Panel says that innovative sickle
cell cure is safe enough for patients
A panel of experts said Tuesday that a groundbreaking treatment for sickle cell disease was safe enough for clinical use, setting the stage for likely federal approval by Dec. 8 of a powerful potential cure for an illness that afflicts more than 100,000 Americans. The Food and Drug Administration had previously found that the treatment, known as exa-cel and jointly developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston and CRISPR Therapeutics of Switzerland, was effective. The panel’s conclusion about exa-cel’s safety sends it to the FDA for a decision on greenlighting it for broad patient use. If approved, the Vertex product would be the first medicine to treat a genetic disease with the CRISPR gene-editing technique.
Biden administration approves biggest offshore wind farm yet, in Virginia
The Interior Department on Tuesday approved a plan to install up to 176 giant wind turbines off the coast of Virginia, clearing the way for what would be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm yet. The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, to be built by Dominion Energy, is the fifth commercial-scale offshore wind project approved by the Biden administration. If completed, the 2.6-gigawatt wind farm would produce enough electricity to power more than 900,000 homes. The project is expected to provide about 900 jobs each year during the construction phase and support an estimated 1,100 annual jobs once it begins operating.
Prosecutors end Flint water crisis case against ex-governor
Prosecutors in Michigan said Tuesday that a series of appellate court rulings meant they could no longer pursue criminal cases against the state’s former governor, Rick Snyder, and others accused of wrongdoing in the Flint water crisis. The announcement was the latest, and apparently final, setback in a troubled prosecution effort that had stretched over seven years and spanned the terms of two attorneys general. “The residents of Flint deserved their day in court,” prosecutors said in a statement, in which they also said they considered the cases closed.
Obama’s presidential center is rising, finally, in Chicago
More than eight years have passed since Barack Obama proclaimed his presidential center would be built on Chicago’s South Side, where he got his start as a community organizer and politician. The announcement brought a swell of pride to the city, which beat out Honolulu, Obama’s birthplace, and New York City, where he attended college. Two presidents and multiple lawsuits later, the center’s concrete skeleton is rising along Stony Island Avenue near Lake Michigan. The planned opening? Late 2025. Many South Siders are excited about the museum, but there is also concern that the center will drive up rents on the city’s southern lakefront, home to many Black residents.
Home sellers win $1.8 billion after jury finds conspiracy among Realtors
A federal jury ruled Tuesday that the powerful National Association of Realtors and several large brokerages had conspired to artificially inflate the commissions paid to real estate agents. The realtors’ group and brokerages were ordered to pay damages of nearly $1.8 billion, which could swell to more than $5 billion. The decision has the potential to rewrite the entire structure of the U.S. real estate industry, lowering the cost of moving homes by reducing commissions. NAR, alongside Keller Williams, Anywhere (formerly, Realogy), Re/Max and HomeServices of America, had been on trial in Kansas City in an antitrust suit brought by nearly 500,000 Missouri home sellers.
Sam Bankman-Fried denies knowing FTX money was missing, as he concludes
his testimony
The founder of the FTX crypto exchange was grilled by a federal prosecutor for a second day, just before both sides rested their case in the criminal fraud trial in New York City. Over and over on Tuesday, Sam Bankman-Fried denied knowing that billions of dollars in customer money had been misappropriated until shortly before his company collapsed last year, as a federal prosecutor grilled him for a second day in his criminal fraud trial. After closing statements Wednesday, jurors could start deliberating a verdict in the case as soon as Thursday.
News group says AI chatbots heavily rely on news content
News publishers have argued for the past year that AI chatbots like ChatGPT rely on copyrighted articles to power the technology. Now the publishers say developers of these tools disproportionately use news content. The News Media Alliance, a trade group that represents more than 2,200 publishers, including The New York Times, released research Tuesday that it said showed that developers outweigh articles over generic online content to train the technology, and that chatbots reproduce sections of some articles in their responses. The group argued that the findings show that the AI companies violate copyright law.
Tesla wins suit that blamed its software for deadly crash
A California jury ruled Tuesday that a crash that killed a Tesla owner and seriously injured two passengers was not the fault of the carmaker’s driver-assistance software. It is the first verdict involving a fatal crash in which lawyers representing the victims blamed Tesla’s Autopilot system. The technology allows a car to drive with a degree of autonomy but has been criticized as unreliable. The decision by a jury in a state court in Riverside, California, could be an indicator of how jurors and judges would rule in several other similar cases that are pending around the country.
Russia detains two soldiers suspected of killing 9 civilians
Two Russian soldiers have been detained in connection with the killing of nine people, including two children, in Ukrainian territory controlled by Moscow, Russian authorities said. The killings, also reported by Ukrainian officials, happened last week in Volnovakha, a city in southeastern Ukraine that was seized by Russian forces last year. Russian federal investigators said in a statement late Monday that nine bodies with gunshot wounds had been found in a house. Russian authorities did not provide details, saying only that the killings involved a “conflict on domestic grounds.” Ukrainian officials said they believed Russian soldiers had murdered an entire Ukrainian family for refusing to hand over their house.
King Charles, visiting Kenya, faces calls to answer for colonial abuses
At 86, Joseph Macharia Mwangi recalled with bitterness the years that he had spent fighting the British colonial government in Kenya. Seven decades ago, he had camped with Mau Mau rebels on Mount Kenya and in the forests, braving frigid rain, lions and elephants. He was shot twice by British troops, he said, and almost died. Kenya’s bleak colonial past loomed large as King Charles III officially began a four-day tour of the East African nation Tuesday. Many Kenyan communities are still grappling with the pain and loss they or their families endured over decades of British colonial rule, which lasted from 1895 to 1963.
In cyberattacks, Iran shows signs of improved hacking capabilities
Iranian hackers are waging a sophisticated espionage campaign targeting the country’s rivals across the Middle East and attacking key defense and intelligence agencies, according to a leading Israeli-American cybersecurity company, a sign of how Iran’s quickly improving cyberattacks have become a new, important prong in a shadow war. Over the past year, hackers struck at countries including Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan in a monthslong campaign linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, according to a new report by the company, Check Point. “The primary purpose of this operation is espionage,” security experts at Check Point wrote in the report.
By wire sources
