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‘So much fun’: Harvard student crosses Charles River in giant pumpkin

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (WCVB) — A college student in Massachusetts says he achieved a longtime dream when he rowed across the Charles River in a giant pumpkin.Benjamin Chang, a senior at Harvard University, crossed the Charles in a pumpkin that weighed 1,500 pounds when he picked it up from a farm in New Hampshire. He paddled from the Cambridge side of the river to the Boston side and back, not far from the John W. Weeks Footbridge.Chang and his friends wheeled the pumpkin to the banks of the river along Memorial Drive Saturday morning and then spent nearly two hours carving out a place for him to sit inside of it with some basic tools, including a knife and a shovel.“There’s been so many roadblocks that have happened, and to actually be in the water in a giant pumpkin was so much fun,” Chang said.Chang and his friends also used the pumpkin watercraft to raise money for Harvard’s student-led bio-engineering lab. A couple of dozen people donated to the...

FDA plans to propose ban on hair-straightening chemical products linked to health risks

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

(CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration is planning to propose a ban on certain hair-straightening products, such as chemical relaxers and pressing products, that have been linked to health risks, according to an entry in the Unified Agenda, which lists actions that administrative agencies plan to issue.The agency plans a proposed rule that would specifically ban hair-straightening products that contain formaldehyde and other formaldehyde-releasing chemicals like methylene or glycol.If such a proposed rule is issued, the FDA will receive public comments on it, and after reviewing those comments, the agency will decide whether further action is needed, spokesperson Courtney Rhodes said Friday.“Based on the comments, we might decide to end the rulemaking process, to issue a new proposed rule, or to issue a final rule. If we decide to issue a final rule, we publish the final rule in the Federal Register,” the FDA says on its website.Scientists have long identified an association be...

Police officer finishes McDonald’s DoorDash delivery after driver pulled over

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

BRENTWOOD, New Hampshire (WMUR) — A New Hampshire police officer fulfilled one New Hampshire man’s DoorDash order after the delivery driver was pulled over.David Eldredge from Brentwood was waiting for his DoorDash order last week to arrive when he said a police officer holding a McDonald’s bag approached his front steps.“There’s a knock on the door and I thought, oh, that’s DoorDash and there’s a police officer there,” Eldredge said. “After he left, I thought maybe I should’ve given him a tip.”Brentwood police said they pulled over the DoorDash driver for allegedly speeding. Brentwood officer Chris Spitalere said he ran all the driver’s information and it was all suspended, the license and registration for the car.“We had to take her car and get it off the road and gave her a ride and she got picked up,” Spitalere said.Spitalere said Officer Robert McConn showed up on the scene to help him out and l...

Ukraine says it destroyed 9 Russian helicopters in airfield attacks

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

KYIV — Ukrainian special forces early on Tuesday struck two Russian military airfields, saying they successfully destroyed nine Russian military helicopters, an anti-aircraft missile system, and an ammunition warehouse.The attacks took place in occupied Berdyansk, a southern city in the Zaporizhzhia region; and at an airfield in Luhansk, an occupied city in eastern Ukraine.The special forces also managed to successfully damage airfield runways, Ukraine said, in what it called “Operation Dragonfly.” “The ammunition depot in Berdyansk detonated until 4 a.m. The detonation in Luhansk continued until 11 a.m. Losses in the enemy’s manpower amount to dozens of dead and wounded. Bodies are still being pulled from the rubble,” Ukrainian Special Operations Forces said in a statement.In an earlier statement, the Ukrainian army general staff reported only two helicopters and an ammunition depot were destroyed.The updated number of destroyed aircraft explains the consternation...

We don’t want to set up global AI regulator, says UK tech secretary

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

LONDON — Britain’s Tech Secretary Michelle Donelan has batted away suggestions that the U.K. government wants to set up a global regulator for artificial intelligence.Speaking on the POLITICO Tech podcast out Tuesday, Donelan said she envisaged the U.K.’s AI safety summit in early November would help set up international networks and frameworks to identify and manage risks from the emerging technology, but ruled out setting up a new international body.“This summit is not designed to produce a global piece of legislation that we’re all going to sign up to. It’s not designed to produce a global regulator on AI,” she said, in comments designed to quell speculation that Britain aims to pitch itself as the home of a new global AI regulator in the mold of bodies like the International Atomic Energy Agency.Instead, Rishi Sunak’s government will use the two-day summit taking place at Bletchley Park on November 1 and 2 to showcase its “Frontier AI Taskforce,” an advisory panel reportin...

WATCH: Video shows moment dock collapses in New Bedford with workers on it

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

Shocking new video shows the moment a dock collapsed in New Bedford with workers on it last week.Fire officials say a bulkhead gave way, causing large construction machinery and debris to fall into New Bedford Harbor. Four workers were hurt in the collapse.New Bedford’s fire chief said the roughly 8,000 square-foot pier had been under construction when it collapsed, though its unclear if that was a factor.

2 people charged as accessories to murder in Holyoke shooting that left infant dead

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

Two people are facing accessory after the fact, murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting of an infant in Holyoke earlier this month, the Hampden District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.Jose Galarza, 31, and Jay Marie Rosado-Rosario, 29, both of Holyoke, have been charged in connection with the ongoing search for a third suspect in the shooting, Kermith Alvarez, and allegedly assisted him after the shooting, according to the DA’s office.Rosado-Rosario was arraigned Monday in Holyoke District Court and ordered held on $5,000 cash bail. Galarza is expected to be arraigned Tuesday.Their arrests come as the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office, Holyoke Police Department, and Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section continue to search for Alvarez, 28, of Holyoke.Law enforcement is asking that If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Kermith Alvarez you are asked to ...

Nazis protest outside Healey’s home

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

Neo-nazis are not welcome in Massachusetts, the governor said after a group of them gathered in protest outside of her private residence.About a dozen masked members of the group NSC-131 stood across the street from the governor’s Arlington home on Saturday night, holding a protest that resulted in no arrests and no physical violence, but spreading a message of hate that Gov. Maura Healey said does not fly in the Bay State.“These Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are trying to scare people from exercising their rights and standing up to their hate. We won’t tolerate it in Massachusetts,” she said in a written statement. The governor did not mention the protest during a Monday press availability.Local CBS affiliate WBZ was the first to notice the gathering outside the governor’s home over the weekend, reporting a gathering of men chanting anti-immigrant slogans and holding a sign that read “New England is ours, the rest must go.”Healey’s staff confirmed the protestors were membe...

French prosecutor says alleged attacker in school stabbing declared allegiance to Islamic State

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

PARIS (AP) — France’s anti-terror prosecutor said Tuesday that a suspected Islamic extremist declared allegiance to the Islamic State group before fatally stabbing a teacher in a school attack last week. The prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, said an audio recording in the suspect’s phone. In it, the alleged attacker declared allegiance to the Islamic State and expressed “his hatred for France, for the French, for democracy and the education he benefitted from in our country.”The alleged attacker was a former pupil of the school in the northern town of Arras. A teacher was fatally stabbed in the neck and three other people injured in the assault that prompted France to raise its terror alert level and deploy extra security.The prosecutor spoke at a press conference and took no questions.Ricard said that shortly before the stabbing, the alleged attacker also recorded a 30-second video of himself in front of a war memorial.In that video, the attacker “repeatedly attacked, in his own wo...

India’s Supreme Court refuses to legalize same-sex marriage, saying it’s up to Parliament

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:24:25 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top court on Tuesday refused to legalize same-sex marriages, passing the responsibility back to Parliament in a ruling that disappointed campaigners for LGBTQ+ rights in the world’s most populous country. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also urged the government to uphold the rights of the queer community and end discrimination against them. Earlier this year, the five-judge bench heard 21 petitions that sought to legalize same-sex marriage. Chandrachud said there were degrees of agreement and disagreement among the justices “on how far we have to go” on same-sex marriages, but the judges unanimously agreed that the court can’t grant LGBTQ+ people the right to marry because that is a legislative function. “This court can’t make law. It can only interpret it and give effect to it,” the chief justice said, reiterating that it was up to Parliament to decide whether it could expand marriage laws to include queer unions.One of the petitioners, Mario da P...