The Florida legislature is set to ban lab-grown meat across the state, with Governor Ron DeSantis arguing that beef needs to be “rescued”. The ban will cover both the production and sale of lab-grown meat.
Lab-grown meat has been on the rise in recent years, a trend that began in Singapore in 2020. In the US, two lab-grown meat companies were approved for sale last year.
Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee are three US states that have considered banning lab-grown meat, something Florida has also taken up the fight against.
– Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals, DeSantis said, according to NBC News. We will save our beef.
On Wednesday, DeSantis signed a new bill that would ban both the sale and production of lab-grown meat.
“Discriminatory legislation”
Companies behind lab-grown meat, including Upside Foods, say the ban could put Florida at risk by hindering the state’s ability to meet the growing demand for protein, which is expected to double by 2050.
“This type of discriminatory legislation jeopardizes the United States’ leadership in biotechnology and enables countries like China to gain unfair advantage”, Upside Foods writes in an email.
Dean Black, a cattle rancher and one of the Florida Republican representatives who pushed the bill through, argues that cultured meat should be considered a national security issue. He points out, for example, that concentrating protein production in factories could lead to famine if those facilities were hit by missiles.
In Italy, lab-grown meat was banned early last year because it was seen as threatening the traditional link between food and farming.
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The extensive support for Israel that was backed by Joe Biden at the beginning of the Gaza war has continued with undiminished strength under Donald Trump, who is strongly pro-Israeli and has contributed a large number of arms deliveries during the ongoing genocide.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese identifies the United States and several European countries as complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza in a new report. Through military support, diplomatic protection, and economic relations, they have enabled Israel’s actions, according to the report published on Tuesday.
The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime made possible through the complicity of powerful third states. This is the conclusion of UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, in her report “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime“.
“Without the direct participation, aid and assistance of other States, the prolonged unlawful Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, which has now escalated into a fullfledged genocide, could not have been sustained”, Albanese writes in the report.
US primary supplier of weapons
The United States is identified as the primary enabler. Since October 2023, the country has sent 742 shipments of weapons and ammunition to Israel, and used its veto in the UN Security Council seven times to block ceasefire resolutions.
Germany is the second-largest arms supplier, with export licenses worth 489 million euros approved between October 2023 and July 2025. The United Kingdom has flown over 600 surveillance missions over Gaza from its bases in Cyprus and shared intelligence information with Israel.
In total, 26 states have sent weapons to Israel since October 2023, including China, India, Italy, Austria, Spain, the Czech Republic, Romania, and France.
Influential Jewish far-right figures in the Israeli government have been driving forces during the genocide and threatened countries considering sanctions with countermeasures. Montage. Photo: Yoav Keren/CC BY-SA 4.0, שי קנדלר
Diplomatic protection and economic ties
In addition to military support, Western countries have provided Israel with diplomatic protection by reproducing Israeli narratives and by avoiding demands for a permanent ceasefire. Economic relations have continued as usual – the EU is Israel’s largest trading partner and accounts for nearly one-third of the country’s total trade.
“With their actions and omissions, third states have enabled the oppression of the Palestinian people and their genocide. Those states have an obligation to stop their complicity and deliver justice. And We The People, have to make it happen”, Albanese wrote in a statement on X when the report was published.
Only a few countries have severed or downgraded diplomatic relations with Israel since October 2023, including Colombia, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Turkey, and South Africa.
In Sweden, the Christian Democrats and Sweden Democrats have expressed their unconditional support for the Jewish state during the ongoing genocide and opposed all sanctions initiatives. Montage. Photo: Magnus Liljegren/Regeringskansliet, IDF/CC BY-SA 3.0
Nordic countries linked to Israel’s warfare
The Nordic countries also have direct or indirect connections to Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Sweden appears to be the country with the most extensive direct ties according to Svenska freds (Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society).
Sweden exported military equipment to Israel worth €1.6 million in 2023 and €2 million in 2024, despite the ongoing genocide in Gaza. At the same time, Sweden has imported Israeli weapons worth tens of millions between 2015-2024. In late October 2023, in the midst of the war, the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration signed a ten-year contract worth €150 million with Israel’s largest arms company Elbit Systems.
Denmark, Norway, and Finland are also mentioned in the UN report as suppliers of components for the F-35 aircraft that have been central to Israel’s bombing campaign. Norwegian companies manufacture critical engine parts, while Danish companies supply electronics and composite parts. In total, 19 states, of which 17 have signed the UN Arms Trade Treaty, contribute to the F-35 program.
Denmark also increased its trade with Israel by 99 million dollars during the genocide. Norway, however, has been more critical and sanctioned Israeli ministers in June 2025.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 68,234 people and injured 170,373 since October 2023. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the attacks on October 7, 2023, and approximately 200 were taken captive.
Photo: Ulf Kristersson/X, Russian Ministry of Defense
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy together with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson during a visit to Saab in Linköping, Sweden, where a letter of intent regarding the export of around a hundred Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine was promised. Simultaneously, Russia conducted a large-scale nuclear weapons exercise, including the launch of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region.
Russia carried out a large-scale nuclear missile exercise on Wednesday, while Sweden signed a letter of intent to export Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine. The announcement comes one day after the United States announced that a planned summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin has been postponed.
The Kremlin released video footage showing Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov reporting to President Putin about the exercises. Russia launched missiles from ground-based platforms, submarines and aircraft, including intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. However, the missiles did not contain live nuclear warheads.
During critical phases of the Ukraine war, Putin has repeatedly reminded the world of Russia’s nuclear capabilities as a warning to Kyiv and its Western allies. NATO also conducted nuclear deterrence exercises in October.
1️⃣ Russia successfully tests ‘Yars’ intercontinental ballistic missile during strategic nuclear forces training pic.twitter.com/HevLZDB5uu
Sweden announced that the country has signed a letter of intent to export Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine. The announcement comes as European governments intensify their efforts in the Ukraine war, which has now lasted three years and eight months.
Ukrainian pilots have been in Sweden to test the Gripen, a robust and cost-effective alternative to the American F-35.
— We have begun work to acquire Gripen and expect that the future contract will provide us with at least 100 such aircraft, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a visit to Swedish defense company Saab.
Kyiv aims to receive and begin using the aircraft as early as next year.
I am proud to have welcomed President Zelenskyy to Sweden and Linköping.
Today we have signed an important Letter of Intent, marking a step towards a massive possible export deal regarding Gripen – likely between 100 and 150 fighter jets, to build a new and very strong… pic.twitter.com/ObUPKxdxfJ
After months of stalled diplomacy, Putin and Trump spoke last week and unexpectedly announced that they would hold a summit in Hungary within a couple of weeks. But after a phone call between the countries’ foreign ministers, the White House announced that Trump has no plans to meet Putin “in the foreseeable future”.
Trump explained that he did not want a “wasted meeting” – something the Kremlin said Putin also wants to avoid.
— The dates have not been set yet, but thorough preparation is needed, and that takes time, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The delay came after Russia reiterated to the United States its conditions for peace, including that Ukraine should hand over control of the entire Donbas region, according to three sources to Reuters. This represented a rejection of Trump’s statement that both sides should stop at the current front lines.
Shares in European defense companies rose on news of the postponed summit. Most European governments strongly support Kyiv and have pledged to increase their military spending for the war.
Europe must enter “war mode” and mentally prepare for armed conflict with Russia. This is the demand from Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson in an interview with the German media network RND, where he also calls for tightened sanctions.
The statements come as the EU accelerates its military investments, and the defense minister’s words have attracted international attention, not least from Russian media.
— A change in mentality is needed – we must enter ‘war mode’ to resolutely deter the threat, defend and preserve peace. Russia constantly tests our unity and determination, Jonson declares.
He emphasizes that Europe must prepare “both mentally and militarily for the possibility of war”.
The Swedish defense minister also calls for tightened sanctions against Russia and believes that frozen Russian assets should be used to support Ukraine’s military.
— Only then will Putin understand that this war threatens his own power and cannot be won, he asserts.
The defense minister refers to Russia’s alleged military losses in Ukraine. Over the past year, according to Jonson, “more than 300,000 of the country’s soldiers have been killed or wounded” to capture “less than 0.5 percent of Ukraine’s territory”.
Arms deliveries from the US
Jonson also defends European arms purchases from the United States and argues that Europe “simply does not have or cannot yet produce” certain weapons systems.
— Ukraine needs these assets quickly. If Europe lacks them, it is logical to procure them from the US, he says.
The statements coincide with the European Commission presenting a plan last week to expand joint arms procurement to at least 40 percent by 2027.
Moscow has previously rejected European claims that Russia poses a threat to the EU and described the narrative as a political distraction from Europe’s domestic crises.
A jury in New York has found that French banking giant BNP Paribas, through its operations in Sudan, helped support Omar al-Bashir’s regime and is therefore liable for the abuses that took place under his rule.
Three Sudanese victims have been awarded a total of 20.75 million dollars in damages.
The eight-member jury sided on Friday with the three plaintiffs – two men and one woman, all originally from Sudan but now American citizens. They had testified about horrific events under al-Bashir’s rule, where they were subjected to torture, burns, stabbings and sexual abuse by Sudanese soldiers and pro-government militias.
— I have no relatives left, Entesar Osman Kasher told the court in Manhattan.
The trial focused on whether BNP Paribas’ financial services constituted a “natural and adequate cause” of the harm suffered by victims of ethnic cleansing and mass violence.
Provided credit guarantees to the regime
The French bank, which operated in Sudan from the late 1990s until 2009, provided credit guarantees that enabled Sudan to fulfill import and export commitments.
The plaintiffs argued that these guarantees allowed the regime to continue exporting cotton, oil and other commodities, which gave the country billions of dollars that helped finance the atrocities.
Bobby DiCello, who represented the plaintiffs, called the verdict “a victory for justice and accountability”.
— The jury recognized that financial institutions cannot turn a blind eye to the consequences of their actions, he said.
A spokesperson for BNP Paribas told news agency AFP that the verdict is “clearly wrong and there are very strong grounds to appeal the verdict”. The defense argued that the bank’s operations were legal in Europe and that there was no connection between the bank’s actions and what happened to the plaintiffs.
Previous penalty
BNP Paribas had in 2014 agreed to plead guilty and pay a penalty of 8.97 billion dollars for transferring billions of dollars for Sudanese, Iranian and Cuban entities that were subject to economic sanctions.
The US government recognized the Sudan conflict as genocide in 2004. The war claimed approximately 300,000 lives between 2002 and 2008 and displaced 2.5 million people, according to the UN.
Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for three decades, was deposed in 2019 and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on genocide charges.
