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Lab-grown meat threatens Italian culture — Meloni minister

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

ROME — Novel foods such as laboratory-produced “meats” risk undermining Italian culture, identity and civilization, Italy’s minister for food sovereignty and agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, warned on Thursday. Speaking to POLITICO as the Italian parliament passed Europe’s first legislation banning lab-cultured meat, Lollobrigida said the measures were about “defending work, environment, culture and identity — which are rooted in food quality,” and that they were intended to “defend our civilization against a model driven by delocalization and long supply chains.”The right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni has seized on novel foods to open a new front in the culture wars. For Lollobrigida, cultured meat production is an existential threat to traditional meat farming and to a rural way of life lived in harmony with the land: “If you produce a food that has no relationship to man, land, work, you can move production to a place with lower taxes and less environmental ...

‘Jaws’ movie poster illustrator Roger Karl Kastel has died at 92

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

(CNN) — An iconic artist with over 1,000 illustrations – including movie posters for the movies “Jaws” and “The Empire Strikes Back” – Roger Karl Kastel has died at age 92 in Worcester County, Massachusetts, according to his website.His wife, Grace Kastel, told the Hollywood Reporter that he died of kidney and heart failure at a hospice facility.According to Kastel’s website, “Roger got his first paying art job at the age of 15 doing industrial cartoons. He sold his first illustration in the early 1960s and illustrated paperback book covers and movie posters over the next forty years.”“Roger’s painting of Jaws is included in the books, The Illustrator in American (sic) and 200 Years of American Illustration,” the website reads. “While Jaws and The Empire Strikes Back may be the most widely recognized of his work, Roger received multiple awards for various other illustrations and fine art.”“Jaws” was a 1975 blockbuster thriller about a great white s...

Credit card skimmers hit Market Basket, Walmart locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

Stay vigilant, shoppers.Police uncovered credit card skimmers installed in a Market Basket and a Walmart in Concord, N.H., this week and are working with police in a handful of other Massachusetts and New Hampshire towns to see if skimmers found in stores there were the work of the same people or crew.“Be vigilant, especially now going into the holiday season,” Concord Police Deputy Chief John Thomas told the Herald, adding that this is the season when police generally see an uptick in credit card information theft.A credit card skimmer, which his department said it found in October in a self-checkout lane at the Loudon Road Walmart and the Storrs Street Market Basket, is a device that overlays and looks nearly identical to the legitimate credit card machines found in stores, at the gas pump, ATMs and anywhere else you’d find them.“At this time, we are not aware of any customer information being compromised and we will continue to monitor this situation closely,” Justine...

The judge in Trump’s Georgia election case limits the disclosure of evidence after videos’ release

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

By KATE BRUMBACK (Associated Press)ATLANTA (AP) — The judge overseeing the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and others in Georgia issued an order on Thursday that prohibits the release of certain evidence.The ruling came after news outlets this week reported on the contents of and published clips from interviews that four defendants conducted with prosecutors as part of their plea deals.Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote that allowing parties the “unfettered ability” to publicly share pretrial materials undermines the discovery process, during which lawyers for both sides share evidence. “Potential jurors should be limited from exposure to materials that may be deemed inadmissible at trial,” McAfee wrote.“The likelihood of harm in this case is severe, as extensive media coverage guarantees broad dissemination of any disclosed discovery materials,” McAfee wrote.Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had initially asked for an or...

The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas has been approved by MLB owners, AP sources say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

By STEPHEN HAWKINS and RONALD BLUM (AP Baseball Writers)ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas was unanimously approved Thursday by Major League Baseball team owners, cementing the sport’s first relocation since 2005, according to two people familiar with the vote.The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the league had not yet announced the results. A 75% vote of the 30 teams was necessary to make the move, which was endorsed by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.After years of complaints about the Oakland Coliseum and an inability to gain government assistance for a new ballpark in the Bay area, the A’s plan to move to a stadium to be built on the Las Vegas Strip with $380 million in public financing approved by the Nevada government.The A’s lease at the Coliseum expires after the 2024 season and it remains unclear where the team will play before a new ballpark opens, in 2027 at the earliest.Las Vegas will become the fourth...

6 takeaways from the Chicago Bulls’ loss — including Zach LaVine’s slow start and another ugly shooting night

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

The Chicago Bulls slouched back into a losing skid with a razor-thin 96-94 finish against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday.It was a familiar storyline for the Bulls — a sluggish first half balanced out by a resurgence in the second, only for the game to come down to a last-moment shot. This time, luck didn’t fall in the Bulls’ favor. Magic star Paolo Banchero hit the game-winner with one second left on the clock and the Bulls’ record slipped to 4-8.Here are six takeaways from the game:1. Late-game heroics can’t offset another off-night from Zach LaVine.If Zach LaVine wanted to make a case for himself as a desirable trade acquisition to the rest of the league, he didn’t accomplish that in the first three quarters of Wednesday’s game.The space directly around the rim is typically LaVine’s comfort zone. But for a second consecutive game, it was LaVine’s weakest area of the court. He missed a point-blank layup and crushed a hammer dunk...

Rafael Nadal will reveal his comeback plans soon after missing nearly all of 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

Rafael Nadal is sure he’ll be returning to competition after missing nearly all of 2023 with a hip injury that required surgery. And now he says he’ll be revealing his comeback plans soon.Nadal wrote Thursday on social media: “I confirmed yesterday I’ll be back” and punctuated that message with a smiling emoji.“Stay tuned,” he continued in the Instagram post, which included a photograph of him about to hit a backhand. He said that in the coming days he will “decide and announce with my team when and where” everyone can expect to see him in action.Next season begins in late December, with the year’s first major tournament, the Australian Open, scheduled to begin main-draw matches on Jan. 14.“For the world of tennis, no doubt that it’s amazing news that he’ll be back,” Novak Djokovic said at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.Nadal, whose 22 Grand Slam singles titles rank second to Djokovic’s 24 for the most among men, has not played on tour since last Januar...

NYC will pay $17.5 million to man who was wrongly convicted of 1996 murders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City will pay $17.5 million to a man who spent 24 years in prison for a double homicide he did not commit, city officials said Thursday.The settlement in the case of George Bell, one of three men convicted for the 1996 killing of a Queens check-cashing store owner and an off-duty police officer, was first reported by The New York Times.A judge threw out the convictions of Bell and the other two men in 2021 and they were released from the Green Haven Correctional Facility,The judge, Joseph A. Zayas of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, said prosecutors in the cases of Bell, Gary Johnson and Rohan Bolt withheld exculpatory evidence that other people might have committed the slayings.“The district attorney’s office deliberately withheld from the defense credible information of third-party guilt,” Zayas said. He said that the prosecution had “completely abdicated its truth-seeking role in these cases.” The exonerations of Bell, Johnson and Bolt happe...

CDPQ investing $200 million in Swedish battery company Northvolt

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec’s pension fund manager is investing $200 million in Swedish company Northvolt AB which announced plans in September to build a factory for electric vehicle batteries near Montreal.The investment by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec will be in the form of convertible debt in the company.Construction of Northvolt’s $7-billion plant in McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Que., is expected to start by the end of this year.It is expected to have 30 gigawatt hours of annual cell manufacturing capacity when the first phase goes into production in 2026 with the ability to later double that figure.The site will also include facilities for cathode active material production and battery recycling.Kim Thomassin, executive vice-president and head of Québec at CDPQ, says the battery industry is a sector of high interest for the fund as it believes it will experience strong growth over the next decade.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. ...

Saskatchewan introduces bill on withholding carbon tax on natural gas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:15 GMT

The Saskatchewan government has introduced legislation that it says would enable it to stop collecting the federal carbon tax on natural gas bills.It says the legislation would protect employees and board members of SaskEnergy, a provincial Crown corporation, from legal consequences.More coming.The Canadian Press