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A paralysed man has been able to walk again after communication was re-established between his brain and spinal cord using a wireless “digital bridge”.

The so-called brain computer interface is made up of two electronic implants, one each in the brain and spinal cord.

The former is placed above the region of the brain responsible for controlling leg movements, and can decode the electrical signals generated when we think about walking.

Similarly, the other implant is positioned over the part of the spinal cord that controls the legs.

Working together, scientists say the groundbreaking technology “transforms thought into action” – repairing the broken connection between the brain and the region of the spinal cord that controls movement.

The first patient was a 40-year-old man, Gert-Jan, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a bike accident in 2011.

It had left him paralysed, but he noticed improvements within days of surgeons calibrating the implants.

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Rediscovering simple pleasures

“The most surprising thing I think happened after two days,” Gert-Jan said.

“Within five to minutes, I could control my hips.”

Since then, after “a long journey” of training, the patient has been able to walk, climb stairs and navigate ramps.

He has also rediscovered the “simple pleasure” of standing with friends at a bar.

The implants remained effective after a year, including when Gert-Jan was unsupervised at home.

He was treated by neuroscientists and neurosurgeons from Switzerland’s Lausanne University Hospital and the University of Lausanne, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.

The implants themselves were developed by the French Atomic Energy Commission.

A man who was paralysed has been able to walk again. Pic: EPFL/CHUV/UNIL and CEA/CHUGA/UGA
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Gert-Jan underwent a lengthy period of training with the implants. Pic: EPFL/CHUV/UNIL and CEA/CHUGA/UGA

How does the technology work?

Guillaume Charvet, head of the project at the commission, said the implants use “adaptive artificial intelligence” to decode movement intentions from the brain in real time.

Once AI identifies the relevant signals, they are converted into sequences of electrical stimulation for the spinal cord, which activate the leg muscles and prompt the desired movement.

Remarkably, the patient experienced improvements in his sensory perceptions and motor skills that were maintained even when the digital bridge was switched off – allowing him to walk with crutches.

Professor Gregoire Courtine said this suggests the digital bridge not only repaired the man’s spinal cord, but also “promotes the growth of new nerve connections”.

AI THE KEY TO ASTONISHING BREAKTHROUGH

It’s artificial intelligence that is key here.

More than a decade ago, I spent some time in a lab with US researchers that were trying to decode brain signals from a monkey feeding itself with a robotic arm that it controlled with the power of thought.

Hundreds of signals jumped across a computer screen – and it was clear that the challenge would be detecting patterns in the data to gauge the intent.

The Swiss researchers have cracked that by carefully training the computer to pick out the signals that matter while Gert-Jan thinks about a very specific muscle movement.

The technology has clearly been transformational for one man. But now it needs to be rolled out to many more people paralysed by accidents and, the researchers hope, strokes.

It won’t be cheap, so access will be an issue. Will it just be the rich, or those with insurance payouts, who benefit?

But that’s for the future. Take nothing away from the breakthrough itself. It is astonishing. And the implications for people living with paralysis are huge.

Read Thomas Moore’s full analysis here.

Gert-Jan is the only patient who the digital bridge has been tested on, but it is hoped the technology could be used to restore arm and hand functions in future.

It could also be applied following other causes of paralysis, such as a stroke.

The findings have been detailed in the journal Nature.

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Four more arrests made over Louvre heist as £76m haul remains missing

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Four more arrests made over Louvre heist as £76m haul remains missing

Four more arrests have been made by French police investigating the Louvre museum heist.

Two men and two women from the Paris region were detained on Tuesday, prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.

Ms Beccuau’s statement did not say what role the quartet are suspected of having played in the robbery. The two men are aged 38 and 39, and the two women are aged 31 and 40.

They are being interrogated by police, who can hold them for questioning for 96 hours.

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Louvre: How ‘heist of the century’ unfolded

The latest arrests come after investigating magistrates filed preliminary charges against three men and one woman who were arrested last month.

Some of the French Crown Jewels, worth an estimated £76m, were stolen in the audacious October raid.

The haul – which included a diamond and emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels linked to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense, and Empress Eugenie’s pearl and diamond tiara – has not been recovered.

The heist was pulled off in mere minutes last month – and took place while the Louvre was open to visitors, raising doubts over the credibility of the world’s most-visited museum as a guardian for its priceless works.

On Sunday 19 October, two men used a stolen furniture lift to access the second floor Galerie d’Apollon.

They then cracked open display cases with angle grinders before escaping with their loot and fleeing on the back of two scooters driven by accomplices.

Read more:
Louvre director offers to resign
Gallery closed as structure in ‘dire state’

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Moment thieves escape Louvre in jewel heist

The Paris prosecutor previously said the robbery appeared to be the work of small-time criminals rather than professional gangsters.

Speaking shortly after the heist, art detective Arthur Brand told Sky News that detectives faced a “race against time” to recover the stolen treasure.

“These crown jewels are so famous, you just cannot sell them,” Mr Brand said. “The only thing they can do is melt the silver and gold down, dismantle the diamonds, try to cut them. That’s the way they will probably disappear forever.

“They [the police] have a week. If they catch the thieves, the stuff might still be there. If it takes longer, the loot is probably gone and dismantled. It’s a race against time.”

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Zelenskyy is racing to beat Donald Trump’s peace plan deadline – but what will Russia do?

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Zelenskyy is racing to beat Donald Trump's peace plan deadline – but what will Russia do?

Washington woke up this morning to a flurry of developments on Ukraine.

It was the middle of the night in DC when a tweet dropped from Ukraine’s national security advisor, Rustem Umerov.

He said that the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva.”

He added that Volodymyr Zelenskyy would travel to America “at the earliest suitable date in November to complete final steps and make a deal with President Trump”.

Ukraine latest: ‘Delicate’ deal details must be sorted, White House says

By sunrise in Washington, a US official was using similar but not identical language to frame progress.

The official, speaking anonymously to US media, said that Ukraine had “agreed” to Trump’s peace proposal “with some minor details to be worked out”.

More on Donald Trump

In parallel, it’s emerged that talks have been taking place in Abu Dhabi. The Americans claim to have met both Russian and Ukrainian officials there, though the Russians have not confirmed attendance.

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Peace deal ‘agreement’: What we know

“I have nothing to say. We are following the media reports,” Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, told Russian state media.

Trump is due to travel to his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago tonight, where he will remain until Sunday.

He set a deadline of Thursday – Thanksgiving – for some sort of agreement on his plan.

We know the plan has been changed from its original form, but it’s clear that Zelenskyy wants to be seen to agree to something quickly – that would go down well with President Trump.

Read more:
US hails ‘tremendous progress’ on Ukraine peace plan

In full: Europe’s 28-point counter proposal

My sense is that Zelenskyy will try to get to Mar-a-Lago as soon as he can. Before Thursday would be a push but would meet Trump’s deadline.

It will then be left for the Russians to state their position on the revised document.

All indications are that they will reject it. But maybe the secret Abu Dhabi talks will yield something.

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Controversial US and Israeli-backed aid operation the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to close

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Controversial US and Israeli-backed aid operation the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to close

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial US and Israeli-backed aid distribution group, has said it will permanently cease operations.

Set up as an alternative to United Nations aid programmes in May, GHF’s executive director John Acree said on Monday that it “succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans”.

The foundation had already closed down aid distribution sites after US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan was agreed by Hamas and Israel in October.

The GHF which began operations in Gaza after an Israeli blockade of food deliveries, lasting nearly three months, was criticised by Palestinians, aid workers and health officials who said it forced people to risk their lives to reach the sites.

File pic: Reuters
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File pic: Reuters

According to witnesses and videos posted to social media, Israeli soldiers repeatedly opened fire at the sites, killing hundreds. The IDF denied this, saying it only fired warning shots as a crowd-control measure or if its troops were in danger.

In July, analysis from Sky News’ Data and Forensics team found that aid distributions by GHF were associated with a significant increase in deaths.

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Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open

MSF – also known as Doctors Without Borders – said in a report in August that the GHF sites “morphed into a laboratory of cruelty,” and described scenes there as “orchestrated killing”.

More on Gaza

‘We are proud,’ says GHF director

Mr Acree said in a statement through the GHF’s website that “from the outset, GHF’s goal was to meet an urgent need” and to hand over a successful aid operation to “the broader international community”.

The GHF would hand over its work to the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center in Israel overseeing the Gaza ceasefire.

“We are winding down our operations as we have succeeded in our mission of showing there’s a better way to deliver aid to Gazans,” Mr Acree said.

File pic: Reuters
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File pic: Reuters

The GHF director added: “At a critical juncture, we are proud to have been the only aid operation that reliably and safely provided free meals directly to Palestinian people in Gaza, at scale and without diversion.

“From our very first day of operations, our mission was singular: feed civilians in desperate need. We built a new model that worked, saved lives, and restored dignity to civilians in Gaza.”

According to the GHF website, the group distributed more than three million food boxes, totalling 187 million meals, and supplied 1.1 million packs of Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food (RUSF) for malnourished children.

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Israel strikes Beirut for first time in months

Hamas welcomes GHF closure

In a statement, Hamas welcomed the closure of GHF and accused it of being a project that “engineered starvation” in partnership with Israel.

A Hamas spokesperson said: “Since its entry into the Gaza Strip, this foundation was part of the occupation’s security system, which adopted distribution mechanisms entirely disconnected from humanitarian principles, and created dangerous and degrading conditions for the dignity of the starving Palestinian people during their attempts to obtain a piece of bread, resulting in the killing and injury of thousands, through sniper operations and deliberate killing.”

They also called on international legal bodies to hold “this foundation and its officers accountable for their crimes against our people”.

US state department deputy spokesperson Tommy Piggot also said on X that the aid group “shared valuable lessons learned with us and our partners”.

“GHF’s model, in which Hamas could no longer loot and profit from stealing aid, played a huge role in getting Hamas to the table and achieving a ceasefire,” he added.

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