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FDA approves first CRISPR gene editing treatment that may cure sickle cell disease

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

By LAURA UNGAR | AP Science WriterRegulators on Friday approved two new gene therapies for sickle cell disease that doctors hope can cure the painful, inherited blood disorder that afflicts mostly Black people in the U.S.The Food and Drug Administration said the one-time treatments can be used for patients 12 and older with severe forms of the disease. One, made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, is the first approved therapy based on CRISPR, the gene editing tool that won its inventors the Nobel Prize in 2020. The other is made by Bluebird Bio and works differently.“Sickle cell disease is a rare, debilitating and life-threatening blood disorder with significant unmet need,” the FDA’s Dr. Nicole Verdun said in a statement announcing the approvals. “”We are excited to advance the field especially for individuals whose lives have been severely disrupted by the disease.”Related ArticlesScience | The dirty truth about taking your shoes off at the door Sci...

Palo Alto mail carrier robbed by 2 men; $150,000 reward offered 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

(KRON) – A female United States Postal Service mail carrier was robbed by two men in Palo Alto on Wednesday. Palo Alto police’s 24-hour dispatch center received a call from a mail carrier reporting she had been the victim of a strong-arm robbery that had occurred about 10 minutes earlier in the 3400 block of Alma Street around 1:59 p.m. on Dec. 6.  Three USPS workers assaulted and robbed in SF’s Mission District According to the police investigation, the victim was delivering mail when two men approached her. One of the men demanded her postal keys. When she did not comply, the other suspect pushed her to the ground. The suspects then forcibly took the keys and her cell phone and fled on foot.The victim is in her fifties. She sustained moderate injuries: a chipped tooth, facial swelling, and pain in one of her wrists. Paramedics from the Palo Alto Fire Department treated her at the scene.The victim described the suspects as Hispanic men in their thirties. She recalls one...

The Rise and Rollout of AOC's Green New Deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

Ahead of the publication of “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution,” right-wing media outlets, in a series of reports in Fox News, the New York Post, the Daily Mail, and so on, wildly distorted the book. One of the chapters they mangled most aggressively was on the rise of the Green New Deal. Below is an adapted excerpt from Chapter 8: “It Is A Dream.”Not long after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her shock 2018 primary, Saikat Chakrabarti and Corbin Trent ventured to Washington, D.C., to scope things out. Both had started as volunteers on the first Bernie Sanders campaign, worked their way up the skeleton crew, then left to found what became Justice Democrats, and then threw themselves full time into electing Ocasio-Cortez in her primary campaign against Rep. Joe Crowley. Now they had made it to Washington as AOC’s chief of staff and communications director, and the first question everyone they ran into asked them was the same, a question born of both curiosity and a s...

Encuentran bebés muertos y en descomposición en la unidad de cuidados intensivos de un hospital evacuado en Gaza. Esto es lo que sabemos

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

Nota del editor: El siguiente reportaje incluye contenido explícito. Se recomienda la discreción del público.(CNN) — La escena en la unidad de cuidados intensivos del hospital Al-Nasr es escalofriante. Los diminutos cuerpos de bebés, varios de ellos aún conectados a los cables y tubos que debían mantenerlos con vida, se descomponen en sus camas de hospital. Junto a ellos, sobre las sábanas, todavía hay biberones de leche y pañales de repuesto.El video del interior del hospital fue grabado el 27 de noviembre por Mohamed Baalousha, reportero en Gaza del medio de comunicación emiratí Al Mashhad. Baalousha compartió con CNN una versión sin difuminar en la que se ven los restos de al menos cuatro bebés.Guerra entre Israel y Hamas en vivo: combates en Gaza, situación de los civiles y másTres de ellos parecen seguir conectados a las máquinas del hospital. Los cuerpos de los bebés parecen haberse oscurecido y estar desintegrándose por la putrefacción, y en algunas de las camas quedan ...

Unionized DHL Express workers strike at critical Cincinnati air cargo hub

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 1,100 unionized DHL Express workers walked off the job at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), a critical logistics hub for the package delivery company, during the busiest time of the year.The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents over 6,000 DHL workers across the country, said its DHL-CVG members went on strike Thursday to further demand a fair contract and protest unfair labor practices.“For too long, DHL has walked all over our rights to collective action,” Gina Kemp, a DHL-CVG ramp and tug worker, said in a statement shared in the Teamsters’ announcement. “This company’s repeated acts of disrespect — from the tarmac where we work to the bargaining table — leave me and my co-workers with no choice but to withhold our labor.”Negotiations between DHL and the Teamsters for a first union contract at CVG began back in July — after ramp and tug workers, who load and unload airplane cargo, voted to organize with th...

France’s president visits Notre Dame a year before the fire-damaged cathedral’s planned reopening

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron visited Notre Dame Cathedral on Friday, one year before its scheduled reopening in 2024.After a blaze burned through the roof and spire on April 15, 2019, Macron’s visits have become a tradition, with Friday marking his sixth to highlight the rebuilding progress. Huge oak beams have been hoisted skyward so the cathedral can be re-roofed. The French leader on Friday went up the spire, reconstructed from its previous design by the famed 19th-century French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. It stands at 96 meters (315 feet) and was crowned with a cross earlier this week. It is soon to be topped by a rooster, restoring an emotional symbol for the French of their heritage. The rooster was first used as a symbol of hope and faith in the Middle Ages, gaining its association with the French nation during the Renaissance. “Since April 2019, the entire nation has been rebuilding,” Macron told reporters. “And it’s very moving to be here a year befor...

Dénis Bouanga leads LAFC into the MLS Cup final against the Crew

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

When LAFC advanced to last season’s MLS Cup final, Dénis Bouanga was still finding his way on a new team and in a new country. Bouanga was still important to the team’s finish and run in the playoffs last year, but this season’s Golden Boot winner is far more comfortable as he aims to help LAFC secure a second straight title. “I was a part of the preseason so it was easier than last year. Last year, I arrived just for the MLS Cup and we won, but I was not really at my level,” he said. “This year, because I started in the preseason, I was able to step up my game being with the team on the field, but also on the language.” LAFC visits the Columbus Crew on Saturday in the MLS Cup title match. Los Angeles can become just the fourth team in league history with back-to-back championships — and the first since the LA Galaxy won in 2011 and 2012. Bouanga made the most of his full year in Los Angeles, taking home the Golden Boot award after scoring 20 goal...

Abogada ofrece consejos para evitar ser víctima de fraude por parole humanitario

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

Algunas medidas migratorias representan la oportunidad perfecta para quienes buscan aprovecharse de algunas personas que quieren llegar a Estados Unidos. La abogada de inmigración, Katherine Canto, alertó sobre una estafa dirigida a cubanos, haitianos, nicaragüenses y venezolanos que desean mudarse a la nación norteamericana mediante el parole humanitario anunciado por el presidente Joe Biden. “Las personas tienen que utilizar un patrocinador, un familiar, una persona que les quiera ayudar, que sea ciudadano o residente, donde él solicita o le ayuda con la solicitud de entrada aquí a Estados Unidos que es el parole”, explicó.Quienes pueden calificar a este beneficio deben ser ciudadanos de los países antes mencionados, no tener antecedentes migratorios o criminales y estar fuera de Estados Unidos. El sueño americano y la soledad: el trauma de comenzar de nuevo deja huella en la salud mental de los inmigrantes ¿Cuánto mide el muro fronterizo? ...

The Census Bureau wants to change how it asks about disabilities. Some advocates don’t like it

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

The U.S. Census Bureau wants to change how it asks people about disabilities, and some advocates are complaining that they were not consulted enough on what amounts to a major overhaul in how disabilities would be defined by the federal government.Disability advocates say the change would artificially reduce their numbers by almost half. At stake are not only whether people with disabilities get vital resources for housing, schools or program benefits but whether people with disabilities are counted accurately in the first place, experts said.Some also question the timing of the change, which comes just as more people are living with new, long-term conditions from the COVID-19 pandemic.Census Bureau officials say the proposed change on its most comprehensive survey of American life will align the U.S. with international standards, allowing comparisons among countries. They also say it will better capture how disabilities occur in the real world, since they rarely fit neatly into sta...

Longest shot ski record broken in Breckenridge with almost 500 skis later

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:39 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — On Thursday, over a thousand people lined up on Main Street in Breckenridge to break the unofficial record for the world's longest shot ski.Every year the town celebrates Ullr, the Norse god of snow, for a snowy winter season ahead. The celebration takes place on Main Street with a parade and bonfire. During the festivities, another tradition emerged. 8 things to do in Denver this weekend: Dec. 8-10 World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)World's longest shot ski (Credit: Sarah McLear, Breckenridge Ski Resort)It's called a shot ski. Basically, it's a ski with four shot glasses attached to it. Four people line up and tip the ski while simultaneously taking a shot. The shot ski record has gone back and forth for years. Brec...