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Six people including a senior Siemens executive and his family were killed when a sightseeing helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York.The crash on Thursday killed all those onboard the aircraft: the pilot and the family of Agustin Escobar, the CEO of a unit under global tech firm Siemens.Two of the victims were initially taken to a hospital but died later.”We are deeply saddened by the tragic helicopter crash in which Agustin Escobar and his family lost their lives,” Siemens told AFP on Friday.US media reports, including from NBC News, identified one of the other victims as Escobar’s wife Merce Camprubi.Siemens Energy, a former subsidiary of Siemens, confirmed to AFP that a “colleague” at the company was killed in the crash alongside Escobar and the pilot, without specifying that it was Escobar’s wife.The bodies of all six victims — including three children — have been recovered from the water, Mayor Eric Adams told a briefing earlier after calling it a “heartbreaking and tragic crash.”The helicopter’s landing skids were seen protruding from the river beside a tunnel vent as several boats clustered around the crash site.Police from both New York and New Jersey, which is on the opposite side of the river from Manhattan, responded to the scene along with fire department vessels.The NBC4 channel reported that its own helicopter was unable to take off because of weather conditions in New York on Thursday that were gusty with thick cloud cover.A witness told AFP it appeared as if the helicopter’s rotor blade “shattered in the sky.” “And after it shattered, then we saw the helicopter just spiral… And then it just crashed into the water just like that,” said fashion designer Belle Angel.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement the aircraft was a Bell 206 helicopter. “The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate,” it said.President Donald Trump described the crash as “terrible.””The footage of the accident is horrendous. God bless the families and friends of the victims,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.- ‘Heartbreaking’ -The river is a busy shipping channel and was the scene of a dramatic 2009 incident when a US Airways jet landed safely in the water. All 155 people on board escaped alive in an event dubbed the “Miracle on the Hudson.”The river is as deep as 200 feet (60 meters) at points and an AFP correspondent saw what appeared to be floatation devices deployed on the helicopter’s skids.The average temperature of the river is 46 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) at this time of year, according to the US Geological Survey.”Three adults and three children were on board a Bell 206 helicopter that had left from the downtown Skyport at just about 3 pm,” Adams said, adding that the tourists were a family from Spain.Police and fire service (FDNY) divers raced to pull survivors from the wreckage, he said.”NYPD divers pulled four people from the crash site, and FDNY Divers recovered an additional two. Immediate lifesaving measures were undertaken on the vessels at the scene, as well as the adjoining pier,” police commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “Four victims were pronounced dead on scene, and two more were removed to local area hospitals, where, sadly, both succumbed to their injuries.”The helicopter flew south after taking off before heading up the Manhattan shoreline to the George Washington Bridge, turning back towards the downtown Manhattan heliport, losing control and hitting the water near a Hoboken pier, Tisch said.The police commissioner said the aircraft was operated by New York Helicopter, which did not respond to a request for comment but lists the Bell 206 among its fleet.There have been around 30 helicopter crashes in New York since 1980, Brooklyn Borough President Mark Levine told reporters, calling for tighter restrictions on helicopter traffic in the city.

Music fans were descending on California’s Coachella Valley for the premier arts festival that begins Friday and features headliners Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone.The opening day promises to be a scorcher, quite literally; a dome of high pressure is triggering a mini heat wave in southern California, with meteorologists predicting the temperature could crack 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius).Organizers are urging the tens of thousands expected to arrive at the poorly shaded festival grounds to stay hydrated and use sunscreen as they gather to see other day-one lineup highlights including rapper Missy Elliott, Australian electropop band Parcels, and a rare stateside appearance from British punk ravers The Prodigy.The sprawling desert weekend marks the unofficial start of music festival season, which Lady Gaga is priming to kick off with a bang. Fresh off the release of her latest album “Mayhem,” the pop superstar has vowed “a massive night of chaos.””Can’t wait to hear you all singalong and dance dance DANCE till we drop,” she posted when the lineup was announced.South African star Tyla is also slated to perform Friday, one year after an injury forced her to pull out of the 2024 festival.”Had many opportunities to go but swore to myself that the first time I go to Coachella, imma be performing… and look now!” she wrote on X when the lineups were announced last year.And Blackpink’s Lisa — fresh off a role in HBO’s hit show “White Lotus” — will perform on her own Friday night, having twice taken the Coachella stage with her bandmates.Later in the weekend Charli XCX is expected to turn the grounds her signature “brat” green, after a blockbuster year that saw her latest album propel her to new echelons of fame.Travis Scott will play a special guest slot following Green Day’s Saturday set, years after the hip-hop performer was slated to headline the 2020 festival, which was ultimately scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic.- Rock revival -Fresh off a Grammy win, Venezuelan band Rawayana is also primed to play a top slot on Saturday.And celebrity conductor Gustavo Dudamel notably will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a sunset concert. There have been orchestral performances at Coachella before — film composers Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer were showcased over the past decade — but Saturday’s performance will be the first time a major professional orchestra has played there.Hip-hop superstar Megan Thee Stallion will helm the main stage Sunday ahead of Post Malone’s headlining performance, with Ty Dolla $ign also set to perform.Also on Sunday French duo Polo & Pan will bring their tropicalia-infused electro set back to the Coachella Valley.German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk are another draw, as are two of the 2025 Best New Artist Grammy nominees, Shaboozey and Benson Boone.And while Coachella has leaned decidedly pop over the past decade, the 2025 edition will get back to the festival’s rock roots. Along with Green Day, rock acts including The Go-Gos, the original Misfits, Jimmy Eat World, and cult punk legends the Circle Jerks are slated to play.”In this world gone sideways we know one thing for certain — rock ‘n’ roll is forever, and its spirit is needed now more than ever,” said Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong earlier this year in Billboard.Coachella 2025 will take place on April 11-13 and 18-20.

The case of Erik and Lyle Menendez will go before a Los Angeles court Friday in the latest chapter of their bid to get out of jail, decades after slaughtering their own parents.The brothers — who are among America’s most infamous murderers — are hoping the court will agree to resentence them for the 1989 shotgun slayings that left their luxury Beverly Hills mansion soaked in blood.During blockbuster trials in the 1990s, prosecutors said the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez to get their hands on a $14 million fortune, initially blaming their deaths on a Mafia hit.Supporters say the men acted in self-defense, terrified of their parents’ rage after years of sexual and emotional abuse by a tyrannical father and a complicit mother.But despite a lengthy campaign and a seemingly sympathetic public — nourished by a hit Netflix series — Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, face an uphill battle.Last month, the new chief prosecutor of Los Angeles County said his office wanted to withdraw its earlier support for a resentencing hearing that supporters hoped would see the brothers walk free.District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the pair should remain behind bars because they had never accepted their guilt and continued to rely on untruths.”In looking at whether or not the Menendezes have exhibited the full insight and complete responsibility for their crimes, they have not,” Hochman told reporters.”They have told 20 different lies, they’ve actually admitted to four of them, but 16 realized lies remain unacknowledged.”Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic is expected to hear arguments Friday from Hochman’s office asking to withdraw a motion filed by his predecessor George Gascon, who believed the brothers were reformed.That motion asked for the court to resentence them, changing their current life-without-parole to a minimum term with parole that would allow them to go free, given the length of time they have been in prison.The resentencing effort is one of three separate routes being pursued by attorneys for the brothers, who are also seeking a retrial and are appealing to California Governor Gavin Newsom for clemency.Hochman also opposes a new trial.The brothers’ original trials were huge events, and the case saw a surge of renewed interest last year with the release of the Netflix hit “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”Newsom is bound by no specific timeline and could release the men at any point, or refuse their appeal for clemency.He has said he has not watched dramatizations of the Menendez case or documentaries on it “because I don’t want to be influenced by them.””I just want to be influenced by the facts.”

The US Senate approved Donald Trump’s nominee to be the nation’s top military officer on Friday after the president abruptly fired the previous chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff this year.Lawmakers signed off on Dan Caine’s nomination and promotion to four-star general in an early morning vote of 60 to 25 ahead of a two-week recess.Trump’s administration has dismissed a series of senior officers as part of a rare and major shakeup of top US military leadership that began shortly after he returned to office in January.Democrats have sharply criticized the firings — including of the previous Joint Chiefs chairman, general Charles “CQ” Brown — accusing Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of seeking to ensure the military is led by people loyal to the president.Caine sought to allay such concerns about his nomination during his confirmation hearing last week, pledging that he would “continue the traditions and standards of my oath of office and my commission as a nonpartisan leader who will always strive to do the right thing.”He said that guarding against politicization of the military “starts with being a good example from the top and making sure that we are nonpartisan and apolitical and speaking the truth to power every day.””The nation and the Constitution all require a nonpartisan military,” said Caine, who as a retired lieutenant general was a highly unusual candidate for the top military post.Nominees for chairman of the Joint Chiefs must have served as the head of a military branch, as leader of a combatant command or as vice chairman — none of which Caine has done — but the president can waive that requirement.- Top officers fired -Caine has served in positions including associate director for military affairs at the CIA as well as in various operational and staff roles, and flew more than 150 hours in combat as an F-16 pilot — an aircraft in which he has logged more than 2,800 hours in total.Trump has described him as “an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience.”The president apparently became enamored of Caine after meeting him in Iraq during his first term, where Trump said the general told him that his nickname was “Razin.””I said, wait a minute, your name is Razin Caine? I love you, I’ve been looking for you for five years… this is what I want,” Trump told an investor forum in February.But Trump has soured on the country’s top military officer before. General Mark Milley began serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the president’s first term but later clashed with him and was stripped of his security detail and security clearance in retirement this year.The president fired Brown in February, less than two years into his four-year term as chairman, which began under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden — a move that cleared the way for Caine’s nomination.Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicization of the traditionally apolitical US military.

US troops will be able to deploy to a string of bases along the Panama Canal under a joint deal seen by AFP Thursday, a major concession to President Donald Trump as he seeks to reestablish influence over the vital waterway.The agreement, signed by top security officials from both countries, allows US military personnel to deploy to Panama-controlled facilities for training, exercises and “other activities.”The deal stops short of allowing the United States to build its own permanent bases on the isthmus, a move that would be deeply unpopular with Panamanians and legally fraught.But it gives the United States broad sway to deploy an unspecified number of personnel to bases, some of which Washington built when it occupied the canal zone decades ago.Trump, since returning to power in January, has repeatedly claimed that China has too much influence over the canal, which handles about 40 percent of US container traffic and five percent of world trade. His administration has vowed to “take back” control of the strategic waterway that the United States funded, built and controlled until 1999.The United States has long participated in military exercises in Panama.However, a longer-term rotational force — such as the one the United States maintains in Darwin, Australia — could prove politically toxic for Panama’s center-right leader Jose Raul Mulino.- ‘Country on fire’ -Mulino was on Thursday in Peru, where he revealed that the United States had asked to have its own bases.Mulino said he had told visiting Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth that US bases, allowed under an earlier draft, would be “unacceptable.”He warned Hegseth: “Do you want to create a mess, what we’ve put in place here would set the country on fire.”In the watered-down “Memorandum of Understanding”, signed by Hegseth and Panama’s security chief Frank Abrego Wednesday, Panama won its own concessions.The United States recognized Panama’s sovereignty — not a given following Trump’s refusal to rule out an invasion — and Panama will retain control over any installations.Panama will also have to agree to any deployments.But given Trump’s willingness to rip up or rewrite trade deals, treaties and agreements, that might offer little comfort to worried Panamanians.”What we have here is a setback to national sovereignty,” Panamanian trade union leader Saul Mendez told AFP.”What the Panamanian government has done is an act of treason. They are traitors and must be tried.”- Difficult history -The country has a long and difficult relationship with the United States. They have close cultural and economic ties, despite the decades-long US occupation of the canal zone and US invasion 35 years ago to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega.That invasion killed more than 500 Panamanians and razed parts of the capital. Trump’s vow to take back the canal, and his claim of Chinese influence have prompted mass demonstrations.By law, Panama operates the canal, giving access to all nations.But the US president has zeroed in on the role of a Hong Kong company that has operated ports at either end of the canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for decades.Under pressure from the White House, Panama has accused the Panama Ports Company of failing to meet its contractual obligations and pushed for the firm to pull out of the country.The ports’ parent company CK Hutchison announced last month a deal to offload 43 ports in 23 countries — including its two on the Panama Canal — to a consortium led by US asset manager BlackRock for $19 billion in cash.A furious Beijing has since announced an antitrust review of the deal.

The Trump administration suffered a setback in a closely watched immigration case Thursday, as the US Supreme Court ordered it to “facilitate” the return of a wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant.Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was living in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to a prison in El Salvador last month as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.Most of the deportees were suspected members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a foreign terrorist organization.Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia — who is married to a US citizen — was deported due to an “administrative error.”The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the government to “‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the conservative-majority court said in its unsigned ruling.- Protected status -Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country. Following his deportation and internment in the notorious CECOT counter-terrorist prison, lower courts had ordered that the US government return him to the United States by midnight on Monday.The Supreme Court put that order on hold hours before the deadline, after the administration requested an emergency ruling.In its challenge, the government argued that Abrego Garcia is a member of Salvadoran gang MS-13 — a claim the lower courts found lacked evidence.The US government also argued that it no longer had jurisdiction to have Abrego Garcia released now that he is on Salvadoran soil, calling the lower courts’ orders “unprecedented and indefensible” and a “demand that the United States let a member of a foreign terrorist organization into America tonight.””We’re confident that people that are (in CECOT) should be there, and they should stay there for the rest of their lives,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday, according to news site Axios.Noem had visited the prison in person on March 26.The White House has trumpeted a $6-million deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in return for his holding alleged gang members in the ultra-high-security jail.- ‘Deport any person’ -“The (Monday) deadline in the challenged order is no longer effective,” the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.However, “the rest of the District Court’s order remains in effect” requiring Abrego Garcia’s return, the judges added — although the lower court must clarify its order “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”A statement signed by liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson argued there was “no basis in law” for Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador.”The government’s argument… implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including US citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court could intervene,” they added.Human Rights Watch on Friday called on the US government to disclose information about all the people it has moved to CECOT and allow them contact with the outside world.”The cruelty of the US and Salvadoran governments has put these people outside the protection of the law and caused immense pain to their families,” the rights group said in a statement.

Six people including three children were killed after a sightseeing helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York on Thursday, sparking a major water rescue operation, authorities said.The crash killed all those onboard the aircraft: the pilot and a family from Spain. Two of the victims were initially taken to a hospital, but later succumbed to their injuries.”At this time, all six victims have been removed from the water. And sadly, all six victims have been pronounced deceased,” Mayor Eric Adams told a briefing, after earlier calling it a “heartbreaking and tragic crash.”Officials have yet to release the identities of the victims, but widespread US media reports identified one of the people aboard the helicopter as Agustin Escobar, a Spanish executive at global technology company Siemens.The chopper’s landing skids were seen protruding from the river beside a tunnel vent as several boats clustered around the impact site. Police from both New York and New Jersey, which is on the opposite side of the river from Manhattan, responded to the scene along with fire department vessels.The NBC4 channel reported that its own helicopter was unable to take off because of weather conditions, with the weather in New York on Thursday gusty under thick cloud cover.A witness told AFP it appeared like the helicopter’s rotor blade “shattered in the sky.” “And after it shattered, then we saw the helicopter just spiral… And then it just crashed into the water just like that,” said fashion designer Belle Angel.The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement it was Bell 206 helicopter. “The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate,” it added.President Donald Trump took to social media to call the crash “terrible.””The footage of the accident is horrendous. God bless the families and friends of the victims,” he wrote on Truth Social.- ‘Heartbreaking’ -The river is a busy shipping channel and the scene of a dramatic 2009 incident when a US Airways jet safely landed in the water. All 155 people on board escaped alive in an event dubbed “Miracle on the Hudson.”The river is as deep as 200 feet (60 meters) at points, and an AFP correspondent saw what appeared to be floatation devices deployed on the helicopter’s skids.The average temperature of the river is 46 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) at this time of year, according to the US Geological Survey.”Three adults and three children were on board a Bell 206 helicopter that had left from the downtown Skyport at just about 3 pm,” Adams said, adding that the tourists were a family from Spain.Police and fire service (FDNY) divers raced to pull survivors from the wreckage, he said.”NYPD divers pulled four people from the crash site, and FDNY Divers recovered an additional two. Immediate lifesaving measures were undertaken on the vessels at the scene, as well as the adjoining pier,” police commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “Four victims were pronounced dead on scene, and two more were removed to local area hospitals, where, sadly, both succumbed to their injuries.”The chopper took off around 3 pm, flying south before heading up the Manhattan shoreline to the George Washington Bridge, turning back towards the downtown Manhattan heliport, losing control and hitting the water near a Hoboken pier, Tisch said.The police commissioner said the aircraft was operated by New York Helicopter, which did not respond to a request for comment but lists the Bell 206 among its fleet.There have been around 30 helicopter crashes in New York since 1980, Brooklyn Borough President Mark Levine told reporters, calling for tighter restrictions on helicopter traffic in the city.

Fighter jets from the United States, France, Finland and Germany roar into the skies from a Dutch base as part of NATO’s biggest air exercise this year. The aim: to practice stopping — and then defeating — an enemy attack against the alliance as Russia’s war in Ukraine fuels fears in Europe.But while NATO focuses on the menace from the east, another potential threat is looming from within the alliance. Since returning to office, US President Donald Trump has sowed doubt over Washington’s commitment to underpinning European security and his administration has warned it could move forces away from the continent to deal with challenges elsewhere like China.For now, NATO commanders insist nothing has changed — showcased by the latest drills.”We recently elected a new president, and we’re still trying to figure out the exact policies that they’re going to be coming out with,” General James Hecker, the top US and NATO air commander in Europe, told reporters during the exercises.”I think you’re going to see us hand in hand with the Europeans for quite some time.”But if Trump does decide to withdraw US forces, there are fears that could leave European militaries struggling to plug gaps in key areas as they race to face off against an emboldened Moscow.While attention often centres on the roughly 100,000 US troops currently stationed on the continent, above them in the skies, commanders and experts point to multiple areas where Europe could struggle without Washington.Those include air defences, spy planes and satellites, electronic systems that can jam radar, tankers to refuel jets mid-flight and hulking aircraft used to transport troops.”Hypothetically, if the environment over Taiwan deteriorates, the US is going to look to move key assets” from Europe, said Douglas Barrie from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.- ‘Best equipment’ -European nations have hiked defence spending since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and are set to go even further, under pressure from Trump. But while purchases of the latest US F-35 fighter jets have risen in recent years — acquiring systems in which Europe lags will be costly and time-consuming.”It would take three to five years for some systems, five to 10 years for others, depending on where you wanted to spend your money,” Barrie said. Not to mention assets such as satellite systems and strategic nuclear bombers that would take decades to replace — if they can ever really be substituted.Doubts over Trump’s reliability have also fuelled questions about whether Europe should keep buying equipment from the United States.Worries he could hobble F-35s by refusing software updates or spare parts have led several countries to reconsider purchases — and prompted renewed calls from the likes of France to cut reliance on Washington.”This is a real opportunity for Europe to question its own model and possibly its own dependencies,” said French air force general Laurent Rataud.But while equivalents for much of the equipment do exist in Europe, production times are often long and the continent doesn’t yet produce a fifth-generation stealth jet like the F-35.”It’s of the utmost importance that my women and men have the best equipment,” said Dutch air force chief Andre Steur.”For me it’s less relevant where that kit is built.”- ‘No match’ -Despite gaps in their inventories, NATO’s European members insist they’d be able to handle a fight for the skies against Russia — even without the United States. “We actually have some pretty strong air forces,” Lieutenant Colonel Martin Friis, a Danish officer at NATO’s air command, told AFP.”Some of them maybe have gotten smaller, but the technology, the weapons and the training is, compared to what we see from at least one potential opponent — they’re no match.” During the Cold War, the NATO alliance believed it would have air dominance over the Soviet Union thanks to its technological superiority.As the threat receded after the fall of Communism, air forces often downsized and readapted to new missions in places like Afghanistan, where their opponents lacked firepower.  NATO has closely watched how Moscow failed to gain air superiority in Ukraine against Kyiv’s much smaller force, and learnt its lessons. Commodore Marcel van Egmond, head of the Dutch air combat command, said he is confident that European countries would have the upper hand over Russia — at least in the early days of any conflict. “But we need help for the longer fight, maybe from the US,” he told AFP. “The long-term sustainment, in terms of capacity that we have, might be a challenge.”

They whimper, drink from baby bottles and crawl oh so tentatively — they look like cute white puppies, not the fruit of a daring project to resuscitate an extinct species.A Texas startup called Colossal Biosciences made a big splash this week by releasing footage of canines they say are dire wolves, a species that vanished more than 12,000 years ago.”For the first time in human history, Colossal successfully restored a once-eradicated species through the science of de-extinction,” the company states on its website.Photos and video of these critters have flooded social media and shaken the scientific community, which has reacted with a mix of enthusiasm and skepticism over this experiment reminiscent of “Jurassic Park” — the fictional story of a quirky rich man’s attempt to bring back the dinosaurs.The company says it did it by tweaking the DNA of a modern-day gray wolf with carefully chosen genes from dire wolf fossils. This modified genetic material was then inserted in a grey wolf egg and implanted in a common dog as a surrogate mom.The result: three baby dire wolves, Colossal Biosciences claims.”I think the claims are vastly overblown,” Alan Cooper, an evolutionary molecular biologist who took part in a previous study of dire wolf DNA, told AFP.”It would be like me putting a couple of genes into you from Neanderthals that made you extra hairy and grow more muscles, and then called you a Neanderthal,” said Cooper. “That’s a million miles from Neanderthal. It’s a hairy human.””This is not the dire wolf. This is something they have created that has phenotypic characteristics of dire wolf,” said Lisette Waits, an ecologist and professor of wildlife resources at the University of Idaho.Waits, who has worked extensively on grey wolf genetics and red wolf conservation issues, nonetheless called this achievement a breakthrough.The pups are named Romulus and Remus, in a nod to the twin brothers of Roman mythology, and Khaleesi, of “Game of Thrones” fame.- Debate – The Colossal Biosciences team studied DNA from two dire wolf fossils  — a tooth from 13,000 years ago and a skull fragment dated back 72,000 years — and compared them to the DNA of the gray wolf, a species that is alive and well. The team concluded these two kinds of DNA are around 99.5 percent identical, Beth Shapiro, the company’s chief science officer, told AFP.An analysis of the differences between the two kinds of DNA determined which genes could be responsible for the dire wolf’s size, muscle structure and its white fur.With this information the team modified blood cells from a grey wolf by inserting some of those dire wolf genes. A total of 20 changes were made using the genetic manipulation technique known as Crispr-Cas 9, which is also used in human genetics.The blood cells were then transferred to a gray wolf egg cell that was implanted in a dog. The results: Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi.Whether these animals are actual dire wolves or simply genetically modified gray wolves, Shapiro insisted, “is a semantic, philosophical argument.”She added that it will never be possible to create an animal that is 100 percent genetically identical to a species that is extinct.”But neither is that the goal. Our goal is to create functional equivalents of those species,” the scientist said.- Dodos and wooly mammoths -The company plans to apply this technique to dodo birds and woolly mammoths. Just last month it released photos of mice injected with genetic material from one of those extinct pachyderms, yielding controversy and some very furry rodents.Some scientists say the goal of recreating extinct species is unattainable and even dangerous. But others welcome it as an ambitious way to fight the planet’s steady loss of biodiversity.Waits, the conservation specialist, said that aside from the hoopla over this experiment this technique could help endangered species recover.Colossal Biosciences has managed to lure more than $200 million in investment money, which would be a very tall task for other conservation causes, she added.Ronald Sandler, a professor of philosophy and ethics at Northeastern University, said he worries this technique might lead to “moral distraction” away from the causes of animals going extinct, like climate change and habitat loss.

A new Oscar for stunts will be handed out when Hollywood’s glitziest party celebrates its 100th birthday, awards officials said Thursday.The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said films released in 2027 will be eligible for an Oscar for Achievement in Stunt Design.”Since the early days of cinema, stunt design has been an integral part of filmmaking,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang said in a statement. “We are proud to honor the innovative work of these technical and creative artists, and we congratulate them for their commitment and dedication in reaching this momentous occasion.”Rules on eligibility and who will vote for the winner will be unveiled in two years’ time.The announcement marks the culmination of a growing campaign for a “best stunts” category at the Oscars, with supporters arguing that the input of the unsung performers who risk life and limb equals that of the sound mixers, makeup artists and visual effects gurus who are already honored.Stunt work is already honored at some prestigious movie and TV ceremonies, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards where “Fall Guy” took home the 2024 prize.The Academy has been expanding the Oscars to create more categories that reflect how complex flimmaking has become.Last year, a new Oscar was established for casting, which will be awarded for the first time next year.