Category Archives: Cloning

On the heels of creating two audio plays during the pandemic (The Marriage Proposal, featuring Kimberly Gilbert, Jamie Smithson and Cody Nickell, and Laughter in the Shadow of the Trees, featuring Sarah Marshall, Holly Twyford and David Bryan Jackson), The Edge of the Universe Players 2 return to in-person producing with Caryl Churchill's A NUMBER.

The production of this "moving, thought-provoking and dramatically thrilling'' play (Daily Telegraph) features David Bryan Jackson and Helen Hayes Award nominee Jacob Yeh under the direction of Stephen Jarrett. Performances run July 14 to 24, 2022 at Home Rule (3270 M Street, NW, formerly Washington Sports Club). This production is presented as a part of the 2022 Capital Fringe Festival, a program of the Washington, DC nonprofit Capital Fringe.

Synopsis: In the near future, a father reconnects with his estranged sons--but are they his sons? Multiplying lies mesh with horrifying truths about the past in this sparse, complex play that digs into complicated moral issues: cloning, identity, what makes us human, and the devastating fallout of past choices. "A tremendous play...moving, thought-provoking & dramatically thrilling.''--Daily Telegraph

"I didn't know the play before I was asked to direct it, but it had me at 'hello,' said director Stephen Jarrett. "It's a thrilling challenge for a director and two clever actors (one playing three cloned brothers). On the page, it reads like a court transcript: no stage direction, precious little punctuation. Nothing but the words, and a thousand acting choices to be made. The play is powerful. It calls for rehearsal collaboration at its most intense and intimate. This is going to be fun."

Caryl Churchill is a British playwright known for dramatizing the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. Churchill's plays include Owners, Traps, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Cloud 9, Top Girls, Fen, Serious Money, Ice Cream, Mad Forest, The Skriker, Blue Heart, This Is a Chair, Far Away, A Number, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?, Seven Jewish Children, Love & Information, Here We Go and Escaped Alone. Music theatre includes Lives of the Great Poisoners and Hotel, both with Orlando Gough. Caryl has also written for radio and television.

Stephen Jarrett (Director) has worked previously with The Edge of the Universe Players 2 directing productions of Entertaining Mr Sloane, The Summoning of Everyman, and audio plays The Marriage Proposal and Laughter in the Shadow of the Trees. Jacob Yeh is a Helen Hayes Award nominee (NextStop Theatre's East of Eden) and has performed in Vietgone (Studio Theatre), Yellowface (Theater J), The White Snake (Constellation Theatre) and most recently Yoga Play (Keegan Theatre). He will next be seen in Maple & Vine with Spooky Action Theater. David Bryan Jackson's* decades of work in the DC region include working with Mr. Jarrett previously on Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Most recently, he performed in Birds of North America (Mosaic Theater Company of DC), with other productions including Hamlet (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Two Character Play (Spooky Action Theater) and Someone is Going to Come (Scena Theatre).

The production and design team includes Simone Schneeberg (Scenic Designer), JJ Hersh (Stage Manager), Lauren K. Lambie+ (Costume Designer), Steve Antosca (Composer), David Bryan Jackson (Sound Designer), Naomi Robin (Casting Director).

*Member, Actors' Equity Association

+Member of United Scenic Artists Local 829

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The Edge of the Universe Players 2 Present A NUMBER By Caryl Churchill - Broadway World

Cast: Karen GillanAaron PaulBeulah KoaleTheo JamesElina Jackson

Geners: Science FictionComedyThriller

Director: Riley Stearns

Release Date: Mar 18, 2022

A terminally ill woman opts for a cloning procedure to ease her loss on her friends and family. When she makes a miraculous recovery, her attempts to have her clone decommissioned fail and lead to a court-mandated duel to the death.

Netflix doesn't currently have Dual in its online library at the time of writing. We don't expect that to change very soon, but you never know!

They're not on Hulu, either! But prices for this streaming service currently start at $6.99 per month, or $69.99 for the whole year. For the ad-free version, it's $12.99 per month, $64.99 per month for Hulu + Live TV, or $70.99 for the ad-free Hulu + Live TV.

Disney Plus is expanding, but their branding is still quite specific, and Dual is currently not available to stream there. With Disney+, you can have a wide range of shows from Marvel, Star Wars, Disney+, Pixar, ESPN, and National Geographic to choose from in the streaming platform for the price of $7.99 monthly or $79.99 annually.

Sorry, Dual is not available on HBO Max. There is a lot of content from HBO Max for $14.99 a month, such a subscription is ad-free and it allows you to access all the titles in the library of HBO Max. The streaming platform announced an ad-supported version that costs a lot less at the price of $9.99 per month.

Unfortunately, Dual is not available to stream for free on Amazon Prime Video. However, you can choose other shows and movies to watch from there as it has a wide variety of shows and movies that you can choose from for $14.99 a month.

Dual hasn't made its way onto the Peacock streaming library. Peacock has plenty of other shows and movies for only $4.99 a month or $49.99 per year for a premium account.

Dual is not on Paramount Plus also. Paramount Plus has two subscription options: the basic version ad-supported Paramount+ Essential service costs $4.99 per month, and an ad-free premium plan for $9.99 per month.

Dual isn't on Apple TV+ at the moment, sorry! In the meantime, you can watch top-rated shows like Ted Lasso on Apple TV with a subscription cost of $4.99 a month.

Sadly, Dual hasn't made its way yet to Now TV Cinema. If you're interested in thousands of other movies and shows, you can still access to the Now TV Cinema library for 9.99 a month.

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Where to Watch and Stream Dual Free Online - EpicStream

Researchers from the University of Melbourne have discovered that current understandings of evolution may not be correct after a study on an ancient Australian grasshopper species revealed new insights into the animal kingdom.

The researchers found that W. virgo, which employs parthenogenetic reproductiona form of reproduction by females of a species that can develop eggs into embryos without fertilisation was just as successful as its sexually reproducing relatives.

Lead author of the research paper, Prof. Michael Kearney said in a Melbourne university news release that the studys findings are important because they challenge the current understanding of evolutionary theory.Evolutionary theory, as it is today, suggests that sexual reproduction has advantages over parthenogenesis.

Most species on earth have two sexes, male and female, that mix their genes when they reproduce. This method of reproduction is thought to increase genetic diversity and ecological success of a species, Kearney said.

Parthenogenetic species in theory should be suffering from parasites and a high load of bad mutations. Our study finds no disadvantage to W. virgo compared to other species of grasshoppers that sexually reproduce.

In fact, W. virgo has even managed to successfully spread from the west to the east of Australia, unlike its sexual relatives.

Co-author of the paper, Prof. Ary Hoffmann also noted that reproducing via male-female interaction can have costs.

Finding a mate takes time and energy and comes with an increased risk of predation. If we can do away with males and still have viable offspring and the species thrives, then why do we bother with sex at all? Hoffmann said.

The W. virgo is a green matchstick grasshoppera wingless subfamily of the grasshopperthat is native and restricted to Australia. It contains around 250 species and is named for its matchstick-like appearance.

Kearney said in an email to The Epoch Times that clones of a successful grasshopper type are theorized to develop bad mutations and a propensity for parasites because of their inability to shuffle genes through male-female reproduction. The inability to shuffle genes means that overtime a species environment can change in a way that renders it is unable to keep up through evolution.

Parasites and diseases can evolve quickly and one idea about the advantage of sex is that it allows species to rapidly evolve new defences against them.

Kearneysaid that another issue with cloning it that mutations continue to increase in a ratchet-like manner.

Sexually reproducing species can combine two different bad mutations into one individual and when that individual dies the mutations get lost from the gene pool, he said.

Parthenogenetic species cant do this so they build up a load of bad mutations faster. In the very long term, we might expect these issues to become a problem for a parthenogenetic species.

But in the grasshopper we studied, there was no evidence for this happening yet, despite our estimate of its age to be 250,000 years, he continued.

The researchers examined over 1500 genetic markers of the W. virgo to assess the species genetic diversity and found close to no variation in comparison toits sexually reproducing relatives.

The species appears to have developed from only a single highly successful clone, he said.

A Pursuit article written by Kearney and Hoffman said that from the number and nature of mutations amassed in the grasshopper, the team estimate that the clone was created approximately 250 thousand years ago. The lack of variation in the W. virgo indicates that the species was created through a singular case of interspecies breeding between the W. whitei grasshopper and the W. flavolineata grasshopper.

The research team have been studying the species for 18 years, but studies of this grasshopper have been conducted since 1962, when the son of biologist and geneticist, Professor Michael White, discovered it. Whites son, Nicholas, found the grasshopper near the New South Wales town, Hillston, and noted to his father that he could not find any males.

White confirmed that the species was parthenogenetic and established that there was a presence of the species in Western Australia, 2000 km from Hillston.

The species inhabits the southern parts of Australias arid zones, feeding on native plants such as mulga trees as well as other shrubs and bushes in the summer.

Although a few species do reproduce via parthenogenesis in Australia, in general, parthenogenetic species are incredibly rare.

Our research proposes this rarity is most likely due to constraints on origin rather than rapid extinction, Kearney said.

The researchers have attempted to reproduce the W. virgo by breeding theW. whitei and W. flavolineata together, but the hybrid species created did not develop parthenogenesis. Kearney and Hoffman said that parthenogenesis may be an incredibly rare phenomenon, generally, because the hybrid state sufficiently disturbs normal egg development processes.

However, an article in The Conversation proposed another explanation, suggesting that the reason parthenogenetic reproduction is so rare is due to the sedentary nature of sexual reproduction. The article discussed the possibility that sexual reproduction is not more common because it is the better strategy but because it is hard to get rid of the process once it develops.

Despite grasshoppers foregoing men, human males can breathe easy; homo sapien parthenogenesis entering into reality is highly unlikely.

Kearneysaid that mammals are less likely than insects to reproduce asexually because they have something called genomic imprinting going.He said that genomic imprinting is wherecertain genes dont switch on unless they have been in a female environment, and other genes unless they have been in a male environment, dont switch on.

So an embryo cant develop by parthenogenesis from a single egg or two eggs that fuse because not all the genes needed for successful development have been switched on, Kearneysaid.

It acts as an in-built protection from evolving parthenogenesis, though its not clear why genomic imprinting evolved.

Furthermore, Kearney and Hoffman said that any future research into sexual reproduction should explore what prevents it from being lost rather than purely its advantages.

The results of the study were published in the journal,Science.

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Lily Kelly is an Australian based reporter for The Epoch Times, she covers social issues, renewable energy, the environment and health and science.

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250,000 Year Old Insect Challenges Evolutionary Theory - The Epoch Times

A robot that automates a common technique for animal cloning has been used to produce a litter of cloned pigs in China with a much higher success rate than human scientists.

The challenge: China is both the worlds biggest producer of pork and its largest consumer, so having ideal breeding stock animals that birthe large litters of quick-growing piglets is important for the nations economy and food security.

However, in 2018 and 2019, an epidemic of deadly African swine fever wiped out almost 50% of Chinas pig population. As a result, many farmers have had to import breeding pigs, and China is now eager for its pork industry to become almost entirely self-sufficient.

Manual animal cloning is a tedious, time-consuming process with a 10% success rate.

The idea: Instead of importing pigs, Chinese farmers could clone them, turning one strong breeder into a herd. The most common method for animal cloning is somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

First, a scientist removes the nucleus from an animals egg cell, which is then replaced with a nucleus taken from a regular body (or somatic) cell of the animal being cloned. The embryo with the transplanted nucleus is then implanted in a surrogate to develop like any other.

But this is a tedious, time-consuming process conducted under a microscope, and it only has a 10% success rate.

Robotic animal cloning: Researchers at Nankai University have now built a robot that can autonomously perform SCNT cloning. In March 2022, embryos created entirely by the system were used to produce a litter of seven cloned pigs, birthed by a surrogate mother.

Each step of the cloning process was automated, and no human operation was involved, researcher Liu Yaowei told the South China Morning Post.

Our AI-powered system reduces the cell damage caused by human hands.

The fact that such a tricky, complex process as animal cloning can be automated is remarkable enough, but the system is also far better at the process than human scientists, with a success rate of 27.5%.

Our AI-powered system can calculate the strain within a cell and direct the robot to use minimal force to complete the cloning process, which reduces the cell damage caused by human hands, Liu said.

Looking ahead: A peer-reviewed paper detailing the teams work will soon be published in the journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Liu told the South China Morning Post.

The groups immediate hope is that their tech could help Chinas pork industry become self-sufficient but it could have implications far beyond the nations pig farms.

If the cost of robotic animal cloning isnt prohibitive, cloning could be useful for researching new drugs, climate-proofing the food supply, protecting endangered species, or even (more speculatively) resurrecting extinct ones.

Wed love to hear from you! If you have a comment about this article or if you have a tip for a future Freethink story, please email us at tips@freethink.com.

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Chinese robot clones pigs with no human help - Freethink

image:On the left, the high cloning efficiency buffalo fetal fibroblasts (BFFs) displayed high H3K9 acetylation, low H3K9 methylation companying with low heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) expression, and robust glycolysis metabolism. On the right are low cloning efficiency BFFs, which chromatin state and metabolic characteristics are the opposite of the cells with high cloning efficiency. Regulating the metabolic pathway of buffalo fibroblasts with low cloning efficiency to glycolysis, the chromatin state of the cells can be shift to a chromatin state with high cloning efficiency. view more

Credit: Science China Press

Individual variation in fertility, growth and behavior characteristics is a common phenomenon observed in mammals. Among these individual variations, fertility variation attracts more people attention as it concerns with animal reproduction and species continuation. Fertility variation mainly displays as semen variation in fertilization ability and cell variation in efficiency of nuclear transfer (cloning). The individual variation in semen fertilization ability is easy to be understood as it can be linked to the sperm motility variation. However, the individual variation in somatic cell cloning efficiency is hardly to be linked with the visual phenotype of cells. Therefore, Prof. Deshun Shis group from State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, Guangxi University, is concentrating on this scientific question and a series of deep investigation was performed. They found that buffalo fetal fibroblasts (BFFs) from different individuals differed in their cloning efficiency, chromatin status, epigenetic modifications and glycolytic metabolism. BFFs with high cloning efficiency displayed robust energy metabolism, looser chromatin structure, low expression of heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) and high acetylation of H3K9. More regions enriched with H3K9ac were found in BFFs with high cloning efficiency and these differential H3K9ac modification sites were mainly located in the region near to the upstream of genes related to the glycolytic metabolism by ChIP-sequencing analysis. Stronger enrichment signals, especially in critical genes related to glycolysis was also found in BFFs with high cloning efficiency by ATAC-seq profiling. Treatment of low cloning efficiency BFFs with PS48 (an inducer of glycolytic metabolic pathway) could result in a decrease in apoptosis rate, histone deacetylase activity and HP1 expression, increase in the intracellular lactate production, H3K9 acetylation and cloning efficiency. They well linked somatic cell cloning efficiency, chromatin openness, histone acetylation and glycolysis together, and confirmed that the individual variation in somatic cell cloning efficiency can be regulated by altering glycolytic metabolism. Not only their works will enhance the understanding of somatic cell reprogramming mechanism, but also provide a new route to improving the cloning efficiency. These works will be published in Science China-Life Sciences recently.

Science China Life Sciences

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Individual variation in buffalo somatic cell cloning efficiency is related to glycolytic metabolism and chromatin structure - EurekAlert

I am aware that a forest lies at the periphery of our immediate consciousness. It just looks a little different from the forests that we are used to, Sejal Mehta says, in her book, Superpowers on the Shore (May 2022; Penguin Random House India).

Mehta, a science communicator, is talking about the intertidal zone, the ever-shifting space along an ocean where the tide gushes in and out and where eccentric creatures live out their lives, some of them tinier than a fingernail. In her first pop science book for adults (she has previously written a series of wildlife-themed books for children), Mehta describes a world inhabited by creatures that could easily be the product of an active imagination. There are gender fluid clownfish; flatworms that engage in penis wars; mantis shrimp that smash their prey much like the Hulk might; sea anemones that can clone themselves; and cephalopods such as octopi and squid that come sheathed in invisibility cloaks.

In this small world are also big achievers. The cone snail produces one of the deadliest venoms in the world; certain limpets teeth, composed of chitin and goethite (an iron-based mineral), are among the strongest naturally occurring materials known to mankind.

Mehta was introduced to the world of intertidal zones four years ago, when she attended a shore walk with the citizen-science group Marine Life of Mumbai (MLoM). This group has been documenting the vast array of marine species that live in Mumbais intertidal zones.

Mehta fell in love with this world. Shed spent almost two decades writing about lush forests and river systems for publications such as Lonely Planet and Nature inFocus. Here was a multi-episode National Geographic-worthy documentary playing out right on her doorstep.

Turning the tide

Mehta, 43, who lives in Mumbai and is now a member of MLoM too, says the idea of superpowers took root very quickly. As we spoke about particular creatures, I would compare them with superheroes, or ninja assassins. Id put them down with a special mention of their arsenals.

Mehta has met most of the creatures featured in her book, which is divided into three broad sections. The first contains detailed descriptions of creatures and their special powers, under chapter titles such as Power of Invisibility (decorator crab, cephalopods), Power of Creation (squids, turtles), Assassins of the Intertidal (the cone snail, bobbit worm), and Defence Against the Dark Arts (Portuguese man o war, pufferfish).

A second section, presented as passages interspersed between the chapters, is a fictional narrative of life in the tidepools, from the point of view of the homely hermit crab (the creature who is most relatable to us, because they are such strugglers, laughs Mehta). The third section is a series of application letters from various creatures, to the democratic people of the marine realm, asking for membership to the shore superhero team.

Its an unusual approach, even for a work of pop science. But it succeeds in making this almost-alien world accessible to the reader, despite the necessary jargon that appears from time to time. Its an easy read. But it wasnt an easy book to write, she says. Sometimes a single sentence involved referring to multiple scientific papers. The research was very challenging, she says.

Superpowers on the Shore also contains illustrations of some of the creatures, drawn by visual science communicator Jessica Luis, who has worked on MLoM shore guides and on marine mammal identification charts in the past. Her background in marine ecology helped, as did her own past encounters with many of the creatures on the list, she says.

We decided that the illustrations didnt have to be entirely realistic, but had to offer a sense of the creatures worlds, and their unique powers and behaviours. The illustrations focus on shapes and movement, and are all in black-and-white.

Colour is one of the first things that strikes you when you see most marine creatures the Portuguese man o wars blue and purple, the glow of bioluminescence, bright green zoanthids, sea slugs in every possible hue, pink-striped porcelain crabs. The black-and-white, one hopes, will leads to an Aha! moment for readers who then get to meet these creatures in all their colourful glory, Luis says.

But you dont have to start with the intertidal pools or the book. Theres magic all around, Mehta says. You can look at your window sill or the path you run on Ive come to realise that every living thing around me, even the spiders in my house, are creatures with superpowers. Some, I just dont know about yet.

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Invisibility, cloning, Hulk-like strength: Meet superheroes of the shore - Hindustan Times

An all-female species of grasshopper in Australia that ditched reproductive sex in favour of self-cloning is doing just fine, thank you very much.

Scientists at the University of Melbourne did a deep dive on the overall well-being of the Warramaba virgo, a type of grasshopper that's been reproducing asexually for 250,000 years, in a phenomenon known as parthenogenesis.

The findings, they say, challenge our ideas about the advantages of sexual reproduction, which is widely viewed as a way of diversifying the gene pool and safeguarding against parasites, mutations and bad genes.

"So we were thinking, well, you know, would these parthenogens be loaded with parasites and sick with mutations?" biosciences professor Michael Kearney told As It Happens guest host Tom Harrington. "So we went to look at how well they're doing, basically. And we found they're doing really well. No problems."

The study by Kearney and his colleagues was published in the journal Science.

Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction in which an embryo develops without fertilization from sperm. It is extremely rare in the animal kingdom, though not unheard of. Kearney estimates it occurs in about one in 1,000 species.

Most species that do it are bugs or reptiles, though it has also been observed in some fish and amphibians. Mammals can't do it at all. On rare occasions, birds can adopt this technique when the females don't have access to males, though it tends to result in short-lived and unhealthy offspring.

But W. virgo has got it down to a science.

"It's evolved a way of getting rid of the males. It's actually tweaked its meiosis, which is the way the sex cells are produced, so that it it actually doubles the chromosomes," Kearney said. "It basically means perfect cloning. So they are able to just produce eggs that are all female, that are identical to themselves, with no males necessary."

And they really are identical, he said. A genetic examination of the population suggests they've all evolved from a single female, about quarter of a million years ago.

That female, Kearney said, was the product of hybridization, or cross-mating, between two similar grasshopper species. "It's like a horse and a donkey crossing to make a mule," he said.

But while a mule has advantages in strength and endurance over its predecessors, Kearney says these female grasshoppers don't seem to be any better or worse off than the species they came from.

The researchers examined 14 traits to measure their physical fitness, including how many eggs they lay, how long they take to mature, their heat tolerance and their resistance to water loss. Overall, the all-female grasshoppers squared up evenly against the other two species.

"There was no super power, but neither was there any evidence of a loss of fitness because of mutations or disease. So they were just somewhere in the middle, nothing particularly special," he said.

Dan Johnson, an environmental scientist at the University of Lethbridge and president of the Entomological Society of Alberta, says the study's findings are interesting, but not surprising.

"There are many species of insects that have gone for a long, long time [without sexual reproduction] and they're perfectly healthy," he said.

After all, he says, insects have been around for millions of years, predating even dinosaurs. As a result, they display an incredible diversity when it comes to their mating habits.

There are mites, for example, that can lay unfertilized eggs, which then become male offspring that can then mate with their mother. There are also grasshoppers in the Canadian Prairies that engage in group sex, with one female and up to seven males.

There may even be grasshoppers in Alberta that are parthenogenetic, just like W. virgo. Johnson says he and his colleagues have never seen a male three-lined shieldback in the province.

"But the weird thing is in B.C., males and females are all over the place. If you went out and collected 500, you probably have half and half male and female. But here in Alberta, only females," he said. "So we're wondering what's going on. At least I am."

So why do the Australian grasshoppers do it this way? Scientists don't know for sure. But there are some pretty big advantages to asexual reproduction.

"Imagine you've got a species that has half males, half females, and it switches over to having all females. That means that the reproductive rate doubles because there are twice as many individuals having babies," Kearney said. "So it is a massive advantage, in fact, to parthenogenesis, at least in the short term."

What's more, sexual reproduction has its disadvantages.

"Finding a mate takes time and energy and comes with an increased risk of predation," Ary Hoffman, a co-author of the study, said in a press release. "If we can do away with males and still have viable offspring and the species thrives, then why do we bother with sex at all?"

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview with Michael Kearney produced by Aloysius Wong.

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These grasshoppers haven't had sex in 250,000 years, and they're thriving - CBC.ca

Crystal Dynamics has been tight-lipped about Lady Thor, Marvels Avengers next playable hero. However, the studio revealed that shell be in the game by the end of the month, saying she will arrive in late June. A more specific date was not given nor were any pictures of the hero in action.

Crystal elaborated on this on its June update post. She will be fully voiced (although the actor hasnt been confirmed) and have her own gear, abilities, emotes, takedowns, nameplates, Hero Challenge Card, and a new chain of Heroic missions, all with cosmetics and lore items that describe how this Lady Thor came to the games world. She will even have Jane-specific remixes of some of Thors takedowns and emotes.

RELATED: Marvels Avengers Celebrates Ms. Marvel With Free Nameplates, Discounted Super Suits

The post then dove into some of Lady Thors abilities and once again stated that she will naturally echo the Odinsons. Crystal then named two her Intrinsic and Overcharge abilities All-Mothers Blessing and God Tempest, respectively but didnt go into detail on how they work. However, her Ultimate, the All-Weapon, will draw from the comics as she smites enemies with Undrjarn andMjlnir. Undrjarn was created from the shards ofMjlnir and was allegedly found in a recent datamine. Her other attacks are a mix of new and familiar moves.

There will be a deep dive of her moves in an upcoming gameplay video, trailer, live stream, and dev blog. But, again, Crystal did not provide concrete dates.

RELATED:Marvels Avengers Gives Thor a Cosmic Comic Suit

The post also briefly touched on whats in store beyond the next update. The studio is adding to games narrative through hero and villain-centric content. There will be a Warzone that will touch on what happened toM.O.D.O.K. after his Kree Sentinel was defeated. There will also be the Cloning Lab mode, endgame content that will reward players with powerful and exotic gear. Crystal did redesign Cloning Lab after it no longer met its standards and overarching villain-centric directive, but it said it believes these new changes will make for a much more satisfying and meaningful Omega Level Threat experience.

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Marvel's Avengers' Lady Thor Is Slated to Release Soon - ComingSoon.net

One of the thefts occurred between May 25 and June 1, when the plates were stolen from the vehicle whilst it was parked on Cornmore.

The second theftoccurred between 12pm and 1.30pm on June 2, when the plates were stolen from the vehicle whilst it was parked on New Road.

Police are now appealing for information and arekeen to hear from anyone who may have any information or that may have been in the area around the time of the incident and heard or seen anything suspicious.

A spokesman said: "We are also encouraging the community to call us on 101 if they see anyone acting suspiciously around a vehicle."

Number plate theft is often linked to cloned plate, or cloned vehicle, related crime.

READ MORE:Linda Johns missing from her home in Evesham

According to AutoTrader, number plate cloning, also known as car cloning or vehicle identity theft, is when someone copies a cars registration number and assigns it to another car.

Criminals often choose a vehicle with a clean history to replicate on their car.

Often, criminalsreplicate the number plate of a similar make, model and colour to make it difficult for the police to identify themand instead wrongly fine the actual owner of the car plates.

If you have information, you canlet the police know using the online Tell Us About form on http://www.westmercia.police.uk, quoting incident reference 00310_I_01062022 for the Cornmore theft and 00411_I_02062022 for the New Road theft.

READ MORE:Two Carrera bikes stolen from Queen Elizabeth Drive in Pershore

If you arent comfortable contacting the police directly, you can pass on information anonymously to the independent charity, Crimestoppers, by calling 0800 555 111 or by visiting their website: http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

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Number plates stolen from cars in Cornmore and New Road - Evesham Journal

Star Wars Celebration brought plenty of good news for the fanbase where Star Wars TV shows are concerned, whether it was the trailer for the upcoming live-action show Andor (2022), or confirmation that Ahsoka (2023) will be a live-action sequel toStar Wars: Rebels (2014).

But much to the surprise of fans, the first official trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 was also revealed, which gives us our first look at the return of Clone Force 99 and young Omega (Michelle Ang), who were the main heroes in the first season of the show on Disney + last year.

Related: Jon Favreau Will Usher Emilia Clarkes Return to Star Wars

Check out the official trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 below:

However, if Streaming Fall 2022 leaves you feeling slightly frustrated, dont worry, because the official release date for the show has finally been revealed by Disney. Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 will be premiering on Disney+ on Wednesday September 28, 2022.

The first season of the show premiered on May 4 last year, known also as Star Wars Day, so by the time the second season lands on Disney+, fans will have waited well over a year to find out where things will go next for Clone Force 99.

Related: Jude Law Will Star In New Official Star Wars Series

Star Wars: The Bad Batch reunited fans with a team of defected clones first introduced in the seventh and final season of beloved animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) Echo, Wrecker, Crosshair, Tech, and Hunter, all of whom are voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.

The show follows the team in the wake of Order 66, as the Galactic Empire rises to power. When they learn what plans the Empire has for the galaxy, they decide to abandon their home in the cloning facilities on Kamino, taking with them a young female clone known as Omega.

Related: The Star Wars: Visions Episode That Deserves Its Own Movie

It is revealed that Omega is the sister of Boba Fett like him, she is the direct clone of source clone Jango Fett. However, where the team gains a new member, they lose one in Crosshair, who decides to remain loyal to the Empire, hunting his old teammates at every opportunity.

As per the official Star Wars website, heres the synopsis for Star Wars: The Bad Batch:

Star Wars: The Bad Batchfollows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced inStar Wars: The Clone Wars) and their young charge, Omega as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War.

Related: A Recap of The Clone Wars and the Prequel Trilogy Before You Watch Obi-Wan Kenobi

The first season ends on a major cliffhanger. Following the destruction of the cloning facility on Kamino, Clone Force 99, along with Omega, go back on the run, while a somewhat conflicted Crosshair chooses to go about his separate ways.

However, we then see Kaminoan female doctor Nala Se (Gwendoline Yeo) taken to a new Imperial cloning facility at an unknown location, which has led to much speculation among Star Wars fans about the possibility of the show becoming connected to the widely hated sequel trilogy.

Related: Star Wars Publicly Defends Obi-Wan Kenobi Star From Racists

As the trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 reveals, we can expect to see much more action involving Clone Force 99 and Omega, while Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) appears to have a bigger presence this time, having only been teased briefly in the first season.

While Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) make an appearance in the first season, it remains to be seen whether or not other Star Wars characters will show up. Heres to hoping well see Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff).

Related: Which Star Wars TV Shows on Disney+ Are Canon?

Like the first season, Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 will consist of 16 episodes, with a new episode released each week following the premiere on September 28 (although it is not yet known how many episodes will be released on the premiere date).

There are many other Star Wars shows heading to Disney+. Andor will premiere on August 31, while a second season for anime anthology series Star Wars: Visions (2021) was recently confirmed. And given the shows success, Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) will also get a second season.

Related: Star Wars Series Obi-Wan Kenobi Tops Mandalorian and Marvel

Other upcoming shows include The Mandalorian Season 3 (2023), Ahsoka, Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi (2022), and the recently announced Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (2023), which will be live action and will star A-list actor Jude Law.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 1 is now streaming on Disney+, along with many other canon and non-canon Star Wars TV shows.

Are you looking forward to The Bad Batch Season 2? Let us know in the comments down below!

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Release Date Revealed For 'Star Wars: The Bad Batch' Season 2 - Inside the Magic