand through his tariffs.
“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” he said.
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Mr Bessent said Mr Trump decided to raise tariffs on China because Beijing hadn’t reached out to the US and instead increased its own levies on US goods.
Downing Street said that the UK will “coolly and calmly” continue its negotiations with the US.
A Number 10 spokeswoman said: “A trade war is in nobody’s interests. We don’t want any tariffs at all, so for jobs and livelihoods across the UK, we will coolly and calmly continue to negotiate in Britain’s interests.”
US
Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre leaves hospital after saying she had ‘four days to live’ following car crash
Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre has reportedly left hospital after recently saying she had “four days to live”.
Her representative said she was discharged on Monday, according to US celebrity website People.
Photos in Australian media on Wednesday are said to show Ms Giuffre being driven in a vehicle north of Perth.
The 41-year-old appeared with a bruised face last week when she posted an Instagram video saying her car had been hit by a speeding school bus as she slowed for a turn.
She said: “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology.
“I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time…”
Police said they had received a report of a “minor crash” between a school bus and a car in Neergabby, about 12 miles from Perth, on 24 March.
“The collision was reported by the bus driver the following day,” said a spokeswoman. “There were no reported injuries as a result of the crash.”
A few days after the Instagram video, it emerged Ms Giuffre had been charged with allegedly breaching a family violence restraining order.
Ms Giuffre is reported to have separated from her husband.
The case was due back in court today (9 April).
Ms Giuffre reached a settlement with the duke in 2022. File pic: AP
Ms Giuffre sued the Duke of York for sexual abuse in August 2021, saying Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend, the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The duke has repeatedly denied the claims, and he has not been charged with any criminal offences.
In March 2022, it was announced Ms Giuffre and Andrew had reached an out-of-court settlement – believed to include a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.
The severity cannot be overstated, if an additional 50% tariffs are levied on all Chinese goods it will decimate trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
Remember, 50% would sit on top of what is already on the table: 34% announced last week, 20% announced at the start of US President Donald Trump’s term, and some additional tariffs left over from his first term in office.
In total, it means all Chinese goods would face tariffs of over 100%, some as high as 120%.
It’s a price that makes any trade almost impossible.
China is really the only nation in the world at the moment that is choosing to take a stand.
While others are publicly making concessions and sending delegations to negotiate, China has clearly calculated that not being seen to be bullied is worth the cost that retaliation will bring.
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Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
The real question, though, is if the US does indeed impose this extra 50% tomorrow, what could or would China do next?
It has said it will “fight to the end”, but what does that mean?
In reality, there are few good options.
There are some obvious measures that China will almost certainly enact.
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Further export controls on rare earth minerals (crucial for the development of high-tech products) are one example. China controls a huge proportion of the world’s supply, but the US would likely find workarounds in time.
Hiking tariffs on high-impact US products such as agricultural goods is another option, but there is only so far this could go.
The potentially more impactful options have significant drawbacks for Beijing.
It could, for instance, target high-profile American companies such as Apple and Tesla, but this isn’t ideal at a time when China is trying to attract more foreign investment, and some devaluation of the currency is possible, but it would also come with adverse effects.
Other options are more political and come with the risk of escalation beyond the economic arena.
In an opinion piece this morning, the editor of Xinhua, China’s state news agency, speculated that China could cease all cooperation with the US on the war against fentanyl.
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This has been a major political issue for Mr Trump, and it’s hard to see it would not constitute some sort of red line for him.
Other options touted include banning the import of American films, or perhaps calling for the Chinese public to boycott all American products.
Anything like this comes with a sense that the world’s two most powerful superpowers might be teetering on the edge of not just a total economic decoupling, but cultural separation too.
There is understandably serious nervousness about how that could spiral and the precedent it sets.
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