The Tribune

• The benefit of using video referees during soccer games was highlighted Tuesday when Spain rightly profited from two decisions made away from the field of play to beat France 2-0 in an international friendly in Paris.

FIFA, the game’s governing body, has been using video assistant referees on a trial basis since last year and this was the first time that the extra official was used in a soccer match in France. It proved a success. A 48th-minute goal by France forward Antoine Griezmann was disallowed — with the score at 0-0 — because of an offside earlier in the move. The decision followed consultation between the referee and the video assistant.

Video help was needed again in the 77th minute to overturn an incorrect offside call against substitute Gerard Deulofeu after the winger applied a close-range finish to make it 2-0. Deulofeu was made to wait to celebrate the goal, but at least the correct decision was reached.

• A paralysed man was able to feed himself for the first time in eight years, after doctors implanted sensors in his brain that sent signals to his arm.

Bill Kochevar was paralysed from the shoulders down after a cycling accident in Cleveland in 2006.

To help him move again, in 2014, doctors surgically placed two tiny implants into his brain to pick up signals from neurons from the area that controls hand movement. The signals are relayed through external cables to a computer, which sends commands to electrodes in his arm and hand muscles. After first practicing with virtual reality, Kochevar was then able to drink coffee through a straw and eat forkfuls of mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese on his own.

“It was amazing,” the 56-year-old Kochevar said. “I couldn’t believe I could do it just by thinking about it.”