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Elephant in the dining room: Startup makes mammoth meatball

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Throw another mammoth on the barbie?An Australian company on Tuesday lifted the glass cloche on a meatball made of lab-grown cultured meat using the genetic sequence from the long-extinct pachyderm, saying it was meant to fire up public debate about the hi-tech treat.The launch in an Amsterdam science museum came just days before April 1 so there was an elephant in the room: Is this for real?“This is not an April Fools joke,” said Tim Noakesmith, founder of Australian startup Vow. “This is a real innovation.”Cultivated meat — also called cultured or cell-based meat — is made from animal cells. Livestock doesn’t need to be killed to produce it, which advocates say is better not just for the animals but also for the environment.Vow used publicly available genetic information from the mammoth, filled missing parts with genetic data from its closest living relative, the African elephant, and inserted it into a sheep cell, Noakesmith said. Given the right con...

Police detain 2 men in Miami Gardens suspected in Fort Lauderdale shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

Police detained two men who might be connected to a shooting. An officer in Fort Lauderdale spotted the subjects in a vehicle at Broward Boulevard on Interstate 95, Tuesday morning. The vehicle was stopped by police in Miami Gardens at Second Avenue.7Skyforce hovered over the scene where a large police presence surrounded the vehicle during a traffic stop.The driver and a passenger were taken into custody by Fort Lauderdale Police.According to police, the vehicle, a silver Mercedes Benz, matched the description of a car potentially connected to a shooting that happened Monday in Fort Lauderdale. During that shooting, a woman was caught in the crossfire off of Northwest 20th Street. The victim was shot in the leg and was taken to the hospital. She is expected to be OK.Investigators said the woman was not the intended target. One lane along Northeast Second Avenue has been closed as police continue their investigation. Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more deta...

Toddler drowns, infant left in hot car less than a year apart at grandma’s house

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

HARDEE COUNTY, Florida (WFTS) — Tracey Nix was practicing the piano while her infant granddaughter was dying in the back seat of an SUV.According to the Hardee County Sheriff’s Office complaint affidavit, Tracey, 65, told a detective that after she drove home from lunch with friends on November 22, she “just forgot” about 7-month-old Uriel Schock.Uriel’s mother Kaila Nix, had gone to get her hair done that day and had asked her mom to babysit.It wasn’t until one of Tracey’s grandsons arrived, the complaint affidavit said, that “all of a sudden” it “came across her head” that Uriel had been in the SUV all afternoon. Her husband, Nun Ney Nix, immediately began CPR.Temperatures in Wauchula had reached 90 degrees that day. The Lexus SUV was parked in the yard with the windows rolled up.Tracey, a former school principal in Hardee County, was charged with aggravated manslaughter. The pretrial hearing is scheduled for March ...

A Maryland court has reinstated the conviction of Adnan Syed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

(CNN) — A Maryland appellate court has reinstated the conviction of Adnan Syed, the man who spent over two decades behind bars for the 1999 killing of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee and whose murder case was featured in the landmark podcast “Serial.”The appellate court said the lower court had violated the rights of the victim’s brother, Young Lee, to attend a key hearing.“Because the circuit court violated Mr. Lee’s right to notice of, and his right to attend, the hearing on the State’s motion to vacate… this Court has the power and obligation to remedy those violations, as long we can do so without violating Mr. Syed’s right to be free from double jeopardy,” the court’s opinion said.This is a developing story and will be updated.

Russian father jailed after daughter made anti-war drawing goes on the run

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

A man sentenced to two years in prison in a case launched against him after his daughter drew an anti-war picture at school is on the run from the authorities, a spokeswoman for a provincial court told journalists. Earlier Tuesday, a judge in the town of Yefremov in Russia’s Tula region, south of Moscow, found Alexei Moskalyov guilty of discrediting the Russian army on social media and sentenced him to two years in a penal colony.Moskalyov was not present at the hearing.Once the proceedings were over, a court spokeswoman, responding to inquiries as to Moskalyov’s whereabouts, said: “The defendant, Mr. Moskalyov, was not present when the verdict was announced because he fled house arrest last night.” Her words were met with applause and several cries of “Bravo!” from some of those in attendance. Formally, Moskalyov was sentenced for two comments he made on social media in which he described Russian soldiers as rapists and Russia’s leadership as “terrorists.”But Moskaly...

MEPs back tighter screening of migrants

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

BRUSSELS — European lawmakers on Tuesday voted for tighter screening of migrants as they gave the green light to a central plank of the EU’s flagship migration package. The new rules seek to speed up the return of migrants who entered Europe without permission and to prevent these migrants from traveling to other countries within Europe. The approved text, seen by POLITICO, includes fast-track processing of asylum-seekers who are unlikely to be successful — yet leaves the Dublin Treaty untouched.Calls to reform the treaty, which puts the countries of first entry on the hook for handling migrants, have in the past floundered. But the new Migration and Asylum Pact attempts to keep the most recalcitrant member states on board while attempting to stem high migrant flows.The three most powerful groups in Parliament — the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the center-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) and centrist Renew — all backed the proposal.With Tuesday’s vote i...

Germany wins Pyrrhic victory in the war to save the car engine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

No, Germany’s government hasn’t just saved the internal combustion engine.Weeks of threats and bluster that saw Berlin go head-to-head with Brussels ended Tuesday with EU energy ministers approving an agreement that sets a zero emissions limit on the sale of new cars and vans from 2035.That’s exactly the same deal that Germany and a small group of allies — Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic — refused to accept unless the European Commission changed the rules to make room for cars running on so-called e-fuels — a synthetic alternative to fossil fuels made from hydrogen and CO2 that is cleaner than conventional gasoline but still emits some greenhouse gases.It’s being touted as a huge victory by Berlin, but the final effect is likely going to be a lot less than Germany’s auto suppliers, high-end carmakers and the liberal wing of the political establishment — particularly the Free Democratic Party, which controls Berlin’s transport minist...

Students campaigning for official state ice cream get first-hand lawmaking experience

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

A local high school government class has been getting a taste of the legislative process after helping create a bill that proposes Massachusetts have an official state ice cream flavor.It all started when several students at Norwood High School learning about the state’s official symbols found Massachusetts does not have an official state ice cream.“When we had been doing our state lessons, the kids had each taken a turn looking at different aspects of Massachusetts government and they had spent a lot of time looking at state symbols, and realized that here was no state ice cream flavor,” said Norwood High teacher Jennifer Orlinski.The US Government class soon got to work, making phone calls and writing letters to lawmakers and ice cream distributors.After more than a month of research, they scooped a proposed flavor: cookies and cream.“The whole idea in concept of mixing a flavor into an ice cream such as cookies and cream or chocolate chip even, came from B...

Apple launches buy now, pay later service

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

(CNN) — Apple on Tuesday launched an option in its digital wallet allowing customers to pay for online purchases in installments, making it the latest company to embrace the buy now, pay later trend.The new feature, called Apple Pay Later, lets customers split payments for purchases into four installments over six weeks, with the first installment due at the time of purchase. Apple users can also apply for a loan within the Wallet app, ranging from $50 to $1000, with no interest or fees, to make online or in-app purchases.The payment option is rolling out to select users in the United States now, with plans to offer it to all eligible customers over the next several months, according to a company release. Apple first teased the feature last year.Apple’s move comes as a growing number of consumers have turned to buy now, pay later services to stretch their budgets at a time of high inflation and broader economic uncertainty. Other popular services that offe...

Court rules in favor of victim’s family in ‘Serial’ case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:19:59 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland court did not give the family of the murder victim in the case chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial” enough time to attend a court hearing in person that led to Adnan Syed’s release, a Maryland appellate court ruled Tuesday, and it ordered a new hearing to be held.Though Syed’s conviction has been reinstated, he will not be taken back into custody.In a 2-1 decision, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled the state’s law provides victims with the right to prior notice of the hearing on a motion to vacate convictions, and that right was violated in the case of the family of Hae Min Lee, Syed’s ex-girlfriend and high school classmate who died more than two decades ago.The court ruled that giving her brother, Young Lee, only one business day before the hearing was “insufficient time to reasonably allow Mr. Lee, who lived in California, to attend the hearing in person,” and required him to attend the hearing remotely.“Allowin...