Amid the rise in disinformation today, journalists should look into legal measures adopted by countries around the world to combat it.

Brazil’s Agência Lupa is helping reporters do just that, this month launching an interactive map showing national and supranational laws globally intended to legislate disinformation online. The tool, called LupaMundi, provides details about the legislation while helping users better understand the nature of the laws and how they could be used against journalists.

“We need to learn from the work people are doing across the world,” said Natália Leal, executive director of Agência Lupa, during a recent ICFJ Global Crisis Reporting Forum session on tracking disinformation laws globally. “Lupa is focused on Brazil, but if you don’t look to other experiences [around the globe], it is impossible to have new answers for the same questions.”

You can read more in an article by Inaara Gangji published in the ijnet.org web site at: https://ijnet.org/en/story/new-tool-tracks-disinformation-laws-globally. 

The book "The Peoples of Utah" was published nearly 50 years ago by the Utah Historical Society. It explores stories of the lives of people from various cultures who came and settled in our state.

Now, there's a new project underway to build on the research conducted back then and inspire the next generation. It's called "The Peoples of Utah Revisited."

Each of the 14 chapters are devoted to specific ethnic communities that migrated to Utah.

The book covered a vast range of stories including those from the African American, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Italian and Serbian communities.

You can read more in an article by Jamie McGriff published in the KUTV web site at: https://tinyurl.com/56ekv8r4.

With a few clicks, people can now access Lexington history from the 1780s to the 1870s. University of Kentucky students have digitized nearly 80-thousand deeds and other records and posted it on the Fayette County Clerk’s website. Vanessa Holden is the director of UK’s African American and Africana studies. She said the Digital Access Project may be especially valuable interesting to folks interested in black history.

“Many black people didn't own property, because they were property. And so anytime an enslaved person changed hands, there is a record of them.”

Holden says the data also sheds considerable light on what she called Fayette County’s very vibrant free Black community. Several other groups helped fund the project, which is ongoing. Holden said the records contain a wealth of information.

“A place like Fayette County, one of the original three counties of the commonwealth, has an incredibly well kept set of records back to when it was still Virginia.”

Holden said the records include information about people who lived in more than three dozen other counties, because Fayette County wasn’t reduced to its present size until 1799.

Here is a list of all of this week's articles, all of them available here at https://eogn.com:        

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Cumberland Baptisms 

The 65,252 new records are perfect building blocks for your family tree. Spanning over four centuries, they may help you find an ancestor’s name, baptism date and place, and a father’s name. Some also include a mother’s name, addresses and occupations. 

Cumberland Marriages 

For marriages, there are 68,211 new records to explore, covering 1547 to 1975. They will typically include both spouses’ names, ages and addresses, plus the place and date of the marriage, and the names of their fathers.  

Cumberland Burials 

Finally, there are 62,746 new burials to delve into, covering 1566 to 1992. You may find an ancestor’s name, burial date and place, and often their residence.   

Newspapers 

Did your ancestors make the news? One new title, updates to a further six, and 152,092 new pages make up this week’s newspaper release.   

New titles: 

·         Carrick Times and East Antrim Times, 1987, 1989, 1991-1999 

Updated titles: 

·         Edinburgh Evening News, 1946, 1982, 1992 

·         Larne Times, 1985-1986, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1998-1999 

·         Lurgan Mail, 1990-1991 

·         Mid-Ulster Mail, 1991-1993, 1995, 1999 

·         South Wales Daily Post, 1999 

·         Ulster Star, 1984-1987, 1989-1999 

This article might be subtitled “How to Have Fun with Your GPS Receiver and Simultaneously Provide a Public Service for Others.”

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Please do not forward this article to others without the author’s permission.

A new hobby has appeared that is a "natural fit" for genealogists, historians, and many others. It is called "waymarking." It is fun, gives you a chance to get a little exercise, and also provides a great public service. If you join in the waymarking activities of today, you can help future genealogists and others for decades to come. 

Wikipedia lists the term with a description of “Trail blazing or way marking is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with signs or markings that follow each other at certain, though not necessarily exactly defined, distances and mark the direction of the trail.” 

Waymarking is a game/project/obsession which uses GPS coordinates to mark locations of interest and share them with others. You can even post online digital pictures of the location for others to see. 

A waymark is a physical location on the planet marked by coordinates (latitude/longitude) and contains unique information defined within its waymark category. Pictures may optionally be recorded as well. Through the use of your waymarking efforts, you can share and discover unique and interesting locations on the planet. 

Waymarking provides tools for you to catalog, mark and visit interesting and useful locations around the world.

Waymarking is great for genealogy applications. For instance, you can waymark the locations of ancestors' graves, homesteads, places of birth, a battlefield where an ancestor fought, the place where great-great-granddad shot the bear, schools attended, and much more. Later on, other descendants can travel to the same locations easily, thanks to your pioneering work. If you also provide pictures, still more people can visit the location “virtually,” even if they are not able to travel there physically. 

Of course, this effort is not limited to genealogy work alone. Waymarking has many, many other applications. I particularly like it for recording the locations of historical events: locations of the first railroad station in a town, the first cabin of early settlers, the old mill that has since disappeared, buildings that are listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, historical markers along highways, and many more famous and not-so-famous events in history.

The remainder of this article is reserved for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: https://eogn.com/(*)-Plus-Edition-News-Articles/13280985.

This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I suspect lots of computer users will be interested in this topic.

There’s no shortage of ways to share files with other people, whether you want to send them in a group chat, attach them to an email, or ping them over via AirDrop or Nearby Share. These all work perfectly well, but they’re all best for smaller files.

If you’ve got a larger file to send to someone — like a high-res video or an archive of many different files, for example — you can start to run into problems. Email clients might reject your file for being too big, or you might be waiting a while for the file to transfer over a protocol like Bluetooth.

In addition, if you’re looking to limit the amount of time a file is available for download, or if you want to limit who has access and the kind of access they have, a more feature-filled app is probably better.

You have a couple of good options, however. All the popular cloud storage services — such as Apple iCloud, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive — come with flexible file sharing options built into them. However, if you don’t use one or would prefer not to use yours to share data, you’ll also find a number of dedicated apps that just do file sharing and nothing else.

Below, I look at the file sharing options offered by Apple, Google, and Microsoft, along with a couple of third-party apps. There are loads of the latter out there; I’ve just listed one of the most popular and one that I’ve used several times.

The rest of the article may be found at: https://www.theverge.com/23958722/files-transfer-share-large-how-to.

Comment by Dick Eastman:

I am surprised that the author of the above article did not mention the method I always use to send large files: Dropbox Transfer. I have used Dropbox Transfer for years. It allows you to share files directly from your cloud storage with anyone, or separately send up to 100 gigabytes (upgradable to 250 gigabytes) with Dropbox Transfer.

There is an interesting article in the New York Times. I am a bit surprised to see it. The Times publishes most of its articles behind a paywall, making most articles available only to subscribers. I am not a subscriber but I had no difficulty in reading this:

On Saturday, after a 12-year effort, the Department of Veterans Affairs reached a long-term goal — it enrolled the millionth veteran in a genetic database, the Million Veteran Program.

According to the V.A., the Million Veteran Program is the largest such database in the world. It includes not only genetic information but also is linked to the department’s electronic medical records and even contains records of diet and environmental exposure.

The department says its data are available for now only to V.A. doctors and scientists, most of whom also have academic appointments. They have published hundreds of studies using what has already been collected.

A Moment That Sums It Up: 3:46 p.m.

The millionth vet joined the database on the afternoon of Nov. 8. Employees who had waited a dozen years for this moment wept.

As the goal approached, the department had started an intensive email campaign, encouraging vets to sign up online or at V.A. medical centers. In the few weeks building up to the millionth vet, what had been a few hundred enrollees a day turned into thousands. The department created a ticker, which it posted online, showing the numbers.

“This is a gift to the world,” said Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the under secretary for health in the Department sVeterans Affairs.

The V.A. will continue to enroll more vets to the database, but this was a symbolic moment.

The rest of the article may be found at: https://tinyurl.com/45rtfkn.

File this under "things that are changing in my lifetime." As a genealogist who studies your own ancestors and their lives, you might want to preserve items of possible interest to your descendants. Perhaps you should save some newspapers so that you descendants can see them. They probably will have heard of newspapers but maybe have never seen one. 

From Axios:

The decline of local newspapers accelerated so rapidly in 2023 that analysts now believe the U.S. will have lost one-third of the newspapers it had as of 2005 by the end of next year -- rather than in 2025, as originally predicted. There are roughly 6,000 newspapers left in America, down from 8,891 in 2005, according to a new report from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. "We're almost at a one-third loss now and we'll certainly hit that pace next year," said the report's co-authors -- Penelope Muse Abernathy, a visiting professor at Medill, and Sarah Stonbely, director of Medill's State of Local News Project. Of the papers that still survive, a majority (4,790) publish weekly, not daily.

Over the past two years, newspapers continued to vanish at an average rate of more than two per week, leaving 204 U.S. counties, or 6.4%, without any local news outlet. Roughly half of all U.S. counties (1,562) are now only served with one remaining local news source -- typically a weekly newspaper. Abernathy and Stonbely estimate that 228 of those 1,562 counties, or roughly 7% of all U.S. counties, are at high risk of losing their last remaining local news outlet.

There isn't enough investment in digital news replacements to stop the spread of news deserts in America. The footprint for alternative local news outlets is tiny and they are mostly clustered around metro areas that already have some local coverage. The report estimates that -- for outlets focused on state and local news -- there are roughly 550 digital-only news sites, 720 ethnic media organizations and 215 public broadcasting stations in America, compared to 6,000 newspapers.

The authors argue that the dynamic between those with access to quality local news and those who don't "poses a far-reaching crisis for our democracy as it simultaneously struggles with political polarization, a lack of civic engagement and the proliferation of misinformation and information online."

Comment by Dick Eastman:

The local weekly newspaper in my home town ceased publishing on paper several years ago after publishing for more than 100 years. However, it continues to publish on the web. Does this count as a "lost newspaper?" I don't think so. Instead, I think the “paper" simply changed its distribution method. I especially like that as I now live more than 1,000 miles away from that town and yet I can easily get all the news from "back home" on my computer.

The following is a press release issued by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated and CRISPR Therapeutics:

- First regulatory authorization of a CRISPR-based gene-editing therapy in the world –

- CASGEVY is indicated for the treatment of sickle cell disease in patients 12 years of age and older with recurrent vaso-occlusive crises who have the βS/βS, βS/β+ or βS/β0 genotype, for whom hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is appropriate and a human leukocyte antigen matched related hematopoietic stem cell donor is not available -

- CASGEVY is indicated for the treatment of transfusion‑dependent beta thalassemia in patients 12 years of age and older for whom hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is appropriate and a human leukocyte antigen matched related hematopoietic stem cell donor is not available -

BOSTON & ZUG, Switzerland----Nov. 16, 2023-- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq: VRTX) and CRISPR Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CRSP) announced today that the United Kingdom (U.K.) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted conditional marketing authorization for CASGEVY™ (exagamglogene autotemcel [exa-cel]), a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy, for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT).

CASGEVY has been authorized for the treatment of eligible patients 12 years of age and older with SCD with recurrent vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) or TDT, for whom a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matched related hematopoietic stem cell donor is not available. There are an estimated 2,000 patients eligible for CASGEVY in the U.K.

“Today is a historic day in science and medicine: this authorization of CASGEVY in Great Britain is the first regulatory authorization of a CRISPR-based therapy in the world,” said Reshma Kewalramani, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and President of Vertex.

“I hope this represents the first of many applications of this Nobel Prize winning technology to benefit eligible patients with serious diseases,” said Samarth Kulkarni, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CRISPR Therapeutics.”

In two global clinical trials of CASGEVY in SCD and TDT, the trials met their respective primary outcome of becoming free from severe VOCs or transfusion independent for at least 12 consecutive months. Once achieved, these benefits are potentially expected to be life-long. The safety profile of 97 SCD and TDT patients treated to date with CASGEVY in these ongoing studies is generally consistent with myeloablative conditioning with busulfan and hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

“This authorization offers a new option for eligible patients who are waiting for innovative therapies, and I look forward to patients having access to this therapy as quickly as possible,” said Professor Josu de la Fuente, Principal Investigator in the CLIMB-111 and CLIMB-121 studies, Professor of Practice (Cellular & Gene Therapy) at Imperial College London, and Consultant Haematologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

In the U.K., exa-cel was granted an Innovation Passport under the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP) from the MHRA, and Vertex is already working closely with national health authorities to secure access for eligible patients as quickly as possible.

About Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder that affects the red blood cells, which are essential for carrying oxygen to all organs and tissues of the body. SCD causes severe pain, organ damage and shortened life span due to misshapen or “sickled” blood cells. People with SCD can experience painful blood vessel blockages, also known as vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs), that can lead to acute chest syndrome, stroke, jaundice and symptoms of heart failure. Individuals may also experience anemia, which can result in end-organ damage and premature death. VOCs are the hallmark of SCD, often resulting in severe and debilitating pain. Current standard treatment options for SCD are largely symptomatic treatments and do not adequately address the burden of disease or alleviate the need for chronic care. Most often, treatment is focused on relieving pain, minimizing organ damage, maintaining hydration and addressing fevers, requiring medication and sometimes monthly blood transfusions and frequent hospital visits. The only cure for SCD today is a stem cell transplant from a matched donor, but this option is only available to a small fraction of people living with SCD. SCD requires lifelong treatment and significant use of health care resources, and ultimately results in reduced life expectancy and reduced lifetime earnings and productivity. In the U.K., the mean age of death for people living with SCD is around 40.

About Beta Thalassemia
Beta thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that affects the red blood cells, which are essential for carrying oxygen to all organs and tissues of the body. A lack of red blood cells, also known as anemia, is the primary manifestation of beta thalassemia. Because of this anemia, people living with beta thalassemia may experience fatigue and shortness of breath, and infants may develop failure to thrive, jaundice and feeding problems. Complications of beta thalassemia can also include an enlarged spleen, liver and/or heart; misshapen bones; and delayed puberty. Treatment for beta thalassemia is personalized and depends on the severity of disease that each person experiences. Many people have to get regular blood transfusions to deliver healthy donated blood to their body. This requires many hospital visits and can also lead to an unhealthy buildup of iron. Today, stem cell transplant from a matched donor is a curative option but is only available to a small fraction of people living with beta thalassemia. Beta thalassemia requires lifelong treatment and significant use of health care resources, and ultimately results in reduced life expectancy, decreased quality of life and reduced lifetime earnings and productivity. In the U.K., the mean age of death for people living with TDT is around 55.

About CASGEVY™ (exagamglogene autotemcel [exa-cel])
CASGEVY™ is a genetically modified autologous CD34+ cell enriched population that contains human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells edited ex vivo by CRISPR/Cas9 at the erythroid-specific enhancer region of the BCL11A gene.

The latest data from the ongoing pivotal trials was presented at the European Hematology Association Congress in June 2023.

Exa-cel is also under review by the European Medicines Agency, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA has granted Priority Review for SCD and Standard Review for TDT and assigned Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action dates of December 8, 2023, and March 30, 2024, respectively.

About Conditional Marketing Authorizations
Conditional marketing authorizations (CMAs) are for medicines that fulfill a significant unmet medical need such as being for serious and life-threatening diseases, where no satisfactory treatment methods are available or where the medicine offers a major therapeutic advantage. A CMA is granted where comprehensive clinical data is not yet complete, but it is judged that such data will become available soon. CMAs are valid for one year and renewable annually with ongoing regulatory review of data.

About the Vertex and CRISPR Collaboration
Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics entered into a strategic research collaboration in 2015 focused on the use of CRISPR/Cas9 to discover and develop potential new treatments aimed at the underlying genetic causes of human disease. Exa-cel represents the first treatment to emerge from the joint research program. Under an amended collaboration agreement, Vertex now leads global development, manufacturing and commercialization of exa-cel and splits program costs and profits worldwide 60/40 with CRISPR Therapeutics.

About Vertex
Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for people with serious diseases. The company has approved medicines that treat the underlying causes of multiple chronic, life-shortening genetic diseases — cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia — and continues to advance clinical and research programs in these diseases. Vertex also has a robust clinical pipeline of investigational therapies across a range of modalities in other serious diseases where it has deep insight into causal human biology, including APOL1-mediated kidney disease, acute and neuropathic pain, type 1 diabetes and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Vertex was founded in 1989 and has its global headquarters in Boston, with international headquarters in London. Additionally, the company has research and development sites and commercial offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Latin America. Vertex is consistently recognized as one of the industry's top places to work, including 14 consecutive years on Science magazine's Top Employers list and one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. For company updates and to learn more about Vertex's history of innovation, visit www.vrtx.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter/X.

About CRISPR Therapeutics
CRISPR Therapeutics is a leading gene editing company focused on developing transformative gene-based medicines for serious diseases using its proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 platform. CRISPR/Cas9 is a revolutionary gene editing technology that allows for precise, directed changes to genomic DNA. CRISPR Therapeutics has established a portfolio of therapeutic programs across a broad range of disease areas including hemoglobinopathies, oncology, regenerative medicine and rare diseases. To accelerate and expand its efforts, CRISPR Therapeutics has established strategic collaborations with leading companies including Bayer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and ViaCyte, Inc. CRISPR Therapeutics AGis headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, with its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, CRISPR Therapeutics, Inc., and R&D operations based in Boston, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California, and business offices in London, United Kingdom. For more information, please visit www.crisprtx.com.

CRISPR THERAPEUTICS® standard character mark and design logo are trademarks and registered trademarks of CRISPR Therapeutics AG. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

(VRTX-GEN)

Vertex Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including, without limitation, the statements by Reshma Kewalramani, M.D., Samarth Kulkarni, Ph.D., and Professor Josu de la Fuente in this press release, and statements regarding our expectations for and the anticipated benefits of CASGEVY, including the expectation for certain life-long benefits of CASGEVY for patients, the estimated eligible patient population in the U.K., Vertex’s efforts to secure access for eligible patients as quickly as possible, and Vertex’s plans and expectations for the ongoing clinical trials evaluating exa-cel. While Vertex believes the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are accurate, these forward-looking statements represent the company's beliefs only as of the date of this press release and there are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Those risks and uncertainties include, among other things, that data from the company's development programs may not support registration or further development of its compounds due to safety, efficacy, and other reasons, that obtaining authorization and commercializing exa-cel in Europe, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. may not occur on the anticipated timeline, or at all, that adequate pricing and reimbursement for CASGEVY may not be achieved on the anticipated timeline, or at all, that the MHRA’s conditional marketing authorization may not be renewed annually, or at all, and other risks listed under the heading “Risk Factors” in Vertex's most recent annual report and subsequent quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov and available through the company's website at www.vrtx.com. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Vertex disclaims any obligation to update the information contained in this press release as new information becomes available.

(CRSP-GEN)

CRISPR Therapeutics Forward-Looking Statement

This press release may contain a number of “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including statements by Reshma Kewalramani, M.D., Samarth Kulkarni, Ph.D., and Professor Josu de la Fuente in this press release, as well as statements regarding: (i) plans and expectations for the commercialization of, and anticipated benefits of, CASGEVY, including the longevity of such benefits for patients, the estimated eligible patient population in the U.K., and the speed by which access for eligible patients may be secured; (ii) expectations regarding the ongoing exa-cel clinical trials, including potential implications of clinical data for patients; (iii) timelines for and expectations regarding additional regulatory agency decisions; (iv) expectations for the benefits of CRISPR Therapeutics’ collaboration with Vertex; and (v) expectations regarding the therapeutic value, development, and commercial potential of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technologies and therapies. Without limiting the foregoing, the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. You are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Although CRISPR Therapeutics believes that such statements are based on reasonable assumptions within the bounds of its knowledge of its business and operations, existing and prospective investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, are neither promises nor guarantees and not to place undue reliance on such statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Actual performance and results may differ materially from those projected or suggested in the forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, that: the clinical data from ongoing clinical trials of exa-cel will not continue or be repeated in ongoing or planned clinical trials or may not support regulatory authorization or renewal of conditional authorization; adequate pricing or reimbursement may not be secured to support continued development or commercialization of exa-cel following regulatory authorization; future competitive or other market factors may adversely affect the commercial potential for CASGEVY; CRISPR Therapeutics may not realize the potential benefits of its collaboration with Vertex; there are uncertainties regarding the intellectual property protection for CRISPR Therapeutics’ technology and intellectual property belonging to third parties; and those risks and uncertainties described under the heading “Risk Factors” in CRISPR Therapeutics’ most recent annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly report on Form 10-Q, and in any other subsequent filings made by CRISPR Therapeutics with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. CRISPR Therapeutics disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, other than to the extent required by law.